The Storm (11)

Jeff printed out a unique bar code on his sticker paper and then stuck it on the box, the bar code had a similar shape to Fun Haus's face which would actually look creepy at the start but then it grows on you, with that the first box was finished with time to spare.

He visited another website on the Holocom and chose a courier for his package, he chose Ninja Express since it can quickly send the package safely considering its being carried by a bot guarded by a combattler, now that he thought about it this must be why they didnt switch to more high tech options, to give jobs.

Anyway he filled in the address and the courier bot arrived 5 minutes later carrying a metal box, he placed his package in the metal box and paid the base fee which was 100 coins, just a standard package express, the quicker options were too expensive for him and it would take a lot from his left over cash.

The bot left after everything was done and flew to where matt was located, it had an arrival time of 5 hours, which was faster than any other choices unlike the couriers used by material companies.

The combattler arrived at the bots designated location and secretly followed the bot to keep it safe from attackers, even in this world banditry was still a thing and many have fallen victims to their actions, most of these bandits are fakes though, just mercenaries hired by a powerful entity to mess with their rivals.

★

George Estate.

The man named Stewart tapped on his Holocom and called for his boss, he had been guarding for any signs of matts handiwork to perform hus job of sabotaging and stealing it, right now he was looking at a travelling dot on a map on his screen.

"What is it Ricardo?"

"Its Stewart sir and ive picked up on an express package being sent to Mattias-Meraccus Productions address, he was very careful to not expose anything online but was betrayed by his own address"

"GOOD WORK JONATHAN! Send my order to the mercenaries to attack and nab that package, can you find out whats in it?"

"Yes sir, its from a store called Fun Haus, its a newly emerged Toymaker sir, i dont think we need to pay mind to them"

"I agree with that as well, now then just nab that package Billy, ill be waiting for the results and i hope theyre good news"

The comms channel shut off and Stewart still wasnt called by his name.

"Im Stewart though sir... Dont cry stewart just think of the amount of money he is paying you and that youll be buying the new Magical Wives figure on payday thats coming near"

Stewart was a follower of a show called Magical Wives and its not a kids show, its a lecherous Loremakers world that is about magical girls in skimpy outfits but in this world instead of the daughters getting the powers, their mothers got it by accident... Its a niche for a certain wide spread demographic.

He went ahead and contacted the mercenaries.

"Merc team Red proceed to arm yourselves and intercept this package, the package must be safe and sound with no harm to it, if you are unable to nab it then destroy it, Mattias-Meraccus Productions must not receive this toy"

★

Courier Location.

The one following the drone was dressed like a ninja and in a way he is one since every single figure he carried with him and controls is related to ninjas, his main character is called Blackstar, a cyberpunk ninja character created by a 3 star Toymaker.

Thia ninja was still saving up to buy a new higher quality ninja figure, speaking of ninjas this ninjas name was Node, he was a 3★ combattler that had a hard time raising his strength and popularity so he just ended up becoming a courier guard.

For him it wasnt a bad job, it paid lots and kept a roof above his head but the thrill of competing for more strength just wasnt there, his popularity stopped growing when he was 25 and its been 5 years since then, people got tired of watching his ninja gimmicks due to it being repetitive and he didnt want to change as well so he ended up being bottlenecked.

"Maybe i should return to the combattler arena scene, it would be great to try and gain more popularity... but how am i gonna do it without compromising my theme?"

While he was thinking he suddenly got a gut feel that something wrong was gonna happen and he always trusted his guts, he turned to look at courier and what do you know an EMP rocket blew up beside it causing the drone to drop, Node immediately rushed to the drone to pick it up before it got smashed.

Luckily he was fast and was able to catch it along with the box it carried in a nother hand, he looked towards the direction the rocket came from and what he saw was a band of bandits, a total of 50 people on estimation, they had all sort of weaponry on them that couldnt be afforded by normal bandits.

"It seems im finally gonna have some excitement, hopefully the news catches my figure so i can gain a bit of popularity"

Node reached towards a small pouch on his belt and opened it up.