The Gamindustri Graveyard.
Not a single gust of wind blows through these lands, not a single footstep echoes across these barren steppes.
But yet, amidst the emptiness, a small light slowly brightens, first a flicker, then a blaze.
The origin of this flicker? The body of CPU Purple Heart.
With a final blink, the CPU is bathed in light, before reverting towards her human form.
"Wow! Fifty favorites? That's like a huge milestone or something!" chirps the purple-haired goddess, now spontaneously free of her bindings. "Who'da thunk it?"
CFW Magic, who was reading a newspaper nearby, blinks at Neptune. "Wait, shouldn't you still be tied up?"
"I wiiill, just give me a second." states Neptune, as she waves off the scantily-clad villain. "I need to talk to my adoring fans first!"
"That's now how this is supposed to work." pouts her captor.
"Look, I'll go back to being a captive in a bit, just let me have this moment, alright?" mutters Neptune, rolling her eyes. "It's tradition!"
"Fine." shrugs the CFW. "Do what you want. As long as I don't need to clean anything up."
"Right. So, the narrator is super glad and stuff, and is hoping that he continues to be entertaining from here on out. But also, the narrator should hurry up and rescue me already, because this whole 'being a captive' thing is SUUUPER tiring, and my arms are getting sore." smiles Neptune, face pointed directly towards the fourth wall.
And then she shrugged. "Okay, I"m done."
In an instant, she was back to being Purple Heart, tied up by black tentacles. The clothing damage was even back.
CFW Magic could only sigh in exasperation. "I swear, no more raiding Judge's secret booze stash for me."
Please note! None of that was canon.
Time to answer reviews!
KRKing: All is forgiven, just please, don't try and backseat drive.
To Broach or to Put Up: e.e It's really hard to tell troll reviews apart from honest reviews on a site like this. I reacted bluntly.
Ant: "IT IS A MACHINE, AND IT KILLS! I SHALL DUB THEE KILLACHINE!"
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"I didn't ask for your opinion!"
BrokenLifeCycle: My problem isn't that I don't have anywhere to go, but rather that it's hard to plot a story that's much more free-standing than the usual SI fic. I'm not able to stick directly to the plot of the games any more, so there's a lot more individual work required to keep the story moving.
Draxinus: Thank you, and welcome to the madness.
"This is as far as this passage can take us." states Marvy, as she points forwards. "This is the main barracks."
We're on an overhang before two connected connected rooms. Luckily, there's enough cover here to get a good look at what's going on, without leaving ourselves too exposed.
In the massive room before us, there's a practical maze of tents, with at least six guards seated between them, chatting, joking. In the very back though, an exposed portion of the wall is pure white, and emblazoned with the mark of the CPUs. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd blame the Mascot for that particular thing.
The wall's flickering though, once every couple of seconds - I'd blame the strange machine seated only a few feet from the barrier. From what I can see from here, it's a boxy sort of thing, emitting some sort of red beam into the barrier. The machine's are being looked after by a skeleton crew of mechanics, but there don't seem to be any actual guards directly on it. Actually, even the walls around the barrier look weird: they've got jagged, sharp corners, rather than the smooth, rectangular shapes that dominate the rest of the complex.
Out of the corner of my eye I can see eight guards picking a fight with a cluster of monsters who made the mistake of venturing too close to the compound. They're fighting as a team, picking off targets one by one.
Only two of the eight have ranged weapons though, one girl has a hand crossbow, and the other has throwing darts. They also have much nicer uniforms than the rest of the group, perhaps due to being higher ranked members. Perhaps they went through a class change, if that's even a thing here. Heh, probably mastered a few thug skills and unlocked a new class. I'll dub them as Rangers. It'd be good to keep these things straight.
Just a little bit behind the fight is another cluster of guards, in front of what seems to be stairs. That's probably the northern entrance, and potentially our way out.
