MTLNOVEL Chapter 4: XiCORF City
"WHAT THE FUCK!, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK??"
Seeing the explosion and the smoke cloud Neo cursed out loud. But he quickly silenced himself when he saw aircrafts with red and blue strobes flying towards the explosion area.
He checked his body and clothes and found no issue. He looked back at the mountain for a moment then slowly left the area towards the colorful city before him with a defeated look.
As he was walking along the road of the neon streets with a mixture of awe, fear and amazement, a system window appeared before him, startled he entered an alley to not be seen by others.
[Initiating Iris hologram heads-up display]
[Info: A holographic heads-up display will be activated to better perceive the world around you, all system diagnostics and the quests pertaining to your class bounty hunter will be accessible via this panel.]
The next moment his vision changed from normal to a game like display, Neo recognised it to be similar to an old video game called cyberpunk 2077. Everything in his field of view is overlayed and if he focus, it gives him descriptions of things around him with a full 3d body of him is on the right bottom side of his vision with information about his cybernetic parts and nanites, on the left he could see a quest tab and a circular map at the bottom left and news feeds at the top right.
Neo felt slight dizzy and off balance but he quickly got the hang of it but it still felt like a distraction to him.
[Quest]
[Explore the system and the city XiCorf]
[The player is adviced to make personalized changes to the HUD for better understanding and use. The player is currently on planet A67GFT7 and is in XiCORF City, please explore the City.]
[Reward : Unlocks Weapon Systems.]
As Neo read through the quest he was momentarily taken aback by the alphanumeric name of the planet but quickly tried abandoning all preconceived notions and shifted his attention to the HUD.
After adjusting the hud layout to his liking and familiarising with the seemlessly integrated system he understood the many things he could do and what the purpose of the system is, the system is basically a limiter, it unlocks more functionalities when he completes quests initiated by the system, ever since he choose his occupation as a bounty hunter, the system is finetuned for that and it gives him bounty hunter related quests that the federation has requested of other bounty hunter's and works as a middleman to anonymize his identity.
As Neo was mulling over this, he asked about the city in his mind and find out that XiCorf is rich and shady city that's under the control of Xi Corporation and is a place of high profile gatherings, party and gambling.
Xi Corporation is a multi planetary organization dealing with luxury spacecraft manufacturing and maintenance.
[Quest Complete]
[Weapon Systems Online.]
Though startled by the message, Neo heaved a sigh of relief as he was considering checking in on some libraries to further understand about the city but fortunately the system was low maintenance.
His HUD showed a new window showcasing available weapons which included some high energy blasters, laser weaponary and some explosives. Neo gulped hard as he has never held a weapon in hand before, he tried summoning one and surprisingly when he thought of a laser gun, his hand transformed into a lason gun, he quickly cancelled it and wiped the non-existent sweat on his forehead.
'Daayum, that was cool, ...I should probably find a place to stay the night and inspect everything clearly.' Neo thought as he began walking towards the crowded city full of humanoid and non-humanoid beings.
"System do you give any money?, how do I pay for stuff?"
[Affirmative, the player neo currently have 10000 credits as reward for completing two quests]
'so generous' neo thought even though he doesn't know the currency conversion, but 10000 seemed generous to him.
Xicorf city was massive and luxurious, but neo found a relatively small hotel to get a room.
"Um.. Hello.. can I get room for a day, thank you."
Neo wasn't sure if the other person speaks English or not but he spoke nonetheless.
"Yes please, you can place your palm on this device to confirm payment and decide how long to stay."
Neo was astonished as he could vaguely feel that she wasn't speaking English but he could understand it. also somehow he felt like he spoke a different language a while ago aswell.
'its probably the system.' neo thought as he placed his hand over the device and he heared message which made him curse internally.
[Requesting credits: 10000 per night, please proceed to pay the full amount for the number of days you wish to stay.]
'this!!!.. system??... Can I get a loan?'
[Negative. Not at the moment. The player can take a quest from the quest tab to earn credits.]
Helpless,neo withdraw his hand from the device and hiding his embarassment said..
"Sorry, something urgent came up." And left without getting a reply.
'system, show quests.'
[Quests]
[Nebula Phantom thief]
[Investigate reports of a ghostly raider plaguing cargo convoys near the Helix Nebula. Track the elusive suspect through dangerous, uncharted space.]
[Reward: 500,000 credits and an experimental sensor upgrade.]
[Social work]
[Locate and capture a notorious fugitive hiding among the abandoned colonies of Xicorf. The outlaw is suspected of trafficking stolen artifacts from ancient civilizations.]
[Reward: 750,000 credits and increased clearance with planetary authorities.]
[Dark Star Disturbance]
[A research station orbiting a dark star has gone silent amid reports of sabotage. Infiltrate the facility, uncover the cause, and secure any sensitive data.]
[Reward: 4000,000 credits plus rare scientific blueprints.]
[Eliminate the Smuggler]
[Intercept a high-profile smuggler transporting illegal alien technology along a busy trade route. Recover the contraband before it falls into the wrong hands.]
[Reward: 8000,000 credits and access to black-market intel.]
[Special Quest]
[Repair Contest]
[participate in xicorf spacecraft repair challenge and become the champion.]
[Reward: 300,000 and an experimental spacecraft.]
'um... system!, shouldn't you give something like take 100 pushups, run 10km, etc.'
[Player lacks crucial requirements for quests. Player neo is adviced to choose special quest to acquire a spacecraft immediately.]
Feeling defeated neo choose the special quest. He doesn't know anything about repairing spaceships but, he has no option left.
[Special quest activated]
[participate in xicorf spacecraft repair challenge and become the champion.]
[Reward: 300,000 and an experimental spacecraft.]