Coast on Fire: An Apocalyptic LitRPG (The System Apocalypse Book 5)

by Tao Wong

  A couple of potions—twinkling, periwinkle blue bottles of liquid—crash against the liquified earth, releasing their sub-zero contents and completing the freezing process. The sudden emergence of the mud and the entombment of their leader freezes our assailants, their ace in the hole neutralized. Hopefully.

  “Is he dead?” Carlos says, staring at the newly created frozen, brown hill.

  Just in case, I make a note to cast Polar Zone again once the cooldown is off.

  “Nope. He might suffocate in a few hours, but his Constitution is high enough to keep him alive for a bit,” Ali says, peering at his screens.

  “But he’s taking damage…” Sam says. Even from there, he can feel the unnatural cold radiating from the hill. “A bit cruel, no?”

  I shrug, keeping my face impassive. Best to play cruel and uncaring. Truth be told, while I might have been able to kill the son of a bitch eventually, it’d have been a slog. Better to leave him stuck until the Mages come by and drag him away. His Skill was a nasty, overpowered one.

  “Are we done?” I ask threateningly, letting my gaze slide over our shocked opponents. There are a few quick nods, a few faces turned away in shame. “Good.”

  I wave, using up a large chunk of my remaining Mana and dragging a headache with it to open a Portal. The Mage team that’s been waiting steps through and heads into the building to take over the Core while Lana, under her Aura and with Ali’s help, sorts out the wanted figures. No surprise, not all of them decide to come peacefully once we lay hands on them. A few with stealth abilities even attempt to run away. Luckily, we have Ali and the pets around to corral the majority of those, though a few manage to get away during the fight or perhaps were never around. They’re a problem for later.

  Five minutes later, as the Mage team comes back out of the building, an explosion attracts everyone’s attention. At this distance, all we hear is a low rumbling sound, but all eyes turn in that direction. Lana’s eyes narrow as a large plume of smoke rises from the downtown core.

  “What is it?” Carlos says.

  “Space Needle,” Lana says slowly, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. “It’s where the Sons of Odin had their headquarters.”

  “The Mage leaders?” Mikito asks quietly.

  “Yes,” Ali answers for Lana. “They decided to make a show of it and blew up the entire building.”

  “Civilians?” I say with a frown.

  Ali shrugs. He has a little more information than we do, but it isn’t as if he’s omnipotent. I make a mental note to have a conversation with our “friends” later about that. If the Sons of Odin were anything like this group, there might have been some innocents in there. Then again, there might not have been. Better not to jump to conclusions before I tear out someone’s throat. Still, this display puts another mark in the column of “don’t necessarily trust the Mages” portion of my brain.

  An hour later, when the Mages have sent enough people to keep the peace and the crowd has dispersed, my team gathers again in front of the Core to be ported back.

  “Are we really going to let them make them slaves?” Sam asks, looking at the bound and guarded group of prisoners awaiting transportation.

  “Not exactly,” Lana says softly, shaking her head. “There’s going to be trial. Those who were just ancillary, they’ll be jailed for a bit then released with a Contract forced on them. Only be the ones who killed or took direct part will be made serfs and put under guard. And even then, there’s a time limit—well, a Credit limit.”

  “What’s to stop them from adding fines and charging more?” Ingrid asks, eyes narrowed. “There’s a lot of loopholes in that system.”

  “Because we won’t allow it,” Ali says firmly, meeting Ingrid’s eyes. “Lana, Katherine, Kim, and I have all gone through their documents. And we’re keeping an eye on it.”

  “And they let us?” Sam says with surprise.

  “Well, let’s just say that there’s more than one faction in play,” Lana says with a slight smile.

  I blink, curious how the lady managed to get all this done. I mean, we’ve barely had a few hours all in.

  The team reluctantly let the topic drop. It’s not real justice, but in this world, it’s the best we can do. For all that we might dislike the concept of slavery, they did start the damn fight. And tossing people, no matter how self-serving, arrogant, and idiotic, into prison would be a waste of resources when we desperately need all hands on deck. Prison would not just cost us the prisoners, but we’d need prison guards too. Better to use the System controls to get them to work for us. And who knows, maybe a little punishment might smarten them up.

