Shadow Seer (Rogue Merchant Book #3): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (english reading book TXT) 📗

We entered the portal, and the oppressive pink emptiness of the Astral Plane gave way to the colors of the normal world: green and blue, forests and lakes. A river, the sun overhead... How could they live in that dreary Astral Plane? Maybe that’s why they were all so angry. Keith used the remains of the engine output to drag the juggernaut to two of our barques that hovered above the ground. There, Astr, Impie, and the other pawns belonging to the Octopus were waving at us. Metallic spheres of Crystal Bells glistened above deck.

“You’re going to blow up the juggernaut using the barques’ cargo,” Tao said, nodding in satisfaction. “That’s why you needed the Bells. Nice thinking. I hope you know what you’re doing. I wouldn’t take such a risk.”

“Why?”

“Do you understand what kind of fire you’re playing with? Pandas don’t like joking around. If you destroy the juggernaut, they’ll erase you and everything you care about from Sphere.”

I decided it was best to keep silent. Yes, I could deal Pandorum a blow of such force that their reputation as the strongest in all of Sphere would waver. But as my father used to say, money’s nothing compared to public image.

“Is our contract complete?” Tao asked. “I don’t want to take part in this mad endeavor. As you like to say, the shit’s about to hit the fan. The juggernaut’s not a needle in a haystack. They are already searching for it. Very soon, the Pandas will get here.”

“Great. I want them to find us.”

* * *

In less than an hour, Tao’s prediction came true. Two portals opened up, releasing two juggernauts. Each king was accompanied by a retinue of smaller ships and a lot of birdies. They hovered in the sky, inspecting the strange construction below.

The boldly hijacked Ragnarok hung in the air right above the ground, almost lying on its belly, held down by the anchor chains. Two cargo barques framed it on both sides like boats moored to a motorship. Their sails were reefed, their decks clear, not a soul in sight. The seekers had detected only one signal of a player who immediately disappeared, either logging off or turning on invisibility.

The first scouts landed on deck and spread around the ship—checking the command bridge, the engines, and the reactor room—and suddenly stopped, freezing in shock.

In front of them and next to every essential unit of the juggernaut—the engines, the gundecks, the powder room, the reactor area—lay small metallic orbs: Bells. The cargo holds were packed with them, too. The Ragnarok was rigged with explosives. The scouts didn’t dare to move, knowing that it was a trap. One shot, one spell, one blow, and the fragile shells of the Bells would blow up, allowing the alchemical admixtures to combine. The chain reactions of explosions, one after another, would transform the juggernaut, the barques, and the scouts themselves into a blooming mushroom cloud. Actually, the force of that detonation might even be enough to reach the two other ships that were about to descend.

Ding dong, ding dong! I knocked at the channel I had been kicked out of not long before. They added me again, and I sent them a link to a small file I had created just five minutes earlier.

 Interlude: Pandorum

Ding Dong!

Hello! Let me introduce myself. My name is Cat, and I dabble in the trade of various items.

Would you like to take a look? Today, I can offer you an astral juggernaut fully fitted with legendary equipment. It’s a unique item with only one catch. In just one minute, several suicide bombers will log into the game in the cargo hold and blow it to smithereens.

Starting price: five million gold! Every ten seconds, it will increase by a million, so I suggest you hurry up. Oh, and I guarantee that the deal will stay confidential.

The countdown has started!

With a smile on my face, I turned over an hourglass, and a small trickle of sand dribbled down, counting the seconds.

59…58…57…

SHADOW EYES was a useful skill; I shouldn’t have bashed it. Where there is light, there are shadows; large and small, they prowl about their business, silent, immaterial, and intangible for everyone except a Shadow Listener. I picked one and used its eyes to watch the events on the command bridge of Leviathan, Pandorum’s flagship.

The four leaders of the Pandas, Phantom, Jerkhan, monstrous Kronk, and Gor, who resembled a winged demonic killer, came together to talk.

“Damn that Russian! He must be punished!”

“What’s the guarantee that after he gets the money, he won’t blow up the juggernaut just for the lulz?”

“Who is he, anyway?”

All eyes met on Phantom. The unspoken leader of Pandorum was silent, his eyes narrowed, his lips pursed. He was standing with his arms folded back, tall and straight-backed, and the wind ruffled his hair. His face was impenetrable, but I felt as if I could read his thoughts.

Phantom, who had an odd resemblance to the Magister, was clearly very smart. The charisma emanating from him chilled me to the bone. He was dangerous and sharp, like the edge of a rapier.

The deal was simple. By losing the juggernaut, the Pandas would forfeit one-fifth of their combined military power that used to be unchallenged. Their immaculate kill rating would go down the drain under the weight of the juggernaut’s cost. The victory at Atrocity would turn out to be pyrrhic, turned by gossip into a defeat. The loss of a juggernaut was a global-scale event; enemy trolls would make sure to broadcast that all over the forums. A rumor would start that Pandorum was past its prime, boosting the morale of their opponents. So Pandas weren’t invincible after all! Maybe we should test them, too? That might very well become the first step to a new epic war.