March 27, 2113, Solaris City
"Stella..."
A faint voice echoed. The sound resonated through my entire brain.
"Stella..."
The echo grew clearer in my ears, then entered my mind.
My body shook—is it an earthquake? The longer it went, the stronger the frequency became, until I fell into a very deep valley.
I looked around, huge waves seemed to be chasing me. Then I ran as fast as I could to avoid them. The more I ran, the closer the waves got.
And then...
*Splash
"Stella, it's already 9 in the morning. Aren't you going to work?" I suddenly jolted from my bed. My eyes widened, my face was soaking wet, then I turned to the side to see Kaela—my robot assistant—putting away an empty bucket in the corner of my room.
"Afufufu, geez, I'm late again?!" Kaela shrugged her shoulders. My body felt so heavy to get out of bed. My eyes were still weighed down by sleepiness. Kaela's expression now looked annoyed at me. Then she floated toward my back and started pushing me hard.
"Come on, get out of bed now, Stella." Her pushes were so strong that my body wobbled on top of the bed. "Yes, I'm already awake," I said as I stood up from bed. I pushed away the blanket, then rushed with hurried steps to the bathroom. I stepped into the curtained shower booth. I pulled the curtain, then turned on the shower in my bathroom. The water was so cold it made my body shiver.
After finishing my shower, I just realized I didn't bring a towel. "Kaela! Please get me a towel!" I shouted in the bathroom. A few seconds later, Kaela's machine sound hissed faintly beyond the bathroom door. A few minutes later, Kaela opened the bathroom door.
"Just put it on the curtain rod," I said while rinsing my hair. The towel, now placed on the curtain rod, was within my sight inside the shower booth. Then the faint creak of the door closing could be heard. Once I finished rinsing my hair, I wrapped the towel around my body so I wasn't dripping too much.
I opened the curtain, then hurried back to my room. My work uniform—a clean white shirt with a gray skirt—was already neatly hung in front of the closet because Kaela had ironed it. Without thinking twice, I quickly put on the uniform. After that, I styled my hair into my usual messy bun. Normally, I would wear makeup after that, but today there wasn't enough time.
Once I was done with my appearance, I headed to the living room. In the kitchen area, Kaela looked busy preparing bread for me. I took my brown loafers from the shoe rack beside the apartment door. I touched the door panel screen that stuck out with the code "2088." The door opened.
But just as I was about to step outside, Kaela touched my shoulder. I quickly turned to her. "Stella, you forgot your sandwich," she said, handing me a small bag with the sandwich I usually brought.
I slapped my forehead. "Ugh, almost forgot. Thanks for preparing it," I said with a smile to Kaela. After that, I stroked her head gently. Kaela's face then showed a shy expression.
"I'll leave the house to you as usual. Take care of it well. If anyone asks, 'Where's Stella?' just answer that I'm at work, okay?" Kaela nodded repeatedly. "Okie dokie, Stella. Be careful on the road, okay!" she replied softly.
I stepped outside the door, then quickly went down the stairs. Once outside the apartment—right on the roadside—I pulled out my old phone to order a Flying Taxi through the app. I ordered the express category to get to work faster today, even though the price was very expensive.
Usually, I ordered the regular category because the price was standard, or the lowkey category which was cheap and slow if I woke up earlier. Around 7 minutes after I ordered, the taxi arrived in front of me.
"With Miss Stella, right?" asked the driver, glancing at my face. I nodded at him. "Yes, I'm Stella." The driver then told me to get in the taxi. Without hesitation, I got inside and sat behind the driver's seat.
The driver touched the screen panel in front of him. Soon after, the engine roared to life. The taxi floated quickly into the sky. Now I could see Solaris City so widely from this sky view.
The people below, bustling about, looked like ants, while the city's skyscrapers seemed to hold hands with one another. Along the way, there was a massive skyscraper—that was my favorite building—Solaris Sky View. One day I really wanted to enter it, to look at the vast sky, and then enjoy the beautiful scenery from above.
The traffic in the sky was quite crowded, but fortunately… this express type Flying Taxi was provided with a priority lane, so it could reach the destination quickly. This was completely different from when I rode the lowkey or regular types that often got stuck in traffic jams.
