Rich People Kinda Suck
In the morning, we had gotten up bright and early, and the puppy from the cave had decided to follow us. I wanted to name him Gumbo, but he really hated the name, which was strange because with how much he loved the Builder's stew, you'd think he'd be cool with the name Gumbo. Apparently not. I suggested Asiago or Asia for short, which he was absolutely delighted by. Maybe Asia just sounded cooler to him, or he didn't know that it was just a type of cheese.
We had less than 2 miles left, which we managed to hike in around an hour. By this point, it had been raining heavily, so all of our clothes were drenched. Finally, the sky cleared up and it was nice and sunny. Vibrantly green grass grew everywhere, and the trees were big and shady. A rusty, wide, metal sign became visible. It read, "Welcome to Sinigang Valley" in big and bold letters. There were small clay houses with low-pitched roofs covered with reddish-orange clay tiles.
Adults were outside on their porches playing guitar, and kids were playing on the sidewalk. It was a truly colorful place. Each color of the rainbow was in at least one flower by the houses. Pets were playing in the grassy fields along with small children. There were small towers and a church next to the houses. At the end of the long tiled road, there was a small mansion which supposedly belonged to the Mayor.
"That's the Mayor's house," said the Builder, "We should be able to buy a small ship from him. He most likely remembers me. Strange though, I haven't seen people this happy before."
I looked around. The weather was nice, so I guess there wasn't anything strange about people being outside. I looked closer at the kids. It was hard to say, but there was something just... off. I couldn't explain it in words, but it seems my friends felt the same way as well.
"I think we should get to the Mayor's house quickly," said Michael.
If they weren't trying to hurt us yet, then we should keep it that way. We pushed open the big black gates that were in front of the house and rushed up the steps. The door creaked open. It was strange. Why wasn't there anyone here? Everything was mostly intact; however, there were signs of a very quick departure.
However, as soon as we discovered this, the villagers dragged us out. The sky had turned dark, and it started to rain again. By this time, their cover was blown. These were not villagers. These people... they were already dead. But... how did they still feel more alive than a zombie? Gasp... They were infused with cookie crumbs. It was like they were physically bonded with them, and that was keeping them alive.
But it seemed like that was not the only thing keeping them alive. I could feel a distinct rage from all of them. I suddenly found myself in front of a large bonfire with both my arms and legs tied up. They drew a circle around the fire and started chanting. They were holding pitchforks and had these weird tattoos all over their face. They had distinct expressions of anger. The circle slowly started to glow. There had to be a way out of this. Maybe... I had to find out just one more thing.
"Hey!" I yelled, "What problems do you have with us?!"
"SHUT UP! YOU VILE CREATURE! ALL YOU SOLDIERS ARE THE SAME!" yelled the person who seemed like they were just a step down from the mayor.
So... it seems like they did still retain their consciousness. I assumed the Leader had something to do with this since they said they hated soldiers. We were still wearing our military uniforms, so it was obvious. Strangely enough, though, there was a faint reddish glow to all of them. The fact that the mayor wasn't there... I put two and two together. They probably thought that we did something to him. Maybe the mayor knew about this transformation, which is why he wasn't there.
So then that meant... that he hadn't been affected. Well... I had gotten all the information I needed. I looked at my friends, and they knew what to do. All this time... I had been untying myself. I suddenly used my grapple, and I pulled the second in command toward me. Asiago got into action as well, biting and clawing at the rest of the people. We held a knife to his head and we stepped out of the circle. The glowing had stopped. The rest of the people froze while we held him captive. The man had tears in his eyes.
"Haven't you taken enough from us already?"
"I'm afraid that you have the wrong people since we aren't soldiers."
"I don't care. Somebody has to pay. EVERYONE! KILL THEM ALL! IT DOESN'T MATTER IF I DIE IN THE PROCESS!"
The villagers sprinted. I pushed the second in command away and slammed the door. Bucket and Michael pushed furniture toward the door. They were shaking the entire mansion. We went out the back of the Mansion, and there were 14 destroyed ships.
"Ahhh! No! What have they done to them?!" exclaimed the Builder, running over to the ships and examining them.
The ships were in terrible condition. They weren't worn out. Someone had purposefully destroyed them. Just then, we saw a 15th ship. It was in good condition, but the cockpit was open. Someone was inside. We ran in and saw a middle-aged person working on the ship.
"Who are you guys? GASP! ARE YOU WITH THE VILLAGERS?!"
