Game Changer (Reality Benders Book #3) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  I had to carefully choose my words to refuse the “great honor,” making the excuse that I still hadn’t finished a contract with Clan Waideh-Tukhsh. And I guessed right. The Kung gave a happy rumble, clearly content with my decision, then said:

  “Well Gerd Gnat, I have to praise your devotion to principle! Uraz Tukhsh could stand a good luck charm.’ Although I don’t think this campaign will bring my relative or his crew many trophies or much glory. Noncombat starships will be in the third attack wave, when the space battle will already have long been over, and the landing troops will have taken everything of value from the combat ships. Nevertheless, I am very glad you’re helping my family. And if you, Gerd Gnat, have any requests, now is the time to voice them.”

  I got back down on one knee and told him a problem I’d been wracking my brains over:

  “Due to the unexpected coming of the Shiamiru and the extreme rush to pack, I not only forgot to prepare a gift worthy of my great Kung, which makes me immeasurably anxious, I also didn’t manage to provide my whole team with spacesuits. I’m missing just one, for a Gladiator. And if there are any I could take here on the base, or ones that could be refit for a large person, I humbly beg Kung Waid Shishish to have one issued. But the problem is that I cannot pay for it right now except in Miyelonian crypto... or I need a money changer, even though I know how illegal that is.”

  Fame increased to 55.

  Fame increased to 56.

  For some reason, that request seemed very funny to the Geckho leader. The fearsome Kung Waid Shishish bared his teeth into an unthinkable grimace, rumbled and even lost control and slid off his throne onto the floor. His advisors were laughing too, or more like rumbling loudly, baring their fangs and furrowing their furry brows. Finally, the military leader had laughed it off and said:

  “Even if we don’t have a spacesuit for him on the base, I’ll order one brought in at once. It wouldn’t be right to leave such an unusual request unattended, or a great warrior unable to even leave the ship and take part in battle. And I’ll try to get by without your money, Human. Yes, it will be hard,” here the Geckho once again lost control and started rumbling in laughter, “but I think I can survive without your crypto. Let it be a gift to you and your companion for the good humor. And your gift to me, Gerd Gnat, shall be our common victory in the great war! Prove to us all that you truly do bring luck!”

  And with that, the audience was over. One of the Kung’s advisors called me and said the attack was beginning in one and a half ummi. Captain Uraz Tukhsh’s Shiamiru had been transferred to the eighteenth, reserve flotilla and would be in the third wave of ships, and for secrecy reasons, everyone on the shuttle was strictly forbidden from leaving the game until the battle. Also by order of the Kung himself, everyone who would take part in the attack was supposed to move their respawn to a safe place here on the base, where new teams would be formed and sent to the front in a centralized manner.

  I confirmed that I understood and accepted all the security rules, and that my companions would not be committing any violations. After that, Minn-O and I headed back to the antigrav. When we got far enough away from the council chamber, my companion asked an unexpected question:

  “If it’s no secret, who was that clown? I mean, the one who made the warrior in the stylish white armor get off the throne. He was constantly fuming, baring his teeth, roaring at you and stamping his feet in such a funny way.”

  I stopped sharply and prepared to die, because Minn-O had said these words into a functioning microphone, which meant her seditious question would not go overlooked. And there were probably recordings being made here as well. It was a top-secret military base after all. Later, I realized she was using an earthbound language and, most likely was not understood by the local security goons. In any case, my wayedda had to be taught a lesson for her loose tongue:

  “I’ll have you know that was Kung Waid Shishish, master of huge territories in space and the all-powerful ruler of our shared planet Earth. Didn’t your grandpa ever tell you about our suzerains?”

  Minn-O tripped and almost fell. I caught her at the last moment. In just a few seconds, my companion’s skin changed color from ashen-gray to white, her lips quivering in horror. Maybe, what I said next was too much, and I shouldn’t have scared Minn-O so much, but I couldn’t help myself:

  “I tried to ask for five of those big robots.” We had just come back into view of the hall full of Geckho troops and I pointed Minn-O to the immobile titans in the distance. “Not for long, just for a couple of days. I think that will be enough to settle the issue of your grandpa’s faction and leave it completely in the past. What do you think?”

