Daemonorg Prison-Lab: A Dark LitRPG / LitFPS SciFi-Shooter (Overtaken Online Book 1)

by Ben Ormstad

  I stuck my head out into the white corridor to make sure no-one else wished to smash my face in. To the left, I saw a stack of metal crates, where I bet the last grunt had waited for me. Behind them, at the far end, a door. Not like the rugged stone door on the right or the cell doors in the prison area, but a clean steel door. The fluorescent lights and the crates reflected vaguely in its polished surface.

  Remembering the poison floating around my system, I checked the status:

  Poisoned : 02:16:42 until Dead

  Not too bad. With no way of knowing if I’d be able to backtrack to this section of the building again later, I had to risk losing more precious time by searching every guard I’d killed.

  About five minutes later I finished searching the four guards plus the last one, the woman. Before delving into the details of my catch, I stopped by the stack of crates in the white corridor. The size of regular moving boxes, they were surprisingly heavy. I felt the muscles in my arms and upper body tighten as I lifted and separated them on the floor. Five crates. My mouth almost watered.

  “Let’s loot these bitches!” I said, crouched by the first one. Unlocked the hatch. The lid opened with a screech. I smiled as my eyes caught sight of a black leather belt. Lifted it and smiled even broader. All round its back I saw small pouches for carrying ammo. I stuck my finger in one of them and stretched the material to check the quality. Seemed solid, durable and elastic enough to fit magazines of differing sizes.

  A few minutes later I’d rummaged through all the crates. Two were empty, and in the other two I found a pistol holster, more cash and a full MedKit.

  Avoiding the exposing fluorescent lights, in case someone suddenly showed up, I returned to the rugged corridor with the torches and dead bodies before taking stock of the awesome catch.

  +4 Weapons – Daemonorg Light Handgun (req. 1 Item Slot each)

  A lightweight pistol owned by most humanoid daemonorgs, either as a backup sidearm, or, as with grunts, their main weapon.

  20 bullets per clip.

  +89 Ammo – Daemonorg Light Handgun (req. 1 Item Slot)

  Ammo for the Light Handgun. Requires 1 item slot per 100 bullets.

  +2 Grenades – Daemonorg Ball-Buster (req. 1 Item Slot each)

  The Ball-Buster is a grenade of varying quality and power due to poor manufacturing.

  +1 Belt – Godmadrigan Army Ammo Belt (+6 Ammo-Item Slots // Req. 1 Item Slot if unused)

  A standard ammunition belt used by the Godmadrigan army for carrying magazines and clips of a wide variety of guns and rifles.

  Upgradable with up to 2 extra ammo pouches, 2 handgun holsters, and 1 knife or baton holder.

  In addition, the functionality may be extended by adding up to 2 shoulder straps passing diagonally over the shoulders. Here, unique upgradabilities will be unlocked according to the specific straps chosen – for instance, the ability to carry assault rifles and the likes.

  +1 Pistol Holster – (+1 Pistol-Item Slot // Req. 1 Item Slot if unused)

  A basic, more or less universal holster for pistols. Most handguns within a general size range will fit. Pistols, that is, not revolvers. You know the difference, yes?

  +1 MedKit (req. 1 Item slot)

  Restores 100% HP to Target Character.

  +13 Consumables

  +120 Cash

  Just a tad bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff, I gaped at the smoothness. Childlike joy tickled my stomach the same way it did when I as a five-year-old got a Sega Genesis with Sonic 2 for christmas by my step parents. One of the few really cool gifts I ever received from them. Back then, I thought I’d come to heaven. The best christmas ever. I played till my eyes hurt and my fingers threatened to cramp up. In the evening we ate chocolate and watched Disney cartoons. Best parents ever! But yeah, that was before the truth about them slowly made itself known and shattered the golden first impression.

  The joy dampened and my mood darkened as countless memories of being disappointed by their lack of presence in my life flooded my mind. I spit on the floor. To hell with those selfish assholes. Why the fuck did they ever adopt a kid?

  But of course I knew why.

  Feeling good about themselves for ‘saving’ a poor orphan. That’s why, I thought. But more importantly, to gain status among their peers. Their rich, self-absorbed, fake, bullshit peers.

