2 Chapter 1 : Introduction
Mc Pov:
"I hate this f*cking game so much!!!", playing on labs makes me so frustrated, with how many cheaters are running around on the game, the Labs are filled with those f*ckers.
After 8 years of development.... 8 F*cking years!!!!, they still haven't fixed the cheater's problems that were plaguing this spaghetti code of a game, I lean back to my gaming chairs and take a swing of an energy drink to relax my mind.
"agh, my 1 mil rubble kit is wasted instantly like that", I can only groan helplessly, 3 years of playing this game make me want to kill myself, but at the same time, I really can't leave this game.
The first time I played this game, I couldn't help to fall in love with the game atmosphere, the lore, and the gameplay loop that made me always come back for more.
Even with the tons of bugs, glitches, and cheaters inside the game, I still keep playing it and staying on late at night to grind my hideout to the highest level, but how many cheaters running my raid only makes me want to shoot myself.
*Knock* *knock*
A sudden knock on the door surprised me from my mind, I stood up from the chair and walked toward the door, and when I opened the door I saw my roommate in front of me with an annoyed face.
"Hey Alex, you okay dude? I heard you screaming from my room", with a guilty feeling from waking up my friend late at night I apologized to him.
"ah it's nothing dude, sorry for waking you up late at night", my roommate just sighed in exasperation.
"Can you at least keep your voice down? and why do you even stay on all night anyway?", he looked into my room to see a ton of energy cans and a ton of pizza boxes scattered around my room.
"at least clean your damn room man, you living like a Discord moderator", I just shrug his comment away nonchalantly.
"yeah yeah, whatever dude, I'll clean my room tomorrow morning...after I'm done with my game", my friend can only shake his head in disappointment.
"You know, staying up late at night and drinking those energy drinks every day is not healthy right?", he looked at the energy that I holding right now.
I ignore his comment about my habit and keep drinking the energy drink without any care in the world, "Ahh, potato-potato, I've been doing it for a year and I'm healthy Af, don't worry about it", I dismiss his point and he gave up lecturing me.
"yeah whatever you say, Alex, just keep your voice down, I have to go to college tomorrow morning". he yawns from unfulfilled nights of sleep and starts to go back to his room.
"yeah sure, I'll just go back to my games, have a good night dude". he only responds to me with a lazy hand wave while he closes my room door.
as my roommate left the room, I drank the leftover energy drink in my hand.
*gulp* *gulp* "Ah that's hit the spot", the sweetness of the energy can keep me from sleepiness and keep me going throughout the night, I go back to my chair and go back to my monitor screen.
I close the death screen and go back to my hideout to gear up my PMC after I'm done gearing up with decent gear I choose to play at the ground zero maps again, as the game loads up the map I grab another energy drink from the small fridge below the desk.
I cracked open another can of energy drink, I saw my PMC character on the loading screen and wondered, 'How does it feel like to live inside Tarkov? does it feel fun that you can do anything there as a scav and goof around with other scav or be a badass PMC and do their mission inside the exclusion zone while getting rich at the same time?', ignoring the fact they are trapped there in a lawless city without any support and just trying to survive the chaos inside the city, I don't care about it much.
removing my outlandish thought about being in Tarkov, I took a sip of the energy drink, and a rush of exhilaration surged through me as the caffeine made my heart pump to get ready to play another raid, But as quickly as it came, a sharp pain gripped my chest, as if a vice was squeezing my heart. Panic set in as my heart raced faster than before, each beat feeling like a drum in my ears.
I dropped the can from my hand and the noise of the drop was lost in the chaos of my thoughts. My vision of the monitor screen blurred, the room spinning out of control. I struggled to breathe, my chest tight and constricted. cold sweat broke out on my brow and my body began to feel weak.
I Collapsed to the ground from my chair, and the world around me faded. The sounds around me became muffled and distant. I fought to stay conscious and tried to call my roommate for help, but darkness crept at the edges of my vision. At that terrifying moment, I knew—I was having a heart attack, the last thing in my sight was the screen monitor, showing the countdown of entering the raid, and as the countdown reached zero I closed my eyes while my heart suddenly stopped. Not knowing the monitor screen shines brightly inside my room and slowly dims its light before showing bold text on the screen saying [Добро пожаловать в Тарков] as the monitor screen turns off automatically and leaving Alex lifeless body inside the room.
