Ning went into a shop that sold clothing accessories. There were a few people that were also shopping there, but surprisingly, there were no shopkeepers.
Actually, when Ning did look around, there were no clothes either. Instead, everyone was simply standing in front of a mirror, looking at themselves, and the clothes were being overlaid on their image to show what they looked like.
Ning approached one of the empty mirrors and stood in front of it. Suddenly, a blue light was fired off from behind the mirror.
Ning's perception suddenly sped up to see if he was in some sort of danger. However, when he realized it was just scanning him, his perception returned to normal speed and he continued on.
"Welcome, Rattrap Barnacles," the program inside the mirror spoke. Ning panicked a little, thinking people had heard his horrible name, but sighed in relief when he realized he was the only one who could hear it.
"What would you like to look for?" the program asked as various different categories appeared.
Shirts, pants, jackets, shoes, shorts, and various other categories were shown, and Ning looked at the T-shirt section first.
Numerous T-shirts of numerous designs were shown on the mirror and one by one they started appearing on Ning himself.
His torn clothes changed to new, fantastic-looking ones as Ning checked himself out in the mirror.
The white shirt with a cool triangular design at the center was quite amazing to look at. However, it was way too white for him.
"Next," he said and the shirt shifted.
This time he was in a red t-shirt that was quite plain by design but looked not bad.
"No, too much red," Saphandra said from the side. "You look good in blue. Get that one."
Ning pointed to the T-shirt he was about to pick and it changed itself. "Woah, this technology is quite amazing," he said.
"Is it?" Saphandra asked. "I thought the ship that flew through the galaxy would be something you call amazing, not this."
"Well, I mean… yeah," he said. There was no retort to that.
The shirts filtered through and he ended up on a blue shirt that was of a lighter shade with a design in the center, the reference of which he could not understand.
He then moved on to some pants and bought one of them too. After buying a pair of shoes, Ning stopped.
"Wait, how do I pay?" Ning looked around the place. "Is that electronic too?"
"Are you only going to buy 1 of each? What if they tear up?" Saphandra asked.
"Well, I'll just ask the system to fix it or make me a new one," Ning said. "Did you forget that I came here only to see how it all worked in this place?"
"Ah right," she said. "Well, you should pay so we can leave. Speaking of which, how do you pay?"
Ning was about to ask the system when the program itself spoke on its own. "Would you like to buy these items?" it asked.
"Yes," Ning said.
"Voice signature, verified. 920 Credits have been used from your account. Your items have been successfully bought and are being brought out. Thank you for using our store."
"Oh, poor old Rattrap had some money with him it seems. Credits huh? I wonder how many credits I have in total," Ning said.
<1288.>
"Huh?" Ning was surprised when he heard that. "Are you saying I just bought something that was half of the young man's savings?"
<After losing all his money, Rattrap Barnacles got into more debt to bring himself up, and as a result, had to keep paying interest for everything he earns. So, he doesn't have many credits remaining after every survey run.>
"Ah, I see," Ning said. "Well, I guess we're done here. Let's go find a restaurant so we can eat something."
Ning walked out of the store and went out to find a place where he could eat food.
There were a few restaurants around the residential areas, but not as many as he would've thought there would be.
He walked in his new blue t-shirt, pant, and shoes, and entered a relatively low-level restaurant.
He entered the restaurant and was once again surprised to see how human-less this whole place was. With the different machines and programs doing everything, human labor was just no longer required.
"Does that mean they're now free of hunger and poverty since no one needs to work?" Ning wondered. That would certainly be a great utopia to live in.
A small machine flew next to Ning and showed a hologram with a menu. It was an interactive menu that showed not just what was being served, but also what it was going to taste like.
"Ah, this… this definitely, and…"
"Ooh, get that potato one. That looks good," Saphandra said.
"No, that's too expensive. Why the hell are potatoes expensive?" Ning wondered and went back to looking for something that would bring the entire cost to below 1000 Credits if possible.
One by one, the food started being served to him and he ate it all. To his delight, it was all very, very tasty.
The three dishes he ordered were all perfect in every aspect as if a machine had made it instead of a person, which was most likely the case.
Ning finished the 3 dishes and called the robot back to pay, but it seemed he had somehow paid for the food the moment he had ordered them.
"Oh, so I can just leave huh? I should have known that earlier," Ning thought and left the area.
Now that he had new clothes and eaten something, he wanted to go rest. He had slept for 78 years, but that was a little weird, and he wanted proper rest, on a soft bed and all.
So, he looked up on the map that the system had provided and found himself a hotel.
"I see a lot of fun things to do, but let's go sleep now."
