chapter 91
We didn’t hurry as we started to walk. Going at a reasonable pace was for the best, we also didn't move in a formation where I was at the centre. That would have brought too much attention. We didn’t want to stand out too much. Instead, we walked more like a regular group of friends.
While the other droids weren’t on the same level as Dean, they were a lot more complex than when they were first created. They still remained quite simple-minded, but that's for regular interactions. Otherwise, they are borderline geniuses in anything to do with combat.
They have been trained the same way as the ship AI’s to make them extremely good at a couple of things. I’m hoping that that’s the way I survive this galaxy, by having with me individuals so capable that the odds would always be in my favour.
We still got some heads turned towards us as we headed outside this complex. There was space here for 22 ships to land, and it seems most of the hangars were full. At the centre where we currently were, cargo was constantly moving. The interesting thing is that there were even regular shops here, even a food court sort of an area.
While it all seemed new to me, it also didn’t, as I was slowly starting to get used to how everything looked like. The one exception was that there didn’t seem to be that one species that was the majority amongst the minorities. This place was a true mix, and I was betting it was like this everywhere.
Most everyone was still humanoid, but there were plenty of species that seemed more animalistic that had been uplifted. In just a short amount of time, I’ve seen 12 different species of four-legged beings with no natural way of fine manipulation. The way they seemed to fix this problem was with cybernetics of different types. I wonder how they are treated by the rest of the people.
“I’ve noticed at least seven different groups trying to get our measure,” Dean communicated through our bond.
“I expect nothing less. That’s why we’re all here like this,” I answered while patting my rifle.
It had been a while since Dean and I had the opportunity to just talk. We still kept our eyes open, and all of us were ready for anything, but just talking about random things helped the time go by as we made our way towards our destination.
While the city was quite large, it didn't seem to have many buildings that were truly high. At the start of our journey, almost every building was a large warehouse at least five to seven floors high. Some were even larger, but they were further away.
In the city itself, buildings seemed to be around the five-story height, with only a few exceptions going as high as 8 or 9. There seemed to be quite a lot of residential area, but I guess moving about all this cargo needed quite a lot of workers.
The street seemed to be paved with something close enough to concrete. Traffic here seemed eerily similar to Earth, although the vehicles themselves looked quite different and varied. The most common vehicle was a mid-sized cargo transporter.
“I think some of them might actually be armoured,” Dean added as we discussed what type of vehicle we might want to make for ourselves. The easier thing to do would just be to buy one, but that just sounded like more of a headache, as who knows in what condition it could be in. Some of these vehicles looked quite rundown.
The closer we got to our destination, the nicer everything got. The streets seemed to have better materials used to make them. There were proper streetlights, and every so often you could see trash cans that anyone could use.
The foot traffic also picked up, and once again it was clear there was no majority of any type amongst the species here.
“FH, I think we need a more comprehensive language key pack if we want to properly do anything here.” Once again I only communicated through our bond. It now has a greater range after my rank-up, and if there is a skill out there that will help me communicate from even longer distances, I believe it should be something I ought to buy.
“Understood. I will see what I can do,” was her answer. Her voice seemed so much quieter, probably because of the distance. It seemed that they would have a harder time contacting me than I had in contacting them.
To my surprise, all of a sudden the buildings got quite colourful; there were even murals everywhere.
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“Seems like someone likes art,” I commented to Dean, who agreed as he and his squad members were constantly looking around, admiring the artistry on display.
This really was quite a beautiful city, and I could see why they called it paradise. There were also plenty of hints of a more dangerous side. Dean and I both agreed that there were definitely gang markings indicating different kinds of territories. They could be seen mostly in alleys, with some clearly having been erased or defiled.
We finally reached our destination with nothing bad having happened. The building in front of us reeked of old money. It wasn't the opulent wealth kind that displayed everything as clearly as possible, it was the more subtle kind. Everything was more functional but clearly had been made out of materials that were definitely not necessary and way too expensive.
From the different kinds of ways to display wealth, all of which I didn’t really like, this was the one I disliked the least. As we walked in, there was the regular set-up any office had.
The guard immediately focused on us, but they didn’t move just yet.
“You will stay here; hopefully it won't take too long.”
Dean and his squad went a little bit away from the entrance to stand aside from any traffic. I headed further in, which seemed to relax the guards. There was a short line that moved quite fast, and before I knew it, I was in front of the reception.
“Name?”
“Remi Graves, captain of the Forward Horizon.”
“Oh yes, I see you have an appointment in 5 minutes. Just follow these directions,” he said while handing me a small card.
