CHAPTER III: A HARDCORE
BEGINNING? OR: DEV, ARE YOU NUTS?
With the help of my map, I managed to reach the store
in just three minutes and got stuck in the queue for almost half an hour. While
waiting to get into the store, I had some time to look around. That’s true, I
would not mind overhearing some interesting conversations, but there were only
noobs around me. Unfortunately, I did not get anything useful from their
chat. The outpost consisted of only five buildings: a fifty-story replication
centre, the same in-size residential complex, a thirty-story building of the
scientific centre, a five-story administrative building and a store.
All the buildings were arranged in a ring around a
certain area like a square, and along the perimeter, the outpost was fenced with
an eight-meter modular fence, evidently for further expansion. Well, behind the
fence the most interesting things began: huge buildings of different degrees of
destruction and multi-level roads. The most amazing thing was directly above your
head: there was no sky, not even a dome. Over the whole city, as far as the eye
could see, a concrete ceiling was stretching out, or something like concrete, at least it was similar to it. Only now did I get Lita’s saying about
different levels?
It turns out that we have at least one more city above
our heads, about the same size. And judging by the fact that we are on the
fifth level, there must be four more under us. On either side of the entrance
to the store, there was a guard in some sort of mechanical armour distantly
resembling an armoured suit of space troopers. However, in contrast to them, the
guards had the outline of the face shield, the external side of the arms and
legs, and the sides of the body yellowish energy lines.
There was an automatic rifle, an energy rifle, judging
by the round module issuing a uniform blue glow in the hands of each of them.
It looked impressive but in terms of practicality and disguise - just
horrible. Not only can they be seen almost from space, but also the most
vulnerable places are highlighted. After waiting for my turn, I finally went
into the store. What caught my eyes were eight coupled turrets under the
ceiling, fine-meshed gratings in front of the shelves and many CCTV
cameras.
It’s just the very place for paranoiacs, especially
given that in the store there are no more than two dozen buyers at the same
time. The shopping area itself was roughly divided into sections for different
groups of goods. There are weapons; there is ammunition and armour, and so on
and so forth. Coming to the arms rows, my view immediately caught an
electromagnetic rifle with a pulse pusher projectile and with an energy
enrichment projectile, made in the form of a muzzle nozzle.
Damn, and if you choose the matching weapon of plasma
core, then you can burn the composite armour of a combat robot. Looking at the
price, I was literally shocked, seventeen million credits. Ah, yes, I will have
to work hard for six months, although I do not know the prices for loot in the
form of local animals, so the timing may be longer.
–
“Good afternoon!” - I said to the shop assistant. – “And what do you have for a
beginner?”
–
What kind of weapons are you interested in?
–
Um ... which kind do you have?"
– It’s a coin toss about which classes of weapons
they can offer in their store. Well, from there is a general class – individual
combat and hand weapons. The individual combat can be of such types: Arm
Blanche, energy, laser, and pulsed. Arm blanche weapon includes such classes of
weapons as a blade, chopping, crushing...
–
Ok, not so quickly. Let me think. Shall we turn the question around the other
way? I need an inexpensive gun with an inside-the-pants holster, a knife with a
15-cm blade in a hard case and something compact with an automatic fire mode.
The salesman looked me around, pulled a little chin
and decided something for himself.
–
As far as I understand you’re on a budget and you’ve got only starter credits, am
I right?
I just nodded. He turned away and was looking for
something in the shop windows, and then shouted, "Levy, bring the starter kit number three!"
-
What kind of starter kit is this?
-
Before the replication centre started its operation, we talked here with the
guys and decided to offer starter kits containing the minimum necessary things for
beginners. Also, the price is good and you will be able to afford this kit.
Usually, the replicants just like you ask for either an assault rifle or a gun,
or at least a rifle. But you are, as I see, quite knowledgeable, and you can
find a way out of different situations. Players rarely ask such questions, so
we have just a few such starter kits. But please, don’t be angry, the
quality is low, but for your money, it’s not possible to purchase something of high
quality.
–Thank
you just the same. How much do I owe you?
–
"Seven hundred and thirty-two," he said, seeing the surprise in my eyes.
- Yes, do not worry; there are already all the necessary things: a small
backpack with cartridges, two sets of army field ration and a 3-litre water pack.
