Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 199

The robed man approached. He was an elder, with short-cropped silver hair and a salt-and-pepper beard. “You are?”

“Shiro. Shiro Tsukuyomi.” I held out a hand to the man. I was slightly annoyed that Echdina had so casually marked me down with my real name. “I’m here for an exchange?”

”I am Librarian Zeta. Shiro Tsukuyomi…” The man took my offered hand. His eyes glowed in a telltale sign of using his chrome. Not an Echidna Magus then? “Ah, I see. Yes, in exchange for an item, you’ll be granted access to the Aether Jump documents. Is that right?”

”Sounds right to me.” I carefully pulled the revolver from my bag, pointing it down and away to make sure the guy didn’t feel threatened. “Here it is.”

The man grabbed the revolver, looking it over. “Ah, what a marvel this is…”

”Know what it does?” Although I was giving it away, I couldn’t help but feel curious about the gun.

”Not at all. That’s an extensive process…” The man waved his hand as a robot came over to his side. It was a small thing running on treadmills. It looked roughly like a dog, though nowhere near as refined as the Crusade's Jaegers. Librarian Zeta put the revolver down on top of the robot. The bot carted it off into the depths of the archive. “Please, follow me. I’ll take you to the Aether Jumping documents.”

I followed after the man, taking in the sheer scale of this place. “Quiet the setup you lot have here.”

”All by the grace of Lady Echidna. She offers protection to a great many craftsmen…” The man leaned in conspiringly. “If you think this place is impressive, you should see Echidna’s main base in Lathvin City.”

Lathvin City… I think that's in Lathvin, a country of South Arkhanika. Yeah, people all around were good with names. It’s funny how many cities shared names with the countries they were in. The only reason I knew about it was thanks to Mystech. That city was also home to Mystech's main HQ. Or at least their public one.

“I doubt I‘ll get a chance to see it, considering… you know.” I waved around loosely. The state of the world and the FSA in general made it hard to leave the country. If I could even call the collection of city-states a country.

The librarian nodded his head several times. “Yes, travel is hard these days… I remember way back when traveling was as easy as getting on a plane… those were the days.”

“Yeah?” This guy must be ancient to remember those times. Nowadays there were a dozen hoops to jump through to get into another country. Mainly since the Endless Sandstorm made flying rather difficult and unpredictable.

”Ah, this is it.” The librarian reached a hand to a shelf and withdrew a large book. “Dangerous stuff, this. You know, back in the day, the first Aether Jump sucked the entirety of a city into the Aether. The death toll was insane. The crater's still there in Ukiyon.”

That wasn’t worrying. Not in the slightest. At least I wouldn’t have to figure it all by myself. As long as I was smart and followed along, there shouldn't be an issue. “How long can I borrow this?”

”Oh, just take it with you. I’ll get another one printed out before anyone else will want to look… you know, it's funny. You’re the third person to get that book in recent months.” The librarian idly mused. 

Large interest in accessing the Aether, eh? I wonder who else's been trying the same thing. “Interesting. High demand for Aether Jumping?”

”Not these days, no.” Librarian Zeta shrugged his shoulders and started walking back to the front area. “Raijin has the market monopolized… AE3 is the product of a crystal called Aetheria, you know. They’ve got massive Aether Jumping facilities to mine it.”

Aetheria… as in the crystals that Corvid brought me? Interesting… and not how I saw the production of AE3 coming about. Companies that dealt in AE3 are quite hush-hush about it. I thought it was some kind of biofuel or something. Makes sense why Raijin hires so many Adepts then if they need miners in the Aether

”This workshop… " I shifted subjects. "How does it work? Anyone can just come in and use the tools to build stuff?” There were quite a few tools I spotted around that would make tech creation so much easier.

”First time here? No, not just anyone. All those people are Lady Echidna’s Magi or related Adepts. They can rent a space with Favor. Hmm… would you like to join?” The Librarian politely asked.

I shook my head. I didn’t have time or the patience to farm an eidolon’s Favor. That, and I wasn’t sure how the other eidolons would react to me becoming the servant of one of the others. “I have… prior arrangements that can’t be broken off.”

I talked with the Librarian a bit more as he escorted me out of the archives. The guy was practically a walking library, commenting on everything from ancient cultures to the similarities between Shen Kang’s products now and thousands of years in the past. Apparently, they were the oldest corporation by far.

Unfortunately, I had to part with the man as I reached the entrance back into the workshop. I gave the archive one last longing look before leaving it behind. Such a treasure trove of knowledge, ripe for learning… too bad the cost was super high. It wasn’t every day that I stumbled across a Remnant, especially one I didn’t want. 

Would Echidna be interested in the box? I was almost to that system interface upgrade or whatever it was called. I’d have to think about who I wanted to hand it over to soon.

I left the workshop behind. I thought about trying to rub up against some of the tech to learn it with Technical Expertise and Eidetic Schematic, but the watching eyes of dozens of guards kept me back. And the cute, beady eyes of dozens of Echidnas. 

After leaving, I returned home to laze around in bed and read the Aether Jumping book with what little time I had left in the night.

