"Too bad I can't use this thing for general travel..." said Scott. He would not be able to wear anything over the suit, like a backpack or normal clothes. It was primarily for direct combat, and designed as the equivalent of a far future gambeson to pad his body while wearing science-fiction armor.
The system would not allow for improper items to be worn atop the Nano-Cloud suit. However, he would be able to wield weapons and integrate a battle suit. It was a great combat upgrade, even if he had to use it like some sort of weird power up for battle. Ah well, there was always a tradeoff.
Just to be certain that the system was not lying, Scott bought a cheap gun holster from the system for a few EXP. He tried to wrap it around his waist, but a loud buzzing sound and a sudden jolt of pain told him that it was a bad idea to finish strapping it on.
Putting things into the holster and carrying it by hand seemed to be fine, though. So, he could carry bags, just not wear anything else. The arbitrary nature of the thing was irritating, but it represented a considerable upgrade for a reasonable price. It should be worth the trouble.
"Well look at you," said Samantha as she sauntered into the room. "Somebody decided to dress for success."
"I figured you'd approve," he said lightly.
"Got a power suit to go with that?" she asked him curiously.
"Nah, I want a treasure item," he replied, "Something really high-end found on one world or another, or something from the system that I can upgrade. That costs a lot of EXP."
"Treasure items? Upgrades?" she asked, curiously. "I think I know what you mean about the second one, but it sounds like you mean something different than I'd expect for the first thing."
"Yeah, there are items that can sometimes be found on a mission that act as treasure items. They're a bit better than a common item of the same overall grade, and they can usually be upgraded."
"They're just better equipment?" she asked, before walking over to him.
"All kinds of things, really. They're pretty rare, though. This suit is one," he told her.
Samantha looked him up and down briefly. "This is a treasure item? Doesn't look special to me..."
"You've probably seen better, but compared to the crap I typically have to use it's amazing," he said.
"Fair enough," she said, before she lifted one hand up and made a slightly dramatic gesture, "What now?"
Scott offered her a wide smile. "Well, we should see if my stuff came in while we were discussing lesbian spaghetti farts,"
She snorted at him in a friendly way. "I suppose we should—" said Samantha, just before she noticed something in the corner of the room that she had not seen before. "Was there always a door there?"
Scott turned to look then smiled. "I just bought a storage closet."
"You just..." She blinked, then looked at him strangely and asked, "You can even buy that sort of thing?"
"You probably can too, for your room," said Scott.
"I'll keep that under advisement," she said, slightly intrigued.
The small talk went on for a brief few minutes as Scott explained how his storage options worked. Her eyes lit up at the idea of being able to transfer items across the battlefield in that way, and considered buying something similar in the future. Her room offered limited options compared to what Scott could do, but every little bit helped.
Scott pulled his foot locker over to his storage closet and placed it down on a glowing golden rectangle on the floor inside. The rectangle shrunk to fit the foot locker. A message appeared to inform him of the fact that the trunk space storage link was active. Afterward, they went back to Bounty Star to check on his newly purchased items.
Upon arrival, they immediately went to the door. The moment that Scott's hand touched the door panel a little symbol popped up. "I have mail?" he asked curiously.
He tapped the get mail button and then tapped at the options listed. Several boxes appeared one after the other. "So, there is something like a sub-spatial storage..."
"Yeah, transporters and sub-space storage are useful," said Samantha. "Usually can't carry much in the portable storage devices, though."
Scott nodded. It certainly wouldn't be that easy to get his hands on something that made closet storage obsolete. He discussed it with her for a while, and he learned that he could probably afford a space pack with his current funds, but that sort of thing was normally only sold at major ports.
Hellespont was considered a tiny backwater space port. It was situated on a major trade route, but still nothing special in the grand scheme of things. The way she talked about it gave Scott the impression that Hellespont was the far future equivalent of a gas station with a sign in the window that offered the last chance for gas for the next twenty miles. It would be a godsend if someone needed gas, and a few emergency supplies, but most travelers would just pass the place by if they had no need for either.
It was like Christmas when he opened his boxes. Medical supplies, and sci-fi weapons were for the good little boys and girls of the Galactic Federation. Samantha pulled out a few handheld lesbians, rather the grenades and a few other explosives. Soon her face took on an expression that one might mistake for a mild orgasm.
"What's with that face?" asked Scott curiously.
She laughed at him then bit her lip a little. "What? Explosives make me happy."
"Good to know," said Scott lightly.
Samantha snorted at him, but her smile never faded. She had grenades, all was right with the world. "Don't think a handful of grenades will make me that happy."
"I have like a hundred of the things," he pointed out.
She gasped a little then made a bizarrely feminine giggling sound. "Oh, really."
He eyed her curiously for a moment. While she did occasionally laugh and crack a joke, it was strange to hear her actually giggle like a high school girl who'd just been asked to the prom by the hottest guy on campus.
