When a player dies in CNO, they lose approximately 5% of the bits they have on them, as well as up to five random items in their inventory. Items exempt from being potentially dropped upon death include key items, NBS models, and Cores (Update: This includes the recently implemented Ultra Core). If another player dealt the killing blow to the dead player, or if the player died due to environmental causes (ex: falling, crushed by rocks, etc) and was last damaged by another player within 30 seconds before the death, it results in a PK and the dropped bits and items are automatically added to the player killer's inventory.
-Cyber Nexus Online Manual: Death Penalty
The world of CNO could be broken up into various sections. These sections were connected to each other through warp gates. Each area outside of Serulis had a main city and fields stretching outside of it. The terrain varied with each section, but there was one thing each of them had in common. The monsters you encountered were all machines.
The story behind the world of CNO was rather standard sci-fi procedure. Humanity built robots over time to help make life easier, the robots eventually became too intelligent, they rebelled, and now there was a war between humans and the robots that rebelled. Humanity had the numerical advantage at first, but the robots took control of various factories and began mass producing more soldiers for their army. There were some neat parts to the story though, such as how the Nexus Battle Suits were created specifically in response to the war. Rather than making more robots to fight their battle for them, humanity learned its lesson and created advanced weapons that left humans in control.
In addition to the normal quests you could find scattered around CNO, there were the main story quests that slowly unlocked the sections for you to travel to one by one. As of the latest update, the main story still had yet to reach its end and there were already seven sections.
Naturally, Violet and I had already completed all of the main story quests so far and could go to any of the current sections. The one we had decided to go to for today's hunting trip was Welsh, a territory filled with lush jungle and plantlife. Fitting the aesthetic, a majority of the monsters here were androids based off of animals. Wolves with metallic claws and fangs. Robot monkeys that tossed bombs at you from tree branches.
And then there were ones like what Violet and I were fighting now. A giant freaking robot elephant that was at least twice the size of a normal one. Oh yeah, and it has a turret on its back.
The difficulty level of territories somewhat increased as they progressed, but even in the beginner-friendly ones there were certain places where tougher enemies lurked in order to give players incentive to return when they got stronger. Welsh was the fourth territory so it was about the middle ground for players. But Violet and I were in the highest difficulty area for Welsh so the monsters here got pretty nasty.
My taekwondo worked decently well against enemies roughly the same size as me. But against giant heavy behemoths like this Violet was easily able to outdamage me. But make no mistake I still had a very crucial role in combat for these situations.
Being live bait.
The turret on top of the robotic elephant fired continuously as I dashed around, doing all I could to avoid getting blown away. The speed of my Hermes came in handy as I was able to move faster than the turret could turn. It allowed me to get a hit in here and there, keeping its aggro on me and allowing Violet to move in safely.
As I continued to run, I heard a sudden loud cry from the elephant and glanced to see Violet performing another series of slashes on it. This one finally seemed to bring its HP down all the way to zero, causing the monster to let out a pained cry and shatter into fragments.
A window popped up, listing the drops Violet and I had gotten from this latest battle. After a quick overview, I closed the window. "Well neither of us should be strapped for cash for a while if we keep this pace up."
"It'd go a bit faster if you could be something besides a distraction." Violet joked.
"What can I say? I'm just too popular."
"Popular with animals yet not with people. I can't say that paints you in the best light."
"Hey, I'm popular with you, aren't I? Does that make you an animal too?"
Violet rolled her eyes in response. "Very funny."
"No need to be in denial. It's 2026. I'm sure society has progressed enough to not judge you for being a furry."
"This is becoming increasingly less funny."
I ignored her and continued. "Behold, creatures of Welsh! Bow before Violet, queen of the beasts!" I called out in a dramatic fashion.
Violet went silent, not giving a retort. For a moment, I was afraid I had gone too far and really pissed her off. But a few seconds later, I was proven wrong as she smirked my way.
"Very well. If I'm queen of the beasts, I suppose that makes you one of my subjects. You already make quite a convincing monkey anyway."
"Hey, at least call me something cool like a tiger."
"Why? Monkey fits you perfectly if you ask me."
I decided to go along with the joke and began imitating a monkey, both in stance and sound. "Ohhh ohhh ahhh ahh." I noticed the smallest of giggles escape Violet and kept it going, moving over towards her in my charming and very much not weird monkey way. I began picking at strands of her hair.
Violet became less pleased with that. "Ok that's enough monkey boy."
"No can do, my queen. I'm just a simple-minded monkey after all."
"Tae…"
"Oh I think I see some bugs in here. Seems our queen did not clean herself very-"
The hum of Violet's laser sword activating was suddenly heard and I quickly leaped back as she sent a warning slash my way. It was clear she hadn't really intended to hit me.
However, the bullet that suddenly whizzed past us, right where I had been standing before leaping back almost definitely was.
