World of the Changed
by Vasily Mahanenko
Book 1: No Mistakes
Release - January 6, 2020
Pre-order - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081CVZNL9
Chapter 1
Congratulations!
You discovered a
dungeon during the prerelease!
Once the official
game version is released, you’ll get a well-earned reward.
And you’ll get an
even better reward if you beat the dungeon!
Yeah, bite me,
sis! Like I was ever going to be getting you a new phone…you’ll be fine with
your old one. Next time you’ll think twice before making a bet with your
elders!
“Mark are you
screwing around on your phone again? Doesn’t that ever get old? You should try
something useful instead of turning your brain to mush,” Chris muttered
angrily. Another time, hearing the boss say something like that might have
gotten to me, but not right then. He wasn’t mad at me or my phone; it was the
trip. The road we were on barely deserved the name. The pavement had ended a
couple kilometers back, and it was like the car had suddenly stumbled onto the
scene from an old war movie. Dirt, mud, potholes. I could practically hear the
shells whistling overhead, the wounded groaning nearby. Sheisse, sheisse,
nicht kapitulieren…
“You’ve got to be
kidding me!” Chris exclaimed when something scraped against the bottom of the
car, which shuddered to a halt. “Whatever, we’re here. Time to walk.”
“What about our
stuff?” I hit the pause button begrudgingly and dropped my phone into my
pocket. The release was just a few hours away, and I’d been counting on beating
that dungeon. Could the timing be any worse?
“We’ll get them
later—the presentation isn’t for another three hours. It’s a kilometer to the
village. Let’s go.”
I opened the door
and glanced down sadly at my white sneakers. It wasn’t the death they’d dreamed
of. Anything but that. The grayish-red clay was almost up to the car’s running
boards. That damn GPS and the skip traffic function! Where could there
possibly be traffic here a hundred miles from the city?! And what kind of VIP
village needs a children’s entertainer? They didn’t have enough money for their
resort?
There was a
squelch, followed instantly by a string of curses from the boss. His shoes,
which cost a month’s salary for me, had just introduced themselves to the local
scenery. That was my signal. If Chris saw that I was holding back, he would
fire me and hire Joker. The bastard had been gunning for my job for a long
time, and I wasn’t about to let him have it. Ignoring the new hue my shoes took
on, not to mention my quickly soaked socks, I went over to the trunk and pulled
out two large bags. Chris was the entertainer. And a good one. The kind that
was invited to perform even in the rarest of air at the top of the social
hierarchy. And me? I was just the guy he had carry everything around, strong,
durable, and cheap. You don’t have to pay much when you’re talking about a
student working a side job in their spare time. The only thing that cheered me
up was that my extensive collection of autographs was going to pick up some new
entries, making it even more valuable. Chris didn’t accept just any invitation.
Especially when it involved trudging through the mud.
The look on the
face of the guard at the security checkpoint didn’t bode well. Instead of the
usually tubby character who’d been fired from government service for drinking
and was happy spending the rest of his days doing crossword puzzles with the
button to open the gate next to him, the guard was a hulking character with the
figure of a young Schwarzenegger. Angular cheekbones played nervously, barely
visible behind his collar. Pointedly sliding the bolt back on his automatic, he
barked threateningly.
“No begging! Get
out of here!”
I ducked behind the
boss, not a fan of people pointing weapons at me. Chris, not quite the coward I
was, just pulled out a piece of paper.
“We were invited.
Here’s the pass.”
Another fighter
stepped out of the checkpoint, that one a copy of the first. Just as powerfully
built, he was rough-looking and dangerous. He leveled his gun at us and
signaled to his partner, who only then stepped over to Chris. They don’t
play around! After studying the document and shining an ultraviolet lamp on
it, the first character walked my boss over to the checkpoint. I found myself
there a couple minutes later. Our bags were disemboweled, our pockets were
turned inside out, we were stripped down to our underwear, and it was only then
that boredom replaced the vigilance in the guards’ eyes. Their job was done. We
weren’t terrorists, and they could return to whatever it was they’d been doing
before we got there. As I stuffed everything back into the bags, I noticed the
first guard pull out his phone. A familiar intro popped up on the screen. I
wasn’t the only one enjoying the new game.
