Zrolik looked up. "What's taking them so long? Could've swept the whole frigate by now."
The Icarus erupted in a bang. Then another and another. Gunshots.
Zrolik tightened his grip on his rifle as he glared at the Icarus. "What do you--"
The two mercenaries came flying out of the Icarus' airlock.
Chetaara, Pratorra, and Ionla came out after them, letting out a fierce roar that echoed through the hangar.
While Zrolik looked at the Nikora women bursting out of the Icarus, Byron seized his chance. He grabbed the muzzle of the rock-man's assault rifle and knocked it upwards with one hand while yanking out his pistol with the other. He fired into Zrolik's chest.
The laser bolt hit point-blank, but Zrolik's health bar just flickered a little. Byron's guns were useless against these creatures. Once again, he would have to find a way to hurt them another way.
It did make Zrolik swing his arm and knock Byron to the floor. He let out a cry of rage as he pointed his rifle at Byron's head.
Chetaara roared as she leaped onto Zrolik. Her hands slammed onto Zrolik's head. Lightning bolts came out of her fingers to shock his head. He jerked twice and collapsed.
The fight was on.
All the Nikora women kept pouring out of the Icarus, snarling and charging at the mercenaries. The rock-men fired off rounds with their assault rifles, and some of the women screamed and fell as the gunfire cut them down. The rest of the women just kept going and tackled the rock-men. The mercenaries found themselves outnumbered.
Scarlett had drawn her guns and backed away, firing shots at the other mercenaries. "Yeah, rock and roll, bitches!"
Zrolik swept his arm to knock Chetaara off of himself and threw himself at Byron. Byron tried to move out of the way, but the rock-man moved faster than he expected. Byron was slammed onto his back with Zrolik on top of him.
Zrolik threw a punch that felt like a jackhammer hitting Byron in the jaw. Byron heard and felt his face crack.
-10 HP
HP: 90/100
Zrolik grabbed him by the shirt and hurled him against a nearby wall. Byron slammed against the wall and slid to the floor, back and ribs screaming in pain.
-15 HP
HP 75/100
Zrolik picked up his rifle and aimed it at Byron. "Fleshy slime."
Byron struggled to speak with his broken jaw. "Fuck you."
He held up the rings in his hands.
Zrolik's eyeholes widened. He looked down at the grenades on his bandolier, all missing their rings.
He exploded in a fireball that knocked Byron back and threw the mercenaries and the Nikora all over the hangar.
When the fireball faded, only a pile of rubble remained on the floor of the hangar. Clouds of smoke choked him as they faded away, leaving the smell of burning gunpowder. He saw the others yelling but only heard a high pitched ringing sound.
OBJECTIVE COMPLETED
+50 XP
+450 CREDITS
The last of Byron's strength left him and he collapsed.
He woke up, lying on the floor while hands surrounded him. Sound returned to his ears as he could make out Chetaara calling out, "Master! Master!"
Scarlett called, "I'll get the medkits!"
Chetaara knelt beside him and kissed him. "You will survive, Outsider. You must survive. It's the will of the gods that you be free."
He looked at her. "What're you talking about?"
Chetaara smiled. "I believe you are the one the gods said would come. You are the Outsider."
He shook his head. "What's the Outsider?"
A dreamy look came into Chetaara's green eyes. "For thousands of years, it's been said that one would come from beyond the universe itself, from another world outside our own. He would be stronger than he seemed and would destroy the greatest evil. He would free all the slaves, and bring peace to the Galaxy."
He looked at Scarlett, who shrugged and said, "It's true. Even some players believe the story of the Outsider. They think he'll be able to shut down the game and free all the players trapped inside it."
"But I'm just a guy."
Scarlett crossed her arms and shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not much for prophecies and shit, either. But I gotta admit, you fit the bill better than any other shithead I've seen in this place so far."
"Yeah." Byron sighed. "I guess so."
Chapter 14
THE damage was pretty bad. After cleaning up the mess, they found three of the Nikora women had died. All the women had radiation burns from running through the Icarus, which could have been worse if Chetaara hadn't shut down the leak before coming out of hiding. Yet the rest had survived and the mercenaries were dead. Byron thought they would be upset but Chetaara seemed almost happy.
"They died in combat," she said. "While not as honored as being bonded, death in battle is a path to the ranks of the Great Temple. They will be known forever as mighty warriors."
Byron looked at the assault rifle the mercs left behind. They all required a level ten to use.
"I can't wait to level up," he whispered.
After shoving the bodies of the mercenaries back into their ship, Scarlett set the merc frigate to crash land on the planet then they all turned their attention back to Aegis.
On the bridge, she tapped keys. "I'm sending the flag codes for docking now. I rewrote the code so it would be a little less fucking obvious that the flag is fake. Hopefully this place doesn't look at them too closely and they let us in."
