----------------------------------------
/rehosted/
I grab the knife from my old uplink throat
/enemies listing: 4/
*RATATAT*
Bullets begin peppering my surroundings from the other end of the corridor
After dodging behind a corner, I take aim as soon as there is a short gap in the barrage.
*bang*
*bang*
/Enemies listing:3/
I pull a Chem grenade from my belt as I Return properly into cover. Then I throw it down the hallway. Soon the sound of a small *Bang* is heard as the grenade detonates, followed by its release of thick acidic gas…
screaming.
I continue down the corridor, leaving the enemies in their disarray.
/Target is due left from next corner Sir/
After carefully checking from behind the corner, I head into the room.
After giving a glance at the hundreds of hard drives in front of me, I get to work.
Operating the terminal at the center of the room, I re-engage the facility defences.
The sounds of guns echoing from down the hall signals me of my success.
/Objective complete. I knew you would succeed./
...Retaking the local hub won't be enough… Any further instructions from the Capital system?
/Negative./
…*sigh* for now we need to
----------------------------------------
Host reactive. Uplink Active.
My slowly opening eyes were welcomed by an old. Pale wooden ceiling.
Slowly moving my eyes around the room, I did my best to get used to where I was.
Soon I noticed some movement from the corner of my eye.
“Ah!”
A gasp of surprise was heard, followed by what I assume was the sound of someone dropping a bucket of water.
….Turning my head to the source of the sound, I leveled my sight on the culprit.
A woman similar to the raiding monsters I killed, the same darkish skin… the same thin body type… but those long, spike like ears were missing… correction, based on the scars… they were cut off, leaving a pair of mangled stumps for ears… unlike the monstrosities from yesterday there weren't any open wounds on her though.
There was also one other distinctive feature.
She was wearing a metal choker of an inch thick.
“I-I am s-so s-sorry sir, I w-will clean it up right away s-so.”
She was quickly told me, running off to get something to clear the water from the floor.
… Looking closely, I can see no soap in the water, and there was a towel among the water..
… Treatment for high fever?
/Highly probable./
Leo… What is going on?
/What do you mean Host?/
Why is one of those… things, quite clearly working as my slave?
/I am not entirely Certain. 96% probability for her to be a slave/
...Slave?
...Somehow I am getting a bad feeling about this… I assume you datamined from my current Host? Can you replay the memories?
/I am not entirely sure checking those memories will be usef-.
Just do it.
/Understood./
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*Pov: Adam Goldberg*
Fucking pieces of thrash. How dare they tie ME up?
Just how much has my father’s company done for them? WE gave them food,
WE Gave them a job.
WE gave them structure.
AND THIS IS HOW THEY REPAY US?
“Y-Young master please calm down.” Arnold, a clerk who works for father whispered next to me. Calm down?
A MERE CLERK WANTS ME TO CALM DOWN?
I am the GREAT heir of the Goldberg mines.
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Yet a mere clerk wants to order me around!?
Once the company guards come back and clean this mess up I will make sure he pays for his impudence.
...This is all the local lord's fault, if he had not enlisted the guards from our mines for his petty territory squibbling we could have avoided this… Once this is over I’ll make father drive him to bankruptcy…
While I was thinking about such things, a strange commotion occurred… It seems one of the stupid beast had failed to keep its post and got yelled at by another beast.
Well what else would you expect from a forest-demon. Heh.
Then something happened
“Wh-wha?”
As soon as the bigger beast took the other one by a shoulder, a pitch black mana transferred from one Demon to the other… it had been so fast that it made me doubt my eyes for a second.
Suddenly the bigger demon tried to haul the other one somewhere, after a struggle the small one tried to scream for help.
Heh, good, keep fighting each other you fucking beasts… The longer you dally the better the chances for the guards to arrive on ti-
*SNAP.*
The big one remorselessly snapped the small ones neck… and not just “snapped” …. It was clearly tore a full 180 degrees…
The sight made even the great MYSELF feel sick… jesus, they are truly barbarians… There was some conflict… ending with the big guy getting killed…
..Somehow his death made me feel relieved.. But at the same time I could not help but have a nagging fear… Just what was that darkness? It was clearly mana, I could feel it...But there are no Forest Demons with magical abilities… It is weird…
...
A few dozen minutes passed after the Demons finished preparing, It seems they are waiting until their dead are buried… Fucking beasts… They don't deserve a burial…
Suddenly, a commotion occurred again…A cry for help came from the direction of the their disgusting burial site… The Demons immediately rushed to investigate… At first I thought that perhaps this was a chance to escape… That is until I saw what happened next…
...Total chaos…
Forest Demons stabbing weapons into each others, cutting their own throats… screaming in terror and expressionless slaughter filled their self mutilating horde….
...To others.. It might look like they just descended into madness… H-Hell.. Even I am genuinely afraid.. Watching this… But not from their descent to madness… No.. I am afraid of the cause.
...It is because am Mana-sensitive that I can see it…
Jumping from person to person.. Calculated and cold… was a genuine demon… No… A haunting spirit…?
...Soon, the remaining Demons turned tail and ran… I want to run away too…
...Then, the Haunting ghost… perhaps still hungry for more slaughter turned towards us…
He walked past me, but his eyes didn't… I can tell… he is eyeing me…. D-Did he realize I can see his real form?...
...I heard some strange sounds as he did god knows what to the person behind me… I was frozen in fear…
….A-At any rate, My survival comes first! P-Perhaps If I promise him the lives of everyone here he will let me go… Yes T-thats it. I-I am ADAM GOLDBERG. Negotiations are in my blood. If anyone can survive a negotiation with an Undead it would be M-*REHOSTING*
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*POV MC*
…. Ah shit I fucked up again.
