Kyoko peered out from the bell tower scanning the streets through the scope on her sniper rifle.

 

The sun was just rising over the horizon. The streets were empty, so no targets were presenting themselves. Not that she wanted to indiscriminately murder anyone walking past. Oh no, she had a very specific target; Toshi. She had finally had enough of all his crap. Today there was going to be a reckoning. Today she was going to finally murder that bastard.

 

Kyoko texted her friends, [He's not down main street. Anyone spot him?]

Choko strode down the middle of Moscow in the chicken walker, [Don't worry about it. I got the only suit of power armor left and blew up the rest of the Military Base. We got him.]

Shirori finished climbing up the steps and made her way to the roof of the hotel, [Don't let your guard down. Something is up with him.]

Momoko just scanned around out one of the hotel windows, [Hey, he's the one who asked for a four on one. We-]

 

An echoing boom could be heard from the base of the hotel, immediately followed by the near simultaneous double echo of two doors slamming shut. Kyoko yelled reflexively, "He's door launching!"

 

In Totally Unknown Grand Battles, there is a rather dedicated fan base who enjoy playing the game. The game is known to have more than a few glitches. The developers are known to only fix the glitches that create lag or crash the game. Everything else is called an 'undocumented feature'.  Normally a door pushes you when it opens or closes, but it is possible to destroy a door and then build a new door in the empty frame. If you start to build a second door as the first one finishes spawning in, both doors will open and close when you hit TAB. Stand in the middle as you close the doors, you and the doors will occupy the same space. Because so many players complained that this would make you fall through the floor, they changed it to glitch you left or right. Normally.

 

People figured out if you were in the air when this happened, not from jumping, but from the physics engine, you would get launched straight up. FAST. While you were going straight up, you would pass right through most solid objects, as long as you never fully went into an open space. You could go all the way to the top of a structure. Since players loved building sky bases, some of them used this as a feature, because otherwise it might take forever to get to the top.

 

A skilled user could also phase up through multiple floors very quickly and, if they timed it right, step out on the floor they want. Most players didn't do this in combat because you usually needed to grenade hop to pull it off. However, there was one weapon that had more than enough kickback to let you pull this off without injuring yourself: The Blunderbuss.

 

Which, coincidentally, is the same weapon Toshi used to make Momoko's head explode when he popped out of the floor behind her.

 

Momoko unleashed a torrent of curses as she despawned to Cyberia, the waiting lobby for TUBG, "Fatherfucker!" She leaned over to the computer next to her and pointed at Shiori's mini map, "He's right there!" She nodded and started to move over to that part of the roof to drop grenades down to the room he was last seen in. Choko brought the Chicken walker up to full speed and came running up the road to the front of the hotel, "I'm out front! Get him to go out the front!" Kyoko cursed, "He can hear you! He's right over there! Text that shit!" Choko stuck her tongue out, "I'm in a vehicle. It's not like he's not going to see me!"

 

Vehicles in TUBG were instakill weapons if they ran over you. To compensate, most vehicles had wide turning bases. They usually were slow to get moving and had delays to give other players a fighting chance. The Chicken Walker was one of the few exceptions. It could move sideways, turn quickly, and had twin miniguns. The only downside was it was big, loud, and you couldn't manipulate anything while driving it. They also took out the crouch feature for it, because people were 'butt-walking' their way inside buildings making them unstoppable. They would ignore most small arms fire and just 'waddled' people to death.  

 

(Side note, It was called a walker because it moved around on backward bending legs. However, it was the fact players would 'waddle' around inside buildings to kill people is where it got the 'chicken' part of its nickname.)

