Businesspunk! (2)

"And the hell is that supposed to be? A blank card? What is it made of? Aerogel?

I'll just keep it, I guess"

The young man kept on talking to himself to dilute the silence and existential loneliness. The mysterious card went into the shirt pocket on his chest.

"So, it seems like there's nothing useful left in this corner. The screen called this huge thing "Everything Vending Machine" ?"

There was a whole contraption in the right corner of the room. The main body of it was around three meters tall and two meters wide, covered in plastic casing with streams of differently colored liquids painted all over it.

The second section of this machine was attached to the main body with a seamless weld. It was around two meters tall, but really wide. It almost felt like they were made from one blueprint but one of them fell over. Various dishes were painted on it: steaks, salads, raw fish, marshmallows, e.t.c.

The third section was just a long and narrow table made from polished white marble that was "growing" out of the wall. There was a single round bar stool in front of it. It looked like a very lonely bar counter.

Upon further investigation the young man noticed a built-in keyboards and a display on each of the two casings. There also was a small plastic tablet somewhere on the height of his eyes. It said:

[ Step 1: type in what would you like to drink on the terminal 1 and press "Enter".

Step 2: type in what would you like to eat on the terminal 2 and press "Enter"

Step 3: Pick up your food and drink, sit down and enjoy your meal

Step 4: Profit! ]

The guy looked puzzled.

'If it's as good as it tells me, than it's the best thing in this room! Endless food and drinks of your choice! If only I could have something like that in my apartment... I would have secured, contained and protected it, that's for sure!'

He typed in [chilled feijoa flavoured lemonade] in the first terminal and [skirt steak with fried potatoes] in the second one.

"Enter"

Machines began to make weird sounds as if nothing was really happening inside them, like an office worker who starts dragging the spreadsheets around the screen when his boss comes around to check. But after few seconds there was an undeniable result.

0.5 liter plastic cup was filled with cold liquid with slightly greenish tint and there was a steaming hot juicy skirt steak paired with golden brown potatoes.

"This machine used paprika and black pepper even though I didn't specify it. Freaking magic"

The guy ate few potato pieces and a quarter of a steak. Lemonade was almost finished

"I don't really have a strong appetite after that experience. And it would be dumb to stuff a full stomach of a relatively good food when your can access ANY food. I hate to say it, but at this situation experience is much more valuable than the amount of food... Hmm... What should I try."

[durian flesh]

"Delicious. Smells funky, not even repulsive as I've been told. Reminds me of a caramel somehow?"

[One boiled quail egg]

"Never ate those actually. Could not force myself to spend money on them"

"Just an egg"

[Jamon iberico one slice]

[Jamon iberico ten slices]

[Bluefin tuna a hundred grams]

"Actually delicious. Never thought that I would like a piece of raw fish. Very fatty thought"

[a piece of freshly baked while bread]

"Yep, that's it"

[Jamon iberico ten slices]

The plastic utensils began to pile up on the table

[ice-cold sparkling mineral water]

"This plastic trash is the only disappointing part of this fine meal. I can only leave a 4 star review for now, it takes a dish on an actual plate for it to be a 5 star. It makes super complex food out of thin air, it MUST be able to produce ceramic and silver or something."

[a slice of pizza with mushrooms and olives on a porcelain plate]

After a series of familiar noises the conveyer belt of the second terminal moved and showed a delicious looking slice of pizza on а spotless white plate.

"SUCCESS!"

The young man screamed while throwing the newly manifested plate to the side, shattering it against a thick glass of the floor. He turned around and looked at the pieces of ceramic with a lighthearted smile, stood up and stretched his whole body, especially the fingers

"Trashing a luxurious apartment feels so refreshing. Well, no one forced them to bring back from the dead, right? Also if they were actually caring about this room they would say something about keeping it intact"

"So let's begin the preparation"

[A set of 4 bluefin tuna sushi served on a 70 centimetres long razor sharp machete made from an M42 type steel with a leather wrapped handle]

[Ten croquettes served on an adjustable all purpose leather utility belt]

[Six mini-croissants, each served on a perfectly balanced throwing knife]

[A piece of lettuce served on a GLOCK 19 seasoned with 10 suitable magazines for it]

The first three requests worked properly, but the last one was a let down.

