External Threat (Reality Benders Book #2) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  Past the open door, I discovered a gradually curving corridor that extended a long way in both directions. The stone walls held incomprehensible inscriptions, the floor had bright lights in it at even distance, and the ceiling was around twelve feet high. To the right, I heard agitated shouting. Most likely, it was the crew of the damaged pirate interceptor commenting on the fall and looking for someone to blame. I guess I should avoid that. I could easily be downed by a hot-tempered pirate, so I quickly changed out of my Listener suit into my old jacket, turned left and quickened my pace.

  Cartography skill increased to level forty-four!

  The corridor was turning gradually to the left, and all the doors on the left were identical and locked. And they looked exactly like the one I’d recently forced open. It soon dawned on me that this corridor must have gone in a huge circle around the shaft and hangars, which my mini-map confirmed. I walked almost half the circle before I found a fork and turned to the right. There were a bunch of bright words and arrows there. Among them, I could even find a couple in Geckho, both pointing right:

  “Document check. Registration service.”

  Documents? I didn’t have any documents that proved my identity. And I really didn’t see any need for them. After all, this was a game, and a person’s information could be checked digitally. Nevertheless, some kind of documents were being checked at the other end of this corridor, and that could be a problem.

  I turned right and walked just ninety feet before seeing yet another door beyond a turn in the hallway. Fortunately, it was not locked and opened automatically when I got near. And that was when I first saw a Miyelonian.

  Can you imagine a huge emaciated cat with pierced ears, standing on its hind legs and absolutely laden with leather straps, holsters and sheathes? That was approximately how it looked. Five feet tall and all covered with fur, it had a long bushy tail like a fancy breed of cat. The only real clothing this “cat” had on were fingerless gloves on its clawed hands, and something like a loincloth. However, the Miyelonian had more than enough bladed weapons, holstered pistols and other implements of destruction. And I was also immediately drawn to a hat with ear slits, more like a bandanna, which had four poufy tails clipped to it. Those must have been trophies from defeated rivals.

  Aik Ur Miyeau. Miyelonian. Pride of the Comet’s Tail. Level-64 Gladiator.

  When I approached, the gladiator peeled himself off the wall he was leaning on and said something from afar, perhaps asking a question, as he seemed to expect an answer:

  “Ah-sahntee maye-uu-u rezsh shashash-u?”

  I didn’t understand a thing and didn’t react, so the furry gladiator repeated himself and pointed at the laser rifle on my back with his clawed finger. Was he asking me to put away my weapon? Most likely, it was not allowed to be armed on the station. I stopped, smiled in a friendly manner and nodded, stashing the weapon in my inventory.

  That was my final move, though, because the overgrown cat was suddenly behind me giving a backhanded swing with a sparkling curved blade.

  Your character has died. Respawn will be possible in fifteen minutes.

  Would you like to review your statistics for this game session?

  What statistics...? I had played an hour and a half at most, and I didn’t really do anything in that time. I cracked open the virt pod lid and just lied there, thinking over my recent death and difficult position. I didn’t want to leave all the way to explain myself to the leadership. It was a stupid situation, after all. So, I just waited fifteen minutes and went back into the game.

  Death is never nice but, in this case, it just zeroed out my progress bar, because it wasn’t empty. I definitely remembered that, after reaching level forty-three, Cartography had gone up. That calmed me down.

  Also, the Miyelonian killed me instantly, so he couldn’t have stolen anything of value from my inventory. There was a low chance that my kevlar jacket or other old clothing items might have fallen as loot. I also had the Paralyzer in a holster on my side, so it was at risk. But none of that was too bad. I could survive these losses. Now I’d like to know why the Gladiator attacked me at all. Maybe he had taken my toothy smile as a threat? And why hadn’t Danger Sense kicked in?

  “Gerd Gnat, do you need any help?” Next to my pod, the guard of corncob fifteen appeared, along with an unfamiliar ally in a First Legion uniform.

  The surveillance cameras probably detected the opening of my virt pod, as well as the fact that Gnat hadn’t left the bed, so the nearest guards had been sent to figure things out.

