Life Reset: Conquest (New Era Online Book 5)

by Kuznits, Shemer

  The ant figure blinked his huge multi-faceted eyes. “You’re a goddamn pest, you know tha’?” His eyes lingered over my cougar necklace. “What tha’ hell do you want o’ me? I can’t kill no good like I used ta’.”

  I fought down a smile. The enchanted item around my neck had just provided the final push I needed to get through to him. “I need you to translate something for me. It’s written in Celestial.”

  Ragnar stared at me for a moment before letting out a gruff chuckle. “That’s it? That why you wanted ta’ get me?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “And if I refuse?” He chuckled again. “You don’t take half measures do ya, boy? Show me.”

  Holding my breath, I took out the Outrider tablet and handed it to him.

  “What a bunch of horse shit,” Ragnar grunted after he studied the tablet for a few moments.

  “What does it say?” I asked tensely.

  The drone snorted. “Some sort ‘o religion freaks’ bullshit. Somethin’ about keeping their precious secrets to themselves.”

  “Why don’t you read it out loud for me?”

  “Fine.” Ragnar cleared his throat then started reading. His voice turned unnaturally powerful, and he read through the tablet like a man possessed.

  “The high beings’ realm exists beyond mortality’s reach, connected to this realm by a tenuous divine cord, through which the divine may freely pass.

  “The holy cord’s location is shrouded, forbidden, and hidden to all but the high beings themselves. Guard well the secret, lest it fall into the hands of the unworthy, for they will attempt to plant the seed of evil and corrupt the heavens themselves.

  “Beware the enlightened traveler, whose eyes see all. Keep him secluded under chain and key, void of light and bread, lest his gaze falls upon this holy scripture, for he may divine that which is forbidden.”

  I blinked. “Can you read it again, please?”

  Ragnar huffed but repeated the text.

  That was extremely interesting. It sounded like the tablet was meant to provide a set of instructions intended for ‘the believers,’ warning them to guard the VI’s secret method of moving between NEO and the VI pool. I found the ‘seed of evil’ bit to be particularly interesting. It resonated with Guy’s prophecy of ‘planting his seed.’ The VIs, and Shiva especially, were all-powerful beings here in NEO, but they might not be so in their natural habitat. The holy cord sounded like a conduit into their realm.

  I felt my heart beat faster. I had just discovered a potential game-changer. Literally. I’d originally returned to NEO to try to help ease the trapped players’ sufferings, but I might have just uncovered something better. If we could find this conduit, maybe we could somehow block the VI connection with NEO, reassume control of the game, and free everyone in the process. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, or where that ‘cord’ thing was, but I knew two things for certain: I had to find it, and Lirian was going to play a vital role in it.

  “Does it say anything else at all?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. “Anything that might clue me in on the location of that cord?”

  “I read wha’ I could,” Ragnar said, crossing his arms.

  “What you could? You mean there’s more you couldn’t?”

  He rolled his eyes and pointed at some of the symbols. “Those ain’t words, just a bunch of fancy-ass decorations.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said slowly, taking a closer look at the markings he’d indicated. I couldn’t read them, of course, but I sensed some sort of a pattern to them. “I need to find this enlightened traveler and show this to him.” I frowned, recalling what the text said about him … something about locking him away for good without food or sunlight. For some reason, the description rang a bell.

  “Good luck with that,” Ragnar grumbled. “We done here?”

  “For now.” I glanced down at my Vicloak. Don’t you have anything to say? You usually have some snide comment to add to such matters.

  Vic’s voice sounded angry for some reason. True to his word, Vic disengaged from my shoulders, assuming his purple goblin shape, and scurried away.

  “Huh,” I said, watching him leave. That was very unusual. Ragnar and I had just discussed things that sounded highly secretive and important to the VIs, yet my unruly companion didn’t seem to care. In fact, it seemed more like he couldn’t even hear what we were discussing. I looked down at the tablet in my hands. I didn’t sense any sort of warding on it, but I guessed anything capable of messing with a VI’s perception must be subtle and way beyond my ability to detect.

  This tablet was the first evidence I had of some outside influence. It must have been part of Guy’s plan to help me reclaim control over NEO. He must have put the tablet in place for me to find, clueing me in on what I needed to do while keeping it hidden from the VIs.

  Now I just had to find that ‘enlightened traveler’ so he could decipher the exact location of the conduit. Something still bugged me about the description though. I’d heard of a player being imprisoned without food or sunlight, I was sure of it. But when?

  I wondered for a moment if I was mixing up my facts with Pandamonium, who’d been imprisoned in Novenguard, but then I shook my head. No, I learned about her only after she was freed, and by the sound of it, she was just conventionally jailed. Then who? I’d have to ask around. Maybe one of the other players knew.

  “So what now, fugly?” Ragnar demanded. “Think we’re best buds all o’ the sudden, just cause I read you a bedtime story?”

  “No.” I straightened, making eye contact. “What happens now depends on you. You can stay and handle your own business as far as I care. But try doing anything against me or my clan, and I’ll have my troops kill you. Repeatedly and endlessly.” I held his insectile gaze. “Is that clear?”

