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Chapter 550: Stay There And Die

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“““Sir yes sir!”””

Angus shouted in understanding. He was still mad at the humiliation earlier but he also understood a thing or two about “etiquette” and logic so he did not say any other word lest he was going to be an example for the rest again.

“Next, and take note, the ONLY role of the Squad Leader is to issue your commands and also tell you your Mission Objectives. It’s not him who will adjust on how he will do it but you will be the one to listen and adjust because as a Unit, the Squad Leaders are your immediate superiors so all your actions, performance, replies, and as well as your attitudes will be graded by them. The higher the grade given, the more chances that you will pass so you better straighten your attitudes in front of them, do you understand?”

“““Sir yes sir!”””

“Now, by the logic that your Squad Leaders are your source of information, rankings are now also given to your entire Squad Unit. Remember that there is a Neutral Hostile in this map and you all must remember that he is your enemy. All Squad Leaders will not attack candidates and vise versa since you will notice that he was a blinking BLUE person in your vision, meaning, he is invulnerable to your attacks so it’s useless to shoot them. Just don’t attack them instead. However, the Neutral Hostile will attack you and he had the ability to kill your Squad Leader. In case that happens, the one with the most senior rank in your group will be the next Squad Leader so whether you want it or not, you have to man —or woman— up and do the role according to the prompts. Do also take note that in your vision, there is a 30m wide mini map and your allies there are green. Enemies will always be red so it’s easier for you to always take note of the mini map every now and then, most specifically for you, Scout. Understand?”

“Sir yes sir.”

“Again, on the fact that there is a Help Motion in effect to all of you, all of your given roles are also given grading criteria based on the prompts that will ALWAYS be there on you. For example, your [scouts] will be given tasks to accomplish like look in front and if he did a good job at it, the way they accomplished it will be given. So what about the rest of you? Well, again, with the Help Motion in effect to at least make you look like a presentable bunch of trained ning-nongs, all your designated tasks will have given ‘tasks’ that you must finish in the duration of the entire mission. For example is your [tail scout], he was given the task to clear the tracks and there will be instructions on how to do it that will flash and guide him. Or like when in a fight, the Squad Leader said you gotta maneuver to the left and you fail, well, one thing is for sure, if you fail to accomplish that and you are still alive, then you’re just plain lucky. I don’t think I have to emphasize how things will turn out in case you all fail your tasks, right?”

“““Sir yes sir!”””

“Lastly, whew, (this is getting tiring) your Mission Objectives’ only purpose is to actually make you all earn your stars to buy you different kinds of different perks. Complete the Mission Objectives and you earn yourselves stars. The more Mission Objectives you complete the more stars will be on your wallets and, of course, just as your briefings told you all earlier, the more stars, the greater the perks you can unlock and eventually buy. I don’t think I need to tell you how great these perks will be on your overall performance, right?”

“““Sir yes sir.”””

“Well now, if you understand at least that much, then go. I don’t want to see you standing here like a parade of good for nothings. Squad Leaders, I give you the stage. Take charge!”

““Yes sir!””

That was how Angus and the rest of his squad is thrown in to the battlefield.

As a [Scout], he was tasked to be the point-man and his tasks were be alert as he looked ahead in front of him, searching for enemies in every kind of possible angles of attacks.

Their first [Mission] was to secure resources (the stars) from the first Resources Hotspot.

Whether they meet enemies or not wasn’t up to them because honestly, in this entire scenario of The Conclave’s Event, these Squad Leaders are not their allies… they’re just actors performing a specified role and they will only become useful in the battlefield when actually face to face with the threat of the Neutral Hostile.

—but who was the Neutral Hostile? How fucking dangerous is he that he was everyone’s enemy?

At the thought of it, Angus had the urge to look at his squad. He saw them facing left and right in an alert file formation… with the person next to him, a girl named {Fabula} —probably her surname— 2m away and facing his left, the third person is {Cruz} 4m away facing Angus’ right, {Smith} 6m away facing Angus’ left, then there’s the Squad Leader in the midst, followed by {Chase}, {David}, {Sanchez}, {Schmidt}, and then {Zhou}.

Two meters every person, alternating their eyes on the left, right, and then behind to cover all the possible spots of the squad.

Basically, their file formation looked like this:

……..……..

——— Angus ———

Fabula ———

——— Cruz

Smith ———

—–— Sqd Ldr ———

——— Chase

David———

——— Sanchez

Schmidt ———

——— Zhou ———

……..……..

Angus was burning and eventually, he couldn’t help but ask through their shared party channel.