  “No, I just died in the game and I’m waiting fifteen minutes to respawn,” I admitted honestly, not wanting to totally fill them in. “Actually... wait! Yes, I do need help! Find Dmitry Zheltov. He’s probably sleeping off the long game session. Order him to immediately enter the game and tell the Shiamiru crew that Gnat is still at the dock on Medu-Ro IV. It’s critical!!!”

  “Shiamiru? Medu-Ro IV?” the guardsman repeated the unfamiliar words to secure them in his memory and promised to convey my message.

  While the corncob guard called a “Post Four” on his radio, the First Legion player came up, leaned over and asked in a whisper:

  “Gnat, did Gerd Tamara and the Journalist really have a fight in your bedroom tonight?”

  Boy, rumors sure did spread fast under the Dome! It hadn’t even been two hours, but the whole faction was already in the loop! Anyway, I didn’t try to hide it:

  “No. Would you really call that a fight?! Even though Gerd Tamara is shorter than the Journalist by a head and a half, she won right away and pushed Lydia into the hallway.”

  “Ah, I knew it. Our little Tamara is just super! She could take down a hungry lion! Just awesome! The guys said she chased the Journalist out of your room in her birthday suit!”

  “Well, that was a lie! Sure, she didn’t have on underwear or shoes, but I distinctly remember a short bathrobe.”

  The conversation ended, because the corncob guard was back, reporting that my message had been passed on and that the receptionist was going to wake up Dmitry Zheltov. I thanked my ally for the help and closed the lid. The fifteen minutes were already up, so I could go back into the game and try a different tactic.

  Chapter Ten. Second Attempt

  I APPEARED IN THE dark empty hangar again and first looked at my inventory. Nothing was gone. Seemingly, luck was on my side, and not a single piece of my clothing or weaponry had dropped as loot. That was good news. Unfortunately, though, the door I’d worked so hard to open before was locked again.

  Hey, why hadn’t I changed my respawn point to that long round corridor?! Now I was going to have to fiddle around with the damned door again! Although... I did have some information about the floor plan now. Before, heading out into the unknown and possibly dangerous pirate station, how was I supposed to know what was out there? What if it was a shitshow, and I died over and over again, just because I changed my respawn point too soon?

  Alright, hindsight is twenty-twenty. It was dumb to think about what could have been. I had just one geological analyzer left, so I couldn’t afford to mess up now. I didn’t change the Scanner sliders, as they’d served me well before. Here goes nothing!

  Scanning skill increased to level forty-three!

  Break-in skill increased to level eighteen!

  Well, not a bad way to quickly level skills. I’d just have to stock up on scanner supplies. The orange lights went out, the metal door gave to my push and opened again. As before, I didn’t manage to step over the threshold before the floor shook. The pirate interceptor in the neighboring hangar had been left without its invisible supports again and fallen. The many aliens roaring and yelping incomprehensibly were clearly audible through the wall. I suspected it was all four-letter words in their language. Sorry, pirate dudes. I guess this wasn’t your day either!

  Going out into the ring corridor, I turned left, quickly ran from the scene of the crime, then changed my respawn point. Jeeze... I hoped I wasn’t trapped in
an instant death scenario! I glanced at my progress bar and noticed with satisfaction that it was not empty. It was fifteen percent full, in fact, which meant dying again wouldn’t be a catastrophe. I quickly gathered confidence and started off boldly, cruising for a seemingly inevitable bruising.

  This time, reaching the already familiar turn right, I ignored the door with the aggressive gladiator and went to see what was further down the main corridor. But I was soon forced to stop, because I had almost made a complete circle and come back to the hangar from the other side with all its hysterically screaming pirates. As much as I didn’t want to, I’d have to find some way past the overgrown cat.

  I turned toward the room and stopped, gathering my thoughts and considering my next move. What would I do if that cat attacked me again? For weaponry, I had the Dark Faction laser pulse rifle, the discharged Annihilator, a totally unremarkable knife and the Paralyzer.

