A Black Market LitRPG

“So I just have to stand here?” A little girl with pigtails glanced around the room, while a large arctech device was aimed right at her, four black lenses staring her down.

If she did not know any better, she would have assumed it was a monster of sorts, but she had complete faith in the man behind the machine, who was currently modifying its innards with a hot pointed iron serving as an etcher, changing some of the arctech engravings on the fly.

“Yes, dear, just stay right there. Papa’s going to show you a miraculous invention!”

“Like the dragonfly you showed me?”

The father stuck his head out and grinned at the girl. “Even better. Just give me a minute.”

He focused back in the interior again, mumbling to himself as he carefully re-routed some of the arctech engravings. “Just got to add a few more traces here to reduce the high-speed load of the incoming light…. FUCK!” He yelped as the hot iron accidentally touched one of his fingertips, making him almost drop it and wreck the rest of the machine. The hot iron, however scratched the surface of an engraving, rendering it completely useless.

“No, no, no!” The father groaned as he noticed the error, trying to take subsequent deep breaths to calm himself down. Stay calm, Reese. This is your big breakout moment; stay calm. We still got a few days to sort this out.

“Daddy, how long do I have to stand? I’m tired…” The little girl whined as she shuffled uncomfortably, her eyes already locked onto the sofa nearby.

“Sorry, dear, it’s going to be a while more. Let’s take a break.” Reese smiled weakly, turning off the arctech etcher and stepping back. The room was a mess of metal and engravings save for the sofa, where the little girl rolled around happily.

Reese shambled over to a workbench filled with broken engraving plates and tools scattered in an unruly fashion. “Need to find a replacement… it’s better if I did the modifications here…”

He pulled a wooden stool up to the table to sit, rubbing his deep black eyebags that had never gone away since he began this project. It’s been nearly a month, and have been nothing short of a miraculous run.

His arm instinctively reached out to the right, attempting to grab something as he stared at the engraving in front of him. The observant little girl quickly jumped to her feet and ran out of the room, but soon return with a shocked face. “Papa, we’re out of potions!”

“What?! We’re out of Stamina Recovery Potions?!” Reese’s face balked, but he took yet another deep breath. “It’s okay darling; I don’t need the potions to get this done. Only one more final stretch to go.”

That final stretch turned into hours, with the little girl having gone to sleep in her own room while Reese toiled through the night. His body felt lethargic, his arms weak and his thighs aching from the numerous nights he had spent trying to make this thing perfect.

Just as soon as he was about to give up and turn in for the night, the doorbell rang softly, ringing like a charm. Reese’s face immediately lit up and he scampered to the door, frantically opening it to reveal a well-dressed gentleman in a black coat.

“Hello, Reese. I’ve come to check up on the progress of your project.”

“Sir Kyle, thank goodness you’re here! I’m currently trying to fix a few issues here and I may require your help once again.”

“Of course.” Kyle smiled genially before motioning to an associate behind him carrying a crate of Stamina Recovery Potions. “You, put it in the kitchen and wait for me outside.”

The associate nodded, with Reese making way for the two of them to enter the house. Reese quickly led Kyle into the workshop, explaining the issue with the engraving. “The main problem I’m facing right now is that there seems to be residual energy being emitted from the machine towards the lens. From my understanding, the entire device should be completely passive.”

“Let me have a look.” Kyle sat on another wooden stool and examined the engraving in question. “Bring over the schematic diagrams.”

Reese pulled out an entire stack of paper, each detailing a specific part of the machine and its connections. Kyle flipped through each page, tracing the error through its various supposed connections. “I found the error. You have the engraving connected to these wrong four ports, causing the engraving to be connected to form a radiative effect.”

“Radiative…?”

“Nevermind. The point is, you’ll have to re-do a few parts in the machine. Can you make it for the demonstration debut?”

“I….” Reese was about to say yes, but he checked the number of modifications he would have to make, which would be more that he could do in the next two days. He could barely keep himself awake even in front of his biggest investor into the project yet.

“Okay. I’ll get the factory to manufacture the parts for you right away. I will be back in the morning – you have a good rest. Don’t want you messing up the demonstration.”

“Th-thank you, sir!” Reese stood up and bowed deeply, his face filled with gratitude. He would never forget how hard and long he fought at the University of Raktor to get this project done, only to find Kyle as an investor so quickly the moment he was drinking and crying in a pub. He also owed his life to him for saving him from a pub brawl in which he nearly got killed.

This project would truly be his big breakthrough. Kyle had already signed a contract with Reese to co-found a company that could commercialise the product if the demonstration was successful. He could already imagine his face and name plastered across the billboards of the city, along with the company logo. I’ll be rich and successful!

