The Children of Zegandaria, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov, Atanas Marinov [first color ebook reader txt] 📗

was the distribution level, by the same logic the second level of the base levels was formed. But here, Kazuk Mon had chosen to meet them away from the sight of Om Gur Nal, who had no idea of their existence.

They were about to learn something astonishingly important.

THE RIDDLE

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN: THE RIDDLE

 

For Big John, loyalty had come first in the past, but in the present he was a very different man. Once they sensed who the killer of their boss, Detective Boss, was, the question of sharing the money quickly arose. It didn't take them too long to come to the conclusion that there would be a benefit for them. But deep down they were sorry for the lost leader. Edward Boss had told them, however, that demon hunting was no simple matter, and they knew they had no defense this time except their experience.

They were trying to cope, but it wasn't coming that easily.

They buried their boss's body in the prison cemetery - but not in the underground complex, but in the real one.

- Boss would be in his place among criminals. He's just about to bring some order!“ one of his team joked.

Then one of them noticed a small medallion protruding from one of the compartments of his suit.

- It was Marbas's medallion. That's right. But where had Boss gotten hold of it?

The thing was, Emborian Zontul had dropped it when they'd chased him. That pendant also contained a hidden electronic key for a third hidden virtual reality level.

The Zogan Drag swamps weren’t too far away from the Shore Tuk prison. And the director of the prison would often send out immunologists to search for hidden artifacts. It was his illegal business that flourished. In the past, he had even sold overly valuable finds to the Archistratus himself. The Archistratus, by the way, possessed an extremely rich and impressive collection of most interesting finds, such as a full-lEngth Seburnag Thyrphan brought to him from Sebur Nag, where the prison director's hunting party sometimes camped with the locals.

On one occasion, his men had stumbled upon the medallion in the swamps of the planet Zegandaria, half-submerged in the slime where Emborian's foot had stepped on it.

It had happened just as the boy had gasped at the appearance of the demon Marbas.

As could easily be seen, Marbas was one of the many computer programs that had attempted to control the young man's brain before destroying him. It was also the hidden agenda of Archivist Kazuk Mon. Yeah, no one was aware that it was that obvious, but Zontul figured it out. That was why he thought it might be a tracer program[80] to ensure access to his own head. But it was actually a computer virus to disrupt his own narenzianan chip and shut him down.

This was, in fact, the real secret of virtual death. The problem was that a person was physically dead if the chip in their head was disabled.

In this period of hibernation, he could stand for a certain amount of time before true physical decay took place. Emborian was also long physically dead.

His skeleton was discovered by the marauders in question, direct subordinates of the prison director, who had difficulty idеntifying him. Shore Tuk Prison also had a military hospital advanced enough to have a Beronium nanoprobe in order to extract DNA for anallysis.

Such a test gave about 99.9% accurate results.

The director whistled when he found out exactly who they had found - it was really impressive.

From that day on, the locket had been in his pocket and he never parted with it, which was how Boss had found it. Old dog like him easily came to the conclusion that the headmaster was unlikely to give him the chance to reach his destination by the short cut.

He therefore needed to make a huge sacrifice - his own life! But he got the answer to the riddle, or at least part of it!

Big John hastened to overtake them and declared:

- I'll take it! That's my trophy!

The others did not object, for this harmless trinket seemed a trifling piece compared to the vast amount of money they were to share after Boss's death.

Cowboy Nils Armborn, Rento and Imaya were intoxicated by their success. But suddenly they were seized. Big John had turned his back on them. They rushed at him and hammered him. He had witnessed too much to be allowed to live.

They decided to see what was hidden in the artifact in question though. Nils Armborn muttered:

- Perhaps it would be too much for me. Though his style is a bit retro. But then again, my style will suit the new cyberpunk fashion trends more from now on.

Rento then decided to open it with his knife. And everyone was amazed by what they saw.

Upon re-visualizing, they saw Archibald Peos and Kibera across from them, looking at each other.

Now they had all passed to the third hidden level, as the activated key was linked to the other two, the demon's "Nastarog" and the demon's "Abraxis".

- "So he knew from the beginning!," roared Rento.

- "You bastard! Old fox!," uttered Imaya in her anguish, who had considered Boss her spiritual father and the best detective on the planet.

- "Are we the last survivors?," asked Nils Armborn.

The cowboy was proud that for once he might be part of some sort of elite.

