Alpha Agent: A Post Apocalyptic LitRPG

After another few seconds passed with Dan looking at Jane, she still didn’t respond. As she’d said, the mission wasn’t too hard on the surface. But how was he supposed to deescalate a riot with only a pistol and two magazines’ worth of bullets?

“Uh, Jane. I got a few questions,” Dan said.

“Go ahead,” she said.

“Can you explain to me how you expect me to get this done with just a pistol? I don’t mind a challenge, but I need more hardware.”

“That is your hardware. I wouldn’t give you any more firepower. I believe your HUD informed you not to harm innocent civilians. Anything more than what you have now will risk too much collateral damage. The Alpha Corporation has a responsibility to keep the people safe as well. Do not forget that.”

The answer didn’t fill Dan with any confidence.

“Am I working with a team?”

“Unfortunately not,” Jane said. “Someone higher up wants to see how you handle this on your own. This will be a solo mission.”

The ship made a sudden thud, most likely landing at their destination. At this point, he felt no need to hold back his true feelings against his new boss.

“Jane, this is fucking bullshit, you know that? Someone as experienced as you could easily see that. Are you trying to get me thrown out on my first day?”

“I don’t have time to babysit newbies,” Jane responded, keeping her tone level. “Didn’t I say earlier that things wouldn’t get easier from this point forward? All Alpha agents will encounter missions that will test their nerve and resourcefulness. This one is no different. Better for you to learn now than to get killed on a later mission. If you fail, then you were never meant to be one of us.”

Dan had been used to a childhood of surviving the shitty living conditions of his hometown as well as fighting off violent gangs every single day. But even he found Jane’s words harsh.

“I’ve seen many agents come and go,” Jane said. “Agents stronger and more experienced than you have failed in spectacular ways because they couldn’t adapt to the situation and lacked the willpower to see things through. Prove to me and the Alpha Corp that you’re not one of those failures. Good luck.”

The ship door opened and light entered. A blue circle on his HUD directed Dan outside. He looked at Jane one more time with narrowed eyes. Her face still remained serious as she glanced back at him.

He turned around and stepped out of the dropship.

He took some time to study his immediate surroundings. The dropship had landed him on the roof of a building about half a block away from the nearest Alpha corporate building. A row of rooftops in front of him leading towards the Alpha building varied in height by a few stories. He doubted he was strong enough to make any jumps high enough to hop between roofs to get to his objective.

“Hey,” a female voice said behind him.

Dan turned and saw Jane standing inside the dropship. She threw something at him and he caught it with both hands. It looked like a launcher for something.

“You’ll need something for traveling between rooftops. Good luck,” Jane said.

“Thanks,” Dan said half-heartedly.

Dan walked towards the outer edge of the roof and peered down at the streets below. He also heard the roar of the dropship behind him as it took off. He ignored the intense pressure and heat behind him as he watched the crowded streets.

Dan was around twenty floors above ground. Everyone looked like shimmering masses of various colors and shapes. His improved eyesight couldn’t make up for a lack of zoom.

You have a pair of binoculars in your coat. Recommended for this mission.

Dan began patting his coat and rummaging through every pocket he could find. Eventually, he found the pair of binoculars in an outer pocket.

“Alright, let’s get this shit over with.”

Use the grappling device to move between rooftops.

“Yeah, yeah,” Dan dismissed.

The grappling device Jane gave him looked like an oversized handgun. He didn’t see any hook or spear at the end.

Point and shoot at the desired destination. Once the line is attached, pull the trigger again on the device. Please remember to hold on tight. Failure to hold on will result in a deadly fall.

Dan pointed the device at the edge of the rooftop of the next building, three stories above him. A holographic readout popped up beside the device. It blinked green, and Dan assumed that meant the device had found its mark.

He pulled the trigger, and a black rope shot from the device and hit the edge of the roof. Dan made sure to grip the grappling device as tightly as possible before pulling the trigger a second time. Suddenly, he was yanked off his current position and flying through the air towards the roof of the next building.

