Burn in Hell, you abusive bastard.

The thought flitted through Oliver's mind as he levered himself upright on the couch. He quickly shrugged off the old memories brought up by his dream. He hadn't thought about the asshole that fathered him in a long time, and didn't feel there was much of a need to. He was gone, and Oliver's life was better for it.

So was his mom's, until the end, and that's what really mattered to him.

Seeing that he was still alone in the house, he checked the time to see that only an hour had passed since Polina left for her spa day. “What is it about these system updates that fuck with my dreams?” He muttered to himself before his eyes brightened with excitement. Quickly pulling up his system window, his eyes widened at the notification he received.

System Evolution Completed.

Bounty Board has been updated.

Auction House has been unlocked.

Oliver sat staring at the window for a minute, unsure where to begin. With no idea if there were other benefits to the system evolution than what was listed, he really only had two choices on what to check out. The Auction House was clearly the new tab he had unlocked, but how exactly was the Bounty Board updated?

Eventually, he settled on checking the Bounty Board first. Having used it just once before, he had at least some idea of how it operated and could likely pick out what changes were made. Immediately upon opening the tab, he saw the difference.

Bounty Board

* View Listings

* Post Bounty

Instead of the list of available bounties he saw before, he was now presented with two sub-tabs. The first seemed obvious, but he was surprised to see another change when he mentally clicked on it.

Available Bounties

* Local

* Universal – Complete 5 Local Bounties to unlock (1/5 completed)

* Extraversal – Complete 5 Universal Bounties to unlock (0/5 completed)

Oliver almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. Local. Universal. Extraversal. Did that mean that there were bounties in other universes that he would be able to do? Could he actually travel to not just another world, but another universe entirely? His mind boggled at the thought... Until a new, terrifying thought occurred to him.

Did that mean there were alien bounty hunters out there, traveling from universe to universe and hunting things?

Or hunting people?

Had Earth even been visited my a Mutiversal Bounty Hunter before?

Slowly composing himself, Oliver pushed away the worrying idea. Regardless of the answers to his questions, there was nothing he could do about it. No point in stressing over something he wasn't even sure of, and could do nothing about. Yet.

Refocusing himself on the screen in front of him, he pressed on to try and understand everything that was available to him. That meant finishing his inspection of the updated Bounty Board. Quickly backing out of the current sub-tab, he mentally clicked on the next.

Post Bounty

* Local, Universal, or Extraversal? (Please select one)

* Target:

* Please provide all relevant information on selected target:

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

(Target may be an individual, item, or objective of host's choosing. Specific targets may incur a higher cost, depending on difficulty. Host may select more general targets- for example, a magical sword as opposed to Excalibur. General targets incur lower costs, but may have some variance. Bounty range, target and relevant information are used to determine difficulty and price.)

Oliver was surprised by the extra information provided by the system. Mostly he had been forced to rely on his own exploration and experimentation to figure out how to use the system. For it to suddenly explain so much... Could it be because of the evolution?

Pondering the implications, he spent a minuted fiddling with the form for posting a bounty. As a test, he entered all the information he knew off the top of his head for a ridiculous bounty- just to see what the response would be.

Calculating Bounty...

Spend 109,217,400 Credits to post Bounty: Excalibur? (Yes/No)

Oliver nearly choked at the price listed. Over a hundred million credits, or a billion dollars, to hire a bounty hunter to find Excalibur? It was an insane amount... Though he wasn't sure if it was insane to spend so much, or insane for a weapon literally out of a legend to only cost that much. Glancing forlornly at the few thousand credits in his possession, he quickly hit no and backed out of the window.

The whole prospect was more than a little intimidating. Though it did answer one of his questions... and add several more.

There were system approved bounty hunters either on Earth or able to come to Earth.

But were they Human? Or were all the conspiracies about alien visitors truer than people believed?

He reminded himself again that it wasn't something he could answer or do anything about. Not yet, at least.

Quickly grabbing a drink, Oliver sipped at it as he worked to force away all the intruding thoughts and questions. There was a lot of potential and options for the Bounty Board available to him, but right now he need to focus on checking out everything new with the system.

And that meant checking out the Auction House.

Auction House

Auction slots: 5/week (5/5 available)

Open Auction? (Yes/No)

(Here, the Host may place things up for auction to be purchased by entities from across the Multiverse. Entities may bid using System Credits or trade. Host may determine what bids are accepted or rejected. Anything placed for auction must be in Host's possession at the start of the auction. The System collects a 10% tax from Host on all Auction House transactions. In the case of a trade bid being accepted, System tax is based on the calculated value of the goods received by Host.)

Oliver was stunned by the information he was provided. Again it was more than he expected. But, more than that, the sheer potential of what he read made him re-read it several times. Sure, he could earn even more credits. But the option of trading for things from other planets and Universes?

His mind was blown by the possibilities.

Magical items? New technologies? Exotic foods or spices?

Not to mention things that may well be beyond his imagination.

Oliver had jumped to his feet, but slowly he sank back on to the couch as he calmed his racing heart. Before he could even think about what he may get out of the auction, he first had to consider what he would sell. Auctions usually implied the wealthy and influential; what would such people, especially ones from completely different planets and universe, want from an auction?

Would the delicacies of Earth be exotic enough for them? Would they want jewelry? Fancy clothes? Weapons or technology? He had no idea what they would want.

And what if they already had things similar to what he could provide? Were their universes different enough for them to still be interested?

Oliver lost track of time as he sat there, deep in thought. His mind constantly questioning what he could offer to being he had absolutely no concept of... Until Polina plopping down in his lap pulled a startled grunt from him.

She chuckled softly at his surprised as she hugged him. “Thank you for the spa day hon.” Planting a quick kiss on his lips, he caught the soft scent of lavender on her skin as she snuggled in close to him. “It's a bit unlike you to be so unaware. So, what had you so focused you didn't even hear me come in?”

Oliver gave her a warm hug as he chuckled in embarrassment. “Umm... Multiverse theory?” Seeing the glint of amusement in her eyes, a thought popped into his head to fish for some ideas from his girlfriend. “I know you know what that is... I was just thinking, what do we have here on Earth that people from another Universe would consider exotic or valuable? What would they be willing to trade for?”

Seeing the thoughtful look on her face, he waited as patiently as he could for her response. After a moment, she smirked at him and spoke confidently. “Tequila.”

Oliver was gobsmacked for a moment before he started laughing. “Seriously? Tequila? Why would they want that?”

His laughter cut off when she smacked him on the shoulder, giving him a mock glare. “What? It's a good answer. For all we know, the universe you're talking about could be ruled by dinosaurs or sentient bugs. Maybe they never created tequila. Just about anything could be exotic or valuable, given their circumstances. Just about anything could be valuable to them. Cola, chalk, silk, peanuts... Hell, for all we know they could be they could be on the brink of extinction and just be desperate for people to help them repopulate or something.”

“You're working for some trading business, right? You know that the value of something isn't set. Its supply and demand, right? Now come on, lets go grab dinner. We can talk Multiverse theory while eating if you want, you big nerd.” Chuckling, she bumped his shoulder with her own before hopping up. Oliver trailed after her, a thoughtful look on his face before he quickly refocused on his girlfriend.

He would have to figure out another way to thank her later. She had helped him way more than she would ever realize.