《Legend of the wasteland》


 The strange man in the wasteland

    In the Capital wasteland, near the town of Megaton, as a green nuclear cloud traveled by, a rather peculiar sight can be seen, a sight that even the wastelanders would find strange


    A young man seemingly in his early 20''s is laying down on his back with his chest facing the air as his body is being slowly fried by the sun as his limbs are outstretched


    His chest is still not moving at all, his face is drained of all color as is the rest of his body, if someone touched his skin it would be ice cold as if it was a corpse and at first glance, it might seem like any ordinary corpse


    That is it of itself would not be so peculiar, oftentimes travelers either pass out or voluntarily lie down on the dirt due to the sun, or he might just be another dead rotting corpse, also an often occurrence/sight in the capital wasteland no the truly strange part is the man''s clothing and how his body temperature is so cold when the sun is practically melting the very ground itself with its heat


    He is wearing a red, loose and a little too big T-shirt with no design on it and a pair of black sweatpants with the Nike logo in white at the left thigh side, he has black Addidas leather shoes and black socks that are rolled down to his ankles


    His clothes are clean as if they have not been in the wasteland for the past 200 plus years, nor do they look like they were produced by someone in the wasteland, the marks of his clothes are unknown, no one has or ever will see such clothes in the wasteland nor in pre-war America so it gives the man an alien-like look


    The only thing that could somewhat be related to the wasteland is a sleek black finish pip-boy 3000 on the man''s left arm but even that is questionable since the pip-boy is too sleek and futuristic looking, completely different than the bulky 3000 version besides that this pip-boy for some reason has no buttons so the pip-boy on the man''s arm has only the faintest rebalance to the pip-boy 3000


    All of those factors combined is exactly what makes this scene so puzzling, cryptic and peculiar even by the standards of the post-apocalyptic Capital wasteland, a place where even aliens exist


    Suddenly and unexpectedly the man''s eyelids move, it is just a small twitch but it is as thou that small twitch was a trigger that created a chain reaction setting his body back in motion


    Immediately his chest begins to rhythmically rise and fall, his heart starts to beat, pumping his blood which has now started to circulate thru his veins and arteries bringing back color to his seemingly lifeless body


    The young man stayed that way for another 10 minutes just laying there in the sand and the dirt as a soft breeze blew by, while the sun-scorched his body and he slowly regained back his colors, as he lays there another strange occurrence happens, his pip-boy somehow miraculously came back to life without even needing anyone to boot it up manually as if a ghost possessed it


    Just when the 10-minute mark of when the body reanimated hit the pip-boy beeped out and the man''s eyes violently shot open as his eyeballs started to creepily rolling around observing his new and semi-familiar surroundings


    ''So, I have really come to fallout huh?'' Thought the young man as he played there for a few seconds longer before he pushed himself up with his hands and putting himself into a semi-sitting position leaning his back on a nearby rock while holding his head with his right hand as a terrible headache hit him


    He remembered how he got here, why he is here and where here even is, but the information all flushed in at once assaulting his poor brain and giving him the headache of a lifetime basically turning his brain into mush, that cupeled with the fact that he biologically just came back from the dead making his body ache and scream out in pain, would be reason enough why he was not feeling too great


    He sat down like that for an additional minute before his headache somewhat cleared out and he could somewhat think straight although that is also not 100% accurate as his body is still aching all over and the headache just became less intense it did not stop completely


    Putting his hand on the boulder he was leaning on the man half pulled half stood up with all the strength he could muster before leaning up against the boulder with his shoulder as he examined his immediate surroundings


    He looked left, then right, then he turned around and looked behind himself before he looked up, thankfully there was no one in sight, no Deathclaw, no raider, no rad roach or mole rat, no hostiles nor friendlies insight although he could see the iconic Megaton wall behind himself not that far off into the distanceYou might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    The man sighed a breath of relief as he noticed that there was no one in sight before he sat down once again as standing sapped his already low energy, he then looked down at his pip-boy screen and at the row of text being presented in front of him


    [Welcome to the Capital wasteland user! I am your system, the Fallout system!] The row of text was presented in a bright neon green color as a vault boy on the screen was giving a thumbs up to the man, the neon green was truly bright and hard to miss basically stabbing the man in the eyes as he barely looked at it from how eye stabbing it was


    [Now before anything else please input your age, race, gender, design your look and finally pick your system!] Before the man even had time to think and comprehend the previous text the text already shifted into a new one before it also suddenly disappeared the moment the man read thru it


    Instead of the text there came in a fully colored human model with his arms and legs spread out to the right side while there were all types of parameters, scales and things to input on the left side also in the neon green color as the text


    The human model has black short hair, a soft jawline, a borderline unibrow, crooked nose and so on while the body itself is a little lanky and thin while appearing quite tall, overall the person this body represents could be counted as average in looks, maybe a little above average but that is just 1% above average nothing too stunning


    The body and the looks belong to none other than the MC himself the only difference is that the body in the pip-boy is naked while the MC is, thank god, fully clothed


    On the left, the parameters were showcased in 2 ways, there was either a green box in which a name/character came in or a slider with an arrow and a name on top of every slider basically saying what that slider represents


    ''So this is my custom pip-boy.'' Thought the man as he looked at the model of himself at the right and at the parameters on the left side of the pip-boy


    He just stared at it for a minute before he had decided on what to do, what to keep and what to change about himself but before he could start altering himself he noticed a glaring problem, his pip-boy contains no buttons


    There are no buttons, no keys, no mouses, no nothing, it is just a screen attached to a black piece of metal/plastic with text coming on the screen, it''s aking to a smartwatch just bigger and probably, hopefully, more useful


    The man contemplated on how to go about this issue before he thought of something and tried to swipe the screen with his finger and surprise surprise he rotated his character model to the right


    ''So it works like a touch screen?'' Thought the man as he observed and fiddled with the screen a little longer but had ultimately decided to get on to it and customize himself


    He ticked the male gender box and the human race box, both of which was a given since he is a male and he would rather not spend the rest of his life as a rad roach a race that he could have become if he so desired thanks to the system


    That, however, was the end of the light/easy choices as now come the difficult decisions and modifications that could/should be made and that the man will make about himself and his body


    The man began by adjusting his nose and getting rid of that small crook before he turned to the eyebrows and removed the unibrow, he gave himself a slightly sharper jawline and adjusted his body size a little bit and heaps of other small stuff that bothered him


    All in all the modifications took about 15 minutes before he was finished, there wasn''t that much that he wanted to get rid of anyway but some things like his unibrow and crooked nose were things that he had lived with for years and despised form the bottom of his heart so he was happy to finally be rid of those things, as for his hight which he reduced well he would rather not have to duck down while passing thru doors because of his height, which is something that annoys him quite a bit, even if he isn''t 2 meters tall some doors are just too small for him


    ''Now for a name, should I keep my name or change it?'' Thought the man as he intently stared at the screen or rather the top of the screen which featured the name box


    This is going to be his new life so should he rename himself as a new name signifies a new beginning or should he continue with his old name, the name he has carried since birth and he has always been known for


    It didn''t take long for him to decide what to chose, he sees no reason as to why he should change or rename himself so he might as well keep his old name


    So the man typed in Adam, this has been his name since birth and a name that he should have taken to the grave with him in his past world but it seems he has instead taken it with him into the fallout universe which is arguably worse as here he might not even get a grave nor a burial


    ''Now, which system do I pick?'' Now that everything was looking alright it was time for the probably most important decision and modification right now or at any point in time really, this is going to affect him from now on to every single day of his existence


    In the bottom of the pip-boy screen, there was a row of text, it is probably the most inconspicuous text on the whole screen however it is also the most important


    [Systems: Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout 76.]


    These were obviously the systems that all of the protagonists of the fallout universe have had and have wielded or should wield at least that''s how it is in the game


    Adam stared at the screen for 5 full minutes with the intensity of a Deathclaw''s stare, his brain was working full throttle trying to decide which one of these systems should he chose to wield, he already knows that right now he can only wield 1 system until he meets the requirements to unlock another one he will be stuck in here with only that one system for a long amount of time


    After thinking about it in every rational and irrational way Adam has decided to use the...

 The fallout stystem

    In the end, after a long time thinking, Adam chose the fallout 3 system for some very simple and rather obvious reasons


    First, he is in the Capital wasteland, the place where Fallout 3 takes place so the Fallout 3 system would be most suitable and compatible with the time and place since it was designed around the Capital wasteland


    And secondly, it''s because he doesn''t know what would happen if he chose one of the other systems, could he still pick up and use the bobbleheads? Or the skill books? Or the special perks? Or any other consumable/equipable item for that matter, there are just too many variables that could go wrong with the other systems so Adam will play it safe by choosing the Fallout 3 system


    To make thing even more convenient the Fallout 3 system isn''t actually that bad, it allows you to level up to level 30 and raise all your skills and specials to max if you play your cards right, besides that you get a perk every level, up to 30 perks so the system itself is not only very useful but also very powerful


    After he had decided on his course of action Adam clicked on the Fallout 3 option, before a green box popped up with a ''Are you sure?'' sign and a yes or no below it


    Adam thought about it again for a minute before he steeled himself and his heart, choosing yes, although it wasn''t easy, he still has many doubts and insecurities about his actions, he still chose the yes option


    [Congratulations on completing the character customization! Now you will distribute your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points before choosing your tag skills.] After Adam had finished his character customization, named himself and choose a system he was congratulated before being presented with the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. chart


    Like the text beforehand the moment Adam read thru the text it vanished into thin air and was replaced by 7 numbers going vertically down while beside them are 7 letters each with their own explanation beside them, on both the left and right of the numbers there is a small arrow indicating the ability to either take or give points to the desired attribute


    This is the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. selection screen and at the bottom left there is a number 5 glowing bright green, that is how many points he has left to distribute on his S.P.E.C.I.A.L.


    Adam immediately dumped 4 of those points into intelligence bringing it up to 9 before putting the last point into the luck stat leaving all of his other S.P.E.C.I.A.L. at 5 with the exception of luck and intelligence which is at 6 and at 9 respectively


    Then Adam hit the confirm button which was at the bottom right and the screen then changed and now came in the 13 essential skills of fallout


    All of the skills besides medicine, repair, and science were at 15 while the 3 intelligence governed skills were at an astounding 23, but it is not that unusual considering how the game calculates skills, it''s just that having a 23 in some stat right of the bat is quite strange so to say


    Next Adam chose small guns, speech, and medicine as his tag skills bringing medicine up to 38 while small guns and speech reach 30, these are probably going to be essential skills for surviving in the wasteland, especially if everything has become more realistic


    [Congratulations on completing the system selection! Now that you have finished it you have 30 minutes to ask me anything before I go offline. After that, you will fall unconscious so that your body can change to the configurations you have set for it.] With all of the usual or rather unusual procedures gone the system talked/wrote to Adam on his pip-boy, it seems as thou Adam is more or less done with all of his procedures


    When Adam heard what the system said he panicked for a second with all color draining from his face, making him look like a corpse once again, after all, if he falls unconscious in the middle of the wasteland his chances of death are huge


    But soon he regained back his composure and started to think about his questions, the system probably has something in place to protect him so he might as well ask about that


    "What has changed about the fallout universe? What has changed about the system? Am I safe here? Has something been changed about me?" The questions Adam had in mind were not that difficult, at least they shouldn''t be for a system as advanced as his, nor are they as numerous but they were the core questions crucial to his survival in the post-apocalyptic wasteland


    [Everything has become more realistic is the basic answer to the first 2 questions. People now behave like people and not like NPC''s while the system has also become more realistic. An example would be you have a carry weight of 200 but you have no inventory, you have to use a backpack or something similar. Besides that, the system changed your mind a little so you wouldn''t be averse to killing or anything similar to that so that you don''t die in the wasteland because of hesitation or other emotions similar to that. And here, in a 1km radius, you are safe for the next 12 hours, no natural disasters or hostiles will appear for 12 hours.] The text said, as Adam read it he fell into deeper and deeper contemplation, the information he is getting right now is highly important to his survival later down the line


    Deep down he was quite unnerved that the system changed his mind but he thought about it rationally and silently thanked the system, as a man of the 21 century who has never experienced violence and killing surviving in the wasteland where such things were an often occurrence would be hard, so Adam was thankful for the system even thou he didn''t like the fact that it tempered with his mind


    Before he knew it 30 minutes were up and Adam was knocked out, there was no slow embrace of the darkness, no suffering of great pain or anything like that, no all that happened was that Adam feel unconscious as if someone hit him on the head very hard


    That''s when Adam''s body started to change, bis shoulders broadened, his hight decreased from 195 to 190, still towering over normal people but not as much as before, he started to gain some muscles, not too much like a bodybuilder but not too little like a swimmer, he now has a Goku like physique unlike his previous skinny physique


    Besides that, his face also started to change, his hair adopted a blonde hue, not eliminating his black hair, the hue just incorporated itself into the black hair giving it blonds stripes and pigmentations, but his hair was still kept short, his unibrow was gone turning into 2 separate although still bushy brows, the slight crook his nose had straightened out and his jawline became a little sharper, overall he looked more handsome, not breathtakingly so but above average for sure


    Thankfully his clothes and pip-boy adapted with the changes brought on to his body, they enlargened in some places and tightened in others so that they wouldn''t be destroyed, it really is something convenient if Adam woke up naked he probably wouldn''t be happy so the adapting clothes are nice


    The change lasted an hour an extremely short amount of time if looking at the fact that Adam became a completely different person altogether in more ways than one in that one hour


    "Ugh." After an hour was up a grunt was heard from Adam as he woke up from his nap like a princess, a princess that has been raped and tortured for the past month that is


    His body feels heavy like someone replaced his blood with lead, his muscles felt sore like he has been working out for days on end while his bones are seemingly on the verge of breaking from the pain he is experiencing


    Thankfully for Adam, the torture that is being alive lasted for only a minute before his body started to calm down and the pain soon disappeared like mist in the night


    ''I don''t want to experience that ever again.'' Thought Adam as he regained his thoughts, this was a truly harrowing experience that shook Adam up quite a bit, in all fairness rarely has anyone experienced such pain so most people would be shaken-up, the only reason Adam was holding up so well is probably because of the mind alteration done by the system


    After another minute or two of calming down, Adam finally decided it was time to leave this place and head towards his favorite post-apocalyptic Capital wasteland town, Megaton, because of fu*k River city and all of its confusing hallways


    Adam got up from his lying position and stretched himself, feeling his bones crack and his muscles stretch is quite the refreshing feeling after that torture he went thru to readjust his body


    Adam then tried to move around, since he was now shorter and quite a bit bulkier moving around was a bit complicated, he had to re-learning how to move as even turning around or walking was a bit complicated


    But after around 10 minutes of just walking around, jumping, turning and doing all sorts of movements Adam had somewhat gotten used to his new body, even thou he can''t use it at 100% but it is good enough to move around the wasteland


    After he had gotten the hang of awkwardly walking Adam looked behind himself and saw the great gray city of Megaton and Adam has decided that it is his next destination


    But then he remembered about another thing that he had to take care off, another one of his wishes he had gotten granted before coming here, a wish of convenience so to say


    ''Got you.'' Adam went into his right pocket with his hand and found an object inside of his pocket, the object has a weirdly humanoid shape and is seemingly made up of a type of hard plastic, and it is quite big as well


    With a little bit of difficulty Adam fished out the object from his pocket and that''s when Adam saw what it is, it''s exactly what he expected it to be, the Fallout 3 intelligence bobblehead


    *Bip* *Bip*


    When Adam took out the bobblehead he looked at it for a few moments while a wicked smile full of happiness adored his face before a familiar beeping sound interrupted his train of thoughts


    Looking down at the origin of this sound, his pip-boy, Adam saw the screen beeping while a green box appears on the screen


    [Do you wish to consume the bobblehead? Yes-No] There was a row of text on his screen giving him an option of whether to use the bobblehead or not


    Adam was dumbfounded for a bit since such a thing never happened in the game but he quickly recollected himself as the system did say that there will be some changes to the Fallout systems so he quickly pressed the yes option


    [Bobbehead successfully consumed, intelligence is permanently increased by 1] Immediately the row of text changes showcasing that Adam should now have his intelligence permanently increased by 1 bringing his intelligence to a grand total of 10


    ''I don''t feel different.'' Adam looked around himself in confusion, he doesn''t feel like anything changed but he does know that something must have changed if his pip-boy said soUnauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    So instead of worrying over such matters, Adam pocketed the now useless bobblehead into his pocket and went back to observing Megaton and the way to Megaton


    ''About 3 kilometers huh, it should take me about half an hour.'' Observing the big gray clump of rock and metal encasing a still-active nuclear bomb that the inhabitant call home Adam estimated the distance between himself and the town before he began making his way to the city


    Adam started to move along, slowly and awkwardly walking towards his destination before getting the hang of it and he even began to jog at some point but it seems he has greatly overestimated himself and underestimated the rough terrain of the wasteland


    What was supposed to be half an hour journey actually took somewhere to 2 hours as Adam tried to overcome the rough terrain full of bumps, hills, rocks, and valleys with his terrible movement so him stumbling wasn''t an uncommon sight, although it is a hilarious one, the only good thing that came out of this whole endeavor was that Adam has adapted to his body more than before


    Luckily there were no hostiles insight as to the area in which the system kept hostiles out was only a 1 km radius so the next 2 km was a true no man''s land where Adam could lose his life at any moment


    Thankfully besides the minor problems of movement, Adam has managed to come close to Megaton without any other troubles and he is finally standing right in front of the city


    To his right is the trader Crow with his bodyguard and brahmin, Deputy Weld is a little ahead of Adam but still to his right, and there are a couple of homeless people to Adam''s left begging him for some clean water


    When Adam arrived he was at first not so cautious since this is Megaton, a very safe place to be so the chance of anything bad happening is not very big but what surprised Adam was Crow who has been staring at Adam since the moment Adam arrived with hungry eyes, something that really freaked out Adam but Adam can make a guess as to why Crow is looking at him like a hungry beast saw a juicy piece of meat


    Adam ignored both of them, especially Crow and instead took a detour going around the sides of the city, circling around its walls and being on the lookout for a certain scene/scenery that will help out Adam, at least for the beginning of his life here


    After walking for a minute or two and being on the lookout, observing every tree and every rock until Adam finally found what he was looking for


    Adam now stood in front of a boulder surrounded by 3 small, black dead trees forming a triangle at the front of the boulder while the boulder itself is quite big


    Adam carefully approached the boulder making sure not to stumble before lightly knocking on the boulder with his knuckle, the sound he got back was not the sound a boulder should make, at least not a solid one


    That was exactly what Adam has been looking for, the hollowed-out rock behind Megaton is a perfect place to get a weapon without much hassle or trouble


    With a smile of joy on his face, Adam looked around the boulder for a moment but he didn''t notice any way to open it up so Adam circled around the boulder until he found a square-shaped line carved out in the rock which is very geometrical so it is probably man-made


    Adam pulled that part out and it slid out quite easily revealing the goodies stashed inside of the rock and the dust/dirt which flew up high into the air after Adam pulled out the cutout rock blocking Adam''s vision for a few seconds


    After the dust cloud came down Adam saw what was inside of the rock, a sniper rifle, 10 308. sniper rounds, 2 stimpacks, a stealth boy, and a note are inside of the hollowed-out rock


