The flying limo and several flying cars that had escorted them, all landed on a flat parking space that was blocked off from the surrounding area by a large flowing electric fence that was constantly letting out loud zaps.
Arron quietly exited the vehicle with the others and was stunned when he looked up at the building in front of them.
On each wall of the building, there was a large holographic sign of a different scantily clad woman with a finger stretched out and beckoning the people walking by trying to lure them through the large doors of the building.
After being immersed in and learning all about the culture of the yakuza family’s business vs the laws that were put in place by Mother and Father, he no longer voiced his questions of why such a thing was possible.
Even so, Krok, who was straightening his expensive flying suit, saw the odd expression on his face and quickly said, “It’s only one of the businesses inside. The main money maker is our special stim drugs. It’s easier to show you around instead of standing out here and talking. Is everyone ready for some fun?”
“Let’s hurry up and finish this so that we can get down to business,” said Ox, who was a little antsy. He looked over to Arron before saying, “And you better not go overboard. You are still a probationary member and need to uphold the image of the Ryu family.”
“Come on Ox, a little fun behind closed doors will not harm the family’s image. Lighten up a bit,” said Krok putting his arm over Ox’s shoulder and pulling him towards the building’s VIP side door. Ox did not resist and silently went along with him only giving Krok a sharp glare which was ignored.
Everyone else followed the two into the building. Instead of a lobby, the VIP door opened up to a hallway deep inside the building with several closed doors on each side of the hallway. This was probably a measure taken for the privacy of the VIP guest that came here.
Krok looked back at Arron who was respectfully following everyone at the rear. He waved his hand calling Arron up to him.
Arron hurried his pace and joined Krok and Ox at the front as they walked down the hallway.
Krok silently tapped on a few menu options on his wrist datapad and then flicked something over to Arron.
A 2D live stream popped up showing the inside of a room that looked rather comfortable. It had several plush couches and armchairs and even a cot in the corner.
On one of the armchairs, a calm man sat silently with glazed eyes and a large smile as he stared off into the distance.
As they passed through the hallway the live stream changed showing the inside of each room. The next room had a man with a blank expressionless face as he silently sat still with tears pouring out of his glazed eyes.
In another room, a middle-aged woman was curled up on a couch rocking back and forth as she ate something and slowly started to calm down.
Seeing all sorts of strange actions inside the rooms Arron looked over to Krok and asked, “What’s wrong with them?”
“Who knows? It could be debt issues, love problems, trouble with Mother and Father, or something to do with The Office of Reason. You can never tell with these types of people,” said Krok shaking his head.
“No, I mean why are they acting like that,” said Arron pointing at a crazed person that was ranting inside the room as he walked back and forth with a crazed expression.
“That’s just the stims working. Every customer has a slightly different experience when using stims. As I was saying before, this is our main money maker here. We offer the customer a wide variety of legal stims at a decent cost, of course, the use of the room is also added to the price.”
“Why would anyone pay extra for such a thing?”
“The total package may cost more, but this is a relatively safer place to use the stims without having to worry about being scammed. The families that run such businesses pride ourselves on offering clean and pure stims that have no shady additives which some low-level thugs use to try and stretch out their limited supplies,” said Krok with a look of disdain at the thought. “This is a business after all and the more satisfied customers we have, the more of them will come back for another fun time. Plus these places are great for people who want privacy to use stims. By coming here they don’t have to do it at home or work risking their family or co-workers finding out about their vice. Thus this is one of the main reasons why business is booming. Sure there are some of the small-time gangs who are short-sighted and sometimes only think of quick gains and offer stims that were tampered with or types of less clean stims. But only the most desperate of people go to these places.”
“Even several of the members in the family come here for stim holidays,” said Ox.
“Stim holidays?”
“It is where someone uses stims to get drugged out for several days at a time to forget all their worries. No work, no chores or errands, just stims and entertainment all day. It is a way for them to decompress. For normal citizens, they have to ask the Office of Reason liaison agent at their workplace for permission to take time off and enjoy a Stim holiday. The workplace has no say in this judgment. If the Office of Reason agent allows the worker’s request to go through, the workplace can not fire the requester and has to find someone else to take over their shifts during the stim holiday,” said Krok.
“It’s a way for Mother and Father to keep the workers in their lane and make sure they don’t cause problems from mentally breaking down or refusing to work. This is why they secretly help fund our business by sending people here. In this way the factories and other labor intensive businesses that keep the mega-city running are never interrupted and always run smoothly,” said Ox. “But there are always some people that try to abuse the system so Mother and Father make sure to send them to be re-educated where they can go through withdrawals and detox while also relearning how to be a proper citizen.”
“Our entertainment is not on this floor, we have to go up several floors to reach our destination.”
They all entered a Mag-shoot and shot up a few hundred floors before the doors opened and once again Arron was shocked by what he saw.
The majority of the floor they had just arrived at, was wide open with beds, couches, and armchairs all over.
“AH!” “MORE!” “YES LIKE THAT!”
