advance/early chapters : p atreon.com/Ritesh_Jadhav0869
One minute later.
"Thump!"
Ace, controlling Vyron, kicked open the entrance to the West Building. Although this would make a lot of noise, as long as he wasn't ambushed, he could defeat 99% of people in a head-on fight.
This was the confidence that Tier 3 helmet and Tier 4 armor gave him. Unless the opponent also used Tier 3 bullets or had perfect headshots, they couldn't even break his armor.
No, wait... what if he encountered Saeed?
However, Saeed didn't seem to be in this round — he hadn't heard the characteristic voice line.
"What kind of gun is that?"
At the same time, two players lying in a corner with nothing but knives exchanged glances.
The other player, who was only carrying a knife, replied to his questioning teammate: "I — don't know."
"But it's definitely powerful. Just look at his gear."
"Tier 3 helmet plus Tier 4 armor, and this armor is the most expensive MK2 armor on the trading post — full 110 durability."
"Let alone the fact that neither of us even brought a gun. Even if we had, we wouldn't be able to scratch him."
"Now we can only hope he doesn't discover us. If he does, it's a dead end."
Upon hearing this, his teammate immediately froze, clearly worried that moving would make a sound.
However, Ace didn't know that there were two "rats" secretly watching him from the shadows.
He walked into the building, and based on the footsteps, there should be no one on the first floor — only bot footsteps.
But there were many footsteps on the second floor. Conservatively, there were five or six people running, not counting those who were crouch-walking or prone to avoid making noise.
"Is half the lobby in the Admin Building this round?" He raised an eyebrow. "That saves me the trouble of looking for people one by one."
Ace suddenly threw a C4 into the air — for no other reason than to announce his arrival to everyone in the Admin Building.
Administration Building, your king is back!
[Operator · YourMomHunter — Knocked!]
"?" He paused slightly, then looked up.
The C4 was stuck right on the edge of a second-floor window. "YourMomHunter" was probably hiding by that window — but unexpectedly got blown up by it.
"It's fate, I guess," he thought to himself. "No worries. I'll send your teammates to meet you later."
Ace stomped upstairs, and when he rounded the corner, he did a big jump and aimed — no one. Very safe.
From the looks of it, the outer corridor of the West Building's second floor should be empty. They were probably all in the rooms.
The occasional footsteps also confirmed his guess — they were indeed in the rooms.
"Drip... drip... drip..."
An urgent sound of someone being revived came through.
Based on the sound, the revival location should be the room with the balcony — not where he had just blown someone down.
Perhaps YourMomHunter's teammate carried him over there before starting the revival?
"Whoosh—"
Ace used his jetpack to rush forward, and just as he reached the room, the revival sound disappeared.
"They revived him," he thought to himself. "But it's useless. The revived person will definitely be at low health."
"This guy probably doesn't dare to use meds. I wasn't crouch-walking, so they all know I'm outside."
He retreated a few steps, then — while dashing forward — fired a shot.
As expected, the people inside the room instantly reacted, thinking he had opened the door and walked in. A flurry of bullets rang out wildly but only lasted for a brief second before stopping.
The exact number of people and their health inside the room were difficult to determine, but assuming three people, that would be one critically injured plus two full health... Ace repeated the trick, and the people inside the room reacted again.
But when he repeated the action for the third time, the people inside the room realized he was just applying pressure and didn't blindly spray bullets.
"Hiss..."
This was the sound of crouch-walking.
Although the sound of crouch-walking was very faint, it could still be heard if the distance was close.
"Thump!"
He switched to his Stun Launcher and fired a shot. The room instantly fell into chaos, and loud footsteps appeared.
"Target unbalanced!"
The moment he heard the voice, Ace immediately opened the door and jetted in.
"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu-bu—!"
A continuous string of gunshots rang out, and the enemies fell one after another.
[Operator · YourMomHunter — Knocked!]
[Operator · EastCountyGod — Knocked!]
[Operator · DumplingBoy — Knocked!]
[Team Wiped!]
