Mask of Humanity

The scam was simple, which was important. Based on what the Person in the hole had said, and Nicolai's understanding of the rules, this wouldn't be considered using some tricky loophole. It was simply… good business.

Nicolai took up position amongst the crowd of Earthborn. He put the details on what he was selling into the Local, where it would be arranged and listed by the software of all the people here.

This included various random things he didn't even have, all of which were listed at far too high a price for anyone to want to buy. Amongst those items was: copper pin.

He put its price at 5,000 points. Again, a ridiculous price for a trash item.

And yet, after only minutes someone showed up in front of him. The hurried Cyborg quickly purchased the pin without any attempt at bartering, and dove purposefully into the crowd.

Nicolai checked his Quest tab, where the Market Quest was listed.

Value gained: 5,000/100,000

Dismissing it, he observed as the cyborg disappeared out of his view. He knew where the cyborg was going, who he was looking for.

Wu. She had put in a buying request for an item listed as: copper pin. She was offering 10,000 points for it.

Someone looking through the listings with any kind of an observant eye, would quickly notice that there was someone selling an item for one price, and someone else buying that very same item—for a higher price.

They would stare at this for moment. How come they haven't noticed one another? Do they not see the other person's listing? Why haven't these two matched up? Wiser individuals would turn away, thinking there must be some kind of trick, even if they couldn't tell what it was.

But there would always be some others who would think, Well, clearly they haven't noticed one another, somehow. I better act fast!

It was 5,000 free points, after all. Why not?

But the Cyborg wouldn't be finding Wu. She'd already disappeared into the crowd, changed her ID, and her listing as a buyer would no longer be active. Nor was Nicolai's, as he, too, had moved swiftly away. They both exited through their portals and enacted a speedy change of clothes.

The Cyborg, who he observed through drones, didn't even bother to make a fuss. Perhaps embarrassed to make a big deal out of being tricked, or just not concerned over the loss of a mere 5,000 points. The man shook his head and left the area.

Thus they were able to enact the exact same scam in the Earth side, again. Wu had got her own random trash item, now, as she'd also started the Quest. She sold it for a similar price, and they did another swap of outfit.

This next victim did make a fuss, crying out about the scam in the Local. Most ignored the man, but some would pay attention, and the victim would likely be looking for people trying the same thing.

So, their next disguise swap saw them become Cultivators. Just as he'd purchased various apparel for Wu from his Trade Link, so had she done the same for him from hers. Nicolai's first outfit was a simple, hooded green robe with a mask.

He spent some time looking around, seeing what was being sold. In the end he bought an amount of spiritual mushrooms from a Cultivator, in return for his 5,000 points. The scam wouldn't work with just points-tags, they needed an item.

That done he started injecting what he was selling into the spiritual cloud of emanations, and waited. Meanwhile, Wu was injecting her own desire to buy the same mushrooms—at a significantly higher price than he was selling them for—on the other side of the crowd.

In a short time, a Cultivator turned up before him. She was just as hurried as the Cyborg had been. Eager to take the mushrooms and go sell them, worried that he might notice the buyer. He made the trade, selling the mushrooms for 9,000 points.

As the Cultivator moved away, Nicolai faded into the crowd. Wu's emanations likewise faded.

And so, they continued. There were a couple more scams they utilised, here and there, but that was the main one. It played on people thinking they'd seen a quick and easy opportunity to gain a bit of extra money. Alas, they had forgotten the age old advice: If something looks too good to be true...

The only problem with all this was it was a fairly slow method. It took time to make the trades and then swap disguises, and they needed to keep track of past victims.

After some time, it got to the stage where they'd scammed quite a few people, many of whom were still in the crowd and hunting, vengeance in mind, for him and Wu.

They needed to take a longer break, let things cool off, leave the crowd to churn.

That worked out fine for Nicolai. Tournament One would be starting shortly.

'I'll be back in about an hour,' he told Wu. 'I wish to take part in the Tournament.'

Standing across from him, she snorted. 'I'm surprised someone as obsessive as you is willing to take part in that. Aren't you worried of exposing your methods?'

He considered that. It was pretty much inevitable that people would gain a good understanding of many of his capabilities. Not everything, of course. The Blade was something he had no intention of revealing in the Tournament, unless the prize was something he absolutely needed. But most other things, he wasn't bothered by.

