by Max Lagno
The player also had an Apple UniSuit, a Sierra X, which he’d deactivated so he could enjoy his bloodbath even more. The UniSuit was newer than mine, but one of its permanent upgrades was Antiloot, which prevented it from being stolen from its owner. But nothing prevented me from taking its removable upgrades. I got:
Stabbing and Cutting Strike Upgrade.
+1 Strength.
Level One Jump Upgrade. +1 Agility.
Height or length of jump: 10 feet.
Upgrade cooldown time: 5 seconds.
I got an Upgraded Mechanic’s Knife from the same sicko. It slightly increased the chance of successfully disassembling a mechanodestructor and getting useful expansions out of it.
I approached the metal ladder leading to the upper platforms.
Chapter 34. 3buck$
THE JUMP UPGRADE was a big help when it came to jumping from the platform to the narrow ceiling beams. Damn, why did they have to hang the cages so high up? It occurred to me a little too late that I could have looked for some buttons or levers below. The bandits didn’t climb up these platforms every time they wanted to mock their prisoners, did they? On the other hand, my choice wasn’t the worst. I found boxes of money several times on the beams. Seems the bandits were hiding their loot from each other. I was richer by one thousand and seven hundred gold.
I leapt to the nearest cage of NPC prisoners. A human and an android sat within, barely alive.
“Sorry, guys, I don’t need you,” I said before jumping to the next cage. In this one sat a woman and a boy. I didn’t need to take out my tablet to know that they were the ones from the driver’s photo.
I approached the center of the cage’s roof where the cable was attached, and pressed the button. The cage slowly descended. That was when I noticed that there was another woman in the cage with the driver’s family. She wore a torn dress and behaved strangely, which immediately gave her away as a player.
“Get away!” she cried.
“I’m saving you.”
“I don’t need saving, I like it here.”
“I promise, as soon as I get them out, I’ll send you back up there.”
The cage dropped to the floor. I shot off the lock and brought the woman and child out.
“Come on, hurry up,” the prisoner player said. “Send it back up, Three Bucks’ll be back soon.”
I shrugged, closed the cage, climbed onto the roof and pressed the button. The cage went up with the woman inside and I jumped off.
There were some strange players in these bandit bases. These were places where people lived out all the fantasies that they couldn’t do in other zones without losing Reputation or getting arrested.
“Thank you for saving us,” the woman sobbed.
The boy just nestled against her skirt and said nothing. Children in Adam Online were rare: they ruined the game immersion because they couldn’t be killed. Attempts to harm them led to an immediate drop in Reputation and the assignment of the Childkiller debuff, which stayed for three whole rotations.
“Thank you for saving us,” the woman repeated.
“I haven’t saved you yet, we still need to get out of here.”
“Now that you won’t be doing!” someone shouted.
A big three-wheeled motorcycle rolled into the workshop, its engine revving. A flag waved above the seat displaying the symbol $, leaving no doubt as to the identity of the rider.
* * *
Riding in a circle around us, the motorcyclist gave me time to aim my tablet at him.
Three Bucks, Human. Leader of the 3buck$ gang.
Classes: Bandit, Thief.
Level: 5.
Health: 8,000/8,000.
Armor: 5,000/5,000.
He was a large and muscular man in leather pants, with, oddly enough, round sections cut out on the buttocks. He flashed his naked ass when he raised himself on the trike’s seat. Body armor covered his muscular body, and underneath it was a sleeveless UniSuit. He rode with one hand and held a sawn-off shotgun in the other: a weapon slow to reload, but with deadly stopping power.
But Three Bucks decided to use the trike itself: after riding a circle around us, he rode straight at me. The driver’s wife and child ran away and hid behind an excavator unprompted, while I leapt ten feet into the air. That was enough to jump over the trike, but the dollar sign flag got in the way. First I hit it, then fell onto the bandit, knocking him off the trike. We both hit the ground and rolled away in different directions. We both tried to turn toward each other, aiming our weapons. Three Bucks was a little quicker...
His double-barreled shot stunned and blinded me. The pain in my chest meant that both shells had landed. All at once I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I pulled my trigger after the bandit, and my entire burst landed somewhere in the ceiling, knocked off course when the shots from the sawn-off hit me.
I raised myself and ran under the cover of an overturned cart, noticing that my run speed had fallen dramatically, and my legs sometimes touched one another, threatening to trip me up. That meant I was dead if I took another hit. I barely managed to get behind the wagon before more shots hit its side. Three Bucks made up for the low capacity of his sawn-off shotgun by reloading fast.
“Come out!” he shouted. “I got plenty of space in the cages. You’ll like how we entertain our guests.”
“Oh, yes,” the prisoner player answered instead of me. “Hurry up and take care of me, Three Bucks, I’m sick of waiting.”
Three Bucks laughed and walked toward me. I didn’t see it, but shots from both barrels hit the side of the cart one after another, causing a rain of sparks. The closer the bandit came, the worse the cart shook from the shots.
Taking advantage of a momentary calm, I ran out from behind the cart.
I made a ten-foot leap, ran to the overturned trike and heaved it onto its wheels. Shots from the sawn-off followed at my heels. Chunks of concrete flew from the floor and struck my soles as I jumped.
