“How about this," the shopkeeper said. "Recently I’ve seen a few shady characters hanging around a particular store, the Iron Wall, located a bit outside the trading hub. I’ll give you directions.

"Now, all I want you do is maybe test the armor, make sure it works. Scout around a bit, maybe see if you can find any evidence of the illicit business I know they’re involved in, and well”—the shopkeeper glanced about—“if you can’t find any information, but they manage to, say, misplace a valuable item worth around 1000 credits and you bring it back here, who’s to say it wasn’t justice?”

A quest popped up in front of Alan:

Alan thought about whether to accept the task for a moment. He was almost certain that there were no such illegal activities taking place and that the shop was owned by a rival businessman or something. Was he willing to steal 1000 credits worth of items was the real question.

Eve, what do you think my odds of succeeding are? Alan sent.

Approximately 70% with about a 20% margin of error, she replied.

That’s quite the margin of error…

Indeed.

Screw it, he’d practice his stealth ability, and maybe this would even turn into some sort of chain quest. It wasn’t like he’d gotten any other quests that were so specific. "Survive" and "investigate," what kind of quests were those?

“I accept,” Alan said.

“Great,” the shopkeeper grinned. “Now, I’ll trade you the armor for 9000 credits, but won’t make it an official transaction until you fulfill your side of the bargain. Thus, it’s stolen property until you finish the task, so don’t get stopped by any military police, alright?”

“Uh, okay.” Alan went into a fitting room, changing into the power armor, beginning to regret his decision immediately. The shopkeeper would probably be waiting for him with a few military police when Alan returned. Still, the armor was awfully nice, Alan had to admit. It felt almost weightless, and hardly restricted his movement at all.

Checking his stats, Alan saw that the armor gave him 500 shield energy, with the ability to turn invisible for five energy per minute. The shields regenerated at the rate of two energy per minute. Eve was impressed with the armor as well, as she was able to interface with the armor directly, allowing Alan to activate the stealth feature with a simple thought.

Not wanting to risk anything Alan activated his own stealth ability in addition to the armor’s as he exited from the changing room. He grinned when he walked out through the front entrance, as the shopkeeper seemed completely unaware of Alan’s departure.