Fist Full of Credits: A New Apocalyptic LitRPG Series (System Apocalypse - Relentless Book 1)

by Craig Hamilton

  Meqik gestured toward me, and a new notification appeared.

  Quest Offered—Locate Interference

  Goldmiser Cartel plans for trade monopoly in the Pittsburgh area are in danger of disruption due to an outside source of equipment entering the city. Locate the supplier of these goods and inform the Cartel.

  Rewards: 10,000 XP and 15,000 Credits, increased reputation with the Goldmiser Cartel

  Optional: Actions taken to counter the mystery supplier may result in additional rewards.

  Optional Reward: Variable

  Accept Quest—(Y/N)?

  The experience and Credits awarded for completing the quest were too good to pass up, but before I accepted the quest, I looked at Meqik.

  “Is there any more information you can give me?”

  The concierge wordlessly held out a hand, and a pistol appeared in the palm. The goblin offered the weapon to me. I instantly recognized the weapon as one of the popular firearms of the last century, the 1911 model pistol. However, unlike the weapons I had seen produced by the goblins, this weapon had a polished and complete appearance.

  Since Meqik had offered the weapon to me, I picked it up and checked the chamber to ensure it was clear before I gave it a more detailed inspection.

  The pistol grip felt comfortably angled in my hand, with none of the sharp edges or rough machining I had noticed with the goblin weapons. I understood why the goblins felt threatened if these high-quality firearms were the kinds of weapons showing up.

  I nodded and accepted the quest. I didn’t particularly care for the goblins or their treatment of the locals, but I also couldn’t turn down the potential goodwill from the largest Galactic power in the area.

  “Thank you, Adventurer Mason,” Meqik said. “You may keep that as a token of our generosity.”

  I stored the pistol in my Inventory as Meqik tossed me a box of ammunition for the firearm that I also stowed. Then the goblin gestured for me to leave the throne room.

  I nodded respectfully to the Trade Baron before I turned away, but the goblin leader had already resumed playing with the slot machine in the arm of the throne and paid no mind as I left the room with Meqik.

  The goblin concierge’s bodyguards formed up after us when we exited the throne room and followed behind as we headed downstairs. Meqik stayed quiet as it escorted me through the casino and back to my empty seat at the bar where the goblin had initially approached me.

  “I bid you well on your quest, Adventurer Mason,” Meqik said.

  Meqik hustled off to do whatever tasks a concierge usually performed. Standing alone at the bar, I briefly debated whether to have another drink, and the thought of the rich whiskey tempted me onto the barstool despite my outstanding quests.

  The goblin bartender quickly filled my drink order in exchange for my Credits, then retreated back to the end of the bar to resume a murmured conversation with one of the casino floor managers.

  I sipped the drink absently, without really enjoying the taste, while I plotted out my next moves. Since I only had the requirement to find information as part of my newest task, it actually dovetailed nicely with the need for more information that I still had from my older quest.

  The unfinished Quest to find the kidnapped children remained active in my logs. Unlike the System Quest, which I simply felt no compulsion toward advancing, my task to locate the missing children chafed with the sensation of unfinished business that demanded to be resolved.

  My recent work had kept me exclusively on the north side of the city since that was where the local population that interacted with the goblin Goldmiser Cartel lived, all without finding any new clues to the whereabouts of the Krym’parke over the last several days. Investigating the new source of equipment coming up from the south seemed a logical next step in that quest too, as I had now spent time in the west and north parts of the city. If nothing for that turned up, then I would sweep out farther from the city.

  Once finished with my drink, I slid from the barstool and left the casino. The constant explosions of the advertisement fireworks overhead greeted me as I walked out the door and crossed the trade area to the gate.

  After I left the casino walls behind, I turned right and walked over to the paved path that ran along the river. The Three Rivers Heritage Trail had once been a popular walk for the city residents, but I imagined that enthusiasm had significantly lessened with all of the river-based monsters that now constantly crawled out of the water to harass the locals.

  As I headed east along the trail, the Ohio River stretched out to my right. I had just passed the Carnegie Science Center on my left when a splash from the water’s edge alerted me to a new danger.

  A giant turtle lunged out of the water and scuttled over the rocks toward me. A beaked snout barely extended from the cavernous shadow of its protective shell as the creature charged at me. The beast moved surprisingly quickly for its large size.

  Hardshell Snapper (Level 45)

  HP: 1994/1994

  I cast a Frostbolt to slow the monster, and it hissed as the jagged icicle slipped into the joint at the base of the turtle’s neck. Despite my spell, the turtle swiftly drew closer, and I backpedaled along the trail as I pulled my weapons and opened fire at the hard-shelled quadruped.

  When my energy beams landed on the creature’s head, its scaly skin glowed at the points of impact. Armor fragments splintered and spalled away as my projectile rounds chipped away at the beast’s protection. The few shots that missed the monster’s head deflected off the shell, failing to damage the heavy carapace there.

  It was fast for a creature of its size, but I was far faster and managed to stay ahead of the turtle’s snapping beak.

