Knock! Knock! Knock!
Grey woke up to the sound of knocking. He opened his eyes to get moving but found a video game interface instead of the ceiling.
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Your Professional Alibi for Crow is now ready.
Would you like to read it? [Yes/No]
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Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Alyx, are you up yet?" A man called out, "The Don is here to see you early and is waiting!"
Grey chose yes and glanced at the alibi for a fraction of a second before closing the window and checking the clock.
It was 4:15 pm, hours before he had to be ready. "Yeah, I'll be right there, Tommy! I fell asleep due to the intensive experience!"
"Thank God, hurry the hell up!" Tommy yelled nervously, "I'm getting the Don now, so get ready!"
The teen panicked, looking at the burner helmet, and quickly shoved it into a closet. Then he unpackaged the new gear as quickly as possible.
It was a race against the clock to make it look like he was using their gear! He couldn't believe how stupid he was to forget that.
Knock! Knock!
"Can I come in?" An amused voice called out.
"Y-Yeah, you can!" Grey stuttered, pulling out the gear at the last moment. He hadn't set it up yet.
Dean walked in and turned to the teen on the floor with the VR gear looking pristine—unused. "Hoh? What's this?"
The teen's heart thumped, looking at the gear. "This kit is exceedingly expensive, so I'm packaging it where it's safe from harm while I sleep. It keeps my mind focused on daily care."
After staring at the teen blankly, the man burst into laughter, making the teen wince. "Don't worry, boy.
I just find it amusing that you'd act so frugally when you paid off this machine numerous times over on the first day without seed money."
"Thank you for taking notice of my efforts, Don." Grey bowed slightly after standing, "I hope to live lavishly in my free time but believe in austerity for business. I've seen far too many people lose discipline and fall because of it."
"Yes, that's an astute lesson that many never learn." Dean narrowed his eyes with a strange smile, "It's good that you learned that early."
The teen nodded with a smile.
"Ah, yes." The man smiled, "I want to congratulate you for making a record amount of profit for a zero-day startup.
We expected you to learn to use a weapon like everyone else, not exploit in-game rules to make an immense amount of money."
Grey suppressed the desire to widen his eyes in surprise. He closed them pensively, reading the screen he had memorized. "Thank you, I was just satisfying my curiosity and it paid off."
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Alibi
Username: Crow
Money Earned: 10,000 Zecta
Activities: …
Racket: sharking military members in a betting racket, saying they couldn't beat you in a fight. You listed the fights as test training to try out combos and weapons, which restored your stats after every five seconds. As a result, you were invincible and earned EXP.
…
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"Is that so?" Dean smiled mysteriously, "Well, I hope you continue to be a curious person. Please take care, Alyx."
Without further discussion, the man walked away, leaving the teen stunned.
***
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Ryker Corp VR | Aspectum - Copper
Welcome, User!
Starting Myriad Online….
Loading User Profile….
[████████████████████████████]
Load Complete.
Welcome to Myriad Online; May your journey lead you to divinity.
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Grey opened his eyes in Myriad with a deep breath. "It's only 6 am. Let's read about mechs, transcendence, and weapon usage requirements."
After reading for an hour and a half, he got a knock on the door. He opened it and found the five mercenaries he had paid the day before.
"Did you all actually resign and accept my offer?" The teen asked in amusement, looking at the three men and two women in full battle gear.
"I resigned." Mark smiled in self-deprecation, "I just made three years of good wages in a week, so not doing that would be stupid."
The group burst into laughter.
"I'm not sure why you make it sound bad." Valeria laughed, "I fuckin' hated that job, so here I am. I would've done it even if the money you were payin' wasn't stupid."
Grey had paid them 100,000 zecta that week and bought them top-level weapons and gear from the military.
"Good, we have some money to make." He smiled, "I have someone I need to see."
***
"Lieutenant Major!" Grey yelled grandly, grinning. The poor man looked around, desperately trying to find an excuse to flee. However, he couldn't do so.
"H-Hello, Greed." Lieutenant Major Mann said with a cracking smile, "What can I do for you?"
