[Intergalactic: Online 9]

Rea looked at Creed in confusion.

"Become your follower?...," She asked while looking at his serious face.

Creed nodded his head and then smiled at her.

"Of course, I'll help you get to the bottom of your troubles with Horizon before I ask for your answer. Since you won't be able to move around in the city freely, I'll do the investigating", Creed said as he walked to the buggy.

Creed placed his bag into the buggy and searched it for anything else of value. Creed found a familiar-looking sniper rifle and grinned in excitement.

"This is a pretty good model. Federation military issued, cheap and easy to get spare parts for..." Creed said as he expertly disassembled the rifle and placed it into a case at the bottom of the seat. He also found a duffle bag and put all of his stolen items into it.

Rea watched him curiously as he skillfully picked apart and stored the weapons.

"Who are you, really?", She asked carefully.

There was no way that he was an ordinary person. Not only was he highly adept at close combat, but he also seemed to know a lot about Federation grade military weaponry.

Creed sat in the driver's seat and sighed.

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you. But I was also a mercenary. I'm not sure how I ended up on this planet, so I need to gather information. While I do so, I'm willing to help you get information on Horizon so this works out for you as well..." Creed said as he watched the Quest notification above her head flickering.

'Its hard not to treat everything like a game with things like that popping up all the time,' Creed thought as he started up the car's engine.

Rea sighed as she got into the passenger seat. She wasn't worried about Creed since he could have kill her a long time ago if he wanted, seeing as he had ample opportunity. The fact that he was so willing to help her was what confused her the most, but she had no other options at the moment, so she decided to go with him.

Creed drove the buggy toward the faintly shimmering silhouette of the city. As they moved, Rea gave Creed a crash course on LH-City.

The conversation lasted about half an hour, but Creed summarized a few main points. LH-City was a mega-city ruled by the Lex-Horn Corporation, specializing in biochemical engineering. Their products were used in everything from pharmaceuticals to biochemical weapons. In short, if something involved biochemical compounds on this planet, LH-Corp probably had a hand in manufacturing it.

Creed also learned that instead of formal police or military, the city was controlled by LH-Corp's private army. LH-Corp was so massive that every other large business within the city was just LH-Corp's subsidiaries, meaning they had a complete grip on both the city's economy and governance.

"Remember, you can't mess with the LH-Corp, their people, or businesses. They have an entire private army and vast networks of spies patrolling the city, so no matter what you do..." Rea cautioned Creed again as they approached the city.

Creed nodded his head while making mental notes of everything she was saying.

As they approached, Creed wondered if their current situation would raise suspicions. After all, he was dressed in bloodied clothes that had bullet holes in them while driving a stolen buggy with a duffle bag full of weapons.

However, Rea assured him that getting in with weapons wouldn't be hard since they were barely regulated in the city. Creed could also just wear the mask and show one of the dead guys' ID. And if that didn't work, Rea would just bribe their way in using credits.

Credits were short for Federation Credits, a universal currency used in the Human empire that has taken many of the alien species by storm. Using credits, one could go to any city on any planet in the galaxy and use his implant to make purchases without worrying about exchange rates. The only worlds where he would have to use local currency were the few primal planets that had yet to be occupied by the Federation.

Creed didn't even have a credit implant, by the looks of it, so there was no way he would have any credits of his own. After all, implants work as both one's bank card and wallet in this world. Not having one essentially meant you were beyond poor.

They two finally approached the city as Creed marveled at the sheer size of the place. The dirt road eventually turned into proper tarred roads that merged into a massive two-way highway.

Hundreds of humongous trucks lined up to both enter and leave the city. Many of the large truck convoys were flanked by military-styled humvees with badges on their doors. Creed noticed a few different emblems on the cars, but what they all had in common were the heavily armed guards inside of them. These were the mercenary companies like Horizon who were working as bodyguards.

'Either this planet is really dangerous to warrant armed guards for resource transports, or they're all shipping some valuable stuff...' Creed thought to himself with a smile.

Despite many vehicles moving up and down, there was barely any traffic, and soon it was Creed's turn to drive up to one of the tollbooths.

There, a strange machine with a red eye-like orb scanned their car. The orb on the machine flashed red and gave off a silent alarm. The attendant who was manning to tollbooth saw this, and he sighed as he rolled his window down.

"You there, driver. Show me the weapons you're carrying and your licenses", He said in an annoyed tone.

Creed did not like the man's tone, but he still grabbed and opened the duffle bag full of weapons and showed his ID. The man barely looked into the bag and skimmed the ID before nodding his head with a bored expression. He stamped a piece of paper and then handed it to Creed as he pressed a button that turned the light green, allowing them to enter the city.

"You weren't kidding. They're really incompetent..." Creed whispered as they drove through the massive city gate. The size of the city was immense, to the point where it was blocking out the sky and sun. It seemed to turn into night as Creed drove into the city that was lit by hundreds of street lamps.

The wide streets were packed with hundreds of people and cars, with buildings stacked together into massive amalgamations of steel and glass, blocking out the sky and sun. Everywhere Creed looked, holographic advertisements covered in bright neon lights sold some futuristic-looking products modeled by androids or pristinely dressed humans.

The logo of LH-Corp was also plastered everywhere, just in case, anyone forgot who was really in control of the city.

"Turn left here. We'll have to ditch the car and head off on foot soon..." Rea said as she looked around nervously.

Creed took the turn and headed into a dingy alleyway. He jumped out of the car and grabbed the duffle bag. Rea also left the car and walked over to Creed.

"This place is pretty dangerous, so stay close to me. I have a safe house nearby for emergencies..." she whispered as she led him in a particular direction.

Creed spotted a group of sketchy-looking teenagers following them as they were about to leave. Rea also noticed them but immediately dismissed them as small fry and decided to ignore their presence.

"It's your lucky day, boys. She's all yours," Creed said as he threw the car keys toward the teenagers. The teenagers looked at each other in confusion but immediately burst into laughter".

"Ha, don't try and get it back later, old man!" said one of the boys as he grabbed the keys and ran toward the buggy with his friends on his tail. They all climbed into the buggy and sped off.

"We really don't have time to waste..." Rea said while looking around nervously.

"Relax, there isn't anyone around. Plus, those guys are going to help buy us some time by taking Horizon on a wild goose chase", Creed said while placing his duffle bag on his shoulder.

"Now then, where is this safe house?" Creed asked as he turned to Rea with a grin.