The locator jerked, heading deeper into the location, and that was wThen I made for the virtual world. Lying down on the ground, I did my best to relax, although unpleasant thoughts kept swirling around in my head. What’s a disintegrator? The name said too much.
My body wanted to do something, anything. But instead of running or jumping into action, I closed my eyes and tried to count my breaths. I have to calm down. As long as I was there, nothing could hurt me no matter what they did to the locator. I was going to survive. I’m going to survive and kill everyone who got my heart beating this quickly...
If you don’t take noa, you will be deleted from the game in
10 minutes.
I jumped up like I’d been stung. Still in the trials, I’d apparently fallen asleep, and a chill ran down my spine. If it hadn’t been for the system notification, I would have died in my sleep. And my heart pounded even harder when I read the next message:
You don’t have access to your virtual inventory from
within the trials.
In that moment, I knew I hadn’t felt panic before. No, it was actually then that I panicked for real. Ten minutes! No, nine and a half! I had no idea what was going on out in the real world I was going to have to return to. My stomach tightened suddenly, my lower intestine making its untimely voice heard. Blood rushed to my head. My vision was shrouded. It hadn’t been that bad even when I’d died and been resurrected, and I went invisible and hit the exit button without even bothering to calm myself down. It would have been pointless. Regardless, the trials were behind me.
I was greeted by empty space, and Ulbaron kicked in automatically to keep me from hitting the ground. Speaking of which, it was metallic, smooth, and perfectly clean. But I barely noticed as I jabbed at Raptor with trembling fingers. Of course, I only needed a mental command, but for some reason that only occurred to me after a dozen unsuccessful attempts to pull my noa out of storage and toss it into my mouth. I even had to throw back Ulbaron’s visor no matter w'hat the air around me was like. As it turned out, it was freezing cold. But the brisk chill snapped me out of my stupor. My visor slid back into place, the noa was in my mouth, and the chaos wras behind me — the timer was back up to 23 hours and 59 minutes. Even my stomach relaxed.
Finally, I was able to look around and see where I was.
I didn’t like it.
I’d been dropped in the middle of a big square ringed by tall buildings, none of which had been built by humans. They were too unsightly and...strange? I wasn’t even sure how one of them was even standing upright, as it had been built in the shape of an inverted pyramid. In no hurry to settle down onto the surface, I first switched on my device control and found that my instincts had been correct. The square was riddled with sensors. I wasn’t sure what exactly they measured, but that didn’t matter — it could have just been temperatures, but there was no way I was going to risk it. Far off in the distance, the spire of a truly colossal building stretched into the sky. That’s probably where the general is. It helped that it was a good distance away. Perhaps, nobody had noticed my presence, as there weren’t any sirens going off.
Yet again, I glanced over at the inverted pyramid. Something drew me toward it. Flying closer, I grinned happily when I saw the beckoning light of noa gleaming through the walls. For the first time, I noticed guards — two enormous robots were standing right at the top where the entrance was. Or rather, they were ray guns with legs and easily distinguishable heads.
As I got closer, they started moving around, clearly sensing something. I decided against risking it and soared into the sky. The roof was flat, just as I’d assumed, though there were even more robot guns there. And wiiile they were inactive, I could tell they would kick into action
if I got even one meter closer.
Fine. I could deal with the storage a little later — I had almost 24 hours to worry about it. In the meantime, I needed to figure out where I was. Looking around once again and not seeing anything that gave me so much as a hint, I decided to fly higher. Maybe, some altitude will show me where to run.
Something below me flashed, and I just about roared as I wheeled around and prepared to face the enemy. But that turned out to be unnecessary — a flying machine was slipping quickly and quietly along right above the ground. When I zoomed in, I was barely able to contain a curse. There were three girls hang under the clear dome. All of them were moving, though I couldn’t see any more once the vehicle crossed the square and disappeared into the labyrinth of buildings.
The storehouse wasn't going anywhere, I figured, and so I flew off in hot pursuit. I had plenty of invisibility left for a small excursion, after all. And I had to figure out what the robots needed human bodies for.
It didn’t take long for me to catch up. Flying was becoming old hat for me, and we spent the next ten minutes hurtling past the deserted buildings. I didn’t notice a single creature regardless of how big the constructions were. What’s the point if nobody lives here?
Finally, the vehicle stopped next to something that looked like it had been built by human hands. It was a square building about nine stories tall. On the other hand, it was being used more as a hangar — one whole side started opening up as soon as the vehicle came to a stop. Peeking inside, I knew I was in the right place, as the whole building was equipped with larva-like racks. Only instead of tubs, they had clamps, and each one was holding a girl. They were alive, with arms and legs. Some cried, and others screamed noiselessly, though most had resigned themselves to their fate and were simply dangling in place.
As the gate opened, I sprang into action, ducking inside and stopping. There was another building inside the hangar, that one much smaller. A cheap, two-story house, if you will. The transport flew up to it and stopped, a robot getting out and picking up the bodies. I got closer. The girls were breathing, though they remained motionless. Probably a blocker.
