> Heartbeat Sensor’s stats:
> The area within which enemies can be detected: 3 meters
> The sound the device emits: loud
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Name: Medium Armor 1
> Description: The medium armor you wear gets an additional layer of armor, so the total amount of damage you take gets decreased by 5%.
> Cost: 1 skill point
All the five skills seemed very important to me. I decided to learn the Drone 1 skill first. Looked like a pretty handy skill. I then checked out the current stats of my character.
> Statistics:
> Health: 100/100
> Stamina: 100/100
> Speed: 3 m/s
> Skills learned:
> 1. Drone
> The drone’s stats:
> Amor: 50
> Jump reload: 3 seconds
> Jump height: 1 foot
> Movement speed: 1 m/sec
I walked to the computer desk, grabbed the cell phone and the badge and put them in pockets of my jacket. I also noticed that I already had medium body armor on. After making sure I had a service pistol in the holster on my right hip, I left the apartment.
In front of the apartment building sat a police cruiser. It was my car. I slid in behind the wheel, stuck the key in the ignition, and twisted it, starting the engine. I then pulled from the curb and drove for the rendezvous point with Flynn.
Ten minutes later, I arrived at the place. I pulled over to the curb in front of a jewelry store and cut the engine. Pushing the door open, I got out of the police cruiser.
Looking around, I spotted a player standing on the sidewalk across from the jewelry store. He was short but sturdy, with close-cropped blond hair. He was dressed in a black jacket and denim pants. As my eyes locked on the player, his stats popped up in my HUD.
> Name: Violator
> Level: 1
I recognized Flynn as at once. You could create as many characters as you wanted, but you couldn’t change your character’s physical appearance in this game. In Heist Online, a player’s character always looked like his or her usual self in real life.
“Hey Flynn,” I said as I walked up to him.
“Hey Striker,” he replied. “I mean, Unkas.”
“Let’s continue to call each other Striker and Flynn,” I suggested. “For the sake of convenience.”
“That’d be fine with me,” he said as he nodded once. “Look, Striker. I gotta go IRL. It’s kinda an emergency. Sorry about that. But I’ll be back in a couple of hours, okay?”
“No problem. I’ll be here.”
“Okay.”
After we then exchanged our new phone numbers, he went offline. I returned to my car, slid in behind the wheel, and pulled out my cell phone. I visited crime.com and its homepage popped up. The map of the playable area appeared on the screen. There were lots of icons of various contacts on the map. I took some time to examine them. There were plenty of missions to choose from. There were lots of icons of ongoing heists on the screen.
I spotted an icon of a diamond store being robbed. The place was only half a block from my position. I tapped on the icon and a piece of info appeared on the screen of my cell phone.
> Name: Small Diamond Store
> Level Requirement: 0-3
> Difficulty: Easy
> Objective: Your goal is to prevent the criminals from robbing the place by arresting or killing them.
> Additional information: The Small Diamond Store has been being robbed for 04min 39sec by now.
> (Do you want to pick this mission: Yes/No)
So whoever was robbing the place had crashed in there almost five minutes ago. Which meant it wouldn’t be long before they finished and raced away from the place. If I were to try and stop them, I had to hurry so that to get to the diamond store in time to catch them.
However, I didn’t feel like doing missions right now. Especially, I wasn’t all that keen to deal with heisters on my own or with some random players. I decided to just drive around the city and think instead.
So I pulled from the curb and drove away.
I tooled up and down the roads for about fifteen minutes. Sometimes I heard police sirens in the distance or caught glimpses of car chases. Everything went as usual in this game.
I dropped by a weapon store to buy a tactical vest, a few extra magazines for my pistol, as well as several fragmentation grenades.
An hour later, I happened to drive past a small bank. I recognized it at once. It was the same bank that Allison, Flynn, and I had robbed twice. The first time we failed to do it in stealth because Allison forgot to attach a sound suppressor on her pistol before she shot down a surveillance camera. We had to deal with cops, yet we managed to take care of them and get away with the money stolen from the bank. And then before we could reach the van and finish the heist, we were attacked and robbed by the British gang.
As I drove by the bank, I looked in its direction. All seemed peaceful and quiet. However, something bothered me. No NPC walked in or out of the building and I couldn’t detect any activity in the building through the windows.
If the bank was being robbed at the moment, then one of the heisters might keep watch over the street. I didn’t notice any players in the building, but it didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t in there. Probably one of them was in the security room, watching the feed from one of the outdoor security cameras.
If the bank was actually being robbed, I didn’t want the heisters to know that I was about to interfere with their plans. So I passed the bank without stopping. After driving half a block, I pulled in an alley and applied the brakes.
I then used the skill I recently learned, deploying a small twin-wheeled robot. I opened the driver’s-side door and placed the drone on the ground. After taking my cell phone out, I tapped on a special app that allowed me to control the robot and watch the video feed from its camera.
