《Double-Blind: A Modern LITRPG》Chapter 247
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There were dozens of them, milling around the upward slope that overlooked the reservoir. Odd, malformed chimeras with twisted limbs and human faces bumped into each other, as if whatever commanding presence that directed them until that point had suddenly severed the connection, leaving them stranded and agitated.
It probably had.
I cocked my head and listened. There was the minotaur’s pounding footsteps growing closer, nearly loud enough to drown out everything beyond them. After a moment, Perception prevailed. Human shouts and war cries, drawing closer. Keening squeals followed by explosions marked casters in the mix. From the sound of it, it was a decent sized group making their way down the main road, and barring some significant obstacle they’d have eyes on me in under a minute. More than likely, the group that contained Aaron, Tyler, and Nick.
Which meant I needed to work quickly.
Matt had the misfortune of being perceived as a teenager. This worked to my purposes most of the time and allowed me to slip beneath the radar, an unfortunate byproduct was that doing anything exceptional would raise eyebrows. I’d already shined a spotlight on Matt once in the wake of the first event, and while saving this region had afforded me certain advantages and a staggering amount of goodwill from the locals, it also meant I’d effectively lost my anonymous status and become a conundrum.
And when you’re an enigma, people start watching. Questioning your every move, critiquing every loss, win, and stroke luck that comes your way. It didn’t matter that most of them were amateurs. With enough would-be detectives, conspiracy theorists, and meddlers in the cheap seats, eventually, someone’s going to get it right.
I could deal with the Minotaur. The landslide of battery, mockery, and frustration I’d subjected him to practically guaranteed he’d be both desperate and spitting mad—possibly the best state of mind for an opponent to be in.
But the decisive blow would be too ostentatious to hide. I needed to frame it in a way that made me look like I was on my last leg, disguise the coup de grâce as a Hail Mary.
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“Go,”
Relief from constriction I’d barely even noticed washed over me as Audrey released the makeshift harness from beneath my hoodie and flung herself through the crowd of chimeras, lashing out freely with her attack vines as her mobility vines worked overtime to keep the fragile plant summon out of their reach. Snarls and clawed hands reached for her, but she was too nimble and crafty as she baited them in, letting them almost touch her before she danced away to another part of the crowd.
Simultaneously, I made a break for the reservoir, curving around the crowd and pumping asphalt until I reached the railing. Fifty feet to the water, nothing but concrete on the way down. Once there, I withdrew the bag that held the minotaur’s head, along with my most recent purchase. The object was smaller than I thought, a black brick that felt solid and cold to the touch, the only hint to its significance a small line of three capacitors on the top left side.
Just holding it made me nervous. I wiped a damp hand on my shirt and pressed my thumb to the base. A spiderweb of blue circuitry that looked half-magic, half-tech, lit up on the surface.
Only then did I allow myself to look for the minotaur. He was still coming, his limp all but gone.
Exactly what I was worried about. Shrugged off that light pole like it was nothing. Outhealing the damage.
Audrey arrived with a panicked plop and scrambled to hang onto my leg. “Angry. Very very angry.”
The chimeras loomed. Some of them started toward us, pausing only when they saw the headless minotaur stomping his way towards the summit.
Either way, it looked like I’d been cornered. Best I could do in so little time. If anyone perceptive stopped before entering the fray and evaluated the situation, they might surmise that something was off. I made a show of looking over the edge as if I was considering jumping, using the moment my back was turned to slip the device into the bag, then turned and faced the minotaur.
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I held the bag up, giving it a casual spin. He stopped mid-stride, maintaining a charge posture, the surrounding air tense and charged with violence.
“Guuuh Baaa.”
“What, so you can tear my arms off after I hand it over?” I gave the bag another practice swing. “No deal.”
He took a threatening step forward.
I held out a hand. Before I could speak, I noticed a flash of movement. The combined rescue force had arrived. Mostly members of the Adventurer’s Guild, but I recognized more than a few faces from the Order of Parcae. As I’d hoped, they were playing this smart, using the standoff and the fact that every chimera present was facing away from them to get into position. Their rogues and stealthy types were up front, creeping into striking distance, and several mages were already waiting on rooftops behind the tanks.
