After just three minutes walking the bewildering corridors of the underground base and passing two posts of armed guards, we entered a small round room with mirror walls. The Geckho who accompanied me ordered me to go into the middle and wait, then hurriedly left and closed the door behind them. Five to seven minutes passed, and I even managed to get bored. That was plenty of time to look at my endlessly elongated or many times condensed reflection in the carnival-style mirrors. But suddenly the light went out and, a second later, a glowing projection appeared in front of me. It was Kung Waid Shishish sitting back splendiferously in his throne.
I instantly got down on one knee and gave a deep bow, expressing the proper respect to the all-powerful master of Earth. And at that my soul was exultant. The great Kung had deigned to speak personally with me, which must have meant the honorable Geckho was going to reward me for the victory. What was more, I always found it easier to negotiate directly with authorities than their puppets and underlings. They were too bound by instructions they simply didn’t have the power to break.
However, the beginning of the conversation was unexpected and he was not talking about the Meleyephatian planetoid at all:
“Gnnnat, I heard your wife said insulting words about me. I admit, I am very upset that you did not slap her and punish her immediately, so I await your explanation.”
Oops... Honestly, I had already forgotten that unpleasant incident. But apparently the local spooks recorded everything faithfully, managed to get it translated and had even reported to their boss about the human woman’s insults. I needed to answer immediately, so I improvised:
“My lord, I am sure that my foolish young female is not to blame here. She has no filter on her speech, and a big mouth. Sometimes I think her tongue works all on its own without consulting the brain. So blame it on her tongue. And blame the leaders of her faction, who never explained the political order of the Galaxy to her, and never showed her the great ruler of our large planet. I think those loose ends and clearly insufficient respect to the suzerains merit the most serious censure and punishment. My opinion: you should take one random node away from the Dark Faction. That punishment would be equal to her violation and would force them to show the Geckho proper respect in the future. And I have already spoken with my junior wife. I didn’t kill her, I didn’t even raise a hand, but she is trembling with worry and, I assure you, will never make that error again.”
Psionic skill increased to level fifty-three!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level forty-seven!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level forty-eight!
“You think so? But you didn’t recognize me on our first meeting either. Don’t you think that punishment is too severe?” The most powerful Geckho had his doubts.
“No, not at all. My Kung, you need to be harsh sometimes, to nip disrespect in the bud and avoid problems in the future,” I said in the tone of a wise and experienced advisor, meanwhile feeling exuberant. Would it really work?!
And really, why not? Only then I realized that the great “leader of many divisions” had neither time or reason to sort through all the confusing and complicated interrelations between his many vassal factions on some far-off little planet. So he would have no idea that the Dark Faction was hostile to mine, and might even think the opposite, given Minn-O was my wife. And that was exactly why Kung Waid Shishish was surprised at the severity of the punishment I was proposing, but it didn’t make him reject it.
“Well, Gerd Gnat, you know human psychology better than me, so I agree to your suggestion. Let it be so! The level of one randomly chosen node of the faction of your junior wife shall be reset to zero. My advisors will give the orders to the Geckho diplomat on your planet.”
Psionic skill increased to level fifty-four!
Mysticism skill increased to level six!
You have reached level sixty-seven!
You have received three skill points!
It worked!!! I was glad at the new level, but much more at the gift I had just managed to arrange for my “father in law.” Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin would be very surprised when the official representative of the Geckho demanded the Dark Faction drop a claim and abandon one node. It would be ideal if the blind lot pointed at the enemy capital node, which was level four. Amazing, even. Minus two thousand three hundred forty-nine players. Our enemies would take a good long time to recover from that!
I was distracted from my rainbow dreams by the voice of the Geckho Third Strike Fleet commander:
“Alright, let’s finish this formality and get to more important matters. Gnat, I wanted to hear directly from you what happened on the enemy planetoid.”
I didn’t spend a long time slavering and delving into details (because I didn’t doubt that my influential sovereign had probably already heard everything). I just said I had been carrying out an order the Kung gave me at our last meeting to prove my value as a good luck charm, bringing victory to the Third Strike Fleet.
“You don’t think that’s a bit too much pomp?” The commander was even somewhat taken aback by my impudence and showed me the purple ribbon he had just been awarded.
I had to reign in my vigor and demonstrate loyalty and readiness for dialog:
“My Kung, I already know the official version of events and I have no qualms with it. Whether Captain Uraz Tukhsh did it, or some Precursor artifact blew up elsewhere, or the light of the nearby star simply refracted through swamp-gas and started a fire… I do not care and will tell whatever story is most beneficial to my lord.”
He clearly grew calmer and even rumbled in satisfaction. I then got to the trickiest part:
“And yet we both know that even a quarter ummi after the destruction of the Shiamiru and death of its captain Uraz Tukhsh the battle was still underway which is a weak point in the official story. Also, my squadron of twelve players was still alive and fighting the Meleyephatians in the bowels of their underground base. We killed around eight hundred fortress defenders and caused a series of underground explosions which led to the shields falling and the capitulation of the Meleyephatians. Our evidence is a captured frigate and a video clip.”
