Hero

by Dan Sugralinov

  Hero

  a novel

  by Dan Sugralinov

  Level Up

  Book#2

  Magic Dome Books

  Level Up

  Book #2: Hero

  Copyright © Dan Sugralinov 2018

  Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2018

  English translation copyright © Irene and Neil P. Woodhead 2018

  Published by Magic Dome Books, 2018

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-80-88295-96-9

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is entirely a work of fiction.

  Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

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  Table of Contents:

  Prologue

  Chapter One. Restart

  Chapter Two. Meeting the Parents

  Chapter Three. I’m Free!

  Chapter Four. The Right Things Aren’t Always the Best

  Chapter Five. Me, Me Again and Martha

  Chapter Six. The Fastest Learner

  Chapter Seven. The Wannabe Entrepreneurs

  Chapter Eight. The Clients Aren’t Biting

  Chapter Nine. Spreading The Word

  Chapter Ten. The Skill of Saying Yes

  Chapter Eleven. The Same Faces in the Same Places

  Chapter Twelve. The Coin Stands on Its Edge

  Chapter Thirteen. Tilt

  Chapter Fourteen. The Cheater

  Chapter Fifteen. A Socially Meaningful Action

  Chapter Sixteen. Real Magic

  Chapter Seventeen. My Fourth Life

  Chapter Eighteen. My Sole Shield

  Chapter Nineteen. The Clan

  Chapter Twenty. Sooner or Later, By Hook or by Crook

  Chapter Twenty-One. Smooth Jazz Will Be Deployed in 3...

  Phil’s stats as of the second book's end

  Afterword from the Author

  About the Author

  Prologue

  What a horrible dream! Ones and zeros everywhere... and I thought I saw a two...

  Futurama

  “OKAY, I’LL PUT it in a different way. How did you kill them?”

  “There was this little boy... he suffocated. It just happened! Then there was a girl... she just died too... bled to death...”

  The sound of a gunshot almost deafens me. A bullet to the shoulder throws the corrupt government official onto his back. My ears are ringing. I can barely hear Vicky cuss under her breath as she flings the gun aside,

  “Bastard, bastard, bastard! How I hate them!”

  “Holy crap, Vick, what have you just done!”

  Gleb Grechkin, a prominent figure in the Town Hall’s Cultural Department, is squirming on the floor, apparently not in a hurry to croak. His wound isn’t life-threatening and his Vitality is still in the green as a Bleed debuff ticks away, stripping the pedophile of his Health.

  “He’s a scumbag, don’t you understand? He doesn’t deserve to live!”

  “Uuugh,” he groans, “You’re gonna pay for that! I’m gonna wipe you out... Ooooh...”

  “Enough! Wake up!” I shake Vicky by the shoulders, trying to bring her back to her senses. “Let’s go!”

  “Where do you want us to go? We need to finish him off first!”

  I'm a bit worried about her attitude but I can see the Fury and Righteous Anger buffs hovering in the tag above her head. I grab her by the hand and drag her toward the door. I also pick up the gun, just to be on the safe side.

  I open the trunk of Grechkin’s SUV and look for a hose and an empty can. While Vicky inspects the other cars, I syphon off the gas.

  “Here, I’ve found another one,” Vicky hands me an empty can.

  It takes us some time to fill both. Then I take them and go back into Grechkin’s house.

  Grechkin’s cowering behind the couch. A bloody trail lies in his wake. As I enter, he shudders and starts muttering.

  I cuss as I remember something. I reach into my pocket for the handkerchief I’d taken from the corrupt Colonel “Dimedrol”[1], Grechkin’s best friend. I pour some vodka over it and wipe the gun clean. Vicky leaves to do the same with the fingerprints in Wheezie and Zak’s car: the two junkies who, on Dimedrol’s orders, have kidnapped me and Vicky in a dark alley, stuffed us in the trunk and brought us here.

  “What are you doing?” Grechkin asks clearly, enunciating every word. “I can’t feel my legs. What’s wrong with me?”

  I peer at the profile of this ignoble non-entity which has already been sentenced to death by the mysterious interface in my head:

  Social status level: -1

  This has resulted in a dramatic drop in all of his characteristics. His debuffs aren’t exactly energy-promoting, either: his Metabolism is deep in the red, his Mobility virtually non-existent. Once he’d confessed to all his crimes, the game system declassified him, changing his social status to negative and issuing me a system quest to eliminate the pedophile.

  Which is exactly what I’m going to do now.

  I can hear someone moaning nearby but it’s not Grechkin. Wheezie raises his bloodied head, his foot twitching. He’s still alive but I don’t feel like killing him yet. He can stay alive... for the time being.

  I glance at the clock hanging above the door. It’s well past three in the morning. Trying to stay away from the burning fireplace, I pour the gas over the bodies, the furniture and the pool table, then use the second can to douse the verandah, the hall and the wooden staircase leading to the second floor. The remainder I use to make a hot trail to the house.

