Path-1

The Path is a book with a huge world, many famous and new characters who participate in canonical and completely new events. For the hustlers: the first canonical (according to bextori) event occurs in Chapter 11, and the first game event (Eden Prime) occurs in Chapter 24. At the beginning, there is a description of many key characters and important events. Read from the beginning, the author has succeeded well in conveying the feeling of an inevitably impending catastrophe. I have started putting the text of the book in order and plan to get to the end. *** The day is long over, and the stars are about to light up in the sky. It's time for my next shift at a part-time job in a taxi. I take the order from the dispatcher and pick up the client — an attractive girl wants to spend time at the club. The road, rarely crossed by the junctions of overpasses, glistening with puddles in the sinkholes on the asphalt, is moderately broken, but still allows you to drive at a decent speed. From behind, the heart-rending howl of engines running at top speed is approaching. Driving at ninety, I am bypassed by two "chepyrki" (VAZ 2114) standing up — painted, tinted in trash, with loud rhythmic music bursting out of the windows. They rush past and disappear ahead of us behind a smooth turn of the city chord. There's an interchange four kilometers away, so I'll have time to admire the jerks in the oncoming lane. I'm slowing down automatically, ahead of the speedcams on the trellis farm thrown over the road. I'm always surprised when these assholes don't get caught. The descent is smooth, and a couple can be seen flying out from around the bend on the oncoming lane. One of the "caps" flies into a puddle and catches an aquaplane at a speed of 180 km. Time has almost stopped, and I'm watching what's happening in slow motion. The idiot skids, throws it under the second one, and now two idiots are spinning loops in the oncoming lane. One hits the metal bump on the right side with a swing, pieces of bumper fly in all directions, sparks, the car crumples into a shapeless lump of metal and plastic. Consciousness notes all this as if automatically. The second one hits the side of the high curb of the dividing strip, the car bounces, it flies sideways onto the divider and hits the metal fence post with all its might. Glass splashes, the rear bumper, torn off by inertia, slowly takes off, and the car begins to tear in half. I see a long metal pin fly out from under the bottom and fly towards me in a smooth parabola, rotating. "Fucked up!", it flies by in my mind, and with a pop like a gunshot, the piece of metal smashes into the windshield. A blow to the chest, the pain flaring up and fading. I slam on the brake, the car stops abruptly, I feel the jolts of my ABS in the pedal, the passenger squeals across the front seat, burying her face in the headrest. My swallow got up, the engine stopped, the locks clicked, automatically unlocking the doors. “What are you doing!” It's coming from the back seat. “Don't you know how to drive at all? I'll report to the dispatcher! They'll recruit anyone with purchased rights!” "You need to buckle up, you fool!", it floats sluggishly in my thoughts. I look at the ragged hole in the windshield with cracks radiating in all directions. I look down, and there's a pin sticking out of my chest with a cut-off bolt at the end. Why doesn't it hurt? My consciousness begins to swim, and a hot feeling spreads in my chest. “There's something sticking out of your seat, I've hurt myself! What's it? Something sticky!” the ceiling switch clicks, flooding the interior with white LED light. “Ah-ah-ah!” It's coming from the back seat. What are you screaming about? My ears are already ringing. Or is it just my imagination? The ringing in my ears is getting louder, black flies are in front of my eyes... why is there no pain? Darkness and silence, there are no sounds, no movement, no sensations. Only on the verge of perception is a feeling-a whisper-a thought: “Forget everything, accept peace and oblivion, forget pain and fear, memories bring pain, why do you need them? Forget it, forget it, forget it…” “Who am I! Answer me!” a thought flashes by. “I don't want oblivion! I want to remember!” “Are you sure you want to remember?” It was as if a strange alien thought-feeling appeared nearby. “Are you sure that's what you want?” “Yes! Yes, I do! Give me back to you. You are welcome.” “As you wish.” And I remembered everything. All my life: kindergarten, school, college, army! I remembered my wife, my children, and my job at the factory. I remembered everything: every day, and most importantly, I remembered my death. “Fuck, did I die? Yes?” “The biological shell has stopped functioning. However, death is quite controversial. Don't you think?” “I think means I exist. So what is it?” “Right.” “And what's next?” “As you wish. You want to go back, don't you?” “Yes, I do. Can I?” “May. But with some condition.” “Like what?” “People like you, those who have given up oblivion, are offered to return for a reason. They need to help the world they're being sent to. You will be given the skills and gifts to be able to cope with the task assigned to you.” “What are these gifts and skills?” “Different, for example, how do you like absolute memory?” “Normal.” “Normal?! The brute.” “And which world will I be sent to? What should I do there?” “One of the worlds you know.” “What kind of acquaintances?! I've never been anywhere but Earth.” “Many of them are described in your fiction.” “So you're giving the authors plots! But why?” “We can't interfere directly, but with the help of people like you, it's acceptable. You are bound by the laws of that world, and you are mortal. Therefore, based on our predictions and assumptions, we use information delivery tools like books and others in other worlds to raise people like you, and then send you to help other worlds. Remember: what you have described may differ from reality, it is close, but not the same, and the forecasts are not absolute. Foreknowledge can fail you. Check it out.” “And if I fail? I'm not a superhero!” “So we'll raise the next ones.” “What about me? What will happen to me?” “If you don't break down, we'll send you somewhere else. There are many problematic worlds.” “What does it mean if I don't break down?” “There are quite difficult situations there, but a reasonable person cannot live in a vacuum, he acquires friends, relatives, and just reasonable relatives. Not everyone can stand losing, and then oblivion awaits them. And after oblivion, what good are they? They leave for another incarnation in the usual way.” “And in case of victory?” “You win first! If you win, we'll talk.” My crazy thought flashed by: "Oh, I'll turn around!" “And so that you don't get distracted, I'll change the boundary condition. That's not why you're being sent there!” “For what "for this"?” “For everything as they like to say in your homeland. That's enough talking, you should go.” *** It feels like I'm falling, and the fall is getting faster and faster. A dazzling white dot appeared ahead and began to grow rapidly. The dot turns into a cloud of light, the feeling of the body comes, it is compressed, as in a vice, there is a soft elastic tightness and darkness around, I am not breathing. What's happening? The darkness pulsates, strange sounds are heard, as if someone is moaning. The body is squeezed to severe pain and pushed forward by the head. Suddenly, I feel freedom and a bright light. Everything is cloudy, there are some colored spots and voices. I feel a blow on my ass, it hurts so much that I want to scream. I take a breath, my chest explodes with wild pain, I scream and pass out under my own scream.