"Oi? Whaddya doin, all by yerself at this bar?" One of the fellow Golden Guardian members asked, noticing the black hooded Arina sitting at the bar minding her own business, writing note all in the small notebooks she had. She rolled her eyes, seriously wishing to stay out of whatever this guy wanted. Gods, he had all his character armor on, and it regrettably did not hide the smell he had emanating off him. He was with a few of his buddies, no doubt all in a party, and he was intent on getting Arina to notice him.

"Y'better know what's good for ya, young lady, or else y've'ta answer to me, Lord Reddick the Rhino! Now, I'm sure I asked ye a question?" Sheesh, what a name. He almost smelled like a rhino at that. Arina sighed to herself before she turned around to look at 'Reddick the Rhino' before she realized that maybe his name wasn't too far off. He certainly looked the part, or at least, she wanted to say he did. He didn't catch on to who Arina was at first, maybe because she was technically logged out and didn't like showing her face. If it was any reason, it'd be one of those. Regardless, he placed a hand down on the counter beside Arina as he pressed forward, Arina simply bringing up the page to let her log back in.

"Listen here, lassie. Me and m'boys can take ye home, make sure yer safe, if y'want. With people like Graph'te 'round, ye'd d'well wit some comp'n-" Reddick stopped as he watched the girl's outfit finally materialize over her, her model reflecting that of what his superior was. Pestilent simply stared at him, drawing a frowny face on her mask all the while. "Yes? You were saying something?"

Reddick quickly stood back up, raising a hand to his forehead and saluting at his deputy. "M-Milady Em'rald! Aye, 'give me! I didn't know 'twas ye! I-I was wonder'n if'n ya needed some help writin' yer guide!" Reddick quickly changed his entire outlook of Pestilent with his switch, staring at his superior like he knew he had fucked up... which, he did, but whatever.

"Thank you, but I'm quite alright doing this alone. Rest assured, the captain will be hearing about this good work you've done, offering to help, though." Pestilent smirked, swiveling her chair around and leaving Reddick... very scared. He awkwardly shuffled back over to his posse of rank smelling dudes, leaving Pestilent to chuckle to herself.

"God, some of these Golden Members and their gall," she commented, sipping away at her root beer.

---

"Hmm, this place is beginning to get pretty crowded," Thea thought as more HGO players she knew the face of filtered into the bar one after the other. "Sure it's not that bad of a place but I doubt it's good enough to attract this crowd of try-hard newts, unless—" just as she was about to reach a reasonable conclusion to her train of thought a voice interrupted her.

Well, two to say the truth, one of them being none other than Saffron making a fool of herself—which Thea made sure to record for obvious reasons—and the other was much closer.

"Really, I can't come to a place like this without some random nitwit trying to hit on me?" she thought as she turned around.

"Excuse me, do I know you from somewhere?" She asked in an uninterested tone. "Well, it's not like it matters anyway. It's not like I care for you virgin noobs and your lame-o LARPing. I did that because I was bored, don't expect it to happen again any time soon."

"Now... Hey, where's my pizza!?" Thea said turning around and waving her hand to whoever was the slowpoke running this place.

---

“Sheesh Thea, relax a little!” came a voice to match the Red Deputy’s spiteful tone. The number of people who could easily approach the girl without getting their head bit off was far and few between, but of those few was the one and only. Before Thea could respond, a small and piping hot circular pan of pizza settled in front of her. The hand that settled it belonged to none other than Kenji. Those of the HGO world knew him by another name though; Scorched Spiriah, leader of the Read Team.

“I had a feeling you were getting antsy so I made sure they made it quick and fresh. Hope it’s to your liking,” said the boy, sliding up a spare chair to sit beside his Deputy. Xander didn’t go unnoticed though because the blonde boy flashed him a light grin. “Hope she didn’t try to shoot you for talking to her. She can be so trigger happy, both in-game and in be-” Very conveniently, Kenji’s pocket buzzed, and he flashed out a phone, swiftly answering the text and avoiding whatever repercussion could be made.

“Anyway, whatever she said to you, don’t take it personal buddy. She likes growling at everyone not from our team!” With that said, the conversation was struck up and mitigated for however long it took, or at least until the bar closed and its owner kicked them all out. One would have thought the grand opening of an HGO-themed bar would have extended its hours for the first night. But apparently the bartender didn’t plan that far ahead in advance, as per usual.

Regardless, the bustle and buzz of HGO eventually calmed itself to a familiar boil just beneath the surface. It was to a great deal of surprise the players found the new Undead Horde update ready to go as soon as they awoke. Granted, it was only a demo practice. Even still, the majority of HGO’s community were eager to try it out, many a Japanese youth unrestful for the rest of the day until the time came to test out their meddle and luck.

