Human: A LitRPG Novel (Tower of Gates LitRPG Series Book 2)

by Paul Bellow

  Without Sarah around, it would get darker.

  The game. My mood. Everything.

  I had to find her – and fast.

  ()xxxx[:::: Chapter 28 ::::>

  Player identification number?

  ERIC

  After we cut a way through the briars, we collected the magic items from Ryu's hidden chamber. We were battered and bruised but somehow bonded more tightly as a group.

  I walked through the portal to level one-three first. Upon entering the Tower of Gates, I looked around, hoping to see Sarah waiting for us. She wasn't there, but I saw the Game Master.

  He smiled and ran a hand over his bald head as the others entered the tower hall behind me.

  "You made it out of level one-two," he said. "Color me impressed."

  "Barely made it is more like it," Bernard said.

  I shot him a dirty look then turned my attention to the GM.

  "Why are we trapped in this game? My father works for the company that designed this game, and I want answers."

  The short man laughed.

  "You're all the same," he said.

  "Where's Sarah?" Josh asked, stepping forward.

  He hadn't been with us the last time we'd seen the Game Master.

  "Don't threaten him," Derringer said, taking the words out of my mouth.

  The Dark Knight put his hand on the barbarian's shoulder to stop him.

  Josh looked at the hand then turned and puffed out his chest.

  "Are we going to have a problem?" he asked.

  "No, no problems," Derringer said calmly. "I'm just trying to help you."

  "I don't need your help," Josh spat back. "I've done fine on my own."

  "Sounds like your party is already disintegrating," the Game Master said. "It's a shame."

  "Can you at least tell us something about level one-three?" I asked.

  The Game Master smiled, radiating power from his entire body.

  "I can tell you this," he said. "You will start in the year 1343 C.E., a hundred years after the level one-one you created with your latest adventures. From this point on, there's one timeline in the game, and this one is separate from the first two levels."

  "Do the dwarves take over all the lands or something?" I asked, wondering how our actions on level one-two had affected level one-one.

  The Game Master's grin widened.

  "You'll see..."

  He laughed maniacally before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

  "That guy gets on my nerves," Josh said. "He'd bug me all the time when I turned into an NPC."

  "You must tell us about that sometime," I said. "But for now, we need to pick a team captain. I want to go into level one-three as a unified team ready to take on anything."

  "My vote's for you," Bernard said.

  "Hold on." Josh shook his head. "Eric? Really? I've killed more enemies."

  "Winning fights isn't what it's all about," Derringer said.

  "I think we give Derringer a chance. Aren't you higher level than us?"

  "Level fourteen." He grinned. "After fifteen, I'll get to branch out."

  "I don't have a problem with him leading," Bernard said.

  "Fine," Josh said, shaking his head. "But if he doesn't work out, I'm next in line."

  "Sure," I said to settle him down.

  We didn't need him going into a rage inside the Tower of Gates.

  Or did we? Could he bash his way through one of the warp-zones Axelrod had mentioned?

  The gears in my mind turned, synapses firing in quick succession.

  "Hold on," Derringer said as we all stood in front of the portal to level one-two.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Something makes more sense now."

  "Go on," I said.

  Derringer tilted his head back, looking at the details in the dark red bricks overhead.

  "You said there's time dilation in this game. Before I got assigned to test the machines in the basement, they told me they were building the pods to make smarter babies. It made little sense, but over the years, I'd learned to go along and not rock the boat."

  "I don't get it," Josh said, not surprising anyone.

  "Think about it," Derringer continued. "If they put a baby into this game and made them stay in here for twenty years, they'd come out with the mind of a 20-year-old and the body of a newborn."

  I shook my head.

  "That's messed up. Do you think there's babies in here?"

  "It would explain Evan and Ewen," Bernard said.

  "Those Brownies are going down." Josh lifted his club. "Two conks for each."

  "I guess it's a possibility, but we know nothing for sure."

  Derringer nodded.

  "Other than Magi Inyontoo and his Magictology goons don't have a way out of the game."

  "Yeah..."

