Terror Infinity - Side B

Chapter 6 - 1, Btooom

After returning to the cave, Shin was silent for a long time and they never did go after the NPCs moving towards the supply case.

After Shin calmed down, he and Hikari went back out just to scout. For the moment and from a distance, it was decided that they should go watch and see how the Btooom Soldiers and Commander fought as a way to gather information. Hikari thought it was shame that they wouldn't get any more chips, yet Shin deemed it more important to find out more about the enemy.

The jungle obstructed a lot of their vision, but they were able to make out what the enemy looked like with Shin's enhanced vision due to his stats and Hikari's binoculars. There were in total six of them. Five Btooom Soldiers and one Btooom Commander leading them.

Shin: There they are. Towards 11 o'clock.

Hikari: I see them. Wh-what is with that look? They look like they are right out of a Sci-fi anime.

Shin: You do realize that we are in an anime, right?

Hikari: That's hard to remember when you are fighting for your life.

Of the six, five of them who they could assumed to be the Btooom Soldiers where equipped with redish/orange armor that Shin felt looked similar to what the online Btooom game's avatars wore in combat, but a slimed down thinner version of it. And the one they believed to be the Btooom Commander wore armor as well. It looked more like the original armor in the manga/anime, yet much nicer and a darker shade of red.

There was also something strange that stood out about them. Shin and Hikari also noticed that attached to their hips were metallic gun looking objects. It wasn't a handgun like the one's they had and were larger, but not the size of an assault rifles or machine gun.

Shin: I really hope that isn't a gun.

They should be thankful that they are not. If they had such weapons then the advantage that Shin, Hikari and the other Players have by possessing handguns would be gone. Shin hoped that those weren't really gun, yet... when he gazed upon the tool he felt fear all the same.

Hikari didn't have Shin's ability to sense danger, yet she too felt something was off about the gun on their hips. In the world of Btooom and on this island, BIM aren't just the main stream but are the only weapons allowed to be ueed. In other words, bombs are the main theme of Btooom, so how could they let anyone on the island armed with guns? As Players they are the exception and not the rule since they are outsider to the world of Btooom.

Shin agreed with Hikari, yet also realized something. He should have noticed this abnormality and should have reached the same question as her, but he was too distracted to think straight. The fear that has taken grasp of him wouldn't let go, or forget the threat that was going to come after them soon.

Shin then decided that after taking a good look at the enemy they should retreat to safety. It would be disastrous if they were spotted by a random enemy radar check. It was then when they could no longer see the enmey they heard it...

- *EXPLOSION*!

Shin: Do you hear that? Explosions. They must be fighting with the NPCs with BIMs.

Hikari: I'll check it on on the computer. Luckily, we have just passed the hour mark and... Although the Btooom Soldiers and Commander still aren't showing up on the the system, yet I can still guess where they are. Multiple NPCs in the area are fighting it out in the areas where the supply cases dropped like we hoped, but...

Shin: They are being picked off.

The sounds of fighting didn't even last a whole ten minutes altogether.

Once the explosions stopped, both Shin and Hikari were dead certain that the Btooom Soldiers and Commander had won in the end, yet still Shin was confused.

According to him, he heard over 40 explosions go off. Hikari doesn't see how that is strange, but Shin explained. He believed with an almost certainty that most of them came from the enemy. His reasoning was that he didn't believe that anyone could fight back for long against any of Btooom professionals/assassins sent by Tyrannos Japan or give them a hard time.

Hikari still didn't get it, so he said it in clear precise words... That they were all screwed. What that large number of BIMs going off would mean is that the five Btooom Soldiers and single Commander used up more then half their BIM in that one battle.

Each individual on the island starts off with eight BIMs of a single type type. There are six enemies in total, so 6×8=48. If all forty or so BIM that went off were from there side, then what does that mean? It means that in just one battle they used almost all of their BIM and let themselves vulnerable for the remaining of the game.

Hikari then suggested that maybe like themselves and the other players of the game, the Btooom Soldiers and Btooom Commanders can take the BIMs of the defeated, but Shin disagreed with that conclusion. The players are bound by a rule that says that they can't take or use the BIM and equipment of Btooom Soldiers and Commander even if they defeat them, so it is a strong possibility that they are bound by a similar rule to keep the game/mission balanced. Also, for a group meant to sweep up the island of Players and NPCs it is too inefficient of a method to kill off every person on the island.

It is only a guess, but Shin can only conclude that they have more then 8 BIMs each. Hikari then looked wide eyed at Shin and saw what the fear on his face meant. That the enemy could continually bombarded their opponents with bombs till they kill them, no, turn them all into burning human ash with the others. Now Shin and Hikari realize how not only are they worth 100 and 500 points, but also rank rewards that should normally be hard to acquire.

