Alpha Agent: A Post Apocalyptic LitRPG

Dan stepped inside and walked over to the bathroom. He grabbed new towels hanging on the wall and dried himself off as best he could, rubbing his face, hair and the rest of his sleek body armor. Having only one set of business attire, he had to draw as little attention to himself as possible. He assumed that a Cresh arms dealer with a wet uniform would look unprofessional.

Dan was at his room door when his HUD notified him of an incoming call from Tim.

“Hey, I’m tracking your movements through the hotel. So you’re already bored of your room?”

“Yeah, just a short walk outside,” Dan said. “Anything I can do to help set things up?”

“If you’re going to kill time before Michael and Angie arrive, let’s be productive. Get to your suit case and take some gadgets with you. I’ll guide you through the hotel and you can start planting jammers and installing some hacks to disrupt the hotel’s security systems.”

“Hadn’t thought of that. Good idea Tim,” Dan said. “But I have to make this quick, there’s two enemy agents I’ve encountered before. I want to minimize my chances of encountering them.”

That was a half truth. Dan knew he would be outmatched in a straight up fight against Kate or Adam and his main objective of stealing the container took priority. But secretly, it wouldn’t hurt to have an opportunity for some payback.

“That’s why I’m here Dan.”

Dan walked back inside and grabbed his brief case. Opening it up, he saw his pistol and Aero SMG.

“The top padding with the contoured fittings for your guns, remove it and you’ll find the gadgets needed,” Tim said. “Your uniform, specifically your red vest, should have inner pockets similar to our standard long coats so that you can carry your gadgets.”

Dan spotted a small notch in the top edge of the case’s lining. He put his finger in the notch and slowly pulled out the whole lining to reveal a fully featured secret compartment dedicated to smaller tools and gadgets.

Objective: Plant jammers and disrupters in designated areas. Follow Tim’s instructions.

“Grab all of the ones that look like small grey flat discs,” Tim said. “Same goes for the black half-spheres.”

Dan did as he was told and grabbed all of the gadgets matching Tim’s basic descriptions. “Anything else?”

“That should be fine,” Tim said.

Putting the lining back in and closing the case, Dan carried it and placed the case beside the small couch before he opened his hotel door and exited the room. Because of his headache earlier, Dan didn’t get a chance to get a proper look around as he and Li were making their way to their room.

“I’m feeding you the waypoints to your HUD. The yellow markers will be important security cameras. You will place one grey disc just below the camera under its blind spot. This is a gadget that will passively jam the camera until it runs out of battery. When its battery runs out after five hours, the device will use the last of its energy to fry itself out. A good measure to prevent Kodak from trying to reverse engineer our tech.”

“Smart,” Dan said.

“The blue markers will be the areas you’ll place your disrupters. These are more heavy-duty devices that you’ll use to jam the elevators. Once the grab for the container is under way, it will slowdown any additional Kodak forces from coming up to investigate. They will have a long run up the stairs.”

Tim’s instructions were simple enough. Dan looked around and saw blue and yellow markers on his floor and the floors above him. Dan followed the nearest yellow marker down the current hallway. He reached the end and saw his first camera. Assuming that he needed to look discrete, Dan initially leaned against the wall a few meters away from the camera. Then he pretended to reach into his pocket for something as he walked beneath the camera’s blindspot. He grabbed the first jammer.

“Tim, how do you put this thing on?”

The brief pause on the other end made Dan feel like an idiot. “The jammer has an adhesive coating on one side. Just stick it on the wall.”

Dan simply slapped the small grey disc onto the wall below the camera. Just to be sure, he jumped and placed the disc in the shadow of the camera to make it harder for someone to spot the devices at a glance.

The yellow marker disappeared, indicating the task complete. Dan walked to the staircase and continued to move toward the rest of the markers. After a good bit of walking and jamming four additional cameras, Dan opened his communications with Tim.

“Do we know where exactly the container is in this hotel?”

