Tana Metalbottom froze, Tagged? Did he say tagged? Hoping to buy some time she asked “What?”

The man before her smiled as if he thought something was funny, then said, “Common, do you speak it?”

“What?” Tana asked confusedly

“Say ‘what’ again!” The man said menacingly as his thumb raised on his hand and he pointed his finger at her which caused Tana to hold her tongue until he burst out laughing. “I’m sorry, it was just too easy,” he said as laughed and tried to catch his breath at the same time. Tana looked at him as if he was a crazy man but she didn’t move. Every one of her scanning and analyzing abilities whether one of her actual abilities or from a device had failed to detail what she was looking at, which meant that whomever she was looking at was quite powerful and could probably make good on his threats.

After a moment the man stopped laughing and his expression grew serious as he said, “Introductions are in order. I am Adamantadine, you may call me Adam. I believe you have utilized an ability called Marked for Death on me. Please remove it.

Knowing she could use the ability again tomorrow she dismissed it off Adamantadine and asked, “What now?”

“Now we talk. First, how much was the contract on me?” Adam asked.

“The contract was 5 million credits, a not inconsiderable amount. I was paid 1 million upfront and I’ll receive 4 million upon completion.” Tana said.

“And you think you’ll live to complete the contract?” Adam asked with a smile.

“I don’t know what abilities you have but I’ve never failed a contract…Never! I would have to have a very good reason for paying the 10% return fee and taking the negative mark of failing a contract for the first time ever,” Tana said.

“You are a gnome, are you also a craftsman by chance?” Adam asked.

“Of course,” she said.

Adam raised his hand and a bar of what looked like Adamantium formed in his hand which he placed on the counter beside him, “How much would one of these bars be worth to you?”

Assuming it’s real, a bar of Adamantium is worth,” Tana paused as she pulled up the System Market in her vision and viewed the cost, ”approximately one million credits. Five would cover the contract but one cannot rebuy their reputation with credits,” Tana said.

“True, so let me ask you this, how much is your life worth then because make no mistake, if that ability Marked for Death is used on me by you again you will die a fraction of a second later and I can assure you that without that ability suppressing my health regeneration you have no chance of destroying this body,” Adam said.

Tana brought her hand up to her chin in thought. He had survived a direct hit from her most powerful weapon, then traced the second attempt back to her. He hadn’t killed her out of course and she could set a price that would help her recover from the loss of the contract and probably set her up for life after. She did some quick math in her head and decided that she’d ask for 106 bars of Adamantium and settle for 50. Not being modest she honestly believed her life was worth at least 100 million credits and the contract she’d lose out on. Tana looked at Adam and said, “I need 6 bars of Adamantium to make up for the contract I’ll be giving up and the 10% loss when I return the contract. For my life, I believe that I am valuable, I’d like 100 bars of Adamantium for my life,” she said.

Tana watched as Adam didn’t even hesitate before he created and set down six bars of Adamantium. “The six are for the contract, return it to the System. Once that’s done and you show me your message that states the Contract has been given up along with the loss of reputation message. Once I see those, I’ll make your additional 100 bars of Adamantium

“Just like that?” Tana asked.

“Just like that,” Adam agreed.

“Very well,” Tana said as she accessed her terminal, pulled up the contract, and returned it. 1,100,000 credits was withdrawn from her account with The System and she received two messages.

Finalis has returned the contract for Adamantium. Upfront payment plus a 10% processing fee has been withdrawn from your account.

The Contract is now available for purchase by other members of the Assassin’s Guild.

Finalis has lost 500,000 reputation with the Assassins Guild for failure to complete an accepted contract. The reputation amount lost is 10% of the total contract award offered.

Tana willed the window to display the two messages so that Adam could see the message, “Done,” she said.

Tana watched as Adam created one bar of adamantium per second. After 50 seconds Tana asked, Are these conjured bars that will disappear after a certain amount of time or are they real?”

“They’re not conjured. I am making them as you watch,” Adam said.

“How is that even possible?” Tana asked.

“Magic of course,” Adam answered.

“I get that, but The System wouldn’t allow something so valuable to be created without an associated cost. What is it costing you to make these?” Tana asked.

“If I answer your question, will you answer a couple of mine while I make your 100 bars of Adamantium?” Adam asked.