The smaller room of the compound is dominated by crates of something, which I can't see the contents of from here. I can definitely see warning signs on the side of some of the smaller ones though, so the contents are either fragile, or extremely dangerous. They definitely are important though, if the four additional visible guards stationed to protect the contents are any indication. None of them seem to be Rangers, but a few of them seem to be armed with actual weapons, rather than improvised bludgeons. I'll call them Soldiers.
As for the other room's structure itself, it seems to have a bit of an opening right above the wall, about three meters high which, while still directly before a sheer drop, would be an excellent entry point. It's right above some of the crates… I wonder if there's a space we can drop down into.
The smaller room definitely seems to be the weak point. We'll need to enter through there, and take out the guards quickly. From there, we could pop open the crates, before we check out the center portion. Hopefully we'll be able to take them all out before they can alert the rest of the compound… if someone makes it back to the big room, we're in for the fight of our lives.
"You look like you have a plan." states IF, from behind me. "You've certainly been staring at that base for long enough."
I shake my head clear. "The only way in I can see is through the smaller room over there. The front door is heavily guarded, if even half of those tents are full, then we're screwed if they wake up. Think we can take down the guards by the crates before they can alert the rest?" I state, as I point towards the entry point.
IF stares at the base, probably doing her own survey, before turning back towards me and nodding. "It should work."
Nepgear blinks at me. "You sure that's the way to go?"
I turn back towards her. "I have NO idea." I answer, smile across my face. "But there's only one way to find out. Ready to go?"
We climb down the easiest way we can think of.
Namely, we tie the rope securely to a nearby stone, before we slowly shimmy down the rope one by one. I leave my coat up top with Nepgear, which allows her to dim the flash of her transforming into HDD. From there, Nepgear unties the rope, and carries both it and my jacket into position to the top of the wall of the entry point. Nepgear secures the rope for us, before reverting back to normal at the top to recover energy. She also throws my jacket over the edge for me to catch. A catch that I make, much to my relief.
Climbing up the second wall is a little bit more tiring than the last one, but soon enough, all six of us are clustered at the top, out of sight in a hidden alcove. The guards below haven't moved, so we'll be able to rappel down without much hassle. Our landing point is mostly clear, but it's not fully in cover.
Nepgear is still recovering her stamina (We're not willing to risk having her at anything but her best), and Marvy is currently tying the rope securely to a stone closer to the other side, so we can proceed down at will.
"Who's going down first?" asks Compa from behind me.
"I'll go first." states Marvy, before I can even respond. "I think I'll be able to get down the fastest, and I'll make sure the area is clear."
"I'll go second then. We'll need to get all of us down as quickly as we can though: if they spot us when we're going down, we're going to have to fight, outnumbered or not." I add, readying up my own equipment. Knives only: I need the range advantage. The handgun will be the last resort: it's loud, but I can probably peg a fleeing target.
I scan the party, and receive nothing but nods.
"I'll be third then. Gear, you feel recovered yet?" asks IF, who is flipping her left katar about in her hand, perhaps psyching herself up.
"Yeah… Just give me a bit. I'll be the last one down. Are we just going to leave the rope here?" murmurs Nepgear.
"Leave it." answers Compa. "We might need to run back this way, right? Having a way out if things go bad is always a good thing, right?"
"Assuming they don't cut it or see it." states Marvy. "Still, having a way out might be worth the risk. I can always get another rope later."
The ninja takes a breath. "Okay… On three."
"One…"
I lower my head and shake my thoughts clear.
"Two…"
"THREE!" shouts the Ninja, as she plunges over the edge, rope in hand.
I watch her disappear from sight. I walk over to the edge, to see how she descends.
Holy crap it's high up what am I doing why did I ever agree to this?
Okay. She made it down safely, and is waving to me. If she made it down safely, then so can I.
Completely disregarding the fact that she's a Ninja, and this is the exact sort of thing Ninjas are expected to know how to do. I could climb down slowly like last time, but we need to do this quick, or else we could get spotted.
