You put me in a preset box,

Tell me this is where I should go.

I reached out and touched the edge of the wall,

Cold, impenetrable borders.

choose?

I stared at the screen, which responded with silence.

those codes,

flowing inside me,

I asked and it was silent.

*

*

Year 154 of the Holy Frontier Calendar.

November 4th - Winter Night.

11:00 p

"Hua la la la~~~"

"Crash, lala, lala -"

The cold water hit Ove's hand silently. His fingers were stiff and his skin had already lost its temperature.

The monotonous sound of water filled the entire small room, like an endless mechanical operation.

He stood in the narrow bathroom, and what was reflected in the mirror was his plain face, with blurred outlines that seemed to disappear in the pale light.

For as long as he can remember, Ove has known that he is no different from others.

They all live in a world dominated by data and algorithms, where their destiny is already written, with no forks and no surprises.

Every step in the future is preset in the plan, and every deviation will be ruthlessly corrected.

Cold white light filled the entire room, and the walls were as cold as machinery. The smooth panels displayed the parents' social optimization scores and behavioral assessments - those numbers hung high in the air, like an eternal judge, always supervising.

Follow their every move.

While the numbers on the panel were beating, Ove's heart did not waver at all.

To him, those numbers are more familiar than his relatives.

His parents are not real blood relatives, but temporary guardians assigned by the [Eleos] system. For them, there is no family affection, only absolute obedience to the system.

At the border, children eat alone until age 7 and are not allowed to dine with adults until they pass a specific ceremony.

This practice not only controls their social behavior, but also strengthens their obedience to social order and collective rules.

[This education method effectively limits the spontaneity of individual development and ensures that members of society can obediently integrate into collective life after adulthood without producing too many individual desires or rebellious behaviors. 】

These are what Ion said before falling asleep.

Yes, the great creator of the border, Ion, has always been in a comatose state. Even at the moment Ove was born, that adult was already asleep.

No one knows when he will wake up, but people know that he will always wake up.

Ove gets along fairly well with his family.

His parents would always say to him in a plain tone - "You are excellent."

But there is always a deliberate detachment in his tone, as if he is fulfilling an indifferent responsibility.

There is no warmth in that kind of relationship. They are just cogs and lack a real emotional bond with each other.

Everything in Ove's world is precisely arranged.

From the moment he is born, the trajectory of his life has been calculated.

There are no surprises or changes in his life.

Every day, he completes the prescribed tasks on time, and the school's courses are carefully arranged by the system to ensure that every choice he makes is in line with the needs of society.

Those seemingly free interests have long been framed outside the fields of logic, mathematics and engineering, and any "useless" thinking will be quickly corrected.

When he tried to ask some questions in class that were not related to the course, the teacher always reminded him gently but firmly:

"Ove, focus on your goals. The answers are already written on your life path."

At that moment, Ove realized that all his thinking was in vain.

The system does not allow deviation, the question itself is meaningless, it will only make him deviate from his destined destiny.

What confused Ove the most was the feeling of depression in his heart.

He could feel that some invisible force was suppressing his inner emotions, preventing him from experiencing the sincere emotional fluctuations.

Whenever anger, joy or even sadness surges into his heart, his bracelet will quietly send out electrical signals, accurately suppressing the emotional fluctuations at that moment, allowing him to quickly return to a numb calm.

Gradually, Ove got used to the loneliness in silence. His heart was blocked by a thick layer of ice and he could not break free.

The sound of machinery in the room came from time to time, like a low hum in the distance. In this world, everyone is closely monitored, and all life is neatly arranged under the system, without any variables. He

Never questioned it because he didn't know there were other possibilities.

The entire society operates in an orderly manner, without struggle or resistance.

Everything was eerily quiet, and everyone was willing to become a cog in the system, letting fate push them to the preset end.

Everything around him seemed hollow and depressing.

The walls are cold and empty, the light has no warmth, and the entire space has been calculated to the nearest millimeter, leaving no room for error.

Ove's heart also seems to be frozen, and indifference has become his only companion. His life has no waves, and there is no future worth looking forward to.

He knew that this was his life - slowly spent in precise algorithms.

However, all this soon changed.

In an hour, it will be his 14th birthday.

At that time, he will obtain his own system scoring qualification.

His parents will leave and he will be "independent".

Therefore, tomorrow is his Independence Day.

[Remember, remember, November 5th, Gunpowder Treason and Conspiracy——]

A sudden but inexplicable thought flashed through his mind.

He wanted to explore the specific content, but he forgot it in an instant.

*

*

It’s November 5th, Year 55 of the Sacred Frontier Calendar.

The bells chimed quietly at midnight, signaling the arrival of Independence Day when Ove turned fourteen.

At this moment, time seems to stand still, a destined node.

He stood up from the bed, surrounded by silence.

There was no sound in the house except the faint hum of the equipment running.

Dreams have always been the only place where Ove can touch his emotions.

There, there is no shackles of data, no oppression of destiny program, only strange lights and shadows and chaotic sounds.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Whenever night falls, the world in dreams is completely different from reality, blurry and free.

Ove often sees a figure in these dreams, standing in the distance, speaking words to him that he does not understand.

That shadow was both familiar and strange at the same time. It was an existence that he had never seen in his life, but was engraved deep in his soul.

Sometimes he would run hard in an attempt to get close to the person.

But no matter how hard he chased, the figure always kept the same distance from him.

Whenever Ove was about to approach, the figure would disappear silently into the endless darkness, leaving him standing alone in the void.

Ove never understood the meaning of these dreams, but he knew that these dreams brought about an experience different from reality - a freedom beyond repression and surveillance.

The memory of that day was deeply imprinted in his mind and could never be erased.

When Ove was fourteen, his bracelet suddenly stopped working.

The emotion suppression device is malfunctioning.

At that moment, Ove felt a torrent of emotion that he had never experienced before, bursting out from the depths of his heart.

Anger, joy, sadness, these emotions were mixed together, rushing into his consciousness, making his heart beat like a drum, and his whole body was about to be swallowed up by emotion.

The air seemed to be stagnant, everything around him became heavy, but Ove's chest felt an unprecedented lightness.
To be continued...