The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series

by Victor Deckard

  I continued down the corridor. It was not long before I came across several more mines. I did not have time to deal with all of them.

  So I checked The Map and then sent a message to Nate and Alyson.

  > David: Guys, I almost reached the main engineering room.

  A second later, a reply came.

  > Nate: Good. Alyson and I are still far away from it, though. We will do our best to get there as soon as possible.

  > David: Be careful, guys. There are mines attached to the walls. Must have been Vlad’s. I don’t have time to deal with them, though. But we need to do it lest some workers be injured.

  > Nate: Don’t worry, mate. Alyson and I will take care of the mines.

  > David: Okay.

  I knew that Vlad could see our messages too, but there was nothing we could do about it.

  I also checked where Vlad was and with horror discovered that he had already made it to the main engineering room. The white pulsating dot representing his current position was stationary, which must have meant that he was in the process of overheating the main generator.

  Racing toward the main engineering room, I texted the Russian.

  > David: Don’t do it, Vlad. You’re gonna kill hundreds of innocent people.

  Vlad did not bother to reply.

  I continued to run down the corridor as fast as I could.

  In the past six months, I had acquired a habit of using my Ultimate Ability to place a teleportation tunnel when I believed that our team might need a quick getaway.

  I did the same now. I used my Ultimate Ability, entering the void space. I put the first portal and continued to race forward. Now that my Active Ability was active, my movement speed got increased even more.

  Finally, I made it to the door leading to the main engineering room. I burst inside and placed the second portal. My Ultimate Activity got deactivated.

  I then took a second to look around. It was spacious, with a high ceiling. The main generator sat on the other side of the room. In front of it was a computer terminal. Vlad stood next to it, examining some data on the holographic display.

  He jerked his head in my direction when he heard my footsteps moving toward him.

  “You are too late, Dave,” he said. “I’ve already initiated the process.”

  I glanced at the screen. There were an indicator progress bar and a countdown on the screen. In just a few minutes, the main generator would overheat and explode. The process could be canceled, though. All I needed to do was get to the computer terminal and punch the cancelation button.

  Vlad must have realized what I was thinking about because he took a step toward me, putting the computer terminal behind him.

  “Don’t even think about it,” he said. “I won’t let you cancel it.”

  “You’re gonna kill hundreds of people,” I said.

  “I’m gonna complete the mission,” Vlad said matter-of-factly. He deployed his battle drone and said, “Kolobok, hover above the computer terminal and don’t let David get to it.”

  The battle drone did not give any sort of reply of course, but it hovered above the computer terminal, aiming its machine gun at me. It was obvious that it would open fire at me if I got too close to the computer terminal.

  There was no way I could reason with Vlad. So I had to take him down. Not that I had expected something different.

  Whipping up my submachine gun, I pointed it at the Russian. He did the same with his assault rifle at the same time. We opened fire at each other, rounds hitting our battle suits.

  My bullets seemed to have little to no effect on Vlad’s tough armor. My lightweight armor was way easier to damage. The Russian’s bullets knocked me backward, denting my armor. His dark-energy-infused bullets exploded when they made an impact with my battle suit. It was obvious that a few more hits and my armor would be torn to shreds. I had better avoid being hit by Vlad’s slugs.

  So when Vlad was about to fire off another burst of bullets, I used my Active Ability to get out of the line of fire.

  I materialized thirty feet behind Vlad. He was well aware of how my Active Ability worked, so as soon as I disappeared, he glanced around to see where I would appear.

  I cast a glance at the computer terminal. The countdown showed on the monitor screen. In less than three minutes, the main generator would blow up. Vlad was too tough an opponent to fight. There was no way I could take him down in under three minutes. I was also sure that Nate and Alyson would not be able to come to my aid in time to stop the Russian.

  However, I did not really need to tackle him. I only needed to cancel the process of overheating the main generator. I could blink two more times before my Active Ability would go on cooldown. So I could blink to the computer terminal and punch the button to cancel the process. Vlad’s battle drone would surely open fire on me, so I would use my Active Ability again to get out of the line of fire.

  The plan formed in my head, I blinked to the computer terminal and materialized two meters in front of it. I was about to move toward it when I heard the voice of my Passive Ability in my head.

  Be careful. There’s a trap right in front of you.

  I spotted a white disk on the floor. However, I had already taken a step toward it and it detonated, the force of the explosion knocking me backward. My battle suit bore the grunt of the impact. It got damaged and dented but luckily had not gotten penetrated.

  I collapsed to the floor. The battle drone opened fire on me, its bullets raining down on the floor around me. I used my Active Ability to blink out of harm’s way.

  I glanced at the battle drone in time to see it drop another mine in front of the computer terminal. So it was the drone that could deploy mines, not Vlad himself. I had to deal with Kolobok if I wanted to get to the computer terminal.

  However, Vlad did not let me do so. He opened fire on me when I aimed my submachine gun at the robot. Since my Active Ability had not recharged yet, I was forced to run away to get out of the line of fire.

