An Unexpected Turn of Events

Everyone in the cabin gathered at the large round table, wore the VR headset version 2 and they waited while the screen was still processing for entering the world server.

Everybody had their screens up, including Shawn. The girls however, were planning on how to defeat him, except for Eve, she was right beside Shawn.

"Hey, Shawn. It's my first time using the v2, how does it exactly work?" Eve asked Shawn in a polite and calm manner.

"Well, it only relies on your mind to make the actions and can save up a lot of money on not buying the controllers. The only downfall of it is that when you enter WARFARE, it'll put you into deep sleep. You can't feel anything from the real world once you're in the game, and it'll risk your life if you're not too careful about your environment." Shawn explained it briefly then added, "The main difference between the two models were how it would hurt you. In the first model, which is the full body tracker type, only transmits physical pain to where the hit was. As for the second model, it transmits mental pain to the brain, which can cause mental breakdown."

"Hmm... So, meaning to say is that the v2 is just the same but the pain distribution is the only difference of it." Eve hypothesized.

"Yup, it's quite simple to notice actually." Shawn chuckled for a bit after what he had said.

After a while, the headsets were now synced to the world server and everyone are now ready to enter.

"Alright everyone. Before we enter, we need to know what this guy's avatar looks like. You..." Scarlett said, pointing at Shawn while continuing, "Show us your avatar. Heh! I'm guessing you don't know how."

In WARFARE, players' nametags won't show up on top of their heads, it only shows up if you're already friends with the person and are in close contact with each other. Which is why, they needed to know what Shawn looks like in-game.

"And I'm guessing that your trying to embarrass yourself." Shawn said while pressing a button near his left ear, the image of the avatar displayed unto the large round table, "Yes! I knew this table was actually a WARFARE station. These tables were designed and used for all WARFARE internet cafes, and this type of internet cafe is only used for playing WARFARE!" he thought in excitement.

The screen displayed a modern military combat suit that covered up the whole body which left no skin exposed, tier 2 vest, tier 3 helmet, but no special features can be seen from Shawn's avatar. Though, the military design was edgy and quite detailed, along with the Grim Reaper themed paint job. The girls loved it, so did Eve and Scarlett. He uses an AWM, attached with a suppressor, an extended quickdraw magazine, a bipod, and an infrared sight as his primary weapon, then a Desert Eagle, attached with a compensator, and an extended quickdraw magazine as his secondary.

"Hah... Its so simple and weak!" Scarlett laughed and continued, "This'll just be a piece of cake!"

"Hey, look!" One of Scarlett's members shouted, pointing at the WARFARE logo and nametag on the avatar's left upper chest that said, "Beta Player" the girls in the cabin were shocked, even Eve and Scarlett were awestruck.

"Could it be?"

"Did he actually participated in the beta version of WARFARE?"

"I heard that beta players were given the opportunity to get rare equipment if they were able to report bugs and problems in the game!"

"Wow! That's so cool!"

"He's so dreamy!"

"Alright, break it up, break it up. Let's just get on with the game!" Scarlett stopped the girls from talking too much and they all entered the game, everyone in the cabin was in deep sleep.

———

Shawn found himself in Safe Zone City, the place where all the newbies and nomads are spawned. He walked out of the spawnpoint and looked around, seeing so much improvement in the game, "Woah! From what I've experienced, this place was just a small city. And now, it has covered up a radius of 15 kilometers! This city is so huge!" Shawn thought while taking his time looking at the marvelous city.

"Shawn!" Eve suddenly popped right beside Shawn, startling him for a bit.

"Hey! That was not cool!" Shawn was catching his breath after the surprise, while Eve was still laughing at his sudden reaction.

Her laugh was actually cute and quite amusing to look at, but Shawn shook his head and laughed as well.

"That's enough, you two. We'll be heading to the public simulation ground." Scarlett said, separating the two of them before calling in the others and gathered at a park.

They all entered a public simulation battleground, a large room built to simulate a battle that is non-lethal in ending a player's character, but they're able to respawn after being killed inside the battleground.

The game mode was a hardcore team deathmatch, once dead, you can't respawn until the match ended.

All of them waited in the main lobby, a gathering center from all sides, gearing up for battle as Scarlett's team recalled the plan on how to kill Shawn.

"You seem calm." Eve said, walking up to Shawn who was prepping his weapons.

"Oh... Yeah, it's a habit of mine. I've gotten used to it." Shawn smiled, keeping a positive tone and looking up to Eve, "This is a game, and I will kill you if you try to stop me."

"Hah! That's the spirit." Eve cheered him up while giving Shawn a thumbs up.

