Desire: A LitRPG Adventure, page 13
“Allen has?”
“Yep, he has given me the location of every territory within the city.”
Ace’s motivation skyrocketed. He clenched his fists, “Then let’s get to work.”
Chapter 25
Vincent and Ace approached a territory near the center of the city. A hologram appeared in front of them,
You are trespassing in Sarah's territory. No outsiders are allowed inside. You must enter the alternate reality to proceed.
They entered the territory and started walking towards the center. The only defender was a normal adventurer with an average stat of 10, he died quickly. They reached the orb and started to take possession of it. Time passed as the clock ticked down. Half an hour later a figure appeared, it was a middle aged woman. She stood a fair distance away as she inspected Ace and Vincent. She felt frustrated, she had just purchased this territory not long ago. Now someone was already here to take it. She shouted at them from afar, “Why are you stealing my territory?”
Ace felt guilty but knew they were doing this for humankind, “Sorry, but we plan on taking over the city.”
“The city?” She snorted in anger, “With just you two?”
Ace rubbed the back of his head, he wished this woman would leave peacefully. Vincent raised his voice, “Leave or fight us. Make your choice.”
The woman fell silent. She was trying to evaluate their strength. However, she didn’t have enough information, so she decided to probe them. Water suddenly appeared above her head. It froze and condensed into an ice bolt. She whispered, “Go!”
The ice bolt flew through the air, intending to pierce through one of them. Ace took a step forward, placing himself right in front of the ice bolt. He folded his arms over his chest and waited for the impact. BANG! The ice bolt shattered as it collided into his armor. He didn’t even take a step back. The women was stunned, “No damage?”
She instantly turned to flee. These people were monsters! Whatever, they can take her territory!
Vincent watched as she fled. He turned to Ace as he laughed, “You jerk, you directly grabbed her hope and smashed it beneath your foot.”
Ace rubbed the back of his head. His goal was accomplished, “I didn’t want to injure her.”
Half an hour later they took control of the territory.
…..
Days passed as they took over more and more territory. The most time consuming thing was waiting the 1 hour. Some people never showed up, and those that did fought them briefly before running away. Ace tried his best not to injure anyone too badly.
Eventually, the only territory that was left was owned by their enemy, the Luciano family. After beating them back from their territory, they haven’t seen them since. This time, they were invading their territory. Vincent stood adjacent to Ace as he said, “This should be the only dangerous opponent. Remember, it's kill or be killed with these people.”
“Understood.”
Fortunately for them, almost every user was isolated, they didn’t have any allies. However, this place had an entire gang working together.
They entered the territory as the sky turned gray. Around them were multiple warehouses. They looked around but didn’t spot anybody. They just started to walk forward when suddenly there was a bright flash of light. A figure appeared near the doorway to the warehouse. Vincent rushed forward, unsheathing his sword at the same time. There was another flash of light next to the first person. The gangster looked at his surroundings and spotted Vincent. He summoned an assault rifle and pointed at Vincent.
However, Vincent was too fast. He was almost 10 times faster than a normal human. He instantly reached the gangster and swung his sword. He felt no resistance as the gangster’s head separated from his body.
Vincent turned, only to notice the other gangster had already pointed his weapon at him. BANG! Vincent’s eye winced in pain as he swung his sword once more, slicing off the hands of the gangster. The gangster looked down at his hands and screamed in horror, “AAHHHH! My hands?! Where are my hands?!!”
He looked back up at Vincent and noticed a massive wound on his face. A part of his mask was broken and on the left side of Vincent’s face, his entire cheek was blasted off. His teeth were exposed making it look like he was smiling.
Vincent was just barely able to see the trajectory of the bullet. However, what saved him was looking at the barrel of the gun and timing his dodge when he noticed the gangster pull the trigger. This was only possible because of his superhuman agility. Even then, he couldn’t dodge it completely at point blank distance.
Tsssssssssssss! There was a loud sizzling sound. Right before the gangster’s eyes, Vincent’s wound healed and a second later his face was back to normal. Vincent raised his sword and swung once more, the gangster died moments later. Vincent refilled his blood gauge by using blood from the gangster’s body.
At this time, Ace finally caught up with Vincent. Vincent squinted his eyes as he looked inside the warehouse. Inside were various containers and boxes of different sizes, “I’m going to split up with you. I have to be fast.”
“Okay.”
They both entered the warehouse, Vincent went left and Ace went right. More flashes of light appeared inside. Sounds of gunfire rang throughout the warehouse. Vincent was like a monkey, jumping off the walls and using the boxes to his advantage. The gangsters couldn’t keep up with his speed, screams rang out as one gangster died after another.
Ace had his tower shield out in front of him. He charged forward, bashing a gangster backwards. He slammed against a metal container as he spat out blood. He dropped to the ground and fell unconscious. Ace clenched his hand and punched downwards. BANG! The gangster’s head exploded.
