?

  It took multiple attempts to find what I was looking for, and most of the stores or people that I asked tried to sell me on just replacing my limbs or organs with cybernetics if I wanted to get stronger quickly. I knew they weren’t technically wrong, but it was just as true that they were attempting to win over my business for themselves. Also, I know it might seem arrogant of me to say, but I still found the notion that a piece of machinery could be stronger than my flesh and blood more than a little dubious, afterall, I’m Lu Bu. I had already decided that should I reach a plateau that pills and training could not overcome, then I would consider cybernetics.

  For now though, it seemed like a way to get instant power, but at the cost of my long-term growth, and I would rather seek out the healthier option of elixirs and the like. According to Diaochan, if I were to take too many too quickly, it would be more than a little detrimental for me, but that wasn’t a surprise either. If you relied solely on pills and elixirs without strengthening your body or Dantians first, you could easily end up with a destabilized core or deviated Qi.

  In the end, I found what I was looking for in a shopping district that was near to but not within Clan Irons territory. It actually reminded me of an even more rundown version of the narrow alleys and cramped living spaces that could be found near to where Ji-Ho and Ha-Rin lived, but after spending weeks in what was functionally an urban wilderness, the amount of collapsing stores and rusted amenities almost felt luxurious.

  I opted to buy my new ammunition from a store that purely sold guns, blades, and bullets. I had been in one similar back while I was staying with Ji-Ho and Ha-Rin, though that one had been operated by an old man with skin like mine and a wispy white beard. The proprietor of this weapon emporium was a large man with skin the colour of stained wood, hair that was rolled into a half dozen miniature pony tails, and who couldn’t have been more than thirty years old. He paced back and forth behind a rusted metal counter as I entered the store.

  Like most stores on this tier of the city the entrance and walls at the front were run down and full of holes, but the weapons themselves hung on walls and were secured by savage looking metal spikes and what Dioachan called an electrical defense mechanism, which I understood to be like a lightning technique imbued in the metal that would fry a person and possibly even the items they wanted should someone try to steal them.

  Approaching the counter, I pulled out The Conqueror and placed it sideways down in front of him.

  “I need ammunition for this,” I said casually. “It can make use of several different kinds for different situations, and I want you to make a deal for all of them.” I am not famous for my ability to negotiate, but I had already discussed normal market prices with Dioachan, so I was confident I could at least same myself a few digi-creds if I simply insisted on some sort of bargain since I was buying in bulk.

  The gun had no bullets whatsoever in it at that moment, so I didn’t object when the man picked it up and inspected it. I would have expected the same thing had I taken Sky Piercer to a blacksmith for maintenance. The dark-skinned shop owner let out a low whistle.

  “Calamity brand, six kinds of ammo it can fire, and heavy customs from the kids over in eastside, it even has Ha-Rin’s little forgefiend signature on the bottom.” He said, sounding impressed as he flipped the weapon over and looked at the but of the handle. “Very nice, what’d they charge you? And would you be willing to sell?”

  Rather than get into the full details, I simply told him that I wasn’t willing to sell and that they had owed me a favor. It wasn’t quite a lie, and also not quite the truth, but close enough to both without requiring a lengthy explanation.

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  We got into a little back-and-forth about prices, but eventually came to an agreement on two boxes of ammunition for each of the five kinds of pistol bullets my weapon could make use of. I didn’t love the price as the weapon dealer was unwilling to barter for anything I had other than my pistol or spear, and obviously neither of those would be leaving my possession unless I was dead or replacing them with something even better.

  Still, I was more than pleased to have my pistol reloaded and set to alternate between different bullet types based on what I wanted it to do. The only thing it was missing was the higher range armor piercing rifle rounds, which I did like the sound of, but were too expensive to justify at the moment if I still intended to seek pills and elixirs. My options were still varied and useful. I particularly like the bullets that would explode once inside a person, and also the one that would act as a delivery system for Dioachan to access someone’s cybernetics and hack them, as they call it.

  I might not have been pleased with the price in Digi-Creds, but the man did provide me with directions to what he believed was the best local business that could sell me ‘P.E.D’s’. Apparently, there was a store called “El Naturale” that specialized in non-cybernetic self-improvement a short walk away. According to the weapon seller, it had utterly failed in that specialization years ago and been sold to a new owner that also sold cybernetics, but there was still a solid supply of ‘biological enhancement agents’; Another strange term I hadn’t heard of, but Dioachan told me meant the same thing.

  I had initially begun to reload The Conqueror in the store, but the owner quickly pulled a gun of his own and very firmly advised that I do that once I got home. He was polite enough, and my mood was good enough that I didn’t simply slice him to pieces with my energy-bladed spear, and honestly, as rules for a store went, it made a lot of sense.

  So I had laughed it off and filled my backpack with the ten small boxes that nevertheless contained fifty bullets each, before exiting the store. Outside Red Hare let out an engine rumble as I approached.

  “Sorry, boy.” I said, running a hand along the bike’s flank. “We will be racing along the highways again soon, but the next store I’m going to is just over there,” I informed the former horse with a point. The bike let out what I can only describe as the machine version of an annoyed huff, and I made my way across the cramped street to the store that would apparently be able to help me in my quest for elixirs.

  El Naturale had what I first thought was a more intact storefront, but turned out to truly only be thin and weak plastic covering the holes in its walls, lit by a bright neon sign that changed between various vibrant colors every few seconds and bore the name of the business. In the shadows of the cramped streets and collapsing buildings, the sign was far brighter than it should have been this early in the day.

  Entering the store, I was immediately greeted by the sight of a dozen racks of cybernetic organs hanging just above eye level. Next to each of the mechanical human parts was a little screen that displayed what the organ in question did and where it attached to a person, or at least the screens were there, all but three were clearly shattered to the point of no longer functioning. I could still identify most of them, though several would have required Diaochan to explain or for me to let my HUD bring up their details. I wasn’t here for cybernetics, so I did neither.

  Passing amidst the machine organs, I soon found myself before a counter that was home to all manner of bottles, jars, and syringes, along with a middle-aged man with a balding head. Behind him was a collection of small machines at work that I could see took powders and liquids in through one end, and produced pills or filled syringes on the other.

  I knew immediately I had come to the right place indeed, with one minor exception in the form of a very tall man. You see the bald store owner, and I was not alone at the counter of El Naturale. There was a third man in the store with us, one my HUD immediately began to make with warnings that flashed between black and red in my vision. The tiny machines inside me that did such things needn’t have bothered, as I recognized him instantly without them needing to say a thing at all.