CHAPTER IV: THE RAID STARTS…
Alika took me to another room on the third floor, inside of which there were a lot of medical devices along the walls, from which wires led to the regeneration capsule standing in the middle of the room. To the left of the entrance there was a locker into which I put all my things. When I was getting into the regenerator, two system messages popped up in front of my eyes:
6,000 credits have been transferred to your account.
Sender: Research Center of Outpost No. 5-17-23.
Re: Payment for samples of mutated fauna.
You are credited with 810 experience points.
Reason: Providing samples of mutated fauna for research in scientific laboratories of the research center of outpost No. 5-17-23.
- “Something happened?” – Alika asked me.
"No, I was just distracted by the messages of the interface," I reassured her and lay down in the regenerator.
-"Judging by the preliminary analysis, the regeneration will take about an hour," I heard her telling me through the closed lid, "now you can relax and rest a little."
Once you have free time, you need to deal with plenty of system messages, and, if possible, plan your next steps. First of all, I raised the logs of the battle, because I was interested to know how that monster survived the noobie zone.
You inflicted 2 hits of penetrating damage to the creature Meat-eater.
You inflicted 5 hits of kinetic damage to Meat-eater.
You didn’t hit the creature of Meat-eater.
You missed the creature of Meat-eater.
You didn’t hit the creature of Meat-eater.
You inflicted 2 hits of penetrating damage to the creature Meat-eater.
You inflicted 5 hits of kinetic damage to the creature Meat-eater.
...
...
The creature Meat-eater inflicted 32 hits of penetrating damage to you.
The creature Meat-eater caused you a trauma called "Lacerated wound of the shoulder".
...
...
You inflicted a critical 9 hits of kinetic damage and killed the creature Meat-eater.
760 experience points were obtained.
Totally counted seventeen hits, just some kind of nonsense… At such distances, and in battles like that: around three thousand accuracy of hits - the dispersion of bullets should be no more than five or a maximum seven centimeters, since the distance to the target did not exceed twenty meters. Okay, what else did the system give us?
For killing an opponent of much higher level than you without anyone’s help, you get a bonus experience of the same average experience for each level of difference.
Received: 4,180 experience
Quickly looking at the statistics of the character, I found I am now fourth level, plus even seven hundred and nineteen points of experience in the fifth level. Quite a lot just for one fight, although if you remember those three players, they have already reached the tenth level so that means the sky is the limit and you can achieve a lot. So, what are the other messages?
You have acquired the skill of owning gunshot-pistols-machine guns.
You have acquired the skill of owning gunshot one-handed pistols
You have acquired the habit of dressing wounds in the field.
You have acquired the skill of quickly reloading a hand-held automatic weapon.
Only four skills, but if you remember the speed of the battle, then I couldn’t expect more. Carefully reviewing the statistics of my character, I did not find these skills, and only after a couple of minutes of brainstorming I got to try to open the item "Skills". That's where I found the desired skills, well, and a small description of them.
Skills acquired:
Handling firearms with one-handed pistols - 1%
The indicator of the level of handling such type of weapon is displayed as a percentage of the effectiveness of use based on the basic technical characteristics of the weapon.
Handling of firearm pistols-machine guns - 4%
The indicator of the level of possession of this type of weapon is displayed as a percentage of the effectiveness of use based on the basic technical characteristics of the weapon.
Wound dressing in the field - 2%
The indicator of the speed, accuracy and correctness of dressings in the field
Quick reloading of a manual and automatic weapon - 1%
The indicator, which affects the speed of change of ammunition for this type of weapon in percentage; it increases the speed from the average.
To be honest, I was already fed up with all these deliberate descriptions. Well, I understood everything about the wound dressing after the first reading, but I had to re-read the other three skills description several times. Then again. Afterwards, I made some conclusions. First, it is now clear why I missed the mark so many times – it’s just because I used only four percent of all my abilities. Secondly, the level does not play a special role in here; the main thing is how well your skills are developed. Thirdly, I was very lucky not to die with such starting parameters.
And now the reverse of the coin. There were a lot of questions and small discrepancies. First, why do levels exist at all, if they do not influence the game? Of course, I suspect that sometime in the future they will matter, but I do not yet see the actual application of these levels. Second, where are the mutants? I saw people, I noticed a couple of cyborgs, but there were no mutants, although there was a choice of being a mutant at the start. The only available theory is based on the words of Lita: what she said about the people-mutants, who are hiding from the government.
I suspect that there is a starting location and, possibly, we stay on different sides of the trench. Third, why in the game did I feel such hellish pain? Yeah, almost every game has pain effects, but not real-like. At some points while I was pulling my trophy to the base camp, there was a feeling that the pain had even more saturated than it would in reality. I can’t grasp that. Fourth, where is the fucking drop? Absolutely in all other game worlds there is a drop, which either drops out immediately from the monster, or is obtained on accessing the system. Here you must do everything yourself.
