Alpha Agent 2: A Cyberpunk LitRPG | Weak to Strong Progression Fantasy (A Progression Cyberpunk LitRPG Series), page 4
“Of course I haven’t,” Jane snapped. She grabbed a chair, warping the metal armrest. “But don’t you think you’re putting too much on Dan’s shoulders with such astronomical expectations? You’re aware of what I put my past agents through, so you know this sounds crazy even to me.”
From what little Dan had heard of the Church shard, it didn’t take a genius to figure out what the Alpha Corp had planned to utterly crush them. The only thing he could think of that required the Alpha Corp to train up as many competent agents as possible would be an all-out invasion into the home territory of the Church, presumably the Dead Zone.
“I know, but the Alpha Corp is short on high-ranking agents and Michael needs all the backup he could take. In two days from now, Dan will ship out and will be temporarily placed under Michael’s command for the mission. Allow Dan the day off tomorrow so that he can rest for what’s to come. The decision is final. You’re both dismissed.”
Jane immediately spun around and walked out of the room, clearly disapproving of the situation. She left, and Dan and Chad were left awkwardly standing staring at the doors. They both exchanged polite nods before Dan left as well.
The doors slid open and Dan found Jane leaning against the wall beside them. She glanced at him and said, “There’s nothing further for me to say. We’ll have one last training session and then I’ll let you go for the rest of the day, and you’ll have all of tomorrow off. Understood?”
Dan smiled underneath his mask at the idea of finally getting a day off. “Oh yeah. I understand perfectly.”
Chapter 5
That night Dan got a restful six hours of sleep, and for the first time in a while he didn’t have Jane lecturing him or whooping his ass in training. In Dan’s mind, that made it all the more strange that he took a walk through the streets of Cerulean City and stopped by the training facility on his day off.
He had contacted Jane beforehand and requested a brief meetup to ask some questions about his upcoming mission with Michael Cynosa. Jane had agreed.
Dan walked through the same uninspired and arguably life-draining hallways of the facility before stopping at the briefing room, the same one where Chad had spoken to him the day before. He walked in and saw Jane sitting in one of the chairs, the same one she had killed the armrest of yesterday. Dan couldn’t suppress his chuckle. It helped that he was off duty and could be a bit more casual and relaxed.
“I haven’t seen you in civilian clothes,” Jane said. “Your fashion sense is barebones.”
Dan looked down and saw no issue with his black t-shirt and gray track pants. It apparently wasn’t enough for Jane to criticize his tactics and skills as an agent, but she also had to critique his choice in wardrobe as well.
“I can’t catch a break with you, can I?” Dan asked.
“Clearly not if you choose to meet with me on your day off,” Jane deadpanned. “Grab a chair and sit.”
As Dan grabbed a chair, one of the floor tiles rose, lifted by interlocking metal stands, until they had a makeshift table. Jane got up and walked over to the large table at the front of the room and grabbed the two mugs. Both of them sat down at the mini table.
Jane set a mug down in front of Dan. “Here, have some tea. It’s specifically made to be nutrient-rich.”
“Thanks,” Dan said. He took a small sip that devolved into him chugging the half the mug in one go. “This is great stuff.”
Jane flashed him the briefest of smiles before getting down to business. “So what did you want to ask about?”
Dan already knew what he wanted to ask, but was suddenly taken aback by Jane’s appearance up close. Jane was probably the most physically attractive woman Dan had ever met, which was no surprise since she was the marketing face of the Alpha Corp. Beauty always sells. Her long flowing brown hair was perfect, having no sign of split ends or dryness. Her skin appeared perfect, almost manufactured with no blemishes. Smooth as white cream. Dan had never seen what Jane looked like outside of her white armor, but he could reasonably assume she had an athletic build to match her tier three physical stats.
The most bizarre difference he noticed was her eyes. Jane’s normal eye color was a typical brown. But today, Dan stared at her hot pink irises. Dan had no clue how her eye color had changed since the day before her eyes were brown.
