Freelance Saga Episode 4: Beta Shift Read online

  Jameson smiled. “That’s the plan. Consider this world. How many people in their late eighties can say that they have seen everything that Earth has to offer?”

  “None of them, I guess.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You seem like you are planning to set up some sort of step-by-step immigration policy? Was that the real point of all of this?” asked Scott.

  Jameson took a deep breath then shut down all of the open windows. “Humanity needs to spread out and grow. This planet is largely tamed. In large sections of Earth, people live their lives in a mental fog. One day inevitably leads into the next. Alterra will revitalize the spirit of the people of Earth.”

  “What about the Alterrans? This revitalizes the people here, but what about them?”

  “The Alterrans get to have a world where limitations only exist as obstacles to overcome. Injuries can be cured with the wave of a hand, and even the rule of death can be broken by resurrection and reincarnation. Their personalities and pasts were altered on occasion, but every single soul on that planet agreed to that beforehand.”

  “They did?” Scott found that hard to believe.

  “Certainly, most of those souls were lost and abandoned in their old lives. Some were aborted infants, some were suicides, others were wicked or disturbed beings cast down into whatever passed for hell in their original worlds. They had no prospects, no hope.

  Remember that when you look at the people you care about there. No matter what the World Masters did or might do to change the timeline, those souls are far better off than they would have been if they had not agreed to go to Alterra.”

  Scott lowered his eyes then bit his lip. It seemed that Alterra was a place where everyone had a second chance to live a different life.

  One thing still bothered him. He considered the bracer that he had worn for weeks. He thought about the skill book that he had purchased from the Alterra auction. He spent a brief moment considering his physical appearance. “Am I living in a simulation right now?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Jameson.

  The brooding man frowned at the recruiter. “I think I asked about this once before and I was given an answer but the answer that I was given escapes me at the moment. Some of my memories don’t feel quite right. I accept that I look like this because of the transfer protocol and the reality of the situation. What I want to know is the reason why I can bring items here from Alterra. What are the limits?”

  “Ah, that. In order to understand that, you will need to understand a simple truth. You are no longer the same person who you once were.”

  “What do you mean?” Scott leveled a dangerous looking stare at the man. What had these people done to him?

  Jameson smiled pleasantly. “You, and all Beta testers, are a new existence. You are people who have been upgraded. Your reality and this reality are separate things.”

  “Can you please stop dragging this out?” asked Scott.

  “Yes, of course. Your nature allows you to exist in two worlds. Despite what you might have seen in science fiction or fantasy stories, a creature cannot be two things. You cannot simply be Scott Hunter, the Earthling, and Scott Hunter the master of monster girls. You are both.”

  Scott sighed. Was this man being deliberately slow in explaining this? He was beginning to wonder if this company was one giant troll operation.

  “I can see that my answers are frustrating you. I will be more specific. You are essentially a god-like existence. Your true powers are allowed in full when you are on Alterra. However, you are under the effect of an extremely restrictive curse while on Earth.”

  “I’m cursed?”

  “Yes, the curse does nothing more than restrict your powers and cause other people in this world to see you in your original form. Even so, it is not perfect. You can buy things from Alterra, like from the auction. You can bring things here. In time you might even be able to bring people. However, your innate abilities will have to overcome the status afflictions and power restrictions.”

  The man considered that for a moment. It was ridiculous, but at the same time it made sense. If you accepted the premise that he could live in a world that operated like a videogame fantasy world, this explanation became much easier to accept.

  “Wait, people see me as my original form?”

  Jameson nodded. “Of course, how else would people who chose bizarre appearances continue to exist in this reality? Have you heard of any lizard people or werewolves running around?”

  “Well, no...”

  “Precisely, you are granted the illusion of appearing no different than you did before. Your powers are as some might term it, nerfed. At some point you will overpower the curse and some of your abilities will exist here. That is fine, don’t make a scene and there will be no issues.”

  The tamer tilted his head to the side and stared at the man. “Define scene?”

  “If you use your abilities to defend yourself, or better your life without public notice, it can be overlooked. However, if your actions can be linked back to this project in any way, we will ban you from Alterra and forcefully return you to your original status.”

  “I see. That seems fair. What about items, though? I would imagine people have tried to sell healing potions from Alterra, in this world.”

  “It has occurred. Those people were dealt with accordingly.”

  “Hmm, wait... if I can use my abilities here, then wouldn’t that mean I can train here?”

  The recruiter smiled. “There is nothing wrong with doing that as long as it does not make a scene. In fact, some of the more successful Beta Testers train their basic skills here. There is much less chance of being attacked in the wilderness and they can learn their skills quite quickly.”

  Scott had a sudden insight into his plans for the future. He needed to train his skills, but the curse blocked his abilities at the moment. When he was strong enough, however, things would be different. “Jameson, what about after Alterra is revealed to be real. Will the restriction against making a scene still be in place?”

  The man grinned at him in a feral way. “Once that day comes, expect this world to become a very different place. The cat will be out of the bag, so to speak. It will become more dangerous and more innovative at the same time.”

