《Immortal Apocalypse Marketplace》 Chapter 1, A sudden Visit An ordinary day in the morning, you could smell some sweet bacon in the neighborhood. One might think that this smell came from a professional restaurant but it came from the ordinary Royce household, Alex Royce a normal boy who aimed to become a chef but quit due to the harsh reality and capitalistic need for money, it is not as if the Royce household was poor. Rather it was Royce who chose to gave up simply because becoming a well paid chef required more effort than a well paid Software Engineer. His parents supporting his true wishes forced him to enroll in cooking classes but he still ended up in the CS department of his college although learning a bit of cooking paired with his natural desire to cook and talent resulted in the scene before us. "Brother, Are you sure you do not wish to work as a chef? Our parents will support you if you wish for it" Taking a bit of the freshly cooked bacon a cute silver haired girl you could often assume to be a child said so "Hmm, I think we have had this talk way more than needed just finish up your bacon,you will be late for school" Yes this child looking girl is actually a highschool student, due to being ill often as a child she was unable to grow in various ways "Brother, I wish to take today off, may I?" "Again? Listen to me those children are not mocking you, please dont let a few idiots ruin your mood" Although a story for a different time, Alex often laments at how his little sister was slowly becoming more and more of a shut in. "Ah brother, stop with the lecture I am not such a child, I just simply dont feel like it today" "You mean today again" Emphasizing on ''again'' he completely shut off his sister who seemed to be ashamed of it, perhaps due to her shy nature she grew up more formal than normal children of her age, introverts tend to be more mature in any case so no one seemed to mind, seeing her dilemma he offered her a lifelineThis story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Well if you dont feel well thats that, go back to sleep since its still early" Cheered up by his proposition her previous ashamed expression seemed like a lie. As their parents were often away her brother appeared as her father figure. He always considered it his responsibility to raise her right and as he was thinking of what to do to help her get back to school she suddenly came to some form of realization "Brother you are quite the gigolo, cornering someone then offering them a lifeline" ofcourse said realization was nothing good but her brother simply shrugged it off as another one of her jokes and replied "Oh really how did you figure it out? the truth is I have been aiming to seduce you so I wont have to hand you over to anyone" Although a joke there seemed to be some form of his true feelings inside, knowing to him she is just a sister he must take responsibility for she planned to return the joke when she saw his face full of determination for something. Not knowing whether to just continue the joke or stay quiet she seemingly got more and more conscious of him and ended up staying quiet "Well since you wont be going to school remember to lock up properly and dont open the door even if they claim to know me or our parents, call the police immediately if you seem anyone suspicious and call me if something goe-" "Yes yes, I am still in highschool of course I dont have basic common sense" "Dont get sly with me missy, take care understood?" "Yes sir!" Awfully cheerful in contrast to a while ago he left her home feeling slightly worried for her future, meanwhile after closing the door she ran straight up to her room and brought out her diary to record the interactions which just happened. After writing it she hugged the diary tightly seemingly afraid itll run away and got lost in some sort of fantasy a while later her expressioned hardened and she muttered "Father what should I do, I wonder if brother would hate me if-" The doorbell interrupted her thoughts as she rushed down to see whether her brother forgot something, opening the door all she saw was a package, figuring that her brother must have ordered it she took it in and opened it, sitting near the front door as she couldnt contain her curiosity "I wonder what sort of porn magazines did he order this time, he always asks for the package to look normal which makes it look even more suspicious" One of her favorite passtimes as a shutin was finding out what sort of things her brother liked, having nothing else to do and finding some form of pleasure in doing so it slowly turned from normal things like favorite food to sexual tastes "Brother has been awfully getting more and more into bigger breasts, does he not realize that the bigger ones sag earlier and have a lot of problems" Unknowingly just ranting off at her brother she got the package open, inside were two boxes witch she didnt get to open as the bell ran again Chapter 2, Sudden trouble! "Who is it" She asked while still seated, it may seem rude but certainly she had such a right after being interrupted twice "Its us, please open up" "Its us scam is it, please wait as I call the police" "Laura, its your dad can you please not be so cruel" "I have a dad? last I recall me and my brother lived alone" Seemingly mad at the constant absense of her parents from her life, ironically the opposite to most girls her age she refused to get up and open the door until she heard a feminine voice "Laura dear please open the door we brought presents" Laura after hearing who can be assumed to be her mother, slowly walked towards the door by no means bribed by the presents offered but out of sheer love for her parents who came to visit after all thi- "Is it another pair of socks?" Laura a pretty shy girl with strangers trusts her family enough to truly joke around with them, although with her personality it can''t be seen as anything more than simple sarcasm "" Finally opening the door what greeted her was a hug by her mother and a small shopping bag which couldnt hold anything bigger than a few chocolates or socks. disillusioned by reality she just stands there blankly staring at the bag while her mother suffocates her in love not worth more than a pair of socks, "What is that box?" Pointing to the half open box in plain view.... meanwhile Alex is enjoying or rather being bored of his college day, same old lectures by the same old professors who could care less if you failed, same old wish to simply make money and even resorting to immoral means such as bribery and pressuring, Alex could swear that a few of the innocent looking ones have slept with the entire male staff more than once simply to avoid their viva getting sunk or a better recommendation letter or with some rich student for a semester worth of fees, each time Alex heard such a rumor he shrugged it off as dumb, on both sides for the men to spend so much money on a single night of sex when there are prostitutes with the same integrity but better prices, for the professors to risk losing their jobs although it never happens due to their connections built over time or the girls simply doing it for a degree which would in the end only get them a job at walmart or macdonalds, ofcourse the pretty boys often do the same but such is the harsh reality of life unless you are handsome or a female its pretty hard to get someone to accept even if you offer yourself on a platter the fault lies on both sides The men for devaluing themselves as something cheap and easy to get by paying for a mutual exchange and the women for the fact that they hypocritically believe in the oldest terms ''if you are a man'', Equal rights mean equal responsibility such a simple fact is forgotten by both sides, but no one would really change anything even if they could perhaps some dare devil would attempt to start some law where everything in the world is theirs but on equality no one would truly care, its only convenient when its on your side as he was thinking all this useless gibberish the professor concluded his lecture and everyone went to their own circle of friends, Alex of course joined them too, he headed to a young man surrounded by women named Ray and lightly slapped his back as he came infront of himIf you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "Womanizing as always I see young master Ray" "Jealous as always I see young master Alex" ""hohoho"" This silly exchange could be seen as nothing but rivalry but everyone here knew that if Ray wasnt surrounded by so many girls there would be rumors of him and Alex being gay, one of the females next to Ray seemed pissed at how Alex and Ray ignored her and in a angry tone yelled "I didnt know you were gay, so did you make love to me only to hide that?" Ray not at all surprised by this simply shrugged and said "Young lady, if I was going to sleep with someone to hide that I am gay it would not be you, in any case remind me again how rejecting you earlier is the same as sleeping with you" As expected of a playboy he held a venomous tongue, the short bursts of giggles around them poured cold water on the girl and she simply stood there in daze, soon she left while spouting cliche lines of revenge, the other women also took the hint and left the two friends together "Ray, I am always surprised how you still get laid with such a venomous tongue." "Young master Alex, its precisely because of my tongue" "Or your father owning 40% of this college" Ray had once been a typical spoiled young master, attempting to bully the poor and surrounding himself by women who he treated as an object and worse yet they themselves did so to considering they only hanged out with him for the money. He got into a fight with Alex as he once saw his little sister and decided to get her, Laura simply shrugged it off and ignore him, due to this Ray would always pick on Alex while he would fight back, normally it ended with Ray leaving after a few verbal jabs and punches neither Alex nor Ray being too good at it and Ray being too prideful to hire help, it always ended with a few hits but one time as they were in the middle of a verbal jab Ray threatened to kidnap his sister which made Alex furious, this time they fought for a while with both sides wounded, if it was only this then Alex would probably have been made into a scapegoat but soon they found themselves surrounded by unknown men in black, Althought Alex had the option to abandon Ray which he was pretty much willing to but he heard how they were going to murder Ray after getting the ransom which triggered his moral sense, after all if this happened when he wasnt here he wouldnt care but humans tend to ''help'' when such events happen infront of them. Alex and Ray both got kidnapped and while they were held in separate rooms they talked to each other about their lives and families and became friends, later on Ray''s family hired a few mercenaries to save him and Alex got saved too in the process which is why Ray consider Alex an equal, although Alex knows that if he asked Ray for money he might as well be ruining it. "Thats part of my charms too, if you are capable own 40% too" "You really never change so did you watch last nights show?" Talking about things no one but them cares or understands time passed and the next lecture started, it was a simple lecture on logic gates and rational operators as well as how to construct a vacuum tube which bored Alex After the lecture almost like a play everyone went back to chatting with their friends, So did Alex when a beautiful woman with purple hair and D cup breasts surrounded by other women not as beautiful came up to Alex and pointed at his face "How many times have I told you, you are not worthy of me please stop sending me these harassing letters" Alex bewildered by this took a while but understood what happened, by someone uknown this lady had been getting letters that claim to be from Alex which Alex himself does not remember sending, normal college drama as everyone knows "Lady, you came all the way here to tell me that? based on a letter you cant even confirm if its from me? Lady either your worth is only that much or you have a thing for me big enough to fake a letter which is it? Ray do you see? Women just throw themselves at me, what a sinful man I am" "Yes young master, she seems to be ready to throw herself at you, to knock you out" "Lady I am sorry but I do not have time for romance, please wait until I am well off before confessing" "You bloody mongrel, Do you think I would lower myself to your level? Please keep the fantasies and confession letters in your dreams" She may or not be convinced the letter was not from Alex but her pride made her refuse to back down and she retaliated in venomous spite "Then please leave this mongrel and go away you are blocking the road like a bad dog" "Fine I suppose I wasted enough time with you, Just know this whether you sent the letter or not, you are not worthy of me, maybe your friend Ray might get to talk to me at most but you? How much are you worth, good bye" Taking her followers she left as quickly as she came, contributing nothing to the story of life but then again even with billions of dollars or even if you own several planets its not as if you contribute to anything the cycle continues with or without you, without changing your worth in a truly objective sense, hence ''worth'' can be considered as something relative to someone to Alex the girl who just yelled at him was probably worth as much as a bar of chocolate due to her attitude, ofcourse Alex being a normal man liked her beauty but to him it wasnt worth it the beauty vs the attitude amounted her value to a bar of chocolate Continuing his talk with Ray, eventually time passed and college came to an end when he heard a phone call "Brother, hurry home we are in huge trouble, Mom and Dad have finally done it" Chapter 3, Sudden Assault by the unknown Bolting home Alex burst through the door, luckily it was already unlocked else he would probably be scolded for breaking the door and probably have to repair it too. The scene he saw was chaotic and he could hear a half broken conversation "What do you mean you are in debt? Father, mother I believe you have some explaining to do" "Well... Oh alex is here perfect, be a dear and calm your little sister will you?" Seeing his mother calm as ever for some reason made alex relax and he organized his thoughts based on the little bit of the conversation he did hear, he greeted his long ''lost'' parents and proceeded to calm down his sister "Laura lets hear what they have to say alright?" "Brother thats what I intend to do, hear their excuse for why they came back with the news of debt, well? ''dear'' mother and father of mine" The scariest one in the family was not the ever calm mother or the weirdo of a father but the little harmless looking sister, as said by some wise man ''fear not those who anger easily but those who dont for when they go mad they will not rest until they see the object of their fury burn at whatever cost including themselves'', although not entirely accurate still it pays a homage to how frightening the ''quiet'' types can be. "Well you see, the place we worked rushed us into a job we couldnt refuse and although your mother tried to get us out of it whats impossible is impossible and he penalty for the job was being fired, the job was shady so even if we completed it we would have been disposed of so in a way this is better. We can only blame our luck" Although not entirely incompetent Alex and Laura''s parents were quite capable in their own regards but when the higher ups attempt to make trouble all you can do is damage control, ofcourse they sued the company and will probably in the future affect the reputation of the company as it wasnt a giant corporation, such events arent entirely uncommon. Keeping an eye out on how shady the job is and whether you can be disposed for performing it is also a skill and when you are forced into a corner its best to cut your losses instead of trying to do the impossible and losing more. The couple could be said to have performed quite admirably. "So basically, for a while we will have to live frugally? Well I can work part time for the college fees but what will you two do?" Like a responsible son Alex realized complaining wont do anything so he opted to instead think of a solution suppressing his rage for the place their parents wasted their time in. "I understand father, mother. I apologize for getting mad at you but you were clearly at fault for evading the topic right until brother came, Why are you more curious about whats inside the box than the crisis we are in?" "What box laura?" Only now did Alex notice the half open box unmoved from its earlier position, denoting that no one has inspected it after the parents came in despite their constant attempts to change the topic towards it.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! "Brother this box came in right before father and mother did, I did not completely open it but there seem to be two small boxes inside, I thought you ordered it? So you didn''t order another batch of porn magazines?" The sentence got a bit chilly in the end but Alex couldnt help word out a complaint "Leaving aside the ''another batch'', Could you my dearest little sister explain why you opened it despite thinking it was porn I ordered?" "Violet" (AN: Mother. I intend to slip in names rather than force feed character details this will be the only note of its kind) "Yes dear?" "Lets leave the two children alone for now" "Yes lets" The parents completely not running away from further inquisition and totally just giving their children privacy slipped into the background as quickly as their feet took them leaving their children bickering, due to single mindedly wishing to just escape they couldnt pay attention to the topic which could be mistaken as a lovers quarrel "Brother of mine, so you wish to ask me such a question when you are caught red handed ordering porn?" "Sister of mine, I would be embarrassed by that if I did not already know that you looked through them each time for whatever reason" ""Hohoho"" "Lets forget about this" "Lets." "So where are Father and mother, did they get lost again? Do we need to file a missing person report?" "Laura they are still your parents, lets trust them a bit more, Besides I am curious about whats in the box more" The parcel having waited an entire morning would probably be screaming ''Why have you wasted so much time on useless bickering just open me already'' and having attention on itself if it could it would be crying tears of joy, Alex approached the box and took out the two small boxes carefully thinking they might have something delicate. He slowly opened one and gave the other to his sister thinking it would be faster that way. The box was slowly opened revealing a oddly thin as if two dimensional black chip. The box in Lauras hand tore itself open just when she was about to open it herself, distracting Alex. The chip in his hand as if having come to life sprang upon his arm crawled up to his neck and simply disappeared leaving him nothing but a tattoo in the shape of a choker around his neck and quite a lot of pain, unable to do anything as the events taking place were to quick to process he simply grit his teeth in pain and looked over to Laura again and saw the same happened to her. He mustered his will and picked her up, slowly walked towards the couch he laid her there and collapsed soon after The parents hearing the commotion simply thought it was common sibling bickering and that maybe their children didnt get along as well as they thought after all they were almost never home, but after hearing the screams they rushed down and saw Alex collapsed on the floor and Laura peacefully sleeping on the couch, they also noticed a chocker looking tattoo on their necks. The couple now had 4 thoughts in their heads a) Laura sleeping on the couch and Alex sleeping on the floor after bickering means there was some sort of physical scuffle and that Laura might have abused her brother b) Alex might be a sub and remember the key word porn magazine they ignored earlier came to some perverted conclusion far from reality involving a play based on the porn magazine, realizing how dumb this thought was they immediately dismissed it. c) The box might have contained something dangerous d) We should probably take them to the doctor instead of thinking weird things realizing now wasnt the time to think in such half hearted manner they took them to the hospital, Although lacking finances due to being fired they still had some savings which they used to have their children tested especially around the weird tattoo A week after Laura and Alex woke up to the faces of their mother and father smiling on them "Please explain what exactly happened, we wont mind if you two get into that sort of thing but please tell us" continuing the misunderstanding from earlier, Alex and Laura looked at their parents, then at the surroundings confirming that they were in a hospital then looked at each other and came to some sort of weird understanding ""I see we were in a coma all along"" Chapter 4, Sudden Awakening "Well, I guess not seeing the looks on your face" Their parents had worried faces but not the sort of delight that you would normally have when someone wakes up from a coma which would mean last night was also real, wait it is last night right? so thought the siblings "Laura, Alex could you explain why you both passed out for an entire week?" "Weeek? what!!" "Focus dear." "Yes mother." They explained the events of the night choosing to not tell them they thought it was just porn but they forgot that when said conversation started the parents were there, A.K.A they already know about it. "Well there are some pornographic details that are missing but, I see, The choker like tattoos are explained then. We had you guys tested for numerous things while you were sleeping but none of them came back bad, your bodies are healthier than a comatosed patient should have at the same time they were breaking themselves down which was weird, perhaps its some new form of disease?" "Mother, Could you not skip over the tattoo bit, brother there really is a choker shaped tattoo on your neck! Can it be taken off?" "Yes Laura you have one too, its not important anymore. Whats important is what the chip has done to us" Laura still reigning in from the shock of perhaps having been given a permanent tattoo without her consent, or perhaps the unreal event where a thin chip just disappeared inside them, Maybe they would die? How could they know anything. With fear and panic consuming her she just stared at her brother as if everything depended on him. "Well, for starters we can atleast say the chip wont kill us or it would already have, secondly our body which should have died considering it was breaking down feels awfully healthy, I feel lighter than ever despite just waking up after a week although famished. I think at the very least we wont have any harm done to us for now" Putting calming down his sister as a priority he carefully explained his thoughts to the too confused to think Laura, after all she collapsed before Alex and couldnt see the situation as much as him even if what he saw was something he couldnt explain well. Alex also felt that his muscles grew denser than before but hunger and a ''grrr'' sound from his stomach interrupted his thoughts "Shall we have food then? Oh my in my excitement I forgot to call the doctors, wait here!" Said the mother hearing the sound. While the father got busy with the documents he had to fill for fees and discharging "Laura can you feel it?" "Yes brother, Father and mother seem worried, I wonder how much this week cost us" A week in a hospital would be very costly especially when you have every sort of test available done on two people no less, Doctors being the money oriented occupation it turned into today the siblings figured the doctors also made them pay for unnecessary procedures and medication they probably werent even given. "Brother, I wonder what that thing was" "A chip, I had a good look at it before it pounced us" "Brother, wouldnt that be a novel like devlopment? Would it make us superhuman?" "Hmm?" The brother could only let out confused sounds to such a remark. Before Laura could answer the doctor came in and seeing the two healthy as an ant which isnt crushed by children or had its limbs severed as a childish experiment or just picked up and put down far away from its initial position, oddly specific yes. The doctor came up and gave the two a rough checkup "Well your bodies are certainly healthier than before, In a way this is pretty miraculous a week of sleep made you two healthy" "Doctor is there anything wrong with our bodies?" Laura remaining quiet since the doctor came in extended her hand to hold her brothers "Well it was breaking down in a very odd manner when you were sleeping but, That seemed to have stopped. So yeah healthy as a lawn mower straight out of the factory" Breathing a sigh of relief Alex then asked the doctor about discharging them as soon as possible as they were healthy, the doctor wishing to research the peculiar body breakdown and get more fees for it tried persuading them but when he claimed they had no more money to spare and that if they are healthy they shouldnt take up his time, Having been used to taking responsibility alone and doing everything by the parents checked up on them again they were informed they would be discharged once the paperwork is doneThe narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. When they got home Laura finally began speaking again and the siblings went to her room to figure out what the tattoo really is, wishing to seriously find out what the chips truly were and whether they could help them or not "Dont get too rowdy children" And so died the seriousness.RIP 2019-2019. Ignoring the parents the siblings made their way to Lauras room considering it was closer than Alex''s "I wonder if you hid porn magazines somewhere too" "Brother not you too, stop teasing me this is a serious crisis" "So you said something about a novel but what exactly do you mean" "Well, in novels such chip embeds itself into the ''host'' and helps them become superhuman in everything, usually the chip recognizes voice commands such as ''status'' or ''install'' just mental commands such as ''open store''" And as the flag was set up, so shall it be raised. A blue screen popped up like it was waiting for this moment since ages ago and informed Laura
"Welcome to the immortal technologies store, we offer bother methods to immortality, food for the apocalypse, weapons from the future, Please deposit an item to convert to Martial or Apocalyptic points, based on your current era and location these two will be useful for you!"
A small box popped up with ''Point to object and say deposit'' written on it Telling her brother about the change, he told her to feed it some snack lying around, apparently only she could see the box so as she fed the box some chips she had lying around her brother too took a packet and it disappeared. Apparently she couldnt see his box either
"Congratulations, for blindly trusting a chip which could have very well ended your life just now you get! nothing! this is a pre-recorded message for the first deposit by any user, ending pre-recorded message, please choose whether you wish to convert 1 small salted chips pack into 2 Martial points or 200 Apocalyptic points, points aquired multiplied by 20x for the first deposit"
"What is the difference?" She clicked on the ? mark next to the points
"Apocalyptic points can be used to buy high tech items from your distant future while martial points can be used to buy immortal goods"
For some reason shutting down her capability of reasoning and asking such an obvious question Laura could only reprimand herself, without noticing the note at the end in her excitement and confusion. Having such a weird thing happen to you can be pretty mind breaking "I meant to ask, why is there such a difference between alloted points" Thinking outloud again, she clicked on the offered values and an explaination popped up
"Value of an item is respective to the buyer, immortals do not feed while the apocalypse lacks any sort of luxury food"
While Laura was experimenting with her chip Alex had already started browsing the goods in the markets before deciding which side to invest in first, The martial store was filled with techniques such as ying yang breathing technique or a magicians guide for dummies, as well as immortality and power fruits and stuff of myths and fantasy. The apocalyptic market had a scifi feel to it. It had advanced weaponry such as a plasma hand cannon or nano armor. Seeing their price Alex opted to first invest in the apocalypse and asked the market filter to show items he could afford which can help him protect themselves, with slight regret at not depositing something with more base value he looked at the list which popped up
Apocalyptic Marketplace Excluding Non Defensive items
Home defense shield 150Apts A small force shield perfect for protecting a single house, The quality of this item is enough to protect the house from a blast of 200 KG of TnT, Will automatically detect intruders and permissions can be customized, used by low class families before the war
Individual security shield 40Apts A small individual sized force shield, Can protect the user from any anti material bullets, rarely used preward for its low shielding capabilities it can protect the current host from most tank fire and artillery provided the explosion does not exceed 20KG of TnT focused on the user
Security Drone 40Apts A Home security drone capable of shooting 20 .75 bullets/second, used as a study material by robotics students due to its inefficiency
Look alive soldier 200Apts A personal handgun used by military officials before the code revolution, the target is slowly turned into atoms by destroying the molecules themselves causing a chain reaction in the body useful for torture
Digital gun 100Apts Turns the targets energy into digital waves and disperses them, the larger the target the more shots they take
Skeletor skeleton 160Apts A skeleton armor based on an ancient animation known as cartoon, The skeleton offers protection for your babies and adds 100KG to their strength, Perfect to protect your babies from falling, one of the first models so it has some antique value to it
Gene modifier 150Apts Can multiply your stats by 10x, please refer to your statistic measuring device.
"A statistics measuring device?" he searched for one but found a X mark next to it, clicking on it an explaination popped up
Host can not afford it, cost is 2000Apts as there are no older models
"I cant tell whether the items are useful or useless consdering how the chip describes them 200KG of TnT basically means its safe from most things under a nuke or natural disaster right? Better search about it" "Brother, what should I buy" Only then did Alex realize that his sister probably got the same points and could help him as the 20x bonus was only for their first deposit. "What did you invest in?" "Apocalyptic points" As expected of his sister she realized that chips were more valuable to the starved than the immortals after all you couldnt eat technology. "Alright lets compare our lists and see what we should get" The lists were pretty much the same expect Laura got 3 more points for some reason. After a while they decided on what they wanted and bought them Chapter 5, Sudden message After talking about it a bit the siblings decided that they should buy 4 personal shields totalling at 160 Apts, Laura would get 2 digital guns and the remaining 40 Apts in Alex''s account will be stored, They confirmed the purchase by clicking buy next to the catalog, Just as they finished purchasing a message popped up
"As the first purchase has been made, please bind the market to any device, As the chip has been bound to a host you may switch devices at will in case of the device being lost or stolen- pre-recorded message end."
This sudden prompt confused the siblings, why would they bind the market to a device when its working perfectly as is. Infact this way its more convenient to them so they nodded at each other and decided to trust the market this once, Alex took out his phone and clicked on settings in the chip interface, there he found a method to link it to his phone and did so.
