Defending Earth (In the System Book #3): LitRPG Series Read online

  “Assholes,” I muttered, looking at my pet project with longing. In theory, I could try to regain control, but I wasn’t doing anything that stupid. I didn’t even try to go to the admin panel. I re-registered as an ordinary user instead, and immediately received a bunch of spam.

  Hundreds of topics have already been created on the site, but nothing serious was being discussed. It was an open forum, so absolutely anyone could come here, not to mention the secret services. The forum owner had changed several times in recent days. I doubted this confrontation would be difficult to end, but so far, the state-sponsored hackers were just having fun. Perhaps they knew that crashing the resource wasn’t difficult and so played by the rules?

  I went to the pinned topic ‘Invitation to cooperate’ at the top. It looked like the site was in American hands today, with players being invited to contact the already familiar email address or the nearest embassy, and promised a green card, all kinds of support, and an allowance, the size of which depended on the achieved success. The minimum was still the same, 100,000 dollars. Honestly, was there some kind of magic in this number?

  Some of the losers created topics that were immediately taken down by the moderators, but if you kept refreshing the page, you could see the competing offers. They didn’t remain there for long, but the bots were very persistent. The posts usually contained contact details and a link to another website, where you could discuss cooperation in more detail. Nevertheless, most of the players had come here first.

  Yesterday, the site had belonged to the Chinese Government. They had promised pretty much the same thing: an apartment in Beijing, a training base, equipment, and a substantial salary. Interestingly, the salary was in euro and not in yuan.

  The FSB, however, wasn’t out to catch mice, so I didn’t see a topic from Russia. What were those notorious Russian hackers even thinking? Or was the situation so bad that the government wasn’t even aware of what was happening? Not many players were Russian and even fewer of them had returned. According to Google, Russians made up about 2% of the global population. Out of 3,000 survivors, that equated to about 60 potential informants, so the government had to know.

  However, the problem was the same for all of us. Where should one write to attract attention, surely not to the Presidential Administration? A letter this insane would be immediately filtered out. Russia didn’t have a special department for all the supernatural stuff. Nevertheless, I had written several emails, hoping that at least one of them would attract attention, but I hadn’t received an answer yet.

  * * *

  “Enough of this nonsense!” The raven appeared from the wall. “It is time to inspect the captives!”

  I had released the ghosts on the second day, after stipulating the conditions of their stay. While Bri hung obediently in front of the TV, distracted only by food and showing up on command, Legion was being quite annoying, flying around the neighborhood and appearing in the most unexpected places. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the neighbors checked themselves into a mental hospital soon. I’d warned him that if one of the apartment complex residents suddenly died, it would be his fault, regardless of the reason. I’d also forbidden him to fly out beyond the building.

  If only because the ghost was very unlikely to find his way back. We had ventured outside a couple of times to look for murders of crows, but the ghost’s appearance sowed panic among the birds. Possession was far from instant and clearly quite unpleasant, so the potential victim kept immediately taking off. Alas, live birds flew much faster than dead ones. We needed to catch and secure the candidate. Importantly, we needed to pick one out first, since just any bird wouldn’t do, it had to be young and healthy. The choice fell on the “slave market”, represented by popular online trading platforms, websites and social networks.

  “Okay, okay,” I gave up. There was nothing suspicious about wanting to buy a raven, so I decided to search for one openly. I shifted across to sit at the computer, the ghost already pacing in front of the monitor. Oddly enough, he didn’t sink through the tabletop.

  “What do you think of this one?” I showed Legion a photo of the first candidate. “Looks healthy enough.”

  “Can’t you see that it’s a female? Quite attractive, though...”

  “Strange, the ad says male,” I mumbled. “For that much money, he should be able to lay golden eggs.”

  “Eggs are important, too,” Legion nodded. “Once we’ve obtained a new body for me, we can buy her as a concubine. How much did you say she cost?”

  “Twelve thousand,” I reported, casting a side glance at the raven. The last thing I needed was a harem.

  “Crystals?” Legion grew agitated. “Then we must immediately fly there and kill the damned slaver! He must possess a lot of crystals, as well as females languishing in captivity!”

  “Don’t worry, we don’t use crystals as currency. We’re talking about rubles.”

  “Pfft, is that all? We need to find something more expensive for me. Don’t forget that you were the one who promised me a body, so you bear all the costs, including feed!”

  “Of course,” I didn’t bother arguing. “What do you think about this handsome fellow?”

  “See his feathers? He’s not black enough to be considered a raven! Perhaps his ancestors included the despicable phoenixes or even pigeons.”

  “How is that even possible?” I said indignantly. “These species can’t interbreed. Why don’t you ask your younger souls for knowledge of basic biology?”

  “It’s all about the strength of the bloodline! We three-legged crows can father offspring on anything that moves and has wings.”

