"Who is that person shooting at us?!" wailed the Japanese ambassador as he quickly shrunk his body into a ball a bit more in fear of being the next target.

Under the heavy fire of deadly bullets, all 4 of them managed to hide behind a colossal statue in the center of the plaza. Alas, blood was already drawn from amongst them.

Alan took a bullet to his shoulder as he propelled to take cover. He autonomously used [Medicated Gauze] to recover the lost HP, while his mind tried to analyze the situation.

Despite having quite a decent defense through his high equipment rating, Alan still received severe damage from what should be a bullet from an assault rifle.

Considering that it was still in round one of the game, with the shooter's accuracy and the damage dealt. It could only mean one thing.

A veteran.

To test his conjecture, Alan grabbed a nearby fist-sized rock and flung it at the rough direction where their shooter was.

BAM!

As soon as he heard a shot fired, Alan took a swift glance from behind the cover of the statue and-

BAM!

A bullet hit the part of the statue just next to his head, forcing him back to cover.

However, Alan has successfully got a glimpse at the figure in dark cloth hiding behind the guard post. The other party was undoubtedly a veteran player.

Veteran was the title that was used to refer to the survivors of the Apocalypse Game who rejoined the game, with their previous XP and equipment intact.

Knowing what he was facing, Alan took a shallow breath and shouted for the other party to hear.

"Fellow player! Why are you shooting at us? What do you want!"

Seconds later, a reply arrived from a distance, a man in a southern accent.

"Boy! You are stealing my quest, send them to me or you both will get trouble!"

Alan's lips pursed together as his mind quickly went to work, considering many possibilities from now on. Unfortunately, the presence of this Veteran was not on the report; either Kenny hid this fact, or this was one of the butterfly effects of his actions.

Knowing things could get really messy with a Veteran involved, Alan whispered a quick few seconds with Nims and then yelled once again.

"You don't want to kill us and lose points. If you agree to cease aggression, we can share this quest."

The answer came almost instantly with no hesitation.

"Cut your crap and send them here!"

But those split seconds he took to reply were enough for Alan. As the Veteran responded, Alan swiftly came out of the cover, gun blazing with his M9 Beretta running to one side while giving cover fire to Nims as the monk ran to an opposite side, branched out leaving the two ambassadors behind the statue.

Tar Tar Tar

More shots were fired, causing the two ambassadors to cower in fear. However, both Alan and Nims had successfully got a different cover apart from each other and halfway closer, giving the Veteran a hard time.

"Goddamn! You tricked me!", the Veteran complained.

Alan offered his suggestion again, "This is your last chance. Will you share the quest or not?!"

"No!!" said the Veteran in an irrefutable tone.

To charge in directly towards a Veteran shooter was definitely reckless. In fact, Alan should try to avoid this conflict if he could. However, with time at the essence and Nims having relatively high HP and skill, he was confident they would succeed.

The plan was simple one: whoever got targeted by the shooter would quickly take cover while the other one would charge and take out the shooter.

"Now!"

Alan released a spree of shots toward the guard post where the Veteran was as he charged.

He saw a figure in black attire hidden only a dozen steps away, but to his surprise, none of them were shot at. And the figure, it didn't move at all...

Alan quickly halted his steps; dread filled his heart as the worst possible scenario came to play.

"Retreat!," he ordered, but it was too late.

The Monk crushed the guard post window and tackled the figure in black like a hungry beast. However, it was only when their bodies hit the ground that Nims realized the one in black was not a Veteran but someone he recognized.

'It's Kenny.'

The monk stared at the unconscious Kenny with a blank look on his face.

"It's a trap," said Alan to the confused Monk.

Knowing such a fact. Alan still tried to retreat. However, he heard a gun reload sound just a few meters behind him followed by a cold voice.

"Do not move or I will blow a hole in the back of your head."

The veteran revealed himself undetected; he had to own a sneak skill on par with him or even better than his.

With an assault rifle aimed at Alan, the Veteran slowly approached. He shared a playful grin as he saw all the pawns falling into the right place.

"I have an explosive placed in that post, one press of a button and you can say goodbye to your brown curry friend over there," said the Veteran as he showed a small trigger his other hand was holding.

His fingers fiddled around the trigger switch to emphasize that their lives were at his fingertips.

Alan raised his hands and slowly turned his head to see a burly man in his mid 30s, gray camouflage clothes, bulletproof armor, and one signature weapon-- A Crimson red M16 assault rifle.

Seeing the very eye-catching weapon, Alan realized the true identity of the other party and his face inwardly turned grim.

'Curse my luck.'

Among a dozen Veterans joining the game from the New York server, he just had to cross paths with one of the famous ones. The Crimson Gunner – A southern American redneck, a gun nut who enjoys playing the game and volunteers for the second time.

Alan glanced at Nims who was eyeing the man aggressively and signaled him to stand down. Then, his eyes darted towards Kenny who was currently lying on the ground, motionless.

"Did you kill him?"

"Huh? No no.. not yet… but I will if you dont quickly HAND OVER the VIPs.."

Alan heaved a sigh... he was too fixated on the quest's time restraint that he became careless and fell into a trap.

But now that he had realized who he was facing with, he stared at the man and said,

"I think.. you're bluffing… I don't think you set an explosive in there."

The man chuckled as he said, "Will you bet your life on it?" with a mocking grin creeping on his face.