“For reference this landing area for vehicles is about five levels high, while the entire terminal is ten levels high. The levels above us are reserved for those of elite status.”
“How are the cylinder ships getting inside the tower?” I asked and I could hear Bones mentally sigh at me as we continued to walk across the landing area.
“The Astral Plane and dedicated portals. The defenses on the other side are nothing to scoff at. Especially since your soul is anchored there until you leave, move it, or get stronger. That is the greatest leverage the Heavenly Alliance has,” Bones explained. I then talked about what happened on the cylinder transport.
“And then the female golem removed everyone who thought of 1.618,” I said.
“Listen. Don’t think about it. Unspoken rule that will help you live, if someone tells you don’t think of something, don’t think about it. And I know you are going to ask why. There are things out there, that are mental hazards. Whatever attacked your transport was probably broadcasting a thought that presented itself as that number. You should be safe, but I have seen people say that, right before their heads burst open and we all had to flee in panic.”
“Oh,” was my not so eloquent response.
“Oh, now we are almost to the transports. Listen to me exactly. There will be a lot of bluffing, and spur of the moment decision making. Whatever I tell you to say, say it with confidence, unless I say otherwise. Most of these idiots we will have to deal with will be of poor strength compared to me. And while I can throw off observations, and can do things in an emergency, it is better to avoid that. Understood?”
“Yes,” I replied quietly.
“Good. Confidence. Head to the vehicle transport two to the left in front of you, with the hexagram symbol on it.” I altered my course. I was being watched by several transport drivers. I began repeating directly what Bones said.
“The nearest Free Market, and I mean free,” I said confidently. The old man gave me a look.
“That will be 2,000 bits, can you-“
“I have the credits, but your price is outrageous. Only 700 bits, or I will flog your soul and toss you into the burning winds,” I said.
“Flog my soul and you will have the Hexagramic Cultists sucking your blood out in revenge. 900 bits.”
“900 bits and silence, I am on the lower platform to avoid trouble,” I said and the old man grinned.
“900 bits and silence, one way trip to the nearest free market. That is going to be in the sixth ring,” the man said.
“I don’t care if it is in the eighth ring or beyond. As long as its free and quick. I don’t have my entire lifetime to wait,” I replied.
“Hop on in,” the man said and the metal door of what looked like a diseased cross between a hover car and a shuttle opened up. The old man got in first and took a seat in the front. There were no windows, but there were screens set up. I sat in the back.
“Put on the safety straps like I tell you to. Upper left, with the central buckle, bring that onto your chest. Then lower left, upper right, lower right.”
“All set back there?” the old man asked.
“Waiting on you, hurry up,” I replied. A moment later I was slammed back into my seat. I felt like my organs were going to explode out of my body.
“Going full throttle, not a problem for someone like you, right?” the old man asked.
“You can go faster,” I managed to say without too much difficulty.
“If you say so.” The acceleration increased.
“We should be fine. But keep your eyes open, so I can watch the screens. If he veers to somewhere else, I need to know. The Hexagram Cultists are scum suckers, but they have standards. The words I had you say and the way I had you buckle in, will indicate that we at least know the outer greetings. It was a lucky thing they had a vehicle transport there. Picking an unknown faction would have been far more perilous,” Bones explained.
“As for why they are there. Rich people who don’t want to pay for nicer transportation. The elite workers at the tower, like the man you spoke to. It is a shit job. Out of the 900 bits we are paying, our driver is only going to get 9 of those bits. The rest will be required for upkeep of this piece of trash and to the Hexagramic Cultists.” I couldn’t respond, since I was being crushed into my chair.
“Once we get to the Free Market, I can get some information, we can get a short term room, and then plan from there to get a lot of credits as quickly as possible. Oh, he is trying to divert slightly. Say the following.”
“Alter our course any more and you are dead,” I said out loud, struggling for air.
“You can’t even breathe. Nice trick, but you don’t even have a backer. Just a freebie,” the old man replied. There was a single moment where I felt death itself hovering in the transport and then the old man began to scream. I could see his right side from my seat, and half of his face was growing pustules.
