I had to wait a bit, but the wait abruptly ended as Telly reentered the room with a bright smile on her face. “I am turning back on the recording devices. I hope you enjoyed your short stay in the room alone. I am sorry for making you wait. We have done a quick tally of all your kills, excluding those you captured alive. Some were not distinguishable, and we could not tell the bounty. We cannot give the reward if we cannot confirm the bounty. Sorry about that.” Telly said, and her smile had disappeared with a more professional frown.
“That being said, you made quite the haul for your first trip into the Saints forest. Not many could kill over thirty-five bounties in one trip. Honestly, you should be proud of yourself; the total of your kills, if no one tries to claim the same kills, is Three hundred and sixty-one thousand one hundred and ninety credits.” Telly said with a smile, “You killed quite a large group of disgusting rapists and murderers. Honestly, the Galaxy is a better place without every single one of them. I would spit on their graves if there was one.”
“To be honest, I did bury them; it is how I killed so many. I lured them into a trap where they thought the previous group was, and BOOM,” I told her with a grin, “Had one of the people I captured dig their graves,” I finished.
“They must have thought that they might be digging their own grave as well. Good Job, Seriously impressive.” Telly said, “Honestly, Rish are rare around here, but you are not nearly as fanatical about your guns and cleanliness as I expected.”
I shrugged in return.
“Well, not that it matters. Again, I am honestly impressed,” Telly said before bringing up her tablet. Next, we have your captures,” Telly said, turning the tablet to me and showing me a list of their information.
—
Bounty: Kimmy Greenhorn
Race: Half Human, Half Gecko-kin
Crimes: Assault, Sexual Assault, Murder
Federation Bounty: 7500 Federation Credits
Wanted Dead or Alive
Note: Known to be with a pack of men and women attacking and murdering Bounty Hunters. Proceed with Caution
—
—
Bounty: Emma Volenski
Race: Three Quarters Human, One quarter Twimmer
Crimes: Multiple accounts of Assault and Attempted Murder
Federation Bounty: 9000 Federation Credits
Wanted Dead or Alive
Note: Known to be with a pack of men and women attacking and murdering Bounty Hunters. Proceed with Caution.
—
—
Bounty: Tamerial Mystiron
Race: Silirus
Crimes: Multiple assaults with deadly weapons. Grand theft, Grand theft with the intent to kill
Federation Bounty: 13000 Federation Credits
Wanted Dead or Alive
Note: Known to be with a pack of men and women attacking and murdering Bounty Hunters. Proceed with Caution.
—
—
Bounty: Ka’ Tar Hobble
Race: Goblin Human
Crimes: Grand Theft, Murder of the Elderly
Affiliation: N/A
Federation Bounty: 5000 Federation Credits
Wanted Dead or Alive
Note: Has a medical degree and finished top of their class. Unknown if this matters as they have no work experience.
—
“You are keeping Ka’ Tar and Emma, Not the worst people on the list you killed. In fact, many of them are kittens in comparison to those you killed and left here. I am glad you are not taking the more heinous criminals. Tamerial, in particular, has a fun assignment ahead of him. We notified the Victims that he had been recaptured, and they purchased him from the bounty office. He will find himself deep in a punishment mine in our cold climates. He is not going to be enjoying the rest of his life in that place.” Telly’s smile was savage, and I nodded.
“Now, with your captured bounties, I have been authorized to give you a fifty percent increase on their bounties to keep them alive. Trust me, we are in the middle of contacting the last remaining family of Kimmy’s victims. They will enjoy that we recaptured her now, which brings the total to Three hundred and Ninety-one thousand and four hundred and forty Federation credits. Which I have been told to wire to you immediately!”
I quickly opened up my wallet function in the game to watch the nice show.
—-
Current Balance:
Federation Credits:169830
—-
That was where it started, and I watched as the credits started rolling in till it finished.
—-
Current Balance:
Federation Credits:561270
—-
What a delicious number of credits! It's too bad I would have to send half of that back to keep my contract. That hurt, but I wanted to stay in the tutorial universe. “That is a nice chunk of credits,” I said with a smile. Seeing that I got paid for a hard week's work is good. But now we need to move on to the office's thoughts on the information I brought back.”
“Yes, You will be happy to know that there was a Bounty placed to investigate what was happening in Saints Forest. The reward for it was a nice stack of fifty thousand federation credits and a couple of other things.” Telly said with a smile, “I noticed that you are not wearing armor,” Telly continued after a pause. “The Reward is a Bounty Office Exclusive Armor that was going to be used to incentivize one of the higher-ranked bounty hunters to take a vacation, if you will, into the Saints forest. This armor now belongs to you!” Telly exclaimed, and I was surprised.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
“Bounty Office Exclusive Armor?” I asked dumbly.