  My voice trailed off as a swarm of thoughts assaulted my brain.

  "Are we going to talk in here forever or get to the next level?" Josh asked.

  "It should be the next portal, right?" I stepped down the curved hallway.

  The liquid energy portal surrounded by a frame looked the same as the last two.

  "Says 1343 C.E. on the top," Bernard noted.

  "The Game Master told us that already," Josh said. "I'm going through."

  "Wait," I said in a commanding voice.

  I fought to hide my surprise it had come out.

  "What?" he asked.

  "Our leader hasn't told us it's time to go yet." I turned to Derringer. "You ready to go through? Anything else we can or should do while we're here in the tower?"

  "There's no secrets in the first level of the tower," he said. "At least none I know about. Other than the view-screen. You guys have found that already, right? I mean, you've been through here a few times."

  "What view-screen?" Bernard asked.

  Derringer shook his head.

  "I'm surprised you guys have made it so far," he said.

  "Except for Sarah."

  He pursed his lips together, taking on a more somber tone.

  "Yeah, we've got to find her. The view-finder is perfect for locating her."

  "Even if she's an NPC?" I asked.

  Derringer nodded.

  "Yup. Follow me."

  He walked back down the hallway toward the gate for level one-one, still glowing and accessible. I followed him with Bernard and Josh behind me.

  Derringer passed the first level portal and continued walking around until he came to the closed portal for level one-nine. He stopped and turned, a smile on his face.

  "I can't believe you guys didn't spend more time in here looking for a way out," he said.

  "Just show us," Josh said. "No need to rub it in."

  Derringer stood in front of the portal, facing away. After taking three large steps to the opposite wall, he reached out with both hands and pressed two bricks.

  As I watched, the wall faded away, revealing a computer monitor and keyboard. I rushed over, convinced I'd be able to hack our way out.

  "Let me see," I said.

  "You can't get anywhere other than the identity locator," Derringer said, stepping aside.

  I stood in front of the screen and stared at a single blinking cursor, a question mark.

  "How does it work?" I asked.

  "It's old school," Derringer said. "I bet they've been designing this game for decades before they launched it."

  "They could've worked the bugs out better," Josh muttered.

  "Just type in her player identification number," Derringer said. "Easy."

  "Um." I glanced over at him. "Player identification number?"

  He slumped his shoulders and glanced up at the ceiling.

  "You guys are something else. How long have you been in the game?"

  "Not that long," I said. "Give us a break."

  "Haven't you figured it out, Eric? This game doesn't give you breaks. If it's been built for prisoners, you can bet they programmed it to break all of us down."

  B
ernard politely raised his hand in the air.

  "What do you mean, exactly, by break us down?" he asked.

  "You know, emotionally, spiritually and physically. These bodies we have are real enough for pain and discomfort. Without her player identification number, we should get going."

  "Maybe I can break through and get a shell up on the network." I turned to the terminal, staring down at the computer keys. "There has to be a way."

  "You don't think the best hackers in here haven't tried?" Derringer asked.

  "I've got her player identification number," Josh said in a low voice.

  Everyone turned to him as he hung his head and stared at the brick floor.

  "How do you have it?" I asked.

  "When you guys didn't even look for me, I joined up with the Magictology Guild." Josh looked up with the saddest half-orc face I'd ever seen. "Magi Inyontoo has so much information on all of us. It's nuts."

  "Tell us everything you know," I said.

  "You tell us everything you know," he replied. "Your dad helped build the game."

  Derringer cocked his head and looked at me.

  "Your Dad helped build this place?" he asked.

  I frowned.

  "Yeah, but I know nothing you guys don't." I turned to Josh. "Sounds like you know more than me at this point."

  "About everything in life." Josh puffed out his chest. "Everything."

  I hated when he repeated words for forced emphasis. Didn't he have a vocabulary? What did Sarah see in him? He wasn't anything special.

  "That's right," Josh continued. "Nothing to say."

  "Cut it out," Derringer shouted.

  Everyone flinched before turning to him.

