Lovely Warfare

Chapter Five

Emma's finger lingered on the trigger. Charlotte was right, each player had three lives, so why was she scared? Emma bit her lip, aware of the quick whisper to shoot already. She closed her eyes, then opened them. After releasing a slow sigh, she kept her aim, then fired. 

As soon as her shot rang out Emma shot again, aiming at the other assailant. She didn't have enough time. As soon as the first one hit the other player, the other bolted dodging the second wave and running. 

"Let's go," Emma ordered, quickly moving into a building.

"W-wait! Why're we running? You shot the guy!" Charlotte said, following her into the building. 

"I didn't kill him," Emma muttered. 

"Why not?!" 

Emma placed her back against the wall, sliding down and stared at the sniper in her hands. It was shaking. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about what had happened. She had almost killed someone, a real, living person had almost died at her hands. Even if it was a game there was no denying the consequences of what could've happened; that person would've had two lives left, two lives that would've put them at a disadvantage in later stages and ended in their death. A real live death. 

Charlotte let out a loud sigh, "Now what? You could've gotten experience. The only reason I teamed up with you is because you're supposed to be the gamer girl. If you're only gonna slow me down later then I don't see the point of this team-up. I thought you wanted to survive, if you can't kill anyone in this stupid game we're never going to get out." 

"Shut up," Emma muttered.

"Why? It's the truth. You have to protect yourself, that's how the world works. Only the strong will live. For a gamer, you don't seem to be that experienced."

"I said shut up! This is different! It's not just a game!" Emma yelled, "There are real people who will die! Get that through your thick skull and shut up!" 

Charlotte blinked, her mouth open with a shocked expression on her face. It was apparent she hadn't expected such an outburst. She pursed her lips and crossed her arms, "Then how're you going to win?"

Emma didn't answer, instead she tried to calm her nerves as her grip tightened around her sniper. It took her a moment to calm down and when she did she stood up. 

"Let's go give that chicken back to the NPC," she said softly. 

Charlotte said nothing, and Emma exited the building, weaving her way through the oblivious NPC's to reach the boy. She turned as Charlotte opened her menu and pressed on the chicken. It popped out of the screen and materialized in her hands.

"Here you go, you little snot," Charlotte said, handing it over. 

The boy took the chicken and it disappeared into thin air. 

"Thanks! Here, take this as payment."

Out of thin air, a small blue bottle appeared to float and Charlotte took it. As she curled her fingers around the bottle, a yellow bar above her head filled up and a ding rang out, momentarily startling her.

"Wha--"

"Relax, that's your experience. Welcome to level two newbie," Emma stated.

"Shut up, you're still on level one!" Charlotte retorted, unable to keep the light blush from her cheeks. 

Emma turned her attention elsewhere. From the crowd of NPC's she could see four or five other players. They appeared to be trying to blend in with them but were easily spotted due to the way they held their weapons tightly in their hands. It was apparent that they were on guard. 

"Let's go," Emma said, moving away.

"Why? Where are we going?" 

"Somewhere else."

The town was large in order to accommodate the amount of players that were in the game, and to exit it, a player had to walk to the edge of the town gate and open the menu. It took a couple of minutes before they reached the town gate. Once the menu was opened, Emma pressed exit town and a blue glow erupted from beneath her and engulfed her into its light. She could hear Charlotte let out a gasp of amazement behind her as she vanished. 

Moments later Emma found herself in the middle of an empty field with only small birds flying in the sky. She waited a couple of moments for Charlotte to appear behind her. 

When Charlotte appeared she asked, "These mechanics are weird, was that normal?" 

"Yes, now be quiet," Emma responded. With her sniper firmly in her hands, Emma crouched low and pointed her gun in the air. 

"So let me guess, you're going to kill those birds?" Charlotte questioned. Hearing no response she huffed and put a hand to her hip, "You can't kill another player but you can kill birds huh?" 

Emma ignored her and kept aim. When she fired a shot, the sound of a bird's cry and then a thump made her stand. A  yellow bar flashed above her head and filled up halfway as a ding rang out. 

"Go get the treasure," Emma ordered, positioning herself again.

"You mean I get to keep it?" Charlotte inquired surprised.

"Yeah, but hurry and collect the treasure before someone else gets to it first."

Charlotte ran off as Emma shot again. The action continued until there were no more birds in sight and Emma had to call it quits.

"Sooo boring," Charlotte commented, ruffling the grass from her seat on the ground. "You're on level five but it's been almost two hours! Don't tell me I have to do that boring stuff too? I want to buy better armor, this one's itchy."

"Leveling up is more important," Emma responded, "We're in the early stages so the most important thing for us to do is grind for a higher level. We need armor but more importantly, we need better stats. For us to compete against those who are killing other members of this game, we've got to work hard and really give our all. We can't survive if we don't." 

"So in other words, since you don't want to kill we have to do meaningless tasks in order to raise our level?"

"More or less, but you're in no position to be pestering me about killing. You can kill the others if you want to, I'm not stopping you." 

Charlotte rolled her eyes, "Killing's not for pretty people. It's always the losers who end up doing stuff like that." 

"Riiight, no pretty person in the history of mankind has killed someone. Only losers. Okay then," 

"Don't be like that, I didn't mean you. You don't count," Charlotte responded, forcing herself to her feet.

Emma didn't have an answer for that. Instead she said, "We've got to get you to level five. You're still a level two and our levels have to match. Plus we need to upgrade our skills."

"Upgrade our skills? Where do we do that?" 

"I'll show you the menu later. Right now let's go get that armor." 

"Finally," Charlotte said, turning and heading back, "I want something cute and flashy!"

Emma rolled her eyes as she followed behind Charlotte. One look at the sky told Emma that it was getting late. To be outside the town at such an hour was inviting stronger leveled monsters to appear. If they were to level up, they would need better armor to combat the stronger beasts. But explaining that to Charlotte was too much effort, she would no doubt insist on going to bed instead. So Emma decided to say nothing and fight while the blonde slept. It would make Emma's level higher, and Charlotte couldn't utter any words of complaint.