“We’ll see about it,” Nate said.
I got in one of the chambers and lay down. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of footsteps and the rustle of clothing as Nate climbed in the cryogenic chamber that was along the same wall as Vlad’s.
Then the two halves of the lid slid out of my container’s walls and moved toward each other, encapsulating me inside.
Suddenly I felt very tired. I remembered Echo saying that each of us had been administered a shot of some stimulator while we had been in cryogenic hyper-sleep on our way to this planet. So it looked like the effects of the stimulator in my body had just worn off.
Then I suddenly fell asleep.
After what felt like no more than a second to me, I woke up. After a short while, the lid of my cryogenic chamber parted and I climbed out. My teammates did the same.
“Darn it,” Nate said. “It felt like a second. I don’t feel rested as if I haven’t slept at all.”
“Me too,” Alyson said as she walked up to the British guy, looking tired and sleepy.
I glanced at Vlad. He did not say anything. He looked as angry as he had been before.
We left the dropship and found themselves in the space hangar. We were back in our space station.
We left the hangar and entered the Preparation Room. We then put our weapons into the vac-tube and began walking toward the elevator.
However, Vlad did not follow the rest of us.
“You are not going?” I asked.
Vlad silently eyed me for a moment as if considering if he should reply. He then shrugged and said, “You go right back to the main room, or whatever it’s called.”
“And what about you?” I asked.
“After you’re gone, I’m gonna use the elevator to go to the Training Room,” Vlad said.
“What are you going to do there?” Nate asked suspiciously.
“What do you think I’m gonna do there?” Vlad shot back. “I’m gonna practice. I’m gonna shoot some targets. I need to blow off some steam, if you know what I mean.”
“Okay,” Nate said. “You can do whatever you want. As for me, I got my fix of action for now. All I want to do is rest. I’m really tired.”
“Me too,” Alyson said. The girl looked exhausted. We all did.
Nate turned away from the Russian and stepped into the elevator car with Alyson tagging along.
I glanced at Vlad. I did not want to let him be on his own. I wanted to always keep him in sight. It was impossible to tell what was on his mind. For a brief moment, I even considered staying with him to see what he was up to. However, I decided against it for two reasons.
First, I was not all that keen on spending any more time in his company. Second, I was too damn tired to practice in the Training Room. Well, if it was what he was going to do. With Vlad you should always stay on your guard. But at that moment, I was really tired, and as a result of my tiredness, my guard was down.
Moreover, we had already put our handguns in the vac-tube. The only two rooms where we could get and use them were the Preparation Room, in which we currently were, and the Training Room. As we already knew, it was impossible to bring a weapon to the Control Room, our main room. If Vlad wanted to get his handgun and try to bring it there, he would not be able to do so.
So we would be safe in the Control Room because without any weapons, Vlad would be no threat to us, right?
So I stepped into the elevator. Vlad remained outside of it. He could have used it to get him to the Training Room level, but he decided to wait until we vacated it instead. The Russian was clearly very mad at all of us. He did not even want to board the elevator car with us.
When the double door parted, Nate, Alyson, and I stepped out of the elevator car into the Control Room. We stopped for a second to take a look around. Nothing had changed here since the last time we had been in this room. The well-lit square room was large but mostly empty. The walls, ceiling, and floor were white-colored. Along the right-hand wall, there were two teleportation chambers, and two more ones lay along the left-hand wall. In the middle of the room sat the so-called Control Panel. A large window was set in the wall opposite the elevator, through which could be seen the sun, whose name I did not remember. Echo had once told me the name of the star system where our space station was located, but I had not remembered it, because it was just a long and hard-to-memorize string of letters and numbers.
Suddenly, my stomach growled, and I realized I was extremely hungry, ravenous even. The same held true with my two teammates. It did not surprise me at all. After all, it was real life, and feeling hungry every now and then was a thing in real life.
When we asked Echo what we could do about it, he advised us to visit a diner, which was somewhere on another level of the space station.
We walked back into the elevator car and stepped to a touchscreen panel set into an inner wall. When we looked at the display, we saw that there were two more buttons on it in addition to the previous three ones: Diner and Restroom.
