Novels2Search

Chapter 115 (3-27)

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The noisy repeatable alarm was hammering Robert’s brain through sleep, but his mind just refused to react to it, stubbornly trying to fall into enjoyment of pleasant darkness. No matter how his improved body was accustomed to the absence of sleep, he still needed one. Especially, after the constant attempts to fill in as much information as possible in a short time frame, using every single opportunity during the past five days. Moreover, it was his first sleep that didn’t even last a few hours. Therefore, his unwillingness to stand up was partly justified. Not that it made his life any better as Rob indeed had to move.

Pushing his body from the bed that barely could fit him, he immediately bumped against the ceiling with his head. Obviously, there was no pain with his physique. However, the irritation only strengthened as the room he got from the new employer was as tiny as a real closet. The only other piece of furniture was an inbuilt wardrobe that was as empty as his stomach. There was a terminal with access to the local information network. Hanging on the wall and operated by a touch or voice, it was the most used thing in the room.

Picking the dry shower underneath the bed, Robert quickly tore the packing before proceeding with cleaning himself. Finishing with a paper towel, he dropped everything in front of the doors. The uniform was already waiting for him, taking another uncomfortable minute to dress himself in such a tight space. Turning his head to look at his reflection out of habit, Robert was met with the terminal instead of the mirror. Still, catching his image on the dark screen, he almost heard the demanding knock from James who was calling him because of a new wave.

It's just déjà vu… Almost like the day I’ve died and was transferred to that floating rock.

Still, the overwhelming feeling of familiarity made him pause for a dozen seconds, sending in a deep thought. The whole cramped place looked like his own room back in the bunker. The same lack of any personal belongings. The surprisingly similar alarm woke him with the same effect of multiple tiny hammers, knocking onto his mind in an attempt to push into motion. Quite successfully in that.

That bunker is long destroyed, being just a part of memory… However, why the fuck is my life so glued to the same awful conditions?

In fact, Robert knew the answer, or, precisely speaking, both parts of it that had the one thing in common – greed. His own and his employer. The latter was providing basic living conditions to the workers for free. However, they were really basic. The small room and that’s it. Even the ability to take a shower in the city on the floating lifeless rock had to be paid for. It wasn’t much, but still had a cost. The same went for access to the information network, food, and even energy to supply the room. Rob was sure that the usage of the place was already considered when he was getting his daily payment.

Fantasy City was built to earn money, and that was what it was doing. Everything was calculated and had a price tag. On the other hand, such a straightforward attitude was easy to understand. The place was quite far from the main space routes, increasing the cost of everything. Not having an atmosphere, with limited local resources, it had to spend a lot to fulfill even the basic human needs. A simple water had to be mined and produced. The same went for oxygen. That led to the possibility for any employee to decide their working conditions and how much they willed to spend to increase them.

In Rob’s case, he stopped at the bare minimum to invest more in his knowledge. Taking two shifts in a row, Robert only left one for reading the common information on every topic he found useful. One daily meal was enough to have a taste of food, while the energy stream from the inside covered all the nutrition needs. The single rest that was interrupted by the alarm gave him enough time to understand – in his situation, only such greed could accelerate his way to better life conditions. The place was horribly expensive, inflating the prices just because they could. Of course, Robert could travel elsewhere theoretically, but it appeared his identity as a terranoid would be a death sentence on most planets. Earth in this realm managed to anger the rest of humankind to the point of justified total annihilation. Moreover, he couldn’t fake that he wasn’t one as any laboratory test would show his inhuman nature as a hybrid.

I missed it at first, but it’s quite obvious that 90% of people around are wary of me as if expecting that I attack them like a wild beast. And at least half of that number feels not only fear but hate towards me. Does it count as discrimination if I haven’t done anything? Who can I file a complaint to?

It was only five days, but the attitude was obvious. However, with Robert’s thick skin and indifference to opinions about himself, he could easily ignore the glances from others, including his co-workers. This time was no different. The way to the workplace didn’t take long as he was living right inside the massive building where his current job took place. Not caring about loud whispers that the speakers thought he couldn’t hear, Rob proceeded to the armory to get his electric baton. The next stop was the guard’s captain who pointed him to the sector for the two next shifts.

