Volper Page 8
A wide, bloody stripe stretched out from the door and deep into the corridor. It seemed to be only five meters away, but to me it looked like three miles. At the point where the bloody path started, the corpses of dead rats were strewn about. Carefully looking around and discovering nothing still alive, I hobbled along the corridor, step by step. A short distance away from the first corpses lay my Recon. Picking it up and immediately reloading it, I felt incredibly relieved: now I could continue the battle. Looking around in search of the second pistol, to my surprise, I couldn’t find it.
I inspected a dozen bodies, and my missing pistol was under one of them. The pistol was fully drenched in blood and incomprehensible scraps of organic origin. In this state, it wasn’t fit for a fight, so I just stuffed it into the holster, which my left hand only managed the second time. Slowly, I moved into the depths of the tunnel, gradually approaching the room where the battle had started, checking for my weapons under the bodies of the rats along the way. I found the Corsair about seven meters from the pistols. After a little torturous effort, flipping the jammed cartridge, I still managed to bring it into a relatively combat-ready state.
Quickly reloading the magazine case, I moved on, stopping near each empty magazine I found to fill it with cartridges. Of course, it was risky to handle magazine cases in the middle of the passage strewn with corpses, constantly waiting for a new attack, but not being able to shoot back is even riskier.
On the way to the hall, I had to turn off the light again, so as not to give myself away. As quietly as possible, I got to the entrance to the hall and gently stuck my head out, looking around. The hall was cluttered all the way to the center with an enormous number of rat corpses. And the hill itself, on the opposite side, was half as large as before and now consisted not of a moving mass of rat bodies, but of rubbish and small bones. Trying to take everything in carefully, I couldn’t find a single rat.
Coming out of the tunnel and getting ready for a new fight, I made a test shot, aimed at the heap of rubbish. To my surprise, after a brief rustling, only six rats came out of the heap. They were in an extremely bad state: filled with holes from bullet wounds, looking like barely moving corpses. One even crawled on its front paws, pulling the back of its body along the floor. Quickly finishing them off after lining my shots up a bit, I began to move slowly to the heap, not lowering the sight from it. Two steps – and then I stopped, two more – and I again froze.
When there were about five meters left, the garbage heap stirred, and a huge body, about a meter and a half at the shoulder, wriggled out. I was already planning on losing my life, when I noticed that this mob was hardly moving. Blocking the passage with its body, it stood still, showing me its mouth filled with large fangs. The system highlighted the mob and left my head spinning.
Rat Dam, Level 15
No, it wasn’t the level that made me puzzled, but a small, absolutely hairless creature, which jumped out from behind its belly. With a sharp movement of its paw, it again pushed the creature behind her, sharply lifting her belly and immediately lowering it. But even during this brief moment, I’d managed to notice the second sign:
Rat Pup, Level 0
It seems to me that this really is a rat's den, even having a nest and pups in it. All the rats, which had tried to bite me to death and, by the way, nearly succeeded, had just been defending their offspring, it seems. I could be mistaken, but for rats, as a species, this is unusual. Although I'm not a biologist, so I'm not sure. This, of course, could be emotional for some, but not for me. Switching the fire mode to automatic, I shot the entire magazine at head of the Rat Dam.
It tried to move toward me, but only managed to crawl all of two meters before dying. Well, what had it expected to happen? Since it had eaten so much and grown so sluggish and enormous, I could’ve possibly killed it with just a knife, without even straining my injured self. I loaded another magazine, switched over to a single fire mode and, taking up the gun, started a fifteen-minute safari to hunt down the small rodents which didn’t even try to run away from me. Having finished off the last one, I received a system notification:
Congratulations! You’ve cleared the spontaneously formed dungeon "The Lair of the Rats." (The additional level has not been cleared)
Award for clearing the level: 20,000 experience, 3,000 credits
Reward for clearing this level alone: 30,000 experience, 4,500 credits
Award for clearing it on your first attempt: 50,000 experience, 10,000 credits
You can report the cleared territory to the nearest outpost to increase its control zone. (The extra level will be cleared by the outpost’s armed forces).
You can leave the dungeon as a hidden location, which allows for the possibility of new monsters being born on its territory. (The extra level could either expand into the entire dungeon or completely disappear).
You can transfer ownership of this dungeon to a clan, but if there are no regular sweeps, the dungeon will once again be given the status of a free location. (The additional level can be cleared by the forces of the clan).
Well, the dev’s imagination certainly runs wild. But I want to know where my bonuses, sweet cookies and super powerful suits are? I feel like I was robbed. Seriously, the number of oddities is only growing, but this isn’t the time to linger on that, I still have to get out of here and get to the outpost. After spending twenty minutes inspecting a heap of rubbish, disillusioned, I moved further along the first tier to survey the room. A lot of units of incomprehensible purpose, it seems, constituted a complex of services. Some had dashboards; others had access to the pipes through hermetically sealed paths. I looked everywhere, even climbed up a pile of devices loosely set near the wall. Sadly, there was nothing interesting in there.