"More importantly," said the Builder, "What have you done to my ships?!"
"They're not yours, and if I didn't destroy them, those zombies would catch up to me! They can actually pilot these things!"
"For your information, I built these!" exclaimed the Builder, angrily.
"Then can you fix this?" he said urgently.
Wow. So he wasn't able to leave this entire time because the ship was broken.
"You fool! You haven't turned off the emergency stop!" scolded Elaine, as she flipped the lever.
The look on his face; he was so annoyed, but also half in awe. He was in such a rush that he hadn't noticed the simple lever on the side of his seat. He probably saw the word emergency and decided not to touch it. Just then, the door to the mansion exploded, and the villagers poured in. The Builder quickly reconnected the wires that this idiot had disconnected.
Meanwhile, Bucket and Elaine tied him up and kicked him off the ship. Serves him right. We then went full throttle right as the puppets came outside, and we managed to leave right as they approached our ship.
I looked at the Builder. His face was completely pale. I realized... his leg.
"I-I'm fine. It's just that I think I've been putting a bit too much pressure on my ankle. I took painkillers so I'm fine, but I'm really sleepy now. Can you drive in my stead?"
I took the cockpit at once and I drove us to Malabar Mountain. The Builder had to rest, so we couldn't go to Crimson City right away. That was just the end goal. But now, I was closer to realizing the Leader's goal. So far, I had seen pillars of light and magic-infused people, but I just wasn't sure what that had to do with everything so far. Was he trying to gain more power or what? It just didn't make any sense. I was missing some part of the picture. Maybe Malabar Mountain would have some part of the picture.
The Sergeant subconsciously mentioned it during his spiel when we first met him, and then when Elaine recounted her adventures, apparently Mer told her not to go to Malabar Mountain as well. That meant we definitely had to go there. It wasn't clear what it was, but it seemed like she knew something.
We continued going south for a few hours, and after a while, a promising shape came into view. It was difficult to see properly because the visibility was so low, but the fact that it was snowing was a sign that we were in the right place. As I got close enough, I could see a small landing platform within an enclosed space. But something was weird. There was a barrier sort of thing over it? Luckily, as I approached, the Builder's permit suddenly glowed and the barrier opened, allowing us to enter. We set the ship down at the landing pad, and we got out of our ship.
"So where is this house of yours?" I said.
The Builder looked around, all confused, "It should be here... Where is it?"
"Do you remember where it was?"
"It was around there...wait... why is there a mansion there?"
We approached the mansion and knocked on the door. An old man opened. He looked as if he was so rich, he hadn't needed to work a day in his life. He had a huge potbelly, and the buttons of his dark purple shirt were bursting at the seams. He wore a tacky magenta blazer and tuxedo pants. He was wearing gold chains around his neck and rings on his fingers. One of his teeth was gold, and his eyes looked sleepy. To top it all off, the center of his head was just bald.
"Whaddya want?" he asked tiredly.
"Excuse me, sir," said the Builder politely, "But I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"No!" he said immediately, and he shut the door.
The Builder knocked again. He opened but said, "Scram! This house ain't for sale!"
"I could say the same to you, since I actually have the papers," said the Builder, showing him his bundle of papers.
"Eh? What did you say? My hearing suddenly failed me"
"Unless you're blind, I fail to see the problem here."
"Gimme that!" he snatched the papers from the Builder's hands and ripped them up. He said, "What papers? I don't see any papers."
But the papers put themselves back together.
"Sir... You are standing on my property. As you can see, this contract is still active, so you can't destroy it."
"Errrrrrgh! Fine! Fine! How's about this... You send one of your guys to duel, I send one of mine, no weapons like knives or swords, and the winner gets this house. But the winner also has to pay the loser compensation of 1 million, minus 50,000 chips. I'll be generous, but I also choose the location and time. I'll call you whenever, so come to the Ice Arena which is my side yard. Oh, and if you can't make it or you lose, too bad, so sad, you'll have to terminate your contract!"
"Deal! I agree!"
"What's your name, sir?" asked Elaine. He was probably going to be added to her list.
"Jeff Anchova"
"Cool, thanks."
She handed him a sheet of paper, which both he and the Builder signed almost immediately. Both Michael and I were shocked because there seemed to be no written contract for this, but apparently, Elaine was writing one the entire time. She handed him the paper and both him and the Builder signed immediately.
