Countdown (Reality Benders Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  “They’re real. Each is worth one thousand crystals, so this is five thousand.”

  I thanked our broker, returned the frightening mage his staff and stuck the valuable crystals in my inventory. Thumor-Anhu La-Fin gave me a scant nod, walked toward his minions, who were holding the elevator for him, and turned to say one last thing:

  “Thanks for the thing with the harpies. If it wasn’t for that, I would have ordered one of my servants to kill you and pretend it was their own idea. And your Geckho friends wouldn’t have been able to help. Gnat, you can't even imagine how eager I am for our next encounter!”

  Chapter Thirty. Return to Base

  IT HAD ALREADY been half an hour since the enemy mage left the room, but I couldn’t calm down. Sure I was surrounded by Geckho friends, but I just couldn’t bring myself to believe the old man when he said there wouldn’t be Dark Faction soldiers waiting at the spaceport exit to ambush me. In fact, I was practically sure he was lying. I always trusted my intuition, so throughout the boisterous feast, I was considering my next move.

  I didn’t even think of going back around the gulf alone on foot. That would be nothing short of suicide. I also couldn’t spend more than a day in the dispatcher tower. I asked my furball friends if I could stay in the Shiamiru, but that was also a no. The Geckho didn’t want primitives loitering about their spaceport, so their laws said I had to leave the protected zone within twenty-four hours. Thumor-Anhu La-Fin hadn’t been lying about that. If I were an official documented member of the Shiamiru crew, I might be able to reach an understanding with the administration but, as it was, there was no point in even trying.

  Not far from the space port, there was a small hotel in the Geckho village, where I could theoretically spend several days, but they didn’t have armed guards, so that wouldn’t do either. The hotel was a green zone, though, so I could leave the game there and consult with the Dome leadership. The spaceport, on the other hand, was yellow and my character would remain in the virtual world for ten whole minutes after exit. That might seem like nothing, but the whole Shiamiru crew had just seen the Psionic Mage give me the five thousand crystals, and some Geckho had even asked me about it. Plus, there were Geckho in the restaurant not from the Shiamiru crew. So, there was a large risk I would be robbed to the last thread if I exited the game here.

  I needed to reach my faction somehow. That was clear. But how? Contact one of my faction’s recon groups that kept watch over the space port, and ask them to take me to our territory? They would probably agree to help, but how could I get in touch with them? I didn’t know the radio frequency or encryption codes, and my basic radio didn’t have the complicated hardware and software to use encryption, so no one would hear me.

  I could also go by sea, though. After all, Ivan Lozovsky said the Peresvets were going back on a ferry. But I had no idea where to catch a ferry, how much it cost, or who I would have to find to make such an arrangement, though. Also, I would need to leave the protected zone to look for the ferry, and I couldn’t afford to do that.

  Without having thought up a way out of the dead end, I shared my woes with Uline Tar. The Geckho woman was almost totally disengaged from the revelry and was even sitting at a different table with a many-layered cocktail in a tall glass. Staring at the screen of her electronic tablet, if any crew members bothered her, she asked to be left alone. When I walked up to her, Uline first grunted in dismay and hurried to cover the screen with her hand. But after hearing me, her demeanor changed.

  “Why didn’t you say so, Gnat?! Of course I’ll help you. Sit here, don’t go anywhere. I’ll figure it all out.”

  She was gone for forty minutes, and I even started to worry she had forgotten. But in the end, Uline came back and plopped down heavily on the bench next to me:

  “This spaceport and village are such a mess. No one here knows anything... I had to drag myself to port and figure it out there. There is a freight ferry that leaves once a day, stopping at the opposite shore to pick up cargo containers from the natives, then returning to Geckho territory. But they have a rule against taking passengers... That’s officially, though. Under the table, the whole ferry crew will turn a blind eye for fifty crystals. I warned them a person would be coming and even paid in advance, so no one will be surprised to see you. Anyway, they depart in a quarter ummi, don’t be late!”

