Training Days Ahead

The clan Sanctum of Nine begins to map out their training moving forward to prepare for the raid with Shadie Hostile-808. In anticipation that they will be chosen for the Betrayal feature now implemented in the raid, the clan researches every possible way to gain the advantage in during the Betrayal feature.

For a raid to take place in the game Freedom a raid general sends out invitations to the players it wants to participate. The raid general, during the invitation stage of organizing the raid can determine to turn on the Betrayal function. If the Betrayal function is turned on, the following functions take place in the raid.

1) The chosen players marked for Betrayal can be killed by the rest of the raid team members, and those marked for Betrayal can also kill members of the raid team.

2) Once players marked for Betrayal take damage from other raid team members, then players can kill each other until all members marked for Betrayal are killed.

3) Players of the raid team marked for Betrayal will be notified at the loadout screen before entering the raid. Players marked for Betrayal can set loadout selection limiting the use of weapon selection of the entire raid team.

4) Wagers are conditions made by both sides of the raid team, the raid team itself wagers, and the players marked for Betrayal also wagers conditions to be fulfilled and resolved as rewards.

5) The raid difficulty level is determined by the number of players initially entering the raid and is maintained throughout the raid until the raid boss is defeated and cleared.

6) Should the Betrayal function remain unresolved by the time players defeat the raid boss, the Betrayal function needs to be resolved before the raid can be considered cleared.

7) Wagers made for Betrayal are fulfilled and rewarded to the winners for Betrayal.

The clan members of Sanctum of Nine scrutinize the wording of the language for Betrayal and watch videos by other raid teams utilizing the function. Many raids have failed to be completed due to the timing in which the Betrayal function is initiated. Once a player that is marked for Betrayal is attacked by another player, that player has a confirmation screen that comes one to confirm the Betrayal function will engage.

Often times a player accidentally shoots the player marked for Betrayal and hits confirm in panic, then the Betrayal function take place. Many times, the timing and use of it are done at the wrong stage of the raid resulting in players getting killed mid-level when the computer is spawning characters or ‘adds’. The recent success for the raids to be completed with the Betrayal function being used, has been after defeating the raid boss, which allows for a free for all PVP killing at the end of the raid. Most of the time the raid team kills all the players marked for Betrayal this way.

Players marked for Betrayal become more strategic in the loadout selection before the raid is initiated. Players marked for Betrayal that selected weapons in their favor often survived the Betrayal, but the raid level is not cleared. Players marked for Betrayal in turn make higher wagers for rare weapons and skills to make up for not clearing the raid.

With all the research done, notes are compiled and shared at the clan base, Haven. Today, Platinum and Silent Flash call a clan meeting to discuss some possible approaches to prepare for the raid Leviathan. Focus has been researching the Betrayal function in the raid, not completing the raid or clearing the raid boss.

The raid boss is an actual Leviathan that springs up and has its own adds assist to kill off the players in game. The Leviathan has a large health bar and usually takes well-coordinated attacks to trigger additional damage to it. The problem is that a raid team of fifty players calls for more chaos than organized attacks.

Players end to play how they want to play a game, including levels like a raid. Usually, a clan can operate with each other because of communication and planning. Raids that are bigger require communication and planning to have good coordination.

The question then becomes what the loadout should be for the players. Favor it one way of the other and the time invested in the raid level becomes wasted.

The clan discussed its findings and agreed that the several questions need to be addressed before a plan can be formulated.

Platinum steps forward, “Where should we start? So far, we have concluded that if we are selected for the Betrayal the weapon loadout is our best chance to gain the advantage.”

“I think we have to ask ourselves first, going into it do we want to clear the raid itself. Defeating the raid boss Leviathan will be difficult.” Proposes Demo.

“Yea if the other players follow the strategies online, they may wait till after we defeat the Leviathan to initiate Betrayal. But how will we know what weapons will be useful for the raid and to our advantage?” asks Carbon.

The clan begins to go back and forth on the question until Silent Flash steps in, “I say we clear the raid. There’s no point in taking the risk if we don’t clear the raid and get the loot from clearing the raid boss.”