  I continued to fight the Russian without any success. He was a tough opponent. There was no way I could defeat him, especially in a short amount of time. I had to get to the computer terminal and cancel the process. But before doing it, I had to destroy the battle drone. Unfortunately, it was impossible to do while Vlad was constantly distracting me, firing streams of bullets at me.

  We ran out of bullets almost simultaneously and began to reload our weapons. When I slammed in a fresh mag, I glanced at Vlad. He had already reloaded his assault rifle but had not opened fire on me.

  “It’s useless, Dave,” he said after glancing at the monitor screen. “In less a minute, the whole place would blow up. I suggest we quit fucking around and get out of here while we still can.”

  Instead of replying to him, I whipped up my submachine gun to point it at him.

  “Suit yourself,” Vlad said with menace in his voice.

  However, instead of aiming at me, he did something else. After slinging his assault rifle across his shoulders, Vlad used his Ultimate Ability, turning himself into a berserk. He ran toward me with incredible speed, my bullets slamming against his armor barely scratching it.

  Vlad crashed into me, sending me flying to the floor. Before I could get up, he was on top of me, his fists crashing against my helmet with terrifying force. When his Ultimate Ability was active, Vlad was incredibly strong. If he kept striking me on the head, my helmet would crack open leaving my head completely unprotected.

  And Vlad showed no sign of abating.

  “I don’t want to kill you, but you leave me no choice,” Vlad grunted as he continued to punch me on the head.

  Suddenly, all went dark before my eyes. I knew very well what had happened. My helmet was completely solid. Micro video cameras attached to the helmet sent the feed from the cameras to the screen on the inner side of the helmet. Vlad’s beating must have damaged the cameras, completely blinding me.

  The Russian contin
ued to strike my head. There was no way I could prevent him from doing so. I could not even escape, because I could not use my Active Ability if I did not see where to blink. I could not take my helmet off either, because my arms were pinned to the floor by Vlad sitting on me.

  The beating suddenly stopped.

  “In fifteen seconds, it’ll blow up,” I heard Vlad say to me. “I don’t think you’ll survive, but you’ve got nobody but yourself to blame for that. Sayonara, bastard.”

  Vlad stood up, and then I heard the footsteps of running feet, and then the sounds suddenly ceased. The Russian must have used the teleportation tunnel I had set up earlier on.

  I leaped to my feet and was about to take my helmet off when I suddenly could see again. Undamaged backup cameras must have kicked in.

  Both Vlad and his battle drone were gone. The mine was still there, though. A quick glance at the monitor screen revealed that the main generator would blow up in three seconds. There was nothing I could do about it. If I blinked to the computer terminal, the mine would detonate and the resultant explosion would either knock me away from the computer terminal or even kill me because my battered battle suite was barely holding up after the fight with Vlad.

  All these thoughts flashed through my mind in a second. Without giving the matter any more thought, I spun around and blinked to the portal. I dived into it and burst out of the second one. I instantly used my Active Ability for the second time and then for the third. After that, my Active Ability went on cooldown, so I broke into a race in an attempt to put as much distance between myself and the main engineering room as possible.

  A second later, a powerful explosion rocked the building. Having blinked three times, I was far away from the main engineering room by that point. Nevertheless, the explosion was so powerful the shockwave reached me, knocking me to the ground. I got up and continued to run as a second explosion followed, then another one, and another…

  A text message popped up in my field of vision.

  Nate: Bloody hell! What the heck was that? Are you all right, David?

  David: I failed to stop Vlad. The main generator exploded. The whole place is falling apart.

  Nate: Darn it.

  David: I don’t know where you are, guys, but you need to get out of here.

  Nate: Okay. We’re moving back. What about you?

  David: I’m running for dear life. Hopefully, I will be able to make it out of the building in one piece.

  Nate: And what about Vlad?

  David: He almost killed me back there. If he’d had more time, he would have. I don’t know where he is now. Guess he’s making his way out of the complex too.

  Nate: Okay, mate. Do you best not to die, okay? Let’s meet up at the dropship.

  I continued to race through the corridors and rooms of the building as one explosion rocked the place after another like a chain reaction. The whole complex was about to collapse in on itself. It even seemed like the whole asteroid was going to fall apart too.

  Screaming and panicking people were running around, trying to get out of the building. Some of them were already in space suits. Security guards no longer paid me any attention. Everybody just ran for dear life.

  I used my Active Ability to cover long distances. Had I not had this ability, I would probably never have been able to leave the place.

  Finally, I reached the airlock. Before getting in, I glanced back over my shoulder. There was nobody behind me.

  David: Where are you, guys? Have you made it out?

  Nate: Yes. We’ve just gotten in the dropship. Vlad was already here. We took care of him.

  I did not ask any questions. I did not have time for that at the moment. I got into the airlock and closed the inner door. The process of sucking the air out of the airlock was initiated.

  Nate: What about you?

  David: I’m in an airlock now. I’ll be out in seconds.

