The Tsarter leader stayed right with me as I flew from body to body. The alien held itself majestically, not deigning to show interest in anything. Maybe, all of this really doesn’t interest it. Spending time looting when you’re able to buy those green and blue explosions would have been the height of idiocy. Pouncing on a moment when the alien turned away, I buried a syringe in myself. I didn’t want it to see what I was upgrading. Let it think I’ve always been this good. And to make sure its mind was occupied, I asked a question that had been bothering me.
“How were you able to stay off the location rating? You weren’t there until the very last moment.”
“How were you able to get away from me in the dungeon? How were you able to escape a blockaded dungeon? How have you been able to survive here? I have just as many questions for you, Mark Derwin, as you have for me, but I’m not going to ask them. Let’s show each other a little courtesy.”
“Why would you ask them? If everything happens the way I assume it does, you’ll get your answers one way or another. Right?”
“Of course.” Villian made its helmet visor transparent, showing off the satisfied smirk on its face. The little teeth looked so repulsive that I turned away. “Ready?”
“For what?”
“To add me and a few players to your southern location’s white list. We’ll beat the dungeon, get the rainbow pearl, answer your questions, and, if everything goes well, get to work. Like I said, I need your help in the next hexagon over.”
“What do you need the pearl for?”
“I don’t need it. But the local general has such a hankering for it that it offered me an awfully tempting reward, one that my group could very much use. So, is that all your questions? You’re starting to get on my nerves.”
“Not in the least.” I wasn’t about to give up that easily. “The pearl will help the general, but what does that do for me? What do I get?”
“You’ll stay alive.”
“No, that doesn’t work — you said yourself that you need me. And if you wanted to kill me, you’d have done it already. I don’t need the pearl, so it’ll just be a waste of time. That means there should be some kind of compensation.”
“You don’t get it. It’s not that you’ll stay alive here; you’ll be added to the registry of players and show up in the next release. You’ll live forever.”
“Oh, that’s fantastic. The only problem is that the owner made it very clear that humanity won’t be stored in the database, and that was made doubly clear for me. So, that doesn’t work. I need information. I want to know the number of the locations and hexagons where the owner’s team is. Preferably, where the owner itself is, too.”
“Nobody is permitted to share information about the owner,” Villian said, though it was a rote response. The creature’s green mug was clearly thinking about something.
“But that doesn’t apply to its team, does it?” I tried to push and was rewarded with a nod. I could have sworn I even heard it mutter, that could actually be interesting, though I wasn’t sure. The words could have somehow played in my head.
Finally, having made a decision for itself, Villian nodded again.
“Agreed. You’ll get the list of closed locations as soon as I get the pearl. Any other conditions? Wine and women?”
“Do you have any?” I asked in surprise.
“What don’t I have? If you work for me, you’ll have fame, power, and fortune. We can also figure out how to get you into future releases.”
Villian was starting to play the devil on my shoulder. And sure, I didn’t mind the temptation, though I wanted to make sure I got the wine and women there on Earth. Showing up every time in new releases just to go help with genocide… That didn’t do it for me in the least. But my thoughts there were best kept to myself.
“Here’s a list of the players who need access to the location,” the mercenary said, holding out a piece of paper with nine entries. As soon as I took it from the creature, Raptor told me it had received another access request. A quick check of the list told me everyone had the last name Po. I agreed.
“If I understand correctly, you can only get back into the location tomorrow,” Villian more stated than asked. “Did you collect all the loot?”
“Of course. Like I said, I — ”
“I’m sorry, Mark, but the general offered a really good reward. And I was almost starting to like you. Almost.”
Villian’s move was lightning-fast and inescapable. It buried a syringe in me, and my body stiffened before I could even try to fight back. I could do something else, however, and I activated Ulbaron’s drives and soared off into the air. Flying the suit using just my mind was old hat.
“Not so fast.” Villian appeared next to me almost instantly, another syringe, that one with a red liquid, already in its hand. There was nothing I could do to avoid the second shot. My consciousness quivered, and the last thing I could remember was Villian talking.
“Know that I’ll do everything I can to get you into the next release. Tsarter would welcome you with open arms. Okay, now sleep.”
Darkness fell.
The unpleasant sensation that woke me came from somewhere around my chest before spreading throughout my entire body. My bones started twisting the way they do with some serious diseases, and a chill ran through me. Sweat beaded on my forehead. I instinctively wiped it away.
