Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  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 w
here 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.”