Mastermind

by Steven Kelliher

  Their inaction – their paralysis – would not last long, and I didn’t want to be there when they came around to finding an object for their rage.

  “Come on,” Blackstrike said, tugging on the scorched and torn sleeve of my purple faux hero’s suit. I saw he too had risen in power and was now tier three

  “Right.”

  Starshot hesitated in the middle of the square as we turned to leave. She had undergone yet another tier change, jumping to tier five again as a villain gaining the huge crisis event Infamy bonus. Quite the ride over the last few minutes. She was wary of following us, until, seeing the looks turning her way – more than I was getting, even – she lowered her shoulders and dipped her eyes and followed.

  The next two weeks were a whirlwind, both in-game and out.

  The viewer bots had seen it all, which meant that the true viewers would too. The initial highlights of the event focused on the role myself, Starshot, Blackstrike and Atlas had played in the assault. A few days later, traitorous heroes like Jolt got their chance to shine. Eventually, every player who played any role in the Battle of Heroes’ Square, from Kancer and his metallic crab to Spydar and her shocking shot, were known.

  In the outside world, Leviathan’s identity was revealed when the player who had created him hit the media circuit, hoping to hold on to some real-world portion of the Fame he had garnered in-game. Aspen Marks did not look like Leviathan, but he looked exactly like the sort of person who’d want to be him. He was interviewed incessantly for three days, and then less on the fourth. By day six, his name was out of the headlines. He was sponsorless and rudderless. He made one last attempt to gain attention by calling for me to reveal myself. I didn’t see the point, so I didn’t.

  I didn’t know if Aspen planned to play again, but given how ridiculously OP his superpower had been the first time, it seemed unlikely another origin story would suit him.

  A part of me felt badly for the man. But he had made his money over a period of years as the most powerful, famous hero in Titan Online. His financial future was secure. It was his ego that suffered now.

  As for me? Well, only the devs knew who I was, and to my moderate surprise, they hadn’t contacted me at all. Instead, I was greeted with sponsorship inquiries. They were small, for the most part. Nothing like the stuff Leviathan, Meteora and Anastasia no doubt fielded. But then, I was only a tier-four villain.

  Still, the majority of the bigger sponsors were likely waiting to see how the rest panned out. To see how long I lasted, now that I had made a name for myself.

  I didn’t respond to the sponsors. I didn’t know if I would. But I considered responding to the rest – to the fan mail I had never expected, and that I had rarely received even as a tier-two hero. It was all digital, of course. Messages sent in to my player account, to Despot. He was the star, after all. Not me. I just embodied him. But he was something different, now. Something I had made.

  Something I now felt a responsibility to keep going.

  The thing was, I had accomplished my goal, hadn’t I? I had gotten my revenge. And maybe it had turned into something else by the end; maybe it had felt like a shared goal, like I was doing something as part of a collective rather than alone; but in the end, I had done what I set out to do.

  And yet, I logged back in.

  When I logged into the server, the AI dropped me onto the charred field that still had its yawning, toothy chasm blown into it. The remnants of my base. I found Castle waiting for me.

  “How long have you been here?” I asked him. He had been sitting on the edge of the chasm, but stood up abruptly and actually saluted me.

  He still wore a black tactical suit replete with all manner of knives and handles and pockets. His belt had at least two explosives on it, and the butt of that semi-automatic rifle jutted out from behind his back. Without his mask, he was a younger-looking fellow than I had imagined. Blond hair all mussed up framed a brown face. He had a few combat scars, with a star pattern cut into one cheekbone, and his eyes were bright green.

  “You told me to meet you here, sir.”

  “I sent that command days ago.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You’ve been here for days?”

  He only nodded.

  Castle didn’t have a sense of humor. Along with Bartol and Brooks, whom I hadn’t yet summoned, he was the only NPC I had used in the assault on Gallant Tower whom I hadn’t dismissed from my service. He had proven himself in a short amount of time. He seemed solid and reliable, and I could use men like that for… whatever it was I decided to do next.

  “What’s the mission, sir?” Castle asked.

  I didn’t know, and looked around, seeing if the answer would jump out at me.

  The watchtower was still there, and we slipped through a hole someone had cut in the chain-link fence. The field we stood on sloped down, disappearing at the bottom where the land met a gargantuan reservoir. As usual, it was impossible to see very far over the water, as a wall of mist obscured everything in the middle distance.

  The massive hole I had done my best to forget no longer felt like a rotted maw. The grass on the edges was brown and black, still scorched from Meteora’s deathly assault, and the whole field was slick with the passing mist, but now it just looked like a hole.

  Bits of mud and stone fell into the chasm as we disturbed the edges, and I leaned over, wrinkling my nose at the gloomy sight far below. The central platform was still intact, and I could see bits of obsidian carving through the mud that had piled up on top of the rubble. The computer equipment was cold and dead, with no lights left to illuminate the place.

  “Say, Castle,” I said. “Would you happen to have a bit of rope in that pack of yours?”

