advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/Ritesh_Jadhav0869
Blake and Ivy swept through the remaining areas of the Administration Building with ruthless efficiency, their footsteps echoing through empty corridors that had been a warzone minutes earlier.
For a veteran like Blake, resource spawn locations were muscle memory. He navigated the building like he'd walked these halls a thousand times — because in his previous life, he had. The two scavenged blues and purples at a steady, methodical pace, backpacks gradually filling up with loot.
In the power room, Blake habitually searched the server rack next to the circuit breaker. His fingers moved automatically, opening the container.
His eyebrow lifted. A two-slot item from the server?
"Two-slot items from servers are always hard currency," he explained to Ivy as he worked, his voice taking on an almost professorial tone. "Either a [Military Terminal (Red)], a [Graphics Card (Red)], or at minimum a [Military Ballistic Computer (Gold)]."
He paused, glancing back at her. "Computer cases can scam you. Servers never do. Remember that."
The search animation completed. A new two-slot item appeared in his inventory, and Blake glanced at the icon.
His shoulders dropped slightly. "Tsk. Ballistic Computer... Still decent, I guess."
A gold worth 100,000 HAF. Not the 300k+ red he'd hoped for, but solid. Nothing to complain about, really. Just not the jackpot.
He stuffed it into his bag and casually pulled the circuit breaker lever, the metal groaning as ancient machinery hummed to life.
[ATTENTION: Someone has activated the Dam industrial elevator. You can now evacuate from the elevator entrance inside the Dam.]
The system prompt flashed across everyone's screens. A new extraction point appeared on the map — not far from the Admin Building, marked with a glowing icon.
Both their bags were pleasantly full. They didn't bother with the airdrop crates scattered around the building — those required time to crack open, time they didn't need to spend. They just tagged them in passing, marking them on the map out of habit. No surprises lurking inside.
Straight to the elevator extraction point. Find a safe corner. Hunker down. Wait for the countdown.
Easy money.
Meanwhile, in another match entirely.
JakeYardley and BigFishGaming had been sorted onto the same team by random chance. Two skilled players finding each other in a sea of newbies.
Their first round? Eliminated early. Embarrassingly early. Unfamiliar controls, unknown map layout, dead within minutes of landing. They'd stumbled around like confused tourists until someone shot them in the back.
Lesson learned.
This was round two. And they were hungry.
"Ohhh, golden blueprint! Treasure!"
JakeYardley's voice cracked with unfiltered excitement, going up an entire octave. He'd pulled a [Design Blueprint (Gold)] worth 63,000 HAF from a hacker terminal near the East Wing Manager's Office.
He stared at the shiny golden icon like a kid on Christmas morning, practically vibrating in his chair. His character held up the item, and he immediately gave it a nickname in his head. His precious. His treasure.
BigFishGaming, sitting a few seats away, heard the drawn-out, almost hypnotic way JakeYardley said "treasure" — like he was savoring every syllable — and couldn't help laughing out loud.
"You could be a streamer, honestly," BigFishGaming said, wiping his eyes. "That delivery is memorable. I can hear it in my head already."
"You're pretty good too, Fish," JakeYardley replied, tone completely sincere despite the earlier comedy. "Your mechanics are legit. Better than most people here."
It wasn't just flattery. Their recoil control and map awareness were genuinely second only to Vinny among the hundred testers. Experts among the newbies. The blind leading the slightly-less-blind.
After even this brief experience — two rounds, a combined maybe forty minutes of actual gameplay — both of them understood something important: Delta Force's quality was leagues beyond anything currently on the market. This wasn't just "good for a beta." This was genuinely excellent.
Maybe the gameplay wouldn't convert every casual puzzle gamer. The learning curve was steep. The mechanics were hardcore. But this level of polish? This attention to detail? It was destined to cause a frenzy at launch. The gaming world wouldn't know what hit it.
Both harbored vague ideas about the future — content opportunities, early-adopter advantages, community building. But this was just a demo test. NDAs in effect. Information they could share was limited. Everything was still too early to plan seriously.
Just as they finished looting the East Wing office safe, faint gunshots echoed from somewhere nearby. The West Wing.
"Let's check it out!" JakeYardley said immediately, already moving toward the sound.
He was on D-Wolf. BigFishGaming was Vyron. Both high-aggression operators. Both itching for a fight.
JakeYardley had already discovered the sprint-slide technique during their warmup. Instinct told him that kind of mobility would be powerful in this game — similar to Vyron's jet dash. High skill ceiling. High reward for mastery.
The gunshots meant one of two things: Ahsarah Guard engaging a player team, or two player teams in a firefight.