It was mid-afternoon when most gathered either at their Faction Hubs or their own individual hangout spots. For the Scourgers, it was downtown, the Crusaders further north of the city, and the Guardians gathered somewhere to the east at the city’s grand library. With the lowlight and dipping sun casting shadows over the world, it made for the perfect atmosphere to prepare their nerves in defeating the shuffling death hordes.

---

---

"Wow. You really are always this venomous.” Xander remarked unsurprised by Theana’s hostility. “First of all; none of your business. Second of all; I’m not a LARPer, I’m a Cru-” The boy ended his rebuttal short as he glanced back at the scene unfolding with the Crusader’s ever professional Deputy Saffron. Giving his alliance would probably not help his case at this moment. ”-I mean, that’s also none of your business.”

Before things could get further heated, Kenji, the Captain of the Scourgers and Theana’s boyfriend took a seat and defused the situation almost instantly. For a guy whose specialty was PvP, he seemed very adept at peacemaking.

”It’s cool. Was just curious about her motives in the raid, but I guess some things are better left as a mystery.” He said turning his gaze back to Theana as a subtle way to let her know he didn’t buy her story. She very well could have been telling the truth and was just bored, but something told him there had to be more to it.

Regardless, Xander wasn’t oblivious to social queues. Now that the couple was seated and had their food, they would want to dine in peace. Luckily for Xander he spotted a rather ravishing looking woman with fiery orange hair sitting alone at the bar.

”Anyway, I’ll let you two enjoy your dinner. I’m gonna see if I can’t get at least one number tonight. Cheers.

---

As predicted, Xander ended the night with five strikes and a cold shower. At least the kind folks at HGO knew how to get his mind off of things. He awoke the next day to find a beta demo of the Horde mode was to be released that afternoon and pretty much every player was eager to try it out. After a few odd missions here and there to kill time, Royal Ranger made his way to the Crusader’s main hub well before the scheduled start time and began setting up.

Finding a structure with the highest vantage point with a clear view of the area, Royal made himself at home. Checking for all possible points of entry, the sniper made sure any enemy would be warmly greeted by a claymore mine. Once he was satisfied with his defences, Royal took a knee and placed his rifle against an adjacent wall. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a metallic cylinder and grabbed hold of the ring on the top. A soft ksh sounded as the highly caffeinated energy drink was opened and half of it was chugged away. Setting the unfinished can to the side, Royal grabbed his rifle and hopped on the team chat.

”This is Royal Ranger checking in. I’m setup in the NorthWest with minimal obstructions. Should be able to provide overwatch for the whole area so gimme a shout if you need some support. Now who’s ready to tag and bag these undead freaks?”

The Cobalt Crusaders who logged on today walked the streets cautiously, unsure of what dangers awaited them in the all new Undead Horde update. Saffron of course lead the group, never once showing a hint of fear as she kept an ear out for trouble. "That's the spirit Ranger! #@$! yeah!" She pumped her fist in excitement as the guild approached a ruined intersection. Her voice echoed through the empty streets, cutting through the silence like a hot knife through butter, or a scalpel through flesh.

Ranger would likely spot it before anyone else, the telltale glint of a sniper scope on the top floor of a building near the Crusaders. But by the time he spotted it, it was already too late. A cloud of dark smoke appeared in the middle of the intersection, five shambling figures dressed in tactical armor emerging from the cloud and approaching the Crusaders with a menacing aura. From what little of their faces could be glimpsed, the sunken in eyes and shriveled skin made it very clear that these were the zombies that would be their foes. "Huh. That's it? I was kinda expecting mo-" Whatever that Crusader had to say was quickly interrupted, as the zombies reached into their left palms and pulled out assault rifles from seemingly nothing.

Saffron's uncovered eye widened as the assault squad aimed in unison, throwing down a deployable wall and pulling a low level player who was close to her behind the cover. Everyone else would have to fend for themselves as the zombies began firing, tearing into the guild as they advanced. "Whoever brought cover, deploy right now! Everyone else, find cover!" She yelled as she began spinning up her minigun, emerging from cover and firing on the zombies to draw aggro. She cursed as the energy bullets pounded into them with little effect, she clearly hadn't considered the idea that they may be considered human targets. After taking a few bullets herself, she withdrew back into cover and opened up her menu, frantically searching for some sort of bullet based weapon she had stored away in her inventory.

"Boo!" Black Cat bounced up behind Royal Ranger. He had stayed logged out, inadvertently skipping the mines, to not trigger on the minimap or guild lists, and quietly crept up while Royal Ranger was on team chat. Then, he logged in at the last minute and made his loud declaration of Halloween spirit.

