Player Reached the Top. LitRPG Series. Book V

by Rick Scar

  It was his inner demons trying to talk him out of this. His weakness. The weakness everyone had in them, but he had never been the one to listen. So he continued on, turning a deaf ear to the taunts.

  He could push himself to the limits here. In the real world, death would’ve meant failure, but in Ascension, he could reduce himself to dust in pursuit of his goal. Even if he failed, it certainly wouldn’t have happened because he was weak or hesitant.

  ***

  Fifteen hours passed. Then twenty. Rule Breaker had reached level six, and Wind Spirit – level two.

  Title awarded: Rule Breaker III

  You have ascended to 15 miles above sea level.

  +6 Endurance

  …

  Title awarded: Rule Breaker VI

  You have ascended to 30 miles above sea level.

  +9 Endurance

  Title awarded: Wind Spirit II

  You are the first player who has spent 20 hours in the air.

  +20% speed while in the air

  He could barely see anything in the white clouds enveloping him. The only reference point was the spot on his map…

  …until it was suddenly gone.

  As the wind jerked him up again, his body hit an invisible wall, and, falling down, crossed some barrier. He was on a rocky, uneven piece of land, so small that he wondered how he had managed to hit it rather than miss it.

  Congratulations! You have discovered a new location.

  +25 Influence Points

  +4% physical defense over the next 5 hours

  +Mistake of Nature spell temporarily up to Grandmaster rank

  Prostrated on the ground, he swept the message away and, saving on the spot, logged out of the game.

  I did it.

  Chapter 283. The Mind-Boggling Portal

  F loor 4: The Elass Trench, Dobri Port

  “So, guys.” Donald nicknamed Nepsus, leader of the Golden Buddha clan and Crimson Berserker’s brother, ran his gaze over a large group of players standing on the pier. “At last, we have our own base. It’s time to go deep.”

  Nepsus knew that he had come too late to gain any sort of fame on the first three Floors, but his spirits were lifted as he learned about what Floor Four was.

  A perfect place for us to get ahead.

  His clan was small, but only individuals with a family net worth of at least twenty million dollars were accepted. It was in the rules, and exceptions were few. Thanks to this membership policy, Golden Buddha could afford to buy the best items available on the market, such as expensive ships and submarines that came into use once Floor Four had been opened to players.

  Nepsus and his clan stood on the pier next to their brand-new, custom-made submarine that could go down to the sea bottom and fix itself there, becoming their underwater base.

  Such underwater bases, coming with a full oxygen supply and other conveniences, could also be rented. Most of them were used in local countries and empires as hotels run by NPCs.

  But neither Nepsus nor any other rich kid in his clan would willingly share their dining or living space with poorer people. So they had paid almost two million gold for their own underwater base to be custom-made for them. The urgency of their order, which would normally take over two months to complete, had brought the cost up by at least half a million. The NPC crew of engineers and wizards had been hesitant to work on such a tight schedule, but the gold had eventually won them over.

  “Hey, Nepsus, is this what we really want?” Sassy Lady, an Elf who looked like a fashion model, addressed him. The job her virtual makeover stylist had done on her character’s appearance was amazing. The services provided by such professionals were used by many wealthy girls and even guys.

  She was talking about the upcoming Elass Trench raid: a high-level dungeon that was open on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the boss of which was the monstrous Megalodon. Their goal wasn’t just clearing the dungeon, but setting a record at the Legend difficulty level.

  “Why now?” Nepsus asked, raised his brows, and stared at her. “Why are you asking this at the last minute? Do you think we’re too weak to do it?”

  “It’s just a question. I’d rather not feel real pain.”

  As she felt everyone else’s eyes turn to her, she pouted and, folding her arms over her chest, fell silent.

  “Everything will be all right, Sass. That’s what we’ve hired these guys for.” He turned to the five TOP players, one of which was Mr. X. “I hope you won’t underestimate your enemy that badly again, X?”

