22 What are We Up Against?

In the gadget section, there was only one item, and it's a Nirvana Tablet.

The description claimed that it was a tool to access a more advanced version of the Nirvana app. Apparently, it would have an info bank that's kind of like a Wikipedia page for subjects such as enemies that one could possibly encounter and other information about the apocalypse.

"Woah, I can see this coming in handy for the future, except this thing, costs 10000 credits!" Alex exclaimed.

"Uh... so that's basically 100,000 US dollars... You guys think we should get it?" Christian was hesitant.

"Well, up until now, we still don't really know what's going on. I mean, we are basically trying to buy things from this guy that f*cked the whole world. I'm fine with shopping with the credits we earned from killing zombies, but should we trust this Nirvana company or whatever with our real-world money?" Alex was a bit skeptical, and he reminded everyone they were literally on the app created by some people that were trying to kill them all.

After a brief moment of thought, Elon broke the silence. "Up until now, what do we know about their capabilities?"

"They can least temporarily shut down all wifi and cellular service, and also hack into the audio input of all smart devices to broadcast their messages," Jay answered.

"They also analyzed firearm and population intensity of an area in real time, and immediately adjusted the zombie distribution accordingly. I mean, they were able to detect the weapons we got from Sarah's house right and drop significantly more zombies near our house during the second wave," Christian added.

"They were also able to count how many kills we got and updated it real-time onto our app. On the transaction history, the time stamp for each credit added to my account was specific to the unit - second." Alex felt a chill down his spine as he recalled.

"Yeah, and that's just what we have seen with our own eyes... I have a feeling that the level of technology they mastered is beyond what most people's imagination. If they wanted our money, they might be more than capable of hacking one of the big crypto exchange platforms, or our fiat bank account," Elon analyzed.

All of these discoveries really sent chills down everyone's back. What were they really up against?

"And one more thing, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the app just looks so seamless and well-designed. I've never liked an apps UI (user interface) more than this one," Christian stroked his chin as he said.

"That is very true as well, what do you make out of that?" Elon was curious.

"Oh, I just thought it was pretty cool," Christian shrugged his shoulder as he replied as if it wasn't a big deal.

...

"So should we link our bank account and purchase some credits?" Alex asked.

"We might die if we don't," Elon slowly replied.

"And we are pretty rich as well," Christian did one of those cute "pew pew" hand gestures towards Elon, leaving the group speechless again.

"Information is key," Jay was on board with purchasing it as well.

At last, the group decided to link their company account to the app first, and there are about three hundred thousand US dollars in there. They loaded all of the money in that account onto Jay's Nirvana account, totaling up to a balance of 30,066 Nirvana credits (NC).

Since they already took the step and loaded up their account, they picked up the tablet (10,000 NC), as well as 4 zombie afterbite packages (8,000 NC), 4 frag grenades (200 NC), 2 suppressors for submachine guns (200 NC), and 2 suppressors that could be used on both assault rifles and designated marksman rifles (300 NC). The total was 18,700 Nirvana credits.

Oof.

There was a shipping cost too?! And it's another 100 Nirvana credits?

Oof.

Well, this was the most expensive shopping experience they had in a while, spending the equivalence of 188,000 US dollars. After they clicked [Submit Order], Jay's account only had 11,266 credits left.

Then, a notification appeared on the screen.

[Your package will arrive in 30 minutes, airdropped to your current location. This one's going to have a bigger parachute and land slowly, so don't worry, it won't break your house even if it lands on it.]

"Wow, at least the Game Master guy behind this is kind of nice," Christian laughed upon seeing the message.

"I guess we just gotta wait now."

"Wait, remember in PUBG when we were either calling down an airdrop or going for an airdrop, there would usually be other players contesting it? Do you think it will be the same situation here?" Elon reminded the group.

After a brief thought, Jay said, "We might as well get into the habit of establishing a perimeter around our airdrop because people will bound to realize that those random airdrops that fall off the sky are not zombies but supplies."

Everyone agreed, and it was late into the night, so the airdrop might be noticed by fewer people than if they were to call one during the day.

Unless...