Faulty Utopia

Hearing the girl's words, Sun Jack was at a loss for words, not knowing what to say.

Stunned for a few seconds, Sun Jack patted her shoulder consolingly and said, "It's okay, we'll definitely find jobs. Don't get discouraged. Let's keep going."

AA sniffled, wiped her tears with her sleeve, and stood up again. "Thank you, you're a good person. From what you said this morning, I knew you were different from the others."

"Heh, there aren't any jobs suitable for good people in this damn place," Sun Jack said self-deprecatingly.

Perhaps feeling a shared misery, AA warmed up to Sun Jack quite a bit and even enthusiastically started helping him.

"You haven't found a job either, have you? Go check inside, they're still hiring men, and they haven't filled all the positions yet. You're definitely stronger than me, you can surely get hired. Keep it up!"

After saying this, AA pulled herself together and walked toward the nearby subway entrance,

Watching her disappearing figure, Sun Jack turned around blankly and looked toward Club 69 behind him.

"Huh?"

Just then, a Taipai came over with a sleazy grin and said, "What? Want to give it a try? How's your 'performance'? Can you swing it?"

"Try my great uncle! Go home!!" Sun Jack immediately jumped onto his back.

After getting home, Sun Jack took a hot shower and, wearing his pajamas, stood in front of the window, looking out at Neon City in the rain.

At that moment, everything had quieted down, but Sun Jack's heart had not.

"Taipai, do you think I was wrong before? Maybe people like Song 6PUS don't avoid stable jobs, but because they simply can't find any normal jobs?"

Reflecting on the day's experiences, Sun Jack seemed to have glimpsed a corner of the iceberg beneath the dazzling neon lights of the city. Perhaps no one wanted to go crazy; they were all forced into it.

"Do I really have to become like them to survive?"

"Get lost, you selected Guard Mode, not Big Sister Mode. I don't have to chit-chat with you."

Sun Jack no longer had the strength to argue with the Taipai robot because he was hungry. He hadn't eaten anything since he fell from the sky a day and a night ago.

Sun Jack, with his last bit of hope, opened the refrigerator and looked through each shelf, trying to find something edible in the fridge that was even cleaner than his pockets, but in the end, he found nothing except for a piece of ice he could knock out from the freezer section to chew on.

"Sir, are you short on money? Consider a no-interest loan!"

"Huh?" said Sun Jack, chewing on ice, "Taipai, did you call me?"

However, the Taipai robot, charging on the wall, did not respond to him.

As he followed the voice, he realized it was only an advertisement on the apartment's 3D TV.

"Damn, this big data stuff makes it really feel like there's no privacy," Sun Jack walked over, chewing on ice and watching the advertisement.

To this, Sun Jack wasn't surprised at all. Even in his time, the moment he thought of buying something, those shopping apps immediately offered him a range of choices at different prices, as if they could read his mind. Current technology was only getting more outrageous.

"It's an easy guess. Just calculate the number of times and frequency of your resume submissions today, and it can be deduced that you're a jobless poor B, so poor you're almost wearing your wallet as pants."

Sun Jack looked at Tapai with disgust, "Can you die from not talking? Don't you not have any obligation to chat with me?"

"Proper jesting, idle talk, and insulting the user can ensure the user's physical and mental health in various high-pressure environments, greatly reducing the occurrence of various mental illnesses. Taipai robot, you deserve to own it t(>_<)t"

"Stop fucking advertising! I'm listening to ads here, and you still want to insert more ads! I'm very hungry right now, okay! Stop bothering me!"

After getting Tapai to shut up, Sun Jack started to learn about this so-called interest-free loan, but he soon became disappointed. Always be skeptical of free stuff in ads; the so-called interest-free loan required collateral, including assets like prosthetic body and RV and various organs one had on them.

Having gone through the day's events, Sun Jack didn't even want to think about what the world would do to reclaim the collateral if someone defaulted on their loan.

"Damn, that's really dark." As Sun Jack waved his hand, the holographic image immediately switched channels, but the next one was an advertisement too.

"Sir, are you short on cash? How about visiting a human experiment lab? As long as your flesh-to-metal ratio is >20%, you can participate in our company's drug trials, prosthetic body installation, and all sorts of safety experiments, each time with a generous reward! The highest reward being 15@!!"

Sun Jack scratched his head while looking at these ads, "Why do I feel like these ads are tailor-made for me? Does this damn TV really not have a smart AI?"

"Should I... try it?" The thought flashed through Sun Jack's mind but was quickly dismissed by him.

"No way, I'm not at the end of my rope yet. If I borrow this sort of thing, how am I any different from those online loan sharks?" Sun Jack quickly turned off the projector TV and went to the faucet to gulp down water.

"Your Water Card balance is insufficient, please recharge as soon as possible." A message floated in front of Sun Jack's eyes.

"Damn it, now I can't even afford water." Sun Jack wiped his mouth with his sleeve and decided to just go to sleep.

At least he wouldn't feel hungry if he fell asleep, he could worry about everything else tomorrow.

But falling asleep hungry isn't easy, and after tossing and turning for who knows how long, Sun Jack finally dozed off groggily.

"Son, son, wake up, wake up, the Spring Festival Gala is about to start, and the dumplings are ready."

Opening his eyes, Sun Jack stared blankly at the exceptionally familiar ceiling overhead.

Suddenly a big pancake face loomed over him, "Son, stop sleeping, get up quick, the Spring Festival Gala is starting, and the dumplings are boiled."

"Spring Festival Gala, dumplings?" Before Sun Jack could react, he found himself sitting on a small stool in front of the TV, staring at a big bowl of dumplings.

Suddenly, Sun Jack came to his senses, an ecstatic expression crossing his face as he thought: "Right, yeah, there's no way something so outrageous could happen, all that messy stuff must have been a dream!!"

Smelling the aroma of the dumplings, Sun Jack couldn't help but salivate madly and picked up his chopsticks to start devouring them; he was so hungry.

But just before he could take a bite, Sun Jack suddenly saw his mother approaching him, her face apologetic, "Oh dear, I forgot you don't eat chives filling, let me change it to the shrimp filling for you."

As his mother went to take the bowl from his grasp, the starved-crazy Sun Jack couldn't bear to let go and quickly hugged the bowl, "Mom, I love chives filling now, I love it!"

Yet Sun Jack found that his mother's strength grew stronger and the bowl of dumplings was getting farther and farther away from him. "Mom, I love chives filling, I really do, please, I'm begging you, I'm hungry, I'm really so hungry!"

In the midst of the struggle, Sun Jack fell off the bed with a thud onto the cold floor, and that's when he realized it was all just a dream.

Sun Jack didn't immediately get up; instead, he sat on the ground, dazed, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window at the bizarre, high-tech world outside.

He really, really couldn't figure it out, how could it be that with such advanced technology, people are still starving?