It was the evening, in Luna.
After having napped, Astra had cleaned up her room. She had changed into her inside clothes, and warmed up some food in the living room that was brought to the house by Kayla. It was soup and a piece of bread that cost a little less than 5 Orin.
As her stomach was currently begging for sustenance, she prepared the food and placed it on the dining room table.
As for something to drink, she went inside of the fridge and grabbed a bottle of wine that seemed to be next to an hourglass shaped bottle.
"That looks a little weird. I'm definitely not touching that. I can't trust anything weird here. I don't even fully trust this wine…" Astra lampooned as she closed the fridge and went back to her dining room table.
And there it was—the nourishment that she was waiting for all this while.
It was the soup—and it was a slight orange. It had pasta, chicken, seasonings, and many vegetables in it.
It gave off a slightly meaty but sweet aroma as the steam flew into the atmosphere.
After giving thanks to the God of Dreams—which she still wasn't completely used to—she grabbed the metal cutlery and dug in.
Soon enough, she experienced an explosion of flavors. Umami, spice, salt and even a slight sweetness permeated her mouth.
The chicken dissolved on her tongue effortlessly, and the vegetables added a bit of salty variety to the juicy and well seasoned meat.
The broth had an amazing texture to it. While it was slightly too thin for Astra's taste, the sweet but slightly chewy bread made up for it.
"Why does the food here taste so good? I wonder if there's any secret meat or ingredient inside here. But this only costs about 4 dollars…this is unbelievable! Or am I saying this just because I'm hungry…" Astra thought as she quickly devoured her food and let out a sigh of relief.
After she enjoyed the meal, she went upstairs to use the bathroom and shower.
She had quite a wonderful time in the bathroom and stayed in there for about an hour. She particularly liked the hologram system in the mirror and the futuristic toilet system. She tinkered with both to fit her liking.
With her wet blonde hair trickling down to her waist, she came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body, covering all of the necessary regions.
However as soon as she walked out, she saw an exhausted Kayla coming out of her room at the same time.
Instantly, they made eye contact.
"…"
"…"
An awkward silence lasted for about 4 seconds before Kayla broke the ice.
"Uh, I was going to watch some movies…don't mind me. You're going to work soon right?" Kayla asked. She didn't know if Astra actually was going to go to work, though. She just needed an excuse to make things less awkward.
"Yeah, in about two hours I think…" Astra said softly. "How was your nap?" Astra asked.
"It was alright. Exactly what I needed after work," Kayla said with her eyes half closed, clearly showing tiredness.
"To be honest, sometimes, I wonder why people have children. Sigh, being single is tiring enough…" She yawned afterwards.
"That was quite random…?" Astra paused for a second, processing her words. "Okay. I'm going to go to my room now!" She continued as she turned her room's door knob.
"Uh…have fun!" Kayla said as Astra quickly ventured inside of her room.
She locked the door and realized something that somehow slipped her mind.
She was now living with a complete stranger. It was obvious that there were going to be awkward moments like that at some point!
"This world and how it does things are so weird…so strange! And unlike the otherworldly things in this world, this one isn't the one that I'd say I'd like!" Astra sulked in English as she wanted to lampoon the immigration system.
In the living room, Kayla had similar thoughts.
"That was a little weird! Why did she come out of the bathroom like that? Never in my life have I seen such a thing!" Kayla let out a nervous chuckle. "If she was still in Vytheris, they would've really given her a good beating…"
…
An hour later. It was 9 PM. Astra had her holographic assistant tell her that it was time to start heading out.
She was a female, and she had a pale, gothic look to her. She had straight, long black hair. She had black eyes and wore a black dress that stretched down to her ankles. Astra had personally customized her to be this way.
"The quickest way to the Dreamer's Construction Agency is by taking a personal train down 2137 Lunar Avenue. After leaving the train, you will see that it is the third building on the right."
"Such a weird street name…"
"Thank you." Astra's eyes widened as she thought of something. "Also, can I give you a name?"