However, he was still a bit suspicious of Kyle. It was natural. They were going to be co-owners of the new film company after all. I don’t know if Kyle has something unique planned.

The university’s theatre was not particularly crowded for the demonstration debut, with only a few other faculty professors and merchants yawning in the front row seats. However, the turnout was still more than anything Reese could had expected. He peeked his head out from the backstage around the stage curtains, spotting the dean of the university sitting there as well.

Hah, you old fucker. You did not even give me the time of day when I started! Reese gripped his fist tightly as he recalled that humiliating moment, the lowest point of his career as a university professor. He knew the dean would most likely be the first to pounce on the successful demonstration.

On a viewing box near the top, Kyle looked expectantly down on the stage, supporting Reese.

The lights of the theatre began to dim slowly; all eyes now focused on the brightly lit wooden stage. Reese rolled the arctech machine out, which looked like a rectangular box-shaped device half the size of a human, with four black lenses jutting out conspicuously.

Reese cleared his throat and faced the audience, his white hair now slickly combed down and his clothes cleaned – though his deep eyebags remained a testament to the work he had put in. “Fellow professors, potential investors and other viewers such as my students, today I am proud to reveal an invention that would revolutionize the way media is used to enrich our lives.”

“For generations, we have relied on paintings and scribbling on parchments to convey images, memories and meanings through the generations. This machine here represents a complete overhaul of this limitation, allowing us to store our most precious moments in the form of paper.”

A theatre employee suddenly ran up to the dean in the front row, whispering urgently into his ears. Within seconds, the dean sat right up, quickly following the employee out of the theatre. It did not matter to Reese, who was more than happy to see the old geezer gone.

“I present to you – the lightcapturer!”

Kyle internally winced at the name but did not show any outburst of emotions or groan. It was a different world that he was in now – he could hardly expect the name to be the same. Also, if he did use or convinced Reese to use the name ‘camera’, ‘holo-recorder’ or the countless Galactic Era branded names, it might give him away to those in the know.

With the existence of the Ancient Exosuit Spine as well as the energy shield wielded by Makoa that now was with him, he was acutely aware that there was more to the world than a simple ‘reincarnation’.

“The lightcapturer does what its namesake does. Capture light. The prevailing theory of our world is that we see things through reflected rays of light, and as such the device is a reimagining of current optical magnification engravings, instead routing the information captured and putting them onto paper. An example is now being distributed by the assistants.”

A few pieces of paper were distributed around, with a photo of Reese’s daughter on it. Many of the audience members gasped at the detail, though Kyle was hardly impressed. In his view, it was the most pixelated holo-image he had seen.

“That’s right, this is not a painting, nor was it mass-produced by a printing press. This is a lightprint of a scene! And today-“

The doors to the theatre suddenly banged wide open, with ten thugs entering the theatre. Reese was taken aback by the sudden entrance, while the audience members were all confused. Squinting his eyes and looking at the leader of the thugs, an expression of recognition began to dawn on his face. “Yo…you! You were at the pub!”

“So were you, pretty boy. Big day for you, huh? Think you can get into a fight with me at the pub and get away scot-free?!” The leader of the thugs grinned as he twirled a crowbar, strutting down the aisles while his fellow thug members spread out among the audience, watching them closely.

“I was drunk then; I already apologized!” Reese exclaimed. “Please don’t do this, I swear I’ll repay you next time for any grievances I may have caused you.”

The leader hopped up onto the wooden stage, eyeing the lightcapturer machine. “Nice toy you got. Would be a shame if it was smashed into pieces!” The leader wielded the crowbar, smashing the very future and dream that Reese had been focused on for every waking hour of his life in the past month.

As the metal parts were dented and the lens was shattered into tiny brilliant black pieces, Reese instinctively roared and lunged forward in a desperate bid to protect the machine. However, the leader immediately swung the crowbar at him, hitting Reese right in the head and knocking him out.

“GUARDS!” An audience member shrieked, before she was hit over the head by a metal pipe by one of the thugs.

The leader kicked the unconscious Reese, flipping his body over. “Oh, don’t think passing out is the worse I can do to you. BOYS! Grab the body and machine out of here!”

“Ya bosmang.” The thugs complied, with two hoisting the body up and two picking up the valuable parts of the machine, before the thug group left the theatre. As soon as the door closed behind them, the entire audience broke into a frenzy, running all over the place.

“Professor Reese got kidnapped! Call the dean and the enforcers, quick!”

