Harbinger (Nova Online #3) - A LitRPG Series

by Alex Knight

  He turned to find a bulky figure emerging through the smoke from the flames. It stood eight feet tall, at least, and was exceptionally hairy.

  A massive hominoid! But it wasn’t. Not exactly.

  While it was massive, ape-shaped, and hairy, the figure also had undeniably turen features: slits for nostrils, wide, intelligent eyes, and arms that, while they were packed with thick muscle like the hominoids’ had been, were also elongated like those of a turen. Kaiden focused on the figure and his visor did its thing.

  Whenstone

  Class: Medic

  Modified Species: ‘Turenoid’

  Faction: The Menagerie

  Level: 60

  Quick facts: Max-level medics who have invested in the Genetic Modification specialty may complete a class-specific legendary quest to evolve into a ‘modified species,’ which is created by mixing two of several predetermined species. Doing so gives the player 80% of the strengths and 100% of the weaknesses of both species.

  “Nice to meet you in person,” Whenstone said to the gawking faces in front of him. “I work for Odditor.” He gestured up to the cameras that had been watching them all along the trail. “He appreciates the show you’ve put on. So, if you’ll follow me, he might care to speak with you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Turenoid? Thorne observed Whenstone from behind. That’s a combination that makes a lot of sense. Strength from the hominoids, intelligence from the turen. Plus all the normal skills of a max-level medic.

  They followed the turenoid along what was left of the path, cameras watching them every step of the way. Creatures stirred in the jungle on both sides, but even the boldest of them were sent running with the slightest growl from Whenstone. Not that she could blame them. He was level sixty and, given this was a PVP zone, wouldn’t have much trouble crushing all of them at once, if he wanted to.

  Medics aren’t designed for offensive combat, but still. It probably wouldn’t matter, not with that level disparity.

  “And here we are,” Whenstone said, gesturing forward as his deep, strained voice spoke the words.

  Thorne followed the gesture up to where, just ahead, the path ended. Where it did, the jungle opened up around it. A small patch of grass led to a metal platform. As she looked closer she realized the platform was actually an old freight elevator, but attached to a large ramp that led up and up to…

  “The Madhouse,” Whenstone said, looking up at it as well. And what a sight it was.

  The structure had to have been forty stories tall, at least, and appeared to be mostly in the shape of a large ring. Hollow in the center? Thorne couldn’t tell from their current spot. The sides of the building – base? Complex? Town? It could have been any of them from its size – were covered in creeper vines and moss and a whole mess of other green foliage growing out of every nook and cranny. Thorne found herself reminded of their humble swamp bunker in the real world, except this structure, in comparison, stretched all the way up to the low-hanging, rain-heavy clouds above.

  “Odditor lives there?” Kaiden asked as Whenstone led them all on to the elevator. Somewhere in the distance, something massive roared – a sound that shook the very air itself and seemed to reverberate through the ground – and Kaiden turned toward it, concern in his eyes. Thorne couldn’t blame him.

  Whenstone, however, merely chuckled.

  “The longer you’re here, the more you’ll find the inhabitants of this moon are quite... diverse. But pay them no mind for now. They know to stay well away from The Madhouse.” He waved his hand at a sensor on the elevator. It beeped and then the whole platform began to move, sliding up along the ramp with a groan of well-used metal.

  “We came here to see Odditor,” Thorne said, turning her attention from the vast jungle around them and meeting Whenstone’s eyes.

  “It’s critical that we speak with him,” Zelda said.

  “Odditor will determine what’s critical and what isn’t,” Whenstone said. “For now, you should be grateful he allowed you to land. That’s more than most unannounced visitors are offered.”

  “Why did you let us land?” Thorne asked. The question had been bothering her. It’d seemed like Odditor had recognized the Veritas II, Bernstein’s old ship.

  Does that mean he knew Bernstein? The database implied some connection, but wasn’t specific.

  “You were allowed to land because Odditor said so,” Whenstone said. “It’s not my place to speculate as to his motives.” With that, he fell silent, seemingly lost in staring out at the world falling away beneath them.