Just before hitting the edge of the roof, the black rope disconnected and the momentum of Dan’s flight allowed him to clear the edge and tumble onto the roof. He hit solid ground and rolled a bit before stopping.

Dan picked himself up and saw he still had a few more buildings to go before he was close enough to the Alpha building. He rinsed and repeated the process a few times, even for the buildings lower than him because he still couldn't clear the distance jumping.

He finally reached the Alpha building and took a moment to marvel at the engineering of the structure. It was at least eighty stories tall and looked entirely constructed out of glass and mirrors with its windows looking like an single pane, one for each of the four sides. The stylized A logo hung near the top of the structure.

Dan looked down onto the loud streets and saw a much less aesthetically pleasing sight.

From his position, he was a dozen stories above ground and had a much better look at the crowds below. He crouched down and reached for the binoculars in his pocket. He looked around and saw hordes of people shouting and waving their fists in the air in the direction of the Alpha building. Dan looked towards the building and saw a concrete wall surrounding it, a similar perimeter barrier to the facility he’d initially arrived at.

He lowered his binoculars and checked out the chaos with his own eyes. So far, aside from a lot of shouting and screaming, Dan hadn’t seen any violence. The crowds were blocking the roads and vehicles couldn’t get through, so it was still a disturbance he had to deal with. Plus, his ass was on the line. If he failed this mission, his career as an Alpha agent would be a short one.

According to the info from his HUD, these people, and there were a lot of them, were protesting against the Alpha Corporation for allowing prescription drugs prices to balloon so much. Since Alpha was acting as the government in this region, the citizens took it to Alpha themselves to complain about this mess.

As much as Dan knew what it was like to be strapped for cash, he had to figure out how to disperse this crowd. Somehow, armed with only a pistol, he had to figure out how to make hundreds of people go home without killing too many in the process. He’d only just got here and didn’t know how bad the situation was. But he didn’t have time to sympathize with these people. He had a job to do.

Dan heard something that immediately made his blood run cold. Repeated popping sounds in the air. Gunfire.

Along the streets, he watched a small group of people throwing stones at a store. But then explosions in the store blew out the windows and set the building ablaze.

I guess those weren’t stones, Dan thought. Somehow, some of these rioters had gotten their hands on grenades.

He looked through his binoculars and found a group of people carrying assault rifles and shooting them. Dan lowered his binoculars to see what they were shooting at and saw the gunfire hit the side of the Alpha building. He had no idea what these people were thinking. There was no way a mere assault rifle would be strong enough to bring down an eighty-story skyscraper. He scrutinized the side of the building and couldn’t see any noticeable damage to the structure.

If this was supposed to be a protest, it wasn’t going well at all. Especially if the Alpha Corp decided to send only Dan to deal with the situation.

Dan focused his attention on the group with the rifles. While checking them out, he took a closer look at their weapons with his binoculars. The groups all wielded the same rifles, but it was a model Dan had never seen before.

One of the rioters raised the rifle in the air and Dan managed to get a good look at it. The body of the rifle vaguely resembled that of an AK from Russia. The gun was all black, but what truly stood out were the dual bayonets sticking out from the underside of the rifle. They weren’t even standard blades, just sharp spikes that look like they could skewer anybody, even through body armor.

Dan’s HUD popped up with new text. The information drastically changed the mission.

Weapon identified: ZK-77 assault rifle, property owned by Alpha. Illegal possession of Alpha-owned firearms.

Change in mission parameters: Deadly force authorized against violent rioters in possession of illegal weapons. Keep collateral damage to a minimum.

Surprisingly, Dan breathed a sigh of relief. Now he had a bit more leeway in dealing with these rioters. The relief was quickly squashed as he continued watching. He saw a car suddenly flipped over on its side.

Zooming in, he spotted a rioter walking to the next stopped vehicle, squat beside it, grab the underside of it and lift. To his surprise, the rioter managed to roll it over. He left the car turned upside down then drew his ZK-77 and shot whoever was inside it.

Caution: possible use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Dan had never seen any steroids in his life that could allow a user to flip over multi-ton vehicles.

