My stomach growled, as I stepped outside the street lined up with hotels, and inhaled deeply.
"Hmm, something's off? The air feels different from that of my Earth."
I raised my hand and waved it into the air.
"Could it be pollution then? Maybe.. Global warming was a very sought after issue by politicians after all, even in my time. I wonder what happened to the ice caps?"
As I walked out of the narrow streets, slowly, the noise of the crowd filled my ears. To my surprise, I had entered a very crowded market.
"It's rare to see so many people on floor 27. Could it be this crowded usually?"
A man near me, selling fruits on a stall, called me out.
"Real fruits at the price of reyal ones. Hurry up and buy them, only a few left."
"Old man, I'm pretty sure your stall is filled up to the brim."
I teased, and why not. There wasn't too much harm to come out of a light hearted joke. It felt refreshing to be able to see a big crowd in the open, because I had spent a few days confined with too many restrictions. I realized that the androids in the underground neighbourhood felt the same and could relate with their sense of entrapment.
"Hey I can challenge you, these will sell out in the next thirty minutes. Real fruits at the price of reyal ones. Hurry up and buy them, only a few left."
"What even are reyal fruits, that you're so proud of not having."
"Eh? Don't you know, reyal fruits are fake? They're lab grown for sustainability. Boy you were acting quite the critic not too long ago, weren't you?"
I instantly came to regret asking him. I was completely new to this world and there was a lot I didn't know. Asking very basic and cliche questions that people would expect a toddler to ask, coming from me would raise suspicion.
"I was only checking to see if you weren't a toddler, doing business on the streets."
"tch- shouldn't have said that."
The fruit seller pushed me, and I knew it was time to leave. I had challenged his authenticity, experience, and patience, without a good reason. It was better for me to leave that place and continue finding the address of the money lender.
"Excuse me sir, do you know where to find block 17, Layer 4, Northern quadrant?"
"Sure. Just go ahead into that street over there, and turn left. Keep walking and you'll eventually find it."
"Thanks a lot."
I kept asking for directions at small intervals, instead of relying on common sense. It wasn't very helpful in an advanced world of magic and technology. At Least right now, for me it was a good idea to ask as much as possible.
Apart from the time when I was into action, I was actually a very goofy person. From eating food, to doing laundry, I preferred living life in a candid way. It seemed ridiculous to expand my brain power to do things perfectly, even if those menial tasks didn't really stir a big change. For people who cannot change the world, their happiness rests in perfectly handling each and every single task that comes their way perfectly. For me, however, perfection was not the priority. I found beauty in things that caused the world to change no matter how imperfect they were. Being managed, neat and composed was important, but not at the cost of losing the essence of success, the very goal that required these smaller traits as prerequisites. The journey didn't matter, it was always the destination for me that excited me.
As I walked along the path, the directions made even more sense. The entire floor was divided into four quadrants and each layer of the map represented a circumambulation of the entire floor, but with a different radius from the centre of the floor. There were a total of 23 layers, meaning 23 different circumambulations were possible around the center of the floor. It was like a racetrack, with each track leading all the way to the start, right after its finish. This meant that the farthest track, the first one, was the longest, and the twenty third was the shortest track. The infrastructure was built between the tracks, and the tracks served as roads for transportation, with the middle ones usually reserved for buses and trains and the shorter ones mostly reserved for offices and shops. The farther away I went from the center, the more the scenery transformed from economically valuable, to residentially valuable. The sound of cars and people faded away as well, and eventually, I arrived at layer 4.
"Good. Now each block has around eight houses, and the address doesn't specify the house number, but the block number is clear."
I walked until I reached block 17, and unlike the other houses on the street, which although were large and seemed a better product of architecture and planning, were nothing compared to the one most prominent in block number 17. It stood out clearly, amongst the other houses, disbalancing the landscape and still making it look prettier by sitting comfortable amongst the other inferior ones around it.
"Woahhhhhh! Anyways, I need to act tough. I have no idea how to go about with this scheme."
"Huh? I forgot that finding a doorbell is the toughest part of being in this world!!!!!!!!"
I tried looking for the doorbell, while grinding my teeth and cursing the architects of this world.
"You fools, what do you think I'm here to do, play your stupid games? I know damn well there's a load of cameras here, but you just want to watch me figure it out you damn fools!! Aaaaaaaaaarrr"
While I pulled my hair in frustration, my body snooping into the mud in front of the lawn looking for a button or a switch to ring the bell, a big car approached from behind, its headlights lighting up the now grey and dim street. The artificial moonlight wasn't enough to throw it's light at the ends of the floor, so for a moment I was relieved, until I realised that this car had stopped right outside the gates of this house, and that it was the same type of car which had stopped in front of me, on Banana Junction.
"This is bad. I can't imagine why that troubling woman with a screeching nasal voice would come here. I don't really want to be forced into doing bad things, and I can't even run to the police."
The door of the car opened, and out stepped a tall woman with silver hair and brown skin, wearing a metallic armour, which slid towards the exotic end. Her ethnicity resembled, in my world, that of middle eastern or south asian origin. Her brown and silver eyes too, seemed to reflect her shimmering power, as if she controlled the atmosphere itself. Although I found her to be extraordinarily beautiful, I didn't dare to look at her, because of the strange magical aura emanating from her, so heavy and dense that it was making me feel sick.
