Pearl of the South

a novel

by Vasily Mahanenko

World of the Changed

Book#2

Magic Dome Books

Pearl of the South

World of the Changed, Book # 2

Copyright © V. Mahanenko 2020

Cover Art © Ksenia Nikelson 2020

Cover Design © V. Manyukhin 2020

English translation copyright © Jared Firth 2020

Published by Magic Dome Books, 2020

All Rights Reserved

ISBN: 978-80-7619-128-0

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental..

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Table of Contents:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 1

Incoming call from Squirrel Derwin

“SO, IT SANK IN? Great, now listen up. If you behave yourself, I’ll agree to trade your girl for the rainbow pearl. And nobody will get hurt.”

“You don’t need a unicorn, too, do you? The kind with butterflies fluttering around inside it, where they poop out caramels?” I replied angrily. Wart had called back just ten minutes after our first conversation, an eternity stretching out for me in the interim.

“Shut up! If you want your sister back, you’ll bring me the pearl. They had one in the pre-release, so you’ve got to be able to find it here, too. And you have nine days and twenty-three hours. If you make it in time, Squirrel lives. If not, she dies.”

“If she dies, you die,” I said with hatred in my voice, a fist pounding the wall in frustration.

“Oh, I couldn’t care less. Without the pearl, I won’t make it ten days, and I’m not going to die alone. You probably don’t want to know what I’ll do to this juicy little thing before I go, either. Are you picking up what I’m putting down, or do I need to give you a little motivation?”

Squirrel whimpered, Wart having apparently turned toward her.

“I bought a scanner for myself. If you try to find me, Squirrel dies. If you don’t find me the pearl, Squirrel dies. And if you try to hurt me in any way, Squirrel dies.”

“Stick her back in the capsule,” I said. “I don’t need a sister with a shattered psyche.”

“It doesn’t work anymore. When I opened it, the thing split apart.”

“So, buy a new one! I’ll send you the money.”

“Oh, right, exactly! I need a couple million coins.”

“The capsule, Wart. If you don’t get her a capsule, you won’t get anything else. I’ll get you the money, just give me a couple days. But buy the capsule right now.”

“I’m the one giving the orders around here, got it? I’ll be expecting my coins and the pearl! Otherwise, your sister will beg for the sweet release of death.”

On that lovely note, the call dropped. A wave of helplessness rushed through me, and I took it out on the wall once again. Still sitting underground, the next problem was figuring out how to dig my way to the surface. The demolished collection plant there to suck up the noa the game owner cared so much about was right above me. Speaking of the game owner, it had scattered nanoparticles all over Earth, turning humans into horrifying mutants. Some lost their minds and became monsters; others held onto theirs and became players. But everyone mutated. Just a few minutes before, some slick operators, their precision and preparation telling me they were military, had blown up the plant and my partner with it. The worst news had been Wart’s call, however. He’d broken into my sister’s capsule and was demanding something absurd: some pearl or other. Not only did I not know where to find it; I didn’t even know what it was! And the bastard had only given me ten days.

Happy I made a habit of dumping everything in my inventory, I started materializing item after item, selling them as soon as they appeared. Both levitating platforms, the level four equipment from the transporter, all of it. I made a mental note to stop by the location where we’d taken out the farm — there had to be a ton of equipment just lying around. The average price tag for a level four item started at 300,000 coins, with the platforms going for two million, which meant I pocketed a cool four and a half million despite the 50% commission. I sent Squirrel’s phone three hundred thousand on the spot. Let Wart think that’s all I have.

But I wasn’t about to go running off after some pearl or other. Wart definitely hadn’t bought a scanner capable of spotting me. While he knew quite a bit about the game on the phone, he didn’t have the faintest clue about what was going on in the real world or how fast it all was changing. And that meant as soon as Olsen accepted the mission and gave me my reward, I was headed for the city. It was time to save Squirrel from the bastard.

I began clawing my way upward using both arms and legs. The going was easy enough at first, though the closer I got to the surface, the tougher the soil got. Finally, I was at the point where it was basically ceramic. The temperature at the heart of the explosion had been so high that the humus had melted. Deciding against a gentler approach, I just pulled Fang out and started slashing away. It didn’t seem like there was anything the blade couldn’t cut through.

Some deformed metal and an enormous chute were all that was left of the noa plant. The only thing that had remained whole and intact was the plate covering the shaft, the one that had saved my life. If it hadn’t been for it, I would have been burned alive — Ulbaron couldn’t have done anything to stand up to the heat. Sweeping Raptor around the area and taking pictures as I went, I sighed. Nothing. There had once been an immense crowd of monsters around the force field, but they’d all been reduced to ash. And the game wasn’t going to give me coins for them.

I’d never been a fan of running, but I didn’t have a choice in that moment. Tossing Swallow, Grust’s named rifle, over my back, I set a steady pace and headed off toward the next location over. There was loot there I didn’t want anyone else taking. But once I got far enough away, I started coming across the bodies of monsters. Lots of them, in fact. Before he’d hidden in the protection afforded by the dome, Grust had been doing work. I set Raptor to take pictures automatically and ran on, though I had to stop every once in a while to pick up loot. Raptor highlighted game items, blinking insistently until I bent over and picked up whatever it was. Killing champions really was a good deal. My run took a lot longer than it could have, but it was worth it.

You took the first picture of 368 dead superior monsters. 11040 coins received.

You took the first picture of 325 dead champions. 585000 coins received.

You took the first picture of a dead larva-level creature. 120000 coins received.

There weren’t any inferior monsters, though there were more than enough champions. Grust must have focused on them. On average, I picked up a game item from every fifth champion, mostly level four modifiers for weapons or armor valued at 300,000 coins or more. And once I’d taken apart the transporter and sold everything I got from it, my total sales were up to 11.5 million coins. That left me with 16.4 million. A new record for me. It had turned out to be a pretty good battle, definitely a profitable one. It was like Grust had known to keep the champions away from the dome. When I bring him back, I’ll have to thank him.

Aspen was thirty kilometers away, so I started looking around for a car. There were a ton of them out on the roads — when the game had begun, lots of people were out and about. And three weeks spent just sitting didn’t really present a problem. There wasn’t anyone robbing them, as everyone had either been eaten or turned into a monster. Of course, the changed themselves couldn’t have cared less about transportation. The only times they did care were when there was food inside them, or people hiding. I’d already seen several cars that had been torn apart. In the damn World of the Changed, hiding wasn’t an option. You fought or you ran. That was it.

The truck engine roared to life like a buck in search of a doe, though that didn’t bother me. There weren’t any monsters left in the area. The game divided space into locations, or small squares fifty kilometers across, each of which had a larva. They were the highest-ranking bosses, their job being to keep their general fed. And generals, in turn, were in charge of hexagons, which were huge, six-sided shapes a thousand kilometers across. There were 149 hexagons on Earth, with humans left in just ten of them. Monsters and the half million players who had shown up with the game reigned supreme in the rest. That was the basic hierarchy the game had introduced to Earth. Nobody had asked for our opinion. It was just the way things were. And there I was, once just your average student, but suddenly turned into the most advanced player on Earth. My level 315 sounded impressive enough, but it didn’t come with any advantages besides the fact that too many people knew who I was. To the contrary, the game had made a habit of sending its spawn after me — it didn’t like anyone at the top of the leaderboard.

Aspen spread out in front of me, and I even stopped to stare at the city in surprise. Not long before, it had been reminiscent of an actual fortress, complete with high stone walls, equally stone buildings, defensive towers, and guards. Everything had been geared toward long-term defense. But in front of me, there was a cross between a city and a garden. There were no walls, and the broad streets were lined with tall, green trees. The beautiful buildings each had their own design. Everything was bright and clean, almost as though it had just been washed. And because it somehow felt wrong to drive the dirty truck into the scene, I got out and walked the rest of the way. The pools of perfectly blue water and some blue firs made for a gorgeous composition.

“Welcome to Aspen, player Mark Derwin.” I was personally greeted at the entrance by Olsen, who was in charge of the whole thing. It wasn’t exactly a player. No, it was a function, part of the game, and its job was to make sure everything went the way it was supposed to in the safe zone. And while the village elder’s clothes had once been stern and official, it was dressed that day in fairly relaxed pants and a colorful shirt. Only the snow-white smile on its hairy mug looked the same as I remembered. Olsen was a Shurvan, a hairy, humanoid creature.

“You did everything you agreed to do and more — clearing four locations of monsters let me jump to the next level. I’d say you earned yourself a reward.”

A few servants carried out an enormous wooden chest fitted with metal. We have a pirate theme now?

“I’m aware of your limitations — you can’t use anything besides named items. Not many people would be able to survive like that, but you’ve actually gone on the attack. That makes you intriguing, though you’re awfully immobile. And I want to solve that problem. It may be the one that’s hampering you most, so take this equipment that once belonged to Nine. While the robots aren’t great at crafting, you were able to make Fang. Perhaps, you’ll figure out what to do with all this.”

The servants threw back the lid to reveal the remains of the jetpack. Several nozzles for horizontal and vertical thrust. A few straps for arms and legs. Basically, it was the kit you needed to make an Iron Man outfit, just somewhat unusual looking. Letting Raptor take a look at it, I got the usual message: Damaged device in need of repairs. There was a bit more that time, however:

Requires device repair level 60.

Whatever else it might have been, it was interesting, and so I pulled the pack out of the chest. Yes, I need to figure this thing out.

“Excellent, I’m glad you appreciate your reward.” Olsen rubbed its hands and sent off the servants. “What do you think about taking care of another few jobs for me?”

“Not right now. I need to head into the city.”

“It’s your sister, I assume?” the leader of Aspen asked implacably.

“What do you know about that?”

“Not much. She was unlucky — a player named Wart was able to survive and break into her security module. Actually, Squirrel Derwin is back in a module, though that doesn’t change much, as it’s under Wart’s control.”

That made me feel better. He’d followed through with my request, and Squirrel wasn’t alone with the bastard.

“They’re fifty meters deep, though I don’t know where exactly they are. If you head over to the city, you’ll have to search the whole thing if you want to find your sister.”

“What’s wrong with that?” I shrugged. “It won’t take me more than three or four days.”

“That’s if nobody gets in your way. The radioactive ruins were handed over to Three and Two, another pair of the general’s spawn. As soon as you step onto their turf, they’ll start hunting you, and I can’t guarantee you’ll get away. Your chances with them are worse than they were with Nine.”

“So, you think I should throw up my arms and do nothing? Just let that son of a bitch kill my sister?”

“I’m glad you came to that conclusion yourself. Your sister makes you weak, Mark Derwin. She keeps you from being everything you could be, and Wart is going to continue extorting money from you. Forget about her, work for me, and you’ll grow strong. You’ll be able to survive.”

“Why don’t I worry about what I should do?” I replied angrily. The soulless representation of the game was using a logic foreign to humans.

“Wart will die in less than ten days. Your sister will stay in her security module, and nobody will be able to touch her for quite a while,” Olsen continued.

“What’s he going to die from?”

“He survived on regeneration kits he bought with your sister’s money, but there’s too much radiation underground. With that much regeneration, he developed a mutation that went out of control. The game can’t do anything for him anymore, so it decided to destroy him. Wart has been warned. And he can’t not mutate — the process has already begun, and he can’t turn back the clock.”

“But before he dies, he’s going to kill Squirrel. I need to stop him regardless of what the general’s spawn try to pull. What’s the rainbow pearl?”

Olsen froze. His expression was so blank, in fact, that I thought it was glitching. But no, it was talking to the game, though it hadn’t stepped aside to do it.

“An item that could help Wart,” the function finally said. “Yes, it definitely would. It resets players to where they were when the game started. Bring it to me, Mark Derwin, and I’ll make sure you’re rewarded.”

“You again?” I replied with a heavy sigh. “What do you care? You’re not a player.”

“The pearl resets functions as well as players. Actually, no, better to say that it turns all your current attributes into free points. You can go back and redo all your parameters, getting rid of what you don’t need and emphasizing what you do. It’s incredibly valuable. You’ll get a lot for it, so bring it here.”

“Even if I wanted to do that, and I don’t, I don’t even know what it looks like, not to mention where to find it!”

“If you agree to work for me, I’ll give you a hand — I know where you can it. You’ll have to head south, all the way to the sea at the edge of the hexagon. The pearl is there next to some noa concentration plants.”

“Sounds tempting, but it’s no good for me. I have to get my sister out. See you, function Olsen, and I hope we see each other again.”

“You leave me no choice, Mark Derwin. You have a problem with your sister, and that problem needs to be eliminated. I’ll let Three and Two know she’s somewhere in the city so you don’t have to worry about it anymore. No more distractions. Your sister will be gone, and you can get back to focusing on your future.”

Valkyrie flashed in my hand, though I didn’t take the shot. And it wasn’t because I changed my mind or decided I liked Olsen. No, it was the 0% damage markers that told me my level twelve pistol couldn’t do anything about the bastard. But that didn’t keep Fang out of its chest. No result, of course.

“You’d better not, Olsen!” I growled.

“In that case, follow instructions,” it replied as though nothing had happened. “Two and Three just need a couple hours to find hidden players, what with the resources they have at their disposal. Wart gave you ten days; I’m giving you seven. If you don’t bring me the pearl by then, or if you decide to head into the city, I’ll tell the general’s spawn about your sister. I only work with the strong, Mark Derwin, and as long as your sister is still underground, that’s not you. You’re weak. And I don’t like that. You need to decide your fate.”

“Can you help remotely? Can you block Wart?”

“No, the game wouldn’t let me. I was only able to do that for Squirrel because of your blood connection and her condition. As far as I know, you and Wart are not relatives. Okay, I need to know what your decision is — are you going after the pearl or your sister?”

“You know, Olsen, I’m going to find a way to wipe you.” The anger was gone, leaving nothing but cold determination. “Whatever it takes, I’m going to make sure you never see another release.”

“That’s your emotions talking. They usually make people stronger, but in your case, they’re clouding your mind. And that’s unacceptable, Mark Derwin. What’s your answer?”

“I’ll find the damn pearl.”

“I didn’t expect anything less. You need to figure out your transportation — it’s about eight hundred miles to the noa concentration plans, and you won’t make it in time otherwise.”

“You’re not going to help me, are you?” I asked with unveiled malice. But Olsen didn’t recognize the sarcasm.

“You’ve already gotten more help than you need. There’s the equipment; you do the rest. I should warn you — as soon as you accept the mission, the game owner will find out about it. That’s the kind of thing the owner always stays in the loop on. It will give the general orders to find the pearl, and the general will send Eight, maybe even Eight and Seven, after you. It probably wouldn’t assign three spawn at once — Two and Three tend to visit the city pretty frequently. Plan your move with that in mind. But anyway, I imagine you’ll need some time to get ready, so Aspen is at your disposal. Get yourself in shape for the long road ahead. You stink, and that could give your presence away. As soon as you’re ready, come find me. I’ll tell you where the pearl is.”

The Aspen leader’s advice was solid. As soon as I’d taken a bath and changed, I felt like a new man. Settling into one of the labs, I got to work. Getting my device repair up to level 60 took 80 syringes — I had to boost it from level 40. Working with those advanced coefficients was a pain. Until you got to level 40, everything was smooth sailing, one to one, though it went off from there. From level 40 to level 50, the ratio was three to one, or three free points to each attribute. From level 50 to level 60, it was five to one; from level 60 to level 70, it was seven to one. And a quick check told me the jump from level 70 to level 90 would take 90 syringes. That was an incredible number, though there was no way around it. Once the update was complete, I laid my hands on the damaged equipment and…

Item needed for integration.

Wait, really? I squinted at Raptor, checking out the different options the system was sending to the screen. The only problem was that they were all blocked. Filtering them by available for use, I only found one thing: Ulbaron. A grin spread across my face. Of course! If I was going to turn into Iron Man, I was going to need the outfit to match.

Enter a name.

“Ulbaron.” If it ain’t broke…

Name accepted.

Repairs, modernization, and integration successful.

You’re the first player on Earth to modify a named item.

Level +5 (320).

5 free attribute points received.

I looked over my new armor with interest. It was thicker, heftier, somehow more sophisticated. No nozzles. Just like on the Mark-2, small power circles handled takeoff and landing, filling in for electromagnets. There was also no pack, though there was a bulge on the back. That was presumably the energy block.

The best part was that I didn’t have to spend days practicing at some workbench to pull off the masterpiece. All I had to do was get the item, find the attachment, and have the right attribute levels. The crafting in World of the Changed was one thing I liked. Hitting a couple buttons on Raptor, I dug into the description of my new outfit, though the smile quickly disappeared from my face. Seriously?

Ulbaron. Description: Universal adaptive tactical outfit with aerial maneuverability for Mark Derwin. Current Ulbaron level: 12. Built-in universal protection capable of withstanding 600 hits from any weapon through level 12. Regenerates when up to 50% of the surface area is damaged. When activated, is airtight for 120 minutes. Heat resistant, cold resistant, built-in cleaning system. Maximum altitude: 60 meters. Maximum flight speed: 150 km/h. Maximum capacity: 1200 kg. Integrates with phone. Cannot be blocked in the game world. Requirements: Strength (70), agility (70), stamina (70), fortress (60), resilience (60), coordination (70), aeronautics (70), spatial perception (60), hacking protection (60), electromagnetic impulse protection (60). Cost: 30000000 coins.

Yes, the system really knew how to gum up the works. Ulbaron looked great, of course, but the long list of requirements was enough to make you lose your mind. I’m going to have to give myself 1,170 shots! Even if I gave myself one every ten seconds, it was going to take almost three hours. How much time will it take if at some point I have to go from zero to, say, a hundred? A week?

“Not bad,” Olsen said, showing up right as I was finishing. “I knew you’d be fine.”

“Hard not to be,” I snorted. “Boost your repair skill, and you’re done.”

“Oh, I don’t want to disappoint you, but it’s not that simple. Attribute syringes just boost skills you already have. You can level-up your strength, agility, and shooting, for example. But there’s nothing you can do about creativity if you never had it to begin with. If a player doesn’t know how to rhyme two words, they still won’t have anything after the game no matter how high they get their composition skill. It’s the same with creating items. If you didn’t have a knack for it, or, more importantly, you didn’t enjoy it, it wouldn’t work. The game is very careful about how much it imposes on the players — the creator cared a lot about balance.”

“I think I’ll just leave that bunch of tripe be. But you want to talk about balance? Forget the coins — I have to sit here for three hours sticking myself just so I can put on my new outfit. And that’s fine right now. But what if it happens during a battle? Let’s say I take out a larva, my named items all level-up, and then…I can’t use them? And while I’m trying to crawl out of the suit, the weakest inferior monster can take me out. Yeah, that’s some amazing balance right there!”

Consolidated items functionality unlocked in the store.

“Your request was approved and implemented,” Olsen said like nothing had happened. “You can now combine as many syringes as you need into a single needle.”

“And you couldn’t have done that at the beginning?” I exploded. “What’s the point?”

“The players are supposed to be active, understanding what they want from the game. Don’t forget that the game isn’t here to make you all happy. It’s here to extract noa. Figuring out all the rules and quirks is your job, so experiment, exchange information, and try things out. That’s the only way for you to get better and be useful to me.”

“How about buying a help section?”

“There’s no such thing. You can buy information, but it’s very limited. At least, I don’t know of any other functions that have that kind of problem with players. Anyway, about named items. You’re wrong, Mark Derwin. They only improve that quickly through level fifteen, after which you have to clear locations to get them up to forty. Larvae and all those creatures don’t do anything. After forty — ”

“Generals?”

“Exactly. After forty, the only way to level them up is to kill generals. As far as the parameters, they only jump up every ten levels, so you don’t have anything to worry about so long as you prepare ahead of time. The jump is generally thirty points. Are you ready to hear where you need to go next?”

I pulled up the store, pointedly ignoring the question. And yes, a quantity column had appeared next to each item, with items like attribute syringes now referred to as consolidated. Buying the number I needed relieved my wallet of two million coins, and a normal syringe appeared in my hand. The same as usual. The only difference was that the liquid inside was all different shades of green.

“Out with it.” I sat down on the floor and injected myself. For the next three hours, I wasn’t going to be able to help anyone, so I figured I might as well hear a bedtime story, as Grust called them.

And it really was quite the tale Olsen wove. The rainbow pearl could be found in level five-plus dungeons. The higher the level, the better the chances of getting it. That just left me needing information on the dungeon levels, and there Olsen was less than helpful. He knew almost nothing. Dungeon levels were static, and you had to give something at the entrance to boost them. But what? Olsen didn’t know, though he had a guess: noa, of course. Regardless, before doing anything else, I needed to find someone who definitely had the answers to my questions. And that was a digger. They were another function, that one responsible for finding the minerals the game owner was looking for. As it turned out, extracting life-giving noa wasn’t enough for the game. It wanted to suck Earth dry, pulling even the rare minerals out of it. Hey, I should try regular, Earthling weapons out on the functions. That M2, for instance. It was going to be interesting to see how they handled them.

“The digger is by the fault lines, as it’s easier to get inside the planet there. Find it, Mark Derwin, and don’t forget — you have seven days to complete my mission.”

Mission received: In search of the rainbow pearl. Description: Bring Olsen, the head of Aspen, the rainbow pearl. It can be found in level five-plus dungeons. Find the digger and ask it how to boost dungeon levels. Mission deadline: 7 days.

***

Mercenaries were assigned to hunt you: the Tsarter group (5 players).

“Just like I predicted, the game owner reacted instantly.” Olsen didn’t need a phone to see the game’s messages. “You should be proud of yourself, Mark Derwin. Not many people have had a group that strong sent after them.”

“Judging by the fact that the game didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, Tsarter was already assigned to take someone else out. Who?”

Olsen stared at me for a while, thinking about whether to respond. I was starting to suspect that I wouldn’t get an answer when the function spoke up.

“Yes, you’re right. The group isn’t tied to a location, and the Earthlings in the next hexagon over were able to organize and fight back. They were even gaining the upper hand over the changed. That’s when the game owner decided to take out their leadership — three days ago. The current prediction is that there will be no more players left in that location two weeks from now. Tsarter is a well-oiled machine. If you’re able to take them out, you won’t just have me interested in you; the entire game will look at you differently. You’ll be left in it even if that’s not what the game owner wants. The game will consider you a balancing force.”

“Are there a lot of those in the game right now?” I asked, jumping at the chance to pick up some allies.

“Seven players, none in our hexagon. They’re tied to their locations, so you’ll have to go see them yourself if you want to meet. Bring me the pearl, and I’ll tell you where one is. And in the meantime, I think it’s time for you to go, Mark Derwin. Tsarter will be in Aspen in six hours. Also, remember, you aren’t the only one out looking for the pearl.”

“Wait, those five aren’t looking for the pearl, are they?” I was shocked.

“Tsarter was sent after you, not the pearl. Don’t confuse the two. No, you’ll have Eight keeping you company, probably Seven, too. They’ll also be looking for a digger. And don’t forget that you don’t have much time.”

Chapter 2

OLSEN HEADED OFF to do whatever it was the character did, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Things certainly weren’t getting easier. Before doing anything else, I sent Wart another 300,000 coins, a message to let him know I was doing my best. He didn’t need to try to pull anything. Next, I crawled into Ulbaron. It was incredible — the new functionality had augmented the usual comfort and security. I could control it mentally via my device control or manually using Raptor. Of course, it was heavier, the underside picking up some spring. And the force circles didn’t touch the ground. Instead, they held me millimeters above it. But there was no rocking, no wobbling. I crouched down, and Ulbaron completely compensated for the change in my center of gravity. Even an attempt to fall backward just resulted in a smooth motion in that direction. Sure, the game asked me if it understood correctly what I wanted, or if I was actually looking to throw myself on my back, but everything happened so quickly, so smoothly, that I couldn’t get enough of it. Yes, Olsen, despite its idiotic mindset, had some surprises up its sleeve. The most impressive thing about Ulbaron was how I stood up from a near-horizontal position just by thinking about it.

Flying was much more of a challenge, however. When I stepped out of the lab, I soared thirty meters up in the air, hurtled forward, and very nearly shit my pants. I had to quickly stop and come back down to earth. Quaking from the adrenaline, it hit me that levitating a couple millimeters above the ground wasn’t close to the same thing as flying that high in the air with nothing underneath you. Of course, there wasn’t anything to complain about. It felt like I was standing on firm ground, the wind didn’t knock me back and forth, and I couldn’t even feel any vibrations, but it was still terrifying. I was forced to stick to low altitudes for the time being. The issue there was that I wasn’t able to go faster than eighty kilometers an hour. Interestingly, the limitation wasn’t the costume; it was in my head. I started panicking and making stupid moves when I got that fast, losing all sense of precision. An hour later, I figured out that my speed limit was ninety kilometers an hour. At least, at that point.

Olsen let me know every ten minutes that the Tsarter attack group was on its way to Aspen. They were already in the hexagon — five players starting at level 500 had quickly taken up the top slots in the ranking. Impressive! I had to wonder how many levels the game gave them for completing missions. And Olsen wants to talk about balance? Yeah, sure. Compared with those killers, I was weak and green. But anyway, after thinking about it for a while, I decided to head straight south. Tsarter knew exactly where I needed to go, of course, and they could have cut me off on the way. With that in mind, I made sure I kept the ranking for my current location pulled up in front of me. The system was going to let me know as soon as we were in the same one. For example, there weren’t any other players at all in the location I was in, and that cheered me up.

At least, until I got to the edge of it.

Raptor’s scanner only had a radius of 120 meters, so I saw the monsters from a distance before they popped up on my screen. Settling down to the ground and hiding in the tree shadows, I crept forward.

It was an impressive sight. A long row of monsters stretched off in both directions, reaching the horizon to my left and right. Their perfect formation told me there was an invisible boundary they couldn’t cross. Probably the location boundary. Mostly meaningless for me, it was apparently real enough for the beasts in the game. The row was made up entirely of superior monsters standing shoulder to shoulder. A mouse couldn’t have gotten through. Back behind them, with some distance between each other, were champions, all mages. But that wasn’t all — there were creatures flying overhead, too. Just in case, I scanned the ground across the perimeter location and grunted. There were even monsters down there. Shrews had dug long tunnels all along the border, and they were crowded. In fact, it looked like all the monsters in the area had congregated right there in front of me. I felt a warm fuzzy feeling when it crossed my mind that they were all there for me, but I knew that wasn’t it. They weren’t there just for one frisky player. Something else was going on, and that meant I had to act.

Checking my map, I stepped farther away from the monsters and headed up a couple meters in the air. There was a wide river ten kilometers to the east. The monsters had never looked to me like they could live without air, and so I figured there wouldn’t be anyone in the water to catch me. There was no way I was going to cut my way through the line — any and all kills would tell Tsarter exactly where I was. And do I need that? No, thank you.

But there was bad news by the river: the location ended a good hundred meters from the bank. The chain of monsters made a ninety-degree angle, heading off from there along and blocking access to the blue ribbon. With that edge, I was able to pull up my map and estimate where the location stopped and started. I cursed. There wasn’t a single river or stream in the whole safe zone. If the monsters were along the entire border, I wasn’t going to be getting out unnoticed.

Suddenly, I noticed a stir among them. While they’d been motionless statues just a few seconds before, they were suddenly shifting their weight back and forth between their legs, looking around, and even howling impatiently in a few cases. The champions turned away, looking off into the distance at something in the opposite direction from my location. Following their gaze, I frowned. There was a whole procession making its way along the bank of the river. Suddenly, my heart leaped for joy.

The procession was led by an armored personnel carrier. The steel beast was armed with several high-caliber machineguns, though it was holding its fire. Heading past, I guess? Behind the APC were several open-top off-roaders with machineguns of their own. Their guns were also aimed at the monsters, though they, too, were in no hurry to rain lead death down. Although, I had to think the guns would have been largely ineffective against the level four monsters. With another APC bringing up the rear, the middle of the procession was made up of a long tanker, a couple trucks, and a big bus. But what I appreciated most was that the vehicles were all packed with people. Lots of them. Unfortunately, even though I was just a couple hundred meters away from them, I couldn’t see their names or levels due to the fact that they were in another location.

The monsters didn’t move from their assigned locations, though the column stopped suddenly. The machineguns and APC cannon rotated to aim at the creatures. But the people just waited. The silent standoff didn’t last long, however — I heard a roar building just at the edge of my consciousness. It quickly approached, three dark dots appearing on the horizon. Planes! Two nimble fighters were escorting an enormous hulk that eased lower and lower in the sky. And even someone as unversed in military aviation as me could tell that it was a bomber. The monsters got even more nervous as they noticed the incoming hardware, and their flying compatriots soared off to greet the newcomers. But they were no match for the fighters’ cannon.

As the flying beasts approached, I realized I needed to beat a hasty retreat. The incoming roar intensified, and I dashed off, not bothering to hide. The ground shook as the first bombs slammed home. With how evenly they landed, it was almost like they were remote controlled. A hellish fire burst out to consume the monsters, turning what had once been an even line into a pockmarked wasteland. After they’d finished with one side, the planes regained altitude and circled around. They were apparently not looking to leave any of the monsters alive. But I’d been so preoccupied by the planes that I hadn’t noticed the people pouring out of the bus and heading out to mop up the survivors. When they did, the remaining monsters remembered why they were there — chowing down on fresh meat was much more fun than standing there motionless at the general’s order. Howling piercingly, the stragglers dashed toward the troops. And I almost ran over to help. No, can’t do that. If I had, Tsarter would have found out where I was and shown up on my heels. No, I was going to have to sacrifice the troops. They knew what they were in for.

But there was no end to my surprise when the soldiers started taking single shots. One bullet, one body. The APC took out the champions, while the rest of the monsters were cut down by the infantry. Glancing down at Valkyrie, I cursed. Sure, it was more than capable of taking the monsters out with one shot, but what had I had to do to get my hands on that kind of weapon? Over there, a detachment of thirty people was equipped with something equally deadly. How?

The bomber made one more pass before disappearing to the north. And once the surviving monsters were dead, the troops loaded back up in just as orderly a fashion as the one they’d piled out in. There was even a group of people by one of the trucks who were just collecting automatics and handing out new ones. Wait, is that two truckloads of ammunition? They were serious. Finally, everyone back in the vehicles, the column headed onward, the first APC leading the way south.

I couldn’t wait any longer. Presumably, monsters would be arriving to fill the breach, though Raptor stopped me when the automatic pictures I’d set up started snapping. The troops hadn’t taken pictures of their kills. They don’t need money? What’s going on?

You took the first picture of 558 dead superior monsters. 16740 coins received.

You took the first picture of 56 dead champions. 100800 coins received.

It was a nice little haul even without the higher coefficient I was used to. But still, the players had walked away from it. And how did I know they were players? As soon as I’d found myself in the same location as the troops, the location ranking had updated in front of me. Sure, I was at the top, but everyone below me had Earthling first and last names. The only problem was their levels — none had cleared level 30. But they’d still managed to wipe out a crowd of even level four monsters and lived to tell the tale. Color me intrigued.

The vehicles rushed off, giving way to the distant howling of monsters. They were hurrying to close the gap in their ranks. Damn it! Olsen was going to yell at me once again about how lucky I was. Pushing half a meter off the ground, I flew toward the river. I really was going to have to turn into a submarine for a while. It was safer that way. I just felt bad for the army — Tsarter was definitely going to have things out with whoever took out the monsters, and they weren’t going to have much of a problem sniping the soldiers at range. The game rifles were far more accurate at far longer ranges than the guns we had.

As if reading my thoughts, Raptor printed out a game message:

New mission: Protection. Description: Tsarter was interested to hear about the break in the safe zone perimeter and sent one of its members to look into it. Make sure nothing happens to your fellow Earthlings.

Sure, run off and throw myself in front of the bullet. The troops knew what they were getting themselves into when they went after a crowd like that. Diving into the water and turning my accelerators to maximum, I set off. All I could do submerged was 60 kilometers an hour, though that was still enough to make me forget the world as I focused entirely on pushing through the water. It was the fish and little snags that needed protection. Keeping as close to the bottom as I could, I had to depend entirely on Raptor and my outstretched arms. The former projected a three-dimensional relief of the riverbed, which let me dodge the larger rocks and roots. And it was only two hours later when Ulbaron told me I was running out of oxygen that I stopped. There were no troops in the location I found myself in. Yes, there were players, but their names and levels didn’t smack of Earthlings.

Crawling out onto the bank and setting my suit to clean itself, I was about to fly off when I hit the dirt and crawled over to some tall weeds. Raptor was showing red dots nearby — players.

There were quite a few of them, about a hundred, in fact. They were all above level 100, which told me they probably weren’t human. And I was right. Creeping closer, I noticed a temporary camp packed with green creatures I’d already come across. They looked like orcs pulled straight from some computer game, their powerful bodies trampling the grass around the tents they’d set up. And they were well equipped, too, each with at least a complete BRO-IV suit and helmet. But I didn’t see any guards. Without much of an issue, I connected to and checked out a device they had. It turned out to be a level four scanner. Whitelisting myself just in case, since you never know what you’ll need down the road, I was about to head out when the boss stepped out of the biggest tent. Its level 177 and the hundred thousand coins it had in its wallet told me who it was. Incidentally, Raptor told me exactly how much everyone had, and I couldn’t help noticing that most of the group was awfully poor. None had more than 30,000 coins. What, do they just spend it on equipment right away?

“Lorg, Burt, get over here!” the boss barked. Two hulks who stood out even next to the rest of the orcs dashed over.

“Mark Derwin showed up in our location, so we have to find him and take him out. Got it?”

“Just the two of us against level 300?” Lorg asked in surprise.

“Shut up! He has no idea what levels are for or how to use them. The Tsarter fighters have already been informed that he’s here, though it’s going to take them a while to get here. This is our chance to show the general what we’re made of and get a promotion for the next release. You can take the first squad with you.”

“But we already have a job to do!” Burt was equally surprised.

“We’ll meet and escort the cargo just fine without you. Look, Mark should be in this square!”

The boss drew a map right in the ground, pointing away at something there. All I could do was lie there silently berating myself. What an idiot! How smart I’d been to get away from the monsters without killing any of them, figuring nobody would notice me if I did. And then I’d pulled up the player ranking. But it had never occurred to me that the owner’s players could use the same list. Tsarter knew where I was going, tracking me less by my kills and more by the locations I was traveling through.

Both hulks clapped themselves on the chest and ran over to the other players. Engines roared to life, and four vehicles vaguely reminiscent of my Mark-2 appeared from behind the tents. Although, the resemblance didn’t go far beyond their ability to fly. Thirty players stepped forward from the crowd and loaded up. As soon as they did, the vehicles took off into the air and disappeared behind the trees. I took a quick count — there were still seventy creatures left in the camp. Judging by the grenades dangling from their belts, they were all armed to the teeth, and I didn’t like how disciplined they were, either. Nimble as cats, strong as lions. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to take them out. Time to go.

“Second squad, get ready to meet the cargo! Third squad, get the camp ready for transportation. We’re moving out!”

That set of orders piqued my interest. What cargo? What could be so valuable that they’d send a whole hundred orcs to guard it? They were outfitted beautifully, too. I looked back in the direction of the river — it led south. Ulbaron had already told me my oxygen supply was full, so I was ready to dive back in. There was a strong pull to keep going, but the urge to find out what the cargo was won out. Mentally patting myself on the back for thinking to whitelist myself, I crept carefully toward the vehicles. Players walked by, rolling up tents and taking guns down out of the trees, but nobody noticed me. I’d mastered play as a ninja.

I froze once more when I got to where I was going. There were four vehicles left on the ground, one of which the orcs were using as a trailer. All their equipment was being loaded up into it. Each vehicle was worth 50 million coins, and that raised a question: where had the orcs come up with that kind of money? The answer dawned on me quickly, also explaining why they were all so advanced. The location had once been home to a big city. There had been plenty of universities located there, and since students made up the demographic that spent the most time playing video games, I had to assume there had been quite a few players. But how many kills did they have to get to level-up that high?

I barely had enough self-control to keep from burying Fang in the next orc to haul an enormous package over to the vehicle. But if I’d given myself away, I would never have found out anything about the cargo. The players started to gather around the vehicles. Judging by their activated weaponry, they were all business, so I seized the moment, crawled into the “trailer,” and hid behind the package that had just been loaded onto it. Raptor told me it was a level three tent worth 100,000 coins. Yet another question for the creatures — where did they get everything?

“Let’s move!” I heard one of the fighters call, and the vehicles took off, the one I was in, as well. Raptor was able to track the speed we were flying at as well as the direction — we were heading toward the hexagon’s main city. The general’s lair.

Half an hour later, we began descending. The map showed me we were at the edge of the location. Once we’d gotten less than a meter off the ground, I rolled off and melted into the short grass. The weapons stayed silent. Good, nobody noticed me. Still, I waited a little while before poking my head up.

The orcs had landed in the middle of an abandoned field. It had once been a well-groomed park, but it had been overgrown with weeds by the time we arrived. Feeling exposed with no trees to hide behind, I stayed close to the transport as I looked around. The orcs had perked up and were pointing at something in the distance. But all I could do was grind my teeth — a pair of binoculars would have been nice right then. Whatever they were pointing as was really far away. I decided what my next purchase in the store would be. I’d seen something like that already, though I hadn’t been sure what to do with it. But everything made sense after the Ulbaron update. The optics would integrate right into the helmet.

But I wasn’t going to get to work on that until I was in relative safety, somewhere that wasn’t in the middle of a thirty-strong squad. When the dark dots showed up on the horizon and started to approach, I had to quell the urge to jump up and make a break for it. The enormous hulk of a transporter escorted by a couple dozen players was making its way toward us. The vehicle eased by; the escorts stopped where they were. The orc leader raised a hand in greeting, and the newcomers replied in kind.

“Not too many of you today!” called a humanoid clothed in a BRO-IV outfit. I couldn’t tell what race it belonged to.

“Mark Derwin is in our location, so the commander sent deputies off after him.”

“Be careful,” the humanoid said, emotions flashing in its voice. “They say he took out three plants singlehandedly.”

“We only cover ten kilometers, so it’ll be fine. Okay, see you in three days!”

The vehicles set off after the transporter, and I was barely able to grab hold of the trailer to make sure the escorts took me with them. But the excitement didn’t last long. No matter how high I got my camouflage, it wasn’t able to hide the dust my body kicked up. I heard a shout behind me.

“Hey, what’s that?! You have a tail!”

I was only going to have a couple moments of confusion. Letting go of the trailer, I rolled along the ground, held my breath, and opened fire. Fire first or never fire at all.

It took no time at all for the orcs to realize what was going on, and I was only able to take out seven of them. Most dropped to the ground, though there were some idiots, too. One of the vehicles soared into the air in an attempt to shoot down at me from above. The only problem was that its protection wasn’t up to the task of holding off a level 12 pistol. Three precise shots later, and the machine lurched over, dumping the orcs onto the ground.

Realizing that lying there was a terrible idea, I jumped to my feet and caught a bracing shot to the body. The players who had just arrived were shooting at me. The location border kept them from getting any closer, but they could shoot across it just fine. I was thrown to the side. Ulbaron held up, however — the players couldn’t penetrate the protection it offered. And while I was flying through the air, I managed to take out another fighter. I’d been tossed right at it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small object fly by, and I knew immediately what it was. Rolling along the ground, I grabbed the body of the fighter I’d just killed and pulled it onto myself. There was an explosion, and a wave of fire washed over me. The orcs were starting our little engagement with grenades. The body on top of me twisted, though the important part was that its universal protection necklace kept it in one piece. With no time to think, I jumped up and continued holding the fighter in front of me as a shield, the next few grenades hitting the ground too late. I was already far away. My advanced agility and strength really played a huge role in fights, though as long as I couldn’t see my opponents, Valkyrie couldn’t shoot them even with Raptor telling me where they were. I had to get up and give them a target so I could see those juicy 100% values. Not stopping for a second, I continued cutting them down, one orc reaching for a grenade and just earning itself an explosion right where it had been standing. The grenade had been activated, but I’d shot the orc down before it could make the throw. The snipers working from the neighboring location were doing good work. To my consternation, Ulbaron’s protection was dropping quickly. But the orcs couldn’t penetrate the body of their own fighter, and that did them in. Throwing the creature away, I dashed toward the rest and finished off the last ten. Of Ulbaron’s 600 hits, almost half of them were gone, so I knew I couldn’t just up and head over to take out the humanoids. Trying to get to them through my device control was a failure with how far away they were. My radius was thirty-five meters, half the skill level. Everything beyond that was inaccessible.

The only option that left me was a heroic retreat, so I headed off after the transporter. Ulbaron kept up its end of the bargain. Lying on my back, I flew off a couple centimeters above the grass, Valkyrie aimed and ready to fire at the humanoids. The transporter had managed to get half a kilometer away, and I had to track it down quickly. All the orcs in the vicinity were on their way to avenge their fallen comrades. The Tsarter group, too. I did end up having to take a few shots — some of the players leaped up into the air to see if they could see and take me out that way. There were a few explosions, too, but they just demolished the vehicles and player bodies littering the area. I guess there won’t be any loot for me to collect later.

Once I’d gotten far enough away, I turned face down and accelerated to reach my top speed. I got to the transporter in a few seconds, and it had no shot against me. Placing my hands on it gave me complete control. Immediately dropping one side down into the middle, I squished a good hundred guards. There were only monsters there, no players, and so I didn’t pay them too much attention. As soon as one poked its head up out of the wreckage, I took it off with a charge from my pistol.

I dug through the available equipment and finally found what I’d been looking for: a small area designated as storage. Another champion popped up, Valkyrie made its opinion known, and everything fell suddenly quiet. Raptor told me the giant vehicle was the only living thing within 120 meters.

That didn’t take long to change.

You took a selfie with a live larva-level creature in the background from less than three meters away. 60000 coins received.

***

You destroyed a transporter.

Valkyrie, Fang, Ulbaron, and Raptor levels increased by 1 (13).

Level +10 (330).

5 free attribute points received.

***

You took the first picture of a dead larva-level creature. 120000 coins received.

You took the first picture of 60 dead champions. 108000 coins received.

You took the first picture of 43 dead superior monsters. 1290 coins received.

Seven level four items from the transporter were at least some compensation for the time I’d spent. I hadn’t been able to grab anything from the orcs, and I wasn’t about to head back that way. Sending 1.2 million to my account and yelling at the system for taking 50%, I got to work tearing apart the beast with practiced speed. Everything standing between me and the storage was turned into dark dust. Now they won’t be able to print any more…

I froze, mouth hanging open, just a couple steps away from my goal. Of course! Suddenly, I realized why the soldiers didn’t take pictures of the monsters. Two plus two was four — the whole time I’d been making my way to the checkpoint back in my first day or two, the monsters had just laid there in the grass waiting for someone to take a picture of them. And after I’d done just that with my phone, they’d been turned back into nanoparticles. Okay, so the game doesn’t know when you get a kill; it only gets the info and dissolves the body when it’s added to the database. And keeping that from happening lowered the number of available nanoparticles. Fewer nanoparticles meant fewer monsters. The logic was simple, but I couldn’t have disagreed with it more — if we didn’t take pictures of the bodies, the owner’s players definitely would. It wasn’t a smart move. At least, I didn’t think so.

Convinced I was right, I took out the last obstacle and finally got to the valuable cargo. Now it makes sense why they needed all that protection. I was just surprised there hadn’t been more monsters and players assigned to it. Apparently, they’d let their guard down over the previous couple weeks.

I was holding six stones shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow and flashing bolts of lightning. Earth noa. Six units the game owner couldn’t leave our world without.

The penalties I was already dealing with were apparently the worst the game had to throw at me — nothing happened when I stole the game owner’s loot. A couple taps later, and Ulbaron had a special reinforced pocket that fit all the stones. Now it’s time to get out of here.

The game had a response, but it wasn’t the one I’d been expecting. And it definitely was time to get out of there.

Protection complete. You were able to attract the attention of the Tsarter group, meaning your fellow Earthlings are in the clear. They’ve been informed of your feat.

Level +1 (331).

Chapter 3

THE FOREST swept by below me, and red dots blinked to show me where monsters where, but I wasn’t about to stop. I needed to put as much distance between myself and the dead transporter as I could. And with that in mind, I headed due south, damn the consequences. Tsarter wasn’t a concern — I didn’t have enough time to hide or worry.

You arrived in a safe zone.

The message popped up so suddenly that I very nearly flew straight into a tree. The new location came with quite the surprise — a few, actually. For starters, the safe zone was an entire location, and not just the village Aspen had once been. And there were at least 100 humans there, at least judging by the ranking, though none of them were above level 20. Not only that, but the zone wasn’t ringed by monsters. There was something else, instead. I suddenly noticed a green dot running parallel to my course, standing out against the usual red. Banking hard to the right, I headed in that direction, but it flew off with unsettling synchronicity and speed to stay right at the edge of Raptor’s range. There were about 130 meters separating us, but I couldn’t see anything no matter how hard I stared. It was unnerving. Why is it green? Is that supposed to mean something?

I wasn’t able to figure it out, so I decided to accept it and move on. Flying past a few villages, I was shocked to see how calm and at ease the people there were. And they were people, not the game owner’s creatures. There were a lot of them, too. Quite a lot. Every building, every shack, every gatehouse was being used as housing. But even beyond them, there were rows and rows of tents that were also packed with people. There were children, adults, even older people. In fact, it was almost like the game had failed to touch the whole location. They saw and pointed at me, some of them hid, and none of them knew if I was a friend or an enemy. But I wasn’t about to come in for a landing, so I flew on to the next village, where I saw the same picture. The same overcrowding, the same tents, the same people looking up at me. There was a look of fear on all their faces.

The green dot stayed invisible even in open space. Raptor’s probably just glitching. Getting my bearings, I headed toward the central village in the location. It was hard not to notice, the same kind of garden city as Aspen. The only difference was that it was even more beautiful. There were more ornaments, the waterfalls were bigger, and lakes were wider, and the bushes had been molded into statues and other figures. It felt like I was in Versailles or Peterhof, and definitely not in a location overrun by refugees and surrounded by monsters.

Mark Derwin, you’re directed to land. If you don’t, you will be fired upon.

The message popped up half a kilometer before the entrance to the village. Raptor highlighted a few defensive towers, so I decided to follow the game’s instructions. Settling onto the ground, I went the rest of the way on foot. But that’s when the green dot made its move. Accelerating, it flew into the village and headed toward me, stopping a few meters away. Finally, I could see what it was: a gray-haired old man who looked like a mage from some fantasy movie. What made it stand out was the shimmering invisibility field — there was a cloak tossed over its outfit that served as camouflage. I’d never seen anything that advanced. Making a mental note to figure out what it was and where I could get one, I noticed the function — it was definitely a function — look me over and nod with satisfaction.

“Yes, that’s about how I imagined you, Mark Derwin,” the old man said. “I’m Verloven, the head of this safe zone. Please, be my guest.”

The perception I’d been so proud of was powerless against Verloven. I couldn’t see its name, its level, its attributes, nothing. For me, it was like looking at a piece of furniture that could for some reason walk and talk. Only Raptor showed me there was the still-green point in front of me.

“I don’t have much time, and there are people following me, too,” I said in an attempt to decline. Verloven just smiled.

“Tsarter can’t enter this location. Neither the monsters, nor the players the owner inserted into the game can. And I won’t keep you long — I know where you’re going in such a hurry. Believe me, a chat would benefit us both.”

Arguing with a creature that can go invisible isn’t the best idea, so I let it walk me over to a small gazebo. Servants brought food over. To my surprise, they were people, too.

“Of course,” Verloven said, noticing where my glance was lingering. “There isn’t a single changed in this location. My function is to protect humans — I’m a defender.”

“Something like the people Olsen mentioned? The power balancers?”

“It’s a joy to hear how informed you are, but no, I don’t destroy monsters. I protect people. Those are two completely different functions.”

“You chased all the monsters out of the location without killing them?”

“Exactly. Although, I have a problem: the resources in each location are limited. It’s so crowded here, and we don’t have enough food or water. I need help, Mark Derwin.”

“Let me take a wild guess — you need another location? To make sure you can bring in more people to keep safe?”

“Your sarcasm is understandable if mistaken. No, I don’t need more lands, at least not in this release. But for me to do a good job, I need to get rid of some traces of the game. There are two caches and one dungeon in this location. And I want you to help me destroy them.”

“If it were that simple, any of your players could take care of it,” I replied dubiously. “What’s the catch?”

“Anyone can beat a dungeon or collect a reward from a cache. But not everyone can destroy them. The game takes care of its own, protects them. You’ll have to deal with an opponent, though I know who it will be. He’ll be at the same level as you, be just as strong as you, have the same attributes as you. Basically, it will be a reflection of you, only looking different. A distorted mirror.”

“But whoever I go up against will know how to use their levels,” I said, setting the bait. It really is a good idea to listen to your opponents every once in a while instead of killing them immediately. The orcs deserved my thanks. I decided I would start killing them quickly, without making them suffer.

“No, and that’s your opportunity. You haven’t gone through the trials, and so your reflection will be just as weak. But do this, and I’ll tell you how to leverage your levels.”

“That’s not enough. I need information about the game, how to finish it.”

“Nobody but the game owner knows that.” The old man threw up its arms. “All I know is that noa has nothing to do with it — that’s payment for the game. But what the game itself needs? My function doesn’t know.”

“Wait a second. What do you mean, the game owner doesn’t need noa? Why are they sucking it out of the planet then?”

The rest of the conversation turned my perception of the game on its head. There was a creator who had designed and given life to the game. Powerful beings like the owner could purchase the game and roll it out on unattended planets — it was less than pleasant to find out that our planet was considered unattended in the cosmic hierarchy. Anyway, the creator received noa as payment for the game installation. Nobody knew what the owner needed from the planet, however, though I had a guess. There was a reason there was a digger in every hexagon. They explored Earth’s core in search of anything valuable the owner could use, and that was the main objective. Looting on a planetary scale. And that was why they couldn’t just sneak onto Earth and take what they needed, instead kicking off the full game for cover.

“I’ll tell you about levels once you’re done with my job,” the old man said finally. A message popped up on my screen:

New mission: Clear the location completely. Description: The head of safe zone 2 in hexagon 8821 assigned you to destroy 2 caches and 1 dungeon generated by the game. You’ll be up against a defender equal to you in levels, attributes, and skills.

“You’ll need this to destroy the game pieces,” the old man said as he handed me three items reminiscent of billiard balls. “Just activate them in the heart of the location.”

As soon as I took the balls, the game reacted:

Defender activated.

Be careful! As soon as you leave the village, the hunt will begin.

“Do I have to fight alone, or can I bring people with me?” I should have asked that question right at the beginning.

“The game will create a copy of anyone you take with you. It’s up to you, but I’d advise against it.”

“Even if it’s personified noa?” I asked, and Verloven thought for a while.

“No, that would not count as a player,” he said slowly. “There wouldn’t be a copy. Why, do you have noa?”

“It doesn’t sound like you’re as in the loop as Olsen.” I tapped a few buttons on Raptor’s screen, and Ulbaron pulled a stone out of its secret pocket. Verloven’s eyes lit up. In fact, he very nearly jumped toward me, though he stopped himself in time.

“When you materialize noa, all the owner’s most powerful players will come running, attracted by the glow in the ether,” the function said without taking its eyes off the glowing rock. “But if you give it to me, I’ll pay you well. You need information on how to boost dungeon levels, right?”

“I need to know how to get the rainbow pearl. And the whole story with exact instructions.”

“Agreed! Destroy the game pieces, give me the noa, and you’ll have your plan of action.”

“And I won’t have to go looking for anyone else?” Olsen had taught me that functions were devious little characters. “For example, a digger. It’ll just be step-by-step instructions on how to find the pearl, right?”

The old man looked deflated.

“No, the main step in my plan was going to be finding the digger. That’s the only function that knows how to boost dungeon levels. Olsen wasn’t lying — that’s your only shot at finding the rainbow pearl.”

I was about to open my mouth when I stopped so suddenly I nearly bit my tongue. Who cares about the digger? I knew at least one other creature that might know where to find the pearl. Why didn’t I ask right away? Sometimes, I had to doubt my intelligence.

“So, you don’t have anything to offer,” I said. “Grust, time to wake up — I need you. Materialize.”

Verloven jumped forward in an attempt to stop me, but it was too late. The noa was gone. I almost felt bad looking at the old man, as his face suddenly looked drawn and haggard. Bags appeared under his eyes. It was like he’d lost his reason for living, and it had been just an arm’s length away.

“It’s a damn shame, Mark!” Grust showed up right on the table in the gazebo. Buried in it up to his waist, my ghostly partner looked like a ballerina wearing a tutu. A few seconds later, the table split in half, unable to stand up under the pressure of the player solidifying right in the middle of it. “Where are we?”

“Good to see you, too,” I said as I pulled Swallow out. It had been on my back the whole time. While it had bothered me in the beginning, I’d gotten used to it, and it even felt odd taking it off.

“Are you kidding me?” Grust took the weapon, checked his phone, cursed, and looked up at me in surprise. “Level thirteen? Have you seen the requirements?”

“Verloven, you want some noa?” I asked, turning to the old man without replying. The latter’s deadened eyes lit back up. “I see you do, and we need the attribute limit removed. Can you do that?”

“I can’t, but you can,” the function replied. “Grust isn’t just a player; he’s noa personified. You can give him your levels, and I’ll teach you how to do that if you give me a unit of noa.”

“Give me levels?” Grust asked. “That would remove the limitation?”

“Exactly. Mark Derwin hasn’t beaten a trial, so his levels aren’t locked in. He can give them to you to bypass your attribute limit. Once he does, you’ll be able to level-up and use your named item.”

The old man was turning on the charm. And judging by how bright my partner’s eyes were, the move had worked. I just had to make the decision on my end.

“What do you need noa for?” I asked.

“If I give it to the owner, I’ll get two locations in the next release instead of just one. That way, I’ll be able to save more creatures.”

“If I give him levels, will I lose seventy attribute points?”

“Yes, though you can just replace them with syringes. Just a hundred and forty thousand coins, and your partner will be a full-fledged player.”

“Mark? What do you say? I won’t be able to do much without Swallow.” Grust started pushing, and I gave in. It was going to be easier taking on monsters together, anyway.

