After mulling over the options I had, I decided to learn Hidden. After all, I was a Flanker. This class was all about quick movement and getting the drop on enemies. So I put the next skill points into Hidden. If at some point, I realized I should have learned Smoke Screen instead, I could always unlearn Hidden and learn the other skill. Yet I was confident that Hidden would prove to be way more beneficial to my class than Smoke Screen.
Name: Hidden
Description: This is an active skill. After using the Active Ability, you can become invisible for a short while and gain increased movement speed.
Duration: 7.5 seconds
Speed increase: +100%
Cooldown: 90 seconds
Status: 5/5 (Completely Learned)
The Sixth Branch of the Active Ability was unlocked now. It contained only one skill.
The Sixth Branch of the Skill Tree:
Name: Dark Energy Bomb
Description: After using the Active Ability, you can create a dark energy bomb and throw it. The bomb is ten times as powerful as a regular fragmentation grenade.
Status: 0/1
Again, I was a Flanker, so it was not my job to deal as much damage to enemies as possible. It was a Damage dealer’s job. Still, since Dark Energy Bomb required only one skill point, I learned the skill anyway.
Name: Dark Energy Bomb
Description: After using the Active Ability, you can create a dark energy bomb and throw it. The bomb is ten times as powerful as a regular fragmentation grenade.
Status: 1/1
When I leveled up next time, I checked all the skills that I had not learned yet. I had learned most of the skills for all my Abilities: Active, Passive, and Ultimate. I had two yet-to-be-learned skills on the Second Branch of the Active Ability: Faster, Faster, Faster and Trigger Happy. I also had two not-learned skills on the Second and the Third Branches of the Passive Ability: Fast Hands and Tracker. And I also put one skill into each of the three skills on the Second Branch of the Ultimate ability—Violent Speed, Void Walker, and Jumper— while each of these skills could take four more skill points.
I checked out all of these skills.
Green Rune (Active Ability) — Blink
The Second Branch of the Active Ability:
Name: Faster, Faster, Faster
Description: For a short amount of time after using the Active Ability, your movement speed increases.
Speed increase: +10% (Current: 0%)
Duration: +1 second (Current: 0 seconds)
Status: 0/5
Name: Trigger Happy
Description: For a short amount of time after using the Active Ability, your reload speed increases.
Duration: +3 seconds (Current: 0 seconds)
Speed increase: +10% (Current: 0%)
Status: 0/5
Blue Rune (Passive Ability) — Sixth Sense
The Second Branch of the Passive Ability:
Name: Fast Hands
Description: Makes you nimbler, which results in increased reload speed, weapon draw speed, and aiming down the sights speed.
Speed increase: +10%
Status: 0/5
The Third Branch of the Passive Ability:
Name: Tracker
Description: Actions performed by your enemies leave markers that you can see. When you look at the marker, the Voice will tell you how long ago they occurred and vanish after some time.
Lifespan of markers: +5 seconds (Current: 0 seconds)
Status: 0/5
Red Rune (Ultimate Ability) — Teleport
The First Branch of the Ultimate Ability:
Name: Violent Speed
Description: When the Ultimate Ability is active, your movement speed gets higher still.
Speed increase: +20% (Current: 20%)
Status: 1/5
Name: Void Walker
Description: Increases the duration of the Ultimate Ability.
Duration increase: +30 seconds (Current: 60 seconds)
Status: 1/5
Name: Jumper
Description: You can jump higher when the Ultimate Ability is active. Since you are in the void space when the Ultimate Ability is active, you receive no damage in the real world when you land
Jump increase: +100% (Current: 1 meter)
Status: 1/5
None of these skills seemed particularly important to me. After giving the matter some thought, I decided to learn Fast Hands for my Passive Ability and Faster, Faster, Faster for my Active Ability. Since my class was all about speed movement, both Fast Hands and Faster, Faster, Faster might come in handy.
Name: Faster, Faster, Faster
Description: For a short amount of time after using the Active Ability, your movement speed increases.
Speed increase: 50%
Duration: 5 seconds
Status: 5/5 (Completely Learned)
Name: Fast Hands
Description: Makes you nimbler, which results in increased reload speed, weapon draw speed, and aiming down the sights speed.
Speed increase: +10% (Current: 40%)
Status: 4/5
So I was level 100, the top level, and all 100 skill points had been allocated.
One time after completing a mission, I was wandering around the space station, looking for my teammates. I found Nadia in the Training Room. As always, she was blasting holographic targets with various weapons, honing her shooting skills. I did not distract her from her training. I left the room without her noticing me.
I wondered where Thomas and Maya were. They had left the Control Room when I was using the bathroom. When I returned, they were gone. I wondered why they had left without saying anything to me. It was not like them to suddenly disappear.
