Project Alpha

by R. A. Mejia

  Chapter 39

  A throbbing pain in my head and neck bring me around. My eyelids strain to open at first but gradually gain strength, and my surroundings come into focus. Only there’s not much to see. Bathed in a pool of light, I can see that I’m tied to a wooden chair with black nylon rope. Only my head is unrestrained, and as I look around, I see that beyond that pool of light is total darkness. It’s disconcerting not to know where I am and I call out, a note of panic in my voice, “Hello? Is anyone there?”

  A voice that seems to come from everywhere answers from the dark, “Oh, you’re awake? Good. I was wondering if I gave you too much sedative.”

  “Who are you? Where am I? Why have you brought me here and why am I tied up like this?”

  “Ahh. Is poor little Anthony afraid?”

  I remain silent, knowing that my capturer is just toying with me.

  “What? No witty response? Well, how about I show you why you're here?” Before I can wonder what he means by that; the cold edge of a knife pressed against my throat. I freeze and hold my breath, hoping that I won’t have my throat cut.

  The menacing voice whispers into my left ear, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you.” I breathe a sigh of relief as the blade moves away from my throat.

  “Yet!” The voice cries. There’s a meaty thwack as he plunges a glowing red blade into my chest from behind. I’m shocked at first by the move and look down to see the hilt of a knife sticking out of the right side of my chest and a red number 13 float way. The sharp pain hits me next, and I close my eyes and grit my teeth to keep from screaming in pain.

  I hear the unknown man come around from behind me and I open my eyes to see the same masked figure from the alleyway. His head tilts to the side as he considers the scene in front of him. He reaches out with his left hand and grasps the hilt of the knife in my chest and pulls it out in a swift, practiced motion. Blood starts to leak out of the wound and stain my Quickie Stop Mart shirt. A small icon appears in the corner of my vision. Focusing on the small picture of a drop of blood a blue window pops up.

  Bleeding Debuff

  You take two damage/sec for 30 seconds from bleeding debuff.

  I can’t help but laugh at the notification. Like I didn’t already know I was bleeding. However, the information does give me some additional information. I already know this guy knows me from somewhere since he used my name. Now I know he’s a User. Only one of them would be able to use an ability that caused that kind of debuff.

  I use Inspect but get a jumble of nonsense.

  ????

  Level ???

  Dammit. He must have an ability or item that hides his identity.

  “You asked why I’m doing this? Well, it’s your fault, Anthony. Some of the movers and shakers don’t want Monster Squashers Inc. to participate in the upcoming Dungeon Games. They think the little girl that runs the company doesn’t deserve a spot at the big boy's table, much less a chance at the big prizes available from the games. But they can’t act against her directly. She’s too high profile. She disappears, and the System Authorities will start an investigation. Her father’s old friends will use their not inconsiderable resources to find out exactly what happened to her.

  Instead, they’ve been trying to knock her out of the competition by buying off anyone she tries to hire.”

  The man giggles and continues, “I deal with those that can’t be bought or persuaded to quit.”

  All the warning from Lillian about the dangers of working for her pour through my head, and I recall that she had another partner.

  “You’re the one that made her last teammate, the friend of her father's, disappear?”

  The masked man nods, “Yes. Yes. You are connecting the dots.” He pokes me in the chest with the tip of the blade in his hand, “Good for you.” A single red one floats away.

  “So, you plan to kill me?” I say while laughing. “Well, get on with it then. I’ve died before and survived. When I come back, I’ll be sure to thank you properly for the hospitality you’ve shown me.”

  The masked man bobs his head left and right as if considering my words carefully. Then his bobbing stops and he pokes me with the knife again. “I see where your misconception is. You think that if I kill you, then you’ll just respawn back at your home base. Well, I have a solution to that little conundrum.” He snaps his fingers, and another light shines down from the ceiling to reveal a podium with a large blue crystal floating above it.

  I stare at the object, not believing what I’m seeing. A respawn crystal? I turn my head back to the masked man and see him nodding. “Yes, that’s right, Anthony. You’re in a dungeon. A very special one. You see, I stumbled upon a failed experiment. Some of the corporations were researching how to create an artificial dungeon. They knew dungeon seeds existed which could make User Dungeons, but they wanted to be able to create their own seeds. Then they could make dungeons at will and reap all the credits and items they wanted.” He shrugs and gestures to the dark empty room. “But despite pouring massive amounts of credits into the project, this is the best they could create. A big empty room with a respawn crystal that disappears after a week.” He sighs, “While the corporations abandoned the project, I scooped up the artificial dungeon seeds they were supposed to have destroyed. Now I have my own private space where I can kill a User repeatedly until they’re back at level 1. Then after I kill them one more time, they’re dead. Permanently.”

  The man in the mask stands and twirls around; his hands raised high in the air. “Isn’t it a brilliant idea, Anthony?”

  “Yeah, except you forgot one thing.”

