Shaper of Metal Post-Apoc Progression LitRPG

As Jack got up to shower, he asked, "So, Mini, want to tell me what the interaction involving Hardiness is?"

"Because it is a raw physical expansion, the effectiveness of Hardiness is multiplicative to what Aquatic Adaptation allows for your endurance of specific hazards. Namely, your biological resistance to pressure and decompression sickness is doubled at Hardiness grade one. It'll triple it, instead, at grade two, quadruple it at grade three, and so on. So you would be comfortable in twenty atmospheres of pressure, as of now. Decompression sickness was already largely a non-issue."

Jack nodded along as he showered the gunk off his skin. "Oh. Cool. I can go for a nice, deep swim in the sea. It's not incredibly terrifying or anything."

"I'm sure Neex will hold your hand if you ask her nicely."

"Riiiiight…I think she'll need to for this 'breathing underwater' thing, too. What's the schedule for that today, then?"

"After lunch, if all pans out with green lights through the day."

"Perfect."

When Jack touched base with Lindsay, knowing it was a 'challenge day,' she patched directly in with a Mem-link. "Good morning, Jack. So, ah, we're doing something different today. No AR beasties. Instead, we're doing Hyper Realistic VR. HRVR. You're going to duel me as various low-level powered users. Congratulations, you get a taste of one of my most in-demand talents. I will not be your twin today. I'll mostly be exposing your weaknesses rather than building strengths."

Jack was jazzed about it. "Awesome! Bring it on! I'll grow stronger that way, anyway. Right?"

Lindsay seemed subdued. "Yes. Eventually. I wouldn't get too excited, though. Few start out winning these things. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"Sure. I'll take it seriously, Shifu."

She sighed. "Forget it. In an hour-and-thirty, be at CPHQ. Central Processing. Solo in the elevator. It'll take you where I need you. HRVR offices are right next to Central Medical. This training is never done except there, with users always being in a monitoring rig. Basically just a comfy, heavy-duty recliner. Staff are ready in case of an issue. I'm sure you're good, but just so you know."

Damn. This is serious. "Understood, Shifu. I'll see you then. Uh, by the way… I won't have to meet Agent Bermuda, will I?"

"Why does that matter? Gotta get your abs game on before you ask her out again?"

Jack was mortified. "You know about that?!"

"You won't see her, Jack. Later!"

Jack glowered at nothing in particular for a moment. Then he went to the kitchen to eat breakfast. Breakfast was vital to not having a fragged up day, he knew. He knew it so, so well.

After light stretching and exercise to get loose and such, he made his way to the outbound subway and took it to CPHQ, exiting from the private cab with plenty of other uniformed folk that must work in the area. None of them wore the hat with that symbol on it, though. They were support personnel, though he bet they all had some decent clearance to even be there.

When Jack hovered around the elevator in the back, waiting for people to filter down, Mini quickly highlighted a separate area a ways further down, apparently behind a nondescript wall. <You didn't use their elevator before, and you aren't supposed to now, Jack.>

He walked over to the wall and it split without an apparent seam, revealing a small elevator, which was suddenly familiar as identical to the one he'd come down in what seemed like months ago, to first meet Lindsay.

When he glanced back at the little group he left, just before walking in, he caught five pairs of eyes that had been staring his way avert their gaze suddenly. A young woman whispered something to another, who reacted with an anxious, exasperated tone, which made the other suppress a giggle.

Jack grinned to himself as he stepped in and turned around to the quickly closing doors. The closest thing to being in public since I walked into Everywhere Hall. I'm in uniform, and they notice the emblem. Or is it something in the aura, too? 'Jack Laker, Champion of Humanity. Look how he carries himself! He's so cool. What a hero!' Hehe.

The elevator opened into a small lobby, reminding him of a doctor's office, or maybe an office-based specialty health salon of some kind. The clerk, a young man in an impeccable military uniform and haircut, was waiting for him in front of the main desk. "Junior Agent Laker. Welcome to the HRVR offices. Agent Boiler is waiting for you in the immersion chamber. Please follow me."