    Adam put the stimpacks, stealth boy, sniper rounds and note in his pockets before observing the sniper rifle in his hands for a few moments, making sure to inspect every inch of the rifle


    It looks quite worn out with its grip already uncomfortably worn out, most of it lost the paint job it once had, the scope is a little broken and bent while rust can be seen here and there, it''s definitely not in 100% condition but it is definitely still usable


    Soon he put the rifle into his right hand as he looked at his pip-boy screen and tapping on the weapon tab wanting to observe the weapon from a statistical perspective


    [Sniper rifle


    Durability: 34%


    Weight: 10


    Value: 62


    Damage: 23]


    Adam looked at the statistics of the rife and nodded in satisfaction, even if the weapon is not at 100% some protection is better than none and a sniper rifle is a good protection


    Adam observed the weapon a little longer trying to familiarize himself with it, trying to get a feel of how to handle it correctly and how to use it, even thou this is the first time he has handled a firearm he feels weirdly familiar with it, probably because of his small guns skill


    The journey took once again a minute or two with nothing interesting happening along the way, which is strange since this place is usually inhabited by mole rats or vicious hounds, and it''s a good thing that they weren''t here, for now, Adam doesn''t want to engage in a fight after all his only methods of defense would be his fists or this sniper rifle which only has a couple of dozen shots left


    When Adam came back to the front of Megaton intent on entering the city what greeted him was none other than Crow with his brahmin and guard in tow standing right behind him as they observed Adam obviously intent on interacting with him


    "Um hello, do you want something?" When Adam saw them he was a little puzzled and confused about what was going on, he has a suspicion that is probably correct but it never hurts to ask but if they are here because of Adam and they are here with the same goal as Adam then this will be a profitable meeting


    "Hello, there traveler! I am Crow, a merchant passing by here. I couldn''t help but notice your clothes and the pristine condition they are in. So I would like to propose a trade, you give me those clothes and I will give you one of my wares. What do you say?" Immediately when Adam spoke to him Crow''s face lit up like a Christmas tree and he began explaining why Adam caught his eye or rather why Adam''s clothes caught his eye as he continued to eye Adam or rather his clothes


    ''Seems I was right.'' When Adam heard what Crow said he understood why Crow sought him out, it turns out Adam''s suspicion was right, it''s become of his strange and unusual clothing he knew that he would catch the eyes of traders and Adam hoped to do exactly that


    His clothing is not only extremely clean for the wasteland, but it is also strange in its design and look as well as the brand of clothing has never been seen before in the wasteland so it is quite easy to tell why Crow sought out Adam


    But this cleanliness and condition his clothes are in also makes Adam quite a big target and it makes him stand out very much so seeling the clothes is a better option than keeping them


    "Well, I think that only one article is not enough. These are prime clothes that you can not find anywhere else in the wasteland. Just one article is not nearly enough." Said Adam as he pointed at his shirt and explained how valuable it is, sure Adam is trying to get rid of these clothes but he won''t let it go for a cheap price


    "I understand what would you want for your clothes?" Crow''s face scrounges up a bit as he looks at Adam and his clothes deciding to negotiate further and listen to Adam''s demands, at first he thought that Adam might be a bit naive since he seems young but it seems as thou Adam is not as naive as Crow thought


    "I wish for some clothing, a piece of armor and for you to repair my rifle." Said Adam as he showed Crow the rifle he had in hand and pointed at his clothes, Adam has formulated a plan and is right now setting that plan into motion


    "No way that is a rip-off, ask for something less." When Crow heard Adam''s demands his brows immediately shot up into the sky giving his forehead wrinkles as his face became quite red in anger, he seems to be quite angered at the moment


    Immediately when Crow said that Adam heard a sad ding go off inside of his head, he was astounded for a moment making him stand in place dumbfounded before he remembered the situation he was in and went back to talking with Crow


    "All right how about 100 bottlecaps, some casual clothes, and a repair?" Asked Adam as he hoped that his scam could work, this is basically the psychological trick of asking something absurd at the beginning before asking for something comparatively smaller later and Adam can just hope it works since if it does work that means he has gained another asset to help him survive in the wasteland


    "Hmmmm all right I can agree to that." Crow thought about it for a bit, he mulled over the offer for several minutes before deciding it would be a good bargain and accepting Adam''s offer


    "Great, I will choose an outfit before I go to undress." Said Adam as a smile came to his face before another beep was heard inside of his head confirming that Crow indeed can''t hear that beep while he can and it proves that he wasn''t going insane instead this has something to do with the system


    *Bip*


    Suddenly Adam''s pip-boy beeped out loud so Adam decided to take a look at it and what he found was surprising, very surprising


    [Crow: Dirty suit 134 caps


    Dirty businesses clothing 127 caps


    ...]


    Adam looked at the screen and noticed that Crow doesn''t seem to take any offense nor does he seem to mind that Adam is browsing his pip-boy when he should be browsing his wares


    ''So this is another feature of the pip-boy.'' Adam continued to hold up his pip-boy for another 10 minutes but nothing happened, Crow didn''t get angry or anything like that so it can be concluded that the pip-boy works similarly to the game when bartering


    Adam just shrugged it off as another one of the features the pip-boy has before he seriously started to browse thru Crow''s wares and withing a few minutes Adam had found something at least decently useful


    "I will take the Regulator''s Duster and the pre-war hat." Said Adam as he had finally found something satisfying to wear, something that will look decent but also offer some sense of protection while also belonging to the casual wear category and it is something that Crow sells besides that the pre-war hat will hive him +1 to perception so Adam will gladly take it


    "All right, now wait a minute for me to get it." After Crow heard what Adam wanted he breathed out a sigh of relief since he expected for Adam to chose something he couldn''t give and then another argument would ensue which luckily didn''t happen


    Crow went over to his brahmin where he searched thru one of the trunks strapped on to the poor creature''s back, he searched for a full minute before he found the hat and the outfit pulling it out of the trunk and taking them into his hands


    Adam just observed how Crow did that, it seems as tho he won''t get the things he bought set into his inventory, not that he has one so Adam just continued on to observe


    Then after he had found the clothes Crow walked over to Adam handing him the outfit and hat while Adam gave Crow his sniper rifle for repairs


    Adam then walked off towards a nearby giant boulder which he promptly hid behind while he undressed and put on his new outfit but that is, not all he did while being behind that boulder


    [You passed a speech check gaining 20 exp!] Adam stared at the message now knowing that whenever he hears a buzzing in his head it means he either passed or failed a speech check and it probably works like that as well whenever he is losing or gaining karma


    [Regulator''s duster


    Dr:10


    Dt:0


    +1 Charisma


    +5 Small guns


    Condition: 100%]


    [Pre war hat


    Dr:1


    + 1 Perception


    Condition: 100%]


    Adam looked at the stats of the gear he had gotten and he must admit it looks pretty solid, it should at the very least help him out at the beginning of his life in the wasteland


    After looking thru his gotten equipment Adam went on to clothing himself and it took Adam 10 minutes to figure out how to put on the outfit, figuring out thru which hole which limb went thru and which belt, bucker and zipper needs to be done first was challenging but eventually, Adam had managed to put it on, honestly, Adam found the whole wasteland apparel way too troublesome and complicated to put on, the only easy thing to put on was the hat


    Adam finally came out from behind the rock with his clothes in his hands and a new look, honestly, the hat cupeled with the duster looked kinda strange and funny but at the same time it suited Adam quite well


    Adam casually approached Crow and saw him sitting on the ground tinkering with his rifle as a box of spare parts lay beside him, he would sometimes take a part out of the sniper rifle and replace it with one from the box


    "Are you finished?" Asked Adam as he approached Crow, Adam walked up to Crow''s guard and gave her his clothes which she promptly took and stored up into one of the trunks of the brahmin


    Now that Adam thinks about it isn''t it strange that there is only 1 guard that Crow has hired? Wouldn''t it make more sense for a merchant to have a dozen or so guards? As Adam fell into deeper and deeper contemplation he was brought out of his thoughts by Crow''s voice


    "Do you really think it is that easy to repair something? Especially something as complicated as a sniper rifle? It will take at least another 10 minutes." Said Crow in a snide and rude voice without even turning back to face Adam as he continued to fiddle with the rifle, it really annoys Crow when he as to repair complicated weapons like sniper rifles


    Adam just nodded in understanding, a sniper is very complicated so it will probably take some time for it to be repaired so Adam is willing to wait but in the meantime, Adam plans to at least talk to someone


    Adam than just stood there for a few seconds before turning to Crow''s guard who was just idly standing there like him so Adam started to chat with her


    At first, she was a little hard to crack and talk to but soon she and Adam were having a nice conversation about what it''s like being the guard of a merchant


    It is also thanks to this conversation that Adam found out why there are so few guards, as it turns out there are 6 guards but the other 5 are in Megaton advertising their business while Crow and she stay outside for any passing people willing to trade with them


    After 15 minutes Crow was finally done with repairing Adam''s rifle so he got up, stored the box of spare parts back on to the brahmin and gave Adam a hundred caps before he went back to his old cutting spot where he waited for more passers-by to barter with not wanting to deal with Adam again anytime soon


    Adam took a deep breath after the whole situation and moved towards the Megaton door greeting Deputy Weld along the way


    When Adam came in front of the door it slowly started to creak open revealing the inside of Megaton

 Good ol crazy Moira

    When Adam entered Megaton the sight that greeted his eyes astounded him to no end


    It''s the city of Megaton but much larger than in the game, there are dozens of houses maybe even hundreds of them with people hanging out here and there, like busy ants from a colony


    Some houses are down to earth some are raised on platforms, some have multiple stories, there are probably also underground houses as well, the size of the city is simply massive compared to the game


    Next to him are some children playing with their toys, some are playing with each other and some are looking at him before quickly turning away and continuing their play, their cheerful laughs destroying the moody/gloomy atmosphere of the wasteland


    At least a couple of dozen citizens can be seen chatting, walking, talking, arguing and doing lot''s of other things that normal humans in the pre-war times would be doing


    The sheer sight of such a bustling town/community surrounded by the huge iron walls and rubble cupeled with the contrast between the lively and bustling town compared to the gloomy and lonely wasteland made Adam astounded and dumbfounded, it blew his mind and stunned him for a few seconds


    If not for the fact that everything is so run down and dirty, Adam would have thought he has entered a real city in a not post-apocalyptic scenario


    One of the things that contribute to the liveliness is the fact that not everything is gray like in the fallout game, some people painted their houses blue, or magenta or into a rainbow of colors while there are pictures all around the walls of the city, it is another thing that contributed to Adam''s dumbfoundedness


    Adam was actually so astounded and shocked when he saw the city that he didn''t even hear the beep that his pip-boy gave out when he discovered Megaton and gained 10 XP for it nor did he notice that someone was approaching him, someone very very familiar to any Fallout 3 player


    "Well hello, there stranger. Name''s Lucas Simms town sheriff and mayor if the need arises. It''s a beautiful town isn''t it?" While Adam was dumbfounded staring at the weirdly/unexpectedly colorful and lively surroundings a man approached him from his front


    With a kind-looking face, dark skin and a western accent, wearing the clothes a cowboy would wear the man introduced himself to Adam, it''s the Preston of Fallout 3, it seems he noticed the dumbfoundedness in Adam''s eyes


    "Adam, just Adam. Nice to meet you, Lucas, it sure is beautiful." Adam was brought out of his state of confusion and shock when Lucas spoke to him


    Adam politely introduced himself while giving Lucas his right hand for a handshake and commenting on the town, it really was beautiful, not in the sense that it was aesthetically pleasing, god no it''s actually quite ugly by the standards of the 21st century, but the fact that such a settlement exists in the harsh and deadly wasteland is indeed beautiful


    "Well, well, we''ll look at the politeness. It''s something quite hard to come by in the wastes. Nice to meet you to Adam and welcome to Megaton just holler if you need something." Lucas Simms smiled back at Adam, it is rare to see such a young man with such politeness out in the wasteland, Lucas knows that since he is a sheriff and oftentimes rabblerousing kids and youth cause problems in the town, so Adam was aking to a breath of fresh air for Lucas instantly improving Lucases opinion of Adam by a bit as he shakes Adam''s hand


    "Well, to be honest, I could use some directions. It''s my first time in the city and I don''t exactly know where to go." Said Adam as he smiles back at Lucas and explains that indeed Adam already needs some help from Lucas, even thou it is only minor help


    In reality Adam was probably one of the people that knows Megaton like the back of his hand after playing Fallout 3 multiple times Adam already knows all the nooks and crannies of the town, but that is the game, Adam doesn''t know if anything has changed about the town and it''s citizens because everything became more realistic


    "I see, well it is understandable. Here let me show you around." Said Lucas as he still kept his kind smile on his face before he began to explain to Adam about the place, including leading Adam directly to the places giving Adam a tour of Megaton and explaining the history of Megaton


    This took at the very least an hour, probably much much more, honestly at fist Adam was paying attention and trying to remember everything Lucas said but at the end, he just gave up, Lucas Simms just can''t shut up about Megaton and his work as a Sherrif making Adam suffer as he rambled on and on and on seemingly without end


    Adam didn''t know that it was even possible for one man to talk that much or for one man to talk for so long, Adam truly wished he hadn''t asked Lucas for his help, he would have had a better time finding out about the city by himself


    Adam even met all 5 of the guards that Crow has inside of the city, some were rude and some were nice but they all tried to scam him or make him buy something which he always refused to do


    Thankfully at, long last, after a few hours of torture Lucas left Adam alone in front of the place that Adam wanted to come to, Craterside supply, the general good store run by the excentric inventor/novelists Moira Brown and the place where Adam can get 2 very important things, that is if his theory about the system is true


    Since Adam came to this world and interacted with its inhabitants he has found out some of the features of the system and he has made up some theories about the systems and Moira Brown will help Adam greatly in his research about the system


    Pushing open the rusted steel door of the Craterside supply which opened with a very audible squeak Adam walks right into the shop and closes the door behind him


    Adam was a bit surprised by what he found inside, the shop was significantly larger than what it is displayed in the game with shelves and stands to display the goods Moira was selling, there were at least 7 people inside shopping and browsing thru the things displayed by Moira, Adam also sees a couple of guards in the building while he can hear more noise at other sections of the shop indicates that there are more people in the shop, either guards or customers


    When he entered everyone turned to see who entered, with post people later turning away but the guards kept on staring at Adam probably because he is an unknown face


    But Adam isn''t interested in any of those people instead he is interested in only one person right now so Adam looked around for a bit before he spotted the crazy redhead known as Moira Brown and when he saw her, his jaw almost dropped to the floor


    In the video game, Moira looks average, hell she even looks a little strange with her strong jawline and weird lips but that is Moira whom players saw in a game that came out in 2008, and everything was only seen thru a screen so Moira couldn''t exactly be called beautiful


    But here, in real life, Moira is a bombshell, with her long red hair tied into a ponytail, her symmetrical facial features and bombshell of a body she can be counted as one of the most beautiful women Adam has ever seen, and which is high praise considering he comes from an age where the internet existsLove what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    ''Damn, she is hot.'' When Adam observed her sweeping the floor in her blue jumpsuit he couldn''t help but appreciate her look and also appreciate some of her jiggling parts before rearing in his lust and deciding that it was time to get down to business


    "Hello there." Adam walked up and approached Moira with a warm smile and tone of voice as she sweeps the floor with her broom


    "Hello, newcomer! I am Moira Brown I run the Craterside supply, just tell me if you need anything." When Moira heard that someone called out to her she immediately looked up, stopping her sweeping and she saw a tall, handsome man, with an unfamiliar face introducing himself to her


    She immediately connected him with the sighting of a newcomer in Megaton that came into Megaton today and fits Adam''s description so with a foolish grin she introduced herself to Adam


    "Word spreads that fast around here huh? Well, anyway I''m Adam." When Adam heard her talking about him he was weirded out for a couple of moments before he remembers that even if Megaton is larger than it was in the game it is still a pretty small place so word of a new face spreads around fast


    "Listen, I didn''t come here to buy anything. I need some caps and heard you were hiring someone for a book of yours. Doesn''t matter what I have to do as long as I get paid." Adam immediately went to the point, with only a hundred caps in his pocket, a sniper rifle and some clothes Adam can''t be called rich so he needs some caps besides that this will help him see if his theories are right


    "Oh really! So someone is willing to go through highly dangerous stunts that could kill him in a multitude of ways, with the possibility of lifelong suffering for caps! That''s great news!" When Moira heard what Adam said she immediately turned towards him and exclaimed her happiness with a smile on her face, but the words she said were in fact quite grimm and scary, making Adam wonder just how many screws does she have loose in that head of hers


    "Anyways, I need you to help me out in my Wasteland Survival Guide, a book that I am writing with the purpose of helping people survive in the wasteland! I am gonna need you to go out and experience all of these things for some practical knowledge!" Moira just continued on talking about that guide of hers without even letting Adam ask a question or explain himself and she wanted to go on a whole rant with explaining what the first chapter will be until Adam stopped her


    "Wait, you are planning to create a guide of how to survive in the wasteland by using other humans as guinea pigs?" Adam told her that with a dangerous and angry looking face as he asked that question, of course, it''s only a pretended anger, for some reason the thought of other humans dying doesn''t bother him, probably has something to do with the mind alteration the system put him thru


    "W-well yes basically." When Moira saw how Adam stared down at her she immediately became down and lost all of her precious confidence and gusto, she wanted to explain her reasoning and logic but in front of Adam she lost all her power to retaliate and she admitted the truth, no matter how you sugarcoated it the fact is she is basically using other humans as test subjects


    "Do you realize how dangerous that is! Not only will you be sending countless people to their deaths in order to explore the wasteland, but your guide might also turn out wrong, doing more harm than good!" Adam raised his voice as he yelled out loud at Moira scaring the living daylights out of her as she began to think a little bit about her guide


    Immediately everyone in the shop turned to the conversation/argument between Adam and Moira with some of the guards almost charging in until one of the senior guards stopped them by saying something only the guards could hear, while the customers just enjoyed as they watched all of the drama unfold


    "B-but..." Moira tried fo fight back Adam''s brutal verbal assault but before she could even utter out a word Adam already started talking, cutting her off from her train of thoughts


    "And not only that, I heard that more than just one of your experiments went wrong endangering multiple people! What if this guide turns out the same, but this time it will kill thousands maybe even millions because of your actions!" Adam still continued his ruthless barrage at Moira and her foolishness making her feel worse and worse about her idea, her spirits dampened and her mood turned sour


    "I-I guess you are right, I guess I shouldn''t write the guide, after all, I would only do more harm than good." Said Moira as she looked down at the floor with red puffy cheeks and tears threatening to fall out of her eyes, it is obvious that she is sad and that her mood has come down making her gloomy


    Immediately when she said that Adam heard 2 dings inside of his head confirming one of his 2 theories, now comes the second theory, which might be a little tricky to pull off


    "Whoever told you not to write the book?" Adam looked at Moira with puzzled eyes and a head tilted to the side as if not understanding why she doesn''t want to write the book any longer


    "You said it yourself, I am incompetent and would probably do more bad than good with my actions, let''s not mention how many people would have to scarify their lives for the book." Moira looked up again at Adam as she slowly and sadly explained her reasoning, she really wished that she never would have thought about that guide, if she never thought about it she never would have become so sad and gloomy


