6

I had no choice but to throw away my laptop.

No, wait! I had to dismantle it first before tossing it out. If I just threw it away whole, someone might still recover it. And I couldn't risk that.

My hard earned money, wasted on a barely functioning laptop with a two hour battery life and an overheating issue so severe I could probably cook an egg on it. And now, after just a few weeks, I had to say goodbye.

As I unscrewed the tiny parts one by one, I felt like crying. Who wouldn't? My very first major purchase, something I bought with my own sweat and sacrifice, was now being disassembled by my own hands, because apparently, I couldn't go one week without somehow committing an accidental felony.

I paused for a moment, staring at the half dismantled machine. This was the price of curiosity. Maybe if I had spent more time studying philosophy instead of clicking suspicious links, I wouldn't be in this mess. Should I start reading Paul Glenn's Ethics again? Maybe this time I'd actually learn to think before acting.

No. No time for existential crises right now. I needed a break. I needed coffee.

Setting down the screwdriver, I got up from my chair and trudged out of my room. The house was silent, aside from the sound of my own footsteps.

We had no pets. The last animal we owned, a dog, had lived for fifteen years before passing away three years ago. Since then, we hadn't adopted another. Too much responsibility, too little time.

I grabbed my 800ml tumbler, filled a quarter of it with ice, then poured coffee up to the halfway mark. My sweet tooth demanded satisfaction, so I added two scoops of caramel and a splash of almond milk before shaking the entire thing with the energy of a man on the brink of a breakdown.

And that was when it hit me.

The laptop wasn't the only problem.

My IP address.

An IP address is basically your digital fingerprint on the internet. It tells websites where to send information, like a return address on a letter. Even though I used a VPN, that was like putting on sunglasses and pretending I was invisible. It might fool casual trackers, but a company like ALenTech? They could find me in seconds.

And not just that. The laptop itself was from ALenTech. It had probably been registered to them at some point. Which meant that they could trace the last accessed IP address straight to my internet provider, who could then pinpoint my exact location.

The tumbler nearly slipped from my hands.

Was this how it ended? Not with a bang, not with a dramatic chase scene, but with me standing in my kitchen, holding an overpriced iced coffee while realizing I had basically handed a massive tech company every piece of information they needed to find me?

I took a slow sip, staring blankly at the wall.

Alright. Alright. It was fine. I just had to think logically.

First, I needed to wipe my laptop's hard drive completely. Not just delete files. A full system wipe.

Second, I needed to destroy the hard drive itself. Smash it, burn it, throw it into a river. Maybe all three.

Third, I had to stop making dumb decisions. This one would be the hardest.

Sighing, I trudged back to my room, fully aware that this was probably not enough. If ALenTech was serious about tracking me down, there was nothing I could do to stop them.

At this point, my only real defense was hoping they found my situation so pathetic that they decided it wasn't worth the trouble.

But then another terrifying thought hit me.

Would they think I did it on purpose?

I mean, looking at the facts—who even manages to delete an entire private domain accidentally? That kind of thing requires a level of stupidity that borders on genius. It was like finding a way to crash a plane before it even took off.

I groaned, dragging my hands down my face.

The more I thought about it, the worse it got. If they believed it was an accident, they might let it slide. But if they thought I had done this intentionally—

No. I couldn't go to jail. I couldn't even afford a lawyer. Hell, I couldn't even afford decent food. How was I supposed to survive prison meals when my taste buds were already used to caramel iced coffee and overpriced snacks?

I was still broke from buying this scam of a laptop in the first place. I had saved up for months, sacrificing every little luxury, just to end up in this mess. I didn't even have money left to buy another one! And now I was supposed to prepare for potential legal fees?

Nope. No way. I refused.

I wasn't going to jail.

If they came knocking, I'd just… disappear. Fake my death. Start a new life in a cave somewhere. Learn how to hunt. Become one with nature.

…Wait. No, I was too weak for that…. And poor for that.

A better plan?! I'd just act dumb. Dumber than I already was.

Feign ignorance. Play the part of a clueless college student who barely knew how to use a laptop, let alone delete an entire secure website. Maybe cry a little. Crying always made people uncomfortable.

If all else failed, I'd just confess to something even *more* ridiculous to make them doubt reality.

Like, "Yeah, I did it. I also hacked the Pentagon. Oh, and I have mind control powers. That's how I did it. It wasn't even hard."

At some point, people stop believing things when they get too absurd, right?

I exhaled and took another sip of coffee.

No use panicking now. I had a laptop to finish dismantling.

Walking back to my room, I stared at the mess of parts scattered across my desk.

This was my life now.

A broke college student with a destroyed laptop, a caffeine addiction, and an accidental cybercrime under his belt.

Wonderful.

Absolutely wonderful.