Collector

A/N - Usually I write at the end of the text, in the author's thought, but I'll do it here for simplicity's sake, and so you don't get confused, cause there are times in the text.

Please assume, unless stated otherwise, that he is using the Universal Epoch, where each minute is 99 seconds long, each hour is 99 minutes, each day is 99 hours long, each month is 99 days long, each year is 99 months long, and then there's an 11 digit year.

Thank you,

- forener

---

I hopped into the space shuttle and sat down on a chair. The room I was in was about half full, other humans from other planets, I presumed and then turned my focus to their arms. Since none had blood staining their wrists, I could assume that none came from a new planet.

I had to wait for six hours, which I found easy to do by distracting myself with the book. I had terrible patience, so this was the best method I devised that would allow me not to bore myself to death.

Once the room had filled up, the door closed and the spaceship got ready to take off.

FWOOSH!-

It, with a hum and a blast, flew out of the hangar, heading straight down, into the atmosphere.

As the ship flew, I thanked my lucky stars that I had put my seatbelt on. Some poor fool had forgotten, So I got to see what happened when you overlooked it.

CRUNCH

The man flew to the back of the ship, crashing against the wall, with a wet crunch.

'Ouch, that's got to hurt. At least a broken ribcage.' I felt terrible for the man, because from the sound I figured that he had not broken a rib, no, he had broken all of them.

After about 5 minutes of propelling itself downwards, the ship suddenly slowed, indicating that we were close to the surface.

Again, the man flew across the ship, this time smashing against the other wall, gravity taking effect.

'Youch, that's his spine gone!' I thanked all the gods I knew from Earth that I had remembered to put my seatbelt on.

"...Ooow." I heard a weak grunt from him. It seemed the first hit knocked him out and the second hit woke him up.

The ship suddenly leveled itself out, and slowed to a snail's pace, compared to its earlier speed. About 10 seconds later, the ship stopped, and slowly hovered down to touch the ground.

Just seconds later, the door opened, and a man walked in. He looked around the room, ticking the air as he saw our faces.

'He must be checking the attendance.' It would have been recorded that we got on the ship, so he must have been making sure that we were all there, and were not trying to do something, though I wasn't sure what.

He looked around, confused, muttering under his breath, and I realized that he was looking for the man who had gotten injured. I pointed to the man, who I was sure was close to dying —Awoken or not, those injuries were extremely severe— and then I heard him say something else.

Had I spoken the Universal Diction, I'm sure what I would have heard would be something along the lines of, 'Not again. I swear, this happens every time,' because he didn't seem worried, just disappointed.

He moved to the man and said something to the rest of us. Everyone else got up at his words and left, so I swiftly followed behind them. 

They walked through winding corridors, stopping before what was similar in design to a robotic ticket booth on Earth. They placed their ID into the slot, allowing the machine to scan it, before grabbing it and walking out the doors, into the city.

I mimicked their actions, too enthralled by the reality of it all. The book so far hadn't told a single lie. It had been a single week since I received it, and I already changed my life so much. 

'Originally, I started this because I wanted to be rid of my family, but, I can reach the top.' The book contained all the secrets I needed to become an unrivaled being, and that didn't sound bad.

I stepped out the doors and into the city of Aver. Seeing it from afar did it no justice, and from close I could tell that any sci-fi nerd would have a field day just being near it.

The architecture looked like it came straight out of a movie, and in the air were flying vehicles.

I took a deep breath of the air, expecting it to be polluted from all the development, but the air was clearer than it would have been in the countryside of Earth.

Taking it all in with just one more breath, I swiftly headed to the collector. For what I wanted to do, I would need money for a pickaxe and food and water, for months.

The hangar of Aver was set in the Industrial District, and the collector was in the Residential District for the middle class. I headed to the center of the city, zigzagging through the streets.

Luckily for me, the streets of Aver all had signposts, and those signposts had images, so I could make my way around.

After about two hours of walking, added to an hour of getting lost, I found myself at the halfway mark, the city center. I looked around the square, searching for the sign that would lead me to my destination.

The square was jam-packed with people selling wares and tourists who easily fell into scams, so I kept myself on full alert. If I gave myself away as a tourist, there was a chance I would be kidnapped and forced into slavery. In a busy place like this, no one would notice if I went missing. Hell, no one would care even if I did.

A few stall owners called out for me, but I ignored them, a determined look on my face. Tourists all had that look of wonder on their faces, so if I seemed like a man on a mission, I probably wouldn't get caught.

Thankfully, I found the signpost that led to the residential area and followed its instructions to a T. This was where it got confusing; the book held little description when it came to the collector's location.

- The strange man lived in an average household, if his house hadn't been covered in moss, I would have ignored it. I pondered over the events that had led me here. I had been walking down one of the many streets in the city when a man called out to me. He stood in a shady alleyway in the 3rd length of the city, and he took me to his house that was 4 blocks away.

