"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."
2
Not just his eyes. Something must be wrong with his ears too.
Dice curiously spoke out loudly towards the smart speaker nearest to him, "Hello?"
However, there was no response.
He remembered the idle conversations from his engineering friends about using smart accessories at home.
"Alexa? Siri? Google?"
Dice fell into deep thought.
"Adjust temperature?"
Nothing.
"Alexa, lower temperature."
Nothing.
"Change lighting color!"
He tried to speak out more commands, his voice louder with each attempt, yet it seemed like he's talking to the wall.
Was this place's AI not as intuitive as Jarvis in Iron Man? Would it only respond to a specific name?
It made sense to him. Afterall, Alexa was a female voice, and the voice that he heard was male.
'Does Alexa have a male counterpart?'
"Alex, turn off the lights!"
Still nothing.
Dice walked around, checking the dining room and the kitchen, even going as far as to check the ensuite bathroom of the bedroom where he woke up. The place was empty. There was no person aside from him.
How come he's alone?
"...did I book a hotel's penthouse myself? Do they come with smart appliances nowadays? And they decorate their walls with weapons?"
He pulled one of the fancy-looking assault rifles from the wall. It had about seventy or eighty percent similarity to a Daewoo Precision Industries K2 assault rifle, the standard service rifle of the South Korean military.
'It's heavy!'
Dice had just recently left the military. There was no way he could be mistaken.
"A real fucking weapon. Which psycho…Am I in trouble…. You gotta be bullshitting me," Dice said, becoming more puzzled and scared as time went by.
To his surprise, the AI with a toneless male voice activated again. He almost dropped the rifle.
[Now searching 'bullshitting me']
Dice hurriedly returned the rifle to the shelf.
[I'm sorry. I don't know how to respond to that]
The AI responded? But he didn't give a command.
Dice had an idea. He minced the words he last uttered, and after several attempts, he realized that similar to the voice-operated virtual assistants he had seen on ads, the AI of the penthouse responded only to commands after its name was called out.
Its name was apparently 'Tabi' or 'Tubby', something with a similar pronunciation to 'Tah-bee'.
If Dice's voice was recognized and registered in its database, didn't that mean the AI was connected to his phone?
"Tubby, call Baek Seojin."
[Checking contacts. No person in the contacts list.]
"Tubby, call Annoying Seojin."
[Checking contacts. No person in the contacts list.]
"Tubby, call Seojin."
[Checking contacts. No person in the contacts list.]
"Tubby, call Jin."
[Checking contacts. Two people found.]
Finally!
To his dismay, he had no idea who those two Jins were. He tried giving more commands to call. He tried his brother, his classmates, his army colleagues, but all attempts were fruitless. He discovered that none of his family or friends were in his contact list.
Dice was truly confused this time.
He then slapped his forehead.
'Stupid! Am I still half-asleep?'
Of course, this suite was not his own place, but a stranger's house. It would be odd if a stranger knew his friend's phone number.
But how come Tubby followed his commands? Did the owner register his voice to the smart system last night? Why would the owner do that?
"Tubby, call Lee Suho," he commanded.
Lee Suho was Dice's real name.
[Calling mobile…]
Dice sharpened his senses, trying to locate his own phone via its ringtone.
Sadly, even this attempt was a failure. There were no sounds aside from his own breathing.
Dice tried again.
"Tubby, call +82XXXXXXX"
To his surprise, the number was said to not exist. Not 'can't be reached' or 'busy', but 'does not exist'.
'But that's my number? I just ordered delivery using it yesterday!'
"Ugh. I give up. My brain cells can't keep up with all this without coffee. Should I just patiently wait for the house's owner to return? It's gonna be awkward, but I have no choice but to say I don't remember what happened last night."
Dice dryly rubbed his face with a hand before sitting on the couch.
'Let's just play with Tubby.'
"Tubby, drum roll, please."
[Okay.]
Then, an audio of an actual drumroll played from the speakers.
"Tubby, meow."
[Meow]
"Tubby, what is your master's name?"
This time, Dice finally got a decent yet unexpected response.
"Master's name is Lee Suho."
His dark eyes widened.
'Same name as mine?'
This kind of place was something he could never afford to buy even if he was to save up all his paychecks from his part-time job for the next three, no, five years. That was considering he didn't have bills to pay, and that he wouldn't need to buy groceries.
Maybe if he worked for ten years… still no, right?
Lee Suho, a.k.a Dice, was your average university student. Unless he won the national lottery, then it would be impossible for him to own this place.
Dice looked around, trying to see anything in the living room that would give away the identity of the real penthouse owner, but there was not a single framed picture on the shelves or the wall. In fact, the entire place was spotlessly clean of personal items, to the point it gave off a brand new feel.
As if not only the gadgets and furniture, even the penthouse itself was recently purchased and refurbished.
For the first time since he woke up, Dice felt something more than curiosity.
Fear.
Fear of the unknown.
'Time to bolt out of here before the police burst in.'
He didn't know what the hell was happening, but this high-tech suite was not a place he should be in. Thoughts like pranks, kidnapping, and a case of mistaken identity flashed through his head.
Regardless of the reason, the most important thing in his mind was to go home.
'But I don't know where I am. Am I even in the same city? I don't have my cell phone or wallet. I can't ride a bus or get a taxi.'
'Am I within walking distance from my house?'
"Tubby," he started, "what is the address of this location—"
But that very moment, the door to the penthouse opened. It just slid open with a 'whoosh', telltale signs that the person who came in need not bother with ringing the doorbell.
Was it the owner of the place? Was it too late to run?
Dice gulped down his rising fear.
[Good morning, Assistant Kim], the AI, Tubby, greeted the newcomer with a toneless voice. [Time check, 8:00 AM. You arrived on time.]
A clumsy-looking man in his mid to late twenties, wearing a strange medieval-styled suit while holding two cups of take-out coffee in hand, entered the penthouse.
Upon seeing Dice standing in the middle of the living room, the strangely dressed man cheered in delight.
"Professor, you woke up rather early today! Have you received the message for the summon? Do you plan to attend this time?"