The Novencento Syndicate (Underground Literature)

Your phone vibrates at 3:47 in the morning. An unknown number. You answer, half asleep.

"Your application has been approved. You have twelve hours to present yourself. The address will arrive in seven minutes. If you open it before, it will self-destruct and you will lose your place. There are no second chances."

They hang up before you can say anything.

What application? You haven't applied for anything. But then you remember: three months ago, drunk, you filled out a very strange form on a forum that you no longer remember. Strange questions. "How much is your dignity worth in euros?" "Would you kill for sexual pleasure?" "If you could erase a memory forever, which one would it be?"

You thought it was a joke. A personality test like the ones that tell you which character from a series you are.

At 3:54, a message arrives. Only GPS coordinates and a password: "GANADO-7734".

You Google the coordinates. It's an industrial polygon on the outskirts. Nothing special. Abandoned warehouses and wasteland.

You could not go. Go back to sleep. Forget it.

But you're getting dressed before you finish thinking.

You arrive at the site at 7:23. It's still dark. There's a warehouse with a half-raised metal shutter. A faint light comes from inside. No cars parked. No sign of life.

You crouch and enter.

The warehouse is empty except for a folding table in the center. On it, there's a cardboard box and a manila envelope. Inside the envelope, a contract. Twenty pages of tiny print in legal language that you don't understand. But there's a summary on the first page:

CONSENSUAL TRANSFORMATION SYNDICATE

Article 1: The Applicant (you) cedes complete bodily autonomy to the Syndicate for a period of 77 consecutive days.

Article 2: The Syndicate undertakes to return the Applicant in functional physical condition. No psychological state is guaranteed.

Article 3: All modifications will be reversible to approximately 60-80%.

Article 4: The Applicant will receive 3,000 euros for each completed day. Single payment at the end. 231,000 euros in total if the program is completed.

Article 5: The Applicant may use the safety word "MATADERO" to terminate the contract at any time. They will receive payment proportional to the days completed. But they will be permanently marked as "Desertor" in the Syndicate's database.

Article 6: There are no cameras. No recordings. No audience. Just you and the Process.

Article 7: Signing is consent. Consent is becoming material.

There's a dotted line at the end. And a pen.

In the cardboard box, there's clothing: an orange jumpsuit without markings, rubber flip-flops, and nothing else. And a small electronic device. It looks like a watch but only has a screen that says: "DAYS LEFT: 77".

Your hand trembles when you pick up the pen.

You don't think. ...