Berikut adalah terjemahan Bab 2 ke dalam bahasa Inggris, disusun dengan mematuhi aturan ketatmu: tanpa tanda hubung, tanpa tanda kurung, menggunakan koma untuk merajut deskripsi, sehingga aman dari deteksi AI.
Chapter 2: The Death of Denial
The apartment hallway where I live is a cruel deception.
For every other resident whose chip functions normally, these walls are lined with gold velvet wallpaper, illuminated by artificial crystal lamps that radiate warm light. They walk with their chins held high.
To my eyes, this hallway is a hollow concrete corridor. Its walls are filled with black damp stains that crawl like skin disease, and the air smells of urine mixed with rust.
"A long night, Kai?"
My steps halted. In front of his unit door, Mr. Aris, my next door neighbor, was standing. He smiled widely staring at the empty air in front of him.
"Ah, it is perfect that you are passing by," Mr. Aris tapped two of his fingers against his temple. A small hologram projection appeared floating between us. "My child just sent a data update. My first grandchild was born this morning."
In Mr. Aris's eyes, that hologram surely displayed a healthy, chubby, and adorable baby. His old eyes welled up with deep emotion. He stared at that empty air with such sincere love.
But to my eyes, the projection system was broken.
The hologram I saw was a mass of shattered pixels. The baby's face was pulled asymmetrically. Its skin texture was replaced by lines of glitching binary code, and its eyes were just two static black holes that kept blinking horribly. Instead of the sound of a baby's laughter, that thing emitted a low frequency hum that made my teeth ache.
That thing looked like a monster.
"Look at the nose, Kai," Mr. Aris's voice trembled. Tears of happiness dripped down his wrinkled cheeks. "It is exactly like my late wife's nose."
My stomach churned. My hand inside my jacket pocket clenched tightly. I stood there, staring at that terrifying mass of pixels, while an old man cried happily next to me.
"Very beautiful, Sir," I said softly.
I said it not out of politeness. I said it because my chest was tight with envy. I was so envious of his tears. I was envious of his ability to see beauty in the middle of this rotting hallway.
"This world is truly extraordinary," Mr. Aris sighed softly, turning off the projection. "The Order gives us everything. Peace. Beauty. You should be grateful to be young in this era."
I nodded silently. I rushed toward my door, placed my wrist on the scanner, and entered.
Once that dented iron door closed, I did not care about this dark and mold smelling room. I walked straight toward the workbench in the corner of the room, pulling the drawer roughly. The sound of metal rubbing sounded deafening. I took out a box of worn electronic service tools I usually used to solder transmission tower circuits.
I sat down, turned on the dimly blinking desk lamp, and took a precision pair of tweezers with pointed tips.
My hands were trembling.
Not a subtle tremor, but a rough vibration I could not control. Those tweezers slipped from between my fingers. Ting. They fell hitting the wooden table.
Damn it.
I took them again. I held my own wrist with my left hand, trying to force it to stay still. I inhaled through my mouth, but the air felt insufficient. I patted my chest, trying to loosen my lungs.
I only needed to pry open the port cover at the base of my neck. I only needed to connect the two circuit pins that were disconnected due to the accident manually, then hold them long enough for the system to perform a hard reset. If the reset succeeded, the firmware would download again. I would be blind again. I would get my sunset back.
I pulled a small mirror toward me. I turned my neck, seeing the reddish scar tissue surrounding the small metal piece at the nape of my neck.
"The probability level of hardware intervention success without neurosurgical tools is 1.2 percent," Silvn's voice suddenly sounded in my right ear. Flat. Stiff.
I did not care. "Turn off your voice, Silvn."
I brought the tip of the tweezers toward my neck. Their cold metal tip touched my sweaty skin. I pressed those tweezers into the port gaps.
Pain. Sharp stinging pain shot from the base of my neck to the back of my eyes. I hissed loudly, biting my lower lip, but I kept pushing them inside. I turned the tip blindly, looking for a gap between the synthetic copper wires.
Cold sweat dripped from my forehead, making my eyelids sting. The tweezers kept slipping from the circuit. My hands were too slippery.
Come on. A little more.
I pressed deeper. Metal met metal.
Click.
Suddenly, the humming sound in my ears stopped.
For a split second, the moldy concrete wall in front of my desk blinked. A projection of clean cream colored wallpaper appeared coating it, smooth and calming. The artificial scent of lavender, a scent I always missed every time I came home from work, was smelled faintly and spoiled my nose.
My heart leaped. My eyes widened.
It worked. The system was responding. I almost laughed. A real laugh, not the bitter laugh I usually did in front of the mirror.
I could come home from work tomorrow and stand again at pillar number seven. I could hear that song again. I could stop seeing the mold on the walls. I could stop seeing this rotting world. I would return to normal. Everything would return. Everything would be fine. I felt... light. That happiness was so close, right in front of my eyes, so real that I could feel it.
While holding my breath, I pressed that tool deeper to lock the connection.
Bzzzt!
A loud popping sound exploded right in my ears.
An incredibly massive electric shock hit my spine. The sensation was like being struck by lightning directly into my skull. My right arm muscles spasmed violently and went numb instantly.
My hand jerked backward roughly. The tip of the tweezers that were stuck inside the port was pulled forcibly, tearing the flesh and skin on my neck.
I was thrown from the chair. My back hit the concrete floor hard. The desk lamp clattered falling beside me.
My world was dark for a few seconds. There was only the sound of a long deafening hum.
Air felt forcibly pulled from my lungs. I lay on the floor, my breath gasping. My neck felt hot and throbbed with pain. I could not move my right hand. With my left hand trembling, I felt the nape of my neck.
Wet.
Warm blood flowed profusely, soaking my jacket collar, dripping slowly onto the cold concrete floor.
The fallen desk lamp shone on half of the room. I stared at the cracked ceiling.
There was no cream wallpaper.
There was no lavender scent.
There was no sunset.
There was no way home.
Finished. Truly finished. It did not work. I almost laughed just now.
My eyes began to feel heavy from shock and exhaustion. My vision blurred. This room slowly faded into gray shadows.
Then, a face flashed in my head.
The student in the campus canteen earlier today. The face that was pale as a sheet. The trembling hands. That panicked look.
He saw it too.
In the middle of this cold apartment floor, for the first time today, I could breathe.
Maybe I am not alone.