Target 75: A Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy & LitRPG, page 1
Target 75
System Orphans: Claire
Book 2
J.J. Thorn
Target 75 (System Orphans: Claire, Book 2)
Copyright @2023 by J. J. Thorn
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are fictional.
Author: J.J. Thorn
Editor: Hilary Doda
Cover Artist: Piere D’Arterie
Alt Cover Artist: Michael G.
Cover Typography: Mlbart.com
Contents
The story so far…
Chapter 0 - Prologue
Chapter 1 – Interlude – Athena’s Bronze Statue
Chapter 2 - Delegate
Chapter 3 – Lake Of Blood
Chapter 4 – Cheater
Chapter 5 - Harvesting
Chapter 6 – Bah Blah Bloody Sheep
Chapter 7 – What Is A Dagger
Chapter 8 – Knock, Knock.
Chapter 9 – Boardroom
Chapter 10 – In Charge
Chapter 11 – Bright Lights
Chapter 12 – Shattered Crystal
Chapter 13 – Molten Glass
Chapter 14 – Non-Mundane
Chapter 15 – Pillars
Chapter 16 – Room To Breathe
Chapter 17 – Sonder
Chapter 18 – Interlude – And Zeus Wept
Chapter 19 – Where Has The Time Gone
Chapter 20 – For All To See
Chapter 21 – Stuck In Place
Chapter 22 – Human
Chapter 23 – Choo Choo
Chapter 24 – Off the Rails
Chapter 25 – Close
Chapter 26 – City Owners
Chapter 27 – Critters
Chapter 28 – Raised Voices
Chapter 29 – Stepped Out
Chapter 30 – Steel Beams
Chapter 31 – Not Today
Chapter 32 – Feed The Garden
Chapter 33 – Little Girl
Chapter 34 – Cracks
Chapter 35 – The Jig’s Up
Chapter 36 – Escort
Chapter 37 – Cowardly Phoenix
Chapter 38 – Choose
Chapter 39 – Rushing Into A Wall
Chapter 40 – Guillotine
Chapter 41 - Recovering
Chapter 42 – Delay
Chapter 43 – Interlude – Warning Shot
Chapter 44 – Interlude – Remorse
Chapter 45 – Interlude – Crumble
Chapter 46 – Interlude – A King
Chapter 47 – Acid
Chapter 48 – Goodbye
Chapter 49 – Epilogue – Messages
Claire’s status sheet at the end of book 2:
Author’s Note
My Stories
This book is dedicated to my newborn baby girl Elizabeth. My first child, I hope to write stories that you’ll be able to enjoy one day.
This book contains swearing and depictions of violence.
There is no sexual violence or sexual content.
I hope you enjoy the story and thanks for reading! If you’d like to support my stories, please share the stories with your friends and review.
The story so far…
When I was six, Aliens came and announced that Earth was being integrated into a System that would grant humans magic, while introducing both monsters and dungeons across the entire planet. What they conveniently forgot to do first: make it possible for most people to survive. With no warning, and with way less survival abilities than anyone could’ve expected, a lot of people died.
Billions, actually, if the reports are right. My mother, Trudy, was one of them.
With my mom gone, and my dad out of the picture, I became an orphan at the age of six. With no one to take care of me, I was taken away by some men who promised to keep me safe. But through some fucked up shenanigans I’ll probably never figure out, I was placed in a program where they tried to direct the Skills that kids might receive when they turned twelve. Through any means necessary.
Mine, as it turned out, was by making me drink things that weren’t safe for consumption.
I’ll spare you the details, but despite drinking that shit for years, I somehow lived. The program went bust, and they tried to dispose of us, but again, by some force of the System, I survived.
In another stroke of divine intervention, as I was saved by the System, I swore to take revenge on the group of adults responsible for the program – thus earning me the Quest that would change my life.
With the Quest as my guide, I spend my days looking for and killing Targets who took advantage of me and those other kids in the chaos.
Because they’re pieces of shit and those kids were my friends.
It can be lonely work, but I’m not alone because I have Chen. Chen took me in right away and raised me as if I were her own. Along with the many I’ve met delving dungeons across the city, I try to lead a solitary life, but always seem to get caught up in other people’s shit.
Years later and I’ve killed more than half of the Targets laid out by the Quest. After killing Target fifty, Chen got hurt and we needed to burn down her family home, but at least she’s safe with a bunch of people we met from City Hall.
Now, months later, and my life has only gotten messier. Still, one thing that will never change: the Quest.
And you know what, that’s all you really need to know.
If you’re still confused, don’t worry, just come with me as I hunt down another asshole.
He’s Target sixty and he’s about to die.
Chapter 0 - Prologue
Welcome back, asshole.
He shuffled towards the enormous building, his eyes on the ground. His plodding steps echoed against the rough concrete, as loud as a backfiring car against the silent street. My target this time was a wide man whose shadow stretched from one side of the street to the other as he passed between the lampposts. The few people still outside kept their distance, often on their way to do something just as immoral as Oscar.
