You're in Game! LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors Read online

  You're in Game!

  LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors

  Vasily Mahanenko

  Andrei Livadny

  Michael Atamanov

  Andrew Novak

  Pavel Kornev

  Alexey Osadchuk

  Published by

  Magic Dome Books

  You're in Game!

  LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors

  Copyright © 2017:

  Vasily Mahanenko

  Andrei Livadny

  Michael Atamanov

  Andrew Novak

  Pavel Kornev

  Alexey Osadchuk

  Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2017

  English translation copyright © 2017:

  Andrew Schmitt

  Boris Smirnov

  Krystal Diehl

  Irene Woodhead

  Neil P. Mayhew

  Published by Magic Dome Books, 2017

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

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  Contents:

  Shamanic Rites by V. Mahanenko

  Purgatory by A. Livadny

  Throne World by M. Atamanov

  The Best Quest by A. Novak

  Countdown by P. Kornev

  The Date by A. Osadchuk

  The Story of a Raid by V. Mahanenko

  Thank you for reading You're in Game!

  Shamanic Rites

  A tale from The Way of the Shaman series

  by Vasily Mahanenko

  “MINDBLOWING,” I muttered as I stepped onto the ship’s deck. Mahan was the one who called it a ship, but it looked more like a terrible leviathan with tentacles. I could hardly imagine what the developers had in mind when they came up with THIS! The name spoke for itself—a squidolphin. Maybe it wasn’t the giant one of myth…but still, it was imposing in its own right. “Never in my life would I imagine that anyone could sail in such a monster!”

  “Kornik…” Mahan suddenly whispered to no one in particular, forcing me to look around. Had he hit his head during the battle? Was he talking to himself? “She is ready…”

  “Are you sure?” Before I could come to a conclusion about my teacher’s mental state, I heard the goblin’s voice right beside me. I started from the surprise and cursed aloud. It was a good thing that the profanity filter kept anyone from hearing it. How much more of this could I take? This little green weirdo keeps popping up out of nowhere, scaring me, saying a couple phrases, smirking and vanishing. Does he want me to develop a stutter, the stunted ghoul?! I’ll show him how to…But hold on! What am I ready for?

  “Yes, absolutely. I don’t doubt it for a second. She is ready.”

  “In that case…Fleita!” Kornik turned to face me and—wonder of wonders—said to me very seriously: “Come over here!”

  “Kornik?” All my snark left me just like that. Now I simply wanted to know what they had in mind, so I decided to stall. What am I ready for? Where are they trying to take me? What the heck is going on here? “What are you doing here? Have you come to check out Mahan’s ship as well?”

  “You think I’ve never seen a squidolphin before? Back in the day, it was the only way to travel. We have other business at the moment. Get your things—your next trial awaits you.”

  “But it’s still five months away!” When I realized where they were taking me, my jaw just about fell off. How could it be?! I was ready for anything but being launched into a test for my next Shamanic level. According to the manuals, it was supposed to be a long ways off.

  “Your teacher says that you are ready—so you’re ready. It’s not up to you,” sneered the green booger. Why does this NPC have such an idiotic Imitator? “Let’s go. The Supreme Fire Spirit is expecting you.”

  “But…am I really ready, Mahan?” I made a last ditch attempt to eke out a little time. Laboring under the assumption that the trial was far off in the distant future, I hadn’t prepared one bit. I needed time to familiarize myself with the manuals back in reality. And I just knew in my heart of hearts that if I accepted right now and went with Kornik, then I signing out to read up would cause me to fail the trial. I don’t like to play this way!

  In true Mahan fashion, he nodded and grinned in that telling, professorial manner of a teacher. I sighed deeply and clenched my fists in futile anger. The jerk! When he simply plays the game and does his quests he’s nothing short of a gaming god—everything works out for him, he finds the most interesting areas, crafts the most fascinating items. But when he acts like this, like some great guru, I just want to pick up something with good heft and lower it onto his head while screaming at him to stop being su
ch a moron! He acts like a little child! Some Shaman…!

  I was feeling quite down by this point, so I didn’t say anything as I took Kornik’s hand and in a blink of an eye was transported from my teacher’s ship to somewhere deep in the mountains. A biting cold washed over me, but I ignored it. I bet I’ll get sick and die young! Then that jerk will regret his stupid smile!

