Chereads / The Laments of a Guilty Soul Eater / Chapter 5 - Long into the night

Chapter 5 - Long into the night

Sitting down at what was now his desk, Kai marveled at the beauty of his laptop. It was sleek, shiny, capable of running most games, and had a fancy RGB keyboard.

His mouse had a thumb, pinky, and ring finger rest, and also glowed.

All in all, it was pretty awesome.

Opening up the laptop, the first thing that came to mind was his password.

Kai stopped and took a second to thank whoever was responsible for these foreign memories.

After that moment of silence, he opened up google, appreciating the smoothness of the mousepad.

Kai may not have known it himself, but he had quite the keen eye for technology.

He appreciated the pixel density on the screen, the speed at which the browser loaded, and the way the keyboard seemed to fit his hands.

He admired the intensity of the colors the screen could produce, and spent a moment watching the keyboard cycle through all of its colors.

The moment was truly wondrous.

After taking the time to properly respect the technological prowess of his device, Kai was finally ready to get exploring.

First stop? The search bar.

Or more accurately, the first thing that popped up when he went to type in his own queries.

A white t surrounded by a black screen appeared on his screen as tumblr began to load.

~~~~

}Slam{

Not even thirty seconds later, Kai was about ready to be done with the internet forever.

'Why!? Who wants to see those things!? What the actual-'

However, he had noticed it was a common tool used by each human around him, and he decided to give it one last chance.

[Why do people use the internet]

As the page loaded, Kai braced himself for another unfortunate experience, but instead was pleasantly surprised. The first answer on the page said something about communication, but Kai was more interested in the segment off to the right.

Titled "Internet," the box went on to explain what the internet was used for, and the history of it as well. Email, AOL, and the brilliant minds behind it were fascinating to read about. Each box could take him to a new website where he could dive even further!

At the bottom of the original page, there was even a timeline of the internet itself!

After being sucked in for a good 45 minutes, researching only the internet, Kai suddenly understood the appeal of the world wide web. Endless information, all at his fingertips.

For perhaps the first time during his stay on earth, Kai began to feel excitement.

~~~~

[Carcinization]

[XKCD]

[Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics]

[Wikipedia]

[Twitter]

[WebToon]

[UnOrdinary]

[Does John from UnOrdinary have PTSD]

[Headaches]

[What is causing my headache]

[Is WebMD accurate?]

[Instagram]

[TikTok]

[How to uninstall tiktok]

~~~~

Hours had passed, and his search history certainly showed that. From WebMD to Wikipedia, Kai rode the winds of the internet like a sailor sailed the waves.

From one site to the next, with so much to discover, he hadn't even realized he had forgotten to blink until his eyeballs began to burn.

Deciding to take a break, Kai sat on his bed as his mind began to wander, processing all of the things he had seen. It was only 7:30pm, yet he was mentally exhausted.

He picked the sheets he had discarded on the floor, and attempted to make his bed. After a few tries, he called it good enough and decided to take a nap.

Unfortunately for Kai, his sister had different plans.

}bang{ }bang{ }bang{ }bang{ }BANG{ }BANG{ }BANG{ }BANG{ "Brobroooo…. Can I come in?"

Kai rolled over and covered his head with his pillow.

"I brought you dinner… mum made us chicken pot pie and you didn't come down."

The smell of the food wafted under the door, and Kai suddenly grew much more interested.

"I know you're mad at me, but I thought maybe if I brought you dinner, you might feel better. I'm just gonna leave it here outside your door. I love you, brobro."

Feeling less annoyed by her tiny little footsteps, Kai slowly wandered over to his bedroom door and cracked it open.

The smell was divine. His stomach growled, and his knees grew metaphorically weak. He bent over to pick up the food and nearly drooled right onto the plate.

Once the food was safely in his room, and his door closed (and barricaded, as it had no lock,) Kai practically collapsed into his desk chair as he began inhaling his dinner.

The crust was flaky and crumbled on his tongue. The sharp taste of the onions made up for the blandness of the potatoes. The sweetness of the corn and peas blended with the carrots. The chicken was tender and burst in his mouth as he chewed each bite.

By the end of the meal, Kai felt a wonderful warmth inside, and realized his newest headache (the one WebMD had scared him over) was gone. Instead, he was hydrated and had a full stomach.

Perhaps his sister wasn't so bad after all.

Kai made a mental note to apologize to her in the morning, but for now he just gathered up his dishes and brought them downstairs.

After returning to his room, he fixed his bed once again, and stared at the ceiling for a while.

He silently appreciated his sister for her unnecessary kindness. He mourned for the loss of the person this body had belonged to before. He wondered of all the fantastical things he could find in this paradisiacal world.

And yet, after all that, Kai was not tired.

So instead of sleeping, he pulled out his phone.

His time with his computer had helped him become familiar with the internet, and soon enough he found himself reading webtoons again.

As evening turned into night, and the crickets began to chirp, Kai laid there, curled up under his covers. He read episode after episode, endlessly scrolling, his phone screen illuminating his face long into the night.