Triangulation... The word w7as vaguely familiar, though I couldn't remember offhand what it meant. The only thing I knew was that they were tracking me using my calls. And that explained a lot — for instance, how they’d found Wart and Squirrel. I'd given them a call a few hours before arriving. That wras also how Five had managed to intercept me in midflight. I’d just been talking on the phone with Gardine. The w7hole time, they’d had their eye on me, and I’d never been the wiser. Bastards!
But why would my own kind shoot at me? What did they need? What could the aliens have promised the troops that w^ould make them go all in against Earth? Did they say they'd take them with them to some planet with beaches and buxom babes? I had far too many questions without a single answer. On the other hand, I knew exactly which direction I needed to go — north. I needed to pay the troops a visit.
Or did I?
A couple hours later, I landed in my other location, the southern one. There weren’t many people left, there were no changed, and I hadn’t given any aliens access. They’d even stopped requesting it. Fully invisible, I made it to the city by the sea, found a solid-looking building, and decided to finally do what I’d been dreaming of ever since World of the Changed had been rolled out on Earth.
It was time to get Squirrel back.
The location was warm, I had plenty of coins for her to do some serious leveling-up, and that meant the only thing I was going to need was to get her past level 100 so her attributes and skills could climb past level 15. Back in the first days of the release, I’d thought level 15 nearly insurmountable, though it was already so insignificant as to barely be worth my time at that point. And only a month had passed.
After getting a blanket ready for my sister, I picked up a unit of noa and began asking the universe to personify Squirrel next to me. I thought back to her laughter, her quirks, the way I felt when I wanted to give it to her on the butt when she was being ridiculous, how she’d cried when our parents had died.
But the universe was even more problematic than my sister. For a long time, nothing happened. The noa didn’t disappear; there was no ghost forthcoming. I even started to think that I’d come across a defective unit. But before I could reach for another one, Raptor explained what was going on.
You can’t use noa to personify a living player.
For a long time, I just stood there looking at where the erstwhile message had long since disappeared. You can't personify living players... Squirrel was alive, and I’d left her alone in the general’s location. But how? She’d somehow survived eleven mines detonating around her. How is that possible?!
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back of my emotional breakdown. Shoving my way into a shopping center, I filched a crate of vodka and decided to mourn my miserable life. The only problem was that it didn’t work in the least. Alcohol apparently didn’t have an effect on players, and even my enraged attempt to stab myself with a regeneration blocker failed. It must have been funny to watch me jab myself with the sharp needle even as my skin proved an insurmountable obstacle.
I gave up after the sixth bottle. No more liquid would fit in me, and I was tired of sitting in a pool of my own sweat. And since I still had the noa right next to me, I told the game to personify Gardine. Grust was off having fun, and I had nobody else to talk to. Maybe, the vodka really is doing something. It had me looking for a conversation.
That time, it worked perfectly. The ghost appeared next to me, and he spent the first while staring down at his own hands in surprise as they slowly gained form. Finally, he grabbed his face with them and yelled at me in annoyance.
“Damn it, Mark, would you take a bath or something? I could smell you from a mile away! Sweet mother, and vodka, too. How do you get out of this place?”
The veterinarian didn't make it as far as the door before emptying the contents of his stomach on the floor. Wobbling out finally, he left me to sniff the air around me. Sure, it wasn't great, but I wouldn’t have said it was all that disgusting. But no sooner did I stand up, than my head began spinning from the smell. It wasn’t so much me; it was the produce that had spent the previous month rotting. I had to quickly dash out after Gardine, gulping down air as soon as I got outside.
He stepped to the side, making it clear he wasn't going to be anywhere near me until I got myself cleaned up. Honestly, that kind of hurt. I'd pulled him out of the darkness, and the ungrateful bastard was holding his nose at me...
Heading over to the store, I plumped down five million coins for an individual cleansing system that worked autonomously. The water was pulled from secondary capsules you had to buy, though they cost practically nothing, and each capsule lasted quite a while. The water was thoroughly filtered.
It's hard to convey the feeling you get when you go from a piece of crap to suddenly feeling human again. Ulbaron began its own cleansing cycle, announcing to me that it was going to take at least an hour. Dropping by a clothing store, I picked out some clean underwear, after which I stepped into my shower and washed away my problems in the hot water. Being clean on the outside finally had me feeling clean on the inside, too. Over the last little while, I’d really started feeling dirty, inside, out, and everywhere else.
“Thanks, I guess,” Gardine said when he came over as soon as I stepped out of the shower. I tossed the device into my inventory only to have water gush down onto the ground, splashing us both. It apparently didn’t take kindly to being stored virtually.
“So, they’re tracking our phones?” I decided to start the conversation apart from the subject of personified noa.
“They can see where people who make calls are located,” Gardine replied. “When we left the location, we were accompanied all the way to the north by monsters and alien players to make sure we weren’t attacked. And they asked about you the whole way. How did you survive? The troops set up their surprise, and I called you, but you weren’t available for whatever reason. Then, when they all ran off to start launching rockets, I took a risk... And here I am... Alive, if temporarily...”
