As Quinn headed down towards the VR Room, he was feeling excited. Now, with his absurd amount of Credits, he could play the VR Game as much as he wanted and practice his Skills until he got tired of it. Though it was getting late, so it was probably best to only pay for one hour today. However, the best thing for Quinn to do was to buy his own VR Pod eventually. That way, he could just play the game in the dorm room, as well as connect to players OUTSIDE of the military server.
But just remembering the price tag on the VR Pod in the gaming store made him shudder.
'100,000 Credits,' Quinn thought, a cold sweat running down his back. 'That's like buying over twelveof the most expensive pieces ofIntermediate-Tier Beast Gear off of the Online Marketplace…'
It would take him years to get that kind of money. And unlike Tsukuru, he couldn't just infinitely create Beast Gear to sell as an endless source of money. But it did make him wonder if there was a way that he could exploit his System to earn money.
Then, an idea came to him. He already knew all the materials he needed to make the items. His new set of gauntlets only required three Intermediate-Tier Beast Crystals. As long as he gave the materials as well as the gauntlets as a REFERENCE, a Beast Forger should be able to reverse-engineer them and create something similar.
'Let's see, 3,000 Credits for the materials, then 2,000 Credits for the Forging fee. That comes out to 5,000 Credits in total,' Quinn thought, working out the math in his head. 'Then, if I sell them for 8,000 Credits like the more expensive pieces of Intermediate-Tier gear, I'll earn a 3,000 Credits profit,'
However, Quinn quickly realized that there was a problem with his plan. The profit he would earn by selling the weapons would take far too long to earn the amount that he needed. He needed to produce the items on a large scale. To do that, he would either need a large amount of capital in the first place or he would need to find an investor who was interested in the idea.
"I'd be careful if I were you," the voice of the blonde-haired man replied in a serious tone. It was noticeably different from his normal, cheery tone. "Don't you remember how none of the items in the Shop appeared in that 'Online Marketplace' when you searched for them? There's a reason for that."
The blond-haired man's words made Quinn stop. A moment later, he glanced back.
'What's that?' he thought.
"Those weapons and the blueprints used to make them don't belong to Humans," he replied. "Wanna take a wild guess on who they do belong to?"
Quinn didn't need to guess. He already knewwho the blonde-haired man was talking about.
The Vampires.
"I'm afraid that if you start mass-producing these items and start selling them in public, it would only catch theirattention," the man replied.
Quinn let out a defeated sigh.
'Guess that rules out that plan,' he thought.
"I never said that you couldn't," the man clarified. "I just said to be careful."
For now, perhaps Quinn would just have to put his money-making plan on hold. He still wasn't strong enough to deal with other strong Humans, let alone Vampires. And besides, he didn't have an investor or someone who could back him up right now anyway.
When Quinn reached the VR Room, he walked up to the reception counter. As he did, he noticed something on the right side of the counter. There was a small box made out of clear plastic. Inside, there was a stack of plastic cards lying on their sides.
These were similar to the "gift cards" used in stores in the old world. One could simply put a large deposit of Credits into one of these cards, so that they would only need to pay for a VR Machine once, as well as allowing the VR Pod to be used for a long time without being interrupted.
Quinn took out one of the cards and slapped it onto the counter.
"I'll take one," Quinn replied.
The receptionist looked at him with a skeptical look. While she had seen the black-haired boy in here on a fairly regular basis, he was usually here with another boy who actually paid for the VR Pod.
"How much?" she asked in a bored tone.
"100 Credits," Quinn replied, handing her his military-issue Credit Card.
The woman looked at him for a moment and then took the card. She swiped it through the scanner and was then somewhat surprised when the transfer went through. She shot a glance down at his wristwatch. It was unusual to see a Level 1 willing to throw away such a high amount of credits so casually. 100 Credits was the equivalent of a week and a half of saving up the Credits allowed by the Military.
The woman then took the blank Credit Card and slid it into the bottom of the scanner. A moment later, the screen flashed green, and words appeared in a digital font.
Transfer Complete. Current Balance: 100 Credits
She then handed the card back to Quinn.
"You're all set," she replied, handing him a number, as well.
Quinn nodded and headed towards one of the VR Pods in the middle of the room.
As Quinn placed his hand on the small "scanner" on the VR Pod, a line of green light traveled up and down his hand.
A moment later, an audible "hiss" was heard. The lid of the VR Pod rose on its own, emitting a short burst of steam.
A computerized, feminine voice was emitted from the Pod.
"Welcome back, User ID: Blood Evolver."
Quinn then unzipped his bag and reached inside. Just like before, he used the darkness inside to access his Shadow Space. One by one, Quinn pulled out each piece of Beast Gear and placed it in the "Scanning Box" on the side of the capsule. First, he placed the "Best Standard Intermediate-Tier Gauntlets" in the box. Followed by the Intermediate-Tier Cave Spider Chestpiece, then the Intermediate-Tier Black-Horned Wolf Boots.
A green laser inside the box traveled up and down the three pieces of Beast Gear, scanning them. A few moments later, an electronic beep was heard. This indicated that the items had been successfully scanned and registered to his account. Quinn then took the pieces of Beast Gear back out of the box and placed them back in his Shadow Space using his bag.
Quinn smiled. He was all set to go.
However, unknown to Quinn, the last time he had played, he had caused quite the stir. People claimed that he was a hacker. And one person in particular, the game's creator, Logan Green, had been checking the game every day for Quinn to log in.
***
Up in his VIP room back in the Student Dormitory, Logan Green scowled at the screen of his computer.
"C'mon, where the heck are you?" he muttered.
Logan was currently doing his daily check-in of Power Fighters, looking for the so-called "Blood Evolver".
"The records show that he logged in every day since the first Sunday of the year like clockwork!" Logan grumbled. "Then, starting last Thursday, he just dropped off the map!"
Next to him was a strange, metal helmet.
Hearing his own words, Logan's eyes narrowed.
"Wait a minute," he muttered.
His words had reminded him of something. Last Thursday, a group of three students from his class had apparently been pushed into a Portalby a Second-Year. Logan had heard the rumors. How could he not? They were spreading across the school like a virus. Normally, Logan wouldn't have even paid attention to rumors. Gossip was the last thing that interested him. However, Tsukuru's name had been among the three students who had gone missing for almost three days, not having returned until only yesterday.
Logan's face hardened.
"Hmm…" he muttered.
***
Back in the VR Room, Quinn laid back on the bed inside the capsule. As he did, he saw the top of the VR Pod beginning to slowly lower.
A moment later, his vision faded to black, and he was transported to the white room.
The first thing Quinn did was bring up the menu screen, and navigate towards the "Skills" section.
However, no matter how much he scrolled and scrolled, he couldn't find any trace of a "Shadow" Ability.
"Guess my hunch was right," Quinn muttered. He had expected as much. Seeing as how the game only had Abilities listed that were known to the world, there was no way that the "Shadow Ability" belonging to the Vampires would have been programmed into the game.
He then tried to use his Shadow Control Skill, thinking that he might be able to use his Shadow Skills the same way he could use his Vampire Skills in the game. However, his shadow didn't so much as wiggle.
"And I guess what Tsukuru had said was alsoright," Quinn muttered, thinking back to Tsukuru's words when he and Vorden were explaining the game. "The game's system really can't record Mutant Cells."