Dragon Among Lions

It’s quite intriguing to think that it only has been 2 months since that fateful day, since I still remember the atmosphere before it all happened. How my sister woke me up in the morning, and how us and the rest of the group were mesmerized by how the entirety of Yokohama felt completely different that day especially on a day of the Golden Week. I remember how as a first timer who was never interested in the game, I was blown away by everything. I remember how we all spent our limited Rels on everything and nothing, and I remember how an announcement and a public execution completely changed everything. How the CyberGrounds incident, brought out the worst in people we once thought we knew.

Building 76, Riviera District, 10pm…I kept muttering that under my thoughts and under my breath as I didn’t want to forget. From the long train ride to when I spent every single Rel I had on items for tonight, I was counting the seconds till 10pm. For all they did to us, for all the lives they took and made more miserable than it needed to be, I was going to make sure they paid in full and then some the very moment I get my hands on them.

For a month and a half after the CyberGrounds Incident, or ‘the CGI’ based on what most players call it, I might’ve not seen anything but artificial and coloured lights, but I knew everything that happened around me from all I heard during that time. How most players were petrified to the thought of having to take human lives to have any chance of escaping, and the ones with a lot to lose resorted to the lowest of means to earn Rels. At first, many clans accepted all and every world quest from the Guild and divided the spoils between everyone, but then, it was taken over by human greed. These Guardian Clans started to be called the Shephard Clans, as they only shared the spoils between the people who worked for them and kept them on a leash to stop them from ascending ranks. The first and the most powerful of these Shephard Clans is “The New World Order”, a clan that Isaac made just for a fun memento of the group being here on Day 1, but he turned it into his own kingdom after the CGI. If anyone is to ascend to silver rank and hope to get access to the second layer of Ark Sanctuary, they will have to go through Isaac and his lackeys. But right now, getting to Silver is the least of my worries.

After an excruciatingly long train ride, I was able to break into the roof of building across the street from where they are supposed to meet. It was 5pm at the time and the building was only lightly guarded, and I started my preparation by checking everything I brought with me. Binoculars and Drone for scouting out the building and a lot of holo-notes and a pen to write down and memorize everything I needed to, and to begin, I start up the drone. Surroundings… minimal crowds, won’t change drastically due to the higher chance of player killers in the area, 300m long bridge next to the building with a river flowing under, possible sewer entrance for a route of escape. Building… One guard up front, high possibility of heavy security indoors, approximately 20 floors hence possibility of multiple elevators shafts a high possibility, entrance also serves as the exit as no alternate exits could be observed. After observing and studying all I could, I prepped my weapons and gear for one last time.

The clock finally struck 10 and I decided to make my move, I pulled up my hood and having both my hands in pockets, I slowly walked up to the guard up front without drawing any attention.

“Excuse me Miss, private event going on, I can’t allow you to proceed,” said the guard

“Oh, sorry but I am expected by your bosses, Makoto and Isaac, they said they were meeting on the 20th floor and for me to be there”

“As a matter of fact, they are… won’t put it past the boss to invite one of the ladies into the meet”

I bluffed about knowing which floor they were meeting as I took a wild guess that the higher ups of this sick operation would only accept to be at the highest throne, they could find…Guess I was right.

“If you don’t mind, I need to check in with the boss, you don’t mind that would you?”

“Not at all, go ahead. And if it isn’t too much of a hassle, you might want to check in with Makoto, he is expecting me the most” I answered

“Ooh, just by looking I can see what you mean, alright”

The guard handed what looked like a phone from his inventory and placed his finger on his earpiece.

“Hey boss, the other one you have been expecting is here”

He paused for a moment while Makoto was talking to him, but I couldn’t hear his response over the earpiece. He took his hand off the earpiece to talk to

“Hey, sorry but I missed what your name was”

“Tell him that Minami Mano is here to see him” I replied

He placed his hand on his earpiece again

“Hey boss, it’s a Minami Mano right here in front of me”

By how the guard’s reaction changed, and he was looking at me with a increasingly alert look, I knew that Makoto had caught on. The guard dropped his hand and went for his gun, but I already used my element of surprise before he could properly react. I disarmed the gun by slicing his wrist and slid right behind and took his throat out with it, I covered his mouth up so no one passing by will hear his choking. I caught the guard and laid him down behind the low wall of a planting plot to avoid the passers-by seeing the dead body or the blood trail. I drew out my SMG and attached a silencer on it. I knew that it won’t make my gun silent like what movies want me to believe, but it was in the hopes of hiding the muzzle flash from the gun alerting the pedestrians outside when I’m fighting at the entrance.

