The white Ferrari sliced through the sky over the Upper Zone with an elegance that Lohan, accustomed only to the jolts and deafening noise of the flying public buses, had never imagined possible.
From the privileged vantage point of the pressurized cabin, the world below him transformed into a prism of vibrant colors and pulsating life. Unlike the gray, monotonous view he had from the cracked windows of Sector 4’s transport, where industrial smoke obscured any horizon, here Lohan saw Eden-3 in its full glory.
Down below, the streets were not cracked asphalt paths covered in puddles of chemical sludge like in the Lower Zone; they were wide avenues, paved with materials that glistened in the sun, flanked by vertical gardens and trees whose leaves looked as if they had been cleaned by hand.
Lohan watched the flow of people; they walked with a lightness that clearly showed the absence of the burden of immediate survival. No one wore the heavy protective robes or HEPA-4 filter masks that were mandatory in the Lower Zone to prevent alveolar necrosis.
There, citizens wore fine, sophisticated fabrics, visiting designer boutiques and outdoor cafés, breathing air so "sweet" and saturated with life that Lohan felt his Digestive Filter working at a steady pace, absorbing nutrients from the simple ambient atmosphere.
Security in the area was impeccable.
Surveillance drones patrolled the air in perfect patterns, and checkpoints ensured that the "dirt" from the outlying sectors stayed far away.
Lohan was surprised at how similar it was to the normal shopping centers of the previous world he’d seen on TV and the internet; it was a functional civilization, a technological paradise he’d thought had been extinguished with the transmigration.
Wherever the Ferrari passed, the soft rumble of the fusion engine made people stop. They looked up with curiosity and a sense of awe, speculating about which corporate titan or heir to the twelve ruling families was piloting that engineering marvel.
"To be honest, Lisa... I always knew the Upper Zone was very different from the Lower Zone, but seeing it from this angle for the first time makes the Lower Zone seem like a completely different planet." Lohan murmured, his voice heavy with a surprise he couldn’t hide.
Isabella kept her eyes fixed on the road, but a glint of satisfaction flashed across her golden eyes. "That’s just the surface, Halon. Most people here live in a bubble of a false reality on that surface, content with the status quo they live in without caring one bit about the outside world."
The Ferrari finally turned its nose toward the heart of Sector 1-A.
Before them rose a luxurious 50-story apartment tower, a monolith of crystal and steel that seemed to be trying to touch the Atmospheric Dome itself.
The place was magnificent, with holographic lights projecting the name of the Skyline Heaven condominium among gravity-defying hanging gardens; Lohan felt an intense jolt.
As he looked at the structure, he began to seriously doubt that a penthouse in that location would cost "only" 20 million credits... in his estimation, the price should be at least double that.
Instead of heading to the ground floor, like a regular elevator, Isabella ascended vertically. As they approached the top, the car’s panel emitted a rhythmic, discreet audible warning.
[ALERT: NEURAL SECURITY INSPECTION INITIATED]
[VEHICLE SIGNATURE: VANCE - WHITELIST CONFIRMED]
[WELCOME BACK, MISS ISABELLA]
At the top of the tower, Lohan saw a thin layer of translucent, technological protection.
It was a high-frequency force field, almost invisible to the naked eye, but it rippled like water as the Ferrari approached. The shield opened into a perfect circular portal, allowing the car to pass through before sealing itself again with a crackle of energy.
Humanity was not technologically backward; quite the contrary, capable of conquering planets, the technological level was extremely high, but the benefits of this high technology were available only to the Upper Zone, while the people of the Lower Zone still lived centuries behind technologically.
Lohan looked back at the shield now protecting the house and saw the abysmal difference between the Lower Zone and the Upper Zone. He recalled how easily he had broken into Oscar’s penthouse, needing only a little Viscous Adhesion and brute force. If Oscar had a system like that, Lohan would have been fried by the defense sensors before he even touched the first windowpane.
The Ferrari landed gently in an open-air garage on the 50th floor, a spacious area lined with polished white marble and marked for six vehicles. Isabella’s car was the only one there, parked like a beautiful, solitary sculpture in the center of the private hangar.
As he stepped out of the car, Lohan was hit by a gust of air so pure that he almost coughed.
The heavy backpack on his shoulders felt even lighter in that nutrient-rich environment. At that moment, he felt that his digestion alone would be able to sustain him for days without eating anything!
He walked up to the glass railing and marveled at the view. From the top floor of the penthouse, he could see the entire expanse of Eden-3 beneath the clouds. There was an infinity pool that seemed to spill over into the sky, a leisure area with minimalist furniture, a high-tech barbecue, and several other entertainment rooms that Lisa began to show him with a calm demeanor, as if she had truly been the owner of that place for years.
Lohan turned his gaze to the empty garage.
He was a huge car enthusiast, a passion cultivated over years of watching documentaries in his hospital bed in the First World and constantly playing car video games.
Seeing that vast space with only a single Ferrari sparked in him a sudden urge to fill it with machines as powerful as possible. However, he quickly suppressed the thought with a calm smile... filling that garage was a goal for the future, something for when the $100,000 credit rent ceased to be a heavy burden and became mere pocket change.
"Come on, the lower level is where you’ll really be spending your time," Isabella said, gesturing toward a crystal staircase leading to the living area.
They went downstairs, and Lohan felt as if he were entering a sanctuary of design.
Isabella showed him the apartment’s living area, where every detail had been conceived by a famous interior designer she mentioned but whom Lohan had never heard of.
The kitchen was the highlight of the place, featuring a massive 12-person dining table made of ancient wood from some distant planet, surrounded by appliances that looked more like lab equipment than kitchenware.
The place didn’t seem overly ostentatious or cold as Lohan had imagined; the design managed to blend coziness and luxury side by side, with warm lighting and textures that brought a sense of calm and comfort.
After the full tour, which took nearly half an hour, they returned to the main room, which featured an entire glass wall facing the horizon.
Silence settled over the luxurious apartment, broken only by the almost inaudible hum that Lohan’s enhanced hearing picked up from the air purification system.
Lohan and Isabella stood facing each other.
Without Syn’s messaging interface, without Elysium’s Mental Link, and without the protection of their Slime and Fox avatars, the reality of being there, alone in an apartment, hit them both simultaneously.
Isabella fiddled with her red hair, her face taking on a blush that Lohan now easily recognized.
Lohan, for his part, adjusted his backpack, feeling strangely out of place in his black hoodie amidst all the fancy decor.
Both felt a little awkward, staring at each other without knowing what to do next.
The "blade and armor" camaraderie of Mythlorien was still there, but the social barrier and physical tension of the real world created a static electricity in the air that neither of them knew how to discharge.
Glancing at his own clothes, Lohan finally had an idea. "You know, I don’t think anyone’s going to believe I live here now if I walk around like this. How about you help me buy a few outfits? At least so I don’t stand out so much in this place?"
Upon hearing his comment, Isabella’s eyes sparkled with excitement, as if she’d just heard the most fun idea in the world.
If Lohan knew what he had just gotten himself into, he would instantly regret that suggestion, but now it was too late.