Silence.

That's all Dan could hear as he walked through the landfill searching for anything he could find to possibly renovate, then re-sell. He spent many days and nights searching through the landfills in Area 4, to others the stuff there was rubbish, but to Dan, it was something new just waiting to be uncovered.

The rummaging through what normal people would call rubbish was all that could be heard, breaking the fragile silence. Nothing seemed to catch Dan's eye as anything worthy of his expertise as everything within the landfill seemed along the lines of only a few years old and hardly anything that he would classify as rubbish.

He continued his search anyways, nothing more than wishful thinking and a bit of hope keeping him from throwing in the towel and leaving to go back to his apartment. After all, this "rubbish" in the landfill and his expert computer skills were the only thing keeping him from being stuck in poverty and without a home. If it wasn't for this one gift that is so needed in a world reliant on technology, he would not be able to make a living or even survive for that case.

In this world, there weren't any hover boards or flying cars like all the movies from back in the early 2000s thought and predicted, just more of the same thing with better conditions. Robots were seen often, often occupying jobs that people would not typically like to do. As would be expected, many people so reliant on technology would always want to ensure that nothing they owned had a virus. Viruses were the ultimate weapon in an era such as this one where your entire existence was reliant on the internet. If a virus were to ever infect the system, your entire life would be over.

Luckily for Dan, the constant need to keep out viruses and install software to protect people's devices from them, gave Dan incredible business. Much of his time was spent doing that for others that it was only in his free time when he would be able to go to London's biggest landfill, Area 4, and look for new devices to renovate and create.

As he walked through the landfill he felt a strange feeling of invisible hands pulling him towards certain areas, taking him away from others. Finally, he could feel the slight tugging start to stop as he saw one ancient looking device standing alone and apart from the rest. It looked ancient compared to what they had nowadays, it was big, like one of the old computers from the early 2000s, its screen was cracked and looked like it was punched, the thin spider web of computer cracks covering the top left side of the computer. Dan kneeled down next to it and inspected it carefully. He hasn't seen one of these types of computers in ages and traced the cracks gingerly with his finger, inspecting the design and damage that was done to the ancient computer.

It didn't seem to bad in his opinion, he could fix it up just fine, and probably even manage to make good money considering how ancient it was. He picked it up carefully and groaned slightly from how heavy it was and placed it in the small wagon he brought with him in case he ever found something great and didn't feel like carrying it through the streets awkwardly.

He gingerly placed it in the wagon and smiled proudly before starting to make his way back to his apartment.

***

Once Dan reached his apartment he took the computer he found and placed it on his desk where he typically spent his days fixing countless other devices. He plugged in all the wires and cords necessary to give the computer life and purpose once again. He waited patiently for the device to boot up, hoping that he would be able to access some of the previous data that was there. After waiting what seemed like an interminable number of hours, he was able to access the home screen of the computer.

He was surprised by what he saw, it wasn't endless amounts of files and data as he assumed there would be, just one file on the lonely desktop labeled: Phil.exe.

Phil.exe? He inquired to himself, he's never heard of that program before. Curious as to what it is, he clicks on the file, and rather than a bunch of other links appearing, the entire computer glitches for a moment then shuts down and turns off by itself. Dan jumped and cursed at the sudden shut down, not meaning for that to happen. He groaned and rubbed his temples in annoyance, hoping his hard work was not for nothing, before trying to access it once again. The computer seemed to run a tad slower this time, whatever it was that he clicked on must be draining its efficiency. After waiting once more, he found himself back at the desktop with a single pop up.

\\\.Phil.exe restore?.///

>🔘Yes<  >⚪No<

He tried to get his mouse to move over to the 'no' option but it was stuck on 'yes'. Sighing, he clicked yes, completely unprepared for what would happen next.