This image is a combination of two pictures by Enrique Meseguer and Stefan Keller from Pixabay edited by me in
Steam billowed in the distance. I sniffed and coughed as the acrid scent of burning silicon mingled with the smog laden air. High-rise buildings loomed in the grey miasma of central district, marching into the distance like concrete soldiers. Beards of lurid growth trailed from balconies and sheer glass.
Sparks of reflected light broke through the skin of vegetation in patterns, chaotic in their random oscillation. Trees sprouted from purpose built gantries. Trunks coddled by giant ferns, pregnant with life converting carbon dioxide into much needed oxygen watering down the toxic atmosphere.
I glanced at the sky and the anemic sunlight filtering through the thick clouds. A gargantuan transport ship rumbled over assaulting my eardrums, shaking the ground in the back draft.
The mission was on.
Neon news' drones drifted through the streets, projecting psychedelic holo-warnings against the use of blockchain.
Bitcoin is banned.
Words pulsed a psychedelic mantra.
Decentralized transaction is treason.
A holographic scene played out trailing me as I walked, leering in and out of field space.
Emaciated figures beat the ground with picks in a parody of the hidden histories. Skeletal figures bent double choking on the fumes spewing from the maleficent earth. Quicksilver drones zipped between the lines of people, eviscerating the lame, the sick and the dying with beams of energy.
A final message flashed across my eyes, hacking my neural implants.
Value is sovereign to the state. Privacy coins and illegal transaction are punishable with internment.
I kept my thoughts perfectly neutral. Focusing on breath and ordering my thoughts to reflect only acceptance.
Just another day in paradise.
The drone moved on and I marked its passage… waiting until it picked another mark. I scanned my internal neural network, checking that the drone was no longer connected.
Powering up my wallet, I encrypted the address, eyes fluttered across the screen projected on my retina. A small fee shot across my vision, a micro-payment of Monero to initiate the link.
“How’s it hanging man?”
A pair of dark eyes flashed brown in my mind before the face coalesced from the darkness of network space. Dozzer’s face was at least 60% beard, contrasted with a pale white bald pate. Bright red lips split the dark forest in an infectious smile.
“Yeah, not bad upside-down head. “ I grinned back at him. “Is the autonomous republic of Canada still as cold as a nun’s chaff?”
“You know it brother. I’m never happier than when I’m rolling in the snow. That’s just how we do.”
He looked around showing me the landscape through his neural connection. “It’s snow joke here at the moment. Winter has come early.”
A land of fir trees stretched away into the sharp glare of white, a crystalline arboreal wonderland of packed snow.
“Is it still as hot as a reformed priest’s jockstrap in the utopian unified sovereign state of south asia?”
I responded by wringing my hand across my brow and holding it up to my eyes so the sweat poured off the back of my hand. “What do you think? Fucking hot in more way than one. Drones are everywhere and they’re stepping up the digital cleansing.”
“I hear that Berry!” His smile faltered like a spark fading in dying eyes.
“I still can’t believe you’ve never seen snow in person man!”
I shrugged. “No way in or out of anywhere these days. No way to fly unless you have government clearance. Lockdown is a bitch!”
“Let’s see what we can do about that, guy. The transaction is ready.”
“How is it gonna go down?”
Dozzer’s grin reappeared like a shaft of sun on the newly settled snow.
“Simple man… you gotta die. Send the Monero and then take the overdose.”
The End
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