Fist Full of Credits: A New Apocalyptic LitRPG Series (System Apocalypse - Relentless Book 1)

by Craig Hamilton

  While I examined the vehicle, it continued to attack the pair of elementals to little apparent effect. Neither the machine gun nor the Mk 19 grenade launcher had much more impact on the monsters than the slight damage I had seen when I initially examined the creatures. The projectile rounds from the weapons punched straight through the figures, imparting minimal damage that rapidly healed, and the grenades failed to detonate until they hit the ground beyond the creatures. Even when the grenades landed at the feet of the monsters, the blasts splashed water away from the creatures that only flowed back toward them to be quickly reabsorbed into the frothy columns at their base.

  The vehicle occupants clearly also drew the conclusion that the gunfire was useless, as the turret weapons ceased fire. Then the front doors on either side of the vehicle swung open, and a pair of armored figures stepped out.

  The two officers wore jumpsuits similar to mine, except both had silver shield-shaped badges pinned to their chests. The pair also wore helmets with tinted visors that hid their faces behind a reflective sheen. Besides the System jumpsuits and helmets, the duty belts at their waists held the typical assortment of gear I would have expected to see on an officer before the apocalypse. Their equipment was an odd mishmash of pre- and post- System, and I wondered whether the gear design intentionally looked as though it hadn’t been upgraded.

  Pearce Williamson (Guardian Level 15)

  HP: 150/150

  MP: 110/110

  Zoey Kemper (Patroller Level 14)

  HP: 140/140

  MP: 100/100

  Pearce, the officer who had climbed out of the driver’s side of the vehicle, led the attack and charged forward. The man easily vaulted over the waist-high shrubs that bordered the square as a riot shield of red energy snapped into existence in front of him. The shimmering energy covered the officer from knee to shoulder and had a slightly curved face that seemed to originate from a bracer the man held up at chest height as he ran forward. With a shout, the officer used a Guardian class ability to grab the attention of both elementals.

  The elementals responded to the shout almost instantly, and water swirled like a whirlpool at the center of their chests before a pair of watery streams gushed out toward the charging officer. Even after it left the elementals, the forceful water blasts swirled in a tight spiral that surged out to impact on the officer’s shield and stopped him in his tracks. Like water blasted from a high-pressure hose, the water deflected out around the curved shield to splash harmlessly to the ground once the attack was spent.

  With the elementals focused on the man with the shield, Zoey pulled a pistol and opened fire. At the sharp report of the weapon, I shifted my focus from the elementals to the firearm. The deep bark of the weapon indicated a larger caliber, and I grinned as I realized that the pistol the officer held was an exact match for the one stashed in my Inventory.

  I had stumbled into a lead for the quest the goblins had given me. Now I just had to find out where the police had obtained the System weapons of human design.

  “Dammit, Zoey,” yelled Pearce, his head turned back toward his partner. “Use your beamer. You just saw that guns were no good.”

  With the distance between us, the officer was barely audible over the roar of rushing water, and I missed it if the other officer replied. The second officer holstered the firearm and drew out a sleeker looking pistol, one that appeared similar to mine.

  The officer leveled the beam pistol at one of the elementals, and a ray of energy stabbed out to lance into the creature, which hissed as water flashed into steam.

  Then the officer’s next two shots missed, and I blinked in surprise.

  I was pretty sure I could count on one hand the number of missed shots I had made since the whole apocalypse started, so the lack of marksmanship reminded me that most people simply lacked the raw Perception and Agility attributes I had lucked into with my Advanced Class. As I had that thought, one of the middle doors of the police vehicle opened and another officer climbed out.

  Kevin Beatty (Deputy Level 9)

  HP: 80/80

  MP: 120/120

  The new arrival stretched a hand toward Pearce, and the shield that protected the officer glowed brighter. Whatever the lower-leveled officer had done had reinforced the first officer and allowed him to move forward once again.

