The countdown before his eyes was then reduced, being on the lower right side of his vision, and a vast, white and empty place appeared, and a robotic, that sounded a bit feminine. [Hello, New Player! I'm EVA, Your personal assistant! And I'm here to assist you.]
Duke stood there, looking around the blank space he found himself in. The sound ressonated around the whole place, and didn't seem to come from a specific place, but he didn't really mind it.
[I see you are curious about this place, but first, I would like you introduce yourself! What name do you want me to call you? No formalities needed!] She hastily said, and Duke looked up, then around, EVA really didn't seem like she was there. "My name is Duke." He said in a cold voice as he walked that empty place.
It was quite amusing, it really was, for both the memories that remained in Duke's body, and for Stoic, that had never seen something like it. He didn't quite grasp what was the use for this, but it seemed like a really curious place to exist.
[Duke it is, then! You look really into this place! This is your Personal Space! You can construct anything you want around, use your creativity!] EVA said, sounding really excited, her voice was quite expressive, even when talking with someone like Duke.
Duke now showed some expression of interest about it in his face. "Anything, you say? Even a shooting range?" Duke said, looking up, imagining it was the place that EVA was. [Of course! Quite a sharp player, aren't you? Already thinking about sharpening your aim.]
Duke stood there looking up, and then around, and nothing happened. "How do I do it?" He asked EVA, he really thought that it was just going appear there. [Use your imagination! It will appear the way you want!]
Of course, he was quite confused. What did she mean? Just, imagine it? Duke closed his eyes and thought about a shooting range, moving targets, randomized movement, close and long ranged, some just circular, others had a generic person's silhouette, and as soon as he opened his eyes, there it was, just as he had imagined.
"That's quite handy." He said as he walked towards the place, creating some guns to use and train while the countdown went closer to 0. Duke wanted to learn his new body capacity and train some movements, and so he did, with a variety of weapons as the timer got lower and lower.
...
Time went by, and it was finally there, the timer hit 0, and the expected moment happened. As a strange feeling went through went Duke's body, some messages appeared in front of him.
"Welcome, New Player"
"The time has been adjusted to a 4:1 ratio"
"Choose your codename"
(WARNING: It cannot be changed. You shall be called by it through your entire playthrough.)
Duke stood there, and thought about it for a little while, but he knew what name he should carry, the one he carried for a long time along his deeds. "Stoic." The simple word was said outloud.
"The codename [Stoic] has been chosen."
"You are being transported to your designated Newcomer Encounter."
And soon, Stoic was in the middle of some forest, probably close to an urban area for having some noticeable human-made routes for traveling and hiking, but he didn't have time to do anything, as he heard footsteps, many of them, at least 20 people.
He didn't have any weapons on him, so Stoic climbed one of the trees around him, maybe he could tale them out if he had some kind of weapon, but he didn't, so he could only hide.
Soon enough, a big group moved through the florest, they had quite an armory, but it was improvised, and the guns were just stolen from somewhere, no attachments, but they seemed somewhat experient, probably made some of the routes around.
They were, in the most part, evenly separed to move through the woods, but one of them was a little bit behind, probably a newbie to that group, so Stoic was going to use that little window to get a gun himself.
And so, he waited them to move through the woods, and as his target got closer, Stoic threw a big branch as a distraction, the newbie expression was now visible, he was anxious, nervous, so a diversion would make him weaken his guard, and it was what happened.
As soon as the branch made noise hitting the ground on dry leaves, Stoic made his attack, coming silently down the tree, he hastily came from behind and went for a sleeper hold, putting the closest hand on his mouth to avoid noise, and soon enough, he was down.
Stoic reached for his rifle, a DMR, no attachments, and and a Glock 19. He put the DMR around him and the stole the downed newbie holster with the Glock and put it around his hip, but as Stoic was finishing doing it, he noticed something was off.
Far away from them, he noticed some movement, although really subtle, and Stoic grasped what was going on. It was an ambush, really well made, he didn't even expect it as he was rushing to hide and get the guns, and it was a big group, at least 3 times the one that just passed by. He had no chance being on open grounds.
The florest went up hills, he was on low ground, and so was the team that was about to be ambushed, so he once more hid himself, climbing to the top and waiting for what was about to go off. The ambushing group seemed pretty talented, moving silently without giving away position, they had a plan.
The smaller group moved through the woods, not even noticing the missing newbie, and as soon they were around the middle of the low ground, the ambushing ground opened fire against them. They tried to get in formation, but it was too quick.
The smaller one couldn't do much, as they quickly got killed, they barely retreated or returned fire. As the group tried to scatter and run, but they didn't last. They were wiped. Their bodies laid on the ground, no survivors in mere moments of shots being fired.
Stoic only watched, and soon enough, the ambushing group showed their face, with guards still up and guns pointed, looking around as they went closer to the downed group. And they quickly cleared their suspicions, and were able to put the weapons down and look after the loot. "It's all clear." A woman said outloud, around 1.70m, she had black skin and black hair, that was tied up.
This group has way better gear than the other, it didn't look scrapped, and seemed more experienced. They weren't from some military, but were good enough, like a militia. They started to get their guns and put on a pile, so they could probably divide and move them.
As it happened, a blonde man, around 1.80m, that was more on the back of the group, saw the newbie's body, and, of course, something was off, because that one didn't get shot. Stoic couldn't do much, they were too many, so he tried to escape, slow and steady, through the trees.
The blonde man whistled, calling for a bigger and stronger man, with white hair. He was old, but not senile, probably the chief, probably the most experience of them all. He got closer to the body, and only by quickly glancing, the old man knew this one didn't get down by one of them.
He glanced around and notice, barely moved, yet out of place, leaves on the ground. Whoever did this was above them now. "There's someone above us. Go after him. He's still listening to us, we would've noticed if he moved too quick." The old man said as he started to aim upwards, following whatever he could find that seemed off, going after the little he was able to deduce as a track from there.
"Frederich, tie the downed one and take him with us, he's still breathing." The old man said without losing sight of the track he was following. The blonde man, now named Frederich, followed his orders. Stoic, of course, listened to everything as he silently moved, but now he couldn't do much. They were faster, and having a blind spot to hide from 60 people moving around was difficult.
Stoic looked around, trying to find the part of forest that had most dense area with trees. He quickly found it, to his right, following the direction the smaller group came from. He checked his ammo and both his guns. The DMR had around 11 bullets inside and the Glock, 10.
He took a deep breath, got down the tree he was and started to run. Of course, the group listened. Stoic was really fast, even more for a big guy like him, and went through the dense forest, carrying a DMR, as he listened to the innumerous footsteps behind him. "He's just running! We can just shoot him here."
A ginger woman said as she ran, just behind the old man going after Stoic. "No. He seems like he know what he's doing. He gave up the slow and safe path because we would find him, he's too big to stay hidden, and he found the path to the most dense area around, so he could make us miss shots and lose sight of him quickly. I want to catch this one alive." The old man said. Stoic was now the hunt, after a long time being the hunter.
— New chapter is coming soon — Write a review