Prologue

"What is our true purpose, being created by humans?" The man in a black cloak whispered, his plain mask concealing any emotion. Before him lay countless corpses. Beside him, a creature of pure distortion loomed.

Before the corpses, before the distortion... Twelve years ago, in a fabricated world.

The past was nothing but data. Memories that should have been safe, now corrupted.

X didn't know it yet, but everything was about to change.

Pov ???

I feel like today is very bright. My father, who works at YouTube, went to organize the video files there. while my mother, a woman with glasses and numbers circling around her body, works as a teacher at the Calculator Academy. Me? I'm just an ordinary letter, X, In a black suit with a white tie and short black hair. I don't even have many friends. Ah... am I rambling too much? Well... I just wanted to let out some of my feelings.

Oh, by the way, Y, do you know about Mega Company Alphabet? The biggest company in the world? I hope its value isn't too bad, and maybe I could work there someday!

The man next to me, Y, has golden hair that splits into two like his shape. He just stared at me flatly and said, "Keep dreaming, X. You're always scolded for watching 'adult' stuff, but yeah... I'd want to work there too if I could." His eyes, glowing like pixels on a screen, stared at me with an annoying expression. Even so, I couldn't deny his words.

Well, that's the kind of friendship we letters have. 'Fun,' right? I hope I don't have to meet that handsome nuisance again. If we weren't in the same class, I definitely wouldn't be friends with him. I go to a private school called Google. The building is huge, with windows shaped like search tabs. The tuition fees are very high, even though it's not as popular as prestigious schools like Word, which are more academic and full of grammar rules. Unfortunately, I always disappoint my parents. If only I had intelligence like the hands of a god—the legendary entities said to have shaped our world.

I stared at the blackboard, paying attention to my teacher, Mrs. π (Pi). She has long hair that curls like her symbol and always wears a robe with numbers on it. She's famous for her arrogance, and I really can't stand her attitude. However, I can't deny that she's an incredibly smart mathematical symbol. Maybe she's the smartest woman I've ever met... besides my mom, of course. She smiled as 0, a student in our class who seemed innocent and transparent, easily solved the problem she gave. I was really shocked, I'm jealous. Why is there a number so talented like her? I wish I could be like that!

Mrs. π smiled and said, "Alright, as your wonderful teacher, I'm giving you an extraordinary task! No one is allowed to skip it! Submit it next week!"

Because I sat in the front row, I could hear her words clearly. I don't like sitting in the front because I can't sleep in class, but what can I do? Her words immediately made the other 28 students tense up. Maybe they thought they wouldn't be able to relax at home anymore.

The lunch bell rang, echoing through the massive halls of Google Private School. Students rushed out of their classrooms like a wave of letters spilling from an unfinished sentence. I sighed, gripping my lunch tray as I navigated through the chaotic cafeteria.

I spotted Y sitting at our usual table near the back, away from the louder groups. He was already picking at his food, his golden hair practically glowing under the artificial light. I hesitated for a moment, glancing around the room. A group of uppercase letters laughed loudly near the front—probably discussing something 'important' like their rankings on the Academic Algorithm. A few mathematical symbols were deep in discussion at another table, debating some theorem that I didn't understand.

Then, as for the transfer student from Word, he was nerdy.

I stared at %, a short man wearing glasses. He looked like he didn't have any friends. Whispers from other students could be heard:

"Isn't he that transfer student?"

"I thought he'd be cool."

"Yeah, turns out he's really nerdy."

Y smirked and said, "Oh, looks like we have a glasses-wearing version of X."

I just gave him a blank stare and replied, "At least I'm not nerdy and overly formal."

I made my way to Y and sat down across from him. "Why do you always look like you hate life?" I asked, stabbing at my food. The so-called 'digital nutrient pack' on my tray looked about as appetizing as corrupted data.

"Because I have to share a table with you," Y deadpanned, his glowing pixel eyes scanning his meal with disinterest. "Seriously, X, you always ramble about your dreams of working at Mega Company Alphabet, but do you even have a plan?"

I huffed, leaning back against the chair. "It's called having ambition, Y. You should try it sometime."

"Yeah, yeah, keep dreaming." He waved me off and took a sip of his drink, a can labeled "Source Code Energy." "Besides, you say you don't have many friends, but you never try talking to anyone else."

I glanced at the other tables again. He wasn't wrong. I could approach someone new, but... what would I even say? The thought of striking up a conversation with the bold, confident A or the cool, laid-back S felt ridiculous. They wouldn't have any reason to talk to a plain letter like me.