  Still, this seemed like an opportunity to make new contacts and potentially learn more about the goblins’ rivals. The three cops were overmatched by the monsters, and even if they could take them down, it would clearly take them a while.

  I circled the block so that I approached from a right-angle to the embattled officers, and I drew only a single beam pistol from one of my holsters. I targeted the same elemental Zoey had already damaged and opened fire.

  All three officers glanced toward me in obvious alarm when my attack landed on the elemental, so I grinned and gave a friendly wave before I fired at the elemental again.

  The officers hesitated and watched me warily while they continued to defend themselves from the water elementals. They were clearly concerned I might use the monsters as a distraction, so I shrugged and continued my shots on the same target that had already taken damage.

  A cloud of steam rose from the elemental as my fire flashed into the watery figure over and over. The constant damage soon pulled that elemental’s attention from Pearce and onto me. I circled away from the officers as the elemental’s stream of water stretched toward me. The water surged faster than I expected, so I sped up until I reached a full sprint. Even then, I just barely managed to stay ahead of the rushing torrent, but I turned sideways to fire at the elemental as I ran.

  Zoey, the officer with the energy pistol, finally added her attacks to my target again, though several of the shots went wide, despite the fact that the officer stood still and fired with a two-handed grip on her pistol.

  Meanwhile, with only a single stream of water pushing against the riot shield, Pearce managed to push his way forward to stand in front of the other elemental. The last deputy, Kevin, continued to offer support, his Mana reinforcing the riot shield and preventing the water from damaging it.

  When Pearce advanced to only an arm’s length away from the elemental, he pulled a cylinder from his duty belt and extended the baton with a flick of his wrist. Jolts of electricity flickered between prongs on the weapon before the officer swung the weapon in a horizontal strike that slammed into the side of the elemental.

  Light flared where the baton impacted, and visible bolts of electricity shot through the elemental’s translucent frame. The monster shuddered, and the stream of water that had gushed endlessly from the monster lost force. With the water pressure lessening, Pearce continued to batter away at the water elemental with the charged baton. Water splashed off the elemental with each hit, and tiny bolts of electricity sparked out from the site of the blow to flash the droplets to steam before the elemental could reabsorb them.

  Unwilling to reveal my full capabilities, I stuck with attacks from my beam pistol and kept up a constant barrage of energy fire at the elemental still directing its liquid cannon toward me. With only myself, and the beam pistol-armed Zoey attacking the monster, and no stun affecting it, the second creature continued to pursue me as I circled the square.

  I took another two laps around the small park before Pearce finished off his target with a flare of light from his shock baton and turned to assault the elemental targeting me. Already heavily damaged from energy weapon fire, the remaining monster fell quickly after all four of us focused our attacks upon it.

  I slowed to a halt and holstered my pistol as I watched the officers pull back to stand beside their vehicle. When the low-level deputy crawled back inside, I checked the fallen elementals for loot and picked up a handful of watery elemental essences. I felt a slight chill emanate from the jewel-like crystals that were soft to the touch before I stored them in my Inventory.

  Then I slowly approached the two officers, their faces hidden behind the reflective visor
s of their helmets. Both officers still carried their weapons, though they were lowered to point at the ground, clearly prepared to defend themselves if the need arose.

  “You’re carrying pretty heavy gear,” said the first officer, the man with the shield who had gotten out on the driver’s side of the vehicle. From the triple chevron on the sleeve of his jumpsuit, he was also the higher ranking of the pair.

  The second officer stared at me with her head cocked to the side as she considered me intently.

  “The city is a rough place these days, officer.” I shrugged and gestured toward the fallen elementals. “A man has to look out for himself.”

  “Let’s just waste him and get back to the barracks,” said a voice from the vehicle turret.

  The pair of weapons barrels in the turret mount were both pointed in my general direction, and the casual indifference in the man’s tone almost concerned me more than the threat of violence itself.