“Is something wrong?” Jane asked. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
It was rare for Dan to be at a loss for words when around women. Jane was simply in a league of her own in terms of beauty. Since she wasn’t kicking his ass in training, he had a better opportunity to be enthralled by her presence in front of him.
“Uh, I don’t remember your eyes ever being pink,” Dan said.
Jane looked at him as if finding out he didn’t know how to count past ten. “Seriously? That’s what you’re so focused on?”
Dan awkwardly shifted in his chair. Admitting to his squad leader that he was distracted by her eyes wasn’t exactly what he had in mind for this meeting.
“I sometimes forget that you’re still a teenager.” Jane shrugged. “If you must know, I’ll be attending a photoshoot in a few hours with the Alpha Corp’s media division. I had a brief procedure earlier this morning to change my eye color. I was told they needed my irises to be a different shade for these sets of images.”
Dan wasn’t surprised. What he didn’t understand was why Jane underwent such a cosmetic procedure when the shard could have just edited in a different eye color. Wasn’t that what all mainstream media did? Edit and alter images so that products and people looked their best, even if it was fake?
He presented that point to Jane and she replied with, “Just like my role as your squad leader, I take my role as the face of the Alpha Corp very seriously. You don’t know this, but I make it forbidden for the Alpha Corp to do any editing or alteration with my photos. You can manipulate the lighting and angles all you want, but my face remains untouched. Those are the conditions I ruthlessly enforce on the marketing division.”
“You have the kind of pull within the Alpha Corp?” Dan asked.
“When you get to my position of power, you get to make some demands and the shard has to meet you halfway,” Jane said with a smirk. “I forbid any photo manipulation so that when my admirers meet me in person, they will see that I’m not just authentic in my skills, but my appearance. The Alpha Corp sells its best to potential new recruits. Deception can only take you so far. And if the Alpha Corp wants my eye color to be different for a set, I’ll change my own eyes instead. I never yield on such things.”
Admittedly, Dan was distracted by Jane’s chosen shade for her new eye color. He could feel her hot pink irises pierce through him like a knife. Dan was so mesmerized that he didn’t see Jane’s incoming hand as it swiped him across the face.
The slap was impactful enough to nearly knock Dan off his chair, though he was surprised he didn’t go flying across the room considering Jane’s superhuman strength.
“Cut that out. It’s unprofessional,” Jane said. Dan looked at her and was confused at her smile.
“Sorry, that’s my bad,” Dan said. “But cut me some slack. You’re super hot, regardless of whatever you do to your eyes.”
Jane sighed. “It appears that not only do I have to train you in combat, but also how to maintain your composure around beautiful women. It would be quite embarrassing if an agent couldn’t keep it together around a woman who is half as good-looking as I am.”
Jane’s delivery was so dry and straight that Dan thought she was serious. But then Dan was weirded out by Jane’s abrupt giggling and her smile that bared her teeth.
“You’re creeping me out,” Dan said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you tease anyone like this. I thought you were stoic all the time.”
“That’s impossible, even for me. Even I need to have some fun every now and then. And you’re one to talk, coming from the one who’s been staring at me,” Jane said. “Besides, I’ve put you through the toughest trials for the past few weeks without any break in between. I think some playfulness is deserved.”
Dan shrugged and sipped his tea. “That’s fair.”
“However, this will be the last time I’ll correct you on your inability to control yourself around women. Beauty is no excuse to act like a fool around someone.” Jane leaned in and stared into Dan’s eyes. “If you fawn over me like that again, I’ll rip your spine out of your ass. If you’re going to be my equal someday, I need your conduct to be up to par as well.”
Dan was frozen by Jane’s threat. Knowing she had tier three physical stats, it was no exaggeration that Jane could pull off such a gruesome killing move on him. He didn’t want to imagine how awful and horrific it would be to have his own spine ripped out from his asshole. It was probably worse than any bout of diarrhea.
Dan nodded profusely without saying a word.
