Cynthia made a bewildered face after hearing the plan of this odd AI. Surely that couldn't work, could it? It felt more like suicide, but she still decided to try it out. Uncertainty gnawed at her as she made sure she had a fresh magazine in the gun. She wanted to have plenty of ammo just in case. Each magazine was a double stacked single feed design, which contained 12 rounds. She hoped that she wouldn't miss and needed to reload while being attacked.
After checking herself once over again, she activated [Cold Blooded] which made it much harder for others to detect her. These [Giant Rats] with low Perception would find it incredibly hard to notice her unless she stood right in front of them. Letting out a large breath, she steeled her nerves and made her way closer down the alley. They were all level 1 this time, so it was still somewhat tolerable to take them on.
"[Try not to make any noise as you approach. Avoid stepping on anything that would give you away.]" Dags gave some tips as she slowly made her way past all the debris in the alley. After all, the skill says it lowers her presence, but it never said anything about suppressing any noise she makes.
All the [Giant Rats] were currently facing away from her, munching on a pile of random thrown out food items. They sometimes growled at one another if they put their face too close to where another was eating. Just like that, Cynthia was suddenly 2 meters behind the rats. She had a good angle on two of the rats, but the last one in the middle had its head completely blocked by its rotund body. Being this close already, she couldn't risk getting closer. The rats would almost certainly hear her steps or breathing which she was trying hard to suppress. She pulled up her [USP 2145] and held her breath as she took aim. By now, her cooldown on [Sharpshooter] had lapsed, so she steadied her arms as the skill was activated with a thought.
Bang!
[Crit! -20HP]
[Giant Rat has been killed!]
[+15 XP]
The shot rang out loudly, and the face of the first rat fell to pieces as it collapsed. With no time for distracting thought, she immediately turned her aim to the next one. It still hadn't registered what happened, and Cynthia shot 3 times at it.
[Hit! -5 HP]
[Hit! -5HP]
[Crit! -10 HP]
[Giant Rat has been killed!]
[+15 XP]
Being so close and the enemy not moving this time, Cynthia managed to hit all 3. The last one hit its head and it too fell dead to the ground. The last [Giant Rat] had already turned around by now and lunged at Cynthia. She desperately dodged to the side, but still got cut by the rat's claws as it went by.
[-4 HP]
She yelped in pain, only to realize it just felt like a hard pinch rather than having been cut badly. She scrambled to her feet and fired 5 times at the beast before it could charge her once again.
[Miss!]
[Hit! -5HP]
[Miss!]
[Hit! -5HP]
[Hit! -5HP]
Her shaky aim let her down as she panicked from the attack before. While she did indeed hit it, it merely angered the thing. It screeched at her and used its skill [Quick Attack]. The sudden burst of speed caught Cynthia off guard, and from such a close range still she wasn't able to dodge properly. She put her left arm in the way, trying to shield herself from the incoming beast. The [Giant Rat] ran at her at a blazing speed and bit her arm, hanging onto it like a vice.
[-10 HP]
[-1 HP]
[-1 HP]
She kept losing HP as it clung to her arm. With a face full of desperation, Cynthia pushed the barrel of her pistol against the terrifying rat. As copious amounts of blood leaked from her left arm, three more shots rang out in the alley.
[Hit! -5HP]
[Hit! -5HP]
[Hit! -5HP]
[Giant Rat has been killed!]
[+15 XP]
[You have reached the amount needed to turn in the quest]
Clicking noises of Cynthia still pulling the trigger continued to ring out until the lifeless body of the [Giant Rat] finally released its vice-like grip on her arm. Cynthia's body was shaking heavily, and she fell to her knees.
"[Quickly use a health stimulant. You're still losing HP from that large bite wound.]" Dags worriedly messaged, seeing that her HP was still dropping. While he wished to comfort her after that traumatizing ordeal, she first had to keep herself alive.
Reaching into her side pouch, Cynthia took out the [Basic Health Stim] that all new players of the faction start with. She pressed it against her arm, pushing the button on the top of it.
