My plan for the third farm was to take the larva out along with the transporter. No sooner had that thought appeared in my head, than another ten targets appeared for where I was supposed to set mines. That was a curveball — I had to buy the extras, spending a whole million. Bitter experience had taught me to complete the entire exercise invisible. Regardless of the fact that night had fallen, I stuck to my strategy, just happy that all the different spots were only a five- or six-second run from each other. As soon as Zelda flashed me a warning, I melted into the stacks.
When I finished, the sun was already coming back up. Nobody stepped out to do their stretching on top of the racks, but I didn’t doubt for a second that the supposedly unguarded structure was under close surveillance by Tsarter mercenaries. The funny thing was that the ring of monsters and champions came back through while I was working on the farm. From what I could tell, they’d gotten to the edge of the location, hadn’t been able to find me, and had turned back around. I had two days left before I had to report back to Olsen, and Aspen was a three- or four-hour flight at top speed. Time was slipping through my fingers, and I was starting to get angry at myself. Still, I waited for Zelda to recover another minute. I wasn’t going anywhere without it.
I got to the safe zone right at noon. The southern sun beat down mercilessly, pushing my armor’s air conditioning system just about as hard as it could. The safe zone was unguarded. Sure, there were a couple monsters at the perimeter, and a few random players relaxing at the hotel, but even that didn’t put me at ease. The game tracked the safe zones. That meant everyone would find out the second I stepped inside — I had to doubt the function would keep my secret. I needed to plan for the enormous crowd of players and monsters that would come running to bury the village in fire and brimstone no matter the consequences. Although… They needed me alive. But regardless, one step through the bushes surrounding the village, and my whereabouts would have been revealed. I needed to do something about that.
There were twenty buildings and a hotel. Each building needed two mines, with another four for the hotel, one on each wall. I had to part with the remainder of my coins to purchase the additional explosives and remote controls. That just left figuring out how to get them into position, which was the main problem, and one I didn’t have a good solution for. Drone couldn’t do that, I didn’t have help, and hoping for —
Wait a second!
Nobody said I didn’t have help. At least, nobody said I couldn’t find help.
Drone headed back over to where I was and started flying in circles, looking for a potential victim. The search didn’t take long. Three kilometers from the safe zone, a small squad of three players between level 120 and level 150 had set up camp. The best part was that they hadn’t taken off their armor. Of course, the four upper extremities puzzled me — I hadn’t come across a race like that one.
It was easy enough getting to the field where the players were. With their security system armed, they had no doubt they were safe, and so they were lounging in the shade of a lone tree. Hacking into their equipment was a piece of cake. Once that was taken care of, I crept over to stand a few meters away from them and listen in on their conversation. The language they were speaking in was one I understood, something I’d already gotten used to. From what I could tell, it was a game language I learned the moment I first jabbed a syringe into my leg.
“…not there, either. I’ve never seen the spawn so furious.”
“That’s for sure. Where do you think he’s hiding?”
“Who knows? Everyone’s wracking their brain. He couldn’t have gotten past two cordons, and we can’t even find a trace of him! I think we need to wait for everything to settle down and go back to normal. Running around looking for a ghost is pointless. Oh, and I heard they’re going to blackmail him into showing himself — they say they found whoever Mark was trying to get the pearl for.”
I froze, afraid to hear what was coming next.
“And?” One of the four-armed creatures ran out of patience and gave the speaker a prod. That was apparently what the latter had been waiting for.
“Nothing’s free,” came the reply, and the speaker stroked its phone oddly. “Toss me a hundred a piece, and I’ll tell you.”
It took some doing not to run over and shake the information out of the bastard. Happily, a hundred coins wasn’t much to the character’s friends, and so it kept going once it made sure the money had reached it.
“And that’s it. His name is Wart, he’s in the hexagon’s city, the one they bombed. Obviously, I just heard this in passing, but the spawn haven’t been able to find him, yet, and it’s already been a day. They’re livid. Not only is Mark here, but now there’s someone else they can’t find. I’m telling you, we just can’t rock the boat. We’ll hang out here while the high-level players are working, and then we’ll get to work on the dungeon. Oh, and… The function told me the digger found something. The game is going to be over soon.”
“Okay, so why don’t we head over now? Why wait?”
“No, they won’t let us into the dungeon. There are noa plants in the next locations over, but we won’t be able to get in them, either. So, we’ll wait. What’s the latest on the storehouse, by the way?”
“All good.” The third four-armed fighter, the one who had kept its peace so far, clapped a hand against the base of the tree. Judging by the voice, it was female. “It’s so well protected, even the spawn wouldn’t be able to find it.”
