Having taken off my rooster mask, and among other things changed into a fresh set of clothing, I was currently in my own apartment again, resting. Having crashed both places with the Dogs of Hell, and having killed off nearly 40 odd people, I was feeling mentally tired. The only good part was that I had nearly leveled up and gotten myself something really fancy.
The clock handle finally showed 10pm, and the kids decided not to bother me too much seeing how exhausted I was. Having made them braised chicken for dinner, they were satisfied and rated it 9 and 8.5 out of 10, respectively.
Waving goodbye to each other, they both went to sleep 15 minutes later, while I remained in the living room to keep recovering my mental fatigue.
Two hours later, I decided i had recovered enough. Not only that, my Focus had recovered back to 10 seconds, so I once again had some safeguards for the next mission.
Putting on a different pair of jeans and sneakers, but the same letterman jacket, I went outside the house. The trusty holster, that had my Anaconda, was hidden underneath my jacket, while the enchanted Desert Eagle was just hidden inside of the jacket.
Meanwhile, I left the expensive wristwatch, that I had gotten together with the engraved m1911, on the table.
Now then, so far I had gotten myself some cool trophies from my hunts. The engraved m1911 was probably the best loot, the modified P226 was second, and the third was the 870 Remmy I got my hands on.
Obviously, I wouldn't count my Eagle as it was far better than everything else I had gotten. While it didn't have something completely broken like autoaim, bouncing shots and whatnot, it still had infinite ammo. Needless to say that alone made it far more disgusting in my hands than other weapons.
Looking at my distribution of stats, I was feeling quite satisfied, as I knew I could go past 10 in a stat at the next level up, that being strength.
... I should also work a bit on perception a little bit at least, and being dumb as bread doesn't sound that bad...right?
"System, can you abbreviate the stats to their first 3 letters?"
STR 10
DEX 8
INT 7
PER 7
1489/1500
"Way better, thanks."
Now then, I had to make a plan of action, considering that it was the Cartel we are talking about. Attacking them rashly, knowing they would be fortified to hell and back, would be incredibly moronic.
If I had no luck, they would have everything ranging from entrenched machine guns to snipers, maybe even armored vehicles for the fuck of it. So, I would first need to scout everything carefully, meaning the scope that was a revolver attachment would finally be of use.
Grabbing the realistically only weapon I could have any non direct combat use for, the Sig P226 that had a silencer, I headed out of the apartment with 3 weapons on myself.
My destination? A warehouse in the Meatpacking District in Hells Kitchen, the hideout of the New York branch of the Juarez Cartel.
--------------
It was currently 1AM, and having finished scouting the warehouse there was only one word coming to my mind.
Screwed.
Im totally screwed aren't I.
Theres not one, but four damn snipers on the neighbouring buildings keeping watch, so if I run in I'm dead, and if I try to take one of them down then the others would turn me into mincemeat or a Swiss cheese, depending on my luck.
Going from outside then was a complete impossibility.
Sneaking in, under the watch of all these people, was also suicide.
Maybe going in from the sewers then? The rats are a bit scary but it seems viable, now that i think about it...
Having made up my mind after a minute, I headed to the closest manhole cover.
"Aaaand... Up!" lifting it up, I roughly knew the route to the warehouse as it was only a 100ish meters away.
Looking down at the dark hole in the ground, I slowly climbed the rusty ladder down, before pulling the manhole back.
Climbing step by step down, and not finding any rats for a change of pace, I didnt have to worry about my ass being bitten.
Navigating the smelly sewers, turning corners here and there, I arrived at the approximate location of the gang hideout. Seeing yet another rusted ladder, I was thankful I had gloves on my hands.
Step by step, I quietly climbed up before arriving right underneath the manhole. Straining myself to listen, I heard the sound of footsteps around me, trying to figure out the patterns of the guards.
Let's say the way I faced toward is north. 3 people were on the west of me stationed, around 15 meters away, talking right now. Another 1 was 5 meters north of me, and another 1 wes in the east a fair distance away.
Gently, I placed my hands on the manhole cover, moving it up it by bit. Looking around, nobody was looking towards me. More specifically, the 3 people were behind an obstacle, the guy in the office was doing something, and the guy on the right was not looking here.
This manhole seemed to have lead me to the middle of the warehouse, and judging from the looks, the room with a man inside, that is in front of me, was an office.
Silently, I rose up from the manhole, all the while holding the manhole cover, before gently placing the manhole cover back in its original place.
