With the blinding light around him dissipating, Nanashi found himself looking at more of the same flat, rusting brown textures of the supposed arena he would be fighting on. Before his eyes, however, was a simple tall pair of steel door, that protected whatever loot waiting on the other side to be plundered, at the same time, giving him protection from the dangers that surely await. Feeling his anxiety and paranoia slowly rising, the boy autonomously reached for the sidearm that was his M1911 from its holster. Feeling the rough metal surface of his weapon did give him a sense of comfort, if only a little, and with a single motion, his fingers wrapped themselves around the grip of the handgun and pulled out the [Ballistic Pistol].
"Relax, Nanashi, you're freaking out," As if trying to break him out of his stupor, a voice reached his ears.
Turning his gaze over his shoulder, the boy could see his pink-haired longtime friend and his supposed partner for the now-ongoing battle standing a few feet behind him, a somewhat amused expression plastered over her face. She was standing at a slouched angle, with one of her hand was lazily placed on her waist while her other dominant one was sporting what it seemed to be a customized first-generation [Uzi] submachine gun. Said Israeli-manufactured firearm was sporting a plain tan finish without any noticeable camouflage patterns, but it did feature some black patterns on the gun's extended stock and grip. The weapon also seemed to be carrying a longer magazine to hold more bullets within it.
Not wanting to let Kureha have the upper hand, Nanashi dismissed her earlier claims with a shoving wave to no one in particular. "...Well, look at you, Missus Space Gangsta, don't go mugging people and breaking into houses now," He mocked a Southern American accent as he said that, making exaggerated gang signs with his hands as he said that. "Didn't think you'd be using an SMG of all weapons."
At first, the pinkette looked at him strangely, but alas Kureha responded with a: "This baby's one of the most cheapest weapons around, and it's highly customizable. Considering the nature of the game, this gun's perfect for me."
Speaking of weapons, Nanashi looked back down to inspect his own, and to his slight surprise, the handgun was unloaded; with a 'RELOAD' sign flashing over the gun's surface and also at the ammo counter, now visible beside his health bar. Slightly confused, he tried to reach to his left back pocket for more cartridges, thinking that the game would handle the retrieval of a fresh magazine. This ended in failure. Then he tried tapping his own chest to see if there was any breast pocket to store the much-needed ammunition. Once again, there were none. All the while, Kureha was spectating her friend with a knowing smirk, as if waiting for an inevitable question to come.
"How the hell do you reload your stuff in this game, for Christ's sake..." Nanashi mumbled, still fumbling to himself in confusion and frustration over his predicament, with his speech directed at the air and sounded more like a statement than anything else.
Kureha's eyebrows rose, the question didn't come, but she did receive the audible gesture for help. She internally shrugged before speaking out. "Oi, to reload your gun-" She cut herself midway, waiting for an appropriate response to come from the boy. Nanashi slowly broke his focus from the troubles he were in and back to the pinkette. "-You just have to spin it like this," She finally continued, lifting her personal [Uzi] up over her shoulder before twirling her finger over the trigger, bringing the submachine gun to a full spin. As it did so, a blue light coated the gun and several clicking noises similar to a magazine getting inserted and the firearm being cocked and primed sounded off, when the rotation was complete, so was the reloading process.
Proud with her own results, Kureha kept a smug look over her partner.
"See? It's just simple as... that..."
She trailed off the moment her bright cyan eyes landed upon the pained look of Nanashi, the boy looked like he was trying his best not to cringe, complete with his left hand brought up to pink the bridge of his nose. He then shook his head several times.
"You... spin your gun, to reload?" His voice was low, and sounded like his patience was being tested by something.
Kureha's emotion now entered a cautious state. "Er... yeah, what I said just now," She confirmed with a slow nod.
A few more seconds of silence passed between them, before the new player finally breathed out a long, troubled sigh.
"...That's honestly the stupidest shit I've ever come to witness in a video game, literally, ever," His statement was flat, blunt, and straight to the point.
Kureha recoiled at the given response, slightly hurt by his words. "Whoa, okay, chill. That was a bit uncalled for..." Her voice dropped somewhat.
The boy frowned for a couple more moments, before spinning his own M1911, completing his own reload cycle and afterwards racking his slide backwards and pushing the hammer down to prime the first bullet into the chamber. "Well... I guess it works..." He grumbled whilst also glaring at the sidearm with a dejected look. "But for a game that's aiming for immersion, this stuff's hella edgy... like, can't one simply reload like... you know a normal human being?" As the question left his mouth, Nanashi also realized that his first person Heads Up Display now sported a constantly enlarging and enclosing circle on the middle of his screen. Less to say that was greatly distracting. "And the hell's with this little circle thingy on my HUD?"
"That's the [Bullet Circle], think of it as your crosshairs. it appears when your finger is on the trigger when aiming and/or firing from the hip, your shots will land on a random place within the circle. The calmer you are, the smaller the circle will get. Of course, that circle disappears whenever your aim down your sights."
The new player shook his head with a long and heavy sigh. "Talk about unfriendly UI..." His head spun around, testing his own senses to the new combat display. "Yo this is hella dumb, I mean, these mechanics are just straight up elementary-streamlined," Complained the boy, lifting his M1911, bringing it up to his face before rotating it into a forty-five degree angle, the boy then curled his shoulders inward, pulling the gun closer for him to aim down the sights with his left eye. "You know what? Forget it, let's just go... we're already wasting enough time idling at the starting position, right?"