The castle we
arrived at was built with a clear hint at the owner’s taste for Beauty and
the Beast. The two structures weren’t similar; it was that the master,
having lost his true love, built himself a tower, locked himself up inside like
the beast, and got to work waiting for his beloved beauty. Judging by the merry
laughter coming from around one of the pools, there were quite a few beauties
there auditioning for the role. The owner himself was a homely weed in the
surrounding flowerbed: short, pudgy, and bald with sagging cheeks. When he saw
us, he waved a fat hand welcomingly. A butler showed up beside us instantly to
bow to Chris.
“The master asked
me to help you freshen up. Come with me.”
Then he turned to
me.
“I don’t have any
instructions for you. Margot, please take our guest to the summer veranda and
make sure he washes up. Scrub the path, too. We wouldn’t want anyone getting
dirty.”
That last thing he
said was a reference to the trail my wet pants were leaving behind them. I
squirmed under the butler’s gaze. It was like he was looking at empty space.
“Mark, can you get
the drone ready?” Chris looked at me inquiringly. That was something he usually
took care of, but we were running out of time before the event.
“I’ve seen you do
it a hundred times,” I replied frankly.
“Great. Get
yourself ready and take care of that—and hurry.”
“On it.” I sounded
better than I felt. It was one thing to launch a toy; it was quite another to
be responsible for a piece of professional equipment worth north of ten
thousand bucks.
The girl with the
beautiful foreign name of Margot coupled it with a clearly provincial nose
spattered with freckles. She led me off to the veranda and handed me some clean
clothes that were neither new nor my size, though I didn’t have much choice in
the matter. After washing up, I got to work on the drone. Four blades hummed
rhythmically as the unit soared into the sky. The weathervane on the roof of
the villa twitched from side to side, but that didn’t worry me. The drone’s
powerful motors and 17-inch blades held its position even in a strong wind. I’d
flown it before, so I took the liberty of giving it a test run around the villa,
pausing above the pool to admire the beauties clustered there before coming in
for a landing. And that was all that was needed from me until the end of the
event. Chris’ baggage had been hauled to the location, the drone was ready, and
I wasn’t standing out. Later, I’d have to collect it all and get the car out of
the mud—the boss certainly wasn’t going to deal with that. I was the perfect
employee.
There was only one
thing on my mind right then. Settling onto one of the couches, I pulled out my
phone and frowned—the battery was down to 30%, and my charger was in the car. Although…that
should be enough. I checked my email to find nothing urgent or important.
Squirrel had texted me that she was off to see a friend and wouldn’t be back until
that evening. That meant there was nothing to eat at home, as the little one
would sooner go hungry than make something. With no messages on social media, I
tapped the icon with a tremor of anticipation. The intro flashed by, the rest
of the world faded away, and my stalker stepped into the dungeon.
Congratulations!
You beat a dungeon
during the prerelease!
Once the official
game version is released, you’ll get a well-earned reward.
A satisfied smile
spread across my face. There were just twenty minutes left before the official
release—I’d made it in time.
World of the
Changed exploded onto the market out of nowhere, suddenly becoming all gamers
everywhere could think about. The astounding graphics, the intuitive controls,
the lack of microtransactions, the ubiquitous advertising… It wasn’t an hour
before World of the Changed was on every TV, every radio station, every bus.
Millions and millions of users were awaiting the official release to jump in
and start destroying mutants and monsters. Among them were my sister and me. We
quickly made it to the tenth and final level available in the prerelease, after
which Squirrel announced that there was nothing else to do. Sure, it was
interesting, but the real fun was coming later. I’d just proven her wrong,
however. And not only had I found the real fun; I’d also been able to beat it,
taking out a champion and collecting some kind of bonus for myself. Even if it
was meaningless bells and whistles, it was still nice.
We were down to the
final minutes before the release. The action was kicking up around the castle,
laughter was breaking out, fireworks were soaring skyward, everyone was rushing
over to wish the master a happy birthday, and girls were running around in
their bathing suits. I was out of the action, the perfect place for me. Parties
like that weren’t my speed.
“Here you go.”
Margot appeared to place an enormous tray down on the table. Lids were lifted,
and the savory aroma of meat hit my nostrils. My mouth watered treacherously.
The last time I’d had food that good was… Well…probably the last time mom
cooked for us… When she was still alive.