As the massive space station floated before them, the communications screen lit up to show a thin man's feathered face. "Hailey Corps 25-B, we read you. You are cleared for landing at Deck Seven."
He vanished as Scarlett held out her hands. "Am I fucking good or what? Let's drop these bitches off and go party."
Chetaara narrowed her eyes. "My mother and sister are among those 'bitches.'"
The robot turned her hands up in surrender. "Hey, no offense. I just wanna get outta this hen party."
Chetaara shook her head. "You are a strange one, mechanical woman."
Scarlett stuck out her tongue. "And you can't get enough of me."
Byron watched as their freighter glided into one of the huge bay doors on the space station. After passing through the doorway, they moved into a bay filled with larger and smaller ships all rising and falling over landing pads. Their freighter moved to a landing pad, hovered for a moment, and puffed out jets that guided it safely to the ground.
Scarlett led the way out of the bridge. "I got through to the Republic of Beriza. They're sending someone to meet us."
He took his gun and slipped it into his holster. "Okay, ladies. Let's go."
He tapped the keypad to open the airlock. The airlock swung open to reveal a ramp leading down to the floor of the deck.
A tall alien stood at the end of the ramp, one who looked like a blue bird standing on his hind legs. The alien looked at a glowing tablet in its hand. "I understand we have forty Nikora applying for asylum?"
Byron nodded and tried to keep his dialogue in keeping with the game he had found himself in. "That's right. They were held as slaves from the Necralia Empire."
The alien nodded. "We are a member of the Republic of Allied Worlds, but we do not support the republic's involvement in the slave trade. We will find these women asylum and a transport back to their home world."
Chetaara threw her arms around Byron, and her large breasts pressed against him. "Thank you."
Her family Ionla and Pratorra came forward to hug him as well. He expected it to be awkward between them, but they looked calm and smiled as if they had shared nothing more than a glass of wine.
Ionla had a crystalline necklace that she held out to him with a bow. "To show our gratitude for your kindness and bravery in rescuing us, we wish to present to you this token of our appreciation."
Byron held out his hands. "Oh, no, I couldn't--"
Chetaara widened her eyes. "Master, to reject the gift is a grave insult to my people.
"
He looked at her worried eyes, and the wide eyes of all the other Nikora women.
He sighed and gave her his best bow. "Uh, thank you. I appreciate it."
When he reached out to take the necklace, game text showed:
SHOATHIL NECKLACE
VALUE: 1000 CREDITS
"Cha-ching," Scarlett whispered before he silenced her.
Chetaara spoke to the two feline women briefly and the three bowed to each other before Ionla and Pratorra walked off with the other Nikora.
OBJECTIVE COMPLETE
+500 XP
Scarlett clapped Byron on the shoulder. "Okay, let's get down to fucking business. Time to spend some of those credits and get some gear. The real shit. Now's the part where we have fun."
He pointed to the freighter. "What do we do with this?"
She snorted. "We'll have them take out the Icarus and leave the freighter behind. We don't need all that shit dragging our asses down."
Scarlett beckoned and led them off through the station. They left the hangar bay to walk into what looked like a shopping mall. The stores had signs that read "Intergalactic Guns and Ammo," "Medi-Kits," and "Armor and Gear." As Byron walked through the station, he looked around at the aliens and strange creatures. Most of them looked like random characters but a few had glowing red stars over their heads to indicate they were real players like him.
He felt himself shrinking as he always did in crowds. He even caught himself scratching his cheek, a semiconscious habit he had developed to hide his scar. He forced himself to stop. He wasn't in the real world with a short, fat body. He was handsome, muscular and had two hot women by his side.
As he walked past a huge, hulking man in armor with a massive chain gun, he took note of the glowing star over the soldier's head. The soldier's eyes flicked up to look at Byron's star before giving him a nod. A kinship passed through them, knowing they were both real in an unreal world.
Byron nodded back as he felt a sense of relief and felt less alone. He suddenly realized he had a chance to find out more details and reached out to stop the soldier. "Hey, you're a real player, right?"
The soldier narrowed his eyes. "Uh, yeah. Duh."
"I just got into Venus Online. It's a little overwhelming. Can I ask you a few questions?"
The soldier winced. "I just came in for some more ammo. Got a mission on Rourek Seven. I ain't your fucking tour guide. That's what she's for."
He jerked his chin at Scarlett.
Byron noticed a robot woman standing behind him. She had black hair instead of silver hair and a blue gown covering her body, but looked almost identical to Scarlett. He remembered what Scarlett had said about how every player got a copy of her. This version of Scarlett didn't look as happy, though. In fact, she looked scared.
Byron gave the soldier a wave. "Hey, just wanted a little help. Don't have to be a jerk about it."
The soldier gave him the finger. "Fuck you, you noob bitch. Your momma sucked my dick, fag."
