Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 201

With the assistance of Dev, I managed to get back up and out of the hole without plummeting into the depths. By the time I latched onto the other Squire’s hand and he pulled me out, the Knight and her two Squire’s had arrived.

“I see you found the way down.” Persha idly commented as she peeked over the ledge. “Long drop.”

“Trust me, I’m intimately aware.” I shook off some plant goo that splattered on my poncho.

 The unarmored Squire raised a hand. “Um- how do we get down?”

“You have a plan for that?” The Knight asked me and Dev. “I didn’t bring anything except my two Squires. This'll be their first time down too.”

That can't go wrong... I pulled my bag off my back and rifled around in it for a moment before I found a spool of microwire. I’d gone and bought some more earlier in the day. I also withdrew the rest of the equipment we’d need to repel down before carefully looking down through my bag. 

Most of my goodies were hidden under the drone case and the small briefcase holding my micro-sentries. A bit more rooting around and I withdrew a glowstick. I cracked and shook it, casting a bright green glow across our surroundings, before tossing it behind my back and off the ledge. 

While it dropped, I started setting up the repel lines. Nothing too complicated. I’d done this dozens of times before, and would probably do so hundreds of times again. The Underground seemed to be popping up quite a bit these days.

Dev crouched next to the hole and watched the glow stick plummet. “I’m surprised nothing’s come up from here. This hole is massive.”

“Yeah?” He made a good point. The reason most creatures of the Underground stayed in the Underground was the access shafts were too small. For instance, a Pervider wouldn’t fit through ninety percent of the shafts I knew about. And its offspring, which were much smaller, wouldn't live long enough to crawl up one.

“Hey, Zuku?” I glanced at Dev over my shoulder. “Your glowsticks gone.” 

“What?” I finished what I was doing and glanced over the edge. Sure enough, nothing but darkness down there. Its as if there was never a glowstick. “How far down did it get?”

“I dunno. Deep?” Dev said, unsure of himself. 

Knight Persha looked over the edge of the pit too. “Is that a problem?”

“Maybe… might be something down there. Don’t want to repel onto a monster.” I frowned, staring at the hole for a moment before making up my mind.  

I rooted through my bag, pulling out my brand-new deck. It was a nice piece of tech, with RGB lights all over it that flashed magnificently. And its specs were good too. But the pretty lights! Ah, so good. I wanted to put some in the rest of my tech. I'm just saying, an RGB turret that pulsed with its shots would look super cool. Not exactly practical though...

I flipped it on, connecting up to one of my Scouters. I’d splurged and gotten a way better receiver built into the deck, which was most of the expense. With it, I’d be able to connect to my tech from miles away. Particularly helpful in situations like this.

“What’s that?” Persha’s armored Squire asked. Still had no idea what either of their names were. They hadn't offered, and I'd probably never see them again, so I never asked.

“A camera.” I set everything up, making sure it was all connected as I activated the Scouter. My face popped up on the screen, mostly hidden in darkness. I fixed that by taping another glowstick to the Scouter before tossing it over the edge. 

As the taped combo dropped, I watched on the deck. I ran some calculations through my head, taking gravity, the Scouter’s weight, and a dozen other factors into account as I calculated the depth of the device.

Before too long, it passed the typical depth of the Underground. I expected it to hit off of the ground down there. Instead, it continued to drop down the shaft. Soon it doubled the depth where the Underground was at. I glanced over the edge, still able to faintly see the glow from way up here.

I checked my deck again-@@novelbin@@

The Scouter and glowstick slammed into something hard, instantly shattering. In its last upload, I caught sight of a massive cavern filled with water. My mind immediately flashed back to my fight with the Wendigo oh so long ago. More accurately, to the tentacle that lashed up from the water to pull the Wendigo down. 

An image of said tentacle wrapping around my ankle, yanking me down into the depths to be devoured by some horrendous entity was positively terrifying. I flashed Cold-Blooded to calm myself down and put aside my deck. As long as we didn't go too deep, it'll be fine.

“What was it?” The Knight asked as I put my deck back up.

“Should be nothing. This shaft drops down into an aquifer, I think… it's several times deeper than the Underground.” I thought through the map, mentally zooming in on our location. “There should be a small entrance into the Underground on this side of the shaft long before then.” 

“Is there another entrance we can take? A safer one, perhaps?” Persha asked.

I looked down at the harness and equipment I literally just set up. She couldn’t have asked me that five minutes ago? “Not unless you want to search for another one.”

“Right, because we might not stumble across the next one.” The Knight raised her hands in surrender. “Fine, this one will work.”

I barely managed to keep the irritation off my face at the joke she just happened to fall into. “I’ll go first. Make sure it's safe.” 

“F-fine by me. I’ll- uh, I’ll go last. Make sure everything up here is secure,” Dev said. His entire body looked as though it were shaking, and not by a little. His flashlight constantly bobbed around enough to give someone a seizure.

“You do that.” I threw my bag back on, made sure the Drop Chutes were good to go just in case, and then started the long repel down. I did the math as I descended, keeping track of my depth versus the depth I needed to be at. 

Eventually, I hit it. My eyes easily adjusted to the deep darkness down here, allowing me to see every small crevice and crack on the shaft’s walls. I scoured the surface, looking over every section of it as I mentally aligned myself with the map. 

I spotted my target not too far away–a ledge jutting out slightly past a tight crevice. I grabbed onto the microwire holding me up against the side of the shaft. Then I kicked off with my feet, rocking back towards the ledge. 

