Walking along the dark and dingy sidewalk which only muskrats would dare to use, Sigmarus raised his eyes toward the pitch black sliver of night sky which could barely be seen between the towering skyscrapers rising above him. Countless white and red lights whizzed back and forth near the upper layers of these buildings. Stationary lights from the passageways connecting all the buildings remained steadfast amidst the bustling traffic. As always, the sight made him wonder what the night sky truly looked like. Would stars look like those lights? If he could fly toward the skies, he would definitely spend a whole day admiring the sky he could only see in his dreams.

Pursing his lips, he lowered his gaze to the dimly lit lower streets and tilted his head enough to crack his sore neck. Those upper buildings which looked like fingers reaching for the heavens were simply beyond his reach. Over the years, humanity gradually ran out of land to expand, leaving them with the singular choice of building upwards. Only a few protected areas remained as habitats for enough wild animals and vegetation to sustain the survival of humanity.

Sigmarus sighed at the state of the world which felt dead compared to the lively and expansive worlds he could experience through works of fiction.

A little while later, he finally arrived at the enormous layered structure which housed many of the residents from this area. The ground layer which contained the bottom five floors was completely blocked off from the layers above in order to help those living better lives on the upper floors to forget about the miserable lives of the muskrats trapped below.

Upon entering his small second floor apartment, the musky smell with a hint of cigarette stench stemming from old books entered his nostrils. Cool air from living near the ground away from the sun hovered within the apartment. The single fluorescent light bulb in the main room had turned on automatically when he unlocked the door with his keycard. Just inside the door was a small hallway with a tiny kitchen to the left and a laundry closet to the right. Beyond the short hallway was the main room which served as both bedroom and living room. The bathroom was on the other side of the wall behind the laundry closet. Sigmarus could still remember how depressed he had been upon arriving here for the first time. The entire apartment was smaller than his parents’ bathroom from his home in the Middle Sectors. It was one of his most humbling experiences.

Barely recalling those old memories, Sigmarus quickly removed his shoes since he wanted to investigate the old laptop as soon as possible. Then, he carried the lunch cooler into the main room which only contained a hammock-style sleeping cot, a small wooden nightstand, a rickety chair sporting a heavily worn out cushion, and a large self-made wooden bookshelf which had been cobbled together with anything he could get his hands on. The bookshelf occupied the largest amount of space since it stretched from the edge of the kitchen to the other end of the room and even half of the adjacent wall. It even stood only inches away from the three meter high ceiling. There were nine rows and twenty-three columns of shelves in total. Stacks of books lined almost every inch of the shelves. Each of them was alphabetically organized by genre. Compared to the emptiness from when he had first moved in, the bookshelf added a hint of homeliness to his humble abode.

After setting the lunch cooler next to his hammock cot, he removed his wrist-com, blast helmet, and toolbelt and placed them on the nightstand. Then, he twisted the circular metal chestpiece on his meld-suit which generated an electrical pulse that signaled for the smooth leather-like work suit to unlatch itself from his limbs and torso like some sort of slime creature, ultimately compressing into a neat ovular shape connected to the chestpiece. Although it was an old and clunky model, its saving grace was the built-in feature to clean itself over the next few hours. He casually set it on the floor beneath the nightstand. He also tossed his sweaty boxers and socks into the clothes hamper inside the laundry closet before plodding into the bathroom.

After taking the shortest shower of his life, he threw on some clean but heavily worn boxer briefs, plopped onto his cot, and pulled his thin blanket up to his waist in order to keep his big willy warm. Now settled in for the night, he grabbed a low-grade nutrition bar from the nightstand drawer, hastily unwrapped it, and stuck it between his lips. While nibbling on it like a chipmunk, he pulled out the old laptop from his lunch cooler. Its silver colored surface reflected the light above him, but otherwise lacked identifying features. While wondering what kind of company would avoid placing their logo on a product, he plugged the laptop into the bottom outlet near his bed. Luckily, the panel possessed both new and old style outlets. A small orange light lit up along the bottom lip of the laptop, indicating its usability.

Finally, it was time to find out if this laptop was special, or if it was just something he could use to pass the time outside of work. Shivering with anticipation, his gray eyes gleamed as he lifted the screen. The moment he saw the inside, he raised an eyebrow due to confusion. Instead of a keyboard, there were two hand imprints. The screen looked normal, though.

Maybe it has a hologram keyboard?

In an attempt to find anything like a keyboard or power button, he lifted the laptop and turned it every which way trying to find a clue. However, there wasn’t even a single adapter input aside from the hole for the power cord. Since there was nothing else to try, he set the laptop back on his lap and placed his hands on the indents. Although his hands were relatively large, they still couldn’t fit perfectly in the large indents. Perhaps it was made for someone with enormous hands?

Suddenly, an electrical shock invaded his palms and shot through his arms into his body. Frightened, he tried to pull his hands away, only to realize he couldn’t move a muscle. He was stunned. Literally.

For a brief moment, he thought it might be some sort of defense mechanism from the device, but another sharp pain in his fingertips startled him again. This time, instead of a shock, ten small needles protruded from the device and into his fingers. For the next minute or so, he could only worry about how long he would be stuck like this as his blood slowly filled up the hand imprints. His heart quaked with numerous emotions he hadn’t felt in a long time. Fear. Curiosity. Anxiousness. Excitement. Whether the result was good or bad, he couldn’t help believing that this incident might change his life. What was life without boundless adventure or crazy encounters? His current life wasn’t worth much, so any type of change was welcome, whether good or bad. Even if he were to get executed for finding a dangerous secret, it would be worth it.

The moment his blood filled the hand imprints to the brim, his thoughts stopped since the laptop screen suddenly lit up, though it only displayed a blank screen. Anticipation for the conclusion of this event rose within him, but then his mind blanked due to surprise when the laptop started absorbing all of the blood like some sort of magic. The next moment, a single message surrounded by a fancy silver border appeared on the screen.

[User Accepted. Initiating ownership transference of Universal Apparatus.]