“Fine, damn it.” Ulbaron dropped another stone out of its pocket, and I handed it to Verloven. “What do we do?”

You gave 70 levels to the materialized noa version of Grust Kilvan.

You were penalized free attribute points (70).

Current level: 271.

“Unlock named items for him,” I said, my voice exhausted. Handing over the levels had drained me. The process itself was simple, so simple that I hated having given up noa for it, in fact. Verloven unlocked yet another bit of functionality, that one labeled level transfer, and that was about it. Next, I selected the number of levels; sent them to Grust, who was the only available recipient; and doubled over in pain. It felt like I was being run over by a tank. Actually, it was almost on the same level as what I’d experienced the first time I boosted my strength. It took three hours for Grust to adapt to the changes, after which he started printing out syringes. I had to stop him — it was going to take too long to go from level 15 attributes to meeting the requirements of his level 13 rifle.

“Your request was approved,” Verloven said. “Grust can now collect as many syringes as he wants in the same block.”

“You’re kidding me! Why not just do that from the beginning?” my partner exclaimed. “Mark, how are you for coins? Got any to spare?”

“Here.” Three million hopped over to his account, and I turned back to Verloven. The function was stroking his new acquisition.

“Hey, you got anything interesting on you, function?”

“I don’t understand your question, Mark Derwin.”

“Damn it! There’s a lot I have to explain to you. Do you have add-ons for named items? Weapons, armor, accessories, anything. Or maybe, do you have named items themselves?”

“There’s the store…” Verloven still wasn’t catching my drift.

“The store doesn’t accept noa, and I just so happen to have three more units.” I decided to hold onto one of my stones just in case, pulling out the others. “Is that good enough of an argument to get you to dig a little deeper?”

The old man’s brows shot upward, though he quickly regained control. Glancing around, he whispered back.

“Yes, I have some things. What do you need?”

“Armor for Grust, binoculars for me, and an extender for the scanner. I don’t like how short Raptor’s range is.”

“Give me a minute.” Verloven’s eyes rolled back as he turned statuesque. I looked over at Grust, who was lying unconscious on a bench, his body adapting to whatever Swallow required.

“The armor and binoculars are fine, though there’s a problem with the scanner — there aren’t any named items with more range than Raptor.” It had taken the old man exactly a minute to run his calculations. “I can offer you flight drives for Grust’s armor or add power to Valkyrie. What about a grenade launcher? If you have two units of noa, I can throw in an invisibility cloak, the same one I’m wearing. Anything for noa!”

Damn it! I really could have used something powerful with area damage, and I had to think about it. Grust needed to fly; groups of monsters needed to be killed. And invisibility was key — I was lost without it. Of course, when the old man said the cloak cost 80 million, my enthusiasm quickly waned. I wasn’t going to lose two units of noa right there, and I definitely didn’t have that kind of change.

“Will you take coins for the grenade launcher?”

“Ten million,” Verloven replied immediately. “But you can just buy it in the store. It costs the same there.”

“I’ll take it!” I threw up my arms and pulled out the last noa stone. Hoarding didn’t get you anywhere in the game, after all. And while Grust was still alive, it couldn’t end. We’ll find another noa plant and pick up some more there.

“You’re full of surprises, Mark Derwin.” Verloven motioned to some servants, and they brought over the same kind of pirate chest Olsen had. “I’m glad we were able to come to an agreement. Here are your items!”

There was Ulbaron, an expansion for it, and two expansions for me. The expansions didn’t have names, just an explanation: Accessory for named item. While Grust was sleeping, I got to work getting everything ready. My mechanism repair skill made turning his armor into a flying fortress a piece of cake, after which I started tinkering around with Valkyrie. I declined the offer to change its name.

Valkyrie. Description: Universal automatic attack pistol linked to Mark Derwin. Current Valkyrie level: 13. Drum with 6 types of ammunition totaling 3900 rounds each. Ignores all armor types through level 13. Slows regeneration. Blocks 2 random abilities. Cannot be blocked in the game world. Range: 300 meters. Under-barrel grenade launcher that holds 13 plasma grenades. Requirements: Pistol shooting (70), agility (60), strength (60), monster knowledge (70), perception (60), resilience (60), device control (60), pyrotechnics (70), demo expert (70), defusing (60). Cost: 25000000 coins.

The additional feature necessitated some more injections — the two new attributes as well as the new skill needed a syringe containing 500 free points. Paying the million, I started working on my long-suffering armor. I’d already updated Ulbaron just recently, so it wasn’t too big of an issue.

Although, there were challenges… The device I installed, which came with 24x zoom, integrated with Valkyrie and my phone. Reticles, arrows, and some distance indicators appeared, none of which I understood. Sure, the zoom was fantastic. I was able to see a bird’s foot on the roof of the next building over, though the additional options were distracting. It was hard to focus. I assumed it would make shooting easier, but in that moment, it was tough.

The new suit took perception (60), good eye (60), and pistol shooting (70). That last one was presumably because it integrated with Valkyrie. The cost also jumped to 35 million, though I didn’t even pay attention to minor details like that. The syringe with 120 attribute points for good eye went into my leg. Finally, I was done, and pulling up my status table gave me a thrill.

Status table

Name

Mark Derwin

Coins

10844830

Level

271

Titles and ranks

Title: Hero

Ranks: Bandit Bane, Lone Wolf, Stone Wall

Attributes

Strength

70

Regeneration

60

Stamina

70

Resilience

60

Agility

70

Willpower

40

Necrotica

50

Cartographer

50

Fortress

60

Perception

70

Noiseless

40

Concealment

40

Scanner

50

Camouflage

40

Introversion

40

Hacking

70

Coordination

70

Aeronautics

70

Pyrotechnics

70

Demo expert

70

Good eye

60

Skills

Pistol shooting

70

Anatomy master

60

Rifle shooting

8

Consciousness block

40

Melee weapons

60

Trackless

40

Device control

70

Spatial perception

60

Device repair

60

Hacking protection

60

Detection

50

Electromagnetic impulse protection

60

Monster knowledge

70

Defusing

60

“Have you noticed that there aren’t really any electromagnetic weapons in the game?” Grust asked almost as soon as he woke up. He liked his Ulbaron, especially with the ability to fly, though his face fell when he saw the requirements running another few million coins. Another four million left my pocket, and he printed himself out an enormous syringe.

“I’ve never really thought about that,” I said. “There’s lightning. Oh, and I have a skill — electromagnetic impulse protection.”

“Lightning is electricity. That’s different. And yeah, I know about the skill — I’m going to have to pick it up, too. But it’s strange! I checked the store, and there’s really nothing there capable of taking out electronics. No EMP grenades, no ammunition, nothing. That makes me nervous. They can use it on us, but we can’t use it on them.”

“Could that be because the owner is a robot?” I asked. “The general’s spawn are all metal, and the general is probably something like them. The game owner showed up on a ship, so why would it let us have weapons that could damage its home?”

“Mark, wait a second!” Grust suddenly jumped up and peered closely at me. “We can take the bastard out and stop the game! What do you have going on? I know about a military base where they were testing electromagnetic rifles. They were planning to use them on drones, but they’re perfect for us. What do you think?”

“I think we’re up to our necks as it is. And the first thing we have to do is take me out.”

Grust’s face turned into stony mask.

“Don’t worry, it’s just that another one of me showed up. Why don’t I tell you what happened while you were out of the picture? And then, we can decide what we’re going to do afterwards…”

You left the village. The hunt has begun.

Chapter 4

THE FEELING of complete helplessness was driving me crazy, and it took deep breaths to stay in control. It’s awful when you can’t do anything but still know you have to do something. As I walked through the forest, my eyes glued to Raptor, everything was quiet. All I could see were the other humans and Grust. The latter was a silent shadow pacing a hundred meters behind me. It had been an hour since we’d left the village, and nothing had happened since then. But that just made it worse — I was running out of time. There were still five hundred kilometers to go, and instead of flying off to look for the pearl, I was walking along trying to catch a ghost like some kind of idiot. Why did I have to get my camouflage and concealment so high? If I’d known I was going to have to fight myself, I wouldn’t have.

“Two hundred meters to the cache. You heading in?” Grust’s voice asked in my headphones.

“You go first. I’m going to destroy the thing, and you should get a level first.”

“Good call! Okay, cover me.”

My partner slipped past me and made it to the enormous boulder in the middle of the open field we’d made our way to. Even someone who knew as little about geology as me could recognize that it was malachite — green, glimmering, processed into a perfect cube. While the cache I’d found had been a fairytale oak, the second was more like a weight someone might use for a scale. You don’t get those perfect corners in nature.

“Done. Take it out.”

Grust retreated to the edge of the clearing, where he took up a defensive position. It took a while for me to force myself out of the woods. Hiding behind trees was one thing; stepping out with a target on my back was something different entirely. But it wouldn’t have been right to make Grust activate the spheres.

Slowly, listening to every rustle around me, I started in. My opponent was in no hurry to attack, letting me get all the way over to the boulder. It turned out to be twice as tall as me. Even just getting the bonus meant a quick flight up into the air. The chest was right in the middle, and I was about to jump forward when something stopped me. The whole thing was off. Something was there that wasn’t supposed to be. Flying a couple meters away, I circled the boulder, studying every side. Just a large, green stone. It was beautiful, the kind someone might make a chess piece out of, really a great piece of work. But I couldn’t figure out what was out of place.

Rapter was giving me the all-clear to move in, collect my loot, and activate the first sphere. Just in case, I flew another circle. Again, nothing. Grust let me work, understanding what was at stake. Finally, I edged closer and, as a last resort, activated my device control. There was nothing for it to latch onto, but still…

Remote control device detected.

Would you like to hack it?

The blinding explosion washed out the script on the screen for a few moments, and I finished reading it as I was hurled through the air. It was as hot as an oven. A wave of small rocks pelted my body, and the grand finale was something heavy smacking into my back. For a couple seconds, my consciousness faded, and I didn’t even notice when I hit the ground. What I did notice was that Ulbaron was flashing an enormous red exclamation point — its protection was dangerously low. Something — and not the explosion — had penetrated it.

“I see him!” Grust yelled happily, and I heard Swallow kick into action. It sounded more biting than a machinegun. Having a hard time concentrating, I tracked where the blue chunks of energy were flying, and my updated device automatically zoomed in. Valkyrie popped out of my arm; Grust’s rounds were joined by another pattern pulverizing the odd creature.

It was my opponent. From what I could tell, it was humanoid, though it had some extra upper extremities. Three or four, but definitely more than two. I recognized Ulbaron immediately — the named armor had a distinctive skin. With one hand, Raptor included, the monster was gripping a tree branch, while Valkyrie was trying to break through my protection from the other. And while I didn’t notice Fang, what I did see was that the creature’s pistol wasn’t adapted. My Valkyrie had a grenade launcher.

It took all of a split-second to recognize and process that information. Advanced perception really does work wonders. Ulbaron was down to thirty hits when Valkyrie jerked. The grenade launcher didn’t shoot quickly, pumping out just one grenade every three seconds, but even one plasma grenade was enough to send the creature flying off to the side. Grust straightened up and continued shooting. I couldn’t see it anymore, though that meant it couldn’t see me, either, and I was more than happy with that. My protection stopped dropping as precipitously as it had been. But as I rolled away, I heard Grust curse.

“It flew off… Damn it, that bitch! I wish I had that flying thing. You good?”

“I feel like a roast piglet,” I replied. At its current level, Ulbaron restored 13 hits every five minutes, which meant I was going to have to wait quite a while before I picked my next fight. Raptor flashed a few times to grab my attention. After I mentally tapped a few buttons, the logs showed up in my helmet. Are you kidding me? It suddenly made sense why things had gone south so quickly.

Each of my opponent’s hits had taken off six points of protection. The explosion hadn’t been that bad — the thermal burn and contusions had been taken care of quickly by my regeneration. But the creature’s direct attack had almost finished me off, as it had hit me nearly a hundred times. If it hadn’t been for Ulbaron at level 13, which gave me 650 defense, my adventure would have been over in the blink of an eye. Valkyrie’s rate of fire, from what I could remember, was 200 shots a minute. That meant my opponent had been shooting me for over thirty seconds… That’s terrifying, honestly. I could actually only count on 108 protection units rather than the listed 650. That damn general and its penalties!

“It took us a long time to get going, so it had a while to prepare. We’ll be smarter next time,” Grust said encouragingly.

“It’s going to take me half a day to be ready for the next time,” I muttered.

“What are you angry at me for? I buried almost a hundred shots in that thing, just one after another!”

“Plus ten shots from me… And a grenade. Still, it’s not dead, so the old man was lying. The bastard didn’t get all my problems.”

“It’ll die sooner or later. I tagged it with a tracker.”

“What?!” I jumped up, stunned by the news.

“You thought Swallow is worth thirty million just for fun? This baby’s got some meat to her! So, yes, I know where that thing is, though I don’t have a map — it’s just flying around on a dark background. Don’t worry! We’ll be fine as long as we don’t make any more mistakes like that.”

“Here’s a map.” Sending him the map I’d downloaded from the general’s spawn wasn’t difficult. Just in case, I overlaid the coordinates of the remaining cache and the dungeon on it.

“Ah, that’s better,” Grust said cheerfully. “It’s right by the second cache. Waiting. Looks like it wants to pull the same trick, although…what am I telling you this for? Hold on, let me figure out how to share the picture with you, and you can see for yourself.”

A little while later, a red dot showed up to indicate where in the location our opponent was. I zoomed in on the map, finding the second cache also in an impenetrable thicket broken by an open field. And my reflection had taken up a position right at the edge of the field.

“Could it get rid of the tag?”

“No, it deactivates as soon as it’s found. It’s definitely on that thing’s armor, so finish up here, and let’s go take it out.”

It was easier going once we had an idea of where our opponent was. Heading back over to the cache we were at, I found that it had emerged from the inferno unscathed. Even the chest was in pristine condition. Apparently, everything just refreshed automatically, and I got a message as soon as I touched the lid:

You found a cache.

Level +1 (272).

You were compensated because you cannot receive your level four item. 350000 coins received.

All I could do was chuckle bitterly. I’d lived to see the day where I didn’t even get anything solid, though there was at least the compensation. They could have skipped it. Pulling out one of my billiard balls, I squeezed it and dropped it into the chest. As soon as I was far enough away, the big stone and even the rest of the field vanished. Crushed trees and grass were all that appeared in their place. In fact, it was almost like the cache had appeared from somewhere up above, dropped down, and squashed everything that had been right there. Raptor buzzed merrily to update the mission.

You destroyed 1 of 3 game pieces.

My protection took forever to rebuild, so that gave us time to discuss where we wanted to go next. Grust was in favor of wrapping up the dungeon first before going after our target, but I was against that move. It was a crafty, treacherous beast we were up against. Grust had said there was no way the thing could take off the tracker, though I had a hard time believing that. If I’d been in the creature’s shoes, I would have done everything possible to get into the dungeon without being noticed. That’s where I would have been least expected. But since the tracker was by the second cache, we needed to head in that direction. Convoluted logic, but it was all I had. We needed to go where we were supposedly expected and see who outplayed who.

Grust pushed back until we took off. But no sooner did our feet leave the ground, then he shut his mouth, accepting my point of view. At least, that’s what he said. From what I could tell, he was even less steady in the air than I was, though we still made it to the second cache fairly quickly. We decided to approach it from the opposite side of the field.

He went first. Once we got to the clearing, he peered through his scope, and Swallow opened up on a big tree a second later. I crawled closer and zoomed in to see that Grust was shooting at Ulbaron. The armor was tied to the tree trunk, putting up no resistance. Every burst of energy passed right through. The hole in the tree behind it grew larger and larger.

The problem was that Ulbaron was empty.

“Grust, stop, it isn’t here,” I yelled, even standing up. Nobody took a shot at me. Raptor also told me it was safe, though I couldn’t exactly believe it. My camouflage was impressive.

“I’m going in — cover me.” Grust was about to dash toward the stone when I stopped him.

“It’s a trap. I’m first this time.”

My pride at having outsmarted our opponent didn’t do anything to cloud my mind. It worked clearly and precisely — the thing had known I’d head for the nearest cache, and it had been waiting for me there. True, it got more than it bargained for, which is what had saved me. Then, it had realized there was a tracker on Ulbaron. Device control was great at finding what wasn’t supposed to be there, though it wasn’t up to the task of dealing with a level 13 named weapon. At that point, the creature had pulled off the armor, tied it to a tree, and…set up an ambush. I was positive it was waiting for us at the dungeon. Right by the entrance, as soon as we go inside. We should have gone there after the first cache by all rights. That was the kind of character we were up against — smart and damn strong. Am I really that powerful without even knowing it?

My device control only had a range of 35 meters, so it took me quite a bit of wandering around to figure out what my mirror had planned. There were three thermite mines rigged with motion sensors. Two were by the armor, one by the stone. And they were well hidden, too — it took some doing to find them.

But it took even more doing to disarm them. It was a good thing I’d mounted the grenade launcher on Valkyrie, as it had forced me to pick up a skill my opponent didn’t have: disarming. Of course, I had to get it up to level 80 to compensate for pyrotechnics and demo expert. And that took 160 points. Good thing I only have to wait ten minutes for the system to upgrade me. When I saw the result, the lost time meant nothing. Raptor showed me a few red circles around each mine, the largest being its trigger radius. As soon as someone stepped into that area, the thing detonated. The second, which was a bit smaller, was the damage zone — it was a guaranteed kill in there. Its radius was about ten meters. But within it there was a narrow path winding its way toward the mine itself, the safe area where you could approach the device without it going off. That was how you defused it manually. Device control was useless — nobody could stop an activated mine.

Easing my way along the path, I got to the first mine. I’d had to jump a couple times, as my slick counterpart had set two next to each other to make sure their activation zones overlapped. But still, I pulled it off, and the three deadly devices found a new home in my virtual storage. My partner helped me buy three remote controls. Finally, I had a powerful force at my disposal, even if it was concentrated in a very limited area.

You found a cache.

Level +1 (273).

You were compensated because you cannot receive your level four item. 350000 coins received.

***

You destroyed 2 of 3 game pieces.

We weren’t able to sell our opponent’s Ulbaron. Since it was generated by the game, as soon as I touched it, it disintegrated into dark dust. Surprised, I glanced at Raptor — all three mines were whole and intact in my virtual storage. They hadn’t been generated. They’d been purchased.

“Grust, we have a problem.” I started looking around even though nothing was showing up on the scanner. “I didn’t have any mines. That thing bought them at the store.”

“So what? Obviously, it doesn’t have any penalties. That’s just your problem.”

“Yes, but when it was created, I had more than ten million in my account. I don’t think it just left Ulbaron here. It bought another one.”

Grust cursed and took off, gesturing for me to follow him. We had the dungeon left, and we were both positive there was going to be a warm welcome waiting for us.

“Check everything here,” he said as soon as we got there. The entrance was in a small ravine, hidden between the roots of an enormous tree. It looked just like the dungeon I’d hidden from the champions in, as a matter of fact. There were plenty of spots to mount an ambush from, so I decided to spend another ten minutes.

Device control +10 (80).

Dropping a hundred and eighty thousand coins let me boost the detection radius for game items to 40 meters, though there was nothing by the dungeon entrance.

“It’s inside,” I said, having thoroughly explored the perimeter.

“What’s the problem with that?”

“Dungeons put players on a level playing field, dropping attributes and skills to level 15. If it’s hiding, we won’t be able to find it no matter how much we want to. I never should have gotten my different camouflages up so high.”

“What makes you think that’s a problem?” Grust asked in surprise. “Send me some coins.”

Without asking any questions, I sent him two hundred thousand, and it was only when the game started printing out his purchases that it all started to make sense. Yes, that could definitely work! Twelve and its fighters had gone with a similar strategy. Grust hadn’t been there then, but he was thinking way ahead of me. Apparently, I’d gotten so used to the fact that everything was blocked that nothing in that vein had even occurred to me.

“And now, the most important part — getting inside.” Grust picked up one of the plasma grenades and shoved the rest in his backpack. “Do you think that animal’s going to be waiting right by the entrance?”

“I’m almost positive.”

“In that case, in I go. If I’m not back out in a minute… Well, I’d tell you to leave, but you’re not going to, are you? So, come in a few seconds after me. And be ready — it’s going to be hot. All right, let’s do this.”

Grust bent over and ducked inside. I waited a few moments, pulled out Valkyrie, and followed suit. A wave of unbearable heat washed over me, the result of the plasma grenade going off. My partner was standing next to me, alive and well, Swallow darting back and forth at any sign of movement. Only there wasn’t any movement. The entrance was a small tunnel turning right after a couple meters, and it was empty.

You entered Rentul’s Lair.

Note!

You entered the dungeon with personified noa. Sacrifice it to boost the dungeon’s starting level by 1 (level boosting instructions).

Swallowing hard, I opened the description. Boosting the level meant burying a ritual dagger in Grust — Fang. And I had to do it in the dungeon’s central cave right after beating the first round. Once that was done, I would agree to restart the dungeon, and that was that. It would be reset, only the starting level would be one higher.

“Damn it, one more headache.” I turned to my partner. He was standing by the glimmering film, his eyes fixed on the turn at the end of the tunnel. When I went to take a step forward, a heavy hand on my chest stopped me.

“We’ll deal with it later. For now, check for mines,” he more ordered than said. And it was a good move — there was one set right around the corner. But there was nothing I could do. The chances of hacking into it were 0%, the first time I’d seen that value, and disarming was powerless. That damn level playing field!

“Okay, I’ll deal with it. What’s the headache?”

I told him about how to boost the dungeon’s level, and Grust just chuckled.

“I figured it would be something like that. Everything in this game is about noa. You thought it would be enough to disperse the stones at first, and as it turns out… So, are you going to chop me up?”

“You want a punch in the face?”

“You’re going to have to sacrifice someone. Five someones, in fact. Give that some thought. And in the meantime, get out of here — it’s going to get awfully toasty in a second.”

He pulled out a grenade and motioned toward the shimmering film. I wasn’t about to argue. Just about as soon as I was out of the dungeon, Grust popped out right behind me, cursing up a storm. The fact that he started rolling around on the ground trying to put out nonexistent flames told me how hot it had actually gotten.

“When I catch that bitch, I’m going to rip its legs off!” he spat out, jumping back into the dungeon without waiting for a reply. When I joined him, the stone walls had just barely solidified. It had gotten so hot that they’d melted, dripping down onto the floor. Still, the dungeon layout remained unchanged — the corner was right where it had been. Sweat broke out immediately as even Ulbaron failed to keep up with the change in temperature. But what disappointed and cheered me up at the same time was that our opponent wasn’t there.

“Follow me!” Another grenade went flying around the corner, and Grust jumped in behind the wall of fire. As soon as I stepped over to where he was, we got news about our opponent:

You destroyed the first round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current: 3).

The space around me flickered and started to thicken, eventually turning into a hairy, low-crawling creature that looked like an underdeveloped bear. There was no time to wonder if it was friendly or hostile — Fang took off its head. Up ahead, I heard a curse from Grust and the sound of something hard burying itself in something soft. My partner was dealing with the same problem I was: new bots.

While he handed out punches right and left, I got to work. There was only one way out of the dungeon. If my mirror was as smart as I gave it credit for, it would try to get away so it could set up an ambush somewhere else, for example, right outside. And that meant we couldn’t let it get away. Luckily, my three thermal mines were perfect for that.

I set them up the same way my opponent had, covering each other to make sure the creature couldn’t get by. They were activated with the remote controls. And that wasn’t a problem — my opponent’s chances of hacking into them would be the same I’d faced. A solid 0%.

Fighting our way through the waves of underdeveloped bears wasn’t that hard. But when we got to the main cave, we froze. Raptor told me there was a crowd of them in there, though my opponent wasn’t among them.

“We’re supposed to activate that ball here?”

“Yes, right by that stone,” I replied, pointing at the middle of the area.

“Okay, off I go.” Grust pulled out ten grenades. “Wait here.”

“Here, take the ball. When you get there, just squeeze it and put it on the stone. It should work.”

“It had better,” Grust said with a smile as he took it from me. “Okay, see you on the other side.”

One after another, the grenades found a new home in the cave. It was an inferno. Grust dove in after them, taking out the bears hiding in the corners. None survived. But again, our target wasn’t there.

Suddenly, the wall behind me started to move, and before I could react, it turned into a six-armed monster wearing nothing but underwear. It gripped my arms and legs. Neither Valkyrie nor Fang would activate.

“Grust!” I yelled into my microphone, though the only reply was an evil whisper.

“Tell your gods I said hello, Mark Derwin!”

There was a quiet squeak, and my heart skipped a beat. The creature was holding four plasma grenades. They were activated.

“Mark!” my partner yelled back, but that’s when the space around me turned into a bright red hell. A wave of pain flashed across my body, it got unbearably hot, and a darkness fell around me. All I could see were some words:

You were killed.

Wait for the game to end.

Chapter 5

You were killed.

THE MESSAGE hovered in front of me for an eternity. I could mostly sense myself, I could think, and I still had my memories. What was missing were bodily sensations. I didn’t have a body, and that was a shock. There I was, presumably existing, though at the same time, I wasn’t. There was just the white lettering that made things a little better with their stability. I lost track of time, I wasn’t sure where I was, and I didn’t know what to expect. But suddenly, there was a new message:

Returning to the game in 3… 2… 1…

Go through the personification rules.

What?!

Light was the first to come back. It was everywhere, soaking into me from every side. Then, there were sensations. I started to feel my body. The darkness left, and silhouettes broke through the light, becoming more solid with each passing moment. Thickness and volume came with them. Sounds and smells followed. And I recognized immediately where I was: the gazebo belonging to Verloven, the protector of one of the two safe locations in our hexagon. Glancing down at my hands, I realized that I’d just appeared in the world and didn’t yet have a body. Suddenly, I caught an intriguing dialog going on. I turned to see two creatures: Grust and Verloven.

“I held up my end of the deal, Grust Kilvan. Now you belong to me.”

“No, that’s not it,” my partner shot back. “Unlock the ability for me to transfer levels. You don’t care how many I have, right?”

“You won’t be able to use your named items.”

“Who cares what I can use if I’m going to die anyway? Unlock it!”

“Your request was processed and approved. You can now transfer levels.”

“Excellent. Mark, are you here yet?”

“Yes. What happened? Where’s my mirror?” It was hard to talk — my vocal cords were apparently still forming.

“You died, don’t you get it? There should have been messages about that. I couldn’t quite get there in time, though… Well, I completed the mission, the dungeon was destroyed, and I didn’t touch your trap. You can disarm it yourself. The dungeon just snapped shut and left a little hole where it used to be, so that’s where your mines are. I just about shit myself when I saw them! Figured it was the end for me, but thankfully nothing happened.”

“Game items don’t work after their owner dies,” Verloven explained. “Grust Kilvan, give him your levels, and let’s go. I have lots of plans for you.”

“Wait a second, which plans? Grust, where did you get the noa?” I asked, a sense of foreboding filling me.

“The old man… He sold it for something he wanted more — me.”

My jaw dropped when that sank in.

“You’re now the same personified noa I am. Read the rules, although there won’t be anything new there for you. You’ve seen it all. As soon as the game ends, you’re going to die just like me. Okay, come here so I can give you my levels.”

“Why?” My head was spinning, unable to get a grip on what was going on.

“Because I don’t need them anymore! I sold myself to Verloven to get noa, and now I can’t move without him telling me to. Can’t breathe, can’t fart. The game is always watching, damn it. And believe me, this was the only way. Of the two of us, you’re the only one who’s been able to hunt those rocks down, so you’re the one who has to keep going.”

“I’m not just leaving you.” I looked over at Verloven, but the old man was indifferent. “How much to buy him back?”

“Three personified units of noa, but I’ll tell you right now that I won’t take that deal. The general has a bone to pick with this player, and it’ll be very happy to get him as a gift. Even I’m interested to see what they’ll do with personified noa.”

“Mark, let’s wrap this up. You can be angry later,” Grust said. He stepped closer, and I instantly bent over double in agonizing pain. My partner groaned next to me. The world around me blurred, only to regain clarity three hours later. Checking my phone — I’d appeared in the world clutching it in my hand — I read the message on the screen:

You received 108 levels from personified noa Grust Kilvan.

108 free points available.

Current level: 109.

***

54000 coins received.

“I didn’t have that many coins — sorry about that. Your things are over there by the bench. I tossed mine in my storage. Let’s see, what else… Oh, I had some little stuff left over, so I sent it over to you, too. Maybe, there will be something you can use. All right, this is see you later — I’m sure we’ll be doing just that. No?”

Grust gave me a scrutinizing gaze, after which he nodded and turned away. I wanted to jump toward him, stop him, but I banged into an invisible field. The small platform he was standing on flew into the air, picked up speed, and flew right into the village.

“You’ll get ten noa!” I yelled, turning to Verloven. “Don’t do this!”

“The general has already been informed, Mark Derwin, and Grust Kilvan will be shipped to where it is in a few hours. It’s a done deal. In the next release, I’m going to get three locations, and you need to make your peace with this,” the function replied impassively. “But we have a deal. I need to tell you about levels and trials.”

Access to trials received.

The next dose of information I got just served to strengthen my conviction that the game needed to go. As it turned out, the levels players got for completing missions, killing larvae, beating dungeons, and everything else meant nothing. At least, they meant nothing after level 100, which was when attributes could start climbing past 15. And trials were how you built your advantage over the players around you once you’d reached level 100. The function didn’t know exactly what they would hold for me, though it assured me I wouldn’t be able to die even if I wanted to. Players who went through the trials could lose some of their levels but pick up additional attributes that gave them a better chance of surviving — tougher skin capable of withstanding fire or hits from energy weapons, steel bones that didn’t break even when you fell from a hundred meters up, multiple hearts to boost metabolism and back each other up in case something went wrong, and anything else you could imagine. There was no limit to how drastically you could change your body. The important thing was that your level could drop every time you went through a trial. Also, there was one more bit of unpleasant news: you could lose levels you didn’t lock in. The simplest example of that was transferring them to another player, something like personified noa or a close relative. But another option was as a penalty for failing missions. I hadn’t had to deal with that, but Verloven told me it was a big problem for players. There were also special skills and equipment that let you steal weapons. Not everyone had them, however. Regardless, locking your levels in meant officially declaring yourself a mutant and deciding how you wanted to mutate, primarily by picking a class. That made sense — I’d been wondering why my character in the prerelease had been a stalker, while I personally hadn’t gotten a class. You had to modify yourself and choose the direction you wanted to mutate in less by picking the right attributes and skills, and more by beating trials and locking in levels.

“You can go through trials whenever you want. The most time they take is eight hours. And with that, Mark Derwin, you know all about the levels and how to use them. I’m glad you were able to complete my mission.”

Clear the location completely complete.

Level +1 (110).

“In that case, get out of here. Tsarter has already submitted an extradition request for you, and I can’t hold them off much longer. You have 24 hours. Use them wisely.”

“Wait a second! You said personified noa glows in the ether. How am I supposed to hide?”

“Answering that question was not part of our deal.” The old man started away.

“If you do answer it, you’ll get noa in a month. That’ll give you four locations in the next release.”

“A week,” Verloven replied sternly. I nodded, a poor negotiator in that moment — I would have agreed to anything.

“You need the closure and introversion attributes as well as the inner harmony skill. If the average value of those three is higher than your opponent’s perception, they won’t notice you. You have a week to bring me a stone, and if you don’t, you’ll find out what real penalties are. See you soon, Mark Derwin.”

The old man walked away, and I pulled up my status table on my phone, grinding my teeth in frustration. I was starting all over.

Status table

Name

Mark Derwin

Coins

6444830

Level

110

Titles and ranks

Title: Hero

Ranks: Bandit Bane, Lone Wolf, Stone Wall

Attributes

Strength

1

Stamina

1

Agility

1

Skills

Before ducking into the store, I checked my inventory. All that was left of Ulbaron was the name — it needed major repairs, though my phone couldn’t say how many coins that would cost. I was missing device repair. Valkyrie and Raptor were in better condition but still damaged. Only Fang was ready to go, though I was going to need a mountain of new attributes before I could use it. And it didn’t look like I had enough coins for that.

Grust hadn’t left me anything useful, either. It was all for the transport he’d been dreaming of building. Seven items totaled five million, so I sold them without a second thought. I needed coins right then, and even the 50% commission didn’t bother me. Having 8.9 million in my wallet was getting somewhere. That would let me do some leveling-up, though I continued studying myself before I got to work on that. The penalties were gone. There were no sanctions, no tough response, none of that, though my loot coefficient was still six. That meant every hit, every bite monsters tagged me with would cost six protection points instead of the usual one. I’m going to have to figure something out for that. Another bit of good news was that I once again had unfettered access to the store, level five items included. It’s a good idea to run into the general’s spawn and hack their phones every once in a while.

And that was the end of my exploration into the new me. The next step was the trial, and I hit the button without giving it too much thought. The area around me swirled away, giving place to a small room. There was a chair I immediately sat down in as well as a tablet on a stand.

“Mark Derwin, welcome to your trial,” said a mechanical, emotionless voice as the tablet turned on. There were three large buttons on the screen: Select class, Trial, and Exit. I just sat there, waiting for more instructions. There was no point jumping right in without knowing what I was up against.

“Introduction begun,” the voice finally said. “Trials are how players confirm the skills they’ve received and select how they want to progress through the game. Trials lock in levels and keep players from losing them to penalties. Trials give you a chance to survive. To continue, you need to select a class. Tap the Select class button on the tablet in front of you.”

Introductions were always good, but I wasn’t sure it would have been possible to dumb that one down anymore. There was no new information there whatsoever. But deciding that tapping the button wouldn’t change anything, I went ahead and did just that.

“Analyzing your gameplay… Selecting optimum class… Identifying optimum character progression…”

“I want to select my own class!” My indignation practically took my breath away. “None of your random selections!”

“Character class selected.” The game didn’t seem to pay me any notice. “There are two recommendations for you: infiltrator and stalker. Would you like to find out more about them?”

“I want to select my own class!” I repeated emphatically. “It’s my right!”

Once again, nobody cared what I thought.

“Infiltrator is a stealth class specializing in getting into enemy locations unnoticed and taking targets out there with improvised devices. There is minimal participation in open combat. The match with your past gameplay is 78%. Stalker is a stealth class specializing in hunting the unknown, while also being capable of standing up to fearsome opponents one on one. The match with your past gameplay is 56%. To read more about the class particulars, see the descriptions in the tablet.”

The Select class button disappeared, replaced by Infiltrator and Stalker. I folded my arms across my chest to show that I wasn’t about to make a choice until I had a look at the complete list of classes. But the game had its own ideas.

“You were unable to select a class on your own, so you were assigned the one with the best match. Your class is now infiltrator. Take some time to read up on your class description.”

“No, stop it!” I yelped, but it was too late. The Stalker button disappeared.

“Are you sure you want to exit the trial?” the emotionless voice asked, pouring oil on the fire. I was getting hotter. Apparently, I needed to let off some steam after respawning.

“I don’t want to leave the trial! What I want is for you to stop forcing classes on me that I didn’t pick myself!” I yelled, though I didn’t get a very satisfactory reply.

“Your class is infiltrator. Take some time to read up on your class description.”

That time, the button on the tablet started blinking, insisting I tap it. Instead, I smashed a fist into the stand and shrieked in pain. The stand looked none the worse for wear; my fist crunched, and my fingers started swelling and turning blue. But the pain at least cleared my head and let me start thinking rationally. What am I so upset about? Is the infiltrator class so bad? Either way, I wasn’t the kind to stand there with a machinegun taking on all comers. I much preferred sneaking in unnoticed, getting the job done, seeing what was what, taking what I needed, and getting the hell out of there once everything was demolished. And if being an infiltrator helped with that, I was down for it. Screw it. What does the description say?

I already knew the main portion, which made it much more interesting to read about what you could do with the class. There were several different versions — finally, something I could pick for myself. I could be a pure infiltrator, though there were other options, too: scout infiltrator, demolitions infiltrator, sniper infiltrator, and lots more. Each one had a percentage next to it that showed how well it matched the way I’d been playing the game to date. The best match was demolitions infiltrator. Following that was scout, mechanic, and a whole cohort of narrow specializations I didn’t even pull up. Demolitions, scout, or mechanic. The differences between the three were nothing to sneeze at. While demolitions infiltrators focused on building a fortress out of their skin and bones that could stand up to accidental detonations, scouts went with flexibility and elastic bones so they could squeeze through narrow openings. Definitely not for me. I could just imagine how my body would get longer, deform, and turn into a slender snake. Chills ran down my spine. The mechanic option was no good, too — it used mechanical implants to strengthen the body. No, I’m not about to look like Nine.

“Demolitions,” I said, making up my mind and tapping the button. The other options disappeared, leaving me with a list of upgrades: steel bones, impenetrable skin, reinforced internal organs, and adaptive vision.

Each of them had a value from zero to 100, only I had no way to get them higher. My invisible interlocutor correctly diagnosed my confusion and explained.

“To level-up your attributes, you need to beat trials. The minimum number of levels you can have to begin a trial is fifty. If you’re successful, those levels will be locked in, and you’ll have five free points you can spend on your attributes — one for each ten levels you lock in. If you’re unsuccessful, you’ll only get points for the levels you were able to protect, the rest lost to the game. You’ll also be penalized the attribute points in that case. Would you like to begin a trial?”

“No!” I shouted far too emotionally. It wasn’t the time for stupid, pointless risks. If there was a chance I could lose 50 levels, I wasn’t going to be touching the trials until I’d gotten to at least level 151. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to use my named items, and they were all I had in the world.

“Thank you for visiting the trial functionality. Note that you can avail yourself of it at any time. Leaving in 3… 2… 1…”

The space around me swirled once again. The walls disappeared, and there was Verloven’s gazebo. The old man was gone, presumably off to enjoy the sight of Grust being experimented on. As I looked around, however, I suddenly noticed that something had changed. Every object, every building, every tree looked strange, unnatural. Leaning more on my intuition than what I knew, I pointed my phone at the nearest building and turned on the camera. Bingo! I could see what had changed — there was a point on the wall that was only visible through my phone. A shiver ran through my body. Somehow, I knew that was where I needed to place explosives if I wanted to wipe out the building entirely. And every more or less large structure around me had points like that. Some had two, some had them on the inside — my phone drilled right through the outer walls. Of course, it was hard to tell how useful that would prove.

The last thing I needed to do was get to work on myself.

Agility +1 (2)

My first attribute syringe took me out of the conscious world for the usual eight hours. When I woke up, it was the middle of the night. Damn it… Time was flying by like a crazed rabbit. I had just five days to complete Olsen’s assignment, eight to save my sister. But there wasn’t anything I could do about that — I couldn’t leave the location until I was stronger. The Tsarter fighters were waiting for me right outside the border.

Device repair +50 (50).

Closure +90 (90).

Introversion +90 (90).

Inner harmony +90 (90).

The first thing I did was boost my device repair so I could take care of my named items, and then I made sure I could hide that I was made of noa. Nine had found Grust in just a couple minutes, making those attributes and skills must-haves. I even decided to take them as high as I could possibly afford. It wasn’t the time to worry about expenses, not when I needed to stay hidden. Sure, it took 2.5 million coins, but I pulled the trigger. Safety first.

Ten minutes later, my device repair was up and running, and I checked to see what the damage was.

Valkyrie and Raptor weren’t in bad shape. My skill told me they were each going to take just three hundred thousand to fix. Without a second thought, I spent the money. The problem was Ulbaron. Both the outfit and the devices integrated into it had taken heavy damage, and all I could do was sigh heavily when I saw it was going to take twelve million to repair it all. It found a spot in my virtual storage. There were quite a few options for armor in the store, though I went with a simple BRO-III outfit for thirty-four thousand, a BRO-III helmet for another fifty, and level five universal armor good for up to 500 hits that cost a million and a half. Finally, I was feeling more secure. The requirements were laughable — I was going to have them all met by the time I got myself to where I could use my named items.

All I had left was 4.27 million, which made my next choices tricky. Which of my three devices was I going to prioritize? Fang, Valkyrie, or Raptor? Although, that was easy — Valkyrie was what I couldn’t live without. The rest would come later.

Pistol shooting +70 (70).

Agility +58 (60).

Strength +59 (60).

Monster knowledge +70 (70).

Perception +60 (60).

Resilience +60 (60).

Device control +60 (60).

Pyrotechnics +70 (70).

Demo expert +70 (70).

Defusing +60 (60).

I watched sadly as my coins slipped away. The 1.4 million I had left wasn’t nearly enough to get me what I needed for Raptor or Fang. As I slipped into my new BRO-III outfit, I felt like I was about to hit the gas in some antique car — everything rattled and rumbled. And I remember when I thought this thing was the cat’s meow. Valkyrie found its way home, and I went back to leveling myself up so I could start living a reasonably normal life.

Just in case, I unlocked almost everything I’d had before, the only exception being rifle shooting. That was definitely something I could do without. Of course, just unlocking all the attributes and skills didn’t do much. It was impossible to get them up to where they’d been, as I just didn’t have the cash. I’d become a stripped-down version of the player I’d been not long before. And I wasn’t a fan.

Status table

Name

Mark Derwin, demolitions infiltrator

Coins

15830

Level

110 (0)

Titles and ranks

Title: Hero

Ranks: Bandit Bane, Lone Wolf, Stone Wall

Attributes

Strength

60

Closure

90

Stamina

40

Introversion

90

Agility

60

Perception

60

Resilience

60

Pyrotechnics

70

Demo expert

70

Regeneration

50

Concealment

40

Noiseless

40

Camouflage

40

Willpower

40

Fortress

40

Scanner

40

Cartographer

40

Hacking

40

Necrotica

10

Aeronautics

10

Coordination

10

Good eye

10

Skills

Device repair

50

Inner harmony

90

Pistol shooting

70

Defusing

60

Monster knowledge

50

Consciousness block

40

Device control

60

Trackless

40

Anatomy master

40

Detection

40

Melee weapons

10

Spatial perception

10

Hacking protection

10

Electromagnetic impulse protection

10

The worst part was that I was blind. Yes, I’d unlocked all the requirements for Raptor, though I was only able to get them up to level 40. To meet the requirements, I was going to need another 930 free points, or a veritable sea of coins. And all I had were a few droplets. I don’t even have anything to sell! In a moment of frustration, I checked to see if I could trade my damaged Ulbaron for coins, though the game just told me I had to completely restore it before it would take a look. I was getting pushed on all fronts, and there was nothing I could do about it. I’m just going to have to head in blind and rely on my new class as a damn infiltrator.

Suddenly, a wave of excitement hit me. Oh, right! There were mines waiting for me where the dungeon had used to be. Three mines and three remote controls would net me… Damn it, there’s that 50% commission, too… Selling them would only have gotten me a bit more than three hundred thousand. That little?

But it was time to make my move. Dropping Fang and Raptor in my storage, I ran off to collect the mines. No sense just leaving loot around. Although, that reminds me — what about those orcs I killed? They were only fifty kilometers away, and I didn’t think Tsarter would expect me to head north.

Chapter 6

THE LIST of top players in the location popped up on the screen, and I grinned. I’d lived to see the day where I’d dropped completely off it. And that’s perfect — nobody knows I’m here. Quickly slurping down some tasteless mush, I ran on, doing my best to stay away from the roads and villages. Thankfully, my map was working just fine. I wasn’t as blind as I’d thought, either. With my scanner attribute and my phone, I could “see” anyone within a radius of 40 meters, which was enough to jump farther away from the road when superior monsters were on their way by. They mostly ignored me. The players, who had their eyes glued to the ranking, didn’t know I was there. It was perfect for a newly minted infiltrator.

My fifty-kilometer forced march took all night. Olympic champions probably would have turned green with envy when they saw how fast I was going, especially given the fact that I was making my way through rugged terrain. And I only tripped and fell twice. But, of course, my 40 stamina points weren’t enough for me to keep that kind of speed up over the entire distance, so I had to take ten-minute breaks. A bit of food, and I was ready to dash off. Making it where I was going while it was still dark out was a must — the monsters weren’t as active at night.

The first rays of sunlight were just peeking over the horizon when I got to the empty meadow. My skirmish with the orcs had taken place about five kilometers from the edge of the forest, back two days before… Time flies! Just in case, I ducked down and stuck to the taller grass and little dips in the field as I moved forward. Better safe than sorry.

“When are they relieving us?” a disgruntled voice asked, scaring me nearly out of my skin. I was just a hundred meters away from my destination, and I’d just been getting ready to straighten up when I heard the question. But there was nobody on my phone screen. How are they here?! I missed Raptor — my spatial perception just wasn’t the same.

“Just sit there! It’ll be another hour,” a second voice replied. Okay, so there are two of them. At least.

“I’m hungry! And we’re sitting here like idiots. What’s he going to come back for? A few guns?”

“Both of you shut up! Orders are orders!” someone added angrily. Oh, there’s a third. And I think I even recognize it. Logr, the big orc who’d been sent to hunt me down. The hulk had apparently been punished severely if it had been sent there to guard some bodies.

Judging by the direction the voices were coming from, all three were sitting together, a little off to the side of where the battle had taken place. I crept closer and stopped to stare in surprise at the screen my helmet was showing me. My phone was streaming a beautifully laid-out network of traps. The entire field was so thoroughly mined that it was like they were expecting an attack from another reality. I counted thirty level three mines, though I was going to need to get even closer to be sure of the exact count. And I wasn’t about to do that. If the whole mess went off, nobody within two hundred meters would be left alive. And that’s all for me? I’m flattered!

Settling onto the grass, I got to work on the mines. The whole hour the player mention went toward figuring out how they were activated and finding the control center. As it turned out, there were two of them. One was not far away, presumably where the orcs were sitting, while I couldn’t reach the other. And that meant there was another cluster of fighters somewhere.

“Finally!” a voice exclaimed with relief.

“Where are you going?!” Logr barked, though nobody was listening. One of the orcs jumped up and waved. Two flying machines were heading in from the north, and the rest of the orcs got to their feet, as well. The trio, Logr and another regular orc included, showed up immediately on my scanner — they’d presumably been hiding behind some kind of device. I’m going to need to look into that.

“You lose!” Burut, another powerful player, yelled from a distance. Logr spat a string of curses and slapped the orc who’d jumped up first.

“I’m going to get marked down because of you,” the hulk growled. “You’re on guard duty until the end of the game!”

“Commander, I just — ”

“Shut up! When we get back to the base, I’ll think up where to stick you so you never forget to obey orders no matter how many releases there are.”

The two flying vehicles hovered above us. An alien head popped out of one.

“Everything quiet?”

“I’m sick and tired of you asking that. Of course, it’s all quiet! Do you even check the ranking? Mark Derwin isn’t in our location! Do you have the next shift with you?”

“Easy, Logr, I have to ask,” the new arrival said in a conciliatory tone. “You know how it is — we all have the same rules.”

“Why don’t you come down here with your rules?” the hulk growled, though there wasn’t any more anger in his voice. Both vehicles eased their way to the ground, four fighters jumping out of each. It was time for me to make my move.

Fourteen players outfitted in level four armor were a force to be reckoned with. The only problem was that reckoning with them was much easier when it wasn’t a pitched battle or a well-planned ambush. They were alone, their guard was down, and they were just going about their business. But that was their fault. The first seven didn’t even know what hit them — it was time for them to spend some time reading unpleasant messages in the black nothingness. Two seconds in, their skulls were empty vessels with two holes in them. It didn’t matter what kind of equipment they had. There was no way it was standing up to a level 13 named weapon for long.

Once the first vehicle was clear, I turned my attention to the second. My targets were all right there. Four, including big Burut, dropped to the ground with heads split open. Only three were able to get down low enough that Valkyrie couldn’t reach them from where I was crouched.

And that was when my knowledge of disarming came in handy. The last hour had been well spent, and so I jumped up to dash right through the mined field. The path I could follow without triggering the explosives was highlighted by my helmet — I couldn’t have made a false step if I’d wanted to. They all saw my move, though that just led to their second blunder. Instead of firing away and hurling grenades, they covered their heads in expectation of the mines detonating. And that was their undoing. I didn’t even have to get close to the vehicle, clearing the area of the game owner’s players as I ran. Mark Derwin: 14. Orcs: 0. Onward and upward!

Always the optimist, I assumed the trio had let the rest of the orcs know they were under attack. It was a thirty-minute flight to where I was, which meant I didn’t have much time. A couple leaps took me to the second vehicle. Going as fast as I could, I stripped the orcs, driving away the realization of what I’d become. Looting came with the territory. And it wasn’t my fault the game played out in the real world instead of on a phone.

All the loot went into the vehicle. Hacking into the controls and getting it up and running was a piece of cake.

LTS-IV. Description: Modified flying transport. Maximum altitude: 30 meters. Maximum flight speed: 180 km/h. Number of seats: 10. Maximum load: 4000 kg. Protection: Universal force field (P-IV). Cost: 15000000 coins.

It wasn’t armed, though I was more than happy with the protection and flight speed. Performing the same trick with the second vehicle, I broke it down into parts and found myself 7.5 million coins richer. Fantastic! I definitely had enough to get Raptor and Fang back up and running. Also, that was a big step closer to Ulbaron. The only problem was that there were just fourteen phones — only the players who’d been lying in ambush had them. The corpses I’d killed two days before had all been stripped, the cheapest BRO-I outfits slipped onto their bodies with neither weapons nor helmets to their name. You guys really went all out. There was no point spending time on that crap, though I did go ahead and harvest the 43 level three thermal mines. At the last minute, I pulled out my phone. There was no point leaving the enemy even that little bit of loot.

You took the first picture of 44 dead players. 2640 coins received.

Finally, that was it. It had taken about twenty minutes to grab everything in the area — express loot service by Mark Derwin. But once I’d taken off, I remembered Grust and how proud he’d been of Swallow. A quick scan of the vehicle just in case nearly stopped my heart. They planted a bug, the bastards! Cursing, I was only too happy to turn it into dark dust. Well, they definitely know I’m in this location now. The orcs and Tsarter both.

It was time to go.

I decided to head where they would least expect me: the nearest orc camp, the one by the river. Everyone knew I needed to head south, which meant I needed to bide my time and do some more looting while there was still time left to bide. I wanted to take out the players who’d just gotten there, too. Really, the location could use some clearing.

I flew on for a good twenty minutes in an effort to put distance between me and the field. Once I finally got to the trees, I came in for a landing, sent the LTS to my virtual storage, and dumped a whole pile of items on the ground. Each orc had been equipped with three or four level four items starting at two hundred and fifty grand. And it was when my wallet got 7.8 million coins fatter that I started feeling on top of the world. Of course, I did have to sell half the mines, as well. Repairs and attributes were far more important.

But that wasn’t all. As I’d been going through the bodies, I’d found two interesting devices. They were small boxes that clipped easily onto your belt. Judging by their requirements, the biggest orcs were formidable adversaries — I’d gotten lucky to catch them at an inopportune moment. One of the devices got deactivated immediately; the other was sent to storage. There was no way I was going to sell them. And it was a good thing I’d gotten my hands on them, as I learned about one more thing I needed to make sure I always had on me.

Camouflage field PM-IV. Description: Creates a stationary camouflage field two meters across (activation time: 30 seconds). Disappears with movement. Completely blocks all kinds of radiation. Creates an invisibility field. 10 charges (8 remaining). To discover the field, must have level 50 perception and detection. Requirements: Camouflage (40), introversion (40), concealment (40), consciousness block (40), trackless (40). Cost: 2500000 coins.

The phones were next. As I’d already found out, orcs were impoverished creatures who only gave me 420,000 coins. And 180,000 of them came from Logr. On the other hand, the information the phones gave me was top shelf. The rank and file didn’t matter — there was nothing to glean from their devices. But the two hulks, as deputy commanders, had complete maps of the location with all the coordinates I needed. There was their headquarters as well as the three larva farms the orcs were assigned to guard. I knew where I needed to go next.

But before that, it was time for a quick break.

Raptor, Fang, and Ulbaron. There wasn’t enough to repair my armor — it was going to take a mountain of attributes and skills. Running quick calculations in my head, I sighed, disappointed in what had seemed like an enormous haul of coins. Okay, I’ll stick with the BRO-III. It wasn’t really giving me anything, anyway, as I was relying most on my universal protection. Oh, I need to buy a backup.

To use Raptor, I needed 930 attribute points, while Fang was much less demanding — it only took 360. Ulbaron, on the other hand, wasn’t just broken; it also meant I needed 1,230 attribute points even with the fact that I’d already gone a long way toward meeting the requirements. Five million went toward a syringe, three toward a level five universal protection, and a whole 7.4 toward a level five drone, my most expensive purchase.

Universal drone Flyer. Description: Fifth-generation flying vehicle. Range: 200 km. Flight speed: 200 km/h. Maximum altitude: 8 km. 10 integration slots. Built-in scanner. Built-in PM-V camouflage field. Requirements: Device control (60), device repair (60), agility (60), camouflage (60), introversion (60), concealment (60), consciousness block (60), trackless (60). Cost: 7400000.

Raptor was fantastic at its job, only the range was limited to 130 meters. Everything outside that area was dark and mysterious. A problem, in other words. I couldn’t see where my opponents were hiding. I didn’t know how many there were. I didn’t know where to run. And I needed to maximize every minute I had before the game owner inflicted another penalty on me. Sure, it was tough to stomach the prices at level five, and I even had to pass on the cartographer, high-resolution camera, and universal protection, though I did have enough for an invisibility field and a scanner. The latter showed me everything alive and otherwise within a radius of three kilometers. Given the skills I had right then, there wasn’t a beast anywhere who was able to hide from me, be it a Tsarter fighter or my own reflection.

One thing I did change was the usual name. Mark-1 had served me well, but it kept getting taken out. There’s a jinx in there somewhere. Instead, I decided to stick with Flyer. It was new, and it also was pretty representative. For the same reason, I left the vehicle with the default name — LTS. I was going to be selling it anyway when I had enough to repair Ulbaron.

