by Ivan Shaman
Demon rose from the ground. He couldn’t ask the dead Goliath and Luminary to explain anymore. He decided to return to the city and talk to Caesar. But right now, he had to get to the sixtieth level. He activated ‘Strongman’ and dismantled the blockage, moving the collapsed concrete blocks away one after another.
Chapter 18. Outcast
During several breaks, he collected and examined the books stored in the library. Someone had carefully put them in an undamaged room – maybe it was that boy-traitor. Finally, Demon reached the first floor and found the body of the Luminary crushed by a fallen slab. It was almost torn in half, the head was flattened, and the neurointerface was unavailable.
Antony, Luminary, level 40, neutral
“Hi, Antony,” Demon said, sticking his finger into the boy.
Extract nanomachines?
“And goodbye.”
Yes
The small probe plunged into the Luminary’s body, deepening into the tissue and crawling through the veins and arteries.
Demon turned away to look for other books as he had half a minute to wait. Suddenly something gurgled. Glancing back, he saw the boy’s head turning, peeling the skin away from the concrete plate, then the Luminary shouted.
Never before had the cyborg heard such an animalistic cry of pain and despair. Only a still living man who was being flayed, or an alive technocrat from who all nanomachines were being absorbed, could scream so awfully.
“Stop! Cancel! Stop!” In a panic, Demon tried to find a way to undo the extraction, but there was no such dialog box. The boy kept screaming. Then the concrete plate subsided a little, and he went quiet.
Attention!
Make ready to absorb nanomachines
“What the hell, nanomachines! Reverse the process!” Demon screamed, clutching his head. A trickle ran from the boy’s mouth, and Demon had no choice but to put his hands down to receive it. His gaze was blurred with tears. Demon’s experience bar crawled toward the sixtieth level and seemed to stop the smallest fraction away, but then it soared back into life and passed the limiter.
Congratulations on getting level 60
Available stat points:
600
Available skills:
44
Available talent points:
55
In front of him, the dying Antony lay still, faintly wheezing. Looking into his clouded, unwise eyes, Demon couldn’t stand it. He put his left hand to the forehead of the former Luminary. Punch! The half-meter blade easily entered the boy’s skull, instantly killing him.
Sitting on the floor, the cyborg wept bitterly. He’d just killed his brother with his own hands, and not just killed him, but actually tortured him – albeit accidentally. The weight of the deed squeezed at his throat, not allowing him to breathe. He had just done what everyone feared and hated the Emperor for. How could he live with himself now?
Imagining how Jane would look at him, he swallowed the lump in his throat. Something had to be done immediately so that no one would know what had happened. Standing up, he went to the boy, grabbed the concrete plate that had originally taken the Luminary down, and, activating ‘Strongman’, he pulled it down. It squeezed the body like a press, turning it into nothing more than a bloody pancake.
Now he needed to collect the books. It would help to explain what he was doing here. He threw the books and info cubes into a huge bag made from a folded curtain. He broke one of the windows on the first floor, got out, and went out across the gray snow to meet the search team led by Jane.
“Demon! Are you okay?” She rushed to him, throwing away her heavy gun shield as she did so. “What’s happened to you?”
“Where’s Jack?” Kris cried, then she looked straight at him and moved back, twitching as if she had been electrocuted. “What’s happened? Where’s my Jack?”
“He’s in the building,” Demon said reluctantly. “But you’d be better to not go in there.”
Not listening to him anymore, the woman rushed past him to the destroyed library building. She even used ‘Jerk’ several times to get there faster. Demon, who watched her, looked away as she got inside the building.
“What’s happened?” Jane asked cautiously, looking into his face. “How many enemies were there?”
Kris’ loud cry came from the library. Not wanting to get more upset and risk further upsetting Jane, Demon tried to move away, but he was surrounded by the other technocrats.
“Devourer,” Marcus said with a shudder. “Does that mean you’re the only survivor?”
Demon nodded uncertainly.
“How many? A hundred? Two? Did they have tanks?”
“There were three of them,” Demon replied quietly, realizing how silly it sounded. “Two of them were hostile technocrats, above the sixtieth level.”
“Brother, repeat that once more. I think I have something wrong with my hearing.” Marcus leaned over him, frowning. “Come on.”
“Only. Three,” Demon said, separating each word. “The two of them were just like us, but they were hostile and high-leveled.”
Marcus glared at him silently. Then he spat and, muttering, “I don’t believe you”, he went to the library.
“How could it happen that Immortal Goliath Jack died and you survived?” Jane asked quietly, looking into his eyes. “You can tell me that.”
Suddenly realizing what she was hinting at, Demon threw down the bag and stormed off.
“Stop! We need to talk! I want to help!” The girl shouted, but he wasn’t listening.
Jerk!
Jerk!
He was near the buildings. Fuck everyone. Fuck Jane. Fuck him.
Breaking into someone’s empty apartment, he closed the door behind him. What can I do next? How can I live in this world, if even the closest person believes that I’ve killed my friend just to absorb his experience?
