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Info #11: The city is the only place that gives you a 99% guarantee that nothing will happen to your character when you exit the game.

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Info #12: any shooting is prohibited in cities; while sleeping, meditating, or exiting the game, an attempt on the player’s life or invasion of private property for unlawful purposes is punishable by instant disconnection followed by a fine for death.

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Info #13: If you decide to quit the game in a dangerous place, the protective field of the camping tent will save you from weak monsters, hail, storms, etc. But a boss-level monster has enough strength to reduce the endurance of the protective field to zero. In this case, the system will notify the user of the death of the character. Be careful! Choose the camping site wisely!

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It took Ronnie three days to fully mend the Barrett. After that, the workshop turned into a corner of chaos. The mess in one’s shelter is like a parasite in one’s brain, very disturbing. Sooner or later, you will have to get rid of it. Ronnie chose the first option and devoted the entire fourth day to cleaning.

On the fifth, he took a break and read a few books, sitting on his loggia with the SYL in his hands and AOC on the bedside table next to him. He memorized the silencer device, found out about the right materials and returned to the game, went to the premium store, and selected the right parts and materials. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t do it without help. Ronnie wrote to his friend, Doffersnoah the blacksmith, and asked him for help in creating a silencer on Barrett.

In that case, you will help me.

With what?

I'm working on the SVDK for one of my clients, but the damn rifle is jamming and fucking my brain. I made a mistake somewhere.

First the silencer, then the SVDK.

Agreed.

We have five days.

For the next couple of hours, a small and empty notebook, which used to lie and gather dust in the corner, finally came in handy. Paper still remembers better than a person, Ronnie reasoned. He filled the pages with information on the creation of a large-caliber Dragunov sniper rifle: starting from bolts and material, ending with complex ballistic schemes. The handwriting was clumsy, just like a father who wrote school essays for his nine-year-old son. With the last point, the ink in the fountain pen also ran out.

Ronnie picked up a backpack with tools from the floor, a couple of cans to restore energy, and the same number of scanners, and a resuscitating syringe just in case (they often wrote on the forum how characters died from falling bricks at a construction site), he did not take additional cartridges. His hand touched two grenades lying in the special pockets of his waist bag. He decided not to put it out. Last time on a "fishing trip" they came in handy. He slung Barrett over his shoulder, put the notebook in his side pocket, and went outside into Doffersnoah. AI found the shortest route in the HUD. The journey would take half an hour.

While Ronnie was looking for what to listen about in the bestiary, a warning popped up on the entire screen:

A dangerous unknown monster appeared in Otron! Restrictions on shooting have been lifted.

Ronnie spat and went to the western part of the capital, to a place near the local landmark «AInarthan Lighthouse». There, fifty yards away, overlooking the sea on «Carnil Cape» near the cliff, was a small shack, a forge named Doffersnoah – a secluded place which has not yet been touched by the city bustle, without any light or noise pollution, and a bunch of players coming in with an interested look inside, distracting from the artistic process of creating weapons. There was only the owner, nature, and the sea.

The blacksmith built a small wooden fence along with the entire site, and also bought two hectares of land around so that civilization would not get to him for sure, and installed a protective field on the border of his property. On the forum, many complained about this act, but the rules are rules. When the players asked Doffersnoah why he needed so much land, he replied: "I bought it because I can afford it, and when I can do something, I do it." The man's character was stronger than the metal with which he liked to work.

The first scarlet rays of dawn appeared in the clear sky. Kerosene lamps hanging on chains from lampposts let out a dim yellow light, covering the surface of the road with circles of dying suns. In the dark alleys, the local fauna: MurrSadei, with big green eyes and dirty red fur, raced with Jorolog, whose body resembled a rat, and a cyclopean face, ran from place to place, looked out from above and below in search of something to eat, and then ran back into the darkness.

There were more players in Otron than one might assume. The word sleep is alien to this city. The light from the windows of residential buildings was reflected in small muddy puddles on the road. There, in small rooms, many friends gathered together and played board games, cards, sang songs, and so on. Because in reality, it takes too long, and it’s too expensive to get to each other.

Then, out of the blue, yellow tracer bullets of machine guns flew from the side of the parallel street into the dark blue starry sky. Ronnie became alert and turned into an alley to get away from unnecessary clashes.

"AI."

"At your service."

"Is this some kind of new event with a monster in the city?"

"I’m afraid it’s not."

"What's going on?"

"Two days ago, an unknown monster that looked like a player killed several people in the western part of the Elgoreombdon Forest. Based on the information available at the moment, they tried to initiate a conversation with it, and they got only silence in response, apparently waiting for them to leave, but when this did not happen, its face changed beyond recognition, it took two swords out of the scabbard and kicked everyone out of the game at once. Three victims with pseudonyms Bynahal, Yvetter, Zayi complained that the system did not show who exactly killed them and why it did not receive a fine for the PK. Half an hour ago, an unknown monster appeared in the capital, where it took the lives of three patrol NPCs. At the moment the unknown monster is classified as a wild boss with transmutation abilities. Henceforth an alert was issued."

"Sapient one…"

"That is correct."

"What does it look like?"

"There are no images available. There is no reliable information as well."

"According to rumors?"

"Bynahal wrote that the player was a female human with brown eyes and gray hair. She's about six feet tall. The NPCs met a monster in the guise of Yvetter. Players who noticed the creature a few minutes ago identified it as the player Zayi."

After a five-minute lull, new shots sounded. The liquid fire-like tracer bullets flew over the roofs of houses and similar to shooting stars landed in the ocean. Ronnie quickened his pace and was practically running. A sudden silence filled the streets with an invisible tension. He immediately realized what kind of feeling was stuck inside him; it was squeezing his chest, the hallucinatory ticking of a clock appeared in his ears. Every step echoed in his head. This feeling was unmistakable - just before the fight, a timeless minute during which the past does not matter, and the future is darker than night.

Ronnie heard the window shutters creak. They opened and closed to the rhythm of the wind. Information about the death of the monster has not yet been received. There were smelly garbage cans next to the walls of the houses, and DaenMads were swarming them - small birds with raven black plumage, blue bodies, long necks, and a beak, like that of an Andean condor. He slowed down, passed by stealthily because he did not know what to expect from them. Not all creatures in the capital were harmless, many may well cause serious injury. When the road brought Ronnie to third Street, the sun rose from the horizon, painting the city and clouds in pale yellow colors. He took out the Barrett, wrapped the belt around his arm and hid behind the un-discarded building material, and waited.