Walking down the street, Astraeus thought that this would just be another boring day. Get out of bed, brush his teeth, take a shower, get dressed, make some food, and walk to his boring 9–5 office job.
Astraeus thought about his daily routine, wondering how the hell he ended up in this spot.
As a kid, he always wanted to do something special with his life, whether it was going to space, becoming an Olympian, or solving cancer. He always looked down on people who settled for less.
Thinking this, he scoffed to himself as he weaved in between the crowds of people flooding in from every direction.
Working for a call center is not something that he would call special. In fact, it is a demeaning job full of random occurrences that he can't even comprehend. If someone calls in talking about their problem, he is more than willing to help. But most often, these people call in with curses and slurs aimed at himself.
He doesn't even make the product, so why are they getting on him about it?
Of course, he lashes out back at them every time. He doesn't get paid enough to be dealing with customers who can't be reasoned with.
What usually follows is him getting a reprimand by John, his immediate superior. John was always a suck-up to the executives in charge of his call center. Whenever John felt like he could advance his career at others' expense, he took the opportunity.
Even though he never actually has been able to advance for the past 10 years he has been at the company.
Coming out of his thoughts, Astraeus reached the crossroads and turned right. Turning onto the financial center of the city, it was clear to see the difference between everyone.
The people with brand-new suits are most definitely financial gurus and investment bankers. On the other hand, people like himself had their worn-down suits, wear and tear starting to be clear on their pants and blazers.
If I was rich and had their job, I would have long quit after a few years and moved out into the woods living off of my savings, Astraeus said to himself.
Moving on from his sulking, he arrived at the building that Star Entertainment called its home. Star Entertainment worked in music shows, kids' toys, and high-quality resorts. And whenever anyone had their problems with anything, it came straight to him.
Walking inside, the security guard stationed at the entrance eyed him down.
"I need to see your employee ID, or else you're going straight back home."
Pulling out his wallet, Astraeus handed over his employee ID, all while thinking what a douche this guy was.
Acting like taking this job so seriously is going to make his miserable life any better.
Meanwhile, the security guard scanned his ID and let him come on through.
Finally being able to fully enter the building, Astraeus navigated his way to the elevators, where dozens of employees were lining up to go begin their work.
Astraeus usually kept to himself, so he never interacted with any of these people much; however, he did notice a few familiar faces. One of them seemed to have spotted him and was making his way over.
"Hey, Astraeus! How've you been, man!" Landon called out to him.
Landon had just joined a few weeks ago and was yet to lose his positive outlook on this job. With blond hair, blue eyes, and a perfect face, he had the aptitude to become a model yet still ended up here.
"I've been fine," he replied, trying to end the conversation as quickly as possible.
"Come on, don't be like that. What happened with that customer that was causing a ruckus yesterday about how the idol called him a perv? Didn't you get sent home early after that?"
"Yeah, they sent me home early because I couldn't handle the fucking stupidity he was spitting in my face. Talking about how he was only shaking her hand when it was clearly shown he started getting touchy with her. Absolutely disgusting."
"They sent you home after that? You had to have said something to him," Landon replied.
"I may have told him he is better off in a mental hospital before he finds himself dead on the side of the road for messing with the wrong dude's girl."
"..."
"..."
"That one might be on you then," Landon finally replied after a few seconds of silence.
"No, it definitely is on me. Doesn't make it not bullshit, though."
"You know what, fair enough. Just don't make the same mistake today, and you might still have a job tomorrow!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll try my best. Have a nice day."
"See you later!" Landon called out, heading back to where he came from.
Astraeus turned his attention back to the elevator. He had gradually made it up in the queue and would be able to make it onto the next elevator up to the 10th floor.
If I was him, I would leave this place as soon as possible, or he will get stuck like me. Too bad he seems to think this place is going to let him live a good life, Astraeus thought as the elevator finally arrived.
Squeezing his way onto the elevator, he immediately regretted his choice. He had always hated tight spaces and had extreme claustrophobia. He didn't have any traumatic event that caused this; he simply assumed that it was because of his size.
He is over 6'5" and 250 pounds, putting him well above anyone around him. On top of that, because he hates his job so much, he put most of his effort outside of work into working out. The effect of this was evident even when the sight was mainly hidden by his suit.
Trying not to go crazy in the elevator, it finally reached the top floor after what felt like forever.
Walking out, the floor opened up into what was called an "open design" in order to increase team member communication. In reality, this was to ensure that every employee was working at maximum capacity. Superiors, like Jake, constantly walked around "checking" on their underlings. Astraeus had lost count of how many times he'd gotten written up for the smallest occurrence because Jake decided he wasn't working hard enough.
While each team member had their own cubicle, there weren't any actual walls fully separating them. At best, they could be considered half-walls.
Astraeus navigated himself toward his cubicle and settled in for a long day of work.
3 Hours Later
"Ma'am, I can't help you with that."