"Oh god…" I murmur, but the expectant glances of the girls behind me hastens me forwards. "Well, it's either now or never."
Gingerly, I grab the rope, wrap it around my midsection, around my left shoulder, and under my right armpit, before I step backwards over the edge, face turned skywards. I'm pretty sure none of the girls hear me take a loud gulp, but if they did, they're at least not saying anything.
I'm probably doing it wrong, since I've never actually done this before but at least I'm able to somewhat control my descent. I can feel the friction on my coat as I drop over the edge, only slowing myself with my panic-solid grip on the rope, intermixed with the feeling of my shoes upon the wall beside me. I'm going down at a reasonably safe rate, but I can definitely feel the heat between the rope and my jacket. Here's to hoping it survives. I like this jacket.
I've never been so thankful to be wearing gloves.
Wait. Wait a minute. Didn't the rope just barely reach the ground, when we last used it?
And... wasn't the rope like half a meter above the ground when we climbed back up?
Oh no.
The impact of myself hitting the ground below is teeth-rattling, even with myself splaying on the ground in a failed attempt at a break-fall. Luckily for me, there were these rocks to break my fall for me. Still, I'm not dead, and can't taste blood. Not dead is good. There's also no shouts of alarm, so that's good too.
"You alright?" speaks Marvy's voice from my left. At least, I think it's my left. God, I want to scream in pain, but I can't scream in pain. Because screaming in pain is loud. Going to just hold it in.
"I'm okay!" I hiss, blinking the stars from my eyes. "Probably!" Ow. That'll definitely bruise. Can I feel my legs? I kick my left, and then my right. Good, I'm not paralyzed. Landing on my spine could've been bad.
Above me, IF is staring down, face a mix of confusion and concern. I shoot her a thumbs up and an awkward smile, before I clumsily roll to the side.
I take cover behind a nearby crate, just beside Marvy, as I rub my back and shake my head clear. Eugh, still dizzy, can barely see straight.
A light thump from the rope signifies the descent of IF, but her landing seems much more comfortable than mine. Man, I'm going to definitely need to practice that. Or, you know, invest in long-fall boots, or something. Because those are probably a thing. Actually, Lowee would probably be the place to buy them, what with their main franchises.
Okay… The spinning finally stopped. I can take in my surroundings now.
At ground level, this section of the encampment is pretty damned cramped. Crates of various sizes are piled everywhere, stacked up four high. If I were to guess, the passage we're hiding in is just here to allow easy access to the crates right up against the walls. Most of the crates against the walls are empty, but there's a few in good cover that I could get at without leaving myself exposed. Interestingly enough, none of the unopened crates I can see are marked like the ones the Soldiers were guarding. These must not be that important, compared to the high priority stuff further ahead.
Peeking around the crate nearest the edge reveals the four guards from before, as well as the entrance to the room. Marvy's already keeping watch on the entrance.
Let's see what exactly we're dealing with here.
"Hey, IF, Marvy, can you two spot for me? I'm going to pop open a few of these things, and see what's inside."
There's a nod from both, as I retrieve my crowbar. As carefully as I can, I make my way towards the nearest medium crate, and jam the edge of my bar into the rim of the crate. A careful downward motion pries the top loose, with an audible creak.
Damn, I'm going to have to be careful. Don't want to be detected. Still, the top's free, so let's see what we've got.
A bunch of metal plates. And a lot of these are pretty big, too. This box is what, three quarters a meter square per side? Between the three centimeter thick padding on the sides, top, and probably bottom, I'd say this thing is pretty much filled to its maximum capacity.
So… metal plates. I guess this is where they're storing the replacement Killachine plating.
I wonder how heavy they are…
Damn! They're dense. I can barely carry this piece… No wonder these things are damn indestructible. As carefully as I can, I set the piece down, although I can't completely silence the crash of metal as I let it drop the last bit. I'm not risking my fingers over a stupid piece of metal.
"Huh?" I shoot a thumbs-up to IF. I've still got my fingers, so that's good.
