Things with Thor and Loki were heading toward an inevitable clash between brothers, while Allen didn't know how to react upon seeing the notifications that popped up on his interface.
Everything happened very quickly. After Allen accepted the world's change, thousands of players from all over entered the virtual world with copies of their real bodies in virtual form. What happened to their real bodies in the meantime? Only the system knows, and Allen feels too lazy to ask.
[Congratulations, you have entered the virtual world and can experience true first-person perspective thanks to Allen Walker, but it's not mandatory. If you wish to exit, just press 'Escape' on the screen.]
All players falling from the sky and those already on the field received the same notifications.
[If you stay, don't worry. After this game, you'll be free. There's no sensation of pain from injuries. However, the experience can be very intense, so be prepared.]
[As a prize to the winner, a wish within the possibilities of Allen Walker and not against his ethics and morals will be granted.]
The prize would come from the system, but it couldn't say so. Hence, the system used Allen's convenient "mutant powers" to explain everything.
[Enjoy the experience, which might be unique in your life…]
...
Allen began to break out in a cold sweat upon hearing the system notifications.
"Gyahahaha, this is interesting!" Rebecca laughed while pointing her dual pistols at the sky to shoot.
Half of the players quickly exited, some fearing this resembled SAO and its deadly virtual game, while others left due to a fear of mutants. Of those who stayed, half knew Allen and were glad to participate, while the other half were tempted by the prize.
Yes, it's common knowledge that Allen is a mutant capable of altering reality. They assumed he could give them almost anything.
To fill the teams of players who lost members, new players began to appear from the sky.
Wednesday pulled out a notebook, adjusting her tactics based on the new number of players and conditions.
"Master!" Rebecca smiled as she leaped into Allen's neck from behind. "Are you sure?"
She knew Allen could interrupt all this whenever he wished, yet he didn't.
"I don't care anymore..." Allen shrugged. "In the end, it's just a game; they won't die like in Sword Art Online."
"True…" The girl smiled mischievously.
===
– I'm sure Allen's going to get sued!
– For that, they'd need to know where he lives and who he is. I found nothing about him, and I've worked in the FBI for ten years.
– Well, it's expected he hides his information; otherwise, he wouldn't show his face in streams.
–Stop talking about laws! It's darn SAO in live action!
===
The rules were straightforward:
Everyone has one life; there's no way to revive.
All have their stats increased to the level of a video game character to avoid disadvantage in that regard.
All players have absolute freedom to play; everything is interactive, alterable, and destructible, and maintains physics close to reality.
Teams were adjusted to four against four.
The world can "change" without warning, and with it, everything changes, so players must adapt. The weather can also change at any time.
===
The chat went crazy upon seeing the rules. Gwen and MJ received the information a moment earlier from Allen to explain everything to the viewers.
Rick – Oh, so the world can change. That means in the middle of a showdown, everything could shift from Warzone to Fortnite.
– Not just that, it could even be Minecraft...
– But wasn't this supposed to be a Battle Royale?
MJ – Who knows? If anything can happen, ANYTHING can happen.
– I get the weather rules, but I'm unclear about interaction.
Gwen – Video games have their limits. For example, many things are indestructible because they lack their own destruction animations or effects. Now everything is real, that's why classic indestructible walls don't work anymore.
...
Allen's squad consisted of Rebecca, Wednesday, Ghost, and himself—the soldier had left out of fear.
The game began brutally.
"Yeah!!"
Rebecca entered a supermarket where several people were shooting at each other.
The girl ran like a puma amidst a hail of bullets while three people shot at her. Of course, Rebecca isn't immune to bullets, and although she zigzagged, she was hit several times, breaking her three armor plates.
The armor functions as a shield around the body formed by three independent plates that you can collect from everywhere. When that shield breaks, you start taking damage.
Rebecca reached the three men just as her armor broke. She shoved her shotgun into one man's mouth and blew his head off in a rain of blood and flesh. Then, at an incredible speed, she snatched the submachine gun from the corpse and shot another before he even hit the ground.
