Gun Gale Online - Partners

Chapter 02

After spending sometimes Customizing my Character, i've got teleported to some big city. As i walk out from the teleport area, the scenery in front of me was something like a eerie, apocalyptic sky and jutting ruins of metallic skyscrapers overhead, staring into the mirrored glass exterior of one such building and saying,

"So that's what i look like..."

I stared at the figure with the most familiar face that dressed on a white battle jacket with a blue collar and black pants on the screen, and I was sure the same feeling could be seen from the eyes that stared back. Well, at the very least, i could finally enjoy this new game.

'Gun Gale Online'

As the name suggested, it was a world of guns, where players engaged in shoot-outs amid postapocalyptic wasteland scenery.

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October 2025

A month has passed since i started playing, i was still trying to keep up with the leveling pace, i was already level 15, and the max level was 100 so it would be a long way to go. GGO was set on a decrepit, dilapidated Earth after a devastating war—a place without the first hint of beauty. The sky was always some smeared combination of red and yellow paint, no matter the weather or the time of day, like a sunset gone madly awry. The default terrain consisted of deserts, wastelands, and ruined cities.

Oh, If it wasn't obvious from the name, guns were the central weapon. In GGO, they came in two main categories. The first was optical guns. Blasters, ray guns, beam rifles, laser guns—the names were varied, but the concept was the same. These were guns with science-fiction names and appearances that shot amplified light energy rather than bullets. Even with their energy packs, optical guns were light and compact, with long range and considerable accuracy. At the same time, the damage a single shot inflicted was low, and in PvP battles, there were 'anti-optical defense fields' that lowered the damage even further.

The other kind of weapon was ballistic weapons or live-ammo guns. These were explained to be the surviving guns still found on Earth, or perhaps new guns built from the plans for such models. They were actual, real-life guns, re-created within the game thanks to the blessing and cooperation of the gun manufacturers. Unlike the optical guns, these ones rattled off actual bullets with proper mass—well, virtual mass anyway. They benefited from each bullet having great power and from there being no defensive fields to stop them. The minus side is, they were susceptible to wind and other environmental factors, and the ammo was heavy.

In other words, The optical guns are only good against monsters and Ballistics can be used against other players.

GGO is a game that lets you choose how you want to play. If you want to hunt monsters, go right ahead. If you want to PvP against other people, be my guest. Just being a great fighter didn't guarantee success. One needed a good gun and a good grasp of how to use it, as well as a thorough understanding of the player strategy, etc.

Most games have a tutorial feature that teaches new players the ropes of its controls and functions. In GGO's case, this was an NPC drill sergeant that offered a variety of lessons on how to fire a gun, how to hide behind cover, how to recognize and exploit various types of monsters, and so on. However, Kazune said to me:

"I think it would be better if you learn through your own experience and find your own style."

After he told me that, I've never gone to the NPC and decided to learn through my own experience. I've also learned about GGO's unique 'bullet circle' thing. It was an aid to the shooting process that told the player where the bullet would land. Placing a finger against the gun's trigger generated a light-green circle visible to the player. When fired, a bullet would land somewhere within that circle at random, no matter how big or small a space the circle covered. The bullet circle's size changed depending on the target's distance, the qualities of the gun, and the player's skill. The pulsing of the circle as it grew and shrank was synchronized to the player's heartbeat. In other words, a nervous player whose heart was jackhammering away would have a wildly fluctuating circle with no stability. That might not be the biggest problem in a close-range shoot-out, but to snipers it meant everything. And that was the role i intended to play.