Chapter 1
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James Reel in his 46 years of life so far has been soaking up any information he could get like a sponge. His thirst for knowledge had outclassed anything most people had ever seen.
It wasn't often he was seen without his phone in his hand intently reading about some topic on his cell phone; be it anything from garden maintenance to thermonuclear weapons it didn't matter to him.
But there had always been one topic he enjoyed the most, and that was humanity's technological advancements. He would often run thought experiments of how he could have fast-tracked the improvements made. He would also look at what was the most optimal order that would have allowed humankind to have expanded into the current unknowns and discover worlds of new knowledge.
He only had one hindrance in his collection of knowledge; he was always that busy studying that he now had next to no practical skills aside from a mind full of facts on more topics than the average person could even name. His problem was that in this day and age everything he knew could also be found online meaning being able to reiterate what he knew without even being able to perform the actions himself made him almost impossible to employ. This lead to him having to work, directly reducing his amount of time he could spend reading which was something he detested.
James had only managed to survive this long after going on an episode of a famous game show and winning the top prize using the knowledge he had collected. Most of his prize money was squandered buying some rare books and a small house which after living in for 20 years and spending minimal funds to make it last as long as possible he finally made a mistake that would set his life on a wrong track he couldn't come back from.
After James had realised it would save him money to use candles he bought from a local market rather than running power in his house for lighting, coupled with the thick curtains, he had bought designed to keep heat loss minimal he had left the candle burning and woke up to a room filled with smoke. Only having time to grab his phone and yank the charger out the wall to stand outside and watch his house burn to the ground.
He hadn't bought home insurance to save money so now that his house was gone he honestly had nothing left besides his phone, safe to say the fire destroyed all his expensive books and most other things.
After weighing his options of working and still maintaining maximum time learning, he found himself lying to the government to collect disability benefits after he spent a few months forcing food down his throat to qualify for them. He tried to run at least twice a week to maintain his hearts health as it was already quite weak from abusing amphetamine study drugs in his youth. He wanted to keep himself just over the line of qualifying for benefits to limit the damage to his body as much as possible.
Unfortunately, he would find that disability benefits for obesity were cut the following year so finding himself now unable to even do simple warehouse work due to his weight he was out on the streets with nothing but his phone and his mind to keep him company.
After selling everything he had left after the fire, he had only managed to amass a few hundred dollars being able to eat twice a day for minimal expenditure to last as long as possible and get his weight back down. He found himself going between restaurants to eat from whatever saver menus they had and charging his phone through the night while using free Wi-Fi. He would then locate a secluded area to sleep during the day so he wouldn't have to worry about being cold as much.
One day after a few months on the streets James found himself waking up to the acrid smell of burnt hair and as he startled awake all he could see was orange. He flailed about trying to get out of his sleeping bag and put the fire out on his head. After a minute of fighting with the flames and sleeping bag James managed to crawl out and stand up to see a group of deranged looking men that had been laughing at him as he flailed about in pain trying to put the fire out.
As they beat him, James found himself simply screaming the word "Why!?" again and again and finally he got one answer before he blacked out.
"Because you disgust us, you fat peasant!"
Safe to say he didn't survive through the ungodly torture these men put him through for long until his heart gave out. As much as he tried to keep it strong he couldn't maintain it well enough with his weight; although that appeared to be a saving grace at this point as it helped end his suffering sooner.
This is the cruelty of the world; the universe doesn't care if you're down on your luck, it only takes one group's decision to pick you as a target, and you can be snubbed out leaving no one and nothing behind to remember you.
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James Reel in his 46 years of life so far has been soaking up any information he could get like a sponge. His thirst for knowledge had outclassed anything most people had ever seen.
It wasn't often he was seen without his phone in his hand intently reading about some topic on his cell phone; be it anything from garden maintenance to thermonuclear weapons it didn't matter to him.
But there had always been one topic he enjoyed the most, and that was humanity's technological advancements. He would often run thought experiments of how he could have fast-tracked the improvements made. He would also look at what was the most optimal order that would have allowed humankind to have expanded into the current unknowns and discover worlds of new knowledge.
He only had one hindrance in his collection of knowledge; he was always that busy studying that he now had next to no practical skills aside from a mind full of facts on more topics than the average person could even name. His problem was that in this day and age everything he knew could also be found online meaning being able to reiterate what he knew without even being able to perform the actions himself made him almost impossible to employ. This lead to him having to work, directly reducing his amount of time he could spend reading which was something he detested.
James had only managed to survive this long after going on an episode of a famous game show and winning the top prize using the knowledge he had collected. Most of his prize money was squandered buying some rare books and a small house which after living in for 20 years and spending minimal funds to make it last as long as possible he finally made a mistake that would set his life on a wrong track he couldn't come back from.
After James had realised it would save him money to use candles he bought from a local market rather than running power in his house for lighting, coupled with the thick curtains, he had bought designed to keep heat loss minimal he had left the candle burning and woke up to a room filled with smoke. Only having time to grab his phone and yank the charger out the wall to stand outside and watch his house burn to the ground.
He hadn't bought home insurance to save money so now that his house was gone he honestly had nothing left besides his phone, safe to say the fire destroyed all his expensive books and most other things.
