"Shit!" Pete blurted, darting back as blood started to pour from his nostrils.
>> KILL REWARD: 100 Belch Bucks
The pain was incredible, but he forced himself to keep moving and to draw another arrow.
>> PAIN TOLERANCE PROFICIENCY +1
Two more Supervisors appeared, and then a third, but there were no Peons nearby. They were all being kept back or killed by the others in Pete's crew. Even Ollie was swinging his maul at the heads and torsos of drones, relying on his paladin shielding to protect him from the scalding coffee as he moved from enemy to enemy.
Someone or something was directing the Peons to attack Pete with their Passive Aggressive Email ability. More and more of the specters appeared, lashing out at him with their corporate management speak.
[Nero] Your Insolvency debuff, Pete! You are being targeted and, even with your heightened evasion, you will not be able to withstand such a concentrated attack!
Pete pushed the money from his wallet to Coop, and his Insolvency status kicked in once more. He ducked back, still holding an arrow ready as the half dozen Supervisors looked left and right, searching for their prey.
The two guards were past the halfway point in the lobby now, rapidly approaching the river of coffee that ran from one side of the floor to the other. Craig and Torgo were putting down Peons as fast as they could, with Sam and Ollie doing the same on the other side of the floor, aided by Coop, who was running back and forth, running interference.
[Sam-Private-Pete] Hurry, Pete! They're too close!
Pete stood in between the two groups, aiming for the guard on the right and internally scolding himself for forgetting that each kill would nullify his stealth. The charged shot ability triggered, and he fired, watching as the arrow flew toward the target.
[Pete] Brace yourse—
The lobby erupted with explosive power, the floor shaking, chips of plaster and rock falling from the ceiling and walls. Heat, light, and a deafening roar filled the lobby as a shockwave hit Pete like a tornado. He was picked up off the ground and tossed through the air until he slammed against the glass windows that formed the rear wall of the lobby.
Pete felt something hit his body as he collided with the glass and then fell to the floor. He was vaguely aware of the fluffy white shape nearby, but before he could reach out and check if Coop was alright, a second explosion erupted, shaking the lobby once more and sending a hail of debris and boiling hot coffee through the floor.
Pete moved forward, scooping up Coop and turning his back to the onslaught as he triggered his Pauper's Ward. The blast hit him with the force of a wrecking ball, slamming against his ward and immediately breaking it. Coop then summoned her own ward, deflecting hundreds of stone chips and pieces of wood and metal, along with the boiling coffee.
>> KILL REWARD: 2200 Belch Bucks
It was over within moments. Pete grimaced as he stood, holding Coop in his arms. His arms were ringing, his vision blurred, and a thick fog comprised of dust and vapor hung in the air, obscuring his view of the lobby.
[Pete] Coop, you okay?
[Coop] I'm fine. We need to check on the others, though.
Pete felt evidence of half a dozen cuts and bruises throughout his body, but he didn't want to use a medkit this early on. He placed Coop on the floor, and together they made their way forward.
[Pete] Everyone okay?
[Sam] Fine.
[Ollie] Fuck a duck! What the fuck was that?
[Sam] He's fine too.
[Pete] Craig?
Pete waved a hand in front of his face, trying to clear away the dust and vapor still hanging in the air as Coop moved ahead of him. The sickly sweet, pungent aroma of coffee filled his nostrils, along with ozone and the metallic scent of his own blood.
[Pete] Craig? Where are you at, buddy?
[Craig] I am...okay. Torgo has been wounded, but...I have healed him sufficiently, and Grizzle seems to be okay.
As he moved through the haze, Pete felt the full extent of his injuries. A dozen different cuts and bruises made themselves known as he walked along, but it was clear that a combination of protective warding and his heightened Evasion had spared him from serious harm.
To the right, he saw Craig and the other goblins moving back from a deep crack in the stone floor, chunks of dislodged rock laying all around them. Grizzle had a cut above her brow, and Torgo was limping, with Craig at the center of the two, leading them to Pete. On the other side, he saw Sam and Ollie walking over. Sam's cap had been blown off, and Ollie wore a gash across his right arm, which had cut through his t-shirt and the flesh beneath.
As the Treasury Paladin moved in close, a burst of healing shot out from his extended hand, splitting into smaller bolts of golden light that hit each member of the group. Pete felt the cuts and bruises fade away as the healing did its work and saw that the others were similarly affected.
"Thanks," he said, his own voice sounding woolen in his ears.
