The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series
Page 21
Vlad did not reply, probably because he was too far away from us to hear Nate at that point.
The colonists were losing the battle. Without our help, they had no chance of fighting off the attackers. We did not have time to chase the Russian to reason with him. So instead of trying to get him back, we ran toward the colony. Once we reached it, we engaged the overgrown spiders attacking the settlement.
However, without the Russian, we could not defeat the arachnids. Sure, last night we had been able to fight off the aggressive spiders due to the joint efforts of all the members of our team, but it had been Vlad who had dealt the most damage to them.
Vlad was our damage dealer. Nate, Alyson, and I were doing our best to protect the colonists, but without Vlad, his battle drone, and dark-energy-infused bullets we were not able to deal much damage to the attackers. The overgrown spiders killed one colonist after another, and we could not do anything to prevent them from doing so. Alyson tried to heal wounded colonists a couple of times, but to no avail. Her magic-like healing abilities worked only on the four of us.
The air was filled with the crack of gunfire, screams of dying men and women, and high-pitched battle cries of overgrown arachnids.
After what felt like an eternity, a message popped up before my eyes.
> Your main objective has been completed. The dropship will arrive to pick you up soon.
I also received a whole lot of experience points and leveled up two times.
All of that meant that the Russian had finally found the severely wounded Raid Boss and finished it off.
Now that the spider queen was dead, the other arachnids were no longer under its influence. They stopped fighting us, looking confused and lost. Then all of them suddenly began to flee. They did not run for the forest, though, like they had the last night. The spider queen no longer guided the spiders and controlled their actions, so they just ran in different directions, totally ignoring the colonists firing after them. All they wanted to do now was get away from this place in one piece. They quickly left the colony, but we did not chase them. There was no reason to do so anymore. It was obvious that now that their queen was dead, they would no longer be attacking the colony in the future.
Unless, of course, another of them mutated into a queen.
Everywhere we looked we saw the bodies of the dead colonists. We tried to find Jennifer to ask her how many people had died but could not find her. Then one man walked to us and said that she was dead. She had been killed in the attack by one of the arachnids.
It struck us hard. Despite the fact that Jennifer Brown had been a real person, and not an NPC, I had naïvely believed that nothing bad could happen to her. She had been the leader of the colony, so I had naïvely believed that she had been invincible and invulnerable.
When we asked the man how many people had been killed in the spider attack, he replied that he had not counted the survivors yet, but by his rough estimation, only about fifty people out of more than three hundred had survived the violent attack of the arachnids.
There was no reason for us to stay any longer in the colony, so when the dropship landed near the settlement, we began to walk to our spacecraft.
After Vlad killed the spider queen, I had leveled up two times. My current level was twelve and I had two skill points to use.
Since my blinking ability was very powerful by that point, I did not waste time examining the skills of my Active Ability but switched to my Passive Ability skill tree instead.
Blue Rune (Passive Ability) — Sixth Sense
The First Branch of the Passive Ability:
Name: Guardian Angel
Description: You gain improved recharge delay for the Passive Ability.
Recharge delay: -1 second (Current: 6 seconds)
Status: 0/5
Name: Speed Maniac
Description: Increases your overall movement speed.
Speed increase: +10%
Status: 0/5
I put both my skill points into the Guardian Angel skill and then checked out my current build.
Your Current Stats
Class: Flanker
Current Level: 12
Experience Points: 7955
Experience Points to Level 6: 14500
Abilities:
Active Ability — Blink
Maximum distance: 30 meters (Learned Skills: Reacher 3/3)
Amount of charges: 3/3 (Learned Skills: Unstoppable 1 2/2)
Delay between charges: 1 second (Learned Skills: Unstoppable 1 2/2, Unstoppable 2 2/2)
Cooldown: 30 seconds (Learned Skills: Ready for Action 3/3)
Passive Ability — Sixth Sense
Effective range: 25 meters around (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Cooldown: 4 seconds (Learned Skills: Guardian Angel 2/5)
Ultimate Ability — Teleport
Maximum length: 50 meters (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Duration: 30 seconds (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Cooldown: 10 minutes (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Learned Skills:
Green Rune (Active Ability) — Blink
The First Branch of the Active Ability:
Name: Ready for Action
Description: You gain improved recharge delay for the Active Ability.
Recharge delay: 30 seconds
Status: 3/3 (Completely Learned)
Name: Unstoppable 1
Description: You gain an additional Blink charge. While the Active Ability can be used several times before going on Cooldown, after you use the Active Ability, you will have to wait some time before you can Blink again.
Recharge delay: 1 second
Status: 2/2 (Completely Learned)
Name: Reacher
Description: Increases the distance of the Active Ability.
Blink Distance: 30 meters
Status: 3/3 (Completely Learned)
The Second Branch of the Active Ability:
Name: Unstoppable 2
Description: You gain improved recharge delay for the Unstoppable 1 skill.
