How many times has this scenario happened to you? You log on in the morning ready for a new day of Bootleggers, mentally preparing yourself for the rigour of searching for an organized crime. You manage to find one and just as it finishes you notice a new boot mail. "You are a friend of mine so here is a warning, your account will die tonight, buy points.” Maybe once or twice, maybe many times. It depends how connected you are. But now what do you do? Do you have any options? Are you about to lose the account you have spent months building up? In this article we shall discuss some steps to take in preparation for, or in defence, of this kind of message.
So the first option is to accept it. The person who messaged you is someone you trust and if he tells you that your account will be shot then that is fact. So now it's time to scour the Classifieds! All the cash comes out of your federal bank. You look at the point prices and you turn your three million dollars into points. Then you realise that you won’t have any money left to do an organized crime on your new account! So you look at the Swiss and calculate that one hundred thousand dollars in the Swiss is actually only seventy thousand dollars for an organized crime. Is that enough? With the Duesenberg prices? So you then turn to your friends list. Who is online? Anyone you trust? If so, send them one hundred thousand dollars and explain that you think you will be shot and please can they send it back to your new account.
So now what? You have no money left. The forums are behaving slowly and you have no idea what time you will be killed. Will it be while you sleep or at lunch? So you keep a little bit of cash to gamble with in case you get lucky and can buy more points. But have you sold your protection and gun? They can quite easily add up to one hundred thousand dollars, especially if you add the garage to the sale! Great a little bit more money. Are all your cars sold? Or did you have any cars you wanted to save? If so escrow them to the same person who keeps your money safe.
But now you are in limbo! You have no money and nothing to do. Maybe you bust, maybe you play keno or maybe you log off for the day wondering why bother. But now there is a new option! If you turn to the kill page you can save some time and kill yourself! Why should the shooter gain satisfaction from killing you? Why wait for an unknown time when you can start the missions again and find a new organized crime. Plus you know your friend is online with your cash safe so it will be a fast start. Then you think about the downside. The killer will have extra bullets free. Maybe they will look for someone else to kill. They will wonder why you suddenly killed yourself and maybe even turn to your friend who gave you a friendly warning. What helps you could in fact cause you to kill your friend, indirectly. As Isaac Newton said: "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."
There is another option. Let's forget everything above us and look at the defence option. You know a hit is coming. You don’t know when. You could hammer the gym and work hard to increase your protection as much as possible. You can keep an eye on your travel timer and move states as often as possible. Or, even better, you can keep an eye on the graveyard and move states as soon as someone dies. But this won’t save you if it is an overnight hit. The best possible action you could take, in this writer’s opinion, is to find a crew which you have a few friends in and go for a visit.
Now I am not advising you to lie to a crew. I am not saying if you are going to die then join the crew which is an enemy of the ones shooting you and start a war. I am also not saying that this will even save you! But what I am saying is that anyone who would shoot you will think twice about attacking you if you are inside a crew. They themselves will be careful to not start a war with another crew and maybe they will just wait for you to leave. But if they have other accounts they are shooting tonight then they will expose themselves and other actions can be taken. Also, if you are shot whilst visiting a crew, you might find they are prepared to help you rank back up, find witness statements and maybe even kill your killer! Plus it could even allow you to apply for full membership!
But none of these options are fool proof. Nine times out of ten you will die when you receive that message from a real and trusted source. All this is saying is a few steps you can take to make the transition that much easier! One thing is for sure, we have all died with no notice and lost everything! No one likes having that happen so if you follow these few suggestions you might make your life a little bit easier. Good luck and happy ranking!