Ollie nodded, turning around and looking at the devastated landscape up ahead. As the dust continued to settle, the true extent of the carnage was laid bare. Two large craters sat a short distance away, each having blown apart a sizable amount of stone flooring, concrete, and rubble while splitting the intact floor with large cracks that spiderwebbed their way out from the impact point.
Those ceiling lights that remained functional flickered, casting an eerie half-light over the hazy interior of the lobby. Several of the light fittings had bare wires sticking out, crackling and sparking from above.
The plush chairs and coffee tables that had been meticulously arranged into neat little pods now lay strewn in front of the glass walls of the lobby, having been blown apart or sent flying into the walls with enough force to splinter wood and shred fabric.
The thick glass panels lining the walls of the lobby had remained intact, and as he turned to the right, Pete realized that he couldn't see anything through the glass. There was no large expanse of crushed rock, no sign of the city, the suburbs, or the arena entrance they'd all passed through. He reasoned that there must be a shield of some sort surrounding the building, preventing anything from inside getting out.
"What the fuck was that?" Ollie said, wiggling a finger in one ear. "Exploding security officers."
Sam looked over at Pete, the question plain in her expression.
"They've been rigged," Pete said. "Set to blow up when they get close and, I guess, whenever we kill one of them."
"Rigged by who?" Craig asked.
"The Overseer," Sam said. "We got a tip from a friend that Greedwell rigged the guards with explosives because he was trying to kill Pete as revenge for humiliating him. Apparently, the Overseer has bet a whole bunch of money on Pete dying on this level as well, and he doesn't want to leave anything to chance."
[Nero] Surely not! That would be against multiple Dominion laws and statutes. The penalty for interfering directly in the game like that is most severe.
"It's true," Pete said, opening and closing his mouth in an effort to pop his ears. "That's why I had to kill those things before they got too close."
Ollie grunted. "Maybe next time give us a heads-up before you blow the building to hell."
"Didn't want to tip off Greedwell," Pete explained. "Sam and I had to keep it to ourselves just in case he found out and switched up the plans on us. Might as well get it out in the open now, though."
[Nero] It makes no sense. To interfere in such a manner risks everything that the Overseer stands for.
Pete saw something glinting on the floor below, wedged sideways into a newly made crack in the stone. He reached down and pulled out a metal nametag with the name MAL printed in scorched letters on one side. The moment his fingers touched the warm metal, a description appeared on his display.
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>>NON PLAYER CAPITALIST [NPC] GROUP
NAME: Asset Protection Associates
TYPE: Corporate Enforcer, Augmented Hooman
THREAT TIER: Low–Moderate
>> DESCRIPTION
Asset Protection Associates are minimally trained corporate sentinels tasked with protecting assets of value and ensuring no unauthorized personnel enter. Recruited from a pool of existing guards, these augmented hoomans are issued uniforms, stun batons, and the right to detain any and all individuals deemed suspicious.
While they possess several potent offensive abilities, Asset Protection Associates are primarily defensive units, designed to delay progress, create unnecessary paperwork, and escalate minor infractions into full procedural incidents.
>> ATTACK ABILITIES
+| BATON OF COMPLIANCE:The Associate swings a regulation stun baton with great enthusiasm, causing physical damage and applying a Minor Shock status. Successful hits reduce enemy movement speed by 60% for 10 seconds and have a 3% chance to completely immobilize an enemy for 5 seconds.
+| AUTHORITATIVE COMMAND VOICE:The Associate issues a loud, legally vague command such as "Stop right there" and "You're not authorized to be here!" Successful hits cause minor psychic damage to all enemies within a frontal cone that extends up to 15 feet. Struck enemies also become Intimidated, resulting in -20% movement speed and +10% vulnerability to melee damage for 5 seconds.
>> UTILITY ABILITIES
+| DETAIN FOR QUESTIONING:The Associate attempts to restrain an enemy using hand ties. Successful attacks cause an enemy to be Stunned, reducing movement speed by 100% and increasing vulnerability to all damage by 50% for 3 seconds. Associates gain a 20% hit chance against Stunned enemies after Detain for Questioning has finished.
"There you go," Pete said. "Nothing in there about exploding and taking out half a floor, is there?"
[Nero] I'm sorry I doubted you, Pete. It appears you are correct. The System is presently validating your claim and will render a judgment shortly. There is some question, however, as to how you came across this information regarding the Overseer's alleged interference. I have no record of a conversation in which you and Sam were advised of this ploy.