“Sure, I guess,” Tana said.

“Very well, I have an ability that lets me Mold Chaos into whatever form I wish, so long as I have the knowledge and the skill to make the material or item in question. Once made it is real. I utilize some of my mass to create the object which is then replaced by my health regeneration. There is also a mana cost which is regenerated as well.

“Wait, each of those bars weighs about 24 pounds, 80% of the weight of a gold for the same sized bar. 106 of those bars are going to weigh about 2,544 pounds. You weigh what, about 170 pounds? How are you regenerating more than 14 times your body weight?” Tana asked disbelievingly.

“As I said before it would be pretty much impossible for you to destroy me,” Adam said as pulled up the information from her assassination attempt on him and had it appear before her so she could read it.

Putrescent Particle Gun Strikes for 10 Structural Damage, (1,000 Hit Points) + 10 Putrescent Particle Damage

Putrescent conversion attempted. Chaos Incarnate is immune to Putrescent conversion. No effect

Micro-singularity strikes you, Putrescent Particle absorbed by micro-singularity.

Micro-singularity has no effect.

Micro-Singularity has transferred to a parallel dimension.

Marked for Death is still active, Health is NOT regenerating.

End Combat Log

“You soaked 1,000 points of damage to your head as a critical strike with all of my abilities in play from my weapon, “she said wonderingly, “The System didn’t even bother converting the damage or multiplying it as a critical strike because it didn’t matter? What are you?”

Adam ignored her question and then said, “Luckily for you, I’ve been in a more forgiving mood lately. Also, I should let you know going forward that if you see a contract go out against any of my family, friends, or daughter that will go very badly for you or any of your friends in the business,” Adam said.

“First, I have no friends. Second, I’ll need names so I don’t accept such contracts and third, you said you had questions?” Tana said as she tried to change the subject.

“I guess my first question is who put out the contract on me?”

“I can’t say.”

Adam looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me like that, I mean I can’t say. It’s not that I wouldn’t say, I can’t. Part of the ability that gives me access to the Assassin Contract System also prevents me from talking about who put out the contract.

“So how would I find out that information?” Adam said.

“Any information may be purchased from The System. If you want to know who put the contract out on you buy it from the System,” she said.

“How much does something like that cost?”

“The base cost will be the cost of the bounty they placed on you which will be adjusted by any abilities or extra credits that were paid to prevent that information from being purchased,” Tana said. “As an example, anyone can find out who the assassin was that was hired to kill their loved one. That information cost the same as for who put out the contract, so 5 million credits for the contract on you. Of course, I’ve added an additional million credits to that cost. After that I have a class ability that increases the cost by 100% per 10 levels in my class, I am level 50 in that class so anyone wanting to know who killed you after the fact would need to pay 36 million credits just to get my Assassin nickname. To find out it was me, would cost even more as I’ve hidden that information behind another 100 million credits. I didn’t pay that much, my class multiplies whatever I put into that protection by a factor of 10.”

“It sounds like it would be very expensive to find you,” Adam agreed.

“You know that a lot of Assassins are going to see a contract that ‘Finalis’ passed on as a way to improve their own reputation. There will be a lot of assassins coming after you,” Tana said.

“Which brings me to my first question, what determines how much it costs to get the location of someone in The System? Finding out if someone is alive or dead seems pretty cheap but getting someone’s location seems to have a cost driven by some other factor,” Adam asked.

“The amount The System charges is pretty easy to determine. First, take 1% of your luck attribute rounded down. Then multiply it by the highest skill level you have in any skill level that obfuscates your presence in the System. For most, that’s the Stealth skill, though there are a few skills that exist that are better suited to protect individuals from System searches.”

“Is that multiply based on rank or is it cumulative?”

“It’s cumulative. If you have the Stealth skill at Master Rank, level 100 it would multiply the cost to get your whereabouts by 300%”

Adam opened his interface and looked at his current luck score then verified that his Stealth skill was Master Rank, level 100. One percent of his Luck score was over 391 million. If he increased the cost by 300%, or a multiple of 4 that meant anyone trying to get his location would need to pay more than 1.5 billion credits.

Tana interrupted his thoughts as she said, “I see you’re thinking about the other assassins that will be coming after you.”