> Control Room
> Training Room
> Preparation Room
> Diner
> Restroom
We found out that all the food in the Diner was prepared by machines. We went with pizza, hamburgers, and hot beverages of our choice. The best thing was that we did not have to pay for it. Just like our uniforms, food was given to us for free.
After we returned to the Control Room, Nate asked, “Echo, we really could use a little rest now. What can we do about it?”
“You can sleep in your teleportation chambers, warriors,” came the reply from the AI.
“Really?” Nate said. “As it turns out, we have such amenities as a diner and a restroom, but at the same time, we have to sleep in our teleportation chambers instead of real beds?”
“Let me assure you,” Echo said, “that your teleportation chambers are quite comfortable and suitable for sleeping. They have been designed with that in mind. Moreover, nothing bad can happen to you here. The Control Room is also called the Safe Zone because nobody can bring a weapon or use their Active or Ultimate Abilities there. If you are still afraid for your life for whatever reason, you can close the lid of your teleportation chamber. The lids of your teleportation chambers were made from a special material. They are bulletproof and can not be broken easily. Nor can your teleportation chambers be opened from outside. So if you get in your teleportation chamber and close the lid, you will be completely safe inside.”
Since we did not seem to have another choice, I climbed into my teleportation chamber. There was just enough room for one person. My two teammates did the same with their own pods.
After exchanging good-nights with one another, we lay down in our teleportation chambers.
I turned my head to look at the holographic display to my right and saw buttons on the screen:
[OPEN CHAMBER DOOR]
[CLOSE CHAMBER DOOR]
The first one was grayed-out. As soon as my fingertip made contact with the other button, the two transparent halves of the lid slid out of the walls of my pod and shut together with a soft clicking sound. I heard similar sounds as my two teammates closed their own pods.
We had been in hyper-sleep for two days, but I did not feel rested at all. I did not know why. From my perspective, a cryogenic chamber was a technology from the very distant future. I had no idea how it worked. The thought of asking this question to Echo crossed my mind, but I decided against it. I did not feel like listening to his long explanations. All I wanted to do was to catch forty winks.
However, despite being dog-tired, I resisted the urge of my body to fall asleep. I wondered where Vlad was and what he was doing. So I fought with myself for some time until he finally arrived. He stepped out of the elevator car and glanced around. He noticed the three closed teleportation chambers but did not say anything about it.
He turned and began walking toward the fourth pod, which was the only one that was empty. I
watched him from my pod through the convex transparent lid. Vlad looked the way he felt, exhausted. However, even despite the tired look on his face, it was obvious that something was going on in his mind. He was still angry with us. Was he plotting and scheming some kind of revenge upon us for his broken nose?
Vlad climbed into his pod and lay down. He did not bother to close it.
I finally let my eyes close. As soon as I did so, I fell asleep with one thought in my mind.
Vlad was up to something, that was for damn sure.
To be continued…
David’s Current Build Part II
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 seconds
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 seconds (Current: 4 seconds)
Status: 2/5
Red Rune (Ultimate Ability) — Teleport
Part III
We were slowly advancing deeper into the cave.
The darkness enveloped us. The under-barrel flashlights of our submachine guns glistened over a silky substance that caked all over the walls.
“What the heck is that thing?” Vlad whispered.
“It reminds me of something,” I said quietly.
“Yeah,” the Russian replied. “I hope we’re not gonna deal with overgrown spiders again.”
“Guys, hush,” Nate admonished us. “Quit talking and keep your eyes peeled.”
“You got it, boss,” Vlad replied with sarcasm.
We continued deeper into the cave, leading with the submachine guns we were armed with. Since Nate was a tank and was supposed to bear the brunt of an attack, he was in front of the rest of us, leading our small group into the cave. Behind him were Vlad and I. Alyson, our healer, brought up the rear.
The cave seemed to stretch endlessly into the mountain with no end in sight. We took each step carefully, making sure to make little to no noise.
Nate stopped. Vlad and I followed suit. The big British guy was staring forward. He flipped the lever on his gun, switching to full-auto, then aimed his flashlight at something.
There was clearly something lying on the ground up ahead, but Nate’s wide back blocked my view of whatever it was. So I stepped around him and looked at the thing lit by Nate’s under-barrel flashlight.