Finally, three hours later, a grin spread across my face. Raptor and Fang were back where they should have been, the drone was streaking through the sky connected to my helmet, and I could see a tolerably decent feed on my screen. I was back in the game. Yes, sans Ulbaron, but I was ready to slip it on as soon as I had the money to repair it. Almost as though it could sense my joy, my helmet screen flashed red — the danger settings were kicking in. Two players, Lurkan and Marlon, had entered the location. Even besides the common last name Po, they shared a level: 538. Two Tsarter fighters were there to hunt me down.

My first instinct was to kick the vehicle into high gear and head south. Three or four locations, and I would have been next to the noa plants — away from my problems, closer to my goal. But something stopped me. Tsarter was going to continue coming after me whether I wanted them to or not. All they knew in that moment was that I was somewhere in the location, and they needed time to get their bearings, organize, and begin the search. And only two of the five are here. Worth the risk?

The sticky, unpleasant grip of fear appeared in the depths of my stomach and began creeping higher as soon as I even thought about a showdown with the pair of monsters. I didn’t think for a second that Tsarter didn’t know about the trials, and that meant their levels were fixed. Coming after me were strong, agile, and most likely incredibly resilient opponents. It was scary just to think about what they’d had time to develop. Three hearts and ten brains? Nothing would have surprised me. But how was I supposed to take them on? The far simpler move was to make a break for it, hide, and spend the rest of my days in peace and quiet.

And that wasn’t a bad idea. A couple weeks previously, I probably would have done exactly that. But the only problem was that I had changed. No, I was no hero. In fact, I couldn’t stand those square-jawed characters who always have to run in first. Mark Derwin was just a student trying to save his sister — it was too late for me to save myself. And there was no way Squirrel could be safe while the game was around and populated with groups like Tsarter. Whether I wanted to or not, I was going to have to fight.

But we were going to fight on my terms. One thing death had taught me was that I was incredibly stealthy, and it was time to show off why the game had given me the class it did.

Checking my map, I ran off through the forest. The new orc base was ten kilometers away. I was sure the Tsarter pair would head there first to get everyone involved in the search, so I had to be there before they arrived.

The orcs had set up camp in the forest next to a cache looking like a leafy oak. I’d already seen one of those in Olsen’s location. Having set their tents up around the tree, the aliens were just going about their business — practicing, repairing, chatting, sitting in small groups. The tranquility in the camp unnerved me, in fact. Nobody was running around, nobody was pounding their bare chest, nobody was mourning their lost comrades. It was as if they didn’t know the ambush had been taken out. Was I really able to keep the whole thing a secret? I had a hard time believing that, which meant I needed to be careful.

The big boss stepped out of a tent and looked up at the sky. I followed his gaze, and a chill ran down my spine — two players were flying above the trees, coming in our direction. I recognized Ulbaron immediately, not to mention the modification that let them fly. It was hard to say one way or another about their weaponry, as they were still too far away, and I didn’t have binoculars yet. But I didn’t doubt they were equipped with Valkyrie, Swallow, or both and something else to go with them.

Raptor showed me their names. There was a blank where their coin balance should have been, however, and scanning them didn’t get me anything, ether. Their protection was too good. For the same reason, I could only tell they were both humanoid. Two legs, two arms, one head. That was it. Because of that, I just held back even when Lurkan flew within range of my device control. I was there to scout out the situation. No moves, yet.

“Is this everyone?” Marlon asked, looking around and foregoing a greeting. The player’s voice sounded strange. It was almost like an animal had learned to talk, something between a bark and a growl.

“We have seventy-two here; fourteen are out. Just like we were ordered, they set up an ambush,” the camp leader replied.

“They’re off nowhere waiting for the next release,” Lurkan barked. Just like the other player with the same last name, that one’s voice was also very odd.

The orc’s nostrils flared, and it screamed back angrily.

“Who?! Who did it?”

“Our sources say it was Mark Derwin.”

“Impossible! He isn’t on the ranking!”

“We’re losing time. Get everyone together, and we’ll explain what we’re going to do. Also, put together some food. And where can we wash up in this wilderness?”

“My tent is at your service,” the orc replied, even bowing to its distinguished guests. “Everything will be ready for your speech in thirty minutes.”

The arrivals ignored the last part and ducked into the enormous tent. A glimmering field immediately appeared around it as they set up additional protection. Yep, some serious characters right there.

“General assembly in the square! Twenty-five minutes! Meeting our guests!” The commander’s loud voice rang out across the base, and that’s when I jumped into action. There was a small even area of open ground right in the middle of the camp. The security equipment was there, too. I checked — nobody had deleted me from the white list, though I had to update the data to reflect that I was wearing a BRO-III suit instead of Ulbaron. Once again, nobody was checking for minor changes to their equipment. I grinned. Idiots!

As soon as I got to the nearest tent, I straightened up. Chaos reigned in the camp — everyone was running around in every direction. Some were dragging benches over (where did they get those in the middle of the forest?), some were throwing something like a rug down on the field (okay, benches, but that thing?), some were carrying over what clearly wasn’t the mush the game called food (they have their own cook!). Everyone was busy, nobody paying any attention to the extra player in what was actually simpler armor than what most of the others had. Their alarm system hadn’t gone off, after all. That meant I was supposed to be there regardless of the fact that I was a head taller than everyone else.

When hammers started pounding, I froze in surprise for a few seconds — the orcs were putting together something like a stage. A tent was primed to go up around it. Even the ground had been dug up to accommodate the spikes. Damn, so Lurkan and Marlon are so impressive they can’t even just have a normal conversation with regular players? By the organized way the orcs were moving around, I could tell that wasn’t their first rodeo. Good, that makes it simpler. Following the rest, I made my way onto the main square and grabbed a spare shovel. Its owner had run off to man a desk. I started digging for show as I looked around to study the general layout — I only had fifteen minutes. Five markers stood out around the stage that was going up, with another five around the benches. The rest were presumably ticketed for the perimeter. Someone might want to leave.

But my best-laid plans were very nearly spoiled. I stopped digging, ducked into the nearest empty tent, and started materializing mines. But as soon as the first one showed up, a terrifying message appeared on Raptor’s screen:

Unregistered item detected. Alarm system going off in 3… 2…

I broke out in a cold sweat. Happily, I was able to control my phone with my mind — my hands were shaking so hard I definitely wouldn’t have been able to toss the mine back into my storage. What a great infiltrator I am! Was it really so hard to remember that both players and their equipment need to be registered in the security system? I’d just added my armor, and I had no idea why I hadn’t thought about my mines. I really do take the cake sometimes.

It turned out simple enough to register each of the mines individually. I pulled the serial number for them from my phone and added them to the database, definitely aided by the fact that it wasn’t their first time there. All I really had to do was change their status from checked out to active in camp. Of course, registering the mines my reflection had bought took more doing. I had to add them from scratch, including the serial number, type, and activation time. It was only after I’d spent ten valuable minutes that the mines were ready to be used within the base. But there wasn’t much time left. I was going to have to hurry.

The orcs had settled down more or less. There was a logic to their movements, and a calm had come over the camp. The stage was ready. The tent overhead was, as well. A colorful rug had been spread over the stage, with a few dozen benches on it. Most of the fighters were already there ready to listen to the coming words of wisdom. There was even a small table crammed with food. Ten minutes before it starts. Let’s do this!

I joined the crew wrapping up work on the tent, casually grabbing a hammer and nails. The demolitions specialty told me exactly where I had to set the mines. All that was left was to pretend I was hammering something there. Once again, nobody paid me any attention, not even when I drove a couple nails right into the ground. It was easy enough to understand the orcs. The guy next to them was working confidently on something, and that presumably meant he had a job to do. Plus, the siren hadn’t gone off. There was nothing to worry about. I love these enclosed game costumes. Nobody can tell what race you are.

The benches took some doing. While the perimeter and stage were mined in just a couple minutes, I didn’t have long to work safely on the packed benches. I was actually about to give up on that idea when I found a way to make it happen: one of the rug edges had been pulled up. Someone had apparently been careless dragging a bench over. Whatever the case, it was a great reason for me to make my way right through the crowd.

“Where are you going?” one of the fighters barked, though I just pointed at the problem in reply. The orc nodded understandingly and continued in a more even voice. “Hurry up! We just have two minutes left.”

The nearby orcs mumbled something approvingly and stepped aside. Oh, come on! I was really going to have to crawl around straightening the damn carpet. Yes, I set the mines, though it was a challenge getting that done with a dozen eyes on my back.

“It’s the commander! Huddle up!” The thoughtful orcs even covered me with their bodies, making sure the boss didn’t see me. The level 177 orc walked busily around the stage, sniffed the food critically, and looked around appraisingly at the troops. I crawled away under the orcs’ cover. Nobody bothered me; actually, they stepped aside and quickly reformed when I was gone. The brotherhood of warriors.

“Places!” the commander barked, and the orcs all took their seats. I was long gone. From my calculations, the blast radius would be about a hundred meters, so I needed to put some distance between me and the camp. Of course, I had to leverage all the camouflage at my disposal to make sure nobody suspected anything.

“Once again, the best players in the hexagon have visited our camp,” the lead orc announced grandly. “And they need our help today! Mark Derwin is here and somehow managing to stay off the player list, so we need to find the bastard. And avenge our brothers! Welcome Lurkan and Marlon Po!”

The two Tsarter fighters made their way to the stage as the orcs cheered, and I could barely resist smacking a hand against my forehead. Seriously? What kind of circus is this? It sounded like some kind of local theater.

“We don’t have much time, so listen up,” Marlon started barking. “We’re going to split into two groups. One will go with me; the other will follow Lurkan. Using our scanners, we’ll — ”

But that’s when Marlon was interrupted. Their plans didn’t interest me in the slightest, so…

Boom!

The bright red splotch on Raptor’s screen, the one showing where all the players were, blinked and disappeared. A victor’s smile spread across my face, though it turned into a terrifying terrible grin just a couple moments later.

Not all the red dots were gone. The blast had mostly wiped them out, but Raptor as well as Flyer told me that two players had survived the Armageddon I’d triggered. Marlon and Lurkan Po. Damn, what are they? It was definitely time to run…

Chapter 7

RUN! Run as fast as I can! Run like I’ve never run before!

Only I wasn’t running away from the surviving players; I was running toward them. Valkyrie appeared in my palm, and as I leaped over yet another clod of soil, I saw my first opponent. It was Lurkan Po. The player had been thrown a good fifty meters to the side, its leg armor was shorn off, and there was green, bubbly, toad-like skin peeking through. Despite the explosion and short flight, the thing was already on its feet. Valkyrie was in its hand, and I watched it turn toward me. It wobbled, staggered, and grabbed hold of a spike that appeared out of nowhere, but it was standing. And I noticed all that in a split-second without forgetting to open fire. My pistol sprang into action, the blobs of pure energy smacking into my opponent’s helmet. At least, they smacked into it before disappearing harmlessly into the creature’s protective field.

What?!

There was apparently armor a level 13 named pistol couldn’t penetrate. How is that possible?! My opponent finally raised its Valkyrie, and fire burst out in my chest — my level five armor was useless. All I could do was press one more button before hitting the ground. There was an explosion, and Lurkan was sent flying once again.

Four chunks of energy punched right through me, my regeneration quickly kicking in. Just in case, I decided to help it out with another needle. And as the game got to work printing it out, I peeked out from behind my cover. Lurkan was standing up. Another grenade went flying, accompanied by a dozen shots. Still, they did nothing against the incredible protection. I started flipping through magazines, each time sending the other player flying and burying a dozen shots in it. Only the ice rounds did anything. Lurkan started moving slower — much slower, in fact.

Marlon was too far away, so I assumed it was recovering. Another grenade hit the pimply player’s chest. Ten ice rounds hit hard, and I jumped in to shoot from point-blank range. With plenty of magazines in reserve, I didn’t care about conserving ammo. Lurkan, in turn, was moving so slowly that I was able to dodge the return fire with ease, though I had to get in close. That entailed some risk — I didn’t know what other abilities the creature had. On the other hand, the proximity let me try something else.

You’re trying to connect to Lurkan Po’s armor.

Probability of successful hack: 1.25 %.

Attempt 32… Unsuccessful.

What kind of monster do you have to be to stick god-level protection on basic armor? Not only could I not shoot my way through the force field around Lurkan; I couldn’t even hack into it to turn the thing off. I was also starting to notice that my ice rounds were experiencing diminishing returns. In fact, I had to start using them every ten shots. Some kind of adaptation? How am I supposed to kill this thing then?!

Jumping away, I fired off another grenade and finally saw it yield some fruit — a few armor plates cracked on my opponent’s chest. Really? I’m wearing through it? It’s about time! In no time at all, the player was riddled with ten energy rounds as it tried to stand up. I didn’t even freeze it, already tasting victory.

They say you learn from your mistakes. If I survive this, I’m going to be smarter and never underestimate my opponents. Because instead of dropping down dead, the green-skinned beast leaped at me. Its head was shot through, but it still came at me. How?!

It felt like a battering ram had slammed into my chest. My regeneration still hadn’t finished work on the first wounds I’d received, so they just exploded with renewed intensity. I flew backward and watched as Lurkan jumped along with me. With absurd speed, it caught up and buried a fist in me. My head burst into a flurry of colorful stars, though Valkyrie kept right on shooting — I didn’t even have to think about it. My subconscious had already figured out that shooting the thing in the head was pointless. Instead, I focused on turning its chest into a sieve. At least, that’s what I’d been planning on doing. But I watched in near-slow motion as the energy from my pistol poked holes in the remnants of Lurkan’s armor, cut through its body, and flew out the other side to dissolve in the air. But the deadly wounds disappeared along with the energy, not leaving so much as a trace. Lurkan regenerated on the fly like some damn Wolverine. Or is it Deadpool? The shock made me lose my concentration for a couple seconds. I hit the ground hard. Stars flashed again, my vision faded, and I felt my opponent crash on top of me, fists raining down. My protection was dropping quickly. Somehow, I turned my arm and fired off an ice round. Lurkan jerked and slowed, but it was able to react by tearing the pistol off its mount and tossing it aside. The fists went back to work. I was powerless. The thing was a death machine, and my skills were no match for it. My ears began to ring, my thoughts were jumbled, and I started losing control. Of course, there was a part of me that knew I had to fight back, though I had no idea how. I’d already tried everything I had, and it had done nothing.

Wait, I haven’t tried everything!

My arm was on fire and barely responding, though I had enough in me for one swing. And that was all I needed to activate Fang and bury it into one of the many holes in my opponent’s armor. Just then, another blow shattered my helmet. Lurkan reared back to finish what it had started, and I squeezed my eyes shut — there was nothing I could do to stop the coming finale. But the creature was in no hurry. A second ticked by. Then another. A third. Still, I was alive. Pulling my nerves together, I opened my eyes to see that the green-skinned beast was sitting on me, one arm pulled back, but unable to do anything else. It was as though it had lost control of its own body, turned to stone, and started to shiver ever so slightly. The skin around Fang had darkened and was starting to rot. And as I watched, the dark rot spread across the rest of the creature’s body, the holes in the armor giving me a first-row seat to the process. When the infection got to its uncovered legs, the sickening smell of decay washed through my nostrils. I found the strength to throw Lurkan off, but that just elicited a groan — my right arm was wrenched out of its socket. Fang stayed buried in the creature’s chest. Turning over myself, I rolled on top of it. There was a crunch, and I screamed as my arm found its way back into the socket. Furious at the world, I gave Fang another jerk, and it slid out easily to my surprise. The creature’s armor began shrinking as though its owner was disappearing from inside it, and I cursed as my eyes flew wide. All that was left of Lurkan was a dark, stinking slime seeping out of the cracks in Ulbaron.

Raptor began buzzing to grab my attention, only I didn’t have time right then. Grabbing Lurkan’s phone, I pulled my extra universal protection necklace out of my chest pocket, slipped it over my neck, and crawled over to Valkyrie. The mounting had been torn free — I was going to have to repair it. Not far away, I found my dead opponent’s named pistol. It had apparently been knocked loose by one of the explosions, explaining why I was still alive.

Marlon hadn’t moved, though I wasn’t about to risk it. The Tsarter fighters’ weapons punched through level five protection like it was cardboard, so I was going to have to rely on my concealment. But to be fair, the need for stealth disappeared when I saw the other player. Ulbaron had been ripped almost completely off — just scraps were left. The naked, pimply body was lying on some rocks and regenerating with startling speed. The torso was already complete; the game was wrapping up work on the legs. Ten shots from Valkyrie showed yet again how powerless the gun was against upgraded bodies. The wounds just closed up faster than I could open them. Making my way over, I buried Fang in Marlon’s chest, thinking better of the urge to pull the creature’s helmet off and get a good look at its face. Who knows? Maybe, it spits acid or something. And that was the last thing I needed.

Following a charge of necrotic energy, Marlon’s body went through the same process Lurkan’s had just completed. It froze, shivered, and began decomposing in front of me. That time, I didn’t pull the ritual dagger out, instead waiting for the end result. It was only when the flesh seeped into the ground, leaving behind a bare skeleton, that I found Fang dangling from my wrist. Exhausted, I laid down next to the remains. The wounds Lurkan had given me were taking their toll. I was going to need an hour to feel like myself again, and I very much hoped nobody would bother me in that time.

With the last remnants of strength I had in me, I pulled up Raptor and read through the messages:

Lurkan Po was sacrificed and received a penalty covering the next 4 releases.

You can collect 4 items at your maximum available level (current equipment level: 5).

Level +5 (115).

***

You killed a player from the owner’s personal guard.

You can collect 1 named item in the store.

Level +20 (135).

10 free attribute points received.

I got the same messages for Marlon. Another four max level items, 25 levels (totaling 160), ten attributes points (laughable), and one named item were ready to be picked up. That’s a nice little pick-me-up!

And it wasn’t all.

While my wounds were closing, I started digging around in the two Tsarter fighters’ phones.

Hacking store… Successful! Access to level 5 items unlocked.

Hacking wallet… Successful! Available: 3560000 coins.

Hacking personal data… Unsuccessful!

Hacking contact list… Unsuccessful!

Hacking map… Unsuccessful!

Hacking storage contents… Unsuccessful!

Hacking phone functionality… Successful!

Virtual storage-VI. Description: Phone expansion. Lets you store up to 60 game items in virtual space. Item materialization takes 10 seconds. Cost: none, is a rank reward.

Virtual exchange-VI. Description: Phone expansion. Lets you exchange game items for coins at 70% of their value. Cost: None, is a rank reward.

Those were certainly some requirements. I left Lurkan’s phone for later — it boggled the mind, but even level 70 hacking and level 70 device control were powerless against Marlon’s device. There must be so much in there! Missing out on the map and storage contents was a huge mistake. If I’d known in advance, I would have done some leveling-up before trying to hack in. Regardless, the 3.5 million coins were more than welcome, as I needed to repair Valkyrie and buy myself more armor. The damn green-skinned beast had torn mine to pieces.

Dragging over all that remained of Marlon, I looked over its equipment. The names of the named items weren’t available, though I could see what level they were. The message on the screen captured my attention for quite a while. It was one of those cases when you only realized after the fact what kind of a mess you’d actually found yourself in. My desire to take on the rest of Tsarter disappeared immediately.

Named armor, name and description hidden, level 22.

Judging by what I could see, Marlon had been wearing Ulbaron. The suit’s level 22 meant the requirements were doubled, their minimum values between 90 and 100. And that’s just the minimum values! I was happy enough about my level 70 attributes, some kind of idiot with a whole squad of personal guards running around with skills and attributes at level 100. What was that Olsen said about balance? How the game gives everyone a chance to survive? Yeah, right. If it hadn’t been for the fifteen mines, I wouldn’t have been able to scratch the pair, not to mention stand up to them in a pitched battle.

Next, I got screwed once again by the game. It refused to buy back named items belonging to other players. It didn’t even let me fix them. All I could do was disperse them into a dark dust, leaving nothing to remember my opponents by.

By the time my body had completely restored, I’d been able to crawl over to Lurkan. It was the same there — items at level 22 that I couldn’t sell. The pair didn’t have anything else, and so I was left to sigh bitterly and collect what the orcs had left behind. Unfortunately, even there I was met with disappointment. The game would only buy back 32 level four items. All the rest needed repairs, and that would have cost as much as buying them outright. I ended up collecting 5.6 million from the equipment and 870,000 from the orcs’ phones.

Right away, I materialized my vehicle and sold it on the spot. The updated commission netted me 10.5 million coins, and that pulled a relieved sigh out of me. Now we can do some damage! Opening the store, I bought everything I needed to repair Ulbaron and Valkyrie, feeling the cool blast of the built-in air conditioning system a couple moments later. Ah, I missed this.

I then got to work on my bonuses, having taken care of my protection. There wasn’t much of a question there — I needed to upgrade Flyer to level six. The monsters were going to be getting stronger in the next few days, and I had to be ready for that. A whole seven bonuses went toward it. Soon, I had a drone, a scanner, an invisibility field, universal protection, a high-resolution camera, an automatic pistol, and cartographer. That was the minimum I needed to really have eyes in the sky.

Flyer universal drone. Description: Sixth-generation flying device. Range: 300 km. Flight speed: 250 km/h. Maximum altitude: 10 km. <List of expansions> Requirements: Device control (90), device repair (90), agility (90), camouflage (90), introversion (90), concealment (90), consciousness block (90), trackless (90), pistol shooting (90), monster knowledge (90), anatomy master (90), perception (90), cartography (90), good eye (90), spatial perception (90), electromagnetic impulse protection (90). Cost: 29000000.

As soon as the devices were in place and I saw the list of requirements, a smile tightened across my face. Damn it! Of course, I was going to have to get all those attributes up to those levels anyway, but right then using my force of nature meant picking up 3,690 free points at a cost of almost 7.4 million coins. How much is it going to cost to get to level 100?? And what about after that? Hundreds of millions and tens of billions? I didn’t even want to think about that.

There was nothing else to do but call up my current Flyer and kiss it goodbye. I ended up getting just 5.2 million, though that was enough to cover my needs. The coins didn’t matter; my life was more valuable. I ended up adding hacking to the list, boosting it to 90. I needed to break into Lurkan’s phone.

While the game was updating me, I walked around the remains of the camp. Sadly, once again I came up practically empty. Raptor only highlighted a couple surviving items. The only problem there was that their value was so low that it wasn’t even worth bending over to pick them up. The thermal explosion had incinerated the tents, demolished the equipment. Really, it would have been a miserable disaster where loot was concerned if it hadn’t been for one thing.

The two named items. Just like with the regular bonuses, I decided to leave one in reserve, as the game tended to change so quickly that you never knew what you’d be needing next. Having a trump card up your sleeve was huge. But I did know what I wanted to spend the other bonus on.

A few taps in the store, and I found what I was looking for. I read through the description as it materialized.

Zelda. Description: An adaptive universal camouflage cloak for Mark Derwin. Current Zelda level: 13. Creates a dynamic invisibility field with a radius of 1.3 meters, absorbing all radiation coming from inside it. Duration: 13 minutes. Restores 13 seconds every 5 minutes. Can stand up to level 65 perception and detection. Cannot be blocked in the game world. Requirements: Camouflage (70), introversion (70), concealment (70), consciousness block (70), noiseless (70), willpower (70), trackless (70), closure (70), inner harmony (70), device control (70). Cost: 50000000 coins.

Damn it! After all that, I had to go back and buy more attribute points, though at least it was just 220 of them. The needle went into my leg, I clipped the still-useless cloak onto my shoulders, and off I soared into the air. There wasn’t anything else for me in that field. Over the next three hours, as my body adapted to the new changes, there was something I needed to do…

You destroyed 2 of the larva’s 3 farms in this location.

The monsters did their best. Each of the farms had fifteen hundred tubs with women in them, and the fact that they weren’t in transporters presumably meant the location had been thought to be safe. I didn’t bother killing all the monsters, just flying over and dropping grenades down on the tubs. Sabotage is the name of the game! The crowds of superior monsters and champions could only howl in frustration and run after me until I was lost from sight.

I only headed toward the third farm after my adaptation was complete. The cloak that had dangled lifelessly integrated with Raptor, the screen picking up a new invisibility field function. When it was active, Zelda had no problems with movement, didn’t even react when the wind kicked up. It occupied a barely visible strip on my back, from which it was prepared to unfurl around me at any moment.

The larva clearly knew what was coming for it and did everything it could to set up a defense. It felt like every monster in the location had come running to occupy the city, filling the spaces between buildings, crawling through the sewers, and flying around in the air. Launching Flyer, I grunted when I saw what I was up against. There were 24,000 superior monsters, 7,000 champions, 250 players, one larva, and a farm with 10,000 tubs. I’d never come across an army like that. Of course, I could have taken on any of them one on one, but there was nothing I could do against the whole lot together.

The solution came to me quickly. I may not have been able to take care of everyone fast enough to make it worthwhile, but I did need to get rid of the location boss and its farm. If I survived, I could come back in a week or two to finish what I’d started. In the meantime, level six mines were out of my price range at five million apiece, so I went with level four. Even level five would have taken an update to my attributes. And I didn’t have time for that. I’d spent too much time in the location as it was, with the day almost over. There were only about four days left for me to find the pearl and head back to see Olsen.

They were clearly expecting me. Judging by the fact that the players were walking around with some kind of device, they were scanning the area carefully in an attempt to find the ghost I’d become. But that was practically impossible once I was able to use Zelda. I hurtled through the sky, doing my best to dodge the aerial patrols. The invisibility field worked flawlessly.

Landing next to the farm, I spent thirty seconds activating the camouflage field, only then turning off Zelda. It was a great little tool, just at high levels — I’d burned through nearly the entire duration just flying in. And it was going to take more than an hour to recharge. Convenient, cool, but short-lived. I’ll have to keep it for special occasions.

The larva was dashing back and forth between the tubs, checking their contents. A crowd of smaller monsters I immediately dubbed minions were helping it out. They had neither teeth nor claws, though they made up for that with feelers and suckers they used to crawl around the banks of tubs and haul down newborn dolls. The process was relentless. Instead of a transporter, which would have made more sense, they were using enormous dump trucks to haul food off to the general. Earthling dump trucks. Alien players with symbols pinned to their chest were driving them. The diamond with the bolt of lightning burning through it was apparently the insignia for the general’s servants.

Once I was sure I’d landed unnoticed, I crouched down in the shadow of the farm. The camouflage field disappeared, quickly replaced by my skills as a saboteur. The most interesting part was that I could sense when I needed to freeze. It was like I knew when stray glances were lingering in my direction. It took five mines to make sure I took out the farm. Of course, two of them needed to be set at the top of the construction, and that gave me issues — I couldn’t time the minions. Unable to climb up, I had to use Zelda and fly over.

That just left the larva.

For a long time, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. It moved around the area too quickly, there were too many monsters hustling and bustling around it, and its protection looked too strong. Unlike the other larvae I’d come up against, that one had armor covering its body, which was odd in and of itself. Creatures at that level generally had subordinates take care of protecting them. But no, that one had a bunch of extra armor plates just in case the army wasn’t good enough. That made things harder.

The maximum damage value Valkyrie showed me at level 13 was just 0.1%, and I only found one spot that high when I accidentally swept past a point right under its head. Everywhere else, it was in the hundredths of a percent. There was no way I was taking the thing on with my pistol.

It was the larva itself that showed me what to do. As it grabbed the harvest from the upper banks, it rolled the dolls up into a bundle and tossed them into the dump truck. Exactly — a bundle! Half a million coins later, I had another five thermal mines. My repair kit had a cord I used to make a bomb the description told me came with half the destructive power of one level six mine. But that was enough.

Waiting for the moment when the larva started upward again, I dashed forward. Zelda had just two minutes of invisibility left, though I didn’t need any more than that. As the monster tilted its head back, it bared its weak point, and that’s exactly when I sent my makeshift bomb flying. Ulbaron’s acceleration maxed out as I swallowed my fear. A couple times, I even smacked into flying monsters, sending them summersaulting through the air. But that didn’t matter. Flyer’s feed showed me the picture down below — an enormous ball of fire rose, spread out, and engulfed what had once been the larva and its farm. Body parts and rocks flew past me and even crashed into my legs, knocking a few points off my protection. And no sooner had the explosion died away, than my helmet screen started telling me what a good job I’d done. Reading the text, I stopped suddenly and landed on the next roof over. There were monsters there, but judging by the messages, they didn’t pose a threat to me anymore. And it was true — the once-nimble beasts were slow, sluggish, and indifferent. A few minutes later, they collapsed onto the roof, howling and twisting in pain. Bones shattered. The howling quickly turned into a shriek heard round the city.

But it was a human shriek.

Over the previous couple weeks, so much had happened that I didn’t think it was possible to surprise me anymore. How wrong I was. In fact, just that thought was enough to tell me how much I didn’t know about the game. Each stunning new message kindled a spark of hope for salvation, hope that humanity might be able to win the war.

The superior monsters around me were transforming back into people. They were screaming in pain, cursing, and crying for their mothers, but they were people. Once again, I pulled up the messages. It looked like I had a new goal for the whole damn game.

You destroyed all the farms belonging to the larva in this location.

***

You destroyed the larva in location 352, hexagon 118.

Valkyrie, Fang, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 1 (14).

Level +10 (170).

5 free attribute points received.

***

You destroyed a larva and its farms. Because there is no safe village or managing function in this location, you became the head of the safe zone in location 352, hexagon 118. All location monsters are your captives.

You are a natural release player, so your captives have been transformed back. Location 352 has been pulled out of hexagon 118 and can only be returned after your death. All natural players in the hexagon have received news about the zone.

***

Non-natural release players are required to leave the zone within 12 hours and can no longer remain in it without your permission. The game functionality itself provides for the location’s safety.

***

The game owner is furious at you and applied the Sanctions penalty …

Note! Sanctions cannot be applied to personified noa.

***

You cannot be in the safe zone longer than 24 hours.

The Tsarter mercenary group has been updated. Current makeup: 5 players. Group objective: liquidate Mark Derwin and return location 352 to hexagon 118.

***

You are the first natural player on Earth to become head of a location.

Level +30 (200).

15 free attribute points received.

***

You cleared a location of monsters.

Valkyrie, Fang, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 1 (15).

I looked around at the people on the roof. Yes, they were people. Breathing hard, they were starting to come to their senses, though a first glance told me they had their wits about them. They weren’t brain dead. I’m going to have to stick around here a little while longer.

They needed to learn how to survive.

Chapter 8

“SO, WHAT ARE we supposed to do?” The question, one that was simple enough, took me aback. When I gathered the people around, I’d assumed at least one of them would be mature, able to take care of business. I hadn’t been ready for most of them to be children and helpless old people. World of the Changed was such a popular game, it turned out, that it had pulled in most of the working-age population, and I only saw a few middle-aged adults. But their appearance wasn’t enough to give me any confidence. They were behaving oddly, too, hiding in the shadows, watching the proceedings from a distance.

“You need a leader,” I said as I looked around. It was like some sort of protest. Good thing Ulbaron has a built-in loudspeaker. “Does anyone know how to get people organized? Anyone with managerial experience?”

“Let’s say I do,” a gray-haired man said as he stepped closer. Judging by his bearing, he was a veteran or, yes, some kind of top manager. “What do you need them organized for?”

“Winter is coming.” There was no reason to mention how the location was only independent so long as I stayed alive. Let them hope. “Humans aren’t just back in the city; they’re in all the areas around, too. You need to collect them, find clothes, find food. Help them survive, and remember that you can’t count on anyone to help you in the next six months. Until we destroy the game, all our energy will be focused on that. No help, no police, no army. It’s all you. Oh, and you can’t leave the location right now — there are monsters out there.”

“Will you be able to take down the game?” the old man asked dubiously as he adjusted the cloth wrapped around his waist. That could have been one more problem, only everyone was so scared they hadn’t had time to notice each other’s naked bodies. The game, as it so happened, didn’t wipe out their monster memory; it just returned consciousness and their memory of their previous life. And they were all shaken. There hadn’t been a single inferior monster in the location, and promotion to superior status only happened when you killed players. Many wept, unable to come to grips with what they’d done, while others retreated inside themselves. The vast majority, however, were able to pull themselves together and listen to me.

“Look around you,” I replied. “You’re all alive, which means we’re making progress. But you have to take care of yourselves.”

“We need money…those…coins. There are a lot of old people, so we need to heal everyone. That’s what the regeneration kits are for, right?” The old man was wrapping his head around the situation quickly, already digging through his phone. I started feeling better about the location. He’d be fine. He had to be.

“Exactly,” I said as I sent him five hundred thousand coins. “That should last you quite a while. Spend it only on the necessities, and make everyone take a picture of the larva, that big dead thing over there. That’ll give you all two thousand apiece.”

“Got it. Anything else I should know?”

I said nothing, though the old man was apparently very good at reading people.

“Understood… I’ll tell everyone that things are going to be fine, that we’ll take care of everything. When are you flying out?”

“I’m going to take a picture of the monster and head off. Tons to do. Oh, and buy a weapon.” I saw the old man tense up and continued. “Not all of the people here were people before the game started. You might have problems. Here, this will come in handy.”

I gave him a level three universal protection necklace and nodded in the direction of the characters hiding in the shadows. Happily, there were no further questions.

You took the first picture of a dead larva. 120000 coins received.

As I glanced around at the tear-stained faces, my stomach sank. I just didn’t have the opportunity to calm them all down, no matter how much I understood what they were going through. Not only had they been ripped suddenly out of the world they knew; in that moment, they were thinking back to the time they’d spent as monsters. It was a heavy blow to their psyche, and they were all going to have to accept what they’d done and forgive themselves. Forgive themselves for doing something they’d had no control over. I wasn’t worried about the kids — they would quickly adapt. But the elderly, the ones with habits and mindsets forged over years… It was going to be difficult for them.

I was once again in the hexagon’s list of top players, which meant I could no longer travel back and forth between locations undetected. And that meant I needed to drop a few levels. Happily, I had a great way to do that. I flew up to the roof of a building, turned on my invisibility, and skipped over to another roof. Better safe than sorry. Once there, I activated my camouflage field and hit the trial button. It was time to see how that whole thing worked.

“Welcome to the trial, Mark Derwin,” said a mechanical voice. The familiar tablet appeared in front of me on its stand, though there were just two buttons that time: Trial and Exit. There was nothing about classes.

“How many levels are you willing to bet?”

“Fifty.” I’d decided to go with the minimum, still not knowing what the trials were all about.

“Which attribute would you like to change?”

“Skin strength,” I replied, that answer also prepared ahead of time. I needed a way to stand up to the Tsarter group’s weapons.

“Your selection was accepted. Impenetrable skin, fifty levels at stake,” the emotionless voice said. “Allow me to explain the rules to you.”

The instructions were simple and to the point, the way they should be when you’re talking about torture. My job was to stay conscious and on my feet for as long as possible no matter what was done to me. And they were going to do quite a bit… Every second I stayed awake during the trial would set one level in stone. Easy enough, at first glance. But the reality of the thing turned out to be horrific.

“The trial will begin in 3… 2… 1… Good luck, Mark Derwin.”

A ferocious cold gripped my body. It was so sudden that I forgot to take a breath, frozen in place with eyes bugging out. And right then, burying down to the bones, making me twitch, and squeezing my heart into a tiny bundle, came a wave of electricity. I wanted to scream as the awful pain tore through me, but I couldn’t. All that came out was an unintelligible gurgle. The electricity and cold left, replaced by a hellish fire… But that was all I could take. My legs buckled, and I collapsed to the floor. Almost no sooner than it had begun, the trial was over.

You locked in 6 levels. 44 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current level: 156 (6).

I woke up in front of the tablet and looked myself over. My body was whole, though my mind was shattered. And the result left quite a bit to be desired — I’d only lasted six seconds, making me seriously doubt that I’d be able to go through the horror yet again. Tough skin…yeah, right! After that kind of experience, it should have been hard as steel. What do they do for the other trials?

“Are you prepared to go through another trial, Mark Derwin?” The impersonal voice couldn’t have cared less about my problems. Its job was to strip me of my levels, and honestly, that got under my skin. I let the emotions get the better of me and shot back.

“Yes, give it to me! Organ strength. Fifty-five levels!”

“Your selection was accepted. Reinforced internal organs, fifty-five levels at stake. The trial will begin in 3… 2… 1… Good luck, Mark Derwin.”

You locked in 36 levels. 19 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current level: 137 (42).

Reinforced internal organs +3 (3).

As soon as my consciousness was back, I started sucking air into my whole and healthy lungs. I felt for my pulse — my heart was beating on the inside, not the outside, even though it had been torn out of my chest with steel torture implements. The same was true of the rest of my organs. They were all back inside. Once you knew what to expect from the trials, it was easier to get yourself ready for them psychologically. Of course, it was sheer willpower holding me up through the last few seconds, but that did the trick. And while I didn’t know what those three reinforced internal organ points got me, I did know I was done with trials for a while. Who’s the bastard who thought those things up?!

“Are you prepared to go through another trial, Mark Derwin?” The system knew I had available levels and wanted to get its hands on them.

“Next time,” I replied, and I was returned to the roof. The old man who’d taken charge turned out to be a great pick — things were already bustling down below. Squads had been sent out to forage for clothes, food, and water. The children had been collected into a single spot, and some entertainment had been organized for them. And judging by the feed I was getting from Flyer, some people were heading out of the city in the direction of the neighboring villages. Everyone was going to be grouped into one spot. Excellent! The location gave them a fighting shot at building some kind of life for themselves. Really, it was an oasis of humanity in a monstrous desert. So, should I even kill monsters now? Larvae and alien players, of course, but champions and superior monsters… They were the very same people. It was a tough question.

Attention!

A group of natural players entered your location. Access was granted by default.

I got the message as I was flying toward the location border. The coordinates were on the way, and I didn’t even have to adjust my course. Turning on invisibility and activating Valkyrie, I approached the border.

There was a battle raging ahead of me.

I’d already seen the group entering the location — it was the same soldiers who had done such a good job taking out the monsters. The only problem was that instead of monsters, they were up against players. One player, that is. And they were being handed a crushing defeat. The player’s name didn’t tell me anything, though its level 560 and named armor I saw gave me a pretty good idea what group it belonged to.

There weren’t many vehicles left. Shot-up remains were smoking on the horizon, with the ground from there to where we were littered with corpses. The rest of the troops were hiding, crawling, hauling away wounded, and, what impressed me most, constantly shooting back. Not one of the twenty-two soldiers still in the land of the living had thrown down their weapons. Not even the wounded. They kept shooting, even though they weren’t making a dent. The mercenary was wearing universal protection, and even though Ulbaron was shattered, the bullets smacking into it just slowed it slightly. It marched relentlessly forward, Terminator-like, cutting down targets with terrifying accuracy.

I knew what I was risking. I knew it might not work, and I knew the other Earthlings might start shooting at me in the heat of battle, but I couldn’t just fly away. While I’d been fighting the monsters, I kept trying to sneak off south, but that already wasn’t going to happen. They knew where I was. And that meant I needed to help.

But as soon as I flew out of the location, the mercenary started looking around. It even stopped shooting. The bastard saw me on the list!

The people down below made good use of the pause and took off running, though the high-level player I was targeting no longer cared. It occurred to me that the whole thing had been a trick. The troops could have been allowed to get that far just so I would come out to help, though that only crossed my mind in passing as I came hurtling down on the mercenary from above. Your regeneration isn’t going to help you this time, bitch…

Deraven Raknul was sacrificed and received a penalty covering the next 4 releases.

You can collect 4 items at your maximum available level (current equipment level: 6).

Level +5 (142).

Fang practically split the mercenary in half. Its body immediately began to rot, and I picked its phone up and waved to make sure nobody shot at me, happy with my maneuver. My protection was up and running, but it was still worth making sure the troops knew I was friendly. Stray bullets and all…

The needle in my chest was so slender that I barely noticed it. Really, it felt more like I’d been bitten by a mosquito. Thinking that Ulbaron must have somehow just pinched my skin, I looked down and…actually, I wasn’t able to look down. My body wasn’t responding. But my perception was still just as good as ever, and I noticed the tiny thread reaching toward me from the smoking vehicles. A fire burst out in my chest. I was a harpooned whale being dragged through the water, only I couldn’t fight back — my body was no longer under my control.

I was hauled over to a burning armored troop carrier, and that was finally when the pressure from the harpoon relaxed. Somebody grabbed my legs and dragged me away from the safe location. My eyes stared straight ahead, as I couldn’t even move them. Even breathing was impossible, and my chest was about to burst from the lack of oxygen. But I was powerless to do anything about it. The feeling was awful. If it hadn’t been for the trial, which introduced me to something similar, I would have lost consciousness long before, though it stuck with me in that moment despite the agonizing pain. Also, there was nothing keeping me from thinking or giving mental commands. The picture from the drone was right in front of me, so I found the strength to call Flyer over and show me what was happening.

Damn it! I was being pulled away by Shartun Po, with Galrun Po next to me. Both had the same last name as the Tsarter fighters I’d killed; both had the same level 538.

When I checked to see the direction we were heading in, it led me straight to some kind of flying vehicle. My consciousness was fading quickly from the lack of oxygen, but I fought to stay awake. We finally reached the vehicle. I was tossed on a seat like a sack of potatoes.

“Five won’t like it if he dies,” said the barking voice of one of the mercenaries. I couldn’t tell which.

“He killed our brothers,” came the reply. “He deserves a painful death.”

“Five promised to give us what’s left after their conversation. We don’t want a fight with the general or its spawn.”

“He…killed…our…brothers!” the second barked back. “The owner will protect us!”

“The only protection the owner will offer is a quick death and the next release. And we need to stay here, right in this hexagon. I heard the local digger is getting close. Our group is supposed to help with the excavations, and that might even earn us a promotion. They don’t get blood on every planet. So, really, we need to stay on the general’s good side. For now, at least.”

Instead of hearing an answer, I felt another needle and went limp. Once more, I was in control of my body, and it took everything in me not to jump to my feet. I decided I should have lost consciousness a long time before. And with that in mind, all I allowed myself was a jerk and the chance to hungrily gulp down air. That was it.

But that was easier said than done. A sweat broke out all over my body from the nervous energy — I wanted to run, scream, jump, but I stayed strong. Once again, it was like back in the trials, barely holding on. I guess some good things do come out of them.

“Stick him with a regeneration syringe.” I heard unease in the first player’s voice. “I don’t like his reaction. He should have woken up…”

“Unbelievable… He’s so weak that he couldn’t do anything about the blocker, but he killed our brothers… How?”

“We’ll see once the game is over. Give him the shot.”

You hacked the protection of vehicle LTS-VI.

Control gained over LTS-VI.

Flyer showed me how Shartun Po came over, needle in hand, and bent over my body. I remained motionless, waiting for the syringe. The assumption was that the player’s protection would be down in that moment. It was the only way it could give me the shot.

The syringe buried itself in my stomach, and I did two things simultaneously. Three, actually.

The first was to jerk my right arm toward the mercenary’s body. While it was in transit, Fang appeared, stabbing right through Shartun’s suit.

The second was to simultaneously flip the LTS-VI over and bring it to a sudden stop, nose pointing up in the air.

And the third was to grip my chair tightly with my left hand to keep momentum from pulling my body upward. Not expecting that maneuver, the mercenaries flew out of the vehicle like corks from a bottle, one of them, of course, already turned into a rotting statue. Fang slid out of it with an unpleasant squelch.

I apparently had a problem with counting, because there was actually a fourth thing I did right then. The vehicle got the order to soar directly upward as fast as it could go. Flyer showed me how Shartun smacked into Garlun, breaking the latter’s concentration. But Garlun quickly kicked its suit into gear and flew off after the crazed vehicle.

Ten seconds later, I’d put enough distance between me and the player to turn the flying vehicle back right side up and start easing around in the other direction. There was no pursuit — Garlun was too busy checking on its brother. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any messages telling me I’d defeated the latter, so that meant the regeneration syringes were apparently able to cope with the necrotic energy. I need to pick up some new levels quickly. That was the only way I was going to be able to take them on.

Garlun let me turn around and fly back to the safe zone without giving chase. A timer immediately appeared. Apparently, the system had decided I hadn’t been gone long enough, so I only had six more hours to be in the zone. Flying over where I’d been captured, I noticed the troops below. They were gathering their weapons and piling the bodies. There was no reason to risk it, so I flew on by and stopped a few kilometers from the edge of the location. The Tsarter mercenaries definitely weren’t going to be able to reach me there.

I’d found out quite a bit of new and intriguing information while they’d had me. For whatever reason, Five was looking for me. And that was some serious firepower — the fifth-strongest player in the hexagon after the Tsarter group. It wants to talk to me, but about what? The whole thing was strange. But most importantly, I knew what the owner needed from our planet. It wasn’t the resources I’d chalked the whole thing up to. No, it was some kind of blood. Could the fairytales about the dead god and the adamantium his blood turned into be true? Is it really all that simple? I needed to find the digger and ask it a few questions, though I could only assume it was more heavily guarded than the general itself. I’ll come back to that later.

The troops got there two hours later. Flyer had let me watch them burn the bodies and march onward, burdened by their weapons and the weight of the wounded. They noticed me from a good distance away. As the group stopped, their weapons were trained on me. I stood next to the vehicle and held my hand up to show empty palms.

“Don’t shoot; I’m human!”

Two stepped forward, the rest holding back to keep me in their sights. They looked ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Noticing how practiced their movements were, I made sure to stay still. I really wanted to know who they were, where they’d come from, and what they were doing there among the hordes of monsters.

My perception told me who they were long before they got to me. Two players at level twenty, the giant’s name was Dread Varlon, two heads taller than me, and with him was Nelly Oich. A woman? Indeed, the soldier walking up in the wrinkled and battered uniform was, in fact, a woman.

“Take your helmet off,” Nelly said. Her voice was normal, as was her appearance and figure. Just a tired woman around thirty-five or forty who could have been my mother.

I followed her request, though I took it more as an order.

“Your name, brother?”

“Mark Derwin,” I replied, taken aback.

“That Mark Derwin?” the man asked. There was something about his voice that I instantly disliked. It was singsong, low, the kind soldiers don’t have. And his appearance… Of course, everything was fine with his body, as the nanoparticles had turned humanity into Greek gods, but our faces had remained unchanged. Our habits were the same, as well. The darting eyes and smacking lips told me something was off with Dread.

“The very same,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

The pair relaxed. Nelly looked drawn, her face instantly taking on years as her shoulders dropped. She signaled to her troops, who slung their weapons and came over.

“Do you need regeneration syringes?” I asked, glancing over at the wounded.

“No, brother,” Nelly replied. “We don’t use the game. If their lot is to die as cripples, so be it.”

“What do you mean, you don’t use it?” I asked, my wonder growing. “You’re players, you get levels for your gameplay, and you’re taking out monsters. You can’t not use the game.”

“My son, it’s so sad to hear that you’re as lost as everyone else we’ve met,” Dread said unexpectedly. “You need to be saved like the rest of humanity.”

“Lost? What are you talking about?” The longer the conversation went, the less I understood. “There’s a game, and it came to our world. We’re supposed to win and rebuild whatever little is left after the game is over. What do you mean, lost?”

“There’s so much you don’t understand, my son.” Dread made a sign over me, and it finally dawned on me who I was talking to. A priest! He was in uniform, but he was a priest nonetheless. “The more you use the gifts of the enemy, the more you become enmeshed in his nets. The more your sin takes root. Repent and pray. Fight only with righteous weapons of war, and your faith will protect your soul, give you the strength to emerge victorious. Open up to wisdom. For if god is with us, who can be against us?”

I just stood there, unsure what to do. The last thing I’d been expecting was a bunch of fanatics.

Damn it!

Chapter 9

THE TROOPS refused point blank to fly on the game’s devil machine, as they called the LTS. And hiding it in my virtual storage elicited even more curses and cocked weapons. The group took a step back, apparently shunning me as a sinner. But when I led them firmly to a road with a parked bus Flyer had pointed out to me, they warmed a little. I was even allowed to carry one of their wounded. With my strength, it was much easier for me, especially seeing as how I could fly.

“So, where are you going?” I’d decided to accompany them to the city.

Lanky Dread exchanged glances with Nelly. The latter nodded.

“He’ll be cleansed, Father. We have to believe. That’s all we can do now.”

“You’re right, Sister.” The holy man made another cross in my direction. “We have to believe.”

Nelly laid a map out across the seat. And it wasn’t the kind you got at a news stand. No, it was so detailed it had to be military.

“We’re on our way here,” Dread said, jabbing a finger at one of the cities. “The saint’s relics are there, and they’ll help us protect Earth.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you aren’t going to make it.” The name of the city the troops were headed toward was all too familiar. “That’s where the main boss in our hexagon is located — the general. There’s no way you’re getting close.”

“God is on our side,” Dread replied. “He will not stand for the outrages of the devil’s beasts.”

“It’s up to you, of course.” I wasn’t planning on trying to disabuse them of their holy notions. “And where are you coming from?”

“The north.” Nelly unrolled the map a little farther to show a fairly broad area. “There aren’t any monsters left there, and if we can break through — ”

“When, not if, my daughter,” Dread said.

“Yes, Father. When we get our hands on the relics, we’ll clear our lands of the unclean. And then we’ll get to work on other countries.”

“Wait, that’s what you’re trying to do?” I asked in surprise. “Pick up some relics and use them to get rid of the monsters? That’s why you’re here?”

“No, we had different orders from command at first,” Nelly said. “We were supposed to find stations pulling some kind of stones out of the ground and report back with their coordinates for an air strike. But Father Dread opened our eyes to how things really are. Earth’s problem isn’t the stations; it’s fading belief. This is all punishment for our sins. And so, because of that, we got rid of the stones and set off for the relics. They’re all that can help us now.”

“You got rid of them?” It was a day packed with surprising news. The idiots had found some noa only to toss it aside, and I wanted to know what had happened to it. “Where? When? Do you even know what they are?”

“Demonic rocks, and that’s all we need to know,” Dread replied with a grimace, his already unpleasant face turning downright revolting. “The faithful have no need of them. They were forged in the fires of Gehenna, and that’s where they belong!”

“They’re right here.” Nelly’s military background kicked in, and she pointed to the spot on the map where the noa was. “We buried them in the ground, returning them to where they were taken from.”

I was about to say something, though I stopped short. Something was off. But what is it? Checking the map one more time and making a mental note of the location, I realized that after our first meeting, the detachment had headed due south. The noa was buried just a hundred kilometers from the nearest concentration plant. But then, they’d turned on their heels when they suddenly remembered their faith. The moment of inspiration had been too sudden, in fact. Not good.

“Have you had these beliefs for long? When did you decide to head off for the relics?” I asked, trying to feel around for the train of thought that was evading me.

“Yesterday,” Nelly answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world, not even taking her eyes off me. “That was when we rescued Father Dread from the monsters, and he began to preach. We saw the light and realized where our salvation lies.”

“Humanity will be saved, my son,” Dread said. “Our sins will be washed clean as soon as we get to the relics. And you should come with us.”

“Of course,” I echoed, not looking to contradict. There was something about their behavior I didn’t like at all. Something was fake, though I couldn’t put my finger on what. I could only hope I’d figure it out later.

“So many people!” one of the soldiers exclaimed when we drove into the city. Long processions of regular humans were trailing into the city along the same road we were using, and I finally noticed some variety. Middle-aged men and women were mixed in with the elderly and children. The game apparently hadn’t gobbled up all of them.

“I need to preach to them!” Father Dread said. “So much pain and suffering in their souls — I have to help them be cleansed, help them find themselves!”

For a second, I started to doubt the impression I’d been building of the guy. He was right. Many of the elderly were having a hard time coping with their transition to monster and back, and they really did need help. Help from a pastor, mentor, clergyman. Anyone who could give them a kind, uplifting word.

“I’ll make that happen,” I said. The old man I’d left in charge of the location was enthusiastic about the open-air session, as he also understood where his people were coming from. The larva hulk and the remains of the tubs were hauled away from the square, the holes were hurriedly filled in, and an hour later, an enormous crowd had gathered to hear the word of god. The people weren’t even just in the square; they were peering out of windows, crowding on roofs, and clambering up onto streetlights. Everyone wanted to hear how everything was going to be okay. If not in that life, then in the next.

When the clergyman started speaking, the crowd fell silent. Even the children were quiet, everyone stunned by the deep, melodious, measured voice Dread was speaking in. And actually, while what he said was simple and banal, it was to the point. He talked about the trial we were facing, about how we needed to stand up under it and keep moving forward, about how important it was to push through the hardships. We needed to be strong and daring, all of that. But one thing I didn’t like was that he held up an enormous cross and demanded that everyone follow him in his quest for the relics. And the reason I didn’t like it was that the crowd fell into line without a second’s hesitation. Cries rang through the square: Lead us! God is with us! They were taken up by more people, and soon the entire crowd was clamoring in one voice about how they were willing to follow Father Dread wherever he led in order to save their souls. Phones and all the other game items the new converts had picked up over the previous few hours were tossed to the ground. In fact, I’d never seen such an instant transformation, with the weak, terrified group suddenly turning confident and fanatical. It certainly felt like they would have rushed the monsters with bare hands regardless of the casualties if Dread had ordered it.

Something buzzed in my left hand. Glancing down in confusion, it took me a few moments to realize what the tablet was doing there. In fact, it was only when I held it up and read the message that I stopped short. Goosebumps ran down my spine, and a sticky sense of fear gripped me. Quickly slipping my helmet back on my head to make my outfit airtight, my senses returned. The bastard! I’d been right all along about him.

The shot was lost in the hubbub of the crowd, though it was right on the money — the cross the clergyman was holding aloft shattered. The raving followers froze as if held on a string, and I flew into the air. And with Valkyrie trained on Father Dread, who was staring at the remains of the cross in surprise, Raptor pulled up an unpleasant message:

A forbidden level 6 hypnotic device was discovered in your location.

“Stop him!” Dread bellowed, having quickly regained his senses. A finger jabbed in my direction. “He’s the devil!”

Nelly and her troops instantly reacted, though they were still just a second too late. I was invisible and hurtling away from the crowd. The last thing I wanted was hypnotized players firing at me — they would have shredded my protection in a few instants. But I didn’t want to kill Dread. Something told me that would have just made things worse, and I’d gotten used to listening to my instincts.