Installing, 77%. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alex saw an app icon for the market, he picked up his phone but suddenly a light came out of its camera and digitally constructed 4 round objects like shirt buttons. Alex knew such a thing was impossible for his phone or any phone for that matter, how could a phone materialize something out of this air? the shock made him drop his phone but it had no scratch on it after impact, infact as soon as it fell as if instinct Alex tried grabbing it with too much force but it got flung across the room and he almost thought it broke. Realizing that the app modified his phone he nodded at Laura who bound her phone with the chip too. The chip lacked a ''system'' like Q and A. The only answers it had were pre recorded despite that it seemed to have a life of its own. Excited by their first futuristic purchase, I mean who wouldnt be? The siblings picked up the buttons first and saw there was a form of hook that can be wrapped around their shirts or hair. Alex put his button on his shirt but Laura latched it onto her hair. They felt a form of thin layer covering them as soon as they put it on. Alex reached out for one of the guns but he felt a thin gap between his hands and the gun to thin to be noticed by anyone else. he aimed at a tree leaf outside and shot. He missed splendidly and hit the tree which as if glitching out completely disappeared "If it can destroy a tree in a single hit, I wonder why the system acted as if it is only good for small creatures" A question towards no one but the equally shocked Laura calmed herself down and answered for him "Perhaps the future ''apocalypse'' has giant mutatated creatures which are common? next they decided to test the shield, Alex took his off and put it on a small toy doll in Lauras room, learning from his earlier mistake he shot the doll near point blank and surprisingly although there was a ripple in the film which made it seem unstable it held out. He shot the doll twice in quick succession and the film disappeared for a few seconds. Thrice and the dolls clothings disappeared leaving behind the doll and the button like shield. The siblings were glad Alex experimented with it because if they had shot something like a car and only its wheel disappeared they would be pretty screwed. Ofcourse they realized that they wouldnt normally even need to shoot a car so the excitement died down. "Atleast, we know it can take two digital shots without problem in quick succession." Although the shield boasted 20KG TnT protection. Seeing it in action was a different story it seemed like an all purpose shield and not one geared towards explosives alone. 20KG TnT was basically any and all common explosives so the shield in todays time was pretty much a ''all protect''. At the very least they wouldnt die of bullets "Perhaps we should have bought something to help our financial state brother?"Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. "Sorry I got caught up in owning a self defense weapon and didnt realize it would be useless in most situations" "Well brother, its not useless, if we make money someone might aim for us" They then made their way down and gave their parents the buttons. They didnt tell them about the market but they told them that the the tattoo''s on their necks spit them out. That they had no control over it and when Laura fell down there was a thin film protecting her which could only be the buttons. A lie is believable if its 60% truth no matter how unlikely it seemed, as for why they lied? They didnt wish to worry their parents who might have thought that they made a deal with some sort of demon or some shady business. They didnt trust the marketplace but it seemed to be pretty much give and take "Alright thank you for giving us these, Now we need to go search for a job so you two behave yourselves alright?" ""Yes father"" Alex stored his pistol in his pocket and went to college perhaps even wishing to show off to Ray but Laura saw this and reprimanded him. She asked him to keep it a secret from everyone unless an emergency pops up then went to her room after seeing him off. ''She is right, I got careless. Although Ray may not betray me I cant completely erase it as a possibility'' So he went to college like normal, had a normal day with a bit of banter and a bloody boring time. When college was over he was stopped by a girl. "For the last time stop sending me those creepy love letters" She said and threw the letters at his face "For the last time stop saying I sent them to you, you may not have a reputation to uphold but I do. What would people think if I send a letter to you?" Obviously irritated by her constant harassment over something he didnt even do he put himself on a higher level simply to tell her he is not interested and that she should find the one who actually sent them, ofcourse the girl already knew this ages ago but if she stopped now she would be admitting herself as inferior, pride is such a weird thing. "Indeed you know that you are not worthy of me, sorry for doubting you all this time" Alex unable to come with a reply to her shameless remark just ignored her and walked past. He then bolted to the forest like area behind the jogging park and took out his pistol, not the weird kind mind you. Give a boy a futuristic weapon and you can not expect him not to atleast play with it. He shot a few small items and bullied ants like he was 13 again. After a good 20 mins he decided to stop before someone sees. Ofcourse in a city everything is seem by someone in this case the lover letter girl who ran after him as she wasnt finished with what she wanted to say. Alex only shot small objects so she just passed it off as a weird occurence but still decided to ask him how he made such pebbles seem to magically disappear with such special affects. Admittedly she was a bit dazed by the show and headed home as well once it was over. Alex decided to see if he could sell a tree and pulled out his phone to scan it but it just gave an error as if the tree itself was useless. He figured that the immortals probably dont even breath air and the apocalypse probably has alternate methods even if they dont have trees. After all if the future was anything like the one we are headed to the trees would probably have to be replaced. Walking on he saw a smartphone dropped on the floor, it seemed pretty expensive but it was locked and with how easy tracking devices is nowadays he decided to see if he could sell it, he scanned it and decided to see how much it is worth
"200 Mpts, 0.1Apts"
Strange this time it is worth a lot of martial points, the chips had their worth due to the first bonus but why does this phone have such a worth. He sold it to the immortal market and closed the app. He knew he couldnt just keep purchasing phones to feed it as phones cost more than a pack of chips, especially such an expensive brand but perhaps the brand name wouldnt affect anything? After all to the immortals Banana products or Dimsung products have no difference apart from features and specs only idiotic humans would care about such a thing as brand name rather than specs. Alex belonged to the type which didnt care for expensive brands as long as they were efficient perhaps due to not having too much money. He hurried home and decided to consult with his sister about it, not caring about the fact he just zapped a poor guys phone right out of existence with zero remorse but then again how many of us would return a dropped wallet?
You have mail, User: lowkeyimmortal
After reaching him he saw a message notification, thinking it was Ray or something he decided to check it but then saw that tt was from a user named lowkeyimmortal which wasnt a weird name but the app the message was from was the marketplace app. Chapter 6, Sudden Sky Pie
"Hello, I couldnt help but notice that you are a mortal, Do you have any of those magic boxes?"
Alex typed out his reply "Magic boxes?" As if the other side was waiting for it with some sort of divine fingers it hardly took a second for a reply
"The ones you press a button and it glows then you can touch the surface and make it change"
Alex realized he meant a smartphone so he searched the apocalypse market for smart phones, A cheap one cost 20Apts but had 8Ghz 24 core processors with 128MB cache and 256GB RAM. 20TB Internal memory. He immediately bought it and asked the other side "Couldnt you just buy it from the apocalypse market?"
"Apocalypse market?"
"You know like the martial market there is a apocalypse one"
"Ohh you must be new to the app, The app has different markets depending on your location and era. Didnt you notice there is no marketplace for your own goods? I have the fantasy and mortal marketplaces by the way makes life a lot more convenient this thing called toilet paper, or paper"
"Oh I have the apocalypse and Immortal marketplaces, I see I was wondering what it did with the goods I sold it, coincidentally whats the cost of the XX model smartphone?"
"Oh that one? 2000 Mpts, M for mortal but I am not sure how much that would be worth to you but with one of these ''smartphones'' you can buy a 8th grade strengthening pill here" (by no means are smartphones common, considering who would pay with 1000 years worth of life for a phone if they were? he likely has his own operations set up or perhaps just estimated the values Author note, again I will not explain these type of things in the future, everyone has a life of their own whether explored or not)
Looking up the 8th grade pill it cost him 500Mpts ''These profiteering bastards, So does this make the Apts more valuable? Or is it subjective to how easily said good is available there. Well I still love these guys because with this knowledge Laura and I can be more efficient with what to sell and what to buy, Judging from the situation technology is valuable to Immortals while food and the likes are useful to the apocalypse'' He thought silently but this made him wish to make a private deal to increase his points "How about I buy you a smartphone from the market with better features for you for the same price?"
"Oh you cant sell items you bought from the app through the app, I would have to descend to your realm to take it but thats not worth the hassle at all with how many resources that would take"
''I see they set it up so we cant just move goods right through the market, But why not do it themselves? Or they already do! through us!'' A thought came to his mind, He thought of how they sold items for profit and if thats the case they dont need to work extra hard to get goods, every app user gets them items and they dont even have to pay for it apart from letting them have a share in a bit of benefits such as availibility of items they normally couldnt get. The app is already moving goods around using the app user. This win win win situation baffled him as he thought that he was overlooking something there is no way there is such a thing as no losing side but the benefits were too great to quit now.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. "So I can sell items from my own era? I see this way the app can sell the items to where its the most valued without resellers taking their cut and still buying for cheap" Every thought he had he was shuddering at the thoughts behind such an elaborate scheme, He also thought maybe he can use such a thing but that would be a later discussion with his sister
"Yes, so could I buy some smartphones from you? The app would not get in the way of our transaction if we dont trade anything bought from the app. I offer you 2 7th grade strengthening pills, they can help you transform your flesh and live upto 1000 years as well as the ability to lift upto 400KG and infuse 1 ton of force in your punches, But you need to be a Martial beginner to ingest them safely"
Each 7th grade pill cost 200 Mpts, so the Immortal was clearly after a small gain but he did not understand anything other then that. After questioning him a few times he learnt that the martial arts in the Immortal''s world can be divided into 10 different ''realms''. Each has a different requirement to enter but these 10 realms were divided again into 10 smaller realms. Alex decided to instead think of it as 100 levels, 10 sections multiplied by 10 realms with a special trait required to unlocked new levels after every 10 levels such as the ability to project force outside the body "Sorry but I am not even a martial beginner how can I ingest the pills?"
"What sort of heavenly place do you live in where you can survive without any strength? Dont you have demons or monsters? Well, do you have a practicing method? Actually forget it this is taking too long, ill just send you my own method not like you can contest resources from me and you being stronger will also help me. This is a Primordial- I mean one of the 3 best methods for cultivation. I will give it to you if you give me a smartphone"
Incidentally Alex had just bought a new one so he decided to transfer the app to his new one and sell the old one, he got too excited by the possibility of becoming Immortal and neglected checking whether he was lied to, Alex paused and realized this. Fortunately the other side had no real reason to lie to him as he himself said Alex lived way too far to contest resources from him and so Alex thought that its just a smartphone and began transferring the app. In the settings he saw he could set up a Main device and some child devices and thought maybe he can use that later on. Having finished the transfer he also transferred all contacts and data and quickly uploaded it. The Immortal complained a bit about how long it took but Alex couldnt just have given him all his data right?
"You have recieved the Dragon eating tiger Manual"
As the manual materialized in the form of some weird slip, he looked up its price and was astonished that it cost around 10,000 Mpts. Not the best by far unlike what was claimed but still well over the worth of the phone he most likely drived up its worth without expecting the market to have it too or perhaps he wanted to make Alex grateful and in turn provide him with better deals in the future after all this wasnt some novel where the pie fell straight out of the sky, or perhaps that was the best method available in his world and the market was connected to more powerful ones. The most expensive martial manual currently available to Alex was one with enough zeroes to make him wonder whether it was glitched. The manual had a simple name "Efficient Manual". As he was browsing, Immortal sent another message saying
"Consider this an investment. I hope next time you will give me a sizable gift. To learn this just put the slip on your forehead and let it do the rest, I loaded it with two times the aura so you can use it a second time incase you forget the complex instructions, or to share with someone if you have some memory technique"
Alex thought of sharing it with his sister but realized his memory isnt perfect. What if he forgot? So in a fit of worry looked up a memory related technique or item in both the markets. He found a martial technique worth 200 points which he quickly bought. It came in the form of a slip too and it too had 2 charges, perhaps it was a standard thing, He was grateful that this way even Laura could have it completely forgetting his mortal parents. Although he planned to discuss with Laura on how to spend these points, such is life plans dont always work out but in this case he was glad they didnt. The memory technique was simple all it required was a way of breathing which he practiced a bit while walking, it provided him with the ability to memorize anything he saw once perfectly and increased his brain capacity from 200 years which is normal for humans to 1000 years quite the change. If it was anyone else they would be worried that they are getting too many things too quickly but Alex was grateful for everything he got especially with how significant they are. The shields. The pistols. The manual. The memory. everything. He said goodbye to the Immortal and rushed home with so much to tell his sister. Perhaps he might even be able to spread the app albiet a dumbed down version for profit or use his memory for academics and become a leading scientist. So many possibilities he couldnt wait to discuss but more importantly he also wished to share whatever he got with his sister again forgetting about his poor parents Chapter 7, Sudden Plan Recently he had done nothing but bolt home whenever he returned, so he decided that this time he will be more civil. After all nothing would run away if he didnt rush home right? the manual wouldnt run, his possible immortality wouldnt run, the app wouldnt run. Nothing would run. By the time he realized he was already running home. So except him indeed nothing would run. When he got home he saw a small pile of boxes being unpacked by Laura, they had the logo of the nearby convenience store so they were probably food items she bought in bulk, they werent too good on finances so the pile was small but still it was something. He sneaked up to her, by sneak I mean rush as fast as he could and just stuck the memory sticker on her forehead. This temporarily put her in a daze and after she got out of it she yelled at Alex for a while before calming down "Sorry, I was just too excited, soooo how does it feel having perfect memory?" "Brother, I remember that you owed me 2 cups of milkshake, I will expect them soon." "And? Am I the only one excited here?" Feeling betrayed he sulked. "Brother, I have the immortal market too. Could you instead explain how you got the points required for such a thing?" "Being as intelligent as me I realized a smartphone would be very well recieved by the Immortals" "So you bought a futuristic smartphone, tried selling your old one and got more points than you thought you would. Understood" "Not exactly like that but yes." He did not wish to get into details as they were meaningless and possibly a crime. Laura brought up catalog for a memory related items and found the one which matched the one used on her. "So exactly why did you spend these points on this particular item?" "Well because I got an even better item!" He told her about the earlier events and discussed the manual with her. Being untrusting as she was, she asked him to sell it instead of using it. Considering the item was transferred over the chat it couldnt have been bought from the app. Her reasoning was that he shouldnt blindly trust any weird manuals sent from unknown sources especially ones which clearly costed him more than he gained. She brought up the manual in the catalog and its description read.
The Dragon eating Tiger manual 10,000 Mpts allows one user to become as strong as a dragon eating tiger, with each successful ascension adding 2 dragons worth of power roughly 500 KG. Has a total of 100 levels after which one will morph into a tiger
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report."Brother please sell it to the app." "Yes you are right, if there is something wrong with this manual we would not be able to handle it besides even if there is nothing wrong we still get points for it" He scanned the manual but it gave an error as if it would refuse to accept anything from the app including messages. He then asked Laura to scan it out of curiosity and it still didnt work. Still to avoid taking risks he decided to let someone else practice it or sell it in real life once he had the ability to. Perhaps there is some mystical way to control someone through a manual because no one pays 10,000 points for an item they could get for 500, even if the manual didnt cost the immortal it still was something precious. "Brother, if you could please buy a smartphone for me too" He bought a smart phone for her but she decided not to sell her old one and instead tried out the main and sub device feature on her phone. She also saw that she had the ability to restrict the sub phone almost as if the app was hiring them as managers without pay, after all with such a feature who wouldnt start their own app empire using the marketplace itself when it was so convenient to? "Laura one more thing I saw a main-sub device feature could you test it out? Its clear what the app expects of us but I have a slightly different plan." She was already experimenting with it but Alex couldnt have possibly known that right? "I am already experimenting with the features and its clear the app wants us to act as managers, but why. What does the app get out of all this" Alex again realized he missed a few things and explained this part to her as well along with what he thinks the app wants, considering the feature they just discovered it seemed pretty obvious the app wished for unpaid help with supplies. He also explained his plan to use the app to gain money but before he could finish Laura interrupted "Wouldnt we be doing what it wants like that?" "Sister sister sister, it seems you are not at my level yet, we will do something similar but very different, instead of giving the app the power to simply cut us off if we become unneeded, we become the sole suppliers, we will also be able to supply more. hike up prices and still get real world money. Its an absolute win!" He explained the rest of her plan to her. "I see in that case, let us buy a few things." Laura and Alex spent a while buying and searching items and goods. "Laura please buy a few security items. They will become absolutely necessary as well as some advanced computers and servers I will handle the bank accounts and financial access" "Brother I think we should worry about that later for now lets learn how to make our own programs, we have enough security for now" Infront of her was an item in the catalog
Freemans coding and programming tutorial 400 Apts A old school programmers bible, can be used to learn how to use machine and Arvidge languages and how to use it to develop old school OS programs for OS such as Doors! Robots! and even Mburgers! yes from the old companies PP, doodle and Banana
For people from the future these OS would be pretty much outdated and hence this book isnt worth alot but its the perfect book for Alex and Laura after all what use is a language if you cant even compile it into machine code? (think of it as. the language computers understand. C++ and every other language is converted into it before execution) If you cant even develop any working apps or programs with it? (I am looking at you mansion in a post ragnarok world, yes messed with the name here too AN). Probably thats why it still costed 400Apts way more than security as to the duo it is worth that much. Chapter 8, Suddenly busted The items Laura bought earlier sold for around 2000 Apts. After buying a home defense shield, the freeman''s book, 2 computers worth 300 Apts each and a server worth 700 the duo had a total of 150 Apts remaining, considering Alex had bought a smartphone for Laura earlier with his remaining 20 Apts but got a few items from Laura to sell he had 50 Apts and Laura had 100 remaining. The computers were surprisingly laptops with a futuristic OS and a 3D hologram instead of a monitor. The keyboard was still there God knows why but there was also a weird device which looked like a thin headband but more sleek embedded inside next to the keyboard. Alex put his on and decided to see what it would do, he extended his hand intending to turn on the laptop but it turned itself on telling him what the headband was fore. The bootup was fast and in a few seconds he was already exporing the OS. Laura too decided to put on the headband and it seemed weightless, didnt feel uncomfortable like headphones and made her think how far had technology progressed for such a convenient thing to be possible. Alex wondered why the keyboard even existed but there are always purists everywhere who prefer it, this also made him feel a bit more familiar to the device albeit the 3D solid hologram looked a bit too solid. "Werent holograms supposed to be glitchier? look fake? or even all blue? I guess the movies got one thing wrong, they dont look like 90s TV screens" Out of impulse he tried touching the hologram but was unable to. He started exploring the OS and decided to use headband since it would basically read his mind to do what he wanted not what he ordered, plus he didnt have to worry about some giant corporation reading his mind because they dont even exist yet. Convenient for someone who doesnt know how to even open a file in the futuristic interface using the keyboard. He had the specs open and they basically blew out anything any current super computer could offer. Some of these figures he couldnt even recognize despite currently studying software and computers. There was no RAM or SDD/HDD mentioned so he thought perhaps the technology grew to the point Cache and Registers took over (Yes I am geeking out, just think of it as ultra fast RAM but inside the CPU). The CPU had around 5Ghz with 24 Cores, made by some weird named company. He again marveled at the technology but Laura was already busy reading her book after a few mins of playing with her laptop, having no interest in the tech geek doing his thing. With their memory they learnt at a pretty fast pace, by nightfall they had memorized the thick and large book. Memory doesnt mean understanding but it makes it easier to get there Next morning Alex went to college as usual thinking about how his life seemed to be picking up pace. Walking onwards, out of pure geek love he took out his phone. He had already downgraded his mobile software to robot and installed all the important apps thankfully the phone was compatible with it. Just thinking of the specs on this bad boy made him want to run. again. He opened the camera app and saw no difference between looking through the screen or through his eyes. A passerby happened to glance on his screen and thought it was just a hollow rectangle. ''Young man seemed to have gone mad from pressure at college, I should give my son a break so he doesnt go mad too'' Not realizing that he had helped some poor college student Alex continued acting like an idiot. He took a selfie and slowly reached college. The day went as usual, the students took out their phones to take notes from the board. so did Alex. Writing like idiots in notebooks is for school students after all. Incidentally Ray was sitting next to Alex and glanced at the phone while he was taking a picture "Young master seems to have gone mad, he is using a weird rectangle to look at the board" Alex heard Ray and turned towards him putting his phone down. Ray saw the back of the phone and realized it wasnt a triangle while Alex realized he will probably have a lot of questions to answer and that it would probably be better to hide his phone "Young master, Where can I get such a phone? Its camera is better than any I have seen and it looks so elegant" Judging that it was too late to hide it, he thought of an excuse but failed miserablyHelp support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. "Thats a secret" "Come on Alex money isnt a problem ill give you 20 bucks if you tell me what brand" "Sorry Ray its a experimental build from a friends company, if you want it you will have to wait for it to be released until then you will have to wait" And whenever something interesting happens of course there is a peanut gallery. "How much for your phone?" "I offer 2 grands!" The commotion attracted other people who also wished to buy the phone which got the attention of a rich guy, I mean if such a rich guy wants it so badly how good must it be? If it was a common model he could have just bought it himself but more importantly how did Alex get such a thing, he wasnt rich or powerful nor did he have ties to a tech company so how exactly did he get it? Well thinking about it wouldnt solve the question instead it was better to get their hands on such a thing. The situation quickly escalated and Alex knew he would be busted if anyone got their hand on his phone and realized it had better specs than their computers. He quickly put it away and glared at Ray "Dont look at me like that, I might blush." "I will let you play with it if you help me." What else could he do? He could hide it but, that would just put more attention on him. Letting Ray play with it was just the lesser evil "Young master is wise. Everyone listen up! Anyone who gets to the cafeteria within 5 mins will receive a free drink from me!" Who doesnt love free stuff? Especially with such a short time limit giving them no real time to think, phones can be bought but free stuff is only given with opportunity. Everyone rushed to the cafe and Ray passed a message, having 40% of the shares comes with a lot of privileges. Such as the reduction of available drinks or removal of the expensive ones, dont underestimate the words ''free drinks'' it would cost a lot to let so many people drink as much as they wished and as a wise sage once said every penny is a good penny. "Here you go, just so you know it was all your fault and I want it back by the time I go home" Locking up his private files and porn he passed the phone to Ray who immediately started playing with its camera taking selfies and just random pictures like he would actually get to keep them. Alex vowed to delete those as soon as he got the phone back. After a while of playing Ray looked at Alex seriously and said "So where did you really get this phone? Its better than my computer." Ray wasnt an idiot, especially not an idiot in a computer course. "Do I have to say?" "No you dont but, I will pay you 50 grand for it" Such a price would never be offered for a phone, unless you planned to figure out how to make it. Ray''s father was a realestate company owner although he had nothing to do with technology he knew a few companies which bought land from him which did. Ray being his son planned to use those connections to start his own tech company and this phone seemed too good to pass up regardless of how it ended up in Alex''s hand. Alex knew of his ambitions as he often joked about making his own company or hiring Alex often met with a joke of his own. The hiring might be a joke but seeing Ray in a computer related course he knew the company was not. He thought of selling the phone but decided against it as even if he could not reverse engineer it, someone might decide to get its production method from the source and the only one who knew the source was. Him. Although he might be a bit late to cover up he decided to salvage as much as possible besides, 50 grands may seem a lot but if his plan worked out as well as he thought it would such little cash would mean nothing! He would then buy a real manual which wouldnt come from a shady source, assuming the app wouldnt fuck him over. "Its kind of the only one of its kind so I dont want to sell it, thanks for thinking highly of it. I will tell my friend that you want one too" "Please do" Ray returned the phone once the conversation was finished as if his time limit was up. Alex got lost in his thoughts as usual and silence filled the classroom with only the two of them. Alex for the first time felt an urgent need for something to truly defend himself. So what if he wouldnt be damaged by bullets? It just means the enemy doesnt need to worry about killing him when trying to capture him. So what if he has a gun which can kill them with a single shot? He wasnt trained to use it. He decided to look up something to help him aim in the apocalypse market when he got home. As if on queue the love letter girl came in class "Amelia I am not in the mood for it, for the last time I wouldnt send you a love letter if it killed me" Alex not in the mood to play with her, lashed out at her perhaps due to the fear of danger or anger at his careless self. "Thats not.. Alex could we talk in private for a while?" A bit apologetic for lashing out earlier, he agreed. The two of them went to a corner and she asked him about how he made those items look like they glitched out and disappear, was he a magician practicing his magic tricks? "I was just practicing magic tricks I learnt online. want me to show you?" She nodded and he picked up a random item laying around, took out the toy gun and shot it. Today seemed to be the day his carelessness would bite him, first the phone now the playing around. He just wished to get today over with quickly. "Whats this weird toy gun, it look magical." "Let me tell you a secret Amelia." Chapter 9, Sudden Measures Thinking about it a bit, perhaps she might be useful after all, if he truly makes her believe he is a magician perhaps he would have his test dummy for the manual he got from the immortal. "Actually, this is real magic, this wand can make things disappear forever" "Are you trying to get my favor by being mysterious? I am not a child I know its not ma-" She pulled back a bit and looked at him suspiciously Alex just shot a chair nearby to shut her up. He was really tired and just wished to get this over with quick. Luckily Ray had already left to pay for the treats he gave otherwise he would have made another mistake "It also works on humans, but I rather not try since they are banished to the world of necrat" In the end of the sentence he fumbled on his words a bit, I mean its pretty hard coming up with a original but fancy name for some imaginary place he probably wont talk about again ''The fuck is necrat, never mind too late to change my words, besides its a random word not like it means anything I just need to remember it'' "So you really are telling the truth, why me? do you like me and want me to be your mage partner?" "For christs sake woman. I. Do. Not. Like. You. I told you cause it will be easier to make you shut up about it if you know. I dont want people to come asking me to perform magic tricks using real magic do I" The excuse seemed logical, I mean no real magician would like to draw attention to their ''tricks'' and Amelia seemed to want to see more of those, thats a formula for others to see it too and ask for the same. His points seemed logical so Amelia had no doubts but she decided to ask him to teach her some magic to keep her quiet. Alex didnt expect her to be so proactive but it worked out for him cause that is what he intended. He pasted the sticker like slip on her forehead putting her in a daze "It really was magic, I have no choice but to believe it now. Thank you. Thank you very much. I dont know what to say even after I harassed you. I knew the letters werent from you but I stubbornly insisted they were because I didnt want to look like a fool. Sorry" Perhaps the favor or the sudden development confused her and made her more honest about it. I mean not every day does someone paste a slip which for some reason adds directly to your memory right on your forehead. Feeling a bit guilty over using her as a experiment subject now he decided to go through with it regardless because it was already too late. He would wait till it showed some result on her then use it himself and write down a written copy for Laura to memorize or perhaps animate the memory into a video so its even easier to follow using his hightech computer. Future projects aside he needed to finish what was on his plate now his plan with Laura. He also now had a perfect way to get his first customer provided they finish the program which would take some time for two people regardless of how good they are at making it. Perhaps he could have Ray introduce a fat sheep with the phone as bait. Misfortune really does hide fortune if you turn it into opportunity but for now his priority is monitering Amelia and developing the program as well as figuring out a way to truly protect himself and Laura. "Its alright, in return please let me observe your progress with the magic art. If it goes wrong I would be in more trouble than you" A lie of course. "Alright see you later then" Finishing up college he headed home, finally walking for the first time in forever. Meanwhile Ray was meeting with his father "Dad its all true, I saw it myself." A man excluding the aura of a mafia boss, or someone in a high place sat infront of Ray. He lightly tapped the table while asking. "And he wouldnt sell huh? Is it that kid we rescued along with you? Isnt that a bit ungrateful of him?" After all the kidnapping accident ended with saviors from his side. He assumed that Alex owed a debt for being saved after all he didnt know that Ray was the target and Alex just went along so he wouldnt be alone. Then does Ray owe him? perhaps for emotional support but in the end with or without Alex the outcome was like a scripted event, It would have happened anyway. "Dad dont forget he got caught because of me to begin with, he didnt need to after all so he doesnt owe us."The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. "That is true, We might even owe him for letting him be kidnapped in the first place but he made that choice himself" He stopped tapping the table and leaned back to think a bit. He didnt want to ruin one of his sons true friendships but, he knew his son had a desire to go into technology and he fully supported him. Realestate never was as unprofitable as today, people bought things mainly from the internet nowadays, it made shops that operate fully on physical grounds less efficient. Previously the land around popular shopping districts would be pretty pricey as well as land in gated communities but nowadays people have their items conveniently delivered to their doorsteps. A phone and money is all you need and you can literally never go outside. The land prices might be slowly climbing up due to population but its still not quick enough and the technological industry seemed to have more profit with fewer restrictions. "So dad please dont hurt him. Just scare him, he is a normal person he will give in to a few thugs" The people at the top are never innocent or naive, debts must be repaid but only if the other side has the power to make you regret it otherwise. The highest throne is built on the highest pile of corpses. Ray and his father didnt get to their position simply by being honest. Alex finally got home and discussed the events with Laura. He found out that she didnt go to school like almost always so her secret was safe. She agreed that they need something to strengthen them so atleast they get kidnapped or tortured. They would use the manual as a last resort but for now they decided to buy things which a) strengthened their bodies so they can fight b) techniques to fight so they dont get captured and they also need to train to be able to use the digital gun accurately, it would probably cost quite a bit as it was electricity powered albiet only as much as a laptop would take, And target practice must be done on shields as anything else would just disappear. Ideally they wish to be able to find some sort of accuracy gadget on the apocalypse market considering the immortal world wouldnt even have guns but Laura pointed out that archery techniques or something to train the eye and perception would be just as useful. All of this would cost food items and gadgets, which in small amounts are fine but they dont have the best financial status for what they truly need. In the end Alex remembered that he had an old computer which he wouldnt need anymore thanks to the wonderful laptop he now had. He sold it for 600Mpts and decided to buy some sort of self defense technique, Browsing through he found one named ''perceptionist'' which cost 400 points.
