You're leaning over your workbench in your armory — if you can call it that — in a Pripyat brezhnevka, inspecting your gun's latest modifications.

The scope on your AKM is mounted properly. You shake your head as you turn the magless weapon over in your hands. You nearly died for that damn glorified magnifying glass. You let out a deep sigh.

"You proud of it?"

Your companion Aurora asks with a mildly snide lilt, watching you from her seated position on the old, lacerated couch. She's carefully filing off the burnt gunpowder from the edges of her matte-black AK-103's muzzle brake, snow gently falling outside the window beside her. Her long white hair and blue eyes seem to be perfectly accentuated by the winter scene outside.

You've only known her for a few days, since shortly after you entered the Cordon. She's slightly abrasive, but you need to take any help you can get in the Zone.

"Relax. You've been doing fine so far," she begins in a rare earnest tone. But before you can get used to it, her blue eyes narrow slightly. "Just don't slow me down, alright?"