Imperia: Return Of The Empire

The girls were happy, seated down on a tarp which had been once used for their tent. They opened the green tinted cans, using the metal fork attached to the outside to peal it open.

Inside of the Lunch MRE cans was a small metal collapsible grill with flammable materials to be used as fuel. Vycter ended up showing them out to use it. After removing the little grill from the can there was a medium sized packet of water, three sweetened condensed milk packets, three butter biscuits, a bar of chocolate, mixed green beans with garlic and butter sauce, Squid in Ink and Mashed potatoes.

Vycter used the cans which the food was in as plates. Eventually the girls had a several course meal in front of themselves.

Soniya's mouth was watering like there was no tomorrow and Kayelin's eyes were beaming with delight. He could only see that the girls were having a good time. At least the two of them were.

He looked over at Ceilia who was simply staring at the food which was before her. She had a stoic expression, as if she was either trying to hide her happiness or her disgust. She just had an overall cool feeling about her.

Shrugging to himself, he was not going to bother with confronting her and slowly got up from the ground as they were all seated in a semi-circle around himself. Once he was on his feet, he looked over towards the pod several meters away.

"He would have liked this food," Ceilia said abruptly, suddenly her face was beaming with a mixture of happiness and fear.

'Hey system, what happened to being a pillar?' Vycter asked in his mind as he didn't really know how to respond to this girl's sudden speech. He watched as they began eating before walking towards the pod.

[ You may be their pillar, but they aren't robots. You just stand on top. ] The system stated which kind of changed what he understood from before. So apparently when it came to the relationship hierarchy, he was literally just the top of the pyramid.

Once he was in front of the pod, looking over Emile's expression of fear, he shook his head slightly. This guy was too young to die, but he definitely lived more than Vycter ever did. Which he felt a little envious of.

Opening the item shop he would bring out a set of plastic explosives and began harmlessly rigging the body to explode once it was removed from the seat. The explosives were seamlessly hidden, almost impossible to see or sense. Strapping the kid into place, he would close the pod door and walk away from the pod.

Several minutes after he had finished eating with the girls, they packed up their things and he dispensed the trash into his inventory then proceeded to recycle them. In response the system spoke up again.

[ Fifteen notes have neem received for recycling these materials. ] An automatic voice sounded with the words which scrolled.

"Nice," he stated with a light chuckle. Apparently he could make money by recycling objects. Though he wasn't going to recycle the girls' things or Emile's. He needed the objects in Emile's bag to have clothes. On the other hand, the girls needed clothes too.

"Military police are on their way here," Vycter announced to his party. The girls didn't know whether or not to laugh or cry.

They couldn't tell whether or not he was joking. Of course this was because she didn't know about his Hub, let alone his abilities.

"Are you serious?!" Kayelin spouted as she held both sides of her head, the only one who seemed to be suddenly panicking as she figured this man was serious since he didn't follow up with anything else.

He blinked at this reaction which the others lacked. "I'm guessing you don't want to be found by them either," Vycter deduced with a snicker as he walked over and patted the top of her head.

"They're several kilometers away, if we keep going at a slow jog, they won't catch up right away. Plus, I don't see– hear any air support." He informed before nudging them in front of himself as they began to jog away.

Soniya giving a slight glance behind herself with a light sigh. They were leaving Emile behind and the only reason why he had come along was because Soniya left town. If only she hadn't told him about the plan to escape conscription. Despite the man with them now being their pillar, she couldn't help but feel guilty.

[ Quest Added: Evade Military Patrols w/o Detection. 5,000 EXP. Enhanced Stealth. ] The system began to release several quest notifications which were full of EXP and other rewards. [ Quest Added: Establish a Forward Operating Base. 500 EXP. Base Shop Function. ] When he saw the function that was going to be added, he could only imagine what it was used for. Could they instantly fabricate a base? Though a thought occurred to him that it may not be able to do this right away, his smile never made it to his face. [ Quest Added: Kill Five MPs. 2,500 EXP. ]

Then something surprising appeared which he was almost a loss for words. [ Quest Added: Create a Harem through Indoctrinate. S Stength. Progress: 3/12. ] The reward for this quest was astounding, he almost made an astonished expression if it weren't for him eating a biscuit during the idle jog.

…

Several hours later there was an explosion klicks away from their location. The girls flinched at the sound, yet the man standing between the three of them was grinning like an idoit.

[ Mission Complete. 2,500 EXP rewarded. Level Up. Level Up. ] A voice rang out full of praise, as if it had been a good thing to kill people. Though there was also many other people who died from the explosion which continued to give him 250 EXP each. It seemed he had killed twenty five people with the tap he had placed in the pod.

"Why are you smi…" Soniya's heart almost sank when she figured out why he was smiling. He had been the one who set the explosives. That was the reason why he had left them alone for a few minutes at the campsite. "You didn't."

