Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (9 page)

Alan shot a few more times at the hound, but each time the wind buffeted the shots. Two bullets hit non-lethal areas, decreasing the creatures healthy by 10%. Alan tried to leap out of the way, but the hound simply shifted mid-air to follow him. It clawed his chest with a ferocious swipe. Alan leapt backwards with the swipe, but he was still knocked to the floor, his gun sent flying.

Alan closed his eyes feeling an intense pain in his chest, more mind numbingly painful than anything he’d ever felt before. Even with his eyes closed he could still see his HP. It showed him at 50%, slowly draining, bleeding from the chest wound.

ROLL RIGHT,
 Eve shouted in his brain.

With strength from surging adrenaline, Alan threw himself to the right, screaming at the pain caused by his movement. Alan had imagined being shot, or stabbed, or burnt, yet this somehow felt a thousand times worse. He could think of nothing but the pain, oblivious to all else.

OPEN YOUR EYES.

Alan slowly opened his eyes, seeing the hound fighting against Kitana, dodging her strikes with the help of the wind.

FOLLOW THE GUIDE, STAB WHERE IT SHOWS YOU.

Alan tried to ignore the voice, tried to ignore the pain, yet he knew that if he wanted to do well in this test he’d have to do his best. The least he could do was kill a magical cat.

A now familiar blue outline of a man appeared before Alan, charging at the beast. Alan prepared a furious, incoherent war cry, but Eve said,
 Don’t
, so he didn’t. He charged in the direction of Kitana, doing the best he could to ignore the pain, the dampness he felt on his chest. His vision began to blur.

STAB FORWARDS NOW, CONTINUE RUNNING FORWARDS.

Alan charged forwards with all his might, with the speed and last ditch effort of a runner at the finish line, thrusting the knife forwards into thin air. To his disbelief, he watched in slow motion as the hound leapt sideways onto his knife as it tried to avoid one of Kitana’s swings, cutting its own throat on the edge of Alan's knife. The hound opened its eyes in alarm and pain as Kitana used the distraction to finish it off, decapitating it with one smooth, golden tinged slash.

Alan collapsed, and knew no more.

***

Kitana gazed down at Alan, wondering if she should let him die. It might turn out for the best. She dismissed the thought as the battle high slowly wore off, leaving behind the dull grey world she knew too well.

Kitana bent down, examining Alan's wounds, locating his first aid kit and using the inside materials to patch him up as best she could. It was surprising how quickly Alan adapted, how quickly he had learned to fight. And worrying.

But no, she would wait. The full consequences of actions had always evaded her. Walking over to the corpse of the hound Kitana absentmindedly swept her gaze over its entrails, clinically examining for any weak points she should note and send on. Nothing was pixelated.

It had been a good fight, a worthy opponent, everything she had hoped to find in the Game. It was only tainted by the end... no, not tainted, but different. She would have to learn to start acting with a team. Kitana passed the item the creature had dropped, the loot as Alan had called it, on to him, a demonstration of her acknowledgement. Unlike most of the others she had never had any underlings before, but that didn't mean she couldn't start.

Kitana bent down, lifting Alan up and throwing him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She began walking back to the bunker. The life in her eyes slowly dimmed as the world seemed to revert to its natural state. Colorless.

Alan woke up, then almost immediately turned over and went back to sleep as he always did. Except, this wasn’t his bed, it was some sort of military cot. He recalled the Game, and everything else that happened, but still briefly considered going back to sleep.

No.

Alan forced himself awake, to sit up, to look about him. He was no longer the Alan that would sleep in at every chance he got, content with living a normal life, getting a normal job. He needed to start pushing himself, to try harder than he’d ever tried before. He was a Gamer now.

Alan looked around, and saw that he was back in the underground bunker, though most of the lights were off. The motionless forms of the others surrounded him. It was around 5 a.m. in the morning, explaining why everyone else was asleep. The countdown for the first round had been replaced with a new one, which displayed 12:32:17. It didn’t say who their enemies would be.

Surprisingly, despite the grievous wound that had been inflicted upon him, Alan felt fine. He ran his hand against his chest and instead of finding any bandages like he expected, he found the beginning of… muscles? That was surprising. As Alan stepped off the cot he felt soreness spread throughout his body. Did the Game really need to be that lifelike? Whatever.

Alan glanced at his HP bar as he stretched, it was full. He was now level 27.

