Knock! Knock! Knock!

At the door of a very large condominium complex in Richmond, Virginia, owned by the company Second Life Inc. a man knocked on a door for the umpteenth time. He did not give up because he knew this was the apartment of one of the gamer employees.

Gamer employees are a specific type of employee that the company hires due to a special class and their desire to showcase their videos and pay them like a full-time employee. As such, the person would be immersed in game most of the time and he was informed that the person in question was inside and upon knocking, he would be notified.

Finally, the screen next to the door lit up to a sickly looking young man who looked like he was only skin and bones. He had sunken eyes and looked very tired.

“Who is it?” he asked.

“Greetings, you are Lucas Rollin right?” he asked, but he already knew the answer.

“Yes.” Lucas replied.

“Yes well, I am the one responsible for delivering your first month's pay.” he said.

Lucas’s eyes widened, the screen shut off and the sound of locks came from the door before opening up.

It surprised the man to see Lucas’s real frame. 170 cm tall, messy brown hair, baggy clothing, if not for the fact that he was clean and smelled of soap, you would think he was a starving beggar.

“Please place your hand here.” he said and lifted a small object which projected a holographic screen.

Lucas placed his hand over the holographic screen where his palm was scanned before he was asked to sign and he received a small cube from the man.

“This is a credit cube?” he said surprised and looked at the man.

“Ah yes, the company decided to hand them out through the cubes along with a report of the monthly wage and bonus you gained as well as the money gained from the studio.” he said.

“Oh.” Lucas nodded understanding, “Thank you.” He said. The man nodded and left.

Lucas closed the door and looked at the little cube before locking the door and walking to the living room and putting down the cube and sitting down. He then pressed down on the top.

Click!

A screen appeared parallel with the flat surface. A window appeared soon after.

Please place your bank card on the holographic scanner to finalize the transfer.

He pulled back his left sleeve and passed his arm through the scanner revealing a strange barcode which had been invisible until just then.

Personal property identified.

Monthly pay report

Monthly Salary: $1,500.00

Studio video viewership payment: $200.00

Bonus ‘1st Player Town’: $150.00

Total: $1,850.00

Lucas looked at the screen blankly blinking. He looked at it again deeply and carefully before rubbing his eyes before opening them wide in shock. His half-closed eyes were fully open and he no longer looked half asleep. He didn’t expect to get a bonus for forming a town level settlement. He also didn’t expect to be the first one since the system didn’t say it.

He froze while looking at the four digit number he would have had an infernally hard time to acquire before. It was the same for every extremely poor person. A value that the middle class could get in a week was an amazing amount for him.

His breathing became ragged while his stomach growled like a hungry dragon.

His biggest problem had always been money. Now that he finally had it, and he didn’t have to pay the first 6 month's bills as stated in his contract, he could surely save up and would be able to stand up on his own feet.

Looking at his apartment, it was sparsely filled, especially the fridge which was virtually empty since he’d eaten nothing but the instant noodles, which were shelf items.

He didn’t immediately return to the game, instead, he first went to the shower and slowly drowned himself under warm water and then looked at his sunken face and then at his thin withered frame. He hoped that this would change.

He walked out and put on an old shirt and pants and stored away the cube since it was a certification of payment and checked his account. The money was actually there with the spare change he was living off before.

For the first time in a long time, he smiled and tears began to fall but he shook his head and breathed deeply before walking out.

Different from when he would go to the convenience store to buy the instant noodles he walked south. He left the complex and right in front were supermarkets that he had always had a longing to enter but lacked the funds to buy anything. The amount of items he wanted to buy were much higher than his normal purchase.

It was his first time he went to the supermarket. Until then he had only gone to small stores to buy the little he needed to survive but now he was going to try to get some luxury superhuman items.

Superhumans were a bio-engineered breed of human beings. Superhumans, that said, can’t be ‘created’ and must be raised. The manner they developed was that superhumans had to have a huge nutrition intake to remain healthy and to reach the point they can be called a superhuman.

Lucas on the other hand, living in poverty, could only eat to survive. Although his body was shriveled, he was actually as strong as a grown adult because the instant noodles he ate were special superhuman brand food.

Superhumans had their own special type of food but because of technology, the civilian level food was quite cheap. In supermarkets, the instant noodles were a bit healthier and cost $2 while convenience stores sold them for $1. That said, they weren’t the best food.

Lucas entered the store and had a look of childish curiosity in his eyes. He was amazed by the large hovering cargo trolly that the workers moved to transport goods and the many items all over. The store aisles were all huge and filled with countless things that made his stomach rumble and shine with desire like I child in a candy store. The super markets were all department stores having 10 to 15 meter tall shelves that really overwhelmed him by the amount of things they had stocked up.