Like a ghost, I approached the open door, sneaking slowly behind the man. Suddenly. The warehouse doors started opening with a loud noise.
'Perfect chance!'
Sensing something was wrong, the man wanted to turn around, yet it was already too late. As my hands wrapped around his neck, I twisted as hard as I could.
Crack.
Silently, I lowered the body on the floor, the sound of the broken neck hopefully masked by the doors opening.
Hearing no rush of footsteps or any commotion, the plan seemed to have worked.
Inspecting the body, the man only had a stiletto and a glock on himself. Not surprised at finding glock wherever I go, considering these were dime a dozen, the knife however would come in handy for silent killings.
Hearing footsteps approach I grabbed the body and hid in the corner of a room, waiting to ambush the next mobster, stiletto in hand.
Seconds later, another cartel member entered the room. As he saw there was nobody here, he was about to turn around when he felt a piercing pain in his neck and a hand covering his mouth. He didn't even get to let out a scream as he died, the stiletto having struck the most vital parts of the brain, located in the lower back of the head: the brainstem.
Two down, countless more to go.
Leaving the office I turned to the left, where only one guard was down the walkway, carefully sneaking towards him. Using the countless pigs on meathooks, I slowly approached the area where that man was. Once more, a hand to cover his mouth, with the knife going into the back of the breinstem, his body went limp within moments. Another silent kill.
Three.
Grabbing the body and dragging it back to the office, I threw it behind the table as well.
Going back to the area I just killed him, I had two paths, continue next to the pigs or go to another office.
Making up my mind, I walked further down the line of pigs, hearing two cartel members further down.
An odd 10 meters later, near the end of the line of pigs, there was a pile up of bags on a pallet, obscuring vision for the two cartel members sitting on it.
Carefully peeking, both of them were looking forward, not paying attention to their back. Looking around and seeing that there was nobody looking here, I made myself ready.
Springing up, my Desert Eagle was going towards the left person, while the knife was aiming at the head of the person on the right.
Crack
"Ah-"
Both of them, one knocked out and the other dead, I grabbed their bodies and pulled them behind the line of pigs. Once more, I dragged them back to the office and tossed them behind the table. Needless to say, I took a quick stab at the unconscious bastard.
5, not bad at all.
Walking down the same path, I looked at the open area in front of me that was swarming with cartel guards. At a single glance I counted more than 10 of them, so i decided I would go back to check the other end of this area.
Sneaking up to the gate behind which the 3 cartel members were talking, I slowly peaked my head outside. There's was yet another 20 people on this side, on duty and patrolling.
Stuck in a dilemma about what to do, I decided to wait a bit more, trying to ambush any more gangsters that came here.
As luck would have it, another person came here, yelling about them missing from their positions for too long.
Yet as he had entered the office he was gagged from the side, and with one quick stab, his body went limp.
Walking back towards the area with the other office, where I could sneak to now, i saw two guards inside, smoking. Carefully, I climbed onto the office itself, making sure nobody could spot me. Luckily, my dark clothes would make that job pretty hard.
As I crept forward and looked down onto the men, I noticed one of them tried to light his cigar. Lowering my upper body to hang from the office, like a spider hanging on a thread, I stabbed my knife into the other guard.
Hearing the sudden noise, the smoking guard turned around, and seeing his colleagues dead body, he was about to scream.
Another swift knife motion, however, prevented that from happening. Grabbing both of them, i tossed them once more inside the office, hidden behind the table
Leaving the office, I turned to explore more of the warehouse, slowly moving along some of the shelves, hiding like a rat. Suddenly, I spotted my next target, a rich looking man in a suit.
Slowly approaching him from behind, I was making sure the entire area was clear. Seeing that it was, I jumped into action.
With one quick movement, I jumped out of the shelves towards him. Hearing the faint noise, he wanted to turn around, yet once again I covered someone's mouth.
With yet another stab, another crook had passed away.
"Phew, 9, not bad for just using a knife. I dont think I can get any more than this by using such cheap tricks so it's time to go loud."
Stowing the stilleto as today's trophy inside of my jean's pocket, I pulled out the Desert Eagle and the Anaconda.
Turning around and going back to the original office, I headed where the two guards originally were. Seeing the wide open hall, there were 3 guards in the left near a truck, 5 at the entrance gate, and another 3 on the opposite side of where I was.
Not yet having noticed the absence of their colleagues, they would probably soon get suspicious.