"That's just a hunk of metal in a shape of a glock, not a proper handgun. Rounds seem to be fine, but who knows if they actually are. Lettuce is fine though. Just how can it make a perfect lettuce and not a handgun?"

'At least I have something to protect myself with in a mysterious place that I'm going to be transported. If it's hell or heaven as they are described in sacred texts and media my preparations were in vain, but if it's some kind of transdimensional office with unknown dangers I would be able to do something'

He put the belt on, strapped the machete to the side and picked up throwing knives.

"Let's see if I can still do this"

The guy positioned himself few meters away from a side of a bookshelf.

*clang*clang*thud*thud*clang*thud*

"Three out of six. 50% accuracy. Not that bad"

Three knives were sticking out of the side of a bookshelf and the same amount was lying on a floor.

Suddenly-

*PEEEEP*

The screen made a sound for the first time. Hearing something that was not your speech and wasn't caused by your actions was really unexpected in this place. The guy swiftly turned in the direction of a sound. New words have appeared on top of a video of burning logs.

[Your departure will take place in ten minutes.]

[10:00]->[09:59]->[09:58]->...

"Well, I did everything I had to do, so let's do some hands on science next"

[a single pea served in a two liter steel jar, seasoned by six hundred grams of powdered red iron oxide and two hundred grams of fine aluminum powder]

A jar full of metallic powder appeared out of the machine. Two powders were in layers, so the guy had to stir them around with a plastic fork.

"Ah, I need a starting mix"

In the next few minutes he had a cup of glycerin and a small vessel filled with potassium manganate(VII) on his hands. The second ingredient looked really pleasing: it was a pile of fine dark purple crystals.

"Never did exactly this before, but theoretically speaking it should be fine. Would've been much easier if it could just make an acetylene torch, but it failed to make a glock, so I think that there's no reason to try even. Especially on a time limit"

'I have a sneaking suspicion that this view is fake. It has to be some sort of an image. No matter how strong this glass is it's still glass and I have to hear at least a trace of outside sounds. It seems like I'm at least few hundred meters above the ground, so the winds must be strong on this altitude. Even when I put my ear to the glass I couldn't hear a thing.

These clouds don't seem too be real too. I found a particular pattern in their shape to look after and it didn't disappear over time, didn't even change. So the clouds are stationary. I'm here for over an hour, but the color of light emitted by the sun from under the clouds didn't change. It's still golden hour.

This window might be a super complex monitor that tricks my depth perception. I can try to brake it with brute force, but it seems like I don't have enough of it, plus it still can be an actual widow and I'll have big problems if it just shatters fully. Nothing live threatening probably, but that would not be epic nonetheless. If I shattered the floor I would've been able to touch this velvet moss and cool looking snails at least.

So if simple brute force doesn't work I'll use slightly more complicated brute force. It should be possible for me to melt a nice little hole in it.

The temperature of burning thermite is around 3500°C. The glass melting temperature is around 1500°C or so, might be a bit higher. Also thermite doesn't require additional oxygen to burn, so my 6000 cubic meters of air must be safe. It would become slightly warmer though. Also, in a perfect world it does not emit any fumes. I have a piece of cloth drenched in water if it will for some reason, should be enough to protect me for a few minutes that I would be left with.

On the other hand the starting mixture is a disaster. I've never made it before and it'll emit a lot of CO2, but it's relatively tame and energetic enough to turn the thermite on. I think.

By the end of the reaction I should be able to melt through the glass. Well the melted iron would probably plug the hole, but if it is a screen it should turn off at least. Also I'll try to push the melted metal away from the hole with a bar stool leg. That's the plan.'