 

Shiori started to crouch-sprint-roll which could glitch your camera in third person and let you see through the floor. She caught a glimpse of Toshi and grinned, "Got him!" Shooting holes through the roof to the top floor, she started to unleash a deluge of Igloonades. Grenades that turned into igloos. They didn't do any damage if you got hit, but if you did get nailed, you got surrounded by an igloo that could partially phase through any surrounding structures. Victims  could only come out one way by crawling, which made them a sitting duck. If they just decided to wait until it despawned, after two minutes it would suddenly shrink, crushing the occupant. They also served to fill up space, so even if you missed, you could use it to block doorways and corridors quite easily.

 

Shiori just liked using them 'cause funny.

 

She sowed grenades like seeds, sealing off the exits out of the top floor of the hotel. It's why she loved the hotel as her preferred killing ground. She knew the weak spots in the roof like the back of her hand and knew exactly how to trap someone inside, "Got Him!" Shiori dropped down into the main hallway on the top floor. All the doors off the hallway were sealed with ice domes. At one end of the hallway was the single igloo that held Toshi. She took aim at the igloo at the end of the hallway and waited for it to implode and kill him, or for him to crawl out, "Either way..." She mumbled to herself.

 

Another interesting mechanic of the game was building vehicles.

 

You couldn't make anything special, simple makeshift go carts, basically, but you could attach buildable items on them. They also exploded very well so a typical tactic was to almost finish building a car, finish next to an enemy base, then back off and shoot the gas tank. They also had a strange glitch that if you built them in a space that was too small for them, they would become immune to walls until they drove out into an open space. Not floors, just walls.

 

Technically, igloos were coded as walls.

 

Toshi, trapped inside the igloo, finished building his makeshift go-cart, slapped a metal sheet on the front as armor, and immediately got inside it as it appeared inside the igloo. He wouldn't be able to see around the giant sheet of metal, but then again, he didn't need to. There was only one way to drive once you got out of the igloo.

 

When Shiori saw the headlights coming for her, she realized she had turned the hallway into her own grave, "Shit on me." She cursed as she emptied the remainder of her clip into her inevitable encounter with death by vehicular manslaughter.  As Toshi ran her down with a go-cart, she tore off and slammed her headset on the keyboard, "FUCK! Choko! He's coming out-"

 

Choko did not need to be told. She could not miss him as he drove right out the front of the hotel and came arcing down straight into Choko's chicken walker. A strange quirk of the physics engine was that vehicles could 'steer' as they fell.  Choko cursed and rolled to the side, narrowly missing getting flattened by the plummeting cart, "HA! Not today, Tosh-"

 

Toshi had jumped out of the car as it left the building and somehow managed to cling to the side of the hotel. As the Go-cart hit the ground next to Choko, he fired his blunderbuss at it and the go-cart's very full gas tanks exploded. The resulting detonation engulfed the chicken walker causing it and Choko to both despawn.

 

Kyoko had moved to the other side of the bell tower to get a better angle. She couldn't get a bead on Toshi up until this point, but now he was on the side of a building with absolutely no cover. She took aim through the scope, zeroing in on his position. Toshi muttered, "Kyoko, you are so predictable." Kyoko got Toshi in her crosshairs and was able to see him clearly.

 

Specifically, she could see he switched out his weapon for a remote detonator.

 

The entire bell tower went up like the fourth of July from all the C-5 he had planted up there at the start of the match. Toshi leaned back as the game ended.

 

MATCH OVER

WINNER:

DoctorVulgar

 

Monoko cursed then got up from her seat. She stalked over to Toshi's computer, "Something doesn't add up." She leaned in while Toshi just looked at her with a grim expression, "Look, if you are going to be a sore loser-" Monoko grabbed Toshi's mouse and double clicked on his stats. She pointed at the computer screen, "I KNEW IT! You never could have reloaded a blunderbuss that fast! You used a cash shop item!" She looked up at the others, "Triple The Ammo!"

 

The rest started to stand up and grumble, "Whoa! I thought this was a friendly game!" and "Cash shop?" and "What The FUCK, Toshi?"