  Then the head shot forward, extending on a serpentine neck, and only a last second dodge kept the monster from biting me in half. The end of the beak snapped closed on the back of my calf as I dove aside, and I screamed in pain. Flesh tore and blood sprayed as the turtle jerked its head to the side, ripping completely through my armor and tearing away flesh as it flung me through the air toward the river.

  I managed to hold on to both of my weapons as I used the momentum from the throw to roll shakily to my feet several paces from the water’s edge, and I gritted my teeth against the pain from my leg. I belatedly activated Hinder on the giant turtle, then emptied my pistols at the monster as it slowly retracted its lengthy neck, the damage from my attacks evident in the ichor that seeped from the wounds on its head and flowed together with my blood that dripped from the monster’s maw.

  Both of my weapons went dry at the same time, the beam pistol indicating its depletion with a beep as the slide locked open on the projectile pistol. I banished both empty weapons with Right Tool for the Job and summoned my hybrid rifle in their place.

  I fired from the hip, the rifle whining as it spooled up then bucked in my hands as it discharged. The blast punched through the turtle’s armored head and dug deep, the force of the impact slapping the creature’s head to the side.

  The monster snarled, still moving despite the damage dealt to its battered face. Shaking off the damage, the monster lumbered back into motion toward me. I limped backward along the uneven terrain of the rock-covered riverbank and fired again, dragging my wounded leg more than really walking on it. Something squelched under the foot of my wounded leg with every step, and I couldn’t tell whether it was mud from the riverbank under my boot, or if my boot had filled full of the blood that poured down my leg from my mangled calf.

  With my powerful hybrid rifle steadily dishing out damage, the fight swung in my favor and ended soon after. A final handful of shots wrecked the rest of the monstrous turtle’s head, and only a gory lump remained of the sinuous neck that protruded from the shell. The stump leaked a stream of bloody goop that trickled down to the water’s edge.

  I cast Minor Healing on myself and pulled a healing potion from my Inventory, chugging it down as soon as the turtle slumped to a halt. Between the spell and the potion’s effects, the p
ain from my wounded leg faded by the time I finished emptying the vial down my throat. The missing flesh from my calf knitted itself back together as I watched.

  My boot still squelched with each step as I walked over to loot the turtle corpse. The unpleasant liquid feeling between my toes confirmed that my boot was indeed filled with blood. I parked myself on a bench alongside the trail and took off the offending footwear before dumping out the gristly contents.

  Then I stopped and sighed. Sometimes I still forgot that I lived in a video game.

  A cast of Cleanse cleaned up my gear, and I swapped out my ruined jumpsuit for a spare I had picked up in my last visit to the Shop. I had picked up replacements for most of my equipment at that time, just in case something happened, and I was now even more glad that I had shown some foresight.

  Despite the damage taken, I felt pretty good about the fight. The monster had been nearly three times my Level, but the combination of my abnormally high attributes and the variety of damage types available to me from my gear selection provided advantages not immediately obvious in the differences in Level between myself and a foe.

  I’d come a long way from smearing tomato plants into the asphalt.

  I chucked the turtle corpse into my Meat Locker storage to deal with later and continued east along the trail.

  Heinz Field stood quiet and empty off to my left as I passed by, and I realized that there would probably never be another football game. I stopped when that thought crossed my mind and looked up at the towering structure. The horseshoe-shaped stadium faced roughly south, opening up on the end toward the river where I stood, and I could see the empty yellow seats in the stands of the upper levels.

  Thousands upon thousands of empty seats that would never again be filled. And that was the least of humanity’s losses. If sixty percent of us had died on the first day, how many more had perished since?

  I tried to look away from the stadium, but when I turned my back to the structure, my stare fell across the river on the stone walls of Fort Duquesne. Another site of destruction and death, where yet another brother in arms had fallen in battle.

  The weight of loss pushed down on me. For a moment, I felt as if another building had collapsed over me, leaving me trapped where I stood. My breath caught in my throat, and I braced myself for the haunting accusations of the fallen.

  None came.

  Finally, I forced myself to breathe deeply and I filled my lungs with fresh air.

  I shook my head and left the silent structure behind. Gravel crunched under my feet, breaking the foreboding air of solitude as I took a step along the trail, but my thoughts kept trying to return to the former home of the Pittsburgh Steelers at my back.

  I felt something harden within me.

  Sometimes the fate of the whole world was too much for any one person, and you had to just let it go. It was enough to just survive. To go on living. To take one more step.

  So I let the dead go.

  My squad.

  The police officer, buried under a swarm of rats.

  The would-be thieves downtown.

  Paula.

  Zeke.

  All of them.

  I let them go and anchored myself to the sounds of my feet on the trail, moving forward one step at a time.

  And I continued on.

  Chapter 22

  By the time I hiked up the stairs beside PNC Park, another deserted stadium, and passed the statue of baseball great Roberto Clemente at the corner of the ballpark, I had put my thoughts of the dead behind me and focused once again on my quest to find the new source of equipment in the city.

  A surprising number of pedestrians moved freely in both directions on the bridge, and for a moment, I stood still while I adjusted to the notion. The street could hardly have been considered crowded, but the number of people who dotted the street were a sharp contrast to the deserted trail, and it took me a minute to adjust to the movement around me.

