18 - 9/10’s of the Law

Pegarios was similar to Tommo, blue skin, black stripes, red eyes, but a bit plumper in the face. Pegarios didn’t have Tommo’s arrogance or haughtiness and he was definitely the brains behind the whole operation.

Maya played the log and sat back in the comfortable chair. Her mug had been refilled, but this time it was water, not alcohol. The water had a chemical taste to it from the recycler, but it wasn’t bad.

“Damn it, Tommo,” Pegarios said, an exasperated look on his face. “We’re here to do a job. It’s not a vacation or a chance to bang as many low level scrubs as possible. I just got the latest data uplink and what the hell, man? You can’t be putting down that much profit on the ledgers. Not on a Tier 1 shithole. You know this. The Inquiry already has Lamon’s assets being looked into. We are known associates of hers and we’re not safe from Inspection also. You need to come up with an explanation as to why you suddenly made tens of thousands of credits in less than a standard week. It better be good too, or our fucking claws will be ripped out one by one. I’ll be planetside in a standard week and shit better be fixed. Mom also says hi and that you need to write to her more often.”

There were more logs of Pegarios and Maya had watched many of them. Tommo’s partner seemed very stressed, while Tommo’s own recorded responses were more laid back and mocking. It was a duo as old as time, the face and the brain.

Maya brought up the dimensional storage and looked into its inventory once again. It had been over three hours since she had opened it up and she still was hesitant to reach into it and pull out the items.

She didn’t know how the System would take what she was about to do, but Maya knew the System was a judgmental bastard. All the ranks she’d gotten in [Looter] and [Looter of the Dead] seemed like judgements to her. So she paused at the sight of the contents and held back from ripping them free.

“Oh, what has become of me,” Maya intoned. “I was a law abiding chaste woman who nary had a lewd thought. Yet here I am, amongst the dead and contemplating going against the Commandments brought down by Moses himself.” She dramatically threw the back of her hand against her forehead and swooned. “This dark world only brings the monster out in people, the uncaring, thieving darkness that resides in the hearts of all people.”

“But,” Maya sat up straighter in the chair, “but. But. Butt. I’m gonna be so damn rich.” Maya reached in an touched the coin shaped object in the storage. All her thieving, looting senses had been firing off when she had seen the icon. It was immediately recognizable as to what it was.

Money. Well, credits.

Monetary Transfer

+ 1,122,479 universal credits

It felt like a bell tower had been installed in her head and everyone was ringing it with mad abandon.

“Ow,” Maya grinned.

[Looter] Level 2

Why leave loot lying around, even if it doesn’t belong to you.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

…

[Looter] Level 6

Why leave loot lying around, even if it doesn’t belong to you.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

[Thief] Level 1

Possession is 9/10’s of the Law, System Law.

+ 1 Physical Dexterity

…

[Thief] Level 5

Possession is 9/10’s of the Law, System Law.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

[Burglar] Level 1

If they really wanted to keep their items, they would have protected them better.

+ 1 Mental Stamina

…

[Burglar] Level 4

If they really wanted to keep their items, they would have protected them better.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

Golden Rule I

First of your race to reach one million universal credits.

Those with the gold, make the rules.

+ 1 Fortitude

Outpost Settlement Deeds cost reduced 50 percent

+ 2000 EXP

New Money

From rags to riches. How? It doesn’t matter.

+ 1 Soul Stamina

Profit I

Garish Crook I

Being low key is not in your vocabulary.

+ 1 Soul Dexterity

“Holy shit,” Maya breathed. That wasn’t even most of the stuff inside the container. “I need a cigarette.”

***

[Looter] Level 8

Why leave loot lying around, even if it doesn’t belong to you.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

[Thief] Level 7

Possession is 9/10’s of the Law, System Law.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

[Burglar] Level 6

If they really wanted to keep their items, they would have protected them better.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

There were no wikis for how the System worked. From what Maya could see, it seemed that everyone sort of knew how it worked, therefore they didn’t write it down. It was just common sense. Which ultimately frustrated Maya as she dug through Tommo’s terminal.

Eventually she managed to run a key word search through all the records and logs that were stored on the computer. The intuitive functionality of the computer was impressive.

The Outpost Settlement Deeds had caught her eye. It was as she expected. A SIL would purchase a plot of land from the System. It seemed the System now had claim over everything, with settlements having to be purchased from it even if the original inhabitants still lived there. Maya was immediately against the very idea. Not only had Integration most likely led to an apocalypse, but now the survivors would have to gather up money to buy their land back for safety.

The Deeds were basically safe zones. With the Tier 2 ranking of Earth, after Integration, it would cause a massive influx of mana and that mana would be fluctuating for centuries. This mana fluctuations would cause a type of dimensional instability that were called Mana Renders. Where the Dimensional Instability that had brought Maya to the rainbow sky hellscape, these Mana Renders created wormholes that would connect random places across the multiverse.