“Hey, Fabula,…”

“What?” she was visibly on edge though she still tried to show her unwillingness to talk to anyone.

Angus, being prideful as he is, also detected the contempt of the person had on him and he almost stopped only to click his tongue and still asked.

“Do you have an idea who the Neutral Hostile?”

“Dunno. Look in front or you will have us all killed by your incompetence.”

“Tsk. Ugly bitch.”

“What did you say to me?”

“Ugly bitch. You got a problem with that, ugly?”

“Oh so mister maggot has some spine to talk to a weak girl like me but not to another guy, huh? I’m so fuckin impressed.” Fabula actually had a sharp tongue on her own and being called maggot and also his blunder earlier being used against him in this manner was just plain too infuriating.

He thought about throwing another insult but he stopped as he saw the indifference in the face of their {Sqd Ldr}.

Angus had a thought.

Facing the other candidate squads, would he act as if he was also taking fire and fire back, or will he just stand there like the indifferent person he was like that?

Having had this thought, the anger he had was put on another side and he just clicked his tongue and faced up front, picking up the pace and being alert for enemies on his vision.

“So cowardly. Heh.” Fabula clearly wanted to pick a fight but Angus held it in, following the task he was being ordered to do as a [head scout].

The squad’s pace was decided by the [scout] so it was up to him whether to go faster or slower.

“Pace down, Gregory, you’re too fast.” said their Squad Leader and Angus followed with a “Yes sir” in reply as he slowed his pace.

Angus was learning.

“It’s an open field. There is a possibility of there being landmines on that region. Clear it.” said the Squad Leader. They’ve been in the shallow forest area towards the Resource Hotspot for 15minutes already and Angus and the entire squad was quiet the entire time.

Schmidt jogged in and took out an equipment on his backpack, a mine sweeper, pressing a button on the top and throwing it on the open field 10m away from them.

It was a ‘disc’ in all respects and before the disc even hit the ground, it ejected a large black net that enveloped a large area, and then TSUB!! the net seemed to have been very heavy because its “network” gave a sound as if it just did something to the ground it landed. Then, retracting the net slowly until it fully returned to the disc, Schmidt, taking the role of an Engineer Member, took one more device from his backpack and used it to recover the minesweeper.

He reported to the Squad Leader, “Area clear sir.”

The squad leader nodded and eyed Angus, “You continued to be vigilant and take point. Let’s—”

Pfft…!!

In the middle of his sentence, something fast flew past and the Squad Leader’s entire head blew up, scattering into red polygonal lights in every side and direction.

The squad was still listening just a tiny moment in a second ago and was still unable to process the thing that had happened. The body slowly tilted to the side and arched, only then did they hear the explosion of a gunshot but it was too soft and too low in volume when it finally reached their side.

“Ambush!” someone yelled and the Squad, as if in a slow motion, scampered like chickens that just inhaled boiled steroids.

Fear. Fright. Scare. Horror. Terror. Awe. Panic. Dread. Every kind of synonym or relative word he can think of associated with the feeling of utter distress to their impending fate swarmed his heart and mind like a living plague in the morning.

Angus’ mind shook as he crawled to put his body behind a tree at least a meter thick, away from the direction he thought he heard that gunshot came from. Shaking and trembling like a cat out cold in the middle of a rainy winter, Angus hugged his .38 Caliber M36C6 “B-3-1” Assault Rifle as if it was a lifesaving float in the middle of the ocean.

Chaos. Their entire squad collapsed and they all fell into utter despair and chaos. Many ran away in some random direction while the only one that’d remained in the general area was actually Angus and that Fabula who hid behind a tree the same as him.

Even breathing became a laborious task as Angus tried to both hold his breath to avoid being seen or detected by the sniper and chase his breath to stop himself from having a cardiac arrest.

He felt his crotch wet along with something else in there and he didn’t even have the time to ask how and why even THAT was being simulated in this accursed virtual place.

Realization dawned on him.

Those guys in war movies had minds and resolve made up of steel. The men and women who had been portrayed time and time again in different war movies looked cool —but that was it for them movie goers. Yet, very few had actually put their own selves in their shoes and imagined how they would react when they were in that situation.

Angus wished, dearly wished, that he’d watched more of them war movies and not just hentai and porn, or some secret blackmail scandal sex videos he chanced to discover from his father’s files. If he had, then perhaps he could have done better than hide like this pathetic self he was showing to this enemy girl, of all people, at that.

He looked to his left, he saw the girl looking at his direction, staring, perhaps feeling relief at the fact that she’s faring better and wasn’t in such a mess from total shock and fear as this pathetic human being who had the audacity to call himself a guy.

