What if I told you I can see everything labeled with a numerical value? Like I can see the value of hardness when comparing granite and diamond. That’s obvious but what if I told you I know how much your left kidney sell in the black market, and how much power this ship have left to the billionth of a decimal. Everything in this universe have value, but even as we speak the value have been going down. Everywhere I go the value is decreasing. Once the value of an item hit zero it transforms into a black cube. This cube used to be a blue jay. I don’t know if something is draining everyone value or removing it altogether, I just don’t know, I’m scared. -- Anon Guest
Close examination of the cube in the right light revealed a lengthy serial number and an engraved representation of a bird in mid-flight. Specifically, a blue jay. It was a two-inch, or five centimeter cube. Beyond 'black', it was impossible to determine what the material was. Touching it revealed only what it was not. It was not glass. It was not plastic. It was not metal, nor mineral, nor any kind of fabric.
What it was, was: there, black, and a cube. No entity in the universe could want it. It could not be sold. It could not be traded. It was... a thing. It was valueless. Instantly, Valerie knew that she was out of her depth. She was a psychiatrist, not... whatever this needed. "How long has this been going on?"
"I noticed the cubes when I was cleaning out my wardrobe, about six months ago. There were lots of them, maybe this size," finger and thumb sketched a much smaller object. "I didn't even think about it until I saw a mouse dip to zero and... pop... one of these. I've always been able to see the value of stuff. It's been why I've been great at trades. This? This is alarming in more ways than one."
"How so?"
"It's started happening to people. The tick... the rate at which the number changes... it's slower in people, but it's still... It's still going down. Everywhere I look... it's going down."
"You haven't seen the value going up anywhere?" The first remedy for anything causing distress was to look for a ray of hope. "Anywhere at all?"
"I haven't found it yet. I'm looking. I'm looking so hard. If anyone's value is going up, they might have the key to this thing."
"Do you believe someone is... making this happen?"
"I don't know. All I know is that a rising value in just one person means that something has to be happening and they're the most likely to have an idea of why. If anyone's doing something, they might do it to their own advantage."
"What happens to things that have their value rise?" Valerie had to ask.
"They're worth more... Good things happen to the people with higher values. Good things happen for properties with higher values. If reality's a hologram they... They might be hacking the program."
That was an alarming conclusion. Even more alarming than the concept of varying things losing their value and becoming... cubes. The bird cube was still there. Sitting on the table in its complete incomprehensibility. Concrete proof that was not concrete.
Valerie promised to look up options for her patient to try. When she went home, she went through one of the more neglected corners of her home. She found drifts of tiny little cubes. Each embossed with an image of a cockroach, lizard, or an ant. Hundreds of them. Enough to make a small castle out of them.
People depreciated at a slower pace, he had said.
What happened to a person whose value plummeted to zero?
How would the world react if it did?
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / montego]
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