“They’ll either go for all or nothing and attack us full force or squat at their base, trying to defend it at any cost,” Kai said.
The yellow and red flags began glowing, then started blinking before they both disappeared, returning to their bases.
“I say, Reds are gonna come at us full frontal,” Claudia said, materializing back at the spawn point.
“And Yellows might decide to lay low…or come after us, too,” Marco agreed.
“Ok, we shouldn’t take any unnecessary risks,” Kai said, taking the initiative in a completely natural way. “You guys stay here and keep them at bay. Claudia, you take the sniper rifle and give them a warm greeting. I’ll sneak up to the red base and get the flag.”
No one objected.
“Sounds like a legit plan,” Marco said. “Go get it, Kai! Claudia and I go into hiding and Francois and Josh stay at the flag. That way, when they approach, they’ll think there’s only two of us who are guarding the flag and not basically our full squad.”
“Roger that!” Claudia said, and she and Marco ran off.
Kai took a deep breath. He had presented the plan without even thinking. It was only now that he clearly realized that it was down to him to win this match for his team.
And he would.
Swiftly, he ran off, back toward the Red base. This time, however, he took the longer path, which provided excellent cover and would make it possible for him to sneak up on the enemies guarding the base. Which hopefully wouldn’t be the whole Red team. Then he’d quickly be toast. The full plan was based on the hope that the Reds would take the all-or-nothing approach. There was less than five minutes left now. If time ran out with things as they currently were, Kai’s team would automatically win with two flags.
Using a half-collapsed building as cover, he carefully closed in on the enemy base.
Then Kai froze.
He could see all five Red players gathered at the base. They were stood close to each other, exchanging looks, clearly communicating and debating what strategy to use. Two of them were observing the surroundings attentively. Kai ducked into the shadows of the desolate building, avoiding being spotted.
Damn, he thought. There goes my glorious plan.
If the Red team decided to squat and guard their flag instead of going on the offensive, there wasn’t much he could do. His team would win anyway, but the higher they scored, the better for the team’s progression.
“What’s going on, Kai?” Marco asked.
“It’s a bit crowded here, I’m afraid. The Reds seem to want to hang out and picnic at their base until time runs out.”
“That doesn’t make any sense! They’ll lose, damn cowards.”
“Yeah,” Kai said. “Oh, wait! They’re moving out!”
“Sweet! How many?”
“Four. They’re running toward you.”
Kai watched the Red team leave their base and disappear in the direction he had come from. No one noticed him. He’d wait another five seconds, then attack the remaining guy guarding the flag.
“Ok, we’re ready to offer them a sweet welcome full of surprises,” Claudia said.
Just when Kai was about to leave his position and attack the red base, he saw something that made him stop in his tracks.
The Yellow team was inbound. They, too, had waited for the Reds to leave and were now ready to strike. Instead of going for Kai’s team, which had dominated the match, they had decided to attack the much weaker Red team. And they, too, were going for all or nothing. Kai counted four Yellow players who would jump the oblivious Red guarding the flag any second. That would make it pretty much impossible for Kai to get the red flag now. But he wouldn’t let that little detail stop him from winning the match for his team.
Carefully he backed off, using the building as cover once more, then leaped forward and sprinted.
He couldn’t snatch the red flag, but with a bit of luck he could grab the yellow one before their team came back.
“Change of plan,” he informed his team. “Yellows are coming for the red flag so I’m going to snatch theirs.”
“Copy that. We got company here,” Marco replied.
Kai ran as fast as he could. It would be a very close call. By now, the Yellow team had probably killed the guy guarding the red flag and were running back. He had to kill the guard they had left behind and be off and away with the flag before they came into sight.
Luckily, he knew a shortcut.
He took the direct route through the marketplace, which was in the center of the map. The reason they never took the direct route was that the marketplace was trapped with proximity mines. Navigating around them was time-consuming and dangerous, since stepping on them was an insta-kill for any player from any of the three factions. But Kai and his team had played the map so often that they had found a work-around. They weren’t sure if it was an exploit or by design, but one thing was certain: it would come in very handy for Kai in this situation.
Instead of running straight into the marketplace and onto the deathtraps lurking there, he took the stairs up to the roof of a two-story brick building. There, he remained still for a second, focusing.
Kai activated Rush and sprinted to the edge of the roof with full speed, knowing that this stunt was all about timing. He needed to jump at the exact right moment. A fraction of a second too early and he would fall onto the landmines. A fraction of a second too late and he would fall off the roof and would have to try again. And that would cost him too much time.
He counted his steps as his cyborg avatar ran with impossible speed, then jumped, directing all his body’s energy into his artificial legs – leaping over a distance of almost eighty feet.
He flew over the demolished marketplace and crashed against the building on the opposite side. His fingers automatically grabbed the ledge and he pulled himself up, using his momentum. Without slowing down, he crossed the roof of the building, then jumped down into the street on the other side.
Kai was almost there. He ran through a narrow alley separating two former office buildings and abruptly stopped at the corner. Carefully, he peeked around. He could see the Yellow base from here, as well as the hostile team member guarding the flag.
