[Cafe] 109 – The Abberation Part 1

[Please return to your computers. The Tournament resumes in five minutes. Note that there will be a grace period for the first day of the last round, after which PVP will be reenabled]

As people began to appear in the skybox far above the ruined and irradiated surface of Aberration, they began to group up and form Tribes, alliances, and deals. 

Many were quick to find that their ideas had some limitations; for one, the Tribe could only have three people max before no more could be invited into the tribe. For many, this led to splintering interests as their groups were too big, leading to over a dozen tribes being formed by the end of the grace period before the game would start. A few players kept to themselves, preferring to go about the last round by themselves rather than with a group. 

By the time the wait had ended, the shimmering see-through floor beneath everyone had begun to vibrate and throb with a blinding light before it abruptly exploded in color, momentarily blinding everyone.

A moment later, they were already down beneath the surface, far below the Obelisks of the Surface, in the underground caverns.

With the countless bioluminescent mushrooms and plants, the cavern walls and ceiling were a sea of vibrant colors and light, but the plants were not everywhere, leaving a majority of the underground caverns in darkness. As the players all suddenly woke up around the easy areas of the Abberation, many immediately rushed to grab berries and water as the heat in the Abberation would lead to many dying of thirst in search of water.

For those who knew the locations of survivor notes, that was their objective, as opening one granted a large amount of XP and an XP bonus to all gained XP for a set amount of time. 

...

[S.H.I.E.L.D Team POV]

In a single moment, they went from waiting above the Abberation ARK to rising from the dirt. Around them, everyone else was rising up from the dirt, too. Some immediately tried to start fighting, only to find that some kind of invisible forcefield flung them back every time they tried to harm someone else.

"Come on, let's move!" Romanov ordered, getting the other two agents moving. 

They headed off into the wild, having already established a plan of action.

Clint was to level up as fast as possible and get a bow before hunting down as many dinosaurs as possible for their meat, hide, and the levels that would get distributed between the three. Natasha would be working on gathering as many materials as possible for Coulson, who would focus on getting the raw metal and a refining forge to smelt it up and running. Besides that, once Clint got enough meat and dinosaur hide to suit the party's needs, his next job would be taming some Bulbdogs and other basic tames to help the group traverse and fight back against the other survivors.

Until Clint reached the level needed to unlock the Bow Engram, he focused on using a slingshot and rocks to take out small dinosaurs, such as Dodos, Diplos, Lystros, and other small and medium-sized passive dinosaurs. Once he had the hide and other materials he needed, Clint made some Bola and began hunting down larger prey, hoping to find a Raptor and get an early good tame.

Luckily for him, it did not take long for Clint to find a Velociraptor to tame, quickly trapping the Dinosaur when it charged him and then knocking it out with a few good hits to the head with the slingshot and a few rocks. From there, he laid a few bits of meat by its head and fed it some narco berries to keep it down for a bit longer.

While the Raptor was getting tamed, Coulson had already built a small base, putting down a campfire to grill meat, a mortar, and pestle to make narcotics for tranq arrows, and eventually tranq darts if they got their hands on enough gunpowder and metal to make a longneck rifle. With the shared XP, the group was skyrocketing in levels, having already reached level 10 collectively within the first hour without having found any survivor notes.

Before the night arose, they had built a small wooden square of a house, constructed a refining forge and smithy, gathered enough metal to make each of them a set of tools, and were now working towards getting enough XP to hit level 34 and 35 where they'd unlock simple firearms such as a pistol and the longneck rifle.

With the Raptor tamed and several bulbdogs to ride their shoulders, they had a source of light to keep the darkness at bay and the Raptor to keep back most threats, though the Bulbdogs and Raptor would be disposable fodder if they came across something dangerous enough to run from.

Staying up through the night, the three kept track of the other groups camping out nearby. Most decided to get some rest since the grace period was still in effect, but those who didn't were clearly getting ahead of those who slept. By the time morning was coming around, the three were fully equipped in Chitin armor, with metal tools and simple firearms. By noon, a message was broadcast from all Specimen Implants.

[Grace Period has ended. PVP has been re-enabled]

[74/75]

Only one had died so far, which shows that most of the participants had adjusted to ARK and the tournament. 

Dismantling their base, they headed out, looking for a more secure location to set up a new base where they could build up and prepare. They had already set up several plans for this last round. While everyone else would focus on fighting each other, they'd build and arm up, crafting as much ammo as possible and several backup firearms in case their guns break. With plenty of ammunition and proper terrain and defenses, they could take down anyone with sheer firepower or accurate strikes from afar.

As they left their home, they rode upon the backs of Raptors, carrying everything they needed and destroying everything they couldn't carry to not leave anything for someone else to salvage. As they made their way to one of the locations they had scouted beforehand, they had to stop in their tracks as one of the more dangerous mobs of the Abberation reared its ugly head. A Basilisk.

A giant snake that could swallow men whole and hide underground, lying in wait for someone to near. Unluckily for them, they didn't notice the Basilisk in time, getting close enough to accidentally agro the giant serpent.

Forced to flee, the trio realized that they were too slow and that the Basilisk was gaining on them despite riding Raptors.

"Ditch this one! Let's have it lure the Basilisk away!" Clint shouted, hopping off the weakest raptor they had and whistling it away, towards but away the Basilisk, getting its attention and drawing it away.

Forced to travel on foot, Clint caught up with the other two, and the trio began making their way to a small plateau hidden along the wall of the Cavern, granting them a height advantage and a way to build up safely without being noticed, hopefully.