Psionic skill increased to level one hundred one!
Mysticism skill increased to level forty-seven!
Authority increased to 70!
The Beastmaster nodded in comprehension and froze motionless. Half a minute later, her character disappeared into thin air without a trace along with the luxuriant Shadow Panther weaving between her master’s legs.
I ESTIMATED THAT VALERI’S mission would take about half an hour. It wasn’t likely to go faster because the imprisoned girl’s message was first going to have to reach representatives of the Meleyephatian Horde with decision-making authority. Then it would have to be checked. The important Meleyephatians would probably want to have a chat with Leng Sooweesssh Eleven to ask his perspective. Then it would take some time to discuss and reach a decision. And although the Meleyephatians were likely not going to try and delay their answer, I had half an hour on my own at least, which I wanted to put to good use.
First of all, I conferred with Gerd Ayni, who had a good understanding of station services, and I sent a message to the local dispatchers: the Tolili-Ukh X frigate in hangar 1-108 is a financial security for a large deal with the artifact Trader Ayzzz One Hundred Seventeen, so I request that the starship be forbidden from leaving the station for the next quarter ummi.
Successful Authority check!
It’s good to be a prominent player! The dispatchers didn’t ask any personal questions, and my request was carried out. I was merely asked to pay a five-hundred-crypto fee for something or other and say when the ban could be lifted. Excellent! Now the Meleyephatian Spy couldn’t flee the station for the next hour and a half. But I was in no rush to tell the station owners that I had discovered an enemy Spy quite yet, justly fearing that the Miyelonian special forces would immediately step in and all the false artifact trader’s property would be confiscated.
A flying courier robot appeared – it was the Relict nuclear batteries I ordered. Excellent! And right away, not putting off the important task, I got to sending the Relict hierarch’s long-prepared message to the Pyramid. I opened the game menu to a decision that had been waiting quite a while:
Listener, a data packet has been compiled for transmission to the Pyramid. Send data? (Yes/No)
Of course “Yes!” In response, I received some painfully familiar messages. It was still impossible to contact the Pyramid:
Listener, critical error: no response from the Pyramid.
Attempting to use backup channel.
Listener, critical error: no response from the Pyramid on backup channel.
Further course of action undefined. The Pyramid is unavailable!
Transmission cancelled.
Yes, it was all absolutely the same as the last time I tried. I would have to wait for the next message. Luckily, it didn’t keep me waiting.
Listener, in case of military action, all public communication channels would be blocked. Thus the algorithms have determined that the most probable reason the Pyramid cannot be reached is WAR! Given the extraordinary situation, we suggest using an emergency channel to contact the Pyramid. (Yes/No)
I chose “Yes” again, and again the screen went dark: the nuclear battery’s was totally drained and all the electronic guts of my Listener Energy Armor ceased to function. But this time I didn’t panic. I knew perfectly well what to do and quickly changed that battery for a new one. But... for some reason, the armor suit’s electronics didn’t come back online! I just saw a few scant lines of system commands and error messages. I changed that battery for another one, but again it was no use.
How the stress of that moment didn’t turn me gray, I do not know. I was terribly worried. After all, what would I do if my unique ancient armor had stopped functioning for good?! That meant I’d lose contact with the second Small Relict Guard Drone forever, and all functionality associated with the Pyramid, which was to say nothing about my simple lack of any other armor.
I manually restarted the system and entered the boot menu. I spent a long time reading the scant lines about different levels and incomprehensible abbreviations. Whereas before I didn’t waste a ton of time figuring out the data storage structure of the Relict computer system, now I didn’t have any other choice. And although it took me a while, I eventually got down to the armor suit’s file system! There, after a long time plunking through known system commands, I got the system rights I was after, went one level higher and discovered an option that could possibly help: “Run system check for compatibility with all peripherals.”
