“Erm, is that a lot?” Wyr’s eyes had widened when he first saw the figure displayed on the tablet, but then they twitched with a bit of confusion. “I mean, that’s definitely a lot for me, but is that a lot for you? I don’t know how it works here.”

  “Hmm?” Dr. Ire brought the tablet to her own face to confirm what she’d charged him. “Eh, that can’t be right?! How blitzed was I when I billed this?! $1,200 Ticks. Kid, that’s nothing at all. Won’t even keep the lights on for a week. Should have at least been ten times this much, and that’d be a discount for a damned good friend.”

  “But you seem to have some concept of currency even if it’s out of whack. Just what poor backwards place are you from that this is a lot of money. From the bottom level or something?”

  “Uhh, Crique,” the boy gave a quick answer. He was a little distracted, still entranced by wiggling his new mechanical toes.

  “Crick? You have a crick in your neck?” The doctor misconstrued his weird words once more. “I can give you a new neck if you want, but it’s gonna cost a whole hell of a lot more than $1,200 Ticks.”

  “No, sorry,” Wyr put in a bit more effort. “My sister and I were staying in Crique, the country. We’d gone there searching for our parents but hit a dead end. So we decided to stay for a while and earn some money doing odd jobs. But we were lucky if we even made a hundred a week. So twelve hundred is definitely a lot for me.”

  “Country…” Ire’s voice trailed, lost in thought, hung up on that word as if she had to force herself to remember what it meant. “Boy, countries haven’t existed for over a millenia. There’s only cities now. Hmm… are you some sort of time traveller? That would explain a lot.”

  “Uhh…” despite his best efforts, the notion was completely lost on the young man.

  The doctor then asked a simpler question to try and get more data. “Well how about this. Where on Gao is this Crique? If you are a time traveller, I could cross reference the history database and see where it used to exist. That would confirm it.”

  “Gao?” Wyr was still just as lost. “Is that like the planet or something? Nah, that can’t be right. The planet’s called Venetu.”

  Ire’s eyes widened again, looking at the lad like he needed to be institutionalized. It was like she couldn’t suddenly stomach looking at him, so she spun around in her seat and began mumbling incoherences to herself for a minute. Then she spun back, this time with a slightly softer gaze, but still eyeing the boy suspiciously.

  “I have a hunch about what’s happened here,” she reported. “Whether you’re a time traveller or what I’m thinking now, either explains why you don’t have an ID Chip. And before you gawk at me with your slacked jaw asking what that is, I understand now that you really don’t know what I’m talking about.”

  “An ID Chip is something embedded in the brain of every human. They used to be surgically implanted after birth, but like with the translation hardware, most are born with it already. It was designed in such a way that they’re damn near impossible to remove except with the help of an extremely skilled surgeon, and even then, many would die in the process.”

  “Basically it’s your identification marker, what lets all of the city's technologies know who you are and where you are at all times. To not have one, well, that basically makes you invisible to all the various systems. In a way, it could be the greatest blessing—endless freedom without constant surveillance. But in my opinion, it’s way more of a risk and a hindrance. If any sort of enforcement agency member with actual eyeballs saw you walking around without an ID, they’d imprison you without question. In a way, you’re very lucky that you found your way to me without getting caught first.”

  “But… it would be a wasted opportunity to not at least take some advantage of it while we can. Wyr, was it? I have a proposal for you. Since you clearly have no way to pay me for my services, you’ll have to work off the debt. If I had billed you properly, I was planning to have you work as my errand boy for a few months. That can still be the case. I can amend my error, and I can give you honest work… mostly honest.”

  “Since I decided to be so generous, though, I’ll let you off with just a single task. You mentioned working odd jobs, so just think of it as another one of those. I’ll admit, it’s a little risky, but you could be done by today and be debt free. Doesn’t that sound nice? So what do you say? Are you interested?”

  You begin to ponder how to convince the boy that this is a bad idea, but before you can even conceive of a plan. “I’ll do it!” Wyr agreed to the doctor’s terms immediately.

