?

  The siblings each had a room of their own, though ‘room’ is me being more than generous. Their ‘rooms’ were in reality basically a pair of nooks on opposite sides of the cramped home with just enough room in each for a small single bed and just about nothing else.

  Honestly, the pair of them giving me the couch in the sun-wall room to sleep on was the act of gracious hosts. My sleep was still fitful and all too brief, but I didn’t blame my hosts or their furniture for that. In fact, I suspected it had a lot more to do with the fact that I was still dealing with the ramifications of my own death.

  I could remember it in excruciating detail and doubted I would ever forget it, no matter how many afterlives I passed through. It wasn’t just the memory of the pain and fear, though I’d felt an abundance of both during my execution.

  No, it was the sense of humiliation and hot, impotent rage at my captors that was still fresh in my mind. In particular, if I ever find the pair that had decided my fate in this afterlife, I will scatter their souls to the winds.

  Liu Bei, that arrogant pig, could chase the cultivation and special heavenly blessed Dao he espoused for ten lifetimes and still be beneath me! And then there was Cao Cao. Nasty, cunning little Cao Cao. The worst, most treacherous human being I or anyone else has ever met. He thought himself oh so clever, so ambitious, the special one, the chosen one. A snake in scholar’s robes is what he was!

  I promised myself then and there I would find both the man I had once called little brother, and the one who had grinned while I was strangled to death, and I would destroy them both. I would seek out and destroy their works, their relatives, whatever else I could think of or find; it didn’t matter. I would prowl this and every other afterlife in existence until I once more stood before them.

  That thought, along with the A.I. Diaochan was what eventually got me into a deeper sleep. Having apparently sensed my ‘distress,’ the spirit had chosen to appear and do what the real Diaochan would have done should I have been tossing and turning. Well…not possessing a real mouth, the A.I. did the second thing my beloved would have done. She appeared with a stringed pipa in hand and launched into her rendition of ‘White Snow In Sunny Spring.’ Her talent as a singer and player of the instrument was just as with the true Diaochan, beyond compare. Even if the song was really only playing within my own head.

  When I woke up, the A.I. was gone, as was my burning desire for revenge. As much as I would thoroughly enjoy absolutely massacring Liu Bei and Cao Cao, my odds of finding them even within a single afterlife were miserable. Let alone if I went hunting them across multiple existences. I truly would be a frog in a well if I was going to waste my eternity chasing revenge. If it happened, it happened, but I wasn’t going to spend any energy on the task unless I lucked into signs of one of them.

  So I pulled myself from the comfort and warmth of the faded couch and fell into a series of stretches and movements intended to increase my body’s flexibility. They were the same ones I had been taught by my first father and had practiced my entire life. As such, when Ji-ho and Ha-Rin entered the sitting room with what my nose informed me was breakfast. I was in the midst of stretching against the wall with one foot pressed against the ceiling, and the other firmly planted on the ground. Really, I should do both sides for at least two hours, but I know the siblings have plans for the day, so I stuck to a shorter version of the routine where each foot took its turn, pushed upwards for only a half hour each. It wasn’t the only flexibility exercise I put my body through, but it was certainly my favourite.

  “You have brought food,” I said without breaking my stretch, and it very much was not delivered as a question.

  “This guy.” Said Ji-Ho with a rueful shake of his head. “Yeah, we brought breakfast, and unlike last night, its actual food, not cardboard pretending to be noodles.” I had no idea what cardboard was, but I could tell from his tone that it wasn’t the sort of thing one usually ate, and this breakfast would be the food from last night’s superior.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  He was, in fact, correct. The flatbread with meat and vegetables wrapped in a strangely thin and malleable metal was far, far superior to the SynthNoods. The moment I finished my food, Ha-Rin practically forced me into the workshop. The younger of the siblings had apparently made a weapon based on the information Diaochan had transferred to her brother’s A.I. specifically for me, and she was overwhelmed with the desire to show me her work. The moment I laid eyes on the spear she had made me, I understood the source of her excitement.

  “You…Made this for me?” I said after a few moments of absolute shock. “Paying you back is going to take years.”The little dark-haired girl beamed at my reaction.

  “Yeah, probably, but I’m in no rush to collect. Besides, you are going to be responsible for keeping me and Ji-Ho alive on the hunt, so I’d prefer your gear not be terrible.”

  As much as I hated the idea of owing yet more to my pair of hosts who knew me not at all, I couldn’t fault her logic, nor could I fight the hunger inside me that always ignited when I saw a weapon of superior design.

  “Besides, nothing is better than seeing a weapon in the hands of someone who has high sync with it, and if what your Diaochan pulled from your memories is accurate, this baby should sync with you big time.”

  I obviously didn’t know what that meant, but I wasn’t really listening to the girl either by that point. Instead, my focus was purely on the dark metal spear that sat on a workbench held between two vice clamps.

  The shaft of the spear had what appeared to be feathers inscribed with some sort of silver ink all along it in a pattern reminiscent of falling leaves.

  “Feathers?” I asked slowly, my voice still filled with awe.

  “Well, Diaochan said you were called the flying general, so it seemed appropriate.”

  She is right, I was the second to bear that name, and the design along the weapon was more than appropriate. In fact, I would say I adored it. I was, however, less excited by the idea of the false Diaochan talking about my memories while I was asleep. I would have to talk to her about it and soon, though in truth I doubted she revealed anything I would care to keep secret. Also, it wasn't exactly an emergency if she had shared something I would rather she didn't, I could always just kill the pair of siblings and move on.

  For now, I moved my gaze along the weapon to its blade, and somehow my smile widened even further. I recognized instantly that she had made this portion of the weapon from the arm I had taken before the explosion. The one the drone had wielded that projected a blade of energy. That same blade of orange light glowed there in the workshop, letting out a soft hum.

  “You are a genius, then?” I asked, stepping in closer so that I could undue the vices and take the spear. “To have built this in a few hours.”

  The dark-haired girl reached down and pressed on something which caused the blade to vanish.

  “The machines did most of the work, and that arm you were clutching when we found you is surge-make and low impurity, which made things a little easier, but yes, I am a genius.”

  Snatching the weapon up, I began testing its weight when a large box appeared in the center of my hud.

  [Notification: New Soul Powered Device detected]

  [Establish link Yes/No?]

  “Diaochan, get out here and explain what I’m looking at.”

  The A.I. appeared next to Ha-Rin, though not in proximity mode, so only I could actually see and hear her. As requested, she explained that the blade from the spear could only maintain itself for a little while without drawing on the power of a person’s soul. As such, if I wanted to use it or any number of other weapons or devices in this world, I would have to accept a link from them to myself. Apparently, there were limits, but Diaochan assured me mine were quite high and she would let me know if I was approaching them.

  “Wait,” I commanded. “ Are you saying this spear needs to consume part of my soul to work?”

  That drew a laugh from Ha-Rin, who had busied herself with equipment of her own.

  “No master Lu Bu.” Replied my A.I. “Every soul naturally generates a lot of energy, more than any machine or even your own body can actually handle. Most of this energy is either sent back into the grid that runs the city or simply dissipates into the atmosphere. By using machines like this spear or cybernetics, you utilize this same energy before it is sent to the system or lost.”

  With that, I thought towards the word [Yes] that still sat in the flashing ‘notification’ box.

  Laser spear!