Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
THE OUTLAND 15
Analysis. It turned out to be difficult to concentrate without a tactical interface, but reflexes are reflexes - every time the universe throbbed with pain, I automatically turned off my sight and hearing, remaining a blind computer interacting with the world at a level that was incomprehensible even to me.I-man in action.The rods are rusty, but this is just an external coating, there are no structural vulnerabilities, they simply cannot be broken or damaged somehow, even in the state of the "red corridor". For too long, Conquista had hunted our operatives, knew too well who we were and what we were capable of.She was too successful, and now I could tell exactly why. If they recruited at least half of the tactical commanders into their ranks, there was nothing surprising in the superiority of the savages on the battlefield.— Bingo!Here the rod, which went into the concrete, was not held as firmly as the others. Of course, in a normal state, he would have turned out to be an insur
THE OUTLAND 16
- Fey, snipers to the loopholes and to the roof.- There is.“Froz, what’s on the door?”- They took shelter on the street, the enemy was eliminated, two units, standard weapons.- How about ammo?- As long as it's enough. Pomegranate would.- I have a couple. - Antey responded, holding the passage at gunpoint.- Froze, send a fighter to us, we have it.- Yes sir.“A detachment of inquisitors has been spotted, six units, a distance of two hundred and fifty!” Fei screamed.- Let it go two hundred and mow everyone.From above, sniper rifles clapped, and the howl of the bugle gave way to overflowing alarms - Conquista woke up. I didn't know how many fighters they could bring against us, but I knew one thing for sure: no more flight, only fight to the last fighter.Or…- Fey, the percentage of the charge?- Eighty!Can we take everyone?- I dont know! Never had to spend more than three. Oh you, damn!- What happened? Fey? Fay!“Commander, they have their own tactician-analysts! I eliminat
THE OUTLAND 17
And everything went back to normal.- Well, well, Edik. I sighed as reality took on volume again. - It's the bomb! But how did you get it? And who agreed to pour such a lot of money into development?Everything was right there, everything was strictly the way I remembered during the passage of the third episode. Not plastic muzzles from the official fourth, but operatives familiar to the smallest detail, to which was added another colorful character with "Manyunya", more like a big cannon from one old demon-shooter.This is a sequel, no doubt about it. And a continuation from the same people that once built the world of "Far Search". A huge world, enhanced now with the most real impressions, which only a direct connection can give. But how? When? Why is there no word on the web about this? I'm sure if something like this appeared on the net, fans would have trumpeted it a long time ago.Everything is more and more wonderful.And on the terminal, another letter from "Aydab" glowed - it
THE OUTLAND 18
And as the lesser pantheon seized more and more power in the Western Habitat, rumors of the return of the Nameless grew ever more frequent.The creator of the discussion also attached two videos to the text without explaining what is there: in the first, some huge man with tattoos and a club fights with a detachment of machine gunners, ignoring their shots, and in the second, it seems that someone filmed the epic defeat of the older pantheon.— Darkness. I said as I moved away from the terminal. And how can an outsider understand this?Unclear.There was a knock at the door, and a very familiar figure appeared on the threshold. Thin, frail, with huge green eyes and freckles generously covering her nose.“I-excuse me, can I?”- Yes, yes, what can I do?- It's you Rob... Uh...Just Rob. And who are you?- My name is Rosa. Eduard Semyonovich didn't tell you about me?“You are our new intern, right? - It got to me.— Yes, from SHA.- I understand. Well, Rosa, let's go, I'll show you the w
THE OUTLAND 19
— Cunningly got out, well done. “Looks like they camouflaged the security update this way.Or maybe they really returned access to part of the Exod to the players? You never know. But who's going there now?Returning back to the forum, I was forced to state that they would turn up, and how - the topic swelled up to three thousand pages, people cursed, reviled the administration for what it was worth and sincerely wondered how it was possible to do this with the players. But for some reason no one wrote about leaving, goodbye.The Alien War must have had some inexplicable appeal, since they were ready to forgive her even that.“Rob… uh…” Rose peeked through the door. She held a cup in her hands.Just Rob. What did you want?- Would you like some coffee? I'm pretty good at doing it.— No, not really.“But I feel weird. Since I came to the internship, I just play with toys and write my impressions. It's strange somehow ... - The girl made a funny face, blowing a red curl from her eye. -
THE OUTLAND 20
Bauer passed out, and I leaned back in my chair, smiling stupidly. Looks like my nightmare is about to end? We would have to stand the night and hold out for the day, and then let Edik fight again with those who call, write and smile.And I will play with toys. Ugh, you're attached.However, it probably won't help me, will it? If "Aydab" has someone familiar at the very top, then they will press until they drive me into Wirth with a stick. No, I'm on my own. But first, let's learn everything we can.The next topic is one and a half thousand pages. Among the flow of obscene language, trolling and memes, we managed to isolate the most important thing - the cry of the player's soul. And, reading it, I understood the reasons for his indignation.Hmmm... Life didn't prepare me for this. That is, the online project, which does not care about the chronology of the connected players, was not going to stop at this dubious achievement. No. Online, ihu so, a project in which the death of a char
THE OUTLAND 22
The author of the stray turned out to be a genius. No, I'm serious: how can you fit so much into thirty kilobytes? First things first, of course, an emergency shutdown from the network and PP. True, there was a small problem ...The fact is that synthetics in itself allowed the players some liberties, because even if the player was completely immersed in the world, he still held controllers in his hands, and these are buttons and, as a result, their combination. But what to do if you are in the game almost physically while your mortal body is snoring in a chair? What buttons to press?- Think, head, I'll buy a cap!Stem would hardly talk about disconnecting from the direct connection modem if it were not possible. But how to press a keyboard shortcut if ...I looked at the rectangular window in the terminal solution in confusion. The four buttons at the top are "Connect", "Analyzer", "Viewer" and "Program Description". I definitely don’t need the last three, their functionality exhaus
THE OUTLAND 23
The registry was available directly from the window. But instead of understandable names, there were characters in the encoding that my terminal refused to play.- Ugh. I bit my lip, looking at the krakozyabry on the screen. What is this strange encoding? Who even made it? Koreans?Stop stop stop. Who is at the origins of "Aidab"? Any French or Americans?Search engine, wiki, "idab."— Idab. The speakers began to speak mechanically. — A joint Chinese-American firm founded in 2022 by people from…Chinese!- Terminal, download and install Chinese language support. - In Chinese, I, of course, am not strong, but it will always be possible to drive the names through a translator.And, while I went for coffee, the terminal managed to update itself, and the restarted Stema program drew me very beautiful and equally incomprehensible hieroglyphs.- Translation from the screen.The screen blinked, in a second the hieroglyphs were replaced by already quite readable lines. But it's still unclear.