We all walked as we talked to Sis. Or, rather, we listened. Silently. Without interrupting.
To say I was a little afraid of her right now would be accurate.
[“So, then, after I finally managed to convince that idiot that splicing biotics and embedding control interfaces in their bodies was dangerous, he proceeds to actually continued his work right in front of me. Completely ignored me. Didn’t even bat an eye. You know how many times I’ve been ignored on this planet? I’ve never had to put up with this before, it’s almost like you people like nearly dying! And then he actually got it to work! Who does that? How do you even make that work? He was screaming, and I thought he was hurt, but then he starts howling that he made his ‘Frankenstein’ and I just left. What is wrong with you humans?”]
I think maybe you should leave those ones alone. They’re clearing off. Some people are just crazy. I wanted to say that, but I couldn’t, because she rolled right into the next one.
[“In the first place, I started increasing the bounty rewards to reflect the risks associated with the uniques. But I had to tone them down, why? Because you people like matter energy too much! You’re practically suicidal when the reward gets high enough! No other species dives in like this! What is wrooooong with you?”] She dragged her hands across her face, and then pointed at Fran, [“It was your idea! Why don’t you deal with it? Why do I have to deal with it?”] She pouted.
At this point, Fran did speak up, “It’s your job, right? Besides, we’re getting through the biotics just fine, aren’t we?” She smiled, an almost stern smile that I imagined she might give a boss who was complaining too much.
Sis flinched, [“Yeah. You’re right, err… Well, I suppose the Bounty Hunt system is still doing just fine. But then there’s all of the crazy ideas you humans come up with. I’ve already had to warn several people not to try to make biotics that hunt biotics, but they ignore me, some of them make it work, too!”] She let out a long dragging sigh.
“Back to this,” I spoke, gesturing to the large sphere that had shrunk, able to be carried now, “Did this cause your automated system to freak out?”
She leveled a withering glare at me, [“Yes, and I should have guessed it would be you. You’re walking in the Reaper’s path, alright. I can’t take my eyes off of you guys for ten seconds without you murdering something in a way that’s not supposed to be murdered.”]
“Oh, sorry for being really good at my job. Maybe I should just talk everyone into not bothering and we’ll just sit back and relax,” I waved nonchalantly.
[“Uhh, err, wait, that’s not what I meant.”] She face palmed, I almost couldn’t tell that she wasn’t a person now, and that struck me as almost alarming. What exactly was going on that she was becoming like this now?
[“What you’ve done with that core is to sever the connection it had to the hive around it and to eradicate the biotic consciousness within it. It’s even more useful than the pseudo-core you found before.”] Her artificial intelligence showed again, briefly, before it fell away again, [“Please, give that to your Sissy! She needs it a lot!”]
I recoiled at her sudden insistence, “Uh, what? What?” I turned to look at everyone else, who shook their heads. They weren’t helping me with this.
[“Sis’s brain is too scattered! I need help with more processing power, and the cores are really useful for that. Normally I wouldn’t have such a high load on a planet, but there are a looooot of humans here! And they’re sooooo needy!”] She took a nose dive in processing power, almost seeming drunk then, if an A.I. could even get drunk.
“Not for free.” I said as her face froze for a moment. And then the moment lingered.
We watched as she struggled with something internally, and I almost felt my obelisk system shake with the effort. A shiver rolled down my spine when I saw her form virtually vibrate before responding.
[“C’mooooon!”] She pouted, the shaking intensifying, [“You can’t give your big Sis one freebie?”]
I was stupefied, “Seriously? You know how hard this thing was to get? How many more people even can get these for you?”
The hologram was definitely shaking. If that got worse I’d throw the core at her and not even ask about payment, I was starting to get worried.
Finally she managed to recollect herself, her consciousness leaping up from what it had been in a flash. [“I promise to you that I’ll pay an appropriate price, but for the love of the obelisks, I need that badly right now! I feel my brain melting!”] She half seethed, half begged.
Well, I’d be pretty jacked up if I said no now…
“Okay, okay, here, here! Take it!” I held the item out and it immediately sucked into the icon on the back of my hand greedily. The next moment, I felt an energy pulse rock me from my feet, a bolt of red energy firing from my hand to the obeliks miles away. I could even hear it as it broke the sound barrier, luckily far away from us by then not to harm us.
