by Alan Bard
“Shit!” Rio exclaimed.
A moment later, a muscular man and a thin, long-haired blonde came out. For some reason, I knew right away that the short guy was in charge.
“Put it back,” he said imperiously.
I looked at him, and the text above his head lit up.
Name: Zeke
Age: 17
Status: Sergeant
Cohort: [The Rippers]
Specialization: Mage, Psionicist
Information about his fellow travelers wasn’t available. Apparently, the system wasn’t working at full capacity yet.
Or maybe your guess is wrong. And they’re keeping an eye on this newbie. They’re more powerful, and that’s why you don’t see any info about them, Beta said.
Bojan grinned and looked at them with disdain.
“Fuck you, Shorty. I found it first.”
Zeke was unarmed. The jock had a huge club in his hands, and the girl had a sickle-shaped saber.
No firearms, losers, Beta snorted.
Do we stand a chance against these freaks? Zeta asked cautiously.
Calm down, boy, keep calm. Let’s just listen for a bit, okay? Alpha’s tone was curious.
Zeke snorted, his face ugly and defiant, as if he was trying to provoke Bojan into a fight, although his voice was calm and cold.
“Take it easy, soldier, and you won’t get hurt.”
“I’m not a damn soldier, you idiot,” Bojan barked.
“This is a war, and you’re a soldier. Oh right, you’re all newbs. You’re right then, you’re a nobody. Slumdog and cannon fodder.”
“With such attitude, my friends, you’ll never get the chance to achieve something here.” The blonde grinned, looking at us with undisguised scorn. “I wonder what we should do with the stupid looks on your faces.”
“Let’s give them a chance, Anna,” Zeke said. “If I count to three and you follow my order, you’ll stay alive. One. Two—”
For some reason, I thought he wasn’t joking—he seemed too confident. I tried to turn on Battle Mode, to somehow mentally call upon the system, and summon the humanoid silhouette with the Core and Contour, but nothing worked.
Bojan gripped his spear with both hands and shouted, “An order, you say, Rat-face?! I’m gonna take your head and shove it up your ass—”
I wonder if this is all a joke, a voice asked.
I wondered whether I should get into a fight myself. Five versus three? It seemed we had a chance.
On the count of three, Zeke made a gesture with his hand, as if he was leading an orchestra. Bojan stopped mid-sentence. His face contorted, reddened, and he stared in horror at the spear in his hands as he plunged it into his chest.
“Bojane!” Jelena screamed, rushing toward him, but I grabbed her, holding her back as the blonde and the big guy reached for their weapons.
Bojan was screaming in pain, but he kept turning the spear with such force that I heard his ribs cracking. A bloodstain spread across his chest.
Eli drew his knife, and I said under my breath, “Don’t move.”
“Right, stay where you are, morons!” Zeke said. He stepped forward and bent over Bojan who was writhing in agony.
He picked up the flickering artifact and pointed at me.
“Hey, smart guy, it seems that one of you still has a brain cell or two left. If you survive, keep in mind that I might take you into my cohort.”
“Bojane!” Jelena was hysterical. Her brother twitched and then went limp. Zeke pursed his lips and kicked his head. Jelena collapsed in my arms. I finally let her go, and she fell onto the grass.
With a nod, Zeke stepped back into the fog, again faintly shrouded in light, followed by his companions. If it weren’t for the corpse, I would’ve thought that this whole thing was just a dream. I glanced at Bojan’s body and sighed.
Name: Bojan
Status: The player has been disconnected from [Project Lost].
Degree of decomposition: 0.001%
The fog vanished into thin air—the hole in the space was gone. Jelena had fainted. Eli observed the corpse, blinking and letting out a sigh every time his hand touched the handle of the knife. Rio got out of the bushes and dusted himself off. White as chalk and wide-eyed, he walked over to us.
