Alpha Agent: A Post Apocalyptic LitRPG

Dan stood outside of his apartment building as instructed by details sent to his HUD thanks to Chad. In full body armor, Dan had his looted ZK-77 rifle and his double Initiate pistols strapped to either side of his long coat.

He looked up at the sky and watched as the streaks of orange cracked through the cloud cover during this morning’s sunrise. It was rare for Dan to ever have such quiet moments such as this. He was allowed to lower his guard and simply stand and admire the distant scenery. Dan’s ears picked up a low rumbling from down the street and watched as a sleek, yet understated model car approached him. Recognizing the simplistic ‘A’ logo on the side of the vehicle, Dan knew this was his ride.

The side door opened on its own and lifted itself up.

“Welcome,” a robotic male voice said. “Please make yourself comfortable while we transport you to your mission briefing. This ride was supplied by the venerable Michael Cynosa.”

Dan chuckled to himself before he entered the vehicle. He scooted over to the middle backseat and noticed no driver at the front.

“Uh, who is driving this car?”

“This vehicle is controlled by a sophisticated self-driving system operated by the Alpha Corporation. Please relax and enjoy the ride.”

Dan recalled when he hacked a Kodak jeep and gained access to it that an onboard self-driving mechanism allowed him to hop on the back to shoot at pursuers while the jeep drove itself.

Dan simply leaned back and the car pulled out from the side of the road and smoothly drove him on the way to his destination. Traffic didn’t appear to be too heavy this early in the morning and the cars he did see would be quickly maneuvered around by the driving system.

During the ride, Dan stopped paying attention to the repeat of tall high rise buildings and clean streets by inspecting his seventy-seven rifle. He took out one of the magazines and stared at the ammunition. There were depleted uranium rounds and yet to his naked eye, he didn’t notice anything that set it apart from many other conventional round types.

“Michael Cynosa is very pleased to have you on board for his next mission, Dan Orion,” the same robotic voice said.

“Thanks,” Dan said awkwardly. It was strange having some automated program built into a vehicle speak. “How long will this ride be?”

“You are being transported to an Alpha facility at the other side of Cerulean city,” the voice said. Dan noticed the car taking advantage of the moderate traffic by picking up speed and swerving around. “But rest assured, this ride will only be forty-five minutes.”

“Forty-five minutes to reach the other side of the city?” Dan asked

“Correct, we are lucky it is a quiet morning today,” the voice said.

Dan wondered with Jane’s popularity if there were appliances or other gadgets that had Jane’s voice. Her tone had the same level of consistency as this robotic voice that he could see Jane’s voice being the AI voice for a high-level executive’s personal vehicle.

“A seatbelt is unnecessary. Gyroscopic dampeners within the interiors will minimize occupants being tossed around during sudden turns.”

Dan saw the demonstration for himself as the car swerved in and out between other cars and him feeling little if any of it. He trusted the car and put down his rifle. Dan simply laid down on the entire backseat, though he had to bend his knees since the car couldn’t fit the entire length of his body.

The ride was relatively smooth and the car brought him to the promised destination. Arriving at the Alpha facility, Dan looked out the winder and could immediately spot the drastic changes in scenery. The edge of Cerulean city appeared to be more industrial as opposed to the clean and sanitized aesthetic of the inner city. Here, Dan spotted the monolithic Alpha building that stood at least forty stories tall that was across from what appeared to be a training facility, only with noticeably worse for wear with the stains and flickering outdoor lighting.

Dan took his rifle and got up. The side door of the car lifted and the robotic voice said, “Thank you for riding with the Alpha Corporation. Michael Cynosa is expecting you.”

He put both his boots out on the pavement and the door slid down and closed behind him. Dan’s HUD updated him with a waypoint that pointed him towards the rundown looking facility across from the high rise Alpha building. Looking around more, Dan knew he near the outskirts of the city. On one side, Dan saw the rest of the city which flooded his mind about the expectation on the standard of living and the tightly packed places he could go to.

He turned around and simply saw some scatterings of buildings that conveyed that this part of Cerulean city got the leftovers of the planning budget. The sporadic buildings, all mostly small stores eventually led to a road that stretched and turned right, presumably out of the city. The rest of the land beyond that Dan could make out appeared to be cracked and desert-like drylands.

Dan walked across the empty street and onto the empty and seemingly abandoned courtyard of the training facility. He walked past the aging brick wall that had the sentry gun whirring as it made any turn.

“That thing needs some oil,” Dan muttered.

“It sure does, my boy,” a deep voice said, startling Dan. “This entire part of town could use more love from the Alpha Corp.”