The moment passed and he chuckled slightly. Not long after, he went back to cataloging his items. It wasn't as much as he would like to have bought, but it would do for testing purposes.
"Alright, let's start storing and transferring some of this stuff," said Scott.
"Right," she said with a nod of her head. However, she clutched two high-explosive grenades to her chest and seemed reluctant to let them go.
Scott ignored her grabby nature, and let her play with his grenades all she wanted. There were other things to do at the moment. The first thing he did was store all of the medical items in the cabinet. Despite the storage space provided, he nearly filled the thing in the process. The trauma packs counted as medium sized items, for some reason. He also tossed in three of the least expensive photon pistols, and his high-end disruptor to finish out the left over storage.
"This is a good start. This is the least expensive stuff. If something happens to it, I won't cry about it as much," said Scott.
"Could we put more stuff in that foot locker?" she asked.
"It's full at the moment. The stuff in there is mostly food and water that I bought from the system. I know it can be removed at any time. Though, I already emptied out most of it for the last mission."
"Ah, emergency rations. Still, can't we use it now?" she asked him curiously.
"Yeah, but the best thing to put in there would be the grenades," he said.
She pulled her hand back and pouted at him. Clutched tightly in her fist was a freeze grenade.
"If we don't store them, they'll be destroyed when we try and take them through my home point," said Scott.
"Oh." She sighed heavily upon hearing that, "I suppose it's alright then."
He shook his head. He would have to be careful with his storage permissions, or he'd wake up one day without any grenades left.
"Let's go see what happens," he said with a smile. She nodded at him then reluctantly put the grenade down. Work was calling, time to get serious.
Back at the home point, Scott checked his closet to be certain that it really linked up
with his Bounty Star closet. After being certain that it did, he took Samantha on a journey to another world.
The Evergreen Community spread out before them as they stepped out of the doorway. Nothing much had happened to the place since he left, but he also did not expect much to have happened since only a little under one day had passed.
Their arrival went unnoticed for a moment. Scott looked around then glanced over to Samantha. She did not seem to be too unsettled by the sudden location shift. "I'm not sure where everyone is at the moment. Be on guard in case something happened. If it looks bad, we'll pull out and come back better armed."
"Right," she said.
As it turned out, the missing survivors were all gathered in one place, the town square. Father Harrison and Jed were leading a group meeting.
"Now is the time to make certain we can defend this place!" called out Jed. "If we wait too long, we'll get comfortable and won't want to leave."
It did not take long before someone noticed Scott and Samantha walking up to the crowd from a side-street. Strangely, it was neither Jed nor Father Harrison who noticed the first. It was one of the younger children. "Holy Crap!" exclaimed a little sandy haired boy who had been looking everywhere, but at the people talking.
Everyone turned to see Scott and Samantha. Their surprise turned to smiles and then nervous cringes. Mothers covered the eyes of their children, and grown men gawked like fools.
"Welcome back, champion," said Father Harrison gently. "I see you and your unknown companion are quite healthy."
Scott waved at the good father causing a few women in the crowd to make a bit of noise. He was not certain what their issue was for a moment, but then turned to Samantha. She had her arms crossed over her chest and a sour expression on her face.
He connected the dots quickly. It was what they were wearing that was the problem. Surprised men could barely keep their eyes off of her, and more than a few of the women in the group had a hard time looking him in the eye.
"Ah, sorry. It's my day off. I forgot we were dressed like this," said Scott slowly.
Samantha rolled her eyes at him. "I don't see what all the fuss is about. People walk around in bodysuits all the time."
"Mama, she's really pink," said the boy who alerted the crowd earlier.
"Hush, now," She put a hand over his mouth and led him away. "Sorry, he's just a little boy..."
Scott looked at Samantha. "Are you able to wear normal clothes over that?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" she asked him sarcastically.
He turned back to the crowd. "We'll uh— We'll just go change into something and be right back."
Scott pulled her around the corner then took off toward one of the clothing stores. Jed blinked twice then shook his head. His mighty mustache had slightly curled at the ends like it was trying to smile but did not want anyone to know. "Well, alrighty then..."
A few minutes later they returned. Scott had disengaged his cloud suit, and returned to his normal equipment. Samantha now wore a simple cream colored halter top, and similarly colored skirt, over her body suit. She also chose to snatch up a wide-brimmed hat and a few earrings for her trouble. She rarely wore normal clothes, or jewelry, but she loved the price. Free was her favorite amount of money to spend.
"Ah, that's— Alright then," said Jed. His mustache had chosen to return to its normal stalwart position once they'd left. It was simply not one designed to curl, as it was the type typically assigned to police officers and 1980s television era private detectives.
"Sorry about that," said Scott amiably, "Didn't meant to scar anyone for life." Truthfully, the bodysuits looked like sprayed on latex. It was a thick coating perhaps, but still latex. Only the gloves and boots were thicker, and slightly different in color, than the main suit.
"No, don't worry about it. It's really good to see you," said Jed, "We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you."
