Chapter 43 - Stagnation?

After telling the taxi driver where we were going, I told him to hurry up.

The taxi driver, unexpectedly hearing my words, slowly stopped the car and pulled over to the side of the road. the fat man turned around, creaking in his seat.

Since the fat man could not turn his body fully around, he turned his fat neck and looked at me.

I waited for him to speak, wondering why he had stopped, even though I had told him to hurry up in a tone that showed how much of a hurry I was in.

Even his speech was as slow as his movements.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I will have to ask you to step out of the car."

"Someone's life is in danger and you must drive fast!"

"Sir, please calm down first"

"Victor, please just get out of the car. And find another taxi. And don't ever tell anyone to be fast again."

As I looked at the man too lazy to even blink, I involuntarily started to smile in annoyance. The smile was a foreshadowing of the punch that would land on his face in the next moment, but fortunately, I heard Victor's voice in my head.

"Why would I tell a taxi driver not to speed?"

"Because if you tell a taxi driver to be fast, he will think you are in danger."

"And isn't that exactly why it should be fast?"

"Oww, man! You started talking to yourself."

"You shut your mouth!"

"Because this is H-town. Nobody wants to risk their life here. Every single person who enters this city has at least two hundred years of life span left. If you're in a hurry and someone finds out, nobody will take you there."

"Bro chill! I don't know what's wrong with you, but I'll help you for sure, just calm down first."

*Pat*

"Why did you punch him!"

Instead of answering Victor's question, I got out of the back seat of the car, opened the front seat door and dragged the overweight man with long hair out of the car.

"If you want to save your mom, you have to stop being such a pussy about getting arrested for a few days, right? More importantly, I am the one who is arrested, not you."

"Uh, thanks."

*Car engine running sound*

"Watch out! If you hold the top of the steering centre with your right hand, the vehicle will realize that you are not the owner of the car and will stop on its own by watching the sign on your hand"

As I got back on the highway and quickly passed the cars, all of which were perfectly obeying the speeding rules, I tilted my head a little at little Victor's words and looked under the top of the steering wheel. I saw that there was a small black window there.

"Is it reading the mark on my hand and not my fingerprint?"

"Yes, just like a fingerprint, the mark on our hand is personalized for everyone. And it has a much more complex microscopic structure than a fingerprint, and like a fingerprint, it is unlikely to be similar to another person's fingerprint."

"Tell me what you know about this city while I keep driving."

"Okay."

------------- 7 minutes later

When I listened to what little Victor told me, I realized how limited the things I had learned from the internet were. Almost all the things written on the internet were from the perspective of the people in this city.

As far as he told me, not in every city, but in developed cities like this one, the internet works especially only for that city. He also heard from his classmates that there was another internet network that the whole world could use together, but it was kind of a crime to enter there.

I parked the taxi in front of a large company building, putting aside my curiosity about what could be called the dark web.

As I ignored the two security guards waiting in the bureau and went straight to the elevator, I was still thinking about what little Victor had said about S city.

"Hey, where do you think you're going!"

"Stop right there!"

The elevator doors closed as two guards ran towards me and the elevator started moving towards the fourteenth floor.

Little Victor told me that City S was both the least populated and the richest city in the world. Little Victor told me that it was also known as Paradise.

Unfortunately, before I could ask more about it, I saw that the number on the elevator had stopped changing. Thinking that it was the security guards who had stopped the elevator, I decided to continue on my way by using the ventilation on the roof of the elevator after looking at the hard-looking door of the elevator for a short while.

But when I wanted to move my hands that I had clasped together on my chest, I realized that I couldn't move.

Confused, I forced myself to move my body and I was sure that I couldn't do anything.

Neither my hands and arms nor my eyelids or even my eyeballs were moving in any way.

Remembering the speed reading training I had received in my previous life, I forcefully focused my vision towards my hands without moving my eyeballs.

Unfortunately, this change of view was very limited and did not help me at all.

It turns out that the reason for the elevator stopping was not the security guards. Oh wait, the technology of this world can't be so advanced that it can freeze people like this, can it?

"Why aren't you moving? The elevator stopped. The security guards will be here soon, do something! Please."

Well, at least now I know that the technology level of this world is not that far advanced.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

Yes, I can hear you...

"Hey Victor! Come on, now is not the time for this. Mom's life could be in danger."

Hmm... Hmm... Hmm... Yeah, after thinking about it for a while, I decided I had no idea. I guess I'm not going to think about it anymore.

"Ahh, what are you doing! Victor stop! It hurts! It hurts so much!"