Forsaken 2027 Read online

  Two were now dead as Cain checked where the last Star had moved. The man could have held his hands up rather than pulling a large combat style knife, charging towards his position in the doorway. Cain threw himself forward to a prone position firing another three-round burst. One hit the man in his right kneecap as he placed his weight on his leg the bullet exited out the back of his knee,

  Hit: - 37 (208/245).

  Another just missed the man’s tackle, punching through his groin, colon before impacting the pelvis

  Hit: - 104 (104/245).

  The final round hit the man below the body armour, entering his navel, ripping apart the large intestine then blowing apart the aorta, finally lodging in the spine,

  Fatal Hit: - 104 (0/245).

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  Chapter 12

  Checking the Interfaces

  Cain watched as the three men finished moving, all dead in less than eight seconds. Cain had fired seven bullets, and three men were lifeless, their fluids running across the floor. The man at the desk sat open-mouthed, gaping like a fish at the sudden violence that erupted around him. Standing just as a game prompt flashed in the bottom left-hand corner of Cain’s game HUD. Clicking on it a system message overlaid his field of vision.

  Reading the system messages and taking a screen shot, to show Toni when they finally met, Cain closed the message, selecting his UI then the quest options regarding the quest.

  Once he had read the information, Cain opened his main stats screen.

  Reading his stats, he waited until he hit level 3, as he only needed an extra 53 experience points. Then he would have six ability points to distribute. With all his UI and game system messages closed, Cain took another look around the office.Time to loot the Star family corpses, before he could even take a single step the man beyond the desk Col Alan Hope, stood and offered Cain his hand.

  "Thank you, young man, you not only saved my bacon but the other men who work here keeping Jamie Hawke free from the casino bosses. We have several ongoing problems. Do you think you could help us with them, we’ll reward you." Said, Col Hope

  A proper quest, I wonder what this will be, paint the runways black or something equally pointless. Aargh, I better help after just saving him it would be churlish not to.

  "OK, what problem could I help you with?" Cain asked. Col Hope, moved over to the inner wall of the office, facing a local area map of the airport, hung on a board fastened with a single knife, thrust through the top of the map. Pushing back a folding corner Col Hope spoke.

  "Look here son," pointing to the map. " You see these shaded areas, they represent infestations by the Ratoles. I want you to go thin down their numbers. I’ll pay you well for each Ratole, you’ll get a single casino token for a pack member and five for a mini-boss. If you can kill thirty Ratoles, you’ll receive an additional 100 XP. As a bonus, you can refill your G3 magazines in our armoury, when they are empty, free while doing the quest. Well, what do you think, will you accept this quest? Oh, you can keep everything you loot from them too."

  Moving his virtual mouse pointer over the Yes option, Cain accepted the quest, watching as the quest screen faded from sight. As the quest screen faded, Cain looted the Star corpses before they dissolved like the Ratole had. The three Stars each had a grey hoodie, worn blue jeans and holey trainers as their clothing and a first aid kit. Cain looted one piece of the weak body armour, a large combat knife, three nondescript 9mm handguns, three water flasks and 74 casino tokens. He pushed everything into his backpack inventory as he spoke to Enoch.

  Enoch, what are these casino tokens? I’ve recovered quite a few.

  {The tokens are the currency of this game zone. Each casino has a portion of the overall wealth of this zone. The system keeps around half of the zones money but lets the casinos manage the rest. There are now only ten remaining casinos, each has at least one percent of the total money in the zone. The more players entering the game, the more money the game generates. Two of the largest casinos hold thirty-eight and thirty percent, respectively. If you use your inspect item skill, you will get a more detailed readout on what you inspect.} Enoch informed Cain.

  Taking Enoch’s advice Cain looked at the 9mm handguns the Stars had. Using the inspect skill Enoch mentioned, informed Cain the gun was a model P96a, it used a 9x19 Parabellum round, had a 10 round magazine with a muzzle velocity of 315 m/s. The inspect skill also provided Cain with the knowledge the P96a had no bonus abilities.

