bookpower Chapter 96 Decoding The Memory Cards
Chapter 96 Decoding The Memory Cards
i found the place easily enough, since the old man himself was seated on a chair outside the store and smoking out of some weird looking pipe.
one of his eyebrows perked up when i approached him, taking a long drag from his pipe before blowing out a puff of smoke to the side.
"old man steri?" i asked.
he gave me a look before nodding at me, "that's me. what do you need?"
"i'm here to decrypt some locked memory chips," i told him, repeating the words that mara had instructed me to tell him.
"hmm... how many memory chips?"
"two."
"one hundred credits."
straight to business i see.
i tapped on my codex and transferred him the credits without question.
the personal terminal beside him immediately let out a notification ping and he quickly pulled out a credit chip and stuck it into his personal terminal, presumably to transfer the credits he just received into it.
he then jerked his thumb inside his shop, "go down the corridor, third door on your right. machine's right inside. if you have problems with it, just give me a holler."
i nodded at him before walking into the store and looking for the door in question.
counting two doors on my right, i stopped at the third one before opening it and stepping inside the room.
the room itself was featureless and the only thing inside was this large machine that reminded me of those server farms from my old world except with less flashing lights and wires.
obviously i didn't know what this thing was but i figured that it shouldn't be too difficult to find out.
i stepped into the room and the door slid shut behind me, a console at the side allowing me to lock the door for added security.
i went up to the machine and found a screen in the centre which i tapped my finger on to activate it.
the machine hummed and the screen flickered to display a single line of words.
[insert memory chip to begin]
i looked around the machine, trying to find a slot of some kind that would fit this chip.
but there were no recesses on the machine itself and neither were there any slots around the screen where i could insert anything into it either.
yeah... i don't think i can work this on my own after all...
i went to unlock the door and popped my head out into the corridor.
"hey... old man steri?"
he pulled out the pipe from his mouth, "what is it, miss?"
i opened my mouth to ask him what was going on before he placed a finger on his lips and ran towards me to grab me by the arm and pulled me towards the machine.
at first i thought that maybe the two memory cards had somehow broke his machine and he was pulling me with him to show just how i fucked up when i heard the sound of gunshots coming from outside the door.
"old man!! get your ass out here right now! i know you're in here!!" someone shouted from outside the door.
i turned to raise an eyebrow at him but he was busy tapping away on the machine's screen and paid no attention to me.
"what's going on?" i asked.
"just some fucking thugs... should have known not to get myself involved in that stupid war of theirs..."
"is this about the gang war or something that's going on?"
he glanced at me with a raised eyebrow, "you're a tourist huh? then i'm surprised you even know that i have a decoder here."
"i was introduced by someone," i explained reflexively.
"hmph... then you have really bad luck to be involved in this with me on your first time here."
"what do they even want?"
he gestured to the machine in front of him, "the decoder of course. bastards want to take this for themselves and charge shit tons of money for people to use it as a way to fund their operations. no way in hell am i letting these fuckers take my work from me like that."
oh shit... he made this machine himself? that's cool as hell.
"how many guys are outside?"
he narrowed his eyes at me, "why? don't tell me that you plan on fighting them?"
i pulled out my pistol from my holster, "why not?"
he raised an eyebrow, "you're a merc?"
"yeah. so how many thugs are we dealing with? do you need me to take care of them?"
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he paused for a moment before turning to me, "four guys, two of them armed with metal pipes, two of them with pistols. think you can take them?"
four huh? i think i should be able to handle that... assuming that they do not have shields but even so... if i can get the drop on them...
i nodded, "i can."
he hesitated for a moment before nodding, "i'll hire you then. get rid of those four thugs and i'll pay you for the trouble."
huh... i wasn't really expecting him to offer a reward for this to be honest...
i mean... i only decided to help him because he was apparently mara's acquaintance and i wasn't sure if i still needed this machine of his in the future so i'd rather he keep it instead of having it land in someone else's hands.
oh well, time to get to work then.