  Nate: Good. There’s one problem, though. Echo doesn’t want to risk flying the dropship to the mining colony, because the whole place is exploding. So you are going to have to put some distance between yourself and the complex before we will be able to pick you up.

  David: Understood.

  Once I was out of the building, I quickly glanced around to get my bearings. The dropship was nowhere in sight, of course. So I pushed off, launching himself forward and up. A few seconds later, gravity pulled me back to the ground.

  The moment I pushed off again, another powerful explosion rocked the whole asteroid. The shockwave pushed me away from the surface with incredible force. The weak gravity of the asteroid could not hold me. Spinning around endlessly, I was quickly carried away from the surface into the open space.

  The bright dots of stars and the asteroid, which was quickly shrinking in size as I was being carried away from it, spun around me ceaselessly.

  I was struggling with controls, using the engines of my space battle suit, desperately trying to stop spinning. At some point, I was finally able to stop wheeling around and ceased moving altogether.

  I motionlessly floated in open space, looking around and trying to find the asteroid.

  A message popped up before my eyes.

  Nate: Are you okay? We lost you, mate. If you are all right, reply immediately.

  David: I’m fine, I think. My suit is beaten, but most of the systems seem to be working just fine.

  Alyson: Thank God.

  Nate: I’m glad to hear that you are well. But where the bloody hell are you, mate? We can’t see you on The Map for some reason. Even Echo can’t detect you, which is why he can’t fly the dropship to your location.

  I continued to look around, using the engines of my suit to slowly rotate around. The asteroid was nowhere in sight. I had been carried so far away from it I could not even see it anymore.

  David: To be honest, I myself don’t have a clue where I am, guys. I’m just floating in empty space.

  Another message popped up in my HUD.

  Nate: David, we can’t see you on the Map. You must be far away from the playable zone. Are you sure you are all right?

  As soon as I received the message, something happened. I started to have trouble breathing. The nanotrites in my body began to slowly kill me.

  I did not need to check the Map to know that Nate was right. I must have been floating somewhere outside the playable zone. This meant that if I did not find a way to return to the asteroid soon, I would suffocate to death.

  I continued to look around. The asteroid was nowhere in sight. All I could see around me were thousands of stars. One of them should be the asteroid, though.

  Nate: David, you didn’t reply to my previous message. Are you all right?

  David: It’s hard to breathe.

  Nate: The nanotrites in your body are killing you because you’ve left the playable zone. You need to get back. Now.

  David: I know. But how? I can’t see shit.

  Alyson: What can we do to help you, David?

  While I could not see her face, I knew that there was a worried look on the girl’s face and her eyes must have been wide with anxiety. I knew her very well by that point. I knew all my teammates well by that point. After all, we had been fighting shoulder to shoulder against bandits, pirates, mutants, and aggressive creatures for the past six months.

  But it looked like I had just reached my final destination. There would be no more battles for me to fight in. I wondered what my teammates would do after I suffocated to death.

  I shook those thoughts off and concentrated on the sparkling dots of stars all around me. One of them had to be the asteroid because I was on the side of the asteroid that was shone at by the local sun.

  Another message from Alyson popped up before my eyes.

  Alyson: Are you all right? Can we help you somehow, David?

  However, I did not think there was something they could do to extricate me from my dire situation.

  David: I don’t think
so, guys.

  Nate: Can you see the asteroid?

  David: I’m trying to find it, but all I can see is stars.

  I continued to slowly wheel around, studying the starts. Finally, I spotted one that seemed to be bigger and brighter than the other ones. It might have been the asteroid. Or it might have been just another star. There was no way to tell for sure. And there was no time to continue to look around, because I could hardly breathe by that point.

  So I activated the engines of my space battle suit. Gas erupted from the small nozzles on the back of my suit, propelling me forward. I floated through the empty space toward the small dot that seemed to be slightly brighter than all the other ones.

  Alyson and Nate continued to text me, but I no longer could read their messages. The lack of oxygen impeded my sight, and the words swam before my eyes, turning completely unreadable. All I could do was continue to float toward the dot, hoping as hell I had made the right choice.

  At some point, I realized that the dot seemed to have grown bigger as I was getting closer to it. It might have been the asteroid, after all.

  Then I noticed a smaller dot detach itself from the first one. It began moving in my direction, quickly getting bigger as it got closer to me.

  What the hell is that, I thought.

  It was my last thought before I finally lost consciousness from the deprivation of oxygen.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw Alyson’s pretty face right in front of me. Or more accurately, above mine as I was lying on my back. There was a worried look on the girl’s face that was quickly replaced by an expression of joy when she saw me open my eyes. The girl was seated on her haunches, leaning over me.

  “He’s alive,” the girl cried out, her relief palpable.

  “Great job, Alyson,” I heard Nate say.

  Alyson stood up, and the British guy stepped toward me. He extended down his hand and when I gripped it, helped me up.

  “Welcome to the world of the living,” he said, with a grin on his face.