The way Mab freaked out about my guns and the fact they are listed as artifacts, I have the feeling that each one in Meanrock’s possession is an artifact as well. That cranks my worry up a bit, based on the specs my handguns listed. That doesn’t include the uneasy feeling I had at the rest of the description - system death.

While assessing the danger level of Meanrock, he replies, “Hah! I’m just sprucing up the area a bit.”

“Definitely not to my liking. So are we going to throw down or can I get back to my bath? It’s been a day.” I casually reply, not overly worried yet about how this will all go down.

A lot of faith is being put into this slow-time ability that happens when I surge with adrenaline. That and the fact I’m apparently showcasing a level of one to everyone with the capability of scanning me. Underestimate me, bitches!

“Hoh, no fear huh? We have you surrounded and we’re all heavily armed.” Poser, this guy.

“And? You haven’t shot at me or tried to attack me here. Until you decide to, I’m more inclined to go enjoy the massive bath back in my room.” I’ve lowered my gun, staying by cover while we chat.

A slightly incredulous look appears on Meanrock’s face. “A bath? Why not go get laid, man? I’m sure there are plenty of women around, with our power and abilities they can’t really say no.” A leering grin, creepy.

Wait, ‘can’t say no?’ I frown behind my mask. “You mean to tell me you’ve forced those women to have sex with you?”

“Haha! They weren’t saying no by the time I was done!” Hip thrusting while he talks, I’m more than a little disgusted.

“So, you waltz in here and tear the place up. Why?” I try to get back to the root of the issue, since he only hinted at rape. Again, there are some people out there who like to be dominated. Let’s try not to judge too quickly. More information is needed.

“Ah, that’s simple. Taking over a planet is too much work and would take too long. Taking over a hub though? Much easier to accomplish.” He’s actually gloating a bit, like he figured out some major secret. “We can tax incoming and outgoing traffic, get our share of any goods, and sample the ‘finer’ patrons goods who visit. We just need to get the station and it’ll all be ours.”

“Then why did you suddenly haul ass towards me? I’ll admit I shot some of your goons down, but they attacked first. I’m not just going to roll over and let them kill me after all.” This will really decide whether I kill him or not.

“Simple. You are the wild card here and likely the most powerful. So you can join us or you can die with the rest.” Arms crossed, Meanrock delivers his ultimatum with a smirk.

“Uh huh.” I lean my left side against the corner of my cover spot in a relaxed pose. Most inexperienced combatants would have tensed up at the blatant threat, but the key to combat is staying relaxed and ready to react. Tense muscles slow the reflexes of a person and slow is often dead. “Look, I don’t much care for getting involved with this. I’ve already expressed my desire of being left alone. Now, are you going to leave or are you going to try to kill me?”

Smirk turns into a large grin with teeth. “If you’re not with us, you’re against us. Time to die, newbie-one.”

Oh, the gall of this douche.

I’m slipping behind cover when the wall beside my left eye sprays shrapnel from the missed gunshot to my head. Said shrapnel perforates the mask, reconnoiter eyepiece, and my eye in short order. I roll behind cover, trying not scream. Teeth gritted, tears flowing down both closed eyes, I see red.

Time goes to a stand still, my MP and SP start to drain quick. The only thought in my head is to terminate the lot of them. I get up and proceed to aim headshots at all the goons as I make my way quickly to Meanrock.

In pain and not giving a damn about letting enemies monologue, I’ve set eight bullets to destroy Meanrock’s head as soon as I let go of this time dilation. I’m already behind new cover and taking shots at all I can see with my lone eye.

MP and SP low, I take a deep breath and something unclinches inside. Time resumes and all the shots I made can be heard like a machine gun rattling off it’s payload. Heads explode, bodies drop, blood fountains and spurts. Breathing heavily, I assess the remaining goons.

Quick headcount shows thirty-three visible, freaking out wastes of human flesh. No one else has a gun, so I start to wade through them, careful to cover my new blind spot with the nearest wall. Mab and her daughter have flown to the middle of the room near the ceiling, so they haven’t been caught in the crossfire or in any randomly appearing glass containers.

I take out eleven more when the doors bust open all around the atrium-type room. Reinforcements pile in hot and heavy, decimating the remaining goons in a handful of seconds.

I slump over to the corpse of Meanrock. Without hesitation, I start stripping the visible guns from his cooling body and placing them in my inventory. I only half note they didn’t auto-loot, but was in too much pain to care. A quick check of the remaining deadbeats shows they were already picked clean by the system.

Lt. Scott heads towards me, I turn to get him fully in sight of my remaining right eye. His mouth is moving. I shake my head slowly and point at my ear. He motions for someone in a white robe, I’ll guess a cleric or healer. A flash of light and I can hear again.

“Can you hear me now?” If I wasn’t hurting so bad I’d chuckle. Nodding only slightly, my head pounds and the vision in my right eye dims a bit.

