Visionless Reality

Eight

‘I appreciate your involvement in your security checks. Although this was introduced as a task for you, it was not only a task of movement or security, it was the first level of the training of your mind too. None of the tasks is as easy as it looks. This task measured your level of patience, attentiveness and trust. Trusting the right entity, will build you… while trusting the unknown, may even kill you. So, I suggest thinking twice before trusting anyone in the market.’-Colonel.

        Well played fellas. I thought I got your plan but you were literally one step ahead. Colonel Peithin was ready to describe the next level. All I was waiting was for more new things, that I could learn. Trust was the latest lesson I received then.

‘So recruits, before preparing yourself for some action in the arena, I want to explain some of the prerequisites for being a great survivor. Many things are involved into making a person perfect… and practice is one of them. The more you practice here, the more suitable for the future scenarios you become. Environment is a major role playing factor that is necessary in surviving. Listening to me is not enough, adapting to the changes that I prefer should be the real goal. Environment should be the main goal of every player. Feel free to explore the environment and then plan your move. Moving fast is not good every time. In survival, move slow but move wise.’-Colonel.

        ‘This person has a great experience with the environments. One of the pamphlets boasted of a person, surviving 29 days without anything, in a forest. I think that’s him. He is totally a person of great perseverance.’ I would love to learn more from him.

        ‘So recruits, done with the words, let’s go on hunting. In the next task, you will be introduced with 3 different virtual arenas from different environments. All you have to do is find your tag in that particular virtual world. Experience points will be given with respect to how much time it takes for you to find each tag. Those who find one, just double tap the screen behind it and you will be directed to another environment instantly.’-Colonel.

        Ending his speech, we got to know that the first environment, was a forest. It was huge, but we were provided a particular range within which our tags would be found. I was confused about where and how to find them. The place was a tropical forest, covered with long trees with thick branches and the grounds, covered with moss. All the recruits were busy finding the tags in the places like the cluster of dried leaves, branches of the trees and still confused about the environment. I was not able to figure out how to actually find it, when all of a sudden, the player beside me disappeared. How could he find it so fast? I still had no clues about it. One thing that I noticed was that at some places, the ground was refilled. I was sure that the place someone could hide anything, was inside the ground. Crouching down to dig it up, the recruit beside me said ‘Going good!’ and vanished. I digged up the ground with my bare hands and found a metal piece. On picking it up, ‘Recruit-5’ reflected on the tag. I flipped the tag and the environment changed. This was totally different. Only a few recruits were visible on the next step.

        The second environment was a bridge. But this time, the tags were clearly visible and impossible to reach. They were on the side of the bridge, hanging on a metal pipe, far away from the railing. The only option to reach the tag was to jump off the bridge, far enough, to get hold of the tag. The sudden reaction of one of the recruit was same. He took a head-start and jumped off, getting hold of a tag. He disappeared in the mid-air, probably reaching the 3rd environment. I had acrophobia, which was the main reason of surrendering the environment. Imitating the first recruit, a few more tried to do the same. The most tragic moment was the one when one of the recruits fell off, down in the water, without reaching the tag. That was the time all the other recruits denied to jump. I heard a scream all around the place... It was a recruit, who came running with a crowbar in his hand, ready to jump. He jumped with his hands stretched wide to the metal pipe… with so much strength and confidence, that he hooked his crowbar on the pipe and hung himself on that pipe. All the recruits were cheering him up. We all were happy for his great achievement. Next thing he did was epic and admirable. He climbed up the pipe with his n***d hands, clinging to the pipe, and then rolling up the pipe, he sat on that. He pulled out every tag one by one, throwing them to the other recruits. He was our savior. The last recruit left was me. He tried to throw the last one to me when I said, ‘Let’s do it together!’. I generated the energy from each of my breath, pushed my legs on the bridge railing, and jumped off holding the tag.

        Reaching the third environment, the first thing I did was to ask him how was he able to get that idea. ‘Remember Colonel said to explore the environment. I did the same when I found that crowbar. Cool wasn’t it?’ The third environment was the same warehouse from where we started our journey. The whole place was a mess. All the recruits were crowded at one place and were struggling around a round table.

‘Hey recruits, what’s going on there?’

