Staff Sergeant Robert was in the security checkpoint, according to the security checkpoint, at least. One of the main perks of becoming a contractor compared to becoming a regular soldier was the ability to move in and out of any point of interest without any difficulty unless explicitly told as a restricted area. Regular soldiers required permission to move here and there.
Robert didn't look happy as he looked at me while holding the clipboard, "Beuer, what the hell do you want right now? My soldiers are clean."
"Yes, sir. However, I have a lead that Private Jacob might have something to do with it."
"Jacob? That idiot has gone AWOL since yesterday."
"Any trace of him?" I asked.
"Nope. There was no trace of him. Most of his gears are in his barrack, though. Still, what that kid was doing, eh? Some people said he was going to the forest. Maybe you can get him there?"
"Why are you so unsure?"
"As much as I am concerned, Jacob is a soldier from Outpost C-1 that is not directly under my command and came here for logistical issues. I only keep an eye on him for security reasons. He is responsible for the delivery of the logistics truck from that outpost. Sadly, he is missing."
"And you aren't going to search for him?"
"We are more than occupied. If you can find him, I'll make it worth your while. Outpost C-1 will appreciate that, and we shall get more supplies. For me, it's a win-win. I get my supply, and you might find whatever you're looking for."
"Where is he?"
"Go to the forest north of here. That was the last place someone spotted Private Jacob. Careful though, that place is invested with goblins."
"Goblins?" I thought that kind of creature only existed in the fantasy world. Then again, this [Contract Battleground] world wasn't something I'd ever heard before.
"Yup, those ugly green bastards using makeshift weaponry from pipes and woods. Don't even take them lightly. A single blow from its weapon is more than enough to kill you," Robert said.
"Noted."
The outpost was surrounded by this Hesco barrier to protect from bullets or other incoming attacks. To be honest, I hadn't even ventured outside. The forest might be a good place to start. There might be monsters, but they would be probably low in level. To top it all off, it might be a good start to test my AR-15 and sharpen my tracking skill back. After all, there was no quest marker for Jacob's whereabouts.
There were two entrances to the outpost. One was from the north, and the other was from the south. The entrances were connected to a concrete road stretching as far as eyes could see. For infrastructure, it was quite great.
However, I wondered how the political stance of the surrounding region. If this was a peaceful region in the first place, there wouldn't even be any heavily fortified outpost like this. And to be honest, if goblin existed, magic existed too, right?
Right before I crossed the outpost entrance, I gave a last check to my AR-15. I pulled the magazine out, checked it, and reinserted it into the chamber. I charged the rifle and put the safety into semi-auto before heading for the forest.
The forest was probably a small walk from the outpost. On the edge of the forest, several barriers of sandbags with weapon replacement from the MK-19 grenade launcher to the M2 browning were there. However, there was a BGM-71 TOW missile launcher on far behind.
Considering that a tank might attack this outpost, it might be a good security measure to have an anti-tank missile launcher, but against what? A goblin against a BGM-71 TOW that was more or less capable of penetrating 900 mm of armor? What an overkill. Then again, if this was a dragon, there might be a slight problem here. Then again, a flood of contractors would take care of something like that rather easily.
I crossed the grassland with the AR-15 in my hand. A small green blob of gooey substance was jumping on the grassland. A slime. I pulled the trigger. The slime splashed and wet the grass around it with a mucus-like substance.
[Slime Added to Bestiary]
[Slime]
A blob with the texture of jelly will turn immediately into a mucus-like substance once it has taken enough damage. Slime is usually spotted in the grassland with its signature green color. It is herbivorous and doesn't give any significant threat to humans. It is the main source of gelatin.
A weak creature, basically. A fodder or a target practice, to be entirely honest. I continued heading to the forest. Several soldiers were hanging around the weapon placement. Some were cleaning them up while the others were loading ammunition into the weapons. I headed deeper into the forest with my AR-15 held tightly in my hands.
Looking at the vegetation growing in the forest, I needed to search for a disturbance. Signs of disturbance would range from broken branches to a slightly bent branch. However, a big mess coming from the 40 mm grenade the MK-19 grenade machine gun fired should be out of consideration.