Just now, Nanashi realized that even holding the gun still felt a little... off. Despite not being a gun nut, at least probably not as much as his long time friend and current partner, his common sense told him that the sidearm should at least feel a little more weighty. He could feel the coarse and rough rusting metal of the gun's surface, he would even support the argument that the game nailed the sense of the M1911 being manufactured from iron and steel, old ones at that, but the weight of the [Ballistic Pistol] was comparable to one of those cheap plastic toys bought for a reasonable price from your local Chinese hobby stores. The gun was unnaturally light. The same could probably be said for Kureha's [Uzi], as even for a girl athletic as she was, twirling a Submachine Gun of that size, with only one hand, no less, was no easy feat. He thought that it was probably done to streamline the game's mechanics.
Just like the other seemingly off-putting ones. For the game's target audiences was to be those who are within the adolescence age. And he couldn't really picture a 13 year-old to hold up a Light Machine Gun, not with their IRL physique at least.
Kureha's body shifted slightly, inwardly sighing, her friend clearly didn't look like he was enjoying the process one bit. Her blue eyes numbly trailing the newbie who was already advancing towards the gigantic steel door cautiously with his eyes already liddled halfway closed. She realized that it was part of her fault for forcing him to jump right into a PvP battle royale without letting him get used to the basics first, that, and GGO did feature some in-game mechanics that were pretty... unique, if one was lacking for a better term. She would argue that they were simplified by Zaskar, the American Company behind the game's development, but even then some of them were still downright strange for an FPS game.
The use of an ever constantly pulsing [Bullet Circle] instead of the much more widely used and accepted static crosshairs, spinning your gun to reload, and the toned down weight as well as recoil of the guns. Even to the point that the pinkette would sometimes be left wanting after she fired many of the game's featured weapons. Her own [Uzi] was of no exception. As much as she loved the gun's adaptability and reliability, she wouldn't lie that her gun just didn't have the same kind of impact compared to firing an actual Submachine Gun in full-auto. Heck, she was already internally preparing herself for the next complain the boy was sure to give out about his M1911's recoil.
In the end, the girl blinked her eyes a few times, feeling that her continued train of thought has led her mind astray from their original objective. And so, she followed her friend, readying her own firearm in the process,
Noticing the presence of players approaching the door, the game's detection system automatically slid the gigantic door open for them, to which this surprised Nanashi somewhat, but this surprise seemed to turn into one of shock and a bit of fear when his eyes picked up several tall humanoid figures standing behind the gate. And while they didn't look exactly like players, considering their inhumanely long and slim limbs, their metal-composed bodies, and their rigid, almost robotic walk cycle, the fact that they carried very real and very dangerous looking firearms of their own set multiple alarm bells off within Nanashi's mind. His panic only amplified when he realized that he was standing in the open with no available cover. After snapping out of his stupor, the boy immediately jumped back a few feet, the grip on his gun noticeably shaking and his [Bullet Circle] enlarging by a large margin due to his panicked state.
"Yo, what the hell are those things?! They be players or something? Did they see us?"
Kureha's cyan eyes widened slightly, somewhat amused by her normally composed friend to act a bit uncharacteristically scared. She would do well to save and store this memory within her brain.
She couldn't even stop herself from letting out a stifled snort. "Pft, relax, Nanashi, they're just bots," Marching towards him, she gave the shaken boy a few pats on the back. "I think I forgot to mention that in this PvP loot-fest, the game has included several combat NPCs we could battle with. To be honest... I'm not really sure why they've decided to put them here myself, but hey, gunning them down earns you extra [Credits]."
Nanashi peered his head over his shoulder to take in all the information, but he was still unsure. They could clearly see the bots clear as day, even from meters away, and logically, if they can see them, so could the enemy. Interestingly, they seemed to be docile, maybe even neutral towards their presence, proven by their lack of action, and in fact, the bots in question, being named [Barrage Automatons] mostly just stood there waiting and some carried on with their set patrol routes with no care in the world, all of them still brandishing their futuristic-looking firearms of unknown origins but with the barrels lowered and pointing to the ground.
"Ahh, so it's these guys..." Kureha nodded in understanding when she scanned room. She quickly counted about four of those bots just standing and patrolling idly. "Don't worry about 'em, Nanashi, these are the [Barrage Automatons], arguably the weakest enemies in the game, probably even weaker than the mobs from the normal newbie area around [Glocken]. Their [Energy Weapons] deal horrible damage, and also have horrible defenses to boot. They also have horrible detection range of just a meter or two, maybe even less. You can shoot and kill one of 'em right now, and the others wouldn't probably even take notice." She then gave the gesture for her friend to try his sidearm out. "Here, I'll take point."
The prove her claims, Kureha walked forward until she reached the next room containing the enemy bots with her own gun lowered, the girl donning a rather confident, if not, smug look on he face. True enough, none of the enemies seemed to care at her armed presence, even with the girl standing dangerously close to them.
"See? They're practically brain-dead!" She yelled from the next room, again receiving no response from the [Barrage Automatons] despite her loud voice. "Or maybe it's... artificial-intelligence-dead... I don't know!"
