Hey, the zombie had crept closer! He was hiding behind a pile of broken bricks, thinking that I couldn’t see him. I didn’t like having him so close. I really needed to get rid of him but lacked the strength for it right now. His weapon was longer, too. By the time I got close enough to strike him with my sword fragment, he’d be able to stab me several times with his spear, despite the slowness of the undead.
All right, no time to sit around. My Life bar had almost completely recovered and the poisoning had worn off.
To the next tunnel! I held my breath and ran as fast as I could. The handmade torch turned out to be a great help. At least I didn’t trip over any rocks underfoot. I rapidly crossed the dangerous part, reached a section of tunnel clean of vapors and immediately spotted an arched doorway in the wall. I stopped to catch my breath, then looked through it. Perfect! A stone shaft with rusted brackets led upwards.
Without waiting for the poisoning to pass, I start climbing, having secured the torch behind me.
I saw a rusted grate. Excellent, I’m nearly there!
The hinges made a long screech and debris showered down on my head. I lifted the barrier up a little and looked outside. It was dark and damp. Another underground level?
I’d find out in a minute, as soon as I recovered some Stamina.
I sat on the floor and looked around me. The room appeared abandoned, like it hadn’t been used in a very long time. A stone gutter ran up at an angle, ending at a nailed-up archway. Pale rays of daylight could be seen through the gaps.
I used the sword fragment to lever several boards loose. I’d made it!
“Guards!” Came the sudden female screech. “It’s a necro! It’s coming from the old sewerage system!”
I heard the clatter of boots and jangling of weapons. I was almost blind after the darkness in the dungeon.
“Get ready to fire! Burn the monster!”
“Wait, it looks human!”
“What human? Can’t you see his green aura? He’s a necro for sure!”
Whom were they talking about?
“Hey, guys, I haven’t got a necrotic aura. My moss is glowing!”
“Burn the monster!”
I recoiled instinctively and tumbled down the sloping gutter just in time. A fireball knocked out the remaining flimsy boards and the roaring flame scorched the stone walls, leaving soot behind.
“Hey! I’m just lost!”
My voice was lost in the thunder. The spinning, smoldering sparks went out and something burst open with a sharp twang and a shower of icy fragments. Frost rapidly spread along the walls. Oh, so if I hadn’t been burnt to a crisp, I’d be killed by the ice? The town guards were terrified of the underground for some reason and weren’t willing to take the risk. They must have had good reasons, but what was I supposed to do?
“Block the entrance!” came the order. “Quickly! Fire and ice aren’t going to stop it.”
Damn. It seemed like they had taken me for a highly dangerous monster.
The ground shook. Elemental power was being used. High-level mages must have joined the patrol surprisingly quickly, as I doubted that the average person was capable of such a thing — the walls suddenly lost their solidity and began to melt as if the stone had turned to wax.
I didn’t have time to retreat into the shaft. There was a crunch of bones, an instant of unbearable pain, and a system message appeared among the crimson darkness:
YOU HAVE DIED.
You have lost one level.
* * *
I must have lost not only a level but also consciousness because I didn’t remember anything from the twenty minutes between death and revival. I came to in the respawn circle.
A reeking creek gurgled quietly. Rats squeaked among the piles of refuse.
A centipede stopped in a corner of the vaulted ceiling but wasn’t yet reacting to my appearance.
I lay without moving.
The stench no longer caused me to retch as I had gotten used to it. But if this kept going, the sensory realism would be the end of me. The aftermath of the pain kept me paralyzed but I was in no hurry to get to my feet. I surreptitiously inspected my surroundings. The familiar zombie was sitting with his back to me, stolidly digging around in the packed garbage.
My eye was twitching. There was a nervous tic in my cheek. My wheezy breathing sounded too loud in my own ears, loud enough to make that freak turn around...
What a great reality we have invented. The very embodiment of kindness and civility, we’re intelligent creatures after all, right? So why did our imagination create such things?
Away with these thoughts. Philosophy wasn’t going to help me here. It was just my nerves.
I sat up with a groan and checked my inventory. I hadn’t dropped anything during my virtual death. The sword fragment and the handmade torch were still there. I looked at the moss threads wrapped around the stick and tried to read their properties.
I thought the game would inform me that my low Intellect didn’t allow me to identify the item, plus the fact that I lacked the Herbalist skill, but the system unexpectedly offered a pop-up hint.
Crooked handmade staff.
Additional: weak necrotic aura. +10 response from the undead. -50 response from any living creature. 1% chance of recovering a small amount of health when striking an enemy.
