Warden (Nova Online #1) — A LitRPG Series Read online

  WARDEN

  NOVA ONLINE

  Alex Knight

  Contents

  A Note From the Publisher

  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

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About the Publisher

  A Note From the Publisher

  Thanks for reading Warden: Nova Online!

  If you’d like to try out a FREE adventure in this world, you can start by reading Survivors, a free 10,000 word novelette set in the Nova Online universe, written by Alex Knight. All you have to do is sign up to the Portal Books mailing list, and we’ll get the eBook straight to you:

  www.subscribepage.com/survivors

  We hope you enjoy!

  Best wishes,

  Portal Books

  www.portal-books.com

  Chapter One

  Kaiden Moore didn’t want much out of life. Not spending the next half-century in prison seemed about enough.

  But fifty years in prison with no chance for parole was a rather light sentence, the media had said. Some went so far as to say the judge hadn’t been harsh enough. After all, Kaiden had meticulously planned the torture and murder of his neighbor, Fred Bernstein.

  Except, of course, he hadn’t.

  Not that the judge had believed that. Or the media. Or the guards that had just sat him down in the state prison’s processing center.

  “Kaiden Moore,” the clerk said, reading from the screen in front of him. “That you?”

  “Yes, but there’s–”

  Ding. The clerk tapped the screen and an all-too-cheerful green check mark flashed across it.

  “Eighteen years of age?”

  “Right. But–”

  Ding.

  “Sentenced to fifty years?”

  “Ye–”

  Ding.

  “No parole.”

  “I–”

  Ding.

  “Listen to me!” Kaiden shouted, rising from his chair and slamming his hands on the desk. The guards behind him promptly took hold of his shoulders and forced him back down. The clerk stared at him for a moment, then spoke aloud as he typed.

  “Additional comments: quick to anger.”

  “Best flag him with a code eleven, too,” one of the guards said from behind. “I heard he tortured his victim before killing him.”

  “Good lord, did he?” The clerk shook his head, then typed a few more lines. When he was done he tapped the screen and another green check mark popped up.

  Ding.

  “Place your hands on the desk,” the clerk said. Before he’d even finished the sentence, the guards forced Kaiden’s hands onto the tabletop then mashed them flat so his fingers were splayed. A red light flashed as the desk recorded his biometrics.

  “This might sting.”

  A needle pierced his shoulder and Kaiden hissed as a jolt of pain shot through him.

  “This will sting.”

  A larger needle was jabbed into his forearm.

  “Gah!”

  “Aaand your tracker chip,” the clerk said in a sing-song tone.

  The hiss of compressed gas filled Kaiden’s ears as a third needle plunged into his neck.

  “I thought I was the one accused of torture,” Kaiden mumbled, rubbing at the already swelling soreness.

  The clerk rolled back in his chair and opened a drawer. A bundle of clothes smacked into Kaiden’s face, then fell into his lap.

  “Uniform.”

  Kaiden had just looked down at what appeared to be a crisp white jumpsuit with "inmate number 1041293" stitched across it when a second bundle of cloth hit his face.

  “Spare uniform, and...” The clerk turned to look for something else.

  Kaiden winced and covered his face in preparation for whatever was going to be thrown next.

  The clerk paused, one hand outstretched, and raised an eyebrow.

  “Socks and underwear,” he said, then placed them on the desk and slid them over. Assorted clothing arranged in his lap, Kaiden waited several long moments as the clerk double-checked his notes. He half thought to try to plead his case again – he was innocent; why wouldn’t anyone listen? – but a guard behind him cracked his knuckles slowly, one by one, and Kaiden decided he might wait for a more receptive audience. Maybe the prison’s governor? Surely he would hear reason, even if the court hadn’t. All of this could be explained. If only they’d let him speak in court.

  “Alright then, Kaiden,” the clerk said. “Looks like you’re all good to go. Try to keep that anger in check, huh?”

  Before he could respond he was pulled out of his chair and dragged toward a door at the end of the room.

  “Oh, wait.”

  The guards stopped a moment, Kaiden hanging from their grasp more than actually standing.

  “However did I miss this?” The clerk was messing with something on his screen. “It looks like you passed your psych eval. Excellent news!” The clerk smiled, then frowned when Kaiden only stared back.

  “That means,” the clerk said, speaking slowly and nodding at each word, “you’re qualified to shave some time off your sentence.”

  “Yay?” Kaiden said, unsure what was happening.

  “Yay, indeed, Mr. Moore.” The clerk threw another object and Kaiden reacted on instinct this time, plucking something small and metal from the air. Opening his hand, he found it was a small brass pin. A sigil of sorts, consisting of a shield with two war hammers crossed in front of it. It must have been recently polished as the metal positively glowed in the sterile light of the prison.

  “Congratulations,” the clerk said, then looked to his guards. “Take him to the Warden program.”