    "You are too pessimistic. There is only a chance you will screw everything up and an even bigger possibility for you to improve the life of the people in the wasteland. You should not look at yourself as incompetent, sure some of your experiments went wrong, you made mistakes and bad choices. But I believe that you are a smart girl who can do anything she puts her mind on to, even write that book. Nothing great is achieved without making mistakes. Besides that, you shouldn''t worry about any of the practical parts, I will be doing all of that I don''t plan on dying anytime soon." Adam told Moira with warm eyes and a gentle tone of voice as he crouched down a bit in order to look at Moira in the eyes


    Adam himself at this moment doesn''t know if he is acting or not, on one hand, he wants to help Moira but on another hand, he doesn''t really care about the wasteland nor does he feel any special emotions towards Moira, so maybe a bit of acting mixed with a little of his true feelings


    "Do you really think so? Do you really think that I am smart and that I can write that book?" Asked Moira in an unsure voice, she has just experienced Adam putting her down and insulting her yet now he is supporting her, she is really confused both mentally and emotionally


    "Yes, of course. If you want to do it you can do it." Adam reassured her with a smile, she certainly is smart, even thou it is never showcased in the game she is quite smart, and she certainly can write that book, if the Lone Wandered helped her that is but she did write it and it was a colossal hit


    When Moira heard Adam and saw the look in his eyes she felt something, although she can''t describe what it is it gave her the energy to bounce back and it gave her the confidence that she can indeed do it


    "You are right! The guide has potential and I certainly can''t stop myself because of the fear of failure!" Moira basically jumped up as she said that sentence, almost hitting Adam in the chin, with newfound resolve in her eyes and confidence in her heart


    ''What the hell, what kind of 360 is that?!'' When everyone heard and saw what Moira did and how she behaved they couldn''t help but let their jaws hang loose, Adam included, she basically has gone from happy to sad to once again happy, well guess that''s the reason she is considered a crazy person


    "That''s the spirit, now tell me what is my mission?" Adam quickly regained back his sense of reason and remembered that Moira is not really all right in the head so he smiled as he looked at the happy and cheerful Moira before he decided it was time for some business


    "Well, the first chapter should be about day to day dangers so, how do you feel about food scrounging, landmines and radiation?" Moira asked Adam with a calm and happy face as if she isn''t talking about highly dangerous stuff that can kill someone in the wasteland


    "Well, tell me more about radiation." Said Adam as he looked at Moira, the radiation part of the first chapter is the easiest and least dangerous, it is only a bit boring since all you do is lie down into/drink irradiated water but Adam has more than enough time for now so he might as well get that over with quickly


    "Ah radiation, it''s one of the more fun choices at least for me, for you probably not so much. Anyways, I know a lot about radiation from books but, I haven''t had the pleasure of working with a live example of an irradiated being at least not for long. So I need you to get irradiated! 200 rads should be enough for a basic sickness but try to get 600 so that I can more thoroughly experiment on you!" Said Moira with her happy go lucky tone of voice, it really must be nice to have her type of thought process, a one-track mind is the best way to describe her


    "Right on it." Said Adam before he walked out of the Craterside supply with all the customers and guards still staring at him in shock not understanding what just happened


    The moment the door of the shop closed Adam looked at his pip-boy and found out that...

 A positive glow

    As Adam looked at the message on his screen he couldn''t help but smile brightly, his smile is so bright it could blind people, this was exactly what he was looking for and hoping to achieve


    [You have gotten the Dream Crusher perk for crushing Moira Brown''s dream!] This was what the message read, Dream Crusher is quite the useful perk reducing the enemy critical hit chance by 50% so Adam will gladly take it, besides that it gives him a 30% discount when buying from Moira but what Adam is really interested about is his quests tab


    [Wasteland Survival Guide: Moira needs your help in the writing of her book, she will pay you for it so you accepted the job. Get a dose of at least 200 radiation for standard rewards and 600 for an extra reward.] When Adam read thru the text he nodded in deep satisfaction, his theories have been proven right, at least two of his theories, the others are still a mystery


    The first theory was to see if things can be sped up, slowed down or changed, Adam proved that it is possible because he managed to dissuade Moira from writing her book before she met the Lone Wanderer and because he could accept the Wasteland survival guide quest before the Lone Wanderer came


    The second theory was if Adam could get all of the rewards from something without sacrifice, usually, if someone gets the Dream crusher perk they have to give up the Wasteland Survival questline but by bypassing the system and crushing Moira''s dream only for a few moments before giving her hope once again, Adam will be able to complete both the quest and get the perk, it''s basically scamming the system, since this is real life something like this is completely possible and realistic


    Adam then thought a bit more about his actions and the consequences they might bring making him fall into contemplation about his actions right now and how he had done things, which is probably not a good thing since he was walking down a highly unstable and slippery metal platform which has not railed so slipping and falling is a real possibility while being in his own little world not caring about anything outside of his own thoughts


    Thankfully no unluck befell upon Adam and he arrived at the bottom of the platform next to the bomb very quickly and safely not cripple any one of his limbs or outright killing himself


    Bringing himself out of his thoughts Adam looked at the bomb, it is like in the game, big, gray and unbelievably dangerous with a pool of greenish water beneath it which is obviously irradiated to a certain extent


    The difference is, the pool of water is bigger, it is large encompassing about 5 to 6 meters while being at least knee-deep around the center aka the bomb-making it more of a very small lake since from what Adam had heard around town, the water here never dries up


    Adam looked around the water, people are passing by not even minding the bomb nor the danger that it might represent while a Church of Atom fanatic was praying towards the bomb, the water is green and murky clearly not safe for consumption in more ways than one, after looking st his surroundings for some more Adam looked at the water for a few extra moments before shrugging his shoulders in a carefree manner and going into the almost knee-deep water


    Once in the water, Adam could immediately feel a change, and he could immediately feel how he is being irradiated and at which rate he is being irradiated, Adam doesn''t know how he has gotten this knowledge but it is already there so he won''t complain


    Adam then completely submerged himself in the water before floating to the top right next to a believer of Atom who was praising and bowing down to the all mighty atom/atomic bomb like the fool he is, if he knew science he would probably not be doing that, but people are free to believe what they want and that especially goes for the post-apocalypse even if that belief goes against science and facts (Author: I''m looking at you flat earthers.)


    Adam just floated there, not doing anything and allowing himself to be irradiated, if his sense is correct and is to be trusted then , Adam is taking 2 rads a second so about 300 seconds is enough for him to reach 600 rads or about 120 rads a minute so Adam will have to stay in this pool for at the very least 1 and a half minutes or 5 minutes if he wants the additional reward and Adam does want the additional reward, as a completionist and perfectionist of course he would want the additional reward, besides that if he does all the optional parts then the perk he will get at the end of the quest will be the best possible quirk


    So Adam stayed afloat, aimlessly watching the clouds above as a small mass of people gathered around him, they are used to seeing the people of the Church of Atom soaking and praying to the Atom but even they are not crazy enough to completely submerge themselves in irradiated water yet Adam has done just that so Adma became quite the attraction


    After about half a minute, Adam started to feel weak, not very much but a little bit, as the seconds progressed Adam felt worse and worse until 1 and a half minutes after he had entered the water he started to feel sick


    But Adam remained in the water determined to get the extra rewards, besides that he just feels a little bit sick and a little bit weak not too much, barely enough to influence him but just enough that it would be annoying, but that is soon about to change


    So Adam continued to soak in the glorious glorious radiation that the lord and savior Atom gave to earth, making even the believer of Atom who was nearby proud at Adam''s loyalty to the great Atom, praising Adam in his head for such dedication, the only thing he found lacking about Adam was that he was not praying to the great Atom


    If Adam knew what that guy thought he would probably pick a fight with him, Adam sure as hell doesn''t want to be irradiated and he even less believes in the glory of atom but he doesn''t know what is going on in that guy''s head and he has no choice but to soak in this irradiated water as this is required by the quest


    After another minute and a half, Adam felt sick, quite sick, he also noticed that his perception of everything became blurry and his movement became sluggish and slow probably because of the -1 to agility he was getting because of how irradiated he was


    By this point, most of the crowd went away as they see Adam as just another one of the crazy Atom believers or a man with a deathwish so they all left they have better things to do other than to stare at a crazy man, it is the apocalypse after all so people are even busier than the people from the pre-war times


    Even thou he felt sick, weak and slow Adam adamantly remained in the pool of irradiated water not wanting to give up on those sweet sweet bonuses he will get at the end of his suffering, it''s really the only thing that is keeping him going at this point making him think that all of this is worth it


    So another minute and a half passed and Adam senses finally told him that he has over 600 rads, 604 to be precise, so he can finally return to Moira and end this hell


    Getting up from the pond like a zombie Adam tried to find his way up the platform, right now he feels weak, slow and disoriented, barely being able to stand and walk Adam just set his brain and body to autopilot


    Dragging his wet body up the platform and constantly stumbling and miss stepping it seems as thou ages passed before he had finally arrived at the entrance of Craterside supply while in reality, only a few minutes had passed but to Adam who was in constant agony they were hours


    Barely opening the door by basically slamming his body into the door Adam entered into the shop making all heads turn to him as everyone closely observed how a very weak Adam stumbled into the shop barely standing and walking


    Adam tiredly looked around himself until he found the person due to whom he was in this pain, right now he wanted to strangle her but he was too weak for that and she was needed for the betterment of his future so instead of strangling her he just approached herUnauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Oh feeling a bit under the weather? Or over the Gaiger counter?" Adam didn''t even want to engage in a conversation with her but Moira more or less forced a conversation on Adam as she said those words in a sad tone of voice as if she was asking a small child who took his lollypop


    "Just get this over with, I am so irradiated I could burn a hole in the floor and it does not feel good at all to be this irradiated." Said Adam with a deadpan expression and a sigh escaping his mouth, even that little gesture wasn''t easy for Adam, both mentally and physically it was tough to do that


    He feels like shit but Moira still manages to somehow give him the energy to sigh, and Adam really doesn''t know what to think about that


    "I can see that you are positively glowing! Now just hold still while I run some experiments and tell me how you feel." Said Moira as she goes behind her cashier and goes to get some of her stuff so that she can start the experiments all the while keeping an ear out for what Adam will say


    "Moira I don''t have a lot of energy to reply so I sill explain how I feel in 5 words: I feel like goddamn shit. So just get this over with, I don''t even have enough energy to be snide." Said Adam as he barely looked around the room with his head which felt heavy as all hell before he found a chair he sat on since it is already so difficult to stand he might as well sit down, Moira only needs him to be still she didn''t specify in which position he should be


    "Ooh, why did you have to sit down, but luckily I can still work on you even if you are sitting, aren''t I nice letting you sit down during the examination." Said Moira as she went up to Adam and started to conduct her experiments with all sorts of devices and instruments


    At this point, Adam wasn''t even listening to her, he just closed his eyes and enjoyed the darkness that overcame him, he did feel something poak him in the arm, probably the blood extraction device Moira used on Adam but he didn''t really care right now he just wanted some rest, radiation really is a bieach in Adam''s opinion


    After half an hour Moira seemed done with her experiments and nodded in satisfaction before she went into the kitchen area of the house leaving Adam alone and suffering before 5 minutes later she came back with a glass full of, something


    It''s a pinkish-gray liquid with bits and chunks of something black floating inside of it, it has the consistency of pudding but looks much much grosser than that, it looks like someone ground up a person''s brain and put some lead inside of the sludge, not particularly appetizing now is it


    "Drink this, it''s my homemade rad-away!" Moira came up to Adam cheerfully giving him the abomination that she treated like it''s some type of miracle cure that has a 100% percent chance of working and not a suspicious-looking, probably poisonous liquid that will most likely kill/harm Adam


    Adam just stretched his hand out taking the glass full of whatever that is and chugging it down in one gulp, the sooner it is over the better, some would call this a leap of faith hoping that Moira doesn''t kill him but in the game, the Lone Wanderer also drinks this and survives so Adam isn''t that worried about drinking this well whatever it is


    When Adam drank the medicine it actually wasn''t that bad, sure it tasted bad but it''s better than some of the medicine Adam has tried in his last life but when the aftertaste hit him, it''s then than Adam regretted his decision


    "Blah, uh what the hell have you put inside of that Moira?!" Immediately Adam jumped out of his seat and spat out as much as he could while throwing the glass away letting it break, it is said that medicine never tastes good but this just tastes unholy, like someone has mixed up rotten eggs, spoilt milk, shit, and sugar before coating it all in chilly peppers, mint, and cinnamon all the while adding crushed nuts and forest barries cuz why not?


    "Oh, nothing dangerous just some magnets, brahmin milk, rad-x, rad away..." And Moira continued on to list the things inside of the drink while Adam grew more and more annoyed with her, 70 to 80 percent of the things that she listed out were indigestible or downright dangerous to the human body, maybe Adam should not have trusted Moira, just maybe


    "All right all right I get it, just stop already." Said Adam as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration before he sat back down into the chair, not even a day in the apocalypse and his stress is already shooting thru the roof, which is a wonder in it of itself, Moira truly is a genius only she could annoy Adam this much in a single day


    "Well look at the bright side you are now better!" When Moira heard him she shut up, for a moment before she pointed out that her ''cure'' did indeed work since now Adam is up and about, even being able to stand, yell and get angry at her which Moira takes as a compliment since it means her concoction works


    "Well, that indeed is one good thing. Now for my reward." Said Adam as he hears another dig go off inside of his head which is probably him getting the perk for completing the optional part of the quest before stretching out his hand expecting his rewards, there ain''t no way in hell he will not get some rewards after the hell he had been thru


    Moira just nodded before she went behind her counter and started to dig thru one of her med kits in search of rad-aways and rad-xs she quickly found them since she is surprisingly organized for a bat shit insane person all the while she hummed a song and swayed her hips if only she knew the pain Adam went thru in order to get that irradiated she would probably not be so cheerful


    "Here take these, I also put in a little extra as my way of apologizing for screwing up your DNA make up like a kitten with a yarn ball. But the mutation seems harmless so that''s a good thing and you are alive so that''s also good." Within a few seconds, she had found the rad-aways and rad-xs before she gave them over to Adam with a sheepish and happy expression probably because she has just gotten some excellent test results from Adam and Adam is actually alive to tell the tale of her experiments


    "Thanks, guess it will work as an apology." Moira gave Adam 3 rad-aways and 5 rad-xs in case he needs some radiation healing which Adam gladly accepted after he has gotten to know how big of bieach radiation is Adam doesn''t want to be irradiated again


    For the next few seconds, silence rained in the shop as neither Moira nor Adam talked while the customers just quietly browsed her wares not wanting to get involved in whatever Moira is doing, they know full well how crazy she is and that getting involved with her is not a good idea


    "So Moira you got any backpacks?" It''s then that Adam remembered that he couldn''t really carry all of his stuff in his hands nor his pockets since it would be impractical and downright stupid so he might need a backpack, while Moira is a generals sales merchant so she should be selling a backpack


    "Yes I have, you want one?" When Moira heard his question she stayed silent for a few moments, trying to realize why he would need a backpack until she remembered that it would be inconvenient to carry everything he has in his hands and pockets, she is kind of slow when it comes to the wasteland related matters since she has always lived in the city she is kind of inexperienced about the wasteland, she has the theoretical knowledge but not the practical, that''s actually the reason she began writing the book


    "Yea, it would be nice to have one." Said, Adam as he thought about his system, it allows him to have an exceptional carry weight and he can easily use it to his advantage as long as he has something to carry everything with, but without that something to carry things in the powers isn''t really that prominent


    "Here you go, just make sure you don''t die while wearing it, it''s my favorite and I wouldn''t want any bloodstains on it." Moira just searched for a second or two around the shop before she pulled out a brownish-black backpack that has quite some space to fit stuff into it from behind her countertop, really what doesn''t she have behind that countertop, Adam would not be surprised if she pulled a minigun out of there, it is after all Moira who he is talking about, a very insane person


    Moira then threw the backpack to Adam which is stupid, she could have just given it to him, it''s not like she couldn''t walk over to him in a few steps but she chose to throw it, well it does kinda fit her to do something random like that but hey the backpack is free so Adam won''t complain


    "Thanks." Adam thanked her as he inspected the backpack, it seems to have no holes nor is it torn, it''s actually a pretty nice backpack, minus the dirt, and it will most likely help Adam quite a lot in his travels


    "So, what is the next task I need to help you with?" After inspecting the backpack for a few more moments and then putting it on, trying it out and adjusting it to fit his body and checking the pip-boy to make sure he is at full health without any radiation Adam was ready to do his next task


    "Well, you can either chose to gather food and medicine or risk your life trying to go through a minefield and hoping you don''t get blown up. So which do you chose?" Moira asked in her happy go lucky voice, Adam can''t help but feel that she is saying those things on purpose, the more she talks about sudden death the more cheerful she becomes, maybe deep down she is an S? Adam mentally shot his head, those are some dark thoughts he is having and he would rather not have such thoughts


    "Guess I''ll go and scavenge some food then." Said Adam as he gets up from the chair he has been sitting on since he feels more or less fine it is time to get back to work, the caps ain''t gonna earn themselves nor is the XP fall from a tree


    "Well, food and medicine, everyone needs to eat and medicine is great if you injure yourself or fall sick. There''s an old abandoned super duper mart not far from here you can see if there is anything worth salvaging from there." Says Moira while she points at the general direction of the Super duper mart, Adam wanted to roll his eyes at that, really helpful she is even pointing at the general direction


    "Great, guess I''ll be going then." Says Adam as he stretches himself out before he goes ahead and leaves for his next task/destination the super-duper mart

 The desolate wasteland in all of its unholy glory

    Adam came out of the Craterside supply shop and went down the less than ideal safe platform, luckily he didn''t stumble before he went to the gate of Megaton


    Along the way, he greeted Lucas who was just sitting there, on a chair beside the gate leisurely watching the city in all of its glory, he had an especially warm smile on his face when he watched the children play around


    Adam just went past Lucas without giving him any notice and went to the front of the Megaton gate, and this is when Adam ran into a problem


    The gate wouldn''t open, Adam stood there for 5 minutes not knowing what to do as the gate remained shut, he looked around himself and tried to find clues to open the gate but he had no luck in that endeavor so he was stuck there pondering about how the hell was he supposed to get it open


    "Oi, you need the gate to open!?" Suddenly Adam heard a voice from above himself which prompted him to look up only to see a man standing on a platform with a sniper rifle in hand looking down at Adam


    "Yes well, that would be appreciated!" Adam made a wry smile as he looked at the figure above him before he shouted out loud for his need for the gate to open


    "All right! But just so you know you need to ring the bell if you want the door to open!" The man nodded at Adam before he pointed at a rope to the right of Adam leading all the way up to the platform while being attached to a bell, it is actually quite hard to notice the rope as it looks just like a miscellaneous piece of the scenery so it''s really no wonder Adam didn''t notice it


    Immediately afterward the giant gates of Megaton began to open up, as they loudly rumbled the ground seemed to shake indicating that someone is either departing from Megaton or entering Megaton