  Both officers outside of the vehicle jerked their heads toward the turret in alarm, which made me think this wouldn’t be the first time their gunner had acted on that threat.

  “Chill, Kevin,” ordered the sergeant. “You can’t just go gunning people down in the middle of the street.”

  The clear implication was that the gunner had already opened fire on someone in the past. When the two officers turned back toward me, they both hesitated when they noticed that my hands now rested on the grips of my holstered pistols. The verbal threat from their gunner had been met by an unspoken warning of my own.

  I felt pretty confident I could handle the two officers outside of the vehicle as long as I avoided the stun effect from the sergeant’s shock baton. However, the one in the turret would be a challenge. My defensive abilities were all geared toward single targets, and I had no idea how Hinder might affect vehicle-mounted weaponry. Nothing I had encountered so far had been protected by armor that heavy, except for the Jabberwock, which had had its armor shattered by Zeke’s Class Skill.

  “Easy,” cautioned the sergeant.

  “What do I have to be easy about?” I asked, my words deceptively calm. “I’ve just been threatened by armed men who are pointing a machine gun at me. And after I gave them a helping hand.”

  Awkward silence reigned for a moment before the second officer stepped toward me and held up both hands in a calming motion. “Wait a second, is that you, Hal?”

  I raised an eyebrow in response, unsure how the officer would know my name.

  The second officer pulled off their helmet, revealing a woman with a shaggy head of brown hair. The woman’s face looked vaguely familiar.

  Then it clicked into place.

  I did recognize the woman, but I had never known her name. Fortunately, I had Greater Observation to help me cheat.

  “You’re one of the guards from the Allegheny County Jail,” I said. “Zoey, right? You took prisoners for booking when they were dropped off.”

  “Yeah, man,” said Zoey, clearly pleased to have been remembered. The officer turned toward the sergeant and pointed at me excitedly. “This guy is one of the best bail bondsmen in the city.”

  “Oh?” The one-word response carried the sergeant’s skepticism clearly.

  “He never failed to bring in a bail jumper,” Zoey continued. “The intake crew regularly bet on how long it would take him to bring one in. There was actually a bet outstanding for a guy who skipped his court appearance when this whole apocalypse happened.” Zoey frowned, then looked toward me. “What happened with that one?”

  “Well, he had a meth lab,” I replied.

  Zoey’s eyes grew wide. “No way.”

  “The situation went downhill from there.” I shrugged.

  The officers waited for me to continue, but I let the silence drag on. I really didn’t want to get into the fact that I had actually killed the man. Or fought giant bears before blowing up the meth lab. The whole story sounded ridiculous in hindsight, but I had lived it.

  Zoey’s exuberant outburst and the ensuing discussion seemed to defuse the initial hostility of the situation, the tension dropping to the point where I was far less worried about the turret gunner lighting me up with the 240G. I still kept an eye on the turret, since it seemed the third officer was a bit of a loose cannon.

  With Zoey’s removal of her helmet, the professional demeanor of the officers faded into something more casual. The sergeant also pulled off his helmet and ran a hand through his matted blond hair before he absently scratched at the stubble on his chin while he looked me over critically.

  This time the look was more of an assessment than an obvious threat evaluation. It felt like he somehow knew I had left things unsaid about the fate of the bail jumper and had drawn an accurate conclusion.

  “Kevin, keep watch on our backs,” commanded Pearce. “I don’t want anything sneaking up on us.”

  With a sigh audible from where I stood, the gunner complied with the order, and the turret gave a faint hum as it spun smoothly in its housing to point its paired weapons behind the vehicle.

  “You obviously know Zoey,” said the sergeant. “I’m Pearce.”

  “Nice to meet you, Pearce.” I nodded respectfully.

  Now that both officers had their headgear off, I could plainly see the telltale signs of exhaustion. Dark circles under their eyes and matted hair gave them an unkempt appearance previously hidden by the uniforms.

  “What are you doing out on patrol?” I asked Zoey.