Perceptionist 400Mpts Trains your perception to its limit. When training using this method one can slow down their perception of time. The actual time is unaffected. This technique raises your processing speed so that you can think quicker giving you the ability to form two or more thoughts in the time it originally took to form one, upto 10x the processing speed
This technique could be considered a cheat. It wouldnt raise your own speed but your perception would allow you to think of multiple counters when in a fight. Most importantly when paired with the shield bullets would be nothing to fear neither would punches while your own punch would still hurt. Well Alex never intended to punch people anyway for now. Why waste so much effort when a convenient one scratch one kill gun was right besides him? He bought the skill and like the previous ones happened to be a slip with weird symbols. He pasted it on his forehead but found it was only good for one use the technique was erased from the slip. He took out an empty notebook and began writing it down after all his sister is still his top priority. This would also help him incase he forgot due to a failure in the memory technique or some accident. Meanwhile Laura thought about selling one of her figurines just to see how much points they would give, surprisingly they gave 40 Mpts. She then sold her old phone for a total of 240 Mpts. Thinking that she would wait till her brother finishes his end of the preparations so they dont end up conflicting each other she spent the remaining time while he was writing simply practicing her coding. The book was pretty miraculous in reality any amount of coding would require days and months of practice to truly develop a web application, same with programming. Although she hadnt mastered it she could claim to know enough to make a simple program which runs as a separate entity. Alex having finished after a few hours handed her the book which she kept with her and began practicing the technique while she spent her time coding, being a shutin she did not have the same level of urgency as her brother so she chose to focus on the long term goal for now o course she would still practice it later on. After a while she finally brought up the market and looked up self defense skills. Unlike techniques or manuals skills were infact more expensive but at the same time were learnt instantly. Not just memorized learnt. She looked up self defense skills and found that the cheapest one was 300Mpts. She still needed 60 more to afford it so she gave up and instead looked up pills. As her brother had told her about them she was curious whether they could help. She knew drugs were bad but were magical drugs bad? 1st Grade strengthening to 4th grade strengthing costed from 20 to 130 she still required 20 more for two batches of 4th grade so she decided to look up 3rd. These were the only pills she knew by name thanks to Alex mentioning them so she tended to prefer them instead of random searches.
3rd grade strengthening pill: 80Mpts Adds 200KG of force to your punches as well as provides 50 KG of power. For mortal usage
Punches depend on momentum so they would usually always be heavier than what you can normally lift. This didnt really make them superhuman but considering an average man can lift 61 KG - 70 KG this would still make them significantly stronger. While a professional can easily punch with a force of over 400KG a normal human can only deliver around 20-200KG at their best day. Considering this was an addition this would put Alex and Laura well over average humans but slightly below professionals. Coupled with the cheat shield and perception they might as well try for world championship. They continued alternating between programming practice and perception practice the rest of their day. Chapter 10, Sudden mugging Violet and Fred were pretty concerned about their children lately. Alex and Laura spent too much time together. Their electric bill was also slightly raised but they didnt care much about that compared to how close their children have gotten. They supported their relationship but considering they were young they did not wish to see them make mistakes such as considering admiration or curiosity as ''love'' "This can not go on. We need to separate them for their future benefits" Fred said as a highly concerned parent. "Now dear. Lets not meddle with the children, More importantly did you find a job yet?" "Leave it to me! I found a job as an accountant in XX firm. The salary is pretty great too even if less than our previous one." "It cant be helped, on paper we got fired after all but dear are you sure its not a shady place?" "Dont worry Violet, I can learn from my past mistakes. More importantly what about you?" Sighing deeply Violet surprisingly was the one who couldnt find a job. Its not that she was lacking, even in her old company she handled the administrative work brilliantly while her husband managed the finance but thats precisely the problem, no company worth their salt would hire an unknown person as an admin especially when they got fired. "Well, I am sure it will work out. I am thinking of staying at home for a while, we owe these children after all" "Indeed, Lets be better parents this time. I really dont want to be mistook for a ''its us'' scammer again." After a short giggle. The family had lunch together made by Alex of course but despite having done this for a few days now, the family members would feel warm inside every time. Maybe being fired turned out to be a blessing because atleast now they were a normal family. "So Laura, what do you think of your brother" Well almost normal? She figured out the misunderstanding her parents had and bashfully tried denying it. Humans are lovely creatures in such regard they come to their own conclusions but still ask simply to affirm what they have already decided to be true, her denial only made Violet tease her more for it while Fred just commented. "Getting fired wasn''t that bad after all. We could never eat food this delicious at our jobs" After some family banter and jokes, night came quickly and Laura bought the pills then gave one to Alex. They ate the pills and went to sleep. Probably one of the best decisions they could make. The pain of having their body remodelled simply knocked them unconscious and thankfully they were already sleeping making the initial pain not affect them. They slept like a log for a long while. Alex missed college and Laura well, Laura never bothered with school anyway, perhaps her name isnt even on their list anymore. Alex woke up and like any good teen checked his phone. He had a few messages from an unknown number and one from Ray. The one from Ray simply said sorry with a promise to let him borrow his notes for the day while the unknown ones started off as normal messages but got more and more threatening towards the end. In the end all he could ask was who in their right mind are they. He got up after sending the message and felt a little tight around his chest and arms. Considering he couldnt grow fatter in a day he decided to check in the mirror and sure enough his chest grew broader and his arm had more muscles, as well as a few muscles on his stomach but it wasnt too noticable with clothes on. It might be shrugged off in novels but any human changing so much overnight would garner attention and be sent off to some hospital to get tested regardless of excuses. Alex always had a normal build but who wouldnt want better muscles right? His face too seemed to have gotten a bit more symmetric but one could just shrug it off as a good day look. He went to Lauras room and when he opened the door the most cliche sight imaginable greeted him. Laura was completely naked pressing her own boobs and making comments on how they shrunk. She had a pretty defined line along her abdomen perhaps due to the drug but her focus was more on her slightly shrunken chest. Noticing her brother she quickly pulled on her bedsheet and just stood there awkwardly. While Alex got out of his stun and turned around as if it was some sort of military drill. "Sorry" "Its fine. Please knock next time" The siblings had pretty similar reactions to their changes. The difference was because of the muscles Alex slightly grew while Laura because of the muscles as well felt her bra was slightly looser than before. Awkwardly walking down together they had breakfast and to avoid the awkward mood Alex brought out his phone. He got a message from the unknown sender and it turned out to be Amelia. She called him a cheat because the manual didnt work, this surprised him after all it should have done something then he realized the problem the realms or whatever did not exist here so maybe the energy required for them did not exist either after all you cant gain energy from nothing. Einstein was universal no matter what. He told her to visit him at home and she quickly agreed, perhaps the tricks before had woken her inner child and she wished to become a wizard too, who wouldnt right? So the part about visiting an unknown boy wasnt even considered.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The doorbell rang. Violet went to open it and saw Amelia. Amelia could be considered beautiful even if her personality was not so the first thought that came to Violet''s head was "Umm wrong house?" I mean her shut in daughter and near loner son could never have a friend or girlfriend over, they couldnt have changed that much in the time they werent here a lot, right? They still acted like a proper shut in and loner, albeit a bit too close to each other but perhaps such is the loner way they ironically attract each other. "Is Alex home?" What is this miracle? Alex had a girlfriend? He wasnt a loner who was only into his sister? Is he two timing? Well such questions are dumb so instead Violet simply said, while being as calm as ever. "Yes, I am sorry for whatever he has done to you but our finances are tight so we can not compensate you" I mean if he didnt make trouble with her then why would a cute girl visit a loner boy? Is this some sort of webnovel? "Umm I think you are misunderstanding, I am here because he missed a day of college so I decided to come help with the studies" What else could she say? The old study session excuse never failed, besides if Amelia said magic she''d be escorted to a mental home not inside their home. "Oh if thats the case please wait in the living room" Inviting her in, trying not to ruin her sons chances or perhaps wishing to cheer her own daughter by ruining them, depending on her decision after finding out exactly how did a loner like him get such a pretty girl to come over to his house. He isnt even rich or anything! Well leaving that aside she called Alex down who completely not used to having his mother actually inside his home, didnt expect her to run into Amelia. He acted naturally of course and went to Amelia. Violet decided to give the two privacy and went shopping. Amelia got to the point "So was it a fake?" "That even I dont really know, sorry but I expected it to work so I have no clue why it doesnt. I know let me ask the person I got it from" He messaged the immortal who as quick as always replied "What do you mean? All you need to do is absorb the heavenly energy once you can sense it. It feels something similar to floating rain but lighter and all around you, not as light as air mind you" "What if there is no heavenly energy?" "Well that explains why there are no demons and monsters. Hmm sorry I cant really think of anything perhaps your app has something for it" Laura and Alex had a few points remaining between them but he doubted any sort of energy generator would be that cheap. He looked it up and surprisingly it came free with any sort of manual purchase but individually it cost 10 points, pretty cheap but then again the expensive martial manuals would be useless without them. He placed it infront of him and asked Amelia to practice it. Amelia herself was dumbfounded by the weird box that literally came out of thin air. Then again she knew Alex was a magician so perhaps it was magic that materialized the box. She did as she was asked suppressing her curiosity but found that this time she could feel some kind of thin aura around her almost as if coming from the box. Realizing she had to absorb it as the manual stated she did and pretty soon the box stopped giving off aura as if it ran out. She wasnt dumb so she knew what the box was for and that she emptied it "I am sorry, I made your thing run out of energy" Not knowing what else to call it apart from ''thing'' she said something like that and of course such a cliche development wouldnt be complete without Laura who came to discuss the future plans with her brother but heard something about her brothers ''thing'' running out of energy. "Brother who is this?" "Oh Laura. This is Amelia the one I told you about. Amelia meet my sister Laura. She is not really good with strangers so pardon her manners" "So this is the test dummy. I see. So whats this about energy" Alex seeing nothing wrong apart from the slight boldness in his sister explained about the box. Laura was still slightly upset that he had brought home a girl, Alex thought ''she perhaps considers the house as her territory and didnt want some strang- As if! What is she an animal, she isnt even very shy with Amelia or rather is she jealous? Your brother wont get stolen you know.'' Seeing the tension he asked Amelia whether something changed when she practiced the manual and she replied that she feels a bit stronger. She tried doing a light jump to show it but she jumped high enough to nearly reach the ceiling, around 2ft of distance between her feet and the floor and if she raised her hand she could easily touch the ceiling. This was a light jump. "Wow I feel like superman" Alex and Laura just had their mouths left wide open. This even tempted them to really save up points for a manual or even forget about caution and practice the dragon eating tiger manual. Alex asked Amelia "How much of it do you remember?" Only then did she remember that she forgot most of it. Just the starting few points because she didnt know what any of the later half even meant. She had written it down but the memory was already jumbled back then after all no one can fully remember a movie after only seeing it once. "You see, I kind of forgot most of it." Alex told her to come again tomorrow to practice what she did remember and tried sending her off but she asked him. "Wont you atleast escort me back?" She had been pretty rude to him but he had shown her his secret and even taught her. Still believing it to be a kind act despite Laura calling her a test dummy earlier she decided to atleast be nicer to him and maybe get to know him. She had her own circumstances at home and this power would help her deal with them. "Alright" On their way they talked about their lives, how Alex was always annoyed by her harassment and her apologizing or how she was often hurt by his sharp tongue. In the end both of them grew slightly closer and even laughed. Nothing else happened so he escorted her to her house which was surprisingly just 2 blocks away and headed home. It was around 4PM and the sun was about to set, so it was no time for the muggers and crooks to be outside but contrary to that here we had a masked man with a knife. "Put everything you have on you worth anythin down. I''ll stab your bitch ass if you try to be smart. I only want your goods, you can keep your life if you put that shit down and walk away." This was pretty amusing to Alex, he wasnt sure whether the shield would consider a knife stab as an attack but considering it was always on and always solid it probably would. He rushed to the man and the knife hit his stomach but bounced off, tackling him down he took off his mask and punched him. The pill showed its wonders when the man just got knocked out by it. He searched the man because clearly mugging when there was still light is either a mental patients work or targeted and sure enough he found a note with his name on it. It said to mug him completely and take everything but Alex being a normal guy shouldnt normally have something worth targeting. Perhaps it was trouble brought by Amelia visiting him and the real letter sender hiring this thug, or maybe its one of the classmates after his phone, either way they will try again and they will slip up soon enough. He headed home after dumping the mugger in the dumpster, he rather not have the police involved incase the mugger was targeting his phone. Chapter 11, Sudden Kidnapping Time passed. It was now winter and the siblings had done a lot during this time. Amelia practiced to the 2rd Realm without any problems popping up so the siblings decided to use her as a sort of bodyguard. The manual was amazing, Amelia could run as fast as a horse hit with 900KG of force and could jump to the roof from the ground floor. Most importantly she could use something akin to telekinesis or magic. They almost gave in to the manual several times but decided against it because they felt they could easily get a better manual once the plan was in action. Alex had several mugging attempts made on him with even several thugs who almost looked professional but how can you beat someone who took no damage and could counter your every move and still hit hard? Maybe he would have run out of stamina but thankfully there werent too many thugs. In real life so many thugs would only alert the police They had slowly gained around 20,000Apts, using ocassional treats and such but due to how expensive the gadgets were they could only gain 10,000 points. Laura had sold all her figurines and every piece of art they both had. The two still had to strengthen themselves, Especially Alex considering the recent events. They obtained the 2rd realm or level 20 without using manuals simply through pills. They would be weaker than Amelia and cant really use any mystical powers because they didnt truly ''cultivate'' but atleast their characteristics wont be affected because, if its anything like the novels one can only have one training manual to guide them. They had also finished making a program. It was an robot and BoS application. They uploaded it to their own website and created a database for it using their server, the website would provide a forum like environment. They did not plan to make the website or app public since it would create chaos everywhere, for now atleast. One day Alex was working on opening a bank account for the transactions but decided that considering what its prospects will be instead of having a traceable one he rather just hack it in. He added a account to the Swiss bank with fake details which were roughly in his area but not exactly there. The preparations were finished all he they had to do now was buy some items to make the app work. He left that to Laura as it was time for college again. On his way to college a van stopped right besides him and picked him up. His perception was no use as he wasnt even paying attention. In the van he could easily subdue them but he decided to find out the one behind it all instead. They punched him several times but as always no punch was ever felt apart from slight discomfort because of the weight difference. Confused by all this the assaulters just held him down. They started stripping him but Alex struggled free and promptly hid the button inside his hair. The digital gun he almost never carried outside because of how dangerous it is and how bad at aiming he was. They grabbed him and this time he didnt resist, he was stripped down then ''knocked'' unconscious, he wasnt actually unconcious but he had to pretend because it was clear they wanted him to be sleeping by how violent they got when their hits didnt work. They took him to a warehouse and tied him down, Soon after a young man came in looking to be in his 30s. He slapped Alex as if wanting to wake him up so he then pretended to wake up. "Where am I?" Oscar level acting. "How cute, pretending to be sleeping then pretending to have amnesia" Or not. "Well if you already know just spit out what you want" "Your phone, where did you get it? I run a very small business related to manufacturing them you see and I would love to know" "Check your wifes bed asshole" Alex got slapped but didnt feel anything, still unsure if this was the mastermind he didnt struggle too much. He was tired of the constant mugging attempts so he wanted to catch them all at once "Wise guy huh, Alright bitch look here. Someone tipped me off that you have a lovely little device and my friends here would really love to get one too, so tell us where you got it or next time we ask, less nicely with a cute little sister passed between us."Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The sister loving Alex heard every word clearly with his increased perception, they were clearly threatening to rape Laura. Originally he intended to meet said ''someone'' but this was clearly not worth waiting for, He instead decided to ask the guy infront of him who the mastermind was. Not in a nice way either He looked at the guy and spit at him then punched, ropes were basically strings to him so even from this position the punch broke a few bones and smashing into the wall broke even more. The surrounding thugs took out their gun and shot at him but the bullets disappeared with a tiny blue tint stopping them. He jumped at the closest thug and landed a kick on his face, with his increased perception and speed he grabbed the now midair gun and shot at the thug holding the shotgun. Well perception didnt mean better aim so he missed splendidly, salvaging it by throwing the gun at the thug with the shotgun. He saw a larger glow on his shield when several shotgun pellets hit him. Perhaps it isnt good at dealing with attacks at several points at once but the situation didnt allow further thoughts on this. The gun hit the shotgun thug making him flinch Alex ran towards him and used him as a meat shield not daring to risk finding out whether the shield could handle multiple attack points. The thug got shot a few times and when the last thug was reloading Alex pushed the thug onto the last one and punched him out. Honestly he never killed before but he was pretty sure atleast the thug he used as a shield is already dead. He vomited straight on the unconscious thugs face and thought about whether the guy he first punched would make it, he got punched with full power after all. His phone was lost but the original chip interface wasnt, he picked up a random phone and bound it, then fed a recovery pill he got for 50Mpts to the guy he first punched hoping to atleast save his life, It didnt completely heal him but it kept him alive. He then sat down to calm his nerves. His hands were trembling and he felt scared, what if the police got him? what if his family found out? Would he be able to live normally? He is just a teenage boy after all but after a while of calming himself he knew he had no choice. Slowly getting up he found his own phone in the pockets of the guy he just rescued. He fixed the bindings and sold the phone he had picked up. It wasnt a very good phone so it only got him 70 Mpts. He sold the guns for 10-20Mpts each not surprising as they couldnt really hurt immortals, the phones were sold too for a total of 1000Mpts, Alex was scavenging the items to distract his mind as he knew if he didnt do this he would end up thinking and he would fuck things up if he hestitated too much. Alex also knew that letting these thugs live wouldnt end well for him so he found some gasoline and torched the place after dragging out the only guy he rescued ironically. The smell of burning flesh made him vomit once again but he still walked on. He knew he was being a hypocrite but he didnt know what else to do, he was confused. He didnt think they would have guns or use them so readily. He thought he could just knock them out and get the mastermind but this wasnt a movie. He decided to deal with his thoughts later and after dragging his victim far enough he woke him up. He could hear police sirens from the warehouse along with some firetrucks, perhaps being far from the city was a blessing for him as it took a while for the authorities to get there. The kidnapper woke up confused at what happened. Understandibly he didnt expect to be knocked out in one hit from the guy tied to a chair, nor to wake up in the middle of nowhere. He had picked a secluded warehouse to avoid detection but it worked out against him. He had no clue how Alex got out with him but seeing the thick smoke he realized he wasnt going to be rescued. He was a coward as most people in power were and readily gave up information on who he was and who was behind this all. Alex never expected Ray''s name to come up but thinking about it that makes complete sense. He decided to plot his revenge later but for now he decided how to deal with the guy he was holding. He claimed he owned a technology company, well 31% of it. It wasnt a large one but it was still pretty big of a deal, just when Alex was thinking of what to do the guy named Howard spoke first "Please, just let me go. I promise I wont bother you again, I''ll get you money. So much money, a million dollars! just let me go" "Money huh? doesnt your kind love it? Why give it up then?" Clearly still angry about all this, Alex couldnt think straight, still most of his anger calmed down evidenced by how Howard was still alive. "Please. I am sorry. Just dont kill me look ill transfer the money now, just tell me where to pay you!" Alex eventually gave him his own Swiss account number. After a while he got a confirmation for the transfer and Howards face lit up "Look I gave you the money, Just please. I will never show up again I promise" ''A guy who threatened to rape my sister promises he would never show up? someone who would kidnap for some random technology? Yeah Absolutely'' Too tired of all this he just outright punched howard''s face then slowly walked back home. Thinking about everything that happened and occasionally bumping into people. The clothes he wore were from howard and they clearly had some blood and dust on them, despite his good looks the dirt and blood made him look like a beggar . When he got home it was already dark, his parents and sister rushed to him after seeing him in such a straight. Alex burdened by fatigue collapsed Chapter 12, Sudden Apocalyptic story While Alex was sleeping Laura got her own message from the app. A user named mutantslayer had messaged her
"Please, Help us. My wife is dead and I will be dead too soon, my childre. My children are too young"
Laura took a while to think but decided to take out a few eggs and send them, perhaps out of pity. He brother came back as a mess so maybe she didnt want others to go through that at the moment, or maybe it was just kindness. In an alternate world the apocalypse had come, not through an act of God, perhaps even God was gone. Zombies were the least of ones worries either, instead giant towering goliaths were moving about with no David to slay them. Humans now the minority on earth, no one would believe that the human civilization would end up like this. They lived in an underground city with their technology which helped them survive. Their colonies on other planets had abandoned them. The only saving grace that only few predators considered humans prey, those which did were small enough to derive nutrition from tiny humans. Some ghastly creatures enjoyed making sport out of them but thankfully it wasn''t too common, revenge for how they were treated by humans before maybe. Pets, experminental subjects. Monkeys especially had a very twisted sexual preference when it came to humans, perhaps the fact that humans used them to test experimental products plus their sexual drive agitated by mutation led them to treat humans as such No man or woman wished to even meet these 8-10 meter beasts. Whenever a human ran into a primate they would pray that it was a gorilla or any form of primate that was far away from human civilizations. Atleast that way even if they weren''t ignored they would die quickly. Still sky scraper sized beasts moving about never bode well for anyone living near their paths, Not being prey just meant they wouldnt be hunted actively. Their technology could easily combat the few predators they had but because of falling to the bottom of the food chain human settlements were rare. No matter how intelligent they were, even if the mutation enhanced that what use was it when a few hundred godzillas rampaged around. How did it come to this? An intergalactic human war had caused the origin of humans, earth, to be the main battlefield and like all wars new improved technology and weapons were developed. It may have happened like this. Perhaps some sicko desired world peace through threats and created a biological weapon. Perhaps a group of sickos wished to use that weapon to rule the world. Perhaps another side of sickos wished to destroy it, Everyone has desires and reasons for their desires but the outcome was the uncontrolled usage of the weapon. Earth quickly changed. Plants mutated and grew to enormous sizes, then they spread their mutated pollens infecting the animals as well. They became living, moving, beast shaped buildings, A man joked about how they could hollow out a giraffes neck and make a giant apartment out of it when drunk. The mutation didnt only affect size. If it did then you could just consider them overgrown animals but what truly made them monsters was not only that their size or appearance changed but so did their nature. Creatures like ants grew to the size of human children but still acted as a colony while rats grew to the size of mini-vans and turned their fear of light and humans into predatory rage humans, too mutated but perhaps due to the long passage of time their animalistic nature was curbed. They gained strength no human normally could and intelligence far surpassing their ancestors but in the end all they amounted to was being able to kill the now overgrown rats, maybe somewhere out there a group of humans took out monkeys but anything larger required a large force, a very very large and armed force that only the last city could provide and that too only within its perimeter . Atleast this meant the stronghold had enough defenses. The saving grace might be that bugs no longer targetted humans, mosquitos quickly learnt that stabbing humans not only killed them but provided meagre blood for the efforts. Flies hideous as always still buzzed around. Moths. Well lets just say no one turns on lights. Atleast never above ground.