Melody was fuming as she walked away from the building in a huff. It didn’t matter what Joey had tried to say otherwise; she was done with this crap. When her eyes had first seen the multi-story structure from the outside, her imagination had gone wild with the possibilities.
The System had called it a Kingdon, so she had naturally pictured herself as the queen of what would become an empire. One where a legion of vassals would faun over her, and anyone who slighted her would face her wrath and be killed as she sat back on a comfy thrown. Despite being both her cousin and literal partner in crime, she would finally be able to get rid of Joey at that point too.
Mainly because it was annoying to deal with the fact that he believed himself to know better than her, despite actually being a total dumbass himself. Both he and everyone else who’d ever thought the same thing. But he’d helped her out of a few tough spots, so that was the only reason why she had tolerated his need to always comment with a “better idea.” Tolerated it until now, anyway.
Yet this had officially gone too far. She wasn’t going to risk being caught in the blaze when the whole freaking forest might as well have been covered in gasoline with how flammable the whole thing was. Not for the building they had actually searched from top to bottom.
For what should have been the start of an amazing Kingdom, it was just a whole lot of nothing. Just concrete walls, with concrete cabins, and even more concrete everything! As for what wasn’t just more concrete, there was just a door that neither of them could open, and then the big machine that refused to do anything no how much they had fiddled with it.
Melody wasn’t even able to damage the damn thing to at least get her anger out, because none of her attacks had left so much as a scratch on it. The only saving grace of the building was the heating and lighting, but even that wasn’t worth dying over.
She initially had so much hope upon seeing that as something built for one random dude to live in, it had enough space to act as a whole apartment. Yet all that hope was now as empty as the inside of the building itself.
However, the idea of an apartment complex then made her thoughts stray. Right before the Merging, that’s where she and Joey had been. After a gas station robbery gone wrong, they’d been lying low at a trashy apartment while getting ready to ditch the city they were in. But apparently, they hadn’t been careful enough in concealing their tracks, but a whole metric fuckton of cops had broken down the door and swarmed the place.
Yet before anything else could happen, they had all been teleported away. Given the whole spiel about some big event, and now had the chance to pick a Trait and Class. Assuming that what she’d smoked earlier that day might have been laced with something stronger, she had just gone along with it as part of some weird trip at first. But then after everything had been picked, they had winded up in some random part of this huge forest.
She had no idea why, but for some reason, like half of the cops had been doubled over with. It was like someone had repeatedly shanked them. But that was a blessing in disguise. Because while half of them were down and the others were confused about the Merging, she and Joey had gone to work clearing them out.
Though when they had been dying on the ground, Melody made sure to call dibs on finishing them off after she’d killed the first one. As soon as she’d seen the notification about doubled Experience, there was no way in Hell that she would have let Joey take any of them for himself. Something which had led to a very nice disparity in their Level, especially after they had spent today hunting around for more stuff to kill.
While Joey was still stuck at the very end of being Level 2, she was already a decent amount of Experience into being Level 3. And while he’d gotten two of the Advancement Crystals the cops had dropped after they figured out those things worked, Melody had taken the rest for herself. To just keep them safe in her own pocket space, or so she had claimed. However, in reality, she had already used them while Joey slept yesterday to gain a second new Skill.
One that scaled nicely with Will as her main Stat, along with her other Skills. Sure, all her other Stats were pretty poor as a result of focusing on Will. But as long as she had someone else to act as a meatshield, like Joey or whoever she liked more to replace him, all would be well.
As for her equipment, even that wasn’t hers. No, she had picked it off the body of a cop who had somewhat ironically opted to be a Rogue, of all things. Melody thought the dark leather suited her better than the pretty ugly attire the System dared consider appropriate for her. Just because the Class she’d chosen was to be-
At that moment, Melody heard a very quiet buzzing. One that clearly hadn’t been there just a second ago, coming from somewhere in the air behind her. She spun around, her eyes widening like a deer caught in headlights when she saw what it was. But at that same moment that her gaze had fixed upon it, there was a flash of light.
A couple of seconds later, it was followed by a dull thud.
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“That damn girl, I swear she’s always like this. You’d think she would change to at least take things seriously on a whole freaking new planet?” Joey said while shaking his head. He had remained on the roof, now watching from another side as his cousin stormed off into the darkness past the treeline.
He let out a deep sigh. “Whatever, screw it. Does it matter that I basically raised her like a little sister? Apparently freaking not! But if she wants to act like she’s still 12 and not her actual age, fine. It’s already dark out, anyway. Once she’s cold as balls, she’ll come crawling back to enjoy the heating this place has. I’m not gonna sit up here in the cold air, waiting for her to show up sooner or later.”
Joey then turned toward the roof’s hatch. The piece of wood covering it had already been set aside, but he might as well put it back on the way down. Few things were worse than being somewhere warm only for a chilly draft to blow in. Or in this case, any ash or debris from the wildfire that was still spreading out there. For a few moments, his gaze lingered on the orange-red glow in the distance.
Between the guy and that Crab, I’m willing to bet the former started the fire. Dunno what all his Skills are from his Combat Engineer Class, but that drone of his looked like it could dish out some pain. Wouldn’t surprise me if either that or one of his other Skills did it. But… is the Crab dead yet, or are they still going at it? Joey asked himself.
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The latter would be the best-case scenario. Since it meant that even if one of them won right now, they’d already be surrounded by the wildfire. However, at the very least, he knew that the man named Jordan wasn’t dead yet. If he was, the System should have given them at least some kind of indicator about the Quest and if he could claim the Kingdom yet.
