As it turned out 'Benny's' was easy enough to find. After a certain point of walking down the street, the various sized prefabs began to sport signs advertising their business, from the mundane to flashing holographic displays that caught the eye.
Adam stood for a moment and just took in the multi-hued vista, the technology on display stunning. It saddened the world hopper that such amazing inventions were being used merely to display adverts, although somehow... he wasn't surprised.
Humanity always found a way to ruin everything.
Adam's destination turned out to be a prefab layered atop of another. Instead of a direct path out on the street, he had to pass down the gap between buildings and take a sloppily bolted on staircase to the second level, the floor shaking with every step.
"You sure that's safe?" Adam asked as he entered the small building, throwing his thumb up over his shoulder. There was a bored looking young man lounging behind a desk, who merely shrugged in disinterest.
He replied in Japanese, the words utterly incomprehensible to the older man, who frowned in return.
"Sorry, I don't can't understand you." Adam admitted sheepishly. "Don't suppose you know any English?"
The previously disinterested Asian gained a strange look on his face, eyes roving Adam up and down, as if not sure what to make of him. He spoke again, a questioning tilt to his head.
"Sorry." Adam shrugged helplessly, coming to stand before the desk.
The younger man shook his head in disbelief, before raising his arm. Orange holograms surrounded the limb and the man began to tap away at it. Once he was satisfied, he spoke for a third time. The words were just as foreign as they'd ever been, but the instant he spoke there was an English voice emanating from the Omni-tool. Somehow, the Japanese words seemed muted and lesser, as if pushed into the background.
"Did you lose your Omni-tool?" The shopkeeper asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief.
"You wouldn't believe the day I've been having." Adam snorted, relieved that this particular issue had been solved. He took out a small handful of different gold rings, some with precious gems. "I'm in a pawn shop ain't I?"
"That you are friend." The younger man replied with a rueful grin. He indicated the counter and when Adam complied and placed the goods down, the previously solid looking surface gained a light glow. After a few seconds the still glowing Omni-tool beeped and displayed a new window. "Alright, this looks good. I'll give you 200,000 Yen for it,"
"Yen? Don't suppose you've got something else?" Adam replied with a worried look. Most of the people he'd passed by outside hadn't looked Asian. If this world was a colony like he expected, it was probably lacking a strong central government that could impose currency controls. He had no idea if the Yen was widely accepted.
"Fine, got 1,200 Credits if that's what you want." The shopkeeper sniffed, wrinkling his nose like he'd smelt something foul. "It's a bit undervalue but that's all the Credits I've got on physical chips. Take it or leave it."
"That's fine." Adam sighed in relief, accepting a handful of strange shaped coins in return. "Don't suppose you could tell me the nearest place to buy an Omni-tool?"
After receiving the required directions, Adam took off with a smile on his face. It wasn't the first time he'd hawked some cloned gold but it was the first time in this new universe. Making cash so quickly and easily had never felt better.
"Hello and welcome to Duality Supplies. How can I help you today?" A sharp looking man asked as Adam entered a small shop. Boxed supplies lined the walls, displaying a wide range of expensive looking electronics. Thankfully this time the language was in English.
"Hi there, I'm looking for a new Omni-Tool. Had a bit of an accident." Adam lied with a sheepish expression.
"Well we can certainly help! Are you looking for a direct replacement or perhaps a bit of an upgrade?" The helpful attendant asked, a gleam in his eyes.
"Why don't you go through what you've got, and try to sell me on it?" Adam suggested. He'd had the vague thought to scan the Omni-tools and just clone it, but this was the far future. Was everyone coded to connect to some super server? The Mass Effect universe had very advanced manufacturing, right? Surely there were blocks put in place to prevent a product being copied at will. What if his cloned copy pinged some server and then when the original was brought it did the same, and that somehow alerted someone? Without knowing if he would bring down the heat, it didn't seem worth it.
His Armband still began scanning though. Unfortunately whatever needed scanning had to be in contact with his body, but running his hand along the boxed supplies still seemed to work.
The shopkeeper came out and began to talk up each product in turn, visibly trying to make a sale. Adam listened attentively, trying to catalogue just what the hell each device was actually capable of. As it turned out, that list was incredibly long. There seemed to be an endless line of variants, all with their own upsides and downsides.
Some where good geological scanners, some where precisely tuned to deal with chemicals. All were computers of various capabilities. Some included the ability to perform micro-manufacturing when supplied with the necessary Omni-gel, for an extreme price jump. Then there was the combat capable versions, who prices quickly entered the five digits and rose sharply.
