Unfortunately, the laser portion of the knife could only last for 10 seconds, and it took seven seconds to cut through the window. Thus, Alan had to wait a few minutes for it to recharge before he could take on the sniper. Eve told him to be patient, so she could triangulate where exactly the sniper was. Somehow, using the slight movements and noise Alan heard above, in addition to the occasional laser shot Alan could see shoot out from above him towards downtown, Eve created a red silhouette of where the sniper was shooting from. Apparently they were in the corner of the room above, resting their rifle on a desk to steady their aim.

Following an outline Eve displayed, Alan made a series of cuts in the ceiling, and, three seconds later, with a resounding crash, the entire floor of the room above collapsed inwards.

LEAP BACK, Eve suddenly warned Alan.

Alan leapt back into the hallway, leaving the door open, deactivating the laser knife and reactivating his armor's invisibility. He watched as a figure in camouflage colored power armor collapsed onto the floor and reached for a laser pistol sidearm with his right hand. The sniper had around 2000 HP left after the fall, but no shields for some reason. Their level was a series of question marks.

Following a shadow figure Eve provided, Alan silently charged at the sniper, invisible. Somehow, when he was a few feet away, the sniper detected him, and began firing laser shots wildly in his direction. Alan narrowly dodged the shots with Eve's help.

Deactivating his armor's invisibility field, Alan powered up the laser knife as the sniper lifted up his left forearm, a small blue shield appearing on it. Following the shadow outline Eve displayed, Alan feinted a downwards slash at the sniper’s left leg then suddenly shifted the knife to his left hand and sliced into the Sniper’s right arm, holding the pistol. He activated and deactivated the knife as he did so, making it disappear and then reappear out of nowhere. The sniper let out a scream of pain as he dropped the pistol in his right hand, his HP shrinking down to 1600.

As the sniper tried to jerk himself away, Alan thrust the knife into the sniper’s chest as the laser knife ran out of power. Following Eve's aim, Alan managed to penetrate the heart, and the soldier died in seconds even as he managed to throw Alan off of him.

Panting, Alan stared down at the body and rubble as a string of messages popped up.

The soldier had been over a hundred levels higher… how had Alan even managed to kill him? Eve chimed in.

As I mentioned earlier, items are often more important than levels. Additionally, in order to avoid detection he had his energy shields turned off. While we were able to detect where the laser shots came from, that was only due to my unique capabilities, and the fact that I am actually capable of slowing down your perception of time, essentially speeding up the rate at which your brain processes information. Additionally, as a sniper most of his abilities, items and stats are most likely dedicated to long range fighting. As we were up close and personal, we were able to take him out.