"Soooo, the Halloween Cosmetics shop has some neat new stuff. Like this skull." Black Cat had an entirely new outfit that still didn't count in any way shape or form as armor, and thus provided no bonuses. He proffered the skull up to Royal Ranger, before twirling in his black frilly dress adorned with purple butterflies to show it off.

"Anyway, count yourself on infinite ammo, bro. I'll maybe keep an eye out for anyone creeping up the other way." Black Cat aimed a sporting punch at Royal's shoulder, as he offered to be a really shitty spotter. Regardless, his drone did forge an energy connection with Royal's Rifle, providing it indeed, infinite ammo.

@Awesomoman64

---

"I'm calm, y'know. It's not my fault if people take everything as an offense these days," Thea replied to a voice well known to her without even needing turn around to ascertain that it was indeed Kenji there. Perhaps it was the power of a well-balanced relationship, who knows? "Anyway, you don't need to go around spewing stuff about us in public to break the ice. I'm not going to chew these lame LARPer's heads out or anything like this," she said just as Xander was about to leave them.

The grin in her face, however, told everything Kenji needed to know. The night was sure going to be busy...


On the following afternoon, Thea waited for the arrival of the undead hordes in the Scourger's gathering spot while listening to a few climatic songs. Along with her, there was a good portion of the Red Guild, all of them eager to have some proper fun.

"Listen up everyone!" she said as she took the frontline and raised her gun overhead. "Let's throw in a little bet to make things more interesting. If any of you get a score higher than mine, I'll go on a date with whoever gets the most points today. But if no one does it, y'all will have to treat me to a night at the city's fanciest steakhouse!" Thea, or rather Graphite yelled with a savage grin stamped on her face.

As expected of the Scourgers, the declaration from their overly aggressive, almost bandit princess-like, Deputy set them on fire, despite it actually being a bet where Thea had nothing to lose regardless of the outcome.

And just as Thea finished fanning the flames of her guild, the night's honor guests made themselves known in a rather striking fashion.

"Woah, so cool! I was expecting a buncha shambling corpses but this is way cooler. Very well, then... Scourgers... LET'S GIVE 'EM HELL!"

And, just as she shouted, Graphite was the first to charge at the enemy, closing the distance to the first of them while using a combination of her shields and hard cover to avoid any damage. As soon as she was almost at melee range she charged in even harder, skidding to a halt with her gun right in the zombie's face and...

"Hey, that's not fair! Cool, but not fair," she complained as the created dodged a zero-range shot, bending backward like some sort of twisted gymnast before trying to retaliate with a backflip kick and a hail of gunfire.

"Sadly for you, I know some cool moves too!" Thea shouted as she crouched, bracing herself against the kick, before stepping forward, hitting the enemy in the chest with her elbow, followed up with an immediate blast which was avoided when the zombie used his rifle to throw Graphite's shotgun off its mark, and she followed up with kick to the inner side of his knee, and...

So, they began their battle of gun kata. This was really going to be much cooler than Thea expected it to be.

---

“Does she have to get so riled up all the time?” The answer was yes, because hot-blooded battle maniacs like Graphite lived to die on the killing floors. Kenji watched his Deputy give her rousing speech from a few feet, leaning back on the side of a building with arms crossed. He usually left the heavy lifting up to her and, given his Faction’s results, it seemed to be working. Everyone was properly pumped up and ready to face the undead horde, despite the ominous digital fog blanketing the city. Faint, blood red light markers in the distance would serve as indicators of where the play areas were, though all the public would usually see were a bunch of teens being overly dramatic.

“Speaking of dramatic, I guess it can’t be helped,” Kenji said with a sigh as the game began, logging in and adorning his avatar. In little time, the Red Leader, Scorch Spiriah stood in Kenji’s place, a small grin welcoming the shambling shapes in the foggy darkness that stumbled his way. As usual of his nature, he decided hanging back at base was the least amount of effort. Being the sole player still present, it was no surprise the zombie-like AI surrounded him and lunged out for blood. No sooner had they done so did their bodies crumble in digitized ashes and fragmented data, fired bullets plopping to the ground in melted messes.

There was, of course, a reason the others often left their leader in solidary action. “Come on HGO, you can do better than that,” Scorch Spiriah said, blue dots seeming to gleam nastily behind his mask. The temperature around his body skyrocketed in just a few seconds and from a distance, players from all sides could see a tornado of gathering flame and fire engulfing around the Scourger base and cut through the fog as an unintentional beacon. At that focal point was Scorch Spiriah who approached the now slowed down zombies with a steady pace. Armor melted into undead flesh and faces melted into their chests, a welcome sight indeed. “The afterlife only promises Hell for you,” Scorch Spiriah said, grin spreading unhinged to the persistent AI.