  I return to the lounge holding the gun in the handkerchief and laid it into Zak’s hands.

  “Please don’t leave me...” Grechkin pleads. “A million dollars... in cash... please...”

  I leave the empty cans in the house. Snatching a lighter from the couch’s armrest, I survey the scene of our nightmare.

  Then I walk outside. Vicky stands next to me and lays her head on my shoulder.

  Even if hell doesn’t exist, we’re going to make a personal one for him: here on planet Earth, in this particular local segment of our Galaxy.

  Let it all burn to hell!

  Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse a silhouette appear from around the corner.

  The last thing I hear are the claps of several gunshots. As I pass out, Vicky’s scream echoes through my mind.

  Chapter One. Restart

  Warning! Forceful activation of the Time Cheat Heroic ability following the user’s death!

  Creating a database backup...

  Deleting the logs..
.

  Clearing the user’s operating memory...

  Reboot in 3... 2... 1...

  Augmented Reality! Platform. Home Edition

  I COULD STILL SEE the smoky crimson flames imprinted on my retinas; I could smell the steely odor of blood and hear someone shrieking; I could taste the gas and the damp loose earth in my mouth when I woke up.

  “Phil! I’m home!” Vicky’s cheerful voice rang in the hallway, awakening me from my nightmare.

  She walked into the bedroom, leaned over me and kissed me.

  “Vicky... sweetie...” I rubbed my eyes and stretched, feeling all my bones ache. Then I couldn’t help it any longer: I scooped her up and pulled her toward me.

  Laughing, she fell into my embrace. Still holding her, I rolled onto her, supporting myself on my elbows.

  “You didn’t expect me, did you?” Vicky gave me a brazen smile. “I thought you were enjoying your freedom! Maybe not with the girls but you could have gone out with your friends for the weekend!”

  “No, I didn’t expect you. And no, I wasn’t going to enjoy my freedom. You know very well I don’t do weekends. I went for a jog in the morning, did some market research trying to work out a few things, then I had my boxing practice and pumped some weights. By the evening, I was so tired I zonked out reading some Adizes. His books are so beneficial they put me to sleep.”

  She shut me up with a kiss and reached under my T-shirt.

  “Why did you-” I began, meaning to ask her why she’d come back from her parents so early — she was supposed to spend all weekend there — but the blood drained from my brain. For the next quarter of an hour, I had no desire to ask her anything.

  When we finally lay there quietly, I tried to pull together the tatters of my dream but could only remember a few images. The woods, a cellar, rain, some bad people and my utter helplessness.

  I remembered my unasked question. “So what made you come back earlier than planned?”

  “You know... we were sitting there at the table having dinner and talking; my parents, my brother and my daughter...” she fell silent, reminiscing. “And all of a sudden I felt I had to go and see you. I felt as if I was losing you. At first I wanted to just give you a call, but then Dad decided to go on an overnight fishing trip and Mum had her own things to do. So I gave Xena a kiss and jumped into the car. I was in such a hurry to get back home before nightfall I very nearly had an accident. I skidded into the opposite lane just when a white Land Cruiser sped right past me...” she droned as if it didn’t happen to her. “Then I walked in, heard you wheezing in your sleep and felt a whole lot better straight away!”

  Impressed by her story, I pulled her toward me. That was my Empathy at work: I could physically sense the potential loss and something truly terrible that could have happened to us but luckily didn’t.

  For a while, we lay in silence. Then Vicky lifted her head from my chest and sprang back to her feet. I got up too and followed her into the bathroom, unable to take my eyes off her well-rounded backside.

  “How about we have dinner?” she asked as we took a shower together. “Mom sent us over a whole heap of pies.”

  “Are they deep fried?”

  “No, she sent them raw!” she lashed out at me with her sponge. “Some are egg and onion, some are cabbage and the others are potato!”

  “I only asked!” I said, ducking out of the way. “Give her my thanks! Okay, okay, I give up!”

  Her reaction was pretty understandable: she was sick and tired of my lecturing her about healthy eating. What did you expect me to do if every time I took a bite of French fries, the system showered me with warnings and debuffs? If you listened to the interface, everything fried increased the risk of cancer and raised your cholesterol levels. It would have been okay but every time I saw my Health drop even one-thousandth of a percent, it eroded every pleasure I had in eating.

  While Vicky was getting dressed, I managed to slice some fresh veg for our dinner. That was the only way I could neutralize the effects of fat food, courtesy of the system.

  “Listen, Phil,” Vicky came back into the kitchen. “My Mom has been pestering me about you. I’d have loved to tell her something but what can I say? I can’t keep explaining to them that you’re such a nice, reliable, intelligent guy, then drop the bombshell that you’re unemployed. Should we go and see them together next week, maybe? It’s about time I introduce you to them...”

