A Jump into the Unknown (Reality Benders Book #5) LitRPG Series

by Michael Atamanov

  “Don’t even try to take control of my mind, it’s no use!”

  The girl was speaking a language not of this world, but there were a few mage-rulers who understood it. At the very least the six former La-Fin Faction spymasters who jumped ship to the La-Varrez Faction would.

  “Gerd Tamara!” they all shouted in concert.

  Based on the groan that rolled through the room, many of the mage-rulers were familiar with her name and it inspired nothing short of horror. They didn’t expect anything good from such close proximity with the fanatic Paladin.

  “Yes, it is I!” with these words, the Paladin girl pulled the ash-gray mask off her face with her free left hand, revealing herself as a native of the alternate world. “Gerd Tamara, the worst nightmare of all mages, no matter which cursed faction you belong to! So, to be perfectly clear, there isn’t going to be any vote! Thousands of years ago, my ancestors banished you vile magic-spawn from their world. But you just couldn’t leave well enough alone and dared to intrude upon my world through the game to spread your sorcerous blight! But I’m not troubled by that, because today your reign comes to an end! How long have I dreamed of this moment – to be in the very epicenter of the magical infection and destroy all mage-rulers in one fell swoop! I am not the least bit sorry to give my life for this holy mission! My only regret is that I had to let one of you go – while discussing today’s plans, I promised the Mage Diviner that I would let him escape. And Paladins always keep their word.”

  “What about Princess Minn-O La-Fin? After all, she’s also a mage who wields considerable power!” Despite the tension of the moment, one of the mages was bold enough to ask a clarifying question. Perhaps he merely wanted to distract the strange girl with an icy emotionless face and earn himself a few more minutes of life.

  “Princess Minn-O?” she asked with a happy laugh that looked somewhat strange and even frightening with her practically motionless facial muscles. “You really haven’t figured it out? Minn-O doesn’t have any magical abilities! All of her apparent magic is from the fetus in her womb, spawned when the magical genes of people from two long-separated worlds made contact. Minn-O’s child will grow to be a powerful mage. A very powerful mage. But the thing is, no matter how profoundly I hate mages, I was not prepared to kill an unborn child. Especially the child of a person I care for deeply!”

  THE RULER OF THE FIRST Directory’s procession was getting ready to head out. Many armored defensive antigravs were hovering above the earth ready to take off at any moment and disappear into the low cloud cover.

  “Advisor, how do you think the vote will turn out?” Princess Minn-O La-Fin’s eyes were plastered to the armored glass of her luxuriant flying vehicle, staring at the exit from the Palace of the Ruling Council and awaiting her companions, who were taking longer than she expected.

  Mage Diviner Mac-Peu Un-Roi took a good bit of time to answer. Choosing his words carefully and avoiding categorical statements, he cautiously suggested that Tamara may have seen this as a convenient opportunity to detonate all the explosives in the chamber regardless of how the vote went. However, despite all the advisor’s careful couching, Princess Minn-O quickly saw what was happening:

  “Diviner, you must have known this was going to happen! Admit it! All your talk of a ‘plan B’ and just spooking the Council of Rulers before the vote were only to make me agree to take part. Is that right?”

  Mac-Peu didn’t have time to answer. A fearsome thundering blast rolled through the surrounding area, popping ears and spooking all the birds out of their trees. The squat pyramidal Palace of the Ruling Council, two hundred steps from the armored antigrav, sank. The tip of the structure collapsed into the building. A second later, everything was obscured by huge dust clouds.

  “That’s all she wrote...” the advisor commented calmly. “You were not deposed. You’re still the Princess of an ancient dynasty and the ruler of a faction in the game that bends reality. We were also able to avoid a great war – the other directories won’t be capable of such a large undertaking anytime soon. All that remains is to inform the news channels that Emancipation from Mage Tyranny terrorists committed yet another heinous act, this time bombing a session of the Council of Rulers. The fact that we survived is a miracle and only because you finished your speech earlier than scheduled and left. And there can be no complaints against us – the palace guard will confirm that they searched our group thoroughly and that we didn’t bring any hazardous materials into the palace.”