Violet and I stared at each other in shock for a brief second before our instincts quickly took over and we followed the direction the bullet had come from. A rough estimate told me the bullet would have hit my head had I not leaped away from Violet's sword. On top of that, it had been fired from an elevated angle. It was a safe bet that we were dealing with a sniper. CNO's sniper rifles were pretty much the only guns that had a chance of one-shotting players other than cannons, and even then it typically needed to be a headshot. We both took cover behind some trees in order to assess the situation.
"Did you spot them?" I asked.
Violet responded with a shake of her head. "There's too many trees to get a good lock on anyone."
I opened up my menu and brought up my map data for our location. A quick glance told me there was a cliff roughly 250 meters in the direction the bullet had come from. Chances were, whoever had just tried to PK me was on top of there. The question now was what would be their next move. Would they give up since their attempt to take me out had failed and leave? Would they sit still and wait for another shot due to their advantageous position? Or would they move and hide, biding their time to try and PK from another spot? If it was the third option, Violet and I would definitely need to cut out hunting short and head back to a safe zone.
I wasn't really a fan of letting an enemy get away, especially one that had attacked us first. "Let's try and get closer. The trees should keep us concealed enough until we reach the cliffside."
Violet responded with a nod. She held her hand up, counting down from three. At her signal, the two of us left the trees we were hiding behind and started speeding through the woods towards the cliff our enemy was hopefully still at.
We had been in a small clearing before, but now that we were off the beaten path and moving through the trees, our sniper friend would no doubt find it significantly harder to hit us. Of course, getting to the cliff was the easy part. If our enemy really was still up there, they'd hold the high ground. And with Violet and I not being the best at a long range fight, we'd have to be careful as we ascended to get in close.
Roughly thirty seconds of running later, the two of us arrived at the cliffside. And it seemed our sniper friend was on the move. But contrary to my guess, they were not moving away from us. They were sliding down towards us.
Upon seeing Violet and I emerge from the trees, our enemy aimed his sniper rifle our way, or more specifically my way. A quick leap to the left allowed me to evade the laser bullet that was fired. I ducked behind a nearby boulder, but not before getting a better look at the player we were up against.
They were using a Diablo model, an All-Rounder class. It had a primarily black frame, with streaks of red along it. A helmet with red demon-like horns and a visor covered their face so I couldn't tell if this player was male or female, or any other discernible features about their appearance under that suit. One thing I could tell though was that they were skilled. Snipers tended to use Scouter class, so the fact that this player had such good aim with their sniper rifle despite not being a Scouter was a fairly impressive feat.
The player landed on a small ledge halfway down the cliffside, taking cover just as Violet began firing her gun. Unlike the sniper rifle however, Violet's gun was little more than a handgun and didn't have nearly the same level of power. But she could at least provide me with the covering fire I needed to get in close.
Coming out from behind the boulder, I launched my grappling hook and used it to propel myself up towards the ledge the player was hiding at. However, as I got halfway, the player decided to come out themselves and leaped down towards me. On top of that, they no longer had the sniper rifle they had been using moments ago. Instead, gripped tightly in their right hand was a double saber, with two red blades curved slightly near their tips.
I retracted the lines of my grappling hook but it was too late for me to fire them again and change trajectory. So instead, I kicked off the side of the cliff. I avoided a clean hit from the blades, but they still managed to graze me a bit, whittling away a portion of my HP.
Due to the sudden jump, I landed a tad roughly, rolling along the ground to cushion the fall, but the height had caused some fall damage, lowering my HP further to around 60% since I hadn't had the chance to heal from hunting mobs earlier with Violet.
On the bright side, taking damage from an enemy player had granted me access to their name and HP bar. Right next to their cursor, the name Dante was clearly visible right on top of the HP bar, which was still completely full. The name sounded masculine enough to me so it felt like a safe assumption that our attempted PKer was male.
However, I didn't recall the name Dante among any of the top players of the game I knew of. Was he some wannabe trying to make a name for himself by PKing the winner of the latest event? Or was he just a normal PKer looking to profit off some drops from a party that had been hunting for awhile?
"Any chance we could convince you to walk away?" I asked.
In response, Dante pointed one of the bladed ends of his weapon at me. "Apologies, but my client's orders were to kill you. Nothing personal."
So someone had hired Dante to PK me, Violet, or both of us? But why? None of the players I had encountered during the event seemed petty enough to hold a grudge over losing to the point that they'd hire a hitman. Was this unrelated to the Ultra Core perhaps? I couldn't recall pissing off anyone that badly lately.
Regardless, it was clear Dante had no intention of backing down. And I wasn't about to simply roll over and die. That only left one option. Kill Dante before he could kill us.
Violet walked over and stood at my side. "Get me an opening and I'll take him out."
"Got it."
Dante wasn't about to give us all the time in the world to plan, and he showed that as he charged forward with his double saber. Violet and I dashed in opposite directions, splitting up his focus. With two targets to go for, Dante decided to head in my direction.
It's tough being popular.
