3 CHAPTER THREE: REFLECTIONS

Saying goodbye to Sanych, I went to the headquarters. There was, of course, a desire to first go to the store and see what new things I could buy to upgrade my armor and weapons, but almost immediately I changed my mind. The first thing I need is to thoroughly think over everything and to decide if I really need this profession with such a unique set of things, this I should do at least for myself. And is it worth to start in view of the problems that will be caused?

If I were just a gamer, I probably wouldn't have thought about it. After all, the more unique they are, the more desirable it is for them. At the same time, they do not even think whether it will be useful for them or not. But I'm not a gamer, I'm just a person who actually is having a rest in here and has fun... Although, who am I deceiving? Since Tilorn met his group...? No, even before. It's probably when I made a promise to Irala.

Or maybe ... I stopped in the street, completely immersed in my thoughts, trying to understand when that crucial moment happened, after which I began to achieve my goals and stopped just having fun. In this way and in my mind, I scrolled the path I had traveled in Alpharome, but from any point of reasoning it turned out that literally from the first minutes I was engulfed in the excitement of self-development, trying not to yield to other players. I behaved in many cases just like a kid who seized virtual reality and now wants to be the coolest.

It seems that something inside me is pushing myself to find solutions to develop as quickly as possible, ignoring most of the points that confuse me so much in this game. So, I have about one and a half days before the raid to the laboratory starts. During this time, I'll need to collect the information of interest to me and analyze it thoroughly. Although I myself set the time for the start of our raid and I can calmly change it, but I decided not to do so, because I made a promise to Irala to return as soon as I could get her out.

And promises must be kept otherwise why do you give them? Then, when we return from the laboratory, I will deal with the questions thoroughly. Having outlined for myself a number of goals, I went into the building where we were located, practically at the entrance of which I stopped, lost in my thoughts.

Already almost getting to the second floor, where we were staying, I heard a sudden explosion, followed by Castra crying. I didn't make out what exactly was in this scream, but acting by instinct, I jumped the remaining steps and literally in two jumps I was near the door to our room. Practically, without slowing down, I smashed our flimsy plastic door, covering my eyes and part of the face with a second hand from accidental shards of plastic. As soon as I overcame such an insignificant obstacle, I immediately went into a long leap forward, extinguishing the inertia during landing, rolling and going on my knee almost near the arms rack where the pistols were kept.

Grasping the handles of the first pistols, I turned around by a hundred and eighty degrees, changing the knee of the stop, and I almost heard the hip joint popping from such a mockery of myself. All this action takes a little more than a second in time, and I froze, arms outstretched, trying to cover the space where the enemy could potentially be. I stared with my eyes at Quartz and Castra, who froze in the same postures they were in when I burst into the room, and now they were looking at me with no less staggering eyes. Castra was almost in the middle of the room, holding a shoe in her right hand, brought in the backswing for a throw at Quartz, her goal at that time trying to hide behind a hanging pear.

The room was almost the same as I left it. The only change that was evident were pieces of the folding screen, which were burning on the floor. As far as I understood, Castra with her right hand was trying to launch a missile at Quartz and with her left at the same time she tried to cover her upper body, because she was naked. I do not know what happened to them here, but it seems that I should be leaving the room at the moment.

"Hmm ... It looks like I was not on time ..." Standing up, I headed for the exit, carefully examining the toes of my shoes. And then I added; "Forgive me for interfering with your pre-marriage games, but next time be a little quieter, otherwise I really thought that we were attacked," on saying that, I left the room.

Walking along the corridor, I rested my forehead on the wall and began to giggle. I do not know how Quartz managed to burn the folding screen, while she was changing her clothes, but it seems that now it will be very painful for him. My suspicions were reinforced by the roar of the evil Castra and the several booming blows that followed. Hmmm ... Probably better, I should quickly get out of here, or the angry girl might start to take it out on me.

Of course, I am a commander, mentor, and so on, but in my life I remembered one truth: it's better not to get in the way of an angry woman. You suffer yourself, or you will hurt her - it depends only on how good you are at dealing with conflicts. Quietly, trying not to make any noise, I moved to the flight of stairs, from where, almost crashing into me, two fighters jumped out in full gear. Stopping them at the last moment, I turned back, checking if everything is in order.

"Are you sure?" The fighter with the sergeant's stripes did not give up. "We heard a scream after the explosion. Maybe someone needs help?"

"I'm sure everyone is okay," I smiled back. "Tell me, fighter, are you married?"

