Valkyrie popped up in my hand, and I sent a grenade deep into the very heart of the pile of electronics. The resulting explosion was powerful enough for me to feel it even inside Ulbaron. But there was a downside: the wall of fire turned the people appearing above into charred firebrands. I hope they didn’t feel anything. One way or another, the tentacles stopped moving, and I broke a handle off one of the carts to dig around in the melted electronics. A small box broke free, the device’s brain. Even after the explosion, it buzzed and flashed multicolored lights. An entire bank of power supplies kept it running.
There was no way I was going to turn my back on a device I knew nothing about, and so I yanked it away from its mountings. After flashing for the last time, the lights went dead. Something boomed from the direction of the shaft, and the lift dropped down to my level without anything to control it. And since I couldn’t get the box to drop into my virtual storage, I tossed it away. I was anything but an IT specialist. The last thing on my mind was marveling at the superb work and what it meant for the future of humanity, and I even went as far as to take a boot to the piece of alien technology.
The robot’s lair turned out to be in a corner of the cave, set behind another camouflage field. There was plenty to see there: mountains of odd, definitely alien screens, keyboards filled with unusual characters, levers, and switches. But without the feed from the alien, nothing was working, and none of it had anything to do with the game. I couldn’t sell it, use it, or get anything else from it. And I always hated that.
There was no way for me to haul it all out, as I just didn’t have anything to load it onto. Of course, I did have the vehicle in my storage, but I didn’t have a way out for it. With no freight elevator and a crowd of hostiles above, that wasn’t an option. And that left just one thing to do. Fang sprang into action, and I went to work demolishing every last bit of alien technology. If I couldn’t use it, nobody else was going to.
The equipment was all that caught my eye in the cave. Raptor scanned the walls for secret niches and hiding places, but it eventually threw up its hands and admitted that there was nothing interesting about the robot. No tips, no tricks, no goodies.
Once I was done with the lower level, I sent the drone up to scout around. There was no picture, but the scanner gave me a good idea of the crowd waiting for me. The entire upper cave was packed with monsters — they were even hanging from the roof, ready to grab me if I tried to fly by. A champion was guarding the ladder. I wasn’t going to get through, though the good news was that none of them were trying to get down to where I was. The lift was apparently taboo for them.
A little while later, I couldn’t help but notice that the monsters weren’t moving. Sure, they’d packed every available space, though that was it. The only motion was coming from the disposal. The thing was methodically devouring everything in range of its jaws, with the changed taking the place of the electronics nobody was bringing it anymore. It had cleared a good number of them, in fact, but the monsters weren’t running away. It was like they’d lost the will to live. Were they all somehow tied to the robot?
I had to take a risk and fly up. But nobody reacted to my appearance — I didn’t even have to turn on my invisibility. Pushing my way past the monsters, I found myself next to the larva-level beast, and I got the impression it even perked up when it saw me. It apparently had good associations with humans — we fed it. The thing’s jaws opened wide to accept its next meal, and I took full advantage. I don’t think creatures at that level turn back into anything…
You took a selfie with a live larva-level creature less than 3 meters away. 60000 coins received.
***
You destroyed a larva. Because there is no safe village or managing function in this location, you became the head of the safe zone in location 78, hexagon 118. All location monsters are your captives.
***
Valkyrie, Fang, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 1 (16).
***
You took the first picture of a dead larva. 120000 coins received.
All it took was ten grenades and a few finishing touches from Valkyrie. The larva didn’t even fight back, apparently because it was fixed to the wall. After Raptor spat out another wall of text about how the location was mine and all the alien players were supposed to leave it, the indifferent monsters suddenly doubled over in pain as they began turning back into people. But that was background noise to me. All I cared about was the small scanner lying on the ground by the shaft, its level ten seeming incredibly powerful. I had to have it.
After again pushing my way through the screaming crowd, I grabbed the treasure. My helmet screen flashed a couple messages:
Sk-X scanner. Description: Hidden. To identify this object, you need perception (250), identification (250). Cost: Hidden.
***
Because you don’t have the previous levels unlocked, you cannot unlock access to level 10 items.
The scanner earned itself a quick flight to my virtual storage, and I started pushing aside the naked bodies on my way to the surface. The people around me were still howling, though more from shock than pain at that point. And I definitely didn’t want them dumping their problems on me. I wasn’t a decision-maker, I had no desire to become one, and I was perfectly happy with them handling their own problems.
The flying object wasn’t far from the church — I was surprised I hadn’t noticed it immediately. Its evenly triangular shape was staggeringly large. As tall as a three-story building, each side fifty meters long, it sat there glumly resisting all my attempts to hack into it with device control. Either my skill was too low, or it was a non-game vehicle the owner had flown to Earth on. Alternatively, it could have been part of a larger, more powerful ship. I made several rounds looking carefully for a way in, but there wasn’t one. Even Fang joined the party, though the blade just clanged off when I tried to stab my way through.
