Linda's face lit up when I finished explaining the customization options clearly she loved her heavy weapons so she was right at home being the heavy weapon hero and she probably knew more upgrades that she could do that I didn't. Linda pulled up her menu and was about to switch her weapon when she noticed something on the screen.
"What is this about accessory slots?" she asked looking at the screen for what looks to be a Gatling gun.
"Oh right I almost forgot." I said honestly, "You need the customization menu to access them so I guess you not having the customization option until just a minute ago didn't even know they existed."
"That makes sense so what do they do."
"They're basically weapon add-ons that can add a different effects like poison or paralysis." I said bringing out the tribal spear which still had the flower accessory embedded in the tip, "For example this was a keychain that I put into the tip of the spear and it gives a poison attack dealing 30 points of damage over the course of 10 seconds."
As soon as Linda's eyes lit up I pretty much knew what she was thinking something along the lines of poisonous rockets and paralyzing Gatling guns would be badass and if used right could be unstoppable.
"Do you have any more of those keychains?!" she asked expectantly I guess assuming I had a whole box somewhere which I would have if not for that quartermaster.
I had to break the story about the quartermaster to her and her troop how he had a whole box of them destroyed and melted down and about how Regina had kept one figuring that they were going to be destroyed anyway so they obviously weren't needed and wouldn't be missed. Their expression went from annoyance to disgust it when I explain what a piece of shit the quartermaster was and about how two women had died at his hands but they were shocked when I told them he couldn't even put a scratch on Regina due to how high her stats were. Until this point they all admitted that they didn't know much about the stats and even Linda didn't really focus on them much due to the fact that there were other factors in play.
"So what about that piece of shit, what's going to happen to him?" Jess asked with a hint of bitterness and her voice.
"According to Caesar he's going to receive a trial and likely be executed."
This caught the troops by surprise as they probably assumed he wasn't going to receive any discipline for it. I'm not surprised given the stereotype of the legion however Linda seemed to lighten up a little.
"You really expect us to believe that." Jason said angrily.
"Yeah man Caesars probably lying to you given that the legion views women less than Brahmin shit." Mark said looking at me with some sympathy I guess thinking I was tricked which I could have been but I don't think Caesar was lying about this.
"Actually I can believe it." Linda said causing everyone to stare at her in shock except for me and Regina, "Don't look so shocked I mean I don't agree with Caesar by any stretch of the word however the reason they relegate women to incubators is because they need soldiers and future incubators not because they particularly hate women."
"It's actually unfortunate given that women aren't even allowed to hold a weapon even if they're making it considering Regina here actually knows blacksmithing she could probably make plenty of swords for them." I said which Regina blushed a little I guess at the look she was getting from everyone else there, "Think of how many women could be doctors or even leaders if they were given the chance so in the long run I think they're actually crippling themselves by not at least allowing women other opportunities."
"Why did you have to be summoned by the legion?" Jess moaned more or less thinking out loud.
"Yeah as far as I can tell you're nothing like them." Linda said, "I mean I guess we couldn't exactly control who summoned us but still the irony is so on the nose it's almost cringe-worthy."
I noticed it was getting a little dark so I figured setting up an actual camp would be the better option then trying to travel at night. Me and Linda figured sharing a camp would be better than going it alone so we all hunkered down in the building. I did show off that collection of gold which as I thought the NCR soldiers except for Rebecca disregarded it and the only reason she found it interesting was because she actually knew how gold could be used in electronics and manufacturing. Linda took several bars and a ton of scrap metal from around the warehouse mostly in the form of barrels that were empty and somewhat rusted but otherwise usable after being broken down in the weapon. I did switch to my hunting knife and go out to carve her off a piece of the feral ghouls flesh which after I brought it to her it grossed her out but she still put it in the weapon and I gave her a scorpion pincer and the other scorpion stinger which gave her access to the scorpion series, but the one she had a hard time taking was the shock collar from the basement which she did only because it did offer some stat bonuses.
"Thanks for actually sharing with me. You could have just hoarded it for yourself." Linda said offering a smile.
"I feel it's better that we're all on the same page." I say, "Plus I imagine you've already killed a couple of those enemies so just wanted to make it a little easier on you."
"You kidding, I killed a fucking deathclaw the other day and donated the damn corpse to a small town not far from here." Linda said groaning which I'd be kind of mad too because that's a freaking deathclaw.
"I really don't want to meet a deathclaw considering I'm stuck with melee weapons I'm going to have to get right up close and personal with those blades on their hands." I say which causes her to cringe.
