The ticker appeared on the morning of June 1st, hovering in the bottom-right corner of everyone’s vision like a digital ghost: .

Society became quieter, slower, and strangely more empathetic. We were all carrying the same burden, second by second. No one was thin, so no one was judged.

On the tenth anniversary, the ticker stopped. For one breath, the world held its collective lungs. Then, the numbers began to turn red and count backward.

At first, it was a joke. Late-night hosts made cracks about "The Great Expansion." Diet pill stocks plummeted while sweatpants manufacturers saw their value triple. People laughed as they notched new holes in their belts every week. In thirty days, everyone on the planet had gained roughly five and a half pounds. It was manageable. Month 3: The Infrastructure Crisis

But humanity adapted. We became a species of constant movement. Since we couldn't stop the growth, we fueled our world with it. The excess tissue was surgically harvested in "Lipo-Plants" to be refined into biofuels. We literally ran our cities on the weight of our own bodies.