“…o ba…….ck….” Angus ignored it all and looked over the direction one of his squad mates had ran off to. There, he saw Schmidt. “...back… guys, go back, Schmidt, save me….” Angus tried to call out for help from his squad mates but no one replied, not even Schmidt who’s back he was seeing was like an ostrich who’s tail feathers were burning as it tried to run away.

And just as he saw Schmidt who was around 30m away from him about to hide in the huge tree, his entire head also blew up and what followed after that was the destruction of a patch of area just a tad bit beyond where he used to stand.

There was no gore to make them puke but the Drillmaster’s words were also true that imagining the fact that you’re shooting a person dead with a gun was another fact in itself. It wasn’t fun at all since, unlike RPG: Terroa where you can cancel out the pain receptors, this virtual reality was all but fake to his senses…… meaning, it was as real as it can get… especially the pain and sensation!

He almost screamed but he held his voice in with a hand while still hugging his gun. Then he turned his head to Fabula, she wasn’t as shocked as him and was actually already gritting her teeth as she looked back to where they used to be.

Angus also did and there, he saw, Smith, Cruz, David, Sanchez, and Zhou’s headless remains not too far away from their Squad Leader.

—how fucking many gunshots did he released in a single volley?!! I didn’t even hear anything aside from those two I personally saw!!!

——no! More importantly, who was this guy?!!

“Shit. Shit!! SHIT!!!” Angus heard Fabula cursing and he turned his head, seeing her pulling the bolt of her assault rifle and cocking a bullet into its chamber, readying to fire. Then, she faced him, “I want you to distract him with your gunfire.”

Angus couldn’t muster a word out but the basest of his instinct took the liberty to answer her by a vigorous shaking of his head.

“What a fucking coward!” She cursed and leaned back on her tree. Inhaling, exhaling, gathering her wits and then glaring at Angus. “Fine. Stay there and die for all I care.”

After she spoke, she closed her eyes, feeling for her immediate surroundings. Angus was still too scared to think and pondering what she’s going to do but he could at least see that she was faring much, much better than him now.

Loud exhales and deep inhales, over and over, until five seconds later, she inhaled deep and put a point out to where she generally thought was their attacker’s location and pulled the trigger and began to fire.

One, four, nine, twelve... it was in automatic mode so the bullets flew in rapid succession. Then she pulled a grenade from her breast pouch and bit on the pin, spit it out, and threw it not too far from behind her, creating a black fog of cover smoke.

It was a smoke grenade.

Satisfied, Fabula faced Angus in open disgust.

“It’s such bad luck with y—”

CRASH!!!

“Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!”

The thick 1m tree trunk that she was hiding from made a sound as if a canon had just fired at it. In the next moment, her head exploded into multiple pixels of red polygons…… dead.

Fabula was also dead. His mind registered that scene as vividly as possible. Angus screamed like he never screamed before but he held his voice in with a hand as he hugged his gun.

Trembling, he forgot the fact that this was a game because he felt the pain in his body and the fear of dying —or the process of it— frightened him so much that he couldn’t even breathe properly.

Proctor Drillmaster God, as Angus thought, was actually correct. This is the military, nothing about here is a joke and respect is earned only by those worthy while the rest was considered trash.

Diploma? Master’s Degree? Sword Master? All of it was pure and utter bullshit!!! In front of a gun’s barrel, you’re nothing more than an insignificant piece of trash that can be killed with the simplest pulling of the trigger.

The tree that once hid Fabula fell and in its place was the glaring 3pm sun that seeped through the gaps between the leaves of the trees.

After all, they were in an open area.

It warmed Angus like the dried cactus, only, his thorns was actually within his body, stabbing him repeatedly and numbing all of his senses, making him dull. He couldn’t move.

The crashing sound of the tree reverberated into his body but Angus made no move. He only kept on stopping his voice and hugging his gun as his mind slowly un-fried itself from its fried state.

Back in Terroa, he was a fierce warrior who was not afraid of monsters. Why? It’s because Angus disabled the pain receptors and put it into 100% null, and also made the visual rendering down as low as possible.

He can’t see gore when he slashed people and he only see them red lines as he created a combo by chaining multiple attacks. He was that cool.

But here, albeit it was still censored, there was a pain aspect and his body felt heavy as he also felt sluggish while being so very afraid.

There was a difference between a realistic game environment without feeling pain and the realistic game environment WITH so much pain.

It was only natural for people to fear the pain and the agony of a severe injury, as well as the death —especially the violent death he just witnessed— that will bring about from this sensation.