I saw shreds of military-style black-and-red clothing strewn around over a large pool of blood that streamed from the body of a young man. I recognized the uniform at once. Such uniforms wore fighters working for the military, a privately-held organization called The Weaponized.
“Is he dead?” Alyson whispered as she peered over the British guy’s left shoulder. She had had to stand up on tiptoe to be able to look over his shoulder.
“Yes, he is,” Nate replied quietly.
“Okay, guys,” Vlad said. “Looks like we found what we’ve been looking for.”
“I wonder what killed him,” I said.
The stomach of the warrior had been completely open, the intestines pulled out of his body and strewn around the floor, and the flesh stripped off his face. Ribs protruded upward, some of them snapped in two, with little meat remaining.
Whatever had slain the poor guy was clearly not human.
Just a few meters farther down the tunnel lay another dead body in similar condition. The bones had been snapped, the arms torn from the body, half of the head missing. The walls, the floor, and even the high ceiling were splattered with gore.
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered, looking at the carnage.
“I don’t care what killed them,” Vlad said. “We’re done here. Let’s get outta here, guys.”
He began to head back.
“Where do you think you are going?” Nate said, turning his head to look at the Russian. “We’re not done here. Get back.”
Vlad stopped and glared back at Nate, “Our job was to find these guys. We found them. So our job’s complete. Let’s get the fuck outta here now. This place’s creeping me out.”
“We’re not done yet,” I said.
“No, we’re not,” Nate said. “Our job is to find the members of another The Weaponized team, which went missing on this planet in this cave. Their mission was to deal with whatever creatures live in this place. We’ve found two dead members of that team, but we haven’t found the other two yet. So we’re not done yet here. Moreover, we’d receive a notification if our mission was complete. It didn’t happen, which means that we have to go on.” Before Vlad could say anything, Nate added, “Am I right, Echo?”
Almost instantly a text message from the AI popped up in my field of vision. It read, “You are right, warrior. You need to find the other two warriors to bring them safely out of the cave if they are alive or to find their bodies to confirm that they are dead.”
“See?” Nate said to Vlad. “It means we need to go on whether you like it or not.”
The Russian just glared at him silently. It was our second mission, and after what happened on the first, he had grown more careful. It looked like he was beginning to accept the fact that it was real life, not a virtual reality video game. So he was not keen on fighting some dangerous creatures, running a risk of being ripped to pieces or eaten alive.
“Guys,” Alyson said as she pointed at the armless dead body, her face a mask of terror. “It’s moving.”
The rest of us instantly jerked our heads to look in the direction she was pointing in. The girl was tight. The feet of the second body were moving slightly as if something was nudging the body.
“Is he alive?” Alyson asked, addressing no one in particular.
“Are you stupid?” Vlad said. “He’s missing both arms and half his head. Do you really think he
may be alive?”
“Shut the fuck up,” I said to the Russian, my eyes fixed on the dead warrior. “There’s something inside the body.”
“Davids’s right,” Nate said. “Something is trying to get out of the body.”
The body nudged again. Blood poured from it, splashing the walls. It looked like the dead warrior was exploding from inside.
The Alien movies came to my mind, and I shuddered involuntarily. I really hoped we were not going to deal with something as dangerous and strong as the creatures in the Alien flicks. And I sure as heck was not keen on having a facegrabber cling to my face.
We watched as a small creature with lots of spider-like legs climbed out of the dead body with a series of tiny hisses, which pierced the air.
“What the fuck is that?” Vlad muttered with disgust. “Don’t tell me it’s another overgrown spider.”
The creature that was climbing out of the body was sure way bigger than ordinary spiders on Earth but much smaller than the huge arachnids we had been dealing with on our first mission.
“This thing is disgusting,” Vlad stated.
“Doesn’t look like a spider, though,” I said.
The small monster finally pulled itself out of the dead body, and we got a clear look at it. The creature had a segmented body, a curved tail behind it, lots of legs, and two pincers. The arachnid was dripping in blood, its mandibles slurping strips of flesh into its mouth.
“That’s a scorpion,” Nate concluded.
“That’s fucking awesome,” Vlad grumbled. “Scorpions are even worse than spiders in my book.”
The scorpion was the size of my boot. Sure, it was pretty large, but it was way smaller than the spiders we had been dealing with on our first mission.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 22