Soon Robert was greeting his colleagues for the day. Out of five, only one smiled in return. Rick Abraham Brown was a short middle-aged man with early baldness. Despite that, he was quite energetic, always in a constant move as if he just couldn’t stand still. How he had decided to work as a guard of the main Arena Hall was out of Robert’s understanding as they had to stand on the same spot for the whole shift. And yes, Rob indeed got to the place where he wanted to earn money. Just not the way as planned.

Moreover, the guards of this place weren’t the same as the heavily armored guards with weapons. The latter was more akin to police in Fantasy City, constantly patrolling the corridors of a huge place to prevent any problems that could lead to a loss of money. The drunken fights, stealing, or anything similar always scared the clients, decreasing their wish to spend. Thus order enforces took their job seriously, being a well-trusted elite in this place, a step higher than even most of mercs. Rob, on the other hand, wasn’t like that. Not even close.

“Greetings, sir. Scan your ticket, please, and proceed through the arc, so we can check if there is nothing forbidden. I must remind you…,” Robert spoke to the nearest man after replacing another guard on his spot. The young man with a metallic row of teeth and two eye implants that made his eyes look like a beetle only grimaced.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Fucking great! They started to take those mutants,” increasing his pace, he barely spent a second for the machine to check his bracelet before pushing himself past Rob’s figure. The latter already saw the green light from the scanner, switching his attention to the next person in the queue.

The woman halted her tracks and only after the quiet whisper from the man behind, she slowly went forward. The expression of worry was openly painted on her face, but reassuring words from her possible husband helped her to overcome the fear. Soon the man followed, giving Rob a long look of disapproval. The next several guests didn’t show any emotions. Still, the queue in front of his gate had halved when people switched their lines to the neighboring ones just to avoid any interaction with him.

His sector had a total of three lines with a pair of guards controlling each of them. His constant partner – Abraham – was currently at the post behind, additionally checking the ID of the visitors. The Arens was always operating, working without even a single pause to create a spectacular show that attracted thousands of guests. Especially, when the Grand Tournament was taking place.

Not that Grand in fact as the next one will be in a month… Obviously, most of the tourists wouldn’t stay so long to see that it was just an exaggeration about the scale of the event just to sell more tickets.

“Dirty shrew, you seem to flee far from your lifeless rock. Get out of here – the Universe is for humans and not some modified garbage!”

The shout from the teenager returned Rob’s attention back to his work. Looking at the kid who barely started to shave, he only sighed inwardly. The young kid was clearly aiming for the response, a few times glancing back at his friends. Not getting anything else, except the standard “Scan your ticket”, he felt the rush of confidence. Smirking, the teenager proceeded forward as if he were the owner of the world. A few similar-aged youngsters followed next, eyeing Robert with no hidden superiority. The last one even added a “cowardly jerk”, before running forward.

The phrase was so quiet that Rob thought he heard it wrong at first. However, the loud cheerful conversation that broke after the reunification of the group, where they started to boast about their own courage while mocking Robert, proved him wrong. Still, such a reaction only led to his silent laugh as for him it looked like a barking from the tiny dogs, whose bite would never hurt such thick-skinned person as Rob. Overall, it was the best description that Robert had about the whole attitude of the people around him. Even when one of the bulky men made a move as if he were trying to attack him, his company stopped him without any problems, confirming that it was just for a show. To create an image of bravery in front of the women, to show their own “strength”, and to increase their own confidence.

Therefore, Robert simply couldn’t take it seriously. At this point, his mind stopped treating everyone as a potential threat. He couldn’t compare his capabilities with locals but standing slightly less than 7 and a half feet tall (228 cm) and weighing around 485 pounds (220 kg), Rob was huge. His measures were approximate as the system used here was different, but an inbuilt translator managed to help with conversion. All that with an even bigger increase from the System’s stats and other modifications. So, in his unarmored uniform that consisted of blue pants, purple t-shirt, and belt with electric baton that looked like a long spoon in his hands, Rob was sure to deal even with a heavily armed group of guards. There was no danger from his point of view.

