Yesterday had been productive, and Flora was still in a good mood in the morning.
When she exited the workshop, her flat was neat and tidy again.
Satisfied, she looked around. Only the parts too small for getting picked up by the Hungry Chest were left.
For cleaning up the rest, Flora learned a new spell variant. Its base was Magic Pull, but that spell was optimized for out of combat use and targeted a wider area with multiple objects. The mana scaled with the weight of the pulled items, so it synergized well with the Hungry Chest.
She pocketed the container and beamed to the 3D-printer.
To feed the printer with materials, you had to dump them into the 4x4x4 area where the printing took place.
The process operated precisely reverse to the printing. The Lasers took away layer after layer of the material. To Flora, it looked like the junk got deleted by a laser eraser.
'Fascinating, but spooky. What would happen to a living being?'
When she put the Hungry Chest back into her inventory, she saw the other three containers. She hadn't looked into them yet, mainly because there had been no place to put them with her floor occupied by trash.
With trepidation, she opened her first treasure chest. She hoped that her camping equipment, page-turner, and other stuff had survived the explosion.
Frozen, she stared at the densely packed content.
The statues had survived the explosion! Earlier, Flora had noticed with entertainment that the blast had disassembled the crafted items neatly into their parts. She hypothesized that because the sculptures were carved out of solid stone, the destroy-algorithm didn't work on them.
Finding components of the plasma swords on the bottom of the container confirmed the thought.
She carefully touched one of the statues.
Lady Mnoder versus Trara Sampetime - Mannequin-Routine
"I will kill you!" A blond young woman with wild hair screamed and brandished her plasma sword.
"No, I will kill you!" Lady Mnoder giggled.
Based on the voice, Flora guessed that Lady Mnoder was substantially younger. Flora even caught the motion of brandishing the plasma sword. It was still incredibly smooth, but in the other routine, and when she met the Lady, the sword had practically teleported into her hand.
Trara raised the sword above her head and charged at Mnoder. Gracefully, Mnoder sidestepped the chop and lashed out with her saber. The girl ducked under it and rose up with a stab.
Flora felt the body bending and weaving. It reminded her more of dancing or maybe even dodgeball than fighting.
Now, Flora realized that the blades never met. She rummaged through her rusty physics knowledge to come up with what would happen when two plasma streams intersected. One thing she was sure of: parrying was out of the question.
At last, Mnoder managed to cut deep into the leg of her opponent. Trara went down and stared with hate-filled teary eyes on Flora.
"Alright, I win!" Mnoder exclaimed cheerfully. "Please feel like I killed you and go on with your life."
She turned around and walked away.
"I will get a new leg, and I will hunt you down!" She heard the girl yell.
"Sorry, I don't have time for this." Mnoder came back and beheaded Trara.
The routine ended, and Flora raised her eyebrows.
In the real world, having a collection of heads, you cut off yourself, looked very bad. It would lead to a stay in a room with barred windows and probably padded walls.
But in a fantasy game world?
'What would I do if someone came relentlessly after me, would stop for nothing to kill me, and the world had no restraining orders or policing?'
Flora watched the rest of the routines.
They didn't clear up her doubts. Lady Mnoder sure said her fair share of cheesy villain monologues, but her opponents weren't that different. No routine showed her torturing someone. At the opposite, she gave some of her enemies outs to survive. Alright, it was more in the spirit of "join me or die", but still...
Flora decided to ignore the Lady. Her goal was to survive with as many civilians as possible and not to make moral judgments.
Next, she replaced the tier 0 materials in the Hungry Chest and her new mech-suit with the tier 1 doom moon materials and printed them out.
Yesterday, she had bought an S-rated design for a space-ready mech-suit. She colored it solid green. Furthermore, she fashioned a removable skirt to add a bit of modesty to the skin-tight outfit.
Name: Sleek Assassin
Modification: Ivy League
Type: Mech-suit
Built-In Feature: Sprint. 30 sec CD.
Built-In Feature: Assisted Stab. 30 sec CD.
Built-in Skill: Rocket-Boots. 3 mana per burst.
Effects:
+ 150% OV physical power
100 HP
30 min survival without air
Tier: 1
Rating: S
For getting accustomed to the new suit, she ported to Trick Beach and did the daily quest.
Where Counter-Flow hindered her movements, Ivy League supported them. Flora reveled in the feeling of power and freedom.
Because of her continuously changing stats and outfits, she acclimated fast.
As the final test, she did the weekly free-running quest.
Weekly quest 'Roof Parkour':
Complete the Roof Parkour.
Rewards: Reputation, Trick Beach-Voucher
Difficulty: C
Completion: B
Back in her lair, she checked the list for the scenario.
Get two lock-picks for hacking: Check!
Learn to hack: Check!
Get something to train hacking: Check!
Learn to fly: She had watched an experio and a tutorial. That was enough to give her the ability Piloting: Planes.
Get a space-capable mech-suit: Check!
"I'm ready for round two!"
Aidan to Flora:" Mission: Get political overview and info about the Doom Moon."
"Open the hangars. Here, the H-Fighter comes!" Jake coaxed his daughter by waving a spoon filled with mash.
Flora to Aidan: "Oh, no! I forgot to load Robby's pictures out of the cloud! Aidan, remind me for the next attempt!"
"The pay is excellent, the forepeople are okay, and we can work on the hugest project ever! Alright, the higher-ups are a bit on the stiff side, but I practically never encountered them." Jake showed off his dimples as he grinned at her.
"You forgot to mention the terrorists! I am frightened by them. They proclaimed that they want to destroy the moon before it is finished."