  "We need to stick together," he said, stepping a few feet away. "One of our party is out there as an NPC. I've not been to level one-three in a while, but with everything else the Magictology guild has been doing down here on the lower levels, I wouldn't be surprised if it's even crazier than the last level."

  I stood, transfixed by his voice, my morale increased. Was it another spell? Or had we found a true leader who would guide us to the higher levels and escape from the game?

  "Does anyone have a problem with sticking together as a group?" he asked.

  "No," we muttered one after the other.

  "Great," he said. "Josh, give me her player id."

  Derringer walked over to the virtual terminal and typed a string of seven numbers.

  "Okay," he said, fingers still on the keyboard. "Let's see where Sarah's at."

  Bernard, Josh and I crowded around him, glancing down at the screen. The display had turned from ancient black and white to a modern three-dimensional view.

  I recognized the outline of the Grabisco Isles, the lands we'd been traveling on the first two levels of the game. Were there other continents? Other worlds?

  Some had told us of other lands, but I wasn't sure who to trust in the game. I watched as a blinking red dot appeared on the screen deep in the Shockley Forest outside Fishguard.

  "That's where she is right now?" I asked.

  "Yeah," Derringer said, nodding his head. "She's showing red which means she's still an NPC."

  "Can we look up Magi Inyontoo?" Bernard asked.

  "And go kill him," Josh added.

  "No," Derringer said. "As our barbarian knows, everyone in the Magictology Guild deletes their player identification number and takes on a new one."

  I glanced up at Josh.

  "You did that?" I asked.

  He frowned while nodding his head.

  "You don't understand what it was like, bro. We need to find Sarah fast."

  "We can agree on that," I said then turned back to the three-dimensional map.

  "Can we check on her?" I asked. "Make sure she's okay?"

  "No, this view-screen is limited in its capabilities."

  "Why do they even have it here?" Bernard asked. "Seems odd."

  Derringer chuckled.

  "Does anything about this game make sense? I'm sure it's a prison experiment."

  "I'm not sure," I said, staring at the blinking red dot that represented Sarah.

  "Do you know where we'll come out on level one-three?" Bernard asked. "After we come out of the portal."

  "Good question," Derringer said. "You might make a good second-in-command."

  Josh rolled his eyes, but I kept my mouth shut and my emotions in check.

  "If Magi Inyontoo has changed nothing, we'll appear in Fishguard – if it's even still around. We're entering the game's second timeline, so nothing you remember from the first two levels will matter."

  "You're saying it's different?" I asked. "And are there other continents?"

  Derringer tapped a few keys, causing the map to disappear.

  "As far as I've gotten in this game," he said. "There's at least two other zones besides the Grabisco Isles. I've only been to level one-nine, so who knows for sure."

  I nodded, letting the information sink in. Just when I thought we had the basics of the game figured out, I learned everything we'd learned so far might not even matter on later levels.

  Derringer touched the two bricks above the opening, and the rest of the wall reappeared, hiding the view-screen. I shook my head, not believing we hadn't checked every inch of the tower hallway.

  "I can't believe we never found that before."

  "Don't beat yourself up about it," Derringer said. "Not everyone finds it. Someone told me it was here. You'll find from here on out that many people love to share information. It's worth more than gold or any of the items in the game."

  "We need to go," Josh said then walked back toward the portal for level one-three.

  "He's right," Derringer said. "We should hurry. I don't know Sarah and you guys, but I care about her. There's something about her that gives me hope."

  "Yeah," I said, walking down the hall.

  We approached the reflective surface of the portal. Josh touched it with his club, sending ripples over the magical surface. I took a deep breath, preparing myself for the next level.

  "Here goes nothing," Josh said then stepped through.

  Bernard went next. Derringer looked over in my direction.

  "Your turn," he said, nodding his head toward the rippling surface of the portal.

  I walked through, ready for anything.

  Tower of Gates

  LitRPG Series

  Goblin: Book One

  Human: Book Two

  Hero: Book Three (Coming Soon)

  Tower of Gates

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  Roguelike (Coming Soon)

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