A sudden commotion near the front caught my attention. 0, the quiet and transparent girl from our class, had accidentally spilled her juice all over a stack of assignments. The teacher in charge, Mr. Σ, immediately started scolding her while the other students either whispered or laughed behind their hands, 0 was holding a notebook while being scolded, lowering their head. Maybe they couldn't bear to look Mr. Σ in the eyes.

For a second, I thought about helping her. But my feet stayed planted. It wasn't my problem, was it?

"You should go help her," Y muttered without looking up.

I frowned. "Why me?"

"Because you keep saying you want to change things," he said simply, flicking a piece of food off his tray. "Start with something small."

I glanced at 0 again. She was frantically trying to clean up the mess while Mrs. Σ sighed in frustration. The whispering around her only grew louder.

I hesitated.

Then, before I could think too much about it, I grabbed a few napkins and walked over.

The bell rang sharply, signaling the end of break time that felt way too short. I let out a sigh and dragged my feet back to class. As soon as I sat down, I rested my head on the desk.

"What an annoying morning," I muttered.

Not long after, a man in a white suit entered the room. His silver hair was neatly combed, shining like the symbol he represented—Σ (Sigma), the teacher of logic and data analysis.

"Alright, students. Today, we will discuss probability, something that can determine your fate in this world," he said in a firm voice.

Y clicked his tongue beside me. "I heard Mr.sigma is even worse than Mrs.pi when it comes to giving assignments."

I sighed. "If that's the case, I'll just pretend to understand."

"X," Mr. Sigma suddenly called my name, pointing directly at me. "Try answering this question. If there are 10 letters in a folder, and only 3 of them are vowels, what is the probability of picking a vowel at random?"

I froze. My brain processed the numbers, but what came out of my mouth was, "Can you repeat that?"

The entire class burst into laughter. I let out a silent sigh.

"0.3 or 30%," 0 answered confidently from the back.

Mr. Sigma nodded in satisfaction. "Good job, 0. You truly are a symbol of great value."

I just stared blankly ahead. So this is what it feels like to be insulted without words.

Mr. Sigma wrote more problems on the board. I glanced at Y, who also looked bored, though he probably understood the lesson better than I did. I started doodling on my paper, thinking, If probability really determines life, I must have only a 1% chance of success.

But who cares? It's just another class... it's not like the world will change just because I failed to answer one question, right?

The bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson. Private schools are really troublesome. My parents paid a lot for me to attend here, even though in reality, they only accept money without caring about the students' grades (maybe they believe they can fix it). Even though I'm not smart, at least I'm diligent. As far as I remember, I've never skipped class.

Maybe I should go to the print shop to print this assignment. For some reason, paper in this world can't be made without the help of Big Keyboard at the print shop.

I walked toward a building with a sign that read "Note pad (This is a Print Shop)." Upon entering, I saw 26 different people inside, each representing a letter A-Z, along with some symbols like hyphens and certain numbers. This is a paper printing place, so I headed straight for the administration section. There, a woman with emerald green eyes shaped like quotation marks and jet-black hair shaped like ink looked at me gently. She said, "Can I help you, X-kun?"

I replied, "Can you print this question for me? 'If a train is moving at 12 meters per second, how much resistance does it experience?' That's it."

The woman smiled. "Alright, please wait a moment!" After I handed her 5 bitcoins shaped like coins with '0101' written on them, she immediately turned and gave instructions to the people inside the shop. In an instant, a piece of paper came out of the printer. I took it and said, "Thank you!" before quickly leaving the building.

I stepped out of Google Private School after a long day, taking a deep breath as the digital wind blew softly, carrying the distinct scent of static electricity. In the sky, notification banners flickered, displaying the latest updates about the slowing network speeds.

"So, are you seriously going to do Mr. Sigma's assignment?" Y asked, catching up to me with his usual lazy expression. "I think I'd rather delete myself from the system than work on probability equations."

I scoffed. "You always complain, but in the end, you still turn in your assignments on time, don't you?"

We walked along the main street leading to the File Explorer district, where most residents lived. Among the neatly stacked folder-shaped buildings, we spotted someone stepping out of a golden car—$, a student from the elite Word Academy.

"$" wore a sleek white suit with a gold tie that shimmered like the dollar sign hovering above his head. His hands were full of premium devices—the latest encrypted smartphone and a high-tech watch capable of calculating currency conversion rates in milliseconds.

