Alpha physics book 3 d.., p.1
Alpha Physics! Book 3 - Disquiet: A Post Apocalypse Progression Fantasy, page 1
ALPHA PHYSICS
Book 3: Disquiet
Author: Alex Kozlowski
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Alex Kozlowski
All rights reserved.
Contents
Contents
Copyright
Contents
Log Report 214,123 - Entry 3
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Authors Note
Biography
LITRPG Groups
Log Report 214,123 - Entry 3
This is technically my third entry, but please consider it my second. The last one. Let us ignore that! I might have been flustered.
So, this place, Earth, as the locals call it. As an aside, why does every civilisation everywhere always name their planet one variety of earth, mother, or home? It is so consistent across the varied civilisations it is noticeable. Everything else seems to change, but the naming of the home planet remains a constant. The curious, the innovative, and the plain boring all trigger the event. Air, sea, land, and magma-based life forms they all trigger the Alpha particle event. Warlike, pacifist, or homicidal, each new race is different in so many ways, but their planet. Let us just say they never call it Barry.
Back on track.
The dersbrawk thing must still affect me because I feel like I am rambling.
Earth has experienced a nonstandard Alpha event.
There, I have said it!
It is not official, and it will probably take seasons before that determination comes down. But we all know.
I am making the call now!
It might be early, it may be irregular; there are even severe consequences if I am wrong, but I am making it anyway, and I am sure I am not the only one.
Poor humans.
Anyway, an Alpha event occurred on Earth, and I got a host called Adrian Fitzgerald. As is my role, I helped him acquire some nice skills while he blundered around, barely surviving and mocking my efforts. Having successfully engineered things to let him kill the Bird, he became a bit of a hero of the provincial town that he was visiting pre-event. One of his few positive traits is that he rejected that mantle, which was appropriate because he had not earnt it.
It was a struggle, but I forced him to stay in Wagga for an extra four nights and got him some cool skills, Flame Sprout, and two badges that—even through Adrian does not recognise it yet—are going to be vital in his attempt to reach his family. Travelling to Melbourne is a bigger undertaking than he realises.
One the badges which has him labelled as champion of humanity will give him access to critical intelligence if he ever acts in the role of an ‘actual hero’ while the other lets me tell him more explicitly when he is being stupid and underestimating an enemy that is smarter him. Given humans were the only sapient race on earth, I think how often it triggers is pretty telling. It is tailored to the host’s intelligence. If they are dumb, there are more chances to use it. As a result . . . well, I am not complaining. It is just a lot of work.
That is a joke, by the way; Adrian is actually . . . um. Adrian is . . . um . . . Adrian is okay.
There, I have said that too.
I am not proud to admit, but Adrian and I fought and made up a few times. The boy is still easy to manipulate, but at least he shows some steel and stands up for himself now. As a result, the relationship is more balanced. I hate the spineless ones.
Anyway, after the Wagga delay, he set off for Melbourne with four companions: Steve, a strong melee warrior; Susie, a healer; Kozzie, an assassin; and Jules, a barbarian. It is a balanced team though lacking slightly on the ranged offense with three of them being melee focused, and even Adrian is happy to do some stabby-stabby.
They saved some people in Uranquinty.
Plus one for them!
Trolls are dangerous, and over twenty is a ridiculous force, especially so early in the Alpha event. The town had not had a chance. Completely unfair for them, but then this is an Alpha event, so it happens. The next town was in ridiculously robust health, so they just passed through there quickly.
While journeying further, disaster struck; they became caught in a mana storm that spawned a mature dersbrawk. I was sure that they were chicken dinner after that.
That was where things got weird.
They survived.
Not only walked away, but they somehow successfully blackmailed the plant and left with a bag of loot. Treasure that may totally change everything. Unfortunately, its value really depends on the mood of a dumb plant. If it is honourable, it will be a massive and unexpected bonus, but the dersbrawk are not known for being humble or gracious in defeat. Its honour is pretty fluid, and I worry that its ‘gift’ is more likely to be a Trojan horse than a worthwhile offering. Some things are certain. It will benefit the group; it will serve humanity, but Adrian the one who almost killed it. Against my host, the plant may hold a grudge.
Unfortunately, I can see dersbrawk making the decision that its honour code would let it give extra to humanity in compensation for it setting a trap to destroy Adrian.
