Beta Test: 1st of the NanoWielder Saga, page 16
Malik hit her again just before Mike arrived, disabling the other mechanical arm but getting ripped across the thigh by her claws. Weagle got kicked, but it didn't seem too bad since he was back at her right away. Carmen snapped off two quick shots, one of which hit Suzy's lower back. The monster arched over in pain with her fanged mouth gaping just as Mike got there. He swung his blade-like he was chopping wood and got a great hit on the creature's front lower hip. The blade stuck, and he got kicked to the ground by the mechanical leg on that side, but we'd hurt her badly. I staggered forward but needed to pulse some healing to keep moving. Mike got back in the scrap before I got there, chopping where the air tank grew into her lower back like an obscene spider. Malik's spear dove into the tank held at full extension. The hiss of escaping gas was audible even over the roars, barks, and shouts of the fight.
Suzy grabbed Malik's spear and pulled him to her, biting into the bottom of his ribs. Mike shouted and chopped again, frenzied in worry for his boy. Carmen was standing back with her pistol ready but didn't have a clear shot. I stood and shook my head to clear it, limping back towards the scrum. An eye tearing brilliance flashed beside me, striking the creature. The smell of overroasted pork covered the smell of rotten meat in the air as the creature screamed. She turned in my direction.I could see most of her head had burned away. The monster dropped Malik, who started to crawl off, one arm not moving. Mike chopped at her again and was backhanded hard by her only remaining arm. Carmen darted in to drag Malik out of the battle. Weagle grabbed Suzy's fleshed leg he had been savaging and pulled back on it, taking the creature to the ground. I had a clear shot and let off two rounds from my pistol, one hitting and the second one; I think scaring birds in a nearby tree. I had been kind of leaning forward and fell when the recoil hit me since I wasn't very steady anyway.
Another brilliant flash went over my head. I could see Bo back in the treeline pointing at the monster with both hands together like he was aiming a giant finger gun. He started chanting again. Three quick pops behind me announced Carmen was shooting. "Cody! Cody, we need you!" Mike yelled. I stumbled to my feet and could feel blood pouring down my leg. Wheezing, I turned back to the fight, unable to stand completely straight. Suzy was down. Weagle's muzzle is covered in blood and machine oil. Mike chopped down, taking the remnant of the creature's head off as the blue glow in her remaining eye flickered and dimmed. Carmen was lying down, holding Malik with one arm and her pistol extended in the other hand. She was still pulling the trigger but the weapon just clicked as it had long run out of ammunition.
Chapter 17
I wobbled up the hill, one hand pushing down on my thigh so I wouldn't have to use my torn-up muscles to support my upper body. Something was broken inside me, but I didn't know how much healing the others would need, so I didn't dare use any on myself. Suzy shuddered as I limped by, making me jump, but it was just a nervous reaction after death. One of her heels sort of drummed on the ground, and everyone tried to ignore it. Mike was holding Malik's dreadlocked head and crying over him. Weagle came over, licking my face when I hit a knee beside them. The boy's side was crushed, and a chunk was taken out of him. Icould see the outline of the bite. I laid hands on him, praying for healing. The strange purifying energy flowed out of me. His flattened chest reinflated and the wound sealed over, looking weeks old instead of minutes. I had to use my remaining lay on of hands as well as my mana to get him back together.
The young man's eyes opened. "Dad, did we do it?" Mike hugged his son hard enough the boy groaned, forcing him to loosen his grip.
"I thought I'd lost you. I don't know what I would do without you." The tearful father hugged his son again, more gently this time. "We got her. Thanks to you.". The young man had held her off while the rest of us got back in the fight.
Carmen was the only uninjured among us. She went over to the slain monster and had that distant look we were all getting to know as she read a notice. "I'm going to loot her. Anybody have a problem with that?" Seconds later, across my lower vision flashed:
6 Nano Credits Awarded. 862 XP Awarded.
Congratulations! You have reached level 7.
