Shit. Shit. Shit.
What should I do?
I will die.
I don't want to die.
Fuck. Calm down, you fool.
I took a few deep breaths to calm my heart's hammering like it's trying to escape my ribs. The [Gamer's Mind] automatically activated and helped me calm down instantly.
Think.
Thirty psychos, maybe more. Signal jammed. No exit. Closed junkyard.
Isabella's with me. Just the two of us against an armed mob.
Their leader is riding a bike with a mounted minigun, grinning like a sadistic cat with a trapped mouse.
My skills are laughably inadequate to handle a threat of this level.
Sigh.
I am royally fucked.
I looked at Isabella. Her face looked solemn but was no longer pale. She checked her guns one by one for the upcoming battle with steady hands. For now, I could only depend on her Adept-level [Firearms] skill.
But we had limited bullets. Our extra bullets and magazines were in the car, and in a rush, we couldn't take them while running. My only bullets were in my gun. As for Isabella, I wasn't sure whether she had any extra magazines on her person.
"You ever been in a gun fight before?" Isabella asked, feeling my gaze on her.
The serious expression on my face vanished to give way to a smirk. Spiraling was useless. Even if I were to die, I would take a few of those fuckers down with me.
"Nope, today will be the day I lose my gun fight virginity," I answered with a smirk.
Isabella cracked a smile at that, tension easing from her face.
"Do you have to act like a clown every time?" Isabella asked, amused.
"Better a clown than a panicked idiot," I shot back.
"Wise words for a virgin who has never been in a gun fight," Isabella retorted, half serious, half amused.
I shook my head with a light laugh and pulled out my gun from my waist.
I chuckled, checked my pistol, and felt a flicker of gratitude to past-me for grinding [Firearms] in the dungeon.
Even though my skill was only at the novice level, it was still significantly better than using my gun as a makeshift iron stick.
As I finished checking my pistol, we heard the engines.
We met each other in the eye and immediately grew alert.
The hunt had begun.
The hunters were close, searching for their prey.
But in the end, it remained to be seen—who would be the hunter, and who the hunted.
I moved towards the edge. My presence was hidden in the shadows. From the gap in the car frame with its mirrors removed, I watched two bikers. They were riding slowly while carefully looking around for us. Both had a Uzi in their hand.
The sound was coming from their engines. I didn't hear any other distant engine sounds, so the others were in different directions.
I looked back towards Isabella, who had come near me, and showed her two fingers. She nodded to show she understood.
She peeked at them and whispered, "You take the left, I will take the right."
I nodded.
She leaned out and fired. One clean shot and the biker had a fresh hole in his head. The bike lost balance and fell, sliding on the pavement. Her skill should not be far from the Expert level.
I shot at the same time, but forgot about the headshot; the bullet passed by my target.
The biker was immediately alerted, but I didn't give him time to react. I fired again, which, once again, to my embarrassment, missed him.
The biker had already aimed his gun at my location by then. The muzzle spat fire as bullets sprayed towards me. We took a step back from the edge to cover.
Isabella gave me a look that was part judgmental and part disgusted.
I gave her a toothy smile in return.
When the bullet spray stopped, I came back to the edge. The biker was already close. This time, I didn't target his head but his wider chest.
Previously, seeing Isabella's headshot made me competitive. Moreover, when I played FPS games, I liked aiming for the head. But after missing two shots pathetically, my head came back to earth.
This time, I hit the guy, and he fell from the bike. He thrashed for a bit, then became motionless. His status showed he was dead, so no need to fear him faking it.
At the same time he died, I received two notifications from the system.
I quickly robbed both dead bodies for valuables. I pocketed the cash and kept one of the Uzis. I offered her the other one, but she refused. I shrugged and kept both. Unfortunately, the two bikers didn't have bullets for the guns we used, but at least they had spare Uzi magazines.
There was no time to waste, as others might have heard the bullets being fired. We had to leave the area as quickly as possible.
But before that, I checked my notifications. I had an idea of what one of those might be.
And it was what I expected.
Mission: Vigilante
Objective 1: Eliminate 20 serious criminals (Completed)
Reward: Strength (F3) (Ready to receive)
Usually, I would have preferred taking the strength upgrade in a safe location, but I had no choice but to do it now. Any improvement would increase my chances of surviving this clusterfuck.
