The player must have spied the mantis fervently beating on the boarded-up windows and realized that someone had hidden inside the building. After dealing with the winged monster, the player had decided to take care of whoever holed up inside the house. They must’ve been fully aware of the player having a low level, otherwise the player probably didn’t have to run away from the mantis to hid inside the building.
But how had the player known where exactly I was inside the house? The building wasn’t that small, yet the player was firing almost exactly on the corner of the room where I was seated at. Which meant that they had somehow known my exact location. Maybe the player had some gizmo to pick up nearby players.
Anyway, I got myself in a bit of a jam. What to do? How to extricate myself from this in one piece? Or just to make it out of here alive? It’d be a shame if I got killed now that I’d had some gotten some levels and acquired good items. Didn’t want to lose all of those.
The machine gun kept on releasing long fierce streams. I flattened myself on the floor. Rounds whizzed over me. Some of them dashed so close to me I felt a rush of air on my skin. Seemed like the bullets couldn’t penetrate concrete as the player was aiming only at the same broken window. So the bullets couldn’t catch me. At least for the time being.
But at the same time I couldn’t get to my feet for fear of being peppered by heavy gunfire. Still, I could crawl on my stomach. But in which direction? Trying to get out through the door was out of the question since I’d be dead once I showed up in the street. I wasn’t sure if trying to get up to the second floor was a good idea either.
Suddenly, the gunfire ceased. The player might've been reloading their terrifying weapon. I couldn’t help but take advantage of this.
Jumping to my feet, I quickly looked around, still being in doubt. What to do? Should I race toward the entrance door to get out of the building or take the stairs up to get to the second floor?
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a rocket-propelled grenade barreled through the broken window from the street. I had barely managed to get out of the way before the grenade barreled past where I’d been a moment ago.
The powerful explosion shook the building. The shock wave hurled me through the air to smack against a wall. As I tried to get up, plaster bits rained down on me from above. My whole body hurt. Luckily, I sustained superficial injuries due to my ballistic vest having born the brunt of the explosion. I checked on my vest.
> State: 69/250
I used the Biokinesis to heal up my injuries. It took me a couple of seconds and some mana to do that. When I was about to dart forward toward the entrance door, another grenade dashed through the window. I created the Shield that ceased to exist the moment the grenade slammed into it. But the power dome accomplished its task just fine as the resulting explosion inflicted little to no damage on me.
After that, I wasted no time getting out of the building, because it would’ve been a suicide on my part to stay inside.
Once outside, I saw an armored car idled in front of the building. Or more specifically, it was an enormous combat four-wheeled vehicle protected with thick armor. This huge iron monster had two big guns mounted on it, a heavy machine gun on the hood and a grenade launcher on the roof. Windows were covered with armor plates with long thin openings for observation or firing weapons through.
A male player was behind the steering wheel. Seemed like he hadn’t even bothered to get out of the car all the time. Though I couldn’t make out the player’s level probably due to his being in the car, I was certain it was much higher than mine was, since he’d managed to build such a vehicle and successfully slay the scariest mobs in this location, mantises.
I cast a glance at my UI.
> Mana: 150/500
I had enough of that magic energy to employ the Acceleration. After that, I’d have only twenty mana points left. Which wouldn’t be enough for anything. Mana was scarce during fight sequences. It might be the case due to all of my psi-powers having been upgraded maximally. On the other hand, I might not need to squander such great amounts of mana when fighting players having the same level as me. Anyway, I’d have to buy more vigors and store them up when I dropped by a vending machine next time.
All these thoughts flashed through my mind within half a second. Utilizing the Acceleration, I burst into a race, having chosen a random direction. The machine gun clattered once again. Heavy rounds dashed past me. However powerful, the gun seemed to be rather inaccurate, for no bullets hit me yet.
I then heard the engine revving up. There was no need for me to look behind myself to learn that the vehicle was gaining. Even with the Acceleration activated, I couldn’t get away from the car. I gnashed my teeth in frustration. Seemed like it was time to prepare myself for another death.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted a subway entrance nearby. Without a second thought, I headed for it, having no way of knowing if I’d be able to actually make it there alive.
I ran as fast as I could, legs pumping. The roaring of the engine was so loud as if the vehicle was already within no more than two yards of me. Two or three rounds burrowed into my back. A sharp twinge shot through my body, having me to let out with a yell. My HP reduced nearly by fifty percent.
Luckily, I was actually able to make it over to the subway entrance and in a second was already racing down the stairs. Once on the platform, I looked around. All the lights were out so the most part of the room was plunged into the darkness. A pile of litter lay a little way away from the entrance: carton boxes, wood planks, rags, you name it.
I burrowed myself into it, flattened myself on the cool floor, and pulled rags and carton boxes all over me, hoping my chaser wouldn’t be able to notice me. This done, I stilled myself and set about watched the entrance. I didn’t bother to draw my weapon since it was arguably no good fighting him. It was way better to run away and hide from him.