I sat on my back, the air knocked from me.
Alice was over me in a moment, helping me up. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
No, that wasn’t quite right, I think my eardrums exploded.
My helmet opened up, moving away from my skull as I felt my head for damage, or blood. There was none. Luckily it wasn’t that bad but a ringing sound filled my ears annoyingly as I asked Smith to relay the message I couldn’t be sure I said.
[He says that he’s fine, but his hearing is gone. Though, it’s coming back.] I felt Smith’s simmering anger as he continued, [Sis, I would advise you that forcibly extracting objects with such force is an unwise course of action.]
As he said that, we watched Sis’s reaction, which was somewhere between horror and panic. Then her expression went blank - alongside the sound of a distant impact - for almost thirty seconds.
When she regained her mentality, she was far more in control than she was, but her expression was still that of absolute shame.
[“I… I am sorry. That should not have happened. I cannot excuse myself for that.”]
“What exactly happened?” I shook my head, clearing a bit of the lingering ringing.
[“It was a momentary lapse in logical thinking, my system has been overwhelmed for some time now. I am required to attend every request for my presence to make a ruling on a situation that defies common occurrence, or when an appeal request is made. That said, I only had to split my processing power among a few thousand copies two days ago. Approximately two minutes ago, that number was in the millions.]”
We stared at her, gaping in awe, “You made millions of yourself?” Fran blinked, trying to even consider that number.
She nodded, [“Some of you humans take to the obelisk systems that I provide like fish to water, as your idiom goes. My automated systems take care of the day to day things, but there are so many unusual circumstances that I had to adjust certain parameters. As time goes by, the automated system will be able to adjust to preferences on its own without direct input, but before that, it needs a precedence to go by… in other words, my rulings. Most planets that have new obelisks have had, at most, 5 million sentients in the aftermath of biotic incursions, so this was far more than anticipated.”]
“Ah… does this also have anything to do with the fact that there are more uniques than there are supposed to be?” I asked as I watched her composure solidify more. I didn’t really fault her for the mistake, I was fine, though I did want a little extra to compensate me for the fact that I had wanted to use that core for something else.
[“It does, somewhat. Uniques, tracking them and categorizing them, take a great deal of processing power. Filtering matter energy takes more, channeling production blueprints and forming matter energy into those forms takes even more. The obelisks are still establishing long-distance transfer networks, and that also factors into my processing efficiency… So, to make a long story short, there was too much going on, and not enough ‘me’ to go around.”]
Alice looked worried, “But… that’s okay now, right?”
Sis flashed a brilliant smile, [“Indeed, biotic cores, especially nearly perfect ones like the one you gave me, are incredible resources for computational power. I was able to increase my floor load by about fifty percent.”]
“Just one was enough?” Daniel wondered at what the cores even were.
[“Yes… well, mostly. I’m still working at 75 percent efficiency due to overload, but that amount is more than acceptable, alternatives considered. I’ll be able to return to peak status when demand dies down.”]
“On that note…” I stood, feeling my bodies soreness as I did so, “Can we get that bounty allocated now? We didn’t even get the heads up about the wolves being different.”
Sheepishly, she nodded, [“Of course, my mistake. Let’s update that, I’ll… compensate you properly for the troubles. You’ve made an organization, also? Hmm, well, I’ll add a little something there too.”] She mumbled to herself near the end, and continued mumbling inaudibly even as the notifications rolled in properly.
[Kill Grey Wolves 700/700]
[Purify Biotic Core 1/1]
[Kill Guardian Grey Wolves 2/2]
[Exchanged Small High-Grade Core]
[Time Based Bonus: Time remaining for bounty completion; 11d 4h 23m, adjusting reward.]
We all looked at the notification, and then seemed to simultaneously realize something.
“Wait, what’s with this eleven days thing? I thought bounties were a lot shorter…” Daniel murmured and I wondered the same thing.
[“Yours were shorter because they were higher threats, and right next to the city.”] Sis told us, to which neither of us could really refute. It’d make sense if the timer reflected urgency.
[Matter Energy rewards tallied. 2295 M.E. allocated to each member of kill-team.]
My jaw hung open. “How much were each of those wolves worth?”