"I didn't." Vycter repeated with his head tilted to the side with an innocent look upon his face. He was playing dumb, as if it wasn't obvious that he had just killed around thirty people. He even leveled up a few more times to the point that he was level seven.

Ceilia almost burst out laughing, as soon as her cheeks were puffed up and her hand covering her mouth. Her eyes showed an amused expression.

Kayelin let out a soft sigh knowing that the people hunting for whoever was in the pod as well as deserters and runaways would be postponed for the time being.

Hurrying along they would continue hiking for almost the rest of the day. By the time they reached the foot of an uninhabited Mountain, they sat down to rest on some conveniently placed rocks which varied in size.

Vycter sat on the largest flat topped rock and crossed his legs. It was nice to be able to move around like this. They could all see the joyous, almost child-like, smile across his face as he was enjoying nature.

It was unsettling for Soniya however since the man had been the cause of many deaths already, that he was smiling. Though the only reason Vycter hadn't cracked was due to the fact that his memories were melding with the Soldier of the same name. And within the memories of the soldier, he had killed many people already. He had even had ordered other people to kill for him.

Opening his character sheet, revealing thirty five skill points, he would open the skill shop and begin scrolling again. After seeing many of the skills lower in price due to him now having a higher level, he blinked a few times. Telekinesis was no longer over a thousand, but it still cost hundreds of points.

Letting out a sigh, he would continue to look over other prospective skills he could use. That's when he came across Full Customization which sounded like a complete cheat skill. It had various uses, including transmutation of materials and adding of effects to inanimate objects. He could even bestow anti-aging effects to accessories and implants to stop the wearer from aging.

Looking at the price, he was surprised. It was exactly thirty-five points, as if it had looked at how much he had and changed its own price. Selecting the skill he would hit purchase and suddenly felt a low ringing in his head. A few moments later he could feel warmth in the back of his head as the ability was given to him.

He now had zero skill points to use, but he definitely got what he needed.

"Do any of you know how to use a gun?" Vycter asked curiously with a brow raised. However the girls shook their head.

Ceilia stared at him for a few moments before sighing and explaining as he looked confused. "Instead of training its populace with fire arms, they heavily restricted the distribution of guns ten years ago at the start of the War. We've never even touched a toy shaped like a gun."

The man grimaced at what he had just heard. They were at war and yet they didn't give their largest army, the civilians, weapons to fight back? Were they insane? Looking up towards the sky, he could see explosions still going on far above the atmosphere.

Vycter had played many realistic shooting games, so he knew the general idea of how to reload and shoot a gun. Though not matter what simulations never show you how to do things. The only good thing about this body though was that he had some of the Space Marine's skills.

Getting up from the stone he was seated upon, Vycter made his way towards the steepest area of the mountain which was almost as steep as a gently tilted wall. Reaching forward, the stone and dirt in front of him warped slightly.

A customization menu appeared in front of himself which showed chunk of the mountain within his range. He created a small opening that the four of them could squeeze through and gradually made wider rooms. Each which he would light with a mineral known as glow stone which kept everything dimly lit.

Ceilia was the only one paying attention to him as the others were fiddling with their dinner packets. She walked over and watched as the interior of the mountain was changed.

While at the entrance it looked like just natural stone upon the ground, if one were to squeeze inside, there were tiles on the ground and the walls were polished slabs of granite.

When she grabbed his sleeve, he glanced over at her and arched a brow. "What is it Ceilia?"

"So you really do know our names…" She laughed awkwardly before looking at the hole he had made. "Are you a Psionic?" This was the only way this could be explained. This world had two different types of powers. Magic and Psionic. Pisonics were people who have extreme intelligence and have a latent talent. Magic on the other hand uses external forces and energies to do miracles. Though at the same time, Magic also needed a large amount of intelligence. A Pisonic could use magic, as long as they had a quality affinity for it.

"Y-yes." Vycter stuttered slightly seeing that the girl deduced this by just watching him. Though he didn't know how obvious he was being, considering he barely interacted with people outside of virtual space.

"Everyone, let's go inside," he would motion for them to usher inside before going in. He was followed by Ceilia and then the other two of them followed suit. When they found themselves inside of the area which he had carved into the mountain, they were giving looks of astonishment.

No one could have imagined so much detail had been used here. From the slab walls to the tiled floor and even the glow stone which lined the tops and bottoms of the walls, and along edges of the floor and ceiling.

However it was rather cold inside since it didn't have any natural heating, and it was in the middle of autumn. They could very well freeze to death in here if he didn't do something.

That's when he bought a portable heater powered by quantum batteries, which it thankfully came with. It had over a years time before it stopped working If it was on the entire year. Which meant they had a handful of months for two years.

[ Quest Complete, Establish FOB. Rewards Rewarded. ]