After talking about it a bit the siblings decided that they should buy 4 personal shields totalling at 160 Apts, Laura would get 2 digital guns and the remaining 40 Apts in Alex's account will be stored,
They confirmed the purchase by clicking buy next to the catalog, Just as they finished purchasing a message popped up
["As the first purchase has been made, please bind the market to any device, As the chip has been bound to a host you may switch devices at will in case of the device being lost or stolen- pre-recorded message end."]
This sudden prompt confused the siblings, why would they bind the market to a device when its working perfectly as is. Infact this way its more convenient to them so they nodded at each other and decided to trust the market this once, Alex took out his phone and clicked on settings in the chip interface, there he found a method to link it to his phone and did so.
A normal installation sequence activated which as soon as it reached 100% Alex saw an app icon for the market, he picked up his phone but suddenly a light came out of its camera and digitally constructed 4 round objects like shirt buttons. Alex knew such a thing was impossible for his phone or any phone for that matter, how could a phone materialize something out of this air? the shock made him drop his phone but it had no scratch on it after impact, infact as soon as it fell as if instinct Alex tried grabbing it with too much force but it got flung across the room and he almost thought it broke. Realizing that the app modified his phone he nodded at Laura who binded her phone with the chip too. The chip lacked a 'system' like Q and A. The only answers it had were pre recorded despite that it seemed to have a life of its own. Excited by their first futuristic purchase, I mean who wouldnt be? The siblings picked up the buttons first and saw there was a form of hook that can be wrapped around their shirts or hair.
Alex put his button on his shirt but Laura latched it onto her hair. They felt a form of thin layer covering them as soon as they put it on. Alex reached out for one of the guns but he felt a thin gap between his hands and the gun to thin to be noticed by anyone else. he aimed at a tree leaf outside and shot. He missed splendidly and hit the tree which as if glitching out completely disappeared
"If it can destroy a tree in a single hit, I wonder why the system acted as if it is only good for small creatures"
A question towards no one but the equally shocked Laura calmed herself down and answered for him
"Perhaps the future 'apocalypse' has giant mutatated creatures which are common?
next they decided to test the shield, Alex took his off and put it on a small toy doll in Lauras room, learning from his earlier mistake he shot the doll near point blank and surprisingly although there was a ripple in the film which made it seem unstable it held out. He shot the doll twice in quick succession and the film disappeared for a few seconds. Thrice and the dolls clothings disappeared leaving behind the doll and the button like shield. The siblings were glad Alex experimented with it because if they had shot something like a car and only its wheel disappeared they would be pretty screwed. Ofcourse they realized that they wouldnt normally even need to shoot a car so the excitement died down.
"Atleast, we know it can take two digital shots without problem in quick succession."
Although the shield boasted 20KG TnT protection. Seeing it in action was a different story it seemed like an all purpose shield and not one geared towards explosives alone. 20KG TnT was basically any and all common explosives so the shield in todays time was pretty much a 'all protect'. At the very least they wouldnt die of bullets
"Perhaps we should have bought something to help our financial state brother?"
"Sorry I got caught up in owning a self defense weapon and didnt realize it would be useless in most situations"
"Well brother, its not useless, if we make money someone might aim for us"
They then made their way down and gave their parents the buttons. They didnt tell them about the market but they told them that the the tattoo's on their necks spit them out. That they had no control over it and when Laura fell down there was a thin film protecting her which could only be the buttons. A lie is believable if its 60% truth no matter how unlikely it seemed, as for why they lied? They didnt wish to worry their parents who might have thought that they made a deal with some sort of demon or some shady business. They didnt trust the marketplace but it seemed to be pretty much give and take
"Alright thank you for giving us these, Now we need to go search for a job so you two behave yourselves alright?"
""Yes father""
Alex stored his pistol in his pocket and went to college perhaps even wishing to show off to Ray but Laura saw this and reprimanded him. She asked him to keep it a secret from everyone unless an emergency pops up then went to her room after seeing him off.
'She is right, I got careless. Although Ray may not betray me I cant completely erase it as a possibility'
So he went to college like normal, had a normal day with a bit of banter and a bloody boring time. When college was over he was stopped by a girl.
"For the last time stop sending me those creepy love letters"
She said and threw the letters at his face
"For the last time stop saying I sent them to you, you may not have a reputation to uphold but I do. What would people think if I send a letter to you?"
Obviously irritated by her constant harassment over something he didnt even do he put himself on a higher level simply to tell her he is not interested and that she should find the one who actually sent them, ofcourse the girl already knew this ages ago but if she stopped now she would be admitting herself as inferior, pride is such a weird thing.
"Indeed you know that you are not worthy of me, sorry for doubting you all this time"
Alex unable to come with a reply to her shameless remark just ignored her and walked past. He then bolted to the forest like area behind the jogging park and took out his pistol, not the weird kind mind you. Give a boy a futuristic weapon and you can not expect him not to atleast play with it. He shot a few small items and bullied ants like he was 13 again. After a good 20 mins he decided to stop before someone sees. Ofcourse in a city everything is seem by someone in this case the lover letter girl who ran after him as she wasnt finished with what she wanted to say.
Alex only shot small objects so she just passed it off as a weird occurrence but still decided to ask him how he made such pebbles seem to magically disappear with such special affects. Admittedly she was a bit dazed by the show and headed him as well once it was over.
Alex decided to see if he could sell a tree and pulled out his phone to scan it but it just gave an error as if the tree itself was useless. He figured that the immortals probably dont even breath air and the apocalypse probably has alternate methods even if they dont have trees. After all if the future was anything like the one we are headed to the trees would probably have to be replaced.
Walking on he saw a smartphone dropped on the floor, it seemed pretty expensive but it was locked and with how easy tracking devices is nowadays he decided to see if he could sell it, he scanned it and decided to see how much it is worth
["200 Mpts, 0.1Apts"]
Strange this time it is worth a lot of martial points, the chips had their worth due to the first bonus but why does this phone have such a worth. He sold it to the immortal market and closed the app. He knew he couldnt just keep purchasing phones to feed it as phones cost more than a pack of chips, especially such an expensive brand but perhaps the brand name wouldnt affect anything? After all to the immortals Banana products or Dimsung products have no difference apart from features and specs only idiotic humans would care about such a thing as brand name rather than specs. Alex belonged to the type which didnt care for expensive brands as long as they were efficient perhaps due to not having too much money.
He hurried home and decided to consult with his sister about it, not caring about the fact he just zapped a poor guys phone right out of existence with zero remorse but then again how many of us would return a dropped wallet?
After reaching him he saw a message notification, thinking it was Ray or something he decided to check it but then saw that tt was from a user named lowkeyimmortal which wasnt a weird name but the app the message was from was the marketplace app.