  Chapter Two

  Kaiden’s first tour of the prison was a blur of sterile, white-tiled hallways and silent, crisp-uniformed workers. But he soon learned that was just the administrative wing as he was drag-carried through a security terminal and into the prison proper.

  Ding.

  A green check mark popped up on the screen as he passed.

  “Welcome Kaiden Moore, inmate number 1041293,” a robotic voice droned in something approaching a cheery tone.

  “A pleasure to be here,” Kaiden fired back in a mockery of its cheeriness.

  One of his guards laughed.

  “That’s right. Welcome home,” the other said with all the tenderness of a taser.

  Kaiden opened his mouth to say something sarcastic, but a glass door slid open and a tidal wave of voices slammed into him. Kaiden swallowed hard as they walked in.

  The cylinder-shaped room they now stood in was, simply put, massive. Presumably there was a ceilin
g, but as far and high as Kaiden could see, there were only cells. Level upon level of them lining all sides of the room, filled with prisoners and rising ever higher. No bars kept the prisoners in; instead, each cell was fronted by near-clear glass tinged with a metallic sheen.

  Kaiden recognized the unforgiving material – palladium glass. Light as aluminum but stronger than steel, and clear enough to purge any semblance of privacy from one’s cell. A fact made all the more apparent by the tower rising through the center of the room.

  All reinforced concrete and mirror glass, it looked like an aircraft control tower, and allowed the guards – presumably within – to watch each prisoner’s every move.

  Surely the prison was loaded with cameras and sensors and all manner of security measures. There was hardly a need for such a dramatic display, yet Kaiden couldn’t deny the tower dominated the space. A constant reminder of where he was.

  I don’t belong here, he reminded himself, fighting the sensation of drowning as he stood in the shadow of the tower with cells and cells and cells rising on all sides.

  “This is general lockup,” a guard shouted above the clamor and nodded toward the wall. Kaiden followed his gaze to where man-sized letters were laser printed on the concrete. “Cell Block G-1.” It was impossible to miss the next words. “Blocks G-2 through G-9 this way.”

  There were eight more cell blocks just like this one? The thought bounced around Kaiden’s head as he tried to calculate exactly how many prisoners that was. He finally settled on “a lot”.

  “The Warden program briefing room is this way,” the guard on his right shouted, then pulled him toward an offshoot corridor.

  Just before they left cell block G-1, one of the inmates took notice of Kaiden. He slammed himself into the glass of his cell and screamed, an ear-piercing howl like some sort of animal. Kaiden recoiled without thinking, stumbling to the side as the inmate smiled. It would almost have looked friendly, if not for the display of apparent insanity moments before.

  “Another one for the Wardens?” The tattooed and scar-covered inmate’s smile fell into a scowl as he pressed his face up hard against the glass, distorting his features. “Think you lot are better than us, don’t you? Comin’ in here with your special privileges and your shiny badges.” His tongue emerged from his mouth to leave a long stream of saliva along the glass. “But don’t worry. You’ll soon learn the truth.” And with that, he gave a wink and fell back from the glass, retreating to his bunk.

  “He, uh, seems friendly,” Kaiden said as the guards led him away from cell block G-1 and down the corridor.

  “Oh, we’re all friendly here,” one guard said.

  “For sure,” the other chimed in. “One big, happy family. You’ll fit right in.”

  With how fast everything had occurred – it’d been mere days since he’d found Bernstein’s body – Kaiden hadn’t exactly had time to prepare for his new life as a prisoner of the state. His plan thus far had consisted of two points: don’t cause any trouble and lay low. Apparently, his acceptance into the Warden program had already violated both of those. Not that he had any idea what the program was, or why he’d been accepted into it, for that matter.

  Seated in the briefing room where the guards had left him, all he did know was that twenty-three other male inmates had been selected for the program, and of those twenty-three, the biggest and meanest brute had been seated directly next to him.

  All muscles and bulging veins, the man looked to be made more of iron than flesh. Kaiden did his best to look at the man without actually doing so. Crew cut black hair, five o’clock shadow on his chin and cheeks, and deep blue eyes that, if one were inclined to be rude, could be described as beady.

  The man seemed to notice he was being side-eyed and Kaiden suddenly found a spot on the far wall terribly interesting. He also scooted sideways in his chair a bit, giving the man a smidge more space. Not that he had much choice. Shoulders wide as a doorway meant the brute next to him took up about two and a half chairs.

  The man kept looking at Kaiden, brows ever so slightly furrowed.

  “Uh, how’s it going?” Kaiden finally asked, unsure why he’d even said anything as his voice spilled out to fill the awkward silence that had settled over the room. The big man took a long, slow look down at the white jumpsuits they were required to wear, then the armed guards lining the walls, then, finally, after a painfully long time, at Kaiden.