In effect, the Render would connect the baby Tier 2 Earth to other more established Tier 2 or higher planets, pulling monsters and creatures from those worlds. Then bringing them back onto Earth to run amok. It was the cost of being a Point of Contact for the System, a place where the System ‘touched’ the new universe and brought forth the mana.

The Point of Contact aspect was a whole other thing that boggled Maya’s mind. It boiled down to Earth and the Sol System being a mana sponge for the next million years or so. Eventually the planet would be overrun by monsters and the locals would have to abandon the system, every instance of a known Point of Contact system was considered an extremely dangerous area. It began at Tier 2 and would keep rising over the centuries, until it had to be quarantined.

Maya felt sick to her stomach. Earth was doomed.

The Renders would be the worst thing in the beginning. Bringing established monsters from far off universes. The Settlement Deeds were System guaranteed safe zones, preventing a Mana Render to form in the designated area. It would also reduce fluctuations in the mana around the claimed area, creating a sort of newbie zone around the settlement. Without the massive spikes of random mana around a settlement, the local wildlife wouldn’t be as terrifying as other areas.

Maya wanted to know more, but all the information she had discovered had been pieced together from logs and reports or second hand information casually spoken. Most of the information she had gotten on Settlement Deeds was from a frog alien talking to an insect alien about their clan possibly settling down and buying a deed on Haltor’s World. “A good place to retire,” had been their words.

Tommo also had been recording every conversation and word spoken in the club for months. Maya even discovered what the Pleasure Rooms were, basically virtual reality pods for sexy times.

Buying a deed was something that wasn’t explained either. Maya had tried calling out to the System, but it had not responded. That damn wiki needed to be created.

Universal credits were an electronic and physical currency, Maya also discovered. She could turn the credits in her ‘account’ into physical coins. Well, a coin that was labeled with a value. The coin was large, the size of her palm, and looked very much magical. There were patterns and swirls upon the metallic coin, along with the numerical value that the coin represented. One side held the value and the other held a nebula of colors and patterns.

She spent a few minutes flipping the large coin of a million credits into the air and catching it, while she thought on her next steps.

The container was useful. It didn’t weigh all that much and like her inventory it didn’t seem to increase in weight as she added items to it. At least, until it reached the five ton limit. Unlike her own Inventory, there was no weight limit per object or stack. The weight limit was the five tons. The other difference was also the time it took to put in an item.

With her own Inventory all she had to do was have it in her hand, but the dimensional container had a scanner that connected to the computer terminal she carried. It created another window in which she had to scan the object she wanted to put into the container and after a minute the scanned object would be encased in a blue light and vanish.

From some of the other information she had garnered, it seemed the container was an expensive piece of equipment normally reserved for cargo businesses. The big drawback being that a SIL with high enough levels could tell what was inside of it. Her own Dimensional Inventory was System awarded and therefore no one could ever know what she was carrying.

It seemed being a one in a billion survivor was worth it.

The next big item Maya had found in the container was the deed for the Pub. She had thought she could claim it like the Hanganathorie, but the deed to the Pub was not in Tommoth’s name. It was in the Plaxar Corporation, which meant that she had to wait out the full standard year before it became salvageable. She could not steal the deed and claim it. She had tried.

She had also found out that the AIs were also considered apart of the structure itself, so she couldn’t steal them also. She could steal them, but they wouldn’t acknowledge her ownership. There were measures on the AIs that prevented them from being stolen or abandoned. It seemed the Sword of the Universe was fearful of rogue AIs enough to have killswitches installed in every AI built. Therefore if she ran off with the AIs, their cores would implode. Their AI core would also implode if a monthly update wasn’t installed by the owner.

Maya needed the AIs to acknowledge her as their leader or boss. So she pulled up paper work from the computer and created a job listing for a sub-Manager. She didn’t know if it was a real title or not, but she couldn’t replace Tommoth as the manager, since he was apart of the Plaxar Corporation, but she figured she could make herself an employee of the pub. It was an easy task to set up the new position and put herself in it. She also gave herself a hefty hourly wage.

[Forgery] Level 1

You never have to worry about having the right paperwork, especially when you can just create it.

+ 1 Mental Dexterity

“Oh, fuck you,” Maya muttered. She inputed the new information and updated the computer system.

She leaned back in the chair and stretched, feeling her back and shoulders satisfyingly pop. After a week in gloomy darkness and rainbow skies, Maya realized she had missed even artificial lights. She hadn’t realized how dark everything had been in the world outside, but now with normal lighting, she felt her mood begin to rise. A good night’s sleep and a shower wasn’t a bad thing either.

