“Mark, I can’t do anything!” I heard Gelian call apologetically from somewhere far off. It wasn’t about to get any closer to the dragon.
Your agreement with the balancing force was annulled.
Control over the Tsarter base and everything in it was
returned to you.
Drones flew around everywhere, the owner’s personal henchmen. Suddenly, the dragon perked its head up — a dot had appeared on the horizon. Approaching quickly, it roared past, my absorber vision telling me that it was a few large missiles. The troops were taking their shot at the point Villian gave them.
“Idiots,’' the owner snorted. “They don’t get how useless that is. Nobody and nothing in this world is capable of...”
Attention!
The primary server for World of the Changed release 3R32-221 was destroyed.
The game is resetting.
Reset time: 2 hours. During that time, all game functions will be blocked. Please accept our apologies.
The owner of release 3R32-221 was assessed a penalty for failing to uphold the agreement to protect the servers.
“Yoo-hoo!” Villian’s happy cry burst out behind me as he came flying out of the earth. There was nothing left of the spot where the entrance to the dungeon had just been. Still in the air, the mercenary froze, then crashed to the ground. It rolled along the incline to stop right under me, the relic still in its grasp. The green bastard was able to steal it!
“You took out the server?” the owner roared, and I watched its throat start to cook. I dove downward to grab the lamp, though Villian had it fixed in an iron grasp. I had to pull the alien away, too, but I wasn’t able to fly off. All I could do was fly up or down. Realizing that staying in the same spot was a death sentence, I soared upward and over the stream of fire that dug deep into the ground. The game did nothing. Apparently, it wasn’t able to adjust to the attack, and the stream just completely annihilated everything in its path. All the nanoparticles it hit were destroyed.
There was no wind, so nothing to carry me anywhere. The dragon reared back, looked at me, and easily flew up into the air.
“You’re going to regret the day you were born!” it roared. “I’m going to kill you slowly, peeling your skin back layer by layer, and then I'm going to tell the whole universe about the punishment you endured. Your name will be used to terrify criminals when they think about what’s in store for them.”
Words. Too many words. Nobody needed anything that empty. Running your mouth much? I couldn’t fly without the game, and I couldn’t move for the same reason. But what I could do was leverage our physics, the physics that were restored the moment the game was paused.
I suddenly no longer needed to get the relic from Villian. In that moment, there was something much more important — the dragon was slowly approaching, looking to get me in its clutches, and I had to act.
Turning, I let go of the green alien and kicked off it as hard as I could to send myself flying toward the release owner.
Everything worked exactly as planned. Released from my grasp, the alien just hung in the air, not flying or falling anywhere. It was just frozen in place. The nanoparticles held it there so it could recalculate its location after the game reappeared. And that let me launch myself toward the dragon. The latter opened its jaws to swallow me whole, only I shot myself upward at the last possible moment. I was still able to go up and down.
The dragons maw snapped shut. I flew back down onto the dragon’s head, and while it wanted to wheel and try again, it didn’t work — I was already latched onto one of its horns.
Sacrificial offering!
Nothing happened.
Sacrificial offering! And again!
The absorber’s ability didn’t work on the beast. It shook its head in an attempt to get me off, but I was able stretch lower and wedge myself in below the horns. Amusingly, the dragon wasn't able to reach me with its own legs — they came a couple meters short.
My stomach flew into my throat as the dragon suddenly went into a dive. A couple seconds later, I realized what its plan was. It wanted to fly into the ground at full speed. As a real-world creature, the first kilometer and a half, the part that was all nanoparticles bowing to their master, basically didn’t exist. They were presumably going to let it through and stop me, a semi-game creature. Smart move.
