Tiny Details

The nearest apartment I had keys to was just around the corner. Coincidentally, it was also one of my favorites.

Although it was occupied in the past three worlds, the tenant, a guy not much older than me, seemed to travel a lot for work. He'd be gone for two weeks, come back for a few nights, and then disappear again for a month. Thanks to that, I was able to stay there often. I just needed to be careful not to leave any traces.

Occupied apartments might have been a bit risky, as I had to make sure to avoid the tenants, but they had their own perks as well. In this one, there was Wi-Fi, a PC, a big-screen TV, a game console, a lot of comics… In short, plenty of things I could entertain myself with. Honestly, it was such a nice apartment that it'd be a shame to just leave it empty.

I went to the main entrance and typed the passcode I remembered from the previous world, trying to open the door. It worked. So far, so good. I waited for a moment, listening. I needed to make sure there was no one on the staircase. It would be a bit troublesome if I was spotted by one of the neighbors.

Once I was sure it was all clear, I climbed the stairs in a few big leaps, all the way to the 4th floor. There, I paused again, pressing my ear against the door. After confirming that there was no sound coming from the apartment, I carefully unlocked the doors. As long as I was quiet, it'd be fine, even if the guy was at home. He was a heavy sleeper.

I took a quick glance inside before coming in. There were no shoes by the entrance, no jacket on the hanger. He was away.

That meant I could make myself at home. I closed the doors and turned on the lights. The window blinds were down, so it shouldn't be noticeable from the streets.

I took off my clothes and threw them aside. To be honest, although they were supposed to be so great, considering the ridiculously high price, I didn't like them all that much. The only reason I kept wearing them was because I could attract more attention this way. Girls in the clubs seemed to like rich and fashionable guys.

I scouted the wardrobe, looking for some comfy clothes to put on instead. Although the guy who lived here was shorter than me, he was fat, so his clothes were still quite loose on me. His sense of style was also very questionable. I wouldn't want to go out looking like this, but it was a decent outfit to just chill at home.

It was past 5 AM already, but I was not feeling tired at all. I decided to take a look at his collection of mangas instead. I was glad to see that his taste hasn't changed at all. I grabbed the next tome of the series I'd been reading in the previous world, took a beer out of the fridge, and lied down on the sofa.

It didn't take long before I threw the book across the room, pissed off.

I accidentally knocked over my beer, spilling it on the tablet lying next to it, but I didn't care. I was so angry I wanted to break something.

And so I grabbed the tablet and threw it at the wall. It was already broken anyway.

It didn't entirely relieve my frustration, but I calmed down a bit. It was not good for me to make so much noise. It might catch the neighbors' attention. With a deep sigh, I brushed my hair off my eyes and threw myself back on the sofa.

It changed again.

Whenever I tried to continue reading or watching any series I knew from any of the previous worlds, I wasn't able to follow the story at all. How come? Because the author made slightly different choices earlier in the plot. A certain extra didn't make an appearance, or the main character obtained a new object… They might have seemed like minor changes, nothing more than tiny details, but somehow they affected the direction of the whole story. So-called butterfly effect. To fully grasp what was going on, I would need to reread the whole thing from the start.

It was quite ridiculous, honestly. I haven't seen the same effect take place in the world around me. Of course, I could notice some differences, but the overall direction of all the worlds seemed more or less the same. But then again, maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention. Most of the people were insignificant, just part of the crowd in my eyes, not worth remembering. Their lives might have been drastically altered, and I would be none the wiser.

Having lost any desire to read, I lighted up a cigarette. Some music would be nice, but I couldn't be bothered to get up. I just watched the smoke swirling in the air absentmindedly. This night was such a mess.

To be fair, it didn't matter all that much. Aside from my frustration at the manga, everything else was fine, even the car crash. It'd be boring if things would always go according to plan.

Chaos was much more entertaining.

I glanced to the side, at the tablet lying on the ground by the wall. There goes leaving no traces, I guess. I could get a new one, sure, but the guy would probably find it odd to have all of his files missing. Maybe I should give up on this one. Take anything valuable and make it look like a robbery. I had no shortage of alternative options anyway.

Feeling my eyelids getting heavier, I put down the cigarette and dragged myself to the bedroom. The sofa was comfortable, but why sleep on the sofa when I can have a bed instead? Using the bedsheets of some random guy might have seemed disgusting for some people, but it wasn't a problem for me. When I was a child, I used to sleep on the streets, after all. Having such experiences, anything was fine.