Traitor GIT: A LitRPG Adventure (Traclaon Armageddon Book 2), page 2
Fiona’s face transformed as her happiness bubbled out.
“Sara, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”
Two and a half drinks later, they abandoned the bar and purchased some short-term accommodation. The whole time, Fiona seemed to take any chance she could to touch him. While they couldn’t talk about anything meaningful, he was enjoying himself. It was intoxicating to be with her.
God, he hoped he wasn’t being a breaker.
The room they rented was larger than what he was used to sleeping in, with a proper double bed and space on one side of it to stand.
“Wow, fancy,” Eric said, looking around.
“I missed you.”
She kissed him passionately, then broke away. “No more of that,” she declared, “until you make it up to me.”
“What?”
“Well, let’s see. You haven’t so much as sent me a message in over two years. Last time we were together, you oscillated between organizing to blow me up, poking me full of needles, and leading me on, only to reject me straight away. Do I need to go on?”
“Yes, please.”
“Your idea of a date was taking me to a toilet roll factory. You encouraged me to take drugs found in a random wall.”
“Is that all?”
“You left me in a park to get shot at. You thought it was okay after two weeks to organize a series of dates for two years in the future. And you didn’t send me a message to SAY GOODBYE!”
“It sounds bad when you put it like that.”
He was grinning so much that the corners of his mouth hurt. From what he could see of Fiona, she was the same. The mock anger drained away. “You could have sent a nice video to me, you know.”
“I should have,” Eric agreed. “Two thousand eight hundred and eighteen.”
“What’s that number?”
“The number of times I looked at your day counter.”
She squealed and jumped on him and then immediately pulled back, creating distance. “No. I’m mad at you.” She sprang onto the bed and scooted to the far corner.
“I think your list of complaints is valid. I’m happy to strive to make it up to you.”
Fiona nodded and studied him, then tapped the section of the bed near her. “Come, tell me what you’ve been up to.”
“How much do you know already?”
“I know you got a live-in girlfriend who’s like eighty.”
“She was thirty-six, and we’ve broken up.”
“And beyond that, you’ve worked as an asteroid Soul Jump miner. I couldn’t find out much more.”
“That’s about what I would have expected. I’ve recruited a further six allies. Five of them Guidance has bound with its boon, and the last was like with you. Guidance wasn’t interested.”
“The unbound wasn’t a girl, was it?”
Eric laughed. “Nope. A short forty-year-old Chinese dude.”
“What else?”
“My soul’s progressed a little. Probably less than yours.”
“What’s yours at?” She beamed at him. “We can tell each other together. On the count of three.” He could cheat with his Soul Scouting; he just didn’t want to.
“One, two, three.”
“Four!”
“Fourteen.”
“You’re what?” Eric asked her in disbelief. “Fourteen?” She grinned proudly. “How on Earth? I…”
She was grinning like a Cheshire cat. “I was seven two years ago.”
“But no one goes up seven levels in two years, even with a cultivation trait.”
“You went up four.”
“There are good reasons I can progress that fast.”
“You remember what my trait was.”
“Of course.” His processor provided him with the details without needing any prodding. A true AI or one close enough to true was a massive advantage.
Superior Cultivator - Cost 2,500 (Tier 4)
Soul Cultivation speed improved by 600%.
Chance of being awarded a Tier 2 trait at each stage advancement.
It was a low-level tier 4 trait. “Even with Superior Cultivation, that’s still a level and a bit in two years.” Fiona twisted her hand and a Soul Blade that was closer to a short sword than a dagger appeared. Eric produced his own to challenge it. It was as long as his finger but skinny.
“That’s smaller than a butter knife.”
He flicked his hand, and suddenly, it was like he had claws as three of the thin knives slightly shorter than previously emerged from his clenched fist.
“Also, this.” Two balls of flames formed in her hand.
“Can you use them?”
“Yeah. I tested them when I was mining. They’re like grenades.”
“You’ve been training?”
“Of course, and you have claws, hey.”
“I missed you.”
She looked away. “You’re not seducing me. We’re going to talk and catch up and take it slow.”
“Your friend was pretty convinced that, if I played my cards right, I would have a fun time.”
Her voice went frosty. “Aren’t you having a fun time?”
“I am, but not in the way he meant.”
“You’re getting the special treatment. I don’t usually talk.”
“Really?” He threw a pillow at her, and she laughed.
“I want to know everything. What’s the plan?”
“Well, first, I was planning on recruiting you.”
“I might be interested. If you give me enough incentives.”
“It’s for a treasure hunt.”
“Don’t need special incentives,” Fiona declared. “I love treasure hunts. HC#002?”
“Of course.”
“I’m in. Seeing another solar system has been on my to-do list for two and a bit years. When are we leaving?”
“One month.”
“Yes.” She jumped on him, effortlessly plucked him, and spun him around in exuberance.
“Hey,” he complained when she let him go.
She flopped down on the bed next to him. Her head was on his shoulder. “Let’s talk.”
“HC#002 is a beautiful place. Its major planet has life like Earth.”
