Chapter 103 - 103

Words : 1755 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

True to Adam's words the first thing the two of them did was return to the first floor to secure every route into the building and lock it up tight. He also ordered Buddy to remain on the first floor and ensure no one got in for the rest of the night. The next thing he did was reroute the rest of the building's power to the elevators, neither man wanted to climb all those stairs again. Adam could only get one elevator to work but that was enough. After a bit of testing and inspection to make sure the elevator wouldn't fall randomly he deemed it usable again and then Adam got to work looting the place, this time, with Salvatore's help. To put it lightly this building had way too much stuff. There were three types of items he could grab here. First was the stuff from Second Life itself, offices, labs, safes, fridges, break rooms, and so so so many more things were here. Of course a lot of the spaces were converted for the use of the former inhabitants but most of it was left unchanged, though quite a mess otherwise. Still this meant he could grab any number of 'junk' items, from mini fans, to sensors, to fusion cells, to literally anything else he could imagine. Then there was the raider's stuff. Everything they moved in with them when they took over the building. This included stashes of guns, food, caps, armor, books, trinkets, jewelry, loose coins, and any number of other things stolen from any passersby no doubt. Multiple floors contained piles of loot, it seemed these people had been here long enough to make multiple raids. Then lastly there was the stuff from the raiders themselves, their guns, armor, loose caps, chems, food and drink, and anything else they might have in their pockets. When just looking at the caps he found when looting around, between the loose caps in the pockets of the dead raiders, stashes of caps found in loot piles, caps strewn about either from games of cards or just disorganized chaos, or bags of caps shoved into safes, they had already made a ton of money from this venture. There were 2391 caps across all 30 floors. Far more than Adam or Salvatore ever expected. Despite Salvatore's protests Adam split the caps equally between them, 1195 caps for Salvatore and 1196 for Adam. Adam was adamant about this because Salvatore had more than done his share and, like last time, he used the fact that Salvatore had said Adam was responsible for paying for Ammo. Salvatore didn't resist for long though, after all, no man would turn down a free 1000 caps. Adam was now back to being comfortable with his funds. Though he still owed Olivia 2200 caps so he was still in the red. However despite the caps he found his main focus was the physical loot. All in all there was simply no way Adam could bring all of this back. Not just with himself and Salvatore, maybe with Buddy's help he could get a good load more of it, but truthfully even with all three of them they stood no chance getting all of this to Midway. It was a good problem to have, though it did make Adam feel both bitter he was going to have to leave some stuff behind and a bit overwhelmed he was going to have the pick of the litter. Even when he did the Chevron Factory he had choices but many of his choices were just more car parts, in the gun store he had to leave stuff behind but he was confident in his picks. With 30 floors of stuff to go through it was simply too much to be confident in his choices. Something would naturally be overlooked. There was no fixing this though. He just had to live with it. Ultimately Adam had to bite the bullet and work through whatever he could find to get what he thought would bring the most profit. Guns were a must, but with such a huge volume of them he had to pick and choose. Trashy guns were left behind, guns with a low caliber were left behind, guns with poor maintenance were left behind. Adam only took the guns that were worth something. Next was armor… he left it all behind. There was not a shred of armor of value here. There was a ton of it, but it was all heavily modified to its detriment. Adam tried to salvage the power armor too but truly nothing of value was left, so it was scrap. Then came electrical components of some value, like sensor modules, circuit boards, laser diodes, and other things of that type. He pretty much took all of them. Between the guns and these parts his bags were already getting heavy and exceptionally full. Luckily Adam had found another backpack among the numerous things he had found here. However the backpack was of poor quality, it looked like a tanned hide made from the skin of some animal and then sewn together. It was a large backpack but he truly couldn't be certain how much it would hold. Still compared to letting stuff go it was better to take it with him. He decided to give it to Buddy. Finally, with whatever space he had left he took the odds and ends of value, all the chems of course, but also most of the jewelry too. He also shoved into his bag some extra trinkets he knew would sell well too. By the time he was done his backpack, the duffle bag, Salvatore's backpack, and even Buddy's backpack were full to the brim. He truly couldn't carry anymore without over encumbering himself like last time. As much as he wanted to bring back more with him this time he held himself back. However he did plan to carry back the light machine gun in his free hand that wasn't holding the duffle bag. A small concession. Finally finished looting, he went to bed, the sun long since set and Salvatore already half asleep. The next day Adam and Salvatore shared a quiet meal in the morning. Adam had not given himself time to think things through from yesterday and he still didn't plan to think about it yet. However that didn't change the fact the mood was quiet, clearly Adam was thinking even if he wasn't going to go too deep into his existential crisis. The meal finished Adam had a few last things to do before they left. While Salvatore checked outside, making sure the coast was clear, Adam went back downstairs and found the fusion generator that powered the building, taking the fusion core out and pocketing for later. He also took the spare components from the laser turret that was still functional to sell later. Then, on his way out, he flipped the building off as we walked away without looking back. "Ready to go kid?" "Oh yeah, I'm ready to get the hell out of here." He said as Salvatore looked back at Buddy who was following now. Adam had told Buddy that he was leaving Second Life and that Buddy's duty to the company was complete, deciding to put him to better use elsewhere. "You bringing him with us?" Salvatore asked with an eyebrow raise as he looked at Buddy. "Yeah I was planning to. Why?" Adam asked, curious. "Well… Protectrons are slow, clunky, loud, and not the most durable…" Salvatore began slowly. "And the path back ain't exactly easy, even excluding the dangers we will need to avoid or handle, the road ain't exactly perfectly level, I'm not even sure if he could make it back taking our path." Adam took a moment to think while he processed Salvatore's words. "Then what do you suggest? Should we take a different path? Should I send him somewhere else? Like the safe house?" "Nah." Salvatore said as he lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth for a puff. "Safehouse is more or less the same path we would take to Midway so that won't help. And sure we could take an alternate path, but you are already carrying a heavy burden. It will add a while to our journey, perhaps even another day. And there's no telling what else we might encounter while out and about." Salvatore took another puff of the cigarette and then looked Buddy over. "But I'll tell you what. There's a place this guy here could head to alone where he could wait for you to get him. The path there, so long as you tell him where to go, is relatively safe and direct." "The people there will just… let a random protectron inside without question?" Adam asked, confused. "Oh yeah, certainly. Those people are… weirdos…" He said slowly. "What's this path? If it's direct and safe why don't we take it ourselves then?" "Ah well…" Salvatore paused. "That's cause the tunnel ain't suited for humans." "Radiation?" Adam asked, curiously. "Radiation." Salvatore repeated as he put a cigarette in his mouth. "Truthfully the ghouls use it from time to time when we need refuge or a passage. It does have some ferals inside but we have corralled most of them into separate areas so it's safe for someone like your robot buddy here to go through, but you? There isn't enough Rad-X and Radaway in the world to get you through those tunnels." "Why?" Adam asked, now invested. "Far as I can tell, US Army was transporting nuclear material and waste somewhere using the subway as a means of transit, bombs fell, trains turned off, stuff spilled out, and now that entire tunnel is so irradiated even the ground above the tunnels gives off radiation." "Alright, if you say it's dangerous for us, I will drop it. I'll tell Buddy to meet us at…" He said, prompting Salvatore to complete the sentence. "Renaissance ." He finished casually. "Gotcha. I'll make sure to grab him from there another time then. Hopefully they don't take his stuff, but I guess it's better than letting it all rot." Adam sighed as he began to program the route into Buddy with Salvatore's guidance.

Chapter 103 - 103

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