'I consider gaining the experience of true combat against capable people to be worth showing some cards. Plus, the rewards.' Deeper down, there was also the simple fact that he wished to fight, hungered for it. The idea of not taking part in the Tournament was one he couldn't wrap his head around.

They bid their farewells, and he headed off.

###

The Duel Arena rose over the city. From the outside, it appeared as a huge coliseum. Attached to this on one side was a large rectangular building, the inside of which he knew was a grand hallway, with private rooms, waiting areas, and magical displays which one could interact with via Soul Sense.

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Through arches in the coliseum's wall Nicolai could see the seating area. Peering closer with close-flying drones, he was able to see a fight occurring in the centre of the arena, and the crowd in the stands. Except, depending on which arch he viewed through, the fight would change, and the stands would be more or less full, as though there were a dozen different arenas all packed into the same space.

The odd sight didn't surprise him. When he'd been in there he'd noted it had some kind of magic around it. For example, his private stake duel with Jian had seemed to use the centre of the great arena, and the whole of the stands. But he knew that other fights had been occurring at the same time, and the audience would input a code to be teleported to spectate their chosen fight.

There were a total of five bells sprouting from the Duel Arena's rooftops. Two from the hall, three spaced around the colliseum. He also saw that the undead patrolling wore the livery of House Morvain.

His drones swept twice around the area, adding detail to the 3D map of the city Simulations was building. His Mark possessed its own map, but in his opinion you couldn't have enough detail when it came to potential strike points. He took note of the exact numbers and types of guards. They were mostly mostly those same black-armoured soldiers he'd seen surrounding the Morvain stall back in the main square.

His drones completed their sweep and returned, ranging above as he slid through the clamouring crowd out front of the grand hall. The din grew in volume as he pressed deeper into the tightening crowd, but Nicolai drifted through it with little effort. Another old skill returning to him, one aided by the Modules drone-top analysis of the crowd working out where was thicker and where was looser.

Wearing the same outfit as the last time he'd been here, he drew some attention. Cyborgs called out encouragement, Cultivators did the opposite.

Threat Analysis, piloting the many small recon drones he'd come to control, spread them carefully above the crowd.

It was taking its role more seriously this time. Now, it utilised the drones cameras and microphones to log all the conversations occurring in the hall. The Shenrans and even the Earthers had come to dismiss all the drones as just part of the scenery. Simulations went to work separating and isolating all those conversations. Doing all this at once put a significant amount of stress on his installed hardware, perhaps the most it had yet experienced.

That led him to think it might be time for an upgrade, a comprehensive one. Accrue enough funds to fully overhaul all his brain implants, see if he could get enough space for all the Modules, and finally stop Cyberwarfare's complaints.

Cyberwarfare immediately started gibbering that of course he should do that, and certainly it would never complain again. Alas, he knew it would never be happy until he possessed the same Cyberwarfare capabilities as Zero-Twelve, if not more.

He wound through the crowd until he stood before the Duel Arena's Tier Scanner, which would determine which Tournament he could take part in.

He wasn't sure what result it would give. Would he still be eligible for Tournament One, even though he had a complete Node system and a Level 3 bionic arm? If he had to compete in Tournament Two, his odds of winning were abysmal.

He placed his hand on the stone, and it shimmered and hummed. Last time, it had rated his power as about half level 1.

Now, the red energy quickly filled through level 1, pushing upwards. Nicolai's eyes followed the light as it burned up the bar. It reached the divider, the sphere between 1 and 2, and began to fill it. It did so more slowly, pooling in the sphere.

It stopped just shy of the end. The scanner considered him on the very verge.

A slow, surprised smile spread over his face. Another Tournament in the kiddie pool. He'd like to have said victory was assured, but you never knew. Perhaps someone would surprise him? He certainly hoped so.

This also meant that, so long as he didn't install anymore augmentation, he should be able to stay at the very peak of what the scanner would allow for this Tournament. That being the case, he figured he'd keep on fighting in Tournament One until he found what he needed to reach Tier 2.

Cyberwarfare began some of the most excessive groaning and moaning he'd yet heard from it, thrashing around with dramatic misery with the knowledge that, so soon after he'd promised to get upgrades, it now knew he would wait until later.

Is it even worth taking part? It asked, though he could feel the Module was somewhat torn. It, too, wanted to keep taking part in Tournament One.