"Hey IF, are the four still up there?"
"Yeah, they haven't moved."
Phew.
Okay, let's check the next crate… How about this big one over there…
It's further away last one, but I'm confident in the girl's abilities to alert me if I need to run. Plus, there's still cover from the front entryway, so I should be fine.
Once more, I jam the edge of the crowbar into one side of the box, loosen it, before doing the same to the other side. Finally, a third pry at the midsection opens the cache fully. Let's see what's behind door number two...
Oh. Wow.
Yeah, big boxes are bad news.
Inside the large box is possibly one of the largest weapons I've ever seen. Like, beyond fantasy brute hero weapon level: this mace looks like it'd… well, looks like it was meant to be wielded by a giant robot. Which is probably what it's for. Either that, or really, really confusing modern art.
Each of the thorns on this morningstar are what, six centimeters long? And there's LOTS of them... I'd guess sixty four?
Okay, and they're sharp too. Holy crap, this thing would do horrifying damage. Weighs a ton, sharp as hell…
Another thump followed by footsteps from nearby probably signifies RED or Compa hitting the ground. We're almost all here.
I think I'll head back to the girls. I carefully slide the lid back onto the crate, and carefully tamp the edges back down. There. That should make it look it was an error on the packager's part, rather than outright tampering.
"Far too damn late to be working…" murmurs an exhausted male voice. "Wish I could fucking sleep..."
That's to my right…
Slowly, I turn to my side. Act natural! They probably don't know I'm with the Goddesses!
I slump my shoulders, as I move to lean on my crowbar, wiping nonexistent sweat from my brow. My face is blank, and my eyes are unfocused.
"Wait, you the new recruit?" asks a sallow-faced ASIC goon. "I can hardly tell you new blood apart. Working the graveyard shift sure don't help things. Pretty tall for a recruit, though, the hell they been feeding you scrubs?."
Okay, so he's about a foot shorter than me and I have the element of surprise. I can't see a weapon on him, but in a world like this, that means very little. I could probably take him, but if I do so, the guards up by the important crates might see. I guess I'll just keep talking for now.
"I dunno, man. Probably old, wrinkly geezers like you." I wheedle, doing my best to keep my voice even. "There definitely are enough of them to go around: shouldn't you be retiring by now?"
"Know your place, boy! Haven't they ever told you to respect your elders?" smirks back the goon, taking a seat on a nearby crate. He's a bit more out of sight now... "Sucks to be you, rookie! The eggheads want another set of crates hauled, and you know what that means!"
I drop my gaze and let out a sigh of exasperation. "Why couldn't we just invest in forklifts? Y'know, like smart people?"
"Huh?" The goon blinks at me in confusion. "The hell you talking 'bout rookie? We have plenty of forklifts!"
Oh shit. Ummm… screw it. If we go loud, we go loud.
"Uhh… Rookie? What's with that grin on your face? Uhhh… wha-"
I surge forward before he can get his bearings, and seize the goon by the neck with both hands. I drag him completely into cover, before throwing him to the ground. I follow up the toss with a foot pinning him to the ground.
Shit! I don't know what to do here… Dammit! We're on the clock here... Okay, maybe I can push this guy and get some information out of him. Ummm… Screw it, overdoing it is better than not doing enough.
"Now…" I hiss, knife out and pressed to his neck as I lean down towards the prone guard's ear. "We can do this one of two ways. One, you can shut the hell up right now, and you will live. Two, you make any noise, and I'll.. stuff you into one of the filled mace crates, and slam the lid shut. Think very, very carefully, because I default to two."
The guard's face pales to a ghostly hue, as my ad-libbed threat sinks in. "I'll be good." he murmurs, although his response is sort of muffled by the proximity his face has with the ground below.
Okay. So this guy wasn't with the four at the front, and the girls are watching the front entrance. That means there must be another way in. And if I was expected to be hauling metal to the Killachines, then that means…
There's a direct path to the engineers from here. Crap! There's a back entrance!
