“AI.”
“At your service.”
“Build me a path to the water tower.”
“Fulfilling your request…”
The virtual arrow in the HUD led forward along the avenue, then through the station platforms, and there, between the road tracks, was the desired target. Approximate arrival time was four minutes. Ronnie deviated slightly from the route and hid in the narrow alleys at the first opportunity. Visibility was good. There was practically no wind, humidity, too. He ran at the maximum speed, considering the weight of the rifle in his hands and the lightweight of the backpack. Stamina decreased to four. Ronnie passed two cross-shaped intersections and came out onto the railway tracks after them. After a few more minutes, a tower of red brick painted in black appeared before his eyes in all its gloomy glory. On the facade, each floor was marked by a small lancet window, behind which nothing could be seen because of the outgrowths of dust and dirt. The tank, which was at the top of the structure, was equipped with loopholes around the perimeter. If not for the name, the tower could easily be confused with an ancient defensive structure.
Ronnie ran inside, knocking out a decayed, rotten door at the entrance, climbed to the very top, spread out his rifle and watched.
“AI.”
“At your service.”
“Can you mark where the monster appeared in places on the map?”
“It shall be done.”
He put two pairs of earplugs in each ear and drank an elixir with a green liquid and waited. Stamina was restored, his hands almost did not shake, the shortness of breath disappeared. Avenues, streets and alleys of Otron, from a height of thirty yards, could hardly be viewed because of the abundance of houses. If there was a chance to notice the Doppelgänger, then when it climbed onto the roof or the spire of a building. The first sounds of gunfire and explosions rang out from the northern part of the central sector. An impenetrable gray fog filled the area. The AI marked a place on the map and reported that the Doppelgänger had turned into a player. Ronnie adjusted the range, did all the calculations, and waited.
Next to the fighting, there was a local elliptical amphitheater with an arena in the very center and three tiers for spectators. In the lower part of the facade, every hundred yards, there were arches for the entrance, one larger than the other. The middle and upper tiers looked like an ordinary gray wall from the outside. On the inner side, hidden from the eyes of the laymen, open loggias and closed balconies protruded, somewhat resembling floating low-rise buildings torn from the ground by their roots. At the top of the grandiose structure was a dome, the design of which included only semicircular metal arches connecting to each other in the very center. On a rainy day, the employees of the institution - they were also NPCs - hung a decorated red velarium there. Along the entire support ring, between the arches, there were statues dedicated to different classes of the game: a sniper, an assassin, a combat swordsman, a tank (aka a swordsman with a sword and shield), a machine gunner, a hunter with two pistols, a stormtrooper with a submachine gun, a blacksmith, an alchemist, a bard and a priest. The twelfth figure was dedicated to the magician. He was dressed in a long hoodie, his arms were spread apart at right angles, as if he was about to take off, and instead of his face there was a black, empty space. Ronnie saw a Doppelgänger appear on his hooded head. It, in the form of a werewolf with long claws, sat down on all fours and looked around like a cornered mad dog. Ronnie took aim. The first exhale-inhale, the second, on the third exhale, the breathing stopped, the heartbeat decreased, the moment of truth. He pulled the trigger. A deafening shot sounded like from a tank. His ears rang, the acrid smell of gunpowder hit his nose.
Through the sight, he caught a moment in which the bullet was carried down by a wind aura, and it crashed into the upper part of the marble statue, destroying a quarter of the head. The Doppelgänger took off in fright and vanished. Ronnie lowered his head and despaired. The catch could have been great, but the fish was beyond his strength. He pulled the earplugs out of his ears and was about to leave when he heard an iron echo. Someone was climbing up the hinged ladder. Ronnie pulled out the Stechkin’s pistol and pointed the muzzle at the closed hatch in the floor.
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To his surprise, Doffernoah opened the hatch.
“What are you doing here?” he asked without lowering the gun.