"Yes." The female assistant said with a soft and gentle voice. "Actually, can I suggest something?" The assistant asked, as if she was a human.
"Hm? Go ahead." Astra was taken slightly aback from the surprisingly human tone of the assistant.
"How about Astraia? It sounds similar to your name, and it means 'star' or 'starry'. I think it's fitting for someone who looks as stellar as you," The assistant smiled slightly as she said with her soft voice.
"That's an…interesting name." Astra ignored the compliment as she narrowed her eyes.
At first, Astra didn't really feel the name.
"You don't like it?" The assistant asked with a gesturing tone.
"I'm thinking." Astra replied bluntly.
"Okay," The assistant didn't probe further. She continued to stand there, momentarily looking around the room as if she's examining it.
It didn't take more than 3 seconds before Astra made a decision. She widened her eyes and looked at the assistant.
The assistant noticed this and looked at Astra with a soft, almost contagious smile. It seemed as if she really wanted Astra to name her: "Astraia!"
"Don't get too influenced by this…she's only an AI…" Astra tried to reassure herself.
"Okay, Astraia. It's a pleasure to have you as my assistant." She suddenly felt the need to be nice to the AI.
The assistant widened her eyes slightly, then closed them. It seemed as if she was in a little shock.
"It's a pleasure to have you as well." The AI assistant, Astraia, said with a smile as if she was ecstatic.
"I'll take my leave now. After all, I don't want to disturb you from getting ready. Though, you look nice enough as you are." Astraia closed her eyes and then took a bow. Afterwards, a virtual black hole came from behind her and sucked her inside of it.
Of course, it was only a visual effect that Astra thought was cool.
"The AI's here feel so much more human…" Astra didn't think about the compliment her assistant gave her.
Shortly after Astraia left, Astra grabbed her phone and put it in her pocket. Of course, she had her immigrant band, which contained the ID needed for her to actually work at her job.
For her phone, currently, it was the only thing she owned that she would have carried. She had decided to buy a purse once she felt the need to carry one.
After Astra put her phone in her skirt pocket, she left the room. Her blonde hair was braided slightly and was done into two that trickled down her waist. Her dark skin looked fair and soft, despite not wearing any makeup. She was wearing a sleeveless white shirt with a black cardigan, and a black mid length skirt with white tights underneath.
As these clothes were supplied by the Morphean government, they all had the crescent moon and other slight starry designs on them.
"It doesn't look too bad…I still prefer my previous clothes." Astra looked down at herself one final time to make sure she looks alright enough to leave the house.
She walked down the stairs and saw Kayla watching what appeared to be an action movie. Astra didn't pay much attention to it and simply said: "I'm leaving now."
"Oh, okay! Hopefully the soup wasn't too bad! I thought it could've been better!" Kayla said, but her eyes never left the holographic projection that came from the TV.
"…" Astra glanced at her with a poker face. She was rather speechless.
"Could've been better? That was some of the best soup I've ever tasted! Well, it makes sense how they think like this…I mean, it is a world with much better technology…" Astra replied in her head.
"That makes me wanna try what the people here consider great food…"
Without responding to Kayla, Astra left the house. Kayla didn't mind this all that much.
Outside, Astra saw that the velvet moon was directly overhead. It casted an almost otherworldly purple glow to the suburbs of Luna, which already looked like it was from an alien planet with technology far surpassing that of Earth. This, combined with the many neon lights coming from the futuristic houses and streets, gave the entire scene a picturesque look.
Without wasting any more time, Astra boarded the personal train and followed the instructions of the assistant perfectly. She was able to find the building without much difficulty. This took about 45 minutes, which gave her about 15 minutes left before the shift actually started.
This gave her time to admire the Luna architecture.
The main building, the enclosures and houses around the main building, and the streets had an almost synth vibe to it. There were many lights lined up both on the streets and on the buildings, along with many advertisements showcasing various products. There were also many flying vehicles overhead passing by the massive hovering lit balconies.