[“Only 8 a piece, but there were 700 of them. The main issue is the possibility of spending inordinate amounts of matter energy in munitions to keep them from overwhelming a defense. Luckily, you all interrupted the source of their energy, making reconstruction impossible. Even without the core, if you would have continued to exhaust them they would eventually deplete the core of energy until it could recharge. That is the other method commonly used, albeit less cost effective.”]
“I’m assuming getting the core intact and giving the core to you gave us a lot more points,” Fran looked at the list thoughtfully, there was a lot she could do with that much M.E.
[“Indeed. In times when you decide to contribute a resource that could otherwise benefit yourselves, but would also be of great need to myself, I am permitted to be quite reasonable in my rewards. I would give more… but I do still have to retain M.E. for the investing party responsible for the obelisks being here in the first place.]
It’d been a long time since they were mentioned, “How are they doing, anyways? Also, any word from your supervisors about us humans?” I tried to sound like I was joking, but it was hard too when I was afraid that we might have another big problem on our hands.
[“Hmm? Oh, your investor.”] She rolled her eyes, [“They’re probably reinvesting the money in more uselessly extreme ventures where they would be better served in investing the bulk of it into upgrading their arsenal. Of course, I can’t say for sure, I haven’t been in touch.”]
“Err… okay then. What about your superiors?” I quickly moved from the subject, I wasn’t sure who our investors were, but she was certainly not fond of them.
[“They’re still analyzing the situation, but they have yet to reach a consensus. I’m… also not aware of their exact opinion of late.”]
“Ah… because of your whole… head thing?” Alice gestured to her like she was somehow hemorrhaging gore from her skull. Sis was mildly amused.
[“Something like that. I should soon be able to contact them with regularity, but I can’t say for certain that they would have a definite answer for some time. Depending on what they might want to do, you might not hear anything about them for a year.”]
“That’s a long time.” Said Daniel, glowering slightly at the news, “What might we even expect?”
[“There are many things to consider,”] Sis began carefully, [“They’ll need to come to a concrete decision and receive approval from several other parties before moving forwards. The conditions are anything but simple, and ultimately you may only receive general support to recognize the earth and its people as an independent governing body, separate from any other localized power that may claim to the area, and thereby yourselves, in dominion.”] She looked to us, seeing our sudden and clear shock at such news.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
[“Ah, but, despite what I said, it is incredibly rare for such to occur in the first place without request of the native species. And given that you are a sentient race more than capable of self-governance, it would be difficult for any case to be made to suggest you need aid in that regard. You would be far more likely to attract additional attention to your efforts. But, in any case, it’s not something that will be important for quite some time.”]
That left open a lot of possibilities, and I suddenly thought of varying governments around the world on earth. I highly doubted that our systems were so different from anything other space-faring species had come up with, and that meant nothing good. If I were an intergalactic space faring species and a new species that was highly aggressive and successful in hunting biotics was to suddenly come up on my radar, my first consideration would be to assess how dangerous they were.
After that, I would see if there was anything worth taking from said species. Our kind of world was likely quite habitable to most, and that alone might make it worth looking at, but luckily I didn’t expect there to be some magical resource that made us special. So, unless they were desperate for some more territory, most probably wouldn’t bother--especially with attention on us from our investor, though I had no idea who that was, or if they wouldn’t be interested themselves.
Alongside that line of thought, any species that could deal with the biotic threat was likely to attract interest in general. If we proved to be too weak to adequately defend ourselves, we could still make for a decent foot soldier supplement. If we were too good, perhaps they would be nervous of us at the worst, and become an obstacle.
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.” I grouched, “It’s not like we can stop killing biotics or anything. Maybe if we do really, really well, we can voluntarily sell our services to keep others from messing with our business as a whole.”
[“You… you are a particularly pessimistic human, aren’t you?”] Sis said as she frowned, shaking her head, [“I can’t allay your concerns easily, the fact of the matter that laws are ignored at times, but know that there are many laws and that punishment for breaching them is quite severe. If it would make you feel any better, my existence is contingent upon all of you, as well, so it is in my best interest to represent you well.”]
That… did help actually… huh. “Why is that? ‘The contingent upon us,’ part?”
She shook her head, [“I’m not necessarily at liberty to discuss the actual mechanics of how deliberations of that nature go. In fact, I believe I’m playing it pretty close to the edge of what I’m allowed to tell you all in general already. And in any case, I do have other things I will need to do, so I must bid you all farewell,”] her smile seemed genuine as she added, [“Especially for the core, I truly fear I would have had to shut down the system for a reboot at that rate. Then, until next time.”]