My hand was bare. So was my forehead. The chill turned to fever, and I sat up to look myself over. Bare was right. And it wasn’t just the game items that were gone; I wasn’t wearing regular clothes, either. Another naked body was lying motionless next to me, and I immediately recognized Grust. Is he alive? My body was weak, so it took an intense effort to crawl over to my partner and shake him. Nothing happened. Even when I pulled his eyes open, all they did was roll back. Okay, can’t count on him right now. Something started nagging me, demanding attention. When I tried to focus on it, I realized to my surprise that it was Drone. The latter was almost out of range, 300 kilometers away. Still, I was able to sense it, and I immediately gave it instructions to fly over to where I was. That made me feel better. If Drone was around, things weren’t so bad. It was going to take three hours to fly to me, so that gave me time to think. Wait a second, what time is it? Reaching out for my phone, I sensed it almost immediately — it was in the same room, lying alone in a corner. Already knowing what I was going to find, I pulled up the description.
Not one coin, no storage or exchange, and a completely blank map. They hadn’t just cleaned me out; they’d taken me all the way back to how I’d been at the beginning. Even Five hadn’t touched my map. Good thing I spent everything on improving my attributes! It was like I’d known. But just as it had been the previous time, the Tsarter mercenary’s phone was right where I’d left it. Yet again, nobody had noticed it. I had a chance. That helped me think, and I looked around one more time, focusing more on where I was.
It was a small room that looked like it had been used for storage. There were no windows, and just one door. Light was shining from a dull bulb in the ceiling. The aliens hadn’t bothered going to that much trouble, just jamming it into an energy block. Going over to the door, I found that it was locked, though it looked so flimsy I thought about yanking it right off the hinges. But I waited on that — the voices outside the door distracted me. One of them was familiar, belonging to Villian. The second, lifeless and mechanical, could only have belonged to one of the general’s spawn. But which? Was it the new Five or Four?
“…sleep another twenty hours. There’s no antidote for Margul pollen. And his regeneration won’t do anything, either — I blocked it,” Villian said. “By the way, unlike the last Five, I took everything Mark had. Now there definitely won’t be any surprises. My part of the deal is done.”
“The general agrees. You held up your end and can go get your reward. Nobody will bother you. How are we getting into the dungeon?”
“My mercenaries and I have access to the location. Mark didn’
t know that each of us can take one guest with us, so he didn’t place any limitations. That means we can have nine more with us.”
My breathing quickened. That green-skinned bastard! All that talk about how I could be one of them, how I’d be rich and powerful, all of it was just a distraction. The creature needed me alive long enough to give them access, and… That’s why it asked if I collected all the loot. Villian was too lazy to do it itself, so it had me do it. I’m going to kill that thing!
“Will two personified units of noa do it?” the robot asked.
“I’m not sure. The digger said it didn’t know exactly how many it took, so better safe than sorry. Let’s go with ten units.”
“Why that many? Beating a level 12 dungeon will be hard even for you and your mercenaries.”
“We’ll be fine. We just wouldn’t want to miss out on what we’re going for because we tried to be cheap.”
“The general approved ten noa. They’ll be with Five, and Five will go with you. When are you moving out?”
Okay, so that must be Four. When am I going to be done with the robots?
“In fifteen hours. If Mark steps foot into the location now, he’ll be destroyed. We don’t want to lose the owner of the dagger, do we? Or do you want to risk using what I made? I was able to get it back, by the way.”
“We don’t mind waiting. Anything else?”
“Yes. I need you to approve some leveling-up. There are two hundred thousand humans in the locations, and that’s twenty levels I don’t want to lose.”
“The changed need food. When Mark dies, they’ll head in to feed.”
“And I need more levels. Plus, I want to disarm the trap. Mark was able to beat it.”
“The general approved your request to clear the location completely. You’ll get the mission automatically.”
The voices fell silence, and I heard the buzzing of energy protection being withdrawn. So, it’s more than just a flimsy building they’re holding us in. It was protected enough to make sure we didn’t go anywhere, the door just for show. Tossing my phone back into the corner, I had just enough time to lie down on the floor and freeze. The door opened. I really wanted to see who had stepped in, though that would have told them I was conscious. Wait, why am I conscious? Villian wouldn’t have messed up and injected me with the wrong thing.
“Are we going to go looking for his sister?” The mercenary leader was in the room. I didn’t even have to worry about lying there motionless after that question — my body froze on its own. They know about Squirrel? It dawned on me that I’d seen the time, and Olsen’s mission had expired a few minutes before I’d woken up. Could that be what did it? Perhaps there was a penalty I’d picked up. My status table was easy enough to pull up even without my phone, so I checked it and noticed that I was at level 254. The same number as I’d locked in. And, judging by the conversation I was overhearing, the function had told the general and everyone else about Squirrel. That bitch! I’m going to kill him, too.
