Chương 16: Auto Echo

After having some back and forth with Arcane Archivist again, Nyx finally got the gist of what these level five rewards were. There had already been quite a few people who'd reached level five. Most of them were made up of fleet captains, with apparently only the heavenly demon as the only solo survivor who'd reached out to the guy for the information like Nyx had. That information itself cost him a good five gold.

Information about other people, especially candidates as esteemed as fleet captains, apparently cost a premium. Which wasn't really a surprise, considering the informant was taking a risk selling information on people as infamous for ruthlessness as the heavenly demon and green ghost fleet.

"Though, considering he's already selling information on such high-profile figures, it wouldn't be long before he starts selling my information if I start attracting attention." To be honest, Nyx low-key suspected that the guy had already sold off much of the information he could gather from their transaction.

"Ah well, it's not like I have much of a choice here, the guy has a monopoly on the information business right now." So, instead, he focused on the more important matter at hand. Of the three choices, apparently, it was most effective to choose the rare weapon. Mainly because of the gambling factor—of the people who'd gone for the shard choice, 70% of them had gotten shards numbering less than five. And the total amount of shards required to form an actual skill was ten.

Just as he'd suspected, common shards weren't up for grabs in chests at all. And these rewards only came every five levels, which made the acquisition of common shards even harder. Listing them on the [Exchange] wasn't possible either, which meant he couldn't use money to buy them, and since Nyx couldn't even withdraw them from his inventory, they weren't tradable at all.

"This means I'd have to wait until the vehicle reaches level ten to get more common shards?" He shook his head in exasperation.

"I'm better off with a weapon, alright." The archivist had told him that the rare weapons weren't like normal weapons. They tended to be more exaggerated and unrealistic in their effects. He hadn't told him the weapons the others had gotten, but Nyx was pretty convinced that the leaders hadn't shared that info with the guy at all.

"Otherwise, he'd ask for another coin for sharing that." The dude was a certified capitalist—he'd not only established a monopoly on general information, he was now increasingly branching into espionage, divination, and even entertainment-type information too.

"Wonder if the guy I'm talking to has the surname Bezos or something." With a shrug, he clicked on the rare weapons option. [Acquired Rare weapon 'Auto Echo'] Nyx frowned at the new screen, but before assuming anything wrong, and judging the supposed 'weapon' by its name, he opened its evaluation panel first. [Auto Echo] Evaluation: A small cube attachable to the muzzle of a gun, or the handle of a cold weapon. The device echoes the attacks of the weapon.

For example, if a gun is fired, the Auto Echo would replicate that action with another, spectral gunshot. It consumes no additional fuel, energy, or ammo. It's truly a wonderful copycat. He retrieved the item from the inventory, and it materialized in his palm. It was small, matte-finished, about the size of a jawbreaker candy core. It featured no hook or anything that might suggest it could be attached to a weapon.

To test out some of his theories on how it could be attached, he brought over the Triple Action Thunder and pressed the cube against the tip of its muzzle. Sure enough, the cube's center parted into a crescent shape to fit over the weapon. [Once attached, it'd be permanent and couldn't be detached again.] A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. Nyx nodded, put away both the attachment and the weapon separately.

He'd have to find a better weapon to use this on. It was a force-multiplier type weapon, though it felt more like a mod card than a weapon. Then again, it attacked too, so it was really just an attachable weapon. Nyx couldn't quite make sense of the system's frequent mislabeling of various things. After looking up at the sky again, he estimated there were only a few hours remaining, "maybe two hours or so." He made a rough guess and boarded the vehicle.

While doing so, his gaze drifted over the windows and the windshield.

"Maybe I should upgrade these too." They were already made of tempered glass, but he didn't feel safe relying on mere tempered glass windows and a windshield when facing a potentially much more dangerous horde of zombies tonight. So he opened the windshield upgrade panel, which also included the windows as a whole. Looking over the materials, he found most of them to be rather cheap. Even the cost of the upgrade was only five gold.

