The young girl was only 102 years old; whenever she put herself into sleep mode, she would wake up a few seconds before her alarm. She would immediately reach for the charging station next to her and carefully examine the gauge showing the charge percentage of her body. It must have been time for her cybernetic body's maintenance because, no matter how hard she tried, the charge indicator wouldn't rise above 98%.
Running out of charge didn't mean death for her; it only meant she would have to procure energy the old-fashioned way and rely on her primitive metabolism after a long time. For this girl, who hadn't let a single thing touch her lips for about 46 years, the thought of food passing through her throat created an air of a panic attack. In fact, she was so estranged from eating that thoughts of food choking her as it passed through her throat had taken root in her mind. Our girl was 102 years old. She was a delicate lady.
This young girl struck the charging station with the back of her hand and turned off her alarm. The charging station wobbled slightly on its feet from the impact. Then, after pulling the charging cable out of the socket in her tailbone, she rose from her bed with her naked body. She took a good stretch… Her blonde hair fell down her shoulders. Her naked body was metallic in color and shimmered constantly. It wasn't dazzling, but it was striking.
She could have turned off the stretching feature, or she could have chosen not to go and open the window with a human-like gesture upon waking. But then, what would be the point of living? Being human meant not losing certain rituals. Stretching, complaining, sniffing, and many more things…
As soon as her stretching was over, she grasped the wooden shutters of the window opposite her bed to ventilate the room and pushed them open with great force.
With the opening of the window, Uruzen City—far from any splendor, a place where civilization had taken a bite like a monster, leaving only wreckage behind—suddenly appeared. Ah… that beautiful, cursed city, smelling of mold and oil, with toxic gas that could burst an ordinary person's lungs in seconds…
As soon as the girl looked out the window, she first saw Mine Mountain. The interesting thing about this mountain, which was no higher than three thousand meters, was that half of it was missing. As if a giant face from the sky had taken a massive bite, the mountain was shattered and split in two by a huge crater. That shapeless fragmentation had left behind sharp and pitch-black rocks.
The cause of this massive collapse was the sinking Terraforming Solutions company. This company, abbreviated as TESO, which had grown with the support of Evoke Systems during the expansion era, had turned from one of the most powerful companies into one on the brink of decay as a result of a series of wrong investments. It was grumpy like an old man waiting to die, constantly angry, but cowardly when it saw someone stronger than itself. Like every sinking company…
It had vomited this grumpy attitude onto many planets many times. Its marks on this planet were not just the huge bite on Mine Mountain. There were many other signs.
With the opening of the window, the girl felt the breeze from the sea on her body. Although the sea looked wavy, those weren't waves on that black sea; they were bubbles of oxygen trapped at the bottom of the pond filled with tar and chemical waste, bursting in rows as they rose to the surface. These rows of bursting bubbles created an illusion as if the sea, miles away, were wavy. Yet, the sea had been dead for 82 years. The planet's moon, which could have caused waves in the sea, had been destroyed 102 years ago by missiles missed by a bombardment spaceship while trying to hit a Scavenger fleet. Looking at the sky, you could see millions of split pieces of that unfortunate moon of the planet shining with sunlight and covering the sky like small stars. But that is, of course, if you could manage to see beyond that toxic atmosphere.
The young girl rested her arms on the window sill and looked up at the sky, bending her waist. Yes… the sky was filled with a mixture of green and black clouds. The atmosphere was so toxic that a normal person could not breathe easily. The average life expectancy on this planet was no more than 30 years. A forty-year-old person was seen as quite old and shown respect by others. While technology had increased human lifespan to stretch toward eternity, that same technology limited the lifespan of the people on this planet as much as possible.
The clouds in the sky were like lions wrestling with each other. They moved fiercely, constantly blending into one another. It was as if black and dark green colors were being continuously mixed with a brush. They were heading South… According to what was told, there was an air purification facility in the South built solely to pull the wool over the eyes of the SWR (Supreme World Republic) inspectors. No one had ever seen or heard of that facility. But it was always said that the clouds were going toward that facility.
