The Final Trial, page 7
part #3 of Level Up Series
“Don't pretend, Boris. Good morning! Come on, time for breakfast.”
I fed Boris, ate breakfast, and got ready for work. Weekend or not, there was a real possibility that Dorozhkin would slam us with an audit, so I was going to the office.
I’d already called Mr. Katz while I was working out and told him I was calling an impromptu meeting about an urgent issue. The mood at the office was combative; no one was moping about the potential problems, everyone was full of energy. Alik was waving his arms, believing that this cup would pass us by.
“Come on, he’s already forgotten everything. He wasn’t any good. He’ll wake up and go booze it up some more!”
“Wait, hold on,” Gleb was skeptical. “People like that never forget things. They hold grudges, like... like...”
“Like who?” Kesha prompted.
“Like cats! I once had a cat. If I pushed her off my pillow at night, I’d get up in the morning and discover that she’d soiled my shoes.”
“Haha,” Alik laughed. “Maybe that’s what Dorozhkin will do too... haha ... in your shoes!”
“Come on!”
They continued to bicker languidly like that for a half hour. The circus ended when Mr. Katz and Rose showed up. I gave them a quick synopsis of the scuffle in the club the night before. Rose gasped; Mr. Katz clasped his heart. Alik brought him a glass of water while Veronica was fanning Rose.
When things settled down we started to create an action plan.
Rose and Mr. Katz took charge.
“Phil, may I say something?” Rose asked for the floor.
I nodded.
“All right,” she began. “We’re going to be visited by... the tax auditors, the labor inspectors, the fire inspectors, the consumer rights protection inspectors...” she rattled off a list of the possible threats, then turned to Mr. Katz. “Mark, you need to assess all our vulnerabilities and make sure we have the right documents. That includes contracts as well. Kesha, can you help Mark? OK. Veronica, you need to organize the move to the new office as soon as possible and set up workstations for everyone that comply with the labor laws. I’ll take care of the taxes and contractors. Employee certification...”
“Oh, and one more thing! You also need to make sure we have the essential HR documents: employment contracts, org chart, time sheet, individual records, vacation schedule, employment record books, etc.,” Mr. Katz added to Veronica’s list of tasks. “If you're missing anything for anyone, come to me and let the employee know.”
“What should I do? How can I help?” Alik asked.
“We need you for the move and the manpower,” Veronica answered.
“Got it.”
By noon we had our final action plan, and we methodically set it in motion.
My job was now done. Veronica would come to my place Sunday night with everything I needed to sign.
The shopping I’d planned took me a couple of hours, including travel. I just wanted to keep things simple, so I bought everything in one store: a pair of sturdy leather sneakers, light jeans, a stylish jacket and a fitted shirt that showed off my pumped-up chest, broad shoulders and V shape. In total, that made me 6 Charisma points richer and some 30,000 rubles[5] poorer.
After I got home, I calculated the time left before the class reunion — there should be enough — and initiated the process of increasing my Charisma. I'd chosen “increase attractiveness according to the societal standards of your local segment of the Galaxy.” I know, I know. It was stupid and incompetent.
But damn it, this was my class reunion we were talking about. And Paulina would be there!
Chapter 5. Huge Potential for Energetic Expansion
Life lived on life. There were the eaters and the eaten. The law was: EAT OR BE EATEN.
— Jack London, White Fang
NIGHT WAS approaching. A big portion of one of Pibellau’s two suns, a huge crimson sphere, had already sunk below the horizon. The second sun was a bit larger than Earth’s moon. Its lower edge was touching the top of the trees, illuminating them with intricate violet iridescences. I managed to notice all this while I was busy searching for other threats besides this test subject I was about to encounter.
Carter had a total of four mobs, judging by the weapons in their hands: three melee fighters with clubs, and one long-range fighter with a short bow. I still had a few slang words in my vocabulary as my gaming experience hadn’t been limited to WoW.
The mobs looked like something out of a nightmare. They were humanoid, no more than four and a half feet tall, with hands that dangled below their knees. But the most astonishing thing about them was their unnaturally large, eyeless heads with a huge mouth that revealed big crooked teeth.
Their brown skin was evenly covered in red spots; I guessed this was either a specific trait or someone’s drops of blood. The beasts were clad in matching high-collared jackets. Looking more closely, I realized that they were not jackets at all but growths that apparently served as protection.
They’d already discovered me, so there was no sense in hiding in the grass. I stood up and studied my would-be adversary. Carter was dressed decently, unlike me who was standing there only in my boxers. He was wearing sturdy camouflage pants — well, camouflage against Earth’s environment, anyway, — tall heavy boots and a leather jacket. He was somewhat short, nearly a head shorter than me, with a paunch hanging over his belt. He looked like a biker trying to seem younger. His gray hair was tied in a ponytail.