  “Whom did you bring, brother?” sounded a bombastic voice from all around us.

  “I have brought a Seeker. She is on the path to find herself and it is our duty to aid her,” replied the goblin.

  “But is she ready?”

  “No one but the Spirit of the Forest knows this.”

  “Will she manage?”

  “No one but the Spirit of the Mountains has this knowledge.”

  What drivel! Mommy birth me back into non-existence! Why oh why are all Shamans such helpless fools?! What is all this dramatic posturing for? Why can’t you simply say: ‘Fleita, here’s the cave of trials. Do this and that, go here and there, get that thing, and push the green button.’ Why all the mumbo jumbo? Why couldn’t Mahan warn me about the trial? Tell me about it? Can’t the blind ass see that I like him?

  “Bow your head, little sister,” Kornik said triumphantly, having finished his spiel with the ‘all-knowing Spirits.’ “You are in the presence of the Great Spirit of Fire, what has come to witness your initiation.”

  I glanced sullenly at the whirlwind that had appeared beside us and raised my chin proudly, not even contemplating bending my knee. This is a game, and I’m the one in charge here! If some NPC wants me to bow, then good luck to him in such a futile endeavor!

  “You are ready!” the Spirit droned in a low bass. Shivers ran down my spine from his words, but I didn’t lower my chin a millimeter. Not a chance! “To become a Beginner Shaman, you must prove that your spirit is steadfast, that your spirit is pliant, that your spirit is strong, that your spirit is gentle. You must enter the cave, where four trials await you. What you do with each—is a choice that your spirit makes, let it guide you. If you fail even one trial, your initiation shall be postponed. In your case, for six months. Every shaman has the chance to become a Harbinger, but not all take this path. It is up to you alone whether you become a real Shaman.

  Quest chain received: ‘The Way of the Shaman.’

  ‘The Way of the Shaman: Step 1.’ Complete the labyrinth of trials.

  0 of 4 trials completed (next attempt in 180 days).

  “Enter the cave and trust your spirit. It will help you make the correct decision.”

  The air began to spin around me, raising the dust that was normally absent in Barliona. When the lightshow ended, I found myself in a cave with four passages, marked with the digits one through four. A notification immediately appeared before my eyes:

  Information for the player! You have started ‘The Way of the Shaman: Step 1’ Quest. You have two attempts for completing this trial. If you fail, you can attempt the trial again in a month’s time. If your first attempt fails, press the red stone by the entrance to start your second attempt. Have a pleasant game!

  Finally! At long last a clear explanation in this entire circus! I will have two attempts to pass the trial without a time limit, although I still had a hunch that I wouldn’t be allowed to log out into reality. On the other hand, I’ll be able to check the forums and manuals…or call Mahan and tell him what I think of him! I think that’s where I’ll start!

  To my astonishment, my amulet didn’t work here, so my teacher was spared the happy news of what kind of lowlife I thought he was. It’s odd—I don’t recall ever being so angry with anyone. I had grown attached to this Shaman as of late, and it was difficult to admit to myself that he had rejected me so easily and sent me out to swim on my own…Jerk! The forums on the other hand brought happier tidings: Players who had undergone the trial before me detailed exactly what they had done to complete it. It consisted of four rooms with a particular scenario in each and you simply had to do certain things to complete each one. That’s it. Nothing too complicated, nothing too terrifying.

  The first room was divided in half by a partition. One side of the partition contained a hole, from where a fawn’s head was sticking out, while the other contained a wolf. The wolf was growling with his fangs bared. His paw was caught in a bear trap. According to the forum threads, the challenge here was simple: This was a test of your gentleness of Spirit. You had to take out the fawn and leave the room without a second thought. However, just as I was about to approach the trapped animal, I was struck by the feeling that this whole scenario was wrong and stopped in my tracks.

  It can’t be this simple!

  I sat down on the floor and began to think. The fire whirlwind had mentioned that I would need to trust my spirit and Mahan had kept his own experience with the trial secret from me. On the forum, the players all complained that none of them had managed to make it to Harbinger. It’s been two weeks since Sergei has come by to hang out with me and my girlfriends are saying that they’ve seen him out and about with Katie—that plucked chicken! Meanwhile, Mahan is acting like he doesn’t notice the attention I give him. Besides, the weather outside is awful so there’s no point going out tonight…

  Damn it all! They can all go take a walk! Aren’t I a Zombie after all?