"No doubt about it when you consider the fact that deathclaws live in packs It becomes even worse." she said.
"I've been meaning to ask, Regina is a slave girl right why did you bring her when you could have probably brought an elite squad of legionnaires."
"In truth they wanted to send me out with an executioner squad at my back."
"Seriously! that raises even more questions like why you didn't take him up on the offer I mean me and my squad probably wouldn't have been able to stop you?"
"Well for starters I'm not really on their side as far as their campaign goes so I don't really feel comfortable traveling around with a unit of their best soldiers." I said, "and second Regina has a kind heart so I felt like I could trust her."
"wow you're kind of a simple guy aren't you."
"I can't deny it I look at things as they are I guess that's why I can accept coming here so easily, but now that we're alone just the two of us I have a question."
"shoot."
"How are you coping with this coming to this world that should only be part of a video game and risking your life for people that you don't really know." I said looking at her a little seriously which to my surprise she didn't give any real reaction instead just began laughing.
"Well if I weren't here I'd be dead so I guess I don't really have anything else to do."
"Wait you'd be dead too?"
She told me about the day she got to this world It was only about 5 days ago when she got done with sports she said Hammer throwing (which wasn't a thing in my high school or college so I guess I was a little surprised by that) she got home and her parents asked her to come to their church.
She decided to take them up on the offer as she hadn't been to church in years and she was trying to get closer to her parents because they didn't approve of as she put it her lifestyle.
At the church there was an intervention staged by the priest and about a dozen members of the congregation to tell her the typical religious jargon about God wants women to be the keepers of the house and video games are a sin and she needs to feel bad about herself and how she needs to forget about college to find a husband.
She got up to leave and she got out to the parking lot but before she could even get into her car the next thing she felt was a sharp pain in the back of her head as she fell to the ground.
Then they started beating her with baseball bats while chanting some kind of prayers to her parents credit they did try to stop this but her parents got beaten up too when several members turned on them.
Fortunately the police arrived right before she could be killed because apparently her uncle called in concerned and asked them to check on her in case this intervention her parents planned went bad.
As an ambulance arrived along with a few more squad cars showing up the paramedics began loading her in as her uncle arrived to tell her this fact and that he was just concerned for her safety.
Given that she's in this world right now means she didn't survive because one of those cops was also a member of the church and before anyone could react he pulled his gun and shot her while she was in the stretcher.
"You lived in one of the Bible belts didn't you?" I asked.
"Yep right at the tippy top of Texas." she said which I noticed her accent but I couldn't place exactly where she was from.
"As for your lifestyle are you a lesbian or was it just the video games that they had a problem with?" I said although admittedly it wasn't much of a joke considering she actually died from this but she did take it and stride and laugh a little.
"I'm actually bisexual so I'm sure to them I'm worse."
"I doubt every cop was a member of that church so at least you know that every one of them is going to catch a charge for that."
"Yeah but in truth my parents weren't always super religious, in fact they actually tried to save me after it turned violent."
"Hopefully their injuries weren't too severe, I got to admit your uncle seems to have a good head on his shoulders."
"My uncle was never religious in truth he actually is an atheist so he kind of saw that church for what it was, but the only thing I'm really sad about is that he had to watch me die after he tried to save me and me." she said clearly looking a little down, "so how'd you kick the bucket?"
I told her the same story I told Regina how I caught my best friend and girlfriend having sex on her couch and then came home to find my mother had broken into my apartment. I felt weird telling the story again just a few hours after I told it the first time but otherwise it did feel good to tell it.
"At least my parents didn't intend to have me killed, but your mother actually stabbed you over fucking money that wasn't even there." Linda said angrily.
"The fucked up thing here is that I've only told this story to you and Regina and so far you and her have been more angry about it than me." I said causing her to look surprised at me, "I'll be honest I'm hurt, It's still a fresh wound and I know that I'm having a few trust issues right now because of it but all in all the only person I'm pissed off at is my mother because of all the other crap she did over the years."
"Yeah she sounds like a shitty person but what else could she have done that was worse than killing you."
I told her about the time that my mother sent three innocent men to prison because she didn't like black people and how she was one of the most racist and homophobic people I'd ever met and surprisingly she wasn't even religious by any stretch of the word so in reality she had no reason to be this way other than she felt superior to other people. I also told Linda about the time my mother put double the lethal dosage of Vicodin for an adult into my food when I was 10 years old and the only reason I survived is because I had the sense to call my grandpa when I felt weird and I still had to stay in the hospital for over two weeks because for one of those weeks I was in a coma.