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. They grew large and frightening. Imagine a moth almost your size just flapping towards you, to make it worse their faces always looked like they had a evil grin and latched onto you like some sort of glue, your choice? Either rip it off or die, most die not because they are weak but because they couldnt react properly or think due to the fear. Finally lets talk about bats, those little critters who have a small habit of clinging to faces and objects, cant see anything further than a few cm away and have terrible sense of direction. They can see up to a meter now but thanks to their size which is roughly 1.3 times larger than an adult male they are basically the flying equivalent of Rats. A flying rat the size of a mini-van is bad enough but thanks to their mutation, their echo location sound is sharp enough to break windows and glasses from far away and kill any creatures nearby with just the sound. An ancient game would call it Fus ru da but omnidirectional and hurt like a hammer to the head. Humans have a tough time surviving. Their underground city was often invaded by worms thankfully these were easily killed by the defense mechanism, Yes humans have a hard time surviving but inside the city was relatively safe. Protected by the latest weaponry enough to kill any worm of bat who dares come close and shields tough enough to survive being stomped on by a goliath. Humans make do by farming or hunting rats for meat thanks to their enhanced strengths. Hunting meaning just ganging up on a single rat hoping its friends dont come, or small creatures. For some reason chicken and pigs never mutated, they taste better and chickens can now spit fire but that is all that changed. There were rumors of pheonixes but rumors always exist. The cockroaches went extinct, pehaps a blessing in disguise for the humans which now took that title for themselves because they survived even when the so called tenacious cockroaches didnt and to an extent now live in a similar manner. Outside the city, savage unforgiving lands molded the humans that occupy it. The humans living here have obviously proven their mettle by surviving. The cowardly live, the scheming live, the weak live, the strong die. Not because the world is against the strong or some sort of strong human killing mutation but because strong amongst the humans still means slightly stronger prey, infact the predators love them because they think they are strong they dont run. They dont hide, they dont crawl, they dont scheme. Now money, power, women and good food are luxuries best left to the fantasies. Fantasies are best left for sleeping and sleeping is best left for when you are dead. Rest with an eye open. Pay attention to every detail, you are weak and you must know that so you dont end up giving some beast a lucky meal. In such a land a man ran with his two children while a monster ate his wife, he hid with his children and clicked on the band on his wrist, Technology now made phones and computers literally thin arm bands. He wasnt trying to watch some movie before dying or call for help if there is such a thing. The display opened and he click on an app. This app which helped him survive all this time in such a land. It provided him with amazing abilities, magical ones in exchange for technological scraps everywhere or monster meat but being a man constantly on the run what could he even afford to sell? Debris dont sell for much and corpses of monsters are rare to come by, techonology? If he had such a thing he wouldnt be struggling this hard, the technology all around him was already scrap metal with minimal value. These scraps helped him survive till now but thats all. The city horded all technological items and the few which slipped by were too valuable to sell, like his wrist computer. He opened the app and asked for help from the first person which caught his eye He was lucky, a few eggs were sent over and he quickly split them with his children. Raw eggs taste alright when you are hungry and stomach problems aren''t even a concern anymore. He quickly thanked his savior but was then sent a weird book, it described how to raise his perception. He read it never imagining he would feel so grateful to someone he didnt even know. This would help him survive even if just a bit longer. Coming back to Laura she saw his thank you message and thought he was over acting a bit. It was just a few eggs and a copy of a cheap manual but she decided to send him a few eggs every other day. A day had passed, Alex woke up to be his normal cheery self and his parents got tired of asking him what happened. He had told them that he just fell but, no one really believe him. Laura later on went up to him and hugged him out of the blue, he accepted the hug but didnt say anything for a while until he finally spoke. "I killed someone" "Then good riddance, they deserved it." "Wont you ask why?" "All I know is, if I had done it you would be on this side of the hug brother." "You really are the best sister" They stayed like that for a bit but Alex didnt feel like college either. He also didnt feel like touching the app for a bit but he knew he couldnt be selfish. People were after him and Laura and the only thing that could truly protect them was themselves and the app cutting one of those off would mean a bad end. Surprisingly he got a message from a user named TrueImmortal. It had a picture of him with a young chinese looking guy hung upside down behind him. The man looked like he had been beaten up and the follow up message explained why "Are you the idiot puppet this idiot set up? ha ha idiot, want help?" Chapter 13, Sudden Windfall Alex was pissed but, he still replied "Who are you and what do you even mean?" "Idiot, you could have bought several of that shitty manual with the box you sent him! Do you regret it now? do you? do you? Idiot now you will be controlled by this idiot thanks to it" The messages were always taunting and always playful this annoyed Alex. The situation still sounded urgent, not for him but for Amelia he decided to quickly finish up to avoid complications. "What do you want?" "I want to help an idiot, Aren''t I merciful? Even angels would worship me dont you think? So I can send you the true version of the manual, the ''tiger eating dragon manual''. This manual lets you control anyone practicing the ''dragon eating tiger manual'' seriously these unorthodox pricks make me mad, this manual only popped up 2 years ago and its already causing damage to other worlds too, luckily we caught the main cause so come on thank me, you could have been a puppet to an idiot. A idiot idiot puppet! Such a poet aren''t I? Well I dont care about other worlds so want it?" This guy was seriously annoying and thought too highly of himself, Seriously Alex wished he could punch the dude but he knew he had to think of Amelia, he and Laura grew pretty close to her even though he didnt care about her before this and the manual sounded useful. "Its not for free right? What do you want?" "Smart child! Not as much as me but smart none the less, So ill send you the manual you can practice it without worrying about ruining your cultivation with 2 different manuals! It can be considered a priceless manual if paired with the controlling one, so what I want in return is simple, 100 of those devices." Alex figured that if he didnt agree this guy would most likely control Amelia so for now he had to agree and just buy the manual from the market if its available. This seemed like a good time to get some phones for the market as well. A normal phone cost upwards of 100$s uptil 1200$s. A hundred would cost between 10,000-120,000$s considering the million dollars Alex got earlier it wouldnt upset him too much, the problem is where would be buy so many phones? The brand isnt important but the quantity would only be available to wholesale stores or if he had connections to manufacturers, He didnt know how to contact any manufacturers but perhaps there might be a way. He could use the guy who kidnapped him, although dead Alex had already memorized the important contacts on his phone this is also how he confirmed Ray''s involvement but there was also a number related to his company. He would prefer not to associate with them too much but there was little choice in this case. Alex phoned the company of the executive he killed and happily ordered 400 phones with regular 300$ worth specs. The deal wasnt too large but 400 phones was still a larger than average quantity, along with the fact he actually called another executive of the company for the deal he was asked for a meeting. Alex agreed to meet and didnt wish to delay it too long so he scheduled it later today. The meeting was in a cafe, A regular looking cafe with a black rose themed display. Alex didnt know what the other guy looked like and most likely the other side didnt either, luckily the only customer in the cafe was a middle aged man. He had his sidehair turned to the top to hide the bald patch. This made him look like an insecure old man who likely has a lot of family and sexual issues. Alex didnt care about his personality he just went up and asked "Mr Richard?" "Mr Alex? I didnt think you would be so... young. Tell me is this a prank or are you running an errand for your dad?" Looking at Alex suspiciously Richard felt annoyed, he thought he was tricked into wasting valuable time but he remembered that the call was to his direct number which only people of importance should get. Perhaps he was a second generation rich guy looking to start his own business. "No Mr Richard, this is completely legitimate I would like to proceed with the deal we talked about. The item brand doesnt matter what I wish for is the best specs I can get with 300$s per phone." "No problem but I hope I can get the payment in advance, you wouldnt blame me for being so suspicious of a teenager such as yourself would you?" "I''ll pay 20% in advance, the rest when the phones are delivered if thats alright" Richard thought about it for a while. 20% of 120,000$s is still 24,000$s, It was not an amount any normal child would use for a prank but 400 phones werent that easy to produce either or that hard, if it was an attempt to bankrupt them from a different company then they wouldnt settle with such a small ammount.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. They could probably be finished in a week considering all the other orders and everything else and even if the rest of the payment isnt made they just need to sell the phones elsewhere while gaining 24,000$s for nothing but Richard was a business man he pretended to be upset and said "This isnt a small amount of phones you are asking for if the payment isnt made we might have to survive on rice and water for a while. Mr. Alex atleast pay up half upfront so we know you are sincere about it" It was Alex''s turn to be troubled, considering the standard of Howard he knew not to trust these guys. "Mr. Richard sorry but 30% is the best I can do, I also need to arrange the money so its not possible to pay half upfront. I cant do anything about this" He had a million in his bank but he decided to use the lack of funds as an excuse, Richard might get cautious but ''big'' deals are made without some form of loan and Richard knew that best, considering the age of his client he judged it to be a ''big deal'' for him. He thought about it for a moment then agreed. "In that case, this is the hardware of the device we can bring you. The brand is pretty expensive so its slightly low spec" Alex knew he was attempting to save production costs but to him brand was never important. He might as well drive up the specs as hard as he could while compromising on the brand. "Its fine without expensive brands but in exchange I want these specs, I agreed to your demand for advanced payment so surely you wouldnt mind giving me something too right?" Indeed without brand named products he could buy some lesser quality ones with similar specs and save production cost while they are at it. As a somewhat established company he knew the quality shouldnt be compromised but there are plenty of good quality items which arent famous or costly. He accepted the demand and called his lawyer. He had his lawyer draw up a contract which stated that 30% of the total amount be paid upfront while the rest be paid upon delivery of 400 phones. The specs of the phones were also included in the agreement as well as the deadline for delivery of phones. There would also be a quality inspection performed before the payment but all in all the contract had little room for loopholes, especially when any breach would cost 2,000,000$s. They quickly drove to an administration building and performed all the procedures afterwards. Alex did not have a dedicated lawyer on his side so to him letting the administration handle things seemed more viable than doing it himself. Alex sent 36,000$s directly to the specified account and upon confirmation of payment by the administration the deal was signed. This took 2 hours and when Alex returned home he saw Laura and Amelia chatting about something, he didnt really want to know so he didnt ask and went to his room. Maybe if it was a few weeks ago he wouldnt care about Amelia too much but the 3 of them grew pretty close He then searched the martial store for anything that could help bestow abilities. There was a skill named ''Emperor''s Subjection'' that got his interest.
Emperor''s Subjection 20,000 Mpts This skill bestows a selected ability on a target. The target must be willing to receive the ability. To bestow an ability a connection must be made whether through perception or through an object. The ability will be removed once the Emperor decides to remove it. When combined with a controlling technique this skill can bestow abilities through the method of control
Although he didnt know if digital connections were considered connections by this ability he knew how to use the dragon eating tiger manual now. He was glad he didnt use it or throw it away, Amelia was safe for now and in the future when he gets the tiger eating dragon technique she would be able to help him control others. He decided to check up the cost of the manual to set a goal for himself.
Tiger eating dragon technique 13,000 Mpts Contols any user practicing its sister technique, The dragon eating tiger technique. It has a high level efficiency when practiced with its sister.
He really wished to know how good or bad that would be, but if it has ''high'' in its description it shouldn''t be bad. He decided to trust the profiteering app instead of the ''goodwilled'' trueimmortal. He had around 11 thousand points but in a week he should be able to afford tons of things. He then looked up the apocalypse market and searched for a aiming aid. A list popped up
Practice aiming aids 20Apts Useful for beginners. Adds a estimated hit marker directly to your iris
Autobot Malwin 50Apts Provides user with steadier hands and aiming correction, corrects your position based on where You wish to shoot, Careful as device cant tell what the user feels, its designed with military usage in mind.
Practice chamber 3000Apts Provides the user with a virtual reality chamber with 99.9% likeness to reality, the background and items are fully customizable, Also has an option for fantasy settings. Popular for games and training. Time ratio is 1:100 Real to virtual.
These three were the most helpful in his opinion but the second item sounded ominous. He decided to buy 2 aiming aids and a chamber. He personally had 10,000Apts half of the total 20,000 the siblings had in total. It was finally time to bring out the guns which were mostly gathering dust now. He went back to Laura and explained the items to her then took her back to his room, by now Amelia had already left apparently the two were good friends so she just came to chat. The aiming aids were in the form of transparent contact lenses which Laura and Alex each put on one of. The chamber looked like a bulky coffin. It had enough room to fit the two so they decided to get in together. It was slightly cramped and the two looked like they were cuddling but the device door closed normally and they had no problems getting in the virtual space. A customization option popped up infront of them. Their purpose was to train but the both of them as if possessed by the same demon said ""Fantasy world"" Chapter 14, Sudden Rival? They began customizing it to suit the popular template of the isekai genre. Dragons, ogres, demons all sorts of monsters as well as knights and magicians after all they cant show off if there is no one to show off to or compare to, they thought it would be good to practice magic now considering they are connected to magical martial world, alright thats a lie the two just wanted to live the dream crushed by reality. The duo began their adventure, saving princesses from bandits, Killing dragons, getting land, making their own country managing it to become the worlds best country. All this wouldnt be possible for normal highschoolers but they had given themselves various cheats for the fun of it. The entire journey also helped them learn a bit about how to deal with people, albeit primitive ones so all in all it was a nice break. Two days passed by and the two had earned around 2,000 mpts. Alex had gone for a quick shopping spree and bought figurines and other intricate artwork. He did not wish to take a chance on the whim of the immortals. Nor did he wish to risk getting involved in their personal feud. Later that day after Alex came back from college he called Amelia over and taught her the memory technique. While she practiced it Alex learnt the dragon eating tiger technique but didnt practice it, he wrote it down and gave it to amelia as she didnt fully remember it. Amelia was glad to get the book but then Laura came over with a book titled ''Tiger eating dragon technique'', this confused her. The siblings then explained that an evil wizard intended to harm them by giving them a control technique, they didn''t practice it as it was given to Amelia to hush her up but now they learnt about the plot and found a way to counter it so she should also learn the second technique. Amelia was overjoyed, she quickly practiced the memory technique and then moved on to the Tiger Eeating Dragon technique. She did not suspect that the siblings used her as a test dummy and believed the evil wizard story. Alex wished to get revenge on Ray but knew he couldnt do it for now, he was still useful and most of all the shield wasnt omnipotent even in modern times, He could buy a better shield but decided that he should instead strengthen himself. He was waiting for the order of phones to come in but he could still buy food for the apocalyptic store, the problem was he didnt know what else to purchase? Humans are weird like that give them the option to get anything and they wont choose anything simply cause they would believe its already theirs. The apocalyptic market seemed too useless compared to the martial now. Alex decided to browse through the market to see what items cost what, he was surprised that nukes only costed around 10 million points. The nukes were better than modern day ones, A single nuke could wipe out america but thats not the worst item on the list. A biological plague which would mutate all life was available and from the description it sounded very dangerous. The cost was in several thousands of trillions but he wondered why anyone would even buy that, the answer? it came with a mutation controlling device that let him control the mutated beings. The app also mentioned it was the reason for the apocalypse because the device was lost but he still had no intentions of buying it. Still there were genetic drugs and other mutating agents which would give him esper like powers as well as items which could kill off humans in a select region without leaving a trace, items for espionage were available too from sattelites to orbital cannons to spy drones. The apocalyptic market had much to offer and Alex decided to explore the markets more often and see what options he has. The sattelite costed 200,000 Apts and it wasnt even the latest model. Alex then checked up on the newer models of the items he already had such as the shield. At a stunning 20 million points was a personal shield which would only stop any items that would hurt the host but not impede his senses otherwise, it boasted enough defense to probably withstand a modern nuke as well as any radiation that comes with it. This suggested that nuclear weaponry wasn''t very popular in the future. The nuke itself cost less than the shield after all, even if not the best available one it is still a nuke. He took back his opinion that the apocalypse market seemed useless. The martial world would never offer a crystalized form of energy, even if it did it wouldnt be usable by normal humans and frankly the marketable items in the apocalypse were too many compared to the martial world. Super powers aside just the technology alone could let them create the most amazing tech giant. Perhaps in the future they might even do so. Well all of this was for the future him and currently he had closer issues to worry about, He thought it was time to go back and then went to sleep. Laura on the other hand sent the mysterious phone user in the apocalypse some food and asked him a few questions such as how did he end up getting the app, his reply was he stumbled upon it as he was exploring followed by a comment summed up as ''it helped me to survive, a lot''. He thanked her, she then made up her mind and sent him a copy of the dragon eating tiger manual. She did not intend to control him but if it helped strengthen him then it should be fine besides she doubted if the control would even work with the distance. He thanked her Laura too got ready for bed.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Amelia who had already gone home stayed up late practicing the manuals she had gotten. She suddenly felt a dim connection to someone but decided that it was probably something related to the manual, she felt as if she could order the person but she also felt as if he was too far and the connection was too weak. She went to sleep after practicing the new manuals. Next morning Alex went to college as usual, When he entered the class news of a new student came to his ears. He saw a completely unfamiliar face in class but also felt as if he had seen him somewhere. The boy was handsome as if he was a model and from what he could hear he was an actor, not a small time one either. The boy seemed to be bragging about his wealth and how he was connected to the top brass of doodle one of the top companies in the world. The class seemed pretty interested in him and everyone wished to be friends so they could atleast get him to help with jobs. In school not many care for how wealthy someone is but in college when the biggest threat called job market is drawing closer each connection is only another means to survive. The boy pretty pleased by the reception brought out his new phone as if to prove that he truly is tied to doodle corp, he claimed that this is the latest experimental phone they brought out and that it it would be out next year for the public. The class had a pretty tame reaction contrary to his expectations so he opened the camera to show how good it was but the class grew even less excited. They began whispering amongst themselves and a few even went back to their seats and continued their daily lives. This reaction boggled Mercer, he was used to everyone going in even deeper awe including other celebrities whenever he brought his phone out. He was thinking of ways to get their attention back when one of the boys noticed Alex. Alex who seriously wished to walk right back out was called out by a boy, he couldnt really pretend not to hear so he went up to him. "Yes? Do you need something" The boy acting like a typical social butterfly put his arm on Alex''s shoulder and with a smile said "Alex, show us your new phone again I wanna see if your brandless phone is are better than doodle" The boy who would certainly fit the description of support character A apparently had pretty good memory if he stilled remembered about Alex''s phone, he wasnt mocking Alex by calling his brand nameless but Alex himself didnt wish to tell them the brand. The boy realized he was a bit rude so he added "This guy here is Mercer, A pretty famous celebrity I am sure you know of him right! so he has connections to doodle, yes the same doodle you are thinking of, I am really envious of him for that since we normal people have to worry about jobs after college" Mercer smiling smuggly interjected. "Since we are classmates, I will try to help you find a job too so dont worry and enjoy life. I would also like to see this phone you mentioned, it must be pretty great to be compared to a experimental one by doodle. Did banana come up with it? Sungsam?" Alex just smiled and said "None of them, its not worth mentioning compared to doodle since its from a nameless company. These guys are just teasing me" Alex really did not wish to get involved with any major company, even smaller ones like Ray''s would literally kidnap their own friends let alone a giant like doodle. Mercer got a bit more smug hearing that and said "Really? Id still like to see if you dont mind" Alex wryly took out his phone and handed it over. Mercer was a bit impressed by its design and opened its system information, robot phones usually dont mention things like CPU or RAM in the details but the Internal memory would be pretty obvious. The speed of the phone was pretty fast but when he opened its file manager he saw ''19.8TB out of 20TB available'', thinking that the classmate was playing a joke by messing with his system software not realizing how ridiculous that would be in itself, he laughed a bit then opened the camera. The screen as if turning transparent made him think this was another joke and he took a pic. He opened up the gallery and the picture looked exactly the same, he tried taking pictures of different things but the result was same. He happened to notice that each of these pictures was around 100MB in size and this astonished him, but thinking about the quality it made sense. The classmates surrounding him too took notice of the phone while Mercer played with it, The classmates who left earlier came back. A few treated the file manager thing to be a joke while most of these tech students knew that messing with robot itself would take a level of skill, then again a company who can come up with such an item probably would find it easy enough to do it as a joke but the camera couldnt be faked, Mercer himself was slackjawed and thought about how expensive the camera alone must be not to mention with the size of each picture the internal memory should atleast be a terabyte for it to be viable that also means the RAM and CPU required to process all that must be pretty amazing too. Mercer was a celebrity first and tech junkie later, it still meant he knew the basics or atleast enough to study it in college. He quickly returned the phone scared he would damage it as even if he could pay for it, judging by how its one of a kind he might end up spending a few hundred grands or worse if the company who made the product sues him for sabotage. Alex just put it away, it was already too late to keep it hidden. The people around mercer quickly shifted to Alex and pestered him about where to get such a phone, how much it costs and what is its real internal memory. Everyone here was somewhat of a tech geek, they also pestered him about other specifications but when Alex confirmed that the internal memory wasnt a joke they were slack jawed. The reason he didnt deny it was already to late not to get attention. Silence spread in the classroom and one brave soul then asked about the CPU, as a heavier CPU would be required for such a phone. He gave them half of its true specifications but silence still returned, everyone just walked back to their seats and sat down looking as if their life was meaningless. Mercer excused himself and called someone, apparently someone above him in rank as he talked in a very polite tone mentioning something related to smartphones which Alex guessed would be his, the other side was also guessed to be doodle. Chapter 15, Sudden Deal. The lecturer came in and class resumed as always, Alex was packing up when he saw Ray talking to girls as usual. They would no longer be friends. He attempted to call out but no words came out, Ray noticed him too but perhaps out of guilt avoided his gaze. He may not know about Howard but still sending thugs after his friend time and time again would make anyone feel guilty. Alex packed up and headed out when Mercer came up to him and offered lunch, he also said someone important wished to talk to Alex. Alex followed him to his car. The car clearly stood out from the ones around it, as expected of a celebrity he sure was flashy. They drove to a pretty expensive looking hotel and walked up to the receptionist. Alex looked around while Mercer just smiled at him. The receptionist asked whether they had a reservation and Mercer confirmed it, He named someone and the receptionist checked the list and smiled at the duo. The receptionist had a keen eye, contrary to Mercer and his flashy brand named clothings Alex wore common cheap clothing but his instinct told him Mercer was buttering up to Alex so either he was going to trick this young man into something dangerous or this young man was a lowkey VIP. Either way he should pay more attention to him. The receptionist led the two to a table where a middle aged man and a fairly young woman were waiting, The man saw the two and stood up to greet them while the lady called over a waiter. She seemed pretty used to such meetings and this made Alex wonder what she was even doing there. Food was brought over and the man took a few bites before saying "Mr. Alex? My name is Ted Bridger I heard from mercer you have a very interesting product on you, would you mind showing it to me?" Alex could technically still say no, he knew how people with power and money acted. He knew friends were backstabbed let alone strangers but he couldnt really refuse at this point as that would only make him more suspicious, perhaps Alex could trick him into thinking its from a giant corporation so he wouldnt be targetted by doodle too. After all even doodle wouldnt want to steal something from lets say banana, atleast not on the surface. "Sure Mr. Ted, Its a experimental product so please be careful with it. The company which sent it to me to test would have my guts if anything happened to it. " Ted nodded, he already figured that the phone would be experimental after all from what Mercer told him it was pretty much a handheld computer. No small or middle level business would be able to produce this even if they wished for it. He took the phone and started testing it, as a professional he knew how to check the specifications of a phone better than Mercer. By the end of it his hands were trembling, he realized that the phone had come with a different OS and that it was changed to robot after all he knew how to recognize his own companies software. The phones usually buy the license to mass produce but this was different. A company that can make its own OS isnt rare but, a company that can produce such hardware would not produce low quality OS. He rechecked its specifications by running the phone, it never slowed down no matter how many items he had opened it never filled up even after he recorded a movie for 10 mins, resulting in over 20GB of usage. It would appear the 20TB was true but such a thing was impossible even for doodle currently. He was astonished, his throat grew dry and he chugged down an entire glass of water. The lady next to him was looking at him play with the phone out of curiosity, she wasnt a tech specialist but even she could tell that this item was ridiculous nevermind everything else just the camera alone was better than professional DSLR. She would kill to have such a phone and was hoping whatever her lover had intended involved getting her a copy of this phone. She tried asking him for it but he gave her a stern look that said ''not now''. She was smart and understood that this deal was enough to make him. If he could somehow secure such a product for his company he might even be promoted to the top straight away and this would only help her. He returned the phone to Alex who had finished eating, he did not eat in a refined way but his enhanced looks did not allow him to look vulgar either. Mercer was attempting to learn how to eat in such a way and still not look vulgar but he just chalked it up to Alex''s aura. Something distinct to everyone, it changes with your temperament and experience. "Mr. Alex, Could you please disclose which company made this phone?" Alex was troubled, if he named a big company Ted could easily investigate and find out its a lie and small companies wouldnt be able to produce it hence that too would be considered a lie. His only choice was... "That, Is it fine if I dont disclose it?" "That wouldnt be a problem but, I represent doodle in saying we would like to cooperate on this." He could always just deny the cooperation but why not use this chance instead? Alex thought about it a bit, he would have loved to claim to be omnipotent and have the ability to scheme right through everything but he couldnt. Compared to him plot armored MCs were pretty enviable at this point. Their friends literally give up their limbs and family for them and all they get in exchange is peanuts with which they happily offer up their sisters to the Harem of the MC. If Laura were here she would complain at how unfair such MCs were. All Alex could do was come up with an excuse, a vague but legitimate one. "Actually the company is fairly new, its an oversea company that is attempting to move into the tech market with this product" The reply caught Ted offguard, on one hand its a ''new'' company on another it is big enough to attempt to grow in a completely different market from whatever its main market is. He assumed it had something to do with either military or real estate as those are the currently least profitable ventures in modern times. More likely the military. Alex would be delighted by such a misunderstanding after all it meant Ted wouldnt make a move on him, directly atleast. Ted gave an understanding nod and said "I see, if this phone goes on sale I doubt anyone wouldnt want it. The price would be a problem but the elite dont lack money" Alex decided to change his initial plans a bit, he excused himself telling Ted that he would like to consult with his company. He went to the bathroom and called Laura. She was always calmer than him and besides in such a situation a second head would really help think. Alex wanted to integrate this turn of events into his plan and needed Laura to bridge the gaps. "Laura, how long would it take to convert the app to be usable for the original software that came with