  After brief consideration, I decided against the pulse rifle. I couldn’t kill a level-64 character in one shot with that, especially a Gladiator. His class meant a greater number of hitpoints. And the six seconds it took to reload were more than enough for the pissed-off overgrown cat to make minced meat out of me with his razor-sharp blades. The knife? Not even funny. All that remained was the Paralyzer, even though it wasn’t lethal.

  I took the Paralyzer out of the holster and stared at my last remaining hope. It looked most of all like a short paintball marker, and it shot approximately equally balls, but they had thinner walls and glowed slightly. I had just three of them left in the hopper. Not much at all. Although, on the other hand, I wouldn’t manage to even use them all if I missed the furry Gladiator with my first shot. That meant I had to shoot point blank before my enemy realized what was happening. And to do that, I’d have to get close to him...

  Authority increased to negative 5.

  Authority increased to negative 4.

  Authority increased to negative 3.

  I shuddered, startled. What the heck?! It took some time to realize these system messages had nothing to do with my current actions on the pirate station. Almost no one here had seen me yet, so there was no reason for such a sharp growth in Authority. Most likely, it was Lydia Vertyachikh’s journalism endeavors, spreading the facts on Gnat, and how much he was doing for the whole faction. Although there could have been some totally different reason, like the amusing rumors about half-naked girls fighting in my bedroom at night.

  Alright, this had nothing to do with my reality now, and was just distracting me from serious business. I placed all three free points into Danger Sense, raising it to 19, took a heavy sigh and went decisively forward to meet the armed Miyelonian. I was still holding the Paralyzer in my inventory, not wanting to show it too early, but I kept the transparent window open, so I could switch it into my hand at a moment’s notice.

  Aik Ur Miyeau the cat-gladiator was in the same place, still leaning his furry back against the wall. Just like before, still far away, he straightened up when I came nearer and asked the very same question:

  “Ah-sahntee maye-uu-u rezsh shashash-u?”

  But this time the intonation was a bit different. The Gladiator clearly recognized me. He looked happy and bared his sharp teeth in a predatory grin. And I noticed that he had a new trophy hanging off his belt, a severed human hand:

  Hand of Gerd Gnat, level-43 Prospector (trophy)

  Eagle Eye skill increased to level forty-five!

  “Go to hell, you flea-ridden animal. This means war!” I said in my own language, though keeping my inflammatory declaration in a calm and peaceful tone, making sure not to smile and accidentally show any teeth. I also held out my empty hands, trying to convey a lack of hostile intent.

  The gladiator was perplexed. He froze in confusion, blade in hand and made a huge error, allowing me to come near. When I was close enough, I turned over my empty hands and carefully controlled my thoughts as not to trigger a possible Danger Sense skill. No, I didn’t wish death on this cat-man. My intentions were peaceful, this was only a game!

  When I was just three steps from the Gladiator, the Miyelonian took a step forward, blocking my path, and asked something else. Actually, his tone was more like demanding. What he wanted I couldn’t understand. Maybe just to check my documents, given that the sign pointing over here said “Document check,” but that didn’t matter.

  “Yes, yes, of course I have documents! I’ll show you right away!” I said and moved the Paralyzer from my inventory to my hand. “Here!!!”

  I don’t know if the Gladiator cat had Danger Sense or not, but he didn’t have time to dodge the point-blank shot. I looked at the twitching body on the floor and shot him again just in case. Who could say how well the Dark Faction paralysis serum would work on a space cat, or whether one ball could down him for long?

  The Miyelonian stopped thrashing. His vertical pupils froze. Had I accidentally killed this alien? Did I overdo it? But no, killing an enemy more than twenty levels stronger than me would have given a generous outpouring of experience. That meant this tom-cat was still alive.

  I crouched down next to him and unceremoniously rummaged through the Miyelonian’s belt pouches. I was looking for documents, so I could see what that even meant. There were plenty of things in the pouches, mostly incomprehensible, but I didn’t find anything that even slightly smacked of documentation. However, I did find a triangular metal box, which the game told me was a wallet.

