Chương 10

"Finally!" Kiki flopped down on the saferoom's couch.

"I thought we'd never lose those dogs." She tore off her helmet, revealing a pretty face and dark eyes. Oliver's Shadow Slink skill worked phenomenally back in his old biome. Nearly everyone was reliant on sight and physical signs for tracking as the constant reek of decaying flesh kept all but the highest level werewolves from being able to stalk their prey.

In fact, he'd nearly forgotten about that specific drawback of his skill right up until the robotic dogs had started chasing them through the streets of Neo Nova. His skill did nothing to mask his scent.

"What's next?" he asked, slowly lowering himself onto a chair on the kitchen side of the studio apartment. His body hurt. Healing potions were a miracle drug; however, even miracles had their limits. Now that he finally had a moment to rest, he looked over his stats. Oliver Nightingale. Level 45. Class 1 - [Grave Robber] Skills 1 - Appraisal, Shadow Slink, Shovel Proficiency. Class 2 - [Underkeeper] Skills 2 - Death Aura, Summon Sanctuary (Coffin), Echoes of the Dead.

Class 3 - [Paranormal Slayer] Skills 3 - Silver Potency. Uncanny Sight. Pistol Proficiency. Status Points - 42 Strength 30, Dexterity 105, Resilience 44, Mental 5, Speech 5, Luck 0. Free Points - 2 Mel - 523 He'd leveled up one more time while in that fight. Five levels gained in a single day. That had to be a record of some sort. At this rate, he'd be on track for level 100 in just two or so weeks. Of course, nearly half of those levels came from the deaths of fellow experimentees like him.

So maybe not a success he wished to replicate daily. He tossed the two points over into Resilience. With his jacket ruined, he needed to double down on getting himself tougher if he wanted to continue surviving through these fights. The total amount of money from killing the peace officers was nice. It helped recoup the cost of the grenade and healing potion he'd needed to use. Not that it came close to also replacing his poor jacket.

Maybe if he could find somewhere to sell all the random loot he'd picked up, he'd be in decent shape financially. A master of multitasking, he'd been Appraising the loot on the run over here. Some of the odds and ends he'd snatched off corpses were worth hundreds of Mel." Good, I'm glad you're settled in.

"From the other side of the saferoom, a small land drone with tank treads rolled into the room. Unlike the air drones [Technomancer] usually used, this drone had no obvious weapons." Thank you, Kiki, for bringing me our new friend." Kiki shrugged.

"Any excuse to get some exercise. Been cooped up for nearly a day now. Ever since that first battle after the merge. It's boring in here without anything to kill."

"Not going to show up in person?" Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow at the mechanical device on the floor." My body is extraordinarily susceptible to damage. Every point I have earned has gone solely into Mental. I apologize if this seems a slight, I promise it is not intended. I never leave my bunker for any reason. And there is no easily accessible entrance for you to come visit me."

"Has your friend met you in person?"" No. She has not. Kiki here is a fellow Neo Nova experimentee,"[Technomancer] explained." Last year I finally managed to hack into the experiment's records. Since we were based in the same biome experimental site, it was significantly easier to connect with her version of the city. The technology featured throughout Neo Nova City also offered me a uniquely clean point of entry. I've been in contact with Kiki since long before the merge."

"You hacked into the system?" Oliver asked." Correct." Oliver considered. He supposed that seemed plausible.

"What do they want with us?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Kiki said, sitting up on the couch. She stretched her gloved fingers out then made a fist.

"We're weapons."" My associate is correct. All records that I have uncovered support that theory. We are curated weapons of mass destruction." Oliver blinked. He waited for more. There had to be more to it than just that. But they remained silent, allowing him to take in the statement. Anger boiled up in him and he gripped his shovel's handle, as if ready to rip it out of the strap it hung from. Then he released it and rose to his feet.

"All of this." Oliver waved his arms at the room around them, though his gesture stood for far more than a dingy apartment.

"All of this. Just for a few strong weapons? That seems a bit farfetched. Doesn't that seem a bit ridiculous? Plus, if they can create everything down here, why bother with us at all when they have power that can crush us? And only five of us are allowed to exit? They should want all of us!"" There are powerful creatures down here. However, we have the potential to exceed even the greatest threats of these biomes. I do also agree that only five of us escaping seems like a criminal waste in resources.

It could be a political gambit. I am unaware of what, exactly, our captors' role is in the outside world's political landscape." The drone stopped speaking but it seemed to be deciding whether or not to reveal something. Oliver wasn't going to interrupt just yet." Though I do have a theory that may contradict their claim that only five of us have access to the exit. Though it is unsubstantiated for the time being. It requires me to gather more data."

