It took a few seconds for Ludo to get over the shock of his delivery suddenly appearing before his eyes out of nowhere.
And it took even more time before he built up the courage to finally approach the package and take a closer look.
"This thing's from outer space after all! It's alien technology!"
There was a fear in the back of Ludo's mind that this could all be a setup by whichever civilisation had just delivered this unassuming black box. He'd request a delivery, which would in turn expose the location of his planet, and then just when he thinks all is clear once the delivery is complete… BOOM!
The Earth would blow up.
But Ludo pushed those childish thoughts aside while inspecting the crate closely. From what he'd seen so far, the Galactic Terminal seemed quite legit. Though his first choice of buying a Virtual AI instead of something physical were what contributed the most to his trust in the device.
He knew that the items delivered were actually legit thanks to that, so he had a relatively good amount of trust that this black box wouldn't go boom like his wild imagination feared.
'How do I even open this thing?'
No matter where Ludo looked, or how closely he looked, there didn't seem to be a way to open the box. In fact, there didn't even seem to be any seams at all! It was like it was one singular flawless material, instead of a container used to hold items.
Ludo scratched his head a few times on the side, wondering where to go from there, but thankfully it seemed the Galactic Terminal had sensed his confusion.
[To open your package, simply tap your wrist on the container to authenticate your delivery with the Galactic Terminal. This is the only way to gain access to your items, as only your personal Galactic ID will be recognised by the security.]
'Well that sounds simple enough.'
"Wow, piracy must be much more rampant than I'd thought out there in the Galactic Wilderness, huh." Ludo muttered while doing exactly as the Galactic Terminal had suggested.
There was always a reason for something to be so secured — as it was tied in with one of the most simple laws of the universe, cause and effect.
The cause would be increased theft of cargo, and the effect would be an increase in security to combat it.
If anything, this just told Ludo to be more vigilant once he went out and started exploring the solar system himself.
Clink!
The moment his wrist came into contact with the box, it made a noise like a door had been unlocked, and the top layer soon came flying open in response.
"Holy crap! If I was on top of that just now I would have been sent flying!"
The force behind the box opening was no joke…
But now came the most exciting part — inspecting the goods!
Ludo always felt giddy and full of anticipation even when he ordered the most simple things from the internet online, so those feelings all came rushing out multiplied ten times at this moment.
Leaning over the side, he inspected the interior.
What he found was a neatly folded set of clothes, and a briefcase looking container, which he could see the Gauss pistol sitting nicely inside through the small window attached to it.
"Haha! Yes, they're actually real! This whole thing wasn't a scam!"
A deep seated tension lifted itself from Ludo's shoulders the moment he saw exactly what he wanted to see.
With this, his level of personal safety was now even higher than what world leaders had. They were still prone to dying from assassinations, 99% of the time from snipers or a handgun that had managed to slip its way through security.
But Ludo wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.
'Well, lets not get ahead of myself just yet. The eyes are still a vulnerable spot, and if I'm not careful enough its weaknesses will be easy to figure out. But still… I feel so alive right now!'
Ludo couldn't wait to try it out for himself, and so… he didn't.
Why wait hours until he was home when he could try it out then and there? It just made logical sense to him in that moment.
There was nobody around him, and so he stripped right down to his underwear, bearing the cold and goosebumps, and put the nano-fabric armour on.
The suit came in three pieces — a bottom half covering from his toes all the way up to his waist. Essentially like a pair of tights would. The upper half covered his torso and arms, and halfway up his neck like a turtleneck sweater, while the final piece was the ski mask looking headpiece.
The strangest thing was that it all felt so incredibly thin — even thinner than a single sheet of paper. Once he put it all on, he was unable to distinguish and indentation around his waist where the suit ended and skin started when running his hand over it.
It was so tightly form fitting that he looked like some sort of entirely black mannequin with the entire suit on…
'Thankfully it's not uncomfortable even with it covering my face and entire body so tightly.'
Ludo sauntered over to his truck and looked at the reflection staring back at him.
"What the—"
But what he saw was not what he expected at all…
His entire body was jet black, like he'd expected, but that ended once it reached his neck…
My head and face are so clear, but… how? I clearly put the ski mask on as well!?
Even his blond hair was showing, slightly waving in the wind. There was no way it should have been able to do that.
"This is impossible… how did they even manage to do this?"
If the ski mask was just completely transparent, his hair would look like a smushed up mockery of itself against his scalp, but it was no different than before he'd put the ski mask on.
And he remembered of how much of a struggle it was as well. Even with the nano-fabric being elastic and stretching to enable easier access, it still took some effort and wriggling about before he got it on.
'I underestimated this technology, so, so much…'