(Ruins Exploration, Ellipsis Base, Bathroom)
[https://i.imgur.com/vdprWdS.png]
(TODO Image: Redhaired Eua in the bath, looking at the holographic desert globe of the world. Fully nude in the water, she has her slender, dripping arm raised and is poking at it with her dainty index finger. She is using her other arm as a rest as she leans her head on her hand.)
(Ruins Exploration, Level Select - Adna Willin)
> Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-22
> Top (Rank 3.0, Cleared, Reward: Symbiotics Base Weaponry)
> F1 (Rank 3.1, Cleared, Reward: Symbiotics Base Robotics)
> F2 (Rank 3.2, Cleared, Reward: Symbiotics Base Ammunition)
> F3 (Rank 3.3, Cleared, Reward: Symbiotics Base Robotics Sensors)
> F4 (Rank 3.3, Reward: Symbiotics Base Artillery)
> F5 (Rank 3.4, Locked, Reward: Symbiotics Base Robotics Weaponry)
> Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-23
> Top (Rank 3.0, Cleared, Reward: Adna Biological Bodies)
> F1 (Rank 3.1, Cleared, Reward: Adna Biological Body Sensors)
> F2 (Rank 3.2, Cleared, Reward: Adna Biological Body Skeletons)
> F3 (Rank 3.3, Reward: Adna Biological Body Boosters)
> F4 (Rank 3.3, Locked, Reward: Adna Biological Body Organs)
> F5 (Rank 3.4, Locked, Reward: Adna Biological Berserker Bodies)
> Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-24
> Top (Rank 3.0, Cleared, Reward: Qubica Base Mobility)
> F1 (Rank 3.1, Cleared, Reward: Qubica Base Armor)
> F2 (Rank 3.2, Cleared, Reward: Qubica Base Stealth Personal Armor)
> F3 (Rank 3.3, Reward: Qubica Base Illusionary Robotics)
> F4 (Rank 3.3, Locked, Reward: Qubica Base Illusionary Fog)
> F5 (Rank 3.4, Locked, Reward: Qubica Base Stealth Robotics)
Umu. My power is growing swiftly.
In the latest level, I have to praise myself for the swift backpedaling as soon as I spotted the eyeballs. I recognized those enemies from the online guides. They aren’t dangerous on their own, but can see through stealth as well as cast a mark on me that would reveal me to all the others. If that had happened, I would have died gruesomely. Probably the demon at my back would have put his claws through me first, and then the rest would have joined in making me their dinner.
Good thing that didn’t happen. What should I do next?
I put some thought into it, and came up with a plan.
Well obviously, I should clear the rank 3.3 stages, and afterwards the final floors of each dungeon. What I will do after that…after that I’ll be ready for the first HK tournament. Technically, I could just keep playing Ruins Exploration until I reach the level of the Transcendi, but that would be boring. Rather, I’ll play a mix of both to maximize my engagement. After I am done with the starter dungeons I’ll give Ruins Exploration a break, and max out the speed on Heaven’s Key to 1/10th of my own rate.
No doubt, the mistress will give me her own assignments, and I will be busy working on those.
Before I move to the next level, let me take a look at what my other self is doing.
(Heaven’s Key, Warehouse At The Docs)
[https://i.imgur.com/66Sg59f.png]
As soon as the match starts, my opponent, a brunette woman in a special forces outfit and body armor sprints forward. It does not take me long to find her moving amongst the rows of metal boxes using the eyes of my swarm, high above the level. Not wasting time, I give the order to the 80 scouring drones looking down on her to attack.
At first she was unaware, but after a while she notices the buzzing from above and looks up. Not hesitating, she brings up her assault rifle and opens fire.
Lines of fire trace through the air. Her aim had been accurate and had the drones not expertly avoided being in the line of fire, they would have been shot down.
“Ghhhh!!!” Gritting her teeth in frustration and panic, she switches to automatic and starts spraying wildly. Bullets are emptied out of her rifle at a rapid pace and clink on the ground around her feet.
