Chapter 8: Hub (1)
He shook his head. Who knew? Maybe humanity would find a way to once again mess things up instead of taking this opportunity. It wasn't like they hadn't done so before.
"Welcome to the Terra Hub", a voice broke him out of his musings.
The voice came from a virtual ball that had appeared in his view. It hovered at the high of his head and was the virtual guide of the hub. You could ask it any question about the hub and it would be able to answer it.
Ivan had already planned out this visit to the hub. First, he wanted to check out the medical sector and get his free checkup. So he told the floating ball, "Please lead me to the medical sector."
"Please follow me.", the pleasant female voice once again sounded out and the ball started to fly towards one direction. It would always keep a certain distance from him and slowed down whenever he did and sped up when he did so, making it comfortable to follow around.
While walking towards the medical section, Ivan admired the main hall of the hub. It was a large modern-looking area, that was filled with a surprising amount of greenery. There was even a large waterwork in the center.
Because of its size, it didn't look like it was indoor but more like it was built outdoors. Something reinforced by the design of the ceiling, which was imitating a real sky.
The seating areas distributed freely throughout the hub would make it a great area to spend some time relaxing. And with some cafes, it wouldn't look any different from any park on terra, just with a better climate.
After entering the medical section, the design changed. Although it still looked modern or even futuristic, it was clearly indoors. A large waiting area appeared in front of him but it was still mostly empty.
There were some people sitting together and chatting, but it didn't seem as if anyone had to wait for an appointment.
He went to one of the stations and selected the reason he had come here.
There was a long list of reasons displayed but the regular checkup was displayed prominently at the top, so it wasn't difficult to find it.
Of course, it was also possible to use your voice to give the reason for your visit or have the virtual assistance do so, which would provide better privacy, but for something as simple as the regular checkup, just selecting it on the screen was faster.
After he had clicked on the regular checkup, the screen told him to go to room 341. At the same time, the virtual guide also seemed to conveniently receive some information, as he started flying towards one of the hallways, leading out of the waiting hall.
By following the guide, it was easy to find the room. After entering it, he was told to lie down on a table and wait for the scan results.
Not even five minutes later, a hologram appeared in the room. It was a hologram of a generic female doctor, wearing a doctor's apparel.
"Hello, I'm doctor 101, but you can call me 101.", she introduced herself.
"Hello."
"Let's get started on reviewing your results.", she continued after he had responded to the greeting. "No larger problems have been found. Only a few problems because of suboptimal nutrition."
Ivan felt happy when he heard that. It basically meant that he was healthy. As for the problems because of suboptimal nutrition, he wasn't surprised about that. His diet couldn't directly be described as healthy. Sure he didn't live off of fast food, but he didn't try to eat especially healthy either.
"It is recommended to support your nutrition by consuming one of the personalized health shakes each week, They can be found at the entrance hall.", she told him before vanishing with a goodbye.
"Is it just me or did the last part sound suspiciously like an advertisement?", he wondered.
Anyway, there was no way, that he could afford to spend his few EC on some nutrition packets, which weren't necessary at the moment.
Instead, he was planning to check out the stores next.
Soon he found himself in front of a store, reading its name and slogan. "Storageia, we solve all your storage needs."
He helplessly shook his head. This slogan and name were just too corny. He didn't understand what the creators of it had thought about when deciding on them.
But hopefully, the store would live up to its slogan. During the run yesterday, he had already realized that he would require a better form of storage in the future. And judging from the technology used in this new system, he didn't expect simple backpacks to be the best thing the store would offer.
But what greeted him, when entering, was exactly that. Rows of backpacks and other forms of bags.
"Somehow this is disappointing.", he thought, while taking a closer look at the bags. After all, they weren't just sorted by their design but also by something else.
While the first area seemed to contain normal bags, the next one had additional information printed on a sign.
[[ Spatial Storage Items: Backpack
Grade: 1F
Space: 1 m³
Maximum Item Size: Anything fitting through the opening
Description: A backpack that contains an internal separate space. Items put into it will be stored inside its 1m³ sized space. Their weight will also be nullified.
]]
This was the description of one of the bags. And it was also what he had hoped for. Although it was a backpack and thus still too large to carry during combat, at least it could contain a lot of items, without becoming more cumbersome.
It also gave him hope, that there were smaller items. Sadly the view of the deeper parts of the store was blocked by the area filled with bags.
Now the big question was, how expensive were these backpacks?
Ivan took a look at the next best backpack and nearly choked on his own salvia.
"F*ck", he cursed out loudly.
On the seemingly cheap model, a proud price of 5000 EC was displayed.
5000 EC, a seemingly impossible sum of money. Well only seemingly, because he somehow got the feeling that according to whatever standards the experiment worked, the price wasn't that high, seeing as it was the price for something displayed at the entrance of this store. And there seemed to be much more expensive things available further in.
"Well, I guess I'll use a normal backpack for now.", he resolutely decided.
Without even looking at any other bag, he left the store. If he stayed any longer, maybe he would succumb to depressions, thinking about how poor he was.
True in his normal life he was also poor, but not to the extent of not even being able to afford a simple bag. His part-time job made enough money for him to spend some on things such as a bag or clothes. Not that he had any desire to buy more than necessary.
After leaving Storageia he went to the store beside it, which had a similarly stupid name. It was called 'Consumia' and sold all kinds of consumables, such as pills and food packets.
Here the prices seemed more reasonable starting at 5 EC for some simple food packet, which could give the consumer a large amount of energy, temporarily increasing their performance.
They were similar to buff food in many RPGs. Of course, they didn't come only in the form of food but also beverages and injections.
Besides these temporary buffs, there were also injections, designed to be used in hairy situations. Fast-acting antidotes and healing nanites were also available. Of course, they came at a price, and since they were only one-off items, there was no way he could currently spend his money on them.
Another large part of the stock, where consumables which gave a permanent improvement, such as Energy Pills, or Material Pills, both of which were used to improve the Nanite-Suite.
They were priced much higher than the temporary stuff. In fact, the most basic Energy Pill of grade 1F was priced at 20 EC.
Letting his sight swipe over the display cases, he marveled at the number of different pills on display. There seemed to be a pill for just about anything. A pill to improve your skin? There it was. For only 200 EC you could enjoy a permanent improvement of your skin.
A way to grow out your hair? A pill for only 400 EC would have your hair grow for ten cm in just a second.
A way to improve your eyesight? A pill for only 600 EC could help you with that. That was, as long as your eyesight wasn't good enough yet.
That was what all attributes increasing pills had in common. A certain grade would only work until you reached a threshold. Then you would need to either find a different way or use a higher grade of the pill. From the descriptions it seemed like about five pills of one grade were the usual maximum number of viable pill consumptions.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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