Game Changer (Reality Benders Book #3) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  Uline, also having swallowed an antiradiation pill, walked up closer and drew my attention with a suggestion:

  “Gnat, it would be great to film a little clip right now to show that we were the first soldiers from the Third Strike Fleet to enter the enemy underground complex! That would mean both a boost in Fame for all group members, and Authority for you as commander. Then we could sell the clip to news channels!”

  “Excellent thought! Go ahead!” I approved the Trader’s initiative, then started taking everyone’s flashlight to make proper lighting and get good shots.

  While the other crew members were monkeying with their space suits, the video clip and medical care, Imran and I walked around the huge factory. There was light but it was so dim that, even with my high Perception, I had to turn on a flashlight. Imran couldn’t see anything without an additional light source. There were no enemies here in the assembly plant, just robots flying and wheeling around on set paths, turning gravity cranes, shuffling assembly units, attaching piece after piece to the slowly moving frigate carcasses on the conveyor belt. The starship closest to the exit was almost ready. The robots were attaching its weapons systems. Another three Tolili-Ukh X frigates at various stages of assembly were on the belt already.

  We stopped next to the freight elevator. Its raising platforms were hauling up all kinds of modules from the bowels of the planetoid with enviable regularity and they were instantly picked up by the scurrying robots. I had to stop the production line. But how? I immediately got the idea to use my Prospector Scanner to jam all the devices and get quality scans of Meleyephatian frigates and other complicated equipment, which probably also was of interest to humanity.

  After warning my friends to turn off their levitators and walk away, I took out one of the geological analyzers and prepared my scanner. In the settings, I put cavity, metal and structure analysis to maximum. Minerals and organic materials were of no interest to me now, so I put those bars down to practically zero. So then, here we go! The tripod gave a familiar click, then I spread out the metal feet and placed the analyzer on the floor.

  Scanning skill increased to level twenty-six!

  Cartography skill increased to level fifty-three!

  Electronics skill increased to level forty-seven!

  The lights went out as predicted, as did my flashlight, the assembly apparatuses and the conveyor belt. The flying bots fell to the floor. The airflow from the elevator shaft was so strong that I could barely stay standing. The forcefield had turned off, and the breathable air whooshed out of the subterranean complex. However, two or three seconds later, it all came back online and got back to work like nothing had happened! What the crap?! Everything was supposed to short out, that’s what always happened!!!

  “This complex is probably powered from somewhere down below, in the depths of the planetoid. It’s all being controlled from there too,” Imran commented.

  Yes, that seemed to be the case. There was just an assembly plant here, and it was all being controlled from someplace else. And also there, they were able to switch all the malfunctioning equipment back on.

  “Ugh, I’d like to know how this all works...” I said thoughtfully, looking from side to side and not finding any panels or controls anywhere. “I’d like to get down into the brain center of this whole complex and make the ship of my dreams. Big and spacious, fast, maneuverable and with a great engine for long hyperspace jumps. And I want powerful weapons and to be able to land on planets as well. Imagine the surprise in our faction if such a craft landed in the middle of our capital citadel!”

  “Oh yeah!” My friend smiled happily, picturing the scene, but he quickly grew serious. “But your starship would be confiscated immediately for study, and I doubt they’d ever give it back...”

  Imran had voiced my own doubts and fears without even knowing it. Even if I did get a starship, the faction directors probably would find their own plans for it, and they would have little to do with my own. Could I really refuse to give my faction such a valuable trophy? No, of course not. Even my closest friends wouldn’t be understanding if I did that. Voluntarily give it to the faction? Well, in that case, they would declare their gratitude to Gnat for an artifact of such unimaginable scientific value. They might even give me some kind of letter of recognition, and pay out compensation of a few thousand crystals (because the faction simply had nothing else), but then they would keep the starship for themselves...

  I gave a heavy sigh at the upsetting thoughts but I didn’t have time to answer the Dagestani Gladiator. Just then, the ground underfoot gave a palpable shudder and I heard the alarmed and delighted voice of Eduard Boyko in my earphones:

  “Commander Gnat, mission complete! We blew the elevator to smithereens and it looks like we took down a group of enemies on their way up. The game rained down so much experience that it hurts. I got three levels at once!”

