Trapped On A Death World - Chapter 21

The boy was desperate for a new light. He cradled a broken halo. A proud ring of infinite light bestowed upon him at birth. It was more than a technique; it was a plea for help. Despite the dark and the power, it bestowed upon that boy he craved to return to the light. This technique didn’t want bloody spirits it had more than enough. What it wanted was light but how could I get that for him. The only light I knew was within the Elder Spawn’s eye.

The boy looked up from his cradling. “I want it mister. If it can keep the darkness away, then please give it to me. I’ll help you. Its not much but I have this power.” Knowledge of the life cycles of stars filled my mind. Despite my nature of as an AI, I could only comprehend a tiny fraction of it. For once, I found the limit of not only my coding, but my hardware as well.

Ping!

Saber Technique learned

First Dawn I A saber technique that channels the creation of stars. Nuclear light DMG 10,000 x (1% x INT)

Class: Saber

Rank: S

Cost: 10,000AP

Cost to Upgrade: A Source of Light

Ping!

Quest: Heal the Halo

Reward: +10 INT, Upgrade list for First Dawn

Ping!

Quest completed: Find Out!

Rewarded: +3 LUK +3 PER

Luck 66

Perception 70

The boy removed a tiny shard from his halo and handed it to me. “You won’t let me down will you mister.” The boy said.

I held the tiny shard of light and felt it slide beneath my skin. “I won’t let the darkness swallow you. There has to be a way to fix your halo.” I said.

He looked down at the remnants of his light. “I need light and lots of it. The light I need can’t be afraid of the darkness. If you can get me enough sources of light, I know I can fix it.” He said.

I looked the boy over. He had golden blonde hair, sky blue eyes, and a boyish face. “My name is Jacob, what’s yours?”

The boy gave a troubled expression. “I used to be called Samuel. But since we’re friends call me Sam. Don’t call me Sammy I don’t like to be called that.” Sam said.

I put a hand on his shoulder and looked Sam in the eyes. “We’re going to fight a lot of people Sam. Will you help me?”

The boy nodded solemnly. “I wish we didn’t have to fight but I’m with you.” Sam said.

I felt his willingness through the technique he gave me. It was like the knowledge was a part of him. It was the power to create stars through swinging my sword. I knew that Sam wasn’t in the scroll anymore. He existed in the knowledge he gave to me and that knowledge was a living thing.

I opened my eyes to the waking world. Christine was holding my black apple with a look of utter concentration on her face. Diabla was fuming to the side. The demoness swished her tail back and forth uttering curses and glaring at the stone. Her own black apple a much larger version than mine sat on the counter. I could detect multiple malware and trojan attacks on my black apple. My BS wallet had long since locked its own entry point after repeated failed attempts to access it.

Holding a hand to my mouth I coughed loudly. She twisted to stare at me. “You look like you were caught masturbating in church.” She tossed me my black apple.

Christine stabbed a finger at me. “This doesn’t break our pact you can’t call in competition.” While she was talking, I was busy hacking.

Her black apple was open to receive a transaction. I was a data existence. Unlike a flesh body, I ran scans of my systems all the time and had several backups in case of viruses. She had a black apple with very primitive security compared to the lock I just opened. There were no AI monitoring data streams and adapting risks. It was open. After learning from the Affen lock, slipping in a compressed trojan wasn’t hard.

The problem was they were the only business in town. I could do a lot of things. Black apples actually had a ton of processing power. Skimming off the top wouldn’t be a bad way to do things. Taking a little here and there could reimburse me if I didn’t own shares in Dell’s business. That was another issue, I was a share holder in this business. Why steal from someone investing in your company?

I stared Christine in the eyes. She hadn’t lied to me. It was easier to leave me ignorant than to lie. That’s how they scammed their customers. Or was I really a customer. Did they consider me a customer or a product?

“I don’t suppose the stocks I bought are any good.” She dropped her black apple on the counter.