Hey, Eve, do you know what happened after I passed out?

Kitana bandaged you up and brought you back to base, where Daisy healed you completely.

So, you were still active even though I was unconscious?

Yes, as long as you are alive I should retain awareness.

Interesting.

These messages appeared while you were unconscious.

A slew of messages appeared before Alan:

Huh, so I guess these last three messages are quests of some sort?

Affirmative.

Alright, well, I guess I should go spend my ability points.

Alan walked over to the Administrator in the corner of the bunker. It handed over another vial of blood, apparently the only loot from the boss, which was rather disappointing. The Administrator brought up the ability point purchase menu when asked.

Alan had 78 points to spend, the additional 3 coming from his Skilled ability. He was fairly certain he wanted to get the Gifted ability as well, as it gave him an additional ability point to spend on stats every five levels it was best to get it as early as possible. That left him with 28 points to spend.

Hmm, Eve, any ideas on what might be a good ability to spend the points on?

What is your definition of good?

That was actually a rather pertinent question. Before he began playing it, Alan had thought the Game would be more like a sort of fantasy game, and had decided upon playing some sort of rogue or warrior character. Instead it was a sort of military sci-fi shooter, based upon what he’d seen so far. None of the marines he'd seen wielded melee weapons, though Kitana seemed to be doing fine. He had to ask her why her sword had been glowing, though.

Additionally, everything was so lifelike, sometimes to a frightening level. Alan had been genuinely afraid of dying in the last moments before he collapsed. The level of pain was unbelievable as well, the creators of the Game hadn’t mitigated that much at all. If he ended up getting hurt that much every time he went into battle, he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to handle it…

That meant he should probably try a ranged character of some sort. A standard assault class might be best, but fighting in the front lines would probably result in Alan getting shot, or worse. So, that left becoming a sniper. That probably made the most sense; with Eve’s abilities to calculate everything, she’d be able to make all the calculations a spotter would ordinarily do. Her ability to recognize nearby enemies would be quite helpful too. Of course, a sniper would only be useful in an open field of battle, and was rather vulnerable in enclosed spaces. Maybe he could get Kitana to teach him more swordplay, or better yet be his bodyguard.

Okay, so I think I want to purchase the sniper ability, do you believe that sort of ability would be useful?
Alan asked.

Affirmative. Based upon your low tolerance for pain, such a choice suits us.

Alan rolled his eyes, then purchased the Gifted and Sniper ability for 75 points. Like before, he didn’t feel any different, but once he actually used a sniper rifle he’d probably know how to use it; the sneak ability hadn’t come into effect until he began to try to sneak about. He probably should have made sure that the aliens had sniper rifles, but whatever, too late now. Human weapons seemed fairly effective too, at least at this level.

The last three points were put into improving Alan's perception, at Eve’s request. To his surprise, the range at which Eve could detect things extended a few inches as a result. He’d never bothered with such a stat in most of the games he’d played, instead deciding to invest in more important things like strength or agility or intelligence. It might be useful to have expanded senses as a sniper though, especially with Eve.

Silently, Alan pondered what to do next. He should try to prepare for the next round, which meant spending some of the 3000 credits he’d earned. If Alan recalled correctly though, the exchange rate between credits and dollars was something around $10 for every credit, which meant that he had literally made $30,000 from surviving one round in this Tutorial!

Alan could see why if this was an enhanced Tutorial, Thiago and the others had paid Pharaoh to participate in it. It did bring up the question though of why the ship’s AI had allowed him on, but he supposed that was probably an issue for another time.

Now that Alan was more awake he began feeling hungry. Alan walked back to his cot, opening up his bag and eating a grey block of food as he wandered around the edge of the bunker, examining the tables lined with items. The grey block tasted like mush, but was filling.

Alan noticed he could buy flavoring for 5 credits, but considering that was actually $50 and he was better off spending his credits on things that would improve his combat capability, it seemed a bit extravagant. Alan made sure to step lightly as the others were still asleep.

The cheapest sniper rifle was 2500 credits, which was more than Alan wanted to spend, especially since that didn’t even include ammo costs. Thiago had said the cheapest gun was 300 credits, which, now that Alan was thinking about it, was $3000. These items sold by the Administrators seemed rather overpriced. Alan recalled that there was some sort of trading hub downtown. That also aligned with the quest of investigating San Francisco rather nicely.