Shin recalled that Aqua said that in the her past mission in the movie Alien, that the non queen alien monsters were only worth 500 points and had no rank reward. Shin and Hikari can only conclude that the Btooom Soldiers and Commanders are opponents that God has specially created here in this world and gave them abilities outside the technology of this world, so as an special reward God is adding in rewards for defeating them.

Shin: It isn't an impossibility and why wouldn't he? God had sent dozens of opponents for us that could quite literally, burn down the island a few times over with an assortment of infinite BIMs as their disposal? If there weren't any high points and rank rewards for defeating them, then to entire game mission would be unbalanced. Damm, I never thought about this way of thinking before. God won't send players into an impossible mission, but he could potentially balance out an outrageously difficult mission with outrageous and equal spoils of war!

Hearing all of this, Hikari suggest that they should just ignore them. The only person who they absolutely had to kill was Ryuta Sakamoto. Ignoring the tempting points and rewards for defeating the Btooom Soldiers and Commanders when they don't have the power to do so should have been the right call, but Shin strongly disagreed.

With an upset face that showed how cornered they were, Shin says that they can't and shouldn't ignore the Btooom Soldiers and Btooom Commanders like Hikari wants. Like what they talked about on the plane yesterday they will target the NPC and to the point where none of them will be able to meet God's first objective of the Main Quest to gain eight chip ( Not including there own ) from NPCs.

What is worse is that even if they can get 8 Chips while avoiding them, come Day 7 when they have to face Ryota Sakamoto with an unknown 6000 Points and B rank reward level battle potential, there could be up to twenty-five Btooom Soldiers and five Btooom Commanders there to protect him.

Shin: And that... Is the absolute worst case scenario that must be avoided. Not even Aqua, no not even with her and all the surviving Players and NPCs left on the island would we be able to win against the ultimate army of Btooom assassins lead by their leader!

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There was silence for a long time.

Shin was just gazing in a certain direction the entire time and no matter how much Hiakri tried to speak to Shin he wouldn't respond, so she opened up her laptop.

She wanted to surprise him with any kind of good new. She had been trying to dig deeper into the system and gain real time data instead of just an hourly update. So far her efforts hadn't pan out, yet she discovered something that she felt she had to tell Shin.

Hikari: I might have found something.

Shin: ...Is it the enemy?

Hikari: I don't think it's them. There are four Chips moving around the drop points, but like how we are earlier... By their movements, I think that they were surveilling the Btooom Soldiers and Commanders and knew about them in advance. They might be allys.

It was as Hikari said after Shin checked her laptop himself.

There was a group of four moving together an hours walk from where they currently staying. Then looking back on past records, this group had been traveling together for not just hours, but since yesterday.

It was only Day 2, so Shin thought that it was unlikely that anyone would form groups and a large one at that so soon in the game. Not impossible, yet unlikely that one would last in this environment with the possibility of betrayal... Unless you are a player. On the island only Players didn't have any benefits of killing off their own like NPCs because Players were bound by the rules set down by God.

Hiakri: What should we do?

Shin: ...We will abandon this place and go after this group of four moving together.

Hikari: Why leave?

Shin: This base is too close to the enemy for my taste. If they find us while we are hiding out here in this cave, they can bombarded this place with dozens of BIMs and cause it to collapse with us inside. It is too dangerous to stay here.

Hikari: So we will go after the four man group?

Shin: Yeah. I don't want to deal with any of this missions group of newbies, but if it is a group of Players from our side who are still alive... It could only be Aqua, Misaki, Saki, Kampa, Zero or Shuai. There is a high chance that a group of four on Day 2 being together and checking out the Btooom Soldiers and Commander from a distance could be any of them.

Hikari: And on the off chance that they are NPCs or the other newbies?

Shin: If they are the newbies who didn't follow us back on the plane we have no need for them, so we'll ignore them and move on. If they happen tombe NPCs though...Then that is four more valuable Chips which will fall into our laps. Hikari, lets go! Allies or enemy, we can't stay here. We'll go after them!

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Tyrannos Japan: Game Planner Gemu Shusaisha's Report 9.

Real World Btooom Game, Hard Mode - Day 2.

3:13PM

Players Alive: 8/15.

NPCs Alive: 81/150.

Btooom Soldiers Active: 25/25.

Btooom Commanders Active: 5/5.

Ryota Sakamoto, Btooom Lord Inactive: 1/1.

Daily Minutes -

1. Unit 1 have begun the extermination of all players on the island. After an initial sweep, they will immediately turn their focus to terminating the person(s) who has infiltrated the system on the island.

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Authors Note:

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