Chapter Thirty-Nine – Long Odds

Chapter Thirty-Nine – Long Odds

“There are all sorts of systems to determine the worth of a Samurai. The internet has many of these, from ranks based on popularity, to scales of theoretical power.

Most corporations have adopted a much simpler ‘Phase’ system that goes from A to C, with the occasional ‘D.’”

–Excerpt from ‘Understanding the Unknowable,’ A 2049 textbook.

***

The door had a great big ‘Employees Only’ sign across it. That part was easy to ignore. What wasn’t was the heavy lock holding the door shut. I sighed and pulled my Trench Maker out from its holster, then backed up a couple of steps.

I pinched my tongue between my lips and aimed down the sights atop the gun until it was nice and lined up. The .45 round tore a dollar-coin sized hole in the lock, a hole that glowed red and started to melt around the edges.

A quick kick shoved the door open. “Man, I love these bullets,” I said as I looked into the next room over.

There are plenty of interesting types of ammunition that might interest you. I’ll earmark a few for future testing.

“Cool,” I said. I was actually looking forward to it. “And maybe… maybe I could use an arm.”

I’m surprised it took you this long to ask. Your missing arm and eye are something of a hindrance.

“Yeah well, whatever,” I said.

We’ll find you a good one. Though I think that, in this case, you might want to invest in something of decently high quality. Perhaps a Class II prosthetic once you obtain the points and tokens to unlock that kind of catalogue.

“Tokens?” that was new.

Unlocking a Class I catalogue is simple, and a Vanguard can go very far just by unlocking a number of these. But Class II and onwards have technologies that are beyond humanity’s current capability to reproduce. They are commensurately more expensive, and each catalogue requires a number of tokens to be unlocked. Think of them as signs that you’ve saved enough humans to earn technologies that could potentially endanger your entire race.

That sounded like a shitty gimmick, and at the same time made some sense. Giving the crazies nukes was never a good idea. “Class I is good for smaller things, right?”

It’s more than sufficient, I think, for most of the challenges you’ll face. I would suggest aiming for Class II equipment in any field you truly want to specialize in. A new arm, for example, will not need to be replaced as frequently if the first one you purchase is of high enough quality.

“Right, right,” I said. The ‘employee only’ area was a bit of a crapshoot. There were boxes lining the sides of the corridor, probably with stuff for the museum, and I passed a little warehouse area with large industrial shelves packed with crap that I didn’t think was terribly important.

And then I found another locked door. This one was thicker, with a whole lot more warning signs on it. And in its centre, next to a symbol that warned that anyone passing the door without authorization would be fined, was a large logo.

“Longbow Industrial Weapons Technologies,” I read. “That sounds promising.”

The security around the door is Vanguard built.

I looked to the side where a flat stainless-steel panel rested next to the door. “Think you can break in for me?”

I’m afraid not. But I can knock.

“Knock?” I asked

The system is linked to a distant server, which is in turn linked to one of my siblings. I cannot ask them to open the door, but I can establish a connection to their Vanguard. If they want it.

“Alright?” I said.

Establishing! And done!

“Now what?” I asked before looking around. “Can I shoot the door off its hinges yet?”

“That’d be a bit rude.”

I snapped around to stare at where the voice came from. The panel next to the door had shifted, revealing an image of a man sitting in a darkened room filled with yellow-orange lights that shone down on a mixture of huge computers and shelves with little figurines.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

The man himself was, without a doubt, a samurai. Every part of his face from the nose up was hidden behind a visor that looked like a flat steel plate with inset lights. He was leaning back into one of those ‘gamer’ seats, one hand out of the screen, but the other was fiddling with a lit cigarette.