The Residential District for the middle class has 10 lengths, and each is a couple of miles long, and every few houses has a shady alleyway. Do the maths, that's a lot of alleyways.

Ignoring the inadequate description in the book, I walked down the district at a brisk 1pace. In 2 hours, I found myself reaching the start of the 3rd length. Each length was differentiated by the pathway and the houses shifting to the left, which when looked from above, made a spiral pattern. 

I decided to count how many alleyways I would pass before the collector's alleyway, as a distraction for myself.

'... 71... 72... 74... 81... 97' Time passed quickly as I counted, and at the 97th I stopped. I heard a stone clatter against the hard floor, which was shocking, considering there were no stones in the area.

I looked at where the sound came from and cautiously walked toward it. 'A shady alleyway, huh.'

I dropped my guard, yet acted like it was still up, and inched my way closer to the alleyway. Out of the darkness emerged a fat man in a grey hoodie, glasses covering his face. Eye problems had been solved in this day and age, so I presumed it was something he had collected from a stranger, but other than that, the man was entirely unremarkable.

The man opened his mouth, probably spouting off some nonsense, saying things like, 'I am The Collector' or, 'I'll make you an offer you can't refuse.'

I pointed to my throat, and then made a cross with my hands, before speaking, "I don't know the Universal Diction yet."

He had not understood what I said, but my display had put a smile on his face, as he confirmed that I was indeed someone who he could do business with. 

He waved his hand for me to follow him, so I did, and just like Alexander said, he took me to an average-looking house 4 blocks away from where he picked me up. There was no moss on it, however, so I assumed that it was a new addition from when Alexander visited him. 

He showed me inside the building, where he led me to a table. I looked around the room as I walked, and the variety of objects that adorned the walls stunned me. There was even a horn, one I assumed belonged to a dragon.

I sat down on the table as he instructed with his hands, and saw him bring out some paper. He was hesitant to do so because paper was not made anymore, he had probably struggled to get any, so I shook my head.

I pointed to my wrist, to imply that we could use the bracelet. He took a second but realized the validity of what I was miming, so he swiftly sat down opposite me. He reached his arm out, and tapped his wrist against mine, causing a screen to pop up.

//

ȶჩల 𝓒𝜎ℓℓలȶ𝜎ꞃ ຮలກȶ ล 🝡ꞃ𝑖లກᑰ ꞃలꘫปలຮȶ.2

ล𝓒𝓒లꝓȶ?3

Ỿ/ກ4

//

I tapped on the letter that was Y, I knew that yes in the Universal Diction also began with a y. He then began to speedily tap the air, sending me a message that I would have to decode with the help of the language manual.

Since the spellings of many words were different and there was no translation to English, it would take me a while, but we would figure it out.

//

- ȶჩల 𝓒𝜎ℓℓలȶ𝜎ꞃ5 -

- ჩలℓℓ𝜎, ກలພ-ພ𝜎ꞃℓԂలꞃ.6

ჩలℓℓ𝜎, 𝓒𝜎ℓℓలȶ𝜎ꞃ.7 -

- Ԃ𝜎 Ỿ𝜎ป ჩลᕓల ลກỾȶჩ𝑖ກဌ ȶ𝜎 ຮలℓℓ 🝡ꞃ𝜎⫙ Ỿ𝜎ปꞃ ພ𝜎ꞃℓԂ?8

𝑖 Ԃ𝜎.9 -

//

I proceeded to pull out all the currencies from my world, something that made his eyes glimmer with greed.

//

𝑖ȶ'ຮ Ԃ𝑖🝡🝡లꞃలກȶ 𝓒ปꞃꞃలກ𝓒𝑖లຮ 🝡ꞃ𝜎⫙ Ԃ𝑖🝡🝡లꞃలກȶ 𝓒𝜎ปກȶꞃ𝑖లຮ.10 -

- Ԃలກ𝜎⫙𝑖ກลȶ𝑖𝜎ກຮ?11

ลℓℓ.12 -

- ᒿᦲᦲᦲ ป𝓒 🝡𝜎ꞃ లล𝓒ჩ.13

𝑖'ℓℓ ȶลҡల 𝑖ȶ14. -

//

2000 UC, was a lot of money. Each UC, or Universal Credit, was extremely good compared to most currencies. A single UC could net you about 3 pounds of apples, something that would cost $3.50. So, 2000 UC was worth $7000, roughly.

I had 12 different currencies, and each had around 8 denominations, which meant that I had 2000 x 96, which was 192,000.

In Aver, the Capital City of the Capital Planet, 192,000 could get you a middle-class house for a year, rent-wise. It wouldn't be enough to buy the house, no, but you could live there for a year.

I quickly handed the man the currencies, not caring that he had lost a year's worth of rent. It was his choice to spend it on collectibles. In return, he sent me the UC, and we shook hands.

He showed me to the door, and I tipped the proverbial hat at him as a good gesture, to which he waved in response.

I walked down the street with a smile, heading to a shop where I could buy what I needed.