  “Fuck,” I grumbled through gritted teeth and balled my fists. Slick George and Backstabbing Evelyn weren’t here. They’d never be here. They didn’t even visit me once this last year, even knowing I was rotting away at home, mourning my wife’s death. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have let them in anyway, but their indifference still ached deep in a mind that had once been a young boy in need of parental affection.

  I shook my head and commanded my thoughts back in line. Breathed deeply. Forced out a defiant smile. Now, let’s manage the loot, I thought and went back to fetch my backpack. I easily fixed the broken strap by ripping off a piece of cloth from a dead guard’s tunic. Tied it to each end of the strap. Good as new. Ish.

  Next, I wrapped the ammo belt around my waist and added the holster to my right thigh. Since I only had one energy refill left for the Celestial pistol, I switched my main weapon to the Daemonorg Light Handgun and holstered it instead, while leaving the Celestial pistol in one of the pants’ item slots.

  With all these new item slots, I brought all the guns and also let the remaining bullets stay in their respective clips. I never knew when I suddenly had to just grab a gun in a panicky moment and pray it was loaded. Except for the bullets already in the guns, I stuffed the remaining 89 Light handgun bullets in the ammo belt, plus the 1 energy refill. Furthermore, I crammed the Ball-Buster grenades in the pockets of my hooded jacket.

  I went back and forth about whether to use the MedKit. Usually in games, I waited for as long as I possibly could before using health boosters that maxed out my health. Yet, the pain in this particular game hurt so much that I’d prefer to not experience it too often.

  “Eh, fuck it,” I mumbled, placed the MedKit in the backpack and used the 13 consumables instead.

  +13 HP

  This brought me up to 53 health. Good enough. Whatever. I’ll be fine.

  As I entered back into the sterile, white corridor, the plan was to ignore the gritty stone door to the right, and just run straight for the polished steel door to the left.

  And I would have done it if it wasn’t for the sense of something not quite right hitting me square in the front of my mind.

  Then I heard it.

  Muffled sounds of someone… screaming? Turning my head toward the stone door at the far right side of the corridor, I listened intently with closed eyes. Tried to differentiate the sound from the humming buzz of the fluorescent lights and my pulse throbbing audibly in my ears.

  Yes. There it was again. A hoarse, pained cry for help.

  Or a trap.

  Yeah, who knew?

  But I wasn’t the type of guy who’d just been through all this shit, and then not go back and help someone stuck in equally deep shit. Also, had this been any other regular ol’ video game, I’d inspect every single nook and cranny of the floor before moving on. But because it was this game, I admitted to myself I was just a tiiiny bit hesitant to get involved in that poor individual’s horrible experience. Let’s not kid ourselves, I thought. His problems will become my problems.

  I steeled myself and ran through the corridor, bright light reflected in my new gun. It looked like a regular Glock, except for the strange engravings along its glossy barrel. The sound of my footsteps echoed between the white walls, and as I neared the stone door, more sounds mixed in with the wailing.

  I stopped by the door. Put my ear to the cold, grey stone. Low sounds of something resembling scratching accompanied the barely noticeable vibrations in the dense material. Again I attempted to sense anything from what was going on in there. But nothing.

  The door probably weighed close to a hundred kilos, which was good, since I could lean
my full bodyweight against it and it opened slowly. As the crack widened, I grimaced at the rotten stench seeping out.

  “Help,” a male voice cried. “Someone, please heeelp!”

  Now that I heard every word, I sensed his terror as clearly as my own emotions. Added to this, I sensed hunger. Pure, raw hunger. From hundreds of chaotic minds. It undoubtedly belonged to the source of the intense scratching noises, and reminded me of an entire ocean of aggressively foaming waves.

  “They’re chewing their way through!” His panic deepened. “You, there, by the door,” I heard him say even before I’d opened it completely.

  I pushed it up just enough to enter… and stopped on the spot. My body froze as my thoughts tried to figure out how to react to what I saw.

