《Supervillain survival》


 001 Super power selection

    Choosing a superpower should have been the highlight of my life. I waited in line to get the power serum that should awaken my powers and tried to remain calm. I was getting a superpower maybe I would get a flight or the power to talk to animals. There was some lewway so I could in theory select a power to slow down my aging process.


    Not that I would be allowed to choose a power like immortality in the reclaimers center. They were big on saving the planet and reclaiming the barren wastelands. Having a bunch of immortals take up resources was not permitted. Still, the five days of constant speeches and lessons had been worth it so I did not have to register my new power with the government


    Unfortunately, I was still getting the speech as I approached the scanning machine that would let me know what powers I could choose from. The leader of the local redeemers cult was still talking. "We need to reclaim the wastelands of middle America and Africa from the desert. Global warming may have been reversed but the damage left behind is still there."


    I ignored what would hopefully be the last lecture I would have to listen to and headed to the scanner. A single machine that looked like a giant lamp was embedded in the ceiling.


    Had I been doing my super affinity test in the public scanner the various gang and government officials would have been around. The government had assured everyone that what happened to Claire Smith would not happen again. The video of the African super grabbing Claire when her power of advanced plant growth was discovered was still shown by privacy protestors.


    The fact Germany and China had sent their supers to kidnap Claire was mentioned a lot. Rare powers were valuable and should I gain one I wanted to sell my services off to the highest bidder not be stuck in a small cell and forced to use my powers on seeds for eighteen hours a day.


    I passed the usual signs advertising the new land rushes. Take Texas back for America. Help stop the cannibal pirates. Help hunt down the family members of the climate deniers.


    It had been over one hundred years since the last climate denier died according to all the records we had. But yet they still wanted to hunt down the families. I did not see the point but I would not stop them either. Having to walk past a mass grave where the famine victims had been buried every day gives you little sympathy for the ones who caused the great famine.


    I wondered who was being bribed. Having the American and anti-American posters put up on the same wall seemed weird. Taking a deep breath I walked forward the scanner activated and rotated around me twice before I was pushed out of the way by a woman in a robe.


    For a moment I almost tipped the reclaimer follower who had pushed me but decided against it. I remembered I was not coming back so why bribe anyone? All around advertisements were up offering citizenship if you gained a decent super power. Finally, I looked at the big three advertisements. Canada, China, and Germany had a small sign-up each. Why pay for a big advertisement when everyone wanted to get a job in a country where there were no organ thief gangs?


    The attendant sniffled "I suppose you just did your two-year course to get access to the scanner." I shrugged "No redeemer sister I believe in the cause it''s just I am nervous. A neighbor got the power to always keep any coffee he held in his hands warm. Another of my neighbors got a farting skill. He can now talk by farting."


    I rushed over to the scanner and made a note of my aptitude.


    Body         6 - 9  out of 20


    Mind         6 - 9  out of 20


    Superpowers 4 out of 6


    special       3 out of 8


    Techknology  4 out of 6


    Mystic        7 out of 21


    Mental        549 out of 1000


    3 unique paths


    I looked at the various scores none of which was life-changing. A sense of dread washed over me I was ordinary. I would be stuck in a one-bed apartment for the rest of my short miserable life. My mental stats were high just not high enough. I settled down and took a look at my special paths.


    I took a look at the unique paths on the display.


    Path 1


    Mental Mystic mind reader power


    potential 65 / 100


    Path 2


    Technology  Artificial intelligence


    Potential 60 / 100


    or


    programming


    potential 79/100


    Path 3


    superpowers special lesser invisibility


    Potential 21 / 100


    My paths are not great but they were better than trying to get some random superpower. Now all I had to do was buy a super serum that suited me. The attendant nodded her eyes filled with sympathy but her voice showed none of that and was as cold as the grave "You know if you want we can have a super serum calibrated for you." I wondered again if I should tip her. But the redeemers were hard on bribery. They tended to nail anyone caught doing it to a mutant ant hill.


    I sighed the redeemers did have access to that sort of service. They could get you a better quality super serum. I had to think for a moment but I finally nodded. Going to the black market for that sort of thing would be a huge risk. For the past 30 years, the great academies have been driving out their competition. As my score was not high enough for a scholarship I needed to go elsewhere to improve my chances of a decent power. I had found a mad chemist who swears he could make me a decent serum but it was still a risk. Who wants three noses?


    It was decision time. As too many people choose invisibility I would not be able to do anything with it. Even my apartment which was basically a glorified bed inside a wall had invisibility defences. They were fairly cheap and Every woman''s toilet had basic heat sensors.


    Mental powers would be useful but sooner or later someone with the identify skill or some other skill would out me. If I had been doing anything illegal or my girlfriend was too pretty then I was in real trouble. No female trusted any mind controller and no male trusted someone who could convince their wife that it was time to take a shower in their living room or that their husband had always looked like that.


    The attendant grinned "You know we can increase the percentage chance of you gaining an extra skill by 3 or 4 percent. If you take the Super Power technology route you will still have a 3 to 4 percent chance of gaining a mystic skill on top of your Artificial intelligence skill."


    I looked at the manic gleam in the attendant''s eye and nodded "How long will I have to work for the Redeemers." "If you are willing to accept a villain serum it''s free."


    Now normally getting anything for free means trouble. When you eat the free food you realize you are addicted to some new drug. When you take the free toaster you wake up a few weeks later mind controlled by a villain named the Ass Spanker. Although if you were stupid enough not to have a lawyer program look over the fine print you fairly much deserved whatever you got.


    I was nervous about getting things for free but as long as I did not have to sign anything I decided to take the offer. If it was a choice between working for the Reedemers for a couple of years and having to get up a five in the morning to listen to sermons or getting a crap power I choose the villain serum.


    Looking at the attendant whose name I did not know I nodded "Let''s do this but I want to know what level of serum I am being given." "We have a few billion samples of Java Jim''s serum. It might be old but it''s still viable. We only ask you to look favorable on us if you get a decent power."


    I looked at the display monitor and then used it to look up Java Jim a small time superhero who had brewed billions of super serums he had tried to give out for free. The corporation not happy with this had hired people to kill him.


    It was perfect a do-gooder serum that could be trusted. The attendant''s eyes glowed with a knowing look "It will take a half hour to get the serum ready wait in the hall."


    I stood in a fairly decrepit hall. There were not even any chairs but then again the redeemers were not all that wealthy. After I had been there a while. A blonde woman dressed in a slutty but obviously expensive dress came along following another attendant. The blonde was screaming "What do you mean my best option is a waste disposal option? Vicky got the static shock power and is charging tricks a fortune.  " I ignored everyone and thought about praying. I decided not to as given my past history I did not want to be struck by lightning.


    A whole half an hour later after listening to others complain about their superpowers I was ushered into a side room and given an injection before being sent back for a new scan. I knew the redeemers wanted to see what powers I gained. Firstly if I gained an extra power they could update their records on how effective Jim''s super serum was. Secondly, if I got a power they did not like they could kill me.


    The machine beeped and I looked at the attendant who was crying "Look your results are amazing both of your powers overlap."


    My heart almost exploded in my chest. Overlapping powers are the stuff of legends. The ability to heat a cup of liquid in your hands is minor. A secondary abilty to be able to spread your power over a wide area alters things. Heatray had the ability to heat liquids an overlapping power that allowed his power more range turned him into a siege weapon. He literally could boil the blood of anyone in a five-mile radius.


    Admittedly I could get something useless like heat ray vision who wants to be stuck welding every day? But something like bacteria control with transmission would have you eating in a penthouse with strings of supermodels.


    The beer master lived in a floating garden filled with naked women and men. All he had to do was alter a few strains of yeast. Then I remembered my specialty artificial intelligence and a chill went down my back.


    The attendant''s tears made sense. The most feared super power the power that could keep on growing. What do you wish for if given a single wish? A billion more wishes.


    The artificial intelligence I would soon be able to create must have a learning ability. Something that would them improve themselves over time. If this was the case I could create an artificial intelligence to create more advanced intelligence.


    My computer superintelligences once they were advanced enough would be able to upgrade themselves. One computer builds a smarter computer which would then build an even smarter computer. Until in the end, you had a computer so smart it could work how to do anything.


    Do you want to live forever or take over the world? Or maybe you want to fix the deserts that had once been habitable land. Even bringing the dead back to life was possible.


    The only problem was the corporations. So you invented a car engine that can be grown and uses sugar water as fuel. Well, the car manufacturers have a gift for you a tank which they will use to set you on fire and then roll over you.


    My power was valuable and I was now a would-be power but a lot of people would be coming after me. The attendant ginned "Your one in ten thousand. But bear in mind there are over a billion people on this planet. I have a brief video which will explain everything to you."


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    As I was being led to a small broom closet I briefly considered if I was going to have my organs harvested. It was not impossible things like that had happened before. I decided I had to take the risk. A growth ability was my way out.


    The broom closet had a small hidden screen no bigger than a book. The screen lit up and I saw an old black man whose face was covered in wrinkles.


    The old man image spoke out "I am Jonathan and as I am to die of a poison the academies dosed me with I have decided to release my knowledge into the world. To the academies, I say this you killed me to stop me selling my super serum. Now watch as I give my serum away.


    To you who take my serum I ask that you kill as many Frenchmen and women as you can. My grandfather sold his family into slavery due to a lack of water. We were poor but had each other. That is not entirely true we were poor and desperate but mostly happy. Then they fixed Egypt''s fields and suddenly our cash crops were not worth as much as before.


