Last time, the trio managed to survive and safely flee the sudden onslaught of Ethereal due to their quick thinking and conveniently placed building layout. Hard to believe, but these three weren't supposed to be here nor did they intend to be here in the first place. Likely due to a mistake of a certain dimensional entity, their mere imagination about a certain newly released gacha game was mistaken as their biggest wish by the entity, thus they were brought here by the entity who wanted to grant their "wish". What will these three do afterwards?
They will adapt, being a weeb who have read their share of light novels, they weren't a stranger to the idea of Isekai or transported to another world. Though being the one transported is certainly new for them, not in their wildest dream they thought of being spirited away by an interdimensional entity… well, they did imagine such a thing but they never imagined it to become reality. Now they were formulating the to-do list of what they plan to do in the future. They were trying to treat this situation as slightly extravagant tourism… nah, they are an illegal immigrant stranded in this world.
They reckon from things they've known from theory channels and the official lore website. Apparently, this world's humanity was on the brink of extinction with the New Eridu City as the last bastion of humanity. They don't know if there was actually any other human settlement left in this world except the New Eridu City, but they hardly care about it as long as they can live comfortably to modern standards.
Which hollow were they trapped in? They don't know, but they're eager to immediately escape the cursed place as soon as possible. If they wanted to escape, they couldn't stay in one place and have to move and explore. But they can't just walk outside and stroll the main road like it was a vacation, the rest of the residents didn't like them and wanted them to be dead. Remembering their previous skirmish, when the whole neighbourhood resident and their dogs were out to cease their life.
The space-time environment being a jumbled mess of randomness also adds to the problem of their plan-making. They can't count and predict 'random', they know about "carrot" which stands for the crucial information made from a combination of information gathering, pattern-reading, and advanced calculation done by experts to accurately predict the randomness of the hollow to create a reliable path to explore the Hollow area. Despite knowing about the existence of this "carrot", they have no way of obtaining it nor the knowledge and resources to make it by themselves. Despite all these disadvantages of going out and about inside a hollow without proper information and preparation, they have no choice, standing still was not a choice they wanted to make.
One of the reasons they decided to head out was because respawning requires a lot of points and they also don't like the idea of slowly accepting death as they run out of points to respawn. Not moving is a certain slow death as their food becomes scarce and their sanity takes a big hit from staying in this hell hole for too long. They don't want to become like that, so they decide to test their luck and prepare to move out even with all the difficulty. They also can't deny that they found the whole situation interesting and exciting despite their life being on the line if anything goes wrong.
This trio of people who liked to live in the present decided to just enjoy to the fullest the peculiar situation they were in. They don't know what the future has to offer but simply have to face it and survive whatever ordeal is thrown to their face. They will complain and get angry but that means they are alive and well enough to spend their energy on being angry like a honey badger. They'd already been friends for more than a decade so they knew about each other's abilities and trusted their friends immensely.
"Arif, you suck at general physical activities so you should expend some of the points to strength and dexterity, also if we survived this, I will force you to follow a set of exercise regiments and fill your body with muscles, your stick bug physique needs to go, dude."
"Oh, shut up Atlas, I haven't needed to train my body before due to my work. But don't you know I'm the best basketball player in my high school? I'm pretty fast on my feet, well… I'm pretty out of shape right now, so you're right. By the way, Malam, what stats will you focus on?"
"Probably Dexterity and Agility and a little bit on the strength stat, we use guns anyway unless I want to use super big guns, I don't think I need to invest in strength that much."
"Well, in my case, I've been aiming at the big guns available in the store so I might spend many of my points on strength and endurance."
"Atlas, you have always been interested in those big anime and sci-fi weapons for as long as I remember… wait, Atlas! Atlas!"
"Yes? What is the problem, Arif?"
Atlas looked at the hologram panel Arif shown to him, it was a large robot available for sale in the shop.
"Oh God, I'm about to pass out."
