Arron stood in front of the secretary’s desk as she finished typing up a document.
As he waited he tapped on the mail option and accessed the business card that had been sent to him.
The floating holographic business card was quite plain having the Motto of the [Party of Mother and Father] at the top, Chief Harlan’s name in the middle, and the address of the Police HQ at the bottom along with his office’s contact number.
Arron tapped the card and it flipped over revealing its back where he found a detailed description of the [Party of Mother and Father’s] Motto.
[Liberation: Mother, Father, and WHO will liberate the world.]
[Inclusion: Mother and Father will always be with you.]
[Normalization: Normalize all that is wrong.]
“What do you need?” asked the secretary briskly.
“Is the interview really over?” asked Arron. “It seemed a bit short.”
“The chief’s time is valuable. The security committee from the party of Mother and Father will look at the information later. I was told to give you the address of this cheap hotel. Your friend has already paid for you to stay in one of the rooms for one day, if you stay longer you will have to pay for it yourself,” said the secretary.
She grabbed the floating holographic address and flicked it towards Arron who received a notification from his NerViz of the new mail containing the address.
Arron stood there for a moment as he accessed the NavGuide and entered the address of the hotel.
“Oh, It’s you,” said the grumpy NavGuide, when it materialized in front of Arron.
For the first time, Arron saw some emotion on the Secretary’s face. She looked at Arron with a weird expression he could not place.
“What?” asked Arron.
“Nothing…it’s just… you have a weird taste,” said the secretary looking away from Arron.
“What? Isn’t this the default NavGuide? I had someone help me set it up.”
“Are you serious? How could that thing be the default mode!” with a sigh the secretary made a hand motion for Arron to come closer. “You were tricked. Show me your settings so we can see if anything else was tampered with.”
Arron hesitated for a bit but decided to step forward and turn off the privacy setting allowing others to see the settings menu.
“Change this to that, and this one the third option…”
Two minutes later the floating grumpy old man turned into a blue floating ball of light that cheerily tinkled every once in a while as it floated in front of Arron.
“Show me your other settings,” said the secretary impatiently.
When she saw the large list of options that had been unlocked upon his arrival to the Megacity her mouth twitched.
“Are you an M? You have almost all the settings either turned on or set to default!”
“Is that bad?”
“Of course it is! Right now everything can access your NerViz cloud chip! Even a determined hacker could find some way to hack into and get your info if they wanted to. I’m surprised you aren’t laying on the ground holding your head from information overload.”
“So that’s why I have a headache,” said Arron, as if some great world mystery had been solved.
Arron spent the next ten minutes getting berated by the secretary as she helped him properly choose each setting.
“…I feel like I’m helping my 80-year-old grandpa,” mumbled the secretary for the tenth time. “Make sure you keep those settings. All the unimportant things were turned off, now only Mother and Father, the Office of Reason, and the Police scanners can access your NerViz cloud-chip without first asking for confirmation.”
“Thanks again,” said Arron with a bow before following the NavGuide out of the office.
Ting! Every so often the NavGuide cheerily let Arron know that it was still there as it led him to the cheap hotel.
After checking in with the front desk of the giant hotel he took a small Mag-lift to the floor that his room was on.
When he swiped the access card through the projected holo-lock the door clicked and slid open for a few moments allowing him to enter and then clicked shut again.
The room’s dim lights turned on as soon as his feet entered the room. Looking around, Arron found that although it was not a huge room, it was far from what he would call cheap.
He was amazed at some of the new high-tech inside the room, some of it he had only heard about on the news or read about on the holo-net.
The room’s bed was the newest model from the company Floating Feather, the [Sleeping Wind 9x].
It used the power of artificial wind to keep the user floating in the air. It had hundreds of different settings for all types of sleepers!
Across from the bed was a counter that could be used as a desk, or with a press of a button it could be used for cooking. To the side of the desk, there was a motion-sensing sink.
On the wall above the desk and sink was a large mirror that with a swipe of the hand could be turned into a 2-d holoscreen.
The far end of the room had a black opaque privacy shield that could be turned on and off. Behind it, he could hear the sound of bubbling water.
When he walked over to the privacy shield he swiped his hand down causing it to dim and disappear.