However, a bigger sign was a shining glass laying in the forest. If not for the sun shining in the forest, I wouldn't even see the small piece of glass. Picking up the glass, I noticed it. It was a bottle of morphine, not an ampule, but a bottle.
"50 mg/ml morphine." I looked at the 50 ml bottle. This was a high dosage for morphine. Why would someone need to have several bottles of this thing? Unless they really wanted to get high to the point of killing themselves.
I put the bottle into one of the empty magazine pockets and continued my journey to the forest. Again, there was a sign of disturbance in the form of broken branches and bullet casing.
.45 bullet. It was the standard-issue ammunition used by the military. Why would he shoot his gun? A goblin? Perhaps? I should keep my ears open. Even a little broken branch could be said as the source of voice of those goblins.
I moved really slowly, even making sure that my feet not stepping on any dry leaves. It would give away my position to the hostiles. To be honest, the lack of leaves and face paint wasn't really filling me with confidence.
Suddenly, a cricking noise came in front of me. I aimed at the ACOG scope to search the area in front of me. I doubted goblins knew advanced military tactics. Then again, Sergeant Robert said they were capable of using makeshift weapons.
A green human-like figure appeared right on my ACOG scope. It had quite a long ear with some sort of ugly appearance. My guess? It was the goblins. I should take the shot now before they spot me first.
BANG.
The figure fell to the ground. I scanned further movements in front of me. Suddenly, a lot of rustles came from all directions. I should take care of them all right now. I scanned the area again. BANG. Another goblin fell to the ground.
The rattling stopped. All hostile should be neutralized by now. I continued walking slowly while searching for traces from Jacob. It gave me a bad feeling, to be honest. I then noticed a stain on one of the trees.
The stain was brown. "Dry blood?" I then inspected the stain with my hand. "Yup, dry blood." I was getting close. From the stain of the blood itself, it looked like the blood was splattered, suggesting someone had blood spraying out of its body suddenly.
Still, without any dead body, I wouldn't be able to confirm whether Jacob was KIA or not. I then looked around the tree, and a strong smell entered my nose. It was the smell of the morgue. Dead body.
Walking around the tree, I then found the dead body of a human in military uniform carrying a small military backpack. I noticed one of his arms was splattered. He wasn't in any armor, nor in any combat gear.
I grabbed his rucksack. I opened it. Five bottles of Morphine and three boxes of Diazepam were inside of that backpack, alongside two packages of syringes. It looked like the damn bastard wanted to get high in here. Poor guy, it seemed that a goblin had killed her, or was it friendly fire?
This forest was a target range and I doubted that a regular round would splatter someone's arm like that. Could it be that someone spotted a goblin from the weapon placement and started shooting at them without noticing that Jacob was around? It could be. In fact, it was the most likely cause. That kind of wound would only be possible with .50 BMG from the M2 machine gun.
Karma at its best.
I wore the backpack on my back and started heading back for the outpost. That was easier than I previously expected. Still, that friendly fire incident, just why? Thinking about it again, Jacob didn't want to give anyone a lead. The moment they had gunfire, the soldiers went right into the weapon placement without knowing that Jacob was even there in the first place.
I walked into the weapon placement. As expected, the soldiers had been manning the M2 and it all was pointed at the forest. "FIRE!" The moment I got out, the soldier immediately shot the weapons at the forest. Bunch of explosions and heavy chugging from the machine guns filled the air.
I'd be lying not to say that it wasn't loud. I wished I had an ear protection, cause it was…
BOOM.
The missile launcher fired its missile at the direction of the forest, followed by a large explosion coming from the missile exploding. Goddamn it, it was loud. Why would they need to be that overkill against such a simple target.
"CEASE FIRE!"
The soldier stopped firing their manned weapons and returned back to their spot. The fireworks were over, but the damage was devastating. The explosion from the TOW sawed a tree in half. The explosions from the MK-19 destroyed several trees, too. Was it their standard operational procedure?
When I approached the entrance, Robert interrupted me before I entered, "Returning so soon? Whose backpack is that?"
"Jacob. Tell the other outpost that he dies from friendly fire."
Robert took a very deep loud breath and sighed it very loudly. "Dead. By friendly fire, of all things."
"He stole the medicine, sir." I showed the content of the backpack to Robert.