“I have already bought the rights to all your footage,” Kung Waid Shishish sharply threw out. “And I hope you understand Gnnnat, that those scenes will never be viewed on a single news channel in the galaxy.”
I nodded in silence, trying not to show the Kung my dismay and annoyance. God damn it... The Kung was resourceful. We had been deprived of our very strongest card. And meanwhile, the fleet commander stood up to his gigantic height. I was still kneeling, so I now felt absolutely tiny.
“Yes, Gnnnat. The footage will be destroyed and your fame will not be growing. But I value your squadron’s contribution to the common victory and will not be ungrateful. As compensation, all the soldiers who entered the enemy complex will be given fifty thousand crystals. What else do you want? The captured frigate? I’m prepared to let your team keep it on the condition that you keep your mouths shut. And I will come to you specifically as commander if the silence is broken. Do you understand that responsibility Gerd Gnat? Yes? Great! The frigate and other trophies will soon be brought to the Un-Tesh comet so and go get your ship!”
I understood that he was preparing to end the conversation and hurried to say one last thing:
“I’m sure that my Kung would like to demonstrate his generosity and good will by letting us keep the Meleyephatian frigate but, with the way it is now, I’m afraid the starship will not be so much a gift as a burden. Lots of parts were destroyed in the blast: the power unit, the thrusters and a plethora of other critically necessary systems. Without those, the frigate is nothing but an immobile hunk of scrap. I don’t know what we could even do with it.”
Psionic skill increased to level fifty-five!
“Yeah?” Seemingly the commander didn’t know the true state of the trophy, and my words came as a surprise. “Well alright. I’ll order minimally necessary repair and service so
your starship can take off from the Un-Tesh comet and reach a nearby station. But from there it’s none of my concern, and you’ll have to get the money to improve it further on your own. By the way, it’s actually good that the captured ship has been damaged and will not be useable for some time. Until all this hubbub settles down, I don’t want you and your friends hanging around the Third Strike Fleet. You’d sow discord with your chatter. If I ever need a good luck charm again, I’ll find you.”
Authority increased to 38!
And at that, the call ended. The hologram of the Kung disappeared, and I found myself back in the round hall of mirrors. I was falling over in exhaustion. My mana was long since depleted, and the last few minutes of speaking with the great Kung had eaten up all my Endurance. After a few deep breaths, I allowed my long held-in emotions to burst forth, shouting in full-throated joy and nearly going deaf from the three-hundred-sixty-degree echo that thundered back.
In this game, I had long had a dream. It was weak and only on the edge of my consciousness. It was technically impossible in fact. I was afraid and embarrassed to admit it even to my closest friends. It had come during my very first space flight on the Shiamiru and, since that time, that dream had been badgering me day in and day out, nourished by new emotions, knowledge and facts. The dream was to get my own starship and cross the endless cosmos to find new mysteries, adventures and undiscovered stars. To have total freedom and no longer depend on mad aristocrats or faction directors or anyone else for that matter. It was a beautiful dream. And now I had a starship, so it was not just a dream. What next? Why, go out to find new dreams of course!
Chapter Fifteen. The Team Reassembles
THERE WERE ANOTHER TWO or so hours until Team Gnat was supposed to return, and none of them had shown up yet. So I decided to spend that time intelligently. First I found Gerd Ost Rekh, who knew his way around the military base and went to the local bursar’s office to pick up twelve identical bags of red crystals. After that we had a quick bite in the local canteen and, after again making sure none of my squadron was yet in the game, I sat down to study the Relict language.
It was getting easier and easier to understand new symbols. Some easy sentences I could now translate basically on the fly, but the more complex ones were still beyond me. And at that, I couldn’t shake the sensation that there would be a qualitative jump soon when hundreds of the individual glyphs would come together into a complete picture, allowing me to understand the basic rules of phrase construction.
“Listener, awaiting command.”
I looked through pages of partially translated but basically incomprehensible text. I randomly hit upon an unfamiliar blinking symbol and activating it, expanded a line that brought me to the settings page. So this was where the link to the drone and machine control page was. I had once accidentally closed it without really knowing what it was and I was never able to find it again!
It was right when I got the suit, and any time the red blinking text came on the helmet screen, I simply dismissed it. It blocked my view so I just got rid of it indiscriminately. Somehow, I’d even deleted a page from the settings. After that, I spent a bunch of time digging around trying to find the information about my missing small Relict guard drone. I had even started to worry I had lost that information once and for all and my unique trophy along with it. But now I’d tracked it down.
I stuck the machine control window into the quick-access panel so I wouldn’t close it and lose it again, then began to study the opportunities it provided. So what could be done here? In the whole list of machinery under my control there was only one active line:
Small Relict guard drone. Location unknown. Condition unknown.
Not a lot. My drone was god knows where, but it could apparently take commands. Hmm, I really wish I could figure out how to give one...
“Fly to me!” I commanded mentally, and unexpectedly received an answer. It was weak and took a bit but it was unmistakable! First, a request to confirm came into my mind, then the same message was written in red symbols before my eyes on my face shield.
