The whole spectrum of emotion ran across Minn-O’s face: clear relief at receiving a less harsh punishment than she was expecting, joy that she would soon be meeting her beloved husband and just a tiny bit of embarrassment at being cursed out. Seemingly, my wayedda thought this was the most correct and fair outcome nevertheless. Furthermore, she already considered faction affairs tiresome and totally boring. I then turned my attention to the Mage Diviner, who was still down on one knee:
“Mac-Peu, you are guilty of hiding your plans from me and of not even trying to interfere in Tamara’s fate to improve her lot. After all, if that little girl told her torturers your role in this, the situation would be very unpleasant indeed. And that goes for all three of us as well as the First Directory as a whole. I might even say it would be critical. At the very least, it would mean war with thirty directories of the magocratic world. However, I will give you one chance to remain my representative in the game that bends reality, and my Chief Advisor in the real world. Prove yourself capable of handling your role! Arrange for the captive Tamara to be kept more humanely without interrogations or torture, and summon healers for her. Stay her execution until I can personally appear in the magocratic world and decide her fate. Do not confirm any suggested candidacies for membership in the Council of Mage-Rulers! That is a direct order from me! Beyond that, representatives of the Human-6 Faction will be getting in touch with you soon.” The Mage Diviner nodded to say they already had accepted my offer! A united faction, complete union, equal rights, complete access to technologies and resources. But I also wanted him to find me a way to have a private conversation with General Ui-Taka. I was sure I could find something to offer the famed military leader!
WHEN I LEFT THE LONG-distance communication booth, Valeri-Urla was there waiting for me, already back in the game. The Beastmaster was smiling in satisfaction and looked to be in an excellent mood, which stood out like a sore thumb. Her Shadow Panther was also in a happy and playful mood, invisibly bounding in my direction and just about knocking me off my feet. Little Sister placed her heavy clawed paws on my shoulders and started licking my face with her scratchy tongue. Woah! If I had to guess the dangerous beast’s weight, I’d say it was around 450 pounds. I had a hard time keeping my balance, but still didn’t curse at the playful creature. In fact, I squeezed the Shadow Panther tight and pet the back of her neck and back tenderly, which made Little Sister purr and fall out of invisibility, revealing her pure white fur and drooling toothy mouth.
“She likes you!” Valeri commented with a smirk. “I’m afraid if I ordered her to attack you, Little Sister might not obey me now. But anyway, Leng Gnat, I’ve come bearing good news. Your offer to trade the Relict artifacts for the coordinates of the hiding spot has been accepted! Furthermore, they offered to add the Tolili-Ukh X frigate on top as a bonus.”
So in other words, did they also accept my first offer, to give me the frigate? Interesting, very interesting! The Tailaxian girl told me the finer details mentally, all the while pretending to simply be playing with her sweet pet:
“Gnat, your message about a valuable Meleyephatian Spy being exposed was checked and found to be accurate: the starship belonging to Trader Ayzzz 117 was in fact blocked from leaving the station with no explanation. So they accept your offer to evacuate the Meleyephatian Spy. But there is one necessary condition: along with Leng Sooweesssh Eleven himself, the other members of his spy ring will have to be taken off the Miyelonian station as well, around forty Meleyephatians. What do you say, captain? I have to send your decision to the Prelates of Tailax. If yes, a personal trade contract will be drawn up in your name: you tell the coordinates of the Queen Tishhh-Ukhshhh item cache and in exchange you will receive the Spatial Cutter and Tolili-Ukh X frigate. The Meleyephatian troops will move onto that ship and exit the game as not to be discovered during scans by station services. Then, the Meleyephatians will leave the ship once you reach a safe destination.”
Danger Sense skill increased to level seventy-eight!
A sense of incoming trouble gave my heart a nasty prick! The suggestion to transport forty experienced Meleyephatian spies on my starship felt very much like deception, betrayal and death. And really, what was to stop these Meleyephatians from capturing the valuable frigate by force once we were in space and taking out Leng Gnat together with his whole team, which wasn’t even all that big? Especially if a couple of the forty Meleyephatian players were even close to as high-level as their commander.
