Chapter Nineteen: Displacement

The next period of time was spent by Song Shi first visiting an exchange bureau, where he converted the majority of his credit balance into digital currency.

The stability of digital currency is quite low; it is highly susceptible to macroeconomic shifts and technological advancements. It is not uncommon for digital currency worth hundreds of thousands of credits one day to plummet to just a few thousand by the next.

However, this medium is sufficiently secure and ideal for anonymous transactions, making it difficult to trace.

Song Shi had fought his way out of the research institute. In other words, he had breached his "voluntary service contract," effectively committing a breach of contract and an illegal act. No matter how sluggish the institute might be, they would likely freeze his personal accounts and disable his various financial accesses within the next two days. If he did not convert his credits into digital currency now, they would be worthless and unusable in no time.

Even so.

"Dino-Coin, Teddy-Coin, Demon-Coin... two hundred units in total."

Song Shi checked them briefly. According to the exchange bureau's recent volatility index, these fragmented digital currencies amounted to about ten thousand credits—this was Song Shi’s entire net worth.

It was certainly not a large sum, yet it was not entirely negligible either. This ten thousand credits represented the total of his original self's hard-earned savings accumulated over years of odd jobs, combined with the farewell money pooled together by everyone at the orphanage when he first set out on his own.

But that wasn't a major issue. Song Shi had already conceived a way to make money quickly, which he could test out tomorrow.

...

Thousand Star City (Palose District).

The underground arms dealer "Sweet Wine House."

This was the dealer Tom had recommended. According to him, their service was decent and their prices fair. The only drawback was that the weapons were not always brand new, and their origins were rather peculiar—but that didn't matter much.

At the very least, basic services like disinfection, the removal of obvious stains, the replacement of overly worn parts, the erasure of production serial numbers, and the hacking of weapon usage restrictions were all provided. The items were ready for immediate use, with no fear of trouble knocking at his door.

Spending the digital currency equivalent of four thousand credits, Song Shi purchased two items of equipment.

One was a second-hand multi-functional entrenching tool. Made of carbon steel and cold-forged, its structural integrity was reliable. The downside was that its original hydraulic pressure-boosting device was completely broken and beyond repair; it now had to be used relying solely on brute force. It cost him twenty-five hundred credits.

The other item was an ammunition crate containing a total of one hundred and forty rounds, including common steel-core bullets, armor-piercing rounds, and white phosphorus incendiary rounds. It originally came with five fragmentation grenades, but at Song Shi’s request, these were swapped for two Electronic Pulse (EMP) grenades, costing fifteen hundred credits.

When facing heavily modified cyborgs, unless the target has already implanted anti-electronic interference modules, the effect of an EMP is far superior to that of a conventional fragmentation grenade.

As for firearms, Song Shi already had the "Black Powder" kinetic pistol he had stripped from an institute guard. Its firepower was quite impressive, and although its range was somewhat short, it was sufficient for the time being. Buying some specialized ammunition would suffice to make do.

"Thank you for your patronage! We look forward to seeing you again!"

The virtual service portal for "Sweet Wine House" was a bar, adorned with flamboyant decorations. A smiling woman stood at the counter, warmly greeting Song Shi as he left—this woman was essentially an interactive interface, not nearly as advanced as a true artificial intelligence. The current "woman" appearance was merely a skin draped over the "weapon purchase interface," meant simply to be more aesthetically pleasing.

"Delivery to the locker within two days—the efficiency isn't bad," Song Shi thought as he walked out of Sweet Wine House.

The "locker" here was not a cabinet at home, but a smart parcel locker belonging to the well-known company, [Long-Range Logistics].

[Long-Range Logistics] was once a fairly traditional transport company, but the rise of the mega-corporation [Chronos Transit] in recent years, leveraging its technological and political advantages, had relentlessly squeezed the former’s market share.

Talk about the law? [Chronos Transit] is one of only nine mega-corporations in the [Corporate Alliance], a towering existence that looks down upon all living beings like a god; even the "arbitration bodies" of the Corporate Alliance have to think twice before crossing them.

Compete in force? [Chronos Transit] would only laugh. If not for the constraints of the "First Standing Armed Act," they could mobilize their vast fleet of intelligent automated factories at any moment, churning out wave after wave of smart weapon swarms. They could even produce a few ultimate strategic weapons, such as aerospace carriers, if they really wanted to.

Even setting aside their technological and productive advantages, in terms of individual martial power, [Chronos Transit] possessed a Fifth-Ring Psionicist.

Thirty years ago, during the massive corporate war that led to the bankruptcy and dissolution of the mega-corp [Pure White Bio], [Emerald Pharmaceuticals] had received the most inheritance and gained the most. However, the one that had exerted the most effort was [Chronos Transit]. In their bid to seize the position vacated by Pure White Bio, the then-non-mega-corp had been absolutely reckless, sparing no cost.

They could not out-argue them, and they could not defeat them by force.

Thus, [Long-Range Logistics] fell into decline. With its market share in the transport industry constantly shrinking, it had to find another way.

And so, the "locker" was born.

This is a form of anonymized "courier locker," utilizing a special anonymity technology that Long-Range Logistics salvaged from [The Abyss].

The specific principles are highly complex, but to put it simply: outside of the actual transport process, even [Long-Range Logistics] itself does not know what the traded items are or who the parties involved are, and the two trading parties certainly have no way of knowing each other's information.

Delivery, storage, transaction.

In these three steps, no one knows who is on the other side. Drones handle the entire delivery process, and information remains confidential.

Absolute anonymity, absolute information security.

It is a favorite among certain unspeakable groups; many of their clandestine transactions are heavily protected by these "lockers."

Relying on the "lockers," [Long-Range Logistics] suddenly gained significant leverage, clawing back a considerable portion of the market—until one morning, when [Chronos Transit] descended upon their headquarters with an overwhelming swarm of intelligent armed drones. [Long-Range Logistics] immediately begged for mercy, quickly downsizing its departments and retaining only a few businesses centered on the "lockers," becoming a niche, elite company.

It is said that at the time, [Chronos Transit] had seriously considered launching a corporate war to annihilate [Long-Range Logistics] and seize this "black box" anonymity technology.

However, [Long-Range Logistics] threatened to destroy the technology, indicating that while they were no match for their opponent, they certainly had enough time to wipe out the data. Coupled with the intervention of the Corporate Alliance’s arbitration body, which invoked the names of "protecting technology" and "not disrupting the market," they managed to persuade [Chronos Transit] to abandon the idea.

There are thirteen "locker" points in Palose, with the Deep Moss District alone accounting for six.

Sweet Wine House was also quite savvy, automatically defaulting to using the lockers for transactions and paying the usage fees in advance; otherwise, Song Shi wouldn't even be able to afford the locker fees right now.

Part of his equipment had been acquired. The situation in Palose was also becoming clearer.

"Looking at it this way, the progress is better than I imagined. Next, I need to restore my psionic powers as quickly as possible."

Song Shi looked around at his surroundings, his gaze eventually settling on the brilliant, shimmering sky. His vision seemed to pierce through the heavens, passing through layers of neon-lit skyscrapers and crossing the winding tributaries of the inner sea, until it fell upon the immaculate central hall shrouded under the "artificial sky."

There, the headquarters of [Emerald Pharmaceuticals]' Palose branch stood tall. The lights burning through the night behind floor-to-ceiling windows were like emotionless eyes, indifferently overlooking the mortal world below.

Song Shi raised his head, meeting that gaze.

"Come then," he said with a slow smile. "Let’s see which of us collapses first."