It was a mech-style robot called Titan used in the Titanfall franchise, it served the same role as the main battle tank that is to provide heavy fire support. This one particularly was an Atlas-class titan designed by Hammond Robotics and manufactured by Kodai Industries. In the Titanfall world, this was the workhorse of the Titan, having a balance between mobility and armour this Titan class was an excellent option for all engagements and in various situations. It was equipped by default with an XO-16 Chaingun, a relatively easy-to-use weapon that operates like a standard machine gun but with a larger size.
This Titan was Atlas's favourite Titan class, having the same name aside, Atlas has always favoured the heads-on engagement which made this class of Titan suitable for him. It has been years since the last time he played the game, so he doesn't remember much of the game but the fact that he liked it so much before. He used to dream of piloting one in his many delusions and bonding with his titan. The price listed for getting one was 1,550,000 points, it was expensive for sure but he aims to have one someday.
"Heh, now that I've something to look up to, I… nah, we have to get ourselves a Homebase first before that, yeah, we need a place to sleep."
"What do you mean before "that"? What is "that" you're talking about, Atlas?"
"Hunting and mission obviously, but you know, I was taught that a basecamp is essential or… a Homebase? I forgot the exact name of it, but in essence, a place where we can recover and prepare stuff is important when we are on a mission for a longer period. We aren't on a mission, but uh… we are certainly in a foreign land, a foreign world even, we have no home where we can come back to and rest safely. We need that home, don't you think?"
"…I can agree with that. But where?"
"I suggest New Eridu City, where most of the initial main story occurred."
Malam suddenly interjected with an idea about where they should make their home. He reasoned that aside from New Eridu being the only human settlement they know and also probably the last bastion of humanity based on the lore released to the public, staying close to the main cast homeplace can almost guarantee a steady stream of missions from the many problems that will soon be coming in drove in the future. This problem-laden city sounds troublesome and dangerous but to our trio who rely on missions and fighting to earn the points they need to buy things in the shop, this city is a treasure trove.
The number one problem with this plan was that they didn't have the necessary identification to enter the city. They could try sneaking into the city and surviving as a hobo until they work something out… but that would defeat their purpose of looking for a home there.
"Haish… We will think of a way when we get there, let's get out of here first."
There was no merit in thinking about complicated things when a crowd of beings that were out for your blood wandered around just beyond the wall and makeshift barricade. Everything was grim and seemingly bleak for them but was their situation that bad for them to be stay enclosed and hiding in the building forever? Yes. Yes, it was… but if they were normal people that is. These trio were normal people until they were sent to this place to fend for their self.
The most important point was that they had 'The System' with its option for weapons comprising of multiple franchises they know from Earth. Surely, there will be something that could assist them in their attempt to escape, right?
With that in mind, now is the time for…
Team Evaluation!
They decided to gather the things they had to gauge their current firepower, which turned out to be wasn't much. With three E-11s and some Flask of Crimson Tears, it really wasn't much firepower to do the things they needed to do, while it was expected, the fact still hurts and severely limits their choice for their next move. Among the three, the only one that seems to have some combat training was Atlas while the other two were only civilians with literally zero actual combat training, they play a lot of combat-related games but those don't count. They have no choice but to spend some points to get items that could bolster their strength.
Arif browsed the store for things and then listed some affordable candidates to add to their armoury.
1. Sentry Gun and Dispenser from Team Fortress 2.
2. Cloak and Ghost Squad from Titanfall 2.
These are their final two options with a mission in mind.
[Starter Mission: Mobility Assist.]
[Reward: Warthog x1]
[Requirement: Defeat 100 enemies.]
It was a very simple and very straightforward mission with an excellent reward clearly designed to spoil these three. Now they have to choose how to clear this mission, loud and rowdy or silent and stealthy. Both choices have their clear distinction between advantages and disadvantages. The first choice offers a chance to complete the mission quickly but… they have to ring the dinner bell to invite the neighbours again. The latter choice was the obvious safer option and wouldn't invite a horde of meat grinder monsters onto their doorstep.