these phones"Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. "Brother why, what happened?" The voice sounded concerned, lately Alex had been getting into trouble a lot so it was understandable why. "Its a long story, I will explain when I get back but I figured out a way to get our ''customers'' for our app as well as milk them for money." "Alright brother, If I work on it I can do it today, originally the hard part was fitting it for current phones but without that and with the base code I believe a day should be enough" He was glad his sister was capable. He calmed down and thought for a bit then told her "Thanks love you, please do so I am gonna go talk to the customer" Alex went to the sink and washed his face. He looked in the mirror and calmed himself down then he went back to his seat, He saw the lady besides Ted and Mercer laughing while Ted appeared to be making a somewhat smug face. He promptly sat down on his chair. Ted understood Alex and his company had made a decision and he listened attentively. Alex took a deep breath and said. "You see, the company isnt attempting to market the phone. Its attempting to market a specific app that only works with this phone, I am sure you noticed robot wasnt its original software. I switched to robot as most apps require it but the phone was originally built specifically to support that app" This got Ted curious, such a cutting edge phone would be loved no matter where and here he is being told that its not even the product being sold but a supporting product, that too for an app. No matter how good the app is, creating an entire OS simply to support an app seems inefficient not to mention that would mean people would buy the phone especially for said app. The only 2 possibilities in his mind were. The app was just that good, he wondered what it was. Was it AI? a universal app maker so people dont feel the lack of other apps or company will probably have the more popular apps ported to support their OS while their own app works as a interaction medium. Any other possibilities including all of this being a lie were shot straight out of his head. He swallowed his spit and asked "So what is the main product?" "I am glad you asked Mr.Ted, Could you arrange for us to go somewhere secluded? Its hard to show with people around" Mr.Ted got worried he might be kidnapped but his curiosity got the better of him. A product with such a sub product would definitely be amazing not to mention any company capable of producing such a phone did not need him, he wasnt even a board member of doodle even if he was in a pretty high position doodle didnt need him to function. There was a high level of risk but the rewards were obvious too, he saw no reason to decline. "Mr. Mercer could you kindly drive Lilith back to our house? Just until the gates is fine, Dear please go with Mercer I wont take long will I Mr. Alex Royce" Alex understood the meaning behind using his full name. It was a warning that if something happens to Ted, Alex will be in trouble for it and so will his family. "Yes Mr.Ted it wont take too long. I am sorry for stealing your partner Ms Lilith" He flashed a smile to Lilith. Alex used to be above average in looks, he definitely wasn''t enough to warrant any form of attraction from women solely based on looks but after he took the strengthening pills his face has slowly sculpted itself. He did not look handsome at first glance but a lingering eye would definitely consider him handsome. Once Lilith took a good look at him she found that he might even be better looking than Mercer. ''Probably the alcohol, he looked so average before'' Ending her thought she agreed with the two and was then led by Mercer to his car. Alex smiled at Ted who was left behind and said "Are you sure that was wise? I am not sure Mr.Mercer is a sheep, I might be hired by Mercer to arrange this" Alex figured Ted as a pretty insecure man relationship wise. His tone was clearly telling Lilith not to stay too long with Mercer who clearly was not trusted. One can find a lot about a man by his phrasing, the intricate usage of words. Alex gained such knowledge in his life before the chip and polished it in the virtual reality chamber after all no matter how powerful you are you will still have to learn to deal with people to start a kingdom, Albiet it was mostly due to cheating they had still become monarchs. Ted raised a brow and simply shrugged. "If he had the ability to produce such a device he wouldnt just be a living mascot, come Mr. Alex lets finish up our business so we dont have to find our Mr.Mercer''s nature." Alex may seem mature but he was still a teen, he couldnt help but crack a joke which wasnt even funny due to the nervousness. Ted did not care, to him the youth infront of him would be a monster if he wasnt even nervous despite the magnitude of their deal so he didnt mind such jokes at all. Ted then led Alex to his car, as expected it was a model not even in common markets yet. A company named Nicoli, perhaps a play on work on the father of electricity had created this beauty and Alex now got to ride in it. He was also a bit excited, if everything went well maybe he could even afford a car from the future. A luxury car straight from the future! how glorious would it be, then again he would only get to enjoy that once he could truly protect his interests. The phone was enough of a headache. The car drove to the area arount the warehouse he was kidnapped to. Alex thought to himself ''Is this place some sort of shady rich guy business magnet?'' The thought made him giggle a little alerting Ted, who stopped the car thinking this was secluded enough "Would this place be fine?" Alex looked at him and nodded. Ted got out of the car then so did Alex. "So lets see the product, although I am not sure what all this secrecy is for. The app is on your phone right?" Ted was a paranoid man, his car always had a gun stashed away which he took out earlier as he did not fully trust Alex. "Calm down Mr.Ted let me show you the product" Alex decided to buy some form of energy skill to pass off as magic, the flashy energy wave would be a perfect demonstration he found one named
Strong wave skill 1000Mpts Allows the user to use his energy to create a energy blast, requires atleast 2nd realm to work
The description was simple and it was exactly what he wanted. Being a skill he learnt it instantly and told Ted to step back a bit. Following the technique now ingrained in his body he punched out, A Energy beam large as his body gushed out from his fish and destroyed the trees and ground uptil 3 meters infront of him. Alex looked back to see Ted''s reaction but he only saw him in a daze with some drool coming out of his mouth "Mr. Ted? You alright?" Ted quickly wiped the drool on the corner of his mouth and nodded. It took a while for him but he managed to say "Was... Was that real?" He considered himself to be someone who has seen the world, as a upper echelon member of doodle he had seen death and gore and as a businessman he had seen even more of it, the first by the company the second by himself. He saw things he could never explain and this just happened to be the top of that list. "As real as the phone I showed you" Alex demonstrated again, this time Ted only shook his head and slapped himself as if to wake himself up and stop fooling around. "So this is real huh, Umm Mr.Immortal why did you show me that?" Immortal? quite the title, then again humans tend to treat stuff they cant explain as something divine. Alex hated religion but to him the title immortal did not matter at all. It was more convenient for him if Ted treated him as a superior being. "This would be a better product than the phone right?" Ted couldnt help but nod. "You mean this magic? Certainly if you can sell it then the military and even the elites in the world would sell their kidneys for it. You said app right? will you use the app to sell this magic?" Alex knew the bait was effective. He smiled and said "Not just this ''magic'', So how about it? Would this be worth partnering over?" Ted couldnt help but be tongue tied, if he is asked whether its worthy then he could only answer it is more than worthy only that he is not. He knew he was in no position to sign such a deal as this youth would clearly ask for something only the board could provide. The product this time was beyond him or any other humans, no company would be dumb enough to say no to such a godly ability after all what is technology worth when compared to true magic? "Mr.Immortal no. Mr. Alex I will be honest this is above me, I know I cant provide what you will ask for so could you allow me to call my superiors?" Alex nodded and Ted made a call to the board of directors. He told them that a product that the company must have at any cost popped up and that he guaranteed using his life that they should free up their schedule as soon as possible. The board was stunned by his earnesty , they did not think a man in such a position would be moved by anything ordinary but they could not just free up space whenever asked. The board decided to bring up the product in the meeting that would be happening in a week. Ted couldnt help but worry whether Alex would accept the delay but to Alex that timing would be perfect. Chapter 16, Godly bloodlines? The phones he ordered would be with him by then and he could freely purchase enough abilities to stock up in his app in a week, he could then give a full demonstration of its abilities and secure a sort of giant customer. The app sounded like a divine ability but to truly use it you needed capital. Sure he could just rob a bank or something but that would just mean he wouldnt really have the time to build up strength nor we he have access to the resources once the government took notice of him. The siblings could always just buy a second rate technique and power up, perhaps it would help them be stronger now but if they can get one why not aim for the best? Besides once their plan was put into motion it wouldnt take long for their resources and authority to literally make them untouchable. Until then they had to be a little careful, not because they would be in trouble. Alex was sure that if anything happened they could easily take over an island or maybe even a town but then what? Get starved out? His opponents werent NPCs who wont move until he does and remain stationary when out of the screen these are people, living breathing and worst of all thinking people. He could hide in a village but that would diminish his available resource pool. The app was amazing indeed but to truly use it he needed to have resources. Alex was the type to fight when needed but until then he preferred making sure he has the ability to fight when needed before the fight. He knew doodle would try to sieze the app for themselves, pehaps take over the siblings hard work and use it to profit themselves. He had no intention to give them a cut from their revenue, he would not let them be the distributer or act as a middle ground but instead as a employee and a customer. Doodle would surely try to be a shareholder of sorts but he planned to make them want the features so bad they instead become customers and pay with their own services. The reason he revealed such a destructive ability was to give doodle a desire, a sort of ''making sure he had the ability to fight when needed''. He gave them a reason to want the features of the app but it also served as a demonstration of the ability to curb their greed if they ever tried to force anything. There were some points where his plan can go horribly wrong such as Ted declining his suspicious offer. He was fortunate the meeting time was in a week, within 5 days he would have his order of phones and with the extra 2 days he could stock up on functions and during the meeting he wouldn''t have to worry about his app being incomplete. By now Alex was back home. He saw his parents talking to Laura about something while she looked very concerned. "Father, Mother I promise I am not lying" she noticed Alex and as if he was a winning lottery ticket she suddenly cheered up "Brother, please help me explain." "Dear, its not that we mind spending all that money on the abnormal amount of items you both have been buying but atleast tell us where its going." This sentence alone told Alex what the conversation was about, this wasnt some sort of self insert modern day fantasy despite the chip being straight out of one. No one buys 3-4 of the same phone every month or so, not to mention the expenses its illogical in itself even with money to burn. The parents would obviously wonder about it. Although the Royce family didnt go broke but their available budget was still lowered a while back, the extra expenses were worrying. "Dad let me explain." Alex interjected. He did his best to think of an excuse in the few moments he could get. The perceptionist skill helped him quite a bit here by giving him the illusion of minutes worth of thinking time. "Actually mom, dad I started a small business and Laura was just helping me with it. I cant get into details right now but I already earned over 300 grands." The excuse would never work, if he didnt have money to show for it after all 300 grand wasnt a small amount and unless he had some success in a business or straight out robbed a bank he wouldnt be able to get it. Robbing a bank went straight out of the window as a possibility, the parents knew about the chip in their neck but they didnt know what it did and assumed the shield was the last of it. They were obviously still concerned about an unknown almost parasitic piece of technology literally inside their children but the doctors clearly found nothing unusual during the time they were tested. What could they do about it then? Alex tranferred the money to his father and the confirmation soon popped up for him. "A swiss account? I dont know anyone with such an account, dont tell me... Alex is it you? When or how did you even get a swiss account" The amount transferred was exactly the amount Alex had told him, short of a few dollars taken by the bank when transferring. "Dad, Please trust me for now alright? I''ll explain everything later on and I promise I didnt do anything illegal for it."Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Self defense wasnt illegal right? The money was offered too, he didnt extort or steal it so technically it was completely legal. Well murder was illegal but he didnt get paid for the murder itself. "Alright, Violet lets trust the kids, I am sure they have a few secrets they wont tell us about yet. Remember the special buttons we got from them? They found something they wished to do with their life, as parents who were almost never here let''s support them as best as we can. You two remember we are your parents count on us for help if you need it. I cant stop a meteor but in such a case atleast we will all be together" The siblings were touched, the family was close despite all the teasing and the long time they spent apart. Violet nodded and simply said "Yes, secrets. Laura use protection alright? I dont intend to be a grandmother so soon. Alex dont force your sister too much alright?" Yes close indeed. The tears that were threatening to spill out from the eyes of their disappeared as if they were never there. The two were sincerely touched until the very last sentence. The two yelled out "We arent doing that!". The parents could have sworn they heard a muffled ''yet'' but couldnt tell who it was from, common sense would suggest Alex while experience would say Laura. It could have been their minds tricking them because of their own thoughts. Now that the misunderstanding was over the siblings made their way over to Alex''s room to discuss todays events. The two had come to an agreement to always discuss whatever the two did that day, two heads were better than one after all. Alex as always told her everything. Mercer, Ted, doodle. Laura heard it all and understood he had no choice, her brother was simply troublesome and careless. They could have just sent the app directly to the private phones of the richest people on earth with their tech skills but because Alex was careless and showed off his phone they had to go about it in a less efficient manner. Then again connections to the rich would never really hurt them too bad or atleast compared to not having them, the benefits outweighed the disadvantages. Thankfully Ted mistook Alex as some form of deity, is there anyone courageous enough to go against a deity while being mortal? The discussion continued until the App suddenly had a notification pop up.
Limited edition offer for all users! The app has gained access to a few random vials of blood belonging to dragons and pheonixes as well as creatures like devouring beasts and many others! The users have a one time chance to exchange their points for attempts to gain the blood of one of these mystical creatures! The Vials are useful for experimentation and can also be used to train your body, their specific uses I am sure the users can figure out!- Pre recorded message from the Admins
A vial of blood? What could it even be used for? Alex pondered but Laura on the other hand grew excited. She had read countless novels where the protagonists would change bloodlines to a different species and knew the best use for these vials. Laura suggested it to Alex and he excitedly agreed, the two gained 3 tries each for all of their points. The exchange rate seemed somewhere around 4000:1 but since they intended to exchange all the points anyway they didnt check the specifics. Alex himself was a bit excited after hearing about the possibility of getting a bloodline. Who wouldn''t want to be a immortal dragon? Unlike Laura he was still a bit concerned about the safety or how possible it really is with just a vial of blood. Still it was a limited time offer and they could make the points back later on. He was a bit regretful that he didnt have more points but he could do nothing about it for a week. He thought about running out to a store and buying out all the items but he opted against it, the time limit seemed to be less than an hour. He could think about whether its safe or what to do with it after getting the vials. There was a wheel like lottery system with hundreds of different names on it. The bloodlines were seperated into colors, the lighter the color the more space it took. There were only 3 black sections and each took a space the size of the needle itself. The chance of getting one of these would be around 0.01% and to get a specific one would be even less, common sense dictated these were the best 3 vials. The top of the screen had confetti and a message saying
??????????????????You can even win these!
Primordial Dragon blood! This is the blood of the first dragon, the dragon''s body was massive and its staple meals consisted of stars. The dragon had the ability to control entropy and can finely control subatomic or atomic particles also known to primitive creatures as magic, Nicknamed the Ruler of magic!
Endless Void Wolf blood! This wolf was one of the only beings that saw its own universe from its beginning to the end, The wolf will never age and although its size is small and can easily fit on a small planet it considered distance as a mere concept that does not affect it. In simple words it has the ability to teleport on a whim, where and even when are simple thought concepts. Nickname Time wolf.
Devouring Beast blood! contrary to its name this beast is never hungry, thankfully for the universe it lived in as it would have devoured it all otherwise. The beast is made of unique atoms with unknown structures or even particles that are still unknown, it has the ability to absorb whatever it eats into its own being and can regenerate as long as a single atom still remains, As a side note it can also transform into any shape or size, perfect for the ladies and some gents. Nickname God eater
The standards for these creatures were literally universal, here he was scheming for a single planet worth of resources while the app literally had blood from god like beings. He felt a bit stupid for being cautious against the app earlier because as he is now the app didnt need to scheme against him, it is trying to use him but if it wished to harm him it would have done so already. The ones behind this app could even get blood from such creatures what does he matter to them? For now atlease he is useful to them or so he hoped. Oddly enough there was even large white ''human'' that took 10% of the entire wheel, for a wheel containing hundreds of names 10% is a large space, ''Goblin'' took even more as the largest section at 15%. Imagine a wheel with hundreds or even thousands of names written on it in a readable size, how giant must it be? Alex laughed at the possibility of getting human for all three of his turns but he knew that if he thought about it then he would be setting himself up. The universe loves messing with people, the thing you think of most is what usually happens but only the bad things. He clicked spin. It kept spinning building up suspense for Alex. After spinning for a while it finally showed signs of stopping, it looked like it might stop on the black option which would be a miracle but it the needle was slightly off and fell on the next section. Chapter 17, Oops perhaps last time wasnt so sudden!
Congratulations! you have won A ''Heavenly Serpent blood vial'' x 3" Would you like an explanation?
Well it still sounded better than human so although sad he didnt get the grand prize thinking about it, the chances for something like that to happen would be negligible. He might as well take a 4 leave clover to a lottery booth and hope to win a trillion dollars. Even the marketplace didnt have anything for luck, it wasn''t something you can measure. Strength? sure lift a heavy object, processing speed? sure calculate something. Intelligence? Sure solve a few problems. Luck? Sometimes its there as if you are heaven''s own son and other times you might as well have a black cat side step repeatedly infront of you. He clicked yes. It sounded cool but he had zero clue about what it actually is.
The heavenly serpent, Creature code C10 Designation Red, The creature has a thick heavenly dragon bloodline. Its bloodline can be traced back to the primordial dragon. Is attuned to magic that can stop atomic movement or energy emission
He had no idea what C10 meant but he assumed it wasnt too shabby with something like heavenly in its name, the ability seemed pretty overpowered too. Red was average in terms of rarity so he wasnt too surprised he won it but the ability itself was surprising. You could say it had the ability to freeze things and control radiation. Light itself is a form of radiation too. It wouldnt let him create lethal radiations atleast without the proper radioactive materials but with them he could probably create a reaction similar to a nuclear explosion so all in all Alex was delighted by it. He spun the wheel again. This time it didnt even stop near the black sections, it stopped on a purple section and a notification popped up
Congratulations! you have won A ''Evil Dragon blood vial x3" Would you like an explanation?
It seemed like the marketplace app either had too many draconic creatures or the draconic creatures loved him, It was only second to black level sections so it could be considered as pretty rare. He clicked yes again
Evil Dragon, Creature code A26 Designation Violet, The creature has a thick Apocalyptic Dragon bloodline and a thin primordial one. Has a very fine control over the concept of null or empty. Has the ability to impose or reverse said state and is often related to the disappearance of heavenly bodies
The previous creature sounded straight out of a fantasy novel but this one just took that to an intergalactic level. The shade of its color wasnt even the closest one to black on the wheel but still it looked like a top level creature, perhaps the apocalyptic dragon would be the best purple creature? If its blood could create such a monster it ought to be. He made up his mind and gulped down his saliva, it was his last try and he hoped for any of the black level creatures. The siblings intended to become strong and the stronger the creature they can get the better, even if they cant do what they intend to they could still research their blood and maybe steal a portion of their ability. For some of these creatures even time was a concept, immortality didnt even seem to be a big deal when looking at these mythical beings. Ironic considering how hard his own species is trying to obtain it. A portion of such godly might would be enough to let them rule earth although they had no intention to be king. A king maybe seem a impressive title but taken with might its just responsibility upon responsibility with no one to truly take the burden, they would much rather have their freedom not like any king could control them anyway if they become that powerful.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it The wheel spun and the needle stopped on a yellow section.
Congratulations! you have won A ''Red Salamander Wolf x3" Would you like an explanation?
He clicked yes again, he was pretty disappointed at the color. The shade leaned towards white too so he didnt hold high expectations. The average color would be orange if one judged solely based on space each color took on the wheel. The colors were white, yellow, orange, red, crimson red, Dark pink, violet, black. From common to rare and probably from weak to stronger. The rarer the color the less space it took so orange being the average color could be considered accurate. The two white colored ones alone took 25% of the wheel.
Red Salamander, Creature code F534 Designation Yellow. The creature is the distant offspring of the Heavenly serpent with a slight relation to a Red Eater, which is also a distant relative to the Devouring Beast. The bloodline has been diluted to the point its innate abilities are only slightly better than humans. Fairly weak on its own hence works in packs.
He was severely disappointed but he knew he should be satisfied with the previous two bloodlines, Hoping that Laura won herself a black section he picked up the 3 boxes that popped up. He assumed they had the blood vials and conveniently they were colored to match the vials inside or so thats what he thought seeing their colors. He carefully placed the boxes in a safe place and then turned to Laura who also seemed like she was done with her lottery. She seemed to be pretty happy with her winnings. While Alex was spinning the wheel a while ago Laura too had her own tries. The first time she spun the wheel she got a pretty decent shade of Violet. The explanation offered by the system was
Space shifting wolf, Class A6 Designation Violet, A Direct descendant of the Endless Void Wolf, This creature having lost its parents ability over time has just as strong ability over space. ''Where'' is a thought concept to this creature. It has the ability to control space itself. Bending, shifting and altering space to toy with its victims is its favorite hobby
This alone was better in rarity than anything Alex got, she too was pretty happy with it. If she could somehow gain this bloodline she wouldn''t need to worry about safety anymore. No one could harm her but instead everyone would praise her for her benevolence if she didnt harm them. Nukes? No problem. She doubted anything she could purchase on the market could even hurt her anymore but then again. The marketplace was pretty mysterious, items they had bought uptil now werent even one of the more expensive ones and they still were pretty overpowered on their own. The immortals could probably muster a certain level of power too while the apocalyptic side already had the power to wage intergalactic wars. Earth aside most colonies on other planets were still intact, they may have abandoned Earth but it was probably because it wasnt worth the effort. After all any civilization capable of colonizing and waging wars across even a single galaxy wouldnt think of a single planet as anything important, Earth held sentimental value but that was all. There were bigger and richer planets besides no one wished to resume the war for the ''holy land'' of humans all of this led to Earth being abandoned. Ofcourse Laura didnt know this but she could still guess some of it because any normal human would think ''why did a civilization capable of so much abandon earth for such a simple reason'' when they hear about it. She did not know the full extent to the powers each side held but she assumed that at the very least if this blood alone could make her invincible it wouldnt be her turn to get it. The app itself would have used it. The fact that it was given away like this meant that they had better stuff than even the black creatures or held some form of hidden agenda. She had regular contact with that side so she had learnt a few things. Infact she assumed the other sides of the app were alternative universes as the apocalyptic planet was named Earth too. The other two creatures were.
Infinite Flesh doll, Class B16 Designation Dark pink, A 2nd generation descendant of the Devouring Beast. Combat abilities are weak but has the ability of true immortality, It can never be killed as it has the same regenerative ability as its ancestor
Void Devourer, Class D1 Designation Red. Can steal some of the ability of the creature it devours, has a tendency of hiding in an alternate dimension using its command over space to ambush prey. Has a blood relation to the Glutton Fox and Timless Ant
Chapter 18, Are you my son? Laura clearly had a better harvest but then again the two could only truly use one of these if any at all to change their own bloodline, the other 5 would be wasted. The space shifting wolf or the Evil dragon seemed to be the best selections but each creature had its own unique attraction, for example the Infinite Flesh doll. Never dying is always attractive to those who can die. Laura then took the Red box and opened it, inside was a dark space. She assumed it had something to do with space considering the number of spacial creatures that were mentioned. She then stuck her hand inside the box, she was unable to feel her hand anymore as if it was paralyzed. She attempted to move it around but the lack of air made it feel as if it wasnt moving at all. She made a passive complaint about how it would be nicer if there was some sort of manual for the box, she suddenly felt paperish texture on her hand. She grabbed it and pulled it out and it was another one of those slips the system so loved to use. She put it on her forehead and by the time she gout out of her daze Alex had come back from safely putting away his boxes. The box apparently was a space container, it could contain upto 4 things regardless of their size and shape as the concept of ''dimensions'' was different inside the box. The item could be taken out by thinking about it, time was not added to the box so anything inside would remain the same until after its taken out. The question now was what to do with the blood. They thought about it, they werent biologists and learning about biology from scratch would take too much time and it might not even help them as these creatures werent something modern biology could explain. They could always do what they did with programming and get a manual from the future but these creatures probably never made human contact so a manual wouldnt help at all. The tools could probably provide some sort of help. Their thoughts were again interrupted by a notification from the app. ["Thank you for participating, congratulations to the lucky winners and better luck next time to those who did not get what they wanted. We hope you have a good time finding out the properties of these magical creatures! Do not ingest the blood directly as you will most likely die. - Pre recorded message from the administration"] ''So there are people who drink this.'' Well in any case the basic problem of what to do with the blood still remained but if they could synthesize enough, maybe something from the apocalyptic market would be able to change their blood? Blood transfusion should be fairly common and she remembered seeing something related to it once before She checked again and she was right a device costing around 30,000 Apts named "Not my son" was up for sale. She really wondered who came up with this name. She then told Alex about the device and he too checked it
Not my son 30,000 Apts This device is used to synthesize a DNA type and infuse it into the user. The device was meant for parents who couldnt get a child through natural means. The device was banned after the richest person during that time Bill Windows went bankrupt due to inheritence issues with too many people claiming to be his child and lawsuits due to child negligence.