Warning: prolonged use of the item may project the aura onto its owner. Effects have not been studied.
…
I threw away my handicraft with fear and disgust. I would be more careful in the future.
The pain in my chest wouldn’t go away...
The aura surrounding the resurrection stone hadn’t yet faded when a system warning suddenly appeared:
Session time allowed as per medical indications has run out.
Additional metabolic correction required.
Forced exit commenced.
Apologies for the inconvenience. During the time that you undergo medical procedures, your character will remain protected at the resurrection point.
Chapter Four
IT WAS ALREADY evening in the real world.
I didn’t feel too good, that was true. I was tired. My muscles were aching. I didn’t know what exactly the metabolic correction system was doing to me but I couldn’t see much benefit from my time in the VR capsule.
I needed to get a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow was another day. I took a shower and was just about to have supper when I heard a suspicious noise. A quiet whine, as if a servomotor was idling somewhere.
I listened carefully. The sound seemed to be coming from the front door. The indicator lights were green on the security panel so could there be a fault in the system?
They say that full immersion in the digital space doesn’t affect a person in any way. What utter crap! After hours spent in the virtual capsule, I was still on edge. The stress from the virtual deaths still hadn’t let go of me. I didn’t feel safe, as if Denis’ apartment was an extension of the underground.
Who was it scratching at the door?
I hadn’t removed the contact lenses so I connected to the security camera through the smart house control interface.
As I thought. Three young men, strangers, were in the corridor. Two were glancing around, clearly nervous, while the third squatted down by the access panel and was trying to break the electronic lock using a compact device.
The camera’s microphone was working and I could hear their hushed voices. “We shouldn’t have come... We’ve sent him to be rekilled[3] and that’s that. Why take the risk?”
“Dan owes us money now!” Hissed the guy trying to break the lock. “We missed the caravan because of him!”
“Since when?”
“He helped the elf woman escape and she reported us! The town guards would have never gone into the forest otherwise!”
“And since you can’t get to her, you’ve decided to take it out on Dan, is that it? Use your head! This isn’t VR. If we get arrested here...”
&nbs
p; “Wang, shut up! I owe five grand in real life now! The caravan was not supposed to reach the town. He’s ruined all our plans.”
“What do you expect to get from Dan?”
“We’ll see. How long is this going to take?”
“We could have just buzzed the door. We used to party together!”
“Ha, like he’d open the door for us! I bet he’s sitting inside and shaking in his boots! How much longer?”
“Here, I’ve opened it!”
The front door jerked aside. The three guys pushed their way into the apartment and stopped to stare at me.
“Where’s Dan?”
“He’s gone for a walk.”
“And who the hell are you?”
“Not anyone you should worry about. I suggest that you leave before I call the police. You’re not going to get away with just a warning for breaking and entering.”
“I’m gonna snap your bloody arms!” One of the guys pulls out a rubber truncheon with a taser. “Sit down and shut your trap!”
“Or what?” I stirred him up on purpose. They didn’t see me as a worthwhile opponent. Fools. I thought the blond, sturdy youth of about twenty was Savage_Hulk.
“You’ve asked for it!” he charged at me but his strike landed on thin air while the discharge from the taser only damaged one of the apartment’s subsystems. Sparks flew from the wall and tendrils of acrid smoke began to seep from a barely noticeable gap in the paneling. The fire alarm started screaming at once.
“Let’s get out of here!” Wang shouted.
“Oh no, you don’t!” I ripped the police truncheon out of Hulk’s hands and the rest was all on automatic. Wang got zapped with the taser and went limp, I struck Savage on the shin, making him howl with pain and collapse without reaching the door, and I stopped the last guy, who must have been the Dark Warrior, with a powerful stun to the head. He wavered, his gaze growing dull and looking like he was about to faint.
“Would you like to talk now?”
“You’re dead! You’re so dead!” Savage hissed.
We didn’t get a chance to have a heart-to-heart. I was going to call the police myself, but the keepers of the peace responded surprisingly quickly. A patrol car must have been nearby and my ‘helpful’ neighbors had obviously heard the disturbance.
The police acted by the book, I must say. They handcuffed me first. Right out of the shower, wearing only my boxers and with a cudgel in my hands, I must have looked highly suspicious, while the three young men groaning on the floor appeared to be the victims at first glance.
I didn’t resist arrest. We’d sort it out soon.
* * *
“Why are you injuring people, Andrey Dmitrievich? They came to visit a friend and you attacked them. Have you been drinking today? Have you taken anything? You don’t look very well.”
“That’s not how it was, Captain. They broke into the apartment.”
