Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (36 page)

The virtual space shifted, creating a shooting range. Alan found himself in front of a long, brightly lit metal hallway with a reddish square dot about a dozen football fields away, a length of over 1000 yards. A row of sniper rifles appeared before Alan in a menu, ranging from standard mechanical rifles with their telescopic sights to the alien laser and plasma based weaponry with digital scopes. A few of them were highlighted green, showing Eve’s preference for these weapons, all of which were alien in design.

Alan quickly examined these highlighted weapons, and settled on what Eve labeled as an Advanced Revenant Scout Rifle. Its frame was made out of the same dark, almost light-absorbing, metal as Alan’s Revenant Power Armor, with a sleek long barrel in the shape of a rectangular prism, rather than the standard cylindrical barrel most human weapons had. More interestingly, as far as Alan could tell the weapon had no trigger, and while it did have a grip, it appeared it could also be attached to the arm of Alan’s armor, and thus the act of aiming would simply require Alan to move his arm.

You are able to fire it with a digital command, a thought rather than a push of a button, which makes the lag time between when the trigger is squeezed and the weapon is fired irrelevant. I am also able to interface this scope with the helmet of your Revenant Power Armor as long as you are in direct contact with the grip of the rifle, showing you exactly where your shot will fire. While most players usually assign some physical command to the firing of their weapon, I will assign a simple fire command to whenever you think shoot and the shot according to my calculations will hit the target.

Um, alright, so I just think fire, and it’ll fire?

Affirmative.

Okay, and so as soon as you highlight the target in the scope screen green, I should think fire?

Yes.

That seems too easy… Also, couldn’t you just fire the weapon yourself?

I am prevented from such actions by the in-game rules governing AI, unless we unlock a particular ability. This is a simple and efficient method; follow it as directed.

Um, OK.

Alan selected the rifle, and it appeared in his hands, a sturdy weapon of about 30 pounds, surprisingly heavy despite its sleek look. A new message appeared:

Alan hid the message, and tested out the new weapon. It was eerily effective, as Alan managed to hit the small black dot on the target consistently even a thousand yards away. The dot couldn’t have been larger than a small pea. This Revenant rifle was far more accurate than any military sniper rifle he’d ever heard of, not that he knew much about that sort of thing. Of course, the Revenant technology had a number of additional advantages, as the laser rifle didn’t cause any recoil and didn’t need to be reloaded. According to Eve, the lasers also didn’t have to account for bullet drop, at least not at these distances. Eventually though, if the length was significant enough, things like the curvature of the planet would be needed to be taken into account, but Alan would let Eve handle those calculations.

Still, at the range the target was at, the slightest movement would shift the aim significantly, and it took a bit of practice for Alan to finally develop a sort of steady breathing and rhythm. He would simply allow the barrel of the rifle to sweep along the target until it flashed green, at which point he’d order the weapon to fire. Still, it was apparent that Alan would need to put more points into strength or at least start weight lifting, as he was unable to get the precise movements he wanted with the heavy rifle. The slight trembling in his hands and body would prove to be problems as well eventually.

Alan brought up the earlier message and selected ready.

Red targets suddenly sprung up along the shooting range at various distances, the farthest perhaps 1000 yards. Alan summarily took them all out with quick and cold efficiency, shooting out targets along a path that Eve plotted out in an instant. Every one of his shots hit in the direct center of the black dot, which he managed to spot easily with Eve’s assistance. A minute later all the targets were gone.

This time, 100 targets appeared, 50 of them an assortment of colors that weren’t red. Once again, Eve simply plotted out a path for Alan to take as he fired time after time, finishing in under a minute. More rounds followed afterward, featuring stacked targets with black dots in different places, targets that hung in midair and finally moving targets. All were struck down with ease by Alan. The length of the shooting range increased, then increased again. Alan still managed to hit the targets, though he noted he missed a few of the black dots, which were growing more difficult to spot.

Then, the rounds began to mix and match themselves, culminating in a final test of 500 color shifting targets that blinked red for a fraction of a second every second in a dimly lit room. Each target moved about randomly, flying in the air, going through walls only to appear on the other side of the hallway or ceiling, moving in front of and behind each other in a chaotic frenzy of color. Each target was shaped differently as well, and spun about in such a way that the black dot, which was only found on one side of a target, was only seen perhaps once every few seconds. As far as Alan could tell, each target was no closer than 1000 yards, while some were upwards of 5000 yards away, a distance of almost 3 miles. A screen popped up showing various data like the curvature of the planet the shooting range was on, the levels of gravity, the outside temperature and wind speeds. Alan waited for about 10 seconds, as Eve had given him no path, no target to go for first.

Activate hypercognition mode.

As soon as Alan did so, a targeting path was set by Eve. He began to methodically fire, slowly ordering the command as he shifted from target to target. Alan felt surprisingly calm as he watched shot after shot hit, his hands steadily moving the weapon about. Alan began weaving back and forth, moving from one side of the room to the other at Eve’s command, all so he could find a better shot. He didn’t flinch when a target split in two with a bright burst of light after it was hit. He simply followed Eve’s adjusted sequence and continued to fire meticulously. Targets began firing back, but Alan simply dodged the lasers they shot. When the final target was hit, a spinning red disk that moved about at the speed of a diving hawk, a message appeared.

Then there was a short pause, followed by a slew of messages that appeared before Alan:

Alan brought up his new ability and his upgraded sniping ability, which now had a rank associated with it as a result of the examination.

Alan grinned as he read through all the upgrades. These examinations would be very helpful, as the Game seemed to require an action be demonstrated repeatedly before it would give you an actual ability or upgrade previous ones. Once Alan closed all the messages, another appeared:

The shooting range faded from existence and Alan found himself in a small dark room with a metal door in front of him. The Advanced Revenant Scout Rifle vanished in his hands. Alan glanced about warily, but as far as he could tell, there was nothing in the room. A message popped up:

Alan was silently thankful he didn’t have to do the exam without his power armor, but at the same time a bit disappointed he wouldn’t get to test out specialized items. Since absorbing the Black Rose Guild’s information, Eve had reclassified the Revenant Power Armor as Revenant Scout Power Armor (Basic). Apparently, while the basic power armor did have the invisibility field, which would hide Alan from passive scans and visual detection, there were more advanced versions that allowed the user to mimic things like sound, temperature, smell, digital signals, and the like, allowing the player to even avoid detection when faced with scanners.

Slowly opening the door, Alan emerged into another dimly lit hallway, his power armor’s invisibility field activated. These dull, metal hallways were starting to get a bit old, but Alan supposed he should get used to them. With Eve’s help, Alan easily avoided the hidden cameras and floor-plate traps, making it to the end of the hallway, the first checkpoint.

Alan noticed that he was able to move with much more ease and there was a sort of smoothness to his actions. Acts of balance felt simple, while steps felt more sure. Small details like an uneven place in the floor were noticeable without Eve’s help, demonstrating that the increase to his agility and perception attributes was having a definite effect.