Chapter 4 - Visiting The Port City

A week after the bandit attack on the town. The Hunter moved to a big city down south, a formerly yellow zone but now a green zone city thanks to the purification tower. The city is located a few miles away from an active port which is the focal point of the city's economy. Where a bunch of factories are located and have frequent traffic of merchants and caravans entering the city.

Conveniently, one of the caravans on the market is heading to the city to stock up because he heard apparently the next shipment is arriving at the port soon and there will be an influx of cheap goods for a while. So, the Hunter simply hitches a ride and the caravan owner happily allows him to join in knowing his strength will make the journey much safer.

After getting a ride, he would cut down the three day walk into just a few hours ride across the inhabited contaminated zones.

Along the way, the caravan owner asked him quite a lot of questions mainly as entertainment along the way. The Hunter isn't the most sociable person. So, his answers are mostly silent nods or shaking heads.

"Have you been traveling alone all the time?" The curious caravan owner, Leon, asked while his eyes were looking out to the road.

The Hunter nodded with a hum.

"I see. Well, that's rare." Leon noted amusedly. "People usually stay in a group and rarely alone, especially in the contaminated zones. Not just because of ELIDs life forms but also bandits."

The Hunter looked at Leon with an inquiring stare which made him continue and explain.

"Why, you ask? It's quite simple. A person still has to sleep and rest right? You just never know when something will sneak up on you while you are asleep. Especially the mutated animals and insects. Those are the deadlier ones. Fortunately, seeing them outside of a red zone is rare. But not impossible." Leon said before he glanced at the Hunter who nodded and agreed with what he said. Then he looked back at the road and sighs.

"Well, what I wanted to say is. If you are planning to continue, stay alone in the contaminated zones. I advise you to invest into a T-Doll. Not the widely available and cheap A-Dolls."

Sensing a stare from the Hunter, Leon turned his head and saw his confusion.

"Ah, you are wondering about the difference between A-Doll and T-Doll?" Leon asked and saw the Hunter nodded. "Hmn. It's easy. A-Doll stands for Autonomous Doll. Most of them are civilian Dolls outfitted with weapons and modules. They are always fragile as they are not made for combat in mind. But they are definitely cheap, hence why it is widely used. But T-Dolls stand for Tactical Doll which as you already guessed. Made for military use and outfitted often with military grade chassis and modules. However, don't expect them to be cheap either. Also, normal Doll dealers like IOP don't sell them to civilians. Your best bet is the blackmarket. But I assure you this investment is worthwhile."

The Hunter didn't nod immediately and contemplate. He once talked to the Griffin Commander during the party to celebrate their victory against the bandits. He inquired about the uses of Dolls and the Commander explained a lot of things.

Mainly the use of Dolls in his day to day life. The ability of the Dolls is determined by the module outfitted in them. Those modules range from doing household chores, repairing electronics, combat to providing medical help. There is no end to the utility of a Dolls with the amount of different modules that they can be installed with.

Then there are the accessories like high quality eyes and scanners that are useful for scouting, electronic warfare equipment, GPS, etc. To perform additional functions.

Then the Hunter nods to show he is interested in buying one. Leon said he would recommend him to a person he knows from black market that can help him buy a T-Doll. But the Hunter raises a question of why T-Doll is not sold commercially and instead they have to rely on black market.

"Well, it's not illegal to own a T-Doll." Leon assured the Hunter as no one wanted to deal with the law for possession of anything illegal.

"It's complicated but basically, you would normally need certain qualifications to obtain T-Dolls but owning one needs none. I know it sounds strange. But that's the rule. But, even if you have the qualifications. T-Dolls are very expensive so they become sort of a symbol of status too, especially in the contaminated zones."

The Hunter made a hum and stayed silent after that. Indicating he isn't interested to talk anymore.

———

After a 5 hour ride in the truck, the caravan finally arrived at the city which is quite tightly secured with a number of garrison soldiers inspecting the caravan and the Hunter when they entered the city.

There is some difficulty when Leon finds out the Hunter has no ID. Which led him to be questioned by the garrison soldiers.

Meanwhile in the interrogation room half an hour later.

"So, let me get this straight." The exhausted interrogator sighed while looking at the interrogation statements in his hand. "You have amnesia and forgot everything up until a few years ago. You stayed and worked as mercenary and bounty hunter in the contaminated zones for the past few years and never entered a city since then and only smaller towns and villages?"

The Hunter nodded.

"Right…" The interrogator then looked at the results after they ID'ed his face and fingerprints which returned negative. Meaning, they have no record of him ever.

The lack of traces of identity didn't warrant much surprise as there are plenty of people that lack any ID and still roam the contaminated zone as the First Collapse had destroyed much of the civilization and people either born without ever being recorded by the government or their records are lost.

Since there are no criminal records or bounty on his face either. The garrison had no reason to detain the Hunter and let him go soon but ordered him to make himself an ID. The Hunter is planning to do it anyway since apparently he will need it quite frequently especially when dealing with the local government.

