Hours of searching would get Logan very little in the way of resources or loot. He saw some insect creatures roaming around and hid in the trees to avoid them. Giant ants with pincer arms like a crab, their chitin was thick and plated. While they were the same dusty brown as the cracked earth beneath them, he saw the movement before he realized he was in trouble. Looking at one for a few seconds would pop a screen out near the creature.

Devourer Drone

Level 12

Health: ??

Logan wasn’t sure what exactly a Devourer was, but he knew that he wasn’t strong enough to try to fight them, even when he saw one by itself. He didn’t see any other creatures around, even animals or other small insects. Maybe the devourers were staying true to their name and eating everything else they came across. He wasn’t sure, but he did know that he absolutely did not want to find out. Dying to a crash was bad enough; he didn’t want to experience what it felt like to be eaten alive.

While he waited in the branches of the tree, he pulled out the Repair Kit and his Survival Pistol, wanting to make the best of a delay. Logan opened the kit and used the screw drivers to pull the gun apart, making a note for next time to remove he magazine first, as it fell into his lap as the weapon pulled apart into two main pieces.

The insides looked rather simple; a device above where the trigger was that looked like where the shot would come from, a heat sink in front of the trigger sitting under the barrel, and a strange looking circle of wiring wrapped into the magazine well. Looking at each component for a second brought up a display explaining how he could modify each piece, and how much he would be able to change at a time.

The main piece, the emitter, looked like it controlled the damage output and ammo capacity. Since he would have trouble getting anything to die on this planet, he decided to try to crank the damage per shot as high as it could go. Giving up every extra piece of ammo he had, he could increase the damage to 45-50, which wasn’t a perfect return, but a five time increase would hopefully help him to not have to sit in his room for another hour while he waited.

Tweaking the heat sink didn’t seem too helpful without a replacement, so he left it alone for now. The wiring inside the magazine well was a unique part that allowed the battery-like ammo to recharge while it sat inside the gun. It required specific parts to be able to modify, and he only had metallics sitting with him at the moment, so he had to leave that one alone as well.

Putting the weapon back together, he noticed that the name had changed to Survival Pistol Mk. 3.1. Logan admired his work before putting it in its holster, and the tools back into their case. As he placed the case into his inventory, he looked over at where he saw the Devourer, happy to see nothing but dusty land between dead trees.

Logan dropped down to the ground and walked over to where the creature was, hoping to get some hint as to which direction it wandered off in so he could take the chance to avoid it. Claw marks were spread throughout the dirt, as if it had been looking for something, but couldn’t find it. Unable to figure out what it may have been, he noted that it looked like it walked South West, so he angled himself a bit more to the East before continuing on.

—

Logan crouched behind a fallen log as he looked at a building in the distance, trying to figure out why it was out here in the middle of nowhere. A squat building of concrete with small windows set high in the walls, a single door of rusted steel that would slide to the side after being released with a valve handle on the outside. It looked like a military outpost, from what he knew from the games he used to play.

It only took around twenty minutes before another vehicle identical to the one he found destroyed earlier pulled up and five people piled out of it. The driver walked to the door on the building and pounded on it three times and waited. The other three pulled out rifles of some sort and kept eyes out on the wasteland. Logan made himself as small as he could while still being able to keep an eye on them, because he wanted to see what happened out here.

The door opened, and another person walked out, carrying a similar rifle to the other Free States militiamen. One of the people from the vehicle went inside and closed the door, while the rest piled back in and drove off. No words were exchanged during this, or at least none that Logan was able to hear from this distance.

Logan waited another fifteen minutes before deciding to approach. He stopped around fifty meters away as a new icon fashed in his visor. He hid behind a tree before pulling it up to see what it was.

New Radio Channel in range! Dust Haven Free States Militia Outpost #43 can now be accessed. Caution is advised as it is an open channel, so anyone else in range can listen in and hear your conversations!

