As I opened my eyes, I saw a familiar alley.

"Haah.. I was hoping to get out but I guess this is more acceptable now."

I didn't even think about what to do and took out the pistol, hand grenades and extra cartridges. I again shot a few rounds at the nearby dumpster and tried to hit all the bullets at one point. I didn't succeed even once but it didn't make me disheartened in the least. I also practices with the katana a few times and mission briefing started. It was exactly same as the last time, so I had already started towards the objective building before it ended. I went straight to the back door and readied myself. As soon as the second guard left, I shot the first guard 5 times.

(So what if I can't take a headshot? The enemy will still die if I shoot him again and again.)

The guard lay dead on the ground before he even realised what was going on. I went to him and surprisingly, didn't feel anything at the sight of a dead body covered with blood, probably because I thought of this as a game. I checked the number of wounds on his body .

(One in the chest, another in the stomach and the last one in the arm. Looks like I missed twice.)

I carefully analysed my momentary victory and moved on. The door, this time, wasn't locked. I went in while being careful of my surroundings. I suddenly heard sound of flowing water. Normally it would be hard to notice, but at such a quite place, it was perfectly audible. But that posed another problem. 

(The other guy must have went to the washroom. I can't let him see the dead body outside. Need to kill him here and now.)

I hid just outside the door of the washroom and held my breath. The other guard failed to notice me when he came out and headed straight to the door I came from. He suddenly stopped. I was about to pounce on him with my katana but held back at the last moment. He suddenly dashed towards the stairs.

"What the hell?"

Then I realised my mistake.

(Damn it!)

The door was closed when I came in but now, it was slightly ajar and though hard to notice, you could something lying there, which in this case was the dead body. This second guard was unnaturally smart and cautious. Without a moment to lose I rushed after him still trying to make as little sound as possible, but that inadvertently slowed me down. By the time I reached the first floor, he had already grabbed a few of his comrades. I could tell this from the sound of the footsteps heading my way. Thankfully it was a lot darker here and there were a lot many rooms so I easily slipped into one of them. I waited there for a while and tried to calm down. My heart was pumping like crazy and I could hear myself breathing heavily. I took a few deep breaths and as soon as the footsteps went downwards, I came out of the room and ran upwards. They will definitely find the dead body and alert the others so I tried to find the hostages before that and hoped everything would pan out somehow. But that hope was was shattered with ease. I ran up straight to the third floor and heard a few sounds. This was the noisiest place I had been to till now. I was sure the hostages were there. And I was right, but with the hostages were 20 guys, fully armed. I noticed them and they noticed me. Without a moment to spare, I dashed straight towards the stairs but what waited for me was more despair. The footsteps were coming up, and this time the number seemed way more than the last time.

(Damn it! Should I run up? But its the roof above. It'll be suicide trying to fight so many people in open. Shit, there's nowhere else to go!)

I ran up the stairs and bolted the door once I was on the other side.

"This is how it ends huh?"

Before I even had a chance to plan my next move, they broke down the door and I was riddled with so many bulleted through my body, that it felt stupid to even start counting..

I got similar results even after trying 6 more times but what surprised me most, was that each time I failed, my courage grew. I managed to slay more and more enemies on each try and on the 14th try I finally managed to kill 38 of them. By now, my skills with the weopens increased considerably. Not only did my shots become more accurate, but I could now run full speed without making any sound. In fact, I found myself using the katana more than the pistol.

It was now my 16th time waking up in the same alley. This marked my 15th death but by now I was so familiar that my hands and feet were moving by themselves. While jogging towards the objective building, I took out the gun and extra cartridges as well as 3 grenades and stuffed them in my belt. I first went to the front gate and waited. I had found that there were 2 guys always going round the building whom I failed to meet the first couple of times. It would be hard to get so many hostages out safely, so these two became my first targets. Btw, I had gotten a good look at the hostages once and they seemed to be a little more than 30. In a while, I could see two figures turning this way. I hid behind a nearby lamppost and waited for the right time. The two soon passed the front gate and were about to take a turn at another corner when I carefully ran to them and cut off their necks with smooth movements of the katana. Around this time, the second guard from the back gate comes back from the washroom. I ran to the back gate and shot the first guy thrice while still running. Just as the first guard collapsed, the second guard opened the door. Before he even had time to realise the situation, I was already on him with my katana jabbed in his heart. I nicked out a handkerchief from his pocket and pulled out my katana while wiping it clean. 

