Chapter 69: Chapter 66

When I opened my eyes on the affiliate, it looked roughly the same. The weird blackish-red light pouring in from the outside seemed a little more intense, but otherwise all the rubble and cracks were in the right places.

“Specter?” I called. Nothing happened. Once again, the kiosk ahead of me in the affiliate was alive. This time a small section on it was blinking, so I approached it and pressed the light with a finger.

The nicer looking version of Specter arrived, clean cut and wearing his scorched but beautiful apron. Once again, his hair was covering his ears, but the angular nature of his face made me wonder if he had any relation to the delves in the basement. His skin was much lighter in tone, and his features were less extreme, but my suspicion was that he was some kind of elf approximate.

“Good evening, sir!” He chirped, staring straight ahead. “I see you are here to discuss an upgrade for your Starfish extreme environment suit.” The image stuttered and changed slightly. “As well as a perk patch purchase. Which would you like to do-like to do first?” The visual stammer matched the audio, with the hologram repeating his words and actions exactly.

I hesitated. Looked like it didn’t matter which coupon I put in, I would only get one visit.

“What is BuyMort?” I asked.

The projection flickered, and the background began to expand again. I sighed, right before it cut out. As soon as he re-appeared and repeated his question, I shook my head.

“The suit,” I said.

“Very good sir, there are many-there are many options when it comes to upgrading the Starfish extreme environment suit. The Teslak Cooperative is happy to assist in selecting the right option for you-the right option for you.” Specter in customer service mode was quickly frustrating me, but he was good at laying out the products.

“I see that you already have our adaptive threat recognition system and primary reactor installed. This will allow for the installation of three primary system paths. This initial upgrade will determine the direction of your suit’s advanced utility, though aspects of all predetermined paths will be present in any choice of upgrade.” The projection didn’t stammer once, and then blinked out entirely upon finishing its statement.

When it started up again, the background matched our current environment. The same red and black light flooded Specter’s background as did mine, and he looked wounded, but in stable condition.

“If you’ve made it this far, you know the suit no longer just recognizes threats.” He leaned forward over the counter. “The reactor is the engine, it holds all the potential. I modified them all to work with the threat reaction system to repair the user, you, instead of just their own systems. Though, with the hardening I added, it’s unlikely to require repair.” His eyes flickered up to where I was standing, and the projection pointed at me. “I’m sure you think of this as quite brutal, since you’ve survived long enough to be accessing your first upgrade.”

I shook my head as he continued. It was brutal, but everything in BuyMort was brutal, and this specific brutality helped me stay alive.

He continued. “This next tier of upgrade will make that system somewhat less horrible by securing portions of your body, in accordance with the upgrade you choose.” Specter shook his head, bobbing his long, fine hair. “But, until you are completely covered by the suit, any injuries will be dealt with in the same manner. There will simply be fewer injuries to sustain.”

I blinked at that information, but Specter waved his bandaged hand, and a trio of holographic images spun into place in front of me. Each was a physical upgrade to the starfish suit.

The first appeared to be some kind of propulsion system. It had intake vents above a single large output and looked as though it would fit on my back. The inside wall of the apparent jet-pack was another starfish, its thick, broad tentacles moving gently in the image. When I focused on the jetpack, Specter suddenly blinked out and was replaced with his customer service replacement.

Glaring blue light filled the affiliate, and the jetpack enlarged as the other two options shrank.

“The Teslak Cooperative is proud to introduce, proud to introduce the very best in personal mobility upgrades, to complement the starfish hazardous environment system. In atmosphere, under the water, or even in the depths of space, our unique starfish gravitic propulsion drive will ensure you have the freedom of movement to complete your tasks.”

Specter extended his palms to gently indicate the projections on either side of the jetpack. I focused on the one to his right, and it immediately centered itself, before inflating in size.

It was a pair of oversized gloves, with sharp, raised edges running along the tips of the knuckles. The gloves reached up to the elbow, and had long, thin metallic tendrils waving lightly at the openings.

“These atomic dismantlers will greatly increase your controlled demolitions capabilities. In order to cause enough atomic energy to be released from demolition activities to power your suit indefinitely, each dismantler glove casts a focused atomic pulse wave, destabilizing critical atomic structure with nano-scale targeting. These pulse waves are an accelerated form of the reactor’s primary charge function and will return great dividends when used to recharge a starfish extreme environment system. This ensures continued demolition for as long as may be required, in any environment, with minimal risk to the user. As an increased safety measure, each glove can be activated from a base charge-from a base charge of zero. If called upon, the atomic dismantlers will deploy from dimensional storage gateways embedded in the user with a single pulse wave ready to recharge the suit from either glove.” Specter was again barely stammering, and I began to suspect the program was somehow healing itself.