"Fine," Oliver said.

"Then explain what exactly you want me for? Your technology far outclasses my own. And you already have a Dexterity based elite fighter on your team. I'm redundant unless you set this all up as an elaborate ruse to farm a single level." Kiki raised an eyebrow at the compliment. Then popped a stick of gum in her mouth, looking rather smug." Your class marks you as unique,"[Technomancer] said." Across all the records, no other experiment subject appears to have taken on the [Grave Robber] class.

Not even one of the hundreds who've died these last few years. I believe your class was solely available to your biome. Which, in case you were curious, was nicknamed by the system as the Nightmare Biome." Having lived there for the last five years, Oliver was unsurprised by the name.

"[Grave Robber] is not exactly a powerful class. I don't see why many people would bother with it. I chose it solely because I thought one of the skills might get me out of a bad spot. I didn't really understand what was happening on that first day."" On its own, you are correct. My studies show [Grave Robber] to be lackluster on first glance. Upper tier utility skills for a first class selection, but not particularly sparkly. But what you've built out of it has been rather special.

Most importantly, the last class you chose, [Paranormal Hunter] paired alongside your original [Grave Robber] and [Underkeeper]. The combination for it all is key for my plan." Kiki blew a bubble from her gum. It popped.

"Willing to finally divulge your plan?" she asked. She licked the gum around her lips, snapping it back into her mouth. That surprised Oliver. He expected her to know everything already. She'd been following [Technomancer]'s lead for over a year while completely blind to his overarching goals?" Yes.

"[Technomancer] paused." Unless you want to sleep on it first? The plan may keep you up." Kiki threw her boot at the drone. [Technomancer] swerved his vehicle out of the way, narrowly dodging a sole to the camera lens. The boot instead skipped on the floor and passed the drone. It left a dent in the metal wall. Oliver noted that either it was a heavy boot or Kiki had a fair bit of Strength. Probably both." Your eagerness has been noted.

"[Technomancer] wheeled his drone back into position in front of them." Fine. What I am going to disclose here should not leave this room. It is dangerous information that will paint a target on your backs. Understood?" Oliver and Kiki exchanged a look and they both shrugged. Oliver already felt like he had a target on his back simply from the sin of existing. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it"Very good.

Allow me to reveal what I have uncovered so far and where I believe we should go next." Three years ago I obtained the [Technomancer] class. I developed it out of [Hacker]. It gave me a special skill that allowed me to bypass other security networks. I am embarrassed to say it still took me over a year after obtaining said skill before I discovered its true potential. Do either of you understand how we gain levels or skills?" Kiki and Oliver exchanged a look. They both shook their heads."

What was your first memory after being abducted?" Oliver frowned. He preferred not to think about the events of that very first day. He still remembered his mom's last words to him, telling him to stop reading comic books and go to sleep. One minute he'd been going to bed in his second floor bedroom, surrounded by video game posters and under the warm embrace of his bed's comforter. And then, the next moment…

"I woke up chained to the ground in a laboratory," Oliver said.

"I watched a child my age get dragged out of a nearby cage and get flayed. His skin was then spread out on a tanning rack and he was force fed specialized healing potions so the flesh ripper could harvest a second coat from the same source to keep the consistency of his newest project's appearance." There was a moment of silence. Kiki gave him the side-eye." That… explains why there are only two records of experiments surviving to day 2 in your biome. However, it's not the response I was fishing for.

I was more so asking about your appearance when you woke up."

"Oh." Kiki reached up and tapped the metal plate on the side of her scalp.

"You mean this?"" Precisely." [Technomancer]'s drone turned to Oliver." I assume you also have a scar of some sort? Roughly three inches long?"

"I…do," Oliver admitted.

"I woke up with a patch of hair clipped off as well. I assumed it was from the flesh ripper. All of the other bodies in the room also had bald spots and stitch marks on their heads."

"Yes. From what I have read, every single experiment started in a situation where the test subject could have plausibly received some sort of head injury. It's actually led some to believe we're trapped inside a full-dive virtual reality system. Which, according to all the data I've gathered thus far, is entirely false." Oliver recalled James mentioning something like that back in Ventri. Oliver admittedly had considered it himself years ago.

Though, honestly, he'd believed that his life before the experiment was more likely the false reality. Some sort of implanted memories or trauma meant to help him cope. The Nightmare Biome felt far too visceral and real to be a game. That former pampered life, taken care of by his parents and where his greatest concern was getting a failing grade in math, was the true fantasy." This is reality," [Technomancer] continued.

