We found ourselves in a large hangar similar to the one we had just left, but instead of seven podiums, there were seven massive computer screens. “Welcome to The Game Store System, for every kill, you get GamePoints, which are used to purchase weapons, armor and enhancements separate from upgrade chambers. You have all received 50,000 Points as well as the kills you’ve already gotten. Game stores are scattered throughout all levels of the game,” announced a robotic voice. “Awesome!” I exclaimed. My total balance put me just short of 125,000 points. “Hey Stora, do you think you could get us a new set of wheels? I asked. “Of course, do you think 100,000 points is gonna be enough?” She replied “Oh, it doesn’t have to be fancy, just something that has room for all of us.” I suggested. After that I went over to my screen and started to browse the available weaponry. I was looking for something with a bit more penetration, if we had to fight something armoured, my crossbow would be useless. I didn’t find anything that pleased me, so I decided to look at armor. There I found the Reflective armor, some of the best armor in the game. Designed to reflect back any projectiles, it was virtually impenetrable. But at a price of 250,000 points it was also just a dream. Finding nothing else I decided to go check out upgrades. There, I found a few things that I thought were worth it. I got a repeater attachment for my crossbow, letting my use it more like a machine gun, and upgraded my standard ammunition to diamond tipped bolts. That should give me the penetration I wanted. In the armor section, I managed to find plates of the reflective armor that I could add to my current armor, for a much cheaper price. Satisfied, I left my screen to go see what my squad had gotten.
I went to go see The Defender first. He had gone heavy on the armor! He had purchased a huge armoured suit with a white visor to protect the face. The rest was painted jet black. He also seemed to have sold his M16 and opted for a heavier machinegun. “Wow!” I exclaimed, “How much did all of this cost?” “The suit cost 200,000 Points and 50,000 for the gun, and this is the cheapest version of the set,” He replied. “Wow! Where did you manage to get all those points?” I inquired. “While you were lost we spent a night fending off a horde of zombies, I started with 175,000 points and got 25,000 for my M16. I took a loan for the gun.” He explained. “You can take loans?” I inquired. “Yeah, it’s in the “others” section, but…” The Defender began to explain, but I was gone before he finished his sentence. I rushed back to my screen and found the loan section. I considered the possibilities, but decided to wait. I took a look at the Argon armor and found what I was looking for. I added it to my upgrade sequence. That way I would gradually receive parts of it through upgrade chambers. Happy, I went to see what Stora had managed to get us. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. She had somehow managed to get an old military supply truck. She had already removed the tarp and added a machine gun turret to the rear. She seemed to be working on the engine of the vehicle, as there were plenty of parts surrounding it. “Hi Seth” She said, sliding out from under the vehicle. “Managed to get this baby used for 100,000 Points, and after the new engine is in she’ll run like new,” “Great job!” I replied. “What do we have as far as firepower goes?” “Well, turrets like the one you see there are cheaper than I thought. I also got a front mounting turret for forward firepower. Still haven't put it on yet,” She eagerly explained. “Great” I answered. I decided to go check on iZ next. I found him fiddling with a massive gauntlet mounted on his good wrist. I guessed it was a flamethrower. I was right as a trail of fire leapt from it. I noticed that both wrists had very similar looking plating. “Hey, what’d you get?” I inquired. “I got this flamethrower gauntlet thing for my good wrist and a grenade launcher for the robotic one. The grenade launcher uses slow-time grenades. I also upgraded the armor plating on my armor and arm, but when I get enough points I'm hoping to get the V12.” He explained. Before I continue should explain that the V12 armor is the heaviest armor in The Game offering the best protection from all weapons. “Really? Isn’t it like 300,000 credits?” I asked, surprised. “Yeah, I’ll get there eventually. I still have 50,000 credits,” He replied. “Cool, well good luck with that,” I said. Next I went to check on Avril. When I got to her screen, I didn’t see her. That is, before she suddenly appeared right in front of me. She was wearing some strange looking armor. “You like it?” She asked. “Yeah, but what is it?” I inquired. “What do you think it is? It’s clearly a cloaking suit!” She annoyingly replied. “Awesome, but it looks expensive. That all you get?” I questioned. “That, and this,” She said as she pulled a long, high quality dagger from her belt. She disappeared again after that, so I went looking for Irin. I found her toying with a very large sniper rifle. “Hi Seth!” She exclaimed. “Hey, that’s a nice gun you got there,” I said. “Thanks, it’s all I had enough to get but now I can contribute to long range battles.” Irin explained. “Yeah, that’s great! Have you ever used one before?”I asked. “No, but it can’t be that hard” Irin replied. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” I answered, deciding to go find Rika. When I got to her screen, I found a cat sitting there before it morphed into Rika. “Hi Seth!” She said. She was wearing some sort of glowing necklace. “It’s a shape shifting pendant, before you ask, it lets me turn into any creature, I’ve encountered before.” I wasn’t exactly sure how that would be useful in battle, but I said “Great” anyways. Happy with my squad’s purchases, I went back to Stora and helped her work on our transport. After another half hour of work, it was done. When everyone was in Stora’s area, the room lit up and the hangar door opened. We all got in the transport and set of.
We found ourselves driving through a dense jungle. We were surrounded by massive trees which blocked out most of the light. The air was so humid that after a few moments, my helmet had fogged up. The hum of several cicadas was constantly in the air, giving an eerie feel to the jungle. The Defender had bought a radio and set it down on the ground. The music did nothing to lighten the mood. After another few hours of driving we stopped to set up camp. “Hey, Avril could you scout the area around us?” I inquired. “I thought you’d never ask,” she replied as she hopped off the truck and vanished into the undergrowth. While she was gone we set up a watch schedule and got a fire going. Within the hour Avril had returned. “Not much around us found a few dead wolves, looked like they had been torn apart by something,” She explained. “My guess is that the zombies got them,” Suggested Rika. “Yeah, keep an eye open on watch then,” I said. It was getting dark so everyone decided to go to bed. We did not sleep long. I guessed that about an hour after nightfall they came; hordes and hordes of zombies. I had been on watch when it all started they poured out of the trees and took me by surprise. Luckily the truck wasn’t far and I managed to get to the turret before they did any real damage. I yelled out to my squad for them to wake up. And within moments the defender was beside me, protecting us with his shield while mowing through zombies. I saw a group of zombies moving really slowly and guessed iZ was up. He soon joined us at the truck Irin had also sliced her way through and was setting up her sniper rifle. Avril was also on doing her part, several corpses lay at behind the throng of undead. Pulling out my repeater crossbow I set out to find Rika and Stora who had still not made it to the truck. I found them surrounded by zombies using my zweihander I cut my way through and beaconed for them to come. We slowly fought our way back to the truck. Once there Stora started it and fought our way out of the clearing we had chosen as a campsite. Rika managed to summon a pile of rocks to slow the zombies. We eventually reached a series of large white buildings. “Welcome to the training center,” Said the robotic voice. “It’s about time,” Said The Defender. A large door opened and Stora drove the truck into the building. The building had the same layout as all the others except that there was a large computer screen in one corner. I assumed it was a Game Store. We all unloaded our things and then almost everyone rushed to the screen. I knew there would be a long wait so I checked out the sim room. More scenarios and monsters had been added, but I decided to save those for a group exercise. I started up a stealth mission hoping to practice with my hand crossbows. I ran the sim quite quickly, using tranq darts and a throwing knife to clear my way through the mission. Once I was done the screen was free so I decided to take a look. The battle in the clearing had given me 75,000 points leaving me with 100,000 points in total. I looked through the weapons section and found a rather interesting sidearm. It was a gauntlet, similar to the ones iZ had, but this one launched arcs of lightning at its target. The price was 100,000 points, and I couldn’t resist it. After I purchased it the screen asked what armor affiliation I wanted. I scrolled down and found reflective armor plating. Luckily it was included because I was flat out of money. The gauntlet appeared and I put it on. Then I went to get some much needed sleep.