A lump formed in my
throat. It had been two years since my parents died, and I still hadn’t gotten
used to it. Squirrel had been thirteen. They were going to take her away to a
children’s home, but my uncle stepped in and helped set up custody. As a
twenty-year-old, it was hard for me to take on responsibility for the family. I
did it, though. I didn’t drop out of school, and I found a job. There wasn’t
money for the little joys like food and alcohol, which was why I used games to
relax. The best were the ones where you didn’t have to pay. And that’s why
World of the Changed seemed perfect—I’d spent the previous month investing all
my free time in it.
“Who are you to
Chris?” Margot asked as she sat down on the edge of the couch and brushed back
her curls. I smiled carnivorously—it was the same as always. Chris got the fame
and glory; I got the curious servant girls. There were no pangs of conscience,
either, as I was a twenty-two-year-old not planning on giving up sex for at
least the coming forty years.
“Oh, that’s a long
story,” I whispered back mysteriously. Margot scooched closer and bent over to
hear me better. Her face approached, and I was measuring her up for a kiss when
her pupils suddenly dilated. She let out a wild scream. I lurched
backward—Margot was screeching so loudly that it sounded like she was being
torn to pieces. The girl threw herself onto the floor in a fit of convulsions,
her squeals continuing. Other cries came from the other side of the door. I
jumped up and looked out the window—everyone was yelling and rolling around on
the ground. Men in slick suits, girls in bikinis, guards, all of them. A chill
ran down my spine. What’s going on?! Is it terrorists?
Suddenly, my phone
vibrated. An enormous green button reading Activate antidote and a
countdown appeared on the screen.
30… 29… 28…
I shuddered and
looked back at Margot, who was no longer making any sounds. Something strange
was happening to her. She was still screaming, only her screams were silent.
The convulsions were still there, too—she twisted her arm so violently that I
heard the horrifying sound of crunching bones. But that wasn’t even the worst
part. Her pretty face was starting to swell, becoming blue, deformed, and
engorged.
My phone vibrated
so hard it jumped around the table.
15… 14…
Complete
bewilderment came over me. I couldn’t do anything to help Margot, but there was
no point just standing there next to her. What if it’s contagious? A
biological weapon, maybe? I grabbed my crazed phone only to almost drop it.
I didn’t know this model could vibrate like that. To shut it up, I
jabbed the damn button. The vibrations stopped.
But that didn’t
make anything better.
For a few moments,
I forgot everything—Margot and her suffering, the people on the other side of
the door, even myself. Because a small, two-milliliter syringe filled with a
green liquid had appeared in my hand. It did so gradually, almost as if the
product of a high-speed 3D printer. A fire burst into my chest, and I
remembered how important oxygen is to humans. After taking a deep breath, I
hurled the mysterious thing onto the couch. What the…?!
But the devil had
gotten into my phone. Another green button appeared: Watch video. In
hopes of bringing reason back to the device, I gave in and…
Yet another curse
escaped my lips. It was hard to wrap my mind around the image on the phone.
It was me in the
video. My face, the clothes I was wearing, even Margot twitching in the
background. On the screen, I went over to the syringe, picked it up, and
plunged it into my leg. A green check mark appeared, though that wasn’t the end
of the video. It rewound to the beginning. Once again, there I was, standing
there with a grin on my face as I looked at the syringe. I turned away
demonstratively, after which I dropped to my knees and started writhing around
the same way Margot was. The camera dropped slightly lower to show the girl. My
hair stood on end. Margot was gone, in her place some kind of beast barely
reminiscent of a human. It had enormous teeth, long claws, spikes all over its
body, and deformed, bulging eyes. The arms and legs had turned thick, stubby,
and lizard-like. Snapping its jaws, what used to be Margot leaped up to the
ceiling, threw the door open, and disappeared. The camera went back to show my
bluish face. An X appeared to show that I’d failed the mission, and the video
ended. It was replaced by another countdown.
30… 29… 28…
I looked over at
Margot and nearly vomited. The girl’s face was exactly like the one I’d seen in
the video. Her body was also starting to change, turning from human into
monster. Her right arm burned intolerably. I held a hand up in front of my
face, and that time I couldn’t hold back the spasm—my fingers were lengthening
and turning blue. That did it. In one leap, I was next to the couch, where I
grabbed the syringe and thrust it into my leg. There was a flash of pain, the
world around me started to spin, and I was swallowed by an encroaching
darkness.
