Matthew Atkinson & Natalie Russell
Eighth Layer of the Supernatural Realm
"Aech has agreed to meet with you and listen to your request. But I can't guarantee he'll accept. I'll take you to his workshop. Where are you right now?" Parzival said.
"We're at the player hub right now. Where would you like to meet?" Matthew asked.
"Okay. Aech's workshop is also at Incipio. Meet me in front of Avatar Outfitters. I'll be there in 5 minutes," Parzival said and ended the call.
Matthew immediately found Avatar Outfitters on the map panel. Although it wasn't very far from their current location, it would still take time to get there on foot.
"Let's use the teleportation portals, Nat. Otherwise, it'll take us about 15 minutes to walk."
"Okay," Natalie said. And they both started walking towards the nearest portal.
Their journey through the portal took just under two minutes. After waiting a few minutes, they saw Parzival emerge from a portal near Avatar Outfitters.
Parzival looked around for a few seconds, then noticed Matthew and started walking towards them.
"Hi, you know me. But again, I'm Parzival. Nice to meet you," Parzival said.
"Hi, Parzival. I'm Pirate King, and the person next to me is my girlfriend, Pirate Queen. But you can call us King and Queen for short," Matthew said.
"Hello," Natalie said afterwards.
"Aech's workshop is on the other side of the planet. I'll send you its location, and we'll go there via the portal," Parzival said.
"Sure. We're ready. We can go right away," Matthew said.
Then Parzival sent them the location. And the three of them walked towards the portal.
Parzival went ahead, and Matthew and Natalie followed him. When the two of them emerged from the portal, Parzival was waiting for them.
"Follow me," Parzival said and began to walk. Matthew and Natalie followed him.
After walking for a few minutes, they arrived at the door of a workshop that, although not very new from the outside, was quite large.
Parzival slid open the workshop door and stepped inside. "Come in," he said.
Matthew and Natalie entered, and Parzival closed the workshop door behind them. Then he shouted, "Aech, we're here!"
Then, a tall cyborg, intimidating to those unfamiliar with him, walked from the depths of the workshop, approached them, and glared at them with his hands crossed across his chest.
"Aech, these are the Pirate King and the Pirate Queen. But they use "King" and "Queen" as short forms. Guys, this is Aech, the person you wanted to meet. One of OASIS's best mechanics."
"So, you're the ones who used Parzival to arrange this meeting with me. But I advise you not to get your hopes up too high. I don't accept small projects, and my fee isn't cheap," Aech said.
"Hello, Aech. I'm sure you'll like our request, and money isn't an issue. But can you give me a minute?" Matthew said.
And Matthew was serious. The project Matthew and Natalie requested would likely be among the most significant Aech had ever undertaken.
And regarding the money... Matthew glanced at his coins on the panel. 360,924,595,601 coins. These were the coins he had left after making a 5,000-coin prepayment to Parzival.
He had approximately 361 billion coins. And these were just his coins. Natalie also had about the same amount.
After the fourth layer, the Supernatural Realm distributed the total coins earned equally among the team members.
Otherwise, those who entered the eighth layer with different team members might be at a disadvantage. After all, in the fourth layer of the Supernatural Realm, the team's grade was determined by the person with the highest kill count and coin count.
Therefore, many teams in the fourth layer devised strategies to maximize the number of deaths and the amount of coins a single person could accumulate. If the coins weren't shared in this layer, many people could have been at a disadvantage.
After asking for a minute, Matthew quickly completed a few transactions on the panel and sent the remaining 5,000 coins to Parzival and the 10,000 coins he had promised to Aech.
After all, he had promised it, and he had no intention of breaking his word.
But he could earn some brownie points by fulfilling his promise immediately and making the other party feel indebted to him.
"Hey. Why did coins appear in my account?" Aech asked, noticing the coin count on the panel rise.
"I sent the coins I promised to Parzival and you. I promised, and I'm not one to break my word. So, I wanted to get it out of the way," Matthew said.
"Okay. That was a cool move, man. I liked you guys. What do you want me to do?" Aech said, shedding his previous rigid demeanor and adopting a relaxed attitude.
But before Matthew could open his mouth, Parzival interrupted. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked.
"No need. You can stay here and listen to the conversations. But if you have something you need to take care of, that's up to you," Matthew said to Parzival, then turned to Aech and continued, "What we want you to do is build the two best vehicles ever made for us."
