Public Lobby

Waking up in the car wasn't comparable to waking up in an ordinary bed, nevertheless, I couldn't lie. Sleep was sleep and sleep was all that I needed. The money from the last robbery went to my bank account. Overall, it was still a long way to go. Heck, I couldn't buy basic body armor.

I checked on my Ifruit, it was 5.00 A.M. The sky outside was still dark. Well, time to get breakfast then. I walked outside of my car to get some breath of that Los Santos fresh air. Not really fresh air, though as an explosion suddenly appeared in the middle of the sky.

'What the fuck?' I looked at the sky above me.

Right from the place where I could see the explosion, white wreckage began to fall in my direction. I couldn't catch the glimpse of it, but it got bigger and bigger. At first, it looked like a sheet of metal.

'MOTHERFUCKER!' I ran as fast as I could from the place where I was standing. It was a fuselage of a fighter jet. A sudden bang then came out from the place where I was standing. The wreckage of the P-996 Lazer fell right on top of my car, making a big dent, but not enough to destroy it.

What shot it down? And where the hell am I?

[Welcome to Public Lobby. Players can kill you and you can kill other players.]

Public lobby. Oh, man, this wouldn't end up well, would it? Fuck breakfast, I needed to get someplace safe before the assholes shooting down the jet came after me too. Heck, I didn't even know what shot down the jet.

I ran back to my car which was right below the wreckage of the P-996 Lazer. Newton would scream in his grave if he fucking saw how a car could survive the wreckage of a fighter jet coming down from 1,000 feet.

BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEP

'Missile lock?'

No one would forget the sound of a missile lock on GTA: Online. Ever since the Oppressor came out, the sound of missile lock always haunted the ears of casual players, including myself. Heck, I was only in an Ubermacht Oracle.

The beeping then stopped as I turned on a corner. Then a sudden whoosh came right above my head, followed by a trail of explosions right behind my car. Did he try to kill me with his autocannons? Bloody hell.

Then, I got a text message.

[From: XXXTentacle123XXX]

Fking nb. Cme out. 1v1. skl ise.

'What in the bloody heck? You are the one in a bloody jet.'

No way I would fight a jet with only a special carbine alone, it was a practical suicide. The 20 mm autocannons would immediately shred me to pieces. My best chance of surviving was in this jet as long as I kept making tight turns. The missile in GTA: Online was shit as far as I could remember. Well, some missiles were shitter than the others.

Then, I heard another explosion, the jet got blown off from the sky again. The fighter jet blip disappeared on the radar, replaced with an 'X' symbol, indicating that another player just killed him. Looking at the mini-map, there were at least six flying Oppressor MK II in the lobby, alongside 4 jets of unknown types.

'Shit, I'm stuck in a try-hard lobby.'

Then, I saw a sudden helicopter icon flashing on the mini-map. The icon was the icon of the stealth helicopter, the Akula. Then, the helicopter disappeared again. I shouldn't have entered this lobby, but how the heck did I get teleported here? I didn't enter the public lobby last night.

◄Incoming Call: Lamar►

Should I even get the call now? As some random dudes and dudettes chased me in vehicles equipped with highly explosive tipped missiles? Well, I remembered that he could get me a mission and I'd be teleported to a waiting lobby, at least that is how it worked in GTA: Online.

"Sup, my dude? How's it going?"

"Hey, some dudes are chasing me with flying jet bikes, can't talk now."

"Homie, whatever shits you are smoking I want some. You're high as fuck, dude," Lamar said.

"Anyway, do you have a job for me?" I asked Lamar.

"Job? Dude, you're high as fuck, I ain't sure yo ass could handle any job. See you later, homie."

Then, he closed the call. Why wouldn't he believe me? Damn. Who the hell was hunting me? Did I do something awful? Or did I do something that angry some people?

[Some players are under the radar]

Holy smokes. How many jets were in the sky? I couldn't count it. It didn't matter though, because another beep came right on my ears as some dudes began chasing me with their jets, again.

Superdelicious: Time to say goodbye

Poloser: Get the bounty guys, free for all

Then, in one single second, the 20 mm autocannon shredded my car in half, killing me in the process. Then, two more missiles were crammed into the wreckage of my car. Then, I saw a glimpse of my killer, a person flying inside of an unidentified fighter jet.

Superdelicious: Got him, boys, let's return.

▌Respawning: ■■■■ ▐

Did someone put a bounty on my head? That was not expected, since I hadn't killed any player yet. No wonder that was the case, but what was the jet shooting me down, though? I never saw it in GTA: Online. It looked like a jet in real life, but I really couldn't catch a glimpse of it.

'Bloody hell.'

I then respawned right in front of the road. There was nothing in front of me, and the car which I used was gone, which was kinda expected. I didn't lose any money, but shit, I was angry that the notification appeared.

[Your personal vehicle has been destroyed. Call Mors Mutual Insurance to get a replacement delivered to you]

To hell with calling the insurance, I needed to get out of this hell-like public lobby first, then I would call the insurance company. No use in getting your car back if it would eventually be destroyed by another tryhard in a jet.

I then caught another blip on the mini-map. It was a blip of a vehicle that I really really didn't want to see in the current lobby. It was a bloody tank, a regular tank, a Rhino. Then, I noticed the details on the tank were scary detailed.

Instead of the regular box appearance, it had a little bit of sloped armor. Instead of being painted in tan, it was painted in green. The armor looked thicker as well, and the top of the turret looked scarily detailed as well. That wasn't a Rhino tank, was it? It looked more like an M1 Abrams than anything.

The heavy machine gun turret pointed its end at me. Then, it fired rounds. Immediately, only in one single bullet, the tank killed me. What kind of damage model was that? I didn't remember tank machine gun was that powerful.

[Archer has been killed by Associate KillerTentacle]

A CEO organization? Bloody heck, this lobby looked more like a WW3 simulator than a regular lobby, and since fucking when has the machine gun on top of the rhino worked in any way? It was just a regular texture without any purpose, unlike the one in Khanjali.

▌Respawning: ■■■ ▐

After that, I respawned, but in another place in the Strawberry district. Right behind me was a church and in front of me was the road alongside a railroad track. The tank was located very far from me.

"Shit, what the hell was that?"

I opened up my phone and looked at the current menu. There were only some contacts on my phone. Lamar clearly didn't offer me a job to solve this situation, Gerald and Simeon might be able to help me.

◄Calling: Simeon►

"Ah, my boy, what pleasure do I owe you?"

"Eh, Simeon, sir, do you have any work for me? I'm quite short on cash at the moment."

"Sorry, I'm running a little short of repossession at the moment, call me later, bye."

I closed the phone and cursed at myself. Who the hell could rescue me from this public lobby then? Another notification appeared, this time, it came right from near the radar. The notification was about an organization.

[MamenTheMamen is delivering Gunrunning Shipment]

Then, suddenly, three bullet icons appeared on the map. It was blinking red and they were coming in my direction. They were in convoy, looking at the list of players, there were ten people in that organization alone.

"MOVE MOVE MOVE!" A shout came from the convoy. The vehicle leading the convoy was a tank while a Hunter helicopter was following it along. The convoy consisted of Insurgent Pick Up Custom sandwiched between two unidentified tanks.

BOOM.

WASTED

▌Respawning: ■■■■ ▐

[Associate Kleo has killed Archer]

The glimpse of the player was coming from the hunter. Bloody hell, was everyone in this lobby was aggressive?