  That idiot, accepting without even hearing what the job is! Ultimately, this is your doing. If you hadn’t fudged the numbers to try and ease his debt, he could have started his life off simple in this new world, doing easy work for the doctor while he got his footing. But you’ll just have to trust your choice. If he’s able to pull it off, it should bring him and the doctor closer and strengthen their bond to that of reliable confidants.

  “Are idiots so common where you’re from?” It seems Ire shares your perspective about his foolish brashness. “I didn’t even tell you what you’d be doing. But that’s also the kind of attitude it will take to get this done. Maybe you’ll be of more use than I thought. If you actually manage to complete my task and come back alive, I’d say it’ll prove that you’re worth my time.”

  “The job’s actually pretty simple. A few… you won't understand the word I’m about to say, so I won’t bother. Do you know what androids are?” Wyr shook his head. “Robots… no? Okay, maybe this isn’t the best idea if you don’t even know that much. Well whatever. Basically, there are people in this city who aren’t really people at all. They’re entirely made of components, machine instead of man. A few of these… mechanical people… stole something important to me. And I want you to get it back.”

  “Normally, I’d have to hire a merc for this, but once they’d hear who they were up against, they’d immediately be out of my price range. This faction… guess you could call them a gang, is pretty dangerous, and they normally shouldn’t be trifled with. But you, Wyr, would be the perfect person to get my item back.”

  “Since you have no ID Chip, you’d be effectively invisible to them. It’s the only way their kind actually really sees us. Sure, they’d notice your motion, but if you’re sitting still, you’d be nothing more than a hunk of flesh and scrap to them. Basically you could easily blend in as a dead body that they’d immediately overlook since they take little stock in our kind. And they also have complete face blindness. So even if they do notice you, and you escape, they’ll never come after you since they don’t know your identity.”

  “And where you’re going, it’d only be a few of them. The tracker on the item says it’s in one of their smaller bases just a few levels up, on 89, so there wouldn’t be many of them either. They stole it and never took it far. Probably don’t fully understand its value and shelved it somewhere. But I understand if it sounds too dangerous. Even facing off against one of them would be too deadly for most. So if you want to back out and do grunt work, I’d understand. You could start by cleaning your blood off the floor.”

  “No, I’ll do it, I’ll get your item,” Wyr insisted, brimming with confidence. “If you say I can do it, I’ll believe you. You don’t seem like the kind of person who’d lie to me, or else you would just charge me whatever you wanted. So if you think I’m the right person for the job, I’ll get it done. But uhm, what will I be looking for exactly?”

  “Something else not worth explaining to an ignoramus like you,” the doctor huffed. “Even if I described it perfectly, I doubt you’d find it. Take Lilah with you. She’ll be able to point it out,” the robot dog yapped at the mention of her name. “But take care that she stays out of their sight. I doubt they’d kill her since she is sort of like them, but I doubt they’d be friendly to her either.”

  “And if you die, Lilah will bring your body back to me. At least then I could recycle and sell your flesh. Since you have quite a bit, it’d honestly be worth more than what I’m charging you, and you’d get to pay off your debt that way. But as further incentive to live, if you make it back with my item, I’ll implant you with an ID Chip so that you can actually live out in the open. I have a few stored here somewhere from past patients that didn’t make it, and a couple who did and wanted to flee the city. Don’t worry, installing them is far safer and easier than removing them.”

  Wyr nodded along, trying not to let the oddities of his new reality get to him. “Okay, I’ve got it. So how do I get there?”

  “Now that’s the difficult part,” Ire admitted. “You won’t be able to take any of the elevators because… Actually, did you have elevators?”

  “The things that lift people up and down, right?” the boy thought back. “Never been on one, but I’ve seen them used a few times in factories.”

  “Good enough,” the doctor shrugged. “And it doesn’t matter since they won’t work anyways. With no ID, they won’t respond to you at all. Even those that still have mechanical buttons won’t move since they can’t sense you. It's a regulatory measure to keep people from going to levels that are off-limits to them.”

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Okay, then can I just take the stairs then?” Wyr pointed out the obvious alternative.

