Greed God chapter 20

January 7th 2016 Lord Mansion 3:00 AM EDT

Getting  Barbie to leave after she agreed to my plan was the most challenging  part of the whole night. I'd apparently sold my tearful revelation much  too well, and fucking her into a drooling stupor one to many times had  gotten her a bit attached. Which was super sweet because I was attached  to her too (that pussy was better than fucking heroin, and her asshole  was my new nirvana) but also inconvenient because I had an apparently  sentient reality warping system to question. Finally, after a good  twenty minutes of her holding me as I "cried myself to sleep", she left.

As  soon as I heard the cab pull up and drive away with her I sat up with a  groan. Gods that had been exhausting. It was nice to know I was a good  enough fuck to make her all clingy, or at least that my lies had been  good enough that she felt we had really connected, but faking that  breakdown had been tiring as hell. I glared around the room at seemingly  nothing. "Alright Greedy, she's gone. Now I have some fucking questions  for you, and if you don't answer them I'll hand your ass over to the  Justice League myself. I'm sure they have a way to remove you."

[They  actually don't. But it hardly matters at this point. I was a bit  hesitant to work with you before, but after seeing that...well, I have a  new respect for you kid. I suppose if we're going to be partners I  should at least introduce myself. My name is Marcus Licinius Crassus. I  was the LAST owner of the Greed System.]

I  recognized that name from my lessons as a kid. Marcus Crassus was one  of dads go to examples of what not to end up becoming. I blinked. "Wait.  THE Marcus Crassus? One of the three members of the original  triumvirate with Julius Caeser? How the fuck did your campaign on  Parthian Empire fail so badly if you had access to the Greed System? You  were considered one of the richest men in Rome at that time. You must  have had fuck tons of points. Couldn't you have just outfitted your  armies in F rank gear? Or made an S rank item? Also why am I just  hearing this now? Why not tell me from the start?"

[Because  I couldn't. I was suppressed until you completed the tutorial mode.  Before you ask no I can't tell you why or by who. As for the other  stuff, yes, that was me, and the Parthians cheated. Their gods got  involved in the conflict directly. And I didn't have nearly enough  points to make an S rank. They cost ten billion, and there are...other  requirements.]

Huh.  Who knew. Regardless Crassus's past, while interesting, wasn't really  relevant here. "How did you end up becoming some weird ghost thing in  the system. Is that going to happen to me? Because I'll be honest, the  idea of winding up in some guys head in two thousand years does not  appeal. Even if I get to watch him demolish some prime pussy like that  redhead who just limped out of here." I couldn't help but get a bit smug  at fucking BATGIRL into submission. Gods I was good.

[It  might happen to you. If you die before accomplishing the Greed Systems  mission goal. Specifically the creation of an object beyond the S grade.  Again, can't tell you who the mission comes from or why we have it, but  it's a must. The Greed System consumes everything, including,  inevitably, it's own user. Kind of wish we were told that at the start  but oh well.]

His  voice sounded...tired. Sad even. I'd never heard him sound anything but  robotic or more recently snarky. "Speaking of, how did I get the system  anyway? It just showed up out of nowhere." I'd actually been  suspiciously unconcerned about that in retrospect. It felt like the  system might have been steering my mind away from those kinds of  questions. Even now I had the subtle urge to just shrug it off and go  back to figuring things out. Unfortunately for whatever was causing it,  my distress over the mess I was in was keeping me laser focused.

I  felt Crassus give the mental equivalent of a shrug...which was weird to  experience in my brain. But when he finally responded his voice was  careful.

[It's...genetic.  You're a descendant of mine. As for why it activated for you and not  for someone else I have no idea. From what I've seen since you got the  system superpowers seem to be fairly random, maybe you just woke up  yours. I got it from...someone else. Now, no more about the system's  origins. This is starting to cause me pain, I'm not supposed to answer  most of these questions.]

I  was far from finished asking about the system, but I had other things  to worry about now. I needed to create some methods to protect from  mental intrusion, preferably something that I could give to Barbie and  Mal so I could move forward with my plans. "Fine. Well I have forty  thousand points now, so I need to use those to make some mental  defenses. Any ideas for that?" Because honestly I had no idea where the  hell to start. Hopefully being some ancient Greed System veteran Crassus  would have some ideas.

[My  suggestion would be a pharmacy. From what I've seen they have drugs for  basically everything. The question is can you get into one at this  hour? I suspect a break in would be much more difficult to manage are a  pharmacy than a pawn shop]

Clearly  my supposed ancestor had been paying attention pretty well to this  world, because he was right. His concern was also irrelevant. I grinned  as I stood up, slipping into my costume. "Oh I don't thank that's going  to be a problem. All I have to do is use the resources at my disposal." I  headed to the garage, picking out a car basically at random to take  with me to the pharmacy. With my mask on I wasn't worried about covering  my tracks since it "kept my secrets" so I headed straight for the  nearest twenty four hour pharmacy, with a quick stop on the way to take a  few hundred bucks out of the bank.