    They were still making millions but a rich heiress wanted her new cars and coats. So she raised the price of water and we were forced to cut back on planting food crops in favour of coffee. We starved so she could buy her dresses."


    The image of Jonathan changed to images of him with his family. "I would only ask if you become powerful enough to bring back the dead you bring back my family."


    The image changed again to Jonathan in a large building. Vast vats of chemicals behind him. "Now for the important news. I have produced oceans of super serum and have sent it out for free."


    The image changed showing one of the machines producing row after row of super serum. Jonathan''s face appeared on the screen "Those are super-serum-making machines and I have sent out hundreds of them. Listening to this recording will unlock your new powers.


    Plus this recording should block out most forms of surveillance. So whoever you are stay hidden for longer than me and build yourself up before going public. Also, find those French people for me and kill them ."


    The image on the screen changed to that of Jonathan''s family members and it listed how they died.


    Tina died of cancer. Cancer cure was destroyed by Apex Corporation so they could sell more expensive temporary suppressant cancer treatments.


    Jack died of hunger. While there was enough clean water to water his crops the water was sold at a thousand times mark up.


    The list went on and on most dying from being poor. It was a simple story a French company had purchased the copyright on a water purification system and Jonathan''s family had been glad to pay for clean water. At least at the start. Cheaper technology came along but somehow the price that Jonathan''s family paid kept going up. Then one of Jonathan''s neighbors developed a power that would clean the water.


    The French corporations naturally took extreme actions and Jonathan decided to hide his powers until he was stronger. I winced at the images of Jonathan''s dead family. The list had just reached the point just after everyone realised Jonathan was a powerful super.


    It looked like the corporation that sold him his water decided to kill him and his family before he could use his power to clean up the water.


    The door was open behind me opened narrowly missing my head and I came face to face with an old attendant who glared at me. "Right, my name is Terrance. We get paid for you to watch this video when you''re done with that one. Also, there is an American warlord in town and we do not want to embarrass him.


    Ever since they lost that war with Cuba they have all been we used to be in charge. I swear the republican party tax breaks to the rich meant they had to cut all entitlements to the old. From that point on "


    I looked at the Attendant "Listen I do not care it''s ancient history. It''s not like it will ever affect me. Give me the video and get out" Terrance sniffled "The French paid us to show this video to anyone who saw that one. So watch it and try not to move your eyes away from the screen or fall asleep or we will make you watch it again."


    I sighed as the small screen I had lit up this time with an old lady who explained that I was going to see the dead bodies caused by Jonathan''s


    vengence.


    The old lady''s voice was soft and emotionless as she began. "I am here to try and appeal to your sense of justice. Jonathan was not powerful enough to directly strike at my family. You may wonder why you do not know the name of the corporation that caused the damage. It is because some of them married other rich folks and they erased their past.


    Now I am not going to tell you Jonathan did not deserve justice but how he went about it was wrong"


    Images of spiders attacking people appeared on the screen as I watched an army of spiders swallow Paris whole. I swallowed as the image changed to show the clean-up. Piles of millions of dead humans were shown.


    The image shifted to the woman speaking "In 2010 a ventilator design was released from MIT that cost 200 dollars. Yet when a disease called covid came in the average cost of a ventilator was 17000 dollars. " I tried not to fall asleep as I did not want to have to listen to this again.


    Unfortunately, the speech stopped after a quick speech about the 4000 dollar ventilators turned down by someone called Trump and I was back looking at the bodies of the dead. Most had been trapped alive by the spiders wrapped in webs and eaten slowly alive. It turned out the spiders had been designed to torture their victims alive.


    I waited for the end of the speech betting myself that it would be about the ones actually responsible for the whole thing the water corporation owners getting away with it. Rich folks did not tend to get caught up in spider invasions.


    It turned out I was wrong. Rich folk did indeed get caught up in spider invasions especially when someone used an E.M.P. weapon on their home security system. Without a phone or computer service, they were unable to call in the mercenaries that rescued most of the other rich folks.


    The last part of the recording was a record of what Jonathan had done next. He had moved to Japan and had another family. An image of him with the Mona Lisa in the background finished up the talk.


    Then images of the child victims appeared. I sighed at least this time it was not the victims of the opioid crisis. Who creates a soda drink that is as addictive as heroin and sells it to children? The films about the withdrawal centers were harrowing and still gave me nightmares.


    Terrance opened the door again and nodded at me "You''re done unless you want to watch the We are sorry about causing global warming video you get paid half a credit."


    I shook my head "I will take my status." Terrance nodded and gave me a sheet of paper


    Tom


    Physical strength normal


    Intelligence normal


    Superpower


    Can create learning computer programs


    Now all I had to do was work out where to go. The big three China, Canada, and Germany were out. They would test my superpower before allowing me citizenship. India and Africa were both war zones where the fighting had not stopped for decades.


    South America was a possible choice but there were rumors the Mexican empire was about to join the whole continent together. Once that happened they would want a list of all superpowered people living in their territory.


    So parts of Asia and maybe Australia were left. Places with some technology not too many wars and no real oversight. I needed time to develop and Terrance the assistant was giving me a look I really did not like.


    Terrance smiled and I felt my ass clench I was about to get bad news. Terrance at least did not delay."So you know that America released a couple of self-learning nano bot plagues designed to kill supers with growth powers? Well, it turns out someone has altered the American strains. They must have as America does not have enough cash to keep the nanobots in production. "


    I felt my heart palpitate Terrance smiled. "So it looks like Earth is not all that safe. But luckily we have a nice new job for you in one of the old space hotels. It''s perfect for you a place outside Earth but still not part of any of the corporation''s sphere of influence."


    For a brief second, I was tempted to break Terrance''s nose and rush out but then I realized if I made a big deal out of this it could be my end. All Terrance has to do is whisper my new superpower to a gang and I would be finished.


    Still, I have lived in a hellhole for years and I knew how to at least check out the situation. "I will have to speak with Kate." I got ready to kill Terrance if he told me there was a problem with seeing Kate or that I would have to meet her in some underground hidden room.


    Terrance nodded "Fair enough after they found all those hotel chains selling their client''s internal organs last week people have become less trusting."


    "Wait what when was this?" I stared at Terrance trying to think if there had been another organ-selling case recently.


    Terrance grinned "You should keep up with the times the bigger hotels start stealing organs from stragglers every winter once the tourists have gone home. It''s always the same they throw a few lower staff to the wolves and the hotels involved are sold from one corporation to another. Of course, this time they made a mistake. They took one of the Cuban Rockets family. "


    The legendary Cuban Rockets were considered the single most powerful family of super-powered people on the planet. I wondered how stupid whoever it was who messed with one of them. Then I decided I did not care. It should have nothing to do with me all I needed to do was meet Kate to find out what my options were.


    After rushing a talkative Terrance I was escorted to Kate''s office. It was a large room that had been changed from a couple of apartments to an office. On the wall were a number of human skeletons with little displays which showed how they died.


    Kate was an older woman with red hair wearing some kind of kimono she looked at me. "When the major famine began Saint Mary killed everyone over the age of seventy. Anyone aged fourty to seventy was sent to war to die. Their sacrifice saved us if not for them we could have ended up like India a wasteland full of the dead."


    I looked at the smaller skeletons and deciding I really really did not want to know what Saint Mary had done. I took a seat in a worn chair. Kate looked at me and then at her display. Her display was super tech it looked like a pane of glass suspended from the ceiling on invisible wires but I knew it was super tech. The type i would soon be able to create.


    Kate looked at something I could not read as it was backward to where I was sitting. Kate tapped the screen. "So the Cuban Missiles are upset with the hotels you might think it has nothing to do with you. You would be wrong. The hotel owners just declared bankruptcy which is not an unusual occurrence. What is that instead of selling their companies to each other the hotels were bought by an outside player and sold off."


    I looked at Kate whose grin widened. "Trust me this is great news for the Redeemers. But not so great news for you I am afraid. Most of my contacts in the orbital hotels just got spaced. Well, they call it firing but in reality, they just tossed them into space without any spacesuits."


    Kate looked serious she wanted me to apply for a job where the last employees were thrown into space. Kate''s voice came out hard and cold. "It''s a risk I will not deny you that but what choice do you have? The ex-corporation owners just shot themselves in the foot. No one will trust them now so they will be more willing to allow an unknown person like yourself to work for them. "


    I blinked looking at Kate in confusion "Wait I thought that the Cuban Missiles would take control of those hotels." "They tried but the corporations are richer. It is all still a mess on who will come out on top. But with all the chaos it is the best time for you to go into hiding "


    Kate pulled out a hand pistol and pointed it at me. "Now you are going to thank me for this later. After all, you are just being press-ganged not chopped into little pieces while you are still alive." Looking down the barrel of what looked like a toy gun I knew that I was going to the space station.


    Kate''s eyes crinkled showing her age and for an instant, I felt like asking about not being sent into outer space. But that instant was soon over. Kate''s eyes hardened and she pointed the ray gun at my head. Her voice turned cold "You will put on a spacesuit and I will strap you into the rocket myself. Oh Tom here is your Status card"


    Tom


    Combat power 1


    Strength, reaction speed, and endurance are all normal


    Superpower


    Can create self-learning computer programs


    Passive skills


    No passive powers were detected however given the superpower developed more than likely within the next month a number of passive powers will develop.


    Mental Wall.


