?

  My passage back to my hideout was quite possibly the fastest I have moved since my death. Once I had determined that Diaochan was talking about the doors of Vaetro’s Restorations, I ran like lightning. Obviously, I demanded Diaochan find me the quickest path from the roof back to my temporary home down on the ninth floor. She had been mapping this block the entire time I had been residing here. If the place had been new, she needn’t have bothered, but with the sheer destruction and degradation wrought on the seventy-two-story building, it had been transformed from an almost maddening degree of sameness from floor to floor into a maze of twisted metal and collapsed cement.

  While this meant that I couldn’t rely on the various stairwells throughout the block to get me where I wanted to go, I now had all sorts of less intentional but equally viable paths through the floors of the building. In particular, if I wanted to go downwards, there were a number of collapsed sections of floor that I could simply jump down. Several of them required a little effort to avoid plummeting to my death, but I have practiced acrobatics of one type or another since I was a small child. It was honestly one of the few things my first father gave me that proved helpful throughout my life.

  In order to save myself time, I dropped two floors and caught myself on the rusted iron scaffolding that made up a significant portion of floor fifty-one, now that it was a collapsed mess. I have to admit it was even kind of fun once I pulled myself up and got to run across the jutting metal poles that eventually took me to a staircase.

  There were a number of other pipes and gaps I dashed across or squeezed through to save time, as if someone had found my hideout, they could easily destroy or steal my Chrome Prophet or the parts I was collecting for it. According to Diaochan, they could also use the remnants of my energy to power the doors and lights to track me for a day or two. That was inconvenient but not all that surprising. Back in my own world, there were many a cultivator who could use scraps of Qi left behind by a technique or within an item to track you like a hound.

  If some warrior who served my daughter had been the one to find Vaestro’s Restorations, there was a good chance I would find myself under enough assault that I might have to even abandon the hunting grounds I had taken up residence in. Not only would that be a massive blow to my pride, but it would delay my ability to gain levels until I was able to find another one, or sneak back to the one inside Clan Irons territory.

  In the end, I needn’t have worried as it wasn’t some clan member or mercenary soldier that had found their way into my hideout. After my hectic flight down through the impossibly huge building, what I found waiting for me was a pair of engineers that I hadn’t laid eyes on in weeks.

  In spite of the speed of my headlong rush through the block and the fact that the raindrops had depopulated the local drones enough that I didn’t encounter any, it still took me almost an hour to make it from near the top of the building all the way down to the floor that I inhabited. More than enough time for Ji-Ho and Ha-Rin to poke around my stuff and make themselves comfortable, which is exactly what I found them doing when I burst through the front entrance of the abandoned vehicle restoration store.

  I had the energy blade of my spear lit and in my hand when I kicked the door that no longer automatically responded to me open and flew into the large workshop.

  “Relax, Bu, it’s just me and my sister.” Came the voice of Ji-Ho from deep within the workshop. The pair of siblings from the kimchi peninsula had wisely opted to set themselves up away from the door.

  I let out a long sigh and deactivated my spear, turning my rush into just walking.

  “I should beat the both of you senseless,” I called with the hint of a smile crossing my lips.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “See, I told you he missed us,” Ha-Rin called, and as much as I hate to admit it, she was right. Just as a man should be swift as a raging river, and mysterious as the dark side of the moon, he should be as comfortable in his own company as a rock protruding from the ocean. It is still true, though, I missed the antics, the knowledge, and even the conversation of the siblings.

  Just as I had feared when I first realized someone was breaching the doors to my hideout, I found Ji-Ho and Ha-Rin inspecting my Chrome Prophet. Rin was actually sitting atop its frame, looking rather impressed with herself as always. The howler bike was still unpainted, and in several parts, with even more scrap from various drone parts I thought might be useful in its repair, in piles around it.

  “Greetings you two,” I said, trying and failing to keep the joviality I felt at seeing them out of my voice. “ I don’t have much in the way of supplies, but Lu Bu is never such a bad host as to offer his guests nothing, I have.” That is when Ji-Ho interrupted me.

  “We don’t care about your food and drink Bu, we care about this beauty of a machine. Did Diaochan explain to you what a treasure you have here?” I nodded no longer trying to hold back my grin.

  “She did, an AuoraBlitz Chrome Prophet. Last and perhaps greatest creation to come out of the AuroraBlitz forges.”

  “Precisely” they said in unison.

  ‘Which is exactly why we are taking it off your hands right now.” Said Ha-Rin with a signature smirk.

  “What?” I asked, my voice immediately shifting from pleased to see the pair of engineers to absolutely dripping with menace. The girl’s brother gave her a deadpan look and raised both hands in a non-threatening gesture.

  “You can keep the bike, but there is no way we are going to let you be the one to repair it. It would be like expecting a child to repair uhh.” He searched for a way to end his example, as I raised an eyebrow. “Porcelain, it would be like getting a kid to repair a broken piece of porcelain. You might be a genius at hurting people, but I know you aren’t one when it comes to fixing things.” He gestured at himself and his younger sister. “We, on the other hand, are.”

  Granted, that was true. Ha-Rin alone had built my spear, Feather Fall, in a single night’s work, and between the two of them, they made all sorts of weapons and vehicle engines for the clans. Obviously, it was mostly Clan Irons whose territory they lived in, but they also sold to the other criminal gangs on occasion, so long as a portion of the profit went to the clan run by my daughter.

  “Alright,” I said slowly. “If you two want to work on my bike I won't say no, but what is it going to cost me?” I liked the siblings, but they had a business to run, and while I’m sure they appreciated what I had already done for them, this wasn’t going to be free.

  “Oh, for god’s sake, you are suspicious. just take this and go get us some drone bodies from around here.” Replied Ji-Ho with a laugh, as he did, his sister pulled a triangular black case from her outer thigh and tossed it to me. As it flew through the air, the straps that had been holding it against her leg flailed, which is what I grabbed as I snatched the case before it could start to fall.

  The case was about half the length of my forearm and weighed more than it looked like it should. With a quizzical little smile, I slipped open the case and withdrew a pistol plated in red and gold metal. It had a carving of a dragon running down the side of the barrel on one side, and a flaming horse on the other. The word ‘Conqueror’ was embossed on its handle in the tongue of my homeland.

  Seeing the obvious awe on my face, the siblings shared a grin.

  “Told you we had a present in mind for you.” Called Ha-Rin.

  “So this is mine to keep?” I asked in shock.

  “Sure is, though truthfully it's set up in a way where you can’t shoot it at either of us.” Said the brother.

  [The Conqueror]

  [Calamity Brand Omni-Pistol]

  [Heavily Modified]

  [12 Combat Modules Pre-Installed]

  [Note: Can Fire Five Kinds of Pistol Ammunition, and One Kind of Rifle Ammunition]

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