Volper

by Ros Per

  Recipient: Gerion Carso

  Recipient Neural Interface Identification Number: AT 7435844891

  Text of the letter:

  I hope you haven’t forgotten our agreement? I am waiting for an explanation for why you aren’t here; otherwise, I’ll go to the Server with a complaint that you haven’t fulfilled your part of the contract.

  Two lines of text, and I’d been working on them for five minutes, rewriting the text fifteen times. After rereading the text time and time again, I made sure that I was satisfied with everything, and pressed the send button. After that, I almost started shouting obscenities because a mocking text from the system appeared in front of my eyes.

  Attention! Gerion Carso is in custody. Communication with the outside world is blocked while the investigation is in progress. Gerion Carso cannot receive and reply to any letters. Your letter cannot be delivered. If you need to contact Gerion Carso, contact the administration of the outpost block No. 5-17-23.

  Well, bad news! This has happened at a bad time! And the most disgusting thing is that I, most likely, have only myself to blame for the fact that he’s in custody. I suspect that he either spilled the beans to Alckor, or he had simply been involved in some kind of criminal activity. Well, there was another option: I found the message from Carefire and then replied to it quickly with a question about when he would arrive. I wrote that I had something serious to discuss with him. While waiting for his reply, I left the center and headed to the store - anyway, I need to buy more items, and I should definitely buy cartridges, and, if possible, buy something extremely cool in a large caliber, in order not to change my weapons like underwear. Leaving the store, I received a response from the commander.

  Sender: Alexander Carefire

  Text of the letter:

  I will come back in the morning, if it’s something urgent, please contact Captain Ignatenko, he is my temporary replacement. If you can wait, we’ll talk when I come back; I also have some issues to discuss with you, and at the same time, we can agree on a lease agreement.

  P.S. Please change the name of the building, half of the squad walks in and laughs at us, saying that we are now gangsters since we have occupied the "Bandits’ Base".

  P.S.S. You can change the name in the property management panel. You are the only one who can rename it since you are the owner of most of this property.

  Here's how I feel about NPCs after these kinds of messages: they aren’t just a set of numbers! It feels like an artificial intelligence is inside each and every NPC and imitating a living being fully. If we consider the technological capabilities of our time, the developers, theoretically, can do this. However, the amount of funding needed to create this complex world of artificial intelligence would amount to the cost of an average-sized planet suitable for colonization.

  Although, for the past twenty years, I haven’t followed the developments made by our great minds: maybe they’ve already made a breakthrough in the technology necessary for creating artificial intelligence. Well, this is all in the real world, I shouldn’t really care. I will live here for the rest of my life. Upon entering the store, I immediately went to the armory showcase. On a huge wall, illuminated by LED lights, there were about fifty small arms, but for some reason, only automatic shotguns.

  “My dear friend,” I called to the seller, and when he came over to me, I began to pester him with my questions, just like any other customer would. “Listen, I need a great weapon, do you have something good enough for me?”

  The shopkeeper sighed heavily, and then ran his forefinger and his thumb over his forehead and stopped at the bridge of his nose. The seller, it turns out, was fucked up today. Imagine it: try to work for a day, serving idiots like me. It was a gesture very typical of an exhausted person, who had already been bothered a lot, and is now trying to collect the remains of his thoughts and assist another nerd who doesn’t know what he wants. The funniest thing in this situation was that I am well aware of different kinds of weapons, but I’m not at all familiar with the local names and classifications. And the terms are quite different indeed.

  “Let's first clarify something,” the salesman started patiently. “Your targets, objectives, wishes… from which price segment shall we select weapons for you?”

  - Listen, let's make things crystal clear. I will now voice my wishes with the terms that I know, and if something isn’t clear, or if I say something wrong, then you can ask me again. I just don’t really know the terminology. OK? -

  - “That would be great!” The seller replied happily. “Now, one second, I will turn on my voice recorder, it will convert your words into text, and then we will select the right model of weapon for you.”

  After that, he put some kind of device in front of me, right on the stand, and, clicking on the button below, he waved his hand at me, signaling that I should start talking. Well, I understood what to do without a moment’s delay.

  “Okay. I need a compact, large-caliber submachine gun; something to use against heavy infantry armor. Well, if there is something even more powerful, I will gladly buy it; preferably, it will have several modes of fire. Ideally, there should be at least three modes of fire: single, short bursts of three rounds each and automatic fire. All this should be made on a bull pup basis, when the whole mechanism is put into the butt, which reduces the overall dimensions of the weapon and increases its stability during the fire. The weapons should support magazine cases with miniaturization and the function of equipping various types of ammunition, well, at least three types of ammunition. Ideally, the more the better… Storage capacity should be the maximum available.

