For this moment, the entirety of Suburbs District 5 belonged to those of Athenos Hub. People from all other Hubs were banned from entry for a week. This was the True Capture, where every enemy was flushed out, every man was killed, and only one Hub stood victorious. The moment he had captured the district, though, he was teleported forcibly back to Athenos Hub.
This was part of the system, to prevent one overly powerful team - or in this case, person, from going on an endless spree. He was quarantined within Athenos Hub for exactly one week; to prevent an overt rush. This system prevented huge clans from pushing a Hub to the roots and destroying it, a countermeasure made by the producers of the game.
It could be said that most of their policies were meant to ensure the Hubs never fell. K opened his eyes, in a huge atrium. The ground was made of glass, with gears and clockwork ticking on below. Above, huge arches of brass spinned, and rolled. This was the core of Athenos, the Infinite Clockwork. This gave the Athenos Hub, which had emphasis on teamwork and strategic pushing, buffs, like increased defense in a group, and increased damage from flanking kills. How these things were determined were iffy, but K had definitely felt the effect of the Clockwork, in his battle.
He was flooded instantly by windows, filled with information.
[You have made Athenos’ highest killstreak: 137.
You have made Athenos’ highest kill-death ratio: 0:137.
You have…]
K pushed his records aside, concentrating on the next window.
[You have leveled up 83 times. You are now level 85.]
[You have gained accolades:
-Handgun Expert - Kill 50 or above using only handguns. +20% damage for handguns, and +40% damage for headshots. Device: Ironsight unlocked.
- Headshot Veteran - Kill 20 people using only headshots. +20% damage for headshots, and +5% Critical chance with headshot.
- Melee Expert - Kill 20 or above using only melee. +50% Melee damage, and +10% Crit chance. Device: Juggernaut unlocked.
-Cover Expert - Block damage enough to kill you 50 times with cover and kill 20 people from behind cover. +25% damage from behind cover, +5% Crit chance from behind cover, +20% Defence from behind cover. Device: Crouch Barrier unlocked.
-Gunrunning Expert - Kill 75 or above while out of cover, and walking. +25% damage out of cover, +5% Crit chance out of cover, +20% Defence out of cover. Device: Windwalker unlocked. ]
K checked his stats, to see that his damage had been nicely boosted. The Luger could probably kill in one shot to the head now, even while the opponent wore a light helmet. He turned to the large black scoreboard, which scrolled between maximum killstreak, and kill death ratio. Instantly, his name replaced the top man, and the crowd in the atrium quietened down, as everyone received the same status window at the same time.
[K has cleared Suburbs District 5]
“What’s K? A clan?”
“There wasn’t a mass teleport though. You’d think we’d be able to see them.”
“Then…”
K immediately felt uncomfortable. He didn’t want to be the center of attention, not at all.
He stepped backwards, into the shadows of the Clockwork. Only the central area was sunlit, so the corners were actually quite dark. The people looked around, for what they expected to be a team of men, triumphant and wild with victory. Because names were not broadcasted no matter where a person was, they could not just look for the person with his name.
Now in the safety of the shadows, K sighed, opening his inventory. His inventory was filled with drops, different parts of armour, guns, potions, and magazines. There was an assortment of just about everything.
Checking through the armour, K picked out only the best for himself. Armour was segregated into four types, each carrying specific upgrades that increased the strength of a certain status. They were Agility, Strength, Defence, and Regeneration. On top of his base exoskeleton, which provided excessive strength, K had the armour parts from his plunder, which increased his speed.
The reason he only got speed upgrades was because people believed agility was the most important in the game, and hence mostly bought them. While K did believe being agile was important, he held strength and regeneration in higher regard.
And hence, he took the best of the armour - with the correct status upgrades. A set of full superalloy, with mostly regeneration implants, and a few strength and agility implants. The armour were around middle-tier, although they were the best pieces of generic armour that existed. Any higher tier armour would have to be earned through getting achievements, or through the extremely expensive auction exchange.
K opened his armour window, looking at it. He was dressed much like a clown, with patchwork armour, set in glistening red, blue, green, and gold. He put on the only piece of unique armour he had plundered in the raid - from who, he did not know, since he barely remembered everyone he killed, but it was a golden mask; smooth and featureless, but for a long Cheshire grin.
A look at its status window revealed it was a Raid item, obtained from completing attacks on non-player Hubs.
[Death’s Embrace.]
[A rare mask found from the Hub of Isocythes, taken off the face of the Mercenary King, Iglsin. This mask is forged from the strongest of metals, and has palliative effects on it’s wearer, striking fear into its foes with the micropatterned gold surface.
