Chapter 5B: Credits

When one looked through the history of humanity, one must ask, what does man strive for? Is it power, family, or even acceptance? The irony of it all, regardless of what man strived for, money was at the root of it all.

Alex woke up feeling almost well rested. With both arms stretched, she yawned. The curtains opened up to reveal a slightly brighter neon city. The sky was a shade of purple that was reminiscent of twilight. Scratching an itch on her face, Alex walked into the bathroom absentmindedly. Her hand reached for a comb, and she started to brush her hair. After living as a bald teen for such a long time, Alex missed the soft feeling of hair. Her body’s muscle memory remained intact from the former owner and was skillfully brushing out the knots that had accumulated the night before.

After washing her face with the fresh cold water that poured endlessly from the tap, she brushed her teeth while staring at her reflection. Fifteen years in the same body, but she got used to her new one in only a few months. Human adaptation sure is terrifying.

Her reflection stared back at her with a dull gaze. Her jet black hair was short, only barely touching her shoulder. Due to the lack of exposure during her coma, her skin was quite pale. If one looked carefully at her face, one can she had Caucasian ancestry. Due to the countless years of mixing and mingling, ethnicity was all but bred out. At best, one could find a tiny trace of their main origins.

After her morning routines, Alex got dressed in her new outfit, a skin-tight dark yellow top with black pants. The dark yellow out really stood out in the backdrop of neon that covered the town.

She ate the nutrition bar and drank several cups of water before walking towards the elevator.

“Morning,” Nell said while rubbing her eyes.

“Good morning Nell,” Alex replied with a smile. “Today’s the day huh?”

“Yea, we meet our teachers today,” Nell was awoken by the sudden realization.

They met Kurt and Ruri standing by the elevator.

“Ready guys?”

“Let’s go.”

The elevator descended past the lobby into the underground. It stopped when they reached B4. Stepping out of the elevator, they entered a large open area that resembled a military bunker. The walls and floor were made of grey concrete and had various lines and symbols scattered across the place.

They met with Gerald who was standing in front of a group of other teens.

“W-who are they?” Ruri whispered.

“Maybe the other newcomers. Out of seven seed ships, it can’t be just us four.”

Alex and her friends joined the others in standing around Gerald.

“Good, everyone is here now,” Gerald said with a smile as he stared upwards at the ceiling.

A platform started descending with four unique individuals stood atop it.

The first was a giant hulk of a man. His muscles looked like they had muscles. Even his eyebrows looked like flexing biceps. He had a permanent smirk plastered on his face. Who knows whether it’s because he’s always smug or his face muscles are too strong for him to move. His turquoise hair looked like moss growing out of his nugget shaped head. His eyes burned with the passion of man.

The second person was an android. His body was humanoid but with four arms protruding from his back and two arms crossed in front of him. His face was brick red and had a scowl complimenting his angry stare. His bald head was covered in an intricate design that looked similar to hieroglyphics and was glowing with a faint golden hue.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

The third was a stern looking woman with glasses. Her face did not leave the holographic screen in front of her as her other hand typed faster than humanly imaginable. Her dark blue hair was long and flowing. Her attitude towards everything around her seemed disinterested.

The last person was another woman with glasses. She looked around nervously like a scared kitten. Her hair was a weak coffee brown, and her large eyes gave one the feeling of submission. Out of the other three, she looked like she didn’t belong at all.

“These respectable professors will be your new mentors,” Gerald introduced them. “The first is this muscle head known as Hill.”

“As bitter as always huh?” The muscle man laughed with a booming voice.

“You still owe me credits from our last employee outing,” Gerald scoffed.

The man quickly quieted down.

“The next is Dr. Ptah, respected creator of many useful things.”

“Don’t belittle my inventions Gerald,” Ptah frowned, which seemed impossible considering his face was already a frown, to begin with. The bandages that were wrapped around his shoulders loosened up and pointed toward Gerald.

“Now, now, Dr., don’t scare the recruits,” The stern woman said after finally looking up. A strange, alluring smile crept across her face. Although it looked very forced, quite a few of the kids couldn’t help but gulp.

“Thanks for the support, Ms. Mint,” Gerald bowed, “How’s the security department going?”

“Good enough for now, although the tinkers are starting to get restless.”

“Those eager fools can never sit still,” Gerald sighed as he turned to introduce the last mentor. “Lastly, we have a newly promoted professor, Mrs. Katz.”

The shy girl jumped at the mention of her name and quickly bowed. Her actions made the other three professors frown.

“Hey now, don’t act so skittish. We, professors, have a name to uphold,” Hill said with a short laugh.

“Humph,” Dr. Ptah just looked away.

“Kitty, can you not right now?” Mint said with Katz with pity in her eyes.

“Y-yes…,” She replied with a depressed sigh.

Now that the students have been introduced to the four, Gerald started to split them up into their appropriate groups.

“Nell, go stand behind Mr. Hill,” He finally turned toward Alex’s group.

“Yes?” She was confused but still followed his command.

“Kurt, go stand behind Ms. Mint.”

Kurt saluted and awkwardly walked behind the stern woman. His actions looked almost robotic.

“Don’t be nervous, I don’t bite,” Ms. Mint said with a laugh.

Kurt started to sweat bullets. All of his combat training couldn’t ready him for the bloodthirst Ms. Mint was currently emitting as she gazed down at him.

“Ruri, go stand behind Mrs. Katz,” Gerald continued.

“Y-yes!”

The shy boy and the shy woman seemed to fit perfectly as if they were related.

“N-nice to meet you!”

“P-please take care of me!”

The two both bowed and knocked their heads in the process. Ms. Mint just facepalmed while Hill laughed. Ptah just stood silently with his eyes closed.

“Alex, go stand behind Dr. Ptah.”

“Yes,” Alex said as she shuffled her way through the other teens.

Soon the entire group of kids was split among the four professors.

“The meeting will end in two hours, get to know each other well,” Gerald said with a smirk as he walked away.

Alex silently followed Dr. Ptah and several other kids as they walked to one corner of the large basement.

Dr. Ptah suddenly stopped.

“I will keep this short. We are creators, we invent and make things. If you fear change, leave now.”

None of the teens budged.

“Good, my requirement isn’t hard. Just create something new every three months.”

The teens suddenly paled. To come up with something new every three months was quite tricky already. To actually go from planning to blueprints to physical creation can take some years.

“If you can’t take it, then leave.”

Alex looked at the android with interest. She had the countless wealth of knowledge the old man provided her, so the task wasn’t that hard for her.

“Since the organization asked me to perform a small taste of my skills to motivate students, I will have to oblige.”

Suddenly, his arms on his back sprung to life. Out of his folded arms, he took out a small box.

“This is a Virtual apartment.”

The student quickly realized what they had to do as they scrambled to put on their augmented reality visors.

Alex slid her own and was amazed at what Dr. Ptah was holding. The walls of the box became transparent, and an entire apartment complex appeared. Inside was several miniature people enjoying their everyday lives. One can tell from the technologies present in the apartment that the setting was the past.

“We sell this as a luxury item to those who want to sample what life was like back on Earth.”

“A-amazing,” One of the students gasped.

Dr. Ptah closed his hands, and the view vanished.

“Now for our first three months, your job is to make something that can sell. Your pay will depend on what you make. Good luck future creators,” Ptah finally flashed a grin on his face. It looked completely sadistic.

Alex was now very eager. If she made something that could sell well, she would be able to earn enough credits.

“This will be interesting,” Dr. Ptah thought to himself as he saw four eager candidates out of the dozen panicking teens. He knew that every crop had its cream. Out of several failures, a real genius could appear.