“Good Morning Master James. It is nine o’clock.” Yelled Sid from behind the door. “May I come in? I have brought you breakfast.”

“You may intrude. What am I obliged to consume today Master Sid?” he replied eagerly and with a bit of sarcasm. He disliked being called Master.

“Well, we tried to recreate a recipe the Old World called Full English Breakfast, but some of the text was destroyed rendering it impossible to copy, so we added some ingredients that would be in perfect synergy with the basic ones to have the original flavour. I named it The Partial English Breakfast.” He did actually came up with exact recipe by chance.

“May I eat this in my bed?”

“Of course. I clean up every day. I have brought the cutlery for no other reason.”

“Okay. Will you tell Master Charles and Emily to wait for me in the living room after they finished with the things they ought to do?”

“Yes. Master Charles has no need to be in such a hurry, and Emily will be waiting for you there as soon as she finishes. I’ll happily notify them of your recent awakening.”

“That sentence, I believe is not correct.”

“You are not as stupid as Emily told me so. I assumed you would realize after being chosen my successor.”

“Emily told you I am stupid? That is unfine.”

“Unfine does not exist.”

“You are not that sturdy after all.” He smiled.

“Oh, thank you. I’ll be on my way. Send me a message should you need any help.” He vanished without a trace after his exclamation.

Having had no dinner, he devoured the mixture placed on the plate, except for the mushroom. He was too afraid to eat that.

Opening the wardrobe, he had no clue of recent standards of fashion so he typed ’Help me with the clothes, Sid.’ into his SAD. A minute later Sid arrived and started describing the everyday style of the youth, mentioning suspensors, shirts, vests, trousers mostly of linen and of vivid colours. He was still in the pyjamas he found on his bed last night after removing the exquisite gifts of his host.

“Do you have a t-shirt or some ordinary garments for me? I admire being elegant, but it is not very natural to me to wear smart and fancy outfits. A turquoise shirt and grey trousers along with grey shoes would suffice.”

“Do you require socks?”

“Of course.”

“Of what colour?”

“What do you have?”

“All you need.”

“Grey then.”

“Here it is.” he gathered the requested clothing in the blink of an eye.

He dressed up and approached the bathroom. He found a letter by Charles that was in order to make him familiar with toothbrushes and other cosmetic items around. Although he knew the basics of hygiene, he had some inconvenience using electronic brushes and the flasks cologne presented in the small cupboard next to the sink. He did not understand why to use perfumes. He always thought it would be wiser to antagonize products that increased one’s sex appeal so that nobody would depend on anything but their own confidence and natural traits.

“Thank you Sid, you were great value to me.”

“Well, I’ll be off then.”

“I have to go as well, Emily must be waiting for a very long time.” The next action of his was to relocate to the living room. Going through the corridor and the stairs, he could glimpse at his saviour and his impatient daughter. Charles was reading a report on some research-related subject and Emily grimaced bluntly while gazing at her fancy, white shoes. She put on a white dress ornamented with different shapes of petals. Her hair was curled and she wore some silver necklaces, a soft and sweet cologne. Some powder was applied to her face as well.

“I thought you would never finish. What took you so long? We should be there in ten minutes.”

“I wanted to ask about today, but I was too tired.”

Charles was still reading.

“So what do you not know of?”

“Anything.”

Charles was still reading not aware of his environment.

“Well, you do not need take notes and you don’t have to pay attention. We will have a biology lesson, a philosophy lesson, and political theory and they will teach you the usage of your SAD.”

“Okay.”

Charles was still reading, truly in a trance.

“We will have the lessons in the same classroom, 22C, in case of you stray away.”

“Okay. You should take the lead then.”

Charles was still reading, further sinking into the deep abyss.

“Bye, Pa. We’ll see you in the afternoon.”

“Bye my dear, I wish you luck!” he replied with this sudden, quick response so that he could continue his enslavement to the particular topic about a genetic code that could open the Enigmatic Vault, which is located in the middle of the region, under the Tower. There is no real knowledge accumulated on the topic yet, that is why the place was intriguing. It might have been built in order to protect something valuable that must be locked away.

After five minutes of running, they arrived at a lovely place that was used to teach and help people rather than giving them a certification. Everyone, who applied, was sorted to classes according to their skills and talents. The building itself was made of usual materials and resembled an oblique pyramid. No one knows the reason why would anyone build anything like that, but the folks cherished the style of having an opened shutter like ornament at the walls. Everything was painted white and orange except for the doors that was grey by default. There were wide corridors with several classrooms in the inside, all of which was equipped with the most recent technologies to increase the efficiency of the teachers.

