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

  “I’m sorry, but it’s not possible under current conditions.”

  This was the end of our romance, I supposed. It wasn’t that kind of story at all.

  Lisa’s proposal wasn’t the first or even the fifth. I was being offered much more than ordinary players. If someone asked me why I didn’t run into the open arms of MI9 or the CIA, I’d struggle to answer. Patriotism? To some extent. I loved my country, and I had no particular complaints about the government, for all its shortcomings. At least, I hoped that I’d be able to negotiate and obtain everything I needed from my own government. There were no guarantees, of course, for there were always people in a country’s leadership who believed that love for the motherland was more worth more than money . But it was, by and large, just a game. Fools didn’t usually reach the top, so there was always room for haggling. The question was whether I could skip the middle management, where idiots still existed. Probably in abundance.

  In addition, defectors were always viewed with suspicion and had to perpetually prove their loyalty in word and deed. I had no intention of becoming a ‘loyal dog’ or a bargaining chip. Especially since defecting a second time was even more difficult… It didn’t count the first time, but it was all over for next time, no more trust. Funnily enough, many people in Russia considered the children of top officials studying overseas to be traitors. Meanwhile, they were viewed as foreign agents over there, promoting the interests of a distant homeland.

  It takes several generations to be accepted. I could obtain money, training and weapons abroad, but I wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the powers that be, no matter how strong I became. Well, if one was to take a place on the board, better as the king than a pawn or even the queen. After all, there was only one piece in chess that couldn’t be sacrificed.

  Deep in thought, I opened my website. No viruses popped up this time, but there was yet another notification on the main page with an invitation to cooperate. This time, it was repeated in Russian. Finally.

  Chapter 2. Family Matters

  Attention, attention! Dear passengers, S8 Airlines flight number 240514 is now boarding.

  MY BAG PASSED THROUGH the scanner without any questions from security. Although I was worried about the procedure the first time around, Camouflage didn’t let me down. The contents of this Level 3 bag weighed almost nothing, and only its owner could get inside the special space. To everyone else, the bag looked completely ordinary. I could even carry things in it the traditional way, which allowed me to pass safely through the detectors. An empty bag weighing a couple of kilograms would have inevitably aroused suspicion.

  “All done. Next!”

  I picked my bag up from the belt and headed down the hall. I’d never liked flying. I wasn’t afraid of flying, I just didn’t enjoy it. However, due to the immense size of my homeland, I had to resort to this form of transport from time to time. I was still alive, so, even if luck somehow affected the chances of the plane crashing, it had to include not only my personal luck, but also all the passengers and crew members. Not to mention that if the equipment was working properly, it wouldn’t break just to spite me. Hopefully…

  A week has passed since I received the government’s contacts, but I hadn’t yet taken the decisive step, preferring to deal with personal matters and take care of my family first. The woman I saved had reminded me that not only was I mortal, but so were my loved ones.

  My grandparents on both sides were still alive, but all in their late seventies. If I tried to wait and gather my strength, I risked not only dying myself, but being too late to be of any use. When elderly people went to bed and closed their eyes, they often couldn’t be sure if they would wake up again. Falling asleep wasn’t easy either, with the chronic aches and pains making themselves felt. Familiar problems that were no less painful for that. Although my parents were younger, they had also reached an age when health starts to deteriorate. If I contacted the government, it would be a while before I could find the time to resolve personal matters. The choice was simple, and my homeland could wait for now.

  The System was not only dangerous, it also gave people the chance to change their lives, gain power, restore their health and even their youth. There had been few older people in the first wave, and although they had all died, and the age limits had shifted in the second mission, perhaps I could give my loved ones a chance. If not now, then perhaps sometime in the future. For now, it would be enough if they simply lived to see it.

  I handed my boarding pass to the stewardess, climbed the stairs to the plane, and took a seat by the window, lost in thought again. It was a six-hour flight from Irkutsk to Moscow, and I doubted that I’d be able to sleep the whole way.

  * * *

  I’d never returned to my home region after finishing my studies and serving in the army, preferring to settle ‘closer to civilization’. The choice naturally fell on St. Petersburg, where I had completed my studies, and where housing was much more affordable than in the capital. Thanks to my parents’ help, I was able to purchase an apartment with only a small mortgage, which I had paid off already. I had no complaints about my family.

  I timed my visit to coincide with my grandfather Nikolay’s birthday — he was turning eighty, and almost the whole family had gathered in one place. I was ashamed to admit that if it hadn’t been for everything that was going on, I’d have limited myself to a birthday card and a quick phone call.

  I decided to be open about the situation and demonstrate some of my abilities. I had no choice but to trust their common sense and their ability to keep a secret. Despite the ‘majesty’ of my spell, its effect was quite localized, so one session wasn’t going to be enough. If I didn’t resort to mana crystals, I could use the skill six times a day, and that was if I set an alarm clock. Should I use while they were asleep? Give them sleeping tablets? Make up some story? None of it would be rational.

