Alan quickly glanced at his stats and felt rewarded that he had gained another level.
[Alan D Angello, Male, 27 years]
[Level 8: 5260/6000]
[HP: 150/160]
[Stamina: 88%]
[Survival Points: 2260]
"Thank you for saving me," said the woman in her late 30's before she started to introduce herself.
Kate was the name of the woman Alan rescued, the Ambassador from Great Britain. Apparently, she had spent the past few hours screaming, banging at the doors, and tried every means possible. Alas, nothing seemed to work on guards.
As they never allowed her to step outside the cage they had trapped her in, now that she had been set free, Kate was strangely, overly grateful to Alan.
Logically, when you were saved by a cold-blooded murderer whose blade is still wet from the blood of multiple government soldiers and guards, you didn't thank them profusely as if they were saviors, ...You ran.
But fortunately, the game mechanic manipulates the NPC, especially the one that was related to the quest as if they were following a script.
Therefore as Alan was the one aboard on the quest, the game made her highly dependent on him.
Either way, this made things much easier for Alan, so he simply played his part according to the script.
"Don't worry, ma'am, I was ordered to rescue and subsequently escort you from this place to safety."
"You will? Oo love, you truly are a lifesaver"
As Alan finished his setup, another notification arrived as he expected, with an updated mission.
[Quest updated: A helicopter sent to retrieve you and the Ambassador, get her out to safety]
[Escort VIP out of the city - Rank E Quest]
The [Gamelink] swiftly showed him the location of the extraction point. A mile and a half south of the building he was currently in, a helipad in the harbor located on the coast of the city's East River.
From this point onwards, Alan had no guidance from his future knowledge as although Kenny managed to secure a VIP, he actually never completed this chain quest.
However, Alan had memorized almost all significant places around the establishment; and luckily, the helipad the [Gamelink] showed him was one of those places.
"Rushing down the helipad should take 10 to 15 minutes," muttered Alan after calculating the distance. He then turned to the woman and said, "Mam, we have to leave now if we want to make it."
Kate, the Ambassador, agreed to his instruction with no questions asked and followed him toward the lobby. He swiftly walked down the stairs and felt glad to see Daniel and Milo had finished his objective as well. The two had stood waiting in the lobby with the other male ambassador who was from Japan.
"Good job. Let's go."
With two ambassadors rescued instead of only one, Alan really hoped that they would get some huge extra points. However, he held his horses down so as to let the chicken hatch before he started counting them. Right at this moment, a remainder came into his game link.
[30 minutes left to survive]
[Updating current players]
[Players still in the game - 5690]
This number was actually almost double compared to when he played the game last time. Alan was sure that everyone must be cheering that more than 50% players managed to survive till the last 30 minutes of the game.
However, only Alan knew what came next would be the real test of the game.
And just as he expected the notification came.
[Warning: The cataclysmic climate shift brought a storm pulling super-cooled air all the way down from the upper troposphere. The air will descend rapidly in the next 30 minutes]
In the next 30 minutes, there would be 3 more changes in the Cold status, bringing the debuff to level 7. When someone received the level 7 Cold status, it was basically an instant death of freeze.
Level 6 would only give about one minute before one would have to face the same fate, while level 5 would add the Hypothermia debuff which will reduce one's health per second and kill most players in 10 minutes.
This meant that to really survive this round, one needed to have 3-level resistance to Cold debuff, or level 2 resistance coupled with consumables that would help restore their health and survive for at least those 10 minutes.
As for Alan, he already had his [Winter Jacket] and [Beast Cloak] that gave + 4 cold resistance. Coupled with moderate endurance stats, he possessed +5 resistance against Cold. Meanwhile, Milo's high endurance and winter jacket provided him with +4 resistance. Only Daniel among the group who have +3 resistance.
With this, Alan told Daniel to stay inside, but the young man rejected the idea.
"No, Mr. D, let me join. I will stay out of trouble and help you," Daniel insisted, his determination evident in his eyes.
Alan understood Daniel's eagerness, but he also knew that the upcoming task wouldn't be a walk in the park. The game was designed to challenge players, and completing a chain quest like this would certainly come with its dangers and difficulties. Reluctantly, Alan gave a hard no. "Daniel, the mission ahead is too risky for you. I promise to involve you in more dangerous tasks once you gain more experience and level up."
Annoyed but respecting Alan's decision, the high school student sighed and reluctantly stayed inside the building.
With Daniel safely settled, Alan and Milo walked out of the building, accompanied by the two ambassadors. It was a relief that as quest NPCs, the ambassadors were immune to the cold status. Without this immunity, completing the quest would have been nearly impossible.
The cold air hit them like a wall as they stepped outside, and Alan knew they had to move quickly to reach their destination before the temperature dropped further.
As they ran next to the frozen pond in the middle of the plaza. Alan's drove his eyes to dart towards every nook and corner to shield himself from any potential ambush.
Most of the time, it just ended up being him overthinking stuff, but unfortunately, this time around, his vigilance paid off. He spotted a figure hiding in the corner of his eyes and quickly shouted.
"Take cover!!"
As soon as Alan finished shouting the words and was jumping away to find cover, the loud sounds of gunshots echoed through the air.
Tar! Tar! Tar!
There were only three shots but even though Alan tried his best to dodge, one still managed to hit his shoulder. A groan escaped his mouth as a sharp pain coursed through his body.
[Shooting: Received 38 damage]
"Who the hell is shooting!?"