I hid my gun behind my back and entered the building. Makoto hadn’t relayed the situation to all his guards yet and I managed to catch the guards in the lobby off guard. The two guards in the lobby met their end before they even knew what was going on as I managed to put two bullets in them before they could react. One dead in the ground after the first landed in head and the other who was choking for air after taking the second in the throat, I did him a favour and put one more bullet in his head to end his suffering. I could hear Makoto’s faint distress on the earpiece of the fallen guards, and I knew that my element of surprise was used up.

Another aspect I noticed was that I was able to use my weapons inside the building. Based on how CG was setup, your weapons would disappear once you enter a clan-owned building unless you are in said clan or in a party with one of their members. Considering Isaac and Makoto was setting up a meeting in an unofficial location meant that they were trying to stay away from the eyes of death that were staring down on them. Too bad for them that I am more than the eyes today.

I had two options of proceeding: the elevator, or the stairs. Both were death sentences but that is the least of my worries right now. Since I was loaded up with equipment, I chose the more attack possibilities of the elevator shaft. I called the elevator and took cover just in case someone rides it down for a surprise attack. While it was coming down, I took the time to tripwire the door from the stairs to avoid any unnecessary surprises. The elevator was empty which was perfect to setup my distraction. I jammed the elevator door using a crowbar which gave me the time I needed to set it up.

The setup took me a couple of minutes, I forced open the other elevator shaft which I was planning to rappel up to and primed my trap by sending the rigged elevator to the 20th floor. I followed the slow-moving elevator using my rappel gear and waited till the trap sprung. The elevator stopped at floor 20 and the door opening was signalled by the ding sound.

“GET DOWN!” screamed one of the guards as they spotted the sentry turret starting to shoot their way

I used a laser cutter to open a hole in the other door and witnessed all the cover the guards had setup blow up in their face, the trap worked, and it caught all of them off guard. Usually sentry turrets are strong enough that it is classified as a weapon option during character creation, but for a large amount of Rels, one could buy a sentry for a one time use. It might have cost all the remaining Rels I had, but considering it significantly cut down the work I had to do in clearing Isaac’s lackeys made it worth every Rel.

Witnessing the guards trying desperately to take out my sentry, I converted my gun into it’s repeater form and started taking precise shots at the guards taking cover from the sentry. I knew that their movements were restricted as the moment they peek out to take a shot at me, there is going to be a hail of high calibre bullets flying their way…At least that was what I thought.

Eventhough it was a death sentence, a guard swung wide and managed to spray a fair amount of bullets my way. I might’ve been hidden from the shaft ledge, but I took two shots of damage, one narrowly missed my head and took a big chunk of my left ear with it, and the other I took to the fingers I was holding on to the ledge with. If I hadn’t latched onto the elevator cable with my rappel gear, I would’ve fallen to my death, but I was suspended on the cable with me trying to regain my hearing, as the first shot sent a impairing screech into my ears, it was so much that I didn’t even know if I was screaming and giving away the enemy information that I was hurt. I covered up my ear using my shot-up hand and I used my other to down a quick HP potion. My missing fingertips started to heal up and the hearing impairment settled, and I regained my positioning on my rappel and tried to get a picture of what was going on above me without poking my head and risk getting shot again.

There was silence at first and then I heard many footsteps, meaning that they were able to either take out my sentry or that it had run out of ammo while I was recovering. I threw an impact smoke onto the opening and witnessed a hail of bullets flying through, but I had to do another gamble, most of the shots were flying low as they knew that I was hanging onto the ledge, the smoke might’ve cut their line of sight to me but they knew that low is the most logical place I would be at. I brought my feet to as close to my body as I could, trying to give them less area for them to shoot me at, and I hit the ascender on the rappel. It quickly lifted me up through the gunfire and I managed to take only a shot to the foot, luckily the potion from earlier was still in effect to close that up. I inverted myself and tossed all the smokes I had into the hallway, putting on a silencer and thermal sight on my repeater, I looked through to see the guards being confused about where I was

“Where is she? I can’t see anything through this smoke”

“Did she leave the elevator shaft?”

