NINE: KRYPTIC BUSINESS
(ALEX KROSS)
"Hey! Wake up! Rise and Shine buttercups!"
I jerked my eyes open after a good night's sleep and looked around. I was shocked to see myself in a sleeping bag among fifty strangers. Then it all came back to me. The System, the Goblins, the Levels, Leprechauns, Zach and Lucien and above all the disappearance of Tyrone Lee.
I looked around and saw Nolan rubbing his eyes. Jenny was in the women's quarters. Leo was probably out helping the others. I wished Nolan, "Good Morning," he yawned loudly and then grumbled a low "Mornimph."
As my worries from the previous night about Lee returned slowly, the System popped up again displaying current stats and the Quest info. We had five more days to go. We had been at Camp Krypt for two days now. I still couldn't reach Lee and had no idea where he was.
I knew he was alive, because I'm sure if he wasn't then I would get some notification on my System, since he was my Guardian after all. Maybe the Leprechauns took him hostage.
I got up, brushed my teeth, took a shower and got dressed. The pajamas were a bit itchy here. After getting dressed I went to the main hall and met up with Nolan and Jenny. Jenny had a bit of toast in her mouth and she wasn't fully awake yet. Nolan was sitting beside her, cleaning his Carbine. He had had it reloaded at the Camp.
Jenny looked at me and sighed. She swallowed her toast, then asked me about Lee. I shook my head. She sighed again and took another bite.
Although everyone at the Camp was good and helpful, there was a strict routine and schedule here. That was probably because the Camp Director was a military guy before all this System thing happened. I hadn't met him yet, but I heard he was a crazy strong dude. He was already assigned a class and was at Level 15.
Everyday four to five teams went out to search for food and new members at different parts of the city and the nearby areas. I went out with Nolan, Jenny and Leo yesterday. We spent like eight hours finding enough food for a day. We couldn't find new members but the food was also equally important. We had strict orders not to fight Leprechauns. If encountered, give them some Shards and they would leave you alone. It had worked pretty well so far.
Jenny finally finished chewing down her toast and then sprang to her feet. "Let's explore the Camp today! We have nothing much to do anyway other than help out here and there," I agreed with her. Although it was called a camp, it was really just a building. All the storeys were being used by Krypt.
The building had eight floors. The ground floor served as a reception. There was a standing security team there to protect us. The first floor had the dining rooms and public spaces. That's where we sat right now. The second and third floors were the men's quarters. The fourth and fifth were the women's quarters. The sixth was like a huge gym. Nolan goes and works out there every evening since the day we arrived. The seventh floor was for the Camp counselors. We were allowed to go there but no one really went there, since the counselors were downstairs the whole day. The top floor was for the Director. No one except the Counselors ever saw him.
I grabbed a piece of toast for myself and walked out of the diner. We went up to the men's quarters. There were a few people there, reading or chatting with each other. A few women were also there who had come to chat with their friends. It wasn't really a big deal for intermingling among men and women. Almost everyone here was mature enough. There was a room for children under 14 too. Leo was in there probably.
We headed there and knocked on the door. There was a loud noise as if someone broke something, then silence for a whole minute. We looked at each other with surprised expressions. Then a scrawny boy of around eleven poked his head out and asked, "Yes?"
Jenny crouched down to his face level and politely said, "We're friends of Leo, is he inside? We thought we could have a chat with him."
The boy looked shocked a bit, maybe because such a cute girl had spoken to her. Then he slowly got himself together and said, "The boss is busy right now with the Camp work, if you have any message for him I'll be glad to pass it on."
Boss?! That was a weird name. Was Leo a bully or something? Or maybe he was a good leader. I shouldn't just jump to conclusions.
Jenny was also taken aback a bit. But she just smiled and said, "That's so sweet of you. In fact, I do have a message for him. Tell him to meet his friends Jenny, Alex and Nolan whenever he is free."
The scrawny boy nodded and closed the door. Jenny looked at us with a bewildered expression. I just shrugged and Nolan was still staring at the door. I broke the silence.
"We can come back later, let's check out the second men's quarters."
Nolan looked at me, confused. Then he nodded slowly mumbling, "Oh yeah, we were exploring and stuff..."
On the third floor there was no one except an old man who was sleeping in the far corner in a sleeping bag. I wonder why he wasn't woken up like the others. Maybe he was sick. As we went closer to see what was up, a notification buzzed in front of my face:
[PLAYER IS IN A CLASS ROOM ANY ATTEMPT TO ATTACK WILL BE REBOUNDED FOUR TIMES ON THE ATTACKING PARTY]
A class room? What the heck? Then I got it. It was probably a Class selection quest. So the System protected the AFK sorta players too? I was still Level 9 so I didn't have any Class yet. Jenny was Level 8 and Nolan was also 9, so none of us had any idea how Classes worked. Lee was Level 10, but he was no where to be found.
