4 Rewrite - Chapter 1 - Welcome to Warzone

Suddenly, a bright white light enveloped his vision. Connor reflexively closed his eyes.

In just a few seconds, Connor was able to open up his eyes and looked around him, he was in some sort of a military compound with soldiers running left and right in organized formations.

"Woah…" Connor was surprised.

"The technology has really come a long way."

As Connor was taking in the atmosphere of the compound, a bright blue text popped up in his peripheral.

*Welcome to Warzone.*

Just as he was reading the text, a big bulky man appeared behind the text and started walking towards Connor.

"What are you doing here, Private!" the man yelled.

Connor looked at the man and his face crumbled. He had no idea what he should do. He looked down on his body to see that he was wearing some sort of military camouflage, on his shoulders were a single stripe while the person in front of him had three.

*Warzone Tutorial, Part 1: Greet Sergeant Williams*

'Huh… okay.'

As a fan of all-things-military, Connor snapped into attention and saluted the Sergeant.

"Sergeant Williams, sir!"

"That's better Private. Welcome to the Empire's number one training facility, Military Base Colonna."

Suddenly, the Sergeant the surroundings disappeared and Connor opened his eyes on a zone that was all white, like a virtual space.

*Warzone Tutorial, Part 2: Move around.*

The Tutorial AI had instructed Connor to start moving around the virtual space, as soon as the AI had finished giving the objective, various objects such as small walls, barriers and wire fence.

Connor looked at the tutorial text and started moving. First, he checked the movement on his arms, then legs and finally the whole body as he went prone, crouched and got up.

'Okay, that feels super realistic for sure.'

He wasn't sure if he was getting tired or not.

*Warzone Tutorial, Part 3: Pass through the obstacle course*

Connor started moving towards the obstacle course where he had to jump over barriers, crouch and pass through walls with space under them, prone under a wire fence and make it to the other side without hurting himself.

Connor managed to reach the other side without hurting himself and got up.

*Warzone Tutorial, Part 4: Head towards the shooting range*

Suddenly, in front of him, a shooting range had formed with lots of guns placed on the table in front of it.

Connor walked to the table and looked at the guns.

'Lets see… we have an M249, M4A1, AK15, SCAR-H, ACR, M107, SVD-M, M200 Intervention, MP7 and P90 hmm…'

Connor was pondering about what weapon he should take, he could either an Assault Rifle, a Submachine Gun or a Sniper.

'Let's go with the classics.'

Connor took the M4A1 off the table.

*Warzone Tutorial, Part 5: Shoot the targets*

Throughout the shooting range, at various ranges, targets started to appear. Connor took a shooting stance where he positioned the M4 Rifle on his right shoulder and pushed on the stock of the weapon with his chin. Supporting the barrel of the gun with his left hand, he aimed at the targets using the iron sights of the M4 Rifle. And pulled the trigger… no bullet came out, no recoil pushed him back.

'What?'

Connor was surprised, the gun was loaded but it wasn't firing.

*Warzone Tutorial, Please check your weapon's safety*

'Oh.'

Connor smiled and turned the safety off on the weapon. He took the firing stance again and fired a shot, aiming at the target closest to him.

The bullet hit the target just as a fanfare sounded out from the AI.

*Congratulations on hitting your first target!*

The tutorial then instructed Connor on how to switch firing types between semi-automatic and fully automatic and made him shoot a few more targets.

After the shooting range tutorial was complete, the world became fully white again. Both the shooting range and the obstacle course had disappeared.

*Congratulations on finishing the Tutorial. As a reward, you have been granted the "Warzone Package x 1" you will be sent to Military Base Colonna as soon as you open the package and verify your equipment.*

*Arclight Entertainment wishes you fun while playing Warzone, thank you for purchasing Phantasm.*

After reading the messages popping up one by one in front of him, Connor opened his inventory and found that there was one military camouflaged crate waiting for him. He selected the crate using his thoughts and the crate appeared in front of him.

*Warzone Welcome Package

You will be granted basic items such as;

M9 Pistol – Standard Issue Pistol, small and easy to carry. 15 rounds per magazine. You will be given 4 magazines.

'Private' Standard Battle Gear – Provides the standard amount of protection. Has a camouflage system that will adapt to your surroundings to help you blend in.

Medpack x 5 – For curing heavy injuries, after the usage of Medpack your body will start to recover from most major injuries immediately, however, this effect will be cancelled if you take any damage.

Recovery Syringe x 25 – For curing light injuries, such as small bullet wounds, knife wounds. After injecting, your body will slowly recover. Recovery Syringe will not heal major injuries. Damage does not interrupt syringe recovery.

Credits x 500 – Credits are the general currency used in Warzone. It is not faction specific and can be used anywhere, credits could be utilized to purchase weapons, vehicles, buildings and resources to maintain your base.*

*Your main weapon will be chosen automatically through a list of various weapons.*

As soon as the AI said this, a screen resembling a slot machine screen popped up.

'Even here… huh.'

As the gaming industry had advanced in almost a hundred years, microtransactions have been one of the most profitable revenue sources for most game developers. Since 2050, games were all free to play with some sort of a microtransaction system implemented to cover the running costs of the company.

A big ROLL button appeared in front of Connor's peripheral. He pressed the button and suddenly, the screen started scrolling through various weapons. Just before starting slow down and stop on… MP5 Submachine Gun.

'Uh… Okay, I guess.'

MP5 was a weapon with a relatively high fire rate and was especially good on close range encounters. It was hard to control and successfully fire mid-range and its performance was abysmal in long-range. The loot box had also given him 2 extra magazines.

Connor opened his inventory and equipped all the items he had. One by one, the items started appearing on his body. His MP5 was slung on his chest, his M9 Pistol in a holster on his right thigh.

*Warzone Tutorial Completed*

*Traveling to Military Base Colonna*