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 wher
e 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.
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2): LitRPG Series Page 3