"Wait, I feel like I should've made the compensation higher... ah it doesn't matter. It's not like you have a chance anyway."
"Alright. I guess we'll be awaiting your call."
We went back to our ship, and when I activated my armor, I realized that I wasn't going to get very far on 2% and it needed more power. I decided to charge it for a bit, so I used a piece of spaghetti to connect it to my power sandwich. It might take 15 minutes? Unfortunately for me, I was called in to fight 8 minutes later. I didn't have any cookie crumbs to spare for Rice Cooker's torrent, but it didn't matter since it was just unarmed combat anyway, so this fight would be determined based on how good I was in unarmed combat.
I didn't even know who I was fighting yet! I put on my winter uniform and headed out to fight him. Guess I just had to last 7 minutes. Well technically 5 since he would probably talk for a bit.
I opened up the side yard to his mansion and went to the arena where he was waiting with beach chairs, a blanket, and some popcorn.
"Welcome... to the Refrigerator! And yes... I do sometimes put my sodas out here. Alright! Come on out, Big Bob!"
When he said that, a small guy with a menacing look came out, holding dual knives. I stifled a laugh. This was the kind of thing I saw in cartoons. Big Bob. Ha! Was he trying to spark fear in me?
"Not you, Little Larry!" he scolded, "I said, BIG BOB!!!" he paused for a second, then yelled, "Oh my god! BIG BOB!! IF YOU DON'T COME OUT THIS INSTANT, I'M CALLING JUMBO JOHN INSTEAD!"
The ground shook. Suddenly... I saw a figure in the air. He somersaulted and landed gracefully on the ground. He had shaggy black hair, an underbite, and was half naked. He wore only a fur skirt. We got into the arena and he didn't waste a second.
He counted down, "3...2...1.. Fight!"
Immediately, Big Bob charged at me, his fists flying. I knew it would be over if I got hit, so instead of trying to block, I dodged. I had to quickly gauge his skill so I could know how he fought, but I didn't recognize his fighting style at all. He was big, but he was also fast. He was like a boxer. His legs moved at lightning speed. I could only barely catch up with him, but that was because I had constantly been fighting. I needed to be more unorthodox as well. There was no way that I was stronger than him.
He was a half giant, which meant that he towered over me at a whopping 15 feet tall and 2 feet wide, so my chance of survival was probably below 10%. I kept dodging and weaving. Only 6 minutes left. I don't think I can keep this up.
I couldn't even use my sword! What I nerf! I decided instead that the way I'd beat him this time was instead of dodging, I'd have to go with the flow of his attacks and redirect them instead. He tried to kick me, and I jumped back. It was harder for me to do that for his legs since I wasn't completely comfortable with it yet. 3 minutes left
Maybe instead... I shouldn't go for the strength approach at all. With his next punch, this time, I dodged slightly, but I pulled his fist instead. He leaned forward, not anticipating this, and then I got on top of his back and clung for dear life onto his neck. He began punching his neck. I had to get a good hold! I wrap one arm around his neck. I had to strangle him! I had to end this soon, preferably without the help of my armor. He started shaking as well, but I still managed to hold on. I started to get into the position of my choke hold, but this time, he did something unexpected.
This is an ice arena. Everyone knows this. What I didn't know was that under the ice arena, there was water. A giant lake. Filled with piranhas. Big Bob bent over so far back and quickly that his head broke the ice, flinging me underwater. I was essentially like a giant bait. To ice piranhas. No... Not when I'm so close... The piranhas angrily came at me, their teeth gnashing. They licked their lips. They were elated that this time, their meal came willingly to them.
"Well that saves me time," chuckled Anchova, "Seems like I won't even have to bother disposing of his body!"
The piranhas came biting at several parts of my body. They ate the flesh at my arms and legs and I lost my right arm. They bit at my face and eyebrows, even eating one of my eyes! I did my best to protect my coconuts from being cracked and stay awake with most of my willpower. I had to survive! I had to kill the Leader, who betrayed my family! Slowly, life drained from my body. I was losing consciousness. I... was going to die! To some stupid rich guy!
Nononononononono! This...couldn't be happening! I can't die! I CAN'T! My vision started to fade, and my world went black. There was light. I couldn't see what it was... but.. It was bright. Was I going to see my grandfather? Well, I guess it was the next best thing. It was my armor. My spirit armor had finished charging. It materialized and attached itself to me.
