Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3) by John Gold (novel24 TXT) 📕

Those thoughts occupy me for just five seconds. On the fifth, the same male nurse walks into the room. They’re setting up a med capsule in my room, a kind I’ve never seen before.

“I’m sorry, what model is that? I’ve never seen one like it.”

“Judging by the number of non-disclosures I signed, I doubt you’ll ever see one again, too. This thing would save you from a direct hit with a plasma cannon that separated your head from your body. It has an autonomous power sources that’s stronger than… Whoops, there’s the first warning from the system. I’d better not say anything else.”

His name is Claude, and I decide he’s the only person I’m going to talk to.

Ten minutes later, he’s back to take me for a complete checkup, and then preparatory procedures.

They say they’ll get to work in a week. I’m supposed to spend the intervening time in the med capsule so it can get my nervous system ready for the procedure, which will involve completely replacing all my old tissue with new samples grown from stem cells. They only do the same to nervous systems if it’s absolutely necessary, however. My case falls into that category, and so that’s why I need the extra prep time. My damaged nerve tissue will be completely replaced. That will be the most dangerous part of the procedure.

Claude dunks me in the med capsule filled with the solution, telling me that I won’t be able to come out for the next week. My consciousness slips into the virtual space, and I see a timer ticking down from seven days.

I get a message from Femida marked Urgent.

Your new name is Ribonz Almark. Your age and medical card are the same as Angie Ganet’s. You’re in a sanatory as part of an experimental research group, and you owe me another half a million for all the comfort and the new identity. And that’s cheap! You have no idea how much work I put in to save you. Pay for the rehabilitation yourself, and then go with whatever kind of modified neuronet you want.

P.S. Forget about what happened on the ship.

P.P.S. Let me know before you log into Project Chrysalis.

There’s nothing to forget, so I just send her a reply.

But sweetie, what about the alimony?

Judging by the date and time in Project Chrysalis, it’s been a bit more than three days. I need to hurry if I’m going to drop by a couple places and still make it to the League of Hunters on time.

It’s half an hour later when Femida shows up. Before we step away from the clinic’s dome, we put on our patient outfits. Almark and Gaia make their grand entrance into the world.

Femida can choose whose name to show, hers or Isaac’s, so she can just go with Gaia once she has on her patient clothes and Isaac’s armor.

It’s a little trickier for me. My choices are my old outfit, the one priests see in a bloody aura, or Almark’s empty outfit. I decide to compromise, going with my blood suit for battle and Almark’s clothes the rest of the time. I’ll have to just depend on my own strength when I’m him.

“Attribute window.”

Name: Sagie (Almark)

Level: 913

Experience: 6150/2216620 (2210470 left until the next level)

Race: Human

Class Mage

Main attributes

Strength: 924

Agility: 2071

Stamina: 1944

Intellect: 10338

Wisdom: 5154

Available attribute points: 0

Additional attributes

Speed: 500

Athleticism: 705

Morale: 705

Survivability: 705

With my clothes back on, I’m twice as strong. How do I celebrate?

“Meteor. Maximum!”

Birds fly up into the air, waves kick up, and an enormous shadow covers the nearest island. A giant ball of flames pierces the clouds and rushes toward the island. My parting gift slams into the protective dome above the island, causing a commotion among everyone on it.

“What was that?”

“Just a quick hello to an unpleasant doctor. If I had more mana, I’d have made a meteor twice as powerful.”

Given the heightened magic field coming from Tanatos, my mana is back two and a half minutes later. Logically speaking, Project Chrysalis assumes that players will gravitate toward places with a stronger magic field. That’s where mages can maximize their battle potential, after all.

For now, we need to get to Gimza in Radaam, where the next trial for the Hunters will be starting in four days. We’re on our way back to the River of Life and all its natural portals we can use to move around the game.

A shadow streaks toward us under the water before shooting out of it, blocking our path.

Merman, Tilesh: lesser natural god

He has the torso of a young, black-haired man.

Instead of a greeting, a water blade comes flying at us. We jump in unison, though it’s followed up by a water whip. The magic shield I throw up just a second before absorbs all the damage, even if it doesn’t keep us from being thrown backward.

Merman, Malesh: lesser natural god

The two twin mermen apparently get their jollies by giving poor travelers a hard time.

“Team chat.”

“Got it.”

Fem, we can’t win this. I can’t do any more than eight million damage, and they have resistance up to twenty-five. There’s another one in the water. Jump.

“Lightning. Maximum.”

Jumping around like rabbits trying to confuse our tracks, we run across the water, fighting off summoned creatures and blocking ranged attacks. The three mermen work like a group of experienced hunters chasing down their prey. Flying fish, sticky seaweed, and remoras spend the next six hours letting me know that it’s too early for me to think about a trip to Tanatos. I couldn’t even kill one of these little gods, not to mention a squad of them. Rage at my powerlessness bubbles up, anger at how brazen the trio