Kai grinned. He was lucky. The Yellow wouldn’t expect him to approach from here and was staring in the direction of the Blue base. Drawing his assault rifle, Kai lunged forward. He shot the enemy on the run before the poor guy had even fully noticed what was going on. Again, Kai activated his high-speed ability and, in a blink of an eye, was at the flag.
“I got it!” he reported excitedly. “I have the yellow flag!”
He spun and ran toward his home base.
“Well done, man!” Marco replied. “We’re about to finish off the last commie here.”
That meant the game was basically over for the Red team. They wouldn’t respawn in time to reach one of the enemy bases, steal their flag and bring it back. The Yellow team could still pose a threat, however. Kai had to reach his base, flag in hand, to seal the deal for their victory.
Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the Yellows had arrived back at their base, one of them carrying the red flag. But as long as their own flag was gone, they couldn’t score the enemy flag. Without wasting any time, the Yellow team turned around and pursued him.
“Shit,” Kai said. “I got company. Yellows are after me.”
“Think you can make it?”
“Not sure. Probably not…”
“Ok, we’re on our way!”
Kai expected the enemy to open fire at any second and again began running evasive zig-zag maneuvers. He left the middle of the street and moved closer to the demolished stores flanking the road, trying to use as many structures as possible as cover without slowing down. Again, knowing the map so well came as a big advantage since he knew exactly where to find burned-out car wrecks, corroded dumpsters and other obstacles the level designers had dumped around the map to give the players cover possibilities.
It didn’t take long for the Yellows to start firing, and soon bullets were flying all around him.
Not good. He wouldn’t make it like this.
A second later, he got hit. Once in his lower back and once in his left shoulder blade. The unpleasant sensation he had come to know so well rushed through his body, and an even less pleasant report flashed over his HUD.
Warning! Severe damage to biological tissue detected!
His health was down to 48%.
Two more direct shots like that and he was done.
Bleeding heavily, his body slowed down even more. On his mini-map, he saw four of his teammates approaching swiftly, but it was improbable that they would make it in time.
Kai needed to change his tactic. Mobilizing all his strength, he pushed forward and dived behind the next street corner. There he dropped the flag and drew his rifle. He had fifteen seconds until the flag disappeared and respawned. If he could hold them off for that long, the others had a chance to arrive and cover him.
He leaned from cover and opened fire. Without having time to take aim, he didn’t hit any of his opponents, but at least he managed to slow them down.
Luckily there were only three hostiles chasing him. The flag bearer had stayed behind, and the guy Kai had killed hadn’t respawned yet.
Agile as they were, the Yellows, or so called Wasps, broke up their formation and performed evasive maneuvers only the Yellow troops were capable of. But avoiding getting hit slowed down their murderous sprint and bought Kai some badly needed seconds. He kept his barrage up, hitting one of them in the leg and forcing all three into cover. Then he was out of ammo and had to reload.
Quickly, he retreated back into cover and grabbed some fresh ammo from his inventory. Bullets hit the wall, creating deep craters. Kai glanced at the flag – five seconds left until it went back to the enemy base. Without looking, he pointed his rifle out from behind the corner and fired a salvo blindly, then grabbed the flag before it could disappear.
Again, bullets hit the wall he was hiding behind. He was a sitting duck!
Carefully, he peeked around the corner with one eye and saw that his pursuers were close now.
Suddenly one of the Yellows was hit by a large caliber bullet. Blood sprayed from his neck like a fountain as he collapsed.
“Got you, son of a bitch!” Claudia said.
More shots were fired, and Kai saw Marco, Claudia and Josh approaching.
“Run, Kai!” Marco said. “We got this!”
Kai didn’t need to be told twice.
Holding the flag firmly, he left his nearly destroyed cover and continued on his way to the Blue base. Behind him, he heard shots being fired as his friends engaged in a final stand-off with the enemy players. His injuries slowed Kai down by 20%, which made this last part of the dash feel like forever, but it didn’t matter. Even if the Yellows managed to wipe out his team, which he doubted, they wouldn’t catch up with him in time now. Turning the corner, Kai could see his base. Francois was standing there, waiting for him. The timer in the right corner of his HUD showed that the game would end in 40 seconds.
A moment later, Kai reached the base and dropped the flag on the small pedestal designed for it.
“YES!” he raised his fist in victory.
“Fantastique!” Francois extended his hand for a high-five.
Just before their hands could meet, the scenario froze.
VICTORY! CONGRATULATIONS!
The iconic game theme began, yet it sounded different, more triumphant.
Blue Team
3
Red Team
0
Yellow Team
0
The map dissolved around Kai, and so did his injured body.
Removing you from the map. Returning to lobby. Please stand by!
As if I could go anywhere, Kai thought with a grin. For the thousandth time, he wondered why loading screens always stated the obvious.
He could still feel the adrenaline pumping and knew that it was his real body experiencing it. And endorphins. What an amazing success!