‘All the tags this time has a name of the recruit. We have to find our own tag in the bundle of tags laying there inside the crate. But no one has got one yet.’-some random recruit.

        This was the thing that I thought I could handle. I asked a recruit to help me get pass the crowd and I promised him to get his tag. I jumped into the crowd and picked up a tag. It was of recruit-232. I called the service name of the recruit and he was there. Everyone stopped finding the tags and gave a cold look at me while I continued giving away the tags that I find. In that way, all the tags were finished from the crate and all the recruits ended their last environment, reaching the end of Level-2. That one was really helpful in learning brotherhood and team work.

‘Well done recruits. I was not hoping you would end this Level this early. But after this Level, I think you have the basic experience regarding the different survival tips in different environments. Experience points have been provided to you and would be available after the 5 levels. I introduce my colleague, Major Rorie to help you out with the level-3. He is master of weapons and really amazing in his aiming skills. You will learn many things under his guidance. See you later.’-Colonel Peithin.

‘Welcome fellas. Ready for some action. Well if not, I make sure that you will enjoy the upcoming levels and learn some cool and exciting stuff about weapons. Yes… we are going to learn and use various weapons in Level-3. Follow me to the weapons station.’-Major

        He was the same person who was attending the bags during the security checks. Leading to the weapon station, he led us to a very cool place that contained an exhibition of all the weapons discovered till the day. From flint stone to Glock G48, you name it, they had it.

‘So recruits, here we start another interesting lesson of weapons. Before using a weapon, you must know the basics behind a weapon. Using a weapon is not a big deal, but using it efficiently, requires practice and patience. For example, how many of you could do this?’-Major.

        He was a total expert of arms. Giving an example of using a weapon, he dismantled each and every single bit of metal that the weapon was made of. It was awesome to see a p2000, ripped into bits of metals, and interesting to think how would he actually fix it back. But it took him no longer than a few minutes to rebuild that weapon from scratch.

‘Look kids, these weapons have their own souls. If you want to control them, you need to tame them. And by taming, I mean constant, rigorous practice of fire arms. There are many weapons in this weapon station which require assistance of more than a single person. But don’t worry, you will learn more about them with the course of time. Currently, all you need to worry is about looking at every weapon as a friend of whom you can take assistance, rather than thinking of it as a mere weapon.’-Major.

        Major Rorie taught us the basics, mechanics and the uses of every physical component, the weapon was composed of. He also let us assemble a Beretta from the scratch, which took me more than 10 minutes… for I was confused about two similar looking parts, which differed in size, only a little bit. But overall, that Level was more than fun. The next level was all about aiming. I knew that I was good at aiming and thanks to Jason, who taught me how to tame a colt. We were going to use a pistol, with lower recoil, and that was Five-seven. The coolest g*n I would have ever seen.

‘So recruits, ready for some aiming shots? Let’s do it. First five recruits, grab a pistol each from the crate. Do not point at anyone, point it towards the ground. Due to the limitations of pistols and the space, this level will continue in batches of 5 recruits each. All those armed, listen to my instructions carefully. First of all, hold the pistol tight and stiff. Remove the safety switch from the left edge of the trigger. Now, pointing at the target board, squeeze your fist calmly and carefully.’-Major.

        Saying this, loud bangs of pistol echoed in the artillery. Every participant was excited, and so was I. After 3 other batches, it was my turn. I followed the instructions of the major carefully to make him feel that he was the one who was leading me towards perfection. Holding the Five-Seven, it was nothing like Beretta. It was compact, more accurately, well fit in my hands. It was a nice pistol, well suited for sudden encounters. Holding that pistol, and squeezing the trigger, it shot at the target with perfect accuracy. It had really low recoil, much better than a colt. That was the time I felt proud of my choice, trying the practice mode before any other mode.

‘Okay recruits, well done till here. You all have learnt the basics of the game. The perfect use of weapons, exploring the environments, and the proper use of opportunities. Now it’s time to test your skills. The last level is all about how you perceive things in real life situations and various things, that you might not ever want to do. So prepare yourself… we will be testing you soon.’-Instructor.

        Those words seemed to be hiding something. I was sure that it would not be an easy task.