I'd  expected Crassus to ask about the plan, but he seemed content to leave  me alone mostly. I remembered his comment about answering questions  hurting him, so I figured I'd give him a rest until I had to start  making the new meds. Finding a pharmacy was easy enough, and between my  ominous masked form and the few hundred in bribes I managed to get the  night clerk to wait outside while I shopped around for what I needed.  Once he was gone I pulled out my phone and started looking around.

I  was insanely lucky to have appraisal because most of these damned pills  weren't sorted or labeled yet. Between searching for what I needed and  identifying all the ingredients it took me a while to track everything  down. Luckily all the pills I found were J rank, presumably because I  was dealing with individual pills instead of bottles. I grabbed a bunch  of different things to test out and without further ado I started  combining medicines, trying to get something that would work. Half the I  ranked stuff I created was useless, but it was cheap so I just kept  trying until I got some results.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Mind enhancer- I rank. A pill  made from the combination of an anti psychotic and an Alzheimers  medication. Prevents loss of memory for any experience within a twenty  four hour period permanently.]

Crassus's  voice sounded the same during appraisals as it had when he first woke  up, except slightly more bored. That said the mind enhancer gave me  something to work from, so I made another dozen of the things to make  sure I had mats. Then I tried a few other combination. I made a pill  that could prevent the need to sleep, a pill that prevented emotional  disturbances, a pill that could purge poison, and several other slightly  off the wall medicines, but finally I had enough of a stockpile to try  combining them with the mind enhancer.

Most  of the results were random or useless, and a few of them were genuinely  disturbing ( one of them was a pill that would permanently alter your  brain so you would hallucinate all the time, essentially experiencing  your dreams while awake so you would never need to sleep again) but  finally I stumbled on the right track. Combining the mind enhancer with  the emotional disturbance prevention pill produced something fantastic.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Mind Defense Medicine-H rank.  Protect the emotions and memories of the user from being tampered with  for twenty four hours. A strong mind resides within a strong body.]

Which  was pretty fantastic, but also not exactly what I needed. I needed  defense against mind reading, not tampering, and I needed it forever not  just for a day. Luckily for me things got exponentially more powerful  as they ranked up. I still had two ranks worth of combinations to do now  that I had this. I decided to try merging two of the same pill first,  hopefully it would increase the power or the duration, then I could  merge in something else at F rank if I needed to. I triggered a merge on the two pills and the result was absolutely amazing.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Elixir of Mental Aegis-G rank. A  powerful concoction that prevents any sort of mental intrusion for  twenty four hours. Complete immunity to hypnotism, mind control,  telepathy, and even mind altering drugs and poisons for the stated  duration. Does not counter the Brand of Greed.]

I  grinned. This was perfect. I could mix one of these with the H rank  Stable Kobra Venom for Mal before I gave it to him and it would even  take care of his drug problem. The venom was permanent too so it should  create a lifetime effect. All I needed to do was figure out how to brand  him. I couldn't use the method I used on Barbie but there had to be  another way. Plus I could give this to Barbie and not worry about it  countering the Brand for her either.

I  would need to figure out what to mix it for to handle delivery.  Technically her situation was less urgent since she didn't know anything  damning. Once I got Mal under control I would be safe to try to figure  out what I could do to maximize her upgrades. Barbie was my first  Branded girl, and I wanted to make sure whatever I merged her with made  her more effective in both combat and wrapped around my cock. For now  though I had to focus on this last merge.

I needed some way to make this permanent. I suspected merging the pill  itself with another version would end up creating another more powerful  medication that would be temporary still. I needed something permanent,  something long term. I spotted something off to one side and I felt my  face pinch. Shit. I had an idea. I grabbed a box from the shelf and did  another two merges, combining the item with itself before appraising it.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Sexual  Excellence Implant-G rank. Created from a combination of multiple birth  control implants this implant provides a permanent protection against  sexually transmitted diseases and the ability to alter fertility with a  thought in either oneself or ones partner.]

I  didn't want an implant obviously, but I suspected the permanence of it  would carry over to the medicine I was making. I winced as I noted the  drop in my points. I'd had a few thousand extra on top of my forty  thousand base and I'd burned them now. This had to work because I  couldn't afford to make more than four F rank items. I closed my eyes,  took a deep breath, and merged the implant with the G ranked pill. The  room filled with a riot of color and light as my first F ranked item was  brought into existence. A single, blood red, spherical pill.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Eros  and Psyche- F rank. The crystallization of a myth. Lust and knowledge,  none will know your mind but the needs of lovers will be open to you.  Understand the emotions and desires of you partner during lovemaking and  control the creation of new life. To taste of your lust is to be  forever changed, and the minds of your lovers will be closed to all  outside forces forevermore. No harm can be done to you by a lover, intentional or indirect.]

I was pretty glad that I bribed the night clerk to go away. After all, wild maniacal laughter might leave a bad impression.