Grust and Milady stepped off to the side, and the woman squealed happily a few times, hugging her man. Not me, who’d handed them the opportunity, but him. Where’s the justice in the world? Apparently, there was none, but that was fine. Only Little came over and gave me a slap on the shoulder. The kid really had grown up. Only two months had passed, but for him it was like twenty years had gone by. I should introduce him to Squirrel — they’d make a great couple.
Oh, right!
“Grust, the troops are in control of the north, and they’re on our side now — I took care of everything with them. I mean, they were always on our side, only there was a bit of a misunderstanding. Don’t be afraid if some show up here looking to take charge. I asked them to organize everyone in the locations since there are plenty of changed who have no idea what to do next.”
“Got it. Mark, do you need help?”
“No, you can’t do anything for me. Live and get stronger — who knows what wall happen in a week? From what we can tell, the owner will get what it’s looking for and leave the planet.”
“After sucking it dry?”
“Well, that’s why I’m not going to just sit around waiting. Okay, no goodbyes — we’ll be seeing each other again.”
I flew up into the sky and headed out of the hexagon. Verloven had no more use for me — I d learned everything I could from it. Of course, I could have dropped by for a visit with Olsen and asked it about those balancing forces. From what I remembered, there were seven players in the release that were tied to their locations and assigned the job of taking out aliens. But I decided against a visit. How could the seven have helped? Kill players? I’d already given up on that myself, no longer seeing the point. My new objective was to strip the owner’s lair of its protection, and I needed Lirkim for that.
Long before I got to the coordinates, I could tell I was getting a feel for predicting the future. There were ambushes set up across a radius of ten kilometers. A few hundred players were hiding under level six and even seven protective domes, and I wasn’t sure if Raptor would have noticed them if it hadn’t been for my advanced absorber scanner. There was a lot I didn’t know about force fields and how they worked. But anyway, that was just the outer circle. Inside it, roughly thirty7 meters from our meeting point, the ambush was much better. Thirty-two players were split into eight groups of four each. One of them stood out — Elhar Gee and its demons. The players were hiding under a strange field being generated by one of Lirkun’s named items. The player itself was sitting alone under a tree doing exactly what decoys are supposed to do. It was asleep.
I circled the hidden players. Not bad! They couldn't see me — remembering Lirkun’s advice, I’d taken Ulbaron off long before to make sure I didn’t create any turbulence in the air. And I was fine with the fact that nobody there knew about my qualities as an absorber. Without them, for example, I definitely wouldn’t have noticed the inner circle of defenses, as Raptor was powerless against level 45 protection. It was scary to think how Lirkun had gotten as advanced as it was.
What can I do? I desperately needed information, though I didn't know I could win any battle I might start there. The numerical odds were stacked in favor of the players, and they could shoot too well. Five or six shots on the money, and Grust would have had to pull me back out of nothingness.
But what does Lirkun care about all this? It needed the relic. Besides me, there probably wasn’t anyone who could get it. Risk landing?
Try flying over the inner circle arid using sacrificial offering? That was where the most dangerous players were. But what do I do with the outer circle then? Raptor had counted six hundred fighters manning it, and they were waiting for me. The fact that nobody was sleeping told me they were on high alert.
I flew over to the dungeon entrance. Even there, the players had thought ahead — it was covered with a grill. And not just any, but a real one, which meant Fang wouldn't be able to cut through. That told me the release owner w^as on its game. Flying in with sacrificial offering wasn't going to cut it, as Lirkun perhaps didn't have the key. If I took out the wrong player, there was a chance I’d never get inside.
Damn it! I had no idea what to do.
“How long do you plan on flying around?” asked Villian’s aide in a mocking voice. It wasn’t asleep! No, it had been on the lookout just like eveiyone else. “Like I told you, flight creates turbulence, and you can use that to track people. It’s just a good thing you didn’t try to take on my defenses — I hired random players and set them farther away to make sure nobody bothers us. The dungeon is too valuable to leave unattended. Come on, Mark, you can see there isn’t anyone here. Turn off your invisibility^, and let’s talk. Do you have the explosions?”