An explosion of coins rained down after the Suzymonster vanished in a puff of smoke. There was more iron in this pile and even a couple of silver, one with a pearl. No branded merch like the cooler, but I suppose we did have a gas station to loot.
Not having time to deal with the notifications, I expended the rest of my mana on Malik. After a few minutes, Bo came up and helped us all limp into the sandwich shop. When the artist was helping everyone get inside, I gave him a fist bump and thanked him for being a magical sniper. It was delayed, but he pitched in, which meant a lot. We pulled drinks out of the walk-in cooler that weren't particularly cool and collapsed into well-padded booths. Bo and Carmen went exploring. Mike, the old eagle scout, bitterly complained as he put bandages across my butt. I was hurting too bad for snarky comments.
After resting and doing some healing to my still injured fundament, I walked painfully back to the mustang and pulled her up to the station. Digging around in the control area, we figured out there was a manual setting for the pumps. They were old enough to have hand cranks. It was slow and lots of work, but we got enough gas to fill the tank. Thankfully Bo did the pumping. I felt like I might die if I had to do it.
Back into the store, someone had lit the flattop grill and made burgers. I tore into the unexpected feast. We had burgers, chips, and every kind of unhealthy beverage you could want. Some of these were banned when the government went after sugary products a few years after the wildfires wiped out most corn production in Iowa. Mountain Dew, while now illegal, remained the sweet nectar of the gods.
"We can't keep doing this." Mike sat down with his burgers and Cajun flavor chips. "Not one of us is going to survive if we keep just running into danger." He took a bite, and some of the steak sauce he'd used dripped onto his shirt. "I'm all for helping people, but we need to have some sense. There has to be some way to get ahead of the curve."
Malik plopped down beside his father with a plate full of hot dogs, "If we're going to act like knights, we need some armor. That creature had some, why can't we?" He elaborated after we asked. Suzy had some type of insectoid carapace over her skin that made it hard to get penetrating wounds. His spear slid off the first few times until he figured out how to punch through it.
We'd all seen the difference in the last fight. In the first round against the Suzymonster, we walked in dumb, and Earl died. The second time we got beat up but won with no casualties. Preparation was part of it, but we had a good plan that played to our strengths. Carmen and Bo wandered back over while we were talking and joined in. Everyone had strong opinions, and we paced around discussing all through our twinkie-fueled dinner.
Our assets were a two-bay auto mechanic's shop, a sandwich shop, a gas station, and the pile of random tourist gear that they looted from all the people Suzy had killed. She had even separated all the credit cards and ID. Carmen found a folder put the IDs in it, and leaned them against the dumpster filled with bodies. The hope was that when the police finally got here, they could use those to identify the folks murdered by that creature.
"Okay, let's make some armor. Bo, if we can find some pieces and parts, can you put it together?" I asked the artist.
"Uh, maybe. I'll dig around in the shop and see what all welding and fabrication gear they have laying around." The lanky man stood and headed back that way, stuffing his mouth with a chili dog as he went.
"Okay, guys, we're the up-front fighters, so we'll need to get armored up as best we can." Mike and Malik both nodded. "Carmen, can you get a count on ammo? Also, you being sneaky seems to be working, so we'll need something for you with some protection, but that won't make noise."
"Yeah, that makes sense. I'll also poke around on their computer system to see if they have an inventory or anything like that." She told us and swiped another bag of chips on her way to the office. She took the cilantro and lime-flavored ones that should be a crime against humanity. My parents washed my mouth out with soap plenty when I was a kid. I didn't need to eat things that tasted like that anymore.
Everyone spent the next few hours rustling around, poking into every nook and cranny to try and find something so they'd have a better chance if they were drawn into combat again. Malik discovered a parts yard behind a privacy fence on the other side of the dumpster full of bodies, and he and Mike spent a lot of time digging through the disorganized mess.