    "Thank you!" Adam waited for a full minute for the gate to fully open at which point he thanked the man for his help before he exited the city all the while wondering about the gate as his ears rung a bit from the noise generated by the door


    ''Isn''t it using too much power? I know there is electricity but it is definitely limited so why are they spending so much electricity on the gate? Besides that, it''s loud and slow wouldn''t a normal door in the wall do just fine? And if an attack came just block that door. To top it all of isn''t such a huge door a big weakness in the wall? Since it can open up it should be easier to pry it open than one of the walls.'' Adam came out of the city while pondering over such matters, it really makes no sense for the city to use such an impractical door/gate, which not only degrades the quality of life but also has the risk of killing everybody if the weakness is exploited by someone crafty so he can''t help but wonder why the do it


    After Adam was finally out of Megaton he continued to ponder about the city and it''s door until he was snapped out of it by a certain, strange feeling


    Adam felt an attraction towards the east, almost directly east of Megaton although it is a bit crooked, this attraction made Adam feel as if he had to go towards that place as it would help him achieve something


    No matter where he looked with nothing but the murky and gloomy wasteland insight, Adam sighed is sadness, loneliness, and desperation, this was going to be a long-ass journey which Adam probably won''t be liking too much especially since it''s going to be his first journey ever in the wasteland not counting that brief journey from where he spawned towards Megaton


    Opening up the map function on his pip-boy Adam saw that the location of the super-duper mart was already marked by a green arrow with a dashed line going from his current location towards the super-duper mart indicating what is the most direct route towards the place, interestingly the super-duper mart is placed east of Megaton so that marker is probably the reason Adam feels so attracted towards the east, just another handy ability for Adam to help his life in the wasteland


    Adam stood there in place observing the wasteland a little longer before he took a deep breath and calming down his slightly agitated nerves as he began walking towards the location of the super-duper mart


    So Adam walked and walked and walked through the wasteland, he really didn''t even know how long nor how much he had walked, he just walked towards where his feeling took him, going around or climbing up rocks, hills and other types of terrain that is expected in the apocalypse


    He was hoping to arrive at the Mart as soon as possible so as to get the mission over and getting a place to sleep/camp safely since he had already spent some hours in Megaton so it was about time for the sun to set and for the night to rule the earth or what was left of it


    But as fate would have it Adam started his journey too late and within two hours of walking it started to become dark so Adam made the wise decision to first curse at his shitty fate, then he cursed at himself for staring the journey too late


    ''Shit.'' Finally, Adam cursed the situation itself as he looked at the sky which has started to darken by the second and the sun is probably gonna set in about half an hour to an hour so Adam didn''t really have time for a leisurely walk to the super-duper mart


    With no other choice left, Adam looked around himself for any form of shelter, even if it was a cave it would be better than this but it seems he has temporarily forgotten that this is a post-apocalyptic American and he is currently in a wasteland with no humans, settlements or man-made structures insight so he would be considered lucky if he found a shelter unfortunately for Adam he isn''t really lucky


    So with no safe or reliable shelter in sight, Adam decided he would imitate a guy from a survival show he had seen on television in his past life and sleep on a nearby tree branch because that would surely not go wrong now would it?!


    Coming up towards a decently high tree but not too high so that it keeps him out of reach from the animals that might come they but not high enough for him to kill himself if he falls down in his sleep, Adam started to climb it, it was hard at first since Adam wasn''t really proficient in climbing trees especially when he had to climb barehanded and there were little to no handholds or footholds but he eventually managed to climb up the tree high enough as he sat down on top of a thick branch


    As Adam sat up there on the tree he overlooked the wasteland in all of its unholy glory, the orange-red sundown cupeled with the brownish-gray surroundings and green radioactive clouds paints a lonely and gloomy atmosphere that Adam finds quite unique and intriguing


    No creatures insight, no animals nor people, while even the plants are dead, the lonely shadows of the dead trees paint a surreal scene, the scene of absolute destruction which brought on the mayhem of the once lawful world, it''s a picture that oozes out beauty yet sadness and madness at the same time


    Adam didn''t think about it any further, he closed his eyes intent on sleeping his thoughts away, even if the system changed his mind and emotions in some aspects, the scene of such a ruined world would always bring on a feeling of sadness at how destructive mankind can be besides that this scene made Adam depressed and sad emotions which are not very good nor healthy for the current Adam


    Just as Adam closed his eyes with the thoughts of sleeping a slide appeared before him with numbers that range from 1 to 24 appeared and a number beneath that, the number is 20:37 probably indicating the current time


    Adam was stunned for a few minutes before he realized that this is the sleep slide from the fallout game so Adam set the number to 11 so that he is awake at 7 A.M. and begins his journey as soon as possible, he can''t wait for this quest to be over


    The moment he hit the confirm button Adam fell asleep, like a light that went out Adam was no more, even if someone shot him right now he wouldn''t wake up, it:s like he is in a coma he feels no pain, no emotions nor anything, which is bad for his survival as someone could easily kill him in his sleep so a companion would be necessary to guard his body but all of that is in the hopefully not so distant future


    After 11 hours of sleep which seemed like a second to Adam, he woke up with a yawn as he stretched out his hands, he feels really and truly refreshed, like a new man, which is a wonder considering the fact that he slept on top of a tree branch the whole timeA case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ''Man, that was a good, quality sleep. I haven''t slept that well in ages.'' Thought Adam as he woke up, because of his otaku habits it is rare for him to have quality sleep, or sleep that lasts more than 6 hours since he would go to sleep at 9 am and wake up somewhere at noon or at one, now if he had some food other than cup noodles he probably not consider himself a true otaku anymore


    Now that he thinks about food, how come that he isn''t hungry? Or thirsty? He certainly feels a little peckish and his mouth is a little dry but it is barely noticeable. Does it have something to do with the system? He hasn''t eaten nor drank anything for a whole day so how come he is feeling neither thirsty nor hungry? Also, he had spent the past day moving around the wasteland and getting irradiated, although he did excessive in bis past world it was not nearly to the point where he was strong enough to do this much


    By all means, he should have muscle cramps right now and his muscles should feel on fire, he also barely broke a sweat the past day yet the temperature was scorching hot and he was moving around, this is definitely not normal, and the system must be somehow involved in this, there is simply no other explanation


    As Adam was thinking about the fact that his body seems to be heavily altered to work differently from the body''s of other humans he hears some rustling beneath accompanied by some trembling and some strange sounds so he looks down and what he sees scares him quite a bit


    A whole pack of mole rats is beneath him, this would not be scary if it was in the game but this is real life and there are more than just a couple of mole rats, there''s at the very least a couple dozen maybe even a hundred mole rats more than enough to kill Adam


    Fortunately, the scare was just temporary as Adam recovered quickly so he managed to not make any noise so they didn''t notice him so Adam could rest easy for now but he certainly couldn''t go down, in reality, he could go down but the moment he touched the ground he would be eaten alive by the mole rats, but it really is a wonder they hadn''t noticed bim until now as the tree Adam was in had no branches so he was quite obvious


    ''Just my luck.'' With no other choice left Adam stayed in the tree hoping his luck works and the mole rats don''t notice him, and luckily for him they really didn''t notice him the whole time they remained down there


    Also luckily for Adam, they seemed to only be passing by as within half an hour they went away from the tree and out of Adam''s sight much to Adam''s pleasure, he would not want to suffer the fate of being eaten alive by the mole rats


    So with a sigh of relief, Adam went down the tree, he observed the area around him just to make sure there were no hostiles insight before he continued his journey towards the super-duper mart all the while thinking about something that is probably very brilliant


    He was thinking about Moira''s concoction, in the second chapter she is gonna requite him to use a special stick whose top is laced with a special concoction that is meant to cause an allergic reaction in the mole rats driving them away when they are hit by it so she is gonna need Adam to do some testing by whacking some mole rats with it, that concoction has the side effect of making their heads explode


    So Adam thought about that concoction more and more, he started to deeply think about the concoction and its uses/purposes. What if it was in a gaseous form? Or in a powder? If packs of mole rats are this big then wouldn''t they pose a major problem to the people of the wasteland, especially the farmers and travelers? If using her concoction makes the mole rat''s head explode then wouldn''t her concoction basically become the people''s best friend? Just imagine it, a whole colony of over a hundred-mole rat''s killed by releasing a gaseous form of the concoction, a quick and efficient way to deal with such a problem now isn''t it, the only problem would be the cleanup since their heads would well explode splattering bones, soft tissues, and blood all over the place


    Adam smirked evilly as he thought about that since Moira is the only person who knows how to make this green concoction she basically has a monopoly on it, so Adam only needs her help and he would basically have a great source of income to make himself rich


    By the time Adam snapped out of his thoughts he was already a hundred or so meters away from the Super-Duper Mart, it seems he had traveled a decent distance while he was in his own thoughts so he had arrived the back of the super-duper mart quite quickly


    From there Adam maneuvered himself thru the terrain to a more favorable position before he came to the side of the mart and Adam could see 3 raiders as they were walking over towards a corpse, probably the person they last killed, Adam, didn''t even flinch when he saw the dirty and vile raiders nor when he saw the corpse of another person if anything he was happy that the situation is like this


    ''Perfect.'' Adam once again evilly smirked as he watched the raiders come closer and closer to the corpse if it''s a recently killed person they need to loot him, meaning that they would stay still for a minute or so as they loot the corpse giving Adam enough time to kill at least one of them


    Going on his belly and aiming thru his sniper scope Adam observed how the raiders came closer, and closer and closer until 2 of them crouched down to look thru the corpse while the third kept a lookout for any danger


    ''Fools.'' Adam thought as he holds his breath and aims at the head of the raider keeping guard, the raider only stood still moving his head left and right from time to time, with such minimal protection they are wearing they put only one lookout instead of two? Yes sure the looting is faster with two people doing it but their safety should be more important to them but guess it isn''t and Adam is surely going to take advantage of that


    Adam just aimed and after a second of the rifle swaying on to the head of the raider and the raider''s head bobbing into just the right place Adam pulled the trigger with no hesitation


    Immediately a loud boom was heard all around Adam while a lead projectile came out of the sniper rifle and headed towards the head of the raider at crazy speeds


    Within milliseconds the raider was dead and within seconds his body dropped dead to the ground, lifeless and with a hole in his forehead and the back of his head as blood started to ooze out of the wound


    Even thou this is the first time he had killed someone Adam didn''t feel anything, he wasn''t disgusted, he wasn''t sad nor mortified, hell if he did feel anything it is relief that he had managed to kill the raider which is a far cry from the reaction a normal person should have in this situation, at least a normal person from Adam''s old-world but now was not the time to think about that, Adam still has two more raiders to take care of


    The moment the other 2 raiders noticed that one of their pals was lying dead on the ground they panicked dor a moment before immediately turning towards the place where the gunshot sound originated from and they noticed a human laying in the dirt with a sniper rifle in hand aiming at them


    Due to the fact that the place Adam chose to lay in had no grass nor any for of concealment instead there was only a big rock to his right, they immediately saw Adam and they ran to cover, they know that if they are up against a person with a sniper rifle they would loose without cover, however, Adam was faster than them not letting them run away so easily


    ''Vats!'' Immediately Adam thought about Vats and the world came to a standstill, he doesn''t know how he did it but Adam just thought about Vats and it instinctively came to him how to use it, it just clicked into place about how to use it once he thought about using it


    Adam observed the paused world with intrigue for quite a long moment before he focused back towards his targets the raiders


    Because of his low small guns skill, not 100% condition sniper rifle and the distance, the highest chance of hitting Adam had was a hit to the torso with a 23% chance of hitting


    Adam selected the torso of the right raider twice before he ran out of AP and the system notified him he had no AP left for any more shots so he mentally hit the confirm button in the bottom right corner


    Immediately his gun fired but he missed the first shot by a little bit, the bullet strayed a bit to the right missing the raider, then he fired another bullet all the while time was still stopped but unfortunately the other bullet also missed, this one was too high so it flew over the raider


    Time started to flow once again and the raiders were surprised that the person attacking them could shoot so fast with quite some accuracy but the astonishment quickly faded as they continued what they were doing, this is their enemy and they have to take care of him quickly unless they want to be killed like their fellow raider


    One raider started to shoot at Adam but he missed every shot while the other ran towards the doors of the super-duper mart


    Adam immediately set his sights on the raider running towards the doors and he shot another bullet which fortunately hit and pierced the guy''s leg making him fall down on the ground, additionally, due to the fall he had hit his face on a brick stunning him for a bit


    Adam took another shot which pierced the guys head before he could call out for help or reinforcements which if they did appear for some reason would probably land Adam in quite some deep shit


    While killing the guy who is shooting at him would grant Adam temporary safety as he would not be getting shot at any longer he would be fucked if the other guy managed to call for reinforcements which could probably kill Adam so Adam killed him first before he could call out for help


    Rolling to the side Adam crouched up as he hid behind a boulder with his back facing the boulder as the other raider continued to shoot at him, it seems the raider was using a 10mm sub-machinegun since the fire rate was quite fast but luckily none of the bullets hit Adam before he had managed to hide


    While listening if the raider was approaching/coming closer to him Adam reloaded his sniper rifle, every so often the raider would reload, but he wasn''t firing all of the time, he would fire 10 bullets at Adam''s position every so often so as to make sure Adam wouldn''t be popping out as he came closer and closer to the boulder


    Soon Adam had reloaded and now he was just waiting, the raider fired 10 bullets, then another 10 and finally another 10 bullets, his magazine was empty and he had to reload that''s the time Adam struck


    Coming out of hiding Adam saw the raider less than 6 meters away from him as he hurriedly reloaded the submachinegun


    The raider noticed Adam, his face drained of all color as he tried to reload faster but it was useless as Adam wouldn''t let that happen so easily


    ''Vats!'' Immediately activating Vats Adam noticed that he only had enough AP for one shot but with a 95% success chance on each body part of the raider success is basically guaranteed


    Adam picked the head and chose the confirm button, Adam then watched how the bullet exited the barrel and flew towards the raider


    ''Shit!'' The bullet flew and flew and Adam couldn''t believe what he was seeing, the bullet had...

 Art is an explosion

    The bullet Adam fired flew and flew and flew hitting the raider straight in the face giving him an instant game end with no possibility of him coming back from the dead, the reason Adam cursed, of course, wasn''t because of the bullet missing nor was it because of the graphic way the raider died


    No the reason Adam cursed out like that inside of himself is that while he was firing and once the bullet flew out of the barrel Adam experienced the bullet time aka he followed the bullet as it traveled from the barrel, thru the air and into the eye of the raider before exiting on the other end, all of the gory moments were included, Adam saw how the blood-splattered, how the bone broke, how the skin flew off and how parts of the brain came out alongside the bullet which was certified awesome in Adam''s opinion


    If any normal or sane person from Adam''s past world saw this they would puke out whatever they had eaten, if they had eaten at all, before commenting on how Adam is sick in the head for actually thinking something like this is awesome


    Yes indeed Adam had cursed out like that because he thought that the bullet time, was awesome, including the part where the bullet went thru the head of the raider, including the brain coming out of the skull, just everything about the scene was awesome in Adam''s opinion something a sane person certainly could not enjoy nor call awsome


    But Adam is not sane, at least thanks to the system he isn''t sane anymore, which is a good thing considering the fact that he now lives in a post-apocalypse with various feral creatures ready to tear him apart at any moment and humans who are worse than monsters lurk about, and thai is not even including the other dangers that can be found such as robots so being sane and/or morally just is a fool dream in such a situation, and in the apocalypse fools die, well except a few certain lucky ones


    Adam breathed out a sigh as he closed his eyes and enjoyed as a breeze blew past, that could have gone a lot worse in many, many, many different ways, thankfully it didn''t get a worse and instead Adam survived the confrontation


    Coming up to the corpse of the raider most recently killed Adam coldly looked down at him, his dirty look, the blood oozing out of his head as his lifeless body drains of both color and heat, Adam feels nothing, it kinda scares him how emotionless he is towards killing but then he just smiles, it''s a strange smile with equal parts happiness and sadness as a bit of craziness is sprinkled into the smile, it''s the apocalypse, better being cold-hearted than being as soft as a marshmallow that was Adam''s take on the situation


    Adam soon broke out of his trance but then he remembered that he needs to loot the corpse which Adam didn''t really have a problem with he just didn''t want to get dirty with the blood and he wanted to know if the pip-boy could somehow help him in this situation


    *Beep*


    Speak of the devil and he shall come, just when Adam was considering if he should just go ahead and loot the corpse or waite for his pip-boy to help him his pip-boy came to life alerting him of the fact that it has a notification ready for Adam


    Adam looked at his pip-boy, first, he dismisses the notifications he had gotten about the XP, every killed raider gave him 45 XP so with 3 raiders killed Adam made 135 XP boosting his grand total XP up to 185 almost enough for a level up but it falls just 15 XP short from a level up


    With that out of the way, Adam looks at the other notifications, well it isn''t really a notification it''s more like he noticed he can do something with the corpse he didn''t think he could do, he can open up the inventory of the raider


    Opening up his inventory Adam can see he has 16 caps on him, 24 10 mm bullets, a 10 mm submachine gun with 19% of its durability left and raider armor with 16% durability left


    Adam was astounded for a few minutes so the pip-boy allows him to also see into the inventory of corpses, this could be very useful indeed in future situations


    Since it can already show him the inventory, maybe he can also transfer things from the raider''s inventory into his? Immediately Adam came up with a theory of one of the pip-boy''s powers so he tried clicking, dragging, holding and other ways of transferring stuff from one inventory into the other but unfortunately, none of his methods worked


    ''So I can''t transfer stuff huh?'' Adam thought as he observed how the system behaved, so it can show him the inventory but it can''t transfer stuff from one inventory to the other, well it doesn''t really help him with his current problem but it is still a useful ability


    Adam then proceeded to strip the man of all of his valuables, Adam took all of it and stashed it into his backpack leaving the man only in his undergarments, along the way Adam got closed enough and discovered the super-duper mart gaining another 10 XP besides that Adam somehow has miraculously avoided coming into contact with any of the blood


    Adam didn''t feel any shame, disgust or repulsion while doing this he just wanted some loot so he went ahead and stripped a dead body for that loot, nothing more nothing less, strictly business that''s what it is for Adam although Adam was glad he didn''t get any blood on himself, it would not only attract animals but it was very sticky so Adam would rather not get involved with it


    So with that business out of the way, Adam mooved towards the other corpses with a joyous smile on his face, nothing beats getting some well-deserved loot after a hard day of work, or in this case, a hard-fought battle which could have ended with Adam contracting the occupational disease known as death which is not a funny disease to mess around with


    So Adam walked along arriving and approached the raider''s body he killed first within a manner of seconds, and the first thing he did once he approached the body was looking at his pip-boy about the loot that the corpse contained


    Looking at the inventory of the raider he didn''t really have anything special, a 10 mm pistol, 12 10mm rounds, and his armor, he was so poor he didn''t have a single bottlecap on him, which made Adam a little sad for the bottlecaps that would no longer have a home under his banner but he didn''t let himself cry over the poor poor bottlecaps as he still has a job to do which might bring happiness to other bottlecaps


