Revenge.

James was born on January 8th, 1992, to Ophelia and Victor Harrison, two Amerikan tourists who had been visiting the Noobic Union following reforms around tourism in the early 1990s. His birth was the result of a mistake - James was a completely unplanned child, and as such, his biological parents could not afford to maintain him in the Union.

They decided to leave him up for adoption in the city of Obsk, and requested that nurses leave a tag on his crib with the name "James", hoping that the 'exotic' Amerikan name would attract potential parents.

That was not to be.

James lived an orphaned life for the first eight years of his life. He was transferred into a care house for orphaned children, where nurses attempted to take care of him. Unfortunately, due to the large workload associated with caring for multiple children at once, James was often left unattended and felt extremely lonely. By the age of six, he barely knew how to form a sentence in Nussian, and once he did learn how to properly speak, he had developed an apparent stutter that became a source of ridicule.

At the age of eight, James was admitted to a public school without his own consent.

At first, he struggled to adjust. Many of the kids there also bullied him from the start, making fun of his skin colour, stutter, and Amerikan origins, but eventually - he made a friend, a boy named Orest, Orest Myronenko. Orest began backing James up during conflicts, and the two formed a quick duo and friendship. Orest, who had a much more stable familial situation and household, provided James with an essential connection, and James found himself going back home with Orest more and more, to the point where the care house for orphaned children considered fully transferring him to the Myronenko household. This, though, would never come, as two years after his admission to school, James was finally adopted.

A 25-year-old IT specialist, Yevdokim Masatov, decided to take James under his wing. The full rationale behind his decision is still not fully known, however statements from Yevdokim's relatives and friends led investigators to believe Yevdokim was searching for a physical connection after reaching a stable income through his job. Yevdokim was relatively lonely and struggled to connect with others, especially women, which resulted in him staying single even into his twenties. Adopting James gave him a purpose and something to worry about that wasn't the endless repetition of typing on keyboards and sending files.

James quickly moved in with his adoptive father, and took on his last and middle name, officially becoming James Andreevich Masatov.

James kept attending the same public school, although now, with a more stable home life, he started doing better, was bullied less and became more open to others. Things were finally looking up.

James passed primary school in 2005 at the age of 13. His grades were decent, and, due to the hard work of his father with online applications, James was able to apply to a relatively prestigious high school, Oleg Aleksandrov High School, and was accepted.

James kept contact with Orest and the Myronenko family, even after Orest fully confirmed he would be going to a different school than O. Aleksandrov.

Most of James' school life during this time went pretty regularly. His grades ranged from great to average, and he never really dipped past a D in any of the topics. A few important things did occur around this time however.

After James' grades reached a particularily high point, his adoptive father made the decision to buy James a personal computer. At the time (2008), this was incredibly uncommon for children in Nussia. Through his computer, James learned more about the world. He used it to help with activities in school, started playing video games - both violent and peaceful, such as the DEMISE and DISASTER series by If Software, which he became a particular fan of - even purchasing t-shirts with the game's logos and wearing them proudly.

James stayed relatively introverted throughout this time at school and had a small circle of friends who he didn't consider too close. He still went out with his friend Orest from public school, however, and even helped him out with his increasingly harder studies. James started making friends online through the games he played, talking with them through voice chat.

As a consequence of his time online, James learnt Anglish at an increasingly fast pace. Using the technique of comparing Nussian to English, he quickly learnt the alphabet and some basic words, and afterwards, how to form full, proper sentences. His grades in the topic rapidly increased, and James' adoptive father was impressed and surprised.

By the age of 17, James had cemented a personality for himself: An introverted, but calculated and highly intelligent young man.

In the early months of the last year of high school, a 17-year-old James started going out with his friend Orest more and more as he began understanding the world around him and how his own mind worked. Orest had gotten himself into much more of a troublemakers' attitude, having developed an interest in crime and gang culture. Inspired by the movements of the Bratva and their battle with the Nubagami in the late 1990s, Orest became somewhat of a Nussian nationalist, spray-painting anti-establishment phrases across train stations, metrolines, and other public spots. Orest also got a girlfriend towards the middle portion of the school year, a girl he met at the mall named Emilla Budenyovinska, who enjoyed Orest's risk-taker, hothead attitude and extremely unique dates.

James quickly became envious of Orest's life and how quickly he could adjust to people, and aspired to be similar. James took advice from his father, and began taking time out of his studies to go to the gym, and over the course of a few months, James became fairly athletic. His grades took a slight downturn, but his father could accept the losses in favor of James becoming more open and social. Yevdokim himself wasn't too social, so seeing James, his son, attempt to crawl out of the hole he himself couldn't get out of was a breath of fresh and deeply needed air.

Near the end of the school year, as summer approached, James remained, finishing up his studies and improving his grades before the final end-of-year exam. Through these activities, he met Kai Mirova, a girl his age, who had similar academic aspirations. Kai and James began talking, and quickly became friends. They met at James' house to study together, where Yevdokim immediately began teasing the two about a possible relationship.

Nevertheless, they progressed as friends for the rest of the school year, with James quietly endorsing Kai, and Kai reciprocating those same emotions towards James.

The two ended up passing the end-of-year exam, James doing slightly better than Kai, but overall, the two supported eachother and became closer and closer as plans for the future, after the holiday, began entering their heads.