The next day everyone spent the morning practicing individual scenarios, while the afternoon was spent honing our skills as a team. As far as upgrades went, The Defender had paid off his debt and Avril had purchased a power upgrade for her suit allowing her to stay cloaked longer. At the end of the day we were all tired and decided to get a move on the next morning. Chapter 7 Meanwhile, in another yet very similar training center, another hunter squad was gathered around a table. On the table was the corpse of a girl, with a massive hole through her chest, as well as several other minor injuries. A shadowy figure moved around the table drawing symbols and making preparations for the ceremony to come. At last it was done, and the man began an incantation. After a good ten minutes of complicated syllables the corpse stood up with a groan and maniacal laughter could be heard throughout the building. At last the man spoke: “Now go forth my minion and rally the undead of this place to our cause!” The ritual complete, the man fell to the ground in exhaustion. ≡≡¥≡≡ After everyone had packed up, we all loaded in the truck and got going. It was a long, uneventful morning, but all of that was about to change. The truck came to a sudden halt after almost crashing into a large pile of boulders blocking the path ahead. We could have simply used the truck to blow the up, but the noise would have attracted… Unwanted attention. ≡≡¥≡≡ On a hill almost a mile ahead of the boulders, the man in the suit smiled. He issued a series of short commands through his headset, and a large sniper rifle appeared. It was a similar model to the one Irin had purchased, except that it did a lot more damage. His preparations complete, all that was left to do was wait for the right moment. ≡≡¥≡≡ I decided to use some of the various equipment I had purchased the other day to move the rocks out of the way. I had bought some “silent charges”, basically completely silent explosives. Everyone retreated to the truck but me, the detonator only had a certain range. I raised my arm and began to count down from three. I never made it that far. All that I remember from that point on is the pain.
A lot happened after I was shot that day. First, a zombie rushed towards me with almost superhuman speed, before falling lifeless to the ground before me. Then, I could feel something stir quite close to me. “What the bloody ‘ell is going on?” Said a deep voice inside my head. It is at this point that I should probably explain another side effect of reflective armor. It has, soul catching abilities, so to say. ≡≡¥≡≡ Believing the shot to be a kill, the sniper smiled, turned and left to find transport. ≡≡¥≡≡ At first, the shot confused the rest of the hunter squad, but after they saw Seth go down, total chaos ensued. Stora passed out, Rika screamed and Avril burst into tears. The Defender practically flew to Seth’s side, and had created a bubble shield around them, just to be safe. The wound was bad, but could have been much, much worse. Had Seth not had his arm up when he was shot, he would have been dead. The bullet had passed through his arm, leaving only bone all the way up to the elbow. The bullet had then continued its path of destruction, passing through the chest plate. However, upon close inspection, the armor had stopped the bullet. A shiny gold glint could be seen through the centimetre deep hole in the armor. By the time The Defender had finished examining the wound, Rika had arrived. She began to dress the wound when now skeletal arm shot out and began to strangle her. The Defender quickly pulled Rika from its clutches. They both stared confusedly at the arm, knowing that Seth was unconscious. “Rika just stem the bleeding we’ll deal with the rest later” Ordered The Defender. After the wound was sealed, The Defender cautiously switched Seth’s lighting gauntlet to the injured wrist. “I don’t think the bullet went through his chest, so it shouldn’t be fatal,” said Rika.