A large bubbling Jacuzzi was set in the floor next to a wall made out of reinforced glass that had a one way tint.
The sight was even more breathtaking than chief Harlan’s office view.
Many buildings and a few of their ad’s littered his view but in between them and far above he could see the night sky clearer and closer than ever before. The night’s stars and the moon shone down on the city, lighting it up further with a soft glow needing no artificial light to see.
Arron spent over a half-hour soaking in the Jacuzzi as he stared out of the windows at the night sky and the many flying cars that passed by below.
When he stepped out of the water, there were already several fluffy robes in different colors waiting on a shelf for him to wear.
He picked out a blue one at random and put it on. Everything about the robe was extremely long, with parts of it dragging on the carpet. He checked the other robes and they were all the same.
As he finished tucking in and tied the robe in a way so that it would not cause him to trip, the robe immediately shrunk to fit his body.
Which left Arron quite impressed.
He hopped onto the [Sleeping Wind 9x] bed. His body floated up and down for a few moments as it was stabilized. The sensation felt as if he was floating on his back in the ocean.
The noise from the mechanisms that created the wind was whisper quiet. The noise that they did make was quiet white noise that would help the user fall asleep.
When Arron looked up to the ceiling he was surprised to see that there was a Holo-tv screen above the bed. He had seen an ad for this version while walking to the Police HQ.
It was one of the newest models that allowed the user to change its size by just looking at and using their fingers to drag the edges out to whatever size they wanted, no physical touch needed. Of course, you had to connect to it with your NerViz cloud chip for it to work.
There was an even more expensive mobile version that allowed you to connect it to and use your NerViz implant to watch everything wherever you wanted and in whatever size.
Using the resizing option he dragged the screen until it covered the entire ceiling and turned it on.
[Temporary access granted.] A message appeared on the screen before the screen began to broadcast the news channel KNN.
“The suspected separatist we reported on yesterday, is now in the hospital due to tripping up a flight of 100+ stairs. We have an expert on such matters to explain everything in more detail.”
“Yes old fashioned things such as steps are extremely dangerous and things like this tend to happen often. We suggest that…”
Arron soon grew tired of watching the news and turned off holo-tv.
With his eyes closed, he thought over everything that he had experienced today.
It was a wild ride, and hopefully, his trip here was not in vain. If he received a position on the police force he was sure that in the future he would be able to easily pay for any of the high-tech items he had seen advertisements for.
***
At noon the next day, Arron finally received the holo-vid message he was waiting for.
“The committee has found that you meet their requirements. For security purposes come to my office to receive your job posting and other sensitive information,” said chief Harlan, in the short holo-vid.
***
Back in Chief Harlan’s office.
Arron had to sign a few more non-disclosure documents before he could receive his orders. He let out a sigh after finishing everything.
“I am ready to receive my orders! I will work hard to keep the peace on the fourth level!” said Arron as he gave the chief a salute.
“You? Here? With your social credit score, you’re not even qualified to be standing in front of me. We already have more than enough qualified police officers to keep the law enforced on the fourth level,” said chief Harlan.
“Social credit score?”
“That’s right I almost forgot you were from the countryside. Mother and Father may not care enough to enforce the social credit scores in the backwater towns, but in this city, it is the law of the land and we enforce it fully. I am surprised with the Huko laws that you are even able to stay in the city.”
Hearing all this Arron was unsure what Huko laws were or how important the Social Credit Score was.
“I guess you are very lucky since Mother and Father decided that you have all the requirements for a very special group. Here are your orders,” said chief Harlan.
He abruptly tossed a miniature slim secure-data-stick over to Arron. It was a newer model that was able to plug into the NerViz implant at the back of the user’s neck. This allowed the user to view the content privately keeping it out of others’ eyes.
Arron slotted it into one of the two slots that the NerViz implant had and accessed the only document on it.
In front of his eyes, a text file opened up. At the top of the document in big letters read. [Assignment: M1- S.T.F.]
Arron had never heard of this group before. Who were they and what did they do?
“Look kid, the megacity is not a fantasy land. There are no heroes here. It is a cruel place that will either break you or make you into a stronger person. It is all up to you whether you let it have its way with you or you embrace the hardship and forge yourself anew.”
