BECOMING HUMAN

CHAPTER 1

"Step away from my stand, you damned peasant!" A man hollers at a young girl who takes off running with a few apples. He flung his broom and dustpan at her, but the girl managed to dodge all his attacks as she made a sharp turn down an alleyway.

Aurora—the girl—shoved the apples into the pocket of her hoodie, hurrying along. As she neared the end of the alleyway, she peered around the corner, keeping a keen eye on the pedestrians going past. Each person was casually walking down the street with their own personal android that had traits ranging from talents to beauty.

Aurora sprinted down the street, shoving through people and robots, passing every minimarket and supermarket that lined the corners of blocks. Eventually, she finally reached the end of her trip.

York Seoul City—a region where AI is the capital of the businesses. This was the city where the famous man—Abraham Einstein—had created the perfect AI with the capacity to mimic human abilities. Work, love, relationships, emotions, thinking ability, raising families—he created the perfect plan to help humans finally get along with technology.

Unfortunately, not everyone had this privilege to enjoy such an experience. Aurora was born among the many children who have no opportunity to own an AI. She was a loss cause.

The girl ambled down the quiet streets that led her further and further away from the city. She pulled out one of the apples she stole, rubbing it to make it shine with her sleeve. She would soon be entering The North Sea, a territory where gang activities occurred and violence was increasing at an all-time high. Hardly any rich citizen would consider living here because it was unsafe for their families—let alone androids.

Aurora kicked at the dirty sidewalks, munching on the crisp and juicy apple. She thought it was worth stealing these fruits. Who knew when her next meal would be?

As she continued along the sidewalk, a couple guys were going at it, roughhousing on the streets. Each guy threw a punch that bruised the next guy more than the last. Aurora leaned on the fence that belonged to the public park, watching the guys fight in front of a bar. There was a small crowd of men cheering them on, as though it was a major sporting event. She took another bite from the apple, staring unamused. This was what she considered entertainment. But it was getting old. It was the same content, same violence, but just different people getting killed each day. The police hardly ever came to this part of town anyway. Statistics showed that life in this part of York Seoul State wasn't as valuable as the lives prospering in the city or in the rest of the United Lands of the Originals.

Aurora believed it too.

She was among the statistics who couldn't care less about life since she couldn't do much with hers anyway. All she could do was lie, steal and cheat to survive at the border of a prominent city. Each day she would wake up and see the city as the first sight of her morning. The bright flashy lights and flickering attractions always made her feel that the city purposely did that to make commoners like her feel bad about their existence.

Bored of the continuous bloodshed happening before her, Aurora went on her way. It was late in the evening, and nighttime was going to soon approach. As she went her so-called merry way, she was passing a heaping amount of garbage that stank terribly. Holding her nose, she paused to glare at the amount of trash just sitting by the sidewalk. As disgusting as it was, she was hoping she could find something useful—something to add a spark in her life.

Stunned, Aurora's eyes stopped on top of a bare leg that was sticking out of the garbage mass. Looking around, Aurora carefully went closer to see who it was. It was normal for her to see body bags tossed about in The North Sea, but to be lazy enough to just toss a body into a lump of trash? She found that to be ridiculous and hard to believe. Stepping around the pile, she went to the back to dig out the body. She was shocked to see that it was a pretty boy laying naked in the pile.