  “Great! Now come join us in the assembly plant. There’s an elevator in here, and we need you to pull the same trick... Actually, wait! First cordon off the outside entrance into the underground complex! We’ve probably attracted the attention of the fortress defenders at this point, so some Meleyephatians will soon be trying to blow us out of here!”

  A minute later, I heard the Space Commando’s unconfident voice in my headphones, honestly admitting that he didn’t understand how to fulfill my order. There was a security station with a bunch of spiraling levers at the exit. It had a big round screen, but the framerate was too high and there were a few pictures overlaid on top of each other when I could see anything. The screen was clearly not intended for the human eye. But which of the instruments closed the door? The Space Commando didn’t know that and didn’t have the stones to figure it out by trial and error.

  “Gerd Gnat, don’t have him close the door yet. We still haven’t gotten comms online. Ayukh and I will close it later ourselves!” Dmitry Zheltov’s voice rang out in my headphones. “We’ve just about figured out this Meleyephatian frigate. The control systems are of course unusual, but I think we can get it out of the shaft. Ayukh has already activated the communications systems and he’s working his magic with the settings. In a few minutes, we’ll be able to tell fleet command our message!”

  “Gnat, enemies!!!” Minn-O brayed, running up to me and pointing downward. “Lots of Meleyephatian soldiers! They’re coming up to us on the cargo platforms!!! They’re still pretty far down, but there are a lot of them!!! I can see more than one hundred markers!!!”

  I ordered Vasha, Basha and Eduard to come to me at once, using the levitator to move fast. Twenty seconds passed, and the three huge soldiers jumped down next to me. I pointed them at the still functioning elevator, which I could not stop. There were a lot of boxes on its top platform now, and I barked:

  “Enemies are coming up after us, a lot of them! Your mission is to blast the cargo elevator to the hounds of hell, killing the enemies, stopping the delivery of the components and blocking the shaft completely. As soon as you’re done, we’ll all go to the ship! There won’t be any point in sitting here cut off from the rest of the complex in an assembly plant, so Ayukh and Dmitry, as soon as you figure out the frigate controls, come find us. Then we’ll wait for orders from command and join up with the Geckho forces!”

  That plan of action was met with great enthusiasm by almost everyone. Just Eduard Boyko had his doubts:

  “Uhh, Gnat, that all sounds well and good, and launching rockets down the shaft of a cargo elevator is not gonna be hard. But, uh what if it really... f’s us up?” Eduard actually used a different word, the real one in fact, but I won’t reproduce it here. “It’s just that marking,” he said pointing at the next shipment of containers being unloaded and the many boxes, “I’ve seen it before on the ammo boxes for my Space Commando armor. I’m pretty sure it means: ‘Caution, explosive!!!’“

  I should have listened to my friend, I know. But time was pressing and the enemies were getting near. I could already see the first of them on my mini-
map. I really had no other plan of action, so I tried to reassure him:

  “Eduard, that’s actually what we want. The bigger it blows the better! Hopefully it will be enough to kill our enemies, block everything down below and do as much damage to the Meleyephatians as possible! Give me the Targeting System! I’ll target your homing grenades!”

  The Space Commando just shrugged his shoulders and stood obediently in formation with the two Geckho brothers next to the elevator shaft. Basha handed me a Targeting System and, just after the cargo-laden platform slid aside, I leaned over the shaft and started pointing. My Danger Sense skill was shooting through me, and I had already seen why. Son of a bitch! While we were bickering, the first of the enemy assault troops had just about reached the assembly plant!!! They were less than ninety feet away, around ten huge spiders in metal suits. They were stuck onto boxes and preparing their weapons for battle.

  “Fire!” I shouted in a voice not my own, just after the frame of the Targeting System focused on a target. And that target was a pile of boxes marked “Caution, explosive!!!”