“Sir, do you need help?” a store employee asked after seeing him standing there dazed.

“Um… where is the superhuman food section?”

She froze and looked at him up and down before making a strange face. “Um… what do you need superhuman food for?” she asked.

It wasn’t that she was prejudice, but superhuman food was heavily controlled because it was like poison to common humans. It wasn’t actually poison but nutrition overdose was a risk, nutrition overdose is when too many nutrients is in the blood that the body couldn’t process.

"I’m a superhuman.” he said simply.

When he said that, she looked even more skeptical since superhumans were generally wealthy and a very healthy kind of person. How would she know he was orphaned and lived in poverty? In fact, without support, superhumans had a high youth mortality rate for the same problem he faced, they needed a huge nutrient intake to live and grow.

“Where is it?” he asked again.

Still skeptical she pointed down the main aisle. “The last two at the far back and the last freezer aisle are all superhuman food.” she said and left.

She didn’t care because superhuman food can’t be purchased without the person being a superhuman so it didn’t matter if she told him anyway.

He thanked her and took a cart slowly rolling it down the main aisle to the back.

This area was empty because the population of superhuman to human was tiny in comparison to normal ones.

The aisle were like any other but the food items were different.

They were categorized by grade. Grade 0 included food like instant noodles, a few cups could satisfy an adult superhuman for a few hours. Grade 1 were 10 times as potent compared to the Ggrade 0, a single serving can satisfy an adult for a day easily, at the same time cost 10 times more. The cheapest was $20.00 and the most expensive $40.00. Grade 2 was the last civilian level food, made for athletic superhumans. Above that, Grade 3. Military level superhuman food used to reach the highest potential of superhuman power.

Lucas looked at Grade 0 before discarding it since he had lived eating that kind of food which was instant cooked stuff and went to Grade 1.

His eyes went to the cheapest foods.

“Super Nutribar.” He muttered the name and looked at the price tag. Next to the price tag was a little button he pressed, and it formed an information window.

Super Nutribar

The Super Nutribar was the first civilian food produced. It’s been developed for the last half century becoming the tasty and affordable bar.

This food bar is extremely compact with nutrients required for a young child or teen and can be placed in a pot of water (10 liters) along with other common food stuff to produce a thick soup and acts as the flavoring.

A young superhuman should only eat 1 of these per day to satisfy their daily needs. Any extra meals can be satisfied with common food items.

Lucas was amazed by the item and looked at the item right next to it for $32.

Cosmic Elixir

This item was named an elixir because of its great ability to satisfy any adult superhuman for over a day and a half (not suggested for you to go a full day without eating, at least eating a bit of normal food should be done).

It is perfect for a young adult at his physical prime and helps promote the production of strong blood cells which would in turn produce a strong healthy body.

Lucas was even more shocked and then frowned, “How do they make such amazing things so cheap?” he thought searching for the ingredients, what he found was shocking.

The ingredients came from Earth’s one and only superhuman space farm. You might wonder why not the moon or other planets. Well that is because when planting in space, the soil composition, nutrition and fertilizer is fully under the control of the farmers, furthermore the direct solar rays without the protection of the atmosphere produce a special type of crop which contain several times more nutritious. The fertilizer is also part of the reason since it is one of the most mineral rich soil artificially produced by man, as well as the saltiest, which causes the plants to absorb more ground nutrients and water to counter the salt.

He finally understood, the crops were nutrient rich at their end and when they finally made into processed food, they make lots of these huge crops into food producing dozens or hundreds of kilos of the superhuman food which results in surplus and a low price. Since these all have a huge shelf life, there is also no problem with keeping them stored for a long time as well.

Lucas finally understood why such foods were so plentiful and cheap despite the number of superhumans being only in the millions, scattered through the solar system.

After he figured that out, he turned only to the nutribar. He knew he couldn’t eat the better foods yet and needed to start getting used to these kinds of food.

At $20 a piece, he picked up 35, one for each day, and then looked at his cart which was nearly empty.

He remembered that the bars suggested he eat normal food, so he smiled and walked out of the aisle for superhumans and shopped for normal food he would be able to enjoy but he was very careful to not be a spendthrift. Besides the $700 needed for the 35 bars he got $200 worth of normal vegetables and meat along with things he enjoyed as a kid like milk and yogurt with a few breakfast snacks and more. Throughout the entire process, he looked and turned them all over, checked out their ingredients, checked their information all to satisfy his curiosity of these things.

When he reached the cash register, he was unexpectedly attended by the same young woman that saw him before.

