11th November 2018, Hong Kong
"Yes Sir, I'll meet the client at 11:00 AM tomorrow. Take care of yourself, Sir"
"Sigh…more work tomorrow" Li Qiu raised his hands up with a dramatic sigh as he noticed the time displayed on his watch to be precisely 4:00 PM, the end of his shift.
"Hey, are you done yet?" Li Qiu brought his hands down upon the unfortunate guy beside him and smacked him hard on the back.
"Eiouch…what was that for?" The unfortunate guy who fell on the floor due to the sudden ambush upon his back looked exasperatedly at his dumb brute of a friend.
"How come your shift ended so early?" The unfortunate guy named David questioned as he slowly got up from the ground.
Li Qiu took this chance to act a bit cocky, "The client meeting has been postponed for tomorrow, so, I'm done for today"
Li Qiu extended his hand as he gave a pat on the shoulder to David.
"Say…wanna grab some beer? David?"
The moment David heard the casual words that innocently flew out of Li Qiu's mouth, he instantly flew into a rage.
"Beer your daddy, I have work to do as a member of the HR Department unlike you who only has to accompany foreign delegates as an Interpreter. Drown yourself into whatever fluid you prefer, humph"
Li Qiu's eye twitched in annoyance as he heard his friend's daily rant.
"Yeah yeah, you can eat your spreadsheets for dinner while I enjoy a nice bottle of wine by myself and guess what… I won't give you any, hahaha"
As he witnessed David's face go red from anger and irritation, Li Qiu felt satisfied as he happily exited the hallway to the parking lot and headed to the place where his motorcycle had been parked.
But, just when he was about to switch on the ignition, it started to rain outside.
"Damn, I can't drive in this rain. Guess I'll just walk in the nearby park for a change of pace and enjoy this refreshing rain" Li Qiu thought aloud as he got off from atop his bike and switched off the ignition.
After safely pocketing his bike keys, Li Qiu went to the reception room to borrow an umbrella from the receptionist who was stationed there and went to the park while simultaneously greeting a few other people who apparently had the same idea as him.
After a couple of minutes passed, just as he began to feel a bit bored, Li Qiu picked up his Xiaomi Smartphone to surf the internet when the sky suddenly brightened, with golden light spilling out everywhere through the gaps from within the clouds.
This was immediately followed by a series of conch sounds that felt like the roar of a battlefield just like those used to signal the start of a war during the 16th century.
Li Qiu panicked at the sound and looked up at the sky just like plenty of other pedestrians on the street.
The many white-collared workers also gazed at the sky from the windows of their offices the moment they noticed the strange phenomenon that was occurring in the sky when they witnessed strange golden dust that appeared out of nowhere and started to flow everywhere in their surroundings.
On a closer look, Li Qiu noted that this mysterious golden dust that suddenly appeared out of nowhere looked similar to the wings of a housefly, both in shape and size.
This mysterious golden dust started to randomly drift towards nearby objects including trees, dogs, cats, cars, and humans when Li Qiu saw a couple of those golden dust fly towards him.
Just to play it safe, Li Qiu waved his phone at them and was shocked to note that they were both instantly absorbed into his phone while another random golden dust drifted into him during his momentary reverie.
Li Qiu panicked for a couple of seconds due to his fear of the unknown but later calmed down after not noticing any abnormalities as time slowly ticked away.
A couple of minutes had passed by without any incident when suddenly, a shriek resounded not too far away from him.
Li Qiu who heard the shriek due to being in close proximity, instantly rushed towards the source only to find the mashed remains of what was supposed to be a dog that lay near a middle-aged lady who had apparently fainted due to the overwhelming shock.
At the next moment, Li Qiu heard various explosions occurring everywhere around him, and, before he realized it, the middle-aged lady who lay fainted only a dozen meters in front of him suddenly exploded into small bits of flesh and goo, just like a balloon that was pricked by a needle.
Horrified by the sudden unexpected incident, Li Qiu didn't even have enough time to retch before the nearby cars started exploding one after the other.
Li Qiu reflexively ducked under a nearby park bench to seek shelter from all the flying debris that resulted from the various automobile explosions.
"T-the hell is happening…Aaaaarrrr"
As he lay flat on the ground, ears shut and mouth open to avoid damaging his internal organs due to the shockwaves, Li Qiu saw numerous ants and worms that were scurrying about on the ground frantically before bursting into bits and pieces one after the other.
Some of the worms and ants that managed to avoid exploding into bits and pieces retained a faint golden glow on them. But Li Qiu, in his absolute shock, failed to observe such minute changes.
Suddenly, his eyes perceived intense light and his right hand felt intense vibration from the area above his palm that still held onto his phone. Li Qiu had absolutely no idea as to how he managed to still safely clutch onto the phone within his hands even in such a ridiculous situation.
But, before he could even comprehend the significance of such a phenomenon, the light which had manifested above his phone suddenly flew into his arm as it travelled through it towards the location of his heart. It continuously produced an intense sting along its path of travel before finally settling within the interior of his heart.
Li Qiu shuddered from the overwhelming shock and pain when he heard a sound echo directly within his head.
Due to being in a state of physical pain, Li Qiu failed to notice the sound that was produced within his head as he was busy rolling on the ground and desperately tried his utmost to ease his pain and suffering.
Li Qiu slowly came to stop after a few minutes had passed with his entire being drenched in sweat, mucus, and tears,
"Damn bloody hell…" When he heard a sound, though, it sounded a bit awkward.
<…..Ding?>
"W-What is this sound in my head?"
"Android A072? Wha-what do you mean? First of all, who are you? What is happening here? Who caused this?" Brimming on the verge of insanity, this was the most he could currently ask.
Li Qiu, though muddled and confused desperately tried to ignore whatever sorcery that was happening around him and tried to concentrate what little sanity he had still left within him on that strange entity which sounded in his head, even though he felt something to be critically wrong.
Still, in a muddled state of mind, Li Qiu temporarily ignored all the alarm signals that were being transmitted to him by his instinct as he questioned, "Are these flying ones the Golden dust that you mentioned?"
"By destroying other enti…"
"Hahaha, so that's how it is? No wonder" Li Qiu felt his mind clear up as a mysterious sense of pride and authority filled his entire being due to which he could comprehend the meaning, location and purpose of all the danger signals that were being transmitted to him by his instinct.
"Heh, you dare to command me…." At this moment, Li Qiu's eyes, which had originally been dark brown turned silver blue activating the Golden dust that resided within him through using his emotions as a catalyst.
"BURN TO NOTHING!"
Led by an instinct which had manifested due to reasons unknown to him, the moment Li Qiu exclaimed this with every ounce of his being, his entire body started to seethe with white, almost translucent flames that engulfed everything in his immediate vicinity of a meter in radius.
"Hahaha…. I may not be the smartest guy in the city but even if you try to imitate like an AI that was created to serve humans, did you really think that all the danger signals from my instinct were for decoration…? Or…"
"You can stop with your crap. You see, having a parasite like you living in my body and telling ME to do things makes me feel disgusted, and, did you really think a crappy being like YOU can order ME, a human around? YOU ARE NOT QUALIFIED"
After 15 minutes of being burned by the raging flames that engulfed over his entire body, there was no longer any sign of the strange entity that tried to take root within his heart, leaving behind a tired face, but one that was filled to the brim with pride and disdain in his eyes.
"I guess a tool loses its value when it's no longer just a tool meant for human use…ugh"
"And when did I have such accurate instincts and these changes to my emotions, it feels like my pride inflated to the skies and then…then…Ugh whatever, I'll save it for later"