0.89
The City That Measures Emotions
No one could remember exactly when it had started.
There was no specific day.
No moment when the world announced that emotions had become numbers.
But over the years, it became normal.
So normal that people no longer questioned it.
In the city, screens were everywhere.
On buildings.
In the streets.
Inside shops.
Even on buses.
Screens displaying small, constantly moving data.
Graph lines.
Percentages.
And one indicator everyone knew.
The Happiness Index.
The city would wake up slowly with the sunrise.
Golden light reflecting off the glass windows of the tall towers.
Cars beginning to fill the streets.
And people heading out to their jobs.
But the strange thing wasn't the movement of people.
It was the small numbers appearing above their heads.
Transparent numbers, barely visible.
But everyone knew they were there.
Some were low.
Some were high.
The higher the number...
The less respect people had for its owner.
And the lower it was...
The more society valued them.
Because everyone knew the unwritten rule:
Excessive happiness means you're not working hard enough.
In a crowded street,
two men stood in front of a small café.
They were talking loudly and laughing.
A genuine laugh.
Uncalculated.
But it didn't last long.
One of their phones suddenly vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
The smile instantly vanished from his face.
"What happened?"
his friend asked.
He turned the phone towards him.
A simple notification appeared:
Productivity Index Declining.
The two men were silent for a moment.
Then the man quickly looked around him.
Surveillance cameras were mounted on lampposts.
His friend whispered in a low voice:
"I told you... don't laugh too much in public."
The man lowered his head slightly.
As if laughing was a mistake that needed correcting.
Several streets away,
a small shop was opening its doors.
The sign above the door was a bit old.
The shelves inside were filled with simple goods.
A young man stood behind wooden crates, arranging them quietly.
This was the protagonist.
His black hair was slightly unkempt.
A simple white shirt.
His face didn't carry any particular expression.
But there was one thing that distinguished him.
Above his head...
a number appeared. High.
Higher than it should be.
0.89
A man entered the shop.
He was the owner.
A local resident.
He looked at the young man working.
Then he said, laughing:
"Do you know what your problem is?"
The young man lifted his head slightly.
"What is it?"
The man said, pointing his finger upwards:
"That number."
The young man looked up for a moment.
Then he smiled a faint smile.
"What's wrong with it?"
The man laughed quietly.
"In this world..."
He paused for a moment.
Then he said:
"People who smile too much don't succeed."
The young man went back to arranging the crates.
But his smile didn't disappear.
He said calmly:
"Maybe."
Then he added after a brief moment:
"But at least... they live."
The man looked at him for a moment.
He didn't reply.
Because he wasn't sure if that was true.
At the other end of the city...
Inside a huge building filled with screens and data...
A man sat in front of a wide control panel.
He was an employee of the Happiness Measurement System.
His job was simple on the surface.
Monitor the data.
Analyze the indicators.
Ensure the system was working as it should.
But that morning...
One thing caught his attention.
A small graph line on the screen.
Moving in an unusual way.
He leaned slightly closer to the screen.
Read the data.
Then furrowed his brow.
The number was clear.
0.89
He whispered to himself:
"Strange."
He pressed several buttons on the control panel.
New data appeared.
The address.
The location.
The image.
An image of the young man working in the shop appeared.
The same young man who had been arranging crates moments ago.
The employee kept staring at the screen.
Then he said slowly:
"How can one person..."
He stopped.
Because he couldn't find the right words.
He looked again at the data.
Then at the number.
Then at the image.
And finally, he uttered the sentence that he didn't know would change everything:
"Why isn't this number going down?"
And at that moment...
No one in the city knew...
That a small problem with a single number...
Would soon begin to reveal the secret of the entire system.