She didn’t remember him but he remembered and he put the food on the conveyor belt and she slowly pulled one by one until the final items were the 35 Super Nutribars.

BAA!

When she passed the first the register froze. She blinked and looked at the item then at Lucas, “Ah, you were that young man wanting superhuman food. Sorry but only superhumans can buy this.” She said.

"I already said it, I am a superhuman.” he said irritated.

She rolled her eyes, “Then please pass your bank code over the register to unlock the purchase.” she said.

He nodded and stretched his arm.

Beep!

Suddenly the green light flashed, and the register was unlocked.

The woman's eyes slowly opened wide and her mouth opened. "I-I’m sorry! I really…” she began saying.

“Don’t worry, I know my own conditions.” He said disregarding her previous attitude.

She swallowed and whipped her head as she was very cautious with her words from then on and quickly passed his purchase and actually gave him a 5% discount on his superhuman food purchase saving him $35.

It was all packed up, “Do you need help to your car?” she asked.

"I live on the other side of the road so I can take them.” He said.

“Eh?!” the woman said shocked and looked at all the plastic bags and at his hands.

When Lucas himself actually looked at all the bags, his face went a little red and he coughed, “C-Can I borrow a cart to take it home?” He asked.

“We will get someone to help you then.” She said and quickly called someone.

It was a young man with a transport trolley with some seats on the side. They loaded up the items and Lucas sat on it before the trolley floated to the door and headed towards his complex. Lucas used his access code to let the trolley in and they floated to his apartment and unloaded it there.

“Thank you.” he said.

“No problem.” The young man waved and returned to his job.

The rest of the job was on Lucas who moved the food in and carefully stored it all in the fridge, a small smile always on his face while he was careful when he stored the nutribars where he would place the instant noodle cups.

As he looked at them, he sighed with emotion after all was said and done. Still, he used half his money for food all by itself but he still had half the money in store.

Before he ate anything, he opened his account and looked around a small bit before applying his money to receive even a little bit of taxes over it so that he would not waste the time he could be earning. He needed every cent he could get in case of an emergency.

Finally, he settled down and heard the roars from his stomach.

He pat it and looked at the ceiling as he remembered this pain. When he was first orphaned, he suffered from pain just like this but he couldn’t satisfy himself and had to feel his body slowly eat itself as he satisfied only his survival needs.

He pushed himself up and walked to the shelf took one of the bars and slowly unwrapped it.

The smell coming off was very strong like stock cubes normal people used to season soup or meat.

He walked to the table looking at it before sighing and biting down.

A flavor of exploded in his mouth and he began to cry from the intense flavor. He savored the flavor for a long while before swallowing, without thinking and biting down again and again.

In a short time he had finished the bar.

Pop!

Heat rose from his midsection.

He began to huff as sweat began to form while his body grew red. It was like a cartoonish reaction to eating an insanely spicy food but it wasn’t spicy and this wasn’t some cartoon. His body temperature was rapidly rising, and it distressed him until he looked at the nutribar and he saw under it ‘Consume with a minimum of 2 liters of water’.

This was the reason common humans died, besides the nutrients, 2 liters of water would instantly kill someone if they tried to drink it at once.

Lucas was quick and decisive. He ran to the kitchen and turned the water on and began to drink directly from the faucet. Each gulp of water was like rain in a burning forest. His body slowly returned to its natural color but a new reaction was taking effect.

His body was popping, and he felt a lot of stiffness all over. Where he moved, his body would crack as if he was forcing his body to crack his bones.

His veins were bulging and from them the color of his skin was growing healthier by the second. He could feel an itchiness he couldn’t describe, it wasn’t unbearable, like that scratch you can’t reach. This would remind those who saw it what they saw when Lucas was at the buffet where his body had recovered a bit of its healthy color but this time it wasn’t just a little change.

Slowly the itch became a dull pain in his joints and muscles. Finally a became a major numbing pain as if he had exercised for hours in every possible way. Every muscle, even those he didn’t know, were in pain.

His body, after being starved for nearly 10 years, finally obtained an amazing source of energy and it recognized this but even then, his body was malnourished, it was still a huge source of energy which Lucas was not used to obtaining so his body was under a lot of stress.

It was a great thing for him but Lucas wished he had picked up proper information before he ate the bar in one sitting.

He was completely incapacitated for the better part of an hour before his senses slowly returned and he could stand without feeling a piercing pain anymore.

He felt flares of pain every so often and decided to lay down and sleep the rest of the day. He didn’t think the VR device would allow him to enter with his body’s chaotic state so he didn’t even bother.

He was ecstatic that he could finally have a more normal life now that he was earning this amount of money. He slept soundly despite the pain he felt.