NoveLight ™
"Looks like I need to investigate Maverick's movements."
"...?"
After finishing the meat party with Harmony and Dice, I turned on the stream the next day and entered EU. As soon as I logged in, the manager greeted me. Though it wasn't exactly a greeting, more like a sudden appearance while I was walking near the gear box.
But, since it was a game, I didn’t care too much about how they got in here. What mattered was the key phrase—Maverick. In the main storyline, Maverick was just a regular merchant, but in my scenario route, he was different.
It’s hard to say exactly how, but one thing was clear—he was definitely more of a villain than a hero, and the other seven merchants were keeping a close eye on him.
Seeing him come directly here meant he was probably reaching a breaking point.
I sat down across from a rather questionable table.
The explanation began.
"Do you know what my position is?"
"I can roughly guess you’re in a position where you sit on a fancy chair and boss people around."
"Sharp-tongued. Well, that’s about the gist of it. And as you’ve probably guessed, in a position like this, sometimes… you need to prepare for collateral damage. Or prevent such situations from happening in the first place."
"Collateral damage."
The mention of Maverick’s movements and collateral damage. The fact that these things were brought up usually meant one conclusion—one was the cause, and the other was a likely result.
This wasn’t Cash Mendoza, and the reason Maverick came to me was that the manager was probably in a position where they had to deal with or possibly take responsibility for the second potential outcome.
I had a rough idea about this and added:
"I think I have a general idea of the situation. What kind of information did you obtain?"
"Maverick made contact with Artemis."
"That’s pretty impressive. Doesn’t feel like a good sign though."
"Exactly."
He continued explaining.
He pulled a few sheets of paper out of an A4 envelope and showed them to me. They were photos. Specifically, aerial shots, and from the text in the lower right corner, it seemed they had been taken using some kind of UAV reconnaissance tool.
The first photo was of a man—someone I had seen before among the merchants. Maverick was leading a group of armed men into a high-value research facility. If he had been massacred inside, he wouldn’t be here talking to me now.
The next photo was taken about an hour later. One shot was of him entering, and the other was of him leaving.
I spoke carefully.
"What did he discuss with Artemis?"
"I can’t quite guess. Maybe, for personal protection and organizational survival, he might have sought Artemis’s help. After being caught in this surveillance net, it was a done deal for him to reorganize the group."
"Hmm."
That was a plausible explanation, but I had a strong feeling that situations like these usually led to worse outcomes than I imagined.
One possible conclusion was...
"It won’t end there."
"What do you mean?"
"If Maverick paid some sort of price, where do you think Artemis’s gun will aim?"
It was a classic trade-off.
I wasn’t sure exactly what Maverick had promised Artemis, nor could I guarantee that Artemis would definitely raid this place, but still... people like him usually gave back more than what they had received, even if it meant sacrificing a lot.
I didn’t really care about these people much. I was just wandering around the map, doing what I was asked. But if this was the scenario I wanted to play out, so be it.
The manager, understanding everything, frowned but nodded. I casually asked without much thought:
"So, what are you asking me to do this time?"
"Get into the high-value research facility. Find out what happened there. If you can get your hands on any audio recordings, bring those too. The internal defense force might have a keycard that can access the deeper sections. You might have to visit several times."
At the same time, he placed something on the table.
It was a set of keycards. Required access for entering the high-value research facility. I recalled that these were being sold at high prices at flea markets, and the number on the table, at a glance, seemed to be over 10.
Seems like he came really prepared for this.
"Let’s bring back some good results."
"Just don’t be too late."
With that, the manager quietly left, and immediately, a mission popped up on my wristwatch.
Enter the high-value research facility, capture at least 25 defense soldiers or users, obtain a keycard for deeper section access randomly, get into the control room, and copy the audio recordings from a specific date. A large military-grade USB is needed for the copy, and it cannot be recovered upon death.
Seeing that, I muttered under my breath.
"A large military USB, how much was that going for at the flea market again..."
Well, that’s true.
I was a little surprised this was happening so soon after starting the game, but in the end, it just meant I had to do what I’ve been doing all along—kill everything I see and sweep it all up.
Despite playing EU for several weeks, I had never entered the high-value research facility. Otherwise known as the Wilderness—a map where you couldn’t retrieve weapons and items through insurance, but where high-value items could be found in abundance. Full of armed AI troops.
There was no better place for me to loot a bunch of decent weapons.
I opened the gear box and entered. There were various guns available, but as usual, I went for the one closest to me. A massive sniper rifle with a suppressor, at least 49 inches long, a semi-automatic sniper rifle that was over 1.3m.
Mjölnir.
It was time to unleash thunder over the high-value research facility.
"I’ve got enough ammo, four mags should be fine. The map layout needs some checking, so about 10 minutes of prep should do."
As always, the viewers in the chat were wildly off-topic, but I paid them no mind. I began carefully loading my gun and inserting AP rounds into the magazines. It would have been more fun if I had an M107CQB Barrett, but unfortunately, a 50 caliber rifle hadn’t been released yet—though there was a Russian-made Ash.
Praying for those high-powered guns to be released soon, I stuffed all the items and special items from the lighthouses into my bag and thigh pouches. I took a deep breath and spread out the map of the research facility. It was ridiculously complex, so I figured I’d need to explore a bit on my first run.
I’ll probably get in quicker than I thought.