The neon sign of the Galaxy Arcade buzzed in the rain.
Half the letters were burned out.
It looked like a graveyard for broken arcade machines.
Quinn Carter stood in the shadows of the back alley.
The rain soaked her black hoodie.
She slipped the heavy titanium knuckle gloves onto her hands.
The metal plates clicked together.
A cold deadly sound.
Jax was bleeding on her living room floor.
He told her Silas kept the Gamemaster’s master ledger in a hidden vault.
The ledger had real names.
Real bank accounts.
It was the key to destroying the entire empire.
Two massive bouncers stood by the red metal back door.
They wore thick tactical vests and carried yellow stun batons.
“System,” Quinn whispered.
[Skill Activated: Eagle Eye (Lv.
1)]
Her vision shifted to a cool glowing blue.
The dark alley lit up.
She didn’t run at them.
She wanted to test her new weapon.
Quinn walked straight out of the shadows.
The two bouncers saw her instantly.
They raised their buzzing electric weapons.
“Hey.
No kids allowed back here,” the taller bouncer growled.
Quinn didn’t speak.
She activated Shadow Step.
The world went black.
The freezing vacuum sucked her forward.
She teleported ten feet and appeared perfectly between the two massive men.
Before they could even swing their weapons she used her brand new skill.
[Skill Activated: Viper Strike (Lv.
1)]
She extended two fingers on her right hand.
She struck the tall bouncer directly in the side of his thick neck.
She completely bypassed his heavy tactical vest.
Her fingers hit a major nerve cluster.
The bouncer didn’t scream.
His eyes just rolled back.
His entire nervous system shut down instantly.
He dropped to the wet concrete like a puppet with cut strings.
The second bouncer panicked.
He swung his stun baton at her head.
Quinn ducked smoothly under the yellow sparks.
She drove her two extended fingers into the soft spot under his armpit.
Another nerve cluster.
“Zzzzt.”
The baton fell from his paralyzed hand.
The man completely froze.
His mouth opened but his vocal cords were paralyzed.
He tipped over backward and hit the alley floor completely stiff.
[System Alert: Enemies Defeated!]
[EXP + 400]
[Total EXP: 400/2500]
Viper Strike was terrifying.
It was quiet and instantly fatal to normal guards.
Quinn opened the red metal door and slipped inside the fight club.
The loud heavy metal music was deafening.
The giant room was packed with screaming people placing illegal bets.
The fighting cage in the center was covered in fresh blood.
Quinn ignored the crowd.
She kept her black hood pulled low over her face.
She hugged the shadows along the brick wall.
She moved silently toward the manager’s office in the back.
She reached the heavy wooden door.
It was locked.
She raised her right hand and punched the doorknob.
The titanium knuckles shattered the metal lock mechanism completely.
The door swung open.
Quinn stepped inside and locked it behind her.
The office was huge.
It smelled like expensive cigars and cheap cologne.
Silas sat behind a massive steel desk.
The giant club manager had a thick black beard and cold dead eyes.
He didn’t look surprised to see her.
He slowly stood up.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt.
Quinn’s eyes widened slightly.
Thick gray metal plates were surgically bolted directly into Silas’s arms and chest.
It was Cranston Industries technology.
They were turning him into a cyborg.
“The Gamemaster called me ten minutes ago,” Silas said in a deep booming voice.
“He said a little rat was coming to steal my book.
He told me to rip your head off.”
[System Alert: Boss Combat Started!]
[Enemy: Cyber-Augmented Silas (Level 14)]
[Threat Value: Extreme]
Level 14.
He was three levels higher than her.
Quinn cracked her titanium knuckles.
“Tell your boss he owes you a funeral.”
Silas roared.
He charged around the desk like a freight train.
The heavy metal plates on his chest gleamed under the office lights.
He threw a massive right hook.
His metal arm cut through the air with a loud mechanical whine.
Quinn didn’t try to block it.
Metal grafted to bone would snap her arm in half.
She activated Shadow Step.
She teleported ten feet to the left.
Silas’s metal fist smashed directly into his own steel desk.
The heavy desk dented inward with a massive crunch.
Quinn appeared behind him.
She planted her feet and threw a brutal uppercut right into his spine.
“Bam.”
Her titanium knuckles hit his lower back.
But it felt like punching a solid brick wall.
Silas barely flinched.
He spun around incredibly fast and backhanded her across the face.
The metal hit her jaw.
Quinn flew sideways through the air.
She crashed into a tall wooden bookshelf.
Thick binders and glass bottles rained down on her.
Her vision blurred for a split second.
[HP: 220/355]
[Warning.
Enemy armor is too thick for blunt attacks.]
