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A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 89 - Deep into the Abyss (part 17)
- Anything significant? - Nope. The play zone has shrunk so small, yet I see no traces of the final player. Anyway, let's keep moving. If he is a camper, we can outnumber him. If he is moving, he will accidentally be careless at some point. The match clock has shifted to the twentieth-thirtieth minute, meaning the endgame is near. Most, if not all, players will be equipped with the rarest and most powerful weapon and armour, reducing the effect of modifiers to the borderline. Lingering outside the play zone will result in an almost instantaneous health depletion to death, so the scenario that he is still outside is crossed out. The current play zone is a two-hundred-metre diameter circumference, situated outside an obscure building ground with cranes, containers and construction materials. The ground is even, and with no significantly tall buildings around, sniper rifle camping from high ground is out of the question. Keeping a two-hundred-metre distance fr
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 90 - Deep into the Abyss (part 18)
Mirai's hostile response is met with a quizzical head tilt. - Yes? I may or may not have seen you during the previous games, but this is the first time I come to greet the two of you. - I am pretty sure I also have never met him. - I add a remark. - Oh yeah, I forgot to enable your spectacles after the last maintenance. Here. - What do you mean by 'maintenance'? Since when did you... A transparent, black screen temporarily pops up on the glass. With the beeping sounds of configuration, my spectacles have returned to the operating state. And that is when I see a red, bolded number on his head. Ninety. I instinctively retreat the way Mirai did when she saw him and me conversing, except that I leap behind her, my hands grappling tightly on her shoulders like a coward. - So there is no point hiding, huh? Very well. Even though his cover is blown, his state of emotion is anchored in the seabed of calmness. With his unchanging face, he t
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 91 - Deep into the Abyss (part 19)
Suddenly, he remembered them. Those who beat him up badly in their first encounter, also his final mission. Those who held the utmost importance in retaliating against the Intruders, whose heads may have been placed a bounty on by the relentless extremists. And most importantly, when he thought that would be the last time he saw them, they met again as he brought them for a visit at the Huntly Mine. Although he did not observe them from the start, he knew that something big had happened while he was unconscious. He immediately realised that they had taken down one of the organisation's facilities at Huntly Mine only when police investigations resulted in the retrieval of samples he knew by heart just from the first sight. At the age of superior physical condition coupled with a turbulent state of mind, he quickly recovered from the bar explosion that day, but his unconscious cognition could not remove the image of them. After years of the organisation leading his nose, then sa
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 92 - Deep into the Abyss (part 20)
After the paid leave, we return to the construction site in the middle of nowhere again. Besides the mine that looked no different the day we first took the leave, the first thing we see is a frightened Maric holding a bunch of paper documents and running towards us. - Where have you been during the three days? For some reason, I cannot contact any of you, either by email, text messages or calls. - You look so pale and lifeless. Come, let's help you regain composure and we will talk. Mirai brings Maric back to the control room and gives her a cup of water. After she gulps a fifth of a litre in one shot, Maric takes a deep breath. - After what you said, at first, I was still doubtful. But, after I log into the association's system, most servers have been either disabled or closed down, except for the African region. I have attempted to mail the higher-ups, and they say that they are doing their best to contain the global insurgency, but soon, this contin
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 93 - Deep into the Abyss (part 21)
The sun is yet to rise from the dune afar. In the early morning sky glowing in a mystically red hue, a hovering motorcycle carrying three people breaks the stillness of the no man's land at the speed of a sprinting cheetah. Everywhere they move, clouds of sand are blown to the back by the powerful wind motors, creating a pattern similar to high-speed canoes riding waves. On the rider seat is no other than Mirai Sasaki, also the person who built this motorcycle, thus the only person who can ride it. Behind her are the two cowards, Yuusha Takahashi and Maric Mileva, each hugging the person in front of them tightly, their legs holding on to the body of the bike with their dear lives. The gusts passing through them are so strong, that without a pair of high-grade motorcycle goggles, their vision would be no better than being blindfolded. Unlike the pathetic riders, Mirai's auxiliary processors automatically filter out winds captured by her visual sensors, and thus she is the one enjo
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 94 - Deep into the Abyss (part 22)
We briefly describe to Mirai how we got the box. She curiously examines the box, and hears my observations about it, before concluding that we have insufficient evidence to crack it and putting the box into my backpack. The interior of the building is sombrely illuminated by occasional light bulbs along the aisles and inside rooms, perpetuating a mystic and threatening aura the deeper we delve into it. The primary map of the building is stored in Mirai's memory and projected onto my spectacles, so Maric is given the tablet to understand what is going on. Based on all of the occurrences, we conclude that with some lavish and unnecessary underlying mechanism, whenever we have obtained all clues from a room, it will no longer be accessible. While I place my hands on my chest, grateful that such a revelation tremendously shrinks the scope of our objective, the path ahead is still swamped with uncertainty. - Are we going to meander randomly forever like this? -
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 95 - Deep into the Abyss (part 23)
In front of her, there stands the Intruder who is caught off-guard in the most miraculous way it could ever imagine. While its wide-open eyes hint that it is in utter surprise that the random building structure permutation mechanism brought its supposed archnemesis right next to it in the first switch, it is quickly replaced with an ecstatic, distorted smile, as it can have a truly glorious battle with its prey, before choking it with its own hands. Mirai, who is also fully aware of its physical prowess, hesitates to act. With the barrel still pointing at the Intruder, she holds her pistol tightly and slowly walks towards the seemingly defenceless Intruder, constantly checking for blind spots and weak points on and around it. - Come on, just drop your guard. Do I look like I am hiding something? - Just by being an Intruder, no less an Intruder whose rank is just below the Commander, already implies that I have to be cautious against you. Do you have any common
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 96 - Deep into the Abyss (part 24)
- Faster, Mr Takahashi! - I'm trying! And drop that honorific. You can call me Yuusha, I am not that conservative! Just as I step the other foot out of the corridor, the side walls slam towards each other, completely blocking a twenty-metre-long pathway and shutting down cameras 7 - 16 and 5 - 7. The roaring collision sound and the squeaking noises of the mechanical components send our bodies trembling. The box is intact, and after catching our breath, we have some time to carefully look at it. Unlike the first box which is encoded, there are no visible locking mechanisms on this one. There are no padlocks or holes to put any key in. If not for the rattling noises when we try to shake the box, none would ever distinguish between this work of art and a plain, decorative cuboid. And apparently, with the equipment available in the portable subspace, no amount of sheer force can break open this box. - Maric, you can lead the way. I think this box can
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