Level 0. Augmented reality
The spring pulled the bed, and it pressed into the floor. Now I was lying on the smooth plane of an empty room two by two meters. If I were a little taller, I would have to bend down. But I’m already rich – I have my own room! Some huddle in the same ones, but for three or four people. The walls are painted white. It smelled like sterilizers – it looked like the cleaning robot had gotten the job done while I was sleeping.
The female voice of the robot secretary rang out:
– Ilya, it’s time to get up!
It’s immediately obvious that it’s a car, and a non-Russian one at that! She has no soul at all. It would be nice to just wake me up! And then she threw me off the bed, and even took away the blanket! Bastard!
– Ilya, get up! I see you’re still lying there.
– Yes, I get up, I get up. I’ll sleep with you! Not only did you throw it on the floor, but you also bark in your ear!
– Ilya, get up.
And so every morning! Until I get up, it won’t come off. I watched the videos of my ancestors – they called them «cinema». So, they slept sweetly on a normal bed, which never disappeared, and they were woken up by the quiet squeak of some mechanism, I don’t remember what it was called, either a tinker or a muddy… In general, I don’t remember. Let Svetka, my robot secretary, learn how to behave in a cultured society!
– It’s time to pump up your abs – what a machine! I wonder if all women are this annoying? Like a robot fly, not a secretary!
– Come with your abs! Every morning it’s the same!
– Excess weight is twenty-five point three hundred and four thousandths of a kilogram. You yourself asked to remind me about morning exercises.
Nothing to do. Fate bent me, then again, and again… We are all in the hands of Fate, and we only trust in it! In fact, we are all not spoiled by movement, so we get fat. My father was slender, but he was also a Guardian. And Lyubka actually looks like a pig. And it’s not very pleasant to look at yourself in the mirror. We also need to add push-ups to Svetka’s program. Maybe I’ll pump up a muscle? What’s the point though? The turn for mating will not come soon. Bent over twenty times.
– Enough?
– Would you like to take a shower? – Sveta asked instead of answering.
– Yeah, it’s just like this in the morning!
The white walls have been transformed, now showing a waterfall in motion. Jets of warm water and soapy water hit me from above. I closed my eyes – last time I left them open, it stung for several days. The robot was rubbing his back. They are now everywhere you look. And how did you live before, even before robotization? Although people somehow managed to use digging sticks, they somehow survived!
After a while, the water stopped flowing over the clean body. Now Sveta turned on the warm air flow. The image has changed. Now I was standing on the ocean shore, under the bright scorching sun. Romance! Ten seconds – and I’m dry. Got dressed.
– Will you have breakfast? – the voice of my secretary.
– Let’s. I want mashed potatoes and chicken Kiev.
– This is not in our database.
It would still be! In one of the films I saw that they were eating this very puree – the little one was dying so much, it was already cracking behind the ears! Probably tastier than our mixture number six! And my late grandfather told me about chicken Kiev. Although, he told me a lot of things – he was good with inventions. He says that in his youth people walked down the street boldly, that at that time there were still places in the cities free from buildings. People went to work somewhere – why, if you can work without leaving home? And he also said that in order to start a family and have children, you didn’t have to get a quota! Here’s another inventor! Where have you seen this – a free family, without a waiting list for mating! I feel sorry for grandpa. Although he was a rare liar, I loved him. And it was interesting to hear about free times. «Computers have taken over everything!» – he liked to say, but where would we be without them – he didn’t think about that? Previously, the grass was greener, and young people treated old people with respect. Not like now.
He talked about free families. But he had to sign an agreement on voluntary euthanasia in order for my parents to be given permission to have another child. I hate my sister! Because of her, the doctors killed grandfather Sanya!
– One injection and that’s it! It’s like being bitten by a mosquito and then falling asleep! – that’s what my mother told me. I forgave her a long time ago, but I can’t forgive Lyubka! My mother said that before I was born, my grandmother had to sacrifice her life. In our world, a new life is only in place of someone else’s, every schoolchild knows this – there is too little space. We were all born this way.
– So what to serve? – asked the persistent Svetka.
– Mixture number 17! And strawberry flavored syrup.
– Fine!
A metal parallelepiped of the table grew from below. I sat down on a chair that appeared in the same way. The robots brought me a yellowish pulp on a tray. It looks ugly, but how delicious! And healthy – a mixture of all the necessary vitamins and minerals! I remember my father bringing an apple once. He was a Guardian, they were given the best. We divided the fruit among three. I still water when I remember that day. And then there was a coup, and everyone close to the president was killed. The state was headed by the Emperor, and Uncle Igor replaced my father.