"I'm afraid I can't compete with that." she said looking really uncomfortable I suppose that was an attempt at revenge for my earlier joke.
"Who's competing." I said which got her to ease up a little bit, "but seriously I'm actually taking comfort in the fact that she got hauled out in cuffs and no matter what she ain't going to get off without catching a murder charge."
"Seriously though I'd say it's a miracle you survived given the Vicodin is a restricted substance for a reason."
"Yeah although now I do have a pretty badass perk coming into this world." I said pulling on my status screen and showing her the perk card for food taster.
"What the fuck?!" she said looking at my status screen as we were still in a party she could see mine.
She realized something and looked at her own status screen to see that the available point total at the bottom of her special stats appeared which caused me to realize that she didn't know about them and they were just an invisible statistic until she realized that they were there. The fact that we had to share each other's power up methods was annoying enough but things like perks are also something you have to know about going by that logic you could also mean that ordinary people unless they know about it won't be able to access their perks either and the only reason I could see them is because that was a main feature of the fallout series of course that also means that it must be different for her as well.
"According to Caesar all the heroes are supposed to have some rudimentary knowledge of the world I know about it from a series of video games called Fallout." I say causing her to look a little confused.
"I know it from a VRMMO called wasteland Lords."
"Wait a sec did you just say VRMMO as in virtual reality massive multiplayer online." I say trying to process that but failing because that's some sci-fi level shit right there.
"Full dive VR technology has been out for about 100 years now."
"What year is it now?"
"2179?" she said looking at me like I was an idiot.
"Well where I come from it is 2019 and that full dive VR tech is only found in science fiction." I say causing her jaw to drop.
"So you're from my past!"
"Maybe, the next question is do you remember who the president was in 2019."
"Yeah it was Hillary Clinton the first woman president." she said with a little pride In that statement.
"I hate to burst your bubble but in my world it was Donald Trump."
Her face dropped and you could see the horror catching up to her as she realized the same thing I did, "so we're from different parallel world then."
"It seems that way and I'm jealous as all hell considering I wanted Hillary in."
"You have my condolences."
The two of us laughed a little but it was kind of annoying hearing what could have been. She was clearly thrilled about Hillary Clinton being in office and empowering future women and I was annoyed because I just didn't like Donald Trump and I was rooting for Hillary. We threw back and forth a few smaller questions but overall we got the answer we needed. As we were walking back to the group that had taken up the lobby Rebecca brought over a few coffee mugs.
"Thank you." I say happily taking the mug Well I notice Linda grimacing while taking hers.
I took a drink and gagged at the grittiness and bitterness that aside from being a little hot It was almost spicy and uncomfortable in my mouth which caused me to spit it out.
"Yeah, they don't have actual coffee in this world unfortunately you get this stuff." Linda said choking down a swallow of it.
"I think I can fix that." Regina said bringing over some actual coffee in two coffee mugs that she had made off to the side, "but I didn't think to grab any cream or sugar before leaving this morning."
I took a sip of it which got the disgusting taste out of my mouth and as Linda took a sip of her own mug she nearly choked on it surprised by the fact that it was actual coffee and not whatever they cooked together. I actually began laughing as her teammates looked at her surprised while she chugged the cup down despite being a little hot. Regina got several more cups and served the coffee which got a positive reception amongst the NCR troops.
"Where the hell did you get coffee beans." Linda said all seriousness which made her look a little more intimidating than I think she intended given that this woman was at least half a foot taller than me and I'm 5'10 and that's not even counting how ripped she was.
"Apparently they found a fully automated underground botanical facility under the Great salt lake so somewhere in Utah." I said sipping on my own cup of coffee, "they found a shit ton of herbs and spices that you can't get anywhere else namely the ones that have been spreading throughout legion territory are coffee and marijuana."
"So of all people the legion actually cultivates coffee beans." Linda said looking at me wide-eyed.
"Yeah they tolerate coffee and marijuana because they're naturally grown substances that don't need any excessive processing or additives." I say taking a seat with the others who drank their coffee slowly actually enjoying the taste although it was black and maybe a little bitter it was nothing like what they were drinking, "by the way what the hell was that stuff that you people brought at first I thought it was coffee but that was definitely nothing like real coffee."
"Quit being delicate." Jess said a little annoyed.
