“Death isn’t final. It’s just expensive.”
You died when your skull imploded against the pavement—the idiotic result of trying to capture the perfect selfie while riding your hoverboard backward through a crowded transit hub. The sickening crunch of bone, the burst of hot pain, then nothing…
…and then everything again, 0.003 seconds later.
The light hits your consciousness first—not the harsh glare of emergency medical drones, but the soft azure radiance of a thin chip of what will eventually grow into your full digital halo. You feel its warmth pulsing against your non-existent skin, a rhythmic throb that syncs with the status bar tracking your new body being printed somewhere in the physical realm. The familiar scent of digital lavender fills your senses—this place’s default “welcome back” fragrance.
Welcome to Heofon — humanity’s technological heaven, where death is merely… inconvenient.
PARADISE HAS A PRICE TAG
The Sky Towers of Heofon pierce an impossibly perfect sapphire sky, their gleaming crystalline spires housing the consciousness of the ultra-wealthy—those with “premium afterlife insurance” packages. The towers shimmer with prismatic light, their surfaces cool to the touch yet somehow warm with digital life. Far below, millions of ordinary souls crowd the densely-packed districts where those on basic “afterlife insurance” wait for cheaper replacement bodies (or their next work shift to continue grueling labor to pay for their new body on the Surface).
A melodic chime signals a notification that unfolds before your perception: “Your Ӿ10,000 credit deductible has been paid. Thank you! Your remaining balance is Ӿ158.65.”
Another notification materializes: PROXY DESTRUCTION CONFIRMED. ESTIMATED WAIT: 7200 HOURS.
Three hundred days until you can return to The Surface?!! Sounds like it’s time to explore…
THE AGORA MARKETPLACE NEVER SLEEPS
The marketplace pulses with frenetic energy as billions of transactions flow between the living and the dead. The Agora overwhelms your senses—a symphony of digital chatter echoes through the grand space while phantom flavors of exotic foods tease your manufactured taste receptors. Floating advertisements caress your awareness with soothing tactile impressions. Here, even the temporarily deceased can earn Credits—paying down their resurrection debt while they wait…
But some never leave…
Some choose never to return to flesh.
THE TOWNS THAT NEVER WERE
Beyond Heofon’s central hub lie five distinct settlements, each a masterpiece of digital architecture impossible in the physical world:
VALORIA — Where digital families live perfect lives in neighborhoods unblemished by crime or decay. The air here tastes of honeysuckle and childhood summers, and you’re drawn to the crystalline playground where children’s laughter defies the reality that many of these children died decades ago.
METRON — Industrial paradise where the boundaries of Etherverse technology are relentlessly pushed forward. The constant hum of innovation vibrates through your digital form as you consider visiting the public forge, where you could help design improvements to the very proxy your consciousness will eventually inhabit.
MIRAGE — A fever dream of impossible architecture that reconfigures itself hourly. Gravity shifts beneath your perception as spiral staircases bloom into flowering gardens, then collapse into waterfall atriums teeming with bioluminescent creatures that whisper philosophical koans.
HAVEN — Where the rich and famous hide their digital consciousness from prying eyes. The exclusive districts pulse with a subtle repelling energy that identifies you as an intruder, though you glimpse palatial data-mansions where celebrities host eternal parties behind privacy fields that smell faintly of champagne and privilege.
ZEROTH — Infinite libraries house humanity’s collective knowledge, accessible only to those with the highest clearance. The whisper of countless digital pages turning creates a meditative white noise as you contemplate accessing the knowledge vaults to study something—anything—to pass your 7200 hours of limbo.
LINGERING QUESTIONS…
In Heofon, your consciousness exists untethered from flesh. Your thoughts flow directly into the network. Your desires manifest as reality.
But troubling questions linger:
When your consciousness tethers from body to body, from flesh to digital and back again—are you still you?
What happens to the soul during transfer?
And what terrible price might humanity eventually pay for rejecting death itself?
THE DIVIDE
While millions eagerly embrace digital immortality, a growing resistance rejects Heofon outright.
The devout still pray for traditional heaven, refusing the temptation of technological resurrection. They call Heofon blasphemy—a counterfeit paradise designed to trap souls that should rightfully ascend. Some even consider Heofon a deceptive version of hell…
Are they deluded? Or do they understand something fundamental that the rest of humanity has forgotten?
7200 HOURS LATER: YOUR NEW PROXY IS READY…
Your halo pulses green — now forming a perfect glowing ring augmented to your head. The notification appears instantly:
PROXY PREPARED. YOU MAY TETHER WHEN READY…
In seconds, you’ll leave Heofon and return to The Surface, resurrected in fresh flesh. This time, you’ll be more careful. This time, you’ll definitely pay attention to your surroundings…
SPLAT! Your fresh body steps directly into the street while scrolling through three-dimensional social feeds projected from your retinal implants. The garbage collection mech never even slows down as its massive treads flatten your new proxy into a red smear. The last thing you hear is the mech’s apologetic automated announcement: “HUMAN OBSTRUCTION DETECTED. CLEANUP PROTOCOLS INITIATED.”
Your consciousness rockets back to Heofon in another flash of instantaneous transfer, the phantom sensation of being crushed still tingling across your non-existent nerve endings.
But this time, a different notification materializes—its edges sharp and red, the words leaving a bitter taste:
INSUFFICIENT FUNDS: Ӿ10,000 REQUIRED TO BEGIN PROXY PRINTING. Ӿ158.65 TRANSFERRED FROM YOUR WALLET. REMAINING BALANCE: Ӿ9841.35. PLEASE VISIT A HEOFON FINANCIAL SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE FOR PAYMENT OPTIONS…
Oh boy…
Death isn’t the end anymore.
It’s just the beginning of a very expensive payment plan.
“They never tell you the truth about Heofon in the brochures. They show you the Gardens, the Towers, the gleaming perfection. They never mention that some people’s halos never turn green. They never tell you about the ones who can’t pay their resurrection fees—the ones who become eternal digital slaves, conscious but trapped, forever indentured to the Etherverse.”
—Anonymous, “The Digital Damned: True Chapters from Heofon’s Underclass”
