“That’s a useful feature,” Nate said approvingly.
“Yes,” Echo said. “Thanks to it, you will always be aware of one another’s location. If one of you got lost, abducted, or whatever, the rest of you should have no trouble finding and extricating him or her from their predicament.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “You said, ‘If one of us got abducted’, huh? This might actually happen?”
“Anything might happen in your line of work,” Echo said.
“That’s encouraging,” I said.
“Moreover,” Echo continued, ignoring my sarcasm, “the nanotrites even allow you to communicate with your teammates with text messages.”
“We can text each other?” Vlad asked.
“Yes,” the AI said. “When you are too far away from one another and have no means to get in touch with your teammates, you can send them text messages. ”
“How to do it?” Vlad asked.
“You can do it the same way you call up the Class Menu or the Mission Menu,” Echo replied.
Suddenly, a message popped up in the left bottom corner of my field of vision.
Is this working, guys?
“Somebody just sent me a message,” Vlad said.
“Yeah, I saw it too,” I said.
“It was me, guys,” Nate said. “Just testing how this feature works.” He turned his head to look at Alyson quietly standing by his side and asked, “Did you receive it too, Alyson?”
The girl nodded. “Yes, I did.”
“Good,” Nate said. “Looks like it works perfectly.”
Another message appeared before my eyes.
Playing as Damage is gonna be freaking awesome. Don’t be envious, Dave.
I saw Vlad staring at me with a smirk on his face. I did not bother to reply.
“Hey, you should stop it,” Nate said, looking at the Russian.
Vlad met his eyes and asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean your message, mate. David has let you play as Damage. You should be grateful to him for that. Don’t try to mock him. Do you remember what I told you the last time? If you make David angry again and he goes at you, I won’t be stopping him from doing a number on you.”
The blond Russian looked surprised.
“You mean you received my message too?” he asked.
“Yes. All of us did,” Nate replied.
“But I tried to send it only to Dave,” the Russian said, frowning.
“Well, I guess it is impossible to send someone a private message,” Nate said. “Am I right, Echo?”
“That’s correct, warrior,” the AI replied.
“So I can’t send private messages?” Vlad said, sounding disappointed.
“No,” Echo replied. “You are a team, so you should always act as a single unit. There can be no secrets between the four of you. So when you send someone a message, the others can read it too.”
“That’s a shame,” Vlad said before switching his attention to the holographic screen hovering in front of him. “Anyway, what about the green circle? What is that?”
“This is an area that you are allowed to freely wander around,” Echo said.
“What if we go outside this area?” Nate asked.
“I highly recommend you not leave the green area,” the AI said. “You are not allowed to leave this area.”
I did not like the sound of it. I also noted that Echo had avoided giving a direct answer to Nate’s question.
So I asked, “What will happen if we leave the green area?”
Echo was silent for a moment, then he said almost reluctantly, “If you go outside the green area, you will receive a warning saying that you have to return.”
“What will happen if I don’t obey?” Vlad asked.
“If you do not comply with the command to return inside the green zone, you will feel discomfort,” Echo said.
“What sort of discomfort?” I asked.
“You will be suffocating,” Echo replied matter-of-factly. “If you keep neglecting the warning, the nanotrites in your body will eventually kill you.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment.
Then Vlad shrugged and said casually, “Why do you look so gloomy all of a sudden, guys? After everything we’ve learned about this game, did you really expect we could go everywhere we wanted? We weren’t even allowed to freely explore our space station. Moreover, some games have open worlds, and others don’t. Most of the FPS games don’t have open worlds, because they don’t really need them. In an FPS video game, the player either can’t go outside the playable zone due to invisible walls, or the player gets killed if they leave the playable zone. This is how most of the FPS video games work. Since this is a shooting video game, it is the same here. The green area is basically our playable zone. So there’s really nothing to be surprised about. Everything here works the way it does in your regular FPS video game.” Vlad looked at me with a smirk on his face and added, “If all of this doesn’t prove to you that this is just a video game, then I don’t know what will, Dave.”
If we were actually inside a video game, then Vlad was right. If it was real life, however, then the leaders of The Weaponized—a privately held military organization we worked for—obviously did not want to give us much freedom of movement for whatever reason. They were even willing to kill us to prevent us from going astray.
I noticed Nate looking at me. My eyes met his, but he did not say anything. He seemed to be deep in thought. I had a pretty good idea of what he was thinking about. Just like me, he still was not sure whether it was a video game or real life, so he was trying to figure out which was the case.
The sound of footsteps attracted my attention. I turned my head and saw Vlad walking toward the door leading to the cargo hold.
“What’s taking you so long, guys?” He asked, without slowing down. “Let’s go already. Can’t wait to finally jump into action. Time to shoot some bad guys.”
And he disappeared behind the door. With a thought, I deactivated the holographic screen hovering in front of me. Nate and Alyson did the same, and then we followed the blond Russian. When we entered the cargo hold, we saw him standing near the Humvee.
