356: Points (Patreon)

There was a counter running along the far wall. On the right side, a sign above it simply read BUY, in both languages. On the left, another sign, again in both languages, read SELL.

On the buy side, there was a team of brisk young women taking money and packaging goods. On the sell side sat a man and a woman, one an older cultivator, the other a rather heavily augmented Earther. She had a bionic-eye array, currently switching through different configurations, and two chunky bionic arms, making-and-maintaining types. Right now, her hands were split apart into a large number of manipulators as she fiddled with an odd-looking gun. Meanwhile, the Cultivator was performing a careful Soul Sense examination of a Symbiote.

Behind all these workers, what looked like a Shenran man strode around, seeming to manage it all. In spite of his pale features, dark hair, and his Soul Sense—which he moved as naturally as breathing—he wore a suit. Dark blazer and trousers, white shirt, blue tie. His long hair was tied back in a ponytail.

Nicolai glanced down at the cluttered tables beside him. Reaching down, he pulled a long, solid revolver free from the flotsam. A paper tag was tied to it, 5,000 points. Not a bad price. He put it back and headed over to the counter. One definite point in this place’s favour was the lack of a maze-like layout forcing you to work your way gradually around.

He was making a beeline toward the manager when the Shenran frowned, looking over to where a customer had begun arguing with one of the girls.

‘The tag reads 2,000!’ the man yelled, spittle flying. ‘What the hell is this place? You guys running a scam or what? It says 2,000, and I’ve got 2,000 here!’ He slammed a finger down on the two tags he’d dropped on the table. Beside those tags was the item he was buying, a Lasrgun, which Nicolai judged as likely one of the most expensive items in the shop.

‘There must be some kind of mistake,’ stuttered the girl, leaning well back to avoid another blast of angry spittle. ‘It’s in the system for 70,000—‘

‘What the hell kind of service are you offering?!’ He tore the tag off the gun and waved it in her face. ‘2,000! You better honour it or I’ll tell everyone what a scam—‘

‘May I see that, sir?’ spoke the manager, slotting into place beside the girl. He plucked the tag free and eyed it, then the gun. ‘Hmmmm,’ he said at length, now watched by the narrow-eyed customer and half the shop. ‘This is not the original tag.’

‘If you guys made some kind of mistake, that’s on you,’ growled the guy.

Nicolai, watching from a distance, snorted. This guy was pretty obviously trying to trick them, trying to shake them down with this whole scam accusation. However, the manager quickly diffused that when he brought up the cameras pointing them out around the room, saying that someone must have tampered with the tag and promising to discover who it was. The man’s attitude abruptly changed.

‘There's no need for that,’ he muttered, paling. ‘Just a mistake,’ he added, already halfway across the room. ‘No problem at all.’ And he was out the doors.

Nicolai wasn’t sure why he'd been so very worried. It wasn’t that he doubted the Restriction would allow shopkeepers to do anything. Really, there wasn’t much risk in trying to pull something like this, except that the shop might decide to stop selling to you.

Nicolai slid towards the manager, floating between lines of customers, taking up residence at the counter. He heard the man talking to the girl. ‘—any shit from people like that, just point out the cameras and make sure to always check the item database.’ She nodded seriously and he patted her shoulder. ‘Good work. We—’

The pair both glanced up, registering Nicolai. He was looming. It was a good way to get attention. The girl’s eyes widened when she saw the faceless helmet, the man’s brows drew slightly together.

Nicolai introduced himself and said he had an offer to make. The Shenran at first seemed a bit suspicious, but when Nicolai had his droid come forward, anti-materiel rifle held ready, gun drone floating over its head, the man's eyes widened. ‘Are those GRECKON LDIs?’ came a voice. He saw the speaker, the cyborg sitting down at the far end of the counter, peering over with interest.

Soon enough, he'd been led into a small room made yet smaller by boxes of more goods, crammed wall-to-wall to the point there was barely room for the three of them to stand.

‘Sorry about this,’ said the Shenran, with an apologetic smile and a gesture at the clutter. ‘We're hoping to expand into neighbouring buildings, get a bit more breathing room, but at the moment...’