The small guard drone thinks there is a high chance (over 99.78%) that your previous command was in error. Confirmation requested. Listener, should your drone fly to its master? (Yes/No)
What a stubborn hunk of metal! It spent so many thousands of years doing nothing, and when I asked it to switch on, it threw a fit! I chose “Yes” almost mechanically, but still wanted additional information. I wanted to know what the drone didn’t like about my seemingly simple and easily comprehensible command?
Estimated time in flight: 257,143 years, 215 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes.
Chance of being detected and destroyed by automatic Precursor defense systems: 84.1%.
Chance of biological death of Listener master during flight: 100%.
Critically low batteries. Insufficient energy for complete functioning of all systems. Chance of premature end of flight due to technical issues: 61.2%.
Oh, fu... It turned out that hunk of metal was much smarter than its master, which is why it didn’t want to fulfill my stupid and suicidal order. I hurriedly canceled the command and ordered the drone to stay hunkered down and wait for me.
Machine Control skill increased to level forty-two!
Psionic skill increased to level fifty-six!
Electronics skill increased to level forty-eight!
Just then, Minn-O appeared a step away. And the Princess looked so out of breath and simultaneously frightened that it was like she had just run away from a pack of rabid dogs and only slipped away at the last second by climbing up a tree. And my wayedda’s first words confirmed that I was not so far from the truth:
“Gnat, you should see the horror in my homeworld! Grandpa is all in a huff, he turned a servant girl to ash just for dodging his hand. On the video phone, he yelled at me so much I thought he’d kill me!”
“Did he find out about Kung Waid Shishish’s order?” I immediately guessed, and my companion’s eyes went wide in surprise:
“How’d you know?!”
I explained that I had recently had a difficult conversation with the Geckho military leader, who was upset to have heard my junior wife insulted him. And so I knew that Minn-O’s faction had been penalized, and the level of a random node was reset to zero.
“That’s exactly right, Gnat. I was talking to Coruler Thumor-Anhu about moving physical bodies between factions when a mage attendant suddenly entered. He simply had no face on, so I immediately guessed an envoy was bringing bad news and was afraid of my grandfather’s legendary outbursts. The messenger said that Geckho Diplomat Kosta Dykhsh had come to our lands in the game and demanded we immediately abandon the Citadel hexagon, which you call the Graveyard node. My grandfather was surprised and thought it must have been a mistake. But the mage attendant fell at Thumor-Anhu’s feet and said it was not and he could not dispute the suzerains’ decision, because the Geckho Diplomat had come on an order from Kung Waid Shishish himself! Gnat, this is all because of me!”
Minn-O started sobbing and pressed herself to me, seeking support and consolation. The Princess was quaking like an aspen leaf in the worry and fear. Tears flowed down her face like a river, so I embraced my travelling wife firmly, calming her and saying words of encouragement. Two minutes passed before Minn-O was at all settled. Then she dried her tears and continued:
“I got very lucky because grandpa was too shocked by the news to figure out who’s fault it was. I realized soon enough what caused it though, quietly left the room and hurried to my virt pod. I managed to slip out of the palace and get to my pod, but I didn’t have time to enter the game... I had to answer a call and hear everything Thumor-Anhu thinks about my mental capacity. It was very hurtful and even more frightening. Thankfully, grandpa cannot control minds via videophone otherwise he would never have let me enter the game. At a certain point, I simply couldn’t bear the string of accusations and cursing, turned off the video phone, got into my virt pod and hurried to close the l
id. And now I’m not even sure I should leave the game to receive all the ghastly insults Coruler Thumor-Anhu poured out in his rage...”
I could sense that the girl had begun to quiver slightly again. There could be no doubt that Minn-O was panicking in fear of her ghastly grandpa, and was afraid not of some abstract bad, but real physical pain.
“Do you think the old man would ever hurt you?” I asked untrustingly. Minn-O answered with a sad smirk:
“Do I think?! I still haven’t gotten over the ‘little dose of pain’ Thumor-Anhu prescribed me as punishment for what happened on the ferry! And here I’m afraid I won’t get by with just a little dose this time! Judge for yourself, the Citadel is a well-developed level-two hexagon! But more importantly it has huge munitions storehouses, impressive defensive lines and many-level underground passages. There’s so much work poured in, tens of thousands of man-hours! And all that will be lost because of me!”
Lost? The node would just be reset to zero. Then the Dark Faction could move right back in. The worst they have to do is wait two or three days to level one, then ten more to two. But that wasn’t such a harsh punishment. Sure, their maximum number of players would go down temporarily, and maybe some of the weaponry from the Graveyard node wouldn’t work, but that was all temporary and not that bad. Or was I not getting something? I was not ashamed to admit that I did not know all the rules here.
Minn-O didn’t believe me at first and thought I was mocking her. Then she explained anyway:
“Gnat, some of the buildings and defensive structures cannot exist without a high enough hexagon level! As soon as it drops below, they self-destruct. Didn’t you know? And the central hexagon fortress will also be destroyed. We’ll have to build it again from the ground up and that will take a lot of time and resources. Just the building materials for a level-two fortress will cost forty thousand crystals!”
Game Changer (Reality Benders Book #3) LitRPG Series Page 15