And she was gone.
“I don’t think I really understood what she was saying about her supervisors. Did they sound a little… sketchy, to anyone else?” Alice broke the silence first.
I answered, unhappy with the news, “Very sketchy, not too different from our governments. I suppose that’s not terribly uncommon.”
“Maybe we’re assuming the worst, here?” Said Daniel with a light grin, “I mean, we’re assuming they’ll even care, right? For all we know they’ve got more to deal with.”
Fran supplemented that, “If we have biotics, I doubt other worlds won’t have them too. Our biotics are rather… young? If I’m not mistaken, there must be far older biotics out there, perhaps very powerful.”
That was something to think about. I didn’t even know how a regular biotic worked, let alone what they could eventually do. Wolven was already an example of some kind of biology defying monstrosity, beyond that of even regular biotics. Who knew what they could do later?
“It doesn’t do us any good to think about it now, I guess.” I sighed, “Without any real information, we can’t possibly predict what might be the outcome. I suspect that even if we do well, it might not end up in our favor. Even so, we have to get rid of the biotics, or else we’re all going to lose out eventually.”
They looked at me, sighing. That was a bit of a morale hit.
I coughed, “Well, maybe there’s a way to make it more likely that we’ll be accepted.”
That picked them up a bit, “Yeah, maybe. We’ll just have to kick some serious biotic butt! Alice’s endless energy kicked into gear.
We talked on the way back, and in spite of my admittedly cynical nature, I had to say that our raid of the nest went quite well. A little close, but we succeeded with flying colors. If I didn’t make it risky, we might have just been able to blow up the core and move right along. That told me that we had a lot of wiggle room right now with our strategies, and we didn’t even have a full team yet.
Well, ‘Full Team’ was starting to become a very flexible term, if those regenerating wolves were a norm, an eight man team would still be evenly profitable.
But dammit, I liked six, it rounded out nicely.
Plus, I doubted regenerating wolves was going to be a normal kind of thing.
Hopefully.
As we approached the city, I realized that we were somewhat off course, more towards the southern side than the western that we’d come straight out from. That wasn’t too odd, though, we’d meandered quite a bit, dispatching small groups of common wolves, or just taking a look around for any other signs that something had been around.
For the most part, there wasn’t really anything worth worrying about. For some reason, there were even fewer wolves in this area than anywhere else.
That made our walk to the suburbs very comfortable.
Up until we saw what looked like a large rack of ribs hanging from a basketball hoop in front of a large, open yard, edging the forest with plenty of room to spare.
“There’s some guy sitting in chair in front that giant flank of beef over there.” Alice blinked, “I’m not just seeing things, right?”
I saw it, and a moment later Fran and Daniel’s disbelieving eyes settled on that too.
“What’s he doing out here?” I muttered, to which Daniel immediately answered.
Straightforward as ever, he said, “Why don’t we just ask him?”
He started forward from the tree line, and immediately caught the man’s attention.
“Wait, wait! Don’t come through there!” He immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, “That’s mined all to hell!”
Daniel froze, as did the rest of us.
“Uh… when you say ‘mined,’ do you mean what I think you mean?” Daniel’s mechanically altered voice broadcast clearly across the hundred feet between us.
“Yeah, explosives, pretty hefty ones.” The man called back, “Single file down the middle, that dirt path there isn’t mined.”
I looked around, and sure enough I noted that several spots showed overturned earth. I counted at least fifty such concave holes, my eye picking up traces of metal and blackened soot. They weren’t hard to detect when you actually looked. Others, at least another twenty mines, rested in varying locations. I could tell by the semi-freshly dug soil.
Luckily, as the man promised, the dirt path in the middle wasn’t mined at all, nor anywhere near it. As we got closer, I realized another detail. He didn’t come to greet us, and it wasn’t just because he was comfortable in his chair underneath an umbrella.
His chair was a wheelchair. Plus, it looked like he had six shotguns sitting around him that made it a touch difficult for him to casually move about.