If you want to get the heart of a meat-eater, be kind enough to open his chest, cut the blood vessels and here's a freshly cut beating heart in your hand, a pool of blood, guts and viscera. Fifth, quests, as I know them, are not available here. Even near the store, when I was shopping, several players discussed that they had received a lot of tasks, but the system did not highlight any of them, as they say, remember them by heart.
There are already a lot of strange things in this game: from awkward players to the absence of quests. As to the quests, it’s questionable, especially if you recall the notification on completion of the task of when I connected the interface. The sixth point, my strange behavior. Having lived my humble life, I learned how to behave perfectly in different situations, which saved my life more than once and here I behave like a fourteen-year-old boy: flirting with Lita, then I beat up that scientist.
Well, at last, the seventh: why the hell did the devs create such a hardcore battle in the very beginning? Also, it’s forbidden to recharge your account during the first month. I do not care, I can’t do that, but why on earth can’t the other players do that? This is, like, one of the main income for game developers, I think. Okay, we'll sort it out later, but for now it would be better to take a nap – oh my fatigue has reached up to forty units.
…I was woken up by the sound of the regenerator's door opening. I examined my left shoulder immediately and did not even find a scar. Getting out of the capsule, I saw no one in the room but me. I just started finding fault with the employees of the centre in my mind and then I found out there were several cameras in different places in the room. Without second thoughts, I got dressed and, having gathered all my belongings, I left the regeneration room. I had a burning desire to try to get quests in the research center. But while dreaming, my brain has already made up a plan for my progress.
Quickly getting to the store, near which the queue was already small and, waiting for my turn, I did some shopping. Six thousand credits is just a little: I barely managed to get enough of the necessary minimum to implement my idea. And I planned to leave for a week far-far away. Having listened to my paranoiac brain, I did not sell my previous weapons, but on the contrary I bought some new weapons. I hid my old ammunition in my room just in case of an unforeseen death so that I could have at least some kind of weapon. After inspecting and checking twice my equipment, I got undressed and lay down in the replicator – it was my bed. I must not forget to pay for the room in the morning. This was the last thought before I fell asleep in the arms of Morpheus.
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A directed explosion destroyed the doors of the room - two grenades were thrown in: an electromagnetic one of small radius and a fragmentation bomb. After two claps of explosion, an assault group with short-barreled pulse rifles for close combat immediately broke into it. After making sure it was safe enough to enter, I aimed my gun at the windows of the second floor. The first floor will have to be cleared by the fighters without my cover, because all the windows are obstructed by all kinds of garbage, excluding the possibility not only to storm through them but even shoot.
Noticing some movement, I turned my eyes to the balcony, on which there was a mutant, formerly an ordinary man, with a disproportionately large head and several rows of sharpened teeth in the jaw, a big acid gland in the Adam's apple region and three-fingered hands, the rest of the body is hidden by civilian clothes. Aiming at his head in the sight, I softly pulled the trigger. The following small poke in his shoulder meant it was a shot. A moment later, the mutant's head cracked, splashing a brownish-green liquid on the wall.
- Roger that! Hey, the covering group, I am the Falcon, on the balcony near the entrance minus one acid mutant, the acid can drain down, keep off the balcony.
"I understand, the Falcon, we’re going around the balcony."
Having made a crosshair of the sight through the windows accessible to me and not having found for myself any aims, I picked up the rifle and, having accelerated, jumped on the next roof, correcting the landing with gravity compensators. Moving on top, on the fifth roof I took a new position.
-"Hey, assault group, report to the Falcon," - I whispered into the communications microphone, trying to catch my breath.
- Falcon, Falcon, I am the Bison, the first floor is almost cleared up, we have two three hundredths of average weight.
- The Bison, what the fuck are you doing there? How?
- Vovka, you won’t believe, there is such a stuffing from the remains that if it were not for the auto-sprinkler, he would have throw up the entire armored suit. Here our guys have dispersed, and here one of these fucking mutants had jumped out on them and his paws broke the armor.
If the Bison called me by my real name on the radio, then things are going really bad. After having considered the situation for a few moments, I made a final decision.
- “Cover group, I'm the Falcon, be alert!” - immediately after that I sent another message on the radio - Bison, I am the Falcon, three hundred to be escorted - on the way out, clean the ground floor and take up the defense, I'm joining you.
- “Falcon, I am the Black, received!” - said the commander of the outer ring of cover.
- Falcon, I am the Karp, received! - And the inner ring responded.
- Falcon, I am the Bison, waiting for you!
