Episode 013: Ruin My Fun

It took a surprisingly long time for me to explain what a Heads-Up Display was, along with common features of one. As for why it took so long, I think the AI realized what it had been doing—reading the lower layers past my surface thoughts—was not really polite or at the least made me uncomfortable and consequently stopped pilfering my brain.

Only by the time I was stuffed back into my root ball prison did 37 (would it be rude to give him a nickname? Or should I just wait until he decides to name himself?) finally conclude that it would require time to assemble one.

Finally having the chance to check my phone, I saw the new interface and realized why an HUD was a difficult concept for the AI.

Neither one of us were all that artistically inclined. My basic knowledge of art and graphic design could be summed up with “Ooh, pretty!” or “There are drawing and 3D software for making things.” As for the actual process or hows, I was basically clueless.

While the alien AI tried to figure out how to set up an HUD for the times it was inconvenient for me to pull out my phone, I rehashed what happened in the emergency tribunal.

[Nori still got most of the meeting?]

Dismissing 37’s surprise, I just sighed as I got acquainted with the revamped Terminal. I’m used to reading while sitting at lectures.

It was convenient that none of the elves addressed the human directly even once, though it didn’t really say anything good about my situation. The AI was right that I needed to escape or I’d be stuck in this root ball for a very long time.

[Will we escape tonight then?]

Not yet.

The homescreen now basically had the profile picture I had on Facebook looking back at me. There was Level, HP/MP, EXP, along with status and money (which was set at zero). Very simple. There were text links for Inventory and Settings.

Do I have a bag of holding by any chance? I asked only partially hopeful. Escaping with what I had on hand was pretty difficult, along with the after of trying not to get caught. I wasn’t even sure what direction to head other than “out of elven territory.”

[… There is a subspace pocket dimension I was planning to connect to the Terminal. At the moment, only I have access to it. Initial access will be five slots, restricted to your bodyweight and dimensions you can carry.]

Alright, that was more than I had before. I thought about the mostly empty waterskin and the golden apple that was probably bruised from being in my pocket.

[I will manually access it for now until your access is set up in the Terminal.]

Alright, thanks. Now, about those stores…

[There are three stores available: The Market is available for local items. The Mall is for filtered items from your home. The Bazaar will not be available until Level 25. You cannot access the stores until Level 5.

[… Considering the difficulty level of our situation due to unfavorable conditions of the starting point, I am allowed to enact Emergency Protocols. In exchange for the currency you have access to from your Earth, I can procure limited items from the Mall.

[I can also exchange currencies to the local one to get items from the Market, though you are limited to what can be accessed on hand with effort.]

Did he mean my wallet or my e-wallet? Because I rarely carried cash on me.

[You have $20,234.48 saved. Exchanging to local currency would make it 200 small gold coins, 4 half-gold coins, 3 silver, and 8 coppers.]

Is the exchange rate fifty cents to a copper coin?

[Yes]

Well, I could figure out what the worth of each coin was approximately worth based on the numbers given, not that it really told me what I could buy with it.

I suppose it didn’t hurt to ask though.

About those limited items from the Mall, I don’t suppose flashbangs are included?

[No, weapons are restricted.]

Somewhat having known the answer as there were multiple scenarios in fiction of what would happen if medieval societies were placed against modern-day weapons, I was still a bit disappointed. What I really needed was a distraction, because I was already on the outskirts of Aure City but there were guards around the Banyan Prison.

Maybe I could improvise something if I had access to the ingredients—

KClO4 or KNO3. Al is needed, of course.

[…]

Considering what I want to use it for… 3 KClO4 + 8 Al → 3 KCl + 4 Al2O3—

[Chemicals are restricted.]

Not even bleach and—

[Nori, no.]

I was mostly kidding about that last one.