[MA] 346. Snitching (Patreon)

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[A/N: Chapters this week: 3/3

Next chapter: Tuesday]

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There were many Bounties in Samir. Samir-7 currently hosted over one and a half million Guardians. The Bounty Window showed over fifty thousand targets, and the number kept fluctuating as more Bounties were created and others disappeared, completed by someone.

Shen had expected things to become hectic, but this much.

Liya had once taught him that, unlike drow, many Guardians saw the system's automated Bounty generation threshold as a form of credit. If they could commit some crimes without consequence, they considered not doing so plain stupid. It made logical sense, as one of the crimes they could commit was theft, so they could directly exchange some "crime credit" for resources.

It was similar to what Darla had said about paying the price, but also different in that such Guardians often acted out of petty greed, for small benefits, instead of for a cause or something significant. That's why the Alliance was suddenly flushing such people out by lowering the threshold without warning. Ambition was required for growth, but if the Void Tide was as dire as it seemed, the Alliance would rather not leave petty criminals free to profit from the chaos.

Another argument to be made against such people was that the higher your rank, the higher your Bounty threshold. There was also a time factor in that older crimes counted less. So, if a C-rank kept close to the limit, they were much more dangerous than an E-rank. The new Bounty rules would ensure the shot-callers at the top were less likely to betray the Alliance in a critical moment.

Now that Shen thought about it, that cleansing revealed another facet of the last-minute training. The military would suddenly find targets among its numbers. Even those who attacked former colleagues for profit would realize others might do the same against them if given the order. Shen also expected many Bounty targets to be very forceful in their attempt to escape or convince others to protect them. So, everyone was being told to keep their guard up at all times.

The sense of base camaraderie painstakingly cultivated, at least in other Nodes, for so long would shatter. It would then stand on the frail pillars of knowledge that your remaining brothers and sisters in arms were somewhat upright, which was worse than the previous implicit trust. It would decrease operational efficiency, but if the Alliance thought the trade was worth it, it probably was.

Or maybe they just wanted people to kill each other for whatever reason, of course, though Shen had come to believe less and less that the Alliance was "evil" just because.

The only thing that he didn't know was what would be done with these Bouty targets. When captured over Bounties, they were supposed to be judged by civilian judges. Paying fines was expected, so maybe the Alliance sought a last-time resource injection. Forced service in the civilian bureaucracy or the military sounded the opposite of what would be wanted. Would they be kept in jail until the Tide ended? Or did the powers-that-be have other plans for them?

Whatever the case, it was time for Shen to act.

He left the Bounty Window open and kept reading all available Bounties in quick succession while rushing through Samir-7's corridors. One sneaky detail was that the Bounty Subsystem didn't force itself upon the military's Recognition Interface. So, unlike in the civilian Alliance, you couldn't tell if someone had a Bounty on them just by inspecting them. On the other hand, whoever became a target was warned and given a chance to surrender willingly.

That meant not every target would be instantly found or attacked. It also allowed them to try to hide, flee, or convince or bribe others. The chaos would indeed last at least weeks, probably a couple of months.

Shen found many Bounty targets as he ran, all D-rank or lower, most looking scared and seeking a hiding place. As much as he would rather his people benefited from capturing them, he was more worried about hastening how quickly order would return to the front lines. He hadn't lied about that. The faster this business concluded, the faster he could return to and accomplish his Brigade's original mission.

So, instead of calling his Brigade to deal with those targets, he decided to snitch on them for whoever arrived first. He couldn't attack Bounty targets of a lower rank, not even touch them, but he could leave signals for others to follow.

He said, "Buy a pen or marker with a lot of ink or similar resource used to write. The ink must be capable of staying on this fortress's walls for at least half a minute." There was no point in it remaining longer, considering the targets were running. "And using it on the walls must not be against the rules."

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| Purchased: Any Equipment (C-) | -23,800,000

| Remaining AP: 647,818,374

| You cannot purchase anything else for 1 Standard day

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Shen had gotten a windfall of over a hundred million AP in his Expeditionary Training, but accumulating AP became a lot more challenging afterward. His current AP was much more than the vast majority of C-ranks had made in the past three years. He had only accumulated that much because he was strong enough and had lucked out here and there.

Serving the frontlines was lucrative, something people often resorted to, but raw AP numbers weren't the only thing they were after. After serving for a non-consecutive total of 1 Standard year, or 12 Earth years, Guardians could unlock a system discount. To do so, they had to serve for at least another extra consecutive month. Those requirements were dismissed when conscripted as long as you got to a subrank better than Junior, a minor advantage of being forced to fight for the Alliance.

The discount amount depended on military rank. As a First Lieutenant, Shen's current discount was a whopping 30.5% on top of his Rising Star's 10%. That was a lot. The Alliance knew how to give the carrot as much as it did the stick.

Maybe that discount was another reason to lower the Bounty threshold. The Alliance's resources might get stretched during the Void Tide, and they didn't want the "unworthy" to take advantage of it. In fact, Shen wondered if military Guardians with a Bounty on them could even take advantage of their discount. He had read no rule about it, but he also knew some rules were only known for those with the proper clearance.

At Shen's purchase, a royal blue foot-long thumb-wide piece of rectangular chalk materialized in his hands. He inspected it.

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「Royal Everblue Chalk (C-)

A unique tool used in some seasonal festivals of the Twrko race.

It's not enchanted, but the alchemists that produce it weave special Laws and Concepts into the materials to make the marker entirely harmless. The chalk's substance cannot cause damage to anyone or anything, no matter how frail. Any living organism can absorb it with no consequences.