  Two hundred forty-three crypto (Miyelonian currency)

  I took the wallet and money as compensation for my moral and physical damages, unclipped my severed hand from his strap and, glanced at it, gave a snort and stuck it in my inventory. Now, I just had to find Gnat’s heart. Then, if a girl struck my fancy, I could literally give her my hand and heart, as a set.

  I also looked at all the paralyzed cat’s weaponry and carefully studied it, but I only took the curved blade, which glimmered with electricity once per second. I couldn’t use the razor-sharp sickle myself because I lacked the Blades skill and had too little Agility, but my Gladiator friend Imran could find a use for it. I was also interested in the many earrings glinting up from the downed space cat’s huge ears. There was lots of jewelry, but almost all of it was useless fakery, except one earring, which was shaped like a green star:

  Tantalum earring with emerald inset. Agility +1

  Items that gave stat bonuses were a big rarity in my faction. Crafting them required specialists with magical abilities, so my allies in the H3 Faction couldn’t make them even in theory. I vaguely remembered hearing that magic rings and bracelets were sometimes taken off the bodies of Centaurs and Minotaurs on the Antique Beach, but they were extremely rare, and we still didn’t know where they were getting them.

  I couldn’t just leave my prostrate rival with such a rare item so, removing the earring brusquely, I stuck it into my inventory. I would have used it myself, but my ears weren’t pierced. Plus, all the colors and stars would look much better on a girl than a boy.

  Alright, I was almost finished with the defeated Gladiator. All that remained was the most important part... If it was accepted practice to demonstrate one’s lethal capabilities by taking trophies from downed enemies on this pirate station, then I figured I should do the same. I took out my knife and tested the sharpness of the blade with a finger, then sliced off the cat’s reddish-brown bushy tail in one confident motion.

  Tail of Aik Ur Miyeau, Level-64 Gladiator (trophy)

  Fame increased to 37.

  Authority increased to negative 2.

  Authority increased to negative 1.

  Great! Now I just had to figure out how to attach the fluffy thing. I took it in my hands and looked at the tailless cat’s bandanna. I discovered that all his trophies were clipped onto special pins. And hey... I remembered seeing something like that in one of the Gladiator’s belt pouches. Actually, he had at least forty of them. Apparently, Aik Ur Miyeau was a self-confident and well-prepared optimist! I took a couple o
f the pins and, while I clipped the trophy tail onto my helmet, a message suddenly jumped before my eyes:

  Danger Sense skill increased to level twenty!

  I immediately realized what caused it. My paralyzed enemy had come back to his senses but wasn’t showing it! Either the paralyzing poison had simply run its course, or the Miyelonian was woken up by the pain of losing his tail, but he was definitely alert now. His eyes were open just a tiny bit, though, like little barely visible hyphens. Aik Ur Miyeau was trying not to give himself away with an accidental or abrupt motion, but his clawed hand was very slowly, inch by inch, reaching for the spare blade in his scabbard. Not this time. I didn’t beat you just to lose everything again! I took out the pulse rifle and aimed the barrel at the cat’s forehead.

  “Stay down, pussy-cat!!!”

  Unfortunately, either the enemy didn’t understand me or put too much self-assured hope in his agility and speed. The Miyelonian gave a sharp jerk, trying to hop up and grab the barrel of my rifle, and I instantly shot the cat right in the head! It was definitely a crit, no question. The point-blank shot blew my enemy’s big-eared fanged head to smithereens. The Miyelonian’s decapitated body fell to the floor and went quiet.

  Rifles skill increased to level forty-one!

  Sharpshooter skill increased to level twenty-one!

  Authority increased to 0.

  You have reached level forty-four!

  You have received three skill points!

  You have reached level forty-five!

  You have received three skill points! (total points accumulated: six)

  Oops... I had to admit, I didn’t see anything good in killing him. Just fifteen minutes from now, an enraged and highly dangerous Gladiator would respawn to hunt me through the entire space station like a homing missile. And he’d probably find me, because he knew all the floors, rooms and passageways much better than me. And in a fair fight, I’d be no match. After all, it would be naive to think Aik Ur Miyeau would let me use the same trick again. And the chance of getting off a shot right into the forehead of a lightning-fast bounding enemy also seemed miniscule.