It was heart-easing for me. I did not want to face the
problem of the lack of any kind of armour for one trivial reason - lack of
money. After taking the bundle, I confirmed the payment in the pop-up window
and money was withdrawn from my account. Then I headed for the fitting room, shown
by the shop assistant. After pulling the curtain, I immediately examined what I
had bought. I received short black boots with tightening fasteners; trousers
made of leather-like material with two side and two hip pockets; a jacket with
a long sleeve of the same material as the pants, with eight outside pockets,
located symmetrically on the right and left sides: two on the chest and two in
the zone of the hypochondrium; fingerless
gloves with hardening on the knuckles; a strange kind of pistol: without bolt
carrier, barrel assembly and a small movable part in the chamber area with a
hidden trigger.
Having fiddled with the gun, I couldn’t find the pistol
safety lock, and the trigger was a single-action one without pre-cocking. Next,
I took out a small submachine gun, with a short barrel and skeletal stock, but
to my dismay, the breech mechanism was pushed far ahead of the trigger, and
there was a loading case there too. Not only does any firearm spit out at recoil,
but even bullpup is lacking in order to lower the recoil just a little. In
general, it cannot be called a real weapon, it’s just a sad excuse, and even
there are only two regimes of fire: automatic and single. The possibility of
switching by type of ammunition doesn’t exist at all. You can literally bang
your head against the wall.
Well, what could I wish for at the very start of the
game? Okay, enough reflecting, now we shall see what's next: a simple synthetic
belt, a synthetic pistol holster for wearing on your thigh, which has two
elastic bands with fasteners around thighs, and a hard loop for fixing to the
belt. Of course, it would be better to have a polymeric, open-wearing one, but
for the time being, I cannot afford it, and, unlike this, polymeric ones have to
be chosen exclusively for the model of a pistol, so that all fixtures fit in
accordingly.
What else do I have in my package? There’s a small backpack with a volume of
twenty-something litres with a bunch of sewn straps. If my memory doesn’t fail
me, this system of fasteners was used before the invention of reliable magnetic
grippers. Inside the backpack, I found five boxes with cartridges, two spare
magazine cases for the submachine gun and one spare for the gun. At the bottom,
there were two vacuum packs of dry soup, enough for one day. In a special
pocket, from the back, there was a hydrator with a tube pulled out to one of
the shoulder straps of the backpack around the shoulder.
The last thing in the bundle was a knife about eleven
inches long with a straight one-sided 6-inch-long blade and a slightly curved point,
the handle was wrapped in some kind of cord so it would not slip in the hand,
and all this was placed in a hard case that had a belt loop in the top parts and
two elastic bands with adjustable fasteners in the middle and lower parts,
intended, most likely, for additional fixing on the thigh. I am here, looking
at these things, and then I realize that I'm an idiot, because I'm in the game
and not in real life – you just need to send a mental message. And so I opened
info on all the objects:
“Rackword”
shoes
Foot/ankle armour:
Kinetic:
2
Penetrating:
3
Thermal:
1
Condition:
100%
Weight:
1.2 kg
"Saomi"
trousers
Additional
slots: 4 pocket type
Armour
hips/knees/calf:
Kinetic:
1
Penetrating:
2
Thermal:
1
Condition:
100%
Weight:
0.7 kg
"Oyster"
jacket
Additional
slots: 8 pocket type.
Armor
Torso / Forearm / Elbow / Upper arm / Shoulder:
Kinetic:
2
Penetrating:
2
Thermal:
2
Condition:
100%
Weight:
1.1 kg
"Clemor"
gloves
Armor
Palm / Wrist:
Kinetic:
1
Penetrating:
2
Condition:
100%
Weight:
0.12 kg
"Cargo" TM
backpack
Basic
Slots: 2
Additional
slots: Connector for hydrator (not available), external system Molly.
Volume:
18 litres
Carrying
capacity: 20 kg
Condition:
100%
Weight:
0.4 kg
"SR-17"
knife
Damage:
5-7
Overall
length: 285 mm
Condition:
100%
Weight:
0.26 kg
"PMK
428" pistol
Ammunition:
4.2х8
Aiming
range: 20 meters
The effective rate of fire: 30
Shooting
modes: single
Condition:
100%
Weight:
0.42 kg
"PMK
428" magazine case
Ammunition:
4.2х8
Amount
of cartridges: 12
Condition:
100%
Weight:
0.11 kg
Rifled
cartridge "4.2х8"
Kinetic
Damage: 4-6
Penetration
damage: 2-3
Condition:
100%
Cartridge
Weight: 2.4 g
“The
Hornet” submachine gun
Ammunition:
4.2х8
Target
range: 30 meters
Combat
Rate of Fire: 400
Shooting
modes: single, automatic
Condition:
100%
Weight:
2.4 kg
The
Hornet” submachine gun magazine case
Ammunition:
4.2х8
Amount
of cartridges: 50
Condition:
100%
Weight:
0.23 kg
After reading the characteristics of the things, I was
so mad and I just wanted to hang myself. Sighing heavily, I changed my clothes,
had my backpack on my back, a pistol on my right thigh, and a knife on my left
tarsus - it's pretty convenient to take it with both my right and left hand. Well,
I had some difficulty first readjusting the lower fastener to the link for the
belt, but in the end, the scabbard was sitting well. After equipping all the
magazine cases with ammunition and putting spare from the submachine gun into
the breast pockets, and an additional pistol in a special pocket on the gun
holster hung the Hornet around my neck with the barrel down and adjusted its
strap so that when I tossed it up my shoulder, the belt would not press my
cervical vertebrae.