“AHHHH! Stop! I am sorry! STOP!”
“I have stopped. Fix the course, consider the remainder a reminder.” I forced out.
“Sorry, sorry, fixing,” he replied and hit several buttons on his console. The pustules were leaking yellow fluid.
“Annoying, but predictable. As for what that was. I merely sent a fraction of a fraction of the poison that destroyed my physical body over to him, to teach him a lesson. Minute particle control, quite useful. And yes, I could have done that to you. And no, I am not mind reading you, your questions are already that predictable.” I mentally pouted and focused on sucking in air through my mask. The old driver let out an occasional groan.
After an hour, we finally came to a stop. The diver nervously pulled out a credit card. I pulled out mine and Bones told me what to do. Half the old man’s face was ruined and we got off the vehicle transport after paying without a word.
Looking about I saw lots of columns supporting the ceiling above on the outer edge, and then a bazar of some kind. In the center of the platform there was a building connecting the floor and ceiling. Checking my location bracelet, it read floor 22,829 and ring 6.3.
“First thing, we need to purchase better gear, so you don’t look like you are fresh meat. Walk forward and look around. I will tell you where to stop. Most tower floors aren’t open. But Free Markets and other major locations have drop off points. More often than not, there are airlocks into the tower. You go outside the tower’s protection, with your strength, your skin will melt. That itch you feel, is nothing compared to the horror of the various toxic energies that linger throughout the Forever City,” Bones explained as I walked forward.
“Trash. Slightly better trash. Trash. Trash. Everything you see are bits of trash pick up from fights, that these scavengers are trying to sell.”
“They just sit around all the time,” I whispered quietly.
“Yes. They don’t want to give up their spot. Each of them probably has 50 to 100 people supplying them with trash. Minor little wars and conflicts of the bottom feeders as the factions fight each other to gain more power and standing. For them earning a spot here is a move up in their world.”
“But forever?” I asked quietly.
“They are all immortals.” My brain skipped at that. “Immortality is easy enough with some basic equipment. Probably failed clone soldiers, most of them. Used as low level proxy battle fodder for the factions. But they won’t risk causing trouble here. The only rule of free markets is not killing customers. All trash.”
“Immortality is that easy?”
“The trash way yes. Cultivation is much harder. They just have regulating implants. Very little upkeep. Most of the service people and population in the outer rings is like this. While cheap, they can only be servants. Low combat potential. Still more than what you have though.”
“Then why bring in people from the continents?”
“You mean the trash heaps. Variety. You focus on only a small number of combat methods, you will find yourself in trouble eventually. Like soul cultivation, that is your primary, is weak. You draw power internally, mind draws power externally, and body empowers yourself. That is why body cultivation is the best. You won’t run out of juice for techniques. And just more trash, but slightly better. Make a right and let’s do a loop.”
I made a turn and kept walking, looking at the metal booths and tables set up with stuff strewn all over them. I saw guns, broken blades, an eyeball in a jar, a doll, a weird shaped skull, pieces of robe, and countless other things. Some stalls had themes to what they were selling while others just had everything possible on them. There were other people walking about looking over the things for sale. I briefly glanced over as one cloaked figure bought an entire table.
“Keep moving and don’t look. They found a treasure so they bought everything on the table to hide their true purchase. Another unspoken rule of the free market. If your entire table is bought out, you don’t haggle. Ah, that table just ahead to your right.”
I went over to that table and came to a stop. The people in the Free Market really liked their hooded robes. “I want to inspect some of your items.”
“Go ahead,” the seller said with a scratchy voice. Bones had me pick up several items.
“Hmm, a decent helmet. No visible markings. Nothing lingering either. We can replace that stupid monocle and those earbuds. At least your robe and mask are halfway decent. Put it down, we definitely want that. A bit big, but we can manage with the straps. Now that pad. Check the back. Fairly new but I don’t know the faction. We want the data crystal.” I looked over the rest of the items. The shop keeper was happy to let us browse.
“The helmet and the pad. How much?” I asked.
“Separately, 5 and 2 credits. Togeather, call it 6 credits,” the stand owner said.
“Call it 4.5 and you have a deal,” I countered.