I bought them time. “It didn’t have to be this way. Your master—whoever he is—could have just pranced over the region line, sauntered into the Adventurer’s Guild and said hello. We could have talked, discussed terms. Maybe even consolidated power. But instead he pulled…” I made a dismissive gesture towards the gathering. “Whatever the hell this shit is.”
For the first time, the minotaur didn’t repeat the same two words he’d been chanting like a mantra. Instead, a low, repetitive huff came from his neck. Almost like he was choking, or…
Laughing.
My smile was all teeth. “Oh. You come into my house, fuck with my people. And you think it’s funny.”
The minotaur continued to chortle.
I moved on, undeterred. “Whoever your master is, it’s obvious he cares about you. From what I’ve seen, most of these freaks have the survival instinct of a lemming, but you? The second I hacked your head off and stuffed it into a pocket dimension your goals changed. Shifted to self-preservation in a way that is almost human.”
His laughter died as I put my arm into it and the bag spun faster. “Guessing he let you keep that because you’re not exactly cheap to engineer, and he wanted to protect his investment. Still, it’s something we have in common. Wanting to live and whatnot. This is how we both get what we want. There’s a device in this bag that’s about to open up a portal to a realm of flauros. A random realm. The portal will stay open for exactly five seconds. Being at the center of this portal, this bag and naturally, your head, will be the first objects sucked in. Maybe I’m underestimating your abilities and your awareness works across realms.”
The creature shivered. Whether it was out of fear or anger didn’t matter. I was getting to him.
My smile turned to a smirk. “But I’m willing to bet it doesn’t. And if that’s the case… I’d really, really try to catch this before it lands.”
Before he could react, I flung the bag off to the side and over the edge of the reservoir. And like a dog after a frisbee, the minotaur charged after it, powerful hooved legs propelling him up and over the railing that housed the overlook. He sailed through the air, almost perfectly on target and grabbed the bag with both arms before he lost forward momentum and plunged downward.
I hit the deck and covered my head.
Even fully shielded from the blast, the teeth-rattling shockwave of the detonation rocked me to my core.
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Yagacore: The Dungeon that Walks Like a Man
The Dungeon System is breaking. Now the mutant cores will rise. Zaria was just a normal woman, living a simple life, right up until demons burst down her door and ate her heart. Normally that would be the end of the story, but Zaria was reborn as a dungeon core. Except nothing is normal for her. Due to instability throughout the universe, Dungeon Core generation is experiencing some unique bugs and glitches. Most of these mutant cores just explode after only a few hours of life. Zaria is one of those cores. Luckily for her, there’s a way to prevent her detonation - she must find and form a bond with a human witch to create a striga. Only then will she be stable enough to survive. Normally, this would be a death sentence anyway, but Zaria’s mutation gives her an ability no other dungeon core has had before: Legs. Now a walking house, Zaria sets off to find her striga, fight demons and monsters, build up a dungeon worthy of being run by the greatest heroes in the lands…and feed the insatiable appetite of her mimic mobs. Life sure isn’t simple anymore.From the author of Dinosaur Dungeon, Factory of the Gods, and others! Plus part of the same universe as those books as well as Roots and Steel and Block Dungeon!