  “And... and what did the Kung say?” My wayedda started to hiccup nervously, so I took pity on her and admitted that it was just a stupid joke. After all, the Geckho never interfered in disputes between their vassals.

  “Every joke has a measure of truth,” said the Dark Faction lady, showing plainly that her world had sayings similar to my own.

  Minn-O, still not having fully escaped that fear, smiled in embarrassment, looked at me and begged forgiveness for her mistake. I looked the Princess in the eyes, and I read her mind despite myself. Although I didn’t break the mental contact either.

  “Just think, my ruling grandpa Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin is making grand plans, inviting the best strategists and conducting meeting after meeting. He thinks he has the situation fully under control and his enemy’s days are numbered. But in fact, the Leng isn’t even close to understanding the power he’s tussling with! ‘Poor student...’ We’ll see about that! Just think, this ‘poor student’ was well received by a great ruler of the Geckho race! With one well-timed phrase, my husband can steer the Kung wherever he likes. And he just has to wave a claw, and all that will remain of my faction is memories... What a brainless idiot I am! As soon as I open my mouth, I talk my way into a death sentence. Good thing my husband is kind-hearted and lets me get away with little mistakes...”

  Then, instead of a whole long-winded diatribe, my wayedda said a very short sentence:

  “Gnat, I can’t hide it, I’m in shock!!!”

  Chapter Six. To war!

  “EIGHT OF CLUBS!”[1]

  “Pass!”

  “I have an eight too, trump suit! Still pass!”

  “No fair! You three are all team up against me one girl! And kitten is cheat again!”

  “Meee not is cheeeating! Just move the deck no playing card! Uline fat ass move and dump all.”

  “Yooou is call fat who, shitt-mouth?!”

  “Don’t fight! What are you playing the bitch for?! You picked up a ten in the last round, get rid of it!”

  These spats had been going on for quite some time, disturbing my sleep. First, I took the many bullshitting voices as just a part of my delirious dream. In it, Gnat was walking through an endless gloomy desert, the black stony surface of which was filled with blinking red broken lines to the very horizon. And they formed all kinds of sentences in Geckho. I walked along these blinking lines, jumping from sentence to sentence, sometimes finding myself on Miyelonian inlaid geometric shapes. All the while I tried to line up the text with the languages of my Earth, the Dark Faction, Relict glyphs and for some reason the language of the Precursors. Very few knew anything about that. And at that, I saw the odd message about improving Astrolinguistics, after which I saw some previously unapparent connections between the various languages of the Universe.

  It was an interesting dream and probably had some kind of deep meaning, but the black desert of symbols gradually lit up and seemingly dissolved. And my friends’ agitated shouting only grew stronger and took over everything else. It became harder and harder to ignore their voices and, at a certain point, I finally fell asleep. I batted open my eyes with difficulty and… didn’t immediately realize what was happening. My dream was continuing in real life! So that’s what the hell this was. I guess I fell asleep with the Listener helmet on, and there had been glowing and blinking re
d symbols in front of my eyes the whole time. Clearly, that is what gave root to my strange delirious dream. Dazed, I led an unhurried gaze over the system message:

  Astrolinguistics skill increased to level seventy-eight!

  Seventy-eight??? Wait just a second! What did I have before I went to sleep? Sixty-nine I thought... Or was it seventy? I couldn’t say for sure but, in any case, it was much less than the system was currently telling me. Had I been studying languages in my sleep? Was that even possible? I hurried to open my stat sheet and made sure that it hadn’t just been my imagination. Astrolinguistics really had grown significantly!

