“Studies have shown that if we limit access to food out of limited free-access bio-printers, students – and humans to a certain degree – eat healthier because they try to save as much money as possible even if they are not likely to run out.”
-Chike Mahlangu, 2122, Paragon of Nutrition Speech
I couldn’t leave Makoto alone after that outburst, nor I had anything to do with my time. The tycoon’s progress was slow, and only about 4 hours had gone by since I disconnected, meaning I would need to make around 6 more before the rovers had gathered enough resources.
My notifications failed to give me alternatives, so I looked at Makoto, her visage hiding a shade of sadness.
“Is there something you want to do?” I asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“I dunno.” She responded absentmindedly.
“Come on, there’s something you might want to do, Makoto.” I shook her around slightly, friendlily.
“Hmm…” It took a handful of near-concussions to make her come with something. “Exercise?”
“Exercise.” I deadpanned. “Really?”
“Really.” Makoto nodded. The gesture was so exaggerated that when she recovered her default posture, her hair shifted to the front of her face, covering her expression completely. She thrashed around with her hair, fixing it like a grumpy yet cute cat whilst mumbling incoherently. “What I meant to say is that I haven’t exercised in a while. And I feel the changes of gravity are killing me.”
“Fair,” I grunted in affirmation. “The whole gravitational shift does take a toll on the body. And to be honest, I haven’t exercised myself either in a while.”
Makoto frowned at me. “Have you ever exercised?”
I slumped backward as if I had been hit. “Your words offend me! Of course, I have exercised myself.”
“Walking to workshops and classrooms isn’t exercising.” She refuted.
“There are other types of exercising.” I squinted my eyes.
“You are a pig.” Makoto jumped from the bench.
“Au contraire, mademoiselle.” I followed suit. “The pig is Mérida, and she keeps throwing mud at us in the shape of lewd innuendos and not-so-hidden gestures.”
“I can’t argue against that.” The short girl admitted with a sigh.
“Mérida would say quite the opposite,” I added.
“Oink oink,” Makoto said in the deadest tone possible, getting a giggle out of me in the way. “Let’s get going, I know where the gym is.”
Space stations – those made for human habitation, at least – were forced by law to have some sort of training installations. Yes, gravitation fields substituted normal planetary gravity, but there still was an inevitable muscle decay in space. Maybe not pronounced, but still present.
We kept a peaceful silence between us, we didn’t have much to tell each other, and the company was more than enough. I recognized that expression on Makoto’s face. She wasn’t thinking about anything, just purely focused on getting to her destination.
Unlike the shops and the gardens, the gym wasn’t on the central axis but one of the many rotating rings. We made our way to the zero gravity corridors, not without having a bit of fun with the short trek without being bound to the ground.
Makoto spun around with summersaults, by the time she had rotated 180 degrees, her feet already touched the ceiling, allowing her to jump downward and restart the cycle. I was a bit more boring, deciding to simply walk on the glass walls, jumping from frame to frame so I didn’t touch the glass. I knew that this glass was tougher than most materials out there, but my instincts told me to not even dare to touch it.
We got weird looks from a group of students, led by a human, which I supposed was just one of their friends who had already evolved. Unlike most humans, I recognized the person was a synthetic. The seams on the skin were unnoticeable, but it was a mixture of many other inputs that told me – my instincts – that I wasn’t dealing with a biological individual.
They gave us all the weird looks they wanted, but I easily noticed how they began playing themselves once they passed us by.
Our diversion came to a fast end and we positioned ourselves on the ground.
“Imagine if there weren’t arrows pointing to the floor. I would kill myself at some point.” Makoto mused.
“And that’s the exact reason why there are, in fact, arrows pointing to the ground,” I added with sarcasm. “Even then, I doubt you could kill yourself. It’s a slight incline.”
“I could trip over and break my neck.”
“At that point, the fault lies on your clumsiness, not the gravitational change.”
