The items Laura bought earlier sold for around 2000 Apts. After buying a home defense shield, the freeman's book, 2 computers worth 300 Apts each and a server worth 700 the duo had a total of 150 Apts remaining, considering Alex had bought a smartphone for Laura earlier with his remaining 20 Apts but got a few items from Laura to sell he had 50 Apts and Laura had 100 remaining.
The computers were surprisingly laptops with a futuristic OS and a 3D hologram instead of a monitor. The keyboard was still there God knows why but there was also a weird device which looked like a thin headband but more sleek embedded inside next to the keyboard. Alex put his on and decided to see what it would do, he extended his hand intending to turn on the laptop but it turned itself on telling him what the headband was fore. The bootup was fast and in a few seconds he was already exporing the OS. Laura too decided to put on the headband and it seemed weightless, didnt feel uncomfortable like headphones and made her think how far had technology progressed for such a convenient thing to be possible.
Alex wondered why the keyboard even existed but there are always purists everywhere who prefer it, this also made him feel a bit more familiar to the device albeit the 3D solid hologram looked a bit too solid.
"Werent holograms supposed to be glitchier? look fake? or even all blue? I guess the movies got one thing wrong, they dont look like 90s TV screens"
Out of impulse he tried touching the hologram but was unable to. He started exploring the OS and decided to use headband since it would basically read his mind to do what he wanted not what he ordered, plus he didnt have to worry about some giant corporation reading his mind because they dont even exist yet. Convenient for someone who doesnt know how to even open a file in the futuristic interface using the keyboard. He had the specs open and they basically blew out anything any current super computer could offer. Some of these figures he couldnt even recognize despite currently studying software and computers. There was no RAM or SDD/HDD mentioned so he thought perhaps the technology grew to the point Cache and Registers took over (Yes I am geeking out, just think of it as ultra fast RAM but inside the CPU). The CPU had around 5Ghz with 24 Cores, made by some weird named company.
He again marveled at the technology but Laura was already busy reading her book after a few mins of playing with her laptop, having no interest in the tech geek doing his thing. With their memory they learnt at a pretty fast pace, by nightfall they had memorized the thick and large book. Memory doesnt mean understanding but it makes it easier to get there
Next morning Alex went to college as usual thinking about how his life seemed to be picking up pace. Walking onwards, out of pure geek love he took out his phone. He had already downgraded his mobile software to robot and installed all the important apps thankfully the phone was compatible with it. Just thinking of the specs on this bad boy made him want to run. again. He opened the camera app and saw no difference between looking through the screen or through his eyes. A passerby happened to glance on his screen and thought it was just a hollow rectangle.
'Young man seemed to have gone mad from pressure at college, I should give my son a break so he doesnt go mad too'
Not realizing that he had helped some poor college student Alex continued acting like an idiot. He took a selfie and slowly reached college.
The day went as usual, the students took out their phones to take notes from the board. so did Alex. Writing like idiots in notebooks is for school students after all. Incidentally Ray was sitting next to Alex and glanced at the phone while he was taking a picture
"Young master seems to have gone mad, he is using a weird rectangle to look at the board"
Alex heard Ray and turned towards him putting his phone down. Ray saw the back of the phone and realized it wasnt a triangle while Alex realized he will probably have a lot of questions to answer and that it would probably be better to hide his phone
"Young master, Where can I get such a phone? Its camera is better than any I have seen and it looks so elegant"
Judging that it was too late to hide it, he thought of an excuse but failed miserably
"Thats a secret"
"Come on Alex money isnt a problem ill give you 20 bucks if you tell me what brand"
"Sorry Ray its a experimental build from a friends company, if you want it you will have to wait for it to be released until then you will have to wait"
And whenever something interesting happens of course there is a peanut gallery.
"How much for your phone?"
"I offer 2 grands!"