"I'm so glad you asked." The teen grinned, "See, I require some trucks; I'll rent them at a high premium. Additionally, I have a small request for the military."
"I can get you some trucks, but what is this [small] request?" The man winced, understanding only hell was coming.
"I'd like the Markov Military to remove all of its soldiers from the city this afternoon." Grey requested arrogantly.
"W-Wait, what did you just say!?" Lieutenant Major Mann cried, breaking his professionalism, "Are you insane!?"
"Naturally, I wouldn't make such a subversive request without reason and ample compensation." Greed grinned with a malevolent smile.
***
┌─┈━═[Live Stream]═━┈─┐
Welcome to Live Stream, Greed!
Record
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Please Choose Your Stream Title
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Name: What a Real Myriadian Gun Looks Like
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Description: I'm putting this bad boy on auction on Wednesday. The event hall will be posted on my profile in the near future, so remember to subscribe. ;)
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Would you like to start the stream? [Yes/No]
Live stream initiated.
3…
2…
1…
You are live!
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Greed stared out at the broken city streets with a relaxed smile. "What a wonderful day it is to test out the toys I just bought. What did I buy? I'll give you a hint—it's not a rifle."
The live stream did an aerial pan. He was in a large cargo truck 50 feet long, covered by a grey tarp. Three such trucks were moving through the city alongside a squadron of soldiers in humvees.
He got out of the truck after it stopped, casually stretched his arms, and performed calisthenics in the middle of a war zone. "Okay, time to unload, soldiers."
It would be completely absurd, but those watching saw his arms, covered in a black body suit that stuck to his skin like latex. However, it was half an inch thick and had silver grooves on the arms that looked like geometric spiderweb cracks.
It was clear to everyone watching it was a special power suit with a built-in defense barrier and combat-enhancing features, though they didn't know how special or powerful it was.
Only a few professional players would get an opportunity to buy that suit in the game, assuming they could afford it, and he had it on day three! That's how far he had cheated.
The soldiers looked at the teen hesitantly, not enjoying him giving them orders. However, they nodded and got to work.
A minute later, a flurry of notifications rattled off in the corner of Greed's eye when the audience saw the soldiers unload the massive gravity plasma railgun from the truck.
It made the teen chuckle in delight as he watched the soldiers set up a short but thick rebar-fortified T-Wall on the ground to act as a mount.
Then the soldiers lifted the cannon, placed the stand legs on it like a sniper rifle, and manually activated the drill feature, drilling it into the concrete block.
Another set of soldiers set up the butt of the cannon on another concrete block and fortified it with a ten-foot T-Wall.
"You may be wondering if it's necessary to mount this gun." Greed said to his fans, "Would you like to see the specs?"
Notifications exploded in his eye, prompting him to turn them off.
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Name: Gravity Plasma Railgun (Illegally Modified)
Type: Railgun | Mech Weapon
Requirements: Heavy Mount or A-Series Mech
Ammo Type: Custom Gas Canister (5 Shots Per/Canister)
Level: ???
Damage: ???
Condition: Hazardous
Description: A-Series mounted gun for an A-Series mech or higher. Used for ground annihilation operations when mass destruction weapons are not adequate or permissible.
Warning: This weapon has modifications that may change performance or cause it to explode.
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"Can you see that, everyone?" He grinned, "This gun is so absurd it smashes together overpowered gun names into one place. Gravity. Plasma. Railgun.
Add the words illegal and modified, and this thing's a sketchy beast of mass destruction."
He chuckled, looking at the black weapon, which looked like a ten-foot-long sniper rifle if sniper rifles could fit a basketball in the barrel.
"And wheeeeeeeeeeew!" Grey whistled, "Look at those question marks. Does that mean your level is too low? Nope!
This gun has undergone so many illegal modifications that it can no longer get appraised, hence its lack of power info and hazardous condition rating.
Now don't get trigger-happy, folks. If you buy a modded gun with a hazardous rating, it's certain to skull fuck you sideways.
However, I got a stockpile of these weapons after accidentally stumbling into an A-Class quest. So I'll stake my reputation, within transparent conditions, that they won't kill you when you buy them!"