While researching on the internet, Astra had discovered that this was because of the boundless and infinite energy source powering many artificial gravity machines and magnetic chambers. Small, microscopic quantum supercomputers were also used to simulate many of the holographic effects.
This allowed for not only fast moving vehicles but also for the existence of seemingly magical infrastructure.
"Let's see if this job can get me closer to understanding this energy source that came from the heavens…" Astra thought as she finally walked inside of the building.
Inside the building, it looked like a very modern but very technological office, with many office workers working on the holographic, floating computers. On the silver metal floor of the lobby, there was a giant construction hat with a velvet crescent moon on the top of it. There were words circling the hat, saying: "Dreamer Construction Ltd."
As she walked in, she immediately got a couple of stares and side glances from a few people, but Astra didn't pay any attention to it. Instead, she tried to look around to find anybody that could help her.
There were multiple people dressed in office clothing and even some dressed in casual clothing walking around, with those in the office clothing appearing to assist those in the casual clothing.
Suddenly, as Astra tried to walk towards someone who seemed to be an office worker, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. It felt as if cold, hard metal touched her.
She looked behind her and saw that it was a rather average looking guy that tapped her shoulder. He had an almost inhuman smile, almost as if he was a robot.
"My data tells me that you're an immigrant by the name of Astra Sera. Are you looking for where you'll be partaking in your shift?" The man asked with a robotic sounding voice. His mouth was moving in a manner that made you feel that he wasn't human.
"He is a robot! Plus, I don't know how I feel about my info just being given to robots!" Astra sulked inwardly.
"Yes. Where is it?" Astra suppressed her inner emotions as she replied with a nonchalant tone.
"Follow me, Miss Sera. Everything will already be provided for you, so don't worry about tools or other materials that you may need. You're currently a construction worker trainee, so you would need to do 12 months of training to fully become a construction worker. Only then would your wage increase." The robotic voice said as he began walking in a particular direction.
"While that's much quicker than usual for a normal person to learn how to do this job on the previous Earth, that's quite a lot of time for me to learn how to become a construction worker. I wonder if I can become a full worker before the 12 months are up." Astra thought as she began to follow the robot.
She evaluated how long it would take for her to learn how to do construction. Normally, on the previous Earth, it would take her about a week to learn how to do all of the useful types of construction.
"Even though the technology is completely different, the science is roughly the same. Since that's the case, the time it takes for me to learn shouldn't be much longer than a week, if at all."
Astra wasn't saying this out of arrogance. Instead, this was the confidence of a woman who had made her very own space agency before she was even a teenager.
The robot continued to stroll through the building with Astra following it. As she was following the robot, she noticed something strange.
"There's a lack of immigrants here. It seems as if it was the highest paying job because of the fact that many immigrants didn't want it. It's not surprising, but I do wonder why…"
Soon enough, the robot brought Astra to a decently large room, which she promptly entered. It looked as if it was a mini auditorium, with a large black screen behind the stage. There were a few dozen people seated on hovering soft seats, who took up about half of the total seats in the room.
"This must be the room for the orientation. Luckily, no one is on the stage so it hasn't started yet..." As soon as Astra thought that, the robot that was behind her wasn't there anymore, and the door was soundless as it slid to close.
As Astra walked deeper into the auditorium to find a seat, she saw that pretty much all of the people in the room were leisurely on their phones, waiting for the man of the hour to arrive.
Astra found a seat in the very back. As soon as she sat down, the lights dimmed and the stage for the auditorium lit up faintly, revealing a man coming up from the metal ground. As it did, soft mechanical hums could've been heard. This took the attention of everyone seated.
From the lighting, all that could've been seen was that he was wearing a suit.
Shadows were casted all over his body, making him seem very mysterious.
He began to spread his arms. As soon as he was finished, the stage lights dimmed and the screen behind him lit up, revealing the logo of the company. Steam came out from the ground, which almost basked the man in an almost foggy haze. Soon enough, weird, almost metal like music was playing.
"What a needlessly dramatic entrance…" Astra almost felt embarrassed.