by Arthur Stone
Nut had not said that, but he vigorously nodded his support. “That’s right. She told me she wants to go to another region. You said that, too, Goblin. Remember, yesterday, when we were smoking? You even wanted to ‘find’ some money for the trip. I suggested a couple of ideas. But this here is an option to cross without spending anything.”
“You’d better talk to Gangrene about that,” the voice from within responded, just as its source emerged.
It was not an old man. He (she? it?) looked more like a stuffed animal than a human. Cheater could not even place its species, never mind its gender or ethnicity. The individual was filthy and swollen. One side featured a rainbow-colored bruise, and the other was trisected by two abrasions covered in caked blood. Goblin pointed at the tattooed man with a shaking hand. “He’s the one. He’s Gangrene.”
“And how is it that so many of you lovely people have all gathered together in one place?” March shook his head before turning to Gangrene. “So she is your healer? Who are you, and why does she answer to you?”
“I’ve never seen this bloke before,” Nut supplied.
“I’m her boyfriend,” the man rumbled.
“So, just so we’re clear, you’re the boyfriend of this young lady who was sleeping in this tent with another guy.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Gangrene huffed.
March shrugged. “Oh, nothing. Just wondering. That kind of thing makes no difference to me. As Nut has already said, we need a healer, not knowledge of your personal preferences.”
Gangrene clicked his tongue. “No way, guys. No offense—but look at Nipple. She’s gone. In this kind of shape she couldn’t fix a runny nose for a hamster.”
To prove his point, Gangrene kicked the girl roughly in the side, leaving a yellowish boot print on her clothes. “See? No reaction. She’s pretty much dead, and she’s like that every day. You have to beat her to get any use out of here. There’s no talking to her. Besides, I’m in charge here. If you need a walking medicine cabinet to accompany you, let’s negotiate.”
March watched the girl, who looked to be in suspended animation. “Our hamster doesn’t have a runny nose. We don’t actually have a hamster, come to think of it. I don’t, anyway. Do you, Cheater? I don’t think we’re in the market to buy one, either. In fact, we don’t need any healing at this moment. We just need her to join us in our vehicle. Just sit in the truck, that’s all. We’re crossing the border, and we’re leaving now. My team and I. I believe you’ve heard of us.”
“I’d have to be even dumber than Nipple not to recognize you,” Gangrene nodded. “Where are you making your crossing?”
“Do we really care?” Goblin cut in, mid-yawn.
“I can’t go west,” Gangrene frowned, “no matter what. I’m in a little bit of debt out that way. And some trouble with the powers that be.”
“You’re in debt and trouble everywhere,” Goblin mumbled.
“No, only in the places where I’ve been. I’ve been west.”
“We’re going east,” March said, “but I’m afraid I don’t understand this discussion. You’re not going anywhere. We’re only talking about this healer—no one but her.”
Gangrene shook his head. “I already said that wasn’t going to work out. We’re a team. Goblin, Nipple, and me. There were a couple of other guys with us, but they beat it, so to hell with them. Plus, we have no interest in just sitting around here. We could go with you, or not. But it’s all of us, or none of us.”
“It’s a dangerous crossing,” March said, “and no one is about to pay you for it. Anyone who dies will not be waited for.”
“As long as we’re going east,” Gangrene nodded. “Give us some time to get ready. Tomorrow we can go wherever you’d like. To the moon if you want. Just not to the west. Oh, and not to the north.”
“We’re leaving now,” Clown said.
“Right now?” Gangrene frowned.
“Everything is ready to go, so I see no reason to stick around,” March replied.
“Well, we need to get our things ready.”
“What things? I don’t see a mountain of possessions here. It looks to me like you’re ready now.”
“Look, man, at least let me grab a beer or something. We just woke up!”
“I’ll give you some beer,” March said, grinding his teeth. “But only beer, and not much.”
“Not much?”
“Of course not. This is my personal stash. But when we’re going for a border crossing, tell me, why would we need you all prettied up and full of beer?”
“Well then, let us get packed—” Gangrene tried again.
“The hell are we going to pack?” Goblin hissed. “Wait, are those goons coming back?”
Clown raised an eyebrow. “Goons?”
“Uh—” Gangrene paused—“there’s someone here that I owe money to. We owe money to, I mean...”
“And you’d rather not pay it back,” March finished for him.
“No, I would, but I don’t have it.” Gangrene sighed, then looked up. “Say, you wouldn’t be able to lend me a bit, would you? I’ll pay it back. And fast.”