Nicolai simply nodded. They'd only just started out, money and space would be tight. However, that meant his odds of having them buy it all were unfortunately quite low, something he realised with a frown.

Negotiations began. The pair’s faces fell when he told them the prices, how many he had, and that he wanted to sell them all right now. ‘A lot of money,’ the man muttered, frowning. Nicolai had the distinct impression the man definitely wanted to buy them, even if money was an issue, which at least was quite a pleasant difference to Clark

‘Very nice,’ the Cyborg murmured, examining the droid. ‘Is this legit?’ She glanced at Nicolai, who remained silent. ‘They look legit.’ She peered at the serial number on the back. ‘Huh. Can I connect to them?’

Nicolai gave her the necessary permission, and a moment later he felt her poking around in the droid’s software. She was unaware of Cyberwarfare, silent and hidden and right beside her, like a shark eyeing a young seal playing in the shallows. He gently pulled the module back. It was too eager to set to work on anything it could, and while she was busy digging around in the guts of the droid’s coding she was wide open.

Finally she pulled away and tapped it with her hand, Mark flashing as she Examined it.

‘Created here,’ she murmured. ‘Just as I suspected. It’s a fake.’

‘What?’ said the Shenran, eyes widening, before glaring at Nicolai.

‘The Trade Link wouldn’t sell something like this for any less than 200,000,’ she added. ‘And yet…’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ finished Nicolai. ‘It is effectively the same thing.’ He sighed. ‘Ideally people wouldn’t be able to learn they were made here by Examining them. But once there’s been a chance for them to be tested, or simply if someone like yourself checks them over, it will become clear they are just as good as the real deal.’

People starting to think on where and how he’d created these items was something he simply had to live with. Selling these things may tip people off that he possessed an Assembler, but in this case the potential benefits outweighed the risk. He could be raking in millions of points a week if this went well.

‘80,000 is a very good price,’ she added, thoughtful, and he smiled.

‘Really?’ said the Shenran, coming forward. His features had been shifting one way then another throughout, and now settled on “very interested.”

He smiled widely at Nicolai. ‘I, uh, want to apologise. I should have introduced myself, and my wife here. I’m Lee, she’s Mara.’

Mara glanced up from the gundrone, which she’d plucked off the droid’s head and was giving a close look, to flash a smile.

‘Nicolai,’ he replied.

Lee frowned, a brief flicker of familiarity in his eyes, which then widened.

His reputation from the Tournament had spread enough that even these two recognised him. Surprisingly, Lee seemed very happy to meet him, far more so than was typical for someone from Shenra. But it was becoming clear that these two weren’t quite typical.

Mara examined the drone next, and though she'd been very taken with the droid, she noted that it was much more basic. He pointed out that the Trade Link didn't sell gun drones of any type, which she accepted. ‘Yes,’ she murmured, ‘they’re simple but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Solidly made, they’ll definitely sell well.’

Next, she looked over the anti-materiel rifles, eyes widening when she realised their semi-auto nature and the 10-round magazine. He could all but see the dollar signs dancing in her eyes. From there she asked him to give them some privacy. Before he and the droid had even walked out the door, he heard them engaging in a frantic discussion.

When he returned, the pair spoke frankly. ‘We want them, but we won't waste your time,’ said Mara. She sighed. ‘We can’t afford them.’

‘However,’ said Lee, raising a finger.

The pair offered him all the funds they currently had on hand for as many of his goods as that’d buy them, as well as the promise of an ongoing deal—the moment they had funds for more, they’d buy more.

‘You’re selling them for cheap, which is a good move while they’re a new, untested product,’ Lee had said. ‘But over the course of the day, we should be able to start bumping the price up… as soon as a few have sold, especially if some buyers have the things walk around with them…’

Nicolai asked that whatever they sold them for, he receive 90%, which the pair accepted happily.

In this case, in spite of his need for immediate cash, the long-term benefits were too good to pass up. Even with the cash he had on hand, he’d be able to buy most of what he wanted, and the rest could come over the course of the day.