I ran the check and it immediately became clear that the nuclear batteries I’d just bought were different from the kind I was using before: different power output, different characteristics, different production run. The ancient armor suit called the new batteries “hopelessly antiquated,” but was nevertheless able to reconfigure itself to use them. And it all worked!!!
Astrolinguistics skill increased to level ninety-four!
Medium Armor skill increased to level sixty-two!
Electronics skill increased to level eighty-one!
Electronics skill increased to level eighty-two!
Electronics skill increased to level eighty-three!
You have reached level ninety-two!
You have received three skill points (total points accumulated: ten).
Woo hoo!!! I was very proud of myself. In fact, it went beyond that! I had just figured out the inner workings of an ancient artifact all on my own and fixed it!!! Very few people in the modern world would be capable of such a thing. Ten free skill points... I suppose I’ve been saving them up long enough. Now was the time to start spending them intelligently. Five points right into Danger Sense. Let’s bring up that skill to 76. It is absolutely vital to my survival. And five points into Medium Armor – severely lagging compared to my other skills. And meanwhile, to be able to use the Tachyon Bender I would need to hoist that skill all the way to 125. Okay, done!
Just then I heard a bell: the robot courier had just delivered me a metal box containing the Tachyon Bender – a level-two modification for the Listener Energy Armor. Excellent! And going off Boyko’s shouts of delight in the hallway, his +3 Strength ring came with it.
THE NEXT STEP IN MY preparations was talking with Gerd Mauu-La Mya-Ssa, so I invited the Miyelonian Medic to my room. And although Uline Tar was also there, I trusted my business partner completely and even invited the Geckho lady to also take part in our conversation. For starters I told my huge assistant that Denni Marko was planning to leave our team soon, and we would need to find a good Gunner to replace him. Then I got to the main topic:
“Here’s the thing,” I turned on my Prospector Scanner, unfolded the screen, opened the file and showed it to the Medic. “A detailed scanning map of Valeri’s body. I made this image on Earth without her knowledge and at a great distance so the electromagnetic pulse wouldn’t damage the implants in her body. Nevertheless, you can see everything perfectly on the three-dimensional diagram. Transmitters in her head and neck, implanted cameras and microphones, a microscopic bomb in one of the atrium of her heart, a bunch of other implants all over her body. Basically, Valeri-Urla is a puppet who is forced to carry out her masters’ commands and spy for them. Gerd Mauu-La, copy this diagram and study the file very closely. I expect you to draw up a plan for surgical operations to remove all this spy equipment from the human girl’s body such that nothing left inside Valeri can explode or inject her with poison. If need be, I could deactivate the implants temporarily, but they’ll eventually come back online because they are powered by the constant attacks of her white blood cells.”
The Miyelonian didn’t say a word and connected his palmtop to my Prospector Scanner, then copied all the data he needed for the job. And right away he immersed himself in studying the three-dimensional model. And based on the tailed Medic’s look, he saw this task as very, very difficult. Nevertheless, in around three minutes, Gerd Mauu-La Mya-Ssa came back to life and assured me that he saw a solution and was up to the task.
“But after the starship leaves hyperspace, the fact we removed all the implants from your ‘kentu on’ Valerrr’s body will be discovered regardless!” the Geckho Trader noted justly.
I smiled involuntarily and not only at “Valerrr.” The Geckho always adapted human names to their phonology, but the words “kentu on” meant “sweet girlfriend.” Based on the other context, my business partner was telling me plainly that she knew just how much I cared for Valeri-Urla. And I didn’t deny the obvious. Yes, I really did like the Tailaxian girl with the surprisingly huge eyes of a nocturnal creature. It started at our first encounter on the Medu-Ro IV pirate station. And that made freeing Valeri from captivity very important to me. Naturally, its importance wasn’t quite as high as saving my home planet, but I would have given a lot to rescue the cute little Tailaxian from her grim imprisonment!