Recharge delay: 1 second
Status: 2/2 (Completely Learned)
Required skill: Unstoppable 1
Blue Rune (Passive Ability) — Sixth Sense
The First Branch of the Active Ability:
Name: Guardian Angel
Description: You gain improved recharge delay for the Passive Ability.
Recharge delay: -1 second (Current: 4 seconds)
Status: 2/5
I closed my Class Menu.
Nate put his skill points to learn new skills too. Alyson did not. The girl was devastated by how many people had recently died. She chewed her lower lip and seemed to be on the verge of bursting into tears.
Then we just stood next to the open door leading to the cargo hold, waiting for Vlad to return to us.
A few minutes later, we saw him walking toward the dropship, carrying something in one of his hands.
“Here he comes,” I said.
The Russian did not look happy for some reason.
“The job’s done, guys,” he said angrily.
“What’s wrong then?” I asked. “You look pissed.”
“Yes, I’m pissed-off,” Vlad said. “I caught up with the spider queen and finished it off, but the fucker didn’t drop anything at all.”
“Figures,” I said.
“No,” Vlad barked. “It doesn’t figure. It doesn’t make sense at all. Raid Bosses always drop awesome loot when you kill them in video games. So why the hell didn’t the spider queen drop anything?”
“Probably because it’s not a video game,” I said. When Vlad looked at me with hatred in his eyes, I added, “Don’t tell me you still believe that it’s just a video game. I thought you were past that. After all, you were really afraid to die after the spider queen badly wounded you in the stomach back in the log cabin.�
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“You must’ve imagined the whole thing,” Vlad snapped at me. “I wasn’t afraid to die. You know why? Because you can’t die for real in a fucking video game.”
Before I could say anything, Vlad pointed his finger at me and said, “And you know what? I’m sick and tired of listening to you saying it’s real life. So why don’t you shut your trap and—”
He never finished his last sentence.
Nate’s huge fist smacked into the middle of his face, sending him stumbling back and then crashing to the ground. The expression on his face was a mix of pain and rage. His nose was bleeding. It was clearly broken. Tears of pain flowed out of his eyes.
“What the fuck,” the Russian yelled as he sat up and glared up at Nate.
“A lot of people died in the colony,” Nate said. “We tried to protect the colonists, but without you, we couldn’t deal enough damage to the spiders. We could’ve prevented the massacre had you come to the colonists’ aid with us instead of chasing the spider queen. We would’ve fought the spiders off like we did last night and then we would’ve proceeded to find and finish off the spider queen. This way, lots of lives could’ve been saved. But you were too stubborn, and as a result of that, a lot of colonists had been killed in the last spider attack.”
Vlad stared up at him with such a look on his face as if he could not believe what he was hearing.
“That’s why you hit me?” He finally said. “That’s why you are so angry with me? Because a bunch of NPCs got killed? That’s why you got your panties in a knot, huh?”
“They were not NPCs,” Nate said, his voice trembling with emotion. “They were real people like you or me.”
“As far as I remember, you weren’t sure if it was real life or a video game,” Vlad said as he pulled himself to his feet.
“After what we saw and experienced here, after all our interactions with Jennifer—who was also killed—and the other colonists, do you really still think it’s just a video game?” Nate said. “All the people we met were too real to be computer characters a video game. Everything we’ve experienced was too real to be fake. We even feel real pain when we get hurt us, don’t we?”
The Russian just stared at him for a second, then he said, “You guys are so dumb. This is a video game, goddammit. Extremely realistic but just a video game. And those people were NPCs.” He continued before anybody could say anything, “However, even if those people were real, our job wasn’t to protect them. Our job was to find and kill the spider queen.” He raised his voice as he said, “Echo, tell me something. Are we going to be punished for failing to properly protect the colonists in any way?”
No text message popped up in my field of vision. Instead, Echo’s voice came from the open cargo door of the dropship.
“No,” the AI replied. “You are not going to be punished for that. Your mission was to deal with the spiders and their queen, not to protect the colonists.”
“See?” Vlad said as he shifted his eyes back to Nate. “That’s what I’m talking about. Even Echo doesn’t give a fuck about collateral damage. That’s because it’s just a video game. I’m sure you’ve never cried when a bunch of NPCs got killed in a video game you played. So why are you freaking out now?”
Nate looked like he was about to come at the Russian again, but he then took a grip on himself.
Whether the colonists were NPCs or real people, Vlad did not care about them one bit. He was a bad person, and there was nothing we could do to change him.
The Russian’s nose was still bleeding. He did not seem to be aware of that until now. He raised his hand to touch his fingers to his nose and instantly pulled his hand away.
“Fuck!” He yelled. “It hurts!” He looked at Alyson and said, “Don’t just stand like a marble statue. Do something! You are a healer, aren’t you? Or you’ve already forgotten which class you play? Heal me with your magic, goddammit!”
The girl shook her head. It made Vlad even angrier.