Nicolai left the shop with another 500,000 points-tags in his pocket. He’d portalled the unsold droids, drones, and guns back to base. He’d also exchanged contact information with Mara, and via his drone-network he’d be able to detect any messages she sent. The moment they were running low, he’d be back to exchange more equipment for cash.

His path turned to the Trade Link.

###

The blue light from the trade link screen played over his helmet as his fingers tapped at the console. He had just finished inserting every single point tag he’d amassed into the machine. It was fortunate it had a method for accepting bulk points, or he would have been standing here for a very long time.

The moment he’d finished, a notification popped up.

Challenge complete. Amass one million points in your Trade Link account. Reward: +300,000 points.

His point total flickered, shifting into the new number, hovering there at the top of his screen.

2,440,319.

His breathing sped up, a grin splitting his features. There was something wonderful about seeing a number like that, all his work quantified.

He had some choices to make. Once, he’d planned that as soon as he had a million, he would buy the Tier 3 Market Permit, which would level him up to the next Market stage, unlocking new items.

Now, however, his desire was to be as strong as possible as fast as possible, and he also knew that soon he would be gaining more points in any case. If business went well, Mara and Lee might even pay him back before the end of the day. It wasn’t impossible he’d be able to get the million necessary again, but even if so, he wasn’t sure he’d spend it on the Market Upgrade Permit.

Instead, he’d see what else he could buy in terms of augmentation and immediate upgrades.

After all, there wouldn’t be much point spending a million to unlock the next level if you then didn’t have enough to afford anything. Best to wait until he’d amassed more money than he knew what to do with—and in the meantime, use what he could to make himself as strong as possible. After the recent catastrophes, he wasn’t eager to repeat the same mistake.

The Modules crowded forward, pulling him out of his thoughts as they impatiently pressed their desires onto him. They all had their own opinions on what he should buy—and for once, he was able to simply do what they wished.

Going through his personal buyback list, Nicolai’s points disappeared in chunks, eaten away by the tapping of his fingers as he made purchase after purchase.

He spent over one-and-a-half million points on augments. A bit over another half-million he spent on what he needed for the AGI and the plane he was planning, plus a proper vibroknife, and the items he’d need to create the amulet that would make use of the Blood Orbs to protect him from Scoundrel tracking methods. The rest was spent on large containers of raw materials. As usual, he needed to restock on all the things the Assembler couldn’t procure itself from rock and ore.

Ideally, he wanted to buy even more of these raw materials, as he had a whole lot of expansion planned for the coming week. While he was building his new body and pushing for tier two, his base would be going through its own overhaul.

As the money started to come in, he would see about buying the rest of what he needed.

Finished buying, he started retrieving his purchases. A handle formed on the smooth metal surface of the trade link, and when he pulled it open he found a space packed with augments. He took out half, opened his portal and simply held them through, to be taken by a bot waiting on the other side.

Turning back to the opening, he retrieved the rest and handed them off to the same bot, which was stacking his purchases on the floor on the other side.

He performed the same process for the large containers of materials, of which there were quite a few. Even though his method involved literally picking stuff directly out, turning, shoving it through his portal into the waiting hands of a large bot that immediately put it on the floor, it still took almost five minutes for him to finish pushing all of the large packages through to the other side.

Once done, he briefly poked his head through the portal.

He’d discovered that radio waves, ripples, and all other forms of communication did not pass through these portals. So, to communicate with the Modules in the Infiltrator, he had to physically stick his head through.

Just now it was Aiming, who immediately asked if he’d brought what it wanted. It had controlled the bot and was poking around at the augments on the ground. A gasp of delighted code filtered through the connection when the bot uncovered two metal containers labelled: GUNLIMB-S-MK3.

Aiming hastily assured him that it had everything in hand and would start filling out the shell of the AGI with the missing components. It also told him there was no sign of any trouble.

With the cameras newly positioned outside, there was now quite a large, secure network, all feeding back into the base. He’d decided having vision of the surroundings was more important than the risk of tipping off wandering Earthers to the presence of said base.