Chapter 4

I take a deep breath, freshly filtered air filling the cavities of my lungs, as I watch the nervous guards standing ahead of me. They were suspiciously obedient, and their nervous countenance suggests multiple scenarios, either my appearance from the wastes was impressive, surprising, or suspicious, or they think i'm someone i'm not, either way matters little, I can work with both.

"Can you bring me to the manager of this factory? I would like to thank them for their guards' charity." I ask, a genuine part of my concerns, however minor, but I watch as the guards shiver again, casting uncertain gazes at one another, and as I return my hands to my pockets, my right tightens around the knife I stole from that dying child all those eons ago.

They have a quick back and forth, their warped voices due to their masks, combined with their hushed tones, leaving me unaware of their conversation, but from the looks on their faces, I can infer they are debating whether or not to grant my request, eventually one steps forward, dressed in the cleanest clothes, and covered in the most gear, he seems to be the leader of this group.

"Very well, we will bring you to the manager, I sincerely hope you could put in a good word for us." his voice containing a hint of deference and respect, further cementing the notion they think me someone I'm not, and I glance down at my clothes, a pair of long jeans, and a black long sleeved shirt resting across my shoulders, leaving my collarbones exposed, both of considerably higher quality than what the people I see wear. I remember the times when I still had friends, they would tell me that my emotionless aloof look reminded them of the stereotypical nobility of old, and I realize that the guards have likely mistaken me for someone of considerable rank, something I will gladly use to my advantage.

I follow behind the guard, walking through the hallways of the factory, we enter a much more pristine section than the rest, insulated from the factory floor, I look through the windows, looking upon the miserable conditions the workers are in, I even watch as one loses an arm to a machine, crying in despair, as guards walk in to pull him out, they hand his a letter, and toss him out the door, likely firing the poor man on the spot, and considering the desperation with which they work, likely sentencing him to a miserable death, as his position is taken up moments later by a fresh worker.

But I walk on, uncaring of their plight, it would be a different story If it would benefit me to help them, but at the moment their misery has nothing to do with myself, so I walk on, fiddling with the phone like device I had picked up along my path, quickly preparing it for the meeting to come, my perfect memory recalling every lesson I had ever learned on computers as I quickly and efficiently refashioned it to serve its new purpose, finishing in just 10 minuets as we still walk on, the factory seeming to be quite large.

The guard captain seems to have removed his mask, as the air in these corridors is noticeably cleaner than the rest, so I follow suit, the sterilized dry air burning my nose slightly as it sucks the moisture from my cells. And we continue the walk, eventually entering a lavish office, filled with gold, expensive looking furniture, and lined with art, a stark contrast to the rest of the factory, evidence of an extreme wealth gap.

At one end of the office an obese man lays on a bed, next to him are a pair of lifeless women, covered in bruises and injuries, but I once again ignore them in favor of furthering my goals.

"Francis, I'm sorry to wake you from your slumber, but you have an important guest." the guard says, as they bow slightly, as the mountain of flesh on the bed roles over, revealing another poor woman, her corpse showing evidence of asphyxiation, and a miserable end, as the pig like man turns towards us, I see extreme arrogance hidden within his eyes, as they tremble slightly in anger upon resting on myself, likely angered by my refusal to kneel in his abhorrent presence. Or possibly jealousy for my looks, the obvious signs of cosmetic surgeries dotting his malevolent body, as the exertion of simply moving seems enough to make him sweat profusely.

"I forgive you guard, now please leave me, I have much to discuss with my guest." he says, and the guard simply nods and leaves, shooting me a pitying look as they go. I return my gaze to the revolting creature before me.

"Come, sit." he says, gesturing to an uncomfortable looking spot on the floor, an unrecognizable rage fills me, at the mere suggestion that I should kneel before such a contemptible entity, but I force it down, focusing on the goals I set to accomplish in this meeting. I stand still, my eyes slowly dragging from the floor back to the horrid rendering of a human face.

"Thank you, but I'm perfectly fine with standing, I don't intend to stay long." I tell the creature, even as my feet bleed beneath my shoes. I watch as annoyance flashes past his face, quickly hidden by his experience with appeasing other nobles.

"Very well, It is nice to meet you good sir, My name is Francis, the humble manager of this factory, may I know your business here?" he says, and I ignore the fact his office speaks of anything but humility, the gold in this room alone likely worth a fortune.

