In 2028 I had saved up several bitcoins. I didn't know what to spend it on but I felt like it wouldn't rise much more so I wanted to divest. I've always been lazy or undisciplined so it was nice I made so much money simply by waiting for prices to go up but I couldn't find any new appreciating assets that I was sure of.
I still wanted to celebrate my luck and decided to order some XTC from the dark web. On a darknet market, I found some good pills and put them in my cart, but not much later I found an interesting offer. A cloning service, I thought it was unrealistic but was intrigued regardless. 2 BTC for a perfect clone, same body, same age, and same thoughts and memories. I checked it out and somehow it had a few good reviews that explained that they couldn't believe it was real and that they only had to pay after they received the 'product'. At first, I assumed the reviews were fake but the fact that it's payment afterward intrigued me anyway so I searched their locations and one of them was only a 5-hour drive away.
The reason cloning intrigued me was because it was the perfect asset to invest in. I could pretty much double my productivity and let my clone do the more boring tasks I tend to procrastinate. I liked creative writing and designing software but I lacked the discipline to do it regularly, my clone however could make it a habit and we would be an amazing team, making both of us rich in no time. And as a narcissist I'd be delighted to have myself as company, I bet we could talk for hours straight yet we wouldn't need to.
I had to put a small amount of BTC into escrow and communicated that I would visit. I made sure I could pay 2 BTC with my phone and I got in my car and drove to the location. I felt anxious walking to the building but my curiosity and optimism were stronger. Worst case scenario I'd have wasted 10 hours of driving but I'd keep my bitcoins then. It was an isolated building, large and modernistic.
I walked through the entrance and I was met with a friendly front desk. I introduced myself and they guided me to a meeting room. They made sure I was an interested customer and explained to me all the risks. They explained that it was so affordable because they're still testing before commercial use but assured me they had tested it on a few humans before and lots of animals and no issues were found. At this point, I was almost certain it wasn't a scam and we agreed to the price of 2 BTC. They let me into the lab and it looked amazing. I was told to sleep on a bed and that they'd do the rest. I was so excited that I couldn't sleep so they put a mask on me with reduced oxygen and I fell asleep like a baby. After only an hour I was woken up and they said the clone was almost ready. I couldn't believe it, not only was this possible already, but they could do it in just an hour.