I took the cell phone in both hands and turned it horizontally. When the tips of my fingers touched the controls, the drone whizzed to life and rolled toward the mouth of the alley. It felt like playing a video game. The thought made me chuckle. Playing a video game on your cell phone while being inside a virtual reality video game.
The drone rolled out of the alley, turned to the left, and headed for the bank. A couple of minutes later, it reached the building. As I guided the robot around the structure, I looked for a means of entry. I noticed a small vent in the eastern wall and steered the drone through it.
Once inside, I took a look around to get my bearings. The drone was in a corridor. I recognized the place. I steered the drone down the corridor and spotted a door that led to the teller room. I peeked inside. There were three NPC lying on the floor with their hands cuffed behind their backs. I drove on and saw another door down the corridor. This one led to the security room. I steered the drone in and saw a girl at the desk. In front of her was a bank of security monitors. She wore a ski mask, so I couldn’t see her nickname.
She didn’t notice me because her back was to the door. The player was talking to her teammates.
“Yeah, I’m watching the outdoor cameras right now,” she said. “That cop didn’t return. I’m telling ya, he just drove by. He didn’t notice a thing, so believe me, he ain’t gonna get back.”
Since she was talking on the phone, I could hear only her end of the conversation with her teammates.
After a few seconds, she spoke again. “Of course, I’m gonna continue to keep watch. You guys keep your eyes open too. Anyway, how much time is left until the vault door’s open?”
She listened to what her teammate told her and nodded. “Good.”
Judging from her answer, her teammates were about to get in the vault to grab the money and get out of here. I didn’t have much time.
I steered the drone out of the security room before the girl could notice the small robot.
A mess
age popped up in front of me.
> You have just discovered an ongoing crime. This mission is private now, so only your friends can join you. If you make this mission public, it will appear on the map and random players will be able to join.
> (Do you want to make this mission public: Yes/No)
I wasn’t all that eager to play with random players.
I guided the drone around the corner and entered the lobby. More cuffed NPCs lying on the floor. I also spotted the second player wearing a balaclava and toting an assault rifle. He idly wandered around the room, watching the hostages.
Yet he failed to notice the drone. Amateur.
I rolled into the office and saw more hostages. The NPCs were scattered all over the bank. These players hadn’t even bothered to gather all the hostages in one place so it could be easier to keep an eye on them. These players were newbies, all right.
The third player was standing next to a big drill, which was working on the vault door. The player heard the whizzing sound the drone was emitting and looked around. Luckily, I managed to dive under a desk in time, so the player didn’t notice the drone. Now that the small robot wasn’t moving, it didn’t produce any sounds. The player looked around the room but failed to spot the drone. He didn’t notice anything suspicious, so he relaxed.
I mulled over my options for a minute. The odds were three to one. But the heisters weren’t aware of me, so I still had the element of surprise and could get the drop on the three players. Moreover, they were complete novices, so I was sure that I would be able to deal with the three of them by myself.
I swung the driver’s-side door open and stepped out of the car. I walked along the alley, turned around the corner, and headed for the bank. As I strode down the street, I checked the feed from the drone’s camera every now and then.
When I almost reached the building, the drill cracked the vault door and it swung open. The player walked in the vault. A few seconds later, another player––the one who had been watching the hostages in the lobby––entered the vault as well. However, the girl didn’t join them. Probably, she stayed in the security room to watch the feed from the surveillance cameras.
I walked around the building, staying beyond the range of the outdoor surveillance cameras. The side door was open. However, there was another camera just above the door. When I walked through the door, the girl would surely notice me. So I had to act very fast.
I dashed toward the door and dived in the building. Once inside, I raced down the corridor, drawing the Sig Sauer on the run. I got into the security room and saw the girl. She was talking loudly on the cell phone.
“I’m telling ya, he’s in the building, but I don’t know where he is right now! Probably, he’s heading your way or––”
She shut up as she wheeled around and spotted me. I brought my pistol up and squeezed the trigger. The slug punched her in the face, drilled through her skull, and went out the back of her head in an explosion of blood.
Despite the fact that her brains were splattered all over the security monitors behind her, the girl didn’t die, of course. She was downed. I turned around and peeked in the corridor. The other two heisters must have heard the sound of the gunshot, so they would be here soon.
I stepped up to the downed player and kicked her in the ribs to roll her on her stomach. I then leaned over and quickly put handcuffs on her hands. The girl was cursing and swearing at me, but I ignored her. I got back to the door and looked around the jamb.
I saw one of the players enter the corridor from the lobby. I whipped the Sig Sauer to eye level and snapped off a few shots. One of my bullets caught the player in the throat, which wasn’t protected by the body armor the player wore.
The player picnicked. As he started to wheel around to get back in the lobby, he brought up what looked like a MAC-10 and sprayed the corridor with bullets. Yet he was firing almost blindingly, so no bullets came close to me.
