Case - 2 : Lottery

"Are you ready?" Anneliese brought me back to reality from my machinations.

"No, I'll need to take a quick shower. I don't want to go smelling like a hospital ward."

"Then quick! The product launch is about to begin in an hour!"

"I see." I nodded and slipped into the washroom attached to my room in the hospital.

'What happened to the doc though? I wonder if he'll come around for my pre-release checkup.'

"And if you're wondering about your pre-release check-up, the doc already finished it while you were sleeping!" Anneliese shouted from the other side of the washroom door.

'Can she hear my thoughts?' I wondered as I imagined living in a world where all the neural interface people openly shared their thoughts with each other while the ones without lived a completely different life.

Taking a quick shower I shuffled into the clothes Anneliese had picked for me.

"Why did you bring clothes?" I asked Anneliese confused, "I didn't tell you."

"Your mom gave them to me. She said you used to fall asleep after anesthesia as a child too, so she gave me these clothes so that you could change into them the next day."

"I did?"

"That's what she said."

"I see." I nodded, apparently, I wasn't so different even without my memories after all.

'Perhaps I hadn't changed much from before my memories were wiped?'

"Did you book a PTV already?"

"Yep, I booked Raivesh again! Since you seem to like him so much!"

"Oh. You booked him."

"Why do you look so disappointed?" Anneliese asked with a frown on her face.

"Because his mother said, clean people are good people and I'm no longer clean. I'm a cyborg."

"Arggg…you're not a cyborg! You're still clean, you just have a small chip in you! Calm down."

"...fine."

'No use worrying about random things now. I've got to cheer up! I have a murderer to reveal!'

*slap* *slap*

Slapping my face twice to wake up from my depressing mood, I pumped myself full of happiness energy and spoke to Anneliese again, "Let's go." I nodded.

Anneliese began to follow behind me step for step as I walked out of the hospital, settling my bill on my neural interface this time as I exited the hospital in a clean and easy fashion.

My wavelength change had been recorded and would be updated in the government database.

I had nothing to worry about.

'Well except the neural interface blow-'

I stopped my thoughts in my tracks and pulled open the neural interface window to set it up and connect it to my home network.

'I need pictures of Riyane to calm down.'

'It feels like it's been too long since I've seen her.'

'Maybe I can even go see her after this.'

'Won't she like it? Her daddy on the media?'

"Good morning sir! Are you alright?!" Raivesh asked as soon as he saw me.

"Yep, I'm fine. I just got a neural implant surgery done yesterday." I said with a little apprehension since I didn't want Raivesh to think I was a bad person now.

"Oh! That's awesome sir! My mother used to always say that people with a neural link cannot be bad people!"

"....wasn't it the other way round?" I asked as I settled into the PTV, taking my seat beside Raivesh leaving the back solely for Anneliese.

"That was before when I was living with her sir! After I moved out, I don't know why but she began telling me that I should get a neural implant since people with a neural implant can't be bad people."

"..." I internally sighed at Raivesh's simplicity as I imagined how cunning his mother was to immediately ask him to use his own money to get an implant and not waste hers.

'What do I do with the AR glasses I already have?' I wondered.

'Maybe I use it as a distraction?'

'No one really knows I got a neural implant except for people close to me.'

I felt for the AR glass I had brought to the hospital that was in my pocket and pulled it out.

'Ha! I guess you still have your use after all.'

"Off to this location Raivesh.", I said sending him the launch event's location using nearby share.

"Yes sir!"

The drive to the event was an uneventful ride that I quite enjoyed after the roller coaster of a ride I had experienced the day before yesterday.

Buildings passed by as Raivesh surprisingly drove in an ordinary fashion by following all the rules of the road.

That was when I remembered, I had an offer for him.

"Raivesh, would you like to become a payroll driver for the Police Head quarters?"

I half expected Raivesh to slam the brakes I didn't know why, but fortunately nothing of the sort happened as he spoke in a calm manner.

"What does it entail sir? If I might ask?"

"You'll be given a fixed pay of about seven hundred per hour, quite decent if I say so myself. And you'll have to follow the requests of those in the office to take them anywhere they wish, inside the city of course and inside the office hours, of either the night or the day shift from seven to five either way."

"Can I think about it a little bit Sir?"

"You can take your time, the offer will remain on the table until you decide to reject it. No pressure."

"I will most likely accept it, sir, I just need to check a few things with my mother sir, she's a little superstitious."

"I see. That's alright." I nodded.

I used the rest of the half-hour of our ride to calibrate my neural interface to my sensitivity and liking.

I did it while adjusting Riyane's picture as my interface background as we arrived at the most famous place in Inception City.

"The marble eye.", I mumbled as Raivesh stopped in the parking lot of the building ahead of me.

The building was one of a kind, from an ancient bygone era as it remained in the shape of concentric circles made out of pure marble in whose center lay the statue of the founding father of Inception City.

