It is wipe day. Kaiser only had one thing in mind for this cycle: vengeance. Swift, cold, unforgiving vengeance.

“Furiosa,” Kaiser said. “Are we ready to do this? We have a long road ahead of us.”

“Yes, comrade,” he said, speaking in a false German accent. “This is going to be good.”

“Tsurgi?” Kaiser asked.

“Da, comrade general,” Tsurgi said in a false Russian accent. “Vengeance will be ours.”

How multi-cultural we all are, Kaiser thought in sarcasm. “Will BobLee or Killic be on?” Kaiser asked.

“BobLee will be on a little later after he gets home from classes. I am not sure about Killic,” Furiosa informed.

“Good, we will need our super-gatherer tonight. It would be better if Killic gets on but one is better than none. No one gathers like BobLee. We need to get our base built fast,” Kaiser elaborated. “After we get secured I will take over construction. Just feed me resources and I will give you a castle. We have to be ready. We need to take them out. Show them that their hacks mean nothing.”

“Hell yea,” Furiosa agreed. “That was fucked up what they did. You don’t mess with the Dojo.”

“Huzzah!” Tsurgi exclaimed.

Kaiser laughed. His adrenaline was pumping. He was nervous, but mostly he was excited. They caught us off guard last time. This time will be different. “Alright men, let’s go to war.”

One Game Cycle Earlier

Kaiser surveyed his handiwork. The first night of the new game cycle tended to be hard but oddly enough it had gone rather smoothly. He had gone from naked to baron in a little under five hours. His base stood glorious and intimidating on the hill. It had the high ground and there was a river at its back, and a mountain behind that. They acted as natural defense, forcing potential raiders to attack them from the open field. And if that was not enough to force them in the field the endless traps in the water would.

He had spent a lot of time on modified servers that allowed him to gather and build extra quick. Going through many iterations of base builds he finally settled on a build that satisfied him in terms of defense and utility. What pleased him even more was that the base looked exactly like a castle.

The base was five stories high, the tallest in the server – he knew, he spent the next few hours running around and surveying Hapis Island. It was very late – or very early depending on your point of view – but Kaiser wanted to get the lay of the land, to see who they might have to deal with.

After constructing the last of the twig scaffolding into stone walls and flooring. He put his tools away and went to go scouting. The base was rather empty and had no interior walls. But considering the size of the base and on the first day it was excusable.

We will have time to flesh it out later, thought Kaiser as he climbed down the ladder hatches. . The first floor permissions room needs to be armored as soon as possible. We had high quality metal but not enough to put into armoring just yet. We don’t even have weapons yet, and that is going to be costly.

He grabbed a crossbow from one of the first floor loot boxes, along with a bow, arrows, and some bandages. Crossbows did more damage than bows but were slow to reload. Kaiser typically took a crossbow for high first shot damage then switched to a bow for quick and reactive defense. He was about to leave when the thought of harvesting barrels came to him. It was late and he was getting very tired. But if he was going to make a run around Hapis he might as well bring tools just in case.

He walked back to the crates and grabbed a stone hatchet and a salvaged hammer. Low grade tools but for the life of him he did not know why he did not know the blueprints for the metal hatchet or pick axe so that he could craft better tools. Someone else knew the blueprints – probably Tsurgi – so he never bothered to learn them himself.

When we have everyone on and get enough blueprint fragments I need to learn them. This would have been done much earlier had I had proper tools, Kaiser thought. Live and learn.

Kaiser was wearing a white hide vest and pants, the only color they came in. He drew his crossbow and proceeded out of the base.

The coast looked clear. There was one shack that had setup down the road not too long after Kaiser had begun construction on Bergheim – which is what he took to calling it for himself. It was built on a hill next to a mountain so it was fitting to call it “mountain home.”

Kaiser went down to the shack. What he saw was the quintessential example of a bambi. It was one-story wooden hovel with a twig roof. The front door was facing the road and had no lock. Even if it were locked, it was built close enough to a boulder so that one could simply jump onto the building. Two or three strikes and you would be inside his base. If the door had a lock – which is does not – it most likely would have been a key lock. And most likely he would have the key on his body.

Curiosity burned him so he decided to see how much of his assumptions were right.