Dan cocked his head in the direction of the wall he had just walked past. There, he saw the man himself. Michael Cynosa stood underneath a flickering street lamp that served as a flickering spotlight for the famous agent.

Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, Michael looked exactly as Dan remembered him from the video message the agent left after Dan woke up after being fatally stabbed in the back. From this distance, Michael appeared just as tall if not toller than Allen Draco. He wore an all white coat with matching underarmor similar to Jane’s armor. The difference here was the gold trimmings on his white coat that glinted the flickering light from the lamp above.

Michael stepped away from the wall and walked over to Dan with a confident stride similar to how Jane walked. Dan could see how Jane was forged into the squad leader she was today. The agent stood right in front of him and Dan got a better look at his features. Up close, Michael looked to be in his late forties or early fifties with a somewhat greying buzzcut that appeared to be growing out compared to his appearance in the video message.

“Holy shit,” Dan said. “I’m finally meeting you.”

Michael wore a mask that covered the lower half of his face, but Dan could tell from the man’s eyes that he smiled beneath the mask. “It’s good to meet you at last, Dan. Your comrades Jane and Allen have spoken highly about you. Jane rarely has praise for anyone so understand that she has high expectations for you.”

“Thank you sir,” Dan said. “I promise to put a hundred fifty percent into whatever is assigned to me.”

Admittedly, he had been relatively informal with his more experienced teammates, even Jane herself. But Michael’s mere presence commanded a level of respect and reverence that Dan had never offered to anyone in his life. Standing in front of him was the man who saved his life and gave him renewed purpose as an Alpha agent.

Michael let out a boisterous and unexpected laugh at that comment. “Let me guess, Jane was the one who ordered you to say that.”

“Yeah. She said you’re a lot harsher than she is.”

“Good to hear,” he said. “Let’s get you inside. I’ll introduce you to your new teammates for this mission and explain everything.”

“Yes sir,” Dan said.

Dan enthusiastically followed Michael through the desolate courtyard and towards the facility’s entrance. Michael put his hand on a scanner nest to the front doors and they slid open. The two men stepped inside and Dan saw interior design that didn’t consist of lifeless grey walls and flooring.

Dan was vaguely reminded of the interiors of an abandoned, rundown church he had broken into several times as a kid. As they both walked through the hall, Dan noticed several pieces of various artwork spaced out from each other on both walls. Some were abstract paintings splashing with vibrant color and personality and a few were religious paintings depicting various famous events from the Bible, including the Last Supper along with bizarre interpretations of what the afterlife look like.

One art piece depicted hell as an landscape with blackened skies of what appeared to be flowing lava that was blue and purple instead of the expected red and orange. Dan squinted and could make out skulls, spinal columns, and other parts of human and animal skeletons embedded into the rocky terrain.

The lighting was on the warmer side with a faint gold tinge compared to the harsh bright white lighting from the training facility near his apartment.

“I see you’re taking a liking to this facility,” Michael pointed out.

“Yeah. A lot more personality. I feel like my eyes aren’t about to bleed from looking at the same grey walls all the time. I asked Jane several times if I could buy some artwork to hang on a few of the walls but she adamantly forbade me from doing that.” Dan let out a chuckle, recalling one particular incident he had with Jane. “She told me if I ever did something like that to a training facility, she would chop my hand off with her viper fang sword.”

“Well, that’s Jane for you. She takes discipline on the job to an extreme,” Michael said. As Dan continued following behind the agent, Michael asked, “Do you know what the best part about being someone my age, Dan?”

“I’m drawing a blank, sir,” Dan said with brutal honesty. “Before I met you, I never thought about living past the age of twenty five. You should know the shithole I was growing up in.”

“I see,” Michael said somberly. “The best part of aging is seeing your peers grow. Sometimes change isn’t for the better and that is unfortunate. But when it goes the other way, you get to see the people you care about grow. They achieve the goals they set for themselves, pass on your teaching onto others, or just simply become better people. I’ve trained many agents to be who they are today…”

Michael appeared to be deep in thought about something and Dan kept silent, thinking it was best not to ruin the moment.

Dan didn’t know how to react when he heard Michael’s laughter after saying something so profound and serious. “Out of all the people I trained, I’d say Jane has changed the least out of everyone.”

The two of them laughed harder than they probably should have at the comment.

Michael stopped at a wide set of doors that slid open. One door slid aside fully while the other got jammed midway through and stayed stuck.

“Well, I’ll have to inform maintenance about this door again,” Michael said.

