Mai was on her feet before she knew it. The voices were a mix of male and female. Some were trying to talk to the others in hushed tones, but there was at least one who wanted to talk in a normal tone.

“For the love of the Emperor, there’s no one here!” the loud speaker snapped.

“So why the hells can we smell cooking?”

Mai closed her eyes in frustration for a second. She hadn’t given any thought to the fact that the smell of her cooking would assist other cullers.

Come to think of it, why were so many of them working together this early in the Culling?

Checking her BIO-MASS level she smiled to see that it was at one hundred per cent. This gave her many more options than just a knife and a bad attitude.

From what she could tell, the other cullers were still in a corridor a couple of doors down.

Gives me some time to prepare a nasty surprise.

Heart hammering quickly in her chest she opened up her nanite menu. The first thing she selected was a mine. Mines were excellent weapons because they didn’t rely on the user having good aim, and they were also relatively cheap in BIO-MASS compared to their killing ability. Even though she already laid some, it couldn’t hurt to have at least one more.

Biting her lip against the pain, she formed a Moon-mine. It was a gentle crescent shape, with the outwards curve helpfully marked with ‘front to enemy’.

As quickly and quietly as she could, she lifted a chair and placed it a couple of feet in front of the room’s entrance. Flicking a switch she smiled as a near-invisible laser played over the door.

Anyone walking through that beam is going to be in a world of hurt, she thought, surprised at how quickly she was getting used to the idea of kill or be killed.

Moving to the back of the room, she just as carefully flipped a couple of tables. They wouldn’t provide her with any useful cover from projectiles, but they would provide her with concealment.

Opening up her nanite menu again, she selected an SMG and SHOTGUN. The pain was even more intense this time. Both weapons cost the same at 3% BIO-MASS, leaving her with 89% for additional ammunition. She spent another 6% for explosive ammunition in the SMG – thirty rounds - and 5% DRAGON BREATH shells for the shotgun which had a magazine of ten shells leaving her a new level of 78%.

I found food once before, I’m sure I can find it again, she reassured herself. The fact that she only found the food by accident was something she pushed firmly to the back of her mind.

Because of the room plan, there was no way she could enter the corridor and leave the facility without the other cullers finding her.

Taking a couple of deep breaths she called out.

“Hello? Who’s there? This is a private facility. You should leave now before I call security.”

Silence, sudden and total descended. Then she heard the sound of harsh whispers.

“Bollocks. You’re not going to call security. You’re a bloody culler.” It was the same voice as before.

Mai activated her SMG and SHOTGUN skills. Licking her now-dry lips she laid her sights on the door.

She activated SMART MOUTH.

“Well, you better leave or else,” she said, making her voice sound weak and afraid. The latter was far easier.

“Have it your way!” The speaker kicked the door open in one smooth movement.

Mai had just enough time to see that he had armed himself with a shotgun of his own before the door broke the Moon-mine’s beam.

With a surprisingly loud explosion the mine went off, filling the air before it with flechettes. Its effect was devastating. Loudmouth was utterly obliterated, and the two people behind him were sent reeling back into the corridor. If they’d managed to make it into the room, her other mines would have made short work of them.

Having seen just how much of a mess the moon-mine had made, she was glad they hadn’t tripped the other mines. The noise and damage done might well have disabled her.

Going to have to make sure I place mines more carefully next time.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 193029 ELIMINATED

HIT! 88% DAMAGE

BLEED @5% PER SECOND

HIT! 79% DAMAGE

BLEED @7% PER SECOND

Shouts of anger and fear followed the immediate aftermath of the group leader’s grisly death. She couldn’t see any glyphs as her opponents were concealed, but the notifications were more than enough for her.

A barrel popped around the door and fired, spraying the other side of the room to Mai’s left with bullets. She didn’t return fire, not wanting to let them know where she was positioned.

Instead she just waited. More notifications from the two wounded cullers popped up. They were bleeding to death satisfyingly quickly.

From the sounds outside she could tell that there were at least two others in the group.

Calling up her menu, she scrolled down to the grenades. They were ten per cent BIO-MASS each, which would seriously deplete her remaining BIO-MASS. On the other hand, if she didn’t use the SMG and shotgun, she could re-absorb that BIO-MASS into her body.

Deciding it was worth the risk she selected a powerful frag grenade, and a smaller flashbang at five per cent.

