“WHAT?! ALREADY?! How much?!” I shouted.

[1000 credits with the message: “It’s not much, but I hope it will help you out. A fellow citizen.”]

“No way! NO WAY! We are getting rich! BWAHAHAHAAH! I’M A FREAKING GENIUS!”

[Can I see the message, too?] I asked eagerly. My hands were shaking with excitement.

[Sure, just check on your computer.]

It was real. Someone sent me money. I mean, to poor Rabunde. If people are this naive I could get rich in no time and I wouldn’t even turn Genna against me if I was smart about it.

I was smiling ear-to-ear. I’ve not been this happy about something in years. I could just… hug someone. Which I did… in a way.

[Are you… hugging yourself?]

[No?! I’m hugging you!]

[How does that make sense?] she asked.

[You said yourself that we basically share my body,] I said while I stopped hugging “myself” and jumping around. [I was really excited for once because something positive happened to me and you are the only person I have, and while we haven’t known each other for a long time I still managed to grow fond of you. So, I felt like hugging someone and since you were the only and best option I made the best out of the situation, but now that I had to explain it, the magic is gone, and you ruined my happy moment...] I finished my rambling and crossed my arms in front of my chest.

[Erm… I’m sorry-]

[Nope! Stop right there! You just lost your hug license. Be an adult about it and accept the consequences of your actions.]

[Ah, come on, don’t be like that. I was just surprised by it for a second,] she said with genuine sadness.

[Whatever… We’ve got money, Genna! Someone just gave us money!] I said with a stupid grin.

[It is nice in a way but still… this is wrong. You lied to them. They wouldn’t give you money if you were honest. It’s still a bad thing.]

[No rules were broken, right?]

[None...]

[Then we are cool with this, right?]

[I guess.]

Why is she so influenceable? Isn’t an A.I. supposed to be a bastion of logic and knowledge? I can’t be this convincing. Even I don’t believe half the shit I say.

After calming down a little, I sighed deeply and leaned back on the couch.

“I love it when a plan comes together,” I said with a small chuckle.

After that, I watched the holoscreen for the rest of the afternoon, getting bored out of my mind. I would have to come up with a more meaningful free time activity. I made up my mind to live a better life and yet… I was still doing the potato life on the couch. I couldn’t allow myself to live the same miserable life like before. I managed to get some money, and I was hopeful for future, similarly kind-hearted donations. Fuck the allowance. I’ll look for some kind of temporary job coming next day. Get some starting capital and then…

Then what? Should I travel? Traveling around space must be an endless source of entertainment for sure. I couldn’t even imagine the number of sights to see out there. Getting old as a Space Wanderer sounded cool. Leaving behind heartbroken babes all around the cosmos and telling my tales to young people when I got old. Another option is starting a business. Although it might be hard to come up with a new idea when we are talking about a space empire, I was sure there were still options out there to make a living out of. Aium Roowe The Space Tycoon. It definitely sounded just as cool as the Space Wanderer.

Well, no point in thinking about this yet. Present me should be free of the burden of the hardships of future. Future me will surely handle the situation when he gets there. I’m the ultimate procrastinator, leaving the work to my future self. Present me should worry about the more immediate and easy problems. Like washing my clothes or cleaning my room.

[Hey Genna. Is there cleaning stuff for me to clean the room or some techno-wizardry does the cleaning automagically?]

[I can only empathize with the translation module’s pain and suffering...] she said. [Anyway, as you have cleverly guessed, several technological marvels do the cleaning for you. As a matter of fact, most of the material here and the furniture has self-cleaning function one way or another.]

[I’m not even surprised at this point. You guys are doing the stuff from the matrix to these people...,] I said while shaking my head.

[It’s the second time you mention this matrix? What is it?]

Her curiosity index must be triple digits…

[Matrix was a famous movie in my time. It’s about how machines enslaved humanity. They keep everyone in a virtual world while they keep their real bodies alive and harvest them for energy or something. I saw it a long time ago; I can’t remember too well. The saddest part is that the people don’t even know that they are getting milked like cattle in the real world.]

[That’s a disturbing story. Are you sure it wasn’t something that really happened?]

[How would I know? I’m still not sure this whole thing is real,] I said while touching around in the air in front of me hoping I might get a feel for the virtual reality.

[Anyway, what about clothes?]

[There’s a drawer in the bathroom. You put the dirty clothes in, and a couple of minutes later you take them out cleaned.]

[Naturally...] I sneered.

It was getting darker outside. I was in a good mood, so I decided to eat downstairs and be extra brave.

[Let’s go and grab a bite downstairs. Do they have meat? I could really do with a steak now.]

“Steak, get in mah belly!” I shouted.

[Erm… meat?]

[Is there a problem?] I stopped pointing towards my belly.

[You eat meat?] She sounded surprised.

[Yeah, I love meat. Why?]

[It’s not a big deal I guess, but the humans kind of… stopped eating meat.]

[You’re shitting me, right? Everyone became a vegetarian? How could this happen?]

[Actually, there are countless studies about this since it’s an interesting race-wide development. When the Semwick Empire pushed back the race into the Peripheral Region after finally breaking their war machine, they were put under military law, and their life wasn’t exactly great. Meat wasn’t a part of their diet for a long while, and even after they came under the flag of the Empire hundreds of cycles later, they didn’t pick up meat again. It doesn’t mean there are no humans who eat meat, but the majority of them refrain from consuming it. Also, after these few thousand cycles their digestive system doesn’t handle meat well anymore. That’s why most restaurants don’t even have meat dishes on the human menus.]

[That’s crazy. The vegetarians from my time would shed tears of happiness hearing this,] I mused. [So, can I try some meat? I feel confident in my stomach you know. I’m not a weak wuss like these here.]

