"What kind of alien are you?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked, completely bewildered.

Bimic pointed at my Codex that was still on his workbench, "This thing… Is completely unusable by a normal human."

"Eh?" All three of us muttered at the same time.

He nodded, "Here, let me show you."

He picked up my Codex and slipped it onto his wrist before tapping on it.

Normally, that would cause a screen to pop out which was akin to the main menu of the game minus the settings and exit menu but nothing happened despite him continuing to tap it a few more times.

He then slipped it off his wrist and handed it over not to me but to Amber.

She realised what he wanted and peeked at me, which took me a moment to understand that she was asking for permission.

I nodded and she took it to slip onto her wrist to tap on it as well, only for it to have the same result.

"But… She could use it the last time though?" I blurted out, remembering how she manipulated the screens in front of me when we were looking for jobs to do at one point.

"Mmm… If I remember correctly, you were still the one wearing it on your wrist though? I never actually started it up myself," Amber recounted.

Oh yeah, that's true…

Lea then stepped forward and reached out her hand as well, "May I try as well, Captain?"

I nodded and Amber handed over the Codex to the Alv, who also slipped it onto her wrist and tried tapping on it.

The results were the same as the other two where it gave no reaction.

When Lea handed it back to me and I tapped on the Codex just like I always do, it immediately reacted and the familiar screen appeared.

Amber then came over to me and I angled the Codex towards her so that she could touch the screen and sure enough, she could move it around and interact with it without any issues.

I then took it off my wrist and it immediately shut itself off.

"So… What does this mean?" I asked.

Bimic scratched his head, "That's the thing I don't understand… It has some kind of function that only allows certain people to use it. But when I cross referenced its rules for the type of people that could use it, nothing came up. Are you even human?"

"I'm… Pretty sure I am?"

I mean… It's not like I got tested or anything, but Mara did craft that gene mod for me to grow my dick didn't she? Although I guess she didn't actually do a thorough examination on me so I guess even that was beside the point…

Right now, the others believe I appeared here through a space anomaly but I knew I was actually someone who was originally from another universe. And since the Codex came from the same universe as I did albeit in a different media… Maybe that's why it's different?

The Codex was designed to only work for players so maybe it scans if the wearer is a 'player' before it will work?

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I mean… That's the only conclusion I can draw from this.

I handed the Codex back to Bimic, "I don't know what to tell you but… Alright. I guess since you're working on it and all… I was involved in a space anomaly which resulted in me losing most of my memories. I found this Co… This personal terminal and it has worked for me from the start so I'm not sure what the details are."

He looked at the Codex in his hands seriously, "Hmm… Perhaps it has a bond function that only works for the first wearer? This is interesting… And you said you used this to hack into my door?"

I nodded.

He looked around the room before settling his sights on a weird looking box in the corner of the room.

He picked up the box and brought it over to place in front of me before handing the Codex back to me again.

"Could you show me how you would hack open this lock box?"

Hmm… I guess I could give it a shot.

I activated my Codex and tried to see if I could link to it wirelessly.

Seeing that I couldn't, I started looking for an input socket that I could plug my Codex into.

I found one on the side easily enough and my Codex also has the plug designed for it too so I just pulled out the wire and plugged into it.

With my Codex connected, I booted up the hacking 'minigame' and finished it in just a few seconds, causing the lock box to let out a metallic clang sound as the locks holding the door shut cycled open.

The door then unlocked itself and some stuff spilled out.

"Waaahhhh!! Don't look!!" Bimic screamed, already diving towards the spilled contents to start stuffing them back into the lock box.

What the heck… There's still porn magazines in this universe? Why do they even print them out on these things anyway?

Even better, why does this guy even store them in a secure lock box like this one?

I tactfully pretended to look elsewhere as the guy shoved all the porn magazines back into the lock box before activating the lock again.

He then took the lock box and shoved it in a dark corner of the room out of our sight before returning back to us.

"Ahem… So… Anyway… Cool. Wait, no! What I meant was what the fuck was that?! You broke into the lock box in less than a minute! How is that even possible?!"

I shrugged, "I dunno what to tell you but it has always been able to do it though…"

"Then what do you even need a Decoder for?! Even this one would have taken at least an hour to break through the security on that lock box!!"

I pointed at the data chip, "I mean… I couldn't read this with my personal terminal but the Decoder could…"

He gave me an incredulous look, "Isn't this just an issue of your personal terminal not having the same input socket as the data chip's? I admit that this data chip is using a rather old and already phased out connector, but all we would need to do is just install one on your personal terminal right? Your goddamn thing is already several times better than any Decoder I know in existence!"

I stared at him, "Err… Ok… Then can you help me install one?"

"You could have just gone to any hardware store and asked for it, you know? Heck… You could get this done for less than fifty Credits…"

"But… It still involves opening up the personal terminal and changing some parts right?"

"No? Wait here."

He went over to his workbench and started digging through the pile of stuff left at the side of said workbench.

He then pulled out something before coming over to me and placing it in my hand.

"What's this?" I asked, looking down at the piece of weird looking metal in my hand.

"It's a socket adaptor… Just plug one end of it into your terminal and then plug the data chip into the other side…"

…

Holy fuck I actually forgot that adaptors like this could exist.

I took the adaptor, plugged it into my personal terminal, then plugged the data chip into the other end of the adaptor.

A new screen popped up and it was basically the hacking minigame that I would usually do and I quickly unlocked it to reveal the data chip's contents.

Oh my god… It was that simple all along… I feel like an absolute idiot now…

Bimic then gave me a look, "So… I'm not that big of a fool to try and ask you for a million Credits just for something as stupidly simple as that… But could I just ask that you help me with something that I'm working on as payment for this?"

I raised an eyebrow at him after copying the files on the data chip into my Codex, "You want me to help you hack something for you?"

He nodded, "I have been trying to break through the security on this one file for the past few months but I've not been able to make any progress. I feel like this would contain quite a bit of information I need for my current job so I really need this file opened."

Amber butted in, "Sounds like you'll need to pay her if she succeeds in doing that."

Bimic nodded, "Yes, yes. I will definitely pay my dues if it's successful, don't worry about that. How do you think I managed to stay down here all this while without being found out? It's not like I don't need food and water down here to survive, you know?"

Oh yeah… How is he getting his food and water?

Guess I'll ask him later. Before that, I suppose I'll see whether I can hack that file of his.