Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

After attempting to Control mutants for about another hour or so, Cyanide had gotten a good understanding of how the skill worked, and could maintain a connection for at least ten seconds now. Since his Soulforce was drained empty by this training session, he had no choice but to give it up for the day, and head back to the others who were probably done by now as well.

The Control status ailment was quite interesting indeed. When connected to a mutant, it was as if their body was an extension of Cyanide's, and he could see, hear, and feel everything the mutant could. He could also order it to perform certain tasks, but the more complex, the harder it was to pull off. At Cyanide's current stage, the best he could do was get a bunny to hop forward a few times, turn, and hop another few times. It was… quite useless, but progress was progress.

Sure enough, though, upon reaching back at Envy's Lair, Cyanide and Luna found the others already there, waiting for them.

"Oh, you're finally back," Kirika said upon spotting them, standing up and brushing the dust off her clothes. "What did you even go do anyway?"

"Is there even a need to ask?" Ragnar hollered from a short distance off, sitting by the pool and apparently busy with something in his hands. "It's two fuckin' lovebirds on their honeymoon, of course. Don't go invading on their privacy like that."

Everyone ignored his comment… well, mostly. Ivy, who was standing beside Cyanide, gave a snort and closed her eyes, folding her arms.

"… He's an idiot."

Cyanide blinked. "Actually, he's probably smarter than you."

"He's literally trying to cut fish with his greatsword."

"… Hey, I never said he shows it."

Ivy sighed and turned away, shaking her head.

"… What a moron."

"He's a supersoldier too, you know," Cyanide said quietly. "Also went rogue, just like you."

"Please don't categorize him with me," Ivy said coldly. "Quite frankly, it is humiliating."

"I see," Cyanide said. And that was all. Whether he actually cared or not, was a different matter altogether.

*****

With everyone present, it was time to return to Lumina at long last. The rainforest had pretty much been explored, the herbs collected, so there was no reason to linger here any longer. According to Dianna, the world of Endzone refreshed every week. That meant any natural resources taken from the week before—plants, trees, and other collectibles—would be able to be found in the wild again after the weekly reset, but items such as clothes found in an apartment in Lumina would never respawn. Only nature-related items would.

Of course, that wasn't the limit of it. Blood Barons and Lost Heralds also respawned every week, meaning they could be farmed for more materials that way. Since Cyanide got a ton of [Snake Fangs] from Ragnar the other day, he just needed to farm the Asmodeus Hydra boss one more time to get the required materials needed to get his «Hydra's Fang» to Enhancement Rank 5. He already had the «Anaconda's Fang» weapons ready, just needed to Ascend them with the [Hydra's Fang] items.

That wasn't going to be until a few days later, though. For now, Cyanide wanted to focus on the task at hand—they had just collected tons of herbs as a group. It was time to hand them all over to Doctor Finch, and stop him from freeloading any longer. If he wanted to stay with them, he needed to do some work. They got him the materials needed now—no more excuses.

Luckily, when they returned this time via the Teleport Waypoint they'd set up before leaving a few days ago, they saw Doctor Finch standing a few meters away, observing what seemed to be a bulleting board. There was some kind of messy writing and drawing on it, but none of the group bothered to read what it read. Still, at least good ol' Doc hadn't gotten himself captured by a stranger again. That was good news—it meant no other player had discovered this hideout just yet. Silverfang, who welcomed the group back, had done a good job of guarding the place while they were away.

"Hey there, Doc," Dianna said, waving. "We're back~"

"Oh, good timing," Doctor Finch said, an unexpectedly serious expression on his face. "I've discovered something quite… intriguing about this simulation run in particular. Come here for a sec."

Saying that, he brushed past the group and headed for the control room of this building, where all the electric panels and stuff were stored. Cyanide and the others were a bit confused, but did as told and followed him up.

Once they were there, they were left speechless.

The control room had been turned into something else entirely—it looked more like the mainframe of some spaceship now, with the main attraction being the massive radar screen displayed in the central monitor. On the two other monitors, one on each side of the middle one, several strings and numbers were shown, along with some kind of wavelength.

"Wow, Doctor… you built all this?" Kirika asked in awe, eyes shining.

"Eh, you were all gone, so I figured I'd mess around with the equipment in this place for a bit. I ended up making use of the lightning rod on top of this building and turning it into a radar of sorts. It can't sense mutants with special camouflage abilities, but it does have an incredible amount of range, thanks to this building's height. But that's not the point—the point is, the Squall."

"The… Squall?" Cyanide asked, lifting an eyebrow, as Dianna gave a nod.

"Yes. You know those Arena Closing messages, updating us on how many survivors are left in the game? The Squall is what closes the Arena—think of it as a circular force field surrounding the game's allowed zone, and stepping anywhere beyond it will cause players to take consistent heavy damage. We need to hurry with the collection of Sentinels precisely because of that, since if the Squall closes in on one of their lairs… it would be quite difficult for us to retrieve them."

"I see… well, what about it?" Cyanide inquired, hands in pockets.

"I've lived through the Squall numerous times," Doctor Finch said. "It doesn't affect mutants, and doesn't affect indoors locations. I know how it feels very well, and the materials its made out of. But this batch's… it's different, somehow.. The Gamemaster altered it in some way, and now, there's a way to step beyond the Squall—all you need is armor forged out a special material, and I can tell you where it is."