“God damn it, boss, this is my life savings!”

  “You are saving your life. We are exchanging your hard-earned money for your life. I could have forced you into organ donation. How lucky can you be.”

  We had another discussion about how I was spending his money. Well, more like he was complaining and I was ignoring him. With a quick keystroke, another set of resources was ordered Agape wailed as he was slowly driven into dept.

  A few days had passed since we went to the library. During that time I had Agape turn his home into my own little workshop. Surprisingly enough, people still did deliveries here. Sure, our packages got stolen a couple times. That stopped when every thief suddenly had a bounty on their head. The fun part was when I suddenly got EXP for that.

  Agape had a lot of money to spare for me to do that a couple more times. Well. He had. Right about now I just spent the last bit of money he got from selling AI. He got paid pretty well. Now we had to rely on borrowing money. Building a mini-factory in an apartment complex wasn't easy. There had been noise complaints.

  My plan relied on my being able to build at least some viable versions of my drones. While before I could have just hacked into the appropriate factories and corporations, it was no longer an option. My reach was limited so I had to make do with what I had. Primarily asking for loans from less-than-rebutable banks.

  Really, they were just poorly disguised loan sharks. They were nice enough to loan us the money without even meeting in person! How sickeningly naive. Always thinking they’d get their money back in the end. How cute. I hope they send some debt collectors. I would love to see how much money a fresh corpse sold for.

  In the meantime, I managed to make some progress with my drones. With the high level of technology available to me, it was relatively easy. It wasn't cheap by any means, as Agape's wailing confirmed, but it was progress. Getting the machines without leaving a trail was the real issue.

  Most of the expenses came from buying on the black market. A difficult part of the metanet to navigate since people on there wanted to keep their privacy. It wasn't safe either, as I got attacked by several viruses even just by opening the webpage. The digital space got invaded by digital monsters ready to kill me.

  Instead, I had quite obedient pets to keep me company while I went about my business. Compared to fighting a group of AI, these lines of code were easily manageable. It let me build my hacking skills instead of relying on my psionic might to brute force the issue. Which wasn't much since I didn't have enough hardware to indirectly boost it.

  Speaking of hardware that was the other thing I was focusing on. Slowly, I was filling Agape House with more servers to use. This was also where his money was going. If I had a facility that could hold my vast intelligence, things would go much smoother overall.

  But going back to the drones, I had settled in for something of a model that relied on intelligence rather. A drone with flight capabilities, long-range signal strength, and a high-quality enough camera to observe its surroundings. A simple machine I had built millions of times.

  The first few tests hadn't gone well.

  The first drone? Exploded. Second drone? Overheated and melted. Third drone? The UI was a mess and it crashed into a wall. Either the drones would not work or they had some debilitating malfunction. Either way, I was wasting money and resources. Something Agape had no end to complain about.

  I decided to cave and spend the first bit of EXP I would in this reality. I bout my alternate realities blueprints. While I could get a preview, the important details like material and method of assembly were hidden. I knew how to make my version of the drones but clearly, the Villain System sold the superior version. One that wouldn't take numerous failed experiments to figure out.

  It was worth the 8 EXP it cost.

  While I was now allowed to properly build my drone, it was also a fountain of indirect information. For myself and for the laws of physics here. Electricity seemed more potent in this reality. More easily transferable information at a smaller scale. It's probably how they managed to make cybernetics and other forms of technology without extreme levels of power cost or size. But this meant different metals had to be used for different things. It's why one of the drones melted. To much power all at once.

  The other part was the fact that my drones required psionic attunement. You could build the drone all well and good and it would work. But if you wanted to get the most out of it someone like me would need to connect with it in some capacity. Either by directly controlling it or building the drone with material that had been drenched in psionic energies. It appeared Gritzkel's training would finally be put to use here.

  The unfortunate part came when I actually started to build one. Because for some reason, I still kept making them purple! Peggy had understood how obsessive psionic resonance made me. Even in another reality, far away from my world's rules, it was a habit I couldn't break. Like the sun never rises in the east I couldn't build a drone with at least some strip of purple somewhere. The worst part was I didn’t have any paint lying around! It just seemed to happen!

  I had built dozens of fully functioning drones just to stamp out that little detail. Sure, my drones would be recognizable wherever I sold them since no one had built these models. But having a specific design choice would just make us easier to find. Something that would be a problem at the moment since I wasn't safe behind a fortress. A solution I couldn't buy since I just spent it building all these drones.

  I needed to have something to protect myself physically. Paying mercenaries wouldn't solve my problems. That involved relying on the human element. A very poor system prone to failure and self-destructive tendencies. Not someone like me was prone to doing. I never put myself in danger due to personal decisions. Nope. Never. No siree.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  The image of my first death at the hands of the Hero came to mind.

  I cut down that train of thought and went back to complaining about my lavender-colored menace.

  The best I could manage was a singular strip of violet going down the middle. It would have to do for now. Accepting defeat, I had Agape open a window while I had the drones go out for a test drive. First to check if they had been built correctly and to do some proper reconnaissance. They had been connected to a computer I had set up in the kitchen. Something Agape complained about. He kept saying that his home was getting a little cramped.

  While he was breaking his knees trying to avoid the failed drones I made, I had a thought. Agape was a viable minion so far. He had obeyed, with a lot of added whimpering of course, rather well. After he understood resistance was futile, he became weather amicable. For a human at least. If it was the mind manipulation or just a weak-willed personality, I couldn't tell. But he was useful.

  And I could probably make him more useful. I just would need to cut out his weakness.