  All three of my soldiers in exoskeleton armor shot a burst of homing grenades. I even saw the rounds leaving a smoke trail behind them and dashing down the shaft.

  Targeting skill increased to level twenty!

  Danger Sense skill increased to level forty-two!

  And then... the world suddenly went dark. Before my eyes I saw a set of messages I had nearly forgotten:

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

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

  Chapter Eleven. Dead division

  I REALLY WANTED to read the statistics of my game session, hoping to find an answer for a nagging question: what just happened? It was obvious that our rash actions had led to the explosion of lots of boxes of ammunition, and seemingly blown up in the elevator shaft. I mean, I was killed instantly despite my forcefield and ancient Relict armor. Most likely my nearby friends were also hit by the powerful explosion, so they were probably also going to respawn. But maybe some of them had escaped? Had we managed to stop the incoming Meleyephatians? And what happened to the ship?

  Unfortunately, the information provided was very meager and contained no further explanation: 32 hours and 10 minutes in the game, 5 new levels, 92 (!!!) skill improvements, one player killed... Hm, I wonder who that might have been? Had my one accurate shot from the pulse rifle actually killed one of the defenders of the underground complex? To be honest, it seemed unlikely unless that Meleyephatian was already seriously wounded by my friends. Almost half a million points of experience... but what for, where was it used in the game? Now growth of statistics, like Strength, Constitution and Perception... that, on the other hand, was very important in the game that bends reality. There had been serious progress in Fame and Authority... Also not bad. But in any case, my game ended in disaster:

  Your session ended due to: death.

  Decisively throwing back the lid of my virt pod and sitting up, I saw two people in the room. I was expecting Imran who’d also died but, much to my surprise, I also discovered Roman Pavlovich of the Second Legion, Gerd Tamara’s deputy. In the game, he played a high-level Grenadier. Large and burly, the middle-aged man had a clear gray streak in his short dark hair and was holding a beautiful bouquet of bright crimson roses in his huge calloused hands. He was clearly delighted to see me. I though was somewhat baffled. Was he here to greet me? Anyway, the severe soldier’s first words cleared that all up:

  “Hurry up, Kirill. The party started an hour ago. SHE has already asked for you three times. Here, assuming you haven’t had time for another gift, you can give her these!”

  Fortunately, I instantly realized who SHE was, and didn’t embarrass myself by asking such a stupid question. But to my great shame, I only then remembered that today was Gerd Tamara’s birthday. And I’d promised the famed leader of the Second Legion I’d be at the party. It hadn’t turned out great. I hadn’t prepared a gift for the unordinary girl, so I obediently took the bouquet.

  However... I looked at the taciturn Imran standing to the side. He wasn’t too happy. And probably he wasn’t my only soldier not in the best state of mind. It was safe to assume my whole squadron was feeling anxious, waiting impatiently until they could reenter the game and have their commander tell them all the details and consequences of what happened. So I returned the beautiful bouquet to the Grenadier:

  “Roman Pavlovich, my squadron of twelve with three different races has just died on the planetoid Ursa-II-II in the assault of an underground Meleyephatian base. And we just lost a starship... two actually... and we’ll respawn in ten minutes on a comet with an unbreathable ammonium atmosphere. What’s more, it isn’t yet clear how we’ll get off it. I can’t just leave my soldiers waiting and go party. What kind of a commander would do something like that?!”

  The severe Grenadier considered it and seemingly didn’t put much stock in my words, because he unexpectedly turned to my Dagestani friend and asked him to confirm:

  “Is that really what happened, just as Gnat says?”

  Imran, as if expecting just such a question, gave a happy smile and started expounding:

  “I swear on my mother it is! And not only that! Gnat didn’t say anything, but there was a real meat grinder in space. Hundreds of Geckho and Meleyephatian ships bit the dust! It’s way cooler than Star Wars, it honestly gave me goosebumps! And we were the first of the whole Geckho Third Strike Fleet to land on the Meleyephatian asteroid. Dmitry Zheltov is just awesome, he made a masterful landing under fire from the enemy batteries! He’s a real jigit[2]! Then we flew on flying skateboards! After that, we broke into the enemy base and captured a spaceship assembly factory! But the Meleyephatians got us eventually... We couldn’t hold the position...”

