Chapter 897: Alternate Timeline: The LMV
After finishing, she returned to her room, sitting on the edge of her bed, her shoulders slightly relaxed, her thoughts drifting back toward work.
She created three hundred bullets.
One by one.
Click after click.
The faint system sounds echoed in her head.
When she was done, she lay down and tried to sleep.
But she couldn’t sleep. She rolled left and right. Minutes turned into an hour, and an hour turned into two.
Kiara was half asleep but not fully.
Grabbing her pillow, Kiara got out of her bed and walked outside. At that moment, sleep-deprived Kiara didn’t even think of right or wrong; she didn’t weigh any consequences. She just walked down the corridor and then opened the adjacent room’s door.
As it clicked and opened, inside, there was a desk and a chair, with a couple of paintings on the wall, but she went straight to the single bed, where Noah was sleeping. There was little chill in the room because of the system’s automatic room temperature settings, which are perfectly calibrated to help Noah’s inside circuitry.
He woke up, snapping his eyes wide open.
"Big Sis?" He spoke aloud in surprise.
Kiara, whose eyes half-lid open, continued to walk to the bed. Reaching him, she said. "Move aside."
He moved a bit, and Kiara invited herself into the bed and lay beside him. She then turned to her left and just hugged him like a stuffed pillow. Noah was startled at first by her initiative, but he shut his eyes while his hand went over her shoulder, patting her back all night.
*
The next morning...
When Kiara stirred from her sleep, she found Noah beside her, asleep. She snuggled him tightly, her face entirely planted in his chest. Her hand wrapped over his body, and her leg over his thighs. Meanwhile, His hand was continuously patting her back, gently.
"Ahhh..."
Kiara freed herself in a startle, jumping out like a cat for a moment. But in the next second, memory of the last night resurfaced in her head.
Her cheeks warmed, blushed faintly as Noah snapped his eyes open and looked at her, "Good morning, sis."
Kiara looked away, "Morning." She quietly replied, wiping off the drool.
*Ahem*
"I... uhhh... I couldn’t sleep last night. You... you know... You were like a comfort pillow to me. And due to the deprived sleep, my mind was dull and I... Anyway, there’s nothing more to it." Kiara, suppressing her embarrassment, tried to explain.
Noah blinked his eyes twice. "I know." After a pause, he added, "We are telepathically connected, Big Sis. I know your emotions and your memories..."
At that, Kiara’s blush deepened even more. She swiftly turned away to walk. "Anyway, go to the kitchen and prepare breakfast for me."
She didn’t wait to hear his response and hurriedly left the room in short but fast steps.
Reaching her room and closing the door, Kiara took deep breaths, "Kiara... get your head straight. Either look at them as men or just robots. You can’t go back and forth at convenience. But then again..."
A small smile crept to her lips when she thought about last night, "I did get some nice sleep. I guess Noah is my comfort pillow."
*
Two days have passed since then. Kiara focused on creating the bullets whenever she had time.
And then—
The day arrived.
The lottery reset day.
Kiara’s eyes sharpened the moment she realized it, a faint spark of anticipation rising within her as she immediately absorbed three points of luck from Alucard, pushing her total to max.
"Open Lottery Wheel."
[Ding! 300 credits have been deducted.]
The wheel appeared.
It spun slowly at first.
Then faster.
Her gaze remained fixed, her breath steady, her fingers curling slightly as she waited, because this moment... this single outcome... could shift everything.
The wheel slowed eventually.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Then—
Stopped on the question mark.
Her eyes lit up.
The last time it happened, it gave her the Panzer.
"What now..."
*Ding!
[A mysterious package has been sent to the inventory.]
Her excitement rose.
"Open inventory."
She moved quickly, selecting the slot, her heartbeat subtly increasing as she activated it.
[You have unlocked VTLM2-NEC. Check your inventory for details.]
She blinked.
"VTLM2-NEC...?"
The name meant nothing to her.
Yet.
Curiosity surged.
She opened the details.
And then—
Her eyes widened slightly as she saw it was a vehicle.
Not a tank but a military vehicle instead.
A sleek, compact, and fast vehicle that she can use in the streets without worrying about blocking others. Something she can use to travel to other cities and reduce her travel time while riding in comfort
"A jeep..."
