Lucian plugged in the black flash drive, his mind still wrestling with the meaning of the card. As the drive finally mounted—sluggish, as if filled to the brim—the PC screen revealed only four files:
_______________
-Readme.txt
-input.1
-input.2
-freewrld.iso
______________
His suspicion solidified into a grim certainty. He opened readme.txt, his eyes scanning the brief, cryptic message inside:
Welcome to the freewrld…. Boot the image and enter a world of endless possibilities.
With a deep breath, he isolated his system and began the process. Thirty minutes later, his screen was filled with the boot sequence for the Freewrld OS.
"I just hope this isn't some dead shit," Lucian muttered, his eyes glued to the screen.
The desktop of the OS was rather normal, consisting of just a black screen, similar to a typical PC. It had applications directly on the desktop, each serving a distinct purpose.
__________
-System
-Applications
-Terminal
-TrashBin
__________
Lucian hovered over the icons, eyebrows tightening. Five apps. No labels, no explanations—just names that felt like they meant something only to the people who built this OS.
He clicked the first one.
__________________
Net Trace.
The window opened with a flat grey interface—no menus, no tools, just a blinking dot and a message at the bottom:
> Awaiting presence…
Lucian frowned.
"Presence? Not a device… not even a signal?"
He closed it.
Sandpit.
This one loaded slower. The cube icon pulsed once. The screen went black, then a line of text appeared:
> Isolate input?
[ Yes ] [ No ]
Lucian didn't dare press either.
He backed out, curiosity twisting into unease.
Nullhatch.
The cracked egg logo dissolved into a window with two options:
> Hatch
Bind
No explanations. No warnings. No help button.
Lucian whispered, "This is definitely not beginner shit."
He moved on.
Keycrafter.
This one at least looked like something he recognised—part encryption tool, part generator. But the sliders were named things like:
~Entropy Flood
~Salt Cascade
~Mindprint
~Blind Seal
Half the interface was greyed out.
Half was waiting for input he didn't understand.
Finally…
Slate.
Plain. Empty. A blank pane that looked almost like a notepad. Except for the moment he hovered, a faint watermark appeared in the back:
> Footprints rearranged.
___________
***
Lucian was confused. He kept rereading the same descriptions, yet they remained too vague for his beginner's mind to grasp. But that wasn't the only thing bothering him. While checking the other applications, his mouse drifted toward the browser icon. Knowing Linux had its own way of doing everything, he grew curious—was this even a browser in the first place, or something entirely different?
Click.
The browser opened rather slowly compared to other applications, but as it did, it immediately led to a website… a white screen, just one prompt at the centre.
_____________________________________________
Enter Key:
_____________________________________________
He copied it carefully, afraid of mistyping even a single character.
After a bit,
_____________________________________________
Enter Key: stqht ekt ixrsz qoz WXpo ekt grttzxb
_____________________________________________
Enter.
The site immediately disappeared as it redirected to another website; the new site loaded faster and looked quite different compared to other sites.
"Hmm! Funny, this is quite different," Lucian mumbled with a faint smile.
The site loads instantly.
A plain header runs across the top, the word FreeWorld centered without decoration. No tagline. No explanation.On the left, a narrow vertical panel lists categories in simple text: Tools, Scripts, Chat, Settings. It feels more like a directory than a menu.
The center of the page is occupied by a single box. Not a profile — a record.
At the top is his username. Beneath it, a label: Title — Associate. The word feels less like a rank and more like a permission level.
Below that, a Contribution section sits empty, followed by Information Structure. It explains, briefly and impersonally, how access is earned: submit tools, have them reviewed, and gain higher titles.
There's no welcome message.
No invitation.
The site doesn't care who he is — only what he adds.
Suddenly, another prompt asking Lucian for his name and password... Entering his password the home page flickered...
It was rather easy to understand... Even for someone like Lucian...
"Hmm... Currently, everything is locked. I need to contribute a tool/script; there are five titles, Associate (the lowest) to Minister(the highest)."
Lucian kept mumbling, thinking of what to do next, looking around his desktop. Suddenly, his brain lit up, "Should I just put the All eye...scanner, I can just remove unnecessary crap and then just put it in."
Lucian moved without thinking, adjusting and reviewing his all-eyes scanner... According to the contribution list, he needs to create a full document explaining how the tool/script works. Looking through multiple web pages and fixing and removing unnecessary bugs took time, and it took the whole evening.
[Back cracks)
Lucian leaned back in his chair, the pain of sitting for almost the whole day caught up "Ahh!... My back hurts so much. Fucking finally it's done..."
Enter.
______________
Contribution has been recorded.
You will be notified once the review is done.
______________
"Let's go eat... Fck, don't forget to check the other pendrives... Ahh, whatever, I will do that later." Lucian. Said shutting the bedroom door behind... Not knowing that soon his life is going to be full of trivialities.
The next day,
Chatting online with Onetwo
______________________
Onetwo: Yeah... Nox is an advanced thing, it's all about software.
@Abyss: the empty pendrives and the two Arduinos are that it then! Moreover, it says everything in broken English.
Onetwo: there is a user manual in English inside the home directory as far as I remember.
@Abyss: still I expected more...
Onetwo: you can do a lot with Arduino maybe create some storage servers... Upto you kiddo
Onetwo: I have to go now.
Onetwo has disconnected–
________________________
Lucian pacing around his room, taking glances over his PC...
Lucian: Uhh! What should I do, i wanna make something but what! Fck....
To be continued~