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“4.85,” the seller countered back.
“Deal,” I said and paid with the credit card. After the transaction it was down to 31.248 credits. It took me a moment to remember the transaction tax of 0.001 per transaction. I put the helmet on, keeping the monocle and earbuds as backup. Bones then had me pull out the data crystal in front of the stand. It was a way to show we knew what we were doing. After that we set the broken pad on the table and put in the data crystal into the pad I already had. The stall owner had no issues taking the broken pad. Bones let me know it was only worth a few bits now, and not worth the hassle of trying to sell it.
Once that was done, he had me walk about so he could look over the various stalls while we discussed our next move. “I have been thinking about what you can actually do and it isn’t looking good.”
“I was thinking setting up some kind of business, or trading.”
“With what and with who? You are too weak to trade with the factions. You are at best Free Market level, and you can see how slow business is.”
“I can’t use these immortality implants?”
“And ruin your cultivation. They are designed like that, so the people with them don’t get ideas and remain servants. The table three ahead to your right, yes, that’s the one.”
“That,” I said and pointed at the item Bones had indicated.
“20 credits,” the cloaked seller replied.
“It is damaged. 5 credits,” I countered, following Bones instructions.
“12 credits.”
“Deal,” I replied and was soon down to 19.247 credits. I then realized the transaction fee happened on both ends. The Heavenly Alliance was taxing 0.002 per transaction, not 0.001 per transaction. I picked up the chain necklace with a rod at the end.
“Fixing that up will be a pain, but I saw a small kit, we can do it with.”
“Can’t we fix things to make credits?” I asked.
“We were lucky finding this. But I suppose it works well with my plan of being a scavenger and collecting trash to sell,” Bones said.
“Isn’t that risky?” I asked.
“With that necklace, not so much. It is an observe absorber. You can’t use any observe type techniques or equipment with it on, but I can work out a being’s strength just by looking. For someone in our position, it is quite valuable.”
“So, running around, collecting trash, fixing what we can, and selling it?” I asked.
“Yes. And this Free Market is well positioned. Most of them exist near high conflict areas. So they tend to shift once the distance gets too great. From what I could tell, this Free Market is doing decently well and looks fairly new. So probably at the start of its life cycle,” Bones explained.
“What about trading or bringing supplies to areas?” I asked.
“Labor and storage are cheap. Everyone has a spatial item. They might not look like it-“
“No, I saw them. But with the Forever City being so big, can’t we get a vehicle transport on our own?”
“Don’t cut me off ever again.” There was a harshness from Bones. I had forgotten that he had his pride. I wasn’t sure he was a man, but he felt like one. It was hard to say, and he clearly didn’t want to talk about his past. “As for a transport vehicle. An unaffiliated one would be taken near instantly. And most factions have their own vehicles. They lease them out if they don’t have a use, but keep their backing. Everything in the Forever City requires a faction, accept scavenging.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“You would have to ask the Heavenly Alliance, but my guess is hope and karmic ties. The servants or slaves or whatever you want to call them are all trying to save up enough to get their implants removed and cultivate directly to immortality. But the cost of such a thing, you are looking at a million credits.”
“Couldn’t we rob people then?”
“And get found out. Your card has a limit of 10,000 is my guess. There is a reason for that. Getting your credit card upgraded is incredibly expensive. So, while it costs a million, in reality you need more like double that, and it is constantly being spent on upgrades. Also, people have factions. Theft will get their attention, since factions claim a large portion of the credits when a person dies,” Bones explained.
“Then wouldn’t factions send people to their death?” I asked.
“Yes. All those people you passed in the Arrival Terminal will be dead fairly soon. And those that don’t die, will die eventually. The rare few will make it and leave. Some factions have a bad reputation and have trouble getting new idiots. But in reality, their use as fodder for fighting is far more important than whatever garbage number of credits they have. Unless you have 100,000 the factions won’t even care.”
“And getting that is near impossible,” I realized.
“Exactly. The only gap in the market for us is scavenging. And event that…I don’t like it either. I am not a trash monkey, that’s a derogatory term for the scavengers. Less than human.”