I looked almost everywhere but could not find them. I even considered blinking through some of the walls but decided against it, because it was highly unlikely that they had found a way to get in the restricted areas of the space station. Moreover, Echo would not allow us to do that. As I already knew, getting there would result in the nanotrites begin to smother you.
The only place where I had not looked yet was the hangar. I had no idea what they could be doing in there. And if they were not in there, I would have to resort to asking Nadia if she knew where they were.
Upon entering the hangar, I looked around. The room was spacious but mostly empty. There was nobody in sight. I started walking across the room, heading for the garage.
When I was walking past the open rear ramp of the dropship, I seemed to hear some noise coming from the inside of the spacecraft. I stopped, straining to hear.
After a moment, someone said something in a hushed voice. It was impossible to make out the words, though. It sounded like Maya’s voice, though I was not sure. It might have been Thomas’s voice. Anyway, they both must have been in there.
I waited a little longer but heard no more sounds. Either Alyson and Thomas were silent or speaking so quietly I could no longer hear them.
I took a step up the ramp and stopped again. I was not sure what to do.
What they were doing in there, anyway? What if they were making out? It seemed highly unlikely to me because Maya seemed to like me a lot and had never shown much affection for Thomas in the romantic sense.
However, I did not want to impose upon them. If they left me, they must have had a good reason to do so. They clearly did not want to let me in on their secret.
Feeling kind of betrayed, I turned around and began to walk down the ramp. When I stepped from the hatch door to the floor, I heard footsteps behind me. I looked back over my shoulder and saw Maya appear in the doorway of the dropship.
“Hey,” she said. “I thought I heard someone outside. And I was right.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It was me.”
“What are you doing here, David?” The blue-haired girl asked.
“Well,” I began, “you and Thomas suddenly disappeared, so I dec
ided to go look for you.”
“Oh,” the girl uttered. “I’m really sorry about that. We should’ve invited you.”
“Thomas in there too?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Maya replied.
“What are you doing in there?” I asked.
“Well,” Maya looked back over her shoulder. Thomas was nowhere in sight. He must have been in the cabin.
“Look, I don’t want to impose, so,” I said as I began to turn around.
Maya lightly ran down the ramp and squeezed my upper arm.
“It’s okay, David,” she said. “You can come with me. I wanted to invite you, but Thomas had some doubts about it.”
“If he doesn’t want to let me in on this, then I’d probably better—”
“I told you it’s okay, David,” Maya repeated, interrupting me. “You’ve long since become one of us. You should know everything. Come on in.”
I could not help but notice that she was speaking very quietly. She clearly did not want to be overheard. I was starting to realize what was going on here. Whatever she and Thomas had been discussing, they obviously did not want Echo to listen in on their conversation.
The blue-haired girl led me up the ramp and into the dropship. We crossed the cargo hold and entered the cabin. As I expected, Thomas was in there, standing on the other side of the room, looking in our direction. He glanced at me, then frowned and shifted his gaze to Maya. He did not say anything. He did not need to. His disapproval was clearly visible in his eyes.
“Please, go over there, David,” the girl said, pointing to the wall that was directly opposite Thomas.
I did as instructed. Maya critically looked me over, then said, “Take a small step to your right.”
“Why?” I asked. “What is going on here?”
I saw Thomas shake his head. He glared at Maya. The blue-haired girl saw him stare at her but totally ignored the guy.
“Just do what I say, please,” the girl said.
“Okay,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.
I took a small step to the right. Maya looked me over again and nodded.
“That’s fine,” she said. “Please, stay here and don’t move much, okay? I’ll explain everything a little bit later.”
She was speaking very quietly now, almost whispering.
Suddenly, a realization struck me. I turned my head to look at Thomas. He was stationary, as immovable as a marble statue.
I knew exactly what was happening. There were two security cameras in the cabin, through which Echo could see what was happening in the room. However, with the way Thomas and I were placed, our backs obstructed the view of the two cameras. All Echo could see through them were our backs.
I felt Maya touch my shoulder with her fingers. I turned my head to look at her. Intently staring at me, she opened her mouth. However, no sound was produced. Her lips were moving, but she did not make any sound.
She mouthed the silent words, I need to tell you something.
I waited. Maya was about to add something when in my peripheral vision, I saw Thomas made a slight gesture with his hand to attract attention. Both Maya and I looked at him. He mouthed some words, but I did not quite catch what he had said. I was not very good at lip reading. Maya understood him perfectly, though.
My two teammates talked to each other for a minute. Since the view of the two cameras’ in the cabin was obstructed by Thomas and me, Echo could not see our faces. He had no idea what Maya and Thomas were talking about. Since no words were uttered, it was very quiet in the cabin. Echo was probably not even aware that a conversation was taking place in the dropship.