Just as he stood back up, a fireball flew through the air. It crashed against his armor as he was sent flying backwards. He rolled along the ground and stood back up. He looked down at his arm and noticed his armor had melted, creating a large hole. His face became solemn as he looked at his opponent.
Pyro stood in front of him and looked at Ace’s wound, only to realize he was unharmed. He had only melted through his armor. His face became serious as he inspected Ace, “Are you the one that has been claiming territory after territory in the city?”
Ace nodded, “That’s right. Yours is the last one.”
Pyro noticed the screaming of his men in the background. They were yelling, “Monster!”
“He can recover his wounds instantly!”
“Is he a vampire?”
“Run!”
He frowned, realizing that he was facing two strong opponents. He had to finish this quickly. Four balls of fire appeared around him. They grew long and narrow as they condensed, causing the flames to turn orange. Ace kept his shield in front of him as he dashed forward, keeping his eyes just above it. He had to close the distance quickly.
Pyro pushed out with his hands. Two firebolts swept out in an arc, one on each side. They were going around his shield! Ace’s eyes widened in surprise, “You can do that?!”
Ace jumped into the air as the firebolts passed by underneath him. He kept his eyes on his opponent. Pyro smiled slightly, “Got you!”
The remaining two firebolts flew towards him, once more attacking him on each side. Ace used his shield to block the one on his left. He figured this was the best time to use his new technique. He had figured out that if you concentrate Qi into one location, it can condense! This allowed more Qi to gather in one location. His right fist lit up with a bright white light. Fist met firebolt! BANG! There was a loud explosion.
Pyro was shocked, “Using his fist to block my firebolt? Is he insane?”
Ace landed in front of Pyro. On his shield was a large hole. The armor that was protecting his hand had melted off. A layer of skin on his hand had burnt away, but that was it. Pyro’s eyes bulged outwards, “No way?!”
Ace roared as he jumped forward, using Qi to enhance his legs. A blue barrier lit up around Pyro as Ace smashed into it. The force of his charge was transferred over, causing Pyro to fly backwards. He smashed into the wall, creating a dent in the concrete. He fell to the ground as he coughed out a mouthful of blood. Ace walked forward as he summoned his warhammer. Just as Pyro was about to stand back up, Ace smashed downwards. CRACK! The barrier cracked apart. Pyro lost his concentration from the collision. Ace continued to smash downwards as more and more cracks appeared on the barrier. Eventually, he broke through. His warhammer continued to smash downwards. Pyro’s head exploded from the force. His headless body collapsed to the ground.
Ace let out a sigh of relief. It was a good thing Pyro was so close to him, it could have been dangerous if they fought from afar. His eye winced in pain as he looked at his hand. He quickly drank a mid tier health potion. He watched as the skin on his hand regrew, fascinated by the process.
The warehouse was now silent. Vincent appeared next to him like a ghost, he was holding the orb in his hand. His clothes had small holes, indicating that he had been shot a few times. He looked at the body on the ground, “Is that Pyro?”
“Yep.”
Vincent looked at the holes in Ace’s armor and shield, “Was he strong?”
Ace gave his honest opinion, “If we were further apart, I might have lost.”
“Hmm,” Vincent nodded. Mages were usually stronger at a distance. This warehouse was too crowded, so Pyro was at a disadvantage. He asked Ace a question, “How many points did you get? I only acquired about 20,000.”
“Oh, let me check.” Ace opened the hologram and looked at his points. His eyes widened in shock, “Holy crap. I got 125,000 points.”
“Damn,” Vincent’s eyes widened, this was a nice surprise, “Don’t spend it, we need it to purchase a mid tier territory.”
“It costs 500,000 points right?”
“Yep.”
An hour later, they left the warehouse and went home. Two weeks later, they purchased the mid tier territory.
Chapter 26
500,000
Create a mid tier territory. You will be able to see the location of users within the zone. There is a massive list of configurations to control your territory. It takes 6 hours for it to be taken over by someone else.
Vincent activated the orb as a massive box appeared and surrounded the city before disappearing into thin air. The range of the mid tier territory was over 1,000 times bigger than the low tier territory. He opened up the map of the territory.
“Oh?” They looked at all of the dots inside the territory, “I didn’t expect for there to be so many.”
There was at least a hundred dots within the radius of the territory. This meant there was over a hundred people with tattoos! Ace couldn’t believe it. If there were this many in just their city, how many existed worldwide? He turned to Vincent, “Is there anyway to message them?”
“Let me look,” Vincent browsed the massive list of options for the territory. He was a little overwhelmed with all of the options. Finally, he found what he was looking for; a territory wide telepathic message. He pushed the button and felt his mind connect to multiple other people. He spoke, “Everyone. I’m the owner of the territory which covers the city. I mean no harm. In fact, I need to tell everyone important news. I and my companion will be at the parking lot of the movie theatre at the center of the city. In 1 hour, I hope everyone can meet us there. If we took your territory in the past month, come there and we will give you the orb which we stole from you. Once again, we mean no harm. We only need to inform everyone of important news.”