  He stops his twirl, tilts his head and asks, “Oh? What’s that?”

  “Now that you’ve told me what you’re going to do, I won’t cooperate. You forgot to get me to bind to the respawn crystal.”

  He bobs his head left and right, again considering my words. When he stops, he walks up to me and bends over from the waist. His mask only inches from me, he whispers. “Oh, you see that’s where you’re wrong; This is my favorite part of the whole thing. You’re going to bind to the respawn crystal voluntarily.”

  “What? Why would I do that?”

  Taking a step back, the man reaches into his pants pocket with his right hand and pulls out a phone. He taps the screen and starts to read, “Marie Tinoco, Age 14. Born August 13. Four foot 10 inches attends Abernathy School for the Gifted. Here are some pictures I took.” He flips the phone around and scrolls through photos of my sister at school, at lunch with her friends, and even outside our house.

  A cold fear runs through me.

  “I can show you the same for your mom, but I think you get the picture.” His loud and irritating laugh at his own joke tickles something in my mind like an old thought just on the verge of remembrance. “Get it? Get the picture? I showed you pictures.” All other thoughts vanish when he finishes laughing and holds up the phone with the photo again, “But seriously. If you don’t bind to the crystal, I’ll leave you here all tied up. While I’ll walk down the street and pay your mom and sister an unfriendly visit.”

  A string of curses and expletives flow from my mouth in a stream of hate. How dare he threaten my family! How dare he make them a part of whatever this is.

  The masked man just sighs and waits out my tirade. When I run out of creative ways to curse the man, I still sit tied to the chair, my head hanging in defeat. I know someone like this will go through with what he threatens. He’s gone to such lengths already. Why wouldn’t he go one more?

  I sigh in resignation. “Fine. You win. I’ll bind to the respawn crystal.”

  He nods. “Yes. I knew you would.”

  Moving behind me, I feel the knife cut through the ropes binding me to chair. My limbs are numb from lack of blood flow, and I rub my arms and legs to get some feeling back in them. I hear the masked man walk back and when I turn to face him, he’s gone again.

  His voice comes from the darkness, but I can’t seem to locate the direct
ion. It seems to come from everywhere again. “Now, I’m watching you. Go bind to the crystal. If you fail to do so or try to escape, I’ll leave this dungeon and visit your family. You don’t know how to get out so you’ll never be able to stop me.”

  His words dash any thoughts I had of overpowering him and escaping. He’s right. I don’t know where he is and can’t risk him escaping this dungeon and attacking my family.

  Shoulders hunched in defeat, I walk to the floating blue crystal and put my hand on it. A blue screen appears.

  Would you like to bind at this Respawn Crystal?

  I only hesitate for a moment before saying, “Yes.” I hear the sound of compressed gas released and feel a sharp pain in my neck. I feel light headed, and my left hand reaches up to my neck and pulls something out of my neck. Even though the room is starting to spin, I’m able to look at the object in my and see a small metal cylinder with a needle at the front and a puffy red ball at the end.

  My last thought before unconsciousness takes me is, “Dammit, he tranquilized me again.”

  When I wake up, I’m tied to the wooden chair in the middle of the room again. The bleeding debuff has already worn off, so I must have been unconscious for a little while.

  The masked figure walks from the dark into the light around the chair. “Oh, awake at last. Now we can get on with the fun.” The knife in his left hand begins to glow red, and he slashes at me. I try to lean back from the knife but am bound to the chair too tightly to move. The knife cuts me along the thigh, and a plume of red begins to spread along the gash. A red 14 floats away from me and a new bleeding debuff appear in the corner of my vision. I don’t scream from this wound, but I do when he stabs me in the gut and twists the knife around. Thankfully the pain ends when my health hits zero, and the world fades away.

  The next thing I know I’m standing in front of a floating blue crystal and have notifications waiting for me.

  You’ve been killed by ????.

  Respawn in 3...2..1.

  You’ve respawned at a dungeon respawn crystal.

  You lose 7680 XP. XP needed to level 10: 7680

  The notifications jog my mind, and I remember where I am. I turn around, intending to fight to the death but am immediately hit by another tranquilizer dart.

  When I wake up, I’m tied to the chair again. The masked man has a long-handled straight razor, and my death takes much longer this time.

  When I respawn, I ignore the notifications telling how much XP I lost when I died. Instead, I activate Roll so that I won’t be hit with another tranquilizer. As I come to my feet my eyes search the room for my capture. Unfortunately, most of the room is pitch black with only the chair in the middle of the room illuminated.

  As I search, a canister comes rolling out from the darkness and stops at my feet. While I stare at the object in puzzlement; a plume of grey smoke billows out of the canister. I try to hold my breath, but I’m too late. I must have inhaled the smoke, because the next thing I know I’m on the floor, and the world once again fades away. Before I black out though, the bright blue floating crystal catches my eye and the spark of a plan forms in my mind.