She fumbled around with the bag and pulled out a rather large needle. The Defender gave her a strange look. “Its morphine, should help dull the pain,” She explained. The Defender gave her a slightly worried stare but allowed her to inject Seth. To make matters worse, the squad was about to get some… unwanted company. A combat chopper flew overhead and the noise alerted the undead of the forest. “Zombies!” Exclaimed iZ as they flooded out from the woods. “Everyone form a circle around Seth” Ordered The Defender. Once everyone was in place, he activated a dome shaped force field around the group. They tried their best to fend off the horde, but a few eventually got through to Seth. When they did reach him, they were surprised to find him, or at least a part of him fighting back. Seth’s injured arm shot out, passing through one zombie’s chest, instantly killing it, then turned and electrocuted another. Although they did not comprehend it, the group appreciated the help. Little they know, the beast that possessed Seth’s arm was growing in power. The “skeletal” infection had now spread past the gauntlet and was now visible. The group was unable to fend off the zombies for much longer, so they ran. With the Defender covering them, Rika and Avril dragged Seth back to the truck and they sped off in the direction of the shooter.
Chapter 8 I found myself stumbling through a mist, and there, I saw the vague outline of a man. “Who are you?” I demanded. “They call me Mancer,” replied the figure. “What do you want with me, why are you here!,” I yelled confused as to what was happening. “Well, I originally wanted to devour your soul and use you as a weapon, but thanks to your reflective plating I'm stuck in your arm,” explained Mancer. He seemed very blunt. “So I guess we’ll have to compromise.” “Wait… where am I?” I inquired, still very confused. “You’re in your mind… probably talking to yourself while unconscious,” elaborated Mancer. “Look neither of us really wants to be in this situation, but I'm not leaving until you give me your soul or find me a new host.” “Well then… what do you suppose we do until then?” I asked. “Well your wrist weapon is stopping me from advancing any further, but I still have control of your arm. Before I try to take over someone else, I need to regenerate, remove the tips of your gauntlet and I will be your greatest weapon, stealing the souls of all that stand in your way,” Suggested Mancer. I wasn’t really in any position to agree, so that’s just what I did. “Very well” “Now until then I strongly recommend you regain consciousness and get back to whatever you were doing, you should not feel any pain in your arm,” And with that, the figure vanished. I still had plenty of unanswered questions, but I decided to follow his advice. ≡≡¥≡≡ Back in reality, Seth was finally coming to. He did so rather normally, for someone who had just spent the last half hour talking to themselves.
He merely opened his eyes, took a look at his injured arm and said, “Well that don’t look healthy.” Before he even had a chance to finish his sentence, he got a hug from Stora and was assailed with questions from both Rika and The Defender. ≡≡¥≡≡ “Seth! You’re ok!” Exclaimed Stora. “How’s your arm, can you move it, does it hurt?” Demanded Rika. “Do you remember anything? Inquired The Defender. I chuckled and said “Good to be back” “This must be your hunter squad, looks like a decent group of people” added Mancer. “My arm is fine Rika, it doesn’t seem to hurt at all,” I replied, not wanting to disclose Mancer’s existence. “And no Defender I don’t remember much, only the trajectory of the bullet, but I bet if we went back to where I was shot I could probably figure out exactly where the bullet came from.” Upon hearing that I was ok, everyone hopped back into their positions on the truck and we turned around and sped back in the direction we had come. Once we arrived, I decided to re-create what had happened. After hours and hours of tedious work, I managed to single out an area where I believed the shooter to be. “The shot, was fired from that ridge,” I said, pointing to a distant bump in the land. “Are you sure someone could hit you from that far away?” Asked Irin. “It would be near impossible for an amateur, but for someone with experience, it would be a slice of pie.” I replied. Upon reaching the hill, it was clearly evident that the sniper had been hiding here. The most obvious sign was definitely the large sniper rifle perched on the edge of the hill. I slowly approached it, checking to see if it was booby trapped and without moving the gun, looked down its sight. “He was definitely here,” I declared. The sight was aimed exactly where I had been shot.