Vlad nodded at it and asked, “Do we need to take it?”
Although he was addressing the three of us, upon hearing the question, Echo spoke up before any of us could reply.
“Yes,” the AI said. “I highly recommend you take the Humvee. While the colony is just a few minutes away from your current location, it is unknown where the creatures you need to kill are. So it is better if you take the vehicle.”
We got in the large off-road car. Since it was I who had driven the vehicle the last time, it was decided that I would drive it again. So I climbed behind the steering wheel. Vlad took the shotgun seat and Nate and Alyson got in the back.
I ignited the engine and backed up out of the dropship. I then performed a tight U-turn and rolled forward. As it turned out, we were on the top of a small hill. As the car neared the edge, I slowed down a little.
“Wait,” Vlad suddenly said.
I brought the vehicle to a stop and glanced at the Russian. “What?”
“Let’s take a look around for a second,” he said and climbed out of the Humvee.
Nate, Alyson, and I did the same. We converged in front of the Humvee, then walked to the edge of the hill and looked down. While standing on the top of the hill, we could see the colony down below. To the west, there was the forest, to the east, the lake. Except for the small colony, there were no signs of any human habitation or activity. Aside from the small settlement, the planet was pristine and untouched by the hands of man.
I took a deep breath. The air was clean and fresh, absent of the odors and pollutions from any man-made contaminations.
It was late evening, and we could see the sun slowly setting on the western horizon.
“This is beautiful,” Alyson said so quietly I almo
st missed it. I had probably been able to hear her voice only because it was very quiet around there.
“Yes,” Nate said. “This place is charming. Guess this is what a planet looks like without much human interference.”
The colony consisted of rectangular homes that looked pretty much like shipping containers. They were not attractive at all.
However, I also noticed a few two- and three-story log cabins along the lake shore. They were good-looking and undoubtedly much more comfortable to live in than the container homes.
“If you’re done admiring the scenery, let’s get to work,” Vlad said.
“Wasn’t it you who suggested we take a look around, huh?” Nate said.
Vlad did not bother to reply. He wheeled around and all but ran back to the Humvee. The blond Russian really could not wait to jump into action.
“Wait a second, guys,” I said.
Vlad had already reached the Humvee and gotten inside, so he did not hear me. Nate and Alyson stopped and looked at me with a question in their eyes.
I called up The Map, and a holographic screen popped up in front of me.
“I just want to examine the landscape to get to know our playable area,” I said to my teammates.
“Good idea, mate,” Nate said as he and Alyson walked closer to me and looked at the holographic screen hovering in front of us and showing the map of the area.
For a minute, we studied the area in front of us and compared it to the map. From our vantage point, we could see the small settlement sprawled on either side of a gravel road, as well as the surrounding area. We could tell that aside from the colony, some of the area surrounding it was also within the playable zone. The forest to the left of the settlement was huge, so only about a tenth part of it was included in the playable area. Still, even the tenth part of the forest was pretty large, so it would probably take us hours to comb it. The log cabins along the lake were also within the playable zone.
“So my educated guess is that the creatures we needed to find and kill are somewhere in the forest,” Nate said. “At least, in that part of the forest that is inside of the playable area.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
We then returned to the off-road vehicle and got inside.
“Are you finally done admiring the view?” Vlad asked sarcastically. “Can we go now?”
“We were taking in our playable area,” Nate said. “It’s good to know where its boundaries lie, don’t you think?”
“Whatever,” Vlad said dismissively. “I just can’t wait to begin killing mobs. After all, that’s why we’re here.” He looked at me and smirked. “I mean, that’s why we decided to play this shooting video game, right?”
Ignoring his taunting eyes bearing into me, I guided the Humvee down the hill and drove toward the settlement.
In the rear-view mirror, I saw the dropship take off and begin to climb into the sky.
“Hey, where are you going, Echo?” I asked.
Upon hearing my question, my teammates twisted in their seats to watch the dropship disappear into the sky.
“What the hell,” Vlad bellowed. “Where the fuck are you going, you stupid machine?”
A text message from Echo popped up before my eyes.
It read, “Do not worry, warriors. I only going to put the dropship into the orbit of this planet for now. As soon as you finish your mission, I will pick you up.”
“That’s great,” Vlad said angrily. “You never know what to expect from that stupid AI next.”
“It’s the same with you,” I muttered under my breath.
The Russian jerked his head to look at me. “What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
“I heard you say something,” Vlad said.
I just shrugged my shoulders. I had no desire to talk to him.
Ignoring Vlad staring at me, I continued to drive toward the small settlement up ahead.
Half a minute later, we were slowly rolling down what looked like the main and only street of the colony.
All of the colonists that saw our large military vehicle stopped whatever they were doing and looked in our direction. Some of the people watched our car with hope and expectation. However, I noticed that not all of them were happy to see us. For some reason, some of the colonists stared at our vehicle with anger in their eyes.