It does her no good. The drones have no trouble anticipating the directions of her fire and moving out of the way. Traces of bullets only cross empty air, never touching any of the 80 drones that are closing in on her from all directions.
The bullets in her rifle run out, and that is when the drones start closing in.
They have razor sharp propellers, and a few drones strike out at her from behind, out of her line of sight. She hurriedly moves her hand to her pocket, picking out the EMP grenade. Before her hand can reach it, the drones cut into the back of her knee, scattering blood.
“Ahhhh!!!” With the muscles holding her upright cut, she screams and collapses onto the ground. She manages to detonate the EMP grenade she had been reaching for, but that only manages to disable the drones cutting into her currently as well as the few who have been too late in escaping. They drop to the ground harmlessly.
As soon as the blast is done, the rest of the drones turn around and another few dozen bash into her, slicing into her trembling body from all directions. Her form is engulfed by tiny spherical devices cutting into her like buzzsaws. Moments later, a puddle of blood emerges from underneath the meat grinder.
> You win!
My opponent resigns.
(Heaven’s Key, Morty’s Domain, Lightning Wild League Lounge #1)
[https://i.imgur.com/F2xJQZ8.png]
Transported into the lounge, I check my place in the interface.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
> ...
> 165: George Goey
> 166: Euclid Valentine
> 167: Terrence Split
> ...
I jumped to 166 place straight from 274, dropping my opponent by a single spot. I checked and Inglene, who I’ve lost to before, dropped a single spot to 195 out of 403 due to me skipping her.
I skipped a lot of ranks, but now that I have drones, my strength is at a qualitatively different level than when I was just shooting by myself. There are other ways to use the small scouting drones offensively. For example, I could drop them at 45m/s, at terminal velocity, from on high. This would be about the velocity of a thrown stone by an athlete. It’s not like being hit by a bullet, but it is not something a person can ignore falling at him from above either.
Moreover even against heavily armored opponents on whom the rotor trick would not work, I could have the drone swarm serve as a distraction, while sending the ground based spideys carrying grenades towards the enemy position. Or I could snipe with explosive or acid bullets, or lob grenades by myself.
My strength is nothing to laugh at, but this is as far as I can go. At my tech level, all the opponents above me in the LW League are on par or stronger than me. I’ll go up to 120 once I clear the starter dungeons and get stronger drones, but until then I will hold myself back.
Before this match, I’ve taken the time to review the records of all the players in the LW League. As a team member, I had free access to them so I didn’t have to spend money on that. Reviewing all the records would have been really tedious as a human, but I just plopped them straight into my memory and processed them in parallel. Hooray for being a machine.
With my high speed thinking, it took me only a few moments to deliberate all of this and then I closed the interface. I looked around, saw Inglene and her company waving at me and went to join them for a drink.
(Ruins Exploration, Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-22, F4)
[https://i.imgur.com/xBCpPZ3.png]
The elevator doors slide open and hidden from sight by my stealth suit, I peek around the corner. The design immediately reminds me of F1, there is a cross intersection, and there is the camera at the far end next to the door leading out of the room. No doubt the other ends have cameras as well.
Trying to use scouting drones here would get them detected by the cameras and bring the whole level down on me. I could try using smoke like last time, but I remember the Demon Gazers from the previous Output X--22 level. They had feelers that had good hearing dropping down from their body.
This is just a guess, but this level should have enemies that can detect me even through smoke and stealth. This is not far fetched, as I have scouting drones with the capability to do the same already, I got them as rewards for dealing with F3.
So stealth is out, but I fundamentally do not have the firepower to deal with the enemies that will be coming after me from all sides once I trigger the alarm.
Invisible, I step out into the hallway and soundlessly walk up to the center of the fork. The other two ends also have cameras and doors as expected.
I walk to the far end, and synthesize a device on the floor directly beneath the camera, out of its sight. The completed form looks reminiscent of a smoke can.
> Qubica Illusionary Fog Emitter Illu-1 (rank 2.7)
I activate it, and nothing obvious happens.
