Chapter 38 In space with a junkyard ship

We sat there in silence, both looking at each other. It seemed that even here, the first to speak would be on the back foot. Those eyes of his that didn’t seem to blink looked like they were peeling away my secrets one layer at a time.

Something needed to change, so I decided to give up ground and look away. Fortunately, I had something to focus on—and that was all the artefacts placed around this suite.

The darkness might’ve been oppressive at the start, but the light coming in from the water beyond the windows was plenty of light for me to see everything.

Or at least I thought so.

As I focused back on Vir Kir, he made a noise with his fingers. It resembled a snap, but it was different in how it sounded—more reminiscent of the sound grasshoppers make.

Then, to my other shock, a person appeared out of nowhere. He had dark reddish skin, but I was surprised that I hadn’t sensed anyone else here. It must be magic that was hiding him.

“Baron, you called for me?” the servant said. However, I don’t know if I would call him a servant per se—perhaps a protector—because he looked quite capable, especially with how he could hide himself.

“Yes. Bring us... Let me think what humans might like... Marikolian whiskey, I think, and the leaf of Ferronelis.”

“At once,” the servant said and disappeared with a pop, me not being able to find any trace of him.

“Teleportation?” I slowly whispered out, trying to understand how he was moving so fast.

“That is exactly it. He does great work,” Vir Kir said.

And as I looked at him again, I knew that I had lost that exchange. He seemed pleased about it, but I didn’t mind too much. I was not here to win. I just couldn’t afford to lose.

Before I could speak, the servant popped up again, putting two glasses in front of us, then placing an ashtray between us on the table. He pulled out two cigars, presenting one to Vir Kir, who took it, smelled it, and then gave a small nod.

The servant then offered me the other one, and I did as Vir Kir did, smelling it. It had a wonderful smell to it that I couldn’t exactly place. But I most definitely wanted to smoke it, even though for humans this would cause quite a lot, as some would describe: wonderful effects. For me, who needed to stay clear-headed, it would have been a problem if I still had a normal human body.

I had seen this type of ritual before up at the bar. What you’re supposed to do is light up the cigar, enjoy the first inhale, and then on your second, before you breathe out, you take a sip of the whiskey. Only then can you blow out the smoke.

The third and final step is to just enjoy the whiskey on its own. Afterwards, you could do what you want, in whatever order or way you wanted to.

I did not know if it was rude or not to start to do this ritual before my host, but perhaps I needed to do it first. Whatever was the case, I chose to start.

We didn’t speak. The servant had disappeared, but I didn’t hear the pop of him disappearing with teleportation. Damn, those were some scary skills. Assassinations must pay quite well in this type of society.

The cigar was wonderful, and my nanites eliminated all the unnecessary effects. The whiskey itself wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but if I closed my eyes, I could picture being in a normal bar back on Earth, drinking this, without ever suspecting it might have come from an alien planet.

Vir Kir had also finished the starting ritual and seemed kind of pleased. Now I understood that everything he was showing me was on purpose. All the facial expressions, the mannerisms—everything was to mimic humans, but I still appreciated that effort.

“My time isn’t unlimited. You came here to offer me, I’m hoping, at least full movies of the previews you had. Because if you don’t even have that, well, I’m afraid that would be an insult I would need to answer in kind.”

“I have so much more than that.”

One by one, I pulled out the memory cards I had. Stacking them on top of each other until it was twenty high, then starting another stack that soon matched the height of the first one. Lastly, I put the last memory card I had crossways on top of the other two stacks.

“With the size of the memory cards, you're presenting me with nearly 400 petabytes of data. That's a lot of data, but I have to disappoint you.”

“While holo films are what the corporations sell and nowadays almost the only pieces of this type of entertainment, we find them lacking.  You should have known that from all the entertainment shown in the bar above.”

He seemed a bit disappointed, but I could understand why he would think it contained holo films. That’s what, for over the past 100 years, corporations produced and sold to the public.

Holo films are what’s called any piece of entertainment shown to you in a VR simulation. They put you inside the medium. Usually, you’re supposed to be one of the characters, and while it sounds amazing, I do agree that somehow it does not feel quite right.

Yes, it’s entertaining, you get an amazing experience, but—and I don’t know if their name is on purpose or not—they feel somehow hollow.