Waking up suddenly,
I found that I didn’t even have a headache. The first thing that occurred to me
was how much I had to have drunk to have a dream like that one. But that
thought was chased away quickly when I looked up and saw the drooling beast
staring hungrily at me from a couple meters away. I had to wonder if my
underwear was still clean. The scraps of clothing and the beads around its thick
neck told me that the beast really was what was left of the cute girl. A third
thought hit me, and I quickly held my hand up to my face. A wave of relief
washed through me—my fingers showed no signs of a bluish tint or deformation. Hooray!
There was at least some good news in all the chaos.
Once again, my
phone buzzed, and the monster growled menacingly. It crouched like a cat ready
to pounce, though something held it back. I pulled my gaze away to look at my
phone. Wondering fleetingly if it really was mine, I ignored that idea. What
was on the screen was far more important.
Welcome to World
of the Changed!
Number of
registered players: 105,778,331. An additional 500 million creatures were
selected randomly from the number of former players and added to the list of
players on Earth.
Have fun!
It took a while for
that to register. So, this is the release? What, is this an alien invasion?
The whole thing was a plot to enslave Earth? But why wouldn’t they just make
everyone monsters then? Why make it so complicated?
The game will
begin in ten minutes.
Get to know the
status table for your character.
I automatically
tapped the button that came up, and it was followed by a small table:
Status
table
|
||||
Name
|
Mark
Derwin
|
|||
Coins
|
0
|
Level
|
0
|
|
Titles
and ranks
|
||||
None
|
||||
Attributes
|
||||
Strength
|
1
|
|||
Stamina
|
1
|
|||
Agility
|
1
|
|||
Skills
|
||||
Pistol
shooting
|
1
|
|||
Before I really got
a chance to study it, a new window popped up:
Because you did a
great job during the prerelease, the following bonuses are accessible to you:
Beginner. For
getting to the highest level (3 coins and 50% off all items at the store for
two hours).
Small. For finding
a dungeon (8 coins).
Medium. For
beating a Champion (12 coins).
Large. For beating
a dungeon (KORT-I energy pistol).
Skill: Pistol shooting
+1 (1).
Loyalty bonus. The
game was open on your phone when it launched (Attribute syringe).
Would you like to
accept your bonuses?
And there were the
two bonuses, one a green check mark and the other a red X. There was no doubt
in my mind which I was going to pick—the green button swirled away. The space
around me drifted oddly. Two items appeared in my palm: a familiar syringe
filled with a green liquid and a miniature pistol. Almost like I’d slipped out
of reality for a second, my heart stopped at I gazed down. That’s some kind
of magic! The pistol fit my right hand perfectly, almost as if made from an
impression. Of course, it was unusual, with neither a bolt nor a safety. Something
more like a blaster from a fantasy movie.
One minute until
the game launch.
Careful! There’s
an aggressive monster within three meters of you.
Get ready for battle and remember that there are no respawns in World of
the Changed!
Chapter 2
A pungent smell hit
my nostrils. I almost sneezed. The monster’s saliva dripped onto the floor,
bubbled, and hissed, kicking up a green mist. Its eyes fixed on me, it once again
crouched, tucked its tail under it, and got ready to spring forward.
I aimed my KORT-I,
but I couldn’t pull the trigger. What if everything that was going on was a
figment of my sick imagination? What if there weren’t any monsters, and I had
just lost my marbles? Margot might have been trying to tell me
something. I was ignoring her, holding an arm out to protect myself. And I
wouldn’t have been holding a pistol since there was no way I could have found
something like it around there. But which option was more realistic? The one my
eyes were telling me was true or the one my brain was proposing?
Suddenly, there was
a burst of automatic gunfire and a few explosions off in the distance. The
monster perked up its ears like some kind of watchdog before turning to look
out the window. I followed its example and…
That was a mistake.
My chest sagged under the weight of a heavy blow, ribs crunched, and I flew
backward against the wall, yelling from a pain in my leg. The carnivorous beast
had ripped an enormous chunk of flesh off my hip and was swallowing it whole.