"It doesn't matter," Pete said. "Point is, the Overseer tried to rig the game, and he needs to be punished for that."
"Right," Ollie added, walking over and putting an arm around Pete's shoulders. "For trying to screw us over like that, I think it would be fair if we get fast-tracked to the tenth floor, right?"
[Nero] I'm afraid that decision is not up to me. It is, however, extremely unlikely.
"Okay. What about the fifth floor then?" Ollie asked.
[Nero] Considering the secretive nature of the information relating to the Overseers' alleged indiscretion, I think it highly unlikely that the System will seek to compensate you in any way. In fact, you may face consequences for obtaining information relating to the nature of the game from an outside source.
"Fuck that!" Ollie said, shaking his head as he moved away from Pete. "That dick tried to screw us, and now we're in the shit just for trying to avoid getting killed."
Sam frowned, motioning for calm.
"Tone it down a little, hotshot. Greedwell didn't try to screw you; he was trying to kill Pete. You're just collateral damage, like the rest of us."
Pete looked ahead at the front area of the lobby as Ollie protested once more. The space beyond the large craters and cracks in the floor looked much the same as it had earlier, with two guards standing beside the security scanner and staring blankly ahead, and the two receptionists grinning at their consoles.
One of the receptionists looked worse for wear, her clothes somewhat disheveled. There were also the splintered remains of chairs and a few other pieces of furniture lying here and there. It was clear, though, that the blasts from the two guards had blown outwards, primarily aimed at Pete and his crew, rather than backwards. They'd gone off like claymore mines but had exploded with such force that some debris was still blown backward.
Most notably of all, half a dozen Plebs stood perfectly still, wearing their plastic smiles and standing in front of the reception desk. None of the enemies on the other side of the craters were moving. It was as though whoever was controlling them had flicked a switch and just turned them all off.
That brought Pete's mind back to the notion of goblin pilots. Somewhere in this building, he thought, there must be goblins controlling the hybrid humans. He pictured a small control room with green-skinned imps laughing and joking with one another as they tapped at keyboards or wiggled joysticks, watching the deaths of human players on their monitors with glee.
"I'm just saying that we should be pushing for some kind of compensation," Ollie went on. "Think about how much money we've saved the Dominion by uncovering this bastard's little plot?"
[Nero] That may be true, Ollie, but it does not excuse the fact that Sam and Pete obtained information about the Overseer's plans by means which stand outside of System surveillance. That is strictly prohibited under the terms of the Dominion Ultrimax Contest. Neither Sam nor Pete are Dominion citizens; thus, they are not protected under Dominion law because they are technically deemed Unemployed.
"What if we tell you who gave us the information?" Sam asked.
Pete shot her a warning look.
[Nero] That may go some way to mitigating the trouble, but it will not absolve you from breaching game rules, I'm afraid. We shall simply have to wait for the System to finish its deliberations.
Pete turned to the others, noting the range of worried expressions that met his gaze.
"Whatever the outcome is," he said, "I'll take the punishment. It was my call to keep this from everyone, and the Overseers were after me."
"Our call," Sam said. "I could have told the rest of the group at any time too."
Pete shook his head. "I'm saying, if this goes bad and someone has to be removed from the game, it has to be me. The rest of you need to keep going. We've got a solid team and a good shot at making it if you just keep pushing ahead."
"Jesus, dude," Ollie said. "What's with the messiah complex? We get it, you're gonna throw yourself on the grenade and sacrifice yourself. I'm not letting you take the fall for this. Whatever happens, we meet it together, right?"
He turned to the others and received a series of nods in response. Ollie turned back to Pete, grinning.
"See. You're not the only one who can be all heroic and shit!"
>> JUDGEMENT RENDERED: Explosive Interjection
Overseer Augustus Greedwell has been found guilty of tampering with game mechanics and altering the Asset Protection Associate class in order to kill the Vault Breaker and secure a sizable fortune in the process. As a result of this action, all betting funds and wagers that relate to the Vault Breaker's party on this floor have been suspended pending further investigation. Overseer Greedwell has been remanded into custody, and his fate will be determined by the performance of the Vault Breaker's party.
The Vault Breaker and his companions have been found guilty of breaching Section 14 Subsection 12a of the Standard Contest Agreement by receiving and acting on information specifically relating to game mechanics and stage design. Disintegration is the usual punishment for such a breach; however, given extenuating circumstances and the Overseer's direct involvement in the matter, punishment will be determined by the Vault Breaker's performance in the following challenge.
