Chapter 20 - UPGRADE COMPLETE!

The rooftop of Santa's Rest Stop.

Ash sat upright beside a massive ventilation fan.

His gaze rested on the panorama of Sanctum, its many districts interwoven in a complex tangle. It was like peering into the workings of an enormous machine.

A dizzying array of lights.

All of them hurried toward their own destinations.

The city by night was chaotic, yet viewed from a step farther back, nothing could be more beautiful.

With the occasional strains of hip-hop or rock music in the background, he played a voice recording.

It was his conversation with Ifrit in Halloween Entertainment's lounge earlier that day.

[DATA RECALL: VOICE_MEMO_014]

[DATA RESEARCH. . . NOW<<<]

//*

▶ASH: Explain in greater detail.

▶IFRIT: It's simple. Reach the Nexus Port before anyone else in Halloween and extract the technology. Beat the shit out of anyone who picks a fight. Once the extraction's done, run like hell.

▶ASH: No. That is not what I wish to know.

▶IFRIT: Then what?

▶ASH: The risks. And...

▶AKINA: The reward!

▶IFRIT: Risks and rewards, huh? All right. Shall we start with the risks? As you saw in the video, the place is crawling with Sentinels. Well, that's only natural with a Nexus Port there. But there's actually something more important than that.

▶ASH: ... The idols.

▶IFRIT: Right. We're not the only ones after the Nexus Port. Most of the idols will probably take part. This is big.

▶ASH: It will be dangerous.

▶IFRIT: Haha. The Outer is always dangerous. Always.

▶ASH: ... That, too, is true.

▶IFRIT: Shall we talk about the reward next?

▶AKINA: Yes, please!

▶IFRIT: Let me say this up front. Whatever technology we extract from the Nexus belongs to Halloween. You're only mercenaries in this. Let's be clear on that.

▶AKINA: I figured as much.

▶IFRIT: In exchange, I've arranged what you two need most right now.

▶AKINA: Huh? What we need? Not credits?

▶IFRIT: We can pay you in credits if you want. But I think you'll like what we've prepared better. Heh heh heh. And that is...

*//

"Mister."

Akina's voice reached him. Ash stopped the recording and turned his head.

"Miss Akina."

She came over and sat beside him. Sanctum's madly flickering nightscape was reflected in her blue eyes.

"I've made up my mind."

After a brief pause, Akina continued.

"I want to do it. The Nexus reclamation campaign."

Ash turned his optical sensors toward her.

"It will be dangerous."

"I know. But you know what, Mister?"

Akina smiled faintly. Somehow, there was a trace of self-mockery in that smile.

"There's nowhere safe for us."

Her voice was quiet enough to blend into the wind, but the weight it carried was anything but light.

Ash nodded without realizing it.

Safety.

Was there any word more hollow in Sanctum?

Especially for rookie Pathfinders like them, who had only just begun exploring.

You had to keep running to stay alive.

Even if you were running in the wrong direction.

That was the kind of world this was.

Ifrit's proposal was undeniably dangerous. Countless risks flitted through Ash's main core.

But it was also an opportunity.

The terms Ifrit had offered were that extraordinary.

"Revenant, was it?"

Akina rose and leaned against the rooftop railing as she spoke. Her back and the nightscape entered the same frame.

"That was its name."

"It really was incredible."

"I agree."

The reward Ifrit had offered was a vehicle.

Its name was Revenant.

It was an armored vehicle that had undergone extensive customization.

Earlier that day, Ash and Akina had followed Dullahan to an armory, where they first encountered Revenant.

With only a little exaggeration, it had been love at first sight for both of them.

True to its name, a specter from the past, Revenant radiated a heavy, chilling menace.

Scars earned over long years roaming the Outer remained all across its armor plates, but those marks only emphasized how dependable the vehicle was.

It might have been an old, retired model, but that did not mean it had outlived its usefulness.

Comparing it to a skeleton buggy or a limousine with nothing to offer but extra seats would have been an insult.

It was, quite literally, a moving fortress.

"They said Dullahan used to own it, right?"

