Cyber Squad - Level 1: A Gamelit/LitRPG Lite Cyberpunk Adventure

by A. K. Mocikat

  Kai swore, then focused.

  “Cast Spell of Clairvoyance!” he addressed the game system, and a glowing oversized eye appeared over his head. Just in time.

  He had anticipated that the assassin would try to disappear again and attack him from the shadows. With his spell, he had cut off the hostile’s escape into invisibility. The black-clad figure with the purple tag above his head tried to run but couldn’t escape Kai’s heavy attack. The flaming sword cut the much shorter and more delicate fighter in two. Blood splatted into Kai’s vision but soon faded, allowing him to continue the battle.

  He rushed toward the fallen LifeSupport, whose timer showed that she had only five seconds left to be revived before she got teleported out of the campaign.

  Kai produced a Crystal of Rebirth from his inventory and held it over the motionless healer.

  “Just a sec, Life!”

  “Appreciated.”

  From the corner of his eye, Kai saw more enemies storming through the gate. They had all stopped attacking the wall and were now rushing inside through the breach. Smart tactic. It would be very difficult to hold the inner keep now.

  The crystal glowed bright blue and a timer appeared, showing that it would take seven seconds to revive LifeSupport. In this time, Kai needed to remain motionless and was therefore highly vulnerable to enemy attacks.

  He turned and glanced at his trebuchet still standing on the wall behind him. The timer above it showed fifteen seconds. If Kai didn’t manage to pick it up in time, the highly valuable machine would disintegrate and be lost.

  He looked back at the fallen healer. Five seconds. He could do it.

  Further down the wall, he saw some of his team members rushing toward the massive doors of the inner fortress. Maybe he was an idiot for not leaving Life behind and getting himself to safety. But it would have been a shitty move to do that. Besides, if they wanted to win this, they needed her.

  Suddenly, multiple arrows hit him from the side. Thanks to his heavy armor, they caused just 10% damage, but as long as he was reviving LifeSupport, he couldn’t activate any countermeasures.

  Two seconds.

  He held on – once she was up, she could heal him easily. More projectiles hit him but didn’t cause him to fall. But then he was kicked off his feet. A massive fireball had hit him from behind.

  Looking down, he saw that he was burning, the fire causing heavy but not lethal damage. He jumped back to his feet and saw at least ten enemy players storming the wall and charging at him.

  “Fuck me…”

  “So long, Kai,” LifeSupport said from behind him while her body disintegrated, removing her from the campaign.

  Now it was too late to turn around and run to safety. Kai knew that he was screwed.

  He lifted his sword and lunged at the attackers who surrounded him, throwing everything they had at him. Within seconds he was on fire again and had been slashed by several melee weapons. Irritated, he saw his life stats diminishing at such a speed that he could hardly see the numbers running down his HUD.

  Then it was over. Everything turned gray and blurry as he first sank to his knees and then collapsed. The sad theme every player dreaded so much played in his ears, indicating that he was dying. A timer appeared in his field of view, counting down from twenty. Now other players had twenty seconds to come to his aid and revive him.

  Of course, no one would come. What was left of his team had gathered inside the fortress where they would take a last, desperate stand. They wouldn’t win this. Kai was convinced about that. He saw more and more enemy players run by him as his vision turned darker with every second. One of them took the time to stop and teabag[5] him.

  “Seriously?!” Kai shouted, even though he knew that the enemy couldn’t hear him. A broad grin crossed the face of the character – a barbarian dressed in furs – as he flipped Kai off before following his buddies.

  Kai swore. He heard the noise of collapsing wood and saw his precious aether-fire trebuchet disintegrating next to him.

  Great, just great, he thought.

  Then everything turned black, and some text appeared in his vision.

  You have been removed from the campaign.

  Chapter Two

  Grayish-purple mists surrounded Kai, thick and impenetrable. He could move his body again, the death stupor inflicted on him after being lethally wounded had passed. But everyone knew that it was pointless to try and go anywhere while in the mists. It was a loading screen, and therefore the mists were infinite, or at least they appeared so.