She leaned forward slightly.
"This looks like..."
Recognition sparked faintly.
"Iveco LMV..."
She opened the full details.
*
VTLM2-NEC
Grade: N/A
Crew: 1+4
Weight: 7 tons
Length: 4.7m
Width: 2.05m
Height: 1.95m
Max speed: 130 km/hr
Range: 500 km
Armor: Rank-5
Payload capacity: 1200kg
Armaments: 12.7mm machine gun
Attachments available: Yes
Description: This is a light multirole vehicle, fast enough to chase the enemies or run away from the enemies, durable enough to take damage from 5-circle and below realm enemies, and is strong enough to kill 4-circle enemies with the machine gun at the same time. The user can attach two weapons of choice and operate them through the remote weapon system.
Price: 2500 gold coins.
*
Kiara stared at it.
Silent.
Then... a small grin appeared.
"Expensive..." She murmured.
But her fingers twitched slightly.
Excited.
Because for the first time... She was excited to go for a drive.
*
Five more days slipped past like sand through open fingers.
There was still a steady stream of customers every day, their footsteps echoing against the polished floor, their voices mixing with the metallic responses of the assistant units, their eyes filled with curiosity, greed, fear, or simple need. Yet when Kiara counted everything carefully, separating regular sales from special arrangements, she realized that the total earnings of those five days barely reached around 2400 gold coins, once she removed the 3500 gold coins per week spent by House Storm in exchange for sparring sessions with Allen,
And that contrast between visible activity and actual profit lingered in her thoughts longer than she expected.
The second prince had still not arrived.
Not even once.
Despite the earlier agreement, despite the scale of the deal, despite the fact that 30000 gold coins were waiting to move, untouched and unresolved, he chose not to accept the Emperor’s assistance, choosing instead to stand on his own strength.
It’s as if proving something not just to the court but to himself, and Kiara understood that kind of stubbornness better than most, even if she did not agree with the inconvenience it caused her.
He wanted his firearms division to stand equal to the others.
Not supported.
Not favored.
Recognized.
And so, apart from an additional batch of 5000 bullets being delivered, nothing truly progressed on that front, leaving a quiet gap in her plans that she could neither ignore nor force forward.
Yet, if there was one area that moved smoothly, almost elegantly, it was her dealings with merchants, because unlike warriors or nobles, merchants spoke a language she preferred, one of numbers, margins, supply, and long-term gain, where pride had less weight and logic carried sharper edges.
Throughout the week, she held several lunch meetings, each one unfolding in a different setting, each one with a different tone, sometimes polite, sometimes probing, sometimes wrapped in smiles that hid calculations behind them. And by the end of those meetings, she had secured agreements with four oil merchants, a supplier dealing in salt, sugar, and essential goods, a trader of rare materials, and finally, a wealthy merchant whose fortune crossed one million gold coins, a man known for his dealings in ether crystals.
It was with him that she made her boldest move.
Instead of purchasing polished crystals, she chose high-quality ether ores, around 2500 carats in total, accepting the impurities, the mixed composition, the unpredictability of raw extraction, because she knew that for her system, purity did not matter as much as quantity, and that single decision alone cost nearly 100,000 gold coins.
A heavy amount.
A dangerous investment.
But one she accepted without hesitation.
Not with her own money.
But with the advance provided by Harrison.
That decision tied her hands in one way.
Because now, no matter what happened, she had to fulfill her end of the deal with Icarus, whether the timing suited her or not, and although she did not say it aloud, she chose to treat it as an obligation, not a burden, because that mindset allowed her to move forward without hesitation.
Meanwhile, the Imperial Palace had not remained idle either.
In the Carlo District, where her store stood, the 5-acre piece of land had been transformed within days, enclosed by a tall compound wall lined with barbed wire that glinted faintly under sunlight. Warning signs were placed on every side declaring strict penalties for trespassing, and a single large gate facing her store, guarded at all times by two soldiers whose presence was both protection and surveillance.
It was efficient.
Too efficient.
And though Kiara did not comment on it, she understood what it meant.
Opportunity for her.
Control for them.
That balance would not remain stable forever.