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Chapter 280: Battlefield of Trades

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The digging only lasted for 5 minutes before the newly baptized Little Blacky stopped and raised his head to look at Siva.

Blacky gave way as Siva umped down to a pit 10m deep and 80m wide.

What Blacky had unearthed there was a metallic surface that no matter how much the Wyvern had stomped did not budge.

Siva smiled merrily, “Good job.” and stroked the monster’s nose as a reward before jumping off and giving him a signal.

Blacky cleaned the area around his discovery with a tornado while Siva waited until the rubbles were all removed to see a 70m long line that stretched from north to south, dividing the metallic surface.

After the tornado swiveled off into nothingness, Siva came back and exclaimed, “I’m off a few tens of meters but that doesn’t matter…”

He landed in one place of the 80m wide circular metallic surface, and then looked around him to make sure that there was no one who will hinder with his work.

“Don’t let anyone close in and interrupt me.”

[GRAWR!!!]

Siva knelt down and tapped some place and then he walked to another place then tapped the metal floor again.

After he finished tapping the tenth area, he heard a different sound and a smile beamed on his lips behind his red-eyed skull mask.

He pulled out his player panel and summoned a knife from his inventory, chipping off a panel on the floor to show a few circuitries.

“Bingo.”

Pulling out a few NanoCubes, he pulled another panel window and placed the NanoCubes on top of the circuit panel and then started to program the NanoCubes to serve his intended purpose.

“Thanks, Old Janus, for teaching me how to use the Portable Nano Furnace…”

Usually, NanoCubes are only meant to repair an Invention when it is damaged or weld things to some extent, temporarily, or change the surface properties of an equipment to beautify it visually.

But programming the NanoCubes… it was only possible for those who has Portable NanoFurnace installed in their inventories.

However, programming NanoCubes to ‘hack’ into electronics and circuitries is a crime condemned very strictly by the Terran-Human Alliance.

—that is, for those who had Nano Furnaces that’s registered to their database.

Since Portable Nano Furnaces, just like Janus had once said, are very sensitive and very expensive equipments with delicate electronics that could get damaged even with a simple tug, those PNF that are not inside a capsule storage will be sure to get destroyed or unable to be used.

As such, Siva was positive that the one he got from Dragona was already registered as broken or destroyed by the Human-Terran Alliance… since Dragona at that time was in the middle of chaos and the shop owner scared stiff and is properly compensated for the loss. (A/N: LOL)

But if not… then he could just shrug it off.

“So What? I’m already a wanted man anyways and besides, they can’t track me down since I’m not registering my Inventions on the database for the BP to be sold…”

CLICK!

That clicking sound when the NnaoCube melted into the circuit board was like music to his ears as Siva waited until the NanoCubes finished the job he had intended for them to make here.

After a few moments, the metallic floor he was stepping into started to rumble as the line that had stretched 70m long from north to south parted in a slow manner, emitting hissing sounds of when the hydraulics pulled the line apart below his feet.

It was actually a line but was in fact a lid, and what it was covering for is the thing that Siva was after.

Cold white mist rose from within the area below the lid’s cover and a 70m wide, 60m deep freezer for preserving monster materials boomed on his eyes like sparkling gold.

Siva started to laugh as he saw the stacked metal crates and boxes full of categorized and classified monster materials.

For an Inventor like Siva, adding in the thousands more S-Ranked Equipments in his loot inventory that’s still waiting to be sorted out is equals to a nigh-unlimited forking possibilities in his reach.

“I’ve already repaired and given the weapons to be used with the Erebus to Scion. Alice will be the one to teach her how to use it to properly defend herself in the future. For now, I’m going to create better equipments with the Black Ball that I have.”

Like how he had told Thorn and Volt before, as much cool and awesome of an equipment Erebus was, it was still just his prototype to test some of his theories on the usage of BlackTech.

“With this, I’ll be good to go.”

After he nodded in agreement, he popped out 3 capsules from his inventory and threw it in the distance. After three pops and a thick amount of white smoke, three metallic thuds rung on his ears as two Spyder Cargo Trucks with their trailers and one Centipede with its dual trailer back appeared in his vision.

“Perfect.”

With one reliable body guard to protect the place, all he had to do is to order someone to wait for the loading procedures to finish and bring this all back to Akhenaton… to be kept in the storage vault in Apus Epirus.

He wiped the air called that ‘someone’ because in his remaining 15 minutes allocated margin, he still has a place he needed to go.

“Coralline, can I leave this to you?”

[Promise me that you’ll give me some of it.]

“I’ll just give you a few already made equipments that will compliment your fighting style. I have them all in my loot inventory.”

[Alright.]

Right after the call, he looked at the expectant Blacky, “Wait for her to come here and guard the cargo trucks until you go back to the castle.”