  I caught some strange looks from the nearest pedestrians, who glanced nervously behind me at the stairs beyond. Considering my encounter with the giant turtle monster on the trail, I wasn’t surprised that most people stayed well away from the waters below.

  Beyond the looks, no one bothered me as I slipped into the southbound lane to cross over the Allegheny River on the iconic yellow bridge named for the Baseball Hall of Famer whose statue I had just passed.

  While there were more bicycles here than I had ever seen—outside of watching the Tour de France on TV—most people were relegated to getting around on their own two feet. The lack of ready access to a Shop clearly prevented most people from the most common ways to obtain Credits or purchase vehicles. If I wanted to blend in, then my beast of an all-terrain motorcycle needed to remain hidden in my Inventory.

  Once across the bridge, the foot traffic split up at the intersection, and I flowed along with those who went straight ahead along 6th Street into the heart of downtown. Only the main thoroughfare seemed open as I passed the first couple blocks. The alleys between buildings were blocked off with rubble or vehicles that had been pushed aside.

  Two blocks later, I passed between Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts and a parking garage that had partially collapsed in on itself. I continued for another block then turned left on Liberty Avenue.

  Clumped scraps of ragged clothing, most commonly the blue of denim jeans, lay littered around the area and marked the demise of some of the people in the area. Bleached bones stuck out from the scraps, broken and gnawed on by all manner of scavengers.

  The streets smelled faintly of decay, smoke, and decomposing garbage. No more would the scents of the numerous downtown eateries fill the air, since the restaurants were all dark and abandoned.

  My path wound through downtown without purpose, and I had to backtrack several times when I found streets blocked completely by rubble. I wondered what could have caused such destruction, then I mentally kicked myself after I saw the massive claw marks torn into the side of the downtown DMV.

  I was in the area where the jabberwock had first arrived.

  My wandering led me around the city until I found myself on the north side of the US Steel Tower, where the areas around the building were heavily cratered by wreckage fallen from above after the jabberwock had mauled the sixty-four-story tower during its descent from the portal in the sky. I looked up toward the top of the tallest building in the city, and the huge white letters stood out against the dark brown steel of the building’s exterior. One of the letters waved precariously in a slight breeze that I barely felt at the street level.

  I shuddered and moved away from the base of the skyscraper. I had no desire to get crushed by that giant letter when it finally fell away from the building. Not after I’d survived the monster that had wrecked the building in the first place.

  The nearby roar of automatic weapons fire pulled me from the reverie and centered my attention back in the present. I listened for a moment to figure out the direction of the sounds that echoed off the tall downtown buildings, then I circled around to the skyscraper, toward the source of gunfire.

  On the south side of the towering skyscraper, the two-block stretch of Steel Plaza and Mellon Green provided a bit of greenery and separated the tallest building in Pittsburgh from the second tallest, BNY Mellon Center.

  A pair of translucent blue monsters rampaged around a fountain in the center of the green. Foam swirled through the figures like waves cresting on open water. The top half of the figures were roughly humanoid, with a rounded head, a torso, and a pair of waterspouts in the shape of arms. The torso rested on a cylindrical column of water that churned all the way to the ground beneath the figures. As the monsters flowed around the square, their arms lashed out and sent pavestones and shrubs flying.

  Lesser Water Elemental (Level 28)

  HP: 674/682

  Lesser Water Elemental (Level 29)

  HP: 709/718

  The source of the gunfire and the minimal damage to the elementals sat parked i
n the street alongside the green with a clear line of fire toward the park. A ring-mounted turret on top of an odd vehicle spat tracers and solid ammunition toward the pair of watery figures.

  A light machine gun chattered rapidly as the rounds snapped through the air, while the steady thunking sound of an automatic launcher remained audible even over the detonation of the exploding grenades. The pair of weapons barrels in the coaxial turret mount were both pointed at the elementals, and from my time deployed, I recognized the weapons as a Mk 19 grenade launcher and a M240G machine gun between the sound of the gunfire and the silhouette of their profile.

  The rest of the vehicle was something I had never seen before, and I swept over it with Greater Observation.

  Wolverine Peace Officer Protection Unit (Class IV)

  Armor Rating: Tier V

  Painted a glossy black with gold stripes that ran down the sides, the vehicle was marked with the shield insignia of the Pittsburgh Police. The front of the vehicle angled sharply down to the ground and gave the sleek impression of a high-performance sports car. The dark-tinted windshield and side windows only reinforced that impression. A push bar stuck out from underneath the front bumper, and the heavy-duty ram detracted from the sporty appearance.

  Above the angled windshield, the roof sloped upward until it leveled off just before the turret. From that point onward, the rest of the vehicle more closely resembled an up-armored Humvee. A series of armored plates in an octagonal formation with slight gaps between each plate made up a gunner’s shield. Each plate had a narrow strip of more tinted glass that protected the turret’s occupant while allowing a view in every direction. If I had to guess, the gaps between the plates were to allow the gunner to deploy Class Skills or personal weapons separate from the mounted machine gun.