The sun was slowly rising, illuminating the eerie stillness of the ruined city.
BAM! CRASH! THUD!
Suddenly, a young man dived out of an alley, crashing through trash cans before landing heavily on his back.
"Ugh!"
Despite the pain, he only needed a second or two before rolling to his feet and sprinting away.
GROWL!!
Almost on cue, about a dozen mutants crashed their way out of the alley and immediately gave chase, with even more joining the pursuit.
"Why are you guys still chasing me? Go after the other guys! They're the cause of all this!" He shouted at the mutants behind him—who, of course, couldn't understand him.
Panting loudly, he ran for his life.
"I had to toil hard and starve a few times before I could afford this VR helmet. I, Ethan Cole, am not about to die before I even reach the mainland." Even as he staggered for exhaustion, Ethan gritted his teeth and kept running.
He was of medium height, with a lanky build and slightly tanned skin. His head was covered by short, messy dark-brown hair that looked even messier than before.
He was the same player Jason had spoken to at the command center earlier.
His hazel eyes constantly darted around, searching for a way out of his predicament.
"Damn those pro players. They just had to go and cause that explosion. Now I've lost my gun."
As he continued cursing whoever was responsible for his predicament, he spotted a turn into another street ahead.
Mustering the last of his strength, Ethan accelerated to the turn and took it without hesitation, running down the new street with all his might.
He soon realized, though, that the entire street seemed empty. However, there were dead mutants, lots of them scattered all over the place.
'The hell! What could possibly have taken down this many mutants?' He wondered in shock.
That thought had only just surfaced in his mind when something fast tackled him from the side, knocking him hard onto the ground before he could even see it clearly.
"Ugh! My back." Ethan groaned
Still reeling from the fall, he suddenly felt something weighty pinning him to the ground. When he opened his eyes to know his situation, Ethan saw something that nearly made his heart stop.
There looming over him was a massive monstrosity, pinning him down with one of its paw. It looked like a dog, but one of massive proportion.
'So I still lost this account in the end. Damn zero respawn game.' Ethan curse and closed his eyes preparing for what was to come.
However, after a few seconds of waiting, it never came.
Ethan slowly opened an eye, then both of his eyes snapped open as an even more bizarre sight greeted him.
Standing beside the giant monster and also calmly looking down at him, was a... human.
The person was dressed in camo trousers, black T-shirt and camo tactical vest stained by both green and red blood. But their face was obstructed by a GEC respirator.
"Are you alright?" His voice sounded, slightly deep and muffled.
"What?" Ethan asked but was immediately interrupted.
GROWL!!
Jason raised his head at the Cane Corso's growl and saw a group of mutants rapidly closing in.
'Looks like they were pursuing him.' Jason thought as he stepped past Ethan.
"If you're okay, get up and stand back." Ethan was already starting to panic at the sound of those cursed growls when the person voice reached him.
He directly ignored Ethan and began heading towards the approaching mutants. The cane corso also released Ethan and followed him.
Stunned by the turn of events, Ethan slowly stood up and for the first time ignoring his screaming instincts to run away, turned around and watched that person.
'What are they planning to do?' He was wondering, but that person gave him an answer almost immediately.
Some distance to the crowd of mutants, that person raised his right hand which held a suppressed glock 19x, took aim and squeezed the trigger.
Thew!
A mutant in the lead immediately dropped dead with a bullet in its skull.
Like a go order, the creature immediately dived towards the crowd of approaching mutants while the person pulled out a knife with his left hand and followed after the creature.
What followed next, Ethan could only describe in one word—Carnage.
The creature using its fangs and claws went on crushing the skulls of the mutants, sometimes even flinging the bodies to knock others down.
However what left him even more astounded was the person.
Pistol and knife in hand, he weaved through the attacks of the mutants dispatching many of them with one bullet to the skull.
The troublesome ones took atmost three bullet, and anyone that got too close received a knife to the skull instead. He even found time to pick off some mutants crowding on the creature.
'Who the hell is this? Was some high ranking instructor dispatched from the safe zone alongside the evacuation team?'