  This guy takes his roleplay seriously, huh?

  The elevator had carried them halfway up the side of the building now, and far above the canopy. Their view of the jungle moon stretched all the way to the misty horizon. Thorne found herself distracted by its beauty, lost in the rolling waves of the wind in the treetops.

  With a long groan, the elevator came to a stop and Thorne found they’d arrived at an opening in the outside of the Madhouse. A steady stream of animal sounds poured out from within – growls and chirps, howls and barks – but they were twisted and distorted as they echoed down the metal hallway, deformed into a cacophony of sound like some discordant chorus of nightmares.

  Whenstone stepped off the platform, then waved them after him.

  “If you’d like to know why Odditor let you land, perhaps it's best you ask him yourself?”

  With that, he strode into the hallway.

  Everyone else hesitated.

  “This is what we came here for,” Zelda said. “So what are we waiting for?” She stepped off the elevator and jogged to catch up with Whenstone.

  Gotta admire her dedication.

  Thorne swallowed any doubt the monstrous noises had created and followed after Zelda. Titus and Kaiden were right behind, though a glimmer of blue light revealed Titus had flicked his shield on.

  “This is straight spooky,” he said as they continued down the hallway and the overcast, gray light from outside was replaced with dull metallic tones and the dim yellow lights that lined the floor and led them onward.

  The monstrous chorus grew louder with each step as Whenstone took them toward whatever was responsible for the noise.

  “Odditor is this way?” Kaiden asked from behind, his voice unsure.

  Whenstone’s only response was to wave them on, then disappear around the corner. Thorne hurried after him, not wanting to get left behind in the darkness. It was silly, she knew, to be afraid of a game, but sometimes Nova felt so real it was easy to forget you were even playing it.

  Zelda turned the corner first, then skidded to a stop. Thorne nearly bowled her over, but managed to slip to the side with only minor contact.

  “What was that about?” she asked, looking at Zelda. But she didn’t reply. Instead, her eyes were wide and her mouth open as she stared at... something.

  Thorne followed her eyes to the thing she was looking at. Except it wasn't just one thing; it was a dozen. No, more. Two dozen, at least.

  Beasts, monsters, gigantic insects, and things Thorne had no way to describe all stared back at them. Some mewled, others howled. Some seemed itching to strike, claws as long as Thorne was tall and twitching in anticipation. Some hissed and reared back, fangs and venom glands threatening a quick death. Everywhere Thorne looked there were eyes looking back at her. Some reptilian, others mammalian, and still more she couldn’t classify.

  The only mercy was that they were all in cages.

  “Odditor’s Menagerie of Madness,” Whenstone said, walking confidently down the middle of the hall and gesturing out to the cages stacked three high on all sides. “He’s rather fond of it. It has taken an extremely long time to collect.”

  “These things are really high level,” Kaiden whispered. “My visor’s reading none of them below forty. Most above fifty.” As he spoke, he stepped closer to Titus, who raised his still-active shield into a ready position.

  “Have no fear,” Whenstone said, then frowne
d. “Well, fear is healthy, and many of these majestic creatures are efficient predators. Fearsome to face in a fight. But they can’t harm you now. Not as long as Odditor decides to keep them in their cages.”

  “‘Decides to?’” Thorne asked. “Are you implying he might uncage them?”

  Whenstone shrugged.

  “It’s not for me to speculate. Come, now. Odditor is waiting.” And with that he continued down the hallway.

  The cages and beasts and echoing growls continued as they progressed deeper into Odditor’s base. From what Thorne could see as they walked, her initial assumption about the place had been correct. It was a big ring. The hallway they were in followed a curve so gentle it seemed unending. At every intersection, they passed hallways which allowed views down into the center of Odditor’s Madhouse.

  It was a view Thorne recognized all too well from the streams she’d watched. At the center of the massive building was the whole structure’s focus and purpose: the labyrinth. At present, it appeared dormant. The walls stood unmoving. No grachnids screeched from within. And no player ran for their life, desperately trying to outwit, outlast, or simply outplay whatever monstrous challenge awaited. But all of that could change, Thorne knew. Would change during the next stream. Hopefully not sooner.