“Then how do we know what weapons would be best suited for defeating Leviathan? If we leave the loadout selection open, then it plays into the raid teams favor and we’ll be in an all out shoot-out.” Tomoe proposes the question but also sits back trying to wrap her head around the choices they need to make.

“I’d be okay with a shootout.” Chuckles Trigger.

Crimzon raises his hand, “What about swords and small arms?”

The room goes silent at his proposal. The players that have successfully utilize their sword in game on a regular basis have been, Chaotic, Platinum, Silent Flash and Tomoe. The rest of the clan has used it on occasion but are not proficient as the other four members.

“That’s like feeding us to the raid team Crimzon, why swords? We’re not sure if swords will be effective on the Leviathan? I feel like we would need more fire power.” Eagle-Eye scrolls to see if she can find any footage of players using swords.

“I have not come across any raid team utilizing swords for the raid. Do you really think this could be to our advantage?” Eagle-Eye inquires seeing the potential.

“Yes actually. We have four of the best sword users in the game. It just leaves the rest of us to possibly get better at it and trying to unlock more unique skills. Maybe we could also build new equipment to boost our potential with the swords.”

Silent Flash steps forward, “But that would take more time, and we wouldn’t know when we would be able to quickly craft new equipment. Crafting swords would require some of the beginning level resources and were in the advance stages of the game. It would mean we’d have to start a new player under our account.”

Platinum catches on to the idea, “I see. This plan was a two-part plan to begin with.”

Crimzon nods, “Yes. Swords don’t drop in loot at this stage of the game and if they do the stats are not that great to begin with. Reforging them by crafting is a way to start but most of us discarded our swords for material.”

Platinum continues, “By starting at the beginning we can farm swords and materials to craft them, at the same time developing skills to utilize it?”

“Correct.” Crimzon nods and puts his head down, knowing it’s a hefty request to ask of all of them.

Eagle-Eye raises her hand, “Okay, I’m in.”

Trigger shocked by Eagle-Eye turns with her jaw to the ground, “You’re serious?! You, a sniper, serious?!”

Eagle-Eye side eyes her partner, “Like I said no one has used swords in the raid, and Crimzon brings up a good point. There are few players that use swords and can be good with it in game. From what Crimzon said about Shadie Hostile-808, they love their guns and run the meta weapons. So why not.”

Demo looks at Carbon as they both raise their hands, “Okay we’re in.”

“Can I request the throwing kunai if we get you the material?” asks Carbon.

Crimzon points at Carbon with enthusiasm, “If you purchase the schematics for it at thing beginning stages, consider it done.”

Carbon claps his hands together, “Nice! I get to try those things out again.”

Trigger the last member, primarily a heavy gunner in the clan whimpers in agony. “WHY?!!” she bangs her head down on the table. “It won’t be fun using swords, I can’t. I just want to shoot everything up.”

Chaotic leans into Trigger and whispers into her ears.

Trigger, wide-eyed and with renewed vigor, Trigger leans to Chaotic, “You seriously mean it Chaotic?! Like, you really, really mean it?!”

Chaotic nods her head in agreement to Trigger.

After Chaotic nods, Triggers slams her hand on the table, “Okay, leaders, I’m in!”

Every member of the clan is dumbfounded, left confused as to what agreement Chaotic made with Trigger to convince her of their plan to use swords.

Crimzon sees a message notification from Chaotic. He opens it to see a list of things agreed upon. Crimzon filled with anxiety looks at Chaotic with a disgusted look on his face.

“Really Chaotic?”

Chaotic just nods and waves at Crimzon.

Curious, Silent Flash and Platinum look over Crimzon’s shoulder. Immediately they are petrified at the list of the request. But the diagram of the first item, has their soul leaving their bodies.

Not knowing what to say, Silent Flash pats Crimzon on the back, “You got this Crimzon! I don’t know how, but you got this.”

“I’m going to need a bigger workspace to craft this one.” Crimzon sighs.

Platinum laughs, “I hope she doesn’t think that it will be easy to use a sword that big. You may want to make a backup just in case Crimzon.”

“I know. I know.”

