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…
Chapter 3
A bloody mess, I
wallowed in the bathtub, wishing for nothing more than an end to it all. There
just wasn’t enough energy to keep on fighting. I picked up my phone and used my
one miraculously surviving eye to survey the gloomy messages on the screen:
Cannot restore
eye. Regeneration level 5 required.
Cannot restore
left arm. Regeneration level 15 required.
Cannot restore
legs. Regeneration level 15 required.
I’d pulled off the
win, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. There was nothing left of me. I needed a
complete regeneration, but that cost twenty coins, not to mention a charge for
my pistol. And there was no sense going anywhere unarmed. The monsters I’d
taken out could give me the thirty I needed for an energy block, but that would
have left me a legless, one-armed, and one-eyed invalid. The perfect fighter in
a world of monsters.
And it had started
off so well! The beasts had come piling into the hallway, more getting in each
other’s way than helping. That had let me gun them down one at a time until I
started to think that I might even live to see the other side. Sure, the
higher-level monsters took two or three shots each, but they died the same as
the rest. The movement in the hallway stopped, and I looked away just for a
second to catch a glimpse of the veranda using the drone. That was a mistake.
Well, to be fair, nothing much would have changed even had I stayed focused. Despite
my best-laid plans, the attack had come crashing through the ceiling. All I’d
had time to do was hold up an arm to protect myself. A searing pain had
scorched its way through my arm and legs, and the beast ripped a claw through my
face. Almost crushing my skull, it left me bereft of an eye, a cheek, and part
of my neck. I don’t even know how I survived. How I fought off the attack. How
I wasn’t utterly demolished. Yes, I fired away, yelled, even jabbed the
remaining stub of my arm into the mouth of one beast to use it as a shield
against its friends, after which I’d fired a couple shots into its eyes. The
last one met its end in the bathtub—my pistol had run out of charges. Even
seriously injured, it had been in no hurry to die. I turned on the water,
jammed the plug into the drain, and threw myself on top of the creature. It
thrashed around in agony before going still. At least they’re not
amphibious. I slipped into the water, leaving just my head sticking out
above it. A grin even spread across my face somehow as the icy water numbed my
body. The burning wounds became bearable. My face was still on fire, but I
wasn’t about to submerge myself completely. I had my sister to think about, and
she didn’t have anyone else besides me.
With a groan, I
held out my arm and took a picture of the hallway. The phone vibrated suddenly,
too violently for me to hold onto it. But even after it splashed into the
water, it kept going strong—there was some kind of report on the screen.
Channeling my inner Jedi, I waited until the device slapped against my palm. It
took some concentration for me to read the messages. That done, I stared
blankly at a point on the wall, doing my best to wrap my head around the new
information:
You took the
second picture of 3 dead inferior monsters. 0 coins received.
You took the first
picture of 23 dead inferior monsters. 23 coins received.
You took the first
picture of 11 dead superior monsters. 55 coins received.
You took a picture
of an interesting superior monster kill. Bonus received: 3 coins.
Somewhere deep down
in my soul, even numbed as I was by the cold water, a flicker of hope was kindled.
Without a single twinge of conscience, I spent fifty coins on a regeneration
kit and an energy block for my pistol. The remaining thirty-six coins stayed in
my account for later. Squirrel needs to eat, too…
Pulling myself out
of the tub, I collapsed onto the floor. I really needed to stick the energy
block in my pistol, but I just didn’t have the strength. The pain returned with
a vengeance the second I left the cold water. With my last remnants of
consciousness, I buried the regeneration syringe in myself. My final thought as
the darkness took hold was that I was happy I’d been able to attract all the
beasts with the drone. There weren’t any potential unexpected guests to worry
about.
I only woke up that
time when the healing process finished completely. It’s hard to describe the
feeling I got when I rubbed my regenerated hand across my regenerated legs. A
tear might have escaped my eye. And even though my body craved action, there
was no sense leaving even my flimsy cover without night vision. Another battery
went to charge my phone. But that gave me an unpleasant thought—what if
Squirrel’s phone was dying, too? How was I going to get in touch with her? Ignoring
the stranger’s warning, I gave her a call. The answer came almost immediately.
“Mark?” came a
whisper belonging to a man I didn’t know. All I could think was that the worst
had happened. A white film settled in front of my eyes, my head buzzed, and I
barked back at him.
“Bitch, if you did
something to her, I’m going to—”
“Mark, it’s okay, I
gave him my phone,” I heard my sister say in a muffled voice. “You need to talk
to him.”
