Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

increases exponentially the farther more mass travels. To move a starship across space, you’d need a lot of istrium, with aquaryl-titanide amplifiers.”

The kid might as well have been speaking Spanish, except that language apparently didn’t exist anymore. “I’ve never heard of those.”

“They’re minerals that now are exceedingly rare on Earth,” Kentaro said. “Engineers and scientists studying alien relics think the Tivarae mined most of it thousands of years ago.”

Tivarae. He’d mentioned that word before. “And who are they again?”

“Aggressive blue humanoids with tusks.” Kentaro snarled and pantomimed fangs coming from his bottom line of teeth. “They’re the ones who caused the Onslaught. They controlled Earth thousands of years ago, built the pyramids and whatnot. Anyway, the stones that glowed blue in the Elestrae’s jewelry were istrium. It can generate a lot of energy, and the transparent aquaryl and titanide stones amplify it.”

Ryu had noticed the blue glow when the fairies had tapped into their Core. He’d sensed them probing his Core and meridians. Had just one of them tried to disrupt his Qi, he wouldn’t have been strong enough to resist—unless he’d swallowed one of the Meridian Fortifying Pills in his stolen robes first.

They continued walking, past the portals.

Ryu pointed at the archways. “Aren’t we going to Kujo?”

Ken shook his head so fast, he might’ve generated the energy to propel a starship into the next galaxy. “No, there aren’t any portals there, and you don’t have the nanochip that activates them. It’s close enough to walk, anyway. We’re just cutting through the shopping arcade, and maybe picking up some clothes for you.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. The Peacekeeper jacket was chafing, and everyone was staring at his bare legs. They continued down a ramp, Ken practically skipping.

“You know,” Ryu said, “you are quite excitable. Take deep breaths. Focus your intention.”

Ken stared back for a moment before nodding like a dribbled basketball.

Did they still play basketball? Ryu chuckled, but froze again as they came to the shopping arcade.

If the pedestrians in their garish clothes had been eyesores, the rows and rows of the clothes, all so close together, were even worse. He had to circulate his Qi through his Liver meridians to fight off a migraine.

Unlike in his youth, there were no unrealistically slim mannequins modelling the clothes. Instead, as a young woman walked by a store, a hologram of her appeared in a gaudy outfit and made a polite greeting. “Anti-gravity cloth will make you feel like you’re walking on clouds! Temperature control will keep you a constant twenty-three degrees!”

The woman paused and looked, swiping her hands left and right. The hologram’s clothes changed. Beaming, the woman walked into the store.

Ryu’s stomach rumbled. He hadn’t eaten in the half day that he’d been on this plane.

“You must be hungry.” Kentaro looked him up and down. “We can get food down here in the arcade, but we need to get you some clothes first. Let’s go there.”

He hurried toward the indicated store, where jumpsuits in eye-splitting color combinations hung in the window display. Ryu began to wonder if it was hunger or disgust that made his stomach twist.

“Welcome, Kentaro!” An image of Kentaro appeared before the boy as they approached, and it spoke in his voice. It wore tight, stretchy shorts and short sleeves in a muted color scheme, which would better suit a cyclist with flamboyant sponsors in the Tour de France. In the store’s window, all the price displays changed numbers, while some of the more vibrant clothes rotated out in place of more neutral colors. The hologram leaned against the display, looking quite relaxed. “Might I interest you in casual wear? Self-cleaning and colorfast!”

Kentaro was about to keep going.

“Wait.” Ryu reached out and stopped him. “How come everyone but me is getting bombarded with sales pitches from holograms of themselves?”

“Do you want to?” Kentaro’s forehead crinkled.

“No. I’m just wondering why.”

“We all have an identity nanochip circulating in our blood,” Kentaro said. “All advertisements are customized to us.”

Ryu chewed on his inner lip. What was the term they used to use? It was the same used in the sects, but meant something completely different. “Big Brother.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind,” Ryu said. “How does the chip get power?”

“Bioelectricity.”

Like Qi. How fascinating. Ryu pointed to the price displays. “Is this in yen?”

“In what?”

“Or dollars?”

If the boy looked any more befuddled…

“That number is how much this godawful jumper costs, right?”

Expression brightening, Kentaro nodded.

“How come the price is lower than it was for the man who walked by a moment ago?”

“Oh! The store AI reads our chip and factors our occupation and social credit into the price.”

“And then deducts it from your bank account?” This was all starting to make sense. Everyone had a place in the world, just like sect members did in the World of Rivers and Lakes.

“What’s a bank?”

Ryu threw his hands up. “Where do you keep your money?”

“Money… oh!” Kentaro jumped up and down, as he was wont to do when excited. “That was where you used paper rectangles and metal discs for transactions during the Age of Greed, right?”

What had the world become? This, though, might’ve been for the better. Pursuit of wealth brought out the worst in mankind. Ryu followed Kentaro into a room not much more than twice the size of the maglift. Panels on the wall swiveled, revealing different kinds of clothes.

Hologram Kentaro materialized in front of them, dressed in a bright blue one-piece jumpsuit with a high collar. It would’ve been not too abnormal in Ryu’s youth, save for the flaring sleeves and pant legs. The hologram held a playful pose. “It’s raining outside! May we interest you in a suit with an evaporator?”

“It doesn’t cover his head,” Ryu said as the image changed poses.

“Oh!” Kentaro patted his hair. “See how I’m