That was a new feature he didn’t know about yet. He’d look into it later, but right now he wanted to get inside and see what he could get from them. Logan didn’t much enjoy Player versus Player, but since this faction started it first, he decided that he would see about taking what he needed to fix his ship from them as payback.

Creeping up to the front of the building, he stretched himself to be able to look in one of the windows, seeing that there wasn’t any glass, it was just a slit in the concrete that would allow those inside the chance to fire at incoming threats. He saw that the interior consisted of a small cot, a desk with radio equipment, a table with three chairs, one of them occupied by the lone inhabitant he saw, and a tall, thin, metal locker in the corner.

The guy had taken his helmet off and was sitting at the table playing a card game. Luckily he was facing away for the most part, so he didn’t notice that Logan was staring at him. After a few moments, the man stood up and started to walk to the door, forcing Logan to drop down and try to hide along the wall. The door valve started to spin and the screech of rusted metal as it opened fully echoed across the landscape behind Logan.

The man stepped outside and stopped, staring at Logan as they stood within a few feet of one another. They both did nothing as they processed what they were thinking. The man looked confused, since a remote outpost in the middle of nowhere wasn’t supposed to have unscheduled visitors. Logan look afraid, as he hadn’t had to fight anyone face-to-face yet. The man reacted first, attempting to pull his rifle off of his back, forgetting that it was still inside on the cot. Logan’s response was more definitive; he pulled out his newly modified pistol and shot the man in the head.

Logan wasn’t expecting the gore to be realistic, but he was in for a surprise. The system messages that screamed for his attention shielded his psyche from the issues that had just been created in front of him by blocking his vision. He knew that the threat was gone, so he gladly turned away and accepted the messages he had waiting for him.

-Logan’s shot hit Free State Militia! Critical Hit, damage scaled 400%!

-Free State Militia has been defeated!

-Congratulations, you have leveled up! X3

-You have Nine (9) Attribute Points to distribute!

-You have gained a skill!

Pistoleer - Damage with pistol class weapons is increased by 2%

A deep breath and a thought later, Logan filed those away for later, dismissing all of the notices as digital blocks began to disperse near him. He was thankful that the player’s body disappeared, because he didn’t think his stomach was strong enough to deal with seeing the consequences of his actions. He saw a small box where the body was, etched with a small yellow icon of a backpack.

Logan picked up the box, the system helpfully telling him that it was the loot from defeating another player. He held onto it as he went inside the small building, hoping to get a properly safe area to rest in before relaxing too much. He placed the box on the table and closed the door, turning the valve to seal it closed for now. He picked the rifle up off of the cot and took it to the table as well, hoping that it could count as loot that he was allowed to take.

Free States Service Rifle

Common

Rifle

Damage: 15-18

Durability: 12/15

Range: 30 meters

Ammo: 5(5)

The weapon was decent, so Logan slung across his back, hoping it wouldn’t have to be drawn anytime soon. It didn’t have any special properties, so he would have to look at modifying it himself later to see if he could get more out of it than his opponent had. He looked to the box on the table and tapped it, a context menu popping out of it. Open and Destroy were the options available, so Logan chose to Open it. The small case hissed as the internal lock popped open and revealed another grid like his storage back on the ship.

A Free States uniform, a water canteen, a repair kit, and twenty coins took up the spaces in the grid. Logan took the canteen, the kit, and the coins immediately. He looked over the uniform, but decided to leave it. He might be able to use it to sneak and blend in with them, but he didn’t want anything to do with the Free States faction if he could help it. The box closed when he dismissed the menu, closing with a satisfying click.

Standing up, he moved to the radio equipment. It looked fairly simple to operate; a single dial and a button. A note on the table helped to solidify that idea, since the dial changed the frequency and the button started the transmission. The cot was simple brown canvas over an aluminum frame, with something that could be called a pillow if you stretched the meaning of the word.

Logan sat at the table, closing his eyes for a moment.