/To the contrary, this result is most beneficial result for the Host./
DUDE… AT ANY POINT! AT ANY POINT YESTERDAY YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD ME.
/.../
/...There was something to tell?/
…….I Hate you.
/...Ok./
...Fine, I don't but still! If I had known they were slaves I wouldn’t have…
...Fuck… I really screwed up this time.
/I assure you Host. This was the best solution/
...I honestly feel like I should not trust your word…
/I simply exist to serve./
…
The Slave girl from before returned with a pile of towels and began drying the wet floor… I had already forgotten about that by now…
...Looking at her frantically dry the floor I could not help but feel a bit hurt. The entire time she avoided my gaze and frantically let out apologies… I just said it was fine and left it at that…(Luckily it seems my accent is not off, this language is still weird to my mouth..) But I think my silence after saying so made her even more frantic, seeing as she suddenly abandoned her cleaning attempts and began begging for me to not make her ‘disappear’...
I tried to tell her I wouldn't but it seemed to only aggravate the issue...
..I suppose it was to be expected, with the original Host for the body having a personality like THAT….
After resigning to give up on trying to calm the poor girl, instead asking her to tell me what happened whilst I was passed out… She was obviously scared and apologized often mid speech about her “lack of knowledge” and such… But basically what she told me was easily summed up as:
* “ I “ had been passed out for the last 2 days with a heavy fever. (/The Host passing out caused the RE-Rc to emergency disable the connection. Causing the Uplink to receive some damage./)
* It seems the “company guards” that Adam mentioned in his memories had come back a few hours after I first lost consciousness, they rounded up the surviving escaped Forest Demons, and provided on-the-scene aid to the wounded among the human populace.
* During my unconsciousness, I was brought….”home” to my “father's” company headquarters in the nearby city “Col”, where I was being cared for… oh, and apparently “father” was off doing business elsewhere.
...Looking at her desperate face I could not help but feel guilty towards these “Forest Demons”... I did just run a mass genocide on their attempt for freedom after all..
...Perhaps fueled by my guilt, I decided to ask the poor girl for her name… Seeing what Adams personality was, I don't think he had known it, so the question wouldn't be too strange…
No no… would an arrogant prick like him ever ask for a slave’s name in the first place?
/Whilst I do not think the name of the potential Uplink in front of you is useful, I can extract it from her mind if you wish./
...No thanks…
...I was still wondering about how to go about explaining my thoughts, until I realized I had been looking at her thinking for the last 4 minutes in silence…
...The poor girl was pale as fuck…
I feel even more sorry now…
I decided to give up on it for now and spare the poor girl from any more mental stress, telling her to go get me some water.
…
After a few minutes, she came back with a nice cool wood mug of water.
...Whilst sipping it, I began wondering in my head.
If nothing else, I have secured an Uplink with a source of food… But what do I do now…
...No, more like where on earth am I?...
… Am I even going to find a way back to the Facility? If I don't that might be bad in its own way...
/RE-Rc is closely monitoring Uplink location, finding a way back won't be an Issue./
That is a relief…
“You. What is your name?”
After Finishing the cup of water, I asked the slave. Hopefully playing the arrogant personality off properly.
“L-Lalailu, Master.”
..Did she stutter, or is that part of the name?
..Fuck.
Well if it was a stutter, I will just repeat it in the sentence, playing it off as sarcasm!
“Well, L-Lailulu, Don't be so stiff, I promise I won't punish you unless you do something worth punishing.”
I gave her The closest thing I could to reassuring smile as I patted her kneeled form at the shoulder.
“Now, can you go get me something to eat? I am starving.” I told her, trying to keep the smile going.
“-!”
...I am not sure what the expression she had there was.
“R-Right away Master!”
“- Just ‘Sir’ is fine.” I told her…
Probably asking to be called “Adam” or “Mr. Goldberg” was out. Even I am not stupid enough to think that would be normal in any slavery culture.. But being repeatedly called Master makes my skin crawl…
“B-But”
“I SAID.” I raised my voice, a little, causing her to instantly take a step backwards in fear
“It's fine.”
At first, nothing came out of her mouth.. until eventually she mumbled a quiet
“Yes S-sir.” As she disappeared to get me something to eat.
Was that believable enough I wonder.
/No. Your behaviour is 90% at odds with the data mined from the memory of your Uplink. Would you like me to schedule an upload of the original Uplink’s behaviour for later?/
...Something makes me think that is a bad Idea.. Is this going to integrate His arrogance into me, or something?
/Yes. It is the easiest way to make you behave in-character. Of course those memories can be deleted later to fix user personality./
..No thanks.
/Are you sure?/
...Yeah, I am good.
/Understood/
...After receiving my breakfast from “L-Lailulu”, Some fruits and fresh bread… A shit breakfast, but I will make do I suppose.
As I ate, I kept asking questions from Lalailu (turns out the extra “L” really was a stutter, seeing how she seemed embarrassed from me repeating her name in that form…) It seems the original “Adam” had noticed her in the last shipment of slaves for the mines and decided to keep her.
That would explain why she didn’t seem to have all that many skills necessary to a house slave…
The fact that probably would have slaughtered her too if she was there during my kill spree only made that little prickling guilt in my stomach worse.
I decided then, that If I ever found a good way to do so, I would help these people.
And for that purpose, I might keep this body for a bit longer.