Ethan watched in shock as man and beast made quick work of the very weapons fashioned against his game account.
...
Jason spent the next fifteen minutes shooting and stabbing until he dropped the last of the pursuing mutants with a bullet to the skull.
'Luckily they weren't that many. Otherwise, we would have had to run.'
Turning around, he checked on the condition of the dog. After a whole night of fighting together, they seemed to have developed a sort of teamwork.
Seeing only shallow cuts and scratches, they started walking towards the guy from earlier.
'What are the odds that when I finally meet a player, it'll be this guy?'
Jason watched as the guy also approached them, warily watching the huge cane corso.
"Thank you for the help just now sir." Ethan hurriedly stood at attention as Jason neared him, yet his eyes never left the dog.
Jason raised an eyebrow at his behavior before speaking up.
"We meet again." Jason said, his words causing Ethan to squint as if trying to see through the respirator.
That was when he noticed the other's blood-red pupils through the respirator and realization finally hit him.
"Wait it's you! You're that guy who approached me before deployment." Ethan gasped in shock.
'He's a player! And not a high ranked one but a fellow new player!'
"How did you manage attract so many mutants?" Jason asked, eyes locked on Ethan.
However hearing the question, Ethan began to grit his teeth. His face concorted in pure rage.
"It's their fault! Those pro players set me up. Bastards used me as bait to claim a weapon lootbox."
"Pro players? I thought only new players are here at the moment?" Jason asked.
"They are pro players who died previously and had to get a new game helmet. This is a zero respawn game after all, unlike other games where you respawn with penalty, if you die in this game, you'll have to get another VR helmet." Ethan further explained.
"I'm Ethan by the way, Ethan Cole." Ethan said offering his hand. Jason stared at the hand for a while before shaking it.
"Baby Killer"
"Cool name. Like a killer of babies or..." His voice trailed off seeing Jason lack of interest.
Then he noticed the green blood from the dogs wounds and opened his mouth again.
"Hey uhm, isn't that thing infected?" As soon as the question left his lips, the cane corso which had been looking around the surrounding immediately turned its gaze to him, causing him to flinch and retreat a few distance.
"Yes"
"And you're okay traveling with it?" He asked again.
"It hasn't attacked me." Jason replied and turned.
He immediately began examining his equipment in preparation to leave.
'Even though the night bloom ended at 4am, keeping this respirator on serves as a failsafe in the event that I log out and couldn't log back in on time. Plus it also hides my identity.'
Ethan shifted uncomfortable, feeling the gaze of the dog on him. He gulped nervously and asked.
"Hey, are you leaving already?"
"The issue here has been resolved, I see no reason to linger." Jason answered.
"If... If it's okay, may I come with you?" He asked again and Jason fell silent for a while.
Seeing Jason's silence, Ethan began to panic internally.
"Do whatever you want." Jason said and began to walk away, with the cane corso in tow.
"Phew! Thank you so much." Breathing a sigh of relief he hurriedly ran after them.
"You won't believe how much I've been through. I was actually chased by mutants three times. Wait, no four times including this one."
Jason suddenly stopped and stared at him.
"Try to be quiet." He said and Ethan hurriedly nodded, making a zipping sign on his lips.
Moving further, they soon arrived at another intersection.
"Stay behind me." Jason whispered as he and the cane corso listen.
"Yeah, definitely wasn't planning on getting ahead of the guy with the giant murder dog." Ethan replied which earned him another stare from Jason.
"Sorry my bad. Stay quiet, got it." Ethan said and hurriedly shut his mouth.
After clearing the intersection, they hadn't gone far when Ethan started talking again. But this time, Jason just let him be.
They spent the most part of the morning walking, with Ethan constantly buzzing. Luckily they didn't encounter any further mishap.
"It seems talking helps him with his fear and nervousness. They are also some useful information mixed in his words, might as well let him talk."
They had just crossed into a new street when both of their GEC device produced the same notification.
[Emergency SOS audio transmission detected...
Establishing connection...
Connection established...]
[It connected, someone's nearby. Hey! Hey do you read me?]