[Basic Health Stim x1 Used]
[20 HP Restored]
[Bleed Stopped]
After use, the stim turned into pixels. She shook her head at that, having a dead look on her face. You can make consumable items disappear, but not the monsters? She sighed heavily, and inspected her arm. It looked as if nothing happened, other than the holes where the teeth had gone through. Then she just laid there, putting an arm over her eyes.
"[You did a good job, Cynthia. Other players probably wouldn't have been able to pull it off.]" Dags wanted to cheer her up, seeing her lay there silently.
"Thank you, Mr. Dags. I probably wouldn't have been able to do it without your helpful skills." Cynthia still had her eyes covered, bits of water leaking down the sides.
"[I'm sorry to say this, but you should probably not stay here. There could be more of those rodents around here.]" While it felt insensitive, she really couldn't stick around this area. She was low on ammo, had used her only [Health Stim], and the noise and smell likely would attract others.
With her eyes still covered, she nodded and slowly got up. Looking around, she continued to suppress the urge to vomit at the gross sight of the defeated [Giant Rats]. The rats were all sucked into her inventory, and she turned to leave. Before she could leave though, a new even louder screech than the other rats was heard behind her.
[Giant Rat has used the skill Call the Pack!]
The area she was in seemed to come alive with screeches from all directions. Another [Giant Rat] had come to investigate, and immediately called for help!
"[Run NOW! Use Desperate Escape!]" Dags rushed to message her as he activated [Detect Hostility] again for Cynthia.
Cynthia's shocked expression disappeared, replaced with panic as she activated the skill. She could feel hostile intent all around aimed at her. She navigated through the alleys at breakneck speed, avoiding the ones where she felt the hostility from. Her hands became scuffed from pushing against walls to make it around corners, her legs felt like they were on fire from the desperate sprint she was in, and her mind was awhirl trying to find the path back to the main streets.
"[Go left here!]" Dags provided some info since he had the full map of the city.
At an interaction of corridors, Cynthia made a hard left. She trusted him to show her the right way.
"[Straight! Right! Straight! Straight! Left!]" He provided directions, leading her back to safety. Dags' mind buzzed as he tried to keep his partner alive.
Rats screeched behind Cynthia, chasing her all the way. They were climbing over one another and breaking everything in their way as the tide of beasts chased her. They wanted blood.
Eventually, she saw the busy street in front of her. Her eyes went wide and tried to run even faster. She was finally home free! As the street got closer, the rats behind her started to slow. They were loud and angry, but didn't dare come out into the bright street, knowing that they'd be exterminated by the guards around the area.
Finally she burst out onto the street and fell down, panting hard from over exerting herself. She wasn't exactly the most athletic person in real life. This was probably the most she'd run in years! Exhaustion started to fill her body.
"Is she ok? Why's she so dirty?" Some players and NPCs around were giving her odd looks. She was covered head to toe with dirt, grim, trash, and blood. She looked like quite a mess.
"[You should probably find a hotel to stay at to wash up and rest before you head back to the Resolute Mercenary building. There's an automated one a couple blocks down the street.]" Dags gave some advice to the embarrassed girl. He shook his head at the state she was in, but was glad she was ok. She was quite courageous taking on this mission alone.
"Seems normal Users really do need to form teams to take on those ridiculous rodents." Dags went over everything that Cynthia did. She made good use of her skills, but she needed coaching. Her game sense wasn't very good, and needed honing. Between freezing up, bettering her aim, or her lacking awareness, there was much to improve.
A few minutes later, Cynthia made it to an automated hotel. This was a place fully run by robots of various kinds. She went up to a terminal and paid a large chunk of what a player starts with just to rest and recover.
[250 credits received, please enjoy your stay!]
With that, Cynthia only had 750 credits left. She had a bit of a pained expression from the loss, but there was nothing she could do about it. She didn't want to continue looking like a walking pile of filth.
"[I'll give you some privacy while you're in there. You might also wish to take a break and log out. It might be good to refresh your mind outside of here.]"
"Mn." with just a noise of acknowledgement, she made her way up to her room in an elevator. Dags willed the view from Cynthia's eyes to stop, and his space became a void of black once again. While she was busy, Dags wanted to read some more info from his menus. There was plenty he hadn't gotten to yet. As he was browsing through information, he got a notification.
[User Cynthia has logged out]