“Incredible. He was forced to kill himself!” He shook his head. “It didn’t have to end like this... Did you see what that guy was capable of? And they came out of nowhere! My God, can they use teleportation? Who the fuck are they?!”
“Players... like us, only high-leveled or something,” I said, crouching down next to Bojan. His corpse both made me want to look away and get closer.
“Nick, you bastard,” Eli muttered, more confused than angry. “You let them kill him... you stopped me!”
“How is it my fault?” I retorted. “I just told you not to move... The rest was up to you.”
“Man, you knew that you’d have died if you threw yourself at him,” Rio said.
“Shut up!” Eli hissed.
“Yeah, a snap of his fingers, and you would’ve cut your throat and slowly died too.” There was a strange smile on Rio’s face.
“Oh, shut up!”
Barely conscious, Jelena crawled over to her brother, put his head in her lap, and bent over him. I saw tears fall on his pale face.
“They’re fucking superhumans, didn’t you see that?” I continued. “They could’ve killed us all.”
“I’ll find him,” Jelena sobbed, stroking Bojan’s face. “I’ll have my revenge.”
She hadn’t realized yet that she was finally free. That she could live her own life.
There was a faint buzzing somewhere high above us. I threw back my head and saw a mecha-dragon flying away.
Shitty dragons, no dungeons, only crazy mages so far. Nice...
Chapter 12
RITE
Thirty-three days before the Invasion
It took us about two hours to reach the Base without further incidents. Everyone was occupied with their own problems, and we hardly spoke to each other.
The Base resembled a high-security zone, complete with a moat, barbed wire, machine-guns, and a ten-foot-high wall. I was wondering what the military was afraid of. On one hand, their caution wasn’t surprising, considering that the place was crawling with kids with superpowers. But on the other, I was sure that they had other safeguards. As I thought about it, the strange feeling of power left me and my head began to ache. A second later, everything was all right again.
I was about to knock on the gate when it swung open. Two soldiers welcomed us and led us past the helipad to a small barrack. Eli was silent and sullen, looking at the guards as if he was going to bash their heads in. Something had changed in Rio, who had started acting neurotic again. Jelena looked like a ghost: gloomy and pale, with dark circles under her eyes, and disheveled hair. Her brother’s death had taken a toll on her.
I focused on the soldier on the right—I got used to the system prompts by now, but they didn’t reveal anything new to me.
We took an elevator to the underground floor, crossed the sterile white lobby, and entered a long hall. Lined against the wall were doors leading to small rooms equipped with a bed and medical devices. It looked like we were the only players here.
At this point, a growl came from somewhere above followed by a grating clang—it was unclear whether it was animal or human—sounding as if someone had thrown themselves at the bars.
“What was that?” Eli asked.
We looked at each other. The noise ceased after a moment.
Without answering, the guards closed the barred door behind us. Welcome back to prison, I thought. At least I wasn’t alone this time. I walked down the corridor and looked around: there were six rooms, four for us, and two for our guests.
No one challenged my leadership, and I was allowed to choose a room first—the farthest one from the exit. Entering it, I lay down onto the metal floor and stared at the ceiling. My next-door neighbor was Rio, and his
was Jelena. Eli took it upon himself to help her, but her movements were sluggish. She seemed to not be paying attention to him.
So what do we have here? I asked.
A bed and medical equipment... We’re going to be in so much trouble that we’ll need to be monitored, Alpha said casually.
Everyone has their own room. You’ll probably stay here for a long time. And after one of the next procedures, you’ll get full access to this whole thing, Beta said.
Are we gonna become superheroes? I continued.
I do wonder how this system works, how players interact with each other... How can you read information about each other? Alpha asked.
I’m more interested in that Zeke guy and his strange abilities. What about his bodyguards? Do you think they also have superpowers? I asked.
I bet. Do you remember the warmth in your hands when you hit Bojan in the face? Seems like we already have something.