Also, he appeared to be a little surprised to see me.
How had he kept his belt, I wondered. Maybe he’d earned some kind of bonus in the preliminary selection or entered the right portal, unlike me? I’d chosen the red one.
I raised my right hand in greeting to the first human I’d met here. It looked like we were neighbors, so maybe we’d be able to strike up a truce? All the more so because he wasn’t showing any signs of aggression.
He snapped a command in English to his mobs, then walked toward me.
The mobs drew closer to his legs. I realized I understood what he’d just said: “Heel!” Had the system installed a built-in interpreter for me?
I went to meet him, slightly bashful about my appearance. I was smeared with dirt and blood — my own and others’ — wearing level-2 boxer shorts. In other words, I was easy prey.
He stopped about twenty yards away from me, squinted and scrutinized me. His eyes widened. A smile played on his lips. His low Perception must have prevented him from reading my characteristics before, because now he barked an order:
“Bite!”
At that moment all four mobs tore toward me.
“Go!” he shrieked.
I involuntarily recoiled, stumbled on something and nearly fell. Mobs don’t have their own names; the system only identified these as level 1 “Carter’s fighting units.” I didn’t have much choice other than to engage.
The mobs were fast, so I definitely couldn't run away. Tilting his spear forward, Carter ran toward me in an arc, evidently planning to attack me from behind or the side while I fought with his small squadron. They were acting like Velociraptors in a pen of prey: they split up and surrounded me, then stopped and let out blood-curdling shrieks, opening their mouths unnaturally wide and dealing me a slight Stun debuff. Whether it was the scream or the repulsive, coiling tentacles shooting out of the creatures’ mouths, but I was losing my concentration.
I shook my head to gather my wits and took a defensive stance, preparing to meet the first creature with a blow of the power fist, but the mobs jumped in unison, brandishing their clubs. An arrow shot from a bow pierced my left shoulder. Stunned by the mobs’ shrieking, I hadn’t seen it coming.
My shoulder erupted in pain, sending me reeling sideways. I lost my balance and fell. That saved me: the mobs, leaping from three sides, missed me.
Get out of here, I heard in my head as I somersaulted backward, trying to escape my throng of adversaries. Thanks to my Intuition and high Perception, I was able to avoid a blow from Carter’s spear. Grabbing him with my numb left arm, I jerked him toward me and punched him in the temple.
A crit! Carter lost more than 10% of his Health points. His face distorted in a grimace of pain and... was that surprise?
He ripped his spear from my weakening arm and scampered away, taking cover behind his units’ backs. The mobs that were hanging on to me prevented me from catching up to him and letting him have it. Growling, one of them thrust its mouth tentacles onto my calf, drawing blood. In the spot where it had fastened on to me, the skin quickly blackened and started to blister. A slew of debuffs from Poison to Acid Burn signaled that things were in a bad way.
At the same time, a shower of punches rained down on my back and shoulders, but even though they hurt like hell, they didn’t deal much damage: I’d only lost 2 or 3%. The arrow didn’t penalize me by much more, but there was no point in trying to catch up — five of them were starting to kick me. I punched them indiscriminately until I finally tore the cluster of tentacles out of me, winding it around my fist.
That drove the creature’s health into the red zone. It skittered off, throwing its club away, but I was no longer paying attention to it because the path was clear. The next arrow missed my face by half an inch, but I swung round and fled as fast as I could.
When I got to the border of the zone, I turned around and saw that no one was chasing me. Apparently, I’d proved to be too sharp in the tooth for them; also, capturing a neutral hexagon must have been a higher priority for Carter than chasing after humble me.
I penetrated the force field and ended up back at my own hexagon which by now felt almost like home. The trip to the ravine took the rest of the evening. The small creatures — the little krekens, kirpi and whistlers — must have hidden somewhere, and I couldn’t even see the spiky sarasur cockroaches running around on the bottom.
I picked my way through the ravine. I still didn’t know for certain how this world worked, and I still wasn’t sure if — or how often — mobs respawned here. The disincarnation of the corpses proved that this was entirely possible. This phenomenon clearly had its roots in gaming, but in games, nature abhors a vacuum. So if the respawn of the Kreken was entirely possible, the only question was when.
In any case, I got through the ravine with no problems. Evidently the absence of small mobs had something to do with the fact that night was approaching. According to the system's warning, that’s when the ghastly carnivorous nocturnal predators went out to hunt.
Were there any herbivorous creatures at all here? I got the feeling that in this world everything ate everything else. And the smallest ones, who didn’t have the guts to hunt anything, had to become scavengers.
