The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series

by Victor Deckard

  So since we never told you about this invention, your boss knows nothing about it and what it does. This way, we can speak without them eavesdropping on us.

  Claire then smiled and took the thing out of her mouth. Holding it out for me to take, she said, “It’s really good. Are you sure you don’t want to try it? A few puffs won’t do you any harm.”

  I pretended to be hesitating for a second, then took the thing in my hand. Before bringing it to my lips, I gave it a look. The object was warm and did not look very pleasant. And it was clearly a living creature. I could feel its body pulsate in my hand. I was not all that keen on touching that thing to my lips.

  “Don’t worry,” Claire said encouragingly. “It’s absolutely safe.”

  A message from Echo emerged in my field of view. It read, “I highly recommend you not put anything you found on this alien planet in your mouth, warrior.”

  Using the puffer, Claire had just told a lot to me, but Echo was clearly none the wiser. The woman was totally right when he said that thanks to that invention, we could talk without him eavesdropping on us.

  Neglecting the AI’s warning, I brought the thing to my lips. I thought the words What do you want to talk about? in my mind before taking a drag on the thing. Claire inhaled the smoke. She did not say anything of course, but the look in her eyes told me that she had read my mind.

  The woman held her hand out to me and asked with a small smile on her lips, “How was it?”

  “Not bad,” I replied as I gave the puffer back to her.

  “Wanna draw another puff?” She asked.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Why not?”

  She smiled and took another drag on the thing. Using the puffer, we talked to each other for a minute, without Echo knowing that we were actually exchanging our thoughts and not just smoking some strange thing.

  We need your help, were Claire’s thoughts flashing through my mind after I inhaled the smoke. As I already told you earlier today, the leaders of the organization, whoever they are, don’t care about Mor or his work. All they care about is profit. They won’t let him finish his work. They’ll make him leave this planet, his home, and force him to work for them. And the worst part is that he’s not even going to resist. That’s the kind of creature he is. So only you and your teammates can help him. You seem like a nice guy. All of you do. Except for that blond-haired one. He’s quite unpleasant. That’s why I followed you after you left the house. I wanted to show you this invention and talk to you without him anywhere near us.

  Before replying, I took a moment to think. I thought hard but could not find the solution to the problem. There was no way to prevent the so-called rescue spaceship from arriving on this planet and taking Mor away.

  I’m so sorry. I don’t think we can do anything to help you and Mor. See, Echo, our superior we answer to, will not let us go against the organization. The microcomputers in our bodies, which are called nanotrites, can easily kill us if we do anything that can hurt the interests of the organization. We are totally expendable. I was once almost killed by the nanotrites in my body because I kind of disobeyed our superior.

  I then handed the puffing thing back to the woman.

  So there’s nothing you can do at all? Were her thoughts flashing through my mind.

  I’d really be glad to help you out, guys. But I can’t think of anything to help you. I’m sorry.

  The woman gave me a small nod and turned away, indicating there was nothing else to discuss. She looked grim.

  I was about to give the puffer back to her when the door suddenly swung open. I saw Vlad appear in the doorway and instinctively pocketed the puffer before he would have seen it.

  “What are you two doing here?” He asked, looking at us suspiciously.

  “Just taking a breath of fresh air,” I replied casually. “It’s kinda stuffy inside, y’know.”

  Without saying anything, Claire turned and headed back to the mobile house. Vlad looked her over before finally stepping aside to let her pass. When she disappeared inside, he glared at me and asked again, “What were you doing here?”

  “I just told you, duh,” I replied.

  “I heard you exchange some words,” he said. “What were you talking about?”

  “Just exchanged some small talk,” I said.

  The Russian eyed me for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. He seemed to believe me. Claire and I had done most of the talking through the puffer. We had not said much out loud. That was probably why Vlad believed me and left me alone.

  I stayed outside the house for a few more moments, deep in thought. However, no matter how hard I was trying to find the solution to the problem at hand, I could not come up with an idea of how to prevent the organization from taking Mor and the scientists away.

  Frustrated, I went back inside the house.

  Nothing of interest happened in the next few days.

  Mor and the scientists spent almost all the time in the cave. Our squad did, too. We had no reason to watch them, though. None of them was planning anything. However, Vlad was very suspicious of them, so he always followed them, always keeping them in his sight. And the rest of us watched him so he could not do anything stupid.

  Three days passed, but the rescue spaceship had not arrived yet. At some point, Mor must have changed the direction of the planet again. Still, we knew that the ship would sooner or later arrive. It was just a matter of time.

  Out of the three scientists, Brandon always seemed to be on the edge. The more time passed, the more nervous he became. I was getting more and more worried. Brandon was teetering on the brink of doing something very stupid, that was for damn sure. So I had to constantly shift my attention between him and Vlad.

  A couple of days later, the spaceship finally arrived. All of us stood outside the house, watching the dropship land not far from the mobile base of the scientists.

  When the trap door swung open, several armed-to-the-teeth people stepped out of the dropship. There were twelve of them. They bunched up in three groups of four and stood in front of us. They did not point their weapons at us, but they looked ready to used them should the need arise.