Beside him stood Averia Downs herself, who was also intelligent enough to understand what was happening. A tear dropped from her eye in sympathy for this brave man.

THE FACE OF OM GUR NAL

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN: THE FACE OF OM GUR NAL

 

- "If I understand correctly, we must find the fourth and final key?," murmured Averia Downs.

They all gaped at her and wondered at her insight.

- The demons are apparently grouped according to their hierarchy - Marbas, Nastarog and Abraxis. Noah who was the fourth then?

- "Om Gur Nal," Imaya murmured softly. "That's the last piece of the puzzle. We were looking for something that was in front of our eyes all along. That was the real secret! He created the game and only those worthy of his level can expose him."

- "But why did he need it?," asked Rento, rather meaningfully.

- And how to find the last fourth key?

The third level had no indication in that regard. The level was half empty and open boxes were rolling and strewn about. The walls ended in nothingness and reeked of utter grief.

- Something tells me we're very close to the truth.

Rento decided to check if there were any hollow walls. The entire room they were in was no more than thirty square. It wasn't long before he saw that they were lyranium panels that had simply been secured with emzonium rivets. He started to kick them open and a hidden hydronic door showed behind one of them.

There was a code. Once Archie decided to enter their birth years. They appeared to follow one after the other, which was a unique coincidence.

Who was aware of this? Of course, to Doctor Ser Mac Zon, who was that virtuous guarron trying to show that their race had nothing against humans.

- "What Doctor Ser Mac Zon was looking for was the chaotic reorganization of human consciousness based on the chipped humans," Archie said very vaguely.

- "I mean," Averia Downs looked at him, who just about understood what he was talking about.

- "Very simply, Gad Di ‘Enn has been trying to selectively chip his victims and the narenzianan chips have serial numbers," laughed the genial Peos.

- "Check if you want!," he touched where his own had been.

- "Amazing!," gushed the cowboy Nils Armborn. "So simple, but it works!"

I mean, the missed numbers are the ones with the so-called 'mind defects'. They are the very reason that Gad Di ‘Enn has labeled as extremely dangerous, because it has interrupted the process of his reimplantation of memories.

- It's clear as day! Some are still able to recover their consciousness from before all this mystification. And those people are us.

They decided to enter the cavity one by one. And a futuristic green tunnel appeared before them.

- "It looks so surreal!," squealed Imaya. "We really have to be careful."

But no more than ten or fifteen meters had passed when the tunnel ended with a massive hydron door. The lock was kevanate and required scanning for the narenzianan chips.

- "There's the last key!," the cowboy joked.

- "Anyone have any idea how we're going to open it?," asked Imaya.

The tall and slender girl looked so graceful against the huge and rough door. Her beautiful ankles covered with the parts of the supertech suit were more than impressive.

- "I think it's time for me to join in too," Everia called. "What about killing Shame. It makes sense that he would be involved in all of this as well."

- "I think we might as well try," Archie stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Let's dial his name."

The door didn't open.

- "It can't be that obvious," Rento interjected. "It's too flat."

Then they heard a deafening sound and a groan. So quiet it was downright frightening. It was really pathetic.

The hydron door was completely soundproofed. Where was that sound coming from then?

It was so heartbreaking. It was reminiscent of pre-death agony.

Archie thought of how they might as well open the door. Apparently it was encoded in the level itself. They just had to find it.

Then they saw the imprint of a child's hand. A small child's hand. Who had left it.

- "Could it be that Om Gur Nal was a child?," and Averia Downs tried to ask a question. "Surely he ever had been. And had seen the world with different eyes."

- "Well, maybe that's the key word?," ventured Archie's guess. "Or maybe that answer was right in front of our eyes, like so many others, and we were blind and deaf to see through it."

- "Om Gur Nal," Archie bellowed insightfully. "Shame didn't have to die. By killing him, you only revealed your face to us. You sold the virtual dope to all those kids, and the adults too, you aided and abetted this whole bacchanal, along with the criminal Doctor Gad Di 'Enn. Why don't you show yourself? It's pointless hiding in this den! Come out with your real face!"

The massive door opened and somewhere in there they saw a brain studded with so many ezonium wires that it looked like a hedgehog, this brain was connected to an Evaran supercomputer. They gasped. They hadn't expected to see exactly that.

The two Evaran supercomputers