I really wanted to clean myself up. I wasn’t hungry or thirsty — I'd traded food and water for the existence resources which seemed to be giving me all the sustenance I needed, replacing my body’s metabolism. But in the world where there’s pain, there’s an itch. My body was terribly itchy and I desperately wanted a shower, or at least to wash off my face, but I had no idea if there was a body of water around here.
Was there any water at all on this planet? Maybe the portal had changed me in some way along with my metabolism, and I was blissfully breathing methane without even noticing?
Staying on my guard, I mulled over all of this until I finally reached the white stone of my future command center. The palm-shaped imprint was darkening invitingly against the background of the rock which was glowing weakly in the nighttime darkness.
I placed my left palm in it.
Do you want to activate your command center?
Cost: 100 existence resource pt.
Yes, I uttered mentally.
My existence resource counter spun back to 12, as 100 pt. were put toward activation.
The stone vibrated, radiating circles of energy. I felt their touch — not physically but as knowledge about what was happening. It was as though my hand were merging with the stone, but I understood that that’s how it was supposed to be until the activation process was complete.
The first circle spread to the borders of the hexagon, designating its next owner. Now if any other test subjects infiltrated my territory, I would find out instantly.
A second circle spread out 50 yards away from the stone. In the place where the waves stopped rippling, a fragile, yard-high barrier emerged: slabs made out of a material I didn't recognize were driven into the ground. It didn't look like wood or metal, but rather plastic or something like that in line with the development of the Elders’ technological advances. The most important thing I grasped was that at this level, the fence had a more decorative function: it visually marked out the borders of my base, but I’d be able to upgrade and fortify it.
The third, and final, circle of the energy field spread, growing into a dome above me and the command center. The field stiffened into fantastically gleaming opaque walls and a ceiling, then covered the ground beneath me in a white stone, creating a floor. It left an opening for entry and exit, which I could close by giving a mental command.
I gave the command. The door closed.
The vibrations stopped.
You’ve captured a hexagon!
Your command center has been activated. Name of command center: Base 1.
Owner: Phil, level 2 human.
I heaved a sigh and broke loose from the stone. I now had a place to shelter for the night. The same knowledge — as I understood it, the information about how the Trial worked was automatically implanted in my brain — gave me a sense of calm: no nocturnal creature would cross the threshold of my new home. For the first time all day — and it had been a long one, beginning with a typical morning back on Earth and accompanying Kostya and Julie to the airport — I could relax and forget about danger. Too much had happened since the last time I’d woken up.
I didn’t feel like sleeping, and it appeared that I didn’t need to sleep here either. But some relaxation wouldn't hurt. I stretched out contentedly on the floor, which had a carpet-like texture, and shut my eyes.
To my surprise, I quickly felt rested. “While you’re sleeping, your enemies are leveling up,” the gaming expression resurfaced from the depths of my memory. The consequences of failing the Trial hit me sharply. This was no time to relax!
I had activated the command center, but now what? It would be a good idea to figure out what it had to offer and what it allowed me to do.
I stood up and put my palm on the stone. Whenever it was a question of numbers, it was more convenient to read the information visually. Either obeying my wishes or because it was built that way by default, the command center offered me a system interface to command the base.
Base 1
Level: 1.
Modules: 0.
Rate of existence resource generation: 1 point per hour.
You may not upgrade until you reach level 5.
Cost to upgrade base to level 2: 500 existence resource pt.
There you go. That meant that I would no longer need to worry about dying from starvation. The one existence resource point generated by the base was exactly what I needed to subsist.
Still, sitting around on my butt waiting for my competitors to finish one another off was both unthinkable and dangerous. The same knowledge told me that any other test subject could gain access to my home, in other words, access the command center, simply by keeping their hand on the wall of the dome for a certain amount of time — anywhere on the wall.
I removed my hand from the stone and went to the exit. I needed to study my domain.
The walls slid apart, letting me out. The dead silence inside the house was replaced by a hellish cacophony of nocturnal life. There were sloshing and squelching sounds coming from nearby, as if someone were filling tires with a massive pump. I heard sharp, cringe-inducing screams, and when I looked closely I could make out silhouettes of strange creatures rushing through the sky.
A chirping noise suddenly rang out from the other side of the house, startling me so much that I cowered. But when I crept over on my haunches and peered behind the wall, I didn’t see anything.
Feeling more courageous, I took a few steps away from the house. The chirping started again. It seemed to be coming from somewhere in the forest. A crack of either mandibles or chitinous plates rubbing together grew louder, then it suddenly stopped, replaced by a crackling sound that ripped through the air. Something had just killed something.
