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

by A. K. Mocikat

  Kai looked at him in anticipation.

  “My friend, you’re going to learn how to open and use the console,” Topher said in a tone as if he was about to reveal the biggest secret of the universe. “And the best thing is, it’s universal! Once you learn how to access it, you can use it in any game.”

  “Ok…” Kai said slowly. “What exactly is the console?”

  Topher let a beat pass before he spoke to show the importance of his next sentence.

  “It’s basically your super-power. And will save your ass more than once. You’ll see. It might even save your life.”

  Kai watched and listened attentively. Although he wasn’t much older than him, Topher almost appeared like a sage to him at that moment.

  “They told you this is a high-risk job, didn’t they?” he asked.

  “Yes, I signed a waiver.”

  “The gimp you’re wearing in real life now will protect your body from most injuries, but the thing is, there’s no protective suit for your brain. Severe glitches in a game can cause brain damage, seizures, strokes, or even death.”

  Kai felt his hair standing up. All juvenile casualness was now gone from Topher’s voice.

  “I’m not telling you that to scare you,” he said. “I want you to understand that this isn’t a game. Well, of course, this is a game. But our job isn’t.”

  “I understand.” Kai tried to make his voice sound firm.

  “And if it weren’t for the console, testers would drop like flies. Which is the reason why the commands are universal and can be applied to any game, no matter the developer. By entering our system earlier, the console clearance has been added to your neuro-plant automatically. It’s a tiny but highly encrypted piece of code. Every game will automatically recognize this sequence and give you console access. Think OPEN CONSOLE.”

  Kai did and saw the result instantly.

  The game HUD vanished and was replaced by a command-line interface with a blinking black cube at its end.

  “Whoa,” Kai said. “Is that…”

  “Yep, it’s your personal open sesame into the game engine.”

  Kai felt a bit overwhelmed. Game engines were like the holy grail of every game developer, strictly secured by many security measures. For a gamer fanatic like him, entering the command-line of a game engine was like Christmas. Or sex. Or both at once.

  “What do I do with it?”

  “Do you see the virtual keyboard in front of you? You actually need to type in the command. You can’t just thought-command the console.”

  “Ok, what do I type?”

  “For now, you’ll only be able to use two commands, but those are essential. One is >enter_dev_mode. It will instantly stop the game and bring you back to the secure dev mode we just came from. However, keep in mind that there’s no dev mode in multiplayer. At least, not like this.”

  “Makes sense,” Kai thought out loud.

  “The other one is your life insurance, Kai. >enter_god_mode.”

  “Woohoo, I can enter god mode?” Kai was in utter fanboy mode now.

  It happened from time to time that hackers implemented the god mode cheat – which made the player immune to any damage- into popular games, but this was usually highly illegal and could result in a permanent ban from X-Perience, which was basically a ban from online gaming. To legally enter god mode at any time – that was a dream!

  Topher smiled. “Yes, you can. Type it in.”

  Kai did. The console closed instantly after he hit enter on the virtual keyboard.

  But nothing changed. He still felt and looked exactly the same.

  “Yeah, I know, everyone thinks they’ll instantly turn into Superman but that’s not how it works,” Topher laughed. “Step into the road. Go on!”

  Kai hesitated for a second. Even though he knew that this was only a virtual world, Topher’s warning about how dangerous unfinished games could be had stuck in his brain. But then he saw the team lead watching him, gave himself a mental push and stepped into the busy street.

  Two futuristic sports cars raced toward him, and Kai needed all his strength of will not to leap out of harm’s way. He couldn’t prevent himself from clenching his teeth and grimacing though.

  The cars didn’t slow down a bit or try to avoid him. Obviously the AI was programmed to strictly follow its path here, no matter what. Suddenly just as they were almost within touching distance of Kai, they both crashed into an invisible obstacle at high speed. Due to their momentum, the impact was so massive that the vehicles were completely destroyed.

  “Sweet, isn’t it?” Topher said.