As I accepted the upgrade, my muscles spasmed immediately, and I felt an intense burning. My whole body was in intense pain. It was nowhere near what I felt when my strength increased to F2, as I had reached that level by grinding, whereas my current strength was forcefully upgraded to the next level.
The pain was over as suddenly as it arrived. For me, it felt like an eternity, yet the transformation took only a few seconds.
I immediately felt full of power as if I could snap a tree trunk in half with a single punch. Of course, that was merely an illusion, born of the sudden surge in strength. I had just attained peak human strength, certainly not enough to break a tree trunk in two with a punch.
I checked the other notification.
Killed a human with a firearm. Sharpshooter mission activated.
Title: Sharpshooter
Description: Successful kills with a firearm
Objective 1: Kill 20 individuals with firearms
Reward: Passive Skill: Firearms Mastery (Apprentice)
Objective 2: Kill 50 individuals with firearms
Reward: Passive Skill: Firearms Mastery (Adept)
Objective 3: Kill 100 individuals with firearms
Reward: Passive Skill: Firearms Mastery (Expert)
So, I needed to kill only a hundred people with a firearm to become a better shot than Isabella?
It didn't even have any restrictions on the target, unlike the Vigilante mission, which counted only the number of criminals killed. Objectively speaking, even an innocent person killed by a firearm would count as progress for the Sharpshooter mission.
It sounded easy, but it wasn't. I was not living in a medieval world where no one would give a flying fuck if I massacred two or three border villages that no one gave a shit about to speed run the mission.
I had no choice but to grind it with only criminals. At least the silver lining was that any criminals I put down with a firearm would count toward both the Sharpshooter and Vigilante missions.
I looked at the fallen bike near me. If we wanted to make it out of here alive, we had to rely on our respective skills.
I pulled up the bike and sat on it. I had never driven a motorcycle before, but as I sat on it, the [Driving] skill kicked in, and I felt like I had been driving it for years.
"Hop on," I said, revving the engine. Isabella didn't say anything and sat behind me.
"Can you handle the shooting while riding?" I asked.
"You just focus on driving and leave the shooting to me," Isabella said, tone dripping with confidence.
I grinned. "Then let's dance."
I released the clutch and went straight ahead.
Since they wanted a hunt, I would give them a hunt.
A minimap appeared at the bottom of my vision. It showed the area I covered, while the rest was covered in fog. It would help me understand the nearby terrain so that I wouldn't drive blindly. As I drove, the fog lifted, and I could see the paths around me.
A minute later, I heard the faint rumble of engines to my right. There was a right turn up ahead.
When I reached the turn, I slowed the bike, then eased the brakes, and the rear wheels slid clockwise until I was facing right. Then I released the brake, and with only a slight loss of speed, I continued driving forward.
The bikers were startled when they saw us coming towards them. But before they could come out of it and shoot us, Isabella had already aimed at them.
Two bullets, and the bikers were down. We quickly looted the bodies for spare bullets. Unfortunately, there was no place for any more guns.
We drove again, but after a few minutes, we saw no one.
Then, we once again heard the faint sounds of the engine. But this time they were from behind. I could already see the three bikes in the distance from the rearview mirror.
"Behind us," I warned Isabella as I looked to find any corner to turn.
The bikers saw us and started firing in our direction. To dodge the bullets, I started driving erratically in an S-shape. It made it hard for the bikers to hit us, but it also made it hard for Isabella to hit them.
Finally, one of the bullets hit one of the bikers, and he fell off the bike with a scream. With one less psycho shooting at us, there was less pressure on me.
"Hold tight," I told Isabella.
I stopped driving erratically and started moving in a straight line. Then, I pressed the front brakes hard. The rear wheels were lifted off the ground. Isabella immediately held my waist tightly.
I thought I heard Isabella cursing me in Spanish. Must be my imagination.
With the rear wheel in the air, I rotated my bike 180 degrees around the front wheel as the centre. We were face-to-face with each other.
Isabella didn't waste the opportunity, and before the rear wheel could hit the ground, she shot down the two bikers.