“Does anyone have thermal sights?”

These are the questions I heard the guards asking as they were in a state of confusion right now. From my inverted position, I started to take shots at the unsuspecting guards. Shot after shot, the impact sound my shots taking out guards one by one echoes through the room.

“She’s got thermal, look for the muzzle flash”

However that aint going to work, as that is why I put on the suppressor. The guards were running around like headless chickens as they didn’t know if their cover was safe since the sound of my gun was low and my muzzle flash non-existent, I was able to clear most of them this way and I jumped into the hallway moments before all the smoke went away. I got behind the wall and reconfigured my gun, removing the thermal, the silencer and reconverting it back to its original form, three more guards were remaining, and I quickly finished off one who misread my actions and pushed in right in the open. I took a moment to take a breath and dropped my empty gun mag to reload, but doing a rookie mistake, a surviving guard pounce on me while I was reloading. He pinned me down and screamed to his friend.

“I got her, OVER HERE”

I tried not to panic as I knew that I had around 10 seconds max to get free or I’m dead. While he tried to keep me restrained and dazed by continuously punching me in the face, I reached around and found the empty gun magazine I just dropped. I jammed it in his eye and he started to flinch in pain, freeing my upper body. The other guard came around the corner at the same time and I out of desperation fired my mag-less gun at him, and for my luck, there was still one bullet in the chamber and it managed to find his head. I still was free and I loaded a fresh mag into the gun and hit the bolt release as fast as I could. I ended up emptying the whole mag into the face of the guy on flinching on top of me as my trauma reared its ugly head again.

The fight was finally over, and I got up and leaned against the wall, trying to hold back my tears of fear and exhaustion. After I took a moment to regain my composure, I walked through the hallway which was covered in blood, bodies and guts, reloading my gun on the way. I walked to the end of the hall and that is when I heard someone breathing heavily. I ready my gun once again and turn the corner to see a familiar face. It was the man who I interrogated yesterday; he was lying in a pool of blood with bullet wounds everywhere, looking at me with hopeless eyes. He is the one who jumped into the line of the turret fire and managed to injure me. I pointed my gun at him

“I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go this time”

“I know, and I should’ve taken your advice” he said while trying desperately to hold his quick breaths behind to talk

He closed his eyes and tried to look relieved, but the tears down running down his eyes revealed is true feelings. His whole chapter closed after I pulled the trigger.

I have killed many people till now, all who were monsters in human’s clothing. But after this kill, I never knew that my gun could sound this loud, that my hand could feel this weak and never did the deed stayed in my mind as long as this did. But after all this, the only thing that was keeping me from my goal was a large wooden door.

I checked my gear one more time and readied myself for the final push. Breach charge went on the door, and it demolished open as soon as I triggered it, and there he was

Our gazes met for a moment, and I could feel my rage surfacing, knowing that that this could lead to my demise before they get what is coming to them, I quickly take cover, crouching behind the nearby bench. Only after I got myself to safety, I realized that this room is fashioned like a church, and to think that someone like Makoto can be in the same room is a testament to how low this world truly is.

Makoto started firing his LMG at my general direction. His gun skills were reflected on how he was shooting. Spraying massive clips of ammo around, not even trying to duck behind cover and not a single burst fired.

“Never thought you couldn’t have enough of me Minami, but I am always happy to bring you into my life,” said Makoto

Him just saying that broke something in me, as eventhough I was waiting till he finished his ammo, tears just started to fill my eyes eventhough I didn’t want it to. I slowly brushed my eyes with my sleeve to make sure the blood on my hands don’t get in my eyes and I refocused. Finally, his gun had to reload, this was my chance.

“Forgetting someone?” said a very familiar voice from behind me

From trying to contain my emotions and my anger, I forgot that I was hunting two people and not one, and that was a fatal mistake.

I turned around to strike Isaac with my gun, but he evades my strike, puts his shotgun to my calf and pulls the trigger. I get overwhelmed with the instant spike of pain, but I try to get a second wind as I drew and attempted to slash him with my secondary. But he again managed to disarm me and snap my arm in half. I fell to the ground, and I tried to drag myself to a handhold and pull myself back up but Isaac stops me by stomping on my femur, breaking it in half. My screams confirmed it to Makoto that I had been detained and he moved in for the kill.

