MINE SHAFT
(Venus Online Book 4)
A LitRPG Sci-Fi Harem Adventure
By Jeremy Zenith
Mine Shaft by Jeremy Zenith
Published by Jeremy Zenith
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Cover illustration by Patricio Gandara (@pgandara)
Cover typography and design by Pixelstudio
Copyright © 2018 Jeremy Zenith
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
From the Author
Chapter 1
BYRON JONES walked into the Uranus Club knowing he was there to kill someone. The bounty had said "dead or alive" but he knew the truth. He was going to kill Sergeant Gariel Rott. He had known it from the moment he had seen the description of the mission on the job board.
As he walked into the club, Byron took a moment to look around. Mostly men crowded the stages scattered around the strip club where naked women danced and pumped their hips. Music thumped in speakers so hard his teeth shook. It might have felt like any seedy strip club, but since Byron was trapped in a science fiction-themed virtual video game called Venus Online, the women didn't look like any he'd find on Earth.
One woman had sky blue skin that sparkled with lights like she was covered in glitter. When she bounced her huge boobs, patterns of light flowed over them like neon, showing a man fucking a woman from behind.
Another woman looked somewhat aquatic with large eyes, pale gray skin, and tentacles instead of arms. When she popped the top off her bikini, it turned out she had more tentacles instead of breasts.
But most of the women looked pretty normal, except with different colors of skin in purple, green, and blue. They all had incredible bodies with breasts bigger than his head or ass cheeks like balloons. Some had three and even four breasts. It looked pretty awesome.
He forced himself not to get distracted as he swept the room. It didn't take long to pick out one table in a corner with his target.
Even in the shadows, Byron recognized the man from the holographic images of the job board. General Rott wore a suit of black armor, but had taken off the chest plate and arms, leaving him with armored plates on his shoulders and legs. His bare chest and arms had the pale-white skin he'd come to recognize as the skin of members of the Necros race, although Rott was fatter than most. To Byron, the Necrosi looked like walking corpses with white skin, hair, and eyes.
Rott had a big grin on his face as he watched two green naked women grinding on his lap while kissing and stroking each other.
"I see him," Byron murmured. "You all in position?"
The voice of his robot assistant and pilot Scarlett popped in his ear. "Sure as shit. Hope this plan works."
Another voice cut in, the voice of his catgirl navigator Chetaara. "Have faith in the Outsider."
The third voice was almost a whisper, that of his green-skinned engineer Xana. "Quiet. Radio silence."
He took a deep breath and walked towards Rott.
A woman with dark gray skin and compound eyes headed for Rott's table too, but stopped to strut towards him. She carried a glass on a tray with one hand while running her other hand down her hip. "Hey, handsome. I'm Kindy. You looking for a drink, a dance, or something more interesting?"
Byron smiled as he held out his hand. "Actually, I'm just looking for an old friend of mine. General Rott."
The smile vanished from her face, replaced by a wide eyed look of fear. "Nobody here by that name. Even if there was, I don't think you'd wanna mess with him."
He leaned closer. "Sure I do. He killed some friends of mine. I'm here to pay him back. That wouldn't happen to be his drink, would it?"
She glanced at the tray before leaning closer and whispering, "Are you gonna kill him?"
He didn't see any point in hiding it so he nodded. "That's the plan."
Her upper lip curled in a snarl. "This is his drink, and my son was on that planet when he dropped the bombs. Give him one for me."
He took the tray from her and gave her a wink. "Absolutely."
He headed for the general's table, and could see the other soldiers guarding him. Four Death Troopers formed a square around Rott, all armed with high-powered plasma rifles. Byron tapped his bracelet to view their stats. Text lit up over their heads.
DEATH TROOPER 1
MARINE - LEVEL 10
STR: 25
DEX: 10
NRG: NULL
ARMOR: 10
HEALTH: 200/200
DEATH TROOPER 2
MARINE - LEVEL 10
STR: 25
DEX: 10
NRG: NULL
ARMOR: 10
HEALTH: 200/200
DEATH TROOPER 3
MARINE - LEVEL 10
STR: 25
DEX: 10
NRG: NULL
ARMOR: 10
HEALTH: 200/200
DEATH TROOPER 4
MARINE - LEVEL 10
STR: 25
DEX: 10
NRG: NULL
ARMOR: 10
HEALTH: 200/200
GENERAL ROTT
MARINE - LEVEL 15
STR: 50
DEX: 4
NRG: NULL
ARMOR: 25
HEALTH: 500/500
Byron's own stats were less impressive:
MARINE - LEVEL 6
STR: 15
DEX: 9
NRG: 3 (+5)
ARMOR: 4
HEALTH: 150/150
CREDITS: 5,015,000
According to the rules of the game, it was suicide to take them on, but the rules didn't seem to apply to him.
