Fending off waves of runners and a hiding stalker, I navigated through the town using stealth and firearms. After eliminating the remaining targets and beating the encounter, I inspected a nearby snowman before returning to the hideout with a B rating, that bought me closer in unlocking Dina.
The new wave spawned three infected, and I quickly spotted two runners advancing toward my position. I backed away to observe their movement, and I noticed one runner following directly behind the other.
I stalked them from behind, waiting for an opportunity to strike from the shadows. Closing the distance, I executed a stealth takedown on the trailing runner, but the remaining runner turned and spotted me immediately.
Forced into close-quarters combat, I traded melee strikes to put him down, only to spot the third infected lurking nearby.
As both remaining targets began to retreat, I fell back, drew my firearm, and spent a few rounds to clear them out.
With a ten-second countdown before the next wave, I collected a cache drop from the ground while scanning the area.
The final wave began and I started scanning the town, where I located two infected wandering between the structures, but the final target remained unaccounted for.
Exercising extreme caution, I finally spotted the third threat, a stalker attempting to slip between cover to hide from my view.
The situation turned dangerous as two infected drifted close to my position, nearly cornering me in the open. I slipped past their line of sight at the last possible moment, closed in on an approaching runner, and eliminated her with a quick stealth attack.
Another runner passed close by during the takedown without noticing my presence. Rather than attempting another quiet attack, I decided to open fire, striking him from a distance with a light shot to draw him in.
As he charged toward me, I lined up a secondary shot and brought him down. Hearing the sudden gunfire, the stalker sprinted out of hiding directly toward me.
I opened fire immediately, landing continuous hits as it closed the distance until it collapsed at my feet, successfully clearing the encounter.
Defying the game's warning that death was inevitable, I secured my survival with ten seconds remaining before auto-returning to base.
Spotting a snowman near the edge of the map, I fired some quick shots at it before the timer expired, though it had no effect.
The final screen awarded me 360 points with a B rating, deducting score for taking damage and taking too long to clear the waves.
Recognizing that faster gunplay yields higher scores than slow stealth, I returned to the hideout, now one step closer to unlocking Dina before choosing between the gas station or an unknown map for the next mystery run.
We'll check what happens next in another post.
Image Source: In game screenshots.
End of the post.
Peace.