Today's the day. It is the day when we finally conquer the seas. We can no longer lose to enemies when we have eight battleships in our 600 fleet across the Pacific Front to defend against the aliens... That is, in a video game.
A game similar to any Battleship game out there with me sailing as the USS Montana. I was with a party of over 600 people, and the servers were powerful enough to let us have our own ways of battle. As a battleship, providing cover fire is essential, as well as being able to position myself near the aircraft carriers to provide a blanket of Anti-Aircraft fire.
The aliens were putting up a very good battle, not once did they fail to impress, however the downside for them is that their armor is so weak that my secondary turrets can one shot them. And now the mothership shows up, so we began to concentrate fire on the enemy mothership. It took about... 18 full salvoes from me, and everyone else's before it foundered and imploded on its own.
Following its foundering, it seems to have summoned the final boss of the match, and now we see the kraken and hydra rising, a storm brewing so we can only hope for the best. The thing that stressed me out was my teammates; they wanted to steal kills and now perform DpS, which only made me and my small fleet of destroyers and aircraft carriers have a hard time but we managed.
We focused fire on the hydra, and targeted its heads, necks and such but to no avail.
Because somehow we have to reduce its shield capacity before we're able to penetrate, which is quite... impressive of a creature. Now that the Yamato class ships shows up fully, we all took turns firing full salvoes toward it due to our reloading times. Took us about 15 minutes to kill the hydra, which in turn made us lose already 100 ships.
Due to the loss it has been real difficult to maintain position given we have to evade and do sometimes a complete 180°. More and more of gunfire, evading (at our best), loss of numbers, increase of numbers and more and more damage dealt to the boss. But it is by now that we went ahead and did an all out attack just so we can be done with it. But just as we were finished with the three, the entire game server crashed.
Several minutes later the server was restored and we're back at the final boss fight, where we're about to finish the boss. Some of the mass majority of players have quit, and some still remained but aren't moving from their spot. Since I was one of the last active players in-game I was able to bait the kraken to attack the other players so I can kill it myself. Once it died, the server crashed again and I was back at it again, doing the same thing all over again.
At my fourth attempt I decided to ram the kraken with the ship and my goodness I couldn't help but laugh because the game lagged and it caused so much mayhem! At my fifteenth try I didn't move at all and treated it as if the game is just... done. After all I was done already with it, I just wanted to completely quit but decided not to and just watched it all happen. In fact, the more times it refreshes, the more I feel weird about it.
There's something... very strange about it, and all of a sudden, I was returned to the lobby.
Once I have claimed all the rewards granted unto me such as "Endless Ammunition and Supplies", "Endless Upgrades and Repairs", "10 Million Credits", and "100x Free Draw for Blueprints"; I was proud of myself at that point and decided to do a Player vs. AI game. This is where I practice using the fully upgraded ship. The rewards mentioned have been distributed to those that joined, queued up and or participated in the battle from earlier. Those who miss out will receive portioned rewards and a free Japanese Battleship of any tier.
One thing I noticed was the shortness of breath I was experiencing which was common due to my asthma, so I had my nebulizer and oxygen mask set-up, and with those things still it didn't make it easier so I tried doing breathing exercises and stand up slowly, and walked around my room as I did. It still was being difficult.
While the game has started I had the capability in-game against AI to control the enemies onto where they are positioned, whether they fire at me or not at all, and since I was able to reach for my computer I decided they not fire and just have their ships encircle me as I then continued on my breathing exercises and walk around.
For the worst case scenario I picked up my phone and prepared to make the emergency call so that if in case I pass out first thing I do is press the button and emergency services shall arrive shortly. After all medical stations are placed everywhere nowadays due to the global pandemic. I went to sit down on the bed and distracted myself by watching videos of cooking, since that is also my passion aside from being a gamer... I loved cooking stir fry, saucy and fried dishes... also sometimes soul food when it fits the budget.
The breathing got better thank goodness after a few more minutes of watching videos and continuous use of the oxygen, and now I go back to the game and restart the session and this time I made the AI ships go at me one by one while I was using my fully upgraded USS Montana. Somehow the AI glitched and a Kraken spawned which was IMPOSSIBLE during an AI game so I had to use the same tactics as before, but since it's an AI game... I got the opportunity to use the instant cooldown, which caused the intense DPS against the seemingly unbeatable Kraken. I enabled the infinite HP, and even using the captain's skill of having even the AA guns fire at the thing.
Though I noticed something weird, as I was now sitting down in the very bridge of the ship. I looked around and the ship is firing all of its guns on the Kraken and the vibrations and sound was too loud so I covered my ears and knelt down. I looked around and tried to even think of moving the computer mouse but... I'm no longer in my bedroom. I actually paused myself, not moving for one bit, as I noticed something odd.
