Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 70: Town Shop

Frustrated Zac focused on the shop he actually could buy. It was actually just called [F-Grade General Store] with no mention of a faction or company behind it. Confused he turned to Ogras.

“I can’t buy almost anything in the store, most things are restricted. But there is a shop called F-Grade General Store that has no requirements. Why’s that?”

“That’s The Ruthless Heavens’ store,” Ogras answered.

“Wait, the System runs stores as well?”

“The Ruthless Heavens is the largest employer in existence, though it’s not a very hands-on boss. Running a multi-verse takes many hands after all,” the demon explained with a roll of his eyes.

“So why should I get any other store if I can just get the one from the System?” Zac knew he was straying from the subject of the shipyard, but he felt another opportunity to drag information of the contrary demon had appeared.

“Because The Ruthless Heavens is god damn greed… Ehm, economical. It provides basic facilities in almost all fields that have no requirements, but its prices are between 50 to 500 percent higher compared to the average.” Ogras looked like he would be sick as he talked about the daylight robbery of the System-run stores.

The image of the almighty system being an intergalactic price-gouging bodega-owner gave Zac’s image of the System somewhat of a thorn, but he guessed running a universe, or multiple universes, wasn’t cheap.

“The corporations have far better rates on almost everything, and can also procure things for you if you’re in need of a specific item. For a fee of course. But they operate for profit and would never open up a branch if they weren’t sure if they’d be able to turn a profit in the location. The corporations have to foot most of the bill of coming here themselves, and it’s not cheap from what I understand. Therefore they’d never open a branch without some assurance.” Ogras continued.

“Some factions have even more requirements. The Creators, for example, I think they normally only open a branch in B-Graded worlds or higher. You also need to have a referral from an actual Creator to even get the application process going. And getting that from one of those living machines is almost impossible. Well, I’m not sure about the details since that is so far above my paygrade. Even my grandfather has no qualifications to know about what goes on in B-Ranked worlds. So you see why this shipyard is so valuable.”

Excitement and unease was building up simultaneously in Zac once again. He might actually have gotten a curse rather than a treasure. The shipyard was extremely valuable, but one needed to be alive to reap its benefits.

“So what do you suggest we do?” Zac hoped for some input from the demon. He was crafty and he knew how the various forces worked.

“Two options. Either hide it completely, buy a huge illusion array to start. An E-graded one at least, as many can see through an F-Graded one. As soon as you can upgrade it to a D-graded one. Then we build walls around the whole area and say it’s the lord’s residence, only giving you access. Later you can add on slaughter-arrays to the illusion array, killing any trespasser. Then you build your town far away”. The demon clearly had a meticulous mind, already having formulated strategies.

“Second is to hide in plain sight. Ask the creators to redesign their Shipyard and hide their characteristics. Make it look like a normal shipyard. Don’t make a big deal out of it, just make it look like a decently important place with some defensive arrays protecting it.”

Zac mulled it over and preferred the second option if it was possible. He didn’t believe an illusion array was the answer. Sooner or later something similar to the peeing demon would happen, and he would be exposed. Then everyone would know he was hiding something and would get even more curious.

Besides, his goal was to build a town, and that had to happen around the Nexus Node. He couldn’t move the crystal very far, and the area where he could place town structures from the outpost shop was limited as well. As soon as he walked too far from his camp or the crystal the shop turned to a browse-only mode. The area would probably grow along with the population, but for now it was only a few kilometers in every direction, far too short to create a town at other sides of the island.

“I will do a mix. I’ll wall off the area from my camp to this shipyard to make it my private property, and then build a town outside. Inside the inner wall will be my residence, the shipyard, and other critical structures I might build in the future. It should look like I’m just protecting the important parts of the town, and not raise too much suspicion.” Zac decided.

Ogras mulled it over a bit then nodded. Zac glanced in the demon’s direction and his thoughts started to turn in another direction. The demon seemed very helpful right now, but he clearly was ambitious and ruthless. Now that Zac was sitting on an even greater pile of treasure, how would the demon act? Should he nip the problem in the bud and kill him?

But Zac soon gave up that idea. Ogras was still needed to control the demons, and he didn’t want to fight against the former general unless absolutely necessary with his current condition. Such a battle would take all the cosmic energy he had, and if he was forced to drink the azure water just to defeat him it would truly be a pyrrhic victory.