Alan grabbed his bag and proceeded to the exit of the bunker. At the foot of the stairs before the exit, he found Thiago, bleary eyed, leaning against a concrete wall. Thiago stood up straight, looking over at Alan. He grinned, clapping Alan on the shoulder.

“Hey, man, nice job with that flying beast, I heard from Kitana you helped her kill it.”

“Oh, um, thanks,” Alan said hesitatingly.

“Look, I know I may have been a bit harsh last time I spoke with you, but I thought you had gotten Kitana killed. I know that you’re unfamiliar with our group, but I was nominated the leader for the expedition, and to lead effectively. To make smart, informed decisions, I need to know what’s going on, and for people to follow directions, you get me?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Okay, so is there anything else you think I should know, like the possibly exploding shield generator? Anything your AI has told you?”

Alan recalled the… abnormalities Eve had detected.

“Actually, it’s probably nothing, but, well, Eve did say something about some of our group members having non-standard human behavior.”

Thiago froze for a second, then grinned weakly. “Non-standard human behavior, like, aliens? I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed something like that. I’ve known most of these guys for months.”

“Um, right,” Alan said.

“Anyway," Thiago continued, "As I'm the leader, that means it’s my job to delegate tasks. We’ve been having a rotating guard stand here, making sure nothing enters the base. Nothing has happened so far, but since you’re up, stand guard for the next few hours. I’ve barely gotten any sleep.

"Stand outside, get a better view of what’s going on out there. There have been flashes of light, intermittent fights throughout the city, and we’re not sure if that’s normal for the Game, or if something special is happening. Just for the next few hours.”

“Okay, but I want—”

“Oh, also, we’ll be deciding what we’re all doing later at 7:30. I'll assign tasks then. Do you have any preferences?”

“Um, as I was saying, I want to go downtown to see if I can purchase some things. There was a mention of a trading hub by someplace called the Metreon.”

“Hmm, alright. The first priority will probably be repairing the shield generator, though. Goodnight. Feel free to take the jacket by the exit.”

“Um goodnight.”

Alan stepped outside, grabbing the jacket. He’d never stood guard before. How hard could it be?

***

Over the next few hours the only enemy Alan had to fight off was boredom, and that was easily solved by having Eve go through her database and give him tips on how to be a proper sniper. To his surprise, a lot of the information came easily, even naturally. Probably because of the ability he'd purchased.

Around 8 a.m., when Alan began wondering if they were going to include him in their discussion, or if he was left outside purposefully, Aphrodite stepped out of the bunker, stopping right in front of Alan, a bit too close for his comfort. She smelled nice, with a faint scent of lilac. The Game didn’t require regular showers or hygiene maintenance, but Alan could see the appeal in a sense of cleanliness.

“You can go down now. I’ll take over from here.” Aphrodite smiled dazzlingly.

“Um, alright, thanks,” Alan replied, stepping down the stairs a bit awkwardly.

Thiago had Alan examine the shield generator first. Not wanting to anger the rest of the group, Alan did so. He noted that he had never elected Thiago leader, but kept silent.

It turned out that, according to Eve at least, the shield generator had a malfunctioning part. It was determined that Alan would head off downtown with Daisy and Ace to try to find a replacement part and buy whatever else seemed useful.

Daisy was coming along because it was her shield generator, and she needed to buy the part to fix it according to the Administrator, while Ace apparently had connections with the US military, who were supposedly in control of the city. He would also act as their bodyguard. Everyone else would be sent out in rotating pairs, scouting out nearby landmarks, gathering information and guarding the base. Aphrodite with Thiago, DaLong with Kitana and MadMerlin with KingArthur.

***

An hour later, after a brisk walk from the base, Alan found himself approaching downtown San Francisco. They hadn’t encountered any enemies on the way there, though traffic seemed to pick up as they reached downtown. A few cars raced by on the roads every so often, and there were other people walking about, mostly in military fatigues. Eve pointed out a few possible sniper nests in the skyscrapers and office buildings. Eve confirmed some of them contained actual snipers. How she could tell, Alan had no idea.

To get downtown there was a security checkpoint, but it didn’t seem very restrictive. Once Ace let the guards know they were undergoing the Tutorial they were waved past without anyone even checking their weapons. As they neared the downtown mall and the crowds began to swell to the hundreds, Alan started to worry that it might end up looking like a normal mall. He needn’t have worried, however. The transformation was glorious.