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

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  “That’s right,” I nodded. “These are the aliens our group encountered. They don’t look very threatening, but you saw the puddle of slime on the way here, right? It served as an external shell, turning these little dogs into extremely dangerous monsters. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take photos in the heat of battle...”

  “Are they intelligent?” the captain asked cautiously. Apparently, the sight of the six-eyed mutants had impressed him.

  “To some extent. The scientists will be able to tell us more when we deliver them.”

  “I saw shell casings along the way, but I didn’t see any weapons on you or your people.”

  “It’s the bag,” I sighed again, half-pulling the machine gun out of it and putting it back. “If I use science fiction terms, it’s a spatial artifact. By the way, you should read this, then burn it.”

  Reaching into my bag again, I pulled out one of the pamphlets the Alliance had prepared for any civilians who needed to be briefed. It contained less information than the standard pamphlet for players, but it provided answers to all the main questions. I doubted the shroud of mystery would remain for long, so there was no harm in it. I hadn’t signed any agreements yet, while the captain would soon have to, in any case. Like all the other members of the cleanup crew.

  * * *

  We didn’t really have anything left to do in this cold forest, so we left the captain to settle in and boarded the second helicopter. In addition to the crew, the MI-24 could carry 10-12 people, so there was room inside for the wounded, me, a couple of attendants, and our potential recruits. Or maybe they didn’t want to go back to where they had come from, and took advantage of the ride?

  I studied the faces of my companions in search of ‘traces of vice’, but none of the men looked like hardened criminals. Well, physiognomy was considered a pseudoscience, so I quickly abandoned the idea.

  It was warm inside the helicopter, and the hounds didn’t look quite so pathetic. The captain had asked the right questions. Despite the extremely low parameters, they possessed Intelligence, which meant they were intelligent beings and not just monsters. Ah, the tribunal would have our heads for the murder of prisoners. The International Criminal Tribunal. Well, if one considered everything I’d done from the perspective of global justice, I’d have been shot a long time ago, just like most of the players. On the other hand, the main feature of tribunals was that they tried for war crimes not people who were the worst, but people who had lost. Real life was far removed from abstract justice…

  Legion was in the bag and happily sleeping inside his ‘coffin’, surrounded by a pile of mana stones. I hadn’t put Bri away yet, preferring to remain cautious. The ghost was immaterial but could interact with living things, so it simply clung to me, wrapping itself around my shoulders and neck. This way, it could travel in the helicopter without being smeared on its back wall or thrown out altogether.

  The closest point from which we could evacuate was Krasnoyarsk. We weren’t exactly near places of habitation. The range of our helicopter was about 400 kilometers, the speed reached 225 kilometers per hour, and our flight would take about 1.5 hours. So, a journey of 300 kilometers.

  At first, I felt at ease flying due to the barely visible transfer icon, but then…

  Attention! Mission time is up!

  Attention! You are leaving the mission area!

  Statistics

  Task (E): completed.

  Players: 100.

  Completed: 93.

  Died: 7.

  Failed: 0.

  Reward: not received.

  Attention! Reward has been changed automatically!

  Attention! You receive a bonus card!

  A human cannot react to such a thing fast enough. I threw out my hand before I’d even understood what was happening. The card began to rapidly recede as soon as it appeared. Shit! Somehow, I managed to touch it with a fingertip, causing it to materialize before the helicopter had left the starting point. If I had hesitated for even a fraction of a second, it would have been too late.

  My card fell to the floor, and the other players only twitched as they realized what was happening.

  Attention! Overclocking cannot be activated!

  Recovery time: 21 hours 3 minutes

  In the first few moments, I’d tried to use the skill out of habit, forgetting that I’d already used it in the recent battle. Yet I’d somehow managed to do it anyway. It even felt like had time slowed down a little... not like when the skill was active, but still. As I bent down to pick up the card, I felt blood drip from my nose.

  “Crap.” I placed my fingers over it and activated Healing.

  There was a lot of angry cursing around me, even a suggestion to go back and look, but the pilots didn’t take it very well. They were short on fuel, and they were even less aware of what was going on than the captain. Plus, the chance of stopping in the right point in space and allowing the others to get their reward was very slim. It was annoying. After a few hours, these cards would simply fade away and return to where they had come from.

  Some of the passengers had been facing the front, and the cards had passed through them without materializing. I guessed they hadn’t had time to figure out what was happening, and it took a conscious effort to manifest the reward. Or maybe the card simply couldn’t materialize inside their bodies? Otherwise, it would have been an extremely stupid death.

  Wiping away the blood, I glanced at my card and struggled to keep my composure.

  Minor Return card

  Rank: E.

