《Modern Age Online Book 1》Chapter 46 - Level 2
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Kaleb rolled his shoulders as he walked through the door to level 2. Bright lights lit the room, nearly blinding Kaleb as he ambled forward. The room appeared empty except for a table laden with various pieces of metal, wiring, and tools. As Kaleb got closer to the table, he noticed a wall of glass shimmering slightly in the bright lights. The wall cut through the room from floor to ceiling halting his progress to the back half of the room.
“Okay. That seems like an overt way to stop someone.” Kaleb said.
“You think?” Obadiah asked, sounding bemused.
Kaleb glanced between the table full of junk and the large glass wall. “So I have to find a way through the glass?”
However, Obadiah remained silent. Kaleb sighed loudly before he moved closer to the wall. As he got closer, he thought he could hear something coming from the glass. He placed his hand against the glass moving his head closer to listen. He could feel the glass vibrating beneath his hand and listening closely he swore he could hear something thudding into the glass.
Kaleb looked up at the ceiling saying. “There is something in there.”
“Maaaybe.” Obadiah said and Kaleb thought he could hear the smile in the old man’s voice.
Kaleb moved away from the glass wall and reached into his coat pocket. Pulling out his pen cutter Kaleb aimed it further down the wall and made a small cut into the glass. The glass cracked slightly along the shortcut he made but nothing spectacular happen. Kaleb readied his cutter to widen the cut further when there was a sudden explosion of glass.
*CRASH*
Kaleb twisted his head away as small shards of glass pelted his upper body. Turning back he saw a two-inch wide sphere hole in the glass wall. Searching for the object that made the hole Kaleb quickly found a brightly silver ball resting in the concrete floor. Kaleb hastily picked it up before another ball could burst through the hole. As he held the ball, he noted that it felt slimy and left a silvery sheen on his hand.
“Is this… gallium?” Kaleb asked, studying the ball.
Obadiah coughed roughly before he replied. “Not quite, Wolfgang and I discovered the metal when we raided an arms deal near El Paso. While it is like the Earth element Gallium, it has several naturally occurring features that are very interesting.”
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Kaleb felt along the balls elastic-like surface. “Such as its elasticity?”
“That is one another is its…”
Kaleb jumped slightly as he felt the metal ball in his hand split into two.
“ability to self-replicate.” Obadiah finished.
Kaleb held the silvery orbs in both of his hands. The ball had shrunk when it split in two. It obviously used its own mass to create the second orb.
“What causes the replication?” Kaleb asked as he moved toward the table and set the balls down.
Obadiah sounded annoyed as he answered. “No idea. They seem to do it randomly. I gave a couple to the government but never heard from their research division.”
Kaleb wiped the silvery dust off his hands asking another question. “So you shot a few into the room and they bounce around in there forever? No slowing down or inertia?”
“I didn’t say that.” Obadiah said, back to sounding smug.
Kaleb sighed again as he stared down at the table. He would need something to act as a shield preferably something mobile. As he dug through the detritus on the table, he found two chair wheels and a few sheets of metal plating. Kaleb figured he could make a shielded cart and maybe push his way through. But first he had to verify how the metal spheres were introduced into the room.
He moved back to the small hole he had created and widen it with his cutter. He made a wide line just above his head and cut to the floor. The glass cracked along the seam he had created as he moved back to the table and worked on his idea. Luckily Obadiah had left him a decent set of tools so he could attach the wheels to a solid piece of metal with screws and bolts.
His work was punctuated with the sound of several of the metal balls crashing through the glass wall. He did his best to ignore the cacophony of noise coming from behind him. He had just bolted the wheels to a metal plate and was attaching a metal wall when the sound of glass crashing to the ground grew louder.
Turning he saw that the line he had made with his cutter had been widened and large sections of glass had fallen to the floor. From his angle he could make out the room just beyond the glass wall. Searching the floor he found a small pile of the malleable spheres nestled on the floor, cracks from their impacts radiating outward. Another sphere flew through the opening in the glass and landed amongst its fellow projectiles as Kaleb continued working his armor sled.
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He wasn’t sure how long he worked about after what felt like almost an hour he finished his odd creation. He ended up with an odd two-wheeled square cart thing with three waist-high metal walls. He left out the fourth wall so he could easily get in the thing, but the wheels made the whole contraption awkward. He sighed to himself as he rolled the monstrosity toward the opening in the glass.
Kaleb set his back against the glass and peered around the edge of the wall to confirm how the spheres where flung about the room. The answer sort of disappointed him.
“Really? A row of ball launchers?” Kaleb asked as he watched an arm on the launcher reach down and grab a sphere before throwing it across the room.
Obadiah growled. “They are modified gun turrets! I have calibrated them to throw the spheres with enough force to break bones. Not to mention you spend over an hour building THAT and you question MY engineering choices?”
Kaleb shrugged his shoulders as another sphere sailed through the opening in the glass. “I work with what you give me.”
Obadiah didn’t respond while Kaleb quickly dashed toward the pile of soft spheres and grabbed a couple. He hastily put them in his pockets and moved back to his disfigured cart. As he wiped the silvery metal dust off on his lab coat, he glanced around the glass wall again. A row of four turrets sat on either side of the door to the next level. Luckily it looked like the things couldn’t pivot very far or move.
“Isn’t this test a little easy compared to the others?” Kaleb asked, lining up his cart with the door across the room.
“Yes, it is. But it's more about how you go about answering the problem. You asked a few questions, but you didn’t really ask for help. You identified the problem and came up with a solution. The efficacy of the solution, however, has yet to be seen.” Obadiah answered.
