Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 31: Vegas

“Purpose of visit?” came the incredibly bored question from the guy at passport control.

Isaac just sighed “Gambling.”

“I see.”

And just like that, he was through the last layer of official interference, free to explore the city of sin in any and all ways he desired.

Isaac just kept walking, the only luggage he needed being his backpack. As he walked towards the taxi stand, he checked his status.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Undying Wraith

Species: Human

Level: 11

XP: 517/2400

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 250/250

Stats

Fortitude

35

Perception

40

Strength

30

Agility

30

Magic Power

25

Magic Regeneration

30

Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill

Central Skills

Form of Horror II

The Chosen Weapon III

Skills

Hundred Faces VII

Stealth IX

Power Strike XIII

Piercing Strike XIV

Sundering Strike XII

Blades XIII

Sneak XI

Sweeping Strike II

Far Strike VIII

Manifold Strike V

Hunter’s Gaze IV

Phantom Step III

Unknown Fear I

General Skills

Gralloch I

Alchemy I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

Hydra

Hydra’s Regeneration

Dunkleosteus

Gills

He’d levelled up once again, not only buying the full and proper [Privacy Skill], but also tossing all of the free points into the Perception Stat.

After all, that was what would be the most useful for what he intended to do. And that was to take Las Vegas, Sin City, by storm.

He’d also tried out his new [Form of Horror], gaining bony plating on several vital areas, as well as four sharpened ones on his knees and elbows, meaning any strikes with those would be devastating.

Lastly, there was the rather unimaginatively and possibly misleadingly named [Gills] [Skill]. In essence, it allowed him to breathe water, without any change to his external appearance. It cost five mana to apply and a whopping 1 mana every minute to keep up. In other words, basically free.

Swimming like that once more was exhilarating, and once he’d strapped on a pair of fins, he’d shot through the water like a seal, actually fighting the monstrous fish, rather than the bizarre amalgamation of fishing and waterskiing he’d used to kill the ones before it. That single Aspect had opened up 70% of the planet as viable places to operate in, leaving him with very few areas he couldn’t survive in long term.

The poles would be too cold for a while yet, though that was something that could be bypassed with proper equipment.

His ability to go up against flying enemies might have been limited, but then again, if they actually wanted to attack, most of them would have to come down to attack him. Of course, there were flying monsters with ranged attacks, but those tended to be of a higher Tier than was currently summoned.

But the water, that had the potential to be a very big problem. Aquatic creatures were limited in where they could exist per definition, which also meant that getting enough distance to break tracking would be easy.

And that would leave the monster with direct access to most of the planet, large chunks of which required extremely specialized equipment to enter. Even then, between the crushing pressure of the deep ocean and the need to periodically return to the surface for air, getting anything done in that particular environment would be a pain in the ass.

Of course, it would only be useful in case someone was stupid enough to actually summon a monster in a body of water that connected to the ocean, but if that did indeed occur, having this Aspect would be vital.

Because one thing was certain, while most people were inevitably wise enough to not take a particularly idiotic course of action, it was likewise inevitable that someone wouldn’t be that smart.

As Isaac settled down in his taxi, his knife warped to his side, attaching to his belt. This action cost him the entirety of its mana pool and quite a bit of his own, but he now had his trusty weapon ready and waiting for anything he might encounter. Teleporting a knife halfway across the world wasn’t exactly cheap, after all.

Isaac had thought about talking to Bailey about this rather obvious security flaw, but decidedly chosen not to, for several reasons.

First of all, the TSA sucked. Countless studies had shown that if anyone wanted to get dangerous stuff onto an airplane, chances were, they’d manage to do so with barely any issues.

Then, there was the small issue of Isaac simply not needing a weapon to be dangerous. A Strength stat in the thirties alone made him a serious threat on an airplane, to say nothing of his ability to project powerful attacks from anything that could even remotely be considered a blade. The plastic cups water was served in during flights couldn’t really shatter, per se, but one could break a shard out of one and then use the [Blades] [Skill] or equivalent ability to turn it into something actually sharp. And at that point, whether or not Isaac had a proper weapon going in wouldn’t have mattered.