“Where did the dean go? Where are the university guards!”

Reese woke up groggily, noticing his head was still pounding with liquid dripping down his forehead… no, it was blood, his own blood.

Jolting awake, the sudden movement had him fall over backwards in the chair that he was tied to, crashing onto a bare concrete floor with a resounding crash. The glass windows that pockmarked the ceiling shone brightly into his eyes, causing him to wince.

“Look, the cunt is awake.” The leader smirked as he stood up from the barrel he was sitting on, striding over with his crowbar.

“Wh-why are you doing this?” Reese asked weakly, the blood loss and the impact still making him dizzy and unable to get a good grasp on where he was.

The leader squatted next to Reese and grabbed his face. “The same reason why everyone in Raktor does something – money. And you look like a hundred thousand rakels to me now.”

“What?!”

“That’s right. Someone put a contract on you! Do you really think that I, the great Tyler Won, would barge into a university and risk getting caught by the enforcers just so I can fuck you up for a pub brawl a month ago? HAH!”

If the thumping in Reese’s head was not already bad enough, it got even worse with this realization. Who paid the thug gang to kidnap me? Was it my jealous colleagues? The dean?!

Soon, a man dressed in a inconspicuous attire entered the warehouse, clearly of a different class than the leader of the thugs. “Good job catching him.”

“So you’re the client. Fuck that, where’s the money? I don’t want to mess with Kyle any longer if necessary.”

“Not until I ask the hostage some questions.” The client adjusted his collar, walking up to Reese who looked petrified. He did not recognize the person at all, but he began to put two and two together quickly. Shit, he’s here to steal the technology from me!

The leader groaned loudly. “Fuck, are you serious? Fine, have it your way. But fifteen minutes more, and we’re out of here.”

Before the client could retort, a series of screams and cries echoed through the empty warehouse, prompting the remaining thugs to stand up, their faces wary.

“Who the fuck is that?” The leader dropped Reese back onto the floor, walking up to the main warehouse entrance, where the sounds of fighting could be heard.

An injured thug staggered to the door, limping towards the leader. “Who is attacking us?!”

“It’s him! The Seven Snak-“ Before the thug could finish, his head was crushed in by a neon red arctech hammer, breaking through the skull in a smooth downward motion.

Reese gaped in shock, having never seen an actual fight break out before. It looked like an entire theatrical scene to him as the wielder of the hammer charged forward, smacking each of the thugs with a single hit and killing them. Even the leader of the thugs stood no chance against the strength of Kyle.

“Wh-what!? Kyle!?” The client exclaimed, before running over to Reese and grabbing him up, using him as a hostage shield. Within a minute, Kyle had killed all the thug members in sequence, as though it was a choreographed fight scene. Reese naturally was happy. He came to save me!

“Stay back! Otherwise I’ll kill him!” The client began to sweat profusely, his eyes glancing back and forth, looking for a way out as he held the crowbar to Reese’s neck, the tip piercing into the skin.

Kyle stopped moving, standing still.

“Good. Now we can make a deal. You don’t want your precious Reese here getting hurt, do you? Don’t try anything funny.” The client tried to understand what was happening so far. How did Kyle get here so fast? Was he tracking the thugs? I should have shifted the hostage immediately.

“Oh, I won’t. But I can’t say the same for her.” Kyle suddenly spoke.

“Her?”

The glass windows in the ceilings were shattered, with a female figure landing right behind the client as they were showered in glass shards. In one swift motion, the lady grappled the neck of the client and pinned him to the ground. His limp body slumped to the floor, releasing Reese onto the ground with a thud.

“Thank Yual you’re here!” Reese nearly cried tears of joy. However, instead of helping Reese up, Kyle quickly moved over to the client, grabbing his mouth and preventing him from clenching down. He used his hands to pry the client’s mouth open, reaching inside and checking for any suicide pills or killchips. A habit from the galactic era.

Just as Kyle was about to begin the interrogation, the client wriggled one of his hands free, activating an engraving inbuilt into his clothes. The clothes began to catch fire, forcing Sasha and Kyle to let go instantly. The flame was unnatural, burning nearly instantly and turning the client’s body into a blackened figure without even giving him a chance to scream, with the skin completely charred.

[What was that, sir?] Sasha was shocked, having never seen anything like it.

Reese too was in utter shock as Kyle turned his attention to setting him free. What kind of human would be willing to set himself on fire to prevent getting caught by the enemy? “That’s crazy! Madness!”

Kyle frowned, clearly remembering the expression of the client before the activation of the engraving. “We have a new enemy. Or perhaps, an old one.”