Big Bob was tired. He had already killed him, but for courtesy, he had to wait 2 minutes before he could say he won. So he waited. And waited. And waited... and suddenly... BOOM! The ice exploded, shards flying everywhere. A strange person... wait... was that the guy he was fighting?! Where'd that armor come from?!
I didn't know if he could see it, he probably couldn't, but I was smirking on the inside. Pure joy filled me as I could see the surprised look on his face. Now... we were on equal terms. I dashed toward him. He tried to get into a stance, but when I punched him, I left a dent in his body. He went flying and hit the rim of the Refrigerator.
I dashed to him and punched him and kicked him and punched and kicked and punched and kicked and punched and kicked to the point where I couldn't even recognize his face anymore. He was just bruised. That was his entire identity now. His face was black and blue. Blood gushed out of his nose and mouth. His eyes looked days. He looked like he was ready to clock out now, but to finish the deal, I threw one uppercut to the chin and he was completely knocked out.
I looked at Anchova. The expression on his face made me hysterical. The Builder, Elaine, Bucket, and Michael were all on the ground laughing. However, Anchova wasn't done.
"Jumbo John, Little Larry, Huge Harry! Come on out and atta-" before he could finish, Elaine and Michael already held their guns up at their foreheads. The 3 kneeled down while the Builder attached handcuffs to their big meaty hands. Meanwhile, Michael pulled out 50,000 chips from god knows where and stuffed it into Big Bob's unconscious mouth. Anchova tried to run away, but Bucket stunned him. I was exhausted. I lay down in the snow, my body feeling raw. I passed out now that this event was finally over.
When I woke up, Anchova was gone. Michael was looking worriedly at me. His arms were piled up with bandages, ice and heat packs, medicines, and anything else I might need.
After a bit of rest, we flew our ship into his protective garage and moved our stuff inside. Now... it was time for why we were actually here. We all knew that something was wrong with Malabar Mountain, and now we had to figure out what that was. Now, I probably should've rested, but I was already here and there was pretty much nothing stopping me from continuing on. As long as I wore the armor, I was pretty much safe.
Bucket used a geosensor to find out our surroundings. There were 4 main houses around us; one house on each mountain, but on the top of this one, which also happened to be the biggest, there was a different building. One which I didn't fit. I put on my spare uniform and a parka, and we decided to go up that mountain. As we looked outside for any clues, we found a small and narrow pathway leading upward. This had to be it. If it were really abandoned, then the path wouldn't be maintained so well.
We had an easy time going up for the most part except that the actual building was outside the barrier so we had to be careful not to slip since this path was also slippery. It wasn't a big building. Rather, it was a small house. There was a padlock on the door which I was able to get rid of easily. The door creaked open. Inside was nothing special. A bed, a desk with a drawer, a painting, and a small bookshelf. I opened the desk and found a small key. I narrowed my eyes. This seemed too easy.
I scanned around the house. I doubted it would be in an easy location like under a bed or in the bookshelf. We were too advanced for that. I ran my fingers along the wall, and I noticed that there was a small hole near the painting. I inserted the key and twisted it. A small diagonal corridor appeared. It went right into the floor. A long staircase appeared as well. We carefully descended the small wooden steps. This led to a small laboratory. The sight was horrifying.
There were people with all 4 limbs attached to chains on the walls. There were circles and scribblings written all over the walls. The floor was scattered with books. I don't know what the Leader was trying to do, but he was exhibiting some very cultish behavior. We all looked around at notes, and I realized something. I was by no means a scientist, but the book talked about something that I thought was the red gem.
A forbidden power. That's the only way to describe this. I came upon this while trying to replicate a gift that my teacher gave me. It was transparent, and it seemed like such a waste to be used on me. However, I knew that I would need something even more powerful for the battles yet to come. This wasn't supposed to be something that ended up in the hands of a human. Every time I tried to replicate it, it turned out even worse than my last attempt. Based on my findings, it seems that it corrupts the user's mind. It gives them power; more power than a person can handle. It even took me 30 years to completely master mine. I've tried everything, every possible ingredient that an alchemist like me could possibly get his hands on. Crab Claws, Eyes of Gummy Bears, Hairs of the Anthropod, Fangs of the Fruit Bat, needles of Mericiya (Invisible Mosquitos). Nothing works! Every time I tried adding a food-like particle to the potion, the entire thing dissolves and I'm just left with a hot mess! Food should be the right answer! I don't know what to do... I think I'll leave this project for now.