"To be precise, they said it belonged to ROA."

"ROA... I'd heard every Society had a team that specialized in transport, but I never imagined that was Dullahan's team."

Rider Of Apocalypse.

ROA for short.

Befitting their name, the riders of the apocalypse were a Pathfinder group specializing in transport, travel, and rescue.

They were a team of specialists that had emerged when people could no longer trust the REST-men.

Revenant was a vehicle that very group had used.

In other words, it was no ordinary machine.

"Honestly, who could see that and turn it down? Revenant would easily cost over ten million credits, even at the lowest estimate."

"Ten million...! That much?"

"Of course! It might be a little old, but it's fully customized, isn't it? I skimmed the data log earlier, and it had all kinds of features!"

Akina laughed brightly.

Ash could not.

The reward was excessive.

Which meant the danger, too, would defy imagination.

A venture with a top-of-the-line armored vehicle potentially worth over ten million credits at stake.

Just what dangers lurked there?

Perhaps even Ifrit could not predict every variable and was taking a reckless gamble of her own.

'But what of it?'

This was Sanctum.

A world where cowering in fear would leave you empty-handed.

He had neither reason nor room to hesitate in the first place.

Without a word, Ash stood and walked over to her. Leaning against the railing, he saw Sanctum's nightscape a few steps closer than before.

"Miss Akina. I have a favor to ask."

At his quiet words, Akina turned her head.

"What is it?"

"Find me a data card."

"Huh? On what?"

"Driving."

The girl's eyes widened.

Understanding what he meant, Akina let out a bright laugh.

"You're going to drive, Mister?"

"Ought I not learn, at least? Revenant will be ours, after all."

"Hee-hee! You're right!"

After a bout of laughter, they gazed at the city lights in companionable silence. A little later, Akina spoke.

"So we have three days left, right?"

Her voice cut through the still night air.

Ash nodded silently.

"Indeed."

Three days.

That was how long remained until the Nexus reclamation campaign.

Akina stared somewhere into the darkness beyond the city lights. A little anxiety and fear coexisted in her blue eyes, along with an anticipation that overshadowed them all.

"We'll need to prepare."

With those words, spoken almost like a vow, she slowly rummaged inside her clothes. What she eventually drew out was her Pathfinder License.

"Mister."

Akina turned to look at Ash.

Her gaze was firmer than ever before.

"Ready for an upgrade?"

Ash said nothing for a moment.

Then, slowly, he nodded.

"Completely."

Turquoise optical sensors met blue eyes.

Neither gaze held the nightscape any longer.

They saw only each other.

* * *

The stage was set for something big.

To enter the fray, they would have to be fully prepared.

What, then, did they need to prepare?

The answer was simple.

Maximize Ash's combat power.

They would invest every credit they had in upgrading him.

As it happened, they knew a merchant well. An old man who smoked incessantly and would insist to his dying breath that he was a "bartender."

"Six hundred sixty thousand, huh? Going to make something happen with that?"

The hundred thousand left after paying their debt, the five hundred thousand from Ifrit, and Akina's emergency savings.

Six hundred sixty thousand credits in total.

That was all the ammunition they had. Whether Santa knew it or not, he simply kept smiling that sly smile.

"Take your time looking around, dear 'customers.'"

The search began.

Akina moved among the cyberware parts with her eyes wide and alert. Interestingly, unlike before, Ash was doing the same this time.

He carefully surveyed the shop's interior.

Gleaming chrome arms, optical sensors that supposedly aided in combat, mechanical legs lying about haphazardly, and even bizarre tentacle prosthetic arms of unknown origin.

Santa's shop was chaos itself, as always, but there were surely useful treasures hidden within it.

The problem was the staggering quantity. Examining everything one piece at a time would surely eat up all three days and then some.

So Ash and Akina came together for a brief discussion.

"Mister, what do you need most? Your right arm, I guess? Isn't it so old it barely moves?"

"It serves well enough."

"Hmm... Then your legs?"

The legs did tempt him a little.

In fact, his legs currently had mismatched dimensions, forcing him to stand at a slight tilt.