Around the city, more of the undead flowed with their contorted movements and shuffling actions; but none of that stopped their quick hand motions and frantic gunfire. One by one by, each Faction was drawn in towards the zombies. As a result, they were also slowly pushed into one another where Factions eventually crossed paths. Visibility and acknowledgment of this fact, of course, was no doubt difficult thanks to the mass fog. Even now, it blanketed Ranger’s vision from his view, and Black Cat was no help in noticing the slow forms scaling up towards their vantage point on the side of their structure. At least the pair had infinite ammo.

As for the Crusaders, their Deputy found herself separated from the group but entirely alone. True to her orders, the Blue players fled to cover wherever they could, but the spray of fire didn’t stop. They continued pounding down on Saffron’s cover spot, so much so she probably didn’t notice the other player until they bumped into her, falling over and down. Immediately they sprawled up to a sitting position and raised their arms up in surrender. It was a wise choice; from the aesthetic of their avatar, one could easily mistake them for a zombie. Just to prove they were a player, they raised up their UI to show their stats and status, revealing they were a solo player with no Faction allegiance.

Probably some dumb fool who wanted to try and solo the horde somehow.

---

"C'mon! We can keep this assault up, can't we?!" Pestilent shouted amongst her fellow Guardians, who were most definitely starting to falter among their own ranks. Most of the guardians who were here were still new, and the distribution of power wasn't exactly the most even thing around. There were squads of five level 1s and squads of six level 3s, though if they fought together things would definitely be working out much better for them. At least they knew that the bladed fighters should stay in the front with everyone else taking up the back, even if they kept backing up into the Grand Library. Hopefully they didn't disturb too much of the peace, Pestilent didn't want to get kicked out of the library.

That being said, Pestilent was easily thriving with the hordes. Sure, undead resisted her unique debuff to a point, but with just how many zombies there were the resistances meant very little to her shields, which held strong. The idea of her debuff not being resisted here made her mouth water behind her mask. Alas, she couldn't do much about that, so she just had to keep things going.

"Hold your charges, knights!" Pestilent commanded the groups, each one responding with their own form of affirmation. "If we stay in here, we're going to get swarmed easily!" She called to her underlings, directing her shield onto a stronger knight so he could take the brunt of the bl-and there he goes. Shame, she really needed a strong knight to-

"Comin' through! Hop'n M'lady Em'rald!" The familiar voice of Lord Reddick the Rhino roared, his arm sweeping up Pestilent onto his shoulders, his lance impaling all the way through a zombie. Pestilent was... surprised, to say the least, though she did know that this might actually be a good idea. She snapped her fingers as her drone rerouted, flying in front of Reddick's lance and activating Unfinished Agony, the zombies in front of Reddick melting in front of him and providing him with shield to keep moving through the crowd.

"Guardians! Charge!!!" The rest of the guardians behind her and Reddick started after the two, following behind them as tons of Ultimates were activated. Dozens of zombies fell, leaving an open pathway for the rest of the Guardians to rush out of the Grand Library and back into the streets, hopefully towards downtown. Strength in numbers was a big idea, so maybe they could get the Crusaders to help them with this chaos.

She glanced down at Reddick. "Nice save, Rhino!"

"No worries! Figured I needed t'make't up t'ya! Kee'up them shields, lass!"

"Will do!"

---

"GAH!” Royal yelled out as the uninvited guest intentionally startled him. “Holy crap, dude. Where did you come from?” The sniper asked as he tried to catch his breath. He was no stranger to the “surprise log in” trick, but this was the first time anyone had done it to him.

As the over eager Black Cat talked about the cosmetic shop, Royal simply shook his head and turned back to his scope. Things were already kicking off as it turned out the undead horde was packing heat, he really didn’t have time for spooky cosmetics. Part of him was considering throwing the cat out to spare him of any unnecessary distractions, but he reconsidered the moment Black Cat made mention of infinite ammo.

”Well well, I remember this little guy.” Royal said recognizing the drone that had given him a charged shot during the raid the day before. ”Alright then, you can stay. Just make sure nothing sneaks up behind us.”

Turning his attention back to the fight below, the ranger once more proved his worth as a marksman. The high wattage of his rifle combined with his junction drive more than made up for the damage reduction on the zombies, and with ammo currently not being an issue, Royal was letting loose. One by one he was dropping every zombies in his cross hairs. Unfortunately, the horde mode was living up to its name. No matter how many he killed, he couldn’t seem to make a dent in their numbers, and the other Crusaders weren’t fairing much better. Things only grew worse as the fog hiding the zombies spawning pushed forward as well.

”Dammit dammit dammit!” Royal cursed as his established over watch slowly lost it’s strategic value. ”Alright. They want to play it that way? Watch this.” He said offhandedly to his spotter.