  And leeches might fly.

  Later that evening, Lana and I are seated on the couch overlooking the large backyard in Lana’s house in Richmond in the Lower Mainland. Rather than sticking around the town, I Portalled us back to the large ex-farmland that Lana had purchased in the suburb for her use. The ample fenced grounds offer a convenient place for the puppies to stretch their legs. Considering their husky breeds, that’s a necessity.

  “This is for you,” I say, waving slightly to pull the small cardboard box from my Altered Space.

  Lana frowns, staring at the box before she opens it to reveal the small paper charm with words of unknown origin on them. “This is…?” Lana frowns.

  “Pick it up,” I say.

  When she complies, the item information appears.

  Talisman of Teleportation (Tier III)

  Upon use, the talisman will either transport user to anchored location or to a random, safe teleportation location within 5km of the user’s origin.

  “How…?”

  “Loot from Calgary,” I reply. “Congratulations, Beast Master.”

  “Oh!” Lana flushes, smiling slightly. “I didn’t think you’d noticed.”

  Lana Pearson (Beast Master Level 1)

  HP: 420/420

  MP: 620/620

  Conditions: Bestial Senses, Linked x 4

  “I did. Just didn’t have much time to congratulate you during the fight,” I say. “I take it you’ve switched the experience gain to something more balanced?” Lana nods, confirming my guess. “What’re the Skills like?”

  “Different. Sort of,” Lana says with a shrug. “Three trees. The first buffs me—the usual but better increases to my personal Skills and survivability. There’s even an option to take control of swarms or hives in there. The other two options are divergent in their needs. I guess you could say the first is an evolutionary option. Here…”

  Forced Evolution (Level 0)

  Forcibly causes a pet to undergo an evolution. Evolution will (generally) be beneficial to the pet. Reduces Mana Regeneration by 5 permanently

  “Not much explanation,” I mutter, dismissing the notice. “And the other?”

  Biological Overdrive

  Increases biology of pet by 300%. Attack, speed, defense, and damage values will increase during overdrive period. Pets will suffer a negative exhaustion effect after overdrive duration is complete.

  Duration: 10 Minutes

  Cost: 250 Mana per pet

  “Is that title correct?” I frown, staring at the Skill’s title.

  “Translation issues, boy-o,” Ali says, shaking his head. By this point, both of us have gotten used to the damn Spirit randomly floating in when he feels like it. Thankfully, after forcibly banishing the Spirit twice for intruding when he shouldn’t, he’s stopped coming in while we’re otherwise intimately engaged. “Not everyone has me cleaning up their UI.”

  “The other Skills are similar,” Lana says, ignoring the byplay between us. “Basically, I can push my pets to be more powerful for a short period or chance evolutions and other changes on them, giving them longer-term effects. But they don’t seem to be as powerful.”

  “Mostly,” Ali agrees. “It’s an option between long-lasting effects or guaranteed hard-hitters. Though you sometimes get a little of the second with the evolutions. They can get weird.”

 
I grunt. Considering some of the strange and less-than-successful evolutions we’ve seen—more often as corpses—I have to agree with Ali on that. Still, considering how much Mana and the number of evolutions that happened, the ratio of “good” to “bad” mutations is incredibly favorable. The fact that these evolutions don’t seem entirely random has generated a significant amount of discussion in my books, some of which I’d gained a few upgrades to my System Quest by reading. The general consensus is that either the Mana or the System self-selects for successful mutations, which lends to the belief of intelligent design behind these actions. A cruel intelligence though. There seems to be a small but significant number of random mutations that are neither beneficial nor benign but just weird.

  “What did you choose?”

  “I haven’t,” Lana says softly, doubt creeping into her voice. When I stay silent, Lana is forced to fill in. “I don’t want to hurt them. But…”

  “But the evolutions could do that too,” I say, and she nods. Even now, the woman still visits the little girl we left Elsa with, when she can convince me to Portal her up. It’s touching, if a little worrying. Sometimes, I wonder how much more pain that big heart of hers can take.

