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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.
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- THE OUTLAND
Epilogue
And then ... Everything went - as it went. And may there always remain worlds where people are lonely, where it is dark, and icteric palms of maples fall from the sky. One day Avdeyka and his mother... Aunt? The devil will break his leg in their difficult relationship. One way or another, they will definitely get there. Maybe one day they will get to the chair where my reader is bent from loneliness. Who knows, the universe is merciful and loves its children. But it is not exactly. But it is known: today the very first seven testers-gods got up from sleep. Eduardo, Shelly, Alexey, Umbra, Erebus and Nyukta, Selina. Alive, absolutely. Skinny, of course, like a spring rook, but quite sane. Shelly even tried to pick up her son from the distributor, but she was quickly explained that he would definitely be better there. Astrix also did not go away, although he got out from under the dropper. From time to time he walks into other people's dreams, treats him to strange drinks and cigare
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181
Rob, hurry up! Astrix's voice called. We won't be able to hold him back for long!The scarlet bloody whip in the air was overwhelmed by several multi-colored energy flows at once, trembling with tension. The thaumaturge, gaping, stopped bombarding me with new spells for a change and stared at the doomsday reigning in the sky.Who are you boy? Why did you decide that to treat you the same way as everyone else is the greatest injustice? Where did the thoughts in your head come from that people should be connected by feelings and affections, and not by common interests?I understood what all this battle was about, what the road had led to until now. The boy remained alone all his life, believing that he was just very unlucky, and that somewhere there must be friendly hands, a warm smile and hope for tomorrow - you just need to look properly. About the fact that the world is dying of loneliness, he learned much later, becoming much older.A world that didn't need a boy. A world that aband
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180
- Un-life. Why don't you rein in your robbers then? - I almost believed it. Nearly. “The corruption is preparing for a massive raid on the lands of the living, which means…- I know. But I'm still an avatar, my abilities are limited. And I can't go anywhere from here. To become a goddess in the fullest sense of the word, I need...— Believers! I slapped my forehead. - Well, of course. Followers, believers, own church.“We can start with the first knights. So... How do you look... - She blushed, looked away. - Well…“Become one of those ugly strategists?— Rob! You are to blame for their appearance! You can look whatever you want!- Nevermind. But you yourself understand - there is some complexity. If I'm next to you on Limbo right now, it most likely means that I'm dead. And a corpse cannot be turned corrupted. An undead connecting rod - you can, but not with Filth.- It's true. But something has changed.- Yes?“You see, two people from the same account came into this world. And one
- THE OUTLAND
179
"I look into my eyes ... I'll touch my lips. And what to say when I'm gone?" - Asked guitar picks over the black Icelandic beach, and the night was surprisingly warm, not at all suitable for November in the northern latitudes of Limbo.Night again, beach again. Another terrible headache.“Rob, Rob…” Nervous, sensitive fingers stroked my head. “You never get used to the fact that the body is a weapon. Relaxed, believed in the brothers on opposite sides of the barricades. That's what I got. Did you get it?- I cant. I complained without opening my eyes. - I'm tired. Why do they keep killing me? We almost agreed, almost resolved the issue.“We haven’t decided, stupid Robushka. And they couldn't. Understand that from the point of view of Warcraft, it is he who overcomes fifty years of captivity, cut off from his loved one, overcomes obstacle after obstacle, trying to reunite the family. Or at least avenge their deaths. And when he wins, there will be a happy epilogue and everyone will be
- THE OUTLAND
178
He dissapeared."Spider, come on!" I pleaded.A silent prayer burst out of my chest and spread throughout the Oikumene, and when there was no space between me and the fury of the avenging god, a huge black sword, literally a millimeter above my head, was stopped by a blade of sand.“You should look for an opponent in size,” Astrix smiled white-toothed.So you helped him. Ware said slowly. "It's good that both of you are here!"- And what will you do? Ban me too?- Not.Ware waved his hand, and the glow of the font parted, releasing the already familiar crystal, which contained the powers of the defeated gods. Only this one was much larger, and not empty. Zhdan froze inside him with his mouth wide open from a tearing cry!- Oh, you're a creature. Spider said softly. “You do understand that after this you won’t leave here with your own feet?”- Don't care. I don't care at all! I will kill you both!The clapping of his hands fanned the blood around him, and the magician's body seemed to
- THE OUTLAND
177
Closed tightly, I almost completely stopped relying on the light, leaving only my new outlandish vision. It gave the picture with spots, intersecting lines, but the brain quickly adjusted itself, and from the flickering in front of the inner gaze, it independently completed a completely three-dimensional picture of the environment. The steps underfoot seemed new, almost untrodden, although the temple itself is definitely more than two thousand years old...However, this is logical. Only a couple of dozen people have walked this road. The senior pantheon came to the Font when it was still an ordinary cave in the mountain, and, of course, no staircase had yet been built. So consider it an untrodden path.Turn after turn, the levels went past - the sacrificial altar, administrative premises, the household unit, the barracks ... Soon, according to the sensations, the ground level also passed. This was told to me by my vision, since nothing has changed in all other parameters. There were n
- THE OUTLAND
176
The Christmas tree backed away, and I, sinfully squeezing past it in half, stared thoughtfully at my avatar. A savage Amri, a slave by birth, a pacifist by conviction - it was necessary to manage, in such and such a world, to get a lowered pain threshold! Laughter and sin, in general, are obviously cannon fodder, which usually does not survive even the first serious battle.But they survived. And they didn't even get scars. Unless, of course, do not count those inside. And, of course, a snowflake peeking out from under the undergarments. But this is not a scar, but rather a protective mark. Okay, good time to pull, it is already in short supply.- Hey, get up! I called.The spider said something about the reunion of soul and body. But damn, how to implement it? God somehow forgot to mention the technical details - either he really didn’t know, or for him such tricks are so in the order of things that they are not worth clarifying.No answer. Of course."Get up, motherfucker!" I shook
- THE OUTLAND
175
- What?! I barked. - What nonsense! Xolotl is alive, I personally...- Killed her? Astrix raised an eyebrow. “Finished off what little was left of her?”But you are all alive. You, Ware, other scumbags. What happened to Shelly?- She was already unstable at the time of digitization because of the child, you understand? One and a half consciousness, working out of tune. Technique then simply did not provide for such a situation ... And now, you yourself understand. Pregnancy is a vanishingly rare phenomenon these days.“But she gave birth in those two thousand years.- Both in real life and in virtual, yes. But in real life, the process of childbirth is simply the separation of one from the other without any sacrifice on the part of the psychostructure. In the virtual, everything turned out a little differently.And who did she give birth to? Gary?The spider chuckled.- Does not give you a dream of rest, I see. No, not Gary. Who cares. The main thing is that the rejection mechanism at
- THE OUTLAND
174
Agnis exhaled convulsively again, but said nothing.— In general, it all started with Haang as the very first. He went to the abyss, where he deposed the archangel. Now all the Filth is in his hands. They do not touch people yet, but they destroyed one cemetery. Guess which one.“The same thing, without the ankh!” I gasped. “So there is no longer any protection between humans and the Filth!”- Right. Khaang's troops catch all living things and turn them into Filth - they accumulate strength. As soon as they accumulate enough, they move on. We have no idea where, but it is clear now: Haang will not be the only corrupted god at the head of this army. Soon the rest will realize where the game is fatter, and against the seven demons, I'm afraid even I can't resist.- Good. What we can do?- Restore balance. Astrix shrugged. — Return the ankh to its homeland, restore the lich of the plundered cemetery. Even one lich can hold back the Filth indefinitely, and if he summons a bone dragon...-
