Vol 1 - Scene 1: You are (not) special.

GiaiPhong-Street/Hanoi/Vietnam

🎵 She keeps her Moet et Chandon

In her pretty cabinet

"Let them eat cake", she says

Just like Marie Antoinette🎵

12 kilometers to work, from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM, Monday to Saturday desktop work.

Hoàng manage to get in routine with this new job of his. He drove on the same road everyday at the same paces with better control of his bike than ever. Pay attention! Avoid danger at all cause! - his dad taught him to think like that and he was right, his dad is a driver with over 35 years experience, he have seen bad thing happens to peoples who didn't pay attention to their surrounding.

All and all, Hoàng still wear headphone while driving.

🎵A built-in remedy

For Khrushchev and Kennedy

At anytime an invitation

You can't decline🎵

He notices the red light on the street lamp so he stop right at the white line for the people to walk over the road, click his tongue cause he have to wait for 90 second. Turn his motor off, he crouch down on his motor bike waiting for the green light while looking in the rear mirror.

🎵Caviar and cigarettes

Well versed in etiquette

Extraordinarily nice

She's a Killer Queen

Gunpowder, gelatine

Dynamite with a laser beam

Guaranteed to blow your mind

Anytime🎵

He suddenly spot something chaos in his mirror. The thing he has been seeing alot lately on tv and internet. A run-away container truck is bulldozing the people waiting for red light!

His hand is already at the keys, turn and ignite the two years old Honda RSX which was still in good shape in one and a half second. He had already at gear one when he stop so he drove out of the way at the surprise of some driver beside him.

"A Truck! An incoming truck! Run out of it's way!!!"

Put away his ear pieces. He shouts as he has gotten away from the trajectory of the truck.

It was slow but heavy, probably at gear one or two, the truck climb over a few bike with people under it. Loud pleading could be heard before cracking sound echos after.

It was far from him, almost seven rolls of four seats cars before it hit the traffic lamp.

He watch as five columns of cars and motorbikes get crushed before it came to a full stop. The driver of the container looks shocks and confused as he watch what happens before him before broke out crying.

Hoàng click his tongue, drive away for the pavement.

"Another disastrous news this morning huh. Weird, container truck shouldn't be driving around the city before 9 AM, were this driver on crack or something?"

He lost his appetite for music, drove straight to work.

***

Workday was uneventful to say the least. New assignment to do, new things to research... yay I guess.

5:30 PM, the late light was orange as always. Traffic start to get chaos again. Millions of people get out of their offices/companies/schools at the same time and that can't be healthy for the traffic and the human nerves.

Hoàng forget many things and try not to bother his mind with other information when his phone can remember it for him most of the time. He felt a little dissatisfied with himself not being able to capture the moment this morning with his phone.

*...might have been a post to warn peoples about paying attention when on the street on facebook... oh well. Hopes that some other me of some other reality have taken the chance to do it.* he ponders a bit before start his motor engine.

Start the music with his right index finger on his right ear piece.

"🎵HANIWA! SUZUME! GO!🎵..."

"Oh my." He speed up his motor bike.

Hoàng have a lot of bad habits, one of it's whenever he hear his favorite music while driving, he tends to get a wee bit crazy.

He knows in heart that this will kill him someday. But he can't stop himself alone.

*Is this what that driver felt before he hits everyone on the street this morning?*

What turns people on? When the smoker get their favorite cigarettes at the right time? When a sky diver gets to jump of a plane with a few second of free falling? Sexual intercourse without contraceptive in dangerous days?

Dopamine and a bunch of other hormone in his brain get releases when this two thing happens. Good music and drive in sync with the tempo of the music.

Despite of the heavy traffic, he still travel at a constant speed of forty to fifty kilometres per hour.

He hits a red light stop. He stop, the music still banging in his ears.

"🎵Hanipaganda ganda Ha-Ha-Ha hani hanide hani pani...

Bengaranda Da-Da-Da ware wa no Haniwa...🎵"

*Five second until green light. Lucky ~*

He speed up early, get through the traffic jam ahead by ride in a lesser road.

Slowly craw through the citizen inside this part of road. He emerge victorious through the other side of the road while the bulk of traffic got stuck behind him.

*It's home free from this point.* he though. Passing through the most traffic jammed road he knew before he heard something other than Stack singing in his ear pieces.

*Is this thing pick up other bluetooth device? Broken?*

His favorite song got interupted by some other thing, he just turned it off and continued riding.

It wasn't the bluetooth devices that picked up weird noise. It was his ears. He hear buzzing sound like of something of huge size coming like a truck but he sees nothing when he turn his head and eyes to search for it.

*Weird... very... weird. I'm too young to get sound hallucinating. Although I do think listening to hard rock music at max volume for hours at a time may cause some minor discomfort early on...*

Stop at another traffic light to try to unbuzz his ear with no real success. Watch as the big and small vehicle past by with out any sound. His eye trace down a dirty looking two-thousand vnd flew by the wind create by the crossing vehicles, it wiggle it way to his feet.

