Scour

Since I had no clue where to go, it made the most sense to go to the center of the city and find my way from there. 

A quick search on my hologram told me that I was a metrix away from the city center, so 5 miles, and I was 600 meters deep. Very useful.

I set off in a quick sprint, knowing my physical capabilities could get me there in half an hour.

Every so often, I would have to jump a gap between two walkways, but that wasn't much of a hassle either.

As I ran, I scanned the walls for a sign. I hadn't found anything in the book that could hint me towards my location, but maybe there was something on the walls that led to my destination.

However, all I saw was black brick and murky green-brown sewage. Not fun.

As I expected, it took me only half an hour to run to the middle of the city, and, surprisingly, I had barely sweat at all. I knew that common sense from Earth no longer applied, and I had to adapt to Universal common sense, but I couldn't change that fast. It took me 24 Earth years to learn a language, for god's sake.

I took a look at where I was; a cross junction with no discernable clues. I could head North, East, South, or West.

I stood at the intersection for a while, debating my choices, before I came up with the perfect idea.

'Let's see. N, E, S, W. Now spin!' I thought as I plugged the 4 cardinal directions into a wheel. I pressed the spin button on my hologram and watched as the wheel spun, ticking each time it passed an option.

It began to slow, and the tension grew. This was extremely important, as it would take me more than 20 hours to check a single side, and I wasn't even sure of the shape of the sewers —I could end up checking the same place twice and be blissfully unaware. Everywhere looks the same, after all.

The wheel stopped on the North, so I closed that tab and opened a compass. After being directed to the North, I closed my hologram entirely and began to run through the pipes.

Every 20 meters or so sat another junction, leading to the left and right. I had to check each of these, and that was annoying, as each one led to another area of the sewers, forcing me to check each of those, and then remember the way back.

By the time I had finished the first section, over an hour had passed, and I realized that it would take a lot more time than I thought.

'Fuck me.'

---

I lay on my back, in the sewers, under the center of the city. So far, I had spent over 2 days trapped there, checking passages left and right for any sign of the goal. But, nothing. Nada, zilch, whatever.

"Why is this so hard?!" I complained to no one in particular. 'Surely there's a better way, right?'

I thought long and hard about a simpler way to explore the sewers, but nothing came to mind. Several times, however, it felt as if the method was just under the covers of my thoughts, and that elusive, stray thought bugged me to no end. I was sure that I could find the answer in it, but I couldn't foreground the thought.

It was as if I was speaking to someone, but I suddenly forgot a word, one that I knew I knew, but could put my tongue on it. That sort of feeling.

After a long time contemplating, or what was actually less than 5 minutes, I decided that I should take action. I reopened the wheel-spinning tab and entered the 3 other cardinal directions, leaving it to chance.

The wheel spun for a while, and I watched, bored. Once it finally stopped, it landed on West, so I restarted my search from there.

Each corridor in the tunnel was another hour added to my search, and an hour I would never get back.

I was just about to enter the 231st side tunnel when it clicked. The answer I had been searching for!

"Kill me now!" I screamed aloud. "I could have just bought the blueprints, right?"

In the Universe, you'd find that you can buy anything for the right price, be it legally or illegally.

"I can't believe it took me so long. I wanna cry!" I sat on the floor, wallowing in misery as I opened my hologram, heading to the Marketplace.

In the Marketplace, one could find anything and everything. It was akin to a Doraemon that you had to pay and was my hope.

In the search bar, I hurriedly wrote 'Neon sewer blueprint' and prayed. 

In less than a millisecond, my screen was overrun with millions if not billions of results. As I scrolled through them, I berated myself for being such an idiot.

I immediately clicked on one of them, ensuring that the Neon City it spoke of was the one that I currently resided in.

Once I was sure of that, I immediately bought it. The map put a dent in my wallet —50,000 UC— but it was going to be worth it.

I immediately opened the map on my hologram, expecting to see a chamber somewhere within the diagram, but what greeted me was not what I hoped. Instead of seeing the chamber, I was welcomed by the image of a normal sewer system, however, something seemed off. I inspected it closer, and the closer I looked the more it looked less like Neon's, especially on the North and West sides.

'I've been scammed, haven't I?' I realized. "God fucking dammit! I want a refund!"

Unfortunately, the marketplace didn't do refunds.

I grumbled to myself as I scrolled through the marketplace again, this time checking who the seller was, ensuring they were reliable.

It took me half an hour to find one who might be helpful, as they were drowned beneath what I assumed were all scams.

The blueprint they were selling was also of Neon's sewers, and I had the feeling they were trustworthy.

//

Neon City Sewer Blueprint

[Image]

Seller: Neon Trade Office

Cost: 20,000 UC

./Purchase?/.

//

"You've got to be kidding me, it's so cheap!" I once again cursed my brain —first, it had forgotten about this option, and then it had been too hasty, falling for an obvious scam.

I pressed the purchase button and prayed to a different god this time. Surely Zeus couldn't fail me? 

I received the blueprint instantaneously, and I clicked on the link with shaking fingers.

What came to my eyes was salvation. The blueprint matched what I had seen down in the sewers, so I quickly scanned for the chamber.

I couldn't see it, but scouring the blueprint a second time, I noticed something. All the way in the bottom right of the map lay a tiny, minuscule offshoot path, that exited the sewers.

"That's it!" I exclaimed. 'Surely that slightly hidden path leads to the chamber and the cheat.'

I immediately got off my ass and bolted back to the center of the sewers. 

It was times like that when I realized the joy of technology. The bracelet contained a feature that showed you what path you had walked, which was extremely useful, not because I was bad at directions, of course, it just was.

Now, however, with the addition of the blueprint, it showed me my position in the sewer. It even showed me the most efficient path, which was useful, because, while most of the sewers were organized, occasionally it veered off into labyrinth territory, making it difficult to navigate. It was as if the workers were drunk half the time.

Anyway, I quickly arrived back at the center and followed the blueprint immediately, chasing after the line on my hologram.

'The quicker I get out, the faster I can have a shower!' I thought, slightly giddy at the idea. Staying down here for over 2 days had obliterated my sense of smell, and it would take a long while to come back, but even I knew that I must have stank of something else.

I traversed the sometimes organized, sometimes winding pathway toward the bottom right, and soon reached my destination.

At the edge of the sewers, I was met with a dead end. The black brick walls covered 2 sides, and behind me was more sewage. However, I knew that there had to have been more to it, so I scrambled over to the wall that matched the blueprint and began to comb through every inch of it, looking for the answer.

It came in the form of a missing brick that let me see into a tunnel behind it, so I began to think of a way to destroy the wall. I definitely wasn't strong enough.

'It hasn't been opened in hundreds of years, probably. It only opened when a shit ton of rubble fell on it. What to do?'

My brain ran through many possibilities but settled on the dumbest one. 

'Crocodiles have a good sense of smell, so if I stick my hand through the hole, and roast something, it will try and eat it. Then I trick it into breaking open the wall. No that's stupid. Save that for last.'

I talked myself out of it, due to having high odds that I lost an arm, and chose to do the simplest idea first; breaking the wall myself.

I stood in a simple striking posture, readying my fist. I only had a limited amount of Energy, so I steadied myself, focusing on boosting myself just before the strike so that I used as little as possible. 

BOOM!

My fist struck the wall with force, creating a small shockwave, and sending a numbing jolt through my hand. Dust flew from the wall, acting similar to a smokescreen.

"Owie." I whimpered.

Once the smoke cleared, I looked at the point of impact. I hadn't done much damage, but 3 or 4 more blows would send it tumbling.

'I guess I'll do this instead.'