Beyond Death (Perimeter Defense Book #2)

by Michael Atamanov

  After that, I tried to make sure all the people and nonpeople close to me would be provided for during my absence. I supposed that my return to Perimeter Defense was inevitable. The Aliens were still a threat to humanity, so an Imperial Fleet Commander capable of fighting against them was necessary. Also, I had no doubt that Mr. G.I. would have a positive evaluation of my work and would want to offer me a new contract. As such, all I had to do was cover the people near me for a few weeks, a month at most. That was exactly how much time I thought that the real Crown Prince Georg and Miya would need to realize they would have to call me.

  The easiest of all was with Popori de Cacha. My bodyguard leader had asked for five months off on her own, on account of the strong necessity to continue the species soon. As far as I knew, Popori de Cacha herself had checked possible grooms for suitability at the large tournament on Sss, however none of the Chameleon males had been able to win over the overly sassy female in the hand-to-hand fight. As such, my bodyguard head had simply pointed to several cavaliers she did like, and none of the Chameleon males dared refuse the honorable role.

  Astra, her sister Florianna with her minions, and also Bionica, Phobos, Valian ton Corsa, and the Arite, in the company of a group of Chameleons set off to the scout ship Star Mutt on my order. At first, I wanted to send Nicole Savoia there as well, but I had a better idea come to mind.

  "Nicole, tomorrow you'll fly to the Throne World, here's your ticket for a star liner. I made an agreement with the Imperial Joint Staff for you to give a month-long course on Alien ships, military tactics against them, and other intricacies you figured out in the Perimeter Sector Eight Fleet.

  If my subject was also surprised at Crown Prince Georg making such a decision, she made no effort to express it out loud. I gave the girl time off and a bonus for her excellent work, then sighed in relief.

  It turned out harder with Katerina. My cousin had equipped her recently-purchased island with a palace, and as such all her thoughts were engulfed with furniture, statuary and art choices. I was not able to figure out any reasonable pretexts to send Katerina ton Mesfelle away anywhere for a month. All that was left to do was hope that the real Crown Prince Georg wouldn't hurt his cousin.

  The most problematic in the list was my wife Marta. Her unexpected help during the general battle, and desire to talk closely with me after the battle was so unexpected and untimely that I completely lost myself. Marta was expecting gratitude from her husband, and couldn't understand why I was acting cold. I just simply couldn't tell my wife about the reasons for my behavior without breaking the contract. The only thing I was able to do was extract a promise from Marta that she would be more careful in the next few months, and would not talk closely with Miya.

  Afterwards, I had to solve the ownership issues. It was possible that the real Georg wouldn't appreciate the full value of some discoveries, so I tried to shore up my most important assets. I ordered the research laboratories and drone production facilities packed up and moved to the Fia star system, one of my former Swarm systems. There, at the docks, I ordered a second Uukresh outfitted in complete secrecy. I spent almost two billion credits to buy materials and equipment for the future giant. The first Uukresh, with a convoy of Admiral Kheraisss Vej's ships I also sent away to Swarm territory, as I was not prepared to entrust such a valuable ship to my replacement.

  * * *

  My last evening in the game was spent in my palace on Unatari. At first, I just wanted to sit on the sea shore, listening to the sound of the waves breaking and taking in a beautiful sunset. But, as bad luck would have it, new space battle tactics just kept coming to mind. The idea of a raid on Alien bases with a fleet of light ships without big guns. The idea of luring the enemy to the flagship and sending out my thermonuclear fireboats from the depths of the Uukresh. The idea of gravity bombs to destabilize the Behemoth's ammunition storage systems...

  After realizing that I wouldn't be able to turn away and relax in nature, I returned to the palace, and sat up until the depths of the night working away at a computer screen, calculating in detail all possible space fleet configurations and their applications. Only when my work efficiency had fallen to zero due to my eyes closing in tiredness did I sit in bed, looking at the clock and waiting with curiosity for my exit from the game. Based on my calculations, there was a bit less than a half hour until my contract was up. I resolved firmly not to let my eyes close until that very moment...

  "Wake up, sleepyhead!" Mr. G.I. was leaning over me and smiling, shaking me by the shoulder. "That's it Ruslan, your game is over. Sit still for a couple of minutes to wake back up and get used to your body again. After that, crawl out of the capsule, but be careful taking the suit off. There are thin wires there. Be careful not to break them. Your clothes are on the chair. Everything is new, bought just for you. I'll be waiting for you in the next room."