  The situation had changed. The last time I’d returned from a mission, I hadn’t really understood what was going on, and I’d wanted to shield my family from danger. I knew a lot more now. There was no point in burying my head in the sand and trying to hide the truth. The world was on the brink of change, and it was only a matter of time before the planet found out about the players. Not much time. Wouldn’t it be stupid if I died without telling them anything? The danger would still exist.

  I had eight close family members. Grandpa Nikolay, whom my brother was named after, and Grandma Lyuda, his wife. My second grandfather Ivan and my grandmother Galia. My parents. My brother. I decided not to tell my daughter-in-law Anna and their five-year-old son, my nephew Igor. They had excellent health, while my time was limited. My brother wasn’t happy about it, but I didn’t want the secret to go beyond the family. Not yet.

  I’d already severely restricted the list of the ‘chosen few’ . My parents had brothers with children of their own, but these had spread out across the country, so I hardly knew them. We had enough friends who could use the help of a healer. They had their own families and close friends. If the rumors spread, there would soon be many more seekers of my services than people I could heal. Sad as it was, I simply couldn’t help everyone. Right now, I couldn’t even help everyone who needed it. All I could do was ask my brother to gather information about loved ones who would be doomed without my help.

  Of course, I doubted that I could keep the whole thing a secret, and sooner or later, news of my healing abilities would spread among the players. The information would then go up the chain, and I wasn’t sure that was a bad thing. Perhaps it was worth advertising my own abilities? Of course, they would select important patients and use me to the maximum, but I wouldn’t be locked up in a dungeon. It was a powerful trump card in the upcoming negotiations, forcing my potential patrons to do everything in their power to ensure that I survived and was happy with our cooperation. I was quite certain that I was the strongest healer at present.

  What I lacked were diagnostic tools, so I had to play it safe and ‘attack’ the
heart, brain, stomach and liver, the four most vulnerable locations. The lungs and kidneys are paired organs, so there was less risk. Plus, cancer and other diseases that could appear anywhere. The skill also had a systemic effect, so six full healing spells should solve most of these problems. Joints, bowels, blood vessels… Anyhow, my patients could tell where and what was hurting, so I didn’t spend all my mana at every session, increasing their frequency and number instead.

  After the first few sessions, I sent the others to private health clinics. This included my brother’s wife and son, who received a couple of ‘preventive’ sessions. Even if modern medicine couldn’t defeat many diseases, it had learned to diagnose them quite well, especially for a fee.

  It was a busy week but I managed. Although my ‘patients’ didn’t become younger per se, they now looked like they did ten years ago, while the oldest family members looked twenty years younger. In addition, I left an inheritance for my brother in the form of access to one of the wallets, a set of cards and one of the bags. He couldn’t use the artifacts, since he wasn’t part of the System, but this was only a matter of time. I had to wait until it finally assimilated Earth or simply share my experience points with him. The latter was premature but I still gave him one of the arrows. I hoped he’d never have to use it, though.

  Saying goodbye to my family was quite hard, for although I tried to downplay the danger, everyone understood that, perhaps, we were seeing each other for the last time. Just as they understood my need to leave. Towards the end of the week, I contacted the recruiters and received an invitation to come to the capital.

  * * *

  “I hate planes.” I said, adding another item to my list. Not least because inflight Wi-Fi was exorbitantly expensive. I preferred to watch downloaded videos on my tablet.

  For example, a news story about a pack of apes terrorizing an American neighborhood. I would have called it a fake, but in addition to talk about the ‘bloodthirsty yeti’, there were numerous shots of them rushing through the city and killing citizens. I suspected that they were receiving experience points for this…

  A guy in a ‘superhero suit’, as I ironically called our gear, appeared on the screen, but he didn’t pull out a sword or attack the monsters, leaving it to those with more substantial weapons. Fortunately, automatic weapons were allowed in that state. Gun bullets got stuck in the ape fur, but machine-gun bullets clearly hurt. Soon we could see how it ended. Although the monsters had killed plenty of people, they had paid for it with their lives.

  Local missions had appeared five days ago. The episode with the apes was the first and most famous one, but three had been discussed in our chat, with varying levels of danger. The players had been lucky in this instance, for the work had been done for them. One of the groups, however, had ended up in the Arctic, where they didn’t all freeze to death only because the monster had arrived slightly earlier and offered little resistance. They didn’t manage to finish it off since it threw itself into the sea and drowned instead. In the third case, the volunteers spent an hour in the jungle and returned without finding anyone. However, not everyone had returned, so perhaps some were more ‘successful’ in their search that others.

  The plane jolted abruptly, triggering a few startled screams from the passengers, then leveled out again. The pilot apologized over the speaker system for the air turbulence and reassured us that everything was fine. He might have been all right, but I wasn’t.

