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Gale Warriors Chapter 7: Ashley the Roller…
The day after my scuffle with that Gunner-X gal, I was tasked with defeating another guy, all part of Sinon's spartan training. Though his name and reputation were questionable at best, a mission revolving around bike races was just what I needed to get my head on the game. Best part is that I had never been to the southern side of the map, but I've heard plenty…
Syber arrived at the Road Sea, a chaotic highway made up of broken, disjointed chunks of road. Though that confused the boy at first, it was fun nonetheless. Like the whole zone was a sandbox for bikers and Mad Max references. After finding the spot for the race, Syber waited for a good 40 minutes. No, he didn't sit around doing nothing for that long, his attention spam would kill him. "Who knew racing in straight lines could be so much fun… But seriously, where is this guy? At this rate I might have to take on those Quests that NPC gives to kill time."
Right on cue, but far from time, this dope-looking biker wearing a skull helmet and biker jacket showed up. His boots and gloves had spikes, and though his bike looked like a two wheel model, it was actually a three-wheeler with joint back tires. "I hear someone's looking for a whole lotta trouble. That you?" He asked, to which Syber looked at a dossier and asked "I'm looking for a guy named… Er… Ashley?" To which the guy snapped his fingers, and a group of bikers in various gear came from behind him and surrounded Syber. "That answer ya question, runt?"
Ashley then leaned on his bike and crossed his arms. He seemed like he was checking Syber out, which led the lad to assume he was about to mistake him for a girl. "So, what do you want? Out with it boyo." Surprised, Syber inquired as to why he didn't joke about his looks. "It takes real balls to U-turn in a tri-wheeler like ya did in there. Even if ya was a chick, calling you one would be like an insult to mah pride." And it seemed like his thugs agreed with that notion.
Impatient from the time he had to kill, Syber went straight to the point. "You. Me. Race. Now." Ashley let out a rough chuckle, his punks followed suit until he told them to shut it. "This the deal: me and the gang are about to do a Royale Race. Ya can either join the pot, or beat it." Syber pondered about this for a second, then he asked about this pot. "Lizard, educate this piece of Roadkill on the pot." Ashley backed out and their mechanic stepped in. Long story short, pay to race and winner takes all. "Today's pot is 5000 Credits. With you, the pot will be 80.000-"
Out of the blue, Ashley kicked his pal out of the way to talk. "Oh yeah, I put an extra 20.000 on the pot to make the prize a nice round 100k. Am I a great boss or what?" All the bikers begun cheering on cue, save for Syber and the one known as Lizard, who was still getting up. It wasn't that much, but another 6-digit paycheck would work wonders for Syber, so he didn't think twice before putting his cash on that skull-adorned pot. "Alright, gimme that map, let's see where I'm going…"
Road Sea - Royale Race Starting Point…
For a climatic race, that track didn't look very imposing, but it WAS a battle royale, so it was likely a deliberate choice so racers could focus on shooting a bit more. "Word around is that Ash ain't the best shot around, but his bike skills are enough to make him a top player." Try as he might, it was hard to work a plan around that problem. Simply winning this race wouldn't cut it for his goal, he HAD to be the one to kill Ashley or kiss that 5-star weapon goodbye. "My bike doesn't have spikes or armor attached to it, so I'll have to pull out my guns during the race… Or rather, my Gunblade. Maybe I should look into getting myself a sawed-off, or something else I can use while driving…"
Ash had fired a loud gunshot that echoed throughout the area, which was meant to be the signal to go. Syber, had a delayed reaction, until he realized that he needed to get moving right away. Lizard had given hand signals to the other cohorts, who seemed to snicker at the prospect. Though, Syber didn't even see the signals, and thought that they were missing the point of a race. The minute he fired his gun, the two backed off and went in two separate directions, leaving Lizard by himself. "Huh… Guess they wanted to take a shortcut. Oh well, looks like I'm dealing with you now…" Syber said to himself, before trying to shoot Lizard…
Only to realize that one of the two chronies had just rammed into him, seemingly out of nowhere. "What the-" Before Syber could finish, the second guy came in and rammed him. Syber found it increasingly difficult to maintain control over his bike, so he pressed the brake and re-aligned himself. He continued further onto the track, still not getting closer to Ashley, due to Lizard's careful timing with the other two racers, and their unlikely skill at dodging bullets. Syber tried shooting at the other two, only for them to laugh at him while he kept on missing.
