What could go wrong? I had meticulously planned this moment for years, spent ungodly amounts of money to ensure success. It was go time. As soon as I instructed me team to take down the IGBI’s censorship division, we uploaded the documents.
I had asked my team to keep me updated on everything during this time, and when I asked for my first update right after we uploaded, my team leader informed me that the internet had gone down. What? How? I knew right then that my life was over.
See the internet did not go down, ever. It was so integral to our lives that without it, everything stopped from the cars on the road to the entire global economy. Chaos would ensue so every precaution was taken to make sure that this didn’t happen, so why was it happening now?
I would later come to learn that the IGBI had a kill switch for the internet, something like the “red button” for launching nuclear warheads. If pressed it would cause global panic but those sons of bitches pressed it anyway. As soon as someone realized that the censorship system was down, they feared the worst, that someone like me was planning something like I was. They shut down the global internet just seconds after the documents were uploaded, not allowing enough time for anyone anywhere to actually access them. Within 30 minutes, the internet was back up and running, the censorship system back in place, and our documents never seen.
While the IGBI had to deal with the fallout of the “blackout” and answer many questions about how it happened and how they would prevent it again, they did so masterfully. They were lying through their teeth, but they were essentially able to control people’s minds, and soon the world continued turning like nothing had ever happened.
A few years later, the IGBI announced that one organization controlling such a powerful tool such as the internet was bad for the world and would start the process of relinquishing control of the internet to corporations around the world. They did not want to take this step, but their investigation into me made them think about what would happen if another person accessed such sensitive information. So, they set up these corporations, “relinquished” control and made it seem like the IGBI had disbanded. They hadn’t, they just took my idea and ran with it.
I still take credit for privatizing the internet, but I have to do so in this 10’x10’ box that they have me in. I haven’t seen the sunlight or talked to another human for years now. This is my reality now and will be until the day that I die. Its not quite the life of luxury that I had imagined, but hey, it sure was fun while it lasted.
Make sure you have an a few hours to spend reading other HyperText projects like this one before clicking on the link as you’re all but guaranteed to get sucked into some great stories.