33 Pactolus

The open air blared a high-pitched tone, meant to wake those in its age group. It was 6:00 am, the waking time for the Nexi.

Midas sat up, waking from his slumber. A bright white light shone against his eyes, blinding his morning sight. He rubbed them, irritated. Now seeing clearer, he saw where the light came from.

"Huh?"

Through a double-paned window, above a horizon of skyscrapers with slanted roofs, he saw a bright white circle manifesting in an open atmosphere of blue.

The sun and the sky.

White. "Right," he thought to himself. As a Nexi, Midas would wake to the white and the high-toned beep, only meant for his age to hear. Being Dexus, his parents would wake later at 9:00 am, to the yellow and the mid-toned beep. That left his grandparents, mere Oxul, to wake at 12:00 pm to the orange and low-toned beep.

Midas got out of bed and went to the washroom to brush his teeth. He slid on his uniform, and grabbed his supplies for a day at Education.

Leaving his house, and locking the door, he walked along the sidewalks of his urbanized suburb. Ahead of his view, the forest of buildings seemed to overlook the closer he got. In the center of it all was the tallest structure, predominant to all others it towered over. His class of Education would be found in the base of it, in the heart of the Pactolus District.

He'd been told to be careful when wandering around the Heart of Pactolus. Stories from his parents and grandparents comprised of kidnappings and the such. "You Nexi are young bait. Some corrupt Dexus out there are always looking for young'uns like you," his grandpa would say. "You're too small to fight back! Grow taller into a late Nexi and maybe you'll have a chance," he'd also say.

Stories like those used to scare him, but now, he was a later Nexi. He was older, taller, and smarter from his Education. Midas also came to the realization that no Dexus should be awake around this time anyways. The sun was white, so only the Nexi would be up and about. The stories his grandpa told were probably just to prevent him from running away from home. Midas laughed to himself.

Arriving to Education, he found his designated room within the facility, and sat down at his desk.

"Today, you Nexi will be learning about emotions, and its effect on the wiring of the mind. You should be able to apply concepts from yesterday's lesson of the mind to today's understanding. The class will then end with a one hour assessment from these last two lessons."

The teacher stood tall, above the rest of the shorter students in the class. He was referred to as Mr. C

"Mr. C, what's the point in doing an assessment?" A student asked.

He stood for a moment, simply looking at the student who asked, almost as if analyzing.

"Kassel, I'm sorry that you feel frustrated with the news. Though I wish you didn't harbor so much hatred towards me. There is no one to blame but yourself for the lack of passing grades you've had lately."

Kassel, the student who asked, sat speechless. His mouth subconsciously open, as if shocked to hear exactly what he'd been thinking.

Mr. C was known to be good at guessing the way students felt, whether towards him, others, or the concepts they learned in class. There was never once where he guessed someone's feelings incorrectly. But 'guess', would be more so an understatement. He spoke as if he knew.

"Now, let's begin today's lesson."

Two hours passed, in which they studied nearly everything they needed to know about emotions associated with the mind.

"We will now start the assessment. You will be assessed on the diagnosis of a digitalized mind module. Each student in this class will be given a mind affected by a different emotion. Although some may be similar, they are all specifically distinct. You must determine what emotion is affecting your mind module. Please take out your module manipulators. Once everyone is ready, we will begin."

The class of Nexi all reached into their pouches, pulling out tiny cases. Within these cases, were little round layers of special fiber, resembling contact lenses. There were 10 in all, and each would be stuck carefully to each finger tip. These were the module manipulators.

"Are we all ready?" Mr. C looked around. "And the hour starts now."

The surface of everyone's desks suddenly materialized into pixels; a screen. The pixel concentration overloaded, releasing some forth from the screen into a three-dimensional plane. The pixels then combined, forming a larger cohesive shape entangled with links from ends to another. This was the mind module. Using the manipulators on his fingertips, Midas swirled the module to his control, looking from angles intended. His observation of the mind module increased in rapid succession, indicating his results on the screen below the holographic shape.

In no time, Midas had fully deciphered his mind module. Through the anomalies detected, he concluded his given mind module to be affected by 29% anger, 11% depression, and 60% guilt. Through these results, he was able to extensively conclude that the amalgamation of emotions observed, developed a severe case of dissociative identity disorder within the mind module. He submitted his assessment.

At the front of the class, Mr. C reacted in surprise.

"You're done Midas?"

"Yes sir."

Mr. C looked down at his own desk-wide screen, nodding his head.

"Alright, you're free to go home. No point in keeping you here if you're already done."

Midas nodded, and began packing up his stuff. The other students in the class looked his way; eyes of curiosity, eyes of displeasure. He plucked each module manipulator off each finger and placed them back in its case. His desk automatically deactivated and rematerialized into a normal steel surface. He then grabbed his pouch, and departed the class.

Upon leaving, the assessment timer had only just hit 10 minutes.

Walking from the Heart of Pactolus, Midas observed Dexus that now walked around the area. Looking up, he now saw that the sun was yellow.