  “And the cleaning woman?” Minn-O shuddered. “She’ll say that she installed detonators under the benches in the chamber!”

  “The cleaning woman?” the advisor asked with false surprise, raising his brows and widening his eyes. “Princess, didn’t I tell you that she died this morning? Cardiac arrest. A real tragedy. Although it’s no surprise at her age. Basically, I plan to put some money aside to pay her family a handsome bonus for her many years of impeccable service.”

  “Mac-Peu, you’re a monster!” Despite the Princess’s emotional outburst, deep in her soul she didn’t blame her chief advisor one bit and even agreed that there was no other way.

  “No, Princess Minn-O. I am not some bloodthirsty monster. I simply put my faith in your husband and am doing everything in my power to bring Leng Gnat’s plan to fruition and safeguard our world against alien invasion!”

  The ruler of the First Directory spent a few seconds in silence thinking over what she’d heard, but then she demanded impatiently:

  “Let’s take off already! Tell the guard we’re getting out of here. Otherwise it’ll look weird that we didn’t leave right away, despite the clear and present danger. Although... wait! Someone is coming out of the demolished building!”

  And in fact, enshrouded in dense clouds of dust, a small figure emerged with a staggering gait. It was a girl, and her head was pointed down. The Princess and her advisor exchanged surprised glances.

  “Isn’t she supposed to be dead?” asked the Princess, reproach for her servant’s failure cutting through.

  The Mage Diviner shrugged his shoulders. He truly had not seen this possible future.

  “Maybe it’s for the best?” Minn-O La-Fin asked pensively. “Order her arrested! We must have a living terrorist to show the thirty directories. They’ll be thirsty for blood! Here we have a real live member of the sinister terror group Emancipation from Mage Tyranny!”

  Chapter One. Back Underway!

  One day earlier

  The game that bends reality

  Near space, in the vicinity of planet Earth

  “THE BIRDY HAS FLOWN the coop!” Starship Pilot Dmitry Zheltov’s disappointed voice made me shudder and unstick my tightly closed eyes.

  I found it easier to bear the high G-forces like that, with my eyes closed. And when the frigate took off from such a massive planet, at times we got up to 5 G. Oh well, it was my own fault. I asked them to rush the takeoff and fix only the what was truly necessary. And our three malfunctioning gravity compensators, in the estimation of the repair bots, did not make the cut.

  My teeth clenched in strain; I was squinting at the radar screen. Damn! We didn’t make it. My Tolili-Ukh X frigate had just gained elevation and punched through the atmosphere, while the La-Shin Faction Kurimiru shuttle had already entered a hyperspace jump. We were just some five minutes late... Although most likely the enemies were watching for our takeoff and would have slipped through our fingers regardless.

  “Navigator, were you able to determine their trajectory?” It was tremendously difficult to speak. My Gnat’s meager 17 Constitution made it a real slog to do anything worthwhile in such high G forces. Nevertheless, I was holding out for the time being and didn’t even put on my +1 Constitution rings this time because, as the famous captain of a star frigate, I needed to get used to this kind of thing.

  “Yes, Leng Gnat. I was able to establish the vector of their hyperspace jump. Calculating end point now... uh...” old Ayukh stroked his nose with a huge paw, hi
s other paw operating the instrument panel at tremendous speed. The seasoned Geckho seemingly didn’t even notice the 5 G’s. “The Kasti-Utsh system, as we thought. But they’ve taken a rather strange angle, too far from the space station. They’ll be off by almost a million miles.”

  Based on the movement of his meaty lips, the Navigator was saying totally different numbers and units of measure, but I was already used to the game automatically tailoring that information to make it easier for me to comprehend.

  “Almost a million miles? Does that put them outside the security zone of the Kasti-Utsh III space station? But that’s great news! We’ll be able to intercept them! Ayukh, begin calculating a hyperjump to those coordinates! Dmitry, as soon as we leave orbit, prepare the ship for a long-distance jump. The Navigator will provide vector. Actually... Both of you hold up. No rush.” I removed my headphones and, overcoming the forces in my arms and legs, turned my mobile armchair dashingly and scooted over to the copilot’s workstation.

