"Hey, wake up!"
"After all this, you can still sleep? Your mental strength is incredible."
Faintly, the voices of two men calling out reached Alex's ears. His eyelids, still shut, felt incredibly heavy. Dizziness swept over him until it felt like the world was spinning around him.
Two prison guards took turns shaking Alex's body. When the young man still refused to wake up, the younger guard grew irritated and immediately kicked the body beneath his feet.
Thud.
"Argh...."
Alex flipped over and sprawled into the corner of the prison cell.
The young man finally opened his eyes slowly. Before him was still the same scene as last night. The difference was that the prison was somewhat brighter, a sign that the moon had handed its shift over to the sun. Alex hadn't expected to still be looking at the morning sun.
The memories of what had happened last night instantly cleared his mind. Shouldn't he have ended his life that night? Then why had he woken up in the same place?
Alex's eyes immediately brightened. He stood up, raised his left hand, and stared in shock at the wrist, which was still as smooth as ever.
Breathing hard, and ignoring the two guards preparing to take him away, Alex ran toward the gap beneath the slightly elevated window. There was nothing there. The keris was gone. The young man's eyes went wide. How was that possible?
Hadn't he done it last night? Why wasn't there even a trace of blood? The sharp weapon he had used was gone, too. Alex was instantly confused. The older guard approached with a pair of handcuffs. In an instant, Alex could no longer move his hands.
After spending three weeks in prison, he was finally able to walk out of that dark, filthy cell. All along the way, countless eyes watched him. More than a few beautiful girls working there sighed sympathetically.
Each of them had their own thoughts. Alex was handsome and looked like a good person. But it was such a shame that a young man so seemingly decent would become the laughingstock of the entire country. What could have made him kill someone? Wasn't it lucky to be liked by the mayor's daughter? Besides being rich, the girl was also incredibly beautiful.
The male officers mocked Alex the entire way.
"After today, you're gonna be famous! Hahaha... Kid, you've got a pretty lucky life."
"Hey, quit joking around. Can't you see how pale he is?"
Alex hadn't even experienced that simulated life yet, and plenty of people were already mocking him. On the way to the prison yard, quite a few others also offered him words of encouragement.
Before he left, a black cloth was pulled over his head, and only then was he taken into a car.
Everything happened so quickly that Alex sighed and began to process what had happened. More or less, his suicide attempt the night before had failed. After that, he had passed out, and this morning two prison guards had come to take him away. Their drive was clearly headed for the Sunrise Entertainment building. He was being taken there to undergo his first simulation life.
Alex couldn't hold back a mocking smile beneath the black hood. God apparently didn't want him to end everything so easily.
But something else was bothering him. Where had the keris gone? Had what he remembered from last night merely been a hallucination?
When they arrived at Sunrise Entertainment, a large crowd had already gathered. Everyone was fueled by anger, and a deafening roar erupted in unison as the police car drove past.
Alex could hear how loudly the crowd was welcoming his arrival. There was no fear left in him now, only defiance. It didn't matter. If this was his fate, then he was determined to change the "plot" they had arranged.
Alex had never killed Clara. No matter how they arranged his life in that dream, he was certain that the principles ingrained in him and his instincts would never waver. The fear and lingering cowardice from the night before vanished without a trace.
A moment later, the car door opened from outside. Another police officer roughly pulled Alex out. In an instant, the crowd's shouts rang sharply in his ears.
"You damn murderer! Just die!"