A message popped up:

“What? But they fired at me first!” Alan said.

Another message popped up:

Alan glanced at his status bar. His armor and rifle had been restored to full energy. He turned his attention back to the marines approaching the bridge. Most were still a way off.

Um, okay, that was strange, Alan thought.

Yes, Eve replied. Perhaps a sniper in the city saw us firing upon allied forces and assumed we were fair game. We must remember not to interfere with players undergoing the Tutorial. Incoming hostiles. Proceed to the designated vantage point.

A squad of marines reached the entrance of the bridge as Alan exited. Alan continued running by them when one suddenly raised his rifle in Alan's direction, firing a few feet behind him. Alan froze, then began slowly creeping forward.

”Hold your fire!" A soldier shouted.

"I heard something—"

"Another wolf, Peter?"

Alan hurried past, running down the road away from the bickering soldiers. They seemed rather unprofessional.

They are initiates, Eve stated.

Right. These were new initiates to the Game, the kids that the United World Government had recruited most recently; all the actual marines were dealing with the terrorist attack. They were probably undergoing the Tutorial, like he was, or had recently completed it.

Alan made his way into a nearby tree line, then began taking out the various patrols Eve had noted, moving after every few shots. Alan slowly became accustomed to the plasma rifle in his hands, and Eve became increasingly capable of guiding his aim, adding arrows to his vision, points at which he should aim, somehow managing to guess at where people would be. The plasma bolts had such destructive force that any direct hits resulted in a kill.

After a few minutes soldiers burst out of the fort, charging about in every direction, trying to locate Alan. Patrols became increasingly erratic and frantic as plasma beams appeared out of nowhere, striking down a squad, reappearing elsewhere shortly after. People cowered in fear while others brazenly raced in the direction of the shots. They were all eliminated.

Occasionally one of the laser cannons would fire in Alan’s vicinity, but the large weapons designed to lock onto vehicles were inaccurate at such range. Then, a large blast erupted, originating from the direction of the bunker. Patrols began running back towards the fort. Rather than an organized retreat with cover fire, everyone simply raced back as fast as they could, allowing Alan to continue firing until his weapon's energy ran out. Experimentally, Alan fired at the fort, but its shields absorbed the blast.