"Though I suspect minor pieces of it are a bit fragmented. Like augmented reality more so than virtual reality. It is difficult for even me with my tech to understand how much of the environment is hallucinated through the modifications in our mind. However, I digress from my main point. Each of us has a chip implanted into our brains. That is what causes the leveling system."

"If that's the case, and we really are chipped, what's to stop the experimenters from listening in to this very conversation?" Kiki asked.

"I assume that's the reason you didn't explain this to me before?"" Perecisely. And this drone I've built does more than just drive around and look cute. I've designed it to interfere with signals within its radius. Not an utterly flawless plan, but I am counting on those watching to be busy watching the other 300 remaining test subjects fight to the death and attempt to scramble about looking for the 101st biome.

With so many exciting events occurring all at once, it hardly seems unlikely that they might overlook a warbly signal coming from a drab conversation."

"I've seen scars on other people's heads," Oliver said, suddenly connecting something. He'd looted hundreds, if not thousands of corpses. And there were similar markings on others. He'd assumed it some sort of brand left behind by the flesh ripper on his victims. That left the question of why they also had augments if they weren't also active participants in this experiment?" Yes." [Technomancer] paused.

Oliver trusted him to pick up on his question without further prompting and was not let down as the drone's speaker continued." There is a similar wound on most living creatures in all the biomes. That is all a result of what, exactly, those other people are."

"You know?" Oliver leaned forward. He'd been curious about this mystery for years.

"They're not human like us, so what are they?"" It is a bit off topic from what I want to discuss. But… do you recall the newspapers a few years before we were abducted? A huge headline that took up nearly every front page for a month?" Kiki and Oliver exchanged a look. Kiki shrugged, indicating that she, too, had no idea.

"Not really," Oliver admitted.

"I wasn't much of a newspaper reader as a kid. I assume it has to do with this?"" Directly. I'm not surprised you don't remember. We would have only been twelve or thirteen years old. Allow me to summarize. There was a scandal about cloning cast offs. Scientists attempting to create brain dead replicants of humans to transplant the original's memories into. The concept was to prolong life through the use of cloning. It was an all around failure of a project. And, naturally there were hundreds of ethical concerns.

When the public got wind of the experiment, every known plant and lab was shut down. However… that doesn't make the research just disappear."

"So these people are clones?"" Some, yes. Others are mutated to such a degree that the word 'clone' becomes a stretch. They're human experimentation cast offs with heavily reduced lifespans. Recycled for a new purpose. Just like we will be if we fail to escape this prison. I am certain that our organic material and leveled bodies won't be wasted."

"You mentioned you have a solution for escaping?" Oliver pressed, following the current line of thought. He'd rather not linger on the possibilities of what his body would be recycled for. After half a decade in his biome, he was well aware of what sort of depraved concepts the creators of this experiment could come up with." I did. Allow me to go back and explain my discovery.

"As a [Hacker] I could access feeds and cameras. I even used the automated defense systems to bring in exp and level. However, the class upgrade to [Technomancer] granted me a great deal more freedom and control of the city. I could create my own drones to investigate areas previously inaccessible to me. One such location was in a hidden basement room of a tech corporation. Years previous, I discovered something fishy while investigating the building's layout in preparation for an augmentation tech raid.

Once I obtained my new class, I was able to break through the walls and explore the hidden chamber.

"Inside I found a treasure trove. But not of robots, experimental weapons, or bioenhanced super soldiers, like I'd expected. Instead, I found rows upon rows of metal boxes. A treasure far more valuable. I'd stumbled across my biome's server room. I'd accessed a wealth of hidden information." Oliver considered that. He found himself nodding along with that assessment. When fighting undead or other creatures of the Nightmare Biome, a weapon was only as useful as the knowledge of the monster's weaknesses.

Information was a weapon. And, like any weapon, it was deadly when placed in competent hands.

"The files and classified information I am about to share with you, I obtained by hacking into the server here in Neo Nova City. After a great deal of effort, I've managed to classify myself as an administrator and gain clearance. I doubt I need to tell you, but I am quite certain we experimentees are not supposed to have access to these files. My class has granted me far more control than the experimenters intended."

"And you believe that we need to seize an advantage on that oversight," Oliver guessed.

"Drain it for all it's worth like juicing a beet."

"A beet?" Kiki asked. She wrinkled her nose.