Things were the same on the second tier, but the third one intrigued me. At first glance, it was also empty in terms of trophies, but I was interested in a small bend of the bridge, which was, for some reason, connected to the wall in one place. Coming closer, I lay down on the metal floor and looked under the bridge. That’s strange; there’s no fastening connecting it to the wall. I don’t know if my perception had worked out or it’s just that my trained eye notices every detail, but as a result of the careful examination of the wall, I found a small gap almost in the middle of the bridge’s bend.
The gap divided the wall vertically, into approximately equal halves. I noticed this peculiarity for several reasons. Firstly, it was two and a half meters high. Secondly, along the edges of the gap, the material of the wall became darker, indicating the movement of air, oxidizing the material from which the wall had been made. If it hadn’t been for this dark part, I probably wouldn’t have noticed this gap at all, since it was so tightly fitted. The way to open this door was not apparent; I had to examine all the available spaces with my hands. Almost nuzzling the wall, my fifteen minutes of effort were rewarded with finding a hole, which outlined a small rectangle when I pushed it. After working on it for another couple of minutes, I triggered the opening mechanism. A slight push of the plate into the wall and a shift to the left gave me access to the card scanner, which I figured the right keycard would activate and open the secret door.
“Attention! You’ve found a hiding place," - the message of the system appeared with a slight delay.
Hey, system, you’d better tell me how to open it, rather than describing events that have already happened - I mentally mumbled. Taking a couple of steps back, I sat down on my backpack and stared at the card scanner, thinking about how to crack this lock. Well, I'm not a techie! Blow up something or break it - that's always possible, it’s a piece of cake for me, but sorting out electronics – that’s not my wheelhouse. Still, if I can break it ... With that thought, I took out a knife and went to dig out all the electronics from the wall. After an hour and a half, with judicious use of the knife’s blade and a whole bunch of obscene words and gestures, the card scanner was hanging out on some wires. The wires themselves seemed to lead in different directions,
attached to a circuit board
I figured the card scanner checks the ID, passes the data to the circuit that checks its authenticity and, if it's all right, signals the door to open. The question remains about the essence of the signal: if it’s digital, then all my efforts were a waste of time, if it's electric, then there’s a chance to open the door. Cutting off the wires from the board, I stripped each of them separately and began to short circuit them among themselves, in different combinations. Finally, I got lucky – I heard the noise of the door opening, and picking up Corsair, I prepared for a fight, aiming at the opening. The doors moved a little more into the wall and parted in different directions, finally disappearing into the walls.
Congratulations! You’ve found an ancient cache, but, please, be careful, what awaits you within is not known.
You have acquired the skill of finding caches.
You have acquired the Skill - Mechanical access using tools.
Congratulations! You’ve received an achievement medal - "Overcoming all barriers"!
Conditions: destroy an obstacle that’s preventing you from reaching your target in an unintended manner.
Reward: the opportunity to reach your target.
Is the system mocking me? Well, the skills themselves seem to correspond to my actions, but the reward for the achievement is mind blowing. Once again feeling amazed at the system's screw-ups, I put my backpack on, armed myself and went, limping, through the open door. After walking for about thirty meters, I got into a small cubic room, it was only about six meters long. On the right, there were four bunk beds, and in the corner was a plastic table and two chairs beside it. On the left was a weapon rack, a cabinet and three closed, rectangular boxes. In the far corner there was another small door, and that’s where I went to explore first. Behind the door was a shower room.
Not seeing anything interesting there, I went to examine the rest, hoping for something good. Looking through the first drawer, I’d expected to see anything but the full box of expired, dry rations that I found. Looking at the half-erased date on the package, then in the neural interface for the local year, I was shocked. The cache was 319 years old. Throwing the package back, I went to the second box. I got lucky this time: there were four strange rifles with a long barrel and a digital aim in the box. Under them were two layers of energy batteries. I tried using different batteries with different rifles, but I never got them to work.
It would seem that, over the three hundred years, they’d completely lost their charge. Counting the batteries, I realized that each rifle came with a set of eleven pieces - one main and ten spare batteries. Going through the third box, I found some overalls. It looked to me like they were made from something like soft Kevlar or some kind of composite material. Also, there were goggles there as well and, judging by the thickness of the frame and lenses, they were stuffed full of electronics. Remembering that I was in a game, I transferred one complete set of everything I’d found to my inventory and started to inspect the information of these new items.
Ancient overalls
There is no information.
Weight: 2.7 kg.
Ancient rifle
There is no information.
Weight: 3.3 kg.
Ancient glasses
There is no information.
Weight: 0.4 kg.
An ancient power source
There is no information.
Weight: 0.2 kg.