“There’s no point now.” Four had somehow squeezed through the small entrance, and hearing him helped me take a breath. “We already have Mark Derwin, so nothing else matters.”
“Remember, I was promised a recommendation letter if I brought him in.”
“The general already sent the owner a request. The latter is considering it. We always fulfill our obligations, Villian Po.”
You’re kidding me! The green-skinned bastard apparently really thought I’d work with him after everything he’d done. How considerate… But just then, the thought was driven out of my head by a flash of pain in my palm. Only my experience going through the trials kept me from screaming, as it had been much worse there. Concentrating on the pain, I did my best to localize and turn it off, to the point that I didn’t even notice when I was lifted and dressed. It was a simple BRO-I, the perfect hefty prison for people who know how to hack into devices. Don’t move… Just don’t move… Something like medical gloves were slipped over my hands, and the pain disappeared instantly. Oh, wow. I’d already seen something like that, having used a similar method to control the four-armed players. It would have been interesting to find out if Villian had come up with that itself, or if it had been keeping an eye on me. When I was completely enclosed in the outfit, it stiffened. Someone threw it and me with it onto the floor.
“I stopped his regeneration, so he’ll stay asleep until we get him to the dungeon. And we can beat anything in twelve hours. Hey, am I going to be refunded for those explosions?”
“Yes,” Four replied after a short pause. “Though, the general still doesn’t understand why you gave them to Mark. That wasn’t smart.”
“How else was I supposed to get him to trust me? He saw that my mercenaries have level 22 items, and if I hadn’t let him get to that level, he wouldn’t have been willing to talk to me. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get close enough to stick him with a needle. Mark is careful. He’ll be a strong player in the next release.”
“If the owner agrees.”
“I certainly hope it does. There’s no other reason for me to haul Mark’s crap around otherwise.”
“You didn’t destroy it?” There was surprise in the lifeless voice.
“Of course not! If they let Mark through, he’ll have a nice leg up in the next release. Five advanced named items would be enough for anyone to get a good start.”
“You’re an odd creature, Villian Po. I don’t always understand why you do what you do. Okay, everyone out! Load up the bodies — time to go.”
The voices died away, and I once again found myself picked up. Opening my eyes slightly, I found myself staring at the impenetrable curtain of my visor. Villian hadn’t just stuck me in armor; it had even made sure I couldn’t see anything. Anyway, I didn’t have to worry about any accidental movements. The blocked BRO-I outfit held me in place, while the visor made sure nobody could see me just as it kept me from seeing anyone else.
“I’ll leave Mark with you. Make sure you don’t lose him. I’ll be back in fifteen hours, and we’ll head off for your pearl.”
There was a pause. Apparently, everyone was waiting for Villian to get far enough away.
“Is the prisoner ready?”
“Yes, master.”
“Wake Mark. I need them to meet.”
A needle pierced my leg through the armor, and it occurred to me that it went right through what was supposedly thick skin. That’s an interesting feature game items have. They could penetrate any protection. I wonder if I can use that somehow.
The visor turned transparent, and I found myself staring at a girl. Her tearful face was dirty, her eyes were haunted, and she herself looked more like a bundle of nerves than an intelligent being. Still, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful her face was. Her curves were right there, too. The girl was naked, not even trying to cover up. And judging by the bruises on her arms and legs, that was a lesson she’d learned the hard way. Despite the situation, I felt something twitch below my waist. I was a twenty-two-year-old kid, after all, and not just an alien-killing machine.
“Talk!” Four’s voice sounded like the crack of a whip, and the girl jumped.
“H-hi,” she whispered, only her lips moving. “My name is Mary. Are you Mark Derwin?”
The words out, she shrank back in anticipation of a blow. There was apparently a prompter, as she repeated her question.
“Tell me, are you Mark Derwin? Answer… Please…”
She sobbed out the last word. For some reason, I felt bad for her. My perception gave me all the information it had on her, telling me her name was Mary Larcon. She was all the way down at level three. It was strange that she’d been able to stay that low for the month the game had been around.
“Yes, I’m Mark Derwin,” I decided to reply. The aliens already knew who I was, so I didn’t see anything wrong with meeting her. They weren’t going to make us have sex. Although… You never knew with them.
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 27