  Well, that’s a rubbish weapon, probably some eastern European mass-produced piece of junk. It’s more likely going to blow up in my hand like a grenade rather than shoot somebody. Cain would have inspected the remaining items in his inventory, but it was clear Col. Hope wanted him gone as he said.

  "Don’t you have a quest to do for me? Well, go do it. You’re not getting paid to sit on the floor, looking at a handgun are you?”

  Hunting the Ratoles 1

  Old habits die hard, Cain marshalled his spent cases, all those weeks spent training in the real world pay off in the game. Checking the large airport map, noticing it already showed one Ratole death. A small blue cross placed in the location of his entry into Forsaken. Bringing up the quest screen he noticed it still showed he had to kill thirty Ratoles.

  Maybe I killed it before accepting the quest, Cain muttered to himself as he waited for the elevator. Seeing the airfield name as the Jamie Hawke, niggled at Cain’s mind, I better ask and find out why that is its name in the game. Reaching the first-floor level, Cain made for the armoury to replace his spent ammo. Handing in the spent cases, Cain asked a seated man.

  "Excuse me Gunny. Could you tell me where I could purchase a good quality suppressed submachine gun." Grunting as he got to his feet, then walking to a locked cabinet. With a key from the bunch clipped to his combat trousers, the Gunny opened the cabinet, pulling out two sub-machine guns.

  "Now Sonny," the Gunny said laying them on the counter. "You can purchase either the old MP5 here," pushing the smallest of the two guns towards Cain. "We have several crates of these, so they are relatively dirt cheap. With a suppressor and ten full clips, let’s say 450 tokens. Now this little thing," he added. "This hellcat the MP7 will set you back 1250 tokens. So, what will it be Sonny, old and bulky or thin and deadly?" Cain quickly checked his inventory. If he traded everything, he only had 997 tokens. His money made the call for him.

  "I’ll take the older MP5 Gunny, if I may. I may trade for the MP7 later, but the MP5 will work well." Cain told him

  "Well go over there, pay that corporal and pick up your gun," the Gunny said. Before picking up both weapons and returning them to the cabinet, locking it securely before sitting down in his stuffed armchair.

  Cain noticed for the first time there was a pair of trade trays on the corporal's desk. In the right-hand tray was the MP5, suppressor and clips. On the front of that tray was the price needed to purchase the items. The left-hand tray was empty the front had a big fat zero on it. Cain unloaded from his backpack into the tray on the desk. All the ore, clothing from the Stars, two Ratole pelts, one stick of dynamite, ten blasting caps and the nine single casino tokens. Leaving Cain with five hundred and forty-seven tokens. The female corporal didn’t even count what Cain gave her. As the last nine tokens dropped into the box, an MP5 with clips and suppressor disappeared from the tray on her desk.

  "Here," she said, "Have these on the house, since you're working for us now." Four small first aid kits appeared next to the MP5 in Cain’s inventory. "They’ll heal forty damage in total. 15 instantly, it uses the remaining health at 7 health every five seconds until used," she added. The corporal turned back to looking at her computer screen and began typing.

  "Excuse me, corporal, can you tell me why do you call the airfield, Jamie Hawke, not McCarren?" Cain asked the corporal, who sat there busily typing and quietly ignoring him.

  "You’ll be waiting till hell freezes over Sonny," said the Gunny. "She only deals with payment and handing out
the quests. What is it you want to know?" Cain explained to the Gunny what he wanted, to which the Gunny told him there was a Plaque in the storage cupboard, behind the clerk. Thanking the Gunny, Cain went to the said cupboard and opened the door. Switching on the light, Cain noticed a partly filled storage shelving unit on his right, with a fancy curtain covering something directly opposite the doorway.

  That must be the plaque behind the curtain, better go look. I wonder what are those things on the shelves? Cain picked up an open box which was slightly larger than his hand. The box had a clear plastic front someone printed a name above the plastic. The name was Chad. As Cain turned the box over several small pieces of clothing fell out into his hand. Now that’s bloody strange. These look like a doll’s clothes. There were several other empty boxes, these had different names on them, Twitch, Gale and Charm. Cain placed them back on the shelf and noticed a larger covered box hidden in the back corner.

