NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 79: Keep Me!
Cutting into the cavern took another day before they were all done and looking at me, defeated and tired. I logged out, grabbed my groceries, ate a bit before logging back in, and decided to act.
The new prison was a small door with a hole I could toss through the wall and a hole for a latrine. It was all set with something so simple, and I smiled as I finished it. I gave them all extra food, except for the bound dog guy, who looked sore. I let them eat and decided what I was taking and what I was leaving.
I collected and set aside a pair of handguns, a shotgun, an assault rifle, and a light rifle. The rest were packed into the boxes and bags I looted from my enemies. I left several hundred rounds and extra magazines for the guns I left, although much less on the shotgun shells; there were still over a dozen guns for us to take with us. I left a bunch of the supplies for camping that did not get blown up in my trap camp, grabbed the electronics, and put them in my bag.
Then I started to get ready my order for delivery. It was amazing that they had an offline store that had none of their current deals on things that you could order and when you were in range to quickly order. This would allow me to cut down the time that I was in limbo at the edge of the forest, and that was something I needed.
I quickly found a silencer for the assault rifle, pistol, and sniper. None of them were rated high enough to completely eliminate the sound that they were going to make, but it would reduce it. My pistol would be heavily reduced, which was an extreme plus. I got ready for a Thermal scope for my rifle and night-vision goggles. I wanted to pick up the helmet, but it was too expensive, so I chose the much cheaper option. Then, I picked up a thermal red dot for my assault rifle. It was going to lower my available credits a lot, but if I died, then I would lose them anyway.
I got a thin, lightweight body armor to protect my center of mass. Then, I picked up a range of grenades for the fight ahead and knew I could not carry too much more. I started to put in the specs for what I would be bringing to the drop.
All the while, I had let everyone rest up, untied the legs of the dog kin, and was about to trap his body from tunning when I remembered that I was about to get my collars back, so I collared him. He sighed as I finally released him from his bindings and ordered him to shut up and follow my orders. I put a backpack of things on him and started to suit everyone up to carry my loot out of the forest for me.
It was going to be a long trip, and it might take me all day, but that was fine. It took a couple of hours, and it was starting to hit sundown as I finished prepping everything to move. I started to bring everything down with them. After making them all walk the room without triggering traps, I double-checked the other side of the vines and then headed out. All of them followed me, with the mute ones looking happy to be leaving.
We reached the forest without issues, and I made sure to go into the forest in an area where I had not set up traps yet. I was looking for marks that I had marked up so I would not hit my own traps, and we soon were a half hour away and out of my trap range. I was hyper-alert as we moved through the forest toward the nearest edge, which should take all night.
We traveled as the sun dipped beyond the horizon, and it was dark. I did not need to worry about the mute ones, but I kept the dog guy in front of me. I listened to things around me, and it was hard to travel in the dark, but after hours and hours of walking, absolutely nothing came to kill me or take the people I was transporting.
Then all of the sudden we were out of the forest after hours of walking and using a compass I stole. So I pushed them all back undercover and my tablet linked up to the net. I quick ordered everything and the service pinged a locating about a half hour walk away to resupply. I pointed it out and we walked along the edge of the forest just inside a bit so as not to be in the open.
I thought there would be more people attacking me, especially after how I entered the forest. I moved with the group, and I could see the criminals looking lost. Emma came up to me, “Bounty hunter lady, c—can I ask you something?” She said nervously, and I looked at her as we were approaching the drop-off location.
“What?” I curiously asked as we rested.
“I- I,” Emma looked nervously at the other two, “I want you to keep me as a slave, please. I really don't want to be sold to some random. I would rather learn to bounty hunt as a slave. Please, I really don't want to go to prison. I will make it worth your while with information if you decide to keep me. I swear it, Please.”
“Emma, Shut the-” Both the Dog-kin and Kimmy started to snap out
“Quiet,” I snapped, looking at Kimmy and the Dog guy. I turned to look at the young slut that I met taking the dog’s cock. “Hmm,” I looked at the ETA as we approached the area, and I looked at her. I thought about it and wondered if it had to do with the quest. I looked at her longer, “What is the information about generally? Tell me, and I will decide.”
Emma looked at the other two. “It is about how you were ambushed coming into the forest,” she said seriously.
I smiled and looked at her. “Okay, I will send you back with this cargo shipment, but I will keep you if I survive. If I don't, you go back into the prison system here,” I said with a grin.