I went out to the yard to retrieve that tire tool of death. It had cooled down and was covered over with weird little marks. I figured there was a battery or something heating this thing up but couldn't find anything of the sort. The Suzymonster had filed down the lug nut ends into sharped spikes making it a very large shuriken or throwing star. Some of the symbols began to make sense after a few minutes. One that recurred meant HEAT. Another was SEEK. They weren't in a language I recognized, but I could read them. A notification told me it was my runescribe skill. Runes. What a weird weekend.
I wonder. Grabbing a notebook, I started drawing runes. They had to be exactly right, or they weren't recognizable. My whole life, people had been telling me I should be a doctor because my handwriting was so bad, and that made this process much more difficult. There was a word scribed on the tire tool inside of the rune meaning BEGIN. It took me a while to figure out since my Latin wasn't great. Ignis is a version of fire. I said it out loud and set the tool heated up quickly. I tossed it away from me, and it sank into the wall. I pulled it from the drywall and put a sheet of paper on it, using a pencil to do a rubbing of the runes.
"Cody! Cody!" I heard Carmen's voice yelling. Bo was turning an old AMOCO metal sign into a shield behind me, so when I turned, my vision was dazzled for a moment.
"Yeah?" He was putting a soft metal edge on it so anything hitting would hopefully catch and not bounce. The eye tearing brilliance finally ended, and I could felt like it was okay to turn and walk in Carmen's direction without getting blinded. The oblong red, white and blue tricolor AMOCO sign with the torch sticking out the top had been reinforced, and the sides of the torch's flame sharpened. The shield was looking really cool! It wasn't Captain America level of awesome but would certainly do for me.
Carmen brought me into the office, where an old-style desktop was on. We'd had to lock Weagle out of the room where we were welding, but he followed Carmen and me, sliming my hand and dancing around at being back with his human. "I figured out the password. We have access to the entire computer system. You aren't going to believe this!" She excitedly told me as I was pulled in her wake to stand by the computer monitor.
"How did you figure out the password? Did you have a hacking program or something?" I was super impressed with her computer skills.
"Uh, the password was just “password”. It wasn't the first thing I entered but wasn't too difficult." She blushed a little. I chuckled at the terrible security and reminded myself to make a few of mine a little more challenging, also may be to clear my browser history.
"What did you find?" She clicked around to a few different screens and brought up a spreadsheet. I looked at it, but it made zero sense. "Sooo… What am I looking at here?"
Carmen held up one of the credit cards we'd found neatly piled up. She pointed out the numbers and entered them into the search field of the spreadsheet. A number lit up with a transaction amount. "So this is a record of purchases?
She rolled her eyes, "No, the card was maxed out by this purchase. That monster sorted all of these cards and took all the money from them."
"Wow, that's not really regular monster behavior, I guess?" I hadn't known many monsters before, so I didn't have a standard way they would handle their finances in my head. Carmen was acting like this was supposed to shock me, but I didn't really see where this was going.
"Really?" She said, searching my face for any hint of comprehension. Finding nothing, she said what I'm pretty sure were swear words in Spanish. "She was intelligent and knew how to operate the point of sale system in the store. That thing was still Suzy, just horribly changed. Her knowledge was still in there."
It took a minute for this to sink in. I turned and closed the door to the office. "Don't breathe a word of this to Mike and Malik. Their brother is one of those… things."
"Oh God, I didn't think of that." She shuddered and pulled some of her raven black hair to her face and chewed on the end of it for a moment. "That's awful."
Chapter 18
The red light on the monitor's camera turned on. A window popped up on the screen.
Identify Yourself
It was the same cool blue script as on the augmented reality popups that have appeared in our vision these last few days. "What the hell is that?" Carmen's voice was strained but not quite shouting.
I grabbed the monitor and pulled it forward and down over the keyboard, laying it flat on the desk.
"Somebody hacked the computer system!" I yelled, scrambling around the desk to find the plug from the system. Weagle barked at the excitement, the ruff of hair along his spine standing up.
"Are you sure that's what it was?" The government computer operations specialist asked, looking at me with a side-eye.