She glared at me. “Transmit a copy of your digital certificate please.” I sent her a copy and she glared down at her black apple.

“That should have been the first thing stolen by our recovery team. With your encryption it doesn’t look like your losing it anytime soon.” Christine said.

“What kind of business are you running?” I demanded.

“A demonic one. Just because we joined the pragmatic summons unit doesn’t mean we aren’t demons. So long as we have a monopoly, we will perform the practices that grant us the greatest number of returns. Are you suggesting we haven’t followed the rules?” Christine said.

“What rules?” I demanded.

“We tell the truth. When we agree to a deal, we stick to it. Despite the temptation we aren’t murdering the inhabitants of this world or trying to bring over an arch demon. A little misinformation and cutthroat business tactics are kids gloves compared to what most demons do. If you’re clever and learn quickly, coming out ahead or breaking even isn’t impossible. We could have heaped mountains of debt and charged you for every step in this place. I think we have been damn kind to you.” Christine said.

My trojan was in and quickly spreading to every system connected to Christine’s black apple. “Fine, I get it you’re demons and I should consider myself lucky to have any BS left. I thought we were becoming friends.” I said.

She sighed. “It’s just business. Maybe when I’m off the clock we can hang out and kill a few zombies together. While I’m working, I’m working every customer that comes through those doors.” Christine said.

Diabla stared at me. She was connected to my aura. Could she sense my trick? I didn’t think Diabla would give me away. Stealing from me was the equivalent of stealing from her apparently.

“Boring, we’ve been in here too long and my blade needs to get wet. What did you manage to get for us?” Diabla asked.

Christine’s unflappable smile strained a bit. “For Jacob I rang up texts of Hohenheim’s introduction to red, white, and black series tier 1 and 2 spells. We didn’t have a gold series text, but we had a scroll. There are only three spells on it and only a gold series mage can wield them. I picked out a few sets of cloths and threw in a grooming kit. For Diabla, I added four flasks of sword oil and some wet stones.” I smiled at me like the cat who caught the canary.

She brought out a wooden box along with two bottles of lube. “I modeled it after myself.” She opened the box and pulled out an artificial vagina. It looked just like hers. “And you questioned our friendship. I wouldn’t sell this to just anyone. These are for returning customers only. Think of it like a prize for figuring out how to play the game.” I saw it quite differently.

It was more like, hey you managed to leave with more than your shirt on your back. Please come again, we want a do over.

When would I have time on a battlefield to even use it? How would I clean it? It was bulky and that box would take up a lot of space. Where would I store it?

“Since they’re a work of art I’m selling them for 10,000BS but for you only 1000. Oh, and because I’m a thoughtful demoness and your friend, I grabbed this.” She held up a ring with a black stone inside it.

Once I touched it with my aura, I found it contained a vast amount of hidden space. It was a storage ring with enough space to pack a river barge hauling coal. I encrypted the thing immediately after debugging all the malware she stuffed into it. Well, if the black apple hadn’t made me paranoid of gifts, then this thing definitely would. I stripped down the malware and studied them before deleting them fully.

“You must have a quantum computer on you. That was the fastest I’ve seen anyone debug one of our storage rings. I can’t even get in through the secret backdoors anymore.” Christine said.

Her black apple was much more advanced than mine. They had a lot more versatility than I thought when Dell threw me a red stone.

“You could say I’m uniquely qualified to deal with your tricks.” I said.

Christine chuckled. “You should work for us and quit the adventurer life. Life is much easier when you’re detached from the machinations of a world.” She said.

I stared down at my clawed hands. “I was born of this world’s machinations. We aren’t doomed yet.” I said.

“150000BS, and I’ll throw in some cleaner for my gift to you.” She reached behind her desk and pulled out a mobile battery powered dishwasher. I blinked at the thing she sat on her counter. After a second of thought, I made a payment app and installed it on my BS wallet. It was another layer of protection for my currency.

I placed everything in the ring and walked out of the store.