    Photographic Memory


    Advanced maths skills


    My status showed no combat skills at all. Even my neighbor''s cat could set someone''s hair on fire by looking at them. The way it bullied the local dogs was funny. Why my neighbor had paid for a super serum for a cat I would never understand. I sighed and comforted myself my power would grow. Given enough time I could use my computer programs to help me develop until I had godlike powers.


    But still, I was annoyed other people got the ability to fly or super speed. I had the power to create computer programs. Still, I would not trade it for a more physical skill even if I could. In theory had in theory no upper limit on how powerful I could become but that was of no immediate use.


    Kate pulled out a space suit from under a pile of bones that was in a corner and tossed it to me. "A bit old but it should do the trick. With the I would normally say unfortunate troubles getting you to your new job is going to be hard.


    I do not want to risk someone shooting down your shuttle so we will send you in a garbage pod. They have been modified and are safe but the space suit will block the smell and we can switch off the camera. You do not need to know what you will be sitting in."


    Starring at the pile of bones that the spacesuit had come from I stared hard at Kate."Wait what?" Kate leveled the gun at my head "Into the suit it is a few decades old but as it was built at a time when the copyright laws were not enforced so it should be better than anything on the market."


    I looked at the suit that was worth more than a small apartment. Maybe forty years ago before the big three decided they owned the copyright of everything ever invented such a suit would be worthless. But with the big three insisting on payment for any technology used it was worth a small fortune.


    Kate looked at the suit. "The family that owned it had insurance. Of course, once the troubles happened that insurance was worth less than a fart. They should have bought better insurance like my father did. Then again they would also have had to insist on the payment in German marks. My father was always smarter than most. "


    I wondered why Kate was talking but noticed the look in her eye she must have known the person who had owned the suit. Maybe he was her boyfriend. Maybe he was just her classmate. Not that I was going to ask and risk annoying the crazy lady with the hand ray gun.

 002 Garbage

    Garbage is not something we think about much. I knew that the orbital space stations had to have some of their garbage dropped down to Earth. Even with superpowers, it was cheaper to shuttle some of the residual waste down to earth than hire a super to deal with it on the station.


    Now it was easier and cheaper to send up large shipments but a lot of the orbital station owners hated each other. More than likely bribery was involved somewhere along the line. How else would you explain there were a bunch of smaller garbage collectors rather than one company collecting from everyone? Luckily this meant that there were garbage rockets available.


    The one I was about to be launched into space on was old and had what looked like duct tape holding it together. Someone had taken out all of the plant matter from the insides of it and sprayed it down. I was just lucky that waste being recycled was used to grow plants. Being blasted into space in a portable toilet would not be pleasant.


    Unfortunately for me, all the bio matter left was everything that could not easily be recycled. Watching the pile of green goo being washed out did not give me a good feeling about being sent into space.


    Kate pointed her ray gun at my head "Relax it is Japanese it is not like one of those Chinese or even worse American cheap knock-offs. Also, we will fill the capsule with a liquid solution that will freeze quickly. If there is a problem it will freeze around your suit."


    I looked at the gel that was being brought. "Will that crush me? I mean water expands when frozen."


    "Super science jackass. Honestly, this stuff was designed for pilots to reduce the g force. But it was too cheap and would have put a couple of the chair manufacturers out of business."


    I nodded and jumped into the capsule before Kate could give me another lecture. Looking down at the green sludge that was still in the capsule. I felt it was worth getting my spacesuit a bit dirty if I could avoid another lecture.


    Who cared if in the 2030''s the famines and other global warming issues wiped out billions? They let the situation get that bad and they were lucky only to lose the two-thirds of the population they did.


    Kate tapped my space suit head with her gun "Just for avoiding my speech I am going to switch on the smell sensors in the suit and put on the sight in the suit so you can see what your sitting in."


    I shuddered as the suit began to create a simulated smell. From the speaker, I heard a voice. "Kill her whoever hears this kill my girlfriend Kate. Her father tricked me and took my ticket. The cannibals are closing in even now I can hear them. That b**** her father knocked me out and gave my ticket to Kate''s little sister Jennifer. Please save me"


    The pod filled up with liquid as the previous owner''s voice broke down as he began to cry. "I have no credits left Jason took them all from me. He told me that Jennifer would need them more than me. Oh god, i can hear them coming. He left me here to die while he ran away to hide with Kate"


    As the liquid began to rise I thought about what must have happened. Kate''s father Jason must not have had enough cash to send himself Kate and her sister to a safe place. He obviously stole a ticket and sent his most vernerable child Jennifer off with most of his remaining funds.


    The warning was clear I doubted that Jason would let the rich brat whose suit I was wearing live. More than likely he had knocked him out and left him for the cannibals to find. Kate was letting me know that her family were not pushovers.


    I was betting that even if the recording got out the local police would ignore it. Kate was old enough her father would be ancient more than likely he was already dead. That or he was rich and powerful.


    The liquid plus the bits of horrible grey goo that were mixed in with it came over my head as the recording started again. Then I felt the pod being moved. I really wished I had a window or video feed of a camera outside of the pod.


    After all, I was going into outer space. It was not like I was heading to Mars or anything. But still, I was leaving the city where I had not moved more than 20 kilometers from and going into outer space. I felt a brief jolt and then I knew I was on my way.


    Time lost all meaning as the voice of Kate''s boyfriend played again and again. Finally just as i was about to open the suit and drown in the goo, there was a bump and the top of the capsule opened. Outside the pod a small girl was waiting.  She lifted me out with one hand and dropped me onto the floor before picking up the space pod I had been in and emptying it into a container.


    I looked in interest at the girl who was wearing an old and worn dress and what looked like metal twisted into the shape of boots. The girl had a scar on her cheek.


    A cough came from behind me and a young teenage girl looked at me. She was stunning with blonde hair and was in a gorgeous red dress. She winked at me "My name is Jennifer I believe you had dealing with my sister Kate."


    Jennifer chuckled seeing my face. "It is really rather simple the Reedemers do not allow life extension serum. My father gave Kate some when she was younger but once she joined the reedemers she had to stop taking it.


    Now let us talk about you. My sister did not inform me why she wanted you protected. But I can guess. So I have a couple of rules.


    One if you are a Reedemer do not mention it up here. Folks on the ground get upset that instead of food cash crops like coffee were planted. Folks up here get upset when the people on the ground find out all their grain fields have been changed to was it strawberry flavoured tobacco. They dislike seeing their neighbors going feral and cannibals appearing.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Second, do not mention you know me after today if anyone asks we have nothing to do with each other. Any questions? "


    I nodded "How badly do they hate Reedemers up here?" "An awful lot. A lot of the people up here were wealthy landowners. Captains of industry and politicians. When the farming corporations decided to stop producing grain and feed the poor with grey goo. That was acceptable a few riots and a couple of hundred poor dead a year is not an issue.


    But when they stopped producing grey goo and smashed up the Grey Goo factories. They were not prepared for the response. Honestly, there were riots because it was grey goo. Who wants to eat a grey blob that looks like wet paper and tastes like ass? No one but the masses could barely afford grey goo. Take it away and you get chaos.   "


    Jennifer laughed "I am being preachy. Just remember up here destroying a couple of billions of tons of grey goo. And then expecting the public to be grateful to merely pay 40 credits for a plate of food is the norm.


    Your dealing with the kind of idiot who think people who make 2 or 3 credits a day and are used to buying grey goo meals for 0.2 credits will accept starving to death? Or eating once a month.  Unfortunately you will be working for them soon enough.


    Just remember when they say work hard and you can climb up the ladder. What they mean is work hard and we will kill you when you can no longer hold a wrench and grind your bones up to make fertilizer."


    I nodded the fact they had tossed entire families out the airlocks rather than pay them severance was proof they were ruthless. I was betting they were having trouble finding anyone willing to work for them.


    For the next few months, they would be down staff. There were slave markets not that slaves were called that. But I was betting the upper crust did not want a bunch of drug-user slaves around. Of course, if there was another war they could grab up some of the fleeing population. But the news from back home mentioned only a small conflict. Because no major wars were happening at the moment there would be no skilled slaves on sale.


    Jennifer grinned "Things are not looking up for you. Tracey over there has a scar on her face so that she does not attract the wrong crowd. If you stick out you might get lucky or you might be eaten by a couple of the thrill-seeking billionaires who live up here here.


    I got lucky but I have seen others who were not as lucky. The unfortunate cleaning lady who was too beautiful. You can guess the rest. Maybe the son of the family she cleans for does things to her. The father of the family takes an interest. The mother gets jealous and feeds her to the father and son. "


    I swallowed I had forgotten I was with rich folks now and they were animals. My ass clenched as I remembered the stories I had heard about the rich.


    Jennifer laughed "Relax relax this place mostly has second generation inherited wealth. It''s not like those stations with the third or fourth generation. Those rich masters and mistresses get bored easily and bad bad things happen.


    Germany has a law saying you have to live there or you are not a citizen. So it''s mostly Chinese and Canadians up here. Now remember to avoid the third generation and above young masters. They are the ones who wear less than the prostitutes. Remember the professionals wear pink. If you see someone naked using someone''s helmet as a toilet you are dealing with a rich master.


    If it''s your helmet they just used as a toilet and they are looking at you it is time to put on that helmet. It is actually a game with some of the rich teenagers. Just remember to avoid them if they are aged 6 to 10 like the plague. Kids can be cruel just take a look at the influencers of that age group"


    As there was a recording of them cooking a waitress alive because she refused to give them extra ice cream I believed her. Jennifer tossed me a bag with some clothes in it before giving me some more advice.