Well, that sure is a lot of information – I was being ironic, as I felt my patience wearing thin. At least I now know the weight of the items, thanks for that, system. Quickly calculating the weight, I began throwing out the entire stock of food from my backpack, leaving only one ration in there. Gathering everything into my backpack, two sets of items and weapons, which I barely squeezed in, I was already on my way out, but then my eyes glanced at the cabinet, which I had yet to check. I removed the backpack for mobility’s sake and went to the cabinet. I didn’t even pay attention to the weapon rack – I was immediately shown info that told me it was empty. Approaching the cabinet, I began to check all the compartments and lockers, but I was disappointed: I found nothing but dust there. Picking up the backpack again, I headed for the exit. It would be necessary to return immediately after the doctors have treated me, so I could pick up the remaining two sets. Leaving the hiding place, I removed all traces of my breaking in, throwing all the extra items inside the passage. I again short circuited the wires, waited until the doors were closed and I saw the niche in which the card scanner had been.
It took me an hour and a half, due to my stumbling gait, before I finally got to the exit. I stopped at the last turn, thinking things over, because I wanted to get into the extra level, but at the same time, I had nothing to destroy those tentacles with. After hesitating for a couple of minutes, I moved on to the exit, filled with regret. Once again I tied my backpack to my leg, and crawled through the inconvenient hole with a pistol in my hand. Already in the middle of the road, I thought I should turn the headlight off, so as not to reveal my presence. Having reached the edge of the hole, I didn’t hurry to get out, letting my eyes get used to the brighter environment, and at the same time listening to my surroundings. A few minutes later, when my eyes no longer hurt from the light, I was about to get out of the hole, but I stopped when I overheard a conversation:
- Are you sure we should ambush him here?"
- Yes, don’t be afraid, my friend, everything’ll be fine! We only have to fire five shots!
Judging by the sound of stones crumbling, they’d climbed a hill of construction debris, with a good view of the hole that I was sitting in. After a couple of minutes of panting, they moved a little to the right of the hole, evidently hiding behind the top of the pile, disguised and waiting for someone on the road.
- "Listen, Bent, are you sure that they’ll let us into this gang of NPCs?" - The first voice began complaining and being pessimistic again.
- “Damn it, you heard them yourself - we kill ten replicants and get their belongings, then they will accept us and reload the neurointerface, so that what we’ve done doesn’t appear in our info. The system itself won’t be deceived, but the other players will remain clueless. And then we’ll advance through the ranks. I think there are cool rewards waiting for us if we do.
- Bent, look, two noobies are coming.
- Be quiet! You shoot after me, but don’t fire the whole magazine, like you did last time.
- Yes, I remember, I remember. Short bursts, don’t leave my finger on the trigger for more than a second and a half… You've already told me this a million times.
- “Yes, now be quiet! They are already approaching,” the one called Bent hissed, and his accomplice fell silent, waiting for the victims.
CHAPTER VII: AN AGREEMENT
I was lying and pondering –not about what to do next, that was quite simple. I was thinking about this new information I’d found out. Given that you can make changes to the interface, there’s a question of how much you ought to trust the information that the system gives you about a player or someone else you meet in the game. So, this game is a haven for various spies, saboteurs and gangs as well. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough information to go on. I can’t really consider the possibility of using this peculiarity of the game, yet. And then the shooting started. It would seem the criminals were already busy dealing with their victims, so it was time for me to leave.
As soon as I crawled out of the hole, I pulled out my backpack as well and quickly untied it from my foot, without taking my eyes off the two players, who were sitting with their backs to me and firing somewhere in the direction of the road. They were amateur players, of course. They hadn’t even checked the area behind them. Springing an ambush without even having any escape routes was just sloppy. So I decided I would punish them for their carelessness. I unhooked the Corsair and aimed it at the back of each of the losers, opening fire. Giving a glance at the logs, I grunted contentedly. It appears that shooting unprotec
ted vital organs causes huge critical hits, whether it’s with rats or players. The system awarded me some experience and gave me credit for the murder of two criminals.
- “Hey, Mr. Dick, is there anyone alive out there?” - I shouted, without sticking my head out, since I didn’t want to risk taking a bullet to the noggin.
- “Go fuck yourself!” – I heard the reply.
"If you can answer me, that means you’re alive," I continued, not paying any attention to the obscenities, putting on my backpack as I spoke. "Dickhead, the noobies who shot at you were killed by me! You can take their belongings; I’m now going to get out of here, along the wall, and move on to the outpost. If one of you brainless motherfuckers tries to do me any harm, I'll arrange for you to respawn. Do we understand each other?”
Yes, I'm being very rude, but either they’re smart and they’ll let me go, or I'll shoot them until they’re more lead than person. A moment later, I got their reply:
"Well, if everything is as you said - then we’ll let you go in peace!"
That's strange: they agreed too quickly. Why didn’t they try to check if I was being truthful? Yes, even a trivial question like "Are you telling the truth?" would’ve been better. Picking up the submachine gun and getting ready, aiming in their direction, I began to move slowly along the wall. Coming out of the cover of a heap of construction debris, I adjusted the aim of my gun, pointing it at the rusty frame of some kind of machine, which had formerly been a kind of transport. I understood that that was the only place that could serve as cover. Looking closely, I saw a weapon sticking out between the metal elements. Continuing to move sideways along the wall, I gradually left the cover behind. When I saw the two player team, I realized that they were hunkered down and waiting for me. I froze. Now it was clear why they’d accepted my conditions so readily.