“Excellent. Okay, we’ll just hang out here. Anyone want to bet? I have a million that says Mark won’t last another day. They’ll find him by this evening.”
“Deal!” both the other two replied simultaneously in what was their last voluntary action in the game.
Hacking into their armor didn’t present a challenge. Unlike the Tsarter mercenaries and the general’s digital children, that trio hadn’t bothered to keep themselves safe from hackers. And that made sense. Who was ever going to block ordinary players inside their armor? Shooting them or stealing their armor was much simpler. Sure, their willpower was respectable, as was their resilience, but their level 0 hacking protection and resistance made that a moot point.
The four-armed creatures were reduced to statues locked inside their game items, but that wasn’t enough for my plan. I hacked into their phones and gloated — they boasted a total of five million coins between them. That was a tidy little sum that made up for my empty wallet. Digging around in the store, I started by buying what I needed first.
Soporific-II. Description: Blocks a player’s body for between 5 and 8 hours depending on their resilience. Used for players between level 100 and level 199. Cost: 32000 coins.
It wasn’t the cheapest option there, though I had to make sure the job got done. Galrun was off lying on the stacks of tubs, and that was fine. I had other plans for those characters, however. The game printed out the syringes. The players were sent off to sleep. They shouldn’t have set up camp so close to me — they’d have been better off running around looking for me with everyone else.
The hardest part came next. It was something I’d never done, though I suspected it was possible. Yet again, the store opened its welcoming arms to me, and I entered exoskeleton in the search bar. We had them in our world; they presumably had them in the game. But I was wrong. The only options there for body reinforcement were built using nanoparticles inside the player — there weren’t any external options. Other keywords like body control, implants, and external bones also came up empty. There wasn’t anything metal you could use to bend another person’s body to your will. Although, wait a second…
A mechanical splint. The Medical section didn’t just have regeneration syringes; there were lots of other goodies. And among the rest, I found a splint designed for doctors to use on damaged limbs. It gripped the body tightly, offering use even of arms and legs that were broken. At least, that was when it was supposed to be used — once the limb healed, it deactivated. They weren’t cheap,
running me fifteen hundred coins each, and I needed thirty for each of the four-armed creatures. Why is being an infiltrator so expensive?
The next part was unpleasant, if necessary. I undressed the sleeping trio, breaking each of their limbs with a shot from Valkyrie to make sure it slowed their regeneration. That was the first time I’d had a chance to make use of that particular functionality the pistol offered. But I couldn’t let my prisoners wake up too early. With the sound of bones crunching still ringing in my ears, I finally looked around at the three aliens rigged up with splints. Each had a BRO-I suit over top of the whole thing — I was too cheap to splurge on anything more expensive.
Device control hooked up to the splints flawlessly, and I picked the bodies up into a standing position. It worked passably. Checking everything out, I held their arms out in front of them and worked their fingers. Awkward and halting, if good enough. But when I had them walk forward, a disappointed frown slipped across my face. Their movement was twitchy and unnatural. Well, screw it. They’re not on parade!
The four arms they all had came in handy. Connecting to each suit of armor using remote control so I wouldn’t have to personally head into the village, I handed each of them mines and sent them in. Once I’d gotten the hang of walking, I was even able to push them to a light jog that got us to the safe zone an hour later.
There were other players on the road, not to mention monsters, but nobody thought to check into my team or ask them why they were moving so strangely. What was unusual about players carrying mines around? They’d probably just stolen them and were looking to find a fence. And given that they weren’t blacklisted, they were fine. What a great game!
“Welcome to the village of Hearth, travelers.” No sooner had my little troop entered the village, than the village head appeared in front of them. It was a Shurvan the same as Olsen, just a much sorrier-looking specimen. The Aspen leader elicited respect; this one just elicited pity. It was shriveled up, wrinkled, and wizened. Spit too hard on it, and you’d split its spine in two.
But I just split my prisoners up without getting distracted. However, the function was a pushy one, following around the trio’s leader and keeping me from setting the mines.
“You’re awfully reticent today. Did something happen? Do you need help? You don’t look good.”
Damn it… Leave me alone! My two other prisoners got to work sticking the mines where I needed them, if so hard they almost squashed the things. Controlling them would have been easier if I’d taken time to practice first. Whatever, I’ll do what I can.
“Although, I’m not surprised. You’ve never been that friendly. Hey, Dervanos, what about exchanging information? You know, the way we always do.”