As he approached, the four Death Troopers turned their faceless helmets towards him. With one motion, they lowered their rifles to aim at his head.
"Halt," one trooper said. "Stay back. This area is restricted."
Byron raised his eyebrows. "I just wanted to give the man his drink."
The general looked between the asses grinding in his face with a scowl. He spoke with a sort of Russian accent for some reason. "I came to this place to be served by beautiful women. You don't fit the bill."
Byron shrugged, took the glass off its tray, and shrugged. "If you don't want it..."
The game's text appeared when he held the glass:
NECROSIAN ALE
+2 HEALTH
-2 DEXTERITY
He raised the glass to his lips and took a sip
.
The general burst into laughter. "You have some fucking balls, my friend. You want to die tonight? Is that it?"
Byron lowered the glass. "Not really. Just wanted a few minutes with General Gariel Rott."
The general's eyes narrowed as they flicked around the bar. "You know who I am? You're here to kill me, is that it?"
Byron raised his hands. "Your boys can check. I'm unarmed."
The general nodded at the troopers.
One pulled out a small wand and waved it at Byron before nodding. "No weapons."
The general broke into a smirk as he slapped the asses of the women dancing before him. "Go. Sit down, young man."
The strippers hurried away as Byron stepped up to the general's table and set the drink down.
Rott picked up the glass and sipped it. "You come to me unarmed, but you know who I am. Anyone who knows me would never stand before me unarmed."
Byron dropped into a chair across from him. "I know who you are. General Gariel Rott, also known as the Butcher of Heraclias, but I assume you wouldn't kill me for no reason."
Rott chuckled. "I've killed for no reason before, and I would do it again."
"I know. I just want to talk."
Rott's solid white eyes widened at him. "Are you an admirer, then? You want an autograph?"
Byron shook his head. "Not an admirer. Just the opposite."
Rott flicked his hand, and a white stick appeared in his fingers. He took a drag of the stick, which gave off a cloud of smoke. "An enemy. I have plenty of those."
"You certainly do. There's a bounty on your head." Byron held out a holographic projector. It created a small hologram of Rott's face that floated over the table. "500,000 credits for the death or capture of Sergeant Gariel Rott, wanted for acts of genocide."
Rott took a drag of his smoke again. "They call it genocide. I call it acceptable losses."
"The Necralia Empire wanted to wipe out the native aborigines, and you did their dirty work. You killed over a billion of them by trapping them in a valley and bombarding it with poison gas bombs. That's what you call acceptable losses?"
Rott shrugged. "I was disappointed. I thought the poison gas would give them longer to die, but the whole thing took just five minutes. If I had more time, I could have done a better job. More painful. More suffering."
Byron clenched his fists. He had to keep reminding himself of the plan to keep from strangling the monster across from him. "Yeah, more time. But the Resistance freed the planet, and charged you with war crimes in absentia."
Rott burst out laughing again. "Yes, their little kangaroo court. What a joke. The Empire would never allow them to convict or execute me."
"I don't know about that. You're still in Alliance space. That means you're under their jurisdiction."
"Not for long." Rott tipped his glass at Byron. "I'm only five hyper-minutes away from Necralia space where I'll be protected. Just needed to re-fuel my ship, fuck a few bitches, and I'll be home free."
Rott reached down and drew a pistol to aim it at Byron. "Now that we've had a little chat, my patience has worn thin. I enjoy talking about my victories, but my glass is empty, and so are my balls. So I will just kill you and take my leave."
Fear stabbed Byron at the gun aimed at his chest, but he kept his fists clenched tighter to keep from showing it. Instead, he raised his eyebrows again, hoping he looked cool and casual. "Don't you want to know who I am?"
Rott chuckled. "I don't know who you are, and I don't care. I know enough about you. I know you came into this bar to face one of the most dangerous men in the universe without so much as a knife to defend yourself. I know you are outnumbered five to one. That tells me you are a fool."
Byron's smile was genuine as he heard the beep in his ear, the signal that the plan was successful. "No, I'm Byron Jones. I'm the Outsider."
Rott's smile collapsed into a sneer. "The Outsider? That is a fairy tale told by weak-minded fools who know there is no one who can save them from Lady Necralia and her Empire."
"Nope, I'm the Outsider."
Rott curled his upper lip higher. "Oh, really? Then if you're the Outsider, you should be able to kill all of my men before they can kill you."
"That's right."
Rott waved his gun at Byron. "Well, go ahead."
Byron's smile widened as he delivered the line he'd been hoping to say. "I already did."
Rott looked up from Byron at his Death Troopers. They were all gone.
He burst out of his seat.
The bodies of his guards lay on the floor of the club next to his table. They all had knives and swords sticking out of their chests and helmets.
Rott's face went from shock to fear. "That's not possible. H-How did you do that?"