Nanashi rolled his eyes, but made no further response, he would just pretend that he didn't hear that. The boy then also stepped into the next section of the area, his weapon readied and trailed on one of the bots, once again entering the strange stance of aiming down the sights of his M1911's barrel rotated on a 45 degree angle. With the enemy in question still made no response towards its incoming doom, Nanashi held his breath in as he pulled the trigger. The area was then blanketed in an echo of a large explosive 'BANG', followed by a much smaller 'ping' courtesy of Nanashi's M1911 catapulting one of its [.45 ACP] bullets and ejecting a single casing to the cold metal floor, the barrel of his sidearm only slightly going upwards from the recoil before returning to its original position.
The result of this shot was near instant.
The next thing Nanashi saw after the boy recovered from the arguably tiny recoil, moderate amount of muzzle flash, and the loud noise that continued to ring in his ears for the next couple of seconds, was witnessing one of the [Barrage Automatons] with a new, smoking red hole on its faceplate, the NPC slowly twitched, the grip strength on its weapon slowly loosening before completely leaving it, as his metallic legs also wouldn't comply to its commands. The bot dropped its weapon first, then proceeded to unceremoniously fall face-first to hit the ground with a dull but still echoing 'thud'. Its body remained there for a few more seconds before it was engulfed by a bright white light, and then ending with a harmless explosion of pixels. And so, the enemy was no more.
Nanashi just stood there, both amazed and slightly disturbed with his sidearm's response and the enemy's death, which looked rather horrifyingly akin to a human would react when shot. The pace of his breathing was still rather rushed after the sudden adrenaline surge to help him brace the recoil. His composure then returned almost instantly when he remembered that there were still some threats within the premises. His gun immediately snapped to the next closest target to him, but the boy was left slightly quizzed when he saw that the other enemy he was aiming at, or rather, every single NPC didn't seem to react to his earlier murder of their kind, true to Kureha's words regarding their horrible detection range.
Meanwhile, Kureha just stayed there with her [Uzi] left hanging low, and her other hand placed on her waist. The pinkette simply watched the whole thing with mild amusement.
With no words exchanged, Nanashi quickly fired a few rounds towards the [Barrage Automatons] in rapid but controlled succession, with most of them succumbing to a single well-placed shot in their face plate, while the other one took two shots on its metallic torso before it systems overloaded from the damage and simply dropped down dead, all of them disappearing into nothingness in the same fashion as the earlier one. The process was rather hasty and the boy found himself already somewhat getting used to the recoil of his sidearm after the first shot he gave. Of course, the process was still new to him, and he ended up missing some of his shots and ultimately expending the whole 9-round magazine of his gun just to kill the rest of the three bots.
Ending his rampage of killing brain dead NPCs, Nanashi twirled his gun to initiate the reload process, inserting a fresh new clip into the empty chamber, all while the barrel was still smoking due to the heat exerted from repeated use.
He heard a clap coming from none other than his childhood friend.
"Amazing..." Kureha mocked a sarcastic gasp. "Your skills to execute four completely harmless level one robots was just simply remarkable..."
"Kiss my ass," Nanashi retorted, glaring at the pinkette who was still teasing him, but then he found himself running out of witty comebacks. What Kureha said still holds the truth.
Finishing a light teasing giggle, Kureha observed the now empty room, devoid of all enemies. "But in all honesty, not bad, mister John Wick. At least you know how to handle your gun, most first timers would just fumble with their shots, even with the toned down recoil."
"I guess the recoil wasn't enough to compromise a player's accuracy when they're aiming down sights," Nanashi shrugged. "And that wasn't even a recoil, the kick on this thing was as tiny as like... one of those light-gun shooters you'd find in classic arcades."
Kureha grunted, while she felt a bit proud with her intuition, hearing him complain would still be rather discouraging. "Streamlined controls, you know the drill by now. But either way, let's go! Loot's not gonna find themselves!" She turned around to look for the door that would lead them to the next room. And by said door was a rectangular box with its lid glowing orange. Kureha's eyes slightly lit up at the sight. "Speaking of loot..." She pointed an index finger towards the box.
Nanashi followed the finger, landing on the same object his friend'd just witnessed. "Is that... supposed to be a [Treasure Chest]?"
"Close, but not quite. [Bullet Boxes], you can use 'em to, obviously, replenish your ammo pool on-the-go," Kureha, ever the information-spewing and helpful friend, explained to the boy. "These things are usually rare in the field and/or dungeons, so passing up would be your worst decision for the week."
The new player slightly turned his head to the side. "Yo, I have four thousand rounds sitting in my inventory, I think I won't be needing extra ammo for the time being."
"Just grab 'em, ammo pools don't exactly have a maximum capacity, and ammo boxes could also fill up more ammo types regardless of whether you have the weapon or not. Why not, right?"
The boy eyed his friend a bit strangely. "...You sure you don't want them instead? I'm still set for days with these rounds."
Kureha shrugged, a dry smile slowly forming on her face. As irritating her friend was, he was at least considerate enough to offer her. "If you're insisting, at least we can share. So have at 'em! No time to idle around, chop chop!" She gave a few nudges to her friend to advance.
