Chapter 29: Invader Slain!
"Stop them!"
"Protect the children!"
"Don't let it get near the children!"
Amid the shouts, the survivors continuously shot at the zombies, but these attacks failed to slow the creatures in the slightest. The zombie's body was covered in bullet holes, but they didn't care. Their limbs were blown off by multiple bullet shots but they still continued walking forward before their very eyes. Clearly, they still haven't realized that ordinary attacks were useless against them.
Every time one of the zombie's countless numbers reached one of the survivors, the creatures would precisely grab a survivor and drag them toward the undead hoard and devour them.
Soon bullets rained down like a storm, with some even explosive rounds, as Rebecca didn't care to save them as she watched the last kid being torn apart.
Rebecca's eyes were cold as she watched the chaos unfold. Bullets flew everywhere, but the relentless horde of zombies continued advancing, unstoppable. The survivors' desperation echoed in the air, their screams growing more frantic as they ran out of ammunition and hope. Despite the rain of gunfire, nothing seemed to halt the undead.
The gruesome sight of the last child being ripped apart stirred something dark in Rebecca. Her mind, hardened by years of survival in a dystopian Cyberpunk world, left little room for empathy in the face of inevitable death. In this wasteland, she understood that mercy had no place.
"Rebecca, hold the line!"
Six's voice cut through the comms, sharp and commanding, though he could sense her cold detachment. He had witnessed that same deadened look in her eyes before. Her past in Night City had numbed her to the pain of others, but he needed her to stay focused.
"They're already gone, Six."
She said, her voice flat, as another survivor was torn apart by the horde.
"There's no saving them."
Six clenched his fists in frustration, but he couldn't argue with her logic. They had arrived too late. The children, the survivors—everything was already lost.
"Focus, Six."
He reminded himself as he recalibrated the defenses, pulling up the schematics on his Pip-Boy.
"The mission was still on."
He quickly adjusted the turrets, setting them to target the zombies' heads, the only proven weak spot. At the same time, he began deploying the military camo B1s armed with plasma rifles—something he had kept in reserve. If regular bullets couldn't stop these monsters, high-energy plasma might.
"Rebecca, I'm launching the military camo B1s armed with plasma rifles."
Six said, flicking switches on his Pip-Boy.
"Let's see if these bastards burn."
A squadron of sleek, military camo B1s shot up from behind the convoy. Each one was armed with a plasma weapon designed for precision strikes. Rebecca, her face still stoic, took a brief glance at the B1s, then resumed raining hellfire from the Battle Bus turrets.
The military camo B1s zipped through the battlefield, targeting zombies with surgical accuracy.
Zap! Zap!
Plasma bolts pierced the air, striking the undead in the head. Finally, success. The first few zombies hit by the plasma disintegrated upon impact, their bodies burning away instantly in a flash of green energy. Rebecca cracked a wide smirk.
"Well, at least something fucking finally works."
She muttered.
But just as they were making progress, Six noticed something on the horizon. A larger, more grotesque figure was emerging from the treeline—this wasn't just another zombie. It was something bigger, more mutated, and far more dangerous. Its body was hulking, twice the size of the others, with grotesque muscle growth and misshapen limbs. Worse, it was surrounded by a dozen other zombies, acting as shields.
"Oh, hell. Rebecca, we've got a boss-level problem heading our way."
Six said, his voice grim.
Rebecca locked onto the new target with the Battle Bus's main cannon and the other artillery cannons.
"Let's see how it likes a 155mm shell to the face."
She growled, already adjusting her aim.
The giant zombie roared, shaking the ground as it lumbered toward them, its smaller undead entourage shielding it from incoming fire. The Battle Bus shook as Rebecca fired powerful rounds from the cannons, but the shots barely slowed the monster down, as it used its arms to protect its head. The cannon shell exploded on impact, sending bits of flesh flying, but the thing kept coming.
"Damn, it's arms are tankier than I thought."
Rebecca cursed under her breath.
"Six, we need more firepower."
Six was already on it, setting the rest of the military camo B1s on the boss zombie.
"Let's melt this thing."
He said as the military camo B1s converged, raining plasma fire on the creature.
The plasma shots began eating away at its flesh, but the boss zombie didn't stop. With every step, it seemed to regenerate, undoing the damage caused by the plasma and cannon fire. Six's heart sank as he realized the thing wasn't going down easily.
"We're running out of time."
Six muttered. The countdown to the dimensional invasion anchor continued to tick away, and the horde wasn't thinning. If they didn't deal with the boss soon, they'd be overrun.
Rebecca, however, had an idea.
"Six, remember those prototype plasma grenades you salvaged from REPCONN? If we can get close enough…"
Six nodded, already reaching for the experimental grenades in his bag.
"I was saving them for something bigger, but this'll have to do."
They devised a quick plan. Rebecca would cover him from the Battle Bus, keeping the smaller zombies off him while Six used his speed to get close to the boss and plant the grenades.
With a deep breath, Six sprinted forward, gunning down and dodging through the chaos as Rebecca laid down suppressive fire. Zombies swarmed toward him, but his enhanced reflexes and agility let him dodge or shoot them down before they could grab him. He closed in on the boss, the plasma grenades ready in his hand.
Timing his throw perfectly, Six launched the first grenade at the boss's feet. It exploded with a blinding flash of green energy, vaporizing the surrounding zombies instantly. The boss zombie staggered but didn't fall.
"Come on."