  I jumped to my feet and examined first the fawn, then the wolf. If I save the first, the other will perish. If I save the other—the first will perish. So let both of them perish!

  Two quick summons of the Spirits sent both the wolf and the fawn to the afterlife, if this game even has one of those. Someone wants me to listen to my spirit? All right! Just don’t act shocked when what follows isn’t to your liking! What I liked about playing as a Zombie was the ability to temporarily raise pets from the dead. If you kill a creature, you can resurrect it and spend an hour adventuring with it—until it falls apart to pieces. It’s a useful trick at the lower levels, since you get the XP from the pet’s kills. But the best thing is that the undead pet forgets all about its former existence—fears, desires and all—and is fully in the player’s power!

  I had never raised two creatures from the dead before and had to concentrate extra hard to do it now. It was worth it however. I emerged from the first room with the fawn and the wolf jerking and twitching like marionettes on my leash. Maybe they weren’t alive or very healthy, but at least they moved. And who cares if I wasn’t supposed to be doing this. Even if I fail now, I’ll still have another attempt.

  Quest update: ‘The Way of the Shaman (Step 1)’: 1 of 4 trials completed.

  The second trial consisted of an ordinary five-meter-wide pit filled with water. A thin rope spanned the pit. For whatever reason, the players on the forums called this a bridge. The challenge was simple—I had to get to the other side. The proper way to do it was to calm myself and swim across the obstacle, but my agitation from the earlier trial had not subsided.

  As Mahan likes to say: Yeah right! I am a Zombie. I am a Shaman. And I have two undead pets that will be dead within the hour one way or another. Why shouldn’t they lend me a helping paw?

  It was practically impossible to walk along the rope to the other side, especially considering my sense of balance. Or rather, my utter lack thereof. And I didn’t feel like jumping in the water, so I did that which no Shaman before me could have done—I dismembered the fawn and the wolf into their constituent limbs.

  To walk along the rope, I would need to hold onto something with my hands. I didn’t have a second rope, but I did now have fresh, strong bones from my two zombie pets. It’s not like their ultimate death would matter to them much.

  Neither the wolf nor the fawn made a sound as I broke off the bones from their bodies and bound them together with the veins and sinews. Surprisingly, the typically kind and wonderful Barliona did not interfere with such maniacal treatment of its creatures. I only hoped that when I returned to reality, I wouldn’t find orderlies in white scrubs waiting at the capsule to take me to the asylum.
The Corporation could easily pull something like that.

  Tossing the fawn’s and wolf’s heads into my bag (if only to get them out of my sight), I cast my improvised pole of bones to the other side of the pit and looked on with astonishment when the far end fused seamlessly with the edge. It was as if someone had anticipated precisely this solution. Humming to myself, I fixed my end of the pole to the floor and carefully shuffling my feet began to shimmy along the bridge. I was a bit surprised to find that I felt no revulsion from touching the snow white bones I was using to support myself. My mind had shut off. I was operating purely on emotion, like Mahan had taught me.

  The jerk!

  Quest update: ‘The Way of the Shaman (Step 1)’: 2 of 4 trials completed.

  In the third room I found ten human statues made of stone with clubs in their hands. This was a test for the strength of spirit. I had to walk through the statues (that the forums had named ‘the ancestors’) while ignoring the blows they’d deal me. What madness. No one in their right mind would take damage voluntarily. Even if the assailant happens to be your grandpa, grandma and uncle all at once! Even at the setting my sensory filter was set to…

  Stop! How can a Zombie have ancestors anyway?! And why do they resemble humans? Where are the Zombie orcs, goblins and elves? Where is it all? It’s simply not there! In that case, these aren’t the ancestors of my race! These are simply statues of stone that want to hammer on my back with their clubs.

  Thanks, but no thanks.

  Since it was dangerous to approach the statues, I took the fawn and wolf heads out of my bag and placed them on the floor—and thanked my gym teacher for being such a staunch soccer fan. In class, he taught everyone regardless of gender how to properly kick the ball and do it precisely. I never imagined that the skills I learned in gym class would come in handy in Barliona, but life was funny that way.