Chapter 1, Parts 1-14

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You step into your room, carrying a cardboard box, excitement stirring in your chest

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You step into your room, carrying a cardboard box, excitement stirring in your chest. You set it down, using the box cutters from your desk drawer to open it. Inside, you pull out your laptop. The tech store sold it to you for cheap, despite the fact that it was in mint condition! Strangely, the cashier seemed almost... eager to get rid of it. Smiling at your luck, you pull out the gray machine, setting it down on your desk. The laptop hums, eager to be used.


"Grab the charger and plug it in, turn it on

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"Grab the charger and plug it in, turn it on." @astra_illust on Instagram

The screen sputters to life after a few minutes. An uninspired background of a mountain range displays, and you briefly consider changing it to something more interesting, such as a cityscape, or a piece of art. However, before you go into settings, you notice something strange. Besides the operating system, there's another application on the desktop. It's labeled "JANUS". That's odd, it's not an app you recognize. The cashier said they'd cleared off the laptop, too, so it's somewhat perplexing as to why it's there. Is it a standard app, or malware?


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"I use google on my phone to see if I can look up what JANUS is" @kilarthmac on Instagram

Pulling out your phone, you type in "Janus by Zastrow" in your search engine. Hmm. That's odd. No results. You'd think the two names would at *least* come up with some random wikipedia page, or forum in a foreign language. But there's nothing. Not a single result on Google. There'd only be one way to find out what the Janus app is...

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