We slammed into the ground with a deafening roar. The dragon croaked oddly and collapsed onto its back, pulling me under it. Apparently, with no processing power, the game’s nanoparticles had turned into what they really were — actual obstacles. Not expecting its own property to let it down like that, the dragon was stunned. It groaned and twitched as if having lost consciousness, though the worst part for me was how the enormous head was grinding down on me. I couldn’t feel my legs. The crest had crushed them, the blow a heavy one judging by the pain and how fuzzy my head was getting. I felt ready to pass out. All I could move was one arm. One of the dragon’s horns had dug into my shoulder and then jerked to the side, my helmet the only thing that had kept my head in one piece. The soldiers’ gift was cracked but intact.
I kept pounding away with sacrificial offering. Time after time, I pressed the button, not letting up for a second. But it was pointless. Not only that, but the dragon was starting to come to. The croaks came faster; its movement became less jerky. Soon, the beast was going to wake up and take off, at which point it was all going to be over for me. There was no way I was going to be able to hold on in my condition.
Suddenly, I knew what to do. A lightbulb went off. My free arm reached for my pouch, and I sighed when I found it was still there. Two things were all I cared about: the button and the pistol. I’d been given a detailed rundown on how to use the button back on the ship, so I was able to press it without pulling it out. Unhooking the belt, I pulled on the pouch and howled — my legs screamed in pain. The strap holding onto my hip came free without a problem. As it turned out, that hip was gone.
Realizing that I had just moments left, I hurriedly slung the pouch around the beast’s head. It wasn’t the best option, of course, but I couldn't think of anything better to do. Yanking on it to make sure it was wound tightly in place and wouldn’t just fall off, I pulled out the pistol. Twelve rounds. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to change the clip with just one hand, and I wasn’t going to have time, either. The dragon was starting to move around. Placing the muzzle between two scales that were standing on end, I squeezed the trigger. The sound of the shots mixed with a roar as blue blood spurted from under the scales. Twelve bullets buried themselves in the beast’s neck in a matter of seconds. When the dragon jerked, I flew off, no longer capable of holding on.
As I crashed to the ground not far from the hulk, I braced for the final blow. All the owner would have had to do was step on me to end my time in the game. But it didn’t do that. Clutching at its neck with its back legs, it tried to claw through its own armor to pull out the lead I’d left behind. There wasn’t much damage done — the caliber was too small to really hurt something that big. Instead, the bullets were irritants that had gotten under the creature’s skin and were keeping it from moving the way it wanted to.
My consciousness faded. But I held on as long as I could despite that fact that my legs and left arm were all gone. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much pain. It burned, of course, and pretty seriously, but not to the point
of losing my mind.
‘Til destroy this planet if it costs me my license!” the dragon roared as it turned back toward me. “Nobody will ever see this idiotic blue ball again! You and all the creatures like you will be wiped from the game, wiped from its memory. I won’t leave a single one of you here!”
The dragon reared back to fry me to a crisp, but right then a shadow flashed by. It was followed quickly by a terrifying blow. One short flash of pain later, and I was finally off for my well-earned rest. The human by the name of Mark Derwin, a player at level 1537, an absorber and personified noa, had finished his earthly
journey without ever having the chance to turn back into a full-fledged player. What a shame.
The darkness closed in. Frustration gave w7ay to peace. On my way out, my last thought was a touch of regret that I hadn’t been able to introduce Squirrel, little pain in the neck that she wTas, to Little. They would have made a great couple.
Epilogue
You were killed.
Wait for the game to end.
THE MESSAGES didn't show up at once. First, there was the darkness, an empty space I was hovering in. But while there was nothing there, I was struck by the fact that I could think. Philosophy, needless to say, told me that since I was thinking, I existed, though my lack of a body raised serious questions about that existence.
It was the floating messages that added interest to the smoothflowing nothingness. They meant just one thing: the game was rebooting and beginning to process everything that had happened.
All right, lets wait for it to finish. I didn't think that would take very long.
Due to the death of the owner of release 3R32-221, the release resulted in a failure.
All alien players and game structures were blocked and
dissolved.