We continued our hunts. The bikers dropped like dominoes. We had taken down at least a dozen by now.
At the front, I saw only a sharp left turn. Moreover, I could hear engine noises ahead.
I didn't slow down or reverse; instead, I kept on driving. On the way, there was a pile of car wheels. I stretched my hand and picked up one of the metal wheels, and kept it in front of me. At the corner, I slid the rear wheel to face left, and I could see two bikers coming from the front.
I sped ahead and picked up the wheel. I hurled it towards one of the bikers. The wheel flew and hit the front wheel of one of the bikes. The bike immediately lost balance and fell. With its momentum, the bike kept skidding, dragging the biker along.
The other biker didn't care about the predicament of his buddy and instead sprayed bullets at us with his Uzi. I again drive in an S-shape to make it harder for him to hit us.
A bullet hit his chest, and he fell off the bike. We stopped, and Isabella shot both bikers in the head to make sure they would stay down, then, after looting the bodies, we left.
While hunting the bikers, I was also looking for where they could have hidden the jammers. The junkyard covered several acres, with heaps of metal everywhere, which would block and reflect a significant amount of radio waves. Therefore, multiple jammers should be used to cover the area effectively.
Of course, we didn't need to turn off all, but just needed an area with a signal to call for reinforcements.
And after driving for a while and hunting down a few more bikers, I found a possible location for one of the jammers.
I saw a crane in the distance. A jammer might have been placed high up on the crane.
As if to prove my words right, I saw a biker standing at the base of the crane looking vigilant. He heard the sound from our bike and immediately aimed his gun towards us. But Isabella shot him before he could pull the trigger.
I stopped at the base, and we both got off the bike.
"I will go and check if there is a jammer on the crane; you stay and kill any biker that approaches," I said, and without waiting for her answer, I started climbing the ladder.
I first checked the driver's cab and, unexpectedly, found the jammer openly on the dashboard. I turned it off and looked down.
"Isabella," I called, and showed a thumbs up when she looked up. She nodded in response.
I climbed down the stairs, and Isabella was already on the phone talking to someone. I waited on the side, keeping an eye on the surroundings, until she finished the call.
"The reinforcements are coming," Isabella said. But it looked like she wasn't done speaking. I could feel a but coming. And as expected, it came.
"But because we are so far, it might take around forty-five minutes to an hour for them to arrive," Isabella completed.
Fuck. Of course, it will take time.
The next course of action was to open the gate and get the fuck out of here. We could come back once the reinforcements arrived.
We left the area to find our way back to the entrance gate. There would definitely be more guards at the gate to prevent our escape. So we needed to be prepared to face them.
After driving for a few minutes, we heard the engine's sound once again. This time, it was from just one source, but the sound was much louder. As the sound neared, it felt more and more like background music for a game boss.
"He is coming," I said.
"Good. We can then finish him before the reinforcements," Isabella said with confidence.
But I didn't join in her confidence. I had stopped the bike, but didn't turn off the engine for the face-off. I was slowly revving the engine, keeping it ready for an escape at any moment. I still hadn't forgotten the minigun. The only reason I even entertained Isabella's confidence was that it needed time for the minigun to start firing—enough time for me to do a tactical retreat.
A few seconds later, Derek finally turned onto our path from the right in front of us. The only difference from before was that he wore a helmet, which he didn't before.
"Hey, sweetie, fancy seeing you here," Derek's smug but slightly muffled voice came through the helmet.
Isabella didn't bother replying and unloaded the entire magazines of both her pistols on him.
My face became solemn because after the barrage, he stood before us unscathed. The bullets that fell on his helmet ricocheted. A bulletproof armor protected his body. Even his bike had a fucking armor plating, like his helmet, all bullets bounced off of it. And the last, even the fucking tires were bulletproof.
Without high-calibre firearms, we couldn't do jackshit to him.
"And here I wanted to give you a few more moments to live," Derek said, amused, shaking his head. "Oh well, if you want to die so much, then who am I to stop that?"
My eyes widened as the barrel of the minigun started spinning.
Nope. I wasn't going to fight the final boss without at least taking care of its minions first. Who knew how many would shoot us in the back while we focus on fighting that beast?
