Some time passed, and Apophis's group searched nine floors without finding anything more useful than basic weapons and armor. The players were beginning to look at one another desperately, wondering if they were just wasting their time.
With fifty players, the time to search a whole floor of the facility only took about ten minutes… but it was an eternity for those fending off the mechas up above.
Suddenly, Apophis received a message from Lotus. "Apophis, what are you doing down there?! We've been holding off the assault mechas for almost an hour! We've lost the players' motivation!"
Apophis answered, "We're doing the best we can. Many floors are blocked off from my rank, and they can't simply be broken through like most of the walls here. The others are filled with obsolete weapons… or, at least, ones that would be useless against the mechas' armor. You've got to keep resisting!"
Lotus said, "I warn you, Alexander… We will last at most thirty minutes. After that, I'm afraid we will run out of players. The line will collapse and the mechas will come looking for you."
Apophis replied, "I'll continue to do my best! I love you."
Lotus answered, "I love you too..."
Unfortunately, there wasn't much more Apophis could do. His navigation was completely blind. He'd already tried to go directly to the deepest floors, but the elevator's computer asked for an access code higher than his own rank.
Apophis thought about it, considering his options. He knew that Floors 151 to 200 were blocked for him and he'd already visited the 146th, 148th and 150th floors. There had only been conventional weapons or old explosive stockpiles on those floors. Completely useless.
However, in his old life, the military stockpile was a real multi-layered nest of a complex. Just like a queen bee resting in the deepest, safest part of a beehive, the best weapons had been located deep in the facility's depths.
However, the opposite seemed to be the case in this timeline! Somehow, the deeper they went into the bowels of Terra, the more the material stored seemed old and worn.
Something else was strange to Apophis.
The weapons they were finding dated back to the earliest days of the Federation. Why would they bother to keep these around when the Federation had ample means to maintain modern weapons, including thousands of tactical nuclear missiles?
Apophis was pressed for time and needed explosives capable of piercing the shields and powerful armor of the mechas. Certainly, he would have preferred to find a couple of nuclear warheads lying around, but he didn't have high hopes for this. The old Federation had been rather reluctant to leave such a weapon on a planet populated by a trillion people, even if it was in one of their most secure warehouses.
But rather than finding useful technology on most of these floors, Apophis Instead he felt like he was visiting a museum of antiquity. Had he unluckily chosen the only abandoned warehouse in the Federation?
Of course, Apophis didn't think this was likely. He was almost certain that this particular warehouse had held powerful weapons in his first life. Moreover, the Vk.5 and Vk.6 Assault Mechas outside certainly make it seem like the facility had something to hide!
Therefore, the lack of modern weapons made no sense.
Apophis rubbed his forehead, continuing to think about his options as the other Eclipse players grew impatient.
Antanria turned to Apophis and said, "What is bothering you, Father?"
Apophis crossed his arms and looked at Antanria. Her new, corrupted appearance still disturbed him somewhat. She was no longer the little girl Zetark that he'd freed, but a full-grown woman with powerful abilities and a terrifying aura.
Apophis answered, "We can't find the explosives to kill the mechas you saw outside. That's what's bothering me. And we have to hurry, because our friends are in danger."
Antanria smiled and grabbed his arm. A cunning look was on her face. "Why, Father, you should have simply asked! I can tell you where the secret weapons are stored in this warehouse… but in exchange, I want a gift."
A notification popped up.
╔══════════════╕
╟─╼ Exchange Offer
╟─╼[Buyer]: Apophis (Player )
╟─╼[Seller]: Antanria ( Fallen Zetark )
╟─╼[Buyer Gets]: Information he is searching for.
╟─╼[Seller Gets]: 1,000 Energy
╚══════════════╛
System: Do you accept?
Apophis frowned as he looked at this trade window. The system would ensure the good faith of both parties, but it wouldn't necessarily reveal the quality of the exchange. It seemed quite strange to him that Antanria had proposed a trade in this manner.
He looked straight into Antanria's eyes. Her two deep pools of red absolutely didn't inspire his trust.