  “What, including planes?” I couldn’t help myself, and was rewarded with a disapproving look. Unconstrained by the limits of a physical body, the ghost turned his neck 180 degrees, and then spun it in a complete circle. Lovely.

  “We shall add feathers to the conditions,” the raven clarified. “or fur. Some of us may stoop to scales, but I am a raven of strict moral principles.”

  “Alright, I’m sorry,” I replied. “How about this one? Blacker than night itself, glossy feathers, and costs as much as a jumbo jet. Twenty-five thousand rubles! You’ve got to understand that the market is limited, and new candidates don’t appear very often.”

  “We need to inspect the bird. Who knows what they’ve drawn here?”

  “Okay, I’ll make an appointment,” I agreed. “By the way, can you tell me something interesting in the meantime? About the gods, for example?”

  * * *

  “...and that’s why they’re scum who can’t be trusted! That damned Y is the worst of them.” The raven finished his emotional and by no means uninteresting story. As I understood it, the ‘god of life and death’ had struck his flock personally, which the Legion considered terribly unfair. They had simply come to the dying world to feast on its remains.

  “Interesting. What do you know about...”

  Alas, in the few seconds during which I’d looked away, the ghost had gone invisible and apparently escaped. Typical. No matter how naive the raven was, he didn’t like sharing information for free, and it was difficult to get anything useful out of him. He had a rather strange set of priorities. L, his alter ego, was even more secretive and could talk for hours without actually saying anything. Plus, we didn’t see each other very often. Having obtained the desired freedom, the raven suppressed the elder souls and released them only at my persistent request. He suspected, and with good reason, that the goblin had slightly different priorities in choosing a body. Compared to Legion, Bri was a model of willingness to cooperate, but knew practically nothing and was clearly stupid. I couldn’t ask Bri about the System, could I?

  “Bri, what do you know about the gods?”

  “I don’t think they exist, master.” Wow, an atheist! “Although... I can tell you about our Lord Govinda.”

  I glanced at the TV, where the state was currently struggling with a shortage of military personnel, and decided not t
o ask any more questions. Although the Protector of Cows also belonged to Hinduism, he was unlikely to tell me anything about Shiva.

  I had pinned my hopes on the ancient ghost so I took my time, collecting crumbs of information and trying not to overdo it. Our partnership was voluntary and I wanted it to remain so, at least until I was given good reason to review the agreement. It was a little early to talk about mutual trust, but I believed we were moving in the right direction.

  * * *

  I held a machine gun in my hands as a wave of undead came at me, floundering under the hail of bullets, yet refusing to stop. I could see the spines of Bone Horrors rising behind the rows of rank-and-file skeletons. The ammunition belt ran out, and I threw away the useless weapon, taking a remote control with a red button out of my bag. Right, critters, since you don’t want to play nice, this will stop you for sure...

  “Wake up! Wake up!” Wake up!”

  I opened my eyes and was startled to find a goblin instead of the undead. What had I done to deserve this? It was a rhetorical question.

  “Long time no see, L.” I yawned. “I hope you’ve got something important for me.”

  “Some old woman is planning to die a couple of floors below us. I decided to warn you so there’d be no questions later.”

  A couple of floors down meant a pretty distant neighbor in a high-rise building. I didn’t even know the people who lived on my landing very well, and had no idea what the people living above or below me looked like. It was like they were from another universe.

  “Is she getting help?” I closed my eyes for a moment, glancing at the internal clock. It was 3:00 AM.

  “No,” The goblin was quick to disappoint me. “She’s alone in the apartment and I don’t think she’ll last until morning.”

  The ghost sent me an image of an elderly woman lying on the floor and it was obvious that she wouldn’t be able to call an ambulance for herself. Now what? Do I ring the ambulance? How would I explain it? Frankly, I felt nothing but a desire to sleep. I was about as worried about her as about starving children in Africa. Tragic, of course, but so very far away from me... who was I kidding?

  I sighed and stood up, picking up my pants and T-shirt as I went. My conscience wouldn’t let me stand idly by if helping wouldn’t cost me anything. I didn’t need the fame. Okay, I’d consider this a training session and try to do everything quickly and quietly, and remain unnoticed.

  I took the trash can from the kitchen and went out onto the landing. The walls in this building were paper thin, so leaving the apartment without notifying the neighbors was quite a challenge. “If anything, let them think I’m an idiot. It’s the most reliable alibi.”

  Although I doubted that someone would wake up to investigate the noise, it didn’t hurt to have a proper excuse. I set the bucket down by the open trash chute and headed downstairs.

  “Behind this door,” the ghost said, materializing again. “Do you know this woman?”

  “Of course,” I lied, putting on my medical gloves and trying the handle to check that the door was really closed. “How could I not? We live in the same house. I also have a key... a universal one.”

