Chapter 25 - Jiangshi
Elysian Spires’ financial district pulsed like some great digital heart. Twisting towers sheathed in obsidian glass and cold chrome scraped the outskirts of an empty heaven, the upper floors lost in the twinkling glare of city lights against the fading ombre of falling night.
I stood before a veritable financial temple, dwarfed in size by the sleek monoliths on either side, but oozing with monumental self-importance and brass plated faux historicity. The Universal Cryptocurrency Credit Exchange.
Suited salarymen and women passed behind me on an immaculate street while Polizei bots and a security barrier blocked the entrance to this domed marble edifice of capitalism. Towering statues of Hermes and Fortuna flanked the august doors, and venerable columns announced themselves in a tidy row, marked by hanging flags of unknown origin. Ah, it was the Reality Inc. corporate logo.
“You there. Volunteer. Are you here for the Task?”
One of the Polizei bots, wearing a rank-indicating insignia on its uniform, addressed me through its shielded helmet.
▶ That’s right. The jiangshi.
“Good. The Citizens are anxious to resume use of this facility. The sooner you remove the invasive entity the better.”
I glanced at the night sky. No sign of rain. The bonus was still in play.
▶ I heard they only come out at night. Can’t the Citizens use the facility during the day?
“One of them discovered a burial casket in a supply closet. They were too afraid to stay in the building after that, even during daylight hours.”
▶ I see. Wouldn’t it have been easy to get rid of the, uh, invasive entity while it was sleeping?
“We are not authorized to do that. Now that you are here we will disengage the security barrier.”
A shimmer of light and two of the lower-ranking Polizei bots moved twin segments of the barricade, allowing me access to the main entrance. The bots stood to either side and watched me through their unreadable black helmets. The higher rank offered a final word of caution.
“And there is one very important thing to remember, Volunteer. You are not permitted to make any after-hours trades inside the Exchange.”
I rolled my eyes and kept walking.
I entered through the front doors of the UCCE and took a curving flight of steps up from the lobby to the trading floor. The overhead lights were shut off, but in their panic to leave the building the Citizens left much of the Exchange’s machinery on.
The large open space was bordered by circular trading posts and surrounded by various booths and workstations filled with flashing screens and active data feeds. Very little of it made sense to me. Numbers going up. Numbers going down. An alphabet soup of acronyms and initialisms. Charts and graphs. Market fluctuations. Trading algorithms churning away for the benefit of absentee info-barons.
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With the lack of brokers and investment bankers, or whoever naturally haunted this capitalist mausoleum, the only sounds were the steady buzz of monitors glowing with ticker data and my echoey footsteps against the sleek marble floors. More Crypt than I could count changed hands in nanoseconds, invisible signals ripping through the air above me on automated cadences.
I materialized my revolver. It briefly glowed a satisfying red in my hand.
Stepping carefully, I moved further into the cavernous trading floor. The vacant trading posts, hung with panels and strewn with bladelike black server towers, obstructed my sight lines. I strained to hear anything. Anything at all beyond my own steps and the persistent electric buzz. Nothing.
I let out a heavy sigh. I realized that I had been practically holding my breath this whole time.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Something’s coming.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I held the revolver in front of me and backed away from the approaching sound until my back bumped against one of the trading posts. Then I saw it.
[{uncommon} entity detected - Jiangshi]
It looked like a man. But no man I had ever seen. Hopping on two stiff legs with arms rigidly outstretched, the living corpse had pale white skin with a greenish pall, highlighted by the sheen of the nearby monitors. Whether the green was from decay or some sort of fungus growing on the skin I could not tell. I could smell the stench of rotting flesh.
The jiangshi was dressed in long, formal robes from another time and place, with a round-top, tall brimmed black hat of velvet or similar material with red threads at the center. The fingernails, which had kept growing postmortem, resembled blackened claws as they reached toward me. The eyes were jaundiced and empty, but my own eyes were drawn to the yellow strip of paper hanging before its face, scrawled with symbols I could not read.
It opened its mouth but no sound came out. Not a moan, groan, hiss, or click. Just a slack jaw revealing a mouthful of decaying human teeth.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I raised my revolver, clutching it in both hands and aiming straight for the creature’s forehead. It was only a couple yards from me now and hopping faster.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
BLAM!
The force of the blast knocked its head backward with a jerk, and I watched the jiangshi fall to its knees, scraping and chipping its long nails on the marble. Then, bit by bit, it decomposed and crumbled into a pile of ashes and bone.
[4 / 5 ammunition remaining]
One shot, one kill? Nice! That was easier than I expected. Maybe the easiest Crypt I’d ever made in this world.
For my own amusement, I blew the wisp of smoke away from the revolver’s barrel, attempted a wild west style gun twirl, and dematerialized it back into my menu.
Wait. Where is the system notification that I completed the task?
I opened my Menu and scrolled down to the Tasks submenu.
[TASKS
* Remove Jiangshi from Elysian Spires Financial District (Pending)]
Still pending?
A rustling sound drew my attention back to the ossuarial pile on the floor. I watched in dismay as the jiangshi reassembled before me, springing back to its former mockery of life. It lurched at me, clearing the distance with an agile jump, reaching out with its hideous nails and teeth.
As it made contact, a sudden chill came over my heart.
[Alert! Energy draining]
[Energy: 20 remaining]
[Energy: 10 remaining]
[Energy: 0 remaining]
[Energy depleted]