The Legendary Junkmaster

'This guy didn't listen to what I said at all. he just instantly went to trying to sell me his gear!' Jason grumbled to himself before he realised what Al had actually said.

"Wait! Did you say the Guardian selections are starting next month?" Jason's eyes went wide in shock. "There should still be another two years at least until that!"

"You mean you're not here for weapons for it?" Al completely blanked his question as a sour look crossed over his face. "Then what are you here for if you're not spending any credits?"

Jason sighed as he returned Al's gaze. "If you'd listened the first time, you'd know. I'm here to sell you something."

Jason took out the first copy of his SDW: Primal 001 and placed it on the old dusty counter. Al raised his eyebrows at the weapon with a slightly curious look on his face.

"And? What is it?" As far as Al could see, it was little more than just a steel pipe with a handle, which was nothing special or worth his attention at all.

"Oh, for god's sake, watch!" Jason had already had enough of Al and how slow he was on the uptake. Jason quickly gave Al a demonstration of the weapon and its different forms.

Al whistled as he took the weapon from Jason and studied it. He checked the quality of the materials and secretly tried to figure out how the telescopic weapon worked.

Jason saw a perplexed look on Al's face as he eyed the baton/spear several times over. With a disgruntled look, he finally placed it back on the counter and looked to be deep in thought.

"I'll give you eight credits for it." Al eventually said in a tone that made it sound like he was doing Jason a favour.

"You're kidding. The materials alone are around that price. Let's not fool each other here. You know as well as I do that it has a resale value of fifteen credits or more." Jason threw a dirty look at Al as he voiced what Syssie had already told him.

"Oh! Did you take this someplace else before coming to me to get it evaluated? You've got balls, kid! It's quite rude to do that, you know!" Al lowered at Jason from behind the counter before he broke out in a wide smile. "Still, you did bring it to me in the end. And Harry's a good friend, so I'll let it slide."

Jason stared at Al, who seemed to be thinking about something again. Jason hoped that Al would see reason and at least offer a reasonable price this time around.

"How about this then? I'll give you ten credits for this one. If you bring me more, then I'll pay twelve credits for each one." Al flashed a warm smile that gave Jason the impression that Al already had an idea for his weapon. Mostly since he wanted to bulk buy them right off the bat!

Jason thought about the offer for a few moments. The ten credits were definitely better than nothing. Especially if it paved the way to a better price for the rest that he was making. Jason shot a quick glance at Syssie to see if she approved of the deal.

A quick thumbs-up was fired back at his glance from Syssie even as she flipped the bird at Al. She looked to be quite pissed about something but chose not to open her mouth. It was not like Al would hear her complaints anyway.

"Alright, Al, you have a deal." Jason stepped forward and shook Al's hand firmly.

Al seemed delighted as he locked the weapon away in a bow below the counter. After some rummaging around, he quickly handed ten credits over to Jason.

"Pleasure doing business with you! Don't forget to bring any more to me now! Do you hear?" Al chuckled as if he had struck it rich. Which only served to confuse Jason as he left the store.

"What do you think that was about?" Syssie asked as they walked down the street.

"Beats me. As long as I get paid, I don't care." Jason shrugged his shoulders and headed towards a store that was selling blankets.

He picked out a nice thick one that had only been minorly repaired. It was quite a good buy costing him only three credits after some haggling. The next stop they made was to some junk stores. Jason had decided to pick out some better quality materials for the sake of his own copy of his weapon.

This took them a while as he soon found that there was quite a lot of things that the Scanner did not pick out. Jason felt like he had been cheated.

"Hey, Syssie. Are you broken or something? There's some good stuff here that doesn't show up when I search for it with the Scanner." Jason complained under his breath so that nobody overheard him.

"Well, duh. What did you expect? It's only at the basic level right now. You'll have to buy upgrades for it if you want to find more complex parts." Syssie chuckled to herself. She had told him that it only worked on basic materials when he first asked her about it.

Jason cursed his luck as he had to rely on his own knowledge to puck out a few things just now. To be fair, he still did not know how he was going to upgrade it, apart from using better quality materials, of course.

Jason sincerely doubted that would be enough to drive its evaluation rank up to E so that he could earn some PP. 'Maybe I should just save some of these credits for later? I could be wasting them just now.'Jason sighed as he realised it would not be so simple to earn those precious PP.

"Cheer up. You still have plenty of time for now. By the way, what's this Guardian selection thing?" Syssie tried to take Jason's mind off of things and decided to broach a subject that he seemed interested in.

"Every couple of years, the Lord sends a representative to hold a competition. Those that have a strong power and make a good showing are chosen to join his personal forces." Jason sighed as he once longed to join that force himself. "It should be said there are actually a few Guardians. Everyone else are basically just grunts despite being called Guardians by people in the outer towns."

Syssie hummed as she thought about what he had just said. "Are you going to enter?"

"God, no! I'd get my ass handed to me! I'd be nothing but an embarrassment. To be honest, Im quite glad. As long as I keep my power quiet, I'll be able to develop in peace. Eventually, we'll leave this place and look for greener pastures." Jason smiled as he thought about the fact that he had a chance to escape a pathetic existence.

"What would happen if they discovered your ability? Would they force you to fight?" Syssie asked as they rummaged through a food stall.

"They'd probably just lock me up and make create shit for them. I'd have no freedom. I wouldn't even be allowed to decide what to create! They'd probably tell me what they want and expect me to make it happen." Jason became breathless after his rant beneath his breath.

"Oh, well, as long as you're aware of the problem, you should be fine, right?"

"Well, that's the plan, Syssie. I don't want to get dragged into the fighting that happens between the territories. I just want to live a good life that lets me see the world. Oh, lets not forget the old man. I owe him a lot, so as long as he can have a happy retirement as well, I'll be satisfied."

"Sounds like a good plan. Just don't forget what's really important, ok?" Syssie tapped the implant on the back of his neck that was currently preventing his brain from turning into mulch.

"Ok, point taken. Now, let's hurry home before the geezer gets up. Maybe I can get a couple of copies of the Primal ready before the day is finished." Jason started to jog back towards his apartment.

Back in Al's store...

"Yo! You sure got here quick, Sam!" Al beamed at a teenage girl who had a serious expression on her face. Her red hair was tied back into a ponytail as she looked around.

"You said you had something to show me, Al. A new weapon you made that would be perfect for my ability." Sam replied with a grumpy attitude. She already half thought that she was wasting her time.

"Ah, of course. Forgive me. I was just glad to see you. Here take a look at this." Al laid the SDW: Primal 001 out for Sam to look at. "If you give me a bit of time I'll be able to provide you with a few more copies at the exact same specs..."