  Did you know? Enemies highlighted in red have a higher LVL than you. Proceed with caution!

  The message blinked in Kai’s field of view and he grimaced. Those stupid hints that appeared in loading screens were ridiculous. You had to be a total noob playing a video game for the first time not to know any of the glorious advice given there.

  The sad music faded and was replaced by a more cheerful, neutral tune. Finally, the mists dissolved as if sucked in by invisible vents and a new environment opened up around Kai.

  There were colossal mountains with snow-covered tops, azure-blue waterfalls rushing down picturesque ravines, and reddish beams of light from a low afternoon sun were reflected in a lake so beautiful that it could only exist in a fairy tale – or a video game. A soft, warm wind blew in Kai’s face as he materialized. The air was filled with birds singing and gorgeous mountain flower scents.

  Kai pulled off his helmet and long, blond hair fell over his broad shoulders. Although he had suffered lethal wounds only moments ago, his athletic body was now fully healed and he was back to his usual stats. He hadn’t felt more than a tickle on his skin when the enemy swords and fireballs had hit him. It wasn’t possible to experience severe pain or any injuries suffered in the game on one’s real body, which was safely resting in another world – the real one. Nevertheless, the death experience was never a pleasant one.

  Kai sighed, turning away from the breathtaking view and toward the estate. He stepped off the teleportation landing platform, which was the only way to access the place, which was located on a steep mountainside. The heavy iron boots made a loud clacking noise as he walked along the cobblestone pathway. It would be absolutely impossible to sneak up on anyone wearing such armor, but that wasn’t what his class was designed for anyway. If someone wanted to play a sneaky character, they would pick the Assassin or Thief class, such as Stan had.

  Kai frowned. He couldn’t help but feel upset with Stan. He had believed they were not only battle buddies but friends. Instead, he had let him down and run off. Although Kai knew that the other player had most likely taken the right decision, since they both would have died if he had stayed, he was still disappointed.

  He hoped his team would win, though, even if, after his forceful removal from the campaign, he wouldn’t get the XP or advance to the Top K. He would rather see his people win, the guild he hung out with every day, than the damn Yellows and Purples. Teaming up like that? Two against one? That had been anything but fair play. Rather a bully tactic.

  Kai pushed open an old iron gate and entered the courtyard of a medieval castle, built from dark gray stones. Somewhere high above in the deep blue sky circled a majestic eagle, its characteristic shriek echoing from the mountains.

  The estate was named Eagle’s Nest and had cost Kai a shitload of money. Real money, as the more impressive private residences couldn’t be acquired for gold, which was the currency earned for accomplishing missions and quests in the game. They only came for diamonds. Kai’s house had cost him 300 diamonds, which was 15k Bit-Dollars, almost a third of what he paid as rent for his room every month.

  But since he hung out more in his virtual home than his real-life one, it was only fair. Eagle’s Nest had a massive main building with two floors, a main hall, four bedrooms, and a dungeon in the basement. An impressive tower loomed next to the house. 70 feet high, it offered a magnificent view over the lands of Arcania, which consisted mostly of mountains, valleys and
lakes. The residence was bigger than the apartment building Kai lived in IRL, yet compared to other in-game estates it was rather humble. He knew players who owned fortresses, while others called entire tropical islands their own.

  “Soon,” he told himself for the hundredth time while dropping his helmet to the ground. It dematerialized before hitting the floor; he knew it would show up again in his armory.

  He looked at the timer on his HUD. The campaign would still be going on for over thirty minutes, provided his team didn’t get their asses handed to them before that.

  It wasn’t worth hanging around and waiting. He had been up almost all night to support his guild and needed to try to get at least two hours of sleep now before he had to get up.

  “System,” he said. “Initiate log-off process.”

  “Initiating log-off,” an automated voice replied. “Please stand still.”

