Chapter 6

When the Curtains Come Down.

I stood in a sea of Wargarg kicking with everything I had as they tried to swarm over my body and tear me apart. They were wolf-shaped piranha, taking chunks out of my legs if they stayed still for more than a second. I’d been ripped apart by the little bastards five times, and every time they did it, I ran back in for more. They were spawning all over the station and running full tilt into waiting turrets, trying to get to me. They didn’t care. They were in some sort of frenzy.

I punted another one away as they continued to climb my body. I grabbed one that was biting my nipple off and crushed it with my bare hands. Half a minute later, I was watching the lid of my regeneration chamber rise, grinning the entire time. “Shit, are they still coming?”

“They never stopped.”

Congratulations, you have reached level 40

You have 1 Path Points to spend.

You have 153 Station Points to spend.

You have 949 Dungeon Points to spend

You must now choose to increase the level of your station to 2 or accept another trait.

Station Upgrade/Trait?

“I chose the hangar bay trait,” I said. “Tee, is the squad a high enough level to survive them yet?”

“Not yet, some of the Wargarg are higher than level 1 from killing the rats, and they have the numbers to cause problems if we aren’t careful.”

“How much longer do you think they will keep this up?”

“I have no idea.”

I started running.

The Wargarg didn’t let up or even slow down. If anything, the rate they appeared grew faster. Less than an hour later, I received this prompt, got distracted, and swiftly died.

Congratulations, you have reached level 50.

You have 1 path points to spend.

You have 608 Station Points to spend.

You have 1404 Dungeon Points to spend

You must now choose to increase the level of your station to 2 or accept another trait.

Station Upgrade/Trait?

As the lid opened, I said, “I select the dungeon boss trait.”

Please select your dungeon boss from the list.

An absolutely colossal list appeared before me. Eight people had chosen the dungeon boss as their first trait, and a few of them had excellent memories, which meant they’d managed to put together a list of the options for the government to share around. I’d studied those options during my time off.

There was a lot to choose from, but the majority of the options were different types of killing machines. The rest were dungeons bosses that offered buffs to mobs.

I’d come up with three choices for how I could build my dungeon and the boss that would be in charge. This crazy leveling was the perfect time to go with option 3. I had enough dungeon points to make it work.

“I choose the dungeon master as my dungeon boss. Tee, send in the squad.”

I got out off the table and started getting dressed.

“I sent them in 5 levels ago. What were you planning on doing with your dungeon?”

The dungeon was a little more confusing than the station. My immortal soldiers had their upgrade options like my R5s, but I also had two other ways to upgrade them. One way applied to everything in the dungeon, like my mid-weigh railgun upgrade path that was a catch-all, so the cost was horrendous. But another one let me upgrade individual mobs. I could make one or two incredibly powerful mobs for a fraction of what it would cost me to do the same any other way. And several individual upgrades were relatively cheap.

I could give a mob the same level 1 physical or personal tech I had for just one dungeon point, and it didn’t get more expensive. Each level only cost one additional point. The only limit was they couldn’t go beyond my own path level, but since I had gained 10 free path points, that was a lot further than anyone should have been able to do at this stage. And that synchronized with the dungeon master's primary ability, reducing the cost of a single upgrade by one point for each level it gained.

“I was thinking about spamming the immortal soldiers and then making the individual and dungeon integration upgrades, free with the dungeon boss to go with their mob upgrades.”

“Damn, that’s kind of a good plan. Did you come up with that on the spot?”

“Of course not. You need to plan in advance for multiple contingencies if you want to take advantage of opportunities properly.” I opened the door and started running. “Tee, tell me when we’ve got 15 minutes before the challengers arrive so I can make the dungeon.”

“Will do.”

***

I sat in my chair, looking through my list of options. I’d passed level 70 twenty minutes ago and taken the energy shield. For level 60, I’d taken the triple-layered armor trait. From here onwards, it was going to be the missile battery and then the particle cannon. Once I hit level 100, I’d have no more traits to gain and level the station to level 2.

“How many mobs can I have in my dungeon again?” I’d died so many times my brain was getting fuzzy.

“The limit is 60, on a level 1 station. The number of entrances you have is also limited to 1. But you can have up to 10 rooms. Each room comes with a starting mob limit of 6 that you have to use dungeon points to increase.”

“Wait, I can have more than one entrance at higher levels? Why?”

“Some dungeons become popular to challengers because the station master adds loot which cost you RP or credits. If yours becomes popular, you can make a lot of credits from having lots of people attack you, and if you have to wait for each group to all die that can become a massive bottleneck, so you can have more entrances. Every entrance except the main one can have level and equipment limits, so you won’t get swarmed by an army of kitted-out challengers unless you want to.”