All changed were returned to their initial form.
***
Calculating the release results...
There, in the nothingness, it was impossible to smile, though I did my best. At least, everything in me was happy. The armed forces had come through. I wasn’t sure if it had been the sailors or Chaban and the Iskanders he’d had stashed away, but the dragon hadn’t survived. Not yet recovered from the blow it had taken when we slammed into the ground, it hadn’t noticed the pouch wrapped around its horns. Everything else had been a matter of electronics and advanced weapomy. I just wished I’d been able to survive.
In keeping with the rules for what happens when the release owner dies, the game functionality will remain on the planet, with the creator responsible for maintenance and
updates.
***
An additional condition set by the previous owner was detected: all natural players who died during the release were nullified and erased from the database.
Executing the additional condition. 98995773 entries were
deleted.
That set of messages elicited a storm of emotion, though nothing there was unexpected. The dragon had been telling the truth — it actually had given orders to wipe out humankind. The game had started with 105 million, of which almost 99 million had died. The numbers were staggering.
But the odd part was that I was still conscious. By rights, I should have been deleted, too.
Evaluating your role in the release.
You were identified as a release leader. In keeping with the rules, you have become part of the game.
54000 credits were deposited in your game account.
Level locked in: 153.
Race locked in: fire elemental.
Equipment locked in to join you in the next release: Fang,
Valkyrie, Raptor.
You need to select a role: defender, balancing force,
absorber.
I swallowed hard despite that being impossible in my condition. They’re letting me keep going? Why? I was a natural player who should have just been sent off into nothingness.
Still, whoever created the game had other ideas, and its functionality7 wanted me to select a role. The first two were out of the question — both were too limited geographically. But I was perfectly fine with the absorber role.
You selected the absorber role.
You will be counted as a natural player in all releases you
participate in.
***
Attention! New release detected! You were selected as an
absorber.
Have fun, and thank you for choosing World of the
Changed.
Note: to leave the game, you need to save up 1000000
credits.
A million credits? How much is that? And what counts toward it? There were plenty of questions, though they went unanswered as always. At least, I knew what I needed to do next. I have to save up enough for jny freedom. Somewhere off in the universe, Earth was waiting. And I wasn’t going to let anything keep me from going home.
You need me to go through a bunch of releases? That was fine. Now I know where to point my pistol.
Note that the new release excludes the use of machines. You have access to the following equipment: Fang.
Release particulars: magic. The game is spread via the
magic ether.
You have access to a short tutorial.
Release objective received: ensure the survival of the planet by swallowing at least 1000 units of concentrated noa.
Reward: 30000 credits.
New release incarnation in 3... 2... 1...
Magic? Cool, Yve never been a mage! Let's do this.
End of Arc One
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Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2) LitRPG Series
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Citu of Goblins (In the System Book #1) LitRPG Series
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World of the Changed LitRPG Series
by Vasily Mahanenko
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Clan Dominance: The Sleepless Ones LitRPG Series
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The Way of the Shaman LitRPG Series:
Survival Quest (The Wan of the Shaman: Book #i)
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The Secret of the Dark Forest (The Wau of the Shaman: Book #.q)
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The Karmadont Chess Set (The Wau of the Shaman: Book #5)
Shaman's Revenge (The Wau of the Shaman Book #6)
Clans War (The Wau of the Shaman: Book #7)
The Hour of Pain (The Wau of the Shaman Bonus Stoni)
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The Wau of the Shaman. Step 1: The Beginning: Volume One
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A Check for a Billion (Galactoaon Book #3) LitRPG series
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A Second Chance (Invasion Book #1)
An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2)
World of the Changed LitRPG Series:
No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #i)
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2)
Noa in the Flesh (World of the Changed Book #3)
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Cita of the Dead (The Alchemist Book #1)
Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2)
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About the Author
Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality7 of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
World of the changed 3 Noa in the flesh Page 31