The clerk led him down the sparsely-decorated, pleasant, yet faintly uncanny hallways that seemed to typify CPHQ, and into a small room that was cousin to a medical examination office, complete with nurses at the ready. What dominated the chamber in the center was the replacement of 'medical beds' with four oversized chairs, like steel-reinforced recliners, each of them facing another. Lindsay was in one of the closer ones, apparently already 'jacked in,' a black band over her eyes with pronounced 'bulbs' at the temples. Her uniform jacket was also taken off. The two far chairs had big helmets attached at the top, but his presumable seat lacked one.

Catching him looking, the clerk offered, "Homo superiors don't need the full rigs. You are stimulated through supplementary neural link technology, but most of the immersion is through System resources. Memoria will facilitate you in incorporating your Allotment use correctly. It will be stimulated just as if you were using your powers in the real world, with the control in your hands. On the other hand, you can be popped out of VR, if necessary." After a pause, he gestured with a hand at the chair. "If you would please take a seat and remove your jacket, the nurses will otherwise assist you."

Jack nodded. "Right. Thanks." He began unbuttoning his jacket as he sat, and the nurse came around with a polite smile on her face. She was wearing HUD glasses. He asked, "So, just the eye-thing, huh? Not connecting anything else?"

"No, sir," the nurse replied. "It's an easy one for us. Your Mini-Mem is exceptionally thorough and will feed us the data as needed. You should be fine. You should barely even twitch, your body as still as if sleeping. As long as you remain sober-minded within, sir."

"Ah. Will do." He handed her the jacket to hang up, as the other nurse present brought around the minimalist rig. Jack sat back in the cushioned chair. The chair might've adjusted itself automatically as he sank into it with great comfort. "Aww, yeah. This is nice. Need one of these in my quarters."

The nurse smiled. "Are you ready to go into immersion, sir?"

"Yes. Go for it."

"Just close your eyes and relax."

He did so, and soon he felt the metal-and-plastic rig go on over his eyes and hug his temples. The metal at the temples was cold.

The nurse intoned, "Beginning immersion in three… two… one…"

🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕

He was in a white-walled room, his body covered in a full, black ANP suit, with a thick, protective jacket over it. Not the iconic blue longcoat, but a short, gray ensemble. Immediately, he was spinning around, looking for an enemy. Instead, there was a table in the center of the otherwise featureless room. On it were numerous metal things. Tools, blocks, etc. All those things he was used to using.

He was struck by the sheer realism. He really, truly felt like he had teleported elsewhere. It was amazing and eerie.

Mini chimed.

Shit! Lindsay is making sure this feels like someone else, huh? Okay, first, we get our backup tools…

Jack quickly stowed knives and spikes on his person, glad to see the already-prepared, multi-pocket sheaths ready for the stowing. He added the following: a pocket pouch full of metal dust, a trusty weighted cable, two backup cables (one wrapped around his waist like a belt), an all-steel hammer-pick combo, some little blocks and ball bearings, and his trusty metal shield in hand. He already felt the weight a bit, and didn't want to overdo it and inhibit his evasiveness too much.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

With this done, he reached inward to channel memorite out, starting at 50% output to begin breaking down existing extra steel and form it into a more 'moldable' sphere already touched by his power. He gradually, but fairly quickly, ramped up to 72%, and 82 kilograms, as much as he'd want to maintain easily in a contest going ten minutes or so, while giving him plenty of 'meat' to shave off if he needed darts and such.

When he was done, he was levitating a seemingly liquid sphere around the size of a basketball. He decided to expand that a bit, creating a hollow in the middle and a branching structure from there, doubling its volume. From this, he worked to spawn out branches like long, curved claws facing primarily one direction. For the most part, he'd likely be focused on grappling. A 'hard body type' was likely to be very resistant to puncture wounds.

Before he got any further, the table and everything on it vanished, and so did one wall of the room. He walked out to see the wonder of the Milky Way as a sky, clear and dark and with an invisible atmosphere, with the floor underneath solid, brightly glowing white concrete expanding every direction along the horizon. He could see, though he was contained within a transparent energy wall on four sides. Gravity was normal. It was strange and beautiful, as if on some huge, featureless space station. Or perhaps a paved planet.