Its special properties allow the material to stick even on surfaces enchanted against visual vandalism.

Special note: the military provides special dispensation for using Royal Everblue Chalks on its mobile fortresses' walls. Their B-rank enchantments would also counter it, but they were modified to allow this chalk substance and a few others to stick. Any drawing or message will disappear within one Standard minute. You'll be held accountable for any unlawful misuse of this tool.」

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Shen quickly inscribed the Bounty targets' names he found on the wall. That shouldn't be considered a misuse.

He barely stopped running ahead as he did it. Everyone he saw and passed by suffered the same fate: being snitched on. The chalk didn't decrease in size even after he wrote a thousand names on the walls, showing that it was a C- item for more than its ability to write on enchanted surfaces.

That was still a hefty investment of almost twenty-four million AP, but as he had told his people, he didn't need that much AP. He was a cultivator.

Sure, he would eventually need to pay to increase his stats' upper limit, but unlike mana wielders, he couldn't rush with only AP. He wasn't overly worried about it. He could pay to unlock C stats already, and he wasn't sure whether he would live longer than that. The Void Tide was coming, and after it finished, he was still supposed to go to SpecOps. The dead couldn't use AP, so he had no reason to save it.

The way Shen saw it, he was investing a little money to make chaos end quicker—and thus, he might be saving a few lives.

It was one of his potentially last deeds in life.

He avoided thinking about his inevitable demise but was already preparing for it, just like he had done by assisting Luthdel.

He kept running at peak speed. He found his people multiple times and watched over them. They were often fighting, but his orders were being obeyed, and their safety was guaranteed. The people babysitting the ones of a lower rank were never happy, but such was life.

Whenever a target was captured, the Bounty became suspended. Attacking the one who caught them or stealing the mark was a big offense, just like saving the target.

All captured people were to be taken to the Detention Department, and the crowd was the thickest in its surroundings. There were those delivering the targets, those expecting funny business there and were prepared to profit by protecting the weak, perhaps those waiting for the right time to act, and even people negotiating for the Bounty marks. Buying a captured target to deliver it oneself was frowned upon but legal.

Besides snitching on people, the thing Shen did the most was save Guardians. When a Bounty target displayed unexpected power and turned the tides on the hunters, Shen blocked a heavy attack and pushed the target miles away. He didn't want innocents to get injured, but he also didn't want to give free money and AP to any weak Guardian stupid enough to let greed get the best of them.

The mobile fortress was massive, but he was C-rank. He could cover everything in less than an hour if he found no obstacle. That posed a small challenge for other C-ranks to bring him any fugitives, so Shen wasn't surprised when they also humbled themselves to using the system to ask him where he was.

Shen had done it on purpose because he suspected the message about the system funneling resources to the front lines meant it would be more frequently used in the near future. He was making his C-ranks used to it.

Two hours later, they had only found two fugitives. Samir-7 had already been cleared, after all. Shen executed both.

Another hour later, at long last, he came across one of the twelve C-ranks with a Bounty on them in that fortress. And it wasn't just any C-rank; it was a high elf with five mastered Laws.

Sinaht Bryqen was standing in the middle of an Assembly Point. Seven unconscious C-ranks were scattered around, five high elves, one drow, and one half-high-elf, half-drow. Most of them were unconscious, but a high elf, missing half a torso and all four limbs, remained conscious, lying against the wall. He widened his eyes in panic when he saw Shen enter the room.

"Run!" he screamed, got into a coughing fit, then continued, "C+ stats! Experienced fighter! Run!"

Shen nodded to the victim. "Thank you for your warning," he said and turned to the Bounty target. "This was well done."

Although one of Sinaht's victims was heavily injured, he had kept the guy alive. Sinaht was using their lives as evidence that he wasn't enough of a threat for a B-rank to deal with him. Protecting himself against attempted captures wasn't illegal if he controlled himself. He wasn't trying to escape because he was smart enough to know there was nowhere to hide, but he also wasn't willing to surrender.

Instead, he wanted to prove no C-rank could take him down. Despite his Bounty, no B-rank would be able to touch him. He sought to keep his position through sheer power alone.

Shen's Absolute Power shook in recognition of a wise tactic.

Sinaht Bryqen was over two meters tall and lithe. He had short silvery hair and gray eyes, and was clad in tight-fitting light blue leather B- armor inlaid with silver plates, an elegant design. He wielded a white and green B rapier and stood straight, looking proud, one hand behind his back.

He looked down on Shen and lightly gestured toward the injured elf who had just warned him. "I heard about you, human drow, and I respect your achievements for your power level. But you also heard the foe I just vanquished. I would rather not get entangled with this Exemplary Brigade business, but I'll turn you into another unwilling guest if I must."

Shen smiled. The arrogance. The absolute certainty in himself. And the power to match.

He had heard a few times that there were coiling dragons and crouching dragons everywhere in the Alliance. People who hid their power or didn't seek glory with the power they displayed. The Alliance spanned multiverses, and such people were dangerous surprises one might find when they least expected.

At long last, he had found one in his rank.

"Don't worry," Shen said, pulling his spear from his ring. "I acknowledge you'll not attack to kill me, so I'll also control my power as I put you in your place."

The sentence had the effect he wanted. Sinaht became enraged at being disregarded by someone without a single mastered Law and C- stats. He left a standing afterimage as he used his C+ agility and a mastered Law of the Wind to rush toward Shen.

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