After planting the thermite jar against the window and inlaying potassium manganate in it he put the drenched cloth on his face, leaving a slit for his eyes.

Adding glycerin to the purple crystals didn't work right away, but the guy was hopeful and added an abundance of it. Steaming became more and more intense and eventually it lit on fire. The bright purple flames turned the inlayed plastic vessel into nothing really fast and started to heat up the thermite.

"Did I just made something chemistry related and it worked the first time? No way in hell"

Thermite turned bright yellow under the still raging purple flame. The guy had his stool leg ready for action.

"Well, I guess there's nothing to screw up"

The thermite mixture turned on and began to produce tremendous amounts of heat. The young man had to take a step back. He tried to shift the burning mixture a bit closer to the glass. It was unfathomably hot.

"Holy f*ck, it's like I'm in a- ngh! Burning building"

Thermite was slowly burning through and heating the adjacent glass. It was barely noticeable due to the bright light. The guy started poking into the glass repeatedly. After half a minute he had to retreat and drench his face, arms and torso in cold water from terminal 1.

"I remember that I wanted to be a firefighter when I was five. I was dumb as a rock back then. Well, nothing changed really"

The jar began to fall apart as it melted and the thermite mixture spilled to the side, throwing 3500°C molten metal droplets.

"Sh*t! Who could've thought that molten metal will melt the metal?"

The poking continued. The glass has reached the consistency of a molasses.

"Yep! Going through! Maybe I'll poke through it before I'll burn even"

The long and painful process of going through continued for several minutes. The amount of thermal energy enough to weld rails together was released and absorbed by glass.

[00:59]->[00:58]->...

"Yeah, it's not melting fast enough. I've spent too much time thinking about the starting mix"

The melt through was significant, but there was clearly not enough time left.

He abandoned his task and swiftly put everything he had prepared on himself: The belt, machete, throwing knives, a cloth with dry breads and hard caramel candies inside, a flask of water. He also had scissors in his pocket, a random piece of puzzle and a mysterious card he found.

[00:23] -> [00:22] ->...

'Well, some questions won't be solved. The important thing is that I'm ready-

*CRACK*

'What... HOLY SH*T THERMAL EXPANSION'

*CRACK*

*TCH-BHAM*

"HAAAAAAAAA!" (inhale)

In a few seconds the crack appeared in a solid glass panel of a window. The difference in temperatures between the burning thermite and the outside has led to the stress accumulation inside the glass. At some point the integrity of window was compromised so much that it became incapable of withstanding the pressure difference. That point is now.

Giant hunks of glass caved into the outside space accompanied by small shards flying outwards like bullets. A thin veil of tiniest fragments was all around, shining in expending cracks. There was nothing else I there. Just a pitch black void in between the flying shards that were still showing fragments of the beautiful view.

The time seemed to slow down, at least in the perception of the young man.

'14 seconds. A few more seconds to get affected. Probably explosive depressuarisarion next. I'm in space? In void? I should be fine, but minor barotrauma is possible'

"Haaaaa" (exhale)

The young man exhaled, covered ears and opened his mouth. He was leaning on the back of the Everything Vending Machine, it seemed to be immovable.

'I might not be doing that correctly but I don't know any better. Around 10 second. The volume of the room must be big enough. The window didn't fully shatter, just a half of it.

The noise of small objects flying out paired with the explosive howling of escaping air was terrifying. There's no safe spot and the realisation of the fact that the thing you need the most is rapidly depleting is hitting harder than a truck.

'Around now? Few more seconds. The room was not idiot-proof. It was truly not. Please take me away. Today is my second birthday. I didn't have enough fun yet. TAKE ME AWAY!'

The screen in the middle of a room showed

[00:00]

The young man disappeared in a flesh of violet light and the eye of the same color has opened in front of the devastated window.

[What an interesting person]