Once all in agreement the clan discusses a list of the other weapons to consider and has everyone notate which would be best utilized for them. They begin to finalize the weapons list and compose a materials list to possible refine and upgrade them.

The clan then draws out a timeline of when members will be logged on with their new accounts to tackle leveling up their second character. Crimzon will be the only member not building a second character due to his crafting and blacksmithing skills in game. Only two other players in the clan have skills to assist Crimzon, and they are Demo and Tomoe. Demo and Tomoe rotate in leveling up their skills for crafting and blacksmithing as they build up their second characters.

Silent Flash walks into the workshop and sits on the table opposite of Crimzon. Crimzon is in the middle of modifying one of Platinum’s swords. He pulls up the stats on the sword that she named Tomorrow’s Edge.

Silent Flash looks at the swords name, “How did she come up with the name for the sword?”

Crimzon looks up and has an embarrassed look on his face.

“Ha! Did you name it for her?”

“No.”

“Then why do you look embarrassed?”

“I’m not embarrassed ‘Flash.” He looks up to see her glaring at him with her arms crossed. “It…Okay maybe for me it is.”

“Ha! I knew it! Something happened! Did you go on a date in game?! No, can’t be that simple, she named her sword after it.” Silent Flash snaps her fingers, “I got it you kissed in game!”

“No, ‘Flash we didn’t”

“Liar! Denial is proof that its true!” The thought of the possible scenario plays out inside Silent Flash’s mind and instantly makes her blush.

“Silent Flash, no. That did not happen.”

“Then what did?”

Crimzon inhales a deep breath and exhales. He looks as Silent Flash anticipates him sharing a romantic detail. He shakes his head and laughs.

“Alright. I’ll tell you.”

Elated, Silent Flash turns her chair and places her elbows on the table as her hands prompt her cheeks up, “I’m all ears.”

“You all know that gaming has been my escape for a long time. On day Platinum was in here online, her character was logged in. Seemed like she was AFK (Away From Keyboard). But her mic was one and I could hear faintly her mother and her arguing.”

“Oh. Is Platinum okay?”

“She is now. That day she came back and so happened saw me logged in as my character was right in front of hers. She was embarrassed as she saw her mic unmuted. I told her it’s okay. It took a while for her to calm down but she did after a few minutes.”

Crimzon pauses.

“Crimzon, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I am. Anyway, she felt really down and wasn’t sure if she was going to continue to pursue her dreams. I told her about what I went through. Giving up on your dreams, no one should ever need to do that. It leaves a void; it takes away your hope because you don’t have a vision or a goal to try and build. We lose ourselves more than we would like growing up. Some more than others.”

“Is it hard being an adult?”

“Yes and no. Responsibility is always a good thing. It teaches you about yourself, it makes you disciplined. When you have to pay bills, you have to earn income. When you want to buy something, you have to save. Being an adult makes you accountable for your actions. But when you don’t have dreams, you lose hope. Without hope you can fall into despair, and sometimes you find yourself in a dark place.”

“You’re okay right? Like you’re not down or anything?”

“I’m okay. I just wanted to remind Platinum to keep being yourself and keep dreaming. Keep singing! Keep living. Keep sharing those moments with the one’s that you care about. Spend time with those you care about and create great memories. When you have that, it’s harder to give up because you have a dream, and you have people supporting you.”

“It sounds like a difficult talk, rather than a date. I’m sorry Crimzon.” Silent Flash feels bad for pressing him earlier.

“Hey, don’t feel bad. You have nothing to apologize for. Life happens, we’re all fighting something. If there’s anything I can help with let me know.”

“Thank you. I will. Wait, so why did she name her sword that? Tomorrow’s Edge?”

“Some of us are always at the edge. Tomorrow is a sign we made it past that.”

Silent Flash thinks about the weight of the name, Tomorrow’s Edge. To make is past the day, away from the edge. Her eyes fight back her emotions trying to come through, but a tear escapes and runs down her face.

Crimzon leans in and comforts her, “It’s okay ‘Flash. When you’re ready I’ll be here to listen.”

“Thank you. Senpai.”