Alpha Agent: A Post Apocalyptic LitRPG

Dan

Dan walked up the final flight of stairs and emerged into the current floor. The path of yellow chevrons on the ground led him down the hall to a door right in the middle. He slowed down the pace and moved through the hall, constantly checking his surroundings. He could imagine a scenario where someone could open one of the hotel room and see Dan. He wouldn’t put it past a Kodak agent to be that devious and ambush him in such a manner.

“Li, you still alive?”

“What kind of question is that?” Li said. “I’m not the sort to take unnecessary risks. I have an enemy tier two on my position. I don’t have any death wishes.”

“Well, I’ll try to make this quick,” Dan said. He thought about how to explain his new powers to Li and that he could easily take care of both Kodak agents at once. “I hope I don’t sound like a lunatic, but something crazy happened during my nap.”

“Didn’t you say that you fully recovered?”

“I did, but when I woke up, I unlocked some strange new powers. I woke up to two dead agents in my room and I had no idea how they died.”

“That was the hotel room I unlocked with the keycard. I tried to put you there so that you can recover safely. I guess it wasn’t safe enough,” Li said.

“It’s all good. I’m still here, aren’t I?” The next part would be interesting to explain. From the short time Dan knew Li, he knew the guy was a stealth specialist and a pragmatic agent who was always forward thinking, always pushing for a path to complete the mission. “Turns out, I killed those two in my sleep.”

“Run that by me one more time?”

“I woke up and my HUD notified me of two new abilities I just unlocked. I had another two Kodak agent investigate what the hell had happened to their two other buddies and then I took care of them both, easy. I have something called a berserk and a glare ability.”

The few seconds of silence on the other made Dan curious about what Li was taking in this new info. Dan reached the metal door where the yellow chevrons on the ground ended. “I’m at a metal door. Is this the room?”

“Yeah, it’s actually a security room. You’ll have to go through a small hallway to the left to get to the actual storage room. You’ll see the two guard guarding the container while I’m up here on top of security watching them. And don’t worry, everything’s unlocked.”

“Got it,” Dan said. He lifted the handle of the door and true to Li’s word, it opened without trouble. Dan entered the dimly lit room and saw a collection of computer monitors and rest of the workstation setup at the other side of the room.

He walked past an unconscious man who laid sprawled out on the floor which he assumed was a regular worker who monitored the security camera footage.

“I heard of the berserk power. It’s exclusive only to Kodak agents. Their higher-level agents gain the ability to significantly increase all of their physical stats in bursts at the cost of extreme strain on their bodies. Basically a controlled adrenaline rush,” Li said. “Fun fact, regular people can tap into their adrenaline whenever a dire situation calls for it. Ever heard of a mother lifting a car to save her kid who had been pinned underneath?”

“Yeah,” Dan said. He opened the door on the right and walked down the narrow hallway.

“As for the glare ability, I’ve never heard of it,” Li said. “But these new powers you have supposedly unlocked, I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Challenge accepted,” Dan said.

“When you enter the storage room, be careful or else you’ll get spotted the moment you set foot inside,” Li warned.

Dan bent his knees and slowed his approach toward the door at the end of this narrow space. If what Li said was true about the presence of a tier two Kodak agent guarding the container, then Dan already had a plan on how to take the two guards out in quick succession.

He reached the door. “Li, tell me the time is right for me to enter. I don’t want these guys looking in my direction while I’m opening the door.”

“I got just the thing in mind. Give me a moment,” Li said.

Dan crouched in place and waited patiently. Whatever Li had planned, Dan knew he could count on him. Li contacted him.

“Okay, they’re distracted. Head inside,” Li said.

Opening the door slowly, Dan stepped foot into the storage room and found himself a good hiding spot behind a few wooden crates. “Okay, I’m in. I’m behind some crates near the door.”

“Good.”

Dan poked his head slightly above the crates and saw the two Kodak guards looking away from him, focused on something else before they both returned back to guarding what looked like a funeral casket. “How did you distract the guards?”

“Remmeber that little flying drone I used earlier to map our route to the container? I used it to fly around someone’s ear and distracted him. I lured one of them away and the other came following wondering what was going on.”

“Smart,” Dan said.

“Now, onto the real issue at hand,” Li said. “Any ideas on how to kill these two and get to the container?”

“Since it’s the two of us here, why don’t I kill one and you kill the other?”

“It’s not that simple Dan. We have a tier two in the mix. Have you seen a tier two in combat? I can’t risk having the enhanced reflexes of that agent allowing bullet dodging at such close range. We need some way to keep that tier two distracted so that we can guarantee a killing shot. That flying drone trick will not work a second time. If we don’t kill that agent quickly, it will turn into a prolonged battle. And while the two of us battle that tier two, he could be calling for reinforcements.”

