[Location: Sector 6 City Area, Terra A]
Time: 2 hours after leaving the junkyard ruins
Holy shit.
One hundred seventy years really changes a place.
Right now, I'm in what's supposed to be the city area of Sector 6, but I remember the buildings being flatter, poorer, dirtier. Some of these didn't even exist. The people look different too.
Guess that's what war profiteering does to a planet.
Except this wasn't a normal war.
It was fought against a twisted, dark, parallel dimension.
Yeah, something like that.
I kept walking. Wandering aimlessly.
Despite 170 years passing, a lot still felt weirdly familiar. Speech, money excluding inflation and the weird credit systems , basic culture. Still the same.
But everything else left me in awe.
Massive holo-ads flashed above as I walked through a dense crowd. One caught my eye.
[VITALITY NANOTECH: FEEL HEALTHY EVERY DAY]
What the...?
Back then, nanotech was still banned. Experimental only. The United Human Government wasn't allowing anything commercial. Seeing this out in the open made my stomach twist.
I had dormant nanotech inside me. Stuff I couldn't control. The scientists at Tena were the only ones who could manage it, and they were long gone now.
Unless they weren't.
Maybe they had their own cryopods?
No. The lab was destroyed. Demolished. If they survived, it wouldn't look like that.
I was just an abandoned experiment.
Kept walking. More signs. One blinking red:
[VOID ZONE ALERT: LEVEL 3 DISTORTION INBOUND]
So the war against the Void never ended. Great.
Another advertisement lit up next:
[FRAME AUGMENTS: LEVEL UP YOUR BODY]
Frames. High-grade augments used for combat. Civilians had access too now, apparently. Not just soldiers. That part hadn't changed either.
Eventually, I turned the corner and spotted a building that looked... tolerable.
[THE CAPSULE DEN]
An old orange-brick building climbing at least ten floors high.
Even in my time, these capsule hotels were popular with the poor. Dirt cheap to rent. Basic, but clean enough to sleep in. Owners made profits from the sheer number of people crammed inside.
I stepped into the tiny, sad-looking lobby. The clerk looked like some kind of panda hybrid. Lack of sleep, probably.
For his sake? Hopefully.
"Welcome. Would you like a capsule for one?"
He pushed a cred machine across the counter. A box with a wire and a flat surface with a money logo.
Most people in Sector 6 still used physical cred, cards or plastic coins. Only the rich paid virtually, using HUDs and implants. At least that part still made sense.
I placed some plastic coins onto the machine. They disintegrated.
Converted into virtual cred.
Where did I get the money?
The three kids earlier had spared me just enough for the night. Good kids.
I didn't even have to extort them!
The clerk handed me a black card with the Capsule Den logo and pointed toward a hallway.
Two walls of horizontal sleeping pods stretched to the ceiling, stacked like storage units. Rusty scaffolding ran up the walls like a skeleton of stairs and platforms.
Wonder if il get Tetanus if I tripped on these stairs.
I climbed. Floor after floor, until my legs burned. Finally reached mine.
8th floor.
I glanced down at my bloody, strange gown. The clerk didn't say anything. Guess he was used to this.
This place must be filled with poor people like me so actually he is definitely use to it.
I crawled into the pod. It was just big enough to lie down. A simple mattress, thin pillow, cheap blanket. Basic, but better than the streets.
Outside each pod was a small storage slot. I had nothing to store.
I lay on my back and stared at the small panel above me.
[Pod Functions:]
I skimmed the list and tapped a button. The square pod door slid closed with a soft hum.
Temperature control. Not bad.
For something built for the poor, this was paradise. In the past, the kind of pod that the kids' money could've bought was basically a metal coffin.
I scrolled through more functions.
Wireless Nanotech Charging
Shower Mode
Call Hotel Staff
Entertainment and TV [10 Creds]
Wait... shower mode?
What the..
How the hell does that work in a sleeping pod?
Also, of course entertainment costs extra. But showering and electricity are free. Really says something about priorities now.
Then I stared at the nanotech charging option.
Wait... I have nanotech too. But mine's experimental. Old. Built by the Tena organization.
Would it work?
I hesitated, then pressed the button.
A faint humming sound filled the pod.
[Charging... Estimated Completion: Next Morning]
I stared at the ceiling for a while. Wondering what exactly I had just activated inside me.
I'm definitely going to regret that
Then I closed my eyes.
Tomorrow could wait.