"Um ... Yes ... And what does it have to do with it?"

"Yes, despite the fact that there is now almost a family row! Imagine what your wife would do if you accidentally burned her favorite blouse?"

The sergeant paused a little, apparently, imagining such a situation, and he even shuddered. After which he quickly retired, not forgetting to take the second fighter with him. I, remembering to see Sargos and Tilorn, changed my direction and went to the workshop where these two could usually be found. When I entered, I immediately got into a sort of cross between a laboratory, a meat processing plant, and a back room of a mad alchemist. Nearby there were various centrifuges, molecular splitters, scraps of organs of various monsters and the most ordinary distillers.

I'm even a little confused. After all, I came here only once, when they only brought the equipment. But now I could not recognize this room, as well as Tilorn himself, who was running around between the equipment in a bright yellow robe and the same cap on his head, from which disheveled hair got out. In the middle, the room was blocked by a thick armored glass, beyond which the kingdom of Sargos with the explosives was spread out.

Trying to attract Tilorn's attention, I did not succeed, or rather, he noticed me, but waved it off and, saying something unintelligible, was working on the device, which began to squeak. He shrugged his shoulders and sent a letter to me in which he was warning me not to proceed any further until, and having sent this letter to me, he went to Sargos through a glass walkway with two doors. At first, I could not understand the reason of having such a transitional gateway, but when the first door closed behind me and I was able to open the second, heavy music deafened me, which simply stunned me.

Not only did this cacophony of sounds hit my ear membranes, but also I had to move like on a minefield. It feels like Sargos decided to practice installing minefields right in his workshop. Looking around and realizing all the futility of his undertaking, I sent a letter similar to the one sent by Tilorn and left the workshop. There was only one place where I could sit quietly and think. Therefore, having reached the stairs, I climbed a little higher and onto the roof. Having sat between a small ventilation tube and a side that girded the roof, hiding in such a way from prying eyes, I started thinking.

I really wanted to get this profession, I really wanted it all, but that huge mass of problems that this profession brings was stopping me. After all, in fact, apart from a unique set of equipment, it will give me nothing more, but there will be a lot of problems. For example, I can solve the issue with psionic energy through Krill, although I don't imagine how to contact him. But what brings the status of neutral, is not yet clear.

Sanych does not want to disclose information, and the hunt for me will obviously begin. And my wards were formed ... I, of course, do not care about all these problems, but I don't want to let down those people who trusted me. So, I have made up my mind! Returning after the raid to the laboratory and giving this ammunition to Sanych, I will let him deal with it. It's better to be without any profession at all, since I don't need such pain in the ass. Having dealt with one question, I went mentally to another, namely to the oddities in the game. I decided to write out all the points first so as not to forget anything and not get confused. Opening the notebook, I was about to start writing out the points of various oddities in this game, but the incoming message icon distracted me.

Sender: Leksha

Text of the letter:

I contacted my person; he is ready to take up your work. The price is only ten thousand. But he also asked me to tell you that if you pay him thirty thousand now, he will give you very important information on your access card. As he put it: "The information is so interesting, and the longer the customer waits, the less interesting it becomes." If you are going to transfer money, do not forget about my little share.

Hmm ... Wow, he intrigued me, indeed. If I understand correctly, he has some extremely important information. It seems that the amount of money is rather small for that, but I don't want to lose the information either. Okay, until I check, I won't. Sending the letter with my consent and transferring the money, taking into account the bonus for Leksha, I got up and began to pace the roof waiting for an answer, which came in about five minutes.

Sender: Leksha

Text of the letter:

I'm sending you the text from my person:

"An hour and a half ago, one of the clans from our outpost took from me the exact same access card, already decrypted and re-flashed, so that it would give access without asking for the password. But hacking the access to security systems did not work, there is a complicated algorithm. Judging by the encryption and some minor details in the code, there is every reason to assume that both cards are for the same object. "

"H******! I'll kill those m ****** and fuck them in ****** ...."

I cursed for about thirty seconds, using all sorts of abusive words to describe those motherfuckers. I did not expect such a possibility of being let down, although I should have foreseen the possibility of such events. Okay, I need to calm down, I can change everything. Fearing the worst, I am half an hour late, plus the time for fees. Not so much, there is every chance to get to them before they clean up everything there. Having opened the mail, I quickly wrote a message and sent it to the guys.