And lastly, he simply couldn’t afford to end up on any kind of ‘no fly list’ and that was what would most likely happen if he declared himself to be in possession of a weapon that would always be on hand, with no way to deny it to him.

Considering that anyone above a certain Level could easily take down an airplane, banning him due to his soulbound weapon would be just silly. A [Mage] could burn through the paper-thin walls of a plane with the most basic of Spells, while anyone with a physical focus could just open the emergency door, overcoming almost half a ton of pressure, or force open the reinforced door to the cockpit.

Old Reliable shouldn’t even make a single blip of difference on a plane related threat assessment, but it almost certainly would.

A magical knife that was always on hand simply sounded super dangerous, but it was a mere fraction of the potential dangers a person who spent the barest amount of time levelling could pose.

Therefore, Isaac had decided to keep this whole thing to himself and hope there wouldn’t be any issues in that vein for a good long time.

As Isaac mused about that, the taxi headed towards the Las Vegas Strip. The local airport was technically within the city proper, but that still left it well clear of the really important parts.

Slowly, neon signs and crowds began to populate the roadside, showing that he was getting closer to the Strip, a continuous line of the finest casinos in town.

However, all of that soon began to grow sparse once more as the taxi hit the southern edge of what was considered to be the strip and dumped him off outside the casino known as Circus Circus.

Vast skyscrapers reached upwards into infinity, a stylized circus tent made from concrete and glass out front … all of that for was mostly for show.

Isaac paid the cabby and entered the building, heading straight past the reception desk and deeper into the building. Though before he went in, he surreptitiously dropped his knife into a nearby trashcan. After all, carrying a concealed knife in Nevada required a permit, one he obviously didn’t have.

But on the off chance something did go wrong and he needed it, he wouldn’t have to spend a buttload of mana to transport it halfway around the world first. Fifty mana would still wipe out half its pool, but that was still a lot cheaper than last time and guaranteed to not touch his own pool.

The lobby was rather ostentatious, decorated in red and gold. Colors that signaled royalty in times past due to how expensive they were and that concept had survived through to the modern day.

But said paint was peeling in places, and there were cracks in the plaster. Not anywhere a normal person might notice, mind you, but forty points in Perception revealed quite a few things.

Soon, Isaac left the ‘hotel’ portion of the building and entered the ‘casino’ part. Gold and filigree shifted over into neon signs and shops selling cheap crap to tourists. Shirts with some kind of electronics in them that lit up whenever a certain tone was hit, flashing in tune with the songs that came over the loudspeakers.

Fake tattoo places, frozen yoghurt stands, and a whole lot of other stuff. Just as it had been in the other timeline, seven years in the future.

Isaac walked past all of them, soon passing the entrance to Circus Cirucus’ very own amusement park, complete with several truly insane rides. He’d actually ridden a few of those in the other timeline and. They. Were. Nuts. One of theme involved the rider going upside down, but not in any kind of even remotely normal way,

Instead, the ‘getting pulled up to the start so gravity can take over’ part had been turned into some kind of topsy turvey lunatic ride that flung the rider through the depths of the casino.

Of course, by the time Isaac had ridden the damn thing, he could have not only survived falling from that height, but he could also have easily weathered having the damn cart fall on him. Sadly, reprogramming the lizard brain wasn’t quite that easy.

All of the various rides were in a dome that was entirely separate from the main casino and cost an extra fee to access, so Isaac ignored it. It might have been fun, in theory, but that didn’t mean he was eager to try it out this time around.

Isaac just kept walking, ignoring the various temptations, until he saw a shop that sold sweets. It had all the normal candies, from cotton candy to rock candy, but also a rather distinctive kind of lollipop. Clear, colorful sugar … and a scorpion clearly visible in the center.