After lying motionless for a while, I went to have a chat with Rio. But as I sat down on his bed and opened my mouth, the soldiers appeared in the corridor, accompanied by Zara, dressed in a camouflage suit. Behind her was a bald man with glasses in an unbuttoned lab coat.
“We’re their lab rats,” Rio whispered. “Their mice in a maze. If half of us die, they won’t care. Worst of all, we don’t even know where to run...”
Zara ran a card through the combination lock, and the barred door slid open.
“Follow me.”
Rio jumped up, but I didn’t even flinch. Jelena and Eli were in no hurry to move either.
Zara’s face was emotionless as always. But I wanted to at least get some answers from her.
“Zara, don’t you think it’s time to explain yourself? It’s more or less clear what you’re doing to us. But we want to know what will become of us later.”
“I don’t think so,” she said in a flat tone. “You have a minute to get up and go for a checkup.”
“I want to eat first,” Eli said. “I could eat your employees, that’s how hungry I am.” He went out into the corridor, rubbing his stomach. “I’m starving.”
“First, the examination. Don’t worry, you won’t starve.”
I got up without a word and went to the door, followed by Rio and Eli, who was leading Jelena by the shoulder. It was as if a part of her had died with Bojan.
Luckily, there were no written tests this time. They sat us down in front of big monitors, put a hoop with electrodes on our heads, and showed us pictures of landscapes, people, food, and corpses, which were then replaced by videos of accidents, meetings, murders, and stories about animals. After a while, it all ended with classical music.
Rio said that they were checking our emotional dynamic. In his opinion, the examination should end with an encephalogram, an MRI, and a blood test. The military was interested in how our brains had changed after the installation of the neural network. I didn’t like their attitude, so I tried to think less and turn off my emotions, to make the task as difficult as possible for their analysts.
Rio turned out to be half-right—they took a blood sample, and that was the end of it. Then the guy in the lab coat took us to the mess hall, where we had a plate of tasteless food and a vitamin cocktail. Then we took a shower and changed into clean clothes that looked like gray prison uniforms.
We were then led back down the hall, past identical white doors, at the end of which we found ourselves in a spacious treatment room with two couches.
“Sit down and wait,” the bald man said without intonation and walked away.
Less than a minute later, Zara’s voice came over the speakers.
“The door is about to open.”
The wall turned into a door that slid open to reveal a dark office with no windows or other doors, and no equipment except for what looked like infrared lamps hanging from the ceiling above couches covered with disposable sheets.
“Be sure to go to the toilet before the beginning of the procedure. If you have something metallic on, take it off and leave it on the couches.”
Jelena took off the tiny silver cross that hung around her neck and pressed it to her lips, seeming hesitant to part with it. I remembered the artifact and felt a surge of panic. What if the procedure destroys it? And if the soldiers find it? However, it was too late to worry. I could only hope for the best.
Eli looked black-purple against the snow-white walls. He tilted his head back and addressed the speakers.
“Hey, what’s next?”
There was no answer.
I lay down on the couch. Zara continued commanding us. “At the head of the couch is a wooden stick. Be sure to bite down on it.”
“What for?” Eli asked as he settled on his couch.
“For your own good.”
It will be very, very painful for you. So much so that you could bite your tongue off.
“Eli, just do as they say.” I bit my stick and clenched my fists.
We were all lying on our backs and observing the room become dark—the darkness was so dense that it seemed almost tangible. The lamps flared up. My head ached so much that my body started to twitch, and I almost bit through the stick. I could hear the others moaning and wheezing. The wave of pain was replaced by a tickling sensation in my skull; my wrist felt like it was on fire. Tears flowed down my cheeks. I wanted to jump up and run, to stop the torture, but my body wouldn’t listen. And then, the silhouette appeared.
Rare Combat Skills (Canon, Level 1)
Stylized drawings of a man in vintage clothing practicing various techniques flashed before my eyes. There were very few of them in comparison to the General Combat Skills, and they changed so quickly that I couldn’t read their names. My body was still twitching in pain, and my brain was throbbing as it absorbed this new knowledge.
