Chapter 48: The Flying General

  Lu Bu Post Death

  In the weeks that I lived with Ji-Ho and Ha-Rin, they handled the purchasing of groceries and simply took a small amount from my fees with which to feed me. I hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now I realize I should have been grateful for the efforts. It isn't because I found 'grocery shopping' to be an onerous task, quite the opposite in fact, I found myself spending far more time, and far more Digi-Creds than I had intended because I was enjoying myself.

  Teas, hydration packs of different flavors, dried meats, dried fruits, sustenance bars, and candied nuts. I purchased a fair number of Synthnoods. Despite their terrible texture, the flavor of the instantly heating noodle cups had grown on me. I liked the image of a roaring bear on some bottles of wine I saw, and so bought three of them. As it turned out, the plastic basket I had picked up to use as I made my way around the store was only for use in said store, and I needed to return it when I left.

  I gave some fairly serious consideration to battering the teen girl and her grandfather, who owned and operated the grocery store in the marketplace I was making use of, and simply taking the basket along with anything else I pleased. Such an act would likely draw attention from Clan Yantra, whose territory I was still hiding out in, so instead I left my supplies at the counter for a few minutes while I made use of one of the small market stalls nearby.

  I found the marketplace I was using both better and worse than the one inside Clan Irons territory. It was less scattered, and I feel like the food was better; however, the quality of things like clothes and weapons seemed to be lesser within this section of the city tier. The bag I bought didn't seem like it was of particularly high quality either, but I judged it both large and durable enough for my purposes.

  The stand that sold it to me basically only sold bags, with its counter floor and walls entirely covered in them. Almost every single one had some sort of art printed on them. Mostly, these artworks were of characters I didn't recognize, but Diaochan assured me they were from popular shows. Several, including the one I purchased, forwent the artworks, but did have writing on them. In the case of mine, it was the familiar text of [CRYS?ALxCORE] just like the shirt Ji-Ho had given me when I first arrived at their workshop.

  Returning to the grocery store, I collected my supplies and checked my Digi-Cred total on my HUD. At the dramatic drop in the number's total, I felt my stomach clench, but managed to keep my shock off my face. It wasn't like I was going to shame myself by begging the store owner to take back his goods, and besides, I did need the supplies. Regardless, it was now clear I desperately needed to find a new source of funds if I was going to survive more than a few weeks.

  It seemed unlikely to me that the servants of Clan Yantra would let me back into the hunting grounds where I had set myself up as easily as they had the first time I made my way into the block, and even if they did, I would be risking one of the clan members recognizing me.

  Fabio wouldn't have such a problem; being a raindrop meant being a rich kid who was protected not just by the technology of his armor, but by the strength of his name as well. With the possible exception of Clan Ulus, the criminal element in this city had no way of making war against the powerful families who dwelled on the so-called sky tiers, and even the Ulus didn't have any interest in such a conflict.

  As such, when the clans encountered an evolution suit-wearing raindrop, they tended to either just ignore them or charge them a fee for hunting ground access. Of course, that didn't mean the clans and other denizens of the lower city tiers didn't occasionally try to ambush raindrop groups, or defend themselves when the rich tourists were on a rampage. It just meant that they would avoid doing it out in the open or without the cover of a network blocker or a hacker who could stop communications.

  I had no such social protections and no desire to risk my supplies and new [CRYS?ALxCORE] backpack by exposing them to potential conflict. The heavens knew I'd spent enough money on them; if either was damaged today, I would be furious. Fortunately, I had a plan for just such an endeavor. If I'm honest, it really wasn't all that different from the way I had exited the block with the hunting ground in it, just higher up.

  On the off chance that I got myself killed attempting to leap from building to building a second time in one day, I decided to spend even more of my dwindling funds at the noodle stand I had patronized the first night I'd spent in Yantra territory. The food there was of a far better quality than that I could prepare myself, especially with the limited cooking instruments I had been able to find over the last week, and I wanted to make sure that if I did die, my last meal was not a pack of self-heating synthnoods.

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  The same young man who was running the stand when I went there last time was present, though I doubted he recognized me. Regardless, I was pleased to see him as his skills with a wok were not to be disputed and I had thoroughly enjoyed my meal here last time.