  My parents had indeed liked her. When we’d arrived at their place together a couple of weeks ago, they’d been lost for words because they’d expected me alone. But as soon as the effect had worn off, Mom began squawking,

  “Don’t just stand there on the doorstep, son! Come in and introduce us!”

  “I’d like you to meet Vicky,” I said. “We’re seeing each other. We met at work. Vicky, these are-”

  “I’m Kira, this wanker’s sister,” my sister gave Vicky a hug. “Come in, don’t stand on ceremony! Make yourself at home!”

  It had gone well. But now I was a bit worried how the meeting with her parents would go.

  As I pondered over this, Vicky switched over to another sore subject, “Listen, so what’s on your agenda? Have you made up your mind? You sure you don’t want to try White Hill, Ltd? I know their HR manager. They’re major distributors in their field but their sales reps don't last long so they're constantly short of staff. How about you give them a try? Even an average rep earns a decent living there and you’re one helluva salesman. I could talk to them...”

  ”Please sweetie, don’t start. I know you’re used to only relying on yourself, so allow me to do the same. I’ve got a business idea and I’m sure it’s gonna work. But I still need a little bit of time to prepare everything and start everything properly. I’m not just doing all this market research for nothing...”

  “But you never even talk about it! Why can’t you tell me? Could it be that you don’t even have an idea? Or are you not only trying to fool me but also yourself?”

  “Yes, I do have an idea-” I began.

  A telephone call interrupted me.

  “Wait a sec, I’ll get it,” I said.

  I looked at the phone screen. Well, well, well. Look who’s calling! Alik, as large as life! I hadn’t seen nor heard from him for quite a while, almost since I gave him my old apartment.

  With an understanding nod, Vicky got up and started doing the washing up. I walked out onto the balcony so that the noise of the running water didn’t drown my voice out. “Hi there.”

  “Good evening, Mr. Panfilov!”

  “Evening, Romuald! Why are you so official?” I asked, slightly baffled by his formal manner. It had never happened to him before.

  “There’s something I need to ask you, Mr. Panfilov,” he drawled glibly. “What’s with our business? When is the launch?”

  I realized he was half-canned. “I can’t talk to you right now. We’re gonna start any week now. I’ll give you a call.”

  I could hear a woman’s laughter in the background and his own voice whispering, “We’ll start any week now! You’re gonna be my secretary!”

  Then he switched back to me. “Mr. Panfilov? Well, just make sure it’s all sorted! Because if you don’t-”

  “Right,” I said. “I’ve no idea who you’re with or where but I suggest you split and call me back later. Over.”

  I hung up. I really didn’t like the almost condescending tone of his voice. I stayed on the balcony waiting for him to call back.

  “Everything all right?” Vicky’s voice came from the kitchen. “Who was it?”

  “It’s okay. I won’t be long.”

  I waited a couple of minutes until finally the screen lit up again, showing Alik’s toothy grin: it was the picture of him I’d taken for his phone book profile.

  “Phil, I’m alone now, just like you asked,” Alik said in his normal voice. “What’s up?”

  “You’d better tell me who you’re out boozing with. What did you want from me?”

 
; “Eh, sorry if I upset you. Today’s a day off so I’ve had a few drinks with the guys from work and I’m just sitting here socializing. There is this girl, Irina... I think I like her,” Alik paused, reluctant to go on.

  “And?”

  “Well, I told her I was going to quit and start my own business. Like, I was your partner. So she started nagging that she wanted to be in it too. And I-”

  “I see. I’d like to ask you about something. Before you promise anything, please run everything past me first. Otherwise nothing will pan out. Agreed?”

  “Word up. Sorry, Phil. You shouldn’t think I’m crocked. I’ve only had a few beers. I’m gonna get Irina now and we’ll go to my place.”

  “Where do you live?”

  “I’ve rented a place next to work. It’s really run down but at least it’s cheap, five grand[2] all in. Listen... so do you want me to quit? And the guys as well?”

  “Which guys?”

  “My guys, the lads who very nearly beat the crap out of you, remember? Tarzan and the other two? I got them working with me. And if we do have to quit, we’ve still got a month’s work in front of us.”

  ‘Okay, just let them work for the time being seeing as you’ve got them already. But I might need your help very soon so you can quit from this Monday onwards. It’ll take us about a month to get the show on the road.”

  “Yes, boss! Sorry for having troubled you. Don’t hold it against me!” he hung up.

  By my calculations, three weeks should have been enough to finalize everything we still had to do to launch our little enterprise. I’d had a lot of ideas but they all summed up to a few things: to bring my physical stats above average, level up Insight and wait for Optimization. Once that done, I could concentrate on my business.

  I planned to start with just one thing: opening a recruitment agency. One activity was much easier to promote than several. Also, I’d already had a few successful referrals like Alik and Fatso. And once our agency had made a name for itself, we could start broadening out the range of our services.