Crucial minutes passed.
K was currently mired in a sea of uncertainty, filled with enemies who might or might not be there. He was critically wounded, now, and his adrenaline was finally wearing off. He felt a great sense of load bearing down on him, and strength left his limbs. He had never felt this way before, not even after one full hour of sprinting through a particularly long section of a map.
This was the aftereffect of the adrenaline cartridge. Making the user exceed his limits and lose his sense of pain, the cartridge was a one shot wonder, that left its user expended afterwards. K didn't know about this, but he was learning about it now. That short minute of exertion now felt greater than ever.
He felt his consciousness fading, but he managed to hang on. If he passed out here, the next time he woke would be when his foes had encircled him. That, and the fact that he was currently in a very exposed area, forced his mind back to full alert.
K stood slowly, and clambered on top of what might be the remains of a porch. The rest of the house was burned to the ground, but this porch was miraculously preserved. K looked down from where he stood, taking the entirety of what according to his HUD’s compass was the northern side of District 5.
Just behind him was the ship that made up District 4. There would be no approach from his back.
Now, all he had to do was to let his tired, broken body, battle what would be an army of death. As he looked at the turnings, bends, nooks, and crannies of the map, and the slight movements just before the horizon, his enemies not even bothering to hide themselves, K formulated a plan to take them out.
Reloading his Glock, and the P450, holstered the latter, and expanded his minimap as far as he could.
With the approximate positions of his enemies in mind, he stepped off the porch, jumping the half meter off it, and landing onto the ground. His legs ached awfully, but his exoskeleton helped him most of the way, as he half walked half waddled his way into the web of alleyways, and cracked land.
He walked towards his first destination, as per his minimap. With one iron fist, he punched a small hole through the crumbling brick, twisting his wrist left and right to widen the hole as much as he could. With that done, he walked towards his second destination just opposite the first hole he made. He would need to make about a hundred more holes, in the estimated one hour he had before his enemies reached his position. That was about a hole every half minute. Still, he couldn’t push himself too hard. While his exoskeleton was doing the hard work, it had to be noted that he was still human after all.
Working mindlessly like an automaton, K went over the plan in his head. It was quite simple, really.
He would lure the enemy forwards… and then shoot them through the holes in the wall while they were coming. This would ensure maximum protection for him, while allowing him to pick them off.
He sighed as he punched in the last hole. An hour had passed, and now, a rumbling sound like thunder shook the ground, as what seemed to be a large marching force trod in.
K walked out from behind cover and raised his gun, firing once into the air.
Immediately, all eyes were fixed on him. Through cracks in the buildings, through peepholes, it was as if the world itself had come to meet him. He fled quickly when guns began pointing at him. Running back, he ran into his first safebox, a room which he had designated as “safe” for himself. There were five of such safe boxes, which were actually the steadier houses in the ruins, and K had planned to weave his enemies between them and pick them off slowly.
But nothing ever goes to plan.
K retreated into the first safehouse, as a flood of men ran at him. How he went in was simple; there was a crawl space which could be covered by a piece of concrete. Peeking through the hole in front of him, he started firing at the crowd.
[Killstreak 19]
[Killstreak 20]
[Achievement unlocked: Twenty Little Peasants sitting in a Line. You have unlocked a new Title: Unquenchable. You have been awarded 10000 RC and handgun Luger P08 LDP. Special gun is bound to you. Enemies that kill you will cause it to degrade. After 5 deaths, the gun is unusable until fully repaired.]
[Killstreak 21]
[Killstreak 22]
The Glock ran out of bullets, and K switched to his P450, shooting at the mass of people before him, guessing their positions from noises/sound alone. Because they were running with abandon, paying no attention to defense, their dead bodies piled up on the ground rapidly. Firing in quick bursts, K killed each and everyone stepping into his sight methodically, with not one missed.
About three minutes into their charge, he sensed something was wrong. They didn’t come at him as mindlessly as before, now. They were hanging back. Hiding. K stood in the small confines of the room, waiting.
And then, he saw it.
K shoved the piece of concrete that blocked the accessway of the safehouse open, and leapt out of it, just as a huge explosion rocked the ground, raining dust and bits of old concrete. An assault cart far at the back of the formation of men had fired missiles at him! The only reason he could dodge the missiles were because they flew upwards, and then at him, taking a longer time to reach the impact zone. In that sense, they were more like mortars, but K had never expected a weapon like that to be used against him.
Each missile probably cost more than one would get killing ten of him. What a waste to just kill a guy! Talk about overkill!
Hiding behind another wall, he peeked out and saw the the men were making their advance once again. But this time, they had their weapons at the ready, trained at the corner he was at. If he so much as moved his hand out, he would have a few fingers blown off. He also knew that right now, his enemies were probably flanking him. He was trapped, and his enemies probably knew of his berserker tactics with Overdrive by now.
He couldn’t engage them. There were ten of them, and only one of him.
He was trapped in a narrow alleyway, between a wall of guns.