  14

  I expected to enter another floor of corridors and prison cells. However, what lay in front of me now was nothing short of terrifying. If where I spawned was a prison floor for prisoners of war, then this area had to be designed for mass murderers, child molesters and other unspeakable people.

  The flight of steps I stood at the top of led down to a small platform, probably no broader than five square meters. Rotted human bodies lay twisted in impossible positions around the edges. Spider-like creatures the size of cats crawled all over them, feasting. Purple droplets of something sticky trickled from red horns protruding from their backs. I realized this purple substance covered the corpses.

  The platform itself bordered on a drop reaching at least a hundred meters straight down. Boiling lava bubbled down there, painting everything in a dim, orange hue.

  The hairs on my neck stood stiff, and a well-known feeling of vertigo clutched my solar plexus. I got poisoned after five minutes in-game, and now this! Are you fuckin’ shitting me?

  Out from the middle of the platform, a hanging bridge constructed by rusted steel wires and corroded metal plates stretched straight ahead, above the fire-sea below. It connected with a second platform in the middle of the enormous room, about ten meters out. There, too, spider-beasts were gnawing on human corpses covered in purple slime-like spit.

  This second platform had a circular shape, and five more hanging bridges connected it to five separate cages – prison cells floating a hundred meters in the air. Each cell hung from a single massive chain fastened in the ceiling above it. The cages were built by solid bricks, while the doors were wooden with barred windows.

  “Oh no,” I whispered. The cat-sized spider-beasts came crawling from cracks and fissures in the ragged ceiling. They spread out and climbed down the cage chains, surrounded the cages and chewed through the bricks. So that’s what created the loud scratching noises. Hundreds of tiny teeth pulverized solid stone.

  Four of the cages had major parts of their walls completely ripped open. Filled with spiders crawling all over the bodies inside.

  “Hey,” the man yelled again. He used a stick to smash spiders trying to get in through the window bars. “Over here! We’re the only ones still alive.”

  I bit down on my tongue before answering: “How many are you?”

  “Just me and a woman,” he said, killing more spiders. Their cage hadn’t broken down yet, but most of the wall facing me was chewed through. A few more minutes and it would break down completely. “Please hurry; she’s badly hurt!”

  I’m not equipped to deal with this. Jesus F. Christ. I blew air out of my mouth. “Uhm, okay,” I said. “Just let me think for a second.”

  “Don’t think, just come!” His voice was shrill from screaming.

  I was about to tell him to wait again as I noticed three spider-beasts ran up the stairs toward me. Their tiny legs clattered against the stone steps, leaving behind an uneven trail of purple substance. Closer now, I saw their eyes were red and without pupils. Razor sharp fangs the size of fingers stuck out from their mouths, dripping blood and saliva.

  Goosebumps prickled the skin on my back and spread across my scalp like ice cold rain. Fuuuck, I thought, looking from the approaching spiders to the half-eaten bodies on the platform, and over to the cage where the man was barely keeping them out. Sink or swim, right?

  “I’m coming!” I said and gripped the Daemonorg Light Handgun tightly. I took aim, whipped my wrist in the direction of the closest spider and pulled the trigger. The weapon recoiled hard, surprisingly snappy for a ‘light’ handgun. As the spider’s head splattered in a gush of yellow goo, I felt the jolt move from my hand, up my forearm and plant itself in my shoulder. No doubt powerful enough for these nightmarish creeps.

  Killed 1 Corpse-Spider – Level 1

  +10 XP

  Even their name is nasty, I thought as the one I just killed spasmed, its legs twitching. The other two shrieked and scurried sideways. Their eyes actually looked shocked at the sight of their fellow dying, before fixing their murderous gaze back at me. Now the tiny legs sprinted full speed toward me and the fangs seemed to grow bigger as if readying themselves for the coming meal.

  I fired a few more bullets, but they approached too quickly in a zigzaggy pattern. My adrenalized, shaking hand and low-ass Ranged Weapon stats simply couldn’t hack it. I cursed under my breath and stepped backwards until my back was against the half-open stone door. Steadied the gun with both hands and aimed with one eye closed.