The soldier lumbered away, trailed by his robot who gave Byron a sympathetic wince.
"Sorry," she whispered.
Scarlett folded her arms. "Assholes are all over the place."
Chetaara bared her teeth and took a step towards the soldier. "Let me tear out his tongue to teach him some manners."
Byron held up his hand. He felt angry and he wanted to do something about it. "No. Scarlett, is this a PVP zone?"
She grinned. "Abso-fucking-lutely."
He whipped out his pistol and spun around. Byron wanted to kill the soldier but reminded himself the player would die in real life. Instead, he fired into the back of the soldier's left leg. A health bar popped up over the soldier and dropped by ten percent as he dropped into a crouch, screaming in agony.
+100 XP
775/10,000 XP
25 CREDITS
He holstered his weapon and walked away from the soldier. "I'm starting to like this game. So what do we do first?"
Scarlett held up a finger. "Okay, first we should get some ass-kicking gear to level up your stats. That's Guns and Ammo over there."
She led the way to the store with a sign reading "Guns and Ammo." They pushed their way through the doors into a huge warehouse with weapons of every shape and size mounted on walls, shelves, and in glass cases. Other aliens and humans wandered around, pointing and hefting some of the weapons.
Byron whistled. "Wow. Nice."
Scarlett had her hands on her hips as she nodded. "Yeah, this is the shit. We don't have enough credits for all the really good stuff but there's a few things we can get. Got any suggestions, Chetaara?"
Chetaara smiled. "Indeed. Many would have you load up on many weapons but with low damage for variety or because they look or feel cool."
She said "cool" with contempt and continued, "I favor having one weapon with enough power to handle many situations."
She walked over to a rack of pistols and pulled one black weapon down. At least, she appeared to pull it down. The pistol itself stayed on the shelf while a semi-transparent version filled her hand. "This is the Scorpio T-90 laser pistol. It holds standard ion ammo clips. It is five hundred credits. Not cheap, but the most powerful weapon you can buy for the lowest cost."
Scarlett folded her hands over each other. "Nice. It's in your price range and it'll boost your strength stats."
Chetaara tossed the pistol at Byron who caught it. The moment his hands touched the ghostly pistol, text lit up in the air in front of him.
SCORPIO T-90
LEVEL REQUIRED: 3
DMG: 14
ACCURACY: HIGH
AMMO: 10
+1 STRENGTH
COST: 500
PURCHASE Y/N
Byron admired its sleek line and spiked muzzle. He didn't feel anything in his hands, though. "Okay. Sounds good."
He reached out and tapped "Y" next to "purchase."
The transparent outline of the pistol filled in and he felt the weight of the pistol drop into his hands as it became real. He spun it on his finger before slipping it into the left holster on his hip.
New stats appeared in the air.
MARINE - LEVEL 3
STR: 13 (+2)
DEX: 7
NRG: 1
ARMOR: 4 (+3)
HEALTH: 100/100
CREDITS: 4500
Scarlett moved on to another rack of ammunition and tossed a handful of ghost ammunition at him. "Can't have guns without ammo."
He caught them, purchased them for ten credits each, and looked up at a glass case beside them. "Whoa."
An assault rifle sat on a podium inside the glass case. It gleamed with glowing red lines and sharp edges.
"Whoa, what's that?"
Chetaara looked over his shoulder. "That is the Vulcan FG Launcher. It fires ten gravitational force grenades, the most powerful handheld weapon in the known universe."
Byron whistled and reached into the case. When he touched the launcher, the text lit up in the air again.
VULCAN FG LAUNCHER
LEVEL REQUIRED: 50
DMG: 1000
ACCURACY: LOW
AMMO: 10
+50 STRENGTH
COST: 5,000,000
PURCHASE Y/N
He sighed. "Well, I'm not getting that any time soon."
Scarlett made a fist and shook it in his face. "Life goals, my brother. Anyway, the Scorpio pistol is good enough for now. Come on. Time to get your fucking NRG on."
She led the way out of the Guns and Ammo shop to another store with a sign "TechMage Haven."
Pushing through the doors, Byron's eyes widened at the sight of dozens of other players. They all seemed to be doing amazing and otherworldly things. One tall female soldier waved her hand, tracing lines of fire in the air. A short Nikora jabbed her fingers to create balls of blue light that slammed into practice dummies, knocking them over.
Chetaara sighed. "As a techmage, it worries me to see NRG used so frivolously."
B
yron looked at her. "You're a techmage?"
Scarlett reached out to him. "Shit, forgot we need to walk you through everything. Okay, here's how to look up somebody's stats. Touch your bracelet with two fingers and blink twice."
He obeyed, and the text floated over Chetaara's head.
TECHMAGE - LEVEL 2
STR: 1
DEX: 3
NRG: 14
ARMOR: 1
Venus Online (Volume 1): LitRPG Sci-Fi Harem Page 10