Badge of the Death Game

Chapter 002

[Mission Objective: Kill the ringleader and rescue the hostages.]

[Mission Achievements: Total Elimination! Kill all sixteen criminals, including the ringleader. Hostage Savior! Rescue all twenty-seven hostages. Perfect Squad! Ensure all six members of your squad survive.]

[Completing the mission objective will clear the dungeon and reward you with one Career Point. Each completed achievement will grant one additional Career Point. Completing all achievements will reward you with one random Support Card.]

[Career Points can be used to upgrade your occupational skills. Support Cards can open random items.]

Xander Carter frowned slightly as he read the new system notification.

There was no other reason.

This mission looked too easy.

There were dozens of armed police officers already on site, plus the SWAT teams that had just arrived.

Although this was supposedly an unofficial operation, and he had no idea whether there would be follow-up support, dealing with a group of desperate criminals who had been chased all the way here and forced into a hotel should not be difficult.

As long as he could stay alive until everyone else finished the job, this dungeon should be considered cleared.

But the achievements listed after the objective were extremely rewarding.

If he could earn enough Career Points and use them to improve his combat abilities, then once he returned to reality, his chance of survival would naturally be much higher.

“If I get the chance… I’ll take the risk.”

Just as this thought crossed his mind, the vehicle came to a stop.

“All right. Everyone out. Establish perimeter security!”

At D-1’s command, the doors opened, and the SWAT officers filed out one after another.

Holding the rifle in his hands somewhat awkwardly, Xander stood at one side behind the vehicle. He exposed only half of his body, carefully raised his weapon toward the hotel entrance not far away, and began observing the surrounding environment.

Their current position was about twenty meters to the left of the main entrance.

It was relatively safe.

Judging from the remaining traces of the exchange of fire, this group of criminals had likely fled from this side and, in their panic, been cornered inside this hotel.

Not far away, a man in a suit who looked like a government official was cursing furiously.

“These people are lunatics! Savages!”

Beside him stood a tall, thin Black man in plain clothes. From the way the lieutenant in charge of the operation was communicating with him, he was most likely some high-ranking figure in the police department.

Xander could not hear clearly what they were saying, nor did he have any desire to dig into it.

However, he could vaguely make out that the people inside were already preparing to kill the hostages, so they had to storm the building immediately.

Good grief.

They were already about to start executing hostages?

The situation inside was even more troublesome than he had imagined.

In that case, could the Hostage Savior achievement already be impossible to complete?

One minute later, a new order came through the radio.

“Team B and Team D breach through the front entrance. Team A and Team C circle around and assault from the rear. Operation begins.”

As soon as the order came down, D-1 gave the advance signal.

Xander’s performance in police academy had been decent in every category. On top of that, his father had served in the military, so from a young age, Xander had been influenced by that environment and had developed strong physical skills.

But this was still his first time participating in actual combat at this level.

It was impossible for him not to feel nervous.

Silently praying that nothing unexpected would happen, he checked one final time that a round was chambered and the safety was off. Then he followed closely behind D-3 and quietly moved toward the entrance.

“Slow down.”

D-5, behind him, reached out and patted Xander, signaling that he was following too closely.

Just as Xander felt confused, D-3 in front of him removed the breaching hammer hanging behind his waist. He moved past D-2, who was in the point position with a riot shield, and arrived beside the smaller door next to the main entrance.

On the opposite side, beside the small door on the right, Team B’s breacher was also ready and had begun counting down with hand signals.

Seeing this, Xander suddenly felt something was wrong.

“Wait, what the hell? I’m an assaulter?”

Back in police academy, he had studied some basic theory on indoor close-quarters battle, or CQB.

In a SWAT entry team, there was usually a point man with a shield who absorbed incoming fire, a breacher responsible for opening the door with breaching tools, several assaulters responsible for main frontal firepower, and a marksman outside using a precision weapon.

The term assaulter also covered the roles of cover man, arresting officer, and rear guard.

Judging from his position, he was the second assaulter responsible for following the point man directly into the room.

This was a position with an extremely high casualty rate.

“Damn it. This is insane… I’m not good at indoor CQB. Isn’t this basically asking me to die?”

Xander’s entire body went numb. He tightened his grip on his rifle.

The three-count passed in an instant.

With two heavy bangs, the fragile wooden doors were smashed open.

The moment the doors opened, the breachers withdrew their hammers and retreated.

“HCPD!”

With a loud shout, D-2, the point man in front, rushed inside with a shield in one hand and a pistol in the other.

Almost at the same time, bursts of gunfire rang out from inside.

Great.

He was being forced into it now.

There was no backing out.

Gritting his teeth, Xander raised his rifle and followed D-2 into the hotel lobby. Using the riot shield as cover, he lifted his weapon and began his first round of fire.

Whether he hit anything or not did not matter.

As long as he did not shoot the hostages, that was good enough.

At the same time as he opened fire, Xander also subconsciously activated his Detail Observation.

Inside the hotel lobby, thirteen hostages were crouched in the right-side corner with their hands over their heads.

Four armed criminals were positioned near the front desk and the stairwell, relying on cover as they returned fire.

Rat-tat-tat!

A quick three-round burst.

Xander reacted fast and directly dropped one criminal who had not yet made it into the stairwell.

But before he could feel happy, a sudden stream of bullets erupted from the rear-left corner.

In the next instant, Xander felt heat spread through his body.

All the strength in him was drained away in a flash, and he collapsed helplessly into a pool of blood.

Before his consciousness faded, Xander vaguely saw a criminal hidden behind a large decorative vase in the left corner.

The man was holding an AKM and spraying bullets at the point man, who had lost Xander’s cover.

Then everything turned black.

The next second—

“Hurry up, Carter! Don’t just stand there!”

A familiar voice and familiar words rang out ahead of him.

Xander opened his eyes in a daze.

Not far away, D-1 was waving at him from the passenger seat.

“What…?”

He lowered his head and looked at his slightly trembling hands. A sharp pain throbbed deep inside his mind.

Xander was certain that everything that had just happened was not a dream.

He had truly died once.

“Get in the vehicle! What are you still standing there for?”

Seeing that Xander was still frozen in place, D-1 immediately frowned. Just as he was about to get out of the vehicle and reprimand him, Xander suddenly started running and jumped into the police vehicle.

“Don’t tell me you went too hard last night, Carter. If you’re still drunk, then get out of the vehicle!” D-1 said sternly.

Xander took a deep breath.

“Sorry. I spaced out for a second. It won’t happen again.”

So death could trigger a rebirth.

The mission could restart.

In that case, there was nothing to fear.

Slowly, Xander raised his head.

Under the helmet, his eyes gradually became firm.

And fierce.