Angus’ reaction, for a clueless and normal civilian, was typical. There was nothing wrong with it. The fact that he wasn’t losing his mind right now while banging his head somewhere was actually proof that he was at least sane enough to recognize his fear and succumb to the realization of his pathetic weak self at the moment.

The seconds stretched on and on endlessly and Angus didn’t even feel it a bit at all as he wallowed on his dread of his squad’s attacker.

Silence. Utter silence.

Perhaps it was minutes already, have the sniper given up? When he thought of the fact that he was still alive, Angus realized that perhaps it was that the sniper thought that they were all dead?

Angus, honestly, began to feel relieved. And just as he did thought so of the idea, his Auricle rung with the voice of the people back in the CP:

(AN: CP = Command Post, their [Tent Base])

It was the communications officer, a candidate, in the Support Base. How long has it been since he had been trying to get in touch with him?

He pressed his hand on his ear and spoke, “This, this is Gregory. Everyone’s dead *sniff* everyone is fucking dead *sniff* dammit… dammit…”

Angus didn’t stop himself from crying and while he begged for reinforcements, for someone to save him, or for this whole thing to end already, it wasn’t as if there was no hope left.

That was the Drillmaster speaking.

—why the hell are you so angry about? All of this mess is just a godamned game!

Neutral Hostile. The term stuck to his skull like an annoying gum that wouldn’t come off. So it turns out that the person who just shot his team mate straight through from a 1m thick tree was actually that Neutral Hostile.

Now that he thought about it, he said that all the Squad Leaders are invulnerable from attacks from the candidates but in one direct hit, their Squad Leader was taken out like a serving of lasagna.

“Fuck!!! Sir, just what the fuck is that gunshot?! It fucking went through a giant tree like it was paper and obliterated Fabula from her chest and up!”

There was an active video feed from all members of their squad and it was fed back to the CP for the Support Team to process.

“No! I don’t want to do that. Please, sir, bring the team here right away, please, I don’t want to die!”

Angus was irritated by the names and insult but all the more, he was afraid that when he moved, he’d get killed instead.

—Game, this is just a Game... this is just a game, this is just a game…

He tried to repeat the words to convince himself but the wet sensation within his pants as well as the palpable smell of blood, albeit no trace of it, is making his gathered bravery to follow his orders to dissipate even before they formed.

The Drillmaster knew to expect something from these civilians but to think that Fabula, the other of the two survivors with the real capability to be a wonderful soldier, was actually the one to die but not this uselessly pathetic piece of gutless trash.

It was such a loss. That’s why he was angry.

Angus had lost all motivation to move. He denied his proctor’s orders and just remained hugging his rifle, trembling, staring at the ground, uttering his mantra over and over.

The Drillmaster’s actions were actually against the scenario but it wasn’t a violation either. In fact, he didn’t have to do anything and already finished his part; yet the fact that half of his platoon’s fighting force was already wiped out and while he didn’t know what was happening to the other platoons, he didn’t want to be a laughing stock for having to brief on a trash platoon with half of it being wiped out in the first few hours of the simulation exams.

“…”

It must be noted that the Drillmaster’s words was not only heard on Angus’ ears, it was broadcasted on the other squad’s Comm Channel as well.

The other squad’s Sqd Ldr couldn’t help laughing while he ordered for his team to rush towards the Resource Hotspot near Angus at full haste.

His attitude was also reflected to his squad and all of them were laughing as they observed Angus.

Angus didn’t answer but he shook his head and only hugged his rifle more.

“Just save me already!” Angus yelled. He did not even consider the fact that he was acting like the prince here that the other squad was obligated to save at all costs.

And then, just as the Drillmaster was about to give a certain order, a candidate in the Support Team yelled out a warning call.

The Drillmaster’s order bounced off the moron’s head as Angus’ first reaction to the warning was to look at his upper right corner, to see the purple dot the other candidate yelled.

Angus didn’t listen to the insults from his Proctor and only cared to shift his head to look.

From fifteen meters way, appearing right in front of him within six swift leaps, Angus —no, they, all, thru his Auricle’s built-in camera— saw his face.

CLICK!

It was the sound of the safety lock of a handgun being lifted. That distinctive sound echoed like a declaration of despair in Angus’ heart.

The handgun’s barrel was now in between Angus’ brows and the holder was looking down at him as if his pathetic appearance was a sight to laugh at.

“You—!!”

“Hello, Angus. You’re still as pathetic as ever…”

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Angus becomes a bottom feeder!!

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