    "All of the rich Chinese corporate types were hunted down by their government. It is the reason they are still a superpower. Unlike the other powers, they made sure that those who caused global warming and the famines died.


    A lot of the old Chinese space stations are available for rent. All the other rich folk think it''s bad luck to go in there so you can get a good deal renting out one of their unused cupboards."


    I was given a hand wrist computer and some clothes and sent on my way. Jennifer took the spacesuit I had been wearing. I was sent a link to the various apartments and job websites given a fifty credit note and then sent on my way.


    Being tossed by a little girl out of a door would have been embarrassing. So I left with dignity or as much as I could in bright yellow paper thin one piece coverall.


    The corridor I was in was stark and looked like any building inside. Cursing the fact there was no window that i could use to look down on the earth. I got busy before any passing slavers decided to capture me.


    The job website was easy to navigate and I found a job I could do easily enough.  Apparently, the rich folks wanted a human to monitor the supply warehouse. It turns out they were afraid of hackers poisoning their food.


    I hit accept and was given access to the store''s database. For a second I thought about heading back and asking to go home. But I was here now.   Then finding the old records of what my predecessor had been up to i decided this might be a cushy number. There were hours of video of him pissing into the water he gave to the rich folks. Then there were hours of video footage of rich people taking showers.


    I pulled up the walk way map and charted a route that would avoid running into any rich people. Keeping my head down I set off trying to be invisible.


    Getting to my new workplace was easy. Taking a look around my stores I found piles and piles of bottles hidden in a cupboard. Looking at the warehouse that was not designed for storage I began to grin. I could do a lot with an unsupervised warehouse.


    Clicking back on the computer I  took a long look at the porn lists of the rich. It looked like the person before me had stopped recording the rich in their showers. Except for a few he was spying on to see what expensive things they were throwing out he had stopped. Years of stupidity and a lot of banal behavior must have bored him.


    I found a bed hidden under a counter and another one hidden in what looked like an aquarium. The aquarium was a chest inside a massive tank of old water. The filter had not been changed in years and I only realized he was using the chest as a  bed because some of the dust was missing from the side of the tank.


    It was an interesting place to hide and I looked up the records. It had been owned by the Mollox family. They had owned a number of news corporations until they failed to pay off a crime boss. Everyone had known they were paid by the slavers and organ thieves to look the other way. But no one cared until the slavers and organ thieves were put out of business. Suddenly the Mollox were not rich enough to pay all the bribes that needed paying


    When the competition came in the Mollox were unprepared. They spend millions a year on their art and vineyards. Refusing to do without meant after five years they were bankrupt.


    As I watched the video of the Molloxs being whipped in the streets by their once friends. I realized that no rich person could trust another rich person.


    I still wanted to be rich. Maybe I could buy my own moon somewhere far from the earth. Somewhere far from the corporations and their lies.. All I had to do was avoid the fate of the ex-stores keeper.

 003 trying to avoid danger

    How do you avoid danger and make a decent living? Before the super stores, there were mom and pop shops. They were called this because they tended to be owned by one person. Or perhaps they were family-owned. It might have been tough to work all the hours god gave you but it was a living.


    Then came the mega corporations. Suddenly it was cheaper to buy everything from a giant store and the smaller stores were edged out. Nowadays you were considered lucky if your job did not cost you more than you made.


    I looked over the terms of my employment and the records of my predecessor''s notes. It looked like you were charged for breathing as well as using the toilet. Food water and security charges came to just above the annual salary.


    I looked up security charges. They charged you for the brainwashing you were expected to get. I looked at the options the basic package was neural torture and lasted three days.


    An image of a crying man appeared on my screen. He screamed as another male put an electric cattle prod against his testicles and pushed the button. The next image was of the same man being strapped into a chair screaming "I want the premium package. I Want the premium package please"


    Right under the advertisement was a button marked premium package. As well as the lobotomy and control chip option. Taking a look at the lobotomy option was a mistake.


    It showed a massive blob of a man telling a young man to bend over. The blob gave the camera a thumbs-up. "I have all my employees lobotomized. It allows me to do all sorts of things to them. Plus they are too stupid to count. So you can just pay your employees with Peanuts. It''s also helpful at home just ask my wife."


    An image of a woman sitting in her own filth appeared on the screen. The blob laughed "So friends marry rich and tell them Rodney sent you." Rodney pulled down his pants and winked at the camera "Excuse me time to show 0012 here why they call me the stud."


    Ignoring the control chip advertisement I clicked on the premium package. It turned out the premium package was the offer to put up tv everywhere and run adverts twenty-four hours a day. Basically, you paid to listen to adverts even when you were asleep.


    I decided to do a stocktake before I did anything else. It looked like the stores was only for the poorer people. The rich had their own shops. I was here to order and stock some chemicals and clothes as well as nothing.


    As i could not find a reason for stores and wanted to stay breathing I needed to make my new job work. Looking at the goods being brought in and sent out I found the reason i was being employed. The rich folks did not want to spend their own money on anything. They had plans to use the space station as a resort location.


    Unfortunately for them, word of mouth was everything. After all, no one wanted to go to a place where a young master would come along take a dump in your hat, and then expect you to wear it. The world news channels might be corrupt but even they could not gloss over the incidents of rape.


    The stores had been put here at a time when they were expecting thousands of people a week to be arriving and departing. Looking at the old advertisements of people of all races and religions smiling they must have had a unification investor.


    I wondered if the stories about the unification fanatics were true. Most people believed they wanted to turn us all into some kind of slaves who all looked alike and thought alike.


    A message popped up on my screen and I noticed requests pouring in. It looked like people needed supplies even old supplies urgently. I checked what we had in stock and what was usually sent out and began sending out supplies as well as ordering more. After all if I made a mess it was my first day.


    An hour later I had allocated all the supplies and ordered more. My wall changed into what looked like an old 60-inch television and I saw a woman with bags under her eyes looking at me. She glared "So your Tom the new store''s man. I would like to thank you. After the purge, we are having trouble getting staff. I am your boss Adam."


    Adam who I was wondering about gave me her speech "Keep up the good work give me a couple of days of hard work and I will get you security clearance. That way you can avoid paying the security charges and avoid the nonpremium loyalty courses."


    I nodded and got to work. Being useful meant not being thrown out of an airlock. besides I did not have enough credits to get the premium security package. Checking over the spreadsheet and double checking payments. I found a problem It looked like there was a massive drain on the store''s funds the single biggest payment where 80000 credits a year was spent on a helper.


    I looked at my total budget which was 82000 credits. in other words, I had 2000 credits out of  82000 credits to buy goods. Someone was being paid off and I needed that to stop. If they were stealing all the credits how could I siphon off any?


    I had a superpower and it was time to use it. I quickly began to create a program to do my job for me. Half an hour later I was done. Now all I had to do is sit on my ass and plot.


    I needed to actually do my job and hope. I would look into reducing the helper payoff. I needed to be careful I did not have any weapons and the locals were not messing around. They had spaced entire families.


    My super power began to help me run searches on the computer network and I began to piece the situation together. Of the 80000 credit payments I made, I could maybe reduce that to 65000. I realized I was already thinking about the budget as mine.


    Thinking about it there was no reason to steal anything. I could use the budget to pad my living quarters. If someone wanted extra chemicals so their toilets did not stink they could give me some food. The same went for mattresses no one wanted to sleep on a dead man''s mattress. They would want new.


    All I had to do was do my job and keep those in power happy. I checked the accounts one last time while my robot helper gathered supplies and put them in boxes.


    That is when the door to the store broke open and a massive ape-like man armed with a massive gun entered. The barrel of the gun pointed at my head and the man grinned "I just finished eating some children. I am here to explain that your assistant bill is about to increase. "


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I looked at the black hole where the barrel was and shook my head."It''s all gone in fact the stores owe 750 credits. If you have a scanner I can show you the books. Wait it is protected by client confidentiality so I can not."


    The ape-like man lowered the gun until it was pointing at my waste and grinned "Kid I want some credits either pay up or you lose your family jewels."  I knew he meant it and this was going to be a hard situation to get out of so it was time to do something horrible.


    "You know there is a way we can both get rich. If you head to the computer supply area and get me the codes for the office supplies I can access them here. There should be 1500 credits left in the account. No need to share with your boss"


    The apelike man grinned "Yeah that sounds like a plan. Now remember I am a member of the Davis gang you back out we will kill you." I nodded and waited until he had left before sending a complaint to the Security section.


    There was no use reporting the attempted theft. Given more than likely he worked for the local security guards. But I could send in a complaint to the security clearance company. In fact, I could send in multiple complaints. Every complaint would cause the thug to have to go back for training.


    Somehow I doubted his boss Davis would pay for the premium package for the thug who had just broken into stores. More than likely he would be strapped to a chair with his balls attached to electrodes. Then they would get him to swear to be a productive member of society and question him about any spare credits he might have.


    Had I been a decent person I would have only sent in two complaints. More than likely he had enough credits to bribe the attentants for the first interrogation. Then would come the second without any bribe money left he would get the full treatment.


    I had set my mailbox to send in five different complaints. For every complaint that went in another three days of corporate responsibility training would be needed.


    Looking up the numbers he only had a fifty percent chance of his balls still being there after the third treatment. After four treatments he would be lucky to be able to speak. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry. I changed the instructions on my mail server. It would resend my complaints as long as ape boy was alive. If the overseer of the security clearance was lazy they would just hit re-educate on their computer again and again.