“Okay I think I follow. Do additional entrances give any other disadvantages?”

“Sort of. They have to all lead to the central dungeon and remain uniform until they get there. That just means they are copy and paste versions of your main dungeon path. But because they’re copies of your main path, they don’t eat into your mob cost.”

There were probably some interesting possibilities there, but I’d have to look into it later. “Okay, that’s enough information for now. I’m thinking of building a single room that can hold sixty immortal soldiers, your turrets, the squad, and myself. You said the turrets, the squad, and myself don’t count towards the mob cost in the dungeon, so we might as well go overkill. How much will that cost me?”

“To expand the room to hold 60 will cost you 550 dungeon points. What are you going to do with the rest?”

“Nothing. I can’t afford any of the decent upgrades.”

“They might be able to beat this.”

“I’m level 75. The squad is level 45. You can field 15 turrets. If they can beat that, then there was never a chance of us winning.”

“I’m just making sure you thought this through.”

“I have. I’m going to spend the dungeon master’s dungeon point reduction ability on the individual mob upgrades.”

I pulled up the interface. This was a relatively cheap path that let me upgrade individual dungeon mobs.

Individual Mob Upgrades

Description

Available

Cost

Ability Upgrades

Dungeon Integration:

Immortal Soldier

Immortal Sergeant

0/1

0/1

10

15

Dungeon Awareness

0/10

1

Clone Upgrades

Physical Tech

0/8

1

Personal Tech

0/5

1

Physical Upgrades

Strength

0/100

1

Dexterity

0/100

1

Agility

0/100

1

Perception

0/100

1

Toughness

0/100

1

“Tee, spend 10 of the dungeon master’s point reduction on the cost of making immortal soldiers integrated, 8 on the clone physical tech upgrade, and 5 on the clone personal tech upgrade. Then give them to all the immortal soldiers.”

“Would you like to do anything else?”

“Unless I’ve massively overlooked something, no. This should be more than enough. But I need you to build more R5’s. I’ve got the perfect army to level the rats. I’m pretty sure no one is going to challenge me after this, not for a long time, so my rats are going to be my only source of experience.”

“That is actually concerning. I’ll see what I can do. Would you like me to clear out the last of the Horde?”

“Are they still around? Nevermind, don’t answer that. Just kill them. And initiate another expansion quest if you fill up all the defense slots with R5s. Keep repeating it if it happens again. I want this station to have as many R5s and level 10 rats as we have resources.”

I got out of my chair headed for the exit.

“Where are you going?”

“To give the Wargarg a reason to keep fighting.”

***

I had no idea what I had done, but the Wargarg never stopped respawning, even after the dungeon massacred the challengers so quickly it seemed like a speed run. The first 10 waves were decked out in the best gear credits could buy. Which were these twelve-foot mechs that were shaped after them. It didn’t matter. The level gap by that point was huge. They didn’t stand a chance. After that, it was nothing but waves of well-armed but ultimately underpowered eight-foot mechs. The smaller mechs had lasers and missiles launchers. It didn’t matter with a level gap that big the squad tour them apart.

After the first twenty challenger teams died in the dungeon without me needing to do anything, I went back out there to give the Wargarg a reason to keep respawning. I was still fighting when I received the final prompt I had been waiting for. Except it wasn’t what I was waiting for. It was something new.

Congratulations, you have reached level 100.

Congratulation, you have reached your maximum level. Your level cannot go any higher. You can now choose to rank up. Should you rank up, your level will be reset to 1 along with all path points from these levels, and all of your upgrade points from your station master class will be taken from you, but you will continue to have the benefits of your current level and upgrades to gain additional experience until the end of this cycle. In addition, when you rank up, you will start with a second trait and gain twice as many upgrade points per level at no extra experience cost.

“Do it,” Tee said. “Even if you only end up at level 50, this is too important an opportunity to miss.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I said, climbing off the regeneration table. “Rank me up, baby.”

Congratulation, you have ranked up! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+10 Path Points.

+100 Dungeon Points.

+100 Station Points.

+10,000 Experience Points.

+100,000 Resource Points.

+100,000 Credits.

+1,000,000 Tokens

The First Rank Perk.

Please select a second starter trait.

That was a no-brainer. I’d been wrong. So wrong. “I want the squad.” I started reading through achievement rewards. “Hey, Tee, what do these perks do?”

“I was wondering when you were going to ask. The War Dog perk gives you double experience, credits, and resources from factions you are at war with, along with a 100% attack and defense bonus. This applies to your station too. Personally, you get 10,000 Tokens a cycle.”

