R3ɃeL OuTp0st - Collapse

[Continued..]

It just worked, like something advertised to be working out-of-the-box! And neither of them could care less when they were getting some ETH, every 168 hours. That is, every week they got some ETH in their wallets, but the amount was decreasing. One fine day, after about 2 months, they did not get any amount and they wondered why.

The three of them stared at the device and looked around it. 3 buttons had popped up on the surface - each having engravings. The first one had 2 lines, something like this: | | The second button had a colon sign etched on it. And the third one said in English "C", either way, none of them had any idea what these buttons meant. Hanna couldn't help press the first button - which lead to, well - Nothing.

But if they were to learn anything from this device, it was that it did do something. Vandicoot, by now had a theory that the box is a quantum computer which is easily computing difficult hashes in a few seconds. How else do you explain the Ethereum being sent to their wallet?

A few days passed and they were enjoying their life with the extra coin they had collected. The crypto community wondered what their secret was. But none of them spilled the beans, other than saying that Sadgem had inherited a hectare of bean farm from his great grand uncle. The story was funny to them, so they told them to everyone and did in fact buy a bean farm in Thailand.

Now they lived in a plush condo in Tokyo and bought their citizenship of Japan - The birthplace of the consensus algorithm. They tucked away the device in a thick-walled safe in their condo and couldn't care less, until one day, the app that showed Vandicoot the location tracking, now sent a notification stating "Alignment Complete - Continue ?".

"Hey guys, I got something on my mobile", said Vandicoot on Skype
"What is it man? Another hit on your Tinder?", replied Sadgem, standing with Hanna on Bondi beach.
"No, no. It says 'Alignment Complete - Continue', what should I do ?", he asked.
"What ? Hanna, see I told you so", said Sadgem.
"Yes, and I gave you the idea", scorned Hanna.
"Vandicoot, press the second button on the device. I think the app is linked to the device", Hanna directed.

Vandicoot pressed the second button and received another notification on his phone instantly - "20 days to go". He scratched his head, while his face was contrived in fear. He waited for his friends to return from Australia. Hanna and Sadgem returned after 10 days, with the news that Hanna was pregnant. The three of them were enjoying the party that they threw together. Karaoke was going on and there were at least 50 people in their apartment. Among them was Vitalik Buterin and his entourage of friends, including a meek Japanese guy.

"I have one as well", whispered the Japanese guy in Vandicoot's ear.
"What do you have?", inquired Vandicoot.
"A shiny object with cracks?"
Vandicoot's face went pale white, did this man steal their alien object ? He rush home, and ran past his friends. They rushed after him, he explained everything to them on the way. It was nearing the 20th day's end at midnight and this guy appears... so much confusion. They opened the safe and say the object - now emanating red instead of a yellow color across the cracks.

He got a notification on his app at midnight - "To new beginnings, more help your way"
"What the fuck man, what is this thing? What is happening? Is our baby safe Hanna?", shouted Sadgem.
"Shut up, I don't know what is happening but my intuition says something good is going to happen", replied Hanna.
Right them, they see the breaking news in their condo's TV -

"The Dow, the NYSE, the FTSE, NIKKEI, all of them have hit zero. We are getting reports that the global financial system has COLLAPSED!"

[To be continued..]