  Attention! Registering multiple ingressions into your world!

  Local mission No. 7

  Type: Protection of the home location.

  Description:

  Creatures from other locations are entering your world. They include harmless creatures, but most have come here for the experience. Stop them before it’s too late!

  Difficulty: rank F.

  Opponent: Unknown.

  Mission duration: 3 hours.

  Conditions:

  Banish, negotiate with or destroy the aliens who have entered your world.

  Reward: access to the Server, improved relationship with the gods of your location.

  Penalty for failure: none.

  Would you like to accept an optional F-ranked local mission to protect your home location? (0/10)

  Yes/No

  Not everyone received local missions, and this was the first time I’d seen one. Plus, I knew of only three, but this one’s number meant there had been six. Either some of them were happening right now or the monsters had won in half of the cases. The first seemed much more likely, for other potential volunteers wouldn’t have missed the mission number either…

  “Goodbye, my fifty bucks.” Not that it really mattered, but the internet was clearly overpriced. It wasn’t even unlimited, I had only been allocated 150 megabytes. It’s like we were living in the twentieth century.

  Sighing, I connected to the Wi-Fi and logged into the team chat. Everyone had access to it, but few were allowed to write, and it was here that key information was gathered. Judging by the stream of notifications, there were a lot of missions this time. The most recent one was numbered forty-four. Shit...

  Naturally, I wasn’t going to accept the mission. Putting aside the risk, what would I do once I finished? How high up were we right now? Despite my paranoia, I hadn’t thought to buy a parachute. It I had one, it would be possible to put it on in my personal room, then shift to my home world. It worked with non-System items from the goblin world.

  Spots taken: (3/10)

  Unfortunately, my opinion didn’t matter much here. I leaned back in my chair, watching the spots fill up. Slowly, too slowly... Few people were willing to take the risk, meaning that over half of the places would remain vacant and ‘volunteers’ would be appointed forcibly. If I was unlucky, I’d disappear right out of the plane, leaving behind a pile of clothes and personal belongings.

  “Excuse me, I need to use the toilet.” I got out of my seat and went to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I didn’t undress, only put my tablet back in the bag. Now, even if I disappeared, at least it wouldn’t be in front of everyone and thus less dramatic. Although, if I believed that the presence of witnesses could somehow affect my chances of being chosen, I wouldn’t have hidden.

  Time remaining: 0 minutes and 9 seconds…

  The timer reached its end, the sign flickered, changed to 10/10, and disappeared. Along went the fear and attempts to figure out how to avoid the mission if I was forcefully sucked into it.

  “Damn, I hate planes.” I muttered into empty space. There was a lot more emotion in my statement this time. I was pretty sure I’d just acquired a new phobia.

  The airplane shook again, and I suddenly thought how terribly ironic it would be if we didn’t make it. I had to be lucky sometime, right? I’d have to choose some kind of levitation skill next time. Or invulnerability. Like Marcus, who could immediately put himself together by winding back time, even if he shattered into a million pieces.

  * * *

  Despite my pessimism, the remainder of the flight passed without incident, and a couple of hours later, the plane landed safely at Domodedovo Airport. The lack of luggage and a domestic flight allowed me to proceed directly to the exit. I had plenty of time. Although the flight had taken a little over 6 hours and left at 07:15, I arrived in Moscow only a short time later, at 08:25. Time zones worked wonders, while also messing about with people’s internal clocks.

  Activate Second Wind?

  Yes/No

  A warm wave swept through my body. It wasn’t necessary but I could now easily hold out until the evening, and not yawn and dream about coffee all afternoon.

  I took a deep breath of the cool air. November 23rd. The temperature was a little below zero, and a light snow was falling from the sky. Winter was nearly here. It was drawing closer in the goblin world, too. Although it was much milder in the drop-off region, there was occasional snow, while the set of clothes supplied by the System was clearly meant for summer, or, at best, autumn. I had cou
nted the card slots and there were exactly 82 on the jacket. There was a theory that if you filled them all up, something good would happen. I was getting close.

  I stopped and inspected the neat row of taxis. It would have been cheaper to travel by train but I felt too lazy to bother with transfers. Moreover, the time of dodgy cab drivers, who inflated the price and threatened their competitors, was long gone. They had been replaced by aggregators, who had quite officially ousted illegal immigrants, then raised the prices. After all, they had to pay a portion to the airport.

  The competition provided by other forms of public transport didn’t let them get too carried away, however, and the process became very orderly. Pressing a couple of buttons on an old smartphone, I received a message with the parking spot number of my car. Although there were plenty of available cars standing nearby, I was directed to the far end of the parking lot.

  The map on my screen identified my location and drew a route that even an idiot could follow. The app developers were logically targeting not the brightest members of humanity.