I looked over at the rest of the players. They’d gotten up, though they were staying where they were. Well then... At least, I knew what to do.
I was going to chat with my opponent, pretend I had no idea what
was going on. Let’s see what tall tale it tries to spin.
Chapter 21
“WELL, THAT’S the dungeon right there.” Lirkun gestured toward the grille covering the entrance.
“Pretty well protected,” I replied, keeping the players in ambush visible out of the corner of inv eye. They weren’t moving.
I’d decided to show up for Lirkun, though I’d made sure I slipped into Ulbaron first. There was no way I was going to show the aliens all their cards. Let them think I'm useless without my equipment.
“If you want to be first, you have to play it safe,” the mercenary said meaningfully. “As you’re already aware, this isn’t your usual dungeon. It’s only for natural players like you.”
“So, I just need to beat it?” I was pretending I knew nothing about the ins and outs of that particular dungeon, which looked to suit Lirkun just fine. It practically radiated pride at having such a high-level idiot wrapped around its finger.
“Basically, yes. Get in, avoid the traps and guards — you don’t even have to kill them — and collect the reward at the very end. Then, bring it
back to me.”
“And if I do that, you’ll tell me how to get rid of the dome covering the owner’s lair?”
“We’ll discuss that, yes.”
“No, Lirkun, that doesn’t work. I’d like to hear you clearly say that you’ll tell me how to get rid of the defenses. And there can’t be anything like an 1 don’t know’ or a 'you have to ask someone else’ in your answer.”
That was apparently a step too far. Lirkun tensed up, while the invisible players crouched lower, ready to spring forward.
“First, beat the dungeon and get the reward, and then we’ll talk. Only then. What’s the point of blabbing now if you just end up dying?” Lirkun replied forcefully.
The tension in the air grew. Elhar was almost out of its cover, itching to grab me, though Lirkun just inconspicuously raised a hand. I noticed Valkyrie in it. That left little doubt that the kindling could catch fire at any moment — all it needed was a spark.
It took me just an instant to decide what to do. I was even surprised that my body responded to the crazy idea as quickly as it did. There I was, standing ten meters away from Lirkun, when I took off at full speed, crashing into it and carrying it off. The move was so unexpected that Lirkun didn’t have time to twitch. All it did was grunt, fold over in half, and make it easier for me to fly off with it. I also heard a crunch that presumably didn't come from me — I didn't feel any pain.
Charges from the alien ray guns probed my defenses a few times, but the whole thing was too far out of the norm for anyone to react. From what I could tell, a few of the players even took off after me, though they couldn’t keep up with the absorber. I was multiple times faster than anyone else. Soon, the ambush and my pursuers alike were far to the rear.
But I didn’t stop there. One part of my consciousness decided where to go; a second activated to bury a blocker in Lirkun. The last thing I needed was for it to start kicking and screaming
. And the third part, far from the largest, got to work giving Lirkun access to my hexagon. Of course, it was anything but willing, constantly casting sideways glances at its larger brothers. Is this really necessary? But I didn’t have a choice. Where else was I going to take such valuable cargo? Where else was I going to be able to have a chat with the bastard? Only where nobody else could join us. In my area.
It kept up like that for a few minutes. We were flying so fast that we overshot the hexagon border by a good margin, so I slowed down to find a good spot to land and begin the interrogation. Suddenly, Ulbaron turned off and left me in complete darkness. Not only that, but a needle jabbed its way into my arm, emptying enough blocker into me to take out a horse. Of course, the absorber’s regeneration quality quickly took care of that. But I still didn’t like what was going on.
“Look at you go!” Lirkun said mockingly as his body began straightening in an attempt to break free of my grasp. The bastard came to! Damn it! I wasn’t sure why I hadn't assumed it had protection from immobilization. If Tsarter used it with such regularity, they would presumably have made sure it couldn’t be used on them. Oh, I think Tin so smart! And I’d just about lost it all on a detail that small.
