Chapter 14 - Coffee thoughts

Once his business was done, Carl quickly left the school premises unnoticed. His outfit covered half his face, and since most students were wearing jackets in school, his walk was uneventful.

_Pant, pant, pant_

While exploring the city, he decided to jog around, and was just now finishing with the cold air breezing through his sweater.

Standing on the huge mechanical bridge with the city reflected on his eyes. he fixed his hair that was blocking his view.

'I am indeed in a different world now. There are glassy skyscrapers here, floating vehicles, levitating trains, mecha-holograms, moving robots.'

Earth was a crazy place that was outside the realm of his imagination. If he doesn't have a native's memories stored in his mind, he was lost of where to start!

Rested, Carl decided to enter a café bakery on the sidewalk, and as he opened the door, the scent of bread invaded his nose.

"Good morning," the cheery voice of a young man then greeted him by the counter.

The person was in his late teens with powdered raven hair, acute eye shape, and a few freckles on his cheeks. He wore a white vest and a black jacket, and was just watching a video clip on his phone.

It was already morning, but the seats were pretty much empty with just five customers, but sure enough, Carl could remember that this shop used to be popular and had an old owner. It sold good coffee and bread, but somehow, he hadn't heard about them in a long while.

The students in the school also usually used to talk about going here every time afterschool. He could blame his lack of information to his body's former habits for not going out.

"Good morning, er, do you have an americano?"

"That would be 5 dollars."

"Okay, then four donuts, the vanilla flavor."

"I got ya' that would all be 14 dollars."

Carl just laid out what he saw on the menu and ordered.

The young man then quickly started making his coffee and also gestured for him to personally get his pair of donuts, so he did.

Carl had no idea how to make a coffee, but it seems pretty hard, so he just decided to sit somewhere. Seeing the spot by the window was perfect to see the outside, he decided to wait there.

It didn't take a lot of time, and his recess food for the morning finally came to his table, wafting the vanilla scent in the air.

Carl immediately took a bite of the donuts and felt relieved. It was delicious, soft, and even had good scent.

'I knew it was good, but nothing beats experiencing it first-hand.'

Carl enjoyed his recess.

Although the coffee wasn't as good as he'd expected and remembered, he was in a better mood to start the day.

Customers also started to stop by, although not much, and after tasting that coffee, he could see why this place was not that popular now. That coffee was really boring, just plain coffee. Convenience coffee was even better than that yet it was more expensive.

Seeing no crowd really coming, Carl tapped his phone to the E-bank address of the shop and paid for his food.

Most transactions were processed this way. All citizens, shops, companies, was registered to an online banking system with a certain e-Bank address.

Everything was recorded, so once the sender paid a certain amount, it tells the receiver who paid it including the date and time they wired the money. If the sender was wiring the money to a business, it then automatically tells the receiver what item or service they paid for.

History tells that it was an extremely secured system, since many tried to take advantage of it in the past, yet it remains unbreakable.

The young master bowed, and smiled after him after checking the screen on the counter. The receiver can access the sender's profile so he realized that Carl was not a normal citizen. The change in his attitude was apparent.

Carl smiled back just to make sure there were no problems.

Here in Earth, cultivators were much respected form of human beings, which belongs to a totally different dimension in human societies. The threat that they hold and carry with them was too great no ordinary soul would dare to offend them.

One snap of their fingers, and they could produce fire from their fingertips or do many unimaginable things.

Any normal person shudders at the thought of making a mage angry. Even the strongest human could not win against the weakest cultivator, they say.

Growing up, Carl knew this was not only exclusive to Earth.

Back in his world, even the adults in their house were afraid of him as a child, terrified to see him in the eyes when he was just half their height. This was because he was tested with the talent for using magic.

Earth was no different. It's environment wasn't as harsh and immoral, but Earth treats cultivators with special treatment too. As if they're 'heroes' of the world!

At first, Carl thought Earth wasn't that different in this aspect, but at the same time, he found the treatment quite interesting.

Cultivators here were basically part of the world military, no matter where they were in the world. They answer to the Mages Association and all their announcements including their vision, mission, and duties and responsibilities.

If they don't want to hunt monsters or fight like most cultivators, they still had mandatory duties to attend annual check-ups in order to make sure they were completely stable. In a way, the government was always looking at them.

Although cultivators were not officers, they have the responsibility to become like a Good Samaritan and protect the human society from monsters, terrorism, and any kinds of danger, even inside the city. They usually don't have to directly fight, but everyone had to make sure themselves they will not be causing trouble within the society.

If any were caught and proven to be misusing their powers, they will have to answer to severe punishment by the Mages association.

If the act was serious enough like murder, they can be arrested and sent to special prison facilities managed by the Association. This was the scary thing to happen. After you got thrown to a special prison, your life was basically not yours any more.

You will not be able to get out and see the sun under any circumstances until you served your sentence.

And not only that, if you're 'unlucky', you might get out but under special circumstances. MA agents could always march to these special prison facilities and pick prisoners at will to work for them during their operations.

Basically use them as meat-shields and hunting dogs.

Every prisoner was a cultivator, with special bodies and different types of abilities, so with the proper restrictions on the neck or the heart, even if they're outside, they were perfect as not only loyal but lethal soldiers!

Carl was both impressed and terrified for this.

When Aaron introduced himself as a person from the MA, he could remember how his heart shrunk like ice. He shuddered at the thought of being a prisoner in one of those special prison facilities.

"Earth is a lot darker than its flowery and blooming surface. This is how they create such order and peace." Carl said.

Back in his world, mages live like kings but also controlled and restricted. While normal humans fears mages, they also could live very well alongside them. That was the cruel reality, but in this world, it's more controlled, but the concept was the same.

But being in this world for only a while, he learned to like it.

At his world, most people were normal humans. Cultivators were very rare but they treated the human kind like mere animals and inferior beings.

Growing up, Carl hated that very much.

Once one obtains absolute power and reaches Godhood powers, what was there to see? More power? What were even the good things in that?

Carl kissed his teeth and hissed this time. Remembering his past, he could not help but think back on the day he decided to leave his clan.