Chewing be damned. I couldn’t move as the pain shot through me,
and with my last shreds of consciousness I pulled the pistol’s trigger. Short
blue rays shot out of the barrel. The monster shrieked, trying to jump away,
but it just toppled back onto the ground. My first shot hit an appendage, my
second slammed into the body, and my third finished it off. But more
blue streaks continued pouring into the corpse—it took an effort for me to stop
shooting.
A shiver ran
through my body. The awful wound on my leg was bleeding. When I
brought my sleeve across my mouth, it came away slick with blood, and my ribs
were certainly broken. Breathing was difficult. Medical shows from TV popped
inopportunely to mind—what if my lung was punctured and I was living out my
last few seconds? What a shame… I was going to die from some chick-turned-monster,
and not as the result of a heroic feat of valor. And she wasn’t even that attractive…
Sis would definitely needle me for that one…
My fading
consciousness suddenly swung back into sharp focus. Squirrel! She’d gone
off to see a friend, which meant she was somewhere out in the middle of the
whole nightmare. I wanted to scream, but the only thing that came out of my
mouth was a gurgle. I had to do something. If I didn’t, I was definitely going
to kick the bucket. My glance fell onto my phone, which was lying
near the couch. An attempt to move just brought with it a new bout of pain that
just about finished me off. In addition to the burning in my leg and chest,
there was something wrong with my back. A chill ran over me again, the world
started to darken, and I did the only thing I could. I stretched my arm out
toward my phone. If I have to die, I’m going to go down fighting.
Something slapped
lightly against my palm. I felt cold metal. Opening my eyes with difficulty, I
stared dully at the phone in my hand. Where did that come from? There was nobody next to me besides
the riddled monster, and I didn’t think Margot’s ghost had come back to give me
a hand.
The screen blinked
actively. I focused my attention, reading the text. If there was anything that
could help me then, it was that lifeless pieces of glass and metal.
You won your first
battle and affirmed your right to life.
Level +1
(1).
Attribute point
available.
I’ll deal with
that later! My
shaking fingers slipped across the screen, opening tabs that turned out to be
useless when it came to the state I was in. After closing yet another window, I
went back to tapping and finally came up with a new inscription:
Welcome to the
store.
You have 23 coins
in your account.
50% discount
active (1 hour 35 minutes).
Sweat and blood
trickled into my eyes. They burned mercilessly, though I kept reading the
product descriptions in the Most Popular list. I had no other way to look for
help. The items on the screen changed once again, and I finally saw something:
Small
regeneration kit. Completely regenerates your health in 8 hours.
Single use. Cost: 10 coins (20 without your discount).
I frantically
jammed my finger at the picture. Some kind of confirmation popped up, but my
tortured brain had enough on its plate trying to maintain consciousness. A syringe
started taking shape in my hand. Unlike the first, this one was enormous, a
good ten milliliters. It didn’t come with instructions, so I went
with the usual, burying the needle in my good leg and pressing down on the
plunger. There was another flash of pain that proved too strong for mе.
There was no way of
knowing how long I laid there unconscious. All I knew was that there came a
moment when I started hearing the world again, only I didn’t feel any pain. I
had to clear my eyes of dried blood before I could open them. And the first
thing I saw was the monster. It hadn’t gone anywhere. A glance down at the
wound on my hip told me that the bleeding had stopped, and the hair on the back
of my neck stood up when I took a closer look. A bunch of black dots were
rebuilding my flesh basically the same way the pistol and syringes had
appeared. I was being printed.
I felt some things
in my mouth. Spitting them out, I froze yet again—it was my teeth. Capped,
yellow, and with cavities. I hadn’t had money for a good dentist, so I’d gone
the free route, though that experiment had ended when they “accidentally”
pulled the wrong tooth. Judging by the size of the cavity on one of my teeth, I
would have had a major problem on my hands in another two weeks or so.
Running my tongue
along my jaw and expecting to find gaps there, I was surprised to no end when
every tooth was in place. I ran a finger along them—all there, and even the two
on the floor had been replaced. And it was only then that I noticed
how well I could see the writing on a sign hanging on the far wall. There was
no sign of my nearsightedness. Taking a deep breath and feeling no pain in my
ribs, I had a hard time holding back a joyful shout. It worked!