The alien was just about free, so I did the only thing I could and sent us flying straight down at the ground. It wasn’t the best idea, admittedly, but I couldn’t think of anything else with Ulbaron blocked. The last thing I wanted was Lirkun breaking free and taking control of the situation.
The impact wasn’t light. My shoulder was dislocated, my arm probably broken. On the other hand, I distinctly heard a curse, a crunch, and another grunt from my opponent. Letting it go, I hit the button for an emergency exit and...
Nothing. Ulbaron was so far gone that even that button didn’t work.
“Thanks for access to the hexagon.” There wasn’t a hint of pain or suffering in Lirkun’s voice. “There’s a lot of unfinished business I have here. So, you saw the ambush? How high have you leveled-up?”
Something hit my leg, but my protection held up. And it was actually my absorber protection rather than Ulbaron.
“Wait, what?” The confusion bought me a few more seconds. “Everything should be blocked. How are you able to fight back?”
Raptor, Valkyrie, Fang, Zelda, Fartira, and Shulma — none of the named equipment I had on was working. Even my damn phone was a lost cause. I couldn’t move, and that scared me more than anything. Of course, as the absorber, I could have flown away using my internal scanner, but I didn’t want to do they. My idiocy had introduced a dangerous monster into the hexagon. I had to get rid of it no matter the cost.
Even if I lost my named equipment.
A kick landed from above as Lirkun checked to see how solid my armor was. And that pushed me over the edge. My named equipment was holding me back, which meant I didn’t need it. Even my beloved Fang.
Turning into an elemental wasn’t difficult. It got light inside my tomb, which then started to melt. I was free. But as my armor melted, I quickly floated out of it — if the lower part remained intact, I would be able to salvage it. The equipment strapped to my arms I tried not to think about. They were a lost cause. Happily, the pouch on my belt stayed right where it was even when I heated all the way up to five thousand degrees. Neither it nor the items inside it cared the least bit about the game’s problems.
“Well, look at that!” I heard Lirkun say, its surprised voice coming from somewhere off to the side. I turned quickly and found myself flying backward — the alien’s Valkyrie had fired a shot right into my chest. A protection counter popped up in front of me. With the speed Lirkun was firing at, I was going to be gone in a matter of seconds even as an elemental. I threw myself forward, though not before the player popped up a shield that held me a good ten meters away. Nothing I tried got through it. And my sacrificial offering was useless, too — it didn’t reach far enough. When my protection dropped all the way down to ten percent, I decided to make a break for it. I didn't go far, however, just ducking into a hole I found a hundred meters away to catch my breath. Only then, I looked around and saw that we’d been carried into a small deciduous forest so rare that endless fields and ownerless farms stretched out on either side. Lirkun fell behind, but not by much. Noticing that I’d hidden, it came down to earth and started moving slowly forward. Damn it. I couldn’t even bring Drone over to see what was going on. My phone still wrasn’t working.
“You’re resilient, Mark Derwin. Impressively resilient for a natural player. I can see why Villian wanted to bring you into Tsarter — we could definitely use more slaves like you. Also, now7 I know why the owner warned me about temperature. A fire elemental is something else. I don’t even want to kill you! Actually, I’d rather study you and find out how you got that, how to get around it. Maybe, that’ll come in handy one day.”
Lirkun Po is trying to connect to your protection.
Probability of successful hack: o%.
Wait, what? How?! I had no idea how7 it could see my game equipment even while I couldn’t. What the hell?
“Not bad, not bad,” Lirkun continued. My scanner told me it had taken off and was circling the hole from above. The earth around me had long since melted, turning into a puddle that sank deeper and deeper with each passing second. An interesting idea struck me. Turning my body to the side, I tried to burrow right into the soil like some kind of shrew7. The same small part of my consciousness that had given access to Lirkun coughed to tell me it had been right the wrhole time, and then removed the player from the list. But that didn't help much in that moment — Lirkun had another six hours before it had to leave. It can definitely kill me in that time.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The aliens voice boomed around the area, shaking the earth as if coming from a loudspeaker. The passage I was digging trembled, and I wTas bathed in a wall of fire. I barely felt it. The only threat plasma mines held for an elemental was the explosive shock wave. The fire wasn’t a big deal.
