Frank scoped in with his DMR, his VISR linking with the weapon and adjusting the reticle according to environmental conditions in real time. Within a second, three shots cracked through the night and shattered the fragile calm in the air.
Three Grunts fell while the others scattered in panic, wildly firing their plasma pistols in his direction.
Frank was unperturbed by their response and took four more shots, before slinging the DMR to his back. With sniper now in hand, he moved his focus to the Elites.
Unlike the Grunts, upon first hearing the Spartan’s fire, the Elites had immediately dove to cover and began scanning their surroundings. Having noticed this, Frank had thus opted to deal with the fodder beforehand.
Now however, the Elites had a bead on his direction and far more accurate suppressive fire was flying in his direction.
Frank stood tall amidst the storm of blue plasma streaking past him and scoped in twice on his first target. Soon after, a much louder crack than before resounded from his position and an Elite crumbled to the ground.
Several guttural roars of anger came from all around, as a cruel grin stretched itself across the Spartan’s face. Using both his VISR’s motion sensor and the cries themselves, Frank found three more Elites and dispatched them all the same.
Unbeknownst to the man, within just a few minutes, he had cleared the first round of this final level. Now, it was to be determined how long he would continue to do so.
•••••••••••
“Ma’am,” a deep, wet, and throaty voice, which made Queen grimace in disgust, called out to her. “A player with the potential to unlock the first Hidden Achievement on Reach has managed to last over four hours by this point. However, there is an issue.”
After mentally cursing James for not giving this AI another voice to speak with outside of the game, Queen pulled up the logs of said player and immediately noticed the problem, “Ah, I see. He won’t have enough playtime to complete the Achievement.”
“Yes, Queen,” the sickening voice replied. “That is why I’ve come to ask for permission to extend this player’s limit for today, just until he’s finished with his task”
Queen brought up the man’s health info, that was constantly being updated every second they spent in game, and confirmed that there would be no issues.
This was the entire purpose James had set up this procedure for, if a player was doing something that they could receive tangible benefits from in a game, the AI in charge of that world is able to contact their superior and request an extension. As long as said player was deemed to have no risk to their health by continuing, they are simply given a notice and allowed to keep playing until they either succeed or fail at what they are doing.
James had predicted early on that such events would occur to those not playing in Full Dive and had thus implemented this system before even Pokémon had ever been released, this was just the first time a player had managed to trigger it.
“Yes, Gravemind,” Queen answered after looking over the man’s file once more once she’d recognized the name. “You may proceed with his extension. However, keep monitoring his vitals and if they show any indications of falling, send him out immediately.
Also, add a notice to whatever he’s using to access VR and have it explain why he’s not out yet. I won’t have our reputation ruined by false accusations.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“Yes, Ma’am. It shall be done,” the voice said before fading away.
Queen grimaced and once again cursed her creator’s decision, before getting back to designing her future kingdom. After a second of hesitation, she brought Frank Castle’s stream back up and left it playing in the background.
James hadn’t told anyone about what happens after some of the more special Hidden Achievements, only their requirements and nothing else. She wanted to see if one of these legendary protagonists of Marvel could hold on till the end.
•••••••••••
Frank dove behind cover while panting heavily. He shuddered and suppressed a scream as the action had shattered the Needles sticking out of his left arm.
These last few hours had felt like weeks and only his cracked VISR’s clock had helped keep him sane. What had once started as an arrogant stand against immeasurable odds, had swiftly changed once Banshee’s and Seraph’s started raining down on him from above.
Frank may have been prepared to die, but he wasn’t suicidal. That was why he had spent the last five hours jumping from cover to cover and taking potshots whenever he could. Like this, he sarcastically guessed that he’d probably killed more Covenant on Reach than all of Noble Team combined.
They came like waves; first Grunts, then Elites, and then finally Jackal snipers taking up the rear. Frank had settled into a nice pace of kill-loot-kill-repeat until the damn air support came screaming in overhead.
In less than an hour all the buildings had been leveled and the only cover was either the fog, or the rubble. From then on he was forced to either be a silent, or invisible killer.
Within all the smoke and fog he much preferred the latter, but after running around and scavenging all he could find, any UNSC weapon was either scrapped or out of ammo by this point. With no better options, Plasma Swords had become his bread and butter now.
*Fwip!*
A green bolt of plasma flew past his eyes, causing the Spartan to scowl in annoyance as concrete powder began to fall atop him.
With a growl, Frank vaulted over his cover and activated his sword, skewering the Jackal to the ground.
The man wheezed, collapsing atop the Kig-Yar’s limp body as a bolt of plasma seared itself into his back.
Grabbing the Jackal’s beam rifle, Frank turned around and sent a purple streak of compressed plasma flying through an Elite’s eyes.
After seeing no more red dots on his motion scanner, the Spartan relaxed and collapsed against a crumbled wall. He didn’t know how long he would have until the next wave and he needed all the rest he could get.
However, right after he removed his worn and cracked helmet, a small translucent screen appeared before his eyes.
[ASTIR World Message: Congratulations to player {CastleTown} for completing the first Hidden Achievement in Halo; ★Last Man Standing★!
Note: A new Leaderboard has been created on the Halo main world within the Hub! All future Achievements for this franchise will now be listed there. Please enter Full Dive to keep up to date on the records of all your favorite Pioneers!]
Briefly, a faint dissonance resonated through Frank’s mind as, for a second, he remembered all of this was just a game. It was in that moment that he finally paid attention to the flashing red notice at the top right of his vision.
[Playtime Extension granted by administrator ‘GM’]
[Warning: Forceful shutdown will occur at either the conclusion of the player’s ongoing task, or when the player’s vitals show signs of failing. It is recommended that the player finish their task and exit the VR as soon as possible.]
Frank just blinked numbly at the notifications as his continuously growing fatigue now made a lot more sense. As a Spartan he should’ve been perfectly fine with fighting all day and night, yet his normal human mind and body in reality was holding him back.
The man sighed, closing his eyes as he allowed his helmet to fall to the ground and roll away from him.
At least he did it. By the words on the notification, he’d killed them all and became the ‘Last Man Standing’. With this, he was satisfied.
*Huummm!*
Frank jolted awake from his introspection and stared blankly up at the sky. With a bitter smile, he laughed hatefully as he stood up. He might as well fulfill the Achievement’s title and go out on his feet.
Staring up at the Covenant corvette that had finally decided to take care of him itself, Frank flipped them the bird as its charging plasma canon illuminated the foggy surroundings with an ominous red glow.
As the Spartan stood tall amidst a field of corpses, laughing arrogantly into the billowing smoke, the Covenant aboard shivered.
“Kill this Devil now!” The commanding Elite shouted in anger and humiliation as he slammed a fist against his armrest. “Fire!”
And so, the first ever Covenant glassing against a single man was carried out.
Had this been in Full Dive, it’s likely that tales of Reach’s Devil would’ve secretly spread throughout the Covenant ranks for decades to come.
Alas, it was only destined to be spread amongst the Humans instead, as a full recording of this legendary feat was edited and uploaded to be viewed within the Hub at their leisure. And, no matter how many came to complete the Achievement in the future, none ever compared to the first.
The one that had been granted a title by ASTIR that all thought was fitting: Punisher.