That was one stupid way to go bankrupt. Then again Laura could understand why, after all how do you tell your real child apart from the fake ones when even DNA tests said they were yours? This device was perfect for their needs and her brother had enough cash to get enough points. She was still unsure where he got the money but she assumed it had to do with the time he came home battered up. She still didnt want to change her species to the ones available when she knew there were better ones obtainable. In this respect Alex came up with a solution. He suggested refining the blood to that of their parents by isolating that specific blood. This way if nothing else they would get atleast the Endless Void Wolf as they had the blood of its direct child Laura took inspiration from that and said "Brother why not mix similar lineages and refine them? We could then isolate the black level blood from them too? Would it not be possible considering that the app treats the blood as a mix of several distinct ones?"If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Alex got a large grin thinking about being able to eat planets for a snack as a dragon or maybe he would travel the universe forever as a void wolf. He then pat his sister causing her to smile and said "Alright lets do it, we just need 30,000 Apts right? I always wanted to do an experiment with what we can feed the app. Lets go to the super store" Laura barely left the house but this time she agreed to go with Alex, she too wished to see what is acceptable to the app and what is not. The two left home and walked towards the store, it was already dark out. Alex had a pretty busy day but the thoughts of being able to teleport just wouldnt let him rest. The two continued onwards when they heard a scream, night time was always dangerous and this hasnt changed even today. The two wished to help like any other human but they also knew they weren''t saviors they couldnt go around the streets at night being Mr.Justice. The two turned their head towards the scream, they saw a bunch of ruffians surrounding a middle aged man and a girl who seemed like she was in highschool. ''Compensated dating?'' Was their first thought seeing this. Why else would a middle aged man take a girl the age of his daughter to an alley? Still it looked like things went wrong and Laura nodded to Alex, regardless of their sexual preferences they still didnt deserve to be ignored after all a victimless crime was not a crime, the two were old enough to know what they were doing. He darted towards the screams and the thugs noticed him, one of the thugs looked at him and said "Kid we aren''t having a party here" His eyes darted back to Laura who was just standing there looking at Alex, he figured the two have a connection and added "But if you want in, bring that lass over here, we will let you do this bitch here once." Alex really didnt understand why they assumed he wanted to ''get in''. Wouldnt thugs normally think he is trying to be a hero? What has happened to the morals in today society when even random passerbys join in gang rape. "and if i dont?" Replied Alex, he then looked over to one of the thugs in the back and recognized him as the very first one he beat up with the Ray fiasco. The guy was busy beating up the fallen middle aged man and a few were attempting to undress the girl behind him while she struggled. The thug pointed towards the man and girl and said "Join us or join them, your choice. Either way that lovely lass behind you will be dinner" Alex just ignored him and walked to the guys undressing the girl. Talking to the thug would just be wasteful banter which would only mean the girl gets raped while he talks. He stepped up to the closest one and punched him. The guy flew a bit and hit the wall, this got the attention of everyone else and the thug who was once beaten up by Alex looked at him. He looked at the thug on the ground then back at Alex and seemed to realize who he was. "Guys lets go, I dont want to mess with this guy again." He talked to his fellow thugs, a few of which were even 2nd generation rich men. They feared no one especially not the police. They looked at the thug on the ground and turned cautious, one of them stepped up. "Friend that guy over there was just joking, we wouldnt try to force your friend, She can leave and infact if you wish you can join us. This girl looks good right? have the first go at her we wont mind" They werent afraid of any form of authority but he had strength, if they could avoid making enemies by letting him join then they would gladly do so. They thought they would probably overpower him with numbers but it didnt hurt to have less injuries right? This guy seemed like he packed a heavy punch too. Alex ignored him and punched the other guys away from both the man and the girl, he was fast so the guy who just spoke got scared. "Friend alright, if you want her to yourself please take her we can go find another one" A whore thinks everyone is shameless, this guy still assumed Alex just wanted to do the girl alone and he figured he could find another with his friends there was no need to get in conflict with a guy who just punched 3 guys in an instant Alex having saved the girl and the man, looked at the guy speaking for the thugs. "So you think I want her?" The thug felt it would be wrong to nod so he just stayed silent "Alright listen, I had a pretty long day alright? I am tired and now I see you guys pulling this shit, tell me should I even let you guys live?" The thug grew scared but being a rich guy he had plenty of cards to play. "If you kill me, my dad will have you and your entire family killed. Be reasonable and let us leave you can play the hero and we walk away without grudges" Alex never really considered the authorities anymore, sure the mafia is scary, the police is scary but are they worse than nukes? The frequent mention of planet devouring creatures numbed him to threats of this level. He didnt intend to kill but it looked like he would need to. Even if he didnt these people would hold a grudge and come after his family all the same. Life is funny, a while ago he was puking over his first murder and now he didnt really consider it a big deal anymore. Once or twice didnt matter if it has happened. He just didnt wish to show Laura and hoped she wouldnt have to kill either. "Your dad huh? Who is he then?" This gave the thug a ray of hope, perhaps the influence would scare him off. If it works well and he is scared enough he might even get another girl for tonight "He is actually the Mayor of this town, dont believe me right? Here is proof" He took out a picture on his phone of him and his ''dad'' holding up a fish. Seemed like a fishing trip picture although the boy looked a bit younger. "I see, the mayor. So am I supposed to be scared?" Chapter 19, Sudden store heist The phone dropped, he didnt expect this reaction. When he mentions his dad usually anyone playing the hero would be scared. It wasnt the first time he did this after all, most would just run away while the more daring ones would just join them for some fun. Heck he even had a few of the female ''heroes'' ending up joining them in a different way. They probably thought they could meet the mayor if they did, he enjoyed the disappointment on their faces when they found out the truth. "Umm, no I wasnt intending to scare you friend. Just that it would be more convenient if we pretend none of this happened right?" He finished his sentence and looked at Alex expecting to atleast see him thinking about it. Instead he saw a worrying scene Alex turned to Laura and told her to go ahead. She got his hint and looked a bit saddened, it would take an idiot to not figure out what he was intending to do she did not wish to see him change like that, she hoped whatever happened to him wouldnt affect him too much but she also knew that they would need to change. Laura slowly walked to the store leaving Alex behind with a bunch of thugs. The one who recognized him had already been scared shitless. He tried to run but Alex just punched him half into a wall permanently damaging if not outright killing him. Everyone else held their breaths in fear now, they didnt try to run because they already saw the results of that all they hoped was that they wouldn''t be beaten up too badly. ''I swear daddy will get revenge for me, I just need to live through this'' the thoughts of the mayors son were simple, he was raised in a way that made him think of revenge as a necessity. He knew as the son of a politician that he could never let anyone look down on him or else he will never reach a high position. He would have the police cripple the guy infront of him if he was in a good mood and worse if not. Unfortunately his thoughts were cut short. Alex turned towards the thugs with his own set of thoughts. ''I can let them live but that will only bring me trouble, there is no way these guys wont hold a grudge. He tried threatening me so there is no way he wont seek revenge. Eventually I will have to change. I need to be more firm. I need to change so that Laura wont have to, this app may bring us fortune but if I dont change then Laura, mom and dad will have to. Its fine if I take the burden of murder on myself, I need to for our sakes.'' Alex wasn''t intending to kill anyone at first but when the thug threatened him with his father''s position he knew that if he let them leave now, they would attempt to have revenge. Thinking of them holding their parents hostage and having their way with Laura, Alex knew he no longer had such freedom. They were not average thugs after all. He made up his mind and made short work of these physically average thugs. He truly believed that he had to take this experience for the sake of his family. He truly thought that since he had to change anyway, it would be better to use these scumbags. If he let them live they would probably do this again and at that time he wouldnt be there, he couldnt really follow them around right? Imagine having your sister being raped or your father being killed for his money just because someone decided to let them go, if he was a normal person he would call the police and thats that but he no longer has such a luxury, he needed to be above the law if he truly wished to hold on to everything he had. He held no right to judge whether they should live or not, perhaps these were just excuses but in any case for his sake and for the sake of his family these people could not live. Holding these complex thoughts perhaps no one would truly understand he decided to erase their bodies too. He knew that if there was evidence of murder then the evidence of him being the murderer wouldnt be far behind. Alex took out his digital gun, His aiming aids helped him aim at their heads and he shot. The bodies disappeared as if they were never there giving off an unreal feeling. He dropped his gun and looked towards the sky. His face had a stern look on it as if he came to terms with something. He turned around and saw that the girl was awake, he was a bit busy with the thugs to notice that although the man was knocked out the girl wasn''t. She looked horrified not just because of Alex but because of how the bodies just vanished. Alex helped her up and shouldered the unconsious man, he got a good look at his face and it turned out to be a disfigured version of Ted, The world was a small place indeed. Holding onto his surpriseHe picked up his gun and led the girl towards a nearby bench, he put him down on a bench and told the girl to not talk about him. She nodded like a maniac because she was scared he might make her disappear too after all the police cant give him trouble if there is no evidence someone even died to begin with. She managed to squeeze out a few words despite her fear and disgruntled appearance. "Umm.. Thank you sir, for helping me and my dad. Could you help us once more? my clothes arent in the best shape and my phone was broken by those. people. Can I borrow yours? My dad works at doodle and he can surely repay you." She found it difficult to refer to the men who tried raping her, not only because of that but because she was afraid of the memory she had of them vanishing as if glitching out. It looked unreal and it looked to her as if they just got disconnected from a game. If she wasn''t utterly confused and scared she might even hold thoughts about the nature of reality itself. Could it be a game? Could every atom be differientiated with a unique ID like in games? Being the child of such a person she still had the ability to ask for help in spite of her fear. Alex lent her his phone and thought about the time he would take to catch up with Laura. She made a phone call to an unknown number which didnt belong to the hospital or the police and gave him his phone back. Alex nodded and then walked away, After a few minutes a car zoomed past him and stopped by what he assumed was the bench he left the two on. He hastened his steps and got to the store, he walked around and found Laura in the meat lane and went up to her. They decided to experiment and Alex scanned the meat, It gave him around 100 Apts and he then scanned a few more for a total of 1000 Apts. He completely forgot that he didnt own the meat and that he wasnt alone, to be fair Laura didnt realize it too excitement was such a thing after all you forget the long term effects. A few security guards came up to him and with a stern expression dragged him to their office. Laura was left there thinking ''Of course you would get in trouble if you do it out in the open, foolish brother'' Not even realizing the fact that she too didnt stop him. The guards stripped Alex to search him but found nothing, one of them smiled towards him and said "There was also a girl with you right?"Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. He told a guard to bring her in too but Alex said. "I would like to sue this store for using their authority to strip me for no reason as well as attempting to sexually harass my sister" The guard was confident, he heard these threats plenty of times. "This is just procedure we are making sure you do not have the stolen goods on you" Alex too was confident. He couldnt get his sister get stripped by these perverts after all. "And you found nothing, Please provide evidence that me or my sister stole anything before attempting to sexually harass us. You stripped me but found nothing hence I would like to sue you guys." The manager of the store heard the commotion and came in. He asked what happened and one of the guards filled him in. He asked for the video to be brought in and played it. "So the meat just disappeared when you waved your hand over it? Is this not proof enough? Bring his sister she must have it on him" "And where in this video does it show me handing anything over to my sister? you stripped and searched me and found nothing now you just want to use this chance to sexually assault an innocent girl? Shame on you I will be calling the police" Alex was actually furious, their claims were valid on him but to use this chance to satisfy their perverted desires was too much. He phoned up the police and the manager panicked. The slight guilt he had over stealing the meat completely vanished. "Think carefully, when the police sees this video they will know you stole it." "Stole what? You found nothing when stripping me." The call connected and he called them over. The manager and guards couldnt do anything as they would be in trouble as the police is already involved. A few minutes later the police came in. A fat female officer and an old man. The two asked both sides what happened and looked at the video and asked Alex. "How did the meat disappear?" "How should I know? I was already strip searched and they still wanted to strip my sister. I would like to press charges for sexual assault for that." The police thought about it a bit and found it to be a reasonable claim, his sister wasnt even near him or the meat yet wanting to strip her could be considered attempted sexual assault. The video was suspicious too, how could something just disappear. The police thought that the manager and his guards attempted to corner these young guys and gave them a stern look. "Is he telling the truth?" The manager was tongue tied. He didnt lie but he obviously had done something. "Well.. He obviously did something to make the meat disappear" The police found out what they needed to know. "So its true, very well you lot are coming with me, charges are stripping a victim and attempting to sexually harass his sister, A minor in the later case. The video is suspicious too, its too precise to be scripted but things dont just disappear in thin air it can not serve as evidence in such a case" The manager grew fearful. The meat really had disappeared but where did it go to? His own men stripped this boy and searched him, they couldnt have helped the boy right? They were the ones starting this mess after all. "Umm. Boy it appears were made a mistake, how about letting it go?" Alex obviously didnt agree but even if he did the police would only add ''forcing silence'' to their crimes. "Then how about we settle it in private? No need to get the police involved." If the police got involved even if he got out of jail his job would be gone, he agreed he went a bit overboard but the meat really did disappear. "Ask my sister who you tried to sexually assault." Obviously it wouldnt be as bad as rape but, attempting to strip a minor could still be considered ''intent to rape'' after all. Forcefully stripping someone would be considered a rape attempt even if one truly didnt wish to go all the way. "Sir, How about this, you can take whatever you want from the store for today its on us. Just forget this happened alright? You wouldnt want your parents to worry would you?" Alex thought about it a bit and looked at the fat police lady "Umm, what do you guys think? Will this trouble my family?" Obviously he couldnt just say yes, it would mean he indeed intended to get the items and would make him suspicious but if he played it off as worry for his parents he could say yes. The lady replied. "They would have to come in as your guardians. His suggestion is pretty good if you dont want that" Alex cautiously said "So I should agree? Alright Mr. Pervert, I will be taking everything in this store please pack it up and help me transport it" "Sir we cant transport so many items at this hour, would you have an alternate solution?" Replied the manager, he hoped Alex would slip up and do the disappearing trick with the items but the reply he got was from the old police man. "I can help with that, we have a police truck back at the office I can call over." Everyone knew the goods wouldnt actually leave, no one can use everything here without selling it. The two didnt seem to be children of a store owner else they wouldnt be here but they still helped scare the manager into driving up the eventual money he will have to pay. "Or perhaps the manager here could offer equivalent money? 200 grands seem enough" This sum was probably the same as his yearly pay. He was startled and started sweating when Alex said. "Actually, I have a friend who works in a large company and I am sure they can use all of these items." The police guy got suspicious, Why would he reject money like that? Alex continued "He works at doodle and maybe they can deal with these goods. Let me call him" The police dispelled their worry, doodle wouldn''t resort to such methods with such a small store after all pretty much all the money in the world passes through their services at some point. Alex called Ted, he felt a bit bad for calling someone who needs to be hospitalized but he really wished to obtain the goods and saw no other choice. The call connected and he could hear a female. He assumed it was his daughter and said "Hello miss, is Ted alright? Sorry for leaving you guys alone earlier but I had to catch up to my sister." "Umm, Are you the one who saved us earlier? How did you get my dads number?" She had forgotten about her dads phone earlier due to the nervous confusion. It was still on him, he was just not able to use it. The thugs probably left it alone for that very reason. "Umm me and Mr.Ted are work associates. Please confirm that with him whenever you can, I would like a favor. You see I got my hands on a large amount of items I dont know what to do with, could you arrange for them to be stored someplace?" The other side of the phone was silent for a bit then replied. "Dad has an empty warehouse you can use if thats alright? I''ll come over please tell me where" The girl was in a hospital nearby. She had rushed her dad to a nearby hospital because of his condition, still she thought she should help her benefactor as her dad was stable now. Everyone waited in silence for 30 mins and a blonde girl who looked like she was in highschool came in with two black suited men. Typical bodyguard outfit thought Alex as he greeted her. She was shocked to see the police and assumed something happened, she wished to interject on Alex''s behalf but he stopped her and told her what happened. The old police guy had already called over the truck, he couldnt back out now since he already offered. The truck arrived a few mins after the girl and the girl actively told her guards to move the items to the truck, It was a giant 12 wheel truck but the girl was ruthless, she filled it up entirely thinking she was helping her benefactor. Soon the store looked like it was newly opened. Even the furniture wasnt spared. The manager was seriously thinking whether jail was a better option because atleast that way he wouldnt owe his company so much money, still he could afford it, if he had his job and he could probably have it restocked in a week with his savings. The job was more important than anything else even if his boss is mad at him due to low sales. He intended to use his own cash to sweep everything under the rug, perhaps he wouldnt get a bonus for a year or two but he as long as he had his job he could save up more cash. He glared at the security guards giving them a look saying ''You guys will also have to fork over money'' They just gulped and stood there. The police was baffled too, they wondered whether all this was planned because the girl seemed too eager. Even Alex who called her over looked shocked. He even felt guilty now because he had infact stolen the meat. He intended to get revenge for lusting over his sister but perhaps this was going too far? He decided not to make an enemy out of this blonde girl who didnt even spare the safe with all the stores earnings. The whole safe. The truck was filled and everyone except the store staff got on. Alex felt a bit guilty but he needed the points so he just got on. The girl guided them to a empty warehouse belonging to doodle. The truck offloaded everything and Alex sent a few packs of beer with the police as thank you items. The two looked at each other and accepted the beer and got back on the truck, their own car was back at the store and they could retrieve it later, for now they needed a drink and thankfully they got enough to last them a month now. The truck drove off leaving the three young ones behind. Alex said "Thank you miss..." She interjected "Ashley" "Miss Ashley. Is your father alright?" She softened her expression a bit and said "Yes, Thanks to you he isnt injured too badly. Do you learn kung fu? How do you know my dad? Are you his subordinate?" The questions bombarded Alex and awkwardly said "We are business partners, as for kung fu I guess you can say I know a bit of it?" He obviously wouldnt go in details. After a quick chat she went back to her father, obviously still worried about him. Alex then scanned everything inside the warehouse at once, no point delaying it since Ted already considered him an immortal and would probably tell his daughter about him too. Chapter 20, Mad science love! The majority of the items were food or snack related so he sold them all to the apocalyptic market even if some individual items were more optimal for the martial world, it gave him a total of 100,000 Apts. Well the downside was that he would probably not be allowed back in that store but oh well. The duo had enough points now to get themselves some black level blood vials through mixing, refining, isolating then synthesizing. Alex was grateful they were given 3 vials each since there might be failures and they might need the extra blood so that refining it doesnt reduce it to an level they can not use, after all the DNA must be traced back to god knows how many generations back. They werent biologists so failure was all but guaranteed. Their only saving grace was the future technology, Changing DNA shouldnt be a big deal for a civilization literally creating super mutants right? The remaining problem now was a ride back home, hopefully the taxis take credit. How much did he sound like a rich boy he wondered. They called a Tuber ride and got back home, Alex''s room was a bit cramped with their metal coffin sized virtual reality chamber so the blood transfusion device and anything related to the blood had to be in Laura''s room. The duo just hoped their parents dont check their rooms else there would be a lot of explaining to do. Starting with why they had a giant metal coffin straight out of a sci-fi movie ending in some incest related joke. Alex looked for some form of DNA seperator. ''Not my son'' was only good for changing DNA not refining or isolating it. After searching for a bit he found 4 items that could help with the entire process.
Vampiric Feast 300 Apts Duplicates blood, used mostly by doctors when a patient lacked blood. Blood donors are now a thing of the past. This blood is 100% organic so dont be afraid of it!
The siblings rarely used the virtual reality chambers due to the probably energy costs but this item was a small box. There was a scanning dish on it, the blood sample probably went there and a dispenser of sorts below it. This wouldnt cost too much electricity right? Then again he should probably find something to help with the power costs. This brings us to our second item
Perpetual motion machine MKII 50,000 Apts A nearly infinite source of power, the power production plant is stored in the Unknown Dimension so dont be shy about the space! Costs 1KG of rock a day to run. Not really perpetual but we are getting there Tlaz company promises you!
The cost was probably due to the dimensional connection. He didn''t know exactly how advanced that future is but, connecting something to a mini dimension using science alone would never be too easy right? Thankfully he could afford it. Back to the blood, we have something to synthesize it and use it to switch DNA. Thankfully the power problem would soon be a thing of the past and they could spend their entire lives playing games and gathering rocks. A dream life indeed. The next item helped with DNA isolation and seperation.
Who''s your daddy 10,000 Apts Looking to know your grandpa''s grandpa? This item can help you trace your bloodline straight back to when your ancestor tried to pass himself off as the son of Bill Windows getting my previous inovation banned! It can also help you mix both of your ancestors bloodline, giving you and your partner the immoral incest feeling during your play time
This device clearly was made by the same person as ''not your son''. Then again the naming sense pretty much matched up, he wondered whether the vampiric feast was made by the same person too, was he a blood maniac?. The note at the end pretty much illustrated what this thing was used for. No wonder he held grudges over his items being banned. It probably wasnt the first time it happened either. The last item they bought was a simple cloning device, they couldnt really experiment on their own bodies right? might as well clone themselves and experiment on it. Thankfully this said clone lacked a life else there might be a lot of complications.