"Is it really legal to sell this stuff?" Adam asked with a raised eyebrow, when the shopkeeper was waxing lyrical about the ability to flash forge a grenade on demand.
"Oh, new to the colonies?" The man laughed, shaking his head. "Took me a while to get used to it as well, but the Citadel really takes their freedoms seriously. I suppose when every Asari is armed by default, they take a different view on weapon proliferation. That's not even getting into the damned squawkers."
"That obvious huh?" Adam laughed, tucking the information away for later examination.
"Just don't try taking this stuff back to Earth and you'll be fine." The shopkeeper assured him. "Right, where was I? Oh yeah, the Zert has a-"
Adam nodded along and when the impromptu presentation came to an end, chose to purchase a lower range Omni-tool for a thousand Credits. It should be capable of everything he needed it to do.
Finding a bench to sit on was easy, the colony seemed to be set up primarily for foot traffic, with little in the way of overhead vehicles moving around. Adam's hands shook slightly as he unwrapped his brand new toy. Although the Armband was vastly superior to the Omni-tool in almost all aspects, it still felt different.
This was the first piece of futuristic, almost alien technology he was claiming, all by his own efforts. A machine of advanced capabilities that made the best his own Earth could produce, seem like a joke.
It was incredibly light, a shockingly thin rectangle of soft metal that was an inch wide and eight inches long. Placing it against his arm like the included instructions advised, small straps shot out and circled his forearm all by themselves, settling snuggly into place as they tightened.
"I can barely even feel it." Adam mused to himself aloud, a gleeful grin beginning to creep its way along his face. Getting to play with a real Omni-tool was like a dream come true and he couldn't help but want to indulge.
And so he did.
With a singular tap the iconic interface flared into life around his arm, the orange flow moving smoothly as he waved the arm around, checking for latency or lag.
It was perfect, as if the glowing panels were glued in place like a physical object. Setting the device up was intuitive, barely an inconvenience unlike the modern equivalent of setting up new technology that had became increasingly annoying as years went by.
Or the past equivalent now Adam mused.
An hour passed and then two as he became familiar with the functionality of his new toy. Considering how omni-present the devices were and how integrated into the daily bustle of life in this world- or universe perhaps- it seemed like a good use of his time.
It wasn't like Adam was in any particular rush.
Connecting to the local network, it was easy to find a map of the sprawling colony and finally, the name of the world he was on.
The city of Constant on the planet of Eden Prime.
Adam couldn't resist his eyes shooting towards the sky in a sudden fit of fright, as if expecting to see a real life Reaper hurtling through the atmosphere at any moment.
The sky remained clear.
"Fuck me." He muttered, heart pounding wildly from the sudden panic.
A quick check of the date revealed the truth and brought up a strange and confusing sensation. 2159. Over twenty years before the events of the video games. Hell, it had barely been a few years since first contact. It seemed like such a long time, and briefly Adam lamented the fact he would never be able to stick his thumb into the events that would unfold...
Before remembering he would still be here, just as healthy as ever.
Twenty years seemed like such a massive span of time, two third of his entire life. The prospect that he could just... wait it out, seemed absurd. It didn't mesh with his understanding of the world, of how humans worked.
Despite knowing that age would no longer sink it's claws into his flesh, the knowledge was only skin deep. The reality had yet to settle into Adam's brain. The truth would take time to fully internalise.
"All the time in the world. Worlds." Adam muttered to himself, levering himself back to his feet with a sigh. He wanted to keep looking into this galaxy, bury his nose into the future internet and just... submerse himself in the vast streams of information just waiting for his eager fingertips to explore.
But life was for living, so reluctantly the orange glow died away.
Time to do some sightseeing and some taste testing of alien ingredients sourced from another world. For the next day or two, that was what Adam did. He immersed himself into the vast mishmash of cultural influences that constituted the city of Constant. Despite his best efforts, he'd yet to see an alien in the flesh however.
During the days he hawked copied jewellery off at different locations in the city while by night he researched. There was so much to learn, to understand how everything worked. Then there was the ever insistent spectre that loomed overhead, of what exactly he wanted out of this life. What was he in this universe to do?
Help stop the Reapers?
The concept was laughable. They were giant spaceships, what could he ever do to them?
As Adam was now, the answer was nothing. If he wanted to make a difference, he needed the power to actually do so. What form did that take? He wasn't some prodigy fighter and he possessed no superpowers.
So that left the most incredible power of all.
The power of money.
Cerberus didn't spring up fully formed out of the ether, it was a fully funded movement with various backers that could supply the organisation with vast amounts of cash and resources.