But that was a matter of convenience, not necessity. Their output differed, but they still moved as he wished.

"How about optical sensors? This says it has a combat-assist system. It divides your field of vision into a grid and shows you distances!"

Rather than answer, Ash shifted his gaze to a torso unit in a corner of a shelf. He had had his eye on it ever since returning from their first expedition.

It had a somewhat crude design, with a strikingly large battery pack bulging from the back like a turtle's shell.

The description boasted more than twice the power storage capacity of his current torso.

'If I am replacing a part, power capacity must come first.'

In truth, from the moment he had decided on an upgrade, Ash had set his sights on only one thing.

Power capacity.

The greatest problem his previous expedition had revealed was, indeed, his maximum power capacity.

Even setting aside the use of martial arts through the Neuro Internal Art, his current battery pack could barely last more than two days.

That was unavoidable, given that his torso had been scavenged from a waste disposal site and patched together.

But things were different now.

He had six hundred sixty thousand credits and three guaranteed days. That should be more than enough to replace his torso.

He looked around in case there was something better, but this model had the greatest power capacity.

Ash pointed to the torso he had been examining.

"Master Santa. Could you tell me about this part?"

Perched on the counter, Santa lowered his sunglasses a little and looked over. Then he grinned.

"I wouldn't recommend it. High battery capacity, but it's seriously heavy. Plenty of people say the neuro matrix system's unstable, too."

"What is the price?"

"Four hundred fifty thousand."

The price was within budget.

But the seller himself was advising against it.

After a moment's deliberation, Ash turned.

"Then what of this one?"

It was another torso.

The body was neatly finished in dark red, with the words 'CHAKA CHAKA' printed diagonally across it.

Santa lowered his sunglasses to look over again, then shook his head.

"Ash. You don't buy Chaka Chaka products."

"Why is that?"

"The specs look good, right? But they're all bullshit. For starters, the durability is garbage, so you never know when it'll stop working. Remember that pistol you brought in last time? That was Chaka Chaka, too."

He seemed to mean the pistol Ifrit had originally used. As Santa said, it was damaged badly enough to need repairs.

Ash continued picking out products afterward. But each time, Santa shook his head.

Apparently displeased by this, Akina's face flushed with anger until she finally shouted.

"Ugh! It's all complete trash!"

"What was that, brat?"

"Is this crap all you've got in your shop, Grandpa? Why even put it on display if it's all no good?"

"To sell it, obviously!"

"You said it was all bad!"

"There's good stuff too, brat!"

"Then recommend something yourself!"

Santa chuckled at Akina's brazen demand.

"A recommendation? You really want my recommendation? It won't come cheap. Can you afford it?"

"Hmph! I've got money, you know! So recommend the very best thing for my mister!"

Santa kept laughing for a good while, apparently amused by Akina's indignant shouting. Then he abruptly turned toward Ash.

"Ash. You need more power capacity, right?"

"... How did you know?"

"Look at what you've been picking. You're only going for things with ridiculously big batteries. Power was a bit tight on your last expedition, I take it?"

Ash answered with a nod.

"Okay. So all you need is power capacity? I do have one very special item that's perfect for you."

"Then bring it out! Right now!"

"... Ugh. The mouth on this kid."

Grumbling for a moment, Santa disappeared behind a dim curtain at the back of the counter.

A little later, he emerged carrying an ink-black torso unit.

Set on the workbench, it exuded an aura distinctly different from the cyberware on display.

The logo embedded in the center of its back was particularly eye-catching.

A swirling design that seemed to depict a vortex. Beneath it was a short, simple name.

[Vortex]

"Huh? Vortex Energy?"

Akina recognized it at once and murmured the name. Santa took out a cigarette and lit it.

Exhaling a long plume of thick smoke, he tapped the part's smooth surface and grinned.

"That's right. Made by Vortex Energy. And it's their very latest prototype model, packed with new technology."

His eyes gleamed mischievously.

"This thing's real value isn't something as simple as battery capacity. Have you two ever heard of KERS... a kinetic energy recovery system?"