  Pulling the box out, then removing the covering Cain looked inside. The before his eyes were the full poseable dolls from the empty boxes. Somebody had been playing and acting out a sick fantasy. The male doll, obviously Chad, stood with his feet slightly apart while a doll with fox ears and tail was giving him a representative blow job. Chad's small plastic penis was inside the foxy lady's mouth, someone stood the other two dolls at either side of the male doll. Someone turned the male doll’s head to its left as though it was kissing the doll with the green hair. The green dolls, head was almost touching Chad's head. Chad's hands had been placed between the legs of each of the standing female dolls.

  Laughing to himself Cain put the cover back on the box, pushing it back where he pulled it from and rearranged his own boxers. Damn, those dolls look almost lifelike, I wonder if they really do that. I wonder if I could ever do that, three women, at once? Pulling the curtain apart Cain read the plaque out loud.

  "They named The airfield after Jamie Hawke because he was one of the best litRPG Harem writers of his age. As the designer of the airfield and surrounding area, I named the airfield and some roads and buildings after Jamie Hawke and another writer, Harmon Cooper. Sadly, I stopped under duress, making large changes such as having a fighting pit, by the lead game designer Jason White."

  Michael Cameron Durie signed the plaque, Earth Games Zone segment coder and litRPG Harem fanatic. Turning away from the plaque a small pop-up flashed onto Cain’s HUD.

  Cool, I’ll try to keep an eye out for the other three plaques, I wonder what the coder Michael Cameron Durie rewards the person for finding all four? Hearing a crash behind him, Cain turned to look and noticed the plaque had fallen off the wall and broke into hundreds of tiny pieces which dissolved into the floor.

  Slighty concerned the Gunny or corporal would say something about the plaque, Cain exited the control tower with long strides. Outside in the shadow of the control tower, Cain pulled up his local area map he noticed the details about the Ratoles from Col Hope’s map had transferred to his. Seeing an entrance point on the map to access the Ratole tunnels, Cain walked for ten minutes within the security fencing to the inspection shaft. Looking around Cain noticed the mound of earth in the distance, where he entered the game.

  Kicking the two securing bolts back, he knelt and lifted the inspection shaft cover. With the cover open, Cain slid down the ladder landing quietly at the bottom. Sweeping the suppressed MP5 from side to side, Cain looked down the length of the tunnel. He noticed it was reasonably well lit as someone placed, red lights roughly every ten yards. Checking his local map, Cain turned to his right, carefully making his way down the service tunnel to the nearest shaded Ratole location. There were piles of rubbish in the tunnel, barrels, wooden pallets and tarpaulins, making the journey slow as Cain checked for traps.

  Enoch, I find it worrying that all the weapons we have come across are from a time before two thousand and twenty-twenty. Do you have any ideas why that is? Cain asked.

  {It was to do with the team leader responsible for the weapons they are a player of old style games. Who was responsible for the coding of weapons in this game zone. I think from what you have come across is an indication the person is clearly a gun nut or enthusiast about that time period weapons.} Enoch replied.

  After walking three hundred yards, Cain noticed in the distance the service tunnel had a huge section missing in the left-hand concrete wall. As he carefully drew near, he could hear an increasing chittering noise. Unscrewing one of the red lights, Cain crouched in the dark patch he made. While he listened trying to make out what it was being said, two Ratoles exited the hole. Looking through the optical scope, Cain noticed they were laying a length of detonator cord. The Ratoles stopped near a sandbag wall, which came to about four feet high, hiding their lower bodies.

  Cain checked both their game tags. Reading they were both level three and came from Pack 5 with full health bars, and a health of (218/218). He watched as they draped the cord over the sandbag wall. Expecting them to detonate the explosives, it surprised Cain as they bent behind the sandbags and picked up, what turned out to be a long narrow box carrying it between them. The chittering noise started again while they headed back into what was a newly dug tunnel.

  With the coast clear, Cain quickly reached the sandbag wall, built upon a good depth of recently excavated earth from the new tunnel. He listened to more chittering coming from there. Checking out the tunnel with his MP5’s optical sight, he counted at least six more of them. They were placing sticks of dynamite into holes they had drilled in the earthen walls. He watched as one of the Ratoles was giving the instructions, its game tag showed it as level 5 pack leader at full health of (393/393).