Nothing good ever happened after 2 a.m. The stray thought flickered through my mind.
Most of my kills happened late into the night, mind you, so I wasn’t so sure. I doubt Oscar would’ve agreed with that axiom either. No, Oscar seemed like a man who thrived in the darkness. Now, he approached the door of the tall building — a series of storage units all packed into one large multi-storied complex.
The concept of a storage unit was weird to me. Not just because I’d personally never had much to call my own, but because most people were scraping and scrounging for everything they could. The world had ended for so many of us, and yet these people had so many things that they needed extra space to store it all.
The fucking gall.
I’d been following Oscar for a day. Ideally, I would’ve liked to follow him for longer, but my life had changed since the day we burned down Chen’s house. I’d made a commitment to City Hall. Commitment or not, though, nothing superseded the quest.
I’d lost everything when the world ended and I’d received the quest in its place.
The quest was my lifeline. And no one could take that away.
Not Milly. Not Chen. Not Norman. No one.
I’d agreed to work with City Hall—for now. Which meant I had even less time for my targets. For people like Oscar. Target sixty.
Another man about to die.
Avenge the Other Orphans: Kill everyone who actively participated in the program.
Target #60: Oscar Imon
I’d started the hunt last night, and wouldn’t you know it, Oscar had been at this very same storage centre when the quest had directed me to him. He definitely slept here. And honestly, that wasn’t an awful idea. From what I’d seen, each unit could be individually locked and closed. Sure, it wasn’t likely to be the most comfortable, but I’d seen worse places to live in the city.
Oscar left and returned to the complex several times throughout the day. I’d follow him every time, of course, as he took me on his own tour of the city, passing through markets, parks, and sleazier areas as he met up with other assholes.
Oscar didn’t stand out as an awful guy. He was a fat man and took up a lot of space as he navigated the sidewalk, but his crooked smile and jolly face were almost delightful. Even when he spoke with the people in the market, his roaring laugh kept his audience engaged and interested. Often he’d use this opportunity to pick up an extra piece of merchandise when they looked away, but that was just Oscar. Funny, fat, handsy Oscar.
Now he stomped to the building, looking around to see if anyone had followed him as he unlocked the front door and stepped inside. He carried a large sack on his back filled with all the things he’d purchased. Mostly food and meat — both monster and regular meat. Oscar obviously had money to spare as he bought out some of the best the market had to offer.
I still hadn’t figured out why he needed it all, but he bought the same thing every time he went out, going to a different market on each trip and grabbing whatever they had that could fit into his large sack of meat. He looked like a deranged Santa. I suppose it added to his allure, for some.
‘Overlooked’ made following after him almost too easy. I jumped off the building, racing around the side and keeping out of sight. Slipping inside the building, I was happy to find they hadn’t fixed the lights; it was s
The creaking of the door as it rolled up echoed loudly through the halls. I glanced around the corner to see him once again look left and right for any observers.
My mask was already on, and I knew he was alone. I waited, anticipating my rush towards him.
As soon as he walked… into… the… storage…
And I was off.
I bolted for his storage room, just as Oscar stepped inside and was getting ready to close the door. I turned on ‘Grim Haste’ to catch him before he could close it.
I reached the door and turned into the room. Oscar’s eyes bulged and the huge sack of meat fell from his hand as I plunged my daggers towards his chest.
But despite moving faster than Oscar’s face could react, his body seemed to react on its own. A mound of flesh burst out of his shirt, extending towards me and smashing into my outstretched daggers.
The hard flesh knocked my daggers back, and even then his skin kept extending. I was thrown out of the room and back towards the adjacent storage unit. My back hit a metal grating. I felt the tough metal dent with the impact, and the air knocked out of my lungs.
As I slid down the metal grating, I heard Oscar groan. I looked up to see that the meat had fallen out of his sack.
“Fuck! Now you’ve spoiled it!” he complained, looking at the meat on the ground.
Weirder than the spilled meat was the pound of flesh sticking out of his chest. As I watched, the flesh lump contorted and shrank, pulling itself back into Oscar’s body. His fat wriggled and waved as his body reoriented itself.
And somehow, even if only by a little bit, Oscar looked smaller.
I stood up and multiple daggers circled around me as I prepared to attack Oscar again. He’d seen me; there was no going back now.
Oscar looked towards me and something in his expression seemed ravenous. He kicked away some of the meat by his feet and started stomping in my direction. Once again, his fat rolled and waved as it moved along his body, this time from his stomach down his arm towards his hand. The skin stretched and his hand changed, his fingers expanding in size.
I threw two daggers at him and sent the others flying towards Oscar, then jumped aside to create distance between us.
Oscar blocked his face with his giant mitten of a hand and growled as he lumbered slowly into the hall towards me. Oscar’s large frame took up half the space in the narrow hallway, but I continued to send daggers flying towards him, sure that none would miss.
