13 A Treatise On Photon Processing For Quantum Information Retrieval

Again, the blare of music rushed our ears, as I stepped outside the lady's shop. My trick had done the job, and she had agreed with my deal. It was decided that I had to bring the 8000 EC within 5 days, before the bidding would officially begin. Although any level of analysis would suggest it is a risky move to bet on a chip in an online bidding being hosted on a wild link on the dark web, still my intuition told me to go for it. The worst thing scenario was to not only be stranded in an unknown world with no definite grounding, skills or allies, still for some reason, the blood in me had rushed throughout my body upon skimming past the possibilities. From what I had gathered so far, a neurochip was a device that enhanced and added onto the neural capabilities of humans, and operated in multiple domains from domestic tasks like playing a song in the head to important legal frameworks like guarding the intellectual property and personal thinking space of a person. My reason to invest in such a risky fiasco was simple: if I was going to end up with a low-end chip one way or the other because of lack of funds or simple bad luck, it was better to at least try my luck.

I knew Yuki was going to show some form of disapproval, but as I intentionally set off in a random direction in one of the streets, Yuki silently walked behind me without stating her thoughts.

"Just tell me where we need to go."

I had given Yuki the initiative to speak, but to no avail. Still, it seemed hard to read her expressions because her gaze felt distant, like she was trying to find something on the ground. As I continued to walk, only the sound of our footsteps a way to know she was still behind me, I saw people on the streets move around on hoverboards. Unlike the cars I had seen from the middle of this megacity a few hours back, translucent and hovering at least a few meters above the ground, the hoverboards here were merely raised a few inches from the ground. Although I wasn't yet familiar with this world, I could tell by comparison, this place was at least a couple decades behind technologically speaking. This was the retro futuristic version of the world outside. Was it because the things that got outdated and forgotten by the people outside, scraped and reused here? Although I couldn't really determine the supply chain of products that came and left, I was certain that these people were vulnerable and the doctor who had nearly killed me when Yuki had brought me in was justified in his anger.

I turned to look at Yuki, who was still silently walking behind me. Although I had changed my walking speed a few times, she had kept the same distance from me.

"Are you intentionally avoiding me, Yuki?"

I had no idea why she was giving me the silent treatment. My decision to risk money in tern for a high end chip was a risky way of gaining ground, but it wasn't as delectable that it had garnered an annoying attitude from her towards me.

I had to close the distance between her and me, because if this continued, I was very well aware Yuki would get used to giving me the cold treatment, and then I would forever be the guy she could pick on whenever she felt like it.

"Hey you!"

"Huh?"

Now for some reason she was talking to me, and so aggressively at that? 

"You just had a very backward thought come across in your mind, didn't you?"

"What do you mean?"

Yuki moved towards me with firm steps, and kicked me between my legs.

"Don't keep forgetting that I can read your mind. I'll talk to you when I want to and give you the silent treatment when I want to."

"Well ok, but such a thought wouldn't have come in the first place, if you would stop ignoring me and actually go back to normal."

My reply annoyed Yuki, but she finally took a deep breath.

"It's not about the bid. In fact, your plan may even work if you're lucky enough."

"Then, if it's not the bid, why would you continue to be all.. Angry."

"Look, Hasumi. You need to stop using that unique skill you have. I do not know who taught that to you, or how it even works without even requiring magicode, but whatever that skill is, we need to put it off the table."

"Why? I think it's amazing. It catches people off guard, it probably even works on plants, and it's fun to use. Have you seen how people react when I subject them to it? It's laughable."

"The only thing that's laughable is you when you fall on the ground with that stupid pain in your abdomen, and then i have to rescue you otherwise you'd be crawling like a worm forever."

"Hey, that's so mean. Here I was thinking I was doing you a service, and killing two birds with the same stone."

I needed to act innocent and give a goofy reply in order to avoid an awkward situation, but also, why was Yuki angry? Hadn't my technique saved me from narrow situations twice now? Was it that she didn't feel comfortable becoming the cushion upon which I would land as repercussions to using the ability?

"If you have a problem with the support for my ability, Ero-Sensei's side effect, we can always look for other methods. Oh, I get it! So you want to show me to one of those streets!"

Again, I knew very well that Yuki would never agree to showing me such a place, but if Yuki and I were to work as a team together, then it was necessary for me to lay out the rules so I had to pretend to be oblivious of the situation, for the sake of moving forward. Only this time, Yuki was facing problems reading my mind, because I had analysed the magicode that was being used by Yuki to read my thoughts, and although I wasn't fully able to change my thoughts much less even hide them, I was barely managing to scramble out the important parts. In my mind, I could actually see the glowing blue thread of logic pass through my prefrontal cortex as alpha waves. Maybe Yuki had realized this, but she chose to maintain her current persona, as the stronger and more reasonable one. In this case, it was better to wait for her to make the next move, rather than defend my point any further.