"Dammit!" Syber shouted, before speeding on ahead, and tried going for Lizard, only to once again be blindsided. The two then tried boxing him in… To which Syber's frustration was kicking in. "So, what'cha gonna do, girly-man!?" One of them asked in a mocking tone, before Syber finally decided to just cut the area nearby the tire. "Oops." Syber had then caused him to crash. Syber then aimed for the other's tire, and blew it up. "My bad…" Revving up the bike, he continued onwards, till he finally caught up to Lizard.
"You'll never beat Ash at this rate! Ya might as well quit while you're ahead… Roadkill." Syber took offence to that comment, and decided to ram into the vehicle he was next to… Before breaking and causing the two vehicles to spin out. Syber had shot Lizard in the abdomen, thus knocking him onto the ground. All that left, was Ashley himself. Syber seemed to be at a disadvantage… Seeing that he was unable to catch up to him, at first he tried shooting at the bike, but only a handful of shots actually damaged it.
The two were almost neck and neck at the finish line… When Ashley's bike made it through. Most of the NPCs still cheered, but noticed one thing: Ashley's head was missing. Syber had figured to shoot Ashley in the head, just as he was crossing the finish line. Once Ashley respawned, he looked at Syber before saying "Didn't think you'd hit f**k it. Not bad…" Syber shrugged and responded "Hey, just doing what I can to have fun here." Syber saw that there was a prompt on his screen for all the money in the pot.
"It's yours for the taking, runt. Go ahead, ya earned it." Syber ignored being called a runt, and decided to take the pot. "Well, I got what I came for… So, I'm gonna go now." Syber then got back onto his bike and rode away from the race track. Lizard and the others arrived at the finish line, though a little too late. "So boss, how'd it go?" "Well, let's just say I have… A smidgen of respect for the runt. He's got talent, but he lacks finesse." Ashley looked through his stats, and saw something that unsettled him.
"Hey, guys… Where's my shotgun?" Lizard and the others looked at the equipment slots, and saw the absence of the shotgun he had. "Son of a bitch took your gun!" Ashley tried to think on how that was possible, when another chronie showed the replay of him getting shot in the head. Turns out that, while Syber fired the bullet prior to the end of the race, the bullet only got to Ashley after he crossed the finish line and ended the race. According to one of Ashley's cronies, that got registered as a regular kill, not race kill, so drops were enabled. "Next time I see him… I'm kickin' his ass!"
Next, Samir contacted me. This was when he called me to tell me something about Sinon, but for whatever reason he insisted we talk in person. Sinon had a point in ordering me to tackle those assignments solo, but I wasn't about to hand over control of my social life. Sinon's social ineptitude was her problem, not mine…
Later that Day - Samir's (Relocated) Shooting Range…
It was surprising how fast Samir got his new place all set, given most of his stuff had to loaded and moved halfway across the world map. As it turns out, Speed Demon leaked his old spot's coordinates out of spite for the duo. "A dungeon with a 5-Star SMGs drop? Isn't that a tad bit specific?" According to Samir, that was a go-to method to flooding places with newbies and casuals. "There's a wide gap between the point where people start taking GGO seriously and the point where they truly start to learn how to play. Such people are often eager to acquire high-end SMGs since those are all they know how to use. Worse yet, many ill-willed players spread false rumors to trick them like this… Makes you wonder how people are even supposed to get good at this game."
It was around this time that Syber stopped his monologue, reminding Samir that he was still busy preparing for the upcoming tournament. "Oh yes, I've noticed. In fact, nearly half this server knows about you." Syber wondered about that, so Samir showed him photos of his recent exploits against Behemoth, Gunner-X and Ashley. "How did you even get these…?"
Samir came across these while investigating something else, but oddly enough he didn't specify the means through which he acquired those images. "The reason I called you here was to make sure she couldn't eavesdrop on you. For you see, I came across a rather curious piece of information while looking through these images…" Samir that batch of images away to show a second set, all from the same locals, though these showed someone else. "I suppose you don't recognize this avatar, do you?"
Indeed, Syber had never seen that person. "So I have a stalker? I'm not seeing your point, Samir…" Not surprised, Samir pulled up public info on that player. "While looking into IRL matters is illegal, knowing when someone is or was online is not. Friend Lists do so constantly. May I see your backlog?" Syber hesitated, but his confusion couldn't compete with his curiosity now that it was piqued, so he followed Samir's instructions to find and copy said data. "Would you look at that…"
A quick glance made Samir's face darken. "I was hoping to be wrong, but this can't be a coincidence. See this?" Samir revealed what Syber assumed to be the ins and outs of this would-be stalker, though off by a couple minutes, they mirrored Sinon's activity perfectly. "Are you implying what I think you're implying…?" The lad inquired nervously, though Samir stated all he had was circunstancial evidence at best. "I don't mean to accuse anyone, but if my guess is correct… I believe this training Sinon is giving you may have an ulterior motive." Samir pulled a couple videos, stream recordings from the previous BoB.
