Chapter 1: hideOut

It was a beautiful sunny day in The City, which is unusual since it's close to an ocean and usually the weather is rather gray. Before one thousand years, this island was called Great Britain. It was a very popular place with a long history and culture. Right now is a junkyard. After the cataclysm, everything changed - many different species appeared out of nowhere, many natural disasters started occurring more often, the night sky had more stars than before, and a new moon, closer than the one humanity was used to, was circling the so-called Earth.

But the strangest thing of all is that the planet was 10 times bigger. The land, oceans, and the distance between continents was 10 times larger than before. What was one day a normal walk to the supermarket is now a 2-hour trip.

People got used to this new world pretty quickly and not soon after civilization was once again back on its feet.

There are 4 main cities - Zento - The City Of Science, Luku - The City Of Military, Kaifu - The City Of Resources, and last but not least - The Capital.

Arthur is a quantum mechanics student in Zento. His school isn't very prestige, but it offers good education for youngsters if they want to get a relatively high level of clearance(around level 3 if you are lucky, which compared to level 4 or 5 is undeniably better). Those with level 3 clearance get a two-bedroom apartment in moderate neighborhoods and a stable job in the city's many Robo factories or in the chemical department, where most of the city's population aims to find a working place. It was just the start of the school year and Arthur was now in his first year of advanced education, which means that he has 4 more years to study until he graduates.

It was Sunday morning around 9 am and Arthur had just woken up. His dorm room had a nice view of the lively streets of the city and it was just at the perfect height for all the scent of freshly baked bread to enter the room through his open window. His dorm apartment was just a rectangular room and a bathroom, which was next to the front door. The walls were painted in cloudy gray, but enough light was coming through the windows to cover their oppressive atmosphere. The room was messy - the desk in the left corner was piled with clothes, and the computer, whose 2 monitors were flashing and showing a loading program, was still on. The walls were covered in many posters of different bands and pop art. A big bag full of junk was sitting in front of the front door, but still, there were cans of drinks and bags of chips laying on the laminated floor.

*Today is the day, isn't it?* - Arthur thought - *Today my new roommate will be coming and this room will not be exclusively mine. This sucks!*

Arthur got up from the bunk bed, he was sleeping on the one that is on top. He took a shower and cleaned the room so that the new roommate won't be disgusted by its looks.

*Tomorrow is the first day of school. I wonder if my new class is going to be cool.* - Arthur was a bit nervous because he was going to study for the next 4 years of his life in his new class, where he knew no one, and since many of his friends went to different schools far away that meant that he was left all alone. As he was cleaning, many anxious thoughts went through his mind. What if nobody liked him? What if he doesn't make friends and is all alone? What if his new roommate is a bully or just a bad person to get on with? What if his roommate finds out about his secret? How is he going to handle living with another person in this small apartment and sharing space with him? Who is going to sleep on the bottom bed of the bunk bed? But these questions were quickly forgotten because of the captivating view of the city. People everywhere, transport lines full of different kinds of vehicles, skyscrapers, and huge blocks of flats - the scenery they created was lively and joyful, for a moment Arthur forgot all of his problems and just glared at what was in front of him.

Suddenly his phone rang. His old classmate Dino was calling.

- Yo Dino, what's up?

- Yo Arty, you awake? I just wanted to check if you are still going on today's trip.

* Crap, I totally forgot that today there will be a trip to the SaiNDai skyscraper. Ahhh now my plans for today are ruined. Thank you school app for notifying me. Also why this nickname(A nickname, which annoyed Arthur a little, because to him it sounded feminine, like he is a small child or something he never understood - a woman) * - Yes, I will be going. Don't worry, I won't show up late this time. - said Arthur in a rather annoyed tone.

- Okay, just making sure. Well, see you at the bus stop.

The transport park, where all kinds of public transport to different sectors or neighborhoods as they called it, was 15 minutes apart from Arthur's dorm apartment. The bus that they had to catch was at high noon, so that meant he had 2 more hours till then.

