“No.” Two named items was a tempting offer, but selling another person…or at least, a person-like creature…was not something I was okay with.
“Two named items and three green explosions. I see you know what they are.”
“I said no!” I shot back angrily, though I decided to give the function one last chance. Maybe, I can get some information. “But do you want noa?”
“I don’t want anything besides the slave girl.” Verloven plastered a look of hurt innocence on its face. The old guy had apparently been expecting me to start dickering and try to get something else out of it, but it was wrong. I wasn’t about to trade Mary. I wasn’t trying to prove anything to the function, either. It was part of the program, and it would follow whatever whim it got in its head as far as it would go. But fine, screw it. I didn’t need to go see Olsen, so that just left one thing I needed to take care of as soon as possible.
You called Squirrel Derwin. User unavailable. Would you like to wake the person currently holding the phone?
Of course! Wakey, wakey, Wart. It was time for us to finally meet in person.
“Well, did you find it?” the sleepy voice on the other end of the line asked.
“I did. Tell me where to go.”
“Describe it,” Wart said suddenly. The tricky bastard! He definitely knew what the pearl looked like, so making something up would have been difficult. And he was going to be careful before handing me any coordinates. Does he even know he’s a goner one way or another? I wasn’t about to forgive him for what he’d put me through with Squirrel — I hated blackmailers.
“A sphere the size of a tennis ball shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. There’s lightning flashing inside it, too. The description is interesting, especially how it works differently for everybody. Good enough for you?”
“Yes, certainly.” Hope appeared in Wart’s voice. “Take down the coordinates. How long will it take you to get here?”
“Three or four hours, though I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get down to your level. Wait there — I’m on my way.”
After I’d written down the coordinates, I turned to Grust.
“Wait here. I’m going for my sister alone.”
“And why is that?” he asked with a frown.
“Because whenever we try to do things together, you get killed. You have the chance to get your girl back, and I don’t want to get between the two of you. Three and Two are over in the location I’m headed toward. They’re tough cookies, and you can’t show up if you aren’t ready. Stay here, do some leveling-up, and we’ll decide what we want to do next when I get back.”
“You can’t leave your prisoner here!” Verloven appeared next to the LTS as soon as I dropped Villian on the ground. “As long as it belongs to you, you’re responsible, but I’ll have to free it as soon as you leave the location. Is that okay with you, Mark Derwin?”
The old man was apparently getting his revenge. I had to load the Tsarter leader back up onto the flying vehicle, which was definitely a risk — if anything went wrong, it would go from being my prisoner to being my jailer. I wasn’t going to leave Mary there, either. The old function had an unpleasant look on its face when it looked at her, and I was sure it would do anything it could to get its hands on her. No way!
Grust tried to push back, but it was more for show. All he could think about were the two spheres he was still holding in his hands. It was a temporary happiness he was going to be getting back, but it was happiness, nonetheless. Finally, I had the chance to pay him back for everything he’d done for me. It was even a bit more than I owed him, I thought.
There was no point flying over to the first location I’d freed. The crazy soldiers were there, and I didn’t have the energy to deal with them. And that meant I was headed for the capital. The nuclear explosion had happened less than a month before, which meant the location was relatively safe. At least, for Mary, if not for me. I ended up buying a BRO-VI and slipping the naked girl inside with puppy-dog joy. It was all I could do to keep from looking at her. Even in the armor, she was perfection, and I had to admit that Verloven had been right — humans don’t look that good.
All my thoughts of Mary disappeared when I reached the city. Drone, which I’d picked up, flew on ahead, scanning the area. Nobody got in my way. In fact, it was like the path forward had been cleared just for me. There were lots of players in the location, though they were all in the center, and I wasn’t about to head in that direction. Continually checking my map, I got to the coordinates and…
I froze.
