The Beginning (III)

Lord took out his validation card, it was that same green card that had his name and a barcode like symbol on it.

Validation cards were made 25 years after the Chaotic Era when humanity and Awakeners had found that some pockets of the human population didn't want to return back to civilization and instead had embraced the wasteland and the law of the jungle.

Thus, to be able to enter an [Ark] or guarded location, building, etc. One had to have a validation card which listed only the name and the barcode like symbol.

If someone didn't have a validation card due to being formerly a rogue or of other circumstances, then they must apply for one at designated places where the gate of the [Ark] stood.

There was a special tool that looked like a barcode scanner, which did exactly that, the scan signal would then go to the online portal and search through millions of energy signatures each with different wavelengths and specialties.

When the scan signal finds the signature that it's looking for it would then send a signal back to the scan tool and tell it to glow green. This technology had a few flaws a few decades ago where sometimes instead of green it sent a red signal or a green for a red signal, however with time, it was fixed and problems of people being arrested unrightfully were not repeated again.

Lord showed the guards his validation card.

"Heh, what a name! You got a really arrogant name kid, calling yourself Lord, heh!" One of the guards saw Lord's name and sneered.

"It's just the name, there's no arrogance behind it" Lord just shook his head, he had heard this quite a few times. Many teased him, sneered at him, and even called him too proud for having a name like Lord.

He didn't pay much attention to these kinds of comments, for him his name was just that, a name, he didn't feel that was different to any other name.

He had grown up with it and his name was part of his identity as a living being, he didn't think anything special of it. Lord's last name Wan was a family name, although he hasn't found anyone else with the last name Wan, he knew Wan was his surname from his family.

Lord thought that he was the last member of his family as he didn't remember having any siblings or relatives.

With such thoughts Lord waited patiently as the guards scanned the barcode on his validation card.

Bppt!

A sound came from the scanner as it flashed a bright neon green.

"Aight, you're checked, the cost of entering is 60 BAM, hand it over." The guard didn't look at Lord before pushing his hand forward with a demeanor of that of a thug.

"I'm okay, I'll hand it to the counter myself." Lord replied calmly, he was not naive to fall for such a simple scam.

"Tch! smartass" The other guard whispered, not even trying to conceal his voice or dislike as Lord and another guard heard it.

"I wish you gentlemen to have a good day as well" Lord simply smiled back as he walked past the guards with an easy and calm smile.

"Fucking brat!" the guard that tried to scam Lord said as he looked at Lord in displeasure and offence, clearly not minding that his pissed off face was showing very visibly

"Hehehe!" Lord chuckled as he didn't even look back, Lord loved to make these proud rats faces distort. There was a certain sadistic pleasure from seeing a prideful rooster whose nose pointed towards the sky having their face smeared with dirt and gravel as they could do nothing but take the humiliation.

Lord may have made these two F-rank awakened hate him, but he didn't care, although they were awakened and had certain privileges that ordinary people didn't have, they were still bound by chains, chains that were heavier and more painful than ordinary chains.

Awakeners were powerful, they were so powerful that when they first appeared, many of them had been killed by their own, because of a simple but terrible emotion that every human had; fear, the fear of power, fear of change, fear of trust. These kinds of fears had made ordinary humans paranoid, after all, awakeners were so powerful and oh so capable of making other humans be their toys, slaves, pets, ANYTHING.

This power gap had resulted in many things, one such thing was the creation of a special 'bind'.

The bind was what the current times called as 'the contract' where an Awakener with special power to manipulate mana in an unique way would watch as another Awakener would swear/promise something with another party, be it Awakener or ordinary, then that special Awakener would form a special seal that held the promise of that Awakener and place that seal within the Dantian, so that if the Awakener who made the promise didn't come through with it, they would suffer serious damage.

Of course this kind of contract was for the most serious things and rarely used for anything other than when someone first Awakened

Lord walked into the building, it wasn't lively, as expected since not just anybody could afford being here. Even Lord, a scavenger with a bit of money to spare rarely came as this place was simply too expensive.

Looking at the fresh painted walls with squeaky clean floor tiles as furniture that looked brand new was strewn all over the place in an organized manner with not a speck of dirt in sight, Lord sighed.

'Is this the enjoyment and comfort those big shots have all around?' Lord thought as looked all around, this place was truly a marvel for him who was used to broken down buildings with piss and cesspools all around staining the walls and streets as spiders and rats made homes within.

Although this place had the name of "Community" Washing center, everyone and their mother knew very well that this place was no way communal, or else how could there be so many people who haven't had a wash in years be everywhere in the streets?