  “Stairs…?” Another word that the woman was thrown by. “I think I used stairs once at some old memorial. We have disproportionate ground and single steps to change height, but they are virtually none of the staircases you’re referring to. The only way to go from one level to another on foot is via elevators or teleporters. And the latter is out of the question, because again, no ID, but that’d also cost you a bunch of Ticks that you don’t have.”

  “There’s also hovercars, but I don’t have one. Never understood the need. Basically just a way for the middle-class to act like they’re not poor. When really, if they have Ticks to burn, they should just teleport. There’s also handhovers that are good for a short flight up or down, which frankly would be perfect for this situation. But they’re basically treated as kids toys and would be very dangerous to actually use to traverse the open corridor between levels. So I don’t have one of those either.”

  “But as you found out, there is actually another way to go from one level to another. I scoured every bit of footage I could find of your fall, all the way down to you splashing into my dumpster like it was a pool. You fell quite a ways. It’s why I initially guessed you were an organ clone, since you came from the rich heights who could afford such a thing. Luckily for you though, since you had no chip, the reports assumed you were a corpse that was dumped. So the agencies aren’t looking for you at the very least.”

  “To get Level 89, you’re going to have to take advantage of those real muscles of yours and climb,” Ire smiled at the boy as if it was a perfectly sane suggestion. “I don’t know how good you are at it, but you now have an advantage. That foot you keep gawking at, it’s capable of a lot more than you’re used to.”

  “Since it’s not high-end, it unfortunately doesn’t have maglock which would be ideal. But, if you think of it more as a hand than a foot, you’ll find it rather useful. Now then, you should get going since I’ll have clients coming in soon and I need to clean up from your surgery. While you’re gone though, I’ll try to do a bit of research into your origins.”

  “And you’ve likely noticed that you’re not very hungry. I fed you a nutrient pack while you were unconscious, so you should be good for a while. But since you have an actual tongue, you’ll likely find them unpalatable, and the sustenance pills I take likely will leave you unsatisfied. So I’ll see what I can do about getting some actual real food. Hopefully you’ll be able to digest what we have. But if you’re from a different time or place, your internal ecosystem may reject it. Oh well, if it does, I can just build you a new one, for a price.”

  “We’ll worry about that later. Let me get the door.” With just a glance from the doctor, the metal slabs on one wall slid apart, and light flooded into the clinic. She then turned away and got to work cleaning up the surgery remnants, without any sort of further farewell or guidance for the boy.

  So Wyr did as he believed he should and headed outside. As soon as the “fresh” air hit him, he immediately rushed forward to the edge of the platform and let his eyes wander wildly around the open chasm, entranced by the sight. You feared he might take another tumble, but he was at least cautiously gripping onto the guard rail.

  He watched, entranced, as the flying ships that the doctor had called hovercars zoomed around from level to level, across the giant empty circle like one giant buzzing hive of insects. And across the way, you could both see the inhabitants roaming around their various levels. The boy took in all the sights he couldn’t appreciate the night before, and it begs the question as to whether or not he thinks this is all just some weird dream.

  Wyr’s eyes darted from every lit up sign to another, frantically consuming all the knowledge they had to share. The squiggles were weird to both of you, but he seemed to be able to read them thanks to the translation tech the doctor implanted. Though even though he could understand the words, odds were he didn’t comprehend the meaning of half of them.

  You, however, are more concerned with the sign directly above the boy’s head. “Hot Bod - Body Mod,” not quite the clinic that the good doctor had touted it as. Wyr likely had his own perceptions as to the nature of Ire’s work, but you feel as if you now have a clear understanding. She is basically a mechanic for humans, replacing their defunct organic parts with mechanical ones, or providing upgrades as they desire. At the very least, it’s not as heinous of work as you were suspecting. Recycling human flesh still feels weird, but perhaps that is just how this world works.

  Based on the state of her shop, though, it seems Ire’s not in the best standing. Even with the quality of the work you’ve seen so far, she seems to be on the poorer side of this society. Perhaps it is the status of the clientele she serves, so she doesn’t get too many high paying customers.

  In such an advanced society, there had to be countless doing the same work as her. By your best guess, she is either unlicensed or unregulated, doing her work off record from whatever type of government this world has. Someone used to keeping secrets will hopefully be good at protecting the boy who doesn’t belong. Though in your mind, she’s not off to a great start with the danger she’s already putting him through.