“Yes, Uline. The surgical intervention is sure to be detected. That’s why we need to take insurance not only in the game, but also with Valeri’s real body. We need to get it out of that Tailaxian prison and bring it somewhere safe. Get in touch with local companies that offer real-body transfer services. Remember when you told me they had that service here on the Kasti-Utsh III station? You know, when you offered to have my body brought over from Earth?!”
The furry woman gave a groan to confirm. Yes, she remembered that conversation perfectly. I refused to abandon the Human-3 Faction, which many thought was doomed, to save my body and move it to a Miyelonian station.
“Then step to and find someone who can transfer Valeri’s physical body! It needs to be done quickly, because our conflict with Leng Sooweesssh Eleven might rub the Meleyephatian Horde the wrong way. Both the Gilvar Syndicate, and Tailax are vassals of the Horde, and we must safeguard our team against possible issues in the real world. The Meleyephatians shouldn’t have any problems with Denni Marko – he will already be outside my crew. But still I think offering to also transfer Denni’s body to a safe location would be the right thing to do. And another thing...” here I thought for a few moments before continuing. “Also find out whether they can provide virt pods to players without changing faction and how much that might cost.”
I wasn’t just asking about possibly using rented virt pods for no reason. My Relict Faction didn’t have any corncobs of its own, so my players had to use their previous virt pods, which essentially now belonged to a different faction. That seriously limited their freedom of movement and opened me up to possible espionage against my players. Furthermore, I was constantly keeping in mind that one day, if something I did bothered the wrong person, Ivan Lozovsky for example, we might be banned from accessing the Russian corncobs. That would really throw a monkey wrench into this whole operation. Now it was time to gain true freedom and take down the Sword of Damocles from above our necks!
A delicate knock came at the door, and the huge Shocktroop Gerd T’yu-Pan came into the room, his footsteps booming in his new exoskeleton armor. It was the very same kind the Geckho twins and Space Commando Eduard Boyko had. Apologizing for the intrusion, the leader of the boarding team turned to me in the language of the magocratic world:
“Coruler Gnat La-Fin, your wife Princess Minn-O La-Fin and Chief Advisor Mage-Ruler Mac-Peu Un-Roi request an audience with the ruler of the First Directory. They are already at the Geckho spaceport in the long-distance communication booth and are ready to start at any time.” I asked where to find the nearest space communication point here on the station and, as it turned out, it was just a hundred paces up the hallway.
After relaying the official message, the huge veteran suddenly got down on one knee (which looked like a real undertaking in such cumbersome armor!) and added something of his own:
“Milord, I’m sure your conversation will turn to the fate of the captured Paladin Tamara. Her crime is of course among the most severe a human can commit, but Gerd Tamara didn’t know the laws of our world at the time. I would like to request both personally and in the name of many La-Fin Faction troops who respect her valor and courage, to take into account this mitigating factor and commute her sentence from death by quartering to a fast painless method: firing squad or lethal injection.”
Chapter Seventeen. The Ruler’s Burden
THE MIYELONIAN long-distance communication booth was nothing like a Geckho one. No mirrors with infinite reflections here. Instead there were white walls that seemed to flow as if covered in running water, their surface giving a blurred and shifting reflection. I couldn’t properly see myself in their surface, just some black lines and spots oscillating on a dark backdrop. And at that something about the room just felt uncanny. Not only the reflections. Inside there was no echo, no sounds from outside. All noise was simply absorbed. And the air was motionless and perfectly matched my body temperature. I was so uncomfortable that I might have even lost my mind if I had to spend a prolonged time inside. Just for experiment’s sake and simply to distract myself from the oncoming nausea, I activated the Scanning icon. To my surprise, the draw area was tiny: just a twelve-foot-diameter circle, as if there was nothing beyond the white walls – just the empty space of the cosmos. And maybe it was that way. After all, I didn’t much understand how instantaneous long-distance communication worked. At any rate, the mere thought of bursting out through the white walls filled me with true dread. It would be certain death!
Scanning skill increased to level sixty!
Eagle Eye skill increased to level eighty-five!