  Kai laughed. “It is!”

  “God mode creates a boundary around you which is impenetrable. There’s another mode that would show you the exact vectors, but you don’t need access to that. At least for now. And there’s this… watch!”

  He stepped into the street in the midst of the speeding cars. But instead of hitting him or an invisible obstacle, they simply passed through him, as if he were a ghost.

  “Clipping mode,” Topher said, spreading his arms. “There’s much more, but only higher-level techs have access to that. The best of the best can fix the code on the run.”

  Kai remembered the hacker with the Level Ten team he had witnessed in action and nodded.

  “Ok, let’s go and try to kill some stuff,” Topher said.

  “Do we always use god mode?” Kai asked.

  “Nope. It’s only for speed runs and emergencies. Otherwise, we’re supposed to test all aspects of the game, taking damage, dying and respawning included. Besides, god mode can be tricky in MMOs. Sometimes it interferes with the game mechanics and won’t function as it should. Come on!”

  The game HUD was back in Kai’s field of view, and some text flashed through his vision.

  New Objective: Enter the target area and eliminate all hostiles.

  Optional: Stay unnoticed.

  Kai followed Topher, who was sprinting ahead. They both ran through the seemingly endless maze of glass and chrome with inhuman speed, and Kai noticed how incredibly realistic the rays of light appeared when reflected from the glass towers and hitting his eyes. Turning his head, Kai could see his own reflection in the windows they sped past. Even his default avatar looked great in the black combat suit, which was iconic for the game series. Slowly, the environment changed from a city of light, beauty and perfection to a shadier area with older and lower buildings.

  Contrary to most RPGs, stamina dropping when sprinting wasn’t an issue in shooters, and they quickly arrived at the destination marked in red on the 3D mini-map displayed in the right lower corner of the HUD.

  Entering restricted area!

  “We’re not shitting around with stealth gameplay, we’re going full Rambo,” Topher said. “I want to see you in action.”

  “Copy that!”

  “You take the left, I’ll take the right flank. This is one of the first missions in the game, so it should be a piece of cake… but before we rush in, please disable god mode. The command for that is >exit_god_mode.”

  Kai did as he was asked.

  “Done.”

  They took off in opposite directions. The target area had a very typical design for this kind of game. The objective marker pointed at a run-down warehouse, surrounded by containers, trucks and other obstacles which could be used as cover.

  “You know the game mechanic from the previous installments,” Topher said directly in his ear. “Scan the area first, then attack. So far, the scanning has proven to be the buggiest feature in the game. Let’s see how it goes for you.”

  Kai ran into cover behind a low, half-collapsed wall, then activated the scanner. His vision changed into something that vaguely resembled infra-red but was more than that, just as he remembered from the last game. Two dozen figures appeared around the compound and inside the warehouse, highlighted in red. Additionally, their bodies showed their blood vessels, and they appeared like creatures consisting of blood and neural systems. When Ka
i focused his vision directly on the closest one, he saw data running over his field of view.

  Thug

  Faction: Implant Harvester

  Health: 360/360

  Condition: Good

  Danger: Moderate

  Scanning over the other hostiles, he saw similar stats. The blood vessels were interrupted by augmented body parts. Some of the hostiles had one or more prosthetics and other body modifications.

  “Attack when you’re ready and I’ll join in,” Topher said.

  Quickly, Kai opened the weapon and character menu to see what he had there.

  Name: Kai

  Faction: Guardian Angels

  Rank: Rookie

  Health: 1000/1000

  Armor: 600/600

  Weapon Equipped: Pistol

  Ammo: 300/300

  Abilities:

  Angelblades: Turn your arms into swords

  Rush: Allows you to move ten times faster than a human (duration: 10 sec/cooldown: 10 sec)

  Scanner: Detects hostiles

  Drone: (locked)

  Kai smiled. Oh yeah, he remembered the Angelblades. They were one of the most fun features the game had to offer.