"Wouldn't an apple be more normal?" Oliver shrugged.

"Didn't come to mind. Beets are more common where I've been living recently."

"Regardless of the fruit and vegetable symbolism, I concur with your assessment. We need to act quickly and maximize my influence with this class. To do that, I need access to more servers. If accomplished, I believe I will be able to take control of pieces of the experiment as I extend my influence."

"And then, once you're mega powerful, you'll be able to portal us out of here and back to the real world?" Kiki asked. She blew another pink bubble and it grew to twice the size as the previous one before the gum popped." Not quite.

"The drone began driving in circles, as if pacing." I need you to trust me. I do have a plan to save us. But I can't risk it leaking. If the admins begin to suspect, they may attempt to counter me. I don't know how much freedom the experimenters wield or if they are allowed to interfere with the test without invalidating their results."

"Fine," Kiki said succinctly.

"I trust you. Point me at the foe and I'll cut it down."" Thank you, Kiki." The [Neon Samurai] shrugged.

"You've saved my life. I won't start doubting you now." Oliver was less convinced. He couldn't help but suspect that their [Technomancer] buddy here might be planning to double cross them. The drone builder was smart. Smart enough to convince a gullible group of fellow test subjects to do the dirty work for him while he sat back, hidden away in his bunker. It wasn't a good look. And even less so since [Technomancer] never showed up to this meeting in person. He asked for trust while giving them none in return.

Oliver didn't like that. It felt like a set up.

"I'm out," he decided. Kiki scrunched up her face and stared at him as if he was stupid." Is there anything I might be able to say to convince you otherwise?" [Technomancer] asked.

"Yes. Your plan."" If it were to leak—""That's a risk. But instead you're asking me to take on a risk in your place. I don't know you. I don't trust you. You have my thanks for pulling me out of the burning town, but that only earns you an audience, not my unwavering loyalty. This might all be a scheme in which you gain something while I'm left in the mud. I've lost that type of bet before enough times to know not to take one again. Especially not with these current stakes on the table. I'm out."

"[Technomancer] is—" Kiki started to defend her fellow Neo Nova City survivor.

"That's not even his name!" Oliver cut her off.

"This man knows all about us thanks to his surveillance systems. Meanwhile I know nothing about him. Even his class could be a lie meant to mislead. It's idiotic to trust someone like this. Someone with zero skin in the game." Kiki stood and drew her blade. It thrummed with a pink light. In response, Oliver scrambled to bring up his shovel and keep it between himself and the angry [Neon Samurai]. The apartment offered very little protection.

The couch and coffee table was next to nothing when their Dexterity stats were taken into account. He eyed the curtained window and debated how thick the glass was and whether or not he'd survive the fall. Otherwise, his only escape route was the front door, which he had no doubt would result in a fight for his life." Calm down, Kiki." The drone moved to place its mechanical body between the two of them." Oliver, you're correct. I am asking for a great deal without offering much in return.

While it is not equivalent to the sacrifice I ask of you, I offer you this information as a show of goodwill and trust. My name is Benjamin Lee. My classes are [Programmer]/[Hacker]/[Tech Whiz]/[Technomancer]. I'm currently level 73. My plan….

"Benjamin hesitated." I plan to hack into the chips in our heads and inflate our levels to 100. I believe that with two or three more servers under my authority, this becomes a real possibility." Oliver blinked. That was… a really good idea. If it was actually possible. But then again, Benjamin was someone already at level 73. Oliver honestly had no clue how powerful the skills might be at the fourth class selection. The monsters of that caliber were far beyond anything he'd scuffled with.

All he knew was that it meant Benjamin was… extremely strong.

"Okay." Oliver leaned back in his chair and nodded.

"You've got my attention again. What exactly do I need to do to give you access to another server?" The tension in the room dissipated. Kiki slowly sheathed her blade and continued to chew her gum. Benjamin the [Technomancer] drove his drone back as if to face both of them again as he addressed them with the little vehicle." All biomes have a single server," the drone's speaker said.

"They're hidden away. You usually need to be quite specialized to access them. Yours happens to be in a place that I believe only you would be capable of getting into successfully." Oliver considered that. Somewhere only he could access with his unique class combinations. He was already getting a bad feeling. His classes involved robbing the dead, skulking in the shadows, and slaying horrible creatures that shouldn't exist.

With the merging of the biomes, it vastly limited the amount of locations the server might be hidden away in. A pit in his stomach formed as he connected the most likely spot.

"I don't suppose you know of the Nightmare Biome's Vampire Manor?"