~Fresno, California. 4:33:74 pm. December 21, 2044.~

Chloe stared up at the apartment complex before her. Her memory was one of the many things that had improved during her time in LOWG, so she remembered this bit of land. It used to be an empty plot of land, with lots of tire tracks and mud in it. It was something unexpected to find in the city, but it somehow managed to stay vacant for a few years. What replaced it was a sketchy looking apartment complex. It was most definitely for people on the ‘poor’ side of society. It was a two-story building, with less than ten rooms a floor. There were signs of neglect that were barely covered up by a shoddy repair job.

Chloe felt a bit of nervous sweat trickle down her back as she looked at the place. It was the only place that she could afford to stay in with the money she had on hand. Her brother had given her a laptop so she might be able to do work from home, but it would take a while to build up a steady income. With reluctance, she walked to the room that had the sign ‘manager’ on it and knocked. The sound of shuffling came from within, and soon, footsteps started coming closer. The person who opened the door was an old lady wearing glasses. The old lady was slightly shorter than Chloe, forcing her to look up.

“What do ya want?” The old lady demanded.

“Umm… I’m here to rent an apartment, if you wouldn’t mind.” Chloe said, scratching the back of her head.

Normally, Chloe would not be this meek, however, something about the old lady made her subconsciously fear her. It might’ve been the look in her eyes, or maybe just the fact that she was a bad-tempered old lady, but she most definitely had a slight fear of her.

“Then come inside, I’ll get the papers ready.” The old lady commanded, turning around and walking inside.

Chloe followed her in, sitting at the table. A while later, the old lady brought out the papers, which Chloe filled out completely. She gave her real information, not hiding a thing. She believed that the old lady would not figure out her connection to LOWG, and so, put down her real information. When she finished, the old lady took the papers, glanced over them quickly and then grabbed a key from one of the many hooks on a cork board.

“Here’s your key, it’s room 203. It’s upstairs, on your left.” The old lady said.

“Ah, thank you.” Chloe thanked her then left, heading to her room.

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The building was shaped like an L, with three rooms on the smaller part and four on the larger one. Chloe’s room was on the smaller part, but was the closest to the larger part of the L. Inside were simple rooms. One kitchen, complete with a fridge, stove, oven, dishwasher, sink, a small amount of cabinets and a microwave. One living room, along with a sliding door to the balcony. One bedroom, a small closet, just enough space to put a nightstand next to the twin size bed and some room to walk. One bathroom, no tub, only a shower and toilet, complete with a sink. It was small, only being 500 square feet, but it suited Chloe’s needs for the moment. The rent was $600 per month, and she only had enough for three months, including other expenses.

There was no furniture for Chloe to move in, so she threw her backpack on the bed and began to unpack. The place already had a bit of furniture, such as a table and chairs, but it did not have much other than those necessities. There was internet, but she had forgotten to get the wifi password from the old lady. She currently didn’t feel comfortable seeing her again today, so she moved around her things. She put the food in the cabinets and her clothes in the nightstand’s drawers. She had very little, but it worked out well in this small apartment.

After finally sorting through all her things, Chloe headed out to buy what she was missing. Such things included cookware, utensils, plates and ingredients for dinner. She had previously planned to grab some fast food, but abstained due to personal preference. She found a nearby Walm*rt and found everything she needed. But as she was leaving, something caught her eye. It was a simple snack that you would find in almost any store, but it made Chloe stop in her tracks. She stared intently at the snack, gulping down some drool. With a pained look, she put a few boxes of it in her cart and proceeded to the checkout. Though she greatly regretted the spending of money on unnecessary things, they were her favorite snack since she was born. Having been unable to eat any for the past 10 years had made her craving extremely strong. It was with great joy that she enjoyed them later.

~Fresno, California. 12:06:42 pm. December 22, 2044.~

Chloe had gotten her wifi password from the manager just a few hours ago. Upon successfully connecting to the internet, she immediately went to multiple different sites. There were things she had missed out that she needed to catch up on. It was mostly entertainment content, like wikis about new games, web novels and web games. She downloaded gaming platforms on her brother’s laptop as well, since he did not have any that she used. Surprisingly, all of the gaming platforms that she had used in the past were still around and continuing to improve. This was extremely pleasing to a game nerd like Chloe.

She had begun all her downloads after a few minutes, and decided to switch to the other tabs she had opened. It was a search of businesses and companies that had started up in the last ten years. She flipped through many pages, until she found an article that interested her. It was titled “GateSec’s CEO and Founder’s, Jason Underwood’s, Lost Family Member Found!” Under the link was a picture of a man with long, dark hair in a business suit with his arm around a little girl with blue hair and the eyes of a dead fish; both were giving off radiant smiles. Chloe’s eyes widened as she nearly broke the mouse clicking on the article. She ignored the text and scrolled down to the picture. It was indeed Lilia and the Gatemaster, although she did not recognize the Gatemaster.

Chloe scrolled back up to the top of the page, and read the article thoroughly. Indeed, the little girl’s name was Lilia, though she now had “Underwood” tacked on after it. The article wasn’t very informative on what Chloe wanted. In summary, it said that the Gatemaster, Jason, found Lilia and somehow got to test her genetics, then found that they were extremely close, genetically. Although the article wasn’t very informative, it gave Chloe the name of the company the Gatemaster Jason had on his side. As she was about to type in “GateSec” in a search engine, her brother called her.

“I wonder what he could want…?”