Cartography skill increased to level seventy-nine!
Danger Sense skill increased to level seventy-seven!
Woah! My little scanning experiment in this unusual space brought a rich harvest of skill ups! I’d have to do some more experimenting one of these days. I may have just found a method of accelerated levelling. But then the light in the little room went out and I saw a very realistic hologram of Minn-O La-Fin in an idiotic old-fashioned dress with a high collar and Mage Diviner Mac-Peu Un-Roi bowing respectfully on one knee next to her in a long red wizard’s robe.
“Greetings, my husband!” the Princess started the conversation with an overly official tone, but noticed that it bothered me and immediately shifted to a more casual mode. “You must be busy. You’re up six whole levels!”
I didn’t respond to my wife’s awkward attempt to steer the conversation toward inappropriately light topics and furrowed my brows fearsomely:
“Minn-O, I expect a clear and extremely candid retelling of the events at the Council of Rulers. Then I want to hear the same from my Chief Advisor.”
I spent the next ten minutes listening and my frown grew deeper with every passing second. I had no idea the situation could have gone so far! And Minn-O deflated right away. There wasn’t even a trace of her pomp and pride remaining. Now she was afraid of a painful punishment and, with tears in her eyes, was trying very hard to lay all the blame on the Mage Diviner. To hear her tell it, she knew nothing of my Chief Advisor’s true intentions, or the Paladin girl’s plans.
I admit, I was surprised and even ashamed. I had never seen my wife looking so pitiful. Minn-O always kept a sense of pride and courage about her, even when taken prisoner, naked and tied up. That was the version of her I always knew. But now, she was weeping like a little girl and humbly begging for forgiveness. Seemingly, I had accidentally touched some deep and very painful memories. Probably, her ghoulish great grandfather Coruler Thumor-Anhu La-Fin forced the Princess to make reports just like this every time she messed up or had a stroke of bad luck starting in childhood. But now I was in the role of ghastly judge, and Minn-O was truly afraid of me!
The Mage Diviner on the other hand was perfectly composed and level-headed. He honestly admitted that he had seen this possible line of the future, and had taken measures to make sure I avoided being deposed
as ruler of the First Directory, even if it required a bit of bloodshed. But Mac-Peu also said that he never thought the Paladin girl would survive. That was a spontaneous fluctuation of the lines of fate. Regardless, he was absolutely certain that Tamara would never give up her coconspirators even under the harshest torture possible.
After his report, both speakers fell silent, awaiting a decision or perhaps more accurately sentence from the ruler of the First Directory with great trepidation. Despite the massive distance between us – hundreds of billions of miles, I could distinctly sense that Minn-O and Mac-Peu both considered themselves guilty: for hiding their plans from me, for not handling the Council of Rulers better, and for subsequently trying to hide it from me. Meanwhile, Minn-O was terribly afraid of a “little” or even “big dose of pain.” That was the punishment the Princess thought her ghoulish great grandfather Thumor-Anhu La-Fin would have doled out.
Psionic skill increased to level one hundred two!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred four!
I of course didn’t punish the Princess physically. It was never in my style to subject someone to bodily harm, especially my legal wife while she was with child. Nevertheless, I thought the Princess had behaved unworthily. Both when she tried to cordon herself off and when she let Gerd Tamara serve as a scapegoat.
“Minn-O, here is my decision! I am upset with you, and quite badly! You have proven that you are utterly not up to the task of being my first wife and head of the La-Fin Faction in the game. You lack the confidence, majesty, Authority, and willingness to answer for your actions. So from this very moment, I am relegating you back to the rank of my Wayedda! You will put the La-Fin Faction under my Relict Faction’s direct control and you are to find yourself a seat on the first starship headed for the Kasti-Utsh III station to link up with the crew. You’ll be more useful on the starship, and then I can keep an eye on you.”
A Jump into the Unknown (Reality Benders Book #5) LitRPG Series Page 19