“Hey, let’s talk about this. We don’t need to kill each other. Not yet anyway. And there’s going to be a load of people coming here to see what all the fuss is about. You don’t want to get trapped in the corridor.”

She was talking to buy time. Now that their blood was up she didn’t think that the other cullers would be willing to let her live.

Not only had she killed a friend of theirs, she was also going to be credited with two other kills in a short space of time. That meant she was actually worth more to them if they killed her.

It was only when a warning flashed up as the flashbang was formed that she realised her mistake.

I don’t have any bloody hands!

Cursing, she reabsorbed the shotgun. The SMG would hopefully prove to be more than useful for the job at hand.

As soon as her hand was back to normal the flashbang formed. Wiping away the tears caused by the pain of absorption and creation, she placed the flashbang down and then formed the frag.

“We’re going to kill you bitch! There’s no way that we’re going to let you walk away!”

KILL!

CONTESTANT 087387 ELIMINATED

“That was my sister!” Mai paused at the pain in the shouter’s voice. She knew all too well what it felt like to be forcibly separated from her own sister, and to see her bleed to death was something she hoped never happened.

Mai didn’t bother replying as the room was filled with bullets sprayed blindly from behind the wall.

This time the shooter was firing through the walls. A far more effective way of doing things.

Mai gasped as a bullet clipped her shoulder.

DAMAGE! 1%

FLESH WOUND

BLEED @0.5% PER SECOND

HEALTH 98.5%

It was little more than a scratch, but it still hurt far more than she would have expected.

Knowing that the shooter knew she’d been wounded and where she’d been shooting at the time, Mai couldn’t wait any longer. She primed the flashbang and then lobbed it through the door. As quickly as she could she primed the frag grenade and held on to it.

The flash bang detonated, filling the air with sound and bright light. Even behind her table she was slightly stunned by the effects.

MULTI-HIT!

BLINDED!

STUNNED!

INTIMIDATED!

Popping up from behind her shelter she threw the frag grenade, it was a long throw, easily five paces. Just in time she ducked back down behind her table.

The grenade barely managed to make it past the door’s opening before detonating.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 039277 ELIMINATED

KILL!

CONTESTANT 039587 ELIMINATED

HIT! 82% DAMAGE

STUNNED!

BLINDED!

INTIMIDATED!

STAGGERED!

BLEED @3% PER SECOND

HIT! 63% DAMAGE

BLINDED!

STUNNED!

BLEED @5% PER SECOND

Pushing herself from her knees she charged out into the corridor. None of the cullers were in any state to resist her. Multiple glyphs hung above them and there wasn’t a full health bar to be seen. Two bodies lay before her. Unable to tell which were wounded and which were dead due to the fact that health bars overlapped she opened fire with the SMG.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 049385 ELIMINATED!

Turning to the left at a bubbling scream she saw another culler on their knees. Their entire face was missing. It was just a maw of raw flesh and blood. What she thought were teeth were far up its face, too far away from their mouth. Their health bar was mostly black, and getting blacker by the second as they bled to death.

Mouth twisting in disgust she fired another burst.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 100229 ELIMINATED

“Please, help me. Please, I don’t want to die.” At least that’s what she thought she heard, the words being so indistinct.

Mai turned to see the last survivor of the party on all fours. She was dribbling blood from a shattered jaw and had numerous negative status effect glyphs hovering above her.

Looking at them, Mai could tell the woman would be dead within a couple of minutes if she did nothing. However, there was nothing to say that she wouldn’t be able to get her hands on food and use the BIO-MASS to heal herself.

Levelling the SMG at the woman, Mai closed her eyes as she started to scream and plead for her life, trying desperately to eke out the last few moments of her life.

Mai fired, not even looking where she was shooting. At that range it was hard to miss, and the woman was badly injured that any hit would be enough to finish her off.

KILL!

CONTESTANT 103229 ELIMINATED

CULLING LEVEL UP – LEVEL 5!

Nose wrinkling in disgust at the stench of blood and loosened bowels, Mai quickly went through the belongings of the dead cullers. They didn’t have much, but one of them had a useful backpack full of supplies which she gladly took.

Taking a look at her minimap she could clearly see all of the deaths marked on it. As could anyone else nearby.

Time to go. If it hadn’t been for the fact that more cullers would be drawn to the battle site, she’d been there long enough. She didn’t want a visit from hostile drones.

Shouldering the backpack she set off.