Chapter 538 (2/2)

Randidly’s first Skylark was an ugly thing, scuffed and somewhat squatter than the blueprints depicted. Even now, he was still refining the process of using tools. It was a simple thing, containing a power source, a camera, two engines for the propellers, a data storage unit, and a communicator. As most everything was made of runes, aside from the power source, it was light and relatively simple to make.

But because of that lightweight, it was very easy to damage and destroy.

It was something of a disappointment then, that when Randidly turned the Skylark on, it trembled, farted out a black cloud, and was still. An hour and a half later, Randidly realized that the connection between the power source and the engines had grown so hot that the material had melted, and the thing shorted out.

Randidly’s eyes flashed. This had occurred because he had improved the connector, enabling it to handle more energy. Where the defects in the runes on purpose? Or was it just a coincidence?

Either way, Randidly’s mouth was creeping open into a grin. This… was fun. It reminded Randidly of building legos as a child, a pursuit that had compelled him to bother his dad until Ezekiel had taken Randidly to Legoland. While there, Randidly didn’t really touch anything, but he had stood solemnly beneath the giant structures, looking up at all of the colorful toy blocks.

“What are you looking at?” Ezekiel had asked after about 15 minutes, finally looking up from his pager long enough to realize that something was wrong with his son.

“I’m going to make my house out of legos someday,” Randidly had said.

Now, Randidly had found those legos.

Before he could continue, however, he returned to the smelting factory and made another 100 ingots of Erickson Steel to sell for seed money. Now that he was a Probationary Citizen, he could access the market himself and sell it, but that would take time and attention. For the extra few dollars, Randidly wasn’t willing to invest his time into searching for contacts to sell the steel too. Instead, he simply continued to rely on Davey, who was extremely smitten to see Randidly still bringing him steel.

With more money, Randidly returned to the drone compound and purchased additional materials. Then he once more locked himself away in his small lab. While experimenting with different ways of drawing the runes, he considered his immediate plans.

His search to locate the Creature wasn’t progressing. He had scanned in specific areas across the entirety of the Zone but had found nothing. A general scan, however, caught the scent. It was faint, but it proved its presence. Perhaps there was a connection between the Creature and Ghost, but Randidly was having a hard time keeping his tension up, as Ghost seemed profoundly… inept. The political turmoil and the undercurrents of resentment caused by the ranking of people damaging to the health of the Zone, yet Ghost did nothing.

Perhaps some sort of rebellion was what the AI wanted? To drive some people out, or to locate strong talents?

Either way, Ghost seemed pretty unconcerned with Randidly, and fake Randidly, who was likely still parading around with that Senator, causing trouble. As such, Randidly felt a bit more comfortable allowing himself to stand out a bit more.

With his primary goal temporary without any leads, he defaulted to his secondary and tertiary goals: gathering information about the Zone and generally improving the conditions of humanity under the System. For the tertiary goal, Randidly made a mental note to head back to town every once and a while, both to check on the people around his hovel, but to see Tatiana-

Randidly twitched slightly, then smiled wryly, shaking his head. He breathed in, then breathed out. Making plans to see Tatiana was fine, Randidly reassured himself. They were just friends. There was nothing else there, there was no reason to feel… awkward about it. Which, for him, was extremely difficult.

But still, he could nudge people like Maude and her refugees towards improving and the surrounding area. That would do a lot towards raising the quality of life for these steelworkers and their families.

For the second goal, Randidly still believed that becoming renowned as a local drone creator would help him gather information on the Zone. If his performance was exemplary, he would get higher tiered citizenship. With that, he could travel in different circles, perhaps even go to the nearby city to talk.

Tightlipped, Randidly paused what he was doing and looked East. He could sense it, through his connection with Thorn. Something was happening in his Zone, in Donnyton. But he couldn’t solve their problems for them. He had to learn to trust them. They could handle this. He had other work, here in front of him.

Sighing, Randidly turned back to the materials. “Time to try making a Porpoise, I suppose…”