Moving

"Now, to make me some money!" I exclaimed.

'Eh, so, how do I go about doing that? Alexander doesn't leave Earth for another couple years, so I can't do anything he does.' I realized. 'I can't go bounty hunting until I get my powers, and I can't gamble in a casino, I'd lose all my money.'

Suddenly, an idea came to my head. 'It worked last time, so let's try it again.'

I was going to invest again, putting the genes I got from my parents to use. It was basically gambling, but that was the only method that came to mind. Besides, gambling like this, I was more likely to make a return than at a casino.

"Hm, I'll have to go to another city." Aver was a great city, but there was another city that would work better as a base to invest. From the story, I learned that Alexander built a whole empire right from there, so where else was better to start?

Also, in that city was another cheat object, so I would have to go eventually. It's rather surprising how many cheats there are; not only that, but most of them are on the first human planet that the main character gets sent to. It's as if something, or someone, is pulling the strings.

'Meh, so what? Doesn't concern me, does it?' I thought.

I headed down the steps of the police station, scrolling through the internet on my bracelet. The bracelet didn't have apps or anything, but the internet was connected to everything. Not only that, but it could read your thoughts, which made it highly useful. Just one quick thought, and what you needed would appear before you.

'Cool, right?'

I connected to the map, typing in the location I was aiming for using only my thoughts.

The Space Port.

Honestly, I had no idea where the fuck I was, so the map was handy. 

Alexander had had only one run-in with the cops, and they didn't go to a station, so it wasn't in the book. Also, Captain Balil had teleported or something —I arrived at the station before my brain could process anything, so I couldn't see the path we took.

'Not that it would help, considering my memory.' I grumbled in my mind as I walked.

It wasn't fun to admit, but I had read the book over and over more than 10 times and still had yet to commit more than 5% of it to memory.

You see, the book was in my brain, branded there so I couldn't forget it, but it didn't work like a memory. I had to scroll through each chapter to find what I needed, and, although I knew the words in my head, once I stopped reading, it was as if the book just disappeared. All memories of what it looked like, the words on the page, gone! What I had read stayed with me, but only if my memory managed to store it. If I wanted to read the book again, I would have to think about it, and poof!- it appeared in my head, allowing me to read it.

'Such a shitty concept!'

---

I walked and walked, before walking some more, and then finally stopped, almost 20 hours later.

'God, just how big is this fucking city?' I complained. It turned out that the police station, or the one I was at, was the main branch of the city, and it was located on the edge of the city, on the east side, where the high-class district was. A terrible location for a police station, but hey, who am I to judge?

Anyway, getting to the Space Port, which was found at the edge of the south sector, took a lot of walking. A lot.

Once I arrived, I walked up to the guard who was standing in front of the doors to the building, holding my ID up. The man was tall, burly, and clean-shaven. He looked like a typical bodyguard, and I would have mistaken him for one if he were not releasing a palpable heat.

'Fire Element, I see.'

"Hello, sir. I'm here to leave the city. May I go past?" You had to ask a guard for permission —something I learned on my way to the Space Port— as they had to check your record for any crimes.

He leaned forward to take a look at my ID, and once he had put my name and ID number into the database, I presumed, he leaned back, standing up straight again.

His eyes scrolled left and right, lowering a tiny bit as he brought them back to the beginning. He was reading my record.

He suddenly pulled his hand up to his chest, its back facing me, and rubbed his thumb, index, and middle fingers together. "Payment."

'Right. Nothing's free in this world.' I remembered. There was a toll to leave the city by Space Port. Even the 'free pass' that New-Worlders had to get a bracelet, and enter a city of their choice was not truly free. The price? If you're lucky, your freedom, and if you're not, your life.

I tapped the hologram before me, sending to him a hefty 500 UC. Or at least, it was hefty compared to my meager 50,000 UC. That much could get you a night's stay at a pretty good in.

'Don't forget Arthur, you're more than lucky.' I reminded myself. As I mentioned, the price a New-Worlder paid was almost always their life —unable to fit into the new society, they crumble— or, if they're lucky, they get captured. It was extremely difficult for a New-Worlder to make it by in the universe. Your best bet was being born on a planet with at least a century of experience in the universe.

Once the man saw the money go through, he spoke. "You may pass."

He moved to the side, and the doors opened automatically. I stepped through, heading to the ship that would take me to the Space Port. Luckily for me, the ship was there.

I stepped inside, quickly put my seatbelt on, and relaxed.