— — —

I met up with Dev an hour before noon just outside of Lang Tower. He was posted up in a coffee shop, watching as people came and went from the tower. There was a certain sense of… tension in the air. Probably coming from the surrounding people as they tried to keep their heads down around the Crusader. The tension spiked as I entered.

I got a coffee and headed over to sit down with him. Neither of us spoke for several moments as we just watched our surroundings. Eventually, though, I ruined the silence. “What’s the plan?”

”I’m- I’m thinking of calling in Knight Persha.” His leg started to bob rapidly. “For the Blood Scythe meet-up and our venture into the Underground.”

”I’m down…” The more people around, the safer we would be. Especially considering it was a Knight joining us. “Think we’ll get into a fight?” 

He nodded slowly. “In the Underground. It- it always happens.”

I went silent. Yeah, this guy was definitely traumatized by the Underground. Deeply, by the looks of things. Course, I couldn’t blame him. Some of the stuff down there… Perviders alone were enough to traumatize most people. The thought of hundreds of baby spiders burrowing underneath my skin, moving around underneath my flesh as their legs- gah! Stop it, Shiro! Happy thoughts, happy thoughts...

”You make the call?” I didn’t have anyone’s number but the Inquisitor.

Dev flinched as if I just drew a gun on him. “…fine.”

He pulled out his phone and called the Knight. There was a quick exchange of information as he told her when and where to meet up with us. As soon as the phone call ended, he tossed his phone back into his pocket and leaned back in his chair with a sigh.

”What kind of person is Knight Persha anyway?” His reactions had me curious about her.

”Not a good one.” That was rich coming from him. I still vividly remember how brutal he’d been with Lilly Lower. Then again… the Knight might be worse. “She’s a no-nonsense type.”

”Just her coming?” I asked. 

“Two of her Squires are following along.” He scowled for a moment before his expression relaxed. “More meat shields if something goes wrong, at least.”

Wow… not what I thought I’d hear coming from his mouth. They were our coworkers at the end of the day, right? I mean, I know there were some hostilities between Knights and Inquisitors, but wasn’t that a bit much?

I finished up my coffee shortly after our conversation ended. While we wa9tedd, I couldn’t help but drop my hand into my pocket and finger the Circle amulet I stole. I decided to go ahead and bring it today, just in case I might find some use for it. 

I took the opportunity to keep reading about Aether Jumping. I’d digitized some of the files last night. It was quite interesting, requiring several different avenues of items. Everything from Aetherial crystals to jumpstart the process to technological constructs to ensure stability and reusability. 

After just a glance at it, I realized it would be something that I’d need to be extremely careful about. Not only because the machinery and magic could cross-contaminate each other, causing both to fail, but also because even just going into the Aether was extremely dangerous.

The Aether was non-Euclidean, meaning a step in there could move me miles in the real world, and a step backward might still move me miles further. It was all very confusing. Basically, though, a straight line in reality did not equal a straight line in the Aether.

Dev lightly coughed, pulling me out of my reading. He stood up and gathered up the trash at our table. “They're almost here.”

“Chek.” I stood up to follow.

Then we were up and heading for Lang Tower. Troy’s Tacos was our location, and no surprise it seemed to be a gang hangout. The place was closer to a bar than a restaurant, and the Blood Scythes filled almost every seat of the place.

As the clock approached noon, a disturbance down the street-like hall caught my attention. People hastily moved out of the way, ducking their heads and trying to keep as low as possible. A few moments later, I saw why.

A Knight pushed through in full silver armor, causing a brief wave of guilt and fear as I spotted her. Knight Persha had opted for a medium set of armor somewhere in between the heavy set of Dev and the light sets I’d seen around. A long sword dangled from a sheath at her hips.

Behind her followed two Squires. One didn’t have any armor on, indicating he was new to the force like me. The others had on a chest plate and bracers, but that was it. Both were armed with assault rifles from Knight Security, the subsidiary arms company under the Blue Crusade.

Knight Persha easily pushed her way through the crowd, stopping just in front of us. “Squire Dev, it's good to see you again. And you are?”

”Squire Zuku.” I offered a friendly smile, going all in on an angelic look with Honest Face. First impressions were everything.

It didn’t seem to faze the Knight outside of a small nod, but the same couldn’t be said for the Squires behind her. The armored one smiled back, and the unarmored one blushed and looked away. There was a small sense of satisfaction deep in the back of my mind at how easily it was to use my looks these days. Fox’s Grace, at least I think it was Fox’s Grace, was making me prettier by the day. Hmm... was that shift in thought processes also an effect of Fox's Grace? I didn't used to care about how I looked. How peculiar...

Knight Persha nodded her head to the restaurant. Already, Blood Scythes were gathering around as if we’d attack at any moment. “I take it this is the place? You two continue taking the lead. I don’t want to get yet another complaint about hijacking an investigation.”

She certainly seemed… more mellow than Dev made her out to be. Granted, there was no telling how much his paranoia twisted his worldview. I took the first step forward, seemingly jogging Dev’s mind back into gear as he quickly followed. 

As soon as we entered Troy’s Tacos, the tension in the air spiked. Everyone froze as both sides just watched each other for several long moments. Eventually, a call from the back ended the stalemate. “Let them by. The boss is waiting..”