  Ragnar didn’t seem impressed with my threat. “So you’re just gonna’ let me stroll round’? Aren’t ya’ afraid I’m gonna go after your honeys?”

  I smirked. “Tika will put an arrow in each of your eyes if you try anything stupid, and Lirian is so far ahead of you, you won’t be able to get close enough to try anything before she beheads you. Again.” I let my voice drop into a feral growl. “But if you ever even think of doing anything to either of them, I will end you for real. Trust me, I have a way of doing that.”

  The drone grinned at me. “Damn, fugly, nearly gave me the goosebumps just now.” He raised a chitinous arm. “Even without skin.”

  “Is that clear?” I repeated.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said dismissively. “Hurt your buddies, and I’m dead, hurt your honeys, and I’m finished. Sums it up?”

  I nodded. “Got it in one. So, what will it be?”

  He tilted his head. “What’ya mean, boy?”

  “Are you going to stick around my clan?”

  He rubbed his armored chest. “Dunno yet. Gotta get me some levels first. Can’t be runnin’ round a lousy friggin' level 2.”

  “You can try the sewers,” I suggested. “Plenty of low-level critters around for leveling up. Get yourself to level 10, and you can join the army when we move on.”

  He scowled. “Think I’m gonna be one of yor puppet players?”

  I grinned at the description. “Actually, I don’t control the army. I go where they tell me to and fight what they tell me to.”

  He looked at me skeptically.

  I put a hand over my heart. “Scout’s honor.”

  He snorted. “You’d make some creepy-ass scout boy, sonny.”

  I chuckled. “You have a point. I’ll see you later, Ragnar. Don’t forget to be a good boy.”

  I teleported away, leaving the fledgling new ally to acclimate to his new reality.

  “My lord?” Kaedric approached me. “I trust all is well?”

  “We have a
new player in the clan, but I don’t trust him,” I said. “I want two scouts keeping watch on him at all times. He can move around freely, but if he displays any sign of aggression they are to restrain him immediately.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  I paused to consider something. “Make it four scouts. High-level ones.”

  “Yes, my lord.”

  The clan was settling down for the night. Goblins were returning to their lodgings, and soldiers were finishing up their training. Most entered the barracks, but some remained outside to patrol.

  “Looks like it’s time to turn in. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kaedric.”

  The mandibled hob bowed his head.

  I made my way home, an expectant grin spreading over my face.

  Tika was waiting for me.

  ***

  I yawned and smiled fondly at the naked goblinette next to me.

  Tika was amazing, as usual; passionate, loving, intelligent, and mischievous. The perfect woman. My woman.

  I patted her sleeping form gently, then put on my equipment and went downstairs.

  “Where’s Lirian?” I asked one of the goblin maids.

  She bowed deeply, not meeting my eye. “Princess wanting training,” she squeaked.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  I could order my house servants to bring me food, but I felt like having some company. I left the Chief’s Haunt, Vic wordlessly assuming his rightful place around my shoulders along the way, and went to get something to eat.

  The inn was half-full when I got there, filled mostly with early workers.

  “Daimmen,” I greeted the hob innkeeper.

  “Chief.” He bowed his head. “Your table is ready.” He led me to the central table I usually used and filled a glass from the bottle he carried.

  “It’s a little too early for wine.”

  The hob chuckled. “It’s just squeezed fruit juice; one of the gremlins sells it.”

  I gulped the light, sweet drink and sighed contentedly. That was a good way to start the day. I didn’t have to wait long before the servers brought my food: Gandork’s special stew, my clan’s standard breakfast, with a side of freshly baked bread and a steaming quiche.

  As I ate, I leisurely went through the Settlement Interface, checking up on my clan’s progress. We still had some high stocks of materials, thanks to a full year of hoarding in my absence, but we were running through resources at an alarming rate. Kaedric’s endeavor of a city-wide upgrade was costing us an arm and a leg, but I trusted the crafty hob to make it work without causing an economic meltdown. The important part was that my clan was working like a well-oiled machine, and our military assembly-line machine was working endlessly – producing food to support and recruit more soldiers and crafting the necessary gear to equip them.

  I kept checking the clan’s Construction menu. The daily contribution of high-quality Viridium from Akzar had just arrived, and the builders were already hard at work putting the finishing touches on the Breeder’s Den. It shouldn’t be long now.

  “Oren.” I looked up. Aly appeared at the inn’s entrance and walked over to me. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  “And now you’ve found me,” I said with a smile. “What’s up? I thought all the players remained with the army.”

  The platinum-haired woman shook her head. “Most of the other players decided to stay and help Sullivan train the soldiers and coordinate our next assault, but I decided to use the time to do some research. Do you remember what we talked about?”

  I nodded. “You were looking into a way to miniaturize technology that reads and interprets brain waves into viable machine code.”

  “That’s right,” she said. “I think I’m close to a breakthrough, but I hit a wall. That’s why I came looking for you. You promised to let me take a scan of your brain, remember?”

  “I do. I take it the science facility I built for you has the proper equipment for that?”

