Jest had not cried in a good decade or two. He was an adult now, after all, having turned twenty something not too long ago. He had finally escaped the barrack about a year ago. He had even harbored a vain hope of returning here one day with pockets full of credits, boasting about his accomplishments, and taking the others with him to live a better life someplace else.
Who knew that the world would end so soon?
Now, there were monsters roaming the streets, devouring people and tearing military tanks apart. The regime had collapsed, and he had nowhere to return to.
Jest had passed out when the end of the world started and experienced a long, dreadful nightmare. Waking up a few days later, somehow alive, he decided that there was no point in clinging to his silly dreams anymore and headed home… his real home, the barrack.
Crossing the city had proven to be a deadly ordeal, but he had survived somehow. In the process, he met a few others like him — people who had fallen into deep sleep and woke up wielding unexplainable powers.
But it was a joke. It was all like a vile, terrible joke.
Because his power was pure crap.
All he could do was make emotions stronger. Since the only emotion the monsters felt was a demented desire to rip him to pieces, the only thing Jest could do was make himself die faster.
'Maybe I should. Die faster, I mean…'
Looking at the broken door of the barrack, Jest suddenly felt a dark and oppressive sense of futility.
What was he struggling for, anyway?
The world was ending, and everyone was dead. Why was he clinging to life so desperately when being alive was so painful?
Looking down, he let out a stifled laugh.
"Ah. Ah! But... but..."
But wasn't it funny?
Despite the tears streaming from his eyes, he forced himself to smile.
There was a lesson that people from the barrack learned early on... life was unbearable if one was too serious.
Humans had to have a sense of humor to survive in this crappy world.
The world had turned even crappier now, so…
There was a funny joke in here, somewhere.
He just had to find it.
"I guess you guys don't have to kill yourself at work anymore."
'See?'
There was a bright side to anything.
Jest's tears tasted salty, but he forced himself to laugh.
Rising from the concrete, he decided to try and survive.
Not that it would be easy… nobody had a power as useless as his, after all, so he would undoubtedly die soon.
But he would at least die with a smile on his face while having fun.
…His forced smile still faltered, however, when he eventually entered the barrack and started searching the morbid carpet of corpses.
It took a long while before it returned.