I stroked the trigger, firing short bursts into the chopper. Suddenly, the helicopter lurched to one side as some of my bullets hit home, catching the helicopter in the tail rotor, bringing it out of control. A thin plume of gray smoke wafted from the damaged tail rotor.
The pilot was fighting with the controls, trying to prevent the chopper from crashing down. The helicopter rose a few feet up in the air as it turned for the trees on the right of the road, and flew away.
“Don’t let them get away,” Jennifer directed as she got to her feet.
“They won’t”, I said as I reloaded my gun, and resumed shooting after the receding helicopter.
Some of my bullets tore through the fuselage while the other drilled into the main rotor. The pilot was evidently experiencing difficulty in keeping the helicopter in a straight line as it was swerving back and forth. Then the player lost control completely and the nose of the chopper dipped. The helicopter started to wheel around out of control as it was losing altitude rapidly.
“Sayonara, jerks,” I said as the helicopter crashed down through the branches.
A few seconds later, it was all quiet. The sudden silence after all the gunfire was eerie.
“Did you get them?” Jennifer asked.
I didn’t get any notifications about the two players getting killed, meaning the two dickheads might have been still alive. Then another thought struck me. Probably the two players had taken fall damage after all, but I hadn’t gotten any experience points because although I’d caused their helicopter to crash, I hadn’t been the one who’d actually killed them.
“I’m not sure,” I said. “They may be still alive”
“Let’s go check it out.”
We darted across the road, got into the trees, and jogged to where the helicopter had crashed. It wasn’t long before we reached the wreckage of the chopper. It lay on its starboard side, the broken stubs of the rotor blades still whirling around above the damaged fuselage. The nose of the helicopter was crushed and cracked like an eggshell. The bodies of the two players were nowhere to be seen. They had either gotten away or hid themselves somewhere in the dense undergrowth.
We swept our guns back and forth, scanning the crash area choked with trees and bushes, yet the two assholes were nowhere in sight. Jennifer then took a step forward toward the helicopter to look inside it, but I stopped her. The engine was still running and there was a strong stench of fuel in the air. Jennifer sensed it too now. We looked at each other as the same idea struck us.
We jogged the safe distance from the helicopter, lifted our guns to train it on the wreckage, and opened fire. An expanding fireball swept through the trees as the chopper exploded, flames consuming the leaves and branches. The shock wave tore in every direction and a huge cloud of dust rose into the air from the obliterated helicopter in a steady stream.
Still, neither Jennifer nor I had gotten any experience points and nobody had opened fire on us, which meant that the two players had long since left this place.
As we headed back for our car, I muttered, “I’ve met them two times in the game, but both times they were fortunate enough to get away from me in one piece. The next time I meet them, they’ll be the dead men. The third time’s the charm.”
“Sounds like you got a beef with those guys,” Jennifer observed.
“Yeah.”
“So what happened?”
I hesitated for a moment, then told her about my previous encounters with those assholes.
“So they were going to find you,” I concluded, “and–– and––”
I went silent, trying to fight back the sudden anger.
Jennifer caught my drift. She said grimly, “You shouldn’t have worried, Jason. Those jerks would’ve been dead long before they could even get within arm’s reach of me.”
“Anyway, how come they didn’t take fall damage?” I asked. “That helicopter crash shoulda killed them.”
Jennifer gave the matter some thought and said, “They may be cheaters.”
I turned my head to look at my girlfriend. “So Vic Morgan was a hacker and those two guys may be cheaters. You know, Jen, your ex was one of the developers of this game and you knew a lot about it, so you should’ve told me about it when you had a chance to do so. If you’d warned me about hackers and cheaters beforehand, I probably would never have decided to play this game.”
Jennifer met my eyes and said angrily, “What are you talking about, Jason? I did warn you, don’t you remember? I did tell you that there would be hackers and cheaters in the game. Geez!”
“Yeah, I remember you mentioning this in passing. But you shoulda been more insistent about it, y’know.”
“So you mean you could’ve changed your mind?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Jason. I’ve known you for a long time, so I know how stubborn you can be sometimes. There was no way I could talk you out of your decision to play this game.”
I didn’t agree with her, but there was no point in bickering, so I decided not to push the point any further.
Finally, we reached the SUV. It was bullet-riddled, all the windows shattered, gray smoke billowing from under the hood.
“Guess we should get another ride,” Jennifer said.
“Yeah.”
We got in the car and drove off.
Chapter Nine
We continued to tool around in our battered SUV for a few hours. In fact, it was really hard to tell time because there was no clock and, as I finally realized, there also was no day-night cycle in the game. When I had started to play the game, it was broad daylight and the sun was high in the sky. It was about ten hours since I had started playing the game, but the sun hadn't lowered since then at all.