I hid behind the trike. More bullets followed at a steady pace, hitting it. Shot, reload, shot, reload. Three Bucks was as cyclical as any NPC. The trike’s frame began to smoke. A little more and it’d catch fire. I quickly raised myself and switched on the engine. Then I jumped into the saddle and turned the trike toward the bandit.
I rode straight into a double shot but crouched down behind the short windshield and let it take the blow.
“What the f-u-uck?!” Three Bucks roared. He cracked open the sawn-off, inserted two shells, raised his arm...
He was fast, but the trike was faster.
I hit the bandit with the wide front wheel at full speed. His body somersaulted toward the workshop gate. The collision tipped the trike and I barely had time to jump off as it overturned. It turned out that Three Bucks had still managed to fire when he got hit! The saddle was already burning when I jumped out of it. The trike exploded, filling the workshop with black smoke.
I somersaulted after I jumped, leapt to my feet and aimed my Uzi in front of me as Three Bucks emerged from the clouds of black smoke. His armored vest was gone, and the streams of blood on his body showed he was badly injured. He was reloading his sawn-off slower than before. I quickly ran toward him, closing the distance — he was too far away for my Uzi.
We were in the same situation as when we collided in the air and fell. We aimed our guns at each other at the same time. This time I was faster.
My fiery explosive bullets hit Three Bucks in the chest, destroying the remains of his armored vest and UniSuit. He managed to fire, but his arm flew up, the bullets fired toward the cages of prisoners. My shots pushed the bandit back ten feet, but Three Bucks still knelt on one knee, leaning on his sawn-off.
I aimed again and held down the trigger until I’d fired all sixty rounds. The machine pistol was shaking so hard in my hand toward the end that I barely kept hold of it. Three Bucks was engulfed in flames. He’d dropped his sawn-off and was screaming and running around the workshop, burning up. He smoldered for a few seco
nds from the amount of bullets he’d taken. His legs gave out underneath him and he bent double, turning into a pile of burnt flesh. His loot spread out around him, inviting me to pick it up.
But first I reloaded. It was out of sheer habit: I couldn’t move with an unloaded gun. I stepped toward the pile and heard a wail from above.
“Bastard, idiot! What have you done?!”
The former prisoner that had been in the cage with the driver’s family jumped out of her cage and flew down. She was no longer in her torn dress: she wore iron armor and was armed with an axe and shield. Fiery flashes ran along the shield, making its owner immune to fire damage. I didn’t know if that was a permanent effect on the shield or a temporary spell.
When the girl landed, she raised a cloud of dust and stone like a small bomb. She must have been using some kind of anti-gravity spell.
That was all I needed.
Chapter 35. Anti-Social Element
“WHAT ARE YOU so unhappy about?” I asked, stepping away and keeping the shieldmaiden in my sights. Judging by her equipment, she’d reached level five a long time ago, but hadn’t left Rim Zero for some reason.
“You asshole, I deliberately didn’t complete the driver’s quest so I could enjoy Three Bucks’ company! You’ve ruined everything, you dumb fuck!”
Why did I always meet girls who loved swearing all the time? Or had they always been that way in Adam Online? Maybe I was just becoming an old killjoy.
“Wash your mouth out,” I said.
“I’ll wash your insides out, asshole!”
The shieldmaiden performed a complex and quick lunge with a twist. I dodged the axe blade and fired a burst, but her shield took all the fire, pulling the bullets in and changing their trajectory even though I was aiming right at the girl’s head.
All the bullets hit the shield and fell harmlessly to the ground.
My jumping capabilities were the only thing that kept me from being cut in half. I kept jumping back, sensing that neither my Strength nor my Agility were up to the task. The shieldmaiden kept waving that axe of hers. The blade touched me, inflicting a bleeding wound. I jumped, fell... and found myself on one of the tables that the other psycho player had been using to cut people up. Damn, how convenient.
Floundering in dried blood and some kind of dark brown blobs, I crawled backwards and slid off the table. I began to grab items from the table with my left hand and throw them at the shieldmaiden. They were cut off legs and arms, some organs, even entire heads. They hit the girl’s armor with a squelch, dealing minor damage. With my right hand I continued to pull the trigger, firing in short bursts, hoping to destroy her shield. It was already covered in promising dents and it no longer absorbed my fire damage. The explosive damage helped me too, slowing the girl down, throwing her back slightly with each shot.
The tables were in the corner of the factory floor. That was it — I had no more room for retreat.
I shot at my enemy without pausing, but the shield still pulled in most of the bullets. Some shots hit her armor, exploding in bursts of flame, but I still hadn’t broken through the armor yet.
My Uzi clicked fruitlessly. I had to reload!
The shieldmaiden raised her axe...
Suddenly the entire corner of the floor shook with an explosion. Scraps of bodies and the tables themselves flew at us. Then another explosion, and another. This strange interruption gave me the opportunity to roll away, reloading as I went. The girl’s axe struck the floor, throwing up sparks and shards of concrete.
