The Last Player Standing: A Dystopian LitRPG Novel

by Alexey Volkov

  What now, I thought, other players to deal with? It was less than half an hour since I stiffed the three players and wounded Vic Morgan in this building. I had had been so busy fighting other players from the get-go I had barely had enough time to breathe. And it seemed like I was about to get into another fight.

  Three vehicles kept barreling down the road toward the town of Pineapple. They were so close by that point I could make out the details. The leading car looked like a 1970 Ford Bronco. About a hundred yards behind the Ford were racing two more vehicles. One of them was an SUV, the other one a pickup truck. A player was leaning out of the each car's front passenger’s-side window and firing at the Ford. Most of the bullets went wide, but some of them struck home, puncturing the sheet steel bodywork of the car.

  I peered into the Ford, trying to make out the player behind the wheel. Although I wasn’t able to discern the driver’s features yet, I could tell it was a girl.

  I reached for my submachine gun and got ready, my heart pounding in my chest. I watched the car chase with my eyes glued to the Ford. It got closer and closer by a second. Whoever was behind the wheel had gotten herself in a jam, for sure. The players after her were eager to deal with the girl.

  Whoever she was, I decided to help her out. The SUV and the pickup truck were racing almost side by side, yet the SUV seemed to be a little ahead of the truck. I sighted down the barrel, aiming for the driver’s side of the SUV’s windshield.

  When the Ford Bronco almost reached the building, I glanced at the car and caught a glimpse of the girl through the windshield. Although the car passed me very quickly and I saw the girl only for a moment, I recognized her at once.

  It was Jennifer.

  I turned my attention back toward the SUV, which was very close to the three-story building as well. Letting out the breath, I started squeezing the trigger, delivering 3-round bursts of rounds. Some of my bullets missed completely and some pinged off the vehicle’s hood. I kept on firing and soon the windshield spiderwebbed as one of my volleys tore through the glass. Yet I should have missed the driver because no notification of getting exp appeared before my eye. I triggered another 3-round burst into the windshield and this time my efforts were rewarded with 50 experience points, as well as a crimson spray erupting in the cab.

  The wounded player at the wheel must have panicked because the vehicle started to veer back and forth. The driver lost control of the car completely. It squealed off the road, jumped the curb, and slammed into the building on which roof I was standing, the front of the vehicle crushing as if it was made out of paper.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Jennifer’s Ford barreled right into the Red Zone and continued down the street. The second car––a pickup truck––skidded to a stop with a squeal of tortured tires, turning sideways just outside the semi-transparent reddish wall. The car’s engine stalled.

  I wasted no time dashing toward the parapet along the opposite side of the roof, hanging the SMG around my neck and pulling a grenade from my vest. When I yanked out the pin, the spoon sprang away with a cling. Letting the grenade cook off in my hand, I reached the edge of the roof and glanced down.

  Two players spilled out of the crashed SUV. They noticed me and raised what looked like submachine guns to shoulder level. Before they could take aim, I tossed the grenade over the parapet and dived for the rooftop. Two seconds later, the explosion reverberated through the air, a moment later followed by another one when the gas tank ignited and the car blew up.

  > +200 exp for the explosion kill

  > +200 exp for the explosion kill

  > Congrats! You’ve just leveled up to level 6! You’ve got 1 skill point to assign.

  The driver was down for the count. Ditto for his partner. That left only the two occupants of the pickup truck to deal with.

  Yet they must have decided that they wanted no more of this. The engine roared to life and the car started turning in a circle. Once the front of the car was pointed in the direction the vehicle had come from, the driver floored it, accelerating rapidly.

  I unslung the SMG, dropped the spent mag, slammed home a fresh one, and sighted down the barrel. Triggering the weapon repeatedly, I fired salvo after salvo into the retreating car to make them unwilling to come back. The rear window of the car exploded into a thousand sparkling fragments as I dumped the remaining rounds into the car.

  The truck continued to race away and from the look of things, the players wouldn’t be eager to get back anytime soon.

  I reloaded my gun and turned around. The Circle kept advancing. It had swallowed half a building by now. The red wall was almost on me now. I looked around the street. The Ford Bronco was nowhere in sight. Where the heck Jennifer had gone? I hadn’t seen her leaving the town. Sure, after passing the building where I was she might have continued down the road farther into the Red Zone, but I sincerely doubted it. She should still be somewhere in the town.

  I ran through the rooftop door and took the stairs down to the ground floor. By the time I dashed through the door into the street, the Red Zone had already engulfed the building. Since I was now in the Red Zone, everything was tinted red.

  Also, my Health started to lower at the rate of 1 point a second, which meant that it would take about six minutes to deplete my Health. Luckily, I had lots of auto-injectors to restore my HP.

  I spun and ran down the street, looking around and scanning my surroundings for the Ford Bronco. The gloomy illumination of the Red Zone enabled objects to be seen within a distance of about thirty feet. The more distant objects were swallowed by the thick red mist.

  Finally, I spotted the car in the alley between two buildings.

  “Jennifer,” I cried out. “Jennifer, it’s me, Jason.”