Recipients: Tilorn; Castra; Quartz; Sargos

Text of the letter:

ATTENTION!!! GET READY, YOU HAVE ONLY 15 MINUTES. GET ANTI-DROID WEAPONS, PLUS PLAYER VERSUS PLAYER MODE! PVP PROBABILITY 90%!!!

While rushing, jumping over two steps, to my floor, I sent another message, on which the success of my whole undertaking depended. If he doesn't answer me until we get to the laboratory, he will have to choose between one of two extreme options. I would not like to use them, because neither of them promises anything good to me. Already bursting into our room, I sent a letter to the team.

Recipients: Alexander Carefire

Text of the letter:

I really need your help! I do not ask for fighters, because I understand perfectly well that you will not give them, especially given the fact that I may have to fight with the fighters of one of the clans registered in your outpost. But I need to help the person who I promised that I would not abandon ... At least, tell me how I can avoid getting the red level in the event of a clash with clan fighters. I will be ready to fulfill any of your requests.

Rushing into the room, I found Castra and Quartz, who were urgently gathered ammunition. Considering that they were in the room at that time, it was easiest for them. From the remnants of former luxury in the form of loads of various equipment and weapons, which I got from the lair of the gangsters, more precisely from what I saved for further development later, several sets were formed for different occasions.

Now was one of those occasions. Castra changed her light overalls to a heavier-weight outfit, but with stronger armor and a lightweight closed helmet, giving her the opportunity to switch to a closed life support system. So now, with a great desire, for fifteen minutes she can even go into outer space. For a longer time, unfortunately, there will be not enough air. But I haven't seen her new shoes, or rather I've seen them before, but they looked a little different then.

Now, however, the thickness of the sole has slightly increased, and a portion of the sole on the toe has a characteristic blued-colored metal, as does the triangular insert on the heels. In addition, she put on bracelets that completely covered her forearm from the wrist and almost to the elbow. At first glance, I did not find any changes in her equipment. Quartz, on the last exit, only changed the shotgun, and for three seconds he stood and looked from one to the other, torn apart by the variety of choice: take the same, tested, or new with two barrels, with protruding corners at an angle, similar to small round wings.

His doubts were quite clear to me. The shotgun left in the rack was much lighter and more compact, allowing him to be more mobile. But the one he took, had more ammunition and higher rate of fire, but, apparently, Quartz remembered the potential PVP mode and decided that increased damage is more important. I noticed all this, glancing at them as I was walking by to get my things. I took off my everyday clothes, without being embarrassed by Castra - now it's not the right time to think about it - and I hastily began to get changed to a set of clothes with aramid yarns and polymer seals.

I had not used it before, since on its own it has pretty low protection level, mainly from penetrating and kinetic damage. But here's now, the bottom layer under a set of armor with hydraulic amplifiers, to which I grew in level after a skirmish with the droids, suited just the way.

"Volper, what happened? Your message was really worrying," Quartz spoke as if saying tongue twisters and at the same time he was placing a backpack on the floor and now hastily stuffed it with ammunition and various trifles.

"Tilorn and Sargos will catch up with us, then I will explain, so that I don't repeat everything twice. By the way, where are they now?"

"Sargos is in his workshop; he has an entire military arsenal there. He started working really hard after you pushed him for a couple of ideas. And as for Tilorn - I have no idea."

"Tilorn went to the local technicians, I saw him in the door ... or rather, and I saw the remains of the door," Castra wedged in, and she was already fully ready, as she was the most easily equipped fighter of our squad. She stood with a small backpack about twenty liters behind her back. Having quickly examined herself, she added. "I'm ready!"

"Well done! Then, go run to get Sargos and tell him to join us, he should hurry up; we have not too much time on our hands!"

She immediately dashed out of the room and sped away. In the meantime, I had to make a hard choice. The set of armor weighed pretty much, slightly limiting my mobility. And now it was worth deciding which weapon to take with me. For a couple of seconds having estimated the pros and cons, I decided to take an automatic rifle with a short barrel, and two pistols with the ability to conduct single and automatic fire instead of a paired complex. And, of course, I remembered to take the set of knives.

Sargos came running when I was already putting grenades and spare shops along special pockets, finishing stuffing my backpack with already equipped magazine cases. I usually carry cartridges in packs with me, they take up less space, but now I'm not sure that I will have time to install the cases. Turning around and noticing Sargos, my eyebrows reached to the top of my head. Trying so hard, he was pulling a huge trunk, swollen in all directions by volume, probably, three hundred liters of volume. I just wonder how it hasn't crushed him yet.