  A quarter ummi? One hour and twenty minutes. I thanked Uline from the bottom of my heart and promised to compensate her after I figured out how to exchange the crystals worth one thousand for lower-value ones. The girl rumbled happily, then grew unexpectedly serious:

  “I saw a group of people not far away on the road that leads to the Geckho village and port. I do not know if they are your friends or enemies, but I decided to warn you just in case.”

  Well damn! There was no way I had friends here. The Geckho node was too far away from my faction’s borders. More likely, Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin had left a group of minions to keep watch over the only road to the village, hotel and port, cutting off all potential escape routes.

  I turned toward the raucous Shiamiru crew, still celebrating the successful voyage. I wanted to ask one of them for help. But now was not the time... The most popular drink of the feast was our fire water made “using time-honored techniques.” Many boxes had been unloaded from the Peresvets into the large customs warehouse, and some had turned up here. Apparently, vodka worked approximately the same way on Geckho as it did on people. A third of the crew was already three sheets to the wind, while the others were conducting deep philosophical conversations like “do you respect me?” or “what space race has the sluttiest girls?” Captain Uraz Tukhsh himself, his furry legs up on the restaurant table, had already dozed off with an empty glass in hand.

  I lamented that fact, and Uline noted reasonably that, even if the crew members were stone-cold sober and well rested, they wouldn’t help me.

  “Gnat, you must understand that, regardless of personal opinion, no Geckho will intervene in a conflict between vassals. The risk of causing serious and unpredictable political consequences is too great. In the past, it has even led to wars between Geckho clans. So, helping you would be strictly illegal.”

  “I understand, Uline, and I will not ask anyone to break the law. But I need a decent weapon. Can you show me how to use your store?” I turned to the Geckho woman, who sympathized with my plight, understanding that she would not refuse me such a small favor.

  Following the huge Geckho up the spiral ramp, I went a floor up. The “shop” was just a few touch screens on the wall, which showed a catalog. You could use it to order items and pay in either crystals or various interstellar currencies. After the totally automated restaurant a floor below, this is basically what I was expecting.

  I probably would have eventually figured out how to use the shop without Uline’s help, but I appreciated the experienced Trader's explanations. After all, time was of the essence, and I couldn’t make out all Geckho writing yet.

  Above all, I was interested in light firearms with the Rifles skill. And I didn’t care if it was laser, plasma, conventional or any other type. It just had to be more powerful and reliable than the antiquated shotgun I’d taken back at the beginning of the game.

  There were so many options my eyes were spinning. All kinds of blasters from miniature to heavy. Both combat and stun resonators. Rail guns that shot tiny wolfram balls connected by a microscopic monomolecular mesh that could cut a perfect square out of any unarmored target. But the prices stung. Even the cheapest blasters were eight hundred crystals. But something else caught my eye. Everything I wanted had a note I couldn’t read... I asked Uline to translate it for me.

  “Gnat, that means: ‘Not in stock on your planet. If ordered, will be delivered by the next transport ship.’ No offense, but your planet is on the edge of the known Universe, so there are no regular routes here. Shipments only come occasionally. So, the prices here are... strange to put it lightly. To me personally, as a Trader, it just hur
ts to see the huge markup you have to pay to arm yourself. Maybe you can just take mine for now, then give it back when we meet again?”

  I couldn’t believe my ears, but Uline unclipped the holster from her belt and handed me a shock blaster. I thanked her but had to return the weapon. Due my class limitations, I could not use an automatic weapon.

  “Ah, what am I doing...?” my friend grumbled and took another gun from her inventory. “Take a look at this one then. Can you use it? Let me warn you, though: you have to give it back! If you lose this valuable item, I’ll take your Listener’s armor suit as compensation!”

  Barely glancing at the weapon, I gasped in astonishment. This was the gun Uline had taken from the Relict base!

  Relict Annihilator (Listener close combat gun)

  Statistic requirements: Agility 15, Intelligence 15

  Skill requirements: Rifles 40, Marksman 15.