Next to the device I synthesize another. The black nanofog coalesces into a device that appears like a small beehive.
> Qubica Illusionary Fog Controller Illu-2 (rank 2.8)
Interfacing it with my mind, I give it the 3d modeling and texturing data it requires and have it enact its function. Nothing visible changes in front, so I walk a couple of steps forward, and still in full view of the came, drop my stealth. I come into sight, wearing my form-fitting, dark gray, jumpsuit.
I stand still for a few moments, betting my life that nothing will happen.
After those few moments, nothing indeed happens. The alarm does not get triggered.
Experiment Success.
The reason nothing is happening is because all the camera sees is a projection of an empty hallway on its end.
Safe in this place, I get to work and synthesize pairs of Illu devices on the both sides of the walls, the floor and the ceiling. This will serve as the redundancy in case one of them is destroyed during the later battle.
I activate them. Feeling safe that the illusion is steady, I turn my stealth back on and pocket the first two devices right underneath the camera. Then I repeat this same process on the other sides of the fork.
The setup being complete, I start creating my army right in the middle of the enemy base. Waves of black fog start to coalesce into a spider-like shape.
…
When the 3 doors opened, the spiderbots and scouting drones in the room turned to look, but could only see empty hallways. In the next moment, a hail of electric bullets erupted, paralyzing them and sending sparks flying everywhere. The spiders locked up and shut down, falling to the floor, while the drones tumbled to the ground, rolling uselessly before coming to a stop.
Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa!
The alarms started blaring, and from the other ends the doors started opening, sending in groups of spiderbots accompanied by drones. They went down in a shower of electricity, struck down on sight by attacks beyond the invisible hallway.
Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa!
The alarms were still blaring, and we waited in ambush. I sent a few drones into all of the rooms, hiding them from sight just behind the doors. Even without sight, they have excellent audio sensors, so I can understand what is happening.
New reinforcements come accompanied by scouting drones, but they don’t rush blindly into the firing zone like the demons would, instead they take up positions on the opposite side of the hallway waiting for one of us to instead step into the firing range first. Also the enemies that came into the room before them are also blocking the way.
Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa!
With the alarms blazing, we seem to be at an impasse. If I sent my own troops into the lines of fire, the enemy spiderbots would open fire first, destroying them. They can stand there forever, but I am the one who needs to advance.
It is time for me to go to work.
First of all, I synthesize the rocket launcher, give my team the west side, left of fork the order to fall back. I heft the CGR Launcher on my shoulder, and press the trigger. A blast of fire comes out the other end, and I send a rocket at high velocity into the inert enemies inside the room, turning them into scrap. The whole level shakes as I clear them one by one using high explosives. The cameras inside the room get wrecked during the explosions.
It would be great if I could have the rockets turn 90 degrees in the air to strike the enemies lying in wait, but that is not possible using this weapon.
After the smoke clears, I enter the room that is now free of obstacles. Picking up a pair of illusion devices along the way, I place them next to the door and do the same trick. The illusory fog not only tricks the sight, but it also prevents sound from passing through the barrier, meaning the auditory senses of the scouting drone at the other end will be absolutely useless.
I have the MWPs move into position, and they open fire at the enemies, disabling them on the first burst of their twin autocannons and shooting the scouts out of the air afterwards.
Had I known that the enemies would simply dig in and wait after the first round of reinforcements, I’d have given my MWPs rocket launchers instead of autocannons armed with EMP bullets.
The level was long, but I had established the winning strategy, and after a couple of hours finally reached the last room.
Coming into sight with the light behind me illuminating my feminine form, there were piles and piles of scrap in the room behind me. But none of them were my own army’s.
My own spiderbots were standing tall, proudly behind me and my own scouts trailed along the air in my passage. I picked up the orb between my thumb and index finger before raising it into the air, showing it to them. Had they been able to speak, I am sure they would have cheered.
I interface with the core, as the light of teleportation takes me, I feel relief at finishing this long level.
> Mission Success!
> Time: 4h 18m.
> Symbiotics Base series artillery schematics have been added to the database.