  In the lower right corner, he saw the stats of his cyborg body, equipped with titanium legs and arms, silicate muscles and other gadgets that came in handy in combat. The status of his synthetic spider-silk body armor was at 100%. He was as ready as he could be.

  Usually, he wouldn’t have given that much thought to details and simply stormed the compound, but this time, after all, he was playing with his boss, so he wanted to make a good impression.

  Topher had said he wanted to go in full Rambo. Kai wasn’t sure what that reference meant, but he understood the context. It was his favorite way to play a shooter: jump in and kill everyone.

  Kai drew his pistol and leaned out of cover. The HUD now showed a crosshair that moved slightly when he aimed it at an enemy. He focused his cybernetic eyes on the thug and automatically zoomed closer. Now that he had exited the scanner mode, he could see the man’s face close up. His brown hair was moving in the summer breeze and sweat had formed on his forehead. An unkempt beard spread over his lower face yet left a shiny metal jaw uncovered. One of his eyes had been replaced with a red-glowing eye prosthetic.

  What an ugly son of a bitch, Kai thought.

  Yet, at the same time, he was amazed how perfectly human the NPC looked. Nothing in his appearance or movements looked artificial in any way, and Kai had to remind himself that this was nothing but an AI-powered construct.

  Kai pulled the trigger. Three consecutive shots hit the man straight in the face. Blood sprayed in all directions as the man’s health bar dropped to zero and he collapsed.

  Headshot!

  Critical hit!

  “Well done!” Topher acknowledged. “Now let’s party.”

  He was right. The party started immediately.

  Alarmed by the shots and dead body, several thugs turned in Kai’s direction and opened fire.

  Again, he leaned out of cover and shot. His bullets struck down a bulky man with metal legs who was approaching him swiftly. It was too difficult to aim for the head when the target was moving, so Kai focused on the torso. After the fourth hit, the man collapsed.

  An experienced player, Kai knew that staying in his cover would be a bad idea. Game AI had come a long way and wasn’t as stupid and easily outsmarted as it had been in earlier times, especially in AAA shooters.

  Two hostiles tried to outflank him. He leaped out of cover and activated Rush, which made him run ten times faster than any human NPC, although only for a limited time of ten seconds.

  That was more than enough to sprint into cover behind a corroded container. Bullets riddled the cracked concrete behind him, but he was way too fast to be hit. A second later, he was in cover and eliminated two more hostiles from there.

  Euphoria filled him.

  This is nothing but a dream job!

  He felt an impact and a current ran through his whole body as if he’d been electrocuted.

  Shit!

  One second of losing focus had been enough to get hit. This game had a high level of difficulty! He ducked, avoiding getting hit again just in time as bullets riddled the container above his face.

  Red numbers flashed through his vision, then:

  Suit integrity at 75%!

  Kai activated the scanner and saw two snipers on the roof aiming at him.

  Not good. Snipers could cause heavy damage.

  His augmented ears indicated footsteps from behind. Turning his head, he saw two more hostiles approaching from there. If he stayed where he was and tried to kill the snipers on the roof, they would get to him and cause heavy damage before he could take them out. He had to move.

  Kai leaped out of cover and activated Rush once again, charging the two thugs trying to ambush him. This was the perfect occasion to test melee combat.

  With a thought, he activated Angelblades.

  Two long, razor-sharp titanium blades emerged directly from his wrists. Shimmering in the sunlight, they had turned his hands into deadly weapons.

  Kai thrust them simultaneously into both approaching attackers, impaling them from the abdomen up to their necks. Blood sprayed into his face, clouding his vision, but it then quickly turned translucent before it vanished. Still on the move, Kai ripped his blades out from the two dead bodies and roll-dodged into the next cover.

  Good old roll-dodge came in handy in almost every game.

  Still in Rush mode, he leaned out of cover and took aim at the two men on the roof, ten times faster than them.