“I have the hotel’s floor schematics,” Tim said. “Kodak has a designated room where they keep quite the amount of miscellaneous items. It includes captured equipment, hostages, illegal good, etc. Michael says that knowing how Kodak operates, they placed the container in that room.”

“And where is this room located? From the markers you placed in my HUD, the room has to be somewhere nearby if I’m only placing jammers in a few specific floors.”

“You’re catching on quickly,” Tim said in coy fashion. “This room is located three floors above you. That’s the floor where only VIPs and Kodak agents are allowed. Luckily, your fake ID cards should be sufficient to get you to that floor.”

Dan looked up and confirmed that the blue and yellow markers were placed all the way up to the same floor that held the container, which made sense. His mind was racing thinking how challenging it must have been for Michael to plan out all of these details and possibilities for this mission. He had an even higher amount of respect for the man than he thought possible.

One by one, the blue and yellow markers disappeared from his HUD and peripheral vision as he placed jammers and disrupters. Dan placed the half-sphere disrupters on walls where there was seemingly nothing there. On Tim’s insistence, these areas were where boxes that powered the security systems, systems that would drop down machine turrets from the ceiling.

After he placed the last of the black half-spheres next to an elevator control panel, Dan was struck with a sharp pain in the left side of his head. Then the headaches came back. The dizziness returned in full force and Dan had a hard time just walking straight.

Warning: Supernatural instability detected. Please rest.

Dan remembered he had a supernatural stat that had yet to be unlocked whenever he checked his own stats. Were his headaches tied to some nonsense going on with that peculiar stat?

Dan turned and tried to walk away and back to his hotel suite. He needed to get whatever rest he could get before he and Li moved out to grab the container.

“Hey, you over there!” a female voice said.

He glanced back and saw a Kodak agent walk toward him. Immediately Dan’s heart rate skyrocketed. Did she see what he was doing? Was his cover blown?

Dan realized he didn’t bring any of his weapons with him and had no way of defending himself if this agent was onto him. The female Kodak agent stopped in front of him and looked up at him with a coy smile. Dan was dumbfounded. She had walked past one of the last jammers he had placed on the wall.

The agent stood a head shorter than him. She moved locks of dyed red hair from her facc and revealed the same familiar features of any Kodak agent: bloodshot eyes and extremely pale skin.

“You look like shit baby. Does your head hurt?”

Dan thought it was best to play along. “What gave it away?”

“The confidence that you suit-wearing types have. I didn’t see it with your walk just now. Either you're drunk or in pain,” she said. But her whole demeanour changed with a devilish grin. Dan noticed drool seeping from one side of her mouth. “I can make it all better if you come with me into my room.”

Staring at her, Dan already had an idea of what the Kodak agent was implying. He tried to turn away from her, but she did something even he didn’t expect. She grabbed his shoulder and then he felt her other hand snatch his crotch.

“Woah, you’re rock solid down there,” she said. “That’s a lot of layers you’re wearing. I can make you comfortable by peeling it all off for you. Just come with me and let’s have some fun.”

The agent encroached even more than Dan expected and she lifted his sunglasses off of his eyes. “Such beautiful eyes. Oh yes, you are definitely coming back with me babe. If I satisfy you, could you get me a new shotgun for free? I need an upgrade and I’m short on credits.”

Dan recognized the feral look in the agent’s eyes. She would not relent no matter what Dan tried to do. He couldn’t afford any distractions to the mission. Since he had jammed the security cameras on this floor, that meant he had only one way of silencing this chick.

He looked down and saw the handle of a combat knife sticking out from her waist. He then looked up at the agent’s eyes and smiled at her.

“Oh, are you finally coming around? Well, it’s about—,”

Dan abruptly smashed his forehead down onto the agent’s face, sending her reeling back. She staggered back a few steps and he used this chance and reached for the knife. He grabbed the handle yanked it, pulling the knife out of its sheath. He pulled his arm back and aimed for a quick jab to her throat.