  Watching through a stream, the whole deal made for good entertainment. Now, walking through the very halls so many others had trodden before perishing in the labyrinth, Thorne was starting to reconsider that opinion.

  The menagerie was mostly behind them now, though. Instead, the cages were replaced with... museum exhibits? Thorne did a double-take. Instead of monsters behind the glass there were now life-sized figures, unmoving and posed in various ways. Some looked to be in combat. Others accomplished seemingly random feats such as repairing a ship or scaling a mountain.

  “What are these?” Thorne asked, squinting in the low light to get a better view.

  Whenstone gestured, and lights clicked on inside the displays.

  “Oh. Oh, wow.” She felt her breath catch in her throat.

  With proper illumination, she could make out exactly what the displays were: players, dressed in their finest gear and posed in scenes of battle or great triumph. All of them, though, were dead. Or more specifically, retired. It was easy enough to tell from the empty, still darkness in their eyes.

  “These are all trophies,” Zelda said. “And they’re authentic? Not recreations?”

  “Everything Odditor owns is authentic,” Whenstone said as if insulted by the suggestion.

  “I’m sorry,” Kaiden said, seemingly confused. “I don’t understand. Are these not just manikins?”

  Zelda pointed to the nearest one.

  “Trophies are deactivated accounts, normally from players of some acclaim. Top-level PVPers will sometimes put their accounts on the line in exclusive tournaments. It's seen as the ultimate form of PVP. To lose is akin to permadeath. Whoever beats you gains your account.”

  “Like racing for pink slips,” Titus said.

  Thorne nodded along, then jumped in herself.

  “PVP isn’t the only source, though. Players who’ve achieved notable firsts – like exploring a new system or completing a new legendary-tier dungeon – can sometimes gain enough acclaim to make their accounts valuable. When they retire, or just really need some real-world money, they can deactivate their accounts and sell them to become trophies. Considering the most famous of accounts sell for hundreds of millions of credits, and even less famous ones can be in the tens of millions, well, that’s a nice chunk of real-world cash once you convert it.”

  Titus whistled low as she finished.

  “Sounds like easy money to me.”

  “Not even close,” Thorne said with a laugh. “There aren’t that many accounts worthy of becoming trophies.” She gestured to the dozen or so lining the hallway around them. “This selection here has to amount to, what, ten percent of all existing trophies in the game? I forget how many there were valued at over ten million at last count, but it wasn’t that many.”

  “How does he have this many?” Kaiden asked. “He can’t possibly own all of these.”

  Whenstone let out a low laugh at that.

  “The rules of what can and can’t be owned change when you’re as powerful as Odditor. Excess is not a word in his vocabulary.”

  Even from a pace away, Thorne heard Kaiden swallow hard at that.

  “No reason for nerves,” she said to him, switching over to group comms so Whenstone wouldn’t hear. “The more powerful he is, the more it’ll benefit us when we convince him to join our side.”

  “Or the more likely he is to just brush us off as a waste of his time,” Titus said.

  “That’s... not going to happen,” Kaiden said finally. “Not again. I won’t let it.”

  That’s the spirit, Thorne wanted to say, but she was distracted as the seemingly unending hallway came to an abrupt end. Whenstone turned to face them in front of an unexceptional looking door.

  “Odditor is ready for you. It goes without saying that, should you treat him with less than the honor he is owed, it will not end well. For you.” With that happy message, he made a gesture with his hand and the door behind him slid open.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The room was barren but for three things: a holotable at the center, a wall-sized window looking down to the labyrinth, and Odditor. Everything else was, well, nothing. Empty floor space, barren walls. A strange choice of decor, but Kaiden wasn’t interested in any of it. There was one person he’d come to see.