Nevertheless, I didn’t rush my refusal. Yes, there could be no doubt. Leng Sooweesssh Eleven was planning to deceive me and take back his frigate and the Spatial Cutter as well most likely. But... Why not pretend that I trusted them and agree just for appearances? Then I could take some precautionary measures without them noticing.
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred five!
What is happening? Is someone trying to mentally probe me? It didn’t seem to be Valeri-Urla. She was busy playing with her resplendent beast, who was running in circles with a muted growl, playing keep-away with his master’s hair clip. But who then? I pensively raised an eye and discovered a security camera mounted on the ceiling right above Valeri and I. Seemingly, someone was keeping an eye on us. It probably did look weird that I was keeping silent for so long instead of talking with a member of my own race. Plus the prison-keepers tracking Valeri via her implants might have guessed based on my silence that we were having a mental conversation about topics that could not be discussed aloud and suspected we were scheming...
Something had to be done. Ugh... do or die! I took a decisive step toward the Tailaxian, embraced her and pulled her toward me. Valeri-Urla was so taken aback by my brashness that she just meekly let herself be kissed.
“I feel like someone’s watching us,” I mentally told my companion without breaking the kiss. “So I’m doing my best to make this look natural. Anyway, go into the real world and give my answer to the Prelates of Tailax: because they made alterations to my conditions, I have a few changes to theirs. First, I need an answer to the question about bifurcated space I asked the Prelates of Tailax previously. Second, I am adding a new demand: you must be transferred from the Tailax faction to my Relict faction. Only then will I allow you to remain on my starship. If the Meleyephatians do not want to lose their eyes and ears in my crew, have them let your leash out a bit. As soon as my conditions are met, have them draw up the contract. I agree to evacuate the whole group of forty Meleyephatian. Have them come onto my frigate and leave the game. But tell them not to come back into the game until at least three ummis after takeoff from Kasti-Utsh III. By then the starship will be at a different station where the Meleyephatians can leave in peace.”
I finally unlocked my arms and let her go. I was afraid to take a slap, and she didn’t leave me waiting. However, it was not some meek little slap, but a right-hand uppercut straight from her shoulder to my jaw. She really put a lot of power into it. Woah! For such a dainty looking girl, she really packed a punch! I could immediately sense that she had either attended a professional boxing school or had lots of street-fighting experience. Valeri-Urla took a step back, stuck a lock of fallen hair back in place and, not looking me in the eyes, sternly said:
“I was born and grew up on a wild primitive planet, where women value men for their decisiveness and strength. So I will forgive you this one time. By the way, you didn’t have to use the excuse that someone is watching us and tracking us. You could have just come and kissed me. I would have let you do it. But don’t you dare try again! I am a proud Great Huntress, the owner of a complete set of trophies from the Forest of Horrors. I am the only person to have amassed such a collection on the whole planet of Paradise III, and the right to be with me must be earned!”
After she finished expressing her dismay, Valeri again left the game into the real world and, before her character fully disappeared, I received an unusual but expected message:
ATTENTION!!! Leader of the La-Fin Faction Minn-O La-
Fin proposes unification with the Relict Faction on the following terms: the La-Fin Faction shall join the Relict Faction in its entirety. Do you accept? (Yes/No)
Minn-O reacted quickly and set it all up! Of course “Yes!”
ATTENTION!!! The Relict Faction’s player limit has increased from 261 to 16,433.
Fame increased to 82.
Authority increased to 71!
ATTENTION!!! Leader of the Human-6 Faction, Leng Thomas Müller proposes unification with the Relict Faction on the following terms: formation of a unitary alliance of the two factions.
Failed Authority check! Required Authority parameter: 100
Failed Fame check! Required Fame parameter: 100
Error!!! None of the faction leaders have reached the status of Kung. A unitary alliance cannot be formed between the Relict and Human-6 Factions.
