Chapter 6- Finding Direction
The group completed their trudge, following the phone’s GPS to its destination. They looked up at the giant, glowing sign of where it had guided them. Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers the sign read in bright red and white coloring.
“Do chickens have fingers here?”
“That’s your biggest concern at this moment Kore? Whether agriculture avians have managed to develop digits in this world.” Yash snapped at him bitingly
“No need to be so pissy. I was just wondering out loud.”
The group meandered into the restaurant before finding a booth near the back that was large enough to accommodate the six of them, while being far enough away from other parties to prevent eavesdropping. As a whole, they knew their sleuthing was unnecessary and their furtiveness probably drew more attention than it avoided, but they couldn’t help it. The feeling of being on a secret mission had crept into the group and when you are on a secret mission you acted a certain way dammit.
“So are we going to consume said chicken fingers or…” Kore prodded the group. After a heated debate about how to spend their miniscule funding, they decided that they would need to eat regardless of how poor they were and since they didn’t know anything about cuisine in this world, they decided to try these Chicken Fingers the sign spoke of. Kore was sent post haste into the line where everyone seemed to be waiting to tell the cashier what they would like to eat with orders to make sure he got enough food and drink for all six of them. A few minutes later he reappeared with a massive quantity of things called chicken fingers, french fries, and Texas toast. He also flipped them empty cups and directed them to the drink station so they could fill up. Urgency at their situation was temporarily set aside as they completed what would normally be a routine task with an odd sense of wonder.
“Omm nomm nomm” Kore chomped away as he tried to talk “This is actually really good” as he spoke small flecks of chicken escaped his mouth and sprayed onto the table. “Have you guys tried this pop stuff. First time I’ve had something so delicious with no booze in it.”
“The carbonation is quite delightful.” Yash replied. Some of the frustration that she had been displaying earlier melting as she inhaled the grease bombs before her.
“Alright kiddos, time to get down to the brass tacks .” Dexan interjected as he wiped the remnants of his meal from his hands and beard. “I’m not trying to hijack this whole operation, so let me know if I’m getting in the way. But we need a feasible gameplan of what we are going to do in the immediate future.”
“According to my research, finding a place to stay the night for the six of us should be within the limits of our funds. “ Deebo finally pried his face from the phone to talk. “Finding somewhere more long-term will be a definite challenge as is. Apparently many landowners ask for advance rent as well as security deposits in order to rent a location. In addition, they need to prove your identity in order to do something called a credit check before they begin renting you a location.”
“You mean you don’t just give them money?”
Deebo ignored Kore as he continued “Apparently there is a large amount of identity politics in this world. Significance is attached to things like gender, sexual orientation and nationality. Geopolitical divisions are still a significant factor which is good for us. The biggest thing that we didn’t factor in was the need for a proven background and accreditation to perform just about any task from driving one of their automobiles to performing medical services.”
“It seems like this keeps coming back to lack of proper identification and lack of money. Either of which could probably solve the other. Deebo, how advanced are these identification requirements. Are we talking about biometric markers, genetic sequencing identification, aura identification…”
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Deebo cleared his throat again out of habit before looking at Millie. “From what I can see, identification is confirmed through photographic evidence as well as the assigning numeric identifiers to individuals.”
“That seems… insecure” Millie opined
“Oh it is. There is a whole group of people who steal others identities in order to make money.”
“So it seems like we have a potential solution to all our problems then.” Millie stated with finality. The others looked at her stunned. It took a minute for it to sink in for Millie, while she had hunted down trustworthy people to join her and Deebo that had netted them a group of people slightly out of her comfort zone. Idealists. With her specialties, she had always simply found the easiest means to her end, living very comfortably in the morally gray zone. Confronted with the shocked stares of the people surrounding her she realized that she and maybe Deebo were the only ones comfortable with those choices of convenience. Well this is going to add a degree of unforeseen difficulty to the situation. In reality, while she felt Dexan’s criticism about outdated information was justified, she had also felt that it was over the top. As they say in the Integrated Worlds, credits are only a knife blow away, at least that’s what they said in the circles she swam in.
“Creating identification to this World’s standards should not be difficult for me. The issue is that I don’t have any of the tools I would need in order to create a physical form of identification.”
“I dunno Deebs, can’t you just hack into whatever system they have here and plant us in.” Yash questioned.
“That is certainly the plan. However in order to do that, I need a device with more oomph than this handheld device. Material costs for creating our new identities are not enormous, but they are not negligible either. Besides that, we are all going to have to have a talk about what false identity each of us is going to build. I know the system recommended that I utilize a pseudonym.”
“If we just need some seed money I should be able to handle that.” Kore said, “One Man’s Trash might make me look like a lunatic as I loot through refuse, but it sure is good at finding me some spare cash.”
“While that sounds terrific, did you perchance check your Interface upon arrival?”
“I glance at my stats… this bod is rated a 10 by the way ladies.” Kore directed a lascivious wink towards the members of the feminine persuasion. His look was cut short by the glare he received from all three simultaneously. “That’s creepy. Did you guys practice that?”
“Shut up. Anyways, I was referring to your skill level. I know I had a rather unpleasant surprise when I checked mine out.”
“It’s level….1! Are you kidding me?”
“So tell me, my valiant money-making man, what’s your earning power with a level one skill?” Millie asked, looking a bit too smug for the situation.
“I take it everyone is back to level 1 at the moment?”
Millie nodded. “That knocks out two of our easy earners. So we have to improvise.”
“Two?”
“Lota was about to recommend healing for cash, weren’t ya?” Blushing crimson Lota nodded at Millie.
“I think I can handle the money part, at least enough to get us started” Dexan cut in.
He sure has gotten chatty all the sudden, Millie thought before asking “How are you going to handle that Dex?”
“I am betting there is going to be some betting establishments of the shadier variety somewhere around here.”
“And what, you gunna win at a card game you don’t even know how to play?” Yash said cuttingly.
“No.” Dexan fixed her with an icy glare. “Where there is betting, there is betting on fights. The hard part will just be getting an invite to the show.” With he reached out and grabbed one of the two cellular devices sitting on the table. “Let me know where we are staying tonight. I will probably be back late, hopefully with enough cred to stop acting like hobos.”
“Want any company?” Millie asked as he started to disappear out the front door. She expected Dexan to deny her company, but to her surprise he grunted out an affirmative. Millie quickly downed the remainder of her pop before darting after him, leaving the rest of the group with a quick nod.