I waited for time to elapse. Minutes went by tediously slowly. Waiting for the PK to descend the stairs was even worse than running away from him, scared. I had to resist urges to crawl over to the entrance and looked up to learn where the player was. He might’ve waited for me to peek around a corner to discharge his rocket launcher on me. So I gathered up all my willpower and forced myself not to move.
Some more time passed. Mana had recovered up to fifty percent by now. Now if the player were to descend the stairs, I could employ the Surge to thrust him on the rail tracks. After that, I would run up the stairs and try to hijack the PK’s car.
More time went by. The player was still to show up. Mana was slowly regenerating by itself. It already replenished up to seventy-five percent. Now I could use the Blow on the PK to immobilize him for thirty seconds were he to descend in here. It would give me a good head start.
However, the PK still didn’t show up. Mana had already replenished fully, which allowed me to use the Shield and then the Acceleration if needed.
The wounds on my back hurt and bled. The wounds weren’t severe, yet my HP was slowly decreasing. I wasn’t all that keen on spending Mana in case the PK finally descended and noticed me. Yet I could die if I didn’t stanch the flow of blood.
There was no need to see a wound in order to heal them up. So I just concentrated on the painful sensations in my back and activated the Biokinesis. Slowly but steadily the pain faded away, the flow of blood got checked, and my health no longer reduced. Immediately afterward, I turned off the Biokinesis. Taking care not to produce much noise, I reached for my bag, doing it real slow so that the movement didn’t attract the PK’s attention were he to turn up at this exact moment.
Gripping a few pieces of cooked meat, I pulled them out of the bag, brought my fist to my mouth, and chewed on the tasteless food. This fully recovered my HP and sated the hunger that was starting to bother me.
Then I looked at my UI.
> Mana: 442/500
I had plenty of Mana left after having used the Biokinesis. But the PK s
till didn’t show up although it was fifteen or so minutes since I got in here. What was taking him so long? Maybe he hadn’t been that eager to slay me and already driven away from here? Either way, I decided to wait a mite longer.
After a few more minutes passed, I couldn’t take it anymore. Time to take action. I didn’t ascend the stairs in case the player still waited for me in the street. Instead I decided to wander around the subway for a spell to get some experience points, what with Crayne having said that it was a good place for getting a few levels.
I jumped off the platform down to the rail tracks and headed for the tunnel. The farther into it I went, the darker it got. I walked pretty slowly waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.
Suddenly angry hisses and chatters came from somewhere. I noticed two red glowing eyes appeared from the darkness. I was able to make out a pretty big trunk covered with shabby fur, long V-shaped snout, and four slender limbs. It was a level 4 mutant rat the size of the German Shepherd Dog. The rat looked quite intimidating, yet it went tits-up after taking only two or three bullets to its body. It hadn’t even able to skitter over to me within reach. Killing this ugly creature got me forty experience points.
Two more mutant rats jumped me out of nowhere. I failed to notice one of them in time, which was why it managed to get close to me and snapped at my leg. Grunting in pain, I double tapped the creature to the head, killing it.
As I walked down the dimly lit tunnel, I slew overgrown rats charging at me out of the darkness. The poor lighting made it hard for me to detect ugly shabby creatures. Some of them managed to run up and gave me a painful bite. I would probably have turned around and headed back had I not gotten so far into the tunnel by that point. There was no point in returning, what with the darkness enveloping me from all directions now.
Finally, a message appeared before my eyes.
> Congrats! You have just leveled up to 5! You have got 5 unused skill points!
First of all, I spent one point to unlock the Flare spell and employed it at once. A small glowing ball appeared overhead. Yet it gave off little light. I then allocated another point into the psi-power. The ball lit a little brighter now. After giving the matter some thought, I assigned yet another point to the skill. After that, the Flare emitted enough light for me to see by. Moreover, now it could be used as a flash-bang grenade.
I went over the description of the psi-power once more.
> Name of the psi-power: Flare
> Description: The Flare psi-power allows the player to create an object generating light. The maximally upgraded Flare could be hurled at foes. Upon exploding, the Flare flashes rendering all nearby foes temporarily sightless.
> The stats of the Flare psi-power:
> Level: 3 out of 3
> The Flare lights up everything within a radius of 5 yards of the player.
> Upon exploding, the Flare renders nearby foes blind for 3 seconds.
> While the Flare is active, it consumes Mana at the rate of 1 point per 5 seconds.
> Mana consumption upon exploding: 125 points
I had two more skill points to spend. I neglected the Disarming for now, its usefulness in a battle against PKs notwithstanding. I was eager to learn the Stasis but to do that I had to unlock the fourth level of the skill tree by learning one of the skills on the previous, third, level, namely either the Telekinesis or Vortex Trap.
After pondering on that for a few moments, I learned the Vortex Trap and assigned to the psi-power the last point.
