CHAPTER 273: REPAIR.

"Finally!"

After twelve days spent in bed, sixteen including the ones he spent in a coma, Dante finally received permission to move around. He threw aside the cover and was about to jump to his feet, but a sudden jolt of pain petrified him halfway through the motion.

"I said you could get out, not that you could go back to living normally." Larry sighed. "You would still have to rest for another couple of weeks, but at least you can walk around and eat some solid food."

"Well, I guess that’s better than nothing..."

The first thing Dante did was get a proper shower. Larry’s Workshop didn’t offer anything like a sponge bath, so he was forced to sleep in his sweat for more than two weeks.

Walking after so long made him aware of how sluggish he had truly gotten. He expected to sense his new implants while moving around, but surprisingly, nothing felt out of the ordinary, as if he didn’t have metallic devices implanted into his body.

After washing himself, Dante stood in front of the full body mirror and checked himself.

’As I thought...’

Four long lines lines ran from his left shoulder all the way to his right flank. They were faint, barely noticeable, but just seeing them caused a sharp sting.

’Strange...’

Implanting the subdermal armor robbed him of his sense of touch around the torso, so it made no sense for him to feel the sting from being cut in those areas. Despite that, Dante vividly remembers the sting he felt when the furry bastard.

[I have made the necessary repairs on the Kinetic Absorption Protective Sub-Layer Generation 15 (C).] Volcan said. [It is back in near perfect condition.]

’It’s... repaired?’ Dante raised an eyebrow at his reflection. ’Wait, did it get damaged back when...’

[Yes. The damage had been limited so I was able to repaired relatively quickly.]

’I didn’t know you could do that.’

[It uses the same process as the upgrades so it is possible. Though I require additional materials to perform repairs.]

’I see...’ Pausing for a moment, Dante then asked. ’What about 9-3?’

[Type 9-3 has been fully restored while you were unconscious.]

’Did it require any materials?’

[No.] The AI replied. [It is difficult to explain, but the dimensional storage where all armors are kept has restorative capabilities. So long as an armor is unequipped, it will gradually return to its original state over time.]

’Huh... that’s great to hear...’

Done with his shower, Dante went and got another lecture from his doctor, in addition to some meds. Only then did they move to arguably the most important part.

"Your total is 4,670,000."

When Larry dropped the number, Dante felt that it would have been much better if he had remained in that coma forever. Apparently, the new implants cost about two million each, with a little extra paid for emergency delivery. An entire half million went to Larry, however, which was to be expected, considering everything he had to go through.

Just like that, the payment he got for siding with Klaus Stahlwölfe against the heroes was gone, all for a pair of D grade implants. Soon enough, he would be forced to buy more of those. He still had thirty million saved, but from the looks of it, that amount wouldn’t last long.

As he walked out of the Workshop, Dante looked up at the cloudy sky and took in the stench of the deeper parts of Hollowgrid.

’I need to sell those relics...’

The rich scion’s collection was worth a fortune, so he wasn’t about to sell any of the items it contained to a random pawn shop. He needed an expert used to dealing in such matters, one who could help him gain access to a respected auction house where society’s elites. When he asked Victor for help, he referred him to a certain suit-loving old man, but there was a little problem.

’Mr. Pike left the city...’ he let out a sigh. ’It will be some time before he comes back...’

Rose and Mr. Pike needed to lie low for a while, since they had been spotted by the NVPD forces during their escape. Since Volcan fried the brains of almost every officer that might have seen them, there was no real need to worry, but from the looks of it, they still wanted to make sure they weren’t being investigated before they resumed their usual activities.

’How’s that game of yours going?’ Dante asked after some time.

[I have been fiddling with some of the software used in game development.] Volcan replied. [Though I have produced several prototypes, none were of a satisfactory quality.]

’We will need to create a shell company to publish your games.’ He thought. ’We would also have to get IDs for employees and such.’

Depending on how fast Volcan could produce those games, it might be necessary to create several companies to mask the fact that everything was being produced by a single AI. Dante never was into games, but he had enough common sense to know that if someone were to start pumping products into a market, people would avoid them like the plague.

’I should look for other ways to make cash...’

If it were a hundred years ago, all his problems would have been solved with a quick trip to one of the big banks. There were many things he could steal to increase his fortune, but all of them required reselling, which would create a trail on top of the one he would be creating with multiple heists.

The authorities weren’t stupid. Even if he manages to erase all evidence each time, it wouldn’t take them long to start linking the dots and tightening the knot around his neck.

In order to avoid creating more threads that could lead back to him, it was clear that he would have to hold back on using Volcan’s armors, something he already planned on doing to avoid wrecking his body further. Whether he would be able to do so was still unclear, however.

’Guess it’s back to low-level gigs, huh...’