Evening Game

“Woah, it’s totally different!”

Chione exclaimed as they descended toward the earth. The city of Hatasdei sprawled beyond them, albeit looking very different from the one they were used to. Ethan scanned the landscape, looking for a place to land. This version of Hatasdei was filled with skyscrapers and tall towers. Since Chione’s primary role was a sniper, the top floors of these buildings made a perfect camping spot for her, but the issue was the moving zone.

The game only allowed a single parachute, so if they took position on the top floors, going down would be a struggle. To add to that, like their previous game, vehicles were allowed. A tank could easily tear through the glass exterior that covered most of these buildings, making them unsafe.

And to make things worse, tank projectiles had a faster speed, partly to compensate for their larger size which made deflection and destruction easier. They wouldn’t explode or do harm if they were destroyed in this way, however. The problem was, while destroying one wouldn’t be an issue for Ethan on flat ground, he couldn’t confidently say that when he was up high in a building.

The tank didn’t even need to hit him in the first place. All it needed to do was to aim somewhere around him, and use the debris to take him out.

Thus Ethan searched for a shorter building, one lower to the grounds. His eyes made a quick scan of the entire landscape, searching for the perfect spot. It landed on a group of houses south of the city.

“That residential area!”

“Alright.”

Ethan and Chione adjusted their course. The houses had similar looks from one to the other, all painted white with red roof tilings. Ethan chose the house furthest away from the city and landed on its roof. The one he chose had an attic, and he entered through the attic’s window. The second he landed, Ethan’s eyes darted around the room, looking for a weapon that he could use.

He reached out for an energy ax that lay on the floor. Beside it was a high-level handgun.

“Yes!”

He kicked it toward Chione who landed after him. He also threw the ammunition, as a high-level handgun couldn’t do anything without its bullets.

“We’re lucky, aren’t we?”

Chione asked as she took the handgun. The second she grabbed it, it was automatically registered in her inventory. She took the ammunition and swapped the empty magazine with a new one, a click sound appeared as she pulled the barrel. She then looked for a way down, as the attic was devoid of any other equipment. She found a door on the floor and kicked it open, careful to not fall down with it. They descended, entering the second floor. Both sides of the area were filled with bedrooms, a larger staircase leading to the floor below at the end of the path.

Ethan and Chione each checked the bedrooms, littered with various weapons and equipment. Most of them consisted of low-level weapons, and the less popular ones at that. Not finding anything of worth, they took the staircase down, arriving in the house’s living room. Items were scattered left and right, filling the floor with both junk and essentials.

Sounds of gunshots filled the air, their voices faint and nearly inaudible. Ethan turned toward its direction, while Chione picked up a low-level submachine gun from the floor.

“Should we chase them?”

She asked as she loaded a magazine into her gun.

“Negative.”

Ethan took a look through the window. Despite the noises, the neighborhood looked peaceful, not a single other player in sight-

Just then, he saw a house explode in the distance, rubble flying high into the sky. Ethan squinted his eyes, trying to see what caused the explosion. The house itself was six houses away from them, on their west, and he didn’t see anything looking like an RPG or Missile hit it. Maybe one did hit it, but it must have come from the other side, from the house’s rear.

Ethan brought his attention to his map, looking at the circle that had started to move. The second play zone hadn’t been announced just yet, and they were inside the circle, so they should be safe.

“Let’s move.”

Ethan jumped through the window and sprinted to the house right next to them. Using the house’s window, they entered what looked to be a kitchen. Ethan and Chione parted and checked different rooms. Ethan examined the living room while Chione went up to check the bedrooms. Ethan replaced his ax with another energy ax, this one considered medium-level. It dealt more damage on impact, and it felt far lighter, suitable for an agility player like him.

He looked for armor, and found an assault, medium-level armor lying in the front bathroom. The armor had a smooth, metallic surface that would change colors when worn. It featured strength-boosting properties as well. While it wasn’t Ethan’s ideal build, it would still be better compared to no armor.

He equipped it, while wondering if he should let Chione take this one instead, when he heard another loud bang coming from the street in front of them. It was so loud that it shattered his house’s windows. He peeked through the front door, hiding himself behind the wooden door, finding a metal beast rolling down the road. The beast moved slowly, its tracks pushing the thing forward.

Its long barrel swerved to the right, away from Ethan, fixing its sights on something else. It fired, taking out an entire house. From Ethan’s position, he couldn’t even see the victims’ crate.

“Ethan, I found an RPG. Should I take it out?”

Chione asked him through the radio. The game by default turned on some kind of communication device between team members, so they could speak with each other regardless of distance. They could also speak with their enemies, but only at close distance.

“... Not yet.”

Ethan turned and rushed for the second floor. He found Chione leaning back toward a wall, hiding beside a window. He went up to her and stood on the other end.

“In order to win, we need to be first place.”

It was different from their first game. It was win-or-nothing this time. If they want to win, to reach her sister, they need to survive. No amount of kills could get them there. The tank had thick armor on all sides, and while the game provided RPGs and missiles to counter them, they were rare. Being inside one would provide a great amount of advantage, so if possible, he would rather capture it.

Ethan took another glance at the tank as it slowly moved away from them. It looked like a turtle’s shell, its front side sloped while the sides and rears were flat. The turret had a roundish shape, a long cannon sitting in front of it and an unused machine gun on top. Unlike ships, whose functions had been simplified to allow operation by a smaller group of players, tanks and airplanes retained their original crew count.

Since the game was a duo, a game where only two people were allowed in a single team, the tank should be operated with only two people. The tank was moving just fine, and it could aim, so they most likely retained the role of a driver and a gunner, the gunner tasked with both reloading and spotting enemies.

The tank stopped at an intersection, right beside the house it just destroyed. Bullets pelted its right side, dealing little damage. It turned its turret toward its enemy but didn’t fire. It stayed there for a moment, its enemy presumably getting closer. Suddenly, its turret moved again. It lowered the cannon’s elevation, and while aiming down, opened fire. Silence filled the air as the tank froze in place.

“If we met one of those in the red zone…”

“The red zone doesn’t allow bullets to travel into and out of the zone, so it should be fine.”

A tank would probably get stuck trying to pass through Hokisa abandoned village’s wooden gate. It could easily tear it down, but that meant warning everyone inside. Besides, a vehicle, unless stored, counted as a used item that occupied the first five slots of a player’s inventory, meaning it could be lost or stolen. Not many players found the risk worth it, not like a tank had much to do in a closed, small space like the red zones anyway.

Only after a while did the tank start moving again. The driver probably got off his seat to help aim the turret.

“Let’s follow it.”

“Alright.”