“Yes, yes, as you rank up in the organization, you will learn that there are some things our office does to protect the newcomers, such as yourself. We put out quests for higher-ranked people or for newcomers who might be a bit more skilled than average to look into happenings. Many will be the deaths or captures of Bounty Hunters in the same area. These tend to be dangerous assignments that used to be very low pay and unrewarding. Now, we have added a hidden credit system and rewards for those who do these missions. You have chanced upon what was an Incentive for someone several years your senior. Honestly, you have a lot of people jealous of getting this armor. You should not have access to this without doing several more missions. But you did the mission, and the quest was put out there, and some people will be disappointed to learn that you took it. That being said, I should explain the armor we will be giving you. It is the Bounty Hunter Light Hybrid Armor exclusive to us. It has Karotine armor plating for strong resistance and light optical camo refraction. This armor will naturally, without power, blend you lightly into your surroundings. So, you will not appear on active scans for energy signs. A very useful feature. The armor has a shock absorption feature for shocking, stunning, lightning, frost, and fire bullets and is strong enough to resist Shotgun pellets except for slugs. This armor can take a hit and is close to Medium Armor in strength but not quite. You will have a hard time finding light armor that is as durable as this. This armor also has a heating distribution and a cooling system, making it harder for you to be seen in thermal vision. The weakness of this armor is very hot areas. You will stick out like a sore thumb in thermal vision in hot areas above Thirty Degrees. Now, This armor is customizable and has handy unpowered slots to put guns and so many various utility features, including a handy spot to attach your tablet to your back, which will connect to the helmet to allow you better recording for when you take bounties.” Telly seemed very happy to shout out some of the features, which, I had to admit, sounded amazing.
“Wow, that armor sounds like exactly what I needed,” I replied bluntly, and Telly smiled.
“Now for the best part as a Rish. We know that your skin is super sensitive, so for those like you, the entire interior is Nanoweave, and you will not feel a single crack as you wear it. You will feel hugged all over without any cracks your race hates.” Telly told me, then frowned, “Now, the downsides,” Telly took a deep breath. “This armor is unpowered overall. The energy systems it does run on are so small, and even military-grade sensors pointed at you would have a hard time registering them. This is an ambusher's armor. A really good one and it is made exclusively for that. Despite how much it can take a hit, the panels are almost a one-hit-done item. They are easy to replace, and we sell the armor, but each piece is ten thousand Federation credits. The tech inside the panels cannot be repaired, so they are in pieces separate from each other. If you get in a bad firefight and get hit in ten different spots, it will cost a hundred thousand credits to repair. This armor costs over three hundred thousand credits, and you can only get it from us. So do not get shot in this armor, as the bill for repair adds up fast. But it is better than death.”
That was staggering. So far, this Quest has been giving amazing rewards. “I agree with you there. Better alive with a massive repair bill than dead and giving broken equipment to the people who killed me.” I replied.
“Exactly, there is one other thing as a woman,” Telly continued and blushed a little, looking away, “This armor is not meant to be seen, but for women, it is very, VERY, form-fitting. After the armor has been customized for you, it will have panels under the breast and everything. It will have many shapes that will show off your body very sexually, some might say.”
I could only smile at that and chuckle, which seemed to surprise Telly. “Sorry, I like clothing like that, so it's not much of a downside. I am honestly glad I do not have to go out of my way to find armor. It was one of the issues I found while in Saint’s Forest. I was living just one stray bullet away from death.”
“That is exactly it; now, Can I have permission to scan your body while you do a series of movements? This will allow our armorist to finish customizing your armor while we finish our conversation.” Telly asked.
“Sure, Guide me through the movements.” As I replied and got up, the couch suddenly moved back against the wall, giving me more space to move. Lasers suddenly started to cover my body, and I started to follow Telly’s instructions on how to move from side to side and kick out, among other things. It was a stretch routine and flexibility check, and I realized this body was more flexible than I thought. My tail was what made them frown a lot, but I moved it around and opened and closed it so the leathery interior was open.
“Okay, that is enough,” Telly said after a while, “Your tail is going to make it more complicated, but we will put a grip function that can be wrapped around so that when you have not unwrapped our tail, it is armored. The armor is a bit flexible, so it all should work.” A sudden ding made Telly laugh, “The Armorist is very excited to take on the challenge for your tail. He said it might take an hour to two hours to complete unless there are complications.”