“Good,” Jane said. “And don’t think you’re special. I had to give that exact same threat to Allen Draco when he was younger to get him in line.”
Exhaling, Dan noticed he had begun sweating from that over-the-top threat. He wiped his forehead while sipping more of his tea. Jane stood up and grabbed the kettle and waved it a bit, likely a nonverbal question to Dan if he wanted a refill. Dan raised his cup and Jane poured him more.
Dan put down the mug as he tried to recall the vague memories of Michael saving his life. “What do you know about Michael Cynosa?”
Jane’s expression remained as solid as concrete.
“I don’t think I told you about how I came to know him,” Dan said. “I was being chased by a little pack of gangsters. I was doing pretty well taking on six-to-one odds. Then I took a machete to the back.”
“In other words, you let your guard down and paid dearly for it,” Jane said.
“Yeah. I was on the ground bleeding out. Then I saw a bunch of assholes who looked like Kodak agents. All of them got blitzed and butchered by a man wearing white. I blacked out, but I can assume that Michael scooped me up and got me the medical attention I needed. He injected me with the latest enhancement serum and got me to where I am right now.”
Dan let his recount of events hang in the air before he said, “I want to know more about the man who saved my life and brought me here to become an agent.”
“I understand,” Jane nodded. “I have quite a few things to say about Michael.”
“Really now?” Dan said.
“Michael is the one who taught me everything I know now. All of the knowledge and techniques I’ve been drilling into you were at one point drilled into me by that man.” Jane reached down to her belt and pulled out the fancy hilt with no blade. “He gave me this as well.”
“Allen told me about that. So you have a glowing sword that can basically cut anything.”
“More or less,” Jane said. “As I mentioned during training, Michael is a tier four agent, possibly one of the most powerful agents who ever lived.”
Dan’s eyes widened at such a comment. He was fully aware that Michael outranked his squad leader. But after seeing Jane in action, it was hard to imagine how much stronger an agent could be. .
“Is tier four the maximum rank for an agent?”
“As far as the Alpha Corp is concerned, yes it is. Tier four, level one hundred is the maximum rank,” she said. Twirling the hilt in her hand, Jane continued. “You want to see this blade in action?”
“As long as I don’t get cut,” Dan said.
Jane stood up and moved closer to the middle of the room. She held the hilt with both hands and pointed it upward at torso level. Dan watched in awe as the blade ignited before it formed into its brilliant radiant pink shape.
“Holy shit,” Dan said. “Where can I get one of those?”
“You can’t. The viper fang swords were discontinued before they made it to mass production,” she said. “Before your HUD beats me to it, it's a nanotechnologically constructed blade.”
“Come again?”
“The blade is dynamically forged on command into a solid. Nanoscale devices within the hilt make sure that the blade is lethally sharp and nearly unbreakable. I’ve chopped up enemy hover tanks with this blade without issue. It’s as easy as cutting air.”
“And no more of these swords were made because…?”
“The Alpha Corp bought out the company who was designing this sword. Our shard poured in the funding to help this new subsidiary make these blades into reality. Only three of these swords were ever produced before the main buildings of the company were invaded by the Church. The original research and other documents associated with the project were either stolen or destroyed.”
Dan sipped on what was left of his tea and then set the mug down on the table. “That must suck. I’m no investor, but if I put money into a project and it didn’t become big, I’d be pissed.”
“This brings us back to Michael,” Jane said. “Our very humble agent specializes in venturing into enemy territory to extract everything he can from our enemies in addition to spying, extraction of valuable artifacts and recruitment drives among disgruntled populaces of our rivals.”
Dan tried to imagine what life was like for Michael. Constantly moving from place to place seeing new land, being sneaky and stealing valuable goods for the Alpha Corp, and simply being the one of the most powerful individuals on the planet sounded like the ultimate power fantasy.
“I couldn’t do that sort of work,” Jane admitted. “I wouldn’t have the patience to see through such long periods being in enemy territory being undetected.”
“It’s that hard, huh?”