“Good, only a small cluster remain and we’re hunting them down. How badly were you injured and did you take out all the others before we got in here?”

“Worse than I care for.” My voice is slightly slurred. Frowning I reach up and remove the partially broken facemask and dislodge the remnants of the eyepiece. Lt. Scotts eyes widen for a moment, then nods. “As for the rest, yes I killed them. We going to have problems?”

“No, if anything you have my thanks and the thanks of the princess.” Arms crossed and somehow I can tell he’s smirking, though he has a tiger face. Weird.

“She’s not in a different castle?” I couldn’t help it, I didn’t even know there was a princess here.

Looking at me oddly, like I’m a special needs child, he replies, “No, we kept her in the secured safe bunker at the backend of the station. It’s the standard shelter area for VIP’s to head to during events like this.” Like I knew any of that.

“Newly Contracted, remember?” I say while checking for the fae.

The two faeries were flitting about all the bodies, having come down once the dust settled and some bit of order was restored to the room.

Another flash of light, aimed at my ruined left eye, has a gun in the clerics face. He pales and slowly raises his arms in front of him, palms towards the ceiling. Frowning, I put the gun away in inventory.

“We done? I need to get cleaned up and check on this.” This, being a vaguely motioned hand at my shredded face.

Lt. Scott was frowning and so was the cleric. “Yes, we’re done. Thank you again, Gram.” Nodding, I whistle at the girls and head back to the room.

Actually knowing where I was going this time, I walk fairly quickly back to the room I only recently obtained thanks to Mab. Less than two days and already up to my neck in bullshit. I need a vacation.

Not caring or checking if they followed, I’m already halfway down the hall to the bathing room when the door slides open again to admit Mab and her daughter.

“...-ever seen anything like that before in my life! One second he’s leaning against the wall and then he’s over on the floor below shooting at the other guys! And all the blood! That was sooooo amazing!” I should worry about the fangirling Mab’s daughter is doing, but I don’t care right now.

“Mab, I’m taking a bath.” I comment half-heartedly over my shoulder before closing the door and stripping. The water is already steaming, not sure if it’s automated or always on. I’m grateful either way.

I wipe the condensation covered mirror off with my hand to assess the damage to my face. Shrapnel from my gear is still sticking out of my face all around my left eye and cheek. I take a few moments to slowly pick those out, blood starting to ooze from the open wounds.

Pulling the last piece that was lodged inside what remains of my left eye, I sigh and start cleaning up. Past the initial pain, I was told that wounds to the eye don’t usually hurt too much. So far, they’ve been right about that.

I set back and enjoy the large onsen style hot bath. A quick glance at my inventory shows that I did get some drops from Meanrock. I glance at the guns I took from him and compared them to the items that auto-looted from his body. Each gun is showing artifact grade with the same descriptor as my paired hand guns while the items were all below that on the scale. I’ll have to ask Mab about that later.

Frowning to myself, I pull up a note partition. I’ve been putting things off long enough, what with all the excitement going on since I got here. Now that I have a means of getting information from a willing and intelligent person, I may be able to try to make some sense of this new existence of mine. Though it’s more out of a deep need for control, most of what I’ve been doing has been flying by the seat of my pants since I don’t expect to live much longer.

Starting a list, I work my way through my thoughts. First, I need to know how this system works. Very general, but the more info I get, the better I’ll be prepared for later. Second, I need to figure out my skills and determine why my abilities were hidden. Third, go through my inventory and determine why the hell it’s so big, because it doesn’t seem to have a limit.

Before I can ponder much more, I’m interrupted by a notification:

For careful consideration and thought, you gain: +1 to intelligence, +3 to Wisdom.

Well, okay then. That’s quite the ball buster. Makes sense, you work your muscles and you gain stats based on that. Working through your thoughts and flexing your mind, get stats accordingly. I can work with this, though it does make me realize just how much there is for me to learn.

Sighing, I get out of the bath and dry off. Second set of clothes go on, the first pair go into the laundry hamper looking apparatus by the door. Time to get some grubb and see if the two fae are up for some questions.

I walk into the main living area, glancing about for the two glow lights. I faintly see light reflecting from the mini- condo, so I head to the kitchen area to fiddle with the nobs. A decent spread set before me, I sit and dig in.

Ten or so minutes of quiet contemplation and eating pass. The clink of cutlery on plate intermittently disturbing the seeming solemn atmosphere. The background music I craved for at the start of this mess was gently playing in the background of my mind, staving off the madness that had taken root during the time-freeze episode.

The unnatural stillness of that time still has me off balance. So long without interaction, without sound, without a purpose. Then suddenly, so much at once is happening, leaving me reeling and prone to mistakes. Taking the time to review the past twenty-four hours alone shows just how bad things are. Quick to anger, quick to kill, and seriously lacking information of this new existence. While I’m not a saint, I’m not a mass murderer either and that’s what weighs on me at this moment.