  The statement was redundant, since he couldn’t move, even if he had tried to. Glowing red rings appeared all around his virtual body, holding him in place while a huge timer countdown appeared, almost filling his entire field of view.

  5 - 4 - 3 -2 -1…

  First the pleasant sounds of the birds and waterfalls faded and the music stopped, then the world around him warped as if he were about to be pulled away at an impossible speed. Lights turned into ribbons rushing by him, then everything turned dark.

  “Log-off completed,” the disembodied voice said. “Have a wonderful day!”

  Kai opened his real eyes.

  ***

  As always, everything was blurry at first and his body felt numb, almost as if he had woken from a deep slumber. In fact, when a player entered VR, their body entered a similar state to sleep. That didn’t apply to the brain though. Everything that happened in VR was perceived as real by the brain, which was why long game sessions were exhausting instead of invigorating.

  Kai blinked, then stretched himself, yawning. He didn’t even realize how tired he was. His tongue felt like a piece of sticky sandpaper. He hadn’t drunk anything for hours.

  Slowly, he sat up in his bed. It had been day when he had laid down and connected to the game, now it was pitch-black night. He felt the familiar pull in his neck when the cord hit its maximum length.

  His movements showed routine when he lifted his hand behind his head and unplugged the cord from the port in his body. Like almost everyone else, he had a neuro-plant installed right under his cortex, connected to his mid-brain and nervous system. It was accessible via a small port on his upper neck, right under the skull. The contact was similar to a USB device but much smaller. However, it was easy to connect the cord. Since the contact was magnetic, it basically slipped into place by itself as soon as it came close. But most users plugged themselves in so frequently that they could have stuck the cable into the contact while they were sleeping.

  Kai yawned again. He briefly considered getting up and finding himself some snacks from the kitchen, but then decided otherwise. Instead, he grabbed the soda bottle standing next to his bed and drained it. Then he let himself fall back onto the bed.

  He badly needed some sleep. It had been a damn long session that had ended with a very dissatisfying result for him. Tomorrow, he had another seemingly endless work-day. The thought of it made him grimace in dread. But there was also hope. Maybe tomorrow he would finally get the good news he was waiting for.

  Why was it taking them so long? It should have been a no-brainer. He had scored by far the best in his test group. It had to work out this time!

  Kai tried not to think about that now. He needed to rest. Or he’d accidentally fall asleep on the job tomorrow and cut his finger off, or, worse, get fired.

  Fortunately he was so sleepy that it took him only seconds to fall into a deep slumber.

  Chapter Three

  Less than three hours later, Kai woke from a dreamless sleep. More precisely, he had been woken up. By the sound he probably hated most in the entire world: his alarm clock.

  Slowly, he opened his eyes, his lids feeling heavy like lead.

  “Ugh,” he said, sitting up and holding his head.

  It was 9 a.m. and daylight filled his small room. He hadn’t bothered to close the drapes yesterday. Outside, the sky was overcast with gray clouds hanging deep between the even grayer tenements surrounding the one he lived it, which, too, was gray, of course.

  The system noticed that he was up, and the alarm stopped.

  “Good morning, Kai,” a female computer voice said in a soft and at the same time bossy tone, which was typical for her. “Do you wish me to snooze?”

  “Nope, thanks Alessia. I’m good.”

  “As you wish,” the AI answered while Kai got up from the bed and walked across his small room to the window. “The forecast promises another beautiful day today. Only mildly cloudy with highs of 71 degrees. Chance of rain, 60%. I suggest taking an umbrella.”

  “Hm,” Kai answered, still sleepy, staring through the dirty window. The weather forecast was basically the same every day, all year long. Like in his virtual home, he lived high up, on the 18th floor. But the views in the two worlds couldn’t be more different.

  There wasn’t a green speck to be seen anywhere, no majestic mountains or azure waterfalls. Instead, identical, gray high-rises as far as he could see.

  “Alessia, check emails,” he said after staring into nowhere for a moment.