    Adam stripped the corpse of all its belongings before he stashed them away in the backpack, well he stashed everything besides the bullets and the pistol into the backpack, the bullets and the pistol he kept in his pockets, it might come in handy soon as who knows when a surprise attack would come, while the sniper rifle is useful and powerful it''s also slow and cumbersome, a pistol is much better for performing a quickdraw in the scenario of an unexpected attack


    Adam then looked towards the poor fellow these raiders had killed with no emotion, it''s just another chest for Adam to search thru so he will do exactly that search thru the chest, in the apocalypse it doesn''t really matter who you are or what you have done, this guy might have been a saint or the devil but to the harsh apocalypse and especially to Adam that doesn''t matter, all that matters is that his corpse has some loot


    Although it did give Adam a bad taste in his mouth once he saw the condition of the corpse, it has multiple bullet holes, all of them on the torso, it''s quite the gruesome scene to be sure and that''s why it left a bad aftertaste in Adam''s mouth as he searched thru the body


    But of course before he began searching thru the corpse Adam looked at his pip-boy for the contents of the corpse and it has to be said he was quite surprised by what he had found out


    The corpse has 11 bottlecaps, a brahmin skin outfit, a head wrap, mentats, a key, and a note, all of these items are not so surprising nor ate they important, it''s expected for things like this to be on someone''s body but what is important and surprising is the fact that both the key and note are named, and named things are more often than not related to a quest, which means it''s something important


    Adam immediately searched the corpse taking everything away, Adam took everything the guy had on him except his undergarments and then Adam proceeded to put it all into his backpack, except the note which he opened up and started to read, even if the guy didn''t want this note to be read he is dead now so Adam decided is he will read it or not and Adam like all humans in a curious being so he will gladly read the note


    Adam was not a very fast reader so it took him about half a minute to read thru the note, the basic gist of the note is that this guy had done something bad, probably stole something, from his brother and he stashed it all away in a scrapyard near the Bethesda ruins, but it seems the guy regretted his decision and wanted to give those items back to his brother, along the way he also said that he still loves a woman named Loreen


    Once Adam read the note he felt a bit bad about the guy, he had done something bad and regretted it now wants to atone for what he had done but before he could do that he was killed, now his corpse had been ransacked by Adam and the note has been read so all the loot in the scrapyard Adam will take it for himself, ah the tragedy of life


    ''Thanks for the loot.'' However, to Adam, this was just another thing to deal with, just like with the raiders he felt no deeper emotions for the corpse, besides that Adam also remembered that this is a random encounter in the game so this fellow was destined to die either way whether he wanted to or not


    Adam then took one final glance at the corpse, thanked him in his heart for the loot he was about to receive and then Adam didn''t pay any more attention to the corpse as he went towards the final corpse that needed to be ransacked for some of that sweet, sweet loot


    Adam approached the final corpse, it''s the guy that tried to call for help but was ultimately killed by Adam, first Adam checked the pip-boy for the guy''s loot, it''s nothing special really, 13 bottle caps, a 10 mm pistol, 27 10 mm bullets and his armor, nothing out of the ordinary really but what Adam did notice was that this guy had something very special on him but now it is Adam''s, a frag grenadeThe author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Grinning in pleasure Adam showed off his pearl white teeth to the world as he joyfully looted the body if some other person saw him like that they would label him as a demon, even in the apocalypse it is rare to find someone enjoying doing such things, even the raiders don''t like doing it, it truly is a wonder, just how much did the system change Adam and his personality for him to end up like this? Perhaps Adam will never know, but it is not needed for him to know, especially not right now, no right now Adam was preoccupied with observing the grenade in his hands


    Looking at the yellow-green design, the compact size and the way to use it, Adam feels astonished at how it doesn''t matter which world it is, whether it''s his old world or this new one, a grenade is still one of the most important and dangerous weapons out there, even more so in the apocalypse as there exist crazy variants of the grenade such as the Nuka grenades or holy grenades which are even more deadly than the standard grenade


    Adam observed the grenade a little longer before he pocketed it into his right pocket while he stuffed the other things the raider had on him into the backpack


    ''What now?'' Now that the outside forces had been taken out, with no drop of touching him even after he had looted them no less, Adam had to decide about how to proceed with the enemies inside of the super-duper mart


    Adam thought about the situation logically and reasonably, the system said everything became more realistic so it is highly plausible for there to be more raiders inside of the building than in the game while Adam is all alone


    Adam decided to first scout out his enemies, knowing their numbers and security would help him in the concoction of his plan, so Adam proceeded to crouch down as he slowly and carefully stepped closer and closer to the door of the super-duper mart, making sure he doesn''t make any noise he doesn''t know how much that will help since there was a loud gunfight just moments earlier but it might help, eventually Adam come right up to the door and he opened it a tiny bit without making a sound or rather making as least sound as possible


    Looking thru the crack he had made with one eye Adam tried to spot any raiders, their positions and where they appear, he immediately noticed how to the right and left of the door there are 2 guarding raiders, one is on top of a platform to his right while the last raider is directly opposite the door leaning on a wall with his face down and a hat covering his head instructing hie vision, even more, he seems to not care about the door, and Adam is thankful for that, if the guy had been a careful lookout he probably would have spotted Adam already


    Adam remains in that position observing a little longer as he hears the guards talking, it''s a little hard to understand them but it seems they are talking about the gunfight that had just happened outside, they are thinking that their men had killed some trespassers and how they are gonna make them share the loot


    Besides that, the raider on the platform walked away, apparently, he was patroling for some reason, why he would need to patrol in their own building is anyone''s guess but since it doesn''t poss a hindrance to him Adam doesn''t think too much about him


    The raider opposite of the door remained in the same position the whole time barely mooving, if not for the fact that he was standing upright right now Adam would have thought he was dead


    Seeing the number of enemies which are in sight Adam retreats back away from the door, he quietly closed the door so no one notices it was opened before he sat down to the left of the door, he put a hand to his chin as he started to formulate a plan


    ''I have 63 bullets, a grenade, a submachine gun, and 2 pistols, what can I do with that?" Adam sat there on the cold, hard, cement floor not minding the fact that he was extremely close to the door, he spent a good few seconds just pondering over what to do, he thought about his arsenal, his experience in fighting and just the general statistics and strategies that he could employ in such a situation


    Most of the things he thought of wouldn''t work as he was at too heavy of a disadvantage for them to go according to plan or he didn''t have the materials/manpower necessary to pull them off and he himself realized that they wouldn''t work because of those reasons so he immediately dismissed them, that is until he had found the perfect strategy he was looking for, well perfect isn''t really the right word, more like the adequate strategy for his current situation


    Immediately upon tinkering, out the finer details of the plan, Adam reloaded the submachine gun he had gained from killing the raider before he took out the pistol from his left pocket and the pistol from his backpack before he proceeded to disassemble the 2 pistoles, within seconds the 2 pistols became just basic pistol parts and components before the best parts were put together so from the 2 pistols that were before now 1 remained while the other was in parts, spare parts to be precise that Adam put back into his backpack


    Adam put the pistol into his right pocket as he looked thru his backpack, within a few seconds he had found the brahmin skin outfit, the thing he was searching for, and took it out of the backpack laying it on to the ground


    Looking at the outfit and feeling the brahmin skin Adam must admit it is quite tough and flexible so ripping 2 strips of the outfit was a little challenging for Adam but eventually, he had managed to do exactly that, although this action of his reduced the durability of the outfit by 1% Adam didn''t really care about that, he simply wanted the 2 strips so he stashed the outfit into his backpack immediately after he had done that


    Adam then proceeded to take out the grenade he had in his pocket before he snuck up to the door, he tied the body of the grenade he had in his hand to the doorknob of the right door with one strip while the other strip was tied to the grenade pin and it went to the doorknob of the left door where it was tied off


    Next Adam took his sniper rifle in his right hand as he slowly, carefully and ever so gently opened the door of the super-duper mart, Adam really hoped he wouldn''t blow himself up at this point


    Luckily Adam didn''t get blown up into meat chunks that would be flying all over the sky, which probably would have happened if he had failed


    Adam peeked thru the crack he had caused in the door, the situation inside still seemed stable, the guards were talking, the guy opposite the door was still pretending to be dead while it seems the guy on the platform went on to patrol


    Adam distanced himself from the crack in the door a bit so that his barrel wouldn''t be sticking out thru the door as he aimed at the spot where the platform raider should appear


    The wait wasn''t that long for Adam, the raider quickly appeared, still being nonchalant about this, not feeling any danger or problems, he didn''t know that right now his head was in the scope of Adam


    Adam breathed in, then breathed out, he closed his eyes for a second before opening them, then he waited, he waited for the sway of the rifle to match the bobbling of the raider''s head, and once that happened Adam pulled the trigger instantly killing the unsuspecting raider, the guy didn''t know what was even coming so he died not even knowing how he had died


    Adam''s pip-boy sounded out inside of his head notifying him of his level up and the 45 XP he had just gotten by killing that raider but Adam didn''t have time to care about that, right now his plan has been set in motion so he had to act fast


    Immediately upon hearing the sound of the sniper rifle, and some seeing their comrade drop-dead without a warning, the whole building was notified that someone came in and attached them, everyone immediately hurried to grab their weapons, especially the guards since they heard the sniper rifle going off just next to them but Adam wouldn''t let that happened


    Adam sheeted his sniper rifle into his backpack leaving its top part poking out as he took out his pistol in a manner of seconds, pistols really are the best for quick drawing especially if it''s a situation like this he then immediately proceeded to opened fire upon the panicking guards with that pistol


    Adam shot the guard to the left 6 times, all of the shots had managed to hit their target, 2 had gone in the right leg, 1 in the right arm and 3 times in the torso, killing the guard quite quickly and gaining Adam another 45 XP


    By the time the guard was dead, the other guard realized what was going on and hos close he was to the enemy so he tried to distance himself from the door but Adam was too fast for him to run away


    Adam responded himself as he shot out another 4 bullets at the other guard, unfortunately, he had missed 2 shots but the other 2 shots landed on his lower left leg making him drop to the ground and shout in pain as he held his shot limb


    "He''s at the door!" It seems the guy exactly opposite to the door had managed to wake up and stopped playing dead as he finally noticed Adam, by the time he had done that 3 of their men were shot with only 1 being alive, the guy really was too slow but since he was noticed, Adam retreated, his true attack started now


    Immediately upon hearing that he was discovered Adam pulled out of there with the speed as if he was being chased by a tribe of hungry cannibals which find that Adam''s flesh looks particularly appetizing for some reason to the point where they are willing to chase him down for his flesh


    Adam immediately ran to his right managing to hide behind a pillar as he then proceeded to reloaded his pistol with another magazine before holstering the pistol and taking out his submachinegun and readying himself for the fight that is about to ensue


    All was quiet for a minute, but that didn''t lessen Adam''s guards even a tiny bit, evidenced by the fact that he didn''t check his pip-boy to level up, that''s cause he knows that the raiders were probably just cautious of Adam so they didn''t come out of the building all gun-ho, they expected him to attack first but they are wrong in thinking that way, Adam is a patient fellow willing to wait for them to attack first no problem


    But that doesn''t mean the raiders are patient as well, in essence, the raider is just an armored killer, nothing more nothing less, he has no formal training nor any special traits, for the most part, they are just men and women willing to abandon their morals for the sake of a better life so patience and strategy is not really something they are known for that is proven here as well since soon they burst thru the door, 6 of them armed as much as possible looking to shoot up Adam


    The door slammed inwards towards the building as the raiders stepped out ready to shoot up the guy that had attacked them but strangely they found no one in sight even as they looked around


    Just as they wanted to ask what was going on Adam''s grenade exploded, the fragments and shrapnel flew everywhere hitting the raiders and killing most of them


    Adam''s plan was really simple before he had set the trap Adam realized that the doors open inwardly aka Adam has to push them open, so Adam devised the plan to kill multiple raiders at once by blowing them up once they opened the door, and the trick worked like a charm


    Some shards from the grenade or from the surroundings went towards Adam but Adam was smart enough to hide behind a pillar so no shard actually hit his fleshy, soft body but if he was exposed and not hiding behind the pillar he would probably be dead by now


    Adam gained 225 XP from that plan of his meaning that there is still one raider alive as Adam heard 6 voices and 6 pairs of footsteps so one must have lived thru the explosion


    Coming out of hiding Adam immediately pulled the trigger upon the corpses which lied in front of him, in the process he unloaded 17 bullets, he didn''t even look if the corpse was moving or not he just fired at random


    That action of his gained him another 45 XP upon doing that confirming the kill of the last surviving raider, it really is a miracle how he had survived the explosion


    Once Adam started to reload he looked at the scene more carefully, the dead body''s with holes and shrapnel sticking thru them, the burnt ground and the shrapnel embedded everywhere made for a grizzly scene


    Adam then proceeded to carefully step over the body''s, the giant pool of blood, the bits and pieces of human tissue which are all over the place and the sharp shrapnel embedded in the floor as he entered into the building


    Adam immediately noticed how the interior had a very similar feeling and look like the outside, the door was blown off, the woodchips are all that is left of the door, shrapnel is stuck everywhere, in the floor, walls, and ceiling, the only thing lacking is the blood and the corpses


    Adam didn''t pay too much attention to the room as he looked around for any possible enemies before turning to his right to check out if there were any enemies but that''s when shots were heard from Adam''s front heading straight to Adam


    It turns out the guard Adam tried to kill fell over and he didn''t die, in fact, it''s because he fell over that he was shielded from the shrapnel receiving no injury from the shrapnel whatsoever, oh what cruel jokes fate can pull sometimes


    Adam immediately realized he was fucked when the bullets flew towards him, they traveled and traveled until the bullets...

 The bloody mart

    ''Vats!'' The moment Adam realized what was going on he activated Vats, in situations such as these, where he is in deep shit, and where every second wasted could mean life or death a time-stopping ability is really useful, Vats truly is a cheat in it of itself and since Adam can use that cheat then why shouldn''t he abuse it


    Immediately the world came to a standstill, there was no more noise nor sound, the movement of everything including the bullets was stopped, everything was perfectly still and frozen in place


    Adam wanted to breathe out a sigh of relief seeing that everything has stopped and that the situation is less noisy and distracting but he couldn''t since his body was also frozen in time, so all of his physical functions were inaccessible, luckily his cognitive functions still remained intact and fully functioning, imagine what would happen if Adam used Vats but he couldn''t use his cognitive function, the entire world would just remain frozen in time, forever and ever and ever


    But the possibility of the destruction of the universe as he knows it isn''t really on Adam''s mind right now, he is much more focused and concerned about the present situation


    Adam took a few seconds to observe his surroundings, the raider laying on the floor, the bullets coming towards him, the environment, the rubble, the corpses and just everything that could come in handy when time restarts but unfortunately for Adam, it seemed the situation wasn''t really good no it is actually pretty terrible


    The trajectory of the bullets indicates that they will hit Adam after time restarts flowing, there is no way of changing that fact, they are just too close to his body so Adam will have to endure the pain of being shot 2 times although the place where the bullets would hit him is not determined they will likely hit him about at his upper torso or his arm


    But Adam didn''t pay too much attention to that, the bullets hitting him are probably the least of his worries since even if he somehow avoided the bullets the raider shooting at him would still need to be killed besides that no matter how short it has been Adam has adapted to the apocalypse a bit and the system changed his mind quite a bit so to some extent so he does not really care about the fact that he is gonna get shot, he is more concerned with killing the raider


    Adam targeted the head of the raider 3 times before running out of ap, he then didn''t do anything for a few moments he just stood there calming his nerves and preparing himself for the oncoming pain, even if he doesn''t care that he is gonna get shot by the bullets he knows it''s gonna hurt like hell once he gets shot so some mental preparation is needed


    So with his strengthened resolve, Adam hit the confirm button while gritting his teeth and the moment he did that action he doesn''t know if he wholeheartedly regrets his life choices which lead up to this point or not couse the pain immediately assaulted him like an angry rabid dog trying to bite off chunks of him the moment time started to flow once again


    But before those bullets could inflict pain upon Adam and before his brain could register the pain a dozen bullets came out of Adam''s gun like magnificent fireworks, the flash of the muzzle illuminated the darkly lit mall while the sound of the bullets leaving the barrel and jitting the target rang out through the building as if it''s a grim repaper announcing the death of yet another soul that was in Adam''s path


    The bullets flew straight, within seconds they went into the skull of the raider, they hit him right in the middle of his eyes killing him instantly not even giving him enough time to perceive the pain that assaulted him, or at least he first bullet did that the others were just shot haphazardly in order to make sure the raider was dead so they mostly hit other parts of his head


    Adam was happy with the fact that the raider was dead and gone, now all that was left of him was his corpse and Adam was glad he died which is, in reality, quite a psychotic thing to be happy about


    But Adam''s happiness was short-lived as time had restarted so had the movements of the bullets, they entered his upper right arm and tore thru the flesh like hot knives thru butter, soon they had exited on the other side of the arm creating another wound on Adam''s body and sending another wave of pain through his body and into his brain


    "Argh!" Adam grunts in pain as he stumbles a little, he flinches and closes his eyes, he experiences a momentary lack of gravity as he almost fell down from his stumbling before he got a grip on himself and managed not to fall down


    Adam had just felt how the bullets entered into his arm with great speed and force tearing 4 holes thru Adam''s arm and inducing quite some pain into Adam, it would have been strange if he didn''t have any reaction


    Immediately Adam felt the pain, it was horrible and well very painful as you would expect from the fact that he had just been shot, not once but twice, but with this pain also came shock, not the type of shock that he should have felt from panic or adrenaline-pumping thru his veins as he had just gotten shot for the first time no this shock came from the fact that the pain wasn''t worse, sure his arm hurt like hell but in all reality Adam expected for the pain to be much much worse


    Adam really had not expected this, he had read books and saw videos about how getting shot was supposed to hurt quite a bit and Lucas from Megaton told him about a couple of incidents where he had got shot and how it hurt like an absolute bitch but the pain Adam felt in comparison wasn''t that great so he could still execute quite some of his plans thanks to the lessened pain


    However, even with the lessened pain the fact that he now has 2 holes in his body does pose a problem to Adam, especially the fact that those 2 holes are specifically in his right arm which is the real cause of the problem, since Adam is a righthanded person being shot in the right arm isn''t really convenient, it greatly decreased his mobility, area of movement and accuracy, besides that the shock and the pain made him drop his submachinegun leaving him entirely defenseless


    Immediately when Adam noticed that he wasn''t holding a weapon he panicked a little, being without a weapon in such a crucial time and such a dangerous place was a very bad thing, it''s bad to the point of being suicidal, so the first thing he did after realizing that he no longer had a weapon was to draw out the pistol that he had holstered in his left pocket


    This turned out to be a great idea since soon 2 more raiders came from who knows where, although judging from the direction they came from they seem to be coming from the front of the mart, opposite of the door thru which Adam entered into the building


    They came running towards Adam with ferocious expression while having their weapons drawn and ready to fire at any moment, any irritation suspicious movement and they will shoot, they had heard the commotion going on in the front and they know that since none of their fellow raiders shouted back that they had killed the intruder they are most likely dead so they are really on edge just waiting to find Adam in order to turn him into swiss cheese


    Unluckily for them Adam doesn''t really like cheese all that much and turning into a human-sized cheese isn''t really one of his dreams, desires or fetishes so he had decided to kill those raiders instead, he tried to formulate a plan of action in order to kill the raiders as soon as possible with as little effort as possible and that''s when he noticed something strange


