Chapter 0: 32 is slow? Let me show you what 32 can do which 16 can't
If there's one thing Cloud Solum never could compromise with, it is efficiency in everything—more so when it came to his personal gaming pc. He had one regret in his life: why were his parents so old when they gave birth to him? Why weren't they younger? Because of it, they couldn't understand the joy of gaming, nor did they supported his pursuit of it.
Thankfully, his father was a banker; got at least a pc—the first of its kind in the neighborhood! That's how he earned the first blood of the og GTA game, though not the first generation, still, it was the most popular during his childhood—GTA Vice City.
Still, that glory was short-lived as he grew older; his friends got more decent PCs supported by their parents, meanwhile he was still stuck to his older one with merely 4GB RAM and 1 GB video memory and a grandpa-like slow 512 GB HDD.
Fortunately, his elder brother also liked gaming in his college days; he upgraded the 1GB graphics card to 2GB, and also bought a 256 GB SSD. Later a cousin—who came to stay with him had an old pc which included a DDR 3 4GB RAM. Since he didn't need it anymore, he gave the RAM stick to him.
All these together at least supported his earlier gaming life. Now that he grew older, entered his university life, now the latest games couldn't be played with such broken setups. He needed a gaming beast!
Buying new RAM and GPU isn't that costly; the thing which was troubling him was the motherboard. The old granny couldn't even run at 32 GB speed—the RAM was capped to 16 GB, even DDR 3 at that!
Again, seriously, why were his parents so old? Even his elder brother—who currently stopped gaming—is 8 years older than him. SIgh (╥﹏╥).
Luckily, he managed to hoodwink his father with the excuse of higher studies to buy him an ASUS laptop. He preferred a desktop over a laptop because of its higher modularity, yet he already had one even if it was a grandma. His father would question it, so he could only get a laptop with the excuse of its portability and that the university asked the students to carry a laptop.
With all things set, it was the time to upgrade the RAM with his secret stash he saved over the years since elementary school…even though over half of it got confiscated by his mother with the excuse of saving it for his marriage!
I hear you; don't judge why it was called a secret when the mother knew of it.
***
"Go for the 32; you have enough money to get one."
"I sure can go for 32, but you know, with the amount I have, I can only go for refurbished, low bus speed local products of 2400Mhz.
Bus speed is very important. I'm still regretful that I couldn't get a DDR5 laptop, my father only bought me an old model DDr4 one. Can you imagine me tolerating 2400 when I wanted at least 4800?
Rather than that, I opt for a mid range ADATA 3200Mhz or luckily a Corsair of 4000Mhz 16Gigs RAM. I can buy another RAM stick later. Anyway, 2 sticks is better than one when it comes to FPS"
In a residential area a little bit far from the city center, a young man in his twenties was talking on the phone. He had a bag on his shoulder and a cat peeking out from it, looking towards a hawker carrying fish as he loudly called out to the city dwellers, advertising the fresh fish he was selling.
Just at that moment a taxi entered from a side road. The young man noticed and waved his hand. He got up as the vehicle parked beside him and told his destination to the driver. The driver was a middle aged man wearing an old T-shirt (I clarify that his shirt didn't have tea splashed on it.).
The young man—Cloud—was still on the phone, and from it came the voice of his cousin.
"Really! You care about this bit of speed difference when you used 1600Mhz all these years? Haha, I still remember your father proudly showing off his RAM collection when you talked about needing more RAM. Pfft, and he showed off his collection of 2GB 1033 Mhz and 1333 Mhz RAMs. Seriously, I didn't even know 2 GB RAM stick was even a thing."
Hearing his cousin repeating that gray history (Cause it wasn't dark enough), Cloud got reminded of his father's shining teeth when he took out his old briefcase and opened it.
With that recollection, he roared at the phone with a loud voice "No matter what, 32 is too slow, I prefer a faster 16 GB over it." Anyway, he still had to buy an NVME SSD for storing the windows. Just thinking about the old pc which takes 2 min to start hurts his head. Since he got a new laptop, everything must be of the best quality. A good soil shortens the harvest time of the crops, because the crops would grow faster.
Cloud didn't notice the flashing movements outside. He kept talking about how 32 was slow and 16 was faster. Meanwhile, the cat slipped out of the bag. Shining silver in color, it was curiously looking at the fast moving outside sceneries through the window.