However, this time, the last one wasn't foolish and stepped back before shooting Rebecca. She was shot in the arm and stomach, but she didn't even flinch.
"Hey, dude, that's rude!~" Rebecca jumped at him and kicked him against the wall. She buried her shotgun into the player's stomach; if there was a pain sensation, he'd be in agony.
"That's cheating!!" he complained.
Technically, he was right; Rebecca was using physical attacks in a shooting game.
Rebecca got annoyed hearing this and shot him with her shotgun as blood splattered everywhere. "Who are you calling a cheater?! Piece of ****! You're a *****! I'm going to ***** your mother! This is possible; if you don't do it, you're a *****!"
"Rebecca…" Allen called Rebecca in a grave voice. The girl stopped insulting, turned around, and ran before jumping onto Allen's face with her legs around his neck.
"Did you call, Honey?" Rebecca grabbed Allen's cheeks from that indecent position with an innocent look but clothes covered in bloodstains.
"... "
This scene might be brutal, but it was censored in the stream, and besides, the player didn't feel any pain even though Rebecca killed him mercilessly.
===
– Don't tell me that's the girl everyone adores. She looks like a mix between Harley Quinn and a wild puma D:
– Yeah, she's so adorable ;3
– Simp -_-
– Hmph! You simply don't know her; she's this crazy, but she's also affectionate in her own way! She was willing to sacrifice herself for a man who never even looked at her!
– Isn't she just a stupid woman?
– Shut up!!
===
In another part of the same supermarket, Wednesday walked through the aisles, carefree. She picked up a peach in syrup can from a shelf and opened it.
"Everything's truly real..." the girl murmured, seeing she could interact with everything as in reality.
Not far from her, a player aimed at her head but hesitated to shoot. His companion quietly scolded him.
"What the hell are you doing, Ben? Shoot her!"
The player seemed to have eaten a bitter bug as he shook his head. "But she's Wednesday Addams…"
"I don't care if she's Bambi's mother!" The player was upset and decided not to invite his friend to play again; they were competing for the chance of a wish!
"She's a waifu…" the other player still hadn't shot. He was a cultured man and a blatant simp; he wouldn't shoot a waifu, even if it meant being hit by his friend when they saw each other the next day. The other player was furious, but before he could scold him more, Wednesday's calm voice was heard.
"Unlike a fighter... a hunter tends to follow certain rules..." The girl left the can on the shelf and began to walk slowly in the opposite direction of the players.
"Move!" the Simp's companion pushed him aside and aimed at Wednesday, but she completely ignored him. This confused the man, but it didn't stop him from shooting his rifle on Wednesday.
The bullets grazed Wednesday from behind, but none hit her. "Firing a real weapon is complicated; the weight of the gun, stability, recoil, everything influences hitting a shot." She smiled slightly and pressed a button she held in her hand.
An explosion enveloped the players; thanks to their armor, they both survived but were injured on the ground. They watched Wednesday calmly walking toward them.
Both were scared, not even realizing they had fallen into a trap. There was no pain, but it didn't prevent the unpleasant feeling of having multiple deep wounds, broken bones, and burns.
Wednesday's black eyes locked onto both. She pulled an axe from a card she had. "As a hunter, I only reveal myself to my prey... once I've caught them…"
Both realized that Wednesday appearing in front of them meant they had already lost. Both men screamed as they were killed.
===
– That was terrifying...
– Jena Ortega complained that Wednesday was less cruel and sadistic than the original; in many ways, she seems just like a troubled teenage girl, but this Wednesday is more... like a potential serial killer...
The viewers watched in silence; both Wednesday and Rebecca might seem cute behind the screen, but that doesn't change the fact that they're dangerous in their own way, and no one would want to anger them.
