The after-party was like a hazy daydream of a drugged clubhouse where a bunch of raving mad rich kids tried to compete for who was able to squander the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

Bets took place drinking contests and risky dares that, Leon assumed, could end with them immediately disowned by their family if they ever found out. This included the loss of billion credit trust funds that secured their future for decades.

Most of them had rather nasty ends as their unchecked alcoholism and drug consumption knocked them out entirely until a medical team on standby took them away as quietly as possible. They were trained for situations like this and their unfazed expression told Leon that it wasn't the first time they did this.

In fact, the entire mansion they were staying at seemed like it was purely built for parties like this. The wide stone patio was filled with half-clothed people while several attendants walked around, giving out cocktails and high-profile desserts.

The scenic pool and adjacent whirlpools were crowded to the limit as loud music echoed throughout the mansion into the night sky.

It was a party on a scale Leon never experienced in his life and he didn’t know if he wanted to ever go back at the lasting scars this memory would leave in the future.

“What’s up with your face?” Tara shouted over the music, a drunk Nicole hanging barely on her hooked arm. She changed into a glittering silver dress on the way with long high heels, earning her multiple stares from the surrounding students.

“I think I’m going to be sick!” Leon screamed back, feeling the sheer amount of chaos crawling up to him. Tara, though, just laughed in his face while taking another cocktail from a passing female attendant.

“Loosen up, scholarship boy! This is a golden opportunity. Jade’s parties always get completely out of hand to the point of sheer insanity! It’s a one-in-a-million experience!” Her voice started to slur at the end as her body faltered, almost causing both of the girls to fall over.

Luckily, Trey’s hand grabbed Nicole’s arm in time, stabilizing them both. After checking up on them for a second, his head turned toward Leon with a slight flush on his face.

“I’ll watch them, Leon. You can go inside for a moment to cool off. You look like you’re going to lose it.”

Barely nodding, Leon let himself be swept through the sea of drunks until he arrived at the opened doors leading inside the mansion. Although there were still numerous people, it wasn’t as overly crowded as outside.

He slowly made his way over through the common room until he arrived at the large kitchen island, trying to get a cup of water. To his dismay, however, he found the cabinets and appliances being stained completely white without a handle or gap insight.

‘Alright, what’s your secret?” Leon mumbled quietly as he tried finding a way to open one to find a glass. Apparently, typical red plastic cups don’t exist anymore or were too cheap to offer to the highest class of this city.

He tried pressing and tapping, hoping they would be pressure-sensitive or at least detect motion, only to fail miserably. It appeared their ability to open was locked, a mechanism to avoid unwanted people to rummage through them. On second thought, this mechanic was quite convenient for a party like this.

As he thought about the ingenious design of the kitchen layout, Leon was suddenly pulled by the arm by what appeared to be a black and white plastic arm. Looking up, he saw a human-sized robot arm standing in front of him.

“What the…” The words were stuck in his mouth as his eyes widened considerably.

Seeing the life-like human robot in front of him, Leon almost couldn’t hold in his excitement. He immediately wanted to find out more about it, like what its brain looked like, or which components his processing and sensor units used, or what program decided its actions, or what its failsafe was to handle a system error.

He wanted to take it apart right away, possibly even trying to re-program its action files to see if he could make it break dance while balancing a pole on its hands and feet. Wait, maybe that was controlled by its internal AI in the first place, making re-programming obsolete.

If that were the case, was it better than his Vulcan AI? Probably not as he developed it himself. The robot might be better in complexity but his Vulcan AI was for sure several times faster due to its efficient calculation model.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Just thinking about the possibilities erupted a storm in his mind, when another pull from the human robot brought him back to reality. This pull, however, was a lot more forceful than the last one.

“Ehmm, do you need something?” Leon asked awkwardly.

‘Does this robot even have an auditory and voice module? Of course it does! It’s a million credit robots after all. Maybe even more expensive!’

Leon felt stupid just thinking this robot wouldn’t have something so basic. And yet, the fact his arm was still being pulled made it more believable.

“Hey, what…” He laughed, trying to get his arm out of its grip but the robot just pulled harder.

“This stupid! Damn, is your shitty circuit board fried? What the hell!” Leon started cursing as he began fighting back. Unfortunately, neither the robot nor Leon wanted to let go, stalemating both in a mutual pulling contest.

That’s when another voice made its presence known, a voice heard not so long ago on TV.

“Say, what exactly are you doing to my chef robot there?”

It was the very owner of this mansion and host of the party, the winner of the maglev race he watched, Jade. She looked even more stunning in person, especially now when she looked him directly in the face. Behind her, a small group of older upperclassmen were sitting in the designer lounge, watching their exchange in the kitchen in amusement.

Despite that, Leon felt more awkward due to the situation he’s currently in.

“Your robot is bugged.”

“He seems fine to me.”

“No, this thing is glitching out, can’t you see?” Leon remarked as he pointed at his arm that was still being pulled by the robot’s arm.

Seeing this, she slowly raised an eyebrow before looking back up to him, more exactly at his appearance as a whole.

Leon was vastly underdressed for a party like this, a fact that became obvious by the plain dark jeans and white shirt he wore. Not to mention, his looks and the way he carried himself was nothing like those spoiled rich kids that got drunk outside. He stood out like a sore thumb.

“Sorry, kid, but who are you?”

Her stare became increasingly more intense over time, although it seemed to be more out of curiosity than annoyance.

“Hey, that’s our scholar boy, right there. You be~tter keep your skanky pa~ws off him.”

Luckily, it was the slurred voice of Tara saving him from this girl’s piercing attention. Looking over, he saw her entering while Nicole, who was held up by Trey, followed right behind her.

“We were look~ing for you Le~on.” Tara moved her head with an unfocused gaze, stopping longer as her eyes fell on Jade. “Why are you here?”

Shaking her head, Jade looked over at Leon before turning back to Tara.

“Is that guy with your group, Bates?”

Tara looked at Jade for a while, her brain still processing the question before turning to Leon. Suddenly, her green eyes lighted up again with a slurred smile on her face.

“Oh scholar boy! We were loo~king for you!” As she repeated her earlier statement, it became obvious that she exceeded her drinking limit a while ago.

Leon tried gaining Trey’s attention, hoping for him to help out. Unfortunately, that lovestruck fool was too busy trying to take care of Nicole to pat them any attention.

He could only shake his head while the pretty blonde in front of him tilted her head a little.

“Bates, are you…” Shaking her head, Jade waved her hand in defeat. “You know what? I can’t with you right now. This is ridiculous.”

Turning back around, she was facing Leon again who seemed much more busy trying to get his arm out of the robot’s grip than a minute ago.

“I came here with Trey, by the way.” He said as he tried pulling his arm very hard several times in a rapid motion.

Meanwhile, Jade was observing the spectacle and nodded with a blank face. It was unclear what she was thinking but Leon had bigger concerns at the moment. Unfortunately, the one who owned the robot didn’t seem eager to do something, making him feel like he would be standing there for the rest of the night if he did nothing.

Around a minute later, however, it seemed the blonde girl had enough as she opened her mouth.

“You know, it would be easier if you just-”

A loud screeching interrupted her words as the robots’ arm fell down limply while an error message was announced on the screen masking as its face. Dumbfounded, Leon lifted the limp arm up before letting it go, watching as it fell back down without any resistance.

That was it. He broke it.

Scratching the side of his face, he looked stupidly at an annoyed Jade who even with one raised eyebrow looked stupidly attractive.

“Oops…”

……….

‘A machine always acts within the limits set by its creator. Even if it’s capable of so much more.’

~~Dr. Benjamin Harper’s Memoirs~~