  They were no ordinary soldiers. They were warriors, just like us, having nanotrites coursing through their veins. When I fixed my gaze on one of them, a piece of info popped up in my field of vision. Just like us, they were high-level warriors. Unlike us, however, their levels were much higher than ours, ranging from 65 to 75.

  “They look menacing,” Tamerlan said quietly so only the four of us could hear him.

  “Nah,” Vlad said, “We’re tougher than them.”

  “Their levels beg to differ,” Nate put in.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Vlad said annoyingly. “We are all on the same side here, aren’t we? It’s not like we have to fight them, so y’all just relax, okay?”

  Yet it was hard to relax. The atmosphere was very tense, to say the least.

  One of the warriors stepped in front of the others. The person wore a powered exosuit, which looked much more powerful than Nate’s. It completely hid the person that was inside it from sight.

  The warrior in the exosuit said in a female voice, “Where is the alien? Bring it here.”

  Above her floated a piece of info.

  Name: Lisa

  Level: 75

  Affiliation: The Weaponized

  Status: Friendly

  I knew that the scientists could not see the information floating above the warriors’ heads. Only warriors with nanotrites inside their bodies could see it.

  “You can’t just take him away,” Brandon said angrily. “This planet is his home.”

  “It’s not for you to decide,”Lisa said in an authoritative manner. “Where is it?”

  “It’s not ‘it’,” Brandon said. “It’s ‘him’. It’s an intelligent creature.”

  “That’s why the organization wants to take it,” Lisa said. “Now stop wasting my time
and fetch the alien here.”

  At this moment, Mor showed up, appearing out of the woods. It stopped next to the scientists, facing the warriors in front of us.

  Mor looked like a mantis but was the size of an elephant. It must have spooked the warriors because they brought up their weapons to point them at the alien.

  “Don’t shoot him,” Brandon cried out in panic. “He’s friendly.”

  “We’re not gonna shoot it unless it gives us reason to,” Lisa said in a cold voice.

  Claire put a hand on Brandon’s shoulder and said in a soft voice, “Settled down, please. Whatever happens, we can’t prevent it.”

  “Hey,” Lisa said to Mor. “Can you understand me?”

  “Yes, I do,” came a calm reply from the alien.

  “Good,” Lisa said. “You are going with us.”

  “May I ask why?” Mor asked.

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” Lisa replied and pointed behind her at the open door of the dropship. “Get in there.”

  “You can’t just take him,” Brandon said.

  “Get in there,” Lisa repeated, ignoring the scientists. “Now.”

  “I take it you need my help with something,” Mor said. “And I promise to help you. But I first need to finish my work here.”

  Lisa seemed to hesitate.

  “How long will it take?” She asked.

  “Not too long,” Mor replied. “Maybe just a few centuries.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” Lisa snapped at him. “Don’t you fucking dare make fun of me.”

  “Let me assure you I am not making fun of anybody,” Mor said calmly. “I am just stating the facts.”

  “Get in the dropship,” Lisa almost shouted. “Now!”

  “Please, calm down,” Claire said.

  “Don’t fucking tell me what to do,” came the sharp reply from Lisa.

  After that, there was a brief silence. What happened next surprised me a great deal.

  “Okay,” Mor said. “I will go with you.”

  I had expected him to disagree with the warriors or even attack him. Instead, he began walking toward the dropship, showing no signs of aggression whatsoever. He did not look at anyone, just kept walking toward the dropship in a relaxed manner.

  Before I could get over it, another thing happened.

  “I won’t let you take him,” Brandon screamed hysterically.

  He quickly pulled an organic pistol from his jacket and pointed it at Lisa. The warriors had their own weapons pointed at the alien. Everything happened so fast that nobody was quick enough to prevent Brandon from pressing the knob on the thing he was holding in his hand.

  Almost without any sound, his organic pistol spat out a blob of acid saliva. Moving with the speed of a bullet, it zipped through the air to smack against Lisa’s powered exosuit.

  Just like Nate, she was clearly a Front Line because it was the only class that could use exosuits. Her Passive Ability was a kinetic shield that could absorb lots of damage, protecting the warrior.

  However, the acid blob had no trouble penetrating her energy shield at all. Moreover, when acid splattered against her powered exosuit, it began to eat away at it, burning huge holes through the metal in a matter of a second. When the acid reached Lisa’s flesh, she began to scream in a high-pitched voice.

  “It hurts!” Lisa screamed in a very girlish way now. “Oh mygosh oh mygosh it hurts it hurts it hurts so much!”

  I could barely believe what I was seeing. Lisa’s level was 75, so her kinetic shield, as well as her powered exosuit, must have been extremely powerful and tough. Yet the acid from the pistol in Brandon’s hand had no trouble dealing with them at all, reducing Lisa to a pathetic creature crying and screaming in awful pain.

  The weapon in Brandon’s hand was way overpowered. Mor’s technology was way more advanced than anything humans had invented.

  “Please, heal me, somebody,” Lisa continued to scream.

  One of her teammates used his Active Ability to emit the bluish stream of healing energy toward her.

  Brandon just stood there, staring at Lisa. He looked shocked. He himself had not been able to predict that the pistol in his hand would turn out to be so powerful.

