A Black Market LitRPG

The sounds of fighting were still raging outside even after the barrage ended. Minister Dekar grimaced, confident that his bodyguards outside were locked in a firefight with another group.

A torrent of footsteps could be heard rushing towards the main entrance to the derelict warehouse, prompting Kyle to drag the Minister into cover behind a pillar quickly. “Who is attacking us now?”

“There are plenty of groups who want me dead.” Dekar replied hastily. “Enemy spies from the Yual Dominion, disgruntled remnants of nobility and landowners, or maybe the industrialists…”

“Fine.” Kyle weighed his options immediately. He was planning to pressure the Minister into a forced deal using brute force. I could try to negotiate with the attacking group – but I doubt they will be as open to me taking a slice of the pie.

A dozen enemy soldiers were already at the entrance, barging in through the doors. They wore masks that hid their identity, though the equipment they used was clearly unique. Kyle hadn’t seen anything like that before. The leader had a skull mask: a clear sign that they were hitmen hired through the black market.

“Minister Dekar, we’re here to rescue you!” The leader yelled across the empty warehouse, but the Minister did not reply, clearly knowing that they were not his bodyguards.

“Fan out. Aim for the limbs – we need him alive for the execution.” With a motion of his hand, the leader and the other soldiers spread out amongst the warehouse, moving from pillar to pillar.

Kyle eyed the repeater rifles dropped by the bodyguard, though he would need to cross three pillars to get there. Plenty of time to get shot at. His Penchant for Violence and This is My Turf were on cooldown, making his options limited.

Let’s add a few free points first – I’m going to need DEX. A lot of DEX.

His body began to feel lighter as he felt a slight tingle run down through every muscle, somehow making them tighter and leaner. Kyle glanced back down at the Minister, whose eyes were also darting around for a weapon. Kyle handed him the handgun. “Protect yourself – I’m rushing them.”

“You’re going to what?!”

“There he is!” One of the soldiers exclaimed, spotting the two of them from across the warehouse. Kyle didn’t reply to the Minister, dashing towards the closest soldier.

Intimidation Aura!

Every soldier who spotted him suddenly froze up in fear, but the leader was immune to it, immediately aiming his repeater at Kyle. However, Kyle positioned the closest soldier to him between him and the leader, preventing the leader from getting a clear shot.

He grabbed the repeater by the barrel and twisted it out of the soldier’s hand, before using his other free hand to grip the neck and turn him into a hostage shield. But before Kyle could make another move, two dozen shots were fired at him, causing the point defence vambrace on the soldier to flare to life, negating six shots before the rest riddled him with holes, making him scream. No mercy, huh?

A shot grazed Kyle’s forehead, a line of blood dripping down his face as he continued to use the grappled hostage as a shield while moving from pillar to pillar, firing back at the enemy soldiers with precision. None of the soldiers fell, retreating behind cover as soon as their point defence engravings were overpowered.

“Broken!”

“Reloading!”

The enemy soldiers were highly coordinated, cycling their exposure to Kyle based on the cooldown of their point defence system, making it hard for Kyle to take anyone of them down.

At the same time, the Minister had managed to go the other direction, reaching the fallen bodies of the bodyguards and picking up their dropped repeater. Using Kyle as a distraction, the Minister fired an entire volley at two soldiers who were flanked, killing them instantly.

“The Minister is there – just kill the other guy and get it over with!”

Kyle eyed and memorised the position of the remaining ten soldiers, including the skull mask leader. In ten minutes, I must kill everyone both inside and outside. Negation Field!

He sprinted while holding the clearly dead soldier in front as a shield, charging at the next soldier. Before the soldier could react, the hostage shield was already in front of him, smacking right into him and causing him to fall over, the fuel pack on his belt spilling out onto the floor in an iridescent blue.

Two nearby soldiers aimed at Kyle, pulling the trigger on their repeaters – but nothing happened. Instead, a severe backlash of arcia energy rippled through the pipes of their arcite fuel pack, causing it to explode into flames.

That’s new. Kyle did not stop to admire his handiwork, quickly closing the gap with the other soldiers while the Minister continued to suppress soldiers on his side.

The leader noticed the two soldiers who had spontaneously combusted, his eyes squinting under the skull mask. “What the fuck was that? All of you – keep your distance from him!”

However, another two soldiers were not quick enough to get out of range of Kyle’s negation field, their repeaters failing to activate as Kyle punched them right in the face and guts, the follow-up backlash of the arcite fuel pack finishing them off. Kyle soon realized that there was no system message appearing for each kill. I guess the explosion killed them, not me.

Already eight soldiers had fallen, with Kyle killing six and the Minister killing two. The leader fumed, firing an entire clip at Kyle before he got within range. Kyle quickly ducked as soon as the barrel was aimed towards him, only a single bullet clipping him on the waist.

“This fucker… The rest of you, fuck the minister, kill this idiot first!” The leader roared, prompting the soldiers to all focus on Kyle, pinning him down behind a pillar as fragments of it were sent flying all over the place.

The problem with the Negation Field is that I can’t fire back. No arctech worked in a five-meter radius, making it difficult for him to fight in a long range battle such as this. Kyle was truly trapped now, with no way out.