Entering the classroom James felt the unease he acquired attending an institution that was not in order to improve the characteristics of a child but to revoke the individuality, the personality, the creativity and imprint servitude to one’s selfhood. Although the rate of success was outstanding, James did not become a weak-willed, servile person, yet he suffered minor wounds that included uncertainty in various cases, the repression of sexual desires and tendency to depression. He apprehended his personality to discard his weak traits, minimizing the damage that was done by a suppressive system and some unqualified, talentless teachers who would rather withdraw themselves than helping the students. Abusing their power, they reflected every nuisance to the children, further distancing themselves from improving their skills, unable to stand up against something unethical that resulted in a weak and inferior personality. Indoctrinating the children with the five Virtues, dominating the children by being aggressive, destroying their creativity by punishing them led to a broken society.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“At least my name is on the monitor of a table.” He sat down at his pre-assigned seat.

A woman entered the classroom, who was especially elegant and had mediocre facial features along with glasses over her joyful brown eyes. Mostly tied in a ponytail, some locks of hair intruded her vision and scattered over her enthusiastic smile.

“Greetings to our Coming of Age Class, I’ll be conducting today.” She introduced herself. “If you have any questions, please ask them any time. We will start with biology, then philosophy and political theory comes.”

James signalled the teacher that he would like to ask a question. “Do you have grades and certification?”

The teacher frowned. “I assume you have not grown up here. We do not evaluate our students and certainly do not give them certification. We do send the info if they completed the class to the AI, but that is needed for administrative purposes. We, as an educational institution, prefer to improve our students since what they need is to establish a firm grip on basic skills so that they could attend other specialized classes or become an apprentice. You do not have to attend this class, but if you fail the other classes, that is your problem. If you work hard, you can become someone. Nobody needs papers to prove their worth. The system you talked about only causes stress and anxiety. All possibilities are open to the citizens, whether they become researchers, who need to prove their worth by discovering or utilizing new technologies, or want to work in the service sector. Robots can fill dull and boring jobs such as being an office worker or a cook, but people tend to prefer humans as waiters, artists, musicians. If something intrigues you, you can take a class by sending a request to the AI, who will send you all the details about it.”

“She loves talking doesn’t she? I never liked teachers. They are mostly doing their job to earn money and release their sadistic desires gained back at home. But I must say, she seems to be capable.” he thought but he replied with a sincere “Thank you.”

“I’ll teach philosophy and political theory. I would like to introduce you Mr. Rio MgLain, who will inform you about the basics of applied genetics.”

After his monologue, the lessons started with genetics. But it was hideously boring, like any other class he had ever taken.

“The population had been modified and added some specific genes so that they could be distinguished. This changed hair and eye colours, which was just a side effect.”

“This is boooring.” James thought. He glanced at Emily, who was sitting at her table, lifelessly. She might be daydreaming, or worse, asleep. Her eyes were open, though. It was he, who daydreamed.

“For bacterial infection, bacteriophages are used. A stem phage was manufactured, which had to be activated by overwriting its specification with a set of the genetic data the pathogens possessed. The medical treatment for viruses were nano-machine treatment.” There was a slight shift in the topic, when he joined again some minutes after.

“She has beautiful eyes, though. How is that even possible?” He couldn’t take his off her. Yes, he was that bored. He did not pay any attention at all.

A message was sent to James by Emily, who noticed being stared at, through their devices. James’ bored eyes did not even bother to look away. ’Dad told me about how he created this system, so it is pretty boring to hear it again.’ He replied with ’It is still different from the West, where I have come from. It is a dictatorship.’

’Tell me all about it!’

’There is a dictator.’

’Please.’

’We have a two class system. The rich and the poor.’

’Class system? What is this, the 19th.c.?’

“Thank you, Mr. Rio MgLain.”

’What?’

’Class struggle.’

’We are not taught anything about history.’

“An Artificial Intelligence was entrusted to form a government, which held the executive power and was restricted by the people’s laws. These were voted on on an interface called Social Appliance Device, or SAD, which you have, too.”

’Do you know anything about the past years?’

’According to the elderly, there was a Great Migration, since this was the only intact place remaining on Earth.’

’I heard that too. But why?’

’We do not know.’

“A law could be made or amended above forty and was abolished under thirty percent approval ratings. Also, the AI had to provide the basic necessities for free, such as food, water, shelter and the Comnet, which is the service that connected most of the devices.”

James put down his SAD, and searched for a comfortable, yet a humble pose, and slept through the remaining of this lesson and the next. He was still dizzy from the fact that he was left in a forest.

When he woke up, the teacher was talking about the usage of SAD and the limits of its software. All the devices had a percentage of the AI’s computing power, which could be used if one would approve the laws. They set up a profile. After that they were free to go. Leaving the building to head home, Emily started a conversation.

