And did I need that?
With each passing second, I became more and more convinced that it was time to beat a heroic retreat. Taking on the multitudes alone would have been suicide. I fancied myself alive and well, not suffering through a valiant death due to my own stupidity.
It didn’t even occur to me to leave a bundle of ten thermal mines behind. Tossing them into the middle of the crowd wasn’t an option — that would’ve given away my location. And flying over to leave the mines there myself would have risked giving the machines a chance to spot me. No, flying was out of the question. After Lirkun had showed me how very possible it was to spot someone invisible, I didn’t trust the game in the least. There were no absolutes.
Half an hour had gone by before I was out of the area. It was amazing how many players had shown up to take me out — they’d answered the call from around the entire hexagon, hurrying to participate in the final showrdown. But I wasn’t about to give them the honor. I didn’t even risk bumping my kill count up by taking out the lone targets I came across. Actually, I took pains to avoid them, as everyone there was experienced and well-versed in the game. Having that many loners running around in a zone haunted by a dangerous opponent capable of staying invisible had to be a trap. That was the only explanation. Screw it, definitely.
Head back to see Verloven? No, it was too early for that. The whole crowd would head over to the defender, and that was the last thing I needed. What I did need was to go wherever I wrould be least expected. Paradoxically, that left me with two options: the north and the general’s location. The army definitely deserved a reckoning. It wasn’t going to be lethal, but I absolutely wranted to destroy any means they had of throwing around nuclear warheads. They’d gotten on my nerves with how dangerous they were to everyone around them. Still, the general was far more important. Or rather, its supply of noa was. I needed to load up on qualities by swallowing the rest of the dragon’s tears.
I ended up walking far away before taking off into the air. The funny part was that on my way in, I’d flown right up to the edge of the crater, not thinking about how I might be noticed. But as soon as my imperfect invisibility was pointed out, I got spooked. Better safe than sorry.
It was a long flight to the general’s location — almost three hundred kilometers. That was two hours at top speed, and I was going to have to deal with the security7 perimeters when I got there, too. Barging right in wasn’t an option. And so, I got to work building a plan as I flew. Suddenly, an option appeared on the horizon, growing bigger and bigger with each passing second.
A transporter loaded with ten units of noa and escorted by a squad of thirty players was moving slowly but surely toward the warehouse. Over the two weeks I’d been gone, everyone had apparently relaxed — they weren’t guarding their valuable cargo with everybody they could pull from the hexagon.
Although, I wasn’t going to try my usual tricks, either.
Sneaking into the location inside the transporter wasn’t the best idea. No, I thought it would be much more fun to walk in on my own two legs as a guard watching the transporter.
Invisible, I alighted on the vehicle, letting it take me where I needed to go. The rules were familiar: the cargo was accompanied by a squad of players within a set location. Somebody apparently had hard borders drawn that players weren’t allowed to cross. And once the last hand-off was made, leading us into the location next to my target, I got to work. The commander was out of the question — who knew what kind of questions it would be asked at the border? No, my victim was a silent character that stayed apart from the rest. It was a Shurvan like the rest, just apparently anything but friendly. And that was perfect for me.
Dropping down like an invisible shadow, I buried a blocker needle in it. The body stiffened, I laid it gently in some tall grass, and then I hurried off to catch up to the procession. I was already sporting a new identity as Haon, a level 74 player. Everything happened so quickly and smoothly that there was barely anything for the other players to notice. Still, one of them called over.
“Ha! Haon is having a bad day again. Commander, what about giving it a regeneration syringe? You can see how crappy it’s feeling.”
“Shut up, all of you!” the boss barked back. “Next time, it’ll know better than to stuff itself with expired produce, not to mention washing it down with the local alcohol. This is all its own fault.”
Ah-lxa! So, the guy wasn’t so much the silent type as much as it was suffering the consequences of some bad choices. And the commander was adding insult to injury. Fantastic!
Crossing fifty7 kilometers on foot wasn’t the most thrilling way to pass the time. Not only that, but I had to regularly trip and wobble to keep up the charade. My “comrades” thought it was hilarious, though none of them held out a hand to help me up. And since the transporter couldn’t have cared less about any one player, I had to pick myself back up artfully and hurry to catch up with the group. Dumb, but it worked. And a couple hours later, I was able to leave the acting behind me and switch to a regular run. Thinking back to the person I’d been before World of the Changed, I knew my head would have been pounding, and my only emotion would have been hatred for all and sundry, both real and in the game. The rest apparently felt the same — nobody said anything the rest of the way. The commander actually let me ride the last ten kilometers on the transporter. It had come over to give me a clap on the back, the blow so hard that I would have gone flying if I hadn't been as strong as I was. Happily, it didn’t even knock me off balance.
“I told you a good run would be better than a regeneration swinge! Okay, Haon, you're back on my good side. Jump onto the transporter and clean yourself up. We still need to get the cargo into the location.”
The timing couldn't have been better — I really was sick and tired of running. Climbing onto the machine and nodding my thanks to the commander, I laid down on my back and stared up at the sky. Technically, I still wasn't supposed to be in great shape.