Emma nodded, and Kimmy and the Dog kin looked pissed. “Why are they so mad you are going to talk,” I asked just as she was about to talk.
“Because they will most likely be back in this forest in a couple of months.” Emma took a breath and looked at the other two, “I fucking don't want to live in this shit-stained forest anymore. I am sick of taking your dirty ass cock so you all think I am worth keeping around instead of with a bullet to my head,” The dog-kin looked shocked, “I was no whore; I was trying to live because I knew that if I did not open my legs, he would kill me,” she sneered, “I regret what I did, but I no longer can live this life.” She said to her compatriots.
She looked at me and sighed, “The reason that they keep ambushing all the Bounty hunters is because there is a tracker around this forest. They have a device that some criminals stole from the military. It tracks any artificial intelligence on the planet's global network that pings this location, and since most people drive with the artificial intelligence, almost every bounty hunter is picked up. That means as long as you manually take anything in and out of this forest, no one will know. But our boss and a bunch of other groups he is working with that he sells the information to them for a cut of their profits when taking the bounty hunters in.” Then, a notification pinged for me.
—--
New Unique Quest - Hunted Bounty Hunters
You have received information that tells you how the criminals in Saint's Forest are hunting down bounty hunters.
Potential Completion:
- Notify the Bounty Hunter Office
- Collect evidence for the Bounty Hunter Office if that information is true for a reward.
- Collect Evidence and destroy the device for the Hunter Office and receive a much larger reward.
Failure conditions: Death or someone else reports to the office before you.
—--
I looked at Emma, shocked, and smiled; that was worth some information and nine thousand credits I would have to give half away. No, I would keep her around, and if she wasn't useful, we could dump her on some other planet whenever we wanted to. “Alright, I will keep my word with you. As long as I am able to pick you up when I leave this forest, then I will bring you away from this planet. As someone who travels around the galaxy, you must pick up your slack and prove your worth, or I will dump you on some random planet at my convenience, but it is better than being locked up.”
“Yes, thank you. This should help you leave. Also, the boss's base moves once a week, but he tends to stay on the eastern side of the forest, only about a two—or three-day walk from the valley we were at. At least twenty people at the main base just came back from a raid. I have no idea how many would be back from that raid of a rival's base.”
I saw a large van coming up to the edge of the forest, and I could somehow tell an AI was not running it. It did not come down with the same grace. It came down reluctantly, and the doors opened. I saw two aliens jump out just as it landed. I brought the people over, and they smiled.
“Tell me the sit rep,” One with six thin limbs asked and almost looked like a mantis without the sword hands.
“This one,” I said, pointing out Emma, “Needs to be separated from these two,” I said, pointing at the other two. “These people here,” I said, pointing at the mute people, “Are bounty hunters I rescued, and their collars are tied to this Laptop,” I said, pulling that out of my bag and handing it to them as the other guy that hopped out was pulling out a bag and handing it to me. This man was four-limbed and purple, but I didn't look at him too long.
“This one,” I again pointed at Emma, “I think I might be keeping, but if I don't come back,” I shrugged, and they nodded.
“We don't want to be here much longer. Are you looking to assist these bounty hunters in escaping their plight? You have captured them as slaves.”
“Is there a fee to free them?” I asked.
“Yup, a small one; we will look into it for a thousand credits and free them for the same amount, or we will not charge you if it costs more.”
“Okay, I will spend a thousand credits to at least uncollar them. I will ‘keep’ them for now. I would like to talk to them before I free them, but I would have to uncollar them anyway.”
The Mantis nodded, and I looked into my bag and noticed that everything was there. He smiled. “It's a Pleasure doing business with you, SleepyWonder. We hope to see you at our offices soon. We will hold your things up to a month, but after two weeks, there is a charge, and if no one has paid storage fees, you have surrendered your bounties to us.”
“Understood,” I said as the last of the people got into the truck. The man changed the three with collars that I owned. He collared them himself and passed me my capture collars.
Then, the transaction was complete, the large van departed, and I ran back into the forest and started to head back. Unless someone was nearby, they would not be able to shoot at me, but I reached into the bag and found a thick bush. I got inside, pulled out the night vision goggles, put them on, and turned them on. I grinned as the night lit up, and I could see clearly in a dark green. There were blindspots still, as these were cheap goggles, but it was infinitely better than my previous eyes. I grinned and headed in deeper, holding my assault rifle at the ready as I walked back to the valley with a fresh smile on my face.
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