    All of the raiders he had faced so far seem to be newbies, literately every single in of them seem to be newbies who had for the first time ever fought somebody as raiders, now that he thought about it and recalled how all of his fights went down he seed to notice that the way they act, the way they run, the way they shoot and heaps of other minute things indicate that this is really their first real fight and that they don''t really know how to use a gun


    Adam only now noticed these things because of the way the raiders are running with their weapons, even if you don''t have any professional military experience or training, long term raiders that have been raider for a long time and have been thru many battles know that they should keep their muzzles to the ground when running since if they just flail their weapon around a misfire could easily be caused hurting one of their own or even killing him, which would be a very bad thing to do in a battle but these raiders are just running haphazardly with their mizzles pointing everywhere including each other so they have a really big risk of friendly fire


    In the short amount of time he had given thought to this subject Adam also recalled 2 other separate occasions where the aiders acted rather stupidly first, is the way those 6 raiders stormed out of the door was ridiculous, no experienced person would do that they know that it is an unnecessary risk so instead, they would send out only one person whom if they lost wouldn''t be as bad since only one person died instead of the whole team


    Second, are the guarding raiders, they were too relaxed and they enjoyed themselves too much, they were talking and not really paying too much of their attention to their guarding duty which is one of the most crucial parts to a hood defense, it''s the reason Adam had managed to do as much as he has done without any major injuries


    In conclusion, none of these raiders are neither trained nor experienced in any way shape or form in combat, communication, and just about anything else, hell they are so irresponsible they aren''t even good guards, it''s no wonder Adam had already killed 11 of them


    Upon realizing that they are total newbies a wicked, cruel and evil smile spread across Adam''s face, if someone, saw his with this type of smile on his face in the day time they would probably think that he is a very happy person so they would get jealous of him but if he came at them from a dark alleyway during the night he would look more like a bloodthirsty killer which would make them run in terror as they experienced a scare of a lifetime


    Adam looks around himself with crazy eyes as he finds one of the long since empty shelves of the mart right next to him, he is definitely gonna use their inexperience to his advantage in order to make his mission easier and right now a great plan has formulated within him about how to kill these raiders as easily as possible


    Adam ran over to the shelves within seconds, he made sure to not run at full speed and instead he ran a little slower and more sluggish so that the raider could get a clear view of him as he tried to escape/hide at least that''s how it will appear in their eyes the reality is actually a whole different story but we will get to that part soon enough


    As Adam finally ran over behind the shelves he crouched down, he doesn''t know if it will help but this is how you usually go into hiding in the game so that should help


    Next, he listened closely, as the 2 raiders came closer and closer with their steps gradually coming to a stop just in front of the shelf next Adam heard some talking noises although he doesn''t know what they are talking about he does know that it is all going according to keikaku


    Adam began to move the moment he realizes that they are no longer talking, he takes silent and cautious steps towards one end of the shelves stopping every few seconds in order to listen if anything is going on before continuing his walk


    A thing Adam notice or rather didn''t notice is the fact that he couldn''t feel the pain in his arm, no that''s not really accurate it should be more accurate to say that Adam doesn''t notice the pain in his arm, that''s probably yet another perk of being mind manipulated


    As Adam comes closer and closer to the end of the shelf he begins to hear ragged breathing every time he stops to listen, the sound becomes louder and louder the closer he comes to the end of the shelf, along with with with the breathing Adam hears the sound of quiet footsteps muffling about, by the time Adam had made it to the end of the shelf he could hear the breathing even without trying to hear it, Adam once again smirked he knew he had hit the bullseye with this plan


    Once Adam came to the absolute end of the shelve, the point where if he continued onward he would expose himself to the person on the other side the sound of footsteps completely stopped, the breathing became even more ragged but the raider tried to hide it, which he was not succeeding at instead he only made even more noise making it even easier for Adam to notice


    The supposed quietness that should have been present didn''t last for long as soon some shuffling and mooving about was heard from the other side of the shelves, it was accompanied by some barely hearable words which came out if the raider''s mouth but Adam heard them along with the shuffling and he knew he had to act right now, it went time, the moment which will decide if he was gonna get out of this situation alive or as human swiss cheese and to be honest Adam would much rather not want to have any more holes in his soft body than he had already received


    Immediately Adam basically jumped up and sprung out of cover with a gun in his left hand as the raider behind the other side did the same, it resembles a copied image very much, it is just that he wasn''t prepared for Adam to come out at the same time nor was he prepared to see Adam spring out so fast while holding a gun aimed at him so he was frozen from shock


    Adam took the opportunity while the raider was frozen from shock and shot the raider in the thigh before aiming the gun once again and shooting him in the torso before grabbing him by the neck via his elbow and hiding his body behind the raider''s body by crouching down a bit, the moove kinda resembles a lariat just a little different and altered in order to fit the situation


    Usually, in order to pull off such an action would be hard and it would require quite some preparation, the movie is also nearly impossible for Adam to pull off in this situation since Adam could only use his weaker left arm to do the job and he didn''t have a running start so this move should have been impossible to pull off but the shock and the pain the raider felt when he was shot by Adam served as a great distraction making the raider momentarily lose all of his strength allowing Adam to pull that move off with no problem


    And that''s when from the other end of the shelves, another raider popped out, he really didn''t even aim the gun in his hand instead he just pointed it at the general direction he hoped Adam would be in before he started to indiscriminately shot hoping to shoot Adam up, he thought that it didn''t really matter if he was accurate or not as long as he shot enough bullets Adam would be dead at some point


    Unfortunately for him he has too little bullets as indeed enough bullets could rip the body of the raider apart but he doesn''t have that many bullets besides that comes in the fact that there was no Adam where he was shooting at, or rather Adam was there he was just protected by a handy meat shield he had just found laying around so instead of shooting up Adam the raider shot up the meat shield aka his fellow raider


    The Bulletstorm caused by the raider was actually fairly long, lasting at the very least a couple of seconds, which is quite something, no actually it should be impossible considering the weapons these raiders are using and considering the weapon Adam has seen the guy carry around, the weapon has probably been modified, so Adam will definitely look into it at a later date but for right now Adam just concentrated on protecting himself using the raider''s body


    During the Bulletstorm Adam did actually get hurt, he had gotten a few scratches and some bullets did zip past him but most of them were absorbed by the handy-dandy meat shield so no mayor wounds were inflicted upon Adam''s body and the wounds that were inflicted are nothing but flesh wounds that will heal after a weak or so of rest


    The raider continued to shoot and shoot and shoot, he only stopped shooting when he had run out of bullets and all that was heard coming from the hum are hollow clicks if course by that time his companion that Adam was using as a shield was long gone and the thing Adam was holding was just a corpse that had begun to fall apart, especially at the joints and the limbs, because of the large amounts of bullets that it was hit with no surprise there really


    Adam then peeked out his head from behind the raider and that''s when he saw one of the most stupid things he had ever seen in his life, it was yet another reason why the raiders here are probably newbies or just idiots, Adam has a hard time deciding between the two, the guy that had been shooting at Adam the whole time just now opened his eyes on order to check on what he was shooting at and if he had hit his target aka he was keeping his eyes closed during the entire time he was shooting at Adam which is yet another newbie mistake and a big one at that, it''s so big even mount Everest is smaller that the mistake this raider ha just made


    Unfortunately for him, the thing that greeted his eyes wasn''t his raider buddy standing there and congratulating him on killing Adam no the only thing that greeted his eyes once he opened them was a bullet to the face as Adam fired off 3 rounds immediately after getting a clear shot at his head killing the inexperienced raider the same way Adam killed all the other raiders without any shred of mercy and with as little bullets as possible wasted they can be sold after all so Adam will sell them once he returns back to Megaton


    With the shooting raider dead and gone so that he wouldn''t cause any more issues to Adam, Adam finally dropped the slab of meat, tissue, and bone that could net even be called a human corpse anymore to the ground as he proceeded to reload his pistol while walking out of the space in between the shelves towards the very center of the mart with steps gilled with courage, the center is, after all, the most dangerous place in the whole mart since anybody could easily snipe him if he stays stillThis story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    As he walked onwards Adam recollected how he should be feeling pain from his gunshot wounds that he had noticed so he looked towards his arm only notice something very strange, bizarre and peculiar, he wasn''t bleeding, no matter how strange it might seem nor sound it seems that he can''t really bleed like a normal living being since the blood that came out of his gunshot wounds is minimal, barely existing, a nosebleed would get more blood out of Adam''s system, so in comparison to what should be going on in a normal body Adam''s body is actually getting progressively more and more inhuman rather than human something Adam is completely fine with if it helps him survive in the wasteland, and this feature which makes it so he only experiences pain and no real danger accompanied by the pain such as the danger of bleeding out is absolutely phenomenal


    Adam wasn''t distracted by his wounds for long as soon he regained his previous concentration and caution, after walking for about 30 seconds he had finally come out to the center of the mart, it''s a big open area where someone can observe all the other parts of the mart by just turning his head left and right


    Adam was at max caution as he stayed over here, this area was both a very risky place to be at yet also a very useful place, it''s risky cause here he could easily get killed by a sniper if there was a sniper or just a person with a gun, it really doesn''t have to he sniper while it is useful because from here Adam can see more or less the whole mart, he can see most of the corners nooks and crannies easy yet what he has found out by observing the whole mart is that there is nobody here or rather Adam can''t find anyone in sight or earshot


    The fact that there are no raiders in sigh nor earshot is either a very good thing or a very bad thing, Adam is leaning more towards the bad thing but he never knows what will happen, best case scenario there are no more raiders which would be the good thing since that means Adam wound no longer need to fight anyone and risk his life, worst-case scenario there is a massive ambush lying in wait for Adam somewhere within the mart and he will get killed by their hail of bullets the moment he comes close to them


    Such a fate isn''t really desired by Adam so Adam decided to see if there are any raiders hiding from him, Adam began to observe the place with eagle-like vision, he used all of his 5 senses to the maximum that he can use them in order to spot the hiding raiders, Adam observed his surroundings, the floor, the ceiling, the shelves, and the cash registers, he observed everything that could be observed for any traces of an ambush, he didn''t smell anything strange besides the stench of the mart itself, which is quite the bad odor, he didn''t hear anything suspicious either, for the rest of his senses, well he didn''t use them since he didn''t really like the thought of himself licking the mart nor does he like the idea of touching the mart so those senses fall off


    But that doesn''t mean Adam didn''t continue to observe the mart, no he continued to observe it as closely as possible and soon he saw something mildly suspicious, it is not a major thing to be seen nor is it in any way, shape or form unusual but it is indeed a bit out of place, it is just that tiniest Iittle bit out of place so Adam decided to not take any chances or risks and instead he decided to go ahead and investigate the slightly strange occurrence while being prepared to fight someone if it truly is an ambush


    He started to walk towards one of the cash registers, his steps were slow yet fast, loud yet silent, they were very methodical and rhythmical, very effective in making a person feel an invisible pressure being put on them or that''s what he had read about in a book in his past world, he doesn''t really know if it works or not but he hopes it does and besides that it won''t cost him anything to try this out


    Once he gets there, in front of the cash register, he just stands silently and observes the cash register for a second or two, he also seems to hear some slight moment from beyond the countertop but whatever it is that moved will soon come to a stop as Adam lazily put his left hand above the place where the cashier should be while holding the 10 mm pistol, beyond the countertop, and he pointed the muzzle of the gun towards the ground before he began to shoot his pistol


    Shot after shot Adam fired 10 bullets into space, he didn''t care if he hit anything or nothing as this just served to prove his suspicion but after hearing how the first shot landed into something soft and meaty instead of the hard ground Adam knew he had hit the mark so with a slightly deranged smirk he continued on firing at the ground, or what was supposed to be the ground, all the while grunts and pained moans were heard from beyond the countertop


    Soon even those grunts and moans stopped as two dead bodies fell down from their crouching position, with bullet holes in their body''s they fell down on to the ground, the light leaving their eyes long before the heat began to leave their body''s but the blood flew out even faster than the light left, but Adam didn''t care about that


    Looking over at the two bodies behind the cash register Adam noticed they were two raiders, they probably planned to ambush him once he turned his back on them, although Adam doesn''t really know how they would know when he turned his back to them without looking at him but hey it''s their plan no Adam''s besides that the plan failed, if only they were smarter and didn''t leave behind some bullets in front of the cash register and dirt track leading to the cash register, probably from their shoes, Adam would almost certainly not have noticed them and they most certainly would have gotten a sneak attack on him so he can only thank their foolishness in his heart since it allowed him to live another day


    Adam then went from cash register to cash register seeing if there was anyone hiding since those guys could hide from him and almost ambush him then someone smarter should be much more successful at doing something similar, and Adam doesn''t really want to experience an ambush shooting him up, so he also went thru each row of the shelves and the cash registers to see if anyone was hiding there but thankfully he found no living being hiding anywhere


    Now that he thought about it this was oddly strange, the super-duper mart is a very big place with a lot of open space, and closed space, there are also bound to be some salvageable parts around here so why is it that there are only so little raiders here? This would be an ideal place for a very large raider group so how come he only came across so few raiders up to this point and why are they all so inexperienced?


    Adam soon snapped himself out of these thoughts, it is better for there to be a lack of raiders than an excessive amount of them and it''s better for them to be newbies rather than veterans, although when he does return to Megaton he is gonna make sure to ask about this it is better to not think about it at this time, Adam will just focus on the situation at hand


    Adam then once again checked all of the visible nooks and crannies of this place in order to make absolutely sure that there really is no raider hiding around and skulking just waiting for Adam to get close enough for him to start shooting st him, and as he had expected there really is no more raiders to be seen


    Adam nodded in satisfaction as he looked back at the mart since there are no more dangers in the general center of the mart then maybe one of the rooms has some hidden danger and when thinking about such dangerous rooms Adam immediately thought of the bathroom, Adam remembered some of the movies he watched where a guy would go around kicking the door down looking all cool and dangerous so he might as well become that cool and dangerous guy


    Adam had to walk around a bit until he found the bathroom, it was a bit of a challenge to find the bathroom since this is quite a giant place but Adam soon found it, even thou Adam knew the general direction of the bathroom from the game this is real life so this place has some very big difference from the same place in the game so Adam had to struggle a bit until he had found the bathroom door


    Adam looked at the bathroom door with dropped and lazy eyes, he really doesn''t want to go into the bathroom of an abandoned 200-year-old mart where a bunch of raiders have been hanging out for who knows how long, the things he will see inside will probably scar him for life but he has no choice in the matter, Adam steels his heard and kicks the door making it slam into the wall as he entered into the bathroom


    Observing the place with his hawk-like like vision Adam was immediately assaulted by a stench so foul even the 9 divines wouldn''t be able to stand it, Adam barely managed to not flinch as he observed the room and to simplify the profound wording and cursing that would be needed to explain the state of the room it''s simply a mess, the ground was littered with trash and dirt, there are chems and caps laying around everywhere without a care in the world, shot and beer glasses are also present as for what is or what was inside of them is another story and a story Adam wasn''t willing to explore for sure, but Adam wasn''t concerned with stuff like that, or at the very least he tried not to be concerned, he will loot this place after he has completed the quest and killed all of the raiders so he didn''t take any particular note of the loot but the sheer fact that he is gonna have to return back here is harrowing enough for him


    With a plugged nose Adam looked around the room, he doesn''t see any potential hiding spots beside the possibility of someone hiding behind the bathroom doors so he decided to deal with that problem right, if the cubical is the only hiding spot then he only needs to check the cubical he just hopes he doesn''t barge in and see anyone as in the middle of taking a dump


    Adam walked to one of the doors, the door closest to himself, and kicked it opens since his arm is shot and the other is holding the pistol it is easier to use his legs than his arms, besides that unless he is wearing gloves or a protective suit Adam doesn''t really want to touch anything in this room with his bare skin


    As the bathroom door violently slammed open it revealed to Adam what was hidden inside of it and there really wasn''t much to see, it''s just a standard toiled and honestly, Adam doesn''t know what he was expecting to see


    Adam then moved on to the next door, he once again slammed the door open with his foot only to discover that behind the door there is once again just a toilet, so Adam fell into a bit of a routine, kick the door open, looked inside, find nothing besides a toilet then move on to the next door, rinse and repeat so within less than 5 minutes Adam had checked 9 cubicles, all that was left was the final door


    But once he came upon the final door Adam stood still, if there wasn''t anyone behind the previous doors then that person is probably hiding behind this door so Adam stood still to see if he can get any sighs that someone is inside, if someone really is inside it would be better to just shoot them up without opening the door


    As he stood there Adam heard a sound, even thou it was low Adam could hear that someone is breathing inside of the cubical, his breathing is so heavy it resembles panting and gasping but the person from beyond the door is desperately trying to calm it down which he somewhat succeeded in, he would have gotten away if not for the fact that Adam decided to pay some special attention to this last cubical


    Adam smirked as he walked away from the cubical a few steps making the person behind the door sigh in relief as he heard Adam walking away, he already knows that most of his fellow raiders have been killed so he doesn''t really want to confront Adam however that relief was shortlived as soon he was shot down by Adam''s bullets which hit him all in the chest


    The silence that came after the shooting was eerie, it lasted for a second or two as the only thing that could be heard sad Adam''s breathing and the dripping of blood, but that silence didn''t last long as soon Adam began to walk once again giving sound on to the bathroom, Adam came closet and closer to the door until he was less than half a meter away from the door, the door was right within arm''s reach


    But Adam would never dare open the door with his hand unless it is protected by a glove, this place is just too filthy so Adam kicked open the door with his leg, as Adam opened the door what greeted his eyes was the lifeless body of the raider slumped backward on the toilet, he had shot the raider 4 times in the torso outright killing him with no room left for him to live, which is something that becomes very obvious thanks to the pose, guess he is kinda lucky, he had managed to die without too much physical pain something not a lot of people can boast about in the wasteland or rather the place people go to once they die since if he died he can''t really boast about it in the wasteland but that is only the physical pain, the emotional pain is an entirely different story


    Adam coldly stared at the corpse of the raider for a second before he came near the corpse with an arm outstretched as he snatched a 10 mm pistol magazine that was hanging from his belt, he had enough bullets to take care of more people but it never hurts to have more, no man died of overpreparation just look at Batman


    Noticing how there is no more reason for him to be here Adam basically runs out of the bathroom and into the other part of the mart, he finally starts to breathe the nose once again, he had really missed the fresh air, the stench in the bathroom in just too awful


    After a couple of seconds of breathing deeply in and out, raveling in the feeling of fresh air going in and out of his lungs but soon Adam recollected himself and decided that it was time to move on, after all, he still has a job to do


    Looking around himself Adam notices a door on the eastern wall of the mart, it has about the same placement as the door Adam would go thru in order to complete the quest in the game and he felt mysteriously drawn to that door just the same way as he was drawn to this location by the quest marker so he guessed that behind that door is what he needed for to complete the mission he came here to do, so he immediately made a beeline straight towards that door


    The door was actually quite close so getting to it wasn''t really any trouble for Adam if anything he enjoyed the short and quiet journey towards that door after he had seen that bathroom and after so much combat Adam really liked this quiet walk that he had towards the door, it was really relaxing