  I ran up to the Ford and leaned over to see in through the driver’s window. There was nobody in the cab.

  I straightened up and looked around the place. Suddenly, the sound of a door slamming against the wall reached my ears from behind. I spun around to see my girlfriend burst out of the doorway toward me. She lifted what looked like a submachine gun and zeroed in on me, about to fire at me.

  “Jennifer, wait,” I yelled, throwing my hands up. “It’s me.”

  She froze as she finally recognized me in dim light.

  “I almost shot you,” she muttered lowering her weapon.

  “Luckily, you didn’t,” I smiled.

  “I saw someone on the roof,” she continued, “as I was driving past that building, but I didn’t get a chance to make out who it was because those assholes were constantly shooting at me, and I had to duck my head to avoid being hit, and––”

  “It’s okay, Jen,” I interrupted her babbling.

  I couldn’t see Jennifer clearly in dim illumination, but it seemed as though she was about to start crying.

  My girlfriend finally snapped out of it and rushed toward me, wrapping her arms around my body. I hugged her to my chest. She then pushed me gently away and looked me in the eye.

  “This town’s called Pineapple,” she said.

  Her tone of voice was now surprisingly calm and steady. She had gotten a grip on herself and was now nowhere near bursting into tears. It amazed me a big deal. I had expected her to act the way she had when she was trying to persuade me not to play this game the other day. She looked totally self-confident and determined now.

  “When I saw this town on the map, I realized you’d be here,” she said, “because it had the same name as the place where we’d gone to on our first date. I knew I’d find you here. So I headed for the town and then ran into a bunch of teamed-up players. I killed some of them and it got them mad. They chased me all the way up here. What happened, by the way? I heard an explosion a couple of minutes ago.”

  “I blew up one of the cars.”

  “That’s nice to hear.”

  The corners of Jennifer’s mouth turned up. Her smile was kind of sinister. I had never seen her smile this way, ne
ver mind gloat over someone’s death. I barely recognized my girlfriend.

  “What about the other car?” She asked.

  “It got away.”

  “That’s unfortunate. Hope we’ll happen to meet them at some point. Those assholes really pissed me off. If I hadn’t needed to get over here ASAP, I would’ve dealt with them. But I was too far away from this town. I had to get here before the Circle collapsed, which was why I didn’t have time to bother with that gang.”

  I could hardly believe what I had just heard. I had never thought that my girlfriend could be so bloodthirsty. She had been such a sweet girl in real life. What had happened when she connected to this game? How come she had changed so drastically and quickly? Was it possible? I couldn’t help but wonder if all the chaos and killings taking place in this game had turned her into a cold-blooded killer. Anyway, I didn’t like it one bit. Sure, you had to be cruel to survive in this game, but still, I would prefer my girlfriend to be back to her usual self.

  Something else was bothering me. According to her, she had bumped into a gang of players, killed some of them, and would have stiffed the rest of them if she had had enough time. She was a good shot in the real world. I had taught her to fire handguns so that she could handle herself. Yet as far as I knew, she had never gotten into a fight with anybody in real life and had neither combat nor gaming experience whatsoever. So how come she was such a skillful and self-confident player?

  In my periphery, I saw a message pop up in the log.

  > Be advised that the next Circle collapse is due in 59min.

  I had totally forgotten about us being in the Red Zone. I glanced at my UI and saw that I had less than twenty-five percent of my Health left.

  “We gotta get the heck outta here,” I said. “You need a heal?”

  “Nah, I’ve got some.”

  I reached into my bag, took out an auto-injector, and used it on myself. My Health got restored up to about ninety percent. When Jennifer did likewise for her own character, we dashed to her car. My girlfriend jumped behind the wheel and I climbed in the front passenger seat.

  Jennifer started the car, dropped into reverse, and backed out of the alley, spewing dust and gravel from under the tires, the engine howling. When the wheels hit the pavement, my girlfriend yanked on the steering wheel, executing a J-turn that swung the front of the car in the direction where the pickup truck had driven.

  The engine of the car roared beneath the hood as Jennifer slammed the gearshift into First gear and tore off with a squeal of the tires. The Ford accelerated as Jennifer smoothly shifted into Second, Third, and then Fourth, driving down the road out of the town.

  It wasn’t long before we left the town and burst out of the Red Zone. Our surroundings were no longer tinted red and our characters weren’t getting hurt anymore. I glanced at my HUD.

  > Health: 284/396

  My Health was restoring itself slowly but surely. I turned my head to look at Jenifer.

  “Are you hurt? Need a heal?”

  “Nah, I’m good,” Jen replied. “I got Health Regeneration, so…”

  Only then did I glance at her stats hovering above her head.

  > Name: Jennifer

  > Level: 6

  Our characters’ levels were the same, which meant that Jennifer had killed several people or at least wounded lots of them.

  “So how many people have you already killed?” I asked timidly.

  “Don’t know. I don’t count. Why? Does it matter?”

  “Just asking.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Jen, we need to talk,” I said. “Why would you––”

  “Not now,” she interrupted me. “Let us put it off for later. We need to find some safe place first.”

  “Okay. So where exactly are we heading?”