The idea of trying to contest Cerberus was obscene... yet it wouldn't leave Adam's brain. Deep within his mind's eye he could imagine a web of alliances and organisations that could aid in the development of the entire galaxy.
It would take a lot of work and a metric assload of cheating, but maybe... just maybe...
Adam grinned wildly, the insane fragments of a plan beginning to settle into place. It would remain fluid for a while, but the pieces that could eventually create a roadmap began to be morph and merge into something real...
Buying the safety supplies that would allow him to handle Element Zero without the risk of illness was a hassle, the various items suggest by the extranet being hard to find in one place. Once that was done and Adam had donned the protective clothing while in his hotel room, the Armband flashed to life.
A replica of his Omni-tool sat innocently upon the bed. Adam looked at it. Adam nodded.
Adam raised his newly purchased hammer and brought it down with a resounding thud, hammering at the inert machine again and again. Element Zero was a toxic substance and yet was a vital component in most advanced technology. The answer to this difficult equation was making it incredibly difficult for that tiny chunk of eezo to leave its device. There was no easy way to remove it.
Percussive persuasion would be required.
"That was way too much." Adam panted almost half an hour later, arms sore. The poor Omni-tool had been peeled open and the tiny, tiny chunk of impossible matter exposed. Using tweezers he pulled the grain of multi-hued exotic material out.
Now free of its container, it was easy enough to scan the valuable material.
Once done Adam reached over to a large armoured container, large enough to hold two litres of material and dropped the granule within the empty canister.
"Let's hope this works." Adam muttered, placing a plastic sheet on the floor and holding his Armband close to the near empty vessel. With but a mental thought, beams of red flickered their way into existence, striking the inside.
Thousands and then millions of grains of the copied Element Zero began to fill the receptacle. The incredibly expensive material began rising ever higher.
Mass Effect fields were incredibly powerful, capable of breaking the laws of physics over their knees. It was utterly impossible but the very founding principle of the universe Adam now found himself in. As such, the producing source, eezo itself was found in practically every product.
But that didn't make it cheap. Not by a long shot. The material was incredibly rare, with most of the galaxy utterly bereft of any natural supplies. What could be found was usually in miniscule quantities.
The most abundant sources were located within star systems with active neutron stars. Needless to say, this was an incredibly hostile environment. The buy in for such mining operations was often obscene amounts of capital.
The more Adam read about the backbone of the galactic economy, the more he was reminded of that old saying. The quickest way for a billionaire to become a millionaire was to open an airline. In the same vein, Element Zero harvesting at the scale required to sustain the growth of the extant civilizations required an investment that boggled the mind.
Adam wasn't even sure what such a long string of zeroes was called.
There were a few outfits that attempted to get around the necessary requirements, but their output was shaky and uncertain at best. Many who attempted it ended up losing countless billions.
So yes, Element Zero was expensive.
Once the container was nearing full Adam cut off the production of more eezo and squeezed the armoured container closed. Before removing his protective equipment, the scanner of his Omni-tool flared to life and attempted to find any remaining contaminants that may have escaped into the room.
After being assured he wasn't about to be poisoned, Adam divested himself of the constraining gear and happily held the full eezo cannister. If the extranet wasn't lying to him, it contained somewhere in the vicinity of twenty to twenty-five million Credits worth of material.
Apparently prices fluctuated a lot because of trade coming out of the Terminus Systems, who used a lot of slave labour and unsafe mining practices. As such, their production was cheaper than eezo found in citadel space.
Officially it was illegal to source Element Zero from such producers and was a tightly controlled substance. According to chatter online however, it seemed to be an open secret that Terminus mined eezo always found it's way into Citadel products.
The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
Adam's Armband scanned the full container and added it to his repository. In the future he wouldn't have to faff about like this and would be able to produce more full canisters on demand.
Now, how hard could it be to find a buyer?
Adam had meant it as a rhetorical question but reality had swiftly revised his estimation. Maybe on Earth or a more established colony, it would have been relatively easy to make the sale. On Eden Prime, a mere seven year old colony? A planet where most people still used prefabs for housing and business?
There was little large scale manufacturing taking place that would necessitate such an abundance of Element Zero. As a veritable garden world, great steps were being taken to keep Eden Prime pristine for a long time to come.
As such, agriculture was the primary industry being pursued.
That was where Adam found his in.
While there was a developing interplanetary economy, most of humanity still used smaller scale vessels to provide shipping. The human shipbuilding industry was still in it's infancy, especially the commercial side. As such, there were bottlenecks on human trading routes that drove prices up for larger objects
Like farming machines.
