Do You Want No Ads? -

"You look tired, Artie," Silas said, his voice crisp and unfiltered by the low-bitrate audio compression that Arthur’s free account forced on him.

He opened the door to find his neighbor, Silas. Silas was an "Ultra-Premium" subscriber. In Arthur's eyes, Silas was surrounded by a faint, golden aura—the universal symbol of someone who hadn't seen a commercial since the Great Bandwidth Wars of ’35. Do you want no ads?

a smooth, celestial voice asked. "UPGRADE TO TOTAL-SILENCE FOR JUST 9,999 CREDITS A MONTH!" "You look tired, Artie," Silas said, his voice

Arthur sighed, waving a hand through the air to dismiss the burger. It didn't vanish; it simply shrank and pinned itself to the corner of his peripheral vision, right next to a floating bottle of detergent and a scrolling ticker of "Hot Singles in New London." In Arthur's eyes, Silas was surrounded by a

Arthur hesitated. The last person caught using a bypass was relegated to the "Ad-Supported Eternal Life" program—digitized and forced to read terms and conditions for a thousand years. But the cheeseburger in his eye was currently doing a tap-dance. "I'll take it," Arthur whispered. That night, Arthur slotted the shard into his temple port.

"I’m fine," Arthur lied. As he spoke, a small disclaimer appeared under his chin in Silas’s view: User’s opinions may be influenced by lack of sleep. Buy 'Snooze-Max' today!