Nanashi couldn't really say anything as he was basically dragged towards the [Bullet Box]. When they reached the desired location, Nanashi contemplated his next course of action, but he started by raising his left, free arm, and spreading his hand into an open palm over the surface of the box. Surprisingly, this gesture worked, and the team of two player could hear the box's mechanism whirring and grinding at each other. This continued for a few moments before the contraption's lid slid open, revealing a few ammo boxes inside. The rest of the process was automatically done by the game, as the rounds inside were immediately transferred to the boy's inventory.
He then received a small, maybe even tiny - compared to his ammo pool, amount of fifty [9x19 Parabellum] rounds, with the description reading 'Also known as 9mm Luger, the 9x19 stands as the most used handgun cartridge in the modern world. True to its title, this cartridge can be used on many [Ballistic Pistols], [Ballistic Submachine Guns], [Ballistic Personal Defense Weapons], and even some [Ballistic Assault Rifles].' Nanashi would consider these rounds to be rather basic and would obviously under perform when compared to his [.45 ACP]. But considering the versatile and widespread nature of the former, the boy was certain that the 9mm could do him some good in the very near future.
Next up on the loot list was another fifty rounds of [.45 ACP], adding to his already massive ammo pool. But then, he also got twenty-five rounds of [FN 5.7x28mm], a description then elaborated 'Simply known as the Five-Seven, with a relatively large caliber size and a sharp-nosed tip, the round has made itself known as one of the deadliest proven cartridges to be introduced in modern history. This cartridge is extremely limited in production and is only usable by a literal handful of [Ballistic Pistols], [Ballistic Submachine Guns], [Ballistic Personal Defense Weapons], and [Ballistic Assault Rifles].' The description-slash-trivia caught Nanashi a bit off guard. He knew of the weapons mentioned in the description, but only now he knew of the power offered by the cartridge and their weapons. The low drop numbers meant that the cartridge was probably a rare find.
Nanashi unconsciously nodded his head twice. Their first plunder for the day, and luck was seemingly on their side for now. Finishing his inspection, he turned to Kureha, who was already midway opening the door to the next area, and he was quick to join her.
With the door opening, their eyes were then greeted by the sight of yet another room, this one being decorated in uneven ground, some tall sheets of metal dotting some strategic corners of the room. And like the room they were just at, this one was occupied, unfortunately, by actual, active enemy players. Nanashi could even count that there were three of them, all of them wearing some kind of a simple olive-green military jacket that didn't seem to be armored, in fact, the only semblance of protection they had was the silver face-plate that didn't offer much protection from gunfire either. The three players stood at about ten meters away from them, and at an elevated position by the two-meter high platform.
Both sides had their eyes widened, like deer caught in the headlights, but Kureha's instinct was the one who took the first initiative. With her brain already processing all the needed information regarding the terrain they would be engaging on, she pushed herself and her friend to the nearest available cover with a hard nudge from her shoulder, all the while, her right hand was wildly firing at the general directions of the enemy players.
Nanashi could register that his back was hit by a considerable force that pushed him down and sliding behind what it seemed to be a steel divider. He could also hear several unintelligible, but definitely panicked yelps coming from the enemy team when he noticed Kureha was spraying her weapons at them. Regaining his senses, there was a plethora of gunfire all around him, with so many bullets whipping past by and over his head, and Kureha blindly returning fire over the cover they were in, he couldn't even discern whether they were receiving single-shots or fully-automatic fire. His adrenaline once again kicked in, but this time, probably a bit too much, as his [Bullet Circle] was pulsing rampantly, and his hands shaking almost uncontrollably.
"Oi, Nanashi!" Kureha called out, finishing with her salvo of bullets and reloading her weapon as she did. "You okay there?!"
The boy refocused his eyes to the girl beside him. "I... I guess!" He cried back, trying to beat the hectic volume from all the rattling noises that were produced from the enemies' guns. "Jesus, we're being suppressed aren't we?!"
The pinkette could be visibly seen gritting her teeth as another bullet whizzed pass, nearly scoring a head shot that would immediately put her out of the game. "Kinda, yeah!" She tried to peek back up, only to cower back down as soon as her cyan eyes was met with several red lines. "Three dudes, they don't seem to be high-level players, but they're packing heat, and they have the high ground!"
"Got any ideas, then?!"
"Got one, actually!" She pointed to another nearby cover just about two meters away from them. "We gotta move from cover to cover, if possible, maybe even take these guys out in the process! Since our weapons aren't exactly designed for mid-range combat, we're gonna have to move from cover to cover! I'll take point and also provide suppressing fire with my weapon, you then move in, see if you can't fire off a potshot or two at them while they're distracted! Keep moving and don't stop firing, if you don't see any [Bullet Lines] on you, then you're good!"
Nanashi sputtered over his words for a few split seconds. "[Bullet Lines]?! What the hell are those things now?!"
"Red lines that- argh, you'll know it when you see it!" Kureha half-yelled, getting increasingly frustrated from the constant incoming fire. "I'll go first, now!"