  As soon as the door closed behind my employer, I sat up sharply and took a look around. It was a small room with no windows, in the center of which was a large elliptical cocoon made of dark plastic. The cap of the cocoon was ajar. My body was lying on a porous elastic sheet inside the cocoon and was being held in a fine mesh of the thinnest wires, attached with suction cups to my chest. I tried to remove the fasteners, raised my arm and realized that something was keeping me from moving. Every joint of my finger had a rubber ring with metallic electrodes on its inner surface attached to it. I removed all these devices from my arms, and then was able to unfasten the suit and crawl out of the capsule.

  That meant it was a game after all... I experienced a very strong sense of disenchantment and shame. Even when, a few years earlier, I had been left by a girl I loved, I wasn't feeling half as shitty as I did now. Everything I believed in, that I loved, and that I fought for was just the plot of a stupid computer game... I quickly got dressed and went up a stairway into a big hall. Georgiy was waiting for me there in a rocking chair next to an open window. There were green trees, summer sun, tweeting birds, and a warm wind. Six months really had passed since the time, on a cold winter morning when I left my house to talk to a potential employer.

  "Ruslan, on the table you will find a sealed envelope. Inside it is a bank card, and with it you will find the pin code. Everything is there, as we agreed. There is quite a lot of money in that account, so if you need, my guards can accompany you to the bank, and then to your house."

  "No, no, that will not be necessary..." I had been overcome by total apathy, so I could honestly have cared less whether there even was money in the account. "And where is Miya?"

  "Miya?" Mr. G. I. pretended to be surprised. "What makes you think Miya should be here? Back in February she ran away from me to some resort down south, and since then I haven't heard a thing."

  I knew he was lying. The first thing I sensed when coming out into the hall was the smell of violet perfume, that always accompanied Miya in the game. But as my former employer was not planning on telling the truth, I decided not to insist on it. Also, if I thought it out well, I didn't want to see Miya right now. I was reminded of how she promised to kill me as soon as I went out into the real world...

  "I can't wait to get back into the game! Ruslan, you can't even imagine how much I've missed Perimeter Defense!" Mr. G.I. began to shiver in impatience and agitation.

  "What can I say, it's a good game..." I let out through my teeth, hiding the envelope with the card in the inside pocket of my light jacket and headed for the exit.

  "The guards will give you a packet of your winter things on your way out, then they'll take you straight home," promised my former employer, but I just mumbled back indeterminately in reply and went outside.

  * * *

  My employer was not lying. The full amount we agreed on really was on the card but, for some reason, that didn't make me happy at all. I was sitting in my stuffy rented apartment looking dumbly and dully at the New Year's wreath still hanging from the curtain rack. No one had removed it in the six months I had been gone, and I also wasn't feeli
ng up to climbing up on the window sill and unraveling the pine decoration. I didn't want anything at all...

  On the table in front of me was a mug of my favorite kind of unfiltered beer. The foam had long since faded, but I hadn't even taken a sip of the amber drink. Depression, apathy, despondency... In my head, I was trying to work out the word that best captured my state. By the end of the six-month contract I no longer had any doubt that I was in the real, fantastic world of the future, that I had a wonderful daughter, great friends and advisors, as well as status and recognition in society, I was making grandiose plans for the future. How could I have been so deceived?

  I pushed away the still untasted beverage and gathered my strength and thoughts. It was already time to get back to the real world. I took a look around, already with my head screwed on better. On the table there was a thick stack of unpaid bills that I had dug out of the post box. The highest bill for the apartment had a threatening stamp on it: "If unpaid by the 20th of May, will be subject to legal action." Based on the fact that it was already July out the window, all these deadlines had long passed. At least I had the money to solve this issue. By the way, I should put the bank card away in my desk drawer so I don't accidentally lose it...

  I placed the card with other valuable things and documents, and tried to close the drawer, but for some reason it wouldn't move. Of course, it's off the roller again, some part of the drawer has fallen off and is stopping the thing from moving. It was something that happened from time to time. I took the drawer all the way out and stuck my arm in to get the obstruction out. It was a transparent plastic box, inside of which was a brightly colored ball, overflowing with reflected light. And the strangest thing was that I understood perfectly that what I was holding in my hand was crystalloquasimetal-cis-isomer valiarimic acid, or in English narcotic crystals

  I was probably the first person in history to give a big belly laugh after finding a dose of drugs that could get you the death penalty in their apartment. I started laughing, and just couldn't stop. A game? Well, well! Of course you made a pretty set for my awakening. Too bad I didn't think to check if that virtual reality capsule was even plugged in.