The distance from my apartment to my workplace wasn't really that far. Yeah… around 10 kilometers more or less. When going home, I usually preferred walking instead of taking public transportation again. Besides saving money, once the sun set and the city lights turned on, it made me prefer enjoying the atmosphere of the walk rather than feeling the exhaustion of the commute.
This taxi felt so very fast that I couldn't even notice how many minutes passed. The taxi started to descend. Now I had arrived in front of my workplace—Alteris Coffee Shop.
"Sir, I'll pay using Eyeris," I said while tapping the driver's shoulder. "Sure miss, please." Not long after, the driver displayed a scanner screen in front of me. Then my eyes were scanned by the screen. After the scan, my Etherium balance decreased by 1,400. So expensive…
After finishing the payment, I slowly stepped out of the taxi. "Thank you miss, please give me 5 stars if you're satisfied with the service," said the driver with a friendly smile. "Okay, I'll give 5 stars later. Thanks for the ride," I replied with a smile. The taxi then floated back into the sky.
After that, I ran toward my workplace in a hurry. I opened the back door of the shop, then immediately took my position at the cashier's desk. Until now, the café was still empty at the customer tables. I looked at the LED clock hanging in the café—it showed 9:27 AM. The other employees—including the robot workers—were busy with their own tasks.
Yeah… this was my boring job. Every day I had to stand for 9 hours at this cashier desk. There were breaks, sure, but sometimes this routine just felt so boring. Sometimes I could watch movies, listen to music, or play with my phone when there weren't many customers to avoid being too bored.
But, it was a different story when the café got crowded. My mouth, face, and hands would be moving non-stop.
A few minutes later, the front door opened. A tall man carrying an old laptop with green comma-styled hair stepped into the café. The long white blazer he wore made him stand out, especially with his slim face framed by square glasses that gave the impression of someone intelligent.
He approached the cashier desk. His aura was so dazzling to my eyes. Even so, I wanted to stay professional. "Would you like to order something, sir?" I asked him with a polite smile. He touched his chin. His forehead furrowed as his eyes glanced at the menu board above me. I couldn't stare at his face for long, so my eyes ended up on the name tag he was wearing. Written there in big letters was the name "ELRIS."
"I'd like to order a croissant, extra cheese muffin, and a slightly bitter black coffee," the man said while looking at my face. My face turned a little red, but I forced myself to remain professional. I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. "Alright, please wait at table number 3!"
The man only smiled and nodded without saying another word to me. He then went to table number 3. I noted all the menu items he ordered through the café tablet, then sent the menu to the kitchen division via the Fast Chat app. The kitchen team confirmed it.
Now I was back in boring mode again. Eventually, my eyes just wandered around, and suddenly they focused on that man. He was tinkering with his old laptop. He seemed to be working on something serious. I was so curious about him—was he really an ELRIS employee? But, why did he stop by here?
Ah… all these weird questions just made my head explode!
Finally, I gathered the courage to leave the cashier desk and approach him. I wasn't doing anything weird, I just wanted to ask, 'Are you really an ELRIS employee?' later.
I tried walking toward table number 3 with slow steps. He still didn't take his eyes off his laptop. "Um, may I sit next to you?" I asked him politely. He was still typing something on his laptop, but his eyes glanced at me briefly, then went back to the laptop again. "Yes, go ahead." Am I disturbing him?
I swallowed hard from how awkward I felt. My body trembled a little. I tried to ask him something. "Sorry if this disturbs your work, but may I ask you something?"
He suddenly stopped typing on the keyboard, then closed his laptop tightly. He turned to me and gave a faint smile. "Oh, if my answer can help you, then sure. But, introduce yourself first."
Suddenly, I smiled widely. "Nice to meet you, my name is Stella Strealia," I said while extending my hand for a handshake. He immediately chuckled lightly at me.
Was I wrong? Was my behavior too old-fashioned? Gosh… what was I even doing? I felt like pinching myself hard out of embarrassment.
He accepted my hand and shook it briefly.
"Nice to meet you, my name is Cornelius Zii," he said with a wide smile.