The Parking Planet. Hehe. No capital spaceships. Violators will be vaporized.

Directly out in front of him, behind the wall of energy, was a rather large, ripped individual waiting behind it, suited similarly to him, but without apparent extra gear. Sweeping his use of Interpret out like a 'scan,' Jack could tell she had no metal on her.

Jack waved. "Hi Lindsay!"

A deep, modulated voice answered, "Not my name, assface. I'm Agent Asskicker. You're the ass. Got it?"

Jack blinked and then laughed. "Gimme a break, Lindsay! I know it's you."

"I'm gonna pound you harder than your daddy did your mommy to make your sorry ass."

"Really? Now that's just uncalled for."

"Yes, really. In a non-sexual way, I mean."

"But you specifically made a very sexual reference."

"It's a metaphor. The point is: you're dead!" The muscular figure pounded one fist into her hand in emphasis.

Jack backed up to create more space, pulling his sphere with him, levitating it out in front of him about three meters. The little 'white room' that had been behind him was gone.

"Yeah, you better run, bitch," the figure taunted.

"I'm glad you approve!" Jack called. Locking his sphere into a levitation stasis that required little energy, he unsheathed five darts and hovered them immediately behind the sphere. He also undid his cable-flail and tossed it on the ground, ready to be snapped into action at a moment's notice.

As soon as the wall was down, his opponent, whom he decided to think of as 'Boiler,' came charging across the space on a high-speed tear like a blur. Jack hoped her burst of speed was less than the distance between them, so he held off for a moment to see if she'd slow…

She was not. She looked fully ready to charge right into him, and didn't appear to care about the steel sphere that might bar the way.

Able to waste no more precious time, Jack brought around the darts and fired them all in quick succession like a volley, utilizing Throw, while aiming specifically against whatever move Boiler was about to make.

Boiler altered her route quickly, angling to his right side, immediately dismissing the first couple of darts from having any chance without a heavy curve. He adjusted the other three to be a threat upon her trajectory, as if to either force her to run through or delay getting to him, but Jack's true intentions were for the last dart. As she moved evasively against them, treating them like projectiles, Jack took full hold and control of one dart, collapsing memorite into it with near full strength. As Boiler easily dodged the other darts and appeared to hesitate slightly, no doubt sensing the definitive lack of effort, Jack sent the metal piece right at her, now like liquid and expanding in size, losing all dart-like qualities.

Boiler had fast reflexes and tried to juke it out and run by, but Jack was way too close, still had momentum, and had a strong element of surprise, despite not being total. The metal, now a long band meant to entangle, came right for her body.

She attempted to jump over it in an acrobatic flip. This almost worked as the band flew through her prior center of mass, but with full control, Jack hit the 'brakes' on it and curved it upward. He tried to snake it around her legs as the most opportune target.

Somehow, she managed to keep one leg just from getting snagged, but Jack wrapped the other one multiple times, so he went with it and cemented the hold. He also did a jerk with his control of the metal, throwing off the careful balance she needed midair.

She hit the ground and rolled. Not letting up on his advantage, Jack squeezed hard and jerked chaotically simultaneously. She grunted as she was half-slung and was unable to get to her feet, though her prodigious strength precluded him from fully restraining or stopping her.

The lack of a pained cry was something of a wake-up call for Jack. What he'd fought to date would not simply shrug off that level of his Pressure.

Mini chimed. <Armor and Toughness are resisting the attack. It's not enough to injure.>

<Can I go all-out on Boiler, here? Mega head smash with the flail?>

<Yes. This is a Bruiser load-out. Basic hard bodies aren't invulnerable but can take a ton of punishment.>

Boiler suddenly sat up, facing away from Jack, and this put his metal out of his line of sight. With Interpret, he felt her reach her fingers underneath the metal and rip…

Just barely, he reacted in time to let her hand pass through the metal liquidly instead of shredding hard metal, thus losing very little material. Sprinkles, at most.

"Annoying!" Boiler called and flung herself back around in a quick hop, covering a meter or two of the distance in an instant.

