BATTLE ROYALE (2)

The Island of Hvar consisted of 2 major spawn areas - the Hvar Military Port and the ancient stone ruins of Stari Grad Plain. The Hvar Military Port was built during a World War and the Fortress currently stands at a half-demolished state. The naval port was however re-modified several times for trade purposes before it was abandoned permanently. The Port harbored large shipping containers and an under-repair ship. There was an abundance of loot spawns in the area, especially the containers. The Fortress however had special items like the Mission Card. So, many students had dropped by this location and there were good enough death crates laying around.

Melv had dropped on the other location, the ancient stone ruins of Stari Grad Plain. It was like any other ruins filled with demolished stone houses from a long-lost era. But this place also had a good enough spawn. Melv got a Ranger Armor, one InstaHeal Medikit, two PainKillers, two Sticky Bombs, one PeaceKeyPur Shotgun, one LoSTAR Light Machine Gun, one Transform Shield and 120 ammunition each. Melv had already received 2 kill points in the beginning.

He came to the Military Port to avail the underwater tunnel to the main island. But an ongoing fight halted his approach. He immediately hid on a ridge and opened his 4x scope to review the fight. There were 2 students attempting to gain a kill point hiding behind the containers. Both of them were heavily injured from the prolonged fight and almost out of ammo.

"Free Meal!" Melv's eyes glistened and his mouth became watery. He took out his sticky bombs and aimed each bomb at the students. Both the students disintegrated into a puff of smoke and left death crates. "Bingo. 2 more Kill Points."

Melv now had a total of 4 kill points. He slowly approached their crates and started looking for any useful items. He only found some ammo and bandages. Their guns also were not better than Melv's. "Nothing useful", frowned Melv.

Melv was about to leave when a shot flew near his ear. His eyes widened and he immediately hid behind the container again. There was another student waiting for Melv to pick up the loot from the crates. The assaulter was proning atop a crane, the best vantage point in the vicinity.

Melv identified the position of the assaulter and calculated its trajectory. Melv was quite good in in-game mechanics as he played a lot of games. So he could calculate some important stuff.

"Damn. Suppressed fire. Don't have a sniper to fight back. But it doesn't seem like a sniper either. He took a single shot and the bullet bent due to the wind speed at the last moment. If it was a sniper it would hit for sure." Melv looked into the nearby crate to find something useful again. "Got it. This will do."

The assaulter was patiently waiting for Melv to make a move. She had already reloaded her gun with full 40 ammo. Earlier she was planning to hit the other 2 students but they were not in her line of sight. She was adjusting it when she heard the 2 sticky bombs go off and her hopes along with it. "The other guy might have received the 2 kills, but I will get his kill." The assaulter was determined. Little did she know that Melv was not someone to be messed with.

Melv came out of the container and opened his Transform Shield. The assaulter started to fire at the shield. Melv then released a smoke bomb he found in one of the crates. The smoke covered the shield. The assaulter tried to find Melv out in the smoke. But her scope could not locate Melv. Until from the corner of her eye she saw a big flash.

Melv fell back to the container using the smoke. It made the assaulter believe he was still there. He covered some distance and went to his left. From the farthest container possible, he fired his gun. He had switched his gun earlier with one in the crate, the FJH-97 rocket launcher. It has only one ammo and the student was keeping it till his last before Melv took him out.

Melv fired the rocket launcher aimed at the assaulter. The assaulter could only look at it. There was a huge bang as the rocket hit its target. When the smoke cleared there was a crate left.

"Booyah!" Melv clenched his fists in happiness.

Melv wandered round the Military Port and the Fortress. He got some ammo and other utilities. In the Fortress he found a mission card.

Mission Details -

Cross the island Hvar without taking the bridge or tunnels.

Rewards -

Rubik's Cube Z

"What is that? But more importantly, how am I supposed to cross, then? Is it asking me to swim? Are you out of your mind? There are monsters in the sea." Melv kept pondering.

He went out to the port to find something useful. After a lot of searching, he found an Aquarail Jet Ski. He rode it and started towards the main island Lofoten. While on the sea midway, the Aquarail stopped. Melv checked and found it had run out of gas. Suddenly he felt something approaching him underwater. "Shit!" Melv started swimming as fast as he could. A sea monster was behind him. The only question in his mind was, "Can he outrun a sea monster in the seas?"

On the other front, most of the students had taken a safe route and dropped in the middle of the map. It was segregated into - the abandoned Shibuya station, the apartments of Mong Kok and the Central Business District. The loot spawns were quite good in the office and apartment buildings. But the main reason for dropping here was the King of the District.

A big party of 42 students had already formed and they proclaimed a king as well. The king was none other than the strongest of them all, Ton.

To join the party, one had to scavenge for good loot and submit everything to Ton. He would then take things to his liking and leave the rest to be distributed among the party members. In return, they would receive protection from Ton and survive better than others. Anyone who refuses to share loot or deemed weaker would be immediately eliminated.

The students who find the Bonus Items would receive a top 10 ranking. Also if anyone was to find Noah or Melv, they were likely to receive a top 5 spot in the survival ranking after Ton and Kaisha. But the information was strictly circulated, no one was to take out Noah. They could injure him but only Ton will finish him.

The T Party, as they called themselves after Ton, gathered quite a number of Mission cards. Being in a party it was easier for them to complete those missions and receive gracious loot. Thanks to the efforts of the party members, Ton has also collected 2 out of 3 Bonus Items - the Hidden Scroll and the Sky Tower Activation Pass.

So far Ton had 17 kills and he didn't move an inch. Now he has asked his party members to spread around and search for Melv and Noah. All he had to do was patiently wait for the news.

