Installation

The room was filled with an unsettling silence. The weight of Kyne's words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating.

Mykal sat there, gripping the mysterious phone in his hands, his mind racing with a thousand thoughts. Three days. That was all Kyne had left?

The stranger finally broke the silence. "Kyne. My name is Kyne. I'm eighteen… same as you."

Mykal barely registered his words. His thoughts were still stuck on the impossible revelation. A phone that determines your lifespan? A phone you can't get rid of? It was insane.

Taking a deep breath, he finally spoke. "How sure are you that all of this is real?"

Kyne gave a tired smile, as if he had been asked the same question countless times. "I know it feels surreal. Like some kind of twisted joke." He gestured toward the phone. "But once you try it… once you really use it, you'll see. The unexplainable feelings—the strange pull you've been having toward that phone—it will all start to make sense. That thing will answer everything."

Mykal frowned. "Answer…?"

Kyne nodded. "Here. Try this. Open the browser."

Reluctantly, Mykal swiped across the blank screen. There were no apps, no signals, no icons—except for a single option labeled BROWSER.

His pulse quickened. Hesitantly, he tapped it. A minimalist search bar appeared.

"Search for a photo of a dollar."

Mykal glanced at Kyne. "What?"

Kyne's expression remained serious. "Just do it."

Still skeptical, Mykal typed "one-dollar bill" into the search bar. The phone responded instantly, loading a crisp image of a dollar bill on the screen.

"Now… take it."

Mykal froze. "…What?"

Kyne gestured toward the screen. "Reach into the phone. And take it."

Mykal scoffed. "Are you serious?"

Kyne didn't answer. He just watched.

Mykal swallowed. His hand hovered above the screen, his fingers twitching slightly. This was ridiculous. This was stupid.

But something inside him whispered otherwise.

Slowly, he reached out.

The moment his fingers touched the glowing image, something shifted.

His hand… sank into the screen.

His breath hitched. His fingers—his entire palm—slipped inside the phone as if dipping into water. The sensation was cold, tingling, unreal.

And then—

He felt something solid.

His heart pounded. He grabbed onto the object and—

Pulled.

The next second, he was holding a real, physical one-dollar bill.

His chair scraped back as he stumbled, staring at the bill in his hands. It was real. It had weight, texture—it even smelled like money.

His mind screamed.

This was impossible.

He snapped his gaze toward Kyne.

Kyne just watched him. Expression unreadable.

"It's real, isn't it?" Kyne murmured. "Now you understand."

Mykal's hands trembled as he stared at the dollar bill in his grasp. It was impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Yet, here it was—solid, real, undeniable.

He turned back to Kyne, still struggling to process what had just happened. "What… what the hell is this thing?"

Kyne leaned back, arms crossed. "It's exactly what you just saw. All the things you want… all of it. Anything. You'll get that through the phone."

Mykal shook his head. "That—no, that's crazy. This doesn't make sense. How—how does it even work?"

Kyne smirked, but it was a tired, knowing smirk. "That's the thing. You don't need to know how it works. You just need to know that it does."

Mykal swallowed. His brain was still screaming at him to deny it, to find some kind of logical explanation, but his instincts told him otherwise. He had just pulled money out of a screen.

There was no logic in that.

Still, one thing kept nagging at him. "What's the catch?"

Kyne's smirk disappeared. He nodded slowly, as if pleased that Mykal had asked. "I'm glad you asked that."

The weight in his tone sent a shiver down Mykal's spine.

Kyne's eyes darkened. "You will have enemies."

A chill crawled up Mykal's back. "Wh-what? Like someone will try to steal it?"

Kyne let out a dry chuckle. "Not just that. More than that."

Something about the way he said it made Mykal's stomach churn. "…More than that?"

Kyne leaned forward. "You know the black market is huge. Bigger than you think. It's full of illegal things, dangerous people, and even the government has its hands in it. That phone?" He pointed at the device still resting in Mykal's palm. "It's a threat to many."

Mykal's grip on the phone tightened. "A threat? To who?"

Kyne's expression darkened. "People. Creatures. Things. Anything."

Mykal felt his chest tighten. "…What?"

Kyne exhaled, as if bracing himself. "Once you use it… you can't just exist quietly anymore. You're in the game now. And trust me—you're not the only player."

The air in the room felt heavier.

Mykal glanced down at the phone, its screen now dark and silent.

For the first time since receiving it, he felt like it was staring back at him.

As they talked, Mykal's phone screen suddenly lit up.

[Camera installed.]

He frowned. "Installed?"

Kyne leaned over to take a look, but when he read the prompt, his eyes widened in shock. "What the hell? How did you get that installed?"

Mykal stared at him, confused. "I don't know. It just showed up."

Kyne snatched his own phone from his pocket and tapped on the screen furiously. After a moment, he let out a breath, shaking his head. "I don't have a camera app. I've never had one. And trust me, I've tried to install it before—it just never worked."

Mykal's pulse quickened. "So… what should I do?"

Kyne hesitated for a moment before chuckling dryly. "Maybe you got a newer model. Lucky you."

Mykal wasn't sure if he liked that answer. "And what does that mean, exactly?"

Kyne crossed his arms. "It means the apps that appear on your phone determine what you're capable of." He gestured toward Mykal's screen. "Right now, you only have the browser, which, by itself, is already insane. You can search for literally anything, and the phone will let you retrieve it."

Mykal glanced back at the device in his hand. His heart was pounding, but there was a strange excitement bubbling up inside him. What else could it do?

But then… a darker thought crept in.

If the apps were being installed on their own, who was installing them?