"Beautiful"

It really was just too beautiful. I could have sat, staring at it for hours, at its beauty, without getting bored but unfortunately I did not have so much leisure time. 

Even though, I knew the location of many of the enemies it was not all accurate. It was impossible to keep track of what so many people were doing at the same time so I had to be on constant alert. But I had gradually gotten used to being on high alert. I ran up to the first and then to the second floor. The first and the second floor did not have too many enemies as most of them were concentrated where the hostages were. And no matter how experienced I may get it was impossible to take on more than 20 armed enemies at the same time. I killed everyone on the second floor with little difficulty and then headed down to the first. Here, I had to be careful. To tackle the third floor I had to somehow disperse their forces. For that, I had to kill everyone on the first and second floors but one. And if he found out I had left him alive on purpose, they might see through my plan. This was the plan I came up with during my last attempt but failed. I moved ahead and got to the room where those guys were. I waited outside until one of them came out. As soon as he was gone, I pulled out the pin of a grenade and threw it inside the room and ran away at top speed to the roof. Though I ran to the roof I didn't actually go there but waited over the stairs. As soon as the explosion had sounded, two of the guys came out from the hostage room and headed down to see what happened. Soon after the guy I had left alive at the first floor came running to the third floor. I assumed he had already met with the two guys who headed down. After a while 9 more guys came out including the first floor guy and headed downstairs. This was the cue I had been waiting for. I started my pursuit of the guys who had come out but before going down, I also saw two more guys coming out to stand at the door of the hostage room.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Even though 11 guys had already gone down, I didn't flinch in the slightest. To find me in such a large place, they had to disperse their forces. I took advantage of this fact and took out everyone who was going around in small groups. By this time, darkness had become my friend and stealth, my weapon. From a normal high schooler, I had become a full fledged assassin in a single day after dying 15 times! They say experience is the best teacher and I truly learnt that first hand. In a while I had taken care of everyone who was in the building and below the third floor. I had only got shot once in my leg and I had wrapped a lot of bandage on it. Thankfully the bullet hit my leg on the side and went on its merry way, so my bone was intact.  But the wound wasn't so light either. My muscles were torn and it hurt a lot even with the reduced pain. This wound was a huge obstacle. It took away my speed and reduced my ability to dodge and escape. But I wasn't going to give up now. I rested for a while on the second floor to catch my breath and also hoping more guys would come down as I wished to fight only a small group of enemies at a time. Even after waiting for sometime, no one came which was strange.

(Shouldn't they be worried that their comrades didn't come back?)

I felt something was wrong as a cold sweat ran down my back. But how could I be nervous? I had died so many times, so what was once more? Even though I had courage, I made sure to keep it under control and not let it run rampage. I had enough to try, but not enough to jump into a fight I knew I couldn't win. Thus with extreme caution, I started on the stairs. I took out my katana and used it as a mirror to see what was happening on the other side of the corridor. But in the reflection, I couldn't see the two men who had come out to guard the door earlier.

(Shouldn't they be on high alert?)

The feeling I had that something wasn't right, grew stronger. After weighing my options at the time, I decided to take a risk. I readied the pistol and a grenade and moved to the hostage room. Since the door was open, I used the same technique I used in the hallway. I put the grenade back and quietly took out the katana. 

(Damn!)

The hostages weren't here anymore and 4 guys were waiting here to ambush me. But this just meant I didn't have to waste any time on them. 

(lol, keep waiting for me.)