[GRAWR!]

Siva didn’t waste any more time as he rode the Hover board to visit another place.

“Hm?”

Siva stopped and wryly smiled as the place that he wanted to ‘get payments’ from has already been dug and abandoned by Union-aligned diggers.

“What a pity. I was really looking forward to having a second of three parts of a PNF.”

The place he visited was the Production District of Alexandria where the crafter shops and the Enchanter Temple are located.

He really wanted to get a second Portable Nano Furnace to connect to and improve his own but seeing that the place was already excavated and all survivors and debris, removed and the streets were almost organized, Siva could only sigh in regret as he turned to leave.

“What a pity. Billion was at least smart enough to prioritize recovery of the shops and equipment in the production district. I really wanted to see if a second and third PNF could process that Big Black Ball.”

Having had a failed side trip, Siva hovered away from the district.

The southern quadrant was really decimated and he could still hear the on-going activities of the diggers in the far distance trying to dig up almost anything that still had either signs of life or things that could still be salvaged.

Still, even though Siva had boldly stolen some of the southern quadrant’s hunters’ resources just now, it didn’t mean that he could fight against just anyone whenever he wished.

He was still weak and he knows it, so no matter how domineering he was or how shameless all his activities were, he never forgot to maintain and display his own degree of a sense of propriety….

…..Siva style!!

Everything has limits and going further the limit is a always bound to pay a price.

Siva could intimidate anyone with his Killing Zone and momentum, but he must not dip his finger on the bottom line of some things to not provoke a bee hive. Unless he was positive he could live on after the consequences of his actions, there must be a bottom line that should be maintained so as to not attract disaster to himself.

“This should be enough at this small trip…”

After all, Siva choosing to have a 30 minute margin was all so that he could spend his time to getting that haul in the once former Warehouse District’s central Freezer Facilities.

In fact, there were at least five more facilities like the one he had emptied around that area but he was only interested to the S-Ranked Materials for they are the only ones that have an actual use to his current strength.

*****

Siva went straight towards the western quadrant where a central headquarters was set up close to the location of the Hangar Base.

In the gates, the Military Police Unit tried to bar his path and stop him from approaching but only when he unleashed his [Killing Zone] did the MPs immediately gave way to him.

“Bastard…”

“Arrogant prick!”

“If you didn’t save our city, we would have shot you down in the head.”

“You’re lucky we’re under orders from City Lord not to attack you.”

Siva, with his weirdly permanently heightened senses that was stronger than normal in Terroa, could hear the murmurs of the MPs that guarded the gate.

Yes, he managed to inform them who he is and since they had already been under orders to not make trouble with Siva, he was also considerate enough not to pull their feathers.

He made his way on a specific building, guided by a map from Thorn, stop his hover board and when he had arrived, he saw there Volt who was waving a hand to signal him.

“Right on time.” When Siva jumped to land in front of him, Volt greeted him with a weird smile. “I can’t think of anyone who’d actually be this punctual on his schedule… at least right on the dot.”

Siva made an audible “Oh?”

“You were counting my seconds?”

“Well, it’s not me but Billion. He said he was a City Lord and yet you were treating him like any other ordinary person in the streets.”

“Is he now?”

Volt chuckled. With his impression of Siva, as the days goes by that he faces troubles one after another, he was actually growing in a very fast pace that it was frightening to think about.

He was only around his age but his mental and his emotional state was being tampered by all these repetitive trials in his life.

So who wouldn’t grow up with these?

Sivas mental thinking was shifting into that of an adult faster than his actual age could cope up.

If it was the former Siva, he would have flipped in a fit, trying to demand that Billion pay this debt of saving his city with the proper compensation… just like how he had demanded it to Rentaw’s own wish to accompany them, back in Warjillis.

But for some reason, Volt could feel that Siva was not even perturbed by Billion’s attitude and this is a clear sign of Siva’s weird maturity pace.

‘Isn’t this too fast? This coolness is really shocking.’

Volt could only mutter to himself as he sighed.

How could he know that his impression of Siva’s fast-paced maturity wasn’t just a result of a few weeks and days, maybe months of trials but were the accumulated ‘years’ because of a new set of [memories] that synchronized in him?

Siva, of course, wasn’t planning on telling him a bit about that and only chuckled when hearing his small piece of news.

“I wonder then, just how we could handle this on ourselves.”

“Let’s just enter.”

“Ah before that,” Siva pulled a window on his panel and then told Siva, “Let’s switch weapons. I need the Black Ender.”

When he said that, he swiped the air towards Volt and gave him the items on the panel and when Volt saw the names of these items, his eyes went wide in exclaim.

“Aren’t these more valuable than that one?”