Either way? Worth getting involved. Their combat readiness investment was low — losing wouldn't hurt much, but winning could be huge. High risk, high reward. The core loop.
They crept toward the West Wing, footsteps careful on the debris. The gunfire had stopped by the time they arrived.
Based on the last sounds, the engagement had been on the second floor. Someone had won. Someone had lost.
Silent footsteps. Cautious approach. Hearts pounding.
They passed a [West Wing Control Room] that required a gold keycard — no way to enter. Then, from an ordinary room nearby, they heard the distinct sound of someone using a healing item. The telltale audio cue. Bandages rustling. Injector hissing.
"Someone's healing," JakeYardley whispered, his mouth suddenly dry. "Don't know how many. At least one."
His mind raced through options. They had the advantage of surprise. They knew where the enemy was. The enemy didn't know they existed.
"I'll breach, slide in, draw fire," he decided. "Fish, you prep Tiger Cannon for crowd control. If there's multiple, lock them down."
Quick tactical call. Simple plan. Aggressive execution.
"Copy." BigFishGaming confirmed, fingers hovering over his ultimate key. Tiger Cannon was fully charged and ready to fire. One shot. Forced knockdown. Change the fight.
JakeYardley took a deep breath, steadying his nerves. His heart was hammering.
Door open. Slide.
The door burst inward. JakeYardley's character launched into a smooth slide, gliding across the floor.
"BRRRT!" UZI bullets sprayed along his slide trajectory, tracking toward the corner where he'd heard the healing sound.
His slide-shooting wasn't perfect yet. Bullets scattered wider than he wanted. But the ambush landed — one player caught mid-heal right by the door, syringe still in hand.
[Operator: WhichOnesJustice — DOWNED]
Yes!
RAT-TAT-TAT!
More enemies inside. At least one more.
Another player reacted fast — spinning toward the door and tapping single shots with terrifying precision. During JakeYardley's reload window, he got dropped instantly, bullets punching through his starter armor like paper.
This guy had figured something out. Something clever.
Single-fire recoil was way more manageable than full-auto. Sure, the fire rate tanked compared to holding down the trigger. But he'd clearly practiced — his single taps came out so fast they almost sounded like a burst, and every shot landed center mass.
Useless against veterans, maybe. But in a lobby where nobody could control recoil? Accuracy beat volume every single time.
As the saying went: spray all you want, doesn't matter if someone else one-taps you first.
JakeYardley's screen went red, then gray. He hit the floor, downed, watching his health tick toward death—
BOOM.
BigFishGaming's Vyron fired the Tiger Cannon straight through the open doorway, the projectile screaming into the room.
The special shell whistled through the air and detonated against the far wall. The shockwave expanded outward, catching the player who'd just secured the kill and slamming him flat onto the ground — forced knockdown. Limbs sprawling. Weapon flying from his grip.
"Blasted down!"
Vyron's voice line barked out, carrying that peculiar adrenaline-pumping energy that made you want to move.
Something ignited in BigFishGaming. Pure combat instinct. He didn't hesitate for even a second — jet dash straight into the room.
The world blurred as Vyron rocketed forward, his spray during the jet only connecting one or two bullets. Didn't matter. The enemy was still locked in the Tiger Cannon's forced-knockdown state. Couldn't move. Couldn't shoot. Couldn't do anything but lie there and wait.
The moment the knockdown wore off and the enemy tried to raise his weapon, scrambling for survival—
BigFishGaming's bullets were already there, waiting for him.
[Operator: WhichOnesInvincible — DOWNED]
[TEAM WIPED]
"Nice shot!" JakeYardley called out from the floor, his downed character giving a weak thumbs-up that only he could see. "NICE SHOT, FISH!"
BigFishGaming didn't loot immediately. Priorities. He kicked the door closed first, blocking the entrance, then rushed over to JakeYardley's body and started the revive animation.
Vyron's voice line triggered again, strong and powerful and impossibly cool:
"Get up! I'll fight back with you!"
The intense firefight. The clutch save. The operator's loyal voice line echoing in their headphones...
JakeYardley, lying on the floor watching the revive bar slowly fill, couldn't help himself. The emotion was too much. He started humming, then singing softly.
"It's rare to find a true friend... unbreakable to the end..."
He had a decent voice — clearly had some vocal training somewhere in his past. The melody fit the moment perfectly. Friendship. Loyalty. Clutching victory from the jaws of defeat.
BigFishGaming grinned so wide his cheeks hurt. "True friend squad! That's what we are!"
The revive completed. JakeYardley's character rose to his feet, health restored.
"Alright," BigFishGaming said, already looting the nearest box. "Grab what you can. Then we keep hunting!"
The game wasn't over yet. And they had momentum.
Plz support by throwing Powerstones.