  First he eliminated the one with the sniper rifle with three headshots, then shot his companion in the chest. The man’s health sank to 150/360. He wasn’t dead yet, but he’d lost his balance and fell from the roof. The impact with the ground smashed him, finishing him off.

  “Sweet!” Topher commented.

  Kai saw him approaching from the flank, eliminating two hostiles in his way with his rifle.

  “The front yard is clear, let’s finish off the rest inside. Did you encounter anything out of the ordinary?”

  “Not sure,” Kai said. “It might be that the scanner didn’t show me the two shooters on the roof, but I’m not sure. Maybe I just didn’t notice them.”

  Topher nodded. “Ok, we check that once we cleared out everything. Keep your eyes open.”

  He ran ahead toward the side entrance of the warehouse and kicked in the door with such force that it fell off its hinges. Activating the scanner again, Kai followed him into the building.

  Inside, it was dark. The few windows had been covered with black paint to hide whatever shady business the gang was conducting in this facility. But as Kai remembered from the previous games, darkness was no problem for his augmented cyborg eyes. They adjusted to night vision automatically.

  A slight bluish glow appeared around him and Topher as they took cover behind iron pillars. Glancing at his teammate, Kai saw that his eyes were glowing in neon blue. The iconic eyes were what had given the game series its name.

  Objective updated: Rescue hostages!

  Kai activated the scanner once again and inspected his surroundings. Five hostiles were marked in red. In the rear part of the building, another seven figures were marked in green. The hostages they had to rescue.

  “I get the hostages, you kill everyone,” Topher instructed. “If we don’t split, the dude guarding the hostages will start killing them and the objective fails. I’ve played this many times,” he added with a chuckle.

  “Ok,” Kai said, “Run. I’ll cover you.”

  Without wasting time, he left his cover and sprinted toward four of the thugs who were located in his close proximity. The fifth one was on the other side of the hall and was probably the one guarding the civilians.

  Kai opened fire and struck down the hostile closest to him while on the run. Only three to go, two of whom were hiding behind an old, corroded machine. The third one, howe
ver, could pose a bigger challenge than the rest. When Kai ran his scanner over the bulky man, he saw:

  Gunnar Thorne

  Faction: Implant Harvester

  Health: 600/600

  Condition: Excellent

  Danger: High

  He wasn’t quite a boss, but he had a name, which always indicated that the hostile NPC was at least a heavy grunt.

  Kai rolled out of cover, was on his feet lightning-fast and lunged at the two thugs.

  Silicate muscle structure integrity at 60%

  The text flashed over his HUD as he directed extra energy into his legs and jumped – impossibly high.

  With ease, he leaped over the cover the two hostiles were hiding behind and executed them from above. Another bullet hit him, this time in his side.

  High-caliber impact! Suit integrity 20%. Biological tissue damaged.

  It felt like a bolt had hit him. Surprisingly real – and unpleasant. His health bar dropped by 30%.

  Damn, this Heavy was equipped with some exquisite high-caliber weapon.

  Despite the damage he had just taken, he landed on his feet and reached cover just in time before he could take another hit. Kai reloaded his gun and waited for the hostile to advance. In most cases, the AI of mini-bosses was scripted to do that.

  He was right. After shooting two salvos at him, the Heavy left his position and advanced. High-caliber projectiles crashed into the corroded machinery Kai was using as cover. It was clear that it wouldn’t withstand such a barrage for long.

  Kai decided to go full frontal – or do a Rambo, as Topher had called it. He jumped forward and opened fire on the hostile.

  Not able to aim as precisely on the move as he would have from his cover, he focused his attack on the Heavy’s torso instead of the head. He managed to land three direct hits, and his opponent’s health dropped by 35%.

  Shit, that wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.

  The NPC returned fire, and again, Kai experienced an unpleasant sensation as bullets hit his chest, hip and left leg. The damage report flashed through his view, but he ignored it. It was all or nothing now. Another one of his bullets hit the man in the chest and made him stagger.