I before I could even get surprised at the German faction leader’s antics (he must have tried to form an alliance between our two factions in the Politics tab of the game menu to maintain the status quo with him as faction leader), the message changed:
ATTENTION!!! Leader of the Human-6 Faction Leng Thomas Müller proposes unification with the Relict Faction on the following terms: the Human-6 Faction shall join the Relict Faction in its entirety. Leader of the unified faction shall be Leng Gnat (as the player with the highest Fame and Authority). Leng Thomas Müller shall become an official and legally authorized representative of the Relict Faction in contact with the suzerains and other factions on Earth. Do you accept? (Yes/No)
There we go. Now this is a totally different! Should have done that right away! And although the role Thomas Müller had chosen for himself was probably better suited to a professional Diplomat like Ivan Lozovsky, I still confirmed by answering “Yes.”
ATTENTION!!! The Relict Faction’s player limit has increased from 16,443 to 16,878.
Fame increased to 83.
Authority increased to 72!
Authority increased to 73!
The Relict Faction’s maximum player limit is now 16,878... Intriguing, but I wonder how close to that total we already are? As faction leader, I can check at any time. Ten thousand three hundred seven. Now that really is cool! Not long after my start, I’m already up to ten thousand players! A whole tumen[3]!
As history tells us, it only took two tumens for Batu Khan and his commander Subutai to subdue the whole Caucasus and Volga region, then smash all the disjointed Russian principalities and generally slash their way into Eastern Europe in a whirlwind of blood. And although my plans weren’t quite as aggressive as those of Genghis Khan and his ilk, ten thousand players really was badass! As far as I could remember, I now had the largest faction of the virtual Earth under my command, and two of my game nodes were guaranteed protection by the great spacefaring Geckho race. And if you consider that we were also better-off financially than the other earth factions, had easier access to the Geckho spaceport, more advanced extraterrestrial technologies, the ability to purchase the very deadliest weaponry and our own starship (or more like three, as a matter of fact), the political picture of the future virtual world order was coming together splendidly.
Then Dmitry Zheltov entered, tearing me from contemplation. The Starship Pilot was agitated and in a rush, nearly running down the space station corridor. Seemingly, he had come with some less than pleasant news. From a good distance, Dmitry shouted:
“Gnat, you’re needed at once in the real world! I don’t know the details; I was just asked to tell you that the leaders of the Human-3 Faction and curators of the Dome project have some serious issues with your actions in the game and demand an explanation.”
Chapter Eighteen. Twinbody Landing Craft, Enhanced
IT WASN’T EXACTLY hard to understand why they summoned me. The directors of the Human-3 Faction and the curators behind them, who were highly placed government officials, had discovered that they no longer had any control over events on the political map of the game world. In fact, they must have no longer even understood what was going on. After all, everything used to be easy to understand: to the west – the seacoast; to the north – ghoulish Dark Faction foes; to the east – impassable swamps teeming with NPC forest spirits, but containing oil deposits; and to the south – savage and backwards NPC Centaurs. And their relationship with both neighbors was clear and unambiguous: drive back and push out the NPC’s, defend against the Dark Faction.
But then everything changed. We made friends with the Centaurs, which opened up a path south, where we found the now allied German faction. Then they took us to war with the Naiads and we lost the sea. We managed to lose and regain control over the Eastern Swamps. Then a bloody war with the Dark Faction very nearly ended in the complete destruction of several factions of our world, and an epoch of chaos descended. And now, our political entanglements formed a ball so convoluted the devil himself couldn’t unravel it. To the north the La-Fin Faction was still the Dark Faction, but not quite anymore. “Not a friend, not a foe, but still[4],” as Vladimir Vysotsky might have put it. And the La-Fin Faction gained two of the Germans’ eastern nodes after the war, which put them to H3’s south as well. Then the western shore was also settled by Germans in a node that was being prepared as a “backup airport” for the Human-3 Faction. And in the middle of the sea, the Germans’ original capital of Rocky Island was first captured by the La-Fin Faction but then the island faction changed names for some reason. And the sea itself was still teeming with predatory Naiads, who were not open to productive discussion.