“I decided to find a secluded place to take a shit, and here you are.” The blacksmith was silent for a couple of seconds and continued, “judging by the smell, you’ve already done it before me?”
Doffersnoah pulled out a magazine with .50 BMG cartridges from a small bag and explained that during the last meeting Ronnie forgot to take them. Then he asked the sniper for his twenty-seven binoculars and said:
“Let’s work together, kid. Lock and load.”
Ronnie decided to postpone the questioning for later and put the Barrett on the dusty floor, inserted the magazine, pulled the shutter.
“Brigitte and I’ll be guided by the map. Don’t get distracted by it.”
“Brigitte?”
Doffers sat down behind Ronnie and began to look around the city. A few minutes later, the blacksmith saw several explosions in the alchemists’ district, followed by mushroom clouds of green color, and then from the side of the central street he saw several jets of liquid flame from the flamethrowers rise above the roofs, and the doppelgänger—in the form of a hefty, needle-studded snake - crawled onto the glass roof of the dome. The blacksmith cleared his throat and said:
“Fucking hell… That’s the reason I live at the edge of the world. By I go to alchemists’ district.”
“Contact.”
“From the alchemists’ district, go to the two o’clock. Proximately 1.2 miles away from us.”
“Contact.”
“Go to glass.”
Ronnie focused his right eye on the scope, did not close the left one.
“There is a snake’s body on the roof of the library, now it’s transforming, blinking. What the... now it looks exactly the same as me again, sitting in a half-crouch, hands resting on the dome. The hair is short. A curtain of smoke rises from the street below.”
“That’s your target. Check Parallax and Mill.”
Ronnie adjusted the sight’s flywheels.
“Ready.”
“Shoot then, what the fuck are you waiting for?”
Ronnie pulled the trigger. A deafening ringing sounded, but none of them moved. Both were in a state of complete concentration. Doffersnoah noticed how the bullet flew past, corrected the shooter:
“Left two.”
Ronnie fired. This time .50 BMG flew at the target, but this time the windy aura of the creature worked, which changed the flight path and the bullet pierced the thick glass of the dome roof. The Doppelgänger noticed this and jumped down.
“The target is lost. It’s on edge, kid. It won’t have enough mana left to maintain its magical defense. Two hits at most, and it’s ours.”
“It’ll probably be two thousand yards away from us next time.”
“Contact.”
Ronnie made an adjustment and felt a small Lhingril crawling over his face, moving its six paws and examining the giant with all eight available eyes. Unusual purple bubbles glowed on its body. The sniper did not move.
Doffersnoah received new information from the AI, moved the eyepieces of the binoculars towards the western edge of the wall and there the monster climbed the observation tower.
“I see the target. By I go to the eastern wall.”
“Contact.”
“From the eastern wall, go to the nine o’clock to the second observation tower. Proximately 2381 yards away from us.”
“I see a Doppelgänger. It’s killing NPC lookouts on the observation deck.”
“Screw it up, kid.”
Ronnie fired. After 2.3 seconds, Doffersnoah saw how the bullet crashed into a brick pillar and ricocheted off the target.
“Right one.”
Ronnie took one deep breath, exhaled, and held his breath in the middle of the second breath. Lhingril ran around the left eye and stopped at his eyebrow.
Shot.
Doffersnoah felt his hands shake. A little more and the Doppelgänger would jump down and hide in the woods behind the wall. The bullet was faster and pierced the monster in the back and went through. Black blood sprayed in all directions and the lifeless body fell to its knees, and then hit its face on the floor. It did not move. They both waited another ten seconds, wondering if he had enough mana to regenerate. A notification appeared in the HUD:
The monster has been defeated. The killer is Ronnie. Congratulations to the winner.
Doffersnoah lowered the binoculars, walked over to Ronnie, who was still not moving. He took him by the shoulder and gave him a friendly pat.
“You did it, kid. You did it.”
Lhingril jumped to the floor and ran away.
Ronnie pulled away from the Barret’s barrel, turned towards his friend and smiled.