A couple of seconds later, he appeared back in the game lobby, and so did his comrades.
“That was fucking amazing, man!” Marco said, approaching Kai and hitting his shoulder. “You basically single-handedly won the game for us!”
“That’s not true,” Kai protested modestly, trying not to show too much how happy the acknowledgment and success made him.
“It sure is!” Claudia’s virtual eyes gleamed in excitement. “Who would have thought, rookie, huh?”
“That was excellent!” Topher’s disembodied voice chimed in. “Well done, all of you! But don’t get carried away now and focus, ok? There are three more matches to go before you reach the low-level finals. And I know you can do it.”
Everyone nodded.
“We can do it,” Kai agreed. “And we will!”
Their hands met in an enthusiastic group high-five.
Chapter Eighteen
And they did.
They won all their following games. The next one had been a struggle, with one of the enemy teams being aggressive and well-coordinated. They almost lost that one but, with luck on their side, they managed to win it after all with a score of 3 – 2 – 0.
The other two matches were much easier, however, with Kai’s team clearly dominating both. It turned out that the tough training Topher had put them through paid off, and knowing the game mechanics so well was an essential element in the formula for their success.
When they went for a quick lunch in the cafeteria, they were the proud winners of the low-level round, which had been for Level One and Level Two teams. This alone was a great accomplishment, especially considering the fact that they had two Level Ones in their team, with Kai being super fresh at Helltek and in the Cyber Squad in general. But they wanted more. They wanted to win the low-level finale. Extra progression points waited for the winning team – and, of course, fame.
But to achieve this, they had to beat the winners of the second group, which only consisted of Level Three and Level Four teams. It wouldn’t be impossible to beat the team that won that round, but it would be difficult.
During their lunch, Kai saw that all the screens in the cafeteria were displaying live matches, and the place was full of people watching and applauding. People were mostly watching the high-level matches, but many of them would definitely watch the low-level finale. Most testers had nothing better to do but watch the other matches once their team had been eliminated from the tournament. No one did regular work on tournament days.
Kai wondered what the Level Tens did on tournament days since they weren’t participating. Did they watch the others play, or did they have better things to do? If they watched, then maybe she would watch him play in the finale. The thought alone made Kai’s heart skip a beat.
But no matter if she did or not, Kai wanted nothing more than to win this tournament. Although he was usually a relaxed type of guy, he could become very ambitious in a competitive environment.
He had noticed that his teammates looked at him differently now compared to only a few hours ago. He had proven his value to them, and they didn’t see him as the rookie anymore. Even Lex had acknowledged his achievements, although in her own very special way.
“Look at you! You’re not completely useless after all,” she had commented when unplugging him. Yet the smile on her face showed that she was actually impressed and pleased with him.
“Ok, gang,” Topher greeted them when they came back from lunch. “We’ve got fifteen minutes before it gets really serious. This is your moment to shine.”
“Do we know which teams we’ll face in the finale?” Francois asked.
Topher nodded. “We do. As usual, when there are three teams needed for a match, the Level One or Two team that scored best, which is you, will compete against the two teams that scored best among the Level Threes and Fours.”
“Isn’t that a bit unfair?” Kai wondered aloud.
“So, who are the teams?” Marco asked.
“Darrel’s team and Jason’s team.”
“Jason as in the Level Four almost Level Five team?”
“Exactly that one.”
“Oh crap.”
All of a sudden, the mood changed, and everyone looked downcast and discouraged. Kai had no idea who Jason and his team were, but his teammates’ reaction told him everything he needed to know.
Topher put his hands on his hips and smiled.
“What did you guys expect? That it would be easy? Of course it wouldn’t. Any team that won the Level Three and Four round and got to the finale would have been a challenge. It will be tough, but you can do it.”
Josh squirmed. “But Jason’s team is really good! Didn’t they win three of the last five tournaments or something like that?”
“Four of five,” Claudia corrected him.
“And I can’t remember any tournament when a low-level team has won the finale,” Francois said.
“Because it never happens,” a sarcastic voice said.
Kai turned around and looked at Viktor, who was reclining in his tester chair, a condescending smile on his handsome face. He was pretty sure that this was the first time he had seen the guy smile.
“And Jason’s team has been testing Call of Heroism for almost two years now,” Marco said, even his cockiness gone. “They’re shooter pros.”
“So what?” Lex threw in, sitting behind her desk with her feet resting on it. “So are you. You’ve been testing this game for months now. You know it like the back of your hand. This is your game. Fuck them and their stupid Call of Heroism.”
“Lex is right,” Claudia said. “What do we have to lose? Absolutely nothing. But we have plenty to win.”
Lex pointed her index finger at Claudia and squinted an eye. “That’s my girl!”
She jumped up from her chair and walked toward the pods. “And now go in there and kick some ass!”
***
Once they were uploaded into the lobby, Kai could sense how nervous everyone was. The tension hanging in the virtual air was outright tangible.
Cyber Squad - Level 1: A Gamelit/LitRPG Lite Cyberpunk Adventure Page 23