"Hold tight!" I yelled, yanking the clutch and twisting the throttle. The front wheel lifted, and the bike exploded forward toward Derek.
The minigun spun, but the first rounds tore the air just as we streaked past him. Bullets screamed by, kicking up sparks and dust. Derek's laughter followed us, harsh and gleeful. He swung the bike around and gave chase, barrel whirring up again.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
We needed to get away fast, or that gun would tear us apart. But I couldn't find any place to turn or take cover.
"Kevin, look!" Isabella pointed ahead.
I followed her gaze and saw a metal sheet lying at an angle on a car frame. I could use that as a ramp to jump across, but I didn't know if it could support the bike's weight. If it gave up midway, we would be sitting ducks in gunfire.
But it was the only way we could get away from the metal beast safely. So, I took a risk.
I increased the speed even more and reached the metal sheet. Then, using it as a ramp, I jumped the bike across. Fortunately, the metal plate beneath our weight held, but the minigun tore it to pieces as it fired just a moment after we left the ramp.
"Run, you rats!" Derek roared, voice warped by the helmet. "The more you run, the better the hunt!"
I ignored his ramblings and focused on my landing. We had crossed one path, and after passing another car stack, we landed there. The dirt road absorbed the impact of our fall, so it was relatively easier to control the bike after landing.
Checking the map, I took the opposite route Derek might come from and drove there.
After some twists and turns and gunning down a few more biker minions, we arrived at the gate.
As expected, Derek had prepared an excellent welcome for us. Both the vans we saw earlier, and a bike were parked in front of the gate, with six bikers patrolling or standing vigilantly around. Each of them carried a gun, and some also had a melee sidearm.
We were watching them from a distance, hidden behind the metal stacks, so they still haven't noticed us.
"I have a plan," I said in a low voice.
Isabella looked at me inquisitively. I shared my plan with her, and she nodded in agreement.
I hopped on the bike and rode a distance behind, then came back to create speed, and finally passed by Isabella. I turned to the last gear and gave the bike full throttle. The bikers had already noticed me.
They didn't immediately shoot me, likely thinking that I couldn't run away with the gate closed and with so many of them guarding it.
I smirked seeing them. Then my hands left the handle, and I leapt to the side when I was close enough to them. I rolled a few times before coming to a stop.
The bike kept going straight, driven by its momentum, and finally crashed into one of the vans. The bikers didn't expect such a move, and for a few moments, they were in chaos.
Isabella took advantage of that confusion and shot down four of them in quick succession.
While lying on the ground, I pulled out the two Uzis I had taken earlier and sprayed the entire magazines on the two bikers near me. Even if I had limited skill, I could simply compensate for it with quantity.
Enough bullets hit the two bikers that by the time the mags were finished, both of them turned into Swiss cheese.
I got up, and Isabella had arrived by my side by then.
We then searched for the gate controls, which we found in the guard shack beside the gate, along with another jammer. We opened the gate and turned off the jammer.
I took a deep breath of relief. Finally, we could leave this hellhole.
But something felt off.
Strange. I am not feeling as much relief as I had hoped.
Why? Why am I feeling reluctance?
I looked at Isabella. Her face also didn't show much relief at the fact that we could leave here unharmed.
"We can leave now," Isabella said. "We can wait for the reinforcements to arrive to hunt Derek and the rest."
Isabella said so, but it didn't feel like she wanted to do it.
"Or," Isabella continued with a strange look. "Since we have reached this point, we may as well see to it till the end."
"The choice is yours," She said.
Seeing to it till the end. Yes, that was why I was feeling reluctant.
Today, it was the second time I felt the same fear and helplessness I felt when that thug pointed his gun at my head in my taxi a few months back. I still didn't get a chance to tear that motherfucker apart limb from limb.
And today, I was thinking of leaving without putting to death the second person who made me feel those feelings. I couldn't do anything then. But the Kevin of today was different from the Kevin of that day.
I looked up towards Isabella. She looked nonchalant, but I could see the expectation in her eyes. Even she didn't want to leave just like that.
It would be challenging to hunt that beast on my own. But with her, we could take him down.
I laughed. The answer was clear.
"Let's go hunt a snake."
*********************
Bonus chapter
Enjoy