《A Meal at the End of a World》 Chapter 1: Space Bar ¡°So, what¡¯ll it be today, Sam?¡± Emily asked me. ¡°The usual,¡± I replied as I sat down at the bar stool. ¡°A Violet Beer; got it,¡± Emily replied as she got a glass from below the bar top, ¡°James coming today?¡± ¡°He hasn¡¯t said otherwise, so I assume so.¡± Today, like every other day, I found myself at the Violet Space Bar for my usual afterwork beer. The bartender, a close friend of mine named Emily, always served me the same drinks in the same dark corner of the bar with the same bored expression and the same glowing purple hair. What can I say though? The beer is good and Emily is one of my closest friends other than James. Please note that I, the narrator, have never had any alcohol, let alone beer and I am therefore extremely glad that Sam will be describing it for me. Shut up you. ¡°Hey, you two, how are things?¡± James suddenly said making Emily drop a glass, ¡°I¡¯ll have a coffee.¡± ¡°This is a bar James, not a caf¨¦,¡± Emily said while sliding a cup of coffee in James¡¯ direction, ¡°So here¡¯s a cup of beer extracted from a coffee plant. I call it coffee.¡±Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Alright then?¡± James laughed. James was a large man who was more computer than human. In fact, the only parts of him that were still human were his brain and the great amount of muscles that made up his arms, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here Sam, me and Smith were fighting this ugly guy who called himself ¡®CAPTCHA¡¯. Quite tacky, but it seemed we couldn¡¯t get near him without an actual CAPTCHA appearing on our AR goggles, know any solution?¡± ¡°Ah that, he¡¯s just an idiot. That virus is really easy to cause. Heck, it¡¯s technically not a virus,¡± I said before taking a sip of my Violet flavoured beer, ¡°Okay, the best solution is to fight him again and log the IP that causes the CAPTCHAs to appear, I can then program your firewall to block them.¡± ¡°What did I tell you Emily, master of computers right here!¡± James said with a hearty laugh. ¡°Just because I passed a computer science course does not mean I know what I¡¯m doing,¡± I sighed, ¡°Heck, it feels like the more you know, the more you realise how little you know.¡± ¡°Bah, c¡¯mon Sam, you¡¯re just being pedantic,¡± Emily said, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ve got a break coming up in a few minutes and I thought you guys might be interested in some leftovers¡­¡± ¡°Holy hell Emily, you¡¯re truly the best,¡± James said after slamming the table with his nightmare of weapon that used to be known as his right hand. ¡°Oh, got some people calling for me,¡± Emily said disinterestedly as she walked away down the bar. ¡°So how was your work today?¡± James asked. ¡°We still know nothing about decryption and we still have no idea how management expects us to program a decryptor within two weeks,¡± I said with a laugh. ¡°Lucky for you, I looked for some other programming jobs for you like I said,¡± he said before pausing to take the last gulp of his coffee, ¡°I think what I found might be a million times better than Marstech. Only problem is it isn¡¯t close to this bar.¡± ¡°Eh, doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯ve got a fast ship and I don¡¯t mind going home later than normal, so go on tell me about it.¡± Chapter 2: Terrafying News ¡°Okay, so the leftovers are some cans of a fizzy orange drink, spicy chicken wings and some Pizza¡± Emily said as she placed two large plates on the table we had moved to. The bar was now mostly empty except for us and some drunkards. Oh and some weird guy wearing some fancy black trench coat trying to look posh while drinking some tea¡­ While wearing a¡­ Top hat with an orange ribbon. Idiot. ¡°I¡¯ll have the pizza. Not really a fan of spice,¡± James said. ¡°Really? The toughest one of us doesn¡¯t like spice?¡± I laughed. ¡°Yup, my nanomachines once went crazy when I accidentally fell into a room full of chilli peppers,¡± James said. ¡°Crazy? A room full of chilli peppers?¡± Emily questioned. ¡°Basically, this guy I went to kill had this weird obsession with chilli peppers. He thought he could bring his mother back with them for some reason and so he ended up forming a gang based entirely on stealing them. Oh and they caused my nanomachines to try and disintegrate my tongue for some reason.¡± ¡°Eh, probably thought the spice was pathogen or something,¡± I said with a shrug. ¡°Hey, you three, you may want to see this,¡± the guy with a top hat said.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°We¡¯re not interested in your attempts to look posh,¡± I said with a slight laugh. ¡°I am on about the news ignorant fellow,¡± the man replied back to me with an exaggerated upper class accent. ¡°The news? It couldn¡¯t be your target could it, James?¡± Emily asked with a face of concern. ¡°I doubt it. Today¡¯s target was just some random Martian bank robber,¡± James said while sipping a can of the fizzy orange drink. ¡°Maybe they weren¡¯t as random as you thought?¡± Emily said. ¡°Nope, they were indeed random. They robbed a bank without the backing of a corporation or a gang, escaped the Martian police by chance and tried to hide at their own house,¡± Signalling for the both of them to be quiet, I listened in on the nearest AR TV. ¡°We have confirmed reports that the Pluto based corporation known as Pluto Biotics has accidentally set off a weapon that is causing the sun in Sector 1 to grow at a rapid rate. Within only one hour, the sun has already consumed Mercury and Venus and is only moments away from the Earth. We now go live to footage from our Jupiter based news satellite.¡± ¡°H-Hold on, what?¡± James said in sudden fear, ¡°They¡¯ve sped up the death of the sun? How? And more importantly, what about Earth?¡± ¡°There¡¯s not much that can be done about Earth James, just look at how close the sun is,¡± I sighed. ¡°Oh come on, Sam! We were born on Earth, not just us, but our entire race.¡± ¡°I wasn¡¯t but I get your point,¡± Emily said. ¡°Wait! I just realised, what about the people still living on Earth? My parents, for example,¡± James said full of anger. I¡¯d never seen him ever get angry before. ¡°I thought you parents were on holiday outside the sector?¡± I asked, ¡°And anyway, the planet is mostly a wasteland at this point.¡± ¡°But it¡¯s history that¡¯s being destroyed!¡± ¡°It¡¯s not like there¡¯s anything we ca-¡° ¡°And¡­ We now have contact. I repeat, we now have contact,¡± the news presenter said with a video of the sun beginning its consumption of the Earth.