[Match 1/3 - Start]

Everyone was teleported to there designated area, basically the farthest corners on the map.

"Alright, everyone. Stick to the plan! Long as we can get a kill, we'll surely win." Scarlett said loudly to let her crew be informed, then they all split up in two teams, walking in two different directions.

"Team 2, do you copy?" Scarlett talked through the radio.

"Loud and clear!" Eve responded.

"Alright, stay sharp. This guy's full of tricks."

Right after Scarlett's team walked down a pathway, a smoke grenade trap got triggered, blinding her and her team.

They coughed up badly from the smoke, ruining their cautious minds.

"Where did that came from?" A girl from the team panicked all of the sudden, while another screamed right after the bang.

"It was just a trap, don't worry. Is everyone okay?" Scarlett spoke.

Then a scream from afar could be heard while echoes of gunfires followed.

"It's Team 2, we gotta move!" Scarlett shouted before running towards the other team's location, "Team 2, status report!" She spoke calmly on the radio.

"We don't know where he's at! Everyone's just dying on their own. We..." The radio went static afterwards.

They arrived at the second team's location, but they only saw bloodshed while Shawn was nowhere to be seen. Even Eve was killed.

"The whole second team's dead." One of Scarlett's team said.

"Dammit! Even Shawn was so eager to kill Eve!" Scarlett thought first before talking back, "How exactly?"

"A single headshot per person." She responded. Then the others were astonished and kept wondering how Shawn took them out all by himself.

"He's so conservative!"

"How can we kill him now?"

"Everyone stay calm! We'll figure this out after the match." Scarlett shouted to get everyone's attention.

Suddenly, a bullet flew through Scarlett's hair and went through a girl's head, she dropped dead and everyone panicked.

One of them kept screaming, firing her weapon all over her line of sight. Another bullet passed by, shot through the careless girl's head as the gun still kept firing, which injured another member in the process. The girl kept screaming as she was injured, the pain would feel like as if she was shot in the real world.

"Medic!" the girl shouted while the combat medic rushed over, treating the injured. All of the sudden, a grenade from above dropped near the two, it had no pin! Then followed a loud explosion, leaving Scarlett in shock as she ran away.

Shawn however, showed up from behind Scarlett, catching up with her at the same speed. Then came a gunshot, through her leg, wincing and stumbling down to the ground, feeling the unbearable pain coming from her leg. She sat up, turning to Shawn's direction.

"This is just a waste of time for me. See why you were so easy to handle?" Shawn laughed then killed Scarlett through the head by his secondary firearm.

[Match 1/3 - End]

All of them were at the lobby again. Everybody except Shawn was ashamed, furious, and/or embarrassed.

Eve ran up to Scarlett with a serious look on her face and said, "His armor can camouflage!"

"What!" Scarlett shouted in rage.

"Yeah, no kidding!" She replied, they both looked at Shawn who was far from the rest of the people in the lobby, he took off his helmet for the first time and shook his head then wiped off the sweat. His hair curved down, covering half of his right eye, the lower parts of his hair however, were shorter and went thinner and thinner when reaching the nape. To be more specific, his hair was like a fresh undercut, a type of haircut that only cuts the lower parts of the hair.

6 of the girls in the lobby came to Shawn, flooding him with words that he couldn't reply in time

"How'd you do it?"

"Wow! Your hair looks amazing!"

"Can you add me into your friends list?"

Some flirted, some asked questions, and some gave Shawn friend requests. He somehow took time to catch up and eventually got along with them in the end. They soon walked back to Scarlett and planned furthermore on what they are about to do next.

"Boy, it's been months since I felt something like this!" Shawn thought to himself, smiling happily before getting back to preparing his weapons and sitting down while the people kept staring at him from time to time, but he didn't mind it though.

[Match 2/3 - Start]

Everyone got teleported into a different map, this was to prevent adaptivity to the players, the maps were always random. This map however, just had a big and tall tower in the middle, followed by a radius of 3 meters of thin grass, then the rest of the map was a thick forest that only had a few gaps for sunlight to pass through.

As for the team placement, Shawn wasn't somehow pleased nor worried about his position. He was teleported inside the thick forest while the others claimed territory on the room that led to the rooftop of the tower as well.

Shawn sighed before saying, "Atleast the camouflage suit wasn't the only thing I have." since nobody was around, he said it out loud. He took out a dark rectangular box-shaped gadget and hooked it on top of the 15x scope that was already intact to his AWM.

"This'll not end well for you guys..." he said to himself, laughing and shaking his head.