“Buddy, I’m sorry,
I didn’t think about how you’d take that.” It was the stranger again. “I’m
Wart. Thanks for the coins—you seriously bought us some time. It’s just that…”
“You need more.”
“We do. My phone
and Squirrel’s are the only ones with any battery left. The rest are dead, we
have those creatures everywhere, lots of them are superior, and I think there
might even be a champion. They’re wising up too quickly. We need a weapon, at
least a pistol.”
“A pistol? I don’t
have a coin machine over here, and the beasts don’t like giving them up.”
“I get it, I get
it. But you have to understand, we’re not going to survive without help. We
could use a couple coins just to charge some phones—I’m hoping some of us have
relatives that can share. I’d sell my soul to the devil for a few damn coins at
this point.”
“Can you make do
with sixteen for now?” I asked begrudgingly. I know, I need to worry about
myself, but there are people there… And my sister… I hated myself for my
weakness.
“Buddy, you… Yeah,
that would be great.” Wart’s breath even caught in his throat.
“You’re responsible
for Squirrel. If anything happens to her, I’ll find you, even if it’s on the
other side. Got it?”
“Yep. I’ll do
everything I can. So, you found a dungeon, too?” Wart asked suddenly. Somehow,
the picture in my head was of a guy around forty with the hefty midsection of
an inveterate gamer. That was how he’d been able to so quickly pick up what was
going on in the world.
“I didn’t just find
one; I beat it. Okay, hang tight, and I’ll figure something out.”
Sixteen coins found
their way to Squirrel’s account, and I went back to the store. To go from
victim to hunter, I was going to need another purchase.
Strength field –
I. Protection
from physical damage, up to 10 attacks. Cost: 20 coins.
A small chain with
a large red gem appeared in my hand. I fastened it around my neck, the hair on
my body standing up from the static electricity. It was like a second layer of
skin appeared. Of course, it wasn’t a panacea, and the incredibly quick
monsters could land ten blows in a matter of seconds, but it was something. I
could buy something more powerful later.
One more time, I
pulled up my status table. There weren’t any changes besides that first skill
appearing. How do you level all this up? Just with injections? But that
still didn’t explain how experience worked or how to get to the next level.
There weren’t any syringes for that in the store. Damn, this is hard without
help!
Status
table
|
|||
Name
|
Mark
Derwin
|
||
Coins
|
0
|
Level
|
1
|
Titles
and ranks
|
|||
None
|
|||
Attributes
|
|||
Strength
|
1
|
Regeneration
|
2
|
Stamina
|
1
|
||
Agility
|
1
|
||
Skills
|
|||
Pistol
shooting
|
1
|
Suddenly, something
strange caught by eye, grabbing my full attention and making me quickly charge
my pistol. The monsters were gone. There weren’t any in the hallway; there
weren’t any in the bathroom. Not a one. The weak moonlight was enough to tell
me that much, and I had no idea where they’d gone. Did someone collect them
while I was unconscious? Why didn’t they do anything to me? Or do the bodies
melt away after you take a picture of them? I was going to have to check
into that. The drone was on the ground not far from the veranda. When its
battery died, just like any other professional piece of equipment, it carefully
landed rather than dropping like a miniature meteorite. I had to see what was
going on by the checkpoint. If the bodies there were gone, somebody was alive
in the village, and I had to find them. Surviving in numbers is always easier.
It turns out that
being a hero is no walk in the park, especially when there are dozens of
mutants howling on the neighboring properties. I had to fight once again, that
time with myself, before I could leave the veranda. And when I got to the
drone, I let out a breath with a cloud of steam. The cold night air was brisk,
invigorating. For a little while, I couldn’t figure out how to use the docking
station—the plugs were different. But when I held the thing up to the drone, a
slender cord detached itself from the device, the dock station disappeared, and
some condensation appeared on the drone’s body. I very much hoped it wouldn’t
impact its balance. The drone’s little lights blinked merrily, and I hurried
back to the veranda. It was cold and dangerous outside. There was a bedroom on
the second floor, and I wrapped myself in a blanket, shivering from the cold. Ah,
what I wouldn’t do for a cup of hot tea right now…
Nothing had changed
at the checkpoint. The bodies of the monsters were right where they’d been
earlier. And that meant that they disappeared after being photographed, though
I was still going to have to see that with my own two eyes. I kept the drone
high in the air to make sure it didn’t attract any unwanted attention. Flying
over the town, I didn’t see light in any of the villa windows. Either the
survivors were hiding or there weren’t any of them left. It was a good distance
to the nearby villages, but I still pushed the drone higher to see what there
was on the horizon.