With surprising speed, the female agent brought her arms up and grabbed Dan’s wrist with both hands. Even with his armor underneath his disguise, her grip strength surprised him.

“Okay, I don’t care who the fuck you are,” the agent spat. “No one gets away with a cheap shot like that.”

Dan head was still pounding from his strange headache and his vision blurred in and out of focus. Still, he fought with all of his might to get free of the agent’s grip. Using his other hand, he grabbed the agent’s wrist and attempted to pull, trying to loosen her grip on him.

He briefly wondered who she was this strong. The agent was shorter than he was and even with her bulky armor, Dan could tell she had a more petite build. Normally, a girl of this size and weight shouldn’t even come close to matching him in strength. But both of them were enhanced by their respective shards. The chick in front of him most likely had denser bones and stronger muscles compared to any average woman.

His splitting headaches worsened when he felt great pressure within both his eyeballs, as if they would explode into a gory mess if he didn’t end this soon. The stalemate had to end or he was screwed.

Having little other choice, Dan resorted to another cheap shot. He let go of the agent’s wrist and extended his two fingers. He rammed his two digits straight into the female agent’s eyes. Dan cringed at the feeling of soft flesh even through his gloved hands.

She pulled back and let out a brief shriek before Dan forcibly covered her mouth and rammed the knife into her throat. He rammed her into the nearest wall and kept her pinned until her strength gradually drained. After another few seconds, she stopped moving and Dan watched as the life drained out of her hateful eyes.

Dan was borderline ashamed of himself for having to resort to such a dirty tactic to gain the upperhand in that struggle against someone smaller than him. But that was simply his pride talking. He knew the strange headaches were taking its toll on him and he might not even be breathing now if he didn’t resort to fighting dirty. It didn’t matter if it was a woman. The females of any species could be just as ruthless as the males, and humans were no different.

The female agent’s body slumped to the ground and Dan had a new problem to feal with. Even with the cameras disabled, he couldn’t leave a dead body lying around in the hallway. He needed Tim’s expertise.

“Hey Tim,” Dan said through the private channel. “I got a problem. I had to ‘discourage’ a curious Kodak agent and I need to hide a body. Any ideas?”

“Inevitable,” Tim said cooly. “Luckily, that’s why I’m here. Do you have your keycard with you?”

“I do. I swiped it just in case.”

“Good. I’m applying a remote hack to your card and extending its privileges. You’ll now be able to unlock vacant rooms outside of your assigned suite.” A few seconds passed and Tim got back to him. “It’s done. Dump the corpse in a nearby vacant room and continue with the mission.”

Dan breathed a sigh of relief. Now he needed to unlock a vacant room and hide the body somewhere in there.

Dan quickly checked the rooms in the same hall and found a vacant suite about three rooms down. He grabbed the corpse of the agent and was shocked at how heavy she was. In full armor, he guessed he was carrying a hundred eighty kilos of weight. He also didn’t didn’t have to worry about bloodstains on the carpet, as Kodak chose a blood red shade for their floor. He swiped his keycard on the reader and the door unlocked. Dan immediately barreled his way into the suite and rushed to the bathroom. He threw the body into the bathtub, pulled the curtains and locked the bathroom door from the inside.

While in the bathroom, Dan tried his best to wash the blood off his gloved hands and grabbed the towels to hastily wipe off additional stains on his business uniform. He still had droplets of blood on his shirt’s forearm which couldn’t be washed.

Dan slowly stepped out of the hotel room and shut the door behind him. He glanced at the spot where he had pinned down the agent and was thankful he didn’t have to clean any blood stains on the wall.

Noticing his conspicuous forearm sleeve with its wetness and still dark droplets of blood still staining the fabric, Dan held his forearm behind him to avoid suspicion just in case he encountered else.

Dan walked slowly through the halls, trying to push through his intense headaches and the feeling if his eyeballs erupting.

He tried his best to walk back down to his room when a female voice called out to him from behind. Dan turned around and wished he hadn’t and just kept walking.

Another female Kodak agent looked at him with an ominous smirk.