  “Yes,” Lana says, leaning her head against me again. “What should I do?”

  I don’t answer, just giving her a squeeze. Even if I want to talk, to advise, I’ve learned my lesson and bite my tongue. Literally. Sometimes, women just want to talk.

  It’s into that comfortable, if morose, silence that Kim’s notification appears.

  “REQUESTING AUTHORIZATION TO USE FUNDS TO ASCERTAIN ALTERATIONS IN SETTLEMENT MARKETPLACE.”

  “What?” I say out loud.

  “REQUESTING AUTHORIZATION TO USE FUNDS TO ASCERTAIN ALTERATIONS IN SETTLEMENT MARKETPLACE.”

  “I got that,” I snarl then draw a breath, forcing down my irritation. No point getting angry. It’s a machine. Sort of. “I meant, what alterations?”

  “UNKNOWN. REQUISITION FUNDS TO…”

  “We got that, bits-for-brains. Boy-o wants to know what alterations you’re seeing,” Ali says.

  “RECENT PRICE FLUCTUATIONS IN QUANTUM STABILIZERS AND ANTI-TELEPORTATION SHIELDS,” Kim says.

  A moment later, a graph pops up with so many lines on it, my eyes blur trying to read it.

  “We got it, bits-for-brains. Authorized,” Ali says.

  “UNABLE TO ACCEPT AUTHORIZATION FROM LOWER ELEMENTAL FORM.”

  “I’ll give you lower—”

  “Ali.” I cut him off before I say slowly, “Why are you tracking this? I thought you were limited to the settlement?”

  “A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FROM THE LOWER ELEMENTAL FORM WAS DEEMED TO OFFER AN ACCEPTABLE RETURN ON THE RESOURCES DEDICATED TO SUCH TRACKING,” Kim says. “REQUESTING AUTHORIZATION TO UTILISE SETTLEMENT FUNDS.”

  Once I parse the answer, I shrug. “Do it.” Then I turn to Ali. “Explain?”

  “Not much to explain, boy-o. You know what anti-teleportation shields are. Quantum stabilizers do the same, but they include things like your Quantum State Manipulator. There’re a bunch of variations of course, from single-activation stabilizers to on-going fields,” Ali says. “I figured since you’ve purchased the QSM again and are waiting for its delivery, and with your Skills, it’d be a good idea to make sure the cities we’re going into aren’t utilizing it. Don’t want to jump into a place that is quantum locked. It’d be real painful. Or deadly.”

  “We can tell that from this…?” I say, frowning at the graph that hasn’t disappeared.

  “No idea about the graph. I just bought some information on the next few cities,” Ali says. “Looks like bits-for-brains took it a step further.”

  “DATA CONFIRMED. ASSESSMENT IS THAT SETTLEMENTS WITHIN NORTH AMERICA HAVE SEEN A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN PURCHASES OF ANTI-TELEPORTATION AND QUANTUM STABILIZERS.”

  “John?” Lana says, frowning as she reads the information Kim and Ali have so kindly shared to her.

  “It’s like this, Lana,” Ali says. “They’re taking steps to stop John from bouncing around inside their cities or dropping an army on their doorsteps. Skills that involve spatial distortions, like his Blink Step and Portal, are going to be seriously degraded. Depending on the level of interference, it’s either going to be impossible, seriously curtailed, or just painful to use.”

  “Painful?”

  “Certain quantum stabilizers only react on use of the Skill. They disrupt the actual teleportation, damaging those transported.”

  “Nasty,” I say with a wince.

  “Yup. They’re also the most common,” Ali says. “Cheaper to purchase an occasional trigger piece than a whole anti-teleport field, you know?”

  “Yeah,” I say, rubbing my chin. This isn’t good news. Not at all. It looks like our actions have caught some attention. “How much damage are we talking?”

  “Depends on the field. Anything from a couple of hundred health points to a few thousand.”

  “So, no jumping.”

  “No jumping.”

  “We need to tell the colonel,” Lana says softly.