Both walked in and Dan spotted two agents standing at the end in front of a large glowing table.

“Alright everyone, out last member is finally here,” Michael said. He pointed his thumb back at Dan. “This is Dan Orion. Dan, meet your new teammates.”

Dan walked up to the agent on the left. The agent in front of him was about as tall he was. He appeared to have East-Asian features with dark hair and long bangs that obscured his eyes. Both of them extended their gloved hands and shook.

“Dan, I have briefly read about your published mission report in crushing a local rebellion,” he said. “I’m looking forward to working with someone who is associated with the famous Ms Sunheiser. My name is Li Phantom.”

Li’s voice was lighter and softer, a stark contrast to Michael’s deeper and more commanding tone. Li wore a strange variant of the Alpha long coat. This one was an awesome silver that had odd scale textures on his arms and torso not unlike a snake. His handshake however was a different story. Li’s grip was intense which led to Dan performing a brief scan of the agent’s stats. The HUD feed him the info.

Agent: Li Phantom

Age: 21 M

Shard: Alpha Corporation (formerly Spec Ops Hellhound)

Rank: Tier 1 | Level 22

Strength: 22

Agility: 33

Endurance: 25

Intelligence: 30

Healing Factor: n/a

Dan was taken aback by what he saw. Li was six levels higher than he was and all of his stat categories other than strength surpassed that of his own. He especially fixated on Li’s choice in putting points into agility.

“That’s quite the amount of points you have in agility. What kind of shit do you pull off with an agility stat like that?” Dan asked.

“I’m a stealth specialist,” Li stated. “I require the points into agility to perform the acrobatics needed to get to hard to reach places and gain the advantage over my foes. My enemies usually don’t know what killed them until after I slit their throat or a silenced round penetrates their skull.”

Dan looked down and noticed a pistol model that differed from the Initiate pistol. Li’s handgun strapped to the right side of his silver coat was an unknown model with a thick attachment to the barrel which Dan assumed to be a silencer. In Li’s other hand, Dan spotted him spinning a smaller lightweight version of the regular combat knife.

Li raised the knife up to his torso and held it out to Dan. “It’s a throwing knife. My farthest kill with this was thirty-seven meters while in a pitch black environment.” Li pointed the knife towards a specific part of his own neck. “An unlucky Kodak agent took one of these to the carotid artery. Even an agent cannot survive such a fatal blow.”

“What the hell,” Dan muttered. “You should show me your throwing arm sometime.”

“Yeah yeah,” the second female agent said. “We get it, you have a huge dick. Stop being such an asshat and give me some time to introduce myself.”

A hand grabbed Dan by the shoulder and turned him with such surprising force that he almost stumbled. His body sluggishly faced a female agent who stood at around eye level compared to Dan.

The agent in front of him was a young girl with strawberry-blond hair. Dan would be surprised to hear if she was above twenty. She had big brown eyes with magenta mascara.

“Uh, Dan this is Angie. She’s the younger sister of one of my colleagues,” Michael said.

“Thanks Michael. But I can introduce myself just fine,” Angie waved dismissively. “Hi Dan. You already know my name so I guess the only thing left is for you to get to know me on the field.”

Dan pulled up her stats as well.

Agent: Angie Bloodliner

Age: 20 F

Shard: Alpha Corporation

Rank: Tier 1 | Level 18

Strength: 20

Agility: 24

Endurance: 22

Intelligence: 21

Healing Factor: n/a

Dan could feel himself sweating just from looking at both of their stats. It seemed that he was the one with the least experience.

“I can’t wait until I get to blow shit up,” Angie said with the same glee as someone seeing a puppy for the first time. “I’m getting so tired of patrols around the city. I’m not the fucking police, I’m an agent!”

Angie got up in Dan’s personal space to the point where only a few centimeters of space separated their noses.

Dan blinked twice. “Well, at least you’re taking on this new opportunity with the rest of us.”

The agent giggled so much that Dan questioned how she even chose this line of work in the first place. She calmed down a bit and said, “Has anyone told you that your eyes look gorgeous?”

“Uh…no? But thank you,” Dan said.

Michael cleared his throat and that got the attention of everyone in the room. “There’s a fifth member of our little crew. Tim Corsair has already positioned himself behind enemy lines and will be our hacker. Unfortunately, you won’t be shaking hands with him.”

Dan’s HUD notified him on an incoming call from another agent. Tim’s name popped up in front of him and Dan accepted.