His HUD marked all the protestors who were armed and posed a threat to him and everyone else. Across the entire street, his HUD placed orange dots above the heads of every armed and dangerous rioter.

Dan counted forty-two targets. It was nice of his HUD to highlight who the deadly ones were in the crowds. But he still had one problem. Dan was all alone against forty-two gunmen armed with grenades, assault rifles and performance-enhancing drugs. He was outnumbered and outgunned, even outmuscled.

This wasn’t a war he was going to win alone. He needed a plan, a plan that could wipe out these violent rioters without the need for him to engage in direct combat.

He pulled up his own stats and recalled that he hadn’t touched the intelligence category when he’d allocated stat points earlier.

Intelligence: 5

You have 2 stat points left.

Dan put his remaining two stat points into intelligence. He needed every bit of brainpower he could muster to come up with a solution to end this rioting and complete this mission.

Intelligence: 5 (+2)

Congratulations! Your updated stats are now:

Intelligence: 7

Dan didn’t notice an immediate difference. He was still in the same screwed up situation, against an overwhelming armed force without proper equipment or backup.

Then it happened.

An eerie calm washed over him and he no longer worried about the overwhelming odds stacked against him. He crouched down and his eyes darted around the various clusters of orange dots. He thought back to the Alpha facility he’d arrived at to meet his new team. He’d noticed active sentry turrets that were constantly turning at periodic intervals along the perimeter wall.

Assuming that all Alpha buildings were important, why hadn’t the sentry turrets activated to kill these rioters? He scanned the Alpha building with his binoculars, specifically the concrete wall surrounding it. He saw sentry turrets along the wall, albeit fewer in number compared to the other facility. Somehow, they weren’t active. All of them had their barrels pointing downwards.

His HUD picked up on his curiosity and popped a message in front of him.

Scan for sentry turrets in the area?

Yes / No

Dan selected yes and watched a spinning blue icon as his HUD was awaiting more information. Finally, his HUD got him his answer.

Sentry turrets found and highlighted. Control panels marked.

Dan’s eyes filled with blue silhouettes of sentry turrets dotted across multiple rooftops, along buildings at his side and the other side of the street. Somehow, every single one was inactive. Dan didn’t question how that was possible or who was sleeping on the job to allow something like that to happen. He needed to get this done. His HUD also marked three control panels with blue circles to help activate the other sentries.

During his childhood, he had grown used to being hunted down on a regular basis, whether that be from gangs or police chasing him after curfew hours. He knew the power fear had over the general populace. His plan was ruthless and some people might die today, even innocents. But he had no other choice.

Wasting no more time, Dan grabbed his grappling device and shot at the edge of the next building. He soared through the air and landed on the next rooftop. He reached the first blue circle that led him to the side of the rooftop’s entrance into the building. Dan saw a flat screen that resembled the palm readers he’d seen back at the Alpha facility.

Dan placed his hand on the reader and it recognized him. Part of the wall immediately extended outward and flipped over, revealing a computer screen and info regarding the sentries.

Three sentries within a 50 yard radius are disabled. Enable?

Dan pressed the green button below the text and activated the sentries. The response was immediate, the sentry on his rooftop gattling away at the streets below.

He placed his palm on the reader and the screen retracted into the wall.

He looked at his HUD and saw the next closest control panel for more sentry turrets. The next blue circle pointed him across the street to the other row of buildings. Dan ran up to the edge of the roof and watched the sentry beside him, along with two others to his right, firing down at the rioters below. Using his binoculars, Dan had the chance to watch the carnage unfold.

Out of the forty-two orange dots causing havoc on the streets, only twenty-six remained. The armed rioters below took cover, either hiding behind or underneath vehicles or fleeing. As for the other hundreds of protestors, Dan watched as the crowds broke off and scattered from the gunfire raining down from the roofs.

Dan aimed his grappling device to the roof closest to him. His HUD shot up a message that complicated things.

Warning: the distance is too far.

Dan had only three active sentries firing down on the crowds below, but then again, to regular citizens, three sentry turrets might as well be three hundred. He would have to make do with what he had.