A nude woman materialized next to Byron with dark green skin and a green ponytail. When she reached up to touch her collar, a black liquid flowed out of her collar, dripping down her neck, shoulders, and perky breasts. As it slid down her body, it turned solid until it covered her in a black bodysuit.
Byron grinned at her. "Thank you, Xana."
The woman gave him a nod, but never took her eyes off Rott.
Xana had genetically modified herself so her skin could change color to match her surroundings. With her collar able to change color to match and collapsible swords and knives, she could become invisible at will, and also incredibly deadly.
Rott thrust his gun at her. "So there are two of you. You think you can stop me by yourselves?"
"No." Byron raised his left hand.
A silvery robot woman came out of the shadows, holding a gun in each hand. "Drop the gun, motherfucker."
He couldn't help grinning at his robot, Scarlett, who piloted his ship and also mentored him in how the game worked. She also had a ton of attitude.
Rott swept his gun at Scarlett, snarling, "You still don't have enough."
A feline woman in a bikini with stripes and pointed cat ears leaped down from the ceiling. Her hands bared claws as she snarled, "We are more than enough for you."
Rott took a step back. Byron had hoped that would be the blow to break his confidence, but the general seemed to grow more arrogant as he smiled. "Very nice. You can bring in as many as you want, but you're fools to think I would come here with only four guards."
"Oh, shit," Scarlett blurted.
Chapter 2
AS BYRON looked around for more men, Rott pressed a badge on his chest.
The front door of the strip club burst open. Death Troopers came charging in with their guns blazing. Laser fire streaked across the club, cutting down everyone in their way.
As the crowd began to scream and run, Rott bolted out from the table and ran.
Scarlett tossed Byron his Scorpio pistol before turning to fire back at the incoming soldiers. "Finally, time to kick ass!"
Chetaara reached out her hands, and two of the tables floated up to flip onto their sides. Her telekinetic power moved them together to form a wall to take on incoming fire while Scarlett fired over them.
Xana touched her collar again, and the bodysuit melted back into her collar. Naked, she could change her skin so she vanished from sight.
The Death Troopers kicked over tables and shot down anyone in their way as they headed for Byron and his crew. Two of them stumbled back as Scarlett's guns pumped into their armor, and one suddenly jerked back from a sword hacking into his chest from Xana's invisible hands.
Byron wasn't worried about his girls, knowing they could handle themselves. He wanted General Rott.
Rott had run off through the blazing gunfire through the club, and charged through the swinging doors to the back rooms of the club.
Byron raised his Scorpio pistol in one hand while he called up his NRG menu. He had a cybernetic implant that allowed him to use new powers, but he only had one program installed so far. It was a useful one that made a force field on his arm, and he called it up now.
When the glowing circle appeared on his wrist, he charged
through the incoming fire, letting some of the bolts reflect off his shield and into the walls and floor of the club. The shield only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to make it through to the back doors.
He ran into a narrow and darkened hallway. Naked women ran squealing down the hallway for the exits. Among them, he could see General Rott.
Byron aimed. He hadn't planned to shoot Rott in the back, but didn't feel any of the hesitation he had over killing Jokah. Rott had killed unarmed civilians in cowardly ways. Unfortunately, there were too many people between them. He didn't want to shoot any of the fleeing women, so he aimed for the back of Rott's neck and fired.
The shot hit Rott in the back of his head, but the general's helmet took the blast. Still, Rott's health bar dropped a few points.
The general spun and fired wildly, killing people who fell with shrieks of pain, and Rott didn't even seem to notice.
Byron ducked into a dressing room to avoid the gunfire.
Two naked women sat at a makeup table, hugging each other and screaming.
He nodded to them. "Pardon me, ladies. Scarlett, we're gonna need the rear exit open."
Over the sound of explosions in the background, Scarlett yelled in his ear, "Are you shitting me? You know how long it took me to lock it down in the first place?"
Byron shook his head. "We didn't count on a firefight. If we keep it locked, it'll trap all these people inside and it'll be a bloodbath. Change of plans. He'll be trying to take off, and we'll get him then. Open the doors. Everybody, meet me at the Icarus."
The rear doors must have open then, because the crowd of women surged forward, and he could see light appear at the end of the hallway.
He followed them down the hallway to the open door which led out to the harsh and freezing winds blowing over the planet. The naked women hunched over and wailed in the bitter cold, but were too terrified to run back inside.
The biting air numbed his face and hands, but Byron kept his focus on General Rott. The general ran through the snow to the Necralia troop ship waiting on the launching pad. Without the women running through the line of fire, Byron could fire more freely and he did.
He let loose a flurry of shots, but couldn't hit the general's exposed back from the distance. The legion of Death Troopers around the Imperial transport fired back in a storm of lasers that made Byron duck behind a stack of boxes conveniently nearby.
Mine Shaft: A LitRPG Sci-Fi Harem Adventure (Venus Online Book 4) Page 1
