The Dead City welcomed them not with silence, but with the sound of wind whistling through the gaps of hollow concrete buildings. This complex might have once been a worker's dormitory or an abandoned military installation. The paint peeled off the walls, leaving behind a bleak cement gray. Glass windows were shattered, leaving sharp frames that looked like gaping mouths.
Group 27 moved along the edge of the cracked asphalt road, overgrown with waist-high weeds.
"Stay in the shadows," Salim instructed quietly, his eyes ceaselessly sweeping the dark windows on the upper floors of the buildings around them. "In the forest, our enemy was the bushes. Here, our enemy is verticality. Whoever is on top, wins."
"I don't like this place," Udin muttered, his steps still slightly limping, but he forced himself to be the front shield. "Too many hiding spots. I feel like I'm being watched from a thousand directions."
"We need a roof," Salim said. He pointed to a four-story building in the eastern sector of the main road. The building was a solid box shape, with few windows on the ground floor (safer from infiltration), and had a strategic position to monitor the surrounding area. "That building. Looks like an old administrative office. We take it."
They moved quickly, crossing the open road one by one.
The front door was locked with a rusty chain. Udin didn't need a key. He took an iron crowbar—which he found lying on the road earlier—and struck the old padlock twice.
Clang!
The padlock broke. The heavy iron door opened with a loud creak of hinges, echoing in the empty hallway inside.
"Rehan, Alya, middle. Salma, rear. Move in!" Salim ordered.
They stormed in, immediately spreading to the corners of the room with weapons raised (wooden sticks, crowbar, and folding knife).
Empty.
The lobby floor was littered with rotten papers and overturned furniture. Thick dust covered everything.
"Clear," Udin said after checking the rooms on the first floor.
"We go up to the second floor," Salim decided. "First floor is too exposed. Second floor gives us a vantage point, but is still low enough to escape by jumping out the window if cornered."
They climbed the emergency stairs. On the second floor, they found a room that used to be an archive warehouse with a sturdy door and only one small, high window. Perfect for a temporary fortress.
"Rest for 10 minutes," Salim said. "Alya, check Udin's wound again. Rehan, check the next room, I saw a strange box there earlier."
Rehan nodded. He entered the adjacent room where the door was half-destroyed. In the corner, under a pile of broken chairs, Rehan's keen eyes caught a glint of orange light.
A small metal crate with an indicator light still glowing dimly.
SUPPLY CRATE – TIER 2 (ENGINEERING)
"Jackpot!" Rehan shouted suppressedly. "Lim! Come here! I found a Loot Box!"
Everyone gathered. Rehan wiped the dust off the crate. No key, just a palm biometric scanner. Rehan placed his hand on it.
Beep. Access Granted.
The lid hissed open hydraulically.
The contents weren't firearms or luxury food. The contents were paradise for a tech-geek: Several industrial lithium batteries, coils of copper wire, used PCB circuit boards, a portable soldering iron (battery-powered), and an old radio transceiver.
"Trash?" Udin asked, disappointed. "Where are the guns?"
"This is more dangerous than a gun, Din," Rehan's eyes sparkled. He picked up the components with trembling hands from excitement. "These are communication components. With this... I can modify our tablets."
"Meaning?" Salma asked.
Rehan sat cross-legged, immediately dismantling the back casing of his own tablet using the tip of the folding knife.
"This tablet has a standard receiver antenna. Can only receive signals from the central server," Rehan explained while soldering copper wire to the tablet's internal port. "But with these radio components, I can build a Signal Booster and Sniffer."
"Human language, Han," Salim cut in.
"Short-Range Radar," Rehan smirked. "I can make this tablet pick up 'ping' signals from other participants' tablets within a 50 to 100-meter radius. Even through concrete walls. Works like submarine sonar. We can know the enemy's position before they know we're here."
"Wallhack," Salim concluded. "Do it. We need eyes."
Rehan worked with demonic speed. He soldered, spliced wires, and reprogrammed the tablet antenna driver via the emergency coding terminal. Thirty minutes later, Rehan's tablet looked terrifying—wires dangling out, connected to an external battery with black tape.
"Test," Rehan muttered. He turned on his modified map app.
The screen blinked green. A sonar radar swept around.
Ping... Ping...
Four green dots appeared in the center of the screen (Salim, Salma, Udin, Alya).
"It works," Rehan cheered softly. "I can see you guys."
But Rehan's smile suddenly vanished when the radar swept the area outside the building.
Ping.
One red dot appeared at the edge of the radar screen. Static. Not moving.