Elena said.
Flora couldn't look her into the eyes. 'I'm sorry. I failed to bring your husband home. I'll try harder this time.'
"I'm not up to date with the terrorist situation. Could you tell me about their goals?"
"What is there to explain? They are anarchists and want to destroy everything we hold dear!" Elena snapped.
"Elena's uncle was killed in the uprising on Xenysia." Jake took his wife's hand and caressed it. "Auntie Flow didn't know about it."
"I'm sorry. I'm out of touch."
"No, no. I'm sorry for overreacting."
This wasn't going well.
"So how can the Doom Moon help us?" Flora gave it another go.
"Not only has it all the weaponry of a big destroyer, but it also contains a superweapon." Jake began to whisper. "You don't have it from me, but it will be possible to smash whole strongholds with it."
"But not whole planets, right?"
"The Energy forbid for such a weapon to exist!" Elena exclaimed, but Jake looked unsure.
"I haven't thought about that, but those terrorist strongholds are pretty sturdy, it might actually be easier to destroy the planet's crust than them."
"So, the Doom Moon will fly to the terrorists' planet and bomb them? Can it travel through hyperspace?"
"I spoke with one of the engine technicians, and he said they are working their asses off to make it happen, but heat management is a beach."
"So how many strongholds do they have?"
Jake shrugged.
"I just thought it might be easier to produce a few tons of drones and drop them than one big moon. The Doom Moon has practically a target painted on its back."
Elena nodded.
"What do we grunts know about politics and warfare?" Jake shrugged again.
"You said it! Can you show me around in your apartment and the neighborhood?"
Flora wanted to see with her own eyes in what conditions the people in the Empire lived.
Jake and Elena's flat was cozy and neat. Hope's space had a lot of colorful toys, and the kitchen had an adequate amount of utensils. Nothing was in disrepair.
The apartment building was a few stories high and surrounded by similar structures with a bit of lawn and a few trees between them. They met other young families and saw older people sitting on park benches.
Elena pointed out the playground and the shopping center.
No signs of drug use on the playground and no homeless in front of the mall. Everything seemed perfectly fine. The people appeared to be content and active.
Flora didn't know what to make of it.
Hope played with a stuffed ape and gurgled happily until her toy fell out of the stroller.
Suddenly, Elena gripped her arm and turned her around with unexpected strength.
"The Icemasters want to destroy this." Elena pointed at a teenage couple making out. "They abhor human feelings and humanity itself."
Flora felt the familiar feeling of Magical Pull being cast behind her.
'Interesting. Little Hope fetched her toy. Even more interesting: Elena knew it would happen.'
"What are icemasters?" Flora asked, but she had an inkling.
"Wow, Auntie! You should read the news more often!" Jake interjected.
"We have energymasters who get their power from emotions; the ice-masters are the energy-users of the terrorists. They suppress all their feelings. They are even forbidden to fall in love."
Flora was deep in thought. The couple chatted more about their daily life, and finally, Jake asked the question, if Flora wanted to join him working on the Doom Moon.
"I agree."
The scene changed to the airport and then to the forewomen giving her the equipment. This time, Flora demanded two multitools from the getgo.
Quest completed: Enlist as a technician on the Doom Moon
Difficulty: E
Completion: B
"What has been the completion-rating on the first attempt, Aidan?"
"D, Milady."
"Hmm, interesting."
Clive, Handy, and Forky joined her again, and they started the first repair.
"Let's hack into the Doom Moon network. I want the blueprints of the moon, and I want to know if we can track Jake."
The first firewall and scripts fell quickly under the onslaught of the egg-beaters and toaster shurikens.
Flora had now access to the planning data for the deployment and blueprints for conventional equipment like small vehicles and planes, bots and turrets, and facilities like ventilation and plumbing. Aidan downloaded the information.
The next firewall was harder to conquer. Aidan and Flora were victorious, but some of the opposing side's scripts survived.
"Milady, we were discovered!"
"Can they get our location?"
"Yes, Milady, and they know that the attack came from your datapad."
"Download everything you can, as fast as possible!"
"What to do? Pretend to have lost the datapad or destroy it? Impossible, my last action was scanning the turrets. Nobody would believe me. Flee and hide?" Flora looked at the three robots. They were still busy repairing the turret.
"Hey guys, would you notice someone standing right next to you hacking into the Doom Moon network? Purely hypothetical, of course."
Handy and Forky said no.
"Of course, and I would as well notice if a squat of five soldiers is one minute away from storming into this room. Purely hypothetical, of course." Clyde answered cheerfully.
Flora remembered that she read in the robot user manual that her little friends were unable to lie and could be tracked via there network access.
So she bid them farewell, threw away the jacks and the datapad, and opened the next ventilation shaft.
After crawling through the tunnels, she dropped everything she got from the Doom Moon but the multitool and changed into her mech-suit.
"Is the multitool save, Aidan?"
"According to the specs, yes, Milady."
While crawling, Aidan updated her on his booty behind the second firewall. He didn't find out the specs of the secret weapon, but its location. It was at the center of the moon, and a shaft, wide enough for a fighter-jet, reached from it to the surface.
"Show me the way to the hangar." Flora smiled wrily. "When your reputation is ruined, you can do as you please: we are going to borrow a jet and take a look."
Quest: Repair Turret S24R91N85 on the Doom Moon
Penalty: Degradation to fugitive
Difficulty: C
Completion: Failed.
Quest: Survive on the Doom Moon
Rewards: Bonus XP for relevant abilities
Time Limit: 3 h.
Penalty: Death
Difficulty: B