That brought back memories. Kade had loudly proclaimed that no, there was no way they’d put an actual scorpion into a sweet, bought one, and chomped it in half immediately afterwards.

… and then discovered that, not only was the scorpion real, but scorpions did not, in fact, taste good.

Isaac chuckled as he recalled that scene, the veteran of countless battles coughing and spitting, an almost comical look of disgust on his face. But a swell of sadness welled up within him at the same time, because he knew that was unlikely to happen, this time around.

All those little coincidences that led up to any given situation were unlikely to be replicated again. And all those incidents would eventually shape someone’s personality, those little moments of joy where they discovered their passion, or a moment of horror as a person came face to face with some of the true horrors of the world.

And some, if not all of those would change in this timeline. Who would Isaac himself have become if he hadn’t randomly run into Marc that day, which led to the two of them working together? If he’d clicked one link instead of another, resulting in him getting slightly different information, which might have led to a different fighting style?

Most likely, he’d have just become another corpse on a dying planet, and unless things went very fortuitously for the remainder, there likely wouldn’t have been another returnee, making that end final.

Isaac just sighed and shook his head. He truly missed the people from the other timeline, but he still couldn’t bring himself to do so. They were the … ‘basis’ of the people he’d known, but the likeliness of them becoming who they’d been was basically nil. Perhaps, they were closer to children, someone who was a part of them, but would grow up to be someone else?

Unfortunately, Isaac happened to agree with that metaphor. By changing the timeline, he’d effectively killed the people he knew and now it was up to him to protect their current versions, even if he didn’t feel like he’d ever be able to look them in the eyes again.

He’d save the whole fucking world and kick the ass of anyone who endangered this humanity.

Eventually, he reached the gambling floor, bought some chips and got ready to put this plan into action, though he wouldn’t be going all out right off the bat.

He’d chosen Circus Circus for a reason. It might still be a part of the Strip, but it was also an older casino, lacking the high stakes tables he’d be playing at to win the highest possible amount of money, but if he only won a little money here, then he could start off in the next casino with no one in the security room suspicious of him.

The first thing that jumped into view were the countless colorful slot machines, or as they were called in German, ‘one armed bandits’. Each of those things was fundamentally the same, a massive money pit even he couldn’t trick right now. There were a handful of tricks that might work, but none he could use right now.

A good [Enchanter] could mess with machines, and there were a few ways to get a hold of combat scale precognition, but only at an absurdly high Level. And by the time Isaac was in any position to take advantage of those opportunities, countermeasures would have long since been put in place.

But on the way to finding the Poker section of the gambling floor, he stumbled across the Craps tables. Should he go there? After all, it was hardly the same quasi-sure thing that Texas Hold’em would turn into after a few games, but his high Stats still gave him a small advantage.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen.” he announced.

“Afternoon.” someone grumbled, but the others were rather focused on the game.

Eventually, the dice came around the table and placed a ten bucks worth of chips on the basic ‘pass’ bet. In essence, all you had to do was keep rolling and not hit 2, 3, or 12. There were quite a few additional rules and qualifiers, but that was the long and short of it. If he could manage to not hit a one with just one of the dice, the chance of him losing this was practically nil.

The first roll ended up on a 5, so he rolled again. And again, until he eventually hit a 5 and got back his ten dollars, as well as another ten dollars from the casino.

Well, that cinched it. He wasn’t in a position to properly control the dice yet. Later on, with higher Stats, he could have made those dice land precisely how he wanted them to, six times out of ten, but not yet. He was good enough to manipulate them away from a losing combination, which was enough to likely eke out a win eventually, but that was all.

As much fun as this had been, the original plan of playing Poker and ‘cheating’ by memorizing cards was a far safer bet.

A few minutes later, he was standing next to the fullest table in sight, with only one open spot available. Theoretically, he could have sat down right now, but he decided to wait a little and watch. Every card he could spot a differentiating mark on was one he’d be able to recognize during subsequent turns.