After he is being released, the Hunter went to find Leon and get back on track to buying himself a Tactical Doll. But before that, he asks if Leon can direct him to a gun shop.

"Ah. You want to buy a sniper rifle right? Well, conveniently I will be a little busy stocking up on goods. So, just head up north following this street. You will find a shop with a sign board that says 'gun shop'. We will meet again here in three hours." Leon said and bid him farewell before he left driving his truck away.

The Hunter didn't stand for long and quickly traveled down the street Leon pointed at and found the shop. It's not hard to find guns visible on display when he arrives at the shop.

When he entered the shop, he noticed a slightly tense atmosphere as the two men behind the glass display counter looked at him warily.

The Hunter guessed his appearance is what made them tense. So, he walked straight to the counter and conveyed his intention to buy guns instead of robbing them.

"I want to buy your biggest gun." The Hunter spoked which made the two men look at each other and then one of them walked up to the Hunter to assist him.

"Do you have any models in mind?" The clerk asked

The Hunter shook his head. But he remembers the category of rifle he wanted from his talk with Falcon, one of the Doll in the town that uses a AMR rifle which stands for Anti-material rifle.

"Anti-material rifle?" The clerk tried to confirm, as if doubting if he heard the Hunter clearly.

The Hunter nods once again to confirm before taking out a sizable cloth pouch filled with wads of cash and placing it on the counter to clear the doubt of the clerk.

After the clerk looked at the cash paid upfront. He no longer hesitates at the thought of gaining a fat wallet customer and leads the Hunter into the backroom to look at the firearms they did not put on display.

Upon arriving at the location, he looked at the AMR rifles placed on the rack and tried wielding them all one handedly which surprised the clerk as he tried to explain sniper rifles especially powerful anti-material rifles are not and never meant to be hip fired.

The clerk suggested shotguns instead if the Hunter is interested with guns meant to be used for hip fire and have substantial firepower. However, the Hunter's answer is why not both? Both are fine and he can definitely afford them.

In the end, he spent all three hours browsing through all sorts of guns and left with quite the haul of firearms.

The Hunter is honestly impressed with the variety of firearms available. If only he had these during the hunt. It would have been way easier, especially with the anti-material rifle. He can shoot down those troublesome enemies from afar without needing to even get into range. Not to mention there are ammunition types for example incendiary which will explode into flame briefly, armor piercing bullet, his favorite which pierce harder and destroy absolutely everything in its path and SMART bullet which the clerk advertised to be capable of adjusting trajectory mid-flight or something to lock on to a moving target.

His favorite has to be Benelli M4 which he found to be the most recognisable to firearms in his current arsenal, the Blunderbuss. Although he prefers the slug shot more than the buckshot ammunition.

Anyway, with his great haul. He moves to the back alley, gives all the firearms and ammunition he purchased to the Messenger except the shotgun and two pistols before quickly rushing back to the promised place looking for Leon who is already waiting for him there.

"Hmn. Took you a while." Leon said and then noticed the new addition of firearms on the Hunter. A shotgun which didn't attract much interest from Leon but the pistols did although for a different reason.

The pistols were originally just display pieces sold to the shop by a gun collector because of its impracticality. The hand cannon that resembles a Thompson Contender is a single shot, breech loading hunting pistol meant to hunt something big like an elephant. Its chamber rounds normally go into a hunting rifle. So, the Nitro Express pistol was simply too powerful to be practical for a normal human. But for the Hunter, this is also the closest he found to pistols he is familiar with. The other one is a five shot revolver that chamber the same .600 Nitro Express round. A ridiculously powerful and big revolver which is meant for hunting large animals or also demented Beasts if needed.

Leon gives the Hunter a stare after looking at his choice of pistols. But didn't say anything and told the Hunter to follow him to meet his friend.

"He is waiting for us at his place." Leon said and led the Hunter into the back alley.

The Hunter can sense no malicious intentions from Leon and decides to follow.

After a while of walking through the increasingly narrow and winded alley. They finally arrived at a dead end?

The Hunter looks at Leon squat down and feels the wall before he starts knocking in a rhythm. Then a click sound is heard before Leon said, "It's me Leon. I'm Andrei's friend. I'm bringing him a customer." After a moment, the lower part of the brick wall suddenly pulled in and opened a path.

Without a doubt. It's a secret path.

Leon slipped into the hole before the Hunter followed suit and found himself inside an underground room as the entrance was sealed back by a mechanism.

Leon walks forward as if he is familiar with the place and then starts talking to the Hunter while they walk.

"This place used to be a secret underground military base belonging to the Soviet during WW2. But nowadays, it belongs to the black market which acts as a hub and access to the port. They expanded the underground base to accommodate their activities."

"We used one of the secret entrances which are under the control of specific people in the black market. Others normally have to enter through the main entrance but those entrances are constantly under the supervision of the local government and our identity could be exposed if we go through it without any disguise."

"Anyway, we are here." Leon said and suddenly stopped when they arrived in front of a black painted metal door with a closed sliding window near the top.