I laughed and went away to look for the hostages. I easily found them in another room on the third floor. It would have been hard to find them since the lights were closed and they were trying to be as quite as possible. But that was the problem. They were 'trying' to be as quiet as possible but couldn't. Even the slightest sounds could be heard in such dead night if you listened closely. But even if I found the hostages, it wasn't like I could just go in and rescue them. There were bound to be more enemies in there.

(Oh right! The guys waiting for me in an ambush.)

I suddenly remembered those stupid guys I laughed at. 

(They're gonna be excellent bait.)

I still had 5 more grenades and I threw 2 of them into the former hostage room. 

*boom* *boom*

As the sounds of 2 explosions reverberated, the building shook and I could hear scared sounds of the hostages. The door of the new hostage room flew open and the rest of the guys came out into the dust cloud.

(Stupid.)

I laughed at these guys again and easily slew one after the other with my katana. They were helpless against me in the cloud of dust. Even if I just swung my sword around, I was sure I would get them. But they had to aim properly with their guns and even then, had the risk of killing their comrades. 

Making sure everyone was down, I entered the new hostage room and met their eyes. They had their mouths and hands tied. Some of them looked at me scared while some of them looked at me with expectant eyes.

(I finally made it!)

I was rejoicing inside but I didn't show it on the surface. I freed one the of the hostages and gave him a small knife I picked up from a dead body.

"Free the others and wait here until I get back. Its not safe yet."

I always wanted to say something cool like that! The hostage nodded blankly and got to work. But what I said was true. I was not yet finished. I had only killed 45 guys by now. I had never got to killing the first 5 guys I had laid eyes on. The ones in front of the building! Even though I knew I could easily lead the hostages out the back and win, but I just wasn't satisfied. I was able to complete the mission, but I wanted to do it thoroughly. Leaving like that when I worked so hard just didn't fit. I casually went down and onwards to the front gate from where Trichia and I had gotten out holding hands just earlier in the afternoon. I remembered that sweet memory as I took out my katana which was at my left hip with my right hand and the pistol which was at my right hip with my left hand at the same time with an awesome pose. 

(I should be in the Hollywood!)

Killing the other 5 was a breeze. I did have a bit difficulty due to my injured leg, but it wasn't something I couldn't handle. Finally, the mission was over.

(No. Not yet. But what to do now? I did kill all the bad guys. What else is there to a rescue?)

If I had truly rescued the hostages, something would have happened by now.

(Oh crap.)

I suddenly realised what was wrong.

(The mission never claimed there were 'only' 50 guys! I just heard from the enemy that there were 50 people from the enemy, but it could have easily been a round off figure.)

I dashed at full speed to the third floor. My wounded leg started hurting more but I ignored it. More like, I didn't have any time to pay attention to it.

(All my hard work will be in vain!)

I reached the third floor but it was too quite.

(Am I too late?)

I ran again, to the room the hostages were in but...

(Huh?)

They were completely fine and all of them were untied. 

(Did I worry for naught?)

They all looked at me at once. Not one uttered a word.

"Umm..." I started to speak, "..... You're.. free?" 

It somehow turned into question in the end. But that didn't matter to them in the slightest. As they finally found their freedom, some of them started to form tears. 

"Uwaaaahhhh... Uwaaaaahhhhh...."

After one of them started crying, a few others followed suit and soon everyone was shedding huge tears and hugging each other. Then one by one, they came to thank me. 

"Thank you...sniff. Thank you so very much..sniff..."

In their extremely emotional state, some even grabbed onto me and started crying again. I started leading them outside. Many of them shuddered at the sight of dead bodies and so much blood but they supported each other. Even though it was virtual reality, all of it felt so real and heart warming. Even though I could be called a cold blooded murderer having killed more than 150 or 200 people during my 16 rebirths, I was still weeping inside. As soon as we got out of the building the first 'unreal' thing happened.

"You win!"

A message appeared in the thin air. And from the looks of the (not-so-anymore) hostages, they couldn't see it. Soon the message changed-

"Do you wish to log out?"

It had two options below it - yes or no. I selected yes and my consciousness faded.