  Deciding to take the group out he took the remaining eight sticks of dynamite out of his inventory, fastened a blasting cap in each one. Once primed Cain laid the explosives around the area, the Ratoles would hide when setting off their own explosives. Satisfied with the placement he wired each one individually, ending the leads together before running a single lead to the plunger. Cain cut their lead, making it impossible for the newly excavated tunnel to explode when somebody pushed the plunger.

  Moving back twenty yards to a stack of drums and tarpaulins, Cain used his old skill craft making himself nearly invisible. Settling down it wasn’t long before all the Ratoles exited and squatted down behind the sandbag wall. Peering between two of the oil drums, looking through the optical sight, he watched the leader checking the wire as it pressed down on the plunger. It must have noticed a difference in the leads colour because it tried to stop pushing and screeched.

  It was a fruitless effort as it made the connections just before it stopped pushing. Cain turned his head away a fraction before the explosives detonated. The sound reverberated in all directions, followed by a torrent of dirt and Ratole pieces reaching his position. Waiting until the dirt and pieces stopped falling Cain dusted himself off before checking his handiwork.

  One of the Ratoles was still alive even minus its legs, Cain fired two shots into its skull. He ignored all the game prompts. Quickly looting the bodies before checking out the new tunnel. Collecting all the explosive equipment, Cain continued his journey. He checked his inventory, noticing he’d only received four pelts from the dismembered bodies, but a shed load of explosives and weapons. He’d also collected a combat helmet equipped with a night sight. All his equipment and inventory came to just over five thousand tokens.

  Next Cain checked his stats noticing he’d reached level three. From the game instructions, he knew placing his attribute points now would do no good. He would need to have at least four hours sleep for them to make permanent changes. Using one of the water flasks, Cain drank until he felt full, now empty it went back into his inventory.

  Continuing his journey down the service tunnel, he used the MP5 to deadly effect. Killing another six Ratoles, using four of his magazines. Two of the six held an extra pelt, and one had an optic sight for the G3. Looting those bodies Cain now had a good selection of ores and more explosives, for a level thre
e noob. Bringing his inventory value to a smidge over seven thousand five hundred, casino tokens.

  Equipping the night optic sight to the G3, Cain used the inspect skill on the G3. His G3 was made by Heckler & Koch in two thousand and thirteen, and uses a Round: 7.62×51mm NATO, with a Load: 20-round magazine. Its effectiveness with a Muzzle velocity: 800 m/s and Effective Range: 200–400 metres makes the G3 a deadly weapon. The inspect skill informed Cain the G3 had two Bonuses, the first bonus, increased exsanguination. The other bonus, increased damage due to hydrostatic shock.

  Putting the G3 back into his inventory Cain continued down the tunnel walking a further two hundred yards. Reaching a pair of large metal doors, set into the right-hand side wall. He checked them for alarms and booby traps, feeling it was safe Cain slid the left-hand door back. Cain moved from the reasonably well-lit service tunnels to a wide timber-supported earthen tunnel. His field of view reduced to less than five yards although he could see two flickering lamps in the distance.

  Turning on for the first time his night light optics, Cain moved into the new tunnel, again checking the walls and floor as he moved he followed it, curving slightly to the left while moving downwards at a steady angle. Hearing a reverberating noise coming from further down the tunnel, Cain swapped out the MP5 for the G3 with the optic attached.

  "If only I had a suppressor," Cain said out loud, as he shouldered the G3, "this would be a deadly tunnel weapon.” An idea came to his mind, he sat down, his back against one of the many empty oil drums, taking the empty water flask and one pelt from his inventory. He cut thin strips from the pelt making a long piece of tough rawhide twine. Next, he shaved the pelt nearly bald, making piles of loose fur. When he finished, he had twenty units of shaved fur in his inventory. Picking out two of the twenty he’d shaved from the pelt, jamming them into the flask. Flask full of fur, he jammed it onto the barrel of his G3, fastening it into place with the twine.