Dan thought about the plan in his mind on his way here. It was time to put his powers to good use.

“Well, you said you would believe in my new powers if you saw them in action?”

The pause on Li’s end brought an amused smile to Dan’s face. “Yes. What’s your plan then?”

“You take out the weaker guy first and I’ll make sure that our tier two over here is distracted long enough to guarantee the killing blow. How does that sound?”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Li said. “I need to save my last concussion grenade in case any more shitstorms happen during our extraction of the container, so I can’t use it here on just two enemies, even if one of them is a higher tier. In the absence of a better plan, let’s go with yours. The tier two is the taller one with the broad shoulders.”

“Thanks,” Dan said. “You’ll know the singal when you see it.”

Dan lifted his head over the crates and saw both guard standing on opposite ends of the container. On the left side was the tier two agent and the right was the smaller, weaker agent. Dan remembered the exact description of his glare ability, the words on his HUD etched into his mind.

Glare: An agent’s hatred can burn so intensely that it can affect reality in a literal sense. The Glare ability harnesses psychic energy and one’s hatred into a focused stare that will disintegrate a target at its highest intensity.

Assuming that his hatred needed to be active and flowing through him, he forced his mind to remember the disaster that was his first mission with his team. The deaths of Ben and Hailey, Kate’s betrayal, and just seeing Kate and Adam together at the hotel pushed him over the edge.

Dan stared intently at the larger Kodak agent. At first, nothing happened but after a few seconds, Dan saw redness pooling in his peripheral vision. The space around the agent shimmered. Then the Kodak’s agent entire silhouette became shrouded in some strange haze before the armor of the agent burst into flames. The agent spontaneously combusted. Dan’s HUD popped a strange message.

Glare ability executed with only 50% effectiveness. Insufficient negative emotion.

Experience rewarded.

The Kodak agent staggered and flailed his arms around. Dan watched as the agent burned from the intense flames. Dan saw the other agent’s brief reaction to his comrade being burned alive next to him. He wasn’t fast enough to do anything as a silenced round shredded the agent’s neck. The Kodak agent collapsed with a bloody neck wound.

Dan watched as the tier two agent continued thrashing about, still in flames. He was surprised to see that the armor still appeared intact. But because the agent didn’t wear a helmet, the flames spread to his exposed face. He didn’t want to imagine the scorching pain of being burned alive.

Li took the final shot and a silenced round pierced through the flaming agent’s skull and he was finally put out of his misery.

Dan’s eyes ached from the strain of the glare ability and he felt something hot leak from his eyes. The world seemed to be covered in patched of red. He sighed at how annoying it would be to have to wipe blood from eyes every time he used his new found powers.

“We’re clear, targets down,” Li said. “You weren’t kidding about your powers. That was insane.”

Dan looked back at the security room and saw Li hopping down from the top of his hiding spot. He stood up from the stacks of crates and made his way toward the middle of the storage room where the container still sat. Both of them met in the middle and Li jerked his head at Dan.

“Are you alright? You’re bleeding from the eyes.”

“I’m okay,” Dan assured. “Using this new shit comes at a cost.”

Li stared at Dan and then looked down at the still burning corpse of the Kodak agent. The flames had significantly decreased in intensity and had died down to mere embers and smoke. Li looked back at Dan and asked, “Tell me, what was that strange power?”

“It’s called glare,” Dan said, still wiping blood from his face suing his coat sleeve. “You pour your anger and hate into a stare and whoever is on the other end… well you saw what happened. That wasn’t even the full power. I was supposed to have disintegrated the guy but I just wasn’t pissed off enough.”

Li looked again at the charred corpse on the ground. He waved his hand to disperse the smell accrid smell of burnt flesh. “Well, all I can say is thanks for the experience points. I just leveled up thanks to you. Killing agents higher-ranked than you gives a massive experience gain.”

Agent: Li Phantom

Age: 21 M

Shard: Alpha Corporation (formerly Spec Ops Hellhound)

Rank: Tier 1 | Level 24

Strength: 27

Agility: 35

Endurance: 28

Intelligence: 30

Healing Factor: n/a

Dan gave him curt nod, then set his eyes on the casket in front of him. Michael didn’t exaggerate when he said the container was bulky and required two agent to carry it. The container for the serum was an almost perfect rectangular shape at least two meters in length and the width was about as long as Dan’s entire arm. The top edges were curved, along with one handle one all four sides of the container.