As he crawled under a blanket on the bed, he suddenly realized how alone he was. How alone the Emperor was, whose level wasn’t seen at all. What did he have to do to become like this? How many cyborgs would he have to absorb?
Turning the recent events over in his mind, he realized that in less than a week he had gained and lost everything: friends, a girlfriend, and a goal in life. Though, he had achieved the sixtieth level and the mark of a monster, which he could never wash away now. Moreover, it was absolutely deserved, because he was a monster. He had been able to save the boy, but instead, he’d extracted his life and killed him.
He didn’t know how many hours he’d spent lying under the blanket, shuddering and pondering what would happen next. After all, he wasn’t the Emperor who was not only feared but needed. He had neither a rapid-fire gun, nor invisibility, nor the status of the ‘Eternal’—whatever that might mean.
“So, I must be like him.” Demon formulated the idea. “I must become strong, irreplaceable. Let all be afraid of me. But they will need to respect and consider me at the same time.”
He sat on the bed and opened his character panel.
Demon, Master Devourer, level 60
Strength:
100
Dexterity:
100
Intelligence:
222
Perception:
200
Stamina:
100
Available stat points:
600
Available skills:
44
Available talent points:
55
First, he wanted to take the ‘Artillerist’. For this, he needed two levels of the ‘Shooter’, three of the ‘Sniper’ and then ‘Commando’. In total, seventeen skill points, which meant that twenty-seven points were left.
The ‘Luminary’ required the input of four points each into ‘Connection’ and ‘Control’, and then the skill ‘Lord’. Fortunately, he had pumped the first levels. So eight points remained.
Only eight skill points for such a wide choice. To take the ‘Absorber’, he needed to pump ‘Stamina’ up to three
hundred, but that wasn’t a problem. Seven.
Scrolling through the long list of possible talents, Demon decided to pump his ‘Horn armor’ up to the second level and then the ‘Jerk’ to the third level. Now, it was the turn of his stats.
After pumping his ‘Stamina’ up to three hundred, he still had four hundred points remaining. Mindful of the dependence on the radius of the song on ‘Perception’, he pumped it and his ‘Intelligence’, adding a hundred and fifty points to each. The rest of the stats he distributed between ‘Strength’ and ‘Dexterity’.
Finally, his talents were now enough for a built-in weapon. Choosing between a plasma and a rail gun, he selected the first one. A much smaller range and penetrating power were compensated for by its fast reload and the ability to fire over an area. Although it wasn’t in fact a plasma, but rather a flamethrower that shot a high-temperature gas under high pressure and with great speed that he chose.
Having gathered his courage, he lay on the bed and pressed ‘Confirm’, accepting all the changes.
Even though Demon had imagined the consequences and been mentally prepared for them, it was impossible for him to get used to the pain. During the transformation that took place over several hours, Demon felt every change in his body. No one offered him sleeping pills, painkillers or anesthesia, so he felt the nanomachines tearing apart his bones, pulling and splicing the vessels, and building new organs inside him. Even a ‘simple’ skin modification felt like it was peeled back, salt was poured in the wounds, and then it was put back, gently massaging as it went.
When the pain finally began to subside, he fell into a blissful oblivion. It wasn’t a dream, but rather another level of his higher perception. Another level of nature. He was the Light again, but this time, he was the bright Light himself, giving it to all around. He wasn’t alone. Shimmering sparks, spheres and balls of light flickered in the blackness of the universe. The ruthless cold Sun was so close and, at the same time, so distant. It left all without its warmth.
Now Demon didn’t know what he felt: reverence for the huge, all-knowing Mind or angry at it because it had left its children without the Light and guidance. Gradually coming back to himself and finding no answer, he opened his character panel.
Demon, Luminary Artillerist Absorber, level 60
Strength:
172
Dexterity:
150
Intelligence:
350
Perception:
350
Stamina:
300
Just like that. Now he was a Luminary. He was the Light. Now it was up to him to decide whom to give the Light.
He opened his eyes and saw Jane sitting in an old red armchair by the bed. In waiting for him to wake up, she herself had fallen asleep.
For a few minutes, he didn’t dare to get up. Then he decided to stay in the apartment. He stood up and went over to the window, looking out at the sky beyond the glass. Thick clouds had covered the stars. While he had been pumping, the night had fallen.
Comparing his stats with the Emperor’s, Demon realized that he had to pump at least forty more levels to reach ‘Immortal’, and then ‘Eternal’. This was only if the Emperor didn’t have other statuses that just didn’t fit or were less significant. For example, Demon had lost his ‘Master’ status as the simplest one. So, theoretically, the Emperor was above the hundredth level.
He tried to calculate in his mind the required amount of experience one would need, but he couldn’t as it turned out that for pumping from the ninetieth to the ninety-first level alone a cyborg required thirteen million experience points or about thirty pounds of nanomachines. And to reach the ninetieth level he would need one hundred and eighty pounds of nanites. That was significantly more than the population of Sakhalin Island. Which clearly meant that there was some other source of nanomachines.