Makoto looked at me as if I just killed her cat, but instead of talking any further, she just harrumphed and continued walking. Somehow, that hurt even more. How do they have this innate ability to hurt me? I let that train of thought slide as we arrived at our destination.
The gym was, of course, a free-access installation. There wasn’t an entrance as such, just equipment lying around for everyone to use as they saw fit. We strode through the first row of machines, there were some people using them, mostly students, but that was to be expected as most of the current population of the station was composed of students waiting for their evolution. Well, they could be humans, but not many people decided to remain in such feeble bodies.
“Hmm,” I mumbled in realization as I looked at the people exercising. “Aren’t your clothes… not exactly suited for these activities?” I talked to Makoto.
The raven-haired girl whilst not having a bad apparel, it definitely wasn’t suited for a gym. She wore a small sleeveless shirt that would have exposed her midriff if it wasn’t for her large tan bell pants that reached far beyond her waist.
“Oh, right. You don’t know.” Makoto stated with minor confusion. “There’s a cloth lending service in the dressing rooms over there.” She pointed with her black-coated fingernails. “Mostly yoga pants and suits that ‘supposedly’,” she made air quotes with her fingers, “stimulate your muscles. Maybe you should get some too.”
I looked down at my own clothes and grabbed my tracksuit. I pondered it for a minute then thought about how my crotch would look with tight yoga pants. “Nah, I’m more than okay with this. I’ll wait for you here whilst you change, I want to undo my whole shape-shifting.”
“Alright, see you in a bit!” She gave me a wave and smiled before disappearing behind a sliding door.
I took a flask from my tracksuit’s jacket pockets and took a swig. Alcohol began burning my throat a second later. It was possible to revert shapeshifting without damaging the body, but I wasn’t at that level yet, even if it was way simpler than shapeshifting without damaging the body. Thankfully, the process was automatic. As Doctor Hermann had stated, it was my body that had originally made all the current changes. My body knew itself better than me, so there was no need whatsoever for my intervention.
However, that didn’t mean the process was fast. I was way bigger now, and even if the square-cube law wanted to state otherwise, I had a lot of skin to undo. And hair. I had also forgotten about the hair. I don’t know why the girls hadn’t commented about it.
My whole cutaneous system itched as I changed its pigmentation. Also my head, but changing hair color had surprisingly less feedback. Which was both positive and negative. I looked at myself in one of the gym’s glass walls, the reflection showing my default evolved body. A muted blond – with partial silver hints – hair and a beige healthy skin.
“Done admiring yourself?” Makoto whispered in my ear. I heard her coming and saw her in the reflection, so I wasn’t surprised.
“Hmm, I dunno~” I responded playfully and turned to face her.
Makoto Tanaka wasn’t an effeminate woman. She was androgynous, extremely so, but her looks slid more to the male side than the female one. Her hair was short, her round face resembling more of a child than a woman, and her build was rather rectangular. Even I had more curves than her. And certainly had a bigger chest size. Though no one cared about my man boobs, Mérida certainly loved that aspect of Makoto.
I wouldn’t say Mérida worshipped her, but she didn’t let the shorter girl feel lesser about her body.
With all of her shortcomings, there was an aspect of Makoto that without a doubt gave her an appeal. One could say that she min-maxed her genetics after looking at it.
“Good outfit,” I commented.
“Will you stop looking at my butt?” Makoto frowned at me, but she didn’t shift her posture, clearly delighting herself in the attention.
“It is a good butt,” I said, still looking at her glutes.
“I know that.” She giggled. “You two always make sure to remind me every moment you can.”
“I feel we don’t do that enough.” I scratched my chin. “Do you think it follows the golden ratio?”
“Lorem!” Makoto tsked in amusement. “Stop having lewd thoughts and let’s hit the machines.
“I am having empirical thoughts.” I countered. My sex drive was lower than the girls, way lower. “But sure, I gotta try this body.”