"Well, that's something I wanted to discuss with you all as well," said Scott before he walked over to where Jed and Father Harrison stood. "I may be able to help you out more, if you're interested."
"Brother, we can use all the help we can get!" called one of the men from the crowd.
Jed sighed loudly, and then nodded. "It's true. We've already had a couple of zombies try to climb up the side of the mountain. They didn't even come close to getting to where we were, but it is a bit unnerving."
Scott nodded then glanced over to the good father. "Well, once I finished my mission I was given the opportunity to purchase your town."
"Buy the town? What do you mean?" asked Jed, his tone suspicious.
Scott shrugged. "I'm not really sure what it means either. I assume it would allow me to do some stuff here that can't normally be done, but I have no idea."
Father Harrison spoke up. "So, that is what god meant when he whispered to me earlier. Fascinating."
"Father, god spoke to you again?" asked Jed.
All eyes were on the good father once more. "Uh, yes. He said that if the champion returned, he could help us survive indefinitely if he was willing to pay the price."
"You mean, that god told you that me buying the place would help?" asked Scott.
"That is not the exact thing that he told me, but he seemed hopeful that you would understand," The father sighed softly, "Unfortunately, the corruption in this world has to be destroyed to a great degree before he can completely wrest back the controls and correct the situation."
"God, is pretty chatty," said Scott lightly.
Father Harrison smiled beatifically. "I asked him much the same once, recently. He told me that he was always chatty, it was just that few people took the time to listen."
"Plenty of time now," said Jed with a sigh. They certainly did have plenty of time to listen now that the world had ended.
Scott rubbed his chin. "It'll cost me a lot."
Father Harrison nodded then looked down. "Yes, he did say that the cost might seem a bit high."
"Well. I've spent more than that already today, so why not?" said Scott with a smile. The gathering had taken place in the town square, and as it turned out, that was where he needed to be.
He walked over to the fountain and raised his hand. Much like when he bought his apartment, a point-of-sale contract was initiated.
The world turned various shades of grey and the people froze in place. He was shown the same information from before about the community. Scott spent five thousand EXP to buy the place, hoping that it would prove to be a good investment. The moment that he accepted the cost, a new screen popped up.
[Sale Complete]
Thank you for your purchase! You are now the title holder for this estate. If you wish to develop your land, you must first purchase the upgrade [Iconic Representation].
Upon purchase and installation of this development upgrade, a new menu will be provided for your personal usage.
[--]
Scott looked at the cost for an iconic representation then shrugged. It would only cost one hundred EXP. He purchased it to seal the deal, so to speak, and the world suddenly returned to its normal color and movement.
Before anyone could speak, a beam of light shot up from the ground. Motes of light began to whirl around the main beam, and the sound of an electric guitar began to play in the background. From out of the Earth rose a statue, a perfect marble representation of Scott striking a heroic pose with his hand to his hip and his elbow pointing out. His pistol was held in his opposite hand, but down at his side. A warm smile on his face, and wild eyebrows that spoke of hidden danger, completed the system's idea of what represented him best.
At his feet another smaller statue appeared that bore an incredible likeness to the kitty that helped make things happen. She sat at his feet, her head tilted slightly to the side.
The statue stood atop a solid marble pedestal with an engraving on the front that read. "The answer to your prayers."
The moment the light died down and the statue stopped rising, golden wor
ds appeared in the air above the newly crafted masterpiece. "Salvation Point Online," spoke a soft masculine voice.
Father Harrison's eyes widened, and hot tears began to trickle down his ancient cheeks. A joyful smile rose up on his lips as he warmly asked. "So this is what god meant?"
"What? What has happened? I don't understand?" asked Jed. He looked to the crying priest and then to the statue. It was a beautiful statue, but he did not see what was so wonderful about it.
Scott reached out his hand to see what that new menu was supposed to be. His eyes widened considerably and he wasted no time in using it.
Father Harrison gasped loudly then fell to his knees. "This— can it be true?"
"Sure. Feel free to do it if you need to, but try not to overuse that gift. Tell people to be careful," said Scott.
"What's going on? What did you just do?" asked someone from the crowd.
"Why's the father crying?" asked a man who was also crying for some reason.
Scott glanced down at the elderly man then nodded. "Go ahead and tell them the good news."
Father Harrison took a moment to collect himself, and then slowly rose to his feet. "Our champion has... He has..." The elderly man had to take another breath before he said the wonderful thing that had just occurred.
"What has he done?" asked Jed.
The priest closed his eyes briefly, took another breath, and then slowly opened them. "He has granted me—" Father Harrison gulped in a breath of much needed air, "He has granted me the power to restore life to the recently deceased."
Everyone went silent. They all stared openly at the elderly man. Even Samantha's eyes widened at what she had just heard. It was hard to believe.
Scott looked around at the gathered people then back at the old priest. He reached out and hand and lightly placed it on his shoulder. "Let's hope you never have to use it."
Galactic Fist of Legend: Volume 2 Page 5