He didn't gasp. In fact, he held his chest as he let out his breath. It was like he was glad for that. "Thank god. Well, this should cover our own backs. MP, come here," Robert shouted at one of the soldiers that wore "MP" band on their hand. "This is the evidence for the stolen medicines that Hubert has been searching for."
The MP retrieved the backpack and they walked away, leaving only me and Robert in the entrance of the outpost. "Kid, I'm sorry if I was doubtful about your skill. I'll report this back to Colonel Hubert. If you have anything I can do for you, just say it."
"No thanks, sir. You've done your part."
"Much appreciated, kid."
Sergeant Robert walked away from me. A notification appeared. The mission was complete. The rewards had been transferred to me.
[Mission Complete]
[+2,000 Credits] [+2,000 Reputation Points]
[Level Up. 5 Skill Points Available]
I walked closer to the edge of the barrier and laid my back down on it. How am I supposed to be distributing the skill point? It was not like I could press "ESC" or "TAB" and the menu would appear.
Fiddling around, if I looked at my hand, there was a watch. When I pressed the watch, an informational screen appeared. That was quite a simple way, why hadn't I thought of that earlier?
[Beuer] [5 Skill Points Available]
Level: 2 [1,000/1,500 RP] | Private of North Carmine Federation
Strength: 4
Vitality: 2
Agility: 2
Dexterity: 4
Traits: Special Forces | Surgeon
Current Weapon: AR-15, 1911
[Credits: 2,390]
I would distribute it on strength and agility. For the most part, it seemed to be the stats that affected my combat performance the most. It seemed that the more strength that I had, the lighter the weapon became. However, about agility, I hadn't noticed any significant difference yet.
[Beuer]
Level: 2 [1,000/1,500 RP] | Private of North Carmine Federation
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Agility: 4
Dexterity: 4
Traits: Special Forces | Surgeon
Current Weapon: AR-15, 1911
[Credits: 2,390]
And that was it for the skill points distribution. Not too complicated. Now, what food I should even take? My stomach was rumbling, thinking about it, I hadn't even eaten ever since I arrived here.
[Tips: Always keep your hunger and hydration high]
Still, I never felt hungry this fast. It might be a little bit of adjustment made by the game system itself, but I really didn't have any idea. I didn't even know where the cafetaria was. The comissary might be the place where I could get lunch, or maybe, afternoon lunch? The sky was almost dark at this point.
I headed into the comissary. As I entered the command center, I met with the old man in particular, Doctor Hubert. He seemed to be heading down to the comissary too, so I followed him from behind.
"Kid, come over here," he said before he entered the hallway to the comissary.
"Yes, sir?" I lowered my voice down.
"Good job retrieving the stolen medicine. Don't worry about Robert's worry about the friendly fire incident. Captain Gorobets won't do shit about that, knowing that his own man stole half of the morphines that this base used. Lieutenant Iridium would be happy to hear that, too," Hubert explained.
"I'm glad to hear that, sir."
"You damn right you are. Anyway, what's your name, kid? In case I need your help again."
"My name is Beuer, sir."
"Beuer. Contractor, right?"
I nodded.
"Say, if I need you, I will find you, is that ok?"
"That'd be my pleasure, sir."
"Thank you very much, Beuer. Anyway, can I get you a lunch?"
"It'll be much appreciated, sir."
================
The biscuit and gravy was quite good, especially for the price of 10 credits. Hubert and I had quite a conversation, to be honest. We just exchanged knowledge from one doctor to another, what I knew and what I didn't know. He was quite a fun person, I wouldn't lie.
While Hubert had returned back to the 3rd floor after his short break, I still stayed at the comissary to sip on my coffee. As I sipped on my coffee, two unexpected guesses arrived. Lobaev and Millie.
"Ey, mate, it seems to be a pleasure meeting you again," Millie tapped my back.
Lobaev immediately sat down on the chair right across me, the place where Hubert was sitting. They didn't order anything, but they let out a drinking bottle from Millie's backpack.
"Man, how's your first quest?" Lobaev asked.
"Great. I got 2,000 credits and I leveled up."
"Awesome, mate, you aren't doing truck driving mission, I assume?" Millie asked.
"Truck driving mission? Did you mean logistic? No, I didn't do that. I might want to do that, but not now," I said to both of them.