The first time seeing a real movie, I cursed the entertainment industry of the time. No wonder entertainment like that had fallen quite far in popularity.

For the first time, I had a proper smile on my face. “There isn’t a singular holo film on here.”

Now it was almost like I could feel the interest coming off of him like heat waves.

When I looked at the stack of memory cards, a sudden realization fell over me. I don’t know how long I stared at them, but it was long enough for him to notice.

“You’re looking at those memory cards like someone looks at a picture of a lost lover,” he said, leaning in, waiting for my answer.

Placing my hand on the memory cards and holding it there for a moment, only then did I finally answer.

“There was a golden age for entertainment before corporations completely took over and before the domination of VR MMOs. The masterpieces made in that era were good enough to keep the corporate entertainment sector busy for well over 100 years, turning out endless copies of once-great works.”

“It was well before my time. I had only known the entertainment that was available, thinking it was fine enough to go and see. Because of some complications, I didn’t have a way to enjoy the most popular form of entertainment—that of VR MMOs.

“There was an underground that still shared and safeguarded the original works, and because of some choices, I was able to see one of those masterpieces from long ago.”

Now I looked at him properly, and I saw that he was hanging on every word. Most likely, if I was lying to him or telling anything but the absolute truth, he’d figure me out—so the absolute truth it must be.

“I was hooked immediately and started to collect. In time that passion faded, but it never went away entirely. My collection was decent enough, but I didn’t have much time or resources to truly focus on it. Yet after the event that eventually led me here, it was easy enough to liberate the secret safe houses where the real collectors held their collections.”

“On these memory cards, there are hundreds of thousands of movies, music, many shows, other pieces of entertainment. There are even some sports games, the most famous matches.”

“There are games from the beginning of the electronic gaming era up until the VR MMOs. There are so many books—more than a person can read in a hundred lifetimes—and the most famous pieces of art ever created by humans.”

“While the main focus of it all is on the golden age of entertainment, the most famous pieces of entertainment and art in all of human history are all here. These 41 memory cards hold the most significant cultural achievements of humanity.”

“Why is this on the table? This should be held in golden halls, protected by humanity's greatest warriors,” Vir Kir said so softly I could barely hear it.

It was a good question.

“Well, I assume it’s worth quite a lot.”

It looked like I offended his very soul with that, he was so taken aback.

“But the real answer is most of this would disappear. I have no doubt that there are copies of basically everything on here in the hands of other humans, but they would, like you say, be protected. And by protecting it, no one else would get to experience it, until eventually something went wrong and even those copies would be destroyed.”

“So what, you are doing this to protect the greatest creations of humanity?”

“So many would hate me for what I’m about to do, but what’s the point of a book that just sits and collects dust? What’s the point of a movie that never gets watched? Millions upon millions of hours went into making all of this, but I don’t want it to disappear. So yes, I’m selling it for personal gain, but in doing so, they would never be forgotten.”

“I can tell that you are telling the truth, and with that, you have earned my respect. But I have to ask. Why do you think I wouldn’t just place them in my collection for no one else to see?”

“Now now, don’t be like that. I know how your operation works. You’re not just competition for the corporations, your organisation is a direct competitor. It’s a lot harder to buy and find what you sell, and while you do have copy protections, a person that buys from you still gets a real digital version that they could actually own, unlike with the corporations.”

“I see you have a similar kind of hate for the corporations as I do. They are unfortunately a necessary kind of evil.”

To that, I gave a nod.

“And apparently, you understand that. I didn’t expect that. Remi Graves, you’re more interesting than I first thought. I assume all of it is copy-protection free?” he said while indicating toward the stack of memory cards.

“Yes, all of it, although some games are a bit finicky.”

“Good, good. But for now, this is still all just theoretical.”

“Of course. Take a memory card at random and test it.”

Once again, he made that sound with his fingers, which must have been at least two times longer than mine. Immediately, the servant appeared. I pulled my hand back, and he took a random memory card and then, with a pop, disappeared.

“Now I’m going to assume, when he comes back, he will come back with good news. This leaves us with the topic of payment. And it would go against tradition for me to not bring up that apparently I hold all the cards right now. From what I’ve seen, you are not stupid. So please, show me what card you have to play for me to not just throw you out and keep all that you have brought.”