“Where is he?!” The clergyman spun around helplessly, trying to catch a glimpse of me. The soldiers, meanwhile, scoped in every time they saw the slightest movement in the air. Their training was impressive. Alighting next to the podium Father Dread was speaking from, I activated my camouflage field and studied him. He was definitely human — there was no doubting that. The only problem was that he wasn’t behaving in a very human matter, and that demanded further attention.

“Mark Derwin is evil! He must be destroyed!” Dread continued his sermon, still unable to find me and turning the subject from salvation for lost souls to the annihilation of a player that was a bit too nimble for his liking.

Note! A forbidden level 6 hypnotic device was discovered in your location.

Devices discovered: Dread Varlon’s phone, transmitter, consciousness block (22 units).

Another cross appeared in the clergyman’s hands, and the motionless crowd once again broke out in ecstasy. The only difference was that that time they thirsted for blood. My blood.

Whoever had prepared the clergyman for that meeting was incredibly strong. It took thirty tries before the game finally gave in to the 2% chance I had of hacking the equipment.

You hacked the transmitter and consciousness block protection.

Block!

There was a metal clang as the cross dropped to the ground, Father Dread’s arms no longer strong enough to hold up the suddenly heavy object. The soldiers and the clergyman himself were next to collapse to the ground. From what my drone told me, they were all unconscious. Once again, the crowd fell silent, stunned by what they were seeing and still under the spell of the mass hypnosis. I turned my invisibility back on and flew up onto the platform. From there, I grabbed the phone, picked up the cross, and stripped everyone of small earpieces that looked like portable transmitters. Finally, the crowd livened up. There were gasps when they saw me, though none of them were eager to chop me up any longer.

“The monsters are devious!” I called out, motioning to the loot I’d gathered. “They’ll do anything they have to in order to get you out of this location, stooping to nothing. Make sure you level-up your willpower so you can stand up to their hypnosis.”

“What about Father Dread?” I heard someone call in a nervous voice.

“He’ll wake up soon. A powerful opponent had his mind under a spell, using him to get to you.”

“Are you sure he’s free of the spell? Or would it be better to shoot him?” That was a different voice. It belonged to the suspicious creature that had slipped into the shadows when the monsters had transformed back into humans, and he was asking an excellent question. Dread was lying motionless, though I doubted he was using the time to boost his willpower, and so it was possible he was still being controlled.

“I don’t know,” I replied frankly. “We’ll need time to see. But I do know that he’ll be free as soon as the creature who took his mind captive is destroyed.”

“Then, get to it! Look at the crowd — half of them are in the same condition, and the soldiers don’t look normal, either. We should probably tie them up.”

Seriously. Part of the crowd was frozen with glassy eyes staring straight ahead, the old man I’d left in charge included.

“Take care of them,” I said as I pulled out Dread’s phone. It wasn’t hard to hack it. The lanky guy lived a hundred kilometers away, in a small village with a name that seemed somehow familiar. I just couldn’t figure out why. His initiation had happened there, and he’d started his travels there, too. Judging by the map, he’d been thrown around quite a bit, heading through forests, living by a creek, and a few times making his way back to the village, but never able to force himself to actually enter it. But then, everything changed. Something happened to him in the heart of the forest — his wanderings gave way to a straight line heading through the monster-littered villages and cities. Once he got to a certain point, he turned sharply and headed toward our location. Again, on a straight line. That told me he’d been under someone’s control the whole time. He was being jerked around like a marionette, first pushing the troops to the edge of my location, then setting up the battle with the Tsarter fighter that I hadn’t gotten a named item for, and finally catching me. But when it turned out I’d gotten away, plan B was activated. He was supposed to use all the hypnotic equipment he had with him to pull everyone out of the location and hand them over to the monsters to be eaten. It wasn’t a bad plan — I’d almost bought in. Having me take off my helmet and distracting me from Raptor had been an especially good move. Those sly dogs!

“Nicely done,” I said when I saw Gardine’s work. He was the strange player. “Where’d you learn how to do that?”

“I’m a veterinarian. For us, it’s simple — you learn how to tie the animals up, or you deal with cuts and bites all over your arms. Hey, let’s exchange contact information. I won’t let them go until you give me a call even if they wake up and tell me their fine. That’s an old trick. There are plenty of them in all the games.”

“Wait, you’re a player, too? Then why…” I stopped, not sure how to ask why Gardine wasn’t a player.

“I couldn’t give myself the shot,” he replied with a guilty expression on his face. “The first thing they teach you at vet school is to never use medicine you’re not familiar with. Not on the animals, not on yourself.”

“But then why…”

“Why did I hide? I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I’m not the type to jump into anything first.”

“Okay, wait here. I won’t be long,” I said unwillingly before taking off into the air. I always hated the moments where your conscious pokes its head up and refuses to let you leave people to their fate. I didn’t owe them anything; they didn’t owe me anything. The best thing to do would have been to put a shot through Dread’s head and be done with it, maybe even the soldiers, too. I was positive that would’ve brought everyone back. But that would have left the hypnotic beast still out there, and it would have found someone else sooner or later. Also, we were coming up on the next monster upgrade. I wasn’t sure I’d still be able to take it out once that happened.

It was time to play the hero once again, risking my life for strangers. When am I going to start using my head?

I had to fly quite a distance. Turning on invisibility and forgetting my fear, I pushed Ulbaron to the limit — almost 110 of the maximum 150 kilometers an hour.

You called Squirrel Derwin. User unavailable. Would you like to wake the person currently holding the phone?

Wake him up? He’s sleeping while I’m out here working? You bet I would!

“What do you want?” Wart’s voice really was sleepy and even starting to sound inhuman. “Did you find the pearl?”

“That’s not as simple as you think. I need to know how you got your hands on the one in the prerelease.”

Silence was my only answer.

“Wart, this isn’t easy without information! Do you want to live, or do you want to play games? How did you find it?”

“I wasn’t the one who found it,” he finally replied. “I attacked the guy who did, though I lost.”

“But how did you hear about it?”

“There was a group of us running around together. I was held up at work, and they went into the dungeon without me. Of the ten players who went in, only one came back out. He was boasting about what he found — I saw the description. I know what it can do. I wanted to take it from him, though it didn’t work.”

“Do you know how he got it? What did he do?”

“He killed them! That’s all I know. I was on my way to his work to bash his face in when all this happened — he took out our whole group!”

“Excellent! Now I know where to find that damn pearl. Okay, over and out.”

The whole process suddenly made sense, including the number of victims you needed to get a pearl. Nine units of personified noa to get the dungeon to unheard-of levels. That was the only way I could get what I was looking for, the only way to save my sister. The only question was what would happen to my victims. What will happen to them in the database?

Shartun Po was sacrificed and received a penalty covering the next 4 releases.

You can collect 4 items at your maximum available level (current equipment level: 6).

Level +5 (147).

***

You killed a player from the owner’s personal guard.

You can collect 1 named item in the store.

Level +20 (167).

10 free attribute points received.

Oh, wow, so Fang turned out to be stronger than the game magic? The creature’s regeneration apparently hadn’t been enough to handle the necrotic energy. Whatever the case, it was good news — the fewer mercenaries there were, the easier it was going to be for me to survive. Of the seven in the group, four had already been sent off to miss the next four releases, leaving just three. The only problem was that Tsarter definitely knew how I was killing them. They’ll probably think up something.

I could see from a ways off where Father Dread had been captured. It was hard not to notice the trampled field in the middle of the thick forest. Fallen trees had been turned to wood chips as though something heavy had been dropped down on them. Per the location data, there weren’t any players around, neither alien nor human. Still, I had no doubt the beast was local. It had tracked the clergyman, jumped down on him, and subjugated his mind. I sent Flyer around in a circle, widening the radius with each rotation. My targets were big monsters, champion-level or higher.

Almost immediately, I found what I was looking for. An odd creature was living in the village Dread was from. Suddenly, I remembered why the name was familiar — it was home to the biggest church in the country. What I didn’t remember, certainly, was why it had been built in such a remote location far away from the nearest cities, though I was positive it had been built ten years before. All of Christianity came there on pilgrimages.

The logical assumption was that the beast had settled in the church. A crowd of superior monsters and champions were hauling loot inside, and it took me a second to realize it was metal and electronics rather than live creatures or meat. Everything that could transmit electricity was being carried inside. Just in case, I had Flyer do a few more circles around the location, but nothing else fit the bill. That was the only powerful monster around.

Flyer came back toward me, though I started losing control as it neared the church. The feed began rippling, the drone glitched in and out of control, a second-long lag appeared, and one time it almost went into a steep dive. I was forced to pull it away and observe the church from a distance. Suddenly, it dawned on me — I had no idea what kind of creature was in there. The scanner showed me there was a monster, though I didn’t know what type of monster it was. Neither the class nor the level showed up on the screen.

Ah, a bomber with a few blockbusters would sure be nice right about now. But I didn’t have access to the troops in the north, and their only local representatives were dead weight in my location. It was going to have to be the tried and true: get inside and blow it all to bits. Ten thermal mines could work wonders.

But before heading over, I went through two trials, deciding to bet the minimum fifty levels both times. Of course, I could have started saving them up and ended up the first player on Earth at level 300, but that wouldn’t have been any more than a check mark in my list of achievements. Survival was more important than medals.

You locked in 25 levels. 25 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current level: 142 (67).

Impenetrable skin +3 (3).

***

You locked in 26 levels. 24 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current level: 118 (93).

Impenetrable skin +2 (5).

I was able to hold out for quite a while that time as the torture chamber went to work on me. Sure, I yelled and screamed as it literally chopped me up, emptying my bowels and bladder, but I stood tall. It was only when my skin was slowly stripped back, something acidic and far worse than salt being poured into the wounds, that I gave in. But twenty-five and twenty-six seconds was a great result, I thought.

My skin was different. It was more elastic, smoother, glossier. My entire body went bald, including my head, though that was actually good news. I didn’t always have time to keep myself clean. And when I tried to pinch myself, I grunted — it wasn’t easy. Breaking off a branch and sharpening the tip, I tried to stab my hand. I grunted again when it didn’t even hurt. The wood snapped when I leaned into it, almost as though it was up against a steel plate. But my skin stayed just as silky smooth as before. Interesting. Of course, I thought better of seeing what Fang could do, as Shartun had proven that the game wasn’t capable of standing up to the ritual knife. Valkyrie, on the other hand, easily penetrated my leg. I’ll have to keep going. What was interesting in that case, however, was that the wound began closing before my eyes — reinforced internal organs, impenetrable skin, and regeneration had me looking something like the Tsarter mercenaries. Obviously, they’d defended all 538 of their levels, getting themselves to unheard-of heights, and I was only starting, but I was looking forward to becoming an absolute terror over the next couple weeks. I’ll go with this for now, though.

The issue at hand was the unusual monster in the church. It was time to smoke it out, so I turned on my invisibility and flew over to where Flyer was waiting. I was going to have to figure out what to do on the spot.

Chapter 10

THE FIRST ISSUES started cropping up a couple hundred meters from the church. The closer I got, the worse the drone feed became, to the point that I started just getting a bunch of nonsense. Numbers, illegible phrases, blurred pictures. The mines were next to let me down — they turned into useless chunks of metal. And to top things off, the camouflage field hanging on my belt got hotter and hotter until it dripped off onto the ground. The mines followed suit. Instead of detonating, they just melted, something I noticed too late to avoid losing them. It was just a good thing Ulbaron didn’t heat up.

It turned out that there was a field around the church that destroyed game items without the “can’t be blocked in the game world” attribute. In other words, everything besides named items. The field didn’t let game signals in — when I got to the walls of the church, I found that my contact with Flyer had been lost completely. The drone was hovering helplessly above the treetops. Heading back, I dropped it into my virtual storage.

But the monsters around the church felt fine, and they were busy hauling over Earthling technology. There were guards at the doors: two mage champions who carefully inspected every piece of equipment. The monster who got lucky squealed happily and headed inside with their burdens; the ones who didn’t carried their finds away with a guilty expression on their face. Dumping the electronics on a huge pile not far away, they headed off in search of something better.

I spent a while watching the entrance in an attempt to figure out how I could get inside. But it was to no avail. There was another pair behind the champions, and those two were using their large frames to block the entrance. They only stood aside to let laden monsters through. It would have been impossible to get in, and I wasn’t ready for a frontal attack. If all the monsters in the area had run over, they would have buried me with sheer volume. No, I needed to use stealth.

Ulbaron didn’t have a problem flying around inside the invisible field. Keeping one hand on the wall, I eased my way upward toward the belfry. I’d been there once for a tour, and so I knew there was a way down into the church from there. And my memory served me well — there was, indeed, only with one obstacle. A champion. The monster was taking up the whole area, filling the space with its enormous body.

I flew a circle around the church, though I was foiled again. The windows were all boarded up, and monsters were standing guard everywhere. Then, Zelda started blinking to tell me I had just a minute of invisibility left. Realizing that the front door just wasn’t an option, I headed back up to the belfry. That way in looked most promising. Of course, I had to wait for a while as Zelda recharged, but I was soon ready to figure out my next move.

The champion wasn’t humanoid. Actually, it looked more like an overgrown Alturian, as it could squeeze its way into the tiniest of recesses just like the jellyfish, keeping itself out of sight. Alternatively, as was the case there, it could fill the whole space to make sure nobody got through. Looking at the monster from a meter away, I couldn’t find any weak points. But Raptor told me there wasn’t anyone else on the roof, so I decided to make my move. Fang appeared in my hand, I took a step forward, and —

And I froze. My gaze had been arrested by the cross atop the church dome. I’d noticed previously that something about it was off, though it was only then that I saw the light vibration, not to mention the field it was generating. My perception pointed out several thick wires leading to iy. Carefully moving away from the champion, I used the last of my invisibility to fly up to the dome and find a perch next to the cross. It was buzzing away like some kind of transformer box. At the base, someone had added thick chunks of rubber to absorb most of the vibrations and keep the cross isolated from the rest of the building, though I jerked back as soon as I held Fang up to the construction. A powerful surge of static electricity swept through Ulbaron, just about turning me into a well-done steak. And while I’d never been big on religion, I certainly wasn’t a fan of what the monsters had done with the symbol of our faith. As soon as I got to the cupola the wires were coming from, I sliced clean through them. Fang felt neither resistance nor a shock, and I got what I was looking for. The cross stopped buzzing. Suddenly, I realized my head wasn’t hurting. Of course, at the same time, it occurred to me that it had actually been hurting, though that was just a minor detail.

The creatures below perked up. Superior monsters ran around, whimpering as they went. And a few seconds later, the champion blocking the way down into the church moved aside to let some repairmen up. Yes, the church apparently had repairmen. Dragging long ladders behind them, the humans climbed out of the belfry onto the dome, their glassy eyes and herky-jerky motions telling me they weren’t acting at all of their own accord. And that just made me wonder even more about the creature inside. But regardless of the fact that the cross was no longer buzzing, Raptor’s scanner was still glitching. The signal was having a hard time breaking through the protective field, and that made me awfully thankful for the time I’d spent at university. If the cross wasn’t there for protection, it was a transmitter. The creature somewhere below me had to be using it to remotely control people.

But that all occurred to me on the move. Without a second to lose, I ducked past the champion, an invisible shadow slipping between the repairmen coming up, and headed below. The monster’s hulk once again filled the space above me, but it was too late. I was in. Below, a long, spiral staircase wound its way down, though there was nobody else hurrying up to the roof. I pulled my knees up to make sure I didn’t accidentally knock off any stray pebbles, held my arms out wide, and eased my way down, once again thrilled by how advanced Ulbaron was. That particularly hit home once I made it down a few turns and looked back up. The dim lighting and dusty air showed me a slender red beam next to one of the stairs — if I’d been walking, I would have tripped it. Turning and heading back up, I studied the trap. It was your standard laser alarm. The fact that it was embedded in the wall meant it had been part of the original construction, and it was turned on. That told me quite a bit. For example, there was a creature somewhere controlling however many lasers there were — I was going to have to be careful, even looking around for cameras. I could only assume there were a few of them, with somebody off monitoring the feeds. Just as I’d assumed, Earth tech worked fine inside the protective field.

I came across three more lasers on my way down. Two were next to steps; one was chest-high. It was a good thing I’d found the first one, as I was able to look around and find them before I got close. Having flown through without tripping any of the alarms, I found myself in the church’s main sanctuary. The string of monsters carrying electronics disappeared behind the altar and headed down another level. There were imprisoned people there, too. Tightly arranged in rows, the motionless mannequins were standing by a wall and paying no attention to the proceedings. And the monsters completely ignored their master’s dolls, not even glancing over at them as unavailable chunks of meat. Just in case, I checked my willpower. It was up to level 70, and the fact that I couldn’t hear any hypnotic voices in my head meant it was working fine.

Once again, I activated device control only to get nothing. The system message told me there were no devices within 45 meters. Of course, someone might just be hiding them. I tried not to think about another option — my level 90 wasn’t enough to get through the creature’s protection. Although…

Device control +10 (100).

You can’t boost skills past 100 until you have 100 set levels.

What the… Who made this damn game? I wanted to find them and tear them to pieces. Sure, I’d known I would come up against another barrier the game would throw up at some point, but I didn’t expect it to have anything to do with levels. Didn’t they say something about how all the restrictions are removed after level 100? But no… There was a new level 100 restriction, only that time it had to do with fixed level. What else will there be? I could only assume I’d eventually run smack up against yet another wall I never could have even imagined at the beginning. The game was anything but balanced.

Emotions are all well and good, but ten minutes later, I wasn’t feeling anything. My game items were gone, and I needed to keep moving. Looking around, I crept between the frozen people. Nobody’s going to stab me in the back, right? But no, none of them responded to my presence, though my head suddenly started hurting again. There was a flash up by the cupola, a burnt smell hit my nostrils, and a dull thump told me something had just hit the ground. Someone had fallen off the roof. A second later, three mannequins perked up and grabbed fire extinguishers on their way up to the roof. There had apparently been some kind of electrical short.

The monsters hauling equipment around started looking up nervously. There wasn’t much smoke, though there was enough for the even line to scatter. And no matter how loudly the champions standing by the door yelled in their foreign language, they couldn’t restore order. The superior monsters had no desire to be burned alive.

It was a great opportunity for me, and I quickly utilized it. Slipping along the wall past the altar, I found myself facing yet another ladder. Only that one definitely wasn’t original — judging by the edges and the pile of earth by the far wall, the opening had been made fairly recently.

Jumping to miss a monster coming up, I headed down. My calculations had told me the monsters appeared every twenty seconds, which meant I needed to find cover in that time. When the next changed appeared, I was huddled in a special niche in the wall. The scratches and dried spit told me it was for waiting in while monsters hauled equipment down. But in that moment, it was for me. The monster headed up without stopping, and I moved downward, counting off the next twenty seconds in my head.

I had to hide in niches three more times. Finally, with an even area opening up beneath me, I activated Zelda and crept out into the big cave hidden by its invisibility. There was no light, but Raptor took care of that, showing me a black-and-white model of the area. Getting to the wall and wedging myself in between two boulders, I looked around.

The cave had been made by shrews — the uneven walls made that much clear. And they’d done a good bit of work, as Raptor told me the cave was big enough to fit an entire soccer field in. Right in the middle, there was an enormous pile of equipment ten little, toothless creatures were pulling parts from. I’d seen monsters like that back when they were helping a larva. Is there something at that level here, too? If there was, I was in trouble, as I didn’t think I could take it on without explosives.

A chomping sound broke out. Looking over, I saw a creature biting down on the remains of some electronics. And they were indeed remains, as the toothless assistants pulled everything valuable out, tossed it away, and, with the help of ten hypnotized humans, cleared everything in the area into the gaping maw. I hadn’t even noticed it, assuming it was part of the wall. But as soon as it started chewing, Raptor decided to introduce us:

Disposal. Larva-level creature.

The parts deemed suitable for future use were dropped into a cart. When it was full, the mannequins pulled it away to the far wall, where there was something like a lift pulling it farther down.

A fat power cable ran right behind me. I noticed a low-frequency hum coming from it — the voltage sounded like it was through the roof. Following it with my eyes, I saw that it led upward, feeding the cross on the roof, and I very nearly cut through it. No, too suspicious here. The other end wound its way along the wall before disappearing down into the lift opening. Yet more champions checked every cart carefully, another blocking the way to the boss.

Time was becoming a factor. Waiting for a moment when the monsters hauling equipment had their backs to each other, I flew over to the other side of the cave and started moving cautiously along the wall. The disposal was near where I’d started, and I had no desire to see how well Ulbaron would stand up to its teeth. And with everyone busy, nobody paid any attention to the shadow flitting past. The fact that there wasn’t any lighting told me the monsters could see perfectly well in the dark. They were also moving easily and with purpose, even the hypnotized people moving their carts around objects like they knew what they were doing.

When I got to the lift, I stopped. The champions were standing too close to each other for me to get past. As each cart was rolled over, another one stepped up and held a device up to it before signaling for it to be transported down. The guards stepped aside, and the cart was pushed onto the platform. A minute later, the platform was back with a newly emptied cart. Neither the parts nor the hypnotized human were anywhere to be seen.

Wait, a device?! I couldn’t really make out the different parts in the dark myself, and I couldn’t risk heading over to see what the device was. Regardless, it was apparently something from our world — nothing else worked down there.

Standing there for a good half hour, I tried to catch a moment where I could jump past the monsters. No such luck. My only options were jumping out and fighting my way down or… Hm… The next cart came back up, and one of the champions shoved it to the side. A human mannequin stepped over to push it off toward the mountain of electronic devices. Bingo!

I had to wait two more turns to figure out where the carts were ending up. But as soon as the next set of parts was sent below, I pressed myself against the wall and crept over to the spot. The lift came back, and the cart very nearly smacked directly into me. One of the humans separated from the rest. As soon as he got close, I leaped to my feet, giving him a blow to the back of the head that was just heavy enough to knock him unconscious. I sure hope that thing isn’t controlling them all remotely. But no, it was apparently a predesigned schematic, so I was able to ease the body to the ground, grab the cart, and head over to the loading point. The hardest part was jerking around without overturning my load.

The toothless helpers filled the cart with cables and microchips, ripping them out of TVs, phones, and tape recorders. I never would have thought aliens would have the slightest interest in our technology. But when the last part was dropped into the cart, the creature turned away, figuring it was full enough. Staggering and twitching, I headed for the lift. A champion stepped forward. Everything inside me tightened — it was holding a scanner. A game scanner, one that even my device control hadn’t picked up, and it was working fine inside the protective field. All Raptor could do was recognize the thing visually and give me the tersest of messages:

Sk-X scanner.

Level ten… How?! Where?! Where did the monsters get something like that?

I did my best to keep my breathing even as the champion ran the device over the cart, but sweat still streamed down my back regardless of Ulbaron’s cooling system. Finally, the screen blinked green, and the monster stepped to the side. The guards followed suit. As my heart pounded, I pushed the cart forward, the amount of adrenaline in my blood apparently approaching critical mass.

The platform jerked and headed downward. There was no roof, which let Raptor calculate how deep the shaft went — forty-two meters. Including the first ladder, the beast I was on my way to visit was a good hundred meters underground.

The lift shuddered to a halt, revealing a new cave. That one didn’t have any guards. In fact, there was nothing there but a pile of parts. Playing my role to the end, I pushed the cart over, dumped out its contents, and took a step backwards to let Raptor finish building a three-dimensional model of the area.

And that’s when everything started to happen.

A tentacle I hadn’t noticed tossed the cart away. The latter landed on the lift, heading immediately upward, while a second tentacle wrapped itself around me. Squeezing hard, it did its best to turn me into a freshly squeezed lemon. Only Ulbaron saved me as Raptor found the source of my problems and highlighted the pile of parts. The tentacles were reaching out from it.

Everything inside me wanted to slice through my assailant using Fang, but I bade my time. There was nothing I could do until I saw my opponent. In the meantime, the tentacle redoubled its attack to the point that my armor started to creak, and I even pulled out Fang just in case, though it all stopped suddenly. Just as quickly as it had appeared, the tentacle ducked back into the pile, dropping me onto the ground. The thought flashed through my mind that I was supposed to be cut in two with no way to move, so I let myself flop down motionlessly. Both eyes were fixed on Raptor.

The next beast appeared a minute later.

It was a spider, or at least, something that looked like one. Crawling out of a corner, it clung to every nook and cranny in the ceiling that it could find, coming at me upside down. There was a head, a body, and eight long, multi-jointed legs, two of which I thought were equipped with grasping devices. Something like hands. Raptor told me nothing about its level, name, and equipment. All it could do was show a black-and-white projection edging sideways toward me.

Suddenly, I started hearing things.

You’re weak. It’s time to relax. You’re weak. It’s time to relax.

Against my will, my arms started feeling heavy and difficult to move. The spider hung directly above me, peering down with what looked like some kind of interest.

You’re tired. You want to sleep. You’re tired. You want to sleep.

The thing was so good that my eyes started closing, and there was nothing I could do. Just as I was losing consciousness, I spotted the power supply cable stretching out to the wall from the spider’s body. Wait, what? So that thing is feeding the cross on the cupola? It’s what’s controlling Dread and the soldiers? And it wants me dead?

A flash of rage returned my consciousness, if only my consciousness. I still couldn’t move my body. But that wasn’t important — I’d already worked around that in the game. Ulbaron’s drives worked beautifully with mental commands. With the spider hanging directly above me, I kicked all the drives on my back into full gear. It was quite the takeoff. In fact, it was such a fast takeoff that I pinned the terrifying spider to the ceiling. Legs broke with a crunch, and the voice disappeared from my head, though I still couldn’t think straight. Knowing that I had neither the opportunity nor the energy to hold off a new attack, I had to make my next move. The next drives to fire were on my right arm. One of the bent it at the elbow, while the other hurled it at the pinned spider. The third command — also mental — made my ritual danger spring into my palm. It thirsted for blood.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t able to punch a hole through the spider’s body on the first try. Fang felt like it was stuck in something tough and viscous, though it kept pushing ahead of Ulbaron’s drives. But I had no idea what happened next. There was no me left to think about that — I was already asleep.

I only found out how the battle ended an hour later. Lying in complete darkness, I wasn’t able to move. And it wasn’t because the monster was controlling me. No, Ulbaron was almost out of energy. All it had left was the backup there to let the player out, as it had spent the entire time I was asleep pinning the spider to the ceiling and thrusting Fang into its body. Looking up, I saw that it had been a success. The necrotic knife and even the rest of my arm were buried in the thing’s hulk.

There were no longer any voices in my head. The store was working beautifully, and I quickly bought enough energy blocks to supply all my equipment. Just in case, I replaced everything. There was no sense repeating the same mistake. A couple seconds later, I’d completed the job and activated all of Ulbaron’s functions, at which point I was finally able to pull my arm out of the monster’s body. It was a revolting moment. There were no guts remaining, just the empty shell. Throwing it to the side, I stood up. The only other creatures in the cave were a few people lying unconscious, all with carts. A few tentacles crept out of the main pile to twitch aimlessly as though disconnected from their brain.

Finally, Raptor realized I’d regained consciousness. It started vibrating to grab my attention.

You destroyed 3R32-221, equipment that came to Earth with the release team.

Title: Hero changed to Liquidator.

***

You’re the first player in the past 52 seasons to earn the title of Liquidator.

Level +150 (268).

150 free attribute points received.

***

The game owner named you Public Enemy No. 1 and applied the Outcast penalty to you.

The game owner paid the creator a penalty for applying the Outcast penalty to a natural release player.

Monster levels reduced by 1 (current level: 3).

Note! Outcast cannot be applied to personified noa.

***

You took the first picture of a dead release team member. 6000000 coins received.

The spider’s body flickered and disappeared, leaving a small chest in its place. It was the same old wooden, iron-encased type of thing the pirates used to go with. And as I pulled it open, the breath caught in my throat, a smile spreading across my face. Are part of my problems finally over with?

Seven noa stones were shimmering in front of me. Where can I find another couple?

Chapter 11

FANG SPLIT the twitching tentacle in half. There was no more sense hiding, so I turned on a flashlight to check the thing out. It wasn’t a living creature, per se. Instead, it was part of a robot made out of materials at hand on Earth. Nothing about it had anything to do with the game.

Incidentally, the strange field had disappeared with the death of the robot, the game once again coming into its own. Everything on me was back at my disposal. Unsure of what to expect up above, I went ahead and called Gardine. Father Dread and the soldiers were all back to normal the way I’d assumed they would be, and they were busy looking around in wonder and amazement. None of them had any memory of what had happened since the moment they’d been hypnotized. For the troops, that was when they found the clergyman; for the latter, it was when the flying saucer had descended on the forest. Giving them the go-ahead to release the prisoners, as they no longer represented a threat, I hung up and stared at the opposite wall.

A flying saucer?

Sure, I’d seen with my own two eyes the spot where some enormous piece of equipment had turned the giant trees into firewood. I hadn’t wanted to believe it, but the robot spider had come out from cover on its own, which meant it had someone helping it. Maybe even multiple someones. There was also its super-duper ship capable of wiping out whole sections of forest. So, where was its cover?

Valkyrie popped up in my hand, and I sent a grenade deep into the very heart of the pile of electronics. The resulting explosion was powerful enough for me to feel it even inside Ulbaron. But there was a downside: the wall of fire turned the people appearing above into charred firebrands. I hope they didn’t feel anything. One way or another, the tentacles stopped moving, and I broke a handle off one of the carts to dig around in the melted electronics. A small box broke free, the device’s brain. Even after the explosion, it buzzed and flashed multicolored lights. An entire bank of power supplies kept it running.

There was no way I was going to turn my back on a device I knew nothing about, and so I yanked it away from its mountings. After flashing for the last time, the lights went dead. Something boomed from the direction of the shaft, and the lift dropped down to my level without anything to control it. And since I couldn’t get the box to drop into my virtual storage, I tossed it away. I was anything but an IT specialist. The last thing on my mind was marveling at the superb work and what it meant for the future of humanity, and I even went as far as to take a boot to the piece of alien technology.

The robot’s lair turned out to be in a corner of the cave, set behind another camouflage field. There was plenty to see there: mountains of odd, definitely alien screens, keyboards filled with unusual characters, levers, and switches. But without the feed from the alien, nothing was working, and none of it had anything to do with the game. I couldn’t sell it, use it, or get anything else from it. And I always hated that.

There was no way for me to haul it all out, as I just didn’t have anything to load it onto. Of course, I did have the vehicle in my storage, but I didn’t have a way out for it. With no freight elevator and a crowd of hostiles above, that wasn’t an option. And that left just one thing to do. Fang sprang into action, and I went to work demolishing every last bit of alien technology. If I couldn’t use it, nobody else was going to.

The equipment was all that caught my eye in the cave. Raptor scanned the walls for secret niches and hiding places, but it eventually threw up its hands and admitted that there was nothing interesting about the robot. No tips, no tricks, no goodies.

Once I was done with the lower level, I sent the drone up to scout around. There was no picture, but the scanner gave me a good idea of the crowd waiting for me. The entire upper cave was packed with monsters — they were even hanging from the roof, ready to grab me if I tried to fly by. A champion was guarding the ladder. I wasn’t going to get through, though the good news was that none of them were trying to get down to where I was. The lift was apparently taboo for them.

A little while later, I couldn’t help but notice that the monsters weren’t moving. Sure, they’d packed every available space, though that was it. The only motion was coming from the disposal. The thing was methodically devouring everything in range of its jaws, with the changed taking the place of the electronics nobody was bringing it anymore. It had cleared a good number of them, in fact, but the monsters weren’t running away. It was like they’d lost the will to live. Were they all somehow tied to the robot?

I had to take a risk and fly up. But nobody reacted to my appearance — I didn’t even have to turn on my invisibility. Pushing my way past the monsters, I found myself next to the larva-level beast, and I got the impression it even perked up when it saw me. It apparently had good associations with humans — we fed it. The thing’s jaws opened wide to accept its next meal, and I took full advantage. I don’t think creatures at that level turn back into anything…

You took a selfie with a live larva-level creature less than 3 meters away. 60000 coins received.

***

You destroyed a larva. Because there is no safe village or managing function in this location, you became the head of the safe zone in location 78, hexagon 118. All location monsters are your captives.

***

Valkyrie, Fang, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 1 (16).

***

You took the first picture of a dead larva. 120000 coins received.

All it took was ten grenades and a few finishing touches from Valkyrie. The larva didn’t even fight back, apparently because it was fixed to the wall. After Raptor spat out another wall of text about how the location was mine and all the alien players were supposed to leave it, the indifferent monsters suddenly doubled over in pain as they began turning back into people. But that was background noise to me. All I cared about was the small scanner lying on the ground by the shaft, its level ten seeming incredibly powerful. I had to have it.

After again pushing my way through the screaming crowd, I grabbed the treasure. My helmet screen flashed a couple messages:

Sk-X scanner. Description: Hidden. To identify this object, you need perception (250), identification (250). Cost: Hidden.

***

Because you don’t have the previous levels unlocked, you cannot unlock access to level 10 items.

The scanner earned itself a quick flight to my virtual storage, and I started pushing aside the naked bodies on my way to the surface. The people around me were still howling, though more from shock than pain at that point. And I definitely didn’t want them dumping their problems on me. I wasn’t a decision-maker, I had no desire to become one, and I was perfectly happy with them handling their own problems.

The flying object wasn’t far from the church — I was surprised I hadn’t noticed it immediately. Its evenly triangular shape was staggeringly large. As tall as a three-story building, each side fifty meters long, it sat there glumly resisting all my attempts to hack into it with device control. Either my skill was too low, or it was a non-game vehicle the owner had flown to Earth on. Alternatively, it could have been part of a larger, more powerful ship. I made several rounds looking carefully for a way in, but there wasn’t one. Even Fang joined the party, though the blade just clanged off when I tried to stab my way through.

There was no moving it, and there was no getting inside. It was yet another useless chunk of metal, the kind I’d been coming across all too often that day. Flying up and landing right in the middle, I started a trial. Experience had shown me I couldn’t get any attributes or skills past level 100 without fixed levels.

You locked in 22 levels. 28 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current level: 240 (115).

Impenetrable skin +2 (7).

When I caught my breath and recovered, I spat a string of curses. I’d assumed the trials would get easier as my body got stronger, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact, it felt like it was the opposite. Everything was getting worse, more painful. The next trial just confirmed my suspicion — it was so bad I gave up almost immediately.

You locked in 11 levels. 39 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current level: 201 (126).

Impenetrable skin +2 (9).

I wasn’t up for a third go around. Not right then. Instead, I decided to try a different trial, one I’d long been thinking about.

You locked in 8 levels. 42 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current: 159 (134).

Damn it all! I’d only been able to survive eight seconds of hell, though even those eight seconds had felt like an eternity. Building adaptive vision was clearly going to be difficult. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to do that again. The trial was simple — you had your head tied down so you couldn’t move a millimeter, and then they tried to stick different implants in your eyes. Or rather, to be more accurate, they jabbed you with all kinds of needles and blades without any hint of anesthetics. I was left with a phantom pain that had my eyes itching so badly I just wanted to forget the whole experience. And of course, the best way to forget one pain is to replace it with another. Skipping my skin for the moment, I decided to see if things would be easier for my bones.

You only have 25 available levels. You can’t take a trial.

My eyes were still hurting, so it took a second for the message to register. In fact, it was only a couple minutes later that I realized what was coming on. There wasn’t going to be any more torture for the time being. Back in the regular world, I decided to see what happened when I boosted my device control past level 100. But just trying to boost it by one was enough to elicit yet another surprised exclamation from me.

You’re trying to boost a skill past level 100.

Device control is a secondary skill for the demolitions infiltrator class. The free point requirements are reduced. To boost secondary skills between levels 100–110, you need 50 free attribute points.

There wasn’t a curse strong enough. I had 300 available points I’d gotten as rewards and for leveling-up, but I wasn’t about to spend them right then. Olsen had let me know that I should be ready for the requirements my named items forced on me to go up at level 20. That meant I needed everything to be up between 90 and 100 just in case, and that was already just this side of absurd. I definitely didn’t have enough coins right then.

Heading over to the edge of the ship, I looked down to see people collecting on the ground. They didn’t know what to do, and they certainly didn’t have any idea what was going on. Suppressing the urge to explain everything to them, I turned on invisibility and flew off. They were going to have to organize themselves. I’d done my part, and there were other problems on my plate.

An hour later, I was back in the first location looking for Dread and Nelly. They headed over as soon as they saw me, clearly looking to discuss something, and so I took the bull by the horns.

“Father, I need your help. The location with the church where you came from is clear, and there are a lot of people there. Finish up here and move out. Nelly, he’ll need your help.”

Whatever it was they wanted to tell me, it was like the clergyman wilted immediately. Oh, look at that! I suddenly noticed that there wasn’t anything unpleasant about his face whatsoever. Just your usual guy. It had apparently been the alien creature controlling his mind.

“What about the hypnotist?” Nelly asked, simultaneously signaling her troops to get ready to move out.

“Dead, though I wouldn’t think that was the only one. Boost your willpower — that will help you stand up to them.”

“It’s already maxed out.” Level 15, I guess. “High command gave me orders to set up a meeting with you. There’s a mission they have for you.”

“Nelly, I have so many things to do right now that my head is spinning. You guys just take care of whatever it is on your own, okay?”

“That wasn’t a request, soldier. It was an order!”

“I’m not your soldier,” I was trying to say when I was interrupted.

“In wartime, the entire population is mobilized. If I have to, I’ll take you by force.”

I didn’t like the soldiers’ new attitude — they’d been much more normal back when they’d been hypnotized. Disregarding them, I turned to Father Dread.

“Don’t forget about the people over there, Father. They’re confused and not sure of what to do, but there are two locations between us and them, so make sure you can protect yourself.”

I thought I was done there. Things hadn’t worked out with the soldiers, I hadn’t picked up any new information, and it was time to move on. There were just three days left for me to find a pearl and deliver it to Wart. I’d already decided I wasn’t going to be bringing Olsen anything, and so I needed to make sure Squirrel was safe on my own.

But my plans quickly changed. Instead of taking off and flying away, I found myself in a steep dive that sent me crashing into the ground so hard it knocked the wind out of me. For some reason, Ulbaron’s screen faded away, and I had a hard time breathing. Even moving was impossible — my armor had turned into a steel coffin.

“Mark, this is your only warning!” I heard a voice coming to me as though from a different galaxy. “Either you step out of your armor right now, or we’ll cut it off. That will presumably leave it damaged. We’re returning control, but remember that our sights are on you!”

Ulbaron’s screen came back on, and I used the drives to lift myself onto my feet. Two soldiers were training an odd weapon on me from nearby. I’d never seen anything like it — there was no barrel, only a bewildering forest of wires. But it was activated and doing a number on Ulbaron. I turned to Nelly.

“What’s going on?”

“Step out of your armor and remove your weapons. That’s an order, soldier!”

Valkyrie leaped into my hand and aimed at the crazy woman’s head. See if I ever help anyone again. But I couldn’t finish the job — my opponents fired their weapon first, and Valkyrie dangled uselessly from my arm. A message told me that Ulbaron’s right side had been deactivated, though Raptor wasn’t sure how.

“The next shot will be to the body, and we’ll cut you out,” Nelly said. Cursing, I went along with her order. Ulbaron dropped to the ground, instantly disappearing into my virtual storage. Valkyrie followed suit.

“Your knife.” Nelly pointed at Fang, but I’d had enough. Although, no sooner had I taken a breath to refuse, than she barked her next order. “Disarm him!”

There was another low-frequency buzzing, and Raptor was once more rendered useless. When my phone dropped to the ground, soldiers picked it up before I could react. And my device control could do nothing about their weapon. I slipped Raptor into my virtual storage, but I wasn’t about to part with Fang. Regardless of the field, I could sense it beautifully, and that told me it would react to my commands the same way it always did. My first chance to test that out came almost immediately. A fine net was cast over me, though Fang made short work of it. Bolts slid back — the troops had their regular guns aimed at me. Leaping forward, I was about to rush them when Nelly stepped forward.

“Stand down! Weapons back!” she ordered. “Mark, we’re not the enemy.”

“With friends like you…” All I could think about was how to get myself out of the predicament I’d found myself in.

“Believe me, my son, she’s telling the truth. Nobody here wants to hurt you,” Father Dread said, standing up for the troops to my surprise. “Just talk with command.”

A shock hit my back — the troops had fired a taser at me, but it hadn’t been able to get through my skin. And that was the final straw. I took a flying leap to the side. At least, I tried to, only to find that my legs were shackled. A nimble young soldier had crept up behind me and slipped them on. The chain held up under my jump, and I flopped to the ground. One quick move with Fang, and I was free, but that was the end of my escape attempt. Shots rang out. I bellowed in pain — my arms and legs were all shot clean through.

The last thing I heard before I passed out was Nelly’s terrifying command.

“Load him up. Cut off the arm with the dagger!”

Thankfully, I didn’t feel that, and my arm had regenerated by the time I came to. Of course, I was sans Fang. My arms and legs were held together with plastic zip ties, my captors caring little about my personal comfort. The slightest of moves, and the ties just dug deeper into my skin.

“He’s awake!” I heard someone say, and they pulled me up into a seated position, leaving me to howl like a little girl. It was probably funny to watch, but those damn ties hurt more than losing my limbs had.

“Mark Derwin, I’m General Maximov.” The voice drew my attention to a small screen. There was a gray-haired man looking at me, his facial features chiseled and decisive. Just your typical general cut from a cloth that was all charm.

I said nothing. There was no point talking with them — they were going to do whatever they wanted regardless.

“The aliens named quite a price for your head,” the general continued. “That means you’re doing everything right, so keep it up. You’re doing exactly what we need you to do.”

“What you need me to do?” I asked in surprise. I’d tensed up at the beginning, then relaxed, and then tensed up again. That word — need — wasn’t a favorite of mine.

“Yes. The aliens offered us a deal. We give you to them, and they call a truce for as long as you’re with them. They even guaranteed you complete immunity and the return of everything that belongs to you or that you receive. They actually don’t need you; they need your dagger, only it doesn’t work without you. We rent you out to them, and you help humanity survive.”

“What?!” I jerked with the news, but all that got me was zip ties digging deeper into my skin. “Don’t you even think about it!”

“It’s already been decided. The troops need a break and time to regroup, so you’re going to give it to them. The changed pulled their forces back to let us dig in and fortify our new footholds. I’m sorry it falls to you to do this, soldier, but I trust you’ll do your duty with honor. And I wanted to tell you personally. Goodbye!”

The screen blinked off, and Nelly stepped forward.

“Don’t do this!” I blurted out, appealing to her good sense. “It won’t change anything. I saved your lives!”

“And you’ll save them again,” she replied with unsettling resolve. “This is war, soldier, and we all have to make sacrifices. This time, we have to sacrifice you, but you shouldn’t worry — your sacrifice won’t be in vain. We almost have their headquarters. Just one direct hit, and we need time to get it ready. That means you have to head over. You’re the time we need.”

I jerked even harder. Anger deadened the pain, and a few of the zip ties burst. But that did nothing — there was another burst of gunfire, and my legs bent backward. Nelly had kneecapped me. My forehead slammed against the floor, the stars escorting me out of consciousness for a while. Like I’m ever going to help anyone ever again.

I was jolted awake. We were driving along a bumpy road, or maybe even just over rough terrain. In place of the zip ties, a thick chain was wrapped so tightly around me that I could barely breathe. Nelly was sitting nearby, and the only thing that kept me from spitting curses at her was the gag in my mouth. With everything in me screaming to hurt someone, anyone, I started scanning the area for game devices, only I didn’t find any. The troops didn’t use anything the game had to offer.

The vehicle flew off out of yet another ditch before skidding to a stop. Nelly hopped out, and I heard her order.

“We’re here, load out.”

Nobody cared much for my comfort, as they pulled me out pretty much as roughly as they could. My head banged against the vehicle, against the ground, against someone’s boot placed there for exactly that purpose. I was even disoriented for a bit, though I was able to find game devices within range when my head cleared. So many!

I mentally reached out for my phone, and one of the soldiers cursed when he couldn’t hold onto it. Smacking against my palm, it finally let my head read through the messages it was projecting.

You hacked the protection of 23 BRO-VI suits.

You hacked the protection of 23 SORT-VI automatic rifles.

You hacked the protection of 23 P-VI force fields.

Disperse! Incinerate! Destroy!

I couldn’t have cared less about the consequences. If they were handing me over to the alien players, there was no sense going quietly. The next thing I heard was spluttering voices that sounded anything but human — they weren’t expecting to be undressed on the spot. Weapons were cocked, reports were curtly barked to let Nelly know her troops were ready to fire, and the alien cursing intensified. But over it all, there was a calm metallic voice that sent shivers running down my spine.

“Enough. We continue with the plan. Take Mark Derwin and his dagger.”

“This isn’t us!” Nelly said just in case.

“We’re aware, and that’s why you’re leaving in one piece. We have our agreement, Nelly Oich — we’ll see you in a week.”

I closed my eyes, the move not making much difference seeing as how I was lying on my face, and relaxed, doing my best to sense where the voice was coming from. I knew who it was, and my guess was confirmed a few seconds later.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of player Five.

Probability of successful hack: 0%.

“Load him up,” Five said, and I was again pulled to my feet, that time by Olsen’s hairy countrymen. “And get those chains off him. Mark Derwin can’t do anything to us.”

Chapter 12

FIVE, or ULB89-5, was a robot in the mold of the others before it, a clothes iron armed to the teeth and mounted on a flying platform. Smaller than Nine, I still didn’t have the slightest doubt that the one in front of me would have won hands down if the two had ever clashed. Both it and its platform were remarkably detailed, the quality showing through in each part. It was like comparing a Swiss watch to cheap Chinese knock-offs.

I tensed up yet again, trying to snap the chain, but it didn’t work. No matter how high you got it, your strength didn’t turn you into superman. Sure, I was much stronger, though I still had my limits. Instead, the robot’s servants helped me out of my bonds. But as I got ready to make a break for it, I noticed something shimmering weakly around me. It suddenly made sense why Five wasn’t worried about its safety — one cage had been exchanged for another, the newer one more advanced. I was stuck inside some kind of force field. Just in case, I reached out to touch it. What if it’s just an illusion? One electric shock accompanied by the smell of burnt skin later, I was sure it was anything but illusory. The anger got the better of me, and I slammed a fist into the ground. But that didn’t get me anything besides some bones crunching. It was a solid cage.

Cradling my hand, I decided to take a look around. We were on a big flying platform that was moving slowly but surely above the trees in a direction I couldn’t get a feel for. There weren’t many creatures around, just Five and a few of its services. My attempts to hack into the equipment using device control got me nowhere. Nothing happened when I tried to hack the protection the general’s spawn had, either.

Hacking +10 (100).

Anatomy master +10 (100).

Perception +10 (100).

But I wasn’t about to throw in the towel. I had 300 free attribute points in reserve, my phone worked fine inside the force field, and I was able to print out a syringe with 90 attributes that I quickly stuck my leg with. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much of a response. Only Five turned toward me and stood there motionless for a while, a message finally appearing in my head:

Your phone was hacked.

Coins withdrawn. Current total: 0.

Virtual storage looted.

A pile of my belongings appeared next to the robot, and my heart skipped a beat when I realized how strong it was. With a few arms, the creature picked up Ulbaron, Raptor, Zelda, and Valkyrie, while everything else began blinking and disappearing, turning into black dust. The worst was when it was Flyer’s turn. The robot couldn’t have cared less about the drone. A step or two away, my flying machine appeared only to be swept into Five’s storage.

“You did a good job learning how to hide, personified noa,” Five said suddenly as it continued to study my equipment. “I had to break a sweat trying to sense where you were. And where these were.”

Seven noa stones dropped out of Ulbaron’s secret pocket — my loot from the piece of equipment at the church. But what happened next cut me to the quick. The four named items, my pride and joy, were turned into dark ash. The part of my brain that integrated with them went blank. And once it had been emptied completely, my phone found its way back to my hand with an apologetic slap. A few practiced taps later, my mood soured completely. There was no virtual storage, no ability to sell items. It wasn’t even the way it had been when I’d died and come back. No, it was a reset, leaving me with no money, no equipment, and no noa. Nothing. Although…

There was something left. Five had either not noticed or not seen the two devices in my phone belonging to the dead Tsarter fighters. I hadn’t been able to hack into them back then, and I hadn’t bothered since. They were my one shot.

“Your heart rate just increased,” Five said, the metallic voice grating. “You found а way to recover, so I must have missed something.”

My phone flew back over to the robot. Ten minutes of tinkering later, it crushed the device into an electronic pancake, though I was able to remain calm. You couldn’t hurt game devices like that. Holding out my hand, I waited for the game to reprint it. The Tsarter devices were still there. Five hadn’t seen them.

“Whatever you might have hidden, it won’t help you,” Five announced. “You’ll complete your assignment, after which you’ll be destroyed permanently and with no hope of respawn.”

“I think someone mentioned something about returning me whole and unharmed,” I couldn’t help but say.

“Humans are idiots. They want to believe what tickles their ears, what makes sense to them. Agreements are nothing. The game is what matters.”

“So, go for it. What are you waiting for?” I wanted to goad the robot into showing some kind of emotion or even giving something away. “Take me out and be done with it.”

“There’s a job we need done, and you’re the only one who can do it.”

“You mean the rainbow pearl? What, you found a digger?”

Five said nothing, which told me more than words ever could have.

“Let me guess — it told you the only way to boost dungeon levels is to make sacrifices. And the only sacrificial dagger in this hexagon is in a secret pocket of yours, yes? Good luck, Five.” I snorted, a glimmer of hope appearing. The aliens didn’t know anything, and I could use that. The important thing was to avoid giving in to their torture. Of course, I had no doubt they would end up torturing me, but I’d already been through multiple trials. It was like I’d been getting ready for that moment.

“We need the pearl, and you’re going to find it. You’ll be destroyed once you do.”

I didn’t respond. A couple hours later, my update was scheduled to complete, and I was planning on seeing if my attempts at hacking would be any more successful. There was no doubt in my mind that Five and its equipment could be hacked. It was just a shame my money and equipment were gone, though I forced myself to accept that fact and move on. I was going to claim compensation later.

If I live that long.

The flight lasted a while. Five lost interest in me, the servants didn’t come anywhere near me, and I was finally able to get some sleep. Of course, it was cold, and nobody thought to give me something to wear, so I had to lie down on the chilled metal in nothing but my underwear. But as soon as my head hit the ground, my problems took care of themselves. I was fast asleep. When I woke up again, the sun had been replaced by the moon. But I didn’t wake up on my own — a conversation happening nearby did that for me. Five was giving orders to two massive hunks of metal, and my perception had no trouble recognizing them as Eight and Seven.

“…his safety. I need to take care of the mercenaries — Tsarter really wants to show off for the owner.”

“We’ll need time to get everything ready,” Eight said. “The natural players and changed are already in place, so we just need to agree on which of the owner’s players it’s going to be.”

“It doesn’t matter. Pick any of the lower ranking ones.”

“We need the knife. As soon as the dungeon level is high enough, Mark Derwin will be liquidated,” Seven said.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. The pearl is first.”

“Mission accepted, sir,” Eight boomed. “We’ll take care of it.”

“Take control of the cage and remember that Mark is able to hack it.”

Five signaled something and flew off briskly. Much more briskly, in fact, than our jalopy was going. Wait a second, we aren’t moving at all! I stood up and looked around to see that we were right by the sea.

“He’s awake,” Seven said, turning its antennas toward me.

“I’ll fix that,” Eight replied quickly, a powerful surge of electricity clutching my heart and sending my body into convulsions. I collapsed to the ground and just barely clung to my last scraps of consciousness. The surge was repeated. I jerked, my reflexes taking over. It was only when foam started bubbling out of my mouth that the treatment stopped.

“Put guards on him and hit him with a shock every hour,” Seven said. “Just remember that he needs to live long enough to see the dungeon.”

“Mission accepted, sir,” Eight replied. He apparently had a catchphrase. “I’ll take care of it.”

The robots flew off the platform, some Shurvans taking their place. The hairy humanoids picked up my energy cage and carried me over to a nondescript gray building that looked like a hangar. But I couldn’t really get a good look — I was too busy pretending to be unconscious. Of course, I did notice the enormous flying platform hurtle off into the night.

Another surge of electricity ran through my body, and I thought back fondly to the trials. Not only was my impenetrable skin giving me a shot at survival; it was making the whole nightmare livable. Even ignoring the smell of burnt meat, I focused on sending spittle flying in all directions without making a sound. The treatment ended as soon as it began, giving me a chance to catch my breath. A door banged shut — for the next hour, nobody would be bothering me.

And that was my chance.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of energy cage EC-VI.

Sum total of your skill levels: 400 (device control: 100, hacking: 100, perception: 100, anatomy master: 100).

Sum total of EC-VI’s skill levels (current owner: RN554-7): 380 (hacking protection: 95, resistance: 95, resilience: 95, willpower: 95).

Probability of successful hack: 5% (1 — 360/400).

Attempt 1… Unsuccessful.

…

Attempt 32… Successful.

***

You connected to energy cage EC-VI.

I could barely keep myself from destroying the cage immediately. But before I did that, I needed to give it a good once-over. It was a good thing my brain kicked in, too — there were several traps set to signal when anything happened to the cage, and it took me a while to figure out how to beat the security system. Ultimately, I squeezed through a small hole at the very bottom.

Finding myself in the middle of an enormous hangar, I realized how uncomfortable I felt. Without Ulbaron, I was naked; without Raptor, I was blind; without Valkyrie and Fang, I was useless. But I was alive.

A quick scan told me there weren’t any devices in the vicinity, though I didn’t particularly believe that. Hiding from a bare ability was as easy as taking a quick nap. Getting to the door, I peeked out to find that nobody was there. The door itself was made of thin sheet metal, so I was able to bend a piece back far enough to let me out. Of course, there were some guards — not far from the door, I noticed two Shurvans. They were laughing and pointing in the direction of the hangar. One was twitching, mocking how I’d looked when they’d shocked me, and my blood boiled. I’d had enough.