“No. I need the Special Material Ability of the Black Ender… I have an item that needed that function in my inventory so since I have this one, you can treat it as having given you back my thanks on what you guys did for me in Dragona.”

“Ah…”

Volt chuckled helplessly. But in his heart, he was actually quite impressed by Siva’s consideration.

Back in Dragona, Volt and Thorn went on to such lengths to save him, even if he pushed them away because of his circumstances.

Siva wasn’t someone who would treat that as if it was some kind of one-time gratitude.

He, gifting them these material things, is just the surface of how he appreciated their kindness to his cause.

“Don’t sweat it, man. Rather, I want you to keep that gun and that sword. It will actually help you on your future adventures even if you’re not part of The Company and went back to your usual play.”

“Well, if you say so.” Volt did not bother replying to that and just swiped the air and sent Siva what he needed.

They entered the room and Siva was led on a double door with a [Conference Room] sign on it.

“He has two people with him. One is a Mage and the other is a Guardian Knight with a large sword that emits a weird presence of a monster.”

“Oh?” Siva was amused and activated the [Scan] function of his Auricle.

There were indeed four people inside the room.

One side was probably Thorn, standing, leaning his back on a wall in a corner opposite that of a man’s figure as if they were guarding each other, while the other side has two people; one is seated in front of a table and the other standing behind him, leaning down as if whispering some words on the one that was seated.

Siva concluded that the one standing, or rather, is making a stance opposite of Thorn was the Guardian Knight that Volt spoke of.

Judging from the height of that figure alone, he could either be from the Atlas or Gonn Race since it has a tall stature befitting that of a Knight.

The Auricle Scan can scan anything from wind direction within a certain radius, to humidity, geo-morphological overlay and even known chemical structures that exists in the database or in The Record.

Of course there are specific items that can also do those tasks in item shops but be reminded that the Auricle is a top-of-the-line supreme item that costs millions of Zentra and has a lot of functions that does just the same things as those items.

As such, only a select few can actually afford and even access these items. And even if one has the money to buy them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the item shops will always have them in store.

Siva may not be able to actually ‘scan’ the actual appearance of people in the scan range, it can at least scan them and create a 3D rendering of a wire-line representation with labels on the subject.

“That’s a tall frame.” Siva murmured.

Thorn was already taller than Volt and Siva but the one opposite of Thorn was even taller than him.

“Let’s just enter.” Siva said and gently pushed the double doors open in the middle.

Siva’s head went to face towards Billion seated in the chair in front of the table in the middle, but his eyes were focused on the tall figure of the Knight opposite of Thorn before landing on the beautiful male Mage at Billion’s right shoulder.

He dismissed everything else and spoke with a lively voice.

“Sorry I made you wait. I needed to finish some important tasks.”

It may not be much but Siva had experienced a few such meetings like these before he was even dragged into this hell by AG.

He was an academic and athletic prodigy of the 22nd century that earned the rights to be invited in The Conclave —the same gathering event that Coralline was a regular, albeit, not actually being able to attend.

Seeing Siva’s calm, casual, and proper presence, although he was still wearing his mask, Billion had a certain glint in his eyes as he tried to reevaluate the person known as Siva.

‘He’s not simple.’

That greeting, his bearing, this aura… it was of a person that is used to business meetings like this.

‘He’s not just a simple gamer.’

Apparently, Billion landed on a single step on the right platform to assess Siva’s background.

Siva, of course, was just using his experience that he had accumulated in all those gatherings when he was still a civilian in the real world.

“You finally show yourself.” Billion spoke and stood up to stretch a hand at Siva who walked to the opposite of the table.

There was a trace of displease yet it was more of a business-like tone when he spoke.

But Siva understood that it was just a jab to let him know of Billion’s presence.

Right now, in this meeting, the psychological battle between two parties has already begun.

Whoever has a weaker constitution will be the one to receive the short end of the stick. Such was the battlefield of business negotiations.

To compromise is to lose.

‘This guy is a corporate-monger.’

Siva thought and smiled behind his mask.

He went to the other side of the table opposite of Billion and then stretched a hand to receive the offered one and not waiting for Billion to offer the seat first, Siva slumped his butt on the soft seat and leaned back leisurely, right leg over the left, fingers intertwining and relaxedly on top of his knee… Siva began the negotiations.

“Let’s cut the jabs and went straight to the point of this meeting….’

This opening line surprised Billion and he instantly regretted to have been late to open the curtain of this meeting.

“…I only require a district-sized Hangar Bay, two million pieces of NanoCubes, 1M vials of Red and Blue Potions… each… and at least two mega-crates of BlackRock Metal.”

Billion choked on the spot.

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Siva’s oddness multiplies by the tens…

Billion collapses in the first punch!!!

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