He stepped through the door to find that not only was the roof twig but the floor as well. The player was sleeping on the floor right next to a small wooden box. He checked the box. Nothing in it. He checked the player. His name was Muffin. He had a stack and a half of wood, half a stack of stone, some sulfur and metal ore, two units of high quality metal ore, and stone tools. Oh, he also had a wooden lock on him.

By all rights Kaiser should have killed him and taken his things. If it was not him it would be someone else. However, this game had not corrupted him just yet. Taking his resources would not put them ahead by much. Besides, he just felt guilty killing sleepers. Most people did not but Kaiser tried to play this game as though it were real. It was an immersive game and he treated it that way.

In the spirit of good will he left Muffin alone. He knew full well what the bambi’s fate would be but at least he was not the one to killed him.

Kaiser proceeded down the road. Every time he came across a box or a barrel he harvested it. He did not get much at first. Mostly canned food, wooden signs, and a single fifty stack of blueprint fragments. There were a few other starter bases spread out around the area but far enough from his base so they would not be a problem.

A few barrels later Kaiser had gathered two hundred blueprint fragments and an inventory full of food, five high quality metal bars and miscellaneous junk. He threw out a few wooden sign posts and a random sheet of paper. The next barrel he broke had a pair of burlap shoes, which he put on. And the next barrel contained five more high quality metal.

Yes. We need as much high quality as we can get. At least if I get attacked I have a bunch of food to get my health back, thought Kaiser.

Following the road further he came to a lighthouse. Apparently there were two lighthouses on Hapis Island – which always threw him off when it came to navigating. He only found this out during the previous cycle while getting lost numerous times. Kaiser and his friends typically played on the procedurally generated random maps. Only recently had they become inhabitants of Hapis Island. The procedural maps were fun and the fact that they change every wipe was exciting, but they got tired of spending forever to finding the perfect spot to set up shop.

Kaiser walked up to the lighthouse, harvesting the barrels and boxes along the way. He was hitting the last barrel on the road-

SQUELSH!

An arrow stuck into Kaiser’s leg. He jumped and started strafing, looking around erratically trying to zero in on the shooter. He pulled out his crossbow which was already loaded with an arrow.

Damn it. If I die I’m going to be pissed, Kaiser thought. Well, I suppose it’s not too much to lose, but the loss of the high quality will be a bitch.

Kaiser saw a naked with a bow hiding behind a tree up the road behind him. Aiming with the crossbow he tried to get a clear shot on him. He could not. The assailant was dipping in and out of cover on each side of the tree.

Close quarters combat was not Kaiser’s specialty so he kept his distance. Continuing to strafe he kept on trying to get a better angle on him. Another arrow flew at him, missing his head by a foot or so. Kaiser quickly aimed and shot back but the bastard ducked behind the tree. The arrow flew right through the space the player had been standing.

Switching to a bow he notched and drew back an arrow and waited.

The naked broke cover, bow drawn, and running at Kaiser.

Not the smartest idea, Kaiser thought as he dodged another arrow.

Kaiser returned fire.

CRACK!

Hell yes. Headshot, thought Kaiser, running up to the corpse of his enemy. He did not get headshots often so it was exciting to hear that crack sound.

McGiggles, read the players name. And apparently he had been farming as well. Two one thousand stacks of wood, a stack and a half of stone, three hundred metal ore, around one hundred sulfur ore, three units of high quality metal ore, 150 blueprint fragments, metal pickaxe and hatchet, and 15 high quality metal bars.

“Jackpot!” Kaiser said aloud. “Not laughing now, are you?”

“Who killed me?” read the in-game chat, courtesy of McGiggles.

Kaiser did not bother answering. When a player gets killed the game tells them how, who, and what caused it. If a player did not catch your name before respawning it good policy to kept that information confidential.

“Cn I hve my stuf back?” McGiggles continued in chat.

Wow, thought Kaiser. He is a bambi who kills on sight, and he wants his stuff back. Just, wow.

Sticking to his policy, Kaiser continued his silence. He proceed up the lighthouse steps and to the top where crates typically spawn.

“Fuck u ashole,” McGiggles typed.

Uh-huh, I’m the asshole, Kaiser thought, rolling his eyes. He thought about turning off the chat but keeping it on was a good way to monitor who was on and what was going on in the server.