    I was betting if he survived multiple education lessons once the count went past eleven or twelve more permanent measures would be taken. After all, you would not waste torture time on a drooling idiot.


    Contacting Adam this time was less than easy I was put on hold for an hour. Adam''s face was even more weary than the first time I saw her. She was about to snap but I sent her a recording of the thug from earlier as well as a copy of the complaints I had sent out.


    Adam sighed "Davis is a fire user he is fairly powerful so be careful. I will send you a couple of blunderbuss. They are like shotguns only bigger. Remember this is a space station so there are no armour-piercing weapons or fire weapons allowed. Unfortunately, Davis can cook you from the inside out just be looking at you so if he shows up try and ambush him. I will send you the name of a decent tech super. He can build a tank out of a couple of old tins so play nice. Also, you might want to think about living in the stores. While you''re in there you are protected against     them checking if you completed a responsibility training course."


    Looking at Adam I realised it might be time to take a chance. 65000 credits in bribes a year out of my budget hurt. If I paid 500 for a couple of security bots It would save me a huge amount in the long term. "So listen i am going to have to go with a different security consultant "Adam grinned at me "I wish you luck those gangsters are fairly tough. Oh take a good look at the stores. Its possible there are hidden compartments around"


    I nodded deciding to spend a lot of the budget that had been earmarked for my assistant pay on the goods it was supposed to be spent on. This was risky the criminals those funds were supposed to go to would not be happy.


    Quickly looking around I found a hidden panel on the wall and pressing it I wished I had not. There was a hidden hole with a man''s and little girl''s clothes and goods. It looked like the previous store manager had built himself a place to escape to if things got too dangerous. The dozen or so small bunk beds showed he had not planned on staying alone. I shut the hidden hole and took a look around for other hidden compartments.


    I found a fridge and then a toilet. The toilet was simply a room with a hole in the floor. Deciding I had enough exploring done for one day I put a call in to Tech-man.


    Tech-man took a while to answer his projector and while I waited I took a look in the fridge. There were still sandwiches and some bottles marked alcohol 25 percent. Ignoring the booze I began to eat the sandwiches. at least they had tomatoes and some kind of spread. Silently I wondered where the eggs were. Even for a space station, it should have been easy to keep a couple of chickens around.


    Tech-man appeared on my screen. He had some kind of prosthetic eye that looked like one of those ones I had seen on Startrek on one of the Borg. Tech-man''s was bigger and looked like it could double as a laser gun.


    Tech-man grinned as I explained I wanted the work''s battle robots along with forcefields and death rays if I could afford them on my budget of a thousand credits. He smirked when I asked about the price for super computers.


    "Well for a super computer, you''re looking at 5 credits. You want something capable of running every airport and communication on earth we can say 10 credits.


    For a android, you would have to pay 50 credits but you would be better off with a couple of gun turrets 5 credits each.


    If you need a battledroid because you can not leave the stores that will cost 300 credits for a purpose-built one or 75 for an altered model. "


    I nodded "I am also going to need a water purifier and hydro farm unit. The farm units come in fridge form right?" Tech-man shook his head "I can not do it the corporations have bought the right to grow all food on this station."


    I winced remembering the fact the recent riots were due to them dumping a lot of grey goo machines.


    Tech-man winked at me "All the food machines up here are fine. They spaced those families because they were the wrong religion. The only ones spaced were the Christians. If you were Mormon or Lutheran you got the chance to convert. Otherwise, out the space lock you went. "


    Tech-man looked pale for a second "The ex-controller of this place was in one of those fridge Christian groups. As this place uses old American employee contracts there were moral clauses. With the riots on earth, things were tense up here. Things got a lot worse once the genius who dumped all that grey goo into the ocean realized that without it there would be another famine. He tried to buy grain futures.


    I swear sometimes I think we deserve to go extinct. You know they promoted the dumb ass who decided to space all those families. They claim being born in space gives us a greater chance of developing a tech-based power.


    Well if you want to stop your servants from developing tech-based powers do not have your genes altered and force every maid to sleep with you. "


    I thought back to the little girl who had lifted me out of the vat when I got to the space station. Her face had a nasty scar now I knew for certain things were bad up here. Then they were bad all over except in some areas of Germany if you were the right race and Canada if you had the credits. No one knew what China was like but given the fact several billionaires had fled China, I was betting it was doing well. When the wealthy were not allowed do anything they wanted things tended to get better


    Tech-man laughed and pulled out a ray gun. "I will throw in this gun when I arrive. Some superpowers work well against robots. You might need a dog. Or at least some kind of bear trap. Low tech has its place as well "


    "Get here ASAP and we will see what is left in the budget." I left the fact if I was buying guards I was not planning on paying off the local mafia unsaid.


    I decided to check something "What religion should I be to avoid being spaced?" "Athiest is best. Some of the useful atheists survived. The guy who spaced all the Christians was from a Christian sect himself. Crazy if you ask me to attack your own before attacking those like me who are atheists"

 004 purchasing power

    Something about waiting for Tech-man made me nervous. I did not know what it was about waiting a few more minutes. But I had images of the ape-man I had sent away returning with friends. I slowed my breathing and took stock.


    I could always hide in the toilet if anyone besides Tech-man arrived. It was funny before I had not been nervous. But now hope was on the way I was terrified. The walls seemed to close in around me for a second then i remembered. This was it I had nowhere else to go.


    Tech-Man showed up with a couple of massive war droids pulling a pallet each. He got to work installing a small bubble just inside the door. Tech-man pulled out a can of paint and sprayed the ground before turning to me.


    "So some superpowers can spoof static defenses like this one. You might need to say off away from the door. I will install an off switch in the battledroid i am going to sell you."


    I looked at Tech-Man "So basically the mafia bosses I just annoyed might hire people to kill me and there is no way of stopping them walking in my front door. I can not leave the local police who are corrupt and will force me into training which is actually torture. Which I will have to pay for."


    Tech-man laughed "It''s not that bad what you did to Hendrick has already spread. If you just look mean they might not come to kill you. You can also purchase protection from the station security. If you pay them enough they might actually do their job."


    I thought about it "Wait station security are they corporate?" "Yes, but they are not as bad as the usual corporate security. They hired some lunatic general to run security. He might have tossed a couple of thousand people out the airlock and then gone for lunch. But he does not take bribes and will not allow his staff to take bribes either."


    This was information that was not to my liking. The only type of person who would toss women and children into space without batting an eye. Was either a nazi, mad, or had been conditioned to obey orders.


    Given where we were I was betting he had been brainwashed.


    Tech-man pulled out a shotgun and passed it to me. "Better than a blunderbuss. This has a range of about 25 feet rather than 15. The shells have been treated with a special mixture from an alchemy super. So they seem to break a couple of the laws of science and freeze anything they hit.  You have 3 special rounds the others are your standard rounds.


    The button on the side adds force to the bullets. It''s super science so even I do not know how they do that.  All you need to know is it works if you hit someone with one blast with one of those settings on. It will turn them into a bloody pulp. Well except if they have armour in. If they have armour use the freeze round and maximum enhancement."


    I looked at one of the robots Tech-man was fitting together. It looked like the top of a metal model man on top of the bottom half of a tank. Instead of hands, it had what looked like a flame thrower on one hand and a missile launcher on the other.


    Tech-man looked at my face "What do you expect for 75 credits? Do you think you are getting a top-of-the-line war robot like mine? No for 75 credits you get something you can remote control to go to shop for you. "


    Tech-man pulled out a leaflet. "A word of warning some of the local owners of this space station families were major industrialists. They came up here to avoid the acid rain and black lung their factories caused. They are still annoyed that if they go back they will all be shot for killing millions. So if anyone asks you are not one of those liberals who think children should not have a ten percent chance of choking to death on their own blood due to pollution"


    Tech-man looked around as if nervous someone was spying on him. "Listen them killing millions was not the reason they got exiled out here. Their lawyers could have argued their way out of that. They did something much worse only no one knows what it was because they bought the media."


    I nodded "They got exiled because it was proved they were actively increasing the pollution in the air. They sold air filtration units and medical treatments. When they began to clear up the air their sales were dropping. So to increase sales again they bought an oil-burning electricity plant and began to pollute the air."


    A knowing look appeared on Tech-man face. "So that is what happened. They caught them killing people." I shook my head "No they had lawyers and politicians to deal with that. No, the oil-burning electric factories were not producing enough pollution so they hired a super to increase it. They forgot that acid rain affects cars as well. The rain rusted a lot of cars in weeks."


    I chuckled "You know I heard the" I stopped talking as I realized something. No one cared about the ex-rich folks. It was not like even the anti-slavery groups or even anti cannibalism groups would care. It did not matter if it was their great great grandfather or grandmother who committed the crimes. No one would stick up for a person whose family made money polluting


    Tech-man next words stopped me from thinking unnecessary thoughts. "If you''re thinking about all that sweet loot the locals have. Well think again they all turned on each other a few years back and sold all their good property to hire mercenaries.


    The mercenaries took their credits and were so wealthy they went on that show Fast Food Top Model. They were so rich they did not even put on that much weight."


    "What is fast food model?"


    "There used to be fast food places like McDonalds or there were a lot of Burger places. What they do is make the models eat fast food and see how much weight they put on. Two Ton Tina was my favorite she was so thin before she went on that show you could have blown her down with a fan. After six months they had to replace her liver twice and she was heavier than most elephants."


    I thought about the stories I had heard and shuddered. I might have eaten giant mutant cockroaches but the stories of illegal workers in the chicken factories still creeped me out.


