NOVPUBYay~ Loot~ I got loot~
"Are you really that happy just because of this?" Ragbar asked.
I dragged the dead body to the side and shot him a look, "Are you serious? This is the best part about killing someone! You loot their stuff after you kill them!"
Hmm? Why is he looking at me like I just told him something crazy? Isn't that why you kill people in games? To get the stuff they have? And if you find enemies and kill them, the first thing you do after that is loot their dead bodies for stuff?
And if you're lucky, you might even get some good stuff too!
Ragbar grimaced, "Alright… Umm… Just saying, we don't have good stuff on us."
I rolled my eyes at him, "Do I look like a person who just kills anyone for stuff?"
"I don't know Tera… You kind of have a crazed look on your face right now and you literally just dug through their pockets like nothing…"
Valiea nudged him with her elbow, "Come on husband, this must be a Mercenary thing."
I cleared my throat, "Hey… You have to understand, every bullet I shoot is money. And it's not like I get a salary either so I have to reimburse myself by looting my kills ok?"
"Aren't bullets cheap?" Ragbar pointed out.
"I need to buy food too, you know? And to get better stuff for myself."
He shrugged and I guess that finally convinced him.
Well, let's see… There's quite a lot of rifles… A few shotguns… And a lot of pistols… Should be able to unload them at some gun store or maybe even the black market here, if I can find it.
Aside from that, I also looted their personal shields but they seem like the generic off the shelf kind of models so I'm not expecting these to sell for much though they should still be worth a bunch of Credits at the very least.
Alright! Now that I have all of this gathered in a pile, all I need now is to… Bring it… Back…
Well fuck, there's no possible way for me to carry all of this by myself…
Do I call the girls here?
As though they realised my problem, Ragbar chuckled, "I'll go get the car here, Tera. You can load it up in the van and I'll bring it over to your ship for you."
I turned to him, "As much as I appreciate it… I don't really want to trouble you with this though."
He waved his hand at me, "You helped us with those assassins so it's the least we can do. Besides, you taking the stuff away would save us on the cleaning fee too."
"Wait, the cleaners would charge you for dealing with this stuff?"
"It is, technically, trash for us so yes."
"But these are worth Credits!" I protested while gesturing at the pile of stuff.
"If you know who to sell to and you can be bothered to do it. Which we don't and won't. So we would just let the cleaners take them away anyway."
"Can't you just hire someone to do it though? Like a third party merchant or something."
"Meh, those people usually would just rip you off if they know you're not going to be a frequent customer. Which we won't be so it's not worth the effort."
Hmm… I guess that makes sense. It works for me because this is literally what we do to make money but these two have day jobs…
Oh well, this works out for me so I wasn't going to complain.
Ragbar and Valiea then left the building, leaving me alone to sort through the loot to prepare to transfer them to their van when they arrived.
As I was doing that though, the android that could control drones was also helping me shift the bodies into a pile at the side. The other two androids weren't able to help since they didn't have hands to carry the corpses so they already returned to the hidden part of the control room upstairs.
As the android walked over while dragging another corpse, the ring on my finger seemed to take notice.
"Request… To take a closer look… At the inorganic…"
I paused and looked around to make sure I was alone before looking down at the ring, "You mean the android right? And keep your voice down, they have cameras that might be able to record sound here."
"Apologies… And yes…"
Hmm… I should be able to pass off my actions as being interested in the android since Ragbar already knew I was looking at them before this.
I got up and went over to the android, the machine completely ignoring me in favour of continuing its work.
"How's this?" I whispered, standing next to it.
"Closer…" The ring whispered back.
Closer? I'm already right beside it though? Unless… I guess it wants me to touch it?
I reached up my hand that had the ring and touched the android, which also prompted the android to stop moving to turn to me.
"How may I be of assistance?"
Oh… I didn't expect it to react.
I guess after Ragbar had registered me into their security system, it recognises me as an administrator or something?
In that case…
"Could you stand still for a moment?" I asked.
The android obeyed and straightened itself.
Incidentally, this one was also in the form of a female though I would say she was bordering on the androgynous side.
Her looks were also just so-so which I guess was because this one was a combat model so they didn't really bother making her look pretty.
"I will be touching you for a moment," I informed her.
"As you wish madam."
I wonder if the android's responses were pre-programmed or something…
I poked at it with my finger and waited to see if there was a reaction from the ring.
A few seconds passed before it finally spoke, "... This is… Enough…"
Ok?
I took a step back and the android remained where it was, still abiding by my order to stand still.
"Err… You can resume what you were doing before," I ordered.
"Understood, madam."
The android immediately turned and went back to piling up the corpses of the assassins without another word.
I then looked back down at the ring, "So what did you want with her?"
"The body… It's hollow…"
"Err… Ok? What does that mean?"
"It is… Empty… An empty vessel…"
I frowned, "Ok, I really don't understand what you're talking about here. What do you mean by that?"
"It is possible… To be possessed…"
I paused, letting what it said sink in for a moment before frowning, "Wait… You're not saying that you can take control of it… Are you?"
"Ourselves… Not possible… Vessel is too weak… Will shatter…"
"Wait… So you're saying that if it's a stronger 'vessel' you could potentially take control of it?"
"It is… Possible…"
I stared at the ring on my finger, needing a moment to understand what it had just told me.
So apparently it could take control over an android if the body was 'strong enough'.
"And what would make the body… Err… Strong enough?" I asked. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝑏.𝘤𝘰𝑚
It didn't answer straight away so I thought it was trying to think up a response until it finally answered with a single word.
"Unsure…"
…
Great… And here I thought I might be able to custom order an android for it to control since it clearly had sentience so it might even benefit from having a body.
Wait a minute…
"Can't you transform? You can transform into different accessories can't you? So why not create a body for yourself instead?"
"Insufficient… Material…"
"Material? What material do you need? Is it more of that black tendril thingy that you absorbed the last time?"
"Yes… And no… We merely need… Compatible materials…"
"Compatible materials? Such as?"
"Explanation… Difficult… Materials that we are… Able to bond… And control… Unsure of… Name…"
Great… So if I want them to transform a body for themselves, I would either need to find more of those dark tendril thingies for it to absorb or chance upon some material that fits their requirements to 'bond' with.
And if I'm not wrong, they have no idea what those materials are called.
Yeah… Guess I'm not going to be able to help them with that anytime soon.
"So why were you interested in the android anyway?"
"Curiosity… We thought… We might be able… To inhabit it…"
Right, they did say something like that back at the club. If only I knew what exactly they needed to be able to control the android, I might have helped them order one through that store.
Oh well, guess we'll have to figure it out some other time.
As for right now… I still need to sort through the stuff here to prepare for Ragbar returning with the van so let's get that done first~