  And at that, the main progress was apparently from decoding a large number of Relict glyphs. The process I had initiated yesterday of studying and learning glyphs in the unfamiliar language had continued in my sleep. My knowledge of the mysterious ancient race’s language had expanded at a simply explosive pace, and every new logogram I could read served as a catalyst and sped up my learning even more. In fact, I could almost read my class description in its entirety now:

  Listener. On the second rung of the Relict Pyramid, this class specializes in detecting and understanding computerized systems of any type using mental faculties or scanning systems. As level and skills grow, discovery chance, volume of data transmitted [unknown logogram], interface distance and total control chance are all increased. After reaching a high enough level, class may be changed from Listener to [unknown logogram], Thinker or Administrator.

  Primary skills: Scanning, Machine Control, Psionic.

  Class limitations: May not equip light or power armor. May not use mental boosters to improve reflexes and statistics. May not change gender at this stage of development, reduced Regeneration and loss of wings.

  Loss of wings didn’t worry me all that much as I had never had them, and I was quite happy to see I couldn’t change my gender. The last thing I needed was another surprise change like had happened with my class!

  I didn’t understand every word in the description, and I was especially confused by the part about the Relict Pyramid and further progress. But all the same, it was quite interesting, and the Listener was just an intermediate stage in my evolution. Distracted by thinking, I didn’t notice right away but the ship had started slightly vibrating and the main thrusters had started giving a monotonous hum. Apparently, the Shiamiru was in motion. What a trick! I guess I had contrived a way to sleep through a takeoff! Although I suppose we were taking off from the small Un-Tesh comet with minimal gravitation, so there shouldn’t have been too much turbulence.

  “This is for you, Tini. The sixes are coming out!” Minn-O exclaimed joyfully, after which my friends all laughed and rumbled happily together.

  I lowered my feet from my bed to the floor and glanced out into the hallway. The picture I saw was not much less surreal than my recent delirious dream: in the opposite cabin, my friends were all enthusiastically playing durak. The huge furry Uline in her short colorful robe was taking up almost a whole bench by herself. Opposite the Geckho lady was the little Tini with rumpled cards in his clawed hand, and the happily laughing Imran, Eduard and Minn-O, all squeezed in together. Only Dmitry Zheltov was missing, but our pilot was probably on the bridge.

  “Ah, Gnat is awake!” said my friends, welcoming my appearance with glee. I greeted them all and asked how they had all learned to talk together, in what language.

  They exchanged confused glances, seemingly considering this for the first time themselves. Uline Tar answered for everyone in Geckho:

  “I mean, what’s to understand? This isn’t quantum physics or some scientific tract in a dead language, it’s just a simple little game. You only need twenty or so words. Dmmmitry sat down first and helped us translate, then he went to prepare the Shiamiru for take-off. We had already figured it all out by then. But Tini keeps cheating, making the excuse that he doesn’t know the rules. Anyway, with his class that seems about right.”

  “Uline is lying! It was just mistakes, not on purpose!” although my kitten was objecting in his native Miyelonian tongue, he was demonstrating an unexpected ability to understand Geckho.

  Seemingly, Tini had taken my advice to take Astrolinguistics at level fifty, and his currently level of 52 had been earned from, among other things, improving that. Just then, Imran called for my attention and, asking Uline to step aside, slipped into the corridor of the shuttle. There he changed his usual clothes for a raspberry-red Geckho officer’s suit, which had been refit for a human.

  “Look at this! I got it right before takeoff!” the Dagestani athlete demonstrated the flexibility of the articulated armor suit, crouching, jumping, waving his arms and legs and not hiding his excitement. “It’s fully sealed, comfortable and strong! It has enough air for a whole four hours! There’s a slot on both shoulders to attach extra equipment, but my class is incompatible with the Avashi Shock plasma-grenade launching system that came with it, so I sold it to those guys,” Imran said, pointing at the twin brothers Vasha and Basha Tushihh. “But Dmitry Zheltov said I could attach something else there: a jet or gravity booster pack, distance measurer or even a mobile interstellar communication system!”

  “Better brag to Gnat about what’s written on the armor,” Eduard Boyko interrupted the elated cries of the Gladiator, and Imran turned, demonstrating the complex jerky line engraved on his right shoulder plate:

  “This armor is my gift to a great warrior of the human race. Let this armor serve him long and faithfully, defending its bearer in the most furious scraps, and let the warrior himself live up to this gift! Kung Waid Shishish, commander of the Geckho Third Strike Army.”