I checked the phone. Dervanos was the group leader’s name. Realizing that I needed to buy time, I had the creature stop, turn toward the village head, and nod. It turned out terribly — the thing’s head just about crashed onto its chest. But that was still enough to get the function talking.
“Two and Three announced a reward for Wart. Just imagine — they still can’t find him. Although, he only has five days, so not long to live. And they haven’t found Mark, either. Five is cracking, to the point that he killed a player who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But why aren’t you saying anything? Do you not care about all of that?”
Oops! I shook the creature’s head loosely. The village was being mined, with more than half the buildings already rigged to blow. Deciding it was time to wrap things up, I turned my prisoner away from the village head and walked it off toward the hotel.
“Oh, so you already know all that?” the function asked, not at all picking up what I was putting down. “Okay, you’re right, that’s kind of old news. But how about the fact that the digger just about found blood? And in our location! Or how about that One is at the border waiting for Mark to be found? Did you know that, Dervanos?”
I definitely didn’t, and I suddenly wanted to find out more. Figuring that I was already taking a risk with the remote control, I activated the microphone and did my best to mimic Dervanos’ voice.
“That’s interesting, but not enough. Where did the digger find blood?”
“You’re talking strangely,” the function replied with surprise.
“I have a cold,” I said, muttering the first thing that came to me head and cursing myself for my indiscretion.
“You’re definitely Dervanos, that much I know… But something’s off about you… I think I’d better get back to what I was doing…”
Of course, you’d better. But by that time, it was a problem — I didn’t need any more questions. After waiting for the function to disappear inside the hotel, I sent my prisoner forward. I was five minutes away from finishing the job.
“What are you doing, Dervanos?” The voice appeared so suddenly that even I jumped. Drone showed me an unpleasant picture — Eight had materialized next to my four-armed friends. The general’s spawn had appeared from behind a camouflage field and was right by my prisoner, who was leaning down next to one of the hotel walls. A wave of fear washed down my back. If I’d risked going in there myself… Surviving really was a long string of tiny details.
Eight didn’t seem like the kind of player I could ignore, so I sent Drone flying toward the third farm and simultaneously replied.
“I’m working, doing what you told me to do.”
“Who assigned you to mine the safe zone? That’s awfully strange. The function claims you’re not Dervanos — what do you have to say about that?”
“The village head is wrong. Ask any scanner.”
“That’s exactly it — the function is wrong. You actually are the player I see, but why the mine? I’d better take them for now… Wait, what do you mean, zero percent change of hacking successfully?”
Drone arrived, and I could barely restrain a happy shout. The larva had just showed up to collect the hideous harvest.
“You’re not Dervanos!” It had finally occurred to Eight that something was very wrong, and I decided to go ahead and fill it in. The larva was up on the higher racks.
“Mark Derwin says hello!” I whispered in a conspiratorial tone of voice. “He was able to show me that Earth is much better than the game. May there be light! The monsters will be defeated, and humankind will rise again. Up with the resistance!”
It was a bunch of nonsense, of course, but I knew my words were passed on instantly to the other spawn. And that meant I needed to give them food for thought. Give their processers something to mull over.
The larva climbed higher, Eight stepped closer to Dervanos and blocked it with something serious, the village was completely mined with the exception of the hotel, and I went ahead and hit the button to activate it all. The upper echelons were about to lose interest in Wart altogether.
There was an explosion, the earth shook, and…
My phone groaned under the weight of all the information flooding it.
You killed 3 players from the owner’s personal guard.
You can collect 3 named items in the store.
Level +60 (219).
30 free attribute points received.
***
You destroyed the Tsarter group, which was assigned to liquidate you.
Rank received: Tsarter Bane.
Level +1 (220).
***
You destroyed KRA887-8, the eighth spawn of your hexagon’s general.
Level +5 (225).
5 free attribute points received.
***
You destroyed 4 larva-level creatures with one explosion.
Level +80 (305).
Your demolitions infiltrator skills were boosted.
You locked in 40 levels. Current: 174.
Body enhancement increased by 1 level.
***
You destroyed the safe zone in location 32, hexagon 118.
Penalty received: 50 levels, prohibited from using safe zones for 24 hours.
Current level:
255.
***
You destroyed a larva and its farms. Because there is no safe village or managing function in this location, you became the head of the safe zone in location 32, hexagon 118. All location monsters are your captives.
You are a natural release player, so your captives have been transformed back. Location 32 has been pulled out of hexagon 118 and can only be returned after your death. All natural players in the hexagon have received news about the zone.
***
Non-natural release players as well as shrews are required to leave the zone within 12 hours and can no longer remain in it without your permission. The game functionality itself provides for the location’s safety.
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 19