Effects:
Decrease damage of all headshots to regular damage levels.
Passively decreases accuracy of all enemies who aim at you by causing unconscious trembling.
Dropped on first death.]
“Ah.”
The Isocythes Hub was set at least twenty districts away from the Athenos Hub, so normally, it was strange that the mask had managed to travel to K. But now, it wasn’t hard to see that the death drop rule had been a part of it. It had crazy abilities, but came with a big risk too.
K equipped the mask, and it fit to his face like a second skin.
His armour window blinked, as it displayed the massive increase of Energy he got, as he equipped the new armour. Energy was an integral part of the gameplay; and was the power source of Devices. Devices, like K’s Overdrive, and the Chameleon, were items that gave players certain advantages in game. There were no limits to what devices could do, but their use was limited by the Energy Pool, and Energy Limit.
Energy Pool was an expendable limit which acted pretty much like a Mana bar; it decreased when devices were used, and regenerated constantly. Energy Limit on the other hand, was a static limit which dictated how many Devices could be equipped.
Overdrive had a Limit usage of 50, which was the same as K’s old Limit of 50, which explained why he could use it only, while it had a Pool usage of 10/s, which meant it could only last 5 seconds with his old Pool of 50.
Now, however, he had a Limit of 300, and a Pool of the same amount. This could be put down to his new armour, which had higher energy capacities. And this also meant he could equip more devices.
K snuck along the walls of the Clockwork, exiting through the main entrance, and entered the plaza of Athenos. Large spires pierced the sky, and lightning cast shadows of huge cogs from behind the clouds high above. An urban environment was set below, with high rises, skyscrapers, and many, many shops.
K crept from the Atrium, to the Central Spire. All buildings were named by the players, so a spire in the center was called either the Central Tower or the Central Spire.
Entering it, he ran into one of the lifts before anyone looked carefully at him, and pressed the button for the third floor. The Central Spire held many things, shopping centres, firing ranges, and even an arena, but now, he was going to the Cert Shop, a place where certificates of accomplishment, rare tickets, could be traded in for special items, which were unique.
K entered the Cert Shop, which was modeled after a high class bar - except that everything was lit with a sickly yellow light, much like that of gold. Bottles of still cognac and whisky sat dusty on shelves, while a golden bar top sat in his view. The bartender turned to him, smiling.
“Hello, sir. What would you like to buy?” A smooth, well modulated voice soothed his mind, and K sat at the bar.
A menu appeared in front of him, covered in guns, armour, devices, and special miscellaneous items.
K had 53 Certificates to spend.
But all the items before him were of the highest grade, and the cheapest one was 20 certificates.
His jaws dropped as he looked at them.
There was the MK 19 Auto grenade launcher, which cost 30 certificates. There was the M134 Minigun, which also cost 30 certificates. Both were mad weapons, which were not sold on the regular market.
But then, K felt that instead of upgrading his weapons, it would be better to upgrade his survivability. After all, it was not his firepower that allowed him to win, but the fact that he did not die throughout the entire battle, and that he could surprise his enemies from the strangest of angles.
Spending some money, he bought two upgrades. The Grinning Panzer unique exoskeleton, which had the profile of a light armour, but had even greater health and strength than his original exoskeleton, and a huge speed bonus to boot, because he was changing from the bulky exoskeleton to a thinner, more lithe one. It worked with chemical springs and miniature actuators, and hence, bypassed the hydraulics required to increase strength. Of course, all that was from the description from the status window, and he didn’t really know much about the matter.
The second upgrade was a Regen V passive device, which quintupled regeneration rates, and allowed for staggered regeneration during battle. This meant that out of his now huge 200 health pool, he could regenerate at 10 hp/s out of battle, and 4hp/s during battle. A rookie player’s health was 50, so they could be killed in one or two shots from a normal handgun. Now, however, especially with the headshot mitigation of the mask, K could withstand one or two shots of a low grade sniper rifle to the head.
Done with his purchases, K then moved to the firing range. He had one week to burn in Athenos, and he wasn’t going to just waste it away. Moving back to the lift to the bartender’s call of “Thanks! See you again!”, he tapped onto the button for the top floor: the Athenos Range.
The Athenos Range wasn’t just a range, for people to test out guns. It was a series of challenges that bestowed different ranks according to accomplishment. It gave perks according to the level of completion, with rewards for completing the final course.
K entered the range, and instantly, all eyes fell on him.