In preparation for that, Isaac dialed down most of his senses to the absolute minimum, aka, baseline human. All except sight.

The heightened perception provided by high Stats could be dialed up and down at will, or set to filter out annoying things, such as the neighbor’s TV and/or more … amorous activities. Eavesdropping on everyone around him as a matter of course could hardly be considered polite or even necessary, so he usually kept his hearing relatively low, the same going for his sense of smell, given the fact that the world could contain some rather smelly substances. As for his vision, that was usually dialed up to the max 24/7 to provide an early warning of any kind of problem.

Limiting everything else like that didn’t improve his other senses, per se, but it also meant he wasn’t being distracted nearly as much. In fact, that was similar to how blind people didn’t actually get better senses, they just used the ones they already had to a far greater effect.

He’d come right at the beginning of the turn, so he ended up seeing both sides of all shared cards in the center of the table. Everyone except one person ended up folding, though, denying him any chance to see what their cards were. And stepping in to take a look at them, even after the turn had ended, would not go over well.

Casinos might take great care to have clean and fully intact cards at their tables, but that was nowhere near what was needed to cover up minor damage, invisible to the naked, unenhanced, eye.

But to him, it was quite obvious that the ace of hearts had been picked up by someone with a ring at some point, leaving a long scratch on the surface, the ten of clubs had had its corner banged against the table and the three of diamonds had been slightly stained by some amber liquor.

Three cards were now a known quantity, ones he could recognize. Just three of fifty-two, though.

The next turn came and went, showing him another seven cards. Hanging around a specific table, not playing, was a little boring though and might draw suspicion, so Isaac sat down at a free spot, his chips going on the table next to him.

The cards were dealt, and as it turned out, two of the cards he’d memorized ended up being dealt to other players at the table. At that, he felt a little bad, knowing that while he’d end up walking out of here with someone else’s money, but not that bad. People came to Vegas knowing they could lose their money, that gambling was never a sure thing.

Besides, he wouldn’t be playing on normal tables for long, instead he’d be heading over to some high roller table that didn’t require an invitation.

He ended up winning that round, but that was mostly due to having a trio of aces, aka sheer luck, rather than skill or subtle cheating. Only around a hundred dollars’ worth of profits, though.

Another round came and went, giving him an even greater grasp of the deck and further heightening the predictive abilities. He nearly ended up folding, though, simply not having had the cards to win, nor was he in the mood to try and bluff his way to victory. That would have required spending a lot of money matching bets he didn’t want to risk losing just yet.

But there was a secondary trick he also wanted to practice in a more low stakes environment. His poker face. It wasn’t actually that bad, certainly above average in most places, but he could take it to new heights using [Hundred Faces]. The ability to manipulate his face’s form could also be used to take direct control of his facial muscles, putting on whatever expression he wanted to and holding it.

The technique cost him triple his regeneration in terms of mana, making it unsustainable to keep up permanently, but it could come in handy in a cinch. It was also an incredibly tricky way to use it and he was likely the only person who could currently use it.

After all, pulling the corners of one’s lips up and to the side might technically be how a smile worked from the technical side of things, but pulling it off in a way that didn’t transform you into a horrific caricature of humanity was a different matter entirely.

“Thank you, everyone, for this lovely game. I wish you all the luck.” Isaac announced, stood up and walked away.

He left the casino on the opposite end he’d entered it from and headed towards the Strip proper. Circus Circus was technically a part of it, but separate from the true, world famous, casinos like Luxor or Mandela Bay.

On the way out, though, he bought himself a new shirt, short sleeved and with a Hawaiian print. It was a hell of a lot more expensive than anything he’d normally buy for himself, but that was a part of the impression he wanted to give off. Of someone who’d shown up here in this town and immediately bought an expensive article of clothing from a casino’s store, possibly even after winning a few games and having gotten overconfident.