  “How do you think it’s going?” he growled, voice as gentle as sandpaper dragged through a gravel pit.

  “Yeah, uh, fair enough,” Kaiden said, mentally reprimanding himself. ‘How’s it going?’ Really? That’s your icebreaker? Why not ask him what he’s in for too, huh?

  “Gentlemen, gentlemen!” a voice shouted. A man entered the room, clapping as if to quiet them down. He wore a blue-and-gray camouflage military uniform, not unlike those of the guards, except with long, buttoned sleeves and a series of gold chevrons adorning the shoulders.

  “Why, it’s like a hospital waiting room in here,” he said, shaking his head. “Positively dour, wouldn’t you say, Franks?” He nodded to one of the guards.

  “Dour indeed, sir.”

  Sir? So that meant this was someone important. Considering the way he’d strode into the room, commanding everyone’s attention, Kaiden found that unsurprising.

  “Gentlemen, the world outside of this humble facility can be a dangerous place. One of temptation and deeds most foul.” The man waved his hand as if gesturing for a word on the tip of his tongue. “A storm-tossed sea, let us say. Now, I know how easy it is to lose one’s way in that chaos. Surely you do too, considering where you’re sitting now,” he said, adding a chuckle to the end as if the thought amused him. “But fear not! You may have been blown off course by the ferocious storm that is the world without; you may have been drowning, but now, you’ve found salvation.” He paused, as if thinking. “Well, a chance at salvation, at least.”

  The air of despair that had pervaded the room moments before was gone now, replaced by one of downright confusion.

  “The choices you’ve made in life may have led you astray, but I’m here to offer you a chance to fix that. Call me your navigator. Call me your captain. Or simply call me 'The Governor.' Either way, I’m here to lead you through the storm. Calmer waters await, gentlemen. Now, who’d like me to show them the way?”

  The Governor paused as if waiting for applause, or cheers, or something. Up front, one man gave a slow, awkward clap. It was quickly silenced when the man next to him slapped him upside the head.

  “Well, well, don’t get too excited,” The Governor said. “I’m only offering you a chance at a new life, you know.” He turned to Franks again. “Ungrateful lot, aren’t they?”

  “Terribly ungrateful, sir.”

  “Don’t appreciate the chance they’re being given,” another guard interjected.

  “Too true, Himmel. Too true.” The Governor turned back to face them, then took a long, deep breath. “Ah, well. On to the main event, then. The Warden program.” He pulled a prisoner in the front row to his feet, then turned him toward the audience.

  “As you’ll have no doubt noticed, during processing you were all awarded a badge for passing our special psychological evaluation.” He pointed to the badge pinned to the collar of the prisoner. “This means you have been accepted into the Warden program. Congratulations!” He burst into a wide, toothy smile and clapped wildly, then gestured for the guards to join him. Soon, the entire room was filled with the sound of applause while the prisoners watched. Kaiden felt his own brow scrunch in confusion and noticed he wasn’t alone. Even the brute sitting next to him seemed thoroughly lost by the display.

  OK, they had been accepted into the Warden program. He’d been told this multiple times already. Seemed like a big deal.

  Problem is, no one’s telling me what that actually means.

  “Stop clapping!” The Governor silenced the room with a shout. “The Warden program is your chance at
salvation. Perform well in it and you’ll be eligible to shave time off your sentence.” Some heads perked up at that. Kaiden couldn’t blame them. A shorter sentence? Why would they offer them that?

  “You’re all very lucky to have been accepted into this program,” The Governor continued. “But you’ll need more than luck if you want to remain in it.” He wagged a finger and winked knowingly at them.

  Ah. A catch.

  “The Warden program, you see, is the product of two unique situations. The first is the government’s trust in my ability to rehabilitate you into functioning members of society. The second is the need for a quasi-police force in Nova Online.” The Governor waved his hands as if calming down a series of excited cheers from the crowd, though there were none.

  “I know, I know,” he continued. “Nova Online. Most played video game in history. Largest in-game universe in history. Best...well, everything in history, really. Just the name inspires awe, does it not? And now you’re being offered the opportunity not just to play this game, but to become an integral part of it! Please, please, do contain your enthusiasm.”

  Nova Online? Quasi-police force? Kaiden wasn’t sure what to think of the news. He’d heard of Nova Online, of course – who hadn’t heard of the fully immersive sci-fi MMORPG that dominated the industry? – but he’d never played it.

  He loved gaming. Had been something of an addict while growing up, but his father’s sudden death had forced him to drop out of his first semester of college and support himself. Since then, he hadn’t had anything close to spare time; the lack of an education meant the only jobs he was eligible for forced him to work inhuman amounts of overtime just to make rent each month. As far as Kaiden had been concerned, videos games were a luxury of the past. A remnant of happier days. Until now, it seemed.