The only thing in the huge room is a marble table. A middle aged woman is sitting on the other side and staring at France. France is looking at his nails as if checking his nails is very important right now. The woman forces a smile, "So, what do you really want?"

"I told you. I want to study. I want to take part in researches." France replies.

"I don't really understand why you're telling me that. You know very well that one's role in society is predetermined. For past 200 years people are genetically designed. Those who will study and who will do manual labour are designed from before. You weren't designed as class-A."

France lifts his head up and looks at the woman,"That's not my fault. I didn't design myself."

"Yes. It was parent's duty to design you. They didn't. You're class-C. Class-C people don't get higher education. They're for manual labour-"

France stops the woman,"I know this much. I would go to science institute and get myself admitted if I could. But I can't. They won't even let me in. That's why I came to you. The place where I can change the rules is the same as where it's made."

The woman make a laughing sound, "I don't know who told you these. But rules aren't made to break-"

"I don't want to break the rules. I just want to change it a little."

"A little?"

He nods,"Yes. A little. Test me if I am qualified enough to study science. Check if my intelligence is the same as class-A. Then give me a chance."

"We did scan your design. According to the results, you're a class-C. Which means-"

France suddenly leans forward and asks, "Are you a human or a robot?"

"What did you say?"

"I want to know if you're a human or robot."

The woman says in a cold voice, "That has nothing to do with what we're talking about."

"Yes it does. You could get it if you were a human. I wasted my time talking to a robot."

The woman makes a weird angry expression, "Do you know how little the difference is between a robot and human?"

France said, "No I don't. I don't want to either. But-"

"But what?"

France smiles at the woman, "Let me tell you a poem. A poem of numbers. 8 4 6 2 6 4 3 3 8 3 2 7 9 5 0.."

The woman screams, "NO NO. ZITACODE!"

France continues, " 2 8 8 4 1 9 7 1 6 9 3 9-"

The woman starts to shake vigorously. A blue light turns o in her forehead. France looks at the malfunctioning robot and keeps saying, "9 3 7 5 1 0 5 8 2 0 9 7-"

He could say some more but the robot has burned out completely.

France sighs after coming out of the room. He had only one dream, he will study. He will do research. He tried so hard to talk to someone. But he never even imagined the whole thing would be a deception. They brought a 7th gen robot that he could shut down with a funny zitacode.

France comes down on street. It's a busy city. People are walking down the narrow streets shaded by high rise buildings. Who knows how many of them are really humans? The by-verbals are flying over his head. Subways are running through underground tunnels. France gets distracted. Why does his life have to be so meaningless? Why does he have to work so hard for a couple of units on the weekends? Why didn't his parents design him as a class-A person even when they could afford it?

France should be mad at his parents. But he feels pain in is heart for his parents with childish dreams. They didn't believe in designing a child. They wanted to spend their life at a small town in hillside. Despite being class-A they gave birth to him as a class-C regular person. But a landslide ruined all of it. He grew up in an orphanage. He could be in a real family if he was class-A. But no family would adopt a class-C child. His fate was determined the moment he was born. France can't understand why he had to be born now. Why he couldn't be born a couple hundred years ago!

France was standing on top of a high building. Countless humans and robots are passing through the street. He has no interest in machine. But he loves to watch people. They have so many detailed emotions on their face. People only thought of emotions like happiness, sadness,anger when making robots. But there are so many emotions other than that. How can all of them be named?

He was a bit distracted. Suddenly he felt like someone tapped on his shoulder.

France looks back. A girl of his age is standing there trying hard not to seem excited. 'Do you want to tell me something?' France asks. 'Yes' she nods, 'What did you do? Your t-chip is giving out alert signal.'

france looks at her surprised, 'What did you say?'

'You heard me. When someone does something illegal their t-chip gets triggered and gives out alert signal. What did you do? Assault? Robbery? Murder?'

'I didn't do anything'

The girl laughs, ' Do you think the police will believe you? Think carefully. There must be something.'

'No... I-' France suddenly remembered something, 'Well, I crashed a robot with zitacode a while ago.'

The girl laughs loudly, 'Yep, this is a crime too. Your t-chip might be triggered for it.'

'But I found it from a public restroom wall. 7 gen robot. Crashed with a Pi sequence!'

'Hmm. I too learned a lot of stuff from public restrooms. Anyway, I told you your t-chip is triggered. Cops might arrest you anytime! Good luck-' she turns around to leave.

France start walking towards her after waiting for a while. He calls her, 'Hey. Listen-'

'Anything else?'

'Yes. I have 2 questions. How did you know my t-chip is triggered. And what to do when it happens?

'I know your t-chip is triggered because I have t-chop tracker. And-'

'Why do you have tracker? Are you a cop?'

'No I'm not a cop. But the people around me frequently get their t-chip triggered. I need to know that.'

France doesn't understand but still acts as if he does. "And what about my second question?"

'As for your that- no one really knows what is the best thing to do if it happens. But-'

"But what?"

"If you're a class-C then there's only one thing that can happen to you."

"And what is that?"

"You'll be lucky enough to be a real criminal"

France exclaims, "Me? A criminal?"

The girl nods, "Police will definitely. arrest you sooner or later and put your t-chip on alert mode. Which means you'll get arrested for smallest things. Then you'll do a true crime."

"what is it?"

"You'll get rid of your t-chip."

France looks at her in silence. The girl says, "This is the fate of a class-C person."

France still didn't say anything. The girl tries to smile, "Behind the blue stadium by crossroads there's a bar called C-bay. Real criminals frequently go there. If you ever want to do the true crime, you're welcome."

She starts walking again. "Where are you going?"- France asks.

"C-bay."

France realises he didn't get her name.

......................