Maybe just as important, he didn’t want to become the kind of person who started preemptively murder people in cold blood to protect his wealth against possible perceived threats. He didn’t want to devolve into a crazed paranoid dictator. Certainly, the number he had killed by now would horrify anyone in a civilized world, but it was done out of necessity. And it wasn’t like he would adapt to some naïve no-kill policy in this ruthless new world. His hands were already bloodied, and he knew that this was only the start. But there needed to be balance.

Ogras seemed to measure his choices by how much benefits they would bring, and Zac was convinced that he was more valuable alive than dead after reading the contents of the crystal. He knew Ogras was unable to forcefully seize the town for roughly a decade due to being locked out of that system. If he was Ogras and was planning long term he’d do everything to make the town as successful as possible for now, and then forcefully seize it in the future.

But a lot could happen in ten years, and Zac planned on keeping utilizing his advantages to get stronger to the point that betrayal would be more foolish than staying on as a confidante.

Ten years sounded like a long time, but Zac knew it might not be too long in this new reality they lived. He had been surprised by Ogras telling him that longevity actually increased as people got stronger. As he increased his Race-ranking to E-Grade his life expectancy actually increased to a full 500 years.

It was crazy to think that he already had the life-span like some Elf, and that was just after one upgrade. Furthermore, Ogras told him that the life-span of a D-ranker was counted in the thousands rather than hundreds of years, and the grandfather he mentioned was over 1600 years old. Above that he seemed unclear, as apparently that was the highest official rank on his home planet apart from some mysterious emperor.

Zac had initially thought that in the multi-verse there would be no limit to the powers of the factions. As long as one had time they could keep killing monsters and level up. But apparently it got harder and harder to increase strength, and many bottlenecks kept peoples’ power in check.

Generally the powerhouses of a planet held the same Class-rank as the planet itself, meaning that the general limit of Earth was D-ranked classes. If someone wanted to break through their limits they were forced to venture out into the multi-verse and look for enlightenment or lucky opportunities. Eager to find out more Zac had pestered Ogras about the details of getting stronger and ranking up, but it was around this time he flipped out and left the camp.

“I will keep any demons away from this area for now. Though I don’t think anyone has the guts to seek you out anyway. Between your actions and your… fashion sense… you have cultivated a rather strong image among my people.” Ogras said and woke Zac up from his thoughts. He realized he’d have to stay out of his own head a bit more now that there were actually others around, he couldn’t just be blankly staring out into the distance like an idiot.

After exhorting Zac some more about the importance of secrecy Ogras once again left toward the center of the island.

Still curious Zac wanted to enter the shipyard to look around, but first he wanted to check out the gear. He looked insane at the moment and from how Ogras explained it there should be the very famous Creators inside. He didn’t know if they were peculiar about propriety, but first impressions were important.

The larger box was brought out of the purse and Zac opened it eagerly. Inside was actually a full set of clothing neatly packed. As he lifted it up he was initially confused as it initially seemed the System had gifted him another dress. Did the System have a sense of humor?

But soon he realized it wasn’t the case, but the item was rather a robe that felt distinctly eastern in its make. It was of excellent quality and had a deep green color. He wanted to try it on but once again was reminded how grimy he was. Being bathed in the poison water at least cleansed him somewhat, but he was still pretty disgusting.

After hesitating a bit he ran back to camp and threw himself into the shower. After furiously scrubbing himself for a few minutes he finally was clean again for the first time in a long time. He stepped out of the shower and took a look at himself in the mirror.

Zac was shocked to see what was looking back at him. It was him, but better. Most noticeably most of his scars were gone. Only the worst ones were still there, such as the nasty wound on his cheek. But even they had faded considerably and turned into thin white lines.

Not only that, his body looked like perfectly sculpted marble, and even his face seemed to have improved somehow. He couldn’t put his finger on it but it felt like small adjustments had been made to enhance imperfect features. If some old friend saw him they’d probably think that he had gotten some plastic surgery done. Of course he didn’t look like a movie-star or something, but he had gone from average to above-average at least.

Of course, the fact that he still was completely hairless since the fight with the imp herald detracted from the image somewhat. At least it looked that some stubble was coming along, and he wouldn’t look like a monk much longer.

He guessed that it was a result of evolving his race. New benefits kept cropping up it seemed. When he reached D-rank all the scars might be gone and he would become a real hunk he thought with some eagerness.

Finally clean he quickly donned all the new items the System gifted him. After checking himself out in the mirror he could only say he looked pretty dashing.