I fell short, shooting my arm out the latch onto the edge of the ledge. For a second, it was fine. Then the full weight of my dangling body transferred onto said arm, shooting pain through my muscles. I scrambled for the ledge, using insane upper body strength I didn’t even know I had, to pull myself up and onto the crumbling rock.

I scampered backward into the crevice as I felt the ledge underneath lurch sharply. Parts of it crumbled, slamming down into the shaft to plummet into the cold waters below. A shout came from atop the shaft. Dev, I think. “Y-you okay down there?”

Silence reigned for a few moments as I searched through my bag for one of my last glowsticks. I cracked it, shedding light on my surroundings, and waved it up at them as I unclipped the harness. “I’m good! The entrance is over here!”

While they were figuring out all of that, I dropped the glow stick just inside the crevice so they could see the spot and turned to get a look at what we had to work with. It led toward a narrow path- or at least a narrow path for the others. I had no problem slinking past the constricted space as I thought through the map.

It should lead out onto- ah. I stumbled forward, pushing past a choke point in the cave. It was tight enough I knocked free quite a few rocks as I ducked out into a half-caved-in subway tunnel. I checked both sides- nothing immediately jumped out as incredibly dangerous. Good enough.

I backed down the tunnel towards the massive shaft. I got back just in time for Persha to join me down on the ledge. She was the first of the bunch. “Ah, nothing like a nice repel to get the blood pumping, eh?”

”I guess. Get down okay?” I asked the woman.

”Yeah. Not Dev’s first rodeo, I take it?” The woman asked, though it sounded rhetorical. “He got me all setup and ready to go quickly. Probably for the best he’s last; my Squires wouldn’t know how to set all that up.” 

Guess his experience with the Underground was paying off, just probably not in the way that Dev would’ve liked it to. We waited a few minutes. Soon, the armored squire joined us. And then the unarmored one.

Finally, Dev repelled down to us. He quickly flung himself into the somewhat stable outcropping of rock, scrambling to safety. “Gah, I hate heights.” 

The shaking Squire took off the repelling gear, handing it to me. I set up a temporary anchor and hooked the microwire to. It would seriously suck to come back and find the repell line hanging out over the abyss.

“So… down this way, I take it?” The Knight asked. She was the furthest back into the small cave leading to the Underground proper.

”Chek. Careful though; it gets pretty tight.” Didn’t think this through now, did we? It was way too cramped to try and squeeze back to the lead. At last, there weren’t any branching paths. It was a straightforward route.

The Knight led our way, having to twist and turn to fit past. It was even worse for Dev, who had on a full set of heavy plate armor. At a few points, Knight Persha chipped and punched at the rocks, manually widening the gap just so she could get past. 

And then, with one loud shoulder check, she slammed out into the abandoned subway. Her helmet must of had some kind of filtration because, while she didn’t cough from the mass of dust she threw up with her rather forceful entry, both of her squires were nearly bent over choking on fresh dust.

All five of us exited into the subway. I immediately felt everyone’s eyes on me. While I wasn’t the leader of our little group--heck I was the lowest ranked--I did happen to be the navigator. 

I thought through the map once more, tracing a route through the Underground to maximize efficiency for investigating likely areas where the discerning human trafficker might pass by. 

I went through and picked out the least likely spaces first, whether it be because they were too tight to effectively move people or for other reasons. From there, I traced a route to other spots, each one spiking the likelihood we’d run into something.

After a few seconds of double-checking my route, I motioned down the Subway. “That way”

We walked into the darkness of the Underground, weapons raised for any sign of a threat. None came. There were a few tracks of creatures moving through the area recently, though our group of five practically radiated danger. Most critters weren’t stupid and scampered off long before we came through.

Most.

We still had to fight a few beasties, but even calling it a fight was generous. Knight Persha easily handled each one with her sword, ending it in a single strike each time.

Granted, each of the denizens that attacked were small and too dumb to have a basic understanding of the danger they faced. I could’ve taken care of the threats with a few well-placed shots.

Still, she was really deserving of her title as ‘Knight’. She was always first to react, ending it by the time the rest of us realized we were under attack. Even with Insight and Dexterity working in my favor. 

Superhuman reflexes at the least, and insane sword techniques capable of cutting cement like butter. Add on top of that the enhancements from her gear, and she was a terrifying figure to face off against.

Her combat prowess… I’d a hundred percent lose a fight against her unless I had the time to prep, set an ambush, and abuse all of my Perks. Even then, as long as she kept her wits about her, overwhelming strength could brute force through a lot of my tricks. I’m glad she was on my side.

The first entrance that we checked for movement unfortunately didn’t reveal anything. It was bare of any marks heading up, mostly thanks to the fact that the shaft was small enough that only a child could fit through that particular route. Even then, it’d be tight.

We moved on to yet another entrance. Likewise, this one wasn’t it. There was definitely room for someone to come and go down the shaft, but the entrance exited out onto the top of a caved-in subway platform. The dust hadn’t even been touched until we arrived on the scene.

As they say though, the third time is the charm. There were signs that it was what we were looking for even before we stumbled across the spot I mentally marked.

Vines covered the walls in increasingly thick clumps as we approached. Aetheria Perception revealed them to be mundane, yet at any moment I was ready for them not to be.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed the growth of plants. Tension rose in the air as our group subtly rearranged itself so that Persha and Dev were close enough to jump forward should our group come under attack. And knowing these Circle bastards? It was only a matter of time.