  Mr. X just gritted his teeth at being reminded — probably for the hundredth time — of that shameful incident. His words from the interview had been turned against him, but he had learned his lesson, and his urge to destroy Raven increased with every passing day.

  “He’s right. You’re safe with us.” Desperate Assassin, another famous TOP playing a Demon, clapped him on the shoulder, and winked at the girl, tapping the hilt of his beloved blade.

  This epic-rank weapon, named Moon-Biting Serpent, had two narrow blades joining at the end, with a glowing, venomous-green magic stone placed between them and emitting dark energy.

  “Okay. No more questions?” Nepsus looked around. Most of the players were smiling in anticipation of a good fight. “Remember: if we manage, we won’t just get a great bonus reward, but we’ll also rise in the rankings.”

  “Then what’re we waiting for?” A big Orc grinned and, shouldering his two-handed hammer, tramped down to the submarine.

  “You’ve heard him.” Nepsus smirked and, turning to the crazily expensive vessel, followed the Orc.

  The Elass Trench was rather deep — about two thousand feet beyond sea level — but their dive went smoothly. After getting buffed and putting their underwater gear on, they separated into teams of ten and swam toward the cave.

  Like many similar places, it had been discovered by accident. A player who was grinding nearby killed a mob standing next to the inconspicuous entrance and, diving to collect their loot, discovered the Trench. Thanks to that, many clans had already visited The Megalodon’s Den, as this instance had been dubbed by the players.

  It wasn’t their first swim to here, and things went as usual — until the first team suddenly stopped mid-way.

  “Are you stuck?” Nepsus’ telepathic voice crept into their minds.

  “Come here. You have to see this,” one of the group members answered.

  Other players also wanted to take a look at their find, but the passage connecting the two caves was rather narrow so they had to take turns.

  As Nepsus swam up, his heart pounded. Smiling, he started a video recording.

  What they had discovered was a very rare thing.

  A peculiar portal. One of those that were the object of craziest rumors. Some said these portals opened into another world, not yet available as the devs were still filling it with content. Others objected that you actually could enter such a portal, but that you’d immediately get cast out with an Access Denied message. There were a few other theories, but no one knew the truth.

  A lot of time had passed since the first video of such a portal’s discovery had been posted, but no one had yet been able to see what was on the other side. None of those who told their stories had any sort of proof to back up their words. All attempts at recording anything across the red glow filling the portal had failed, and information about anything that happened there wasn’t retained in the game logs.

  Last check.

  Identification.

  ???

  “Oh, yeah.” Nepsus smiled happily. “Any volunteers?”

  A heated discussion broke out in the chat, but he put a stop to it almost immediately.

  “Hey, calm down. I was kidding. I’m going, you guys carry on.”

  “Move on without you? What the fuck? It’s a Legend-level instance! Are you kidding? Let’s come back on Friday.” One of the players, a son of an oil tycoon, shook his head as he swam up to the find. “If you want to take a look, go ahead,
but be quick about it. We’re not alone in this cave.”

  The guy was right. Wasting no more time, Nepsus swam up to the portal.

  “Okay. Let’s see how much truth there is to those tales.”

  Once his hand touched the red glow, it covered his entire body in a slimy substance and sucked him inside. In a moment, both he and the portal were gone.

  The rest of the Buddhas were about to move on, but five seconds later, Nepsus got cast out. His face had the expression of a boxer knocked-out by a much weaker opponent.

  “Hey, man, you all right?” Money Mastodon waved a hand in front of his face. “What happened?”

  “I… I don’t know,” Nepsus muttered. “For a moment, I seemed to… No. It must’ve been a bug.” He forced out a smile, preferring not to tell them about what he could hardly believe himself, despite seeing it with his own eyes.

  For a split second, he had seen a planet. A whole new planet with dark-red tunnels running toward it from all around. Then a message popped up:

  Access denied.

  Administrator rights required.

  After playing since Monday morning and leaving the game at one in the afternoon, on Tuesday, Will woke up feeling like shit. His daily routine had been ruined, but he couldn’t care less.