But it doesn’t weigh on me for too long. There are things that could have been done differently, sure, but that doesn’t mean they would have been a better path. Each of the deaths on my hands this past day, except the rapist, all had a chance to turn away. They made the decision to attack me, so I met force with greater force.

“Not the best of justifications, but my conscious is clean.” I state aloud for my own peace of mind. It’s not like I’m trying to convince myself, right?

By settling the turmoil in your mind, you have opened the passive ability: Peace of Mind. This ability grants added bonuses to HP, MP, and SP. Increases Regenerative effects.

I slowly let a breath out. I know of at least one ability now. This could be a massive gain or just barely put me about the normal range for the natives here. Doing the math in my head and using the notes I kept from previous checks to keep track, I get a pretty good idea of how the changes have been made. Pulling up my stats, the changes are noticeable.

Name:

Gram D. Randal

Age:

29

Job:

Soldier

Level:

1 (37)

Exp

---

To next lvl:

16,419

Race:

Human

Stat points:

185

HP:

1820

MP:

1760

SP:

1840

HP Regen/min

172

MP Regen/min

157

SP Regen/min

176

Strength:

81

Agility:

96

Intelligence:

87

Endurance:

84

Dexterity:

102

Wisdom:

69

Charisma:

65

Luck:

2

The most obvious change is the lack of Exp. I’ll have to go check the system notifications I’ve been ignoring to see why that went away.

My HP, MP, and SP are determined by my strength, intelligence, and endurance stats respectfully and multiplied by ten. Each of the three had a modifier from the migration, I’m guessing my baseline from my world. The regeneration per minute was originally five percent of each corresponding stat.

Now, regeneration has an added modifier - HP regen is five percent of my HP plus my strength stat, Mp regen adds wisdom, and SP adds endurance. For HP, MP, and SP itself - HP and SP are my strength and endurance stats added together, then multiplied by ten plus the baseline mod. MP is intelligence and wisdom added, multiplied by ten then the mod added.

It looks like agility and dexterity are both action modifiers. I’ll have to determine how these stats affect anything later. I imagine the guns that came with me eliminate a lot of the action mods due to overwhelming damage and their weird descriptors. Other than landing critical damage, I don’t think my stats will be able to directly modify the damage of the bullet once it is fired.

Knowing I’ve got a tremendous amount of notifications waiting for me and reflecting on how much I’ve likely auto-looted, I want to avoid slogging through the inventory and system message logs. I take a peek at the system messages anyway, to see if I got anything from killing another Migrant.

Congratulations! You are the first to kill a fellow Migrant! For completing this action, you are awarded an upgrade to one of your abilities! The Lesser @$&#%*^@$% is now Greater @$&#%*^@$%.

Greater? I suppose that’s nice, but I still can’t see what the ability is. Pulling up the abilities tab, it’s still blank.

Fuck you, System. Quit trolling me, asshat.

I lay back on the couch in the living area, letting my thoughts wander. I can faintly hear the two fae chatter in their abode, obviously excited to be reunited. I still need answers from them.

I must have fallen asleep. I startle awake, the remnants of my dreams fading. Tears stream down my face and my heart aches, I must have been dreaming of Claire again.

Sitting up, I wipe my eyes and try to remember my last thoughts before entering the Land of N.o.D. My left eye itches, so I head to the bathroom to check on it. Glancing at the timepiece as I head that way, I note that the time appears to be late and I no longer hear the fae chattering away.

I frown slightly at the missed opportunity, but shrug and take it in stride. It’s not so important I need answers this very moment. While time is short, there is no hurry.

Glancing in the mirror, I do a double take at my eye. Before, there was just an empty socket due to the shrapnel. Now, there is a milky eye growing back. I blink to make sure it’s not an illusion, wave my arms and start acting like a fool. Everything seems legit, I’m not much for prodding my eyeballs to see if they’re working or present.

I lean closer, noting a pattern appearing in the milky white of the new eye. Turning my head this way and that, I can’t make it out. Shrugging, I’m grateful for what little I get since it would be a pain to keep it covered and clean.

Pulling Up my notes, I add a few more things.

Learn about the system, it now rules your life. Figure out skills and why abilities are hidden. Sort inventory and determine why it’s so damn huge. World transport - how does that work? No more exp? Why? Browse shops more in-depth, got money to burn! Figure out why I was chosen out of billions to migrate over.

That last one ought to be sent to the top, but I get a feeling it won’t be an easy question to answer. I almost wish I’d have thought to ask about it when Meanrock appeared, but he was a douche and needed to die. Damn poser, thinking he could threaten me.

I stop and process that a moment. I add ‘monitor behavior’ to the list as that was rather out of character for me.

“Back to the grindstone, better get Mab up.” Time for answers, she can sleep later.