It would certainly stand out less than the outfits he normally preferred, simple, unadorned shirts and jeans in colors that wouldn’t show blood too obviously. Of course, those clothes would get progressively tighter as his Agility increased and air resistance became more and more of a problem, to the point where even dodging would end with him fighting in his birthday suit. Magical and [Skill] enhanced cloth were the obvious solution, but that would only become viable long after he hit the point where any ordinary clothing would be reduced to tatters mere seconds after moved at max speed.

Isaac also purchased a flask from a random street vendor and some bottom shelf liquor to fill it with. Merely having a flask would indicate to most people that he was something of a drinker, and he could take a swig of that stuff at the table to get a message across. Namely, either ‘I’m losing and hiding in the bottle’ or ‘I’m so confident I’ll win I’ll even start drinking’. Either way, it barely cost thirty-five dollars and he’d already won that much.

Walking down Las Vegas Boulevard, Isaac grinned as he took in everything. In many ways, it was the same city he’d visited, seven years in the future. The same buildings, roughly, crowds of people outside even in the sweltering sun of a desert in the afternoon, street vendors hawking things to tourists, the usual things that could be found in any touristy place.

But there were also many things that were oh so distinctively ‘Vegas’. The one armed bandits next to the entrances, proudly pronouncing ‘one free roll’.

The people handing out ‘do you want to see tits’ pamphlets to anyone who didn’t look like they had spouses or girlfriends in the city with them. And then there was something oh so much more traditional, the Vegas showgirls ready to take a picture with anyone who wanted to pay for the privilege, in costumes ranging from the standard feathers and fishnets to cowboy outfits … if all cowboys wore was the hat, a near invisible thong and some black tape masking the bare minimum to avoid an indecent exposure charge.

Really, the moniker of ‘sin city’ had been well and truly earned.

Despite all the things that hadn’t changed, the city still felt quite different. The most immediately apparent thing was the lack of the physics defying edifices to human ambition that were slated to be built in five or so years, possibly sooner if Isaac managed to speed up humanity’s comprehension of the [System].

But the real difference was that this place wasn’t so damn suffocating. The Vegas of a future had every single even remotely private place utterly blanketed by Perception blockers, leaving the entire city drenched in privacy fields. Walking through the city and having your vision fuzz out as you looked at a protected area, having your hearing selectively blocked or having the air currents streaming across your skin suddenly disappear was just plain annoying. The effect hadn’t been quite as bad out on the street, but in the buildings, at least on the Strip … yeesh.

They’d ended up leaving two days after arriving. Vegas did have a few attractions outside the casinos, but nothing that had really called to people used to high adrenaline combat situations. Who wanted the chance to fire an assault rifle at a firing range when they spent their days slinging around lightning bolts? Who wanted to go indoor skydiving when they’d jumped out of airplanes without so much as a parachute on the regular?

In theory, that kind of oppressive feeling should have killed everyone’s business, but really, all it did was keep the high Level people out, the ones who were the only ones to even notice and be bothered by the Perception blockers.

And then, two years after that, the city had gotten flattened by Belzebub, Demon Prince of Gluttony, and Asmodeus, Demon Prince of Lust. Two immensely powerful [Raid Bosses] had been summoned to this place, though no one knew if they’d been spitefully dumped into this city by someone who’d lost their life’s savings in a casino or summoned naturally by a demonic presence elsewhere on the globe and migrated to, well, sin city.

Regardless of which was actually true, the city would hopefully be able to survive, this time around. Given that Isaac didn’t know the precise mechanisms of that particular cataclysm, he couldn’t directly counter out, leaving him forced to hope his actions in this timeline, past and future, would either prevent those two from appearing, or ensure that they could be fought off.

Soon, Isaac entered the massive mall that ran from casino to casino, connecting them underground to allow any tourist who wanted to stay inside to walk most of the strip without ever having to step into the sun.

Soon, he reached the casino his online research on the plane had recommended, dropped off his backpack in its luggage storage and meandered onto the casino floor. Showtime!