The house doors opened, and a strange creature stepped out to meet the robot. Raptor couldn't tell me anything about it. Not its level, not its name, not its clothing. Td only ever come across something like that once, and it had been a machine. Zooming in, I took a closer look at the creature's face and froze. A vampire! Complete and in the flesh. It wasn't a brutal-looking man, the kind idiot women scare each other with; it was a wrinkled, disgusting, scabbed, and scarred creature with long fangs peeking out of its mouth. As it touched one of the girls the robot was handing it, a salacious expression appeared on its face. I nearly vomited as I quickly zoomed back out and tried to forget that nightmare.
The creature checked all three girls and gestured for the robot to leave. The gate opened to let the latter out, though I stayed where I was. It may not have been the right move, but I didn’t know what else to do. The vampire grabbed two bodies and ducked into the house, leaving the door open. Presumably, it was planning on coming back for the third.
That made my job easy.
It came back out a couple moments later. I didn’t jump, as touching the thing was more than I could handle. Plus, I could only assume a team member like that had the kind of protection I could only dream of. Valkyrie and Fang would have been useless. Instead, I went with the only option I knew would hurt the beast right then and there.
Sacrificial offering.
My copy of Fang, only with no level limitations. The creator takes care of its creations...
You sacrificed a deputy of the captain in command of the team for release 3R32-221 on Earth using the absorber’s
sacrificial offering quality.
The game creator appreciated your sacrifice.
All data regarding the sacrificed creature was removed
from the game.
Information was not sent regarding the killing of a nonexistent creature.
You earned a hefty reward.
***
Level +200 (621).
You locked in 200 levels. Current level: 557.
Body amplification boosted by 5 levels.
***
<
br /> You took the first picture of a dead release team member. 6000000 coins received.
***
You’re the first natural player on Earth to reach level 500.
You can collect 1 named item in the store.
All that remained of the terrifying monster was a small black pile and the sudden realization of how lucky I’d gotten. I hadn’t given a single thought to what might happen after I’d laid eyes on the vampire and its victims. And if it hadn’t been for the creator deciding to screw over the game owner, I would have had all the monsters in the location piling down on top of me. I really need to do something about how impulsive I am. That was going to get me into trouble.
Stepping into the house to collect whatever loot I could find, I... What had I been saying about emotions and how I needed to control them? That was nothing. Forgetting everything else, I dashed forward, whipping out Fang to slice away the ropes and bonds holding on to a body so tortured Raptor told me it didn’t have a single drop of blood left in it. A regeneration syringe would have been pointless — the body wouldn’t have accepted it.
It was my sister’s body.
Squirrel had been sucked dry.
But she was still alive.
Chapter 6
I HAD NO IDEA how Squirrel was still alive. Her heart wasn't beating, her body was cold, and all that told me she was still alive were wide-open eyes following me around the room. She hadn't yet found her way off into the dark nothingness. Over and over, I scanned her with Raptor, though the answer came back the same every time — sticking a needle in her would have been useless. Finally, I gave up, went ahead, and gave it a try. Squirrel's delicate frame was too much for the game. And when I pressed harder, Raptor just told me there was a problem with the syringe. It disintegrated right there in front of me. The game wasn't going to help my sister.
Breathing hard, I sat down next to her. I knew exactly wrhat I had to do, and I knew I needed to do it quickly. There was no telling what kind of pain Squirrel was going through in her state. Still, I put off the obvious as long as I could before finally looking around, seeing nothing that could help, turning Valkyrie toward her, and...
I couldn’t pull the trigger. And it wasn’t because of some pangs of conscience.
If I kill her now, the owner will hear about it. I had to assume it would be awfully anxious to find out what Mark Derwin was doing in a location closed to humans.
No, I had to make a different move.
The spot where Squirrel was being held was basically an office. There was a table, a chair, a few cabinets, and some torture utensils, the usual arsenal of a maniac in love with agony and blood. But what really drew my attention was the work terminal on the desk. Putting my disgust behind me, I sat down in the chair. It turned out to be lined with skin that didn’t appear to be from an animal. It wras too pink, too thin, and I even noticed a butterfly tattoo in one spot.
Ignoring that, I started tapping buttons, and the terminal sprang to life, asking me for a password. Screw the password — III work around it.
You’re trying to hack the defenses of remote work terminal UT-32.
Sum total of your skill levels: 640 (device control: 160, hacking: 160, perception: 160, anatomy master: 160).
Sum total ofUT-32’s defenses: 640 (hacking protection: 160, resistance: 160, resilience: 160, willpower: 160).
Probability of successful hack: 0%.
That cheery message popped up on my helmet screen, dropping me
into depression. All I had on me was twelve million, and that wasn’t enough to get any of my attributes or skills to level 170. Even the secondary ones took 64 million, and where was I going to come up with that kind of cash? I looked around yet again, that time in a more mercantile frame of mind. If I really do some digging...
Wait a second! For whatever reason, I’d gotten myself used to jumping up ten levels at a time. But what was wrong with boosting, say, my hacking by just one or two? Actually, device control would be better. It only took ten minutes to update.
