Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “You think he’ll show up here?” A voice just a couple meters away stiffened my body. I wasn’t expecting that! Drone’s scanner hadn’t showed me the players arriving, though I could see them as plain as day in the video. Two Tsarter mercenaries, one of which I’d already had the pleasure of meeting — Galrun Po. The name of the second, Villian Po, didn’t tell me anything, though my heart skipped a beat at the sound of its voice. It was the Tsarter leader. The very same bastard I’d seen talking with Seven.

  “No doubt about it. He just happened across the Alturians, only destroying them to make us think he was on his way out of the location. The general’s spawn are wrong to think he’s scared and on the run. I believe Five — Mark doesn’t have coins, weapons, or armor. But he’ll definitely show up here. I can sense it.”

  “I would never question your decisions, leader, but…”

  “How will he find the farm? I don’t know. He didn’t touch the Alturians’ coins, and he didn’t touch their supplies, either. That doesn’t make sense… It’s unnerving. And wonderful. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an opponent of this caliber. Just remember, he can’t die under any circumstances.”

  “Are the other farms being guarded, too?”

  “What’s the point? Mark’s definitely somewhere around here — there’s a string of monsters covering the entire location. And he can’t fly. I don’t see any point pulling anyone else away from the search, and you’re our best hunter, which is why I want you on this.”

  Villian took off, did a circle around the farm, and headed toward the location border, off where the general’s spawn assumed I would be. After following it a bit to make sure that’s where it was going, I pulled Drone back. Galrun was standing above the rack of tubs, not far from me. We were just a few meters away from each other.

  Suddenly, it disappeared. Sure, it had never shown up on the scanner, but it disappeared from sight, too, almost like a regular gamer logging out and going back to real life. But I knew it was still there a couple strides away. It was waiting for me to show up. And there was no way I was going to use device control to see how strong it was — the risk was too great. Without knowing ahead of time what it was capable of, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t sporting some kind of alarm system that would let it know when I tried to hack in. I would have been discovered immediately, and the game would have been over. No, that’s a last resort.

  I couldn’t shake what Villian had said so I sent Drone off to do some more scouting. What string of monsters? The answer came almost immediately — just ten kilometers away, there was exactly that clearing the area. Champions were bathing everything around them with lightning, fire, and cold, after which they took a few steps forward, rinsed, and repeated. Tight ranks of superior monsters protected the champions from the front. Even when a tree or rock barred their path, they annihilated it without a second thought, and I couldn’t help but notice that the ring encompassed the entire location. All twenty-five kilometers. From the sea to —

  Something scraped next to me, and I was pulled away from my musings. At first glance, second, too, it was going to be impossible to slip past them. The scraping intensified, I heard a muffled curse, and then there was an impact down below. For a few seconds, I hoped it was Galrun who had fallen, but Drone showed me I was wrong. A few tubs had fallen off the uppermost row. They’d been right where the mercenary was hiding, and it appeared, at least visually. There was still no marker on the map.

  Galrun bent over the edge to look down, sighed, muttered something unintelligible, and used its drives to leap below. But when he tried to carry the tubs back up, their hideous contents splashed out, and the tubs themselves shattered. The racks shook and began lifting up into the air. The transporter had sensed that something was wrong, had activated its protection, and was making sure nothing happened to the general’s food supply. The side plates were raised, and Galrun had to take off to avoid being squished against the tubs.

  “What happened?” I was impressed with how fast Villian got back. The mercenary leader hovered not far from its fighter, watching as the farm was rolled up. “Was it Mark?”

  “No, it was my mistake. I haven’t slept in almost a week, the tranquilizer didn’t work right away, and I knocked over a tub accidentally when I closed my eyes for a couple seconds. It banged into three more and — ”

  “And triggered a relocation. The larva will be furious — we’ll have to calm it back down again. Give it some females from your reserve.”

  “I only have twenty left as it is!” Galrun replied indignantly. “Leader, it isn’t worth it!”

  “I said you’ll give them to it!” the leader shot back. “You took out four, so you’re going to replace them. That’s an order! We can’t have problems with the general.”

  “I’ll make it happen,” Galrun replied begrudgingly.

  “Stay with the transporter and take up a position when it finds a new spot. You’ll wait for Mark there as long as he’s in the location.”

  “Even if the farm is on the other side of the cordon?”

  “Yes, you understood me. This was your third slip-up, Galrun. You missed Mark, then you weren’t able to heal your groupmate, and now there’s this. I thought you were a pro, and seeing how wrong I was is very disappointing. The recommendations we got about you were all mistaken. In the next release, Tsarter will do without your services, so just take care of this spot and keep your head down from now on.”

  Villian circled the transporter and flew off. The enormous mechanism finished popping out its legs before quickly hurrying out of the town, with Galrun alighting sadly on the upper level and lying down. I could only hope the conversation with its boss left it not caring about keeping a close eye on the farm. That was my way out.

