Chapter 44: The Muscle

Ding!

Arron was woken up by his NerViz notifying him of an incoming holocall.

With groggy eyes he fumbled with his wrist datapad and accepted the call.

“You're still asleep? Are you really going to sleep all the way through our rare day off?” asked Kix.

“Wasn't planning to, it just happened. Is there something you need?” asked Arron.

As he sat up in his bed his arms stretched out and he let out a long yawn.

“All the guys in ERF 3 have agreed to go to 'The Muscle' after breakfast. Are you up to coming with us.”

“Is that the gym you were talking about the other day?'” asked Arron as he threw off his bed covers and exited his bedroom heading towards the bathroom.

“Yeah, so can we count on you coming?” asked Kix.

“What about the exercise rooms at M1?”

“That's for the training of new recruits. Plus that equipment is not as good as the stuff in the gym we’re going to.”

“Let me clean up and eat. Then I'll join you.”

***

Half an hour later Arron and Kix arrived at their destination carrying small bags with a change of clothes.

'The Muscle' was a 300 story plain looking building. The walls of the building were mostly covered with ads for a new movie.

“In a world, where a world does not exist. One man, and one non-existing world, must travel long distances and fight the powerful enemy Sir Snowfake. Will 'The Man' be able to knock some sense into Sir Snowfake's large head or will his brain made from stone, crumble? We seriously have no idea. So join us at the movie premier where we can all figure out what the hell is going on.”

Seeing Arron's confused expression Kix explained, “This movie is actually highly anticipated by almost everyone. I heard that they already planned out 20 sequels. If they make a bit of money from them they said they will work on prequels.”

Arron shook his head. He couldn't understand the movie taste of the people living in Neo-Tokeyo.

“Which floor are the others on?” asked Arron.

“69,” said Kix as he entered the entrance of the tall building.

A holographic sign popped up in front of Arron's face as soon as he entered the building.

[Floor 1-200 weights and exercise. 201-300 boxing]

The building's entrance had three sets of well worn stairs all going up.

They took the first set of stairs on the right and began heading up to the 69th floor along with a few hundred other people who were all carrying gym bags with them.

When they reached floor 69 they entered through the open parrasteel doors next to the stairs.

The entirety of floor 69 was wide open. It was full of several sets of different types of weights and exercise machines.

A new upbeat metal song was playing in the background giving the place a pumped atmosphere. Arron thought he had heard something similar from one of the popular robotic bands but was not sure.

A service bot floated up to the two before they could take another step forward, “Hello citizens, are you members of 'The Muscle'?”

Kix held out his right hand and the service bot scanned his cloud chip. “Membership confirmed.”

Arron shook his head when the service bot turned to him. “I don't have a membership, how do I sign up?”

“Simple. You need to have an SCS of C or higher and pay 1000 credits for the filing and registration fee,” said the service bot as he floated closer to Arron.

“1000 just to register? That's a rip-off!” said Arron.

“My processing power is limited, so my time is at a premium due to all the tasks I must do daily. Well, that's what my owner programmed me to say.”

“It's only the upfront cost. The price to use the gym is sorta cheap,” said Kix.

Arron allowed the service bot to scan his cloud chip and charge him 1000 credits.

“How long do you plan on staying?” asked the service bot.

“5 hours,” said Kix.

“That will be 50 credits.” The service bot quickly charged both Arron and Kix's bank accounts.

“Enjoy your stay,” said the service bot as it floated away.

“The others are at 23rd set,” said Kix as he pointed to a spot near the outer wall on the center-right.

As they walked to the 23rd set Arron saw hundreds of other people all sweating and working out.

Several of them had mechanical implants that had replaced their arms or legs. Seeing them here puzzled Arron since they had no muscle to strengthen or train.

The 23rd set had the same equipment as the other sets, the only difference was it was separated from being surrounded by other groups.

On the wall a large holo tv with its screen split in half playing two things at once. On the left, it was quietly playing KNN and on the right, it was showing off the highlights from recent robotic sports games.

Arron stopped for a second to watch the sports highlights.

A large menacing humanoid robot painted in blue ran down the grassy field. The grassy field was ringed with a stadium full of holographic AI people who were cheering loudly.

The blue robot was carrying a metal football in its arms. When a smaller red robot tried to tackle the blue robot it was run over and turned into mangled metal. This continued to happen as it ran down the green field. The red team was unable to stop him.

“The 'Crusher' does it again! Clearing all obstacles in its way to score!” shouted an excited sports commentator.

“I'm sure that the team owner is externally pleased with the money spent on this new model,” said a calm, almost bored sounding voice that was his co-host.

Losing interest in the replays Arron turned to the other members of ERF3 and nodded to them.

“It's good to see everyone outside of work,” said Ward.

“The last few weeks have been hectic. We rarely get any time off, so it's best to use what we do get to blow off some steam,” said Kix. He tossed his bag onto the ground near the other bags that were already laying there.

“Right, plus the chief highly recommends that we go to the gym and keep fit so we don't die while on the job,” said Captain Pointer.

When Arron voiced his confusion on the people with Implants coming to the gym Bishop answered him.

“It's because they are trying to get accustomed to their new limbs to test out their new limits. It's not like they're going to be a master at using the implants as soon as they get them,” said Bishop.

“Look at these muscles,” said Knox, showing off his rippling muscles in his tight tank top as well as the many scars that he had received while on the job.

“We need to always be in top shape to get 100% of the power out of our Exoskeletons,” said Ward showing off his muscles.

The two were like extreme bodybuilders and were definitely the strongest in the entire group.

“Kix you need to beef up if you want to be like us,” said Knox, slapping Kix on the back letting out a loud laugh.

“I'm not trying to be like you meatheads,” said Kix.

Arron got started mindlessly lifting weights along with the others and as he did so he watched the news to catch up with current events.

“Breaking news! The savage country RSSR has finally been Normalized and will begin the process of becoming a member state of the WHO,” said Kommy.

“This is great news! Let's hope that the situations in the many other savage countries are also Normalized so that they can also join the WHO,” said Fela.

Arron did not know how many savage countries there were, nor did he know what the outside world looked like since such information was only for the WHO and Mother and Father.

Since they were the experts on the subject he believed whatever they said.