Project Alpha_Book 1

by R. A. Mejia

  We reach the area of the finish line and find a series of doors embedded into a large circular wall. Each door has a keypad. On each door is a plaque with a riddle. Several individuals seem to be stuck at their door unable to figure out their riddle. One man with a jetpack tries to fly over the wall only be struck down by lightning from the sky. The door we’ve chosen has the riddle.

  After a successful art show, three artists rent a hotel room for the night. When they get to the hotel, they pay the $30 for their room. Then they go up to their room. Soon the bellhop brings up their bags and gives the artists back $5 because the hotel had a special discount that weekend. So, the three artists decide to each keep one of the 5 dollars and to give the bellhop a $2 tip. However, when they sat down to tally up their expenses for the weekend, they could not explain the following details:

  Each one of them had originally paid $10 (towards the initial $30), then each got back $1, which meant that they each paid $9. Then they gave the bellhop a $2 tip. However, 3 * $9 + $2 = $29

  The guys couldn't figure out what happened to the other dollar. After all, the three paid out $30 but could only account for $29. How much did they each spend?

  The keypad has three spaces for to enter the answer.

  I run through the problem in my head several times and find that yes, 3 * $9 + $2 is indeed $29. However, that can’t be the answer since they’d really only spent $30 total. Instead, I run the problem through my brain backward. I know they spent $30 total, which means everything has to equal that. Then they gave the bellboy a $2 tip making it $30 = $2, they also gave $3 to each which puts it at $30 = $2 + $3. Then what is left is the cost of the room by itself, $25. Ok. So far so good. $30 = $2 +$3 +$25. Now the only money they actually got to pocket again was the 3 dollars, so that’s taken away from both sides leaving, $27 = $2+ $25. That’s what they spent, divide by 3 and you get $9 total.

  Thanks to my Mental Math and Analysis skill, the whole process to figure out the problem only takes a few seconds,

  I yell at John, “Enter 009 as the answer.”

  “Are you sure? We’ll only get one shot at this.”

  I nod my head and hope that my logic is sound. John presses 0-0-9 into the keypad. There’s moment where nothing happens, and I’m sure I messed things up, then the door clicks. John opens it, and our group rushes through.

  The door opens into a maze that doesn’t take us long to finish since John’s drone can see a path through from overhead. Our group is counted as numbers #15-17 to make it to the finish line. Once our pictures go up overhead, we’re ported right back to our locker room.

  Chapter 45

  After an hour, waiting and recuperating in our locker room; Our team is summoned to the next event. Walking through another portal, we’re taken to the large stadium, where twenty-seven other competitors wait in the middle of a field. The crowds are cheering and screaming the names of their favorite Users. I see one woman lift up her shirt, flash her breasts, and scream, “I love you, Doom Kitty! I want to have your babies!” The guy she’s flashing is a six-foot-five-inch white guy with long blonde hair. He’s not wearing a shirt but instead is showing off his surfer’s body while leaning against his surfboard. He waves back at the flasher, and she faints in her seat.

  I’m wondering why they call the guy Doom Kitty when the giant screen appears in mid-air. An announcer's voice cuts through the noise of the crowd.

  “Welcome, competitors. Congratulations on making it to the 2nd qualifying event. This round only the top ten competitors will make it through. Competitors may form groups of any size to complete this challenge. No matter the size of your group, you will have to defend a golden egg from waves of monsters. How you choose to defend the egg is up to your team. But be aware, the larger the team, the more challenging the waves of enemies. You have ten minutes to choose your teammates.”

  A clock appears on the screen counting down from 10 minutes. Since Lillian, John, and I came as a team, it’s not hard to for us to choose teammates. However, that’s not the case for everyone. There are several scuffles as people try to find teammates. Several people, approach one tall blonde woman wearing coveralls and carrying a giant hammer, but she refuses to join any of them. A skinny, shifty-eyed guy with cybernetic implants runs from group to group begging to join anyone. Three all-male groups argue over a hot looking lady in a vampire outfit.

  By the time the clock finishes counting down, everyone except the shifty-eyed guy, and the lady with the hammer have groups. There’s a flash of light, and our group teleports to a large open field surrounded by a thick forest dotted with boulders. The field is extremely quiet compared to the noise in the stadium. In the middle of the field is a golden egg nestled on a red velvet pillow sitting on a pedestal.

  Lillian, John, and I walk over to the pedestal and examine the egg. As we get within two feet of the egg, a screen appears above it.

  Golden Egg of Aesop

  Durability 5/5

  The golden egg of Aesop holds the wisdom of the past. The legend says those who hold it are bestowed with insight into their parabolic problems. However, the egg is as delicate as fine china and must be handled with as much care. Can you protect it?

  Wave 1 arrives in 10 minutes

  Lillian and John start strategizing how to protect the golden egg best, but I recognize the scenario immediately. I walk over to the pedestal and place my hand on it hoping that my hunch is correct. A new window pops up before me.

  Building supplies: Wood (100), Stone (75), Steel (50)

  Building options level 1: Walls, Floors.