A dozen bandits or more were running toward us from the factory entrance. At the head of them was the guy with the pink mohawk who’d inspected the bus. He unfastened some grenades from his UniSuit and threw them at us. Now my enemy and I were the bandits’ enemies: they considered her an escaped prisoner.
Amy looked at me. “Idiot!”
She turned and ran at the group of bandits, apparently unconcerned that I might shoot her in the back. She managed to hit the thrown grenade back with her axe as she ran. It flew off to the side and exploded. I still had her back in my sights, but I didn’t fire.
The shieldmaiden reached Pink Mohawk and took his head off. She then span and, still moving with the same speed and agility, planted her axe in the stomach of a second running bandit. He bent double and she couldn’t pull out the axe quickly. She beat the third bandit back with her shield, but it disintegrated as soon as it hit, losing all its Durability.
That was when I got involved. I fired a sudden burst at all three of the bandits attacking the girl at once. The others split off across the plant, hid behind carts and began to fire at us. Most of the bullets hit the girl and her armor began to break down: first her left shoulder pad, then the plates on her stomach... One shot tore off her metal helmet. The hits prevented the girl from moving at normal speed, stopped her from reaching cover.
I’d already forgotten that she’d been my enemy a moment before. And that she was a very strange type, since she enjoyed being a bandit leader’s prisoner. I ran to the headless bandit, drawing some of the fire my way, laid down and began to pull his grenades off and throw them at the bandit.
That gave the girl time to run to some huge rusty machine and hide behind it. She didn’t waste any time. She quickly rushed along the row of machines. She moved fast: either she’d put plenty of points into Agility, or she was using some speed spell. She was at the bandits’ flank a few seconds later. Heads flew, and fountains of blood sprayed all around.
We finished off the last bandit together: she cut off his head while I set his body on fire with the Uzi.
Silence fell, and we stood facing each other again. I held her in my sight. She held her axe up, ready to strike.
“Listen...” I began. “Let’s just...”
“Alright,” she nodded. “I was angry that you killed my... my...”
“Pet?” I hinted.
“Yep, that works.”
“Why did you...”
“Hey, I’m not planning to tell you why I like something. Who are you? Go to hell.”
Trying not to turn my back on her, I first headed for the burning pile that was once Three Bucks.
Alright, what did he leave me?
* * *
The fire and explosions from my merciless Uzi had destroyed the bandit’s UniSuit. Only two upgrades remained:
Explosive Strike Booster ‘Hit #1’, Apple Company.
+4 to explosive power of ammunition attachments.
The second upgrade was expensive, but not exactly what I needed.
‘Activity’ Bidirectional Sexual Pleasure Booster.
It allowed you to give your partner earthshattering orgasms and experience what they felt at the same time. That was an Apple product too, go figure, and it was fully compatible with my UniSuit. That’s always how it goes: a useless item, but it fits! Or an unpleasant person and you have to work with them. Anyway... How did one have sex in a UniSuit?
Whatever, it’d sell to someone who needed it.
I put Hit #1 in instead of my Stabbing and Cutting Strike Upgrade.
I also got the following riches:
Apple ‘Sierra Zed’ Helmet.
+1 Perception.
+1 Night Vision skill.
Great, a helmet was just what I was missing. It completed my UniSuit set. The boots and gloves on this model couldn’t be swapped out.
3buck$.
Amulet.
Item class: Rare.
+3 Luck.
+12% gold found on enemies.
Shows all caches within 1600 feet.
Also useful... But to carry amulets or use any magical items, I’d have to deactivate my UniSuit. Or take the amulet to a craftsman who could convert it into a UniSuit upgrade. Well, or learn how to craft yourself and try to convert it. I knew by experience that I’d only reach the required mastery at level fifteen. Shame.
Marble.
Upgraded Sawn-off Shotgun.
Upgraded release mechanism: +1 Damage.
Upgraded reload: +1 Rate of Fire.
Unknown property (requires Knowledge 10).
Unknown property (unknown requirements).
Damage: 4,400.
I’d never liked shotguns, even sawn-offs, and when I found valuable ones like this, I always sold them without even looking at their properties. I also added five frag grenades and three remote detonation bombs to my backpack.
The bandit also had a bunch of cutting weapons, but I only had twenty pounds of free weight left. I was already feeling the extra weight.
“Hey,” I called to the shieldmaiden. “There’s plenty of stuff here for you. Swords, halberds, a bow, arrows, spears and daggers.”
While the girl leaned over the pile of loot from Three Bucks, I took my chance to aim the tablet at her.
Vildana, Human.
Class: Mage or unknown.
Level: 7.
Health: 2,340/7,000.
Armor: 1,750/2,000.
Childkiller, Enemy of Society, Anti-Social Element.
Warning: Vildana’s Reputation is -39! The authorities will be grateful if this villain is killed or delivered to the police.
I didn’t have enough Knowledge to learn her class.
“You just try handing me over to the cops, Leonarm,” Vildana snarled. “I’ll rip you to shreds.”
That meant she’d already read my stats.
“I have no problem with you. I’m just amazed that you could get your Reputation so low in Rim Zero and still survive.”
Vildana stood up, equipped a serrated two-handed sword she found on Three Bucks. “Want me to show you how?”