  All that was left to do to make sure was to take a trip to the medical clinic. An hour later I left jumping for joy with an X-ray in hand showing a fracture to the collar bone beginning to heal. Everything came together. When I found a few empty bottles of cognac and vodka under the couch as well as a used needle, it only served to add to the totality of the picture. My body wasn't in a virtual reality capsule for half a year. Georgiy was playing me "in reality." He had sucked down vodka, taken drugs and partied it up in nightclubs.

  I decided to voice my grievances to my former employer and set off for Mr. G. I.'s house, as I had luckily remembered the way perfectly. Imagine my surprise when, instead of the luxurious villa with a large, well-groomed park around it, I found a ruined, long, long abandoned building, filled with trash and old rotten leaves. The trail had gone cold. The hateful messages I sent to Space_General123 in the game we had once met in were also to no avail.

  The only thing left was to wait and hope that my talents as a fleet commander would really be needed by Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle and his ghoulish Truth Seeker. I figured it would take at most ten days. That was as much time as I supposed my employer could spend in the game without my help.

  However, a week passed, then two, and then three... I turned out to not be needed at all. No, I didn't forget about Perimeter Defense, but reality gradually put the fantasy world I'd left behind further and further from the front of my mind.

  * * *

  A call to my cell phone from an unknown number rang out at the very moment I was undergoing the next planned procedures in the medical clinic. That... bad man Mr. G. I. had been taking not just crystals, but heroin, and even three months after using, I still had to go to the medical center three times a week to get an injection of glucose with vitamin mix to cleanse the liver and blood, and fight the effect of drug withdrawals.

  "Yes?" I said, pressing the accept button on the cell phone with my free hand.

  "Ruslan, I have a serious proposition for you."

  So much time had passed, but I would have recognized that voice from among a million others. Miya! So maybe I was needed after all.

  "You're right," the Truth Seeker's voice rang out in my head. "Mr. G.I. will be waiting for you in the same place in forty minutes."

  My feelings were mixed. On the one hand, I desperately wanted to dive head first into the fantasy world of Perimeter Defense. On the other, my last experience had come at too high a price. The money I got in the first contract had barely been enough to pay all the fees and fines that Georgiy had left behind for me. My friends had turned away from me, I had fought with close relatives, and that's to say nothing about the hard drug torment and alcohol binges.

  "After what you did to me last time, I don't even know what arguments could possibly make me go back into Perimeter Defense and give my body back to you to keep ruining!"

  She kept silent for a few seconds, then said:

  "The Alien Queen at the head of a three-thousand strong fleet has captured Hnelle. Your capital, Unatari is cut off from the Empire and we are preparing for a hopeless battle. The local soldiers have no chance of winning. The people’s only hope is that Crown Prince Georg will personally return to lead the fleet.

  I kept silent for a few seconds, digesting the worrying information.

  "This time, the contract is on my terms," I declared decisively.

  "I agree," Miya said, for some reason not even asking her master's opinion on the matter.

  "Alright, I'll be there in ten minutes," I ripped the needle from my vein and headed for the exit of the operation room.

  End of Book Two

  Thank you for reading Beyond Death!

  If you like what you've read, check out other LitRPG novels published by

  Magic Dome Books:

  The Way of the Shaman Books 1 and 2

  by Vasily Mahanenko

  Start the Game (Galactogon Book #1)

  by Vasily Mahanenko

  Phantom Server Books 1, 2 and 3

  by Andrei Livadny

  Perimeter Defense Books 1 and 2

  by Michael Atamanov

  Mirror World Books 1 and 2

  by Alexey Osadchuk

  The Lag (The Game Master Book #1)

  by A. Bobl and A. Levitsky

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  Table of Contents

  Stopping the Invasion

  After the Battle

  Hnelle

  Regent

  Elder Female

  Recognition of Talent

  The Aysar Cluster

  Falling into the Trap

  The Fatty's Last Battle

  Insect Mating Dance

  Insect Bigwig

  Sector Nine />
  Breaking the Blockade

  The Queen of Veyerde

  Diplomatic Mail

  The Last Pirate

  Taking Down the Boss