“Can we ask questions now?” The young man who knew about the Kabane asked.
“You are free to ask any questions that are bothering you, I can however not promise that I have the answer.” The fluid said as it spun to face the boy.
“Uhhh right, Hi... I'm Jim. I was wondering how you picked us for this fight against The Nihil.”
The fluid hesitated or gave the question a moments thought. It truly was hard to tell. “Humans have been chosen in various groups based upon personality, or character traits. The trait that your group has in common is what your people call 'Adrenaline Junkies'. Other races refer to your kind as the Fearless, the Excited, the Battleborn, as a few examples.”
Jim blinked at the answer, “Well at least the names are bad-ass!” A smile grew on his face as he thought about it. I had to agree with him, their names sounded far more complementary than 'Adrenaline Junky'. “Does that mean that other groups have completely different traits or a combination of traits?” Jim continued.
“That is correct.” The fluid answered.
Jim wanted to ask something else but I interrupted him. “Sorry Jim but I need to ask this, Did we get points last mission? And if so how do we spend them.” Jim blinked at the interruption but then his attention was focused solely on the answer, excitement glimmering in his eyes.
“You have indeed been awarded points for your previous mission. You have been awarded 75 points for your first mission. You will gain 25 extra points per night survived, and 5 points for every Kabane you killed or helped kill. You can access the shop by simply placing your hands on the panel. There is a panel available for each Scriptor so you do not have to worry about lines.” Hearing his words I looked down at the panels surrounding the fluid and placed my hand on it.
{Scriptor : Zoa
{Age : 23
{Physical Statistics
{ Muscular Strength : 13.2
{ Muscular Elasticity : 12.9
{ Muscular Toughness : 12.8
{ Muscular Velocity : 14.2
{ Skeletal Durability: 10.9
{ Skin Thickness and Durability : 10.7
{
{Mental Statistics
{Recollection : 10.3
{Cerebral Capacity : 10.1
{Thought Velocity : 11.2
{Psychic Capabilities: 0
{
{Current enhancements,
{Right Kabaneri Leg Mutation.
{
{Scriptor available Currency : 130
{View Mission Reports}
I read the statistics, somewhat understanding what they did. I was intrigued by the mission report and clicked on it, it opened another option that listed only the Kabaneri mission. Clicking on the mission I read the report.
{Mission : 1 – Kabaneri}
{Mission completed, awarded points : 75
{One night survived, awarded points : 25
{Five Kabane slain, One Kabane assist, awarded points : 30}
I read the report and grinned, I was pretty sure I had the most points out of everyone here. I clicked on the shop and my eyes widened at the vast amount of options available to me. The list went on and on, the first thing that interested me as an avid gamer were the classes. Unfortunately even the cheapest tier one classes cost two hundred credits and were unavailable to me. All enhancements where above my current budget as well, there were items available but something interested me more than those items. Stat points, I could upgrade my stat points by 1 per 20 points. I smiled as I glanced once more at my stat screen.
I ended up Putting 1 point in Muscular Strength Elasticity and Toughness and two in Velocity. I put another point in Thought Velocity. I watched in horror as the fluid rushed over my arm, I tried to retract it but found it stuck to the panel. The other Scriptors watched in morbid curiosity as the fluid rushed up my arm, and entered through the nostrils and mouth. I wanted to struggle but to my surprise, I didn't find myself gasping for breath. I blinked when I noticed I didn't feel anything. Then I felt a warm glow spread throughout my body, I watched with awe as my muscles reformed. I had been relatively muscular before but just these few points in stats turned muscular into chiseled. I guess a few points made a big difference if you increased your strength by about ten percent.
I stretched my limbs and threw a few kicks, I felt great. The others watched me perform, the doctor gazed at me. “How do you feel, and what did you change.”
I glanced over at him, “I put a few points in my muscular statistics, I feel better than great, to be honest. I feel... Strong.” It was lame, but it was the best explanation I could give. I simply felt stronger than I ever had before, I felt like taking on the Rock in a wrestling match. I took off my shirt and examined my body, yup I was chiseled as all hell. My body looked like something from a fashion magazine.