With that declaration, and a hearty scream of defiance, the pinkette dashed out of cover, still going full-auto with her Submachine Gun, peppering the enemy team with a hail of 9mm bullets, whilst also sprinting to a new cover. Almost instantly, Nanashi peeked out of the divider, to see that two of the three players ducking to avoid the gunfire, but one still brave enough to return fire towards his friend. Not wasting the current pause from the enemy salvo,the boy also jogged from the cover he was in, his M1911 however, still trained on the other enemy that was still not taking cover, despite the muffled yells from his other teammates to do so. Nanashi put several pressure on the trigger, his handgun responding by firing a few rounds at said enemy players, he could count one, two, three, four shots, all of them missing and not getting any feedback from the player. Some would guess that it was due to the range between them. Despite having an effective range of fifty meters, the M1911 was still but only a sidearm, and landing shots on a target well over seven meters proved to be challenging for the new player.
Without much thought, he then untwist gun arm and switched his stance into a more common one, with the barrel of the gun extended and the shooter aiming down the sights with his right eye instead, the orientation of the handgun itself no longer turned in a forty-five degree angle. The boy then pressed the trigger as fast as his index finger allowed him to, expending the rest of the five rounds left in the magazine. Five powerful thundery cracks sounded off rapidly, and within the next millisecond, five bullets were travelling in high speed towards their target. The player took notice of the [Bullet Line] embedded on his face just a bit too little too late, as while two bullets simply whizzed pass harmlessly, one seemed to struck directly on his throat, one managed to puncture his cheekbone through his faceplate as he turned to face his assailant, and the final one planted itself deep within his forehead when he fully faced the boy.
The reaction was immediate. His eyes grew white in shock as his body began to be engulfed in the same bright light that seem to always shroud every object in the state of being destroyed or entering their deaths. Not a second later, his whole body dissipated into shards of pixels being launched into all directions. It all happened so fast for all who witnessed it. Even Kureha had to do a double take at the sudden death of her opponent. Her cyan eyes traveled towards her friend who'd just finished inserting a fresh clip into the now hungry magazine that was his M1911 via the twirling process of his weapon. The boy himself looked like he was still in that same adrenaline overload from before.
"Nanashi, the hell are you doing?!" The pinkette shouted from her newly-found shelter. "Get yourself into cover, now!"
As soon as she said that, two of the other enemy players popped out from their own concealment, and their guns already brandished, and ready to fire towards Nanashi's figure who just stood there in the open. Multiple red lines were instantly formed, trailing from the enemies' barrels right towards the newp player's torso, and the rest happened in such a blur. Within his adrenaline-frenzied state, he could hear Kureha's voice, most certainly ordering him to do something, he wanted to listen, but his blood and muscles, pumped with adrenal fluids refused to listen. And instead, they became greedy for more action to satisfy his instinct's needs. The boy was moving automatically, with every semblance of logic seemingly left him all at once.
He could feel the kick of his M1911 as he poured more rounds into the general direction of the other players, he could feel his avatar getting shot at with every vibration that erupted on his skin whenever the bullets made contact with his torso. And he could see the edges of his vision reddening, until finally graying, and all of his strength leaving him as his avatar slowly tumbled towards the ground after receiving one too many shots. When Nanashi regained some control - or the lack of it - over his body, he realized that his avatar has already met its demise. His body's function seemed to decline any input from his muscles, and he felt his face slamming against the floor as all of his vision was turned into simply a blur of black and white, and all of his other senses were numbed.
It didn't take a genius to realize that he has met his first death inside the game.
First came the realization, then came the panic that his death within the game would somehow transfer to his real, defenseless body left at his own home. But then, came yet another realization.
On the center of his screen, the words 'DOWNED - WAITING FOR REVIVAL' continuously flashed, and Nanashi himself, even at his miserable state, could still make out some of things happening all around him. Sounds of muffled but constant gunfire, followed by an explosion ensued. The carnage didn't simply just stop to mourn for his loss. But after more passing seconds, that seemingly turned into minutes, there was just silence - probably signifying the end of their engagement with the enemy. Following that, Nanashi could hear sounds of muted footsteps quickly approaching his location. There was some other sounds of a high-pitched chime going louder - and louder - and louder - and louder by the second.
And suddenly, all of his senses returned. Color came back to his vision, his ear canals no longer looked like they were blocked by something, and everything once again sounded crisp and clear. Nanashi deduced his motoric functions had also worked again, and his hypotheses was confirmed with his body finally responding to his commands to move. His dark brown eyes then looked upwards to face his savior, seeing an exasperated looking Kureha, her own health bar already dipped halfway into the yellow, nearly orange portion. She was carrying a different weapon now, a short, but relatively large blue and white tube, resembling a rocket launcher of sorts, although not from real life designs.
"You okay, there, Nanashi?" The pinkette gave him a wry grin that's not exactly indicating a good sign as she helped her friend back up to his feet. "Sheesh, I have to waste a rocket just for these two guys..." Mumbled the girl, storing her launcher elsewhere for her own [Uzi].
As soon as his legs regained their strength, Nanashi stood back up on his own, politely declining the offer from his longtime friend with a simple wave, his eyes scanning their now clear surroundings, no other players were in sight. "Okay, what... the hell happened? Didn't I die just now? I half-expected to be spawned back at the barracks or something, or... you know, get killed in real life."
