Chương 9: Chapter 2 The First Gate Contractor(Part 4)

I needed something else. Something I could live without. Unfortunately, that list was getting shorter by the minute. Eyesight? Absolutely not. Hearing? No chance. Hair? I'd rather not start my second life bald. That left very few options. Though two possibilities came to mind. One of them required very careful wording.

"All right." I took a deep breath.

"I offer my melanin." A pause.

"Purpose?"

"Color." The response came instantly. A flash of light swept across my body. Then the world vanished. Or rather— It blurred. Everything became an indistinct haze. Panic immediately followed.

"Wait! I can't see!" I stumbled backward.

"My eyesight's gone!"

"I offered melanin, not my vision!"

"Melanin successfully removed." The voice sounded confused.

"Associated visual degradation was not predicted."

"Primitive lifeform biology remains insufficiently documented." Wonderful. I was negotiating with an advanced alien civilization that apparently didn't understand basic human anatomy. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. After another flash, my vision returned.

"Compensation applied through occupational system."

"Still insufficient." I rubbed my eyes. Crisis averted. Barely. This thing really had no idea how humans worked. Or perhaps it wasn't even remotely biological. The more I learned, the less comforting that thought became. Still. Refusing wasn't an option. If I walked away and those monsters eventually poured into the real world... Well. Humanity would have a very bad day. Maybe a very short one. I needed a larger offering. Something valuable. Something difficult to measure. Then a thought occurred to me.

Not an object. Not a body part. A concept.

"... Time." Silence. Then:"Clarify."

"I'm forty-three years old." I crossed my arms.

"I offer the twenty-nine years I've already lived according to this planet's standards."

"And every remaining year in which my body would physically evolve." I emphasized the word deliberately.

"Memories stay attached to my mind or soul, whichever applies."

"And don't accidentally kill me." The voice remained silent for several seconds. Then:"Processing." A much brighter light engulfed my body. My muscles relaxed. The lingering aches in my shoulders disappeared. My lower back stopped hurting. Even my joints felt lighter. Time was a strange thing. Could a person truly own it? Hard to say. But every living being possessed a lifespan. A personal flow of time. If that counted as property, then perhaps it could be traded. And admittedly... I'd chosen my wording carefully.

Evolution. Not aging. Machines evolved. Technology evolved. Those words carried positive associations. Efficiency. Improvement. Advancement. The alien voice clearly knew very little about human biology. Perhaps it didn't understand that biological "evolution" eventually included a rather unpleasant process called growing old. The light finally faded.

"Appraisal complete." The voice spoke.

"Fifty percent threshold achieved." I nearly laughed. Jackpot. Almost half the requirement from a single offering. Apparently "evolution" was extremely valuable.

"Still insufficient." Of course. Nothing could ever be easy. Then something appeared in front of me. Two figures. Human-shaped. Projected holograms.

"Visual comparison generated."

"Purpose: reduction of misunderstanding through accumulated dialogue experience." The first figure was easy to identify. Me. Or rather... A younger me. Around fourteen years old. The proportions were strange due to the earlier trades. Long arms. Lean body. Something vaguely resembling a hairless ape. But it was unmistakably me. The years I'd offered had clearly been removed. Then I looked at the second figure. And frowned. Something felt off. The face was familiar. The hairstyle was similar.

The overall appearance resembled mine. But... Something wasn't right.

"Can I touch these?"

"No mass." The voice answered.

"Equipment may be removed." I immediately pointed.

"Strip both models." There was a brief pause. Then every piece of clothing vanished. The first projection was exactly what I expected. Male. No surprises there. The second projection... Was not. I stared. The projection stared back. There was no mistaking it. The body was female. Entirely female. No male anatomy whatsoever. I pulled out a cigarette. Lit it. Took a long drag. Then another. My brain refused to process what I was seeing. This had to be a mistake. Surely. The first model represented my current state.

The second represented my appearance after obtaining the occupations. That was what the voice had said. Which meant... The conclusion was unavoidable.

"... Why is the future version of me a woman?" The cigarette nearly slipped from my fingers. For the first time since arriving in the gate, I found myself genuinely afraid of the answer.