“Hey Seth, come and take a look at this!” Exclaimed Stora. I began to follow her when I noticed a slight glint in the grass to the right of the sniper. It was the bullet casing. I picked it up and examined it in my hand. There was a logo at the back of the bullet and upon closer imagination, my greatest fears were confirmed. The logo would easily be recognized by anyone on my squad. It was the logo of the company that created the game, and it meant that they were trying to kill me. “How interesting, I guess we have something in common,” Said Mancer. “What do you mean?” I inquired. “Well I'm the computer hacker responsible for the complex ability making system in the game. You see my ability to take over souls was never supposed to be a part of the game; I invented it myself and decided to publish the software. It became so popular so fast; the makers of the game could do nothing but to adopt it.” Explained Mancer. I decided to keep my findings secret from the rest of my squad for now; they had worse things to worry about.
Chapter 9 “Looks like we have company,” Said Mancer. “Zombies, and lots of em are coming out of the woods!” Yelled iZ. “Get the truck blocking the way up to the hill. iZ I want you on the turret, Irin get on the ridge and snipe. The rest, support, iZ,” I calmly explained. It was time to have some fun. As I began to load my crossbow, I felt a jerk of pain sear through Mancer’s arm. “That’s sniper is still loaded you know, I could make good use to it. Just pull the trigger when I tell you to,” Ordered Mancer. I didn’t have any other bright ideas so I went over to the sniper. There was only one clip so Mancer would have to time his shots well for maximum effect. Once I had a firm grasp of the riffle, Mancer’s arm swerved the gun left and right finally settling on an area near some boulders, where zombies were pouring out. “Shoot” Making almost no noise, but with incredible recoil, the riffle let loose. At least four zombies splattered to pieces, bits of organs flying everywhere. I chuckled: this was gonna be amusing. “Shoot” Another three dead. I focused all of my attention into what I saw through the scope, ignoring the sounds of battle around me. This time I aimed the shot myself and fired. A row of zombies were decapitated. There seemed to be no end to the horde. I checked back to my squad, and they seemed to be doing alright. “Roll over now!” Boomed Mancer. His sudden interruption startled me and I jumped to the side, just as an arrow impaled itself where I had been standing moments ago. “Seth they have a leader, look on the boulders!” Yelled Stora frantically. I aimed my scope at the boulders and gasped. Moragana’s animated corpse was directing the zombies. “Someone you know?” Chuckled Mancer. “Yeah, she used to be in my squad before she got killed off,” I hissed. “Heh looks like you’ve pissed off a necromancer,” Retorted Mancer I aimed my riffle directly at her, but I hesitated before I took the shot. But, some invisible power forced my finger to pull the trigger. I stared, rooted to the spot as Moragana flew backwards, into the horde of zombies. “Damn!” I cursed. I kept scanning the area around her when Mancer’s arm suddenly jerked the gun upwards and I fired the gun. A zombie had managed to scale the cliff, but now lay in pieces in front of me. “Pay more attention next time” Demanded Mancer. Once again, I aimed at the boulders and to my surprise, Moragana’s corpse had risen once again and was staring right at me. She raised her bony finger and pointed in my direction. I quickly tried to take the shot, but lucky for me, the sniper was out of ammo. I put the sniper down behind me and picked up my crossbow. Looks like the hunter has become the hunted. “Stora I need backup!” I yelled. “Hang on Seth, I’m coming!” She replied. As she approached, I pulled out the case of grenades I had bought previously. Repetitively pulling the pins, I dropped all four off the cliff face into the mass of zombies that had begun forming at the bottom. Stora had arrived and began unpacking a strange device. It was not until she added wheels to it that I understood what it was. She had a little remote controlled vehicle. “This aint time for fun and games,” I said with a chuckle. “Just give me all of your explosives,” She ordered. “Fine” I pulled a pipe bomb and the remaining silent explosives out of my bag and gave them to her. She pulled out a roll of duct tape and skilfully strapped all the explosives to the car. She wired them all to a small timer and pulled out the controller. “Wow,” I said, understanding her plan. “Can I drive it?” “No,” Replied Stora with a grin. She set the timer and the car sped towards the ledge. It flew off and time seemed to slow as the car fell towards the ground. Time ran out mere seconds before the vehicle would have hit the ground. In an ear-splitting moment it was all over. All that remained was a massive crater. But, the explosion had taken its toll on the cliff too. The edges began to crumble and I decided it was time to get outta there. “Stora, Irin, let’s go!” I ordered. “We’re breaking out of here!” We sprinted towards the vehicle and everyone hoped in. As we sped down the hill we encountered little resistance, as most of the zombies had pulled back to the ledge. Our escape seemed to be sealed when we ran over a crawling zombie. We were travelling so fast that the vehicle flipped and soared through the air. “Brace f!” I began to say before the wind was knocked out of me.