  The transporter made its way through the cordon without a problem — nobody paid it any attention. The champions stepped aside, though the superior monsters weren’t as lucky. A section of them was flattened. And while none had stepped aside, the ranks were filled as soon as the transporter finished rumbling through.

  We stopped in an ideal spot located directly between the other farms and the safe zone. The latter was even visible from my vantage point up at the top of the stack. Once we’d reached our destination, the transporter set itself up, sinking its feet into the asphalt and letting the sides ease to the ground. The larva appeared instantly to chatter away in whatever language it was speaking. Tubs began growing on its back, and the minions quickly hauled them up to their new homes. I’d been trying to figure out where they got the things. So, that’s it. Spinning its feelers as though lamenting its fate, the larva dashed off to the next farm. The minions filled the tubs with the usual liquid, though they were missing the main feature. From what I could tell, the local boss had run out of women.

  Finally alone, more or less, I decided to head down, though Drone’s feed stopped me. The green-skinned creature’s chest was barely moving. The same was true of the rest of it. I could be wrong, but it sure looks like that thing is asleep. Already fired, it didn’t see any point following orders, which offered me an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down. I had to take the risk.

  You’re trying to hack the defenses of player Galrun Po.

  Sum total of your skill levels: 400 (device control: 100, hacking: 100, perception: 100, anatomy master: 100).

  Sum total of Galrun Po’s protection levels: 320 (hacking protection: 70, resistance: 70, resilience: 90, willpower: 90).

  Probability of successful hack: 20% (1 — 320/400).

  Attempt 1… Successful.

  Block Ulbaron! Block the phone! Block all named items! Block everything!

  I sat up there on top of the stack dripping sweat. It wasn’t so much that it was unpleasant in my BRO-VI outfit, which was almost as well conditioned as my old armor, as much as it was the fact that it just couldn’t keep up. My heart was beating two hundred times a minute, and the fear coursing through my veins was forcing my body to rid itself of superfluous wat
er. I did it! The high-level bastard was locked up, though still alive and with nobody the wiser.

  For starters, I deactivated everything that could hurt me. The armor was quickly stripped of its flight system, weaponry, protection, Raptor-like tablet, and whatever could be used as a microphone or keyboard. Only then did I turn it into a steel coffin. No risks. I didn’t have anything to chat with the creature about, though I would have loved to take it out. It can lie there and relax for a while. It had been so tired, after all…

  It didn’t take long to hack into the phone — just three attempts. To my surprise, however, I found that Galrun had just over a thousand coins. It was a little while before it dawned on me what was going on, at which point I jabbed a few buttons so quickly I was afraid the minions might spot me. When I got to the store and purchase history, I cursed. Unbelievable! The creature had just bought itself a syringe with 3,500 attribute points. Seven million coins. I couldn’t sense the syringe, but I had a good idea where it was — in the bastard’s hand. Drone flew in, Zelda bathed me in invisibility, and I leaped over. The syringe really was right there, and the mercenary was somehow forcing it into its leg even despite its armor’s resistance. The needle had almost disappeared when I ripped it away. As a shiver ran down my spine, I realized how incredibly strong Galrun was despite being kicked out of Tsarter. If it had picked up those 3,500 attribute points, it would have been able to hack me in reply.

  While I only had thirty-two thousand coins to my name, I knew what I had to do. A BRO-I suit, the cheapest armor available, appeared, and I began pulling it onto Galrun, right on top of Ulbaron. Zelda was already blinking a warning when I finished. Returning to cover, I connected to the BRO-I and blocked it. Much better. Ulbaron was flexible and modern, while the first suit the game had to offer was massive and clunky. No matter how strong Galrun was, there was no way it was going to bend that thing to its will.

  At least, I very much hoped it wouldn’t be able to.

  The mercenary’s virtual storage had quite a bit to offer, with lots of different camouflage options, though most of them were named. All I could do was lick my lips and deactivate them to make sure the creature, who I was sure had device control, wouldn’t have access to anything. Other items I could sell. That left me 3.4 million coins richer, though the most important find was the map I downloaded to my phone. It included a couple neighboring hexagons in addition to the one I was in, not to mention a base Galrun often visited. That has to be where those twenty females are, the ones it’s supposed to give the local larva. Something clicked, and I pulled out the mercenary phone I’d already hacked. There it was — the two both had the same spot marked. The Tsarter base was in the next hexagon over, as at least two of them visited it on a regular basis. Coincidence? I think not.

  I made a mental note to pay the creatures a visit if I survived. And in the meantime…

  You’re trying to boost an attribute past level 100.

  Closure isn’t a required attribute for the demolitions infiltrator class. To boost it between levels 100–110, you need 100 free attribute points.

  You’re kidding me! Ah, whatever, screw it. The points were a freebie, anyway, and I wasn’t about to throw them out.

  Closure +10 (110).

  Introversion +10 (110).

  Inner harmony +10 (110).

  Hacking +10 (110).