I could hear his footsteps getting ever closer at a steady pace, and I was certain it was over. I had no way to get away or no ways of fighting back and both my targets were right next to me at peak form. As soon as he finished closing the gap, he crouched down to his knee and pulled off my hood, revealing myself to him.

“You are not Minami” Makoto said with a confused look

He scoffs in disbelief

“Never thought the person who would take apart an army was the doting sister”

I lifted my face up to him with his hand and I showed my gratitude with a mouthful of spit in his face

“It’s been a while since we last saw each other Yulia, and this is how you greet me?”

Makoto lifted his hand to strike me but just before it connected, he met an unexpected surprise of Isaac striking him in the face hard enough that he got thrown back onto his feet.

“I told you to take care of it, and this is what happens” said Isaac to Makoto furiously.

“Isaac look, I-”

“What did I tell you to call me?” interrupts Isaac

“Boss, I was handling it, but they were ghosts, I had patrols looking for them all over but-”

“But nothing, I gave you everything you needed Makoto, and she comes in here taking out forty of my pawns in the last two days”.

Pawns? At this point I’m not even surprised that Isaac sees people that way

“You knew what Yulia is capable of compared to us and you still weren’t ready enough. Find Minami or the next thing that will be found are your entrails in the river”.

“Hold that thought boss, something doesn’t add up”

Makoto approaches me again

“I know you Yulia, you would never leave your sister behind for a suicide mission like this. Does that mean that she is-”

“FUCK YOU, YOU BACKSTABBING PIECE OF SHIT, I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER FOR WHAT YOU DID” I screamed at him as it was the only thing I could do laying helplessly on the ground.

I knew Makoto had figured it out, which further encouraged me to inflict all the pain and dread he caused us if I was to ever get a chance. And right now, all I could do is wait for it.

Makoto readied his gun to finish me off, but Isaac placed his hand on the barrel, signalling his to hold his fire

“Yulia Mano, I really was looking forward to seeing you again, and it only broke my heart to learn that you escaped. So, considering you are in a bit of a predicament right now, I’ll offer you a deal-”

“You can stick that deal up where the sun doesn’t shine… I know how you work Isaac; I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and I’ve seen how it destroyed people. I am never going to let you do that to anyone ever again”

“I really hate it when people know me too well, suit yourself” Isaac said moments before he nodded his head to Makoto signalling him to finish me

“Certainly, living up to your reputation aren’t you” said a familiar sounding voice from the corridor

I turned my heavy head towards to door to see who it was, he looked familiar, but I was still puzzled over why both Isaac and Makoto were frozen in place.

“Isaac Taylor, the leader of the New World Order Shephard Clan, I was surprised when I found out that you were a former SuperNova but then I remembered that you were the kid who didn’t show up for the tryouts for our team back then”

“To what do I owe the pleasure of the Immortal Tyrant paying me a visit” Isaac said after regaining his composure

The realization just froze me in the same shock that those two did as well. No one could ever forget the name of the man who publicly executed that family in the view of millions. I kept silent to witness what was unfolding beside me and hoping that would get me the opening I need.

“The Immortal Tyrant…I kind of like that name, oozes an aura of power and fear in it. But let’s get all the pleasantries out of the way since you clearly know who I am. Oh and please, call me Tadashi, kind of ticks me off when people call me otherwise.”

“What do you want?”

At the same moment, he grabs Makoto’s dagger that was trying to go for a surprise attack

“Oh please, do you seriously think I didn’t see you signalling your lackey to attack?”

The Tyrant takes out his much bigger knife and sends it through Makoto’s palm. He takes it out and puts Makoto in a crouching choke hold.