  Watching him fry up some sort of strange mystery meat along with greens, herbs, and noodles was like watching an artist paint, and I was soon salivating at the smell. I concluded then and there that when I grew in enough power that I ruled these streets, I would reserve a place of safety and honor for this young man.

  "Hey," I called out to him once my steaming bowl was in front of me. "What's your name?"

  An hour and a half later, I was standing on the roof of the block that was closest to the one in which I had been dwelling for the past weeks. Diaochan A.I had already done some calculations on my behalf and confirmed that both my red energy-bladed spear and my abilities would function as I intended them to for this, though she was still against the plan as a whole.

  I could understand her hesitation even if I didn't share it. There was no swinging terrace creating a bridge to somewhat close the gap on this building, and if I gained enough height to leap onto the same hanging terrace that I had used during my exit, I was more than a little confident I would destabilize it enough that it would fall. That meant I needed a new path between buildings without going back down to the ground floor, where my passage would be marked.

  Even with my prodigious strength and otherworldly levels of grace, the gap from this roof to the next one was simply too far. If I could produce enough momentum, however, I knew that I could reach one of the lower sections of the wall or even the terrace. The key would be doing so without simply bouncing off or collapsing the wrong section and falling the li or so to my death.

  The other issue would be keeping my supplies undamaged as I did so, but my plan for that was so simple that even Diaochan considered it to have a reasonable chance of success. First, I activated the ability I had dubbed [Man Within Ogre] so that I could throw my spear and still call it back to me should the throw fail. Next, I spent a few minutes adjusting the straps of my recently acquired backpack so that I could tightly bind the bag to the spear. The next few minutes after that were devoted to getting used to the weapon's new weight.

  You can probably see where this is going, and yes, it did work. I took several running steps across the rusty and oddly damp roof of the block before hurling like a weighted javelin across the gap to the other building, where its blade struck the other roof true and held firm.

  Step one was complete; I had gotten the groceries and the bag, carrying them to the other side. Now I simply needed to join them. Standing with my right foot at the end of the drop, I narrowed my eyes and looked up and down the enormous building I was about to reenter. The lack of breeze up here felt wrong, but I'm sure I still cut a dashing figure.

  'There.' I thought to myself as I spotted a sufficiently damaged section of wall above what looked like a stable terrace, and far enough down that I could aim my leap to reach it. Now I would simply get a run up and once again activate my new dash ability mid-air at the right time to cover the final distance. I had been meaning to rename [Iron Vanguard Assault], but truthfully, the name had grown on me enough that I wasn't in any hurry to do so.

  Stretching my legs and rolling my shoulders, I put some distance between myself and the edge of the block roof. Once I was almost a quarter of the way to the other side of the roof I was on, I judged that further distance wasn't going to allow me to build more speed anyway, and began my sprint.

  There is a trick to running full speed towards the edge of a cliff or some other massive drop. Even if you know you will survive the fall, or have the ability to fly, your body will always try to resist leaping from such an edge and will make some effort to slow down or hesitate. So you need to convince yourself that you aren't actually about to throw yourself from such a height, that the leap you are about to make will simply carry you forward.

  With that in mind, I kept my eyes on the opposite rooftop as I hurtled towards the edge. It wasn't difficult to do, and I had already aligned myself with where I wanted to fall. At the final step upon the rusted roof, I violently launched myself into the air with a powerful leap.

  There might not have been wind atop the roof, but there was now as the grey cement and occasional window flew past my plummeting form. Unlike the moments before I had jumped, my gaze was pointed downwards as I fell, not on the street and my potential death below, but locked on my chosen section of wall.

  'Wait.' My clothes whipped about me as I fell.

  'Wait.' I narrowed my eyes as the sharp air tried to force them closed.

  'Mmmm NOW!'

  I activated [Iron Vanguard Assault], which propelled me forward the last six or so feet, and I smashed through the crumbling wall in a cloud of cement that I actively didn't breathe in. On the other side was not the road-sized hallway I was expecting, but more empty air as I found myself above a collapsed section of the hunting ground floor.

  Eyes going wide with shock, I managed to orient myself and land in a crouch with one hand, punching down into the pile of fallen rubble that should have been a floor to land on.

  "I need to find a more reliable way to do this," I said to myself as the cloud of dust cleared around me.

  He has never been shopping like this before okay. He's not good at budgeting.

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