“Heal me, bitch,” he barked at the girl madly, causing her to wince. “My nose is broken, don’t you see?”
“Okay,” the girl said timidly, looking very scared.
“Don’t heal him, Alyson,” Nate said. “He doesn’t deserve it.”
He then stepped protectively in front of the girl and looked down at Vlad.
“Don’t you dare to yell and insult her,” he said. “I already asked you to be nice to her, didn’t I? If you snap at her one more time, I’ll beat you to a pulp, you hear me? Everyone here has had enough of you.”
Vlad silently glared at the British guy. I did not like the look on the Russian’s face. He was beside himself with anger.
I noticed that he no longer had Jennifer’s machine pistol. He had probably lost the handgun or just discarded it when he ran out of ammo. Or he might have gotten rid of it after finishing off the spider queen, believing that he no longer needed it.
Anyway, his semi-automatic pistol was still in his holster. I got ready to draw my own handgun if Vlad reached for his piece.
Yet he did not try to pull his pistol out of its holster.
Nate seemed to calm down a bit. He put his arm around Alyson’s shoulders and guided the girl up the ramp into the spacecraft.
“Let’s go inside, David,” he said before he and the girl entered the dropship.
I did not feel like turning my back to Vlad, so I began walking backward, constantly keeping him in my field of vision. At that moment, he looked so angry as if he wanted nothing more than to shoot us all to death.
He never went for his pistol, though.
I found Nate and Alyson in the main room where the four cryogenic chambers were. There was the sound of footsteps behind me, and a moment later, Vlad entered the room as well. Not looking at any of us, he asked, “What do I do with that thing, Echo?”
He held up his hand in which he held what looked like a huge piece of chitin, with which he had returned from the forest after killing the spider queen.
“I took a piece out of the Raid Boss,” Vlad said, “to complete our additional objective. Had to use my ult to be able to tear this thing from its body.”
There was a hiss, then a square panel of the wall to Vlad’s right slid open.
“You can put it in there, warrior,” Echo replied. “I will begin to examine it as soon as we return to the space station. If I’m successful, I’ll find out how come a regular spider mutated into a queen. It might be helpful to you, warriors, in your future missions.”
Vlad put the piece of chitin in the compartment, and it got closed.
I received some exp but not enough to level up. Also, a message popped up in my HUD, saying that our current mission was fully completed now.
“Congratulations on successfully completing your mission, warriors,” Echo announced. “As soon as you get in the cryogenic chambers, I will begin to pilot the dropship to the space station.”
I called up the Mission Menu and quickly studied the information.
> The Mission Menu:
> Current Mission: Find and eliminate aggressive animals.
> Current Objectives:
> 1. Identify the reason why the spiders became so aggressive toward the colonists (COMPLETED);
> 2. Kill all the aggressive creatures or find a way to stop them from attacking the colony (COMPLETED);
> 3. Find and kill the spider queen (COMPLETED).
> Additional Objectives:
> 1. Get a sample of the spider queen’s DNA so it can be delivered to the space station to be analyzed. (COMPLETED)
Nate suddenly drew his pistol and pointed it at Vlad.
“What the fuck are you doing?” the Russian snarled at him.
“Give me your pistol,” Nate demanded.
“What?” Vlad said. “Why?”
“Just want to make sure you don’t kill us all after we wake up,” Nate said.
“Why would I do such a thing, for Chrissake?” Vlad snarle
d, looking indignant.
“I don’t know,” Nate said. “I don’t know what’s going on in your mind and what you can do next. So I just want to take appropriate measures to protect us from you.”
Vlad eyed him for a moment angrily. When he realized he did not have much choice, he shrugged and using his index finger and his thumb, pulled his pistol from its holster and held it out to Nate. When the British guy took a step to the Russian and took his pistol from him, he asked, “Where’s the machine pistol Jennifer gave us, by the way?”
Vlad said, “I got rid of it after finishing off the spider queen.”
“Why?” Nate asked.
Vlad shrugged his shoulders again and said, “The spider queen was dead, so there was no reason to keep the machine pistol. Besides, I didn’t have any more ammo for it.”
Nate glanced at me and said, “Search him, David. We need to make sure he’s unarmed.”
Once again, anger flashed in Vlad’s eyes, but he quickly got a grip on himself and let me frisk him. He did not have any more weapons on him.
“See?” Vlad said, looking at Nate with a sly smile on his face. “I told you the truth.”
“Okay,” Nate said as he waved his handgun at one of the cryogenic chambers. “Get in.”
Vlad eyed the British guy for a second, then did as he was told. Nate looked at Alyson and me and nodded toward the two cryogenic chambers along the opposite wall.
“Now you, guys,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him while you’re climbing in.”
“Oh my fucking God,” Vlad growled from his cryogenic chamber. “Do you really think I’m waiting for the right moment to climb out of my pod and smother y’all to death? How come I suddenly became the villain of this story? Whatever you think about me, I’m not your enemy.”