The commotion attracted other people who also wished to buy the phone which got the attention of a rich guy, I mean if such a rich guy wants it so badly how good must it be? If it was a common model he could have just bought it himself but more importantly how did Alex get such a thing, he wasnt rich or powerful nor did he have ties to a tech company so how exactly did he get it? Well thinking about it wouldnt solve the question instead it was better to get their hands on such a thing. The situation quickly escalated and Alex knew he would be busted if anyone got their hand on his phone and realized it had better specs than their computers. He quickly put it away and glared at Ray
"Dont look at me like that, I might blush."
"I will let you play with it if you help me."
What else could he do? He could hide it but, that would just put more attention on him. Letting Ray play with it was just the lesser evil
"Young master is wise. Everyone listen up! Anyone who gets to the cafeteria within 5 mins will receive a free drink from me!"
Who doesnt love free stuff? Especially with such a short time limit giving them no real time to think, phones can be bought but free stuff is only given with opportunity. Everyone rushed to the cafe and Ray passed a message, having 40% of the shares comes with a lot of privileges. Such as the reduction of available drinks or removal of the expensive ones, dont underestimate the words 'free drinks' it would cost a lot to let so many people drink as much as they wished and as a wise sage once said every penny is a good penny.
"Here you go, just so you know it was all your fault and I want it back by the time I go home"
Locking up his private files and porn he passed the phone to Ray who immediately started playing with its camera taking selfies and just random pictures like he would actually get to keep them. Alex vowed to delete those as soon as he got the phone back. After a while of playing Ray looked at Alex seriously and said
"So where did you really get this phone? Its better than my computer."
Ray wasnt an idiot, especially not an idiot in a computer course.
"Do I have to say?"
"No you dont but, I will pay you 50 grand for it"
Such a price would never be offered for a phone, unless you planned to figure out how to make it. Ray's father was a realestate company owner although he had nothing to do with technology he knew a few companies which bought land from him which did. Ray being his son planned to use those connections to start his own tech company and this phone seemed too good to pass up regardless of how it ended up in Alex's hand.
Alex knew of his ambitions as he often joked about making his own company or hiring Alex often met with a joke of his own. The hiring might be a joke but seeing Ray in a computer related course he knew the company was not. He thought of selling the phone but decided against it as even if he could not reverse engineer it, someone might decide to get its production method from the source and the only one who knew the source was. Him. Although he might be a bit late to cover up he decided to salvage as much as possible besides, 50 grands may seem a lot but if his plan worked out as well as he thought it would such little cash would mean nothing! He would then buy a real manual which wouldnt come from a shady source, assuming the app wouldnt fuck him over.
"Its kind of the only one of its kind so I dont want to sell it, thanks for thinking highly of it. I will tell my friend that you want one too"
"Please do"
Ray returned the phone once the conversation was finished as if his time limit was up. Alex got lost in his thoughts as usual and silence filled the classroom with only the two of them. Alex for the first time felt an urgent need for something to truly defend himself. So what if he wouldnt be damaged by bullets? It just means the enemy doesnt need to worry about killing him when trying to capture him. So what if he has a gun which can kill them with a single shot? He wasnt trained to use it. He decided to look up something to help him aim in the apocalypse market when he got home.
As if on queue the love letter girl came in class
"Amelia I am not in the mood for it, for the last time I wouldnt send you a love letter if it killed me"
Alex not in the mood to play with her, lashed out at her perhaps due to the fear of danger or anger at his careless self.
"Thats not.. Alex could we talk in private for a while?"
A bit apologetic for lashing out earlier, he agreed. The two of them went to a corner and she asked him about how he made those items look like they glitched out and disappear, was he a magician practicing his magic tricks?
"I was just practicing magic tricks I learnt online. want me to show you?"
She nodded and he picked up a random item laying around, took out the toy gun and shot it. Today seemed to be the day his carelessness would bite him, first the phone now the playing around. He just wished to get today over with quickly.
"Whats this weird toy gun, it look magical."
"Let me tell you a secret Amelia."