I couldn’t stifle a
happy cry—somewhere off to the west where the city was, there were lights. And
they didn’t look like fires. Actually, my impression was that they were
spotlights, lighting up the vicinity. People! There have to be people there!
A warmth made its way through me. Talking with survivors on the phone was
one thing; seeing them was quite another. I made up my mind to head in that
direction the next day. Finding Squirrel from there was going to be a piece of
cake.
There was nothing
but complete darkness to the east and north, though my heart again skipped a
beat when I looked south. Flashes of blue light told me that someone was firing
off game weapons. Hooray! Not only had the people there survived, but
they were also fighting back. For a couple seconds, I thought about heading
down there, though I quickly put that idea to rest. Squirrel was in the city,
and that was all I needed to know.
I headed out to
hunt as soon as the sun appeared over the horizon. To start with, I took the
drone for a trip around the villa to attract the changed, though I was
surprised when nothing took the bait. They had to be out there. If only judging
by the number I’d killed, I knew they were.
Checking the
veranda out was easier in the light of day, though I still wasn’t able to find
any clothes. I had to step outside barefoot and wearing nothing but my
underwear. My phone and energy block were in one hand; my pistol was in the
other. The cool air caressed my body, and I shivered. It was chilly. And quiet.
Almost as if
reading my mind, a monster yelped on the neighboring property. The call was
taken up by a second, then a third, a tenth, and soon the whole area was
resounding with their howls. And just as I’d predicted, I could hear some coming
from the villa next to mine. Four of the beasts looked out a first-floor
window, threw their heads back, and joined the chorus. That was strange—I
hadn’t noticed that kind of synchronicity the day before. The doors burst open
as the quartet piled out onto the street. One was superior, the other three
inferior. They stopped to sniff the air, and the hair on my neck stood up, not
at all from the cold. A new voice made itself heard above the rabble.
Everything fell silent, and even the monsters who’d just come out of the villa
pinned their ears back. They’re scared!
Concealing myself
behind some bushes, I made my way closer to the four. A few deep breaths
oxygenated my blood and calmed my nerves. I sank to one knee. Aiming steadily,
I took my first shot. One monster down. The rest froze and looked around, which
gave me my opening for a second shot. Another inferior down, but they saw me
that time. Letting out a deathly shriek, the remaining pair dashed toward me.
They turned out to be incredibly, unexpectedly fast across the open ground, to
the point that I paused and lost the upper hand. Sharp teeth flashed; jaws
clamped down on my skull. That popped my ears, and the rest of the battle
happened in complete silence. The monster wrenched his neck, throwing me to the
side, though I crashed into the second one and sent it tumbling. That was a
turn of events it wasn’t expecting, and it didn’t have time for an attack. We flew
into the bushes, a bundle of arms and legs, but I was the only one to reemerge.
One shot was enough to quiet the inferior monster forever. Its superior friend
shook its head and tried to get a grip after its unsuccessful attempt at a
bite. Dark blood trickled out of its mouth, shards of teeth coming with it. A
couple shots put it out of its misery. I held out a hand, summoning the phone
I’d dropped.
There were two
charges taken out of my strength field, but I was happy. The experience had
taught me that it wasn’t worth taking on the beasts out in the open. They were
just too quick.
You took the first
picture of 3 dead inferior monsters. 3 coins received.
You took the first
picture of 1 dead superior monster. 5 coins received.
You cleared the
Initiation Zone of monsters.
Level +1
(2).
1 attribute point
available.
Finally! I was thrilled to level up, though I
wasn’t sure what I’d gotten it for. Was it killing monsters or clearing the
location?
Without bothering
to hide, I headed toward the pool. The dozen dried pools of blood left no doubt
that there had been other players at the event. I bent over the only thing that
was left of the first poor guy—the ubiquitous phone.
Player Chris
Vertonen. Status: Dead. Cash: 3 coins.
You’re kidding
me! The boss had
played the game, never letting on. And the three coins was the bonus for
getting to the maximum level in the prerelease. Who would have thought that
Chris had been into the game?
Right next to the
coins was a button that read Collect, and tapping it rewarded me with a
ding from my own phone. Plus three for me. Almost as if its work was done,
Chris’ phone disintegrated, slipping through my fingers and falling to the
ground as a fine dusting. See you, boss. You were a good guy.
But that made me
think—did I really want to go find other people? Human nature is a tricky
phenomenon, and it’s simpler to steal from whoever’s closest to you than it is
to go out and do the work yourself. What if everyone takes the path of
least resistance and starts killing other players as well as monsters in the
struggle to survive? If
they did, other players would be the first targets. We were easier to take out,
and we gave up coins with much more ease.