    But that moment of relaxation was very short-lived as the walk was very short within a few seconds he had arrived at the door, and Adam didn''t really pay any attention to what he was doing nor how he was opening the door it''s just that the habit of kicking down doors overcame him and he kicked open the door


    Once the door was open Adam came inside but there really wasn''t that much stuff in this room, to his right is a countertop with some laser weapons, some ammunition, and other miscellaneous items while to his left is an ordinary white fridge and some shelves on which there are metal boxes, the whole place is just very uninteresting


    Adam looked around for a bit before he went over to the fridge, he didn''t seem so even care not put those weapons and ammo in his eyes instead, he opted to first check out the fridge and that''s for a very good reason, he wants to finish this quest as soon as possible so that he can get on to looting, he needs his fix man


    Adam walked over to the fridge and he stared at it for a bit, it seems to be working but the mystery is how? How the hell are the raiders getting electricity to not only power the lights but also the fridge and other parts of this mart? It''s a very confusing thing that Adam hopes to find out about later


    For now, he only needed to concentrate on the current quest so without further ado he opened up the fridge finding 1 InstaMash, 2 Dandy boy apples, 2 Salisbury stakes, and 3 Blanco mac and cheese stashed inside of the fridge, messily put all over the fridge, on the shelves, the containers and Adam even found one in the freezer but besides that messy arrangement they were all in remarkable shape/condition considering the fact that this is pre-war food, it''s over 200 years old and that fact made Adam think a little more in-depth about the food


    What was put inside of the food to make it so long-lasting? And how is the fridge working, in reality, no power supplied to this fridge so why is it working? Is the food really safe to eat or does it have some hidden side effects? How come so much of the food has actually survived for over 200 years? Lot''s of questions yet so little answers


    Adam snapped himself out of his thoughts once again for the nth time this day as he remembers what he was here to do


    Adam takes off his backpack and opens it up as much as possible as he just grabs all of the food and shoves it down the backpack very unceremoniously and not really being careful if the food is gonna get damaged or not but if the food has survived a nuclear disaster and over 200 years of being exposed to the harsh wasteland then a little rough ha handling and a backpack ride over to Megaton surely isn''t going to impact it too much


    Now with the quest completed all that was left was for Adam to do the optional side of the quest and that optional side is what Adam is aiming for, the reward for completing this optional side is great, the item he will get will in all likelihood make his survival in the wasteland a heck of a lot easier


    So with happy thoughts in mind, Adam exited the room with a smile on his face before he once again observed the mart, he looked at the entrance door, then at the bathroom door and then at the last door that he hadn''t been thru, the door at the western side of the building, it''s the door that leads to the completion of the optional part of the quest and the door Adam is right now heading towards


    Adam calmly begins to walk towards the door, there is no stress nor worry displayed in his walk, he is completely happy right now, the fact that the quest is soon over and that soon he is gonna get some loot is something he can''t help but salivate at


    Within seconds Adam had arrived at the entrance of the room, where the door is and the first thing that greeted Adam once he came here was blood, semi-dried blood was on the floor accompanied by a bloody handprint on the wall, it''s admittedly quite eerie and creepy


    But Adam didn''t mind that instead he stepped over the blood and went thru the corridor where he encountered one of 2 option, he can either go thru a door on the left or continue straight and then to the right


    Of course, Adam chose to go thru the door, if he went straight all that he would encounter is some rubble while if he went thru the door Adam will complete the optional portion


    When Adam entered into the room on his left what greeted him was quite surprisingly a dismembered, bloody body laying down on an old and dirty matress, there''s quite some stull not dried blood all around the body while the surrounding walls and floor are covered in blood


    Adam admittedly didn''t care about that, he just ignored it and continued on towards a terminal that is hooked up to a door, a door that can only be opened via the terminal


    Adam immediately went towards the terminal, he already knows that it is not locked instead Adam can just right away use the terminal to unlock the door and that''s exactly what he was planning that is until he was disrupted


    A ham radio was laying silently in the counter behind Adam, it was silent with no transmissions going thru and quite frankly Adam hadn''t even noticed the radio untill it suddenly came back to life


    *Shhhhhhh*


    Immediately Adam was on high alert, there is white television noise blasting from behind him and he doesn''t know where it is coming from nor who created it


    Adam looked behind himself only to notice that the noise comes from a radio that was situated on top of the counter, which immediately made Adam''s eyebrow twitch


    He had gone in such high alert because of a radio? Now that was quite embarrassing, luckily no one saw it so Adam turned around and continued to work on the terminal, he doesn''t know why the radio started to produce such noises and he doesn''t care, besides the initial scare it gave him the radio seems harmless so he didn''t investigate it further, a decision he will soon come to regret


    Adam played with the terminal for a few seconds longer before he decided that it was time to finally do the job so he entered the command to open the door of the room and the door opened


    Adam didn''t really look behind him and without hesitstion, Adam entered into the room which was quite similar to the last room where Adam had found the food, full of shelves, metal boxes, weapons, ammo, and the like, the only difference being this room has medicine instead of food and a combat robot is charging himself up in a pod next to that medicine


    Of course, Adam once again ignored all of that just like in the last room and instead went right to the good old familiar green and white medical box which contained Adam''s rewards


    Adam immediately opened the box up and found a blood pack, 2 med-x, mental, and a stimpack, nothing really too special, just the ordinary stuff you would find to heal yourself but Adam would gladly take that stuff


    And while Adam was reveling in the joy of completing both the quest and the optional part of the quest, and getting so much loot Adam felt something cold, hard and metallic press against the back of his skull, Adam immediately identified it like a gun barrel


    "Now how about you turn around, nice and easy." Adam heard a rough voice from behind him sound our from behind him, the voice sounded kinds amused and after that sentence, a few chuckles and laughter was heard from other people


    Adam followed the commands given to him and he turned around expecting to see something that wasn''t pleasant for his eyes, but instead what greeted his eyes wasn''t just unpleasant it was a downright unwelcome sight


    A group of 8 raiders had surrounded him while the leading raider, an ugly black-haired, bearded raider was pointing his gun right at Adam''s face


    "Any last words?" Asked the leader as his ugly face became even uglier, which is something Adam didn''t consider possible, as a smile of joy and sadism sprouted out on his face when he asked Adam that question

 Explosions can solve anything

    When Adam heard someone talk and when he felt the gun pointed at him he became so stunned that his mind went blank for a moment


    How the hell did these people sneak upon him? Where did they come from? They are supposed to be raiders not master assassins so how the hell was they able to sneak up on him? Do they have sneak 100?


    This is a very unexpected and unwelcomed progression, so Adam was stunned by their arrival making him freeze up for a second or so before he regained back his cool, he has to be calm and collected if he wants to survive


    Sure the situation is strange and unexpected but, that doesn''t mean that Adam doesn''t have a way to counter and defend himself against these people, after all, he always tries to have a backup plan so even thou this situation is unexpected Adam does have a game plan which he is planning on using


    "Yea, I do have some last words." Adam smiled slyly and confidently as he said those words, he seems to be awfully relaxed about the fact that he has a gun shoved in his face which is angering the man pointing the gun at him


    Usually, by this point Adam should tremble and beg for his life, so why isn''t he doing that? The man wanted to see Adam wiggle and struggle before he killed him, he wanted to watch him suffer in both physical and emotional ways, it''s his favorite part


    "Oh yea, then say them." The raider cruelly smiled when he said that, even thou Adam was calm and collected there is no way for him to escape nor is there a way for him to survive so even thou he was ticked off by Adam''s smile and way of acting he didn''t really perceive Adam as a threat, if only he knew that he raised a flag


    Adam''s smile broadened when he heard the man says that, even thou Adam is trapped and caged in a small room with 8 raiders ready to kill him at any moment he isn''t really that worried about it instead he just opened his mouth and shouted out the name of the biggest cheat in the game, no the biggest cheat in existence


    "Vats mudafukas!" Immediately, and before the raiders could even realize what was going on, nor could they perceive what Adam had said even before Adam could understand what was going on, time came to a standstill


    With a smile frozen solid on to his face Adam examined the raiders with mocking thoughts, he had found out that he can activate Vats even if his weapon is holstered meaning that surprise attacks like this are all too easy for Adam to execute


    But unlike what he would usually do Adam didn''t immediately start to shoot up the enemies hoping to kill them as soon as possible while wasting as little bullets as possible, no instead he decided to observe them first, after all even thou Adam is quite sure that he will survive this that doesn''t mean that it will be an easy thing to do


    So Adam observed the men in front of him, their stances, their weapons, their expressions, and his environment in order to make sure he gets every possible advantage but he didn''t expect to almost die of laughter from what he saw


    Firstly every raider besides the man pointing his pistol straight at Adam''s face has their gun lowered, and their expressions are filled with confidence, relaxation, and of course the mocking/taunting smiles that make Adam seem like a joke or rather that make those men think that Adam is a joke


    It was honestly hilarious in Adam''s opinion, they think that Adam is such a weakling, they think that he is such a minor threat that they didn''t even raise their guns to shoot at him if he escaped or did something dangerous, Adam wanted to laugh at that, even he who has no military training nor has he spent longer than 3 days in the wasteland, hell his sniper is the first gun he had touched in both of his lives, yet even he knows that you should always have your gun raised and ready to shoot if your opponent is in front of you, no matter the situation


    That is just pure insanity, pure stupidity, idiotic and retarded insanity, furthermore fueling Adam''s theory that this is just a newly formed raider group with a bunch of newbies because there is absolutely no way that an experienced raider would make such a vital mistake


    Besides that Adam also noticed another interesting thing about these raiders, their outfits, weapons, and their armor are just absolutely ridiculous


    Most of the raiders have submachineguns and armors that protects the upper parts of their body, they barely have any protection on their joints, or their lowe parts, worse still is the fact that because they mostly have submachine guns they have barely any long-distance fighting power, Adam really can''t help but want to laugh at such idiocy but of course, he can''t do that since time is frozen


    But Adam sure as hell isn''t going to complain at their stupidity, he will mock them that''s guaranteed but he sure as hell won''t be complaining, if it increases his chances of winning and surviving this encounter then he won''t complain no matter what happens


    Adam then calmed his thoughts which were preoccupied with mocking those idiots before he began to rationally think about the current predicament and the current trouble he is in


    He has to carefully select whom he will kill and/or cripple and to whom he will have to manually shoot at once Vats comes to an end, it wasn''t that hard to decide but Adam won''t let himself make a mistake, this is his life on the line


    After a minute of self debate and careful thoughts Adam selected the leader''s head 2 times before he selected the head of 2 other raiders once, besides the leader none of the raiders wore any head protection which is just another stupid thing these idiots have going for them, Adam really wants to mock them but unfortunately, he has to kill them before mocking them, at least he will be able to mock their corpses once they are dead so that''s a good thing, rub some salt into that wound


    The reason Adam decided to kill the leader first is actually not related to the fact that he is the person with the gun pointed at Adam''s face he could easily escape from the gun thanks to their close proximity, no it''s in fact because Adam noticed another stupid thing, the raider leader had 3 grenades strapped on to him by a belt, a belt that completely exposes the grenades, grenades which are presumably still active and usable, how stupid is that someone would only need to hit the grenade with a bullet and the leader would be blown up, it is yet another thing that makes these raiders stupid and Adam loves it, their stupidity really makes it too easy to kill them even if they managed to sneak up and gang up on Adam


    Immediately after completing his game plan and deciding on his course of action, Adam hit the confirm button and time started to flow once again, the green highlighters were off, the raiders started to breathe again, atoms started to move, the time has started to move once again, Adam really should have shouted out Za waurldo when he was asked for his last words, it would have been so much funnier


    Without even wasting a second Adam grabbed the gun holstered in his pocket and shot off 2 bullets into the head of the leading raider killing him, the first bullet he survived but the seconds is what killed him, then he shot another 2 bullets one for each of the other raiders he selected as his targets, they, unlike the leader, didn''t take 2 bullets to kill and died in once shot each


    Immediately afterward time started to flow normally and not slowed down like when Vats executes Adam''s actions, and the other raiders were visibly stunned, shocked and confused, to the point that they were paralyzed by the shock


    At one moment this leader had the guy cornered like a rat, and they could have easily killed him with just one pull of the trigger yet not even a second later their leader and 2 of their guys were dead, by the hand of the guy they apparently cornered how is that even possible? Even worse they didn''t even see how the guy pulled out his gun! Is he a devil or something?


    This confusion is exactly what Adam was expecting and is going to take advantage of, this is all just a part of his plan which he devised while in Vats


    Adam rushed forward grabbing the body of the leader he had just killed before it could fall to the ground and his eyes quickly fell on to his target as he pulled all of the pins of the grenades that the raider had on the belt, and immediately afterward he let the body fall back down to the ground


    Before the body even touched the ground Adam used all of his muscles and energy to run away as fast as possible to the right corner of the room they were staying in since the room is basically an upsidedown L if Adam hid behind the right portion of the L he would be safe from the blast radius, he just hopes that he runs fast enough to hide behind the corner in time


    Luckily for Adam, he narrowly managed to escape the explosion of the grenades as the second he hid behind the wall the explosion occurred spewing out shrapnel left and right, which then proceeded to embed themselves in the surrounding walls, floor, ceiling and the soft body''s of the raiders killing a couple of them as you know grenades have the nasty tendency of killing people


    Some raiders were smart and perceptive enough to realize what was going on before the grenades went off, so they managed to shake themselves awake before quickly running and hiding behind walls, shelves, and other such items, fortunately, there were not a lot of those ''smart'' raiders


    All in all 2 raiders actually survived Adam''s plan, the other 6 died either because they were in the direct line of the traveling shrapnel or because they hid behind metal shelves which is just stupid, hiding behind standing metal shelves is not the best way to avoid grenade shrapnel, but the fact alone that 2 raiders actually survived is quite troublesome, luckily for Adam, those 2 decided to hide by exiting the room and they had to push thru the door since they both tried to squeeze in at the same time so 1 of them was too slow and received a shrapnel to the leg


    ''Fuck that was close, but I should have expected this.'' Adam cursed in his mind the creator of the granade, sure it is spectacular that it managed to last 200 years without it detonating or becoming faulty but it seems some type of internal damage was done to the granade since it exploded after 2 seconds, which is way too soon at least if standard American frag grenades are concerned, who knows maybe the grenades in these worlds go off sooner than the grenades of Adam''s world, luckily Adam was a weirdo in his past world so he roughly knew the time grenades went off


    Once the explosion was over Adam popped out of cover, with his gun in hand he walked over the corpses of the killed raiders and then he came upon the door behind which the surviving raiders were hiding, so he did the only logical thing and slammed the door of the room open with his foot


    This action of slamming the door open made it so that the door swung and it hit one of the raiders who was hiding behind the wall next to the door, pro tip, try not to hide behind the wall to which the door opens upThis novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Adam then came from the room and shot up the guy who was hiding behind the left wall, the guy with the injured leg, Adam used a total of 5 bullets for the guy, he maybe should have used less but it''s better to double-tap these sons of bitches


    Adam then proceeded to keep the door slammed by leaning his body on the door, basically sandwiching between the raided door and the wall the raider making him not able to get out, and because of the way he was positioned neither could he shoot his gun in Adam''s direction


    Of course, Adam would use this opportunity to shoot at the door hoping to kill the raider with his shot


    And of course, that plan succeeded and the raider was soon dead, it really isn''t that hard to kill someone behind a door, a door is only so big so Adam had no problem killing the guy even thought that did use up the rest of his magazine


    Once he saw the blood coming out of the lower part of the door Adam moved back allowing the door to open up and the corpse of the raider to fall down into a pool of its own blood


    Now, Adam was left there all alone, there are no more raiders in the building only he is left, he stood still and breathed heavily, his breathing almost resembled panting as he tiredly looked at his feet


    This tiredness wasn''t physical, no Adam was mentally tired, even if the system fortified his mind, making it almost aking to a mental fortress that doesn''t mean that the constant fighting, killing, and the ambush didn''t impact Adam in any way shape or form, no even with the systems help Adam''s mind was tired, not even the all mighty system can go against human nature


    And in that tiredness, he still heard the white noise of the radio, that noise which he heard before he was ambushed, that noise which is now irritating him to no end, which he wants to just shut up and leave him alone, that''s when it clicked inside of Adam


    It was strange how such a large group of people managed to sneak up on Adam so easily, Adam doesn''t have the best perception but it wasn''t so bad that a group of 8 bumbling idiots in armor and carrying weapons, they were probably even giggling when they were sneaking laughing about Adam''s stupidity, could sneak upon him that is unless they used a distraction and since they needed to sneak behind Adan they only need something to block Adam''s hearing


    That''s when Adam got pissed, that radio was responsible for this whole ordeal if that radio didn''t exist, Adam, would not have to be so panicky and he would not have had to waste so much time, energy and bullets to kill these raiders, these god damn wastes of space and air, he was angry as all hell


    Immediately Adam''s head snapped towards the radio as he took fast and powerfull steps towards the radio, the moment it was within arm''s reach Adam grabbed the radio, lifted it up not even caring for the cable that connected it into the wall and slammed in on to the ground with all of the force he has in his body


    The radio broke into hundreds of pieces as it experienced the pure and utter wrath of Adam, he was so angry that Adam almost released killing intent which should not be possible since that can only be attained after killing hundreds or thousands of people that''s just how angry Adam was, also this wasn''t a cultivation novel so there will probably be no killing intent


    But even with the radio broken Adam wasn''t satisfied, he stomped and jumped on the remains of the radio, hell he even took out his gun, reloaded and shot the radio up just for good measure, that''s just how pissed off Adam was at that damn radio


    After 5 minutes of Adam just destroying the radio in all ways possible and imaginable, besides doing things like setting it on fire and stuff like that, he had finally calmed down his burning wrath


    A deep and long sight exited Adam''s mouth as his shoulders slumped a bit, destroying this radio probably wasn''t a great idea since he could have used it in many other ways but it''s too late for regret and too early for depression


    Too late for regret cause he can''t reverse time he can only stop it and too early for depression because he still has soo many items to loot, besides that the radio miraculously wasn''t completely destroyed so it''s components can still be used in other things, although Adam will make sure that in whichever thing those radio components end up in that those components get worn down and destroyed by wear and tear


    So 3 hours later Adam had finally looted all of the corpses that can be found inside of the mart, but Adam didn''t loot just the corpses, oh no no no he went much further than that, he looted everything


    Adam went thru every nook and cranny of the mart more than once, he had to make sure that all the loot that could found was found, he went the all of the shelves, thru all of the rooms, thru all of the chests and containers, he made sure to check everything


    So for weapons, Adam found himself with 25 raider armor''s laid out in front of him, this was accompanied by 13 10 mm submachine guns, 8 10 mm pistols, 4 hunting rifles, and 2 laser pistols


    As for the ammo well Adam now has over 200 rounds of 10 mm bullets in addition to around 60 energy cells, more than 30 5.56 mm round and more items on top of that, items such as Nukacola for instance or some trash that he found useful, it''s all here


    Besides that Adam has gained quite chemicals and meds as well as eatable items such are Nuka-Cola quantum and other such items, so he mostly got consumables, weapons, and armor out of this fight


