JoC 0-6

  I overestimated my ability to fly, which resulted in a series of weird accidents, like getting the attention of the matte demons, by crashing into their 'smelling' distance, losing my precious tail after one of them swiped their claws at it, and me trying to fly away, and succeeding due to the fear of being torn apart by those fuckers. Also I managed to follow them as they were carrying my severed tail to their lair, and I must say, it's... one big ass crater. I surveyed the area, but I don't think that there are any underground tunnels, it looks like there are getting in by climbing down the steep walls, and then climb up when they go on a hunt. Though from all the demons there, or aliens, only a few types don't participate in the hunts. They are one big ass alien, that looks more like an ant queen than alien broodmother, some way bigger warriors, I think, that constantly stay near the big one, whom I might actually dub queen and her guards.

  As to what they do. They carry here a lot of meat and corpses of demons, sometimes even living demons, but most of the time the queen with her guards eat the meat, also it seems that I have to kill them as fast as I can, considering that the queen ate my tail at neckbreaking speed. Now I think would be the best time to actually use my nuke to get rid of the enemies here, they are in crater, there are a lot of them, it's impossible to use minigun on the crater walls, as the demons can easily climb these walls, not to mention that there are way more than a few thousands, from the looks of it, it's close to a few tens of thousands, doubt that there are hundred, but maybe their numbers are close to sixty? I'll learn how to land later, once I get rid of the dragon-eating demons. My poor tail. It takes a while to regenerate it. I might be able to repurpose the spare core as a nuke to wipe them all out, but it's best to switch cores, I guess? Mine is already halfway to depletion.

  You know the funniest thing about power cores? Besides that some of them are plutonium based? They are banned across the world, sort of, and are really, and I mean really expensive. Well, not to the point of truly expensive items, like the actual power armor, but more about a few hundred grands. Them being a black market goods don't make it easier, even if their actual cost is only about fifty or so thousands. As to reason why they are banned, it's actually simple. Not enviro-friendly, really problematic recharge process, which deemed them nonchargeable, they're unstable, sort of, and can result in a big ass explosion, and, of course, can be repurposed as the 'dirty' nuclear bomb. Mine isn't that hard to modify into the bomb, reason being my tendency to take as many as I can if I lose. One time I was cornered, so I 'bluffed' my way out. Of course they were alliance guys, as chinese tend to be suicidal in these matters. It was more of an accident, I was ready to detonate my power core, as a last ditch attempt to take everyone with me, but one of their tech guys noticed that my core was of those black market cores. Of course the guys freaked out, but then even more so when the command came in, which was central's job. I kinda owed him for that one, so I was introduced to the world of anime as a payback. Not like I wasn't interested in it, but being forced to cosplay as certain characters did some changes to my love of theatrical.

  I laugh as I switch cores in my armor and start repurposing the used core. It doesn't take long to finish the bomb and in less than ten minutes I take off into the skies. I'm not proficient enough to make a clean bomb, but if I'll be quick, I might actually survive the radiation. I hover at the relative center of the crater, just over the queen and her guards, and drop the bomb, while I stay in mid air, watching. Now I think it's a bad idea, considering that it might-

  Ugh... my head. Hp is on 3K out of 9, and I feel nauseous.

  Already? Fuck, that hurts. Change into human form, wear armor, and go into the irradiated area, to steal stuff... or not... I doubt I can survive in the epicenter. Shop for hazmat suit... found a few. Now let's see. One has high resistance, but heavy, other is lighter, but doesn't offer as much protection, and others are more of light variety. Cost... fifty thousand? Heavy costs fifty? Well, I do have quite a lot stashed, but... whatever, I'll get more loot. Now to equip it. Oh, wait, need rad away and a few rad-x pills. I guess I'll drink some alcohol for now and swallow rad-x pills. Not that they are that effective, but even if they provide 1% to the radiation resistance, I will take it... wait, resistance. Level up... resistance and spirit, and... I have how much left? Well, there were quite a lot of them, but why do I have less UP than before?

  So... I got 0.1% out of them? How high are their stats then, if I get 0.1% from their deaths and I still am at about five thousand points? Are they secretly some sort of demon elite? And still no experience? That's crazy. I doubt it would be worth it if I didn't get anything from those demons.

  With a sigh, I equip my new hazmat armor, and move into the crater. First I place the rope and my hammer, considering that I might never even use it, at the top of the crater, and start my descend. The task itself is trivial, but due to the bulkiness of this armor, the task itself becomes a pain in the rear.

  Once I get down, I start converting everything there is. Red mass, corpses, occasional stone or gem, ores, maybe, some power armor... some power armor? Seriously? Oh right, it's the alliance guys we're talking about, of course they would go and explore the unknown, only to be slaughtered later in the name of exploration, science and money. I think I might have killed a few of demon 'prisoners' as well, which might or might not include humans. Oh well, sorry guys, you were good as dead anyway.

  After I finished converting everything in the crater, which might have taken me a few hours of going from one corpse to the next, I finally amassed... a fortune.

  Of course I spent all the points on the attributes and affinities, of course I then used them up on affinities, because I might have actually needed them to use magic. Of course I didn't bought anything else as I didn't have enough credits. Now though... now... I will get myself something to remove radiation from my body. But first.

  “System, purchase all items from wishlist.”... right. Need to do it manually. Sigh.

  I... wanted to become a phoenix too, you know? They're immortal, and I really doubt I can survive the hell, and... screw it, phoenixes are cool. I mean, dragons breathe fire, and it's cool, but phoenixes are fire, so you can figure it out yourself. As for everything else, I need regeneration, and I need a lot of it, also, considering that I am constantly lost in this demon realm, having a way to navigate in here is a must, even if this ability has the scent of nanotech with all it's dlc and expansion packs, evil eyes are the first ability that will use my mana to do something, beholder... while it isn't that great in the demon realm, I might be able to find some sentient creature, and get the information out of it, physique is of simple reason, I don't want to get fat, and omnikinesis is... well, it cost me five millions to unlock everything the esper branch had to offer, and as for minions, I intend to be a summoner, they don't need much in terms of mana, and considering that my magic sucks, I'd better try to use rituals to summon my minions. Anyway, that's how I wasted my seven million credits, and tokens.

  I like that now I have quite a bit of traits and abilities, as well as now I can use magic, but I still need to get my irradiation debuff fixed. Oh boy... I hope the remaining credits will work. Also I still didn't leave the crater, so I might get some more credits for my rope, hammer and hazmat suit, but I should probably travel a few kilometers away from it, just to be safe from the radiation, I don't want to die from radiation posioning... wait, I have poison immunity, so shouldn't I get the radiation out already, or it doesn't work like that? Nah, I guess that would be too easy. Anyway, here we go, as far away as possible, I think the radius should be about fifty or so kilometers, then the radiation levels should be more or less normal, I hope. I really hope it's not bigger, considering that I'm starting to lose health.