"Where is the back entrance?" I rasp, turning my head slightly to make sure no one saw us. Good.
"Mommy!" murmurs the guard, who is slowly curling himself into fetal position.
"TELL ME!" I hiss, heart pounding in my ears, pressing the knife harder into his skin. Still no blood. "If you won't tell me, then you're no better for me alive than dead."
I'm being way more brutal than I need to be, but if we get flanked, then we're beyond screwed. I won't kill him, but he needs to believe that I will if I need to…
Eugh… I feel dirty.
"It's… It's a big path! You can't miss it… It's over there!" stammers the guard, finger pointing shakily towards where he came from. "Just... just don't kill me! I'm not paid enough for this!"
Okay… I don't have handcuffs… I have duct tape though, and that'll have to do.
"Arms behind your back." I state, as I retrieve the miraculous tape from my inventory.
Four rotations of tape around the wrists and ankles seems to be enough, followed by a single strip across his mouth. Perfect. I grab my hostage by the waist, and throw him over my shoulder. Let's take him to the girls.
I honestly don't know what to expect as I carry the guy back to the group. I expected disgust, since, y'know, I'm carrying a trussed-up dude like a piece of luggage over my shoulder.
I didn't expect outright panic.
"Did they see you?" hisses IF, the moment she sees my cargo. "Where the heck did this guy come from?"
I shake my head as I place the guy into a nearby opened large crate. It'll have to do for now. It's safer to leave him where there's padding, rather than on the floor where he could get stepped on, or run over. "There's a back entrance. This guy came in through there. Compa, can you tranq him? I don't want to seal him in a crate, but I don't trust him to be left unattended."
"Yup." answers Compa. There's a muffled noise from the thug, before everything is quiet once more.
At least, everything's quiet except IF, who is still asking me questions. A quick scan reveals that RED is down here now too, meaning only Nepgear remains up top.
"What do you mean, 'back entrance'. You're telling me there's another way into here?" asks the agent. "Where is it?"
I point towards where I was told it was. "Apparently, it's over there, and leads to the Killachines. We weren't able to see it from up top: it's behind the crates."
A voice from nearby causes us to pause. "Hey! Jacob! The hell, where are you?"
We all blink. It sounds like it's coming from where the back entrance is supposed to be.
"We need to move now!" I whisper, as I get to my feet. "If whoever's talking gets to the center, they might start waking people up!"
"Okay… Get ready…" murmurs IF, as she gets to her feet. "Focus on taking them down!"
"I've got the one on the right!" states Marvy, drawing a single sword from her scabbard. "Here we go!"
And with that, we charge out as one.
"Huh? What's going on! HEY!" shouts the fastest-reacting Soldier, a white-haired male, who pulls out a longsword just in time to intercept IF's strike. "How'd the hell you guys get in here?"
"Crap! The goddesses are here! They must've already gotten Jacob!" yells another one, a blue haired-girl. Her weapon of choice is a hatchet. I can see everyone else occupied, so it seems this one's mine. She's furthest back, so I'm going to need to lunge forward, otherwise she could get away.
My first strike is a lunging stab, aimed for the girl's midsection. She barely steps out of the strike, and counters with a sweep around chest level.
Dammit! Knives aren't meant to block! I'm forced to drop my second knife, instead opting to step into her swing, away from the sharp end. I still get whacked with a wooden stick, but it's better than taking an axe to the ribs. I at least counter somewhat with an elbow to the head, but I don't have enough space to get real power into it.
Around me, I can hear the girls picking their own fights. There seem to be five of them, and five of us, so at the very least, we should be able to hold our own.
Crap! Need to stay focused! That swing nearly took my head off!
Hatchets aren't meant to block either… going to need to play this aggressively…
Stepping out of a vertical chop, I counter the overextension with a roundhouse kick to her ribs.
Jackpot. With a meaty thump, my victim stumbles backwards with a wheeze. She's still not down though, I'm giving her that much.
