Alpha Agent 2: A Cyberpunk LitRPG | Weak to Strong Progression Fantasy (A Progression Cyberpunk LitRPG Series), page 2
Dan briefly ran through the possibilities if he were a tier two. Not only would he be officially considered superhuman by the Alpha Corp, but he imagined the crazy missions and state-of-the-art gear he would be trusted with.
“Yeah, I understand perfectly. Get the ass kicking now so that I come out being the ass kicker in the future.”
Dan received a notification in his HUD.
Congratulations!
You have reached Tier 1 | Level 16.
You have earned 5 stat points.
“Speak of the devil, I just reached level sixteen,” Dan said.
Jane looked at him and then stood. She extended her hand out to him, helping him up. “The exercise is over. I’ll be handing you over to Allen. I admire your stubbornness, but you need to learn to rein it in. It will get you killed in a real battle.”
Dan knew she was referring to him not giving up when she had him in a lock.
“I didn’t yield because I was calculating a way to get out of that mess. Rolling over and dying is just not my style.”
Jane’s expression returned back to normal. “I understand that. Your records show that you were in a constant struggle dealing with the dregs and degenerates of your hometown. But know this: there are times when you are dealt a shitty hand and you need to fold. Continuing to play and losing all your money in the name of ‘not giving up’ is foolish. Only you lose in the end.”
Dan thought about Jane’s words. He stared at his feet as he mulled it over in his head. For most of his life before becoming an agent, he’d always fought for scraps of resources even when it put him at risk. Competing with others in his neighborhood for food, attracting the attention of gangs or corrupt cops, he never once thought about submitting to the situation. He fought and found a way to cheat death and forcibly take whatever reward he could, every single time.
Jane noticed this and said, “Your lack of strength has nothing to do with the deaths of Ben and Hailey. You could have been as strong as Michael and still wouldn’t have suspected Kate betraying us. You need to know when to choose your battles. The enemy shards out there won’t be so generous as to give you time to recover from a broken arm.”
Dan sighed. “Yeah. You’re right, Jane.”
“You’re dismissed. Head off to Allen to continue your training,” she said.
Chapter 2
Dan dragged his ass over to another training exercise. He silently allowed himself some relief since Allen Draco wasn’t nearly as harsh as Jane. Still, Allen was following Jane’s custom-planned training regime.
They’d gone three rounds at this point, engaging in the same familiar exercise as when Dan was newly recruited. Dan was positioned on one side of the arena and was tasked with preventing Allen from reaching a certain point of the arena. Allen’s goal was to evade Dan and reach the point.
In the first round, Dan had scored a headshot that would have killed or severely injured Allen had he not been wearing a helmet. The last six hours of training with Jane had Dan poised and on his guard, setting the tone for the rest of the session and making Allen adapt.
The next two rounds had proved a challenge for Dan. He pulled out every trick he could think of. Grenades, misdirection and even coming down from his elevated position and onto ground level to face Allen head-on. While Allen was still an upper tier two in capability, it didn’t change the fundamental fact that Dan had a weapon and Allen didn’t.
However, Allen had proven why he was close to being promoted to tier three. In the second round, Allen evaded all of Dan’s attempts to kill him. Allen had taken the win for the next two rounds, and now they were beginning a fourth round.
Objective: Prevent Allen Draco from reaching the designated point.
Your opponent is allotted two minutes.
Start!
Dan’s weapon of choice was a modified ZK-77 assault rifle that had its bayonets swapped out for an underbarrel grenade launcher. These grenades were the special incendiary class and would pose a threat to Allen.
Let’s see what this new gun can do, Dan thought.
As if reading his mind, Allen contacted him through the private channel and said, “A big gun doesn’t make a big man.”
“Look who’s talking,” Dan said. “You carry RPGs and miniguns for a living. You’re jealous that I have access to similar firepower for this exercise and you’ve got nothing but your armor and your wits.”
“I’m winning two to one, Dan. Let’s see if you can try any new tricks this round,” Allen teased.
It wasn’t hard for Dan’s eyes to make out the distant dark speck at the other end of the arena. Allen was gradually making his way towards the designated zone. Dan fired controlled bursts him. None of them hit and Dan knew it. Allen had adapted to Dan’s fire pattern and could easily predict where the bullets would hit.
Dan was unsettled by this. He wondered if he would ever become that good at predicting his enemy’s moves and act with such precision and grace. To an outside observer, Allen’s ability to dodge and anticipate Dan’s gunfire patterns and intervals between bursts was borderline clairvoyant.
The only thing Dan had that he hadn’t used yet was the underbarrel grenade launcher with his seventy-seven rifle. But for him to use his grenades effectively, he had to be closer to Allen. That meant sacrificing ground to his enemy to use his most effective weapon.
Dan’s bursts of gunfire became more sporadic and he allowed Allen to gradually approach closer and closer to his position. He recalled the first time he’d tried this exercise with Allen and quickly realized that it wasn’t just a game of whack-a-mole. The shards had gained their power and cast out the nations of centuries prior through the use of their enhanced agents. Agents in general were the most dangerous infantry-level threat for a reason.