“Checkpoint!” a mechanical voice called, and the transporter stopped so quickly I very nearly toppled over the side. Grabbing a bracket and pulling myself to my feet, I looked over and saw the location border. The exclusion zone stretched out on the other side of the arch we were in front of. Robots were on guard, nothing humanoid about them. Instead, they were the traditional irons with banks of arms reaching out.
“Here’s the convoy list,” the commander said, handing a tablet to one of the robots. The latter touched it lightly, and then the mechanical voice echoed once again around the area.
“Convoy list registered. Head through the arch.”
The transporter was first, and I had to jump down. Lightning flashed, the giant hunk of metal subsequently appearing on the other side of the energy field. I’d lost track of it in the middle. The commander was next. It headed into the arch, its body enshrouded in a cocoon of lightning. The Shurvan was unfazed — it stepped forward briskly without paying the illumination any mind. Then, judging by the sideways glances everyone threw my way, it was Haon’s turn. I walked toward the arch. But before I could step resolutely inside, a voice stopped me.
“Was the transporter checked for biological life forms?”
It was a vivacious, emotional voice. One! The general's top spawn, a creature I’d yet to have the pleasure of meeting in person. At the risk of unpleasantries, I turned around. One was humanoid. Like Two, it was made of a liquid metal and bereft of any weaknesses. Everything was interchangeable. It wasn’t wearing any clothes, and I didn’t see anything that might have told me what gender it was. No, it was a metallic Ken with awkward proportions. Presumably, it could take any form, though it had decided to look human. It came up to about my waist.
Moving around on a platform, it was accompanied by a crowd of minions. Or gucii'ds? I couldn’t quite tell what the twenty mechanisms were there for. Possible, they were continuations of One’s body or a kind of upgrade that could be leveraged in different situations. Just like the boss, they f
lew around behind it on platforms.
“The transport was checked and disinfected,” a robot replied. “No biological activity was detected.”
“Mark Derwin is back in the game, and he could pull anything. Get the transporter back here — I want to scan it personally. He might have gotten in using the trials. At least, that's what the owner is thinking.”
Oh, wow! Apparently, the aliens had figured out my secret while I’d been gone. That was both a positive and a negative — I’d sensed that going the same route twice would be a bad idea. Stepping to the side and letting the big vehicle past, I got up the nerve and stepped into the arch while One and its entourage were scanning away. Let’s see how this absorber* thing works.
Identifying user...
You were identified as player Haon Liurkan, level 74.
Access to border location granted.
The lightning that bathed me really was just illumination that didn’t do any damage. It didn’t even cause a sensation of any kind, pleasant or otherwise. Stepping over to the commander, I stopped. It glanced over at my suffering mug with sympathy.
“Still rough, huh?”
I bit my tongue to keep from saying anything, just nodding instead. There was no way around the fact that lots of players had their own manner of speaking. Some stuttered, others used strong language, and still more tossed in all kinds of throw-away words. Without knowing what my identity liked, I knew it would be easy to blow my cover. And that was the last thing I needed.
“Okay, fine, give yourself a regeneration shot. I thought you'd be feeling better by now. What’s One up to?”
“Looking for Derwin,” I muttered. Staying quiet wasn’t an option anymore.
“Mark? What would he be here for? I thought he'd be off looking for his equipment... Yeah-h...”
My equipment? They really set up an ambush thinking I’d be back to dig up what I supposedly left underground? Apparently, that’s why they were digging around — they didn’t want to let me get dressed again. The commander was right. Yeah-h...
By that time, One had finished looking over the transporter. Just as I’d thought, the robot could take any form. It oozed inside the body, ferreting out every nook and cranny, though I still had no idea how it was planning on finding me if I was inside the trials. But then it all made sense
— the robot returned to its original form, only holding the ten units of noa.
After slipping through the arch, the general’s spawn handed the pile of stones to our squad leader.
“The transporter isn’t going any further — I don’t like it, and I’m not letting it back through. Take these to the storage, the two of you. No need for anyone else. Let your troops know what's going on so they don’t get worried and get going.”
“Is this really all because of Mark Derwin?”
“He was resurrected not long ago, and since then he’s already managed to take out more than four hundred players. So yes, it’s because of Mark. But I changed my mind — you’re staying here. I don’t like how many questions you ask. It’s suspicious, so Haon will be delivering the stones. Give them to it.”
The commander’s jaw dropped. That turn of events had apparently been unexpected.
“What do you mean, Haon? I always — ”
“Do I need to be worried?” One stepped suddenly over to the Shurvan. “You dare second-guess my decision?”
“No, of course not!” the latter replied shortly and briskly. “Haon will deliver the stones! I’ll tell it how to get to the warehouse, and it’ll
handle it from there.”
“That’s better,” One grunted before heading off.
“Damn spawn,” the commander said with a noisy exhale as soon as One had disappeared through an arch leading to a different location. “Here. You know where to go?”
I nodded, a decent idea of the way in my mind. The ten units of noa meant a month of life for me, and that was a solid number. But the instructions kept coming.