With the flick of a switch the sniper’s scope changed to have a violet hue illuminating all heat sources with a soft orange glow. Of course the zombies themselves gave off no heat signature, but their weapons sure as hell did. Any of the undead who fired off a shot would be left exposed to Ranger’s laser fury.

Thinking he had turned the fog into his own advantage, Royal was left unaware that the walls of his castle were already being scaled.

@The 42nd Gecko

"Holy shit.. Is that girl doing gun kata? Or is it called gun fu? Regardless, I didn't think humans could think or move that fast, nor that it would be an effective way of using that speed if you could. Huh. I wonder why that zombie is dodging everything but the ones that you're firing at aren't. Maybe it's a range based thing where they don't recognize enemies beyond a certain range, or get buffs in close combat. Or maybe she's just fighting a miniboss." Black Cat spots... some things at least, as he leans over the edge of the building peering around for anything interesting happening, kicking his feet.

"Yikes! And that guy can just summon fuck-off flame waves. Why do we have guns again if you can get that? Is it a rare drop or something to get that power?" Black Cat leaned even further in a new direction after seeing the brilliant fire. He seemed to have no clue about who Scorch Spiriah was, but was impressed by the raw power of his flame.

Suddenly, a hand slammed down on the edge of the building, right next to where Black Cat's hand was. Black Cat's eyes went wide for a moment before backing up and flipping off the upcoming zombie, "Nope, nope. I'm fucking out of here." Black Cat caught a few bullets, each making major dents in his health bar, but nothing else, before Black Cat just started heading down the stairs. Black Cat's Cat Drone, however, stayed with Royal Ranger.

@Awesomoman64

The efforts of Emerald greatly contributed to the continued survival of the Golden Guardians, her shields holding up fairly well under the assault of the zombie horde. Yet the horde was unending, for every zombie they slew yet another emerged from the thick fog to add to the continued onslaught. Soon enough the Golden Guardians would find themselves being pushed back by the assault teams, slowly pushing them to a certain building.

Thea's gunkata was impressive indeed, were any other player to even attempt the aggressive style that the Scourge deputy had adopted then they would have quickly found themselves in a shallow grave as the horde used their superhuman prowess to smash the fool. But Thea's aggressive style would eventually take a zombie out, no doubt giving her a great sense of satisfaction for out gunning the superior foe. But as the rest of the playerbase learned, taking down one zombie was simply not enough, as every one defeated was replaced by two more. The horde advanced onwards and pushed all factions to a central location, a certain building that Royal Ranger built his nest on.

As for that sniper and his cowardly spotter, he would soon find his position compromised as the first zombie reached the top of the building. A rotting hand grasped the ledge of the building near Ranger, the zombie's other hand grabbing at his sniper rifle to push it skyward, stopping any motion to shoot the zombie as it pulled itself onto the building.

As Black Cat retreated into the floors below, noping the fuck out as any sane person would do, he would hear several loud booms below as the first claymores Royal Ranger had planted were detonated by the ascending horde. Seems his sniping had caught their attention, as they were now advancing up the building from both within and without.

"And... got'cha!" Thea, or rather Graphite Daze, said as she finally got the best over the zombie she was fighting against. All it took was getting a hold of its arm and blowing its head off its shoulders with her shotgun. Sure she probably could have done it faster if she wanted to, but where would be the fun in that?

"Really, have you guys never learned that shotguns are like the best weapons to have around in a zombie apocalypse? Go watch any old movies and you'll what I'm talking about," she said to no one in particular, after noticing that the other Red players had spread apart to do their own hunting either in groups or individually, leaving her alone as more undead crept closer and closer. "Well, let's see what you guys are made of. Come and get me if you can," she said as she retreated toward the territory of the other guilds, to see how they were doing, while trading shots with the creatures.

There was good reason Graphite Daze found herself in solitude, the rest of her team having been slowly pinned down by the zombie forces as each and every Faction were being pushed towards Royal Ranger and Black Cat's bastion of a tower. It left the few and far between stragglers to struggle for themselves, but naturally, the Scourger's leadership didn't seem bothered. That was perhaps the best of outcomes, some of the zombies flanking off from the rest of the horde to pursue Graphite. Just before she could reach the net of area closer to the other teams and her own, one of the foremost zombies pursuing her collapsed forward, deader than undead. The rolling of its head on the ground probably had something to do with it, the rest of the pack halting in their step.

Evidently, the cause of it wasn't settled for waiting and made their entrance known easily. Another undead head popped off its neck until barely a few remained between Graphite and her new guest. She stepped out from the shadows of the large alleyway nearest to Graphite, unphased by the stilled horde observing both girls; further proof of their intelligence. Her blade bleaked in black blood before swiftly put out with a single flick of her wrist before she sheated her sword again, eyeing up Graphite with an unreadable expression.