I was healthier
than ever.
On the other hand,
I didn’t have long to enjoy the feeling. My phone started going haywire again
in an effort to grab my attention.
Low battery. If
your phone turns off, you won’t be able to earn coins.
That meant another
visit to the store. This time, I knew what I was doing. The item I was looking
for popped up right away:
Energy block. +10 hours of charge. Universal device suitable for any energy consumer.
Cost: 0.5 coins (1 without your discount).
I had just 13 coins
left, but I splurged on four blocks to have on me for a rainy day. Small dock
stations that fit my phone perfectly appeared in my hand. Connecting one of
them to the device, I just grunted—I was starting to get used to miracles. The
dock station melted away the same way it came, and my phone’s battery jumped
all the way up to 100%. Better than sitting next to an outlet for
hours.
Still unable to get
up, I crawled over to the syringe. It was only when I got to the couch that I
belatedly remembered the pistol. My KORT-I was over by the wall, nearly drowned
in a puddle of blood. The episode with the phone sprang to mind. It too had
seemed inaccessible only to appear unexpectedly right next to me. Reaching a
hand toward the weapon, I imagined it returning to nestle carefully in my hand.
Nothing. The pistol
just laid there in the pool of blood, not moving a millimeter.
My inquisitive mind
refused to take no for an answer, and I tossed my phone away from me. Just in
case, I kept it fairly close. Reaching toward it worked—the device flew over
and settled in my palm. Ah-ha! A second attempt with the pistol came up
empty. Again, I sent my phone flying, this time all the way to the far wall.
Again, it came back. So that only works with my main device? Got it.
The syringe finally
in my hands, I sent its contents into my hip. My phone screen instantly reacted
with new messages:
You used an
attribute syringe.
Would you like to
boost your current values or unlock a new attribute?
A new one! During the prerelease, I’d more or
less worked out the principles behind World of the Changed. My character was a
stalker, and I’d only gotten as far as I had because I’d been incredibly lucky:
out of the hundreds of available attributes, I picked Regeneration, which had
proven most valuable for me. The ability my character gained to lick even
the deadliest of wounds had been what had let me beat the Champion, the final
boss in the dungeon. And since that worked on the phone, I figured
it would work in real life. The only thing that had saved me after my first
go-in with a monster had been the coins I still didn’t really get. I couldn’t
risk that again, so…
Regeneration
+1 (1).
I dumped my extra
attribute point into Regeneration without a second thought, boosting the value
to 2. The wound in my hip started itching; the number of black dots doubled. A couple
minutes later, I was on my feet and even taking a few steps. I hobbled over to
the pistol and picked it up, feeling much better. Three shots, practice showed, were
enough to turn a monster into a corpse. There wasn’t a description on the gun
itself, so I turned to my phone:
KORT-I energy
pistol. Ignores physical armor. Blocks regeneration. Charge
lasts 100 shots (92 left). Sighting range: 25 meters. Cost: 50 coins (100
without your discount).
That mention of
blocking regeneration grabbed my attention instantly. What, those beasts can
heal themselves, too?! How is anyone supposed to kill them if they didn’t beat
a dungeon? I thought back to the automatic gunfire and grenade explosions. That
was probably the guard at the checkpoint! I suppressed the urge to dash off
in search of him, figuring wisely that the fact that the gunfire had ceased
meant he was no more. At least, there was nothing I could do to help him right
then.
As I continued
exploring my phone, I found my way to the main menu. There were a few buttons
at the top level next to Store and Your Character: Take
Picture, Call, and Share Coin. I wasn’t about to be sharing
anything right then, so I let that button be. Everything in me wanted to call
Squirrel, but I waited on that, as well. I was afraid to learn that she was no
longer in the land of the living. She hadn’t beaten a dungeon, which meant she
didn’t have a weapon. And so, putting off that moment, I tapped Take
Picture and…
I stared in
disbelief at the all-too-familiar functionality. There was the camera; there
was the button to take a picture. Seriously? There I was in the most
advanced game ever created, one capable of printing items out of midair and
turning 90% of the population into terrifying monsters, and it had a selfie
camera?
Catching the
defeated monster in the frame, I took the shot. I wasn’t about to carry my
trophy around with me, and that was as good a reminder as any of my first
victory.
