CHAPTER 64: CHIP COLLECTING

Julian walked over to the corpses.

Everywhere was unnaturally dark, and if not for his helmet, he wouldn’t have been able to see.

The ground had some bits of brown grass, and Julian concluded that that would be as a result of too much war and the scorching heat it would have brought.

This seemed to be a wasteland, where broken things were kept.

Broken spaceships and vehicles made him affirm as he could see many here.

He walked past them, focused on reaching the corpse of dead people. Majority were soldiers, but only little were civilians.

According to his findings after the war was over, he learnt that not many civilians were killed.

It seemed it was the soldiers who paid the main price.

After some minutes of walking, Julian finally arrived to the where the corpses were.

They were reeking badly, and it caused a great upset in his belly. He had to move back from the corpse.

"Sheesh!" Julian exclaimed. "And it had not been long I just finished eating."

Seems he had been talking to Xea because it came along and said to him:

’[From a god you’ve turned to a weakling?]’ Xea asked.

Julian smiled.

"This isn’t a matter of weaklings or being brave," he said. "By the way, how do I not smell again? Surprisingly I’ve been getting more convenient power-ups these days. Perhaps another one haha."

’[Frankly, it seems your system’s giving you random powers for every situation, but I don’t think that’s the thing though. I personally think you’ve earned every single one of them.]’

’[And as for the not breathing stuff, well, I think your helmet should have it. It’s designed in case a wild villain who happens to have a pollution system shows up, you’ll just activate, play dead and then strike!]’

Julian nodded in the affirmative.

"How do I activate it?" he asked.

’[There ought to be a button by the side of your jaw.]’

Julian nodded again in the affirmative and touched a very tiny button he just noticed for the first time since being in this armor by his jaw.

Nothing seemed to happen.

And so..., silence.

"It’s done?" he asked Xea.

’[Yes,]’ came the reply from Xea. ’[You’ll be surprised that there are still many things about your armor that you don’t know about.]’

Julian looked surprised.

"Well..., would you like to tell me so I just don’t know surprisingly like what just happened now?"

Xea didn’t have emotions (at least to Julian’s understanding and not until when a plot twist happened).

Xea was literally an ancient alien device which had helped the former galactic knights. Julian was certain it wouldn’t have emotions.

It having wouldn’t come as a surprise though, as anything was possible.

At this point in Julian’s life, any damn thing was possible! And there was still a lot to know.

Xea imitated a laugh.

’[Hahahaha,]’ Xea laughed, sounding all mechanical and like someone that wasn’t actually laughing. Almost like someone that was actually learning how to laugh.

’[I can’t possibly tell you, it’ll ruin the fun. I just want you to be excited each time you see one. Makes it fun.]’

Julian shrugged.

Well, alright. If that was how it was, then he wouldn’t mind getting surprised with every new thing he found out about his system or his armor.

Julian now walked closer to the corpse. The rotten smell was no longer there. The sickening smell of blood and fart were no longer present.

At this point, Julian could no longer smell at all.

The button he pressed seemed to twist a certain ’bolt’ around the face of the helmet, leaving Julian to be smell-free.

That made it easier to pick up the chips, and as Julian checked through the soldiers, as he had expected, he found many, which he took and dissolved in his palm, which was covered by armor-like gloves that were bendable.

He kept collecting, and soon he was done, having collected a damn lot.

The only problem here was that he had expected the chips to be a bit bigger. But they looked small, and he wasn’t sure they would be so useful after all.

But then, he remembered what he had learnt when he first became the galactic knight. It was that chips come in all shapes and sizes. Some were large, some average, and others little, just like this one.

Julian shrugged. Perhaps they were still worth the usual, even though they were little in number.

Julian stood up now, as he had been earlier behind a corpse, taking out the chip and dissolving it in his hands.

Julian looked around him. He could see nothing. He had expected to at least see trouble, but as it seemed, trouble didn’t quite belong here anymore.

After the massive war that occurred earlier in the day, he was certain there would be no more.

It was time for merrying, and he too should be merrying, but he had much better things to do, which was chip collecting.

He wondered how he had even gotten here, how he had pulled out the company of Rehul, Matt, Zyan and the other guy whose name he had completely forgotten... damn.

Well, they actually left the hall together. Zayn ate too much, he had an upset and went to poo, while Matt and the other soldier were too full and went straight to bed.

Rehul was too tired to do any act with him, and so she went to bed. He too wasn’t so interested either. He still loved Rehul, but he needed someone new for a change, someone different at least, someone new to add to his harem.

Standing up, Julian walked away from where the corpses were and summoned the stat of his Exoin fragments.

It appeared in front of his eyes, feeling like it was hanging in the air and he just could see it.

[Exoin fragments: 71/100]

Julian almost yelled.

" ’Bout time!"

But then, he suppressed his excitement. It had been hell of a time, Julian must admit.

The dead bodies were very many, and even though he didn’t go through all, the few ones he went to brought him this.

He was tempted to go back and continue, hoping that he would find many chips, but then he saw that he had taken all from the top, and that if he went back, he would have to start pushing and pulling and pushing again and pulling and..., that would be a lot of work.

He needed rest himself.

He wondered what would happen if one reached 100 in the chip fragments. He was certain there’d be more large fractions and so on.

I mean, you can’t get enough Exoin fragments, can you?

Julian decided to go back and pack more.

Just as he was turning back, he heard a low growl. Alerted, Julian clenched his fists and looked around, wondering what the hell that was.

He thought he would never have to fight again.

Something flung at him. Julian had quick reflexes. He dodged, rolled on the ground, and scanned through his visor what it was.

Just as he did so, he saw half crab, half wolf. It had the face of a wolf, body of a wolf, except for its chest, which looked like that of a crab.

It had pincers for hands, carrying a wolf’s leg.

Julian exhaled. No one told him there were animals like this on this planet.

Well, who was to tell him? He planned to know more about the planet tomorrow.

The crab-wolf-looking creature was growling and staring at Julian right in the eye like it didn’t give a fuck.

Julian grinned under his helmet. Well, he didn’t give a fuck either. This was only another creature to collect lots of chips from.

After all, Exoin fragments came in any size and shape, and the general term to describe one which is an Exoin fragment is ’chip.’