They can be tricky.
End. Log Report 214,123 - Entry 3
Chapter 1
Walking into another derelict town had its own terror. Was this like Wagga, which had suffered some hard knocks but got back on its feet, or was it like the Rock that flourished in the post-Alpha-event world? Looking around at the abandoned buildings, the team surmised that it was neither. Each of them as they walked were inadvertently recalling Uranquinty, a community destroyed utterly. In the end, fewer than thirty refugees of the initial thousands had survived. There had been waves of escapees before that, but Adrian feared those numbers had been low.
The trolls had actively hunted humans and used them as a larder, raiding their towns whenever they got hungry.
Please do not let this be another Uranquinty.
Hope. If Adrian had been religious prior to the event, he would have hoped that what he had observed since would have knocked that particular delusion out of him. But still, it was comforting to believe that a god was out there looking after him.
They kept walking, every step bringing back disturbing memories. They had not witnessed the destruction personally, only its aftermath. Then they had slaughtered all the trolls. It did not make it better.
“Movement!” Adrian called out as he spotted a curtain stirring in a large mansion. The building used to be, and probably still was, the best house in the town. It was surrounded by massive stone walls that were well over their heads, and the mansion itself was a multi-story monstrosity. They had a view of the structure over a temporary barricade that had been set up to cover the driveway. The huge metal gate was enforced by layers of stacked cars and other junk. There were shopping trolleys and even the remnants of a fridge. On the second storey, half of the windows had intact glass, and the rest were boarded up. On the ground floor, the makeshift barrier obscured most of the windows but the only visible one had tightly drawn shutters.
“Life,” Kozzie said, looking at t
“Check this house first,” Susie suggested.
While jumping the fence was very achievable, they decided not to risk provoking the occupants, so instead they went up to the personal entry built into the fence next to the now-blocked driveway. There was a grand arch in the stonework with a solid metal frame door and a security grill. Unsurprisingly, the entrance was locked and reinforced with a heavy outdoor table. The top was positioned so the handle could not be pushed down to release the latch, even if the lock was picked or broken. It looked substantial; it would have kept out one of the smaller trolls, though those things would not have had too much difficulty scaling the walls. These fortifications told them that at least trolls were not causing a problem here.
“Anyone in there?” Susie called out, cupping her hands to direct the sound towards the house. She yelled again. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Do we . . . ?” Kozzie mimed jumping the fence.
Adrian looked at the others for cues. Jules kept her face neutral while Steve gave a subtle head shake.
“Anyone there?” Susie tried one more time, shouting even louder. Another curtain in the upstairs stirred, but no one came out. At the very least, they had been seen. If they did not want help, then they were not going to force the issue.
“Try the barricade down the road next?” Susie asked, dropping her arms.
Yelling was at best pointless if they were not answering and at worst dangerous if something other than a human responded.
“ANYONE THERE?!” Susie screamed, clearly confident that the five of them could fend off any monsters that emerged. “We just want to talk.”
Her frustration was evident in her tone. There were plenty of reasons for suspicions and why they had not seen anything untoward in their travels. It was easy to imagine how a small minority might respond badly in this sort of event. It would only take one evil group to completely change the social dynamics, especially if there were no ex-cops or soldiers on the civilian side.
They listened for a minute, and then shrugged before heading off towards the other barricade they had spotted. “Paranoid or scared,” Kozzie said with a shrug. “We can try later. Maybe the other group will be more cooperative.”
“Somewhere between Uranquinty and Wagga,” Susie said, looking around. While they had not seen anyone moving apart from the flicker of the curtain, the dull town still did not have the utterly abandoned look of Uranquinty.
“We will find out,” Adrian said simply. His mind was dwelling on the mana storm and how lucky they had been. He daydreamed about exactly what the bag they had received might contain. Hopefully, the plant had been fair and the trade was worth the almost-guaranteed loot they had sacrificed in the deal.
Crack.
He jumped before scowling at Jules, who had stepped on a stick.
Terrible.
Jules should have been more careful, and he should not have let his mind wander. The treasure in the bag would be revealed tomorrow. Speculation was wasted effort.