“For how long?”

“For as long as this season of the game lasts. It’s independent of your faction surviving.”

Shit, that was huge. I was rich. Like fancy bitch lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills because I was an idiot rich. “What does the first rank perk give me?”

“Double experience, credits, and resources, so long as you are the only rank 1 station. Personally, this also gives you 10,000 Tokens a cycle. Actually, this might get interesting. We will know shortly. Get out there and annoy those wolves.”

Four hours later, I received another prompt.”

Congratulations, you have reached level 100.

I ranked up again and received another identical perk. I’d broken the game and was snowballing. Two hours later, it happened again.

Congratulations, you have reached level 100.

An hour after that, it did it again.

Congratulations, you have reached level 100.

Half an hour later.

Congratulations, you have reached level 100.

Each perk gave the same buff until I started with all the traits and the final rank up appeared.

Congratulation, you have ranked up for the final time! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+10 Path Points.

+100 Dungeon Points.

+100 Station Points.

+10,000 Experience Point.

+100,000 Resource Points.

+1,000,000 Credits.

+10,000,000 Tokens

The 8th Rank Perk.

A moderator has been contacted. An AI investigation has been launched. Please standby as you are disconnected from the scenario while the investigation is underway.

“Ah, what does this mean, Tee?”

“You broke the game and are about to be disconnected. It took long enough.”

“Wait, you knew this would happen?”

“I mean, you don’t go from level 5 to level 900 in a day without someone noticing. This should be interesting.”

“What should be interesting?”

Before Tee could reply, the station faded, and I found myself sitting in an office.

A ceiling fan slowly turned above my head, and a tired looking old man in a grey cardigan, suspenders, and tan slacks sat behind a cheap coffee-stained desk. He had a packet of Marlboros in his breast pocket and smelled strongly of scotch. The room kind of reminded me of a police precinct from late 80s cop movies.

He groundout his smoke in the ashtray and scowled, looking at the manila file in front of him. “Case number 001 for the human faction.” He had a slow droll way of speaking, with an accent I couldn’t place. “Investigation into disproportionate leveling. The individual reached maximum rank up level for human station master class on 2nd cycle of the new season, removing level cap limit and additional upgrade point bonus. The individual created a feedback loop where he would level his station to level 1,485 by the end of the day. Rules were adhered to. Actions, however, were against an AI faction whose reaction was disproportionate to sentient races, except under extreme duress. Extreme duress was applied. Scenario was legitimate. Chance of occurrence, .0000000000973%. Investigator suggests full course correction. Station current trajectory flagged as indestructible.”

“Request denied,” said a female voice through the ceiling. “Faction is a new faction. Full course correction is unacceptable. Achievement must be exchanged.”

“Damnit, it’s the second cycle.”

“Irrelevant.”

He grumbled. “Alright, I’ll make a deal.” He finally looked at me. “What do you want?”

“For what?”

He scowled, reached for his pack of Marlboros, and popped one in his mouth. It started burning, confirming I was in virtual space. He took a drag and blew the smoke in my face. It smelled like the real thing.

I didn’t like this guy.

“I hate dealing with the newly initiated. Here’s the gist of it. You broke the game. But you broke the game fairly. I have to put you back in a position where you aren’t broken, but to do that, I have to take certain achievements from you and undo some of your actions against the AI faction you’ve been fighting. I’m going to make it like most of today never happened.”

“Why can’t I stay indestructible?”

“Because you’re not the only smartass out there. You are one of over 189,782 species involved in the game, and they’re all trying to break it like you did, some merely because it’s funny and others because they’re malicious. If we let every faction get away with it, half the universe would die of old age between games. We need to keep a balance. That’s my job. Since you are new, I’ll tell you what you can keep, so you can negotiate with some clue, or I can let you bumble your way through it blindly.”

I didn’t fully understand what he was saying, but I knew bullshit smelled it. I just know what kind it was. “Tell me what I can keep. We’ll negotiate from there.”

“You can have your rank ups, all of them, but you stay at level 1 with a 10 fold increase to the required experience per level that doesn’t lift until your station reaches level 100. However, dying now doesn’t cost you anything, and your debt is gone. I found your death count amusing. You can keep everything you acquired from the achievement rewards as a starter fund, but you lose the experience, resource, and credit modifiers from all your perks, except the war dog perk, until level 100. Actually, I’m also going to make it so you can only spend the station points from the rewards on your R5s, but you can have 1000 instead of 900 since I’m so nice. However, you will have to keep the dungeon master dungeon boss. But in return, I’m resetting your expansion quests, so you can try to do them properly. Lastly, since you won against the Wargarg faction, I will give you their sensor scrambler technology free and purchased. Now what do you want in return? These requests cannot be game-related.”