Aiming both my guns at the 5 men on the gate, I wanted to cull as many as I could, with the opening shot from the Desert Eagle signalling the true start of tonight's action.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
6 shots, all 5 of them were turned into mangled bodies, having lined up perfectly for more one bullet for them to pass through.
RATATATATATATATA!
Having already run back towards the office, bullets started raining where I had been just now.
Looking ahead of me, I saw the gate opening in front, 10 odd meters still until the office. Seeing the first head pop up, with one well aimed Anaconda shot...
BANG!
A head was blown into fragments, sending the blood flying everywhere.
Then two more people jumped out, trying to shoot me at the same time.
BANG BANG!
An Anaconda and a Desert Eagle shot dispatched both of them, their bodies sent tumbling to the floor.
Turning around, there were already men aiming their guns at his face. Turning on
BANG BANG!
RATATATATATATA!
"UGHHH-"
Having jumped into the office as quickly as I could, I got two of them with my shooting before I finally finished was inside the safety of the concrete office.
Getting ready, I started aiming towards the door, ready to blow off the head of every single bastard to show up.
Three people all jumped out of hiding spots, one on each window on the sides and one next to the door...
BANG BANG BANG!
Opening fire on them while they still didn't fully peek, I managed to get two of them. Yet the third bastard just stuck out his AK and started spraying the inside of the office, hiding his head from me.
Worse still, I couldn't peek without risking getting injured. Remembering something, I checked my level up and saw that I had a stat and a skill point. Throwing the point I had in strength, I felt once more faster.
Under the effects of
BANG BANG BANG BANG!
"AAAAH-" The sound of a scream resounded, yet my few seconds of deadeye stat boost left didn't get refreshed.
Luckily, I had other stragglers try to jump out and shoot me, each one taking one shot to their head to be dispatched, all keeping my murderous rampage fueled.
Like that, they gave up after I got another 10 kills. Seeing the amount of blood and gore... The carnage I created, I felt once more a fire burning brightly inside of me.
Yet that was short lived, as in the next second a grenade was tossed inside the office, getting to the middle of the room.
"HOLY SHI-"
BOOOOM!
As I dove down and hid behind the mountain of bodies, further protected behind the desk, I still suddenly felt a piece of red hot shrapnel cleave into my left shoulder.
TSSSSSS
"UGHHHH-"
The sensation of burnt flesh caught me off guard, the pain almost unbearable, and the smell of grilled meat entering my nostrils.
The noises outside were drowned out by the droning, muffling the entire world's sounds to me. The aftershock of the explosive got me pretty messed up, damn bastards.
Suddenly, in my haze, I felt some of them approach, based on the footsteps my senses picked up faintly.
Turning on
Right hand wielding Desert Eagle, I opened fire on the two bastards that tried to enter the room and probably finish me.
bang bang...
The muffled shots of the Desert Eagle dispatched both of them, adding more blood to the scene.
'I... I needed to get out of here. If they throw another nade im fucked. '
Having that thought in mind, I made my way to the door, ready to shoot anyone that showed up. Having activated
Peeking outside I saw a whole lot of...
" Nothi-"
Too bad my thoughts were cut off instantly, as from the right side I heard something I really didn't want to hear...
Turning my head to the sound of a revving engine, I saw it. An armored personnel carrier... That had a heavy machine gun mounted on it. It had approached this area, the massive steel beast looking down at me as if I was a mere ant.
In the slowed down world, I the first thing I noticed was the anger of the bastard behind the machine gun, looking at me. Moving as quickly as I could, I dodged to the side, my Desert Eagle turning to aim at his head, ready to pull the trigger the moment the shot aligned.
Yet it was far too late, as he managed to also fire off a shot.
One shot, another.
One bullet, another.
BANG!
BANG!
Looking at the headless body that crumpled behind the LMG seat, I turned to look at my own body.
The left thigh had a hole in its side, blood flowing freely from there. Roughly as wide as two fingers, the shots wound passed all the way from the front to the back of the thigh.
Noticing that, I broke into a sprint, disregarding the pain of being shot, turning to run for the manhole Cover. As the APCs engine was revved up once more, the steel colossus charged at him like a raging bull.
With one quick motion, the cover was thrown to the side, before he slid down the ladder, just barely having dodged the monster weighting dozens of tons .
Ripping off his shirt as he fell down and landed on his undamaged right leg, he bandaged the left one hastily before he made his escape, hearing once more the sound of the gangsters footsteps approaching the manhole.