I'm not wearing my oxygen mask with its built in chemical generator which includes both nebulizer and oxygen function, which made me panic but I was breathing better air. I decided to man up(as I'm always told by mom) and run to to the main guns room I think is what it's called, to check what's going on but there were no facilities on board. Just some tables. I saw four sheets of A4 sized paper, two pistols which looks like drill guns somehow... a ring completely made of amethyst, and a book just beside the ring. Without hesitation I read the contents of the book.
However the papers contained nothing but... unrecognizable symbols which seems to form paragraphs and sentences. It doesn't look similar to any language I've ever seen or read or heard. I stacked the papers and folded them, and into my pockets they go. I opened the book, and as I did, it glowed right at my face which was blinding me. But I looked away and around me, but no one else seems to be aboard the ship. I looked back at the book and saw the same letters and the English equivalent at its following page. Unique. The left page contains the unknown letters while the right side contains the English language equivalent.
It appears to be instructions on how to access the controls. Well, it would seem it's time to get to studying again. The book depicts to me what I needed to know about the tools I have at my disposal. The A4 sized copy paper things were actually meant for storing spells and skills I have learnt so if in case I forget I can relearn them again. Then the two drill gun things are shapeshifting weapons that can become the weapons I needed. Whether it be actually a ranged or melee weapon, it can turn into those. I thought about having a tessen (Japanese war fan) and it came to be, and so instead one of the shapeshifting weapons turned into a katana for melee and defense, the other one a pistol that fires all kinds of ammunition in the form of bullets, and the shape of the pistol would be a Dessert Eagle.
I practiced firing bullets of harmless practice magic, which worked. The gun's philosophy is the same as mechanical-wise, but in terms of reloading, I can't seem to take out the magazine and replace with another, nor can I cock the gun. I can only seem to operate the thing on the back and the trigger. There's this rotary switch thing on the side for safe mode, single fire, triple fire and full-auto. I will need to study again the name of the gun parts so that I don't confuse myself.
The thing on the back I said I remembered now is the hammer. To change the type of bullet I have to pull it back, and think of what bullet. Once done, I just need to fire the gun without operating the hammer again. It's a little confusing because I know to myself that's not how a pistol should work, but eh, I might live with it. I then read about the amethyst ring.
Book says it has to be worn on the left pointer finger, so I did and it molded in there and it doesn't seem to come off. For the love of God and everything else I just hope water doesn't go in there nor would it sweat. Because I would be cutting off that finger otherwise. The ring serves as the storage unit as well as a sort of, catalyst? I think it's called.
So if I need to cast a spell without my shapeshifting weaponry, I can use the ring instead. It says the ring cannot be taken off after that due to its curse but it will eventually be absorbed by the body in the next twenty years and will still be operational. So it's like the sort of 'inventory' function in games. The book taught me how to store my items away, using multiple methods.
Either I tap on the object I want to store or I just think about putting it away as I would with trash into the bin, or used plates into the sink. Once I understood the logic, I practiced wielding my weightless katana and desert eagle and just tapped on them to store, or just lower them on the ground and they disappear, or twirl them in my hands as if I'm making a presentation and they disappear.
In terms of how much items I have in storage and if I need to check, I just have to do this circular motion with my finger counterclockwise, whatever finger it is I use; I can even use my toes for that, It'll show this interface in a sorted option separating items like food, clothing, weaponry, and auxiliary items as well.
Next came another item that just spawned all of a sudden, which is a magical pen and this pen looks like a sign pen which is gonna be used for writing on those 4 sheets of spell sheets. And the book says that's about it and it slammed itself on my face and next thing I know I'm just... sitting on the ground with the knowledge I just learned. I roamed around the ship after I confirmed the battle is over to check for intruders or such. None were found and no landmass confirmed nearby.
I commanded the ship to go in circles around the previous battlegrounds to confirm if there's anyone to be saved, rescued or put to prison. I found no one, and decided to go back to the bridge and have a look at the map. There is a dock I can command the ship to go to, however, it's like... 500 miles away, due south.
The others are like 700 miles away, and so I decided to go to the shorter route, until my gut feeling decided to go to the city 1204 miles away due northeast, so I went there instead. My ship's on high alert and I remained high alert, the door accessing the bridge closed and every single watertight compartment or doors are closed. I am so prepared for everything that I have to remind myself to breath because of how tense I feel. It's like I'm being followed but the radar depicts nothing. Not even the infrared, not even the sonar... nothing.
Now, I decided to relax just a tiny bit to not be exhausted due to tension. Turret 1 and 3 loaded with high explosive shells, Turret 2 and 4 loaded with armor piercing. I don't see the problem of doing this, but if it's a big problem then eh, I'll make it all high explosive. Or maybe make a hybrid out of both? Dunno.
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Author's Note: This is my first story! I'm excited to grow, so any feedback on any part of the story would be very helpful. Thanks!~