Chapter 4

The first feeling Elano got upon arriving in this city was when he discovered that this city was much more sophisticated than his city but that also made the weather hotter.

Arriving inside the supermarket, Elano and Katherine stopped for a moment and a trolley automatically moved towards them. In front of them were moving machines that formed a circle, delivering whatever food they wanted to buy. The advanced technology there made Elano a little silent, while quietly watching and learning how the tools in front of him worked.

"Technology is already sophisticated but it is not evenly distributed throughout the world, even in our country not all of them get facilities like this. It all depends on the structure and natural conditions in each city." Katherine said looking at Elano's confused face.

"Right, the supermarket in my place is still the same as a normal supermarket, but we only need to choose items if we don't want to shop directly to the place and the robot will deliver it. It's not that special because robot power has been used for a long time, here I just found a large robot that controls the supermarket. There aren't even any supermarket employees here because everything is controlled by artificial intelligence. It's really amazing," he said, making Katherine smile.

The girl walked on without pushing the trolley as it moved on its own following her.

"Let me show you again some of the things that you see as normal in front of you right now but actually hold better and more advanced technology. Our city of course gets the updates and premieres of all the inventions that exist in this country because our city is a research city. The government always directs many researchers, professors and also people who are experts in this field to continue to upgrade their abilities and tools.

"It just so happens that I'm in the building and natural disaster research department, which falls under my major. This city is prone to natural disasters, but it is also a city that is abundant with materials and smart people. That's why here we are always trying to research and do research every day, because the state of this country depends on us to continue to evolve with the unsafe conditions from long ago."

Elano and Katherine arrived at the large screen in front of them, before Katherine finally looked into Elano's face.

"Let me teach you how to order food or ingredients here," Katherine said making Elano stare at the movement in front of him.

All the items and groceries seemed to be moving around, while Katherine had pressed one of the items she wanted.

"This is what you need," Katherine said making Elano stare at her.

"Mashed potatoes?"

Katherine nodded. "Or do you want to buy rice? There is rice here that can be brewed and cooked immediately, no need to cook it again."

Elano watched as Katherine shifted the grocery menu in front of her with just a touch. The girl picked up the rice, then showed Elano when it was in her hands.

"It only needs to be brewed with water for each cup you want to eat."

"Warm or cold water?"

"It depends on your taste, but because of the hot weather we prefer to brew it with cold water. When it's ready to eat, we put it in hot soup or the like."

Elano nodded, then looked at Katherine who taught him to buy fish, shrimp, chicken and meat that could all be cooked like rice earlier. So it can be said that this place or city is a city that has good capabilities and technology, but natural disasters are many and can attack them at any time so at the moment this city is not a good place to visit.

Especially for a vacation.

"You can hold down whatever you want to buy, then the machine will stop automatically and the food you want to eat will come out and you can pick it up. After that, there will be payment if you have finished buying everything."

Elano followed all the instructions given by Katherine. They looked around again, then began to pay and Elano seemed a little amazed at the sophisticated system in front of him.

The ingredients moved on their own detecting the price and showing the price that Elano had to pay. But just as he was about to take out the card used for payment, Katherine held him back for a moment.

"We don't use the card system anymore, there are only a small number of people who use it here but it doesn't matter because I'm one of them. But especially for shopping here, we don't use cards as a means of payment. I had intended to take you to a smaller place that still uses cards for payment but it's not complete so instead of working twice it's better to do it once and what will come first is my money."

Elano was silent, he looked at Katherine's face which looked so sincere and kind. This girl even dared to lend him money, even though they didn't know and had never talked to each other like this.

After exiting the state-of-the-art supermarket, Elano and Katherine arrived at the parking lot of the flying car used by the two to get to the supermarket earlier. After packing the goods they bought in the trunk, Katherine and Elano decided to go home and Katherine was driving the flying car that they did not ride in because not everyone could do it especially since the vehicle that was with her was specialized for their city, of course the routes and roads were different and it made Elano not used to it.

"You're so nice to me, even though we haven't known each other for long. Why, aren't you afraid I'll deceive you?"

Katherine looked at him for a moment and then smiled slightly. "As a Professor I have also volunteered to help victims of natural disasters. As someone who is an expert in this field I just need to put my trust even if I don't know the person. If what he ran away with was my property and he cheated me because of my property that he didn't want to return, I would never mind but if what he ran away with was something useful and beneficial to many people maybe I would feel disappointed.

"Life in this world is not as easy as we imagine, let alone there are people who are deliberately willing to commit mistakes and crimes just to please and benefit themselves. I'm no longer surprised by such things because we used to have a difficult life and people are very fond of collecting other people's treasures that have been left behind and then themselves just to survive. You claim to be a rich man, but if you betray my trust I will never understand that either. Because there are only two people who steal in this world, the first is a greedy rich man and the second is a poor man who deliberately steals just to make money for his family's living expenses."

Katherine's words made Elano silent. The woman next to him right now was an accomplished young Professor, of course not just anyone could refute her words because she had always experienced what she said herself.

Indeed, there are many rich people who steal just to get wealth and use their stolen tools as additional wealth. They were already rich but they wanted to get richer and that caused them to want to keep getting money.

Elano really understands such incidents because in this world too not everyone is good, there are very many people who certainly have a difficult life but instead of looking for a job that is still relatively easy to get in this country but instead steal. It made many people suspicious of others even their own friends, but since Katherine had volunteered then she was also not someone who had a short fuse mind so she was wiser to respond like what she said earlier.

"I'll take you straight to the house you'll be staying in. My mom said that the house has already been cleaned so you just need to fill it with things that I'll give you later. As for the rent or the like, you can discuss it with my mother, since it's her house and I never charge a price." Katherine said again making Elano nod.

He didn't say anything just paid attention to the girl who was next to him at the moment. The first meeting was enough to make Elano comfortable. As people say, smart people will get smarter if they like to hang out with smart people so what people say is proven by what he is experiencing right now.

"There are no mountains or valleys in this city anymore?" Elano opened his voice which finally made Katherine look at him.

"You could say that, mountains, forests, seas and rivers and even plantations are rare and no longer exist. It has disappeared a long time ago, the last time I saw mountains was only in the news. The mountains are still active, it's just that because the terrain is low, we don't know where it is, so we are currently trying to make a revolution and a house that can withstand all natural disasters. I don't know when I'll be able to succeed, but hopefully I'll actually be able to and make things better."