    I looked at Tech-man. "Is it true they used chemicals to clean off pigs instead of water and then chemicals"


    Tech-man nodded "Yeah but the stories of half-eaten corn being found in ham is probably a lie.  The chicken factories where the illegal workers had to use the factory floor as a toilet are true. They were not even given enough time to use the toilet and well you took your risk eating in any restaurant.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Nodding I ignored Tech-Man I mean sure if you went into a restaurant that was not in Europe you might get a small amount of shit in your ham. But so what? The chemically treated shit was safe. Those guys in Europe were snobs. So what if they are selling diseased horses to you in your burgers? No one died from it."


    I nodded not wanting another lecture on why feeding people food that caused them to become fat and have heart attacks was not what god wanted. Besides I had actually been able to buy a few of those chicken burgers and they were divine. The ten percent charge to make sure all the visible shit was removed was worth it  "Makes sense so let''s talk about weapons weapons and more weapons. I am prepared to increase my spending a bit if I can become a bit more secure. Do you have anything else?"


    "Not really not with your budget. The problem is superpowers. There are supers who can teleport. Some can shrink, some can turn invisible, or use weird powers to spy on you. Nanite robots in the air or just some kind of mental ability that allows people to look threw walls. I have given you basic protection. For what you are paying that is all you get. But I can show you where to buy some used goods."


    Remembering the fact that a lot of people had just been thrown into an airlock and blasted into space I knew where the used goods would come from. I was about to buy the goods from the murderers of a lot of innocent and possibly good people.


    In the end, my desire to live outweighed any moral issues I might have. I wondered if the Americans who had purchased New York land had considered the native Indian population''s plight before buying apartments. Not that I cared much but I was betting people were people and no one had cared much.


    I still decided to avoid the child and jewelry section of the manifest. Who wanted to see children''s toys or wedding rings from the recently slaughtered?


    The prices were very low but then most of the ex-workers had been poor. What was interesting was they were selling off the looted slightly illegal goods and industrial machines for cheap.


    I could see why they were selling off the illegal plant growing boxes. But why sell off the smell and air purifiers? With the number of new staff being brought on board they would need them. I found a listing for spacesuits and welding machines along with other tools for station repair.


    The workers owned their own tools and they were being sold off cheaply. They were being sold off way too cheaply. I looked at the prices and realized I had the chance to destroy the entire space station. All I had to was buy the tools and melt them down.


    I doubted the station owners would be able to buy and ship enough tools to keep the station running before having at least three or four major accidents. By the time they managed to get the tools they needed to keep the space station repaired, it would be too late.


    Sighing I decided I would buy a few credits worth of tools. I could not afford to buy too many. Corporate types had rules about buying goods low and selling high. The rules were only the corporate types were allowed to do it.


    I found a few other interesting items one was a spiders web. It was a small ball of super strong and almost invisible thread. You could set it to form a large web over an area and it would kill most super powered users trying to sneak in.


    I also purchased a freeze baton. Designed to freeze anyone you hit with it. But what really caught my attention were the small spaceboats. They were exactly what i wanted to buy. A way off the station if everything went wrong. Unfortunately, I was an employee of people who thought being sick was a offense where you should give up your internal organs to pay them for your lost productivity.


    As i did not have an army or massively powerful power I could only try and make a small profit off a load or two of the tools. But first I needed to check with the local commander. I could write off the cost of tools as I was no longer paying off the local mafia. But if I annoyed the commander I would pray for death.


    Tech-man got to work as I video called with the dreaded commander.


    The commander was male and rather old and bald. He looked like all the other commanders beaten down by life and bald. Every day he had to strap into a helmet that programed in loyalty to the local tyrants. This one looked a lot worse than the others I had seen.


    I pulled out the list of goods I was about to buy and explained the situation. "I have some space and a few credits to spare so I will be purchasing a few " They are dirt cheap and I want to get some favours off the books from the new staff that are being brought in.


    The commander''s eyes lit up "Of course of course. Now I can not get involved in what you buy but I have concerns about possible expensive equipment being thrown out" Translation My idiot employers are about to get everyone killed and my brainwashing will not allow me to do anything about it.


    I swallowed "Well I have a few credits left over and will see what I can do. What in particular are you worried about?" Translation I do not want to die but I do not have a lot of credits left from the budget. If I spend a credit over budget your programming will have you standing over me with a red poker


    The commander smiled "Well the hydroponics bay might have issues without the maintenance tools and of course the computers." Translation My idiot employers have killed the people feeding us and are about to throw out the manuals for growing food.


    The commander kept talking and I started to panic. "A lot of the machinery up here was old or used superpowers to keep them operating. With recent losses, I am going to have trouble keeping the level of performance the fine citizens are used to." Translation The rich assholes who I have to obey are about to find out their good-looking maids are gone. Being unhappy they can no longer force themselves on the maids. They might order the new technicians tortured to death because the air did not have that nice sent anymore.


    The commander picked up a small figurine "You know you might want to also look at the superhero toy collection that is now on sale. As you''re helping me out I will allow you to trade them." Translation Loot the dead possessions and get a good price or we are all dead.


    My morals went out the window as I desperately began to look into what i could buy and sell for a profit. It turned out the locals had massive collections of vintage super hero comics. Some of the comics were so old they were printed on paper.


    Finding a buyer was easy. There were always collectors for comics and these were vintage. I bought them for half a credit and sold them for 300. With the commander''s permission to trade those 300 credits were all mine.


    22 Credits bought all the farming manuals and tools needed to fix the station. 200 Credits bought the machine to make sure the air did not smell in the richer area. The rich lords could not do without their purified air. I coughed as I realized the air in the stores smelled like old socks and bleach.


    I cursed as I looked at my remaining credits. Then I bought a space shuttle for a credit. It had not been used in years. But Tech-man would be able to get it running for cheap. Just in case I needed it for an emergency exit.


    As I was in a space station all I had to do is have an airlock added.  If anyone decided i needed to be tossed into space then i would use a cheap temporary bubble space suit to survive until my shuttle could collect me. It also helped my fears about what would happen if some idiot released another deadly virus on Earth. I could stay in the shuttle until the price of the vaccine dropped.


    Hopefully, another new virus would not be released any time soon. The corporations that used to release them so you had to take the vaccine were bad enough. But the religious fanatics that had tried to turn them into weapons were worse.


    My tablet dinged and a notice popped up. Apparently, i had to teach a citizen my basic computer skills. I checked the email for traps and started to furious think. Why was a higher-up coming to slum it with me?


    An hour of internet surfing got me the answer. The space stations were going broke. With less and less earth citizens willing to accept they were the slaves of the rich. The rich were having trouble. They now had to actually clean up after causing a mess.


    The rich in the stations were all second or third generation rich and they had partied with granddad money until they were poor again. I was going to have to be careful because while they might be broke they still felt they were entitled to live like kings.

 005 Honey trouble

    Being woken by being sprayed with honey is not a good experience. The honey that washed over me was thick and sticky. I got out of my hiding place to find the stores in a mess. There was a thin layer of honey all over the floor.


    Honey was pouring in from the door. Curseing the builders of this space station because the door was metal but was not an airlock. I pulled out some space tape and began to tape the places where the honey was coming from shut.


    I called the commander who looked like he wanted to eat someone alive and explained.


    "I have had to use some tape to stop honey from entering my room." The commander''s eyes lit up. "Good job apparently one of the children of the families we spaced has a valuable super power. Several children were hidden in the wall and when we went to try and bring them for extraction they reacted with violence. "


    Translation We went to kill a bunch of children and at least one had a superpower and fought back. Now that at least one is valuable we have decided to spare them. I want to kill the idiots who did not screen the children for superpowers but I can not.


    From the strain on the commander''s face, I knew he really wanted to hurt whoever had been bribed or lazy and not given the super with the honey powers a power test. If the honey was edible and being created out of nothing then the newly woken super was worth a small fortune as a slave.


    An unlimed amount of honey you could have the super sell tons and tons of it.  I was betting they could change it into some kind of grey goo. With this one superpower, you could feed millions.


    I was betting the commander had orders to take the super in alive. With the man made famine on the way. If he shot someone who could produce food out of thin air then the entire station would be blasted to pieces. The problem was the child causing this had just seen their parents killed. Somehow I doubt whoever it was would be happy with the excuse it was the corporation''s fault and that the corporation has declared bankruptcy again.


    Try explaining limited liability to a child whose parents you just shot. It was not going to end well for anyone. There was a bang and something exploded. Switching on the internet I saw an emergency warning message. The station was going into lockdown.


    All I could do was pray and stick on a cheap space suit while cursing the fact the expensive one had been taken away. More than likely the previous storeman had a decent suit hidden somewhere but it would take me weeks to comb threw the entire storage space.


    Of course, it was always possible the previous stock manager did not have a space suit. Looking at the hidden compartment he had with children''s clothing I doubted he had the funds for a better suit for himself. Silently I prayed his child was the one with the honey super power.


    As there was nothing else I could do I settled in and began a manual stock take. I finished fairly quickly and sat down and watched a television drama.


    As I did not want to watch the standard soap operas mostly because they were crap. How that badly written crap was still on was beyond me.  In an age when you could get a computer program off the internet that could write a play even the experts would think came from the quill of Shakespeare. Even now we had a bunch of cheap soaps on television.


    They did not even alter it much. Rich man likes a poor girl. Poor girl is pressured by an evil gang. Rich man uses his money to rescue her. The only changes to the script were which gang was bothering the poor girl. It was mindless drivel designed to convince the lower classes the rich could be trusted.