My hand fell on my revolver, and I pulled the hammer back.

“Now I’m afraid you are overestimating yourself here. That gun wouldn’t be able to scratch me.”

“It’s not the gun you should be worried about, but the bullet. Before I got here, I needed to go through a scan, and I was surprised that your scans didn't pick it up.”

He focused on the gun, and then his huge eyes seemed to get even bigger.

“You’re a madman! How did you even get it into the city?”

“Of course, your hand. The same way you brought the memory cards. Well, it seems that I stand corrected. I assume you know that even that wouldn’t stop me, but now I understand why you didn’t even try to draw your gun.”

There was a moment of pause after that, like he was deciding what to do.

“So be it. We will deal as equals.”

With that, I slowly uncocked the revolver with a big smile on my face.

“Your human smile is kind of curious. It shows happiness but can also show so many different emotions, but not real aggression. For almost every other species out there, a smile conveys threat. Do you know why it is different for your kind? I am curious.”

For a moment I thought, before I gave him the answer I thought might be correct.

“We humans don't have any natural weapons. Especially our teeth, they’re just for eating. Usually, other species have at least a pair meant for attacking. So when they smile, it shows their weapon. It would be the same as me brandishing my weapon,” I said while patting my revolver.

“A perfectly logical explanation. Thank you. Now back to business. You know, you have put me in quite the bind. This would be a bit troublesome, so as I think on this, let me ask you a question…”

“Would you now be interested in being a collector, as you seemingly had the spark before?”

“No,” was my immediate response. “Now I have other interests, and while I do enjoy, especially music, I now know my proper passion.”

“Unfortunate, but understandable. That being said, you will contribute quite a lot. It is kind of funny. You have been in this galaxy for so little time, yet you're already touching the true powers. You humans are curious, and I suspect some interesting times are ahead that will most definitely bring plenty of wonderful historical events.”

Before I was able to ask about all of that, the servant popped back in and placed the memory card back into its stack.

“It was all as he said,” the servant reported with a deep bow towards us both.

“Individually, all of this would approximately go for about 700 million mana credits. Yet you have brought me a collection that probably no one else would ever sell me, of a world that is now destroyed.”

My head snapped to him.

“Yes yes, I know more than you think. Now, back to this wonderful collection you have brought.”

“Here’s what I will do. I will offer you 950 million mana credits and give you a position of honored seller in the organisation I’m a part of. Now to clarify, it wouldn’t make you a member, but it would make you an associate, and it would help you more than you think. Other than that, I will also not buy this from you if you think about selling it to the corporations.”

“Now that I would never do. But I honestly thought that you would ask me to not sell it to anyone but you.”

“The other Barons of Entertainment wouldn’t stand for it. Although you would never be able to sell it for such a high price after this, as then every other Baron would only be buying it to have a copy protection version of it.”

“Can you tell me more about this organisation?”

He sat back, thinking, before looking at his servant, who hadn’t actually disappeared this time.

“Give him a primer and what his new status means, but nothing more than that. He would need to discover his own way after that. It’s part of the journey, after all. But now our time has come to an end, as I’m going to be quite busy.”

He stood up, and so did I. Vir Kir looked me over one more time before seemingly making up his mind.

“It was a pleasure to meet you, Mage Captain Remi Graves of the Forward Horizon. I hope we will meet again, but in a more proper setting.”

“It was wonderful meeting you, Vir Kir Dern, a Baron of Entertainment,” I answered back with a slight bow.

He answered with a similar bow, and then I followed the servant toward the elevator.

Halfway to the elevator, he popped out, which confused me for a bit, but almost immediately, he popped back, now holding a decently sized briefcase.

He opened the elevator doors, handed me the briefcase—which weighed quite a lot—then pulled out a memory card from his breast pocket and handed me that.

“Your mana credits, in the form of high-value metal, and the primer. There will be someone waiting for you at the top.”

And with that, the elevator door closed, and I started to move upwards.

All of that seems to have gone well, at least I think so. Hopefully, I will survive my trip back to the ship, because now I should have plenty of credits to not just build my ship but also properly start advancing myself and learning more magic.