Atlas preferred the stealthy approach accounting for the safety it offers, but Arif was leaning more toward facing the Ethereal heads-on with the sentry guns and dispenser holding a position until the mission finished. Malam was the neutral party in this debate between the two, since he was an RPG gamer who mainly plays turn-based JRPG and only plays other kinds of games if he is playing with his friends. In the end, they went with a combination of both options buying items suitable for both plans and some other things, they aim for flexibility to switch between defending a position and running away with their cloaks. But this plan came with a rather severe disadvantage, it completely drained their funds, which meant they wouldn't have any luxury of error as they wouldn't have enough points in case of death.
But you see, sometimes men have to take a risk no matter how difficult it is.
Three sentry turrets, one dispenser, and a combination of the Flask of Crimson Tears and Estus Flask… for some reason. The battlefield they picked was the roundabout not far from their barricaded building. The roundabout had a dried-up fountain in the middle of it with a high enough wall to take cover behind it if they kneeled. According to Atlas, the fountain being in the middle of a huge crossroad might pose some difficulty since it allows enemies to come from multiple directions and surround them. The good thing was that there were also a lot of ruins nearby where they could hide and activate their cloak.
They also procured multiple dozens of Proximity Mines from Call of Duty, a type of mine which activates simply by having an enemy enter its trigger radius despite having a tilt-rod fuse design, how they work in real life will remain a question for now until we see how it works in the upcoming battle. In the shop, these mines were sold for a cheap price and came in a bundle of twelve, they were so cheap that a bundle of them had the same price as a bag of chips in the store. The trio bought them a lot to help them create a minefield, which would allow them to focus their defence on one side while having some kind of field denial that would slow down the enemy advance from the other side where the minefield was deployed.
"Welp, now let's test our little guys…"
Arif with his newly obtained PDA was staring at the four toolboxes which contained three sentry turrets and a dispenser.
He flipped the switch to turn on the PDA, and after the start-up screen, the PDA showed some kind of loading screen with a parabolic antenna icon spinning in the middle of it. After waiting for a few seconds, whatever process the PDA was doing was completed and in turn, showed a simplistic icon from what appears to be a level 1 sentry gun. None of the buttons on the PDA was named but they have symbols on them which represent what they do; like 'horizontal arrows' to switch left and right, 'vertical arrows' to switch up and down, the 'wrench' button which was the big red button to activate the automatic build function and also function as select button, 'gears' to customize the buildings and making adjustments, and finally the last two button which seemed to represent wrangler and destruction PDA respectively. After some tests, if any of the last two mentioned buttons were pressed, the PDA would act as a bridge to help connect the tools and the buildings. Both Wrangler and Destruction PDA could work alone but the PDA allows for more delicate operations since these two operate by connecting to the closest buildings by default and cannot change their target flexibly by themselves.
After risking their life by testing the sentry guns inside the building, because they made a lot of noise just by idling, they repacked the sentries into their toolbox after upgrading them to level 3.
No problem so far… except the dispenser healing ray was connecting to the sentries instead of them for some reason. At first, they thought that the dispenser malfunctioned, but when Atlas slashed his hand with a knife, the dispenser immediately healed the wound until it left no scar, so the dispenser had no problem also… but that still leaves some questions about why it also "heals" the sentry guns. Thinking that they wouldn't find their answers anytime soon, as long as the dispenser still working as intended, they decided to ignore the peculiarity for the time being and instead focus on their last preparation.
When they bought the cloak ability and the Ghost Squad burn cards, they appeared along with a PDA in the form of a touchscreen tablet and a bulky device named "Field Chip Installation Anchor". This device is a set of five-piece equipment with the purpose of both installing the chip containing the abilities in the Titanfall franchise and calibrating the chip to make it function properly. They don't know whether this Field Chip Installation Anchor existed in the Titanfall lore or not, but what they knew was that anything planting something into your body… generally would be pretty painful during the process. This shared sentiment leads to flipping the coins to determine who is the unlucky fellow to have his body planted with a chip first.