  Thirty-five hundred attribute points disappeared like water into dry sand. Hacking, at least, was a secondary skill, and so the coefficient was just 1:50. As far as the first three attributes went, I had no doubt Five had gotten its perception past a hundred, and I very much hoped I’d be able to go unnoticed at level 110. Perhaps a lamp under a blanket, but I won’t be shining in the ether like a damn lighthouse. That was my only shot.

  I didn’t have three hours to spend waiting for my attributes to kick in, and so I just waited for Zelda to recover thirty seconds of invisibility before heading down to the ground. Two more farms were beckoning. I needed to hurry — the monsters were still out there looking for Squirrel and Wart.

  Chapter 14

  PARANOIA can really get to you sometimes. When I arrived at the second farm, it was empty. There were no minions, no guards, no monsters. Just the transporter, though it didn’t really count. My demolitions skills pointed out the key targets, the same as for the previous farm — three at the edges of the moving platform, five below, and four above the racks. Drone just showed me one enormous red circle where the tubs were. No other living souls were within three kilometers. And with Zelda back up to a reserve of three and a half minutes, I could have run in and mined everything. But I still held back. Something was bothering me. The larva would never have left its treasure unattended, and while one could have pointed out that I didn’t know everything there was to find out about the changed, I was an inveterate optimist. The fact that there was nobody to be seen meant that someone was definitely around somewhere.

  I ended up waiting until my body finished upgrading regardless of the fact that time was my biggest enemy. All I wanted to do was call Wart to check in and see if everything was okay, but I decided against that. The larva dashed up three times to make sure everything was all right, its minions ran up and down the racks, and then the whole lot disappeared together. Everything was in shipshape. Judging by the bellies in the tubs, the next harvest was going to be in about six hours.

  But I still wasn’t in a hurry, instead listening closely for every rustle. It was suspiciously quiet.

  The final second of the update dragged on for an eternity. Carefully gauging each step and activating Zelda, I moved out. It was a colossal waste of time and invisibility, but I didn’t have a choice.

  When I got to the transporter, I placed a hand on it and checked the notifications. Everything looked standard enough:

  Transporter Tr-115, a larva-level creature designed to transport level four and higher farms.

  Would you like to hack into and take control of it?

  Obviously, I left well enough alone, not even activating my device control. Instead, I kept going and set the first mine. Zelda got a break when I reached the racks and found an empty niche. It was almost out of invisibility, and so I had to wait there, battling my emotions and the urge to do something, anything.

  Touching the racks didn’t tell me anything besides the exact number of tubs — there were a bit more than eighteen thousand. The farm really was enormous, the size boggling the mind. Eighteen thousand fertile women…three farms…the aliens are going to pay for this!

  The larva ran by a few more times to check in. And while it didn’t really distract me, it definitely got on my nerves. Finally, with the legs mined, I decided to go ahead and add a couple more. Just in case. I had to stop once again to let Zelda recharge when I was done with that. There were just two and a half days left before I had to go see Olsen, and I have no idea where I found the patience and better judgement. I’d always been impulsive — the old me would have quickly set the mines and dashed off. But no, there I was, some kind of grizzled commando who’d seen a thing or two.

  It was agonizingly slow going. Every twenty minutes, Zelda gave me one minute of invisibility, letting me climb a couple levels up to set a mine. It ended up taking me four hours to finish mining the second farm, and I still hadn’t found anyone. Again, just in case, I set a couple extra mines beyond what was required for the top of the stacks.

  With almost eight hours gone, I finished work on the second farm. And that was when the larva picked the worst possible time to show up and gather the next harvest. It arrived with players driving enormous dump trucks — eighteen thousand pupae weren’t going to walk off on their own. The process took two hours, which really put me behind schedule, though there was nothing I could do. At least, my invisibility can recharge. Hiding in the stacks and making sure I was as concealed as possible, I was about to go to sleep when Drone showed me something interesting. Up at the top of the rack, not far from where one of my extra mines was set, there was a movement.
A couple seconds later, a player stepped out from under a camouflage field to stretch cramped muscles. My stomach tightened — I’d practically stepped on the creature. If it hadn’t been for the paranoia making me stay hidden… No, I don’t even want to think about that. I couldn’t see the player from below — it was still hidden by the tubs. But after stretching, it crouched back down and activated its camouflage field.

  The larva left, but I couldn’t move. My hands were shaking, and finding the will to head toward my next objective just wasn’t happening. Patience and nerves of steel were very different things. The latter was an issue for me — I sometimes found myself just short of soiling my pants.

  It was only half an hour later, with the sun already setting, that I was able to force myself to head down and keep going. On the one hand, I was happy I hadn’t been caught; on the other, the third farm was going to take between nine and twelve hours, as well. If I’d been in the aliens’ shoes, I would have long since been blaring the message across the location: Mark, come on out. We have hostages. Olsen had guaranteed me that Two and Three would find Wart and Squirrel in three hours. But the aliens were having a hard time, and that threw me for a loop. Can they really not find them?