Hasty Preparations

Alesha felt lucky that it was already so late. It was 21:46, which meant that her siblings were both preparing for bed, while her parents were relaxing together on the couch, cuddling up and watching a movie. For some reason, immersive consciousness-transferral movies had never grown very popular. Perhaps it was because you had control over games but not movies, Alesha surmised. Or maybe it was because they were so much more expensive. Whatever the case, Mark and Jessica were now cozily staring at the moving pictures on their large, high-quality display TV--which , as an aside, nobody even remembered what the letters stood for anymore. "TV" just referred to a large screen for viewing 2D videos. 

Quietly, she snuck past them and out the door. It was important that they stay ignorant of the fact that she left the apartment, because (being a bit of a homebody) Alesha had never spent the night out by herself before. To do so on her very first night back would make them unnecessarily worried and curious, neither of which Alesha had the desire to deal with right now. She didn't have the time to come up with a good lie.

[17:58, 17:57]

It had taken her longer to get out of the apartment than she had hoped. With her easily distractible brain, Alesha had needed to go over her plan a couple more times while she made it look like she had gone to bed early. She had also stopped by the restroom and given her sister a good-night hug to strengthen the illusion that she'd gone to bed.

Alesha walked up to the elevator shaft and pressed a button to call the cabin. The elevator shaft was a column of hard crystal, semi-transparent and incredibly durable, with the classic up- and down-arrow buttons beside it on the wall. A moment later, a soft ding sounded and the crystal column split, revealing a medium-sized room with handrails inside. An elderly man in a military uniform waited inside, a sour expression on his face. "Well come on, come on, get in, I don't have all day," his annoying voice grouched.

Alesha complied. 

[17:10, 17:09, 17:08]

The old man didn't get off until the 20th floor, a parking garage floor. He left without another word. 

[16:43, 16:42, 16:41]

The countdown was starting to make Alesha anxious. It hung off to the side of her vision, like the kind of Heads-Up Display (HUD) you'd find in a game, but it was big enough that it kept catching her attention. Biting at her lip, Alesha disembarked the elevator and, without looking back, hurried out into the lobby of the Apartment Building. The bottom floor served as the building's management floor and was built to cater to potential tenants. Everything was decorated in a high-end technological style, sleek and efficient, with oddly shaped furniture made comfortable with Hi-Comfort Gel. Holographic displays advertised the many amenities offered at "Lightscale Apartments," and there was even a row of Gaming Chairs set up for potential tenants to take virtual tours of the various apartment layouts. Alesha walked briskly past all this, paying it no mind. She didn't have time to get distracted by shiny things tonight.

[16;01, 16:00, 15:59]

Out the back door and into the shared lot of the apartment complex she went. Her building was only one of seventeen in this particular complex, so the lot was quite large. Luckily for her, this also meant that there was a "Lightscale Apartments"-exclusive shopping mall roughly in the center of the lot, between all the buildings. After all, seventeen 70-floor apartment buildings housed an enormous quantity of people. All of whom needed consumables.

It took Alesha longer than she would have liked to reach the store she was looking for, "Mrs. Green's Groceries." It sounds like a cute little local store, right? Well, it wasn't. "Mrs. Green's Groceries" was actually a huge chain store with several hundred locations across dozens of the Alliance's solar systems, rumor had it that the previous Alliance President's daughter was the one who invested in the company, and that's why it was so successful. 

Regardless of the source of its success, "Mrs. Green's Groceries" would definitely have what she needed. It better, or else Alesha would be screwed.

[5:40, 5:39, 5:38]

Alesha hustled inside, weaving expertly between shoppers, doing her best to avoid touching anyone as she made her way towards the meat section of the store. She was running out of time! If she wasn't lucky, the timer might even drop to 0:00 before she left the store. 

[5:09, 5:08, 5:07]

It all depended on timing. When she arrived at the checkout line, how much time would she have left? Would there be a line? By now it would be almost 22:00, two hours before closing time. There weren't too many people here right now but it wasn't empty either.

[5:02, 5:01, 5:00]

Right as the countdown hit the 5-minute mark, Alesha felt a twinge of hunger in her stomach. It wasn't strong, but it was instantly noticeable. And, having just arrived in the meat section, Alesha found herself staring at the wall of red meat in awe. Has meat always looked this delicious? She knew, logically, that she had found meat to look delicious before, even raw. I mean, who could resist a good-looking slab of steak, marbled with just the right amount of fat? But clearly something had changed. Before, she would picture what the meat would look like after being seasoned and cooked to perfection. Now, each piece of meat already looked perfect just as it was. 

Shaking herself, Alesha felt concerned. The penalty hadn't even technically started yet, and she was already this enthralled by the sight of raw meat? The System hadn't been exaggerating at all.

Alesha grabbed an antigravity cart cube from a bucket on the wall and pointed it at several particularly juicy-looking packages of meat in turn, pressing a button on its side each time as she did. A beam of light skewered each of the seven chosen meats without breaking their packaging. Then, the beams of light towed each of them in as if on a speedy conveyor belt, then stacked them up on top of one another to hover close to the antigravity cart cube in her hand. The shoppers nearby were using these devices as well.

[4:12, 4:11, 4:10]

Alesha hurried through the store, making sure her pile of meat didn't run into anyone. She didn't want to give anyone else an excuse to look twice at her meat. It was hers and she was taking it with her no matter what. Her stomach growled in agreement, its hunger slowly mounting.

[3:59, 3:58, 3:57]

Alesha got to the checkout line, which she noticed with relief only had one person in it. It was a woman holding a plump-looking baby, its cheeks flushed as it wiggled, making unhappy faces and little grunts of displeasure. The mother only had a few items and they were in the self-checkout lane anyways, so hopefully this wouldn't take long.

[3:45, 3:44, 3:43]

She bounced up and down on her toes, anxious. "Come on, come on, people, I've got to get out of here!" she thought, inwardly examining her ever-increasing hunger. She still wasn't super hungry but just glancing at the stack of meat she was about to buy was enough to make her salivate in anticipation. The strangeness of that was far from her thoughts, though, since right now, making sure she got the quest penalty out of the way without weirding anyone out and without hurting anyone came first. Not that she actually believed that she would hurt anyone. She had simply read far too many werewolf and vampire novels to come anywhere close to risking it.

[2:01, 2:00, 1:59]

She had successfully purchased her meat, and was now hustling out the mall's doors. Thank goodness that had gone quickly. Now, where should she go to eat all this? Her mouth was wet with anticipation, her stomach growling as it began to insist in earnest that it needed food, and quickly.