“Overgrown hairless apes?”
Eric laughed despite himself. “Only the ones we bring with us.”
CHAPTER 2
They chatted, and Eric watched the time. “Since we’re not doing other stuff, do you want to have some fun?”
“No, I haven’t seen you for two years, plus I was enjoying your impression of Mr. Yates at graduation.”
“Umm… I sort of have an errand to run.”
She arched an eyebrow. “And if we had been doing what Trent suggested?”
“I might have forgotten about the errand… or we might have had a break.”
Fiona shook her head in disbelief. “The first time we see each other, and you’re double-booked.”
Eric shrugged. “I didn’t know you would be here, and I have responsibilities.” She was waiting for him to say more. “I made a promise when recruiting Zhong.”
“How many soul boon points was he worth?”
“That’s what you’re asking?” Eric arched an eyebrow at her.
Fiona grinned impishly. “Yep.”
“Six.”
She smirked. “So, a very valuable recruit.”
“Yes, absolutely.”
“And the promise?”
“Just to take down the major Ecstatic Void networks.”
“Drug gangs?”
“Yeah.”
Her fingers drummed on her thigh. “And your errand?”
“Today?”
“No, the one next week.”
Eric laughed. “That one’s on a Jupiter station.”
Fiona glared at him.
“Oh, you do mean today. We just need to intercept a shipment. Pretty standard.”
“Do you have intelligence?”
“Sure.” He shot the package across.
“Eric! Do you have allies on the station?” He shook his head. “Some kill bots?” Another shake. “Then how the hell can you take out someone who is rated at four plus, another guard at four, and the third a voidest five? Was the plan me all the time?”
“Well, if you weren’t here, I would have had five hours to think of something.”
Fiona was still studying the information intently, flicking from page to page.
“Do you have information technology superiority?”
“Yes,” Eric answered.
“Twenty minutes,” Fiona pointed out. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“I was having fun and didn’t want to ruin the mood.”
“You’re an idiot!”
Eric raised his hands in a pacifying gesture. “This mission is not that hard. They’re untrained. We blitz them, and we’re done.”
“You’re a coghead,” she said, leaning forward to kiss him. “My coghead. I can’t believe…” She stopped speaking as she struggled to find the words. “Let’s go.”
He found himself still grinning manically. He had hoped that they would click still, but he hadn’t expected it. But to catch up with someone after two years and be perfectly comfortable in their company. To talk about nothing, Eric understood how special that was.
There were handles straight outside the room they had rented. Fiona went to pay, and Eric stopped her.
“We want to ghost.”
Ignoring the waiting handles, he pulled her into the service tunnel. Then he ran along, with her following. Three turns and two minutes later, they were looking onto the dedicated handle tracks. There was room for three handles side by side. A tall, thin kid shot past on the handles.
Fiona jumped.
“He was wearing VR goggles,” Eric told her quietly. “My program would redirect them if they weren’t. Our handles are coming soon.” He turned to Fiona. “On the count of three. One, two, three.”
Eric took off at a run and leaped. The handles were traveling faster than the kid had been, and he barely grabbed them in time. His hands slipped, and then Fiona was behind him, pressing against him and stabilizing him.
“I know at some point your augments and boons will dwarf mine, but until then, I’m enjoying being better.”
“Not going to be for a while,” Eric admitted. “I need to be this week to get on Traitor GIT’s ship, and that won’t happen if I’m augmented beyond my current level.”
The handles sped through the tunnel, and he sent her the specifications of what they needed to do.
“Let me help you!” she yelled in his ears, struggling to be heard over the wind.
Eric gave a quick thumbs-up. He had already sent over details of their switches. The replacement handles briefly pulled in next to them, and it was an easy sidestep to it.
“Ten seconds,” Fiona called out.
Eric prepared himself and timed the moment to sprint off. For an instant, he was jumping into a wall, and then his speed took him into a service space. Midflight, Fiona grabbed him and then twisted so her back was oriented toward where they were landing. Despite everything, her feet hit the ground, and then with no clumsiness, she folded to get her bum, back, shoulder, and elbows on the platform to bleed off the momentum, all the while holding him safely away from the hard flooring. She thumped lightly against the wall with a grimace.
“I hate ghost mode,” she complained.
Before turning around to show her back, she asked, “Do I have any holes?”
She rolled her shoulders. “It feels like it.”
“The materials scuffed, but it held up.”
“I think I have burnt skin under it.”
“Sorry.” Eric was completely unhurt thanks to her effort, and without his weight, she would have exited undamaged as well. “That was the least painful ghost mode ever.”
“For some of us.” With one hand, Fiona was prodding her left elbow, a frown on her face. “Is this Zhong really worth it?”
“Probably not, but they’re dealing Ecstatic Void. They spread it to ten thousand new people a day.”
Fiona glanced at him a second time. Something about his tone warned her that there was more to the story.
“You would have done this anyway,” she concluded. “To protect humanity. You’re worried that they’re crippling humanities about to cultivate.”