These facts combined to ensure Eden Prime had a few burgeoning industrial manufacturing centres to secure its necessities, making sure local needs were being met.
It took almost a week to arrange a meeting, but Adam was persistent in his badgering. He'd selected one of the smaller facilities that was privately owned by an individual who'd actually moved to the planet.
Selling to such an outfit seemed like a much surer bet than approaching a branch of some sprawling international company. Well, interplanetary company in this case.
"So you're the brat that keeps hounding my secretary." Darren Silvers spat as Adam entered his office, which overlooked the factory floor. As a largely automated process using the advanced manufacturing capabilities brought about by Element Zero, there were few other employee's about. "This better be good."
He was an older man with silvery hair that bordered on white. Most of the advances in the modern era of age extension seemed to have passed him by, arriving too late to have a truly remarkable effect. Despite that, the man possessed an energy at odds with his appearance.
"Thank you for seeing me Mr. Silvers." Adam smiled wryly, helping himself to a seat before the man's desk. Contrary to his expectations, it was a very work-like office that bordered on the cheap. Whether that indicated the man was struggling with his finances and looking to cut corners or just didn't care, Adam couldn't know. "Sorry about how persistent I've been, but nothing else seemed to be working."
"Pest." The older man grumbled, settling his into his chair and observing Adam, clever eyes picking up every detail. "Well, you got this meeting you've been pushing for. Now, what in hell do you want?"
Adam returned the man's stares for several long moments, mind whirling as he sought out the optimal angle. If he could make the sale with anything approaching scale, it would provide a significant boost to his burgeoning plans. It took money to make money and a healthy seed would never go amiss.
This meeting had to achieve results.
"What are your margins like?" Adam said eventually, cutting right to the heart of the matter. Silvers seemed like a blunt man, so Adam decided to be blunt in return.
"Oh, damn it all." The factory owner sighed, throwing his head back and looking at the ceiling. "You're one of the crazy ones. Get out."
"Would you like to make them better?" Adam continued, ignoring the demand and opening the large bag he'd brought along with him. The full container of eezo was taken out and placed on Darren Silvers desk. A transparent strip along the side revealed the full interior of glittering eezo grains.
"... I'm listening." The greying man groaned after a moment's thought, his eyes locked on to the full vessel.
"I have the contacts to source a steady stream of Element Zero at very affordable prices." Adam lied as easily as he breathed, gesturing towards the canister. "Twenty five percent off."
Silvers seemed to consider him for a moment, deep in thought. Eventually the man scanned the eezo, ensuring there was no funny business. Only once he was assured that is really was full, did the older man nod.
"I'm interested, but not at those prices. I'll get you ten for the lot."
"Please don't insult me." Adam smiled, excitement building his chest. He'd never done anything like this before and was thoroughly enjoying ever single moment. "Eighteen."
"Might as well not even bother at that price." Silvers snorted in disgust. "Not worth the trouble it could bring."
"In what possible way could this trouble you?" Adam asked innocently. "I doubt your previous supplier will contact the government in outrage. Is that what you're suggesting will happen? Seventeen."
"Twelve. It's all damned granules, you think my machines use that stuff? It'll have to be reprocessed back into larger nodes. That's slow and costly." Silvers returned evenly.
"Fourteen and you provide a small sample of what you deem perfect for your current production. All future delivery can be perfectly tuned towards your needs." Adam sighed, shaking his head. "I really can't go any lower, and that's in consideration of your circumstances.
The old man slowly nodded in acceptance and held out his hand. "Call it fourteen then."
Adam withheld his surge of triumph, reaching out to give a firm handshake.
Silvers raised his arm and activates his Omni-tool, fiddling with it for a moment.
Adam's own tool beeped, signifying it had received Credits within it's electronic wallet. Eager to see the numbers that would make him a millionaire, Adam brought his device to life.
To see he had received a total of fourteen Credits.
"Do you think you're funny?" Adam sighed, face twitching in pure annoyance.
The old man stared at him evenly for a moment, before breaking out into a boyish grin, his no-nonsense demeanour vanishing. "Bitch, I'm hilarious! Oh, the look on your face."
A second beep came over a moment later and Adam watched his Credit balance rise up into the millions. He nodded with a grin and slid the container of eezo across the table. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"Same!" Silvers chuckled, picking up his prize and tossing it gently in the air. "You say you can get more of this stuff? In the right size next time?"
"I most assuredly can." Adam assured the man.
"Then let this be the start of a beautiful partnership."