I didn’t get lucky
with the other phones—they were all empty. When I got tired of tramping around
barefoot through the pools of blood, I headed back to the house. Careful
steps around the shattered glass took me up the stairs to the second floor. It
had once been luxurious up there, though most of the interior was demolished by
that point. The monsters had apparently been so disappointed with the owner’s
poor taste that they’d gnawed the walls and furniture to pieces. I finally
found a closet in one of the bedrooms and got to work picking out clothes.
Heading down to the
kitchen, I got some food in me. There wasn’t any electricity, so I had to eat
it cold. And I grabbed a butcher’s knife while I was there—sometimes, good old
physical damage comes in handy.
Incidentally, I
wasn’t thrilled with the ones in my strength, agility, and stamina attributes.
While the following two were more or less on the money, as I’d never been that
fast or good at running long distances, I definitely had some strength to me.
Chris hadn’t just hired me for my gorgeous eyes, after all. I was stronger than
the other candidates for the job, having spent years working out. That was what
made me a good pack mule for him. The problem was that the game apparently
didn’t count that, handing me those embarrassing ones everywhere.
Sighing deeply, I
pulled up my attributes. I really needed to get my regeneration up to five so I
could start healing serious wounds, my eye being a good example, but being as
weak as I was meant that there wouldn’t be anything left to heal. The monsters
could take me out with a sneeze. And so… A new syringe appeared in my hand.
Strength +1
(2).
When I woke up, the
sun was high in the sky. The process had been staggeringly painful, and my body
twitched just thinking about it. There was no way I was going through that
again. It felt like thousands of needles had been jabbed into me at once, tying
my nerves up in tight little knots. I’d always thought I’d felt real pain when
I visited the free dentist, as the only anesthetic he’d had on hand was the
earplugs he’d used so he didn’t have to listen to my screams. But I’d been
wrong. Real pain was what I’d gone through eight hours before. It had been so
intense, in fact, that my heart had stopped.
I stood up and gave
myself a once-over. There was a lightness, and muscles had appeared. For instance,
the biceps I noticed were bigger than anything I’d had even when I was working
out. The six-pack abs were a pleasant surprise, too. My erstwhile belly had
taken the brunt of student years spent playing video games, to the point that
Squirrel had taken to calling it Peter and giving it a jiggle every time she
walked by. But everything was perfect down there—I looked like one of the
trainers at the gym. That was going to take some getting used to.
My phone buzzed so
suddenly that I jumped. As I read the text on the screen, I realized that
getting to my sister was going to be anything but easy.
Congratulations!
You managed to
survive the first day of World of the Changed.
Mission
functionality unlocked.
Player ratings
unlocked.
***
Monster levels
increased by 1.
A level 1 Larva
appeared in your current location.
***
New mission: Clear
the village. Description: Kill all the monsters in Riverside village.
Monsters left: 183 inferior, 42 superior, 1 champion.
Chapter
4
Just an hour later,
I was putting my new strength through its paces. And the pain was worth it.
The mission had me
intrigued, especially that bit about the champion. It didn’t take long to
figure out that it was holed up in the enormous villa at the end of the road.
That was the biggest building in the area, which made it no surprise that the
monster had made it home base. Physically, the creature looked something like a
triceratops—horns and spikes atop a beast the size of a trash truck. It just
moved much faster than its cousin, and it also had bolts of lightning flashing
periodically from its front horns. Damn, a monster with abilities! That
was what I’d been most afraid of in the prerelease, what had sent me back to
the respawn point over and over again. The smaller monsters dragged food over
to the champion, the slower ones catching lightning bolts in their rear end.
But it was when two women were dragged over that I realized the creature had to
go. It sniffed them over, snorted, and, from what I could tell, decided that
one of them was fit for consumption. She was scarfed down on the spot. Turning to
the second, the champion bit off her limbs, licked her wounds to stop the
blooding, and had her dragged off into the garage. The beasts were acting in
unison and with a purpose that surprised me. They weren’t at all like animals.
No, it was more like some kind of society, just a terrifying and alien one.
I wasn’t about to
send the drone into the enormous garage—there were too many monsters in the
area. Bringing it back, I checked out the neighboring property and noticed
about ten of them there. They really had changed overnight. The inferior beasts
were bigger, with protective plates and additional spikes on their heads. Their
superior friends hadn’t fallen behind in the arms race, though it looked like
their benefit was more intellectual. All of them were acting deliberately. And
that scared me. Could that be because there’s a champion nearby? That
would have explained why Wart mentioned his suspicion that there was another
one in the metro.