“Good to meet you all,” Tim said. A small pop up window appeared in Dan’s center right view and he saw an agent in a dark room illuminated by nothing except the ambient glow of a screen in front of him. Tim had a tanned complexion with a shaved face and slicked-back and greasy hair. “We’re going to pull off a heist boys and girls. Hope you guys are ready to be thieves.”

“Well, now that introductions are out of the way, I’ll go over how this mission will play out.” Michael pointed his finger. “Gather around the table in front of you.”

Dan and everyone else walk around the table and found themselves at various positions surrounding the glowing surface of the desk.

Michael stood across from Dan while Li took up the left side. Curiously, Angie stood beside Dan’s right and leaned forward. He could see Angie looking up at him in his peripheral vision.

“Listen up agents, we’re on a time crunch on this one. By the time we land in enemy territory, we only have four hours to get the job done,” Michael said. Outlines jutted out from the glowing ambience of the table then formed into rudimentary blocks resembling buildings. A basic city model had formed in front of them. “As Tim spoiled earlier, we’re going on a heist. What are we stealing? A shipment container that holds something important to the Alpha Corp. This asset is the highest possible priority to take back. The shard will not tolerate failure, especially not with my reputation.”

“This container, Chad Eisenworth told me it contains a batch of the enhancement serums you guys use to give us our abilities,” Dan said. “Is that true?”

“Correct my boy,” Michael said, pointing at Dan. “I’ll do you one better. None of you have the clearance to know this so I’ll keep it brief. The serum within the container isn’t just any serum, it’s the Alpha Corp’s ace in the hole to create the next generation of agents to crush the other two shards into oblivion. It’s a newly developed project by the Alpha Corp, and you can imagine that having a batch stolen doesn’t sit well with the higher ups. That’s where we come in. We’re going to steal it back.”

“Why only four hours, sir?” Li asked.

“The container has made a temporary stop at a hotel. The truth is that the hotel is just a front to the public. It’s a high end establishment on the outside, but a secret meeting place for Kodak officials behind closed doors. The Kodak strike team who stole the container had been crippled by losses at the hands of me and my previous team. They also took some more casualties thanks to Jane Sunheiser being sent in to investigate their partnership with a local rebel group. So, the enemy has chosen that hotel as a temporary stop so that their forces can lick their wounds and possibly call in for more backup to help transport the container away. If we don’t recapture that serum, it will forever be lost.”

One of the blocks flashed red, which Dan assumed was the hotel.

“And if the enemy is in possession of this newest version of the serum, that’s bad news for all of us,” Li said. “The possibilities include them studying it and creating their own rendition to use against us.”

“Exactly,” Michael said. “The stakes are high on this one. Failure is not an option. Our team consists of the five of us.”

Dan couldn’t help but feel a combination of excitement and nervousness thinking about this mission. It didn’t take a genius to assume that simply raiding the hotel wasn’t going to work. With only five agents, it simply wouldn’t be possible from a numbers standpoint. He also assumed that this container had to remain intact. This was Dan’s first mission that required subterfuge and subtlety to succeed.

“As I said earlier, Tim Corsair will be our hacker. He’ll be providing you all with spoofed IDs for easy entry into the hotel, executive access to restricted areas, various types of recon drones, and remote hacking if possible.”

“Just don’t expect miracles,” Tim said through the channel to all members.

“So we’ll be checking in as guests at this hotel?” Angie asked.

“Correct, so bear with me and be patient Angie. You’ll get to blow stuff up when the time is right,” Michael assured.

“I hope so, sir,” Angie said in a low voice. Michael clearly rained on her parade.

“I got a question,” Dan said. “If we’re checking into this hotel with fake IDs, how are we carrying all of our necessary gear inside? Don’t tell me we’re going to fight enemy agents with sticks and rocks.”

“That’s where you and Li come in,” Michael said. “You two will enter first disguised as arms dealers representing Cresh manufacturing, one of Kodak’s subsidiaries. To them, you two have an important meeting scheduled with some Kodak VIPs in the upper floors. You two will be carrying one briefcase each containing new weapon models and prototypes. In reality, these briefcases will have your personalized gear and equipment for this mission. Get it now?”

“That sounds exciting,” Li said. “How can we guarantee for sure that they won’t sniff the smoke we’re blowing up their pants? I find it hard to believe that a hotel owned by a shard would allow clients to walk through the door with concealed weapons. Wouldn’t they have metal detectors, bodyguards armed to the teeth, and other security systems like gun turrets that will mow us down on the spot?”

“You being arms dealers will be granted a special exemption, of course. They’ll be none the wiser,” Michael told Li. “Once you and Dan get settled in, you will be responsible for finding the container, securing it, and lifting it to the roof. That’s where you’ll get your ride out of the hotel.”

