Magus: The Cost Of Living

Chapter 3: A new challenger approaches

Waking up, I see an ominous figure in the distance staring at me. It said "You have 10 seconds. Hide." I wasn't sure if I could trust this thing or not, but I booked it over to the frozen food section and hid inside one of the fridges. After 10 seconds, I started to hear very loud footsteps walking around the place. It scared the shit out of me.

Every step seemed to get louder and louder, and I even heard growls of what sounded like..a demon. After 10 minutes of me freezing in the fridge, the footsteps finally stopped, and I was in the clear. Walking out of the fridge shaking, I saw the figure again, but a little bit closer. "You must eliminate this creature." "How the hell am I going to do that?!" I responded. "The employee only areas..." It responded. "Where?!" As I yelled that out, it disappeared, which left me in a state of shock. The only thing I had gathered from this is that there seems to be something I can use against that foul creature to take it down, but I'd need to sneak around in the employee area first.

With that information in mind, I started to make a journey over there. But there was a problem...I didn't know where the hell one was located to begin with. "Dammit, how am I supposed to find an employee only area?" I said to myself. But out of nowhere, I heard "I can help you." from the shadows. "Huh?? Who are you?" I said. "I'm a lone ranger, looking out for others." He said. "Are you like, a member of their gang?" "Yes, but I am not proud of it. I only joined for some easy money, but I didn't know how cold blooded they were, so I've been stalking you for a while and helping you." "Wait...are you that figure that's been looming in the distance?" "...Maybe." "Why did you not just come out of the shadows earlier?" "I...I just wanted to look cool." "....C'mon man, you don't NEED to look cool-" "Hide!" He said to me, in which I quickly took cover. "There's some guards up ahead, how do you want to take them on?" He said. "I guess we can avoid them and go arou-" "OR you can use my silenced pistol!" I admit, it was a very tempting offer. So much so that I actually accepted it. "Fine, I'll kill them I guess." After grabbing the gun from his hand, I quickly took out both of them with clean headshots. "Damn, nice aim!" He said. "Thanks...I suppose. I still don't like killing people though." "You did what you had to do, yeah? Plus, it was deserved anyway. I mean come on, look at your face!" "We don't talk about that." I responded in a somewhat annoyed tone. "Alright, alright." He said.

"I'll guide you to the employee only area now, but I have to warn you that it is practically infested with guards." He said to me, in a somewhat nervous tone. "Don't worry about me, I can deal with them." "You sure?" "Yes." "Well alright then, follow me." He would then lead me over to the area, killing multiple men in the process without even flinching. Eventually we finally made it. "Here we are!" He said. "Once again though, are you really sure you can handle this dude?" He said in an even more nervous tone. "Yes, I can handle this. Whether it be through stealthily or a rampage." I said in a serious tone. "Damn, well, good luck." After he said that, he would leave to go do other things I suppose, like pretending to still be on the gang's side.

Just taking a mere peek into the room, I could see at least 8 or so guards roaming around, talking to each other and all sorts of things. I quietly entered the room and hid behind some boxes, eavesdropping to try and gain intel. "Hey man, have you seen Niko around anywhere?" One guard said to another. "No, I haven't. Is he okay?" The man responded. "I don't know man, I'm starting to get real worried, especially because I haven't seen Francis around either." "That is concerning! You think someone came in? Or someone in the gang betrayed us?" ".....Nahhhh, no way anyone could get in here! And no way anyone would betray us, we're all family here!" "Yeah, I guess you're right."

I started to feel some sympathy for the men I had killed, but at the same time that mysterious man encouraged me to kill them, and told me that it's a good thing to do anyway. And that has to be correct...right? As I was thinking all of that to myself, I started to hear some useful information. "You know, the big boss has one big weakness!" "Really? And what's that?" "Well...I don't know. All I know is that they keep whatever that is locked inside of another room in here, and it is locked up real good. Only the other top members know what it is." "I hope I can know one day..." "Keep dreaming Billy, keep dreaming."

With this in mind, I pulled out the gun the man had given to me. "Am I really going to do this?" I thought to myself. "It's worth it, those bastards deserve it anyway" I responded. With that in my head, I shot down the 2 men in cold blood, and hid their bodies where I was originally hiding. I reloaded my clip, and dumped it in the 6 other guard's heads, taking them all down at once with no one suspecting anything. I decided to stop crouching and just walked normally, examining the area and taking whatever I could find. I found some pistol ammunition as well as food and a key. "A key to what?" Is what I wondered, and I considered throwing it away, yet I kept it with me anyway. Before I continued to explore, I heard one guard start to choke...on his own blood. I approached him, and he stared at me in the eyes. The only words he could mutter were "why..?" I didn't respond. I shot him in the chest 3 times and continued on.

While wandering around, I found a room that was deeper into the area. Up ahead I saw a couple of high tier guards posted directly at the door, this had to be the place. Thankfully, there were only those two and nobody else. Without hesitating, I went up to those men and said "Let me through." They started to laugh. Right in my face. "PFFFF HAHAHAH! And who might youuuu be, no face?" "Yeah, no face!" "An important man, now let me through." I demanded. "No. Plain and simple as that." "Yeah, plain AND simple! "Shut up bob." "sorry." "I would highly recommend that the both of you step out of the way before you get killed." I said. "Hah! More like YOU'RE gonna get killed!" "Yeah!" I pulled out my pistol and shot both of them clean in the head. They fell to the floor and died instantly. I searched their corpses, and found a note. "Hello Ma! I'm writing this to you to tell you that I've made it in life! I've joined this group and they treat everyone like family! We often have big cookouts, hang out, and enjoy life here! You should come over and hang out with this Ma, you'd love it! Sincerely, from your son, Micah."

"My god...what have I done?" My hands were trembling, and I looked down to notice blood from my prior victims all over my hands. "I...I..I did good. I did good. Those men deserved it, and that letter shouldn't make me feel any remorse whatsoever."

After getting all of that out of my head, I approached the door and opened it. I could not believe what I saw inside...

CHAPTER 3 END