Johnny woke up. He turned on his brain.
His brain loaded. Ads appeared inside his skull. He thought one. A faint ‘click’ in the background of his apartment confirmed the order. Two slightly different clicks told him 2-hour delivery by Amazon robot.
Johnny stretched and stood up. He yawned. Looked down at himself and made a disgusted noise. Why am I so fat, he wondered.
Ads for weight loss medications and diet programs appeared in his brain. He ignored them.
Johnny went to the kitchen. Coffee poured into a cup. He tasted it, not bad. He stretched his UBI to afford 6/10 coffee, one of his vices.
He scrolled for 5 or 6 hours. More coffee. He was about to take a shower when an ad appeared. The graphic: it was himself, but fit and strong. Flexing large dumbbells while a hot girl, his ex from school, was fawning on his arm.
Damn, he thought. The ad filled his brain.
“Nexus Resurrectio Bait-heaven 12-program for Epic Peak Success”. Words flashed colors. He thought about closing it down, it seemed like a scam, then he thought about his ex and selected the program.
“Please give your consent” the AI voice spoke in his head. He said “yes” aloud.
Suddenly his body froze. He could not move a muscle. His eyes were fixed where they had been looking. Time passed, or did it? Suddenly he could move again.
Johnny looked around, confused. Why was the light weird? The sun was angling sharply through the semi-open blinds. It was evening. But no, it was early afternoon.
He stood and walked to the window. True enough, it was evening. Something caught his eye. In his living room there sat a large weights machine. A bench, irons, bars with ropes for resistance. A collection of free weights stacked nearby.
When did these arrive, he wondered. Was I asleep?
AI clicked in his brain, responding to his curiosity. “Bait-heaven gave optimal reward for your progress. Congratulations. 48% of UBI used.”
Johnny realized he felt… off. Tired? Yes, his muscles were sore. Very sore, like he had been running or moving a lot. And he was sweating.
“What happened?” he asked aloud.
“Your body was taken over by the program. You completed an exercise routine while your mind slept.”
Oh. Johnny smiled. This was his ticket. He cued the program to run again. Once again he froze, unable to move. Then movement returned. Darkness. “Lights” he said, and the lights in his apartment room turned on.
It was night. He was covered in sweat and sore all over. The weights from before were now stacked in a different order. He could barely move from fatigue, so lay down in his bed. Johnny slept almost immediately.
. . .
As he watched the playback on his security camera Johnny saw himself stand up, go to the weights and work out doing various exercises. He also did push-ups, running in place, stretching, and other various workout routines. This lasted almost 2 hours before he went and sat back down where he had started. Froze. Then Johnny was back, he saw himself looking around normally.
He already felt better. Johnny had been doing this routine for two weeks now. He had lost some weight and felt stronger, more confident too. He’d never had motivation to exercise before, but this program did it for him. It was worth the monthly fee. He even downgraded his coffee to 3/10 to help afford it.
At some point weird things started to happen. Lost time. He would look through the cameras but see only static. Where did the recording go? He asked the AI and it had no answer. Maybe a glitch, it said.
One morning Johnny activated his exercise routine, he froze, but did not unfreeze. He sat there, mind active and dreaming somewhat, or daydreaming. Then he woke up more and his body was still frozen. He tried moving and could not. He tried giving an AI command in his mind but nothing worked. No choice but to sit there and wait. He ended up waiting several more hours like that, finally his body unfroze.
“What happened?” he asked.
“An error, the program apologizes and refunded you 10%”. Johnny shrugged.
The next day as he was about to start his routine there was a loud noise at the front door. Unusual, he never had visitors. Then a flash of light and smoke and the door collapsed. In rushed a group of armed men. Weapons and armor, they burst in and tackled Johnny to the floor.
He was yelling for them to stop, what is happening? They did not listen. He was collared. Suddenly his body went limp and his mind relaxed, then felt the inner fire and pain. He tried screaming but could not.
“Subject caught,” one of them said.
A different AI spoke in his mind, given authorization for a short recorded message: “Your crime spree is over.”
Caught what? Johnny was so confused. He didn’t do anything wrong.
. . .
A month later at his trial the video evidence was played. Johnny had been donning disguises, downloading illegal programs and sneaking out to meet various individuals in secretive places. There were exchanges of small drives and other items, including cash and little baggies.
Johnny was charged with subversive actions against the state including being part of a drug smuggling ring. The illegal programs he used stole UBI by redirecting payments via protocol masking. Johnny pleaded that he did not even know how to do that. His pleas were ignored when more videos were played showing him reprogramming his online accounts through back door access routes.
Johnny’s lawbot made the case that Johnny had been hacked and forced to do things against his will. It must have been the exercise program, it reasoned, since it had the ability to take over his body remotely. But the many lawbots from the software company provided reams of evidence and testimony that this was not possible. No evidence existed proving the software made him do it. The judge agreed, and Johnny was sentenced to life in prison for subversive terrorist actions.
The end.