Destiny in Cinders

An Jing removed the tattered mantle in the changing room and put on a brand-new one along with a lethal-qi mask. His spirits were high after procuring new artifacts and equipment. The vilespawn fiend won't stand a chance, not after I got all these artifacts and talismans, not to mention the progress of my training!

While he couldn't check if the equipment worked within a safe zone, a staff member had given him a demonstration in a special zone. That way, An Jing was able to ensure that they worked. He even managed to try it out himself and used a special pair of virtual glasses and remote to pilot the drone.

For some reason, the interface seemed incredibly familiar to him even though he shouldn't have come across anything like it before. The Hexlotus Platform rose and rolled around with such agility and proficiency that shocked even the black market's staff member.

"Sir, your drone-piloting skills are comparable to a pro's!" she flattered. "And you're piloting it without using a chip interface too. If you had a chip..."

An Jing was quite surprised himself as he removed the glasses. He shouldn't have any skill with piloting drones, but somehow his past life's experiences came in handy. It raised even more questions as to the kind of person he had been in his past life. How could a martially gifted elite drone pilot end up dying so soon? Was he some retired veteran who used to be an elite soldier? Did he also have an expertise in urban combat? That aside, the people from Skysource kept bringing up the chip.

"Thanks for the trouble," he said to the staff member.

"It's no trouble at all!" She was polite and served him incredibly well. After some hesitation, she took out a waterscreen and asked with some hesitation, "Umm... can you also give me a good review here?"

An Jing blinked before turning to look at the screen. He could select a score to give the staff member by using his spirit-qi imprint. This staff member was new at the job. She had probably started working in the black market not too long ago. Though she had few reviews, all of them were good. An Jing wasn't surprised in the least from her smooth demonstration and thorough service. Since she deserved full points, he was happy to give them to her.

"Thank you so much!" She smiled brightly at the sight of the great evaluation. Then, she led him back to the free-trade zone before waving him goodbye. An Jing's mood improved from the interaction itself.

Once more, he was surrounded by the chatter of commerce. Unlike the warehouse area, the free-trade zone was more like an underground city, filled with hustle and bustle and packed with foot traffic. The many storefronts were chock full of signs and adverts of all sizes. There were thirteen whole floors of stores to explore. Lots of veiled or masked people searched the wares for what they needed. Some stores even allowed bargaining while others stuck strictly to the sticker price.

An Jing quietly followed his little helper drone through the crowd. At this point, the only thing that he still needed was a drone that could operate somewhat autonomously just like the guide drone. However, those types of drones were typically subunits that were remotely controlled by the black market itself. True drones that had artifact souls were either exceedingly large or exceedingly expensive. "I should save it for next time."

Soon, he arrived at a store called "Long Walk on Fortune Road" to collect the items he had ordered through the waterscreen. He picked up his Solo Badlander Tool-Meal Set, which cost 75 merits in total. Within it were a machete, meat knife, bulletproof mantle, lethal-qi mask, compass, flint, fire-retardant fabric, lighter, sewing set, butterfly knife, tool set, night-vision device, medkit, water-purification talismans, rope, inflatable tent and flashlight.

The set also came with stimulants, concentrated sugar, salt, metal-trauma medication and four fasting pills. A single fasting pill could sustain a person's metabolic needs for five days assuming one did nothing but meditation during that span of time.

Despite the variety of items in the pack, it was considered to be one of the more budget ones. The one that cost 125 merits came with extra healing and silence talismans and two more fasting pills. The third type that cost three hundred merits also came with armor and divine-walk talismans, one bloodboil pill and more tools.

An Jing still had stimulant pills, so he didn't really need them. Yvelbane also mentioned that his own body was already much sturdier than the defense provided by armor talismans. Most of the other special bonuses were also unnecessary thanks to the drone, so he more or less had enough.

"Friend, if you don't have a chip, you'll have a bit of a hard time controlling the Hexlotus Platform," said the young owner of Long Walk on Fortune Road. He had a head of neat, black hair and wore a set of black goggles with many lenses. From the exposed parts of his face, An Jing could see that he was at most in his twenties.

The owner could instantly tell that An Jing was a badlander from his use of physical merit bills. He noticed the Hexlotus Platform in his backpack and said, "Let me teach you a trick. You should deploy all six subunits and use the 'Disperse' function. This way, the subunits will evenly space out on their own and fly in different directions. It's much more convenient than manually controlling each one."

He explained a few additional tricks in drone piloting. An Jing found them really practical and committed each one to memory.

He then looked at the counter behind the owner and saw all sorts of parts laid out on it. The owner seemed to be quite the tinkerer, which explained his passionate explanation. An Jing smiled and saluted him. "Thank you for the tips, Boss. You seem to be quite the expert."

He placed five merits on the table and slid it over before asking in a hushed voice, "Umm, so about the chip... I keep hearing others mention it, but I'm a badlander, so I don't quite know what it's for. How can I get one?"

"An expert? No, it's just a little hobby of mine. I like to poke around in these things." The owner chuckled in a silly fashion as he pocketed the bills. He was about to offer An Jing a smoke, but the boy pointed at his gas mask and dissuaded the owner, who was already lighting his own cigarette. "The chip is linked to the mind through a formation. It is like a talisman that's synchronized with our inner world. Put plainly, it's a multifunctional talisman formation that's connected to our souls, allowing us to interface with various networks, get help for calculations and make use of a virtual secretary.

"It's not hard for you to get one either. Badlanders only have to pay five thousand merits on top of doing a service duty. That will qualify you for registration at the internal-affairs bureau for your own mindlink chip."

"A service duty?" An Jing recalled Metalhand's surprise from back then.

The owner of the store continued, "Come on, wiping out feys and fiends! Occasionally, you'll have to deal with demonoids too. The expedition bureau occasionally issues bounties for dangerous creatures. They're all considered service duties. That isn't the hard part for you badlanders, but five thousand merits is a whole different story."

An Jing nodded and sighed. "Earning money sure is tough."

The two of them sighed in unison once more before parting amicably.