Lukas, Embezzler, and the two PE's encompassing their front and back made an abrupt turn off the wide and roomy main corridor. He could see now how much Briareus cared about people like him. The hallway they'd stepped into was hardly wide enough for two people and had a very minimal look to it. Featureless off-white walls accompanied the smooth dark grey floor and ceiling, presumably all plastic. The only light source was multiple LED circle lights inset into the ceiling, which gave every surface a flat profile. It reminded him of a bathroom stall that'd just dragged on forever: the only difference was that around every 6 meters, a set of white sliding doors were in-set on each wall. Each door had a keycard keypad combo lock on each side of them. They kept walking for what seemed like forever, but in reality, they'd only passed four door sets when they stopped.
The front PE turned around to Embezzler. "20345, Jamie Ward?" Embezzler, or now Jamie, nodded. The PE pulled out a Keycard from his waist belt and swiped the keypad on the right door, making it give off a Bwomp type noise as the card reader accepted the card. The door then gave an off-kilter grinding noise as it slid open. "Follow me." The PE and Jamie then entered the room but not before giving Lukas a side-eyed "you see this place" look. The door shut behind them with almost no sound.
Now that there was no one in front of him, he could see the hallway stretch on for another 7 or 8 sets of rooms.
The PE behind him spoke up, startling Lukas as he forgot he was there. "20346, Lukas Banning, I presume?."
Lukas turned around to face the PE who wasn't looking at him, instead focussed on something on his holo-HUD. "Yea, that's me."
"Good, your room's opposite to his. Less walking for me." The PE idly pushed Lukas' to the right to make room for him to gain entry to the room.
'Fucking rude.'
After gaining enough leeway in the hallway, the PE repeated the same actions as the other did, opening the door with the same off-kilter grind. As they began to walk in, Lukas immediately noticed the cool rush of air and vacant hotel room like smell. Not like a grand hotel, more like a one night stop and go hotel that's smell was more human instead of person, and shelter instead of room. As the PE walked in more, Lukas could see the entirety of the room. After a tiny entryway hallway, one would be brought into a combination living room-bedroom where there was a plastic square-framed bunk bed pushed into the left side, a duplex set of drawers built into the farthest wall, and a tall inset panel screen on the right.
'Bunk beds? That means there are a whole lot more people packed into this place than I thought. Oh, Fates, I'm going to have to have a roommate? I hope it's at least not some disgusting slob. Oh, I can't complain, I'm probably going to be the disgusting slob.'
Even more into the room and he could spot a divet in the wall just before the bed started. It was another pseudo-hallway that had two doors. Lukas assumed one of them was the bathroom, but he didn't know what the other one contained.
'At least we, or, my roommate and I will get our own bathroom.' Lukas had been in multiple apartments where that luxury wasn't a given.
The PE fiddled with what appeared to be a wrist-mounted PDA of sorts before turning back toward Lukas and started speaking in a dejected tone, "So, this is your humble abode." He then paused what he was doing with his hand held over the screen. "What do you want your PIN to be, it has to be five digits long. Don't make it something stupid and guessable."
A. 'What if I can't change this, it could be what I use for a very long time, hmm. I guess any number will do; I don't have any sentimental ones.'
"Why don't you give me one? I can't come up with any good ones" Lukas shrugged.
The PE sighed and resumed messing with his PDA. "Your new pin's 5592. Remember it and don't give it to anyone. You'll use that pin to enter this room, get lunch from the canteen, and buy things from the store. You-"
Lukas' face scrunched in confusion. "With what? All my accounts were forfeited to Briarius."
The man took a deep breath. "If you'd let me finish. As you work off your debt, you'll be given credit based on your work ethic. You can use this like currency to buy things like decorations, better food, or directly pay off your debt. You'll find more information about this using this PDA." He then pulled a small device similar to the one he was using out of one of the pouches on his waist belt and handed it to Lukas.
Lukas turned it over and around, looking at it closely. It consisted of a self correcting wrist strap on each end, two metal squares that'd house the electronics, and a crystal clear screen connecting the two. Lukas strapped it onto his right arm and then turned it on via a power button on the bottom side. The well known golden Briareus double B logo faded into view, then transitioned into a login screen.
"your username is your first and last name, all lowercase, and your password is your PIN."
Lukas entered the information, and the login screen transitioned by expanding the page out of view to show an intro screen with the Briareus logo on top of a bright blue background. It then faded into two separate panels split vertically. The left panel was Navy blue with an icon of a hand holding a ratchet wrench over a text that said, "Work". The right panel was royal purple with an icon of a shopping tote on it over text that said, "Shop".
'It seems they spared no expense on this UI. So complex and.. beautiful.'
"Ok, any questions?"
"Well, how do I-"
"No, ok. Bye. You'll find more information on your work tab. Have fun, and welcome to Melnar 1."
"But how do-" The PE'd already left the room. Lukas walked after him, but when he got past the open door, he saw the man already several door sets down the hallway.
'Just how fast does this guy walk. The absolute nerve.'
He sighed, then skulked backward into his room, slapping the close door button on the panel left of him. Lukas sat down on the bottom bunk and began to fiddle with the device given to him.