“Not really,” Adam said. Most won't have the means to purchase my location which makes me wonder, how did you get my location so quickly? I haven’t been within the System for that long?” Adam asked.

“I have a System based ability that allows me to open a portal to my target once per day, no matter where they are,” Tana said. It never occurred to me that my target could use that portal to get to me.”

“Doors open both ways,” Adam said with a grin. “That brings me to my next question, where am I?”

“You’re in the city of Suigen. It’s a city set at the start of the purple line which has a connection point to the blue line.”

“Purple?” Adam asked questioningly. “As in those creatures which are above Legendary?”

“Yeah, this is the only trade town that connects to the rest of the System based systems that utilize the transit system. The purple line heads toward the center of the System. If you follow the blue line it’ll take you to Nexus, the Capital. Though if you’re looking for rare items and materials, this is the place to come get them.” Tana said.

“I take it from your helpful attitude that you’re Assassin gig is on the back burner to your primary purpose for being here?”

“Yep! Mostly I just repair armor and items for Adventurers that come back from the purple and blue trails into the Labyrinth,” Tana said.

“You said the Purple line goes toward the center of The System?”

“How much do you know about The System?” Tana asked.

“Considering I’ve only been in The System for a couple of days, not much,” Adam said.

“How are you…never mind,” Tana started then continued, “There are a lot of theories as to how The System started. The Administrators will even tell you that they know exactly what is going on because they have some level of control over the System, but their lying. I learned that when I gained my System Assassin class. I have the ability to utilize the System directly but how and why, well I don’t know that. It was just a reward for working for an organization that I helped, well…kill a lot of people. Anyway, it looked like a good class so I chose it. I have no idea why I was given the choice and I’m pretty sure I’m the only Assassin in the Guild that has this class because until today I was the only one with a 100% completion rate.”

Adam looked at her dryly and made the universal circling hand motion to get on with it.

“I was getting there. Anyway, I did some research and I found that the area The System covers has been expanding for a very long time across many dimensions and Universes. There’s also a chance that it seeds some Universes but no one I know has been around long enough to answer the question.”

Adam interrupted, “I understand that already. I was in another ‘System’ called The Multitude. When I killed its operating system, The System absorbed it.”

“The Multitude you say?” Tana questioned and then continued. “When I was doing my research I learned about The Multitude. How to say this? It would be better to say that The Multitude and the areas it controlled were always part of The System. A group of Administrators thought they could break away and make their own rules.”

“They were on the Edge of the System weren’t they?” Adam asked.

“Edge, no. They were in a section of the System in what we term the basic area. Think of The System as a pool of fresh water that is constantly being filled from the middle with salt. As more and more salt is added to the water the water becomes more and more saturated. The variations within The System are separated by the rank structure. The Purple, or Apocryphal, concentration of creatures that require a denser level of mana and energy reside at the center. As someone travels away from the middle the concentration of mana and energy, ‘salt’, reduces level by level until you get to the green, or basic, area. The multitude was in an area that was on the edge of the advanced, or yellow, conversion area.”

“But I started in a holographic universe, was that meant to be part of the System as well?” Adam asked.

All dimensions, realities, universes, and their variations are part of The System. Even though your universe started within an area that the Multitude was taking over it resided within a region that had already been captured by The System. Granted, some things might have been going on that seemed like you were free of it but honestly, you weren’t. Let me ask you this, have you ever encountered a being or something that seemed so powerful that to stand against it seemed ludicrous as if it was something you cannot quantify?”

“I have encountered ‘The Gods’ if that’s what you are asking,” Adam said.

“No, ‘The Gods’ as you’ve met them are simply entities that have chosen a different role within The System. There aren’t many playing that role in this area, there’s no need. I’m not sure how one gets invited to be a god, but I hear you have to be at least my level to be considered. No, the beings I’m talking about seem to just turn up when you’re not expecting and give tidbits of knowledge or guidance that seem to answer questions but leave you with even more questions.”

“You are quite talkative, If I hadn’t been attacked and been able to trace you so easily, I might think you’re describing yourself,” Adam said.

“No, I’m talking because I don’t know if you’re going to kill me, and talking is at least holding off that outcome.”