“There are non-humans?” I asked.
“You are such a sweet innocent child. The other super-organizations are not humans. And even a couple factions are not humans. Most cultivators are though, and there are humans outside the Heavenly Alliance. But one thing you can be sure about, is that the Heavenly Alliance is human centric, and discriminates heavily.”
“There were beasts on my continent,” I said and explained what they were like.
“They are the plants that are farmed. I have no doubt that the White Lotus gets tribute from your continent with the cylinder transports. Your Imperial Sect, well that is nothing but a front organization to process resources. There is also an information embargo, right?”
“Um yes. Because no one likes to know they are being farmed for resources,” I muttered.
“Exactly right. Trash heaps have tried to rebel in the past, but that is as useful as a fart into the toxic air of the Forever City. The White Lotus would just send one of their junior members and slap everyone and everything down. You mentioned ages, well my guess is that your first age was when the entire place was set up. Your second age, the beasts rebelled from being farmed. The third age is when most of the beasts’ leaders were wiped out. That beast immortal probably surrendered and sells out his fellow vegetables to be harvested.”
“You can guess that, from what little I have said?” I asked surprised.
“Kid, I have seen the same thing a hundred times over. The small details might vary, but it is all the same thing in the end.”
“And the people?” I asked.
“The people are the counterbalance to the beasts. A simple ecosystem with two parts. Harvesting the trash level crystals and producing useful cannon fodder and trash tier energy resources. Another thing I have learned is that people are lazy. They like others to do the work and set it up that way. The immortals running your little trash heap, well they are just sitting back and enjoying how everything works out.”
“They are rarely seen. Only Immortal Gongong showed up right before departure. But why two factions of humans?” I asked.
“Another thing the people in charge like is competition. That way they don’t have to watch things constantly. If one immortal screws up, the other one will be there to self-correct.” I then mentioned the demonic cultivators.
“Good news kid. If that Aoyin becomes an immortal, he will be impressed into fighting for the White Lotus. And if he somehow survives that, then he will be forced to fight the enemies of the Heavenly Alliance. And then he will eventually die no matter what.”
“You sound like the Heavenly Alliance will never win?” I asked Bones.
“Kid, they have been fighting eons before my existence, and will be fighting eons after we are consumed by Chaos. The Firmament exists infinitely. And while your tiny brain has a hard time understanding that, it is truly infinite. Not pretend infinite like this Forever City. It is said if you go far enough in the Firmament, you will find everything and anything and it will all repeat.”
“Even the Forever City?” I asked.
“Even the Forever City. It is a fairly unique nexus, since there is high level trade here, but it is just a finite thing.”
“And the power scaling?” I asked.
“Pointless and that information is incredibly valuable. Let me guess, there is a lot of information sharing where you come from?” Bones asked and I gave an affirmative. “Information has a lot of value here, especially, how to get more powerful. Since it can expose weaknesses. While I will owe you a debt, I doubt you want pointless information and something more practical once I get my body back.”
“That would be preferred,” I said.
“That is also the downside of the path of karma. Everything has a weight to it, including our conversation. Balancing that to even is a massive pain. Also, why credits are so useful. You can just pay off karmic debts,” Bones explained.
“So, you explaining all this stuff is reducing your debt?” I asked.
“Something like that. It is complicated in how things are weighted which, unless you have an understanding of karmic links, then it will go over your head. We have other more important things to worry about. You can take comfort in the fact that if I wanted to screw you, then I would share a lot more information,” Bones said. We then arrived at a booth with a repair box. It cost 15 credits, after Bones haggled the seller down from 18. I put it in my spatial ring, and we made our way to the center of the Free Market.
“All towers have elevators and stairs in the center. The elevators cost credits or personal power. We only have about 4 credits left, so not that, and your personal power is nothing. So that means the stairs. They are a great place for an ambush. Hmm, get out your sword and your gun. You won’t use them, but it will keep anyone thinking about things away. Also, we only have to go down a floor.”