I nodded again, and the final option spun into place. It was a series of armored plates, all hovering around a starfish shaped core. This time the starfish itself was a tiny ball, and a focal point for all the various tendrils holding onto the plating. It had primarily long, thin, metallic whip arms.

“Increasing your armor system will allow for ever more extreme environments. This upgrade will install plating that can be extended or retracted at impulse, to cover the entire body and prevent any harm or damage from befalling the user of the primary starfish suit. As will all starfish industrial operations, our impervium plating process provides a hardy, stable suit that will not fail to protect its user in all but the most unlikely scenarios.”

I scowled. My suit felt incomplete, now that I had seen what was available. The impression I got was strange, it felt like what I had on me now was meant to be a repair and basic function basis for the suit, which would then be filled in with these remaining options. It felt like all three together would make the suit complete, but Specter quickly derailed my train of thought by speaking again.

“Each starfish extreme environment suit is designed with custom function in mind. As a new user, one should always be aware that suit upgrades have paths, and paths cannot be diverted from once joined. Each suit will be complete at the end of our custom upgrade process but depending on your first upgrade-on your first upgrade, each suit will perform very differently-very differently. Choose your path wisely, and in accordance with the needs your starfish suit is being assembled to address.” Specter froze as soon as he had finished speaking, as did the floating holographic items in front of me.

The red light came back, and Specter changed forms again. He was no longer chipper and leaned heavily across the counter. The bandage on his hand was seeping.

“I forgot to add this into the modification system, so it should tag onto the end of your presentation.” He coughed heavily and turned aside to spit out a bloody wad of phlegm that vanished as soon as it got far enough away from him.

“I modified each of the starfish systems to provide synergistic benefits no matter which path you start on. Choose the thing that’s most important to you now.” He stopped and hauled himself up heavily to look at the camera, pale and gaunt. “Just pick what keeps you alive.”

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Then he blinked back to the patient salesman and waited for me to make my choice. I could swipe between each system and did so to pull up the armor plating again. I was beyond tempted to get that extra plating. Each section of plating was beautiful and thin, the metal projecting a dull sheen that exuded strength. I sighed and shook my head though.

It wasn’t the armor keeping me alive, though I certainly would have liked to have more of it. Even the Lobtis, which cut through me so fast I wasn’t able to see or feel it, couldn’t make a scratch on the starfish plating. I just imagined being covered head to toe in it and sighed as I realized which path I needed to take.

Breaking stuff was what had kept me alive to date, and I needed the ability to break more stuff, if my experience in the Sleem den was anything to judge it by. Being able to fly would be cool, but it honestly got me revved up just knowing that it was in my future if I managed to survive long enough.

I pulled up the atomic dismantler gloves and selected them. Specter smiled wide and clapped his hands together. “Now, let’s see to your other purchase.”

A shelf in the background lit up for the first time, and I could see three tiny objects, each in large clear packaging. It looked like colored rectangles of paper or cloth. Specter turned on his heel and pointed at them, and a holographic projection grew in front of me again. Each of the three objects was indeed a small rectangle of thin cloth. They were each different colors as well, with a red, orange, and blue rectangle present in the holographic display.

“The Perk-Patch, Teslak Cooperatives answer to the Stat-Shot, is a superior product in every way. Perk-Patch comes in any of the six varieties you see before you and represents your best opportunity to increase your own capability with nothing more than a good night’s sleep.” Specter rotated slightly as he spoke, turning to show each of the small, colored strips. Before he finished speaking, he turned to show empty space three additional times.

“Thanks to the galaxy-defining quality of our smiths, Teslak is able to offer permanent ability boosts without the invasive and expensive procedure of nanite installation and upkeep. Non-sapient, nano-scopic crystalline life-forms will inhabit your body and build contained colonies that improve general health, mental well-being, raw physical strength, reflex based movement and response, intellectual capability, and pheromonal restructuring.”

