M3RG3

Chapter 6

"Tut tut tut," Lyla waggled her fingers, her eyes accusing. "If you were going to be late, you could have texted me earlier."

"You know," Natasha whispered defensively. "She might have been in the middle of something important."

"As much as I appreciate this chivalry," I emphasized sarcastically. "Why are we here again?"

"Oh." Natasha rolled her eyes, flipping her golden hair. "Lyla the nerd here just wanted us to have a bonding session."

"Okay?" I raised my eyebrows. The idea itself sounded unpleasant and cliché.

"What I meant," Lyla emphasized, sending a playful glare at Natasha. "was for us to take a look at our results and exchange pleasantries."

Natasha shrugged and pulled out her result paper. "I had an extensive education, so this is my most recent one."

My eyes bulged at the numbers. "You got 97 percent for French?! Literally, no one gets higher than 90!" Apart from a few, Lyla being one of them.

"Yeah, when you don't do extensive training." Natasha rolled her eyes again. "Besides, Languages just happen to be my speciality."

"Can I take a look?" Lyla reached for the stiff, formal paper. Her eyes widened before gingerly returning it to Natasha.

"I haven't seen such legendary results since..." She trailed off, lost in her own thoughts. "Since the golden era."

"The golden era was thirty years ago." Natasha recited from memory. "Before the starvation period and the overpopulation policies."

"As much as I hate to admit it, I am rusty on History. Mind giving me a quick recap?" I sank into the duvet of my bed, awaiting Natasha's lecture.

"The population problem began when the first generation gave birth to too many children and the second generation weren't willing to give birth. This caused an imbalance in the society. Divide that over the productivity in food, you get starvation. It's math." I stared at Natasha, still puzzled.

"From the look on Arista's face, she still doesn't understand. Please elaborate further." Lyla's observations were spot on. I sent her a thankful glance before turning my attention back to Natasha.

"Fine," Natasha huffed. "When the first generation retired, the second generation grew up and became the working population. However, since many weren't willing to give birth to children, the number of people in the third generation decreased significantly, causing an imbalance in the population structure."

"And how does all that cause starvation?" I asked, still puzzled.

"When the third generation grew up and the second generation went to retirement, it caused a problem," Lyla intervened. "The number of people in the working population had to withstand thrice the weight of the retired population. There wasn't enough food since the number of farmers and food production decreased significantly due to the drop in population. Therefore, there wasn't enough food-"

"For everyone." Realization finally settled in. I couldn't imagine how horrible that time was compared to where we were living in now.

"This happened 20 years ago, which is still recent," Natasha continued. "Afterwards, the Republic began rationing the food and taking control over the land and pretty much everything."

"It wasn't called the Republic back then, it was called the Democratic Socialist Party," Lyla interjected again.

"Some top-notch scientists began developing foods called synthesizers. It was cheap and easy to make without requiring much time and manpower. Obviously, in a desperate attempt to save their homeland from starvation, they released all sorts of synthesizers to the citizens. It was so applicable and easy to make that it caused 'hyperdeflation' of food prices." She paused before continuing her speech. "Afterwards, the Republic solved this problem and our homeland is what it is now." Natasha took a mock bow before sinking gracefully back to her bed.