  Although he had forced himself into doing some exercise, and even going out for a jog, which he hadn’t done in a long while, he still felt like going back to sleep a mere hour later. Despite the lasting effect of oversleeping, he still had to go back into the game: the debuffs had expired, and the time he had to prepare for Farris’ return was quickly running out.

  The very thought of the demon pumped more adrenaline into his blood, shaking him up, and driving the sleep away.

  Ascension welcomed him with the cold, howling wind to his face, and a terrible headache.

  In front of him was a small cave entrance. Squinting in pain and gripping at the rocks to keep his balance, he hurried over to it, hoping that he’d feel better once he was away from the wind. But he had no such luck. He still suffered from a lack of oxygen, and he’d probably continue to suffer for quite some time.

  There were probably some items and gear that was meant for great heights, similar to those used underwater to protect your body from pressure. Some oxygen runes, or altitude-breathing scrolls. He wasn’t sure what exactly could help, but he was sure that something had to exist. He hadn’t checked these in advance, and now he was paying the price, just like he had during his climb to here.

  A wave of relief came over him when he saw the hole Paley had told him about.

  “So, she wasn’t lying.” He sat down on the edge of the hole and peered into it. Nothing. Even Observer’s Eye revealed nothing but another portion of sheer darkness.

  He ran his palm along the hole’s wall. The surface was rough but solid. The tunnel had probably been created by some tremendous power that had burned the rock through.

  “Another truth,” he said thoughtfully as he took out a Scroll of Light. “Let’s see what’s in there.” As a glowing magic ball appeared on his palm, he reached out to drop it into the hole, leaning in to try to see something.

  Such glowing balls were short-lived when they were away from the player, but they were of great help when it came to illuminating the way ahead in caves and dark locations without taking excessive risks.

  A minute passed. The glow faded, giving him no useful information other than the tunnel going down at an angle rather than vertically. Like a water slide, but without any water, and probably with something much worse than a swimming pool waiting for him at the bottom.

  “I don’t seem to have much choice, anyway.” Raven sighed and checked his gear, complementing it with Gift’s Eyes. Only three of his available item slots were currently occupied: Underwater Bottle, Observer’s Eye, and now Gift’s Eyes.

  So many eyes, he thought as he went over the items, cursing himself again for not checking the shops for better gear, and only buying disposable ones.

  Looking down and feeling terribly anxious, he swallowed, and pushed off, having no idea what he’d discover at the bottom.

  From the author

  Hello, friends!

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  Books to read:

  Kirill Klevanski: Dragon Heart

  He was born anew in a world where martial arts were indistinguishable from magic.

  He only received a neuronet and meaningless desires from his past life.

  What lies ahead?

  He dreamed of adventure and freedom, but those dreams were taken away from him.

  The same way his mother, father, and sister had been taken away.

  They took the Kingdom, they took his own destiny.

  But he is willing to wage a war, against the whole world if need be, to bring everything back.

  Even if the army opposes him, his sword won't waver.

  Even if the Emperor sends the legions, his step won't falter.

  Even if demons and gods, heroes and enemies alike are to unite against him, he won't bend to their will. His own will is iron itself, unstoppable.

  His name is Hadjar and he heeds the call of the dragon heart within him.

  #wuxia #reincarnation #matrial_arts #litrpg

  Mike Ignatov: Wasteland

  A raging fire devoured the world of the Ancients. Where once great cities stood, now there’s nothing but ruins submerged in the sand.

  But even in this endless wasteland, there’s a place for life and hope. However, those who find new life here value nothing other than strength.

  Enjoying his childhood, he looked down on everyone. Little did he know that his ignorance would be his undoing. Now, he’s an outcast and looked down upon everyone. He has to endure humiliation as he stares into the eyes of the one who took everything from him. He’s aware that the strong won't hesitate to stab the weak in the back.

  But what if he becomes one of the strong? How much power would it take to avenge his father’s death? How much power would he need to bleed dry the bastard that had taken everything from him? And will others remember their lesson or will they, too, seek to get their revenge?

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