Battle for the North (Rogue Merchant Book #4): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (best beach reads of all time .txt) 📗

“Any specific ideas?”

“Listen up. We’ve geolocated his comm. Queensland. Now, two of our guys — we crawled under bullets together — live within a thirty-minute drive. I won’t say too much, but being brothers in arms means something to us. We’ve contacted them, and they’re ready to move out, ask some questions, and put him down IRL. What’s your word?”

For a second, Michael spaced out. It was a precisely worded unambiguous suggestion. His conscience was silent; instead, the leftover emotions screamed, “kill, kill, kill!” Phantom knew that he was too high-strung to make a weighted decision, but there was no time to think. It was a race against time. Panther was probably already packing up, soon to disappear into the unknown, making fools out of them. Boiling anger overwhelmed him once again, and Michael McNubb muttered under his breath, “Do it. I’m giving you my permission.”

“Roger that, Boss. We’ll do a clean job,” Sharpshooter grumbled on the end of the line and cut off.

* * *

Aelmaris blazed blue, making everybody next to me recoil. On impact, the Heart produced a ringing sound, flashed — and shattered into a thousand shards. The NPCs who had just left it collapsed, immediately losing consciousness.

The system gave me another achievement, a million experience, and two attribute points. Aelmaris’ exp bar, finally full, glowed, indicating the sword was ready for another upgrade. Good. I could use a new ability or an enhancement.

“They’re breathing!” Damian said, bent over the fallen NPCs. “Their link to the Heart was too strong. They need time to recover.”

Panther found a slender girl with long dark hair and took her in his arms. I noticed her pretty, delicate features. Primavera’s eyelids were trembling, her chest rising in cadence, her worried expression quickly becoming peaceful. She looked as if she was simply asleep. Holding her, Captain walked to the exit.

I used the opportunity to glance at the pile of amber shards spread under my feet like an inkblot. I picked one of them up and carefully inspected the pointed crystal shard. Golden sparks danced in its translucent syrupy depths.

Heart of Gravity’s Shard

???

Maybe a fragment of Ni-All’s artifact would help me with Weldy’s quest? In any case, it could make for a fine souvenir. I didn’t know for sure but slipped several unidentified shards into my pocket just in case. My timing turned out to be pretty good, as a few minutes later, our scrooge Olaf put a perimeter around the pile and raked up every valuable in sight. I knew that I would never get anything from him later; been there, done that.

Under his guidance, two unfamiliar players continued dismantling the castle artifacts. Not everybody could do that, as both installing and removing them required special skills. Trained people cannibalized “non-opening” chests and searched for hidden caches. The others, fussing like rabid hamsters, ransacked Atrocity’s warehouses. Lines of players and loaded mounts stretched out to the ships — the hoards collected by the Pandas boggled the mind.

They had everything there: epic sets of armor and weapons, super-rare scrolls and artifacts, astral metals, ingredients for all professions, potions and elixirs, rigging for ships and outposts. The cherry on top was a collection of lovingly assembled legendaries. The stuff linked to the general chat left me speechless. I didn’t know the details, but going by the chat, players simply tossed out green and blue items aboard to free space.

NAVY’s mobile squadron that consisted of ten frigates, corvettes, and clippers, quickly secured the surroundings. Our warriors soon joined them, leading out the captured ships and positioning them to provide safe passage for the cargo vessels.

Good thing they did it because the chaos soon started. Astral Portals opened one after another. We had no way of knowing who would come — it might be our allies’ astral nave in a hurry to get their share of spoils or a ship full of Pandas who hadn’t yet realized that Atrocity was in enemy hands. Cannons rumbled, and lights flashed in the windows and arrowslits as the pink haze of the Astral Plane lit up with fire and explosions. Enemies came sporadically; it wasn’t a massive counterattack — just people who hadn’t figured out what was going on yet.

The siege countdown ran out, and a message in the log announced that Atrocity, a level five castle, belonged to the Watchers of the Northern Alliance. A magic dome sprang up, enveloping the shard of land around us. Players shouted in triumph on Courier, the entire coalition coming together in a moment of glory. The loud slap we had just dealt the Pandas would resound throughout the entirety of Sphere! Despite all the negative feelings I held toward Pandorum, I felt a bit sorry for them. I couldn’t resist peeking at the forums, and while nobody yanked my leash, I dove headfirst into that abode of trolls.

A lone message from an anonymous user announced, Pandorum is no more.

This was followed by a post from a NAVY representative. In their usual glib and nonchalant manner, he said:

Hi.

Today we destroyed the Pandas. We captured their capital and took their money, stuff, and ships. It’s not like they needed them, anyway, lol.

Oh, right, we also took their name.

Relax and have fun, girls.

A bit later, when details emerged, all forum filth crawled out of the woodwork. Trash and sodomy reigned supreme. Longstanding hatred, skillfully played up by the Eagles’ agitators, finally found an outlet. The Pandas were ridiculed, trolled, and mocked. Hundreds of hastily scribbled memes, insulting pictures, and videos poured into the topics. Community managers had a hard time banning especially productive users and removing prohibited content. The main message was as follows:

The Pandas have been owned! Mwahaha!

Lol, respect to NAVY!

Is this a bug? How is this possible?

The members of Pandorum were ominously silent, which