“The rules are very simple,” The Park Ranger begins. “Each team will be given a data drive. What’s on it, is not important. What’s important is that you’ll need two drives to complete the challenge. Half of the teams here will get a Yin Drive, and the other half a Yang Drive. You’ll need both to finish. If you access the data on the drive, your entire team will be disqualified. If you die, it’s not our fault. Once you have both drives, you’ll need to go to the visitor’s center at the center of the forest. You may get the drives any way you can. Trade, steal or fight; it’s all fine. Teams will enter one hour apart. Once all teams have entered you have eight hours to collect both drives and arrive at the center. Teams have been selected at random. Good luck,” The Park Ranger opens the doors and signals for the first team to enter the forest.
“I don’t have to be super into anime to know this is just The Chunin exam from Naruto,” Kai jokes.
“Yeah, she really telephoned this one,” I laugh.
“That woman keeps staring at me,” Daamin points at the kinky group Kai and I had been laughing at.
“You’re way too old for us to tell you don’t point at people,” I smack his hand down.
The man in the group makes his way over followed by the two women, “Hello, my name is Kevin. This is my wife Ashley and our daughter Yara,” he extends a handshake to me which I return.
“Our daughter was just admiring your scales,” Ashley says to Daamin.
“Yeah, they’re cool,” Daamin seems bothered by the whole thing.
Kai uses the moment to escape, he’s planning to trade with another group hoping that we can just get the drives and get out. Kay is supposedly in the visitor’s center waiting on our arrival but Daamin is still the only person who trusts her. Daamin and Kevin seem to get along well, they both use swords. Apparently their builds are useless until around level 20 when they can actually do real damage. Daamin favors katanas but Kevin is a classic broadsword kind of guy. I could care less, I just know a sword doesn’t win in a gun fight unless there’s some serious backup. There’s no point in trying to trade with this group as they’re legitimately after the sword. They all met in the game and have decided to be a family. At first I thought they just went insane after the we were all trapped in the game. Unfortunately, they were doing this beforehand. Being trapped just gave them a chance to really commit to it. Daamin is really great fitting in with weird people, because he’s weird. He’s my weird friend, so I don’t mind, but Kevin Ashly and Yara are not my kind of weird. They’re the kind of weird to let you know they’re swingers after they invite you to dinner at their home. I’m nothing short of grateful when Kai returns.
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“Negotiation is pointless,” Kai sighs. “Players are really determined to fight and prove how strong they are. NPCs won’t trade for anything except super rare items so we’re going to have to fight out there.”
“Alright, then we need to go get ready,” I pull Daamin away from the kinky family.
Kai makes the plans for our team. The basics are always the same. I’m the shooter. I kick in the door waving the .44, and people drop. Daamin is a nuisance. He can do a lot of damage if he gets close with the swords but he’s mostly moving around really fast and taking out anyone who doesn’t go down with one shot. Kai plays support. Support players don’t get enough love because most players can health themselves and support players are rarely flashy. Kai barely ever enters into an actual fight. He hacks stuff, surveys the situation, causes mayhem. If he does enter the fight, nobody will see him. He’s big on stealth and is usually just taking some objective so Daamin and I can retreat.
Watching him right now is no different. He’s breaking down the odds and different battle strategies to wrap up fights quick that use the environment. We’ve already realized that the area is based on Naruto so Kai plans to use the environment to our advantage in the same way characters did. Even if we’re not using jutsu or ninja tools, we’ve still got a lot of unique sci-fi weapons that can provide some of the same advantages. Watching Kai plan is always exciting to me. He said before he met me most of his gaming time was spent solo on strategy games. It really shows when he starts talking strategy.
“If all else goes to hell, there’s three rules to follow out there. Don’t get separated. It’s a team battle. We can all handle ourselves, but if you come up against three players or three strong NPCs it means nothing. Rule two, don’t panic if we lose a drive, we’ve got plenty of time to get two more. Rule three, if you get knocked out of the game you can’t help get a drive so don’t get knocked out. We’ll retreat to stay alive instead of saving the drive. Any questions,” Kai finishes.
“I’m good,” I shrug.
“I just hope we can get out there soon. Being the last team is a real disadvantage,” Daamin adds.
The park ranger’s bell rings, it’s time for another team enter.