After weighing his options of working and still maintaining maximum time learning, he found himself lying to the government to collect disability benefits after he spent a few months forcing food down his throat to qualify for them. He tried to run at least twice a week to maintain his hearts health as it was already quite weak from abusing amphetamine study drugs in his youth. He wanted to keep himself just over the line of qualifying for benefits to limit the damage to his body as much as possible.
Unfortunately, he would find that disability benefits for obesity were cut the following year so finding himself now unable to even do simple warehouse work due to his weight he was out on the streets with nothing but his phone and his mind to keep him company.
After selling everything he had left after the fire, he had only managed to amass a few hundred dollars being able to eat twice a day for minimal expenditure to last as long as possible and get his weight back down. He found himself going between restaurants to eat from whatever saver menus they had and charging his phone through the night while using free Wi-Fi. He would then locate a secluded area to sleep during the day so he wouldn't have to worry about being cold as much.
One day after a few months on the streets James found himself waking up to the acrid smell of burnt hair and as he startled awake all he could see was orange. He flailed about trying to get out of his sleeping bag and put the fire out on his head. After a minute of fighting with the flames and sleeping bag James managed to crawl out and stand up to see a group of deranged looking men that had been laughing at him as he flailed about in pain trying to put the fire out.
As they beat him, James found himself simply screaming the word "Why!?" again and again and finally he got one answer before he blacked out.
"Because you disgust us, you fat peasant!"
Safe to say he didn't survive through the ungodly torture these men put him through for long until his heart gave out. As much as he tried to keep it strong he couldn't maintain it well enough with his weight; although that appeared to be a saving grace at this point as it helped end his suffering sooner.
This is the cruelty of the world; the universe doesn't care if you're down on your luck, it only takes one group's decision to pick you as a target, and you can be snubbed out leaving no one and nothing behind to remember you.
James Reel in his 46 years of life so far has been soaking up any information he could get like a sponge. His thirst for knowledge had outclassed anything most people had ever seen.It wasn't often he was seen without his phone in his hand intently reading about some topic on his cell phone; be it anything from garden maintenance to thermonuclear weapons it didn't matter to him.But there had always been one topic he enjoyed the most, and that was humanity's technological advancements. He would often run thought experiments of how he could have fast-tracked the improvements made. He would also look at what was the most optimal order that would have allowed humankind to have expanded into the current unknowns and discover worlds of new knowledge.He only had one hindrance in his collection of knowledge; he was always that busy studying that he now had next to no practical skills aside from a mind full of facts on more topics than the average person could even name. His problem was that in this day and age everything he knew could also be found online meaning being able to reiterate what he knew without even being able to perform the actions himself made him almost impossible to employ. This lead to him having to work, directly reducing his amount of time he could spend reading which was something he detested.James had only managed to survive this long after going on an episode of a famous game show and winning the top prize using the knowledge he had collected. Most of his prize money was squandered buying some rare books and a small house which after living in for 20 years and spending minimal funds to make it last as long as possible he finally made a mistake that would set his life on a wrong track he couldn't come back from.After James had realised it would save him money to use candles he bought from a local market rather than running power in his house for lighting, coupled with the thick curtains, he had bought designed to keep heat loss minimal he had left the candle burning and woke up to a room filled with smoke. Only having time to grab his phone and yank the charger out the wall to stand outside and watch his house burn to the ground.He hadn't bought home insurance to save money so now that his house was gone he honestly had nothing left besides his phone, safe to say the fire destroyed all his expensive books and most other things.After weighing his options of working and still maintaining maximum time learning, he found himself lying to the government to collect disability benefits after he spent a few months forcing food down his throat to qualify for them. He tried to run at least twice a week to maintain his hearts health as it was already quite weak from abusing amphetamine study drugs in his youth. He wanted to keep himself just over the line of qualifying for benefits to limit the damage to his body as much as possible.Unfortunately, he would find that disability benefits for obesity were cut the following year so finding himself now unable to even do simple warehouse work due to his weight he was out on the streets with nothing but his phone and his mind to keep him company.After selling everything he had left after the fire, he had only managed to amass a few hundred dollars being able to eat twice a day for minimal expenditure to last as long as possible and get his weight back down. He found himself going between restaurants to eat from whatever saver menus they had and charging his phone through the night while using free Wi-Fi. He would then locate a secluded area to sleep during the day so he wouldn't have to worry about being cold as much.One day after a few months on the streets James found himself waking up to the acrid smell of burnt hair and as he startled awake all he could see was orange. He flailed about trying to get out of his sleeping bag and put the fire out on his head. After a minute of fighting with the flames and sleeping bag James managed to crawl out and stand up to see a group of deranged looking men that had been laughing at him as he flailed about in pain trying to put the fire out.As they beat him, James found himself simply screaming the word "Why!?" again and again and finally he got one answer before he blacked out."Because you disgust us, you fat peasant!"Safe to say he didn't survive through the ungodly torture these men put him through for long until his heart gave out. As much as he tried to keep it strong he couldn't maintain it well enough with his weight; although that appeared to be a saving grace at this point as it helped end his suffering sooner.This is the cruelty of the world; the universe doesn't care if you're down on your luck, it only takes one group's decision to pick you as a target, and you can be snubbed out leaving no one and nothing behind to remember you.