Kureha sighed. "You were [Downed]. Anyone who's not killed by a head shot enters a [Downed] state. You can get revived if there's a nearby friendly player to help you, of course, this doesn't work on solo plays. If you get killed while gaming on solo, or got a bullet in your head, it's instantly game over for you. So you got lucky back then. You also die when all of your [Squadron] members or all friendly players left or are also killed. The guy you capped just now, you actually scored a head shot on him," She marched onward to the nearby door that led them to the next area, only stopping and glancing back at her teammate, flashing a grin to him. "...Not bad."
Nanashi was yet again quiet. All the things that happened to him in the short span of just a few minutes playing actual PvP content was terrifying, genuinely so. But it was also... exhilarating. He'd never imagine going full ballistic on his senses would be so surprisingly cathartic. As unsatisfying the gunfight felt, it was still an interesting experience for the boy. But he said nothing, reloaded his M1911, and pressed forward with the pinkette, the two occasionally helping each other up to climb the elevated platforms. So far into their ventures, they'd found nothing but extra munitions. Nanashi took back his earlier monologue of having fortune siding with them.
It was a long empty corridor that simply served as a bridge to the next set of rooms, and so the two advanced with Kureha getting noticeably more agitated with their lack of good loot about seven minutes into the match. With the deadline soon approaching, they would probably need to quicken their pace to clear out the rooms. With the steel door sliding open, they were greeted with yet another empty one, but this time, occupied... by none other than Itsuki, who was accompanied by another male player - probably a member of his own party, that both noticed Nanashi and Kureha's arrival. The latter team immediately entered yet another alarmed state, with Nanashi quietly cursing their luck, while Kureha slowly gaining instances of panic within her gestures.
"Oh great..." Nanashi muttered in a monotone annoyance to his longtime friend. "Jusstttt... great..."
"Well, well, I didn't think we would cross paths this late into the match," Itsuki cried, his posture relaxed, but at the same time looked ready to jump at the two newcomers at a moment's notice. His companion shared the same gesture, but with his weapon drawn at them. "Color me surprised. And forgive me for the thought, but I had the hunch that you two wouldn't make it this far," Even then, he still maintained the same politeness he'd shown them a few minutes back at the lobby.
"...Itsuki-san?" Kureha felt her tongue going numb as she was at a lost for words, but seeing the incoming threat, she raised her own Submachine Gun to returning the motion back to them.
The boy beside the pinkette also brought his handgun's sights to meet his eyes. "So..." He trailed off, the silence on the room getting more and more unbearable. "...What happens now? I suppose you two aren't kind enough to let a first-timer go pass this room without exchanging gunfire?"
At his half-hearted plea, Itsuki chuckled at Nanashi's attempt to let them go. "The fact that you two have managed to survive this long is already enough proof for us to be cautious against you. And considering this is a PvP match... I think we also have the rights to stop your advance," The heavy atmosphere continued, with both sides not taking action, one probably out of fear, but the other one out of simple amusement at their expense. "But... I suppose I can show some lenience... under a condition."
"...Condition?" Kureha repeated his words carefully. "And elaborate on your definition of lenience, please, Itsuki-san."
"Situated on the next room, is a particularly annoying monster that is halting our progress," He pointed to the steel door on the far side of the room. "Seeing that we are not equipped with heavy weapons at the moment, taking it down would prove to be a chore. That's why, I would like you to kill them for me instead. Do this, and I can guarantee that you two will be spared from us, at least for just this encounter."
"And you expect a newbie with a starter pistol and another player armed with an SMG to fare better than you guys?" rebutted Kureha's long time male friend, bluffing about Kureha's lack of arsenal in the process. "And you expect us to just agree to your terms no problem? I mean, what's stopping you from killing us from behind our backs after we clear the room ahead?"
Itsuki gave a reassuring and understanding smile at their still hesitant stance on the argument. "I always. Always, keep my word."
"Even now, you two should already consider yourselves lucky, it's rare that Itsuki-san's doing this on a whim," The other player beside Itsuki's side added his own opinion on the matter.
The two other players deduced that Itsuki wasn't telling them everything, seeing how he failed to answer Nanashi's first half of his question. "We just have to kill that one monster, right?" Kureha decided to speak up after the prolonged tranquility.
"Nothing more, but nothing less," Raising his arms for emphasis on his neutrality regarding the matter, Itsuki answered evenly.
"Then let's go, Nanashi, we have a monster to kill," Kureha lowered her Submachine Gun, and walked forward, gesturing her partner to do the same, to which he followed. The two players simply went pass the two, half expecting Itsuki to turn on his promises and shoot them without their knowledge, but the gunfire never really came.
Nanashi has the urge to turn his head around, but out of his own fear and hesitance, he couldn't seem to do it. Instead, he would opt to whisper to his partner regarding the matter. "You sure we can trust him? Something is seriously fishy about that guy."
As the door slid open, the only response he got back from the pinkette was a shrug, wordlessly giving him her reply that probably would sound like 'only one way to find out' if it was made audible. Meeting them on the next area was only but a single combat NPC, shaped in the form of a metallic spider with its head sensors seemingly jouting out from the center chassis. Four steel legs that looked reinforced and could repel small-arms fire, and from the earlier center chassis, it brandished what it seemed to be either a heavy machine gun, or a gatling gun that could fire energy rounds in quick succession without pause. Unlike their earlier encounter with the [Barrage Automatons], this one bot seemed to be as perceptive as a normal human being, if not more, as it was instantly alerted and ready to unload its arsenal towards the incoming players.