After having changed my clothes, I decided to throw
away the slippers that were left, without a second thought, to be recycled. A
couple of times jumping up and making sure that nothing rattles in me, I was
already going to leave, but realized that I would not be able to travel far
like that. Quickly looking at the counters, I bought a reel of thin but strong
cord, half a kilo of bandage and a disinfecting spray bottle. By the way, I was
very surprised by the absence of any elixirs or stimulating potions, which
could immediately heal any wounds. After a moment's thought, I bought a 1-litre
gas cylinder with a nozzle for directional fire and electric ignition.
I had some money left and bought some snacks, turning
the indicators of hunger and thirst to zero point. Looking at the statistics on
my weight capacity, I was pleased: almost fourteen and a half kilograms out of
fifty available. I was disappointed only by the account status; there were only
thirteen credits left. Once again having examined me, I decided that now is
the perfect time to set off. I jogged to the nearest of the three gates and,
after passing the lock with a group of players, got into the outside world.
The territory behind the perimeter welcomed me with
the sounds of shooting, coming from different directions and, judging by the
sound, at different distances. But it seemed it was no more than five hundred
meters, maybe seven hundred. Having looked around quickly and not noticing any
danger around me, I installed the cartridge into the Hornet in a hurry. I did
not want to install any into the pistol, fearing carrying a loaded pistol that
does not have a safety device – so that nothing embarrassing would happen to me.
The players with whom I passed the gateway, fanned out along the streets in
small groups and in different directions.
I logically thought that the streets in front of the
gate are so full of players, so I decided to move along the wall, taking it to
the right of the gate. After passing about halfway to the next gate, I noticed
a narrow street, which goes deep into the city, and I went there. Literally,
behind the first turn, from a heap of garbage, a creature jumped out and rushed
at me. From being respawned, I was quick due to my reflexes left from the real
world. My brain just in time identified a potential threat, I immediately began
to fall to the left side and, clutching the trigger on the Hornet, I fired the
barrel at a blurred shadow that flew just a few centimetres above me.
To the surprise, the creature did not even pay
attention to the dozen bullets released into its belly. Raising with my left
hand off the floor and taking a stable position on my right knee, I was
surprised to see through muzzle-sight, as the monster slowly, lazily turns to
me. Consciously I was in panic and looking for salvation, as the name and level
appeared brightly over the mob:
Meat-eater, level 9
Devs, are you nuts? What the fuck? The creature of the
ninth level in the noobie zone? How can you even think of putting in the zone
of the first-level players to ninth-level mobs? At the time while these
thoughts were rushing in my head, my body acted automatically. Catching the
head of the meat eater through muzzle-sight, I started the fire, cutting off short
turns on several rounds. It did not like the bullets that were sent into his
face.
In two big leaps he was literally two meters away from
me and, straining his hind legs, he was ready to jump aiming at my head. Going
back to the side, I prayed to all gods who had told me to lift my agility
almost to the maximum, and turning my face to the meat eater, I yelled as much
as I could like a young recruit in his first battle:
-
Aaah,
aaaahh, aaaahh, aaah, aaaahh, aaah!!!
I went on shooting, I just poured this creature with
lead from my hip, holding the Hornet with one hand, and with the second one was
trying to get a spare magazine from the breast pocket. Meanwhile, watching the
bar of life of the meat eater moving slowly to zero I overwhelmed him with lead
bullets. Now there was no time to save up cartridges, and there is no way for
adjusted the fire. Either I kill this creature now, or by its following jump, it
will send me to respawn. Without money, perhaps even without ammunition,
consider, without the possibility in the near future to develop, permanently
hanging on social quests to save up for new equipment.
After the first submachine gun burst, the meat eater said goodbye to its front paw and, stumbling, he stretched out on the concrete.