[What do you mean you can't help me! You don't understand how important this is to me. My granddaughter's birthday is today, and if I can't get this TV working, we won't have it ready for when she leaves for college!]
"It would require me to physically be there to figure out why the TV is not turning on if you haven't dropped it. Are you sure you have correctly plugged in everything?"
[Of course I have! I wasn't born yesterday!]
Yeah, for sure you weren't.
"Can you please check on your remote and ensure that the screen is set to HDMI 1?"
[I'll check, but I am telling you I did it all correctly.]
"..."
"..."
"Ma'am, are you alright?"
[Of course I am alright. I finally got it working. No thanks to you and your constant annoyance.]
"Was it because you didn't have the right connection?"
[If you had led with that before, then we wouldn't have had this 20-minute-long conversation that could have been finished in 10.]
"Holy fuck, you have to be stupid."
"..."
"Astraeus..."
Looking behind him, Astraeus saw Jake looking straight at him with deadpan eyes.
Damn… I really screwed up this time.
"Come with me right now. Balina, please handle our kind caller and ensure that everything is properly handled."
Standing up, Astraeus slowly followed Jake, who had just started walking away.
Seeing where Jake was heading, he knew that he was even more screwed. Straight into the HR area? Yeah, he knew he was finished.
Jake entered a room, and when Astraeus finally arrived, he saw it was the head of the HR department.
Do we even need to have this talk? Or can I just get my things and leave? he thought to himself.
As soon as he entered the room, he saw one seat in front of the desk and two behind it, where Jake already occupied one. The other was occupied by Ms. Wilson, head of HR.
Finding his seat, he didn't talk and just waited as the atmosphere felt increasingly more tense.
Just as he thought it to be unbearable, Ms. Wilson spoke first.
"Let's keep this short. I am going to ask you if what I am being told is true. If not, then refute it and state what you believe actually happened."
"Understood."
"So, you were on a call with a customer where they couldn't figure out why their TV wasn't working. You tried to guide them through multiple different methods but eventually lost your patience when you said, and I quote, 'Holy fuck, you have to be stupid.' Did this happen, yes or no?"
"That is true, but they—"
"I don't really care about the details. It is the end result that matters. Did you say what was quoted?"
"...Yes."
"Then please go and collect your things. From here on out, you will not be employed here any longer. Please also hand over your employee ID at the front desk. You are free to go."
Without anything else to say, Astraeus stood up and made his way out. He felt everyone's eyes on him and couldn't bring himself to lift his eyes to meet theirs.
Without waiting, he gathered his stuff and headed down to reception, where he turned in his ID. The same guard as before was stationed at the door and mocked him as he walked out.
"Day has barely started and you're already out? They must really not like you."
Ignoring him, Astraeus continued on through and started walking back toward his car, which he had parked earlier in the day a few minutes away in a parking garage.
Thoughts raced through his mind as he continued his journey.
I know I act impulsively, but damn, that was stupid of me.
I really need to just sit back and think sometimes before I speak.
What job am I going to get now? My parents and family live all the way on the opposite side of the country. I can't tell them that I got fired because I couldn't control my mouth.
Reaching the parking garage, Astraeus got into his old beat-up sedan and pulled out as he continued mulling over his situation.
Astraeus decided that as soon as he got home, he was going to sleep and hope that when he woke up, he could actually think of what to do next. Most likely, any other call center wouldn't accept him for work because of what he just did. On top of this, he doesn't really have any skills or notable traits besides being pretty big.
Should I just become a personal trainer or something like that? he wondered to himself.
Contemplating his new, drastic potential career change, he managed to get himself onto the highway and was now speeding along well over the speed limit.
Swerving in between lanes, he failed to notice that the car in front of him had just stopped because of traffic.
"SHIT!"
Twisting the steering wheel, he managed to avoid the car but found himself going right toward the concrete barrier sitting in the median.
He attempted to slam on the brakes but found that it had no effect, and the barrier was rapidly approaching.
Giving in, Astraeus attempted to brace for the impact. He clenched his teeth and pushed himself as far away from the steering wheel as possible.
He felt the impact instantly. He was launched forward, slamming his head into the expanding airbag.
Blood seeping out of his nose, he felt the world going black.
Until he heard a voice in his head.
[The Tower has been successfully incorporated into the Milky Way Galaxy. Planet "Earth" identified. Would you like to participate in the trials?]
Wha… What the hell. Am I hearing things?
[You have 10 minutes to decide.]
Then a timer appeared in front of his eyes.
[9:59][9:58][9:57]…
"Loo… Looks like my life is pretty awful anyway," Astraeus managed to spit out as he took note of the blood spilling out of his nose into his mouth and his wrecked car.
"Sure, why not? Maybe this will give me the career change I was just looking for."
As he was finally about to pass out, the voice returned.
[Consent identified. Transportation to the trial beginning.]
Then everything went black.