  “Interesting, very interesting.” said Scott. The future held a lot of promises.

  Chapter 2

  The cell phone made a soft beeping noise then shut down. Scott had tried several times to contact his mother. She had not answered, and he did not know what to do about that other than leave a message.

  “I hope she’s alright.” He tossed the phone aside casually.

  He powered up his computer and waited for the decrepit device to properly boot up. The laptop was only a year old, but it ran about as fast as a ninety year old man.

  Several minutes passed in silence before he was able to coax his computer into acquiring an Internet connection. “I told the girls that I wouldn’t be back till tomorrow morning. Might as well pay my bills and do some shopping.”

  The aggravating technological device puttered along and tried to freeze up a few times, but he managed to pay out his monthly bills. Afterward he also sent a few hundred dollars to his mother to help with her expenses. His bills were a little behind due to his recent troubles, but that was fine. He barely lived in this house anymore. At the moment he was merely keeping it up out of pretense.

  Email was checked, and he blocked a few pornographic websites from sending him spam. Why would he need pathetic Earth porn when he could have as much amazing demi-human ass as he wanted?

  The thought of demi-human ass reminded him that he had money to spend. He shut off his computer then used his beta tester privilege to call up the auction site via his menu system. He was greeted with a message prior to actively entering the site.

  <<< * >>>

  Hello! Welcome back to Alterra Auction Unlimited!

  Since this is the first time that you have logged on
to the site recently, you should notice a few changes. The most impressive change is the ability to check the auction site while you are actively living in Alterra.

  Please enjoy your time here and happy shopping!

  <<< * >>>

  “Well, that’s good news.” He clicked through the site for a few minutes, but did not notice many changes despite the message that he had received.

  Scott sat there for a moment and thought about his next moves. He had one hundred gold coins. That was not an obscene amount of money in the world of Alterra, but the dollar conversion was high right now. He could quite the game and live comfortable for a very long time on that money. “No way in hell I would do that, not after everything I’ve been through.”

  He shook his head and moved on to his next thought. Jameson had tried to set him back on track. Scott knew what he meant after checking the books more carefully. They included basic skills such as equipment maintenance and cooking, but there were also two important books.

  The master of monster girls called up his inventory screen and found that it was empty save for the skill books. He drew out the two books that had caught his attention. In his right hand, he held the Gunner’s Hand-Guide. In his left hand, he held the Field Commander’s Guide to War Volume I.

  Scott placed the books on the table then picked up the skill book for mastering firearm usage. He opened it up and immediately received a prompt.

  <<< * >>>

  Would you like to learn the skill: Firearm Mastery?

  Yes | No

  <<< * >>>

  “Yes.” He said it at the same time that he clicked on it. A bright light flared around the book, and then a stream of energy flowed into him.

  <<< * >>>

  You have learned Firearm Mastery! Due to your familiarity with firearms in general, your skill-level will advance twenty percent more quickly. You will also be able to perform maintenance on them with ten percent greater capacity.

  <<< * >>>

  “Sweet! I hope guns are more useful now. Scarlet did not think much of them before...” Scott knew the power of firearms on Earth, but he had not seen many on Alterra. They did not seem to be popular with anyone except for the city guards who manned the town gates.

  Scott rubbed his chin for a moment then checked the firearm section of the auction site. Guns were certainly expensive weapons, but they were also plentiful. They were either more common, or even less popular than he had thought. He checked through the offerings then frowned. “What’s with this? Such basic names; pistol, heavy pistol, light rifle....Sheesh. They used to have names similar to weapons from here.”

  He let the names go and started to look at stats. They all had a high attack rating, so he did not understand why people disliked them. Maybe it was the expense? You could reclaim arrows. You could not reclaim spent ammo-charges.

  After reading through a few comments, both good and bad, he understood. Ranged weapons that were not thrown could not have their damage modified by player stats. Higher agility would allow you to aim better and possibly do the maximum damage, but stats did not increase the basic damage of the weapon. At some point, you would be able to completely resist a shot from a firearm or even punch harder than the damage from a gun.

  “Interesting, they completely redesigned firearms to work using Alterra’s crystalized magic technology.” Firearms used to work using gunpowder, while a few ‘magic’ guns existed that would be used like beam weapons or low-end spell casters. Now firearms worked using the same kind of technology used to create endless water, and other things. They utilized an interactive series of specialized crystals to create and then propel ammunition forward with great power.

  Another thing that seemed to annoy people was a restriction on taking firearms from this world to Alterra. The firearms in this world became inoperable there, and firearms form there became inoperable here. A sword or knife worked the same in either location, so people felt this was favoritism and gun hate.

  “If I ever become strong enough to fight better without a firearm, I’ll just consider that to be a great day. Right now, I’ll take a gun.” Scott had decided to be practical. He would still train his hand-to-hand abilities and perhaps a melee weapon such as a sword or spear. Firearms would help him beef up his level quickly. He could worry about back training later if it proved necessary.

