Respawn: Lives 1-5 (Respawn LitRPG series Book 1)

by Arthur Stone

  “Did she like girls?”

  “Sheesh. Aren’t we curious.”

  “And you’re really on edge. I was just guessing, that’s all.”

  “Well, you guessed right. And it’s a touchy subject for me.” As impossible as it seemed, Kitty lowered her voice even more. “I liked Valkyrie. We all did. She was a very likable person. Some morons still believe that we were just her harem. But it wasn’t like that. She was more like a mother to us, if anything. Not always a kind mother, but still a mother. She had a girlfriend, yes, someone quite like her. I’ve never met a woman cooler than Valkyrie. You can’t even imagine how powerful she was. No, she wasn’t a founder, but she had come here close to the beginning. Romeo and Valkyrie’s relationship was sour from the start. The bastard caught her when she was a newbie and, well, you know. Valkyrie never forgave any offense, so that... Well, it made her recruit others who had encountered Romeo, and they made life hard for Romeo, dropping him to respawn again and again. There’s a System rule that if you die five times, you move to a different region. Up until your tenth death, as a rule. After that, the interval becomes ten deaths, then when you hit level sixty it becomes every twenty deaths.

  “So Romeo ran through all ten, and then disappeared. Usually when your region changes, you might as well forget about finding your way back. I mean, Eurasia is huge. Imagine that Valkyrie’s squad was over in Korea, and the bastard was relocated to Spain. There was no way to find out where he went. No communications, and no planes flying around. Well, when they do fly, they don’t go war. He went missing. But not forever, God damn him. Rumors of all kinds flew, but one thing was for sure: somewhere out there he was amassing his strength. Now he was more powerful than ever before. He returned a dangerous opponent, with a mighty team, and resumed his war with Valkyrie. I came in at the very end of the war. Very few of the original party were still there. The rest had hit the relocation intervals and been scattered across the continent, and a few had lost all of the revives entirely.

  “But Romeo’s team was faring no better. They had lost many people, too. Romeo himself, however, was much stronger. I once almost sent him to respawn myself. It was a solid hit, but Valkyrie beat me to it. He was back in a flash. His region hadn’t changed, after all. We died much more often than they did, which meant our numbers fell faster. Then I hit my first relocation interval, and respawned in another region. It was impossible to live there. Razers everywhere. I could barely blink before I hit my next relocation limit. At last, I ended up in that swamp. That was a little better. I thought so, anyway. But something seemed to be working against me, and I lost one life after another again, until I got relocated back to the region I knew. I heard the news then. Valkyrie had been gone for a long time, and her entire squad with her. But Romeo was still around. Everyone was terrified of him and stayed away from him. The beast just did whatever he wanted. Do I need to continue?”

  “Let me guess. Romeo was thrilled that you were back.”

  “‘Thrilled’ is not how I’d put it. The villain had sworn to take us all out until our lives were at zero and we went to the place of no return. He had this religion, even, where he believed that a zero-counter player moves to a special area in the center of the Continent which people call—you guessed it—hell. A fantasy as perverted and miserable as he is. He plans to take my last life away with his bare hands, Rocky.”

  “And I’m assuming he has other plans for you, as well. Besides killing.”

  “He has been killing me. He’s everywhere. No matter how hard you try to hide, you can’t get away. Last time, yes, he announced something terrible. He told me he no longer planned on killing me. He had other plans. I was in a shooting match with his gang. As we fought, he hid behind cover, and proceeded to tell me in great detail all the things he planned to do to me. When I had one bullet left, I hit him with an insult that attacked him masculinity hard, then blew my brains out.”

  “You really, really don’t want to be Juliet.”

  “Of course not. Now he is fixated on taking me alive. He doesn’t even care if he gets Pleasure out of it. It’s just a matter of principle for him. He put the word out far and wide that Kitty would be his, and that he had a lovely wedding night planned for us. It’s gotten so bad that the bastards in the whole region have bets placed on who will capture me and when.”