[Change location]
Current location: Alleyways, unknown
Time: 01:30 PM
my eyes suddenly opened up and a gasp came from my mouth with a sudden air coming through my lungs, I coughed in pain and tried to get up from the ground. As the pain was already gone, I noticed my surroundings change as I tried to collect my thoughts from the sudden awakening.
"w-where am I?", I looked around to see that I was in an alleyway, confusion started to come to me because I was in my room just now, but a realization hit me like a truck "Didn't I just die from a heart attack? what the f*ck???".
I try to rationalize myself what just happened, 'Okay Alex, calm down, you just playing Escape from Tarkov in your room and suddenly died from a heart attack, and now I'm in an unknown place only with my hoodie, sneaker shoes, and sweatpants .... did I just get isekaied or something?', while I tried to figure at my surroundings an explosion sound and gunfire surprise me from my thought, 'Am I in Detroit right now ?..... did I just isekaied to Detroit!?!?'.
with no sense of where I am, I investigate the source of the sound, I walk through the alleyways toward the ensuing gunshot, and the closer I get to the source, the louder the gunfire is. when I got to the end of the alleyways towards the street a stray bullet hit a building wall on the right in front of me, in a panic I threw myself toward the dumpster and hid behind it.
the gunfight is happening in front of me, I hear a dozen footsteps passing near the alleyway, I try not to move or make any sound because I am still confused about the current situation and I don't want to get caught in the crossfire between their gunfire after the footsteps getting further from my position, I take a peek around the dumpster and see a street riddled with dead bodies everywhere, it seems a riot is happening on the city.
I hold myself from throwing up at the sight of carnage in front of me and steel my heart, "Ugh, what the f*ck happens here", as I look around at the dead bodies, many of them are civilians, and one of them wearing some sort of camouflage uniform with a chest rig and armor vest, and besides him is a gun that is familiar to me, An AK 103, a modern standard assault rifle chamber in 7.62x39, that used by the Russian army force, I only can conclude that I'm in some city on Russia, why do I know that? well, the obvious street and store signs are written in Russian, and the dead soldier just proves my theories even further, but the question is what part of Russia I'm currently in?, 'I'll try to figure it out later, for now, I have to find a safe place to hide from the chaos that happening right now'.
I pick up the gun and inspect it, "damn, this gun is pretty heavy, looks like it doesn't have any mount or attachment on it", I see the charging handle at the right side of the gun and pull it, a round of 7.62x39 fly out from the gun, feeling that I make a mistake I grab the round and try to put it in again, with no experience with guns I gave up and I kneel near the dead soldier and put down the ak to the ground right beside me, I began to loot the poor soldier for any supplies, I don't know why the urge of looting a dead guy so appealing to me, maybe after playing Escape From Tarkov all day messing my brain, but with my current situation I have to do it.
releasing the chest rig from him and putting it on me, I look at the torn-up and bloodied armor vest, and choose not to put that on, I look inside the chest rig and find 1 empty and 1 full magazine for the AK, 1 army bandage, and an Esmarch tourniquet, 'This will come in handy for later', I closed the chest rig pouch and grab the Ak beside me, I got up and begin to walk to find any help or safe place.
as I walk through the city road, where everything is destroyed, with burning and crumbling buildings around me, I keep my sense sharp to look for any danger coming for me, while I am on the road I see a lot of abandoned cars fill the city street but something came into my mind, 'why I have this feeling that I seen this place before?', but my question got answered instantly when I see a big building with a big logo and name high up at the building [TerraGroup] "w-what!?!?!, is this some sick jokes!!", with the realization where I am, anxiety began to set in and the thought getting stuck inside tarkov make me want to throw up.
"i-i need to go before the blockage!!", I know that the Russian army still running around here that the evacuation has not started yet, and the evacuation is still in progress, a sudden gunshot in the distance tells me the army is still here but the sound comes from the center of the city, without any hesitation I go to the source in haste, not wanting to stay here any longer.
as I got closer to the center of the city more gunfire could be heard from my position, with full alertness and fear I pushed myself to go towards the place.