I continued to pull the trigger. Two or three more bullets hit the player in the back. But he didn’t get downed. The heavy body armor he was wearing bore the brunt of the impact of the bullets. Before I could finish him off, the player got in the lobby and was out of sight.
I waited a few seconds, but he didn’t get back in the corridor, of course. I then remembered the drone. I peeked around the jamb into the corridor again to make sure no one was about to sneak up on me and then pulled my cell phone from the pocket of my jacket.
I steered the drone from under the desk and looked around the office. There was no one in the office. The player I had just wounded was in the lobby. But where was the third player?
I guided the drone across the office. Suddenly, I heard someone shout, “What the hell is that thing?”
Then there was the crack of a gun being fired and then the feed from the robot’s camera went dead. Someone had shot my drone. Dang it.
Only then did it dawn on me that I didn’t need a drone because I was in the security room. I walked up to the desk and looked at the monitor screens. One of them showed the feed from the camera in the lobby. I saw the player I had wounded a minute before. He was kneeling before the door to the corridor, his MAC-10 held tightly in his hands. If he thought that I was going to come from this door to get him, he was wrong.
I couldn’t detect the third player. Where the heck was he? There were several indoor cameras and several outdoor ones, but I couldn’t see him on any of them. The only room in the bank where there were no cameras was the vault, so probably the third player was in there.
Or he could deliberately avoid being seen by the security cameras. He might have gotten out of the building to get around it and get the drop on me. Probably the player in the lobby and the third one were planning to box me in.
Dang it.
Staying in the security room wasn’t a good idea. I had to get out of here while I still could. I walked to the cuffed player and said to her, “Get up.”
“Screw you.”
I grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her to her feet.
“Move,” I said as I shoved her toward the door.
We got out of the security room and walked down the corridor, the player in front, me behind her, using her body as a shield. When we walked out of the bank through the side door, I brought my pistol up and looked around. However, the third player was nowhere to be seen. He might be in the vault, securing the money, after all.
Since I had already gotten the apprehended player out of the building, I decided to walk her to my car and then return to the bank to deal with the other two players.
“Move,” I said as I shoved the girl again.
She started walking. Then she suddenly yelled, “Guys, he’s arrested me! We’re outside right now. Go get this bastard!”
Only then did I remember that she had an earpiece in her ear, which allowed her to communicate with her teammates. I pulled her ski mask off her head. Her stats instantly popped up in my HUD.
> Name: Jennifer
> Level: 3
I saw an earbud in her right ear. I removed it and tossed it aside.
Shoving the player in the back once more, I barked at her, “Hustle your bustle, or I’ll shoot you.”
We jogged away from the bank. I constantly glanced back over my shoulder, but the other two players didn’t get out of the building.
After we got to my car, I swung one of the rear doors open and shoved Jennifer into the back. There was a bulletproof panel between the front and rear seats and the rear doors couldn’t be opened from inside, so the girl shouldn’t be able to get out of my car on her own.
I was about to swing the door close when an idea came to my mind. I leaned in and started to search the pockets of her web gear.
“What are you doing, moron?” She yelled as she kicked me in the groin. Yet I didn’t feel anything since players couldn’t experience pain in this game.
Finally, I found what I was looking for. I pulled a cell phone from one
of the pockets of the girl’s gear.
“Hey, it’s mine,” she tried to protest.
I got out of the car, straightened up, and swung the door shut before the girl could get out. I punched in my number and a moment later, my own cell phone started to ring. I pulled it out, ended the call, and saved Jennifer’s number. Then I opened the door again, tossed the girl’s cell phone in the back seat, and closed the door again.
I thought about my next move for a moment. Should I get back to the bank to deal with the other two players? I wasn’t particularly interested in finishing this mission. However, I decided to complete it anyway. I could use some money and skill points.
I walked out of the alley and strode down the street toward the bank. As I was nearing the building, I spotted one of the heisters burst out of the side door and dash toward a black SUV parked along the curb. Across the player’s back was slung a bag obviously filled with the money stolen from the bank’s vault.
I darted toward the nearest sedan parked at the curb. Yet before I could hide myself behind the vehicle, the player spotted me. He whipped up his SMG and released a long burst of bullets in my general direction. I dropped to the ground behind the sedan as the bullets thudded into the car.
When the fire ceased, I looked around the back of the sedan. The player threw the bag in the back of the black SUV. Then I spotted the second heister burst from the building with a bag over his shoulder. The first player noticed me peeking from behind the sedan and opened up again. I ducked back behind cover as the bullets punched holes in the body of the car.
Then I heard the roar of an engine and the screech of tires. I got to my feet and saw the black SUV pull away from the curb. The players were trying to escape! I looked around. My car was too far. By the time I got to it, the two heisters would get away. Luckily, I saw a car driving down the street toward my position.
Heist Online Page 29