by Wolfe Locke
The Player Bazaar is set to begin in 30 minutes. It is believed they have hired at least 3 Security Experts of unknown types and will have Player-Verse-Player Specialists with the White Shield Guild on call within 5 minutes should a need arise.
“Thank you, PAL, that’ll be a decent challenge,” Kurt responded as he considered it. Almost 100 players at a time were more than he had ever taken on before. With numbers like that, there was always a risk he would get himself killed. Even at his level, getting swarmed and mobbed was a death sentence. Worse still, if he did somehow manage to die, Kurt knew he’d lose most of his current generation gear.
“Ok, I think I’ve got it figured out,” Kurt told PAL, with a fragment of an idea forming in his head. “I think I’ve still got a fast travel point near the Riverside Basin unless that’s been patched.”
[PAL] **Affirmation**
**Correct Vendormate. You have a fast travel point at the Riverside Campground. It has not been patched and is not on any of the upcoming patch notes to be removed**
“Good. Alright, this will be fun. PAL, put on my playlist “Headbangers Revenge” and turn off all other sounds besides footsteps and partially mute chatter while in combat. Mute my playlist whenever another player comes within 36 inches of me. Exceptions to mute are localized uses of the words, Fuck, faggot, bitch, kill, sights, boy, and knives out. I’m going to go change my layout really quick.”
Chapter 3: Purely Cosmetic Reasons
As the music blared directly into his ears, Kurt walked back towards his spawn point in the Red Room. Listening in an almost zoned out haze to the sounds of the guitar riffs layered on drums with screaming lyrics. Battlecore may have died out as a genre, giving way to something more corporate-friendly, back when that still meant something. There were still plenty of choices for him to choose from whenever he streamed. His favorites making up the playlists he called “Dead Headbangers” and “Headbangers Revenge.” For those special times when he’d go out and show people why exactly they needed to get good
The Red Room was Kurt’s special place, and as the saying goes, that’s where the magic happens. It was far more than just his spawn and entry point into the world of “Seven Cities Online.” It was also his armory where he stored all of his loadouts. The personal arsenal of a god.
Over his long and somewhat sordid career in the game, Kurt had managed to get ahold of almost every single weapon and every piece of armor in the game. Even the shitty ones that were gimmicks and most cosmetics. Kurt looked over the first weapon rack trying to see if anything caught his eye. He ignored the Rocket Launchers, Shotguns, Pistols, Rifles, Carbines, Miniguns, Gun Blades, etc. The list went on. Today was not a day he wanted to use a gun, especially not one as devasting as his heavily modded RPG Launcher dubbed “Bad Neighbor.” It would be in poor taste and anticlimactic. What he desired was much flashier.
For the size of the crowd he was preparing to gank, Kurt wanted, no needed something special, something up close and personal. Something fit for wet work, a melee weapon. But not just any melee weapon. He needed something that was all razzle-dazzle.
“I need something that’s going to trigger these kids to rage quit the game when they die from it,” Kurt muttered to himself as he kept scanning the weapon racks and mounts. “Something completely humiliating.” Taking stock of everything he owned, Kurt’s eyes lingered on a pair of ultra-rare and powerful swords he had on display. Each was perfectly sealed in their protective cases, each sword a testament to his prowess, taken after killing another god-tier player. A trophy from better times.
Not those. Most people don’t even remember who those guys were. Kurt thought to himself, deciding that swords wouldn’t do the trick. The blades were great, but they don’t have that shock factor he was looking for. Having decided against using swords, Kurt had eliminated more than half of his melee stock of weapons. What will look good on my stream? Kurt wondered. Beam blades fit some of the criteria of what he was looking for with how bright they burned and had a certain elegant draw to them. Still, they cauterized what they cut, and Kurt was leaning towards a hot grisly mess.
It was a problem he didn’t have a lot of time debate on and be indecisive about, eventually decided to break it down based on his armor layout. If this was going to work, he would need two layouts. Twice the choices made choosing for him that much easier. The first layout would be a simple one. A cosmetic one. Brown slacks, red sweater vest, striped shirt underneath with a Kevlar weave undershirt with built-in concealment functionality.
The gear would allow Kurt to quickly render himself invisible so long as he put his weapons away and stopped moving. Eventually, he decided on how this was all going to go down, and for that, he would need two layouts, which made choosing much easier. The first layout would be a simple outfit, brown slacks, red sweater vest, striped shirt with a Kevlar weave undershirt with built-in concealment functionality. Additionally, he packed a score of grenades, a few claymore mines, a cricket bat, and a little exploit he had learned about over the years, involving pepper spray, acid, and the tag function.
The second layout was the creme de la creme and more what he was known for. While Kurt took steps to make sure his game handle of Vendormate remained anonymous, it was the outfit he wore that struck fear into everyone.