"Why yes, see I have some business to speak to you about some of your rivals, I have some evidence of them I'm sure you would find interesting." I spitball, my main goal is to gain access to his computers. On the walk here I have managed to repurpose the phone I found into a working device, capable of sending and receiving signals. I sincerely hope that the operating systems are similar enough to interact. I watch as greed fills the creature's face, a revolting display of sin, as a toothy grin reveals his gold plated teeth.

"VERY GOOD HAHAHA!" He yells, his attention instantly peaked by my offer, anything to one up his opponents, he snaps his fingers, and a servant steps forwards, presenting me with a holoscreen, directly connected to the factories operating system, even better, it has admin privileges, and I tap the button on the side of the phone, pre prepared algorithm seamlessly incorporating themselves into the main system, as I buy time by pretending to find files to send.

Eventually, after the program had completely completed its transfer, sent in individually harmless packets that only form the full system once they were all in one place in order to avoid firewalls. I turn to leave the room.

"Now now friend, don't leave so soon, I can't just let you leave without a reward now can I?" the despicable man says, And I watch as guards block the exit, a sigh escaping my mouth as I turn back to the man, faking a smile.

"Nonsense, I need no reward for helping a friend now do I?" I ask, as the man laughs.

"Please, I insist." he says, as the servants reach suspiciously into their clothes, I sigh again, looking at the man with a bored look, as the room fills with tension. As my mind builds plan after plan, the tension is broken by a guard pulling forth their gun, only for a long blade to land squarely in his left eye, as he cries in pain dropping the gun, as I am instantly upon him, cracking him in the jaw, I ignore the numbness filling my palm, as I kick the gun into my hands mid movement, and although I lack skill in fighting, my mind, enhanced by the eons, allows me to easily simulate the best approach to every situation. My left hand snapping backwards and grabbing the gun, even as my right surges forwards, aiming for the poor man's adam's apple, he collapses to the ground spluttering, as I swing my body around, my enhanced mind instantly calculating the bullets trajectory, the range so close I need not worry about drop, and as such my lack of understanding of the guns specks. 

I grossly overestimated the recoil, quickly recovering as my attempts to keep the gun stable forced its barrel down, I curse as the mistake allows a guard to get his gun on target, as I purposefully buckle my knees, my left hand shooting out to grab the guard below me, pulling me to the ground faster, I wince as a bullet grazes my cheek, I land with a thud, but I force myself to keep moving, wrapping myself behind the downed guard I feel multiple impacts rippling through the body, my arms becoming sore, I toss the body forwards, to weak to throw it far, it collapses mear feet from me, but provides enough temporary cover for me to respond in kind, the guard that shot at me falling to the ground screaming, as blood pours from a new hole in their neck, I Ignore them, shooting all the other servants in the room as they fumble for weapons, the only living beings in the room now being me, Francis, and the dying guard, I stand, my muscles in pain, as I walk forwards, shooting the screaming man as I go.

"This is why I told you to let me leave." I say as the revolting pile of flesh cosplaying a man devolves into unintelligible babbles of fear, as he desperately tries to crawl away like a newborn baby, tossing the dead women he had killed just hours earlier at me as he went, I carefully avoid stepping on their corpses, as I feel sorrow for the poor girls, I pull the gun to my eyes, shooting each of Francis's limbs, as he falls to his stomach, crying in fear, demanding someone save him, I tune out his hypocritical demands as I walk to his front, lifting his face he stares at the gun between his eyes, and I watch as fear fills his face, knowing that this is where he dies, I pull the trigger, face falling back to the floor, as his limbs stop flailing, like a doll with its strings cut. 

I sigh, as I walk through the carnage, walking towards a wine cabinet, I pull out an expensive bottle, and sit on an expensive rolling chair, as I lay the gun across my lap. The seats cloth is infused with gold, like all the other things in the room, as I drink, the floor around me covered in bodies, the door opens, and sam enters, asking if everything is doing fine, he freezes as he sees me, calmly drinking amid a sea of dead bodies, he stares at me for a moment, before his hand begins to reach for his gun, and I lay my hand of the trigger of my own, the barrel facing directly at him, as I look at a fake window, showing scenes of a forest I know does not exist outside, and he lowers his own hand, a wise move, and I return my focus to my drink, all the while my virus takes over all the systems in the factory.

(an, quality is a bit meh with this chapter, but it turned out pretty good in my opinion, so I hope you enjoyed, go read my other stories, I'm proud of most of them, I recently started a new one called "Rebuilding the fallen empire (a 40k and stellaris inspired story)" its not a fanfiction so it wont show up on my profile, but Its only 1 chapter so far but I think its pretty good, anyway, hope you enjoy your day, peace.)