November 3, 2022
Day 14
----------------------------------------
When he came back to his senses, Rahul found himself kneeling in front of a tall bearded Indian man who seemed to be in his late twenties and was dressed in all black. He looked around confused, trying to find the hooded figure, until the realization struck him.
This man is the hooded figure. He has just pulled down the hood and removed his mask.
The man offered Rahul a hand, which Rahul warily took. The burning rage that Rahul had felt for the rogue couldn't find any outlet, as the man in front of him felt like a completely different person.
I no longer sense any malice from him.
As Rahul got to his feet, the man spoke.
"I'm Shahid Khan. To avoid any possible unpleasantness, I'll make a few things clear before stopping my skill."
Rahul felt confused.
What skill?
Then he looked around and realized that everyone else was still kneeling.
Some intent skill? Did he exempt me from the effects? How long has he been practicing to be able to pull off something like this?
Shahid gave Rahul a knowing smile, as if reading his thoughts, then kept on speaking.
"Firstly, I'm here on behalf of Neha Sharma, Rahul's sister. I come as a friend. "
If there was any noise on the island, that declaration would have led to a sudden silence followed by a lot of whispers. As it was, people just looked around, trying but unable to speak.
She's alive.
Was all Rahul could think as Shahid kept speaking.
"Secondly, I'm level 43, and ranked 8th on the leaderboard."
Saying that, he projected his character stats screen, not caring to hide his stat distribution from the assembled crowd.
"Thirdly, I apologize for putting you all through hell. I did it because I'm bringing my sister here, and many other civilians who cannot fight. I need you all to be strong enough to defend against the waves that are coming. I would say my plan worked, as I gained two trainer skills out of that, and I know at least four of you got several skills too."
At that statement, Rahul felt some of his rage return.
This asshole, no number of skills justifies what you put us through, what you put me through.
But then Rahul wondered whether he truly believed that. If it'll help him keep the people his friend safe, keep Neha safe, was all that pain not worth it?
Shahid was still speaking, and Rahul decided to keep listening.
"Before the attacks begin tomorrow, there are preparations that need to be made. Neha and the entire Jafrabad settlement are in imminent danger and need to be brought here. This island needs to be terraformed and expanded to settle and feed the influx of people. Everyone below level 24 needs to go to the dungeon and level up. And I need to go to Hawaii."
Rahul was surprised by the last part and interrupted Shahid.
"Go to Hawaii? Why?"
Shahid explained.
"We need to get as much manpower and raw numbers as we can. The last three waves would be about quality, with the biggest powerhouses on Earth sending the strongest elites, and those waves are the real threat. But to get to them, we need to survive for the next 3 days, where all the ambitious yet middling powers of this post-integration Earth would band together to overwhelm us with sheer numbers. That process was already set into motion in the world congress today, where the biggest superpowers seemed aloof but the minor powers were squabbling to set up a united front."
Rahul nodded but asked another question.
"Couldn't you take care of them all by yourself?"
Shahid laughed at that, but realizing that Rahul was being quite serious, he gave a genuine answer.
"There are a lot of reasons why I can't. Firstly, if there were even a hundred level 35 fighters among you, I couldn't have won. I could certainly get away with my life, but not defeated you. You can be sure that tomorrow's attack will have thousands of level 35 fighters. Secondly, you shouldn't pay too much attention to my leaderboard position. The rankings crawl up two to three levels every day, and since I have no way of earning levels here, I would fall outside the top 100 by tomorrow."
Rahul nodded again, and the rogue went back to his original point.
"As I was saying, there's a lot to be done, and Hawaii is quite far. If I'm to come back on time tomorrow, I'll have to leave now. So, please do as I say, and save your questions for later."
Then, he eased the pressure off the entire crowd, and the courtyard buzzed with conversation.
Shahid spoke quietly but his voice carried clearly to everyone.
"Who is the representative of the bastion."
Ivan, who was standing to Shahid's right, spoke up.
"That'll be me."
Shahid spoke clearly.
"Rahul's sister, my sister, a college full of students, and thousands of refugees are currently waiting to be teleported here. They all have a single-use token that allows them to come back to their bastion in cases of emergencies. So here's the plan. You will surrender your bastion to Jafrabad settlement, and become part of it. Neha would be the new coordinator, and if there is a problem with that, we'll be happy to re-elect one of you. Then, my friend here with the communication skill will send a message to Neha, giving her the go-ahead to raze all the eight bastions we have, and then they will use their token and be teleported to the last remaining bastion."
Teleported here.
Rahul thought.
"Razing three bastions will also have the benefit of buying three weeks' worth of safety from the bastion deletion."
Both Rahul and Ivan were confused by this last statement, but Shahid gave Ivan a sharp look.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Do it now."
Not seeing any other choice, Ivan complied, and Shahid received a message from the communication guy.
A question from Neha.
"Bastion of Immutability has been added to our settlement, should I start the process?"
Shahid replied.
"Tell her to go ahead."
Nothing happened for a minute, and then a shadow appeared over the Laysan Bastion as thousands of humans appeared in the skyline above them.
"Looks like teleportation always happens a distance away from the castle. I wonder if there's some way we can exploit this."
Rahul heard Shahid murmuring.
Then, he forgot about everything else as his eyes caught sight of Neha, who was gracefully falling through the sky. Something that couldn't be said about everyone else.
I guess she's been practicing with intent.
Neha had seen Rahul too, and as she slowly drifted close to him, the siblings were all smiles.
Finally, Rahul caught her in his arms and held her the way he had since she was but a little girl.
Neha in turn hugged her brother tightly, tears in her eyes.