In the end, we ended up spending two hours in the gym, hitting a lot of the machines and going through multiple repetitions. Even though I had barely gone to the gym before – the only one in our class who did was Mérida as she was obsessed with keeping her body in shape, a thing Makoto and I appreciated – my body had no problems following through the routine the gym AI dictated.
My muscle mass was barely on par with an amateur sportsman. An amateur sportsman of 2 meters and weighing more than 100 kilos. I trained every part of my body, mostly to limit testing myself. Everything was superb. Grip strength, biceps, quadriceps, back… This was the power of a biological human, being to be in top shape without needing to practice.
Yet the best part was that you could practice. Practice would still get you further, and I knew that there were some real monsters out there. Pre-evolution and immortality, humans already managed to deadlift 500 kilograms. Sure, they were top-notch strongmen by that age’s standard, but I was able to do 200 kilos with no practice and without sweating that much. Though Makoto would like to state otherwise.
With practice and correct shapeshifting, even deadlifting a damned ton didn’t seem impossible. Ten times my current body weight. Impossible for pre-evolved humans. More than feasible for my evolved self.
Not that I needed to be able to lift tons, but the sheer idea of doing so motivated me.
Whilst I had great dreams, especially for my arms, Makoto focused on her legwork.
…For obvious reasons.
I waited for her outside the gym as she showered. She tried teasing me by coercing me to shower with her, but I denied it. Showers may be unisex, but what would happen inside of them needed to be kept legal. And besides, my body didn’t require showers. I could sweat at will, but sweating was a cooling mechanism and I didn’t heat myself up enough to even need to be refreshed. If I showered, is because I like there running scolding water thrashing my skin.
Advantages of being evolved: big muscles, big extremities, shapeshifting, no ass hair, and no sweating.
Honestly, I don’t know how people could choose other types of ascension.
I knew in advance when Makoto approached me. She donned her previous outfit, only now that her hair was wet.
“Damn, I’ve never exercised myself this much in my life.” Her cheeks were red still from the endeavor.
“If only it had been that easy before, I would have gone more to the gym,” I commented, trying to not fix my eyes too much on her. “Who would have thought that 30 centimeters and 50 kilograms made lifting weights easier?”
“Hmm, I don’t know~” She hummed melodiously with a finger on her lips. “Maybe everyone? You dipshit.”
“Makoto!” I choked myself with my spit. The raw contrast between tone and words made my brain reboot.
“Hehe!” The woman placed her arms behind her neck in a clasp and walked away from the gym. “I also can curse.”
“No one ever put that in doubt.” I sighed. “What are you going to do now?”
“Eh, maybe have lunch?” From the movement of her irises, I knew she had looked at the clock on her interface. “What do you say?”
“I think the actual question is, Lorem could you pay for all my expenses?” I replied in a poor imitation of her voice.
“Well?” Makoto shrugged. “And what’s the answer? Sugar daddy?” She added with a low growl.
I scoffed in defeat. “Lead the way, woman.”
“Yey!” She hopped on the spot and fist-bumped the air. “Don’t worry, I’m not Mérida. I just have a craving for fast food.”
“You just came out of the gym.”
“Especially because I just came out of the gym. I gotta recover all those burnt calories.”
“Can’t go against that logic,” I mumbled and followed her.
I hadn’t burned much body weight myself. It was a bit scary that I could tell that with my enhanced proprioception, but I think the reason why I hadn’t used much energy after such intense training was because biological humans had more compact, or at least more efficient, lipids to store all that sweet glucose and other nutrients.
With a few changes of gravity and a short walk, we made our way to an establishment on the central axis of the Terra Nova Enclave. Though calling it an establishment was a bit of an overstatement.
“One cheeseburger, large fries, coke, nuggets, and a sundae,” Makoto ordered to the machine. “How ‘bout you?”
“Large cheese fries with bacon and a chicken burger, with coke,” I added.
