MD— CHAPTER 2

Title: Brisk City

*Vrr*

*Khcchkk*

A blue-toned vehicle of public transportation— Bus— pulled out of the bus stop as Sparow gazed at the mechanical piece of miracle drive away. There was no such thing as polluting sources of fuel. He had seen the blueprints of the vehicles of the past era and in stark contrast to them, the current vehicles did not even have exhaust silencers. With Quin and Brisk City only 40 minutes away on the bus, there was still quite a bit of time until the streets as solitary as the paved roads meant for other motor vehicles would be filled with pedestrians.

However, Sparow looked quite better than his early eviction. He wore a backpack filled with a toothbrush, his pajamas, and other necessary sanitation at the cost of 32 credits. Not only that but he also now sported a plain black t-shirt, one size larger, of course. He felt a little congested when his clothes stuck too close on him, especially chafing on his armpits. Meanwhile, he had to pay an extra for a durable pair of shoes, or else he could have saved 7 credits whole. Meanwhile, his pair of denim was a bland dark blue one with a few tears near the ankles, allowing him to get it for less than half its intended price.

Adjusting his hair so that his nap doesn't show over his face, a particularly rude societal gesture, Sparow began walking deeper into the city. This was his first visit to Brisk City. Unlike more structures on the side of the streets that gave Quin City an urban atmosphere, Brisk City was planted with staple trees that had a longer life, needed less nutrition to grow, and was prone to seasonal shedding, making the public sweepers in the city to breath a sigh of relief.

"Hey, little bro, heading for the city square?" An auto-rickshaw pulled closer to Sparow as the man operating the triple-tyred mobile smiled widely.

"How much?" Sparow inquired after a moment of consideration. He needed to get to the city square to download the necessary applications into his watch once again. Even the hologram feature needed to be downloaded once again, showcasing how ruthless Behemoth had been in her action.

"10 points."

"No, thanks," Sparow began walking once again. Of course, he was unwilling to spend 10 credits for 10 minutes of walking. Before he slept yesterday, Sparow had already memorized the way to the square anticipating that he may be helpless today. Much to the driver's fortune, the road was marked with more youths just like Sparow so instead of lingering, the man drove off and tried to fish out other customers.

"Vision, open notepad."

Sparow stated as his watch glowed. "Add voice notes," Sparow continued to plan his first phase of the year-long ceremony. "Updating the watch, download the free information in the tour guides spot, check for a free apartment for stay." Closing his watch with a tap on the side, Sparow continued to walk until the street diverged out and revealed a large square fountain, presently dried up. Along the way, Sparow made sure to keep to himself even if other travelers wanted to forge a bond early on.

He needed to pick a sensible team for what's to come and to successfully overcome his age-of-coming ceremony, he needed to stay away from impulsive youngsters that would rather enjoy spending time talking about their backgrounds instead of getting right into planning.

The city square had a clear perimeter of ceramic-style streets that was remarkably well-maintained than the rest of the city. Aside from the most obvious genres of retail shops still closed— Weaponry, Civilian Help, Tourist Guide, Garments, and Familiar Items— Sparow found the outposts catering to the need of the communication devices. Walking up to a silver-colored pole ending with a red antenna, Sparow took his watch off from his wrist and pressed the steel back against the port of the pole.

Whirring into life, the watch's surface glowed open and allowed Sparow o begin downloading the update once again.

"Hey, isn't this the high-end storage model? Which version is it? 8tb or 12?" Sparow looked sideways to get a better view of the speaker and found a red-haired youth with a rather outspoke outfit. Not to mention, the spiky hairstyle was quite offputting for Sparow. Still, not letting his shallow thoughts impede him from passing up on a potentially adequate ally, Sparow continued the flow of chat.

"It's 64 TB version, Cyber Lord edition," he replied. If he had bought an ordinary version and then later on decided to upgrade the hardware, Sparow was pretty sure that Behemoth would have destroyed the watch completely.

"Oh, cool. Say, it is your age-of-coming ceremony, too, right? The square's full of people like us. Do you want to partner-up? With 5000-limit of credits, we can't buy a familiar."

"So? What do you propose?" Sparow inquired as the update was only 7% done by now.

"Probably join with one of the older groups who could come by the square to recruit. That way, we have a greater chance of passing the ordeal."

"Hmm," Sparow nodded, "Why would a more experienced team recruit you? Do you bring a set of skills highly sought after?"

"Ugh... no? I can make great fish sticks. Best in my town."

Sighing to himself, Sparow shook his head. "I apologize. I don't have any form of interest in partnering up with you. Have a great day."

To make sure he wouldn't be nagged into another conversation, Sparow ejected the earbuds from the side of the watch and pushed them into his ears before starting to bob his head silently.

As Sparow expected, the young red-haired man with the outrageous hairstyle felt a little bummed out by the rude gesture and left, bumping into someone else. Sparow understood the desperate need of partnership at the very beginning but the ordeals had rules. Partnership being one of them and it needed to be considered very carefully before letting one's need to find companionship in times of confusion and fear riding your future.

Once the update was complete, Sparow customized the configuration once again and opened the local news, finding property advertisements and bookmarking the ones appealing to him financially.