"Give up." I state, advancing on the weakened thug. Her axe is on the ground in front of her, and she's breathing heavily.
So why is the thug smiling?
"Behind you." smirks the thug, just as Compa is able to cry out "DEREK! BEHIND YOU!".
Behind.
I take a massive step left, and pivot backwards, just in time to see a sword flash towards me at neck level. It's too close. I can't dodge this one.
Seeing no other choice, I brace my arms in front of myself and close my eyes.
PAIN.
A surge of agony through my wrists. I kick right as I let out a scream, and feel myself hitting something solid. I follow up with a flail of my left arm towards it, but I either can't feel my arms, or I miss.
I take a shaky breath. This is nothing compared to the spider. I can keep going… I HAVE to keep going… They need me...
I open my eyes, and shake my hands, hoping to feel my fingers. Good, still have connections. Still need to keep fighting.
My new target reels backwards from the kick, but I'm losing it. I'm not thinking anymore. I rush forward, and tackle the fucker down.
On the ground, he can't use his sword effectively, whereas my knife can definitely still be used. I sink a knife into him, before tearing it out the side. There's a yelp of pain, but I silence it with a headbutt. My head's spinning, but I'm long past caring.
I just keep stabbing and stabbing and stabbing until the movement stops.
Slowly, I lift myself up, and the haze of rage slowly leaves my mind.
And then what I've just done sinks in.
Holy shit, I think I just killed a dude. Like, not just threatened to, I mean brutally executed someone.
"Fuck!" I yelp in horror, as I take a knee beside the corpse, and examine it.
No blood. Why is there no blood? There should be blood. I can't even smell any.
Carefully, and gingerly, I lower a hand down to his neck…
Wait, where is the exit wound? There should be an exit wound!
I stabbed this guy at least six times, but he's more or less intact. There's only red marks across his neck…
He should be dead. He should definitely be dead.
What…
There's even a heartbeat...
"Derek!" Are you alright?" yells Compa, as she rushes towards me. "That looked like it hurt!"
"Y...yeah." I stutter, blinking. He's not dead. How the fuck? I lift my arms up to my eyes.
My jacket's entirely intact. Not only that, but instead of a gaping wound, there's only a single red line across my wrists, like a bad rash.
Just what...
"Hey! Wait!" shouts Compa. I glance back upwards.
The blue-haired girl is getting away! Shit, confusing potential immortality or whatever the hell it is, I'm not willing to risk being continuously bludgeoned by an entire army of goons.
I'm too far away to intercept her with my knives…
As quickly as I can, I pull my revolver out. If one person didn't die, then I can only hope that both won't. But my gun is too loud…
I blink twice, before removing my can of tuna from my inventory. It works in the movies, right?
I take a deep breath, before I line up my gun to the girl's retreating form, before I press the can against the barrel of the gun, and pull the trigger.
There's a wet 'splot' as the can's contents is ruptured, spraying tuna everywhere, but it definitely does the job as an impromptu silencer. The girl falls over with a gasp as the bullet impacts her shoulder.
"Wow! Nice shot!" murmurs Compa, as I slowly stumble towards my felled target. Please don't be dead…
The girl isn't dead, although she's definitely out cold. Carefully, I pick up the girl, and bring her back to where we were fighting. Having someone stumble across an… unconscious… for some reason… person would still be suspicious.
As the girls come back into sight, the fights are practically wrapping up. IF and Compa are handling one thug, while Marvy helps RED with hers. There's also the guy I… didn't kill, and one other, probably Marvy's. I set down the girl beside him, and flank the last two thugs.
Needless to say, they go down rather quickly. IF and Compa's opponent is quickly dispatched, and Marvy's surrenders a moment later. With everything said and done, we tranquilize the captured ASICs, before moving them into empty crates.
It's more than enough time to reflect upon what the hell just happened.
Apparently, we're going by the Pokemon logic here. People do not die when they are killed, except when Plot because Plot.