  “Oh yeah, it’s got state-of-the-art neuro scanners, computers, and everything I need to complete my research.”

  “How would that even work?” I raised an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s not really my head you’ll be putting under that scanner; it’s just my game character … and a goblin at that.”

  She smiled. “I know that. I’m pretty sure the equipment in my lab just acts as a conduit that receives information from your FIVR capsule’s bio scanners.”

  “Huh, I guess that makes sense.”

  “Shall we?”

  I checked the Settlement Interface one last time. It would be a while before the builders finished working. “Let’s go.”

  We crossed the road past the valley’s pond to the south side where the large science facility was. The place looked modern from the entryway, with a big hallway past the front door that opened up into several floors.

  Aly led me up the stairs to the third floor and through a door that had a radiation warning symbol on it. The inside looked nothing like NEO. Pristine white walls and spotless metal tables and electronic equipment filled the room. A three-dimensional hologram of some sort of technical device was slowly rotating above a worktable.

  “That’s new.” I stopped to motion at the incredibly detailed image.

  Aly smiled. “I figured as long as we’re stuck inside virtual reality, why not use it to our advantage? The model is a work in progress of what I’m hoping to achieve. When completed, it will be no bigger than a grain of rice and could be implanted into the brain through the nasal cavity.”

  “Smart.” I stared at the spinning hologram for another second. “Better than putting it in via head surgery.”

  “Exactly! Now let’s get you comfortable.” She walked over to what looked like a dentist’s chair and motioned me forward.

  Somewhat hesitantly, I climbed onto it. The piece of furniture was designed to accommodate medium humanoids, and I felt like a child in his parents’ bed. My head didn’t even reach the headrest.

  “Okay, just sit tight for a second.” Aly pressed some buttons and a scanning device that looked like a giant metal eye came floating over me. “This will take a few minutes; just sit, relax, and try not to move. Unless you want to die horribly.”

  “Har, har,” I said. I was mostly sure she was kidding.

  Aly continued pressing buttons distractedly, and the metal eye thing hummed to life and began slowly passing over my head.

  “It’s working,” she said, not bothering to look up. “I’m getting good, clean data from your brain.”

  “Well, I do try to keep it clean up there,” I said, but my attempted humor fell on deaf ears; the scientist was absorbed in her work.

  “Hmm, good,” she said about a minute later. “Now I want you to do some mental exercises. Try connecting to the game with your mind alone.”

  I opened the Settlement Interface with a thought and started browsing through.

  “Interesting,” Aly said. “Can you talk to me telepathically like you did before?”

  “Sure.” I added the woman to my war party then channeled my thoughts to her through the magical earring. How’s that?

  “Great!” she exclaimed. “This is really helpful stuff, Oren. I can already see what tweaks I need to perform to achieve higher integration. Is there any other mental exercise you can do that might give me better readings? Anything unique you can achieve through your high CCP?”

  “Well …” I mulled it over. “There’s this.” I opened my mind to the information tendrils around me. The room and the entire building were giving off weird data. It almost felt like a pocket dimension inside NEO with different rules of physics that were more akin to the real world.

  “Holy–” Aly mouthed, her eyes wide. “What did you just do?”

  “I just reached out to the game’s underlying metadata,” I said. “It’s all around us; you just need to be sensitive enough to be able to read it.”

  “This is amazing! A whole new area of synaptic sensors just lit up in your brain. I’d never have tho
ught of pinging those for finer control. This will completely change my approach to the problem!”

  “Glad I could help. Are we done then?”

  “Huh?” Aly said distractedly, already typing on a console. “Yeah, yeah, shoo, I have a lot of work ahead of me.”

  “I’m starting to feel a little used here, Doc.” I grinned at her.

  She flashed me a quick smile. “Sorry, Oren, but this is fascinating stuff. I need to understand it.”

  My grin widened. “No problem, but I do expect you to provide some first-grade research results for me to trade in. Got to get the money rolling to keep up the lights around here.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She turned back to her instruments. “Now get out of here.”

  “Later.” Chuckling, I left the building.

  The Breeder’s Den was located a little way outside the science facility’s main entrance. I crossed the cobbled road to check up on the builders’ progress.

  Zuban was standing outside, anxiously watching over several goblins who were hammering on it lightly. “Easy! Easy! Just a little touch, don’t overdo it.”

  “How’s my Breeder’s Den coming along?” I asked my chief constructor.

  “We’re nearly there, Dire Totem,” Zuban said without turning to look at me. “Careful! Now put in the final piece … and we’re done!”

  The information tendrils coming from the building seemed to ‘straighten,’ emitting a steady, rhythmic flow of data.

  The hob turned to me. “All done. The building is back to full working order.”

  I probed the tendrils, checking the data for summoning new hobs. It had worked! All hobgoblins I summoned from now on would have a starting level of 4. Counting in the synergy bonuses it received from a military-oriented capital, my lowest-level soldiers would start at level 13.

  “Excellent work, Zuban!” I had put off summoning new soldiers until the building was fully restored. Now I could finally resume strengthening my army.

  Zuban took out a wooden box and opened it, revealing orderly rows of uncut gems in various sizes.