Chapter 82 His Parsimonious Side!
"Nothing much. I will hold him captive inside here for the time being. So, Cynthia, this place must have a holding cell, right? " In an answer, Bobby asked a question.
"What do you think?" Cynthia responded with a smile, halted for a minute and she added with a shrug. "You are the boss here….. Why are you even asking me about that?"
Her words simply suggested that he could help himself without her help at all.
"Oh, that simple," Bobby hushed and continued speaking in a voice barely audible to himself. " The Unholy Lair One-point-O,"
Ding!
With a dinging sound, a new notification popped up in his mind.
[ The Unholy Lair 1.0 ]
[ Status: Unlocked ]
"Find me something that resembles a holding cell for my captive; preferably a high-class sauna-style luxury jail, and something where I can conduct some experiments on the captive every now and then," Bobby instructed in his mind.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
[Need +5 Experience points for searching in the mainframe catalog of the Unholy Lair 1.0.]
[Spend +5 Experience points For Searching: Yes Or No ]
Bobby shook his head and spoke. "This thing is doing it again…. Fine, 'yes'. "
Beep! Beep! Beep!
A loading screen appeared in his mind and started moving the values to
0%
1%
2%
...
…..
99%
100%
Beep!
After a beep, another notification appeared in his mind.
[ Found three search results; each of the three holding rooms belongs to the Original three Features namely: The Blood Research Laboratory, The Martial Art Training Virtual Realm, and The Mechanical Laboratory. ]
[+ 20 Experience Points needed for the Holding cell in The Blood Research Laboratory ]
[ +18 Experience Points needed for the Holding cell in The Martial Art Training Virtual Realm ]
[ + 15 Experience Points needed for the Holding cell in The Mechanical Laboratory ]
After realizing that he was going to need a lot more to spend if there was something related to it, Bobby began to bargain like a street peddler.
"Oh man, this is something really scammy. It seems it always needs to burn my Experience Points if it is something important related to it. Can't I get a discount… maybe 10%?"
Following a few minutes of waiting, and since the System had not responded, he raised seven fingers and spoke. "7%"
As always, the System remained silent, and he gradually reduced the number until he shouted, while narrowing his eyes like a crooked merchant. "1%, hmm, you're still not going to agree, right?... Well-well, give me a 0.9% discount or I will simply rent a large house in the city and set up my own holding cell there."
"Oh, boy, what's wrong with you, man? ... Really, are you really negotiating with the Unholy system on giving you some discount? Bahahaha….haha!" Cynthia began to laugh hysterically as even tears appeared in her eyes.
After all this time of being frustrated over the discount thingy and no response from the Unholy System, Bobby was more annoyed when Cynthia began to laugh her ass off. "Hey, that's not funny."
"Oh, yeah, it's not funny at all…. Hahaha.."
After several minutes, when Cynthia stopped laughing, Bobby said to her: "Alright, are you done laughing?... Well then, talk some sense to this Unholy System."
"What?! You still want me to help you with that ridiculous request of yours…. Just forget it, man." Cynthia didn't quite agree with him.
"Hey, do something? Aren't you the so-called Guardian of this thing?... "
Having shaken his head left and right twice, Bobby tried to reach a compromise. "Fine, I can cope with a 0.5% discount…. Just do whatever it takes or this thing will continue scamming over my experience points."
"Oh, come on. Stop fooling around, man…. Hah! My irritation has now gotten the better of me because of your behavior. Honestly, this discussion shouldn't even be on the table!" Cynthia pronounced, raising her voice a notch. "Let me get things straight here. You have two choices. Pay the required experience points or get that secluded apartment you're telling me about."
"What about 0.1%?"
"Oh, fuck! Stop being such a cheapskate.
As far as I know, have you not just recently received 10,000 experience points? It's just 20 experience points at the most…." Cynthia swore out of frustration. "Spend it already or I won't ever speak to you again."
"Fine, use 20 points to get that holding cell of the Blood Research Laboratory." Bobby finally agreed reluctantly.
Ding!
[Holding Cell 1.0 Available to be used now ]
[ First, Host needs to get inside the Blood Research Laboratory in order to get to the Holding Cell 1.0 ]
"I'll use 10 experience points to gain access to the Blood Research Laboratory." Bobby hushed under his breath.
Then he added another 10 experience points to the Blood Research Laboratory.
As he watched, a bloody red-colored gigantic door with a white angel on it materialized before him in the room, just as it had last time. However, the drawing on the gate indicated that the angel was concocting some kind of medicine.
Creak! Creak! Creak! …..
The enormous gate automatically opened up with high-pitched cracking sounds.
As he did the last time, Bobby peered through the giant door and saw a pitch-black, dark abyss on the other side.
Afterward, Bobby picked up the leg of Mr. Baldy and dragged him across the ground while making his way into the gate. As he stepped inside the completely stark darkness, he could feel that his body began to disintegrate into a beam of energy mass. The feeling he was experiencing when he entered the Martial Art Training Virtual Realm on his previous visit was exactly the same, so he tried to figure out what this strange sensation might be.
He almost got something, which, at the time, was very difficult to explain as he had a glimpse of it, but when he looked deeper into it, he could not find anything.
After being out of sight for five seconds, Bobby was surprised to find himself back on a wide road looking over Mr. Baldy's still unconscious body.
His disbelief was further heightened as he observed the surrounding area around him and discovered that everywhere around him stood tall and beautiful skyscrapers that had a very similar design to his own office building. "What an interesting deserted city! "
In an attempt to make sense of the city's mega-structures and architecture, he inquired. "Cynthia, is this place for real?"
"Yep, it's a veritable city once. But now it has become part of the Unholy Lair 1.0." She responded and asked, "Isn't this city amazing?"
"Yup, in fact, I believe this is the most advanced civilization I have ever encountered.
What do you think of this city? Was it part of your Angel civilization?" Bobby answered while he further continued checking those super-smart mega-structures while using his Devil's Eye skill.
Cynthia shivered in her seat as she looked out of the hidden space of the Unholy System that lay at Bobby's forehead, and she answered in a nostalgic tone. "This city holds special significance for me personally... Coming here once again makes me feel really surreal and um...er….. Just forget it. It was all in the past and nothing will come back to what it was before."
Her response piqued his interest, but seeing how emotional she was now, Bobby didn't question her further.
He observed around him using the X-ray mode of his Ocular skill, somewhere one and three-quarter kilometers away from their current location, he spotted a giant structure with Cyan color and a name tag over the wall and various illustrations, and he figured out that it was some sort of hospital.
"Alright, I know where I should go right now?" Bobby said, and then he began to walk toward the building while dragging Mr. Baldy over the ground.
"Hey, you seem to forget something important." Cynthia suddenly interjected.
"What?" He asked while he kept walking in his way.
"Have you noticed that the timeline here seems simpler for you than in the Martial Art Training Virtual Realm that you visited earlier?.... The point is that 1 hour here would still be 1 hour in the outside world." Cynthia explained patiently. "Oh, you have just half an hour, to begin with.
Using that calculation, you have 24 minutes left to get access inside this city, calculating according to how much time you have already wasted. So, whatever you are trying to do, just do it faster or you might need to pay more experience points and come back here once again."
As soon as he heard that he would have to spend more experience points in order to get here once again before he could accomplish his initial purpose of arriving here, the stingy part of him began to manifest and blood rushed through his body. "I still have more than one kilometer to walk. Hmm, this will not do."
In an instant, Bobby lifted a tonne of the heavy Mr. Baldy over his right shoulder and started running in the direction of the hospital.