8 462A Virtual Invasion
An invasion from another dimension is shut down by an Empire's traitor and the world has a scant few decades to build the strength to resist a multidimensional Empire. How will the world fair when no one even knows its doom is one barred gate away? Fortunately, the traitor has a plan. Maybe with a bit of luck and planning, he can build a force to defend the world without anyone realizing it. Author's Thoughts: What is litRPG (From wikipedia) - LitRPG, short for Literary Role Playing Game, is a literary genre combining the conventions of MMORPGs with science-fiction fantasy novels.[1] LitRPG is a literary genre where games or game-like challenges form an essential part of the story. A LitRPG work simultaneously narrates the story of characters inside and outside of the game-world. At least some of the characters in a LitRPG novel therefore understand that they are playing a game: they are 'meta-aware'. So, while Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel, a book about people creating avatars and interacting in a Lord of the Rings MMORPG would be a LitRPG novel.Why do I read them? You know, I am not too sure. I love MMOs. I played them, quit them, joined up and repeated the cycle. They are fun! They are a massive waste of time but so are most games. Do I want to read about someone else playing them? Sort of?The advent of VR and the possibility of VR someday becoming so immersive that you can't tell them from reality sets the imagination on fire. What if this could be life? But most stories fall short. At the end of the day the protagonist hangs up his VR helmet and goes to have dinner with his mom and dad or other family and it becomes meaningless. It's like the story that ends because the main character woke up and nothing you read matters.There have been some books that explore the concept of the intersection of reality and total immersion VR. Enders Game is a classic. There were a few others that escape me but they exist, however, the cross between the game and reality is weak.So what if the game was real? The technology needed for total immersion VR is so advanced that by the time we reach that goal technology should have naturally evolved to include several items. You must have direct neural input. You simply can't have a total immersion (all senses and perfect presence) experience without this basic prerequisite. If you have direct neural access, you can probably do neat things like feed knowledge and skills directly to that person. You can undoubtedly do many horrible things as well. Muscles are controlled by the brain. If you control the brain why would you let the body just sit there and rot? A person that sits unmoving for 24 hours a day will have their body whither away just like a coma patient. However, if you control the brain you could control the muscles. On a basic level, this would be isometric impulses, working muscle group against muscle group to avoid atrophy. Taken to its logical conclusion you would be able to gain muscle mass and program muscle memory. The flip side is that you could remote control their body... but let's not go there. So what would people do if it were real? Well, they would probably limit and regulate it since the drawbacks are very obvious. Even if you look at the basic aspects of this you can see some negative possibilities. Look at the Sword Art Online anime. Personally, I think they missed the boat by putting a bomb in the VR helmet. Do you really need a bomb when you have direct access to the brain?So what kind of events would you need to have a situation where the obvious drawbacks haven't been explored? Maybe a society where the advancement of technology has so far outstripped the explorations of its applications that ignorance was truly bliss? Okay, so I had to put in an alien invasion to kickstart the premise, but that was just one of the possibilities.
8 126Power Fighters
The world is filled with people who have powers. They are called 'Power Fighters'. They compete with each other in friendly fights and tournaments and 'Power Fighting' has become an international sport. Join a band of power fighters as they navigate their way through the world of strong fighters to reach to the top.
8 176Modded Magic
Just another day in magic class. Sadly this isn't just some kind of class that most people would think it to be. Follow 24th Arc's and his classmates during their classes. Discover what it means to be a magic born while trying to deal with stresses of their adventure. Magic isn't what it seems to be in this new age following the fall of Polarity.
8 150STEEL ABYSS
A new era is upon Kailsh. Floating above the waves of her endless oceans, the great cityships of humanity are undergoing a revolution. Ancient flotillas and sailing boats, once the lifelines of a dying race, have been transformed into towering metropolises and mighty vessels of steel through the ancient salvage upon the sea floor. It is a time of war. From once disparate tribes are born nations, fighting over the remains of dead gods deep in the abyss. Battleships sail across elysian seas and fighter jets carve trails upon a pale blue sky: a world turning upon itself in the throes of conflict. And one Coalition Warship to save it all: the battleship Archipelago. Crewed by an emergency crew of raw cadets and an artificial mind salvaged from the ruins of ancient civilizations beneath the waves, the Archipelago will face not only the enemies of the Coalition, but of humanity’s very existence on Kailsh. For some secrets are better left undiscovered, and in the embrace of the STEEL ABYSS.
8 141anybody else | wilbur soot fanfiction
they could only ever be best friends. that is until one night they want to be pretend to be somebody else. anybody else in the whole world, and they choose lovers."do you ever just want to be somebody else for a night?" I ask him as he takes another sip of his drink. He makes a face as the alcohol slides down his throat. "All the time, why?""Right now I don't really want to be me." I sigh."Then pick someone else," he shrugs, "Anybody else in the whole world and be them tonight."
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