…

The ND zone was over after approx 5 minutes. But the Avalanche had traveled quite a path, from the snowy mountains to the foothills, just outside the castle walls. Everything in its path lay buried under snow. But then, something moved under the rubble.

It was a hand. After a lot of struggle Noah came out of the snow. His HP came down to 10%. He dragged himself towards the castle walls and applied all the medicine he had. Now his health was a bit above 50%. "Need to find more meds. But where am I?" Noah opened his map.

The place on the map was known as Hohenzollern Castle. The castle had a neo-gothic feel and the sunlight made it shine golden. As Noah entered the castle, Noah found a P scanner. It scans for people in the nearby areas. As Noah was low on health, he quickly used it to check the vicinity.

"Phew!" Noah sighed a relief as there was no one around. He thought he had not used the scanner wisely, it should have been kept for the later stages. But then again, he needed to be sure now as he was not prepared for a fight in his current situation.

The castle was huge. Noah walked through the hall and entered a room. It was the Library, filled with oak cabinets and beautiful murals on the wall. There were hundreds of thousands of books on the shelves. Noah couldn't help but feel awe at such a vivid layout. But time was of the essence, so he quickly moved to gather loot. He then quickly went through the Hall of Ancestors and the Chambers. Every place had a good amount of loot.

He filled up his health, fully with bandages and health drinks. From a loot perspective, he has gathered a Commando armor which gives extra inventory space for knives, medkits and health items. He equipped his Kar98k with an 8x scope. He also got an assault rifle, R-619 Carbine with sufficient attachments and ammo. He found night-vision goggles, two smoke bombs, a molotov cocktail, three med kits and an adrenaline syringe.

He was wandering in the rooms of the castle when he found a locked room. He checked the map and it was the Treasury. The door lock had a message - Criteria not fulfilled. Noah checked on his right and there was a panel beside the door. As he clicked the panel, it prompted -

Return the lost 10 coins to open the door to the Treasury.

It was a game setting where 10 coins were lying somewhere in the castle. Noah was to find them and only then the door unlock criteria will be fulfilled.

"So much for a door. There must be something good inside."

15 minutes left for the zone to shrink.

Hearing the notification. Noah immediately looked at the map.

"Shit. How much time did I waste under the snow? Only 14 minutes left. Need to hurry. But, can't leave this as well." Noah decided to go after the coins.

He hurriedly rushed to the Library first. He found 3 coins there. He went to the Chambers and found another 2. One in the Ancestral Hall and one in the Count's Hall. "7 out 10, huh."

The last 3, he could not find anywhere near. Almost 5 minutes left. He decided to venture inside the Casemate. It was a cellar, having the feel of a catacomb. A dark and gloomy setting. Noah looked around carefully and found the last 3 coins he was looking for.

But as he was leaving, something lit up in the dark. He didn't notice it while entering. 2 bright lights burning like a flame. As it came closer, Noah could feel the danger he was about to be facing. It was a black Panther. It was guarding the cellar, as if restricting the passage of anyone without permission in the cellar on the instruction of it's master.

Noah fired his assault rifle at the beast. All 40 rounds of ammo emptied but he could still hear the roar of the beast. It had dodged every single bullet. Noah felt no way to conquer this beast.

The beast lunged at him. Noah could only hold its mouth from crushing him as they both fell down. The beast pawed Noah on the side of the head. It was a heavy blow.

Both of them fell back. Noah had a nice enough concussion and loss of HP. From his inventory, he picked up a smoke bomb and threw it at the incoming attack. The beast caught the bomb with its mouth. As the smoke bomb burst in its mouth, the beast gasped for air to breathe.

Seeing this opportunity Noah ran towards the door and closed the cellar.

"That was a close one. Ohh boy...", sighed Noah with a deep breath.

Void Zone approaching.

The message prompt meant that it would reach Noah in about a minute as he was near the boundary of the zone. He ran towards the Treasury while applying the adrenaline syringe and submitted the coins.

Criteria fulfilled. Door unlocked.

The treasury door opened and Noah went in. It was full of coins and treasures, gold, pearls and gems. But nothing Noah needed for the Battle Royale.

On one side of the room, there was a dark corner. A beam of light was highlighting an item on the stand. Noah approached it carefully. There might be something guarding this place as well. As he came near, he saw an apple with one bite taken.

Bonus Item description -

Eden's Apple

Effect - Full Health recovery

Noah picked up the apple and looked around to see if some creepy monsters lurked around. But nothing such happened. He stored the apple in his inventory. "Huff. Time to move!"

The first zone shifted towards the middle and right bottom. Noah was still on the top left, so just opposite for him. He decided to pass the sand dunes to enter the black sand area near the volcano on the rightmost edge of the map. He would not go towards the middle, right away and first meet up with Melv on the right edge of the map, near the barren hills. Thus Noah has to cover a lot of distance with the Void Zone approaching.

While leaving the castle, he found an Aero-X Fenrir motorbike. This motorbike had wheels but also can hover over water. Noah quickly took the bike and rode off towards the sand dunes. His current HP stands at 80% and healing, with the boost from the adrenaline syringe.

A part of the sand dunes was in the zone, the right-most part that led to the black desert and the barren hills. Noah fixed his destination for the Valle de la Muerte.

Noah rode across the desert with the Void Zone following him.

As soon as he reached the safe zone, 2 notifications popped up in succession.

The first one was -

The first zone shrink has been completed. The next one will start in 30 minutes.

Noah checked his Holo device. 1 hour and 10 minutes have passed inside the Battle Royale.

The second notification prompt followed immediately.

Warning! Natural Disaster Sandstorm triggered in your area! Warning!

"Dammit...Is the ND zone following me?" Noah cursed his luck and started his bike as he rushed towards the Valley of the Dead.

...