At midnight police came to France's apartment. The VE screen suddenly lights up the whole room. France hears a robotic voice in VE screen, "C DS 7490 class-C France?"

France sits up on his bed,"speaking"

"We are patrol squad from the police. We want to speak to you."

France says nervously, "Sure.. Sure. I'm coming out."

"Stay there. We're coming in."

France tries to think if he needs to open the door. But his door opens before he does anything and 4 officers in black uniform comes in. France gets surprised seeing 3 of them are humans. A middle aged officer looks at him, "7490 France?"

"Yes. That's me."

"You use zitacodes illegally?"

France can't think what he should do now. He hasitantly says, "I did once! Actually-"

"It is a 8th grade crime. If you repeat it then it'll be 7th grade crime. You have to face a trial for it. There are 4 steps for it. For first step..." The officer keep talking monotonously.

France realised that all 4 of them are robots. Using zitacodes to shutdown a robot is not any serious offence so they sent low class robots to warn him. Now he has to keep listening to these stupid robots. He pushed the thought of using zitacode out of his mind.

The robot suddenly asks him, "Why do you want to get higher education despite being class-C?"

France feels humiliated answering this low level robot but they'll keep on going if he doesn't say anything. He says, "I think everyone wants to know new things."

"But class-C people don't have the required brain structure to know new things."

Trying to explain to this robot is meaningless. So France agrees, "I think you're right. My decision to study any further wasn't right."

The robot says, "You're saying that to satisfy me. You actually don't believe that. What are you lying to me?"

France thinks for a while, "I don't believe it right now. But I have to accept it sooner or later."

"You wanted to be researcher. What do you want to research on?"

"I don't really know anything. So I can't answer your question."-He replied.

"We've found that you're always getting new informations. Say something based on that."

France was worried how they would take his answer but he still said, "I am very curious about time traveling–"

All 4 cops attacks him before he could finish. In a blink he is on floor and cops are putting handcuffs on him. He tries to say, "What did I-"

But he feels a sharp pain in his shoulder and the world darkness covers his eyes.

France gains consciousness while hearing a lot of people talking. It felt as if the sound was floating around like waves, one moment it's so close and then it's far away. He opens his eyes. He's lying on a cold dirty floor. He tries to sit up but a sharp pain in his head kept him down. He looks around lying down. There are more people in the room. Some are knocked out like him. Some are sitting here and there and some are trying to walk with support. They're talking in a low voice. He tries to sit up again. Someone screams, "Another one!"

France tries to look if it was told to him but the pain stops him. He doesn't try anymore. He rests his head on knees. Someone says, "Don't keep sitting down. Get up, walk."

France looks at the man, "Are you talking to me?"

The man with messy hair and red eyes nods, "Who else would I say this?"

"What is this place?" France asks.

The man bursts into laughter, talks to another person standing, "He still doesn't know where he is!"

A man with pale white skin says, "You're at detention centre. Where they bring criminals like us."

"I didn't do any crime."

Now a lot more people laughs out. One of them says, "Everyone says that the first time."

France says, "I crashed a robot with zitacode."

The man with red eyes asks, "That's all? Nothing else? A couple of murders?"

"No. I didn't."

"Side business? There's some good narcotics in black market."

France shakes head, "No. I didn't do anything like that."

The man with pale skin says, "Of course you did. Why would they bring you here otherwise? You just can't remember."

France doesn't say anything. The man says, "They'll find everything in checkup."

"Check up? What check up?" France asks.

"Still don't know about check up?"

Someone says, "He came for the first time. So he doesn't know anything."

Someone else says, "First time is always problematic. But you'll get used to it."

At this time the door opens and a robot in red uniform puts up a tracker. A man starts to shake uncontrollably. He jumps up and says, "Coming... I'm coming"

The man almost runs to the door and walks with the robot. After they leave, the man with red eyes says, "This is humiliating."

Someone asks, "What is?"

"A robot alerts our t-chip. We're not robots. We all have a name. They can call us by name."

France asks, "Why did they take him away?"

"They'll do the check up. To check on his crimes."

"How will they know?"

"They has a system. A flawless one. There's nothing you can hide."

"What happens if he's a criminal?"

"They used to kill off. Now they replace the memories."

A man standing by says, "Killing iff was better than that."

The man with pale skin says, "There's no difference between killing and replacing memories."

"Yes, there is." The man says angrily. "It's over if they kill us. But when they replace memories, my body will be there but I won't exist any more. Why would someone else live in my body when I can't?"

"Why not? Your body's still there."

The people starts arguing loudly. France moves to a corner and closes his eyes.

After some time the robot comes in and takes them out one by one with the t-chip tracker. The tracker makes a wave in t-chip signalling nerves. People really don't get treated like humans here.

France was sitting there for a long time. Suddenly he feels a shock in his body. This is his turn. He jumps up. He feels another wave in his body. Stronger and more painful than before. He raises his hand, "I'm coming."

The man with red eyes tells him, "Don't be scared, boy. Just keep your eyes closed."

France doesn't really understand where he has to keep his eyes closed. But he doesn't try to either. He runs to the robot. The shock in his body still doesn't go away.

He along with the robot stops in front of a room. He understands this is where the check up will happen. He enters the room. There are a lot of monitors and machines around a chair. A man is sitting closely.

France says, "There was a mistake. I didn't do anything. I only crashed a robot with zitacode. But that can't be a crime-"

The man keeps staring at him. France doesn't understand if he listened to anything. He says again, "I think you could let me go."

The man points at the chair, "Sit."

France tries again, "I don't think it's necessary. I didn't-"

The man says unbothered, "Sit here."

France sits on the chair. The man says, "Rest your head here."

France rests his head behind. Something like cylinders locks his head from both sides. France tries to asks, "What are you doing?"