“The key word there is alive,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder.
“For sure. The troops were all crowded around some game device, they were offered some mountains of gold or other, and they bought it. That’s why they started hunting you without caring about the casualties. At this point, they think they’ll save Earth if they can just kill you. Idiots...”
“Why idiots?”
“Well, they believe the aliens and their promises. You have to be a fool not to think that they’ll go back on their word. Did you know they’re here to suck something out of the ground?”
“Yes. It’s called dragon’s blood.”
“Doesn’t matter. What’s important is that they can’t find it themselves. I didn’t hear much, but it has something to do with how iron ore deposits behave. They’re shielding something, I guess. And so, our guys decided to help! The sooner the aliens get what they’re looking for, the sooner they’ll leave, they figure.”
“What do you mean, they can’t get it? They’ve been doing this for how long...” I was surprised, to say the least. “They should know7 all the different variables.”
“You're talking to the wrong guy — all I’m doing is passing on what I heard. The aliens don’t really protect their information, just talking about it in front of everyone. The troops can’t stand that, of course, but there's nothing they can do. They just have to talk with everyone all around. Oh, yeah, that’s how7 I found out that they were planning on launching the missiles.”
I wasn't sure how to react to Gardine’s surprising news. The aliens don't know how to find the dragon's blood? It w7as absurd — they’d shown up on Earth to find it, which meant they should have known all the different ways to identify and mine it. It smacked of another scam. I just didn’t know who was scamming who. Were the aliens scamming the troops, or were the troops scamming me? And why not me? They could have guessed I’d resurrect Gardine. It's possible...
I
really was becoming paranoid. Gardine wasn’t a secret agent risking his life to slip me disinformation. That crossed off the second option, meaning the aliens were the ones running the scam. But what did it matter to them? Why did they need the troops on their side? To keep them from fighting? That made sense, more or less, but... Why wouldn’t they just finish off all Earthlings once and for all? I wasn’t sure why they would be making more problems for themselves.
I needed information. Somehow, I had to break into the alien network and really dig around. Access was key, and it needed to be something like what I’d had with the terminal that belonged to the captain’s lieutenant.
Wait a second! I had a well-guarded base right near where I was. The aliens had vacated the southern location, though they’d left everything right where it was, presumably because they were counting on coming back. The last time I’d flown by, the security system was still working. And that meant there was something there — I just had to get to the bottom of it. What if it’s their network? That would also give me the opportunity to see why the hell Squirrel wasn’t resurrecting.
“When you’re coming up with an idea, you start sniffing like an old St Bernard I once had,” Gardine said suddenly. “I noticed that the first time.”
"Do you have any coins?” I asked as I pulled my helmet on. I’d never caught that about myself.
"How would I? The troops took them all, said they needed them to help save humanity7.”
"Okay, then here. That should last you quite a while — just buy what you need. Oh, and by the way, there are quite a few people here in the location. Could you organize them? I have no idea what’s going on with them, so they could be about ready to die of hunger.”
Twenty7 million coins found their way to Gardine’s account. He even whistled, not expecting them.
“I’m on it,” he said with a nod as he bought himself a simple suit of armor. “You used to have a flying machine of some sort. Do you still have it? I could really use something like that.”
“Sure, here you go.” I had to spend another ten million buying an LTS-i. It was slow, but it could carry quite a crew.
“Great! You’re flying off, right?”
“Yes, there are some things I need to take care of.”
“Okay, just avoid using your phone. Remember that they’re tracking you — our guys and the aliens, too.”
Gardine was always clear and to the point, and I liked that about him. After making sure he had the skills he needed to fly the LTS, I activated my invisibility and flew off in the direction of the airbase. Or, as the aliens called it, their storehouse. Drone, which I’d sent out ahead on a recon mission, told me the security system was still armed and ready. Wien I got closer and looked around, I had to grimace — the whole main airport building was glowing. All that wras left of the original structure was the name, as the thing in front of me was 100% from the game.
The locators and guns didn’t react in the least when I flew closer, though I didn't head right toward the main door in an attempt to hack into the defenses. That, I assumed, the aliens were anticipating. Instead, I picked the thinnest wall I could find and activated Fang. Everything was made of game materials, which meant it all fit beautifully in my inventory. I had no desire for the general or its spawn to find out I wras there.
Fang met no resistance as it buried itself in the wrall up to the hilt. I hacked out a wide hole and barely had time to grab the blocks before they fell. Raptor told me every time a scanner was working us over, so I was able to freeze and wait for a couple seconds. Once the locators turned away, I wTent back to working on the wall, dropping the pieces in my virtual storage. Oddly enough, they were even available for sale. All of them were listed as level five building blocks worth two thousand coins apiece. Looking around, I estimated the size of the building. If I were to get control... Yes, there was a lot of money to be made. Could I do the same thing to the generals city? Td missed that trick when I’d been there. Should have tried out the hangar.