"Hmm?" Graphite pretty much skidded to a halt when she noticed the zombies falling without she doing anything. It took her a brief moment to notice the presence of another player in the area nearby, not anyone she knew, but judging by the other girl's choice of weapons, she was likely a PVPer just as Graphite. "Interesting," she thought as she pointed her gun at the other girl and pulled the trigger without hesitation, blasting a zombie that had crept behind her back to the mist it spawned from.

"Nice moves you got there. Do we know one another from somewhere or are you here just because of luck?" Graphite said as she reloaded her weapon dramatically. "Either way, I like your style. Everyone knows that katanas are like the second best weapon you can have in a zombie apocalypse, right?" she asked with a confident smile in her lips.

The unknown girl remained unflinching by the powerful shot next to her ear, hearing flesh crumble and fall apart behind her. Graphite wasn't a fool; a quick scan over could reveal the new girl was a Solo Player with no affiliation to any other Faction. Naturally of course, her player name was present above her head like everyone else. It read: Moon Rider. The new girl remained still as Graphite took all the time in the world to reload her firearm, even as the clamoring sounds of an undead storm surrounded them. "Is this supposed to be a joke," were Moon Rider's first words, eyes unreadable by her visor. "You're Graphite Daze, right? The Scourger Deputy. You're not as strong as I'd thought you'd be."

By the minute movements and subtle change in posture, Moon Rider was clearly intent to smack around the other player, but just in case it wasn't known, Graphite could feel a cold and uncaring regard wafting from the other girl. After all, even if HGO was currently in its zombie mode, there was nothing prohibiting players from firing on one another, let alone PvP. "You don't have any power worth my time. Not like that over there," Moon Rider said, tilting her head towards the pillar of flame in the distance. "If you're a Deputy, how come your power is so weak compared to your leader's. No, it doesn't matter. My time is spent better in giving you a swift death."

"I prefer to think that I have room to grow. Even though I think I have plenty already," Graphite joked, puffing her chest as she chuckled at her double entrende. She rested her gun on her shoulder without a care in the world as she listened to this Moon Rider girl who practically wafted hostility off every pore in her body.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about that. The hot head over there gets too good for his own good sometimes, y'know? What fun would it if I just one-shotted everything that the other guilds have to throw at me?" she said after being questioned about her "weakness". "But sure, if you wanna come at me, I'm not gonna run. Give me your best shot—er... slash, Sis," Graphite said as she got ready to take on the other girl.

"That's not very classy for someone's dying words," Moon Rider noted, before zipping on over to Graphite. Her steps held confidence in them and with that confidence came an athleticism that made her appear faster than normal; fast enough to be in front of Graphite in mere moments. Her hands didn't stifle either, slamming the end of her sheath into Graphite's gut. Hand still on the blade's guard, she released it in one fell movement to bring an upwards slash right across the arm holding her gun and cutting into Graphite's shoulder. Digital red splotched from the attack, Moon Rider already twisting around to slam a foot into the same spot her blade had made an indent in.

"It's not my fault that you don't get joke. Or maybe, did you get it a little too well?" Graphite smirked while looking at Moon Rider's chest.

Not a even a minute later, she was already being assaulted by the other player. The speed of the strike was impressive indeed, but not enough that Graphite couldn't shave part of it off using her gun to parry the blade with her armor took care of the rest.

"That's not half bad. I guess I really like your style," she said as she rolled back with the kick, taking the chance to counter with a shot from nearly zero range. "Try parrying this," Graphite smirked as she unleashed the hail of buckshot.

Parry Moon Rider did, body working at a devilish pace. Leaping up high, Moon Rider avoided the nearly point blank shot effortlessly, though her momentum had to go somewhere. Gravity dictated it could only go down, and so she did, right onto Graphite. Feet first, she landed atop the other girl with blade raised high to strike down. A satisfying thunk of wetness was heard as Moon Rider blade sank into Graphite's other shoulder. Moon Rider wasted no time in burying the blade deeper, letting her blade run clean through or wrenching Graphite's shoulder off completely; whichever happened first.

"Well, you really know how to make a girl swoon, don't ya?" Graphite joked even as she laid on the ground stabbed by the other girl. It seems that her armor wasn't that great against blades, which is only to be expected, but that didn't forbid her from having a good time with the fight even as her HP reached zero in a matter of seconds. "I'll give ya this one, but next time around I'll show you a thing or two," Thea said as her game avatar faded.