He stopped walking and swatted each one away with his massive hand.
I sent new daggers his way, but this time I used ‘Grim Haste’ to chase after them. I swept to his right, his sight of me blocked while his hand protected his face. Once behind him, I created new daggers with ‘Hidden Daggers’ and attempted to stick them into his back.
And this time I got slightly further, as Oscar was too slow to match my enhanced speed. But just like the last time, as soon as my daggers touched his skin, the fat and muscle beneath expanded rapidly outwards and threw me back.
I was flung into the air again, this time down the open hallway. I righted myself, getting to my feet.
When Oscar turned around and looked down on me this time the sight was comical; he had mounds of flesh erupting from him in multiple places like a deranged octopus made of flesh and fat. But where an octopus was symmetrical, Oscar’s ‘tentacles’ looked almost uncomfortable as they pulsed and moved in rhythm with his body.
The flesh pushing his shirt out in the back retracted, and I noticed once again that his body was shrinking.
“I’d still be hungry after eating you. You’re way too tiny,” he chuckled, stomping towards me. “I’ll visit more markets tomorrow to make up for the shitty meal. Gotta keep the belly nice and full, after all.” He smacked his stomach, and I watched the excessive fat roil and shake with the rest of his core.
I can’t believe I’m having trouble killing this guy. I chastised myself, looking up at the massive man slowly walking towards me. He smiled in response, no worry on his face.
I stood up again, already tired of this fucking fight. I’d learned a lot since my fight against target fifty. And as I looked up at slow-moving Oscar, I was embarrassed at myself for having to use some of that knowledge now.
Smoke-like shadows started to fall away from my wrists like ethereal bandages unwrapping themselves as I made two new daggers. The darkness fell slightly below my hands and wrapped around the handles of my daggers as well. All the while, ‘Poisonous’ wrapped around each dagger and a green glint melded with the pitch black of the shadows.
Daggers spun around me in my deadly circle, and each one took on the same dark glow. I walked towards Oscar, matching his speed. Oscar’s smile vanished as he saw my demeanour change. Spinning daggers of green and black now moved with my every step, shadows leaving a trail in my wake.
I was using a lot of Skills, and Oscar wasn’t worth the effort, but I was on a deadline, and I’d already been humiliated enough.
I dug into the ground and dashed towards Oscar again, racing along the metal grating to my left. I sent daggers flying at him and this time he couldn’t just swat them away, two plunging deep into his flesh.
Oscar cried out and flailed his arm in an attempt to dislodge the daggers.
And as he panicked, I reached his side.
Instead of plunging my blades in like I had tried before, this time, I slashed my daggers along his throat.
And just like the last time, his skin shot out to try and push me away. I kicked off his arm into the air, landing behind him.
Daggers continued to swirl around both of us as I danced around Oscar, slashing as quickly as I could before darting away, as I injected him with ‘Poisonous.’ His body reacted swiftly to the attacks the whole time, trying its best to push me away, but thanks to ‘Grim Haste’ I was moving away from him almost instantaneously before attacking again.
I was like a cyclone of death, as daggers littered Oscar’s body and his very skin kept changing in front of my eyes. And with every action his body got smaller, his own power eating away at the fat under his flesh. Two minutes passed and Oscar was reaching for me again, but his hand was smaller than ever and though he was still tall, his body was a third of the size it had been at the start.
The musty building had smelled bad at first but now it smelled worse from whatever Oscar was expelling and the poison that had mixed with his blood.
Oscar growled at me like a half-starved dog one final time, before falling flat on his face. His body made a clapping sound as it hit the floor, the now-loose skin slapping against the tile. Oscar was unconscious.
I didn’t receive any System notification of his death, so I turned off some Skills and relied on ‘Apprentice’s Physique’ for strength as I stuck a dagger in his back. His body didn’t even react this time. Oscar laid unmoving on the floor, blood — and other fluids — all around us and splattered on the walls from our fight.
Then, when I thought to stick the dagger straight into his temple, the notification finally appeared.
Quest Updated!
Avenge the Other Orphans: Kill everyone who actively participated in the program.
Target #60 terminated.
Targets Killed: 60
Targets Remaining: 40
Next Target available after ‘Dungeon Duty’ quest is complete.
†††††
Out of curiosity, I went back to check on Oscar’s storage unit to see what he’d been coming back to every night. Stepping over the spilled meat, I crept inside. The stench was even more pungent than Oscar, and I instantly wished that my mask had scent-blocking abilities.
The unit went far back — only the best for Oscar — and I looked for the source of the smell. Once I stepped over his arguably too-small bed, and pushed aside a large dresser blocking the back of the unit, I finally found what I’d been smelling. Mounds of half-rotten and partially-eaten meat had been stored in a corner of the room. Worse yet were the bones mixed in with the meat. I couldn’t be sure, but not all the bones looked like they came from animals. Or monsters.