  Scott looked through everything that he could find on site and purchased a weapon named “Black Super Light Shotgun”. It was a lightweight low-recoil semi-automatic shotgun with an attack rating of one hundred twenty. It could be fired eighteen times on a single charge. Why weren’t we funding this?

  It was not an elegant weapon, but it did have a high attack power despite being a low-end shotgun. Of course, it looked a little odd and more than a little badass. It had a pistol grip and a fore grip, and no stock. Despite the low-recoil rating he needed a strength rating of eighteen in order to use it effectively.

  Shotguns were good for their push back effect. This one could push back medium sized creatures. It also required less accuracy than a handgun or rifle. He would buy a handgun and a rifle later, but the shotgun seemed like a good weapon to start out with. The main detractor was its effective attack range, after all. Even on Alterra, Shotguns had the lowest effective range out of all firearm options.

  “Well, I just spent fifty thousand dollars on a shotgun and one hundred shotgun ammunition crystals. Too bad I couldn’t just buy a shotgun here and take it there.” The commenters had been clear on that tactic being unworkable.

  He picked up the other book and opened it up. Doing so allowed him to learn a passive ability called ‘Boost Morale.’ Whenever he was in charge of a party, they would always start a battle with improved morale. Mental based negative status effects would be reduced by ten percent automatically.

  The other skills were learned in short order. He acquired cooking, equipment maintenance, and first aid. The skills were perfectly suited for someone who will spend most of their time in a party.

  Scott thought about his situation for a moment. He needed equipment for both his own uses and for the girls. Further, he needed more girls! His class was that of a monster trainer who had decided to devote his time and effort to training demi-humans. His main skills focused on that factor almost exclusively. He could not afford to run an army at the moment, but he could form a squad.

  “Scarlet did tell me to get more girls... Though, she also had a fit when I brought back Mina.” Of course, Scott suspected that she’d had a problem with that mostly because she had missed him and had been horny and alone while he had enjoyed himself thoroughly. Neither of the girls seemed to actually care if they were in a harem.

  Running an army of horny monster girls could be a problem. He only had so much penis to go around, after all. “I’ll have to stand firm. Heh, firm... When my army gets to be too big, the common soldiers will have to just share me... The generals and commanders will be allowed quality time.”

  The logistics of using sex as a proper reward for excellent service were quite disconcerting, but he would not think about it too much at the moment. He needed to build a squad before he could turn them into an army, after all.

  “I have a flyer, and two tanks.” Scarlet was both at the same time. Mina did not know much about fighting, but as a minotaur she would be obscenely strong and have a natural instinct for it anyway. She would learn quickly.

  “What I need are a medic, heavy ranged firepower, and a scout.” He could honestly use several of each, but one of each would be fine.

  He took a deep breath then logged into the pet section. Immediately, images of naked demi-human girls and even the occasional human popped up. There were also monsters such as the horned rabbit for sale, but his powers and skills were primarily focused on demi-humans. Common monsters did not interest him at the moment. Though, that might change in the future.

  The pricing bothered him greatly. He checked the weapons section again then returned to the pet section. He frowned. “Ho
w can these girls be worth less than a simple steel broadsword?”

  Pets had been quite expensive before. Was there something wrong here?

  “I should check the forums to see if anyone is talking.” He looked over the site forum then found a few different threads related to pet ownership. A smirk slowly rose upon his lips.

  The smirk turned into a grin then a cocky nod of the head. “So, that’s it!”

  After the changes were made to the system all of the supposed pets had grown drastically in intelligence. Unlike Scott, none of the other beta testers had skills specific to taming and training demi-humans. A typical monster trainer, and even those were rare among players, could not use their skills on demi-humans with as much effect. “So, the poor lil players keep losing their pets because their sex-slaves wised up and ran away, now?”

  Since it was useless for most people to try and keep demi-human pets, people were selling them at a lower price on the auction site. He suspected that the lower expense would change in a few months when Alterra was opened to the general public.

  The monster trainer profession might become more popular. It was no longer ideal for training demi-humans, but it did offer a few skills that could work in that direction. Right now, he had a total monopoly on the proper skill-set, but he would need to act quickly to secure his status in the future. No more weepy-eyed bullshitting about human rights and all that.

  “Now, do I buy a few pets?” He did need more people in his group, but how would Scarlet and Mina react? The cost has lowered, but even the least expensive demi-human was set at a starting bid of twenty gold coins. He also had lingering concerns about how much this seemed like slavery.

  He thought back to conversations he’d had with Scarlet. Demi-human girls came to the human world in order to find strong mates. There were few male demi-humans, and most of those were found in undesirable races such as goblins. Many races had no males at all.

  “How would a monster girl who wants a powerful mate react if she was purchased and ordered around by a level one scrub who she had never met before?” Scott considered his spoken thought for a moment. He did not need to think long on that topic. He would be crushed like a bug. Mina was only a few levels higher than he was when he had acquired her, and had only been interested because she wanted to be bred. Basically, she had been in a state of perpetual horniness and Scott had enthusiastically aided her in removing that status.