Terror Infinity - Side B

Chapter 7 - 1, Btooom

They were found.

Shin, Hikari, Saki, Kampa, Zero and Shuai immediately felt it. The radar scan that they all reacted to came from the enemy. The Btooom Soldiers and Btooom Commander had found them.

Without even needing to say anything to each other, the six man group of Players immediately fled together to escape the threat of the enemy, also a six man group.

To immediately escape, Kampa threw three of his Blazing Gas BIMs that had a wide AOE which would hender enemy pursuit as the group were escaping.

They ran, ran and ran some more, but they couldn't escape. Even after an half an hour just running away they couldn't escape the enemy. One of the main reasons was-

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Was because they were constantly being attacked as they were escaping. The Players were being chased and bombarded with Cracker type BIM that rained down from the sky. The sheer number that didn't stop for even a minute sadly proved that a Btooom Soldier and Btooom Commanders possessed far more BIM than the Players or NPCs held.

Hikari: Isn't this kind of attack insane!? They have been throwing BIM at us nonstop for who knows his long and not only have they not run out, but we haven't even once seen them. Where are they attacking from?

Zero: I just did a radar scan five minutes a go and it said they were chasing us from over 800 meters away!

Shin: Is that even human!? Who has that kind of throwing strength besides me or Aqua?

Saki: Shin, didn't you mention that they had gun like equipment on them? Could they possibly be grenade launchers?

Shuai: Grenade launchers?

Saki: Yes. Grenade launchers are weapons they instead of regular bullets, shoot out bombs over distance and with accuracy surpassing the normal person. If they are using those kinds of weapons then it doesn't break this world's setting of fighting with bombs.

Grenade launchers? Hell, if it's like this why not give them rocket launcher author, I mean God?

Kamap: That is a problem in and of itself that they can attack us from that range with BIM, but isn't there something else of concern we need to discuss?

Shin: Like What?

Kampa: How are they following us. Don't you think it is strange that after that one radar scan, they hadn't done another one again, yet they can accurately tell where we are going and hitting us with BIM? And with this hail of bombing going on there's no way that we are leaving behind proper tracks for them to follow. The dirt and busses have been uprooted and burned to ashes.

Saki: Kampa makes a good point. Just how are they not only following us, but are accuracy sniping us with BIMs from such a distance?

That was a good question.

It is impossible to physically see or track us through this jungle, so how are they keeping up with us? Kampa had even used up all of his Blazing Gas BIM to hold them up, but nothing. They still kept following us.

We have been running at full speed all this time and most of us, Shuai and Hikari ( Who is slightly better off thanks to the few stat increases that she did make ), won't be able to keep up this pace. If we were all going to make it out of this alive we were going to have to loose them eventually, and it had to be sooner rather then later.

Shin: I really wish Aqua was here, but since she isn't it is up to me to and all of us to...

It was then as I was pondering a way out of this mess that I saw it...The possible reason that we couldn't loose the Btooom Soldiers and Commander.

It was Hikari's chip.

I, who was the only one running of the left side of Hikari saw that something was off with her chip. Her normally blue IC Chip that all Players have... Has mysteriously turned purple.

Shin: Why purple?

I was confused, but slowly I was beginning to figure it out. My idea was that it was a mix of colors, so something had unnaturally mixed with Hikari's chip

I then remembered that the armor of both the Btooom Soldiers and Commander were a red shade. NPC chips are green, Players are blue and enemy Btooom warriors like them could possibly be red though it is just a geuss.

When red is mixed with blue... The new color is purple! That means that the red chip enemy mixed something with the blue chip Player Hikari. If I had to guess what is happening now...

Shin: ...Damm it to hell!

Shuai: Wh-what is it!?

Shin: Escaping is pointless. We can't escape like this!

Saki: Why?

Shin: We have been marked from the beginning, or at least one of us has. Hikari's blue IC Chip has been marked by the enemy's Chip and is now dyed purple. They are tracking us through her marked Chip!

Hikari: They're what!?

In a panic, Hikari looked at the chip on the back of her left hand and finally saw that it was now the color purple. She then quickly said that the last time that she checked it was definitely the same blue chip as everyone else's.

Saki: That's it. It must have been that radar scan earlier. At that time they marked one of our Chips. That way, there was no longer any need to continuously scan the area for us any further. Also, this bypassed the biggest weakness that a radar scan has.