I nodded and was excited about the armor. “So, what else is there to discuss?” I had to ask.
“Well, To be honest with you, the credits are for bringing this information to us. The Armor is for getting evidence so that we can force the authorities to deal with it. Then you disabled and potentially destroyed the device, killing or capturing Bounty hunters in Saint's forest. So we are going to be bumping up your bounty hunter rank, and we want to give you a Bounty Hunter Office Exclusive Knife.”
“A knife?” I asked incredulously after the awesome armor, and Telly smiled.
“This is a really fucking good knife; this knife is something that allows you to cut into the rock if needed. This is one of the best survival knives we have. This knife can cut into Iron and steel like butter.” Telly said, then pulled out a handle. “Black and sleek, it is very utility-driven with three knife settings. Vibro blade is used to cut wood and do various other things. Forcefield which is still a relatively new tech but makes a great metal cutting implement. It will cut into many things like butter, and the last version is the normal blade. Because sometimes you just need to stab something. For an ambusher and trapper, as we noticed in some of the footage you gave us, you will want this knife. It will allow you to cut into things and place traps before making it look like nothing is there. Trust me, please, when I say this knife is perfect for you.” Telly finished, “Honestly, I fought for you to get this knife over the handgun they wanted to give you.”
I pursed my lips and thought about all those times I used a knife in the forest. The answer was that it was the most useful tool I brought with me into the forest. The fact that it could cut into metal like butter was a big selling point. “Let me see,” I said after thinking a bit. I reached out, and Telly handed me the handle. Instantly, the knife fits into my hand and molds itself to my hand, making it comfortable to handle.
“At the top is the different settings. The deepest and hardest to hit with your thumb is the forcefield knife. That is the most dangerous setting for yourself and others. Very easy to lose a finger checking how sharp it is.”
I pressed the small button with my thumb, and a blue flat blade appeared. The top came to a tip, and when I twisted it to look at the blade point, the blade disappeared from my vision. “You can't see the tip because it is too thin for the naked eye,” Telly explained. I nodded and pressed the next button down, and the forcefield disappeared before a metal blade came out. A moment later, I heard a light hum. “The battery in that knife can last a year with moderate to heavy use. It is not constant, but it is a survival knife. The battery is robust. But the longer you run it, the faster the battery goes. The hilt has a solar panel, though. It is highly efficient, but one of its weaknesses is that It would take half a month to charge it full from dead. There is also a charger that comes along with it, obviously. But overall, it's extremely useful.” Telly smiled as she finished her sentence and looked at the blade, “The vibro blade is also good for cutting into armor and stabbing the person anyway. It's not as good as the forcefield, but it is better at cutting people out and so many other functions. You are better off learning about it. The last button is just the vibro blade without the vibrations. In the end, you will find uses for all three settings.”
I smiled and asked the important question, “What about safety? Like if it is in my pocket and something presses the button?”
“Nothing will happen; this knife can be tuned to activate remotely by twisting the bottom a half dozen times to turn off the safety feature while your hand is on the blade. This has already been tuned to you, and you alone; by the way, an enemy tries to pick it up,” Telly smiled savagely, “It will send a stunning shock through them. It can also be used as a trap if you want it to be.”
I could feel my own smile, and I loved the knife. “I love it, thank you,” I said, and she nodded.
“With that, we will transfer the credits. Do you want to wait for the armorer? Have it delivered, or we can double-check if everything fits.”
“Let's go check to see if everything fits, and then I will take my two new slaves and head back to my ship.”
“Perfect. I have enjoyed today immensely. Let me just send you the notifications for everything.”
Suddenly, my tablet rang, and I pulled it open and smiled.
—-
Current Balance:
Federation Credits:611270
—-
—--
Quest Updated- Hunted Bounty Hunters
You have collected evidence of a device tracking Bounty Hunters as they come into the forest. You have brought back evidence of the Military machine doing the tracking and evidence that you at least temporarily disabled the machine, with the potential that you destroyed it on the way out.
Rewards 50000 Federation Credits, Bounty Office Exclusive Hybrid Armor Ambusher edition, Exclusive Bounty Office Mutlicutting tool, Increase in Bounty hunter ranking.
—--
It was amazing, and I looked at my rank. I went from an RF rank to an RE rank, with only one more rank up to become a veteran. “Fantastic, I got it all, thank you,” I said with a grin.
“No, thank you, SleepyWonder; you greatly assisted us with your latest hunt. No, how about we go get your armor situation solved so you can go lay down and sleep?”
“That sounds amazing,” I said with a grin, standing up as Telly did the same, “Lead the way.”