There was no moving it, and there was no getting inside. It was yet another useless chunk of metal, the kind I’d been coming across all too often that day. Flying up and landing right in the middle, I started a trial. Experience had shown me I couldn’t get any attributes or skills past level 100 without fixed levels.
You locked in 22 levels. 28 levels were discarded in favor of the game.
Current level: 240 (115).
Impenetrable skin +2 (7).
When I caught my breath and recovered, I spat a string of curses. I’d assumed the trials would get easier as my body got stronger, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact, it felt like it was the opposite. Everything was getting worse, more painful. The next trial just confirmed my suspicion — it was so bad I gave up almost immediately.
You locked in 11 levels. 39 levels were discarded in favor of the game.
Current level: 201 (126).
Impenetrable skin +2 (9).
I wasn’t up for a third go around. Not right then. Instead, I decided to try a different trial, one I’d long been thinking about.
You locked in 8 levels. 42 levels were discarded in favor of the game.
Current: 159 (134).
Damn it all! I’d only been able to survive eight seconds of hell, though even those eight seconds had felt like an eternity. Building adaptive vision was clearly going to be difficult. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to do that again. The trial was simple — you had your head tied down so you couldn’t move a millimeter, and then they tried to stick different implants in your eyes. Or rather, to be more accurate, they jabbed you with all kinds of needles and blades without any hint of anesthetics. I was left with a phantom pain that had my eyes itching so badly I just wanted to forget the whole experience. And of course, the best way to forget one pain is to replace it with another. Skipping my skin for the moment, I decided to see if things would be easier for my bones.
You only have 25 available levels. You can’t take a trial.
My eyes were still hurting, so it took a second for the message to register. In fact, it
was only a couple minutes later that I realized what was coming on. There wasn’t going to be any more torture for the time being. Back in the regular world, I decided to see what happened when I boosted my device control past level 100. But just trying to boost it by one was enough to elicit yet another surprised exclamation from me.
You’re trying to boost a skill past level 100.
Device control is a secondary skill for the demolitions infiltrator class. The free point requirements are reduced. To boost secondary skills between levels 100–110, you need 50 free attribute points.
There wasn’t a curse strong enough. I had 300 available points I’d gotten as rewards and for leveling-up, but I wasn’t about to spend them right then. Olsen had let me know that I should be ready for the requirements my named items forced on me to go up at level 20. That meant I needed everything to be up between 90 and 100 just in case, and that was already just this side of absurd. I definitely didn’t have enough coins right then.
Heading over to the edge of the ship, I looked down to see people collecting on the ground. They didn’t know what to do, and they certainly didn’t have any idea what was going on. Suppressing the urge to explain everything to them, I turned on invisibility and flew off. They were going to have to organize themselves. I’d done my part, and there were other problems on my plate.
An hour later, I was back in the first location looking for Dread and Nelly. They headed over as soon as they saw me, clearly looking to discuss something, and so I took the bull by the horns.
“Father, I need your help. The location with the church where you came from is clear, and there are a lot of people there. Finish up here and move out. Nelly, he’ll need your help.”
Whatever it was they wanted to tell me, it was like the clergyman wilted immediately. Oh, look at that! I suddenly noticed that there wasn’t anything unpleasant about his face whatsoever. Just your usual guy. It had apparently been the alien creature controlling his mind.
“What about the hypnotist?” Nelly asked, simultaneously signaling her troops to get ready to move out.
“Dead, though I wouldn’t think that was the only one. Boost your willpower — that will help you stand up to them.”
“It’s already maxed out.” Level 15, I guess. “High command gave me orders to set up a meeting with you. There’s a mission they have for you.”
“Nelly, I have so many things to do right now that my head is spinning. You guys just take care of whatever it is on your own, okay?”
“That wasn’t a request, soldier. It was an order!”
“I’m not your soldier,” I was trying to say when I was interrupted.
“In wartime, the entire population is mobilized. If I have to, I’ll take you by force.”
I didn’t like the soldiers’ new attitude — they’d been much more normal back when they’d been hypnotized. Disregarding them, I turned to Father Dread.
“Don’t forget about the people over there, Father. They’re confused and not sure of what to do, but there are two locations between us and them, so make sure you can protect yourself.”
I thought I was done there. Things hadn’t worked out with the soldiers, I hadn’t picked up any new information, and it was time to move on. There were just three days left for me to find a pearl and deliver it to Wart. I’d already decided I wasn’t going to be bringing Olsen anything, and so I needed to make sure Squirrel was safe on my own.