"All right here is the rule, all heads will be me, all tails will be Arif, and a head-tail for Atlas."
Malam threw both coins into the air and let them fall onto the ground, revealing a combination of a head and a tail. He sighed with relief from escaping the fate of being the test subject.
Atlas had already started to wear the anchor based on Arif's instruction who read the manual from the provided manual on the PDA. The equipment goes on his feet and hands with the last one being the main part and was worn like a vest but electronic. After connecting the PDA with the vest, the screen shows an image of a human body with the word "Chip Not Inserted." Looking behind the vest, there is a slot that can be opened to insert the small chip containing the cloaking ability and another chip containing the Ghost Squad Upgrade. The cloaking chip was pretty small with the size of a micro-SD while the Ghost Squad Upgrade was slightly larger at the size of a camera SD card.
After inserting the chips in their respective slots, there was an alert that sent a shiver to Atlas who was wearing the device.
[The planting procedure is about to start; it is advised to use a mouth guard or to clench your teeth to prevent the user from biting his tongue by accident."]
[Proceed?] [Yes.] [No.]
"Should I start now, Bro?"
"Yuhh sharr ahrahee…" (Mouthguard muffled speech)
"Aight."
-A few minutes of muffled screams later…-
Atlas was twitching on the ground with the low hum of the dispenser healing him by his side.
During the process, Arif was tasked to oversee the process of the implantation which honestly, he hardly understood anything happening except that if things glowed red, he needed to tap it and then either recalibrate or restart the process entirely… both options resulted in Atlas's agonised muffled scream… but since the installation was a success that means he did a good job, right?
"Bro, you good?"
"…"
"…Probably not, Malam, you're next, I kinda start to get the hang of this stuff."
"Hell no! You tap whatever! I trust you, brother but not on this. H-huh?! What are you doing Atlas?! W-wait!"
Atlas who had just dumped all of his enhancement points into strength easily subdued Malam who was resisting and forcefully put the Field chip installation anchor onto the unwilling Victim#2.
"Sshhh… Brother, you'll attract the Ethereal if you keep resisting. Let's just get this over with and move on with the plan already. Arif. You show me how you operate the thing."
"…I have a bad feeling about this."
"Your feeling is wrong, my friend. I merely wanted to know how this works, so in case Malam can't get up after this I can help you plant the chip in you."
"You're not angry, right?"
"Of course not, I just want to get out of here, why do you think so?"
"I don't mean to offend but you're weirdly calm, right now."
"Well, yes. Rest easy, I don't mean both of you any harm, my brothers… I just can't wait to start killing the Ethereal and try out my new augmentation."
"… Right."
After showing Atlas how to operate the anchor at the expense of Malam who was currently convulsing on the ground as the dispenser was healing him. Arif dumped all of his enhancement points to strength to try not to be completely overpowered like Malam, but alas, it turns out that the enhancement points work by enhancing the base capability of the body. This means that even if Arif spent the same amount of enhancement points on the strength stat as Atlas, he got lesser benefits compared to Atlas who frequently works out in the gym and thus had a better base strength before being enhanced by the system. Having his fate sealed, he can be seen also convulsing and twitching on the ground beside Malam while being healed by the dispenser.
0o0o0
Done wasting time with their pain-filled preparation and planning session which ended up with simple competition of might of Man vs Ethereal, the trio made their way into the showdown stage. A large roundabout with a dried-up fountain in the middle and is also located in the middle of a large crossroad. The boon of this spot is the lack of obstacle that the Ethereal could hide behind, but this also works both ways as they also don't have much place to hide except behind the fountain's waist-high wall. Other than offering clear sight of the target, the roundabout was an overall pain in the butt place to defend with an almost guaranteed chance to get pincher attacked. But the trio wanted to risk it so they could finish the mission as fast as they could then get warthog and then flee… somewhere.
