19 Riki's Day
"Twenty-six thousand, nine hundred and forty-five?!" Riki gasped when he saw the bill.
"This is only the bill for the reconstruction of Elder T's house. It does not include the bill for the items in her basement, all of which were destroyed, or your already outstanding debts." Orb supplied in a flat tone. "Payment aid schemes are available."
"I can get help?" Riki blinked. "Who's willing to help me?"
"The Boom Town Neighborhood Bank." Orb answered.
"They'll pay off my debts for me?" Riki stared.
"You will have to pay them back by installment. You may choose the three year, five year, seven year, nine year, or ten year payment scheme. Interest rates for the lengthier schemes are higher."
"Ten years?! Am I even going to be in school that long?"
"Payment will still need to be made regardless of whether you remain in school. It is enforceable across all areas of the galaxy with Datanet access."
"Enforced by whom?""
"Me." Orb answered.
"You?" Riki stared. "Can you even enforce anything?"
"Miss a monthly payment and you'll find out."
Riki wasn't really scared. Even if Orb could somehow come after him, what was the worst the little glow-ball could do? Blare warnings at him all day? At worst, he'd simply go offline…
"Alternatively, you can find financial assistance elsewhere." Orb added. "Other banks may offer more generous conditions."
"What if I didn't want to take a bank loan? What if I didn't want any of this so-called 'assistance'?"
"Then you'll be expelled if you're not out of the red within a month."
"That's not fair! It wasn't my fault! All I did was drop a bag of flour…"
"On purpose."
"It was heavy, and in the way of my super rat-trap, and I couldn't carry it, so…"
"You just let it fall to the ground."
"It's flour! It won't get damaged! Nobody told me the bag was going to burst! Nobody told me that a burst bag of flour could explode the whole building!!"
"Not by itself, but your bloodline powers trigger when you get anxious. Put those two together, and…"
Riki sighed gloomily. "How much debt do I have in total?"
"Currently, your outstanding debts amount to thirty-nine thousand, eight hundred and fifteen. This includes warehouse damages, destruction of goods and property, and the medical bills of injured personnel. It does not include the hundred credits of debt in unpaid loans from students of the Academy."
Riki groaned. "How am I ever going to make that much money? I can't even get past Level 5… missions here only give me a few credits. Are there any ways to get rich quick?"
"All realistic avenues of profit are available." Orb answered.
"Such as?"
"Such as trading, estates, employment, and bounties. The Academy also offers rewards for accomplishing Feats."
"What do those things even mean?"
"Trading means you buy and sell stuff, including goods, commodities and shares. Estates means you own property that others would rent. Employment means you work for someone else. Bounties are rewards offered for the capture or destruction of specific targets."
"That one! That's the one!" Riki jumped at it. "I can definitely destroy stuff! What are the targets?"
Orb showed him the list.
1. Remove Zapper Caterpillars (12 cr each)
2. Catch the Trash Can Bandit (125 cr)
3. Help Trap the Mole Serpent (150 cr)
4. Find and Eliminate Cause of Weed Mutations (350 cr)
"Wow, that's a lot of money! 350 credits for just one job!" Riki stared.
"Warning: First Sphere students are not recommended to attempt bounties at Initial Village alone."
"That's for normal students. Me, I'm an expert at destruction!" Riki thumped his chest confidently.
Orb added, "86.7% of Initial Village Bounties on record were accomplished by teams." Orb agreed. "Only 10.8% were done by a single person. 2.5% conscripted the entire student body."
"Everyone can join in? Who gets paid, then?" Riki protested.
"Everyone who participated." Orb answered.
"Lame!" Riki snorted. "I'd rather do the job alone and take all the money for myself!"
"Warning: First Sphere students are not recommended to attempt bounties at Initial Village alone."
"You said that already! I don't care! Just tell me how I'm supposed to find the weed mutation thing! I need those credits!"
"Investigation would be required to solve the mystery."
"Ugh. You mean, I need to go around asking people and searching for clues?"
"Correct."
"Forget it! That would take forever, and I don't even know what to look for or who to ask! What about the Mole Serpent? Where do I find it?"
"It has been located in Farmer Andrew's carrot plot. A team gathered in his house is preparing to trap it. Your job is to assist them to the accomplishment of the task."
"That sounds much easier. All I need to do is help a team trap the thing, right? That sounds super-easy!"
So thinking, Riki made his way over to Farmer Andrew's place.
***
The plan was to set a combination of mole-traps and snake-traps. There were ten spiky devices with springs for underground nabbing, and ten glue paper traps for surface captures. Setting them up was easy enough; for the mole-traps, simply prime the springs and the trigger, anchor the legs of the traps and leave them alone. The snake-traps were even simpler, just a matter of anchoring the glue-paper down. As for where exactly to locate them, the team leader, Farmer Andrew himself, made all the decisions.
By the way, the team in question was really just Farmer Andrew and his wife. Riki joining them made it a team of three.
"I don't see what's so difficult about this bounty." Riki said, after it was all done. "So do I get my credits now?"
"Bounty payments are only made upon success of the mission." Orb answered.
"And what does 'success' mean, here? When do I get paid?" Riki asked.
"When the Mole-Serpent is captured or killed." Orb said.
Just then, there was a snapping sound in Farmer Andrew's carrot plot.
"There is goes!" Riki said, pleased. "That's one Mole-Serpent dead. Can I get my credits now…?"
SNAP! A second mole-trap went off. Then, a third. SNAP! SNAP, SNAP, SNAPSNAPSNAPSNAP…!
"What the…?" Riki ran over to the carrot plot to check it out. Farmer Andrew and his wife also came out running to see what the matter was.
They arrived in time to see all the traps in disarray. The glue paper was gone. The mole-traps had triggered, but appeared to have caught nothing, or at least, not killed anything.
"There's no blood." Farmer Andrews noticed, inspecting the traps. "The spikes even appear to be a bit damaged. I think maybe… we might need bigger and stronger traps."
It was then that Riki began to realize that this bounty might not be so simple after all…