A military styled helmet made from polished bone that prevented all headshots. A leather biker jacket, complete with Kevlar weave and integrated ballistic fiber for maximum protection. With a long metal chain running in a loop down from the shoulder epaulets, that wasn’t entirely cosmetic, the chain serving as a weapon of last resort, or just because. Sometimes it felt good to beat somebody to death with it. For pants, he kept it simple. Black cargo-style complete with steel-toed combat boots, and lastly, for pure shits and giggles, he wore an oversized mascot head over the bone helmet. The mascot head was the grinning happy face of a rat beloved by children everywhere, equipped with a carnival styled sledgehammer.
Finally, complete, having made his decisions, Kurt was ready to go. But before he did, he grabbed a portal inhibitor before taking off, a hard to find item that would serve him well in the battle to come.
“Hey, PAL” Kurt called out towards the A.I. as an afterthought.
“Yes, master, how may I be of service to you?” Came the robotic reply from his side.
“Put a 20-minute delay on my live stream and set it to begin as soon as I say, “Hey Guys.” I don’t need anyone stream sniping me or getting a heads up too far in advance. Also, go ahead and close the portal behind me. I don’t need anyone getting an idea of where this base might be located by backtracking the signal. I probably won’t be back before being forced off by the mandatory log-off, so keep everything safe for me here.”
“Yes, master, that I can do. Is there anything else?” Asked P.A.L in its monotone robotic voice.
“Yeah, actually there is,” Answered Kurt. “When I’m gone, go ahead and go through all the crap I’ve got lying around, anything that’s less than Tier C, round it up and put it in a pile in my crafting room, no need to hang on to it anymore. Oh, and since the volume is going to be low with most things muted, I want live closed captioning. I want any messages I receive from people that could be categorized as vulgar to be live-streamed in banner form across the bottom of the screen so I can read it easily, and so can the fans.” Kurt responded, a wide smile on his face, pumping himself up. It had been a while since he’d taken out a big group of players. The forums were going to be lit up later, talking about it as would be the handful of fans that watched him. On the bright side, all of them tipped, so that was something.
“Alright, PAL, I’m out.” Said Kurt as he stepped into the portal in the middle of the Red Room, and switched out to Layout One, and began transportation direct to the Riverside Campground to gank the player bazaar
Chapter 4: The Player Market
After selecting Layout One, Kurt felt instant movement across his body. The lightweight outfit was reconstructed by the game
’s engine and placed over his virtual body. Kurt gave it a quick glance over to make sure everything was in place. Though it was highly unlikely that a transmission error could occur, Kurt took no chances. Pre-mission checks was another of the habits he had kept from his Army days, and not once had the habit of taking a moment to review his gear failed him.
To the unknowing eye, Kurt’s gear was a rather unassuming bland outfit. The dull clothing of the working professional. The blue-collar, not the white. The only part of his outfit that didn’t quite fit was the cricket bat he carried. Still, even that was hardly unusual in the virtual world of “Seven Cities Online.”
With his checks complete, Kurt took a moment to stretch out his neck and went through the series of warmup exercises he always did before heading out. In the virtual world, it hardly mattered, but old habits die hard, and Kurt had a suspicion it still helped to sped up his reflexes. Every time he went through the motions, Kurt always heard bones crack, and he was never sure if it was his mind pulling from a memory or a special effect the virtual world played for him. He never bothered to find an answer.
The transportation platform in the Red Room beckoned. Kurt took a second to look at it, feeling a bit lazy, nostalgic for the good old days when he rolled out with a team on a mission instead of rolling solo. It was times like this that Kurt was thankful for Pal as the little A.I. helped coax Kurt to begin the mission.
[Ping] Reminder. You have approximately 5 minutes before the player bazaar begins.
“Ah, Pal, you always know just the right thing to say.” Kurt laughed to himself, wishing he still had a team to work with. “Alright, then. Nothing to it, but to do it. So, let’s get after it.” With no further stalling, Kurt stepped onto the transporter, giving the little A.I. a mock salute before he started to beat his chest with his fist. Screaming like he used to before a mission as Kurt worked to amp himself up for the upcoming fight.
With his blood boiling, Kurt was ready.
Ping] Would you like to transport to the Riverside Campground now?
[
“Yes,” Kurt grunted as adrenaline surged through his body. He was ready to go. In a flash of light, Kurt disappeared from the Red Room, dissembled into raw data, and was transmitted across the server before arriving whole and unharmed at the Riverside Campground location. His personal teleportation market in the same spot he had left it from years prior when he had initially cleared the content during a noob collection quest that fed directly into one of the most boring escort missions in the game.
“Heh, not such a bad idea after all,” Kurt muttered to himself, thinking about friends long gone from the game who had thought it was ridiculous for him to put his teleportation point inside the firepit. Placed between Cabins 7 and 9, Kurt was able to see from a covered position the actual teleportation point other players would use over at the admin building. If somehow, he was killed, it would be an excellent place to respawn without worrying about being elbow deep in a group of hostiles. Not that he minded, but Kurt did like to avoid unnecessary risks, especially since so much of what he was already doing was filled with unnecessary purely for entertainment reason type risks, but as an old sergeant of his used to say, ‘If you’re going to break the law, only break one at a time.”
