Chapter 5

That night both Noa and I used the power of our bodies to work out any stress, fear or discord that I was feeling. Yes, we had sex. That is all you need to know, and all I am going to add to this journal. I have decided to keep an in-game journal to document my adventures. I am also keeping a video log of everything and will be releasing a vidcast every three days. The reason is simple, money, some of the released videos were paying out large sums. Making a little money while having fun is a win situation in my mind. I stared at the mirror as I finished washing up. My face was youthful looking and my body that of well-built youth. I changed the hair color several times trying to decide which color looked best. Noa had looked stunning with red hair and I can attest that she was now a natural redhead. Nodding at my reflection I spoke, “You’re a good-looking guy, let’s go have some fun.” I walked into the common area and observed that Noa was arranging a vid conference in the hotel lobby.

She smiled at me and said, “After the conference we will meet with the lawyers and sign some papers. Once that is done we will go shopping then meet your uncle, which should open up several quest arcs.” I was both amused and grateful that a game like this which was so realistic could have npc characters slip into game mode and talk about quests and leveling without missing a beat. Then go back to being a perfect simulacrum of real person. She continued, “We will need to purchase light ballistic armor and swords and knifes.”

“Why swords and knifes?” I asked. I was curious about this I had not realized that in a modern space litrpg I would be using classical weapons. In fact, the research that I had done had not mentioned this at all and I was curious about why these weapons were now in the game. I had thought blasters and energy weapons, masers, lasers and tasers. All the high-tech stuff you could think of. When I played before that is what we used. Now with the addition of these fantasy weapons I felt lost, I could shoot a blaster, but had no idea how to fight with a sword.

Noa smiled at me, her expression happy. “The latest patch to the game brought in these weapons, the more traditional space age modern weapons are still available but using them has been severely curtailed on ships, space stations and Mars. The reason behind the decision was that to many habitats were being destroyed or damaged by carelessly fought battles. Most ships, stations and surface support facilities are made of thin, light material. It is incredibly strong unless it is damaged. Then a pressure leak develops and things are damaged or destroyed.”

Damn it made sense, I also suspected the popularity of the fantasy type VR games had a lot to do with the introduction of the classical weapons. What is is what is I thought as I finished getting ready. Once Noa and I had everything we would need we left the room and headed down stairs. I have to be honest I was not looking forward to what was about to happen. Without Noa and her help I am not sure how I could manage.

The next 4 hours passed in a blur, the media conference was a huge success, and I made sure to mention Ong Bai several times. It was time that some attention was directed towards that smug bastard. After endless rounds of the same questions phrased slightly differently by the plastic blond news girls we were done. I was sure that those girls had more surgery’s done than was healthy. In the end, they looked beautiful but plastic. I felt sorry for them. Once we left the conference we grabbed a shuttle cab and went shopping. I was interested in getting some body armor and the new weapons.

We toured several shops looking at gear and getting prices. We could afford what we wanted but the gear did not jump out at me. It was all generic mass produced knifes, swords and armor. While it would suffice, I wanted something better, something at the next level. Looking at Noa I shrugged and began to leave the store.

Noa asked, “Is there something wrong with the gear that we are looking at, it has met the quality control requirements imposed on incoming goods from the Mars import office of the provincial government. In addition, the factory in New China that produces these items has the most stringent controls of any company on the norther Korean peninsula. While the manufactory is fully automated due to the high radiation levels from the nukes that China and the US lobbed into Pyongyang during the Trump wars, the items themselves are perfectly safe.”

I shook my head, sometimes I would forget that Noa was an Ai but then I would be reminded when she would tangent off into a history lesson. “The gear is good and standard, Noa but I want something better, something that is at the next level. I am not sure where I can find that but I want to check out all my options before I purchase. At this point we were entering the shuttle and the driver who was holding the door open for us spoke up.

