4 A Ripple in Space
Flying between the skyscrapers as the artificial sky approached nighttime, the place became beautiful as vast amounts of the night sky appeared. Unfortunately, they are all dots of lights that are actually from the Great Barrier, which generates fake galaxies and makes them look like stars. The original stars of the galaxy were stripped away of their gases and metals to be brought back.
Astraeus, the capital city, orbits close to the central black hole of Centaurus. Not too close to the point ships struggle to catch the city, but not too far so that the black hole's light is dim. The material surrounding the black hole is accelerated to percentages of the speed of light, before being absorbed. The amount of light it generates is enough to give the black hole a moon-like ambiance.
If you look hard enough, you can see the black hole itself warping light around it and the glowing disk.
Gradually, the skyscrapers reduced in size until the taxi was above the already tall high-rises. Looking behind, it was as if the vehicle had left a giant maze, only to now be flying over another maze.
The taxi descended into the skyscrapers filled with residential and commercial areas. The ground was visible and one could see pedestrians walking on the sidewalks. The area had fewer cleaning bots and seemed much older. Graffiti could be in alleys along with some trash. The place had gone from futuristic to a backwater setting.
The traffic was much better than in the city, and vehicles were not going as fast. The taxi pulled into a designated taxi drop-off near the sidewalk before coming to a halt.
"Have a nice day." The taxi driver grumbled before returning to what he was doing.
Chen stepped out and closed the door behind him. The taxi driver took off and entered traffic once more.
In front of him was a high-rise apartment that easily exceeded 100 floors, but seemed average among the surrounding ones. A hologram beside it showed the name with some rental advertisements to attract customers.
Chen walked up to the entrance, and pressed his console against a metal pad. A shield encased him as the door rippled like water. He walked through it like was a hologram. His vision blurred for half a second, before he was at the reception area. The place was old, but kept well cleaned.
An old lady wearing glasses was silently reading a holographic book that floated in front of her while relaxing. Who knew how old she really was?
Chen's appearance knocked her out of absorption and she unhappily glanced over. Seemingly recognizing him, she grunted and returned back to her reading. Chen smiled wryly at this, but walked over to the teleporter pad. The old lady has always been like this.
His identification was confirmed after pressing it on a metal plate, and floor buttons appeared. He pressed the one he is living at and his vision blurred for half a second. The reception area vanished, and was now a corridor lined with doors that had numbers beside them, similar to a hotel corridor.
The teleporter pad brings one near their doorway, so he didn't have to walk far. Otherwise, he'd have to run for an entire day without stop to get to his room, with is 1186. After all, the interior has been spatially expanded to a large degree.
Chen pressed his console against the door, and grid lines rippled out from it. The door faded away into nothing, and he walked inside. The door reappeared upon entering, to keep away intruders.
Like the many hundreds of thousands of other apartment rooms in this place, the rooms are designed for efficiency with a minimum standard of comfort. The size of his room is just like the others, small. The living room can barely fit two couches meant for two people beside each other for its longest side. The walls are bland and the floor is carpet.
The place has a basic kitchen on the other side of the entrance. which is separated by a counter and it can barely fit a small table with a chair without having to squeeze past.
In the corner of the kitchen is a door that leads to the bedroom, which has the same length as the kitchen. Past the bedroom is another doorway that leads to the restroom which also contains a basic laundry machine.
His entire home has a basic AI, which is rather crude and crap compared to even his console. But there is the basic functions like setting alarms, calling people, maintaining air quality, or calling the police.
Chen walked past the living room, through the kitchen, and into the bedroom. He took off his business suit, leaving himself in a white t-shirt and shorts. It was then that his burly body was revealed.
One could see his bulging muscles on his arms that were well-defined and way larger than a normal man. His chest muscles were also well-defined and looked like they could bench a thousand pounds. The thick neck could make someone doubtful if it is even possible to choke him to death. The broad shoulders made his body more wider and gave off a sense of dominance.
His thighs were twice as thick as a middle-aged man and the muscle groups could be clearly seen, with some veins naturally protruding. A person would regret being stomped on by Chen if it were to happen. To be honest, he looks like a guy who takes steroids, despite this not being the case.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he couldn't help but helplessly sigh as he rubbed his head with his large hands.
The one to blame is partly genetics, since he never expected to gain such a volume by following a simple diet and working out daily. It only took several years to go from skinny to burly even after multiple attempts to stay skinny. Even his expenses of food drastically increased as a result.
He could modify his genes to stay lean but skinny, he'd have to waste a lot of his money that he had painstakingly saved. Plus, he's not a big advocate for gene-modifying. It does bring advantages in that it deters criminal and bullying. Who would wanna provoke a guy who looks like he can rip your head off?
Shaking his head, he stored his clothes in his console before leaving the bedroom. Passing the kitchen, he sat down in the living room couch before relaxing. His console created a hologram that was transferred to the wall enlarged enough.
Chen has until tomorrow before he has to pass the Great Barrier into Euphorion, the 9th galaxy. After that, he is supposed to take a pit stop at a ring world star closest to the Great Barrier and stay in at a hotel for two days. Then he'll enter the military base stationed next to the created portal before entering. After that, he is supposed to follow the instructions given by the board of directors.
"Hopefully, I'll get my chance to do some archaeological work after I'm done with my mission." He sighed as he gazed over at a picture frame sitting atop the kitchen counter.
It showed a handsome middle-aged man and a beautiful middle-aged woman right beside each other with a bright smile. In front of them was a little kid who resembled Wei Chen a lot. In the background was a beautiful forest with a simple household. These were his parents, and he was the kid.
Born originally in the Milky Way on humanity's home world, Earth, he could recall some faint memories. However, they transferred over to Galaxy 7 for a while before they suddenly left for no reason. A deeply trusted friend of theirs came over and took him in, where he grew up before going to work.
He hasn't seen them since then, and there's always been a longing to see them again.
Suddenly, a sharp piercing pain attacked his brain. His vision went blurry as he grasped his head with a type of pain he had never felt before.
"W-what the?! I-it hurts~!"
It was impossible for him to have any medical issue, especially with how healthy he currently is. The console also monitors ones health, so he would know beforehand if anything were to happen like a possible heart attack or stroke. Yet he was feeling such a sharp pain in his brain at the moment.
Looking at his console, the screen blared with an emergency icon flashing.
Chen could no longer focus as he released a scream in agony. He felt like his mind was being stretched and torn like an overstretched rubber band.
His body shook before his eyes went dull; his limbs drooped to the side as his console continuously blared. Space itself seemingly rippled for a microsecond before vanishing. Chen's eyes regained clarity as he looked around in confusion. The blaring of the console stopped and returned to normal.