Quinn spit a mouthful of blood onto the expensive carpet.
She wiped her mouth.
Her Healing Factor immediately started knitting the torn skin on her cheek.
Silas laughed.
“You hit like a little girl.
My upgrades cost four million dollars.
You cannot break me.”
“I don’t need to break you,” Quinn whispered.
She pushed herself off the broken bookshelf.
She dropped into a low fighting stance.
Silas rushed her again.
He swung both of his heavy metal arms in a deadly bear hug.
He wanted to crush her ribs.
Quinn ran straight at him.
At the absolute last second she dropped to her knees and slid across the smooth carpet.
She slid right between his massive legs.
She popped up behind him.
She didn’t use her fists.
She extended two fingers on her right hand.
[Skill Activated: Viper Strike (Lv.
1)]
Silas had metal plates on his chest and arms.
But his neck was completely bare flesh.
Quinn drove her fingers directly into the thick nerve cluster at the base of his skull.
The System energy surged from her fingertips straight into his brain stem.
Silas completely froze.
His eyes bulged out of his head.
The mechanical hum of his augmented arms whined loudly and then powered down.
His massive body locked up entirely.
He fell forward like a giant redwood tree.
He crashed face-first into the carpet.
He couldn’t move a single muscle.
He could only blink in pure terror.
[System Alert: Boss Defeated!]
[EXP + 1200]
[Total EXP: 1600/2500]
[Current HP: 235/355]
Quinn breathed heavily.
Her jaw throbbed with a dull ache.
She looked down at the paralyzed cyborg.
“Keep the change,” Quinn spat.
She walked over to the back wall of the office.
A large painting of a tiger hung on the wall.
She ripped the painting down. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
A massive circular steel vault was built directly into the concrete wall.
There was no electronic keypad.
Just a single heavy brass keyhole.
The Gamemaster didn’t trust computers for his real secrets.
He used old-school physical locks.
Quinn reached into her pocket.
She pulled out the heavy brass key Detective Reyes gave her.
Key 404.
Her hands shook slightly.
This was it.
The answers her father died for.
She slid the brass key into the hole.
She turned it hard to the right.
“Click.
Clack.
Boom.”
Heavy internal gears shifted.
The massive steel vault door hissed and popped open.
Quinn pulled the heavy door wide.
The inside of the vault was completely empty except for one thing.
A thick black leather notebook rested on a velvet shelf.
The Master Ledger.
Quinn grabbed the book.
She flipped it open.
The pages were filled with handwritten names.
Millions of dollars transferred to politicians.
Police chiefs.
Judges.
The Gamemaster owned the entire city.
She flipped to the very last page.
Master Account Holder / CEO of The Gamemaster Group.
Quinn looked at the name written in dark black ink.
Her heart completely stopped beating.
The blood drained from her face.
Her hands started trembling so hard she almost dropped the book.
“No,” Quinn whispered.
“That is impossible.”
The name written on the page wasn’t Richard Cranston.
It wasn’t Principal Sterling.
It was Maria Carter.
Her mother.
Her sick fragile mother dying of cancer in a cheap apartment.
Before Quinn could even process the horrifying words on the page her pocket vibrated violently.
The secret encrypted cell phone Noah Brooks gave her was ringing.
Quinn slowly pulled the black phone out of her pocket.
Noah never called.
He only texted.
She pressed answer and lifted the phone to her ear.
“Noah?” Quinn asked.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Noah is currently unconscious in the trunk of his own car.”
The voice on the other end of the phone was horribly distorted.
It sounded like grinding metal.
It was The Gamemaster.
Quinn’s blood turned to pure ice.
“You fight very well Solo Queen,” The Gamemaster said smoothly through the phone.
“But you play the game like a total amateur.
Did you really think I would let a rat bleed on your living room floor just because he lost a fight.”
Quinn stopped breathing.
Jax.
Jax Vance came to her apartment beaten and broken.
He told her exactly where the vault was.
He gave her the location of the ledger.
He didn’t come for help.
He was a Trojan Horse.
He needed her out of the apartment.
“I am sitting in your living room right now Quinn,” The Gamemaster purred.
A loud mechanical click echoed through the phone speaker.
The unmistakable sound of a gun hammer being pulled back.
“Your mother looks so incredibly peaceful when she sleeps.” The Gamemaster whispered.
“You have exactly five minutes to bring me that ledger.
If you are one second late I will paint your cheap walls with her brains.”
The phone call disconnected.
A dial tone buzzed in Quinn’s ear.
She stared at the black phone.
The timer was already ticking.
Five minutes.
She was miles away from her apartment.
[System Alert: FATAL QUEST TRIGGERED]
[Time Remaining: 04:59]