"Welcome back, sir. I'm sorry you had such an unfortunate experience here."
"Indeed, I hope you can ease it up a bit." Axis leaned on the counter and said with a smiler to the receptionist.
"That's what we specialize in. What kind of service would you need? I recommend our DeepVirtu experience; the AI can recognize what you most desire and simulate it for you."
Axis touched the smarklink on his neck and said with the same smile, "I'll go with custom, physical; I like to surprise myself."
"Ah, well, then, here are the choices." It seems the lady understood his gesture and projected a list of women he could spend some time with.
A series of lists of beautiful women appeared, but what he first noticed wasn't their pictures but the prices...
400 credits
450 credits
500 credits
The last time he came here, the cheapest was 250 credits; now, even the smallest number is 400 credits.
It's bad, but he didn't let anything show on his face as he pondered what to choose.
Even though he now had the duplication ability, the thought of spending 400 credits still made him halt.
But seeing as the man who interrogated him was somewhere on the side waiting for him or something, he knew he couldn't back down now, so while hiding his reluctance, he picked a woman.
"I'll take Avery. I hope she surprises me."
He picked the one that cost 600 credits. He silently swore to himself that he would duplicate something expensive later on to recoup his losses.
"Good choice And I just got word from upstairs that if you take another, we'll give you a discount for accepting our apologies. How is it?"
Ax heard that and wanted to immediately deny it, but the urge to act like a rich man also rose within him. In the end, he held himself back. Spending 600 credits to get laid was already enough. He wasn't used to spending that much money anyways.
"Can I take that offer for another day? I'll still have something to do later."
"Well, we've registered your ID. You can take the offer anytime."
"That's great, thanks."
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"The avatar will lead you. Have a great time."
"Oh I will." With that, Axis was once again led by the hologram avatar into the pleasure room.
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"Where can I find the client?"
Axis grumbled as he sat on a stool, lightly exhausted.
"You took much longer... You spent some time there. Phew, what a waste of money." Harold snickered seeing Axis countenance.
"I could have gotten the same kind of chick with no money." He added.
Harold mocked him as he was cleaning the counter.
"Fuck off, And don't tell my brother of this, anyways. How can I find the client?"
"Client doesn't want to meet; where is the chip? As soon as you give me the chip, I'll give you the reward."
Ax clicked his tongue. "Tsk, fine here...."
Ax placed the chip on the table; Harold grabbed it and seemed to call someone. After a few seconds...
"Here..."
Ax grabbed his credit card and saw his account.
[600 credits were subtracted from your account.
40 credits were deposited in your account.
Total: 1243 credits]
He couldn't help but sigh; still, the amount he had was still big, and the cooldown for the duplication was near. He needed something expensive to duplicate and sell, but also one that doesn't get him a lot of attention.
He definitely don't want anyone to discover his ability.
At the same time, he opened the Build tab and saw his experience points.
Exp: 143
He gained a total of 40 experience points. It seems his conjecture was right. And the amount of exp he gains is proportional to the compensation; He guess the system judged the difficulty the same as the reward.
But at this point, he needed to do more dangerous missions to gain more experience.
He needed to be more capable to take on more dangerous missions but to be better, he needed to take on said dangerous missions. This is the system wanting him to dive into the chaos.
Just as he was contemplating, a voice called to him.
"Hey, you're one of the gang, right?"
A sharp and feminine voice called him, and Axis turned around and saw three teenagers in punk styles fashion drinking something.
"So? You crimson member or bounty hunter?"
One of the girls in the middle with colorful hair asked him:
"Member, What's up?"
"I'll pay you 10 credits to beat up her ex-boyfriend; how's that?"
"Britt, knock it off."
"Shut up; he deserves it after what she did to you."
The two girls argued, "So, would you take it?"
Axis looked at them, pondering for a bit before saying, "15 credits, and I need to see the guy's information first."
There was nothing wrong with earning a little quick cash anyway.
"I don't want this."
The supposed ex-girlfriend of the person he needed to beat said nothing and did nothing to stop the transaction.
"Here, I'm sending you the info."
The colorful-haired girl gestured something in the air, and information flashed by Axis golden eye...
[Rendon Leyt:
age 18
Height: 1.8
Features: violet hair, piercings on the nose...
Address:....]
It was a simple profile of the guy he needs to beat; there was nothing special about him. "Hmm" There was one particular part of the description that caught his attention though.
"You know what? Raise it to 20 credits."
"You kidding??"
"It says here that he's always with his gang of friends, so there's no way he'd be alone when I beat him up."
"I-" The girl was about to say something, but the third person who hadn't said anything spoke...
"Fine, I'll give a share too. 20 credits, but the job must be recorded. We want to see him beaten."
Axis finally smiled and said, "You got it."
20 credits for beating a delinquent; today was his lucky day. As for the possibility that the guy wasn't alone, he wasn't worried. He had been trained by his brother since he was 9. These chumps probably didn't even know how to punch right.
So after setting the contract with Harold, he went to do the job.
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Tudtudtudtudtud!
"Oh shit!"