“So, this is it,” Dan said.

“Should be, I’ll open it just to make sure the contents are still inside,” Li said. He unhooked four small latches on one side of the container and lifted up the lid. Whatever was inside, Dan saw an ambient blue glow spill out of the container. He stepped forward to take a peek and saw many small shiny and reflective tubes filled with an aqua blue substances.

“So that’s the serum we’re trying to steal back,” Dan said.

“That’s it alright, although I don’t remember our enhancement serums being blue. My doctor showed me the serum the Spec Ops Hellhounds used for my enhancement process. Mine was green.”

“Is the difference in color supposed to matter?”

“Not sure, but since Michael said this is the newest, fanciest version, it being a different shade doesn’t surprise me,” Li said. “As fun as it is to admire glowing juices in tubes, we better get this container out of here.”

“Right,” Dan said.

Li closed the lid of the container and closed the four latches to secure it. “Okay, you lift on end, I’ll lift the other.”

“Are we both lifting this thing along the longer or shorter sides of the container?” Dan said.

“We’ll carry it by the longer ends.”

Dan and Li grabbed both sides of the container with one hand each and lifted the entire thing off the elevated makeshift feet. The container wasn’t as overwhelmingly heavy as Dan thought, but he knew he wasn’t going to be running marathons with this thing strapped to his back.

“Hmm, not too bad,” Li said. “Still, I could see why two agents are needed to carry this thing.”

Dan looked back at the door he came from and shook his head. “I don’t think this thing will fit through the narrow hallway I just came through. Plus the sharp bend won’t do us any favors.”

Li turned and pointed at the wider door off to the side. “Then we’ll use that door instead. That’s probably the entrance they use to carry all of this junk into this room.”

They both hefted the container and walked over to the wide door. Both Li and Dan carried the container in one hand while keeping their silenced pistols ready in the other. Li lowered the container on his end and walked up to a control panel next to the wide door.

“Huh, a password is needed. No matter,” Li said. He reached into his pocket and took out a small grey disc. A jamming device.

Li simply placed the small disc next to the control panel and the after a few seconds, Li simply pushed a button on the panel and the large door opened up. The door itself lifted off the ground and slid itself up like a garage door.

“An interesting design choice. I would expect something more… elegant from a shard. But this is Kodak we’re talking about,” Li said, not bothering to hide that jab at the enemy shard.

Li lifted his side of the container and the two moved forward through the door and into a strange spacious area that led to a wide elevator, presumably used to haul up supplies up the hotel. A giant glowing sign above the elevator read “out of order.”

Dan looked around and saw a wide set of doors off to the side. “Let’s see where those doors lead to.”

Both agents walked methodically over to the wide set of doors and Li placed another jamming device next to the panel and the doors slid aside to open. Li glanced at Dan and jerked his head towards outside, signalling Dan to check for enemies. He gently set down the container and held his pistol tightly, pointing it up. He leaned out the opened doorway and saw nothing but empty hallways. Dan didn’t see any rooms in this hall and assumed this was just another hallway that was for agents only.

“We’re clear,” Dan said.

“Good,” Li said. “Let me contact Tim about something.”

Dan’s HUD patched him through a call with all three of them together.

“Hey Tim, it’s Li. We got the container.”

“You have it? That’s excellent. What’s Dan’s condition?”

“He’s right here with me. He woke up and helped me take out a tier two and gain some experience. We’re both carrying the container out of here as we speak.”

“That’s good. Anything else?” Tim asked.

“Can you tell on your end whether our cover has been blown yet? I’ve killed a few agents and Dan has as well. It won’t take long for even Kodak to notice some of their agents refusing to respond or check in.”

It was a valid concern from Li. Aside from Dan’s strange dream and the unlocking of his new powers, things had gone surprisingly smooth.

“Not from what I can tell,” Tim said. “Michael made my job easier by planting bugs on the comm towers Kodak has set up surrounding the hotel. I’ve been monitoring their chatter and so far no suspicions on their end. But Li’s right gentlemen, Now it’s time for us to get out of dodge. I’ll notify Angie and Michael about this update.”

“Tell Angie to get herself ready and meet us upstairs. Can you send her my waypoint?”

“Sure thing. Good luck down there,” Tim cut the line.

Dan picked up his side of the container. “Looks like we’re done.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I’ve been on missions like these where you sneak into enemy territory, steal or rescue something or someone, and get out. It’s the ‘get out’ part is when the complications start. I haven’t had a smooth extraction that didn’t have some snags in a long while.”

“I hope you’re wrong,” Dan said.