Even if he survived the Crab, the wildfire actually made their plan even better. They would have the security of being inside of this fort, while he’d be stuck out in the burning woods. And if he went for a direct assault instead, then that was still also accounted for.
Melody, when she got back soon, would take the front and use her Skills to pin him down or at least keep him on the defensive. Meanwhile, Joey would sneak around and go for a rather literal stab to the back. Plain and simple to pull off, no matter what his cousin would say to disagree.
Now back on the ladder, Joey reached up to pull the cover back over the roof access. However, something flew directly above it. Something that was only the size of a basketball, and already had the barrel of its gun pointed at him. A drone!“Shit!” Joey cursed as he let go of the ladder and simply allowed gravity to take over.
And not a moment too soon, as a bolt of energy then zipped through the air where his head had just been. As he fell down, the drone was already adjusting its aim while hovering in place. If he stayed on the ladder, then all it had to do was just keep pointing straight down.
With a quick push, he shoved himself away from the ladder. The force pushed him away from it, and sent him crashing into the concrete of the floor below the roof instead. The impact winded him as it’d still made for a pretty heavy fall, knocking the air out of his lungs for a second.
But with a grunt, Joey forced himself to quickly get back up. He was already fully tensed, and drew a blade from his pocket space.
“Come on… I’m ready for you now, you bastard,” he muttered under his breath. The second the drone went down the ladder to get him back into its sight, his plan was simple.
Leap onto it and smash it into the ground. Then while pinning it so that the gun was pointed away from him, repeatedly see if he could either stab it. Or if stabbing weren’t very effective against the in-between bits of its metal body, then he’d just try to break it the old-fashioned way of repeatedly smashing it against the concrete.
And yet, as a few seconds passed, it hadn’t come down yet. Joey felt a bead of sweat travel down his back. Cursing under his breath, he realized what the ploy was.
The door was still left wide open from when Melody had her little temper tantrum and couldn’t even bother to slam it shut behind her. If he’d been given literally less than half a minute, he would have gone down and secured it. But of course the attack would be started now.
The bastard must have already been around to watch Melody leave, and decided to strike now while she was still gone. It felt way too soon in Joey’s mind, but maybe the blaze had been lit on purpose to throw them off. But if he had managed to either kill or escape from the Crab, it didn’t matter either way. It was do-or-die time.
That’s two kinds of drones I know he has. I’m guessing the flying one will keep watching the ladder and pin me to this floor. If it were me, I’d stick that mini tank right in the middle of the doorway since it’s the only exit. So I’ll get shot when I go for the ladder, and then get shot at again if I try to leave from the ground floor. I can either get past the flyer and get back up to the roof, which might be his plan. Or I can stay here and wait for Melody, which might also be his plan. Mother of all things shitty; I really have to pick one of just those two options, don’t I?
No. After thinking about it for another second, he realized that there was a third choice. And it was exactly just crazy enough to work.
He could quickly get down to the first floor. Then making use of his high Dexterity, he figured there was enough space in the doorway for him to just leap over the tank. If Joey could pull that off, he could then make a break for the treeline. In the darkness of the night, his Skills as a Rogue would be able to actually work their magic. He would first try to find Melody. But if that didn’t seem to be doable, then he could still-
Rather than coming down from above, a flying drone flew up from below instead. Teeth gritted, Joey still just rushed forward to take it out before it could fire. It wasn’t like he had much of another choice at that point. Joey went to grab the drone, intending to force it down into the concrete floor.
“Ow! The Hell?!” His bodily reflexly recoiled at the heat. Even through his leather gloves, the metal body of the drone was painfully hot as his fingers touched it. That delay from his nervous system naturally trying to get him away from it was only half a second, as he then controlled himself to still use his other hand to thrust the dagger at the drone.
Even at close range, his Dexterity might still be high enough to dodge. All he had to do was watch for the exact moment it fired the bolt, and then move away from the line of the barrel.
However, just as the tip of his dagger stabbed into the drone, there was no energy bolt. Instead, it just exploded on impact. In what was a blast of fire and metal shrapnel, it exploded in what was just a foot away from being right in front of his face.
The heat burned his head as Joey fell to the ground, screaming while covering his face. Right after stabbing into his flesh, the bits of shrapnel had just as quickly disappeared. But that was almost worst, because the fully open wounds they left behind were certainly still there.
Blinded by the metal that had flown right into his eyes, the world was now dark around him. Trickles of blood from the shrapnel ran down his blistering skin, only further irritating the burnt flesh. Between the total blindness, unable to hear anything over his own screams of agony, and just the raw pain itself, Joey didn’t even notice the original drone that only then came down from the roof. But as its gun aimed for him, it was a couple of moments later that his pained cries suddenly ended.
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With the matter now settled, Jordan glanced at the screens currently in front of him.
Initial Merger Slain!
Doubled Experience Earned!
+78 EXP
Initial Merger Slain!
Doubled Experience Earned!
+24 EXP
He could only imagine how many spots he’d jumped on the Slayer leaderboard today, now that his total count was at four. But such a thing didn’t matter to him, as he had no interest in ever finding out his current placement on the list or how many were on it now.
Anyway, without ever having to look at either person himself as they died, it was over now. All he had to do now was turn the corpses into Advancement Crystals and take whatever was in their pocket spaces.
Well, never wanted to do it until now because of the stacking maintenance costs and risking my TP running out too quickly. But as far as a stress test for keeping up multiple air drones at once goes, that really couldn’t have gone any better. And that was along with the result of putting too many stacks of Overcharge into a drone's gun than it could handle at once.
If nothing else, how the second day of the Merging had ended would certainly be one to remember.