As I moved it around, the directions on it changed. That was quite a convenient solution. It didn’t take long to realise why this was needed, as I had already gone up two stairs, walked through multiple hallways, gone down one set of stairs, and now I was in a lift that should take me to the correct hallway.
Was their confusing layout a security measure? Most likely. Or the people in charge just liked complexity for the sake of complexity. Who knows what kind of species is in charge here and what types of things they like.
As I stepped into the hallway, there was an immediate change from the rest of the building. There was wood here, unlike the rest of the building. The card took me to a door labelled A558. The door clicked open as soon as I stepped in front of it.
“Come in.” I heard it from inside. Well, isn't this a bit creepy?
As I walked inside, I found an office that was sparsely decorated. There only seemed to be stuff here that was useful for the work being done.
The person sitting behind the table looked like a scaly human, although the facial features were nothing like us. It made me wonder what type of environment they came out of to have such unique features. They had four eyes and no visible mouth.
“Come, please take a seat,” they said, but the voice came out of a mechanical voice box near the neck, not from any mouth. I didn’t let my curiosity show on my face, and I didn’t delay at all when taking a seat.
“Quite the curious ship design you have. Where did you buy it, if you don't mind me asking?”
“I don’t mind. It’s my own design.” That seemed to surprise him, although I wasn’t really sure if his species had any genders. But the voice did seem masculine. It was also hard to tell anything about how they were feeling; the only reason I knew that they were surprised was because my universal translator said so.
“Now that's truly impressive. You seem to want to be a resident of Paradise. What is the reason for such a request?”
“If possible, I would like to stay here for the foreseeable future. This seems to be quite a good place for me to progress, with plenty of portals being available, and when I get strong enough, tackling the tomb world seems like a good way to continue.”
As he listened, he also wrote things down on his computer.
“That can usually be taken care of simply by using the adventurer’s visa.”
“Unfortunately, that would mean that we would need to park our ship in long-term storage, and I would like to use it to move about the moon’s surface. That way, travelling would be safer.”
“Ah yes, that makes sense. Then I assume that you are also looking to buy or at least rent property that would accommodate your needs?”
“Yes, if everything goes well here, we already have a booked appointment to rent a suitable location.”
“Well, you certainly are quite prepared and move fast. I can appreciate that. There are just a few more questions I would need answers to, and you would need to fill out some paperwork. Otherwise, I don’t see a reason why you couldn’t get your residency.”
Fortunately, I wasn’t trying to become a citizen, that would have been truly hard. Residency was something in between. They would have the ability to do and buy property, have a few other services available to them that visas wouldn’t get them, but a lot of other services would still be unavailable.
The process dragged on as there were more than just a few questions, and the paperwork I needed to fill out was extensive. What surprised me was that they seemed to have universal healthcare here, not just for citizens but for everyone. Although everyone got life-threatening care, citizens even seemed to get their beauty operations for free.
This place really was quite rich. Dean had gotten worried as I had been gone for almost 30 minutes. Through the bond, it was easy enough to communicate. Altogether, it took about an hour and 10 minutes for us to finally walk out of here.
“That took way longer than I expected,” I said as I shook my wrist. I had not needed to do so much paperwork in a long while.
“So what’s our next destination?”
I pulled out the map and shared with everyone our next destination.
“This is the place where we should be able to rent the property we picked. Now that I’m a resident, we can actually rent it.”
The building we were looking for wasn’t that far away. Things were a lot busier here, but thankfully we had an appointment, so we were able to skip quite a long queue.
“What do you mean you want to take the place? Do you not want to go and see it before?” the agent in charge of the property asked, a bit confused.
“The pictures are good enough, and from the rental agreement I understand that I could make extensive modifications?”
“I mean yes, but there is a catch there. If we don’t like the modifications, you will need to change it back to the way it was.” He paused, realising what he said. I think my straightforward manner frazzled him a bit.
“That would not be a problem.”
What followed was once again a lot of paperwork, but things here took a lot less time. It especially sped up when I brought out enough currency to pay for a whole year’s rent. It was actually quite cheap, costing me only about 4 million. If we had taken a property nearer to the city, that would have easily been 5 or 8 times higher.
When we walked out of this building, we now had a property to our name even if we were just renting it. Bob would probably need some time to sell off more of our cargo, as we did have a week to stay in our current hangar. That meant it was time to start preparing to purchase everything we would need to make our new property into something that would help us in the long run.
But before all of that, it was time to go visit some skill stone shops and hopefully get a skill that would help me strengthen my bonds against tampering, and overall just get a better overview of what types of skills were available here.