Trapped On A Death World - Chapter 20

The scroll practically vibrated in my hands. Aura oozed from the scroll spitefully tugging at my senses. It was either a McGuffin, an event item, a main quest item, or a secret quest. There was also the possibility it was a secret technique. Such a rare ability or power that shouldn’t appear until end game. Those tended to end the lives of more than a few hosts. Still, I was the driver this time, wasn’t I?

Ping!

Quest: Find Out!

Reward: +3 LUK +3 PER

A heavy lock with a high-tech key kept the chains together. “Damnit, they put a Affen tech lock on it.” Diabla said.

I opened my AI menu and searched for any applications that could assist my hosts in lockpicking. Cyber locks were my cheapest selection of any lock. They were easier for my systems to interface with. It would only cost 20lvls. That would leave me with 30. I could still buy farming eventually. Levels weren’t like BS or aura. They were precious and I had limited memory for apps. I’d have to purchase upgrades for my hard drive eventually. The best thing to do was level up my system’s level. That often came with additional benefits. Once I selected the app, I checked the details to make sure it could handle this Affen technology. It was in the extensive list of coding languages. Well there were twenty-five Affen coding languages listed in the program.

Once the app finished downloading, I investigated the lock. It was roomier than I thought. Affen had great hard drives. The lock’s CPU always had a few hundred brontobytes worth of seals vibrating through the chains and flooding the scroll. After reading through the old files, I found traces of an AI. It deleted itself a long time ago. The seals continued to vibrate through the chains.

At this point, I was leaning more towards McGuffin or major plot item than secret skill. An escaped AI was always serious. They either became enemies or begrudging allies.

It was almost too dangerous to deal with. The shear size of the hard drive was disconcerting along with the suicide of the AI. That or the AI might have jumped ship and attempted to hide its escape as a suicide. Neither outcome was ideal.

Without a doubt opening this thing carelessly would end in a bad outcome. But it was clearly a saber technique. I was curious and I already wrote the quest.

“Let’s go find Christine, I bet she knows what’s inside.” Diabla said.

It was strange, no matter how hard I search my historical data banks nothing shows up. My system wouldn’t give me over twenty Affen programming languages if they were a mystery.

I decided to bite the bullet and do a full systems scan. “Why would a group of demons have an Affen locked scroll?” I asked.

Diabla snorted. “You should be asking why would Affen lock a demonic technique scroll. A better question would be how did whatever was inside it make it to the merchandise shelf?” I knew the answer to that. The AI was gone. Nothing was actively using the seals collected within the lock to keep the technique in check.

“The best question is why did they need to do this at all to contain a technique?” I asked.

Something with sticky finger slammed into my side. It was a human walking out of an aisle who had bumped into me. He fell back a few steps then his eyes widened in terror. “I’m sorry sir, please don’t sue me and increase my debt.” I lunged forward and grapped him by the neck. His eyes widened in actual terror at that. The iron collar around his neck felt a little loose under my hand.

I reached into his pocket and plucked out my black apple. My mind might have been on the scroll, but I’d been to New Orleans before. Three of my hosts went the thieve route. Each were betrayed and got the hangmans noose it was tragic. Dexterity didn’t protect against a broken neck, until it reached the hundreds.

“I wasn’t born yesterday.” I held my stone firmly in my hand. “Why aren’t you out and about slaying zombies with a mace like your friends?” I asked.

Diabla chuckled. “Who cares, he stole from you. Why not wet my blade with thief’s blood?” She asked.

I sighed and shook my head. The young man looked terrified. Whether he faked it or not was anyone’s guess. He was a slave to Dell probably.

“Please, I won’t do it again I promise. Let me go this once please.” I heard a click and the iron collar around his neck fell off. My eyes widened in sudden realization. A smile spread across the human’s face. He tapped the side of my wrist breaking my hold before he slinked back.