And when the curators of the Dome project started getting more or less used to the new political lay of the land, as if by magic, the “everything pizza” of geographical neighbors suddenly became one huge unified Relict Faction! And it surpassed the Dome’s population by four times and surrounded the Human-3 Faction on three sides. And looming over this odd new state was the figure of Gnat, who had recently been a player of the Human-3 Faction. And so they decided to summon me to get the whole story “from the horse’s mouth” so to speak. And based on the officious tone of the message, upper leadership still considered me to be the same student gamer they’d strong-armed under the Dome, entirely dependent on my directors and guided exclusively by their orders.
However, I no longer thought that myself. As a matter of fact, I was not even sure I had to answer to anyone at all. The days when I had bosses, directors and other kinds of trainers in the game were gone. Now I was a “high-profile” player, and I could take care of myself. My dependence on the Human-3 Faction was very weak indeed. It was just a shame I hadn’t yet bough my own virt pod on the Miyelonian space station. Then my team and I wouldn’t depend on the whims of the Dome leaders one bit.
“Dmitry, I can’t leave the game right now. I’m in the very heat of some important negotiations to acquire a new starship to replace the destroyed one. There’s a lot of money riding on this. So tell the leaders of the Human-3 Faction this: ‘Let them wait. I’ll come into the real world once I’ve wrapped up my affairs.’“
The former Military Space Academy’s eyes went round in surprise, himself accustomed to obeying orders unconditionally. He must have been having a hard time digesting the fact that a demand from Dome leadership could just be blatantly ignored. Although... maybe I was wrong and what surprised Dmitry Zheltov was the fact we were buying a new starship.
ATTENTION!!! Personal trade contract received (see attachment).
I opened the link and read the lines attentively. Yes, it was all above board, no deceit. The Spatial Cutter and the Tolili-Ukh X modular frigate in “twinbody enhanced landing craft” configuration would be made my property right after I entered the coordinates of the stash spot into a special field in the trade form. I wasn’t quite sure what twinbody meant, much less how it could be “enhanced,” but its assortment of modules and weaponry was impressive. The annex also said that Valeri-Urla the Beastmaster, who had already left the Tailax Faction, had been given an answer to my question and would tell it to me in
person.
Chasing off the foolish thought of tricking them and giving incorrect coordinates (I assume such fraudulent activity would lower my Authority severely, and provide a reason to have the trade deal annulled in court), I filled out the form, carefully checking every number, then pressed “Confirm.”
Fame increased to 84.
Authority increased to 74!
“Wait, stop! Don’t go anywhere just yet!” I grabbed the Starship Pilot as he was preparing to leave the game. “I just got a yes from the seller and signed the contract. So let’s all go see our new frigate!”
WOW! SO WE COULD HAVE had one like this all along??? I was standing with my mouth agape, looking over this marvel of Meleyephatian design.
Two standard Tolili-Ukh X frigate bodies were smoothly linked by a special middle module, which simultaneously served as a command bridge. It looked something like a space catamaran. And it also had a standard hyperdrive, two very powerful main thrusters, an enhanced set of maneuver drives and two separate power units. The back part of the starship contained a forcefield generator, and it was clearly from a ship of larger class than frigate. It also had huge sickle-shaped sweepforward wings, which allowed the ship not only to land on the surface of massive planets, but also to make controlled flights in atmospheric conditions. A whole four (!!!) gunner cabins, ten (!!!) laser cannons plus two advanced gravity torpedo launchers. A full set of combat electronics – a jammer for enemy navigation systems, a stasis net, and a targeted hyperspace drive disruptor. Two sets of residential sectors. Two manually-controlled landing modules that could be fired like missiles, each made to hold twelve fully-armored soldiers – a dream for any space pirate! A spacious cargo hold and, the cherry on top, a small antigrav shuttle in a special dock in the tail of the starship.
A Jump into the Unknown (Reality Benders Book #5) LitRPG Series Page 20
