The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series

by Victor Deckard

  He then laughed so loud as if it was the best joke ever told. Nobody joined him in his mirth.

  “As to why he didn’t get infected,” Claire continued, ignoring Vlad, “he was—and still is—a scientist. He’d been working on a vaccine for the disease.” Claire made a brief pause as if thinking about something, then continued, “You know, since I’m telling you a short version of his story, I won’t go into all the details. So he got trapped on his planet. He’s been living and working here for the most of his life. It was his home as well as workplace. The cave where you found him is actually his lab.”

  “He lives on this planet all alone?” Nate asked.

  “Yes,” the woman replied. “The whole planet belongs to him, and he always preferred to live alone. He always was a bit of a hermit. That’s probably why he hadn’t gotten infected. He’d hardly ever met other people.”

  “What did you mean when you said he got trapped on his planet?” I asked.

  “Well,” the woman said, “his spaceship died, so he couldn’t leave the planet.”

  “What do you mean, ‘died’?” Tamerlan asked. “You mean it broke down on him?”

  Claire gave him a small smile as she replied, “No, I didn’t mean it figuratively. His spaceship died literally. Remember when I told you that Mor differs from humans very much?”

  “Yes.”

  “I also told you that all the gadgets, machines, tools, and whatnot that he creates are organic,” Claire said. “This includes spaceships.”

  “Wait a minute,” Vlad put in. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

  The woman met his eyes and explained, “The spaceships that people of his race used to create were living creatures.”

  “It’s impossible,” Nate said.

  “For once, I agree with the Brit,” Vlad said. “No creature can survive in open space. Not to mention that the idea of a spaceship that is actually a living organism just doesn’t sit well in my head.”

  “Well, that’s what I thought too until we met Mor,” Claire said. “But let me continue. So his spaceship, which was, let me iterate it, was a living creature capable of living in the vacuum of space, died. Sure, Mor could’ve developed a new one, but creating and rising a creature this big takes a lot of time. So he decided to hold off on it for a while in order to finish his work on the vaccine. It took him way longer than he thought it would. He used it on himself and then proceed to develop a new spaceship. It took him a while. After finally raising the spaceship, he took off to look for people of his race. Only he found none. All of them died because of the virus. He visited lots of solar systems but could not find anybody alive. Years later, devastated, he returned home and never left this planet since then. At some point, his spaceship escaped never to be seen again.”

  “You said that all his inventions are actually living organisms,” I said. “I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it.”

  “You and me both,” Vlad put in.

  Claire reached under her uniform and produced something. At first, I did not realize what I was looking at. It looked like a thick formless stick or something.

  “What the fuck is that thing?” Vlad said. “It’s gross.”

  “You might not believe me, but it’s actually a weapon,” Claire replied.

  “A weapon?” Vlad barked, immediately tensing.

  “Doesn’t look like a gun at all,” Tamerlan said with skepticism in his voice.

  “Even so, it’s a gun all right,” the woman said.

  Then I saw the mass move ever so slightly.

  “The heck was that?” Vlad said as he fidgeted in his seat uncomfortably. “I just saw it move!”

  “Yes, it moves sometimes,” Claire said as she nodded her head. “It’s a living creature after all.”

  “What?” Vlad barked in surprise.

  “Didn’t I just tell you that all Mor’s technology is organic?” Claire said.

  “You sure did,” I said. “But you’ll have to forgive him. He’s a bit slow, y’know.”

  “Fuck you too, Dave,” Vlad barked at me before shifting his attention to the creature. “This critter doesn’t have any limbs,” Vlad said as he eyed the creature in the woman’s hand with disgust. “It has neither eyes nor ears as far as I can tell.”

  “No, it doesn’t have any limbs,” Claire said. “You wouldn’t want your weapon to escape from you, would you? That’s why Mor created this creature without limbs. And it’s also blind and deaf as you noticed.”

  “So it’s a gun, huh?” Tamerlan asked, eyeing the creature.

  “Yes,” the woman replied as she nodded her head. “When I take it like this, it gets ready for use.”

  The woman closed her fingers around one end of the creature, and it immediately moved, reshaping itself into something that looked like an actual firearm.

  “There’s a small knob that is actually one of the nerves of the creature,” the woman said. “Do you see it? It’s where the trigger on a regular gun would be. I can easily reach it with my index finger.”

  Now that the creature had a shape of a firearm, it looked more menacing than before. Vlad fidgeted in his seat, and I saw him slowly reach for his own gun, though the woman did not have any reason to point her weapon at any of us.

  “What happens if you touch that knob?” The Russian asked.

  “Whaddya think?” The woman said as she gave us a small grin. “The gun fires. What actually happens when you press the knob is that the creature winces slightly and involuntarily spits a blob of acid saliva. It can travel through the air very fast and pretty far. Moreover, this acid is special. It can actually hurt the alien bugs. Mor created such weapons for all the three of us so we could protect ourselves if suddenly attacked by the alien bugs. However, we don’t really need them.”

  The woman then put her firearm away, stuffing it under her uniform.