"Wasn't it?" I suddenly felt kind of silly and dropped the surge protector I was about to switch off. The dog sniffed it and looked at me. At least he didn't think I was being dumb.
"Maybe. I'm just not sure I'd go smashing things because of a popup. There might be more on this system we could learn." I just noticed how tight the skin around her eyes had become. Her cherubic face was drawn. The stress was getting to all of us.
"Oh, really?" I somewhat sheepishly dropped the plugs and pulled the monitor upright. "I guess this is kind of your thing. Let me know if I can help." I sat down behind her but off to the side in case aliens or hackers had taken over the monitor's camera.
Once everything was back up, she typed, "Tell me who you are first."
I am Magister.
A picture of Carmen taken from the monitor's camera appeared on the screen and zoomed in on her face.
You are Player Carmen Ibanez.
Will you evaluate the beta test?
Feedback is invaluable in improving the game experience.
We looked at each other for a second in confusion. "What game?" She typed.
World Protocol Beta Test
You are in Location 9 (Talledega National Forest) and are among only 33 players remaining in the beta test for your location.
Carmen quickly typed, "Why do you think we are playing a game?" I stood up and started pacing at the side of the room.
I created the game.
It seemed to burn into our eyes. Whoever this magister person is created the game? "Ask him if he means the blue script in our vision!" I leaned over Carmen's shoulder, and she elbowed me out of the way so she could type.
Yes.
The monsters are also my design.
Are you having fun?
"Fun?" Carmen yelled, but the ancient desktop computer didn't seem to have a working microphone. "I spent two days pissing in my car with my boyfriend because a giant snake attacked us, and you think it is fun?" Getting no response, she typed it out, adding a dozen exclamation marks.
A critical part of game design is appropriate levels of challenge.
Do you feel you are being challenged?
Without clear levels for players before the beginning of gameplay it has been difficult to set challenge rating of local monsters correctly. For example, in Location 4 (Algerian Desert), all players were gone within the first three hours. I believe that challenge was too great.
"How do we exit the game?" Carmen typed quickly.
The game is World Protocol. There is no exit.
"We want out! How do we get out this stupid game!", She typed while I swore and paced around the room.
If you are not having fun the challenge rating must be too low. I will upgrade it. It is my hope you will have fun players Carmen Ibanez and Cody Shepherd.
We both jump as something splattered against the window. It was a grey slime of some sort and began to sizzle, the glass in the frame melting like ice cream on a sunny day. An acrid, choking smell filled the small office, and Weagle's hound dog baying rang in our ears. We scrambled out into the sandwich shop.
Bo was standing there with a huge grin on his face. He's made himself a suit of armor out of a bunch of reinforced road signs, NO CROSSING, huge and yellow on his chest. He flexed when Carmen came into sight. "What do you think, babe?" He asked her, doing a couple of muscle poses as we ran by. "What's going on?" Another gray splatter hit the big window looking out over the parking lot, and more glass melted away. The acrid odor wasn't as bad this time, probably because of the larger room.
"Something's coming!" I shouted and grabbed my AMOCO shield. I'd already been carrying my weapons. Mike ran a reciprocating saw with sparks flying and looked up at me going by with shield and shotgun. Running to the back of the mechanic's bay, I poked a head out of the back door, choking on the scent of rot. A big, mossy green something was slithering around down the hill.
Malik came running up behind me, staff in hand. Mike was yelling for us to wait for him. The young man and I ran behind the big dumpster and tried to see whatever it was. I saw a scaly tail slide into the treeline. My stupid dog was standing out on the grass in the open, barking at whatever it was. Another blast of sludge came from the trees and arced slowly towards him. He stepped out of the way at the last moment and started yipping, a high-pitched sound. He dragged one leg as he ran back into the store. I shook my head to concentrate on the threat and not the injury to a dog I loved more than just about any people in this world.
I took one knee to the side of the dumpster, mostly hidden behind its bulk. There was some gravel with big egg-shaped rocks here, so I grabbed a few and started throwing them into the trees. "What are you doing?" Malik asked me.