People always scrutinised anyone who entered the Range. This was because daring to challenge the range itself was a sign that one was confident in his own skills. They, however, were quite disappointed with K. All he wielded was the Luger P08. While it did display some level of expertise, it wasn’t altogether rare in the population. Most top players had the gun, although a large proportion didn’t employ it.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
K stepped into the first level of the Range, a setting where one gun had to be used to hit three targets; a quick moving one at 20 meters, a moving one at 200 meters, and a stationary one at 800 m.
K aimed in the direction of the quick moving one, and squeezed the trigger. It fell immediately. Putting his eye to the sight, he squeezed off another few rounds, felling the second one. Now, he adjusted the pistol to it’s maximum range, and squeezed the trigger. The last plate fell, too.
[Personal Record set: 4.291 seconds]
With what could be counted as a brilliant score, K walked into the next part of the Range.
The second section of the Range was slightly more difficult. Targets would be leaping through the air, and most expected K to fail here. Assault rifles, or shotguns, were best suited to this occasion, not a pistol.
Still, K brought the pistol to bear, getting ready. The first target was fired, and the full auto machine pistol destroyed it in an instant.
The jaws of the people dropped, as they watched this newbie before them shoot down each and every target with small bursts. These people were higher ranked ones, who used weapons with integrated sights on their HUD. This meant the outdated Luger P08 was useless to them. Hence, they did not know of its power and versatility.
K brought down every target quickly and efficiently. With his ultrasteady exoskeleton, and his quick aiming skills (mostly sourced from his attempts to aim with an assault rifle), he made short work of the course.
[Personal Record set: 10.23 seconds]
He turned and walked to the next station, with a growing crowd in tow.
K reached the third stage, but someone was already shooting there. A large man, his arms bare, with heavy armour on his chest, was prodigiously firing a huge LMG at targets. This part had false targets mixed in with real ones, with the point being obviously to shoot the real targets. The targets were of all types; flung through the air, moving across the ceiling, and popping out randomly, but the man managed to hold his own, finally ending with a time of 30.462 seconds.
“Failed”. A mechanical voice groaned, and the man dropped his LMG. “It’s okay, Crute. This is a difficult round anyways.” A group surrounded him, handing him drinks, and giving him massages. A blonde girl sat behind him, grunting. She was beautiful, but K didn’t pay much attention to her.
What he was paying attention to was the range.
Grabbing the LMG with one hand, K plopped it into the hand of the man who was called Crute. “Move out of the way.”
He aimed his pistol, just as the huge man roared in laughter.
His thick voice, much like that of a buffoon, coughed and wheezed through a “Alice, did you hire that guy to cheer me up!?” K watched through the corner of his eye, as the blonde girl smiled wanly, both beautiful and cryptic.
K grinned to himself in the safety of his mask, and stepped onto the pedal, initiating the test.
Immediately, he could see a sea of red targets, with a few white targets peeking from them.
He aimed at the white targets, and shot them down. While it seemed easy, a centimetre deviation would mean hitting a red target, and yet, he kept shooting and grinning with every target he hit. K could feel the stunned silence when he hit the target one after another dead center.
They watched in wonder as K completed the course without one error.
[Personal Record set: 15.12 seconds.]
Silent, K walked to the next room. He had originally intended to finish the course in a week, but turning back would be bad now, with the entire crowd watching him.
The fourth room introduced counterfire, where the targets returned fire.
Most of the pros were taken down here, as they could not cope with the gunfire coming from all directions. With only passive devices functioning, they could not use any sort of early warning detection system to predict enemy fire.
K didn’t rely on detection systems. Instead, he climbed over the rails, walking into the course.
“What!?”
“Is that even possible!??” K already understood that he would be overran with just a pistol, if pros with assault rifles had lost to this course, and so, he had decided to gambling. There was nothing against entering the map. Indeed, that was what K would do, if he was under heavy fire. Bullets glanced off his body, as he sprinted to the back of the map.
The targets then stopped moving, confused as to where he was. They could only survey everything in their fields of vision - which meant they were hopeless if the enemy left their vision. From the back, K picked them off - and a gasp was heard.
“Aren’t you K?”
The blonde lady, who was wheeling around in her chair, suddenly stood, shouting at K.
“I’ve heard from the Ithios Hub, that someone with a Luger P08 had wiped out an entire district. That status window earlier, too, said it was K. It wouldn’t make sense if K was a clan, but it definitely would if it was a single person! Are you K?”