Numerous orange dots scurried into alleyways or dropped their guns and simply ran away, eventually disappearing from Dan’s HUD. The orange dots that remained still took cover, and some of them were brave enough to fire back at the roofs on Dan’s side.

Deciding that the sentries could use some help, Dan took out his pistol and loaded his seventeen round magazine into the firearm, then pulled back and released the slide.

Dan’s enhanced vision and HUD marking his targets made it easier to aim at his enemies. He focused his attention on the small cluster of orange dots surrounding a burning van. His HUD still had the dots above the heads of the rioters as well as highlighting their silhouettes through the smoke and fire. Dan pulled the trigger and paced his shots. His third bullet hit its mark and one of the dots disappeared from his HUD. Somehow, this starting pistol had a pretty far range for a handgun.

Dan fired several shots a different silhouette through the smoke and managed to kill another rioter.

New record: farthest target killed at 92 meters. Bonus progress towards next rank.

He swapped to the last orange dot still lingering around the burning vehicle and fired two rounds at it. The third rioter dropped dead.

Rank: Tier 0 | Level 3.

82% progress towards Level 4.

Dan scanned the street and noticed the last remaining orange dots running into an alleyway across from him. He pointed his pistol and fired a few more rounds, presumably penetrating the back of another rioter as he ran into the alley since an orange dot disappeared.

Congratulations!

You are now Tier 0 | Level 4.

You have earned 5 stat points!

Watching the rest of the streets, all the orange dots had vanished from his HUD and the hundreds of protestors outside of the Alpha building’s perimeter wall had fled the scene. Dan had won. He had successfully gotten the violent rioters to back off and the unarmed protestors had run.

Mission complete. You have quelled the rioters.

Time: 00:17:23

Total kills: 20 rioters

Favorite weapon: Initiate pistol

Efficiency rating: B

750 credits awarded and added.

Still, Dan wondered how something like this happened. Why were the sentry turrets in this area disabled? Even though he was new, the control panel for the three nearest sentries could only be accessed by an approved Alpha agent. Who could have disabled such important security systems? And why?

Another question formed in Dan’s mind. How was it possible for citizens to have access to guns and other equipment belonging to the Alpha Corp as well as what Dan could only describe as futuristic steroids? Dan looked around with his binoculars. There wasn’t much to do other than maybe waiting for Jane to come back with a dropship to pick him up. He checked out the building across the street, the same one he’d intended to grapple too. His look stopped at the middle of the roof, noticing something odd.

At a glance, nothing was there, but then he noticed some strange shimmering in a vaguely human-shaped outline.

The shimmering outline darted away and disappeared.

Dan lowered his binoculars and rubbed his eyes. What the hell was that?

His confusion was cut short by a roar nearby. Dan watched as a familiar dropship hovered above the taller roof beside him and slowly lowered itself down and landed. It didn’t take long for Jane, along with Allen, Ben and Hailey, to emerge and step along the edge of the building across from Dan. He ran up to the edge of the building and stopped to look up at his teammates. Everyone was here except for Kate.

“Hey guys,” Dan said. “How did I do?”

Allen gave him an approving nod. “Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. And you did it all by yourself. Smart thinking activating the sentries to help. A lot of the new pampered recruits probably would have sat down and twiddled their thumbs like morons.”

Ben the medic nodded in agreement and gave Dan a thumbs up.

As for Hailey, she didn’t say anything, but from this distance, Dan swore he saw her crack a smile at him.

Dan was most curious about Jane Sunheiser’s reaction. He watched her, though her body language didn’t convey the same approval as the others. She stood there with her arms folded, looking down at Dan with a blank expression.

“What do you think, Jane?” Dan asked.

“You have a functioning brain, at least,” she said. “Unlike many new recruits I have seen. You managed to activate a few sentries and got a few kills of your own. Your aim wasn’t too shabby either. You might show promise given the proper training.”

Well, that’s as good as it gets, Dan thought. Still, he’d survived his first mission.

He looked past his teammates at the overcast sky and wondered what the future had in store for him.