Nanashi was expecting a world of hurt for the upcoming minutes as he raised his M1911 in that strange stance yet again.
But what he didn't really prepare for was the sound of something blasting right beside him, and a bright blue ball of pure energy projectile travelling towards the enemy in velocity, while slower than a normal bullet, was still too fast for the bot to dodge. When the charged projectile made contact with the center chassis of the spider-like robot, an explosion of white and blue particles shrouded the robot, with electricity and pure volatile energy spouting out from the point of impact, it sent shock waves echoing throughout the room, enough to produce a small quake that almost made the boy lose his footing. After lowering his hand from reflexively shielding his eyes, he could make out some things emerging from the smoke.
Or what's left of it, at least.
Just like that, he could see the monster's metal hull already ripped into pieces with severe burnt marks replacing its dull white paint. Its metal legs already strewn all over the place after being violently amputated and pushed away from their main body by the ensuing shock waves after the initial explosive contact. What was left of the quote-unquote 'annoying monster' was quickly swallowed by the same light that covered up its entire body, and then finally vanishing into a burst of pixels along with the dissipating smoke. The sight left Nanashi with his mouth only slightly agape, and a single roll of nervous sweat could be seen trickling down his forehead, this is knowing well that in real life, he was still situated in his cozy room, with the air-conditioner turned on.
He turned to face the pinkette, still resting her small rocket-launcher tube by her shoulder, and the fuse of such weapon still smoking from the sudden discharge. Her face has still neutral look to it.
Noticing the stare, she turned to face her friend. "...What?" She asked with a shrug.
Nanashi said nothing, he just kept eyeing her with a dumbfounded look.
"I wasn't taking any chances. Itsuki-san did say this is an annoying enemy, right?" Kureha added, feeling as if she was being accused by the look her friend gave her. "The less time we have to mope around the area, the better anyway."
"Indeed you're right, Kureha-san," Itsuki's voice erupted behind them. "Truth be told, I was expecting to have a rather enjoyable sight of the two of you working together as a team to take this thing down... less to say, I may just a little bit saddened."
The other male member of Itsuki's party finally also decide to add his own input. "And I as well. But still, we most certainly didn't expect you too pull out a launcher to blast it just like that. Can't say that I was expecting a spectacle, but for the room to be cleared this quick?" He spoke with mild amusement.
Kureha gave a wry smile at his opinion. "I constantly save up my rockets to use them at occasions like these. So why not? The sooner we take down the monster, the more time we can advance to loot the place."
Both players within Itsuki's team exchanged glances. "I suppose that's a good explanation as any," They walked pass the two friends into the next room. "As I've said, I won't go back on my promises. In fact, let us take point for the upcoming room. We'll clear out any hostiles if they appear, so now, we'll trust our backs to yours."
Nanashi snorted lightly. "Don't worry, even Kureha here is not dumb enough to piss off your fangirls. Wouldn't want them to send us death threats only after my first day here."
What followed was a hard nudge to his stomach, by none other than yours truly.
Itsuki laughed without looking back, his eyes set to the opening steel doors before the group of four, not noticing the violence that just happened behind them between the boy and the pinkette. "Oh, trust me when I say that the fan club thing was a bit on the unexpected side from my stay in the game," The way he said it seemed like he wasn't speaking such things to show off, but of genuine good humor.
Following the two much more experienced players to the next set of corridors, and walking the rest of the distance in silence, they finally arrived at a fork in the road, with each side leading up doors that could lead them into separate rooms.
"Well, I suppose this is where we should part ways," Itsuki declared, looking back at the two players who were following his party. "I don't need to remind you that our terms end here, yes? The next time we meet again, at least in this dungeon, we would unfortunately need to cross our swords, no more lenience or second chances. You two may pick a path, and we'll choose the other."
Kureha crooked her head lightly to her side. "Maybe you should take point for once, Nanashi. Who knows, maybe your luck is better than mine."
The boy snapped his eyes left and right, facing the two tall doors and eyeing them carefully. Inside his mind, he was also considering all the chances of them facing another battle. So far, even facing just one single battle against another player team, his own party of two was not faring well at all. Kureha has already spent two of her launcher's ammo, something that should probably be saved for the most urgent of situations only. While Nanashi himself still has an abundance of ammunition on his M1911, the gun was still not a workhorse that could tackle constant stream of players and bots alike. They were clearly not in a proper state to enter another combat.
But now he was left with a choice, with the other players waiting for his answer. If the layout was purely based on RNG, then both sides could face literally anything. Hell, the game could even mess with their luck and just have the fork in the road reemerging as one again in the near future, making an encounter basically unavoidable with Itsuki's party. In the end, it was a game of chances for either sides anyway, so lifting an unsure finger from his left, free hand, he pointed towards the corridor to the left, Kureha and the others following his choice of destination. His friend gave a shrug at his choice, while Itsuki's party remained still.
"Then we'll be taking the path to our right," Itsuki's companion announced their own route to take.
"I wish we could meet under more favorable circumstances," Itsuki sighed, the player started to rub his nose possibly out of frustration. "And I don't know if it's our luck, but every room we've been at, they're already swept clean by the Uncrowned Queen."