“Ah-ha, so that doesn't work on you. Okay, let’s see what you have to say about this...”
It drove me crazy that Lirkun could see me moving around underground even as I had no idea what it was up to. I had to go blind — it was hard to orient myself in the haze. Roots appeared overhead, presumably with a tree growing out of them, and that represented at least some kind of cover. With no argument from me, my body began burrowing downward. The farther away from the alien I was, the better.
The explosion that went off a few moments later might as well have been nuclear. I was grabbed and dragged upward, the roots gone, and the earth pouring down on every side melting into a pool. Everything was mixed up in the hell I found myself in. The only thing keeping me in place, in fact, was the pouch the sailors had given me. Completely unharmed, it dug into my skin, broke a few bones, and stayed right where it was. Earth, stone, and other debris poured by. Even with me in my elemental form, they scratched and tried to pull me along with them, though they couldn’t. Reality was on my side. The pouch was impervious to the game’s mass, holding strong in one point in space. Almost like it was hovering.
Finally, having gotten a grip on the pressure, I was able to turn around. Shouldn't have done that. The breath caught in my lungs. Lirkun looked like Green Lantern, holding up an enormous mountain using some kind of device that generated a red field. It was what was shoveling up the earth and hauling it high into the air like the transparent scoop on an enormous excavator. Right then, the alien was looking over its prey. And while I couldn’t see the expression on its face because of its opaque helmet, something told me it was annoyed. Apparently, its scanners couldn’t see me in the mess. That looked like it was a surprise.
There wasn’t much distance between us, so I picked that moment to attack. Valkyrie was gone, and the alien was out of sacrificial offering range, but I had something it definitely wasn’t expecting.
And since that something had just saved my life, I figured it could do the same again. It was tim
e to pull out the pistol the XO had given me.
Dipping a hand into the pouch and pulling it out took just a moment. That forced me to take off, of course, as my body lost its support and dropped to the bottom of the pit. There was no reason to put even more distance between me and the alien. In fact, I was edging closer when it finally saw me and tossed the mountain lightly to the side.
“You really are resilient, Mark Derwin!” Lirkun said with respect. “But come on, we both know how this is going to end. You can’t win. Give me the explosions, beat the dungeon, and I’ll make sure you die quickly and painlessly. I won’t even clear the hexagon — there isn’t enough time for that.”
I needed to make my move. The difference was that my pistol shooting skill didn’t apply to real weapons, so I had to go with the old way and peer down the iron sights. My hand shook. For some reason, I couldn’t make it relax. Sweat dripped into my eyes. Purely to distract myself, I yelled over at my target.
“Where’s the key to the grille, Lirkun? This is your last chance to stay alive. Surrender, give me the key, tell me how to take out the owner’s protective dome, and you can wake up in the next release. Otherwise, you die!”
“Oh, you’re hilarious,” the alien said with a laugh as it came closer. The target got bigger, which helped. “No, Mark, I’m not going to surrender. And since you insist on doing this the hard wTay, wre’re going to have to go with the owner’s option. What is that thing you’re holding? It’s useless!”
It had been a long time since I’d felt the kick from a real wreapon. Actually, unless you counted a trip to a shooting range, I never had. And regardless of how I resisted, I was thrown backward. I kept up shooting, however, keeping Lirkun’s torso in my sights.
The clip emptied right when my back hit the ground. I’d fired off all twelve shots and watched as at least half of them whizzed right through my opponent without encountering the least bit of resistance — not from its protective field, not from its personal protection, not from its reinforced skin. Nothing. One of the bullets even pierced its head and flew out the other side. My heart pounding, I watched to see what would happen. There’s was nothing at first. Although, Lirkun had frozen motionless. Finally, five long seconds after the first bullet had entered its body, blood began spurting.
World of the changed 3 Noa in the flesh Page 26
