Chapter 22: One Man’s Junk is Ryan’s Next Upgrade
Ryan sat on his mostly dry mound in the swamp, feeling like a successful fantasy shopkeeper who’d just had a really good sales day.
He had a nice little pile of Precursor Data Chips, a colorful assortment of weird herbs, and a few slimy Aquatic Adaptation Glands that smelled faintly of fish and adventure.
First things first: those Data Chips. He had five of them now, plus the one Scarlett had traded him earlier. Six chances for more map data!
He took them out one by one and used his "Ultimate Infinite Extraction System" on each.
"Alright, System," he murmured, focusing on the first chip. "Let’s see if we can turn these little squares of mystery into a slightly less mysterious map."
Target: Cracked Precursor Data Chip [Tier F Artifact Fragment]
Initiating Extraction Protocol: Data Recovery.
Extraction Complete!
Acquired: Fragmented Navigation Data [Shrouded Swamp – Ancient Drainage Tunnel Network].
Another piece of the puzzle! He did the same for the remaining four chips. Each one yielded a different snippet of information:
Chip #2: Fragmented Topographical Data [Sunken Structure – Possible Entry Point].