---

The journey from the ship's destination to my destination was far. Since the city I was headed to was on another continent, I had to go across practically the entire Space Port.

The distance was 10 miles, so a total of 2 metrix, which took me quite a while to walk. I eventually arrived at the door to a long tunnel that led to another ship, one identical to the one at Aver, and I looked at the name above the door.

Unlike last time, when I spent half an hour decoding the name, I could pick it up instantly.

"The City of Trade, Neon." Something else I had researched whilst on my way to the Space Port was the name of the city I was headed to.

Since the city was the trade capital of Averia, it was often simply called the 'City of Trade'. Neon, on the other hand, came from the lights of the city. It was covered in signage from all of the businesses, and what better way to stand out than lights? 

Honestly, I wasn't sure why Aver was the capital of Averia when it had nothing much to boast about. Neon wasn't a good city either, but then again, none of them were. I had no clue why Averia was the Capital Planet.

The Human Empire, residing in the Galaxy Sapius, was, as you may have guessed, ruled by a royal family. But, they didn't even live on the Capital Planet!

'People are so confusing.' I thought as I walked toward the man standing guard at the walkway.

Once more, I had to show him my ID and then pay 500 UC to get on the ship.

'Almost there.'

---

After the ship landed, I rushed out, scanning my ID as fast as possible, wanting to see the city. I had seen it from the spaceship, almost blinding myself, might I add, and I became excited.

For what I had seen between my wet, squinting eyes was a masterpiece.

Opening the door, I was proven correct. Skyscrapers as far as the eye could see, massive signs of neon lining each of them. Some flashed, some changed colors, and some followed set patterns. All of it, however, was magnificent.

Had it been Earth, I'm sure that a city like this would have been treated like an artwork; loved by designers and people with taste, hated by everyone else, especially environmentalists. There was no way something like this could have been good for the planet, but who am I to tell them off?

None of that mattered though, compared to the next step.

Finding a lodging!

My stay in Neon, although I hoped for it to be short, was most likely going to take a while, so somewhere to eat and sleep was imperative. It wasn't as though I could spend my time in a mine or a dungeon in every city I went to.

I walked down the streets, swiping the air where my hologram was, looking for somewhere that was rated high enough that I would be comfy, but not too high that I would kill my wallet.

I was still a weak human, and as such, I had to be careful of anything that looked suspicious.

'If anything rings any bells, it's a safe bet to run away.'

I was moving in a straight line, headed south, toward the city's center, when I found an establishment that looked good enough. It was rated 3.5/5 stars, another thing that was the same as on Earth, and the reviews were all different enough that it probably wasn't a trap. Not to mention that the name rang no bells.

'Corleon's Rest.'

I clicked on the hotel, which led me to a map with a line, and so I followed. The map said that I was a metrix away, so it was only slightly far.

---

"I'm here." I said as I took a deep breath. The hotel was a rather good-looking skyscraper made of a black and white material that was similar to marble.

I stepped inside, heading to the receptionist.

"Hi, can I get a room?" I asked.

"Sure, that will be 1,000 UC a day." She replied.

'Fuck, that means I have at most 53 days before I'm out of funds. Argh, if only this wasn't the only hotel that didn't look suspicious!' With a heavy heart, I swiped away 1,000 of my very hard-earned money and then stuck my right hand out for the fob.

Although nothing bad had happened to me there, I knew that if I hadn't remembered what 'The Supria's Light' was, I was as good as done. It seemed that that experience had engraved itself into me, making me extra suspicious of all hotels. Had it been before, I would have just chosen the closest one that had good reviews.

She placed the fob into my bracelet, and I walked away to the elevator thing.

I pressed the button for my floor, my room now labeled on my hologram.

When the doors to the elevator closed, I took a deep breath and then prayed. I prayed that I would make enough money before I lost it all.

I stepped out of the elevator thing and walked across the hall, heading to my door. I opened it with a swipe of my hand and walked to my bed collapsing onto it.

I knew the door would close behind me, so there were no worries there, but I had expected to be plagued by doubts.

I had originally started this crazy idea just to get out of my house, but seeing what I had seen, how the book hadn't lied, I knew. I knew that I could make it to the top. And who didn't want to be at the top? Now that I had accepted getting there as my goal, my head should have been filled with ideas, rushing to create a plan that could take me there, but the softness of the pillow seemed to deny me that.

In the embrace of the bed, I felt safe and secure, unconcerned by possibilities, and my consciousness drifted away.