  “No new emails,” the AI answered at once.

  Kai clenched his fist and bumped it against the window frame in frustration.

  What the hell was taking them so long?

  “You have forty minutes before you need to leave, if you want to catch the train to Central Plaza and be in time for work,” Alessia reminded him, her voice still both soft and bossy.

  “Right,” Kai said, giving himself a mental push. There was no point in standing there and gawking mindlessly. If he got to work late he would lose his job, and if then the email didn’t bring the news he was hoping for, he’d be in trouble.

  “Is the bathroom free?” he asked.

  “It is,” Alessia answered. “Carol left it less than a minute ago.”

  “Thank goodness,” Kai said, opening his drawer and looking for fresh underwear.

  If Carol was in the bathroom, it could easily take an hour until she left it. And she reacted in anything but a friendly way if someone tried to rush her.

  He found a pair of boxers but no matching socks. It was time for laundry again. He hated doing laundry!

  One day he would get a housekeeping robot that would take care of all this shit for him. He told himself that every day.

  “I would advise not to waste time, though,” the AI said. “There’s movement in Jax’s room. He might beat you to it if you don’t hurry up.”

  “Oh crap.”

  He quickly grabbed two socks that didn’t match at all together with his boxers and stormed to the door.

  He made it to the bathroom just in time. Jax was already approaching along the hall. The way he moved suggested he had to be even sleepier than Kai, or maybe the drugs he frequently consumed in the evenings hadn’t worn off yet.

  Jax noticed Kai rushing into the bathroom and shot him an angry glance. “Son of a bitch!”

  “Sorry!” Kai mumbled, locking the door behind him. “I’ll be quick, I promise.”

  “You better be,” Jax said, now right outside the door, a threatening undertone in his voice.

  He was a head taller than Kai and weighed double as much, from the look of him. Although the massive amounts of weed he consumed usually made him lethargic rather than aggressive, he was certainly not the type of guy you wanted to mess with.

  Kai removed his clothes and stepped under the shower. First he heard the unnerving noise the showerhead always made upon activation that sounded like a human sigh, then water began sprinkling over his face and body. It was only lukewarm.

  Kai swore inwardly while grabbing his shampoo. That meant Carol had used up all the hot water again
. Kai had two minutes max until the water turned ice-cold. And he hated cold showers.

  Luckily he was used to being quick about his morning business in the bathroom. He managed to wash his hair and body just in time before the water turned unpleasantly cold.

  The apartment Kai lived in was in poor condition, with mold in the bathroom and kitchen, windows that wouldn’t shut properly and a constantly leaking faucet. The AC had been broken since the day Kai had moved in almost three years ago. Yet the place was so expensive that he had to share it with four other people. Besides Carol and Jax, there were also Caprice and Lizzy, a couple who slept in the living room because the place had only three bedrooms.

  All of them were as different as people could be, but they usually got along somehow.

  Kai sighed, stepping out of the shower. It was only temporary. At least, that was what he had been telling himself since day one.

  He walked in front of the mirror and looked at himself.

  His real-life appearance couldn’t be more different than the character he played in The Scrolls of the Ancients, or TSOTA, his favorite game that took up most of his time. Kai was a short, skinny guy with thick, black hair and deep-brown eyes that could appear almost black. He lifted his arm and inspected his non-existent muscle mass.

  He’d made the decision before to start visiting the gym and get some massive biceps and abs, like his character. Maybe that would get him laid eventually. But staying at home and hanging out in VR was so much more comfortable and exciting that he quickly forgot about his glorious plans.

  Besides, his goal was a different one and he did everything to achieve it. And it was nothing too unusual not to ever have sex at his age. Most of his friends never had – at least not in real life. Although sometimes, when he could hear Caprice and Lizzy through the paper-thin walls…

  Kai flinched as someone banged at the door so forcefully that it shook.

  “Did you flush yourself down the toilet or what’s going on?” he heard Jax’s annoyed voice. “I don’t have all day, man!”