  And as for the weapons: a recoil damper and an ammunition indicator should be installed into the butt. Also, in the lower part of the trunk, I’ll need a fire transfer handle, with the possibility of opening it in two halves for use as a bipod. It would be great if there is a mechanism inside, with a telescopic retractable support stand on a spring motion. On the left side, I need a paired tactical flashlight with a glow in the usual range and in the infrared one, and a set of nozzles for changing the color of the beam needed. Yes, I completely forgot, if the flashlight has an ultraviolet mode as well, then I would gladly have it. On the right side, a tactical laser targeting complex is needed, also with the aim of it working in the infrared range and with ultraviolet markings. On the top of the submachine gun, attachments are needed to enable a quick removal of sights. The kit will need a collimator sight with the ability to switch the brand and with the controls of its brightness and width. In the minimum mode, the marker should be no more than one eighth of the angular minute, and a magnifier for a collimator sight with variable magnification from two and half times to twelve, plus the night head and thermal head. All sights should be mutually supported, and the input lenses are to be no less than thirty-five millimeters, ideally - fifty.

  A factory rifle table should be included, with amendments to the bullet derivation at different distances and with information on the dispersion of the bullets for each type of ammunition supported.

  While I spoke, the seller’s face kept changing in front of my eyes. At first, his eyes began to widen until they began to encroach on his forehead, then his face came to life and lit up, almost with joy. And in the middle of my monologue, he frowned a little and started flipping through something on his tablet. Judging by the rare nods and the speed at which his fingers were flickering, he seemed to have been looking up some terms. When I finished, he seemed concentrated and confident.

  - You know, before today, I hadn’t come across a person who knew what they wanted, with such a detailed and accurate description of the necessary weapons. The main thing is that we have everything that you want. There's just the question of the price - three hundred thousand, - and he froze in anticipation of a reaction to the amount he’d asked for.

  - “I have enough money! - I replied, quickly checking my account. It was close to that sum, but I had enough money to spend, even enough for the spare cartridges. –
“Please bring me my order; I want to check how good it is.”

  The seller was radiant with happiness and raced with the speed of an anti-grav into the back room.

  CHAPTER XV: Sometimes I’m an Idiot, Sometimes I’m a Millionaire

  The seller returned, carrying a fairly large, silver case with grooved sides. Putting it onto the counter and opening the lid, the guy began to get out the plastic trays filled with porous material, which protect the load from shattering. In this material, in a specially carved recess, there were various spare parts and devices. In total, there were six such trays; they corresponded to the case in length and width; they were only thinner and folded in layers. Also, the seller took out fifteen packs of cartridges consisting of three types of different lengths from the counter, and each of these types of ammunition had five different markings.

  - Here you are, this is your order. Although it’s a compilation of ammunition, we sell it at a big discount, so that it doesn’t take up any space.

  - Why? - I asked, looking at the contents of the trays.

  - There were only three sets of them. They don’t produce such sets anymore, so there’s a problem with finding spare parts for them. They were delivered to us by chance - the recent convoy was shipped with extra goods, they didn’t even take money for them, and after that, it was sent to the balance of our outpost, and then the Server quoted the price for the set. A couple of years ago I saw such a set, and the price for it had been almost half a million then. – I almost choked hearing his words, and thought how I had to get all of them, but I didn’t have enough money for all three of the sets.

  - What’s it for?

  - This is a set designed for assaulting fortified areas. It has three interchangeable trunks of various lengths: from forty centimeters to eighty centimeters. The separate part of the chamber and the barrel will allow you, when you change the chamber, to use three types of cartridges: pistol, automatic, and rifle. Accordingly, it has three bolt elements for each cartridge. Included are the magazine cases with a miniaturization system that supports five types of cartridges: the normal mode - for the destruction of infantry formations; armor-piercing-expansive - for the destruction of heavily armored infantry; armor-piercing incendiary - for the destruction of droids or other robotic equipment; armor-piercing-cumulative - a plasma core enveloped in energy to combat armored vehicles. Well, there is another one as well, with a cryogenic core, for overloading energy shields. In the variant for the pistol cartridge, it supports nine hundred rounds of each type; in the automatic version - three hundred rounds of ammunition, and in the rifle one - one hundred rounds. There are still installable ones...

  The seller was talking so fast that I could barely memorize all that was being said. Look at how he sells this stuff: he’s clearly a fan of this thing.

  - Ok, let’s stop for now. Don’t speak so fast, - I interrupted him. - Let's talk about the attributes more and I will see it for myself.

