Chapter 32: The Ghost And The Banker

  Have you ever walked into an ambush? I’m sure you have one way or another. How about one that you knew right away was so perfectly designed for you that even when you are aware of it, you have almost no choice but to spring the trap?

  That was how I felt the first time I met Diaochan, the real one, not the A.I. Her father placed her before me like a baited snare, and I strode into it gladly. The artificial being wearing her face knew all this, and just like the real one would have, she used it to ruthlessly spring a trap of her own. One I wish I could have ignored.

  The beautiful dark-haired girl reappeared in front of me on her knees, hands clasped and head bowed. That little illusory bitch even had tears wetting her cheeks and running down to her chin.

  “Please, Fengxian, Bu, my flying general, my peerless lord of the battlefield. Please accept his terms. A level eleven Evolution Suit will kill you as you are now, and...” Her voice cracked, and she let out a single sob in a perfect impersonation of the real Diaochan. “And I can’t watch you die again, I…I just can’t.”

  I knew she wasn’t the real thing, I really did. That didn’t stop my heart from feeling like it would shatter right then and there. You probably think that is stupid, and even I spared a moment to mock myself for caring about the feelings of a machine. I did care, though

  “You better find me the most expensive restaurant on this whole city tier. You understand me?” I snapped down at the weeping Diaochan. I don’t like running from fights, and accepting this pitiful peace offer felt far too close to that for my liking. The only way I could accept it was if I recontextualised this whole exchange in my mind as the lizard man surrendering. I didn’t really believe it, of course, he was trying to offer me a way out that preserved my pride, but that is what I told myself multiple times.

  “You mean it?” Came Dioachan’s hopeful voice as she looked up at me with those glistening eyes. “Yes, I mean it, now get out of my sight.”

  “Thank you, master,” she said with a deep bow, before vanishing completely.

  “Fine!” I called up at the Raindrop. I even deactivated my spear to show I was serious. “ But I’m warning you, I eat like I fuck, voraciously and multiple times in a single sitting.”

  That drew what sounded like a genuine laugh from the man hanging off the side of the building. Well, if he thought I was joking, I would soon disabuse him of that notion. Then, in a sort of mirroring of the first time, he dropped back down. This time, however, the raindrop stood like a man, rather than crouching like a beast. He then proceeded to tilt his armored hand onto its side, retract his bladed claws, and held it before me.

  While the gesture was a weird one, I had actually learned about it only a few days earlier, as it was common in this city and I had seen it performed enough times that I’d made Diaochan explain it to me. So I knew to seize his hand, squeeze it vigorously, and then shake it up and down.

  “Fabio De Medici,” He introduced himself, while I did my best to bend the metal of his gauntlet with my bare hand. I hardly crushed the thing, but I did feel it give a little.

  “Lu Bu”

  Just over forty-five minutes later, I concluded either Diaochan had lied to me about how expensive this place was, or that the proprietor of this eatery was purposely trying to keep things from getting particularly opulent. I had no idea why a successful restaurant would do that, but it looked rather on the ancient side.

  I had walked with Fabio to the edge of the hunting ground, where a car that his A.I. was driving met us. The vehicle could only access my forest from the southernmost edge, as that was where the nearby streets were wide enough and uninhabited enough for it to maneuver.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Unlike the raindrop’s armor, his car was an immaculately maintained beast of golden paint with a series of red ball icons making a sort of valley beneath a blue ball icon filled with three golden crosses. My HUD had identified the vehicle as a [KaiRoe- Infinite Crown LX Cruiser]. Which, according to the little box description that popped up in my vision, was worth an appalling amount of Digi-Creds.

  I didn’t like how the car was enclosed, and I couldn’t feel the wind on my face and hair as we drove, but I still allowed Diaochan to enter proximity mode so she could pretend to sit in the back and direct Fabio. I will admit I liked the leather of the seats, and the vehicle's ability to control the weather inside it was impressive. It did a bunch of other stuff too that the Raindrop bragged about, but I didn’t understand or really care about them. If it were important or dangerous to me, I’m sure Diaochan would have said something.