You took the first
picture of 1 dead inferior monster. 1 coin received.
There was a ding,
and the number 12 appeared next to my battery indicator. The entire extent of
my wealth. You’re kidding me! So they give you coins for pictures, and not
kills?! That’s ridiculous.
Just in case, I
touched the body, expecting to get some kind of loot. There was none. No flask
of blood, no mage-epic machine gun, nothing. The only thing I got from the
beast was a single coin, and I’d had to take a picture of it to get that. I
looked at my pistol and went back to the store. Damn it! Surviving was
going to be harder than it had seemed a few minutes before.
Charge block for
energy weapon. Charged
energy block sufficient for 100 shots from an energy weapon. Works for all
weapon types. Cost: 15 coins (30 without your discount).
Deciding that there
was no sense waiting any longer, I tapped the call button. There was only one
contact, and she was marked as a relative: Squirrel Derwin. The game had
deleted everyone else.
“Mark, is that
you?” Squirrel answered after the first ring. My sister was speaking in a
whisper, barely able to keep from crying, judging by her voice. Someone hushed
her from the background. She fell silent.
“Where are you?” I
tried to keep my voice low, as well.
“In the metro.
Mark, what’s going on… They’re changing… They’re… They’re eating them!”
“Quiet, I know.
What kind of bonuses did you get?”
“Dude, if you’re
going to be calling, I’ll shoot her,” came a rough whisper. “I’d rather
sacrifice one than twenty. Short answer: we’re in a metro train car
underground. The changed are all around us, just not in here. If you want to
help, send coins. We need food. Okay, that’s it… Hey, don’t touch that! The
windows have to be covered!”
The line went dead.
I felt better, even despite the rough call. Squirrel was alive, and someone
there with her had adapted quickly. It was finally that Share Coins
button’s turn to shine. Ten coins were subtracted from my account, and a few
seconds later I got a kiss emoji and a thumbs up. Texting wasn’t available.
That just left the little moving pictures.
Okay… Sis is in
a train car. They don’t have food, and farming coins is difficult to
impossible. I have to get her out of there, though that means making sure their
whole group survives. I knew Squirrel would rather die of hunger than keep food from the others.
Up came the store:
Food.
A supply of nutrients and
water sufficient for 1 person to last 1 day. Cost: 0.5 coins (1 without your
discount).
They were good for
that day, leaving me twenty-four hours to find another twenty coins. That was
twenty pictures. I can do this!
The wound in my hip
had nearly closed, which let me make my way over to the window and look around.
The monsters were there. A pair was taking on the kennel, where a German
shepherd was whining in fear. Several others wandered the courtyard looking
for food, with a new kind of monster, definitely different from the one by the
couch, at their head. It was taller, stronger, and clearly in
command. Almost as if it could sense it was being watched, the beast started
sniffing the air. I crouched down and crawled away from the
window, hiding behind the couch. As if it was going to do anything to protect
me. The delicious smell of roasted meat hit my nostrils, and my stomach
growled—I hadn’t eaten anything since that morning. Knowing that I was making a
mistake, I pulled the tray closer and started stuffing my face. For the
first time in a long while, I both enjoyed the food and chewed it thoroughly
with my new teeth. There was no reason to avoid particularly hard pieces.
After a satisfied
burp, I realized that I was starting to feel human again. It was time to try
killing monsters, and the most important thing there was figuring out how many
and where they were. Wait a second, I have the drone remote! Chris
hadn’t had time to pick it up, and I had to assume that his distaste for video
games meant he wasn’t going to be coming back for it. The only thing I could do
was hope that he was in the half percent of lucky ones the system had selected.
New device
detected.
Would you like to
connect your Matrice-210 RTK drone to your phone?
As soon as I picked
up the drone remote, my phone let me know that it wanted to be in charge. And
that was fine with me—I didn’t want to carry around any more devices than I had
to. Something loaded quickly, and another button appeared on the screen: Drone.
Drone expansion
functionality unlocked for the store.
Putting off the
urge to check out the new tabs, I launched the machine. It responded
beautifully, even better than it had with the old remote. Having
adjusted to using the phone, I sent the drone on a familiar flight pattern
around the villa. The monsters instantly reacted to the flying
device. Shrieking with frustration at their inability to damage it, they leaped
along behind, crashing through bushes and toppling statues. By the time I got
to the pool, there were already a good twenty of the beasts in hot pursuit.