Kaiser reached the top of the lighthouse. The crate was there, good. He opened it up. A blueprint… for explosive 5.56 rounds. And an almost broken custom SMG with some pistol ammo. He learned the blueprint immediately. The option to construct explosive 5.56 rounds was added to his crafting menu.

“Mmm hm,” Kaiser said, making “tasty” sounds. “Lady luck favors me tonight, apparently. Either that or the loot tables are broken.” He referred to the system that controls what type of items and how many of those items are spawned and contained in barrels, boxes, and crates.

These rounds were expensive to make but they had their purpose. As the name implies, they did much more damage than standard 5.56 rounds. Using them in a bolt action rifle would let you take out raiders faster while putting them in an assault rifle let you mow more than person faster. They did some splash damage as long as the bullet at least lands next to an enemy they will take damage. They also did a lot of damage to wood structures, not that someone should ever use these expensive rounds against a wood base. Kaiser had also heard that supposedly they can actually pierce through walls and deal damage to things and people inside a base. He did not know if that was true but he wanted to find out one day.

Kaiser was halfway across the map from the base. It was a long way back to carry this precious cargo back. Anything could happen, which in the case of this game it usually did.

Kaiser figured that if he was halfway across the map already then he should continue forward instead of heading back the way he came. So that is what he did – harvesting all the way.

The airfield and a smaller rad town were on the way back but unfortunately it seemed that someone had gotten to all the barrels and crates in them. No extra loot.

Shame, thought Kaiser. This probably would have paid off.

Rad towns were areas of the map that had buildings that were designed to look derelict and abandoned. They typically spawned loot there and in high quantity and quality. They were called rad towns because they used to be irradiated. A player would get irradiated setting foot in a rad town without proper radiation equipment. Rad points would accumulate over time and each point that was expended as it wore off would kill you. Without the proper radiation equipment a player would die very fast as rad points were accumulated faster than a player could heal himself.

However, the developers had disabled radiation in the rad towns for some time – probably due to the radiation being overpowered and the rad gear not always working as expected. This left rad towns free and open to anyone – naked and geared alike.

Roar!

“That’s not good,” Kaiser said to himself. He turned around and saw a bear barreling towards him. “Definitely not good!”

The gear Kaiser had was currently insufficient to take on a bear. Bears in this game were built like tanks and it takes a lot to bring one down. In addition to that they deal huge amounts of damage. Wearing armor barely even makes a difference to them. If the custom SMG were fully repaired he would be able to take care of it but in its current condition it would break before he could fire off enough bullets to kill the bear. He had only one option: run.

“Damn it, this sucks,” Kaiser said under his breath.

He saw a ledge off to the side of the road. No player can outright out run a bear but if he makes it over the ledge the bear will have to run around.

The bear roared again. It was close behind him. Its blank digital expression was spelling death.

Kaiser ran towards the ledge. His heart was racing. He really did not want to lose that past few hours of loot.

Roar! The bear slashed him. Kaiser took a massive chunk of damage. He got close to the ledge. He jumped. He cleared the ledge just before the bear could take another swipe at him. Kaiser took some fall damage but he survived and quickly bandaged himself. He never stopped running.

Kaiser’s adrenaline was a bit high. His heart pounded. If he had nothing on him it would not have been an issue, but he had some really good early game loot on him. A week or two from now this might look like nothing but on the first day what he was carrying was this game’s equivalent of gold – at least the gun and the high quality metal was.

Kaiser yawned. “That is enough adventure for one night.”

It took another five minutes to run back to base. Nothing else eventful happened and there were no bases of note.

Returning back to base, Kaiser emptied his inventory into the loot boxes on the second floor. He would move the loot room upstairs tomorrow, or later, or whatever. It was late, he was tired, and he accomplished what he set out to do – with a few added bonuses.

The question of who was going to be any serious opposition on this server was answered.

So far, that answer was: no one.

An official server and so few were on, Kaiser thought. Or maybe I’m just the only loon who would stay up this late to get a foot hold. He did not know whether he should be proud or ashamed. Kaiser was surprised that he was the only one with such a massive base on an official server so early into the wipe. He knew he should have really gone to sleep but he smiled knowing he had accomplish so much by himself. It was beautiful. Hours of searching, hunting, and gathering. Now he had a castle to call home, and he built it himself with his own digital hands.

There was just one thing left to do before he went to bed: tell the others.

Next Chapter: Chapter 2 - Morals and Madness