The clan masters of the Three Great Clans.
The Lord of Irisenvald, Kant, the Master of xXx, Reticle, and the Grandmaster of Cbow, Fang. They were all celebrated fighters, masters in their own regard. Working together, their strength could be said to rival an entire clan. With the Lord taking long range, the Master taking close quarters combat, and the Grandmaster playing guerilla, they had managed to capture a district.
So why, then.
Why were all three of these men being pushed back by a man with two P450s?
K grinned. It was simple, really. All he had to do to neutralise Kant, the sniper, was to place any one of the other two in the way. All he had to do to neutralise Fang, was to keep the Grandmaster behind the close combat meleeing Reticle. And all he had to do to keep Reticle at bay was to move faster than that man could swing his huge shotgun.
K twisted and bent his way through the men, sometimes using one of them as a shield, sometimes taking potshots at them with his weak guns.
The crowd watched, mesmerised, as the four duelists danced a dance of death.
But soon enough, they saw a pattern. Kant, the Lord, wasn’t shooting at all, instead waving his rifle around like an idiot, trying to aim. Fang, who held a huge LMG, did fire, but all his shots went wild, as he tried not to shoot his teammates. And Reticle, the poor man, was starting to tire from swinging his huge shotgun around, and was getting worn down from the many shots K took.
One look at K’s confident expression, and they knew already, the outcome of the battle.
Or did they?
In what seemed to be a coordinated movement, Reticle dropped his shotgun, moving in to hug K, while Kant aimed at the both of them, going prone, seriously aiming for the kill. Fang stood beside Kant, protecting him.
K grunted. So this was their plan. They wanted to pin him down and kill him, even if it meant sacrificing one of themselves. But he couldn’t let that happen, could he? K leapt upwards, shocking Reticle, who slipped momentarily, but instantly tightened his grip around K again. By now, however, K had his knees braced against Reticle, and was already kicking against his chest.
Slipping out from the large man’s grip, he leapt backwards, away from Reticle - just as a howl cracked through the Atrium, and a large hole the size of a fist was cut right through the titan.
The large man staggered, within a hairsbreadth of death. One of the pillars of the community was then killed by a rattling burst from a P450.
A wave of shock shot through the crowd, as even the other two clan masters were shocked. Kant blinked, standing, not able to just process what he had just done, while Fang just stared as the tankiest man in the Hub died.
K turned to the two.
“Hohoho.” Letting out a strange laugh, K dashed at Kant, doubling him over with a straight thrust right into his gut with the barrel of a P450, and firing off the entire 12 bullet magazine into the weaker sniper.
The Barrett XM500 LDP dropped onto the ground soundlessly, drifting as if a balloon was attached to it.
Fang came to his senses, leaping backwards and firing the LMG, but incredibly, K dodged the continuous stream of fire, making his way towards Fang as leisurely as if he was taking a morning walk. Fang clicked his tongue, tossing two grenades at K, but K did something more shocking. He shot both grenades, blowing off their fuses.
“What!?”
Fang threw his LMG to the side, grabbing the smaller SMG at his side, and firing off quick bursts at K. K leapt and jumped, over and under the bullets, dodging each and every stream with an impeccable accuracy, such that bullets even grazed past his armour.
This was the effect of the first of his K’s new devices, the Point. By intercepting and interpreting information such as infrared waves used by other integrated sights to aim, the device drew cones of fire originating from enemy weapons, which K simply needed to get out of to dodge the bullets. This also helped him in identifying where his enemies were shooting him from, a perk in labyrinthic districts.
K then peppered Fang with bullets from his pistols, slowly chipping away at his health. While Fang did not have an astronomical amount of health, but he did have quite a substantial amount.
It took K ten minutes of dancing to take Fang down, by which he had already sent over five magazines worth of bullets into the man’s body.
K turned to all the people around him, and flashed a thumbs up.
The quiet crowd suddenly burst into applause, as if a button had been pressed. K was afraid they would turn on him, but he had supposed that them seeing the atrocious behaviours of their leaders, as well as the image of him acting for self defense, had broken the barrier between them.
Now, they simply applauded him as a hero.
K picked up the weapons on the floor, grinning as he held up his spoils of war.
Escorted by men and women who had once chased him, K roared, raising a fist and shaking it. The crowd around him roared too, carried on by an invisible charisma. To those behind him, that broad back of mismatched armour was an unexplainable power, that was on their side. This time, the relief that he was one of Athenos, and not against them, overruled their fear of a person who could kill a thousand.
For now, all that mattered was that he was one of their own.
Arms were slung around K, as people offered apologies, reimbursements.
