The universe was made of rules. One plus one is two. Gravity pulls down. Weak people die.
Kaelen Vos hated rules.
CLANG.
Kaelen hit the rock with his heavy pickaxe. He was in the Iron Mines. It was loud, dark, and dirty.
"Work harder," a voice said from the speakers on the wall. "Being lazy is a sin."
Kaelen wiped dirt from his face. He was eighteen years old, but he was very thin and hungry. He looked at the stone wall in front of him.
Other people just saw a rock. Kaelen saw code.
He squinted his eyes. He saw blue lines inside the stone. He saw how the world was built.
"Hey, Glitch," said Jory, an old man next to him. "Stop staring. The guard is coming. Do you want to get shocked again?"
Kaelen blinked. The blue lines went away. "The rock is lying, Jory."
Jory sighed. "It is just a rock, boy. Hit it."
"No," Kaelen whispered. "It pretends to be hard. If I don't believe it, it breaks."
"You are crazy," Jory said.
Heavy footsteps crunched on the ground behind them. The air got cold.
Enforcer 7.
It was a big robot guard. It was seven feet tall and covered in white armor. It had a glowing red line for an eye.
"Unit 89-Vos," the robot said. Its voice sounded like grinding metal. "You are working too slow."
Kaelen turned around. He wore a metal shock-collar on his neck. Usually, people were scared of the Enforcers.
But Kaelen looked at the robot's chest. He saw the blue lines again.
"I was thinking," Kaelen said softly.
The robot stepped closer. "Do not think. Work."
"I was thinking that you are not real," Kaelen smiled. It was a scary smile. "You are just a math problem."
The other miners stopped working. The cave became silent. Nobody talked to an Enforcer like that.
The robot's red eye shined brighter. "Disrespect found. Starting punishment."
ZAP.
Blue electricity shot from the collar into Kaelen's neck.
It hurt a lot. Usually, this makes people fall down and scream.
But Kaelen did not scream. He laughed.
"Error," the robot said. It sounded confused. "Why are you standing? Increasing power."
"You don't understand," Kaelen said. Dust started to float around him. "I don't agree with falling down."
He lifted his pickaxe.
He did not aim at the robot. He aimed at the empty air in front of the robot. He aimed at the invisible rules of the world.
"Delete," Kaelen said.
He swung the axe.
CRACK.
The air broke like a window.
BOOM.
The robot did not just break. It disappeared. Its armor turned to dust. The robot was gone.
Kaelen stood alone in the smoke. The shock-collar melted and fell off his neck.
A blue box appeared in front of his eyes. The words were shaky and red.
[SYSTEM ALERT: ERROR]
[YOU REJECTED REALITY.]
[CLASS UNLOCKED: THE MADMAN]
[SANITY: 99% ... GOING DOWN.]
Kaelen looked at his hands. They were shaking with power.
"One down," Kaelen whispered. "Now I will break the rest."