  The journey down felt almost as dangerous as the fight with Leviathan had been, no matter how securely Castle told me the lines were. I unhooked myself from the rappel line and promptly slipped on the muddy mound that was all that was left of my secret base, sliding down until I pinned my boots against a soaked stalagmite.

  “What now, sir?” Castle asked, coming down behind me and making the journey in less than half the time.

  “Now,” I said, getting up and smearing more than wiping the filth from my coat and pants, “we get to digging.”

  “What are we looking for, again?”

  “’Who,’ Castle,” I admonished. “It’s a ‘who’ we’re looking for. He’s a silvery-looking fellow. Looks like he’s seen better days.”

  “You… you sure he’s going to be alive?” Castle looked at the mud, piled stones and exposed circuitry of the place with a dubious expression.

  “Not when we find him,” I said, “but hopefully soon after. Trust me, Castle.”

  It was silly to be digging for a droid when I still had the stone that had animated him in my coat pocket. I felt it thrumming ever so slightly against my chest. Still, I didn’t know if B5 had been the stone entirely, or if it had plugged into something that was already there, merging with his programming to create a servant I had begun to think of as a friend.

  My loyal guardsman and I went to work clearing opposite sides of the miniature mountain, and I did my best to shut out my surroundings lest I give the whole exercise up as futile. I didn’t look at the place where the iron stairway had been ripped away, nor did I look at the supercomputer that had been smashed and buried. I just focused down and ahead, wiping away bits of dirt and stone and obsidian in the hopes of seeing that telltale glint of chrome.

  “Sir?”

  “What is it?” I asked, not stopping my efforts.

  “Sir!”

  I straightened so fast that I smashed the back of my head against a steel panel I had burrowed under.

  Despot: 99% HP

  Whatever.

  I climbed back up the mound to see what all the fuss was about, and saw Castle aiming his rifle up at another pair of descending figures.

  “Guess we should have cut the rope,” I said with a smile, already recognizing Starshot an
d Blackstrike.

  The former glided down on currents of her own making, her blackened palms expelling bursts of silvery light at regular intervals to slow her descent, while the latter slid down Castle’s rope even faster than the guard had.

  “At ease,” I told Castle, but he had already lowered his weapon.

  “Digging for ghosts?” Starshot asked, looking around.

  “Something like that,” I said. I made my way up to the top and clasped Starshot’s hand. Blackstrike nodded at me but made no move to step closer. I returned the motion. He was dressed in his original black martial clothes, and they appeared to match his mood.

  “Looks like we’re all matching these days,” I said, looking down at my own suit.

  A shadow passed over Starshot’s face, too quick to see for those who weren’t watching for it, but I was. She smiled.

  While we spoke, Castle went back to digging. He had some sort of sonic device in his hand – maybe a radar – that he was using to probe for hollow spots in the debris.

  “How’s Atlas doing?” I asked Blackstrike.

  He shrugged. “Hell if I know.”

  “Thought you two were—”

  “What? Friends?” He chortled, but it sounded bitter. “Just hooked up with him in-game. We played together, but never met on the outside.”

  “Ah,” I said.

  “How have things been for you?” I asked Starshot.

  “Aside from the new digs?” She spread her shadowy arms out and looked down at her black and purple suit. It was alluring to look at, with the edges shifting ever so slightly even when she stood still. “Not much has changed, aside from the aesthetics. I mean, I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do now.”

  “Villainous things,” I said with a smile.

  “Yeah, I guess.” She did not seem enthused.

  “Can’t do much out there right now,” Blackstrike said. He kicked a stone off the platform and watched it tumble into the chasm.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “He really hasn’t logged in in weeks, has he?” Blackstrike asked Starshot, as if he hadn’t believed it.

  I looked from one to the other, my expression coming up blank.

  “It’s chaos out there,” Starshot said.

  “Still?”

  “Well,” she modified, “it’s not exactly ‘Villains running amok in Titan City’ chaos, though there is still a bit of that going on. But more… I don’t know—”

  “Perms have shot through the roof in the last seven days,” Blackstrike said. “You’ve set a trend, it seems. Everyone who had beef with anyone has been settling it. Hero-on-villain fights have been especially vicious since the tower fell, and the violence on this side of the bay is even worse.”

  I nodded. We may have taken out the two most powerful heroes in Titan Online, but power was power, and its absence would leave a vacuum on either side of the map. The villains of War Town would be testing the boundaries, both against the remaining tier ones of Titan City and against one another. Territory grabs would get bolder, attacks on the city more direct.

  A new age was dawning, and we were in the midst of its growing pains.

  “Viewership has hit all-time highs,” Starshot said. “You were right, Despot. We did something here. Something big.”

  “We did,” I said. “We set the trend. You two and I, and Atlas, and even Scale.”

  Castle had wormed his way into a tunnel in the debris pile beneath us.

  “You don’t seem concerned,” Starshot said.

  “I’ve learned to appreciate chaos,” I said. “Some would say it’s another word for opportunity. I would have expected you two to be taking advantage of it.”

  “Could say the same for you,” she retorted.

  “Fair enough,” I said.

