Deception ; Game of Lies

Chapter 001 - Exploiting The System of Truth

Einzig reaches for the coffee-filled porcelain cup on the table in front of him, sipping in a few volume. The Monsoon Café is a bit old and small yet cozy, with expensive looking chairs and desks, giving off a nice ambiance. The classical music playing on the sound system, on the other hand, gives off a relaxing touch.

It was a famous coffee shop, but there weren't much customers at that very time. So few, that you could even count the people inside with two hands; not including the staff, of course. The summer season may be one of the factors to why there seems to be a sudden drop of customers. It is not a practical explanation, but there is a wide belief in that place that spending a lot of money when the sun is nearer to earth than usual, will bring a pour of bad luck.

He stretches his arms upward, hoping to ease the uncertainties on his mind. The problems surrounding him recently were quite heavy. Einzig knows that his fate depends on how he will deal with it, be it good or bad.

Unexpectedly, a familiar yet strange-looking boy peaks at the café interior through one of the tinted glass windows. He is Aigen, a not-so-long friend of Einzig. Although they were schoolmates, they only met each other recently at an Anime convention. Aigen dashes toward the glass door and enters inside. He removes his brown detective hat, revealing his dark, grayish hair.

With curiousity driving him, Einzig gazes at Aigen with a surprised face, but before he could even say anything, Aigen rushes at him with a blink of an eye and slammed the table's surface. Fortunately, nothing on top of the table fell as they would likely pay for it if some ever did. The other customers, obviously irritated, glares at them with sharp eyes like that of an aggressive dog. Einzig looks around with embarrassment written all over his face.

The atmosphere inside has completely changed in just a couple of seconds.

"Einzi-"

"Now, now...What do you need? You don't need to slam the table." Einzig interrupts him with a whisper. "I won't pay for the damages if there were in any case. Can't you see you're scaring everyone off!?"

"Listen, It might just have been luck for me to see you right now. Someone left a laptop at our school's computer lab. I don't know who owns it, but it's been there for like two days already. I tried booting it up, but it's damn encrypted with a login interface. I know you could help me since you're a N-E-R-D-O-X." He answers back in a rapid tone while his blue eyes sparkle.

Putting his palm on his smooth face while looking a bit downward, Einzig replies "Wow! That was quite harsh of you to say those things. I am not a geek, I'm just an observer. Observing and learning how things work is always the best. Besides, why do you act like it was a serious terrorist threat?"

"What if it really was? Just come see it for duck's sake!"

Finally, after a long conversation, Enzieg agreed to go with him. They left Monsoon café and proceeded to the sidewalks of the busy city hurriedly. The noises coming from the vehicles, and the people around overwhelmed both of them, rendering the two silent.

The City of Kalamansian is flourishing, with constructions of mid-rises and businesses everywhere. It was a big field of Kalamansi back then, thus it was called Kalamansian which means 'A place of Kalamansi production'. More and more people are coming over, and as a result, congested roads and highways plagued the city. The once agricultural area, is now a heavily urbanized city. The only difference is that, it did not receive a proper urban planning, producing an unorganized layout of neighborhoods.

The shadows that the colonizers had left from hundreds years ago are not present in the city anymore. The people however, are still infected by their ideologies and culture. There are no metro lines to support the rapidly growing population, which is very inconvinient. Only a massive number of Jeepneys and buses act as a public transport, making it a bit difficult to commute, and the already heavy traffic more unacceptable. To make it worse, most of the drivers are either untrained or drunktards.