Waking up feeling refreshed, the morning light gently rolled over the hill of the encampment. I roll up my sleeping bag and head over to see Sid. I take out the flash drive and a greedy glint flicks in his eyes. He thanks me and slides a stack of 1500 rubles. As I slip the stack into my pack, he laughs and tells me I could be a great asset, and more importantly, he caught wind of some new information on Strelok. Apparently Strelok has found a way through the treacherous path to the north end of the Zone, the virgin section. The reason why only a few stalkers have made it to this section, as Sid says, is because there is a section approaching the north where a strange Anomaly occurs. This section starts to boil the very brain of the trespasser in this realm. However, there is a way around it. There is a group of scientists at the Agropom research center working on a means to protect against the anomaly. I should head there to continue the search for Strelok. I started turning my back on my 'employer', but just before I make it halfway he tells me if I'm interested he has a few more well paying jobs. He wants me to bring a suitcase of suspicious nature to a barman over at 100 rads; it's a bar just in the garbage, the neighboring section of my humble beginnings. I quickly say, "sure, as long as it pays well," and Sid retorts that it would be well worth my trouble, if he gets paid well I do too. Before I finally head out, I decide that I should repair my armor and my new shotgun. Better to be prepared for anything than take an unnecessary bullet, or have a misfire. I hastily depart from Sid's office.
My wallet has been filled a little, but I figure I could use some extra spending cash. Thinking back on it, Sid told me about an artifact order that he's looking to fill so I figure I might hunt for that. But first, I decide to check out the stash coordinates on my PDA. I jog over to the stash, and feel a pang of terror as I see a pack of dogs and boars surrounding the small backpack that holds, what damn well better be, a serious supply of cash or weapons. I pull out my shotgun, ready for anything. To my good fortune the boars spot the dogs and rushed them. In the ensuing foray I sprinted to the stash and open it up. I find myself a silenced pistol and some ammo. Not too shabby, it's in good condition and it definitely has more firepower than my old pistol. The harsh snapping and barking of dogs mixed with the guttural squealing of the boars snaps me back to attention and I decide to hightail it out of there before I get caught in the melee.
On my way back to see Wolf and Sid I find some kind of rundown farm buildings, as far as I can tell at least. My GPS spotted a corpse in the buildings and decide to check it out, I'm in a looting mood anyway. I head into the building with the corpse, and set to looting. Unfortunately, the guy had already been seen to. Nothing. Suddenly, I hear a strange noise behind me. I whip around and fire a blind shot from my sawed-off into the room. I must have nicked a gas can nearby because a flash of bright, hot light blares in front of me, and I go check the wreckage. Walking over to the collection of battered boxes I find, luckily, an untouched set of armor that looks similar to a bandit's garb. It seems to be a bit sturdier, and I will take looking like a reduced amount of damage over looking like a bandit any day. Once I finished my search I leave the building and spot a glowing object just out outside my periphery. Walking closer, I see the distinct shape of an artifact. My heartbeat slowly rises, I know I'm approaching an anomaly and must tread carefully. The closer I get the more I realize that this is the artifact I need for Sidrovich. Gleefully, I pick it up and quickly leave the area, no need to stick around and end up like my poor dead friend.
I look up at the sun, it's directly above me signaling half my day has been used up. I jaunt over to Sidrovich and he casually asks me how things are going. I simply say that I've gotten his order filled. He cracks another smile, the second in one day, that seems impressive. I pass it over to him, while he stows the artifact in a nearby container he gently tosses a small sack of stuff my direction. "Enjoy, you've earned it" says Sid. Never taking my eye off of him, I pick up the sack and empty the contents in front of him. I look down at my spoils, it's a pretty decent collection of items. I got 300 rubles, a dosimeter (for measuring radiation), and a GPS Beacon. Sid says I can keep the rucksack that the stuff was stowed in but I simply drop it on the floor next to his desk and tell him he could keep it, it wouldn't provide me much use. After my brief forage I felt pretty weighed down. I mean shit, I'm carrying about three more guns than I should need to, on top of my old armor. I pass the lot over to Sid. He eyes each item carefully, appraising every ounce of worth from the items. He passes me about 1,000 rubles and says "you won't get a penny less, but you won't get anymore." I tell him I'll take whatever he'll give me, just to keep my pack somewhat light. My stomach rumbles, reminding me that I haven't eaten at all today. I head over to Wolf's camp. He laughs as I approach saying, "Man, you couldn't sneak up on a deaf man with the way your stomach is rumbling." I laugh heartily at his crack and ask him if he's got anything I could cook over the campfire he's got constantly running. Passing me a few sausages and bread he gestures to the fire and remarks, "you can have the food free of charge, as long as you make me something too. I fucking hate cooking." I gladly accept his offer and hunker down for a hearty meal.
That's all for today, I do have more game stuff to add to another post, however, I think I'm going to leave that for this weekend. Expect something from me Saturday or Sunday (most likely sunday night EST). Sorry it's so short and lacking in images too, for some reason GB is having trouble uploading my images, I'm lucky I got that ONE freakin' thing in there. Until next time folks!
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