They walked openly in the middle of the road, keeping an eye out for monsters. Nothing stirred. While the damage to the houses they passed was staggering, it still felt like the outskirts of Wagga. An area where regular human hunting parties passed through to reduce the number of creatures.
“No tracks,” Steve said. Everyone startled a little. “No animal trails,” he clarified, pointing around. “Lots of humans have been through here.” Steve trailed off into silence.
“Okay,” Kozzie said carefully, giving the older man a funny look. It was great to get the information, but it was not in character for Steve to communicate so freely.
“I thought you guys would want to know,” he muttered.
“We did,” Adrian assured him, noticing the tracks now that Steve had pointed it out. There were animal signs, but they were days or weeks old with human footprints overlapping them.
They trailed once more into silence, but everyone was hypersensitive to their surroundings. Steve was right. There were no animal leavings anywhere, no puffs of feathers where a bird was taken down.
They approached the junk wall. A car crash was the centrepiece of the construction, but additional cars contributed to the collage. On top of them, large plastic rubbish bins had been linked to add extra height. Whoever had constructed the makeshift barrier must have gathered the bins from over twenty houses. Tree branches had also been woven into the entire structure, secured with knotted clothes and bed sheets.
It had obviously been built quickly and it was an impressive effort. Of course, it was not sufficient to impede anything large or particularly aggressive, but midsize monsters would be unable to get through, and larger ones would probably be delayed long enough to allow a rapid response.
In addition to halting humans.
Adrian winced at the thought. He hoped it was not for that purpose, but humans too would struggle to clamber over the top just like smaller monsters.
“Stop right there!” a woman yelled shrilly.
Adrian narrowed his eyes as he stopped walking, trying to see who had spoken. Eventually, he spotted her crouching on an old Sedan and peering through the gap between two of the bins.
He raised his hands while continuing to scan the wall. The woman was a Level 5 Guard and did not appear to have any weapons on her. She was weak in all her stats.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“We are just travellers.” Susie stepped forward, her hands held in that ‘we come in peace’ gesture.
“We’ve got no food to spare. Go away!”
“We have food,” Susie called back, her voice softer now. “Enough to feed hundreds.”
The woman was silent for a moment, and Susie grabbed her bag of holding and pulled out a simple blue tarp that they had been using to process meat. It required lots of washing, but it at least gave them a surface free of dirt. She spread it on the ground and then pulled out Agnoric Lizard fillets for the women to see. Dozens and dozens of them were deposited.
“We are passing through,” Susie continued loudly so she could hear. “We are going to Melbourne but as we travel, we are fighting so many things that we have too much for the five of us.”
“You will share?” the woman asked, her voice sounding broken and desperate.
“Yes.”
“Come closer,” she ordered. They all started shuffling forward. “Just the young girl,” she corrected.
Picking Jules was sensible. She looked the least dangerous as she had no visible weapons. If she had been able to see class and levels, the woman’s decision would have been different.
Jules shrugged and went closer, pressing right up to the barrier and then leaning in for a surprisingly long conversation. They stayed at a whisper so the rest of them could not hear. In the meantime, Susie packed her meat back into the bag of holding.
Eventually, Jules wandered back. “No entrance on this street,” she told them. “We have to go around to the front and tell them that Lynette sent us.”
The humans had built a fort with controlled entrances and exits. It was smart, resourceful, and most importantly, an ambitious effort requiring lots of helping hands. Tension that Adrian had not even known had been building was released.
“Thank you,” he called out as they left to follow the instructions.
Chapter 2
With Jules leading, they retraced their steps back past the mansion to get across to the entrance to Lynette’s area on the next street.
“One second,” Susie said and ran up to the doorway in the stone wall. “I’m leaving food!” she yelled through cupped hands. “Fresh lizard meat!” She then proceeded to slide ten fillets under the gate. It was enough to feed twenty people.
After she had finished, Jules continued to lead them down the street they had entered the town on and took them to the next side road. “Lynette’s group has claimed three blocks, but they only have the one entrance.”
The new street had the same feel as the rest of them. Ruined empty houses stood hollow, completely gutted. Heavy furniture, garden fences, and building supplies had been there before, but when Adrian poked his head in, he saw it had all been removed. All food had been stripped, all the gardening tools repurposed. Basically, everything not bolted down, even the curtains, had been taken to be recycled.