Eric nodded. “A million new victims every three months per gang. It also grows over the next few years. Left unchecked, they’re going to permanently cripple future geniuses.”
“I know it’s not advertised extensively, but even I know what it does. What are these people doing?”
“Next to no one is thinking about awakening their soul. Who cares if you lose something you never intend to use? Hell, some people are glad to do it.”
“I couldn’t imagine living without an awakened soul. The poor victims.”
“That’s why I’m doing it. And as for Zhong. He was ranked as six. People that great don’t grow on trees.”
“True, from a womb, I suspect.”
Eric snorted and kept walking. Then stopped when his AI indicated he had arrived. He pushed on a panel, and it clicked open to reveal two AX7s. They were clearly guns but of a futuristic design that looked almost impractical.
Fiona considered the strange weapons. “What the hell are those?”
Eric flicked the description to her.
AX7s
Rating. Uncommon (borderline Rare)
When developed, the brilliance of the design wasn’t widely recognized, and it fell out of favor for fifteen years. Each gun has a magazine capable of firing a thousand hollow point rounds, possesses instant discharge trigger functionality, very low kickback, and auto shoots a hundred and thirty rounds per second each with an energy delivery of 80kJ, which is equivalent to old-style elephant guns.
The major drawback of the AX7s is the fifteen seconds initialization time required, after which discharge becomes instant.
Requires: Soul Jump (6) and either Soul Armor (5) or Soul Blade (7)
Recommended Physical rating of 5
Fiona grabbed one and spun it around. “How is it so light?”
Eric sent a local wiki link, which appeared to be accurate when he skimmed over the information.
Fiona read it curiously. “They think it was seeded by the church?”
“Or the reborn,” Eric said with a laugh.
“Was it?”
Eric looked at her incredulously. “It’s hardly my style.”
She picked up the gun, studying it. “True, I think you would have included more dark blue on the design.”
Eric punched her shoulder lightly in mock annoyance. “When you buy them from the manufacturer, you can color code them how you want.”
“Oh, the reborn did seed it. We all know how much you love your fashion.”
Fiona practiced putting it up to her shoulder and shooting down the sights. They were actually designed more to be fired from the hip with firing programs, but he didn’t correct her.
She spun the gun into different configurations. “And it’s really rated that highly? Uncommon borderline rare?”
“Yep, it’s a superb weapon.” In his hands, the gun was warming up. Because he barely met the requirements to use it, Eric knew the initialization time would be almost thirty seconds.
Fiona copied what he was doing, and her gun stopped glowing before his did to signify that the initialization was complete.
“And your plan is really to step around the corner and mow them down? What a fun date.”
“Nothing builds a healthy relationship better than shared experiences.”
Fiona laughed. A countdown appeared on the wall. There was over a minute to go.
“And the plan’s a little more sophisticated than mowing them down.”
“How?”
“We need to mow them down and not get shot.”
“Much better,” she agreed. “And if I wasn’t here.”
Eric held up the gun in his hand. “This and information technology superiority would’ve been enough.”
Fiona coughed. “Crazy coghead.”
“You know what they say about couples that murder together?”
“No.”
Eric could hear the curiosity and expectation in her answer. She was waiting for a punchline. He deliberately let it drag.
“Well?”
“Nothing good, I’m sure.”
She didn’t crack a smile. “What? That’s the dumbest joke ever.”
“Time,” Eric said simply.
In Soul Scouting, he saw their targets stepping through the airlock, only to have it immediately start to close. The gang members were startled, knowing that wasn’t supposed to happen. All but one was looking at the malfunctioning airlock when Eric stepped around the corridor, the AX7 at his shoulder and the trigger on full auto.
The cargo was being escorted by seven individuals, all registered mercs, bulletproof armor, standard-issue handguns, and tasers, but the primary deterrent was how heavily augmented they were. The worst of them was a 5, and two of them had souls strong enough to do full-body armor because of their traits. That skill theoretically was a counter to using explosives. Not that he could get explosives close enough, as the gang’s defensive drones would sniff the threat out before he could land the ambush. That was assuming that he could smuggle the ingredients needed past station security.
No one liked explosive items in fragile space stations.
The group was almost seventy meters down the corridor from him, and his gun had been pre-programmed to have a random scatter area of one meter by the time it reached them. As a result, he just aimed for the center area. His gun jumped and twisted in his hand ever so slightly, spreading the bullets out. It kicked back hard into him and forced him to lean into the weapon to keep it close to being on target, and there was no way he could actively aim it, but for this attack, this didn’t matter. His Soul Armor clicked into position to protect his head and vitals, and as his devastating volley of bullets shot toward them, the super-enhanced drug runners reacted.
With reaction speeds in the fractions of a second, the return fire felt instantaneous. Eric’s Soul Armor registered bullets slapping into it, and a bullet, whether deliberately targeted or because of a misfire, clipped his legs. It wasn’t enough to distract him from the battle plan, but the gun jerked slightly, and bullets ricocheted off the wall before he got it back to where he was aiming.