To take one
example, the smarter changed didn’t chase the drone around anymore. I had to take
them on myself, though that gave me the chance to try out my upgraded strength.
Three of them came at me. The first fell to a shot from my pistol, and I dodged
the second, though the third was too much for me. As I watched the jaws slam closed
around my neck, shattering the thing’s teeth and taking a charge out of my
protection, I did what any guy would have done in my shoes. I buried a smooth
right hook in the monster’s chin. The result exceeded my wildest expectations:
there was a crunch, and the inferior creature’s head snapped back. Its enormous
hulk flew overhead and landed nearby. I was pretty confident it wasn’t about to
get back up.
In one fluid
motion, I turned and sent a charge into the back of the beast that had missed
with its attack. It screeched and rolled across the ground, digging in with its
claws. My shot had gone right through its spine. Picking up the butcher’s knife, I
decided to see what it could do. One foot on the creature’s back, making sure
it couldn’t crawl away, I reared back and slammed the blade home. My hand went
numb; the handle slipped right out of my hand. And the whole thing turned out
to be futile—the massive blade had only made its way a couple centimeters into
the monster’s body. I pulled it out with an effort and tried again,
though the result was the same. Non-game weapons were practically worthless
against the beasts in the game. A shot ended the monster’s hopes of
regeneration. One picture later, and I was staring unhappily at a couple new
messages:
You took the first
picture of 3 dead inferior monsters. 3 coins received.
You took a picture
of an interesting inferior monster kill. Bonus received: 1 coin.
The beasts really
were stronger and faster, which was why I’d been hoping for a concession from
the system in the form of additional coins. But that didn’t happen. If they
level-up again tomorrow, it’s going to take multiple shots to kill each one. There
was no way I was going to be able to level-up myself—all my coins would go
toward energy blocks. And what about Squirrel?
Clearing the
property was easy—the creatures were running around on their own, and there
weren’t any superiors. But I sighed after taking the pictures. I was moving too
slowly. No, it wasn’t that my agility was holding me back; I just couldn’t take
on more than one at a time, and that just got me one coin each. There
wasn’t much you could get for the chump change I was pulling in. Food, charge,
a first aid kit. Everything else cost serious money. Taking a deep breath, I
headed onward. The coins weren’t going to earn themselves.
It took me the rest
of the day and another cleared villa to reach the checkpoint.
You took the first
picture of 12 dead inferior monsters. 12 coins received.
You took the first
picture of 4 dead superior monsters. 20 coins received.
I was happy to get
the coins, though I would have preferred more. Thirty of the thirty-two I
picked up went toward an energy block for the pistol. That meant that I really
only came out two coins ahead, not to mention the little progress I was making
toward completing the mission and the stiffness in my muscles. The constant
action was straining my single stamina point.
The drone told me I
was clear to move out. It felt strange moving across the open ground, though I
had no choice—I had to get closer if I wanted better pictures. Experience
had taught me that they only counted from a distance of thirty-five meters or
less. And that was great news. If someone wanted to steal my kills, they’d have
to look me in the eye while doing it. The problem was that drone pictures
didn’t yield coins. Not a video, not a picture, nothing! I’d spent a while
digging through the store looking for a way to take remote pictures, but there
was nothing.
You took the first
picture of 32 dead inferior monsters. 32 coins received.
You took the first
picture of 13 dead superior monsters. 65 coins received.
You took a picture
of 5 interesting inferior monster kills. Bonus received: 5 coins.
You took a picture
of 3 interesting superior monster kills. Bonus received: 9 coins.
My jaw dropped
slowly as I took the pictures and read the notifications. And there you have
it: the difference between a professional soldier and a student you hire as a
gofer. The bodies I’d already taken pictures of disintegrated into a dark
ash. Their lives already over, they’d just been waiting for somebody to stop by
and cash in. And that was perfect—you didn’t have to worry about burying them. People
were eaten; monsters disappeared. There wasn’t going to be anything heavier
than a few kilograms left on Earth soon enough.
I was about to head
out when I noticed another body in the corner of the checkpoint. For some
reason, the monster hadn’t disappeared after I’d taken the picture. Could it
be alive? I glanced inside the bullet-riddled space and gasped—the body of
one of the guards was lying right there. All that was left of
Schwarzenegger’s once-stunning copy was a bloody pile. No legs, no arms, guts
spilling out, face mangled. The beasts hadn’t finished eating the fighter,
and I had a new mission. The hero who’d given me so many coins needed a good
burial.
