Fire Sale

As Luke scoped out the wolves that were standing in his way, he hoped that they might move away on their own. Unfortunately, he wasn't that lucky. Even after they had finished eating they stayed in place. It became clear that this was where the wolves had started to call home. 

Occasionally, one of them would let out a howl that would be echoed around the cauldron of tall buildings and each time it made the hair on Luke's arms rise. Just from the sound one could feel the bloodthirsty nature of the creatures. 

Unprovoked the voice in his head spoke up for the first time since the tutorial. 

"Are you sure you want to take on those creatures?"

"Oh, are you worrying about me now?"

"Hahaha, no I am just interested in seeing what I should say when I write your obituary."

"I'm pleased that you feel that people would want to read an obituary about me."

"Oh, you would be surprised people love hearing about other people dying after making stupid decisions."

"Well, they will have to wait. I actually have a good idea."

"Hmmm, we will see. Why do you want to get in there anyway?"

"Well as you know one of the best ways to get better at a game is to explore and find all its secrets. No better place to get a good look at the city than from the top of this building. You can see the whole of Azure London from up there. Surely that must be a decent achievement."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you if that is an achievement or not."

"I thought not when I looked earlier a lot of the achievements just had question marks. I assume they are hidden, right?"

"Yes."

"Either way, I have always wanted to see the view from the top of this building. I never could have gone up before the Dark Dawn, may as well take advantage of the fact I can now."

"That will be a lot of stairs."

"And that I know is an achievement, [One Step at a Time] it's called."

"True."

"Don't worry I was always good at games and I was quite the completionist. Mostly I guess because I never really had the money to buy them so I made the most of what I had, I never left a stone unturned. Can't say the same was true for real life. Have never really been the meticulous type."

"Well, I recommend you change that."

"That's the plan," Luke said with an honest smile on his face for the first time in many months. Even Luke found it strange how excited he was considering what situation he had been in just a few hours before. Yet he had always been resilient and he was keen to make the most of his current happiness as it was in short supply in the Azure world. 

It had taken him a while, but Luke had finally come up with an idea of how to deal with the wolves. It was incredibly risky and there was every chance that it wasn't going to work. Just a few days ago he never would have even considered it. In fact, a few days ago he wouldn't have given a second thought to fighting a bunch of wolves, but he was tired of living a boring life. 

As such he left the area in search of what he needed. Fortunately, just around the corner from the building was a giant supermarket. Many of the windows on the shop's front had been boarded up but a hole had been made in one, an indication that it had been raided. Luke expected nothing less. It was unlikely there was a single shop left unlooted by now.

Climbing inside it was fairly dark, but thankfully there were glass windows in the ceiling that meant it wasn't pitch black. The biggest problem was the smell. What remained of the fresh food had all rotten long enough ago that it was impossible to tell what it had once been. Luke had started to get fairly hungry, but the sight of the rotten food was able to remove his hunger. As Luke wandered through anything useful had been taken, aisles for things like canned food and medicine were empty. 

Right at the back of the shop, he found what he was looking for. While some of the alcohol had been looted, there was still plenty left. With a couple of Bottles acquired, he had the fundamental component of the most basic of all apocalyptic tools; the Molotov cocktail. 

"This should be fun I have always wanted to throw one of these." 

Having taken 10 bottles of vodka and put them in a basket Luke was also lucky enough to find a lighter behind the cashier counter at the front of the store on his way out. Before he did, however, he returned to the counter and dropped a bunch of notes on the counter. It wasn't as if he needed them, old currency was no use anymore, and people only accepted Azure gems.

To Luke's delight as he left he received another notification. However, after he had read it he was shocked.

*ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED*

[Model Citizen] Hidden Silver Achievement unlocked for following the laws that most have forgotten. (+10 to all stats)

With one small decision, Luke had just become 10% stronger, faster and more durable. He had thought he understood the potential of his ability but he couldn't believe it. Especially considering this was only a silver achievement. What could be possible if he got a gold achievement? Plus there might even be levels higher than that.

"I guess I should thank you?" Luke said to his companion. 

"About time you showed some appreciation to me."

"Anyway, I feel bad I haven't asked your name?"

"You can call me Ava."

With his scavenging complete and having prepared the Molotov cocktails, he brought two with him and headed back to the wolves. With everything prepared he now had to start the second phase of his plan and it was far from pretty.

While Luke had a decent arm, he didn't trust his ability to hit all 5 of the wolves each time in such a large open area. If he was going to make sure that he hit them he was going to have to force them into a tighter space. But not so small that they could get to him quickly. It had been the biggest hurdle but he had cleared it. The idea had come to him while in the supermarket and it would now be even easier since his latest achievement had increased his speed.

From the furthest distance that he was confident he could throw the Molotov, Luke started arcing two firebombs through the air towards the wolves. Unfortunately, the first one missed landing a few metres away from the largest and fiercest-looking of the wolves. But the fire it created was easily enough to grab all 5 of the wolves' attention. 

Luke didn't wait to see where the second landed before he started sprinting as fast as he could to the supermarket. He made it in no time whatsoever thanks to the improvements to his status. Leaping through the window he headed right to the back of the supermarket where he had left his collection of readymade Molotovs. As he stood at the end of the aisle, Luke had a straight view of the entrance as well as a door behind him that led to the storeroom should things go wrong. 

It wasn't long before the first wolf followed him in. The rest came one after the other. Luke was sad to see that his second Molotov must have missed its target as all the wolves had no evidence of being hit. It was unfortunate but he was still confident he could get them now he was in the tighter space.

The wolves showed no hesitance in charging at Luke, despite it being a trap. He didn't waste any time and started throwing the Molotovs. His first throw was a hit and the wolf recoiled violently and veered into the shelf to its side. Before Luke could even throw another bomb, the entire shelf fell onto the wolves. They were all trapped under the weight of it. This part had not been in Luke's plan, but he was more than satisfied with the result, even if it was quite anti-climactic. Luke felt he deserved some luck after all that he had been through that day.

Luke didn't have time to wait around, the fire his Molotov had created was quickly spreading and he didn't plan on staying around to put it out. Instead, he placed his remaining Molotovs in the path of the flames and left, knowing that they would put the wolves out of their misery.

From the safety of the pavement across the street, he watched the supermarket go up in flames.

"So much for being a model citizen."

A larger explosion went off that indicated the rest of his fire bombs had been lit, at which point he was notified that he had earned another achievement. When Luke opened up his menu he discovered he hadn't just unlocked one achievement. He had unlocked multiple and the rewards were enough to make him wish he had kept a bottle of vodka to have a celebratory shot.