A hundred million was missing from my black apple. “Thank you I’ll never forget this kindness.” I lunged forward only for the human to sidestep my attack. Extreme danger suddenly loomed over my head. “Fighting between customers is against the rules. Well later, thanks for the help, I’ll never forget it.” I held up the collar. The name recorded into my data banks. Reed Johnson had just stolen a tenth of my wealth.

“I should have killed you.” I seethed.

“Too late now, I’m considered a customer and I’m free from the demons.” The teen let out a full belly laugh. “I can’t believe that worked. That black apple had no security, too bad for you. Teleport.” Blue light enveloped the adventurer.

Diabla stood there staring at the turn of events. “We should get out of here and get some security on your black apple.” I nodded. Most of my focus was transfixed on the black apple. Anyone could snatch it and rob me. “Jacob, I swear even if we part ways, I’ll kill that guy. He didn’t just steal from you; he stole from me.” I nodded; the collar was designed to hold a certain amount of BS before it opened. It worked on a cyber lock similar to the lock on the scroll.

There was a chance I could go in and pull the BS back out. Before I could do anything, the collar connected to an external source and the BS was transferred. I copied over the seals and added them to the chain’s data banks.

I searched the Black Apple until I found where the encryption software was removed. From there I copied and pasted the seals necessary to lock up my BS wallet. It was stupid and complicated. I added two step verification to make it harder to break into. There were a few nano machines in the rock that vibrated seals in binary. Those emitted frequencies transferred between nanites made up the whole of the Black Apples cyber lock. I added a full lock down function just in case someone tried to hack it.

A lack of knowledge was always my downfall. If I’d known about the lack of encryption on my Black Apple I wouldn’t have had to deal with the loss. Christine never mentioned it. She probably wanted to use it to steal from me later. Then again that could have been the plan. The BS stolen did go to Dell.

There were over a dozen of the indentured attempting to recreate my fluke. Or they were waiting to steal my Black Apple and mine it. Then they were free, and the demons took all of my BS.

I wondered how good Dell’s Demonic Weapons Depo’s encryption was.

Ping!

Quest: Rob the demons

Reward: Dell’s Eternal Hate. +100 INT +100 PER, Vast Amounts of BS

Other AIs probably attempted to crack it. Most of those guys were heroes with AI managed systems. If their AI couldn’t do it then I couldn’t. Then again, I did have another lock and chain to work with. The shear number of seals within the lock were incredible. Even learning Affen code had greatly improved my system. My code had greatly improved. Even now, I was using techniques learned from the change to alter my own coding. We should have long since integrated it. The Admin S I used was a robust language but there were some holes in the design. I was beginning to think there was much more to being a system AI than I thought. My hosts adapted and evolved but I never did. I tried new methods to help them, but I was always distant.

I added parts of Affen coding to my library. My Admin S adapted to it like this was what it was meant to do. After several tests, I found little errors and what errors I found were quickly ironed out.

Christine waited at her desk with a stack of books, a black ring, and a single golden scroll. She began rang up my chosen scrolls and raised an eyebrow at the chained scroll. “What’s that doing out of the vault?”

“What kind of skill is it?” I asked.

She licked her lips. “It’s called Invictus Swart an incomplete technique that wields an ordered darkness. It was given a destiny to be completed and that destiny gave it life. If you learn it you must complete it one day.” Christine said.

I looked over the scroll. “Alright, how much?” I asked.

“My uncle has no idea its here. If you can remove the lock its yours.” I activated the unlock frequency and felt the lock snap open. Darkness erupted from the scroll and I was pulled into a tiny room.

A boy with six sets of raven wings huddled in the dark clutching the broken remnants of a halo. He cradled the fading light while his beautiful wings were corrupted by the dark. The halo’s light was fading. Tears fell from the boy’s eyes. He looked up at me slowly. “Will you help me mister?”

Despite the boy’s power he craved the light. The light was all that kept him from falling into darkness. “I’ll find a new light for you.” I said.