Yuki tch'ed and held my hand really tightly.

"What I'm saying is…"

"Huh, what's with all of this blushing? What's up with her pose? My nose could bleed you know!!"

"...try not to use it in front of people. I mean, you may use it sometimes when we're in a tough spot, but never use it when there are other options available. I didn't like the fact that you used it on her, and then she felt so great after it. It didn't seem like an attack."

"I have no idea what you're saying Yuki, but I won't ever use it as long as there are other options available. Okay?"

This particular promise didn't add or take away too much value from my purpose of growing stronger, because once we had collected the money to participate in the bid, I would be able to gain some amount of power to at least hold my ground. The only question that remained undiscussed was now this,

"Hasumi, do you have any idea how we'll earn 8000 EC's in 5 days?"

"I'm sure we can think of some way. How much can 8000 EC's even do?"

"I'm a bus driver on the 27th floor. I earn 50 EC's a day. Most of the people here disguise themselves as humans and work as labourers and domestic workers, the type of jobs that don't require too many background checks. Even though we were made of androids, our bodies were intentionally made similar to humans so that society wouldn't feel threatened by us when our manufacturer first launched us."

That is what I had thought. Yuki's expressions faded and her head fell low, once again agonising in pain from past experiences. I doubted the company that manufactured androids on a mass level made them similar to humans for the reason of solely gaining sympathy from the people. There could exist darker reasons like selling people the pleasure to cause harm to another living being, that would hurt like a human, cry like a human, and suffer like one as well, all with the convenience of being a machine fundamentally and thus having no rights or legislation that would come to its rescue. And if ever such an inconvenience would arise, all that was required was to delete the data from the android's memory.

"Is there a part time job I could do?"

I asked, pointing towards a karaoke club shop, drawing upon the experience I had living in 2024. Working part time for students was a very common concept.

"You wouldn't get jobs here, because there is no net growth or loss. Ours is a very stagnant economy. Since androids don't reproduce, and we have never fought before, this place is a repetitive set of instructions that we live through every day."

It was ironic how robots that were intelligent as much or exceeding humans, were still at heart, living a life that resisted experimenting and change. Like humans, who each have different personalities but deep rooted, ingrained instincts that we share in common, I guessed machines too no matter how intelligent they got, would one way or another always depend on a set of framework and require maintenance.

If I wanted to survive in this market, I needed to introduce something to its residents, all androids, something that wouldn't steal the customers of another, but rather open a completely new business model, and maybe even monopolise it. Would I succeed in accomplishing such a feat, and that too within 5 days? Before I could act, the problem demanded a significant amount of brain power.

Every business, when it enters the market, must offer a competitive edge, something that the customers would enjoy, a reason for them not just to try it out but also to spread the world around.

Suddenly, like lightning, a thought flashed into my mind. One of the unique abilities I had mysteriously received in the portal, before landing here, had been data extraction using photons. If my guess was correct, it gave me the ability to extract information from any object, through which light had passed. If I were to implement it in technological devices, I would surely be able to extract data from there. It would also be possible even, to extract not just the thoughts inside a person's mind, but the entire stream of thoughts. Although this was just speculation. If I could somehow capitalise on data retrieval or something of similar nature, I could easily earn good money from it.

I violently grabbed Yuki's shoulders and pulled her close which caught her off guard. 

"I have an idea, Yuki. But before anything, I'll need your help."

I motioned my gaze towards Yuki's shirt, because I wanted her to log into her computer system, like earlier. Excitement flowing out of my eyes. Feigning my ignorance of her embarrassed red face.

"You should know that it's not safe to leave this place as well. I'm telling you already, I won't help you do anything stupid."

"If this idea works out, it'll be anything but stupid."

Yuki unbuttoned her shirt partially, and logged into her system. Then she looked at me critically.

"Now what?"

"Delete a folder from this system permanently. Anything unimportant."

"Okay..? I'm not sure what you're thinking though, but I'm curious now."

Once the folder was deleted, I pointed my hand towards the computer screen levitating in front of Yuki.

"Alright, now is the moment of truth. All the best, myself. This is my... Treatise on photon Processing For Information Retrieval!!"

"Unique skill: Extract Data, activate!!"

At that moment, my unique ability to extract data out of things that were exposed to light, somehow managed to extract the deleted folder, and it was recovered, even when it had completely ceased to exist; a skill no amount of magicode was able to bring forth save the highest magicoders at the echelons of society. At that time, I had no idea of this, but still it was very evident to me, that what had initially seemed like three useless unique abilities, were turning out to be exceptionally helpful to me for survival. I was going to use this skill to earn money enough to enable me to try my luck for a high-end neurochip. This was later on going to prove a catalyst in my eventual plan, of changing Earth into a better place. For reasons good or bad, my world was about to become a whole lot interesting.