We stood before an open gate being manned by armored guards. There was a steel wall, approximately twenty feet (~6 meters) high, that stretched out from the gate. Judging by the curvature, it surrounded the college campus and a few more blocks beyond it. The base wasn't located in the city proper but on a hill that overlooked the downtown area near the outskirts. Outside the gate, we had a view of the city ruins that stretched out to a river in the distance.
"Are you ready?" Teddy asked. "The second we pass through these gates, we're out of the safe zone. It's a lawless land out there."
I had my equipment selection wheel open by holding down G. While hovering over the fragmentation and smoke grenades respectively, I pressed 3 and 4 to assign them to those hotkeys. After I did as Teddy instructed, I replied, "Yes. Hotkeys assigned."
"Alright. Remember: middle mouse button to use equipment. Toss out a smoke in front of us when I say so."
We stepped out onto the stairs leading down into the city. The stairs were flanked by a grove of trees that had long since overgrown.
As I admired the scenery, Teddy tersely said, "Now."
"Huh?" I wasn't expecting him to say it so soon. I fumbled with my mouse for a split second before hitting the mouse wheel. My character replaced the rifle in her hands with a cylindrical grenade. She quickly pulled the pin and toss it out in front of her.
"Follow me," Teddy instructed while the grenade bounced down the stone steps. He immediately started running towards the trees on the left. As opaque smoke started spewing out, Teddy stopped and doubled back. I hid my confusion and continued followed.
Bullets whizzed through the smoke and cracked the stone steps. Gunshots echoed through from the city below a split second later. A glance back told me that if we had kept going, we might have been hit. I vaulted over the rail along the side and disappeared into the trees with Teddy.
"What's going on?" I asked. It wasn't hard keeping up with Teddy. We were following the treeline which was wrapped around a parking lot with a couple of rusted cars.
"There are people who stay near the entrances of safe zones and kill unprepared players as they leave. The in-game lingo is 'spawn campers' or just campers for short," Teddy explained. "They're an impolite bunch."
He crouched. "Come. We're going into that building across the parking lot. Sprint."
I continued my questioning as we dashed across. "Does this happen everywhere?"
"Nah. Spawn camping is frowned upon in the general TerraCon community. Most people will band together and hunt them down mercilessly. The further you get from the Troy, the less spawn campers there tend to be."
We dashed up the steps to a side door on the building. Teddy opened it and we went in. "Close the door behind you. Look at it and press F."
The door squeakily closed at my prompting. "Why do they want to kill new players?"
"Why do some kids burn ants with magnifying glasses?" he responded with a question.
"Because they're sick bastards that find it fun?"
"No," Teddy corrected in a condescending tone. "It's because their lives are probably falling apart and they are escaping to this game in order to obtain a sense of control and superiority that they'd never achieve in the real world."
There was a pause as I was genuinely unsure of how to respond. "Umm... Teddy..."
"Oh don't worry," he reassured. "That sounded personal because I despise spawn campers. But you're probably not wrong either. I'm sure they find it fun too. Players also have a chance of dropping credits and equipment when they die, so this is quite profitable."
We had ready reached the third floor of the building in the span of our conversation. Teddy randomly chose a door and entered. We were in a small room with a broken bed and desk. The building was most likely a dormitory, probably for the students that attend the school up the hill.
"Crouch and stay away from the window," Teddy commanded.
We slowly alt-moved our way to the window. As I moved to look out the window, Teddy spoke up.
"Woah, Talya," he warned. "What are you doing? Just peek."
"Huh?" I expressed my confusion, "I am peeking?"
"Oh my god," Teddy exclaimed. "I forgot how little they teach in the tutorial. Q and E allow your character to lean left and right respectively. You can 'peek' around corners with this, allowing you to hide most of your body while looking."
I tested it out. My viewpoint tilted and shifted as my character leaned left and right. Using this mechanic, I peeked outside. The building was located right at a T-intersection of the street. The grid pattern of the roads allowed me to see far down, almost to the bank of the river. However, I focused on the buildings in the immediate vicinity.
"Get back!" Teddy suddenly shouted.
I tapped Q, pulling my character's head away from the window. Just in time, too. A bullet smashed through the glass where my head was a moment ago.
I stared at the glass shards on the floor in shock. "That was close," I dumbly said. "How did you see him so quickly?"
"Experience," Teddy stated simply. "After being on both sides of the scope long enough, you learn. Come on, no reason to stay in this room. They know we're here."
We returned to the hall and headed to the stairs again. During the climb, Teddy presented his analysis, "These spawn campers are probably split into two groups. The first group is two snipers. They're on the tenth or eleventh floor of the high rise building about two blocks southwest. The second is acting as the cleanup crew. I saw one of them in the bank across the street, but there's likely three or four more."
"You got all that from a three-second peek out the window?" I asked with skepticism.
"I saw, heard, and then deduced, dear. Back on the stairs, there were two distinctive gunshots firing at us. The first was a standard sniper rifle. I know that sound anywhere. I used to use one. The second shot, I only heard the super sonic crack of the bullet, but no initial gunshot. Most likely a railgun. Thus, two shooters. That high rise is also the highest building in these ten city blocks. It wouldn't make sense for the snipers to be anywhere else since the other buildings will obstruct their view. The party system-,"
"The party system?"
"Sorry. It's the squad system," he clarified. "Party, squad. Same thing, different way of saying it. Anyways, the max party is eight players. With two in the highrise, there could be six acting as clean up. But its unlikely they have a full party so three or four it is. Since one was watching from across the street, the rest are probably surrounding the building as we speak."
"That's some pretty impressive deduction skills, Sherlock."
"Why thank you."
As we entered the fifth floor hallway, I asked, "So how do we escape?"
Teddy stopped in his tracks and turned his character to look at mine. "Escape? No, no, no. We're going to teach these campers some manners."