It was almost comical. Everyone tried to warn me about Sinon, but the more they spoke ill of her, the less I seemed to care. For all I knew, they were either jealous of her, or didn't know her very well. Turns out I didn't know her either. Samir kept explaining things, but the footage alone made it clear: Sinon lost to Gunner-X in the previous BoB Prelims and then to Ashley in the battle royal. Not to mention she was vastly outclassed by Yamikaze and XeXeed, who were too busy killing one another to put her out of her misery. For a prideful personality like Sinon, those two weekends must've been hell.
"She had me kill those people out of spite…?" Shocked, Syber ran off without hearing what Samir had to say. Perhaps it was for the best, though it certain didn't prepare him for what was about to happen…
The Next Day - Outside the Echo Ruins…
When Sinon arrived, she demanded to know why they were meeting out in the middle of nowhere. "And where is that stupid biker's shotgun?" Syber looked a bit lost in thought, but he gestured her to wait a minute. "While you're busy thinking, I suppose I should give you your next assignment… I want a Five Star SMG." Syber raised an eyebrow at that request. "I find it funny how you manage to know the locations of each and every one of these Five Star Weapons you keep telling me to get you."
"Isn't Hecate a five star weapon?" Sinon then responded "Well, let's just say in the wrong hands, they could prove to be quite dangerous." Sinon went to inspect Syber a little closer and asked "Is everything alright? I mean, I heard you won some pretty big race… So, that should be something righ-" Suddenly, Syber puts a finger to her lips, which starts to anger her. "Funny that you mentioned it… Considering I didn't win the race."
Sinon pushes his finger away and replies "What…? Of course you won. I… Uh, heard it from a contact who-" Syber interrupted her once more. "You mean this person, right?" Syber showed one of the pictures he got from Samir, followed by the from Gunner-X's tower. "How about you introduce me to this person? You know I just LOVE meeting new people." Sinon was at a loss, so Syber went on. "And once we're all acquainted, why don't you tell me a story? Like, say… That time you lost to Gunner and Ash in the last BoB?"
What Syber failed to noticed was that Sinon wasn't the one nervous. Her silence was one filled with fury, culminating in a cold glare that spoke to Syber. It was at that moment that Syber realized… He was about to get effed up. "Should've taken care of that prancy cowboy when I had the chance…" She murmured in a furious tone, before shoving her SMG against Syber's nose.
"I had sixty bullets loaded when I killed a randie on my way here. Reaching for your gun, I see. Adorable." She gestured for him to hand it over, he complied. "I usually remember to count, but I forgot this time. It happens. Especially when ungrateful little chumps start acting all high and mighty. Now… Did I use the whole magazine… Or just 59 rounds?" Seeing her cold grin made Syber freeze with fear. He was sorely tempted to reach for his gunblade, which she neglected as per usual, but one glance at her eyes kept him from trying. Sinon asked how did Syber get those pictures, or rather, how Samir got 'em. "He didn't say."
"Liar… Hmph, doesn't matter. Hand over the other shotgun, or I'll just kill you till it drops." She wasn't surprised by his refusal, but when he inquired about her revenge, she sort of laughed for a bit. "I don't care about revenge, I'm just eliminating the competition. Something I should've done ages ago." Hearing that finally did it. The part of Syber that wanted to believe Sinon kicked the bucket, possibly for good. "You're…" "A cold bitch? Yes, I get that often. See if I care…"
She begun walking away slowly, but her aim was still on him. "Move an inch and you're swiss cheese." When she got to her bike, she pulled out her other gun and punched a hole into Syber's bike. "Well, now I'm going to give you a choice: drop out of BoB. Or I'll put up a bounty so fat… Your life will become a living hell." And with that, she sprayed Syber. He dodged, obviously, but she left the range of his gun before he could fire a single round.
After recomposing himself, or whatever passed for that, Syber took a step towards his bike only for it to explode. Knocked back by the explosion, he didn't bother getting up a second time. "I guess I should've listened…" A few minutes later, he texted Samir a single line.
SYBER: You were right.
And thus, I exit the game… Feeling like I've been kicked in the dirt. All just because I wanted to believe that someone like her actually gave a shit.
To Be Continued...
