Chapter 95 - 95

Words : 1096 Updated : Sep 12th, 2025

Adam stopped at the intersection in front of his old workplace. It still stood, tall as ever, it was too short to be a proper skyscraper but more than tall enough to dwarf the other buildings in the area. Its obsidian black exterior remained, though marred by the effects of the war. The top few floors looked to be a bit dilapidated from here but the sign showing off the former business that occupied this building was still standing proudly over the bright red solid overhang outside the entrance. He was back. "This it?" Salvatore said, mostly unimpressed. "This is it." Adam returned with a slow sigh. "Well then I think we are going to have a problem." He said as pointed to a grotesque human effigy outside the building near some barbed wire and metal hedgehogs. Adam hadn't even noticed it yet because he was too busy looking at the building, remembering back when it was intact. "Looks like this place is the new home to some unsavory folks." "Fuck." Adam whispered quietly. "Raiders?" "Yeah, probably." He said as he unslung his rifle and held it in his hands, lazily pointed at the ground but ready for action if it should come. "I don't see any of War's symbols though, so they might be unaffiliated… or all dead." He grinned at that last suggestion. 'What? How? The first part I mean. I thought this is deep inside War's territory?" "Fuck if I know." Salvatore shrugged. "Maybe they are too big, maybe they are too small, or maybe they flew under the radar. Could be anyone's guess." "Well seems like they are our problem now." Adam scanned the exterior of the building while thinking of a plan. "It looks like the front is heavily defended. If we go through the front we will probably enter into a field of fire." "Agreed." Salvatore said simply as he accepted Adam's judgement. "Got another idea?" Adam went quiet for a few moments as he thought through a plan and then nodded. "There is a side entrance the building has, the employee entrance. Only way in and out is via a passcode, I doubt they would be watching the door very hard even if they broke the door down. "Fair enough. Lead the way, if we are lucky we found our back door." The two of them took a careful wide berth around the building to avoid catching the attention of any inhabitants who might be peering out the windows. However, as they approached the side door they were met with a surprise more shocking than any broken door. Right next to the door was a protectron, painted white, dirty, and full of scuff marks. It was chained to the wall next to the door, heavy metal links effectively stopping it from moving or breaking free but its arms and torso were still able to maneuver perfectly fine, giving it an easy angle to fire at unsuspecting attackers. In effect they had turned this poor protectron into a sentry turret by strapping it to the wall. But more than any of this Adam recognized this guy. "Buddy?!" Adam said stunned as he walked over to the firmly secured protectron, still functional after all this time. "Voice Recognition accepted. Welcome back Adam Baxter. You are 3 hours, 11 days, 2 months, and 211 years late for your shift." It responded back as if seeing Adam again was the most normal thing in the world. Adam chuckled softly. "I know buddy, I know…" He smiled sadly at him. "So this is…" Salvatore asked as he walked over too. "Buddy. Adam responded quickly. "He is the protectron unit I was in charge of keeping in working order at Second Life. He wasn't the only robot I worked on, but he was the only one who worked here full time. My responsibility." "Friendly speech pattern recognized. Is this a guest at Second Life, Adam Baxter?" Buddy said as he turned to look at Salvatore, arms raised. Perhaps ready to shoot him if Adam said no. "Oh yes." Adam responded, forgetting how Buddy was programmed due to the regulations in Second Life. "This is my… work colleague from another Branch of Second Life, Salvatore. He has Administrative access to all levels of the building, please update your systems accordingly." "Order received." Buddy said as its head sensor whirled a bit logging the information. While he was doing that Adam motioned with his head to Salvatore to Buddy. "Help me get him untangled from this chain." Salvatore shrugged and then obliged, helping Adam pull out the stakes that held the chain into the wall of the building and, subsequently, Buddy. Once Buddy was freed Adam turned to him again. "Buddy, what is the status of your connection to the defense systems in Second Life?" "Offline. Server terminal connection has been severed. Request maintenance." "What is he talking about?" Salvatore probed. "Ah…" Adam turned to look at Salvatore again. "See, Second Life had more than just a protectron keeping its secrets safe, the entire building was rigged with miniature sentry turrets, also my responsibility." He shrugged. "Now, one of the things I did was integrate Buddy into the intranet that connected all the computers together in the building, this also included the turret defense system." "Why?" Salvatore asked, confused. "Well because quite frankly it was a pain in the ass to head back down 15 flights of stairs everytime I needed to update something, Buddy usually hung around me unless he was needed as an escort so it was like having a mobile computer on hand." Adam shrugged. "Besides, do you know how much free time I had some days? I was paid to be here 5 days a week, sometimes 6, but I often didn't have anything to do, so tinkering around with Buddy was a good way to kill time. Anyway, the CEO liked it. Called me industrious.'" Adam grinned. "Well, it seems like your little experiment hasn't panned out well." Salvatore said before Adam looked back to Buddy. "Buddy, is your system operating properly?" "Affirmative. All systems operating at near peak efficiency." "Sounds like all we gotta do is get him hooked back up to the network and I can access the defense systems here. If there are unsavory types here it should help level the playing field." "I'm not going to say no to a little help, but how are you going to do that?" "We need to get to the basement."

Chapter 95 - 95

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