  “You’ve been thinking about quitting, haven’t you?” Blackstrike asked, his voice colored with disbelief.

  Truth be told, I hadn’t given it much conscious thought, but I think Blackstrike was right. Now Leviathan was dead, there was a part of me that felt my purpose had been fulfilled, my duty done. But then, hadn’t I done it to rekindle the game world I loved? Shouldn’t I stick around to smell the roses?

  I hesitated, my face pinching with the effort. “Nah,” I lied. “You’d miss me too much.”

  Blackstrike’s face was more a mask than the broken one I wore. Starshot seemed to be searching me. Truly.

  “We’re marked men, now,” Blackstrike said.

  “And women,” Starshot added.

  I smiled, and this time, I found that I meant it. “I do believe that is music to my ears.”

  “So,” Blackstrike started, looking around, “what now?”

  “We start,” I said. “We start at the beginning.”

  “The beginning of what?” he asked.

  “That’s the fun part,” I said. “We’re going to find out. We’re going to need to rebuild. A new base. New allies, and while I can supply a lot of them, they can’t all come from me.”

  “Whole lot of ‘We’s’ in there,” Starshot said. I examined her expression and liked what I saw.

  “You two didn’t come down here just to say hello, and you certainly didn’t come here to say goodbye.”

  The two villains regarded each other with expressions they couldn’t keep veiled for long. They were here because they needed a leader. I wasn’t sure if they had found a good one, but with each passing second, I knew they had found a willing one.

  “So,” Blackstrike said again. “About those allies. Do you have any leads?”

  “Sir!”

  Castle’s voice was muffled. It sounded like he was directly below us. We looked down, attempting to discern detail between the cracks in the rubble.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I think I’ve found it.”

  “Found him,” I corrected.

  “Who’s he talking about?” Starshot and Blackstrike asked in unison.

  I reached into the pocket inside my jacket – the one directly over my heart – and withdrew the stone I had secreted away. Even after the devastation of Heroes’ Square and the fall of Gallant Tower, it still flickered with that persistent emerald glow.

  “Just a start,” I said, closing my hand around the chip. “A beginning. Again.”

  Afterword

  If you’re reading this, then you’ve finished Mastermind! We hope you’ve enjoyed it. Steven and Michael (his editor) put a massive amount of time, energy, and passion into it. Hairs may have turned gray and much sleep was lost. Thank you for giving it a chance!

  If you’d like to continue your adventures in the world of Titan Online, we’d like to offer you a free bonus short story, Golden Chance. Included is 50,000 more words of LitRPG stories from some of the other authors at Portal Books.

  https://portal-books.com/sign-up

  By signing up you’ll also be the first to hear about the next epic instalment of Titan Online as well as other LitRPG titles such as:

  The Nova Online Series by Alex Knight

  Bone Dungeon by Jonathan Smidt

  God of Gnomes by Demi Harper

  Mastermind: Titan Online by Steven Kelliher

  Battle Spire by Michael R. Miller

  Aether Frontier by Scott McCoskey

  Dungeons of Strata by Graeme Penman

  Cryoknight by Tim Johnson

  Aztec Arcane by Peter Hackshaw

  Empires Online by Anthony Wright

  Reviews make a huge difference to authors. More reviews means more readers will discover books, which gives me the support authors need to dedicate more time to writing.

  If you’ve enjoyed Mastermind, it would mean the world to Steven if you would consider leaving a rating and a short review on Amazon or Goodreads. We love hearing all reader feedback!

  For those of you that want to discuss Mastermind further, you can check out the Portal Books Facebook group:

  www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGPortal/


  For more general discussions about the genre, these groups may be useful to you.

  www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGsociety/

  www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPG.books/

  www.facebook.com/groups/LitRPGGroup/

  Thank you again for taking a chance on Mastermind!

  Keep grinding,

  Steven & The Portal Books Team

  More LitRPG from Portal Books

  A title we’re incredibly proud of is Occultist: Saga Online, a fantasy LitRPG with a unique summoning class, hilarious imps and a prickly vampire. So, join Damien as he attempts to take down the biggest streamer in Saga Online in order to win a contest and save his mother’s life.

  You can get it on Kindle Unlimited and on Audible.

  Also out now is Battle Spire: A Crafting LitRPG Book. Battle Spire is a meeting of World of Warcraft and Die Hard, using crunchy LitRPG mechanics with a heavy focus on crafting.

  It’s available on Kindle Unlimited and Audio.

  We also have our first Dungeon Core, Bone Dungeon!

  “Reborn as a dark dungeon, Ryan was happy defeating adventurers with undead minions. Then a necromancer arrived, and un-life got a whole lot harder…”

  It’s available on Kindle Unlimited and Audio will follow soon from Soundbooth Theater!

  For Sci-fi lovers there is the Nova Online series by Alex Knight. The series follows a wrongly convicted prisoner who finds out that space adventure game world of Nova Online may hold the keys to his freedom.

  Book 1 Warden and Book 2 Renegade are both out now on Kindle Unlimited and available on Audible.