A changed World

Intimidated by the armor-clad, gorilla-like guards, we had our identities verified and stepped inside.

The divine skill, even more than my own cautiousness, was that I could feel them treating our Companions with a stiff, respectful politeness.

What in the world was going on?

It really struck me anew that the world I lived in had changed overnight.

Did places like this exist in the era I used to live in? I don’t know.

['In that sense, I should consider myself much more successful than before I came here.']

[This quarter, the Club’s theme is the sea.]

There could be no disagreeing with the glowing text on the display.

The dark blue passageway was reminiscent of the underwater, and at its end, the isolated 165th Floor of the Plaza Hotel took the form of a Sky Aquarium, surrounded by beautiful coral and seaweed of unknown arrangement, and a refreshing blue current refined by engineering design.

I felt something extraordinary from that point on, but it went a step further once I actually set foot inside.

“Wow.”

Even though I tried to act natural while tense, my jaw dropped, unable to hide my country-bumpkin awe.

I thought I wouldn’t be flustered since I had worked as a chef in a top-tier restaurant, but I was mistaken.

This place was on a different level.

I’d heard that among the top-tier hotels in famous tourist destinations like Dubai or the Maldives, there were underwater hotels built on islands.

I’d heard tales of such otherworldly places where just sleeping for one night would cost you 5,000 dollars.

Right now, I think I wouldn’t be this freaked out if I were in one of those underwater hotels instead.

At least those were actually underwater; wasn’t this a skyscraper in the middle of the city?

Amazingly, a natural salty scent wafted through the air.

The lobby floor rippled with the ocean hue of aquamarine. It sparkled so much I wondered how they cleaned it to get such a shine.

Crystal pillars supported astonishingly thin yet expansive transparent walls, and outside them, a whale was flying through the hazy waterways.

A whale. Right. A whale.

Not a dolphin, not a beluga, and not a whale shark.

It was a large whale species, easily over 10 meters long just by a rough guess.

Overwhelmed by that massive visual and the unbelievable sight of a whale cruising through the atmosphere outside a super high-rise hotel thousands of feet in the air, I muttered without realizing it.

“A blue whale?”

It wasn’t something I said after thinking. With a large whale I’d never seen in my life right in front of me, the name of the famous largest animal on earth simply came to mind.

Unexpectedly, the one who corrected my remark was the Shaolin Monk.

[A blue whale. It has been a while since I heard that. However, that pitiful creature is not a giant blue whale. It is too small for that. It would need to be twice that size.]

I was dumbfounded hearing that.

If you touched that plump physique and dark fins, even a city bus would be smashed to pieces in one go. And a creature twice that size existed.

[And above all, the blue whale is already extinct. No matter how powerful its might is, it cannot reverse death, Amitabha.]

Ah, so they didn’t exist.

Then again, this was a Cyberpunk World.

Not just human life, but animal life was painful too.

Just looking at Dusk City right now, I see that the presence of wild animals has dried up. Stray cats or pigeons? Unimaginable. I heard they were all culled during the pandemic.

As I was nodding, the Machine Monk continued his explanation.

[It is a humpback whale, a creature once called the guardian of the sea. and I heard they were facing a similarly severe crisis of extinction due to marine pollution, but it seems one of them was here.]

Aha, so it was a humpback whale.

Anyway, what’s with this Derelict Monk knowing so much about whales? Is he some kind of whale nerd?

I stared at him with suspicious eyes and was about to say something, but stopped.

It was because the Shaolin Monk, speaking in a flat voice unlike his usual self, seemed somewhat depressed.

A machine that cherishes nature - it wasn’t a common thing in today’s world, but it wasn’t something to be surprised about either.

I had my own problems, too many to take care of the Monk’s feelings as well. I turned my attention away and continued looking at the scenery beyond the glass.

Only now did I get a little used to it and could analyze it with a cool-headed perspective.

At first, I mistakenly thought it was flying in the sky outside the hotel, but instead, it seemed they had built a ridiculously massive aquarium inside the building and released the whale in there. What an incredible scale.

On top of that, with the lighting they set up, the color of the water inside the aquarium and the color of the atmosphere outside were indistinguishable, creating a deception as if the whale were swimming through the black sky.

Because my gaze was entirely drawn to the humpback whale, I hadn’t noticed, but beyond that brute, there were other creatures as well.

From large ones like dolphins, stingrays, and even sharks, to small ones like clownfish, unnamed tropical fish, and uniquely colored jellyfish.