“Gentleman, and ladies, nice day out, isn’t it?” the man greeted, calm. He wasn’t clean shaven, but his scruffy beard was hardly a mess. The impression I got from him was that he must have been an engineer, at least that’s the concept I had of him. He had an intelligence in his eyes, and was fairly good looking with a well defined jawline and body. In fact, even his legs hadn’t seemed to waste away fully, probably he’d only been without control of them for a short while before the meteorites fell.
“It’s a better day than some,” I agreed, “I have the feeling I know the answer, but what are you doing out here?”
He looked at me, settling longer on me than was comfortable. I realized my helmet was still off at that point, leaving my eye clear to view. I suppose that my skull-mist helmet visage wasn’t any easier on the eyes though.
Surprisingly, he didn’t think much of it, “My names Terry Garand, nice to meet you all, and, uh… sorry about the minefield.”
“What are you doing out here? Oh, I’m Alice DeLeone, by the way.” Alice was as energized as ever, she struck me as the kind of person who enjoyed meeting new people.
“I’m Fran Delia, and this big guy is Daniel Drake,” Fran patted the large mech on the shoulder.
Daniel waved, “Yo.”
Terry greeted us with a warm smile, “Nice to meet you all. And to answer your question, I’m hunting wolves.”
That answer was one that I expected, but I still examined the location. For one, I could barely smell the meat, and there wasn’t a swarm of flies on it, like I’d expected. This couldn’t have been too old.
“Should you be doing that? Alone, I mean?” Alice asked, quickly clarifying her point. She was probably trying to be conscientious of the man’s disability, but in either case I doubted that he would take any real offense to it.
“Err… well, no, admittedly not.” He shrugged with his smile never leaving his face as he spoke, “Honestly, I didn’t really think about that until I was already out here, but I don’t think I’d have changed my mind.”
There was a conflicted and fairly complicated look on Alice’s face at that, and I had to admit that I think I knew where the man was coming from. Not being able to walk wasn’t exactly a walk in the pa--
God that was an awful accidental pun.
I winced visibly, and the man noticed, “Ah, it’s okay, it’s not like I’m looking to die or anything.”
“No, no, of course not,” I waved that away, “But I did want to ask how long you’ve been doing this?”
He leaned further back in his chair, “Two, three days? I’m borrowing that house behind me for when I need a break, I just spray the meat with a neutralizing agent when I’m taking a break. Conceals the smell pretty well, and bugs seem to hate it.”
That explained some things.
“What’s your count at?” Daniel asked, leaning forward eagerly. Fran shot him a brief dirty look, wondering if he was being competitive. He coughed, “Just curious.”
Terry studied Daniel, or more precisely his mech, for a few seconds, a hand to his chin as he considered the question. At least, he looked like he was considering the question quite deeply, there was also a glint of excitement in his eyes as he looked over Daniel, though, so I couldn’t be sure.
“About… three hundred? Maybe more. They clump up pretty badly when they smell enough meat,” He sighed, “I haven’t really been able to tell, but I think I have to call it quits. That meats probably going to spoil something awful soon, plus I’m… well I’m getting very bored.”
I snickered at that, “Yeah, good strategies aren’t always fun.”
“Indeed,” he appreciated the subtle compliment, “I’ve got enough to make my purchase anyways, along with some nice other things.”
“What’re you picking up?” Fran asked, “It doesn’t sound like it’s a small purchase.”
His grin turned downright jovial, like a kid in a toy store on christmas, “Nope, it’s definitely not a small purchase. Most of the matter energy I’ve gathered is going into it. If you guys want, I’ll show you. But, I mean, it’s probably nothing you guys won’t be unnaccustomed too.”
That piqued my interest. We briefly glanced to each other, no one really harboring any particular disdain for the thought. “Sure, why not? Want a hand moving the guns?” I asked.
“Ah, yeah, please. I went a little… overboard on them.” He coughed, “I won’t really be needing them anymore, so just set them inside or something I guess.”
Not needing them anymore, huh? I hoped he wasn’t leaving them behind for no reason.
...I also happened to note the location in case we needed to pick up a few guns for some rookies, just in case.
We made our way through the streets, and Terry accepted my offer to help him get around. I felt like he was reluctant to accept, but he probably wanted to make his purchase as soon as possible. The man was a veritable font of knowledge, though, and unlike many people he’d devoted a great deal of time to researching the in’s and out’s of the obelisk system. It was becoming more popular by the day, and after checking up on fellow Legion progress in the area around the city, some of the teams were actually ranging a bit further from comfort zones. That was good, but I hoped they remembered that their safety was far more important than getting a few more kills.