Kaleb snorted as he took up a runner's stance behind his cart. Placing his hands inside the cart he took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. He heard a loud thunk as a sphere hit the carts front wall but the metal withstood the hit. Sighing Kaleb charged forward as his feet crossed the glass wall he jumped onto the cart and crouched down quickly tried to balance himself.
His little cart seemed to stabilize for a few seconds before a metal sphere collided into its side sending him spinning. He felt a wheel lift off the ground from the force of the blow but he redistributed his weight and righted himself before another sphere hit the carts front wall. He already had no clue where the exit door was. The rapid fire spheres colliding with his cart and flying over his head made him reluctant to look.
He was saved from having to look when his cart jerked to a stop and he toppled forward. Rolling forward Kaleb covered his head and quickly glanced around. He was at the far end of the room, near the door to the stairs. His cart had hit a divot in the stone floor and fallen over. The turrets still fired, twisted as far as their gears would allow toward Kaleb small cart. Kaleb placed a hand to his chest and exhaled a sigh of relief as Obadiah’s voice spoke.
“That was dangerous, foolhardy, and you are lucky it worked at all.”
Kaleb barked a laugh. “HA! That is the family motto. We tried to get T-shirts made but we couldn’t agree on a font.”
“Luck will only take you so far.” Obadiah warned.
“Got me across the room. That will do for now. Now for the last test, gramps.” Kaleb said as he opened the door to the stairs and walked up them.
Obadiah chuckled ruefully. “Oh yes, I think we will both enjoy this last one.”
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This Strange New Life
Seems like I got a new chance. Better not fuck it up then, since I really want to see what it feels to have a family. Power is pretty lame alone. Best used to build things and protect people. Did a lot of building 'till now, lots of research stuff and all. Now, let's protect the people that I love and that loves me back. An enjoyable life with my loved ones. Whatever the cost. Mufufu~~ What can I do, my siblings are so cute~~ maybe I'll try having children at some point~? --- PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION ^p^ ---- This is an extremely slow reincarnation story, with heavy usage of dialogues and diminutive descriptions. Chapter are posted whenever I feel like it, because I won't burn myself down like I did before. Chapters will often be around 2k words. The first arc, Life in Valince, will be at least 50 chapters deep, and the main character won't get to her 1 year anniversary over the span of this arc. As I said, it's a slow, character interaction, dialogue-heavy story. Lots of feeling, slice-of-life etc, with some dramatic events that shape the rest of the story ^^ AND PLEASE, STOP PESTERING ME ABOUT JAPANESE. this story contain a very limited amount of japanese words, used in context for a reason and that are part of the mystery of the worldAnd the bad guys use german (not because nazi buit because german is badass)And there’s also french. Please be open-minded. I’m not a delusional weeb and this kind of thing, and it would be very appreciated if people could be more polite.If you don't like it, I don't force you to read it, but a lot of people seems to like this novel nonetheless, so maybe you should give it a shot. ---- Lux's here! Yeah I know I should work on ToL and ToF but I had another idea, then another one. So here it is. Story talk about a war vet that reincarnate and can finally know what it is to have a family. I like engineering, creating things and all, so I'll try putting production scene in this. Like all my stories, it's about love, be it with family, friends or lovers. I like my coffee with so much love sugar that half the planet would get diabetes. You're warned. Also, the MC is quite OP, but I keep a progression curb and she still has things to learn, which she will eagerly do. After all, curiosity is one of her main drives, with a thirst for love and utter hate of loss, be it losing a battle or losing someone she loves. Ha, nearly forgot. CONTENT WARNINGS AREN'T FOR SHOW. Sex, of course. I'll try to explore sexuality as a male, a female, and some other PoV that can't be categorised like that, not exactly. Also, beware the yuri/yaoi. I don't limit myself to straight couples. Gore. A lot. Blood everywhere, guts spilling and all. I don't do censure. The Mc cut a wolf in half? you get the details of what is inside it. Traumatising content. I dunno. No NTR, no heartbreaking drama. However, some of you may dislike the way I handle bodies and flesh. Got some feedback about body horror on my previous works, but everyone as a different border separating transhumanism and body horror. Mine is pretty high. How high? Go read The Other Labyrthin to have an example. To put it in simple term, I've no problem at all to describe alien bodies, change in human bodies, interactions between differents strange species etc. Expect a lot of tentacle, bio-incubator, spawning pool à la zerg. Profanity. Well, I think you fucking got it in the very first sentence of this synopsis, ain't right? ---- THIS IS A WIP (work in progress)! Earlier chapters may get retconned or completely changed, structure of the story isn't set in stone, all the usual stuff. ANY HELP IS WELCOMED. Want to throw me your idea? Shoot! Spotted an error in the text? Comment! Seen a plothole bigger than the impact zone of a nuke? I'll gladly hear you out and try to fix the problem (somehow ;-;) --- Cover: John Martin - The Plains of Heaven (c. 1851) ---- Official Editor: TheZouave (starting from ch25 onward) ---- List of thanks: Necrotyr (English) Asviloka (English) Damokles (Review) David Talon (Review) JHA (English) Helbom (English) Slee202 (Common Coherence) NEEDS_MORE_DAKA (First First) Srayan (English) Koooomakimi (Dialogue Flow) Emagstar (English) Apocryphal (Review) ToasterForker (Review) Ellen Taylor (Review) Zak (English) PrimalShadow (English) Elliot Flanders (HUGE THANKS for the re-write of the poem "Tale of Ashen Night" Go check their work, it's good ^^) Lance Wheeler (Huge thanks for the English edit on each chapter ^^) (If you think you should be here because you helped me, feel free to ask, pointing the reason, like the comment you gave that could have helped me ^^)
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8 126Eldritch overlord
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8 201The Dead Dungeon
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