Chapter 242: High Speed Stepping

Then we walked back to the apartment, and Iona wanted to hold my hand, but I was fine with that. I was still distracted by the random class that I had been assigned. This was going to be hard, if they changed after every mission, it was going to be next to impossible to get used to any of them. Part of me just wanted TDM back to take on the world, but the old fart had left or went silent after Jim left. 

"What are we doing now?" Iona asked me as we finally walked onto the grass and by the statue.

"Going to fix a toilet. You have small arms, so you can reach in and unplug it by hand if I can't get it, okay?"

"I WILL NOT!" Iona roared, letting go of my hand and then raining down hammer fist blows on my shoulder.

"Fine, then you are going to go and cook supper! There is no free ride around here, but that means we are going to have to go to the store over there," I said pointing to a small grocery store across the street from us.

It was in the bottom of a tall building, but that was like saying it was a grain of sand on the beach. Of course, it was in a tall tower! That's all there was, tall towers! I sighed and took Iona's hand and we walked across the street; there were no cars to watch for but I still looked. Cars only showed up when you needed them; I must have thought that there were enough dangers in the games without getting randomly hit by a car.

"Dave, if you built this world, then it will have things for stir-fry and stuff right?" Iona asked as we entered the store.

I probed the Memory Download and there were all the girl's favorite foods programmed in. I nodded to her and she let go of my hand, grabbing a basket, then running off. I was left at the till talking to an oriental man of an unknown background about the rising price of rice coming from the Lou Hong Bang district. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I was the master of bull shitting my way through a conversation.

Once Iona had collected everything she needed for a week, I reached into my pocket, only to just remember that I was going to have to pay for this. The old man stopped me and told me to give him my wrist. The man scanned a barcode and there was a beep, then he waved us off. That was convenient, but I supposed having something that wasn't attached to you would be hard to keep if you got blown up often.

"Did you get enough? My hands are starting to get sore! Did you just buy eight bags of canned food?" I complained as we walked into the apartment block and headed to the elevator. 

"Don't be such a baby, you're a superhero!"

"Yeah, that can sing and run away, and walking on walls is no easy job! I am strong, but not like with the Demon Ink. Now, these groceries are cutting off the circulation in my fingers, but sitting down will be good whenever this elevator opens up!" I complained, but then the door opened.

Inside the elevator car was Celica and Rorry, and they both smiled and me and then gave Iona a look. I wasn't sure what the look was, but Iona ignored it and walked past them, or I thought she ignored it. I was about to ask the girls where they were going when Iona pushed the button for the elevator door to close.

"Hey!"

"I'll have supper ready for when you get back."

The door closed and I was left standing with Celica and Rorry. I turned back to them and gave them both a questioning look. Celica had Black form-fitting yoga pants with a white camisole top, and her hair pulled back. Rorry was in a frilly pink dress and her hair was in pigtails, reminding me of Iona when she was in the cute Loli form from the Random World.

"Where are you two off to? Can I help you out?" 

"Our friend Micha hasn't returned yet from her trip downtown. She left just before you arrived so she should be back now, and you are here so she must be lost or something. Rorry wants to go look for her, so we are heading out," Celica explained.

"I'll come with you two just in case. Something happened with my classes, so I don't have the same mobility as before. So it will be better for me to come with you two to help find Micha."

"Thank you," Rorry said, running over to give me a hug around my waist.

I patted her head and the three of us headed back out. It was well past lunch now and I was starting to get hungry, so I stopped at another store and grabbed some meat snacks. I shared with the girls as we walked, and soon we reached a part of the city that was different than the rest.

Like someone had pulled the bottom of the city down to make a perfect bowl, all the towers converged in the center. It made an intense superstructure that was all below the ground level of the rest of the city. So this is what they meant by downtown, no puns intended.

"Do you have a rough idea where she might be?" I asked the girls while looking out over the half-circle that was all tower of the complex shapes connecting in the middle.

"Yes, at the bottom," Celica said with a smile.

"What does that even mean? Where are we going? Over there. Fine, lead the way! I just work here, but something about tight spaces and my current attack plan didn't scream copasetic to me. 

Well, I had been in worse situations before, and who said there was going to even be any fighting? I was probably getting myself worked up for nothing. I had already done my monster ass-kicking for the day, so I shouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

"We can't come with you, only one can go in at a time. If we try we will get separated and have to enter from different routes, so It's just best if you go alone. We will wait out here for you," Celica said with a smile.

"Thank you, Dave, Sir," Rorry said holding onto the fabric at the side of Celica's waist.

"Sure, I'll go, don't worry! This is better, but will you be safe out there?" I asked, looking around, but not seeing anyone else.

"The area is safe, don't worry about us," Celica said putting an arm around Rorry, then they both started to float. "I am a Gravity Knight and Rorry is a Sky Dancer, so we can stay safe."

I turned back to the bowl mega-structure and started to walk towards one of many entrances all around the Downtown. The entrance was like entering a subway from ground level and there was even a double railing in the center and halfway down there was a two-meter platform with more stairs leading to the bottom. At the bottom, the place was literally a subway station with square cement support pillars, and a subway train waiting for me.

I looked around, but the place was empty and blank with no discerning details. I walked over to the train car, but I started humming the blades song, Slashing Desires. I somehow just knew the song that I have never heard before, but the vibrations were like whips in the air around me. 

I walked onto the train, and the door closed behind me, but the train didn't start moving. I looked around and the train was all open, with only seats along the side walls. I took a step forward, and everything outside of the train shot past at blinding speed, but then stopped when I did.

Woah! It was weird, and I tried it again, and I was met with the same rush of traveling at high speeds. I started to walk forwards at a steady pace, but that still took me a bit to get used to the intense start and stop. I moved forward into the next train, but there were two ugly-looking biker pigs with sticks in their hands, and they did not look impressed to see me.

I focused on them as I walked forward and they finally came within my range and the pigs started to yell and snort, glaring at me. I shot them each with a dart and one missed, but the other hit, and the pig fell while still getting cut up. The next pig was charging me, but I jumped up and stuck to the roof of the car still humming 'Slashing Desires', then I quickly crawled to the twitching one that was getting up.

I dropped down, kicking him in the head, and making him explode into a massive shower of black particles. I turned and fired two more darts into the pigman that had turned back, and he seized and shook before exploding into a rain of particles. The moving part of the train car wasn't as bad as I thought but I think that part might have something to do with getting off and that would mean finding the right door, after clearing a room, great. 

I looked ahead, and there were a lot of cars with different monsters in them. This is going to be a nightmare.