'A Fragile box?'

The World today, is not the one what i have experienced in my previous life, which i lived too little even to experience it properly. I don't remember much about how I died or what type of person I really was, but I have some faded memories lingering deep inside my soul which make me think about the blatant miracle happened to me-

I can remember my previous life, maybe by luck, or just a mis-fortunate happening.

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"Raiden! Raiden!...Evaluate the stuff I am sending down...Over!"

A sound came out of the earpiece I had in.

It was boss's voice, which always saved me up of my ocean of thoughts- which seem to drown me everytime no matter, if I am working or taking breath.

I opened the sliding door of the lift, and there came a box covered with rugged cloth on it.

I lifted it up, and found it not really too heavy as it seemed to be from the weird packaging it had on it.

Taking it over on my table, which was full of instruments and parts of useless artefacts splattered all over- I cut opened the package carefully, which had a 'Fragile' marking on its one side written with some Marker or Pen.

Inside it, A black rectangular Reinforced box was there, which had a red 'Half-Blood moon' sign on it- and all of a sudden, I realized it was the sign of the previous Alien Governate which was ruling here in the Dark era started three centuries ago, before the Vizag Human Navy finally got control over the Kolkata city in the end of the Dark era.

It meant a direct predictability of the material inside it to be of great value, as it might be from the 2200s, meaning the valued price of this stuff must be over a Hundred Ducats already.

I hurriedly checked the sides of the box, and scanned it three or four times to get confirmed of my speculation, and yeah- it was really from the Dark era, and it also had some numbers written on its back- 'Two' 'Two' 'Four' 'seven'.

I immediately sent a message to the Boss that it's a Epic-class value stuff, and asked him I can only tell the real value after opening the box.

A minute after, a message came with assertion, and I excitedly got my hands on the 'three-cloaked lock', which was as same as its name sounded- three locks intertwined with same keyhole, meaning if anyone wants to open it, he or she will need a key which will open all three locks at once.

Well, It's a easy business for me.

Not because I am opening stuff every other day, But because It's one of the basic skill of Base-raiders.

'Lock-picking'

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Within a minute or two, with a 'click' sound- I had opened that Alien lock and was ready to open the box.

I pushed the 'Open' Button, which was now green because of my unlocking the Lock.

With a slide on both sides, the box opened with a transforming mechanism, sliding up something which can be called as a lot of papers sewn together with a cover on the outside or in simple words- 'a physical book'.

It was something extinct, and nowhere to be easily found these days, when all studies are done with a digital simulation system- which just needs a week or two complete getting the knowledge needed to be an engineer. Though it's costs are high, it's very popular.

Seeing a 'physical book' again, made me remember of the books I saw under the basements of Victoria Memorial, which were same like this, covered and sewn papers.

As I held it up carefully on my hands, a whiff of dust flew past my nose, which made me sickly irritated and also sure of the time it was from.

Putting the book on the clean part of the table, I came back with a mask on my nose, as I didn't wanted to get a runny nose from the irritation it can cause.

Taking a look closely, I realized it had a well made cover on it-

It may also have had a coloured illustration on it, but unfortunately it was seemingly weared out by the wrath of time it faced from all these centuries.

Scanning the book with scanner on the table, I found my speculation was correct and yes, the book had a map of the whole Earth, and some words in Old 'Hinglish' language, which is rare in nowadays-

The Title inscribed on it meant, "World at the brink of Wars". It was the Seventh part of the series and had three words inscribed at the place of Author- 'R' 'S' 'K'.

As I read the word 'RSK', I remembered something. It was the same author who had written those books I read briefly at the ruins of Victoria Memorial. But how did they end up here?

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"Raiden? What's up with the stuff, you said it's an epic one?" - Boss asked me as soon as he got down to the basement.

"Yeah, It's really a epic one, It's the seventh part of a physical book titled World at the brink of Wars, written by someone named...RSK."- i answered boss, still having my eyes on the content of the book, which was impressively well illustrated with the physical 'photographs' of the time it was printed.

"Really?", Boss asked in a weird amazement getting his hands over the book which I slowly slid towards him.

"Hmm."- He nodded, "What do you think it's value would be?", He asked looking towards my face.

"Ah...Since it's a Epic-class stuff in good condition, it must be priced nearly...", i took a pause to think and, "Around Four Thousand Ducats to the least.", I said.

Boss took his eyes down for once, smiled for once- then again looked up and exclaimed- "Are you sure?"

Showing a confusion on my face, I thought it must be a little less that what I said; so I spoke again- "Three thousand Ducats?"

"No! Try again.", he moved his head in a gesture to show disagreement while still keeping the smirky smile on his face.

"Two thousand?", I said; being annoyed a bit.

"No, Not at all.", He laughed a bit and then patting my shoulder, he spoke out- "It's over a Hundred thousand Ducats worth."

"A hundred thousand Ducats!"