  Now that her organic gun was out of sight, Vlad relaxed a bit.

  “That thing is disgusting,” the Russian said.

  “We felt the same way when Mor first showed us some of the organic gadgets he created,” Claire said. “But we quickly get over it. And let me tell ya, his technology is awesome! I’m telling you this as a scientist. Neither my friends here nor I have ever seen anything like that before.”

  “What did you mean when you said that you didn’t need the guns Mor created for you?” I asked.

  “Well, thanks to the repellent Mor also created for us, the alien bugs no longer attack us,” the woman said.

  “What repellent?” I asked.

  “You might’ve noticed it when you found this base,” she said. “It’s attached to the roof of this house.”

  I instantly realized what she was talking about. I remembered seeing a strange formless object on the roof of the mobile base when we found it.

  “It gives off a smell that the alien creatures can’t stand,” the woman explained. “That’s why they stay away from our base.”

  “I don’t smell anything,” Tamerlan said.

  “That’s because the repellent is outside the base while we’re inside it, duh,” Vlad said as he rolled his eyes.

  “Actually, your friend is right,” the woman said to the Russian. “This entire place is saturated with the smell the repellent gives off. However, we, humans, can’t smell it. It’s quite strong and unpleasant, which is why the alien bugs can’t sand it. However, we cannot smell it.”

  “Why is that?” Vlad asked.

  “That’s how it works,” the woman said. “Thank Mor for it. He created the repellent against the alien bugs, not humans. By the way, you might not have realized it yet, but all of you are saturated with the smell of the repellent, just like the three of us.”

  “I don’t believe ya,” Vlad said after he took a sniff at the sleeve of his jacket.

  “You don’t have to believe me,” the woman said. “But tell me something. Were you attacked by the alien bugs when you arrived
at this planet?”

  “Yes, we were,” I replied because Vlad was silent.

  “And were you attacked after you found this house?” Claire asked.

  “No,” I said, suddenly realizing that the alien bugs had never attacked us after we visited this base.

  “See?” The woman asked. “You may not believe me, but the fact is that after visiting this house you became saturated with the smell the repellent gives off. That’s why the alien bugs have been giving you a wide berth since then. They maintain a good distance from the three of us as well. The three of us have never been attacked by them since Mor created the repellent for us against them.”

  “How exactly does Mor do that?” Nate asked. “How does he invent all that stuff?”

  The woman smiled as she looked at him. “Well, that is something that even the three of us can’t wrap our heads around. Put simply, the people of his race could create new living forms and make them evolve into anything they wanted in a matter of days, even hours in some cases.”

  “You are right,” I said. “It’s hard to comprehend it.”

  “The people of his race had been incorporating useful genetic code into their own for thousands of years,” Claire said. “So they really mastered the process of evolution.”

  “So he creates all that stuff in those pods we saw in the cave?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the woman replied.

  “What about the alien bugs?” Vlad asked. “Did he create them too?”

  “Yes,” the woman replied simply.

  As soon as she said the word, Vlad’s face hardened.

  “That bastard,” the Russian growled. “Those bugs almost killed us. We nearly died because of him, y’know.”

  “Before you judge him, let me explain what he’s been trying to achieve here,” Claire said. “I’m sure you’ll understand his motives after you hear me out.”

  “Please, continue,” Nate said politely.

  “Yeah, you should really explain yourself,” Vlad added.

  Ignoring the Russian, Claire said, looking at Nate, “As I said before, Mor is most probably the last of his race. This is why he’s been trying to resurrect his race for many years. And I think it’s understandable. If you were the last of your race, I’m more than sure that you would try to revive your race too.”

  “I would not,” Vlad said.

  “I didn’t expect another answer from you,” I said glancing at him.

  “So he uses those cocoons for this?” Nate asked.

  “Yes,” Claire replied. “The creates everything in them. The bigger a thing he wants to create, the bigger the pod. He calls them evolution pods or creation pods, by the way.”

  The woman made a brief pause before she continued.

  “And those alien bugs is an unfortunate side effect of his attempts to revive his race,” she said. “See, resurrecting his race isn’t an easy task by any means. He created a lot of various creatures, yet none of them were right, so to speak. They couldn’t be evolved into what he wanted. At some point, some of them escaped from his lab and spread all over this place. They began to breed and the result is that the whole planet is crawling with them. Still, it didn’t stop Mor from trying to revive his race. He’s really dedicated to the cause, obsessed even with it as you may say. So he still creates a lot of various creatures to evolve them into intelligent creatures. Only he’s now way more careful, taking a lot of precautionary measures in order to prevent more creatures from escaping from his lab.”

  Vlad shook his head.

  “Stupid,” he said. “Why won’t he just stop? He already caused this planet to be crawling with monsters. What if they spread all over the Universe?”

  Claire smiled at him the way a mother would smile at her child who had said something stupid. “Those creatures are not intelligent. They will never evolve into thinking creatures and never be able to leave this planet. Moreover, Mor can easily come up with a way of eradicating all of them at once if he wants to.”