  “Wait, why wouldn’t he Pleasure out of it? I thought it would skyrocket?”

  “In my case, even if he catches me alive, it’ll drop his meter. Maybe down to zero, even—though that’s unlikely. His meter max is unbelievable.”

  “OK, I’m lost. What’s wrong with you?”

  “He’s a cheater, but the System has certain rules that even a mutant like him cannot get past with impunity. Sometimes the System enforces morals, as strange as that sounds. It’s not really surprising. Everything about this place is odd.”

  “So what are the relevant rules?”

  “Regarding sexual violence, it depends on the victim. If an immune engages in Romeo’s favorite activity with a digi, for instance, it will drop their meter, but not to zero. But if it’s a digi child, the slightest touch will take the immune out of the game. Meter to zero. If the victim is a digi girl who according to the System has never been with a man, that also means Pleasure to zero. This rule applies to immune victims, too. When you respawn here, you are always alive and healthy, without a scratch. Well, except in invalid cases like yours. But if you lost a finger, for example, you would have it back on respawn.

  “There are two exceptions for developed immunes. Tattoos remain, as long as they’re not removed before death. And a woman whose virginity has been lost does not become a virgin again. I mean, if her virginity was also lost in, well, the traditional physical sense, it won’t regenerate. Romeo can’t touch digi virgins, digi children, or immune virgins. The System would punish him. Though the rumors say that if his Pleasure went to zero, he would survive. He would feel terrible. Absolutely miserable. But he’s a monster, so who knows what he is capable of? I’m sure he is willing to risk the unpleasantness for my sake.”

  “What a place of passion.”

  “You don’t know the half of what’s going on here, not even the quarter, and yet you feel like you can just comment on all of it like an expert. Sheesh. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  “Are you afraid that he’ll find you?”

  “He will, sooner or later. He always finds people. He’s very good at it. Right now, he’s being cautious, not venturing out on his own, sending others to do his dirty work. It seems this is his last life in this relocation internal, and that if he dies, the System will take him somewhere else. Romeo seeks a golden pearl and is willing to pay a huge sum for it.”

  “Like one of the pearls I swallowed?”

  “No, that was from an elite, and probably a rather small elite, at that. Golden pearls are only found in—” Kitty paused, dropping to a whisper—“It’s best not to talk about them. Bad omen. The golden pearls only come from... You’ve seen an elite, right?”

  “You know I did.”

  “An elite is nothing compare to these guys. If you’ve seen a golden pearl sac, well, the ghouls seem like chump change after that. After you wake up at your next respawn, that is.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “You’ll be hard to follow, too, after you live here for a while.”

  “I’m growing up faster than you did.”

  “Funny.”

  “I even know how to solve your problem. What I mean is, I know how to end the threat of this ‘wedding night.’”

  Kitty smiled, unhappily. “Let me guess. You want to arrange a different wedding night first, to rob Romeo of his chance at being the first. Right?”

  “You know, I was just going to propose that we clear out of here and head to another region. But your idea might work, too. You did just call me handsome...”

  “Maybe if you could figure out how to pull your tiny brains out of your ass and implant
them into your skull, you could figure out what kind of miracle it would take for that to work out.”

  “That’s the longest ‘no’ I’ve ever heard.”

  “I’m afraid there’s no love story in the cards for us, Rocky. Also, Romeo has foreseen that turn of events. He has promised to arrange something extra special for anyone who touches me. I don’t know what that means, exactly, but his penchant for torture is exquisite. I told you he liked cute guys, too, right? Well, he’s a master sadist. He can kill you long and slow. You’ll lose your voice from screaming for him to kill you. So none dare touch me. The bastard has instilled the fear of Romeo into all of them, and none dare incur his wrath.”

  “He hasn’t instilled that fear into me, actually, so...”

  “Oh just shut up. Change the subject now, before I get angry.”

  “OK, OK, no need to take me. Plenty of other newbies out there who I’m sure aren’t afraid of this guy.”

