"This is the price."
The little girl had known from a very young age that everything came with a price.
Because that was what her family had taught her.
Or rather, there was a rule in her house that served as a constant reminder: everything and anything had a price.
Those Blocks were not just her toys; they were also "currency."
The little girl had to pay currency to use anything in the house.
She had to pay the household robot a chef's fee for her meals, submit a monthly rent payment to her mother, and settle the water and electricity bills for her baths and appliance usage at the end of each month.
All of these had to be paid for with Blocks.
In turn, she had to help clean the yard or do other chores to earn Blocks. This was how she survived.
The little girl never thought there was anything wrong with this. She had asked many of her classmates, and they all told her they also did chores at home in exchange for an allowance.
