this world is not made for us

one

352

Here's the story everybody knows:

The world is coming to an end. It is not ending, but going to end. Finishing a word with '-ing' means it's progressive. The end isn't like that. It's not a process. A state, perhaps someone might say.

The world is coming to an end but not in the way we would have expected it. It is not caused by an asteroid wiping off the face of the Earth nor a deadly disease causing a worldwide pandemic, nor a zombie outbreak nor nuclear war. It isn't by a great flood or some divine intervention that stems from thousands of versions of the apocalypse. The cause is so simple. So simple yet so vital.

It begins in New York. The city that never sleeps comes to a sudden stop, a pause button hits mid-movie. Spilled coffee suspended mid-air, hair flying turned frozen, the bustling buzz of the city turned mum, the wind non-existent, the sea quiet for the first time since eternity.

Scientists call it The Deconstruction.

Researchers have said that they detected activity from space, impossibly high-frequency electromagnetic waves that come from a place beyond human discovery, that releases an element bound to eliminate the foundation of Earth's life and legacy.

A negation element for oxygen.

To put it simply, in a limited amount of time, the world is gonna crumble. The air will be suspended as everything we know turns to dust. A one-second rot, as they call it.

After scientists detected the anomaly, it was already too late. There was no time to release such news to the world. Estimates show that there were approximately 6 minutes (352 seconds to be exact) till the effects instantaneously took over the world.

They needed to act fast and they needed to act now.

So they launched a secretly but heavily funded project of the United Nations without asking permission from the authorities. Because what is the law if the world is ending— ah, going to end.

To be frank, people didn't know all this information until they were in Plimeria.

One second they were living their daily lives, unaware of their dawning extinction, the next, time seems to stop, and then they're in a virtual city where everyone is dreaming and everything is a dream come true.

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Plimeral Paradise, Plimeria as people have taken to call it, is a virtually simulated city designed for people to have an alternative life online. But now, it has been taken as a refuge. A safe house. It hadn't been publicly explained how the minds of people had been transferred into a singular running algorithm, nor how they made it seem like the whole world came to a stop, but people stopped questioning it once they realize that they are literally in paradise.

Plimeria, where everything is for everyone. In Plimeria, we know! All you ever want in a simple click! Thanks to the Code, you can go live your dreams now! Just what it's advertised as.

A place programmed so that everyone has everything they want to have and where everything you need to know can be found, as long as it gives you and allows you what you want to do that isn't possible during the last five minutes. A month of total bliss.

Sounds like paradise, right?

A catch, of course, is existing.

The condition is you can't meet anyone who is an important part of your life. Family, friends, lovers, pets even. It's not like it's a declared law and the opportunity to break it is possible.