I saw the Christian girl staring at me and I winked at her. Her cheeks reddened slightly but she didn't look away. I could appreciate a girl who stood her ground like that, focusing back on the matters ahead I spoke up. “Well I would advise you guys to put most points in stats, for now, there is very little else we can afford at the moment. Perhaps a weapon would usefull as well, so I would save a few points for that.”
I saw a few nods around the room. I returned to the shop myself to have a look at the items, the items really were relatively cheap compared to the rest. I asked the fluid if there was a reason behind it, the logic was simple. Most weapons were a lot simpler and cheaper to create, as well as the chance that they could be lost in a mission, making them cheaper than permanent enhancements which were difficult to implement.
I decided on a gun called the KRISS VECTOR GEN II SMG KV45-MBL2. It was quite the mouthfull, most people simply referred to it as the vector. I like it, it was light, compact, had a high rate of fire. It weighed in at three kilograms, used 45. ammo, which was a large caliber so it had good stopping power. It had three modes of fire, semi-automatic, automatic, and my personal favourite two round burst. It was my favourite simply because it was an automatic double tap, if you aimed properly it should be enough to put down most hostiles.
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Then the cherry that took the pie, it had unlimited ammo. The whole thing only cost me 8 points, which struck me as remarkably cheap. Then I realized, the reason items where so cheap compared to enhancements was that when you died, which had an extremely high chance going by our previous mission, you lost your weapon. Making items a one-time investment, still, having a gun with unlimited ammo made me feel a lot more at ease. I read through the explanation of the unlimited ammo function, it told us that we still had to reload the weapon, but the magazine would never empty, you had an extra mag that you could put in a pouch or in your gear, and you could switch magazines and they would automatically fill.
Basically, you still had to reload your weapon, but you had an infinite amount of filled magazines. In my eyes it was still more than worth the points, I was already imagining the sheer amount of kabane I could have killed if I had possessed a weapon of this caliber. I looked around to see what the others had chosen. Reg who was standing next to me was holding a massive machine gun he called his darling MK 48. The christian girl was to my surprise holding a sniper rifle, I glanced at her and couldn't resist asking. “Why did you pick a rifle like that?”
She glanced over and shrugged, “My father taught me to hunt, he was ex-military and current police officer. A sniper in swat, even at his age. He taught me how to use this rifle, I have shot more rounds with this rifle than I care to remember. It's simply the weapon I am most comfortable with. To this day I still think the rifle was overkill for hunting. But for what we will be doing it will see proper use.”
I nodded to myself, “How much did it cost you?”
“6 points, i spent 60 on thought velocity, it should help speed up my aiming. I plan to spend the last of my points 14 in total, on camoflage gear.” She focused her attention back on the panel. “I am unsure of the kind of gear that would fit me best.”
I thought for a few moments before remembering a movie I saw recently, that had fantastic optical camouflage. “How about the suit that they used in Ghost in the Shell, is that available? That would be close to the skin and might fit you bet, if you want something more combat uniform oriented than maybe the Ghost Recon outfit?”
She tapped her chin thoughtfully, “I think Major's outfit would fit me best, It's a good thing regular clothing and provisions cost us nothing. I could wear the skin outfit underneath a proper set of sturdy clothes, and simply strip of a layer when necessary.”
I really had to hold myself back to not remark upon the stripping of layers. I nodded at her thoughts and made my way around the room to check what the others were doing. An Arabian seeming woman was wearing combat gear, I noticed the Israeli patch on her shoulder. She was wielding a standard military issue assault rifle. She was already tearing it apart and examining and cleaning the various parts. She reeked of a professional, her movements smooth as she cleaned the rifle. Next to her sat a Japanese fellow in a suit. His posture and looks screamed Yakuza, to really bring that to life he was wielding a katana and small submachine gun. I did not know its model, I think it's called an mp something.
The doctor had picked a slim, beautifully accentuated pistol. The Latina lady had a pump action shotgun, the kid had picked dual pistols, The military man had chosen an assault rifle similar to the Israelian lady and a combat knife. Next to him sat one of the largest men I had ever seen before, he had a shoulder-mounted minigun of all things. I stared at the thing with wide eyes, “You had enough points left for that?!”
