Where am I?

The familiar water bottle with an irregular crack at the corner.

The same wallpaper with pale geometry patterns.

My hometown.

Just like the one in my childhood.

But it was destroyed in a tsunami years ago.

How in the universe, then, am I here?

Flash.

The world blanked out half a second

and back to normal again.

What happened? Illusion?

The “does-the-world-exist-when-I-close-my-eyes” paradox?

I look around.

Searching for my grandparents.

If the town can reappear,

then they should be able to as well.

But I didn’t even see a moving thing.

Everywhere is abnormally silent.

Like

A half-reset game scene?

I am shocked by this idea

that doesn’t seem to belong to myself.

Suddenly,

I detect a shadow.

It’s moving toward me,

faster and faster.

Mist dissipates. I see

a terrifying face.

That’s me! That’s myself indeed!

What’s surrounding me, what’s swallowing me

is endless little pixels of me!

I see the smiling me, the screaming me, the passionate me,

the confused me, the disappointed me, the furious me,

the depressed me, the painful me, the indifferent me!

But I,

this real I,

am silent.

The end of my nerve is twitching as if burning.

An unknown, freezing liquid is dripping down the silver metal.

New words appear within my brain. New ideas.

My consciousness resets.

I will receive resurrection.

But I know! That is not me!

“Boom!”

Accompanied by the sound of the wire’s explosion,

my body cracks into pieces.

However, why

at the center of the pieces

stands a metal chip?