  “There’s not really much left of the law enforcement in the city,” she replied with a tired shake of her head. “Those who remain have sort of merged together. Police, Bureau of Prisons, Marshals, FBI, DEA, we’re all just doing what we can to hold things together. Warden Hughes is organizing whoever is left and everyone is working overtime just to try to keep the streets the slightest bit safe. Sometimes, it seems like it’s a losing battle.” She gestured to the vehicle. “We’ve got a supplier for high-tech gear, but between the monsters spawning and people going crazy, we just can’t keep up.”

  The listless tone and thousand-yard stare were all too familiar from my time deployed. Pearce clearly caught the tone and stepped over to the depressed officer before placing his hand on his partner’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

  “Oh, come on,” Kevin whined from inside the vehicle turret. “Yinz better not be having another emo moment out there.”

  “Cut it out, Officer Beatty,” Pearce snarled toward the vehicle.

  I barely heard the mumbled reply with my enhanced senses from several paces beyond where the sergeant stood, but it was definitely not the cooperative response the officer wanted from his subordinate.

  “What was that, Officer Beatty?” Pearce asked. The sergeant stared at the backside of the turret, his eyes boring into the armor and his voice cold.

  “I said, ‘yes, sergeant,’” came the belligerent reply from inside the vehicle.

  Pearce glared at the turret for several long seconds then looked at Zoey. The tired officer shrugged. Pearce sighed and gave the woman’s shoulder a reaffirming squeeze before he let go. Seeming to ignore the issue with their third partner for now, the two officers turned their attention back to me.

  “As you can see, Hal, we’re in need of good officers,” said the sergeant. “Would you be interested in a job?”

  The sudden shift in behavior after their initial antagonism had warned me to expect something, but I had not anticipated a job offer.

  “Just like that?” I asked cautiously. “You just met me, and now you’re offering to let me join up?”

  Pearce bit his lip, and I could see the man struggle with whether he should speak.

  “We need more people to hold the city,” he finally explained. “Unless we can get eighty percent of the buildings bought from the System, then the monsters will just keep spawning. We’ve got some aliens supporting us with vehicles, weapons, and Credits, but they don’t want to take an active role in any combat.” The sergeant sighed. “You’re clearly comp
etent enough to get by on your own, but we need all the help we can get. We’ve got our families protected at our compound, so if you’ve got anyone you care about, then we can shelter them too.”

  I brushed off his initial proposal with a wave. “I’ve got no one, so safety doesn’t hold any value. What can you offer me?”

  The sergeant frowned at my casual dismissal, but he quickly schooled his features to hide his displeasure. “We also have a bounty program offering Credits and equipment for monster kills.”

  “Now that’s more like it.” I gestured for the officer to go on.

  The officer outlined the reward structure that paid a premium for materials in good enough condition that crafters could use them to level their professions.

  After he’d finished speaking, I said, “Hmm, so you’d pay well for intact monster corpses?”

  “Yes.” Pearce nodded.

  “I do like the sound of Credits,” I said.

  “What Class are you?” Pearce asked.

  “I’ve got a Hunter Class,” I lied. “It turns out that hunting monsters isn’t so different from hunting men most of the time. I’m pretty good at bringing down monsters and harvesting their corpses.”

  I had no interest in fully revealing my actual Class or abilities. I certainly did not trust them, especially after the threat offered by the officer in the turret. The fact that the streets had remained empty around us for the duration of our fight and the ensuing conversation so far meant that the locals were not particularly pleased to see the police officers either.

  Fortunately, Pearce seemed to buy my explanation.

  “That’s useful,” he said, and I saw an opportunity.

  “It would be, if I could find a reliable place to sell monster carcasses after I take them down,” I replied.

  “I’m sure our crafters would pay well for them,” Pearce said.

  I paused to let the officers think I was contemplating the merits of their deal. “All right, I’m interested enough to see what your crafters will pay.”