"Just past 9:00 am."

As Midas made his way home, he began to think to extremities. This was common for the 20 minute walk he made on a daily, to and from Education. On his way to Education, he'd compile a list of questions that he'd ask himself. He was constantly curious, observing the many things that went on around him, and whatever he didn't understand he'd pose a question for. It was on the way back home from Education that he'd list all the answers to these questions. Whether he'd learned them at Education, or simply observed the answer himself from his surroundings. Though today was different. Midas found himself curious on a question that bugged him during Education.

If Mr. C was a Dexus, why was he awake with the rest of the Nexi in class?

This, he could not find the answer to. It was something he needed answered by another Dexus, or maybe Mr. C himself. "I'll ask him tomorrow," Midas thought to himself.

Nearing the edge of Pactolus' metropolis, giant screens lined the higher buildings. Normally, they'd display ads for products or services of sorts. But every now and then, news of irregularities from other Districts would pop up. Sometimes they were from Pactolus itself, sometimes they were from others further out. Today an irregularity was broadcasted. The screen read:

{ The two heads of the Sedia Corporation have been reported to have been murdered in their sleep over night. Their bodies remained, mutilated, though their heads have been reported to be missing. The murder, victims, and threat, are based in the southern region of the Vesp District. The Cardinal Nexus has concurred this to be a Level 5 Threat: Light. Citizens of all ages must continue their daily routines. }

Midas was now exiting the metropolis boundaries, into the more shallow ground of his region in the District.

"Sedia Corporation… The two heads, now without their heads," Midas giggled. "That's ironic."

He continued further down, backtracking the streets that led him back home.

"Sedia Corporation is pretty big. Networked with the higher ups of that district too. That's a pretty big hit taken towards Vesp District's franchise businesses."

Midas was nitpicking the information he already knew from his mind. He had a tendency, and a hobby, to do an excessive amount of research in his spare time. He always found himself wondering about things, and that led him down a rabbit hole of answer after question and question after answer. It was slow and gradual, but Midas noticed himself manifest an ever-growing thirst for knowledge. He felt like he needed to know anything and everything. When Midas came to fulfill this thirst, he'd realize it'd only increase his desire for more.

It was an insatiable hunger.

Arriving home, Midas noticed that two cars still remained in the driveway.

"Weird," Midas thought. It was well past the wakening of the Dexus. Both his parents should've left the house by then, off to work. But he soon realized he only recognized one car; his dad's, a navy blue sedan. The other, was unlike his mom's; a silver more sleek sedan. Instead, it was a red lowrider, fitted with only two front seats. Midas didn't recognize it at all.

Unlocking the front doors, he entered the house, expecting a welcoming from his father and the unforeseen guest. But the entrance way was as empty as he left it. He proceeded inside.

Looking around, Midas' dad was nowhere to be seen on the main floor. Midas decided he'd search upstairs and unpack his Education supplies in the meantime. But slowly approaching the higher floor, Midas was able to tune in on a sound. It came from his parents' bedroom.

"What's…" Midas didn't finish the question. Instead, he slowly came closer to the origin of the sound.

He heard his dad.

He heard his mom, no… her pitch was higher. He heard a woman.

He heard the bed creak frantically.

Midas stopped in his tracks. A cold air swooped over. It numbed any sense he would've felt.

The series of events that followed soon after spun by in a rapid succession.

A sleek silver sedan.

A sleek silver blade.

A red lowrider.

A red once white bed.

A bleeding father.

An enraged mother.

Wrath.

"You didn't deserve this Midas."

Midas was now suddenly in a dimmed classroom.

"You seem awfully calm about the situation." It was Mr. C.

He looked at his teacher's eyes.

"There is too much potential in that mind of yours to have it rot to waste in a household like that."

"What about my grandparents?"

"They're mere Oxul, they'd rot to waste like your mind being chained there."

Midas strayed his gaze.

Mr. C sighed in empathy. "I'll take you in."

Midas looked back towards him.

"You're a late Nexi anyways, you can look after yourself. But feel free to stay here as long as you need to. Maybe when you become a Dexus, you can leave and enter the real world by yourself."

Midas processed what he'd been told. "But why… why me?"

Mr. C leaned over and gave a little flick to his forehead. "Don't look at yourself as a burden. This isn't out of pity. You're my number one student, you're even smarter than some of the Dexus on this floor."

Midas knew that already.

"Not only did you finish today's assessment in 10 minutes, but you provided me multiple emotions and the extent of each within your mind module, as well as a result of its amalgamation."

Midas returned an informal look. "Isn't that what we were supposed to do?-"

"No," he quickly replied. "I simply asked everyone to determine what emotion was affecting their mind module. Nothing more, nothing less. Here you are going above and beyond, subconsciously, and under 10 minutes. Do you get what I mean now?"

He already did.

"Good," Mr. C flicked a switch on his desk. The wall behind him materialized into a screen, displaying content new to Midas. "Then let's begin."