His chest rose and
fell right back. A low wheeze broke out, and with it shivers down my spine. He
was alive! I had no idea how, but the stump of a human was fighting desperately for
life. Dashing forward, I stopped short when I saw the syringe next to his head. It was too big
to be for regeneration. No, there was an extra attribute right there on the
ground. They cost a thousand coins in the store, and I knew the kind of
difference they could make. If the single strength point had been so huge
for me, another stamina point, for instance, would let me run all the way to
the city. A tremor ran through my arm. I was addicted, and my drug was right there
in front of me. The soldier was dying anyway. I would be strong enough to kill
the monsters with my right arm tied behind my back, strong enough to find and
save Squirrel. All I had to do was leave him there. If I healed him, he would
definitely ask what happened to his attribute point, and did I need that? Of
course not! I needed to just pick it up and keep on walking. Keep killing,
keep sending Squirrel coins, forget about someone I couldn’t save…
I closed my eyes
and counted to ten. The delusion passed. I really did pick the syringe up,
though I was going to give it to the guard as soon as he regenerated. I’ve
never been a rat, and I’m not starting now. Sending twenty coins to the
store, I used the regeneration syringe on him without a twinge of regret. His
breathing evened immediately. Doing my best to stuff his insides back where
they were supposed to be, I picked the guy up and headed back to the villa I’d
cleared. That was enough adventures for one day.
As it turned out,
I’m not a particularly curious person. And I never would’ve thought that. The
regeneration process had me intrigued, and I wanted to see it happen until the guy’s
limbs started printing. That did me in. It was an unpleasant sight, and I
couldn’t eat any of the many delicacies I found in the kitchen the rest of the
day.
Everything had been
so hectic that I fell fast asleep after sending Squirrel 30 coins. She needed
them, and it also told her that I was still alive. There was no reason to eat
up my battery calling her—it wasn’t the time to chat about nothing. A thumbs-up
came in reply. She was alive and happy to get the gift.
Sleep crept over
me, and even my battles against the hordes of the changed weren’t enough to
disturb it. Wrapping myself up tightly in a blanket, I waited anxiously to see
what the next day would bring.
Unfortunately, my
morning started off with an unpleasant surprise.
The guard’s body
had regenerated perfectly. I even felt a pang of jealousy—I was the one with
two strength points, and he was the one with the perfect body. When I stepped
into the room, he was sitting there staring out the window. I greeted him; he
didn’t reply. I came closer, and there was no reaction. His gaze was fixed on
some point off in the distance. And when I waved a hand in front of his face,
there was no response. His expression was blank, he was rocking
slightly, and he had no interest in what was going on. Even his phone was lying
on the floor.
I picked it up,
read a couple lines, and growled in frustration. Are you kidding me?
Player Brighton de
Croyt. Status: Insane (unable to restore intellect), level 1. Cash: 3
coins.
Not sure what to
do, I plopped down next to him. There weren’t many options. I could carry him
with me to the city, where he would be a constant liability, or I could forget
about him, leaving him there to be eaten by the beasts. Neither option worked
for me. But nothing else came to mind. The thought popped into my head that I’d
wasted twenty coins on him, but I quickly brushed it aside. There was no way I
could have known what would happen. I’d done the right thing.
Pulling out the
attribute syringe, I turned it around in my hand, putting off doing what I’d
already decided on. Brighton didn’t need it. He didn’t need anything anymore,
including his three coins. I took them, after which I grabbed my phone and
added a point to my pistol shooting skill. There was no way around it—I needed
to get stronger.
In went the needle…
Pistol shooting
+1 (2).
Your body will
need 10 minutes to complete the change.
Energy pistol
section unlocked for the store.
My fingers
twitched, a splitting pain made its way through my head, and my eyes felt like
they had sand in them. I dropped to the floor, ready to slip off into
unconsciousness, when it all suddenly stopped. My pistol was in my hand. I
frowned, not remembering picking it up. But I forgot all about that when I
looked over at Brighton. It was like some functionality had migrated from my
phone to my brain—there was a barely visible green glow covering the guard. And
when I focused on a part of his body, percentages appeared, from ten to a
hundred. The maximum values were all around his head and heart; the lowest were
on his limbs. I pointed my pistol at one of his legs, and a red dot as well as
a value of 35% appeared. The farther I went up his body, the higher the values
grew. I stopped at his head—100%. Everything made sense. I realized what the
numbers were, and I knew what I had to do with Brighton.
My trigger finger
tightened. A single burst of blue energy shot out of the pistol. Reflexively, I
pulled out my phone and took a picture of my first real kill. The monsters
didn’t count.