'Gene Roddenberry.'

He was the creator of the world's most mysterious algorithm that later eventually grew to become the first GAI, Althea Serenity.

"Thank you, and do think about the offer." I nodded at Raivesh who nodded back with a serious look in his eye.

"I promise sir, I will."

Turning around I watched Anneliese's excited expression as she looked positively excited for being able to witness the product launch of such a special device that would go down in the history of not just Inception City but the world as well.

'At least this was the world will remember me along with this?'

"I thought you'd go back to the police HQ with Raivesh. What happened? Were you invited?" I teased Anneliese a little.

"Ha! As if! I'm going in as your plus one!"

"When did I accept that!?"

"I don't care if you accept it or not! It's finale and it's done. I'm not even an employee yet! You haven't signed on my papers to hire me! So I don't care if I'm taking an unannounced leave of absence!"

Anneliese and I stepped into the main hall as I stifled a laugh that threatened to break my calm facade.

'Haha! Kids these days, they take jokes too seriously!'

I searched around the hall for Lazarus, my prime Suspect but I couldn't find him.

'Did he run away?'

'No, he should know he doesn't have long.'

'And didn't he want to do the presentation today?'

'Perhaps he's ju-'

My words stopped in flow as I watched Lazarus walk onto the stage.

With heavy makeup.

Most likely to cover up his dark circles that should've made him look like he had a panda's eyes.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen!"

"Today is an honorable day for all of us!"

"Today is the day we say good bye to a past that has haunted us and say hello to a new future!"

"Today is the day we release Mneosyne's newest product!"

"The Memory Orcle!"

A spotlight shone an island of light on the stage, sending everything else into darkness, as a short stout, pillar motored its way to light from under the floors.

On the pillar was a sophisticated-looking neural implant device that should be what Mnemosyne wanted to present.

It had blinking blue lights, strips of neatly tied cables and a transparent polyester sheet covering it all to give it the best Sci-fi look a device in this era could have.

"This device here! As remarkable as it looks, is a one-of-a-kind, Memory retrieval device! It can retrieve all memories that have been either lost to time or even forcefully wiped!"

"It uses advanced recovery algorithms and AI scans to figure out exactly what was erased inside your brain by studying the fault lines on the neurons and their connections!"

"This data is then used to automatically retrieve the memory and stream it into your brains and recreate it by using your interfaces!!"

"As marvelous it is, we have already obtained the required patents and clarifications along with required permissions to use them on humans!"

"In fact, we have just finished Phase three of our human trials!"

"Here's what some of our participants have to say to us."

A holographic projector projected a woman on stage as she looked at everyone smiling and spoke in a jubilant voice, "Eleven years ago, I was mindwiped! Like everyone else who is a victim of a mindwipe procedure, my life was shattered. I felt like an alien in my own world! I knew things I shouldn't and didn't know things I should. It was a mess! But thanks to Mnemosyne's Memory Oracle, I can now return to my life just as if I've picked it up after dropping it once. Thank you, Mnemosyne."

The lady bowed with a soft smile as the hologram changed to another person, this time a child.

Several testimonies later, the spot light shone back on Lazarus as he spoke once again after having wet his throat a little.

"Now, testimonies are quite good, but who here doesn't want to try it! Am I right!?"

"YESS!!!" The crowd shouted.

"Alright! Alright! I will now randomly choose a number and call it out! On your invitations is a number printed on the back! That is the number of your ticket in this lottery! If you are picked, I only hope you are brave enough to have your memory wiped and unwiped in front of everyone!!"

A large holographic spinning wheel with various numbers on it appeared on stage and I thought, 'Oh shit! Of course, he has a lottery system! I thought it was going to be a volunteer system like he said! Damn it! Now I can't guarantee getting a spot!'

I looked at the spinning digits on the stage as I looked at the number on my invitation card.

'D198.'

'Come on! Come on!'

I watched with impatience as the numbers on the wheel slowed down.

Ticking with each number passing by as they changed.

From D190, to D193 to D196, and then D197, and….finally D198.

"YES!" I mumbled out loud in excitement as Anneliese reminded me to quieten down after pinching my arm a little.

But a stray thought crossed my mind at the opportune moment.

'Wait a second. Was it really chance?'

'Didn't Lazarus himself hand over the invitation to me?'

'What are the chances that it was all planned?'

The spotlight turned off on the stage as Lazarus spoke with rising anticipation in everyone.

"And the number D One Nine Eight….belongs to…our very own Respected Sergeant Dave!!!!"

The spotlight switched to me as the holographic screen on stage lit up once again showing me on stage with a live feed of what I was doing that very moment.

I nodded politely as Lazarus spoke again.

"Please welcome onto the stage!!! Sergeant Daaaa~ve!!!!"