Arthur turned off his computer, took the trash, and went out. *Guess I have to kill time. Maybe a walk wouldn't be that bad. Going to the hideOut is an option. Yeah, the hideOut it is.*

After throwing the trash, Arthur took bus line 4 and went to the final station. It was close to the crossing point. Every sector had these crossing points, they served as a border between different sectors (or neighborhoods), and every sector had a specific area. Meaning that going to different sectors is forbidden, except if you have a special permit or you are going to lower clearance sector. What separated the different sectors was giant concrete walls and these so-called crossing points were the only way to get out. The sectors from the sky looked like giant cubes sitting next to each other, filled with buildings, and the only four crossing points laying in the middle of all four sides. Like every neighborhood was its own small city.

* Okay it's almost 10:30, I do not have much time before the trip starts so I better hurry.* Arthur was in front of the crossing point's gate, but instead of going forward just before entering the checkpoint he turned right and started walking in an alley next to the wall. It was a rather dark alley. Just a minute ago he was in rush-hour surrounded by tons of people rushing to their workspaces, but right now he was walking alone on a cramped street. On his left side was the wall separating the neighborhoods - 50 meters tall, 50 meters thick, grey, and made from concrete. On his right were the most miserable apartment buildings as they were close to the border wall and the apartments were basically one small room. Many people feared these dark alleys because many thugs and scrap sellers were roaming them at all times. Arthur showed no sign of stress as he was walking alone in this dangerous place however, in fact, he looked calmer than ever, lost in his thoughts as always. He stopped below a sign flashing the word "hideOut" in neon color. This appeared once to be a link cafe.

In the past, link cafes provided the same function as the post offices and they popularized the virtual meetup, which basically was a 3D hologram cafe date between the package sender and its recipient(later this idea was used to create cafes for virtual dating, and after many companies started to offer the same postal services as the cafes since there was a great need for this service and more protection was imperative, the link cafes died as a trend and all of them closed).

Arthur entered the so-called cafe and looked around. It was completely empty, ruined. There were chairs spread in rows of seven in seven columns. The only thing dividing the big chairs in the same row were some broken cupboards. Below every cupboard stood a broken virtual machine and the earbuds that needed to be put on in order for the machine to work. The boy went into the staff room and put the coin in a small crack between two wooden boards on the floor below a rack full of things. Gear sounds could be heard for good five seconds, then on the crack instead of the coin sat a shiny blue square. Arthur took it and sat in the middle of the third row. He put the shiny square on top of the machine next to him. The machine sucked the blue square and started glowing in blue and purple. Arthur put on the machine's earbuds and an interface appeared in front of his eyes. It glowed in blue light writing out "PASSWORD:_________".

-OutPublic3775 - Arthur typed in the box using only his thought and the interface replied with:

-ACCEPTED. SUCCESSFUL LOGIN. HELLO ShiruEt0. OPENING MAP. CHOOSE A POST... POST CHOSEN. BAZAR. DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE?

YES / NO

Arthur looked at the watch on his wrist. It showed 10:50.

*Good it will take me 10 minutes to get there. I should have enough time.*

Then he focused his mind on the interface:

NO. SECURITY CHECK. SECURITY CHECK. SECURITY CHECK.

As the machine was making some sort of a check Arthur heard distant voices. They were becoming louder and louder.

*This is not good. If they see me I will have to get rid of them. Come on. Come on. Faster you stupid wreck!*

CHECK DONE. COMMENCING STARTUP. THE RIDE BEGINS IN 3. 2. 1.

The chair plummeted to the ground and Arthur found himself in some kind of a capsule. A few robotic hands put a pillow under his head. He was almost in a standing position. The floor below his feet vanished and a tube sucked him. The whole operation took under a second, so Arthur couldn't understand what was happening. To him, he just fell into a tube and a pillow appeared behind his neck.

Thugs went by the cafe, but there was no sign of the boy. Only the soft chairs and rusty scraps of electronics.