"Sure you will," Moon Rider mused as the other player faded away into shattered fragments of code and data. Sheathing her blade, she quickly noted the shuffling approach of undead steps in her direction before slipping back into the shadows of the alleyway. It was a shame the Red Faction was without their Deputy now, leaving a logged out and ruffled Thea alone with a bunch of players running past from invisible obstacles. But then again, if she was so weak to have lost so easily, she didn't deserve to be Deputy as far as Moon Rider was concerned.

---

---

“Hey! Where are you going?” Royal called out to Black Cat as his spotter abandoned his post. It was only after the words had left his lips did he feel the barrel of his rifle get pushed skyward and his eyes locked with the scaling zombie. Instinctively Royal jumped back out of clawing distance and pulled the trigger. He watched with panicked breathing as the corpse was knocked from its perch and fell from the window. A close call to be sure, but it wouldn’t compare to what was to come.

While the immediate threat had been dealt with, the sound of his claymore mines going off below brought the sniper no comfort. His position was compromised and his only defense had already been exhausted. He had to follow Black Cat’s example and leave now.

Without another thought, Royal turned on the team chat. “Attention Crusaders. My position is compromised. You’ll have to go without sniper support until I can relocate. If I don’t make it out of here, I’ll see you all at the after party.”

Switching off his mic, the Ranger scooped up the half full energy drink can he had left and chugged what remained. Sliding the empty can into his bag, he bolted down the stairs after his feline companion. Assuming he hadn’t already made it out or been mauled on his way.

By blessing or curse, the Horde’s instincts to push the online players to one location had effectively worked. Members of each of the three colored Factions found themselves bumping into each other more than they would have liked. But given the obvious circumstances of their situation, none of them were prone to complain when the Horde proved to be harder than any of them expected. For the Scorchers, it was especially discouraging to learn that their Deputy had fallen in battle, though not for the reasons they thought.

Of course, with more people pinned in one location, that meant more firepower to bring in said location. Even as Black Cat found the hallways filled with roaming and armored corpses, it wasn’t long before resulting fire from just beyond their sights paved somewhat of a way through. That was because the lower floors of the building were nearly chaos, players fending for themselves while some huddled as one blob to fend back the encroaching Horde.

Scorchers, Guardians, and Crusaders alike bustled about while the Horde moved in their alien, sporadic fashion. By the time Black Cat’s would-be companion caught up with him, the Horde that scaled the building in true undead fashion had already taken over Ranger’s former perch. It wouldn’t be long then before the rest of the gathered players were scissored off by an attack from below and above. The last bastion of their salvation had somehow become their tomb.

Only the players who were really paying attention-which was far and in between given the frantic shooting-would note that the set timer for the new game mode was about to run out. After all, it was only a trial period to test out the new HGO mechanics. All everyone had to do now was just survive a little longer and they’d be rewarded with a survival bonus. Even so, all sorts of events could happen in the span of a single minute.

---

"Really? I've got basically no HP left." Black Cat stares with trepidation at the wide ranging battle. He finds a cabinet against a wall, shoving it a few inches out, and then wedges himself behind it to hide.

He taps at his interface, sending his Drone to skitter around the floor recharging everyone's ammo. At this point, everyone who could distract the zombies was on his team, unless they were particularly interested in searching behind a cabinet to kill a level 1 character. "Every group of these things seems to behave different... Maybe that streamer girl's thing has some hints?" Black Cat was confused at how the event worked, and decided to spend his time, perhaps a little on the late side, pulling up the internet for people's real time analysis of what was going on. Maybe someone who had an outside overview perspective had figured things out.

---

After being knocked out Thea took a break from the battle. When she came back to the conflict zone, the Scourgers' deputy had a half-eaten hot-dog in a hand and a can of coke on the other.

"Hey, you better work it hard if you don't wanna become zombie food," Thea said on the open game chat, the coloring of her words, making it obvious that she was talking about the other guilds. "Also, it's not because I got knocked out by a weirdo that it means that you guys can slack off. If we don't get the high score in this test, I'm taking my bet off, y'know?" she said to the rest of her guild as she observed them through Gundanko's stream.

However, the thing she was actually looking for was nowhere to be seen. "Where in the world could that sword chick be?" Thea thought as she looked around, searching for her assassin.

Sadly, she wouldn't be able to continue her search for much longer, since the stream finally came to an end, moment after the beta test's clock reached zero. At the same time, all players would find themselves being logged out for maintenance. A fitting end for such a test.

---

P.E. didn't expect this to be how she'd continue her fight, riding atop a large man that smelled vaguely of sweat and cheetos, but here she was. The zombies definitely picked up as the Golden Guardians pushed out of the library and moved forward. They ran their way down the street, still spearing zombies left and right while infecting tons and tons more, but eventually it became a serious problem for most of the Golden Guardians, who had now left to go and play in different areas of HGO while the remaining ones continued to dwindle. That's... mostly to be expected. A lot of the guardians wore cheeky armor while carrying impractical blades, making them go down easily to the beefed up zombies that assaulted the groups later.