By that time, I already installed a spare magazine case with my left hand and,
taking advantage of this opportunity, quickly replaced the magazine, stopping
the fire just for a second. But a few seconds were enough for this monster to
act accordingly. It was clutching its broken leg, but dashed to the right and
ran a little over the wall on its three limbs. Using the wall as a support for
the jump, this monster jumped in my direction of me, taking in all the bullets
released into it, while in flight.
Agility again helped me: instead of the neck, the
creature bit my left shoulder and with its mass multiplied by the acceleration,
attached to it by a leap just knocked me down. Tearing a good piece of meat
from the top of my hand, the mob flew to the side. Due to the momentum, we were
thrown apart on the concrete floor in different directions. Having difficulty
recovering my feet, I looked around to see where the meat eater was and this
creature was convulsively moving about five meters from me. The bar of its life
was flashing on the edge of exhaustion.
Approaching this beast on my trembling legs, I pointed
the Hornet's muzzle at the head of this monster and pulled the trigger, in
response, I heard a hollow click indicating the absence of cartridges in the
magazine case. Spitting aside, I took out a pistol, snagging the bolt with my
teeth - well, what else can I do when my left hand disobeys at all? - With
difficulty getting the cartridge, I fired the entire magazine into the head of
this meat eater. Having proved that this monster was dead at last, I sat down
with my back to its corpse and then I was overwhelmed with system messages.
Being irritated, I minimized them into the tray, dropped them into the lower right
corner, and began to treat my wound.
With the help of a knife, scraps of a sleeve and
cursing to myself, I strapped my wound, quietly swearing because of the unbearable
pain. Gee! So I felt how realistic this game is: even pain cannot be compared
to anything in the real world. With one hand, with the help of swear words and the
creaking of teeth, I turned around and took out a spray bottle from the
backpack, along with the bandages and carefully tied the wound. By the time I
had finished providing myself with first aid my hits were frozen at a value of
seven.
Meat-eater
Inserting the last armed magazine case into my
submachine gun, I turned around carefully examining the surrounding terrain,
paying special attention to places suitable for new mobs to be hiding. After I
had made sure there was no danger for me, I started to install a new magazine
with bullets, looking around me every second in fear for my life.
If you judge by generally accepted game mechanics,
each mob has its own zone, but local devs had already shown that you could
expect anything from them. It's good that, out of habit, I threw the first detached
magazine into an empty pocket; I did not have to search for it. Taking the
magazine case out of my pocket, I found seven more cartridges. It’s a real
hardcore - for one creature ninety-three bullets used, oh no, - one hundred and
five, to be exact. I completely forgot about the empty magazine in the gun.
Well, I fired almost half of my ammunition, there's
nothing else to think about. Well, now I’d better collect my loot and go back
to the base, and there it will be possible to dismantle the system and think
about the eternal question "What should I do next?" Fiddling with a half-filled third magazine case to the Hornet, I grimaced in displeasure and
threw it into the bottom pocket of the jacket. If I should encounter another
monster, I’ll need the remaining bullets. Twenty-one bullets in my magazine
case – it’s just nothing. I turned to the corpse of the meat eater; I put my
hand on it, waiting for the loot-collecting window to open up. Hmm, it’s strange,
but nothing happens so I’ll send the request mentally:
"Loot"
“Collecting
loot”
"Get
the loot"
...
...
I failed after so many attempts. Do I need to drag
this creature to the base myself? I will not disdain you, I did even worse things
in my life. Here in the game, there are a lot of noobies who will be simply
knocked out after their first cut. So, to carve it here is out of the question
- God forbid, another creature will join us while I'm working as a butcher
here. Damn, and the corpse is heavy to drag – around sixty or seventy kilos.
Having second thoughts, I realized that I have a rope,
well, not a rope, but a cord. Folding double the cord and properly tying the corpse, three meters more of a cord were hanging down. I made a large ear at the
end, into which I put my right hand and head, placing the main load diagonally
across my chest. So the hands remained free and the corpse could be easily
transported by dragging it. Although my little rucksack got in my way… that
was OK for me. Pulling up my socks, I dragged my dead meat eater for a couple
of meters. Well, I can cope, I thought, I can get to the outpost having breaks.
It was only from the tension and due to the wound in the left shoulder I felt
acute pain.
So, slowly dragging the carcass of an unknown
creature, I returned to the base, this time carefully examining any potentially
dangerous places. Well, at least devs had not come up with introducing sweat and
other physiological needs into the game, otherwise, I would be in trouble – it
was so hot. Fortunately, I did not meet any other creatures like that as I
walked back to the base, not counting a small group of players, around five
people who stared at me in astonishment as I entered the gate of the outpost.
