It’s Not Easy Making Money In the Apocalypse - It’s Not Easy Making Money In the Apocalypse – V4 - Chapter 35

Having found the good doctor’s legacy, I couldn’t help but look at the skeleton one last time. It seemed somewhat anticlimactic that such a story ended here. He was supposedly a great genius, and he had even cured the virus that would wipe out the world, and he had ended up being betrayed by the government, abandoned, and left for dead. He just wanted to make his mark on the world, and yet he died underground and no one but I knew his name.

“I won’t forget you, Anweil.” I declared, punching the skeleton’s shoulder lightly.

My light touch appeared to be too much for the advanced age of the skeleton and it immediately collapsed into pieces on the ground and losing any shape that had identified him as once a human. I let out a cry, reaching down, but that was when my eyes caught something in his pocket. There was a flash of something reflective. I reached into his pocket unabashedly, and my hand came out with a bunch of crystals.

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Hah… if you give me anything else, I might start owing you something.”

The skeleton didn’t respond, but that was expected. I checked the blade, finding the compartment where the crystals could fit inside.

“That might not be necessary.” Cecelia cut in.

“What?”

“I can only run predictions, but that sword probably uses a great deal of crystals. The ionic nature of this sword is used toward quick and sudden strikes. You can use it to slash through flesh and bodies, but prolonged cutting would likely cause the crystals to exhaust extremely quickly. I’m not sure you’d be able to cut through that door with the crystals available.”

I frowned. “You’re saying we’re stuck?”

“If your luck holds out, there is another method.” Cecelia declared.

“What’s that?”

“Check to your right. That device on the floor. Yes. Pick it up.”

I allowed Cecelia to navigate me to a large machine which had been knocked over, but otherwise still looked intact. I picked the machine up, although it was rather difficult and too a bit of leverage before I got it standing again. Once that was done, I plugged it into a nearby socket, and then Cecelia directed me to plug the Perco into the available slot, so I did so. A few moments later, the machine turned on, making some noises. There was a brief moment of silence, and I started to frown.

“Well…”

“Be patient.” She responded irritated, and a few moments later an arm on the machine started to move. “Hmph… you really do have extreme luck. This compositor still works.”

This was a compositor? That was the name of the 3D printers from this world. They weren’t exactly the same. Compositors were allegedly a lot more advanced. I stared at the device as the arm continued to move. It too me a bit to grasp what was being constructed. When I finally realized what it was, I let out a gasp.

“It’s a valve!”

“It wasn’t difficult to get the dimensions of the valve when we hacked into their security system. Had they not flooded the place with lethal levels of MGV gas and killed everyone in the facility, I’m sure it would have only taken the scientists a short time to get around the mechanical door this way. This is why they had to kill them. As for you, I can only say again you’re lucky that the compositor still has some compound and still functions after all this time, even after being knocked over.”

I could only nod dumbly in agreement. Compositors were a truly cheat-like skill. I watched as the valve completed, and then the chamber opened with a sound of air pressure releasing. I reached out and hesitantly toward the valve. Cecelia didn’t say anything, so I grabbed it. It was warm to the touch, but it otherwise felt like a completely solid object. It felt sturdy, and not cheap or easily breakable. We had the ability to leave the facility now.

I stopped and looked back at the compositor. There were many pre-apocalyptic items on my to-find list. One of those items was a compositor. We have already gotten a power generator, but a compositor would allow us to make any little items that we needed, and was instrumental for the maintenance of a colony long-term. Compositors had their limitations. They required a substance called compound, and that substance wasn’t cheap. In general, it was cheaper to find items without making them in a compositor, but when you were desperate, a compositor could be the difference between life and death.

The Rink was able to remain a stable colony exactly because of their access to a compositor. There were certain items that were necessary for a colony to thrive, and now that I found one right in front of me, I felt extreme reluctance to leave it behind. However, what was I going to do with it? It was a heavy machine. Even lifting it up had been difficult. I would never be able to carry it back, and even if I did, there was no way we could carry it all the way back to the Ascension headquarters.

Wait, maybe there was a way? I fumbled the Perco mod that Dr. Anweil had left me out of my pocket and then carefully pulled my inventory mod out from my Perco. I combined the two together. Dr. Anweil’s mod fit onto the inventory mod like a glove. Once I plugged it back into place, I checked the room in my digitizer on the Perco screen, and was shocked to see that the inventory had expanded by nearly ten-fold.

It didn’t take into account weight or dimensions, but purely volume. Although the digitizer had originally been the size of a foot locker, it was now the size of a closet. Meanwhile, the compositor was about the size of small fridge. It should fit. I unplugged it from the wall, and then sent it to my digitizer. I was delighted to see the device enter my inventory. It took up over half of the space, but that still left more space than I original had before adding Anweil’s mod. I still had all of my original stuff in there, and I was able to add the syringe with the cure for MGV and the sword.

With that, I could finally leave the facility. I had a backup weapon with a kick to it, and Zara would have no clue about any of the goodies I had just found. I considered scouring the other labs and looking for more crystals. I was interested in additional turrets or robots that would have survived the gas too. However, I had already pushed my luck to the extreme, and according to the Perco, dawn was already approaching. If I didn’t get back in an hour or so, I didn’t know what would happen. Raven was probably really worried, and so was Zara. That didn’t even mention Tom or the rest of the Roxford caravan.

I checked myself one last time, and then feeling both satisfied by a little bit hungry for more, I headed to the exit. I could really start to understand the temptation that Wastelanders felt to explore dangerous places. There was so much lost technology that could substantially improve their lives if they just wondered into the right hidden treasure trove. Then again, the danger was also extreme. I nearly died several times tonight, and had I died, forget the people from my own world, even the people from this world like Katarina or Raven wouldn’t know what had happened to me.

I reaffirmed one last time that I was no longer going to take on these risky expeditions. I’d leave those kinds of risks for other people like Raven and her group. I would stick to the mercantile. If I wanted something, I would buy it. I had no shortage of supplies that Wastelanders would want. I just needed to find buyers and sellers. There was already enough risk associated with that much. This would be my last true adventure.

Except you have one more, don’t you?

I still had one more adventure I had to go on. I had to risk my life one more time. I needed to deal with Marsh and the Cock and Balls. I needed to finish my agreement with Jacques. As I stopped in front of the automatic door that was still closed, I couldn’t help but feel complicated. This had all started out of a need to make money. I had thought it would be easy. I could bring over some food and water from my world, and then take gold, art, or technology from this world and sell it in my world.

Everything I had built in the wasteland could be lost in a heartbeat. Riley and the Gunner slavers were a perfect example of that. The Syndicate had just come in and wiped them out in a single night, and all of my stability here could be wiped out just as quickly. It may seem like I was more stable on Earth, but wasn’t almost all of the money I current had borrowed? If I couldn’t continue to produce wealth by bringing things over from this world, then I would find myself in millions of debt with no way to pay it.

My relationship with Mizuki and Lily was turbulent at best. I had learned that no too long ago when her dad had nearly snatched Mizuki away, leaving me with no means of managing this so-called business that was just starting to become a reality. Furthermore, my last World Travel had nearly stranded me on Earth, and did strand me in this place with potentially no means of returning home. If either happened, then my wealth would run dry just like that, and if I died, then I was dead.

Simply put, I still had a long way to go. With a sigh, I reached out to the console and plugged in my Perco. It was never going to be easy, but I would keep pushing forward. The automatic doors started to open.