 

Toshi glared, "Oh, you didn't complain when I paid for the GPU upgrades on everyone's computers so we could all play TUBG! Spending a hundred thousand yen on my friends is okay, but fifty on getting a three round magazine for my blunderbuss is TOO MUCH?" Kyoko walked over to glare down at Toshi, "It isn't about the money, its about a level playing field! We all agreed to it!" Toshi kicked his swivel chair away from his computer then pushed off to stand up, "Oh? So I guess I'm just a cheater, right?" He started waving his arms around, "Once a cheater, always a cheater, right?"

 

Everyone else started to look at each other and then back at Toshi looking really confused. Shiori stepped closer and eyed Toshi up and down, "You okay? This isn't like you?" Monoko nodded, "Yeah. Who put a bug up your ass?" Toshi looked at Monoko, "Why is everyone obsessed with my ass?" Shiori shook her head, "Toshi, nobody-" Toshi cut her off, "I already got a therapist, Tin Grin." Shiori physically staggered backwards covering her mouth. Her bracers were a particular sore spot. Toshi hit her right where it hurt.

 

Kyoko glared at Toshi, "What. The. Fuck?"

 

Toshi watched Shiori stagger and turn away, hiding her mouth. He instantly regretted it. He reached out towards her but Monoko stepped in between and put her hands on her hips as she confronted Toshi, "Why are you such an Asshole? You've been a jerk since you came down here! Everyone has a bad day now and then, but you're being a total fatherfucking dick!" Everyone else in the room looked shocked. Toshi was being an ass, but those were fighting words. Toshi, on the other hand, almost laughed in her face. He realized he'd come down here with an attitude problem and was taking it out on everyone, but he didn't quite know how to walk it back.

 

"I got to go the bathroom."

 

Toshi just turned and started walking out. Now it was Monoko's turn to feel awkward. She misread Toshi's expression. Where as he was just trying to cool off, she thought she had really hurt his feelings. She frowned deeply at Toshi's back as he walked away. Monoko reached for him, then abruptly facepalmed, "Fuck." Toshi disappeared around the corner and disappeared into the dimly lit stacks. He called out, "I actually do need to go the bathroom. I'll be back."

 

When Toshi stepped out of the room, Monoko looked at Kyoko, "Typical guy. He can dish it out but he can't take it." Shiori softly retorted, "You did go a bit too far there." Monoko glared at Shiori, "Don't simp for the guy! He knows what a sore spot your teeth are! He's being an asshole! Don't put up with his shit!" She put out a fist towards Shiori, "Chicks before dicks, am I right?" She looked downcast, but returned the fist bump and spoke with a tone that didn't sound like she believed what she was saying, "Chicks before dicks." Choko finally spoke up, "I wonder what's going on with him? He isn't usually like this." She looked around, "Did any of you accuse him of cheating?"

 

The rest of the group just shook their heads.

 

---

 

Toshi went out into the hallway and turned right. There were two bathrooms down here, but since almost no boys came down here, the men's room was poorly maintained with only one functional toilet. The bathroom didn't even have a door, but it did have a long corridor with a bend so you couldn't see inside. Toshi hated using it because when you flushed the one toilet, you had to carefully jiggle the handle or it would get stuck on perma-flush. Fortunately Toshi only had to take a leak, so he just relived himself in the sink. Running the water to wash everything away, he paused to wash his hands.  Drying off with the back of his shirt, Toshi took a moment to collect his thoughts before he  proceeded to leave the bathroom.

 

And walked straight into Jin Takana.

 

Takana grabbed Toshi and pushed him back into the first bend of the bathroom and much to Toshi's surprise, performed a wall slam pinning Toshi in a corner. With leering faces and malevolent auras, the eighteen year old and her two friends loomed over the smaller fifteen year old, "Hello, Angel-cakes." Takana said sweetly as she leaned in close enough for Toshi to feel her breath on his cheek.

 

"I told you I always get what I'm owed."