But my plans quickly changed. Instead of taking off and flying away, I found myself in a steep dive that sent me crashing into the ground so hard it knocked the wind out of me. For some reason, Ulbaron’s screen faded away, and I had a hard time breathing. Even moving was impossible — my armor had turned into a steel coffin.
“Mark, this is your only warning!” I heard a voice coming to me as though from a different galaxy. “Either you step out of your armor right now, or we’ll cut it off. That will presumably leave it damaged. We’re returning control, but remember that our sights are on you!”
Ulbaron’s screen came back on, and I used the drives to lift myself onto my feet. Two soldiers were training an odd weapon on me from nearby. I’d never seen anything like it — there was no barrel, only a bewildering forest of wires. But it was activated and doing a number on Ulbaron. I turned to Nelly.
“What’s going on?”
“Step out of your armor and remove your weapons. That’s an order, soldier!”
Valkyrie leaped into my hand and aimed at the crazy woman’s head. See if I ever help anyone again. But I couldn’t finish the job — my opponents fired their weapon first, and Valkyrie dangled uselessly from my arm. A message told me that Ulbaron’s right side had been deactivated, though Raptor wasn’t sure how.
“The next shot will be to the body, and we’ll cut you out,” Nelly said. Cursing, I went along with her order. Ulbaron dropped to the ground, instantly disappearing into my virtual storage. Valkyrie followed suit.
“Your knife.” Nelly pointed at Fang, but I’d had enough. Although, no sooner had I taken a breath to refuse, than she barked her next order. “Disarm him!”
There was another low-frequency buzzing, and Raptor was once more rendered useless. When my phone dropped to the ground, soldiers picked it up before I could react. And my device control could do nothing about their weapon. I slipped Raptor into my virtual storage, but I wasn’t about to part with Fang. Regardless of the field, I could sense it beautifully, and that told me it would react to my commands the same way it always did. My first chance to test that out came almost immediately. A fine net was cast over me, though Fang made short work of it. Bolts slid back — the troops had their regular guns aimed at me. Leaping forward, I was about to rush them when Nelly stepped forward.
“Stand down! Weapons back!” she ordered. “Mark, we’re not the enemy.”
“With friends like you…” All I could think about was how to get myself out of the predicament I’d found myself in.
“Believe me, my son, she’s telling the truth. Nobody here wants to hurt you,” Father Dread said, standing up for the troops to my surprise. “Just talk with command.”
A shock hit my back — the troops had fired a taser at me, but it hadn’t been able to get through my skin. And that was the final straw. I took a flying leap to the side. At least, I tried to, only to find that my legs were shackled. A nimble young soldier had crept up behind me and slipped them on. The chain held up under my jump, and I flopped to the ground. One quick move with Fang, and I was free, but that was the end of my escape attempt. Shots rang out. I bellowed in pain — my arms and legs were all shot clean through.
The last thing I heard before I passed out was Nelly’s terrifying command.
“Load him up. Cut off the arm with the dagger!”
Thankfully, I didn’t feel that, and my arm had regenerated by the time I came to. Of course, I was sans Fang. My arms and legs were held together with plastic zip ties, my captors caring little about my personal comfort. The slightest of moves, and the ties just dug deeper into my skin.
“He’s awake!” I heard someone say, and they pulled me up into a seated position, leaving me to howl like a little girl. It was probably funny to watch, but those damn ties hurt more than losing my limbs had.
“Mark Derwin, I’m General Maximov.” The voice drew my attention to a small screen. There was a gray-haired man looking at me, his facial features chiseled and decisive. Just your typical general cut from a cloth that was all charm.
I said nothing. There was no point talking with them — they were going to do whatever they wanted regardless.
“The aliens named quite a price for your head,” the general continued. “That means you’re doing everything right, so keep it up. You’re doing exactly what we need you to do.”
“What you need me to do?” I asked in surprise. I’d tensed up at the beginning, then relaxed, and then tensed up again. That word — need — wasn’t a favorite of mine.
“Yes. The aliens offered us a deal
. We give you to them, and they call a truce for as long as you’re with them. They even guaranteed you complete immunity and the return of everything that belongs to you or that you receive. They actually don’t need you; they need your dagger, only it doesn’t work without you. We rent you out to them, and you help humanity survive.”
“What?!” I jerked with the news, but all that got me was zip ties digging deeper into my skin. “Don’t you even think about it!”
“It’s already been decided. The troops need a break and time to regroup, so you’re going to give it to them. The changed pulled their forces back to let us dig in and fortify our new footholds. I’m sorry it falls to you to do this, soldier, but I trust you’ll do your duty with honor. And I wanted to tell you personally. Goodbye!”
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 15