We soon came across a fresh ride. The car looked very much like a Ford Explorer. Unfortunately, it didn’t have a machine gun on its roof. On the flip side, the bodywork of the vehicle was reinforced with armor to soak up rounds. The windows were also bulletproof. Between the car’s armor and Jennifer’s Vehicle expert skill, the Ford Explorer was outfitted with the very good armor plating.
As we scoured the island, we encountered and fought other players from time to time. We were steadily getting experience points and leveling up and soon my character’s level was fifteen and Jennifer’s was fourteen.
I had four skill points to assign. I spent one of them to unlock Dodge 3 from the seventh branch of the Skill Tree.
> Name: Dodge 3
> Description: You have got a 15% chance of avoiding being hit by enemies’ bullets
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Note: You cannot learn Dodge 3 if you do not have Dodge 2 unlocked
Between all the three Dodge skills, I had now a 30% chance of avoiding being hit by enemies’ rounds. Not bad.
I then used the second skill point to learn another skill from the seventh branch.
> Name: Recoil Reduction 1
> Description: Reduces weapons’ recoil by 5%
> Cost: 1 skill point
I had two more skill points to assign. My having learned two skills from the seventh branch unlocked the level 8 branch of the Skill Tree. I took a minute to examine it.
> Level 8 Branch:
> Skill #1
> Name: Vampire
> Description: You heal yourself 5% of Health every time you do damage to another player
> Cost: 2 skill points
> Skill #2
> Name: Recoil Reduction 2
> Description: Reduces weapons’ recoil by 10%
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Note: You cannot learn Recoil Reduction 2 if you do not have Recoil Reduction 1 unlocked
> Skill #3
> Name: Bombardier 2
> Description: Increases explosion damage by 15%
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Note: You cannot learn Bombardier 2 if you do not have Bombardier 1 unlocked
> Skill #4
> Name: Knock Them Down 1
> Description: Shooting a sprinting player in the legs gives you a 5% chance of knocking him or her down
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Skill #5
> Name: Deadeye 1
> Description: Reduces recoil by 5% and increases your accuracy by 5% when you aiming down the iron sights
> Cost: 1 skill point
I decided to use another skill point to learn Recoil Reduction 2. It unlocked the next branch of the Skill Tree. I checked it out as well.
> Level 9 Branch:
> Skill #1
> Name: Recoil Reduction 3
> Description: Reduces weapons’ recoil by 15%
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Note: You cannot learn Recoil Reduction 3 if you do not have Recoil Reduction 2 unlocked
> Skill #2
> Name: Bombardier 3
> Description: Increases explosion damage by 20%
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Note: You cannot learn Bombardier 3 if you do not have Bombardier 2 unlocked
> Skill #3
> Name: Knock Them Down 2
> Description: Shooting a sprinting player in the legs gives you a 10% chance of knocking him or her down
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Note: You cannot learn Knock Them Down 2 if you do not have Knock Them Down 1 unlocked
> Skill #4
> Name: Stability
> Description: Increases the damage you deal by 30%, your accuracy by 20%, and your reloading speed by 10% while crouching and unmoving
> Cost: 3 skill points
> Skill #5
> Name: Deadeye 2
> Description: Reduces recoil by 10% and increases your accuracy by 10% when you aiming down the iron sights
> Cost: 1 skill point
> Note: You cannot learn Deadeye 2 if you do not have Deadeye 1 unlocked
After giving the matter some thought, I decided to use the last skill point to learn Recoil Reduction 3 for the sake of the completeness. The final––tenth––branch of the Skill tree was unlocked now. Yet I elected to check it out later on because I didn’t have any more unspent skill points at the moment anyway.
The Deadeye skills seemed very important, so I would probably start learning these skills after leveling up.
All the four skill points assigned, I checked the Character Menu to examine my learned skills/Build.
Level 1 Branch
> Name: Health Capacity 1
> Description: Increases total Health by 10%
> Name: Damage Resistance 1
> Description: You take 5% less damage
> Name: Health Regeneration 1
> Description: Your Health regenerates over time at the rate of 10% a minute
Level 2 Branch
> Name: Health Capacity 2
> Description: Increases total Health by 20%
Level 3 Branch
> Name: Damage Resistance 2
> Description: You take 10% less damage
Level 4 Branch
> Name: Damage Resistance 3
> Description: You take 15% less damage
> Name: Health Capacity 3
> Description: Increases total Health by 30%
Level 5 Branch
> Name: Health Regeneration 2
> Description: Your Health regenerates over time at the rate of 15% a minute
> Name: Dodge 1
> Description: You have got a 5% chance of avoiding being hit by enemies’ bullets
Level 6 Branch
> Name: Health Regeneration 3
> Description: Your Health regenerates over time at the rate of 20% a minute
> Name: Dodge 2
> Description: You have got a 10% chance of avoiding being hit by enemies’ bullets
Level 7 Branch
> Name: Dodge 3
> Description: You have got a 15% chance of avoiding being hit by enemies’ bullets
> Name: Recoil Reduction 1
> Description: Reduces weapons’ recoil by 5%
Level 8 Branch
> Name: Recoil Reduction 2
> Description: Reduces weapons’ recoil by 10%
Level 9 Branch
> Name: Recoil Reduction 3
> Description: Reduces weapons’ recoil by 15%
I then checked out the current stats of my character.