In the distance, Kurt could hear players talking, laughing amongst one another as they made their way down to the bazaar. Apparently, it was quite the happening. They were going to be pissed. He leaned in, making sure to read the captions when his hearing didn’t quite pick up details.
Closed Captioning provided by “Purple Tube Premium"
“Hey man, what are you trying to get? I heard Sonny’s got a Gatling Laser.”
“Yeah, that would be pretty sweet but I’m actually trying to go for a few pieces of a Blade Masters set. What about you?”
“Ha, nobody ever has those. I’m pretty simple. I just want some clothes for my pet dragon.”
“Urgh, don’t even remind me. I still can’t believe they put Dragon pets in the game in some of the loot boxes.”
“Don't hate on me just because your parents don't give you an allowance or a credit card."
"Whatever man, let's get going."
"Perfect," Kurt muttered to himself with a smile. If the kid had a Dragon, there was a good chance Kurt might be able to gank that too. It was one of the only items in the game he didn't currently have. But damn did I try for it, Kurt thought in remembrance of the bill he got from all the charges when he was chasing that particular pull from the Gacha shop.
"Enough of that," Kurt scolded himself as he shook his head to clear his mind. "You've got stuff to do," Being absent-minded was a habit he'd picked up as he got stronger, a piss poor habit that was harder to quit than smoking. Regardless, Kurt may have been a player killer, but he wasn't impulsively stupid. He couldn't be. You didn't get to be one of the best if you didn't take specific precautionary measures.
Reaching into his inventory, Kurt pulled out some of the proximity and claymore mines he had brought with him and set them down in a ring around the campfire spawn point. He made sure they were far enough apart that none of them would set off a daisy chain if tripped. Once things got going, Kurt knew he would have a short window before the player verse player specialists arrived. While he was confident, he would come out OK, preparation in advance was half the battle.
Kurt might have been stronger than almost every other player, but that didn't make him unkillable. A careless moment, and a knife to the back could finish him off just as quickly as a mob of enemies. The bombs would act as a nasty surprise for any of the boys that came after him and would give Kurt a few extra minutes of play before sending him to retreat.
The next precaution Kurt took was changing his respawn point. He manually selected a new portal location, choosing the firepit between the two campsites. It would help keep him out of the line of sight of hostiles if he was sent to respawn, while remaining close enough to the fight that he could easily rejoin without getting spawn camped.
Placing the respawn and teleportation in the firepit was an old exploit he had learned a long time ago that never got patched. The animation for the fire was a high priority animation, rendering spawning points and teleportation nodes virtually invisible unless somebody literally walked up and looked into the firepit.
Satisfied with the traps he had laid and confident in his quick preparations, Kurt began walking down the hill towards the player bazaar. A familiar sensation of excitement flooding his body as he looked at the modern-looking iron palisade that Kurt assumed was the player market. Somebody took a lot of time and effort to make and design this. Kurt thought with begrudging respect, he'd always appreciated that sort of thing. People who could create always inspired him. He willed his UI up and quickly took a picture of it, though not a selfie. Even on his own stream, Kurt never showed his face or that of his character.
With a smile plastered ear to ear, Kurt walked down the hill towards the bazaar, hands raised in a friendly greeting as he called out to some of the other players heading to the players market and ran over to join them.
Chapter 5: The Sniper
The group that Kurt linked up with paid him no mind. He didn't even get a hello. They took one look at his every day, seemingly normal looking getup and dismissed him as a start noob, not worth their attention. His name currently read "TedfromOhioi," it was one of the unique abilities of the load-out he was using. It always showed a fake AI-generated random name and helped to obscure any of his personal identifying information. The passive ability was called "Among You."
[Ping] You have been ignored by Darkstar420
[Ping] You have been ignored by GothGoddess
[Ping] You have been ignored by MetalFreak
[Ping] You have been ignored by Inf3ctedHeart
[Notification] You have received a message.
[SwimFan96: Who the shit are you? Get lost noob, we don't know you creep. I'm reporting you to the mods.]
[Ping] You have been ignored by
SwimFan96.
Rude. Kurt thought to himself, sarcastically lamenting how easy these people made it to justify killing them and the subsequent looting of all their gear. On another day, he would have acted on the impulse, but not today. Without saying anything, he just kept walking. Pretending to not be bothered, even as he was internally logging each of their names and sending it to P.A.L. to pull more data on the group for future trolling. Basic internet safety, 101. Don't be a dick to people you don't know.
As he approached the iron palisade, Kurt discretely took notice of the security measures and precautions. He pulled up his minimap before using his second ability called "We See All". The ability summoned a few small birds to fly around the area, helping to fill out changes to the land and in real-time, provided updates on player movements on his minimap. Within seconds the tiny picture in picture appeared. Kurt didn't bother to count, but judging by the density of the red dots, the player bazaar was as full as he'd hoped. Up ahead a burly-looking guard stood watch at the entrance. The man was meat-mugging everyone who entered through the wide gated though did nothing to stop or hinder the large groups of players coming in and out as they pleased.