Shrugging, Nicolai turned away from the scanner. Let's find out, he answered, heading across the room to where a large pane of white light hovered against one wall. A crowd of people stood below, staring up at it, and he joined them.

This was a spiritual display, and he wasn't sure how precisely it worked but he wasn't able to view it with drones. He had to physically look at it, at which it would recognise his gaze and display whatever he was interested in. Everyone else looking meanwhile saw whatever they were interested in.

The display shifted to provide information about Tournament One. Most pertinently, the rewards. Cash for the runners up, and for the ultimate winner…

Finalists Reward: Low-Tier Killbot Call-in OR Silversky Spirit Dragon Call-in

Nicolai's gaze sharpened with interest. A killbot would form an effective solution to all kinds of problems. The low-tier call-in was valued at 500,000 in the Market. Perhaps this reward wasn't as valuable as the last time, where he'd managed to sell the Yin-Yang Rotation Symbiote for a value of 1,000,000 points. That was fine, if he got it he wouldn't sell it. It was high-time he acquired something to keep in his back pocket for use in an emergency, or in the event he found an amazing opportunity he wasn't strong enough to seize.

The other available option, a Silversky Spirit Dragon, showed an interesting division in the rewards. He knew from Wu that she and her people had access to a different Market. One that sold items from their home planet, Shenra. It appeared that just as those from Earth had access to powerful call-ins like Killbots, Gunships, and Assault Teams, so too did the Cultivators. A Silversky Spirit Dragon was apparently of comparable strength with a low-tier Killbot, at least in Heaven's eyes.

He would definitely take part, and, now certain of that, Nicolai and the Modules were rather excited for this Tournament.

They anticipated there would be numerous changes in what people bought to the table. People now knew that the Silver Net defeated projectile weapons, and the Lasrgun defeated the Silver Net. Many would have thus done their best to acquire one of those tools, and others would have thought about how to counter them. As he'd seen in Tournament Two, Cultivators had already worked out that barriers of earth and water could form a workable defence.

Simulations had drawn up a whole diagram, working to predict what counters might arise, and what might counter those counters. It had delved into all of his Cultivation to do so, and was very proud of what it had come up with.

Nicolai certainly didn't mind having its thoughts, but he felt it likely he wouldn't even need them. All he cared about was ensuring that victory was possible, that he wouldn't once more be almost entirely countered, as he had last time by the Silver Net. So long as he held the necessary cards he was confident his overall capabilities would be enough to win out. With the M99, Spectral Claw, and Lasrgun, he had plenty of options. Not to mention, he doubted everyone would have something like that.

The analysis of the crowds chattering was bearing some fruit. Threat Analysis had found that most of the Cultivators were talking about one individual in particular.

This was a young woman, located off to one side with a few other Cultivators. They all had the same kind of look. Black robes, serious expressions, Artifacts.

People said they were from the Nara clan, whatever that might be. Why they hadn't been here last week, none could say. Nicolai had noticed there were quite a few new faces this time. Probably a combination of people who hadn't been able to make it last week, for the more dangerous looking new faces, and people who hadn't yet fulfilled the requirements for the rest.

The black robed woman was speaking to a similarly black robed man a few years older. Both had short dark-red hair. He was also a figure of rumour. Supposedly they were siblings. She was Tier 1, he was Tier 2.

The Cultivators all seemed to know of this Nara clan. They were considered close combat specialists, and especially capable when it came to one on one fights. Duellists. Their approach was to close distance and utilise Artifacts to strike through shields.

All the Cultivators seemed convinced that the sister would win Tournament One, and the brother Tournament Two. To Nicolai, it sounded like those expectations held credence. The young woman bore a pair of shortswords on her hip. Threat Analysis told him they were both Tier 2 Artifacts. It was technically possible to use Tier 2 Artifacts at Tier 1, though with some loss of power and a struggle to make use of all capabilities at full strength. He guessed that those had been designed with her in mind, and that she would use them simply to strike through shields.

After heading through the green barrier into the sign-ups room, and signing up to the Tournament via notification, Nicolai was approached by some Earthers—highly augmented, though mostly Level 1, and wearing combat suits. He recognised them as competitors, but from the smiles they bore, they were coming to him with some kind of offer in mind.

While his H-gram smiled back, he looked them over and worked out the most efficient way to kill them.