===
Allen remained silent with Ghost, observing Wednesday and Rebecca from the system's cameras. Allen decided not to say anything; Wednesday and Rebecca left the building after killing more people.
...
Warzone is a frantic game, now without the limitations of a video game, it has become chaos. Many players died without being able to kill anyone; that's normal. The invitation was extended to all players online, not just those from Warzone.
Ten minutes passed, and people kept dying.
Of course, Allen and his companions wouldn't lag.
Rebecca entered through a window after Allen threw a flash grenade inside a building. She aimed but was surprised when two players jumped out of the window. She chased them but fell onto a mine that broke her armor.
The door opened, and Rebecca found three people aiming at her face. She smiled, "I like it! I was getting tired of playing with noobs!"
They weren't soldiers or had any military experience, but this wasn't reality, it was a video game. Like any video game, there's a ranking system. Two of the three points at Rebecca's head were in the crimson range, almost the highest, and the other was among the top two hundred best players in the world.
Wednesday threw a stun grenade at Rebecca's feet, preventing them from killing her. Allen ran and grabbed her by the waist to pull her away.
One of them aimed and shot, even with the hindrance of the stun. Allen took two shots before entering a house through a window.
Ghost sent an airstrike from another house to the high-ranking team, preventing them from coming out for a few seconds.
Allen regained his armor while Rebecca laughed at the situation. Allen noticed the girl didn't put on her armor plates, so he did it for her. She provocatively opened her jacket.
Allen ignored her; at that moment, a window broke on the second floor. Needless to say, it was one of the high-ranking players. Allen threw a smoke grenade up the stairs, then jumped outside and ran around the house; Rebecca followed. Allen turned and pushed Rebecca upward with his hands.
"Hey, bro!" Rebecca shouted and shot at the player. He didn't try to fight but instead jumped out of the window. As he fell, he intended to run into the house while regaining his armor... however, upon landing, he saw a girl in black clothing not far away.
He realized he had made a mistake and as he landed, he stepped on a Wednesday's mine and it exploded. Allen emerged and saw two houses in the distance, with the three companions of the dead player.
They didn't try to fight, just silently watched Allen's group before using drones to fly in another direction.
Allen knew it was the best decision for both sides. It took teamwork among the four to kill one of them, and it would be the same if it were reversed. There's only one life for each person, and thousands of players remain; it's not worth it for strong teams to kill each other.
However, Allen also smiled at his naive idea. While at this moment, the players without experience in shooter games suffer, it won't be the same when the world changes.
[Attention, in ten seconds, everyone will be moved to a new destination... 2103 players remaining]
...
Everyone's reactions were different. Some sped up their combat to kill the maximum number of players possible, others hid, and some gathered resources. Allen doesn't ask the system for information to avoid an unfair advantage over others, but he trusts his instinct and believes that none of what they have now will matter later.
The world altered, and two thousand players appeared in another virtual world.This time it was more colorful, with a meteorite in the sky. Allen felt an odd sense of déjà vu.
Rebecca grabbed onto his neck from behind. "Hey, what's happening?! What happened to the guns I had a while ago??!"
As expected, all previously obtained weapons no longer existed.
With no time to think, an anthropomorphic banana fell from the sky with a shotgun and shot at both of them. Allen leaped towards the banana and punched it in the face, causing it to explode; the player didn't have time to react.
Allen looked uncomfortable at Rebecca, Wednesday, and Ghost. "It was an involuntary reaction... well, I know where we are; this is Fortnite..." Strangely, Allen didn't seem excited.
"What's wrong? Don't you like Fortnite?" Rebecca grabbed the banana's shotgun and a few other items it carried. Getting those in less than a minute of starting the game showed that the banana knew how to play, unfortunately, no one expected an attack like that in this game.
Allen sighed. "It's not that; soon you'll understand that the gap between players who know how to build and those who don't is too frustrating..."
Of course, the difference doesn't matter so much, if you're not good at Fortnite just have to wait long enough, survive, and the world will change to another.