  Type: can be activated.

  Features:

  — Transports you to your private room.

  — Activation during a mission means mission failure. Penalties do not apply.

  Saturation:

  100/100

  “Well, what is it?” one of the recruits asked. Beer... or Bear? However, the source of his nickname was of little interest to me. Just like the stares of the other three.

  “It’s an empty,” I lied, calmly putting the prize in my bag.

  I didn’t think they believed me, but so what? You can’t pin suspicions on a case. Better if the others didn’t know exactly what I’d received. Even if the card could only be used once, it was like having a spare life.

  This thought allowed me to come to terms with the fact that I was once again in the air and again without a parachute. Was this becoming another obsession?

  * * *

  Upon arrival, the wounded were immediately taken away and sent to a military hospital. Their condition had already stabilized, so I didn’t interfere. I think the medics were in for a big surprise, considering how much mana I’d spent on the wounded. Nevertheless, extra medical care wouldn’t hurt.

  This was followed by a video session with ‘management’, where I briefly described the situation, and I was finally left alone. The four recruits and I spent the night with the unit, and in the morning, we boarded a military plane and headed back to Moscow. The ‘doggies’ were housed in separate, custom-built cages with spikes pointing inwards, in case they suddenly decided to get bigger. To ensure they didn’t escape through the bars, each one was fitted with a collar and numerous steel chains. Considering the creatures’ size and specs, it was mildly amusing. The weight of the chains made it almost impossible for them to move.

  Two of our escorts also went with us because they “had seen too much”. I was adamant this time, and had procured a parachute before stepping on board. Together with the return card, it significantly reduced the flight risk. Unless we suddenly crashed during takeoff... or landing… As most often happened. I only smiled at the thought, but, nevertheless, added a new item to the list.

  “I hate flying,” I mumbled. There were too many different things in the world to only focus on goblins. If I ever got an official motto, it would be three words... I hate it!

  “I agree,” Beer grumbled approvingly. “If Odin wanted people to fly, he would h
ave given me wings, not Control Over Plants.”

  The flight lasted about seven hours, and again, thanks to the wonder of time zones, we arrived at the capital a little earlier than we left. It was eight in the morning. If our planet was flat and stood on the back of three elephants, we wouldn’t have this nonsense.

  “Congratulations on your return.” the major said. I wasn’t the only one suffering. It must have taken him a lot of work to get here in the morning and to organize all this. And not just him…

  “Thank you,” I said, handing him the notebook.

  I had written a brief mission report while aboard the plane. The containers with the Hellhounds were moved to the truck, while the bodies and samples of slime I took out of the bag were placed in a refrigerated van.

  I also handed over most of the weapons I’d received earlier, as per the inventory. However, I slightly exaggerated what had been spent, writing off a little more ammunition, a couple of extra grenades and some explosives. It was penny-pinching, really, but it was dangerous to try anything more — even a lost hand pistol wouldn’t have been believed. Perhaps I would be ‘forgiven’, but why take such a stupid risk? Especially when my status was still uncertain. However, I insisted on being allowed to keep my personal equipment, including a submachine gun, due to the possibility of another local mission.

  Contrary to my expectations, we didn’t head to base this time, but to one of the medical centers…

  * * *

  I assume most people don’t like medical examinations. Especially if they aren’t being done as a mere formality, for the sake of stamping a piece of paper, but with all proper care.

  “Well, congratulations, my dear fellow,” said the chief physician gloomily. Arkady Borisovich Ivanov, according to the sign on the door. “Judging by the initial tests, you are completely healthy. Or perhaps sick with something extremely deadly that modern medicine cannot yet identify. Something that even now lurks in your body, just waiting to break out and destroy all of humanity.” The doctor uttered this in a dull voice, while writing something on a piece of paper. He had not disgraced his profession, for I could hardly recognize individual letters, let alone words.

  “Thanks, doc. If I was a bit more of a hypochondriac, I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight.”

  “I certainly wouldn’t be able to sleep if I were you,” the old man replied. “You do realize that you’ve been in contact with alien life forms? Who knows what they might have infected you with?” Infected. The doctor’s tone gave the impression that we hadn’t fought them, but rather engaged in something more intimate. “Then again, that’s nothing compared to the fact that you’ve been to another world, yet have been walking around the city as if nothing had happened. It’s a miracle we haven’t had an outbreak yet.”

  “According to my information, the System blocks epidemics.”

  “I’ve studied the documents and spoken to the other players. You can’t know for sure, it’s just your theory. A bit flimsy, don’t you think, when we’re talking about the fate of humanity?”