“You’ve stepped up your marksmanship and combat instincts since the last time we did this,” Allen said through private comms. “Which begs the question of what your current game plan is by relenting on the pressure.”
Dan gritted his teeth at purposely allowing Allen to gain more ground towards the designated zone. This training exercise felt more like a mental game of chess between him and Allen. He was taking a gamble by putting his faith in these rifle grenades to stop the more experienced agent in his tracks.
His HUD had been tracking the gradual decrease in distance between Allen and the designated zone.
Allen Draco is now 137 meters away from the target point.
Allen was still much too far away for Dan to use his grenades. But just to throw a curveball at Allen, he aimed his rifle upward and fired one anyway just to see the power of the incendiary grenades with his own eyes. The grenade arced vaguely in Allen’s direction and Dan already knew from the downward trajectory that it wouldn’t reach Allen.
The grenade impacted the ground and a brilliant white explosion engulfed the entire arena in a flash. Past the initial explosion, it left a sizable blanket of blue flames in the impact area. Little embers sparked outwards as Dan continued watching the oddly beautiful destructive power of the incendiary grenade.
Dan loaded his launcher with a new grenade. He only had two more of them to use. He didn’t have enough to simply create a wall of fire to block Allen, nor was it practical given the lack flammable material within the arena. But he had something in store for Allen once he got into his desired range.
“Playing with guns, I see,” Allen chimed in.
“Yeah, we’ll call it that,” Dan replied, giving a vague answer.
As Allen moved from cover to cover and Dan periodically fired bursts of gunfire to slow down his advance, he glanced down at where his ultimate winning move would take place.
Just before the designated zone, it was an open space. Dan knew where he would fire his two incendiary grenades.
He’d shoot one directly in front of the designated zone to prevent Allen from simply rushing the point and taking the win. This would force Allen to halt and take cover around the blocks closer to Dan’s position on the lookout tower. Then Dan would reload and fire his last grenade into the blocks.
Best case scenario, the last grenade would eliminate Allen and grant Dan the win. Otherwise, the grenade would force Allen out from the blocks and Dan would use that to put a few bursts into his opponent. Allen would be mildly irritated as his armor would have to survive either the incendiary grenade or the bursts of the ZK-77’s armor piercing rounds.
Predictably, Allen broke cover and sprinted straight towards the designated point. Dan fired a grenade directly in front of the point and set the area ablaze with a bright white flash followed by blue flames that engulfed the space. As per Dan’s predictions, Allen abruptly stopped and was forced to back off.
While Dan was expecting Allen to retreat back to the set of blocks to the lookout’s left, Allen decided to flip the entire chess board by doing something Dan hadn’t accounted for.
The agent leapt up and chose to directly confront Dan.
With his finger on the trigger, Dan had to hold back his laughter. While this was a bold move, Allen had jumped directly towards him and Dan could easily shoot him. His finger was ready to pull the trigger when something stopped him.
No matter how hard he tried, his finger simply would not move. Dan’s whole body was frozen as he briefly struggled to move at all.
What the hell?
Dan felt a strange pressure against the back of his eyes and suddenly the entire room became a blurred mess of shapes and colors. His head exploded with sudden pain as if his brain was cooking within his own skull.
He could vaguely feel himself falling off the lookout. The pain from the landing on the ground felt distant, as if Dan wasn’t experiencing the pain himself.
Dan’s world went dark and by the time he woke up, Allen and a few Alpha staff members in white uniforms and red crosses had gathered around him.
“Sir, he’s awake,” one of them said.
Dan’s eyes ached, but whatever extreme pain he suffered from that strange headache was gone. He propped himself up with his elbows.
“Holy shit, are you alright, kid?” Allen asked.
“I think so,” Dan said. “One moment I had you in my sights and was ready to pull the trigger and take the win, then...”
“What happened?” Allen asked.
Dan looked down and noticed he was stripped of his armor and was down to his boxers.
“I froze up and got a massive headache. I have no idea where that came from.” Dan shrugged.
Allen exchanged looks with the rest of the medical staff.
“His body seems to have stabilized,” a female nurse said. “His heart rate and brainwave activity experienced strange spikes here and there over the past two hours, but otherwise he’s fine.”
Dan looked at everyone. “I was out cold for that long?”
“Yeah,” Allen said. “They initially suspected you were suffering from a seizure and were hesitant to move you. In the past, imperfections with the early versions of the enhancement serums would cause bullshit like this for agents. Symptoms suffered by agents were far more amplified compared to normal people. Turns out the superhuman enhancements for people to become shard agents came with complications. I thought we had worked out all the kinks by now, but maybe not. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Sitting on the cold metal floor, Dan thought about what had happened. He couldn’t recall any instance in the past when he had just fainted out of nowhere. Not even before his days as an agent when he was breathing polluted air all the time as a kid.
“Well, kid, I think Jane has pushed you to your breaking point,” Allen said. “I updated her on what happened and we both agreed you’re taking the rest of the day off. Considering I had to try to prevent you from fragging my ass, I’d say you did pretty good this time, all things considered.”
Dan gave Allen a weak smile and replied with, “Thanks. I finally get to take a long nap at last.”