While my thoughts were far off in the land of unrealized gain, my body kept working away. I flew up off the ground, turned myself horizontal, and carefully ducked into the hole.
You broke into a storage. Level 2.
In 30 minutes, information about your breakin will be sent to the level owner.
You can stop the information from being sent if you get to the control room and take control.
***
New mission: Break into the control room for the storage’s second level.
Wait, seriously? A mission? Yd forgotten the damn game even had them. Raptor scanned the area and...squeaked unhappily. Its scanner didn’t work beyond visual range, as something was blocking it. And I didn’t like that. Taking a closer look at the floor, I turned down the glow — it was impossible to see anything through it. Then, I placed a hand on the wall, activated my device control, and felt my eyes just about soar into orbit from the information overload. It felt like I’d been dropped suddenly into a pool of icy water. My breath caught in my throat, my body tensed up, and my brain felt completely overwhelmed. The poor gray matter up
there just wasn't up to the task.
I pulled my hand away and took a deep breath. No, that wasn’t how I was going to figure out where to go next. For whatever reason, the timer ticking down in front of me started to really get on my nerves. Is everything actually going to explode if I don’t get there in time? I wasn’t really in the mood to find out.
Ulbaron kicked into action, and I flew forward, taking care not to touch the floor with my feet. Triggering a few traps was the last thing I needed.
Just a few seconds later, my suspicions were confirmed — there were definitely traps set. My perception reacted to the slightest quiver in the air, telling me there were tiny laser beams at knee level glimmering in the dusty air. Heading over to the store, I bought myself some white, flourlike powder. Smoke bombs would have been overkill — I wasn’t sure if there were smoke detectors around.
Luckily for me, the storehouse wasn’t actually that big. The powder showed me a whole network of lasers, only I wasn’t about to try7 to make my way through them. Screwing the rules, I decided to ignore doors and walls. All the blocks Fang cut loose were dumped into my inventory without ever touching the ground. Finally, having made my way through the last hole, I found myself in the very center of the floor. At least, that’s what Raptor told me.
It turned out to be a small room equipped with a workstation and a few screens. The entrance was mined, even to the point that I had to whistle in envy. A pro had put in some hard work there.
You’re trying to hack the defenses of remote work terminal UT-1252.
Sum total of your skill levels: 644.
Sum total ofUT-i252’s defenses: 640.
Probability of successful hack: 0.6%.
And I had just fifteen minutes left to complete the mission.
For the first few moments, I sank into my emotions. The terminal had all its skills at level 160. The only other time I’d tried to take on something like that, it had required more than 11,000 tries. And I had a hard time believing the general would let me be once it found out I was there. In the best-case scenario, it would isolate the storehouse from the rest of the network; in the worst-case scenario, it would activate the mines covering the door.
Just in case, I spent a minute checking to see how unlucky I was. And there it was — the system didn’t give in to any of my first sixty attempts. An unpleasant foreboding began eating at me somewhere in the depths of my stomach, and I got the sudden urge to dash outside and hide, or even get the hell out of the location. I wasn’t going to have time to hack the system with my skills and attributes where they were at.
In that case, they need to be higher!
The thought made so much sense that I was even taken aback. Why didn’t I think of that right at the beginning? I had a bit more than a billion coins in my account, and two of the skills I nee
ded for hacking only took ten minutes to boost. Some quick mental calculations later... You know, that could work!
Device control +30 (190).
Anatomy master +30 (190).
Getting one secondary skill from 160 to 190 took 224,000 free points, meaning that the two of them cost me 896 million. Almost a billion, and that’s just tiuo skills! The prices were absurd. Of course, I saved 25 million thanks to device control already being at level 164, but that really didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. The game was just eating through coins.
Still, I did it. The ten minutes I had to wait were spent battering away at the 0.6% the game gave me, all with no result. Finally, a shiver ran down my body, and the message changed:
You’re trying to hack the defenses of remote work terminal UT-1252.
Sum total of your skill levels: 700.
Sum total ofUT-i252’s defenses: 640.
Probability of successful hack: 8.6%.
Thirty-two attempts... That was all I needed to break through and gain control over the second level. Tick, tick, tick went the timer, however — the mission wasn’t over yet. I had to improvise.
There was no time to find the chat mechanism and block it. Sure, I tried whitelisting myself by force of habit, but that wasn’t enough, either. The system still wanted to keep the higher-ups informed that the building had been broken into, not to mention how and why. And that gave me a clue. Ducking in, I found the list of sensors and deleted the ones that had been attached to the blocks I’d cut out, both inside and outside. Villian got a silent word of thanks for giving me the ability" to instantly print items out. Only seven sensors had been tripped, and as soon as they disappeared from the system, it suddenly decided everything was fine. And I’d been right to whitelist myself — having someone in the control room without access permits would have certainly been a violation of the rules.
Break into the control room for the storage’s second level
complete.
Level +1 (662).
Complete access gained to the equipment on the storage’s
World of the changed 3 Noa in the flesh Page 9
