I shot the grappling hook out at the ledge of a building, using it to pull myself towards it at an angle so that I could use it to swing it around a corner.

As soon as I swung around the corner, I found my targets under me, which happened to be two guys currently fighting in close quarters with their knives after they ran out of bullets trying to kill each other.

They looked up to see me swinging towards them with one hand holding on to my grapple and my other hand pointing my rifle down towards them.

I squeezed the trigger and rained down fire on them, quickly killing one while the other managed to dive out of the way as his shield saved him from being eliminated. For now, that is.

I detached my grappling hook and dropped down towards the ground, spinning myself around in midair to level my gun at him once more.

I fired another shot that broke his shield before finishing him off with two shots to the head.

Even as he disappeared into particles, I did not stop to loot since the red zone was already catching up to me and I had another few hundred metres left to run to reach the safezone.

Of course, you don't immediately die if the red zone catches up to you but it instead, deals damage to you over time.

It bypasses your shield to damage your health directly too so the shield wouldn't help you much.

Speaking of which, I've found that while the shield and your health recharge by themselves, it's a relatively slow process which you can speed up using healing items in the form of a battery pack for the shield and a syringe for your health.

There were a few others also running a distance away from me but all of us seemed to be content to concentrate on getting away from the red zone instead of trying to attack each other for now.

The zone would end just up ahead but I wasn't planning on stopping there since it would leave me in the middle of an open field.

Instead, I was planning to run a little bit further to take shelter inside what looked like an apartment complex further down.

Incidentally, Lea should also be inside that building if my map was correct so I could meet up with her there.

As I started to get close to the building, it seemed like someone decided that it was safe enough for them to consider attacking the others who were also running to take advantage of our distracted state.

I heard gunshots coming from my right and turned to see one guy had dropped to a knee and started shooting at those who were running in the field with a sniper rifle.

One poor guy was already wiped from a well placed head shot from his rifle and he was aiming at the next person who still had not realised what was happening yet.

I could only watch as the attacker lined up his shot and pulled the trigger, the bullet piercing through the poor contestant's head and instantly killing him.

Damn, what kind of sniper was he using that was dealing that much damage? Even my assault rifle needed two headshots to kill.

Granted, I've not used the sniper rifle I looted off the first guy since I was still missing a scope for it but this guy already decked his rifle out with all the accessories for it.

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The next target he was aiming at happened to be me and I saw him swing the rifle towards me.

I quickly dropped to the ground and tucked myself into a roll.

Just in time too as he fired right after that and his shot narrowly missed me as it flew through the space where I had been earlier.

I completed my roll and got into a crouch while levelling my own rifle at the guy and fired a few shots in his direction.

His shield protected him from a few of my shots which seemed to have caused him to panic a little as he got up to start running again.

Unfortunately for both of us, that earlier exchange prompted a number of the other contestants to take that opportunity to attack the others as well, dissolving the entire thing into a free for all.

I picked myself up and continued running towards the building, avoiding the bullets flying around the field. There's no way I would join in the fight in such an open area where there was zero cover.

As I got closer to the building, I felt an impact on my side and my shield flared to life to protect me, the bar dropping slightly in the bottom left corner of my view.

I turned to see an enemy running towards me with a shotgun they were firing from the hip.

Behind them, even more people were running after him clearly intent on trying to take me out as well.

I could turn back and fight back but that would put me at a disadvantage since I would be practically fighting waves upon waves of enemies still running from the red circle.

But if I were to just continue running, this guy would just keep shooting me from behind as well and whittle down my shield until it breaks.

Who knows if there were already people waiting in ambush inside that building?

I wouldn't even have time to recharge my shields as I would be forced into another fight while I wasn't at peak health.

I was considering just turning around to fight them when the shotgun guy suddenly jerked his head back and fell on the ground, his body disappearing into particles.

He must have been shot by someone which was a lucky break for me since I could now simply run away from here. Until someone suddenly dashed ahead of me to block my way.

He must have some kind of movement skill that allowed him to move that quickly but now I'm forced to fight him so I--

Something hit the back of the head which broke his shield apart.

I did not hesitate and shot a few bullets into his chest, dropping his health to zero and opening the path once again.

Even as I continued to run, I realised that people were being dropped left and right around me and I knew someone was sniping them from somewhere which meant I was in danger too.

I kept my head low and doubled my speed towards the building, running till I was within range of my grappling hook to launch myself towards it.

When I looked back, I realised someone had managed to catch up to me and was in the process of trying to grab on to me as though to stop me from running away.

I was wondering why he was even doing this while trying to point my weapon at him when he too was sniped by the unseen sniper and turned into light particles.

That was when I realised it must be Lea sniping them since she was covering for me. I'm guessing she must have set up a sniper's nest on top of the apartment building and picking off people running away from the red circle.

Sure enough, a notification popped up in the corner of my eye that showed "LA" has killed "Handsomeguy", which should be the one who was trying to grab me.

I hadn't been paying attention to the kill feed since I was too focused on running away instead.

Perhaps Lea even figured out the map function and knew where I was which was why she had not shot me.

Entering through the doors, I started moving up the building to find her and sure enough, I could hear the sounds of a single gun being shot at regular intervals from above.

Reaching the floor that I believe the gunshots were coming from, I looked through each of the rooms until I found a figure crouched at the window with a sniper rifle half propped up by the window frame.

I entered the room just as the figure fired another shot and a kill message of "LA" killing "Canttouchthis" popped up in the corner.

"Lea?" I called out.

"Hello Captain," She answered without looking back. "Glad to see you're safe. There's a few stragglers that managed to enter the building so could I trouble you to watch my back? There's a few more coming this way that I'll take out first before joining you."

"How do you know that it was me?"

"I remembered what your avatar looked like, Captain. I have a good memory."

Ah, ok. I guess I can see that.

Even though our faces were covered, there were still differences like the colour and design of the suit we were wearing but for her to be able to identify that in such a scenario was quite impressive.

I was about to ask her if she knew about the map function when I heard some gunshots coming from within the building itself.

Ah, that's right, I need to watch her back.

Guess I'll ask that later.