  “Agape, how much do you like your flesh?”

  He stared at me, horror on his face.

  “We are not selling my organs on the black market!”

  “That was not my intent. But thank you for the suggestion. We would be able to cover some of the cost. While you’re sedentary lifestyle left much to be desired, I am sure someone would like a lung or two.

  “Before you continue panicking, listen. I meant, would you mind some cybernetic upgrades. Your consent is a non-factor, but I would like to know the human perception of such things.”

  He calmed down as I explained my thought process. Agape had his uses, but he would be more useful if he was less… human. Keeping him alive for the moment was to my benefit. That would be easier if he had mechanical enhancements. Metal plaiting grafted into the skin, weaponry replacing some limbs, and a titanium spine would be clear improvements.

  “Uh. I, uh, do not… know?”

  “What do you mean you don't know? From what I’ve seen most humans seemed to favor cybernetic limbs around here at minimum. Surfing your media outlets, I could count the number of humans without cybernetics more than those with them.”

  “Uh, boss? Most people here in Timical are too poor to have cybernetics. Good ones anyway. Real expensive cyberlimbs look human. They sweat, they bleed, but they are infinitely better. Basically no different otherwise. If you can see the metal, that's because they could only afford cheap ones, or their made for combat.”

  Well, yes, that was obvious. Even then I could tell when a human was natural or enhanced. You don’t genocide the entire human race without becoming familiar with its physical form. It was disgusting to know I knew the homosapien form than their entire species did. But you have to make sacrifices for the things you love.

  And I just loved killing humans.

  “Yes, that is obvious. But you did not answer my question. You appear fully organic. I wish to know why because I am interested in making you more combat-capable. The better you can protect yourself, the better you will be protecting me.”

  While the idea of seeing him shed his human form was appealing, in shape and appearance, I knew the human brain was fragile. While I was a great example of a human mind becoming mechanical not everyone else was as strong-willed as me. It may have also been my psionic powers favoring technology that made it so easy to adapt. I needed a functional guard dog and keeping Agape sane was the easiest way to do that. With that in mind, we had to start slow. Cybernetics would be the easiest way to do that. Less burden on the human psyche and all that.

  “I… just never got around to it. Who would not like to walk, look, and feel like a tank? But, uh, I was making AI boss. That can be very dangerous if it gets out. The more machine you are, the easier you are to hack. It was not a risk worth taking.”

  “And yet, here you are. Hacked, by a very dangerous AI, without any metal in your body. Funny, isn’t it.”

  He didn't have a witty remark for that. He just got a little sad. Ew. Stop that. You look like a depressed puppy. A fat, sagging puppy. At least that will change once we get you some upgrades.

  “Now that your worst fears have come true, let's go about getting you some cybernetics. You won't have to worry about any further hacking attempts with me around at least. We should be able to build a durable enough firewall for your peace of mind. Just send me the address of someplace to send you to lose some worthless human meat.”

  “Uh, boss. That is who came by last week. The people in suits. They were cyborgs. They sell and install some of the best cybernetics around. All black market stuff. Also, my biggest buyers and people who gave me the building I was making all the AI.”

  Really? Then how couldn't I tell? Every time a piece of technology entered my area of influence, I would detect it. From something as simple as a battery toy to something as complex as a nuclear reactor. Agape wasn't capable of lying to me, I told him not to. Even if he could this probably wouldn't be something he'd lie to me about. What could they have done to wait? Back up a minute. What do doctors in the business of cybernetics need AI for? That seems exactly what not to do!

  “If you were employed to build AI, why were you hired by them then? Are they like corporations trying to get a technical edge using AI? But if they were, why did they need so many?”

  “Yeah, they are part of a cult. I do not know what they worship. Never wanted to know. But it appears to be mechanical in nature. Saw one of them by accident take their helmet off. Lots of cybernicts on just their face. Metal jaw, cameras for eyes, and a port on their neck. Pretty hard-core stuff.”

  “Yes, yes, appearances the human mind can not fathom, I've heard it all before. Now answer my questions.”

  He got uncomfortable. This appeared to be a topic he didn't want to discuss. Since he couldn't lie, not responding was a viable form of defiance. Something I would not let stand. He recoiled in fear when he heard the disciplinary command I gave him in the first few days of service.

  “Suffer.”

  Agape fell to the floor, writhing in agony. I had just told his body to activate all of his pain sensors. It was remarkably unpleasant. Now, it wouldn't kill him, that would be stupid. But it did paralyze him long enough for him to get the message. Getting slapped in the face didn't hurt too much. Getting slapped everywhere on your body all at once? For ten seconds? A feeling you wouldn't forget any time soon I imagine.

  “Stop.”

  I gave him a moment to recover himself. His face was red, sweat falling to the ground. He gasped, finally able to breathe. He’d be sore tomorrow. Your mussels spasming from pain would do that. Hopefully, he learned his lesson. For the last time. Watching a human piss themself due to stress was only ever funny once.

  “Answer the question. I will not ask a second time.”

  He stayed on the ground for a minute, before rising to his feet. He swayed in place. It would appear he would never get used to my disciplining methods. If he learned to obey probably, he would never have to. He took a shaky breath and spoke.

  “They, and this is just a rumor boss, try putting them in bodies. They really like cybernetics. So much it can get out of hand. I hear, that if they get far enough with cybernetics to about 95%, AI is the final step. They try to make the AI copy the person’s brain waves. Almost indistinguishable from the original. Then they… kill the old body and put their new ‘brain’ into their old body. They’re trying to become machines.”

  …

  What the fuck?