Creeping up to them on my stomach, I leaped to my feet and smacked their heads together. They were clearly not expecting me and therefore unable to put up any meaningful resistance. And with no need to leave them alive, I didn’t worry about how hard they bounced off each other. In fact, the impact was so powerful that their two heads just mushed into each other. Grabbing the bodies, I hauled them off away from the passage.

There wasn’t anything interesting in their phones, and their wallets were nearly empty, too. Fifteen hundred put together? Seriously? Neither of them had armor or anything else from the game. On the other hand, I had bigger things to worry about: I needed to find a good hiding spot and figure out what to do next.

As it turned out, the hangar was part of a small airfield built right up against the sea. It struck me as an odd place for planes to take off and land given the seagulls that were everywhere, but I was no expert. The surrounding fence was topped with barbed wire. That might have been a problem if it hadn’t been for the fact that part of it was missing, replaced by stone boulders. I scaled them carefully, left the airfield, and took off running as soon as I got to the trees. Judging by my map, there was a dungeon about five kilometers away. The only shot I saw at staying alive was getting inside it and waiting there for a couple hours. I really needed to buy time.

But I had to change my plans when I got to the spot. There were ten champions standing guard, and the swaying ground told me there was a shrew somewhere down below, too. Deciding against risking it, I wedged myself between the roots of an old tree and froze. Even with the monsters there, it seemed like the safest place to me. This will be the last place they look.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of Lurkan Po’s phone.

Hacking store… Successful! Access to level 6 items unlocked.

Hacking wallet… Successful! Cash: 4360000 coins.

Hacking personal data… Successful!

Hacking contact list… Successful!

Hacking map… Successful!

Hacking storage contents… Successful!

Hacking phone functionality… Successful!

My phone dinged and gave me back my virtual storage and level six exchange. Deciding against hacking the second Tsarter phone immediately, I instead left it as an insurance policy in case something else happened to me. The map and personal data were also better left for another time. That’s not what’s important right now.

I still had nine free items available to pick from the maximum level I’d unlocked, not to mention two named items. The choice wasn’t an easy one. I needed protection, a scanner, and a weapon — just about everything. Ultimately, I settled on Valkyrie and Zelda, replacing Ulbaron with a regular BRO-VI suit and helmet, not to mention a level six universal force field, and Raptor with a regular drone. I didn’t even change the name that time. Whether it was Flyer or Mark-1, the result was the same. So, I just left it Drone. That made it simple. Not having a grenade launcher was tough, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. I didn’t have any more bonuses, and the coins… I spent them on consumables and a syringe with free skill points. Five had cracked me like an egg, and that meant I needed to grow a thicker shell.

Closure +10 (100).

Introversion +10 (100).

Inner harmony +10 (100).

Hacking protection +40 (100).

Resistance +100 (100).

Resilience +40 (100).

Willpower +30 (100).

I boosted the first three attributes to make it harder for Five to find me. He shouldn’t have mentioned that it had been tough locating me the first time, as that just told me his perception wasn’t so high. The other four were what I needed to make sure I didn’t get hacked. With those done, anyone who did hack me was really going to have to work for it. But that was all I had money for. Even getting to those values cost 2,040 free points, or 4.1 million coins, and the only thing I could have bought with the remaining hundred thousand was a sign telling everyone where I was.

It was almost morning when the monsters stirred. A few players joined the guards by the entrance to the dungeon, scanners sweeping from side to side. Flying monsters swept through the air, and the ground rocked and rolled even harder. Drone told me another shrew had joined the first one. In a word, it was chaos, which certainly made hiding easier. And that’s what I did, getting even deeper into the spot I’d found between the roots. The entire location had turned red — there were monsters everywhere.

“Are you sure he’s inside?” The metallic voice that burst out was impossible to mistake. The giant platform flew up to the dungeon, and all three of Five, Seven, and Eight eased their way down. Eight’s hull was beaten and battered. From the way it was hanging off to the side, it looked like the culprit was right in front of me. Five had forgotten its plans and come back to punish the innocent. It was also there to help with the search — I could see its antennas working wildly. Even my breathing stopped.

A few lights on Seven blinked.

“Yes, sir, that would be the most illogical thing to do. The more I learn about Mark, the more I realize that that’s exactly what he would do. If he’s in the location, but we can’t find him anywhere, he’s inside the dungeon.”

“Yes, I can’t sense him, and he definitely didn’t have any coins he could have used to boost his attributes,” Five replied, which buoyed my spirits. Bingo! The robot’s perception wasn’t any higher than 100. But there was a problem, too: they’d read me like a book. If it hadn’t been for the guards, I would have been exactly where they were expecting me to be.

“In that case, we don’t have a choice.” Seven pointed at the entrance. “He’s in there.”

“You realize what a mistake would mean, right?” Five asked, turning sharply to Seven. “This is the only level two dungeon in the hexagon. If Mark isn’t inside, we won’t be able to use his dagger. We’ll lose this area.”

“I understand, sure, which is why it’s your decision. We’ll do whatever you say.”

A smile crept across my face. The robots may have been bereft of emotion, but their sense of self-preservation worked beautifully. Anything to make sure it isn’t your problem.

“That’s not the answer I’m looking for.” Five wasn’t impressed, either. “I trusted you two with a simple job, and you couldn’t get it done. The general just about demoted me for this.”

“Eight was already punished,” Seven said. “If our brothers were still alive, it would have dropped all the way down to Twelve. But it’s already at the bottom, so all we can do is give advice. We can’t tell you what to do.”

They definitely took rank seriously. I just wish I had some popcorn. It was fun to listen to their bombastic nonsense, uttered as it was with their lifeless metallic voices.

“He can’t be in there. He couldn’t have gotten past the guards,” Eight said suddenly. “I trained them myself — they’re the best champions in the hexagon. If they said nobody got past them, nobody got past them.”

“You don’t get a say in this.”

“Are you sure of your servants?” Five asked, ignoring Seven.

“Completely. Mark Derwin couldn’t have gotten into the dungeon. I’d bet two restarts on it.”

“We’ll all be shelved if we don’t get the pearl for the general.” Five flew over to the entrance. I even had to drop the drone a bit lower to hear what it was muttering. “Finally, a worthy opponent…”

After standing for a while in complete darkness, the robot turned to its underlings.

“We don’t have another option. It’s time to call Tsarter.”

“They’ll destroy him,” Eight and Seven said simultaneously.

“In that case, we need to offer something that will make them forget the owner’s order. We’ll let them in on the excavations.”

“That’s dangerous. We can’t let the blood of the uninitiated be part of the search. That could ruin everything.”

“They’ll be warned of the consequences. I’m sure Tsarter wants a promotion out of our release, a shot at the global database. They won’t turn down an offer like that.”

“We’ll have to put a hold on things in the north.” Seven didn’t sound convinced by its superior’s decision, though it also didn’t want to outright say it.

“I know. This is my decision… Okay, the general wants me to come explain what’s going on in person, so I’ll be gone for a few days. Find Mark, or this is the end of your release. Is the ritual dagger in the storage?”

“Yes, sir. We can’t risk carrying something that valuable around with us.”

“Reinforce the dungeon guard, keep up the search, and report in every hour. Get it done.”

Five took off into the air, and the enormous platform set off a few seconds later. Drone tracked them long enough to see that the robot was heading toward the main location in the hexagon.

Losing interest, I pulled Drone back to the group that had remained. And I was just in time — Seven was talking with a projection. The latter I would have recognized even in a dream, or more specifically, a nightmare. The hologram was of a green, snake-like creature with three eyes and an unpleasantly wide mouth. When it talked, it bared a row of tiny teeth and a long tongue, a mix of lizard, frog, and snake. And judging by the tone and subject matter, I was looking at the head of the Tsarter group. What an honor!

“We accept the general’s terms. The owner gave us orders to destroy Mark Derwin, though there was no deadline, and so we will take care of that after you get your pearl. Where and when can we begin excavation?”

“First, the human, then the excavation,” Seven shot back.

“What’s the point in looking for him? He’ll show up himself. These humans, they’re weak and naïve — do you really not know why he dashed off south? That’s where Olsen sent him. Yes, the function in the safe zone at the center of the hexagon. It’s done some good work in this release, incidentally.”

“Focus.”

“Fine. I had a chat with Olsen and fount out why it sent Mark off to look for the pearl. I mean, how did it even find out that you can get one in our release? It’s simple. As it turns out, Mark knew about pearls before talking with the function — he was already going to go find one.”

“You still haven’t said anything we don’t already know.”

“In that case, let me tell you something you definitely don’t know. Mark didn’t want to find the pearl for himself. Someone close to him needs one. The game sentenced them to death, giving them time to put their affairs in order. Like I said, humans are weak and dependent. If you can’t find Mark, arrange things so he finds himself. You have access to the database. Find out who in the hexagon was sentenced to death, find them, and you’ll have the leverage you need. Mark is a human prone to emotion. He won’t be able to stand by once we start torturing whoever that is, and so he’ll show up himself. Once you find out who it is, let me know, and we’ll start the search. Over and out.”

The conversation was over, the robots already discussing something among themselves. But I wasn’t listening. My head was buzzing, my insides cold. Not that! No, don’t look for anyone — that’s where Squirrel is!

Chapter 13

MY THOUGHTS raced like a sugar-crazed stallion. I have to do something! And it needed to be something big enough to keep everyone’s attention on me, and not on their search for people I didn’t want them to find. But how?! What could I do that would get the bastards so riled up they’d want to come after me directly, and not through the people I knew?

A blaze of glory was out of the question. A heroic death would have done nothing for Squirrel — Wart would have just killed her regardless. And so, I realized I needed to focus on my abilities as an infiltrator, setting up the kind of local Armageddon that would have the freaks howling in rage and hatred.

My desperate glance fell on the monsters ready to dash off into battle, and the seedling of an idea began to sprout in my head. Champions… The changed… The dungeon… Again, the changed… The location… The larva!

The lightbulb that went off above my head was so bright I was afraid it would give my position away. Happily, there weren’t any creatures there capable of sensing emotions. Digging still deeper into the depths of the tree, I sent Drone off to do some scouting. The first thing I needed to do was figure out which zebra stripe I was on. Black, white, or something in between?

Half the location I was in was taken up by the sea. Just in case, I checked it, too, though the scanner didn’t pick up anything besides some dolphins and endless schools of little fish. But there were plenty of monsters on land. Of course, most of them had been brought in to help with the manhunt, but that didn’t make anything better. Picking my way through them looked to be hopeless.

The three farms were a good distance from each other, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up when I realized how many tubs each had. It was the first time I’d seen that much food being produced for the general. Each farm had between ten and fifteen thousand tubs, each with a motionless woman inside. Without Raptor, I wasn’t able to get more exact than that. The larva worked away with all the feelers it had at its disposal, dashing back and forth between the farms, and the flow of pupae was staggering. A long string of dump trucks lumbered up, only to head off a few minutes later in the direction of the hexagon’s main location. And there were…quite a few trucks. Too many.

The monsters prowling everywhere were accompanied by players, too. And they weren’t just anyone — all of them had cleared level 100, leaving me and my level 159 in just eighth place. Well, look at that! Predictably enough, the seven ahead of me were Eight, Seven, and Five, along with the four Tsarter fighters. They were easy enough to make out thanks to the Po last name and their identical level 541. That’s two higher than it used to be, the bastards. They were taking the search seriously, and the fact that I wasn’t expecting Drone to be able to see them made it all the more surprising when I found the whole group all in one place. Next to the hangar where I’d been held, there was an administrative building. Well defended even before the game had begun, by that point it was looking more like Fort Knox. There were turrets, gun towers, champions around the perimeter, flying creatures, shrews beneath the surface, and a force dome covering the whole thing. That must be their storage. I certainly would have liked a couple hours in there.

But the worst part wasn’t the fact that Tsarter was in the location, or even the three enormous farms. I’d been down both of those roads, and I had a general idea of what to do with them. No, worse than that was the discovery of a safe zone and accompanying function in the middle of the location. It wasn’t that big. In fact, it was just the minimum twenty buildings surrounded by a simple hedge, and there obviously weren’t people inside. But it still threw a wrench in my plans.

In that case, I don’t have a choice.

I pulled out the Tsarter phone I’d hacked into and checked its virtual storage. There weren’t many items inside, though there were a few. The two named items did nothing for me — I dispersed them. The seven level five items, on the other hand, were exactly what I needed. At a base cost of a million coins, taking the store commission into account, I ended up five million coins richer, though that wasn’t the case for long. Forty-five thermal mines began materializing next to me, and I sent them immediately to my virtual storage. That nearly filled it up. But I wasn’t about to stop there — remote controls cost ten grand. For my plan to work, I was going to need one for each mine, or another four hundred and fifty thousand coins. And with no more room in my virtual storage, I decided to just buy ten and keep the rest of the money in reserve. I ended up even poorer than I started.

Zelda kept me invisible for sixteen whole minutes, which I immediately used to get out of cover, away from the alien scanners, and into the forest. Drone hovered above me, telling me ahead of time where the patrols searching the forest were. That let me move out undetected even under the bright southern sun. There weren’t many trees in the location, though there were plenty of boulders and underbrush I was able to use to stay hidden from the riled-up monsters.

There was one instance where I wasn’t able to keep from letting everyone know that I was still in the location.

A crowd of monsters appeared with a champion at its head. Drone showed me a small passageway between stone ridges, and so I dove in to find myself in a small open area. I was surprised to find several tents, only they weren’t game tents; they were made of Earthling cloth. Apparently, it had been a popular spot for travelers, and the abandoned cars with license plates issued in the central provinces just served to confirm that notion. Only, there weren’t people living in the tents. They were Alturians. Four jellyfish were lying out in the sun, two more in one of the tents. The other tent, judging from my device control, was their warehouse. It was loaded with items from level one to level three, everything the creatures had dragged over from the different locations they’d come from. And I would have slipped right on by if it hadn’t been for one thing: they were just finishing a meal. When I figured out how they ate, I almost vomited. The jellyfish swallowed whole what I hoped was a dead human and digested it slowly, bones and clothes included. A hip bone and a few pieces of metal that looked like keys were still inside one of them. With their low level, I had to assume they’d spent the whole time the game had been up and running right there in the open area. Why go anywhere else when there’s plenty of food right here? In a word, their luck had run out. Setting Valkyrie to shoot electricity, I gunned them down with a shot apiece. None of them had any idea what happened. The only thing I stuck around to do was take a picture of the bodies, stuff them into a tent, and set the whole mess on fire. That was the only way I could keep anyone from knowing how I’d killed them and send their bodies back wherever they’d come from. There was no reason to tell Five what kind of weapon I was using.

By the time the hunters arrived on the spot astride their flying platforms, the track was cold. I’d left the trash in the tent be. Selling everything wouldn’t have earned me enough to buy a single thermal mine, and I wasn’t especially intrigued by phones that had just five hundred coins apiece on them. It wasn’t worth working through and spending a couple seconds on each.

Drone showed me the players flying off along the road, doing exactly what I’d been counting on. I’d picked that road in particular and made sure everyone knew where I was. If they drew a straight line from the hangar to that spot, it would lead straight to the edge of the location just ten kilometers away. That would have been the most logical as well as the most illogical play — getting as far away as possible from the monsters and buying time to figure out my next move. And kill any of them I came across on the way. Continue hiding. How was that anything but the plan of a crazed player no longer in his right mind?

An hour later, I was at the first farm. There were lots of small towns in the southern half of the country, and the shelves loaded with their horrific contents were in the middle of one of them. Zelda restored sixteen seconds of invisibility every five minutes. That was enough for me to get into the center of the town, skipping the guards. The larva was busy harvesting and topping up the solution in the tubs. There was also a transporter ready to haul its valuable cargo away at a moment’s notice, so I quelled the urge to take a selfie and instead crouched by a demolished wall. The larva was going to leave sooner or later.

Mining the farm without Raptor or Ulbaron was a challenge. Nine mines found a new home on the racks, with three more earmarked for the transporter. And it was only when the devices were all in place that the red lights turned green. Even if the giant suddenly up and headed off, it wasn’t going to survive the explosion. But it was right then that the larva returned at the worst possible moment, leaving me caught at the very top of the racks. I was forced to melt into the frame and keep myself from moving a muscle even when the toothless minions started running around my legs.

“You think he’ll show up here?” A voice just a couple meters away stiffened my body. I wasn’t expecting that! Drone’s scanner hadn’t showed me the players arriving, though I could see them as plain as day in the video. Two Tsarter mercenaries, one of which I’d already had the pleasure of meeting — Galrun Po. The name of the second, Villian Po, didn’t tell me anything, though my heart skipped a beat at the sound of its voice. It was the Tsarter leader. The very same bastard I’d seen talking with Seven.

“No doubt about it. He just happened across the Alturians, only destroying them to make us think he was on his way out of the location. The general’s spawn are wrong to think he’s scared and on the run. I believe Five — Mark doesn’t have coins, weapons, or armor. But he’ll definitely show up here. I can sense it.”

“I would never question your decisions, leader, but…”

“How will he find the farm? I don’t know. He didn’t touch the Alturians’ coins, and he didn’t touch their supplies, either. That doesn’t make sense… It’s unnerving. And wonderful. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an opponent of this caliber. Just remember, he can’t die under any circumstances.”

“Are the other farms being guarded, too?”

“What’s the point? Mark’s definitely somewhere around here — there’s a string of monsters covering the entire location. And he can’t fly. I don’t see any point pulling anyone else away from the search, and you’re our best hunter, which is why I want you on this.”

Villian took off, did a circle around the farm, and headed toward the location border, off where the general’s spawn assumed I would be. After following it a bit to make sure that’s where it was going, I pulled Drone back. Galrun was standing above the rack of tubs, not far from me. We were just a few meters away from each other.

Suddenly, it disappeared. Sure, it had never shown up on the scanner, but it disappeared from sight, too, almost like a regular gamer logging out and going back to real life. But I knew it was still there a couple strides away. It was waiting for me to show up. And there was no way I was going to use device control to see how strong it was — the risk was too great. Without knowing ahead of time what it was capable of, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t sporting some kind of alarm system that would let it know when I tried to hack in. I would have been discovered immediately, and the game would have been over. No, that’s a last resort.

I couldn’t shake what Villian had said so I sent Drone off to do some more scouting. What string of monsters? The answer came almost immediately — just ten kilometers away, there was exactly that clearing the area. Champions were bathing everything around them with lightning, fire, and cold, after which they took a few steps forward, rinsed, and repeated. Tight ranks of superior monsters protected the champions from the front. Even when a tree or rock barred their path, they annihilated it without a second thought, and I couldn’t help but notice that the ring encompassed the entire location. All twenty-five kilometers. From the sea to —

Something scraped next to me, and I was pulled away from my musings. At first glance, second, too, it was going to be impossible to slip past them. The scraping intensified, I heard a muffled curse, and then there was an impact down below. For a few seconds, I hoped it was Galrun who had fallen, but Drone showed me I was wrong. A few tubs had fallen off the uppermost row. They’d been right where the mercenary was hiding, and it appeared, at least visually. There was still no marker on the map.

Galrun bent over the edge to look down, sighed, muttered something unintelligible, and used its drives to leap below. But when he tried to carry the tubs back up, their hideous contents splashed out, and the tubs themselves shattered. The racks shook and began lifting up into the air. The transporter had sensed that something was wrong, had activated its protection, and was making sure nothing happened to the general’s food supply. The side plates were raised, and Galrun had to take off to avoid being squished against the tubs.

“What happened?” I was impressed with how fast Villian got back. The mercenary leader hovered not far from its fighter, watching as the farm was rolled up. “Was it Mark?”

“No, it was my mistake. I haven’t slept in almost a week, the tranquilizer didn’t work right away, and I knocked over a tub accidentally when I closed my eyes for a couple seconds. It banged into three more and — ”

“And triggered a relocation. The larva will be furious — we’ll have to calm it back down again. Give it some females from your reserve.”

“I only have twenty left as it is!” Galrun replied indignantly. “Leader, it isn’t worth it!”

“I said you’ll give them to it!” the leader shot back. “You took out four, so you’re going to replace them. That’s an order! We can’t have problems with the general.”

“I’ll make it happen,” Galrun replied begrudgingly.

“Stay with the transporter and take up a position when it finds a new spot. You’ll wait for Mark there as long as he’s in the location.”

“Even if the farm is on the other side of the cordon?”

“Yes, you understood me. This was your third slip-up, Galrun. You missed Mark, then you weren’t able to heal your groupmate, and now there’s this. I thought you were a pro, and seeing how wrong I was is very disappointing. The recommendations we got about you were all mistaken. In the next release, Tsarter will do without your services, so just take care of this spot and keep your head down from now on.”

Villian circled the transporter and flew off. The enormous mechanism finished popping out its legs before quickly hurrying out of the town, with Galrun alighting sadly on the upper level and lying down. I could only hope the conversation with its boss left it not caring about keeping a close eye on the farm. That was my way out.

The transporter made its way through the cordon without a problem — nobody paid it any attention. The champions stepped aside, though the superior monsters weren’t as lucky. A section of them was flattened. And while none had stepped aside, the ranks were filled as soon as the transporter finished rumbling through.

We stopped in an ideal spot located directly between the other farms and the safe zone. The latter was even visible from my vantage point up at the top of the stack. Once we’d reached our destination, the transporter set itself up, sinking its feet into the asphalt and letting the sides ease to the ground. The larva appeared instantly to chatter away in whatever language it was speaking. Tubs began growing on its back, and the minions quickly hauled them up to their new homes. I’d been trying to figure out where they got the things. So, that’s it. Spinning its feelers as though lamenting its fate, the larva dashed off to the next farm. The minions filled the tubs with the usual liquid, though they were missing the main feature. From what I could tell, the local boss had run out of women.

Finally alone, more or less, I decided to head down, though Drone’s feed stopped me. The green-skinned creature’s chest was barely moving. The same was true of the rest of it. I could be wrong, but it sure looks like that thing is asleep. Already fired, it didn’t see any point following orders, which offered me an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down. I had to take the risk.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of player Galrun Po.

Sum total of your skill levels: 400 (device control: 100, hacking: 100, perception: 100, anatomy master: 100).

Sum total of Galrun Po’s protection levels: 320 (hacking protection: 70, resistance: 70, resilience: 90, willpower: 90).

Probability of successful hack: 20% (1 — 320/400).

Attempt 1… Successful.

Block Ulbaron! Block the phone! Block all named items! Block everything!

I sat up there on top of the stack dripping sweat. It wasn’t so much that it was unpleasant in my BRO-VI outfit, which was almost as well conditioned as my old armor, as much as it was the fact that it just couldn’t keep up. My heart was beating two hundred times a minute, and the fear coursing through my veins was forcing my body to rid itself of superfluous water. I did it! The high-level bastard was locked up, though still alive and with nobody the wiser.

For starters, I deactivated everything that could hurt me. The armor was quickly stripped of its flight system, weaponry, protection, Raptor-like tablet, and whatever could be used as a microphone or keyboard. Only then did I turn it into a steel coffin. No risks. I didn’t have anything to chat with the creature about, though I would have loved to take it out. It can lie there and relax for a while. It had been so tired, after all…

It didn’t take long to hack into the phone — just three attempts. To my surprise, however, I found that Galrun had just over a thousand coins. It was a little while before it dawned on me what was going on, at which point I jabbed a few buttons so quickly I was afraid the minions might spot me. When I got to the store and purchase history, I cursed. Unbelievable! The creature had just bought itself a syringe with 3,500 attribute points. Seven million coins. I couldn’t sense the syringe, but I had a good idea where it was — in the bastard’s hand. Drone flew in, Zelda bathed me in invisibility, and I leaped over. The syringe really was right there, and the mercenary was somehow forcing it into its leg even despite its armor’s resistance. The needle had almost disappeared when I ripped it away. As a shiver ran down my spine, I realized how incredibly strong Galrun was despite being kicked out of Tsarter. If it had picked up those 3,500 attribute points, it would have been able to hack me in reply.

While I only had thirty-two thousand coins to my name, I knew what I had to do. A BRO-I suit, the cheapest armor available, appeared, and I began pulling it onto Galrun, right on top of Ulbaron. Zelda was already blinking a warning when I finished. Returning to cover, I connected to the BRO-I and blocked it. Much better. Ulbaron was flexible and modern, while the first suit the game had to offer was massive and clunky. No matter how strong Galrun was, there was no way it was going to bend that thing to its will.

At least, I very much hoped it wouldn’t be able to.

The mercenary’s virtual storage had quite a bit to offer, with lots of different camouflage options, though most of them were named. All I could do was lick my lips and deactivate them to make sure the creature, who I was sure had device control, wouldn’t have access to anything. Other items I could sell. That left me 3.4 million coins richer, though the most important find was the map I downloaded to my phone. It included a couple neighboring hexagons in addition to the one I was in, not to mention a base Galrun often visited. That has to be where those twenty females are, the ones it’s supposed to give the local larva. Something clicked, and I pulled out the mercenary phone I’d already hacked. There it was — the two both had the same spot marked. The Tsarter base was in the next hexagon over, as at least two of them visited it on a regular basis. Coincidence? I think not.

I made a mental note to pay the creatures a visit if I survived. And in the meantime…

You’re trying to boost an attribute past level 100.

Closure isn’t a required attribute for the demolitions infiltrator class. To boost it between levels 100–110, you need 100 free attribute points.

You’re kidding me! Ah, whatever, screw it. The points were a freebie, anyway, and I wasn’t about to throw them out.

Closure +10 (110).

Introversion +10 (110).

Inner harmony +10 (110).

Hacking +10 (110).

Thirty-five hundred attribute points disappeared like water into dry sand. Hacking, at least, was a secondary skill, and so the coefficient was just 1:50. As far as the first three attributes went, I had no doubt Five had gotten its perception past a hundred, and I very much hoped I’d be able to go unnoticed at level 110. Perhaps a lamp under a blanket, but I won’t be shining in the ether like a damn lighthouse. That was my only shot.

I didn’t have three hours to spend waiting for my attributes to kick in, and so I just waited for Zelda to recover thirty seconds of invisibility before heading down to the ground. Two more farms were beckoning. I needed to hurry — the monsters were still out there looking for Squirrel and Wart.

Chapter 14

PARANOIA can really get to you sometimes. When I arrived at the second farm, it was empty. There were no minions, no guards, no monsters. Just the transporter, though it didn’t really count. My demolitions skills pointed out the key targets, the same as for the previous farm — three at the edges of the moving platform, five below, and four above the racks. Drone just showed me one enormous red circle where the tubs were. No other living souls were within three kilometers. And with Zelda back up to a reserve of three and a half minutes, I could have run in and mined everything. But I still held back. Something was bothering me. The larva would never have left its treasure unattended, and while one could have pointed out that I didn’t know everything there was to find out about the changed, I was an inveterate optimist. The fact that there was nobody to be seen meant that someone was definitely around somewhere.

I ended up waiting until my body finished upgrading regardless of the fact that time was my biggest enemy. All I wanted to do was call Wart to check in and see if everything was okay, but I decided against that. The larva dashed up three times to make sure everything was all right, its minions ran up and down the racks, and then the whole lot disappeared together. Everything was in shipshape. Judging by the bellies in the tubs, the next harvest was going to be in about six hours.

But I still wasn’t in a hurry, instead listening closely for every rustle. It was suspiciously quiet.

The final second of the update dragged on for an eternity. Carefully gauging each step and activating Zelda, I moved out. It was a colossal waste of time and invisibility, but I didn’t have a choice.

When I got to the transporter, I placed a hand on it and checked the notifications. Everything looked standard enough:

Transporter Tr-115, a larva-level creature designed to transport level four and higher farms.

Would you like to hack into and take control of it?

Obviously, I left well enough alone, not even activating my device control. Instead, I kept going and set the first mine. Zelda got a break when I reached the racks and found an empty niche. It was almost out of invisibility, and so I had to wait there, battling my emotions and the urge to do something, anything.

Touching the racks didn’t tell me anything besides the exact number of tubs — there were a bit more than eighteen thousand. The farm really was enormous, the size boggling the mind. Eighteen thousand fertile women…three farms…the aliens are going to pay for this!

The larva ran by a few more times to check in. And while it didn’t really distract me, it definitely got on my nerves. Finally, with the legs mined, I decided to go ahead and add a couple more. Just in case. I had to stop once again to let Zelda recharge when I was done with that. There were just two and a half days left before I had to go see Olsen, and I have no idea where I found the patience and better judgement. I’d always been impulsive — the old me would have quickly set the mines and dashed off. But no, there I was, some kind of grizzled commando who’d seen a thing or two.

It was agonizingly slow going. Every twenty minutes, Zelda gave me one minute of invisibility, letting me climb a couple levels up to set a mine. It ended up taking me four hours to finish mining the second farm, and I still hadn’t found anyone. Again, just in case, I set a couple extra mines beyond what was required for the top of the stacks.

With almost eight hours gone, I finished work on the second farm. And that was when the larva picked the worst possible time to show up and gather the next harvest. It arrived with players driving enormous dump trucks — eighteen thousand pupae weren’t going to walk off on their own. The process took two hours, which really put me behind schedule, though there was nothing I could do. At least, my invisibility can recharge. Hiding in the stacks and making sure I was as concealed as possible, I was about to go to sleep when Drone showed me something interesting. Up at the top of the rack, not far from where one of my extra mines was set, there was a movement. A couple seconds later, a player stepped out from under a camouflage field to stretch cramped muscles. My stomach tightened — I’d practically stepped on the creature. If it hadn’t been for the paranoia making me stay hidden… No, I don’t even want to think about that. I couldn’t see the player from below — it was still hidden by the tubs. But after stretching, it crouched back down and activated its camouflage field.

The larva left, but I couldn’t move. My hands were shaking, and finding the will to head toward my next objective just wasn’t happening. Patience and nerves of steel were very different things. The latter was an issue for me — I sometimes found myself just short of soiling my pants.

It was only half an hour later, with the sun already setting, that I was able to force myself to head down and keep going. On the one hand, I was happy I hadn’t been caught; on the other, the third farm was going to take between nine and twelve hours, as well. If I’d been in the aliens’ shoes, I would have long since been blaring the message across the location: Mark, come on out. We have hostages. Olsen had guaranteed me that Two and Three would find Wart and Squirrel in three hours. But the aliens were having a hard time, and that threw me for a loop. Can they really not find them?

My plan for the third farm was to take the larva out along with the transporter. No sooner had that thought appeared in my head, than another ten targets appeared for where I was supposed to set mines. That was a curveball — I had to buy the extras, spending a whole million. Bitter experience had taught me to complete the entire exercise invisible. Regardless of the fact that night had fallen, I stuck to my strategy, just happy that all the different spots were only a five- or six-second run from each other. As soon as Zelda flashed me a warning, I melted into the stacks.

When I finished, the sun was already coming back up. Nobody stepped out to do their stretching on top of the racks, but I didn’t doubt for a second that the supposedly unguarded structure was under close surveillance by Tsarter mercenaries. The funny thing was that the ring of monsters and champions came back through while I was working on the farm. From what I could tell, they’d gotten to the edge of the location, hadn’t been able to find me, and had turned back around. I had two days left before I had to report back to Olsen, and Aspen was a three- or four-hour flight at top speed. Time was slipping through my fingers, and I was starting to get angry at myself. Still, I waited for Zelda to recover another minute. I wasn’t going anywhere without it.

I got to the safe zone right at noon. The southern sun beat down mercilessly, pushing my armor’s air conditioning system just about as hard as it could. The safe zone was unguarded. Sure, there were a couple monsters at the perimeter, and a few random players relaxing at the hotel, but even that didn’t put me at ease. The game tracked the safe zones. That meant everyone would find out the second I stepped inside — I had to doubt the function would keep my secret. I needed to plan for the enormous crowd of players and monsters that would come running to bury the village in fire and brimstone no matter the consequences. Although… They needed me alive. But regardless, one step through the bushes surrounding the village, and my whereabouts would have been revealed. I needed to do something about that.

There were twenty buildings and a hotel. Each building needed two mines, with another four for the hotel, one on each wall. I had to part with the remainder of my coins to purchase the additional explosives and remote controls. That just left figuring out how to get them into position, which was the main problem, and one I didn’t have a good solution for. Drone couldn’t do that, I didn’t have help, and hoping for —

Wait a second!

Nobody said I didn’t have help. At least, nobody said I couldn’t find help.

Drone headed back over to where I was and started flying in circles, looking for a potential victim. The search didn’t take long. Three kilometers from the safe zone, a small squad of three players between level 120 and level 150 had set up camp. The best part was that they hadn’t taken off their armor. Of course, the four upper extremities puzzled me — I hadn’t come across a race like that one.

It was easy enough getting to the field where the players were. With their security system armed, they had no doubt they were safe, and so they were lounging in the shade of a lone tree. Hacking into their equipment was a piece of cake. Once that was taken care of, I crept over to stand a few meters away from them and listen in on their conversation. The language they were speaking in was one I understood, something I’d already gotten used to. From what I could tell, it was a game language I learned the moment I first jabbed a syringe into my leg.

“…not there, either. I’ve never seen the spawn so furious.”

“That’s for sure. Where do you think he’s hiding?”

“Who knows? Everyone’s wracking their brain. He couldn’t have gotten past two cordons, and we can’t even find a trace of him! I think we need to wait for everything to settle down and go back to normal. Running around looking for a ghost is pointless. Oh, and I heard they’re going to blackmail him into showing himself — they say they found whoever Mark was trying to get the pearl for.”

I froze, afraid to hear what was coming next.

“And?” One of the four-armed creatures ran out of patience and gave the speaker a prod. That was apparently what the latter had been waiting for.

“Nothing’s free,” came the reply, and the speaker stroked its phone oddly. “Toss me a hundred a piece, and I’ll tell you.”

It took some doing not to run over and shake the information out of the bastard. Happily, a hundred coins wasn’t much to the character’s friends, and so it kept going once it made sure the money had reached it.

“And that’s it. His name is Wart, he’s in the hexagon’s city, the one they bombed. Obviously, I just heard this in passing, but the spawn haven’t been able to find him, yet, and it’s already been a day. They’re livid. Not only is Mark here, but now there’s someone else they can’t find. I’m telling you, we just can’t rock the boat. We’ll hang out here while the high-level players are working, and then we’ll get to work on the dungeon. Oh, and… The function told me the digger found something. The game is going to be over soon.”

“Okay, so why don’t we head over now? Why wait?”

“No, they won’t let us into the dungeon. There are noa plants in the next locations over, but we won’t be able to get in them, either. So, we’ll wait. What’s the latest on the storehouse, by the way?”

“All good.” The third four-armed fighter, the one who had kept its peace so far, clapped a hand against the base of the tree. Judging by the voice, it was female. “It’s so well protected, even the spawn wouldn’t be able to find it.”

“Excellent. Okay, we’ll just hang out here. Anyone want to bet? I have a million that says Mark won’t last another day. They’ll find him by this evening.”

“Deal!” both the other two replied simultaneously in what was their last voluntary action in the game.

Hacking into their armor didn’t present a challenge. Unlike the Tsarter mercenaries and the general’s digital children, that trio hadn’t bothered to keep themselves safe from hackers. And that made sense. Who was ever going to block ordinary players inside their armor? Shooting them or stealing their armor was much simpler. Sure, their willpower was respectable, as was their resilience, but their level 0 hacking protection and resistance made that a moot point.

The four-armed creatures were reduced to statues locked inside their game items, but that wasn’t enough for my plan. I hacked into their phones and gloated — they boasted a total of five million coins between them. That was a tidy little sum that made up for my empty wallet. Digging around in the store, I started by buying what I needed first.

Soporific-II. Description: Blocks a player’s body for between 5 and 8 hours depending on their resilience. Used for players between level 100 and level 199. Cost: 32000 coins.

It wasn’t the cheapest option there, though I had to make sure the job got done. Galrun was off lying on the stacks of tubs, and that was fine. I had other plans for those characters, however. The game printed out the syringes. The players were sent off to sleep. They shouldn’t have set up camp so close to me — they’d have been better off running around looking for me with everyone else.

The hardest part came next. It was something I’d never done, though I suspected it was possible. Yet again, the store opened its welcoming arms to me, and I entered exoskeleton in the search bar. We had them in our world; they presumably had them in the game. But I was wrong. The only options there for body reinforcement were built using nanoparticles inside the player — there weren’t any external options. Other keywords like body control, implants, and external bones also came up empty. There wasn’t anything metal you could use to bend another person’s body to your will. Although, wait a second…

A mechanical splint. The Medical section didn’t just have regeneration syringes; there were lots of other goodies. And among the rest, I found a splint designed for doctors to use on damaged limbs. It gripped the body tightly, offering use even of arms and legs that were broken. At least, that was when it was supposed to be used — once the limb healed, it deactivated. They weren’t cheap, running me fifteen hundred coins each, and I needed thirty for each of the four-armed creatures. Why is being an infiltrator so expensive?

The next part was unpleasant, if necessary. I undressed the sleeping trio, breaking each of their limbs with a shot from Valkyrie to make sure it slowed their regeneration. That was the first time I’d had a chance to make use of that particular functionality the pistol offered. But I couldn’t let my prisoners wake up too early. With the sound of bones crunching still ringing in my ears, I finally looked around at the three aliens rigged up with splints. Each had a BRO-I suit over top of the whole thing — I was too cheap to splurge on anything more expensive.

Device control hooked up to the splints flawlessly, and I picked the bodies up into a standing position. It worked passably. Checking everything out, I held their arms out in front of them and worked their fingers. Awkward and halting, if good enough. But when I had them walk forward, a disappointed frown slipped across my face. Their movement was twitchy and unnatural. Well, screw it. They’re not on parade!

The four arms they all had came in handy. Connecting to each suit of armor using remote control so I wouldn’t have to personally head into the village, I handed each of them mines and sent them in. Once I’d gotten the hang of walking, I was even able to push them to a light jog that got us to the safe zone an hour later.

There were other players on the road, not to mention monsters, but nobody thought to check into my team or ask them why they were moving so strangely. What was unusual about players carrying mines around? They’d probably just stolen them and were looking to find a fence. And given that they weren’t blacklisted, they were fine. What a great game!

“Welcome to the village of Hearth, travelers.” No sooner had my little troop entered the village, than the village head appeared in front of them. It was a Shurvan the same as Olsen, just a much sorrier-looking specimen. The Aspen leader elicited respect; this one just elicited pity. It was shriveled up, wrinkled, and wizened. Spit too hard on it, and you’d split its spine in two.

But I just split my prisoners up without getting distracted. However, the function was a pushy one, following around the trio’s leader and keeping me from setting the mines.

“You’re awfully reticent today. Did something happen? Do you need help? You don’t look good.”

Damn it… Leave me alone! My two other prisoners got to work sticking the mines where I needed them, if so hard they almost squashed the things. Controlling them would have been easier if I’d taken time to practice first. Whatever, I’ll do what I can.

“Although, I’m not surprised. You’ve never been that friendly. Hey, Dervanos, what about exchanging information? You know, the way we always do.”

I checked the phone. Dervanos was the group leader’s name. Realizing that I needed to buy time, I had the creature stop, turn toward the village head, and nod. It turned out terribly — the thing’s head just about crashed onto its chest. But that was still enough to get the function talking.

“Two and Three announced a reward for Wart. Just imagine — they still can’t find him. Although, he only has five days, so not long to live. And they haven’t found Mark, either. Five is cracking, to the point that he killed a player who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But why aren’t you saying anything? Do you not care about all of that?”

Oops! I shook the creature’s head loosely. The village was being mined, with more than half the buildings already rigged to blow. Deciding it was time to wrap things up, I turned my prisoner away from the village head and walked it off toward the hotel.

“Oh, so you already know all that?” the function asked, not at all picking up what I was putting down. “Okay, you’re right, that’s kind of old news. But how about the fact that the digger just about found blood? And in our location! Or how about that One is at the border waiting for Mark to be found? Did you know that, Dervanos?”

I definitely didn’t, and I suddenly wanted to find out more. Figuring that I was already taking a risk with the remote control, I activated the microphone and did my best to mimic Dervanos’ voice.

“That’s interesting, but not enough. Where did the digger find blood?”

“You’re talking strangely,” the function replied with surprise.

“I have a cold,” I said, muttering the first thing that came to me head and cursing myself for my indiscretion.

“You’re definitely Dervanos, that much I know… But something’s off about you… I think I’d better get back to what I was doing…”

Of course, you’d better. But by that time, it was a problem — I didn’t need any more questions. After waiting for the function to disappear inside the hotel, I sent my prisoner forward. I was five minutes away from finishing the job.

“What are you doing, Dervanos?” The voice appeared so suddenly that even I jumped. Drone showed me an unpleasant picture — Eight had materialized next to my four-armed friends. The general’s spawn had appeared from behind a camouflage field and was right by my prisoner, who was leaning down next to one of the hotel walls. A wave of fear washed down my back. If I’d risked going in there myself… Surviving really was a long string of tiny details.

Eight didn’t seem like the kind of player I could ignore, so I sent Drone flying toward the third farm and simultaneously replied.

“I’m working, doing what you told me to do.”

“Who assigned you to mine the safe zone? That’s awfully strange. The function claims you’re not Dervanos — what do you have to say about that?”

“The village head is wrong. Ask any scanner.”

“That’s exactly it — the function is wrong. You actually are the player I see, but why the mine? I’d better take them for now… Wait, what do you mean, zero percent change of hacking successfully?”

Drone arrived, and I could barely restrain a happy shout. The larva had just showed up to collect the hideous harvest.

“You’re not Dervanos!” It had finally occurred to Eight that something was very wrong, and I decided to go ahead and fill it in. The larva was up on the higher racks.

“Mark Derwin says hello!” I whispered in a conspiratorial tone of voice. “He was able to show me that Earth is much better than the game. May there be light! The monsters will be defeated, and humankind will rise again. Up with the resistance!”

It was a bunch of nonsense, of course, but I knew my words were passed on instantly to the other spawn. And that meant I needed to give them food for thought. Give their processers something to mull over.

The larva climbed higher, Eight stepped closer to Dervanos and blocked it with something serious, the village was completely mined with the exception of the hotel, and I went ahead and hit the button to activate it all. The upper echelons were about to lose interest in Wart altogether.

There was an explosion, the earth shook, and…

My phone groaned under the weight of all the information flooding it.

You killed 3 players from the owner’s personal guard.

You can collect 3 named items in the store.

Level +60 (219).

30 free attribute points received.

***

You destroyed the Tsarter group, which was assigned to liquidate you.

Rank received: Tsarter Bane.

Level +1 (220).

***

You destroyed KRA887-8, the eighth spawn of your hexagon’s general.

Level +5 (225).

5 free attribute points received.

***

You destroyed 4 larva-level creatures with one explosion.

Level +80 (305).

Your demolitions infiltrator skills were boosted.

You locked in 40 levels. Current: 174.

Body enhancement increased by 1 level.

***

You destroyed the safe zone in location 32, hexagon 118.

Penalty received: 50 levels, prohibited from using safe zones for 24 hours.

Current level: 255.

***

You destroyed a larva and its farms. Because there is no safe village or managing function in this location, you became the head of the safe zone in location 32, hexagon 118. All location monsters are your captives.

You are a natural release player, so your captives have been transformed back. Location 32 has been pulled out of hexagon 118 and can only be returned after your death. All natural players in the hexagon have received news about the zone.

***

Non-natural release players as well as shrews are required to leave the zone within 12 hours and can no longer remain in it without your permission. The game functionality itself provides for the location’s safety.

***

You cleared a location of monsters.

Valkyrie and Zelda levels increased by 1 (17).

Take that! Get the hell out of my location!

Chapter 15

Location access request received.

NO WAY! The request disappeared, only to be replaced by the next one. And after changing the settings to have the game only pop it up every time it reached the maximum number of 300, I continued turning everyone down. Over the first few minutes, the lists filled up every second or so. Obviously, the alien players were going to do everything they could to keep me distracted and knock me off track, let the game functionality figure out who should be permitted and who shouldn’t be. Screw you! I had time and desire enough to turn them all down myself. At least, everyone had a different last name — the game apparently had a penalty that kept players from spamming location owners.

None of the three four-armed creatures had survived. And that was to be expected, given the hell we’d unleashed in the safe zone. But I was in no hurry to run around the demolished farms taking pictures of everything. The other players still had plenty of time to regain control of the location, and I was sure they were even taking pictures of the larva and transporters to ensure that I couldn’t pick up any extra coins. And that meant the only thing left for me to do was hide. But I did have something to do. Before I got to work on anything else, I deactivated the security system the four-armed aliens had been so confident in. Drone fulfilled the same function for me, so it was superfluous. Into the inventory with you. I liked having something there, at least.

The tree was much more interesting. I circled it like a cat eying a bowl of sour cream, though device control came up empty. Not even running my palms over the bark got me anything game-related. In fact, it took several circuits and hand positions before I noticed anything. Not sensed; noticed.

The +1 bonus to my adaptive vision the game had given me turned out to be awfully interesting. First and foremost, I could see where explosives were supposed to be set even when I wasn’t holding them. I was also able to identify game items — they shimmered oddly against the static background of the natural world. And it was that shimmering that I noticed among the roots. Placing a palm against it and tuning in to my senses, I cursed. Nothing! At least, I sensed nothing. Trying to dig it up or tear it out didn’t do anything, either. It was like the roots were made of some ultrastrong alloy, and not your usual wood. There has to be a lock, but I don’t see anything…

Growling in frustration, I pulled up the trials. I had eighty-one levels available to boost my adaptive vision at least one point. As long as I can last a couple seconds…

You locked in 23 levels. 27 levels were discarded in favor of the game.

Current: 228 (197).

Adaptive vision +3 (4).

Lying on the floor, I did my best to forget the nightmare I’d just lived through. I did it! I’d made it through almost half the time before the pain got the better of my resolution, and I collapsed unconscious to the floor. No sooner was I able to move again, than I tapped the button to leave the trials. I’ve have just about enough of that!

Unfortunately, one glance at the tree told me I’d have to go through the adaptive vision trial at least one more time. Game objects weren’t just shimmering; they shone like a polished fender in the sun. It just wasn’t possible to miss them. Even the spots where I was supposed to set explosives had changed, as looking at them triggered a process in my head that ended with a projection of the mine — where I was supposed to put it, which direction it was supposed to face in order to maximize the result. But even that wasn’t the most important thing. I could finally see the hiding spot.

The shimmering field was generated by a few well-hidden plates set in the roots. They were what made the roots so strong, to the point that they withstood even a shot from Valkyrie. But they weren’t so lucky against my hacking skills. Device control went to work as soon as I stuck a finger into the recess and touched the first plate.

You’re trying to hack into a player’s personal storage.

Sum total of your skill levels: 410 (device control: 100, hacking: 110, perception: 100, anatomy master: 100).

Sum total of the personal storage’s skill levels: 400 (hacking protection: 100, resistance: 100, resilience: 100, willpower: 100).

Probability of successful hack: 2.4% (1 — 400/410).

Attempt 1… Unsuccessful.

…

Attempt 132… Successful.

Each attempt took one second and one frustrated sigh. The second was for giving the next command and waiting with bated breath to see what happened, and the result was five minutes spent on a single sheet. As far as I could tell, there were another twenty-one of them. So, after turning down the next list of players trying to get into the location, I stuck my finger into the next opening. This is going to be a fun couple of hours.

But I was wrong. Of the twenty-two plates, only the first and ninth gave me any trouble, the rest taking between 30 and 40 attempts to get through. The ninth, however, was such a challenge that I played with the idea of boosting my hacking attribute. Happily, it worked on the 533rd attempt. Brutal. The final plate gave way with a blink of annoyance, revealing a path down into a small cave and…

The shimmering film that marked the entrance to a dungeon. Drone immediately added it to the map, restoring some order to the world — there were two dungeons in every location, with the location I was in standing out up to that point. Ah-ha, that makes sense… There was a small pile of items lying next to the entrance, all of them carried over by the four-armed creatures, but instead of diving in after the loot, I paused. Actually, no, I dashed off with arms and legs flailing wildly. Leaving the field entirely, I ducked into the shadow of some boulders a hundred meters away.

Hurry… Okay, I made it… Why didn’t I think to wait?

A couple moments after I froze in my hiding spot, Five slammed into the ground by the tree, disappearing almost entirely into the ground and soaring immediately back up into the air. It was like the robot had shot itself out of an enormous cannon aimed at anywhere I might appear. Or where something unusual might happen.

Antennas appeared on the robot’s trunk, most to point at the dungeon. The rest began doing circles to scan the area. It was a good thing I’d gotten so far away — the monster definitely didn’t have the level 200 device control it would have taken to reach me. But just in case, I crawled farther away, doing my best to blend in with the rocks. I wasn’t ready for a confrontation with that kind of opponent.

Shadows flashed, and Drone highlighted a few new targets. The robot’s friends had arrived: Seven, Villian, and, from what it looked like, some riffraff. Although, calling players in the location’s top one hundred riffraff might have been overdoing it. Underestimating your opponents, as my death had taught me, was a fatal mistake in the game. But I did notice something strange. The mercenary leader had been way up at level 541, though it had dropped to level 491. Could that be a penalty for not taking me out? Apparently, not all its levels had been locked in.

I was forced to pull myself away from my musings and turn on Zelda’s invisibility. The players were flying around too actively, leaving no stone unturned in the area. I’d gotten away just in the nick of time.

“That’s pointless,” Villian said. He’d stayed behind with the general’s spawn. “Either he’s inside, or he’s gone. My guess is that he bought himself Ulbaron and a flight drive and headed out of here. Does anyone have eyes on the first dungeon?”

There was a pause, and then Seven suddenly took off. That answers Villian’s question, I guess. There weren’t any champions left in the location to stand guard over the aliens’ prize, though there were presumably now two of them.

“He didn’t have any named items, coins, or noa.” Five was insistent, a robot to the core. Its processor couldn’t accept the fact that I might have picked up coins somewhere. After all, it would have been informed of any kills, and it hadn’t been. Therefore, I couldn’t have had coins.

“But the kid just left all this here,” Villian replied with a snort, a hand gesturing toward the pile of loot. I clenched my teeth in helpless rage. Don’t touch my loot, you bastards!

“He just didn’t have time...” Five kept pushing, but the mercenary leader just laughed.

“Seriously, I love how stubborn you are. Are all robots the same, or did I just get lucky? Mark Derwin didn’t bother to grab this junk because he got three named items for killing my fighters. Being a member of the owner’s personal guard isn’t just a big responsibility; it’s a huge risk. We risk our own belongings, our own named items. So, believe you me, Mark has Ulbaron and the flight expansion. And we need to do something about that.”

“What’s your suggestion?”

“Since you can’t find Wart, and I won’t even ask why not, let’s try something different. You brought a million and a half monsters into the location, and they were all transformed back into their old appearance. Make an announcement — if Mark doesn’t turn himself in, or if we can’t come to an agreement, you’ll kill everyone. We have ten hours. That should be enough, and we’ll do some leveling-up to boot.”

“A hunt?” the other players chimed in, though Five didn’t share their enthusiasm.

“Mark is target number one in our hexagon. We aren’t permitted to negotiate with him, and even if we use him, we’re required to destroy him afterwards. We can’t be sure how to boost the dungeon level. And we only have ten hours. I like the part about leveling-up, but there won’t be any negotiating.”

“But we can scare him, no?” Villian asked. “That will tell us a lot about him. What if that’s too many deaths for him to have on his conscience?”

“That’s fine,” Five replied. Suddenly, his voice echoed across the location, the very air speaking, just about.

“Mark Derwin, this is player ULB89-5 speaking! You have thirty minutes to turn yourself in, otherwise all million and a half humans who transformed back will be destroyed. Your time starts now.”

A timer appeared in front of me, and my breath caught in my throat. Are you off your rockers?! A minute went by, and then another, and I couldn’t find the words to describe the monsters. Are they really going to commit genocide?

“He’s not coming,” Villian said, flying a meter and a half up into the air. “Time to go hunt. The north is mine!”

“Leveling-up is important,” agreed Five, his own platform taking him up above the tree. “All life forms may be destroyed, females included. The west is mine. Anyone I see there will be destroyed.”

It felt like my heart was about to pound its way out of my chest, but I couldn’t find a solution. There wasn’t any kind of location control — I didn’t have a way to push the aliens out ahead of time. Villian and Five flew off, the sound of explosions immediately following. Drone showed me the pandemonium that erupted. The high-level players weren’t playing games, and they certainly weren’t about to kill the humans one by one. With undisguised enjoyment on their faces, the rest of the group ran off, not forgetting to grab the loot left by the four-armed creatures. A black shroud fell over my mind as I watched the horror. And though I continually tried to dash off and protect the location, a small if conscious and rational side of me blocked BRO-VI to keep me from going anywhere. I bellowed, howled, and tried to break free, but it was all in vain. My body was locked inside a prison of its own making. Five hours later, the shroud lifted, and I could finally hear the voice of reason convincing me that the people in the location were doomed anyway. How was I going to find them all food? And if I’d turned myself in, the location would have been returned to the hexagon, and the monsters would have come rushing over to feed. One way or another, the conclusion was the same: it was my fault the monsters had turned back into people, but there was absolutely nothing I could do to keep them from being wiped out.

The only problem was that I drew no comfort from that thought. I was miserable.

“I can stop them, Mark Derwin.”

Regardless of how unexpected the voice was, I didn’t even jump. Only my breathing and the pulse in my temples quickened. Drone returned to hover over my hiding place, only there wasn’t anyone else there. Neither the scanner nor the video feed came up with anything.

“At what price?” I asked quietly. I had a hard time believing it was a glitch. Am I hearing voices now?

“It won’t cost you anything so long as we come to an agreement.”

“An agreement about what? And who are you?”

“You need to let me continue working in this location. I’m a digger — you’ve heard of me. I already stopped the players, though you only have ten minutes to make your decision.”

“What decision?” I muttered angrily. “Let you destroy Earth? That’s not a decision; it would be the height of stupidity. I made that choice a long time ago.”

“You don’t get it. We’re talking about a million and a half people killed because of you. Can you bear that burden? Old people, children. How about I show you how they’re dying?”

Against my will, a video of people being burned alive showed up on my helmet’s screen, the speakers filled with soul-wrenching cries. I ground my teeth and ripped the helmet off to keep from seeing the nightmare.