Position: 200 meters Northeast. Altitude: 15 meters above ground level.
"Lim," Rehan called, his voice tense. "We have a guest. One person. Very still. High position."
Salim approached, looking at the coordinates. "Northeast... Altitude 15 meters..."
Salim walked slowly toward the small window in the room. He didn't peek out directly. He used a shard of mirror glass he found on the floor to peek from the angle (periscope technique).
In the distance, a rusty iron structure towered.
Water Tower.
The structure was about 4 stories high. At its peak was an iron walkway surrounding a giant water tank.
"Water tower," Salim whispered. "Perfect place for..."
BANG!
A loud explosion deafened their ears.
CRASH!
The concrete wall right next to Salim's head exploded, spraying dust and sharp stone fragments.
Salim fell back on his butt from shock. Concrete shards grazed his cheek, drawing blood.
"GET DOWN!" Udin shouted, immediately jumping to cover Alya and Salma on the floor.
"What was that sound?!" Salma screamed.
"Rifle," Salim hissed, touching his stinging cheek. "Large caliber. That's not a homemade pistol. That's a hunting rifle or standard military rifle."
Rehan checked his tablet with shaking hands. "That red dot... he's still there. Didn't move at all after shooting."
"Sniper," Salim said coldly. "They have a Sniper locking down our position."
The atmosphere inside the room turned into controlled panic. They were trapped. Their position exposed. The enemy had range and destructive power far beyond theirs.
"Who has a weapon like that?" Alya asked, face pale. "In the Shop, it must cost tens of thousands of points."
"Gold Loot Box," Salim guessed. "Someone got a rare drop early in the game. Devil's luck."
Salim crawled closer to Rehan, keeping his head low below the window line.
"Han, try to identify that tablet ID. Can you?"
Rehan nodded stiffly. He typed a command on his cracked radar screen.
Scanning ID Tag...
Target ID: P-26-CMDR.
"Group 26," Rehan read.
"Group 26..." Salim searched his brain memory for the student list. "The Flag Raising Troop (Paskibra) kids."
Udin cursed softly. "Paskibra. That's Gilang. He's the Paskibra Chairman obsessed with the military. His dad is a soldier. He definitely knows how to use a rifle."
"High discipline, regulated breathing, patience," Salim analyzed. "A terrible enemy to fight at long range."
BANG!
Second shot. This time the bullet penetrated the small window, hitting the metal cabinet across the room until it dented deep.
The gunshot echoed throughout the Dead City, becoming an open declaration of war.
"He's pinning us down," Udin said. "He wants us to stay here until the red zone comes or other groups come to raid us."
"We are pinned down," Salma said. "We can't get out. The front door is exposed to the water tower."
Salim closed his eyes, visualizing a 3D map in his head.
Distance: 200 meters.
Elevation Angle: 30 degrees.
Wind Speed: Moderate (judging by the swaying weeds).
Enemy: 1 Sniper (Gilang) + Spotter (likely a friend guarding him below).
"We can't fight bullets with wooden sticks," Salim muttered. "We have to remove his advantage."
"His advantage is the rifle," Rehan said.
"No," Salim corrected. He opened his eyes. "His advantage is position. That water tower gives him Line of Sight over this entire area. As long as he's up there, he is God in this city."
Salim crawled, picking up a dull black marker he found on the office desk earlier. The ink was half-dead, but enough to scribble on the dusty floor.
"Old water tower structure," Salim muttered. "Four iron legs. The tank on top probably weighs 5 tons if it still has water, or 1 ton if empty. The legs must be corroded from sea salt vapor."
"You want to topple the tower?" Udin asked skeptically. "With what? We don't have a bazooka."
"We don't need to topple the whole thing," Salim said, his manipulator smile returning. A smile that made Salma shudder. "We just need to make him uncomfortable. Make his footing shaky."
Salim looked at Rehan.
"Han, in that Loot Box, there were industrial lithium batteries, right? How many volts?"
"24 Volts. High amperage. Can power a welding machine for a bit," Rehan answered.
"And copper wire?"
"Yes. Lots."
Salim nodded with satisfaction. "Okay. We're going to play physics and chemistry. Accelerated Electrolysis."
Salim explained his plan. A crazy, complicated plan, but their only hope.
"That tower stands on a concrete foundation that must be damp because this is reclaimed mangrove swamp area. The iron legs are embedded there. If we can flow a continuous high-voltage DC current to one of the wet tower legs, we can accelerate the iron corrosion thousands of times faster in a short time. Or at least, heat up the support bolts until they expand and snap."