Just in case, I took a stroll around the room looking for anything I could sell, but to no avail. Everything there was either real, or from space, I assumed, or a full-fledged mechanism that asked me to gain access first. And I wasn’t going to be gaining any access without leveling-up.
That meant I needed to be smart about how I used the coins I had. Device control, as a secondary skill, took 3,200 points for each level past 160. They cost 6.4 million coins. Damn it! I only had 12.3, which left me just short of what I needed for a syringe that would jump me up two levels. I pulled up my virtual inventory to see what I had that I could sell. Spitting a curse, I found that I didn’t have anything besides the LTS, and it didn’t seem like a good idea to sell it. The worst part was that Drone, which was far off on the other side of the protective boundary, had two phones in it. If I’d been able to get my hands on them, I was sure I would have had the cash. But no, it was not to be.
You know what? Screw it. I could always steal another flying
platform — there were plenty of them lying around.
Device control +4 (164).
The game once again played a dirty trick on me, leaving me with 3.1 million coins, or just a hundred thousand short of what I needed to buy the next level. After spending ten minutes doing my best not to look at my sister, I placed my hands on the terminal.
You’re trying to hack the defenses of remote work
terminal UT-32.
Sum total of your skill levels: 644.
Sum total ofUT-32’s defenses: 640.
Probability of successful hack: 0.6%.
I could only chuckle w7hen I saw the astronomical figure. Each try took an average of one second, and I had to wonder how many hours I was going to spend there.
It wasn’t easy being a prophet foretelling my own capabilities. Three hours later, w7hen I was already losing faith in probability7 theory7, the game finally gave in.
Attempt 11244... Successful.
You connected to remote work terminal UT-32.
Some weird symbols showed up on the screen, and I could barely keep from turning them into a pancake along with the whole terminal. That's the alien language! It wasn’t the game language, the one all the nanoparticle creatures wrote and spoke; it belonged to the damn invaders who’d shown up in their ship. Beside myself with rage, I stared at the symbols, trying to logically think about what they might mean or what I should do next. And that wTas when a couple more messages popped up:
Check for decoding... Successful!
Information being translated.
This may take some time.
A few moments later, the random squiggles started making sense, and my heart beat faster. It wras the noa storehouse’s current status that was on the screen. If the figures were right, 1,233 units of noa had been mined in our hexagon, with another 533 pulled from the storehouses of neighboring hexagons. It was true — there was a kind of competition going on between the different generals. They were presumably monsters, the changed, but still. They wanted to stand out.
The word storehouse was highlighted as a link, and so I tapped it to see a separate window7 open. The current status. Among other things, I
found the defenses in place for the inverted pyramid, and my stomach sank. There was no way I was getting inside. The robot cannons on guard were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the sites protection, and the real question was how I’d avoided getting wiped out when I was flying nearby. There were guns, protective fields, disintegrators, and all kinds of other devices with names that meant nothing to me. The general was doing everything it could to protect its most valuable resource.
I went back to the preceding screen. Taking the storehouse by storm was unrealistic, but I did notice a button that read repeat as I was scrolling through the text. Intrigued, I tapped it. Things couldn't get any worse, after all.
Would you like to send a delivery request?
Um... Sure.
My eyes
darted to and fro as the new window opened. There was everything one could wTant in the game — weapons, supplies, expansions. After finding the search bar, I was amazed to see how much there was. I could even order the different colored explosions, wilich I wrent ahead and did, only the next page asked for an explanation as to why I needed them. I canceled the order.
Okay, what can I do with noa? Entering it in the search bar, I found that 533 wrere available for experimental purposes — the ones that had been snatched from the neighboring hexagon. Even though I was expecting a trap from the system, I wrent ahead and put together a request to have three hundred units delivered. It would have raised flags to ask for all of them at once, I decided. Next, there was the form asking me for an explanation. Why did I need the noa? Without taking too long to think, I entered the first bit of nonsense that popped into my head.
Experimenting to see how different damage factors impact personified noa. Objective: identify an effective weapon against the absoi'ber.
That was solid enough. And whoever handled requests also agreed, as the form disappeared, giving way to a green check mark next to my request. It looked the same as one of our human computers might have looked. They’d approved me.
Delivery in 20 minutes.
I could have waited for the noa, tossed it into my storage, and then resumed taking risks, but I couldn’t wait. I had to resolve my next problem: Squirrel was still alive. She wasn’t breathing, and her heart wasn’t beating, but she was still alive. I was worried by how impossible that seemed. Two had threatened to torture her to the point that I wouldn’t be able to bring her back even with noa. Is that what’s happening right now?
Again, I went over to the terminal. Pulling up the description of my request, I found it had been placed in a kind of queue. There were all kinds of things being delivered, from new monsters and weapons to supplies and food. There were even females for new farm. I just happened across that particular request, as it was actually waiting for “my” approval. The late bloodsucker had been responsible for all the living resources in the location, with larvae looking to get a jump on things sending requests for bodies. The vampire handed them out once it was done with them. They didn’t have to be intelligent or in one piece to reproduce, apparently.
World of the changed 3 Noa in the flesh Page 7