After spending a couple of minutes checking the second floor through the electronic optic aim, eliminated two more targets on my way. He reached over his shoulder behind his back and groped for the handle of the short-barreled power machine. The grips that held the machine were released right after my hand was fixed on the hilt of the machine. Folding the end on the rifle and moving the barrel into the marching mode, I threw it on the vacant seat. Then I jumped off the roof with the automatic device, activated the gravity compensators literally a meter from the ground and, sparing no charge of the battery, in the forced mode of the suit rushed to the site of clearing.
The Bison was waiting for me near the entrance. On my questioning looks, He simply nodded, inviting me to follow him. After passing a couple of rooms, he stopped before the turn of the corridor, which led to the last room, and let me go forward, obviously not wanting to go back there. Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, I went into the room. If I understood correctly, mutants were dining there: there were pieces of meat everywhere, bones, and half-decomposed corpses of people. Mutants were believed to have been people in the past, until they got into the hands of a crazy scientist who began to test various mutagens on them. After such cruel experiments, the mutants did not even have a grain of reason, only some basic instincts left.
The Intelligence Service had obtained information about him and decided to seize him to be transferred to the Supreme Court on charges of crimes against humanity. In this room, he seems to have kept the results of his experiments. At the same time, unsuccessful copies and simply unsuitable people who got into his hands, he simply fed to his creatures. I could hardly restrain myself from vomiting onto my helmet. But when in one of the far corners I noticed a small hand with a puppet, something clicked, my eyes darkened and my mind just turned off, and from somewhere out of the depths a primordial roar broke out of me.
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I woke up in a state close to madness, ready to tear apart anyone who comes close to me. After taking a few deep breaths and exhaling, I calmed down a little. Of course, I heard that when I sleep in the virtual world, the brain starts pulling out old memories in the form of a dream, but, according to statistics, these were so rare cases that I did not even imagine that this could happen to me. I am glad that according to the same statistics, the same person did not have more than one or two such dreams being recorded. It seemed that I had completely forgotten that operation for a long time, but the subconscious self made a twist and pulled this memory from the deepest parts of my memory.
After morning exercise, I completely calmed down and was ready for a new day of development and farming. After breakfast, I began to put on my outfit and, fitting up all the dangling elements, according to the old habit, jumped a couple of times, checking to see if the ammunition was ringing. Satisfied with a chuckle, I opened the statistics of my character:
Name: VolPer
Item Level: 4
Experience: 719/4862
...
...
...
Skills:
Handling firearms with one-handed pistols - 1%
Handling firearm pistols-machine guns - 4%
Wound dressing in the field - 2%
Quick reloading of a manual automatic weapon - 1%
Professions: -
Personal account: 1,124 credits
Having stopped at the item "Personal account", I felt my mood sinking down. There are still a little more than a thousand credits left, and you have to pay for the room. But there is nowhere to go, if everything is okay in the raid, then I'll be back, probably in about a week, and free accommodation period is to expire in six days. I am glad that we managed to buy up all sorts of things: dry soup, a couple of additional jars for water, a sleeping bag, a large backpack of fifty liters, and a bunch of everything necessary during a long expedition.
Clothes in general resembled the old stuff, only there were inserts with aramid fiber, which strengthened the material, and the elbow pads with knee reinforcement of polymer. I took pride in my new weapon in which I invested most money - small-caliber pistol machine gun "Corsair", two pistols "Recon", one of which was placed on the left hip, and the second one in the operational holster. On the shoulder strap of the holster, there was also placed a knife with the handle down. Lovingly touching my Corsair, I again opened up the characteristics of weapons and ammunition:
The "Recon" pistol
Ammunition: 4.71x18
Sighting range: 20 meters.
Combat Rate: 40
Shooting modes: single
Condition: 100%
Weight: 0.63 kg
Magazine case of the gun “Recon”
Ammunition: 4.71x18
Amount of cartridges: 16
Condition: 100%
Weight: 0.13 kg
Rifled cartridge "4.71x18"
Kinetic damage: 9-12
Penetration damage: 4-7
Condition: 100%
Cartridge Weight: 3.2 gr
Small-caliber pistol-machine gun " Corsair "
Ammunition: 4.71x18
Target range: 50 meters
Combat Rate of Fire: 400
Shooting modes: single, automatic
Condition: 100%
Weight: 2.7 kg
Magazine case for a small-caliber pistol machine gun "Corsair"
Ammunition: 4.71x18
Amount of cartridges: 50
Condition: 100%
Weight: 0.25 kg
Eight spare magazine cases for the Corsair and two spare stripper clips to each gun. The cartridges, however, scored with a huge margin, filling the payload almost to the point of failure. I hope that's enough, otherwise we'll have to come back earlier. Most importantly, there was installed a damper on the Corsair instead of muzzle brake. Provided that I have subsonic cartridges, it will work well as a muffler. Better, of course, would be baffle with obturators, but carrying a heap of replaceable rubber bands and change them every couple of magazine cases will be a pain in the ass. Going down to the information terminal, near the entrance, I paid for the room for another week. First I wanted to go to Lita, but then changed my mind and went to the gate which was leading out of the outpost.