“You see this, it is a real knife compared to your puny one. It has seen all sorts of people, their insides, their outsides and it always has this nice red coating on it once it is done.” He said while dragging is knife on the seam of Makoto’s face

“You proved your point, now tell me what you want” Makoto said while pointing his crossbow at him

“Right, I’m sorry, where are my manners?” said the man called ‘Tadashi’ while letting the bleeding Makoto go and getting up

“I have a proposition for you. As you might recall, one of my members of the Immortal 10 met an untimely demise 2 months ago” he continued

“You mean how you shot him dead?” reminds Isaac

“Out of necessity of course, he would’ve derailed my whole plan if not. Anyways, a spot opened up and I want you to fill that gap”

“Why me?” inquired Isaac

“Well, I need the best of the best with me, and from what I see, you are only other SuperNova player in here, and to think you reached it without ever playing pro, you have my respect on that front”

“And what if I refuse?” Isaac inquired again

“Then nothing, you are free to carry on with your work here. But let me ask you something, do you prefer being a lion amongst sheep. Sheep like-”

He approached me, crouched down and extended his arm towards my head. I started to struggle as I didn’t what he was going to do

“Now hold still, this won’t hurt” he assured.

He placed his hand over my head and his hand started to glow. And moments after a prompt appeared in front of him.

“Yulia Mano, Weapons; MP7 Repeater conversion module, Karambit. Ooh, you remind me of a friend of mine although his choices were dumber. Day of first login: 3rd May 2038? You haven’t even played a match yet.”

He gets back up and faces Isaac, “These are the kinds of sheep you are being a lion to?”

“Like I said, you have every right to refuse, and if you do, I’ll leave like I didn’t even come here in the first place. But the choice is yours, would you rather be a lion amongst sheep? Or a dragon amongst lions” he continued

“You make a fair argument, you got yourself a deal,” said Isaac

“But-”

“Makoto…you are in charge of the operation here from now on” said Isaac while bringing up his interface and promoting that backstabber.

“Fantastic, now of course the gates to all cities outside Bronze rank is closed off so we’ll have to teleport to Morpheus, accept the clan invite and I’ll take care of the rest.”

After he accepted, both Isaac and the Tyrant started to glow in a blinding green light. And the next moment, they were gone.

With the moment passed, Makoto turned towards me.

“Now that I am holding the reigns, what am I supposed to do with you Yulia” Makoto said while lifting my chin up

“Here’s a thought, how about accompany me to hell” I replied while pressing the button on the detonator I took out of my inventory during the exchange.

The whole floor started shake after a loud explosion outside, it was violent enough that Makoto couldn’t gain proper footing on the ground.

“What did you just do?” he inquired furiously

“I rigged all the whole building to blow on my way up, if I go down, I am taking you down with me” I said confidently to Makoto while still being grounded.

“YOU BITCH!” he screams furious while trying to point his gun at me

But just when he tries to take the killing shot, the floor gives way and we both fall through. The impact onto the floor below doesn’t bode well with my broken leg and I feel the spike of pain rushing through my leg all through my body. From what I am feeling right now, I was sure that I would’ve passed out if it wasn’t for the pain dampening. I see Makoto in the distance trying to line up a shot but the building giving way and the debris cutting off our line of sight from each other wasn’t allowing him to do what he wanted. I dragged myself away and leaned against a wall, but for my misfortune, I have rested myself with the sight of one of the explosive charges I planted on my way up. I knew if I waited it out, the explosion and the shrapnel and debris flying my way will definitely kill me, so I looked around for anything to help block that. A part of large conference table had split and was lying right next to me, but the charge was going to go off soon. I gritted my teeth through the pain and dragged my lifeless lower half towards the table against the beep of the charge getting more and more faster with every second.

Feeling every loose rock, every bit of shattered glass tearing my skin apart and falling into the crevasse that is my almost severed leg, I somehow drag myself towards the table to take cover. I lean against the window behind the table waiting for the charge to blow. I take the few precious seconds I have left to come up with a plan to somehow survive this, since I knew even if Makoto dies in here, Isaac is still out there…but unfortunately, I come up blank. The charge blows and my cover isn’t enough to protect me, the blast sends my shrapnel ridden self out of the window that is at least 10 storeys high.

And in the middle of my fall, it felt like time had slowed down around me. ‘This is the end’, ‘There is nothing I can do’, ‘I was too weak’, ‘I failed’. These were the thoughts that were going through my mind while I was falling alongside shards of glass, wood and stone among other things. I was waiting for the impact to end my life but what I felt at the end was the cold.

I had fallen into the river; I couldn’t breathe, and I could feel water enter my lungs and I had no way of stopping it. I was blacking out with only the vision of something or someone reaching out to me. I guess this is what the moment before death looks like.

Minami…. I’m sorry