Colorless Truth

As soon as I open my eyes, I hear someone calling for me.

02189… I wasn’t called this way for quite some time.

I look around while sitting in the bed. These simple and white walls, this minimalist space, despite being very fancy and much higher class than everything Ren had seen before, there’s no doubt about it, this is a place in Violet’s territory.

Someone is talking to me. I’m hearing everything well again, but I don’t feel like paying attention to him or acknowledging his presence.

I’m just too frustrated… Once again I was taken by surprise by someone, once again I was saved by others, and once again I almost got killed…

“Hey! Are you listening?”

I see a hand right in front of my eyes. The man is waving it to try to get my attention. I don’t want to talk to anyone right now, but I guess I have no other choice if I want to learn about what happened to me.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m hearing you loud and clear”

“Oh! That’s good, I was getting worried the nanobots had not fully recovered your hearing”

I take a better look at the person in front of me. It’s a brown hair, a green-eyed tall man of jovial appearance, wearing a violet-colored suit and tie. That despite appearing to be somewhat young, he has a certain dignified semblance to himself.

“So, who the hell are you?”

“I see, you weren’t paying attention to me just before, were you?”

The man opens a big grin as he continues talking:

“It’s a pleasure to meet you 02189, I’m Ophir Lowe, Violet’s CEO”

Normally Ren would be extremely surprised by seeing the CEO in flash and bones right in front of him, however, Ren didn’t react to this revelation, he only looked around and finally noticed the great number of fully armored and equipped men in that room.

I don’t know if this person is telling me the truth but right now, I just have to do my best to gather information, so I’ll go along with whatever he says for now.

“I kind of expected a bigger reaction”

“Well, whatever!”

The man moves away from Ren and sits in a chair in the center of the room.

“You got really lucky. If we didn’t have been suspicious of Mr. Hideki’s intentions, you could very well be dead at this point”

Ren’s eyes widen as he hears the professor’s name.

“Hideki… What has he to do with what happened to me?”

The man holds his chin as he smirks and answers Ren:

“You know him, huh? So that means that bastard wasn’t lying about everything after all”

“I don’t like unnecessarily shadiness, so let me be completely honest with you”

“This man called Hideki entered in contact with us some days ago, at first we were a little confused, ‘cause we were receiving a signal from a non-designated area”

“However, upon further investigation, we ended up finding him”

“As soon as we rescued him, he told us about the underground city and you”

Clutching his hand and doing his best to counter his anger, Ren follows up:

“But why!? Why would he tell you this? What does it have to do with me being attacked!?”

Upon seeing Ren getting more agitated, the guards step near, but Ophir makes a hand gesture and commands the men to halt their moves.

“As I was saying 02189, that man entered in contact with us and explained about you. I personally knew about your story, so what he said followed up with our data”

“But at the end, He still had the personality you’d expect from a Blue”

“Unbeknownst to us, he contacted the Blue and taught them about how to get to Neo-Tokyo”

“By the time we reached the underground city, Blue troops were already there, and you were found in a very dire state”

After almost getting angry upon hearing Hideki’s name, Ren now just hears the story without letting any hint of emotion, completely expressionless and motionless. He just maintains eye contact with Ophir the whole time, as if in a way to try to get a reading of the man solely by his gaze.

“What about the others? The other people that lived at the Shrine!?” - Ren asks rapidly.

“Sorry, I don’t know. The only one we had a reading, even if only faint was you”

Ren’s lips begin to involuntary shiver and he stops it by biting them for a few seconds before asking the man:

“Why did you save me? Didn’t you already had discarded me? You dropped a missile over my head and sent a mech after me upon confirming I was alive. Why’d you save me now!?”

“It’s simple...”

“It’s just because the situation changed”

“What do you mean!?”

Ophir gets up from his chair and takes something from the desk on the other side of the room, he then, approaches Ren and places an object on the ground, between the bed where Ren is and the chair Ophir was sitting on.

“I think this will make my job explaining things easier”

The object reveals itself to be a holographic pin, and as soon as the CEO places it, it begins projecting in the air immediately above it a violet-colored 3D hologram.

Immediately the shape of a human head begins to form itself, and in a few milliseconds the head of a woman can be easily seen and a synthetic female voice is heard in sync with it:

[Greetings Dear Violet Collaborator!!]

[By having the privilege to see this recording, this means you’re now a fundamental part of our organization]

[We hope you do continue to bear in mind the responsibility of your new position, and the weight it carries]

The hologram dissipates the woman’s head and begins to reform itself now creating forms of many rectangles, slowly forming a city that’s a perfect replica of Violet.

[We at the top of Violet have to make sure everyone under us has a pleasant life, with few worries and problems]

The hologram changes again and keeps a pattern of mutating itself to take the shape of whatever is said by the voice.

[But as we know, human nature is very difficult to change. Since the very beginning of civilization people argue and disagree with each other]

[There are many reasons for this unwanted behavior, and they were mostly taken care of by the Color System]

[Individuality and tribalism]

[Two sides of the same coin, and the source of humanity’s violence]

[To better control the tribalism factor we got rid of the dated family and friends system]

[Now the NEST is the only place possible for the birth and nurture of new humans]

[There is the place where the very best genes are sorted so it’s less likely that people are born with less desirable characteristics]

[After being born, the process of education begins, and there we continue the control of the individuality factor. The substitution of the name to a number also helps with this control]

[After leaving the NEST at 17, the individual is evaluated, and depending on their performance they are placed on their most fitting job]

[They are also given a home, a vehicle and a partner, after that, all their need will have to be met by their work]

[The time on the NEST as well as the interactions at the job provide a social atmosphere that makes friendship impossible]

[A partner and controlled entertainment are also extremely important as outlets as some people need more stimulation than others]

[For quite some time this system worked perfectly, with only a few deviants, however, with time the number of people taking their stress on others began to grow]

[To not reduce the gene pool too drastically by eliminating all the transgressors, the CEOs of Violet and Blue entered an agreement]

[From time to time they would select the people with the most genetic and behavioral probability of deviation and put them in a controlled space to trim each other’s numbers]

[This process not only eliminates dangerous individuals but will as well as give the rest of the population someone to put their hate and blame]

[This method is proving to be an extreme success, as the rate of deviation plummets with every year]

[For you, the one watching this presentation, we from Violet expect that now knowing the extreme importance of your position, you can continue working with us, for the betterment of humanity]

[Violet, coloring the world a better future!]

[Zip-]

Both the hologram and the voice stop. Ren continues staring in its direction for some time even after it turns off.

Apart from the war and the hate towards the Blue being completely fabricated, everything else was not exactly new information for Ren, who lived almost all his life at Violet, however, the way it was told, in a such cold tone, and such calculating fashion, made Ren feel extremely disgusted.

“I showed you this because you are a unique individual right now!”

“You’re someone who knows this rebellious city, as well as being a citizen from Violet”

“As you saw and heard and saw, the existence of a place outside of our Color System is an attack on the very humanity itself”

The man puts his hands on both Ren’s shoulders and squats down while looking at Ren’s eyes.

“I need you 02189! And I have a deal for you...”

“Become a director, and all of the underground city will be yours to manage”

“What you say?”