When I regained consciousness, I was surrounded by a veil of fog. The truck was nowhere in sight. I could still see a vague canopy, so I guessed I was still in the forest. I made sure I had no broken bones, and found that Mancer’s arm was bent at a very strange angle. I tried to establish contact with him, but to no avail. Suddently, I saw a figure approaching through the mist. “Hello Sethy” cackled a voice. “It’s good to see you’re well, oh I'm sorry did you hurt your arm?” It was Moragana. She had somehow survived the blast and had found me before the others. “You abandoned me you know that day I fell. You left me to die,” I heard between bouts of maniacal laughter. Although she had found me before the others, I had woken before then and still had my weapons on me. I brandished one of my throwing knives and focused on where the laughter was coming from. With a little help from my helmet’s targeting system, I tossed my knife and the laughter stopped. Moragana was down but definitively not out. I bullet bounced off of my chestplate without leaving a dent. Moragana was soon upon me with her greatsword, and we quickly became locked in combat. The fight was going nowhere until Moragana jabbed at my chest and by sheer luck, hit the hit the bullet imbedded into my armor. The bullet erupted through the armor and into my chest. I doubled over in pain. “Ha, now you will feel the pain I felt and that I continue to feel now. She raised her sword above my neck and I waited for death to come. It never did. I think I may of blacked out, for when I awoke, Moragana had her back turned to me and was attacking a little girl. The girl was losing and Moragana was enjoying toying with her. Her interest gone, she swatted the girl with the broad side of her sword and she flew back. I became filled with a sudden hate for the creature that Moragana had become and charged at her. Upon pure instinct I rammed Mancer’s arm through her chest, aimed at her heart, and Mancer took over the rest. Within moments Moragana’s corpse went limp and Mancer let it drop to the ground. I noticed that my arm was no longer bent or broken. “Thank you” Said Mancer. “Why so?” I asked “Well as you saw, I was injured on the fall. Moragana’s corpse was being possessed by a demon. Although the souls of the living can replenish my energy only the souls of demons can regenerate me,” Explained Mancer. “Although you my friend, seem to be injured yourself. It looks like the bullet hasn’t pierced any organs, and is still partially in your armor. It’ll hurt but you won’t die from it,” He continued. “Great. Any ideas on where everyone else is?” I inquired. “Actually yes. You fell out of the truck while it flew through the air and the truck kept going. It should be north from here.” Detailed Mancer. I noticed something lying in the ground near where I had fallen. It was my crossbow! I guess I had landed on top of it since it was practically broken in half. I decided to get Stora to try and fix it. With that I gritted my teeth started off in a northern direction trusting my helmet to guide me through the fog. Chapter 10 Meanwhile, the rest of the hunter squad was licking its wounds. The vehicle had been badly damaged during the fall and Stora was working hard to fix it. The Defender had broken his arm in the fall, and Irin had an arrow in the leg. Rika was very busy tending to the two. Avril had suffered a mild concussion from the impact and was recovering. iZ had survived the crash with only cuts and burns helped Rika and Stora out as best he could. Morale was low since Seth had once again gone missing. Stora was in the process of re-attaching the front mounted machine gun when a figure stumbled through the mist.