As I stood transfixed in my place, waiting for her to say something to me, but she simply ignored my presence, walking past me without casting a single glance my way.
"I don't know about this place, but there was no information regarding this woman in the businessman's memory. She's not someone anyone would forget so easily. That leaves two conclusions. She's either a customer just like him, so they're not acquitted. Or she's the boss who rarely shows up at the office. Either way, I had found a path that could lead me to the solution.
"But is it wise to make a move right now? If she moves a finger, I'm sure I'll have to jump aside. Tch. I may hate this, but I simply can't see an opening. Should I just leave for now, and come back later?"
"You, standing there. I do not need your service anymore, so get lost."
"I'll- go then."
I slowly turned around, finding my feet to have gained a thousand pounds of weight. As I slowly raised my feet, to start walking away, the woman jumped in the air, and landed right in front of me, breaking the road under her.
"What the hell are you doing here? DId someone send you here?"
"No- that's not it. I-"
I had to unwind myself out of this fancy situation, before I could get further entangled into it. There was too much that I didn't know, and the last thing I could afford to do was to be discovered as an intruder in this foreign world. Surely, this was an event, the person or people who were responsible for sending me in the future, didn't want occurring.
There were three things that were most important. To be able to not get found out as an outsider, without as much as a simple neurochip installed in my body. The second was to try and extract some information out of her without being caught. The third was to not get hit by her, perhaps the most important objective I needed to fulfil in the moment.
Immediately after these absolute conditions had been decided upon by me, I felt a strange push in my gut, followed by the realisation that I was flying across the street.
"Dammit, I got hit?!"
Right at the moment when I was preparing for impact, the woman's image vanished from in front of me, and she appeared within a second to grab me before I crashed into the wall.
"I care about the neighbors so I can't let your crash damage their property. You're lucky.".
"You call this luck? You witch!"
I quickly made sure my anti-thought intrusion magicode was working. Surprisingly it was as I saw the magic circle tirelessly work in my mind, and hadn't crashed when I had been hit. Maybe I had grown used to sudden unfortunate events.
"You're not here to work, are you?"
"No. I'm here to talk to the money lender about something."
I had no choice but to speak the truth. Playing factual hide and seek with her wasn't a wise way for me to tackle the situation, and she wasn't the type to go along with cheap tricks either.
"Oh, the money lender? You're a customer then?"
"I apologize, but I'm not a customer. I just have to talk to the moneylender regarding an important matter. I have come in good faith."
Although unnecessary, I had to add kind words. Maybe they'd eventually save my life or something.
"Ok, then. I'm interested in what you have to say about the money lender, which is so important that you'd even risk your life for it."
"Well, I'm not willingly risking my life for anything, but none of that is of concern to you is it?"
"I'd prefer to remain unhurt, though."
It was better to clarify to this person that I was not a fan of self sacrifice. I had decided that if the negotiation failed, I would back off faster than the speed of light, from this place. I was already in a risky situation, and my identity as an outsider was on the line. If asked about my background or credibility, I was in a very disadvantageous situation already. I needed to steer the conversation away from things like trust, then, and talk about mercy. If that was not enough, maybe I'd implement a magi-code to read the money lender's memory, but doing such a thing in front of her could risk my secret. Then, I wouldn't be able to escape. I also had to demonstrate some amount of power, because no sane person would have the guts to negotiate with a moneylender backed by someone as powerful as this woman. The thoughts seeping in accumulated in my prefrontal cortex, and draining away on my mental strength. I closed my mind to relax, and walked with her. Instead of opening the gate, a room that had been attached to the rest of the house, from the first floor, detached itself and levitated down towards us, and then the walls vanished. The woman stepped into the room, which was carpeted, and decorated with multiple paintings and a lamp like decoration piece, which glowed pink and orange. I too stepped inside the room, and the walls appeared once again. I was looking at it in awe, and felt the room move, as if I were on an elevator. Smart architecture of this level was impressive, but exactly which force was behind moving such heavy objects so easily, and joining and detaching them so skillfully? Were these buildings even stable?
"The way you are eyeing everything around, tells me you're not from around here."
"Oh.. I'm interested in smart architecture. It's always been an inspiration to me, you see. I apologize for looking too closely."
"Hahaha. No problem at all, I was just asking. You can keep watching as much as you like. I like smart architecture myself."
"Can't believe she bought it. I don't know two and two of smart architecture. I hope this lie doesn't return to bite me later."
"What is it that you would like to discuss with the money lender?"
This question coming from her was a strong indication that she was a customer, which was a relief. Had she been the boss of the money landing mafia, things would have been more complicated.
"Well, you see. The money lender gave a certain man's son a lot of money. The businessman, whose son was a customer, lost that in a bad investment. The businessman is quite rich himself, but this has come as a big blow for him, especially since he recently lost his wife as well. I just wanted to tell the moneylender, that this businessman who now has to deal with two problems, wouldn't say it but needs some time to bring that sum of money back. Don't you think it'd be a nice thing to do to help him out?"