Giving Energy to an Ascensionist NPC was something quite common in Horus, at least during the first year of the game's release. Even if they were Ascensionists, NPCs had a hard time cultivating their own Energy. After all, they had to be much more risk-averse than players, and they also couldn't participate in Dungeons.
Therefore, many Ascensionist NPCs eventually learned that they could simply receive Energy from Eternals, and so they began demanding Energy in payment for difficult tasks or important information.
However, it was quite surprising that Antanria knew about this!
Moreover, granting Energy in this way wasn't as simple as spending it to use Skills. Though 1,000 Energy wasn't much compared to the 30,000 which he currently had, NPCs actually drained a percentage of what players would later come to call "Vital Energy," which was technically different—though intrinsically linked—to "Cosmic Energy."
Therefore, if Apophis accepted this deal, he would permanently lose 3.33% of his Vital Energy.
This was a bit like selling a percentage of your company to a foreigner. In a similar manner, it made the NPC grow stronger more quickly, but it handicapped the player. Some players ended up irretrievably weak after making too many contracts of this kind.
The only way to reverse this considerable penalty was to kill the "Seller" and retrieve the lost Vital Energy. Apophis knew all of this quite well. In his former life, he'd been a victim of it!
He didn't respond directly to Antanria, but instead said, "Roland, would you please come here?"
Roland and White, surprised, came closer to Apophis. "Guild leader?" Roland asked.
Apophis clicked on "Refuse" and said, "I need you to accept what Antanria is going to propose."
Apophis wasn't about to accept such a scam, but perhaps White's second-in-command could win him the information he needed…
Antanria, surprised and a little disappointed, raised the same request to Roland.
Roland was confused by the offer which popped up in front of him. He saw that he needed to give 300 Energy out of 9,500 total units, which was a similar percentage to Antanria's request to Apophis.
Apophis nodded to Roland. "There will be some trouble from this, but the guild will compensate you well for it."
Roland grew even more bewildered. "Trouble? Compensation? What do you mean?"
Apophis answered, "100,000 GC."
Roland immediately said, "Deal!"
100,000 GC was a lot of money at the current exchange rates. It would let him buy an apartment in a good area of Paris!
Roland accepted the 100,000 GC that Apophis collected from the guild bank, then he accepted the exchange from Antanria.
A beam of energy shot out of Roland's forehead, then was absorbed by Antanria!
The exchange lasted only a few seconds, then Antanria said, "What you are looking for is on Floor 150."
White, who was next to Apophis and Antanria, said, "We searched it, Princess. There were only obsolete weapons that looked like they were hundreds of years old!"
Apophis said nothing but instead sent the elevator back to Floor 150. As it traveled back to that floor, he drew Regnier's two-handed sword and pointed it at Antanria. "You're playing with fire. Careful that you don't get burned. If this information proved to be useless, your adventure ends here."
Antanria gave a slight smile and poked the edge of the sword with one finger. "Don't worry, Father. You taught me to be ambitious and ruthless… but you also taught me to keep my promises."
Apophis couldn't really contradict her. Not after cold-heartedly sacrificing one of his subordinates so as not to have a permanent handicap!
The elevator stopped.
Apophis sheathed his sword and, without looking at Antanria, stepped forward. He said to the fifty or so people in his group, "Search every inch of this floor forward! We only have about twenty minutes left!"
Like a wave of locusts, the fifty members of Eclipse scattered in all directions. They began searching for any areas that might have escaped them. Only Apophis and Antanria remained behind on the elevator platform...
"Where?" he asked coldly.
Antanria pointed to the console and uttered a peculiar phrase. "Respawn on floor 150."
To Apophis's surprise, something strange happened. A prompt appeared on the console, asking for a military access code.
Apophis entered the same code he'd used on the surface to unlock the elevator, but nothing happened.
Then Antanria approached the console and entered a totally unknown code.
The elevator began to shake… and a portion of the deck they were standing on unfolded and turned into a staircase that led into the ground!
Antanria and Apophis went down the stairs, which were lit with a peculiar red light. Apophis kept his sword ready the entire time. They soon arrived in front of a huge armored door with a console embedded in the wall to the right of the door.
Antanria entered the same unknown code again, then an astonishing message appeared.
"Welcome, Grand Admiral Azerof."
Then the huge armored door opened.
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