Leon knocked the door before calling out the name 'Andrei' repeatedly until the sound of someone cursing reached the door and slid open the sliding window to look outside.

"Oh, gods. It's you again, Leon. Can't even give me time to rest peacefully." The man peeked at Leon's face and grumbled before he looked at the stranger behind Leon.

"I brought you a customer, Andrei." Leon quickly explained before Andrei could make any weird conjecture.

"Customer? Then why didn't you go through the front entrance and bring him to my shop? Instead, you used the backdoor and brought him straight into my office?" Andrei remained skeptical and refused to open the door.

"If I work with the Statesec to raid your sorry ass, I wouldn't bother come here myself you paranoid lil shit." Leon cursed before he explained. "He wants to buy a T-Doll. A heavy customized one. That's why I figure coming here directly is better than going through your shop first."

"Heavily customized T-Dolls?" Andrei mutters with his mind quickly doing the math while rubbing his chin. "How much is his budget?"

Leon turns around and looks at the Hunter who replies with hand gestures that say 3 and 5.

"35 Million Rubles." Leon said.

"35 Million? Is it cash or credits?"

"Cash."

"Hmn. Fine, you two can come in." Andrei said and opened the locks behind the door before swinging it open.

Once he and Leon entered, Andrei quickly locked the door back and invited them into the office which seems to also be the home for Andrei which he concluded after seeing the furniture inside. A bed at the left side corner with a rectangular thing with people inside it.

"So. Let's first talk about the requirements. Just try to fill in this form and I'll try to narrow down the suitable model." Andrei returned while wearing glasses and handed over another rectangular thing to the Hunter.

The Hunter were at first confused about the device. But then, some memories surfacing in his mind which help him recall how to use this device called 'tablet'.

The first question was the role of the T-Doll. Of the available choices, he selected a 'supporting role' since he will maintain the battle and fight frontally. He would prefer if there is someone that can watch his back and aid him, thus the 'supporting role'.

The next question is the personality of the T-Doll. There are numerous. But he chose the least troublesome one for obvious reasons.

After going through a dozen questions. He finally finishes answering the questions and next is the module, accessories, attachments and other customisation like outfits etc. In the end, it shows three different images along with the estimated price.

Andrei took back the datapad and looked at it for a moment while humming and tapped the device a few times.

"Well, it has five candidates here after filtering through all your requirements. Each of them will run you around 9-12 Million Rubles including the additional spare parts and modification." Andrei informed before returning the datapad to the Hunter and asks him to choose which one he wants.

"Also, I have a suggestion considering you are a solo mercenary according to Leon. You are going to bring your doll along with your battle right? Then it may be best to disable some of the root protocols that forbid the doll from harming a human." Andrei said while the Hunter is reading through the stats and data of the five T-Dolls.

"Hold on, Andrei. Isn't disabling root protocols illegal for Dolls?" Leon quickly interjected.

"It depends, friend. Outside of green and white zones. No one really is regulating and enforcing those laws. Besides, your friend isn't a contractor working with the government. He didn't need to worry about following those rules." Andrei replied.

"Hmn. I see. Those rules are strictly used to regulate those big PMC like Griffin. Not the small or solo mercenary." Leon nods and finally understands what Andrei is talking about.

Then, a few more minutes later. The Hunter is narrowing down his options and is conflicted between TAC-50 and M82A1. The former fit more in the support role. Capable of scouting with her flying machine and providing effective support. But M82A1 has the bigger gun and that's a valid reason to choose her. However, thanks to Andrei telling him it's possible to allow M82A1 to equip drones too after some modification and equipping certain modules.

So, after he made his final decision. He returned the datapad to Andrei and nodded.

"Hmn. M82A1? Not a strange choice considering the usual enemies in the contaminated zones are those stoneskin ELIDs. But I would also recommend taking a shotgun or smg type Doll with you. They are capable damage absorbers which can help you take damage when it's unavoidable and the smg type is fast with high evasion to distract and lure away enemies."

The Hunter didn't even need to consider and he rejected the offer. To have a doll defending him is probably the most useless thing he'd ever need considering they aren't as fast as him to keep up with his speed and unlike him, he can afford taking damage because his blood heals him while the Dolls will require repairs.

"Well, it's your choice. So, the total cost including the shipping I'll round it up to 11 Million Rubles. Is there anything else you want to add?" Andrei asked and received a headshake. "Alright. Is there an address where I should deliver it later? It should arrive in three business days."

The Hunter looks to Leon. Leon caught the hint immediately and told Andrei the Hunter had no permanent home or rented any residence in the city.

"Well, just leave me your contact number. I'll contact you when it's time to deliver."

The Hunter writes down his number and gives it to Andrei before he and Leon leave the hidden underground space back up to the city.

After that, the Hunter said goodbye to Leon who is returning to the town. He is now left to figure out what he is going to do next.

Then he remembered seeing something akin to a bulletin board near the city square. He went to check it out if there's any task he can do while waiting for another four days.

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