  Most importantly, the Infinite Crown was both fast and smooth on the move, enough to get us to our destination quickly. We were well outside the walled slums where I had taken up residence by the time we arrived. We hadn’t left the tier itself, so my surroundings were far less bright and clean than the city above. To my surprise, the dour stone building without even a greeter or windows at the front was marked in my HUD as a restaurant by the name of [Sector 404].

  “So are we planning on chatting while we eat, or are we just going to keep this awkward silence going after we go inside?” Asked Fabio as we strode towards the darkened entrance of the restaurant.

  “ I don’t feel awkward,” I replied and strode inside ahead of him.

  Once past the dark little room that served as the entrance, Sector 404 quickly opened up into a well-lit, high-ceilinged place bathed in changing colors and full of chattering people. It was strange that I couldn’t hear them from outside, but I supposed that was some intentional trick of design.

  Fabio entered a few steps behind me, his lizard-armor seeming to retract over his shoulders until only the plates on his back and the tail remained. The armour had been bulky and animalistic, so when it peeled back to reveal a man who was rather soft in the body, I was surprised. By the standards of this world, you would call him chubby; by the standards of where I am from, he was almost obese.

  Moments after we entered the high-ceilinged dining room, a massive bald man who was quite obviously more machine than man approached us with both demands that we place our weapons in a locker near the entrance, and a friendly greeting. As I begrudgingly surrendered my spear, a ‘file’ was sent from the man to my HUD, which Diaochan silently assured me was the restaurant's menu. I accepted the file and absentmindedly browsed my options as the pair of us were led to one of only two unoccupied tables.

  It was at that table that I once more put Diaochan into proximity mode so that she could focus on keeping my companion entertained, while I focused on devouring as much free food as I could reasonably get away with. As a twice-adopted member of the nobility, I really should have demonstrated more composure than that. What can I say in my defense? Three weeks of eating food prepared by Ji-Ho or Ha-Rin is enough to change one’s perspective on propriety. I know kimchi munchers have a reputation as excellent cooks, and while that may very well be true, it did not apply to the pair of engineers.

  The fact that the street vendors in the slums around their workshop sold some of the most dubious meats I have ever encountered didn’t help much on that front either. Also, truthfully, I have never much cared for all those rules about how one is supposed to behave. There is a reason I was called a beast and a cur by the stuck-ups of my own world. It never mattered, as long as I was the strongest, I could behave almost entirely how I wanted.

  “Excuse me, Mr De Medici.” Began the hovering Dioachan while I chose four main courses on the menu I had been sent.

  “Mmmm?” came the raindrop’s reply.

  “How is it that your Evo-Suit is such a high level, but you are only level two?” That was actually a good question from my A.I. The point of the evolution suits was to keep the children of rich people safe while they grew their own power.

  “That,” He said with a rather cheeky smile, “ is a little trick my brother and I cooked up so we could trade it back and forth without the levels resetting.”

  Diaochan summoned a chair that was just as ethereal as she was and sat leaning forward on her hands like Fabio’s words were the most fascinating thing she had ever heard. It made me repress a smile, as I had seen the real Diaochan do the same thing dozens of times.

  She would slowly make him feel like the most important man in the world, and by the end of the meal, would likely have gathered all sorts of useful information from the man.

  “That is fascinating. I thought Evo-suits were locked to stop that sort of thing.”

  He nodded, and I could tell it was already working.

  “We got a hold of a copy of the Enkidu’s software."

  I, on the other hand, had just discovered there was a second and third page of the menu featuring the ability to select desserts and alcoholic beverages. Naturally, I placed an order for four drinks and two desserts to go with my multiple meat dishes.

  Its like when one of those bots message you haha. Diaochan out here fishing for personal info.

  ANYWAY: New Bonus Chapter every 100 followers or Twenty Ratings! - Next one is when we hit 500 or 40.

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