Running into the forest, I realized there was a lot of undergrowth around the trees. It made sense, and the dark colors of blue and purple were an odd color to my eyes. It made things harder, and I wondered how this would go as I moved forward. The underbrush hit me and my bag, but it was not stopping me. I kept moving, and I started to get used to it. I realized that a machete would be useful, but it would also make a path and something easier to trace me if they could track me.

A sudden whizzing sound in my ear made me move, and less than half a second later, I heard a gunshot. I moved and realized that I was under fire. I caught sight of the hole from a bullet hitting something just to my left and got a general direction almost instantly as I started to move for cover. I was shocked as I had just entered the forest, and someone was already shooting at me.

I moved into the underbrush and realized that my bag was going to weigh me down in this fight. The shooter was in the distance and was probably a sniper. I had no idea where they were and no idea as I hunkered down in the underbrush where they might be or how they took cover. My situation was precarious, and I took a deep breath and looked around.

The trees were separated by at least two to three meters. It was a bit of a distance but not something too worrying. Someone within a kilometer was firing upon me in a damn forest. They missed the first shot, which was either my luck or their poor aim. The trees here were staggered, so they were probably within four hundred meters. They couldn't be too far because the trees would block their vision.

Taking another deep breath, I focused on myself and decided that I needed to retreat a little. The attacker would know where I was, and I didn't know where they were. That was unacceptable. I had this damn backpack, too, which was weighing me down and wasn't good for a fight. I would need to leave it somewhere, but I need a base camp first.

I slowly got up from my prone position and pulled out my handgun for protection. Quickly, I got back on the ground and started to crawl backward slowly in the underbrush. I was in a known position, so the only way out of this situation was to make it where I was less known. The only way of doing that was by moving without being caught.

BANG!

The attacker shot again, but I didn't see where the bullet went or feel it hit me. That meant he was either shooting at someone else or thought he saw me. Since I didn't see the bullet, he either hit the tree to try and spook me or made me move positions by making me think he didn't know where I was. Either way, I moved slowly backward at a crawl in the deep underbrush I found myself in.

Something I finally learned this day was something I didn't have back in Call of Duty when I was a Pro. Camping was a very frowned-upon exercise in the game, and many hated it. It made for boring content, but right now, because I could die and lose my tutorial progress, I was ultra careful.

I really didn't want to lose Ura and the spaceship. I needed to survive and get out of here. I was either going to flee from this bastard or kill them. Either way, I would count it as a win as I moved slowly back. Time was so slow, and my heart was beating hard, and I heard it in my ears. Moving a meter when moving and crawling was damn slow, and I dragged my body through the bushes and felt unknown bugs crawling on my body which I hated. My breasts were dragging on the ground, and I wanted to curse.

Then it happened, and I heard a noise.

“Nah, man, I got her with that second shot. I swear I saw her in the underbrush taking a peak.” I heard a man saying, “She had a massive backpack and many supplies. Even a good-looking sniper rifle and assault rifle. We will make bank on this bounty hunter.”

“Man, You better have hit her; I swear if this ends up like the Dylan incident, then I will put a bullet in your brain myself.” A second voice spoke.

I froze for a moment and quickly decided what to do. They were checking for my backpack, and I was still wearing it. I needed freedom of movement. I slowly unclasped it as I heard the boots getting closer, and I slowly freed my arms from the straps by pulling the strong straps loose. The backpack then lay on my back loosely as I heard them getting closer and closer. I slowly started to remove the backpack, hoping I made no noise.

“This was the bushman. I am sure of it,” The first voice said.

“I don't see any blood pools,” He said, and I decided this was my moment. Instead of standing, they were both in front of me, and I heard some movement as I started to roll to my left. I came out into a little clearing between two things of underbrush and saw a Horned man and a yellow-looking person about to use a machete on the bush half a meter in front of me.

One was turning to look at the bush I was in a moment later while the other's head was turning as the Machete came down on the bush to look for my dead body he insisted was there.

My gun snapped to position, and the guy started to bring up a rifle as he turned to me, and I released my first shots of the engagement. One hit the leg of the Horned guy with human-looking skin, and it blossomed with red blood starting to flow down his leg. The Second shot hit him in the side as he turned, bringing up his weapon and making him lose his grip. The third and final shot that hit him was in the neck, sending an artery spray in my direction as the other guy dropped the machete, and I shot two more bullets, missing the guy I had already put in a death sentence as he dropped to the ground in what seemed almost slow.

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He was dead, though, and my heart was pounding in my slightly ringing ears as I forgot to flatten my ears.