  “Then why didn’t he do it already?” Vlad asked.

  “First, he doesn’t want to be distracted from his main task,” Claire replied. “Trying to revive his race takes all his time. And second, they don’t bother him all that much. As I said before, they are afraid of him. And since until now there was no one except for him on this planet, he wasn’t afraid that somebody would be hurt. However, after we landed on his planet and as soon as he became aware of our presence in this place, he took appropriate measures to protect us from the alien bugs.”

  “Why can’t he just clone himself?” Tamerlan asked.

  “It’s not as easy as you might think,” Claire replied. “Like I said before, the people of his race were incorporating useful genetic code into their own for many many years. Mor’s genetic code is way more advanced than one can imagine. Cloning a creature with such a complex genetic code as Mor’s isn’t an easy task. Mor tried to clone himself a few times but so far never achieved the desired result.”

  “What about the planet itself?” Nate asked. “The life thrives on this planet even though it doesn’t revolve around a sun.”

  “It’s the local flora that enables creatures to live here,” Claire said. “It gives off enough light and warmth to allow various forms of life to live on this planet.”

  Nate was clearly going to ask something else, but Claire spoke again.

  “And if you want to ask if it’s Mor who created this flora, my answer is yes,” the woman said. “All the flora and fauna of this planet was created by him. The roots of the local trees go deep into the ground where they receive special energy that basically maintains life on this planet. Thanks to that energy, the trees give off light and warmth. And let me iterate this, all that was created by Mor. His knowledge is immersive. He even has a way to swerve the planet, allowing it to change its direction.”

  “Damn,” I said. “I’d really like to know how he creates all that stuff.”

  Claire gave me a small smile as she said, “And I’d really be happy to explain to you how all this works, but even the three of us, very experienced biologists, are still trying to understand how Mor’s organic technology works.”

  The woman looked at one of her friends, Brandon, the older man who was in his fifties. They exchanged strange glances before Claire looked at our team and said, “And now we’ve finally reached the most sensitive topic of our conversation.”

  Suddenly, a message popped up before my eyes. It read, “Your objectives have just been updated.”

  Clearly bored to death by the conversation, Vlad brought up his Mission Menu and a small holographic screen popped up before him. Since he was seated next to me, I glanced at the screen to skim the information.

  > The Mission Menu:

  > Current mission: Find out what happened to the scientists.

  > Current Main Objectives:

  > 1. Examine the mobile base of the scientists (COMPLETED)

  > 2. Protect the scientists until the rescue spaceship arrives to get them out of the planet (IN PROGRESS)

  > Current Additional Objectives: (*)

  > 1. Find out more about the flora on the wandering planet (COMPLETED)

  > 2. Make sure the alien known as Mor does not escape or die until the rescue spaceship arrives to get the alien out of the planet (IN PROGRESS)

  > (*) Note: Your Additional Objectives are optional. You are allowed not to complete them if you choose not to. If you complete your additional objectives, however, you will get extra experience points and a monetary reward.

  The other my teammates read the info as well. Vlad disabled the holographic screen.

  A message from Echo popped up before my eyes, “Warriors, I have just informed the organization about the progress of your mission. A rescue spaceship has just been dispatched to the wandering planet. It should arrive in three normal days. Your current objectives have been updated. Check them out if you have not yet. And remember, you will be awesomely
rewarded if you complete your additional objectives as well.”

  Claire looked between us. She did not know that we had just read the message from our boss, Echo. And while she had seen the holographic screen Vlad had brought up since she was seated in front of us, she could see only the back side of it, so she was not able to read the information.

  The woman hesitated for a moment, then said, “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  “Here we go,” the younger man named Simon, who had been silent until now, said with a sigh.

  Totally ignoring him for some reason, Claire exchanged glances with the man whose name was Brandon.

  “We’re listening,” Nate said.

  Claire met his eyes and said, “We know why you are here.”

  “That’s pretty much obvious, isn’t it?” Vlad put in.

  Ignoring him, Claire continued, “The organization must’ve sent you to search for us at the planet. You have to find out what’s going on here and most probably get us back.”

  “Damn right,” Vlad said.

  She made another pause before continuing. “The thing is that Brandon and I are scientists to the core. We love science and biology and dedicated our lives to them. We don’t do it for money, fame, or some other reward.”

  I was starting to realize what she was going to say, but out of politeness, I was silent to let her finish.

  “On this planet, we met something that we’ve never encountered before,” she continued. “Mor’s knowledge is immersive, so we really want to know more about him and his organic technology. He can create any kind of life and evolve it into anything he wants in a matter of days or even hours. This is incredible. We really want to learn more about it. We know that even if we spend our whole lives with him, we won’t be able to completely comprehend how he does it. But even if we learn just tiny a bit of it, we will be really satisfied.”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t want to leave this planet,” Tamerlan said, having realized what was going through Claire’s mind.

  “What?” Vlad barked.

  “You are right,” Claire said as her eyes met Tamerlan’s. “We want to stay here and learn more about Mor.”