BXBX NOVEL Chapter 169 The Past - Part 9
As promised, I decided to meet up with her again.
She had asked me where I wanted to go, and I responded with \'I don\'t mind\' and as a result, we were at the mall again. However, it was pretty early in the morning today, and most of the shops weren\'t even open yet or were just going through their opening routines. There were maybe ten people walking around, most of the people walking around were workers for the mall or for the various stores.
I wasn\'t exactly sure why she asked me to come so early. It didn\'t really matter though, it wasn\'t like I wanted to go to any particular store in the first place. She was wearing a very casual outfit, a long oversized shirt with shorts so short that you could hardly see them. It was a nice look, but then again, I wasn\'t exactly the best judge of fashion. The two of us walked side by side through the mall, reaching an escalator which went down to the lower section of the mall. There were several entertainment places, although only two were open, a fancy, bright bowling alley and a laser tag area.
I just continued to follow her, since I didn\'t really care what we did. She noticed there was a small group of people near the laser tag area. As soon as they saw us, they signalled for us to go over. As we got closer I saw that it was a group of six, three boys and three girls.
"Please come play with us, the minimum number of participants is eight, we\'ll pay for you so you don\'t have to pay anything."
She looked over at me. I didn\'t mind what we did, so we agreed with them and the worker led us into a little dark room with a video playing.
"I know these are technically the rules, but no one really cares if you break them, the machinery can\'t detect it so do what you like."
There was a little chant of hurray before we were led into the next room where we got to choose our weapon. There were three main weapons, one which looked like a world war two era rifle, a pistol and a shotgun. Next to each of the weapons was a little description.
> Pistol, short range, relatively fast firing speed, holds six shots before reloading, light.
> Rifle, long-range, slow firing speed, holds four shots before reloading, heavy.
> Shotgun, short range, spray, slow firing speed, holds one shot before reloading, heavy.
We didn\'t have to actually reload, there would just be a six-second cooldown where we can\'t shoot. I chose the rifle and she chose the pistol.
All of us put on large vests with flashing lights on them. We were supposed to shoot at the sensors or something.
"Let me explain the rules, every round, everyone has three lives, once you have been shot three times, you\'re gun will turn off and you have to exit the playing field. The shotgun spray can take all three lives off at once if you\'re not careful. For the first round, we will have teams of two. There will be a sixty-second grace period in the beginning so you can\'t get hit."
I had noticed that everyone here was a couple, so it made sense that it was teams of two. I was with her obviously and we made our way into the arena. It was pitch black, with a huge variety of obstacles like stairs and walls and windows all scattered around. As soon as everyone stepped in, several disco lights went on, illuminating the area a little, but still not substantial enough to allow for good vision. The sixty-second countdown started immediately.
"Where do we go?"
She was sticking very close to me, following me wherever I went. I looked around for an appropriate hiding spot. The rules of the game didn\'t reward you for eliminations, so the best strategy was to hide and shoot at them from far away. There was a little area which was covered on three of the four sides by walls, with one of them having a window.
I got her to guard the only entrance to the little area and I poked my rifle out the window. The countdown had just about ended and I could already hear the gunshots in the distance. A little while went by without much action near us. I shot at a few people from afar but all the obstacles and the great distance meant I wasn\'t able to land any hits. Suddenly, someone was running through the centre of the stage, wide open. I pulled the trigger twice, aiming my rifle through the window at him. I managed to easily land two hits on him, however, my gun needed six seconds to reload.
I ducked behind the window again as I noticed lasers flying through the window. The position was good to the point that it was practically impossible to hit us unless we were standing in front of the window. The only other way was to charge at us from the only entrance into the space.
My gun soon reloaded, the guy still hadn\'t decided to find cover and I eliminated him with one more shot of the rifle as I swiftly poked my head out the window. He let out a disappointed groan and began making his way towards the exit. It seemed his teammate wasn\'t nearby, I assumed that she was already eliminated.
A brief moment after that skirmish, several people ran out of cover and frantically fired at each other across the centre of the map. It was like a light show, lasers of all colours flew across the stage. I could hear the tag sound, signalling that people were being hit. I fired a few shots into the mix, landing one on an unsuspecting target. It was still probably best not to draw attention to us at the moment.
It wasn\'t that I necessarily enjoyed the game but I had decided that I would try at least, and see if I can find enjoyment in something. At the moment, however, it felt more like a chore than a game, not that I necessarily disliked it either. It was just, eh.
The game continued, and more and more people were being eliminated.