"What about after that?" he asked curiously.
"Focus on one thing at a time mate. Just get this fencing with Reyes done with and pay off Maine first. After that find a new place to live in a safer location. Doesn't need to be north oaks or anything like that but anywhere that you don't have to worry about some random gang members or thieves busting in will work. Hole up there till I contact you again. It'll be four days from now at most. Got it?" I said and he nodded.
"Settle things with Maine and find new digs to lie low, got it choom." he said seriously.
I ended the contact there since there was nothing left to say and could only hope everything went well. Even with Maine tracking him through that chip in his head this plan wouldn't have any issues so long as he stayed in the city until the guy was paid off. Despite this I couldn't help but want to curse the large black man for setting such an unreasonably high price on the Sandevistan.-
Even in the game the iconic top tier "apogee" Sandevistan went for only a hundred thousand Eurodollars. If you count the payment he made to David's mom that he took back in addition to the one hundred and fifty thousand extra David is still going to pay him that's twice the price from the game for a piece of tech he couldn't even use. The special Sandevistan David had might perform at a much higher level than even the one from the game since it's an experimental model but it also put a MASSIVE amount of strain on the nervous system and body. A strain that would likely immediately drive Maine mad when he is already skirting the edge of cyberpsychosis.-
The only reason David could handle it so easily was that he had a ridiculously high affinity for cyberware. On par with even the games protagonist or Adam Smasher. Not that I intended to tell him that. Replacing a few parts with better performing cyberware was fine but aiming intentionally for almost full body augmentation was unacceptable. Cyberware was static in nature and required maintenance regularly making it unsuited for growth. David was one of my customers now and that meant tying his growth to his worlds technological improvement and what he could even access without joining a corporation was foolish. -
I highly doubted that I wouldn't gain access to other worlds with high technology in the future and even the technology in his world had serious flaws due to a lack of care for safety or ethics when it was made and distributed. At this moment what I wanted more than anything from his world was it's raw knowledge. That worlds cyberization and technological advancement was directly tied to the utter disregard for moral or ethical limits when experimenting and a willingness by those in power to throw as many bodies as needed into the grinder to progress even a little.-
This meant it's knowledge was ruthlessly accurate and broad reaching. Medicine, engineering, genetics, all much more advanced than most worlds. That knowledge was incredibly valuable in my own world but in a great deal of others too. Of course you couldn't pay me enough to bring it into my own world. I wasn't so foolish as to empower the muggles like that when I was unable to benefit from it myself. Money was cheap, I could easily get more and power was only a matter of time. Time I would DEFINITELY not get if I just released the cyberpunk worlds collective knowledge into the world.-
In summary, this knowledge was exclusively for resale in other worlds. With David's matter all but settled I relaxed and worked to finish up the final book that the professors had for me. In this case the potions book Snape had picked out. It was not just recipes like one might expect but rather a book talking about the more metaphysical aspects of potion making. It was interesting to me how even a seemingly simple craft like potion making had true depth to it. -
It wasn't just learning and following recipes. Sure you could do exactly that to be considered a decent potion maker but that wasn't the path to mastery, merely mimicry. The reason true potion masters were so rare and valued is because they not only knew a vast array of recipes but they understood the principles that made the potions work to begin with. It was a nuanced and precise art that took more than talent, it took dedication and study. This book covered but a fraction of that nuance and proved Snapes devotion to properly teaching the subject.-
"Ever the studious one I see Alex." Flitwick said with an approving smile as he propped himself up next to my bed.
"Not much else to do at the moment. It helps that most of the information tends to be genuinely interesting if rather dry." I said as I plucked a single one of my hairs to use as a bookmark.
"Do you normally save your place like that?" he asked concerned.
I shook my head "No. Normally I finish the page I am on and then memorize the number so I can flip straight to it when next I pick it up but you caught me mid paragraph so a slight deviation is needed." I said honestly.
"I understand. I suggest investing in a bookmark. Things willingly given from a wizards body can have many unsavory uses and it's best to limit that as much as possible. Blood in particular must never be given without extreme need." Flitwick warned seriously.
"Thank you for the warning, I will take it to heart. Now then shall we begin?" I said with a respectful nod.