  Wyr was eventually snapped out of his overwhelmed state by pawing at his feet. The mechanical dog had joined him outside and was urging him to get a move on. Lilah jumped up towards his arms, prompting him to catch her. The robot’s body then shifted and slid to his back, her own limbs extending, wrapping around him like straps, basically transforming herself into a backpack. Just based on how much his clothes drooped, it seemed like she wasn’t actually that heavy despite being entirely made of metal.

  “Okay, so I just have to climb, right?” the boy asked rhetorically, but the dog still yapped in response. He walked over to the nearest wall, where the handrail ended. To his right was an elevator that you assume would be the normal course of action, but he ignored it entirely. Instead, he shimmied his body as close to the open chasm as he could, leaning over the handrail, and looked at the wall around the ring.

  There were lots of pipes and wires running around the circle, and even a few handholds in various spots, likely for whenever maintenance had to be done. It wouldn’t be easy by any means, but the wall between the levels was a lot more climbable than you first anticipated. Maybe he actually can do this after all.

  But just like always, Wyr immediately defies your expectations. Instead of reaching over the guardrail to grab hold of the wall with one of his hands, he started with his new mechanical foot. “Treat it like a hand,” the foolish boy repeated the doctor’s words. He pressed the bottom of his sole at an awkward angle against one of the handholds. And surprisingly, not just his toes, but his entire foot curled.

  The mechanical extremity became a clamp that latched onto the metal rung and locked in place. “Ah, yeah, that’s awesome!” Wyr cheered at his own splendor that he really had nothing to do with. But using that foothold, he swung the rest of his body over the guardrail and grabbed onto a pipe, now fully clinging onto the wall over the drop that would certainly kill him.

  He did his best not to look down, instead focusing on the climb above. “Okay, she said, Level 89, right?” Wyr asked Lilah for confirmation, though he didn’t actually understand if her bark in response was affirmative or not. “And I’m on 82,” he glanced at the giant numbers that were painted along the circle wall. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

  So the boy began his climb, but the first movement didn’t go great. He placed his hands as high up as he could, but when he went to pull up, he found himself snagged, forgetting to release his foot clamp. At the very least, it went to show just how strong the grip really was. So after once more making sure his arms were secure, he released his foot, and moved it up to grab some framing.

  From there, it went a lot smoother, though the dangerous exercise was clearly exhaustive. “This… would be so much… easier… with two of these legs,” Wyr panted aloud after having just passed the 84th level. He had moved over to the nearest platform of that level, likely hoping to sit and take a break, but had ultimately decided against it. You bet that Ire’s warning about being seen was racing through his head. Luckily, no one in the speeding cars in the gap behind him seemed to pay him any mind. Maybe they were used to seeing stupid stunts, if they could see him at all.

  But despite the tiring labor, the boy pressed on, and he seemed to catch a second-wind, propelling him up faster than before. But right below the 87th level, he lost his grip, his hand slipping from his own annoying sweat. Metal yapping from Lilah filled his ears as he tumbled backwards. Thankfully, though, his foot was secure on the wall, so he didn’t fall, but that didn’t stop him from swinging down fast with his clamp as the focal point.

  At the last second before impact, the mechanical dog undid one of her leg straps and pushed it out towards the wall he was about to splat against, acting as a stopper that caught him a few inches from his head slamming into some wires. “Thanks, Lilah,” Wyr made sure to show his appreciation despite his predicament.

  “But now how do I…?” he began wondering how to flip himself back upright, and his blood was rapidly rushing to his head, making it hard to think. The dog helped him out one more time, though. She extended her leg, pushing him up just enough that he was able to reach a pipe and right his orientation.

  From there, after a break to catch his breath, Wyr made it to Level 89 without further incident. After making it to solid ground over that level’s guard rail, Lilah jumped off of him and began strolling ahead. The boy did his best to catch up, stumbling after her through his exhaustion. Fortunately, the mechanical leg didn’t really get tired, so he used it to hobble himself forward.