The screen flashed and showed a popup to accept a transaction petition on the monitor. I clicked on the monitor and the petition appeared on my interface. That’s why I didn’t like eating out. Sure, it was only like 50 computes for both of us, but I would have had this free at home, or my quarter’s printer.
“Don’t put that face, it couldn’t be more than 60 computes,” Makoto said after we sat down at a nearby table.
“58 computes.” I specified.
“See?” She pointed at me with her extended palms. “Why are you sulking over 58 computes when you spent tens of thousands just yesterday?”
“Perhaps because I spent tens of thousands of computes yesterday?” I countered.
“Nah, I know that’s not the case.”
“Okay fair, you got me.” I raised my hands. “I just don’t like paying for things when I could have them for free.”
The food arrived, carried by a robot waitress. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an advanced model, so we were forced to grab the food from the tray.
“Aren’t you a millionaire?” Makoto asked once she started eating her fries.
“Future millionaire, but yes.” I took a sip of my cola. It tasted like pure diabetes. I took another sip.
“A tycoon with a tycoon, yet the man is unable to buy a hamburger.”
“I did buy yours,” I added between bites of fries. The cheese oozed from them.
“Well, buy more then! You shouldn’t even doubt!” Makoto slammed the table. “Fuck it! Why are talking about burgers? You could be buying a thousand durums right now!”
“I can’t deny I find the idea enticing.” I sighed. “But how am I going to eat a thousand durums, Makoto?”
“Who said anything about you?” She pointed at me with a fry, her cheeks bursting like a squirrel, filled with chicken nuggets. “Actually, throw a kebab or two on the mix to add a little spice.”
“I prefer to spend my well-earned fortune in something more productive than durums that will go bad.”
“A durum never goes bad.” I frowned at her. “Okay, okay. Enough durums. What’s your idea of productivity?”
“I dunno. A house?”
“A house.” The raven-haired girl/squirrel cosplayer deadpanned. “Why do you even want one?”
“Why do you want 1000 durums and 2 kebabs?” I counterattacked.
“Fair.” She groaned. “But where? A space habitat? Proxima? I must tell you a tidally locked planet doesn’t make for a prime housing spot.”
“I’ve heard that the rim of day and night gives incredible vistas.” Housing was a weird subject as every human and student was entitled to a ceiling. We always had a room no matter what, but I wanted something more. “Imagine, eternal twilight.”
“Okay. That’s sound actually amazing.” Makoto nodded in agreement. “Too romantic for my liking, but cool nonetheless. But I doubt you are just going to buy a bungalow, are you?”
“How about a mansion?” I commented.
“A mansion on the day rim of Proxima b?” She giggled. “What are you going to make? A pleasure palace like Attila?”
“I think making a pleasure palace requires knowing of people to populate it.”
“Ah yes, our only weakness. Socializing.” Makoto slumped on the table like a blob of meat that had had all its bones spontaneously removed. Figures.
“You know, that sundae is gonna be a milkshake by the time you finish?” I pointed at the ice cream glass.
“Nooooo…” She wailed in lazy despair. And then grabbed a fry. “Nom nom nom.”
I couldn’t help myself but snicker at the view. If I was the brain of the group – a statement that Mérida would argue against – Makoto was the soul. Or is it the heart? I’m too bad at expressions to remember them.
“You have anything to do later?” I asked her now that she had recomposed herself.
“A thing or two,” That’s to say, nothing at all, then, “why?”
“Nothing, nothing.” I dismissed. Which only got more of her attention, prompting a pout out of her. “I’ve just gotten a notification and you may want to come with me after this.”
“Where?” She asked with a hint of interest.
“Somewhere you know.” I smiled at her.
On other occasions, I would have never told her about it. Especially if Mérida was present. But considering her previous outburst, I preferred if she wasn’t alone if possible. And for better or worse, I was the only one she had right now.
Makoto frowned at my statement. “You’ve piqued my interest. Do tell.”
I dedicated her a wry smile, partially regretting my decision. “Gloria’s Extravaganza.”
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