Digging around in some cabinets produced a large duffle bag, big enough to hold the container. Maya dropped the box into it and slung the bag over her shoulders. Reading the specs of the container had stated that it needed to be within five meters of her location to be accessible. So it was better to just lug around the box.

She had emptied the container. There were valuable items inside the box, true, but nothing that she needed. Booze, drugs, and data storage devices that held all kinds of blackmail material. Tommo was not a nice guy. The only other thing of value was a holster and a pistol.

Taganari-15 Particle Blaster - mid grade, Tier 1

The weapon was a show piece, she immediately knew. It reminded Maya of the movies she’d watch where to show that someone was a badass they would carry a giant Desert Eagle. The blaster was big, heavy, and gave off the vibe of danger, but it was also flashy.

“Someone went hog wild with a Bejeweler.”

Gems and gold made up the exterior of the weapon. It was gaudy as hell and Maya loved it. She wasn’t foolish enough to play with the weapon, Pops had drilled weapons safety into his children along with the fear of what would happen if he caught them messing around with his weapons.

Maya spent some time looking over the blaster. The grip was designed for Tommor’s species, but it wasn’t too difficult for her to use. Instead of an ejectable clip in the grip, there was a switch that popped open the slide of the gun. It opened from the backend and inside was a cylinder the size of a Double A battery.

Particle Blaster Charge - 20 shots remaining - low grade, Tier 1

She returned the charge and closed the gun. There was a safety on the grip by where her thumb would be. A simple switch to turn it on and off. She found more particle charges inside the container and tossed them into her own Inventory. The gun followed. Maya wasn’t about to go wearing a weapon she didn’t fully understand.

Maya sighed and turned toward Tommo’s living quarters. She entered the room and stared down at the two sheet covered bodies. She sighed again and cracked her neck. The dead needed to be taken care of. She activated a window. It took five minutes for the blue light to encase both bodies and in a flash, they were gone. Maya glanced toward the container inventory and saw two icons showing the corpses inside.

“Well, that works,” she said. She wasn’t thrilled by it, but she didn’t want to go about dragging moldering corpses around. She had just showered.

Tommoth Din Darro - Level 25

+ 852 credits

+ 1250 EXP

Ysrat Yvone - Level 10

+ 625 credits

+ 500 EXP

[Body Thief] Level 1

When profitability trumps morality, there stands the Body Thief.

+ 1 Soul Strength

“What the hell,” Maya muttered. She looked at the message showing that she had gotten credits and experience points from the two dead bodies. She knew she had the Plunder Skill, but she didn’t realize it applied to things she hadn’t killed herself. It was also the first time she had gotten credits, the rogue AIs she had defeated hadn’t given her credits.

She looked at her total and shrugged. Maybe it only gave out universal credits when it came from biological entities. More questions. The difference in the amounts from the two bodies caused Maya to wonder if that was just the amount of credits they had on their person when they died. She didn’t know how System banking worked, but she held over a million in her ‘account’. She didn’t imagine people lugging around all their monetary wealth, especially on dangerous worlds.

The experience was a good boost. About fifty experience points per level, which was different from the rogue AIs she had killed. Those had seemed arbitrary, but the experience she had gained from Tommo and his ladyfriend was easily calculable.

The [Body Thief] also worried her. Were there people who stole bodies as an occupation, she wondered.

Tender had said that he would purchase creature parts, so Maya assumed that there were valuable items to be had from dismantling slain monsters. Would the same apply to SIL? She chewed on the thought for a moment. It probably something that happened.

She shuddered at the thought and left the office.

***

One moment it was quiet; the music having been finally shut off and the naked AI sent to fetch a mop. Then it felt as if Maya’s head was being stabbed with screeching alarms.

CEASE!

DIMENSIONAL STORAGE DETECTED!

CEASE!

Maya screamed and clutched her head.

Windows appeared across her vision, all crying out the same warning. Cease. Cease. Cease.

“Cease!” Maya cried out and the body she had been scanning dropped to the floor. It thudded loudly in the silent dance club, the only other noise was Maya’s harsh breathing.

“What the fuck,” Maya gasped.

She looked around. Tender watched her from the bar and the large head of the dino bouncer poked through the front door.

“You good, boss?” Tender asked.

“I think so,” Maya sat down heavily and rubbed her head. “I just heard a godawful loud alarm in my head. Something about a dimensional storage being detected and being told me to cease.”

“Good thing you stopped. There’s a dimensional storage device somewhere on that body you’re trying to stuff into the container,” Tender said. “You can’t put a dimensional storage device into another one, even if you have a System awarded Dimensional Inventory. You do that and boom.”

Maya blinked at Tender. “You mean tossing a D-bag into another D-bag will go boom?” The AI nodded. “What? And people sell something that dangerous?”

