Chapter One – Armored Elegance Takes the Stage

Chapter One – Armored Elegance Takes the Stage

“The state of education has never been better.

Our profits have reached highs that we haven’t seen since the early 2020s!”

–Richard Piece, Department of Shareholder Satisfaction, Harvard, 2048

***

I wasn’t sure if I was onboard with the whole… ‘go to school’ thing. In fact, I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to work out for me.

Anything I could learn in a class, I could have Myalis pump straight into my brainpan, and while I was a little nervous about shoving raw information into my brain, it was relatively easy. That, and I’d know that whatever information Myalis gave me would probably be accurate. Or accurate enough to Protector standards, and I trusted the alien’s understanding of science and shit a whole lot more than I trusted humanity’s.

So, lots of cons. But there was one big pro. Lucy really wanted to go to a fancy school.

I’d known it forever. Half the shows we pirated and binged were school dramas. Sometimes ancient pre-Antithesis TV shows that showed an idyllic world that I wasn’t sure was really how the past had been, and sometimes more modern slop.

Modern slop meant shows that were designed around promoting some new product. Characters would break from the drama to talk up their brand new Mansung Cosmos S-series smart phone, or talk about how their clothes were the most fashionable shit.

Then the show would move on. Half the actors were AI and often so were the backdrops, but that didn’t stop the shows from being… somewhat entertaining, if you purposefully turned your brain off and didn’t look for issues.

Lucy used to eat that slop up. We’d lay down together, pressed in close on a mattress barely large enough for one person, with a tablet taped to the bunk above. For a few hours, at least, we could just enjoy the stupid while forgetting that we were hungry.

So… maybe it wasn’t just Lucy that had a soft spot for school stuff.

“So, what are the chances that Lucy’s doing all of this to distract me?” I asked.

I was waiting by the Bastion of Sekhmet, the bulkhead door leading right into the cabin open behind me. It was a bit chilly in the garage, but I kind of liked it. Chilly in New Montreal made you forget that the air stank of hydrocarbons.

The chances are rather high. But I suspect that Lucy’s intentions run a little deeper than just distracting you. I believe that she wants to reintegrate you into society.

“What? Like releasing a wild animal?” I asked.

What an apt description.

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, that can’t be it. I haven’t been that bad, have I?”

You have been uncharacteristically calm since the end of the Phobos incident. Your point-earning has been at an all-time low, and you haven’t spent as much time with your peers as you usually would. However, a lot of these things aren’t truly concerns when taking into account broader circumstances.

“Yeah,” I said. “There hasn’t been a reason to get out as much.”

That was mostly true. There were hives popping up all over, but for the most part, those around here were tiny things. Having so much attention in the area during the Phobos crisis had meant a lot of samurai running around looking for shit to blow up, and the local hives happened to get caught in that crossfire.

The area around New Montreal was… more or less as safe as could be, all things considered.

There were still outbreaks popping up, and small hives being discovered, but they were the kind of thing that would take half a day to clear and which would only pay out a few thousand points.

I was now in that awkward middleground where I was getting used to functioning with absolute loads of points from decently threatening foes while also not being at the level of strength that the top-tier samurai had.

It’s likely that Lucy is just worried for your mental well-being. You went from a high-tension situation to one where little is happening.

“Yeah,” I agreed before rubbing at my jaw. “Shit was kinda tense for a while.”

That wasn’t to say that there wasn’t stuff to take care of now, but… well, things were mostly handling themselves. I got a report from the Family every morning with updates on the whole sewer situation. It wasn’t always all good news, which was why I actually believed the reports at all. Mostly though, things were improving.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The prosthetic clinic was running well, and none of the samurai friends I’d made had bit the bullet in the last week or so. Most of them were either taking breaks, consolidating their shit, or working to clear out local small hives.

Yeah, things were nice and quiet.