“Its fine.” K maintained a soft smile, waving them away, but they all stuck around him, unwilling to leave. Walking by his side, they insisted on paying for everything - the hamburger he bought to stimulate his taste buds after a week of fasting, the drink that followed, and a glass of wine. In the end, K had to run away from them, to get his own time.
Panting from his sprint, he walked into a gun shop, placing an order for a thousand drums, for his Luger. His now almost infinite money pool, which could rival that of a few Hubs, combined, was now put to good use, repairing his armour, and doing miscellaneous tasks. With his money, he decided to buy up a small piece of land, closest to Ithios Hub, as his base of operations.
After all, K had only one thing in his mind right now.
Revenge against that pesky Ithios, and that man who’d put a ransom on his head.
---
“How much is it.”
K sat at a cafe, opposite a property broker. The man opposite him was a NPC, but K had done some inquiries before meeting the man in a black suit, and he had found that even though they were supposed to be simple NPCs, they were much closer to human than expected. They knew how to read faces, and were learned in squeezing every last cent out of their customers.
And so, K placed the minimum they would charge in a case on the table.
Before the broker could speak, he spoke. “I’m only willing to pay this much.”
The broker opened the case, and looked at him, shaken. K had learned that brokers tended to set the showprices 20% above the real prices, and he was using this to maximum benefit.
K’s mask, and his hostile posturing, betrayed not a hint of fear. The broker pushed the case down, shutting it, and standing.
“Pleasure doing business with you, sir.”
A title deed was left on the table, as the broker left.
K grabbed the title deed, and read it.
While in the real world, there were tons of red tape to break through, in the game, all this was simplified to: If you have the money, you can have the land. Making sure his name and particulars were all correct, (how difficult is it to write his name anyways?), K set off towards his new piece of land.
Only to find that it already had a building on it. K frowned. Was this, the so-called illegal settlement? The small, one floor building before him seemed to be made out of cheap, corrugated steel. K walked to the door, knocking onto it. It seemed he had the authority to evict anyone already on the land, as long as he had the title deed.
He knocked onto the door again, and this time, it opened slightly, with a single green eye peeking out from the crack.
“Yes?” A youth was staring through the door, his light brown hair poking through the gap.
“I am your landlord. Get out.” K deadpanned, and then door slammed in his face. K smiled, but it was strained. He knocked on the door again, and it opened slightly, this time with four chains holding the door closed. The eye peeked out again, and a howl rang through the empty outskirt. K holstered his smoking pistol, using a one handed chop to tear off all four chains. He could tear through concrete walls. Four meager chains weren’t going to cut it.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
K kicked the door open, aiming through the now open door, but to his surprise, all he saw was a few people, sitting around a table. Three of them, two girls who seemed to be sisters, and an older man, stared at him, with chopsticks in their hands, while one was kneeling on the floor behind him, hands over his eye, groaning in pain. The hotpot on the table bubbled, and the sound of chopsticks dropping echoed through the small, quiet room.
K repeated his words. “I am your landlord. Get out.”
The young man kneeling at his feet wrapped his fingers around K’s ankle. “Please.” His gruff voice groaned. It was evident he was immersed in the pain of losing an eye right now, but something was compelling him to beg. “Please don’t drive us out.” His grip tightened around K, and K looked down curiously at him.
“Why should I do that?”
K wasn’t a cold blooded person. He would hear them out. And then, he would send them packing.
He sat at the table, ignoring the boy, who was kneeling onto the ground, and turned towards the smaller of the two sisters. K wanted this over, quickly, so he chose the weakest of the four. “So tell, me, young lady. Why should I not evict you?” The title deed was placed flat on the table, in open view for all of them.
To K’s surprise, however, the girl, who seemed to be only thirteen, stood up, and shouted at him. “We are a family! Me, Cat, Vinny and Val! We worked so hard to build this house! We live here for a few months already! You can’t do this to us just because you have some papers!”
This, apparently, was some sort of trigger, as all of them, older sister, and the matured man, piped up too.
“We have memories here!”
“You can’t steal our home away from us!”
K clicked his tongue. The innocence of the girl had broken the barriers in the hearts of the more matured ones, who knew of the unstoppable power of bureaucracy. Now all of them were like children; fighting for their own wants, even against greater authorities. His plan had backfired.
K was in the right mind to shoot the young girl in the head right now, but he refrained from doing so.
“Really.” With a single word, he sent chills down all their spines. The blue flames behind the mask dimmed, revealing two tranquil blue irises, which stared at them, like they were merely prey.