“Could not help but hear you mate, you want good gear, right? Not this mass produced Chinese crap. Today is your lucky day, my cousin owns a small shop where he hand-crafts gear from the latest alloys and modified steels. If you really want to see some good stuff here is his card.” I nodded thanks as I looked at the card. It had a number and address along with a holo of a spinning dagger that seemed to suck in all light. It was flashy as hell and I wondered if this might somehow be a trap by Ong Bai. I looked at Noa and asked her to do some research to see if this was legit. It was time to grab some lunch and then off to meet the lawyers. That was something that I was not looking forward to.

Lunch was pleasant with Noa and I conversing while slowly eating some kind of bird protein that was based of the protein of the extinct Dinornis bird, a flightless creature that had the females standing about 3 meters tall. Scientists had been able to reconstruct the dna using patches from living birds. All of which meant that we could now enjoy a tasty meal made from an extinct bird. Science is wonderful. Sadly, lunch came to an end and we were off again, the next several hours were boring, I signed more forms than I had ever thought possible and after having Noa argue with two of the lawyers for about an hour I signed even more forms. It was finally done and we were finished. I was now rich, beyond what I could have ever earned in game.

Some people have trouble with accepting that sometimes people get lucky. They do strange things, like try to steal or kidnap people. The best bet was to not announce that you had money. Both Noa and I agreed that we would keep all of this silent, in fact the lawyers were very happy to have us sign a form stating that we would not announce the details of the payout to the mass media. It worked for me. I was now worth millions of credits; the sum was meaningless. The money could still be wasted if I was not careful but most people who came into large sums of cash and ended up broke were idiots. I like to think I am not an idiot.

The next stop was the Bank of Mars. It had branches on Earth and all the space stations, it was widely regarded as the safest bank in the solar system. I would be investing my money with this bank, in fact I already had two accounts with them. The meeting at the bank was interesting if you thought having an arrogant branch manager look at your balance and then try to kiss your ass while offering you himself and his trophy wife for your personal use was worth noting. I sighed, this was one of the reasons it paid not to have people know that you were wealthy.

In the end, I locked up half of the 500 million credits in a permanent trust fund, I could access the interest but the principal would remain safe, with 250 million credits I was able to negotiate 5 percent interest. The rest of the money was divided into three accounts 100 million in a business account, 50 million in a personal account and 100 million invested in a number of business ventures. Noa and the bank manager had worked through all the boring stuff while I was fed cheese and wine, both imported from earth.

Once the final paper was signed I had a notice flash across my vision, apparently, I had received some sort of achievement for my dealings at the bank, I would now receive a 5 percent discount from all merchants. As Noa and I walked out the front doors of the bank I explained that I had just achieved the discount when there was a large crack and the air in front of the bank glowed with a greenish tinge and multiple energy bolts slammed into the banks safety shield.

“Noa, what the hell,” I exclaimed as I watched energy bolt after energy bolt slam into the shield as it struggled to contain the energy that was pounding it. “Get back in the bank,” I yelled as I turned and tried to open the doors. They refused to open the banks safety protocols had engaged as soon as we had come under attack. That door would not open and let us enter into safety. We were up shit creek without a paddle and the damn boat was starting to sink.

“Situation report,” I yelled spinning around to face the shield which was now glowing a bright green as the energy bolts continued to pound it. It felt like I was in the middle of a thunderstorm with lightning flashing all about, I knew that once the shield went down so would we. Whoever was attacking us must have brought in portable field generators, the power they were expending was incredible. Think of a machine gun pounding away at 100 rounds a minute only there was 3 of them.

Noa suddenly spoke up and said, shield failure in 90 seconds, I cannot override the banks security to open the door, the system went sandbox and without the key I cannot get in.” Turning to look at me Noa whispered, “I am sorry, but don’t worry I have backed up both of us we can download into a new body at the asteroid, once we are destroyed a failsafe signal will be sent to the shuttle and from there to the base. It is the best I can do.” With that Noa became silent and wrapped her arms around me.

I stood and stared for a second at the green dome shielding us with my arm around Noa’s shoulders. To be taken out by Ong Bai, before I had even started my quest for revenge, it burned like thunder within my breast. I did not want to die again, I wanted revenge.