I hid behind the abandoned cars and peeked at the commotion, what I see is a dozen Russian army guys trying to round up civilians into a truck while some of them guarding the perimeter, feeling that I had a chance to get saved and escape this hellscape, I ran towards them and fast I could, they saw me running towards them stupidly while screaming, "HEY!! WAIT FOR ME!!",
but sh*t happened because I forgot that I still have a weapon in my hand, they began to point their gun at me, and seeing the incoming danger I hurried to take cover near another car in front of me, a thunder of a gunshot and a passing bullet over my head scared me sh*tless.
suddenly another gunshot came from behind me, I looked behind and saw 20 guys with civilian clothes shooting at the soldier, and the soldier began to retreat with their trucks, seeing this my hope of escaping was gone because I knew my chance to get to the border was gone.
one of the guys that shot at the soldier came up to me and held his hand to me "(Speaking Russian) Young man, are you alright?".
Not understanding what the guy just said I can only say one word. "What ?", the guy raised his eyebrow from an unexpected response from me, he looked back at his friend that looting the dead soldier, and went back to face me.
"Listen to me friend, tourists like you will get targeted by the locals, you should go away from here before they notice you", with broken English I could only nod at him and begin to walk away from the scene.
while I walk depressingly at the side of the road, the thought that I will die inside this wretched place presses heavily into my mind, 'it's too late to go to the border now when I get there, The region's borders will be sealed off and I will get shot the moment I go near the border'.
looking at the broken window to my right, I see my appearance in the reflection, black hair, and brown color eyes tiredly looking back at me, I feel helpless right now, I don't know where to go and what to do, amid my chaotic mind a single word comes to mind 'survive'.
"survive huh ?, can I do it ?, I'm just a shut-in gamer who wastes his time playing games and has zero survival skills", I doubt myself, doubting I can even last a day in here, but I have to, I have to go back home, and the only thing I have to do is survive, no matter what.
Now with a new goal of staying alive, I need to plan before anyone else, i list everything I need in my head:
1. find food and water
2. find a place to live in like a hideout
3. try to upgrade my arsenal and find more ammunition
4. make some rubbles for trade and necessity
5. And I need to learn how to protect myself
from all the lists I made, 2 of them are doable, food and water can be found at the convenience store I just passed 1 minute ago, and for the hideout, I know there were a lot of abandoned bomb shelters below the city that connected to the metro system, I know this from the game, it should be possible to find it underground at the metro below.
I begin to start my plan, I go back to the broken-down convenience store and try to loot some supplies, when I get there, the place already has been looted and
ransacked, but when I checked the storage at the back I hit the jackpot, there were still a dozen food and water bottles on the storage shelve, and at the corner of the storage room I saw a duffle bag that I could use for carrying the can goods and water bottle, the thing I found:
1. 5 cans of Tushonka (the small one)
2. 3 Cans of green peas
3. 2 pack of sugar
4. A pack of oat flakes
5 10 Slickers chocolate bar
6. 2 cans of Tushonka (big one)
7. 5 Cans of TarCola soda
8. 3 water bottle
9. 2 cans of sprats
After 15 minutes of stuffing all the food and water inside my duffle bag, the bag was already full, I began to walk outside the convenience store, towards the underground metro station.
After 30 minutes of searching, I finally found it, but on the way here I had to avoid a couple of scav walking around the area and almost got caught, but I got saved by the sound of the gunshot that distracted them and I get passed them easily, anyway, I proceed to go down to the underground metro station, after I got to the metro, the place is pretty dark and I can't see sh*t, so I try to find a flashlight at the utility room of the metro.
take a while to find it inside the filing cabinet, I grab the flashlight and put it inside my chest rig pouch, I go back to the metro tunnels and turn on the flashlight towards the dark tunnels, the light from the flashlight shining the dark of the tunnels.
I walked through the tunnels metro for 20 minutes and found another tunnel on the right, the further I walked the rails began to stop and I found a bunker door to the left, I twisted the door handle and went down the stairs below, and another metal door I have to open.
After I open the door, I see rubble, trash, and debris scattered around the bomb shelter, the place is the same as the game hideout but bigger and has more room inside of it, "finally I found it, alright I will make this place for my hideout for now on", feeling tired after searching around, I drop my duffle bag to the floor and I slump down to the wall, with no energy left to clean the place, I sleep in the rough ground while hugging my ak, while planning my next step tomorrow.
+——————————————————+
[Current gear]
Armor vest: None
Chest rig: WARTECH TV-109 + TV-106
Primary weapon: stock AK 103
Secondary weapon: None
Backpack: Duffle bag
Outfit: a black hoodie, black sweatpants, and white sneakers
+——————————————————+
