Chen kept his gaze on the card that seemingly felt extremely heavy in his hands.
The black card is a 'beyond the portal' special access card issued by the government. They are a rarity and are only released a year before a Great Barrier portal is open to the public. About a thousand are released each time, and are randomly distributed to those who run a business in the business circle like corporations, industries, etc.
The purpose of this is to reduce the monopoly of territory that big business/corporations like to try when immediately arriving on the other side. It gives a chance for smaller businesses to purchase territory beyond the Great Barrier at discounted prices ahead of others instead of getting the leftovers of the bigger guys.
Nobody is given preference and is random chance for anybody who operates some type of business in the world of economics.
For example, there is always cases of small business getting the card and using it to get into territory that other bigger businesses would normally occupy. But since it is random, some corporations still get them anyway.
For one, it is a great way of reducing conflicts between smaller and bigger businesses over who gets the bigger pie. Second, it allows smaller businesses to grow and move up the chart, rather than stay at the bottom forever.
Since it is produced by the government, it is near impossible to reproduce or even destroy. The entire card is quantum entangled, so they constantly know about it's whereabouts. Any attempts at taking it apart will notify the government, even if a single atom comes off. The production and encryption methods are highly classified, so it's impossible to know about it.
The best part, is that it cannot be stolen by others. The card will automatically memorize the DNA of the user, and the government will know who has it. Revealing it to the public is a crime for an unknown reason, but it has truth since it has happened before. Any stealing is illegal, and one will heavily suffer.
Only one person can use it, and it is only a two-time use. One person can enter and leave only once, before it automatically returns to government officials. The time limit is usually a year, and failure to use it before the gate is publicly opened will result in it disappearing.
Unfortunately, they can only be used by the owner which does not include shareholders and employees without a special reason. The only reason he could get the card was because the CEO had suffered a fatal accident, in which his mortal body was killed.
It was only his mortal body, and his consciousness had been uploaded into the virtual realm, a hyper-realistic realm created by humanity beyond reality. One can use it to play virtual games, or save the consciousness of a human who dies in reality. It is even used by old people who have grown tired of reality and want to retire.
Despite the enormous population of humanity, not a whole lot of people die physically. If they do, it is usually from being a space pirate or criminal.
If they do, it's extremely rare for it to include their consciousness. This is thanks to the fact that one's console can transfer their mind over into the virtual realm before dying in most situations.
The CEO had physically died due to misfortune, and being caught between two space pirate fights. Luckily, his body had been recovered, and is being healed up so they can transfer it back over. However, he will not make it in time for the event.
The board of directors already had their eye on him due to his excellent work performance, so they decided to use the incident as an excuse to turn him into a mascot for the archaeology community. The CEO is already extremely old, and has lived over a million years. He has been considering retirement and planned to transfer over everything to one of the shareholders.
Naturally, they wanted the best candidate for the next shareholder, and they planned on making him a shareholder. Any normal employee would be happy to accept such a proposal, but he has been conflicted whether to accept or refuse it. He used to work full-time as an archaeologist, but as he went up the corporation, he had less and less time to do stuff like that.
This is just how capitalism works, and the Archaeology community is just a centralized branch funded by the science community. The only profits they receive are from the museums they put them in, and from the wealthy people who want them. At the end of the day, it is all about profits.
Only the people at the bottom get to enjoy working their dream job, and one can only rise up so much before it turns into office work. Chen is just another example, and could only go up due to the fact that the money his family gave him was running out, and the fact that the cost of rent was going up, which was already expensive as it is.
If he accepts it, then he'll get paid way more, at the cost of losing a lot of his free time which he uses for archaeological work. If he doesn't, then he won't be able to pay his bills, and will have to get another job which will cost him his free time. Such a life is what Chen was going through, which dampened his mood when he thought of it.
Chen put the card in his console and activated his office desk. A hologram hovered above the desk as he sent a command. An energy field appeared around him before he seemingly vanished from the room.
He only blinked his eye and was already near the entrance. Stepping off the teleportation pad like many others did, he left the entrance and stepped outside. A shield encased him as he passed an invisible spatial barrier, before exiting into the outside city.
Aside from the name of the skyscraper that hovered beside it, it looked like your average skyscraper. This is only a branch after all, so it was nothing special.
While the exterior seemingly indicated that it could not hold a lot, the interior was greatly expanded using spatial technology. Inside, the maximum capacity is around two million, and one doesn't have to move since they can teleport to any part of the building. Such a thing has long been normal.
----
Chen walked onto the energy sidewalk that hovered in the artificial sky. Surrounding him was a sea of skyscrapers that seemingly went on forever as they stretched into the sky. Countless advertisements and holograms floated in the air with the goal of attracting customers.
The ground was so far away that one could not tell how high they were. If it wasn't for the passing vehicles and advanced weather system, clouds would probably be passing below him.
Past the energy sidewalk was countless hovercraft vehicles passing by at ridiculous speeds. Everywhere was a sea of them as well, passing by on different levels, but not even going out of line. They stretched from the bottom to the skies, and it gave a unique feeling of the future.
The crafts would stop at intersections and crowds of people would pass over to the other side before moving once more. Staircases going from one energy sidewalk to another one below up above were everywhere as people constantly walked up and down. The streets were constantly filled with pedestrians and would only thin out at night.
A lot of unique people were apparent in the crowds. Some people had bionic limbs or extra pairs that made them look alien. Some had their genes modified to look more like an animal. Some even looked entirely alien which gave off a weird feeling. Some were clearly just humanoid robots that was either easy to see or difficult to notice.
Security mechs constantly hovered above their heads as they went down the streets, maintaining law and order to deter any possible criminals. Some of these mechs were operated by human, or pure robots.
Mechs do exist in this world, but it is something not all that special. Back then, ancient humans thought that an era of mechs would override everything, but this was fantasy thinking that they put in their novels. There is no special group with the genetic capacity that can only operate them, nor is there some special power that grants one the ability to do so.
It is all based on the simple principle that there is limits to what a human body can withstand. First of all, there's a limited speed in neural reaction. Second of all, there is a limit on what the human body can take.
You can have the fastest most powerful mech, but it is all useless if you become a pile of mesh while fighting. There is a limit to how much technology can help the human body, and humanity had reached that criteria long ago. The only hope is if technology for inertia dampeners can shrink enough to fit in mechs.
Therefore, only AI can operate mechs after a certain level, whether they merge their consciousness into the mech, or they operate them using their humanoid body. Not everybody is willing to be an AI and abandon their body, since it is an expensive conversion.
Plus, even the cheapest mech weapons are illegal outside of military and police use. There's also no need for civilians to operate them since war has been long gone. Your only hope of staying a human while surpassing human limits is to enter the virtual world and play mech games.
----
Chen walked over to a parking space on the side of the street and pushed a button. A yellow taxi pulled in and the door opened. He sat in the back and closed the door.
"Where to?" asked the middle-aged taxi driver, who also had average handsomeness, and was a little fat.
Chen activated his console attached to his wrist and pressed it against a plate in between the seat.
"Home." The coordinates were transferred over along with the credits.
The taxi driver silently grunted and activated autopilot. The AI checked for an opening and pulled the taxi out. It accelerated at neck-breaking speeds before matching up and pulling into traffic. The driver laid back and got onto his console where he began chatting with others online and watching videos.
Chen ignored this and just silently got onto his console. The consoles are attached to one's wrist, and almost everybody has one if they want to buy, sell, transfer, or access the virtual world. There's a lot more applications to it, but these are just the basics.
A hologram appeared in front of him as he did an overview of the saved documents he had transferred onto it.
Time slowly passed...