Sam turned to Pete, teeth clenched. "That doesn't sound good."
>> NEW LOBBY CHALLENGE
The Vault Breaker and his team have three minutes to secure an elevator key, reach the elevator, and exit the floor. All existing enemies, including those modified by the Overseer, will continue to act in accordance with their standard programming or as directed by their pilots. Failure to reach the elevator in three minutes will result in immediate disintegration for the Vault Breaker and his team.
"Shit," Pete hissed.
"We're screwed," Sam agreed.
>> NEW ENEMY: Former Overseer Augustus Greedwell
For the first time ever, an ex-Overseer will be added to the novice arena, not in an official capacity but as an enemy. That's right, folks, Greedwell himself, that slimy, grubby-fingered little filcher who tried to circumvent the game for his own personal gain, will have his chance to take part in the contest he sought to subvert. The former Overseer will hold the elevator key, so all the Vault Breaker and his team need to do is kill Augustus Greedwell, and they'll get their hands on the only elevator key in the entire lobby.
Kill the disgraced former Overseer, grab the key, and reach the elevator in under three minutes, and the Vault Breaker advances, all his sins forgiven. But if Greedwell survives and the Vault Breaker doesn't make it to the elevator in the allotted time, Greedwell's immediate disintegration will be commuted to lifetime imprisonment on one of the Dominion's finest mining worlds.
If the former Overseer manages to kill the Vault Breaker, then all will be forgiven, and he will be able to maintain his title and position, provided an exorbitant fee is paid for his infraction.
>> BETTING SURGE TRIGGERED!
That's right, folks, a new range of betting options has just opened up regarding both the Vault Breaker and his crew, and the now disgraced former Overseer, Augustus (dead man walking) Greedwell. You've got just two minutes to place your wagers and take advantage of this opportunity, an opportunity that's not likely to come again!
>> PRIMARY BETTING OPTIONS:
+| The Vault Breaker kills Greedwell and reaches the elevator in time.
+| The Vault Breaker kills Greedwell but fails to reach the elevator in time.
+| Greedwell kills the Vault Breaker.
+| Greedwell stops the Vault Breaker from reaching the elevator in time.
+| The Vault Breaker and Greedwell kill each other.
Pete ignored the ongoing message, scanning the area ahead and working through what they'd need to do to reach Greedwell, get the key, and reach the elevator. They'd have to make it over the craters to begin with. There were still two sections of flooring that were more or less intact on the right and left sides of the room. The stone was badly cracked, but Pete's group would be able to run to the other side without difficulty.
Half a dozen Peons were milling about just in front of the security scanner, and then there were the two remaining security guards stationed just behind it. That was going to be their biggest problem. If the security guards moved out of position, Pete could take them out early, shield himself from the resulting blast, and use the rest of the time to kill Greedwell and get to the elevator without further risk of explosion.
But it didn't look like they were going to move, and that meant taking them out far too close to the elevator, and at closer range where the damage would be extreme.
[Pete] We need to figure out how to deal with those guards.
[Sam] I was thinking the same thing. You think Coop's new aggro ability could draw them out?
[Pete] It's worth a shot. We need to get them away from that side of the lobby.
[Craig] What about Greedwell? It's unlikely that he will be coming to this fight unarmed. He may have a battle suit or some other mechanized form of defense and attack. He is one of Tongsly Belch's cousins, after all.
[Pete] We need that key, but I don't like the idea of those guards standing around behind the security checkpoint.
[Sam] There are also the receptionists. We don't know what they're going to do yet.
[Pete] I think our first priority is to take out the guards as soon as possible. That will blow the front section of the lobby to hell, but at least we will have dealt with the biggest threat. The blast might also take out the receptionists and the remaining Peons too. It might even kill Greedwell if we're lucky.
[Sam] Agreed. How far can you shoot, though?
"Ah, guys?" Ollie said.
[Pete] I should be able to hit them when I get past the craters up ahead. As soon as this thing starts, I'll run to the left, clear the craters, and then aim for one of the guards. Coop, I'll send my money your way so I can be insolvent while I'm shooting, just in case those Peons start sending supervisors my way.
"Guys?!" Ollie insisted.
"What?!" Pete and Sam spat in unison.
The rangy Australian grinned. "Yeah, so I just got a contract to take out Augustus Greedwell."