“We can stop this. Just give me access.”

“Screw you,” I said. It was hard to say, but I was firm. “Get the hell out of my location — you aren’t getting any blood, whoever you are.”

“You need the pearl. I can tell you how to get one, how to save your friend. You’ll be able to complete Olsen’s mission.”

I almost told it where it could shove its pearls, but instead I focused on figuring out where the voice was coming from. If I could hear it without my helmet, it was either inside my head or nearby. Dubious that it could be powerful enough to control that many minds, I stood up and looked around. There was indeed a strangely glowing creature nearby. Almost like a projection or ghost, it was semi-transparent and reminiscent of a small cube. Ripples ran across the surface, the same as if I’d tossed a pebble into a puddle. Valkyrie popped into my hand, and a chunk of energy passed through the digger without doing it any harm. Yep, a projection.

“I’ll take that as your answer.” The ripples ran faster, creating the sound. “But I’m still going to find what we need, if not here, then in another location. If not in this hexagon, then in another. You can’t stop us.”

“We’ll see about that,” I snapped back as I took another shot. That one wasn’t at the cube; I was aiming at a small rock. My perception and adaptive vision had identified it as a game item projecting the image of the cube, but I turned and dashed off, flicking on Zelda as I ran, before waiting to see what happened.

Made it! I was off at Olympic speeds, and in the ten seconds the game gave me, I was able to make it out of the epicenter of the enormous explosion. Five wasn’t skimping on rockets, raining them down around the entire area. Only it focused on the area between where I’d been sitting and the dungeon. The assumption was presumably that I’d jump into the shimmering film, though my instinct was actually to get as far away from the spot as possible. It was true — I wasn’t able to stop the genocide no matter how horrible I felt for the people in the location. And I knew I might live to see the day when I regretted the decision I was making. But it wasn’t that day.

I had other plans.

Diving into one of the many crevices the boulders in the area offered, I quickly bought Ulbaron and the flight expansion. Villian had been right — life without them was tricky. A few minutes were spent integrating them, and I was hurriedly pulling off my BRO-VI suit to replace it with old faithful. Over the previous couple weeks, I’d gotten to the point where I couldn’t imagine the game without Ulbaron. The third bonus was spent on Raptor. Drone was great, but the handheld device was a pain that let people see me when I didn’t want them to.

My wallet a million coins heavier thanks to the sale of the suit and helmet, I took off into the air. Zelda told me it had just ten minutes of invisibility left, so I needed to hurry. There was nothing I could do right then to stop Five and Villian. The north and west were doomed. On the other hand, I could lose myself in the general commotion and make sure the people in the location didn’t die in vain.

Drone hurtled forward, feeding video back to me. The first targets came up almost immediately. A group of five players was clearing a small village, the people there hiding in houses and sheds in an attempt to escape the merciless killers. And the latter were methodically sweeping each building, finding their victims with their scanners and wiping them out entirely. They looked like RPG gamers who’d picked up a quest to clear the area. Actually, that’s not far off.

But one thing they certainly weren’t expecting was vengeance to come hurtling out of the sky. Their scanners didn’t pick me up, Valkyrie kicked into action, and they had nothing that could stand up to my firepower. Five mental commands later, five bodies flopped to the ground without ever knowing what had hit them. All I took the time to do before flying off was grab their phones and drop them in my storage. Of course, I didn’t actually change anything — a volley of rockets demolished the village and killed everyone the aliens had left alive. Five was showing off the full range of its arsenal.

I felt nothing. Again, people were dying. Again, it was my fault. I could worry about that later. On the other hand, what I did realize was that I needed to catch the players on their way between villages rather than in the act of killing the villagers.

That was easy enough.

Drone found three vehicles packed with players. They were heading toward a town, having just finished up with a village. Judging by their shouts and laughter, they were in a great mood, definitely not expecting any retaliation. Makes sense. Who in their right mind would risk going after thirty of them together?

Buying the mines and remote controls cost me six hundred and sixty thousand coins. I just wished it had cost another six thousand — that nice little number would have described the situation perfectly. Without even stopping, I flew overhead and dropped a couple mines into each vehicle, the lot of them detonating before the players could even figure out what was going on. There was no sense stopping for the phones. And I ignored the rockets slamming into the ground behind me. Five was reacting to my movements, though it was having a hard time predicting them.

Oh, hey, I can use that!

I banked hard to the right. The first dungeon was just a kilometer away, and Drone told me Seven was there standing guard. Before I even got close, I saw the platform hovering above the shimmering film that marked the dungeon’s entrance. And judging by the antennas whirling around, the robot was keeping close tabs on everything going on in the vicinity. The red dots right by the entrance to the dungeon were intriguing, though I didn’t have time for them. I’ll figure out who that is if I survive. Zelda didn’t have much time left, so I needed to make a decision.

Improvise or make a run for it? That was a silly question. The only places I could run to were where they were slaughtering humans on an epic scale, which left the way forward as the only one for me.

I bet everything on the element of surprise. Valkyrie gave me 10% values across the robot’s entire body — its reserve and auxiliary systems were apparently all being pushed to the max. Accelerating, I soared toward Seven like Superman, the hand holding my pistol thrust forward. Valkyrie kicked as it launched a burst at my opponent, and…

The energy was swallowed up by an invisible force field. I had the presence of mind to wheel off to the side, continuing to fire as I did, but a shadow appeared next to Seven. My perception told me immediately who it was. Villian, the Tsarter leader. The robot fired off rockets, and I had to turn hard to the side. I was forced to turn my fire on them, too. Villian shot off after me, its flight skill much better than mine, at least judging by its speed. Ignoring the fear, I pushed my drives as hard as they would go, not forgetting to continue shooting at the mercenary. But while it was possible to harm the robot, Valkyrie was useless against level 22 named items.

The alien was gaining on me. Nobody shot in my direction; it just got closer and closer. Icy fingers gripped my chest — as soon as Villian got within range, it was going to hack into my suit, block me, and finish the whole charade. That was why nobody was in a hurry. Even my invisibility proved pointless, as Villian just mirrored my aerobatics without falling behind in the least. To the contrary, he came ever closer.

My brain frantically searched for a solution. I have to even the odds. The only shot I had was if I could do something about the incredible advantage Villian’s levels gave it and —

The dungeon!

The solution came so suddenly that I nearly lost track of where I was, and my opponents were able to gain more ground. A kilometer away, the shimmering entrance to the second dungeon beckoned. The game would even us out at level 15 — the alien wouldn’t be able to hack me. Sure, I wouldn’t be able to hack it, either, but that was secondary. Most importantly, I was an infiltrator. And a demolitions expert, damn it! Where better to show off what I could do with explosions than in the closed space of an underground labyrinth? The game was on my side, too. Soon, all the other players would be forced out of the location. I just had to survive four more hours.

The tree rushed toward me. It was scary how fast it came, in fact — I knew I only had one shot. Raptor told me Villian was in range and already trying to hack my protection. The probability wasn’t great at just 15%. His levels totaled 475; mine were 400… Where did that bastard find the cash? Just the jump from 100 to 110 was enough to bankrupt anyone, and it had all four of its attributes up nearly to 120. They’re probably not even primary… It was a lot.

Another mine appeared in my hands, and I cursed as I flew into the tree roots. There was no time to hit the brakes, and I swooped into the shimmering film at full speed. The space around me blurred for a few moments as the narrow tunnel appeared, only that didn’t slow me down, either. I was carried forward, throwing monsters right and left as I went. Or are they spiders? I couldn’t tell.

A sharp turn appeared in front of me. Realizing I wasn’t going to be able to stop or get around it, I just threw out my arms to take the hit. There was an unpleasant crunch, and the mine dropped out of hand as it went limp. But my head still hit hard. I lost consciousness for a few seconds, and when I woke back up, I noticed a spider trying to bite through Ulbaron. The futility of its efforts had enraged it to the point that it let out a squeal. Again, my arms snapped, that time as the bones slipped back into place, and I howled. There was both pain and frustration in my voice. How had nobody thought to add painkillers to the game? Why did the players have to deal with all the joys the creator’s twisted imagination had for them?

Valkyrie leaped into my mangled palm, and I had to activate it mentally. My fingers weren’t moving yet. Although, to be fair, I had expected more damage. The collision was a hefty one, and Ulbaron wasn’t the lightest piece of equipment. Could that be my steel bones finally coming in handy?

Congratulations!

You’re the first player in this location to enter Gurval’s Trail.

1 free attribute point available.

Level +1 (229).

***

10 players entered the dungeon, synchronization complete.

The messages appeared right when I shot the spider. While I couldn’t see where the mine was, I could sense it, and so I activated it before dashing off down the tunnel. I needed to hide.

“Ah, so that’s how you boost dungeon levels!” I heard Villian’s voice echoing down the passageway. “Personified noa. That was a mistake, Mark Derwin — I’m sure you knew about that. Well… Just means we don’t need you anymore. I suggest we use the dagger.”

“Agreed!” The second voice belonged to Seven. “Five gave us the go-ahead. Mark Derwin won’t be getting out of the dungeon alive.”

Chapter 16

“I IMAGINE you’ll be fine on your own. You won’t need my help, will you?”

Villian was speaking in a low voice, but the echo still carried throughout the entire dungeon. Seven’s reply did, too.

“No, we’ll be okay. The general appreciates your help, Villian Po. Your time in the hexagon has been approved despite the failure. Give me the dagger — I want to try it out on Mark.”

“Smart idea. Here you go. Just remember, it doesn’t work on corpses — you have to grab Derwin, and then you can stick him with this thing. Anyway, I won’t distract you. You only have four hours left.”

“We’ll only need one. See you, Villian Po.”

“Goodbye, robot with the unpronounceable name.” I could hear sarcasm in the Tsarter leader’s voice. “I imagine this will be our last meeting — I don’t have any more reason to be in your hexagon.”

The conversation ended there, replaced by the measured footfalls of the players marching deeper into the dungeon.

“Mine!” one yelled. Everyone froze, waiting for direction from Seven.

“Pull back so we can — ”

The general’s spawn wanted to detonate it, but it was too late. Unwilling to let my property go to waste, I triggered it myself. The dungeon shook, a wall of fire roared down the tunnel, and the players found it suddenly nice and toasty. At least one of them turned out to be made of flesh and bone. Fire didn’t bother robots, but the shriek of pain was a joy to hear. Sadly, I didn’t get a kill, but I at least did damage.

29 players entered the dungeon, synchronization complete.

A bot suddenly ran by, eyes bugging out and legs pounding. Another one followed it. And then another. I stepped to the side, letting the herd rumble by. None of them touched me; presumably, none of them even noticed me. Their attention was focused entirely on the entrance and the group of players who’d entered — from what I could tell, the monsters were rushing over from throughout the entire dungeon, beckoned by some kind of summons. I was even pinned to the wall a couple times as thick worms appeared out of nowhere to inch by. From the direction of the players, I heard shots, explosions, and unpleasant guffaws. Why run around the narrow tunnels when you can just have everything come to you? It wasn’t a bad ability. Or was it an ability? I assumed Seven had some kind of device that did the summoning. I want one of those…

It took Seven and its henchmen a tick more than five minutes to clear the first round. And it would have been faster if it hadn’t been for some of the bots crawling too slowly to keep up. When one earthworm big enough to swallow me whole wiggled by, I hooked a mine onto it. But that didn’t end up giving me anything. The robot had professionals at the entrance, and one of them shouted a warning as soon as the worm appeared. The group immediately began firing away at it, following up with some grenades. I ended up just triggering the mine and scattering internal organs around the tunnel. Of course, they disappeared a couple minutes later when the game kicked out a message:

You destroyed the first round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current level: 3).

Before I could blink, there was another stampede down the tunnel. The bots that time were pale ghouls capable of freezing my blood with their howls despite the protection Ulbaron offered me. Still, they didn’t present an obstacle for my pursuers. Seven had brought in a powerful arsenal, and it was when a horrifying beast made up of ten interwoven bodies rushed by that I realized I had to get moving. With the second round done, the general’s spawn was going to move right on to the third, the fourth… That group wouldn’t have a problem with a hundred rounds! They were in a great position even the boss would have a hard time attacking. And that meant I needed to find a good hiding spot while they were still busy, as I suspected they were going to start work clearing the dungeon with their grenades as soon as they ran out of bots.

And that was a problem I needed to take care of quickly.

The narrow passageways and the niches that lined them were out of the question. If a grenade went off next to one of them, I would have been fried even wearing Ulbaron. Or baked? Cooking was never my thing. Regardless, I needed an open area, and there weren’t many of them in the dungeon: two small caves and one big one.

You destroyed the second round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current level: 5).

Damn it! They were so fast. Too fast. The monsters raced past toward the entrance yet again, hurrying to answer the call and blocking my path. The smaller caves were just barely bigger than a basketball court, and I couldn’t find a good hiding spot no matter how much I scanned. The rocks there weren’t big enough to keep me safe from a wall of fire. That just leaves the main cave.

I got luckier there. It wasn’t as big as a soccer field, of course, though it was at least three or four times as big as the other two. And for the time being, it was empty. The previous round of monsters had all run off; the new round hadn’t spawned, yet. And there were plenty of crevices around the edge where I could hide and wait out the clock. But still, I ignored them — Seven was no fool. It was also able to think, and as soon as it finished killing off all the monsters and showed up in the main cave, it would know exactly where to find me. A few mines or grenades, and I would have been blown to smithereens right along with my hiding spot.

And that meant I had to hide somewhere nobody would guess. Right out in the open. For example, how about the middle of the cave?

It wasn’t the greatest of ideas, but my exhausted brain couldn’t think of anything better. The cave floor was perfectly even and didn’t react in the least to Valkyrie. Every shot was swallowed up, flakes skipping off to the side as though laughing at me. And so, I was forced to head back to the store and make a purchase with a heavy heart.

Vibroknife V-VI. Description: Ignores all types of armor through level 6. Blocks regeneration through level 6. Blocks 2 random abilities. Rendered inert by magnetic fields. Requirements: Melee weapons (60), agility (60), strength (60), monster knowledge (70), anatomy master (70), resilience (60). Cost: 4440000 coins.

My heart practically stopped when I turned over the enormous sum, though there was no way around it. I needed something to dig with, and while Fang was temporarily — or even permanently — unavailable, I needed a replacement. That left just a bit over two million in my account. Or, as I’d taken to calculating it, twenty thermal mines. Of course, it was silly to count in mines, but that was the place my life was at right then. Ha! Twenty whole mines! That wasn’t even enough to blow up half the dungeon.

You destroyed the third round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current level: 7).

Things went much faster with the vibroknife. The stone couldn’t stand up to it in the least, and I soon had huge chunks flying to the side. Of course, I did have to pause when the next wave of monsters rushed past. Just like the two previous rounds, they dashed right off toward the dungeon entrance, and I waited for them to leave before going back to my hole. Once it was finished, I collected the debris and hauled it over to a small niche in the wall. I worked on that until it no longer looked suspicious, at which point I headed back over to lie down in my hole and activate everything I had for camouflage. It was just a shame I didn’t have Drone nearby to give me a third-person view of how I looked. Anyway, I was still going through with it — I hadn’t been able to come up with anything better.

You destroyed the fourth round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current level: 9).

Final round. Single combat.

Suddenly, it got dark and hard to breathe. It felt like a slab of granite was pinning me to the ground, not letting me move so much as a finger. And as I panicked, it was hard to keep myself from making a move. Raptor scanned the area and told me what the hell had just happened — the dungeon boss had appeared right on top of me, pinning me down with its imposing girth. If it hadn’t been for the hole I’d dug, I would have been pancaked on the spot. The creature must have weighed several tons. Now I see why the cave is so big. It had to be for such a monster to live there.

Ulbaron helped me through the first few seconds and then adjusted, adding some strength. Sadly, that didn’t make things much better. The boss was in no hurry to answer Seven’s call, enjoying its spot on top of me. It probably isn’t even able to leave. It’s hard to go anywhere when you’re half mushroom.

Once I decided that nothing that bad was going to happen, I used device control to scan the area. I needed to know when my guests were going to be showing up. Despite its 170-meter range, Raptor was acting up inside the dungeon.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of the Gurval’s Trail boss.

Sum total of your skill levels: 410 (device control: 100, hacking: 110, perception: 100, anatomy master: 100).

Sum total of the Gurvail’s Trail boss’ skill levels: 200 (hacking protection: 50, resistance: 50, resilience: 50, willpower: 50).

Probability of successful hack: 51.22% (1 — 200/410).

Attempt 1… Successful.

***

You gained access to the dungeon boss.

Would you like to destroy it?

My jaw practically dropped. In fact, it was a good thing I was pinned down by the beast’s bulk — that was all that saved me from a dislocation. Of course, I don’t want to destroy it!

Would you like access to the boss control functionality?

Note! If you accept, you will no longer be able to receive a reward for beating the dungeon.

Screw the reward! I wanted to control that thing. Here I am with assassins coming after me, and I’m playing games…but screw that, too! I’d take care of them when they showed up. In the meantime, I studied the functionality I’d just gained access to.

You are controlling the dungeon boss.

Boss abilities integrated with your abilities.

***

Available abilities:

Summons. Description: Summon 50 level 12 creatures for 1 minute. Recharge time: 5 minutes.

Hypnosis. Description: Influence the minds of all creatures in the dungeon with willpower less than level 80 and force them to come to you. When they reach the boss, they are swallowed alive. Duration: continuous.

Trembling earth. Description: Cause a local earthquake that destroys 50% of the dungeon. Single use.

Gurval’s spittle. Description: Shoot a sticky, corrosive substance that envelops and immobilizes opponents. Can erode defenses through level 6.

Grenade blocker. Description: Passive ability. Keep explosive devices from exploding using your willpower. No game grenades can detonate in the main cave. (Note! This does not apply to mines, and your opponents have been informed.)

I swallowed hard. Somewhere in the background, a glimmer of hope appeared, and I reached out for it with both hands. The rows of buttons and information windows danced in front of me, though I didn’t take my eyes off the one for hypnosis. I couldn’t decide whether or not to press it. And it wasn’t fear or excitement; I just wanted the moment to wait as long as possible. Checking out the other windows, I noticed a video feed, presumably from the creature’s eyes, or whatever passed for them. The feed moved to focus on one of the ways into the cave when I mentally pulled a lever. There were shadows there — Seven’s players had showed up without waiting for their leader. Chuckling evilly and holding my breath, I pressed a button. Shall we?

Give in… You’re weak… Give in… You’re weak…

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that as a player, though I’d never had the chance to be the one saying it. A new window popped up — eighteen players had been hypnotized. Not bad for the first try! I hit the next button.

Give in… Come here… Give in… Come here…

The players didn’t have a shot. None of their friends, the ones who were able to stand up to the boss’ summons, jumped in to stop them or knock them to the ground. Instead, jerking around like marionettes, they got to the boss and crunched unpleasantly. I was more than happy not to watch them get swallowed up.

Seven’s platform appeared from around the corner, and I quickly fired a glob of spit at it. The boss jerked, something white flying out, though it kept right on digesting the hypnotized players in the meantime. I wasn’t sure what it did with the energy it got from them — there weren’t any bars or values to check. Anyway, whatever, what about that shot?

The platform froze for a second before perking back up and diving around the corner. All I had time to see were the arms getting to work pulling the sticky substance off it. I sighed heavily. There wasn’t anything else I could to do Seven, and summoning the creatures right then seemed like a waste. But as the robot dove around the corner, I did notice a few deep gashes in its body. If I can land another hit, would that bring it down? It was worth a try.

Raptor finally gave me something, proving how indispensable it was over short distances. A few red dots coming over to the boss from the other side grabbed my attention. While I’d been working on the general’s spawn for a few seconds, its fighters had taken the time to try and outflank me. If I’d actually been the boss or not had a powerful scanner at my disposable, I probably wouldn’t have noticed them. They’d hidden themselves almost flawlessly. But only almost flawlessly.

The boss couldn’t see the targets, so it was basically guesswork. I even thought I sensed the creature complaining about wasted ammunition. But as soon as the substance it was spitting hit home, all was forgotten — instead of splattering on the rocks, it hit two bodies. The cave resounded with the wild screams of players being eaten alive. And they couldn’t even move, as the spittle held them tighter than dry resin. Their invisibility went first, followed by their armor, and then the spittle ate through their skin and all the way to their bones. I saw the whole thing happen, though the only thought that went through my mind was that shooting players with the spittle was costing me money. By destroying their outfits, the substance destroyed the coins I would have gotten from them, too.

I had to shoot three more times before the players smartened up — they weren’t going to get close enough to set a mine. At that point, they switched tactics, tossing mines right into the room and triggering them as they flew through the air. The fact that they weren’t grenades meant the move wasn’t against the rules. But I had my agility and pistol shooting, so I caught them in midair, shooting them down and tossing them back into the tunnels. In fact, I was able to cover both tunnels at once by staring at a point between them and relying on Raptor as well as my peripheral vision.

Half an hour went by before I got another message:

15 players entered the dungeon, synchronization complete.

Hypnosis kept on working in the background, though none of the newcomers succumbed. That’s a shame… Seven was apparently bringing in the heavy artillery. But that’s when something strange happened — everyone started ignoring the boss. No more mines came flying in, nobody tried to creep into the cave, and nobody flashed by the entrances. Instead, they all started roaming the rest of the tunnels looking for the fugitive. I heard explosions, shots, shouts, and odd howls that curdled the blood in my veins and gave me the urge to take off running. It was only the hulk pressing down on me from above that kept me in place. And when it all climaxed in an enormous detonation, the ground shook, and rocks dropped from the ceiling. The wave of fire coming from the mines was so powerful that the remnants even reached the cave I was in.

“He’s still alive!” someone shouted in surprise, and somebody appeared in one of the tunnels. Without a second thought, I fired off a blob of spittle. The body was dragged away and pulled out of the armor, but it was too late. The acid worked so quickly that it got through the suit and into the vital organs before anyone could do anything. That was one more down, totaling twenty-four the boss had taken out for me. That wasn’t bad for a cornered player, and I only had to hold out for another two hours. Time was on my side.

Seven had that on his mind, as well.

“So, he wasn’t in either of the other caves. Are you sure you didn’t miss a camouflaged passageway?”

“Even if he were in one, the explosion would have taken care of him,” one of the fighters replied. The conversation was happening right outside the cave, which let me listen in. It was just a shame they weren’t inside — I had some spittle primed and ready to go.

“You checked?”

“No, but… I mean, it makes sense. Dungeons have a standard structure — there’s nowhere to make extra passageways.”

“I told you to check! That’s an order.”

Chills ran down my spine when I heard emotions creep into the robot’s voice. They were metallic, alien, and lifeless, but they were there. The troops dashed off immediately — Raptor showed more than half of them rushing away from the cave before they disappeared out of range. But Seven had more orders.

“Mark Derwin could be in this cave. He’s unpredictable, so we have to take out the boss. Make it happen.”

That order was again emotionless, with none of the players there for my blood capable of turning it down. And even with how prepared I was, they had a surprise for me. A group appeared from around the corner behind the protection of some kind of force field. My spittle just slid off it, hissing and sizzling on the ground. Not only that, but the players were snapping back — the boss’ body jerked as the chunks of energy slapped into it. Killing a level nine boss with a single shot was impossible, but knocking hefty chunks of health off was much more feasible. Raptor even started letting me know that things were dire. Another thirty seconds, and my marionette was going to meet its maker.

In that case… It was time for phase two.

Another teeth-rattling howl rang through the dungeon, only that time it didn’t have any effect on me. Two timers appeared in front of me, the first how long the summoned creatures had to live, and the second the recharge time. My little helpers looked like level one changed, modified dogs fed a diet of steroids and tossed out into the street. Jaws clacking, the pack split into two groups and dashed at the players. A hubbub burst out, with cries, shots, explosions, and another howl — my brain spun as I tried to cope with the avalanche of information I was being fed. Losing track of it all for a second, I wasn’t able to react. The first ten minions were killed thanks to me — when I gave the command for them to head forward, I didn’t think they would just bang right into the shield. I was assuming they’d try to go around it. On the other hand, once their numbers had dropped, I found it much easier to control them. Five dogs at each tunnel took on the shields to make sure the players there couldn’t relax; the rest headed for the flanks. It was perfect. The players definitely weren’t expecting the animals to ignore the obstacles they’d set up, and that let me finally see the machines they’d used to force all the monsters to the entrance of the dungeon. They were transmitters set on the back of enormous specimens a head taller than anyone else. The same characters were controlling the force fields.

If I hadn’t pulled the maneuver with the dogs, summoning them probably would have come to naught. But as it was… A bloodthirsty smile crept across my face when the first monster crashed to the ground, downed by the dogs. Other fighters immediately jumped in, quickly taking out a few dogs, but that was my opening. The shield the monster had been generating dropped along with it. The boss began spitting away, not much caring who it hit. With just a minute to live, it didn’t matter if some of the dogs were taken out by friendly fire.

New players began to appear from around the corner, the ones that had been sent to check the rest of the dungeon. Things were looking bad for the dogs — of the original fifty, I was down to ten. Shield-bearers appeared to cover their comrades and save at least a few of them from the acid the boss was spitting. And that, I decided, was the moment to bring my final weapon to bear.

Trembling earth.

The button disappeared, and the entire area suddenly fell eerily silent. The battle was still going on, but I couldn’t hear it. After they’d polished off the dogs, the players had split into two groups shielded from my spit by shields. At the same time, bolts of energy had resumed smacking into the boss’ body. But everything happened in complete silence.

Then, thunder roared.

That was the only way I could describe it. The dungeon shook so violently that even I was tossed around under the body of the hulk sitting on top of me. For a second, I was lost to reality, and when the aftershocks died away, the picture I got forced a gasp out of me. Almost nothing was left of the dungeon’s internal walls. Enormous stone slabs were lying on the floor, the final resting place of many of the players. But only many of them — my old friend was still standing there. Seven’s protection had stood up to the avalanche, and it decided to jump in while the boss was still recovering. Wing-like platforms appeared at its sides to send rockets hissing through the air.

I didn’t have time to react. The boss didn’t spit, needing more time to recover, and hypnosis was useless against Seven. The dogs were long gone. With a flash of fire, I lost the connection to the boss.

You lost the single combat.

Player RN554-7 beat Gurval’s Trail.

***

You destroyed 58 players while controlling the boss.

Level +58 (287).

There was no more video, so all I could do was listen as Seven started pulling back the fallen boulders. Judging by the screams, some of the players pinned beneath them were still alive. Finally, I heard the robot bark an order.

“Clear the mines at the entrance right now — another hundred players are on their way. We need to take out all this rock and find Mark Derwin. He survived. Again. But for the last time.”

Chapter 17

MY CHEST tightened in frustration. Those overjuiced bastards! I’d had all kinds of plans for the boss, and Seven had taken him out with a snap of its fingers like some kind of unfortunate misunderstanding. A few rockets, and that was all she wrote. The dungeon was beaten. Of course, I appreciated picking up the levels, but what was the point if I was next in line?

Or maybe, they won’t find me. The voice that rang out gave me hope. Someone was reporting back to Seven.

“We checked every nook and cranny. He isn’t here. Not in the walls, not in the ceiling, not on the floor. Either he’s somewhere in the tunnels, or he left the dungeon.”

“Impossible. Five is keeping an eye on the entrance, so Mark can’t get out even if he uses invisibility. He’s here. He’s definitely here. There’s no such thing as miracles; there’s only stupidity and unverified information. We have to find him.”

“There’s no such thing as miracles? After that battle, nothing would surprise me. There aren’t that many ultras who can take out all those players, especially at their level. And this was a simple boss in a simple dungeon.”

“Get to work. Mark is still alive. Check every nook, every tunnel one more time. He found a niche and camouflaged it somehow. Go through the cave again, everything the same as the first time, and report back every hour. Go.”

Whoever had been chatting with Seven headed off. The boss’ bulk was driving me crazy, though it was also my salvation. Soon, I heard another voice, and my heartrate picked up when I recognized it.

“So, things aren’t so great around here.” Villian was openly mocking the robot. “I’ll admit, I was wrong — we meet again. Five doesn’t like how long you’re taking. Show me the video of what happened.”

There was a couple minutes of silence. I was even able to get my breathing and heartrate back down to normal by the time Villian started talking again.

“Okay, got it. You don’t understand anything, of course.”

“What should we be understanding, mercenary?”

“Just to take one thing, Mark was here in this cave controlling the boss until at least the final explosion. You can’t be more than ten meters away to connect to its functionality — he had to be right up next to it. Take a screenshot five seconds before the explosion. See that rock? I think that’s Mark. Camouflage is everything to him.”

“You can’t control bosses!” Seven was stooping to emotions yet again, though Villian just snorted.

“Just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean it can’t be true. Sure, not all bosses can be controlled, and not all players can control them, but a simple dungeon like this is easy enough when you have the skills Derwin does. That’s funny… I can sense him, and pretty close, too. No more than sixty meters away… Ah, it’s a shame there aren’t any walls here — that would make finding him so much easier.”

“What do you suggest?”

“As painful as it is to admit this, Mark’s camouflage is better than anyone we could get here in the time we have. That means we’re going to have to be painstaking about how we do this. I’m sure about myself, so I’ll need to check you. And then I’ll have to personally scour every rock, and if we still can’t find him, we’ll blow up the dungeon. That will take fifteen hundred mines. Can you handle that?”

“The general approved a loan,” Seven replied after a pause. “If we haven’t found Mark an hour from now, I’ll buy the mines.”

“Excellent. In that case, don’t move. We’ll start by checking you.”

“A complete scan?”

“If we need to, though I think we can stick to looking for foreign mechanisms.”

A minute went by before Villian said anything else.

“You’re clean. Don’t move — let me check your undercarriage. Okay, nobody there, either. Now we need to be careful. I’m going to get rid of the boss, and I want you to immediately take its place. That’s the only way we have of sticking you where Mark definitely isn’t. I’m not sure about the rest of the ground. I’ll have to check it — Mark is tricky.”

“Your methods are unusual, but I’ll go along with them. Find him.”

The boss’ hulk evaporated, and I just about had a panic attack as I instantly activated my invisibility. But it turned out to be unnecessary, as Seven’s platform came slamming down on top of me. It was even worse — the boss had been lighter.

“Are you sitting right down on the stone?” Villian asked with groan. It was apparently bending over to check. “Excellent. You took the boss’ spot, which means Mark definitely can’t be underneath you. I’ll take care of the rest of the ground myself. Get rid of everyone else so they don’t bother me and throw up your protection. It’s going to get awfully toasty around here.”

Villian wasn’t lying. There was a strange hiss, a bubbling, and a gurgling, and then the stone I was lying on began to heat up. And while it was easy enough at first, it got worse and worse with each passing second until I started feeling the burn. And that’s with Ulbaron and my impenetrable skin! I would have started fidgeting if it hadn’t been for Seven turning on its protection and really pinning me down. There was barely room to breathe. I’d been through a similar hell, if not so hot, and it was only three minutes later, with the stars in my vision spinning, and space around me beginning to swirl, that the torture stopped. Seven turned off its protection. I took a deep breath, no longer caring if anyone heard me.

“He’s not here,” Villian said in a confused voice. “I don’t get it… From what I can tell, this is where he should be.”

“Seems strange to me, as well,” Seven replied.

“Where are you going?” Villian asked suddenly. “Until I find the guy, you aren’t going anywhere. Oh, by the way, clear the area around you with lightning every thirty seconds. That will knock even him out of invisibility.”

“Like this?” Seven asked, and my heart practically stopped. Spasms gripped my body; for a few seconds, thinking was out of the question. Raptor told me my camouflage was gone. If the platform hadn’t been sitting on top of me, I would have been spotted without a doubt.

“That’s perfect! If Mark tries to sneak up on you, he’ll be a goner. Okay, I need half an hour. Don’t forget — every thirty seconds. It’s important…”

Important was right. The time split for me into two parts: five seconds of hell, during which my heart stopped beating, and my body did its best to lift the platform, and then twenty-five seconds spent cursing everyone and everything as I waited for the next round. The robot worked with clock-like precision. There wasn’t a single delay, the hits coming every thirty seconds exactly.

I stopped thinking about what was going on in the dungeon after ten electric shocks. Before that point, I was hearing the shouts, orders, and explosions, but they all gave way to a focus on survival. In fact, if I’d had the opportunity, I would have gladly given myself up. All I wanted was for the torture to stop. But nobody was listening to me, and when my consciousness returned, there was a new round waiting for it. Around and around we went for thirty minutes.

I didn’t notice when it stopped. Bracing itself for the next hit, my body was surprised when it didn’t come. I didn’t even really listen to whoever was talking in the background. Still acting on reflex, I laid there in frozen expectation until it occurred to me a minute and a half later that I’d missed three rounds. The torture was over, and I was finally able to hear what was going on.

“…everything here. That’s the only way we’ll be able to smoke him out.” The voice belonged to Villian.

“The general approved the loan, so I’ll start forming the mines,” Seven said. I heard metal clanging down onto the rocks.

“Easy, you useless hunk of iron,” the mercenary shouted angrily. “The explosives need to be set exactly like this. They’ll destroy everything here, and Mark won’t have a shot at surviving.”

“Fair enough. That will take twenty minutes.”

“In that case, there’s nothing else for me to do here. Finish up and get out. Oh, and…I have a personal question for you — do you need these players? I checked them all myself, but Mark is too unpredictable. He might be able to replace someone. Five is checking everyone at the exit, but…”

“Understood, Villian Po,” the robot replied after a short pause. “I’m not attached to my servants. I can always get more, so go ahead. The dungeon will be mined exactly the way you said.”

Yet another chill ran down my spine. Are you kidding me? With the unlimited resources at their disposal, the bastards had decided to destroy the entire dungeon just so I couldn’t hide out there for the remaining couple hours. It’s just a good thing they don’t have one of Verloven’s pool balls. I was going to have to do something. Mess things up for them? That wasn’t going to work — as soon as I got into a pitched battle, Villian and Five would show up. I need to get out somehow. But the how was the question.

Raptor’s report popped up again. It had scanned Seven long before, finding all the robot’s strengths and weaknesses. In addition, it had found something interesting: there were cavities in the platform. Two were storages, and one was an empty slot for an expansion. Seven had apparently decided not to find something for it. Regardless, there was enough room for an average-sized person to fit. Someone like me.

No, that’s crazy… How can I risk it? It’s… I didn’t have the words to describe how ridiculous the idea was.

Although…

If I decided to give it a try, the biggest question was how to get inside. That’s impossible!

Any of the storages on the sides of the platform offered access to the hollow. And the storages in turn were accessed by small hatches turned toward Seven. Even if I were able to get past the robot using invisibility, how would it not notice one of the hatches opening all of a sudden? That would have looked awfully suspicious to me.

Wow…this is a tough one. And I had to find an answer in just a couple minutes.

“We’re done with the far areas,” one of the players replied. “Should we start mining in here?”

“Yes,” Seven replied. The platform shuddered, and I gripped the small protrusions with arms and legs. Any quick movement would have shaken me off, but Seven liked to keep things smooth. The platform took off half a meter above the ground and headed toward the exit. Activating my invisibility and leaning my head back to see where we were going, I just about smashed face-first into a rock — there wasn’t much room under the robot. But that gave me an idea. Two hundred thousand coins later, I had two mines at my disposal. How else I am going to distract Seven’s attention from the open hatches? Of course, by giving it something more important to think about. I let go of the platform, crashed to the ground, and waited for it to completely clear me. Once it was past, I activated the mines. One got a ticket far back the way we’d come, over where the boss had once stood, while the second found a spot near the robot. Jumping to my feet, I dashed forward, counting down the final seconds.

“Mines!” The players reacted instantly, though there just wasn’t enough time for them to handle them. Everyone dashed back, with Seven shooting forward, exactly the way I’d been planning for it to happen. The platform banged against some rocks, it groaned like a creaky old washtub, and two things happened at the same time.

The first was that the mines burned through their fuses and exploded, sending flames ripping in every direction. Seven hadn’t gotten far. That meant the platform was sent forward even faster, as the shock wave picked it up and slammed it into one of the few remaining walls. After a terrifying crash, rocks came raining down on the robot’s body.

The second was that I landed on the platform right as the detonation happened. As soon as the blast was about to reach us, I got ready to open the hatch. Slamming into the wall just about knock the wind out of me and threw me off the platform, though I hung on for dear life and… And I didn’t have to open anything. The hatches banged open themselves. And it wasn’t even just the hatches to the storages; the engine hatch opened, too. Seven’s arms quickly reached over to close them, but it was too late. I was inside. It had taken me just a few moments to get my bearings, dodge the arms, and hurl myself into the dark hole.

Silence fell. Seven righted its platform and eased away from the wall.

“Who activated those mines?” The robot was livid, ready to tear everyone there to pieces. Pulling my vibroknife out of virtual storage, I began cutting a hole in the back of my space. I was careful to cut near the walls, too. Who knows what kind of system Five has set up? I figured it might check the storages, and so I needed to be safe.

“They weren’t ours! That was all Mark!” the players shouted. Seven didn’t reply, just heading toward the exit.

“Finish mining,” the robot finally shot back. “You have ten minutes. Go!”

Once the hole was cut, I pulled the panel carefully toward myself. It easily gave way to offer access to the flying machine’s inner workings. Getting inside was a challenge — I had to monitor every movement to make sure I didn’t touch the body, and I even tossed Ulbaron, Raptor, and Valkyrie into storage. My knife and universal protection followed them to leave me without a single game item. I’d remembered Villian, who had checked Seven for foreign devices, which meant they’d be doing the same thing at the exit. The hardest part was getting the panel back in place. I had to turn around, my agility and flexibility paying dividends, and then hold it in place with one hand. My phone was in the other. Although… Taking a deep sigh, I squeezed the latter with my fist, turning it into a pile of junk. The game understood me correctly and disintegrated the broken device.

That left me with absolutely nothing from the game. There were just the nanoparticles in my body, and if Five was able to detect them, all I would be able to do was tip my hat.

“We’re done mining the dungeon.” Regardless of Seven’s threats, the report came back twenty minutes later. Just ten were left until the alien players were left without access to the location. Almost there.

“You’re late,” the robot said, its tone presaging nothing good. And while I didn’t see anything, the screams told me it had disposed of its erstwhile aides. Suddenly, its voice rang out through the dungeon.

“You were a worthy adversary, Mark Derwin. If you’d accepted the game, you would have been awarded a high-ranking position in the next release. Goodbye, enemy!”

That was a nice little confidence booster. Pride in humanity warmed my innards just as something cloudy flashed in front of me, though it immediately disappeared. The robot had stepped out of the dungeon.

“Don’t move,” I heard Five order. Its voice I could have recognized in a crowd, so I closed up and even stopped breathing. “We need to check you.”

With a flash in my head, Drone returned to my control. It was still hovering invisibly. There was no picture, as I would have needed my phone for that, but I could see the red dots. Sixty-two players were crowded around the dungeon entrance ready to gun down whoever stepped out. Although, I could tell Villian wasn’t there — it wasn’t showing up on Drone’s scanner.

“No foreign devices,” the mercenary said, confirming my guess. “But we need to do a visual check. This isn’t going to be pleasant.”

“Go ahead,” Seven replied. Suddenly, my heart stopped from yet another electric shock. Again? Seriously?

“The outside is clear. That just leaves the storages.”

“Do you want to get inside me, too?” I heard sarcasm in the lifeless voice, though Five quickly laid down the law.

“If need be. Open up.”

The hatch slid open, bathing the storage with light. And while I couldn’t see what Villian was doing, I heard the report a moment later.

“Clear! You can let Seven out of the cage.”

“Mark Derwin is still alive,” Five said.

“In that case, he somehow survived the blast. Did you mine the dungeon exactly the way I told you to?” Villian wasn’t just a passive participant; he had some authority behind his voice.

“Yes, I personally checked,” Seven replied. “We did have to make some corrections after two mines detonated and shifted two clusters, though that didn’t change anything.”

“What mines?” Villian asked worriedly. “Show me the video!”

Nothing happened for the next couple minutes, after which the mercenary cut loose with an enraged tirade.

“You all can’t do anything! He tossed two clusters away and hid between them. He survived!”

There was much more, of course, though a lot of it I just didn’t understand. The key takeaway was that Villian was unhappy.

“What’s the problem? After an explosion like that, he’s at least hurt. We can head back in and finish him off.”

“Oh, sure, go right ahead,” Villian shot back. “No, be my guest! Go kill Mark. You have all of five minutes to make that happen.”

“The dungeon is locked,” Five said. “The lock will disappear in 24 hours. You made a mistake, and that’s unacceptable, so I’m demoting you three ranks. When the general has more spawn, you’ll be in the tenth position. Okay, listen up, everyone! We’re leaving. Mark Derwin won this battle, and we have five minutes to leave the location.”

The platform jerked, and the buzzing in my head disappeared. Holding out my hand, I waited until the game printed out my phone. One minute for it to appear, a couple seconds to figure out the picture, and another moment to make a decision.

Seven was flying directly toward the nearest border. It was ten kilometers away, though that left it with plenty of time. Let’s fix that. My level six vibroknife was in my hand six seconds later, and I quickly cut through a few wires.

The robot’s speed dropped precipitously. That gave me time to print out Raptor, which suddenly felt weird — I’d never held it in my bare hands. It had always been integrated into Ulbaron. Shaking my head to clear that thought away, I went back to Seven. The robot’s arms had already opened the engine hatch to look for the problem, and I decided to give it something else to think about.

Raptor showed me which blocks were most important for flight. As soon as I pierced them, the platform dropped to the ground.

“What’s wrong?” someone asked in alarm. “Need help?”

“My platform is acting up. It needs repairs after the explosion and the collision, but I’ll be fine. Go ahead.”

The robot’s arms worked even faster, and the damaged blocks regenerated themselves right in front of me. The wires did, too — they connected to each other, the platform taking off once again. That should have been enough to fly off, only… Good try!

One more slash with my vibroknife, and the flying machine plumped back down onto the ground. That time, I decided to take it yet another step farther. Drone told me there were no players nearby, meaning that even Villian wasn’t within 170 meters. This should work. While Seven was working on repairs, I touched the platform with my bare hands and closed my eyes. Let’s do this!

You’re trying to hack the defenses of player RN554-7.

Sum total of your skill levels: 410 (device control: 100, hacking: 110, perception: 100, anatomy master: 100).

Sum total of RN554-7’s skill levels: 400 (hacking protection: 100, resistance: 100, resilience: 100, willpower: 100).

Probability of successful hack: 2.4% (1 — 400/410).

Attempt 1… Unsuccessful.

“Mark Derwin?” I never got tired of hearing emotion creep into the lifeless voices. They were so…unnatural. Unreal. Artificial. Yes, you bastard, it’s me. I just wasn’t planning on replying.

Attempt 5… Unsuccessful.

“Stop it, Mark! We need the pearl, not you. We can make a deal!”

Oh, sure. I heard Five mention what you all think of deals. They generally ended with humans in the ground.

Attempt 10… Unsuccessful.

Player RN554-7 is trying to hack your defenses. Probability of successful hack: 0%.

Ha! You shouldn’t have gotten stuck at level 100, you idiot. It was the robot’s own fault.

Attempt 15… Successful.

You connected to player RN554-7’s main functionality.

Block, immobilize, keep it from sending messages. And get me my repair kit!

Control seized over LTS-VI.

LTS-VI. Status: Force field power supply module damaged. Would you like to fix it?

Of course, I would. Right now!

The modules and wires regenerated again as if acted on by a magic wand, and I immediately sent the LTS flying into the air with all the protection it could muster. We hurtled off away from the border and deeper into the location. Still, my fears turned out to be unwarranted — Five didn’t open fire with its entire arsenal. It was almost as if nobody had even noticed the loss of Seven. Over the fifteen seconds it had taken me to hack it, the robot had apparently been too busy fighting back to call for help.

Non-natural players can no longer be located in hexagon 118, location 32.

155 players were destroyed and penalized for the next 3 releases. Their locations were added to your map.

Player RN554-7 is considered your loot and will be destroyed as soon as it regains control.

I came in for a landing, setting LTS down among the rocks, and sent Drone around in a circle to see what was going on with the other humans. At first, I was worried there wouldn’t be any left in the location, though the scanner started picking up red dots marked as people. The more I explored the location, the more I counted. When it was finished, Drone came back to give me the good news. Sure, quite a few people had been killed. Of the million and a half that had been transformed back, just over a hundred thousand remained. But they were alive. I was thrilled.

Nobody was going to be thinking about Wart anymore. The aliens would have all their attention focused on me, worried as they were going to be about my next move. And they want to know what it is? There was a clever little idea I was playing with, one that made full use of my abilities as an infiltrator. Where is this bastard’s phone? It was time to go big or go home.

Chapter 18

You’re trying to hack into player RN554-7’s phone.

…

Access gained to all phone functionality.

A HAPPY SMILE even spread across my face when 32 million coins hit my account. And that would have been enough for most players, only I wasn’t most players. After digging through the phone, I figured out how Seven communicated with the general. It was a private chat. If I hadn’t known the two were in touch, it would have been hard to find it. The messages themselves were short and sweet.

Seven: Mark Derwin is hiding in a dungeon. Haven’t been able to find him. Requesting permission to destroy the dungeon.

General: Confirmed.

Seven: Please open a standard line of credit for 150 million coins. Reason: purchase 1500 thermal mines.

General: Confirmed.

Game admin: Your account was credited with the funds. A line of credit for 150 million coins at 5% yearly interest was opened for one release. If the coins are not returned by the end of the release, the standard penalty will be assessed to you and your guarantor. Please confirm.

General: Confirmed.

There was a lot to unpack there. The game has an admin? What do they do? What kind of functionality do they have? How do you kill them? I also wasn’t sure why Seven hadn’t used all the mines. Thirty million meant that 300 had gone unpurchased, after all. Anyway, that was neither here nor there — I had bigger fish to fry. After figuring out how to send messages, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on one.

Seven: Mark Derwin was able to jump from one dungeon to another. Requesting permission to destroy the second dungeon.

General: Confirmed.

Seven: Please open an additional standard line of credit for 150 million coins. Reason: purchase 1500 thermal mines.

General: Confirmed.

Once again, the general confirmed the message from the admin. The robot’s phone dinged to let me know the coins had reached it, and my palms even grew slick with excitement when I realized I’d pulled it off. Figuring out how to pay off the sum wasn’t my problem. Seven and the general could handle that.

You’re the first natural release player to have more than 100 million coins in your account.

Rank received: Moneybags.

Level +1 (288).

***

You set up a non-natural release player and earned them a penalty (for 3 releases).

Rank received: Con Man.

Level +1 (289).

Sadly, that was the end of Seven’s service. No sooner had the messages been received, than the robot began smoking. It jerked almost out of my control and finally settled, a useless hunk of metal. The enraged general had fried its spawn’s electronics. And that was a problem — the robot’s phone was destroyed, too, and my greed had gotten the better of me. I hadn’t taken the time to check its virtual storage, its maps, or anything else. That was an inexcusable mistake. Just to take one example, if I’d dug around in the phone some more, I probably would have found out where Fang was. Instead, all I could do was stand next to the gutted robot and sigh at what might have been. Idiot! When am I going to have some sense knocked into me? There was just one day left until Olsen clapped a penalty on me and told the general that my sister was alive and in the city, and I couldn’t boost the dungeon level or get the pearl without my ritual dagger. Of course, I also didn’t have the noa I needed to summon some victims… It was looking like the aliens were definitely going to be finding out that Squirrel was with Wart. Damn it… The taste of victory turned bitter in my mouth. Okay, stop thinking so much! Just enjoy where you are.

But it was like the hexagon boss could sense my negative attitude and decided to toss oil on the fire. Without the ability to hurt me itself, it sent in all the dogs it could find.

The hexagon general designated you a personal enemy. From now on, all the monsters in this hexagon will do septuple damage to you. You will receive seven times as many coins for each monster killed.

Level +10 (299).

10 free attribute points received.

You can collect any level six item in the store for free.

***

You’re the first player in this hexagon to become the personal enemy of the general.

Level +5 (304).

5 free attribute points received.

You can collect any level six item in the store for free.

***

All players, natural included, who help destroy you will receive 100 million coins and be guaranteed a role in the next release.

***

3 destroyers were sent to hunt you.

Oh, wow! Even the other Earthlings were being turned on me. I couldn’t help but assume that General Maximov would jump at the change to earn that kind of change for something so easy — he’d already sacrificed me on the altar of humanity once. And that ruled out any contact with the army. No contact with any other humans. I’d had enough.

To keep myself distracted from the pressures of life, I slipped into Ulbaron and got to work going through the loot the general had left behind. There wasn’t much, unfortunately. The flying platform worth twenty million along with one item lying in the LTS were about the size of it.

Guldin’s ritual dagger. Description: Simple knife made from the bones of Lord Guldin, the dungeon boss. Can be used to sacrifice creatures, exchanging them for coins. Cost: 0 coins. Creator: Villian Po.

In all the time I’d spent in the game, that was the first time I’d gotten my hands on anything crafted. And for whatever reason, I wasn’t in the least bit surprised to see who had made it. Villian really was a tough opponent. The cost surprised me, though I assumed it was zero because of the restrictions the game placed on the weapon. You couldn’t sell things you crafted, otherwise it would have been too easy to get rich. As I was starting to understand, coins were such a valuable resource that you could take out lines of credit and earn yourself penalties lasting multiple releases.

I unwillingly tossed the dagger in my virtual storage. If I can’t find Fang, maybe it’ll come in handy. The timer showing how much longer I could be in the location had dropped below twelve hours, so I needed to hurry up and gather the loot lying around. The 184 million I had in my account was great, though it wasn’t going to last long. Just a couple minutes, in fact.

The store showed me the named item section, and I quickly bought up everything I’d lost: the barrel-mounted grenade-launcher for Valkyrie and the zoom for Ulbaron. Thirty million later, Mark Derwin was a happy camper, and I had everything in place after a couple moments. Everything in me wanted to pick up some new goodies, though that wasn’t the best use of my coins. The general was angry. That meant its players would be hyped up to go find camouflaged old me, and I was still just personified noa. I needed to boost my protection. From prying eyes and hackers alike.

You’re trying to boost an attribute past level 110.

Closure is a secondary attribute for the demolitions infiltrator class. To boost it between levels 110–120, you need 200 free attribute points.

I’d been expecting something like that. The game was off its rocker, forcing absurd numbers on the players. Getting a secondary attribute or skill from level 110 to level 120 meant spending 2,000 free points. From level 120 to level 130, that number was doubled. It was doubled again for levels 130 to 140, and so on for every ten levels. Sooner or later, there wouldn’t be enough coins in the game to pick up a single attribute. Bastards! Five minutes before, I’d fancied myself a rich man. Yeah, right. My total of 154 million was just a syringe for 77,000 attribute points, nothing compared to what I needed.

To give myself some kind of peace of mind, I had to spend 42,000 on what were really just supporting attributes.

Closure +30 (140).

Introversion +30 (140).

Inner harmony +30 (140).

Hacking protection was next — 15,000 more attribute points. And what did that leave? Nothing! I was down to just 20,000, so I decided to spend them on my main attributes, getting most up to level 120. The rest stayed at level 100. As I was working on that, the sort and color-coding functionality proved a huge help. I set up my status table such that my attributes were all split into three blocks, all colored differently. Really, the difference between boosting primary and secondary attributes was colossal. That gave me a leg up, though when I was done, all I had left in my account was 320,000 coins. For fits and giggles. Who was just over here cackling like Scrooge? Welcome to reality!

While my body was adjusting to the changes, I went ahead and jumped into a couple trials. I had too many levels that hadn’t been locked in, and the last thing I wanted was for someone to snatch them from me. I needed to make sure.

Ten minutes later, I was done. I’d locked in 25 levels for impenetrable skin and another 32 for steel bones, losing just 43 levels in total. That wasn’t bad, especially since it was my first time going through the bones trial. It was the easiest of the three. All you had to do was hold on while your bones were broken. The whole thing was silly, if still remarkably painful.

I had to admit, I liked where I was at. With all my updates, I was somewhere on par even with Five, if still well behind Villian.

Status table

Name

Mark Derwin, demolitions infiltrator

Coins

320000

Level

261 (254)

Titles and ranks

Title: Liquidator

Ranks: Con Man, Moneybags, Tsarter Bane, Bandit Bane, Lone Wolf, Stone Wall

Body reinforcement

Impenetrable skin

12

Steel bones

4

Adaptive vision

4

Reinforced internal organs

4

Attributes

Strength

100

Coordination

120

Stamina

100

Hacking

120

Agility

100

Perception

120

Scanner

100

Introversion

140

Demo expert

100

Closure

140

Concealment

100

Resilience

120

Camouflage

100

Willpower

120

Fortress

100

Necrotica

70

Pyrotechnics

100

Regeneration

100

Noiseless

100

Aeronautics

70

Cartographer

90

Good eye

90

Resistance

120

Skills

Defusing

100

Monster knowledge

90

Trackless

100

Device control

120

Detection

80

Anatomy master

120

Spatial perception

90

Device repair

90

Inner harmony

140

Pistol shooting

90

Melee weapons

100

Consciousness block

90

Hacking protection

140

Electromagnetic impulse protection

90

With that done, the next time my named items were promoted, there wasn’t going to be a problem. It was going to be rough after they hit level 30, of course, but I couldn’t imagine I’d be able to clear that many locations of monsters given the fuzzy feelings the general had about me.

I decided to hang onto the LTS. Sure, it would have given me fourteen million even with the commission if I’d sold it, but I was okay for the time being. Tossing it into virtual space, I decided to head over to where the players had died on their way out of the location. Maybe they have something fun for me. With the position I was in, I couldn’t afford to pass up so much as a simple BRO-V suit — leveling-up from there was going to cost millions, not just thousands, and I assumed the game wasn’t through giving me surprises. I wouldn’t mind slapping Five with a line of credit. That chunk of metal was no favorite of mine.

