Roomate (4)

"The ramen here is great! Although the food is completely made out of synthetic materials, it still tastes very much like real food!"

Due to the fact that it was now virtually impossible to eat meat due to the lack of uninfected animals, people now must make do with food alternatives. Fortunately, chemical engineering have advanced enough that plant-based meats' taste and texture had become virtually the same as the taste of real meat from before the apocalypse.

Food are now broadly defined into two categorites, "synthetic" and "natural". Synthetic foods are directly synthesized in a lab, while natural foods are plants grown in greenhouses within the base. The maintenance and the upkeep of these plants wastes a lot of energy, so their price are sky high. Therefore, most people in the upper levels could only afford the synthetic foods that are being mass produced within laboratories, with nutrition bars and tablets that Arnold usually have being the cheapest foods available in the market.

After lining up for around 15 minutes, David and Arnold finally arrived at the counter. On top of the counter were two menus, both menus had pictures of different types of ramens and snacks printed on the screen of the counter. However, only one of the menus have the price listed below.

"The menu on the left, with the price, is the optional menu that is not included within the meal plan of the military academy." David explained, "They're ususally seasonal or higher priced food that you can enjoy if you have the extra money. The menu on the right is the normal menu. Each student is allocated 5 food tokens per day. 1 main menu item consists of 1 token, while snacks and drinks consits of 0.5 tokens."

Arnold nodded. He took a look at the screen that was on the counter and tapped on one of the ramens on the basic menu. He decided to only have water along with it, since it was free. David, wanting to splurge, selected a ramen from the premium menu and also a plate of gyoza on the side from the basic menu. He also bought a premium beer to go along with the food.

After ordering, a remote had protruded out from a slot next to the menu screen. David took both the remotes for Arnold and himself and went towards the food court to find a seat. He said, "When the food is ready, this remote will buzz. Afterwards, you simply need to go back to the counter and take your food."

Arnold nodded and followed him. They sat down at the corner of a rather long table. David, wanting to chat with Arnold during the waiting time, asked, "So, which high school did you come from, Troy?"

Arnold frowned and simply shook his head, "I did not attend high school." He replied in a slightly sullen tone.

David looked slightly suprised, "Ah! I apologize, I didn't know." He furrowed his brows, looking slightly guilty. He tried to encourage Arnold by saying, "Don't worry, you don't need too much prior education when attending the academy. Although there are many academic courses, you simply need to binge through all the textbooks and you're going to be fine. Besides, as a student who got in due to your martial prowess, the school will limit the amount of academic courses you're gonna take, and force you to take more practical courses in order to train you more."

Arnold seemed unfazed by David's comforting. Personally, he did not think there was anything wrong with not going with high school, as he needed to head to work and support his family. He had no other choice back then.

David seemed quite sensitive to Arnold's mood. After noticing that Arnold did not say anything, looking like he did not get offended at all, he finally gave a sigh of relief. "Well, you're actually quite lucky having Stephen as your roomate then. If you get him to teach you academics, you will definitely get a high mark by the end of the semester."

Arnold simply nodded. It was then that the remotes that David placed on the table in front of them started buzzing. Both of them stood up and headed back to the ramen stall to get their food. After they sat back down again, they both started eating. Arnold felt hungry after not having much food for the whole day, while David had exerted too much of his energy cleaning Stephen's clothes. Therefore, they were both starving.

Arnold was actually quite curious as to his own internal processes, as he seemed to be able to eat just fine, even though his whole body lacks blood.

"The spiritual energy basically acts the same as blood." Andy explained within Arnold's head. "The only difference is, since the stomach breaks down nutrients from food, while the blood transports these nutrients to the entire body, the waste ends up in the intestines and out through the rectum. However, with Master's spiritual energy, all excess waste will automatically be burned away by the spiritual energy. Therefore, there is no need for Master to go to excrete or urinate anymore."

Arnold nodded slightly. He still had not completely gotten used to this body after so long. Although having no need to eat, drink, or take the sh*t can become quite convenient, it simply made Arnold feel like he was not human anymore, giving him an alien and uncomfortable feeling. Of course, he did not show any of his feelings towards David, who was happily munching down the food in front of him.

*

After finishing dinner, David took Arnold through the courtyard and towards the B Building. The well-lit building actually had more floors than the others, as there were multiple floors below the ground as well as above. David first brought Arnold to the very bottom, where a large room resided. The room was reinforced with lead in all sides. In fact, the door itself was also made from lead. There was nothing within the room except for an air vent on the ceiling.

"This is the training room for upper year students and professors. As the room was reinforced from lead, it can prevent any penetrating gamma radiation from going through the walls. As you know, when your have become a high-level Qi Energy user, the power generated from your body will not only emit radiation, but also cause much damage to the surroundings. Therefore, this room was built for the sole purpose of such use." David explained diligently. He was quite fond of his role as a tour guide, and he liked to talk, so he happily introduced everything to Arnold without stopping.

After the training room, David and Arnold headed towards the upper basement floor. This floor had multiple smaller training rooms. The rooms were not reinforced with lead but with steel. "This is where most students trained. There are around 100 identical rooms located on B1 and ground floor. The rooms does not have any special equipment, so it could only be used for sparring and meditation.

They headed directly to the first floor, as B1 and ground floors are essentially the same. The first floor, however, seemed much different.

"This is the gravity chamber which you saw back in the dorm. However, the parameters within this chamber is much higher." David said when they walked by the first room by the stairs. The rest of the floor were filled with gravity chambers.

Afterwards, Arnold found that the upper floors were simply classrooms that looked identical to that of the A Building.

David gave Arnold a glance and said, "Are you wondering why this place seemed to be lacking in training facilities?"

Arnold gave a nod.

"Most of the training facilities such as shooting ranges, obstacle courses, target training are located right behind this building." As David narrated, they headed towards the window facing the opposite side of the other buildings. In front of them was a field filled with different things, such as shooting targets, barbed wires. There was also a barracks located on the side.

"You would need to go there tomorrow to train. As we are not allowed to go into the fields alone, I would not be able to bring you there. However, you get to experience it for yourself tomorrow anyways, so I don't think you'll miss out much." David gave a shrug and patted on Arnold's back. Then, he headed back towards the dorm with Arnold.

After arriving back in Arnold's room, they found Stephen seated on his chair, scribbling down notes on his notebook. He seemed to be completely focused and didn't even notice when the two other men came back.

David simply gave Stephen a glance before saying to Arnold, "All right that's it for today. You have free time for the rest of the night. Remember that curfew is at 10pm. Also, you must report back to the student center at 6:30am tomorrow, they are going to give you your class schedule on that day. All right, if you still have any more questions, just DM me on your wrist-chip."

David waved back at Arnold as the door closed between them.