Statistics:
> Health: 515/515 (Basic Health + Health Capacity 1 + Health Capacity 2 + Health Capacity 3)
> Stamina: 100/100 (Only basic Stamina as you haven't learned any of the Stamina Capacity skills)
> Speed: 3 m/s (Only basic Speed as you haven't learned any of the Movement Speed skills)
> Damage Resistance: 30% (Damage Resistance 1 + Damage Resistance 2 + Damage Resistance 3)
> Health Regeneration: 45% per minute (Health Regeneration 1 + Health Regeneration 2 + Health Regeneration 3)
> Dodge: 30% (Dodge 1 + Dodge 2+ Dodge 3)
> Recoil Reduction: 30% (Recoil Reduction 1 + Recoil Reduction 2 + Recoil Reduction 3)
I judged my current Build pretty good.
As for Jennifer, she used her skill points to unlock the Bombardier skills, which increased explosions damage he dealt. She decided to learn these skills because we had recently found plenty of fragmentation grenades, as well as a level 12 assault rifle looking pretty much like an M16, with a stubby grenade launcher mounted beneath the barrel. Jennifer took the assault rifle because I had already one.
However, we hadn’t found any good weapons since laying our hands on the items from the supply drop. Most ghost towns and buildings we visited had already been looted by other players.
So when a notification about another supply drop imminent popped up in the log, we wasted no time getting to the place. Sure enough, we weren’t the only players who were eager to acquire whatever the supply drop had to offer. The shipping crate landed in the middle of the grassy field and as we raced toward the wood box, we spotted several other vehicles converging on the place.
Luckily, our Ford Explorer reached the crate before other vehicles did. We jerked the doors open and leaped out of the car. As I hurried toward the wood box, Jennifer climbed onto the hood of the SUV, her finger rested on the trigger of the under-barrel grenade launcher.
When I got to the shipping crate and started to disassemble it, my girlfriend pulled the trigger and the grenade launcher spoke. The fat 40 mm round streaked across the air and hit the nearest car, punching through the windshield and exploding in the cab. The blast rocked the vehicle, killing all the occupants instantly, orange flames shooting out of the windows.
Bullets started to come from all angles. Some of them struck against my body armor, the others drilled through the crate, blowing chunks of wood out of the box. I ducked my head and looked around. There was nothing I could use as cover nearby.
Looking over my shoulder, I glanced at Jennifer. She was crouching behind the Ford’s engine compartment now, reloading her assault rifle. She then rose to her feet and fired another 40 mm round. The resultant explosion sent twisted bodies and gory pieces of flesh flying every which way as screams of dying players filled the air.
Yet the enemies’ bullets kept coming. As I surveyed our surroundings, I saw numerous groups of players converging on the shipping box. Something was wrong. When Jennifer and I had gathered the loot from the first supply drop, there had been lots of teams too, but they had not only been trying to get to us but also fighting among themselves too. But the situation was different now. As far as I could tell, none of the players bearing down on us were fighting one another. Instead, all of them seemed to be working together against the two of us.
Jennifer poured on a stream of 5.56 mm lead. My girlfriend was not firing in short controlled bursts but unleashing a steady and sustained stream of lead for maximum effect. She interspersed
her fire with squeezing off 40 mm rounds aimed for vehicles, as well as the groups of players foolishly clustering together. Yet it didn’t seem to be enough to keep the players at bay. They just kept coming and coming from all directions. I had no idea what the heck was happening.
“Jason, we gotta get outta here,” I heard my girlfriend shout.
“But we haven’t get the loot yet.”
“If we don’t get the heck outta here this instant, we’re dead!”
She was right. Yet it would be a shame if we risked our lives here for nothing. So I pried free one side of the crate and leaned over to peer inside. There were lots of weapons and various items in the wood box. Before I could pick the most powerful and useful items, I felt someone clutch my left hand and start to pull me backward away from the crate.
“Move, Jason, if you don’t wanna die,” I heard Jennifer yell at me.
I extended my free hand and grabbed the first item from the box within my reach. It was a small leather bag. There was no telling what was inside it. I slung the bag across my back and let Jennifer drag me toward the Ford Explorer and shove me into the cab into the front passenger seat. Keeping low, she ran around the front of the big SUV and slid in behind the wheel. And all the while, the bullets kept raining on us from every direction.
The Last Player Standing: A Dystopian LitRPG Novel Page 16