  I agreed with the physician, since his words echoed many of my old fears, but I didn’t see a way out of the current situation. All I could do was hope for the best. “We have an interface that allows us to track our well-being. If I get infected with something deadly, I’ll be the first to know.”

  Of course, if I remembered to check my condition in time. Opening the Body tab, I made sure that I wasn’t going to die in the next few years.

  “The System... interface... if I hadn’t seen your abilities with my own eyes, I would have sent you straight to the psych ward.”

  “All right, doc,” I sighed. “What was I supposed to do? Shoot myself?”

  “Give yourself up, as soon as you came back to Earth. Undergo a full examination!”

  “Go to the authorities?” I snorted. “Who would have believed me? Should I have not returned at all? Died out there in the goblin world? It would have been pointless since there were thousands of us out there. And this is only the beginning. If I die, someone else will take my place.”

  “You’re right. I understand that very well, too. Right now, it seems to me that the main threat to the world is not the monsters, but the contact between different biological species.”

  “So, what do you suggest? Place us in quarantine?”

  “It’s too late for quarantine. You’re right, there are too many of you. We can only pray that you are not mistaken. Because even discounting you, all these monsters are potential incubators for hundreds of alien microorganisms.”

  “Glad to hear it, doc. Can I go now?”

  “What’s the rush? Spend a day with us, relax, and tomorrow you can go about your business with renewed vigor. Whatever that entails.”

  Chapter 5. The Contract

  ALTHOUGH THE OTHER RECRUITS were in the same medical center, we were placed in different rooms and forbidden from seeing each other. They claimed it was all for quarantine purposes. I didn’t complain too much about this, since we’d meet again sooner or later.

  Despite all the secrecy, no one had taken away my phone or internet access. Plus, I had a laptop in the bag, which made surfing easier. The hospital had Wi-Fi, the password to which I was given as soon as I asked. The person who’d set the password certainly lacked imagination.

  “ Seriously? qwerty123?” I muttered, entering the last digits. I wondered whether it was carelessness or a devious plan to lull the patients into a fall sense of security while their traffic was intercepted by special services. Well, I have nothing to hide…

  Bri, the only other occupant in the room, said nothing as he hovered somewhere near the ceiling lights. The wall-mounted plasma TV was showing the football, which allowed me to turn the sound right down without affecting the ‘plot’ and provide the ghost with some entertainment.

  I glanced at the screen, where figures in red were driving back figures in green, and returned to my laptop. Mild panic reigned in the Alliance chat rooms. There had been two more extended missions like mine, and while Qing Long had taken part in one and had also supplied the participants with weapons, in Africa, the players were forced to rely solely on their abilities and bladed weapons. Their opponents had been human — at least at first glance — but their level clearly exceeded ours. As a result, the mission ended in complete failure, with only 16 of the 100 participants returning home. The defeat was followed by a massacre in a small village, information about which I eventually found in the news. The incident was mentioned in passing and attributed to internal conflicts. “Africa”, “savages”, “endless shooting ever since white people left”... The article transmitted the indifference and arrogance of its author.

  It was ironic that the biggest defeat of the players had gone almost unnoticed, while a bunch of scuffles in more ‘civilized’ places had caused a lot of fuss. Especially the dozen goblins who had appeared in Paris and were killed by a local team of ‘superheroes’ in front of the cameras. It was difficult to say whether those players had been lucky or not. On the one hand, they’d suffered no losses, but on the other hand, they were now world famous. I zoomed in on one of the faces... Dmitry. He was certainly far from home. And Diva next to him, I presume?

  The goblins were pathetic, wearing loincloths and carrying primitive weapons. How did such weaklings get into our world? Most of the creatures the players had encountered were ‘trash’, hardly able to open the gates between worlds. Otherwise, this was the work of the System, like a law of nature, or someone’s will was behind the attacks. It didn’t even have to be a single being, for a new world could attract many.

  Even though I was a heretic and didn’t belong to the gods, it would have been wrong to call us enemies. They were the protectors of our world, and their deaths would not please me one bit. Even if the gods took issue with Cain, it was primarily because he was ‘nobody’s man’ and beyond anyone’s control. My primary identity, as one of the Alliance leaders, could hardly be associated with Heresy, so Inti was the only g
od with something to complain about. Even then it would be purely formal… Until I came to visit him, he could only act through his followers and with extreme caution. If only for fear of conflict with my ‘true patron’, whom he still needed to identify. I sincerely doubted that the gods would ever all gather around to find out whom I serve. Even if that happened and everyone claimed not to be my patron, they’d just assume that my ‘master’ was playing a game and being particularly secretive. Hence, I wasn’t in danger of being exposed anytime soon.