Volper
Page 14
Slowly, step by step, I approached the doorway and gently peered into the room. A fighter in a jacket and a camouflage canvas suit for urban environments was sitting with his back to me, bending over a pot that was sitting on a small gas stove, and was apparently stirring it with a spoon, periodically dinging the spoon against the pot, which had been causing the metallic sound that I’d heard. I could see he had a double level, which meant he was a criminal. I wanted to just shoot him in the head a couple of times, especially considering that he didn’t have his helmet on right now, it was under his ass, instead of a chair. But there were two backpacks near him, which meant he wasn’t alone.
- "Dear Mr. Zarych, when are we going to finally have our lunch?" – The voice came from the depths of the room, confirming my fears.
- In a sec, Red-haired, a couple minutes more and it’ll be ready! -
- “Hey, Mr. Zarych, do you happen to have any of your miracle cure left? I’m lying here, watching the streets leading to our building, and I have a terrible hangover! I’m very sad, man.”
- Red-haired, you’re quite bold indeed! Stop it! – The cook shouted at him. Then he kept silent for a while, trying out the brew and continued. - You know, if Alckor notices that you’re tipsy while on watch, you can immediately start digging a cozy grave for yourself. -
"Oh, look, our fighters are going somewhere!" Red-haired changed the topic of conversation.
- So what?! You don’t need to be so nosy. If they’re setting off somewhere, they were probably sent there! -
- "Well, fuck it, I’m nosy," - the voice of the second bandit retorted, after which he continued, sounding more muffled. - "So, where did I put it? Ah, here it is, I’ve found it. Crow, this is Red-haired, where are our troops heading?
- “By ... To ... Oh ...” - it seems they were talking on the radio, and because of the noise, I couldn’t make anything out.
- Tell them to bring some more booze on their way back, because we’ve only got pop wine left.
I again didn’t catch what they were saying … and it didn’t matter at all. If I’d calculated correctly, I didn’t have much time left. Soon, the second captive would be restored and then Alckor would learn that I made his gang give me the address of their military base. Moving slowly, I got to Zarych and clamped my left palm around his mouth, while simultaneously pushing one of the Crutches at an upward angle, into the occipital lobe, right at the point where the spinal column comes out of the skull. Of course, it would’ve been possible to cut his throat, but I was afraid that his wheezing and gurgling as he died might attract the second bandit.
The bullet went directly into the brain and, as a result, he was instantly dead. Slowly setting the corpse down on the floor and, returning the Crutch to its place, I moved deep into the room while crouching. Either I hadn’t been moving quietly, or the second bandit was perceptive. The moment I entered the last room where he’d been sitting near the hole in the wall, he turned to me and tried to say something. But I immediately shot half the magazine into the upper half of his body. I’d wanted to aim at his head, but, in a hurry, I’d started to shoot too early, and the first bullets entered his stomach, while the last ones ended up in his head. In the end, there was a bloody line of unnatural holes along his body.
Taking note of my location on the map, I took off the observer’s camouflage and put it on. Going up another five floors, I found an opening that overlooked Alckor’s base. I saw through the monocular that there wasn’t anyone near the cable car, which the observers would use to get to their post. The captives had told me that, in order to use the cable car, they usually contacted the base and then the attendants came to the winch, which would put the cables into motion. It was impossible to get to the observation post in any other way, at least without going through the heavily guarded ground access corridor.
I climbed higher, figuring no one would start the cable car for me, even if I asked nicely. I used the harpoon to create a line between my higher position and where I needed to go. I got lucky, the harpoon managed to stick to the other side on the first try. After securing myself and checking to see if everything was stable enough, I slid along the cable. I landed on the 20th floor of the building. Quickly looking around and not finding a living soul nearby, I went into the building. After a couple of steps, I received a new pop-up message:
Attention! You have entered the "The Bandit Base" den. The lair is meant for a group of players, from the 17th to the 24th level, with a group composition at least as large as a squad.
Attention! You do not meet any of the criteria; we recommend that you urgently leave the den.
CHAPTER XI: THE VILLAIN’S DEN
No way! I’m not going back – there’s not even a way back! You won’t see me do that! Needless to say, I felt insulted by the mere insinuation. I took off the camouflage outfit, since I’d just needed it in case anyone was around when I landed, to pretend to be an observer who’d suddenly returned to the base. Quickly checking my equipment, I moved to a small room, where, in theory, the two people supervising the cable car should’ve been resting. Now, I was relatively safe, for several reasons: firstly, the fact that the gangsters are denied the possibility of communicating through the interface because of their status as potential threats to society; secondly, the element of surprise, which I want to make the most of and thirdly, the fact that some of the fighters have been sent away to punish me for my impudence.
Although, it’s necessary to give the villains credit where its due since Alckor had quickly organized a punitive squad and sent them to arrange an ambush, with a lot of time remaining. And I’d thought I would have to sit in this building for several hours, watching and biding my time. Going over to the door of one of the rooms, I carefully pulled the handle. To my disappointment, it wouldn’t open. It seems that the attendants had wanted to just take a nap and had closed it from the inside. Or, they could just be boozing. Okay, in that case, I do have a lot of grenades.