  Just as the first spider-beast reached the final step and jumped to attack less than four feet away, I squeezed the trigger twice. Its soulless, red eyes winced as both bullets drove home. One in the thick, black, hairy body, and the other in the creature’s equally thick head. Through the yellow blood scattering in the air, the remaining spider got covered by gore as it flew at me.

  My back already against the wall, I wasn’t able to move away. I gasped as if drowning when it landed on my chest – as big as my entire chest and weighing as much as a fucking rabbit! I felt its pointy legs rip through the jacket’s material and into my chest skin underneath as it lunged again, aiming for my face. Instinctively, I wrapped both forearms around my head to cover my face. The corpse-spider shrieked as if from frustration and bit into my arms instead.

  -3 HP

  I screamed, more from the unexpected feeling of its fangs penetrating my skin than from the pain. I shook its teeth loose from my flesh. It climbed up my arms, the tips of its legs stinging every step of the way.

  “Die!!” I roared and swung my upper body around toward the door. Using all my bodyweight, I smashed the arachnid into the hard stone surface. Again and again until it stopped shrieking and the crisp solidity of its body cracked from the force. Yellow blood spurted from between my forearms and spattered across the stone door in freakishly realistic graphics. I separated my arms and watched the little beast slide down the door and smack against the stone tiles with a wet splatting sound.

  Killed 2 Corpse-Spiders – Level 1

  +20 XP

  Panting from exhaustion, I knew by the increasing sound of clattering legs behind me there was no time to stop for even a millisecond.

  Just as I turned to face the unknown number of approaching spiders, a golden, glowing notification appeared with an explosion sound effect:

  CONGRATULATIONS

  You’ve gathered 200 experience points and may upgrade to Level 2!

  Find a resting place to level up and manage your stats.

  Cool. Too bad I’m not leveling up automatically. Would be sweet to reap immediate benefits during battles. Ah, forget it! I thought and shook my head to remove the disturbing text. Also, I added, no more notifications during battle. I didn’t have the luxury of time to hang around like a fucking stoner if I wanted to save those people’s lives – or my own.

  Letting the thoughts go, I waved my gun in the general direction of the corpse-spiders. Pulled the trigger multiple times while descending the stairs, toward them. Bright muzzle flashes accompanied the shots that smacked in my ears and echoed through the open hall. Bullets made contact, and I heard shrieks from the ones I hit. The smell of gunpowder mixed with the rotten stench of dead bodies down on the
platform.

  I kept firing the gun into the sea of corpse-spiders. Yellow blood spread and plastered onto the backs of the ones surrounding them. I had no idea how many there were. Fifteen? Twenty? All I saw were flickering movements of black, pointy legs and purple saliva-like slime from the red horns on their backs. The shots had probably awakened them from their feeding frenzy, and now every single one came at me, red eyes burning with insatiable hunger.

  In the middle of the stairs, they reached me – or I reached them. Without stopping, I kept running straight through the horde. Fired like a madman and kicked those who tried to climb my legs.

  To save time, I jumped over the last four steps riddled with corpse-spiders. I landed on the stone platform and expected to keep running. However, my boots slid on the purple slime-juice from the spiders and I just wasn’t skilled enough to regain balance. With a choked curse stuck in my mouth, a lightness blossomed in my stomach as I lost footing and fell ass first onto the hard surface.

  Shrieking nightmare spiders immediately surrounded me. Their clattering legs drowned out every other sound. I panicked and kicked and hit everything while trying to turn around and get up. They climbed my arms and sunk needle-sharp teeth into my forearms.

  “Get off me,” I screamed. “Get the fuck off me!” Using all my willpower and strength, I rolled around. Some lost their grip and got squished underneath me. I kicked away others who tried climbing my legs. Like a drowning person, I gasped for air. Flailed my arms and crawled far enough to grab the closest human corpse. A woman. I fired and killed the spiders that tried to block the path. Covered by yellow blood and icky innards, I grimaced and pushed them out of the way, before digging my fingers into the dead woman’s ripped uniform pants. Luckily, she was small and lightweight. I dragged her closer to get a good grip around her legs, then lifted my chest from the ground and swung her around me like a meaty plank – practically mopping the floor with the surrounding corpse-spiders.