"Lucky..."

He glance at the traffic light timer.

*Fifty seconds.*

Crouch down from his motorbike with ease, he reach for the dirty money paper.

"I wouldn't touch it if I were you, I wiped with that."

He jolt back. Surprise at the person who warn him.

He was an old beggar, small frame, dark skin tone from exposing with the sun alot and skinny, his eyes was hidden under the cap of some tourism company. Beside him is a batch of small everyday miscellaneous object.

"Wanna buy chewing gum? Ten-thousand each."

He show Hoàng his chewing gum pack, standard mint flavor with eight candy in it, the prices of it should only be eight thousand dong.

"I would like to but I have dinner at home with my parents. I will take one by the way."

Hoàng made up a half-ass reason, even if he do eat with his parent tonight, he could still chew-gum in the night. He reach for his wallet.

"It's late, why don't you go home?"

*Weirdly, why would I want to continue this conversation?*

Hoàng is surprise at his own vocal. The old beggar chuckles out a laugh.

"To continue the conversation like this, you are different to the most of the customer I have sell things to. Most of them only buy my stuff so that they could feel good for them self for giving something to this old timer. Yes, I think it's time to go back."

He receive the ten-thousand vnd given to him and in return he give Hoàng the chewing gum pack. He open and took two pill like gum. It's mint but pretty bland.

*Different huh?*

He watch as the old beggar pick his stuff up and prepare to leave.

The light of the traffic flicker, it's green. Hoàng looks left and right then accelerate his bike, then to the side mirror only to notices that the old man has gone.

*Try to not think about it now*

His mind automatically talk to it self and agreed to focus on the traffic. He notice that his hearing has been fixed, he can once again be annoyed by the traffic sound.

***

His dinner? Instance noodle with vegetable with some left over fry pork from yesterday.

Watch the news about the vaccine for pandemic is coming soon in Vietnam, he knew that even when the cure is here, the damage to the economy has already been done, tourism around the world should took another two years to go back in full swing if there aren't any global disastrous event happen not counting global warming. A lot of people became poor, lots of small company file for bankruptcy but some overcome the situation and became even more rich when peoples became unemployed left and right.

He sigh at the grim future that his generation has to uphold, the expectation were high and he barely made the cut for job.

*Not that I could do anything about that, I'm dumber than I think I am.*

He realize he didn't have affinity with math related subject when he's in high school, he should have decline his mom offer to study programming when he have the chances.

It was only a matter of time before he got kick out of the company for being the dysfunction gear in the machine.

"I do not like this future one bit..."

"How about a deal then?"

To think this would happen to him, he would slap his self if he told this to him self because as dumb as him, an entity appear in front and of him offer a deal? The last time he make a deal with otherworldly being, he end up having bad luck for a full year just for copy of an SSR in a gacha game without paying money.

He is an atheist but the being in front of him look just like those devil with the contract in western movie. Red, horns, pointy tail, hairy shlong dangling between the goat leg.

"Great, what the deal?"

He ask as if he was an acquaintance to the devil making the devil laugh in excitement.

"Bah ha ha, that the spirit! I always love having atheist bastard to be the customer because of this. Moneys and power exchanged for souls of your acquaintance, you can decide. The closer you are to them the more money and power you get when I have their souls. Don't worry, I will only takes them when they are dead. So how about that?"

The devil seems to senses his desired of greed so he compile a list of thing that might happen when Hoàng signed the deal. The 'filthy rich' and 'absolute domination' are in the first and second line of the deal.

"How about you take mine right now?"

"What...?"

"Those goat ears of you doesn't do any good if you can't make senses of what I said. I would like to you to take my souls for money and power. "

"Wow there chief, that not good for business . You can't just changed the deal on your term like that. Beside, what's one good apple compared to an apple tree?"

"Then scram! I don't have time for a mere multi-level sale-imp. Get out of my house."

The devil figure fidget then get pull out of Hoàng sights. Devils aren't suppose to be in the living domain if not for their approval or summoning.

Massage his temple, he clean the dishes while humming the song Thanatos. Mid way through his dishes does he realize he just turn down an actual hell entity and not an imagine figure he think of from the ash that was still fresh on the floor, he think about it a bit before decided to wipe it with the mob. Since when does he get this stern about strange phenomenon? - the though lingers on the back of his mind when he go to the bathroom.

He wonder how many of him able to resists the deal with the devil in other time-line.

***

"Well that's another flag denial by him ought be it that was a flag that he should avoid, he's been in denial of the anomalies so far. I wonder if he even forgot what I have give him that time."

The angel with multiple wings speak with glee with an ounce of sadness, seeing her candidate doing well without her help.

"What ever the cases, the gears has turned and this world would soon be set on the shooting ranged of those bastards. No telling who will take interest in him but I hope it's Deux with the sword of gods as the one who seek entertainment from him. Not because I would like him to go through what we have been through but it's like a walk-through guild, he might not be as we are now in the end but he could be something else more...proficient."