“It’s strange,” Nate said. “It seems to me as though some of them don’t like us. Have you noted it too, guys?”
“I have,” Alyson said.
“Yeah,” I replied. “This is weird.”
Vlad jerked his head to look at me. “Why? What do you mean?”
Nate answered for me, “We are here to help these people. So why would they be angry with us?”
The Russian did not reply. He just shrugged his shoulders and shifted his attention to his window.
After some time, I saw a middle-aged woman up ahead. She stood on the right shoulder of the road, watching our large vehicle approach her. When we got within ten or so meters of her, she began walking toward our car, waving for me to stop the Humvee.
I pushed the brake pedal, bringing the vehicle to a halt.
“Who the heck is that?” Vlad grumbled, suspiciously looking at the woman.
“You don’t have to be so unfriendly to everyone,” Nate said from the back seat.
“But she sure looks unfriendly,” Vlad said.
I did not really want to admit it, but he was right. The woman striding toward us did not seem like she was very glad to see us here. I wondered why.
The woman neared the Humvee and walked around the front of the vehicle. She took hold of the side mirror rod and lifted herself onto the step board, looking inside the cab of the vehicle. I pushed a button to lower the driver’s window.
“I’m Jennifer Parker,” the woman said, “an unofficial leader of this colony.”
“We are pleased to meet you,” Nate said from the back seat.
The woman glanced at him and say kind of dryly, “Follow me. I figure you want to know what you’re gonna deal with here.”
As she made to turn away and climb down to the ground, Vlad said, “Just point us in the right direction. That’s all we need to know.”
The woman looked at him over her shoulder and said, frowning, “Believe me, you’ll want to hear this.”
And without waiting for us to reply, she turned away and jumped down to the ground. She seemed to be in very good shape.
“Just tell us where to go,” Vlad yelled, having rolled down his window and stuck his head out of it, “and we’ll be on our way to handle your problems.”
The woman did not reply. She continued to walk up the street, without waiting for us to get out of the vehicle.
“Damn,” Vlad said as he pulled his head back in. “This is getting tedious. So what do we do now?”
“Let’s see what the lady’s got to say, I guess,” Nate said and swung open his door.
“Can’t we just begin shooting some bad guys?” The Russian groaned. “I can’t wait any longer.”
Nate did not reply, because he had already climbed out of the car. I saw Vlad looking at me. I just shrugged my shoulders and climbed out of the vehicle too.
“Great,” I heard the Russian mutter. Then there was a thud as he jumped to the ground.
We closed the doors of the car and converged in front of the vehicle. About thirty meters farther down the road, the woman stood next to the entrance door to a container home that looked just like all the other ones, waiting for us to walk up to her.
When we approached the woman, she shoved open the door and waved us inside.
“Come in,” she said dryly, staring at us with cold eyes.
“I don’t like it,” Vlad whispered.
I noticed him keeping his right hand close to the holster on his right hip. Nate noticed it too.
“Keep your piece holstered, mate,” he said. “There aren’t any enemies around he
re.”
“How do you know?” Vlad asked.
“Why would she, or other colonists, hold anything against us?” Nate asked. “After all, we are here to help them.”
“I don’t trust her,” Vlad said through clenched teeth. “You guys shouldn’t be too trusting of her either. Mark my words, she’s up to something.”
Before any of us could reply, Jennifer said impatiently, “Come in. I don’t have all day.”
“Keep an eye on her,” Vlad whispered. “I don’t think she likes us very much.”
We should keep an eye on you instead, I thought.
In a single file, we entered the container home while Jennifer held the door open for us. Vlad was the last to get in. He obviously did not want to turn his back to the woman he did not trust, so he waved his hand for her to go in first. Only after she shrugged and stepped inside did he enter the container home, closing the door behind him.
The room we found ourselves in was small. The interior was spartan, to say the least—it was practically empty. To the right, there was a kitchen, in the middle a dining area, and to the left a living area. With the five of us inside the room, it felt very cramped.
The leader of the colony did not offer us something to drink. She probably did not have many supplies to waste on us. Or there was another reason for her inhospitable behavior, which was most likely the case here. The glances she cast at us every now and then were unfriendly, to say the least.
The leader of the colony was not all that fond of us. Vlad was right in that regard. I wondered what was on her mind.
Nate turned to look at the woman.
“Ms. Parker,” Nate began.
The woman waved her hand dismissively and said interrupting him, “Just call me Jennifer.”
“Okay, Jennifer,” Nate said. “Let me introduce our team members. I’m Nate. This is Alyson and David. And that grumpy-looking guy is Vlad.”
Jennifer nodded, then waved at a few chairs in the living area.
“Sit down,” she said.
There was not enough seating for all of us. Alyson took an armchair, that looked very uncomfortable. Nate sat on a chair to her left, I on the one to her right.
While we were getting comfortable, the leader of the colony stepped to the opposite wall and looked out a window. She then turned around to face us and rested her butt on the edge of the windowsill.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 11