I swear this is completely moral! MKIV 4000 Apts Creates a complete body clone of the user. The clone will be lifeless unfortunately as I have yet to figure out what exactly makes someone alive, its not memory, its not genes, whats the bloody missing component damn it! still. You could always upload your conscious to it and control it! It shares your flesh and blood so dont be shy of having some *fun*
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.Alright Alex was now pretty sure whoever named these had a pretty tainted sense of humor. Along with ''Not my son'' he had bought everything as he had found it. Laura had helped place everything while Alex was busy browsing. With the exception of ''Not my son'' the other devices were pretty smal and easily fit around ''Not my son'' with the exception of the power device, making it certain whoever made ''Not my son'' made all of them. He wondered what sort of twisted genius would even think of such items. The power device was a small box with several types of sockets on it. There were plenty of USB port lookalikes and one modern socket but thankfully the other devices all came with both modern sockets and USB type ones. This seemed too convenient to be true but then again it was probably a measure against undeveloped areas. Theres always bound to be some place on modern earth where they still use CRT monitor TVs or even black and white ones right? Alex had a complicated feeling about that implication but he quickly plugged in all the devices. There was a giant button on the power box with a start written on it. After pressing it the button turned red and the word stop appeared on it. The devices got powered up, the two beamed up at the thoughts of having a near infinite power source and even more at what the future held for them, the draw was pretty random and felt like it had a lot of ill intents but. This would be the quickest way to securing their freedom right? All this time they spent preparing, never flaunting what they had and the world just handed them a remedy like bam your preparations were useless accept my overpowered blessings discarding your entire work! They didnt intend to do the last part of course. They watched the devices for a while just staring at them, then Laura snapped out of it and patted Alex on his back rousing him too. Laura fetched a few empty bottles. Alex scanned and filled up one bottle per creature. He then fed the Evil dragon blood to ''Who''s your daddy'', the display showed 12 ''unknown'' bloodlines along with a percentage of presence. Although these gene pools were undocumented they were still distinct enough to be recognized as separate entities, even if someone has never seen water and a rock they can still tell they are different right, let alone a machine built to do exactly that. Thankfully the percentage of blood could easily identify the one they wanted. He clicked the one with the least percentage and the device brought up its DNA map. Alex understood none of it but he figured it was the DNA they wanted so he had the device separate it into a tube and then gave it to Laura who synthesized it and stored it. Meanwhile Alex saved said DNA as ''Probably Primordial Dragon'' then scanned another draconic creature. He then compared the DNA and percentage and found it likely to be the primordial dragon blood. He compared all samples and found it to be the likely case. The process was repeated with all of the other blood bottles and by the end of it the duo had 3 blood bottles they assumed to be black level. The two cloned Alex. The process was painless but seeing yourself laying lifeless in a chamber would always haunt anyone. Alex had mix feelings about this but in the end he still transfused the clone with one of the black level bloodline. The clone seemed fine at first but then its body began changing. scales grew on it and it began deforming and finally it exploded. The siblings were started. Alex was even more so because he saw himself literally explode, there werent even gore bits everywhere cause they just got disintegrated. They were thankful they didnt try it on themselves and after a while continued experimenting. Two days had passed, Alex didnt go to college and the parents were busy with their own life. Violet would occasionally call them over for lunch but she assumed they were working on whatever they made so much money off. She and her husband supported their children and wished to give them their space until they themselves were willing to talk. Meanwhile the two looked like they lacked sleep, food and a nice haircut. They were pretty close to giving up when Laura accidentally scanned the black level blood. The DNA map popped up again, Alex looked at this and got an idea. The device said it could mix bloodlines albiet for incest play. Perhaps they could mix all three and form a completely new bloodline which would have the abilities and properties of all three. Nothing else was working so this was worth a try. The two got to work, pretty soon it was the moment of truth. The clone was injected with the blood which presumably took the best properties of all three creatures. At first it grew scales but those quickly decayed into fur the fur grew all over its body and the duo considered it a failure once more. The fur suddenly receded and all hair fell off, then the body began deforming but scales grew on it agan keeping it intact, after a while the scaled fell off and the body looked completely different. The face had turned so handsome even Alex wondered if he was gay. The hair too was a mix of black and silver while the iris was a black. If one looked carefully there was a weird swirl inside with different shades of black as if the entire universe was moving about. The body twitched, its skin began peeling and it now looked like it was a muscle doll. The muscles kept breaking and reforming, at this point any normal person would be dead, The muscles stopped moving and the clone laid there as lifeless as it always was but without skin. The siblings gave up looking at this sight. The experiment almost succeeded but in the end it still failed. Then again it would be impossible to fit such a strange genetic code on a species as feeble as humans. They started cleaning up but the muscle clone suddenly grew its skin back. It returned to its handsome state but its body was more refined now, the muscles more defined. The clone looked as if it was a completely different entity to Alex. Ironically he now stopped feeling bad about using it as an experiment subject Chapter 21, Sudden moon cheese? The duo had their eyes light up. Alex took a knife from downstairs and attempting to cut the skin but it took him all of his energy just to make a small cut. All his.. strength... his inhumane.. strength. Punch a car away level strength, all of it just to cut a dead body which isnt even resisting. The knife broke too and the cut just disappeared as if it never appeared at all, pushing the broken blade out of the body. He then shot the clone with his digital gun but it only took out a small chunk from the body which regenerated as soon as it disappeared, apparently the body was pretty dense and packed more mass in it. Clearly the Devouring Beasts property was working its magic. The clone had pretty impressive defenses and regenerative abilities, Laura and Alex now had the perfect solution to their problems. They were thankful the clone wasn''t a living creature else they wouldnt even know how to deal with it. The two took a deep breath. Time to harvest the fruits of all their work. The two still decided to refine the blood one last time. The process looked painful due to some form of rejection and the two sincerely wished to reduce said pain by any amount. The final product was tested on a clone of Laura this time. The process repeated but instead of the skin peeling away or any deformation the clone simply formed a dragon scale shell around it and after a while came out as a female that looked ethereal. The beauty of this clone could easily seal any form of thought, in anyone who looked at her whether they be lust or even worship. The clones confirmed that it was as safe as it could be for the two so they took turns to have their DNA changed. They hesitated a bit, Alex took the first turn with complicated thoughts about whether he would even be him anymore amongst many others. Unfounded worry on his part perhaps but when you think about it, his life had been on a pretty quick run as if it swapped out with light itself. He had been holding up fairly well for a teen of his age, Laura too was probably under stress just that her life was less eventful and with more time to think about it she could make peace with it quicker. Perhaps if he wrote his life down as a novel many would be able to think of better ways to do the things he had with less mistakes but when one is put into the situation can they truly deal with it like that? Laura too was probably under stress just that her life was less eventful and with more time to think about it she could make peace with it quicker. A princess would probably be expecting a perfect white horse riding perfect prince for her marriage, a virgin too perhaps but they too settle for a normal nearly fat monarch with the personality of a porcupine as if it were natural when it comes down to it. We as humans do things we would laugh at ourselves for if it were shown to us as a movie. Horror movies would be the perfect example. ''Its a ghost'', how we scream that everytime the time slows down and an ominous music plays but if we were him would our first thoughts be ''its a ghost'' or would it be ''its an intruder and I must find out what they are here for''. Unrelated stories and philosophies aside, we can only mock others for their choices as a third party simply because we are not them and here Alex''s worries are laughable, who would you be if not yourself? But what makes you, you and I, I? Is it memories? would a clone with my memories and genes perfectly replicated be me? Would it be the same consciousness? Is the person you think you are really you or has he died several times replaced by a new person with the same memory set and thus same personality and the illusion of being the same person? This situation is often joked about in ''you are the clone'', ''no you are the clone'' type stories but when you encounter it, is it not dreadful? He still went through with it as it was too big of a deal to pass up, who wouldn''t want to treat planets as mid night snacks? Suns as afternoon meals and galaxies as feasts. Well, he didnt intend to change his DNA just to eat bigger but you get the point. The process was painful enough to make him pass out and unlike the 2nd grade pill he was fully awake during it, only it was much worse! he vowed to give Laura sleeping pills before she went through this before his consciousness faded. Laura looked at the whole process with a tinge of worry. To her, Alex was irreplacable. She sincerely wished that even if his body and DNA changes he would still be him not knowing her brother had the same worry.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. This question was quickly answered once Alex''s body came out of the shell. He looked around, he was naked and a bit taller but he didnt feel any other difference. "Laura, did it fail?" Laura just shook her head and handed him a handheld mirror. He looked at himself and just as predicated looked almost the same as his clone after the process. All of his features were now optimal as if every single atom in his body decided to be perfectly placed to give him all of the positive traits one can possess. "Brother, Are you still.. you?" Alex was caught offguard, he did indeed think he was still the same but it might just be something like a butterfly''s dream. He might have taken over the person called Alex and his memories might have made him think he was Alex. "Perhaps, I am not entirely sure but I think so." Laura shook her head again. "No brother you are still you, I read somewhere that your body changes every atom in its body atleast once a week. If this process stopped you from being you then everyone is no longer themselves after a week" She was sure it was her brother. Nothing concrete just intuition and Alex smiled at her in return. "That is true, I really need to get myself together after all I can now eat planets!" Well maybe he did do this all for a bigger snack. Alex flashed her another smile. Currently he was probably the most handsome person in existence, apart from his clone of course but that was just sharing the top spot with a dead version of himself, then again some people prefer that so he might lose the popularity poll if he ever entered one. Laura then got in the chamber and asked Alex to do her procedure too. After a while she was done too, She came out completely naked and hugged Alex who had just finished dressing up. "Now I am sure you are you brother." She was glad, maybe it was how a certain pressure of self protection being lifted or going through the same process as Alex thus knowing he hasnt changed she didnt even notice her attire and hugged him. Alex may now be the most handsome man he could be but that didnt mean he was immune to beauty, especially at the level Laura was at now. He seperated himself and handed her a jacket, she looked alternatingly between her body and the jacket and as realization struck she took it and quickly dressed herself. Alex in the meantime decided to go outside and figure out exactly what he could and couldn''t do. He felt as if he no longer needed to breath. He wondered if he could really transverse the void or control particles like the description said. He felt as if he could go whenever he desired to be and as if anything he wished to change would do so. He thought about the moon, He then appeared on its surface after a few seconds delay. He wanted to change the moon into cheese as an experiment but could only change a part of it, the size of a football stadium, this left him feeling tired and fatigued luckily perhaps thanks to the beast genes he regenerated in an instant. Alex thought about it a bit then changed it back. Although Primordial dragons could change reality itself that was only for adult ones, An adult human for example can flip a car at his best but a newborn infant would have trouble flipping himself and currently he was only a few minutes old. For a species that lives for eternity he might never grow past being an infant in a normal humans lifetime. The fact that the infant of the black level creatures mix could do so much was already proof of how amazing it would be as an adult. It might take millions of years but he had enough time, he wasnt mortal anymore after all. Thats right he would no longer die, not even if he wanted to thanks to the devouring beast properties. Immortality seemed dull to the wise but to a teenager it was something to celebrate. He pumped his fist into the abyss out of pure joy but an energy beam was released from it, the width of a finger. It travelled as far as half the distance towards earth before disappearing, he reminded himself to control his powers now as he might even end up destroying earth if he wasnt careful. He returned to his house and Laura seemingly materialized infront of him, one instant she wasnt there and another she was. Laura probably decided to test out her own abilities too but the timing of her return made her bump straight into Alex who thought about evading, time had stopped for him and resumed when he filled it again filling him with fatigue, this time not as easily removed. He had only stopped time for a few seconds yet it left him so tired, perhaps this would be a failsafe for them instead of a regular move. The two spent the rest of their day travelling the solar system and even stayed on Saturn for an hour or two. In their excitement they completely forgot about the changed looks and materialized straight infront of their parents. Violet dropped the TV remote, Mr.Royce was at his job else he might have dropped something too. Violet and her dropped jaw as if intending to fill that void, she slapped herself and even banged her head with the TV remote a few times. She frightfully asked. "Umm, Who or rather what are you two?" and thought ''Wait since when did I step into one of those anime seen on TV'' Alex and Laura looked completely different after all, to her they were strangers who simply appeared. While Laura and Alex were baffled by their mother pretty much harming herself like a 14 year old before failing to recognize her own children. They took a while and understood that their looks had changed completely not to mention materializing midair might make people question reality itself who in their right mind would think ''oh my babies looked and acted like somewhat weird but still normal humans yesterday i guess its normal they look and appear out of thin air like gods, its perfectly normal'' when such a thing happens? Looks like it was finally time to tell her everything. Chapter 22, The skeletons behind success "I see so thats what you two were up to, I still dont get how you made money like that but I understand most of it. I want to tell your father, is that alright? He deserves to know too" This situation came about after two hours of explaining, the two could only nod, thankful that they wouldnt have to explain all of this to their dad. At first their mother was pretty mad about it being kept a secret, she intended to have the two taken to a hospital to get checked up. Any mother would fear if an alien entity with unknown motives lives inside her own children but the two explained how it worked and what they thought its motives were and in the end she had no choice but to accept it, she remembered the last time they were at the hospital and the doctors found nothing wrong. Alas, her worry was still evident since she wished to discuss with her husband alone. She was pretty concerned about whether this was safe but at this point she knew it was far beyond anything they could just finish and head home. The two had not told her about changing their species or else she would probably have gotten a heartattack, all they told her that it was a teleportation device they got off a limited sale. They explained their looks as a beautification product that also had a limited sale. The two still had a fair amount of martial points so they presented the mother with two 2nd grade pills and told her to give one to Mr.Royce. They had already told her about the capabilities of the chip so there was no reason not to. They wished to perform the bloodline switch on her too but how would they even bring it up ''hey mom, wanna inject some alien DNA into yourself? youll look freak amazing, all the cool kids are doing it'', would any sane person say yes to an unknown dna change? She warily took the pills and tried feeling their texture, it was a smooth round ball like item which she continued playing with as if intending to discover any malicious virus inside. Alex reminded her to only take the pills before sleeping and she nodded, she then hugged her children as if signifying her acceptance of their situation and her support through it. Violet wondered why the chip picked her children after all there could have been an infinite amount of people that could have obtained it. Would it be a blessing or a curse? She did not wish to see them taken as lab rats or made into an enemy by the entire human population, sure from what she saw they could fight back or atleast run but then what? live with the monkeys? OOO OOO AAA AAA? Banana? She ended her worries and went to call her husband, asking him to return early if possible. Mr.royce still had work remaining so he denied her request apologetically. She sighed and continued with her daily routine, albeit for the rest of the day she was often lost in thought. Alex and Laura too decided to rest as today was a pretty hectic day, they were awoken by a shrill scream coming from their parents rooms which quickly quietened down as quickly as it came. They wondered if they had screamed like that and if so, how come their parents didnt point it out? Then again they were pretty suspcicious the next day, they tried teasing them almost as if they thought the two had... well thats a secret, the siblings just fell asleep again without worries. Early in the morning the two got ready as usual, they went down to get breakfast. The two parents acted as if everything was the same, something Alex and Laura were thankful for. Although they clearly looked different, the two couldnt put their finger on how exactly tho. Alex received a message, apparently his order of phones were done and he could go pick them up. He messaged back and scheduled a meeting after college, what he needed now was a simple fix to his appearance. He didn''t mind being devlishly handsome he just didnt want others to find out it happened overnight. He avoided getting sent to the lab for so long a little longer wont hurt right? Honestly, at this point he didnt need to fear the government anymore but that didnt mean he wanted it buzzing around him. Alex decided to slowly change his features everyday and slowly get closer to his real features, atleast that way he can say he got a very expensive plastic surgery but for now he had to change his appearance to his former one. This would be pretty hard even for the current him or so he thought, he was pushing his mind into overdrive to think of a quick way to look normal and kept pacing around. He eventually passed a mirror and happened to glimpse at it, his face had already changed back to normal as if thinking was all that needed. It appeared as if he truly did not know how to manage his own ability like a newborn child. Then again he was one so its nothing to be ashamed of right? He also tried experimenting sometime in the distant future, attempting to stretch his arms and legs just for the hell of it but thats a story for another time. He threw all his worries away and went to college feeling like a new person, refreshed and unconcerned. A thought in his mind wanted him to show off but he knew he will have the time for that later on. The day proceeded as usual, Ray actually attempted to talk to Alex but Alex just ignored him. Ray expected this and did not push the issue while Alex was thinking about how easily he was betrayed. He knew Ray would choose money and success over friendship since day one, any normal human would regardless of whether they themselves believe otherwise.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He knew the minute Alex asked Ray for lets say some form of loan, he would still help but thats where their friendship would end. He knew but he didnt think that Ray would infact take that a step further and actually scheme for what belonged to Alex, especially not through such a method. He didnt think he would be that bad of a friend but then again, successful people must climb the bones of others to succeed. Alex spent his day with Mercer much to everyones surprise, the children here werent dumb they knew that whatever deal Mercer proposed worked out for him since they appeared to be getting along and they considered Alex to be a simple lamb on a chopping block, after all to the others Alex and Mercer had an entirely different status. Equal cooperation requires equal power or status and clearly a top celebrity and a normal everyday joe will never have equal power or status. Its not hard to see why they came at such a misunderstanding but regarldess Alex and Mercer had a normal chat. "Alex let me tell you man, this industry is never about talent. You see me now right? Man let me tell you I was the son of a fisherman, I had good looks and only that, singing? acting? I couldn''t do either, what I could do was sleep with some old and wrinkly hag who could make it look like I could sing and act. Learning to sing and dance isnt tough, any fault can easily be edited out using technology. The only reason I chose this stupid degree was because I thought I should figure out how, you know for a backup plan. I wont always be young after all and really who would even want to sleep with these fat old hags and speak seductive words to them. I swear I lose a part of myself everytime I have to pretend they are even remotely attractive." The two had gotten pretty close, it appeared as if Mercer was a completely different person compared to what he had shown before. Actors act, facades are normal for them. It wasnt weird for Mercer to have been pretending to be someone just as a public face. A once famous actor had even said he had forgotten which role was truly his and which was just a facade, ofcourse he was just boasting but it still an outlook their life. "Really? Well seeing you I guess I really shouldn''t believe how you guys act on stage" This irked Mercer, his new friend was teasing him and he couldnt accept it. "You think I am that bad? We are all normal people apart from the ones with more vanity, man those stuck up ones are the real problem. You know Lu Susan? The really pretty half asian singer? She acts like the world owes her something, always speaking in a condescending way to everyone, her fans get treated like shit and man I swear she even introduces little underaged girls to prostitution and drugs but you know what? Let me show you a video I have, its from a producers meeting I just happened to go to cause of my connection with Mr.Ted and a few others. Let me tell you man these fat and ugly producers had the weirdest fetishes, I swear some of them even had to use pills just to get it up and Susan, you wouldnt believe how eager she was to be abused like that. I just, I am glad I am one of the better treated ones I really am." Mercer took out his phone, unlocked it then dragged two fingers apart from one another. Another lockscreen popped up which he openned, it was filled with videos and pictures. The thumbnails alone would be pretty scandalous and some even had all sorts of illegal vibes, personally Alex wondered why he even had these but he stayed quiet. A mans fetishes are their own after all, its never polite to judge. Mercer scrolled down then opened a specific video. In it a female could be seen performing all sorts of acts any self respective individual would never even hope to. It was as if he was watching some sort of hardcore porno, heck the ending bit wouldnt even be allowed online because it had the worst thing any porn could, beastiality. The video itself was much worse but the details should never be said outloud, not for any normal person. Alex wondered why would a human even fall so low just for a bit of fame and money, what good was it? She obviously didnt want this, money that didnt make you happy is useless in itself is it not? You are rich now congrats, but at what cost? You aren''t happy and you never will live with yourself after falling so low yet... He ended his thoughts here, there was no point in thinking any more about this. He was not her, to each their own. He looked at Mercer suspiciously. Noticing Alex''s gaze he replied. "Hey its not my fetish alright? Mr. Ted wasnt there either, I keep these to remind myself that I need to build myself up. To avoid falling this low because it will happen, eventually, unless I make myself important. I am thankful to Ted he gave me a way out if I ever need it and I am thankful to you, this deal we made it might just save me. Celebrities are more about connections Alex, Either you have rich parents or you do.. that. You can have skills sure. But you need marketing, you cant just be good at singing cause theres millions like that. You need luck and you need to know how to put yourself out. For the unskilled like me? we dont have a lot of options, this world doesnt show you kindness just for the sake of being kind, if it offers you a cookie its to ram it up your ass for some sort of weird play." Alex noticed Mercer grew more and more depressed as this topic went on, he skillfully picked a topic from the conversation and led it away "Yeah so about the deal with Ted, we will have a meeting soon. Do you want to come with us? You can meet Ted''s bosses if things go well" An act of sympathy perhaps but to Alex it didnt cost him anything so it didnt matter. Perhaps Mercer could someday help him too. "Yeah lets do that, I am curious about what exactly the deal I started is about so ill thankfully take part in its discussion." Mercer flashed a smile, he then began swinging his legs while sitting as if his mood suddenly turned better. "Well, I cant exactly go on some taxi can I? I''ll get a car soon but now yet." Alex stretched his back, then opened up a snack and continued chatting with Mercer. Classes soon ended and he went to the meeting place. Richard was sitting there reading a newspaper while slowly nibbling on some biscuits. It appeared he had ordered some tea and biscuits. He greeted Alex and asked him to sit, as if performing a sort of formality. A waiter appeared and as if he was prepared for this, he put down another cup of tea and some biscuits infront of Alex. "So Mr. Richard is everything done?" Richard opened his bag and brought out some documents. "I am sure you will find it to your liking." The documents had the specifications agreed upon written on it and other details regarding the project including any sort of problem with details. "Would you mind if we took your car there?" Alex asked, he had come on a taxi and he obviously would prefer a private car if he had such an option. "Not at all, but please enjoy the tea first it has this amazing soothing affect, it would be a shame to miss it" NOT A CHAPTER Q&A Follow up Ironically the Q&A chapter had the least questions in the comment (the chapter where I mentioned a Q&A in the after note) Anywho, so since no one really picked up on that and it kind of makes me realize how bad of a writer I am since I do keep getting views on the chapters but the feedback is really minimal, I am thankful for the two people who bothered joining the discord (Nightmore, k0) and many other fans (especially the one I accidentally got involved in a bit of dispute? Hey I am human, I am petty deal with it ok?) Anywho so I''ll shamelessly assume that no one saw the afternote just to salvage my self-esteem, Its allowed right? So I''ll mention the Q&A again, If I still dont get questions this time then I will not answer any other questions on other chapters. Yes I am petty, very very petty. On another note since I am practically ranting here, I seriously wish there was a way to idk, get a better picture for the thumbnail, perhaps more talent as a writer. I mean its kind of like I have this idea of what I want to write but the exact words are so hard to get so I keep spinning them around making the sentence wayyy more complex than needed and less emotions behind it. Not to mention sometimes I just feel like I dont know how someone would react in the situation I put the characters in, I think on it and just saying if i develop schizophrenia I will blame you guys. Well jokes aside I''ll say it again there is nothing more vexxing as an author than having a good idea and ruining it because you could not word it properly.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I swear if anyone else thought like me but wrote it down better you guys would have an entirely different quality of novel to read. Anyway back to the Question and Answer session, ask what you will I promise ill attempt to answer to the best of my brain capacity, The Q&A will end with next weeks chapter so have fun. PS. Join the discord, its lonely there. I am a very very vain person so it helps me with that. Thanks, Cya guys around. PS.PS. Notice how I dont advertise this novel in forum posts asking for recommends? I feel like such an act is pretty embarassing I myself dont know why, perhaps I feel like I should let my work speak for itself? Or maybe let the fans of my work do it? Either way, Its not really gonna grow like this is it. This is your completely normal human being who drinks water and learns from zuckenberg, PercherTM Chapter 23, Gears grinding "Dont mind if I do then. so... I trust you have brought your lawyer here today?" Alex cautiously asked. He then took a sip of the tea, apparently it did have a relaxing affect. One that normally no tea should have, perhaps it was a drug to make him more open to suggestions? Alex thought. Pity Alex was immune to the drug itself. "Relaxing indeed, I wonder if I should come here more often" He continued. Richard thought for a bit and signalled to a man sitting on a different table, who then stood up and sat down right besides Richard. "Ah yes, after all we need to conclude this deal today in good trust hopefully, we might have more dealings in the future after all." Alex then made some small talk and finished his tea. Purely a form of formality. He was then escorted to an expensive looking car, it wasnt as flashy as Mercers nor as as expensive as Teds but it still screamed successful businessman. They rode to a warehouse Alex assumed had the products kept inside. Two buff looking men opened the warehouse and Alex was told to confirm the products. He sneakily scanned everything but didnt sell it. The total came to a 100,000Mpts. Clearly either some specifications were skimped on or the amount was less than 400. "Mr. Richard, what was the cost of the breach again?" He looked Richard in the eye and asked. "Mr.Alex is something wrong? I am sure the specifications of these phones are exactly what was ordered, I must admit I modelled their looks based on a pre-existing model but surely such a thing wouldnt matter right?" "So you are telling me you skimped out on the numbers. I see." He quickly counted them all with his now inhumane vision and indeed there were only 250 phones. He quickly figured out what the drug was for earlier. It was to make it easier to fool him, indeed the specifications didnt change. That also meant that the martial points were slightly off from expecations but it wasnt that big of a deal after all the quality of the components were expected to affect the point price, additionally Richard did not say anything about the amount so clearly if Alex had accepted this shipment then later on Richard could have simply said that he didnt lie. "250 is it? I am thankful you wish to pay the contract breach fee, it really is quite profitable to work with you." Richard showed a hint of surprise which was quickly suppressed. "Surely, you are joking, the products are still being transported after all where is the contract breach?" Alex understood what Richard wanted, if he wasnt caught then he would have 150 phones he could sell elsewhere. If he was caught he could just play it off as a transportation delay, a cunning man indeed. "Really now? Well delays always happen I understand, do you mind if I took a stroll? just message me when the orders fully transported." Alex didnt wait for his reply and exited the building, after walking around a bit he went to a secluded area and teleported himself to a an alley near a bank, after withdrawing the required amount he teleported back to the secluded area. He got Richards message soon after and he went back. The amount was exactly 400 this time. He then concluded the deal with richard and paid him in cash. He intended to pay through the bank but the little trick Richard tried made him want to try one of his own. He was not as cunning as the old men but he had his own ways of taking revenge. Richard didn''t deserve death ofcourse, he wasnt some sort of ''young master'' from some chinese novel that existed to be killed, he was a living breathing human. The two signed their ends of the documents which signified the completion and Richard''s lawyer did the rest. The process took a short while but soon the two parted, ofcourse this was after Alex had mysteriously ''transported'' all the stock, well atleast he pretended to while idling in the warehouse for around an hour and calling over some cars to act as decoys. In any case the deal was done and Richard would probably have nothing to do with Alex ever again. When Alex was going home he secretly teleported the cash back, it wouldnt be possible to transfer credit using his ability but cash was indeed possible. What could Richard even do? Alex was clearly not even near him anymore. All he could do was scream at his men to find the money that seemed to have vanished. Hoping that his hairfall didnt get worse cause of this.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Alex jogged on and put the entire amount he had just pocketted into a charity for orphans, he wasnt the type to prefer charity but he figured he only stole this money back as revenge, not like this tiny amount would make a difference to him and his mood was pretty good so he just gave it all to an orphanage. As far as he was concerned he had already used the money anyway, life would get pretty boring pretty quick if he just teleported every bit of resource to him. He wasnt a hedonist but he wished to keep his sanity in check, having something to work towards would clearly help with that. Not to mention how easily billions of dollars disappearing and reappearing would shake the economy and cause mass panic. The nuns at the orphanage were pretty thankful, it looked like they were on hard times and this amount might change that. It was nearly 100k and even if it wasnt enough to send all the children through college it was enough to feed them for a while. Alex continued on home, he would soon be busy finishing up the app with the amount of points he had. Laura had already gotten the news and she started setting up the app, putting its server online. Calibrating everything. By the time Alex came home she was already ready to give life to its features. One day day and the rest of Alex''s money later they had pretty much added everything the app would need to truly start. Now they only needed to put some failsafes and safety measures, pirates would have a field day with this app if everything was easily hackable. The language used was pretty much uncrackable, not to mention it was built into a device they would personally manage. Atleast for now. It probably wouldnt be hacked but it never hurt to be safe, they programmed in a small AI that would manage the workings of the app. Soon time came for Alex to unveil it. The meeting was in an hour and Alex was properly dressed, this was a big moment for the siblings so even Laura decided to go with him. She packed her laptop, the two had to give off the image of an untouchable immortal lest doodle try and take over their projects, so they changed their appearance to their new natural one. The two walked out of the house and instantly everyone around them stopped whatever they were doing, as if hypnotized they just stared at the siblings, some braver ones even took pictures but Alex paid it no mind, Laura tried hiding behind Alex as if that was going to accomplish anything, The two soon realized a quicker way out of this and bought a car off the apocalyptic market, it cost them the few remaining points they had left over from finishing their app. Now they had no martial or apocalyptic points and even the money Alex got was gone. Truly this was the moment of truth. The car didnt cost too much either simply because it was still a wheeled model, it looked scifi but it still worked using torque. This was actually better for the two since they didnt want to attract too much attention with a flying car, a expensive looking car and their devilish looks were enough, not to mention how such a car would attract the same kind of attention Alex''s phone did. They didnt just pop out a car in the middle of a road either so no one noticed anything unusual, they then drove to the meeting place. Originally they had planned to either wait for Mercer or hire a cab but apparently that wasn''t feasible anymore. Alex informed Mercer that he would call him to the venue later on. Ted was already waiting for them, He did not recognize Alex but regardless much like everyone else in the building just stared at the two. Alex then went up to him and called out. "Mr.Ted, I hope we didnt arrive too early, this is my sister Laura. She isnt good with people so please be patient with her." Ted looked confused so Alex continued. "Its me Alex, remember the phone and app? We were meant to have a deal today? Ah sorry about my appearance I figured that it would be rude to show up with a disguised appearance" He couldnt exactly tell him that he changed overnight right? This thankfully worked as a wonderful excuse and even cemented Teds perception of Alex as an immortal. "Ah yes Mr.Alex, I must thank you for helping me and my daughter. Please right this way you made it just in time, the board will all be gathered soon" He couldn''t believe that a human could look so ethereal, then again they werent mortal like him so he just put on his professional face and guided them. They waited a bit then a woman wearing a suit came up to Ted and whispered something. She had not noticed the two siblings as they were facing another way while looking around the building. "Mr.Alex would you mind if I had the board members... prepare for proper reception?" Ted certainly didnt wish to have his bosses gawk at two teens, that would be a bigger embarassment than when he did it. "Not at all, please go ahead" Ted nodded and hastened his steps towards the room Alex presumed was the meeting area. He continued looking around thinking about how he would normally never even be in this place, now he was the main actor on this stage. Everyone was still gawking at the two and new arrivals would appear every now and then. The shock slowly died down and they they resumed their business but not without sneakily taking a few pics if they were the type to do so. Ted came back with the female who had whispered to him earlier, this time she noticed the two and with a slight pause nodded and said "Mr.Ted it appears you were right, it was considerate of you to warn me beforehand. I didnt know our guests would be so, beautiful" She had said it loud enough for Alex and Laura to hear, they nodded and after a brief introduction the four of them headed into the meeting room. The door to the room opened, everybody was talking to one another. They were discussing schemes and plans like normal businessmen but anyone hearing the details would be shocked at the grandness of these ''schemes''. The siblings entered the room followed by Ted and the female assistant. Hearing the door open and someone entering the conversations stopped, as if a formality everyone mechanically stood up and turned to look at the new arrivals. Some quicker some with less haste but eventually everyone had a look at the two and came to a stop. Really they could do without the awkwardly long pauses the siblings thought. Perhaps next time they wont show up in their natural looks. Still the pause wasnt too long as if everyone was ready to an extent and the chairman of boards offered a seat to the two. Ted and the lady took their seats, it appeared that the lady was the secretary of the chairman as well as a small shareholder. Chapter 24, Shocked by lightning. Killed by thunder. Ted started the discussion with an introduction. "Ladies and gentlemen, these two are our partners for today. What they offer might change everything humanity knows so I personally believe this partnership will be for the best for all of us." He spoke in an exaggerated manner simply because he would be under fire if this didnt go according to plan. Alex spoke right after Ted as if he intended to interject but missed the timing. "Yes, but we are not here for a partnership. I will get that out of the way, we offer you a product. Something you wouldn''t normally enjoy." No matter how good the two looked these men were the best of the best, they would not take such underestimation kindly. Some even snorted, usually its them rejecting partnerships but here they were, an entire board meeting called just to sell a product? What were they? A street stall? Ted too looked confused but before he could speak Alex continued. "Yes yes I understand your thoughts so allow us to demonstrate, Laura. I will move us alright?" Laura nodded and the scenery changed, the table and chairs were still there everyone was still seated but the place around them was a grassland, a vast empty grassland. Everyone was taking their time to process what just happened but then Alex threw another bomb. "This place would suit our demonstration, now then, what sort of app is so great that we would specifically arrange all this just to sell it?" He floated in midair and pointed towards the empty land. A ball shot out and created a hole 5 meters in radius and 3 in depth, ofcourse it wasnt exactly round or even, it was as if someone tossed a giant magma ball at the ground, there was even some glass in the middle. "The ability to do this would be what we wish to sell, tell me is it worth it?" He opened his arms grandly, as if signifying the immensity of his act. He then gently floated back down. Alas all of this was too much to process at once, panic would have been normal if it was something unexpected but this was something no one could ever even hope to expect. It was as if someone showed you all your life was inside some sort of simulation and just carelessly disconnected it. You dont go to a meeting thinking youd meet two ethereal beings, get told they want to sell you something then randomly get teleported before one of them floats and creates a giant hole in the ground. Such heat isnt possible even for missiles let alone a human being. Everyone was quiet. Some even pinched themselves or looked as if they had seen God himself. Infact even Ted who somewhat expected this was still boggled. "Well? Is it?" Alex asked again, the chairman slapped his cheeks and then spoke up. "Mr.Alex? Right? Do you intend to sell the ability to do whatever you just did? I am sorry we were told it would be an app so I was expecting something less, extreme." Alex had to hand it to the man, straight to the point and bravely at that too. "Yes, I suppose ill explain it, Laura help me with the presentation alright?" As if this was planned she brought out the laptop she had packed and opened a app, the same app they intended to market. She enlarged the hologram so that everyone could clearly see, funny how not being restricted to a specific screen size made that so much easier. From everything shown uptill now, a hologram would hardly be surprising anymore. Alex then continued. "This is the app we will provide you with, itll be free ofcourse, since what we intend to sell is on the app. Simply the ability I just showed and many more all you need to do is buy them and they are yours. The app will come preinstalled on a phone and as Mr.Ted knows its better than anything your company could produce, for now atleast. Consider it a freebie this time." As if selling cabbages on a market Alex finished his piece. Inside he was as nervous as a kid to his first day at school so this was the only way he could perform well, by scripting his behavior.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He then teleported in some phones, one for each of the members here right infront of them. They took the phones and as if driven by their curiosity opened the app without even being told to. The interface was all balack with blue and purple decorations around, the abilities were seperated into colors each with their own tab. Alex got this idea from the app roulette, the color scheme followed the same pattern. Each ability had a small description stolen straight from the app and a buy option, not too complex but still gave off a mystic feeling. Alex continued explaining how the app worked. It was essentially a sort of proxy for the Emperor''s Subjection ability while the software managed the bit about controlling who to give what ability. It probably worked on a similar principal as the app the two use, they just had pricier things because they knew exactly what the value of these abilities were, for normal humans. "So that concludes our presentation, Now for what we offer. The phone is a freebie while the abilities will be bought, so why did we call this meeting? We simply wanted you guys to connect us. Laura I know you arent good with people but could you explain the rest?" Laura nodded, she took a while to start speaking as if she was practicing what to say in her head. It helped having a very very slowed down sense of perception, finally she spoke. "I will try brother.. Everyone, what my brother means to say is that we simply want you guys to connect us to the other elite such as yourself, we intend to sell the phone to them with the app on it. It would be unfair to you if you work for us and only receive the same benefits as every other customer so we intend to give you 10% off on all the abilites you purchase, I am sure saving millions is a worthy venture right?" She let out a heavy sigh, her words sounded mechanical. She had only repeated what she practiced many times in her head after all. Meanwhile Alex had called over Mercer, He had promised after all. He then took over the conversation again and finished the arrangements. They talked about who they were meant to connect the siblings to, how and when as well as where. It didnt cost them much either so they were happy to do this, to them receiving the app was benefit enough especially if it came coupled with a connection to its creator. They had finished the talks and were now back in the office, enjoying tea. The staff wouldnt disturb the room unless called for so no one noticed the earlier teleportation. Alex then had a staff member call Mercer in, he had also changed his face into its common appearance surprising everyone who still stayed quiet they were beyond being shocked after all that happened. Honestly Mercer had thought he would be driving Alex to the venue and did not expect to just be called over. In hindesight that would have been more efficient but oh well, they couldnt control time that well currently. "This is my friend Mercer, I am sure Mr.Ted knows him please use him to contact us if any of you ever need to." Essentially Alex had turned Ted and Mercer into very important contacts with just a single sentence. Ted obviously was a high ranking member so it didnt matter much to him, he had already figured out that there was no company behind the two so he was still grateful but Mercer who did not know the exact deal that happened just assumed it was some sort of partnership with the company behind Alex and doodle, regardless he now had a chance to connect with the doodle upper brass. He really thanked his lucky stars he had the foresight or rather the instinct to befriend Alex. He then noticed Laura by his side, as if understanding or misunderstanding something he nodded at him. Really this would probably save him from a lot of hardship It wasnt as if he wasnt stunned by her beauty but the shock of having a direct connection to the doodle stockholders numbed any form of beauty, not to mention he didnt really properly look at her either. It would be rude to gawk at his benefactors ''girlfriend'' right? "Mr.Alex alright, please be at ease, I will personally complete the task you have given us. Mr.Mercer please give us your contact details we will be talking frequently." Mercer professionally presented his details and the siblings left the office, Alex had already put back his natural appearance while exiting the room, he had his back to Mercer so he did not notice. Essentially the work was done, later that day the two had their first customer. The ability bought was something similar to flight, for around 10 million in dollars. The two had already decided that they would change the prices based on usage statistics but for now that''ll do. This customer as if flipping some sort of switch had started a chain reaction and soon they amassed around 1 billion in dollars from different people. This would probably be the largest boom until they get new customers. Tomorrow they could buy themselves a better house if they were so inclined. Infact thinking about it, a large mansion wasn''t really that useful was it? All a person could need was a few extra rooms and maybe a swimming pool for when you feel like relaxing. A few dozen extra rooms would just be inefficient but then again they do need somewhere for everything they will be getting, so perhaps buying land and building on it would suit them better. Not to mention humans have an inherent sense of vanity, if you can get a giant mansion why not get it? The money itself wouldnt really be useful either right? Alex made a call to Mercer, if he needed someone with connections to realestate experts then Mercer was definitely his man. He asked about how things went today and after a few pleasantries asked about whether he knows of any large plots of land for sale. There were none in the city but there was an old run down mansion up for grabs, The price was around 400 million. He didn''t know if this was cheap or expensive but who cares he had a billion now might as well give his family a luxurious life right? He arranged a meeting with the agent and drove there. Meanwhile Laura was doing her own thing, she decided to fiddle with the app. People had sent both her and Alex a message before, why couldnt she right? She looked around and finally found a way to contact others using the app, it would select a random user and connect them with the user for a price ofcourse. The price wasnt too high so she tried it. Chapter 25, Personal Space. The app searched a bit then connected to a user with a rabbit icon on his profile picture. The name was ''Rabbit'' too, probably a random generated one. "Hello" She messaged, she waited a bit for a reply but it didnt come so she went for a shower. Lately everyday had been tiring for her, her superhuman body helped with tanking the physical pressure but for a shut in it wasnt just physical exhaustion that bothered her. Laura was pretty tired mentally and she needed a break. Luckily she could now go for a vacation on the moon or someplace quiet and just relax, she made a plan for a moon vacation while showering. It sounded romantic in a sense, just sunbathing on the moon sipping some floating liquid not even in a cup. If you could ignore how otherworldly even thinking about ''sunbathing on the moon'' is. Soon the shower was finished and she came out, the first thing she did was check her phone and she had indeed gotten a reply.