  “It’s a castle defense game. Just like the one from before Halloween. Except now we have to build the castle.”

  My two teammates turn to me and ask simultaneously, “What?”

  That the two were even half paying attention to me is surprising. Usually, it’s the two of them that take the lead during these types of things. The combined weight of their gazes moves me to explain. “Yeah, it’s a castle defense scenario. We have to build fortifications that will let us mow down the monsters and still provide protection for the egg. Just touch the pedestal, and building options appear.”

  The two look unsure. However, John, the team's tech guy, walks up to the pedestal and does as I say. His eyes light up at what he sees. He turns to Lillian with a grin on his face. “The kid’s right. There’s only a couple of options to build with right now though. Walls and floors.” He starts to tap the screens and continues, “We have limited resources to use in building our defenses, but I think those options will expand once we start killing monsters. It says level 1 building options. Which implies there’s a second level, and there’s probably more after, but we’ll have to wait and see. For now, we have to decide what resources we have to make defenses. We have lots of wood and stone, but not much steel. It costs ten units of material to make a floor or a wall. We the most wood, but it’s easier to break through; Steel is the toughest, but we only have a small supply of that. Stone is the middle between the two.”

  Lillian is already doing the calculations in her head, and I try to follow along. “How big can we make the walls and floor?”

  Instead of answering, John taps a screen and holds out his hand in front of him. A translucent square approximately 10 feet by 10 feet appears.

  “Hmm. That means we can lay about 100 feet of wall or floor from the wood, 75 feet from stone, and only 50 from the steel.”

  I realize we’re in the classic resource management dilemma. We’re trying to make the most out of what we have instead of just making stuff. “We don’t have a ton of time here, so let's just get to work with a basic defense system. We’ll use the steel to build a box around the egg for the last line of defense. Then we’ll use the other resources to build walls that the monsters have to break through. Then we stand on the roof of the box and shoot down at the monsters as they break through the walls.”

  John looks up at the clock which is continuing to count down, then at Lillian. “Do you h
ave a better plan?”

  She shakes her head, and John gets to work. He drops four rusty steel walls and a roof around the delicate golden egg. A quick inspection of the steel wall reveals it has a durability of 50/50.

  I expect John to start building more walls, but instead hear him yell, “Wait, I’m stuck inside the box. How do I get out?”

  Lillian and I start to laugh but realize we don’t have time to make fun of John. Instead, I suggest, “How about you try touching the walls to see if you can change their shape or something?”

  After a moment, one of the walls turns translucent again, and a door appears in the wire framework. When it solidifies again, a door with a window is now a part of the wall. John walks out and wipes his brow. “Phew. I thought I was going to be buried alive in a hot box for a minute there.” He walks around the outside of the metal box and quickly modifies each of the walls to add narrow eye slits that he can use to look out of so he can place the rest of the walls. He then goes inside the metal chicken coop. I know it’s a weird name, but that’s what I call it since it’s protecting an egg. Anyways, he goes inside the chicken coop and from there lays out the ten wooden wall squares around the coop in a square. Behind the wooden walls, he puts up stone walls on three sides. The space to the south of the coop only has the wooden walls. There’s a five-foot gap between the coop and the outer walls.

  John finishes just in time for the clock to run out, and then horn blows and a portal opens to the north of the coop. A stream of short, hairy, half-reptile creatures pours out of the portal. The creatures carry a variety of weapons, including axes, swords, picks, and hammers. Once 50 or so exit the portal, it closes. The creatures stand around scratching their butts and picking their noses until one points at us standing on the roof of the coop watching them. The creature, slightly taller than the rest, also wears a hat and has a wispy beard. I use Inspect on the creature.

  Kobold Foreman

  Level 9

  Kobolds are a naturally lazy bunch more likely to spend the day laying about unless someone makes them do something. Kobold Foremen are those somebodies. These leaders among Kobolds are the driving force that helps the species accomplish anything.

  Abilities: Aura of Fear, Leadership

  Oh, so these are Kobolds? I’ve been wondering when we’d get to those guys. I’ve seen a variety of Goblins but had not up to this point seen the other staple of fantasy, the humble Kobold.

  The Kobold Foreman says something to the other kobolds, and at first, they ignore him. Then he starts to get mad and a red aura springs up around him. The kobolds all cower, then arrange themselves in groups of five and begin a slow march towards us. When they get in range, I pull the trigger on my weapon six times, launching the entire fire grenade payload. I’m not aiming for a particular kobold since the monsters are at the edge of my firing range. Instead, I focus on lining up my shots in a horizontal line. As each grenade hits, it doesn’t explode. Instead, the grenade sprays a combustible liquid in all directions. The kobolds in the radius of the grenades rear back and try to wipe off the pungent liquid, but that just spreads it around more. A second later, the grenades spark and a blaze erupts, quickly spreading to anything covered in the flammable liquid.