“Really? The three victims are reporting the opposite аnd they’re not contradicting each other. There is no record of a break-in as the discharge destroyed the security system. I think you did that on purpose. By the way, where did you obtain a police taser? It’s not something one can buy in the store.”
This was looking bad. I was literally being set up. I couldn’t figure out why the captain wasn’t interested in finding out the truth and was taking the side of the Dark players but I lost all interest in talking to him. I would just be wasting my time.
“I have the right to make one call.”
He raises an eyebrow. “To your lawyer?” He was practically laughing in my face.
“Something like that. Give me back my communicator. I won’t say another word. One call and you can lock the cell.”
He gave me the communicator with a dismissive gesture. “I’ll be present for the conversation.”
I shrugged and dialed a number. It took a while for the person on the other end to pick up the phone since it was the middle the night. “Max? Did you recognize my voice? Good. Police Precinct 214. Come at once. Yes, problems. Got it, I’m an adult. OK, I’ll be waiting.”
“That’s it?” The captain became wary. “Who is Max? Your drinking buddy? Another army veteran?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
* * *
The lock clicked and the barred door slid aside with a rustle.
“Out you go,” Max Pekhov, my old platoon commander, shook his head. “You haven’t changed at all, Andrey. You’re still as reckless as before.”
“Rich boys?” I shook his hand and nodded subtly in the direction of the ‘victims’.
“Nope. This has nothing to do with the golden youth. They’re the offspring of local gangsters. Come on, I’ll drive you home and we’ll talk on the way.”
“We need to drop by my nephew’s apartment first.”
“What for?”
“I have to collect the access chip to his account.”
“You surprise me. Have you gotten hooked on VR?”
“It’s a matter of principle.”
“You haven’t fought enough in real life?”
“Max, stop nagging. Thanks for getting me out of that mess. I’ll sort the rest out myself.”
“No, you won’t.”
“Meaning?”
“Not here. The walls have ears.”
Yeah. Some popular expressions have become literal in this era of high tech.
“Fine,” I decided not to argue.
Our paths diverged several years ago, during the Asian Conflict. We kept in touch but rang each other only rarely. I never returned to the forces after my injury. Life had scattered us far and wide.
The sky above the megacity had turned a predawn gray. An old, unpretentious CUV stood idling in the parking lot, a little way from the patrol cars.
I got into the back seat and Max sat in front. The driver turned around and stretched out his hand in greeting, “Alexei.”
“Andrey,” I said and shook his hand.
“Max, where are we going?”
“To the Enthusiasts Avenue and then we’ll see.”
“Okay,” the car pulled smoothly out of the parking lot and I sensed a real beast hidden under the hood of the unassuming CUV. Clearly a supercharged engine, custom built.
We drove to Denis’ apartment, I took the chip and wondered what to do with the broken door.
“Don’t worry,” Max noticed my hesitation and patted me on the shoulder. “I’ve already sorted it out. The technicians are coming, they’ll fix the lock and alarm the apartment as well. It won’t do to leave the capsule unguarded,” he sat down in an armchair. “So, tell me, how did you end up in the Edge of the Abyss?”
My story was pretty short, as you know. It only took five minutes.
“A word of advice?” Max looked at me, his eyes narrowed.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t go back into VR.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because of the level of realism. Not many can handle it, trust me.”
“Can you explain?”
“You only die once...” he glared at me. “This phrase is no longer true, don’t you see? Everything is different there. You die and are reborn, again and again.”
“I’ll manage.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, I’m not, but I intend to try again. I’ve got some unfinished business. I can always reduce the sensory level.”
“That’s what everyone thinks. That’s what the developers want you to think. In reality, the reverse is true: even at 10% percent of realism, frequent respawns can send a person mad.”
“Then I’ll try not to die!”
“So, persuading you is pointless? All right, it’s your decision,” he shrugged. “You’ve got the chip? Let’s go, it’d be best if you lie low in the real world for a few days.”
“Wait. Thank you for your help, but why do I need to leave?”
“Let’s go, don’t get stubborn now. The local thugs have found out your address and they w
on’t leave you alone. They’ll send someone better.”
“Seriously?”
“Times change quickly,” Max smiled crookedly in response to my surprised look. “Criminals are striving to get into the digital world. It’s much simpler there. Almost no accountability since everything is part of the gaming process,” his lips twisted in a grimace again. “You’ve seen it yourself. They won’t stop at anything. If someone gets in their way in VR, they’ll find them in the real world.”
Edge of the Abyss (Respawn Trials Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 6