  “I’m not looking. And I don’t ever plan to. I don’t care about Rocky or anyone else. They can all go fuck themselves. What’s that look for? Come on, you knew I wasn’t the type to sleep around.”

  “Sure, but the way you dress and carry yourself...”

  “Yes, if I wanted to, I could have found hundreds of guys by now. Newbies, even digis, because why not. With them, Romeo might as well be trying to tell the goats not to touch the grass. Listen, you don’t remember your past yet, and you probably yearn to recall something. I have remembered. Not everything, but a lot. And do you know what I remembered first? A memory from my childhood!”

  “What’s so strange about that?”

  “Well, childhood memories are supposed to be so wonderful, but mine was the opposite. I remembered one day, when I was very young, my cousin and his friend came over. I was alone at home, and my cousin was basically a stranger. I barely knew him. But he was family, so I couldn’t keep him locked out. By then, he had been into drugs for several years. They wrecked him. He ended up hooked on hard substances, the kind that turn your brain to mush. He got into debt and couldn’t afford his next dose, so he figured the best offer he could make the fucker who dealt to him was a go at his little cousin. It was a business deal.”

  “You don’t have to finish this story.”

  “I will. Not the details, of course, but I’ll tell you. I’ve never been one to roll over, Rocky. With my bare hands, I sent my cousin to intensive care. He was bleeding on the floor, and his screams brought the neighbors over. They took care of the other bastard. I almost lost an eye and had to get stitches on my face. My nose was broken, and a few of my baby teeth were out, but the worst wound was here.” Kitty pointed to the top of her skull. To her brain. “The System healed the scars, but it can’t fix my mind. Even its memory suppression is buggy, after all. Like the way you remember those stairs. Now, I hate men. I wish you would all just move to another planet, some place I have never been and will never go. I’m as likely to fall in love with you as I am with Romeo. It’s psychological trauma, Rocky. The serious kind. The incurable kind. I won’t find psychiatric treatment here. Maybe it will get better with time, but in this crazy life, I doubt I’ll ever live long enough to get to a place where I can think about men without vomiting.”

  “Wow. That’s tough.”

  “No kidding.”

  “So, what about we leave? This isn’t the only region in the world, you said. The Continent is huge. It should be easy to disappear.”

  “The regions aren’t just separated by lines, Rocky. Some of the boundaries between them are virtually impassable. Insurmountable black swap clusters. In other places, huge metropolises lined up, one after another. Since they have so much food, they’re full of monsters. Nobody immune is getting through. The System likes to keep you within the region it puts you in. Sometimes you can move to another one, but it’s a huge risk, and the passable borders are tightly guarded by groups of immunes. I’d never make it through. None of those groups would risk pissing Romeo off. I’m just not worth it.”

  Rocky thought for a few seconds. “This is in fact a continent, right?”

  “Yeah. Hence the name.”

  “So it’s surrounded by water?”

  “They say the north side is frozen.”

  “I saw ships on the river. Plenty of little boats, too. Can we go by water? Or do the monsters swim?”

  “A special kind of the blackness surrounds a lot of the little islands, but you’re right: The ghouls can’t swim. Well, they can. They wouldn’t drown. But they hate water, and they would never go into the ocean willingly.”

  “So why can’t we go around these impassable borders by sea?”

  “Razers,” Kitty replied, mechanically.

  “Who the hell are razers? You’ve mentioned them before, but without any explanation.”

  “They’re razers, Rocky. Razers. They rule the sea. We can’t go that way. Don’t even think about it.”

  “What do they look like, at least?”

  “Like...” Kitty took a long pause. “If you ever saw a living razer, Rocky, it would have to be some kind of exhibitionist. Otherwise you would never see it. They kill without ceremony, without posturing. You would just die. Quickly and without warning. Don’t go near the ocean, Rocky. The ocean is death.”