"Well... truth be told, the both us have only found a single [Bullet Box] ourselves. It's almost like the entire floor is already looted from the start," Kureha admitted as well. "But you did threaten us earlier, so I'm not exactly gonna go and play nice, Itsuki-san. I would wish you two good luck on your time left in this dungeon, but I certainly won't," She said with a frown.
Itsuki kept that simple neutral smile on his face. "And we to you, Kureha-san, Nanashi-san."
And with that, the two parties departed on their merry and separate ways, with Kureha and Nanashi going to the left, while Ituski's squad simply went to the opposite side of the corridor with no more words exchanged between them. Once they were out of earshot, Nanashi can hear his friend sighing loudly. Probably just glad to be out of the predicament for once. As she walked, the girl stretched her arms upwards, and Nanashi wondered if that would actually work to alleviate them from sore muscles, considering they are still Full-Diving in VR, and are basically still just laying still on their mattresses or something of similar comfort in real life, just unmoving.
"Whew, glad we got that out of the way," Spoke Kureha after she was finished with her stretch. "Actually, even with the lack of loot, I'd say that everything went better than expected. Maybe it's my luck, maybe it's yours, but all things considered, Itsuki-san is still a GGO player, and in GGO, it's always shoot first, ask questions never. Still, we should probably still be careful from here on out."
Nanashi listened to her with his eyes scanning their surroundings, he was the one taking point after all. "But it'd be great if we can avoid any engagements too, though... our objective WAS about getting the loot, right?"
"True, true."
That seemed to end their conversation, but for some reason, Nanashi wanted to press on for more. "So... uh," He feel the awkwardness rising slowly but surely between them. "How's life been treating your family IRL?"
Kureha glanced to her side and raised an index finger, almost touching the boy's lips to silence him. "The session's all recorded by the game. So no IRL talks now," She explained flatly, earning a look of realization from the boy. "But... after this, we can catch up, for old time's sake?"
"Yeah... I'd like that," As the last bit of the sentence left his tongue, the door before them finally opened, what was inside seemed to catch Nanashi's attention. "Oi, look at this."
The room was much more cramped than the earlier ones, at said premises itself was packed to the brim with some old, dusty crates, all stacked haphazardly and untidily all across the limited space of the room. On the furthest corner, was an active but idle console, while on the center was a circular platform, with four robotic arms spouting out from the ground, but the platform itself didn't look like a bot and one could deduce that it was a part of the room's background. If anything, everything about this room screamed storage area to them, much to the interest of Nanashi, and the obvious delight of Kureha. The girl immediately dashed forward, inspecting the room on her own, leaving Nanashi behind to catch up to her.
"Whoa, nice find!" Exclaimed the now energized girl, already skipping forward to the console. "Huh, let's see here..." She began punching in some things into the computer. "If there isn't a way forward, then surely there must be something akin to a loot in this area."
Nanashi kept his pace slow, taking in all the view from the abandoned storage and storing them deep into his brain. All the crates and boxes stacked within looked old, even ancient considering all the rust and dust they've collected. Some of them even looking so fragile that making a single contact with them would probably vaporize the containers right there and then. The boy decided to ignore Kureha's ramblings as she toyed around with the central terminal, opting to study his surroundings a bit more. So far, the place was littered in wide open corridors and rooms. He would say that the setting was likely to be a factory of sorts, but it also could be the interior of an ancient spaceship, considering the lore of the game.
"Okay, so how about this one right... here."
There was a chirp sounding off from the terminal, responding to that input, the central platform on the room seemed to activate.
The same platform Nanashi was stepping on.
"Oi, oi!" The new player cried out, panic slowly making its way back to him. "Hey, Kureha, the hell's happening here? What'd you do?"
The pinkette nearly jumped when she heard the panicked yelps coming from her friend. Turning her face back, she could see the male player's body slowly being engulfed by light, but it wasn't the same light that signified the end of one's life. It's the same one that seemed to shroud everyone who's entering a teleportation gate. "Oh crap, is this a one-way teleporter?" She mused to herself, trying to amend the situation by turning her attention back to the set of computers behind her. Her lack of understanding regarding the machinery however certainly didn't help the situation. "H-hey, Nanashi, listen! This is only a teleporter, you're gonna be just fine, you hear me?" Her voice sounded worried herself. "I'll be right over there-"
That was the last thing Nanashi would witness and hear, as his vision was blinded by a bright teleportation light.
And the next thing he saw, was of another room. This one room didn't seem to have any teleporter exit like the other lobbies, so it was indeed a one-way teleporter. The room itself was like the other ones he'd been through. Large, empty, but this time, just a tad bit different. It appeared like he was transported to a unique storage room. With different wall textures and even some large window panes that overlooked the sandy wasteland outside. The light coming from the orange-colored sky and sun piercing through said windows. On the far side of the room, sat a large, human-sized tube with a reflective cover that like the teleporter before him, just laid there inactive. For the most part, this new storage area didn't look to be touched by any human players, at least as of yet.
But still, when his thought processes fully came back to him, Nanashi would realize that he was now truly alone.
"...Well, shit."
Fatal Bullet
An Alternate Novelization
Author's Notes:
I suck at making fight scenes. I know.