"Hey you can call that swill you all drink coffee, but tobacco, honey mesquite pods, and charcoal is not coffee." Linda said getting annoyed with Jess probably due to how confrontational she was or she just took her coffee very seriously.
"S...sorry ma'am." Jess said looking a little meek surprisingly.
No one else really had anything to say because the actual coffee definitely beat that horrifying brew they had brought. You got to wonder how desperate someone was to wake up that they would mix tobacco with honey mesquite pods and charcoal together and then drink it. I look over at Regina and see that she's actually beaming with a little bit of pride clearly happy she satisfied everyone to be honest I actually forgot to grab coffee this morning I'm glad that she thought to get some. Everyone sat around talking which was kind of nice considering they were all thinking of capturing me just a few hours ago but now we're sharing cups of coffee and sitting around a campfire that we started in the middle of the lobby.
"Excuse me ma'am." Rebecca said to Linda causing everyone to look at her, "He gave you all that stuff earlier what exactly what kind of weapons did you get."
Everyone looked at her expectingly I guess it was a question on all their minds in truth I didn't check earlier but I was curious about her level. A thought crossed my mind and I checked my inventory to find that the windigo hand was in there and it only had four fingers so when I absorbed it before it must have only processed one of the fingers to give me the wendigo claw which I can't use yet.
"I didn't check earlier but what level are you?" I ask Linda.
"I'm level 15."
"Then you might be able to use this." I say pulling the windigo hand out of my inventory much to everyone's surprise and as I chopped off a finger and handed it to her you could practically hear them gagging as I put the hand back into my weapon.
She took it hesitantly and dropped it into her weapon and made a gasp when she saw the new weapon she acquired. She kind of looked a little unnerved however even though we were all in a party temporarily I couldn't see the notification that popped up. She got up and changed to the weapon which looked to put it mildly menacing as hell. It was a massive harpoon launcher that was small compared to most heavy weapons from the game however still had to be hoisted up over her shoulder and aimed carefully with a small visor on its side at eye level with her face, but the most important part of this was the harpoon itself having multiple claw-like protrusions coming out of the fat spike that made up the head of it in every direction possible meant that even if you were grazed by it you'd still lose a lot of skin.
"That weapon looks wicked." Jess said before turning her head from the weapon to me, "What creature did you carve that from."
"It's called a wendigo and there's a whole mountain of them apparently over in legion territory." I said putting the rest of the hand back into my inventory.
"Wait a Wendigo you mean like the old native American legend." Linda asked.
"Yeah there was a creature in fallout 76 called the Wendigo as well so it's actually one of those."
"What kind of creature is it? Some mutant wildlife or an FEV experiment?" Linda asked observing the weapon in her hands.
"If it's anything like it was in the game it's actually a mutated human." I say causing everyone to stare in shock except for Regina who would see me actual body.
"You mean like a ghoul?" Rebecca asked, "What did you mean by game?"
"Think of a game like an interactive story book that you can play through as a character you make."
"You mean like one of those choose your own adventure comics they used to have back in the day." Jason said looking a little excited.
"Yeah something like that but these stories are based on this world that's how me and Linda know so much about this world."
"I was going to explain that when I found a way but it seems like you've already had this conversation." Linda said looking a little relieved.
"Caesar already popped the questions about how I know so much about this world figured whether he loved or hated the answer I'd just tell him." I said, "oh and for the Wendigo I'll be honest the story was never really clear on how they were made It seems like people with a pension for consumption have something in their genetics that triggers the transformation."
"You mean people who are greedy or gluttonous?" Rebecca said taking a serious interest in this for some reason.
"Yes although most of the evidence points to people with a pension for cannibalism over other factors."
"I guess it makes sense that a cannibal becomes a monster." Mark said looking disgusted which everyone looked a little disgusted.
"A major difference between the game and reality is that in the game they were only found in one place and that's over in West Virginia specifically the Appalachian mountains and not on some random mountain in legion territory." I say sitting back down and drinking my coffee.
"That's actually why we need to get stronger because even Lanius and 300 legionnaires couldn't take this mountain and now master Derek is expected to in order to get the dragon hourglass." Regina said a little frustrated which saying it out right it sounds like an impossible task even if I raise my levels but I guess it is what it is.
"Wait a dragon hourglass is located near this mountain." Linda asked.
"Yes it's somewhere out near the middle of legion territory so it's about a week long trip and the wave they suspect will be in 3 weeks." I say, "although the only thing I'm confused about is how they know how long it will be if they haven't seen the hourglass?"
"Actually I can answer that." Regina said.