The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 385

Two thousand dollars, no phone, nowhere to live, and absolutely no plan.

But Sloane had never felt so utterly free.

"Where to first?"

She muttered to herself under the streetlamp, her breath curling into white mist against the rain.

To hell with it, nothing mattered right now. First things first, get some real food!

Sloane flagged down a cab and headed straight for the Eastside Night Market.

The driver was a chatty middle-aged man. From the second she got in, he went on and on about the weather, saying the rain was a lifesaver, that they'd be facing water rations soon if it hadn't broken. Then he started complaining about gas prices, saying EVs were wiping out gas cars left and right. Half the city was swarming with green license plates now, and he had no idea how much longer his beat-up old Ford would last...

Sloane hummed along, half-listening. New energy vehicles? She wasn't an expert, but had they really taken over the roads so completely?

The driver smoothly shifted topics, mentioning that some celebrity had just gotten divorced and the internet was breaking down over it.

Sloane blinked. "Which celebrity?"

"Oh, you know the one—what's his name—the guy who sang 'Starlight,' got his start on that reality show, been massive for years. Didn't he just marry that actress last year? Posted the divorce announcement at two in the morning. Kids these days treat marriage like a game!"

Sloane went quiet for a moment.

She stared out the rain-streaked window at the neon city skyline. The massive LED billboards flashed faces she didn't recognize, and sure enough, more than half the cars blurring past her had green license plates. Even the rental bikes parked on the curb sported logos she had never seen before.

Riding his own momentum, he twisted in his seat while idling at a red light, gesturing wildly:

"And what about that—autonomous driving? You don't even have to touch the wheel, the car just knows where to go. Food delivery is all drones now, just a metal box flying over your head, scan a code to get your meal. Oh, right, and AI doctors! They can read a scan in seconds and spit out a diagnosis more accurate than the Chief of Surgery. It's crazy how fast the world moves, huh?"

Sloane listened, her expression mirroring someone trying to parse a foreign language.

The driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror again, shaking his head with a look of seasoned pity. "You been living under a rock for ten years?"

Sloane leaned her head against the window, the cool glass soothing against her forehead.

"Yeah," she whispered. "I slept for ten years. Just woke up."