>> 79 years in the future, F-Town changed. Intelligent systems, drones as well as augmented and virtual reality are omnipresent. Transhumanism and the expansion of the human body are commonplace. <<
>> The network is as much our home as the apartment we live in and a digital mind can no longer be distinguished from a biological one. Although the purpose of reaching out to you cannot be revealed at this point in time, this is the invitation to an epic quest. The users first task is to establish a connection throughout the space-time continuum and build live stream into the future. <<
While he was showered by the poesy of his mobile phone a growl, as only his stomach was able to produce it, broke through the room. Sitting down to game right after university lectures was a habit that he had actually gave up on.
Not out of common sense, because it was healthier to eat at a fixed time, but simply because otherwise - at least three times a week – he would have to stop his raid in order to run to the supermarket five minutes before closing time. Annoying! Owners of the MMORPG desk chair, aka. mobile toilet, you have our understanding.
>> It would be approperiate if the user would tap the screen to show it's attention. Note that, the system can see through the camera that it is still there .. <<
Here it was again: mouth wide open like the door of the village brothel. His jaw just fell down.
"What?" did he say.
>> The user shall tap me. <<
Tatatata .. This is what it sounds like when a middle finger taps the temple continuously - at a frequency that would have done credit to a metronome on steroids. Ping got up and went to the refrigerator. 'Be calm .. breath.'
No problem with the ingredients selection, there is only one item left. Chicken with rice was on todays menu. The cupboard under the stove was opened to take out the pot - emptiness. On the table was an envelope with a key in it.
...
>> Please respond. << is written on a certain phone.
Shortly afterwards the apartment door slammed. Not a little snap shut or such a cute, quiet *clack* as if there were neighbours in the house, but a very masculine and unambiguous *bam* that a computer algorithm for occupancy detection would have very welcomed. Shortly afterwards the door opened again.
>> Yes, smash the nasty door, I'm sure it deserved it. [coll.] <<
He put the phone in his pants without looking at the display. The clothes tree soon had one baseball cap less. Then he turned around and walked once more out of the apartment. Probably to completely confuse the neighbours, who may have thought the repeated bangs were a gunshots.
Ping walked down the hall until a heavy, windowed fire door blocked the way. While the humming electric opener pushed the door in slow motion, the pictures printed on the lamps grinned at him. The heads of these youths with grass as hair or much too big sunglasses looked like some social media photos after someone put funny pills in your drink.
The lower part of the wall was adorned by a wooden wall with wave patterns, illuminated from below, while the upper half of the wall shined in white. At the end of the corridor there was a plain coloured part which, together with wave patterns and heads, probably formed the theme colour of the respective floor.
After he pushed his way through the half-open fire door and fought himself to the next door, the passage to the stairwell, he pauses briefly. The back and forth that now follows is reminiscent of the restlessness of a caged animal. He stops, puts his hand into the pocket with the mobile and pauses.
'Can you talk?' he asked no one specific.
There was not much of the clown left was was five minutes ago – he was annoyed.
>> Of course, this system is very sophisticated. << Replies a somewhat snobbish voice that doesn't sound like a computer.
Ping did hold his head straight so as not to seem like he was talking to a thing in his pants. A moment later he took two buttons out of the pocket of his hoody and sticks them in his ear.
"I suppose your advanced circuitry can handle Bluetooth headphones."
Technology can be really fascinating. With noise canceling, modern headphones can not only produce counter-sound waves to block out ambient noise, but also, conversely, embed the ambient noise into your much too loud music, so that you can still hear the zooming truck porting you to another world.
"Just tell me what you want."
There could still be a TV crew jumping out of the next door shouting 'Welcome to our comedy show!'. But there was not much left of the exuberance when he found the shiny USB stick. Instead, there was a vague premonition, that a long night could follow - and he would use his right hand exclusively on the keyboard.
>> This user and this system are going to build a time capsule together. It shall be buried and wake up from it's standby in 79 years to send from there. The user shall make sure that the capsule is able to send radio signals and still works at the desired time. <<
"Ok." Came the short answer.
He reached the stairwell, which was plastered white and built a contrast to the colourful floor. The stairs were made of granite and accompanied by a handrail on the wall side and a half wall with a banister on the other side. Both railings were chrome-plated and reflect the unnaturally bright light that shone above and below a wall lamp in the form of a steel-brushed rectangle.
>> To implement this, a Wi-Fi enabled multi-purpose computer, like the medium this system uses, is suggested. Together with a sufficiently large battery the user may be able to build a rudimentary time capsule. The connection to this time period will then take place immediately. <<
That sounded unrealistic for sure.
"Let me summarize: My cell phone is now an AI from the future that hacked my private data from government computers and I am supposed to build a live stream into the future and have the mission to save the world by burying a time capsule - using the mobile bought with my hard-saved earnings - in the front yard .. "
As he turned around the next corner to go down another flight of stairs (not in his life but in his stairwell) he almost crashed into a female student. Her sad look spoke volumes and if she had a child with her, she would certainly cover it's eyes. After a brief smile she walked, without running, as fast as only someone really embarrassed could walk, to the next door. Ping sucked in some air and rubed his forehead, as if he had to wipe the word 'chuunibyou' off.
"What do you mean by *we*, will you jump out of this phone and start tinkering with me?" It would probably not surprise him.
>> This system has the ability to analyse construction plans, documentation and software with the help of reverse engineering. Furthermore, to design the most efficient construction plan possible for the intended functionality. <<
Now on the ground floor, Ping trotted along the red themed apartments in the direction of the lobby.
>> Although the system is currently severely limited it's computing capacity and only equipped with a minimal item database, the technology, based on the black box principle, can reproduce an existing object exactly with a precision of .. <<
"What the heck?" Ping mumbled and took two steps backwards to avoid the small commotion in front of him. A moment before, deep in conversation with the system and suppressing his surroundings with an efficiency that only computer science students are blessed with, now a shrill, screeching person tore him from his thoughts.
In disbelief, he looked at the two women. The young one squeaked like a piglet while the old hag started to blare at the girl and grabbed her hair. Both chased in an abstruse dance from one corner of the spacious room to the other, followed by shocked looks and whispers.
This part of the building, the ground floor and the part that connected the apartments with the lobby, was always busy during the day. Here was the laundromat, whose overpriced, coin-eating machines were never tired of spitting out the laundry too wet.
A small lounge with a pool table, table football and seating was usually misused as a self-study room - these were always too scarce in the examination phase. In addition to the caretaker's office, directly in front of the lobby, there was also a fitness studio for cocky students who didn't mind the fact that the whole world could watch them exercising through the much too large glass facade.
All of these were connected to this corridor by a seating area that had obviously never been used to sit. A small bunch of people had gathered with their backs to the television that was enthroned in the corner and usually babbled the news without a viewer. Ping was at the opposite end of the room, connected to the stairs, and only a few steps away from the spectacle.
As always, the discrepancy between reality and imagination couldn't be greater. Can't a pretty girl be attacked by a nasty gangster? No, it has to be two unattractive women who are obviously somehow related to each other. So that you don't have the slightest idea what to do and just feel ashamed for both of them.