Mathew 4

The more time Mathew spent online, the more his opinions on Life’s Membership swung between unwavering support and fierce opposition. His primary digital retreat was an unmoderated, anonymous forum—a virtual frontier where people voiced their unfiltered opinions without fear of reprisal. This freedom, however, came at a steep price: the forum was a hotbed of falsehoods, misleading information, and potentially manipulative content. It was rumored to be teeming with spam bots and data-mining programs, though concrete evidence was elusive. Despite these issues, the anonymity of the forum made it one of the rare spaces where criticisms of Life could be openly discussed.

Mathew began the arduous task of delving into the Full Contract of Life’s Membership, a task most people avoided. The program mandated that all participants sign the Summary Contract, a simplified version of the Full Contract that frequently referenced the larger document. The Full Contract itself was a behemoth, sprawling over thousands of pages and meticulously divided into parts, divisions, sections, and paragraphs. It was an almost insurmountable read for the average person. The Summary Contract, therefore, highlighted key points and directed potential members to detailed information within the extensive document. Life defended the contract's complexity by citing their advanced technology, which far surpassed current legislation, necessitating the creation of an entirely new legal framework. To make matters worse, sections of the Main Contract were updated quarterly, making it a constantly moving target for anyone trying to stay informed.

Seeing a potential financial gain in becoming a self-taught expert on the Main Contract, Mathew resolved to study it and seek legal advice online. Unfortunately, most legal websites charged for their services, and those offering free advice often portrayed Life in a favorable light. He returned to the anonymous forum for more unvarnished opinions. While the advice there was far from professional, the sheer volume of responses provided a wide array of perspectives and interpretations that he wouldn’t have discovered on his own. The forum was like Pandora’s box—filled with rubbish responses, bot-generated posts, and possibly even covert Life marketing. Yet, amidst the noise, Mathew occasionally found insightful, well-thought-out answers that resonated with him and guided his next steps.

Despite its fully anonymous nature, the forum had rules about posting. Members were cautioned against sharing any personal data, down to details as mundane as the groceries they bought. Real or not, the forum was rife with stories of ex-members who lost their membership seemingly without cause. Many believed it was due to their criticisms of the company, suspecting that Life had traced them through the information they posted—details like shop locations and grocery lists combined with dates could, they feared, pinpoint their identities. Essentially, any member who posted, whether positively or negatively, was believed to risk losing their Life membership for breaching at least one of the Full Contract’s safety clauses. Consequently, users diluted the information they shared to avoid detection.

Posting aisle numbers where products were found became a form of amusement on the forum. Shops had numbering on aisles mainly for orientation, helping locate exits, bathrooms, or emergency exits. No one knew exactly when it caught on, but one day, people began writing consecutive sequenced numbers. Gradually, users started associating these numbers with their groceries. Products from even-numbered aisles were deemed standard, while those from odd-numbered aisles were mockingly called "dog food." Prime-numbered items were considered premium, and special numbers like four, eight, twelve, and twenty-seven had their own meanings.

Initially, Mathew found this pastime amusing. But soon, he, like some of the other forum users, began cataloging food based on aisle numbers. He knew that each store had a different layout and a varying number of aisles. From Life’s unpacking personnel—those responsible for stocking the aisles—he learned that there was little consistency in product placement. Square, tall boxes were placed near other square, tall boxes, and cylindrical packages were stored with other cylindrical packages. Yet, when Mathew tracked his taste preferences, energy levels, sleep patterns, and moods in relation to these aisle numbers, he seemed to have noticed some correlations.