The holographic image in front of me expanded and zoomed deep into the red patch. Once the camera got to a small enough scale, I could see millions of tiny little life-forms crawling around on the patch. They looked like skin mites formed of incredibly fine crystal structures. Energy swirled internally on each of them, and the larger the concentration of them on the patch, the brighter they glowed.

Then it all blinked out and the affiliate went dark again. Red light moved slowly across the ceiling as I waited for Specter to return.

As expected, the projector hummed back to life and the customer service version of Specter was back. “Are you ready to make your purchase?”

I shook my head and the projector clicked. It switched to the injured version of Specter, who was leaning heavily against the counter again.

“Stat-shots were a good idea. I made it better with the patches, but even then my hands were tied. All they wanted was a matching product, to compete.” Specter shook his head, and a droplet of blood seeped from his hairline to spatter on the counter. He casually wiped it away and moved his hair enough for me to confirm a higher than average ear line.

“Even before it all collapsed, I knew.” He looked up. “It was never about competition. Don’t compete when you can destroy. They don’t compete. BuyMort won’t hesitate. You can’t either, if you’re going to survive and do my work for me, whoever you are.”

A different version of the camera zoom occurred on the red patch, and this time the mites looked different. The energy swirling in their crystalline bodies was deeper in color, and their legs were significantly longer. Each mite moved easier, and I saw several of them stepping around and past one another, instead of mindlessly crawling over the top of each other.

“This is what the patch-forms were always meant to be. This will produce a true symbiosis and allows for proper blending of the branches. These life-forms are far more potent than the watered down variety my other self is likely still trying to sell.”

He paused and adjusted the bandage on his hand. “There is a downside to this. The regular patches create colonies that spread out in their designated areas. So a strength patch would populate a muscular system with crystalline life forms, but my power blow patch will populate primarily in the lower fore-arms. This creates a slower build of strength for the user, but creates the power blow effect, which is lost entirely on a basic strength patch colony. Such a shame, the effect is the core of what this species is to the universe. Each of them, really. All I’ve done is to undo the neuter Teslak forced on these creatures.” When he finished, he moved into a lean on the counter.

The projector hummed in the background, and Specter leaned while staring at me. While I waited for him to continue, I noticed that the hologram began playing over. His image twitched and was in position again in under a second.

“Tell me more about the patches,” I asked.

The hologram came to life again, with a flicker of the projector. The blue patch rose in front of me.

“Aimed shot. It provides a significant boost to standing hand-eye coordination, as well as increasing your general reflexive and dexterous state.” Specter spun the holographic patch, making it sparkle in the light. “This one lives in your brain, and along your nerves. It will increase your cognitive function slowly, over time, and with more patches. Tap into their active ability by focusing, hard. Once they’re active, whatever ranged weapon you’re using will hit at most any range, barring external interference.”

He moved a hand and the red patch swirled forward. “Power blow. These life forms will accumulate in the limbs, in concentrated colonies. These colonies are capable of storing kinetic energy from normal movement and releasing it in direct confluence with any of your melee strikes or limb movements. With more patches and time, these colonies will expand through the muscular system, dramatically increasing user strength and durability.”

The final patch came forward, and he gently raised his palm to indicate it. “Stone skin. These colonies reproduce quickly and grow to populate a host’s epidermis, as well as other major organ systems. Once the colony is in place, the host will enjoy a significant increase in skin health, as well as pliability, and general strength. With more applications, or mixture with other types of crystalline life, general health and life span will increase as well. Upon activation, they expend stored energy to harden the epidermis against any attack temporarily.”

I nodded and pointed to the red patch. “Power blow.” It matched my new gloves, and while the others had their appeal, I wanted to focus on my ability to destroy anything that came at me. Plus, the suit made whatever areas it directly covered impervious to damage. Even when a limb had been lopped off, whatever part of it was still attached to the suit had remained. This patch would be directly protected by my new gauntlets until the colonies could spread to the rest of my muscle tissue.

The lightning beetle, Lobtis, and Dearth Conglomerate hover-tank were prevalent in my mind as I made the decision. Armored opponents were a regular problem for me. I had a small but pleasant fantasy of becoming a tank-puncher, instead of just a window-puncher like Mr. Sada had called me. He came up with the weirdest names.

With a small popping sound, the projector switched Specters again and the clean version of him happily rang me up and took the morties from my account. It cost exactly what I had in my account from the coupons, again.

Once the transaction was completed, the projector hummed quietly to a stop as it deactivated, and the ruined affiliate was empty again.

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