Trace left Monroe working on the roof of the warehouse while he left for Pushman’s place. He was going to grab a bunch of the modules the man had for the moment. Since the fellow himself was in no shape to enjoy them, he was going to swap out his ‘Enhanced Intermediate Electrical Engineering’ for something new. He might swap out his ‘Enhanced Swords & Not Dying’ as well, since he kept avoiding it.

He just didn’t really want to carry around a sword at the moment. There were plenty of edgers that thought they were cool, but he wasn’t one of them. He could admit they had their place, especially the newer models with the vibro-blades or the plasma swords. Both of those could pretty much cut through anything. However, they also came in knife form, which he had found he liked better.

It was more practical, and the smaller blades fit his current physique and style better.

He left the truck parked outside the apartment building, where he wouldn’t knock the light bar off again. It was a quick trip up and back down.

A short time later, he was pulling the truck into the shop Monroe had told him about. It was the place where he could get the lift swapped out.

Trace sat in the waiting area, staring at the G.H.O.S.T. System menu. He was staring at the ‘Upgrade’ option under ‘Nanite’. He really wanted to use the ‘Overload’ function on his eyes, but his neck was starting to become more of a concern. ‘Upgrade’ was an alternative that he had yet to explore. The problem lay in what the description said. He needed to create a database of similar devices. If he didn’t, then any improvements the upgrade made would be minimal beyond energy saving and a general streamlining.

That might be enough, especially in this case, to deal with the problem he was having. At the same time, it just felt like a waste to not get as much as he could from the opportunity. He believed it was unlikely that he would be able to upgrade the NetConnect a second time.

The cost to perform an Upgrade was in how heavily material and regular nanite intensive it was. At least, that was what the description said. Actual amounts weren’t mentioned, as they were different from augment to augment, and even further from maker to maker.

Luckily, regular nanites were being created by the factory nearly constantly, until it reached a predetermined maximum amount. The counter had stopped going up a few days earlier, so the maximum amount appeared to be ten units. How much that actually was, he had no idea, outside of a lot.

Trace selected the ‘Upgrade’ option and then moved to his eyes.

‘Due to a lack of available information in the database, the upgrade for this augment will be done at a slightly decreased cost in material resources and nanites.’

Even at a reduced cost, it was still going to cost four units worth of regular nanites. Getting the basic upgrade package might be making it cheaper overall, but it was still pretty expensive.

He switched to the NetConnect and felt his eyes widen. The same message as before was there, but more importantly, the unit cost had only gone up by one. Proof, at least in his mind, just how advanced the mil-spec eyes actually were.

He would need to get some additional material, but if he wanted, he could upgrade both of them. Which suddenly seemed like a good idea. If he was going to ‘Overload’ his eyes anyway, then he might as well upgrade them first.

Trace pulled up a notepad in the corner of his vision and created a list of all the materials he needed. Hopefully, he would be able to create marbles out of all of them, otherwise his mouth was going to hate him later.

After he finished creating the list, he plugged in a module, one of the basics of mechanical engineering, and began the absorption process. It was only when the process had finished that he noticed Meredith had made some improvements to the process. It was faster and the compression algorithm had been reworked. The final product was around a fifth smaller than before, which meant that if he converted them all again, he would be able to fit a sixth enhanced module on his NetConnect.

That was the sort of improvement that he could get behind.

Trace kept himself busy as he waited for the mechanic to finish working on the truck. His mind drifting to how much his life had changed in such a short amount of time. It still felt more than a little unbelievable to him, and it had all started because he took that stupid job from Jonas the Slick.

“As agreed, I took the original setup and swapped it out for a modular one. You lost a little bit of max height, but it can be adjusted up and down at will.” The mechanic told him when he came out a while later with the rest of the bill.

Trace peeked at it and felt a wave of relief flood his system. The work had been expensive, but not nearly as much as he had feared it would be. “Do you only do suspension work, or do you also do general work on vehicles?”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“I do some of everything. If you have any problems, bring it on by and I’ll take a look at it.”

That was what he wanted to hear.

He hopped in the truck and lowered the lift down to a more reasonable half-inch from its previous three inches. Which was on top of the two-inch lift provided by the oversized wheels.

Leaving the mechanic behind, he headed to the local tech market. It was a place he had always wanted to visit but had never had the money to enter. You had to pay a hundred credits to enter the market, however, as long as you bought something, you got it back when you left.

With how tight money had been in the past, he hadn’t even been able to spare those hundred credits.

