[Time given: 3 minutes – > Time left: 10…9…8….]
[...3]
[...2]
[...1]
[0]
[DING!]
The system chimed.
["Peaceful setting" (lifted), mobility restriction(lifted)]
[Engaging in combat is hereby allowed]
The invisible walls surrounding Rue vanished unseen from his perception.
[May luck be in your favor!]
Read the system's last message, lacking any real substance or real kindness.
They were empty words of encouragement.
Skimming over the system's final message, Rue involuntarily snickered, noticing the underlying irony of these words.
'Thanks for the pleasant words, but I don't care for them.' he internally sneered.
Without a second thought, Rue sprung from his idle stillness, breaking into a sprint.
Fwoosh.
Step~ Step~ step~
Rue's steps echoed faintly as he ran from the center of the destroyed intersection, randomly selecting one of the four roads to follow along.
At a speed comparable to Usain Bolt's in his prime, Rue shadowed his chosen road while simultaneously scouting his surroundings.
While sprinting, Rue—with some last-second consideration—glanced at his panel before deciding to tap a certain tab which pulled up his inventory.
Seeing the two featured pixel art illustrations of his weapons, he settled his sights on the more enticing option between the two.
The dual-wielded rail guns of course.
Plunging his hands into the transparent violet panel, Rue traced the handles of both firearms, gripping their handles, pulling them out in a single motion.
With his weapons in hand, he returned his gaze forward.
Narrowing his eyes, Rue noticed in the distance the shrouded silhouette of a moderately tall barrier that spanned across the road, seemingly built from the dingy remains of crushed cars and rubble.
Nearing a hundred feet away from the wall, Rue increased the pace of his feet, using the already-built horizontal momentum from his sprint. He made two final powerful strides before focusing the accumulated inertia onto the balls of his feet, jumping vertically.
Within the air, he pivoted his torso back and made a movement with his arms semblant to a diver. Rue had managed to high-jump over the crude barrier.
After landing his feet on the asphalt with a soft thud, Rue continued to rapidly trail along the cratered road.
As he ran, Rue would occasionally glance over the bombed-out porches of townhouses, the fronts of miscellaneous buildings, searching for any building that wasn't bordered.
Several minutes passed, and yet the same constant monotony met his view.
Building windows and doors welded together with rebar, others chained shut with the metal frames of cars and other easily accessible street rubble.
There were a few buildings that lacked this fortification, however—as to rub salt onto the wound—the interior of these buildings was caved in, filled with the rubble of the upper floors.
Noticing something shiny in his peripheral vision, Rue shifted his attention to the shiny thing.
A thick steel pipe protruded unassuming from the side of a building.
Expressing a grin, Rue diverged from the road, toward the sidewalk which led to the building.
Moving from the asphalt of the street onto the pavement of the sidewalk, Rue—after several more seconds of running—stopped before the building.
The building was decently tall when compared to the vast majority of buildings along the street—being nine or so stories in height in contrast to the average five stories.
Entering the dark alley next to the building, Rue—after taking a few steps—stood under the shiny protrusion of metal he had seen sticking out of the building's side.
The shiny object reeked of a foul, shit-like odor.
It was a sewage pipe—lodged 7 feet above Rue.
'It's a little high, but it's manageable.' he mentally mused.
With a thoughtful nod, Rue opened his inventory, stowing his firearms away for the time being.
Bucking his knees under his weight, Rue—in an explosive movement of his legs and a pendulum motion of his arms—leaped into the air, taking hold of the pipe with his hands.
Dead-hanging from the pipe for a second, Rue with some effort lifted his body up, doing a muscle-up.
Propping his body on his arms, he swung one of his legs over the pipe, straddling it.
The pipe elicited a small groan of strain.
Sinking his hand into the violet panel, Rue pulled out the smaller end battle axe.
Looking up, he scrutinized the man-sized opening ten feet above him.
Rue was around 180 cm or six feet in his current body, and when you added the reach of his arm he could pump this number to 8 1⁄2 feet.
Naturally Rue wouldn't be able to normally reach the opening unless he jumped; however, he wasn't exactly in the place to do that. However, with the added length of the small great axe he would be able to reach the opening with the axe's blade, using it as leverage while he pulled himself up.
It was risky to gamble on the structural integrity of the pipe to support his weight—but it was a risk that needed to be taken—Rue desired a high-grounded place that would accommodate him for a drawn-out battle of attrition rather than taking the gamble and continuing to explore the area, fruitlessly searching for any other building that met a similar criteria.
Gripping the portion of the pipe's body behind, Rue raised his legs, propping them on the topward surface of the pipe near the wall.
With his feet firmly placed on the pipe, Rue gradually began to scooch his upper body forward while keeping balance as a top priority.
Throwing himself up, Rue hugged the rough surface of the building's wall.
The pipe screeched some more.
Hearing the pipe's groans of strain, Rue froze in place.
The pipe returned silent.
He released a sigh of relief.
Keeping one hand propped against the wall, he raised the other with the axe over his head toward the opening above.
Wrapping the axe's curved blade over the opening, Rue tugged the axe's handle.
After a few tugs, he determined it was safe.
Giving a self-assuring nod—
CRUSH!
CLANG!
The pipe snapped from the base of the wall, falling to the ground below with a clang.
Paying no heed to the commotion, Rue with his body dangling slacked from his hand still gripping the axe, began to pull himself up.