Chapter 3:

SOMETHING THAT I LOVE PART - 2

31st Century Teens

“Students transfer your club application data one by one.” Mr. Watson instructed. His voice was smooth and calming. He stopped by each of our desks, helping us with our applications.

Mr. Watson was quite the heartthrob among the girls. With his red hair, sharp green eyes, and that ever-gentle smile, he had a charm that could make anyone's day. The only problem was that he was not a human. He was an Artificial Intelligent Robot (AIR), created by our school. It was not unusual for organizations to create such AIRs for their use. After all, AIRs were easy to control and didn’t need a salary. If they could, these organizations would gladly replace human workers with AIRs. But in 2927 AD, a new law was passed stating that at least eighty percent of jobs in any organization had to be reserved for humans.

He approached an orange-haired girl named Remi and paused in front of her. Remi took out a small chip and handed it to him. Mr. Watson scanned the chip with his eye lens, extracting the data in seconds.

"Art and craft, huh? Logical enough." Mr. Watson remarked.

Remi blushed. "Y-yes," she stammered.

He moved on to other students.

Takame handed over his chip and announced loudly, "Robotics Club, sir!"

"Highly logical," Mr. Watson replied.

"Science Club," Ken said next.

"Highly logical," Mr. Watson repeated.

"Literature Club," Mirai added.

"Logical enough," Mr. Watson nodded.

Next he went to Meiroko, who seemed to be in her own world.

"Meiroko, give me the chip," Mr. Watson said.

Meiroko stared blankly, saying nothing, her mind clearly elsewhere. It was typical Meiroko.

"Meiroko. Give me your club application chip," Mr. Watson repeated.

After a few moments of silence, she finally spoke in a flat tone, "No... chip."

"Then what about your club?" Mr. Watson asked.

"No... club," Meiroko mumbled, scratching her messy white hair.

"....." Mr. Watson stared, then moved on.

Finally, he came to me and analyzed my application data chip. Suddenly, his voice changed as he shouted, "Illogical! Illogical!"

Mr. Watson (shocked): “You want to start a cooking club?”

At his words, everyone in the class turned to stare at me as if I were some kind of foreign entity. It pissed me off. Why did this AIR have to be so dramatic? I hated when these metal scraps acted like they had emotions which they clearly didn’t possess in the first place.

But I could clearly understand why he and everyone else would be shocked at my words.

Long time ago, the natural ecosystem of our planet was destroyed. It was inevitable considering the depletion of trees and extinction of animals. So there was a phase where shortage of food was a huge issue. Many people died because of hunger, many murdered one another for a loaf of bread. In fact food was one of the major factors which led to 4th world war in the 25th century.

But everything changed when humanity found a way to create microbes artificially in the lab. The possibilities were endless. We succeeded to create artificial proteins. Later, scientists developed methods to mimic photosynthesis, where light and CO₂ could be artificially produced and could now be used to create carbohydrates and fats. Through molecular gastronomy, they figured out a way to develop numerous flavors as they wished. With 3D food printing, combinations of artificial nutrients, flavors, and binders could now be printed layer by layer to create various food textures and shapes. These synthetic ingredients then were arranged to replicate the appearance and taste of traditional foods. It was now possible to mimic the bite of meat, the creaminess of dairy, or the crunchiness of vegetables without the original ingredients.

But around the 29th century a debate regarding food started to occur. Did we need to eat something which looked like a traditional food? Was there any reason for us to make food which looked exactly like some meat, egg or veggies? The answer was pretty clear. We didn’t. So we created new food items, like protein pods, fat burgers, and carbohydrate bars which smelled, tasted and felt like food while eating. But they didn’t look like those traditional foods from earlier era. They glowed and looked like shiny gems.

And now, after the discovery of taste-sims, even those were considered old fashioned and rarely found in the market. Now food to us was just some tasteless nutritional capsules which tasted like food if we used taste-sims while consuming them.

As a result, there were rarely any high schools with cooking clubs anymore. That only meant one thing. I needed to start one.

Ever since I was little, my grandpa had often told me stories about how good traditional food used to be. He even tried recreating those dishes with the limited resources available to him. Looking back, I won’t say they were perfect. They often tasted awful and had plenty of flaws. But they were a lot of fun. What fascinated me the most was how my grandpa poured his time, energy, and focus into something so small and uncertain. He didn’t know if his efforts would result in anything edible, but he still gave it his all.

That experience stayed with me, and I wanted to bring that spirit back. I wanted to create a place where I could experiment, fail, and succeed at cooking. I wanted others to appreciate what it was like to experience food from the earlier era, and all the passion and creativity that went into it. That’s why I decided to start a cooking club.

“Yes, sir. I want to start a cooking club,” I replied confidently.

Some of my classmates chuckled, while others didn’t even try to hide their laughter. Mirai stared at me as if silently asking, "Are you stupid?" And Meiroko was just... Meiroko, lost in her own world as usual.

Mr. Watson shook his head. “Fine. Even though it’s completely illogical, I’ll give you a chance. But remember, you have only one week. If you fail to form your cooking club by then, you’ll be forced to join another club. Got that, Garp?”

I nodded and asked, “So, how do I form a club?”

Mr. Watson: “It’s not that hard. Find two more members besides yourself and a club adviser. Logical enough, right?” He smirked.

“Illogical! Illogical! Um, I mean hard! This isn’t easy at all!” I protested.

“Well, rules are rules. Good luck forming your club.”

CHAPTER 3 END

SOMETHING EXTRA BEFORE THE NEXT CHAPTER

Additional Character Information on GARP

Age – 17

Birthday – 12/12/3043

Height – 185 cm

Weight – 87 kg

Additional Character Information on MIRAI