The driver was sitting on the driver's seat; his hands gripping on the wheel slowly getting firmer—veins bulging out.
His mind twisted the words, replaying them as "32 years old is slow, 16 years old has more energy and is faster."
Along with it, unknown memories kept pouring in—though clearly not his, they still irked him.
That year, he was in the prime of his life: 32 years old; gold trophies adorning his study room; a racing beast of a car. He was the undisputed king of the underground racing city!
Yet, a young snotty brat half of his age from the N city came and challenged him to a race after hearing about him. The bratty son clearly didn't know how to drive his momma's toy well; dare he challenge him just because his parents were rich and bought him a good car. He must teach him a lesson of how driving skills mattered more than the steed.
However, his enemies caught wind of it and secretly plotted against him. They couldn't defeat him fair and squarely, so they played dirty.
They leaked the oil tank; the fuel ran out just before he could reach the finish line. The speed kept dropping and the brat won the race.
They said the young ones got more energy than the old, hence faster. Damn bastards! What do they mean by that? We were competing in car racing, not marathon. Where does energy in here come from?
Slowly, the taxi driver's face changed as he got overwhelmed by these memories, and he slammed the accelerator.
A turn came, but the taxi didn't slow down—it drifted.
Behind, Cloud almost got overturned; he finally took notice of the speed and asked slowly while clutching at the curious cat. "Master…slow down; I'm not that much in a hurry to shop."
The driver in a heavy voice "32 is slow? I'm gonna show you what 32 can do which 16 can't."
With that, the car crossed a red light without stopping. Why should it when the road was empty?
Sadly, a patrolling car saw it and beamed the siren.
"Shit, we are in trouble. Slow down the car, otherwise we rrr you are dead."
"Huh. When I was in my prime, these snobbies couldn't even catch my tail light. Let me show them what real driving is."
Cloud screamed; the car boomed.
The police behind got shocked seeing this blatant provocation. They notified the station of this incident and speeded up to catch the reckless driver.
"What happened? Why are you screaming after hearing the price of the RAM?"
"I'm screaming at your mom! I boarded the pirate ship of a madman. The taxi driver is ascending to the heaven with too high of a speed and God isn't happy, so he dispatched the multiple of me to rain thunder on him." Retorted Cloud.
"Slow down. Explain to me; what happened? And what does "multiple of me" mean?"
"I want to slow down, but this guy ain't slowing. Basically, the taxi driver is speeding nonstop with the police tailing behind us."
"Holy!!!"
"It's not holy, it's dark like obsidian." Chided Cloud.
The taxi sped up nonstop. It dodged cars; drifted in front of trucks; glided through the patrol pump; and finally, it passed through the crossroad of a rail track through a small gap between the barrier just as the train came.
The train cut the road in half—and the police could only watch the taxi vanish into the dust.
"Haha. Toldcha they couldn't stop me. Previously, they only won because they played dirty, but not his time baby." roared the driver with laughter.
Cloud laying on the seat behind perispring a glass of sweat, the phone was long thrown out from all the shaking. Slowly he peeked at front after getting up with difficulty. The scenario was unfamiliar. It's not the city center anymore, but a less developed rural like area, not the commercial area which was his destination.
But Cloud didn't mind; he wasn't thinking about the RAM. Forget about buying RAM, he's wondering if he could buy an extra life even if he needs to sell his dream pc for it.
Just at that moment he noticed something else. "Shit man, look at the front."
Right as the taxi took a turn, a reckless child (less reckless than the driver) was running in the middle of the road.
The driver got awakened from his joy and hastily took a turn. The old taxi, bless its engine and durability; it couldn't handle so much sudden pressure when its ancestor only talked about the glory of delivering late students to the exam hall in record time—the joy of superhero taxi in urgent emergencies.
But now, the taxi has to face this disaster. Seriously, It's not a modified race car; the situation is far beyond what its ancestor said. The car hit a roadside stone, overturned thrice, and fell into the road side lake—a suicide delivery in record time and high speed. Cried the taxi thinking about it before its death.
Also, 'This isn't the speed I was talking about.' was what Cloud thought before the car crashed with him clutching the cat near his chest with both arms.
Date: 17th July 2025
Words: 1778