Sleep well,
Brighton. I’m sorry I tried to wake you.
You took the first
picture of a dead player. 10 coins received.
An impenetrable
mask fell over my face, only a twitch in my eye giving away my true emotions. I’ll
be damned if I go find any other people until I have some real protection. Rage
gripped me, and I was happy to recall that there was an uncleared villa across
the road. There was something I needed to do.
You took the first
picture of 9 dead inferior monsters. 9 coins received.
You took the first
picture of 3 dead superior monsters. 15 coins received.
I only started
feeling like myself again when I took the last few pictures. One more building
was clear, and I was one step closer to completing my mission. Taking out
the monsters was much easier—I studied their weak points ahead of time, which
meant I only had to spend a single shot on each. Inferior or superior, they
were all the same.
As I hunted the
area for hidden monsters, I went down into the basement, where I found an
enormous steel door standing open. Switching on a flashlight I found
nearby showed me what was inside. On the other side of the door, there were
even rows of weapons—pistols, submachine guns, heavy machine guns. The villa
owner had an arsenal big enough to wage a small war. Either he’d been quite the enthusiast,
or he’d been about to organize a little revolution in the area. And while I
didn’t know all the ins and outs, and my knowledge of how to use the guns in
front of me was primarily based on a few trips to a shooting range, movies, and
YouTube videos, it wasn’t that hard. I got to the end of the row and
found myself staring down the barrel of a heavy machine gun. The name even
popped into my head: a Browning M2. A high-caliber American weapon, it wielded
fearsome firepower. There were boxes loaded with cartridge belts
next to it, and I grinned unpleasantly. If the beasts outside could stand up to
that thing, my little pistol wasn’t going to have any effect. It looked
enormous, though I found to my surprise that I could pick it up. Sure, it was
heavy. But it was more “ooph” than “oh damn.”
I spent the rest of
the day hauling the gun and its ammo boxes up to the roof of the next building
over. There was a beautiful tower atop it, perfect for what I was thinking. A few boxes
of grenades and a couple Kalashnikovs followed it. They were there to take out
the fastest monsters, though the centerpiece of my plan was the M2.
It didn’t turn out
too difficult to work. Pull the bolt back, open the feedway, slip an ammo belt
inside, close the feedway, slide the bolt forward, set it to automatic, and
pull the trigger. The only thing that worried me was the kick,
though I prepared for that by carrying a few sacks of sand up to the roof. One
went behind my back; the others held the stand down against the roof tiles. The whole
thing was jerry-rigged, of course, but I knew it would work for a few minutes.
Swinging the barrel around toward the champion’s lair, I paused. Go for it
or wait for tomorrow?
After glancing up
at the sun, and then the neighboring villas, not to mention another emoji from
my sister, I made up my mind. I couldn’t keep putting off my problems. It was
time to finish up with the village and move on. The only thing I was missing
was some music from my phone, but I cleared my head, aimed at the champion, and
pulled the trigger.
Let’s do this!
It’s hard to convey
the feeling of absolute power that came with those first few rounds. I’d never
shot a gun of that caliber, and so I just wasn’t ready for what happened. The
oversized rhinoceros was thrown back against a wall and pinned there until the
glow around its body died away. I spent an entire belt on the monster before I
was able to break through its defenses and turn it into Swiss cheese. Quite a few
clicks later, I realized the belt was done. It took just a few seconds to
replace it, and then I redirected my attention from the lifeless champion to
the onrushing horde. Little fountains of sand and stone kicked up on
the road. Giving no thought to saving ammo or taking care of the gun, I kept
the trigger firmly pressed. It was a one-time experience—there was no way I was
going to lug that thing around with me. Monsters howled from the properties
I hadn’t yet cleared as the gunfire drew their attention. Another belt, and I
was pointing the gun almost straight down. The quick little buggers had already
made it to the tower.
The Browning jammed
on the eighth belt. A bullet had wedged itself sideways, but I didn’t have time
to fix it. Time for grenades. Press the lever, pull the pin, drop it
over the side. Just the way I’d been taught. Once I’d gone through three boxes
of them, I picked up a Kalashnikov. The wounded monsters weren’t giving
up—digging the remains of teeth and limbs into the stone, they crawled toward
me. But the weapon turned out to be incredibly ineffective, taking half a clip
to kill each of the creatures. And that was only when I was shooting them in
the head. Tossing aside the useless gun, I grabbed my pistol. The green numbers
popped up. One shot, one kill.