As Vincent finished his one-sided message, Ace frowned as he looked at him, “Do you think they’ll come?”
Vincent shrugged, “Probably not all of them.”
When Vincent placed down the mid tier territory, all of the low tier territories that were inside disappeared as multiple orbs appeared in his inventory. He was planning on returning them to the people he stole it from. Of course, this was Ace’s idea. Their inventory was no longer a meagre 10 spaces, they upgraded it to 100 spaces for 10,000 points.
They left to head to the meeting place and were the first to arrive. Ten minutes later, another person arrived. Vincent and Ace stood on the stairs leading up to the movie theatre. Ace had his helmet off as he smiled at the new arrival, “We’ll wait until everyone gets here.”
The person nodded as they leaned against a tree. Time passed as more and more people arrived. Ace was stunned as looked over the people who arrived. He sent a telepathic message to Vincent, “There are teenagers and elderly people… how can they even progress through the challenges?”
Vincent glanced at him as he replied instantly, “They can’t. That’s why our plan is so important. With the tattoo, as long as they get points, they’ll be able to upgrade their body.”
Ace was filled with even more motivation. He looked at the time and noticed that an hour had passed. He looked around and figured only 70 people had arrived, that was a pretty decent turnout. He spoke, “Everyone, thank you for coming. My name is Ace, my tattoo moniker is Goliath. Next to me is my brother, his moniker is Demon.”
He looked around as he spoke, “One of the reasons why we’ve made the city our territory… is to create a safe haven for humanity!”
The crowd was stunned. This was their plan? Isn’t that a little too unbelievable? A man who had his territory stolen by them spoke out, “Oh really? And how does making the city your territory accomplish that?
“Let me ask everyone a question. I hope you can answer honestly.” Ace looked at each person in the crowd. He raised his voice, almost shouting, “Don’t you feel helpless!? Multiple cities across the world have fallen to monsters summoned by people using the tattoo. Even Southrock, just 30 minutes south of us, has been destroyed!”
The crowd shook. When they woke up that day, they were terrified. Some of them had even thought about moving away. One of the women felt they were being targeted. She shouted out in defence, “So what if we’re afraid? It’s normal to be afraid of a horde of monsters!”
Ace looked straight at the woman. She staggered backwards in fear. Ace gave a gentle smile, “I know.” He looked around the crowd, “That’s why we’ve spent a massive amount of points to purchase a territory big enough to surround the city. I’ll inform everyone that the monsters that appeared came from what’s called a dungeon. If you don’t believe me, you can look it up in the rewards list right now.”
The crowd opened up their holograms and checked the rewards list. A man spoke out, “He’s right. A dungeon can summon monsters, and the owner can control them.”
Another responded, “What kind of person would do such a thing?”
The crowd was stunned. At this time Ace rose his voice, “Let me tell you, a territory and a dungeon cannot coexist in the same place unless they are owned by the same person! That’s why I said me and my brother want to create a safe haven. Within this territory, you are safe!”
People’s eyes lit up. They were beginning to be filled with hope. Discussions arose as they spoke with each other. An elderly person raised his voice, “You’ve forgotten one thing. Monsters can enter a territory from the outside! A person just needs to place their dungeon outside the perimeter and send the monsters inside! There’s no difference!”
The crowd froze as their hopes were extinguished. They looked up at Ace, hoping he’d have an answer. Ace nodded, “You’re right.” The crowd felt disheartened. Is there no hope at all? Ace continued, “However, I’ll inform you all that me and my brother, Demon, were the ones who destroyed the dungeon in Southrock,” He shouted as he made a pledge, “I guarantee that we will protect this territory with our lives!”
The emotions of the crowd were chaotic, their hopes rose, then fell, only to come back up again. However, one man among the crowd didn’t believe them, “How could you possibly prove that? Anybody could say that!”
Just as the crowd was about to question them, one person walked in front of Ace and turned around to face them, “I can.”
The crowd focused their eyes on him. It was Allen! Allen pulled out his police badge, “I’m Detective Carter. I’m the one who flew them in a helicopter to Southrock. I guarantee that they destroyed the dungeon.”
The crowd inspected his badge. Most people had a feeling of respect and trust for the police. They heaved a sigh of relief. The same man who distrusted them pointed at Allen and continued, “Who says that’s your police badge? You could have just stolen it with the abilities of the tattoo!”
The crowd was just about to go in an uproar when Vincent roared, “ENOUGH!”
A massive amount of blood exited his body as a huge wall of blood instantly covered the crowd. Spikes formed on the wall. He had used all 200 points of his blood to perform this move. The crowd looked up in horror only to notice they were inches from death! None of them moved. Vincent continued, “Whoever doubts our strength, fight me!”
