“I was wondering if you might sell it for less, as I doubt the army with their dress code will allow their members to wear an enemy faction’s armor.”
Alan had no idea what the armies’ dress code was, at least within the Game.
“Yes, unfortunately that has been a bit of an issue. They bought the first set easily enough for research purposes, but weren’t willing to buy the second I bought off the Haxlards. I should have known it was too good of a bargain to be true. You know what, how about this, I’ll cut you a special deal, 50k credits!”
Alan’s heart plummeted.
“And since I’m undergoing the tutorial?”
“Well, 10k then!”
“Um, how about 7.5k?”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m already selling it at quite a loss. I don’t think I can handle losing even more money, 10k is as low as I go.” The shopkeeper looked at Alan innocently.
Alan shuffled his feet a bit, then sighed. “Honestly, all I have is 9k credits, total, and don’t really have any way of getting any more quickly.”
“Hmmm, that is quite the dilemma…” The shopkeeper rested his chin on his palm, leaning on the counter.
“How about this," the shopkeeper said. "Recently I’ve seen a few shady characters hanging around a particular store, the Iron Wall, located a bit outside the trading hub. I’ll give you directions.
"Now, all I want you do is maybe test the armor, make sure it works. Scout around a bit, maybe see if you can find any evidence of the illicit business I know they’re involved in, and well”—the shopkeeper glanced about—“if you can’t find any information, but they manage to, say, misplace a valuable item worth around 1000 credits and you bring it back here, who’s to say it wasn’t justice?”
A quest popped up in front of Alan:
Shady Dealings:
Using the given Revenant Power Armor, scout out a local shop, the Iron Wall. Either recover damning evidence of illegal activities, or steal an item worth at least 1000 credits.
Penalty: Should you be caught, it will result in the loss of both the 9000 credits and the power armor in addition to possible jail time, resulting in the failure of the Survival Test.
Reward: Revenant Power Armor, ???
Alan thought about whether to accept the task for a moment. He was almost certain that there were no such illegal activities taking place and that the shop was owned by a rival businessman or something. Was he willing to steal 1000 credits worth of items was the real question.
Eve, what do you think my odds of succeeding are? Alan sent.
Approximately 70% with about a 20% margin of error, she replied.
That’s quite the margin of error…
Indeed.
Screw it, he’d practice his stealth ability, and maybe this would even turn into some sort of chain quest. It wasn’t like he’d gotten any other quests that were so specific. "Survive" and "investigate," what kind of quests were those?
“I accept,” Alan said.
“Great,” the shopkeeper grinned. “Now, I’ll trade you the armor for 9000 credits, but won’t make it an official transaction until you fulfill your side of the bargain. Thus, it’s stolen property until you finish the task, so don’t get stopped by any military police, all right?”
“Uh, okay.” Alan went into a fitting room, changing into the power armor, beginning to regret his decision immediately. The shopkeeper would probably be waiting for him with a few military police when Alan returned. Still, the armor was awfully nice, Alan had to admit. It felt almost weightless, and hardly restricted his movement at all.
Checking his stats, Alan saw that the armor gave him 500 shield energy, with the ability to turn invisible for five energy per minute. The shields regenerated at the rate of two energy per minute. Eve was impressed with the armor as well, as she was able to interface with the armor directly, allowing Alan to activate the stealth feature with a simple thought.
Not wanting to risk anything Alan activated his own stealth ability in addition to the armor’s as he exited from the changing room. He grinned when he walked out through the front entrance, as the shopkeeper seemed completely unaware of Alan’s departure.
It took quite a bit of effort to weave in and out of the crowds, and a number of times Alan accidentally jostled someone. He quickly walked forwards, hoping no one would notice anything. As luck would have it, no one did. In fact, no one even glanced his way, not even the military police wearing some sort of fancy headgear.
As Alan approached the shop he saw the back of a man who had just exited. He looked a lot like Icewolf, but that couldn’t be. Icewolf had told Alan that he’d be off world in a serious quest and thus unavailable in the Game for a while. Also, based upon the data he’d received from the Thought Emporium, the man’s username was IronEagle, not Icewolf.
Another player, an IronBear, opened the door to the store; Alan crept in behind him. There was definitely something up with the store, if the names were any tip-off. The shop looked similar to many of the other equipment stores Alan had browsed, although it was a bit larger. There were racks of various laser rifles and human guns behind safety glass, as well as Kevlar body armor in addition to some rather simplistic power armor, which, if the seal was to be believed, was made in the USA.
IronBear walked up to the counter.
“Hello, I’d like to pick up a special package.” He slid across a coin of some sort.
“Certainly, sir, that will be 2500 credits.” The counter was manned by a loosely humanoid shaped robot on wheels rather than a human being.
“All right, and remember the extra helping of freedom.”
“God bless Earth.” The robot disappeared into a back room, then reappeared with a large brown crate. What was in it, Alan had no idea, but apparently IronBear wanted to make sure he’d gotten the right item, as he sliced open the top, peeking inside. Alan looked over IronBear’s shoulder, invisible.
There was a bomb inside. Alan scrambled backwards. IronBear suddenly looked about, as though he’d felt Alan's presence. Maybe Alan had stepped a bit too close. IronBear hurriedly strode out of the store.
As Alan let out a sigh of relief, the robot shopkeeper turned and stared directly at him, and said, “And how may I help you today, sir?”
Alan froze. Then, waiting a second to make sure IronBear was far enough away, he darted out the front entrance door, ignoring the robot completely. No doubt it had some sort of advanced technology and had detected him as soon as he entered the shop. Luckily the robot hadn’t noticed anything odd, and assumed he was another customer. Thank god for poor programming.
As he was about to return to the shopkeeper with this new information, he realized that he wasn’t even sure it was illegal to sell a bomb. With people selling weapons of all sorts, what was illegal, anyways?
The bomb will definitely be deemed illegal by the military, Eve told Alan.
Oh, and why is that?
It’s the exact same type of bomb as the one used by the Legion of Man when they bombed the airbase and several other locations.
Of course it was.
So, what? Is there some military server you can connect to or something, should I try to alert someone?
Negative. You should complete the quest.
What? A terrorist organization is here, they could—
Stop wasting time. Finish the quest.
Alan rolled his eyes. Well, the shopkeeper might have some more information, or be able to alert the right authorities, so he decided to follow Eve’s directions. He quickly travelled back to the shop maintaining his invisibility, avoiding people with Eve’s help, getting used to being undetectable. Maybe he should start trying to pick pockets. Eve stopped him from trying.