“Fair enough, “Adam said as he thought about what she’d said. Ptah had appeared more than once but Adam thought he was part of the System of the AI that had been AL. If there had to be one being that fit the description she’d described it would have to be the one being that he’d met that he’d never even got a chance to know. “What about the dimensions of Hell and Hades and the like?” Adam asked.

All part of The System. As far as I’ve been able to determine it seems that everything is recycled within it. I don’t know if that’s because when people die The System captures their souls, resets them, and send them back out, or just downloads their memories into a new construct after they die. No one actually knows what happens after you die. It’s one of the few subjects that the Administrators will not talk about.”

“And you’ve met an Administrator?”

“I have, in fact, I’m wondering why one hasn’t appeared here already. Travel to and From Suigen is designated to portals on the outskirts only. My ability normally opens a portal that energy travels through. The last time I used it from the city an Administrator showed up to tell me to make sure I didn’t try to bring creatures through it in either direction. You’re here. Not my fault but I’ve been preparing for a tongue-lashing since you told me not to flee?” Tana said.

“These Administrators are that powerful?” Adam asked.

“Yes, they can lock anyone’s access to System generated content. The Master level and higher can modifier for attributes, stats, abilities, and Class functions. They can do whatever they want.”

“Whatever they want?” Adam asked.

“Yes, whatever they want.”

“Well, I’m not going to kill you. I think I’m going to go take a walk around this city and see what it looks like so I can come back if I ever need to. Question, if I wanted to teleport into this building and not set off your automatic defenses do you have a spot that visitors arrive at?”

Sure, this way, Tana said as she moved to a panel on the wall, and placed her hand on it. A door slid up into the ceiling and Adam followed Tana out into the showroom with a door that looked like it led outside. In the corner, there was a little holographic barrier that read “Do Not Enter, Arrivals Only.”

“That corner of the main room is set aside for individuals that are teleporting in.”

“I thought teleportation was only allowed to one of the arrival points at the edge of the town?” Adam asked.

“That is true. If you are teleporting into Suigen from outside the city you will automatically be diverted to one of those locations. Once you come into the city though, teleportation while inside the city is completely permissible.”

“So I can go out, look around and teleport back?” Adam asked.

“Absolutely. I should warn you that a lot of people might try to one-up my reputation by going after a contract I failed reside within the city. Also, if you think they won't recognize you on sight you should know that with an open contract, any member of the Assassin’s Guild, Thieves Guild, and certain other classes, will see the 5 million credit bounty floating above you as soon as they have a line of sight on you.”

“Are you saying I have a flashing bounty over my head?” Adam asked with a smirk.

“Yes.”

“Is Suigen run by a criminal organization or something?”

“I wouldn’t characterize them as criminal. If we’re talking about governmental forms hyper-capitalism would be a more appropriate description.”

So, contracts and exchange of services and goods. How does assassination factor into such a system?” Adam asked

“It’s a service, like any other. If someone is willing to pay, someone will be willing to perform that service,” Tana said.

“There are no laws against murder and crime?” Adam asked.

“Of course there are. If the individual killed is part of a System sanctioned contract though, it is legitimate and legal. The System is the law on Suigen.”

“So might makes right then?” Adam asked.

“As long as there’s a contract involved, yes,” Tana said.

“Let me give you a hypothetical scenario. Let’s pretend for a moment that a contract has been put out on someone. No one knows exactly how powerful that person is and they resist dying by killing the people that attack them, is the person defending themselves committing a crime? There is no contract after all?” Adam asked.

“There was a case brought before the Administrators some time ago where this scenario came up. The System sent out a message stating that every person had a right to defend themselves and that doing so successfully would generate System generated rewards. If someone were to try to kill someone else The System would automatically generate a quest for them to survive the attack. Either the Assassin is successful or the defender but one way or another the System sees both individuals as having a right to kill the other. The simple answer is that self-defense is fine.”

So this society is based on a live by The System die by The System mentality.

“Very much so, why do you think I hid my identity for all of these years? If others knew who I was, They would stop at nothing to take me down. Additionally, some of my targets have put out generic rewards for my death based on the criteria, “The person that killed my brother, sister, mother, father, etc…”

“So what you’re saying is that if I walk outside, get seen by some less than scrupulous people, and then defend myself, I might actually get paid for their deaths when I end them?”

“If you survive, yes,” Tana agreed.