There were quite a few red dots denoting dead players not far from the location border. They were the ones who hadn’t made it out, though they weren’t what grabbed my attention. A separate group jumped out at me like a four-hundred-pound man at the gym. Of course, you know why he’s there, you’re just not sure why he’d trying to bench three hundred instead of going all-in on cardio. It was the same there. Thirty players represented a fifth of all casualties, and they were off in the very center of the location. Did they ignore all the warnings the system sent them? Intrigued, I took off, reaching the strange field a couple minutes later.

But I stayed at a respectable height, hovering in the air without getting any lower. The field was littered with explosives, both from the game and otherwise. And while I noticed the former immediately thanks to my scanner and vision, it was only my elevated perception that told me where the latter were. Barely visible threads stretched across the field to turn it into a veritable three-dimensional spiderweb. Picking up some more altitude, I once again had to comment to myself on how lucky I was. I’d managed to fly right past a few slender strands, and the whole area would have turned into a ball of fire if I’d brushed against any of them. And me along with it.

But the mines weren’t the most interesting thing in the field. I was much more drawn to the pyramid of bound bodies, with one right at the center holding a sign that read, Gift for Mark Derwin. There was an arrow pointing down to something at its waist. Zooming in, I noticed a small casket. And it wasn’t even your usual game casket, the kind they stole from pirates; it was beautiful, decorated with gems that glittered in the sun. Before the game had invaded our world, Squirrel would have sold her soul several times over to get her hands on something like that.

All the approaches to the field were so well mined that I had to fly a good hundred meters away before I found a spot to land. I had to admit that it was good work — all my demolition skills told me as much. And that just made it more interesting. It isn’t every day you come across a riddle that leaves you completely in the dark regarding who put it together, not to mention why.

Gaining control of the game mines turned out to be easy enough — there were a few control circuits, and that was it. But as soon as one of the mines disappeared, the entire construction lost its equilibrium. A timer began counting down from five seconds. By the time it got to two, I figured out that I needed to put the mine back where it was. The system regained its equilibrium, and the countdown stopped.

But that wasn’t all.

It wasn’t just good work. Whoever had put everything together was a master of their craft, displaying in-depth knowledge of all the ins and outs of mining and defusing. My skills, to take one example, certainly weren’t good enough to break everything down. And it wasn’t just the ones I could boost. I simply didn’t know enough. The human-engineered mines were a complete mystery to me, and I could also tell that just flying over to the casket wasn’t going to work. It was covered beautifully from the top. Somebody wanted me to walk over, making sure I evade every trap they set.

But two could play at that game. Drone flew over, and I started digging around in the store. Back when I’d used Mark-1 to kill a few players but wasn’t able to take their phones, I’d realized what I was missing. The game had gifted me two bonuses. What was the sense in waiting to cash in on them? I was soon the proud new owner of an adaptive arm and a small storage. The former could interact remotely with items using Drone, with the claws modifying to fit the job at hand. And the latter let me store a small item the size of about twenty phones. It was perfect for the casket.

Drone took just a few moments to update, and I sent it over toward the pyramid. If the mystery miner was naïve enough to think that I’d go dashing in myself even without the requisite knowledge, they were very wrong. Just one false step would have spelled doom. And I wasn’t about to risk everything for a casket and a sign. Actually, I should get farther away.

That last thought was such a good one that I flew a hundred meters into the air above the work of art. Ulbaron’s updates kicked in, zooming in as far as it would go. Basically, it was like Drone had picked up an extra camera high in the air above it. The flying cushion’s own camera didn’t let me use my perception, which meant the slender threads were invisible to me. But up where I was, I could see them perfectly, and that let Raptor chart the best approach.

It was easy enough getting to the pyramid, though Drone had to stay right down against the ground. Above and around the bound bodies, there was an entire mess of taught strings, and I wasn’t about to figure out which were dummies and which were the real deal. It was all too mixed up. I didn’t see any phones by the bodies, so there wasn’t anything to steal, either. The whole situation told me the next step was to grab the casket and fly off. But I wasn’t in a hurry. Something was bothering me — there was no sense going to all the trouble of mining the area when someone could just slip in with a small flying device. It was too simple, and that told me there was a catch. This game really is making me paranoid. Nobody know about Drone; everyone just thought I could fly myself. That’s what the threads were set up for. Everything was set up to make sure a human couldn’t make their way in, though nobody could have predicted that I’d have Drone. There’s no way!

But when I got Drone a meter higher, I began to lose confidence. The spot the whole spider web centered around was so thick that my flying assistant’s camera pointed it out. And underneath it, I saw another layer. That forced me dangerously low, risking myself in any explosion that might happen, though I was able to make out another web getting in the way of Drone flying any higher. It was beautifully hidden underneath the main section.

Okay, let me try something else…

The arm reached out from the body and reached upward, edging its way around the trap. At one point, I realized I’d stopped breathing, and that I was chewing on my lip as I focused on every movement. It was tough going — the mechanical arm telescoped out and rotated like a folding ladder. I brought Drone a bit lower, reaching the arm out as far as it would go, after which a few feats of agility got Drone into a position where it didn’t touch any of the threads. Finally, I was successful. The claws had reached their objective. Suppressing the urge to grab what I was there for right away, I flew as close as I could to the edge of the field and got down on the same level as the casket. Zooming in elicited a frustrated sniff. The casket was human-made, but whatever was under it was part of the game — it was glowing fit to burst. Assuming the worst, that there was another detonator ready to go off as soon as the weight of the casket resting on it eased off, I began modifying the arm’s claws. Clamps grabbed Squirrel’s impossible dream and fixed it in place while I added something like a circular saw that used pure energy instead of a blade.

I wasn’t about to lift the casket’s lid. My instinct told me there was another detonator under it — whoever had put the explosive maze together was a maniac. And that meant I was going to have to cut right through. The saw dug into its target without meeting any resistance, cutting through the gems as though they were sheets of paper. Two gashes later, I rotated the contraption ninety degrees and finished cutting out the square. Then, I barely jumped when the piece I’d cut out slipped away and dropped like a rock. It was a miracle it didn’t touch anything on the way down, and it landed right on Drone. Once I was sure nothing was going to blow up, I took a deep breath. Damn it, another mistake! Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to me that the piece I’d removed had nowhere to go but down.

Raptor told me the weight of the casket had dropped, though it was being held in place by the arm. As soon as it was released, however, it was going to pop up a couple microns. Got it. But before I tackled that issue, I wanted to know what was in the casket. My camera zoomed all the way in. It was hard to say what I would have done if it hadn’t been for that particular Ulbaron expansion.

There wasn’t much light making its way through the small hole, though it was enough for me to see that I’d been right — there was a few wires attached to the lid. They were triggers that would have detonated mines and kept me from seeing the contents of the casket if I’d tried to open it. But there it was, whatever was inside it right there in front of me. It turned out to be a piece of paper and five cubes the size of dice. Three were dark blue; two were dark green. The arm’s claws once more went through a modification. Another arm and a transporter were added to get my loot to the storage — it didn’t look like the items were dangerous at all, and that meant they could be pulled out.

Everything was simple enough with the dice, though it was tougher going with the piece of paper. The only option was to pull it out, crinkling and tearing it in the process. Once again, Raptor let me know that the casket was lighter than it was, that time the difference more significant. I reached the arm out to the nearest body and tore off a piece of flesh. The player didn’t need it anymore, and it was the only available additional weight. It took two tries before Raptor was satisfied. The cubes had turned out to be awfully heavy.

And then, I froze, holding my breath. I needed to let go of the casket and get Drone out of there, though I couldn’t make myself. A nervous tremor gripped me. I’d been dancing with death for just a few weeks, and my nervous system still hadn’t gotten used to the strain. Ultimately, I had to inject myself with a sedative. It was easy to find, costing just one coin in a first aid kit. My breathing evened out, and I felt better immediately.

I also noted a green glow around the field. When I’d flown down to the level of the casket, I’d been so focused on getting into the thing that I hadn’t paid any attention to the area around me. And that had been a mistake. The space was filled with a heavy gas, and if I’d turned off Ulbaron’s hermetic seal for just a second… It suddenly made sense why I’d gotten so nervous — my subconscious was in a panic even as my consciousness was otherwise occupied. The former had definitely known what was going on.

Creating some distance between myself and the dangerous substance, I had the arm let go of the casket. It pulled back, and…nothing. The weight was the same as it had been, and whatever sensors there were had no problem with what had happened. And a few minutes of careful dancing later, the arm had made its way back through the mess of threads. Drone was finally hovering in front of me. I pulled out the piece of paper.

Greetings, Mark Derwin! I’m glad you took me up on my invitation and beat my simple maze. I’m also glad I was right about your abilities — not everyone is able to progress as quickly as you have in just four weeks. Not only that, but I wasn’t able to find you in the dungeon, and that’s the first time something like that has happened. We could be useful to each other. I’d like to offer you a job. The general and its orders mean nothing to me — its focus is managing and improving the hexagon. And that has nothing to do with me. I couldn’t care less about the owner, either. No, I work for myself and answer only to the game. We could use your help in the next hexagon over — there’s something only a natural player can take care of. Believe me, the pay will be good. If you’re interested in getting even stronger, call this number so we can discuss the details. The attached is a kind of advance. It’ll put you on par with my fighters, and you’ll get much more than that if we decide to work together.

Villian Po, head of the Tsarter mercenary clan

The heavy cubes found their way into my palm, and Raptor went crazy trying to tell me what they were.

Blue explosion. Description: increases the level of named items by 1. Does not work with items lower than level 10 or higher than level 20.

Green explosion. Description: increases the level of named items by 1. Does not work with items lower than level 20 or higher than level 30.

***

Access denied to the store’s named item enhancement section.

I swallowed. Villian was right — with those cubes, I didn’t have to worry about his fighters anymore. At least, I had an even shot at surviving a pitched battle with them. But what does the bastard want with me?

Chapter 19

FLYING AROUND to visit the fallen netted me 4.5 million coins. For whatever reason, they hadn’t had much on them, and even their equipment was just level three and four. Selling it wasn’t that profitable, either. But still, it helped out, as I was able to hand it over to the survivors. Too many of them had transformed back, and there wasn’t enough food for them in the area. As the stores had long since lost electricity, the hot southern sun had turned everything in them into a sticky, stinking substance that would have been dangerous to eat. Regardless, everything took time. When I collapsed exhausted in the shade of one of the few trees, the timer told me I had twelve hours left for Olsen’s mission and thirty minutes left in the location. And I still hadn’t gotten to the storage facility the airport was being used as. All I’d done was fly by a few times, and there had always been something to distract me. Still, I’d gotten a good look at the defenses — automatic turrets, mined approaches, and a few rocket launchers. Since everything worked perfectly fine remotely, Five didn’t have to be there in person to keep an eye on its property. Whatever, I’ll save that for later. I knew I’d be back so long as I could survive a day outside the location, or long enough to reset the timer.

Figuring out what to do next was an interesting dilemma. There was no way I was going to call Villian — I’d had enough of deals with the aliens. They couldn’t be trusted. And that made it the perfect time to head off for some noa I could use to beat a dungeon and get the rainbow pearl. But the question there was why. What did I need the pearl for? To give it to Olsen? I’d already decided I wasn’t going to be giving it anything. Sure, the function would slap a penalty on me and spread the word that my sister was alive, but what did that matter? Squirrel was in a capsule. Nobody was going to be finding her. Wart hadn’t been found, either, even though the robots had given it their best shot. My levels were locked in; I didn’t have much money. And so that option was off the table. Give the pearl to Wart? After everything he’d done to my sister? Yeah, right… The bastard needed to die regardless of the fact that he was, or rather had been, human. The only good reason there was for me to go hunting the rainbow pearl was to keep it out of the hands of the general. And that really was occasion enough to keep me in the area for a couple days. From what I’d been able to gather, there was just one pearl in each release. I should make sure I have it. It might come in handy.

That decided it. I wasn’t heading for the city; I was going hunting. But the first thing I needed was to get stronger, which meant it was time to give the cubes their chance to shine.

You used a blue explosion (3).

Valkyrie, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 3 (20).

You reached a threshold for named items. All requirements boosted to 100.

You can’t use your named items, as you don’t meet the requirements.

***

You used a green explosion (2).

Valkyrie, Ulbaron, Raptor, and Zelda levels increased by 2 (22).

Are you kidding me?! I’d been counting on the requirements only jumping to 90. As my confused gaze jumped back and forth between Raptor, which had died, and the phone that had dropped to the ground, I let out a string of curses. Where was my brain?! I’d been so busy leveling up that I’d forgotten the simplest of things: checking the descriptions for my named items. Sure, I didn’t need too many syringes, and I had enough coins to pick them up, but I was worried that I could miss something so elementary. Apparently, I’d thought I was so smart, that I could just hop around, level-up, and there wouldn’t be any problems. What a disaster! It had been a long time since I’d gotten such a cuff upside the head, and it wasn’t anything I could pin the blame on the aliens for.

Yanking myself out of Ulbaron, I praised the heavens that I hadn’t sold the LTS. My armor was dead weight, clearly incapable of flying. And all because of my inattention to detail. My aeronautics attribute was just at 90, which kept me from using Ulbaron. Cartographer (90) was the problem with Raptor, pistol shooting (90) had blocked Valkyrie, and Zelda was complaining about consciousness block (90). They were close, but not close enough — I’d created a problem for myself out of thin air. To make sure that didn’t happen again, I bumped them all up to 100 before materializing the flying vehicle and hurrying out of the location. There was no way I wanted to test out the penalty the game would have given me if I’d overstayed my welcome. I’d seen what it was like.

Ultimately, I flew through the locations with noa plants as fast as I could. From what I understood, that was where they were expecting me, either there, or setting up an ambush for a transporter hauling its valuable cargo to the general. The aliens knew how to boost dungeon levels, and that meant they’d assume I would aim to pick up some noa. Idiots. The rainbow pearl wasn’t going anywhere, and I didn’t need it for anything right then. I didn’t even really feel like sticking it to the general. Without the knife I had in my inventory, the aliens wouldn’t be getting the pearl, and that meant I could forget about it for the moment. Squirrel was a more pressing concern. Finding her was a much better use of my time than crawling around dungeons and sacrificing people. Although, there was something I could do right then, and the aliens weren’t going to like it.

“Yes?”

“Gardine, it’s Mark Derwin. Is Nellie in your location?”

“Where else would she be? She’s already on everyone’s nerves, laying down the law and recruiting half the location. You don’t happen to want to take her somewhere else, do you?”

“I don’t have anywhere else for her to go, though we do need to talk. Hand her the phone.”

“Mark?” A woman’s surprised voice came over the line a couple minutes later. “Five already let you go?”

“They were never going to let me go, but that’s not important. I have the coordinates for three plants pulling the spheres out of our core. As soon as they’re done, Earth will die, and we will, too. They need to be taken out. Can you handle that?”

“I’ll talk with Maximov — call me back in half an hour. So, you’re free?”

“Yes, more or less. Hey, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you. How do you take out the monsters’ protection? Normal weapons don’t cut it.”

“HEAT rounds for the small fry, armor-piercing incendiary rounds for the big ones. The treaties don’t apply to the aliens, so we pulled all that out of storage. What do you care?”

“Just interested. Okay, I’ll call you back in half an hour. Over and out.”

The LTS headed due north, although I did end up easing a bit to the northeast to make sure I gave Verloven’s safe location a wide berth. Coming across the function was the last thing I needed — I didn’t have the noa I’d promised it. And I probably wasn’t going to get it any time soon. Well, that’s another penalty. But screw it! They weren’t going to kill me. I figured I might lose levels or coins, but what else were they going to do? Take my named items away? I wasn’t able to use them anyway…

Or was there a problem?

Honestly, I was worried. While Olsen had forced me to accept its mission, and so I didn’t expect the punishment to be too bad, Verloven was a different story. The game was quite capable of coming after me for breaking my promise. But where am I going to find him some noa?

An interesting idea hit me, and it even occupied me so completely that I forgot to keep an eye on where my aerial vehicle was taking me for a little while. There wasn’t anything I could do in that location. But nobody’s expecting me in the next one over! They didn’t even know I existed over there. It was a four-hour flight, and the Tsarter map I had told me it was home to three noa plants. One of them wasn’t far from the border.

I banked sharply. Yes, that’s a great idea! It was time to get Grust back. Thinking about my partner came with a twinge of conscience — some people didn’t really have any luck at all. He’d lost everything when the game launched, and then he’d found his girl, only to lose her again. He’d even died three times, once only because of dumb luck. But still, he’d held onto his humanity, sacrificing himself to bring me back. What a heroic gesture. And I’d just accepted it, not once even thanking him.

Gardine’s call came when I was halfway to the hexagon border. Lost in my thoughts, I’d forgotten about the troops.

“You were supposed to call back half an hour ago!” Nellie started in.

“How about a thank you for answering?”

“You made Maximov wait. That’s a slap in the face to our leader!”

“What did you expect? He sold me to the aliens!”

“And saved millions of lives in the process,” a second voice chimed in. It was powerful, masculine, familiar. The voice of the person who’d sent me to my death.

“You wouldn’t have saved anyone if it hadn’t been for me,” I replied, getting angrier. “Five only stopped the attack because I got away and attracted all their attention. But no, I heard it talk about how it was never planning on following through on its end of the deal. It — ”

“You’re mistaken,” the general replied evenly. “That’s just your emotions talking. We got the result we were looking for almost immediately — the attacks stopped, and that let us get the civilians out of harm’s way. And there’s still nobody attacking us, which is how we’ve been able to pick up another two locations.”

I took a deep breath. Arguing with soldiers whose minds were already made up clearly wasn’t a gift of mine. If they wanted to think it was all because of the aliens’ nobility, that was their right. I washed my hands of it. The hexagon was nearly behind me, after all.

“Let me give you the coordinates for the stations. Ready to write them down?”

“Why should we believe you? You’re mistaken about the aliens, and you might be mistaken about the plants, too. We’re aware that the owner doesn’t need noa — it’s just payment for rolling the game out on Earth. But we’re also aware that you wrecked out plans. We were expecting the enemy high command to all gather in a single location so they could extract what they really want, what they’re really here for. But you ruined their plans. And ours, too. How are we supposed to find them now? Where are they going to start mining? You doomed humanity to some very tough times with your actions, and maybe even to destruction. And you think we were wrong to sacrifice you? If it wasn’t for your stupidity, the war would have been over yesterday! I’ll be expecting you here with a plan for how you’re going to get us out of this mess. You have twenty-four hours to show up in the north.”

“Good luck in the war,” I replied before hanging up. That’s the last time I’m talking with them. Nobody was going to bomb the plants, and that meant —

Whatever it meant, I didn’t get to finish my thought. The LTS was rocked so badly that it flipped upside down, and I barely had time to grab hold of the seat to avoid being thrown out. Another jolt sent it hurtling straight down at full speed. My phone flew off somewhere, which meant I couldn’t see the feed from Drone, though that point became moot when there was another hit. The fiery explosion told me exactly what was going on. Rockets?! From where? I’d checked the vehicle, and it hadn’t been bugged.

The next rocket detonated next to the protective dome, but I was ready that time. Turning away from it, I evened out my flight path and tried to gain altitude. That was when a few dots behind me started closing in rapidly. Without the benefit of my telescopic vision, all I could do was assume the worst — players or monsters. Or, as was most likely the case, both. The LTS’ speed dropped precipitously, and with a good distance to go before I reached the location border, all I could do was push the flying vehicle into a steep dive. I had to get on the ground.

Two more rockets hit, though I was the first one to reach the ground. There was about an hour left until I could use my named items again. Only Valkyrie and Zelda were available, though that at least meant that I wouldn’t be unarmed or visible. Flipping the vehicle upside down, I flew like that for a little while until I saw a small village. I flew a few meters above it and leaped out. Bereft of a hand at the controls, the LTS flew on for another fifty meters before slamming into a building at the end of the main street. The explosion left an empty spot in the part of my brain responsible for connecting to devices. The LTS was gone. Rolling across the pavement without suffering so much as a scratch, I leaped into a courtyard and dashed into a shed. Monsters began howling. For a little while, I’d been the only player in the location, so it made sense why they would be excited. Food had come to find them. But a couple minutes later, I was joined by a number of other players, and I wasn’t particularly happy to see that. All twenty of them took up positions above me in the ranking.

Five was personally leading the charge. In fact, it had been his rockets that had shot me out of the sky. How did he find me? Was there really a bug in the vehicle that I missed?

A wall of fire licking its way back from the spot where the platform had crashed pulled me away from my thoughts. Two kilometers in a second! The robot was only too happy to show how willing it was to spend ammunition, and I had to hold my breath as the air grew hot. Ulbaron wasn’t there to protect me — I was practically naked. Valkyrie, Zelda, and my dirty underwear didn’t count.

A second, identical wall of fire appeared after the first, just a good ten meters closer. The searing heat was even worse. Realizing in time that the third was going to hit right where I was, I looked around frantically until I noticed an overturned metal tub used to mix cement. Five went around for another pass, and I relied completely on Zelda as I dashed over. The tub was incredibly heavy even for my advanced strength. It was a feat, but I was finally able to pull an edge up and roll underneath at the last second.

But instead of lying on the ground, I found myself falling with a yell. The tub had been covering a pool made out of reinforced concrete rings and half full of water. At least, I hope this is water. Pulling myself out and spluttering, I gulped down some air before heading back toward the bottom.

The earth shook. The heavy tub was thrown lightly to the side, the opening was revealed, and light made its way all the way down to where I was. Yes, it’s water. From my position on the bottom, I pinched my nose shot and watched as the gigantic tongue of fire reached into the well to heat the liquid I was lying in. It got warm, then hot, and then practically scalding. The only thing that saved me was that there wasn’t enough time for it to come to a boil. The flames swept across the surface one more time before disappearing.

I came to the surface without snorting or gasping for air, exactly the way you’d expect a real commando to do it. I’m getting good at this! The sides of the well were hot, though I paid no attention to my red palms. I had to get to the surface. The next wave of fire swept by to the side — I felt the hot air. Five was going all in, and I found my phone to hide Valkyrie and Zelda in my storage before turning the device into a pancake. I could only assume there would be a scan coming up. It was absolutely critical that nothing give me away.

“Check everything!” I heard the order four waves of fire later. I’d found a good spot — there weren’t any stones nearby, no building materials, not even any walls. The fire had consumed all of it. It was also visible from the air, so anyone flying by wouldn’t think to check the area too closely. They didn’t have the perception to see me on the bare ground. Leading up to that, I’d really begun trusting my abilities in the game — if you were more advanced than the other guy, you won.

My guess proved correct. Just about. The only thing I’d missed, and what nearly gave me away, was the well itself. It was a good thing I’d climbed out of it. One of Five’s underlings hovered above it and dropped a rocket right inside without a second thought. Rocks, soil, water, and fire rained down on me, and it was a miracle I was able to sit still despite what was clearly a broken leg. One of the rocks had landed in exactly the wrong spot. The player flew off, and it was only then that I allowed myself to breath and whimper in pain.

An entire hour went by. The players circled the village, gradually expanding their target area. None of the monsters who had once lived there still survived. Really, the village itself was gone, too. A few stone frameworks and some charred wood were all that was left. But Five wasn’t satisfied, still looking for me.

I felt the moment arrive even without my phone. My attributes kicked in, a wave of relief washed over me, and I materialized my phone. Drone’s feed told me the players had split into pairs as they scoured the area. Nobody was paying any attention to where I was. It had been cleared, nobody could have survived, and so there wasn’t much point going back over it.

Perfect! One by one, I started restoring my named items, swearing to never again get myself into a pickle like that one. Before even thinking about boosting my equipment to level thirty, I was going to get all my attributes to level 130. The hardest part was climbing into Ulbaron without attracting attention, but I was able to pull it off. Zelda found its spot. That made things easier, as twenty-two minutes of invisibility were enough to make anyone feel better. Valkyrie and Raptor popped back into place, and I took off to hover a hundred meters above the ground.

My better instincts told me to get out of the hexagon and get to work, but I hesitated. Five was alone. Sure, it had an entire army of underlings with it, but it was basically by itself. No support, no monsters, no Villian. Drone took a quick look around the village to count exactly twenty red dots.

Before I had even made a final decision, Valkyrie appeared in my hand, and percentages showed up on the general’s spawn. The numbers weren’t great, starting between 3% and 7%. The armor was too thick, there were too many duplicate chains, and the robot’s regeneration level was too high. A pitched battle was out of the question. I was no hero. Those are the guys who go running into battle, chest thrust forward, while I was a commando. Invisibility and thirteen thermal mines were what I had in my corner. At least, that was what I had the cash for.

The explosives were still printing out when I got to Five’s platform. Zelda didn’t have much time left, so I had to hurry.

“He isn’t here!” A player flew up to make its report at exactly the right time — I was activating the mines. My skills as a demolition expert had told me I needed eight of them, so I didn’t end up having to spend all my coins. A whole half a million remained in my account.

“That’s impossible.” Five’s response was music to my ears. “He was definitely on that LTS. Data doesn’t lie!”

So, there was a bug! I resolved to be more careful the next time I used equipment I found somewhere — I didn’t want any more of those surprises. With another mine in place, I flew around to the next spot. Go ahead, keep talking.

“Master, we should head back. There’s a load of noa ready to be transported, and Mark might try to capture it…”

“Six and Four are there,” Five shot back. Just as I’d figured, it wasn’t worth an attack. “Mark is in this location, so he’s hiding under some rock. Find him! Annihilate everything, wipe the location clean!”

The last mine found its home, and I had to smile when I got far enough away. The players had flown off to follow their boss’ orders, leaving it alone and signing its death warrant. Goodbye, Five! You were a tough nut to crack.

Boom!

You destroyed ULB89-5, the fifth spawn of your hexagon’s general.

Level +5 (266).

5 free attribute points received.

Player GRN7-6 promoted to GRN7-5.

One Five gone, another Five takes its place. Pieces of the robot rained down everywhere, though I wasn’t paying attention. Valkyrie leaped into position. Putting Ulbaron into a steep dive, I turned executioner. Zelda made me invisible, my armor made me mobile, and my pistol made me dangerous. And I was up against just nineteen simple players bereft of the boss’ support. What can they even do?

As it turned out, they could skedaddle. Four of them quickly figured out what was going on and turned tail, and chasing after them would have been pointless. Even at max speed, Ulbaron couldn’t take on a level six LTS. I didn’t want to go anywhere, either — there was loot calling my name from the ground.

I flew over to what was left of Five. At least, the biggest piece that was left. But I didn’t even have time to place a hand on the body before the air next to it materialized into Villian Po. Raptor went crazy, telling me about how there was a dangerous opponent in the location, not to mention how I needed to get out. And while Valkyrie went to work, all my shots were eaten up by the creature’s protection. Meanwhile, Villian didn’t reply at all, just standing there calmly amidst the hail of gunfire. When I realized he could have killed me if he wanted to, I stopped shooting, even putting my pistol away, turning my back demonstratively, and going back to Five.

“Bravo, Mark. Bravo! Yet again, I’m convinced that you’re the kind of guy I can and should work with. Finish up here, and we’ll talk.”

Chapter 20

Villian Po is trying to connect to your protection.

Probability of successful hack: 4.6%.

“NOT BAD. Not bad at all,” I heard him say approvingly. “That’s why they weren’t able to catch you. All right, let’s be clear about this — if I see you trying to hack me, our relationship is over, and I’ll turn you into a corpse. You’ll only get one shot, so I’d wait to take it if I were you.”

“But you know it’s coming, right?” I pulled myself away from Five to look over at the mercenary in surprise.

“I wouldn’t work with you otherwise. I need a fighter, not a slave. Until the release is over on your planet, you have to play the role of defender, which is fine. Go for it. Find anything interesting?”

“Not yet.” Of course, having Villian there was distracting — I kept expecting a knife in the back. “The hacking probability isn’t great.”

“What is it?” Villian asked as if in passing.

“Why don’t I just send you a screenshot of my status table?”

“Why? I have a pretty good idea of most of it already. The requirements for named items are common knowledge, and I doubt you would have boosted your attributes past them. That wouldn’t make sense. Of course, I wouldn’t mind taking a look at your class and specialty, but I can wait until the release is over for that. It doesn’t matter right now. Get to work.”

Attempt 211… Successful.

You connected to player ULB89-5’s main functionality.

Finally! The dead player was strong, with the system giving just a 0.8% percent chance of gaining access. And it wasn’t even the player; it was its phone, as there really wasn’t anything else left. The general wasn’t stupid, and as soon as Five’s time in the release was over, it was blocked. There weren’t any conversations or other tidbits I could profit off of. Just the map, virtual storage, store, and wallet. That was all the old Five had for me.

Although, to be fair, that was still solid. I was a happy camper.

Virtual storage-VII. Description: Phone expansion. Lets you store up to 70 game items . Item materialization takes 5 seconds. Lets you store items belonging to other players. Cost: None, is a rank reward.

Virtual exchange-VII. Description: Phone expansion. Lets you exchange game items for coins at 90% of their value. Cost: None, is a rank reward.

***

Access to level seven items unlocked.

I swallowed hard when I saw the prices the new items came with. While they started at a million for level six, the next level up didn’t have anything for less than three million. And it wasn’t even like they were all that different from the previous level — there were just little improvements and some expanded functionality. Just take the storage. The only difference was that you could store more, materialize it faster, and hold onto items belonging to other players. That was nothing like the difference between having and not having a virtual storage. Five’s turned out to be packed. It had my old LTS; a mountain of items at levels six and seven, most of which were expansions for robots or vehicles; and most importantly, a very special little knife.

My hands were even shaking when Fang appeared in them. And it was happy to see me, too — the blade glowed, trembled, and started turning white. Raptor told me what the changes were all about.

Fang level increased to 22.

You’re the creator of a named item that reached level 20. Would you like to select an additional expansion for Fang?

A whole list of options appeared on the screen. Nothing was that overpowered, though one did jump out at me.

Mass sacrifice (modifier). Description: Fang emits slender appendages that pierce all creatures within *Fang level*/10 meters of you. The result is the same as using Fang itself. Recharge time: 12 hours. Requirements: Expanded consciousness (100), absorption (100), executioner (100). Cost: 32000000 coins.

I didn’t have the cash to purchase the toy and get all three attributes from zero to a hundred, but I did like the description. An additional area of effect attack wouldn’t hurt, especially if I happened to find myself surrounded by monster bodies. That jumped right to the top of my to-buy list.

Although, I almost immediately changed my mind. Five had 25 million in its wallet, and the only thing I could use from its storage was the LTS. Everything else did nothing for me. With that in mind, I sold it all, and 37 items at level six along with 31 items at level seven netted me 155 million. That’s amazing! Without a second thought, I updated Fang and unlocked the attributes I was missing. Getting two attributes and one skill up to where I needed them cost 1,500 syringes, while Fang’s expansion cost 35 million. That left a veritable mountain of coins, so I quickly put them to work. Villian was clearly not about to rest on its laurels — as soon as it had the opportunity, it was going to hack me. And I couldn’t let that happen.

Of course, the magnitude of numbers I was looking at for each update was completely different. And I wasn’t able to get far. Taking hacking protection from level 140 to level 150 cost 16,000 points, and then I had to get hacking, device control, perception, and anatomy master from level 120 to level 150. That was another 56,000 points. My coins ran out there, as did my patience with the sheer volume I was dealing with. You were rich beyond imagination one minute, and then a beggar on the streets as soon as you pushed your update through.

“Are you done?” Villian asked when Five’s remains dissolved into gray sand. “Can we talk?”

“Not quite. I haven’t gotten to the underlings, yet.”

“You’re going to spend time on them, too?” I had the distinct impression the lizard’s face grimaced in frustration.

“Any opportunity I have to pick up coins is important,” I replied, tossing the LTS into my inventory and flying over to where the dead players were lying. Ten or twenty million might not have meant much to a mercenary leader, though to me it was a shot at survival. All twenty-two of the players turned out to be useful. Each of them had seven million in their wallet, giving me 154 million. And knowing that I needed to be ready for the next jump my named items took, I decided to get started boosting my primary attributes and skills from level 100 to level 130. Each took 1,750 free points, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. The secondary parameters took 3,500 for the same jump. Happily, they were almost all boosted already, so that just left the rest. Attribute points disappeared like money through a beautiful woman’s hands — seven thousand for each. But even still, I was able to get almost all of them up to level 130. Just four attributes and skills remained back at level 100, meaning that I only needed 56 million coins to be ready for the next jump my named items took. That was nothing compared to what I’d already spent.

The Tsarter leader stayed right with me as I flew from body to body. The alien held itself majestically, not deigning to show interest in anything. Maybe, all of this really doesn’t interest it. Spending time looting when you’re able to buy those green and blue explosions would have been the height of idiocy. Pouncing on a moment when the alien turned away, I buried a syringe in myself. I didn’t want it to see what I was upgrading. Let it think I’ve always been this good. And to make sure its mind was occupied, I asked a question that had been bothering me.

“How were you able to stay off the location rating? You weren’t there until the very last moment.”

“How were you able to get away from me in the dungeon? How were you able to escape a blockaded dungeon? How have you been able to survive here? I have just as many questions for you, Mark Derwin, as you have for me, but I’m not going to ask them. Let’s show each other a little courtesy.”

“Why would you ask them? If everything happens the way I assume it does, you’ll get your answers one way or another. Right?”

“Of course.” Villian made its helmet visor transparent, showing off the satisfied smirk on its face. The little teeth looked so repulsive that I turned away. “Ready?”

“For what?”

“To add me and a few players to your southern location’s white list. We’ll beat the dungeon, get the rainbow pearl, answer your questions, and, if everything goes well, get to work. Like I said, I need your help in the next hexagon over.”

“What do you need the pearl for?”

“I don’t need it. But the local general has such a hankering for it that it offered me an awfully tempting reward, one that my group could very much use. So, is that all your questions? You’re starting to get on my nerves.”

“Not in the least.” I wasn’t about to give up that easily. “The pearl will help the general, but what does that do for me? What do I get?”

“You’ll stay alive.”

“No, that doesn’t work — you said yourself that you need me. And if you wanted to kill me, you’d have done it already. I don’t need the pearl, so it’ll just be a waste of time. That means there should be some kind of compensation.”

“You don’t get it. It’s not that you’ll stay alive here; you’ll be added to the registry of players and show up in the next release. You’ll live forever.”

“Oh, that’s fantastic. The only problem is that the owner made it very clear that humanity won’t be stored in the database, and that was made doubly clear for me. So, that doesn’t work. I need information. I want to know the number of the locations and hexagons where the owner’s team is. Preferably, where the owner itself is, too.”

“Nobody is permitted to share information about the owner,” Villian said, though it was a rote response. The creature’s green mug was clearly thinking about something.

“But that doesn’t apply to its team, does it?” I tried to push and was rewarded with a nod. I could have sworn I even heard it mutter, that could actually be interesting, though I wasn’t sure. The words could have somehow played in my head.

Finally, having made a decision for itself, Villian nodded again.

“Agreed. You’ll get the list of closed locations as soon as I get the pearl. Any other conditions? Wine and women?”

“Do you have any?” I asked in surprise.

“What don’t I have? If you work for me, you’ll have fame, power, and fortune. We can also figure out how to get you into future releases.”

Villian was starting to play the devil on my shoulder. And sure, I didn’t mind the temptation, though I wanted to make sure I got the wine and women there on Earth. Showing up every time in new releases just to go help with genocide… That didn’t do it for me in the least. But my thoughts there were best kept to myself.

“Here’s a list of the players who need access to the location,” the mercenary said, holding out a piece of paper with nine entries. As soon as I took it from the creature, Raptor told me it had received another access request. A quick check of the list told me everyone had the last name Po. I agreed.

“If I understand correctly, you can only get back into the location tomorrow,” Villian more stated than asked. “Did you collect all the loot?”

“Of course. Like I said, I — ”

“I’m sorry, Mark, but the general offered a really good reward. And I was almost starting to like you. Almost.”

Villian’s move was lightning-fast and inescapable. It buried a syringe in me, and my body stiffened before I could even try to fight back. I could do something else, however, and I activated Ulbaron’s drives and soared off into the air. Flying the suit using just my mind was old hat.

“Not so fast.” Villian appeared next to me almost instantly, another syringe, that one with a red liquid, already in its hand. There was nothing I could do to avoid the second shot. My consciousness quivered, and the last thing I could remember was Villian talking.

“Know that I’ll do everything I can to get you into the next release. Tsarter would welcome you with open arms. Okay, now sleep.”

Darkness fell.

The unpleasant sensation that woke me came from somewhere around my chest before spreading throughout my entire body. My bones started twisting the way they do with some serious diseases, and a chill ran through me. Sweat beaded on my forehead. I instinctively wiped it away.

My hand was bare. So was my forehead. The chill turned to fever, and I sat up to look myself over. Bare was right. And it wasn’t just the game items that were gone; I wasn’t wearing regular clothes, either. Another naked body was lying motionless next to me, and I immediately recognized Grust. Is he alive? My body was weak, so it took an intense effort to crawl over to my partner and shake him. Nothing happened. Even when I pulled his eyes open, all they did was roll back. Okay, can’t count on him right now. Something started nagging me, demanding attention. When I tried to focus on it, I realized to my surprise that it was Drone. The latter was almost out of range, 300 kilometers away. Still, I was able to sense it, and I immediately gave it instructions to fly over to where I was. That made me feel better. If Drone was around, things weren’t so bad. It was going to take three hours to fly to me, so that gave me time to think. Wait a second, what time is it? Reaching out for my phone, I sensed it almost immediately — it was in the same room, lying alone in a corner. Already knowing what I was going to find, I pulled up the description.

Not one coin, no storage or exchange, and a completely blank map. They hadn’t just cleaned me out; they’d taken me all the way back to how I’d been at the beginning. Even Five hadn’t touched my map. Good thing I spent everything on improving my attributes! It was like I’d known. But just as it had been the previous time, the Tsarter mercenary’s phone was right where I’d left it. Yet again, nobody had noticed it. I had a chance. That helped me think, and I looked around one more time, focusing more on where I was.

It was a small room that looked like it had been used for storage. There were no windows, and just one door. Light was shining from a dull bulb in the ceiling. The aliens hadn’t bothered going to that much trouble, just jamming it into an energy block. Going over to the door, I found that it was locked, though it looked so flimsy I thought about yanking it right off the hinges. But I waited on that — the voices outside the door distracted me. One of them was familiar, belonging to Villian. The second, lifeless and mechanical, could only have belonged to one of the general’s spawn. But which? Was it the new Five or Four?

“…sleep another twenty hours. There’s no antidote for Margul pollen. And his regeneration won’t do anything, either — I blocked it,” Villian said. “By the way, unlike the last Five, I took everything Mark had. Now there definitely won’t be any surprises. My part of the deal is done.”

“The general agrees. You held up your end and can go get your reward. Nobody will bother you. How are we getting into the dungeon?”

“My mercenaries and I have access to the location. Mark didn’t know that each of us can take one guest with us, so he didn’t place any limitations. That means we can have nine more with us.”

My breathing quickened. That green-skinned bastard! All that talk about how I could be one of them, how I’d be rich and powerful, all of it was just a distraction. The creature needed me alive long enough to give them access, and… That’s why it asked if I collected all the loot. Villian was too lazy to do it itself, so it had me do it. I’m going to kill that thing!

“Will two personified units of noa do it?” the robot asked.

“I’m not sure. The digger said it didn’t know exactly how many it took, so better safe than sorry. Let’s go with ten units.”

“Why that many? Beating a level 12 dungeon will be hard even for you and your mercenaries.”

“We’ll be fine. We just wouldn’t want to miss out on what we’re going for because we tried to be cheap.”

“The general approved ten noa. They’ll be with Five, and Five will go with you. When are you moving out?”

Okay, so that must be Four. When am I going to be done with the robots?

“In fifteen hours. If Mark steps foot into the location now, he’ll be destroyed. We don’t want to lose the owner of the dagger, do we? Or do you want to risk using what I made? I was able to get it back, by the way.”

“We don’t mind waiting. Anything else?”

“Yes. I need you to approve some leveling-up. There are two hundred thousand humans in the locations, and that’s twenty levels I don’t want to lose.”

“The changed need food. When Mark dies, they’ll head in to feed.”

“And I need more levels. Plus, I want to disarm the trap. Mark was able to beat it.”

“The general approved your request to clear the location completely. You’ll get the mission automatically.”

The voices fell silence, and I heard the buzzing of energy protection being withdrawn. So, it’s more than just a flimsy building they’re holding us in. It was protected enough to make sure we didn’t go anywhere, the door just for show. Tossing my phone back into the corner, I had just enough time to lie down on the floor and freeze. The door opened. I really wanted to see who had stepped in, though that would have told them I was conscious. Wait, why am I conscious? Villian wouldn’t have messed up and injected me with the wrong thing.

“Are we going to go looking for his sister?” The mercenary leader was in the room. I didn’t even have to worry about lying there motionless after that question — my body froze on its own. They know about Squirrel? It dawned on me that I’d seen the time, and Olsen’s mission had expired a few minutes before I’d woken up. Could that be what did it? Perhaps there was a penalty I’d picked up. My status table was easy enough to pull up even without my phone, so I checked it and noticed that I was at level 254. The same number as I’d locked in. And, judging by the conversation I was overhearing, the function had told the general and everyone else about Squirrel. That bitch! I’m going to kill him, too.

“There’s no point now.” Four had somehow squeezed through the small entrance, and hearing him helped me take a breath. “We already have Mark Derwin, so nothing else matters.”

“Remember, I was promised a recommendation letter if I brought him in.”

“The general already sent the owner a request. The latter is considering it. We always fulfill our obligations, Villian Po.”

You’re kidding me! The green-skinned bastard apparently really thought I’d work with him after everything he’d done. How considerate… But just then, the thought was driven out of my head by a flash of pain in my palm. Only my experience going through the trials kept me from screaming, as it had been much worse there. Concentrating on the pain, I did my best to localize and turn it off, to the point that I didn’t even notice when I was lifted and dressed. It was a simple BRO-I, the perfect hefty prison for people who know how to hack into devices. Don’t move… Just don’t move… Something like medical gloves were slipped over my hands, and the pain disappeared instantly. Oh, wow. I’d already seen something like that, having used a similar method to control the four-armed players. It would have been interesting to find out if Villian had come up with that itself, or if it had been keeping an eye on me. When I was completely enclosed in the outfit, it stiffened. Someone threw it and me with it onto the floor.

“I stopped his regeneration, so he’ll stay asleep until we get him to the dungeon. And we can beat anything in twelve hours. Hey, am I going to be refunded for those explosions?”

“Yes,” Four replied after a short pause. “Though, the general still doesn’t understand why you gave them to Mark. That wasn’t smart.”

“How else was I supposed to get him to trust me? He saw that my mercenaries have level 22 items, and if I hadn’t let him get to that level, he wouldn’t have been willing to talk to me. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to get close enough to stick him with a needle. Mark is careful. He’ll be a strong player in the next release.”

“If the owner agrees.”

“I certainly hope it does. There’s no other reason for me to haul Mark’s crap around otherwise.”

“You didn’t destroy it?” There was surprise in the lifeless voice.

“Of course not! If they let Mark through, he’ll have a nice leg up in the next release. Five advanced named items would be enough for anyone to get a good start.”

“You’re an odd creature, Villian Po. I don’t always understand why you do what you do. Okay, everyone out! Load up the bodies — time to go.”

The voices died away, and I once again found myself picked up. Opening my eyes slightly, I found myself staring at the impenetrable curtain of my visor. Villian hadn’t just stuck me in armor; it had even made sure I couldn’t see anything. Anyway, I didn’t have to worry about any accidental movements. The blocked BRO-I outfit held me in place, while the visor made sure nobody could see me just as it kept me from seeing anyone else.

“I’ll leave Mark with you. Make sure you don’t lose him. I’ll be back in fifteen hours, and we’ll head off for your pearl.”

There was a pause. Apparently, everyone was waiting for Villian to get far enough away.

“Is the prisoner ready?”

“Yes, master.”

“Wake Mark. I need them to meet.”

A needle pierced my leg through the armor, and it occurred to me that it went right through what was supposedly thick skin. That’s an interesting feature game items have. They could penetrate any protection. I wonder if I can use that somehow.

The visor turned transparent, and I found myself staring at a girl. Her tearful face was dirty, her eyes were haunted, and she herself looked more like a bundle of nerves than an intelligent being. Still, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful her face was. Her curves were right there, too. The girl was naked, not even trying to cover up. And judging by the bruises on her arms and legs, that was a lesson she’d learned the hard way. Despite the situation, I felt something twitch below my waist. I was a twenty-two-year-old kid, after all, and not just an alien-killing machine.

“Talk!” Four’s voice sounded like the crack of a whip, and the girl jumped.

“H-hi,” she whispered, only her lips moving. “My name is Mary. Are you Mark Derwin?”

The words out, she shrank back in anticipation of a blow. There was apparently a prompter, as she repeated her question.

“Tell me, are you Mark Derwin? Answer… Please…”

She sobbed out the last word. For some reason, I felt bad for her. My perception gave me all the information it had on her, telling me her name was Mary Larcon. She was all the way down at level three. It was strange that she’d been able to stay that low for the month the game had been around.

“Yes, I’m Mark Derwin,” I decided to reply. The aliens already knew who I was, so I didn’t see anything wrong with meeting her. They weren’t going to make us have sex. Although… You never knew with them.

“How old are you?” Mary asked.

“Twenty-two.”

“Your birthday?”

“May thirteenth. But what do you care?” It was my turn to be surprised, and the girl’s head dropped still further.

“To recognize you… To remember you… To bring you back…”

“What?!” I yelled right as something flashed past my eyes. My neck burned, and Mary’s terrified face gave way to an unpleasant picture I’d already seen once.

You were killed.

Wait for the game to end.

Chapter 21

Returning to the game in 3… 2… 1…

Go through the personification rules.

GETTING BACK to my normal state followed the exact same process I’d gone through the first time. There was a flash, and the darkness started to take shape. I immediately recognized Four’s players even without having seen them before — they were robots, the usual. Not far away from them, the girl was sobbing as she did her horrible job. The ceiling hung low. Grust was lying nearby. My body still hadn’t taken form, though I immediately figured out that I was in a standard dungeon. The long descent leading away from the dungeon entrance leveled out right where we were standing, the stony labyrinth in front of us. That was where the monsters and, odd as it might seem, my hope for survival were. Without waiting for my body to fully form, I dashed forward through the crowd of players. They tried to stop me, but what could they do with a ghost? And that’s exactly what I was. I had just five or six seconds to use as best as I could. With the wall coming up, I headed into it. Better die like this than on the altar of someone else’s greed with my own knife in my chest.

“Stop him!” I heard Four yell, after which the walls accepted my body. After a moment of darkness, the stone disappeared — I was in the next tunnel over. But I didn’t stop there, leaping forward and diving into the next wall. And the next. The going got harder with the fourth wall, almost like swimming through a thick liquid. But I forced my way through. The walls weren’t that thick, so I figured I’d be fine. Or maybe, I’ll just live here as part of the maze.

Ultimately, I made it. Toppling into the corridor, I crashed down onto the stone only to feel pain shoot through my leg just below the knee. I jerked it as hard as I could and yelled even louder — my body had fully formed, and part of it remained trapped in the stone wall. Wrenching it once more freed me, though I wasn’t thrilled with the result. Part of my leg had been left behind. But there wasn’t time to mourn my loss. Jaws snapped shut, and a hellish pain exploded in my shoulder. A dog-like creature, one of the locals, was only too happy to chomp down on the soft flesh of the victim that had appeared next to it. At least, the thing thought I was its victim. Rearing back with my other arm, I buried my fist in the monster’s skull. We both belonged to the game, after all, only my strikes came with much more force.

A tremor ran through my body. Emotions swept over me, and I think I even began to cry. The agony of defeat was so poignant that I didn’t want anything in that moment. All I could think about was dying, returning to the darkness so completely that nobody would be able to bring me back. Villian had taken away any shot I had at survival by grabbing my named items. Okay, so maybe there’s a tiny chance, but it’s still basically no shot. Finding a naked player in the dungeon wasn’t that big of a challenge even if his attributes hadn’t reset. Actually, wait — they didn’t, did they? Holding my hand up toward the ceiling, I felt my phone begin to materialize in it. As soon as it started working, I pulled up my status table. Yep, everything’s right there. It was the same as with Grust the second time, and that made me feel better. A little. Following that thought, I realized I needed to goad Four into making a move. It made sense why they’d killed me — while I was gone, the location didn’t have an owner, and they could get into it without a problem. But with me back, I was in charge once again. And that meant I had my additional administrative functionality. Digging around to find the button, I changed the settings to make sure no aliens were permitted in the location. You bastards have twelve hours to figure that problem out. My leg itched — my phone told me it would be back to normal in half an hour. The local monsters howled in the corridors as they sensed prey coming closer. The aliens had moved in to clear the maze.

Yet again, I felt apathy taking over. All I wanted to do was lie down and relax, forget everything and everyone, though I pushed that thought away. Getting up with an effort, I crawled over to the wall. As long as I had a shot at surviving, I was going to take it. There will be time enough to throw my hands up when they have me cornered. But in the meantime… It was time for the last ace I’d kept up my sleeve.

Deraven Raknul’s protection gave in with the first try. The dungeon’s rules didn’t apply to items that had been captured outside it, and my breathing quickened when I pulled up the wallet. There were seven million coins in it. Seven damn million! The virtual storage wasn’t empty, either — it contained an entire BRO-V suit, helmet included. It was used, of course, but that was fine. I wasn’t going to have to buy a new one. And the finishing touch was that I was able to sell items again. Sure, it was with a 30% commission, but it was worth it. Deraven, I love you, buddy! If it had been nearby, I would have kissed its green mouth in a second. Only then would I have gunned it down.

The outfit adapted automatically to fit me as soon as I crawled into it. Spending a million right off the bat, I bought myself ten mines. They made me feel better. Then, thinking a bit, I also bought a level six vibroknife. Vibroknives had already proven their value, and I anticipated that my newest purchase would do the same. It was expensive, leaving me with just 1.6 million, but the apathy was swept away as soon as I felt the hilt in my hand. Four didn’t have any of the Tsarter beasts in its squad. I’d cleaned out Five’s fighters recently, and they hadn’t had any named items, so I figured the same would hold true then. I was up against thirty-seven players wearing level six armor. Let’s do this.

I only needed to survive twelve hours, after all…

1 player entered the dungeon, synchronization complete.

“Four, what the hell are you doing?” Villian’s annoyed exclamation rang through the corridors. Damn it. Having that thing around made my life much more difficult.

“The general agreed to have us beat the dungeon without your help. You need to leave.” Four’s response was barely audible.

“You killed Mark!” It didn’t take any effort to hear Villian, on the other hand.

“We were able to enter the location with the team that was originally planned for. Mark was respawned as noa, which makes it easier to keep an eye on him.”

“Oh, really? So, where is he? Where is he?! Do you not even know that he already was personified noa, you useless chunk of metal? I don’t care what you do with him, but the general promised me this location. There were four levels there, damn it! And now what? Why did you restart the monsters?”

“Don’t make me slap a penalty on you, Villian Po. You need to leave the dungeon — I’m giving you one minute.”

“Okay, okay, I won’t get in the way.” The mercenary apparently calmed down, as it got harder to hear him, too. “If you don’t mind, could I stay by the entrance? I’ll make sure nobody gets in, though I won’t do anything, won’t give any advice. After all, I was guaranteed that I’d be part of the search for the pearl.”

“By the entrance, all right, but don’t cross this line.” I could just picture Four drawing a line on the stone ground with one arm. “Move out! Find Mark and get him to the central cave. If you make that happen, you get a reward. Gas him out!”

The acoustics in the dungeon were surprisingly good. Not only could I hear their conversations; there was also a hiss, a girl’s scream, and the sound of a body collapsing to the ground. Four was acting decisively. Since I supposedly didn’t have any game items, the sleeping gas was going to be enough. It was a good move. The only problem was that the premise was completely off.

I sensed the player before I saw it. Device control offered to connect me, and I wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity. Because nobody thought I had anything with me, hacking was the only attack I had in my arsenal. And sure, I knew it was pointless in the dungeon, but I had to cheer my opponent up. Nobody concentrates when they think they’re in for an easy win.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of player NRP7-443R.

Sum total of your skill levels: 120 (device control: 30 (150), hacking: 30 (150), perception: 30 (150), anatomy master: 30 (150)).

Sum total of NRP7-443R’s skill protection: 120 (hacking protection: 30 (restricted), resistance: 30 (restricted), resilience: 30 (restricted), willpower: 30 (restricted)).

Probability of successful hack: 0% (1 — 120/120).

The information that popped up was so unusual that I very nearly missed my chance to attack. Instead of the level fifteen you got with regular dungeons, we were up to level thirty. How? And why? I’d been in lots of different game locations, and that was the first time it was anything but level fifteen. And there… Does the dungeon level you start with really have that big of an impact? If it really boosted everything by five or six points… My breath caught in my throat when I realized what that meant.

But that was a thought for later. First, I had to deal with the opponent in front of me.

The robot flew into my tunnel, lights blinking and a green smoke pouring out of it. That must be the gas. From the outside, Four’s underlings looked humanoid — they had a body, a head, and appendages. Of course, there were too many of the latter, eight to be specific, and that ruined the picture. The way it was flying around on a platform also made it look like self-respecting robots never used their limbs unless they absolutely have to.

Waiting for the player to fly slowly over to where I was lying in ambush, I leaped. My vibroknife flashed before I even landed, opening a gash in the robot’s neck that knocked the “head” right off the body. My melee weapons skill worked just as well as pistol shooting. I could see exactly where I needed to strike to do as much damage as possible, not to mention make sure the target couldn’t warn everyone else. Unlike humanoids, where the head does just about everything, the robots had heads that really just streamed video back to the boss. It didn’t have a processor or anything else important like that. But in my case, I needed to knock off the cameras that served as eyes — Four could sit there and wonder how I’d taken out its fighter.

A swing of my fist sent the severed head flying into the nearest cave. Piercing the thick back armor with my vibroknife and thrusting a hand inside, I yanked out the central processor. It took just a second, and I was left with a motionless corpse frozen in the middle of the tunnel. Immediately, I disintegrated the player’s heart — the game told me it didn’t care about or want to buy processors. Anyway, I care more about the result. One down.