Shin: The way it not only tells you where your enemy is, but also gives you away as well?

Saki: That's correct. Even if it is not one's exact location, it tells your opponent that they have been found and are close by. With this new type of radar... Radar Marking it now possible! With just one scan it is now possible to indefinitely keep track of your opponent and if there is no set time limit for this marking... Then no matter where you are or how much time passes you will know where the your opponent is at all time.

Shin: ...

Hikari: ...

What a scary trap this is.

What one should be afraid of here isn't that your enemy can keep following you, but that they don't have to. You can run, run and run some more till you are blue in the face, but your enemy can follow at an easy pace. Also, a person that is marked can't ever stop and rest in peace because at any moment, without using a single scan of the radar, the enemy can find and sneak up on you when you are your most defenseless.

This was the worst type of trap in a game like Btooom!

Zero: What then. If they will keep following us indefinitely like this... Should we cut off her hand?

Hikari: Kyaaaa! What are you saying!

Hikari looked at Zero and the others in fear and stopped running. We didn't have the time to stop, but we had to now.

Shin: No one is cutting off hands here! What is wrong with you?

Zero: It is better then losing her life. Also, she can't keep going with the group if she is marked like that. They will just keep following us.

Shin: Then what about the rest of the mission for Hikari!? If only your own Player Chips can collect the Chips of others, then the fact that she no longer has the hand where her own chip is, won't that mean she can't collect them anymore? In the manga and anime of Btooom, you are considered a normal person, not a player in the death game if you no longer have an IC Chip. God might view Hikari as having zero chips at tonight's Midnight Execution even if she keep the hand with her.

Kampa: I understand your concerns, but it's no good. Long as she is marked she is a liability to the team and you yourself, Shin. I've also wondered why it was only her that was marked? If we were all marked then no matter what we do to trick them, they will always know where we all are at all times. That is why I believe that they can only mark one person at a time, yet more importantly only one of them is capable of making other people. Most likely the Btooom Commander is the only one who can mark others.

Saki: Kampa may be right that it may even be both. Only the Commander can mark other NPCs and Players, and only one at a time at that. On the plane it was discussed that God would never place Players in an absolutely impossible mission, so the ability to mark every NPC and Player on the island at once is too much of an advantage for that statement to hold firm.

Shin: So what!? So we should abandon her for the team? What the hell kind of team is that!?

Saki: That... can't be helped. Hikari's value to the team might actually be the highest right now if she is capable of tracking all the NPCs and Players on the island. She is someone I would normally never give up and fight to keep her alive at all cost, but it is impossible to save her now.

Shin: Why is that?

Saki: It should be obvious already. Anyone who is marked is fated to be left behind and killed by the enemies behind us. There actually may be the possibility that killing the one who marked Hikari will umdo the tracking mark, but... we all no longer have the advantage. Even with my earlier plan to attack the Btooom Soldiers and Btooom Commander today, we only had a chance at victory if we had the advantage of a sneak attack. That option is now off the table, so now...

Shin: Wait! Don't just write her off!

Shuai: Hey! Where is the person in question? Hikari is gone.

Shin only noticed now that Hiakri was gone.

She had left without him realizing it because of the pressure of the entire situation.

Shin: ( Fuck! ).

Cursing himself inwardly, Shin did a quick scan to find any nearby chips, and the enemy group of six not too far away and a peraon with a chip is running away from both enemy and the Player group.

Saki tried to stop Shin, but now ignoring the others who were ready to leave Hikari behind to save themselves, he chases after her.

Shin would never forgive himself for letting anything happen to Hikari and especially if it was somewhere he couldn't see, so he ran after her with all the strength that he had.

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Tyrannos Japan: Game Planner Gemu Shusaisha's Report 13.

Real World Btooom Game, Hard Mode - Day 2.

4:57 PM

Players Alive: 8/15.

NPCs Alive: 69/150.

Btooom Soldiers Active: 25/25.

Btooom Commanders Active: 5/5.

Ryota Sakamoto, Btooom Lord Inactive: 1/1.

Daily Minutes -

1. The culprit has been discovered and has left its group. Self sacrifice is beautiful is it not!

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Authors Note:

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Shin wouldn't know, but when a Players hand with the IC Chip is lost, the chip is transferred back to the owner on another part of the body like the right hand or torso. This isn't important to Hiakri, but to two characters later on in this arc.