  “Sounds like you’re really kicking ass!” Roman Pavlovich complimented and even whistled. Then he looked unconfidently at the bouquet in his hands and set it on the edge of my virt pod: “I’ll tell Tamara that you can’t come to her party right now. But still, I implore you Gnat. Try and make it! Don’t upset the girl! She’s been getting ready all day, getting all gussied up. She redid one hairstyle over four times! She spent at least an hour practicing her smile in front of a mirror and even tried laughing for the first time I can remember. She won’t say it, of course, but the whole Second Legion knows who she’s really trying for. I have three grown daughters myself, so I’ve seen that glimmer in a girl’s eye when they’ve grown up. Tamara is like my fourth, I love her like my own. So don’t hurt my daughter’s feelings, try and make it to her party!”

  * * *

  SO, RESPAWN TIME had come. Loading! The first thing I saw was that I hadn’t gotten a boost to either Fame or Authority. That was bad. It meant command must not have known about our heroic raid on the enemy underground complex, and we had died there in vain.

  I appeared at the Geckho military base on the Un-Tesh comet indoors and protected from the corrosive atmosphere, which is where I’d put my respawn point earlier with all the rest of the Shiamiru crew. First of all, I checked my equipment. My Listener suit was still in perfect condition and on my body. That was the most important. I also had all my weapons. But I couldn’t find the Targeting System. It must have dropped as loot where I died. Hopefully that wouldn’t damage my relationship with Basha Tushihh. After all, it did belong to him...

  Ah, and there he was. Both Basha and his twin brother Vasha appeared a few feet away and started looking around, batting their lashes and getting used to the bright light. Uline Tar showed up next to them, and another two right after her: Minn-O and Tini. The kitten ran right up to me and pressed up to my body, demanding I embrace and calm him. Seemingly, the underage Miyelonian was very worried he’d died alone and would respawn very far from every player he knew.

  “I also wouldn’t say no to some reassurance and affection,” the Dark Faction Princess said, watching with a strange jealousy as I warmly embra
ced my ward and whispered words of encouragement. “I lost my spacesuit, too... so, am I the only loser in the squadron?”

  Minn-O La-Fin was standing in slippers and a track suit, over which she had a bandoleer for weaponry. All that was left of the spacesuit now was a helmet on her head. Mhm, tough break... Now we’d have to figure out how to get Minn-O out of this underground base onto the surface of the toxic comet.

  We had to wait twenty seconds for the Medic and Supercargo. For some reason, they were in no rush to enter the game. Then Imran came, clearly having spoken with Roman Pavlovich from the Second Legion. And last of all was Eduard Boyko. The Space Commander was in high spirits and, right after finding me with his eyes, shouted out in joy:

  “I got a hundred seventy-four frags! Gnat just imagine, one hundred seventy-four!!! Before this, I played for almost seven months and only killed one enemy when I strangled a Dark Faction Spy next to the Prometheus. And now over a hundred! Sure, most of the experience canceled out because I also died, but...”

  The Geckho asked what the man was talking about so enthusiastically, and I translated Eduard’s words for them. Basha Tushihh, looking the Space Commando from top to bottom waved his paw scornfully and bared his teeth in satisfaction:

  “Snot-nose! I got two hundred and three frags in that session. But I didn’t get any experience for the last ones. And my brother Vasha got a whole four hundred kills. By the looks of things, we turned those Meleyephatians to proper dust!”

  I quickly added up all the results my companions had told me. Almost eight hundred dead enemies! Woah! We really gave the planetoid’s defenders some heat! But where was the rest of my team? Why weren’t they entering the game?

  We waited another ten minutes, but nothing. Dmitry Zheltov and Ayukh just weren’t coming. I couldn’t say about the old Navigator. I didn’t know him well enough to predict his actions, but my friend Dmitry would definitely have come into the game right after respawn. And that meant...