"Ah… I was wondering what was missing," the young girl murmured. That giant billboard appearing in the sky was the missing piece. Now, they weren't acting as punctually as they used to. The image of this billboard, which was in a hologram structure and carried by four giant drones, flickered constantly due to the density of the atmosphere and the pollution of the air.
A PN robot appeared in the billboard's advertisement. At the very top, in giant, italicized green letters with yellow shadows, it said 'Terraforming Solutions'. The PN robot was holding out both hands, trying to show that text gloriously. Below it was a caption: "At your service since technology existed."
"Now that I've seen the board, I can go downstairs," the girl murmured and slammed the wooden window shut.
In the giant room, there was nothing but the bed she lay on while charging, the charging machine, and a hanger standing at the head of the stairs. A few of the girl's clothes hung on the hanger. Under normal circumstances, our cybernetic girl could walk around without clothes. There weren't many features showing femininity on her metallic body. But her fashion-obsessed designer had made the metal plates on her chest slightly convex just to show her femininity a little, which made it look as if she had breasts. A very light touch… a touch that wasn't even noticeable if one didn't pay attention. A bit more than the chest a man possesses… this shouldn't bother anyone.
But the residents of Uruzen City didn't think the same. It was quite funny that, despite having only 30 years of life, they held onto the moral values imposed on their minds by the companies as if they were sacred texts. They couldn't bring themselves to see a naked woman, even if she was cybernetic. That's why our young girl had to put on the clothes from the hanger before going down the stairs.
On the hanger were a pair of tight pants and a shirt. The shirt was of an extremely light fabric. This was important because for our girl, who had become accustomed to being naked and had lived without clothes for 40 years, the weight of even the smallest fabric could bother her. That's why, while wearing clothes for the last 6 years, she made sure they were as light as possible.
Whenever she tried to fit the pants to her body, a look of disgust appeared on her face. How difficult and primitive it was to wear pants. First, you had to throw the pants on the floor. Then you had to stick both legs into them, and after sticking them in, you had to pull them up. To pull your pants up to your hips, you either had to jump and put both legs in at the same time, or stick your legs in one by one, which was more laborious.
If a cybernetic wanted to change their appearance, they would step into a clothes-changing module, wait for a few seconds, and their body parts would usually change according to their wishes. But she hadn't brought a clothes-changing module with her. Nowadays, she didn't want to use her money to have such a module brought over either. Because here, she was buying lives with money.
The young girl was 102 years old; as she put on her pants and hopped down the stairs, she tied her hair back with a clip she took from her pants pocket. As she descended the stairs, first her scent module turned off. Then her gag reflex turned off. A filter settled inside her nose so she could filter the toxic gases. When she got down the stairs, there was a metal, locked door in front of her. Before the door opened, she went deep into her mind to perform an analysis to see if she was ready.
"Scent module: OFF Gag reflex: OFF Emotional responses: SILENCED Gas filter: INSTALLED Reflex sensors: ACTIVATED Security level: INCREASED TO LEVEL TWO"
Everything seemed in order. Normally, our young girl wouldn't act this cautiously. No cybernetic needed to. Thinking things with a human brain was enough for them to happen. But the time for our girl's maintenance had long since passed… While even her charge wasn't full, a disconnection might occur between her brain and her cybernetic body; perhaps this situation could lead to a major problem. Recently, 2 of every 10 people who died were cybernetics who lost their lives due to lack of maintenance. At least, that's what was said in the Evoke Systems company advertisements.
Just looking at the door and thinking of it opening was enough for the door to open. The red light on the metal door turned off, and a green light turned on. As a large amount of gas spread from around the door, the girl's arms instinctively took a guard position. That white and heavy gas wasn't a danger, but the reflex sensor took no chances.
The girl entered the room where the gas was coming from. This was a sterilization room. As white and heavy gas was blown onto her body through hoses, she lifted her head and looked at the screen hanging from the ceiling. Her own body was on the screen, and she saw the red spots on her body gradually being destroyed as the gas hit them. Those red spots… they were quite dangerous. Their destruction by the white gas was a very good sign.