Half of them were the big kind. More spikes, longer claws, and
astonishing agility. One of them took a running head start before leaping
into the air, soaring through the air, and throwing out its arms. I had to
send the drone shooting upward to barely avoid having it taken out. Of course,
I couldn’t get close to the villa, either—there were plenty of monsters on the
roof. I also noticed a few patches of blood by the pool which told me that one
of the guests had been a player. They’d just gotten very unlucky with where
they’d activated.
A couple minutes
later, the drone hovered over the checkpoint, bloody carnage stretching out
below. The remains of monsters were everywhere, some even moving despite
terrible wounds. The checkpoint doors were blown off, the walls were broken
down in some places, and the only conclusion I could draw was that the guards
had sold their lives dearly. Starting, I turned the camera back toward the
field of battle. There were at least thirty of the beasts lying there. If I
can get over there and take a picture, I’ll pick up thirty free coins! That
meant another day for Squirrel, and another day for me to think of a plan.
But how was I going
to get over there?
I brought the drone
back toward the villa. The pack followed, though a couple stayed behind to
chase some cats. Leaving the drone to hover out of reach, I
started thinking. There was no way I was getting out of there
without a pitched battle, so I needed eyes on the street. There was no counting
on the doors—the beasts would take them out with their first pass. A look
around the area showed me the perfect spot for a stand: the bathroom. There was a
long hallway leading toward it, and if I could set it up right, the monsters
would have to make their way down it. I stepped into the bathroom, which
was as big as a swimming pool, said a prayer even though I considered myself an
atheist, grabbed a shampoo bottle, and hurled it at a mirror I’d set up in the
living room.
The shards of glass
fell to the floor. Instantly, the door flew off its hinges. Three beasts burst
in, attracted by the sound and in hopes of finding fresh meat.
I took my time
aiming—I needed to be careful about spending my pistol charge. Hurling another
bottle to attract attention, I watched as one of the monsters caught it in
midair and buried its teeth in the plastic. Shampoo flooded its mouth. Three
pairs of dark eyes stared at my end of the hallway, and they tore down it a
second later. But regardless of how fast they were coming, I was ready.
A headshot dropped
one of them. It fell, holding up the other two. And while they were busy
picking their way past the newfound obstacle, I took a second shot. There was
no way I was missing from six meters away. The second body hit the ground, and
a third clump of blue energy hurtled out when it did. Three shots, five
seconds, a hundred burned nervous cells.
A glance at the
screen told me that there were no new opponents nearby. The main crowd hadn’t
heard my little diversion. Creeping out carefully, I went over to the clump of
bodies and touched them again just in case they gave me loot before the
picture. No such luck. Making sure the three all fit into the frame, I tapped
the button.
You took the first
picture of 3 dead inferior monsters. 3 coins received.
That raised several
questions, only I didn’t know who had the answers. The most important one was
where my experience was. Since I had a level, killing three beasts should
presumably have given me some. How else was I going to earn it? But there
was no bar, no scale, nothing to give me an idea of how many monsters I had to
destroy to level-up. The other unpleasant issue was the ability to
take a picture of all the bodies at once. So if some sly player out there
hides until the end of the battle, they can just steal all the coins? And that
“first” had me worried. While I’d been assuming that I got coins because I’d
taken a picture of the beasts for the first time, I was starting to wonder if
I’d get coins for them if someone else had already taken a picture. I’m
going to have to be careful around other players…
Ha! There I was, only three kills in,
and already dreaming about surviving. There were at least thirty monsters out
in the yard, which meant I was going to be busy. Speaking of which, time for the next
shampoo bottle. A
couple of the creatures looked to be close enough to hear the noise.
The bottle bounced
off the couch, and my stomach dropped when I heard the sound of glass breaking.
The entire crowd hunting the drone turned to find where the sound had come
from. With a drawn-out yelp, they dashed toward the summer terrace. I hiccupped
in fear and dropped onto the floor of the bathroom, my pistol clutched tightly
in my hands. Adrenaline pumped through my veins. A shiver ran down my body.
Here we go…
Can't wait for the release~
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