The Gold Rush

Waking up, you usually don’t expect much from your day, well, you certainly don’t expect James Collins, the richest man alive, to get a life sentence due to murder! When the world heard that news, it was shaken to its core. An questions flooded peoples’ heads, including me. Are there more billionaires that are committing these types of crimes? What is he going to do with all of his money? Although, that last question was answered pretty quickly, with a small text that would change everything.

Everyone across the globe received a message at once, each with his or her name in the beginning. Mine read:

“Dear Ryan Hawkins, greetings from a small cell in London. As you might have heard by now, I have been sentenced to life in prison. The news must have been heartbreaking to you, but fear not, your fears will be replaced with immense joy. I shall award you half of my entire wealth, but… you have to free me to get the bank account number with the reward. Happy hunting, friend.

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Oh, I forgot to mention, every single human being on earth received the same message just with the name changed, so… you’ve got competition. Better hurry!”

The sheer magnitude of the information in the message knocked me back into my couch. I was stunned. The man had broken all logical laws and rules the world had. Everyone, and I mean everyone, wanted to get the man out. No one could stop the masses. Not the police, not the judicial system, not even world leaders. I took a look outside my window just to see hundreds and maybe even thousands of people fighting in the streets of London. Stampedes tore through the city, fights broke out on every corner, it was as if all hell broke loose, all because of one man.

I was human after all, and I couldn’t miss the opportunity. So, after I regained my concentration, I had to make a choice: either to go down the streets and get to the prison, trying and free James physically, or stay at home and do it using computer hacking. I obviously chose the latter. I took out my computer and started. I soon realized I wasn’t the only one that thought that way. I had to evade hundreds of traps set by other hackers, but eventually, I reached it. I was able to hack into the security system of the most important prison in London, I had passed the point of no return.

I was able to find a way to access the prison cell’s cameras, but once I tried to tap into them, it redirected me to a different camera feed. It showed James in an empty Tower of London sitting on a golden throne wearing the crown jewels. He looked directly into the camera, at me, then clapped and said, “Congratulations Mr. Hawkins, you’re quite the smart one, aren’t you? At least you’re not dumb enough to march to the prison like the rest of those imbeciles. The funny thing is, they do most of the work that I would have done. When they go out there, they are the ones killing themselves. The few that actually manage to reach the prison will find a little surprise I left for them, I’m sure they will have a blast. You are actually very skilled, avoiding all those traps, but not skilled enough. See, the reason I am doing this entire thing is because I want to, let’s say “restart” society. We have become so fond of the idea of democracy and how it is ‘the closest we have to true justice’ but is that true? Let’s take me for example, they gave me a life sentence due to murder, but I didn’t commit murder, well not one at least. If they could only trace one of about, 827 murders back to me, then how do you expect them to do justice to an entire society? Our society isn’t just flawed, it’s borderline inoperable. And I’m here to fix that. Only select few will survive by the end of next week, and together we will rebuild society. It’s a true shame that you had to fall for the last trap, because only those who didn’t try to find me will survive. Au revoir, my dear Hawkins. It was fun talking.”

The screen went black, and that’s when I noticed a red laser coming from the window, aimed directly at my head, and before I could think about what to do, the shot fired.