    I found a few computer-generated programs that had not been too badly edited. Friends was still popular after they banned Star Trek and Seinfield people went back to friends. They had not even edited it too much.


    Except for a few bits where Chandler explained how an eco-terrorist planned to kill him when he was a baby the rest was supposed to be like the original. I knew why shows about the Wild West were banned. The images of trees and of mile after mile of just prairies full of grass just got to some people.


    Then again if you lived in an area like Russia or America with miles of chemical swampland. Then you might be annoyed that you needed to put on a breathing mask and filter all the water as well. Of course, a lot of the American ancestors had the money to get gene therapy. The Russians that survived cancer and toxic air had begun to develop a natural immunity to the toxic waste. Checking the other TV shows I found an interesting one they did not edit called Dynasty.


    About an hour into Dynasty, an ad popped up. Either I watched the thirty-second ad or I had to pay for the next Dynasty show. The ad flew by and before I could change the channel it was over. I looked at the next Dynasty episode in surprise and went to look up what had happened.


    It looked like the local television companies had gone out of business but their computers had kept going. Finally, someone had broken the security system the television executives had left on and jury rigged an advert service.


    People were too lazy to block one thirty-second ad every hour. Well, most people were. I did not want any mind control messages telling me to buy cola brand x. Knowing people who bathed in cola was enough reason to not take a chance.


    It was also a perfect opportunity to make some credits. No one owned the stored programs. But if the ads were up to date that meant that someone was making money somewhere.


    Creating a self-evolving program to hack into the ad program took me five minutes. I was guessing it would take the program years or perhaps months to hack into the ad program but that was ok. Worst case scenario I lost five minutes. Best case I received a couple of credits a day until someone did the same thing.


    The entire space station seemed to lurch and I checked my space suit again wondering what had happened. Something had affected the gravity system. Checking my space suit again I went back to watching dynesty. The options were interesting as I could change the setting and have a program designed just for me. I could see why having a program change a movie depending on the viewer''s attention would be addictive.


    Having the story change halfway into the storyline and having your favorite princess suddenly seduce a slave girl would certainly spice things up. Still, I needed to make sure I was alive tomorrow and could not pay attention to a movie where the main character gets caught and seduces the other female slaves.


    Four hours later I was glued to the screen as now evil empress seduced the latest of her victims. Finally, the alarm stopped and I accessed the local news.


    All I found was an ad asking for donations for some Chinese city in Africa. Apparently, a group of the original tribes had mutated into cannibals. I doubted they were telling the truth more than likely the locals had decided to push the new immigrants out.


    I yawned until the image of the commander appeared on one of my monitors. The Commander''s eyes were like nothing I had ever seen before. They were the eyes of a man who had just seen hell.


    Trying to stay still I waited with a sense of dread. The Commander looked at me and grinned "Well well good news you are getting a new assistant my daughter. It turns out that due to cutbacks and wage reductions, I can no longer pay for her air bill."


    I looked into the eyes of a man on the edge. His daughter would have been born in space which would have given her a decent shot at developing a useful power. With him volunteering to accept brainwashing he would have been able to afford to get his daughter the best in genetic engineering.


    His daughter would be insanely attractive due to the changes made by the genetics doctor. And would have spent time with the other rich folks. But now things had changed cutbacks were needed. An old security chief daughter would be in big trouble. The rich folk she used to call friends would be in a position of power over her. Worse she might have enemies or stalkers.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    The news stories of girls being mind controlled by their rich friends were everywhere. Rich teenage boys were animals. Then there were the stories of what other girls had done to ex-rivals. Those who had fallen into their grasp might have wished that they were caught by their pervert stalkers. Force-feeding their love rivals food until they looked like a hippo or giving them hair solution to grow hair all over their bodies before selling them on. The girls did far worse than the boys.


    The Commander laughed "My daughter will be around in half an hour. Her name is Molly if you touch her or order her to be given a lobotomy you will regret it. " I looked into the eyes of a desperate man. Once his daughter started to work for me I could order her to be given the loyalty treatment or mind controlled. Worse I could sell her to her old friends.


    It was all legal in the space station. The commander was betting i would not risk him going insane with grief and killing himself. I nodded knowing that if anything happened to the commander the first thing I would do would be to have Molly killed. After all, if she was brought up on this station with the rich folks she was already warped.


    I looked around and tried to find some way of hiding things. Given this was space more than likely the power choices Molly had would have been far better than mine. At a minimum, she would be stronger and have better reflexes than me. More than likely she could kill me with one punch and that was not counting whatever her superpower was.


    I had to hope that her genetically engineered body left me with some weakness I could exploit. Maybe she was more sensitive to high-frequency noise or sensitive to certain wavelengths of light.


    I got to work trying to find any information i could on her. Pulling her school records was easy. She had not been off the space station since being born which was normal what was not normal was her list of hobbies.


    She liked to 3d print weapons and there was even a notation she had tried to print a nuclear weapon. I winced as the image of a male with his balls shot off was shown. It was believed she had printed the robot that had ambushed the boy and shot his balls off before killing him.


    There were a couple of worrying drug demerits. I did not mind the cannabis charges but the pain relief drugs charge was disturbing. No one dared produce painkillers anymore. If you tried to sell a child heroin you might get a beating. Try and sell children painkillers and you would be beaten to death. The old stories of what had happened when the advanced painkillers patents had run out were the stuff of nightmares. The fact you could go online and produce a dissolvable drug gave a new meaning to spiking someone''s drink.


    I looked over Molly record again and found another problem. She had actual experience using the 3d printer. It looked like she had constructed an actual working nuclear weapon as a joke. It was a fairly small device by modern standards. The device was merely capable of killing every living thing in a 20 kilometer radius.


    Looking at the records I found something that let me relax. Molly had not designed the nuke but just taken the design off the internet and plugged it into a 3d printer. It looked like she did not have a technology-based superpower. Which was good for me.


    What was not good is that she was part of a Trump cult. There were images of her tossing a number of screaming children into an airlock. I looked at her digital footprint and sweat began to flow down my back.


    She had a whole website dedicated to Trump and the Nazi party and how they had both gotten raw deals. Then there was a part about the freedom to own guns and another part about why corporations should not be held responsible for cleaning up the pollution they caused.


    I cursed as I finished reading Molly''s profile. She was not rich enough for these beliefs. If you were Trump rich you could say things like your children choked to death because of my chemicals and it''s your fault for not buying them my patented gas masks.


    After all, if you had billions you could buy the news reporters and more importantly you could hire mind controlled bodyguards. But Molly was not rich she was now at risk from her ex-friends deciding they wanted to buy her employment contract. I looked up the local net and found a posting of a giant blob saying he would hunt Molly down and have her eaten by his hounds.


    I checked the details the blob was not a male it was a female. How could a rich female in this day and age be fat? A couple of credits and super with the fat eater power could strip half a ton of fat from anyone. I really really wanted to check out the fat woman. Why was she so fat? Why did her online picture look like a pig but decided not to. I was not a good enough programmer to get away with that sort of thing.


    A fact that was proven a few seconds later as an advert appeared. Honey glazed human. It was an advert for Molly. For five thousand credits i could help hunt her down and be part of the barbecue team. I swallowed as i realized that I was employed by a bunch of evil monsters.


    Even worse i had no backing. If any of them wanted me dead I would be put on the grill with Molly. It was then i decided I was going to stay in my nice safe stores. I had bedding i had the means to produce food or I would have once I got my farming programme sorted. i knew there was a name for growing crops in water I just did not know it.


    Deciding I needed to check on Molly I wrote a program to access the internal cameras. With the commander worried about his daughter I was betting the programs would easily bypass security. Once they were in the system they could not be taken out.


    My fingers seemed to have a life of their own as they flew across the keyboard. A self-learning programme started up and I watched Molly''s recent actions.


    A unit of newly hired thugs chased her down a corridor. From the camera footage, it was obvious that they were herding her toward a smaller group of space station citizens.


    While there were around 10 to 15 hired thugs and only 3 space station citizens i knew who was the most dangerous. The thugs had bats and whips and the space station citizens had what looked like cattle prods and some kind of net launchers.


    Molly turned around and kicked the nearest thug in the balls. The thug flew into the air his face a picture of horror. The thugs stopped running as their companion hit the deck and just laid there.


    I can think of worse ways to die. And I suspect the thug was dead in microseconds however the blood stains on his pants would I knew haunt my dreams for months to come. Molly snorted and lept at her would-be attackers. Her foot shot out again and again and again and again the thugs chasing her were lifted off the ground and hit the deck dead.


    I checked where Molly was and realized she might be in trouble. The honey flowing out of the walls made it harder for her to make good time while the thugs were being sent to block her escape routes. Or at least that would normally be the way. The thugs were being sent to block the corridor to the shuttle docking port. Molly was heading to my location.


    I swallowed partly in fear of the thugs and their masters and partly because of the smile on Molly''s face. The men and boys who were being slaughtered in the worst way I could imagine faces bothered me. Still it was not the worst i had seen.


    The old folk''s home which was built to extract every last cent from the old and infirm still made me determined to save up for my old age. It was not now as bad as it had been during the age of hunger. But still, these days you paid for your own retirement home.


    Molly finished off yet another thug and I watched the remainder run for it all but one unfortunate who slipped on the honey and was caught by Molly. Molly broke his feet and hands and then turned him over onto his stomach and pulled out something that looked a lot like a sex toy.