"Hiss..." Blake listened to the gunshots from afar and couldn't help but frown slightly. "M14?"
"Someone is already playing with the M14, sir?"
As a loyal Delta player, he was all too familiar with the sounds of these mainstream firearms.
The "da-da" sound of the Vector, the "di-di-di" sound of the M7, and the "bu-bu" sound of the M14 and M250.
The M250 hadn't been released in Delta yet, so this sound could only be the M14. And although both the M250 and M14 made "bu-bu" sounds, the M14 was much crisper and faster.
"M14, sir?" Ivy's slightly confused voice came through. "Is that a gun?"
"It is a gun," Blake quickly replied. "The reason it's called 'M14, sir' is because its stats are very authoritative."
"As the saying goes, 'Every meta has its god, and every meta plays Garen'... Ahem, I misspoke — it's 'plays M14.'"
"However, while its stats are authoritative, its modification costs are also expensive."
Ivy thoughtfully said, "Oh. You get what you pay for — I know that."
"Are we going to fight him?"
Blake hummed and continued:
"The gunshots are coming from the room with the small safe in the West Building. I'll crouch-walk over to check his exact gear..."
"No, you can follow me too. It wouldn't be good if someone came here and knocked you down."
With that, Blake began to slowly crouch-walk towards the West Building's small safe room.
Ivy followed silently beside him. Blake couldn't help but feel that Ivy was quite clumsy when playing Delta.
But being clumsy was good. Clumsy people were easy to trick.
A while later.
"Don't move for now. He entered through the West Building's door to fight that team. If he wants to search new areas, he'll definitely pass by us."
The West Building's small safe room had two doors — you could enter from both the east and west sides.
Ace entered from the west door, and he was indeed planning to leave through the east door.
Footsteps rang out.
Blake poked his head out and happened to see Ace walking past the corner.
However, Ace didn't seem to see him — which was a good thing.
"Tier 3 helmet, Tier 4 armor, plus a fully modded M14, sir?" Blake pulled his head back. "Playing Standard Dam like this?"
"If you swapped the fully modded M14 for a half-modded K437, that would be enough to go to Classified Dam and use Tier 4 bullets to kick people around."
But... hehe.
"Ivy, I'll throw smoke. You jetpack back to the East Building first, then wait for me at the corner."
With that, Blake immediately threw smoke.
If he didn't throw it now, it would be too late. The opponent's footsteps were getting closer and closer.
"Whoosh—"
Smoke spread, and Ace instantly became alert.
"Exoskeleton activated!"
The sound of D-Wolf's ultimate ability rang out. Ace was about to jump out when he realized the opponent had thrown another smoke grenade.
"Damn it!"
With the smoke, he could only blind-fire. Although he luckily hit one shot, it wasn't enough to kill.
"Forget it. Those footsteps should be heading to the West Building to escape," he consoled himself. "This D-Wolf and Vyron run away whenever they see someone. They're nothing to fear."
However — was that truly the case?
Blake did take Ivy to the West Building, but the two didn't run away. Instead, they were camping at the power switch point!
Ivy was lying by the inner door of the power switch point, while Blake was lying by the rack next to the machine box outside.
He wasn't an idiot. How could he possibly go head-to-head with a fully modded M14 backed by Tier 3 helmet and Tier 4 armor?
He only had Tier 2 helmet plus Tier 3 armor — and this Tier 3 armor was a 40-durability piece stripped from a Shield Soldier. His weapon was an MP5 with Tier 2 bullets. A head-on fight was impossible.
The opponent could make dozens of mistakes, while he could only make one. He couldn't gamble.
If he were alone, it would be fine — winning or losing wouldn't matter. But now, Ivy was also with him.
So — he could only play a game of positioning!
Most players now knew about the power switch. With only 12 minutes left, that fully geared player would most likely not use a regular extraction point. From his perspective, he had already cleared the building.
Three minutes later.
"Thump-thump-thump."
Upon hearing the footsteps, Blake instantly perked up. Although it was unlikely that current players would have the awareness to check corners... what if the opponent was also a regressor?
"He's here!"