The upgrade path was a single path too, and its main materials were a few steel plates and lots of crystal panels—basically a higher-tier version of glass panels. He hopped back onto the [Exchange], sold all of his glass panels, paid a bit more upfront, and bought the crystal panels. Fulfilling the requirements, he pressed the upgrade button. His car's windows and windshield were covered in white light, and he watched the gold in his inventory drop to eighty after covering all the expenses.

After the upgrade finished and the white light of advancement disappeared, he clicked on the brand new windshield's evaluation panel. [Crystal Windshield] Evaluation: Crafted with fine crystal that could break metals without leaving a scratch. The crystal windshield and its sister windows are among the highest quality parts below tier three. Anyone who's gotten this early on can sit tight and take a peaceful nap even during the night (wouldn't recommend it though XD).

Nyx tried not to laugh at the tone of the system, and instead started his car's engine. With a roar, it turned on.

"There's only two hours remaining till sundown. It's prime time for hunting the walker zombies." The vehicle drove off from the cave, into the evening plains. It was the time when the sun's intensity tended to fade, a lot less harsh than at midday, drawing out many of the undead who would otherwise hide away and play dead. Now they came out of the woodwork looking for prey.

And since Stardew Mountain's foothills were already a prime spot for finding them, it didn't take long for Nyx to start spotting the straggling ones. At the sound of his engine cutting through the otherwise quiet plains, the zombies growled, their slow, swaying walk suddenly turning firmer and faster as they came for his vehicle. Nyx kept the engine running so the sound could keep attracting them. He then retrieved the M416, stepped off the car, and began opening fire on the incoming horde of ten zombies.

The gunfire crackled as the bullets shot forth and tore through the rotten flesh of the zombies. The shots that hit their arms by the dozen made the limbs crumble apart into mangled chunks of meat and bone. The shots that hammered into their chests tore through skin and ribcage, literally flinging them backward. The zombies at the front started to thin out when he heard rustling and growls from behind him.

Putting aside the M416, he turned around, swapped to the Glock, flipped it to full auto, and emptied the magazine into the seven-foot-tall zombie, turning its body into a mess full of holes. [Successfully killed a Walker Zombie! Gold +0. 1! Rubber x5] [Successfully killed a Walker Zombie! Gold +0. 1!] [Successfully killed a Walker Zombie! Gold +0. 1! Universal Bullets x10] [Successfully killed a Walker Zombie! Gold +0. 1!] The string of death notifications jingled in his ears while the gunfire rewarded death to the already dead in spades. It wasn't until half an hour before nightfall that Nyx stopped gunning down the zombies. Once he was done, he washed his face with some water, boarded the Armoured Racer, and zipped off toward the Black Stone Mountain, leaving behind a mountain of corpses numbering at nearly two hundred. His gold had risen from eighty back to one hundred. In exchange, he'd expended nearly two thousand bullets.

Looking at his M416's evaluation panel, it showed durability had decreased from 80% to less than half that, at 30%.

"Guess it's time I buy myself another assault rifle." He shrugged. It was kind of annoying how nearly no one sold infinite-durability or infinite-bullet mod cards. The infinite bullets made sense, but durability?

"There has to have been at least one desperate guy who'd gotten one and wanted to sell it, but still, there's no listing for the item on the [Exchange]." There were also none hawking the mod card in the regional chats.

"Chances are, these guys are directly contacting the big fleets to sell it to them for a good price." While the reputation of big fleets had initially been shit, it had recently improved greatly, especially as they'd started offering higher salaries and acting less like thugs. The regional chats had also grown far less hateful toward them too.

"The benefits of opening a fleet are truly great," he sighed internally, before renewing his spirit as the Black Stone Mountain came into view up ahead.

"Today I shall engage in illegal mining." He opened the [Exchange] and got himself 50 gold coins' worth of dynamite.