On the left side of the open room, were several small groups all having loud and wild sex with no walls or privacy shields blocking their activity. On the right side of the room, there were several people watching the orgy on the other side of the room while the rest sat in front of several terminals that had all kinds of holographic porn playing for the customers who also had glazed eyes as they used stims to heighten their enjoyment of the entertainment.
Krok and Ox did not say anything as they were unfazed by the noise and sight of everything. They just continued walking through the room to a locked door that was being guarded by both humans and security drones.
As Arron walked alongside them, it was startling how many famous people were here. There were many people that he had seen on the news, in movies, local sector one party members, and even sector one police officers!
Arron made sure to add everyone he recognized to his mental list so that he could give the information to Kix. He would let Kix decide what to do with the information about corrupt officers and low-level party members that were not officially members of the Party of Mother and Father but were still the lackeys of the party and kept everything under their control.
With a wave of Krok’s hand, the guards stepped aside. The locks beeped and clanked for a few seconds before the door opened revealing another mag-shoot.
They only shot up a few more levels before entering a bright plush room that was equipped with several armchairs all facing a large thick two-way para-glass that covered the entire wall in front of them.
On the other side of the glass was an arena where a bloody fight was taking place.
Arron watched as two fighters of equal height and weight fought each other with random weapons that had been given to them. The fight lasted a few more minutes before one of them was stabbed through the heart.
The bloody victor chopped the defeated opponent’s head off and roared like a wild animal as he held the dripping head up in victory.
The bloody arena floor slowly descended and moments later a clean and undamaged floor replaced it. Two doors with blinding lights on either side of the arena opened and another two fighters stepped out.
This was an illegal underground fight club and was not like normal arenas. This arena had no robots fighters which were popular with most of the mega-city and was legally streamed over the holo-net on every level.
“What do you think? This is some good entertainment right?” asked Krok.
“Indeed,” said Ox as he and the others all sat down in one of the armchairs.
With a snap of his fingers, a hidden door opened and several thinly clothed females walked in carrying trays with various alcohols, stims, and snacks.
“Probie, come over here and try this out,” said Krok as he grabbed a long pipe that had bubbling smoke inside a large metal container.
Arron was still standing behind the armchairs and hesitated not wanting to use any type of stim as he did not want to become a zombie like those he had seen earlier.
Seeing his hesitation Krok smiled and said, “You don’t need to be shy, this will only give you a light buzz. It’s nothing like what the hardcore customers were using on the lower floors. Those guys were taking the stims raw. Some of the more crazy customers can down multiple raw stims all at a single time and even on an empty stomach.”
With everyone staring at him intently Arron could not refuse the offer and so he walked over to where Ox and Krok were sitting.
“Take a seat and enjoy the entertainment. We’re all family here so there is no need to abstain while the rest of us are having fun,” said Krok pointing to a nearby empty armchair.
Arron’s mind was racing as he was trying to find a way out of this. He was completely against using any sort of stimulant even if they were legal. But there was nothing he could do, so he took the metallic tube and followed the other’s example by breathing in the stim smoke from the tube…
Cough! Cough! Cough!
…and immediately started coughing as it irritated his throat and nose. With each cough large puffs of smoke were leaking out of both his nose and mouth.
Everyone in the room let out loud hearty laughs seeing this.
“Hit it a few more times. This time slowly. You will be able to feel the effects after a few more times,” ordered Krok with a smile.
“Don’t forget to eat a snack as it has a stronger effect on you if you have an empty stomach,” said Ox, who was not paying attention to Arron and was watching the bloody fight.
A short time later Arron’s mind started to feel fuzzy and his movements slowed.
He stopped inhaling the smoke when everyone’s gaze was no longer on him.
But a moment later he nearly jumped out of his skin as two pairs of hands grabbed his shoulders and arms.
He jerked his head around to see two of the female servants standing next to him.
They were smiling at him and said nothing as they silently gave him a massage. Each of the other members inside the room was also getting a massage as they watched the bloody fight and enjoyed the stims and snacks.
“Krok, you sure are going all out by bringing the top girls from the family’s massage palace here,” said Ox.
“Only the best for everyone here!” said Krok. He turned his head to Arron and innocently asked, “So Ark Fune, I hear you are from the countryside. Where are you from?”
Everyone in the room seemed to be immune to the stims but not Arron.
Arron’s muddled head was slow to respond as a completely calm and carefree feeling swept over his body alarming him inside as he tried with all his might to fight the feeling and keep control of his mouth so that he could spit out the correct words that fit with his undercover identity.
“And your family is? Do they control a large part of your home city?”
“They are only a small-sized family compared to everyone here in sector one. Smaller than even some of the low-level gangs here.”
The questions continued to flow out of both Krok and Ox.
Although Arron realized what was happening, there was nothing he could do but hope that he did not say something that would get him killed while in this dazed and muddied state.
In one second his worry and dread of being found out shot through the roof only to be smashed the next second by the calming effects of the stim that was washing away his emotions.
He spent the next few hours in this state of torture of highs and lows while trying to answer all the questions correctly.
The other members were all enjoying the fight, not paying his struggle any attention.