Even in the apocalypse human greed is uncontainable as some elites even with their already powerful wealth and background wanted more, and the only way to gain more when you already had everything in the apocalypse was exploiting the normal people who had no background, money, or power to change their situation.

This led to what could be seen now, while on the outside everywhere was filled with dirt, piss, poop, stains, poorly made buildings and unmaintained streets that had plants growing out of it, the place like these here were clean, proper, organized, and just so alien.

As this was a private owned property, Lord would have to pay expensive fees to use the facility.

Walking up to the counter Lord looked at the receptionist, a young beautiful and professional woman with a business suit filled with professional and elegant charm.

"Good morning sir, how may I help you?" The receptionist bowed, it was a strange sight to see a well-dressed and clean young woman giving a bow to someone who looked everything but clean and organized.

Lord paid no extra thought to it, he knew this wasn't a bow of respect but just common courtesy employees of these high-end places were taught.

After all, the customers could be unruly or untaught but how could the employees be like that? Wouldn't the elite who made the establishment be humiliated if his or her employees' behaviour was as bad or worse than the customers?

Lord truly didn't understand these things the elites always worried about, after all to him, being able to live in a clean spacious house with food of abundance was already enough in this hellish apocalypse.

"I want an access pass to a shower room with all accessories for one hour, today is my sixteenth birthday, '' Lord said to the receptionist, emphasizing the sixteenth birthday party.

"Oh my, your sixteenth birthday, please place your hand on this pad so we can confirm you eligible for the "Awakening Test Discount" specialty" The receptionist said in surprise as she took out a pad that looked as if it was made from rubber and some pieces of unidentifiable fabric from under the countertop.

"Sure" Lord placed his wrist on the pad and waited as a thin red neon light went and scanned his arm.

On their sixteenth birthday, an unawakened person's energy fluctuations will be at its highest in their lifetime, this is why people can only become Awakeners on their sixteenth birthday, which is also the year an adolescent becomes an adult.

This change happened as shortage of personnel and workers was too common resulting in the law recognizing sixteen year old's as adults to fill up missing hands.

Bppt!

The pad glowed a lime neon green

"Ah, congratulations and happy birthday sir, you're eligible for the special Awakeners discount which is 32%, as you've ordered for a room for one hour, your expenses total to eighty BAM" the receptionist smiled politely as they said the insane cost with no effort.

"Yes' ' Lord replied as he took out eighty BAM, although he looked calm outside, inside the look of a man pained at having almost 20% of his salary vaporized in one second was very visible.

Lord could barely stop himself from cringing into madness as he heard that absurd price.

'This is why no one ever comes to this shit hole' Lord thought in pain as he placed eighty coins on the counter.

eighty BAM is equivalent to eight hundred USD for just one hour of using the bathroom.

Even with the discount of 32%, it was still an absurd amount of money!

Lord had heard some seniors and elderly people call this place a "greedy capitalists paradise" although Lord didn't know what a capitalist was, since it got mentioned with the word greed and this place, Lord didn't have a good impression of it.

"Ah yes, would you like to register for a monthly deal? It's a total steal! For only 1000 BAM a month you can use any facility within this building" The receptionist said something absurd with a completely cool face and an expression that said "this is really a good deal!"

"NO" Lord's tone became a bit cold as he almost yelled NO!

'Do you think I have money coming out of my ass? You think everybody is capable of dealing with your bullshit? Fuck!' Lord thought in anger, he always disliked coming to these places, not because they were unnatural to him but because he hated whenever these people talked, they said ridiculous things as if it was the most common thing on the planet.

Lord felt like he was losing his self-worth every second he talked to the receptionist.

"Okay" the receptionist said as she returned back to the device, understanding that the customer didn't want to hear anything more.

Click~

Click~click~click

The sounds of clicking rang as a silent atmosphere took place between Lord and the receptionist.

A few seconds later the clicking stopped.

"Your room is number [246], there is a towel included and the accessories are in the blue container, be careful with the sharp tools, those can hurt if you don't know how to properly use them." The receptionist advised as she took out a key with a blue string attached with the number [246] written in sharpie.

"Yeah, sure" Lord replied as he took the key from the receptionist's hand and walked deeper inside the building.

'Finally, it feels so exhausting having conversations with these people who don't have common sense.' Lord thought he just wanted to wash himself, but he kept meeting people who were exhausting him.

"At least I can have a good shower with warm water, ahh! That's what I call bliss" Lord remembered showering in hot water was one of the most comfortable experiences he ever had since birth.