  Attention! Your character’s Rifles and Marksman skills are too low to use this weapon effectively. Accuracy penalty with current skills: -59%

  Attention! This object is for the Relict Race. Penalties when used by a Human: firing speed -25%, effective range -25%

  Attention! Critically low nuclear battery. Current charge: less than 7%! Replace the nuclear battery!

  Ugh, what huge penalties! I opened Gnat's skill window and placed six of fifteen free points into Sharpshooter, so I could at least meet the requirement there. The accuracy penalty went down from 59% to 43%. That was still enormous. Invest my remaining nine points in Rifles? But I would need to level Medium Armor to put on the Relict energy armor suit... That was a long way off, though. After all, I’d have to increase Strength before then, and I may need to use the Annihilator today.

  Decisively placing the nine points into Rifles, I raised it to 32, which brought the accuracy penalty down to 15%. Much better. Although...

  I suddenly realized I had entirely lost the will to tangle with the unknown number of enemies blocking the road. Now I risked losing not only the Annihilator, but the armored suit as well. Uline laughed:

  “I'm glad you realized that, Gnat. After all, there are simpler ways of getting to port than trying to blast through a group of enemies. You want me to call a loader from the Shiamiru by radio and ask one of our technicians to bring you in a vehicle? No one will see you in the closed trunk and, once in port, you will be safe!”

  Strange that such a simple method hadn’t occurred to me. I asked Uline to call for transport from the shuttle. If there was a loader, it would be stupid not to use it. I turned back to the store panel. What did the Human-3 Faction need? I remembered that our technicians lacked sufficiently pure silicon and other semiconductors necessary to produce high-quality radio parts. What else? High-temperature superconductors, molybdenum steel springs, light reflecting paint, super-strong magnets, fiberoptic cables, all kinds of premade radio parts: diodes, triodes, resistors, connectors, a couple geological analyzers for my scanner... I skimmed the catalog and ordered a couple of everything we might need if it was at a more or less acceptable price.

  The stock didn’t have everything in stock, but plenty of it was affordable. I spent two thousand crystals all told and received my order a minute later. A little door opened in the wall, and two large sealed boxes came out on a conveyor belt. Uline and I couldn’t lift even one of them together, but I ran down to the restaurant and got Vasha and Basha, who were stumbling drunk, to help. The four of us just barely managed to drag the heavy boxes to the freight elevator, but it was easy after that. The loader had just come out from the Shiamiru, and we placed both containers in the trunk with its crane.

  * * *

  I only risked going on deck when the ferry had already made it a significant distance from shore. Before that, I was hiding by my boxes. The sea was stormy that evening. Black waves shook the ferry. The sky was heavy with dark clouds just about to pour. The Geckho node was lost in the fog and already barely visible.

  Cartography skill increased to level thirty-seven!

  Eagle Eye skill increased to level thirty-seven!

  Medium Armor skill increased to level thirteen!

  The ferry was powered not by underwater propellers, but antigrav disks mounted on the sides and underneath, which made seemingly bottomless whirlpools in the water around the ship. They made the sea foamy and angry, like a shaken bottle of cola. I was looking over the side and admiring nature's fury. There were huge waves running into the whirlpools, throwing splashes of the salty water on deck. Due to the bad weather, there were no crew members out here.

  That made it especially surprising when I saw a fleeting movement on the bow of the ferry. A vague shadow just flickered for one second. But no matter how long I looked in that direction, I couldn’t see anything. Was it just an illusion? Entirely possible. At any rate, it was night and it could have just been a splash or some illusion made by the nasty weather. Nevertheless, I felt alarmed and did a scan.

  Scanning skill increased to level thirty-six!

  You have reached level twenty-nine!

  You have received three skill points!

  But I ignored the popup messages because, on the mini-map, I could distinctly see three red triangles on the Geckho ferry. And as a matter of fact, one was on the bow of the ferry hiding behind a few large bales of waterproof fabric. And there were another two behind me. Actually, just three steps behind me.

  Danger Sense skill increased to level six!