  “Don’t know yet. Check the map and tell me if there’s a building or some shelter nearby.”

  “You got it.”

  Then remembered that I had one unused skill point. I brought up the Skill Tree and examined it.

  > Level 4 Branch:

  > Skill #1

  > Name: Damage Resistance 3

  > Description: You take 15% less damage

  > Note: You cannot learn Damage Resistance 3 if you do not have Damage Resistance 2 unlocked

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Skill #2

  > Name: Movement Speed 3

  > Description: Increases Movement Speed by 15%

  > Note: You cannot learn Movement Speed 3 if you do not have Movement Speed 2 unlocked

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Skill #3

  > Name: Sneaky 3

  > Description: You footsteps produce 75% less noise and you are also less visible to other players when hidden somewhere or seen from afar

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Note: You cannot learn Sneaky 3 if you do not have Sneaky 2 unlocked

  > Skill #4

  > Name: Health Capacity 3

  > Description: Increases total Health by 30%

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Note: You cannot learn Health Capacity 3 if you do not have Health Capacity 2 unlocked

  > Skill #5

  > Name: Stamina Capacity 3

  > Description: Increases total Stamina by 75%

  > Cost: 1 skill point

  > Note: You cannot learn Stamina Capacity 3 if you do not have Stamina Capacity 2 unlocked

  I learned Health Capacity 3 from the fourth branch. The fifth branch was unlocked now, but I decided to check it out after the next leveling up. When I was about to bring up the map, Jennifer exclaimed, “Jason, look.”

  I peered through the windshield and saw a car up ahead, slowly driving down the road. I recognized the vehicle at once. It was the pickup truck.

  “It’s them,” Jennifer said excitedly. “It’s those assholes who were after me. You said they got away from you, right? Well, seems like we’ve chanced on those jerks again.”

  “What are we gonna do?”

  “Let’s get them. I’ve got a score to settle.”

  Before I could say something, Jennifer slammed her right foot down on the gas pedal, accelerating rapidly. The two occupants of the pickup truck noticed us and tried to give us the slip. I heard the engine of their car rev louder, but the vehicle continued to drive down the road at the same speed as before. Something had clearly happened to them while Jennifer and I had been in the Red Zone. As we got closer to the two players, I saw that their car was riddled with bullet holes. Smoke issued from several breaches in the truck’s hood. The car’s engine seemed to be severely damaged.

  The driver was clearly trying to coax some more speed form the truck, to no avail. We had no trouble catching with their car whatsoever.

  As we got closer, I saw the passenger twist in the shotgun seat and bring up what looked like a machine pistol.

  “Duck!” I shouted as I saw flashes from the weapon’s muzzle. We hunched down in our seats as the player started squeezing off bursts of rounds. Slugs chewed into the hood and punched holes in the Ford’s windshield.

  I rolled down my window and set my shotgun between my knees, the muzzle against the floor. I then reached for my submachine gun, stuck it out of the window, and depressed the trigger, firing almost blindingly. No notification about getting exp popped up in my HUD, which meant none of my bullets wounded the two players.

  Jennifer yanked on the steering wheel, swerving to the left to get out of the gunman’s line of vision. I stuck my head out to glance at the truck. The gunman had already readjusted his aim and cut loose through the left-hand rear side window with a long stream of fire. His aim was somewhat off, so most of his bullets missed our car. Then his machine pistol ran dry. The player commenced reloading his gun.

  Luckily, it wasn’t long before we reached the two players. When we pulled abreast of the truck, Jennifer eased off on the accelerator, matching our speed to the damage
d vehicle’s.

  “Get’m,” Jennifer ordered.

  Despite the nerve-racking situation, my girlfriend was surprisingly calm and self-confident.

  I started to bring up the SMG again, but then another idea crossed my mind. I put the weapon down across my lap and yanked a grenade from my tactical vest. I pulled out the pin and thumbed away the spoon. I let the grenade cook off for two or three seconds and when I saw the gunman bring his machine pistol up to bear on me, I tossed the grenade out my window and into the pickup truck’s cab.

  Jennifer instantly put the Ford Bronco into reverse and backed away.

  Before the two players could bail out, the grenade detonated. A moment later, the fireball filled the interior of the pickup truck, flames erupting from all the windows. The blast was strong enough to lift the car a few inches off the ground. I could feel the heat and the shock wave of the explosion pass through the partly broken windshield of the Ford. Jennifer and I brought up an arm to shield our eyes against the flash effect of the blast.

  A few messages appeared before my eyes.

  > +200 exp for the explosion kill

  > +200 exp for the explosion kill

  > Congrats! You’ve just leveled up to level 7! You’ve got 1 skill point to assign.

  “So much for those bastards,” my girlfriend said.

  I looked at her. Her character’s level was still 6.

  “Didn’t you get exp?” I asked.

  “Nope. It was you who killed them, not me.”

  She had a point. This game discouraged players to play in teams. Even if you played with another player, your partner wouldn’t get experience points when you killed someone. People playing in teams in this game just had met one another and created an alliance to increase their chances of survival. Yet their alliance was built on their word and trust and not the game system.