  Odditor

  Class: Medic

  Faction: Unaffiliated

  Level: 60

  “Oh, they made it!” Odditor turned from where he’d been leaning over the holotable. What looked to be a schematic of the labyrinth was projected above it, but he turned it off with a snap of his fingers. “It’s always a bit of…” He trailed off as if searching for the right word. “A bit of a surprise when visitors make it this far. The menagerie is just so hungry,” he said with a knowing nod.

  Zelda frowned. “You mean those cages weren’t secure?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Absolutely they weren’t secure? Or absolutely they were?”

  Odditor gave a firm nod.

  “Yes.”

  Zelda frowned all the more and moved a pace away from the door.

  “Odditor, uh, sir,” Kaiden said, waving and stepping forward. “We came because—”

  “Ooh, look at you!” Odditor placed his hands on his hips and strode forward with an excited smile. “An enhanced warden? How unique! You must be... heh... you must…” He trailed off again with a chuckle, the rest of whatever he’d been planning to say still hanging in the air.

  I must be what? Kaiden had genuinely no idea what the man had been getting at. Bernstein did say he was eccentric...

  “Enhanced wardens,” Odditor said, shaking a finger at him. “Tsk-tsk. You’re slippery. All those jumps and dodges.” He leaned to one side then the other in what Kaiden assumed was supposed to be an imitation of said acrobatics. “Oh, and that one thing, uh, that thing you do where there’s multiple of you.” He waved his fingers as if doing a magic trick, then chuckled. “Oh, that drives the menagerie insane.” He clapped a hand down on Kaiden’s shoulder. “They get so angry. Why, the last one, when they caught him...”

  “I... uh... must’ve missed that stream.” Kaiden stumbled over his words, unsure how to respond.

  Focus, darn it! He forced himself to remember why they’d come.

  “We’re big fans of your stream.”

  “We are?” Zelda asked.

  “But we came for a different reason. We think you knew a friend of ours, someone very important. Fred Bernstein.”

  Odditor bit his lip and scrunched up his face.

  “Bernstein... Bernstein…” He snapped his fingers as if trying to remember. “Didn’t he…? Wasn’t…? Oh, yes! He’s the one that left the... thing. The, uh...”

>   “The dreadnought, sir,” Whenstone said.

  “Yes, that big ship!” Odditor turned to Kaiden with a whisper. “A real pain to store, if you know what I mean. What was it called? The Very... something. Heh. Ha.” He gave an awkward laugh. “The Very Big, should... should have been called that.”

  “The Veritas?” Zelda asked, sounding as if she didn’t believe it.

  “Ayy! That’s the… that’s the one!” Odditor said pointing at her. “And your ship, your little thing, it had a similar name. I thought it sounded familiar. That’s why I had my turrets not kill you.”

  “Bernstein loaned you the Veritas? Loaned you his dreadnought?”

  “Loaned, surrendered, lost in an attempt to beat my labyrinth.” Odditor waved his hand as if they were all pretty much the same thing.

  Kaiden shot Zelda a look, then switched to group comms.

  “Bernstein tried to run the labyrinth? Why would he have done that?”

  “Maybe he was trying to get closer to Odditor?” Zelda replied with a nod toward the strange man. “If he bet his dreadnought on it then it was clearly important to him.”

  “Hey, hey! Uh, Whenstone? Whenstone!”

  Odditor was snapping toward the turenoid.

  “Their mouths, their mouths are moving but, but I don’t hear anything.” Odditor pointed at them. “Am I, am I going deaf? I don’t understand.”

  “They’re talking through private comms,” Whenstone said matter-of-factly. “Which is rude.”

  “Oh. Oh, yes. Of course.” Odditor breathed a fake sigh of relief. Or a real one. Kaiden honestly couldn’t tell. “Don’t, don’t scare me like that,” he said, looking to Kaiden as he clapped a hand over his chest.

  This is the guy who's supposed to control a dozen or more factions? The guy Bernstein thought would make a powerful ally? He’s... well, probably crazy. Or, at the least, just really, really odd.

  “Look,” Zelda said, easing past Kaiden and moving to stand in front of Odditor. “We came because Bernstein wanted us to. We need to talk about the Party.”