“When you get to the storehouse, go right to the entrance. They’ll check you and let you in. Hand over the stones and come back, just make it snappy. And remember, if you make a mistake, you’re gone. And you can forget about your slave girls — I’ll be taking your share. Got it?”
All I had to do was nod, so that’s what I did. The satisfied commander headed back to its troops, and all that was left for me to do was start off down the winding road. It was the only one in sight. A little while later, I got tired of walking and decided to run — fifty’ kilometers was too far to walk in any decent amount of time.
The trip was interrupted by five checkpoints where I stopped and caught my breath. For whatever reason, there wasn’t much air at all in the location, so I found myself sweating like a pig. Hiding inside Ulbaron wasn’t an option, of course, just in case that would have broken my camouflage. On the other hand, there was a positive — I could sprint like a champ. It took me two hours to run to the final checkpoint, which may not have been an Olympic record, though the delays were written off to the preceding checkpoints and how windy the road was. There weren’t many straight shots I could really push through.
'‘Reason for visiting?” asked the lifeless robot who met me at the border.
“Delivering noa to the warehouse.” I pulled the stones out of my pocket to prove my point.
“Where’s the transporter? What about guards?”
“One wouldn’t let them come into the location. It didn’t like something about them, mentioned that it was insurance just in case Mark Derwin was trying to pull something. They say he was resurrected.”
I was finally able to talk as much as I wanted, seeing as how the robots presumably had never met Haon.
“He can’t get through our new7 defenses.” There was a note of self-assurance in the robot’s voice. “It scans for biological activity7 and lets us know if there’s a human hiding anywhere. Or personified noa. Soon, they’ll be installed on all the locators, so Mark Derwin won't have anywhere left to hide. We’ll find and destroy him. Okay, go ahead, I ordered an LTS for you. You’ll be delivered to the warehouse.”
That was nice of the simple robot. Still, that didn't save me from yet another scan. I walked through the arch, the lightning danced around me, and I ducked face-first into another energy field. It was the same kind as the ones they used around the noa concentration plans. The only difference was that those had only covered the plants, while the one I was dealing with covered an entire location. I was wondering where the generals spire went. There it was, poking up into the sky and casting a threatening shadow over anyone who dared question the greatness of the master.
“Take the noa to the storehouse,” the robot said as it followed me through, and a flying machine pulled up to the shimmering dome. From what I could tell, robots controlled everything. There were players in the location, too, of course, though their levels left something to be desired. And they all had female names. Presumably, the vampire hangar I’d cleared hadn’t been the only spot they were holding prisoners. I’ll have to do something about that.
The closer we got to the city, the more I really got a sense for how big everything was. Between the outer dome and the city, there was a slender strip of asphalt that was as smooth as a becalmed sea. Then, the buildings started. Just like the first time, I could see what they were there for — maximum size, minimum comfort. I scanned away, but I couldn’t find a single living thing in them, though there were plenty of mechanisms. They were everywhere.
The inverted pyramid that served as a noa storage was on the opposite side of the city, so I got the grand tour. Completely unabashed, I looked around, jaw gaping. At some point, the pretentiousness and bombast slipped behind us, giving way to unusual skyscrapers, multi-story bridges connecting buildings, and the lush colors of curved glass and metal. And the closer we got to the center, the more elegant the buildings got, though that was also where the local architect had gotten awfully sloppy with how everything fit together. There were even a few
cheap hangars made out of a kind of tin.
But not a single living soul.
The thought crossed my mind that the general’s entire city was one game structure. The games resources and materials had been used, which meant there was plenty71 could have sold. If I could have turned it all into coins, I would have had enough to last me the rest of my life. Maybe, even to get one of my attributes from level igo to level lgi. Okay, okay, I kid...
I’d figured out what my play was going to be by the time we got to the square in front of the pyramid. The robot transporting me didn’t notice anything, but Haon disappeared behind it and was replaced by little old One. I was too busy to wonder how the system would handle the difference in sizes. Instead, I was wondering what the walking cannons would do.
They behaved exactly the way I expected them to.
Identifying user...
You were identified as player RPN-332-1, level 421.
Access to noa storehouse granted.
The vehicle took off into the air, the guards stepped aside, and the way forward was open. Of course, the robot accompanying me froze for a second, not sure where its previous passenger had gone, but it wasn’t about to argue with One itself. I d only seen the creature once, but that was enough — the general’s spawn didn’t tolerate anyone questioning their orders. Or keeping them waiting. Or really doing anything they didn't like.
Completely ignoring the flying machine, I was about to jump down onto the metal area when I remembered how One moved around. On a platform. Presumably, it didn’t like touching the ground, so I had to jump into Ulbaron and look over nervously at the storehouse guards. They saw nothing out of the ordinary. Frozen and off to the side, they didn’t twitch. I should stop wasting time, otherwise they'll definitely start to suspect something.
I walked through the door and found another scanner there to confirm my identity. A green light flashed, and an elevator door opened up.
“Destination?” the operator’s voice asked. There weren’t any buttons in the elevator.
World of the changed 3 Noa in the flesh Page 20
