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THE OUTLAND 9
The midshipman turned over his right shoulder and, without looking back, hurried somewhere deep into the port, past the creaking beams of supporting structures where automatic loaders were working. And they say that people used to do a lot here, with their hands. To be honest, it didn’t fit in my head how a person could do at least something with a five-ton container. But perhaps they managed somehow?— We to "Flying"? - I asked the broad back, covered in black cloth.Without turning around, he shook his head and turned a few times. It seemed that he was either winding, covering his tracks, or…It finally arrived. Cameras! Well, of course. If you work here long enough, you will learn both the location of the surveillance devices and their sectors of view. And if you wish...As if guessing my thoughts, the midshipman chuckled approvingly and quickened his pace, sped up. “Keep up, boy.And he jumped out through the half-open gate at the checkpoint. The attendant, as if by magic, was no
THE OUTLAND 10
Household, household. The most terrible delusion of any person is the belief in the temporality of something. Even from the very moment when my parents left me to be devoured by the system and monsters in the dark, existence was overgrown with dust, became cloudy and became less and less clean. Dust creaks on the teeth, gets into the eyes, ears, nerves. It should be a temporary solution, but it became life.And you tell yourself that a little more, you just need to be patient - and everything will definitely work out, change for the better! It won't get better and it won't change. Any temporary part-time job threatens to become employment for life, because there is nothing more permanent than temporary. And then - as usual: you do not have time to wake up at the age of eighteen, and the anniversary is already looming on the horizon. Honor and praise to you, if by this age you have not lost the remnants of passionarity, even if periodically wiping your perception is not tea with lemon
THE OUTLAND 11
From under the thick cardboard, a crookedly drawn logo was looking at me, apparently, of some kind of game.— Wars of the Immortals. — I read it. - What is it?— My dream game design document.- Clear. And why is he?“No, don’t think, I’m not at all going to force you to do what I once didn’t have the courage to do. Eddie laughed. - I just climbed the forums here, read a little about this project "Aydaba", and I really did not like what I found there.- For example?— Do you know that each developer has his own style, his own clues inside the world, by which he can be unmistakably recognized?“Like the constant quarrels in the Poisk squad?”— Like a crowbar and an orange suit, like a binaural sound, like a story in which everyone inevitably dies — each developer tries to stand out in his own way. So, what I found in the screenshots, in the description of the world, in the dialogues - it is too similar to what you can read in this folder.- But how?“Rob, now is a different time. Eddie
THE OUTLAND 12
In the tube, ahead of seconds, long beeps ran, each of which heaped an increasingly heavy burden on my shoulders.— Hello? - They yawned into the phone. — Frames listen.- Hello. This is Mashko's deputy, Rob. Can you tell me the home address of Eduard Semyonovich?“Actually, this is classified information. Anything else?What does "closed" mean? Damn it, he didn't just show up for work!- Listen, young man, leave a request ...- No, you listen! I yelled with an anger that surprised me. - Your Mashko, perhaps, is now lying at home with well-baked brains, while you are breeding bureaucracy here!— Yes, sorry. I will transfer you to my direct supervisor.If he can help me.— Bauer. - A well-placed male voice answered in the receiver. - We do not provide information about the place of residence of employees, this is illegal.- Do you know why Mashko went on sick leave?- Not. But we are not interested in this. And generally speaking…- Mashko went on sick leave to go for the implantation
THE OUTLAND 13
"Hi, Rob. I don't know if I'm saying hello to you - from the psychiatric ward or from the other world, but I still decided to take a chance! Yes, at fifty it's too late to indulge in such nonsense, but ... You yourself understand. The fact is that having dispersed everyone from the office on my birthday, I stayed at work until the morning. I decided to shake the old days, so to speak. I climbed into one file storage on the servers of "Aydaba" and found something interesting there! Be sure to look, you will like it! No, this not the slag they released, it's something completely different!But I won't spoil the surprise for you.I want to warn you right away: the product is damp, there may be bugs, so don’t even think about connecting directly, got it? Only through glasses, with an accompanying screen. You'll figure it out there.PS: Rob, I trust my intuition, and for the second week she keeps telling me that I shouldn't get into this business. So if my intuition is right, finish what yo
THE OUTLAND 14
- Enable voice recognition. Reply to the last letter. Hello, in accordance with the federal law on the protection of the feelings of believers, please send a more detailed document with the cosmology and pantheons of the project.It is unlikely that they will send something like that - I stroked daddy - because they run the risk of being too similar to one interesting document.- To send a letter.The answer was not long in coming.- Yeah. Unfortunately you can't because it's a trade secret? Lovely, lovely! Reply to the last letter: what preventive measures can you suggest in order to avoid a repetition of the situation with our specialist? If your game is capable of bringing a person to such a state, it should be recognized as dangerous and banned altogether!"Dear specialist Rob! You yourself understand that our project has almost nothing to do with what happened to specialist Mashko. He ended up in the hospital solely due to incorrect implantation. As for your question: there are n
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
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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
- THE OUTLAND
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
- THE OUTLAND
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...-