At this point, I couldn’t help but be puzzled. Didn’t they all have different habitats? Was it really okay for them to live in an aquarium?

I might have mistaken the humpback whale for a blue whale, but that gray shark over there with the jagged teeth definitely looked like a great white shark.

I wondered if they were perhaps sophisticated 3D holograms, but thinking it over, there was no way those in power at the very top of Dusk City, who obsessed over the 'real' thing, would be satisfied with just that.

[They are all indeed living marine creatures. However, to manage their captivity stress and reduce the risk of mutual destruction, they have been implanted with program chips. It seems there are also cases that have undergone genetic modification for environmental adaptation.]

I knew it. They were all real. It was just that they were a thoroughly controlled reality.

['Though I don’t know if you can even call this kind of thing real.']

Feeling somewhat uncomfortable, I averted my gaze from the fish eyes. I forced a cheerful posture, straightened my back, and looked at Sey.

“So, what do we do now?”

Even on the 165th Floor of the Plaza Hotel, at a gathering of the Consortium, Sey was exactly as she usually was. Not just her composed expression, but her attire as well, was exactly as she usually was.

I had also come wearing the same suit I wore at the bar, but that was because it was a Nanosuit I couldn’t afford even if I offered up my entire fortune - a top-tier item that could appropriately adjust its appearance depending on the situation.

That shouldn’t be the case for Sey. No, seeing her penthouse, the AV, and that mysterious wealth, maybe I didn’t know for sure.

Anyway, it was the exact same bartender uniform I always saw.

A shirt and vest, a skirt and tie. It had formality, of course, but it was an outfit that prioritized convenience over style, something an employee would wear rather than a customer.

You could say it was a style unsuited for the location or situation. Yet, it didn’t stand out awkwardly at all.

Far from being intimidated, her standing confidently in this place seemed like the most natural thing in the world. She was different from me, who couldn’t calm down and kept looking around.

It couldn’t be explained merely by saying it was her innate temperament or aura. It was as if she had experienced similar situations many times before.

But did that make sense?

This was a gathering of magnates who could bring down a flying bird, or rather, erase birds entirely from the city. Was it even possible to experience a similar situation?

I felt a sense of déjà vu. As the fog lifted, it felt like something was about to come to mind.

“First, I think we should have a conversation.”

At Sey’s calm words, I snapped out of my thoughts and asked blankly.

“A conversation? What kind of conversation should we have?”

At that, Sey raised an eyebrow and looked at me.

“That would depend on what the other person says, wouldn’t it.”

As I stood there with my mouth hanging open stupidly, unable to understand her meaning, she gestured behind me with her chin.

“There she is. Isn’t she the reason you ended up coming here?”

As I turned my head, a blonde woman in a beautiful but somewhat ill-fitting dark evening dress took a step toward us.

Well, actually, she tried to walk over boldly, but perhaps because of her heels, she wobbled, resulting in an awkward gait.

Eventually, she let out a burst of annoyance, took off the uncomfortable heels, and threw them at the trailing escorts - a familiar unruly sight.

That youthful and fierce pretty face, clearly showing the rebellious temperament of someone raised delicately, smiled dangerously as she stood before me and spoke.

“It’s been a while, hand butcher. No… Nakamura Aaron.”

Those blue eyes sparkled as if she had found prey, or perhaps a toy.

I ought to have replied politely to her greeting, but for a moment, I was completely at a loss for words.

Because…

['Who was she again?']

I was in big trouble!

* * *

As an excuse, of course I knew who she was.

Wasn’t she that what’s-her-name, the youngest daughter of the Schneider Family, the childish rich young lady?

I got swept up in the Luddite Gang’s terrorist incident because of this woman, so how could I possibly forget her?

Just as Sey said, that snowball eventually rolled all the way here, leading me to receive an invitation from the Schneider Family Head and come to The Consortium Club.

The problem was, I couldn’t quite remember her name.

It couldn’t be helped. The nobles' names were just too long. Since she greeted me by my full name, I should respond by saying her full name as well, but you know how it is sometimes.

That frustrating situation where you definitely knew it, but when the time actually comes to say it, it just won’t come out of your mouth.

Quite some time had passed, and with so many things happening, it seemed to have naturally slipped my mind a bit.

I thought my memory had improved, but it was failing me at the most crucial moment.

It was definitely Alexandra something Schneider. What was her middle name again?

If I just thought about it a little more, it would definitely come to me…!

It was right when a look of puzzlement began to form in the tomboy’s eyes as she saw me failing to spit out an immediate answer.