The big man grinned, a thick russian accent covering his rich heavy voice. “Yes, I spend less of points on these statistics. I a lot of points, on big powerfull gun.”
I nodded as I gawked at the thing, I was pretty sure the russian could wreak havoc with the thing. I would have loved one of those myself but I didn't think my body could handle the kind of abuse the recoil of such a thing would have on my body. “That might indeed be a smarter choice this early on in the missions.”
The russian man nodded, “I think so, many enemies will be mowed down before they take Ivan's life.” I smiled at the gigantic man.
“I will be sure to stand behind you when shit hits the fan!”
The russian laughed, his heavy voice reverberating through the walls. “Ivan big, easy to hide behind. If you hide behind Ivan, Ivan ask you for favor, you good talker, you teach Ivan how to speak to women yes?”
My face nearly split in two at the grin I returned to the man. “I would do my best to teach you about talking to women, you won't even have to let me hide behind you for that.” Another rumbling laugh, he slapped my back, nearly knocking me facedown onto the pavement.
Suddenly a voice brought silence to the room. “I propose we discuss the mission set-up. I think it would be a good idea to choose a mission instead of trying for a random one. We can prepare ourselves much better for the fight ahead, even if it may cost us in our total of points.” The doctor's smooth voice forced everyone's attention on him.
“All of us have chosen weapons we are familiar with, or at the very least know how to use. None of us have chosen any of the fantastical weapons that we have never seen before, we chose familiarity. I propose we do the same with our choice of mission.” His words were convincing, yet I did not agree. We needed the points, and we needed them badly. A 50% increase in received points was too much of a bonus to overlook. I opened my mouth to tell him that but good ol' Reg beat me to it.
“I disagree, points are valuable, a fifty percent increase in points is too much to ignore. The weapons we would be able to buy with those extra points for the next mission alone is worth the choice. We cannot afford to play it safe, we need to take the risk.”
A few people nodded at his retort, the good doctor, however, shook his head. I liked the man, he saved my life after all. As far as I could tell he was a determined man who did his best to save his charges. He had immediately checked upon the wounded and treated them in the last mission. He was a good man to have on your side, but I agreed with Reg. Not only because I really liked the dude, most importantly it was true. We could not afford to play it safe, we really had to take a risk.
The doctor straightened, sweeping his gaze over those present.“Should we then hold a vote to decide what the group will do? We have a few days to decide but holding a vote seems to be the best way to go in my opinion.”
Reg frowned slightly then scratched his head. “Votes are dangerous, before holding things to a vote, perhaps we should find out what all our options are. We don't know everything about these missions and how they are chosen or what they can entail. According to Jim the last mission had Kabane, a monster he was familiar with from a fictional story from our very own world.”
He then started pacing. “What if the missions we go on are all like that, fictional stories from our world. We could end up in Lord of the Rings or a horror movie! We should find out if missions are categorized like that.”
The doctor watched him pace, a frown appearing on his face. “Wouldn't that be the argument FOR choosing a movie instead of picking a random one. Much better to face the devil you know is it not?”
Reg paused for a second then proceeded to shake his head, “We need more information first, Fluid! How do these missions work?”
The fluid swarmed together to form another humanoid figure. “Missions are created from fictional creations of your own people or those of other races. Some have been created by my own race to test the limits of the mind and/or the body. The type of mission must be chosen in the first week of rest time. You will be told what mission you have received at the end of the first week, giving you a week to prepare for the mission. Teams can be formed within groups, it is not necessary to perform missions as a whole, you could even undertake missions yourself. Although this is not advisable this early in your training.”
The doctor frowned as he processed all the implications. “Random movies are still dangerous, you might get one with an extremely low chance of survival like the one we just had. It would be better to take one where there is a greater opportunity for earning or receiving points.”
“Now that I know that I will know what mission it's going to be a week in advance I am dead set on choosing random. I propose we split up into two groups and we try both options, then we can compare results and decide on a further plan of action”
The doctor reluctantly nodded, “This would probably be the best course of action, yes.”
Thus it was decided there would be two teams for the next mission. I was already dead set on going with Reg, but I wondered what the others would decide.