The Basement

Cyanide, now on a time limit, picked up his pace on locating a weapon. After those four mutants he paralyzed made their appearance, Cyanide knew there was bound to be more in this building. When he encountered them, he didn't want those four chasing after him as well, so he needed to end them as soon as possible.

He had originally wanted to use his 1 SP and see what skills he could obtain with it, but he had no idea how long his paralysis affect would last on the mutants and when another one would notice him and begin its chase. As such, he needed a proper weapon, pronto.

Luckily, while he was searching through the cubicle-styled office earlier, he found a map of the layout of this building, and was now looking at it to get an idea of where to go.

"Cyanide, the security guards' office appears to be in the basement," Luna pointed out, also examining the map. "There should be weapons in there."

Cyanide nodded and quickly raced down the stairs, skipping past all the other floors. He felt light on his feet again and quite fast as well, though it was still nowhere close to the stealth and agility he once possessed in the real world — the result of many tough years of training. Still, he felt relieved knowing that he was starting to regain some of his old power back.

The entire building must have had at least 50 floors, but getting down to the bottommost level in the matter of a mere minute wasn't even enough to make Cyanide pant. He judged that his stamina must have improved as well, governed by the Vitality stat.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to have attracted any attention, thanks to his light footsteps. He had spotted several mutants loitering the hallways as he went down the floors, but none of them seem particularly different from another. He did notice, however, that some were wearing office suits, others lab coats.

It was as if… they were human before being converted into whatever the hell these cyborgs were. But one thing was for certain — any humanity they had in their past, was now all but gone.

Cyanide soon reached the first floor — he could tell by looking out the tiny window on the stairwell's door. The spacious lobby of the building was directly in front of him, in between a luxurious reception space and the automatic sliding glass doors of the main entrance. However, within the lobby, various mutants stood, wandering around aimlessly and slowly.

Turning away, he continued to head further down the stairs — for the basement.

*****

As Cyanide reached the very bottom of the stairs, he was met with a door just like the other floors. Down here, was where the security guards of the company stayed between shifts. Since cleaning was automated, there was no need for janitors or custodians. Security staff were the only ones needed, hence why a separate quarter like this was made for them to avoid disrupting the other employees.

Cyanide didn't quite understand the need to make a whole separate basement for them or why they were supplied with backup power just like the R&D floor above, but that was just how companies worked here in Endzone, he supposed. He wrapped his hand around the door handle to pull it open, but… then, he stopped.

"What's wrong, Cyanide?" Luna asked.

"This door handle… it doesn't have any dust on it, unlike the others. In other words… it's been used recently."

"Well, it couldn't have been another player, since Survivors spawn far away from one another when the game first begins, according to my knowledge," Luna replied. "If that's the case, then…"

"That leaves two possibilities," Cyanide analyzed. "One, there are other people here who are not players… and two, there is a mutant roaming around in this place smart enough to open a door."

"I believe the latter is more probable, since the idea of there being other humans in this abandoned, post-apocalyptic place is… somewhat unrealistic," Luna said after some hesitation. "Most likely, it's a Stage Two mutant, whereas all the other ones you have fought so far have been simple Stage Ones that do not possess any form of intelligence."

"So… the higher stage the mutation, the more intelligent it becomes," Cyanide muttered. "In that case… there could very well be a mutant out there with human-level intelligence or even beyond."

"Yes, but… it'd be best not to think about that right now. As you are at the moment, Cyanide, there is no way you can take on a Stage Two mutant."

"I'm aware. But this is the security guards' floor, and there are weapons in there. Weapons that I need. So regardless of whether or not I can fight a Stage Two mutant… I have to go in. If I can't get weapons, I can't escape from this building — not with all those mutants in the first-floor lobby. And even if I do escape, there are most likely even more mutants on those streets. I will need something to protect myself with."

"I see. In that case…" Luna pulled up a panel and displayed it in front of Cyanide. It was a hologram titled 'SKILLS SHOP'.

"This is the skills shop, where you can spend your SP," she explained.

"... I don't have time to go through all these skills right now," Cyanide said, blinking at the incredibly long list of possible skills to acquire, judging from the length of the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the virtual screen.

"That's fine. I'm just going to recommend you get this skill in particular before going in there," Luna said, causing a pop-up window to appear in the hologram. Cyanide, upon seeing it, narrowed his eyes.

"... Invisibility?"

Luna smiled. "Yes. The superpower all assassins wish they had - invisibility."

"..." Cyanide fell silent, gazing at the skill's details.

[Skill Information]

[Name: Invisibility I]

[Type: Active (Utility)]

[Duration: 5 seconds]

[Cooldown: 5 minutes]

[Description: Completely vanish from sight for a brief period of time. You can still be felt, smelled, and heard.]

[Price: 1 SP]

"Only 5 seconds... yet the cooldown is so long," Cyanide muttered.

"Don't worry, some skills, like this one, can be upgraded through more SP," Luna said. "But since you don't have any to spare... I'm afraid just this will be your best and only bet, Cyanide. For now, anyway."

After some thought, Cyanide tapped on the 'Purchase' button below the skill's info, then tapped on 'Yes' on the confirmation screen that popped up. Luna made the panels disappear, while Cyanide felt as if something had entered his body. It was warm and comfortable, however, and not creepy at all.

"Now then... how do I use this skill?"

"All you have to do is make a mental thought to use it, and it will work," Luna explained.

"Though 5 minutes is a long time, and I believe those mutants upstairs are probably awake by now and trying to track us down. I don't think you'll have to test it out."

Cyanide sighed. "That's fine... I'll just have to risk it."

At this, Luna laughed slightly. "Yes... but you've been living your life on the edge for 22 years now, Cyanide. What's a little risk to you?"