The Salamander gets me a Salamander Fire Sac, its skin and more meat. Surprisingly, when I open my inventory to put the items away I realise that its increased in size again.
“Ali… am I seeing things?” I frown, staring at the new 6 by 6 grid.
“Nope, inventory space increases every 5 levels,” Ali explains and eyes it. “Lucky for you.”
I can’t help but agree since otherwise I’d have to toss some of this away. While items of the same type stacked, unique items needed their own slot and the different kinds of meat were all considered unique. Either way, lucky me. I grab the loot from the Salamander and dump it in my inventory, moving on. The children Ogres get me some Ogre skins while the adults are a disappointment at first, giving me an assortment of crude weapons, oversized armour, Ogre hide and 5,000 Credits in total. The credits go straight into my inventory as a notification, which helps since I’ve started leaving older loot like the Ant meat aside. When I finally get to the Ogre Chief, I carefully bend down to grab the club it dropped and almost drop it again when the notification pops up.
Enchanted Oversized Club of Smashing
Base Damage: 38
Enchantment: Ignores 20% of Target Armour
Damn. My knife only did a base damage of 4 to start. Of course, as the guide explained, damage after base was based off the targets armor and where and how you hit. Better kinds of armor absorb more damage, though armor has a tendency to get damaged as it absorbed more and more punishment. In addition, melee weapons had additional damage modifiers that included your strength, which in the Ogre’s case was probably significant.
I can barely carry the damn oversized club and the fact that I can even heft it at all breaks all kinds of physic rules, which is why I just leave it on the ground as I reach out to loot the Chieftain next. He gets me another Ogre hide, 7,000 credits and a golden key. When my hand closes around the key to put it in inventory, I get another blue screen.
Key to the City
Would you like to take control of Haines Junction? (Y/N)
“What the hell?” I shout to Ali and immediately regret it, my head spinning. Ali zooms over to join me, staring at my screen and being silent while I recover. For a moment, as my head spins, I wonder if he’s gotten bigger. Then I get distracted again by his talking.
“Mary’s sweet spot,” Ali breathes, pointing to the key. “That’s why those Ogre’s weren’t running. They bought the city.”
“Explanation damn it,” I reply.
“Ugh… okay. Yeah. Your cities aren’t real cities, not at least according to the System. You want to own it, you need to buy the rights to the city. That’s what the Ogre’s did. They must have pooled their resources, bought the rights from the System and a portal here. Must have cost them a fortune even to get a dump like this,” Ali explains quickly, spinning in an agitated circle. I guess that made the Ogres pioneers. Dead, roasted and eaten cannibalistic pioneers.
“Whatever,” Angrily, I decline the system’s offer. Damn System, thinking what we built isn’t real. Ali’s exclamation of surprise at my actions is cut short by another prompt.
Control over city declined.
No other sentient found in domain.
Would you like to resell the rights to Haines Junction? (Y/N)
I giggle slightly, as I point at Ali, “Not sentient!”
“Dance on a stick. I don’t count because I’m linked to you boy-o,” Ali retorts even as the key disappears from my hand.
Rights to Haines Junction sold for 10% of cost. 200,000 System Credits credited to account.
As a one-time offer, would you like to spend your System Credits now? (Y/N)
This time, I don’t get to choose as Ali does it for me.
Chapter 5
One moment I’m standing amongst the burnt, savaged remnants of the Ogre clan aching in pain and fighting off waves of dizziness and silliness. The next I’m fully healthy in a high-tech retail store that has a thing for yellow. I raise my eyebrow at the colour choice, having thought it’d be all blue but yellow it is, from the walls to the waiting chairs to the counter top where a yellow lizardman waits.
“You’re big!” I shout as I see Ali. Unlike his normal foot tall experience, this Ali is a towering 7 feet. Thankfully, he’s still clad in his usual orange jumpsuit which I have to admit, sets off his mocha coloured skin very well.
“This is my real size,” Ali grouses and points to me. “You just can’t contain my awesomeness.”
“Awesomeness?” My eyes widen at his choice of words.
“I get bored. Your world has a lot of interesting entertainment forms,” Ali says dismissively as he strides over to the waiting lizard. “Malik! You old scoundrel. Have I got a deal for you!”
I stare at the lizardman and my companion as he begins to pull my stuff from my inventory, already getting into an argument over pricing. Better him than me but what the hell should I do? For that matter, why the hell was I healthy?
“Perhaps the Master would like to peruse our wares?” comes a soft voice at my elbow, making me spin around and throw a strike at it. I catch a glimpse of the speaker, a bipedal fox before it slips under my blow with careless ease.
“Sorry! I’m really sorry. I just, you know, apocalypse!” I apologize profusely.
“Not at all Master, completely normal. It’s this servant’s fault for startling you,” the young fox’s grin widens as he gestures to a doorway I didn’t see before. “The wares Master?”
“Yeah, I guess I could…” I follow its lead. I am rich after all, or at least, I think I am. “By the way, I was injured beforehand but now I’m feeling fine.”
“Ah, part of the transfer process. Galactic Council policy dictates that all purchases be done by individuals in their full health. You will be returned in the same form as you were before though,” the Fox explains easily as he leads me to a doorway. The room that we enter is in cool yellow, so large that I can’t see the end of it. Inside, the room is dominated by a floating spaceship reminiscent of the one that Superman came to Earth in from the classic movie. In front of it is a single screen, floating
Mark VIII Regulus (200,000 Credits)
Single passenger spaceship originally capable of achieving hyperspace travel. Comes equipped with the 3rd Generation Link Laser and 2 Ares Launcher Bays. More…
Would you like to purchase this? (Y/N)
My hand unconsciously twitches and moves upward. A ship to get the hell out of here and leave as the System suggested. An escape from the blood and insanity that is my life now, a way to be free of the fear. It’s everything that I could want. A slight shift in stance draws my eye to the Fox and my eyes narrow. There’s something about the way he’s holding himself, something in his eye.
Son of a bitch. They’re playing me. Once again, anger rushes through me and I have to work hard on relaxing, on tamping my emotions down. I roll my neck and resolutely hit no. The fox says nothing which is lucky for it, and after a brief moment, a giant list of products appear. A tight smile appears on my face before I speak, glancing to the Fox, “Be a good boy. Get me a chair and some coffee and any chocolate you have on-hand. I’m going to be a while.”
The Fox slinks off and I start browsing. Time to make this more manageable.
“Remove all items costing over 200,000 credits.” The list shrinks for a moment before repopulating. I grunt, not surprised. Let’s see, what next…
“List only Human specialty items,” This time, the list almost completely disappears except for 3. I guess we’re too new for a bunch of specialty products.
Human Genome Treatments
Genome treatments are individually tailored for each client. Each treatment’s goal is to fix and optimise the client’s base genetic code, removing errors due to aging and radiation. Optional improvements to the treatment include the removal of less than optimal genetic code and the addition of best practise genes.