"Yeah, the payout is kinda low, but you can do that thing while sleeping. So man, how's Millie's AR?" Lobaev said.
"It was great. As a DMR, it performs better than I expected. The recoil is really small, almost closer to the submachine gun territory. I killed two goblins with it. Overall, Millie certainly chose the parts carefully," I commented.
Millie commented, "Of course I do. Mate, choose your part correctly, and your gun will carry you all the way."
"How's your mission, anyway?" I asked both of them.
"Good. The escort mission is not as hard as previously expected. Sure, there were several ambushes here and there, but it was rather predictable. Nothing an RPG couldn't solve," Lobaev said, proudly.
"RPG? Are you dealing with tanks or something?" I asked.
"Nah, just orcs."
"Orcs?"
"Yeah, those pigs. Gee, I still wonder how they could get their hands on automatic weapons."
"Such as?"
"Let's see. Thompson SMG, FG-42, MG-42. Like, they were really planning to ambush us, but luckily, we spotted them before they spot us. So, swoosh, boom. Bye bye orcs," Millie commented.
It seemed that those orcs were armed with WW2 weapons. Well, to be honest, it was kinda weird for me. Especially since I knew that they were fantasy creatures, but it might be the caveat of this game. To be honest, it was quite creative.
"Are they really common?" I asked.
"Not really. Goblins are more common, but they're stupid. They can't even aim shit," Millie commented. "To be honest, they were armed with varmint rifles, but broken. For the most part, loot from their bodies couldn't be sold due to how useless it is."
"I see."
"Anyway, would you like to do us a favor?" Millie asked.
"It depends."
"It's about a job. This is a three men job, and frankly, in a place like this, the wage of renting a more expensive contractor will make the quest not profitable for what its worth for," Millie said.
"What's it about?"
"My friend, what do you feel about escorting mission?" Lobaev asked.
"Escorting, what? To be exact."
"A VIP from outpost C-1. This is a three men job."
"Why three?"
"We need a decoy. Players will be looking for the VIP. Basically, we need someone to divert their attentions. In that case, I think you'll be a fine driver," Millie said.
"Why me?"
"You're cheap, at least, your wage wouldn't be more ridiculous than those high-level players. So, how much do you want from the quest payment?" Millie asked.
"80%?" I asked.
"You're kidding, right?"
"Yeah. 30%. Is that good enough?" I asked.
"Yup, pretty much. Anyway, here's the job description."
A screen appeared right in front of my eyes.
[Millie Offers a Job Request] [Accept?]
[Escort Dimitri Belyaev] [30,000 Credits] [5,000 RP]
Captain Belyaev is a captured enemy officer from the Avoset Union. Transport him to outpost B-13. Captain Belyaev was a member of the Avoset KCCO. Players from Avoset Union will be hunting you down, be careful.
Objective: Go To Outpost B-3
"KCCO? He is a former SF?" I asked.
"Yeah. Can you drive an armored vehicle?" Millie asked.
"Depends. But pretty much, yeah. I can drive a MRAP."
"You can drive a MRAP? That's nice. Not many people can do that nowadays, not even this dude," Millie commented as he looked at Lobaev. "But no, we aren't going to drive a MRAP. We are going to drive a regular armored vehicle, nothing too fancy."
"What is it, to be precise?"
"Just an armored Humvee," Millie said.
"Is it really enough to keep them away from us? I really doubt it, to be honest," I said.
Even from my own standpoint, I would have more than three plans to take down a Humvee without using any explosive weapon. I could ram it off the road, which was probably the most likely option. I could also make a fake roadblock and score a head shot on the driver using high caliber weapons. Or, more risky, even ambushing it with a mine wouldn't be that hard. Just burry a mine on the middle of the road, and kaboom.
"Well, you'll be the bait," Millie said.
"What does it suppose to mean?" I asked her back.
"Man, you'll be under heavy fire, while we drive smoothly towards B-13," Lobaev added.
"I want 40% if that's the case. Unless you want to lend me an armor and a helmet," I countered the offer.
"Fair enough. I remember that I kept something on my footlocker, was it an armor or a flak jacket, I forgot. There was also a metal helmet, if I recalled," Lobaev said.
"So, when should we begin?"
"After we've eaten, of course." Millie walked to the counter to order a food.