Instead, he had plenty of irritations. With the morons around that tried to bully him with words, while hiding a fear of possible retaliation. In the realm, where he unwillingly got the role of a former soldier from the defeated empire that unsuccessfully tried to conquer the universe by wiping everyone, who was against their rule. With the idiotic City, where everything was too expensive. With his attempt at the normal life, which looked even worse than his own existence in the bunker.

The latter was the biggest shock for him. Only enormous willpower and a wish not to give up so easily gave Robert to continue further. And that was only after a mere five days. Yes, it was his decision to spend a bare minimum to quicken his professional growth. But it would still take a lot of time before he would get enough money to go through courses. The inflated prices made it ten times more difficult than in any other place. On the other hand, even if he abandoned any dreams about a better life and focused on the current moment, it wouldn’t be much different. Two-thirds of the day doing the not-so-pleasant but needed job. Few tolerable meals to get full before heading home. With a limited budget, Rob would have an opportunity to go somewhere once in a while as it was too costly for him.

Is this a “normal” life I aimed for? Doesn’t look like one… Without the job that at least I am interested in, without any friends to speak with, without any family or a girl – yep, it’s not a life but an existence. Even worse than my life in the bunker, where my own survival and fighting had a purpose… Okay, cheer up, Rob, it’s just a rough start. First, earn your standing, so you can switch to something better. One thing at a time.

From his sleepless time of going through all available information, Robert not only emptied his balance, despite daily payments but also managed to create a brief plan for himself. And that was the win as even a search of local history led him to the paid courses. Who would have thought that space stations didn’t have a united network, so the owners of the one could put a price on all data. Obviously, the administration of Fantasy City did it, locking anything valuable from free access. Of course, from their point of view, literally, everything fitted that category.

“Rob, it’s break time! Wanna eat?”

Abraham’s words to a huge smile on Robert’s face when he stopped a man from entering the arc. Dressed in a golden suit, he was constantly kissing his girlfriend, who appeared to be at least twice younger. Even a few repeats to proceed further were ignored by him, so Rob closed the entrance with a clear conscience. That finally awoke the man.

“Hey, what are you doing? We are standing here!”

“Break time. Please, proceed to the other line,” Rob widely smiled, putting a barrier in the middle of the arc.

“Hey, I am not going anywhere! We were the next here, but now we need to start waiting all over again. Just nope! Or are you doing it on purpose! Too jealous about my girl here? Hey, man, where are going? Just let us through – have seen the other line? Hey, please, man, be reasonable,” the voice from behind continued to shout, switching from begging to threats, but Robert didn’t care.

“You obviously did it on purpose. Again,” Abraham mentioned quietly when Robert caught up with him.

“Something has to be constant in this world. I merely follow this rule,” Rob grinned, finally feeling how his permanent irritation slightly loosened the grip over his mind.

“Don’t tell me you are broke again? Where are spending all your money? It’s not much, but it’s physically impossible to do it after two shifts in a row! Do you even sleep? Oh, whatever, my treat then. Hopefully, the canteen still has those buns with poppy seeds left. They are just too good. Never thought that leftover cooks who didn’t manage to work in restaurants could make such a tasty thing,” Abraham continued to speak, not giving a word to Robert. Not that he needed one, preferring to listen instead of listening. Maybe that was the reason why Abraham treated him normally.

I will endure it. A dull work together with a bad attitude from the crowd isn’t comparable to the constant survival on the thick line, be it in the war or on a lifeless island. I lived through that, so not a chance such a petty thing could break me. After getting a few needed certs I will change my life. With enough money, the problem of my “origin” will disappear without a trace. At this place will turn into a real Fantasy City, hiding its dark inner side. Just a little patience, Rob. Your normal life is waiting for you!