“Uh-huh. I’m sure you’ve never pulled this stunt on anyone else,” March grinned. “I’m sure the next person will give you a loan.”
“No, no one else will,” Gangrene murmured.
“Rainbow has fewer idiots than I thought, then,” March replied. “OK, stop talking now. Listen closely, ladies and gentlemen. Listen with your ears, and not that other part you usually listen with. Whether you like it or not, I’m leaving in half an hour. If you come with us, you’re our people. We take care of our people. It seems you know what that’s like. But if you do not come with us, I will not help you with your problems with the locals. Since you won’t be in the party, those will be your problems, not our problems. Understand? You do not have time to think about it. Either you’re on board, or you’re not, and if you are, you will come with us. Bringing your girlfriend along with you. We don’t need anyone but her, but since you’ve grown so... attached, you can at least be of some use to us.”
“Alright, we agree,” Gangrene nodded, turning to Goblin. “Grab Nipple’s backpack. Don’t forget the powder buried in the rear left corner of the tent.”
“The salt or the coke?” Goblin asked.
“Take both of them, idiot. And get the green too. Get it all, because we’re getting out of here for good.”
Clown watched their new acquaintances trying to pull themselves together. “This crossing is getting more and more interesting. And it hasn’t even started yet...”
* * *
Cheater was beginning to suspect they would not be leaving today. One interruption after another came their way. Suddenly the party had grown by three, and the newcomers needed to be inducted. Alas, they were all intensely awkward individuals. The best start to the ceremonies would be a hot bath for all of them.
At last, though, they set off.
In the final minutes before they started the engines, Cheater took care of one ultimate task. The finishing touches on his character. He could have done this before, but he was saving his free experience points just in case. His stats kept going up on a strict schedule anyway as he consumed the loot items from the Unnamed One and infecteds. There was no need to spend extra.
Now, though, he had no more wiggle room. Everything he did, he had checked and re-checked a dozen times. He would get the maximal benefit from each drop.
The pain of draining such a huge reserve of free experience points was so great that he gritted his teeth. But he had given his word. Cheater was now exclusively focused on Luck and Willpower, ignoring everything else.
Even a small fraction of what he spent on these two stats could have significantly boosted other ones. After all, they were his most developed stats. Increases were getting more and more expensive. The numbers he spent were terrifying. Pinching off a bit towards Reaction in order to pump it to 60 would hardly affect the final result for Luck and Willpo
wer.
60 was a magic number, a multiple of 30. Certain stats unlocked whole new possibilities at such levels. What would level 60 Reaction give him? Some kind of superspeed?
He was not destined to know.
At least, not now. March was right that, sooner or later, he would reach that level. Even if he had to consume expensive loot items to get there. The issue was no longer money, but availability: some items were fanatically difficult to find. Merchants would just throw up their hands when you mentioned them. They wouldn’t even take special orders.
He was beginning to understand the difficulties Romeo had undergone with his character. He had funds, yes. But not everything on the Continent could be bought. So unless the System opened another way for you to obtain the item in question, you were stuck.
Perhaps, though, there would be more availability in the next region. Settling down somewhere would also, over time, add to the opportunities available to him. Trading prospects could be improved with strong local ties. Especially with NPCs, who often had impossibly rare items on hand but would not agree to give them to whomever happened by.
Cheater was a hero. He might even obtain his next level of Heroism in this crossing. Killing Glock a couple of times had hurt his progress, but not too much.
The free experience points melted like snow poured into boiling water. His Willpower reached 150. Just a few weeks ago, such a figure would have caused him to pass out, but now he took it in stride. He had been striving for it, and knew that he would reach it one day. This was earlier than expected.
Now, Smile of Fortune would boost Luck by 35x for 23 seconds. The cooldown was down to 21.5 hours. March would be happy about that.
The rest of his skills looked better now, too. Some were unbelievably stronger. For example, the cooldown for Flash of Omniscience had been reduced to zero. He no longer had to wait between uses. The System had not originally placed a limit on this aspect of the ability, perhaps not considering that Cheater would ever reach 150 Willpower.
Did that make him a Double Cheater, then?
He spent on Luck, too. All of his free experience for bonus stats, as well as his precious universal free experience, went into that stat. A pitiful 1055 experience was left over, which he couldn’t spend. With his Luck at 140, it would take 1410 points to bump it to level 141.
140 was still an excellent number. When he calculated the resulting Luck obtained under Smile of Fortune, the number blew his mind.
If March was right, every manmincer would drop a black pearl at those levels.
Unnamed Ones would drop about 7 golden pearls each.