“Well, the System won’t let you do it… or it’ll try really hard to stop you from doing it. So, those alarms you heard in your head. It’s the System’s way of making you stop.”

“Jesus,” Maya shuddered. Feeling the weight of the dimensional container on her back. “How big of a boom?”

“Real big.”

“Jesus.”

Maya looked down at the body she had been scanning. It had been about two hours since she had begun cleaning up the dance club. Adding herself as the sub-Manager had cleared away all the problems with ordering around the AIs. They now looked at her as the new boss, with a few white lies tossed in Maya was technically running the dance club. She still didn’t own it and some of her authority was limited, but it was the best she could do.

She had begun cleaning up the corpses. The AIs hadn’t interrupted or tried to stop her, their programming already being updated and her position settled. As the dino-bouncer, Richfield, and Tender were both stuck where they were, Maya had to rely upon the naked AI’s help.

The task had been fairly easy and gruesome. Although she wanted to respect the dead, she wasn’t about to let squeamishness ruin her chances of survival. Therefore with the naked AI’s help, she had begun stripping the dead of anything valuable.

Even if she hadn’t found Tommo’s stash of goodies, Maya figured she’d be well off from the credits she’d been pulling from the dead. It was gruesome to think about, but Maya tried to keep those thoughts at bay. For now she was trying to stay optimistic and disassociate herself from what she was doing.

Pops’ words kept marching around in her head. “The dead don’t need anything.” She needed to survive. She needed what they had. And items they did have.

Tommo might have thought Haltor’s World was a shithole and it probably was, but the people who came there to hunt monsters were not fools. They carried the tools of their trade, armor, backpacks, weapons, and various items that would help them on their safaris. From the wear and tear on some of the items, Maya was figuring that most of the people in the club weren’t posers either. A lot of the equipment she had gathered were well cared for and well used, also from looking at the bodies of the dead, she had seen many with scars and old injuries.

They were [Adventurers]. The work hard, play hard kind of people. She had seen the same mentality in Pops’ old Army buddies. Tough people who did hard jobs for decent money.

If she weren’t gaining credits and experience from storing away their bodies, Maya would have stopped. As it was, she needed the experience points. She needed to get stronger.

Then it happened an hour into storing the dead.

Level Up!

Level 9

Maya received four attribute points from the level up and also finally received all the other attribute points she had received from gaining abilities and Skills. She felt lightheaded and glorious at the same time and then it faded.

Then she returned to work.

The body that had set off all the alarms in her brain was the last one to be shoved into the container. It was a large masculine bear creature. The hair was either dyed or bear people from its world had colorations of hot pinks and neon yellows. She had removed the armor it wore, thick metallic plates that were connected by straps. The bear wasn’t naked underneath, but wore a skintight green suit. She had, like all the other corpses, checked the body over for valuables and items.

She had been looting the dead so much, she had gained two levels in [Looter of the Dead].

Maya looked down at the bear and sighed. There was a tab on its collar and she had run across it on several of the other bodies. All the adventurers wore the same kind of skin suit underneath their armor and clothing.

She depressed the tab and the clothing loosened and a seam opened up from neck to crotch. Maya shuddered and scanned the inside of the suit. She immediately found what the bearman had been hiding, a small leather sack strapped to his chest. It was like those hidden packs tourist carried so they wouldn’t be mugged.

Apologizing to the bear, Maya removed the dimensional storage bag and held it up.

Hitorio Superb Quality Dimensional Bag - high grade, Tier 2

“Fancy.” Maya tapped the bag and a new window appeared, displaying the contents. “Oh, must’ve been a battle bear.”

She saw what appeared to be a sword, an axe, various tools, gems, and other supplies. If the bag worked the same as the dimensional container, the bear probably wasn’t hiding it, but instead kept it close so as not to lose it. It seemed filled with their everyday items.

“Mine now,” Maya said.

[Looter of the Dead] Level 6

Rest in Peace, unless you have valuables. You’ve taken a high value item from the dead.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

Maya sighed and resumed scanning the body.

[Body Thief] Level 5

When profitability trumps morality, there stands the Body Thief.

(Bonus Attribute Points only given at level 1, 10, 20…)

***

Name

Maya Sullivan

Race

Human (Tier 1)

Level

9

26452/38400

Titles

Stranger in a Strange Land, Lost Soul, Unstable Survivor, First!, Giant Slayer, Tiny Terror, Garish Crook, New Money

Physical

Tier 1

Mental

Tier 1

Soul

Tier 1

Luck

18

Fortitude

4

Foundation

4

Physical

Mental

Soul

Strength

7

7

4

Endurance

6

6

3

Stamina

8

6

4

Dexterity

8

7

4

Perception

5

6

3

Willpower

8

6

3

Recovery

6

5

3

Channel

5

5

3

Attribute Points

4

Universal Credits

1,148,245