Having installed the tag lines with grenades on the door, with the trigger on the opening, I moved on to examine the floor. I checked every room possible. To my surprise, all the rooms I could get into shone with an almost sterile cleanliness, except that the dust ruined this idyllic impression. It seems that Alckor rules the whole gang with an iron fist, since there isn’t any garbage around, like a container from alcoholic drinks or other trash typical for gangs.
Moreover, there was nothing in the rooms at all, except for bare walls and machine guns in several rooms, which I also mined with great pleasure, hoping that they wouldn’t get them anymore. Well, I thought, what great weapons these are. I even admired the attributes of one of them for a couple of minutes.
Large-caliber machine gun "Thunderbird"
Ammunition: 12.3 by 113
Range: 3,700 meters
Combat Rate of Fire (per minute): 800-1200
Shooting modes: automatic
Condition: 100%
Weight: 72 kg (with a column)
A tape with cartridges was attached to the machine gun, which led into a massive box standing by its side. There were about a thousand rounds of ammunition in the neatly laid tape. I would have second thoughts if I’d decided retake an outpost with such a defense system, at least without the proper cover of heavily armored vehicles. Mining all four machine guns, located on different sides of the floor with the last set of grenades from my backpack, I sighed thoughtfully. I should have taken more grenades, since there was only a reserve left, in the pouches. After completing the exploration of the floor, I climbed onto the stairwell landing. The ladder was upside down, with fragments of concrete completely blocking off the way to climb up. So, I’ll be gradually going down, checking each and every floor of the building.
According to my sources, the main base is on the seventh floor. There are warehouses from the eighth to the tenth floors; I won’t find any enemies there. But the eleventh is assigned to the barracks, and there I could find a lot of fun. I have no information about what i
s between the twelfth and the sixteenth floors - the ordinary members of the gang have never been there, only a couple of his closest allies are allowed access to Alckor’s floors. Above and below the indicated floors, everything has turned into defensive positions. The most interesting thing is that the defense is built according to the standards of local military art: the upper floors are equipped with a large caliber weapon, and the lower ones are turned into elaborate labyrinths with a multitude of traps and pivot points to confront the infantry formations of the enemy, which, perhaps, could storm the fortification one day.
I didn’t find the enemy on the 19th floor either, but I saw two paired turrets, with 32 caliber bullets. I had to mine them too and mark this place on my map, with two more notes about the traps. On the 18th floor, to my surprise, there was nothing, virtually not a single object. But on the 17th floor, I came across eight laser cannons, which could calmly burn through the armor of a "mammoth" class heavy tank.
Laser gun Darion
Ammunition: Power source E28
Range: 2,300 meters
Combat Rate of Fire (per minute): 6
Shooting modes: single
Power Damage: 1,560-1,780
Thermal Damage: 1,620-1,850
Condition: 83%
Weight: 134 kg (with a column)
Quietly whistling in surprise, I began to mine them as well. Putting a grenade on each of them, I found that I had run out of defensive grenades. It was necessary to use offensive ones now, with a smaller area of fragmentation. Somehow, my progress had been quite easy. It seems they hadn’t expected an attack from this side at all. I didn’t have time to think about this as I was going down to the 16th floor, as the alarm started roaring throughout the building. After a quick glance around, I didn’t find the reason for the alarm. Having run to the wall opposite the ladder, I fell on my stomach and took aim at the staircase. In the event that one of the doors opened, I’d have time to open fire.
After a few moments, the logs alerted me that the trap I’d set had caused damage to someone. Three more times – and on the steps, below me, someone appeared, wearing a full-face helmet. Shooting three rounds at his head, I made him disappear. A quick glance at the logs made me immediately throw an offensive grenade from my pouch and send it in the enemy's direction. While there was a second of respite, logs appeared in the corner of my eye, which I was puzzled by.
Your trap activated!
You dealt 21 points of penetrating damage
You dealt 13 points of penetrating damage
You dealt 13 points of penetrating damage to the "Bandit" creature.
You dealt 15 points of penetrating damage to the "Bandit" creature.
You dealt 12 units of penetrating damage to the "Bandit" creature.
Damn it, this is going to be a hard battle. It seems that their weapons are good, and unfortunately, their armor is strong as well. This felt a bit odd, as at the outer post, two of the fighters had been quickly killed. Admittedly, I’d knocked them out with my critical hits, but their armor had been easy for my bullets to get through. The explosion of the grenade, together with the new alerts in the logs, clued me in on the fact there was a wounded bandit climbing up the stairs. I had to jump up quickly and, running to the steps, fired off seven rounds to finish off this reckless bandit. The kinetic damage began to take effect only after the fifth shot, when the mask’s glass shattered into smithereens. The sixth bullet passed through, crushing his cheekbone and knocking off half of his life total. But the last, the seventh, went into his left eye, completely killing the enemy and adding a plus one to my tally of persons dangerous to society I’ve killed, that had neural interfaces.