“So what was the education in the West like?”

“We were forced to do what the state wanted.”

“Oh?” she smiled.

“Everything but that, kinky woman. I had to be very careful to say the words the teachers wanted to hear. They punished you, if you were better than them. That was not even hard.”

“Sounds like bigotry.”

“Just the usual, the stated wanted the teachers to be like that to break us. We are their subjects, their assets rather than true citizens.”

“That is unpleasant.”

“Most of the children are not as healthy as I was. I needed less nutrients survive, so it was not very hard for me. But some others suffered. There was a shortage of food until recently.”

“You accept that? Do you like to live in poverty?”

“At least I am not a spoiled brat, who wants daddy to notice them. You should cut the crap out, just tell him what you want.”

“Heh? What?”

“Stop pretending, you know what I am talking about. You should grow up already. The only good feature of that educational system is that you learn to think for yourself, one way or another.”

“Well, at least I was not dumped at a forest.”

“I would probably be sent to die. We managed to escape, they wanted to save me, and that is a way.”

“I wonder how you got capital punishment.”

“Read a book.”

“What the fuck?”

“I used the exact expression.”

“But do not meddle in my life anyways.”

“Think about that.”

“Never mind.”

“So Charles programmed the system?”

“Yes. He did twenty-five years ago or so. Before he met Mother.”

“What it is like to be his assistant?”

“Don’t know.”

“I heard they couldn’t bear you.”

“They were fired. Actually, Pa wants to find a person, he doesn’t care about knowledge.”

“I see.”

“You are very similar to one of his old friends.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She had the same eyes and hair colour. He has a picture of her in his office, beside Mother’s.”

The rest of the journey was silent, or at least nobody said anything until they entered the place called home.

“We are here.” Shouted the girl.

“I am in the kitchen.”

“I haven’t eaten anything today… Are you cooking?” asked James the humbling question with a smile.

“No, shitting in the sewers. Of course I am cooking.”

“What? Why don’t let the hands do the dirty work?” she asked.

“I wanted to honour you two by making some goulash and rice cake.”

“Oh? I never thought you would make that of a grand housemaid after all.” James made cynical comment.

“Hihi. These are some old recipes I found at the hub. I never thought it would contain cooking recipes with exact ingredients, instructions and stuff.”

“Yepp. That is a recipe.”

“Have you finished yet? I am hungry.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be finished in ten minutes.”

“I’ll go and change my clothes.” She headed towards her room.

“I would like to speak with you after lunch. It is important.”

“Is it connected to what you were so engrossed in in the morning?”

“It is connected to you.”

“An unforeseen development. Why does it have to do with me?”

“We’ll talk after lunch.”

“I’ll go to the toilet, then.”

“Big buddy?”

“Orchid Ointment.” He did his duty and came back.

“Finished.” After he shouted, a ’wild’ Emily appeared. She redressed and became much more stylish to cope with the recent youth fashion. Her hair was purposely unkempt.

He had Sid dish up the goulash he had been making for the last few hours. It was filled with pork meat and beans, served with some sour cream. The rice cake was just pudding with some butter and was baked.

James felt something strange, a feeling he had not felt before. The way he could talk to these people, the fact that they took him in and helped him was too much not to call them friends. Or family.

After the lunch, Emily went out to spend some time with her friends, so James and Charles were alone to speak about matters concerning his private life.

“I knew who your parents were.”

“Huh? How did you find out?”

“Actually, they were the only people I could call friends. They helped me develop the AI, but they wanted to gather all the special combinations of the hubs. We classified them as the key codes as they are needed to open the vault. But I haven’t heard anything about them since they went exploring. Then I found you. I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t sure until your DNA test result were sent to me this morning. You see, they had a hypothesis that the codes are encrypted DNA segments. Biometric locks were the best to seal a place of the past so nobody could open it. The Vault is unbreakable even with quantum computer with a million true qubits.”

“So did they succeed?”

“You are here right?”

“He?”

“Your genetic material contains all of the encrypted data.”

“Aren’t I my parent’s child?”

“Well yes, but actually no. Basically, your DNA is a mix that includes both your parent’s genes and the encrypted data. They started their journey before you were conceived, and spent a year or two in the North and South, then they went to the West, and obtained the code and modified you when you were conceived. Some of your genes aren’t theirs. The code we possess was used to identify people, so you had that already, and they put all of the others in, but I do not have any idea how. Maybe in vitro fertilization and then modification?”

“What happened then?”

“According to my acquaintances they were persecuted after you were born. They were said to be spies and malevolent enemies. You were taken from them, but that would have happened anyways.”

James started to feel dizzy. His migraine was incoming.

“Now that I have found the one, I want you to open the vault and destroy its content.”