    ''Well, guess it''s time to deal with this.'' As Adam looked at all of the stuff he had gathered he remembered something quite important, he still has bullet wounds in his right arm which probably need some healing, Adam really doesn''t want to find out if his wounds can get infected or not


    It seems that he had completely forgotten about them because of the tense action and subsequent pleasure he had during the time he spent looting but now that all of the adrenaline, dopamine and other hormones were cleared out he felt the pain in his arm once again, it wasn''t a huge pain but it was enough to notify him that something wasn''t right


    Looking at the wound, then at the eatable item''s Adam had an idea, a probably very dumb and idiotic idea but looking at the fact that he is in the fallout universe with a fallout system, well any idea is a good idea, and this idea seems very good


    Taking an instamash in his hand Adam opens it up to find a cold and refrigerated mash potato meal or rather a cold mash potato block, you could probably build a house with this block


    It doesn''t look very nice that''s for sure and when Adam tasted it he found out that it tasted like it looked, cold, frozen, with the texture of cardboard and finally the taste was horrible, like frozen mash potatoes but someone fucked up the ratios and the mash potatoes became too salty


    But Adam pushed thru the taste and ate all of the instamash, even going as far as licking the wrapping, he had to make sure that all bases were covered, even if he really wanted to throw up at that point


    After eating the whole package of the frozen mash potato, if it can be called a potato or a meal or something that shouldn''t be set on fire, he saw or rather experienced next was miraculous, not just miraculous by his standards but miraculous to him and/or anyone else who could see what is happening


    Adam watched as the wound on his arm started to close up, it quickly went from a bleeding hole in the shoulder to two red dots with scabs on them, it still hurt, Adam could still feel that something wasn''t right, but his sound had closed up from him eating mash potatoes


    Without any visible side-effects left on his arm nor did Adam feel any discomfort, the pain was still there but it was lessened, so he started to grin like a mad man while giving out an evil chuckle before that blew out into a full-blown laugh that could even put the Joker to shame


    ''Jack fucking pot baby!'' Adam thought as he continued on laughing as if he had won the lottery, in fact, this is even better than if he won the lottery if all of his wounds could close up so quickly and so efficiently then he doesn''t have to worry about any battlefield, he just has to carry some food with him and he would be fine


    That insane behavior of Adam''s continued for a minute or so, at one point he even fell down and rolled on the ground, before he finally managed to somewhat calm down but he was still grinning like a mad man


    Now that he was in a rational state of mind again Adam realized something, something which doesn''t really make sense, something which doesn''t add up, an area of suspicion


    How come the raiders managed to sneak up to him? The only entry or exit point of the building should be the front entrance and Adam sure as hell would have seen or heard if anyone enters thru the door it''s just impossible to miss, besides that there is nothing that connects to the radio from that direction


    So Adam pondered about that question, he put one hand over his chin while putting the other beneath his chest and he just stayed still thinking about how the raiders managed to sneak up on him, sure the radio played a part in that but which route did they take, the radio was on for too short of a time for them to have managed to sneak up on Adam from the main entrance


    In the end, Adam gave up on thinking about why or how the raiders sneaked up on him and instead he will just search thru the whole mall once again if thinking about it logically won''t work then just exploring every possibility is the only option


    And after another half-hour where Adam had gone thru the whole mall once again, even the bathroom yet he still couldn''t find where these raiders came from, it''s as if they just spawned from thin air and then like a Creeper they had snuck up to him and they almost blew him apart, luckily as it turned out it was him that blew them apart


    ''Wait wait wait, the system said that the world became more realistic and that some things might have been changed, then wouldn''t that be possible?'' Just as Adam was on the verge of giving up on his search he remembered the words of the system, those words that should have served as his quite book yet seems to have forgotten up until right now


    That''s when it all clicked and Adam knew where to go and what to do, Sherlock Holmes once said: "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth." Or at least Adam thinks that it''s Sherlock who said that, his memory could be wrong as it had been many times in his life


    Adam made a beeline to the western door, the one smeared with blood and the one that leads Adam to the protection charging station where Adam was ambushed


    But this time once Adam stepped thru the door he didn''t go to the left, where he went to complete the optional part of the quest no instead Adam continued walking straight until he came to the right turn which leads to the ruined part of the building


    Adam turned to the right and what greeted him was something he didn''t or rather did expect


    Usually in the game, this part of the mart was caved in, you don''t know when nor how nor why but that doesn''t matter the main thing is because of that cave in you can''t pass-thru the tunnel but since this is real life something different happened


    The part of the mart is still caved in but it seems the raiders or someone else had dug out a tunnel they had dug thru all of that dirt, rock, and rubble creating a path that leads to the outside, they even fortified the tunnel by placing wooden beams as support


    Once Adam saw the tunnel he hit his head on the wall next to him leaving a bloody mark in the wall, he really has no one but himself to blame for this, the system said that the world will be getting more realistic and it said that some minor/major things will be changed to make the world more realistic he really should have expected that, it''s the most basic of things that he had screwed up


    But there is no time for regret, what is done is done, life is too short for regret and Adam can''t turn back time so Adam goes thru the tunnel and within a few seconds he arrives at the other end of the tunnel which leads to the outside world


    What greeted him are 7-mole mole rat corpses along with 4 hunting rifles and a radio which looks exactly like the radio that distracted Adam put up on a barren next to the exit while a makeshift door made out of steel beams and concrete lays next to him


    Adam observed everything for a few seconds before he walked over to the radio, picking up the receiver ever and putting it close to his ear, this will prove his theory as to where he had screwed up


    Adam only heard white television noise, the type that had almost killed him due to being distracted, it all came together, this is exactly where he had screwed up, and screwed up bad


    Adam sighed at this, he really was too careless today and were it not for VATS he probably would have died, thankfully he does possess VATS so he managed to get himself out of the sticky situation, all praise the lord and savior VATS for his mercy and power


    Now that Adam knows why he almost died it was time for some more looting, Adam sure as hell is going to take these corpses back with him, or at least part of them, in front of loot even when he came close to death Adam still loses his head, some things never change


    Usually, people wouldn''t do that in fear of the corpses attracting predators but since the journey from the mart to Megaton is quite short so Adam will arrive within a day he doesn''t have to worry about that, he is pretty sure that no animal or beast would be able to break into Megaton, and even if it did that bomb can still be activated


    So Adam put 3 of the corpses and the radio in his backpack while he tied up the other 4 corpses before hoisting them on to his shoulders as he walked back into the mart, he still has things to do inside if that place


    Once he was again the center of the mart Adam let down the corpses and the bag before he looked at all of his loot, it made his heart warm knowing that he was just that little bit richer


    Now then off to work with Adam, he planned to repair the loot back to its optimal condition but not right now, now he needs to do something different, something that will help him for the repair job, something known as leveling up and appointing his points

 Distribution of power

    Adam opened up his pip-boy and immediately got a notice that he leveled up which once again took him to that familiar green screen.


    Well it''s no wonder really, he gained 1145 XP by doing various actions, mainly killing raiders, so it was about time he leveled up, and with that XP, he had reached level 4.


    Looking at his stats Adam thought about where to put the points into, and Adam did consider that question quite deeply for quite some time before he decided as to where to assign those points, this is his future we are talking about after all.


    He has 60 skill points at his disposal which is pretty wild if you think about it, with that many skill points he very well could max out one of his skills, but he won''t do that since it would be foolish.


    First Adam assigned 22 points to small guns bringing the skill up to 60 which is exactly what Adam wants, that skill is going to be crucial for his survival although he does plan to stop investing into it after this, after all, skill books exist for a reason and they can increase skills by over 50 points, investing too much would be a stupid decision, sure he may be a little more vulnerable in the beginning but once the late game comes up, he will be a god among men.


    Next Adam invested 10 points into medicine, bringing it up to 40, although this perk isn''t going to be all that useful to him since he can just eat to heal, if he ever needs to patch someone else up it''s going to be a lifesaver, and since he plans on having companions, many of them, then this skill will be very useful for the long run.


    Next Adam invested 10 points into lockpicking bring it up to 25, the reason being that at 25, 50, 75 and 100 of lockpicking or hacking Adam will be able to break into higher difficulty computers or better locks so this will be useful, there are more locks in the wasteland than terminals so this is an easy pick.


    Finally, Adam invested 18 points into repair bringing the skill up to 41 allowing Adam to better repair items, this is his money shot, the skill that he is counting on to help him out a lot.


    Now that that was out of the way it came time for Adam to choose his perks and really he doesn''t have a lot of options, after all, he is only level 4.


    For level 2 and 3 perks, Adam chose Lady Killer and Intense training putting the point into Agility, with 6 points into agility a whole world of possibilities has opened up to Adam, it also raised his small guns to skill up to 62 and sneak to 17.


    Everything else was more or less trash during the late game and Adam treats this life pretty much like a game so the only 2 logical options are Lady killer and Intense training since both of them will be useful later down the line.


    As for his level 4 perk well that really should be obvious, Adam chose Educated since 3 more points per level up is a very big deal especially with Adam''s 10 intelligence, Adam now gains 23 points per level up, this alongside the skill books, will allow Adam to easily max out all of his skills and attributes by the time it was time to fight the Enclave.


    Now with that finally out of the way it was time for Adam to get busy, to get down and dirty, to rustle his feathers, to just do it and believe in himself so that he forgets the traumatic memories of how his family never believed in him.


    Adam dismantled, dissembled, reassembled and repaired things for 2 whole hours non stop without eating or sleeping, it was a really tiresome but fun thing to do, it''s a very nice hobby like a skill that will help out in real life.


    In end, regarding the armors, he had 3 perfectly fine raider outfits and 1 in poor condition.


    There remained 2 submachineguns in perfect condition and 1 in poor condition, the laser pistols were also merged and now only 1 laser pistol in good condition remains.


    As for the hunting rifles, well they were a bit more complex so only 2 rifles remained one in perfect condition while the other is in a bad condition.


    The things that are unrepairable were thrown away, while everything else was kept in parts, that way when it came time to repair stuff once again Adam had the spare parts and didn''t have to disassemble another weapon.


    With all of the work out of the way, Adam loaded up all of the loot he had gotten into the backpack and started his march towards Megaton, among that loot is the skill book which he will not read right now, it''s better to wait for his next level up.


    This walk took Adam 3 hours, mostly because the corpses would sometimes get stuck or caught on things so Adam had to retrace his steps and make sure the corpses don''t get stuck or unstick them from things, or they are just slowing him down due to friction and physics.


    Along the way, he sometimes had some stray thoughts, like why didn''t he find any knives in the Mart? Or why didn''t he find places where fires could be kept? Were these people such savages that they ate raw flesh? Is he just insane for observing every detail so closely and methodically? Probably yes, but you can''t survive in this world without being a little crazy.


    In the end, Adam arrived at the Megaton gate at around 14 PM, the trip combined with the fight and all of the other crazy things that had happened made sure Adam arrived at Megaton quite late, but the sun was still out so no harm has been done.


    So there he was, Adam like a fool stood in front of the gate for a minute or so, he thought that the gate would automatically open like the first time he came but it seems he was wrong, well it does make sense that he can''t be really seen but he hoped that the gates were automatic, at last, his hope was betrayed and he was left standing there all on his own.


    "Open the gate!" Adam shouted out loud enough for all of the surrounding people to hear, the gatekeeper too heard him as soon the loud rumbling of the gate awoke any sleeping fellow, although if you are sleeping at 14 PM during the nuclear post-apocalypse you really have too much time on your hands or you are filthy rich so don''t complain you, fat motherfucker, some people have to work hard just to survive out here.


    Adam waited there for about 15 seconds before the gate was fully lifted so Adam just walked on inside of the city, he doesn''t really have to wait for the gate to be fully lifted but he doesn''t want to get accidentally injured while the gates are opening, he doesn''t have the level of confidence in post-war tech as he has in pre-war tech, and this is for sure post-war.


    "Hello there." When he entered Adam looked around and saw Lucas sitting in a chair nearby him so he greeted him.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    "Hello Adam, I see you had quite a good day." Lucas greeted Adam back and gestured towards''s Adam''s backpack which looks likes it''s ready to burst and at the mole-rat corpses Adam is dragging along.


    "Well, it is quite a good hall. But now I gotta go, have a job to do after all. See you, Lucas." Adam nodded with a smirk on his face, even if he didn''t kill these mole rats he did fight against raiders something which is arguably harder to kill, the loot is good and so is the haul,  now he can get some caps.


    "Well, good luck. See you, Adam." Lucas nodded back at Adam with a kind smile on his face as he waved Adam goodbye, not like they won''t meet again soon but Adam still has work to do and experience to fetch, the experience is just wonderful isn''t it?


    Adam walked along with the dirt floor as he soon came upon the metal platforms that lead up to the higher parts of the city and honestly Adam wasn''t too thrilled with having to walk along with those unstable and unsafe platforms with an extra weight strapped on himself that changes his center of gravity, but it''s not like he has any other choice.


    So Adam walked alone the platform very carefully, even if the platforms were wide if, by some chance one of the mole rat corpses fell over it would pull on the string attached to it and bring Adam down alongside it.


    Although Adam wouldn''t die a few broken bones and a whole lot of pain was guaranteed and since Adam wasn''t really a masochist he would much rather try to not fall, also he isn''t really sure if just eating some food will heal broken bones, that might just not be possible.


    So Adam treaded along the platform slowly and carefully, spreading out as much as possible, basically occupying the whole platform not allowing other people to walk on it but that really didn''t matter to Adam, if other people are inconvenienced it isn''t his problem.


    Within a minute or so Adam had finally arrived at Craterside supply and once he stood in front of the shop he just slammed it open with his foot he really doesn''t feel like having any tact after that minute-long walk that should have taken a few seconds at most, also he really doubts that Moira would mind.


    But it seems that the people inside of the shop disagree and they all looked at Adam with panicked eyes before they realized who entered and then they became angry almost shouting out at Adam''s sudden entry, it scared them half to death.


    Of curse that was the reaction of almost everyone inside of the shop but not exactly everyone, since it was the general reaction to get scared and angry you know that once certain crazy redhead won''t react the same way, she practically bounced over to Adam in joy once she saw him.


    "Did you find any food? Or medicine? Or a dangerous deathclaw looking to rip you to shreds?" She immediately started to ask Adam questions about his trip which is something Adam didn''t really like.


    It wasn''t that the questions were hard or that the information was private, no it''s that with each passing second the questions became stranger and stranger, an example would be she asked if Adam was confronted by rolling pin wielding gangbang rapist grandmothers, which is something Adam definitely never expected to be asked about.


    Also, it''s hot, it''s bothersome, and the people inside of the shop are choking him with anger, can''t he just relax for a second?


    "Slow down there Moira, I ain''t a robot for god''s sake." All of those questions and Moira''s enthusiasm lead to Adam developing a severe headache real fast, which lead to Adam admiring in a strange, twisted way Moira.


    Who besides her can make someone develop such a headache so fast without even needing to do anything besides talk for a minute, it really is a remarkable skill, from which it can be concluded that Moira has much more wisdom and knowledge to teach and pass on to the people around her, if only she wasn''t so crazy, or she is actually that smart exactly because she is crazy, sorta hard to tell.


    Thankfully after Adam reminded her that he isn''t a robot and that he is actually a real human being, with physical limitations that he currently isn''t free of, she calmed down by breathing deeply in and out.


    "Are you feeling better now that you are out of your crazy scientist induced hysteria?" Asked Adam with heavy doses of cynism and sarcasm lacing his tongue, this woman is batshit insane so thankfully her good morale, stunning looks, and somewhat intelligent/working brain make up for her lack of sanity, also her insanity does provide some amusement in this post-apocalyptic wasteland.


    "Yes! Thanks to you Adam, I''m free from the confines of my mind! Not really, I just calmed down after remembering that I couldn''t just suck all of the information out of your brain. So, did you find any food? Or medicine?" Her morbid yet cheerful personality returned once again as she calmed down which is something Adam isn''t even surprised to see, he had already given up on trying to understand a woman''s thought process, so let''s not even talk about Moira''s thought process.


    "Well, yes I did find the food and medicine, but I will tell you this it wasn''t easy to get them, so I wouldn''t recommend going to get neither food nor medicine in one of those places," While telling her that Adam took out the food he had raided from the fridge stored in his backpack and the medicine to show it to Moira.


    "I see, so could you tell me more about what happened?" For once the words that came out of her mouth actually seemed normal which is a miracle innit of itself at least that''s what Adam thought when he heard a normal question from Moira, the heavens really must favor him for allowing him to see such a rare and sacred moment, it likes triple rainbow just appeared.


    "Well, I came in guns blazing, only to unexpectedly stumble upon a raider party apparently one of their own was celebrating his birthday, too bad I ruined it. But I must admit they had one hell of a surprise cake, a robot jumped out of it." Adam said with a monotonous tone as if he really was a robot and all that he sid actually happened, but everyone could clearly see that Adam was just being sarcastic.


    "Really, how great for you, to be able to enjoy some cake and a party, I bet you that everybody was happy! After all, everybody likes cake. Except for the robot he probably likes pie a bit more, or rather he likes pi." Moira of course also caught on to Adam being sarcastic so she played along with it, or at least that''s what Adam hoped was happening, he really, really hoped that Moira didn''t take everything he had just said seriously but knowing her that might very well be the case, in which case anyone who reads the Wasteland survival guide is probably going to get a headache bigger than the one Adam is experiencing right now.


    "Moira that pun was so bad that even a feral ghoul in this post-apocalyptic wasteland would most likely prefer for his ears to be sliced off that listen to your puns." Besides the matter of if Moira took what Adam had said seriously or not, he really had to tell her something about that pun, it was just so tempting and irresistible.


    "How mean! And I thought hard about what you know! Luckily for you, I forgive easily and don''t really care about stuff like that. You can keep what you have gotten, and coincidentally I also just traded for a big food shipment myself so you can take some for your hard work!" Moira, of course, felt gravely insulted by Adam words before she bounced back and didn''t care for what Adam said instead she gave him some more instamash for his efforts and she also gave him some iguana bits, which are probably human bits instead, but for some reason to Adam doesn''t feel anything from that new information, he will probably eat this later.


    "Oh, and you can also have this, a food sanitizer! I found it a while back and it might be useful to you! It doesn''t really remove radiation or stuff like that from the food but it does make the food better so to say." Says Moira as she reaches below the counter for the damn thing before she pulled it up and gave it to Adam.


    "It''s a machine that keeps food fresh and healthy, adding flavor to it as well. You just turn it on and it will do its job, all you have to do put it next to your food and hope it doesn''t irradiate it. It doesn''t require batteries since it''s solar-powered, so make sure to get enough of that big ball of irradiation every day!." Said Moira again being very cheerful, literately nothing could bring down her spirits, especially not after Adam busted down her dream and then built it up again.


    As for the food sanitizer, it''s quite big, basically a metal box with a vent in it, that''s the best description that Adam can think of, but for it''s the size it''s quite a lightweight item weighing around 7 kilograms so Adam didn''t really have trouble carrying it, he just put it in his backpack and turned it on.


    "Thanks, this is gonna come in handy, now what is my next task?" After thanking Moira for her gift Adam immediately jumped to the next quest, he doesn''t want to waste too much time here, after all, time is money and experience, he doesn''t have much time before the Lone Wanderer emerges from the vault and by that point he has to become decently strong if he wants to fight the Enclave.