Splitting up their task to build up the defence base faster, Malam and Arif were tasked to set the nest for the sentry guns and dispenser, while Atlas was tasked to lay the minefield. They named each road of the crossroad following the cardinal direction of North, East, South, and West, they decided to focus on the North and West Defence and then deploy the minefield in the south while leaving the east for their escape route. There is no guarantee that the East won't be flooded with enemies, but other than the East Road none of the road was free of mines, despite having most of the mines on the South Road they still deployed some of the leftovers on the North and West Road. They don't want their escape vehicle to be blown to pieces by the landmine after all.
Their preparation was cut short when some of the roaming Ethereal spotted them then encroached their defence line and entered the Sentry Guns detecting range. The sentry guns upon detecting the incoming Ethereal immediately fired their guns and launched their salvo of missiles, they swiftly decimated the dastardly Ethereal but also alerted the rest of the town about their presence.
"Atlas! Here they come! Get here!"
"I'm not done yet!... Shit! Some of them came from here!"
Some of the foes are approaching slowly while others are quicker on their feet, but all of them are met with the unerring accuracy of the Sentry Gun bullet hell. Every enemy hitting the ground was instantly accounted for by the system and turned into a reward that was gifted to the owner of the Turrets, in this case Arif and Malam who each owned two Sentry Guns and a sentry Gun respectively.
While Arif and Malam's side was assisted by the sentries, Atlas's side of the road wasn't that defended nor was the supposed escape route to the East. The Ethereal also started to show themselves from those less protected routes. While the South had the minefield and Atlas who already starting to shoot at the incoming Ethereal with his E11, the East was left completely unprotected. Thus, the enemy could invade the roundabout area without any resistance to slow them down.
Realizing the situation, Malam yelled to his comrades telling them that he would reposition himself to take care of the East. There wasn't much he could do alone, but the steady income from the Sentry gun he stationed on the other side might just give him some option to even the odds. He was thinking about a heavy machine gun, the one that could spew as many hard-hitting projectiles as possible in a short amount of time. While it wasn't cheap, it was definitely cheaper than the Sentry guns, which are capable of independent automated action in exchange for being manually operated. Malam wasn't very well informed about firearms compared to the other two, but he wasn't completely oblivious either. Following the current theme of Star Wars Imperial weapons they currently have, he bought a DLT-19 Heavy Blaster Rifle, a kind of Heavy Blaster Rifle capable of filling the general direction the user aiming at with hundreds of plasma bolts per minute. Like many other Star Wars Blasters, DLT-19 also has their real-life counterpart where it got its base design and in this case the MG-34 from Germany.
After a few seconds of figuring things out session, the DLT-19 was finally ready to do its job as Malam pointed the Blaster's mouth towards the incoming group of Ethereal. Upon starting the hail of plasma bolts, Malam could feel the noticeable difference between the DLT-19 recoil and the E11 recoil. Despite having a stronger recoil, Malam soon was able to control the stream of constant knockback from the heavy blaster and started to sweep the incoming horde by fanning the blaster's muzzle slowly left and right. True to being a rapid-firing heavy blaster, DLT-19 did a better job at killing the group of enemies compared to the E11.
Moving on from Malam and his killing spree and let's focus on the southern side, Atlas was faced with a revelation that the Ethereal was not only walking on the ground, but some were levitating or outright jumping over the minefield to his position.
Forced to fight at a close range, Atlas was thankful that he dumped all his enhancement points to his strength. When a dog-shaped Ethereal tried to pin him down, he was strong enough to flip the table onto the Ethereal and throw it to a nearby car wreck, then finish it down with his E11.
Thankfully, the levitating Ethereal was floating low enough to enter the proximity landmine's trigger range to launch the dangerous pancake into the air and take the Ethereal down with a loud lethal explosion.