  The old lady’s door was the flimsy kind that developers really liked to install. I could have probably punched right through it with my fist, but that would have defeated the purpose of this activity. Explaining my motives to the police would be even more difficult than convincing the ambulance that they needed to break into the apartment.

  The Sabotage skill had many applications. I twisted a wire around, inserted it in the lock and heard a click after a while. Was it luck? I went inside and closed the door quietly behind me. Although people often left their keys in the lock, they lay on the shelf in this apartment. As if the elderly woman knew her end was drawing near, and had wanted to make it easier for her family to get into the apartment. Or maybe my imagination was getting away from me.

  I entered the room and could barely discern the woman lying face down in the dark. I’d read in a book once that only the dead lay face down, but she was still breathing. Hoarsely and with pauses... was it heart attack or stroke? I didn’t turn on the lights, so I couldn’t make out any details. “The former, I suppose.”

  I put my hand on her back, over the heart, and activated the Great Healing. My entire supply of mana dropped as if into an abyss, but the woman’s condition stabilized. I hesitated but didn’t repeat the procedure. I still hadn’t learned how to charge mana crystals, and it would be stupid to wait four hours for it to recover naturally. Judging by the photos, the neighbor had a family who could take care of her.

  “Find the phone!” I ordered.

  The ghost, a raven once again, circled the room and landed on the table, its beak pointing to what I was looking for. As expected, it was the old brick phone, with traditional functions for the elderly. I hoped her family had set it up properly. I pressed the SOS button and placed the howling phone next to her body. In addition to the sound, it was supposed to call all the numbers stored in its memory and send out SMS messages asking for help.

  “Keep an eye on her,” I told the raven as I turned a mana crystal round and round in my hand. My mana was at zero after the Great Healing, but I didn’t need a lot to get out of here without much risk. “If her condition worsens, or if no one shows up in the next hour, let me know.”

  It was a simple precaution. Given the thickness of the walls, I wasn’t sure who would arrive first — the people from the phone list or the disturbed neighbors. My mana recovered slightly, so I put the crystal away and retreated into Invisibility, leaving the door ajar. I hoped that would be enough.

  As I climbed the stairs, I thought about my own family. I should visit my folks and check their health, and the sooner the better. Human life is fleeting. You never know who is going to die and when. I wasn’t just talking about my family. The next mission could well be my last. This now-familiar thought did not arouse any feelings. I had made my peace with the danger.

  I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I dreamed of the goblin city with a nuclear mushroom cloud blooming over it. That’s what I call a clear conscience…

  * * *

  “His name is Gosha,” The attractive young woman said as she counted the money. “He’s still very young, so please look after him.”

  “Of course,” I smiled, watching out of the corner of my eye as the ghost circled the cage.

  “His blood is very thin, but he is young and healthy,” Legion announced. “He is suitable. As his Ancestor, I’ll even permit him to become part of me. This is a great honor for him!”

  Honor, huh? This was basically murder, but I was in no position to grieve over a random raven. More precisely, an elite raven worth 25,000 rubles. The only thing that distinguished him from the birds out in the yard was the absence of sores, excessive trustfulness, and the ability to caw on command. Nor could I count on the golden eggs, since it was a male bird.

  “I want him!”

  “Not right now.” I thought, hoping that Legion would hear me. Or that he’d at least stick to the arrangements and not try to possess the body right now. The owner seemed quite attached to the bird. It was possible that the relatively high price hadn’t been dictated by greed, but by the desire to scare off potential buyers.

  “Would it be alright if I visited him sometimes? Occasionally, you know?”

  “Certainly... not. I’m sorry, Elena, but I don’t think my girlfriend would approve of your visits. Apologies, I must get going. If you like, I can send you a photo once he’s settled in. Good bye.”

  I picked up the cage, threw a cloth over it, and left the apartment. Considering what I’d done in the past, feeling sorry for this body donor would be stupid.

  * * *

  The possession proceeded without any complications. The raven flinched, clearly sensing that something bad was going on, but there was no way he could escape his fate. His wild relatives had reacted quite badly to attempts to possess them, so I made sure
of everything in advance. The bird was drugged and secured in its cage.

  I couldn’t see the details of what was happening. The ghost had become invisible, so I could only sense that the mana density around the cage had grown significantly. A few minutes later, the raven twitched and gave me a completely different, much more intelligent look.

  “Release me! And bring the crystals! You haven’t used up my share, have you?”

  * * *

  “Please come. I’ll be so glad to see you…”

  I closed my eyes, knowing this was inevitable. I had proven myself enough to interest a lot of people, and from Lisa’s point of view, my move seemed like the optimal solution. She’d only used hints because she wasn’t sure how private our correspondence was. Most people thought I was connected to the government.