"X, Y," he greeted us in a polished, rehearsed tone. "I hear you two still dream of working for Mega Company Alphabet?"

I frowned. "Yeah. Why?"

$ smirked, pulling out a business card that automatically updated with his bank balance. "You do know that some of us have already been recruited before graduation? Of course, only those with high scores in Data Economics and Digital Transactions."

"So, you're just here to show off?" Y cut in, unimpressed.

"Not at all, just sharing reality," $ said before stepping into a luxurious restaurant named PayPal Lounge, a hotspot for high-value transactions.

I simply sighed and continued walking. Yeah, I already knew this world was unfair.

As we moved further, a figure rushed out of a large envelope-shaped office with an "@" symbol on its entrance. A man in a dark blue shirt, messy hair, and glowing communication lines circling his wrists—@, one of the busiest communication workers in the city.

"Hey, X! Hey, Y!" he called, adjusting his digital glasses. "Have you heard the latest news?"

Y and I exchanged glances. "What news?" I asked.

@ quickly pulled up a holographic screen filled with urgent messages. "There's a communication failure in several areas of File Explorer. Some reports say an unknown entity is causing data to disappear."

I raised an eyebrow. "An unknown entity? You mean... a bug or a virus?"

"It's unclear." @ rubbed his temples, visibly stressed. "I've received over 300 reports today, and every time I try to send a message to Windows Defender authorities, the transmission gets delayed."

A strange chill ran down my spine. Small errors happened all the time in this world, but entire data chunks disappearing without a trace? That was new.

Y let out a low whistle. "Sounds like something serious."

@ nodded quickly. "I have to get back to work. If you hear anything strange, let me know, okay?"

I simply nodded, watching as he disappeared into the chaotic stream of data traffic.

Y and I continued our walk home, but something about this conversation stuck with me.

This world... felt more dangerous than I had ever realized.

I parted ways with Y at the crossroads.

I stood in front of my house after a six-minute journey home. My house was simple, with red as the primary color, featuring a plain oak door. It also had a garage that housed a small car.

I took off my shoes and placed them on the rack on the house's terrace. I opened the door, set my bag on the floor, and immediately ran up to the second floor.

I heard my mother's voice saying, "How was your day, X?" I stopped for a moment, stepped back slightly, and approached her voice. "It was fine, nothing special. Just another normal day," I replied politely, looking into her eyes.

I looked at my mother with a questioning tone. "Mom, did you get a leave from teaching?" I noticed her expression shift slightly before she smiled and said, "Yes, I took some time off because I have some urgent matters to take care of."

I nodded and headed upstairs, entering my room at the very end of the hallway. My room was fairly small, about 5x5 meters. It had a single bed, a study desk with a laptop on top, and the desk was connected to the window. There was also a wardrobe and a small bookshelf.

I dropped myself onto the bed and grabbed my laptop. The laptop was connected to a network called the Internet.

The Internet is a communication network linked through transmission towers across the world. That's why people are always connected to each other. In truth, we can access the Internet without any device, because we are the strongest race after the fall of humanity in the past. After all, that's how history goes.

So... I opened my laptop and saw the Mini-Alphabets coming in and taking turns each time I thought of a sentence. They were living beings inside the laptop that helped type out sentences. Well, it was helpful, even though laptops were incredibly expensive these days. My parents didn't buy this laptop—they acquired it in another way.

I thought of a sentence: "A notorious serial killer named Bonzi Buddy has caused chaos in the world!"

Immediately, numbers began duplicating themselves, lining up in order, but instead of forming a random sequence, they shaped the exact words I had in mind. As I pressed Enter, the letters appeared one after another—first "E," then "N," then "T," and so on—until I finally reached the main news page.

The news page was filled with Mini-Alphabets standing in formation, forming lines upon lines of words—perhaps as many as 3,000 words in total?

So, there was a serial killer in the File areas, causing chaos in the area. Though, to be honest, the headline was a bit of a clickbait—its impact wasn't as massive as it sounded, even though the number of victims was quite significant, totaling eight.

The killer had yet to be caught, but the Windows Defender authorities had started moving to track them down. Well, I didn't really care about all the drama in this world. The only thing that mattered to me was my own life.

 I see the world around me glitching. I clutch my head and click my tongue in pain as dizziness starts to overwhelm me. "What is this?" Actually, I'm not surprised because @ already told me beforehand.

That was the initial glimpse into the world—

[Error] errorF error error error errorA error errorK error

filE not found :(

To be continue