  Sitting there now was San-Doon Taki-Bu. A highly experienced level-91 Pilot who had long helmed Leng Thumor-Anhu La-Fin’s antigrav, he was currently on his first trip to space in a real starship. I could sense the Pilot’s emotional background: very tense. And seemingly the G-forces from the spaceship’s takeoff had nothing to do with it. San-Doon was clearly shy to be in the presence of the ruler of the First Directory and was so scared of making a bad impression on me that his knees were quavering. That must have been evidence of his experience with the previous leader, Thumor-Anhu La-Fin, who was famed for his difficult character and quickness to violence. Furthermore, the copilot was very embarrassed not to know the Geckho tongue, the primary mode of communication among my crew. Now for example, all the instruments and panels at his workstation were labeled in Geckho, merely doubled in the language of the magocratic world on little plastic stickers for San-Doon to read.

  I gave the copilot an encouraging shoulder pat, praised his capable operation of the frigate’s stabilizers in the dense atmosphere and asked to be put through to the Engineer on the ship’s internal communication system.

  “Orun Va-Mart, I’m reminded that you said you saw the Kurimiru in the spaceport with your own eyes. Back then you said their old heap of scrap didn’t have a very nice hyperspace drive. In fact, you said theirs was utterly not up to the task, along the lines of a lawnmower engine. Could you give me an estimate for how long it will take their bucket of bolts to make it from Earth to the Kasti-Utsh system?”

  In response, our fluffy-tailed Engineer gave a pained groan through the speakers, then requested that I wait until we leave orbit for an answer. The severe G-forces were making it hard for him to think. I gave a satisfied chuckle. What could I say? I guess I found a crew member who was worse at dealing with G-forces than me! Incidentally, a thought flickered by that I should check how the other first-timers were doing. And there were a whole four of them on the frigate: not only level-91 Pilot San-Doon, but also level-47 Bard Vasily Filippov, Anya the pseudo-human of unknown level and the level-105 Shocktroop T’yu-Pan. The last two didn’t worry me at all though – Constitution was a priority characteristic for the Morphian, while the muscular Shocktroop would be just fine even at the kind of forces that would turn my Gnat into a pancake.

  Vasily Andreyevich Filippov also answered my internal comms request, saying that: “I feel like my arms are full of lead and there’s a sheet of cement pressing down on my chest. But still, it’s nothing worth bothering my captain about.” Fortunately, the G forces were already diminishing and it was all back to normal within three minutes. Then the artificial gravitation system turned on and made life on board the starship entirely comfortable. Almost at once, the Engineer gave me his answer:

  “Captain, the drive I saw on the Kurimiru shuttle came from an old Cyanian frigate, which I estimate will take eleven ummi to jump from Earth to Kasti-Utsh.”

  I mulled it over. Eleven ummi? That’s approximately sixty hours. My modern Tolili-Ukh X frigate could make the same run in just eighteen. And even if I considered that my seasoned Navigator was bringing down hyperspace jump time by a quarter, the difference still made an impression. Space technology had really come a long way in the three centuries that had passed since the Kurimiru was first constructed!

  If we started now, we’d have to drift around in space doing nothing for forty hours and change, waiting for the slowpoke La-Shin faction shuttle to reach its destination. What to do with all that time? Visit the nearby trade hub Kasti-Utsh III? We really did need to make another visit to the space station. Last time, due to the abundance of Miyelonian military on the station, I was unable to meet the antiquities trader, even though I was very interested in the Relict artifacts he had purchased from the pirates.

  However, the ancient artifacts of the long-vanished race cost a pretty penny, and I was already pretty hard up for cash. To be more accurate, I had basically no money at all. But then the La-Shin faction cargo shuttle came along back at the Geckho spaceport. The shuttle looked to have been assembled from parts somebody picked up at a few random scrapheaps, and had no value in and of itself. But still I was planning to capture it because, if a Dark Faction enemy had a starship, that threw a serious monkey wrench into my plans. In fact, it went so far as to threaten the established balance of power on the virtual Earth.