Having passed the gateway that led to the outside world, I got ready with my submachine gun and slowly moved along the wall, choosing for myself not a obstructed street, so that it would lead into the city. Beginning to delve into the chosen street, I started creeping slowly, putting my foot on the outside of the toe and rolling smoothly until the foot is completely fixed on the surface. A bit uncomfortable and extremely slow way of movement, which has a big advantage - so you can move as quietly as possible, and for every meter of movement I had time to carefully inspect the space in front of me. After walking for about fifty meters along the street, I noticed a stir in one of the piles of construction debris. Crouching on my right knee and pointing the point of the Corsair onto a pile, I picked up a small pebble with my left hand and tossed it into the area of stirring, immediately grabbing at the forearm, stabilizing the weapon.
Remembering my first meeting with local mobs, I was expecting another hardcore battle and was a little surprised when two usual rats jumped out and headed towards me. It was obvious, each of them was the size up to my knee and the inscription above them indicated the third level. Holding the rifle, which stood out a little forward, I let them run for about seven meters and exhaled excess air from the lungs to calm the diaphragm. After shooting the first one, without looking at the result, I moved the aim at the second one with a small turn of the case and gave another round of cartridges up to five. Again, returning back to the first, I found that the rat was already without signs of life. The second rat still twitched on the floor, but could no longer move by itself. The ammunition needs to be saved, so I went to finish it with a knife, slightly lowering the barrel of the Corsair, but still continuing to squeeze its handle.
After driving the knife a couple of times into the rat's skull, I wiped the knife on her dead corpse. Having carefully examined both corpses, I found in the first only two bullet holes, and in the second one. After changing the magazine cases, he finished it with cartridges. So, ten shots, one got its aim. As a result, out of nine bullets released - only three hits. The result is depressing. Of course, the number of hits could be seen through logs, but, unfortunately, they do not take into account the dead corpse, but I'm interested in my real accuracy, and not the amount of damage inflicted. Thus, I need to determine the optimal distance of combat fire at the current level of skill development. Unfortunately, now I can conduct at least a little bit effective shooting at a distance of up to five meters.
Leaving the corpses lying around, I went to a pile of construction debris, from which rats jumped out. After all, if they were crouching there, then there would be something there. Carefully moving through a pile of debris, I found a partially gnawed body. After examining the equipment, I came to the conclusion that it was an uncautious newcomer with minimal equipment. In another situation, I would have removed everything from him, but now I do not need any overload. A little bit further from the body there was a hole. Taking out a small headlamp from the backpack and putting it on my long-suffering head, I put the muzzle of the machine gun and my head into this hole. Judging by the unevenness of the walls, rats must have gnawed through it. The way led somewhere in the sewerage or communication floors: depending on what devs here created under the concrete. On the one hand, it was worth crawling to check out, the size of the hole allowed, but on the other, I was stopped by the probability of attack in a cramped space without the ability to maneuver.
Thinking over the situation and so on and so forth, I decided to explore that place. If there were basically similar rats, then I would have a good opportunity to pump up my skills. Well, if they ate me, then there would always be an opportunity of return for my remains. Having decided for myself, I headed for the dwelling of rats, I immediately threw off my backpack and attached the submachine gun to it. Also, I freed chest pockets from spare magazine cases so that they did not hinder crawling. The height of the manhole did not allow me to crawl with a backpack on my back, so I had to tie it with a piece of rope at my ankle, and taking a pistol in each hand, I crawled into the hole.
I had to crawl for about five minutes, stopping at every rustle and stretching my arms forward, taking the remainder of the pass in sight. Fortunately, I crawled without any adventure. When I reached the exit from this hole, I slowly poked my head out to examine the surrounding space. It was part of a concrete pipe about seven meters in diameter. Along the right and left walls there were many smaller pipes and energy wires, leaving in the middle of the meter two and a half, maybe even three, to move along the aisle. Various wires and tubes were fixed under the ceiling. To the left the passage was going far away into the darkness and its edges were not visible. On the right, there was a huge hole in the floor, formed, apparently, because of the dilapidated structure. A little light came from the hole. Once I got to the cracked space and, I approached it, interested in the source of the lights. Stopping at the edge, I admired the view. I looked from a height of about five hundred meters to a huge partially destroyed metropolis, in which the lighting remained in places. It was beautiful in its greatness, despite the devastation that was happening in its streets.
- “So, this is the fourth level,” - a little admiring, I regretfully added, "I'm so sad, but I'm too small for you now."
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