He growled, pulling the pin on the second grenade. He tossed it right into the creature's gaping maw, and the explosion that followed was deafening. The boss zombie's head exploded, disintegrating in a cloud of plasma.
Six dove for cover as bits of the creature rained down around him. When the dust settled, the boss was gone—obliterated.
Rebecca's voice crackled over the comms.
"Nice throw, hotshot."
Six exhaled in relief.
"That should give us some breathing room. But we're not done yet."
The zombies were still coming, and the dimensional anchor was still out there. But for the moment, they had taken down the biggest threat. Now, it was time to finish the job and stop the invasion before it could consume the Mojave.
The area was quickly filled with the pungent smell of blood, burnt flesh, and gunpowder with bodies scattered everywhere, resembling a scene from hell. Finally reaching to center of the dimensional anchor he found a tall Asian man wearing a black pinstripe suit holding a dark orb. Inside the suit, he was wearing a white dress shirt along with a yellow tie. He also wears black-framed glasses and brown dress shoes.
He was being protected by a group of high schoolers. As he got close his system finally gave him information.
[Gamer Invader Found!]
[Koichi Shido-Highschool of the Dead]
[Necromancer]
Six knew this character. He appears to be a kind and caring teacher, but in reality, he is a sadistic psychopath and allowed the students he had deemed "weak" to be bullied. And now it was worse since it was a gamer who took his place and was probably controlling the undead with that orb.
"Students protect me!"
Shido used his charm and charisma to convince his students to protect him, as he started to run toward the dimensional gap.
"Protect Shido sensei."
The majority of the students having been brainwashed by Shido by having his followers engaging in sexual intercourse. This way, he will rule and be served by mindless followers. His strong charismatic authority and quasi-religious mystique render him a David Koresh-like figure.
"Oh, no you Don't!"
Six shouted dashing toward the sociopath as he put down his followers and put a bullet in the coward's head. Strangely Shido body dissolved as the dimensional gap closed.
He stood amidst the carnage, breathing heavily, his eyes scanning the battlefield that had transformed into a scene straight from a nightmare. Blood and burnt flesh filled the air with a pungent stench, mixing with the acrid smell of gunpowder. Bodies of zombies and Shido's brainwashed students littered the area, motionless. His mind buzzed with questions, but the system's latest alert sent a wave of frustration through him.
Ding!
[Gamer Double Invader Slain!]
[Koichi Shido—Highschool of the Dead]
[Necromancer]
"What the hell do you mean by 'double'?"
Six muttered, glaring at the empty space where Shido's body had dissolved. It was clear now that he hadn't faced the real Koichi Shido, but rather a "double" sent by another Gamer, someone who had paid a fortune for this twisted invasion.
Ding!
[Gamer Invaders can purchase a double body to invade other worlds for 200,000 MSP.]
Six clenched his jaw. This whole event wasn't random. It was another Gamer exploiting a loophole, sending proxies to do their dirty work in worlds they wanted to dominate. The Shido double was just a pawn—a powerful one, but still a pawn in a much larger game.
'So that's how it is…'
Six thought, frowning as the pieces began to fit together. He wasn't just dealing with random threats. The invaders he would face could be far more dangerous than he initially thought—people with access to unimaginable resources and powers, manipulating entire dimensions from the shadows.
His fingers twitched toward his Pip-Boy as he checked the time. The dimensional gap had closed, but this wasn't over. Other invasions could still happen, and now that he understood the scale of the threat, he needed to prepare. Gamer Invaders weren't going to stop coming, not as long as there were people out there using their abilities to exploit weaker worlds.
Rebecca's voice crackled through the comms, pulling him back to the present.
"Six, you alright? Did you get him?"
Six took a deep breath before replying, his voice calm but edged with tension.
"Yeah, I got him. But this wasn't the real one, just a double."
"A double?"
Rebecca sounded surprised, though not entirely shocked.
"So there's still the original behind this?"
"Yeah. We're dealing with another Gamer, one with a lot of resources. They can send these doubles into other worlds without even being here themselves."
There was a pause on the other end.
"So what now?"
Six glanced back at the decimated battlefield. The zombies were down, the dimensional gap closed, and Shido's influence eradicated—for now. But something told him this was just the beginning. More invaders would come, and they would be more cunning, more powerful, and more prepared.
"We head back to Goodsprings,"
Six finally said.
"But first, I'm leaving some surveillance droids here to monitor this area. I don't want another surprise like this."
Rebecca's tone shifted, more relaxed now.
"Got it. I'll have the Battle Bus ready to move in five."
As he set up the drones, Six's mind was already racing with possibilities. He needed to bolster his defenses, expand his resources, and most importantly, prepare for the unknown. Gamer Invaders were no joke, and if they had enough influence to send doubles, it meant they could infiltrate other worlds he wasn't even aware of. His world—the Fallout world—was now a battleground.
One thing was clear: the rules of the game had changed.
And Six wasn't about to let anyone else invade his empire without a fight.
Level: 10
NAME: Six XI
GENDER: MALE
STRENGTH: 10
PERCEPTION: 10
ENDURANCE: 10
CHARISMA: 10
INTELLIGENCE: 10
AGILITY: 10
LUCK: 10
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BARTER: 54
ENERGY WEAPONS: 36
EXPLOSIVES: 36
GUNS: 100
LOCKPICK: 39
MEDICINE: 51
MELEE WEAPONS: 39
REPAIR: 100
SCIENCE: 88
SNEAK: 39
SPEECH: 39
SURVIVAL: 39
UNARMED: 39