"Are you trying to deal something? Sorry not interested. I dont trust outside items"
Apparently this person thought Laura was trying to make a deal outside of the app, indeed the app wasn''t trustworthy but it was more trustable than any private dealers as she herself knew. She raised her phone and typed down a reply.
"Ah sorry, I was just testing the chat function. I am from the ''modern'' earth"
Forgetting that each person had a different world attached or even had different names for the world. Her ''modern'' world was probably called something else for him. it was probably so that it was easier to understand after all it would be weird for the person using the app to live in ''future world'' right? Everyone in the world has a small illusion that they themselves are the center of it, she wasn''t mature enough to deeply think before sending a message.
"Isn''t this the modern world? nvm nvm just testing right? done? good, then goodbye."
Pretty impatient for a person isnt he? Indeed modernity was relative but he didnt need to run that badly, or is it a she? She wondered had she said anything wrong for him to just end chat like that.
"Um, I am sorry if you are busy but could you tell me more about your world?"
The other side took a while to respond but eventually he said. Apparently the other side was a slow typist.
"Its nothing interesting, mana rules the world and anyone who is good at it is treated better, magitech is especially rewarding for an occupation, Oh magitech is the act of making tools like magicars using mana running engines. Engines are.. things that make the magicars run and magicars are moving boxes that run on mana and can be used as a transport"
Basically it sounded like her world but with mana instead of fuel and electricity. She wondered what mana even was or how it was even used in such equipment but such a question was basically the same as asking ''Why does fuel burn? Yes we know the process is called combustion but why does fuel do that to begin with?'' or ''Why does gravity exist''. Such questions are pure philosophy that would never be answered from the start, not by our current standards of science anyway. "That sounds like our world, we use electricity and fossil fuel instead" The other side replied right away.
"HOW! sorry caps, how? electric magic is just used to zap people and fuel is just for burning when mana isnt enough right?"
Glad to see the autotranslate function even worked on words like ''caps'' It appears the otherside is a techgeek.. well magi-tech geek, Laura was actually glad it wasnt some weirdo and only half a weirdo. "Well, electricity...." The two continued their chat about their own worlds, meanwhile Alex had reached the meeting place. He saw Mercer running over to his car pretty happily, he wanted a friend but he knew the debt he had given would mean that Mercer could no longer act as his equal. Heaving a heavy sigh he parked his car.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. He could still try to be his friend right? Alex got out of his car and waved to Mercer, he soon reached Alex and Alex held up his hand. Mercer figured it out and flawlessly gave a highfive. "Hey man, so I checked out this mansion, its pretty run down. Its large hell of a large piece of land, but honestly you are being overcharged. Let me handle the negotiations alright" (Thank you commenter for pointing out its overcharged, yes this bit was unplanned but it wont affect the overall plot I figured itd be a good way to switch price to something more normal. I might lower it too much tho so dont expect too much) Alex just shrugged as if he was giving his consent. Mercer put his arm around him and led him to the Agent. He was waiting in a cafe, it was a man with sleek hair wearing a black suit, he looked around 40 and had a very kind smile on his face. Alex knew that this smile was just a facade and that he shouldnt let it fool him. "Hey Mr.Smith this here is Alex, dont let his age fool you he is partnered with doodle itself and Alex this is Mr.Smith. He doesnt tell people his full name. A mysterious gentleman" Smith was alarmed, his eyes shot wide open but soon he calmed himself. "Yes please, have a seat. I didnt know our client would be someone so young but having such achievements at your age is really promising. I am honored to help you find a new home" He slowly extended his hand as if asking for a handshake "About that" Mercer cut in. "You see, that was the original plan but Alex here was actually gonna turn down this deal. He said the land was too expensive for its worth, the mansion is run down is it not? Yet the price is still twice that of its surrounding area, Mr.Smith I led him to you in good faith so please dont cheat us like that" Mr.Smith withdrew his hand, then gravely said. "I dont see where you get those numbers, the land is in prime area and the mansion would be good as new if you just furnished it a bit. We will even furnish it free of cost for you. I might have raised the price a bit but only my own commission surely you wont deny a poor old man like me that?" Mercer cut in again. He started ticking away at the table and looked Smith in the eye "Surely you jest, the price of land being your commission is a bit too much right. Surely misses smith doesnt have that much shopping to do." Smith sighed, he put his hand on his forehead and said. "Alright Mr.Mercer I will forgo my commission this time based on our past dealings and future cooperation, I will even reduce the client set price to 300, sound good?" Mercer shook his head. "Mr.Smith, really? I am afraid we cant afford that. Alex lets go I know someone else who will surely be cheaper to deal with." The two got up as if ready to leave, Smith panicked. He knew Mercer alone could afford the mansion let alone Alex a supposed doodle partner but they clearly did not wish to purchase from him. If this spread to his boss that he let both a celebrity and a possible doodle partner go to his rivals then he might as well prepare for a pay cut. He hurriedly got up and chased them. "Alright Alright, Mr.Mercer you win. I will sell it to you for 200 alright? I cant go any lower, I really cant not if I still want to feed myself." Mercer nodded and the deal concluded, they didnt sit back down but Mercer finalized the deal with Alexs consent. Alex then told mercer to hire people to break the mansion down for him, he intended to have the mansion remade after all he had the resources to make a better more secure mansion more suited to their needs. This confused Mercer but he still rode off, He would send one of his own workers to hire people to do that. Breaking down a mansion doesnt need him to handle it personally, besides he has his own work to do as well. He was primarily a celebrity, he didnt need to sleep with any old goats anymore thanks to his connections with doodle as directors flocked to him for a chance to get financial aid from doodle but he still needed to work to feed himself. Alex drove home as well, he thought about buying a mansion straight from the app or atleast a plan and have it built using machines. He could afford the points now. While driving home he coincidentally drove past a cinema and with his super vision he caught glimpse of a movie sequel he really wanted to see from his still moving car. He then realized ever since the app came into his life he had never given himself time to do things like hobbies or normal life things. He had no clue how attuned his thoughts were with Lauras. The siblings really did need a break, unlike some novels where a character can kill entire families and basically act however they want without any form of guilt, acting as if it wasn''t modern times but an old clan based world. The siblings were born and raised with societies standards which are pretty hard to shake off even with all that happened. He decided to go watch the movie with Laura later on, he could afford the break now. His plans were already in motion and all he now needed to do was wait. He couldnt rush doodle, He couldnt create a new mansion out of thin air and he had no ongoing deals well apart from the one with the Immortal on the phone. He did not intend to let himself be conned out but, he intended to profit of this after all he was no longer prey. He would not let himself be one. Chapter 25.5, A siblings day out On his way home, with his super human reflexes driving and texting was no problem at all. He infact didnt even need to drive but as they say ''enjoy life while it lasts for game becomes boring after the win''. He kept one eye on the road and another on the phone and typed out "I got the phones you wanted but you must prove to me you wont scam me like that friend you caught." He then giggled a little and put his phone on the dashboard, he then put on a song and just drove in a relaxed manner. A few minutes later the phone vibrated and he picked it up, the reply made him smile. ["Yes indeed, Even a mega dummy like you can think huh as a reward sure. I will throw in lets say snow flame seeds, these lovely babies can be used to make hot fire that are perfect for cauldrons and smithies, should be sincere enough for a giant mega big fat dum dum dummy like you right?"] Alex thought for a bit, he could probably make hotter flames over time but oh well free stuff is free stuff right? He put the phone down again as if to give the illusion he was thinking and began to sing along with the song. Life really was enjoyable without stress. He made a sharp cut and stopped by a cafe, this cafe had the best snacks from what he knew. He then texted Laura that he would be late today and that he will be taking a short break. He did not forget to mention that she should also take a small break. He then ordered some snacks and picked his phone up to type. "Alright, but please send the seeds first so I know you arent just giving be fake bait" A quick and simple message, perfect for a ''dummy'' that the other side thought him as. He received confirmation and soon the seeds were sent. He was in a public place so he automatically teleported the seeds to an isolated dimension as soon as they appeared, he didnt forget to add a marker to them so they could be taken out of there. He then sent a quick reply. "Thanks for the freebies retard, My app sells the skill for way less. Oh the guy you got yours from didnt tell you that huh?"Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. That felt relaxing, the other side had been cursing him out for ages and it finally felt like he took revenge. Whoever said revenge was pointless is a retard, it doesnt gain you anything but it sure as hell is satisfying. He then put the phone down after reading the other sides angry reply. It even had a short clip of him threatening to destroy Alex and them blowing up a nearby mountain. ''Find me first then'' Thought Alex as he put his phone down while rolling his eyes. The notifications kept pouring in but Alex was having a relaxing snack, he thought about the movie earlier and decided to go there once the google introduction scheme was finished. Perhaps he will even invite Amelia, he hadn''t talked to her a lot lately so he decided he would finally get in touch again. He, Laura and her could watch the movie and hangout like normal teens their age. He also intended to shock her with his new appearance, thinking of that gave him a very large smile which creeped out the waiter who brought him new snacks. ''Better make sure he doesnt dine and dash'' He thought as he frowned and put down the food. Ignorant to the waiters thoughts Alex just started humming and eating, once he was done he just drove home to find out from his mom that Laura had gone to the moon. ''I dont know whats stranger, that or the fact mom said it like she was just going on a picnic. Thats actually pretty likely thinking about it.'' Common sense was now a distant memory for the family and if his dad didnt want to ''be a burden on children he was barely with before'' he probably wouldnt even need to work. He accepted her reply and went back into his room to tweak his created app a bit. On the moon, Laura was doing exactly what Alex had thought. A picnic, she wore a bikini and was just soaking the sun while eating sandwiches. She had brought her phone so she was also listening to her favorite type of music, Heavy metal which completely ruined the relaxing or otherworldly atmosphere this picnic was supposed to have. On that note Alex preferred alt rock or pop. Laura looked around and once again realized ''I am on the moon''. Without a space suit, in clothing that barely protected from the UV rays. A surreal experience for anyone yet she was so nonchalant about it. She stood up and did a little dance just for the sake of dancing on the moon, her realization once again made her happy with how her life had changed and made her look forward to the days that would come. She thought ''The earth really looks weird from up here, I bet the flat earthers would deny moon landings even more if they saw me like this.'' Well she would be surprised if any of the surveillance happened to find her. The moon is basically too large for such a coincidence to just happen. She then played around with her powers by breathing fire in the shape of a butterfly, throwing rocks at the satellites, killing al- well maybe not the last one. She finally relaxed and all the tension eating away at her all this while just flew away, soon she returned home. Chapter 26, Back to school. The two had taken their breaks on similar times, perhaps their individual personalities had changed how they spent their time but the similar timing for their breaks indicated the stress they were going through and the relief this short break gave them. These few days Alex had been tinkering with his created app, going to the movies with Mercer,Laura or even Amelia and just generally doing things a normal teen his age would do. He also took the time to help demolish the old mansion, it gave him a much needed chance to let loose but he didnt destroy too much after all not only would that be suspicious it would also be pointless since people were working on it and he was in no hurry. He wished to enjoy the simpler processes in life, after all without them it would get dull quick. Amelia, who became a frequent visitor to his house thanks to her friendship with Laura also looked more cheered up every time as if the burdens she had kept getting lesser and lesser. It didnt come as much of a surprise thinking of her current abilities, would anything less than a giant organisation even matter? Her improvements were slow but she could easily punch away a car, what else needed to be said? Alas family was truly hard to deal with, even if you could pinch them into smoke you wouldn''t simply because they are your blood relatives. Morals and principles bred by society serve as shackles to ensure you never rise even if you could. Amelia had the mentality of a regular teenager so how could she break these shackles? At most her strength allowed her to loosen them, still that served as a way to gradually gain true happiness. The one with the most changes was infact Laura, this once shy girl knew she had to fix herself. She needed to get her grip on life and stop running from it. She knew she couldn''t always hide behind Alex, she remembered back when they saved Ashley when all she could do was avert her eyes Laura knew she had strength hence she also knew she had to stop being weak and finally, one morning after hesitating she stepped out of her room, went down the stairs. She halted midway and returned to her room but then slapped herself and tried going down the stairway again. This time she took a few extra steps before she started hesitating again. She wasn''t hesitating to leave her room, she kept going back and forth simply because she was torn on whether she should go through with her decision or not. In the end she overpowered her hesitation and walked up to her mother. "Mother." Violet who was watching a drama on TV paused it and look at her hesitating daughter, clearly she had made a decision and from the look of things it was a hard decision. She got off the couch and stood in front of Laura, she looked her in the eye then said. "Laura. Whats the matter dear?" Laura visibly shaken up, as if the cold appearance she had in front of the top brass of doodle was an illusion muttered under her breaths. "Mother, I.. I made a decision.. Things cant go on like this and-" She halted midway, stopping her sentence she swallowed her own spit, hesitating. Violet just smiled at her daughter and said. "School, right dear? Well thats a good decision, I get to see my lovely daughter in her uniform again" Laura looked up at her mother with surprise, something that took all her guts to even attempt to say her mother just guessed. Violet saw the surprised look and continued. "What? Do you think I wouldnt even know my own daughter?" In her head she had a different thought ''Well its about time, Laura had changed so much but some things are hard to get rid of and the only thing could shake her up so badly is social contact and since she mentioned changing herself it was pretty obvious. Cant exactly say that now can I, Oh dear I have to be a reliable mother'' Hearing this Laura brightened up, her hesitation existing only in the past. She even imagined what she was gonna say to everyone in class since she hadnt been there for so long but then realized, her name was probably taken off records by now and even if she can catch up with her studies easily she cant go back to school since she isnt even a student there. She told Violet about her worries and Violet put on a tense expression. "Laura, why not switch to a different school? We can send you to a new one.. perhaps even a better one now that you and your brother are rich."Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Violet seemed to murmur out the last bit, understandable for any parent as they wish to support their children not the other way around. Laura shook her head with a complex expression. "Mom I dont want to run away, not anymore." Violet sighed and decided to call Alex over. He was out with Mercer having fun playing in his new place. It was mostly demolished and the debris would be gone in about a week. He quickly asked to take a short toilet break and teleported home from the toilet. Violet told him the entire story and in return you could see a bright smile on his face. "Really? Laura are you going to go to school again? Thats wonderful, leave everything to me I can just go talk to the principal and I am sure he wont mind with a large enough donation" Powered by a typhoon or a hurricane, as if transformed into some sort of highly doting butler from some anime, Alex quickly teleported back and without even saying goodbye drove to her school, he sent a short text to Mercer while driving and throughout the drive rarely took his feet off the accelerator. To put it in perspective Violet and Laura still hadn''t fully comprehended his reply when Alex was already halfway to Laura''s school. If Laura was with him she would no doubt think his mind had turned into goo, even he himself would normally look at his current self and scold himself but the happiness of Laura finally deciding to go back to school after so long numbed any sort of logic, he even had slight tear in his eyes as he drove. He could have rushed less, thought more but to respond to his sisters resolve he had to be quick. Soon his car hard braked right in front of school gates, the guard was startled that such an expensive looking car stopped by and he assumed it was the relative of some rich brat. He had Alex identify himself and guided him straight to the principal. The school building itself wasnt large but the open land around it was huge, He could fit 3 of his newly bought land in it. For a semi-government institute it was also pretty cheap. Previously they were pretty well off when Alex''s parents worked so they could afford the fees. Now? Alex didnt even need to worry even if he had to buy the school because if he couldn''t afford it now, he had plenty of people who would be glad to help him. The app was a pretty volatile but large income source too. He looked around while walking, seemingly judging the classrooms and even stopped for a while to listen to the teachers. The education seemed to be pretty subpar but he didnt really care after all what did Laura even need to learn for? He then knocked on a door with a large ''Principals Office'' written on it. After hearing a reply he stepped in. The principal was wearing a blue suit and a red tie, the surrounding office was decorated with dark wood including the desk and chairs. The office looked pretty luxurious even for a semi-private institute. The principal stood up as a greeting, one could clearly see his lifestyle with his fat belly almost bursting out from his suit. He then shook hands with Alex and sat back down motioning for Alex to sit too. "Hello young man, what brings you to my office today?" He was pretty polite thought Alex and he politely said. "Its actually about my sister, She has been absent from school for a long time due to reasons I can not say, I apologize for that but she wishes to resume school now and as her brother I feel like I should straighten the path for her. I assure you that she will have no problem with her studies as we had her home schooled so could you please tell me what I need to do?" Alex said his piece in one go, he figured beating around the bush wouldn''t benefit anyone and most importantly any problems he had could be solved with money so why should he not get to the point? The principal frowned as if thinking of some swears but soon loosened up his expression and slowly said. "I am sorry, If her name has been removed from the database then all she can do is reapply for admission in whichever class she left as soon as admissions open again. I am really sorry but I cant do anything." Alex narrowed his eyes, it appears this polite principal really is just putting on an act. He decided to put down his politeness as well and just get it over with. "Would a hefty donation for the benefit of this fine institute, say 300,000 dollars make you more sympathetic to our plight" The principal had his eyes shot open with this statement, he looked on in amazement. He had rich parents donate money for their children before but the most they would give is 50,000$. He looked back at Alex and smiled. "I wouldnt be able to mistreat our schools patron, pardon my manners I didnt even serve our guest properly" He called for a peon and had him bring coffee, he assumed Alex was a 2nd generation rich kid so he asked for the coffee to be made out of beans and not the instant brand. Alex smiled and nodded, the peon took his leave and Alex took this chance to say. "That would be a relief, my sister is pretty frail and I would be torn if something happened to her and I am sure you as her principal would be equally torn if a student is suffering." A threat, The principal figured. He nodded and soon coffee came. Alex transferred 300k straight to the schools account after confirming details with the principal. The principal thought whether he should still deny admission in hopes of getting more but his thoughts were interrupted by Alex. "Then, I leave this matter to you. It would break my heart if the institute I so heavily invested in turned out to be dishonest and I would have no choice but to render this institute in the same state as my heart." The principal''s face had anger on it. Such a daring threat but thinking about it, someone spending 300k on a school admission, could he a principal offend such a behemoth? He quickly settled his anger and hurriedly confirmed the details with Alex. Alex didn''t give the principal much info despite it being required for an admission simply because he knew the school had this record saved. High-schools rarely delete records as they can easily sell the information to recruiting companies or other organisations. He then finished the coffee and bid farewell, he then texted Laura. "I hope your uniform is ready because it will be needed tomorrow". He then put his phone back in his pockets and went back to his car. It was lunch break and the students filled the halls, a few even pointed to him and spoke in hushed voices. Alex ignored this and was about to walk to his car when he saw 3 girls surrounding another. Normally he would just treat it as a normal school thing but since his sister will soon be part of this school again and considering their ages they might even be the reason his sister dropped out. He decided to give them a lesson. He tagged them with his teleportation power and waited until they had no eyes on them.