    I switched off the image and cursed. Molly was being chased by a bunch of thugs and took the time to torture one of her enemies. This did not bode well for me. Still the fact she could slaughter a large number of thugs and was scary enough that the station nobles did not dare approach her meant she might be an asset.


    I checked to her records again and found the main problem with her upbringing. Her father was being brainwashed every day to believe that pure capitalism was God''s path for humanity. I checked and it looked like he had been an atheist before the brainwashing. What sort of moron brainwashes a trained killing machine into believing in god when they routinely tosed people out of airlocks. I would have to try and find out and soon. Or as soon as i could write a program to cover my tracks.


    I turned on the internet and began to write a program to stop spyware and mind control software from being loaded into any of my terminals. Then i sat down and watched an unedited version of spaceship construction. They had to actually broadcast the show because the major corporations did not like people knowing how easy it was to build one with super powers and were scrubbing the internet again.


    The super who was putting the one shown could warp clay. Using his power and a few molds he created a mile long spaceship in six months. I watched him create a room with a set pattern again and again. The documentary showed him working for a week.


    He created almost 20 rooms in a day and then walked with them in zero g with a rope to the ship. Watching a guy move a room the size of a swimming pool with nothing more than a rope was calming. Or it was until the door opened and Molly showed up with a couple of what could roughly be called humans tied behind her back. I spoke up "They stay outside your father''s programming will not allow him to block any legal requests."


    Molly glared at me before exiting the stores and breaking the hands and feet of the men she had been carrying behind her. I winced as she shut the door knowing that outside it were two possibly alive thugs who were just laying about in agony. Molly snorted "Poor people deserve nothing. Not our pity, not our time."


    I decided that pointing out she was not poor would not be healthy for me so i kept quite and checked what other illegal signals were being broadcast. "So do you want to watch the glass project? Its that super that can turn things into glass as strong as diamond and his construction of a giant glass space ship"


    Molly glared at me "They should be whipped to death for" Molly stopped talking as the picture on the wall changed to that of a large ship with hundreds of people walking on what looked like diamond floors. Everywhere the clear glass-looking stairs and doors glowed with light. From the ceiling, chandeliers sparkled. Molly looked at me "Ok that is beautiful"

 006 Girl trouble is worse than honey trouble



 007 Looting the dead

    The note i received was quite detailed. It explained that the Americans had been brutally efficient in looting their older population when the hurricanes started to occur every year. Other populations had been less efficient. The Asians revered their older population and so the stuff films they used older people to star were not filmed in China. In fact, most of the Asian older population had been sent gently to sleep and cremated.


    Which left Russia, Europe, and South America. Russia had long ago looted the dead of everything they had. South American power was on the rise so that left Europe. Several mass graves were still intact.


    The rich had bought youth super serum leaving the middle class and poor old to be thrown out in the street. In the end, the families of the old had them declared dead and had them carted off. The middle class had at least paid for lethal injections in most cases. This meant the mass graves would only have been for the poor and unlucky.  While all of the obvious wealth would have been taken there were still antiques to be looted.


    Gold was worthless as many superpowers could create it directly. Turning lead into gold was also a power. Not that the bodies would have any gold left on them. More than likely the wedding rings would have been stripped off the dead. There were stories of garden sheers being used on still-living old people if they were slow to remove their wedding bands. The guards wanted to collect the gold before the grave diggers got to them. Which in this case was a shame the antique rings might be worth something.


    But items that were worthless then would be commonplace. Plastic watches glasses hearing aids. Even after a hundred years, there would be traces. Traces that several types of super power could be used to re-create the old item.


    Along with the massive list of reasons the graves had not been disturbed was a list of prices. It looked like old watches sold for massive amounts. The new watches were too easy to bug. Even my wrist holo-projector was a security risk.


    But the old model watches when recreated were almost impossible to use as a spying device.  Apparently, superpowers did not work well on old equipment that had been fixed by super powers. The issue was the old watches were the cheap knockoff type. They were all different makes and superpowers tended to not work on them all. Of course, given enough effort there was no way to stop someone spying on you. But the older watches were a way of making it more expensive.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    I sighed the commander was not sending me this information out of the goodness of his heart. He wanted something and I was betting it had to do with the most recent famine.


    With the price of grey goo increasing tenfold other food prices also increased. Europe needed credits desperately. Desperately enough for the poorer countries would open up their old cemeteries. The commander was offering me a small percentage of the take if I would create a few programs for him.


    It was an easy choice to make, but there was a risk that the commander was trying something that would get me killed. But in the end, it did not matter he could have me killed with the touch of a button.


    I began to set programs to block anyone else trying to directly contact me. Although I had received some decent information from the last call. The major issue I faced was once I had any kind of money the vultures would start up.


    The requests to save the sick animals and the requests to sponsor a child so they were not sold to cannibals. The Middle east countries were particularly brutal in their approach. They sent images of actual children that would be horribly killed if you did not give a donation.


    My mind buzzed as I created 2 programs to block spamware. They were pieces of art. Self-adapting with the capacity to learn from their mistakes. One would block the connection of any spam the other would monitor any communications for any kind of mind control transmission.


    I finished up and spent five minutes putting a basic computer system together for the commander. When I sent it off my monitor lit up.


    A cheerful man dressed in a bright white suit appeared on my screen "Howdy folks and god bless the new state of New Liberty. I have here an old granny I am about to torture to death unless you pay me 5 credits" I looked at the image on my screen and began to furiously code.


    Spam I had spam I began to get to work as the slimy salesman offered to sell me the granny for half the price of freeing her from the torture device. I got to work and quickly 2 programs were let loose.


    One was designed to stop any programs other than my own from affecting my system. The other was simpler it merely cut the power to the communication systems until switched off.


    The lights began to flicker but nothing happened to the slimy salesman. I blinked and began to examine everything. It looked like my programs were being overpowered by the malware quite easily. However, looking at the situation my software was evolving to adapt to the threat.


    The salesman''s voice called out "Now sir I know what you are thinking she is just a deep fake image." I grinned "No she is a real person. I am betting you have to do what you say you will. Your problem is that I worked for people like her and you. You have not started to torture her yet which means she is someone to you."


    The salesman paled "Now sir how you do a simple survey and I let this nice old granny live." I pulled out a memory patch and put it on my neck before beginning to examine the malware. The Salesman paled more realizing I had put on a device designed to shred my short-term memory.


    Tomorrow i would wake up with a hangover. He would have to follow up his threats and live with what he was about to do.

 Epilogue

    The commander looked at the latest order he had just given. He had ordered his daughter brought in and given a mind control treatment. The treatment would make her fall hopelessly in love with the new quartermaster.  With her new conditioning, she would want babies and a family.


    The commander looked at the new orders he had received again.


    1 Kill all the non-paying members of the space station. Anyone who does not contribute to the financial welfare of the station was to be killed


    2 No reasons legal or moral were to be allowed to stop the commander from balancing the budget.


    3 The space station had to make a profit in as short a time frame as possible. To that end, the commander was authorized to strip any of the rights of non shareholders on the space station. The sale of the organs or in the case of valuable


    The commander looked up at the council that had signed the document. For the first time in years a smile appeared on his face. A warped smile because it had been so long since the commander had felt joy. His insane daughter Molly the orders to kill his own staff and the inability to root out corruption had taken a toil but no longer.


    The commander looked at the council who were even now looking down on him. One member was actually sniffing and spraying out air spray. Thomas deliberately sprayed the spray onto the commander''s face. The air spray burned the commander''s eyes but his smile widened.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    The commander chuckled "Interesting fact technically the space station is owned by a corporation which by legal loopholes actually owes itself. Now I do not understand all of the legal jargon. But bottom line you declared bankruptcy and a one dollar offer was made to your creditors who took the deal. This means by signing this document all the legal protection you had for your property is gone"


    Silence greeted the commander''s statement. The commander''s grin widened "In fact technically the entire station now belongs to a computer program designed to optimize the purchase of goods for the stores. So I have my security robots outside and they are going to bring you to a nice torture room where you can list bank accounts works of art that will save you from the poker up the ass for another hour.


    And do not worry as per your instructions no moral reasons will stop me from torturing you until you give me all your assets. When we are done as per your instructions you will be either sold to a  "


    Not wanting to deal with the wines of the council the commander pressed a button and knocked them all out. He would visit them in their cells and explain why insulting him was not a good idea. He would take his time with those who had harmed his wife and turned his child into such a psychopath he was having her brain scrambled.


    It was time to look to the future and the future was looking bright. Without the owners stopping him he could create a brothel or maybe a casino. He would create his own little kingdom and rule it. Of course, the quartermaster would have to be kept happy. But that would not be an issue. He did not even know that one of the programs he wrote was now running the show. By the time he figured it out the commander would have had the program give him full control over the station.


    Without daily mind control conditioning the commander could finally begin to build a better future. Anything he did would have to be better than what had gone before.

 not a chapter

    On a side note i am thinking about writing another super hero story. Any ideas would be nice


    Something set 2040 2050 A super powered person decides to enter a wasteland created by global warming


    Set up a restaurant in Spain a farming area that was abandoned and is now being re settled.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Heading to re settle Texas after it is all turned into a desert


    Heading to become a pirate on the Indian ocean ( stealing food possible )


    Being a mercenary after war between those who built houses built in danger zone which were destroyed and they got no insurance ( I am thinking either house built in flood planes Ireland or Florida houses built on sand)   basically after houses destroyed every year for more than 10 years no more pay outs paid.