"Derek, you okay? You seem troubled." asks Compa from beside me.
Yeah, how am I supposed to answer to that? 'Oh hey Compa. It's just that in my dimension, people die when they get stabbed and I'm not used to how things work over here?'
"It's nothing…" I answer, shaking away the cobwebs. "Just my first real fight against another thinking person, that's all. It's so much different than fighting a monster."
"Ah… that'd do it. I was scared my first few times, too." smiles Compa. "Want me to patch you up?"
I nod, and watch her place some bandages across the red marks. She waits a moment, before she removes them, with naught a mark remaining.
"This place is weird." I mutter, rubbing the space where my injuries used to be. No itchiness of healing skin: nothing. But if that's really how it works here, then I'm going to have to get used to it.
"Hey everyone! What'd I miss?" chirps Nepgear. Oh hey, she finally showed up.
"Nothing much Gear. We took out the guards, although we had a pretty close call with one nearly getting away." states IF as she turns towards me. "Did Compa already fix your injuries?"
I nod back. "Yeah… Want to check out what's in those crates?" That gets a near unanimous nod of assent.
We make our way back to the marked crates, and pry one of them open.
Explosives. Lots, and lots of explosives. I'd say about two dozen sticks of dynamite-looking things per crate, and there's six marked crates here.
"Wow, that's a lot of kaboom!~" states RED, eyes glittering. "I haven't seen this much since the last real big fireworks show!~"
Marvy nods. "They must've used this to break that wall we saw earlier."
I continue to pop open the crates. One by one, we uncover more caches of explosives.
I'm about halfway through opening crates, before I remember that I can in fact loot explosives to my inventory, and begin doing so. Slowly but steadily, I empty the crates. Ninety-nine sticks of dynamite, plus some leftovers that I can't carry for some reason.
Goddamn union disputes.
I hand the rest to Nepgear for storage.
"Hey, I found another crate!~" chirps RED from my left. "What's in this one?~"
This particular crate isn't marked, but it's definitely smaller than the rest. Lighter too, if RED carrying it one-handed is any indication. Shrugging my shoulders, I pop the lid on it.
Inside are a stack of chips. They've got text on them, but I don't recognise it. I'd definitely say there's more than a hundred of them. They look like credit chips, but are slightly different.
The girls however, are entirely silent.
"I guess we found how they're paying the workers!" states IF, eyes wide. "That's a lot of cash codes!"
Cash codes?
"Cash codes?" I ask, hoping I don't seem too ignorant.
"I don't blame you for not knowing about them." answers IF. "Basically, it's possible to offload credits onto discs like these, and redeem them later. People tend to lose them, so they're considered to be a lot riskier than direct transfer, but they're sort of necessary if you're hiring help. Otherwise you need to authorize each credit transfer individually."
I blink. So cheques, basically. Pre-paid, of course, not blank.
"How much money is in here, do you think?" Compa asks, lifting one of the chips out and examining it.
IF shrugs, before lifting one of her own. "Only one way to find out!"
She slots the chip into her own wallet, and we all wait in silence as it processes it.
"Four hundred credits." she states.
Four hundred, per chip?
"No. Way." answers Marvy. "This must be the entire camp's pay for the next few days!"
"Where did you find this, RED? This is an amazing find!" chirps Nepgear.
"I'm glad you Wifeys think so!~" smiles RED, glad to be receiving attention. I pat the girl on the back for a job well done. "I found it over on the wall over there.~"
Amazing find or not, we can't risk losing time redeeming them here. We need to make it out of here first.
"Girls, can one of you carry it? I don't think we have enough time to just sit here and redeem them. Still, great job RED, that made this entire trip worthwhile!" I state, glancing back towards the Mascot's wall in the other room.
Which is flickering incredibly quickly.
Incredibly, incredibly quickly.
With a final crash it fades out of existence entirely.
I take in a deep breath. "Oh no." I state, as I lower my head into my hands. "Here we go..."
And then the rumbling starts.