Machine Readable Cataloging Novels & Stories

After the college entrance exams are over, I buy a flight ticket to Carula for my graduation trip. In fact, I refuse to return to my country despite everyone's attempts to contact me. I spend the next two months in bliss. Meanwhile, Zachary Fuller, the campus hunk who keeps brainwashing me that Carula is filled with murderers, starts to panic. In my previous life, after I graduated from high school, Zachary had hired the entire class to work at his family's factory during the summer break while promising them lucrative wages. He even promised everyone that once they went through their summer jobs, they'd be able to join Zachary's company as senior executives as soon as they graduated from college. But two days after I started my job at the factory, a machine went into malfunction, resulting in my limbs getting mangled and severed. Even after I got sent to the hospital, the doctors couldn't do anything about my condition. When my parents sought out Zachary, he didn't show an ounce of guilt at all. "I already told Adrian not to touch the machinery. He's the one to be blamed for being clumsy and idiotic in the first place." My childhood friend, Natania Sutton, also took Zachary's side. "The rest of the class is fine, making Adrian the only handicapped one. He must be trying to scam money from your family, Zachary!" The rest of my classmates, who had received their share of my lucrative compensation, were quick to forge their witness statements just to help Zachary. My parents believed their version of the twisted truth. Thinking that I brought them endless shame, they left my corpse to rot in the morgue without a care in the world. In fact, they even gave their assets to Zachary to compensate for his emotional distress. When I open my eyes again, I've returned to the day Zachary has hired us to work at his factory during the summer break while promising us lucrative wages.

Even though it's the New Year holidays, I'm still cooped up in the company while churning out the paperwork needed for the company's listing process. That's when my keyboard suddenly types a paragraph on its own. "Stop working already! Your boss is about to fire you, and yet you're still slaving away for his sake!" I'm stunned by the information I see. The keyboard goes on typing, "He said you only have a bachelor's degree. If not for the fact that you're a walking lucky charm, you wouldn't have gotten into this company in the first place! "Now that the company is in the process of getting listed, it's costing far too much just to keep you around! Even though you're being paid a high salary every month, you can't even provide the company with any value! "He intends to dismiss you the moment the company gets listed! Since it's the new year, new blood should be joining the company!" I've been holding my coffee mug the whole time. At that moment, I can feel my hands starting to tremble. For five years, the projects that I've manned never got into any problems. The final round of funding always came through. Even when we were choosing a new office, we came across the situation of an owner who was all-too happy to get rid of the building. I can say with great confidence that I'm 90% of the main reason how this company expanded from a tiny office to the entire building. To think that I'm the first person to be discarded right after my boss reaches his goal… I can feel my stomach twisting uneasily. Even my throat goes tight from the anxiety. Just as I'm about to leave, a few angry voices ring out in the office. "I'm an office chair! I'll break during the board meeting tomorrow and make sure that your boss falls right on his ass!" "I'm a printer! I'll make sure to print all the documents he wants with nothing but gibberish on them!" "I'm a coffee machine! Tomorrow, I'll whip him a special brew that ensures he will never get to leave the toilet bowl for the rest of the day!"

After my family joined hands to send me to prison for three years, I start learning how to behave myself. I do whatever everyone else tells me to do. The day I'm released from prison, my wife, Regina Johnson, sits in the car and says coldly, "If you ever lay those hands of yours on Ty again, I'll…" Before she can say anything else, I jump out of the car, pick up a brick from the side of the road, and smash my hand into a pulp with it. Regina stares at the bone sticking out and goes pale. When we get back home, Tyler Lowe, my adopted younger brother, ambushes me in the bathroom and scoffs. "So what if you're the biological son of the Lowe family? I can just as easily have you kicked out of the family!" Then, he uses a blade to make a small cut on one of his fingers before crying out in alarm, "If you really hate me, Cal, I'll leave right away! Please don't kill me!" Regina and my older sister, Calista Lowe, enter just in time to witness his display. Shaking with anger, they stomp on my wound with their high heels. "You haven't changed one bit! If anything happens to Ty, I'll make you pay for it with your life!" I nod obediently and march straight to the kitchen, where I jump into the massive meat grinder before turning it on. The blood and bits of flesh spray all over Mom and Dad, who end up walking in right then. Mom lets out a shrill shriek before fainting, while Dad forces himself to remain composed as he turns off the power. At this point, even Regina, my sharp-tongued wife, can't find the words to say anything. She stands frozen, her body trembling. When we're inside the ambulance, Tyler clings to Regina, quivering as he says, "This has nothing to do with me! He jumped into the machine himself. You have to believe me!" It's almost impossible for me to stay conscious through the unbearable pain, but I muster the strength to nod along with him. After failing to win over my family, I'd spent three years in prison. Later on, the system told me that if I showed absolute obedience until the day I died, I would receive massive financial compensation and be transported back to my original world.