  Assault hybrid pistol-rifle complex of automatic fire "Storm"

  Type: rifled submachine gun / rifled automatic rifle / rifled rifle

  Ammunition: 9.8x38 / 9.8x47 / 9.8x83

  Range: 300/800/1,600 meters

  Combat Rate of Fire (per minute): 1,100/500/60

  Shooting modes: single, three rounds, five rounds, automatic

  Condition: 100%

  Weight: 2.2 / 2.8 / 3.2 kg

  Limit:

  Level 70

  Skill with firearms-machine guns - 90%

  Skill with firearms - 90%

  Mastery of rifles - 90%

  Threaded cartridge "9.8x38" UWB

  Kinetic damage: 120-147

  Penetrating damage: 76-93

  Flight speed: 620-700 m / s

  Condition: 100%

  Cartridge weight: 7.6 g

  Limit:

  50 utility level

  Fuck! I am now also a fan of this Storm, only problem is, I can’t use it to its fullest extent because of the restrictions. I didn’t even take a look at the other parts, so as not to get even sadder.

  - The restrictions are tough! Is there any chance to bypass them? - I asked the seller, and he immediately became sad as well.

  - “No, the Server simply will not let you take it into your hands, through the piconites in your body. Well, in general, you can carry it, but you will just lift it to your shoulder, your fingers will unbend, and you will simply drop it to the floor. So, you won’t be buying it, will you?

  With regret, I shook my head and asked him to show me what he had for my level. I rejected a dozen options suggested by him - either they were worse than my Viro, or the same thing, only the style being different. One had a better rate of fire, but compared to mine, it had a much lower accuracy; the other, on the contrary, had better accuracy and the same rate of fire, but was one and a half times heavier than mine. As a result, I said goodbye to the seller and went to my room. Better for me to upgrade my skills to the maximum in a week, and then come back and buy the desired thing.

  After a good night’s sleep – necessary for me to recharge my batteries – I immediately went to the administrative building to meet with Carefire, for whom I had a number of questions. At the entrance, I was informed that the commander was waiting for me in his office, where I was immediately escorted to. But when I reached his office, I had to wait for another five minutes, until his current meeting was over. And when about a dozen different people left Carefire’s office, I finally got access to it.

  - Hi! Come in and sit down, - he said to me, offering me a seat on a chair near the table. When I sat, he asked. - Who will start? -

  - “Let it be you. I'm visiting you, and not vice versa.”

  - Well, let's clarify everything at the start. Are you ready to let us lease your building? Because yesterday, while everyone was in a hurry, my techies finished equipping our part of the property allocated by the Server, and now they are waiting for my order. -

  - “I would gladly sell it completely. I don’t need any real estate at the moment.”

  - I cannot buy it for now; I have already told you that the outpost is now broke. Not in the literal sense of the word, just that the entire budget is already allocated for the upcoming week. I have only myself to blame – I got such a generous gift in the form of the dungeon, where the money went, and then this outpost came along, too.

  - “You’ve said it twice now, that those catacombs are a real gift, but I can’t understand what’s so special about them.”

  - Are you kidding? - He stared at me in surprise. – Don’t say that you really don’t know what you gave us?

  - “Um ... no!”

  Carefire laughed for about two minutes, and in the end, he even buried his forehead under his hands, put them on the table and began to make incomprehensible gurgling sounds. All that time, I watched him, very surprised, more precisely, already understanding that I’d screwed up. And I even understood that I had screwed up with those technical tunnels, I even realized that, most likely, the essence of it was the equipment that was in the rat uterus, but I couldn’t understand why the hardware was so important. Being reassured, he lifted his head and, wiping away the tears that formed as he’d laughed so uncontrollably, he looked at my face, which was expressing one large question mark with all the facial expressions available to it, and began to giggle again.

  “It's good that your spirits are high again, but let's get straight to the point,” I interrupted him.

  - Oh ... Now ... Just a minute ... - taking three deep breaths and slowly exhaling, he calmed down. - Sorry, just look at the situation from my point of view. From the beginning, replicants have proven to not be the best fighters. They are greedy, arrogant; moreover, they think that everyone here is obliged to help them. There were even some types who insisted that we weren’t real. Simply put, we formed completely negative impressions interacting with your brethren, and here you appear, almost giving away a large piece of technical tunnels, in which, in addition to a water treatment system, is
also an energy reactor, designed to serve the whole area. I have already thought about it for a long time, trying to find the reason behind your actions, I have two dozen analysts trying to figure out your targets, and then, it turns out, that you simply hadn’t known what you were giving us.

  Looking at the situation from such a point of view, I admitted that I was an idiot, and that if I had been the commander, I would’ve been lying on the floor, in a fit of laughter, mocking a man as dumb as me.

  - I have only one question. Don’t think I plan to be malicious; I am not going to complain. It’s my fault; henceforth I will think twice about everything. So, how much had it all been worth?

  - Well ... twenty million – that is how much you gave to the outpost. This is just a rough figure. -

  I was sitting, looking at him and pondering. If I bang my head against the wall - after all the ruckus, I will still respawn after twelve hours. If I hit the commander with something heavy – I’ll stain and ruin my reputation, I am not going to do that. Okay, I can’t get back what has been lost; I will have to be smarter from now on.