I had to head back
to the store twice for new energy blocks. Oddly enough, the high-caliber
machine gun only really worked against the champion, proving weak against the
faster inferior and superior monsters. The grenades weren’t up to the task,
either. Losing a limb or two wasn’t enough to stop the bloodthirsty beasts.
My arm was starting
to shake from the exertion. The red dot bounced around, I started missing, the
dead bodies piled around the base of the tower, and my head was buzzing. But
then suddenly, it got quiet.
It took the breeze
playing around the tower, the leaves rustling, and my vibrating phone to tell
me I hadn’t gone deaf.
Clear the
village updated.
183 inferior and 42 superior monsters killed. Monsters left: 1 champion.
I was stunned.
Glancing in the direction of the rhinoceros, I saw it still lying motionless
against its wall, the enormous holes in its body visible even from where I was.
It’s alive? How?!
When I tossed the
sandbags aside, shell casings poured down the stairs. The door was demolished
from both sides, so I had to go through the building. The idiot changed had
come straight at me without thinking to go that way.
The champion really
was still alive. Bloodshot eyes followed me as I stepped closer, and it even
tried to get up and shoot lightning at me. Its broken horn put paid to that
idea, however. The holes were big enough to stick a hand
through, and I decided to record the moment for posterity. The pictures of the
bodies went who-knows-where. But that one I wanted for myself. Turning the
camera to selfie mode, I made sure the champion and I were both on the screen
before tapping the button to take the picture.
You took a picture
of a live champion from less than 3 meters away. 100 coins received.
You took a selfie
with a live champion in the background from less than three meters. 300 coins
received.
***
You’re the first
player in this location to take a picture of a live champion from less than 3
meters. Free attribute point received.
You’re the first
player in this location to take a selfie with a live champion in the background
from less than 3 meters. Free attribute point received.
My heart
practically stopped when I saw the two small syringes forming in my palm. That’s…
That’s…
A hoarse groan and
heavy sigh forced me to turn around. The job wasn’t done yet.
There wasn’t a
single spot on the creature’s body that gave me 100% damage. I had to fire ten
shots into it before my phone started to vibrate.
Clear the
village complete.
Would you like to
collect your reward?
Level +1
(3).
Of course! A wave of happiness overwhelmed me,
and I fell to my knees and burst into tears, thrilled that the whole thing was
over. I couldn’t hold back the rivulets coursing down my face. I didn’t want
to, either. My body shook, I felt turned inside-out, and a howl burst out of me. The
emotions that had built up over the previous two days demanded to be released,
and I did nothing to hold them in. It was only when night fell that I came to
my senses, burrowing into the still-warm body of the champion. I might have
even gotten some sleep.
A glance at my
phone told me that my sister had tried to call several times. Either she was
worried, or something had happened. My itch to see what my reward was fought
with the urge to find out what was going on with her. The latter won out.
“What happened?” I
asked in a whisper as soon as she answered.
“You’re alive?” she
exclaimed too loudly, and I heard Wart hushing her in the background. “I
thought you…”
Squirrel broke
down, and someone in a better state to talk took her phone.
“Mark, it’s bad.
The monsters started dragging the train cars somewhere, and they’re going to
get to us by morning. If we don’t get a weapon, I’m not going to be able to do
what you asked me to do.”
“I didn’t ask you
to do anything; I gave you an order,” I barked, myself unsure of where that
came from. “You’ll get your weapon. Two hundred coins. That’s enough for a
pistol and three energy blocks, plus some extra for food.”
“Send it over.”
Wart was past thanks, and we both knew that I wasn’t just doing him a favor. It
was the only way to save my sister.
When I hung up, I
thought for a second and sent two hundred and fifty coins, leaving myself two
hundred and twelve. Phones only lasted ten hours—not so long—and there were
twenty people in the train car. Each of them would need a battery, otherwise
they wouldn’t be able to survive in our god-forsaken world.
Alone with my pile
of bodies, I finally tapped the button to collect my reward. A point on the
ground next to me started to glow, growing quickly until it turned into something
inconceivable. When it was complete, I swallowed and carefully picked it up. Mother
of god! Where have you been all my life? Things would have been much easier
with that baby.
I caressed my
reward, realizing that I knew exactly what I was going to spend my three
attribute points on.
U-II energy
rifle. Ignores
physical and energy armor for opponents up through level 2. Blocks regeneration
for opponents up through level 2. Blocks one random ability. Charge lasts 200
shots. 1 upgrade slot. Sighting range: 500 meters. Cost: 8000 coins.
***
Rifle shooting
+1 (1).
Your body will
need 10 minutes to complete the change.
Energy rifle
section unlocked for the store.
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