When the lights finally went out, I couldn’t feel nor think. I no longer had a body. My mind had been shattered into a million pieces. Zara’s voice echoed in my mind, but I couldn’t understand a word. Something was pulsating at the back of my mind, swelling and shrinking, sending waves of burning heat through my body and ribbons that were increasingly becoming more branched out and complex. The Cultivator pulsed in rhythm with the Core, seemingly connecting with it and creating some kind of a common network.
I was loaded onto a stretcher, my head turned to one side, and I saw Rio lying unconscious in front of me.
My eyes were closing. I promised myself that I wouldn’t sleep until I checked on Eli and Jelena, but weakness took over me and I passed out.
***
I awoke to the sound of murmuring. As I struggled to open my eyes, I saw blurs of a white ceiling. I wanted to ask how the others were doing, but my tongue wouldn’t move. I tried to raise my hand, but failed. I could feel my body, so I knew that I wasn’t paralyzed. I heard someone moaning nearby. I thought it was Eli. The thought of us dying here was spinning in my head...
We weren’t in our rooms, but in a ward.
What if they found the Cultivator and took it away? I thought. But the artifact responded to my thoughts with a wave of heat that flowed from my wrist up my arm. It seemed to be reassuring me, saying, “Don’t worry, master, I’m here.” The Core also responded with a wave of heat.
How much time had passed? An hour? A day, a week? Every time I woke up, I remained conscious for a bit longer, which made me think that I was on my way to recovery.
At some point, I managed to turn my head to the right. I saw both Eli and Rio lying motionless. I couldn’t see their faces, only their bodies. On the left was Jelena, pale, sunken eyes rimmed with dark circles, looking as if she had been smacked in the face.
“I thought that I was going to die. That my body would fall apart,” Eli croaked.
“Uh-huh,” Rio wheezed.
“Yeah...” I said.
“I think I’m already dead. This,” Jelena raised her hands and let them fall to her sides, “isn’t living. I feel like I’m living someone else’s life. Like I’m no longer myself. Like there’s so
mething alien inside me. What if they can control us with this thing?”
I didn’t have the strength to talk. My main priority was to start moving. I started by wiggling my fingers and then tried to move my legs and arms. Slowly, I felt mobility return to me. Cultivator continued sending waves of warmth, as if responding to what I was doing. I was sweating and gasping for air, and my muscles were beginning to cramp, but that didn’t stop me. I pushed on, forcing my body to its limits, and was greeted with an unexpected reward.
Transformation Progress: +0.02%
Willpower: +0.5%
Strength: +0.5%
I hadn’t played a lot of computer games, but I was pretty sure that there should’ve been more stats. I tried to open the menu, but that didn’t do much.
Will: 0.5%
Intelligence: 0%
Strength: +0.5%
I wonder what this is all about, Beta said. I mean, I know that you’re dumb as a box of rocks. But zero? Even I think that that’s kinda offensive.
I think it’s somehow connected to this Transformation thing, I replied. So it’s not clear who’s the stupid one here.
Looking at me, Eli forced himself to move as well. Rio still couldn’t bring himself to try, and Jelena didn’t seem to care.
No one came to tell us what was going on, but I knew that we were being watched. After a while, the door opened on its own and a food cart rolled in, stopping between the beds. We picked up our trays and began to eat. But after an hour or two, the hunger was back. Our wardens were aware of this, so they provided us with a lot of food.
Slowly, I started to feel better. After a while, I realized that our metabolisms had increased, which was why we felt constantly hungry. This also meant that our bodies were recovering and, possibly, changing.
I wondered how the system had changed. I focused my gaze on Jelena. Nothing happened for a few seconds and then a column of text flashed before my eyes.
Name: Jelena
Age: 17
Status: Recruit
Cohort: /
Specialization: /