“Well, this could be fun,” Adam said as he walked over to the corner where people teleported in and added it to his list of known locations that he could Gate or teleport to.”

“Fun?” Tana said as she looked at Adam as if he was crazy

“Fun. I’ve had some tension building up for a while and I needed to let loose.”

“Wait? You're just going to walk out into town and let people try to kill you?” Tana asked.

“Why not? I can read their auras, as I can read yours. While your aura is tainted by your ruthlessness, it isn’t who you are. I can see the creativity and thirst for…I would guess knowledge, power, or both. I can’t say for sure, of course, but I would guess that you do not kill innocents or those that you think it would be unfair to. I can overlook the fact that you took a contract on me because five million is a lot of credits and there wouldn’t be a lot of information about me in the system unless you were willing to pay for it, which would be incredibly expensive, even if the cost is based on only 1% of my Luck attribute and then multiplied by my skill in Stealth.

“But one of them could get a lucky shot?” Tana said.

“Yeah, that could happen. Still not worried especially after what you just told me. So you just sit tight here and I’m going to go do go look about the town. Also, I’ve needed some funds. If, as you say, I’ll receive bounties placed on assassins that have been extremely bad, multiple times, well that’ll just make this worth it. I’ve been wondering how to make some money in The System without flooding the market with rare materials.”

Tana looked at Adam hesitantly as she said, “Okay, have fun I guess. If I don’t see you, thanks for the Adamantium,” Tana said.

“Not to worry Tana, you’re a Gnome Tinkerer. I have more than one reason for wanting to keep you around,” Adam said.

Tana watched as the strange man turned and left her workshop. She had no doubt that as soon as he left the store the street urchin scouts would notice him and report that a target worth 5 million credits had just appeared in the “Old City” section Suigen. No one here knew she was an Assassin or a thief so they shouldn’t look too hard at her for not seeing and reporting his bounty. Regardless, she made her way back to her terminal, opened up the menu to the Assassin’s Guild, and waited.

Within 3 minutes a message went out that the Target, Adamantadine, had been seen on Suigen in the Old City district. She knew of a couple of people that were on the leaderboard and opened that menu. Derek, the Deadly, silly name but whatever. He was known to be a sadist and absolutely ruthless. He was also on Suigen because unlike her, he let everyone know who he was and what he would do to anyone that came after him.

Less than a minute after the notification that Adam was on the planet hit the message traffic, Derek’s name was removed from the leaderboard, as “Deceased.” Within the next 10 minutes, another 15 individuals were also dropped off the leaderboard. Then another message popped up from someone named Aurial posted a message that made Tana snort

“Finalis had the right idea, leave this Monster alone. I watched him kill 16 of us as many minutes. All were able to hit him from surprise, All attacks were ignored and the retaliation was swift. I thought better of attacking and just sat and watched. He’s just walking down the street without a care in the world while 16 of our best are gone. If you want to live, leave this Monster alone.”

Tana closed her message for now. Adam hadn’t been talking out of his ass when he left the store. Good to know. She went over to the pile of Adamantium. Put it all into her Personal Dimensional space and headed into her workshop. She had some items that she could make that would make up for the 5 million credits she wasn’t making today, and then some. Of course, those fools that didn’t have some form of resurrection set up would be gone for good. What a waste.

There were a lot of people being killed by Adam today. Maybe there would be a contract put out on the individual that started this fiasco? Now that would be some sweet justice. Tana adjusted her search parameters and looked for any open contracts on Lexnara Pellmir.

***

Adam paused for a moment as another projectile struck his head. He reviewed the information the nanites he’d left in Finalis had just sent him, Lexnara Pellmir. Adam looked around the street until he spotted one of the street urchins that was spying on him then pulled a gold coin out of thin air and waved it at the teenager, a human that looked to be somewhere between 12 and 15.

When the teen was in front of Adam he asked, “Which way to the nearest System Shop?”

“Straight up the street bout a mile mister.”

“K, thank,” Adam said as he handed over the coin, activated Obscure and Freedom of Flight as he vanished and made his way to the System Shop. Those that had been about to attack him lost track of him as he vanished from sight.

Adam ignored the assassins as they rushed to where he had been. He was already at the System Shop Door and passing through the portal into the store's main room. He had some information that he needed to buy.