The situation was clearly getting worse for them, they forgot to account for different types of Ethereal, so they were now paying the price for their ignorance and were on the brink of being swarmed by the Ethereal of various kinds. Arif was holding just fine with the assistance of three Sentry Guns while Malam had his newly bought DLT-19 to defend his side, but Atlas was poorly equipped compared to the other two with only E11 and no passive income to help him get a stronger weapon. He was so overwhelmed that he had to resort to just throwing the armed proximity landmine onto the Ethereal face endangering himself in the process. Atlas was terrified and scared for his life, but deep down… he was beyond excited at the prospect of fighting for his life, going toe-to-toe with an overwhelming danger, it was the feeling he longed for when he played the games he liked.
Atlas remembered playing Dark Souls with his character going buck-naked with only a longsword and nothing else. He died a lot, amounting to hundreds of times worth of dying and retrying but he was unmistakably had his fun despite his mountain of failures. Right now, is no different except that it wasn't a game character that fought against death, but himself fighting for his life against Ethereal stronger than himself, completely outnumbering him and his friends, cornered and surrounding them from all sides. Atlas was scared, but he revelled in those feelings and he enjoyed having his guts telling him that he going to die at the simplest of mistakes, he enjoyed throwing the Ethereal their deserved portion of explosive pancakes with the risk of it exploding on his hand… He can't help but laugh loudly in euphoria… akin to maniac.
"Uh oh, Atlas is going bonkers! Malam! How much do we need before getting that Warthog!?"
"Uh… 20! Twenty more and it's a mission complete! Wait! Where is Atlas!?"
"He is over there laughing like a psycho! …wait, where the hell is he?"
The two looked at where their manic friend should be, but he wasn't there, his maniac laugh also gone unheard. They feared that the Ethereal already got him, but suddenly, on top of the huge Ethereal in the distance, they saw a flickering followed by the firing of the E11. It turns out that Atlas had used the Cloak ability to close distance with the huge Ethereal and somehow climbed it, he then blasted the black orb of the Ethereal point blank with his blaster repeatedly until the Ethereal was finally dead. As soon as the huge Ethereal dropped to the ground and before the surrounding Ethereal closed in on him, he flickered back into nothingness and disappeared from on top of the downed Ethereal. Soon the two saw one of the proximity mines some distance away from the grouping Ethereal being picked up and then suddenly thrown to the middle of the pack before exploding.
"Holy shit, that is some movie shit that he did."
"…well, that explosion just now completed the mission. Shall I deploy the Warthog?"
"Go on, I'll call him back. Atlas! Come here! We finished the mission, we needed to escape, quickly!"
Arif jogged to where Atlas was last seen while firing his E11 on some of the Ethereal. Soon, Atlas showed up beside him with a huge grin on his face.
"You crazy, crazy bastard, what are you grinning about, brother? Let's get back, Malam will deploy the warthog so we can escape as soon as possible."
"Hah! Did you see that?! I did some execution on that big guy!"
"Man, that was such a sick thing to watch, a pity I didn't record it."
When they got back to the fountain, they saw the long-awaited Warthog… it was just that, it was a different warthog than they expected. The Warthog in their mind was that all-terrain vehicle with a chain gun on the back, but the one they saw didn't have the chain gun or any mounted weapon. Based on the description, this Warthog was named the M15 Razorback, a more fortified and reinforced Warthog but specialized for troop transport—the reason for its lack of a mounted weapon.