My jaw had dropped halfway through his speech. He’d fucked me. There was no dinner date, no smooth jazz. It was just Netflix and chill without the Netflix. I’d just spent a day dying over and over for this and he was going to take it all away.

Worse than that, he was hitting me with a massive increase in the cost of leveling. It was utter bullshit. And he seemed to know it because his expression reminded me of my HR manager.

Well, if he wanted to be unreasonable, I could be unreasonable too. “Do I still receive my 90,000 Tokens a cycle from my perks?” I hadn’t been this sarcastic since I was a hormonal teenager.

“Yes.”

“Fine, then give everyone on earth who is over 50 a rejuvenation treatment for free, and everyone else a treatment when they turn 50. Heal everyone’s diseases and medical problem completely so that it doesn’t ever reoccur and fix the damage to the environment for us, since it should be easy for you.”

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Is there anything else we can do for you?”

His attitude was really annoying. If he wanted me to be more flippant and sarcastic, I’d be more flippant and sarcastic. “I want my own country the size of New Zealand along the equator. Not one of the ones that already exist, make a new one for me. It needs to be a tropical paradise with white sandy beaches and breath-taking lagoons wherever you go. I want the weather, diving, and fishing to be amazing. It needs to be so amazing everyone will want to go there. And make my dog Buster immortal and healthy again.”

He blew another cloud of smoke in my face. “Immortality isn’t allowed. I can make sure that he lives as long as you do.”

“That will work. Actually, make it, so everyone’s pets live as long as they do and never have health problems.”

“Would you like the planet Mars terraformed to go along with your new country while we are at it? It would be nice to have your own planet after all.”

“Sure, why not. Also, make Pluto large enough to be a planet again. It’s so bullshit that it’s not. Do I have anything else I can ask for?”

He chuckled. It sounded mean. “Personal enhancements?”

“Make me good with a particle pistol. Like real good. Like fastest hands in the galaxy kind of good. So good my name becomes a legend a thousand years from now. And I want to know how to fight. Make me a total badass, like despite how good I am with a particle pistol, I’m better at fighting. You do that and everything else, and we are square. Wait, tell everyone that I did all this awesome stuff for them. I want the credit. And give Tee a body so he can walk around. Also, give him a micropenis, and a front tramp stamp with an arrow pointing down and the words let’s have a little fun. Also, give him a tattoo on his back that’s an anime chick wrapped in tentacles and the words, it’s not a phase mom.”

The old guy nodded. “Request approved. Negotiations successful. Case closed.”

I stared blankly at him for ten seconds. Then what he said sank in. “Wait, what? I was joking.”

The old guy shrugged. “Irrelevant. Your demands exceeded the minimum compensation requirement and were accepted. You should have taken this more seriously. Honestly, you got a third of what you could have. I was willing to give you your own solar system. But that’s your problem.” He ground out his cigarette and pulled another from the pack. “Now, your country should be ready for you by the 25th cycle. Fully correcting Earth's ecosystem will take until the 50th cycle since it’s an incremental process if we don’t cause extreme weather conditions. But the rejuvenation and disease removal for your world’s population should be finished by the beginning of the 3rd cycle. Mars will take until the 100th cycle because we don’t have any terraforming equipment in your system.”

“What?”

He ignored me. “From here on out, you will be moderated. A repeat of your antagonist actions with the Wargarg faction is not allowed. Any time you breach what is acceptable, you will see a notification, and their faction will interpret you in a less aggressive way than your actions dictate. Your transit station has been given immunity for the remainder of the cycle as it resets. So enjoy the rest of your time. I hope to never see you again.”

His office faded, and I was back sitting in my control chair.

“So what happened?” Tee asked. “Did we get a full course correction?”

“Someone didn’t allow it,” I said, numb. “They had to compensate me.”

Tee whistled. “Damn. What did you get me?”

“A body.”

“Is it nice?”

“Real nice.”

“Thanks, dude.”

“Don’t mention it.” I shook my head, trying to clear the stupor. It didn’t work. “This has been a weird day. I think I need to drink a bottle of bourbon or take a nap.”

“Might as well, the stations resetting itself, and it says I can’t access anything for the rest of the cycle.”

I put my feet on my table and closed my eyes.

A prompt appeared.

Would you like to go to sleep?

Yes/No?

This was just too weird.

I needed bourbon.