  The robo-pup led him through some alleys, finally stopping near the rear of a building where she growled. “So this is the spot?” the boy asked once more for confirmation. “Alright, then how to go about this.” There was a door leading into the building, one with an actual handle he’d likely be able to operate, or at the very least, force open. But would that be the best way? Unfortunately, there were no windows to peer in to get a glimpse of the inside, or discern how many enemies would be waiting for him.

  Still, though, you see some options that would likely be useful to Wyr that he hasn’t seem to have noticed. Nearby, up on a terrace, you see a crate of loose piping that he could likely use as a weapon. It’s hard to say how effective they would be against mechanical humans, but it would be better than nothing. With that, he could at least burst inside and take the reckless route with a bit more caution. Ideally he could slip past anyone inside as Dr. Ire had suggested without being noticed, and would be more prepared if they did.

  But if you felt he should try to avoid any sort of confrontation at all, you notice a vent a ways up the building. It looks pretty well secured in place, maybe even controlled electronically rather than secured by some kind of fastener. Either way, if fate willed it, you could make that vent grate suddenly fail and draw Wyr’s attention to it for a more stealthy infiltration.

  The last item of note is a junction box that seems to regulate the building’s electricity. Again, it looks locked, but you can do something about that. Though this entire world and state of technology is foreign to him, the way electricity works seems similar enough to his own time. He could likely figure out how to disable the power entirely or mess without it in some other way.

  Sadly, these options are about as much as you can do for him since you’re still recovering, but hopefully one of them will prove useful to his endeavor. Or you could do nothing, and let him figure out a way all on his own. So what will you do? How will you guide his actions?

  By the way, I added channels to discuss the polls and the series as a whole in my server if you're interested.

  Ch3 Poll Results:

  Bringing Wyr and Ire closer together won the majority with 53%, and the second most voted option was to wait and see what happened. So overall, I guess you guys have a good impression of her. Through this choice, Wyr’s debt was massively lowered, making him think that the doctor is a very kind person who is looking out for him and wants to help him.

  And Ire herself believes she must have subconsciously chosen to be gracious, that she must have some inclination to wanting to help him. But she’s still a bit greedy and isn’t completely ready to open her heart to him. That’s why she wants him to prove himself, because in this world, there’s no point building relationships with dead weight.

  If you had chosen not to lower his debt, Wyr likely would have agreed to work as Ire’s servant for an indefinite period of time, but their bond would be slow-going, since he’d be constantly looking for ways to improve his situation. Ire probably would have floated the idea of this job to him still, but he would have been far more hesitant to take it if it didn’t pay off his debt entirely.

  If you had chosen to raise the debt, Wyr basically would have needed to work for her for the rest of his lifetime with no end in sight, and he would tried to find a way to escape the situation as quickly as possible, causing there to be a falling out, with Ire likely acting as an antagonist in the future.

  Also, I don’t really know if I should be mentioning the alternate paths, whether you all find them interesting or if it removes some of the mystery. Let me know what you think. For now, I likely won’t do it often.

  Bonus Poll Results: See the full results in the

  Poll #10: Name of the clinic

  Winner: Hot Bod - Body Mod with 56%

  With this, you’ve set her line of work more in stone, basically a Ripperdoc from cyberpunk 2077. Though with a name like that, she seems to specialize more in cosmetic changes rather than practical upgrades. But she dabbles in it all, and is skilled despite the need.

  Poll #11: Currency Conversion

  Winner: $1=1 USD with 46%

  So you guys chose not to have big numbers. I guess it’s better for the reading experience overall so you don’t have to do mental math. Still, the amounts will likely be higher compared to modern society just based on pure inflation, but not on a 100x or 10000x scale.

  Poll #12: What level is the clinic on

  Winner: A tie between 43 and 121.

  So in the event of ties like these, we take the average, making the clinic on Level 82. This also works to give us a scale of the city. Since we know she’s on the lower end of things, it means the upper limit is likely in the 500-1000 range. Where if you’d chosen 6, the highest level would probably be around 100. And if you’d chosen 398, the highest would likely be well in the thousands.

  How will you guide Wry's actions? [Poll Closes: Apr 2 @ 20:00 UTC]