"Guys, it seems that for our 'Great Performance' we are also given these…"
Malam gave Arif and Atlas a metal box each, on it was a button with "Equip" written on it. The description only briefly says "Instantly equip Kerberos Panzer Cop Protect Gear." And nothing else. From what they know about this Protect Gear, it was some kind of power armour used in the anime movie Jin-roh which is also part of the whole Kerberos Panzer Cop Manga… or maybe Light novel? They weren't sure. There wasn't much of this work translated globally nor did they have the chance to get their hands on the raw article, or more like they weren't obsessed enough with this franchise to try anything to know more about it. But from what they knew, this franchise was fairly deep and serious with their lore and they were amazed by the Jin-roh movie, among the things memorable from the movie was this black-coloured domineering power armour used by the special police force. Despite being touted as power armour, since the fairly realistic theme of the franchise, this Protect Gear wasn't on the level of invincibility like the power armour from series like Fallout or any other franchise power armour that allows the user of said armour to be a personification of a one-man army. Still, the Protect Gear provides above-average protection against small calibre firearms and maybe some degree of protection against larger calibre in some situations, although the same can't be said if they were attacked from behind where the armour protection is lacking.
With all of its advantages and disadvantages, one can't deny that this armour design was very cool-looking and tickled the man's heart like no other. So, the trio doesn't have to think long before they press the "Equip" button. For a second, their body was covered in a flickering haze almost like a dimensional distortion before they suddenly found themselves already changed into the Protect Gear and their old clothes either worn under it or stored inside the inventory.
"Ayy, bro, looking good!"
"Hah! Of cour- wait, the Sentry Guns are out of ammo!"
"What?"
Right then, a bit too late to react, Arif was pinned down by yet another damn Dog Ethereal. This reminded them that they weren't out of the woods yet. Luckily, Atlas had enough strength to tear off the Ethereal from Arif.
Helping the disoriented Arif to stand up, Atlas told Malam to pack up the Sentry Guns and Dispenser.
"Wouldn't it be better to strap the dispenser on the Razorback?"
"Good idea! Malam you help Arif get on the Razorback I'll move the Dispenser."
After storing the Sentries in the inventory, Atlas packed the dispenser into its toolbox and then boarded the back of the Razorback. He redeployed the Dispenser and then after waiting a few seconds for the dispenser to rebuild itself, he strapped the dispenser with a rope tied onto the roll cage and handlebars. The level 3 Dispenser turned out to be a bit too big to fit the back of the razorback at first, but it turns out the upgrades like the drawers for the health pack and ammo could be closed and the health monitor on top of it could also be pushed back down, restoring it to the looks of level 1 dispenser despite still being a level 3 dispenser.
"Huh, that's pretty neat, I keep forgetting it's a real-world item now after all… I could interact with it more than in-game."
While Atlas was busy tying the dispenser onto the Warthog, Arif was already back from his disorientation and already started to shoot at the incoming Ethereal, meanwhile, Malam was busy reading the manuals about how to drive the damn thing. Who would have thought a car from a different world would have different ways of how it works, right?
Well, there wasn't much of a difference besides knowing which button is used to turn it on and what to watch for when driving it. After Malam managed to start up the engine, he Revved the engine a little to get the feel of the iconic car from the Halo franchise.
"Malam! Can we go yet? Without the sentries, we won't be able to hold them for long!"
"Alright, I'm ready! Where to go? Oh, wait! Arif! Give this to Atlas! And this, this, and this."
Malam gave the DLT-19 to Arif and some reserve plasma cartridges and asked him to give them to Atlas.
"I'll drive so I won't need them! Now where do we go? The GPS is fucked!"
"To the East! East! Over there!"
Soon, the trio was rushing to the designated East Road away from the Swarmed Roundabout.
0o0o0
A/N: So... I kinda get lucky with my FGO summer pull recently... I was so happy that I somehow managed to complete a chapter, hehe. I wasted all my Quart though, but still extremely lucky nonetheless. My Arknights pulls also looking good with me getting my desired character from the free pulls, so my orundum and 10-pull tickets saving for the long awaited second R6S collab wasn't disturbed even a bit. My ZZZ recruiting career wasn't very good in comparison since I failed to get Zhu yuan but I can save for her in the future rerun (hopefully), well... if I can even save something that is, future banner seems to be filled with good looking woman I want to recruit, so the future doesn't look too good for my saving plan.