  Now I wasn’t exactly foaming at the mouth to destroy or steal the starship (although I won’t argue, those kind of thoughts were coming to mind), but showing Coruler Anri-Huvi La-Shin, leader of the La-Shin faction, which terrestrial faction was the big dog in outer space would come in very handy. Especially in light of the quickly approaching nonconfidence vote at the Council of Rulers in the magocratic world. I left Princess Minn-O on Earth and she assured me there was no cause for alarm – she would give a worthy speech and the mage-rulers would vote the way we wanted. But still, I wanted as many levers of influence before the important vote as I could get. After all, my position as Coruler of Humanity was on the line!

  The dispatchers at the Geckho spaceport were all too eager to inform my business partner Uline Tar that the Kurimiru was making a course for the Kasti-Utsh III station. At the same time, those very same space-port employees whispered to the Geckho Trader that a human shuttle captain by the name of Mart-Ton La-Shin was inquiring about the price of rare-earth metals and large faceted gemstones out in the galaxy. In fact, he wanted to know so badly that he even paid a tidy sum to a Geckho trading agent for a print-out of current prices on the Kasti-Utsh III station. And after that, some people from the La-Shin Faction started loading heavy metal containers onto the Kurimiru shuttle and preparing it for takeoff...

  The space port employees who told my business partner all these things dropped strong hints that, now that Captain Leng Gnat had reached pirate status, he might be interested in this information. Also, as if in passing, they mentioned that, under pirate law, informants are entitled to one tenth of the take. The cautious Trader made no promises to the corrupt officials, just said she’d tell her captain about the high-value goods. And what could I say? It really was very useful information. I was interested in the Kurimiru shuttle just for its own sake. But packed full of gemstones and rare-earth metals, it might actually be worth something.

  At any rate, I was reserving the option of flagrant piracy for the very worst case scenario, preferring first to negotiate with shuttle captain Mart-Ton La-Shin from a position of power. Based on his name, the captain was somehow related to Coruler of Humanity Anri-Huvi La-Shin, so he could probably be used to communicate my offers and demands to the Coruler, as well as for discussing political and economic issues both in the virtual game and real world. And again to offer help selling goods at reasonable prices before the naive earthlings got taken for a ride by some streetwise junk dealer just waiting to rob them blind. But as I said before, spending forty hours and change waiting for their shuttle was an unjustified waste of time.

  So then, what to do? I asked Ayukh how he was doing with his special ass
ignment – finding the coordinates of an object in space knowing only the flight time from it to four other points in the Galaxy. To my dilettante’s eye, it seemed like a very simple task. But the Navigator was highly doubtful that it could be done at all. In his words, in real space, a straight line is practically never the optimal route between two points, and often they are filled with horrendous curves and have plenty of loops for accelerating around massive bodies. Still, such circuitous routes were the fastest way to travel. Furthermore, we had to consider the variable nature of the fabric of space, gravity extremes and the impact of displacement from other heavenly bodies on the object, which had been underway for millennia with a constantly variable but still sublight speed.

  And now the Navigator spent a few minutes loading me down with professional terms and descriptions of how challenging it all was before giving his final result. Old Ayukh was very proud that he had accomplished his assignment.

  Astrolinguistics skill increased to level ninety-one!

  “So that means the location is about six and a half days flight with our frigate?” I asked, picking out the most important part of the Navigator’s long-winded and highly technical speech.

  Old Ayukh gave a satisfied groan, turned his monitor toward me and pointed a clawed finger at a bright marker.

  “Captain, my calculations point to these coordinates.”

  “What’s there?” I scooted my flying armchair a bit closer, getting right up to the screen.

  The gray-haired furry Navigator zoomed in the star map and read the pop-up aloud:

  “The H9045/WE system. A 3FF red-dwarf star. Long-distance scanning has never shown any planets there. There is a ring-shaped dust cloud, perhaps the remnants of a destroyed comet or planetoid, but there are no large objects in it. The Meleyephatian map also contains very little information about this star system: a dim red star, a ring cloud, an asteroid belt. No data about any of the spacefaring races sending ships or search probes and, with what we know, the prognosis of finding anything is hopeless. No one has ever attempted to claim the system either.”