Chapter 24

Peeking around the tree I was behind, I could hear the distinct sounds of a firefight nearby. I took a quick peek at my team and noted that Millers health was halfway down. Shit, she must have been hit. I found my thoughts drifting to TJ and his partner, were they taking this lull in bullets flying their way as a chance to run, or were they waiting to see what happened? I doubted they would so easily give up on whatever the dead soldier had.

As I crept out from behind the tree, once again Tays voice rang out;

TAYS TIDBITS

Congratulations! You have unlocked the skill Stealthy - Level 1. It has been added to your skills under your status menu.

That one was much more expected, as I had been basically creeping around the better part of this day so far. It also made me wonder how common some of these skills were, or if they were limited in some way, like the system unlocked things in a path. Sneaking around and peeking at things got you Recon skills, as an example, or if you rushed into firefights you would get more combat oriented skills.

Shaking the thought away, I progressed slowly, dodging from tree to tree as I got closer to the firefight. I suddenly spotted the third recon soldier, maybe 150 feet away; his body was positioned on the side of his tree with his frank exposed to me. He must have figured when he killed Lozano that the threat from this side was gone, and moved to engage Slampa and Miller. As I watched, he moved closer to the north towards them, still moving from free to free while firing volleys.

Slow and steady, I kept pace with him, while getting more behind him. I was hoping he would position himself in a way that I could see the last soldier that Miller and Slampa were fighting as well.

Eventually he pulled in between a cluster of 3 trees bunched together, forming almost a wall for him to fire between. His back was perfectly exposed though. As I took up behind my own tree, I took a knee, finding the mode switch on the side and switching it to SEMI-AUTOMATIC. As I put it up to my shoulder, just like Tay had shown me, I took deep steadying breaths, aiming down the barrel. I aimed for center mass; even knowing he had armor on, I could pop off several shots before he knew what was going on.

I pumped the trigger - once, twice, thrice… the ammo ticker going down, I didn’t stop until it had reached 10/190.

As I watched, the bullets peppered the poor NPC; even though I aimed center mass, I didn’t have good control over the barrel. I still wasn’t holding it strongly, and would need to practice more. But even so, the bullets ripped through the air, several punching into his back, one through his right leg, and it seemed like one impacted his neck. He fell to the ground, immediately dead.

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YOU HAVE GAINED 50 EXPERIENCE

Wow, that wasn’t too hard. I didn’t have time to celebrate, I could hear the other shots from nearby. As I left the protection of my tree, I could make out the silhouette of someone in white firing around a tree trunk. It looked like Slampa, as it was obvious he was firing a pistol. I followed his gaze, spying the last soldier. It looked like he had taken a bullet through the shoulder, but wasn’t even close to dead. I had a prime spot to help out, aiming down the barrel, I repeated the same process; emptying the rest of the clip.

YOU HAVE GAINED 50 EXPERIENCE

LEVEL UP! You are now a level 2 Trainee. Congratulations!

You have one Skill Upgrade point available.

Skill upgrade point? Huh… interesting. But there were more important things.

TRAINEE WATSON TO PARTY CHAT: Last one down, everyone OK?

TRAINEE SLAMPA: Miller got hit in her thigh. I was able to stop the bleeding, but shes hurting. I don’t think she will be able to walk out of here without help. Positive though, he got some experience from those two kills!

TRAINEE WATSON: Copy. Sucks Lozano got killed, but we can meet up after we are out of here. You stay with Miller, and I’ll see what these guys have.

I brushed myself off as I stood straight. Man, my legs are cramping… I wonder how I looked that entire time outside? I’ll have to ask Diondre later if I remember.

Walking over to the first soldier I shot, I realized I could inspect him even though he was dead. That's interesting;

RECON SOLDIER - NPC

DEATH VIA GUNSHOT BY TRAINEE WATSON - LEVEL 1

LOOT AVAILABLE? YES

Something suddenly dawned on me, and I swiveled my head toward the clearing. The NPC’s actions made perfect sense now. These were all the soldiers in the recon party, TJ had happened to pick off the Recon Sergeant. The ‘leaders’ of these teams must be how they coordinated in logical patterns; by killing the Sergeant, it removed any ‘tactics’ they may have employed and they must have gone toward some sort of default status; hide and shoot at thing shooting at us.

Another thing I would have to ask about later. I reached out to start checking pockets of the soldier, and as I touched him a box opened up. Ah, this must be some sort of loot menu.

JAMES TO ADMIN CHAT: Hey Diondre, so is this all I can loot off of this guy?

DIONDRE: Yes. You can take clothing off the NPC’s, but much like the clothing your wearing, its a default cosmetic choice. Even though this guy has a helmet and armor, it won’t provide any real protection unless its lootable equipment. Weapons are different, as long as you can touch it, you can loot them once dropped; no disarming someone just for getting close to them.

JAMES: Thanks, thats exactly what I wanted to know.

As I focused on the loot box, all that was available was a single Medical Kit, and some ammo. I went ahead and took them, taking a second to mentally click on the kit;

BASIC MEDICAL KIT

Consumable Item

Uses: 1/1

Use this item on yourself or one party member within 25 feet to heal 25% of their health and stop all bleeding.

TRAINEE WATSON TO PARTY CHAT: Hey Slampa, lets try this on Miller in a second.

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