There was no escape.
And so, he would make one.
He triggered the Overdrive, and turned towards the wall not further from, but closer to the enemy. It needed three more seconds to warm up. The sound of footsteps were getting closer, but by the time his enemies had cautiously turned the corner, to look at him, he was gone.
“Fuck, he’s flanking!”
Looking through the holes he’d made through the walls, which stretched far out back to the rear of their formation, they panicked, and started chasing his retreating figure. They spoke into the team interface, but the mechanics of the game was so that messages took time to be transmitted. Now, their rear would be completely wiped before they could do anything. They were desperate. They could not wait.
The men from the main force and the men who were supposed to attack him from the back both joined forces, shooting down the impromptu lane, and sprinting back to their base, hurriedly. Which was why they didn’t notice. Couldn’t have noticed.
The shadow standing just behind them, as they passed the first wall.
K silently stepped out from behind cover, bringing his brand new gun, the full auto Luger P08, cast in what appeared to be silver, equipped with a drum magazine, and a stock, and training it on his enemies. LDP stood for Long Distance Power, which meant the gun was optimised for sniping. What was surprising was that this weapon was a pistol, and had a full auto customisation.
K squeezed the trigger, and to his surprise, this gun had a much lower recoil. This was mostly due to the stock, but he didn’t need to know that. He aimed at the row of men, running with their backs exposed carelessly, and squeezed the trigger.
9 mm bullets tore into their heads, necks, and upper bodies, almost uncannily accurate. Without even knowing, a group of around ten men were killed. The rest turned, hearing the gunshots, but K had already slid another 32 bullet drum in, and was already pulling the trigger. The last few managed to squeeze off a few shots at him, but they were inaccurate, and only one measly bullet hit him.
[Killstreak 44]
He grinned. It was a good idea, running to the back of his enemies, then instantaneously turning back to where he started. Overdrive meant he could run almost impossibly quick, and thus, the most useless device in the game had turned out to be the most powerful. Wasting no time, K ran through the passageway, his tired muscles complaining all the way.
He had approximately twenty seconds before his enemies were informed of his position. This was the way it worked. Death imposed a 5 second wait, while the time was further extended the further the message had to be sent to.
He walked to the last wall, which he had severely weakened with Overdrive, before turning around. Prying it apart brick by brick, K peeked into, and leapt out of the passageway, wary. None of them, however, had seemed to notice him yet. Turning behind him, K looked for enemies, before getting ready to kill those who were sitting back, doing nothing.
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The team composed mostly of lightly armoured snipers, but there were a few guards, with shotguns, standing near the front, probably in case K decided to make a frontal assault, and the snipers couldn’t pin him down.
K walked to the sniper nearest to the back and killed him silently, crushing his windpipe with a hand. Repeating this process, K moved quickly, from back to front, killing all ten snipers with melee. This was similar to what he had done in District 4.
[Killstreak 50]
[Achievement unlocked: 50 Ducks in a Row. You have unlocked a new title: Unfazeable. You have been awarded 30000 RC and three certificates of accomplishment. Certificates can be used to redeem weapons and special items.]
It was then, when things got dangerous. One of the guards turned, just by chance, and saw K, surrounded by ten dead men.
“Hey!”
He lifted the shotgun, squeezing the trigger, and sparks danced off K’s breastplate. His health had mostly regenerated, but this shot reduced it to 40% almost immediately. K squeezed the trigger on the Luger, and the guard fell.
But when bad luck strikes, it doesn’t just strike once. All three guards saw the dead guard. And three shotguns turned to him.
“Fuck!”
K had a crazy handgun and skill to back it up, but he did not have immortality. While it was powerful, and it had a full auto function, it could not fire at three men at once, or hit their heads consecutively. Unhesitatingly, K dived towards their feet. That was the only thing he could do, in a place devoid of cover. The craziest, and the most reckless, but also the most unexpected.
He felt a prickling sensation across his back, and pain blossomed, as his health dropped to 10%. Two men had missed; one had not.
K reached upwards, grabbing a shotgun and wrenching it from the grasp of its owner, who yelped, panicking. He was in close quarters, and the shotguns with their longer barrels could not be aimed as easily now. Using the gun as a club, he swung the heavy stock at the men’s feet, felling them quickly and efficiently.
Since when had he learned to improvise like this? Was it desperation? New found pride? Or something even stranger?
He swung the club with superhuman strength, killing the men with single blows.
This melee playstyle was only available to him because he wore the Strength upgrades. Most people went for Agility upgrades, due to the fact that melee wasn’t a big factor when you could kill someone with four, five bullets.
K was the antithesis of that stand, someone who went in close and personal while everyone else fired from afar. And he was doing well.
He had cleared out about half the enemy force. But then, where was the other half? A growing sense of suspicion heaped onto him, and he leapt to the ground, just as… nothing happened. Nothing happened, but he had leapt, because he was really afraid. For the first time, he had amassed such a huge killstreak. Such an achievement was rarely observed, even among the top leaguers. They normally made a highest killstreak of around thirty, but here, K had far exceeded that.