After the charge, only about half of the original Golden Guardians made it out. Even then, the numbers were quickly falling due to how immensely strong these zombies were. Hoenstly, the only reason Pestilent and Reddick were probably still standing was due to Pestilent's drone still soaring around the battlefield. It'd definitely been under a lot of pressure, due to how high these zombie kicks flew, but it was quick to dodge and managed to make it through with only a few dents to the metal.

The two could hardly relax, though. Reddick's lance was strong, but as the two were spread away from the Guardians Group they didn't really have a lot of room to defend from. Pestilent dropped her deployable shield behind Reddick, and the two got to work trying to stay alive as long as they could.

"Oi, milady Emerald! How long d'we've 'fore this 'beta test''s ova?" Reddick's voice was hardly soft, rather he was basically shouting as he kept smashing the side of his lance into waves, knocking the pests away while he kept up the fight.

"We're in the last little bit! Gudanko's stream shows that Graphite just fell!" Pestilent responded quick, her voice still kinda chipper as she realized she outlasted Graphite. Take that, Thea! That's what you get for being so mean to everyone all the time!

As Reddick and Pestilent began to get swarmed, the timer on the mode ran out, and the horde fled in a very quick fashion. Pestilent climbed off Reddick as she received the overall scores of the Golden Guardians compared to the other factions.

"... third, but mainly due to how many casualties we had. At least I can start drafting a guide." Pestilent said, smiling to herself before raising her hand for Reddick. "High fives for helping me figure out some solid strats!"

"Yeh! 'igh Fives!" Reddick slapped his hand against Pestilent's before the girl calmly lifted her IRL hood, and began to log out of HGO.

"Good job, Reddick. I'll tell the chief you did good today. Might be able to get you a bit higher in the ranks for us by doing so." Pestilent left that in the air for Reddick to consider before finally logging out, then starting her trek back home. She'd need to get something for dinner, of course, but that shouldn't be hard. The more difficult part was finding it cheap.

Despite the timer for the undead event trickling away, it felt like an eternity before the game forcibly shut down the enemy NPCs and cleared the area for the battle-weary players. In that time, Black Cat wouldn’t have been able to find any useful hints or tricks via the internet or even Gudanko’s stream. It was more so a collection of angry gamer complaints at the unfairness of the beta and compilations of player fails during the event than anything useful or worthwhile. However, on the other side of the playing field, both Pestilent and her loyal knight survived the horde.

With survival came, hopefully, an energized and curious approach to the event’s mechanics. In time, it wouldn’t be long before the Deputy could construct a strategy guide of her own regarding the undead enemies. As for Thea, her attacker would go unknown for the rest of the night, but it wasn’t like she’d keep it secret for long. Indeed, it wasn’t long before Kenji was told of the strange encounter. Mention of Moon Rider, or specifically, a player taking the title of the infamous Black Guild player back in the days of archaic Deep Ground Online, soon sparked a charge within the game’s community.

In the span of overnight, HGO became the trending topic of discussion once again for two reasons. First was of course the new circulated rumors and public interest in the so-called new Moon Rider. Where had she come from? Was she an enemy NPC that only spawned during the undead event? Was Thea making her up just for publicity? The last part was disproven as quickly as it sprung up if only by Thea’s laced and not so subtle threats to anyone who dared to question her validity. But it wasn’t the only discussion going around.

It was a bittersweet day charged with confusing emotions run rampant, not entirely helped by the news that Jin Adamano was dead. More aptly named Saffron Star, it wasn’t long for the discovery to break out of the Blue Deputy’s passing. Nor was it long to find the body riddled with holes in specific locations of her corpse, hoddled in the darkness of a back alleyway. Not wanting to face legality pursuits or negative coverage, it was understandable that HGO’s devs would be upfront and honest about the tragic passing of an unknown murder.

That was probably why the game was put on a technical hiatus, much to the outcry of many. As tragic as Saffron’s death was to those who knew her, most players saw it unfair to suspend the game just for a death that was still under investigation. Coupled with promises to fix the undead mode and make it more balanced meant there were few and far opportunities for HGO to be playable. As a last-ditch effort to please its customers, an online version was released entirely in VR.

Granted, as an outdated model, no doubt a beta in its own right, the new “HGO” was sure to detract some players. But with no other alternative and with all AR functions being suspended for the time being, it was deemed safer both by the media and the general public to move the game over to an older but more reliable method. Knowing this, just as many players stayed to at least try out the VR method. Such as it were then that the first day of true VR HGO began, many a player settling into what was a crude version of a character selection hub room. Still, there were many strange anomalies that were too off-putting to ignore forever.

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