Light

I awaken with the low buzz of static blaring through my head, and curse at the bright light. What the fuck? I don’t black out with the lights on in my room.

I blink, clearing the morning crud from the edges of my eyes, and realise the light is coming from my laptop. It’s up and running and filled with a white screen with a small heart shaped icon emblazoned in the center.

What the fuck? The last thing I need is for my computer to come down with a virus. I need to apply for jobs again. I groan, not in the least because all the paperwork I have from last time is stored on this fucking machine.

Getting out of bed is a pain, because the world still feels heavy in my head, but I manage to stumble across my bed to the small desk at its foot, and squint my eyes to read the text on the screen:

The Affection Multiplier

The laptop’s built-in camera spots the telltale light that lets me know it’s on. Great, so they want **** material, too. But the text that follows surprises me:

Iris recognized. Welcome, Markus Najbreit.

The text falls away, the heart icon moves to the top corner, and I’m met with a minimalist user interface. There is a menubar on the lefthand side, but it contains only one item:

People

I click on it, and up pops a list of people long enough that I’m momentarily shocked. The shock grows as I read through the list. These are people that I all know, and these numbers next to them—these ’Scores’… why are they all so negative?

A window pops up. Would you like to enable the tutorial?

I click the Yes option, and a few paragraphs of text pops up.

Welcome to the Affection Multiplier. We have a vested interest in maintaining karmic justice. The struggles you have faced have made you eligible for this unique service. The service currently has two functions:

(1) Relationship status tracking: The score associated with each person reflects the person’s opinion of you, with a score of 0 reflecting total ambivalence. Positive is better.

(2) Increased positive gains to relationships: Your actions that would build a positive score with a person are passed through a positive multiplier, increasing the speed at which you build positive relationships. Current multiplier: 2

You are currently using a version with restricted functionality. Make good use of these functions to unlock more features.

What the fuck? Could this be real? The tutorial text is replaced by new words:

It’s real, Markus. Don’t waste your time. Every second counts.

Holy shit. I shake my head, scrolling back up to the top. It’s time to actually go through this list properly.