  I nod. Ah hell, I bet he’s going to make me do the US next. Still, maybe Voodoo Donuts survived…

  Wier takes the news with equanimity. Seated in his office alone, his table is bare but for a cup of coffee when we arrive. Soon afterward, his aide comes in to take notes while we inform him of the bad news. Since Sam had promised to work with the army’s mechanics on a new project, he tagged along when we went down, leaving Mikito and Ingrid to their solo adventuring efforts.

  “I have news of my own,” Wier says after he digests the information. “Fort Irwin and Camp Pendleton both survived the System changeover and have contacted us. We have begun further coordination, though contact is via messenger. Forces around these bases have joined together, including the remnants of the Edwards air force detachment, the marines of 29 Palms, and various navy services. Unfortunately, the navy were the hardest hit among our men, with significant losses in equipment and personnel. They are currently in battle with the local alien forces known as the Zarrie.

  “In addition, our efforts at aiding Portland have resulted in significant progress at whittling down the enemy’s forces. We—I—expect to see a significant increase in pressure on the resistance in the next few weeks.”

  “You want me to go down and tag their land, don’t you?” I state.

  “Yes.”

  “It seems like we’re reacting more than planning recently,” Lana says, frowning. “We did Edmonton and Calgary because John wanted to free them and they were close. You helped us because that was part of the agreement, our Skills and men in trade for yours. But now, instead of continuing down south from there or farther east, we came to deal with Seattle. Now we’re going down to Portland?”

  “The battlefield is fluid, Ms. Pearson,” Wier says calmly.

  “Maybe, but I’d think you would have more of a plan,” Lana says, an unspoken accusation in her voice.

  “You are perceptive, Ms. Pearson,” Wier says then raises a hand to make a call.

  In a few minutes, Captain Angus Tyrell joins us and the table hosts a projection of the map of North America. Friendly settlements are coded green, hostile settlements are red, and those currently contested are yellow. Pretty much the entirety of the eastern seaboard is red with dashes of yellow, while the Midwest is a mixture of reds and yellows. The western seaboard is obviously what we’re dealing with, and it’s a mixture of reds, yellows, and of course, our greens. Overall, the greens are extremely rare, with most of those located in smaller towns and one large clump in the southern USA.

  Silence descends as Wier lets us peruse the map, and I spot some interesting notes. Woodbridge, Virginia, yellow. Ashland, Oregon—a weird half-green, half-red coloration. A quick perusal shows it’s Galactic-owned and neutral to humans. Meeker, Oklahoma, green. Hardin, Illinois, red.

  “As you can see, most of our country—and yours—is held by others. Of these settleme
nts, even fewer have an active resistance. You’ll note that Los Angeles and southern USA have the highest number of such resistance cells,” Wier says, waving his fingers down the map.

  “Not exactly true,” Sam says, pointing upward to our Midwest, where many places glow yellow.

  “Yes, but those settlements have smaller populations. Very small,” Wier says. “In addition, many of these locations with resistance are backed up by members of our armed forces, the national guard, and members of the police and security services.” A slight pause before a half-smile. “As much as there might be complaints about our armed forces and the militarization of our police force, in instances like this, it is particularly useful.”

  “You want us to go through Portland, LA, and then back up to each of these resistance cities?” I say softly, flicking my gaze along them.

  Sam is right, there are a few towns and settlements—including a few greens—that we could free in Regina and Manitoba. But their numbers don’t compare at all. If we punch east from LA, we could link up with a bunch of greens and yellows, rather than the frightening bloc of red farther north. I absently note that more than a few places in the middle of the States seem to host some really nasty monsters.

  “We have more people. And well-trained ones. We can’t afford to wait. Our enemies are already reacting to our growing strength,” Wier says. “The faster we are able to grow, the safer we all will be.”

  “And how about what’s happening in Ontario?” Sam asks.

  “Ontario?” I mutter while Lana’s face grows fixed.

  “It is tragic, but this is the most efficient use of our resources,” Angus answers.

  “Efficient? Do you know what they’re doing? The Galactics in Ontario are worse than the Thirteen Moon Sect. At least those assholes played nice. These guys are just shipping people wholesale to other planets and importing their own instead. If we keep this up, in less than a year, they’ll have gotten rid of the majority of the population!” Sam snaps.