“Greetings, Luminary,” Jane said, diverting him from his thoughts. He turned around.
Jane, Immortal, level 28, friendly, needs food and sex
“Hi,” he said. “You’re too formal.”
“You’ve become a Luminary, in battles, within a few days.” Demon saw that she tried not to frown, doing her best to look carefree. However, she failed to hide her true emotions. “I’ve decided to stay with you, no matter what will happen.”
“What’s going to happen?” The Luminary knew what she’d say, but he wanted to hear it.
“Well…” She hesitated. “For example, you might want to attack a human base on your own, and then I’ll cover you.”
“Or?” He asked with some pressure.
“Or you might want to devour us all,” she answered directly. “And then I want to be the first.”
“You won’t be the first,” Demon said with a bitter smile, remembering the writhing boy. “You won’t be devoured by me. I’m not going to devour any living beings.”
“That’s good.” Jane breathed out with visible relief. “They wanted to kill you while you dreamt—as you were resting after a level-up.”
“They?” Only now did Demon notice the tracks of many feet, left on the dusty floor. “To kill a sleeping brother? We aren’t capable of this. The blocker of the Mind doesn’t allow... I don’t think it’s possible.”
“You think so?” Jane asked. “What about those technocrats you’ve told me about? Those who attacked the library?”
“There was something wrong with them,” he said, turning back to the window. Now he saw a group of the clumsily hiding Masters, led by the Luminary. They were standing around the corner of the nearest building, talking. Several shooters were in the apartments across the street.
“They were like us and yet unlike us at the same time. The boy had the sixty-fourth level of the ‘Artillerist’ and a rail gun. The girl was at the thirty-first level, but she had the status of ‘Ninja’ and ‘Eternal’ – which is impossible with her level.”
“And they blew up the building and killed several hundred first-levelers,” Jane said. “It’s impossible!”
“Don’t forget about two Luminaries, several Goliaths and one Immortal Goliath,” Demon added, pondering. “And they didn’t take any nanomachines.”
“What do you mean?” She asked, not understanding.
“I want to say that our system may not be absolute,” he replied thoughtfully. “What if the Mind didn’t foresee everything? What if we don’t need to kill people and each other to level-up?”
“You’re talking absolute nonsense now,” Jane said, judiciously and very insistently. “The Mind is our Creator, our God. It’s omniscient and infinitely wise.”
“But yet it can do nothing if the relay station doesn’t work,” Demon replied. “And what will happen when we repair it? What will happen when it sees how we’ve lived here without it? What will it do then?”
“I don’t know! But to doubt the Mind is heresy!”
“What words you remember.” Demon smiled. “Doubting everything is a property of the mind, although perhaps I’ve just pumped my ‘Intelligence’ too much.”
“Then talk to someone who has the same level,” Jane suggested.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “You’re right. And it’ll be a healthy debate.”
Marcus was approaching the building across the creaking snow.
Chapter 19. Mystery
“Greetings, Luminary,” Marcus said ceremoniously, coming into the apartment. A Goliath and a Shooter accompanied him.
“Hello, Senior Master. Can we speak without ceremony?” Demon asked calmly.
“You’ve become a Luminary of the sixtieth level. And now you want to be treated like an ordinary technocrat?” Marcus snorted in surprise and indignation. “Then we also may be treated without respect. That won’t do.”
“In the sight of the Light, we all are equal!” Demon replied. “Every last one of us, regardless of level.”
“But Luminaries are more important,” Marcus said, glancing at his attendants. “We give the Light where there is none an
d dispel the darkness.”
“I was under your Light the day before yesterday. Don’t forget that I know what it is.”
“That’s it!” The Master exclaimed, raising his index finger. “You were inspired by me the day before yesterday! You should keep this in mind!”
“You’re afraid of me,” Demon suddenly realized. “Scared shitless.”
“I’m not afraid of you, Devourer,” Marcus answered, straightening his back and sticking out his chest. “I’m an Immortal Luminary! And I’m two levels higher than you.”
“Only I can grind you into dust.” Demon turned on the ‘Artillerist’, and his left palm split down the middle, showing his plasma flamethrower. The Master backed away, but when the Goliath tried to shield him, Marcus reached out his hand to stop his bodyguard.
“You’re brave.” Demon smiled, hiding his gun. “So, you aren’t afraid of me personally but something else. That’s right. I’m not going to harm you.”
“I’m not entirely sure about that,” Marcus replied.
“Why have you come to me, Master?” Demon sat down on the bed. “I had been resting, and you disturbed me.”
“We visited the site of the battle and came to the conclusion that you hadn’t killed all those technocrats,” the Senior Master admitted. “Most of them were killed with bullets, and several of them were bitten with such teeth that you don’t have. So, it wasn’t you.”
“Thanks for that,” Demon said. “Now, let’s say that I accept your apology for wanting to kill me in my sleep. You now owe me for that distrust.”
“Why should we?” Marcus protested. “We don’t owe you anything! You’re the one who should be grateful for being spared!”