I felt bad, for sugar coating the fact that I was going to try exploiting the moneylenders' secrets to earn money for myself, and that saving the businessman was a very secondary task. I had decided not to be evil like I used to be back in the past. This chance had occurred to me, when I had carelessly been the reason for an entire city to be destroyed, and the weight of the people killed had been a very burdensome load to shake off. The girl Sarah, who had died, by the hands of her idol, was too innocent to understand how bad I was. I had gotten another chance, and destroying it while sitting in guilt was the worst way to deal with the tragedy. If I were to save lives using the potential I had, maybe I would burn in a lesser hell than the one I had readied for myself. Sadely, this didn't change the way I did things. At heart, I was a hacker, and to arrive at a better destination, I was going to use the old tactics still. My end destination had changed, but the processes I had adopted were largely unchanged. Without those processes, I was a powerless nobody after all. Abandoning those procedures, meant throwing away the power to choose my destination freely.
Had I fooled myself then, into believing that the journey didn't matter, because I was powerless to change that?
"Do you think the money lender will listen to you?"
The woman asked me, smiling.
"I don't know. It's worth trying."
A small jolt indicated that the room had reattached itself with the rest of the building.
"Let's get moving."
"You seem familiar with this place. Do you deal with the money lender often?"
"Yes. He works under me. I am the head of the Souls family of Air, the boss of all moneylenders. And you are?"
"This has become a problem."
I jumped almost, backwards in terror. Was she from that type of family, the doctor in the underground neighborhood had mentioned?
"Then, that means… you're a radioactive. The global elite?!"
My voice had turned rough and my throat dry. Why was she telling me this now? What was the purpose of catching me off guard? I had no idea. I only hoped that she wouldn't kill me or something. I made multiple checks to make sure my anti-thought intrusion magi-code was working, and multiple windows of it opened in my brain. I had never done this before, but I clicked the panel on the right, above the screen in my mind where the magic circle effortlessly revolved in a circle, a sign that it was working.
Attempted intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 10,100,407
Successful intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 0
Threat level: Critical
"Ten million intrusions? All this time, she didn't trust me for a second. I can't believe it."
I quickly rechecked the values by refreshing the window, and almost fell on the ground in horror.
Attempted intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 10,158,478
Successful intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 0
Threat level: Critical
Attempted intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 10,998,143
Successful intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 0
Threat level: Critical
Attempted intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 11,042,180
Successful intrusions in the last 5 minutes: 1
Threat level: Critical+
"I need to get a grip, or I'll be devoured, in this advanced, foreign world."
At that moment, I decided that if I needed to survive in this world, and be able to achieve my goals, holding back and running away was the wrong answer. If I was the person I believed to be, I was going to go all out.
"Listen there. I don't care how strong you are. Quit violating my privacy immediately."
The door of the room opened, and a group of men, all dressed in white suits kneeled down in front of the woman. A very big man in the front who seemed to be their leader spoke.
"Welcome back, Princess Laiba. Please let us escort you to your headquarters."
"Hello there, Bart. Thanks for welcoming me with the team, but I've told you to stop greeting me like that. It's cringe."
"Heh? Cringe!!! That buzzword made it to this place too!"
"First, look at this guy here. He wanted to speak to you, so get done with it first. I can wait."
The princess, called Laiba, was acknowledging these men firmly, but had a hint of care and acquaintance in her voice for them. The threat that I had sensed was not there. The man in the front seemed surprised, but then straightened his face, and stood up.
"Speak. And hurry up, we do not like to keep our Princess standing."
With a strange flow of events, I found myself in possession of the stage, and this was my chance to lay out my case intelligently. There was no chance of mistake, a slip up, or stuttering. I had to clearly choose my words, and I opted for the strong, mysterious tone. I had to sound powerful, for I stood in front of powerful people.
"My name is Hasumi. I've come here to speak to you. The matter is regarding a certain businessman, who's son borrowed a large amount of money from you. He lost the money in a bad investment, and the payment to you is due. Unfortunately he's been troubled and I think you should cut him some slack."
The man was silent for a few moments, and then turned to face the princess.
"Did it work?"
At first it seemed that the silence that followed my petition was a good sign. A ray of hope. Unfortunately, this theory was proven untrue when all the men started laughing hysterically.
"Hey kid, I'll let this slide for now, because I don't like causing discomfort to our Princess. Her presence has saved you. But if you return here again, know that I'll give you a beating."
The man casually slapped me, the force exerted from his hand pushing me backwards. I used that time of impact however, to read his memories.
This time I wasn't going to waste a second in attacking him.
"Bart. Are you going to tell Princess Laiba, or should I tell her in your stead, what you did when the news of her Late husband's tragedy spread around on the news?"
This was enough to cause a screaming silence. All the men who had been laughing just now, went quiet, their voices disappearing like water flowing down the drain. At the same time, the Princess who had seemed detached from the entire situation seemed attentive, as she smiled, looking judgingly at Bart.
"Ara!? Now the situation seems to have gotten interesting."
"Go on, Bart. Is there anything she should know?"