[I’m sure we can find something if we look hard enough.]

[That’s the spirit! Let’s go and eat some alien animal’s carcass,] I said with unusual energy and pumped the air.

[Ugh...]

We’ve arrived downstairs in a jiffy. Tonight a pretty girl was at the reception desk. I waved at her kindly which earned me a frown from her. I immediately gave up any ideas of advancement towards her.

The hall was unusually full compared to mornings. The variety of people was overwhelming for a few moments. Thankfully my usual spot was empty but some of the surrounding tables were occupied. It didn’t bother me as long as they left my usual spot empty. I wasn’t a creature of habit usually. I’ve never been against change, but this time, here, where literally everything was unfamiliar I found myself holding onto stuff that I already got familiar with. It was silly, but it felt like anchoring myself to a few rocks on a stormy sea.

I sat down and sneakily checked out the people around my table. To my right two of the mushroom people were sitting, both with green clouds floating around them. They were tentacle deep in what looked like boxes of goo. Disturbingly their tentacle legs they usually use to crawl around were slowly wriggling around below the table. The scientist in me connected this behavior to happiness… since... dogs wag their tail too, so it must be a similar case. Certainly!

The table in front of mine was occupied by one of those yellow-eyed guys. Or a girl in this case. She looked frail, but still feminine in a way, like a starved supermodel. Also, the hills on her chest were pretty self-explanatory. Or in this case were they really? Could I consider boobs on an alien race normal? Should I have felt surprised instead by the similarity?

[Aium… stop it. You are making her really uncomfortable,] Genna woke me up.

“What...”

Oh, she was looking at me with her yellow eyes with a strange expression. Also, her pale face was now significantly more yellow than a few seconds ago. Was she blushing? Does she have yellow blood? Oh shit… she was looking at me while I was staring at her… Damn.

Now that we were staring at each other and I was caught red-handed I had to say something. Something witty or funny!

“Sorry,” I croaked with a weak voice. Doing most of my conversations mentally didn’t help my voice.

Funny and witty. Great freaking job you dipshit!

“No worries. It’s endearing that you feel this way,” she answered while getting even more yellow and looking away.

She was looking elsewhere now, so I guessed that was the end of our conversation. Why did her answer feel off, though? She phrased it weirdly, and one thing I learned here is that if it smells fishy, it’s definitely a whale shark.

[Why does her response feel weird? I was just… you know… looking.]

[Yeah, you were staring so noticeably that even I felt embarrassed for you.]

[I was only doing my gentlemanly duty of appreciating what has to be appreciated.]

[You definitely know how to put it nicely. Anyway. It seems like we are due for a small lesson about Resonars.]

I could see with my inner eyes as Genna pushed up her non-existent glasses to lecture me.

[She’s a Resonar. Their physiology is very similar to humans, but there are a few apparent differences you must have recognized on your own too. To keep it short, they are bi-emotional. They only have two emotions. Most of the time they are indifferent, but when something happens, they either feel good or bad. Their emotional spectrum has only two extremes. For example, they can’t feel more sophisticated emotions like anger, love or sadness normally.]

[I can’t even imagine this. How can someone feel only bad or good?] I frowned at the thought.

[You won’t be able to imagine it, but they have the wonderful ability to feel others’ emotions. Even the emotions of other races.]

[Does that mean they can feel our emotions?] My mouth dropped slightly from the realization.

[Clever. A lot of Resonars love being around other races because through them they can experience a whole variety of emotions they would be unable to on their own. On the other hand, for this same reason a lot of them avoid members of the other races at all cost,] she lectured on.

[That makes sense. Feeling grief and anger isn’t something that someone would want to experience on purpose I guess,] I said while staring at the slowly swaying green walls.

[You are right. So, the girl in front of you probably felt what you felt when you looked at her. You must have had some nice feelings because you clearly made her evening.]

[Yeah. That’s me. Even a glance from me brings joy to others,] I said smugly.

I wanted to lament on the Resonar more, but my stomach disagreed with me with a loud noise.

[So, where can I find meself some meat?] I asked while looking at the menu in front of me.

[I have an idea. On the top switch the menu’s race to linbog. There’ll be plenty of meat dishes that won’t be harmful to you… most likely. Try to avoid the bone dishes, though.]

She didn’t sound too confident about this, but I did as she said anyway. There were more race options than I thought there would be, but I quickly found the linbog one. Since I’m eating their food, I should ask about them sometime.

Opposite of the human menu, this one had only meat and bone dishes, which was fine by me. More choices to choose from. After a quick browse, I decided on a Rawa steak with Lammies.

It didn’t take long for my dinner to arrive. It looked surprisingly appetizing and smelled nice, too. The steak was big and juicy and the Lammies… well, it looked like tree bark. The steak was a bit chewy and had a strong metallic aftertaste, but it was far better than anything I had recently. Sadly the tree bark like stuff was a complete miss for me. It tasted like how gym socks smell. Horrible. While eating Genna warned me to eat it slowly in case something won’t fit right with me.

After finishing my steak, I felt satisfied. I even let out a quiet burp. I didn’t feel anything out of place. I knew I could trust my stomach.

[See? I’m not a weak ass future human. I’m a genuine one!] I bragged to Genna while patting my full belly.

[It’s definitely something you can be proud of.]

[Was that sarcasm?]

[No way.]

She’s dangerous.

After sitting around for a few more minutes and looking at the other people eating, I decided that it was time to go back to my room. I had enough of listening to the slurping sounds from the mushroom couple’s feast.

I had to share the lift going up with a small green goblin girl, but I got off earlier than her. While walking through the green hallway towards my room at a comfortable pace something happened before I could get inside.

A huge booming sound racked the building from above me. I could even feel the tremors.

“Shit! Tell me it wasn’t my stomach exploding!”