Hmmm... I thought about something. He said something about not being able to combine cookies because of the potion dissolving. I had an idea.
"Builder! Can you come over here?"
"Yeah."
"I think... there's a chance we might be able to succeed at this experiment."
"I would not advise that."
"No wait! Hear me out! In the thing, he said that he couldn't combine the food with the alchemy, right?"
"Yeah, you also told me that you can synthesize anything that has circuits on it right?"
"I did. Wait... don't tell me..."
"Why don't we try doing the ritual by synthesising me and a cookie and then use the gem in the potion?"
"T-that would never work! We don't even have the gem!"
"Yes we do!" I pulled out a red gem from my back pocket.
"Why do you have that?!"
"I stole it from Captain Titan's dead body. He was about to use it in our fight, but then Bucket killed him."
"Errr.... Fine... but are you willing to take the risks of death? Of course I am. My life has no meaning unless I kill the Leader. I will get revenge even if I have to die!"
"If you truly believe that... then I won't stop you."
He pulled out some tools out of his subspace. He found a worktable and sprayed it with some cleaner. We needed a sterile environment. This was pretty much crossing those bounds, but hey, we tried. I lay down and he began to carve various magic circuits using my blood, while Michael and Elaine made the potion.
When I had explained this to them as well, they had initially protested severely, but then the Builder backed me up, and they just did as they were told. My already wounded insides bled further. He drew a magic circle around me and placed the Cookie at my chest. He poured the potion, which contained the gem, on me, and the circle began to glow white. That was a good sign. That meant that it was working. But then... the circle turned red.
The ingredients started boiling; I started boiling! I wasn't going to live. And this time... it had been all my fault. But on the bright side, I couldn't feel anything. It was just going to be a flash and then it was all over. Michael, Elaine, Bucket, and the Builder were panicking. They didn't know what to do. What would they do? They warned me, but I refused to listen. I was disappearing. Suddenly, the Builder pulled some object out of his subspace and shoved it in my empty eyehole. Suddenly, the magic continued. It turned white again, and the ingredients were absorbed into my body. I... had once again... survived.
I looked around. I... had my vision again? The Builder was furious at me.
"You IDIOT!" he slapped me across the face. He had tears in his eyes.
"You might not have a purpose besides revenge... but you can't forget the people that came along with you just because of that. Do your friends not matter to you? Do I, your brother, not matter to you?"
I was stunned. I looked at my bloodied hands. What have I been doing all this time? I was treating them like tools. I had to care about their feelings as well. I knew words weren't going to cut it. I embraced the Builder, and he returned it. Tears streamed from my eyes.
"It seems like I've never been close to death before, seeing as I don't feel any pain whatsoever. Every time I get close to death, it just feels like my dream is about to end. I'm sorry, Builder, and the rest of you. I won't do something like that ever again. But... did it... succeed?"
"Yeah... once I put in that weird eye, it started working again," said the Builder
"Didn't you say that the Leader passed 3 ancient objects to you? Isn't that one of them as well?"
"Well, the Leader never used any of them, so I doubt he knew their properties. Especially that weird eye. He said that it was a gift from his teacher, which he never knew how to use. He hoped I'd know how to use it."
"Well... it's extremely lucky that he did pass it down to you. Otherwise, I might not be here right now."
"Yeah, so you better be grateful to me from now on. You'd better grant me a favor one day. Kapish?"
"Kapish. Wait, look. My wounds... some of them are closing up while others are turning into scars!"
"Yeah that's cool, now do you want to get out of here?"
"Yeah. Also... let's take some of the books with us. I have a feeling that they will be useful for putting together some pieces of the puzzle."
A few minutes later, we were back at our new mansion. Jeff Anchova had taken most of his personal belongings and we were left with a huge mansion with basically no furniture.
"Well, this sucks," said Bucket, "Where are we going to sleep?"
"Well, it isn't all bad," said Michael, "We can sleep in our sleeping bags. But best of all, we can finally empty our subspaces."
As he said that, the mountain of stuff we had stored in our subspaces came pouring out. We were soon stuck in a mountain of stuff, some of which we didn't even know we had.
"At least, this will make our mission easier," I said. We had a place to return to, which was the important part. I was excited, not only because we had a place now, but because I was one step closer in being able to beat the Leader. I just had to find what exactly he was after so I could prevent him from getting any stronger.