I rubbed my eyes. It was really late at night. It was passed midnight, and yet I was still moving. The me a few months ago did not have this kind of stamina, but the current me didn’t have a choice. I had too much that needed doing, and I was short on time. Tomorrow, I’d be meeting Jacques near the Ascension headquarters.

  I had sent the Fire Ravens home with a group of slaves. They’d be arriving late tomorrow if everything went according to plan. However, I had stayed behind to wrap things up with the settlement, and unless I had some way of returning instantly, I’d be two days late for whatever plan Jacques had. Thankfully, I did have one backup plan which I had left on Earth. That plan was none other than Keira and her Perco.

  However, the world travel was designed, a Perco could only hold a single coordinate from each world. This meant that without a relay point, you could only leave and return to the same spot you started with. I once had a mirror that acted as a relay point, but that mirror was destroyed. Thus, all I had left was my Perco as a Relay. Thankfully, my AI Cecelia was able to take the relay point data from another Perco and override my last coordinate, which meant that I could copy Kiera’s coordinates. I had done so a few times already, and it saved me a few journeys.

  If only I could store relay points in different locations, I’d be able to instantly teleport around the apocalypse and also home for that matter. That ability would make trading easy. I had one relay point in this world, the mirror. The mirror from that world had been smashed and destroyed, but the mirror in my world was still technically usable. It still had the coordinates of the old place.

  However, I had taken out the crystals and shut them down, because it was also the place in which a raider gang had managed to come to my world. After kidnapping my sister, I realized that I couldn’t afford to leave it open anymore. It remained in lockup until I had resolved things with Marshal, which ironically was exactly why I needed to get back to the apocalyptic world and meet with Jacques. He had a way into the Cock and Balls Raider’s home base, and I needed that way.

  Other than eliminating a potential threat to my world, I also wanted entrance into the building that the Cock and Balls considered their home, which happened to be the Allco Research and Development building. Allco was seemingly a megacorporation from this world that had its hands in almost all new technology. They had been working on creating a magic system in this world shortly before the apocalypse began. It was probably their research that had caused the apocalypse in the first place.

  They were trying to engineer life to create the energy source needed to cast magic. At some point, they also discovered world travel technology. Shortly before the city had been taken over, the technology had been smuggled to one of their offices, which was the place I had first appeared in this world. However, that R&D lab had to have answers to many of my questions. I recently discovered a shadow organization in my world using the same name Allco. I wanted to know if anyone from that world came to this one, or influenced the creation of this one in any way. Were there businesses in my world that were secretly doing magic research? Could the magic-fueled apocalypse occur here?

  While alarming, they were only mild concerns of mine. I wasn’t some action hero. I was just a guy trying to make some money. My true interest in R&D had more to do with figuring out how the technology worked and seeing how I could take advantage of it. Learning how to build relay points and store coordinates was exactly the kind of information I wanted from that world. There was also the matter of the master code whose origins were a mystery to me.

  I reached out and pulled a folder toward me. It was the request made to me by the man who worked for this side’s Allco. At the very least, I could see what demand he had made. I flipped over the folders to his request. There were three items there, and they seemed to have nothing to do with each other. He said he was looking for things that couldn’t be obtained with money. The first was a painting. The panting meant nothing to me, so I put my pin camera up to it.

  “Any thoughts?” I asked.

  “According to your internet, this was a famous painting. It was stolen from an art show some twenty years ago. It has never been found.” Cecelia spoke up through the Bluetooth earpiece.

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  “I see…” I pursed my lips. “This means it might not have been stolen in your world, since the world had ended before this heist could have begun.”

  “That’s a fair assumption,” Cecelia responded.

  “Any clue where?” I asked.

  “I was a military AI. I can look things up on your internet, but my world doesn’t have something like that!” She snapped.

  “Ah, sorry…” I felt a bit bad taking her for granted.

  After a second, she gave a deliberate sigh. “You may be able to plug me into the museum mainframe. Although it’s a science museum, it may have an interconnected museum library. There might be information on it.”

  “We’ll have to try that.” I agreed, moving on to the next item. “It’s an old computer.”

  “Extremely rare… one of those items from which there are only a few in existence.”

  “And the last one appears to be…” I squinted at it.”

  “A virtual reality system. This one I do have information on.”

  “You do?” I asked excitedly.

  “The military made excessive use of virtual reality, thinking it’d help them train their soldiers better. This is close to an old version of the virtual reality system. Based on what I can see online, your world has no such technology.”

  I frowned. “Does that mean he does come from our world?”

  “Not necessarily,” Cecelia answered. “I said this was close to the system, but not identical. Rather, it looks like the system had been composed of your current year's technology. I believe this might be a military technology that he wants to get his hands on.”

  “Art, an antique, and military tech?” I asked in disbelief, what do these have in common?”

  “Would you care if I made a conjecture?” Cecelia asked.

  “Go ahead.”

  “It’s possible this is a test. According to the documents, you only have to get one of the items to fulfill the requirements needed. With each additionally, he will double the money, 5 million, 10 million, and then 20 million.”

  “How is that a test?” I frowned.

  “He might be trying to figure out where you get your supplies from. Each item could be seen as having a very different means of acquisition. To find the art piece, you’d need to have a connection with the underground. Tracking down a stolen piece isn’t a simple thing. The computers are all owned by wealthy tech giants. You’d need to be in with them to be able to secure one of those. Lastly, you’d need governmental contacts if you wanted any hope of finding classified military tech.”

  “Any item I found would tell him something about me.” I finished Cecelia’s thought. “And if I couldn’t find anything, then my lack of connections made me not worth the effort.”

  “That is what I believe his intentions are.”

  “And, if I ended up finding all three?” I asked.

  “Then, you’d be warning them you’re a very connected man that needs to be looked out for.”

  I let out a breath. It felt good knowing that I had at least some answer to this, but it didn’t make me feel very secure. I wasn’t even sure if I could acquire any of the things he wanted, and even if I did, they would be from another world and not this world. I wouldn’t be using any connections he could fathom, and if it turned out that such an item showed up again after the fact, I wasn’t sure what to do.

  There was still the option that he knew something I didn’t. Perhaps, that art piece was destroyed. If I came up with it, I’d be revealing to him that I was from another world, if he was even suspecting that much. Just because Cecelia didn’t think that was the case didn’t mean I could trust it.

  First things first, I had to find one of his unbuyable items. After I did that, I could discuss whether it was worth handing it to him or not. The money and entry into Allco were both tempting. I could only find out more about Allco by joining them, and I was still in desperate need of money, even after getting all my sales from the auctions. Just getting the gang set up and getting a contract going with Mei Xing had left me nearly broke.

  I could use the money he was offering, and by doubling it each time, he was tempting me to hand in all three, if I found I had the ability. After not conclude, I sighed and closed the folder.

  “Send Kiera a message on her Perco. It’s time to go.”