He immediately retreated to cover, and turned to look back towards his original passage… only to see it was crawling with enemies. He had been attacked from the back, while attacking from the back. K smiled at the irony of the situation, as he ran, following his minimap, into a flanking position to attack the back of his foes.
He stopped at an alleyway, which actually led all the way back to District 4’s entrance. Peeking at the open passageway, K noticed two eyes. Two glowing red eyes, staring right at him, all the way at the back of the corridor, about 150 meters away. They were like specks, but he also noticed the black gun mounted on the crate near the end of the corridor, aiming right at him.
It was probably a sniper rifle, or maybe a LMG. There was no way he could cross the narrow corridor this way. Any movement, and he’d probably be met with a bullet to his head, or a torrent of lead which would strip him down to nothing in a second. Even a shield wouldn’t work, considering the high caliber of sniper rifles, and the sheer amount of power brought out by heavy duty LMGs.
K was stuck. This was the only flanking route for his position. Now that he had taken this path, there was no way he could turn back. His enemies would spot him running past the exposed passageway, and would make short work of him. His only advantage was wit and invisibility. And he could hardly afford to lose invisibility.
K kept the position of his enemy in mind, while falling into a kneeling position. He would most likely only get one chance at this. The gun had integrated sights, which were calibrated to 400 m. He could do this.
Setting the scope to the 100 meter setting, K stepped out into the gunner’s sights, and aimed. His finger tightened on the trigger immediately; he had no real time to aim. He could only hope his memory was good enough. A trio of shots resounded from the gun; and the red eyes at the end of the passage disappeared.
K immediately rushed forward, keeping his gun at the ready, and stepped onto the crate. He squeezed the trigger once, shooting down at his enemy, who was merely feigning death. K had already expected to miss. He just had to make shots accurate enough to spook his enemy. He turned into the passageway, and headed towards the back of his enemies. He had, at most, ten seconds.
He turned down the corridor, cautious. If they could leave an enemy to defend the flank, they would probably leave more defenders as a countermeasure. But to his disbelief, they had no defence whatsoever. All of them, without exception, were facing the front, peering into scopes and yawning.
What kind of hopeless formation was that? K stepped forwards, towards the sniper closest to the back, before stopping to make a double take.
‘Damn. Too close.’
They were invisible guards, standing to the sides. They were employing a device that made one blend into the background while immobile, the Chameleon (maybe need to mention what sort of device it is). The only reason he could see them was because of the slight wavering of the air where they stood, like heat haze. This was going to be difficult. He could only do it if…
K brought his gun to the ready, and from far behind, started shooting the snipers; from the front. While some of his shots missed, hitting their backs, or legs, he earned mostly headshots, a side effect from the extreme steadiness of his exoskeleton, as well as his aiming skills. Squeezing the trigger only when he was sure of a kill, he made it seem like they were getting shot by an enemy in front. The sound of gunfire wasn’t very well defined, especially from this distance. Killing four snipers, he noticed the wavering air dispersing, revealing a team of 4 with sub machineguns. These were machineguns, but with small caliber pistol bullets, and exceedingly high rates of fire.
K smiled, and picked them off one by one. They panicking, confused, as they had thought K only had handguns, which could not snipe.
[Killstreak 65]
The last one had saw him, finally, his figure far in the distant, but he died after firing off three bullets from his horribly inaccurate gun, none of which hit K.
K grinned, and pushed forwards.
The massacre that followed would be horrifyingly so, as his enemies even resorted to killing each other, to deprive him of kills. They knew he was killing them, but they could not see him. All of them had become accustomed to his backstabbing, but when they turned, he was nowhere in sight.
Or at least, nowhere in their sight. Far behind their ranks, the man with the title of Unfazeable was picking them off, randomly. To hide where he was, he shot those at front, and behind, equally. And this only served to propagate chaos, as they thought they were being attacked by each other.
They looked at each other, all in denial, as they died off one by one, and finally, they had resorted to killing each other, to deprive K of kills.
[Killstreak 100]
[Achievement unlocked: 100 Turkeys Shot. You have unlocked a new title: Unstoppable. You have been awarded 100000 RC and ten certificates of accomplishment, as well as access to the Hall of Heroes.]
K grinned. This was going well. Very well. He walked forwards, through District 5, watching out all the same, picking off stragglers and collecting loot.
He could imagine the amount of experience he would earn after this raid. He made his way to one of the District 6 spawn rooms, entering it, It was empty, probably because his enemy had retreated. After taking heavy damages, they had probably retreated to cut cost. After all, there was no point in sitting in a hot zone, waiting for a phantom to kill you.
[District 5 secured. No enemy presences.]
[Achievement unlocked: One Man, One Capture. You have unlocked a new title: the Relentless. You have been awarded 300000 RC, and forty certificates of accomplishment.]
“Phew.” K sighed in relief, grinning. He was safe now.