An enormous shaft stretched down deep into the ground right where Wart had told me to go. The mountains of earth next to it hadn’t even had time to dry — it had been dug up just recently. No longer caring about risk, I flew downward, only to find myself staring at two capsules lying at the bottom. They’d been pried open, and there was a creature lying in one. It was a stretch to call it human. Really, it looked like the victim of a crazed surgeon running a series of experiments, as it was covered in sores, growths, and tumors. But it was alive and trying to say something. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out what Wart wanted to tell me, as there was something fixed to his face. As soon as I flew closer, a recorded voice began playing back.
“Mark Derwin, this is Two. If you want your sister back alive and well, you need to do a few jobs for us. To keep each other safe, we’ll use Olsen to talk. Go see the function now. It is aware of the situation and will give you your first instructions — you’ll have three days to make up your mind. If you decline, your sister will die, and she’ll be tortured to the point that she loses her mind. You won’t be able to get her back with noa. Three days, Mark Derwin.”
Sparks exploded, and the head belonging to the creature named Wart disappeared in a burst of blue flames. His time in World of the Changed was over.
Villian Po invited you to join a group: Your only way forward is now working with me. It’s your only shot at saving your sister. Let me loose, and we’ll talk.
I looked around with a haunted expression on my face in an attempt to find a clue telling me what to do. But there were none. You know what, you green bastard? Screw it. Let’s do this.
End of Book Two
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No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1) LitRPG Series
by Vasily Mahanenko
The Incarnator (Project Stellar Book 1) LitRPG Series
by Roman Prokofiev
Clan Dominance: The Sleepless Ones (Book #1) LitRPG Series
by Dem Mikhailov
An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2) LitRPG series
by Vasily Mahanenko
Neue Versionen (in Deutscher Sprache)!
Survival Quest: LitRPG-Serie
von Vasily Mahanenko
Sehr geehrte Leserinnen und Leser, die ersten beiden Bücher der Reihe wurden von Lubbe herausgegeben und sind im Handel und bei Amazon erhältlich.
Leider hat der Verlag beschlossen, die Serie nicht weiter zu übersetzen, und wir haben uns entschlossen, dies selbst zu tun.
ALL BOOKS BY VASILY MAHANENKO:
The Way of the Shaman LitRPG Series:
Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1)
The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book
#2)
The Secret of the Dark Forest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3)
The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4)
The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5)
Shaman's Revenge (The Way of the Shaman Book #6)
Clans War (The Way of the Shaman: Book #7)
The Hour of Pain (The Way of the Shaman Bonus Story)
The Way of the Shaman Comic Book:
The Way of the Shaman. Step 1: The Beginning: Volume One
The Way of the Shaman. Step 2: The First Day: Volume Two
Dark Paladin LitRPG Series:
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1)
The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2)
Restart (Dark Paladin Book #3)
Galactogon LitRPG Series:
Start The Game (Galactogon: Book #1)
In Search of the Uldans (Galactogon Book #2)
A Check for a Billion (Galactogon Book #3) LitRPG series
Invasion LitRPG Series:
A Second Chance (Invasion Book #1)
An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2)
World of the Changed LitRPG Series:
No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1)
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2)
Noa in the Flesh (World of the Changed Book #3)
Short Stories:
You're in Game!
(LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors)
You’re In Game-2
(More LitRPG stories set in your favorite worlds!)
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About the Author
Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
The English translation of The Way of the Shaman series is now available to the English-language reader in its entirety. So is his other LitRPG series, The Dark Paladin. Vasily’s latest project to date is also set in the world of Barliona: The Renegades (The Bard from Barliona Book #1) LitRPG Series, co-written with another Russian author, Eugenia Dmitrieva.
Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he works on a sci fi LitRPG series entitled Galactogon. Set in a space-simulator based world, the first two books of the series are already available in English on Amazon.
He’s also released a graphic novel series based on his bestselling series: The Way of the Shaman Comic Book. The English translation of the first two installments are available here and here. Alternatively, check the book on the author's site: http://mahanenko.ru/en/Comics-1.
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 32