Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) by Arthur Stone (top 5 books to read TXT) 📕

wonderfully as the teen flew face forward, smashing into the ground between the game ditches with a satisfying thump.

“What kind of idiotic games are you playing on my path?!” I growled, still advancing. “If I see you here one more time, it’ll be your funeral.”

The move was both bold and too primitive. But these were just peasant kids left to their own devices. Zero education and simple minds. People like that knew by the tone when being addressed by a lord, and not some ragamuffin. And my speech was properly sophisticated—I was, after all, a noble of this realm. The key was to press them right away and withdraw before they got a chance to recover. If they figured out the ruse before then, no amount of persuasion would save us.

In a fair fight, the two of us couldn’t handle the four of them. My body remained as gaunt as ever, and my joints ached as though they had been put through the rack—the consequence of a sharp bump in the amulet’s parameters. Whenever an attribute experienced rapid growth, the reservoir tried to adapt to it as quickly as possible, notwithstanding any negative sensations. So despite euphoria flooding my mind with grandiose possibilities, everything below my neck was woefully unequipped to back them up with actions.

The only scary thing about Beko was the pickaxe, which he was likely to dump so as to run faster than actually use for combat.

Our foes weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. While the prostrated kid ate dirt, the others kept shifting their flabbergasted gazes from him to us and back again.

Finally, the smallest among them, presumably Little Tatai, squealed like a little girl.

“The freak! The freak is leaving! There he is!”

Naturally, he was pointing at Beko.

I turned back, pointed to my companion and added in the same tone of irrefutable superiority.

“Shut your trap. This one is with me.”

“Oh... I... I didn’t know...” Tatai babbled.

“Now you know,” I said dismissively as we kept moving up the path.

This was going to go one of two ways. Satat could analyze the situation quickly enough to try and stop us. I had a contingency plan in mind for this scenario, but I wasn’t eager to put it to use. So though I walked on with dignity, my pace wasn’t exactly slow.

The second scenario relied on Satat’s brain lacking sufficient operating efficiency to see through the ruse and overcome the shock of Beko’s new companion’s implausible bravado.

When we made it to the wall, I chuckled without turning around.

“He took the second scenario.”

“What are you saying?” Beko asked under his breath.

“I’m saying we’re strong and dangerous. Did you see how we trounced them back there?”

“Yeah! That was great, how you whacked Jakos. I was going to hit him, too, but then I felt sorry for him.”

Behold, the great power of fortress walls. As soon as Beko was safely behind them, his courage grew tenfold in an instant.

* * *

The merchant’s name was Guppy, which I found amusing following our recent victory over the Carps. Though I would have dubbed him ‘Catfish’ for his luxuriant mustache and portly frame.

The merchant wasn’t exceedingly welcoming.

Immediately upon sighting us on the doorstep of his warehouse slash trading post, the fat man barked irritatingly.

“Get lost, both of you, before I make you cry!”

“Master Guppy, we come to you to do business.”

“What business can you possibly have with me? Looking to nick something, I bet? Go ahead and try. I won’t even call Hugo’s boys—I’ll tear your hands off my own damn self.”

“We wish to buy something from you,” I kept my tone polite, though it was becoming increasingly difficult.

“Is that right? You’re here to buy? Ha! It’s my lucky day to entertain such esteemed customers. If only twerps like you had any money to pay with. Now scram before I lose my patience!”

“Do you not accept small symbols of chi as payment?”

The trader’s expression changed, betraying the slightest interest. My deductions had been correct. He was right that we didn’t have any money, but the Order was famously unpredictable in terms of how and to whom it awarded chi. Sometimes even a great feat would fetch a big fat nothing whereas some trifle would net a unit or two. Even the feeblest losers weren’t immune to earning some chi, and their gains were theirs to dispose of as they pleased. Some used them for self-development while others looked for a suitable trade opportunity.

It was breaking my heart to part with something I so badly needed. But this was an investment in my future, and perhaps the only thing that could help me escape the gloom of hopelessness.

With a little luck.

Guppy nodded slowly.

“I do, of course. But they’re not worth much, being only small symbols and all. Whaddya need?”

“Do you sell fishing hooks?”

“Of course. What kind?”

“Can I look at all your stock?”

“I don’t charge for looking, but don’t be putting your paws on anything without permission. So, you’re scheming to do some fishing?”

I nodded while examining the man’s wares.

“Yes, we’d like to try.”

“It’s pointless. There hasn’t been good fishing around the island for a good long while. Nothing but kote. They swarm from all over Blackriver—you can’t go near the water without wetting yourself. Their meat is tasty, no doubt, and their liver is a real delicacy, but they avoid the hook. You just can’t catch the bastards. Not with a hook, not with a net. The beasts are too bloody clever.”

I nodded again. “I know. You can’t even harpoon them from boats. A hunter shot one dead about a week ago. Sighted it from a cliff and hit it with an arrow. But the kote sank, so all he got was a small symbol of chi.”

“You’re new here, aren’t you?