It was always going to be impossible to hack into a phone I’d picked up inside a dungeon. The game logic was inexorable, and as soon as I tried and saw the 0% probability, I sent the phone into virtual space. Save it for a rainy day. The loot was even worse, as the robot just didn’t want to give me anything. All I could do was dispel the body to cover my tracks.

And that was how I got my two million. As soon as the body went off to nowhere, the orphaned platform named me its new master, telling me it was ready and willing to obey my every command. And with nothing in its storages, all I could do was sell it. There was no point taking it outside to fly around on. Its maximum altitude was just three meters, and that didn’t cut it.

“One down,” I heard Villian call. “Not hinting at anything, Four. Just stating a fact.”

“State them to yourself,” came the answer from the depths of the dungeon. “That was an accident. Everyone work in pairs!”

The cloud of green gas grew thicker. My BRO-V offered a hermetic seal that lasted just forty minutes, so I knew I couldn’t hang back and bide my time. Sooner or later, I was going to have to open my helmet and breathe in the poison. And that dictated my strategy. Hiding deep in the dungeon to stab robots with my vibroknife wasn’t an option — I’d get put to sleep before I could take them all out. So, I had to clear the air. And the only way to do that was by cutting down the number of sources polluting it.

My device control alerted me to new targets. Two players were moving through the next tunnel over, a flamethrower clearing the space in front of them. And even though that was the first time I was seeing one of those in the game, I had little doubt my armor would be powerless against it. Neither hiding against a wall nor dashing in with my knife at the ready was going to work. My resilience certainly wasn’t going to save me, and so that just left a demolitions infiltrator’s favorite move.

Run!

“He’s here!” yelled one of the players when they saw me dash off. “He headed…”

I never found out where I was headed, as my favorite move was more than sprinting off through an obstacle course. It also included another important element: three thermal mines tied together. I wasn’t the only one afraid of fire, as the robots also tended to have a hard time with it. That was especially true when enormous boulders came crashing down on their melting armor. The pair quickly met their end — my perception stopped recognizing them as players and told me they were just two piles of metal. Without waiting for the area to cool off, I dashed back to grab the phones and platforms. But the problem there was that the phones couldn’t be hacked, and the platforms were reduced to spare parts netting me a measly hundred thousand coins. I’d seen better loot.

“No explosions!” the main robot yelled, though Villian had already figured out who was responsible for them.

“Two more down! Four, you really let your slaves go. They’re allowed to have money on them? Don’t you think you’re just playing right into Mark’s hands? These children are useless against him, and every death makes him richer and stronger. How much money did they have? A million? Two? How many more have to die for you to realize that you need me?”

“Players can’t be hacked inside dungeons,” the general’s spawn shot back.

“What makes you think that? Do you often find yourself clearing dungeons starting at level two?”

A silence fell that I didn’t like in the least. Dropping the two phones into my storage, I kept going. The exit is over there somewhere. I wonder what Villian would do about a bundle of explosives.

But I wasn’t able to get to him. Four admitted defeat.

“The general approved your involvement,” its metallic voice said, the unwillingness dripping from it. “You’ll get your reward. What do you suggest?”

“First of all, get everyone back here. What, are you burning something? Where’d everybody run off to? And also, stop yelling so loud the whole dungeon can hear you. Come here, and I’ll tell you how we’re going to smoke him out.”

Robots began rushing by, and I quickly retreated deeper into the tunnels. Without Zelda and the invisibility it provided, I was too weak to get into a pitched battle with a whole detachment of them.

A couple minutes later, the poisonous fog had grown even thicker. It was impossible to see anything beyond my fingertips, the worst part being that I had just fifteen minutes left before my hermetic seal ran out. My oxygen was going to run out with it — there wasn’t anything like a spare tank of air in the store. All I could have done was buy a whole new outfit. But how would I have gotten it on? The BRO suits didn’t have ventilation systems, and Ulbaron wasn’t anywhere nearby.

That just left one thing to do: hide in some deep hole and hope my regeneration would be enough to handle the poison until it ran out and before I was found. I’d even started to look for just such a spot, stepping around sleeping monsters as I went, when I sensed that something was off. My vibroknife flashed in my hand as I pressed my back against a wall. There was no telling what had me on high alert. Device control didn’t show me anything dangerous, though there were still tingles of fear racing up and down my body.

It got to the point where I started just making swipes at the air with my knife. Shadows seemed to appear, though they were a physical impossibility. Still, someone was definitely in the fog, and I found out who a couple seconds later. My body stiffened instantly when a needle was plunged into my shoulder. From up above me, hanging by the ceiling, Villian’s happy mug appeared. The mercenary was completely naked and clutching the rocks with long, black claws. And a tail. As it turned out, its race sported a long, flexible tail very much unlike regular lizards. Actually, it was more like what a monkey might have. But what shocked me more than anything was that the green-skinned beast had no problem breathing in the poisonous gas.

“A level six vibroknife and a BRO-V suit? Not bad, Mark, not bad. You continue to surprise me. Just a little training, and you’ll be unstoppable. But don’t worry, we’ll take care of that in the next release — I’ll get you up to speed myself. For now, sleep.”

I felt another needle, and darkness swept over me. When my consciousness returned, I realized I was once again naked. My armor was next to me, having been cut off. Four, it seemed, had gone with the tried and true, having been unable to hack me — if you can’t make something work, just break it. Although, no, I wasn’t completely naked. My right arm was broken and held in a medical brace. As I tried to reach out, I found that I had no control. It belonged to Four.

Speaking of Four, it was hovering nearby. It was the first time I’d gotten to see that particular iteration of the general’s spawn, and I didn’t like the view. That one definitely didn’t look like an old iron. Just like its underlings, the robot was more or less humanoid, just with extra appendages. The two-meter monster was sitting on a flying platform as it demonstrated its distaste for the world around it.

I coughed, and my head spun. The sleeping gas formed a thick shroud that made it impossible to think. Even as I fought the urge to sleep, my head drooped, and I drifted off.

“We neutralized the gas,” I heard someone report through the waves of oblivion. Pulling my eyelids open with an effort, I looked around at the bare walls of the main cave. The aliens were following the digger’s instructions to the letter — even before polishing off the first round, they’d headed over to the center of the dungeon to complete the bloody ritual.

Grust was lying naked on the rocks in front of me. He was conscious, but only capable of moving his eyes. Probably drugged the same way I was. And judging by the incredibly expressive look on his face, he wasn’t exactly happy to see me.

“There are two ways we can do this, Mark Derwin,” Four said, turning the part one might have called its face toward me. “Either you help and don’t suffer, or you don’t help and do suffer. But either way, we’re going to get what we want.”

“What exactly do you want?” I asked. It was hard to talk, almost like there was sandpaper in my throat.

“Take this.” One of the robot’s appendages disappeared into the bowels of its platform, returning with Fang. But it was in no hurry to hand it over to the servants who ran up. “Your heartbeat quickened. You think this knife could save you. Villian?”

“It’s just a ritual dagger.” The green-skinned creature was standing behind the robot, having gotten back into its armor. “All I can think is that Mark is happy to see his blade. He’s human, he hasn’t gone through training yet, and so it’s no surprise to see how hard it is for him to control his emotions. That’s just happiness, not hope. But just in case, have your underlings surround him and hold onto his arms and legs. We don’t want surprises, do we?”

“There’s a feeling I can appreciate. Anger. Fear. You’re right, Villian Po — Mark is just happy to see his toy. Pin him down!”

Finally, the servants were permitted to take the knife. You bitches! Think you know us humans so well, do you? You see how we feel as well as what’s happening on the outside? My body twisted as they picked me up by my arms, and I howled in pain. The idiot robots following Four’s orders had grabbed my legs and pulled them in different directions, leaving me doing a perfect split. None of them seemed to care that they were about to rip right through my muscles and tendons. There was one robot for each leg, another at my torso, one for my head, and another one each for my arms. I was pinned in so tightly that I couldn’t breathe normally, not to mention moving. And as my hand was wedged open against my will by the medical brace, I felt Fang placed in it. My fist closed around the hilt. Finally, I was ready for the first sacrifice.

“I’ll ask you again. Either you help, follow our orders, and don’t suffer, or we’ll break every bone in your body, stick you in a suit, and go through with this for you. The second option isn’t great — I’m not sure if it will work. But what I do know is that it will hurt.”

I heard Four, but I wasn’t listening to it. My thoughts were elsewhere. By giving me Fang, the aliens had made a grave blunder, but I couldn’t let Grust be sacrificed, too. It suddenly struck me what we could do. Our device control skills had been high enough for us to chat without phones. Locking eyes with him, I sent him an invitation to a group.

Grust Kilvan declined your group invitation: Let’s take out the bastards! Can you move?

***

You declined Grust Kilvan’s group invitation: No, I’m pinned. How are you going to get free? There are ten of them!

***

Grust Kilvan joined your group: I’ll be fine! You just have to be in the group, or else you’ll die. On the count of three!

“I’m waiting,” Four said. His underlings began stretching me even farther. My joints popped, but instead of yelling in pain, I began speaking quietly.

“One.”

I coughed after that, of course, but the strain was eased.

“One what?” the robot asked.

“Two,” I whispered.

“What are you mumbling?” Four flew closer. “I can’t understand you. Speak up.”

Villian took a few steps backward as if sensing that something was amiss. His head turned, trying to catch who was helping me, but not realizing that my helper was already in my hand. It was a problem that he was that far away — I wasn’t sure I was going to reach him.

“Three!” I called loudly, exactly the way the general’s spawn had asked me to. My hand was pinned, the fingers clutched around Fang immobile, but that was fine. I’d picked up a fun new toy just recently. And it was time to give it a try.

Activate mass sacrifice!

Dark tentacles reached out of Fang’s snow-white blade to cling to every robot within a radius of 2.2 meters. None of them had time to move, though my head practically exploded from the stream of messages my phone was feeding me.

You’re personified noa.

You sacrificed nine players that aren’t personified noa inside a dungeon, giving them a penalty for 3 releases.

The conditions were met to boost the dungeon’s level.

The dungeon level can be increased by 9.

Would you like to refresh the location?

My head was splitting, so screamed relentlessly as I mentally smashed the button.

“Yes, refresh it!”

Letio Durvale refreshed. Current level: 11.

Note! The conditions were met for the rainbow pearl to appear in the dungeon. Destroy the boss to collect your prize.

The arms holding me weakened, and I collapsed to the floor. Let’s do this!

Chapter 22

THE PAIN IN MY HEAD was gone, and I only then realized that I was more or less free. Still trying to wrap my mind around what had happened, I dashed over to Grust and ducked down a tunnel with him. We were just in time. The spot where my partner had been lying exploded into a million pieces — one of the players had taken their shot. Happily, they’d missed.

The air in front of me congealed, turning into a very real space marine. The game’s procreation was holding a ray gun, a tactical suit of armor covering it from head to toe. I’d never seen such well-prepared monsters in a dungeon. But there was no time to wonder if it was on my side or not — as soon as the blaster began to turn toward me, I threw my arm forward, burying Fang in the creature’s chest. There was no resistance. Level eleven armor was never going to stand up to a level 22 weapon. The monster’s body began to deflate, a few moments later collapsing to the ground in a pile of flexible armor. The blaster clattered off the stone, too, but it disintegrated into fine dust as soon as I touched it.

“Pull back! Get Four out of here — I’ll cover you!” Villian yelled, and the silence was broken by the rattle of gunfire. Blue and red flashes zipped by, and a couple grenades detonated to bathe Grust and me in fire, but we survived. I wasn’t about to look around and see what was going on. The mercenary leader was still alive, and that meant I was just one shot away from the darkness.

Covering Grust with my body, I did my best to blend in with the stone. It didn’t work well, as camouflage was hard to pull off when the only thing I was wearing was the splint. On the other hand… Wait a second, I’m still wearing the splint! I quickly tore it off.

The sound of gunfire moved out of the main cave, and that let me finally pick my head up. There were plenty of space marines to deal with. I counted seven, the rest having headed off after the mercenary and the robots still left alive after the dungeon had been boosted. Incidentally, it wasn’t just Fang that had taken a toll. Two robots were lying dead on the ground riddled full of holes. The locals were doing their part, too.

Grust still hadn’t livened up — he was lying motionless on the ground. Only his eyes told me he was still with me. Crawling off him slowly, making no more than one move every second, I made my way over to the robots I’d sacrificed. If the sloths had had a king, he would have stepped down off his thrown and handed me his crown. That’s how deliberately I was going. I froze frequently, often in very uncomfortable positions. The space marines glanced around, not noticing me, and I continued forward.

Suddenly, all seven remaining monsters picked up their blasters and ran out of the cave. A moment later, I found out why when my phone buzzed softly. A message popped up in my brain:

16 players entered the dungeon, synchronization complete.

Yep, the rest of Villian’s troops and their guests. I knew things were about to get toasty. The monsters were going to have a hard time breaking through their defenses, and I used that time to jump up, no longer hiding, and place a palm on each of the bodies. The dungeon’s level 11 untied my hands — pulling everything off the phones and bodies was easy enough.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of player LON8-833T.

Probability of successful hack: 65%.

Attempt 1… Successful.

Just as Villian had assumed, the players were anything but cash-poor and poorly equipped. On average, each of the nine robots gave me nine million. Four’s troops were much better off than the old Five’s had been.

Heading back over to Grust, I stuck a regeneration syringe in him. Our opponents had presumably frozen his internal restoration processes, so they needed a hand. I turned out to be correct. A moment later, Grust took a deep breath and sat up. His gaze found its way to me. But instead of a greeting, he started in on me right away.

“What took so long? Where have you been? I was already starting to fear the worst!”

There was a pause. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to react. I was already taking a breath to tell him what he could do with himself when I saw the smile spread across his face. Jumping to his feet, he ran over and hugged me tightly.

“It’s great to see you!”

Given the fact that we were both naked, the situation was a bit uncomfortable, and I coughed delicately with a nod down below. Grust followed my eyes and stepped back quickly. It even looked like he blushed.

“Let’s go. They’re going to wrap up with the first round soon, and the bots will respawn. We can’t be out in the open like this.”

“We’re just going to run around in our birthday suits?”

“First, we hide. That’s more important.”

I didn’t forget about the two robots the bots had taken out with their blasters, either. They weren’t as well endowed, though I still came away with 14 million in total. That was solid enough. We needed to be ready for level 13 bots — they were going to be a challenge.

We had to leave the cave and follow on the heels of the battle. Things were hot — dead bots littered the tunnel, and there were even melted chunks of robot. Unfortunately, they’d already been stripped by their compatriots, so I wasn’t able to get anything from them. Finding a cave that wasn’t big enough for bots to spawn in, I dragged Grust inside and shoved him into a far corner. He tried to protest, but I shushed him. Finally, he’d started listening to me. Villian picked that moment to show what hot stuff it and its fighters were.

You destroyed the first round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current: 13).

But I’d been wrong. The space in the cave started to shimmer, turning into a bot. Surprisingly, it was again dressed in space armor, just that time more sophisticated. It was taller, its weapon scarier. Grust only stared wordlessly at the force of nature. As soon as its body stopped shimmering, I took a step forward.

It was definitely different from its predecessors, if only in that it had two hearts, neither of which offered a guaranteed kill if you took it out. They were completely interchangeable. Its head wasn’t vital, either. Just like with the robots, it was for show. The bot could definitely tell there was someone in its cave, but just when it started to turn, Fang slipped easily into its body. The charge of necrotic energy dropped the dried remains to the floor. Two meters of space marine had turned into a pile of trash barely taller than the rocks around it. One kick later, and even that disintegrated.

“What level named items do you have?” I asked my partner. To my surprise, he was already holding Swallow and Ulbaron. Did the aliens really make the mistake of not checking his phone?

The question was apparently written all over my face, so Grust explained.

“I broke my phone as soon as they took me captive. It just prints out of midair, so I figured they’d be able to hack it and made sure they didn’t have the chance. And, you know, right about now that’s looking like it was an awfully good move! For the levels, I’m at seventeen. I meet the requirements, too. Why aren’t you getting dressed?”

“Oh, right,” I replied in confusion, not having been expecting that gift of fate. It gave us a solid shot at the bots. I didn’t tell him what level I was at, however. He’d gotten an extra level for the southern location, but the explosions only worked for me. That was presumably why all the Tsarter fighters were at the same level with the exception of Villian. It took care of itself.

A strange noise grabbed my attention, and I held up a hand for Grust to stay quiet. A couple seconds later, a big group of fighters rushed by the cave we were in. If they work together, they might even be able to take out Villian. The shooting and explosions didn’t die out for a second, telling me that the dungeon’s creatures were doing their best to make that happen.

Okay, time for some shopping. Opening the store, I found Ulbaron, which cost only 35 million for some reason; tapped the button to purchase it; and…

I cursed loudly when I read the message:

You can’t buy duplicate named items.

As long as your Ulbaron is still in the game, duplicates are unavailable.

“What’s up?” Grust asked.

“I’m going to kill you,” I growled angrily, realizing that Villian had probably known about named items and took care not to destroy them just so he could manipulate me. Did that green-faced bastard really think I’d get away?

“What did I do?” Grust asked in surprise. I had to explain the situation, my verbiage making it clear exactly how I felt about the situation. When I finished describing the green-skinned fiend, my partner shared my opinion. We needed to kill the bastard.

“Okay, so what? Are you going to buy regular armor?”

“No point. It would be like wearing newspaper as far as the dungeon monsters are concerned, so no, we need to go with something nobody will expect.”

“What will nobody expect?”

“If only I knew…”

“Mark, could you at least start by buying yourself some underwear? Somebody’s going to chop off your bits accidentally.”

He wasn’t wrong. The store offered regular clothes, too, so a few clicks later, I was pulling some on. They didn’t offer any protection, but the cloth felt good on my skin. Of course, they were game clothes, so someone with high enough hacking could…

A thought flashed through my mind, and I even peeked out into the tunnel despite Grust’s warning cry. Nobody. The monsters had all run off to fight the other players, leaving our area unguarded.

“Follow me,” I said, moving out into the main cave. There wasn’t anybody there, either. Grust stayed right behind me, Swallow darting back and forth as though covering me. I went right over to the very center. Knowing that the second wave could wrap up any minute, I began digging into the ground with Fang. Grust was surprised, and he peered silently over my shoulder in an attempt to figure out what I had up my sleeve.

I didn’t need very deep holes. Just a few slashes with my dagger were enough to carve out a hollow big enough for three mines and a remote control. I wasn’t sure where the boss would show up, so I made sure I had everything covered. Thirty hollows, three mines in each. I dropped nine million right there.

“Let’s go,” I said as I wrapped up and headed back into cover.

“What was that?” Grust couldn’t suppress his curiosity any longer. “What do you need mines in that cave for?”

“You’ll see. Now, we wait — I sure hope I’m correct. Just make sure you don’t shoot right away.”

You destroyed the second round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current: 15).

The air in our cave thickened once again, turning into a third-generation space marine. It was even more advanced and dangerous, with even more duplicate modules. Once again, it sensed we were there and started to turn. I quickly threw my arms around it, keeping it from moving. An electric shock hit me with such force that I nearly lost consciousness, but I held on until the message I was waiting for finally popped up.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of a creature spawned in Letio Durvale.

Sum total of your skill levels: 600 (device control: 150, hacking: 150, perception: 150, anatomy master: 150).

Sum total of the dungeon creature’s protection: 400 (hacking protection: 100, resistance: 100, resilience: 100, willpower: 100).

Probability of successful hack: 33.3% (1 — 400/600).

Attempt 3… Successful.

***

You gained access to the dungeon creature.

Would you like to destroy it?

Of course not! Where’s my control functionality?

Surprisingly, my new marionette didn’t have any abilities. And the system didn’t even warn me that I might not get a reward for beating the dungeon. Of course, the boy was able to shoot, defend itself, and follow my mental instructions exactly, but there weren’t any summons or insidious attacks I could use. It doesn’t even have any grenades! There was only the blaster, though it was definitely a good weapon.

“Well? What are you going to do with just one of those?” Grust still didn’t get what I had going on. Admittedly, even for me, the idea wasn’t fully formed, though I gestured for him to be quiet and stepped out into the tunnel.

A three-bot patrol was walking nearby. They hadn’t gotten to our cave yet, as they were still around the corner. No good. Picking up a pebble, I tossed it into the far end of the tunnel. They troops shot first before heading over to see what was going on. Just in case, I had my new marionette stand at the entrance, blocking the way into the cave, and got myself ready to fight. But there was no need. As soon as the patrol saw my space marine, they calmed down. The shooting stopped, and instead of turning back around the corner, they came over to check the tunnel.

When the monsters came up even with the entrance to the cave, it was my turn to act. I jumped forward, burying Fang in the back of the far bot. It instantly began to shrivel up, though I wasn’t paying any attention. Instead, my marionette threw itself against the nearest bot and pinned it to the ground. I took care of the one in the middle. By the time it turned, pulled up its blaster, and took aim… It took me just one try to hack its defenses and gain access. Jumping back down onto the ground, I placed my palms on the struggling third monster and waited the two seconds it took to grow my little army.

“Damn.” Grust was clearly impressed when two more two-meter beasts armed with blasters followed me back in. They were as obedient as puppies.

“You’re telling me,” I grunted, though I wasn’t nearly as positive about it. I knew exactly what my limit for extra devices was — fifteen, with one already taken up by Drone, wherever it was. And while everything was fine with the three fighters I had, it was the first time I was trying anything like that. I wasn’t just connected to them; I was them, completely controlling their every movement.

“Let’s go. We need another ten of these bad boys.”

Getting my hands on them turned out to be almost embarrassingly easy. There were plenty of three-bot patrols, and they didn’t react at all when they saw my marionettes. The assumption was that they were all on the same side. From there, I followed the usual script. My team dropped them to the floor, while I ran over and took control one by one. The whole process took between one and three seconds. Ten minutes, in other words, and I couldn’t fit any more in my little army. Thirteen level fifteen fighters was an impressive force.

Suddenly, I heard a gong, and my detachment twitched and looked off to the side. Other bots ran past, not paying Grust or me the least bit of attention. Their footsteps rattled through the air, there was an explosion a few seconds later, and I understood what was going on. Villian had gotten ready for the higher-level fighters by mining the entrance and using some kind of summoner that made the dungeon monsters forget what they were doing and dash over to their death.

But the good news there was that I knew where my main adversary was. All I had to do was march forward behind my troops.

“Where are you going?” I asked in surprise when I saw Grust dash forward. “Get back here!”

“But what about…?” My partner stopped, his eyes jumping back and forth between my army and the bend the bots were disappearing around.

“We can’t do anything against Tsarter. They have named armor at level 22, and their boss is past level 30. Your Swallow will just tickle them. So, we have to stick with the original plan.”

“Oh, we have a plan?”

“Of course. We have a plan, and we’re following it.”

We headed back to the cave, and I sat right down on the floor to concentrate on my marionettes. I didn’t want to explain to my partner that my head was splitting, and that I just physically couldn’t go running around the tunnels. No matter what you do, including mass control of other units, you need practice. Jumping right in because it seemed like a good enough idea didn’t get you far. But there was another reason we were staying in the cave — if my troops met their end in a bloody fiasco, I didn’t want Grust to see it.

Surprisingly, the players hadn’t set up at the entrance to the dungeon like the last time; they’d taken up a position in the second-largest cave. I ordered my troops into a formation I thought was perfect: four in front lying down, four kneeling behind them, and four more standing behind them. Twelve blasters aimed straight ahead, ready to gun down any opponent. One bot served as an expendable scout. Dropping it to the ground, I crawled it forward. Bots rushed by from the far corners of the dungeon only to end their journey around the bend in a hail of energy. When I got to the bend, I peeked out carefully to appraise the situation. Five Tsarter mercenaries were occupying the entrance to the cave, raining gunfire down on the onrushing space marines from behind a powerful shield. Like crazed animals, the latter ran up and only pulled their weapons out once they’d arrived. At least, that’s what they tried to do. Nobody actually let them get that far. Only a few red flashes smacked into the players’ defenses, not really presenting much of a problem.

Move out! Roll around and get into position!

I appreciated the synchronicity my forces moved with. Running out, the monsters summersaulted out from behind the corner and jumped to their feet, blasters aimed at the Tsarter shield. That seemed to me the best strategy, especially given the fact that the other doomed bots were still rushing by. My twelve fighters took up their positions and opened fire. The Tsarter defenses flickered and sagged, incapable of bearing up under the concentrated firepower. The few seconds of confusion that bought cost the mercenaries their advantage — four other dungeon spawn had time to pull out their blasters and make it to the shield generator, firing as they went. Not spending time to think up anything more tactical, they just threw their bodies at the device. The protective field blinked and disappeared, as did the monsters. The players were perfectly willing to show the game what they were capable of. Not a trace remained of the quartet.

But the job was done. Their protection down, the players were forced to rely on what they each had, and I concentrated my fire on just one of them. My marionettes fired with pretty good accuracy, launching three or four shots a second, so I had high hopes of beating through a single player’s defenses. A grenade was launched into the air. But my scout was still lying on the ground, and I used it to take care of that problem. My pistol shooting skill worked well enough for the blasters that knocking the flying object out of the air as soon as it appeared wasn’t too much of a problem. Just as it detonated, bathing the Tsarter group and their protection in fire, my relentless attack bore fruit.

You killed a player from the owner’s personal guard.

You can collect 1 named item in the store.

Level +20 (274).

10 free attribute points received.

One down! Of course, the battle had been a costly one for me, too — of the twelve marionettes in my detachment, only six remained. The space marines’ level fifteen didn’t have much to say against the players’ advanced weaponry.

One more volley, and the players disappeared inside the cave. The rest of the monsters finally arriving from the far corners of the dungeon threw themselves at the entrance only to die ingloriously to the concentrated fire coming from inside. A couple times, I noticed some kind of device looking like a camera poking out, and I immediately destroyed it. The idiot monsters never would have opened fire on something inanimate. And during the ensuing pause, I had an idea. If detonating that grenade helped kill one player, what if… My scout crawled away from the corner and trotted over to where I was. Once a plan comes to you, the best thing to do is execute right away.

The store started printing out mines. Stopping at twenty, since my commando couldn’t carry anymore, I also threw in a level seven camouflage field generator and an area scanner. The whole lot cost me a cool fifteen million. It wasn’t the time to cut corners.

Grust helped me load the marionette up with explosives, attaching them to its legs, arms, and body. Really, anywhere we could fit them. The load was a heavy one, and the poor guy couldn’t run nearly the way it had before. Still, nobody was coming out of the cave. That had me nervous, though it bought me time. Villian has something up its sleeve. I wonder if it has invisibility.

Oh, damn it. Of course, it does! The six troops I had still alive began randomly shooting up the tunnel, doing their best to hit my invisible opponent. Certainly, it might not have been there, but I couldn’t risk it. The marionettes didn’t need energy blocks, after all — the game covered their expenditures itself.

Finally, the scout was back in position. There still was no news from the players, and I didn’t like that one bit. Happy that I had some of my processing power back, I began scanning the area around me with device control. Blood began dripping from my nose almost immediately — the strain was taking a toll, though I wasn’t about to throw in the towel. Better get the problems out of the way now than have Villian and his dogs come after me.

Once I was sure the surroundings were clear, I pushed the scout forward under an unrelenting hail of fire from the blasters. The tunnel wasn’t that long, just thirty meters or so, but I didn’t risk getting right up to the entrance. One stray bullet, and my whole plan would have gone up in flames. And so, with that in mind, I stopped the scout a few meters away from the entrance and pressed it all the way up against the wall. Then, I had it pull out the camouflage device to disappear from all the scanners in the area. I was pretty sure even Raptor wouldn’t have been able to locate it.

The last part of my plan was to get my opponent to make a move. Assuming the problem was with my fighters, I sent them toward the entrance, keeping up their fire in the meantime. If anyone peeked out, they were going to get a very warm welcome.

But what I didn’t expect was for shadows to appear behind the group. Three mercenaries appeared on the scout’s scanner, they made a few quick movements, and the tunnel fell completely silent. All six of my space marines were down. Wait, what just happened?

“Not bad, Mark. Not bad at all!” Villian called through the tunnels. “Interesting move, and let me be the first to congratulate you. By killing Bardin, you freed up a spot next to me. But what are you going to do next? You’re out of marionettes, and the next round is the boss. Think you’re going to control it? Sweep the dungeon! There’s one more monster stuck somewhere, so find it, and the pearl will be ours.”

Red dots lit up on the scanner. I’d figured that was why it hadn’t been picking anything up — the players had been hiding under a protective dome. Half of them headed toward the entrance; the other half rushed off toward the far side of the cave. And that’s when it hit me that there was a second way out. You idiot! For some reason, I’d been thinking that the players had run themselves into a corner by hiding in the cave, but that was just another mistake on my part. I’d lost the marionettes for the same reason — they’d been outflanked.

Whatever, we’ll keep going. Waiting for the crowd of players to leave the cave, I activated the detonators. And that was when I actually ran out of marionettes.

You destroyed the third round of monsters.

The dungeon has been updated, monster levels bumped up twice (current: 17).

Final round. Single combat.

***

You killed 4 players from the owner’s personal guard.

You can collect 4 (5) named items in the store.

Level +80 (354).

40 free attribute points received.

***

You destroyed 8G7-4, the fifth spawn of your hexagon’s general.

Level +5 (359).

5 free attribute points received.

Player GRN7-5 promoted to GRN7-4.

Oh, not bad! No sooner had the sound of stones raining down died away, than Villian’s furious voice rang out.

“Mark Derwin, you’re dead! You hear me?! I’m going to rip you in half with my bare hands!”

Finally, we were done with the you’re going to be with me and the I’ll train you in the next release. Villian was showing its true colors. Well, you’re down to just three minions. We were going to see what it could do with them.

“Really, Mark, what’s next?” Grust asked.

“You’ll see,” I replied with a bloodthirsty smile as I searched my consciousness for access to the mines I’d set earlier. “Let’s do this.”

Boom!

Chapter 23

Congratulations!

You won the single combat.

Letio Durvale cleared.

Level +3 (362).

Reward generated.

Rainbow pearl materialized.

UNLIKE THE PREVIOUS TIME, the dungeon didn’t make me the sole recipient of the prize regardless of the fact that I’d killed the boss on my own. Whatever it was, it hadn’t been capable of standing up to ninety thermal mines going off at once. But I did have to hurry — Villian could also read, and it was presumable dashing over to the main cave. I need to meet it there.

“Stay here and hide under this dome!” I barked at Grust as I tossed him a level six camouflage field generator. I hope that’s good enough for him to stay hidden from Villian and the rest of Four’s underlings. Certainly, they were going to find him eventually, as they’d either search the whole dungeon from top to bottom or head right over to the cave. My money was on the first option — it gave me more time to maneuver. As far as I was concerned, I sprinted off toward the main cave. It was tough to still call it that, of course, as the explosion had turned once-imposing walls into piles of rubble. But yet again, I got lucky. All the other entrances were blocked, meaning the only way to get to the boss was by venturing into range of my device control.

An enormous pirate’s chest sat in a deep crater right in the middle of the cave. Jumping over and lifting the lid, I didn’t bother to read the names or descriptions of the items before tossing all five of them into my virtual storage. I’ll have time for that later if I survive. In the meantime, all my attention was drawn to a small, shimmering sphere the size of a tennis ball. It looked a lot like noa, in fact. Also sporting rainbow colors and flashing lightning, it was hovering in the air next to the chest. All I had to do was grab it for a message to pop up in my brain:

Mark Derwin collected the rainbow pearl. Information sent to all players in World of the Changed.

I wasn’t thrilled about that. A hundred million to one, everyone was going to come at me trying to get their hands on it. By the way, what’s so special about it?

Rainbow pearl. Description: Unique item used to turn all attribute and skill points into free attribute points while retaining levels and restoring the body to the first backup. All points can be reused. The item’s special property depends on the player using it. For players who are personified noa, using the rainbow pearl completely restores their original body and transfers their mind to it. Once the game is complete, the player will not be destroyed. Cost: None.

It took everything in me not to use the pearl right then and there. No, I can’t! As long as I was personified noa, the owner couldn’t slap penalties on me or make me a pariah. If I turned back into a person, I’d get hit with absolutely everything it could throw at me. Not right now. As soon as I knew the game was about to end, I was going to use it. Of course, so long as I could hang onto it. The pearl categorically refused to find a new home in my virtual storage.

Dropping it into a jacket pocket, I crawled out of the crater, made my way across the rubble, pressed myself against the wall, and headed back, scanning the area as I went. I needed to make sure I was close to the cave where my partner was when —

I didn’t have time to finish that thought before my device control picked up a red dot. And it wasn’t in the cave or in the tunnel in front of me; it was in the tunnel right on the other side of the wall I was up against. Without a second thought, I threw everything I had at the dot in an attempt to take it out with one strike.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of player DG-30K.

Probability of successful hack: 65%.

Attempt 1… Successful.

Wait, the ability works through walls? Nice! Block the bastard! Is there a camera? Damn it, there is! Connect. Sound! Where’s the sound?!

“…in this cave,” Villian said, pointing at something on its tablet. Turning the lens slightly, I saw that the mercenary was looking at a map of the dungeon and pointing confidently right at the spot where Grust was hiding. Bastard!

“We can burn him out, no problem.”

“What about Mark?” one of the fighters asked. I had the robot take a step away to see how bad the situation was. Villian and its three mercenaries were the strike force, though they were accompanied in the tunnel by five of Four’s newly unemployed underlings. Or, at least, four of them — one was under my control. I didn’t have access to its weapon or the store. Either it didn’t have access, or working through the wall was putting a damper on things.

Villian looked up, annoyed that my marionette was moving, though it almost immediately looked back down at the screen.

“I don’t see him right now, but he has to be hiding in the main cave. That’s how it was last time; that’s how it’ll be this time. Search under every rock, use the flamethrowers, and make sure you cover every millimeter. Keep an eye out for mines — Mark likes to throw them around. Okay, we don’t have much time left, so get to it!”

Flamethrowers! Sure, they weren’t weapons in the direct sense, and they were apparently listed as secondary devices, but I had access to the one my robot had. The settings were simple — force and duration. Turning the force up as high as it would go, I turned my marionette toward the mercenaries and hit the button to activate it with relish. I never would have thought I could be so bloodthirsty.

“No-o-o!” The shrieking chorus that gurgled away a moment later was music to my ears. The stream of napalm was so powerful that two mercenaries found themselves lying in pools of melted metal. The third was luckier, as it managed to dodge and get away with heavy burns and a charred arm. Villian, the bastard, was untouched. I immediately lost control of the robot as it was taken out.

You killed 2 players from the owner’s personal guard.

You can collect 2 (7) named items in the store.

Level +40 (402).

20 free attribute points received.

I threw myself against the wall trying to sense one of the other robots, but to no avail. Either they weren’t close enough, or they no longer existed. Villian may very well have decided to eliminate any potential threats. I wanted to yell something about how the mercenary was next, but that would have been a mistake. Let it think I’m in the tunnel next to them. It was better to have the creature on edge.

But then, it hit me that I wasn’t sure what to do next. On the one hand, Villian needed the pearl more than me, which meant it was going to come for it, and I needed to set up a defense. On the other, I couldn’t just sit in one spot waiting for who-knows-what. The explosion had turned the main cave into a spot I didn’t want to stay in. If Villian left the dungeon, it could mine the entrance, and it wouldn’t even have had to be in the location to get the desired result. I would be blown to pieces, the location would be opened up, and the pearl would be right there for the taking so long as it survived the blast.

So long as it survived the blast! That meant that option was out of the question — the mercenary wasn’t going to risk it. It needed the pearl whole and unharmed, otherwise the general wouldn’t be giving out any rewards. And that was why I couldn’t stay in one spot. The robots had sleeping gas they could flood the cave with, and I already knew it didn’t work on Tsarter fighters.

There it is! I had to wonder what was wrong with my memory — of course, there were first aid items. Pulling up the store, I bought a few syringes with a sedative. That was the only option for neutralizing players for at least a couple hours. There was no telling what Villian used to constantly block regeneration and turn me into a statue, as I couldn’t find anything matching that description. Nope, none of this.

I slipped noiselessly into the tunnel, doing my best to keep as close to the wall as possible as I scanned the area with my device control. The hope was still there to find an opponent through the wall, but it was not to be. Half an hour later, my slow crawl had gotten me to where the mercenaries had gone up in flames. Both the charred bodies and metal remains were lying there. Villian had indeed taken out the rest of Four’s underlings to make sure they couldn’t be used against it, but what really stunned me was that the mercenary I’d wounded was there, too. Its head was lying next to its body, removed with one clean swipe. None of the bodies had phones or loot I could take. Villian had stripped them, making sure I didn’t get a single coin.

My curiosity piqued, I headed down the corridor toward where I’d been able to blow up an entire crowd of players including the general’s spawn and the mercenaries. But all I could do was growl through gritted teeth when I got there. Villian had beaten me to the punch. Nothing was left of the robots, the dark dust showing me that the green-skinned beast had simply disintegrated them. And what remained of the mercenaries was stripped and looted. Again, there were neither phones nor loot. The Tsarter leader had been thorough.

Although, no, there actually was loot. Ten glimmering spheres of noa were lying in the middle of the corridor, all attention drawn right to them. That seemed suspicious, but there weren’t any explosives nearby. The spheres were doing nothing but drive back the darkness of the dungeon from their spot on the ground. Once again, my nose started bleeding as I strained my device control. Villian wouldn’t have just left them there, would he? There has to be some kind of trap. But I couldn’t find anything. Not the green-skinned mercenary, not explosives, not a trap. Go pick them up, I guess.

Once I got my nerve up, I did exactly that. And as soon as I touched them, I cringed, expecting an explosion, but there was nothing forthcoming. The mercenary leader had just left the noa there, not wanting to… Ah-ha, exactly! It hadn’t wanted to shine in the ether like a Christmas tree. That was why it had left the noa for me. It couldn’t have destroyed it — the owner would have had its head.

Villian Po is trying to connect to your protection.

Probability of successful hack: 0%.

What?! Device control tried once more, finally showing me where Villian was. As it risked trying to hack me, it showed me where it was, as well, temporarily dropping its protection. The mercenary leader was right at the edge of my scanner’s range. Still, that was enough for a counterattack.

You’re trying to hack the defenses of player Villian Po.

Sum total of your skill levels: 600 (device control: 150, hacking: 150, perception: 150, anatomy master: 150).

Sum total of Villian Po’s protection: 560 (hacking protection: 140, resistance: 140, resilience: 140, willpower: 140).

Probability of successful hack: 6.7% (1 — 560/600).

Attempt 1… Successful.

Block! Block it right now!

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the message. I pulled it off on the first try! The first! I’d thought of the mercenary as a god, and there it was.

The time Five had taken me over popped into my head. Back then, my phone had obediently flown over to it, leaving me poor and alone. I held out a hand and tried the same trick, and Villian’s device slapped suddenly against my palm. A wave of importance washed over me — it took a few deep breaths to calm myself down. The phone’s screen lit up to show me how much cash my opponent had on it. Almost 800 million coins?! I was stunned. Where do you even come up with that many? That was definitely going to be enough to pay for —

Wait, what? No!

Villian’s device disintegrated into black dust in my hand. Right then, I was also informed that I’d lost control over my opponent’s equipment. Looking over in surprise, I just had time to notice the green-skinned mercenary’s armor crumbling away. It stood there naked for a second, after which it dissolved into the space around it. Before it went, I earned myself a fairly clear gesture — one thumb was dragged across its throat.

A level four flamethrower cost pennies, just about a hundred thousand coins. The next level up was out of reach for me — I didn’t meet the requirements, and I didn’t have time right them to boost them. Still, it was a dangerous weapon for a naked opponent. The stream of napalm poured over the spot where Villian had just been standing, but it was no longer there. Bathing the walls, ceiling, and ground in fire also gave me nothing.

A chill ran down my spine. What did it just do? How had it been able to destroy its items and get away?

“So, you’re worthless without your toys,” said a sneering voice. It felt like it was coming from everywhere. I spun around as if dancing on a hot frying pan, trying to find my opponent, but it was pointless.

“First, I’m going to destroy you, and then I’m going to take my time with your sister. Everything I can imagine, I’ll try on her, though I’ll make sure she stays alive as long as possible. You can’t even begin to comprehend what she’s in for,” Villian called. It sounded like the voice was coming from the direction of the main cave. Turning my flamethrower on as high as it would go, I ran in that direction, keeping the stream of fire working over the entire space. The green mug had been able to beat through my defenses and make me sweat. I would have done anything for Squirrel.

But there was nobody in the cave, either. All I heard was Villian’s diabolical laughter bouncing off the walls and making the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Beside myself with rage, I started turning the napalm right and left, trying to catch the invisible bastard. I had no doubt it was nearby.

“That’s enough — you lost.” The mercenary’s voice sounded right next to my ear. I jumped, but it was too late. Villian’s usual syringe filled with the blocking potion slipped into my body. “You disappoint me, Mark Derwin. All I had to do was turn up the heat a little, and you found your usual spot in deep shit.”

Like some kind of spider, Villian dropped its head down from the ceiling, holding on to a slender thread with legs and its tail. What, it’s an arachnid, too?

“So, this is our rainbow pearl?” Letting itself down onto the ground, Villian tossed the flamethrower to one side and pulled my loot out of my pocket. “Hm… Interesting description… So, individually for every… Yes, I didn’t expect that…”

“Didn’t expect this, either,” Grust said, and the green creature’s knees burst into bloody fountains. Flipping upside down, it began pulling itself back up to the ceiling, though my partner’s next shoot took out the thread as well as its tail. The Tsarter leader crashed to the ground and disappeared — that wasn’t enough to stop Swallow, however. Grust didn’t need to see his target; he could orient himself with his senses. More bloody fountains spouted to knock Villian out of invisibility. Its arms and shoulders were shot clean through. Still, that wasn’t enough for my partner, whose next few rounds penetrated the creature’s stomach. Grust was maniacal, enjoying his work to the point that I had to intervene.

Grust joined your group: Don’t kill it! We need it alive!

“What do you care?” Grust came over to me, breathing hard. Judging by his battered outfit, he’d been through a rough patch, as well. He pulled out his phone when he realized that I couldn’t respond. Yes, Grust had had enough — I could see his hands shaking. Printing out two regeneration syringes, he buried one in himself and the other in me. A couple seconds later, my body softened. I was back in control.

“We can’t kill him right now!” I was finally able to explain myself as I bought a BRO-I outfit in the store. What was left of Villian was crawling across the floor in an attempt to escape, though two sedatives put an end to that. I was able to shove the creature into the armor.

“Why? Do you have any idea what it did to me?”

Grust took off his helmet, and I jumped. His head looked like a well roasted piece of meat. How he was managing to walk, not to mention how he’d survived, was a mystery. Still, I found the strength to look him in the eye and even stand up for my own interests.

“The burns will be gone in eight hours if not sooner. But if we kill Villian, I’ll be neutered. It hid my named items in its virtual storage in its phone, and I can’t get them out. Killing it means waving goodbye to me — no armor, no weapons, nothing. No, it needs to stay alive.”

After blocking the BRO-I suit and turning the green-skinned creature into a statue, I slumped down wearily onto the ground. That was it — I had the pearl, my main opponents were defeated, and everyone was happy. But I couldn’t get into the spirit of things. Without my named items, I was powerless.

“Screw you. Just remember this — if it kills you, you can bet I won’t be bringing you back,” Grust shot back angrily. “And you’re hauling it around yourself.”

He slipped his helmet back on his head, mercifully concealing the blood-curdling vision, and headed toward the exit. Figuring that arguing was pointless, I pulled myself to my feet with a groan, grabbed Villian, and followed him. But as I turned yet another corner, I nearly ran smack into my partner’s back.

“What’s wrong?” Fang appeared in my hand, ready in an instant to take on all comers.

“Do you know her?” Grust nodded at a motionless body lying by the dungeon entrance. Only the rise and fall of her chest told me she was alive and blocked, while my perception told me where I’d seen the perfect body.

“One of Four’s slaves, Mary Larcon. She was the one who brought me back after Four took off my head,” I replied. “But I wouldn’t have thought she’d survive everything that happened here in the dungeon.”

“What are we going to do with her?”

“Take her to the safe zone and figure out what to do there,” I said, earning an approving grunt. He liked that idea. “By the way, I have a great offer for you.”

I held two units of noa out to him.

“Why? You’re alive. Or is that just in case something happens?”

“Take them — you’ll like this.” I snorted and picked Mary up, the girl weighing next to nothing. “Just remember that when noa revives someone, they appear completely naked.”

“What are you talking about?” Grust replied, his voice even getting irritable.

“It’s not just you and me noa can bring back to life. It’s anybody — Milady, for example. Or Little,” I said. It was just a shame Grust was wearing his helmet — I would have liked to see the stunned look on his burnt face. But it was enough that he threw his arms around me, though a couple of Mary’s bones crunched. A leg twisted awkwardly.

“You’re going to kill her!” I yelled, trying to pull myself free. “Are you going to bring them back now or wait until your face heals?”

“Oh, right!” he sighed as he let me go. To make things up, he printed out a regeneration syringe and stuck it into Mary. “A little later — I don’t want to scare them.”

“In that case, let’s head over to see Verloven. I owe him a little something.”

The strange red dots I’d just recently seen right outside the dungeon turned out to be nothing more than a minefield. Of course, I very nearly staggered right into it, though that was neither here nor there. Gaining control was easy enough — the mines belonged to Four and weren’t transferred over to its successor. With that taken care of, and by the time Grust emerged from the shimmering film, I was all set. Twenty million coins paid for an LTS I loaded Villian and carefully placed Mary onto. The girl had come to, I thought, though her wounds had been bad enough that she’d been knocked out while her body was being restored.

If we had a tail, they were slow and tentative. It took us about two hours to get to Verloven’s location, and the function met us at its gazebo, doing its best to look like all the chaos going on didn’t bother it in the least. Of course, its eyes kept darting over toward the LTS. I held out the noa.

“Does that cover what I owe you?”

“It does, Mark Derwin,” it replied, again glancing over at the flying vehicle. Of course — that’s where Grust was. The old character had already sold him once, and it was probably trying to figure out how to get hold of him a second time. But its next question took me aback.

“I’d like to buy that slave girl. I’ll give you two named items for her.”

“But you aren’t human. What do you care about her?”

“She isn’t human, either,” Verloven replied to my amazement. “Mary Larcon isn’t a natural release player. That’s why I’d like to take her off your hands.”

“No.” Two named items was a tempting offer, but selling another person…or at least, a person-like creature…was not something I was okay with.

“Two named items and three green explosions. I see you know what they are.”

“I said no!” I shot back angrily, though I decided to give the function one last chance. Maybe, I can get some information. “But do you want noa?”

“I don’t want anything besides the slave girl.” Verloven plastered a look of hurt innocence on its face. The old guy had apparently been expecting me to start dickering and try to get something else out of it, but it was wrong. I wasn’t about to trade Mary. I wasn’t trying to prove anything to the function, either. It was part of the program, and it would follow whatever whim it got in its head as far as it would go. But fine, screw it. I didn’t need to go see Olsen, so that just left one thing I needed to take care of as soon as possible.

You called Squirrel Derwin. User unavailable. Would you like to wake the person currently holding the phone?

Of course! Wakey, wakey, Wart. It was time for us to finally meet in person.

“Well, did you find it?” the sleepy voice on the other end of the line asked.

“I did. Tell me where to go.”

“Describe it,” Wart said suddenly. The tricky bastard! He definitely knew what the pearl looked like, so making something up would have been difficult. And he was going to be careful before handing me any coordinates. Does he even know he’s a goner one way or another? I wasn’t about to forgive him for what he’d put me through with Squirrel — I hated blackmailers.

“A sphere the size of a tennis ball shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. There’s lightning flashing inside it, too. The description is interesting, especially how it works differently for everybody. Good enough for you?”

“Yes, certainly.” Hope appeared in Wart’s voice. “Take down the coordinates. How long will it take you to get here?”

“Three or four hours, though I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get down to your level. Wait there — I’m on my way.”

After I’d written down the coordinates, I turned to Grust.

“Wait here. I’m going for my sister alone.”

“And why is that?” he asked with a frown.

“Because whenever we try to do things together, you get killed. You have the chance to get your girl back, and I don’t want to get between the two of you. Three and Two are over in the location I’m headed toward. They’re tough cookies, and you can’t show up if you aren’t ready. Stay here, do some leveling-up, and we’ll decide what we want to do next when I get back.”

“You can’t leave your prisoner here!” Verloven appeared next to the LTS as soon as I dropped Villian on the ground. “As long as it belongs to you, you’re responsible, but I’ll have to free it as soon as you leave the location. Is that okay with you, Mark Derwin?”

The old man was apparently getting his revenge. I had to load the Tsarter leader back up onto the flying vehicle, which was definitely a risk — if anything went wrong, it would go from being my prisoner to being my jailer. I wasn’t going to leave Mary there, either. The old function had an unpleasant look on its face when it looked at her, and I was sure it would do anything it could to get its hands on her. No way!

Grust tried to push back, but it was more for show. All he could think about were the two spheres he was still holding in his hands. It was a temporary happiness he was going to be getting back, but it was happiness, nonetheless. Finally, I had the chance to pay him back for everything he’d done for me. It was even a bit more than I owed him, I thought.

There was no point flying over to the first location I’d freed. The crazy soldiers were there, and I didn’t have the energy to deal with them. And that meant I was headed for the capital. The nuclear explosion had happened less than a month before, which meant the location was relatively safe. At least, for Mary, if not for me. I ended up buying a BRO-VI and slipping the naked girl inside with puppy-dog joy. It was all I could do to keep from looking at her. Even in the armor, she was perfection, and I had to admit that Verloven had been right — humans don’t look that good.

All my thoughts of Mary disappeared when I reached the city. Drone, which I’d picked up, flew on ahead, scanning the area. Nobody got in my way. In fact, it was like the path forward had been cleared just for me. There were lots of players in the location, though they were all in the center, and I wasn’t about to head in that direction. Continually checking my map, I got to the coordinates and…

I froze.

An enormous shaft stretched down deep into the ground right where Wart had told me to go. The mountains of earth next to it hadn’t even had time to dry — it had been dug up just recently. No longer caring about risk, I flew downward, only to find myself staring at two capsules lying at the bottom. They’d been pried open, and there was a creature lying in one. It was a stretch to call it human. Really, it looked like the victim of a crazed surgeon running a series of experiments, as it was covered in sores, growths, and tumors. But it was alive and trying to say something. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make out what Wart wanted to tell me, as there was something fixed to his face. As soon as I flew closer, a recorded voice began playing back.

“Mark Derwin, this is Two. If you want your sister back alive and well, you need to do a few jobs for us. To keep each other safe, we’ll use Olsen to talk. Go see the function now. It is aware of the situation and will give you your first instructions — you’ll have three days to make up your mind. If you decline, your sister will die, and she’ll be tortured to the point that she loses her mind. You won’t be able to get her back with noa. Three days, Mark Derwin.”

Sparks exploded, and the head belonging to the creature named Wart disappeared in a burst of blue flames. His time in World of the Changed was over.

Villian Po invited you to join a group: Your only way forward is now working with me. It’s your only shot at saving your sister. Let me loose, and we’ll talk.

I looked around with a haunted expression on my face in an attempt to find a clue telling me what to do. But there were none. You know what, you green bastard? Screw it. Let’s do this.

End of Book Two

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Kaitlyn Weiss works in the genres of romantic fantasy, urban fantasy and fantasy adventure. You can download her first book FOR FREE on Amazon:

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No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

The Incarnator (Project Stellar Book 1) LitRPG Series

by Roman Prokofiev

Clan Dominance: The Sleepless Ones (Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Dem Mikhailov

An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2) LitRPG series

by Vasily Mahanenko

Neue Versionen (in Deutscher Sprache)!

Survival Quest: LitRPG-Serie

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Sehr geehrte Leserinnen und Leser, die ersten beiden Bücher der Reihe wurden von Lubbe herausgegeben und sind im Handel und bei Amazon erhältlich.

Leider hat der Verlag beschlossen, die Serie nicht weiter zu übersetzen, und wir haben uns entschlossen, dies selbst zu tun.

ALL BOOKS BY VASILY MAHANENKO:

The Way of the Shaman LitRPG Series:

Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1)

The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2)

The Secret of the Dark Forest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3)

The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4)

The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5)

Shaman's Revenge (The Way of the Shaman Book #6)

Clans War (The Way of the Shaman: Book #7)

The Hour of Pain (The Way of the Shaman Bonus Story)

The Way of the Shaman Comic Book:

The Way of the Shaman. Step 1: The Beginning: Volume One

The Way of the Shaman. Step 2: The First Day: Volume Two

Dark Paladin LitRPG Series:

The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1)

The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2)

Restart (Dark Paladin Book #3)

Galactogon LitRPG Series:

Start The Game (Galactogon: Book #1)

In Search of the Uldans   (Galactogon Book #2)

A Check for a Billion (Galactogon Book #3) LitRPG series

Invasion LitRPG Series:

A Second Chance (Invasion Book #1)

An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2)

World of the Changed LitRPG Series:

No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1)

Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2)

Noa in the Flesh (World of the Changed Book #3)

Short Stories:

You're in Game!

(LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors)

You’re In Game-2

(More LitRPG stories set in your favorite worlds!)

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About the Author

Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.

Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.

The English translation of The Way of the Shaman series is now available to the English-language reader in its entirety. So is his other LitRPG series, The Dark Paladin. Vasily’s latest project to date is also set in the world of Barliona: The Renegades (The Bard from Barliona Book #1) LitRPG Series, co-written with another Russian author, Eugenia Dmitrieva.

Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he works on a sci fi LitRPG series entitled Galactogon. Set in a space-simulator based world, the first two books of the series are already available in English on Amazon.

He’s also released a graphic novel series based on his bestselling series: The Way of the Shaman Comic Book. The English translation of the first two installments are available here and here. Alternatively, check the book on the author's site: http://mahanenko.ru/en/Comics-1.