Xiao didn't have to be here. Her mother was the Ukrainian wife of the deceased Korean CEO of Daedong food products. She was a regular here at this small collection of restaurants and discount shops in Nopodong because here she could get away from the holo-projectors putting up whatever physical persona was trending with those under 40 these days. Only in the past few years, since the early 2050s, personal HPF (holo projector/forcefields) had allowed people do radically modify their forms. Here, the only people around were far too old to bother learning how to use them, let alone customize their avatars.

"Look, I've already got more than a full caseload right now. I really don't thi.."

"Haha, your neighbour's convenience store security setup and... oh doing a backup of someone's family vid logs? We took the liberty of putting them on hold for you."

Xiao frowned, "I'm not interested. I'm not going to do it."