I dodged Dante's first slash and attempted to punch his gut, but he skillfully dodged and attacked with another slash which I once again evaded. The two of us quickly became trapped in a high speed exchange of blows and dodging. Neither of us could get a hit in. But as the fight went on, I began to grow accustomed to Dante's movements. I threw a feint his way, which he dodged just as I was readying my follow up punch. Just as I thought it was about to connect though, Dante twirled his weapon, blocking my fist with the flat side of one of his blades.
As my fist bounced back and I tried to recover my balance, Dante went for a follow up and swung his weapon horizontally. If he got a clean slash on me now, there was a good chance my HP would get taken out from it. I had no time to dodge. So there was only one thing I could do. Improvise and hope for the best.
Shifting my stance to quickly regain my balance, I clapped my two hands together around Dante's blade just as it was about to connect. I stopped the blade with it, just like one would see in movies or an anime. I had never practiced this move so I couldn't really call it a mastered technique. If I'm being honest, the only reason I pulled it off was probably a mix of adrenaline and a lot of luck.
But damn it, I had always wanted to do this.
Violet took advantage of the fact that I had Dante's weapon locked down and dashed forward with her sword. Dante noticed her approaching and proceeded to kick me in the gut, taking advantage of the precise balance and focus I was needing to hold his weapon. I was knocked back, and Dante turned and parried Violet's slash.
I got back on my feet as Violet leaped back, Dante standing in between the two of us. "You're pretty good." I said.
Dante returned the compliment. "So are you."
I smirked. "Aw see that? We're bonding." I said. "So, what's your favorite color? Do you like long walks through the park? Who hired you to kill us? What kind of music do you like? Seriously, who hired who? What's your favorite movie? And lastly, who the heck hired you?"
I heard the smallest of chuckles escape Dante. "Sorry, but I can't disclose any details regarding my client. It's my personal policy."
"Drat. Looks like I didn't roll high enough on my persuasion check." I commented. "Any chance you'll let me reroll?"
Dante, in fact, did not let me reroll and instead came at me with his double saber once again. When it came to one on one, I could already tell Dante was just a tad stronger than me, as much as I didn't like admitting that fact. Chances were I wasn't going to be able to get Violet the opening she was looking for at this rate. That meant a change in tactics was an order.
"Rotation!" I called out as I met Dante's attack head on. I focused on evading his slashes, while also throwing in a few punches and kicks to keep his attention on me as much as possible. Once Violet came in close, I jumped back as she and Dante quickly exchanged slashes. Violet was faster than him, but Dante's skill with his weapon granted him a shorter interval between attacks. Once a few seconds passed, I swapped with Violet and it was my turn to attack once again.
Our rotation strategy was managing to whittle away Dante's HP bit by bit, but at the same time, Violet and I were both also taking small hits from Dante. Quite frankly, the only reason we were doing so well was because we outnumbered him.
After several rotations, Dante's right foot slid slightly on accident, leaving an opening for me. I threw a punch right at his face, taking down a nice chunk of his HP, but Dante had slashed me at the same time, bringing my HP down into the red. But now we had him off balance.
"Vi, now!"
My partner was way ahead of me. She attacked with three slashes in quick succession. Dante tried to block them, but his poor balance at the time caused his weapon to get knocked away instead at the third slash. With Dante's double saber gone, Violet went in for the kill as she kicked off the ground and charged forward with a powerful thrust from her sword.
"Haaaaaaaaa!"
Dante was left defenseless as Violet's blade ripped through his avatar. The rest of his HP vanished and his avatar shattered into fragments.
It took a few seconds for Violet and I to catch our breath as the realization that we had won registered in our minds. The two of us smirked at each other happily.
"Nice finish there." I complimented. "Eight out of ten."
"Screw you, that was a perfect ten and you know it."
"Sorry but I had to deduct points due to you failing to say some badass finishing line for the final blow. I would have accepted shouting out a name for that attack too."
Violet rolled her eyes as she retracted her sword. She muttered something to me. "Vorpal Strike."
"Hm?"
"That last attack I did. The thrust to be more specific. It's called Vorpal Strike."
"Vorpal Strike, huh?" I pondered over the name. "Not bad I guess. Didn't think you'd come up with a name like that."
Violet glanced away. "I didn't come up with the name."
"Really? Then who-"
Before I could finish my question, Violet and I were bombarded by a series of explosions. We didn't even have a chance to react. All we could do was watch what was left of our HP bars vanish as our avatars shattered. I watched as a message played in front of me.
[You have died.]
A/N: Phew, finally got around to finishing this chapter. Those of you reading my other current fics have probably already heard this but with how busy life is getting for me I have less time to write so my updates are all coming on a "when I finish them" basis now instead of any specific schedule. Thankfully, the next couple chapters I have planned for this fic are on the shorter side, so I should be able to get them out quicker than this past one.
Also, glad to finally have my first review for this series. Really was uplifting to know people are reading this and liking it. Hoping to read even more in the future, as knowing people are looking forward to the next chapter is a big motivator when it comes to writing.
Where will this sudden attack on Tae and Violet lead? And just who hired the mysterious Dante? Guess you'll have to wait and find out.