  Chapter 22

  Life Five: Passions of the Forest

  Kitty was no better at walking than before. Rocky still had to carry her. Now, in addition to the weight they had brought to the town, they also had some coarse sleeping bags which she had spent all evening making, a supply of food, bottles filled with water and gasoline, a portable kerosene stove, and a roll of plastic wrap in case it rained. The load would have taken Rocky to his knees in a matter of seconds yesterday, but today he could manage it, despite the continued creaking.

  Kitty’s medical prognosis was proving to be right, as unbelievable as it seemed. His knees still hurt, especially when they were stressed, but it was about as serious as a light sniffle when compared to yesterday’s bubonic plague. Even the scars were fading and shrinking.

  The world may be full of horrors, but there were pleasant sides to it. Sometimes.

  Another plus was that the weather had improved dramatically. The rains had ceased, and the sky cleared up in the morning. A light breeze set to work rapidly drying the earth. Not quickly enough, Rocky thought as his foot stuck in the mud yet again, immersing itself in an instant puddle. He didn’t mind much. He wore rubber boots from the last house, and they kept all the water out. The girl had also treated the boots with a mixture of medical chemicals, tobacco, vinegar, shampoo, and vegetable oil. She said it would confuse the ghouls somehow, throwing them off the trail. Rocky thought it might just make them even more trackable, but he let her proceed.

  Unfortunately, the treatment had to be repeated every fifteen minutes or so. But he was grateful for that. It let him take frequent breaks. And with the amount of weight he was carrying, breaks were essential.

  Both of them decided they shouldn’t return to the forest by the same path. The way they had chosen had made sense in the storm—but even then, it was possible the biter had seen them crossing that field. Otherwise how would he have known where to look for them? While exploring the second house the day before, Rocky had gotten a good view of the town’s surroundings, and so he knew the best, least visible way to the woods.

  Unfortunately, the road was treacherous. He had to wiggle through thick bushes, walk a path that had become a creek of mud, and then traverse a long-forgotten garden, where more than a few trees dared him to step over them.

  At last they smelled pine trees, and one minute later they walked into their shade. The thickets underfoot thinned into a carpet of pine needles, for which Rocky praised fate. Or the System. Whatever.

  But by now, life again felt like a bed of needles. As Kitty poured her noxious concoction around, Rocky voiced a complaint. “My knees are starting to object again.”

  “They haven’t recovered all the way yet. Don’t wo
rry. By tomorrow, you won’t even remember the pain.”

  “I’m not worried about the pain. I’m worried about being unable to walk soon. You should lose ten pounds. Or those sleeping bags.”

  “Me lose weight? You think this world needs more skeletons? Moron. We need the sleeping bags. Trust me, when night falls, you’ll thank me for them.”

  “They’re a few blankets and a pile of rags.”

  “When you freeze, your Pleasure drops, and you don’t want that.”

  “This is a forest. There’s wood everywhere. We can warm up with a fire if it gets too cold. I wouldn’t mind sharing a fire with you, you know. The smell of a bonfire and a budding romance, that should drive our Pleasure up.”

  “You’re a great guy, Rocky, except that when you think, you don’t use your head, you use something else. A fire with a glowing pillar of smoke? Every infected for miles around would see that. And smell that. You remember how I said smoking was dangerous? Well, a campfire is a million times worse. Especially after rain, when all the firewood is damp. That just makes the smell stronger.”

  “You’re right, my bad. I wasn’t thinking. I’m just tired. You know, from dragging around the girl that’s taken up residence on my shoulders. Do we still have far to go? Last time we were in these woods, I saw a glade about a half-mile back. It looked like a great place to pitch camp. There was a decent pond there, even. Practically a lake. Good for washing in.”

  “We’re not going that way,” she replied firmly. “Only morons retrace their tracks here. And they usually don’t last long doing it. Let’s go that way.”

  “Straight through the forest?” Rocky moaned, his hopes of continuing down the power line path shattered.

  “Right. We definitely haven’t been that way. It’s untrampled. Also, find me a thin, light stick please.”