  “We already got it translated,” Imran started smiling happily, then grew serious. “It is an impossible rarity, but also quite a responsibility. Wearing this armor, I’m obliged to be an example of honor and bravery, so I don’t bring shame on the great Kung! My Fame grew by two points to five as soon as I got this amazing suit!”

  “And Gnat, they tried to poison me!” Minn-O cut into the conversation, seemingly envious I was talking with my friends and not paying her any attention. “They gave me this food that had something in it, and now my throat won’t stop burning!”

  “Come on, it was just soup,” Imran did not agree with the Princess, “In fact, I’d add a bit more garlic and pepper. It tasted almost like lamb shurpa, just like they eat back home!”

  I was saved from discussing the gastronomic preferences of various cultures by a loudspeaker announcement. It was Uraz Tukhsh asking me to come to the bridge. And he asked politely, not the drawn-out “Gnnnat!” I was used to hearing when something bad happened on the starship.

  On the bridge, beyond of course Uraz Tukhsh in his luxurious pearl- and gem-encrusted outfit, were all three of the captain’s bodyguards, Dmitry Zheltov at the helm, the old navigator Ayukh and the leader of the boarding group. I had not yet had the chance to get to know the last one. A large severe Geckho, he had only come aboard the Shiamiru recently, and had practically not left his cabin, speaking only with his ten underlings.

  “Gerd Gnat, please sit down,” the captain pointed me to a chair slowly levitating around the room, and I hurried to take it. “Look what a wonder has joined us!”

  I didn’t understand right away what it was or where to look, then I realized I should look at the large monitor before the Navigator, which was showing an image from our external cameras. Apparently, there was some kind of swift disk-shaped object corkscrewing around the Shiamiru. It was going so fast it was hard to measure its linear dimensions, but still it was much smaller than our shuttle. A drone? Some external module? I turned to captain for an explanation.

  “Quite the rare and mysterious appearance. No one knows for sure what it is, but such objects sometimes appear out of nowhere and accompany ships for a time. Perhaps they are automatic recon drones from some as-of-yet-unknown highly developed civilization. And maybe it is the technology of a long extinct race that is still in working condition. For example, it could be fr
om the Precursors, Relicts or Mechanoids. At any rate, they don’t like attention and they immediately disappear when anyone attempts to study them. They are commonly referred to as satellites or symbiotes.”

  “Symbiotes?” I caught on the familiar biology term. “So do they help ships out?”

  The captain went silent, and the question was instead answered by the old navigator Ayukh:

  “When I was young, I heard from old space veterans that they do. Like they can somehow connect to a ship’s systems and interact with it — to power up the energy shield, repair the armor and external modules, or even attack enemies. Though I haven’t ever encountered verifiable information, only old wives’ tales. It might all be bullshit. But in any case, the arrival of a satellite is considered a very good omen, presaging interesting events and great fortune!”

  “Yes, I’ve also heard that symbiotes bring luck!” Uraz Tukhsh generously splashed an alcoholic cocktail into his glass, at the same time filling another and extending it to me.

  I refused, because I understood perfectly that the captain would not have called me over just to show me the symbiote. I could sense that Uraz Tukhsh was jittery. Apparently, this conversation would be serious, so I needed a clear head.

  “As you like,” Uraz Tukhsh didn’t insist, set the glass aside and leaned toward me. “You see, Gerd Gnat, I have taken the decision not to extend your contract.”

  Ah, fu... Good thing I was sitting... I was prepared for a lot of possibilities when the captain called me for a serious conversation, but I was definitely not expecting it to turn that direction. Thousands of alarming thoughts were sloshing around in my head. What to do now? How to return to earth? How would my friends take the news? What would my faction heads say? But most important, of course, was why had he made such a strange decision? What had changed in the last few hours. After all it wasn’t all that long ago that Uraz Tukhsh had come all the way to Earth just to pick me up!