Li nodded. “Understood, sir.”

Michael turned his gaze towards Angie. “As for you, you’ll be the third guest to check into the hotel. You will also be an arms dealer with the same alibi. In your briefcase, you’ll be carrying the heavy stuff. I’ll be equipping you with a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, a grenade launcher, and other weapons such as remote detonated mines, EMP grenades, etc.”

“I got it,” Angie said grinning, showing her unnaturally bright white teeth.

“Normally, only two tier two agents would be necessary for that part of this operation. The two of them could lift the container and have the speed and reaction times to counter any resistance while covering themselves as they carry it to the roof. But since the container is bulky and heavy, two tier ones such as yourselves will need extra help. A third agent, which will be Angie, will have to be there to cover you guys or cause a distraction to take attention away from the agents carrying the payload.”

“How big is this container?” Dan asked.

“Roughly the size of a funeral casket in length, width and height,” Michael said. “The weight of the entire batch of serums should be manageable for tier one level of physical strength.”

“What about you, sir?” Li aksed. “What will you be doing?”

Michael flashed a glance in Li’s direction before looking down at the ambient glow of the table. “I’ll be in the shadows. I’ll be studying patrol patterns and sniper positions outside of the hotel. Establishments like this will be guarded like mini-fortresses. I’ll be working to weaken and undermine their forces so that by the time they figure out the container is missing, it’ll be too late to notice that they’re nowhere near at full strength to respond. Plus, I have a score to settle with a particular set of Kodak agents.”

Dan and Angie looked at each other before he asked, “A score to settle? You have beef with someone?”

“You could say that. There are these twin Kodak agents who are high-level. One of the twins took part in the hijacking of that container of the serum while it was being delivered. When me and my team intervened to deal with the enemy… let’s just say I lost some good people. Kodak wasn’t any better, but one of the twins survived and still managed to steal the container. Her and the sister will be our biggest individual threats.”

Michael glanced at Dan and said, “That particular agent’s name is Lola Odyssey, and her sister is Colleen. Dan, Lola took on Jane Sunheiser in a battle during your mission to crush rebel activity. And she walked away from that fight while leaving Jane severely injured. That’s how scary just one of those twins is.”

Dan locked eyes with Michael. Every syllable of what Michael said hit him hard. Jane was the most powerful agent Dan had ever met, save for Michael himself. He didn’t realize his fingers were incessantly tapping on the table after hearing that. An enemy agent matching and even getting the better of Jane paralyzed him.

“And her sister Colleen is no joke either. I heard a bit of idle chatter from the enemy’s comm lines thanks to Tim and the way they speak about her doesn’t bode well for us. Apparently, the remnants of that Kodak strike team think that Colleen could easily take me on any day of the week.”

“That’s impossible,” Li interjected. “You’re a tier four agent, one of the most powerful agents who ever lived.”

“I know,” Michael said. “That’s why it’s important for all of us to stick to the plan. Our priority is the container. No unnecessary moves. Do not actively seek out combat unless the enemy is in the way of mission success. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!” everyone said in unison.

One thing lingered in Dan’s mind. If this was such a highly dangerous mission for tier ones such as himself and the others, would the reward be proportional to that danger?

“What kind of compensation do we get for mission success?” Dan asked.

“That’s an odd question to ask,” Li said. “Duty to the Alpha Corp is its own reward. We should all be thankful that Michael chose us to partake in such an important mission. Assuming we survive, our combat record listing this particular success alone would prop up our careers as agents. That would be sufficient for me.”

Angie rolled her eyes at that comment.

“Ah yes,” Michael said. “I understand that with how important this mission is and with how short we are right now on agents ranked tier two and above that this is a serious undertaking for all four of you. If we succeed, all of you will get a payout of one hundred thousand credits and will be allowed to unlock special gear that is normally exclusive to tier twos and above. As far as I’m concerned, you completing a mission like this already puts you at tier two level in terms of competence. Will that suffice?”

Li stared wide eyed at Michael while Angie gasped at hearing such rewards.

Dan asked one more question. “I’m still a newbie, but what can a hundred thousand credits buy you?”

Angie looked at him as if he just asked what color the sky was. “Um, it’s enough to buy three big heavy weapons from the armory and the ammo for all three. Take your pick, a minigun, a rocket launcher, and a crackshot cannon, you name it.”

“Well then, any other questions?”

When no one said a word, Michael followed up with, “Good. Before we get started, I’m going to put you three through a brief training exercise to test out your teamwork. It won’t take long.”