Chapter 3
After the abrupt end to the training session with Allen, Dan was allowed to go home and rest before the rigorous training with Jane resumed the next morning. Dan used the last reserves of his energy walking through the streets of Cerulean City. Looking around, Dan saw the outside world again for the first time in weeks since Jane put him through the wringer for most of his waking hours since the last mission.
It was midday, and sunlight cascaded through the overcast skies and struck the high-rise buildings in the distance. The aesthetic blend of minimal design and excessive glass made the distant skyscrapers appear as glittering and shining blades jutting from the ground rather than man-made structures.
With such surroundings and the cool air blowing in his face, Dan would have enjoyed the view were it not for his back and knees killing him. The last fall didn’t do his backside any favors. After more aimless walking and having numerous bystanders stare in his direction, wondering why a tired-looking agent was roaming the streets, Dan had finally arrived at his apartment building.
The journey up the elevator and into his room was a blur, and the last thing he saw was his bed before faceplanting into the soft sheets. He was simply too exhausted to even remove his armor.
An unknown amount of time passed and Dan woke up again. He was thankful that the aches and pains throughout his body had disappeared. Getting up, it no longer hurt his back to merely stand straight.
But now he had a new problem to deal with.
He wasn’t in his bed anymore. He wasn’t in his room, or even his apartment building. He doubted he was even in Cerulean City. The world around him was a barren wasteland with no landmarks or hints of civilization nearby. Dan saw nothing but varying shades of whites and grays. He looked down and saw nothing but a pitch-black ground.
The world around him appeared as a depressing abstract painting done by a dour artist. He wouldn’t be surprised if that same artist came from his shitty hometown. The only reasonable explanation Dan thought of was that he had been taken out of bed by Jane Sunheiser and she’d thrown him into a combat simulation. He wouldn’t put it past her to do something like that, considering she was pushing him far beyond his normal limits.
Seeing nothing to guide him, Dan just began walking. Everywhere he looked, everything looked alike. The only notable feature of this barren landscape was a small grouping of short gray hills off to his left. Everywhere else was either black ground, a blinding white sky or just gray land with bland soil that stretched forever.
The strange land was eerily silent, producing no ambience at all. No sounds of wild animals or wind blowing. Dan pulled down his mask and tried sniffing the air. Even the air didn’t quite smell right. This wasn’t the fresh air of the outdoors. Something about this place was filtered, artificial.
Since this wasn’t a natural environment, this had to be a simulation. Knowing any number of obstacles and threats could be spawned on Jane’s command, Dan broke into a run towards the hills. Dan checked his coat pockets and was shocked that he had no weapons or any other gear on him. Jane had thrown him into this simulation with nothing but his armor.
This is bullshit, Dan thought.
Dan knew that if he kept running, sooner or later something would spawn and present a tough obstacle. He had no guns or other equipment to help him and he was out in an open space. He was as vulnerable as an agent could be. How was he supposed to defend himself in these ridiculous conditions?
Dan continued to run and tried to take his mind off such thoughts. He knew Jane herself might enter the simulation and kick his ass again if she heard him complaining. After what felt like minutes, Dan was still running without any obstacles or threats in sight. The small group of gray hills didn’t appear any closer than when he’d started running.
Something wasn’t right.
Just when Dan let his guard down, three figures flashed in front of him and he almost tripped over himself. Having no weapons or even a basic knife, Dan regained his composure and defaulted back to a basic combat stance, standing with his legs decently apart and his fists raised.
The three figures were around fifteen meters ahead of him and stood a short distance apart from each other in a straight line side by side. Dan didn’t know what was going on with the visibility, but he couldn’t see any of them clearly, merely their silhouettes.
Then they finally came into focus and Dan only became more confused. They were three agents, each of them completely different in appearance.
The three figures did not budge from their positions or even move at all. Dan slowly walked towards the figure to the far left and got a good look.
The person was a standard Alpha agent. A black long coat worn over a sleek armored suit underneath. This agent wore a helmet with a reflective sulfuric orange visor. The visor itself was thinner, making it appear elongated. Dan got a good look at the intricate design of the helmet. The helmet’s air filters created an air-tight seal when connected to the armored suit. Dan wondered why he didn’t get a sick helmet like this.
He tapped the agent on the shoulder, but he didn’t move.
The figure in front of him was nothing more than just an armored suit floating in the middle of nowhere.
Dan walked over to the second figure in the middle, which was the armor of a Kodak agent. He was already too familiar with the bulky armor with large individual pieces along the arms and legs. The signature spikes jutting from the shoulders and arms along with razor blades on the kneecaps and elbows were all accompanied by razor wire wrapped around the limbs of the Kodak’s armor.
But the biggest difference from the Alpha agent armor was that this Kodak set had red electrical arcs and sparks coursing throughout the suit.
Walking towards the third and final figure, Dan saw yet another radically different agent. This figure wore a hooded robe that extended down to the agent’s knees. It was a basic armored suit similar to the Alpha agent. The hand that glowed with energy caught Dan’s attention. He assumed this agent was from the Church of Nanotology, the third shard Allen had briefly told Dan about.