Damn it! He jerked the metal upward hard, trying to suspend her in the air. Simultaneously, he backed up a bit.

Her leg came up and she tripped to the ground again, but her counter-pressure strength was extreme and held the metal down despite Jack's efforts — he couldn't get her airborne. Her body shook with strain as she growled low and loud, and, as a surprise to him, he sensed something like an invisible framework around her, a web, a vast branching tangle of twisting filaments contorting around and then into her. But it was odd because it wasn't with 'sight,' and the idea of them as a web of filaments was more of a necessary hallucination. He felt them, felt their tightness, their fusing with reality, like energized brushes across hidden layers of skin.

That's Allotment! I can sense it! Interesting.

Significantly more of her virtual Allotment was getting added to the mix. Somehow, he knew this was a distorted analog of reality: Lindsay in the real world was using as much as she was allowed, at least based on the restraints she had in place. In any case, it didn't tell him anything useful, right then.

Her bound foot held in place like an anchor, Boiler stood. Jack jerked again — to little avail. A scraping sound on concrete as her foot only slid slightly. She dragged her foot forward, and then took a step with her other foot. Jack tried to time his jerk to trip her up, but all he managed to do was make her wave her arms and not quite lose her balance.

"I'll limp my way to your asskicking, if I have to, you little bitch!" Boiler called angrily in that disturbing modulated voice. Another slide forward. "I can do this all day!"

Jack let out a slow breath as he stopped backpedaling. This is a stalemate. I'm taking myself away from the sphere and the flail for no gain. I can't do shit while I'm putting my full effort into it.

He toned down a little bit of his Allotment poured into the wrap, and pumped up his memorite output to 78%, enough to grab his cable flail and levitate it into position, grabbing it by the end and spinning it slowly.

"Ohhhh," Boiler taunted, "now we're talkin'! Bring that little toy over here! I'll smash you with it!"

"You're welcome to try," Jack muttered.

He released control of the binding band to spin the flail harder. It was a quick thing, as he expected Boiler to immediately move, and thus get faked out. But when he switched back to the band to jerk it, Boiler hadn't moved.

"Not falling for it, bitch! I see your game!" she called. "Make your damn move. Think that momentum is yours, huh?"

Jack squinted his eyes. "Hmm." The flail's momentum? Does she have something trickier in her sleeve? He did a series of feints, leveraging his current advantage, switching control back and forth, feinting like he would attack with the flail, but stopping short. He came close to getting her to trip as she flinched, but not quite.

That's fine. I want her to be nice and twitchy.

Finally, he moved in the flail for another feint, making it slightly more obvious — just enough she'd 'know' — but at the last moment, on the back swing of the flail, he popped a long end-section portion of the cable off and sent it right into her. She was ill-prepared to successfully dodge it, and her hands came up to fend it off. But Jack was already switching control to the band and jerking outward hard. With her distracted and entirely off-balance, she pitched downward into the concrete.

As the master stroke of his multifaceted maneuver, Jack re-grabbed the spinning flail before it hit the ground and brought it around, aiming to crack her in the back of the head hard.

Firstly, this was somewhat challenged by the flail ending up further away than he had intended in his visualization of the attempt, delaying its application. Secondly, Boiler was supremely quick and agile, and she twisted herself as she fell, so her head was facing upward.

It spoiled the strike, as her head whipped sideways at the last moment, and the weight of the flail cracked the concrete next to her with a splintering force, sending little fragments in every direction.

He was expecting her to grab the flail, next, pulling off some 'trick,' so he jerked it both out of range and wound up for another strike — but she instead appeared to roll sideways the other way and rise.

She came up with her knee visible, and two hands around her leg as she pulled down hard and followed through; everything came off of her leg at once as her suit was ripped and slid down with the metal around it, andeven her boot was flipped off with the vicious application of strength, bouncing on the concrete behind her.

Jack switched his control as soon as he could, but it was too late, and she was already moving explosively forward like a runaway train, one foot bare, her speed incredible, and a step ahead of his metal.

Shit, shit, shit!

He abandoned the impossibility of catching her from behind and grabbed control of the sphere to interject it between them…