Jenny then offered to give us a tour around the women's quarters. Nolan and I politely refused. It would be awkward I guessed. So we made our way to the sixth floor, the gym.
There were some guys working out there. The gym was pretty fancy, with state of the art equipments and all. There was a guy sitting at the far corner and overseeing everything. We went over to him and introduced ourselves.
His name was Jason Shire. He was a gym owner before all this System stuff happened. His Skill was Gym Leader. It allowed him to create a portable gym anywhere he wished. But he had to be within a 3-mile radius for it to be stable and effective.
"But how is it useful in a fight?" I asked.
He chuckled and picked up a dumbbell and handed it to me. It was quite heavy. Then he snapped his fingers.
Holy Fuck! It suddenly became at least fifty times heavier. I crashed down with its weight. I slowly got up with the help of Jenny, who looked furious. But before she could start any fights with Jason, he twirled a finger and the heavy-as-fuck dumbbell floated up and twirled accordingly. He then flicked his finger to the right, towards the wall. The dumbbell shot right and, BOOM!
It exploded with the force of a grenade. I looked at Jason with awe. He didn't have a class yet he was so powerful already. He was a Counselor for a reason. I wondered how strong the Director was.
Since it was useless to visit the last two floors, we decided to go downstairs and help around the camp. Jenny was still furious about how Jason had brought me down in a second. But as Nolan pointed out, a few diseases were nothing in front of heavy bombs.
"NO STOP IT! I'M INNOCENT! I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!!"
The scream of a woman came across the corridor as we passed the fourth floor. Without wasting a second, I Sprinted to the source of the noise, followed by Nolan and Jenny. A counsellor was grabbing a woman by her collar and dragging her across the room. The woman was crying. There were a few others in the shadows who looked terrified, or were looking away.
Jenny and Nolan caught up to me. Jenny gasped as Nolan narrowed his eyes. We couldn't just stand there. I barged in the room.
"What the hell are you doing to that woman?"
The Counselor looked at us, shocked for a moment. Then his expression changed to a nasty one. He looked at Nolan and said, "Ya should get your kids out of here. This ain't somethin' for 'em to see. This woman here was conspirin' against us with the Leprechauns."
Although I thought the way he was treating her was a bit extreme, the thought of seeing all these good people getting slaughtered by Leprechauns prevented me from doing anything. I turned away and was about to leave them alone, when Jenny grabbed my shoulder and said, "Wait a second. Something isn't adding up."
I spun around sharply, "What?!"
"Even if we consider her to be chummy with the Leprechauns, how would they even communicate? I don't think the Leprechauns speak English. So wouldn't the creatures just attack a human the second they saw her?"
Now that I thought about it, it did make sense. I had just opened my mouth, when the Counselor groaned loudly.
"Ya pesky little kids, meddlin' in things that don't concern ya. Y'all should have left when I told ya to. Now because of that imma have to take everyone here to the Boss."
He threw the woman away, and swirled his hands as a Chainsword appeared in them. Nolan cracked his knuckles. Jenny started to activate her Skill, as I was about to pull out my Daggers.
The next part is a bit hazy. I remember a shadow looming in on us and then a horse voice saying "Sleep."
I felt the urge to follow the instruction. I tried to fight it, but I keeled over, and everything went black.
"Alex? You alright?!"
I jerked awake and tried to get up. My hands were tied with a hard and rough rope behind me. My feet were chained. I looked around. I was in a damp hall. There were some flickering blue lights here. Across the hall from me, was Nolan. He was looking at me, concerned.
I looked around and saw some more unconscious or dazed people chained like us. I couldn't see Jenny. I tugged at my ropes, but they hurt. I glanced at Nolan. He looked weaker. I called out to him, "Hey! Nolan! How come you don't use your Skill to break out?!"
He looked up and mumbled back something about being unable to use his powers. I didn't know what he meant. I tried to summon my Daggers. The System just glitched out. What kind of crap did these Campers have that could overpower the System?
Before I could do anything else, I heard a door creak open. I couldn't see in the dark where the door was. But I could hear some indistinct deep voices. Then a man walked up to me. I couldn't see his face but I knew that this was the Director.
He was wearing Camo trousers and had knives and stuff in his pockets. Typical military guy. He had a deep voice. He spoke to me, "So? You're the nosy kids who meddled in our business? Guess what? Now you will know how we grown ups deal with pests like you!"
He chuckled darkly.
"Where's Jenny? What have you done to her you monster?"
He chuckled again and started speaking, "You mean the clever little kid with you? Well she is being taken real good c-"
WHOOSH!
BANG!
With a whooshing explosion, the wall right next to me blew open, leaving a hole in it. Then someone else stepped in. We could only see the outline in the smoke. He stepped in and whispered in a deadly tone, "Didn't they teach you? Never invite the evil in your home. And you idiots invited the Devil himself!"