  When Lisa was healed up, she pointed at the scientists and yelled angrily, “The bastard just shot at me! Open fire! Kill him! Kill the motherfucker!”

  “No,” Claire cried out as she rushed toward Brandon as if to protect him with her body. “Don’t shoot! Don’t—”

  The rest of her words were drowned out by the powerful crack of gunfire as all of the warriors simultaneously began shooting at Brandon. Some of the bullets they fired hit Claire as well. And some of the rounds were charged with dark-energy, so they exploded on impact tearing chunks of flesh out of their bodies.

  Both Claire and Brandon were dead in less than a second.

  The warriors stopped firing, and after that, there was a brief silence as Lisa examined the dead bodies, blood pouring from the multiple nasty wounds.

  She then pointed at Simon who was doing his best to try to look as small and unnoticeable as possible.

  “Kill him too,” she ordered.

  “No,” Simon screamed. “Please, don’t kill me. I’m not with them. I’m not—”

  The heavy-caliber bullets Lisa fired literally blew his weak human body to pieces.

  What was happening was wrong. However, we could not prevent it from happening. Our small team was outnumbered and outgunned. And the people in front of us were not regular mercenaries or bandits like those we had killed a lot in the past months. No, they were high-level and experienced warriors. There was no way we could do anything to stop them from killing the scientists. Moreover, if we dared to go against that team of warriors, it would not be tolerated. Echo would immediately have the nanotrites in our bodies kill us, making us die before we even could open fire.

  Yet even despite these facts, I stepped forward putting my hand on the grip of my submachine gun. Nate knew me very well and was aware of what was going on in my mind at that moment, so he put his hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

  “No, David,” he said quietly so only I could hear him. “Let it go. There’s nothing we can do.”

  I knew that he was right, so I let it go as he told me. I felt bad for the poor scientists, but at the same time, I felt strangely detached from what had just happened there. In the many months that we had worked for The Weaponized, I had seen lots of innocent people getting killed. And I was getting used to it. I did not want to get used to something like that, but it was inevitable, whether I liked it or not. One can get used to anything.

  “You killed them,” Mor said, bringing me back to the moment. “You killed them all. I cannot believe it.”

  “They had it coming,” Lisa replied. “You saw everything, didn’t ya? It was them who opened fire on us first, not the other way around. It was their own fault.”

  “I cannot believe it,” Mor repeated himself. “Rational people should never hurt one another.”

  “Shut up,” Lisa said. “Get in the dropship or we will kill you too.”

  Mor did not move.

  “Did you hear what I just said?” Lisa barked at him.

  “I heard you all right,” Mot replied. “However, after what just happened here, I am not going to do what you want me to.”

  “You best get in the fucking dropship right now,” Lisa almost cried out in rage. “I’m asking you for the last time. You either get in there right now or we will kill you, you hear me?”

  Mor said, “I will get in your strange spaceship. However, whatever it is that you want from me, I will not give it to you.”

  “My job is to get you to get in the fucking dropship,” Lisa snarled. “What happens after we deliver you to our destination is not my concern. But let me warn you, after we arrive, you’d better do what my superiors tell you. If you don’t comply with their orders—Well, you’ll regret it very mu
ch.”

  “I believe you should not say something like that to someone whom you barely know,” Mor said calmly. “You have no idea what I am capable of.”

  It was the first time that I heard him say something that sounded like an actual threat.

  I could tell that the warriors were very nervous, keeping their sights lined up on the alien creature. I could understand why they were on edge. The pistol Brandon had fired at Lisa was extremely powerful. It had been created by Mor. He clearly was exceptionally smart and also must have been awfully dangerous. I remembered Claire telling us that the alien bugs were terrified of him and preferred to avoid dealing with him.

  Everybody was tense and anxious, having no idea what Mor might do next.

  Again, his next words surprised me.

  “I do not know what you want from me, but I will follow you,” he said before resuming walking toward the dropship.

  All the warriors kept their weapons trained on the alien. Yet he never attempted to attack them. He never so much as make any suspicious move. A few seconds later, he disappeared inside the spaceship.

  I did not understand Mor’s motives at all. He had said that he would not be obeying Lisa’s superiors, yet he had gotten in the dropship. He had clearly threatened her but at the same time was no going to attack them. It was really hard to understand this alien creature’s motives.

  After Mor disappeared inside the dropship, some of the warriors, including Lisa, went into the spaceship too. The rest of them collected the organic weapons the scientists had been armed with but left the bodies lay where they were. They were not interested in taking them.

  Without saying anything to us, the warriors got in the dropship and a few seconds later, it took off and flew away.

  “Okay,” Vlad said. “What now?”

  As soon as he said that, a message popped up before my eyes, telling me that our mission was complete.

  Then a message from Echo emerged. It read, “Great job, warriors. You did very well. Not only have you completed your main objective, but you also finished all the additional ones. You helped the other three teams secure the alien creature. Such a creature had never been encountered by humans. Its knowledge of evolution and biology will benefit our organization in so many ways. You helping us secure such a creature is greatly appreciated. Here’s your reward for finishing the mission.”