  The fires don’t do a lot of damage all at once. Instead, they create a damage over time effect. Every second, a wave of red 5s float away from the burning kobolds. It doesn’t mean being on fire isn’t painful. Even from where we are, I can hear the screams of kobolds as they die in a burning inferno. After a minute, the fires die down and we can see that only half the kobolds were caught in the blaze. The other half look at their charred, dead comrades in horror. A bark from the Kobold Foreman turns that horror into anger, and the remaining kobolds rush towards us en masse.

  My weapon still needs to be reloaded, and I open my Inventory.

  Inventory -slots 11

  Hammer

  Grenade Ammo - Smoke

  Grenade Ammo - Fire

  Grenade Ammo - Ice

  Grenade Ammo - Electric

  Grenade Ammo - Explosive

  Grenade Ammo - Proximity Mine

  Trap - Electric

  Trap - Rope

  Trap - Wall

  I decide to reload with ice grenades and hopefully slow down the attackers. By the time I’ve slid six grenades into my launcher, John is already firing with his handgun. It takes three shots from his gun to kill a kobold, but he has an extended magazine in the gun that allows him to shoot almost continuously. By the time the kobolds reach the wooden wall, their numbers are down to 18. Lillian, who’d been waiting patiently for the kobolds to get closer, leaps off the roof in her silver armor. The moment she hits the ground, she’s slicing away at kobolds with her blood-red katana blade. Each slice of her sword cuts away a piece of a kobold.

  The kobolds, directed by the Kobold Foreman, spread out around the walls, and begin to attack the wooden wall. Within minutes, the wooden wall starts to crumble as the kobolds attack it with picks and axes. The wooden wall south of the coop, unfortunately, doesn’t have a backup stone wall. We just didn’t have the resources to build it. When it goes down, I fire grenades at the kobolds. A cloud of frozen gas erupts from the grenades, not doing any direct damage but freezing one kobold and slowing down the rest trying to attack the metal coop protecting our egg. The freeze effect lasts long enough for Lillian to kill the foreman, the last of the kobolds.

  When the last kobold dies, another horn blows, and a new timer appears telling us wave two will arrive in another 10 minutes.

  John asks what we’re supposed to do now. We don’t have enough resources to build anything else, and he doubts just the three of us are going to be able to survive long if the monsters get tougher each round.

  Looking around, I notice the bodies of the kobolds have disappeared, but their weapons have not. There must be some way to renew the resources. I take one of their picks and run over to the nearest boulder and strike it. A little rock icon appears above the boulder after I strike it and John yells that the stone resources has increased by five.

  That’s it! Lillian grabs one of the axes and starts to cut down trees around us, increasing the number of wood resources we have.

  John grabs another pick from the floor and helps gather resources.

  While the two of them gather resources, an idea occurs to me. Why just have walls that the monsters have to break through? Why not use them to funnel the creatures into my traps? It’s what we did for those zombies. I scratch a crude drawing on the ground. Our coop in the middle with a larger square around it for the stone wall, which John needs to finish building. Outside of that, we can have walls arranged that make hallways that snake towards us for the monsters to come through. Along the hallways, I can lay down the traps I have in my inventory. They’re not much, but they’ll do damage without our group having to waste ammo on killing the monsters directly.

  John has time to finish building the last stone wall on the south side of the coop and set up a few lanes made out of wooden walls on all four sides of us. I lay down my last trap before the horn blows, and we’re forced to defend our egg.

  Portals to the north and west open this time. Somewhere near fifty kobolds pour out from each, and this time there is no hesitation from them. They charge towards us, but once they hit the wooden walls, they stall momentarily until then find the opening into the hallways. Like I thought, the monsters take the path of least resistance and enter there. From our position on top of the coop, we have the perfect view to watch the upcoming mayhem. As the kobolds travel through the hallways, they activate trap after trap. First, the wall traps that shoot out nails piercing the first kobolds to trip them. Then before they leave the hallways, they’re shocked by the electrical trap that does double duty in damaging them and stunning them. Lillian and John finish off any of the kobolds that manage to make it out of our little maze of death. Not a single monster even makes it to the stone walls this round.

  The third round, we gather more re
sources and John discovers that new options to build have appeared. Once he mentions it, I notice that we haven’t been getting any XP for killing kobolds. It turns out that the build system has been getting the XP instead. We now have multiple options on how to upgrade our building.

  Building supplies: Wood (155), Stone (95), Steel (0)

  Building options level 1: Walls, Floors.

  Upgrade points available: 3

  Upgrade options: Enhanced walls level 1, Enhanced floors level 1, Trap floor, Trap ceiling, Trap walls

  Multiple trap options can be unlocked, but each costs its own upgrade point, and each enhancement also costs an upgrade point. We have to decide what to upgrade or unlock quickly. After a brief discussion, we use two points to enhance the walls and floors. The enhancement increases the durability of the floors and walls by 10%. We also spend one point to unlock a floor trap that shoots sharp metal spears into anyone that walks on it. They cost ten wood and five stone to make, and the trap takes 15 seconds to reset before it can be activated again.