Just as he considered his options, the gurgling choking of two more soldiers falling could be heard. Minister Dekar was still using Kyle as the main distraction, firing round after round with precision honed through the revolution.

As soon as the leader and the remaining two soldiers turned to face the Minister, Kyle took the advantage to leap out of the cover, the adrenaline running through his veins as he pumped his legs as hard as he could to rush towards the leader.

“Shit!” The leader swivelled back to fire at Kyle as soon as he heard Kyle’s footstep – but Kyle’s speed was already far beyond a normal human, closing the gap before the leader could pull the trigger.

The leader quickly recalled that his soldiers died when they tried to fire at close range, prompting him to not try the same thing and instead toss the repeater at Kyle, who was caught by surprise.

Kyle used his left hand to grab the incoming repeater just as a metal gauntlet slammed into his right arm, knocking him slightly to the side. The gauntlet fizzled as the engraving’s arcia energy began to backflow, with the leader quickly grabbing the gauntlet off and tossing it to the side.

“So, combustion of arcia energy at range? Interesting. Maybe I’ll sell you to the Nest.” The leader grinned as he retrieved a cleaver.

They really love their cleavers. Kyle grunted as he met the challenge head-on, using the repeater as a short staff to parry and block the swift strikes from the leader. The leader was no slouch, his movements precise and accurate.

However, the movements were too slow to catch Kyle off-guard – the enhanced DEX allowed Kyle to react quicker than ever. Even the leader was shocked by how easily some of his killer moves were being fended off as though he was but a child with a training sword. “Who the fuck are you? Another Nest hitman?”

“Names won’t matter where you’re going.” Kyle suddenly sped up, blocking the machete with the barrel of the repeater before kicking forward. The leader dodged sideways before grabbing onto Kyle’s now extended leg. “Hah! I got you no-“

Kyle exerted all his core muscle strength and remaining leg strength to spin as hard as he could around his grabbed leg, his other feet kicking the leader right in the jaw before he could react. The two of them tumbled onto the ground, but Kyle was the first to recover, immediately using the butt of the repeater and smacking it on the leader’s neck repeatedly before stomping hard.

Kyle huffed as he turned around, his eyes still in battle mode as he hunted for the last two soldiers. However, they were already dead, overpowered by the Minister, who had the rifle aimed right at Kyle.

“Minister – you can’t be serious.” Kyle spoke calmly, his hand still holding a repeater. Five minutes to Negation Field timeout.

“Spill it. You’re not a normal weapon designer and I never thought you were one. But even then, the level of combat skills you have is far beyond anything we have. Who exactly are you? An agent sent by the Hwa Dynasty?”

“There are more skilled people in the county of Raktor than you think, Minister. Your small population is hardly large enough of a sample size to truly see outstanding talent compared to the Yual Dominion. Besides, is this really the right time?” Kyle motioned with his head outside. “Haven’t you noticed? The fighting outside already stopped.”

“Maybe my bodyguards have –“

“Won? Against these guys and a repeater turret that can fire two hundred shots in ten seconds? I am tempted to give you away to this well-mannered gentleman… Are you sure you still have the power to offer the same deal I was promised?”

“Of course I have!”

“It doesn’t seem that way anymore.” Kyle grinned slowly, backing away towards the entrance. “Maybe I might try my luck with joining them…”

“Wait, wait! I agree to the deal! If you help me get back to the government headquarters, I’ll give you everything in the deal: license, preferential treatment, you name it. But the company must be majority state-owned, no less than 80%!”

Kyle didn’t respond, continuing to step to the entrance slowly.

“Okay! 75%!”

“30%.”

“What?! You’re mad! Do you think I would give away Versia to-“

“30%, or I sell you out to the people beyond this door. I think you’re mistaken about who holds the power here. Are you sure you can bargain with me? 30% is a very generous offer on my part.”

“…. Fine. 30%. But you have to protect me till the deal is signed!”

“Agreed. Let’s work out the finer details as we escape from here. You must know a place.”

Minister Dekar fell into silence, thinking quickly. “There’s an old entrance to the catacombs in a nearby building – we can use that, for now, to get into the main district before heading for the government palace.”

They quickly rushed down the warehouse, with Kyle peeking out beyond the door to watch for any enemy soldiers. Surprisingly, there was no soldiers watching the side exit, allowing the two of them to sneak their way out into a nearby building – a similarly derelict factory floor with rusted equipment.

The Minister led Kyle into a dark basement, with nearly no light inside. They rummaged for an arctech lantern, turning it on to reveal a humongous boiler. Dekar walked around the boiler, feeling the floor for a gap in the tiles.

As soon as he found it, he lifted the tile, revealing a straight vertical shaft with a ladder downwards. The smell was atrocious, even causing Kyle to flinch in response. This is even worse than the moons of Riest – and that’s saying something.

They scampered down the ladder, landing on a sidewalk next to a raging torrent of what could clearly be labelled as sewage water. The walls were clearly marked with signs of erosion and decay, with rats the size of a human arm scampering around the opposite side.

“Interesting, you seem familiar with this place – unusual for a man of your position.” Kyle remarked as the Minister groped his way down the sewers, holding the lantern close to the brick walls, searching for a symbol.

“Of course I know this place: this is where the revolution started from.”