Terry was indeed apparently a civil engineer of some sort, electricity for the most part. We didn’t need to prompt him for why he was wheelchair bound, he freely offered that he’d made a mistake and gotten himself zapped, then fell off of a ladder. He was lucky he didn’t crack his skull open, but not lucky enough to come out of it unscathed. His spine was damaged at the waist, but for the most part only denied him use of his legs.
To me, he seemed remarkably upbeat considering everything, but there were some things that he said that continually got me thinking about what his purchase would be.
“Human medicine and such isn’t quite advanced enough to help me. So I couldn’t really do too much about it.” He sighed, “I was pretty down about it for a few months, and then this whole biotics thing starting going down, so I wasn’t in a good place. I think about when the electricity went out I was coming to terms with all of this, since it was that or… well, die.”
“There’s always something to look forward too.” Fran offered out of kindness, “So, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you kept going.”
“Ah… thanks,” he shuffled in the chair, “I suppose you’re right, the obelisks happened, afterall. Oh, I think we’re in range here!”
I stopped, and then waited, “Wanna make your purchase here?”
“Definitely. Ah, err… you guys may want to step back a bit, I have no idea what’ll happen when I do this.” Chuckling nervously, Terry starting panning through his list.
We were all pretty aware of the fact that purchasing things, even suits, wasn’t really a danger to the people around us. Even so, we gave him space. From the looks on Daniel’s, Fran’s, and Alice’s faces I could tell that they were just as interested to see what he was purchasing as I was.
“Aaaand, here we go!” He declared, finalizing his purchase.
I immediately felt a charge of power surge through the air, accompanying the spawning of silver energy seemingly from nothing. It encase the man, and his wheelchair was unceremoniously spat out from the sphere. The form moved and contorted, and I immediately recognized it for what it was.
He was purchasing a mech.
Daniel was far more interested now, though I did notice Alice’s interest level waver somewhat. She wasn’t a fan of the large, hulking forms, opting for greater mobility instead. For myself and Fran, however, we were just as interested.
When it finally revealed itself, I was shocked - almost literally - by the mech that stood before me.
It was only seven feet tall, but was still quite bulky. What looked like electrified nodules protruded from parts of the white machine, arcing lightly to concave indentations sunken around them in the metal. It had two large arms, but the hands themselves almost looked too small compared to them, and were clearly meant for dextrous work. I noted, also, that the entire head and part of the torso region were left open, a low, open ridge the only thing somewhat protecting him from harm at the head level. However, it gave him plenty of view, and small antenna popped up from the sides, catching any stray electricity without delivering the shock to the pilot of the machine.
And from what I could see, a wave of relief and glee rolled over him.
“It’s working! Ah, I can feel it already.” He shuddered as he looked to ‘his’ feet, the machine stepping forward gingerly. A tingle of electricity ran up an external spine on the machine, and I noticed the way it regularly pulsed between where the back of his head would be and down to his hips.
“Well, that’s definitely interesting,” I nodded, “It looks like it’s designed with electrical weapons in mind?”
Terry nodded, “Yeah, that’s definitely part of it, but this one in particular is designed for users who may not have all of their limbs, or in my case, don’t have use of them all. But that’s not the best part.” He was ecstatic, just about shouting and seeming to be ready to jump for joy, something that I was wary of coming from someone who hadn’t been walking at all for months.
“The best part of this suit is that it’ll start reconditioning my spine and helping to fix me!” He calmed down somewhat, “I might be able to walk again.!”
“That’s great!” Alice met his enthusiasm, “What else can it do?”
“Umm… I have no idea.” Terry laughed, “Let me see about walking first.”
That deflated me a bit, but I suppose that being able to walk someday was probably his first priority. Honestly, as priorities went, I definitely couldn’t find any reason to fault him for that one.
[Perhaps… you’re thinking what I’m thinking?] Smith asked, and I could almost feel him rubbing his hands together greedily.
I grinned, “Say, Terry, do you have any plans for the future?”
[Ah, young man, great minds think alike.] I felt the Reaper A.I.’s satisfaction clearly, after all, we were looking to expand our team...