We made our way to the staircase. The soft glow of recessed lighting was present. The stairs were a bit larger than I was used to, but there was no trouble. Bones had me steer clear of several areas, he said had a bad feeling to them. I was constantly trying to see what he was saying with my eyes but couldn’t. We exited through the overly large doors to Floor 22,828.
There were a lot of hallways and there were signs. I followed the ones indicating a rest area. We left the main hallway, which was incredibly wide, and entered through a doorway. The air didn’t itch in this area and there was a bi-pedal red lizard sitting behind a counter.
“Room, price?” I asked. That was how Bones told me to speak, so I said the exact words he wanted me to.
“10 bits, per cycle,” the red lizard hissed out.
“Five cycles,” I replied and pulled out my credit card. The lizard pulled out one with a clawed hand. I paid 51 bits.
“Room 8 is free,” it hissed out and I went through a doorway behind it and then into what could only be described as a tomb. There was window, bed, or anything else. There was just a vent in the corner of the room and the rest was a dimly lit gray box. There was a lock on the door, which I flipped.
“You can take off your mask here, and pull stuff out of your spatial storage,” Bones said. I pulled off my mask. The air had a slight tang to it, but it wasn’t toxic. I got out a folding chair and table. That brought back memories.
“First we repair the observe absorber. Then we reorganize the stuff you have. Thankfully you have a lot of spatial rings. Get the repair box and the cylinder and put them on the table,” Bones said. I did that and then began to listen to his instructions.
“The damage is from overload. Probably a powerful being doing a sweep. Most observe techniques work by bouncing energy off another creature, and seeing how much is deflected. The more energy deflects off, the weaker the opposing creature and the more information you get as feedback. That cylinder absorbs energy pings.” So, something like magical radar or sonar, which made sense.
“Unhook the neck chain. You can bend the links with your strength. The metal is trash. Now place the cylinder upright into the repair box. Turn it ninety degrees clockwise. Good. It is properly aligned. You can see that little mark on the bottom. Most commonly produced goods have that alignment mark. That needs to line up with the alignment mark in a repair box,” Bones said.
“I am surprised that the factions have repair boxes for their goods,” I said.
“They don’t. And the higher end stuff is hard to repair. But the low-end stuff, well the market forces and other factions sell repair boxes. Most repair boxes require a repair crystal for the goods you need to repair, but this model, I can operate it manually with my spirit,” Bones said.
“I take it that most other beings can’t?” I asked.
“No. I need you to remain still and place your hands on the control pad. Normally you would just tap out your commands into the small screen, but I should be able to interact directly with the device. Push your hands closer togeather, good. Alright, now remain still, and don’t move or blink. This is going to take a lot of concentration.” I kept my eyes open as the box began to vibrate slightly. My hands felt a slight tingle.
I could see pulses of energy inside the box. The pulses picked up speed and then began intersecting where the cylinder was located in the center of the box. After half a minute, the pulses of energy and vibration stopped.
“Done,” Bones said and sounded a bit tired.
“Problem?” I asked.
“Just required me to focus. Thankfully this thing is as simple as it gets. Take it out and attach the chain again and put it on.” While it was tempting to not listen to Bones, he clearly knew what he was doing. Also, I had no doubt he would be able to really hurt me or incapacitate me if I didn’t listen. Right now, I was trying to absorb all the information he was sharing.
“Will I be able to interface like that with a repair box?” I asked.
“No. Since I had to understand what was wrong and what was the optimal state of the absorb observe cylinder. Then I had to know how to correct that. That knowledge comes from experience and the control comes from my power. You might be able to use manual control, but the precision and technical understanding is beyond you. And no, I won’t be teaching that. It isn’t a valuable use of our time.”
“Alright. So go exploring and scavenging after I rearrange my goods?” I asked.
“Unfortunately no. You are so weak, you don’t have proper protection for your body or soul. The atmosphere is wearing down on you. While not immediately fatal with your meager ability to resist, it will create health complications sooner rather than later.”
“So, a suit?” I asked.
“It would negate the purpose of the repair we just did and most of the credits we just spent. You can learn the most basic of basic techniques. I have been spending this time coming up with something so incredibly simple yet practical. First the supply reorganization, so I can know what we are working with, and then the barrier technique.”