> Name of the psi-power: Vortex Trap
> Description: The psi-power creates an invisible booby trap at the given spot. Whoever triggers it is lifted a few yards off the ground up in the air. Then dark energy creates a vortex in which the victim is revolved for some time. After the time is up, the victim is slammed in a forceful manner against the ground, taking some damage and having their head spinning for some time. The psi-power can be applied to only one foe at a time.
> The stats of the Vortex Trap psi-power:
> Level: 2 out of 3
> The Vortex Trap lifts a foe to a height of 5 yards
> The duration is 10 seconds
> The force of slamming the victim against the ground is average
> The victim has their head reeling for 7 seconds
> Mana consumption is 75 points
So I’d finally leveled up to 5 and could switch weapons now. Before moving on, I stowed the level 2 pistol Conquer away in my bag and took the level 5 Screamer Crayn’d given me out of it. Then I continued with my journey. With the Flare lighting everything around me up, I was able to take out all the overgrown rats before they had a chance to get within biting range.
Despite receiving less than forty experience points for mutant rats now, the experience bar filled pretty fast. Upon death, some creatures dropped an ingredient I hadn’t come across before, bones. I gathered it up.
Soon I leveled up to 6. Allotted one point to the Vortex Trap. Foes could now be lifted seven yards up in the air. The duration increased to fifteen seconds and the head spinning the victim suffered from increased up to ten seconds. Using the Vortex Trap required 75 Mana points now.
I assigned the three remaining points to the Statis.
> Name of the psi-power: Stasis
> Description: The psi-power creates an invisible area at the given spot. Whoever finds themselves inside the area gets stuck for some time, completely immobilized.
> The stats of the Stasis psi-power:
> Level: 3 out of 3
> The circumference of the area is 2.5 yards around
> The duration is 10 seconds
> Mana consumption is 250 points
This psi-power was somewhat similar to the Blow, which lifted a foe up and rendered them immobile. Yet while hanging in the air, the foe didn’t get frozen. Despite their inability to drop to the ground, they could still discharge their guns. Unlike the Blow, the Stasis rendered foes completely immovable, which was quite awesome. I could definitely benefit from this psi-power when encountering PKs or crowd of mobs.
I had one point left over from the previous level-up. I spent it on a skill from the Survival skill tree.
> Name: Cooking mutant rat meat
> Description: Allows you to cook mutant rat meat on a fire pit.
> The skill state: 1 out of 1
> Required ingredients:
> 1. Pieces of mutant rat meat
> The stats of a cooked mutant rat meat:
> Reducing hunger: 30
> Restoring health: 50
With this done, I continued reducing the mutant rat population.
After some time passed, I heard the crack of a gunshot behind my back. The bullet bounced off the wall on my right, narrowly missing my head. I whirled around to see another flash of gunfire in the darkness, the sound of the gunshot ripping through the air. This time the bullet caught me in my chest, taking ten points from my HP.
Although I couldn’t make out whoever was firing on me, I was certain that it was another player, not a mob. The light coming from the Flare above my head couldn’t reach the player, but the flash of the last gunshot had given away their whereabouts.
I shied the Flare toward that spot. The glowing object dashed down the tunnel, illuminating it. In a second or so, it reached the level 4 player. Then the Flare exploded and everything went dark. Whipping my handgun up, I dumped the whole magazine in the general direction of where I last saw the player.
He didn’t fire back. Instead he was running away. I had no way of seeing it, but I could clearly hear his quickly receding footsteps.
I wondered what the player had counted on engaging me, a player with the higher level. On the other hand, being two levels your opponent junior, perhaps, didn’t necessarily mean you couldn’t defeat them in this game. Besides, the Flare had had me brightly lit up while the player was under the cover the darkness. The player had probably thought that the el
ement of surprise would work in his or her favor and get them an advantage over me.
Anyway, I didn’t bother to chase him down and continued along the tunnel instead, having activated the Flare again. Being lit up by it put me at a disadvantage, for sure; yet I had no other means of providing light for me to see by. At any rate, I was sure I would take the player down if they were to attack me again.
I soon felt a slight pang of hunger. Best curb it now while I had a chance to do so. Looked at the crystal, switched to the Crafting menu, and chose the Fire pit. A static translucent, green silhouette of a fire appeared. It followed my gaze whatever I looked at. I cast my gaze downward and looked at the empty spot right before me. The silhouette went still and a message appeared in my HUD.
> (Do you want to put the object here: Yes/No)
Pressed the “Yes” button. The static image was instantly replaced by an actual fire pit. Firewood crackled, tongues of flames licked at the bottom of the pot, in which water was already boiling. I cooked all the pieces of rat meat I had. After having a snack and warming up, I set out.
After I killed dozens of mutant rats, the experience bar filled up once more.
> Congrats! You have just leveled up to 7! You have got 5 unused skill points!
Looked at the crystal and opened the Warlock tab. Although I decided not to learn the Disarming skill to begin with, I thought better of it and learned the skill anyway. The psi-power might turn out to be quite effective when fighting PKs. I assigned three points to the skill.
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