"I missed you so much. I'm so relieved to see you."
Rahul returned the hug, making no attempts to hold back his own tears.
"Me too Neha, me too."
----------------------------------------
Two minutes later, Neha was now seated in a chair that Shahid had retrieved the next instant, complaining about how the castle had precious little furniture and he had to scour all the floors to find that single chair.
The moment Neha made an indication that she wants to sit, Shahid instantly got her a chair.
That more than anything else finally convinced Rahul that the man was telling the truth.
And that girl who was convulsing violently and was carried to the castle must be Zoya. They must have been through some shit. I'll ask Neha about this later.
Shahid was speaking again.
"Neha, we don't have many SPs left after purchasing all those Bastion teleportation tokens and the 5 World Congress teleportation tokens. So, be conservative with the expenses. Do the bare minimum terraforming to make this island hospitable for eight thousand people, and set up another layer of defenses beyond the outer castle walls. Other things that we planned are lower priority. Also, can you purchase a fast ship with at least a seating capacity for about 50 people?"
Neha nodded. Then Shahid spoke to the group in general.
"I'll be off then. All the ranged fighters who want to train, come with me. Rahul, I'll leave it to you to handle any betrayals."
With that, he disappeared and reappeared on a mid-sized boat, Helena, Alex, and Charlie by his side.
I guess that offer to train people was voluntary only for the visitors. But what was that thing he said about betrayals?
With that, he took off, his boat filled to the brim with himself, one communication specialist, 45 of the burqa-clad warriors, and the three trainees he had spirited away.
I guess no one else volunteered for his training. After what he did to us, I don't blame them.
Rahul thought, his mood much better now.
The arrival of his sister had worked miracles and healed much of his accumulated stress and trauma.
----------------------------------------
Fifteen minutes later, as Maya was deep in conversation with Kelly about what had been going on in the outside world, the women's expression suddenly turned grim.
"I'm sorry Maya, but I have to do this. Don't worry, it's a special skill. No one will die, and people will simply be pulled out of the game once their HP hits zero."
Without any further warning, Kelly used her skill. Her presence, a pawn chess piece, appeared on her shoulder.
Maya saw a notification.
Grandmaster Kelly Foster has invited you to a chess game. You do not possess the requisite levels or skills to refuse. As the challenger, Kelly Foster will play black, and you shall play white. Please assign all your chess pieces within 1 minute, or you will be forced to play with missing pieces.
Loss will result in you and all your assigned chess pieces getting immobilised for 1 hour, with your HP, MP and stamina reduced to 1 point for the duration.
Maya read the notification, realizing that she was already immobile, and while the world around her moved, she could not speak or do anything else to draw attention to herself.
Kelly was similarly frozen.
Okay, Maya, you have seen her fight. She may be at a higher level than you, but she's by no means a threat comparable to Shahid. That is why she waited for him to leave.
Maya looked at the countdown that had appeared in her vision and checked the time.
56 seconds left.
Quickly, she focused on the interface in front of her and started assigning pieces with verbal commands.
So, I have already been assigned the role of the king.
Ivan would be the rook.
Matt would be the second rook.
Rahul would be the first knight.
Daniel would become the queen.
Helena would be the first bishop.
Target is too far away.
Remembering that the other three members of her squad had left with Shahid, Maya panicked.
30 seconds left on the timer.
Think Maya, who do you know, who can you trust?
Taking a deep breath, she considered her options.
Okay, out of the initial group that came here, I know only the names of a few of the family members, and none of them have combat experience. I'll use them if I have no other choice. As for the rest, those who came with Kelly can't be trusted, not that I know their names. What about the burqa-clad women? They were part of Shahid's elite squad, weren't they?
After taking a second to figure out how she could do this, Maya voiced her intentions.
For all the remaining slots, I choose the squad of burqa-clad women on the island.
The system refused.
Not enough individuals to fill the remaining slots.
Maya knew that Shahid had taken most of those elites with him on the boat, and changed her command.
For the pawn slots, I choose the squad of burqa-clad women on the island.
There was no error this time.
For the second knight, I choose a burqa-clad woman.
No such individual in range.
Okay, so there were only eight of them on the island.
With seven seconds to go, Maya made her last three decisions by trying something new.
For the second knight, I choose the college professor.
Maya spoke, imbibing the command with the image of a professor that had appeared and had been guiding the students. She had noticed that his level was hidden from her and assumed that he must be strong.
For the first bishop, I choose the student who was accompanying him.
She projected an image of the boy into this command. She had checked his level and found it hidden as well.
Finally, with 2 seconds to go, Maya made her last choice.
For the second bishop, I choose the Whip Tail Alpha sentinel.
You have chosen all your chess pieces. Within one minute, you will be teleported to the game. Convince all the assigned individuals to accept the message within that time. The sentinel's decision will be made by Neha, the representative of the Bastion.
Maya convinced everyone to accept, and just before getting teleported into the chess game, she saw a prompt.
You are about to be teleported to the game. You will retain your skills but your stats would be reset to a base value derived from your level and specialization, in such a way that the total of all the stats would be 50.
Below is your team.
King Maya Kapoor Queen Daniel Walter Rooks Ivan Antonov and Matt Williams Knights Rahul Sharma and Hemant Singh Bishops Ajay Chauhan and Whip Tail Alpha Pawns
The Hundred #46, #47, #48, #49, #50, #51, #52, #53
The last thought Maya had was confusion over why Shahid's elite squad members didn't have names.
At least it'll make my job easier, and I'll need all the advantages I could get.
Of course, none of this would matter if this Kelly is truly a grandmaster...