Cheater also added 20 bonus levels to Luck, which—in combination with the 3 he had already used—boosted it +23 levels.
At this pace, soon he would be expecting pearls from runners. No, no, that’s going too far.
Cheater added 0.17x to his Reaction multiplier. That was not one of his key stats, and had no effect on his key abilities, but it was the optimal move at this time.
In any case, increased speed in response to events was never a bad thing.
His main character window now read:
+28 to Life Counter
Total distributable experience points: 1055
Base Stats
1.49x Strength: 46 (+393) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.52x Agility: 42 (+298) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.32x Speed: 46 (+409) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.52x Endurance: 43 (+306) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.33x Willpower: 150 (+0) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
Level 65 (327/5). 0 distributable points.
Bonus Stats
1.43x Perception: 79 (+216) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.50x Stealth: 62 (+149) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.85x Reaction: 50 (+115) (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
2.98x Accuracy: 50 (+339) (+33 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
2.27x Luck: 140 (+0) (+23 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.20x Ward of Styx: 66 (+432 points). Each 1 level of Ward of Styx gives +1 to the Spirit of Styx meter and +0.2 Spirit of Styx regeneration per hour. (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
1.18x Talent Rank: 41 (+197 points). Increasing Talent Rank increases the complexity of existing abilities (for example, more damage dealt by combat abilities). Other abilities may also appear. Talent Rank can be increased by using trophies and by using magic to kill enemies. (+3 bonus levels which do not count towards overall Bonus Level)
Bonus Level 69 (488/7). 0 distributable points.
Proficiency: 48 (+96% base stat level experience)
Meters
Health: 220
Stamina: 229
Spore Balance: 246
Hunger: 225
Thirst: 222
Spirit of Styx (“Mana”): 809
Pleasure: 409
Distributable Meter Points: 0
Player Status
Radiation is within normal limits.
Humanity: 24157
Injuries: none.
Diseases: no known diseases.
Bound items: Bow of Depletion, from the Black Caster, Bow from Watershed; Killynilly, AS50 Rifle; Sievemaker, SIG Sauer P226 Pistol; Choppa, sword; Bighead, necklace, Manhandler, bracelet; Thanks Nolds!, Elite Nold control bracelet (not activated).
Inventory
Primary: 41 cells and 543 grams. These can contain any items, including loot from monsters. Each cell can only be occupied by one item. Items cannot stack in cells. For example, you cannot place a bottle of pills in a cell. However, one pill is allowed. You cannot place a magazine with five rounds, but you can place an empty magazine and five rounds in six separate cells.
Secondary: 2158 grams. Any items can be placed here, except for loot from monsters.
Cache: 17915 grams (base 1000 grams, plus Strength x 100 grams = 12015 bonus grams).
You have also activated a special cell in your personal cache. You can place any number of unbound items (with the exception of prizes from slain monsters) in this cell with a total weight of 3632 grams or less.
Cheater had reached level 65.
That’s so high.
By using his points more effectively, contrary to March’s demands, he could have boosted that level much higher still by filling out his underdeveloped stats.
He would have become stronger, yes. Faster. More agile. But even if the weakest beginner were to sneak up on him from behind and fire a trembling shot into his head, he would die.
He needed someone to cover his back. So despite his wish to level up, he had to respect the needs of the team.
Cheater was, of course, not opposed to getting more valuable loot from the world’s most dangerous monsters.
Those team interests aligned with his.
In addition, Luck affected everything. It even affected the things that happened around his character. This did not affect the bonuses from loot items he consumed—March and others had assured him of that, and since he did not always get the maximum value of each item’s possible range, he believed them.
Yet perhaps they were wrong. How many of those had boosted their Luck over 100? As far as Cheater knew, there were none. However, not long ago, he had believed that level 65 players simply did not exist. There were clearly many more players who were at his level. The Continent’s strongest inhabitants could distort the stats which other players could see. You might guess the player before you was an ordinary level 30, while in reality she was a level 50+ monster. It was better that way. You could escape scrutiny from those around you if your level was higher—and if it was lower, others were less likely to risk taking you on. Humani
ty in the green helped with that, too, but it was no shield. Some bad players intentionally hunted heroes to drive their Humanity as red as possible.
After Cheater boosted his Luck to 140, he took a pearl. A red pearl. It was the only pearl he had managed to buy in Rainbow. Perhaps he could have found more, but time had been short, as had been his willingness to be noticed.
His eagerness to leave this final interim region on his great journey—without causing yet more trouble for himself here—was too strong.
