NOVEL NEXT The Archive
I groaned, feeling myself wake up from my sleep.
I felt a weight on my shoulder and I shifted a little to look to the side, finding Amber resting her head on my shoulder still fast asleep.
Just saying, nothing happened last night.
Both of us were really exhausted by the time we got back and we simply showered before going to bed.
Amber had insisted she sleep with me since we’re officially a couple now and I was too tired to reject her and I just let her do whatever she wanted.
That turned out to be her using me as a body pillow and hugging me the entire night.
Oh well, it’s not like I hate this anyway so I didn’t try to push her off.
Speaking of which, I asked if it was really alright for us to just flip those Mercs off after we practically took that mission from them.
Amber then pointed out the fact that we did not loot most of the thugs there and asked whether I thought those Mercs really left the place empty handed.
That’s when I realised those guys most likely went back and finished off the rest of the thugs before looting the place clean.
They probably didn’t earn as much as we did but they definitely would be earning quite a few Credits from selling all those stuff that we left behind.
After knowing that, I didn’t feel that bad for them anymore.
Also, I asked how she knew that Jerry was an android and she pointed to the side of her neck, saying that there was a barcode there which outed him as one.
She made sure to mention that not all androids had a marking like that but if there was one there, it pretty much confirmed that the person standing in front of you was an android. There were also other ways of telling if the person is an android but she didn’t remember all of them.
I was a little afraid to ask if androids in this universe had rights or not and decided that it was a can of worms that I wasn’t willing to open. At least not yet…
I turned my head to look at the side where I had left my Codex, taking it off the side table to strap it on my wrist to check the time.
Seeing that it was nine in the morning, I figured it was time to get out of bed lest we waste the rest of the day away. Because I know if I were to go back to sleep, I might only wake up late in the afternoon instead.
I poked Amber on the cheek, “Time to wake up.”
She groaned, shifting her head lower to bury her face in my bosoms, “Unngg… Five more minutes…”
“No, no. Come on, let’s get up.”
Amber stayed there for a while more before talking into my boobs, “What time is it?”
“Nine.”
“Nngg… Why do we even need to get up that early? We don’t have anything planned today, do we?”
“We’re going to the Archives, remember?”
“Nngg… The Archives are open all day… We don’t need to go there that early…”
“Come on… Get up and I’ll make us breakfast.”
She reluctantly pushed herself up, “I swear… I don’t know how you can make food taste so good… You ruined me, Tera.”
I smirked at her, “Oh? And how exactly did I ruin you?”
“Nnghhh… If I didn’t love you, I would have been forced to stay with you because all other food taste like crap to me now.”
I gave her a peck on the lips, “And aren’t you glad that I love you back?”
Her answer was to wrap her arms around me and lean in for a kiss, her tongue pushing past my lips to curl around mine.
I kissed her back and she moaned into my mouth, her hand sliding down my neck to squeeze one of my boobs.
I shuddered but reluctantly pulled her hand away and broke the kiss.
“Now, now… We can do that tonight.”
“Oh come on, just one round?” She pleaded, lifting up her shirt to show me her boobs.
…
“Fine.”
I pulled her onto the bed and straddled her, the golden haired Merc giggling as I started sucking on her love buttons.
*
We finally left the ship after three rounds, Amber practically glowing after the sex we had.
“Which way to the Archives?” I asked, ignoring the looks passers-by were giving us.
Amber hugged my arm tighter and pointed down the street, “See that tall building with the glass windows? That’s the one.”
It was a short walk there and I found myself standing in front of what was supposed to be the Archive.
If I had to put it into words, the building looked like a smaller version of the Lotte World Tower except that it was completely made of glass.
There were quite a number of people going in and out of the building and I realised pretty much everyone here looked like scholars.
That is to say, both Amber and I stood out like a sore thumb with how we were dressed right now.
Not to say that we weren’t dressed well but we were wearing casual clothes and and looked like Mercs while these guys were wearing long robes like they were priests or something.
“What’s with the way they’re dressed?” I asked.
Amber looked around before chuckling, “Oh those people? They’re probably students from a nearby school here to cram some stuff in their heads.”
Oh shit… I definitely do not envy them… I’d hate to have to wear those robes to school everyday.
We went up to the front doors and there were several counters at the entrance where people seemed to be lining up to gain entry.
We joined one of the queues and I overheard one of the conversations happening between a receptionist and a student.
“What are you looking for today?”
“Err… I’d like to know the basic history of the Warp Gates and also the entire syllabus on ‘Introduction to Particle Physics’ please.”
“Certainly, the total would be six hundred Credits please.”
“Six hundred? Damn… Screw it, I’ll read up the history myself. I’ll just take the particle physics one.”
“That will be four hundred Credits.”
“Ugh… Ok, ok. Here.”
“I have received your payment. Here is your entry token. Proceed to the capsule with the same number as the token and insert it into the token slot. Have a nice day.”
I watched the student trudge off, mumbling something about schools sucking up all his money as he went deeper inside the Archive.
It was soon our turn and the receptionist smiled at me.
“Good afternoon, what are you looking for today?”
I was only here to see what the Archives was like so I wasn’t really looking for anything specific. If I had to be honest, the idea of having something implanted in my head didn’t really sit well with me so it was Amber that was choosing what she would be ‘learning’.
“I want the public records of pirate sightings within this system.”
“Ah, certainly. That would be fifty Credits please.”
Holy fuck, that’s a big difference in price compared to what that poor student was paying for.
Amber didn’t even blink and simply paid the receptionist as she had requested.
The receptionist then turned to me and her smile widened a little, “And for you, miss?”
I shook my head, “Nothing for me, I’m with her.”
“Very well. Do know that only one person may use the token so you won’t be able to use the capsule after your friend is done with it.”
“We are aware,” Amber told her before snatching the token off the counter. “Come on, darling~”
She wrapped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me along, making me wonder why she was being so aggressive.
“What’s wrong?” I asked after we were out of earshot.
“Nothing~ I just thought that I’d stake my claim a little to let others know of their place.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it~ Oh look, there’s our capsule~”
I looked at where she was pointing at and found rows upon rows of what looked like those old school nap pods that you might find in airports and offices in the past.
Ours was numbered at sixty and Amber released me to take a seat on it.
“So~ Here’s how it works~” She started to explain, seemingly quite excited for some reason. “You take a seat here, slide in your token in this slot over here and then just lay back. The pod here will close up and then you’ll be put into a trance-like state and in a while, you’ll have the information implanted directly inside your head.”
I raised an eyebrow, “That’s it?”
“Yep~ Pretty simple right? So you sure you don’t want to try?”
Mnn… As I said, I don’t really like the idea of it but…
You know what? Fuck it, let’s just try it out. After all, it’s just public records of pirate sightings so I doubt there would be anything nefarious that might be implanted inside it right?