K cleared the fourth course in a cheating manner, and entered the fifth, and final course, remaining silent to her insinuations. She was now animated, walking to his side, and even trying to touch him. She was unarmoured, instead wearing a white dress. She hummed happily, sliding her arm through his, but in a small, sleek movement, he brushed by her, leaving her grasping at thin air.
“Huh?”
She blinked, and made a strange expression, as if she had never been denied in her life. She seemed to be angry, but did not know how to express it.
K stopped at the fifth course alone, a course only few have reached, and even fewer passed.
The challenge was deceptively simple.
An AI would be sent out to battle K, and if K won, he passed.
From what he had learned before he entered the game, it would have red eyes, sleek white armour, and an SMG, which was best suited to its talents. What made it so difficult, was that the AI was at a level not even seen in the best of gunners. It made quick movements, could wield any weapon without recoil, and could react instantaneously to gunfire, even dodging bullets.
K readied himself, as a movement was seen in the dimly lit light, taking a loose stance.
“Overdrive.”
His entire body glowed, as a tingling sensation went through him. The gaps in between his armour were a bright orangey-red, suddenly illuminating a gun barrel, which K instantly grabbed. A small twist, and the gun was made useless. As his foe was an AI, who could calculate bullet trajectories and dodge easily, K ditched the long range sniping approach, and went in close and personal.
Using his gun like a melee weapon, K whipped the figure, which was armoured in white plate, with the butt of his pistol, causing the armour to dent. The AI was adept at shooting, but it was completely useless, when it came to melee. With his inhuman strength, K tore its gun arm off, and stuffed the barrel of the Luger into its mouth.
He squeezed the trigger, and the AI’s head was blown off, in an instant. The tension dissipated, as the crumpled, disfigured machine fell silently.
K relaxed, turning off Overdrive to conserve his energy pool. The 30 second cooldown of Overdrive blinked at the side of his HUD. K turned away, but then he noticed a movement, from the corner of his eye. Immediately diving to the side, K grit his teeth as a streak of lead cut across his back, disregarding his armour.
The AI stood, with its barrelless SMG in its left hand, the exposed spinal column from the neck pointed at K, with a glowing red dot within.
"Aww, fuck."
K started running, as a hail of bullets mercilessly traced his movements. His health started dropping, as the AI's calculations became more and more accurate by the second. Turning, he leapt at the android, trying to catch it in his arms, and crush it, but the AI was constantly evolving.
It now dodged, leaping away from K.
"Crap."
It would be warier about contact damage now. K clicked his tongue, as he watched the AI bring its gun back to bear at him, with movements faster than a man would ever go. Turning, he dashed low to the ground and picked up the Luger, reloading it, while formulating a plan on the fly.
All he knew, was that the AI would prioritise dodging bullets.
And so, K held the trigger down, and swept the Luger upwards, firing at the right half of the AI. It creaked, dodging to the left - and ran itself into K's fist. It had put the damage of the bullets above that of his attack - and the opening it exposed gave K the opportunity he needed. He flung his Luger to the side, further confusing the AI, and tore off its remaining arm. In a snap, he grabbed its SMG and squeezed the trigger, splitting it down the center with its own special armour-piercing bullets.
Holding the trigger of the SMG, which seemed to have an infinite supply of bullets, down, K shredded every part of it, until nothing remained but scrap metal. Just in time too, as his regeneration replenished his health.
The lights suddenly turned on, and congratulations were offered. The last level was barred from spectator entry, and only now, could everyone enter. What they saw, was a piece of scrap metal, and K, hardly hurt.
“Fuck?”
“The rookie… just completed it?” The large man, Crute, fell to his knees, shocked out of his mind.
K grinned, and holstered the Luger.
“Heck, of course.” Laughing, he received the rewards from completion of the Range.
[Achievement unlocked: Range-r. You have unlocked a new title: Squire of Athenos. You have been awarded 20000 RC and an Ancient Token.]
K frowned.
An Ancient Token? A large black coin appeared in his hand, weathered, cracked, and most certainly out of place in a world of science and technology. What was it for? He spun it between his fingers, eyeing it. Blue cracks crisscrossed it, marking it. Grey dust coated it, shedding off on his hand.
What exactly was its use?
Shrugging to himself, K turned, and walked out of the next open door, what apparently was the exit, to the top of the Central Spire.
Where lightning promptly hit him.
Author's Notes: Well, of course lightning would hit you, you big idiot. You're standing on top of a huge metal pole, in the midst of a thunderstorm. Kudos to you, if you don't get struck.
Well guys, please help me by commenting, or by giving me your thanks (always appreciated). Productive criticism is loved. Thanks for reading, guys. XD `:^:^)~