However, it was not an easy way to talk to one another, especially for me since I had not much experience in that. As to Maya and Thomas, it was clearly not the first time they hid in the dropship to talk things over.
Suddenly, I remembered something.
“Guys, I know what we need to do,” I said.
Both Maya and Thomas turned their heads to look at me, surprised that I dared to speak out loud.
Before any of them could mouth anything, I added, “Wait here. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
They both were silently looking at me with surprised eyes as I left the cabin. I crossed the cargo hold and strode down the ramp. As I walked across the hangar toward the door leading to the Preparation Room, I was thinking about something.
During my last mission with my previous teammates, we had encountered an intelligent creature, which had created lots of highly advanced bio-organic devices. The creature was proficient in that kind of stuff. One of the devices the alien had created was an invention that kind of looked like a tobacco pipe but actually was an invention that allowed its users to talk to one another with smells. Using the device, the leader of the scientist team—a woman named Claire—and I were telepathically talking to each other, so Echo could not listen in on us. After that mission, I had never used the device since then. I put it into my jacket pocket and totally forgot about it. So it still should be in my locker.
I entered the Preparation Room and strode down the corridor toward where the lockers of our team were lined along the right-hand wall. I walked up to mine and typed in my passcode on the holographic touchpad. With a soft click, the lock unlatched, and I swung open the locker door.
I checked the pockets of my uniform but did not find the device. Then I remembered that I had taken it out of my jacket pocket after my first mission with my new teammates and put it on the top shelf. I raised my hand and ran it along the surface. And there it was, lying on the top shelf. Grabbing the device, I swung close the locker door and headed back for the hangar.
Maya and Thomas were still in the cabin of the dropship. When I entered the cabin, they turned their heads to look at me with a silent question in their eyes.
Thomas stood on the opposite side of the cabin, too far away from Maya and me. I was not sure how close to one another we needed to be able to talk, so I asked him to get closer to us. With visible reluctance, he stepped up to us.
I brought the device to my lips, formed words in my head, and took a drag on the invention. I then released a stream of almost invisible smoke toward Maya and Thomas. Confusion registered on their faces as they breathed in the smoke.
It was not long before they got a hang of this thing, though. After I told them when and where I acquired this invention, we finally got to the main topic of our conversation.
“That’s awesome,” were Maya’s thoughts flashing through my mind after I inhaled the smoke she let out. “This way, it’ll be way easier to talk to one another without Echo listening in on us.”
Using the device, Thomas said, “I agree. How come you never told us about this thing, David?”
“Well, I totally forgot about this thingy and never used it after that mission,” I replied. “I had no reason to use it until now. Anyway, what do you guys were talking about before I barged in?”
Thomas seemed hesitant once again. Seeing his reluctance to reply, Maya took the device from me and puffed at it.
“You and we had completed lots of various missions,” were the blue-haired girl’s thoughts. “We got to know you very well, David. But still, I think before we tell you everything, we need to ask you one question.”
I mouthed a single word, Shoot.
Maya continued, “What do you think about the organization we work for?”
When she handed the device to me, I replied, “I think you know the answer. I dislike this organization very much, to say the least. It got killed too many innocent people. It’s a criminal organization that needs to be brought down. Somebody really should deal with it before more innocent lives died at the hands of The Weaponized.”
Maya looked at Thomas before replying, “See? That’s what I told you. He’s one of us. He thinks the same way as we do.”
The blue-haired girl turned her head to look at me and smiled.
“Well, David, I’m now gonna tell you
what we’ve been scheming for a while,” she said via the device. “Our small team is going to destroy the organization.”
It surprised me a great deal. A lot of questions popped up in my head. However, I could not ask them, because Maya did not give the device back to me.
“We’ve been planning to attack the main space station once all the members of our team are level 100,” the girl continued. “We’ve got a plan.”
Maya went on to tell me about their plan. The blue-haired girl told me that Thomas was not just a good programmer but a hacker, and a very skillful one at that. That was the real reason he had joined The Weaponized. He wronged a few large corporations and had to flee. Lots of hired guns were hot on his heels. The only way of getting protection against them was to join a big, powerful organization. However, the only organization that was willing to admit such a criminal was The Weaponized. There was a shortage of employees in the organization, which was why its leaders did not care much about the new warriors’ past. So The Weaponized took Thomas in.
He then told me that he had once been messing around with the Control Panel. He found out that it was pretty easy for him to override the systems of this space station. All he needed to do was download a virus app he had developed some time before joining the organization. His app then would take care of everything. It would be able to cut Echo from the systems of both the space station and the nanotrites in our bodies. In other words, we would be completely free from any ties to The Weaponized. Neither Echo nor anyone else in the organization would be able to track our whereabouts or have any control over us.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 47