Immediately, the young man, who, just moments ago, was kneeling on the floor, cupping his eye, was in front of K, blocking the young girl from K’s view. He blinked. What kind of self righteous protection was this? Before of him, was a man who could not protect himself, but was trying to protect others.
How foolish.
But K didn’t dislike this kind of foolishness. He too, knew of weakness. Sometimes, the only way to protect something was to put yourself at risk for it, and K respected that sentiment. Sighing, K cursed his soft heart.
“Fine.”
He rolled up the title deed, putting in his pocket.
“I’ll let you stay on this land.”
Their faces lit up like christmas trees.
“I won’t charge you rent for the first month, but after that, its business as usual, okay?” K smiled at them, as they readily nodded. The older adults had already picked up on what K actually meant; that in a month, they would have to be ready to move out, but the younger girl still naively believed that they could stay as a family there forever.
K was soft hearted, yes, but he wasn’t that soft hearted. Sooner or later, these people would have to make do, or leave.
He smiled at the young girl, who turned back to her hotpot, her appetite undaunted, and then, as if a switch was flipped, he turned to the other three, who were staring at him with thankful, yet cautious eyes. After all, someone who was still threatening to knock down your house would still not be welcomed, even after concessions were made.
K led the three of them towards the door, watching as they smiled at the young girl, motioning for her to continue having dinner, and promising her they would be back quickly. He led them out of the door - and thrust his fist into the thin metal wall just beside him, piercing a hole through it.
“You guys…”
He eyed the three of them.
“What the fuck are you doing here, playing house?”
The three of them flinched in unison, and K knew he had hit on something. After all, people who played the game for real rarely ate anything as elaborate as hotpot. Also, it seemed that from the girl’s description of them living together, that they had been doing this for a long time.
What was up with their stupid actions? Why had they even entered the game then?
K stared at them, waiting for an explanation, only for the two older ones, the matured man, and the older sister, to blush.
“It all…”
“Began half a year ago.”
K shut his ears, just as a lengthy monologue on how they fell in love ensued. At the end of the story, just as the two snuggled together, with the younger man looking at them, slightly disgusted. K raised a finger, pointing at the young man, who, at this moment, was cringing.
“How about him? Or that little girl?”
Staring dubiously at the two, who dropped their lovey-dovey smile, and then stared at him seriously, K prepared himself for the worst. But what he heard was worse than his pictured worst.
The man rubbed his head, wincing. “Ah. We saw them absolutely failing at playing, so we took them in.”
K just couldn’t take it in.
“So, you picked up a couple of losers. Can you guys earn enough money to sustain them?” The man raised his gun, grinning. Proudly, he said, “I alone am enough to sustain the family.”
K dropped a fist on the man’s head. There were so many things he didn’t understand about this bunch of fools. So confused that now, he was breathing raggedly, K then asked.
“Why, hoooh, why the hell, hooh, are you guys not, hoooooh, training together?”
The man thrust his chest out, beating it. “Because I alone am enough to buy food for all of us!” The older sister, who K supposed played his wife, then swooned, hugging him. K blinked, staring at the two biggest retards in the game.
“WHAT THE FUCK!?”
K drew his Luger, at his limit.
Roaring, he shouted to the man. “Come on now, fight me! I’ll see if you’re worthy!”
The man blinked, slightly shocked, and then pulled a mask from his pocket, placing it on his face. He then picked up a huge assault rifle - what K identified to be a Heavy version of the default rifle, earned through the rookie training facility, and started firing at K.
K sighed, blocking the weak bullets with his durable armguards, mitigating most of the damage, and punched the man straight in the face. Without resistance, K punched him again and again. The older sister seemed shocked, as her “husband” spewed blood from behind his mask. K launched him into the air, and then hammered him back down with his fist.
It was a simple, yet violent beatdown. It was K’s frustration, at the stupidity of mankind. He finally stopped, when the rag of a man seemed like he could not take it any more. K was actually holding back, using no more strength than a regular man would. If he had been serious, one punch would have knocked a hole through the idiot.
K shot a look at the crumpled figure of a man. “Pathetic.” The sister than knelt by his side, shaking the man, but K had already knocked him unconscious. The young boy, however, was looking at K with eyes that held admiration.
K looked at the boy, and grunted.
Turning, he left the “family”. He had wanted to build a new headquarters, for his future incursions against Ithios, but his appetite for war was now, to put it simply, ruined. K sighed. Maybe he would try some other, non-player Hub first. Those were easier to attack, staffed with stupid AIs, instead of relatively smarter men.
K walked towards the non player Hub of Kaexuan. On the hexagon map of Hubs, this was on the far side, opposite Ithios.
Author's Notes: This is retarded. Enjoy~ {[999aag}]