"Sargos, fucking shit! Are you going to take all this trash to the battlefield?"

"Of course, no," he started being certain and dead serious, and dropped the trunk to the floor; then he began to dig in it, taking out various elements of equipment. "Here you are. I've got various things. But I didn't manage to modernize them."

"Okay, come on, you have ten minutes," he confirmed with a nod of his head that he heard me.

Three minutes later, Quartz and I completed the set and were ready to move forward. Sargos, meanwhile, had already put on his set of armor and fastened many different items to it, not all of which I could recognize by looking at them. So, being almost ready, it remains only to understand where Tilorn is. It would be not so good to start without him. But as they say, speak of the devil and… Here he is. Tilorn came into the room already fully equipped and ready for the battle.

"Who should I kill? Who to save?" He blurted out immediately, turning his head around.

"Calm down, for the time being you do not need to kill anyone," I cooled him down. "So, I will explain in brief, because there is just not enough time for us to think," making sure that everyone listened to me attentively, I continued. "Before meeting you, right before the first wave of the breakthrough, I got into one very interesting laboratory. The way I found it is unimportant now, but the point is that in this laboratory there is an artificial intelligence unit, who may have full self-awareness and, so to speak, the soul…" Tilorn wanted to say something, but I interrupted him. "Tilorn, I know that in reality all such experiments have failed. Therefore, I say that it is possible. Maybe it's just a well-written non-player character, or just some kind of a bug in the cluster of the artificial intelligence who manages the server. But when communicating with it, the full spectrum of emotional, mimic and psychological reactions inherent in a living being was noticed by me. Yeah, according to her brief history, theoretically, it should be no longer artificial intelligence, but a full-fledged mind. In general, it does not matter; the question is that I promised to pull it out of this laboratory ASAP. We were preparing for the raid there, but the situation had changed. According to the information I have received, a couple of hours ago, one of the clans received a pass card to this laboratory, so we are now moving forward at the maximum speed there. Your task is to provide me with the breakthrough through monsters right up to the lab. I will go inside alone, as there is every reason to assume that there we will have to fight the clan fighters, and I have no desire to let you down for getting the red level. Everything is clear? Any Questions?"

"And what about the opportunity to challenge the right of ownership...?"

"Not in our case," I interrupted Castra, "firstly, officially registered organizations have this right, which we do not. Secondly, I do not intend to give them the opportunity to capture the laboratory. I need to be the first to reach the central room, where the information carrier with the artificial intelligence is located; otherwise there is a chance that I will not be able to release it."

"Are you sure that as long as the battle goes on, one or several fighters will not leave, taking with them the most valuable trophies?"

The guys became quiet, thinking about something. I was also silent, giving them the opportunity to gather their thoughts. They had literally just a dozen seconds, after which Tilorn took the floor.

"Volper, I do not know what is going on there, but we are going with you till the end!"

"No," for greater persuasiveness, I negatively waved my head. "This is not your problem. Do not forget that if you get the red level, problems with law enforcement agencies will occur, and, most likely, you will lose access to the outpost."

"Volper, you recently made me think about my decisions and excessive care. Now you yourself do it, contrary to your words. So we go with you till the end, and this issue is not discussed. We just inform you about that decision of ours. You once believed in our group and supported us, now it's our turn to repay the same. And do not argue with us!"

Looking at them, I saw in everyone's eyes only one determination to go till the end with me. I wanted, of course, to yell at them, to use abusive words, but…. Yeah, even, if necessary, to knock on the head so that they do not engage in this bullshit! But now, seeing their eyes, I understood that nothing would help, they would just silently follow me. Therefore, I could only accept their decision.

"OK," I said it with difficulty. But quickly assembled, I continued in a normal voice. "Then let's move forward. Castra is the head patrol, the rest are in two pairs, the first pair is Tilorn and I, the first number is Tilorn, the second couple is Quartz and Sargos, the first number is Quartz. We are moving as fast as possible. Castra, you are leading us along the route, I'm sending you the coordinates. Monsters are to be ignored; we enter into the battle only in case of attack. Ready? Then let's get going, time is money!"

Quickly checking whether everything is sitting well and whether the badly fitted ammunition does not give away where we are, we moved out of the base trotting. Now we should come on time. Even if Carefire does not respond to the letter, I will still pull it out of that place. Otherwise, why would I have invested fifty million?

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