  Straining not to show that I’d noticed, I opened my inventory window and got ready to set the Annihilator into my main weapons slot at any moment. After several seconds, the game system identified my three enemies and even showed me brief descriptions. My eye caught on the triangle on the bow. It was marked:

  Minn-O La-Fin. Cartographer. Level 50.

  An old friend!

  Chapter Thirty-One. Battle for the Boat

  I DON’T KNOW why I didn’t see them before. This wasn’t the first time I’d run a scan. Maybe it was because I was in the hold then, and there were too many other objects and containers around me to detect. Or maybe they knew about my ability and were intentionally keeping their distance. But now I was up on deck and out in the open, so they decided it was time to get me in a pincer. They were going to attack without warning.

  I had no doubt their intentions were aggressive. And if a battle was inevitable, I didn’t want to give my enemies any more time to prepare. I had to attack first. I slowly turned around, as if I just wanted to go to the other side of the and to look over the deck. Then, I made a sudden jump around the corner and shot the Annihilator at the nearest Dark Faction soldier before I even landed. I was shooting from the hip, and had that accuracy penalty, but I was only four feet away, so I didn’t miss.

  Rifles skill increased to level thirty-three!

  Sharpshooter skill increased to level sixteen!

  Like a true gamer, my first thought was “headshot!” And what a shot it was! My enemy’s skull was just obliterated above the lower jaw. And his headless body slumped onto the deck. I immediately took another shot at the soldier standing slightly farther away while he was stock still and gaping in surprise.

  Miss! I put a neat six-inch circular hole in the skirting behind him. How?! I was only nine feet away! I pressed down on the unusual trigger with four fingers again, but this time did not miss. Although not in the head where I was aiming, I hit him in the chest and it was also fatal. No one could survive a hole through their heart and lungs, even with Dark Faction technology.

  Sharpshooter skill increased to level seventeen!

  Then, I got an unbearable sensation of pain in my chest as if disaster was impending. It made me automatically jump forward and somersault before I could even consciously register the thought. A second later, a viscous green substance spread out on the wall like an ink blot right behind the place I was just standing.

  Danger Sense skill increased to level seven!

  I did not know what kind of weapon Minn-O La-Fin was using, but I wasn�
��t interested in finding out what it was like to be shot by one. It was dangerous to stay here. I was oddly certain of that, so I jumped sharply, taking cover around a corner. Then I ran full speed down the deck to some stacked containers sixty feet away. Behind them was a hatch that led inside the ferry, which is how I had initially gotten on deck.

  While running, I saw my first kill. He was now flat on the ground lying next to a dropped snub-nose gun. I looked closer at it, and the game system told me it was called a Paralyzer.

  Paralyzer? They wanted to paralyze me and take me alive, not kill me? That didn’t make me feel any better. For me, being a prisoner of the Dark Faction was a hundred times worse quickly dying and respawning in the safety of the Geckho dispatcher tower. I didn’t go back and pick up the Paralyzer. I had no need for it now. The red triangle of the enemy on the mini-map was quickly approaching. Minn-O La-Fin was following me. I got another piercing feeling in my chest, and sharply changed direction, letting another glowing ball of green slime fly past me.

  I made it! I took shelter behind the containers and glanced at my weapon. The Annihilator’s nuclear battery was at just one percent. I hoped it would last for even one shot. But I wasn’t about to shoot it. With my skills, the chance of missing from sixty feet was so high it wasn’t worth trying.

  “Gnat! You is to take Sensing Scaries! So jump like you mad! I just laughing!” came Minn-O La-Fin's mocking voice.

  “Well, it looks like you also took a new skill when you reached level fifty, Astrolinguistics. You couldn’t speak my language before,” I called back, trading out the useless Annihilator for Angel Dust.

  According to the mini-map, the girl with ashen-gray skin was now next to the bodies of her companions. Her marker was not moving. Perhaps, my enemy was reloading or changing her weapon to something more effective, but she was out in the open, and that was an opportunity for me. Concentrating on my breath to relax, I tried to abstract myself from the situation. “No, I don’t want to harm the pretty girl, we’re just... playing!” With these thoughts in mind, I stuck my head out of cover and shot the air rifle.