“I once took part in a mission to steal a prototype railgun from Kodak. I had to put up with Allen Draco for the entire mission back when he was an infantile hotshot. Not a great time,” she said.
Dan only just realized that this was the first time he’d had a conversation with Jane that didn’t involve her giving him orders and strictly focusing on a mission. It reminded him of casual conversations with his mom that didn’t involve worrying over scraps of food or being hunted down by predatory gangs.
“What was Allen like before?” Dan asked.
“Allen had recently ranked up to tier two. He thought he was the ultimate badass who could just shoot his way out of every situation. He frequently just fucked around with his newly obtained superhuman stats.” Jane looked down at the table and smiled. “I remember threatening him to jump down from the roof or else I’d shoot him. He obeyed but did a somersault as he jumped. I’m thankful he cut that bullshit out in future missions. Now he’s a trusted teammate. Even friend.”
The two of them were quiet for a moment before Jane looked up at Dan with a steely expression. “Once you start working with Michael, I expect you to put in a hundred fifty percent. Michael is far harsher than I am.”
“Ah shit,” Dan couldn’t help but say. “So in other words, I’m going to die. Well, it was nice knowing you, Jane. Bring me the most expensive flowers you can buy for my funeral, please.”
Jane snorted at the joke but quickly regained her composure and her face returned to her serious expression. “The five stat points you earned from our training. Allocate them, because you will need to be at your best when you work with Michael. I don’t want you to make me look bad.”
Dan nodded and pulled up his HUD. After a few seconds of staring into the air like an idiot, he decided which he would put his stat points into.
Strength: 20 (+3)
Agility: 20 (+2)
Congratulations. Your updated stats are now:
Strength: 23
Agility: 22
You have spent all of your stat points.
“Alright, it’s done,” Dan said. “I think that’s it. I should get going.”
“Good,” she said. “Remember that Michael was the one who vouched for you to be on my team. I wasn’t kidding around. You will do your best while under his command. It’s the least you could do for the man who brought you to me.”
Dan flashed his squad leader a grin. “I will, even if it kills me.”
“One more thing,” Jane said. She leaned down and reached for something under the table. She placed a blocky, utilitarian-looking helmet on the table and slid it across to Dan. “Here’s the helmet that was supposed to come with your armor set.”
Dan smiled. “Thanks, Jane.”
He drank the last bit of tea from his mug and stood up. He grabbed the helmet, and as he walked towards the doors, they slid open to reveal Allen.
“Hey, kid, I thought you had a day off,” he said.
“I do. I just stopped by to ask Jane some questions about Michael Cynosa.”
“Nice. Do your best, Dan. You have high expectations to live up to. Learning from Michael Cynosa will fast-track you into the elite. If it’s true that Michael was the one who trained Jane, I’m sure all of us would flunk his training program.”
“You would,” Jane said from across the room. “Dan here thinks he’ll die from what Michael has in store for him.”
“But if he doesn’t, he’ll come out even stronger as a result,” Allen countered. He patted Dan on the shoulder and said, “Good luck, kid.”
While he was still in the facility, Dan checked out the armory to take a closer look at the new weapons and armor he could look forward to unlocking when he leveled up and earned enough credits. He stopped at the armory doors and they slid open. As Dan entered, he saw the same female attendant behind the front desk.
“Ah, Dan Orion. It’s been a while,” she said.
Dan nodded. “Yeah, Jane got me busy with training once we got back from that mission. I haven’t had the time to drop by and check out new gear.”
“I see. I’ll open the armory for you and you can check to see if anything interests you.”
He pulled up his HUD to check how many credits he had.
You have 15,750 credits.
Another set of doors opened in front of Dan and he walked through the short hallway before he reached the armory proper. The same drab walls and metallic smell greeted him. He hadn’t been to here many times, but already he felt at home. Being surrounded by all kinds of firepower and armor gave Dan a strange sense of belonging and comfort. One day, most if not all of these guns, armor and other equipment would be in his personal collection.