From what he had heard, you could buy nearly anything there. The prices weren’t always the best; you needed to head to the actual shops in the city for that. But the market had the power of convenience, and the power of everything being easily available. Not all the stores could say the same, as many of them were spread throughout Denver and in hard-to-reach areas.

Which was fine, as in this case, he had no idea where the physical stores would even be located for the items he was looking for. He was searching for the materials on his list. Granted, he could go to the junkyard and spend a lot of time taking items apart for scraps. The problem with doing that was now his time had actually started to have some value, as he became busier.

After paying the fee, he began walking through the endless aisles, mentally drooling at all the toys he saw on display. There were soldering pencils, heat guns, 3D Printers, CNC Machines, scanners for every use case he could imagine, and more. The place was paradise, and this was still the hobbyist portion of the market, farther in is where the corporations began to show off their items.

What he needed wasn’t back there though, no matter how much he wanted to take a peek.

First off, Trace bought a new soldering pencil while he was near the station for it. Soldering pencils were less powerful than soldering guns, but you could do far more precise work with them, and in his opinion, they were far more versatile as a result. As long as you weren’t working with any thick wires, then you were fine. Besides, he still had an old soldering gun that worked fine. The pencils, on the other hand, due to their smaller nature, tended to fail sooner.

From there, he kept his eyes peeled for what he had actually entered the market to buy. Precious metals, namely palladium, tantalum, cobalt, platinum, and a few others. They were metals used in nearly all electronics, and the ones he needed for the upgrades.

Strangely enough, they also seemed to be missing from the market. He had thought that the 3D printer section might have something, and it did for a couple of the metals. The rest were nowhere to be found.

He eventually found himself back at the stall where he had found the few metals he had been able to purchase.

“Do you know where I can get some other metals?” He asked the woman there.

“It depends on which kinds you want. Most of what I sold you earlier, you could have gotten at a high-end jeweler for around the same price. As for other kinds…” She thought for a moment while taking him in. “There’s the recycling plant if you’re looking for precious metals to make something. That’s what the other people usually end up doing. All the new stock is already spoken for as soon as it’s mined.”

“Is there a recycling facility you would recommend, versus one I should avoid?”

She nodded. “Most of the guys don’t like the one off of Sante-Fe. It’s more steel and other industrial metals. The one near Park Hill is where everyone I hear about seems to have the most luck.”

“Thanks, I appreciate the help.” He turned to leave before stopping as a thought came to him. “How much for your cheapest 3D printer? Something to help me get started while I learn the ins and outs of everything?”

She grinned brightly at him and showed him a model that was barely larger than the setup Deckard was now in. “They’ve gotten ultra cheap over the years, as most of their money is made in the custom material spools.” Her eyes glowed for a split second as she sent a point-to-point message.

Point-to-point messages were direct messages that anyone could send to another person as long as they were within a few feet of them and they could see their eyes. Knowing their name and number wasn’t needed. It was originally popularized by stores as a way to send receipts. However, it had eventually fallen by the wayside as people stopped caring about such things.

‘Don’t buy this one. It is the cheapest for sure, but I wasn’t kidding about the material spools being where they make all their money. Do yourself a favor and get the model three up from this one. The intake and heads on that one are unique. After buying it, go to the stall five down and buy parts 54-JB1 and LB4-H6. They are new intake modules and print head, respectively. The intake module will cost you some money, but it will allow you to put nearly any material you want through the printer. The new head is one that can handle those materials.’

She blinked and held up the printer. “I think this is the cheapest one we have in stock. It is the perfect model to learn on. What do you say?”

Trace took a moment to study it, before shaking his head. “It feels a little flimsy. I know I said cheap, but I meant the price, not the construction of the unit itself. Do you have something in between the two?”

Her lips curled upwards for a brief second as she placed it back down. “Why don’t I let you choose which one feels right?”

She pulled out the next several models. Her fingers lingering on the model he was supposed to pick just a hair longer than the others.

Trace kept up the charade for a little longer before choosing the model she had recommended. Considering how much effort she had gone through; she was probably being watched or something.

Still, he almost wanted to cry when he saw how much the printer cost. The actual print volume inside it was just a little larger than his fist, as well.

He got it partly on a whim, and partly not. Everyone knew how useful they were, and one of the next steps in his engineering was being able to create his own versions of the parts he needed to repair something. There was another reason for getting it though, and that was Deckard. He thought the other man might be able to use it to build something. It would help keep him occupied and possibly rejuvenate his mind.

Lucking into a girl as helpful as that one was just plain nice, even if the extra parts had been even more money he hadn’t planned on spending.

As he left, Trace’s impression of the tech market was that it was an incredibly dangerous place. It was far too easy to lose your money in that place.