$SYN

Chapter 1. On the Brink of Greatness.

His name was Artyom. Twenty-two, diploma in his pocket, a bunch of plans and zero ideas on what to do with them. His hair always seemed to argue with the comb, his smile could have reconciled even the neighbor's cat with the vacuum cleaner, and his gaze promised adventures that no one had ever seen before.

Liza — his Liza. The girl who could laugh at his jokes and not seem arrogant while doing so. She was like a soft alarm signal: a light chuckle of laughter — and the world instantly became a little safer. His parents, long resigned to his "creative pauses," just shrugged, watching their son wander around the apartment as if it were a laboratory for future disasters.

The room looked as if several versions of Artyom lived here simultaneously: notebooks with unfinished notes, books, socks, posters of heroes who had already died back in the '90s. He sat stirring a spoon in his coffee and suddenly stumbled upon an article about cryptocurrency. The screen flickered, his brain clicked — and something inside shuddered. "Maybe it’s precisely tonight…" he thought, and his fingers reached for the keyboard on their own.

To be continued.