"Oh. Those are ambitious words. What exactly do you have in mind?" Aech asked.
"We need two vehicles for the race to the first key. Preferably motorcycle-style. But we don't want ordinary standard vehicles. We need custom-made vehicles that are unrivaled in certain areas," Matthew said.
"Exactly which areas?" Aech asked.
"Speed, Versatility, Appearance, Defense, Attack, Energy, System. These seven areas are the ones we're primarily evaluating," Matthew said.
And these weren't Matthew's own criteria. The Supernatural Realm would evaluate and grade the vehicles against these criteria.
Each criterion was rated on a scale from E to SSS, and the average of all grades would determine the vehicle's final grade.
"You want performance in many areas, but you need to give me a base point. Otherwise, I can't understand what you want," Aech said.
After a few seconds of thought, Matthew quickly began processing on his panel.
After finding vehicles for auction online, Matthew chose one of the most advanced and downloaded its design schematic: a modified Batpod.
He then uploaded the schematic to the design program that Supernatural Realm provided as standard to everyone.
This basic design program might not be suitable for high-level modification and development, but it was sufficient for evaluating vehicle designs.
After uploading the Batpod design to the program, the design's criteria evaluations appeared.
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[Modified Batpod]
Speed: A
Versatility: B
Appearance: A
Defense: A
Attack: B
Energy: B
System: C
Final Grade: B
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Although this Batpod was modified for the first key race and was among the best vehicles on the market, none of its criteria even reached the S level.
Therefore, Matthew wanted a custom-built vehicle because even if standard vehicles were modified, they couldn't reach very high levels.
After reviewing the program evaluation and looking at the criteria grades, Matthew sent the Batpod design to Aech.
Aech opened and examined the file he received, then said, "This is one of the most expensive vehicles on the market. A modified Batpod. Do you want a vehicle with features like this?"
"Not really. I will give you my evaluation of this vehicle, then specify the level I want. This way, you will have a base point." Matthew said.
"I see. I'll be waiting for your evaluation of this Batpod then."
Matthew nodded, then wrote the Batpod's evaluations from his program onto the panel and sent them to Aech. "I've sent it now."
"Hmm... A letter-based evaluation? We don't usually use such evaluations for vehicles. What's the lowest letter grade?" Aech asked.
"Level D."
"Is level A the highest level?" Aech asked.
"No. Above the A level, there are S, SS, and SSS levels. And what I want is for you to produce two vehicles that meet all the criteria at the SSS level," Matthew said.
Aech froze for a moment, then said, "Are you serious?"
"Quite," said Matthew.
"Look, buddy. What you're asking for is crazy. I can't even imagine how much money you'll have to spend on it... The best thing to do is..." Aech was about to continue, but Matthew interrupted him.
"1 million coins," he said.
"What?" Aech asked, looking confused.
"If you can produce a vehicle that meets my specifications, I'll pay you 1 million coins. For each vehicle," Matthew said.
"Dude, do you even hear what you're saying?" Aech said in astonishment.
"I've said it before. Coins aren't a problem. Besides, this fee is only for your service. I'll provide all the necessary materials. You probably know where to get the materials cheaply on the market. So, I'll leave the purchase to you and pay you the market price for each material. You can keep the profit you make." Matthew said.
"You're crazy. But I like this. We have a deal." Aech said.
"Great. But let me warn you from the start. We'll work on the design first, and I'll ask you to make revisions until we approve the design. You need to be prepared for that." Matthew said.
"That suits me. That will save me on unnecessary expenses." Aech said.
"Also, we need vehicles for the next race. So, we have about six days." Matthew said.
"As long as we agree with the design, building two vehicles won't take more than a day. Of course, provided we get the materials." Aech said.
"As soon as we agree on the design, I'll transfer all the material costs. And two million when vehicles are completed. Parzival's remaining fee will be paid when the cars are finished. Is that okay?"
"Sure," Aech said.
"Then we'll wait for the design from you, Aech. You can contact us by panel. We'll be a little busy this week, but my calls will be open." Matthew said.
"Okay. I'll send you the first design when it's finished," Aech said.
Then Matthew and Natalie left Aech's garage and started heading towards the portal.
"What are we going to do now?" Natalie asked.
"While waiting for Aech to call back, I want to visit the Halliday Journals. If there's a clue about the race, it should be there."
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Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.153: Transformers
Ch.154: Towards the Last Day
Ch.155: Witch's Bloodline