The guard on duty at the gate did not even pay
attention to me, maybe he had rolled up his eyes in surprise or something like that,
but the helmet did not let me see his face and emotions. But other players were
staring at me, while I was dragging along my catch to the research centre, and cracked
jokes or ripped out acid-tongued comments:
-
Oh, look, you can be a slogger here."
-
No, he is just fed up with the tasteless combat ration, so he caught something for
dinner.
-
Bwa-ha-ha, this fucking noobie does not even know he’ll get no loot for this.
-
Do you see that porter? It’s heavy, isn’t it? I wonder if they make him take
this back.
Well, they kept on talking and laughing, trying to
ridicule me, saying that I'm a dull noob, I do not know shit, I'm just wasting
my time and so on and so forth. Of all the players, only one group of three
people was different, coming out of the building of the research centre when I
almost got there. I could see their level – number 10 – and they were
well-equipped in comparison with other players. So this group glanced at me
with a very thoughtful look as I entered the research centre, and I noticed
that they began to talk about something. That’s okay if they decide to carry
the same corpses as a whole, too, but if they are pro, then I should keep an
eye on them. In the hallway of the building, there was a small stand, behind
which I saw two young ladies who were apparently bored.
-
“Good afternoon!” - I turned to them.
"I
was told that laboratories are buying out organs of some mutants here. Can you
tell me if they take the whole corpse?
-"Um
... a minute," one of them said, shocked.
While the first girl tried to find words to say
something, the second one, judging by a thousand-yard stare, contacted someone via
the neural network. In less than a minute, a dishevelled man in a yellow overall
jumped out of the door on the left. Not paying attention to me, he jumped to
the girls with the question "Where
is it?" He received an answer in the form of two index fingers poking
at me. Turning around, he immediately rushed to me. On the contrary, I'm wrong,
he completely ignored me; he rushed to the remains of the meat eater and,
examining it from all sides, began to lament:
-
"They are heartless beasts! They spoiled such a species, well, that's what
idiots have decided to stuff this poor mutant with lead bullets? – It was too
much for me.
-
"Excuse me," I said, but I was immediately interrupted by this
scientific psycho.
-
“And who are you?” - He immediately looked at the girls behind the stand.
"Ladies, take the stranger out of the room, he interferes with the
research."
On hearing this, I could not stand it anymore; I
stepped over to the scientist and punched him in the face with my big hand. I
do not know what happened to me, maybe it’s down to emotional stress which I
had experienced before and it’s strange because something like that cannot
happen at my age. I could have been affected by the stress of the first fight,
or strange hormonal flux, which in theory, should not happen to me due to my
old age. But what’s done is done. The scientist fell down; his hands spread
out, and, apparently, lost consciousness. I could hear someone clapping in the
distance. Turning around, I saw a young guy in tight yellow overalls, which
fitted him perfectly, in contrast to the scientist on the floor.
-
"I told him to mind his language otherwise he
would get punched in his face, but no, he didn’t listen to me, as he
said:" These Neanderthals will not dare lift a hand against me, because they
are definitely not the brightest bulb in the shed and their minds can’t realize
the importance of science and my contribution to it, " - that guy quoted
the scientist, obviously mimicking the scientist. – “Let's get acquainted, my
name is Alfred, and I am a representative of the biological department of the
research centre.”
-Hmm
... I’m VolPer, very nice to meet you, Alfred. Sorry for my behaviour, but
could not tolerate this scientist. This creature nearly devoured me, and your,
em ... I would say, colleague here was talking heatedly, as they say, about
this creature being spoiled and so on.
-
Do not pay attention, he will lie down a little bit, and then come round and
become almost the sane person, well, at least, until again, he carries out
another research...
-I
understand everything, but can we get down to business? Will you buy this
corpse? Or should I make a delicious dish or something out of this?
-
Hmm ... really, you need to do an analysis of soft tissues to see if it’s eatable and if the results of the test are positive...
-"I'm
still here," - I interrupted him again, or maybe I have encountered
another psycho in here….
-
Oh yes, excuse me. Well, considering the fact that the meat-eater has never
been delivered to us practically untouched, and even mature species ... So, if
we count all the organs and add up for their uniqueness, plus the age of the
species, in total, six thousand credits are given to you. In addition, we will
provide you with a regeneration capsule to heal your wound, as a bonus. How do
you find this proposal?
-
I'm quite happy with it, well, I do not know the price lists for mutants, but
the amount for me is quite impressive now, and they will restore me as a
bonus.
-"Then,
please follow the lady called Alika," he pointed to one of the girls,
"and while you're recovering, I'll transfer the money to your
account."
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