Having finished with my enemy, I threw out a smoke grenade next to him. The smoke on the staircase would make it difficult for others to detect me, since the enemy will have to pass through it, with limited visibility, but the silhouettes of the fighters coming out of the smoke will be quite visible to me. I couldn’t understand why the developers had combined the statistics on players and NPCs killed? On the one hand, everything is logical - the bandits also have neural networks installed. On the other hand, this is bad, as it doesn’t give players a chance to boast about their good PVP achievements. The click of the lock to the left of me distracted me from observing the stairs.
Quickly rushing to the door and waiting for the moment when the door was opened, I jerked it sharply and, jumping slightly, I met the soldier who’d fallen forward, after the door opened, with a knee into his solar plexus. As he bent over, I hammered into him and forced him down, also afflicting him with the stunned debuff. I made sure no one was around, before I savagely cut with my knife into his unprotected neck, ending him in short order.
The corridor behind the door stretched to the end of the floor, and every five meters, maybe seven, to the right and left of it, were symmetrically arranged doors. The corridor itself, for whatever reason, was extremely narrow - just a meter wide. Down, on the stairs, I heard the trampling of many feet. It seems that the bandits from the barracks were already in a hurry. Picking up the last dead body by the collar of his armor, I dragged him quickly into the corridor and closed it with a very massive lock, which, by turning the mechanism, drove four twelve-mm thick bars into all four slopes of the doorway. If the bandit hadn’t decided to go out, I’d not have cracked that door open from the outside.
Closing the door, I immediately turned around and, standing on my knee, took the corridor at gun point. Continuing to keep the passage covered with the gun, I groped with my left hand for the beacon in my pocket and activated it. Once such a mess has started, it's time to call reinforcements. Now I just need to hold on until the cavalry arrives. I was distracted by a yellowish envelope flashing in the upper left corner, located near the map, which made me feel like a moron that always forgets about the game conventions. Mentally unfolding the letter on the right side of the screen in a narrow strip, which contained literally two or three words, I began to read what had been sent to me, casting a glance at the text here and there, but at the same time keeping the passage covered with my gun.
Sender: Alexander Carefire
Text of the letter:
Volper, we cannot determine your whereabouts. It looks like Alckor has a jamming station somewhere. Until you find it and turn it off, we will not be able to send in the capture group. To make up for the fact I didn’t tell you this sooner, I’m sending you an assignment from the outpost to turn it off.
Closing the letter, I discovered that another envelope was flashing in the spot of the previous one, only it was now a blue one.
Sender: Commander of outpost No. 5-17-23
The task:
Find the base of the bandits led by Alckor; you must find and deactivate, in any way you can, the device that’s jamming the system of signals.
Penalty for failure: You do not get help from the capture group.
Fine for failure: You will die.
Reward: You will receive reinforcements within ten minutes of deactivating the device
Additional rewards: You will receive a +1 reputation with the outpost No. 5-17-23.
Additional reward 2: You will receive +2 reputation with Alexander Carefire.
Accept: Yes / No
Wow, it turns out we can have the usual quest tasks here after all. Mentally clicking on the message, I chose the “Yes” button, after which several new lines flashed in the window, showing system messages. But I didn’t have time to deal with system messages now, the main thing was to not forget to look through them later, and there was a good stack of unread ones left to read. Having made the letter and marking Carefire as the recipient, I quickly outlined the coordinates of the base and tried to send the letter, but I received a brief response:
Attention! You are in a Den. You are not to send letters until you exit the Den, or until the recipient enters the Den.
You could have knocked me over with a feather! So, that means I can receive messages, but I can’t send any – what
the fuck! Okay, then we will fight and employ guerrilla tactics. So, what do we have here in the trophies? A nice helmet and a breastplate, plus a leg protection kit that covered the front part of the shin and knees. The problem was that it would take a long time to fiddle around with it and understand how to use it. But the automatic shotgun that hung from the bandit’s case, on his back, was very useful, I thought.
Automatic Shotgun "Bastion"
Ammunition: 18 caliber
Range: 30 meters
Combat Rate of Fire (per minute): 80
Shooting modes: single, automatic
Condition: 72%
Weight: 3.2 kg
A disk magazine case for sixteen rounds was fastened to the shotgun, and two more of the same were found on the corpse. Having argued a little with myself, I decided not to remove the polymer cover from the back of the bandit. The boot was made exactly for the shotgun, allowing you to hold on to the half of the shotgun firmly in the case. He also had an unlocking lever pulled to his shoulder so that when you grab the shotgun handle sticking out over your shoulder, your thumb could unlock the shotgun and easily pull it out. But I had nowhere to mount it, I had a backpack, which completely negated this possibility for carrying weapons. And shotguns are not my cup of tea.