  When I wake up, I’m tied up. Again I’m killed, this time even more slowly. The next time I respawn, I know I’ll only have a few seconds before being knocked out again. In those few precious seconds, I use Inspect on the floating blue crystal.

  Respawn Crystal

  Durability: 50/50

  The information brings a smile to my lips even as I feel the sharp prick of the tranquilizer dart hit me. As I collapse, I know that I’ll have to die again before I can enact my plan, but I know I have a chance to get out now.

  Waking up strapped to the chair doesn’t seem as hopeless this time. It may be that the masked man can sense my hope because he takes extra care to hurt me this time. Instead of immediately stabbing me, he cuts off each of my fingers and toes. I’m screaming wildly in pain by the time the stacked bleeding debuffs mercifully kill me.

  The instant my eyes open and I see the respawn notifications I know that I’ve come back, whole once again and with a chance to escape. I spin around and start to cast Fireballs randomly through the room. One of the balls of flame crashes into the chair and sets it on fire while the rest fly off into the dark. I hear a cry of pain and smile knowing that I must have hit that sadistic bastard.

  The masked man growls in annoyance from the dark. “Lucky shot. You don’t really think you’ll be able to kill me that way, do you? Even if you did kill me, you’d still be stuck here, and I’d make you really suffer when I came back. Why don’t you just be a good boy and stop struggling so I can get you back to level 1 and end your miserable existence permanently?”

  Instead of answering, I skirt around the podium, putting it between me and the rest of the room. I continue to fling fireballs throughout the room with my left hand while I pull up my inventory with my right hand and grab the hammer I keep there. I swing the hammer at the blue crystal and see a small five float away from it. I practically yell with joy knowing that I was right; I can break the respawn crystal. Again and again, I attack the floating blue object until I start to see cracks form. Bright beams of light shoot through the cracks blinding me momentarily.

  A scream of anger echoes through the room. “What are you doing? Stop that!”

  The masked man must have guessed my intent because a spray of bullets comes shooting forth from the darkness. Several rounds hit me, but the podium shields me from the worst of the attack. The respawn crystal only has a little durability left, and I swing my hammer again at it. The cracks widen even as another spray of bullets cuts through the air.

  The man in the mask must have adjusted his position because this time a majority of the bullets hit me and I see dozens of 5s and 6s float away from me. I fire another ball of flame in the direction of the attack and am glad to see it hit something man-shaped. The man in the mask is briefly illuminated as his clothes catch fire and I’m briefly tempted to attack him directly. I’d love nothing more than to give him some of the pain he’s visited on me this day.

  Shaking my head clears away the foolish thought. If I did that and died, I’d just respawn right back here. Only I’d never get another chance like this one. I focus on the task at hand and put every ounce of anger I feel into a final blow to the crystal. As the hammer impacts, a bright flash of blue light explodes outward. Then the crystal breaks apart with a loud crash and crumbles to dust.

  A shout of frustrated anger comes from the dark. “NOOOO! You idiot. You haven’t changed anything! You’ve only delayed your final death. I still have other dungeons I can create.” Then with a sinister shift in the tone he continues, “But first I think I’ll pay a little visit to the Tinoco household.”

  There’s a small popping sound and then silence. I scream in anger and toss fireballs around the room until my mana runs out. I hit nothing, and no one answers to taunt me. The man in the mask has really left.

  Knowing that he’s heading towards my house right now, I know what I need to do. I open my inventory and grab the single high-yield grenade I was able to craft. With only a quarter of my health left, the grenade should be enough to kill me. I pull the safety pin and cradle the grenade close to my body so that I take the full damage. There’s an ear-splitting boom a moment later, and the world disappears.

  Chapter 40

  Anthony Tinoco has killed you.

  Respawn in 3...2...1.

  You’ve respawned at your default location, your home base.

  You lose 1920 XP. XP needed to level 9: 12800

  I wake up, looking at another series of system messages, and for a moment I think that I’m still trapped in the dungeon. But the sight of the popcorn ceiling beyond the messages assures me that I have indeed respawned back in my room. Sitting up, I breathe deeply and try not to cry. It worked. It actually worked. I wasn’t sure if destroying the respawn crystal would reset my respawn point to its default location, but it did.

  As I appreciate
that my plan worked, I also recall that the danger isn’t over yet. If anything, it’s greater now.

  I rush to my feet and run out of the room yelling. The hallway is dark, but the kitchen light is on, and I head there. My mom is standing in the kitchen holding a mug of hot coffee. She’s wearing a pink bathrobe, and she looks quite angry to see me.

  “Where have you been? Your boss called and said that you missed your shift at work. Why did you skip work? I called you, but your phone just kept going to voicemail.” Then as if realizing where I came from she looks confused and asks, “Were you in your room this whole time?”

  I don’t know how long I was in that dungeon, but it’s good to know someone noticed I was gone.