Now, my ears were flat against my head as the other guy pulled out a handgun, and I aimed at him. He shot at me as he tried to bring his gun up to aim at me, and I shot at him after aiming. The bullet hit, and I fired again, missing as I watched the guy grunt and fall back a little as my bullet hit him in the shoulder. In my third shot, I aimed again as the guy lost balance, and I shot him in what looked to be his heart, and he fell to the ground.

My heart was beating hard in my ears, and I moved to stand up as quickly as possible, almost tripping over myself in the process.

Thump thump thump thump

My heart rang in my ears as I stood above the two men of different species. They were bleeding out and looked up at me with hate. Blood drained quickly from the horned man, and he died as I arrived. The other one I noticed was bleeding yellow blood like his skin and coughed, “I- I swore I hit you, Fuck. Danny was right. Just like Dylan,” He started to chuckle, and I saw his hand start to move with the gun, and I stomped on his arm, making him grunt and loosen his grip. I kicked the gun a little away, and he started to laugh. “Just like Dylan.” He continued to chuckle, and I stripped the corpse of his rifle.

My heart was beating in my ears as I was shocked at the slowness of combat in this game with such sudden heat. It was all over in seconds after what felt like hours of slow moving. These guys got more impatient than me and thought they killed me because they saw no movement. This was a lesson for me, and I intend to take it to heart as I looked at the man bleeding out and laughing.

I stepped back and grabbed my backpack out of the bush while the man laughed and reached for his gun. I had it out of reach for him, and he shook his head. I pulled my tablet out of the bag, walked over, turned on my account, and took a picture of both men.

—-

Bounty: Danny Hellspit

Race: Mixed (Imp and Devil)

Crimes: Sexual assault, Armed Robbery, Evading arrest

Bounty: 5000 Federation Credits

Wanted Dead or Alive

—-

—

Bounty: Freddy Sulron

Race: Sulfroid

Crimes: Armed Robbery, Evading arrest, Resisting arrest, Murder

Bounty: 5500 Federation Credits.

Wanted Dead or Alive

Warning: Ex-Military Sniper, but wasn't considered a good one. Beware nonetheless.

—

Why did Danny have the rifle and not Freddy?

I couldn't understand it, and I looked at the laughing man. I took my gun out, and he continued to laugh, “Ah, Going to kill me. What a bounty hunter. Why not bring me in alive?” He asked.

I thought about it for a moment, and I shrugged. This was all a game, no matter how realistic it was. I needed to think like that, and I looked him in the eyes and shot him, not caring to give him the reasoning. He was dangerous, and I didn't want to end with the first two criminals that attacked me. I recorded both their bodies and vital signs as I put in the dead option on claiming the bounty.

The tablet made me go through a couple of steps, but in the end, I successfully claimed both bounties as dead and breathed a sigh of relief. Then I put my tablet back, started gathering things off their bodies, and realized something that would make this all so much easier—thermal vision. Then again, that might not work for all species. Still, in the forest, it would help.

Leaning already, I started to gather my spoils and found rifle ammunition, which was only the basic bullets, An extra magazine, and a removable scope for it. It was a lightweight gun but useful. I got a new handgun that looked a little old but had thirty rounds on their bodies. They had various jerkies and random stuff on them, but I decided against keeping them as I only had so much space. They were lacking some things, and I knew there must be a spot where they had their stuff nearby. I got my backpack, took the minor loot I had, and was about to leave when I looked at the bodies again.

This time felt so odd compared to previous times I killed in this game. I felt nothing when killing that first bounty, even execution style from a distance. The Pirates, I felt nothing either or those that tried to kill me inside the ship. Oxrock felt different, too.

This time, though, I felt it was odd. I didn't know why, and I looked at them, grabbed the knife on my now dirty pants, and reached down and drove the blade into their heads and hearts. I needed to ensure they were dead, and when I did it for Freddy, he suddenly twitched and coughed before dying when I stabbed him in the chest where his heart might be. I put my knee on his chest; then I started stabbing him a couple of more times when I saw his eyes open wide to stare at me before they rolled up dead.

That was troubling, and I had no idea why I felt that way, but seeing his reaction, I realized something. I looked down at the yellow blood covering my hand. Not all species are the same, and they will have ways of surviving their harsh worlds, and sometimes you have to double-check.

It was very well noted in my head now. I shuddered to think what might have happened if I hadn't come back for Freddy. Lesson learned: I stood back up and used a portion of their clothing to wipe the blood off my hands and move along. I wanted to see if I could find their packs, but I wouldn't dedicate too much time to this.

I nodded to myself. One hour was all, and I found the first gunshot hole and started to find a stick to show me the direction. With the stick stuck out, I looked in that direction and started to walk.

Still, something was nagging me, and I could not help but wonder why they were out here to ambush people. I slowed and continued walking while trying to watch out for more attackers.