The two spent their summer holidays largely seperated up until August, where they began going out and hanging out together much more often.

Finally, on August 15th, James couldn't hold it in anymore. While on a walk with Kai, he turned around and confessed that he loved her, and listed out her good qualities - complimenting her looks, her intelligence, and her personality.

Kai did the same for James.

They kissed shortly afterwards.

Shortly after James and Kai made it official, they introduced their relationship to Orest and Emillia, as well as James' father, and Kai's family.

Kai and James promised to help eachother out with their issues. Kai, as it turned out, was also pretty troubled, having lost her biological parents in the Third International War, and having to be taken care of by her grandparents. James quickly opened up about his origins, and Kai found it fascinating.

Kai ended up pursuing further education at Lev Tolstoy Political University, emphasizing her humanitarian studies in Nussian literature, history, and foreign languages.

In the meantime, to pay for essentials, James began work as a store clerk at a nearby mall. The work frustrated him, but he always justified it as "for Kai". He often had to deal with ungrateful customers, who took his work for granted and demanded too much from him. Nevertheless, his relative obedience and willingness to help other personnel with their work got the higher-ups on his side, and he ended up stacking promotions, eventually making it all the way up to manager.

On September 28th, 2011, James was invited to Kai's older sister's birthday party.

Polina, Kai's older sister, was hosting her 24th birthday celebration party along with a few family members. James, out of kindness, and Kai's presence at the party, decided to come along.

This turned out to be a huge mistake.

They took a particularily long car ride to Nomsk, where Polina and the rest of Kai's family lived, in Apartment Block #292 on the eastern side of the city.

When they arrived, James introduced himself to everyone, and Kai introduced everyone to him. Everything was going well.

Just before the attendees were gonna sing Polina happy birthday, James took the liberty of showering after noticing a stench from his armpits.

When James was done, he left, applied some deodorant he brought, and sprayed some other cosmetics, before putting on a bathrobe.

But then, loud sounds came from outside.

He quickly left the room, where he found the entire congregation confused about the sounds.

James and Kai opened the door and stepped out of the apartment.

James could only stare as a man in a boonie hat shouldered an assault carbine and opened fire.

He collapsed and, in his last moments before passing out, looked as Kai's life faded away in front of him.

Two minutes later, uniformed men picked him up, shouting "WE'VE GOT A LIVE ONE!" and he awoke to see the inside of an ambulance, as nurses bandaged up his bullet wounds and administered anesthesia.

By the time he woke up in the hospital, he learned of what happened.

Jay Yegorov, a 25-year-old office worker, had entered the apartment with an arsenal of weapons aiming to kill Amy Dostoyevska, who lived on the fourth floor. James and Kai, as well as the rest of the party, were accidental casualties.

After Kai's death, James returned home a ghost of his former self.

He was much more aggressive at work, and his father stated he "no longer recognized his son".

James looked like a walking corpse, covered in bandages, for the first few months after the shooting. He spent a lot of time home on his computer, coping with Kai's death by talking to people on the internet and looking for condolences there.

The more people he talked to, the more he became less sad, and more angry. More and more people began blaming the government and their inaction against active shootings. More and more names kept popping up: High Rise 2005, Viadimir Koltsov, Alexei Tarasov.

James began researching these active shootings, having been affected by one himself. He put out a few statements on forums centered around investigating the 2011 apartment shooting in Nomsk. He concluded each statement by blaming the government and the people in charge.

Another tragic event occured later in 2011.

As James returned home from work, his father was leaving. This was a cycle they had developed after Kai's death, always ensuring the house was occupied.

Yevdokim got in his car, briefcase in the trunk, and started driving to the computer workshop he worked at.

But life wouldn't let him have his way.

While driving down a highway, Yevdokim entered a roundabout. Driving forward, he didn't notice as a pickup truck sped past and rammed directly into his passenger side front door.

He was alive for the next minute, and emergency services rushed to help him.

The rest of the road continued as normal. They just avoided the accident and drove past.

The driver of the truck survived, and confessed to drunk driving.

Yevdokim didn't.

He bled out on the side of the road as shards of glass from the windows pierced his face. A 35-year-old Yevdokim Masatov died in a pool of his own blood.

His thoughts circled around his son, and what would become of him.

When James woke up the next day, he wasn't met with his beloved father returning home from work.

He was met with two policemen informing him that Yevdokim Masatov had died in a road accident and that this property now belonged to James Andreevich Masatov.

After his father's death, James became convinced that the world held some sort of grudge against him and his relatives and friends. Everyone who had been beside him had died, besides Orest - and he hadn't talked to Orest since Kai's death in 2011.

He looked back on his life, on every major event, every tragedy, every little minor issue.

He began collecting injustices, noting down the name and every detail of the people he believed had done something to anger him.

And it all tied back to Victor and Ophelia Harrison. The two who had left him in a foreign country, unattended to, uncared for.

Only problem is, he didn't know where they lived, or what they were doing. So, he did some online slouthing.

Helped by online friends, he discovered that Victor and Ophelia had returned to Nussia, and had started an accounting company based out of Nubosibirsk, particularily a high-rise office complex named NewDunk.

He began collecting information about the complex, and started saving up money from his job as a store manager. He no longer just spent it on money, but he had alternate motives now.

A few days into his hunt for information, an online friend contacted him after learning of his revenge plan. Instead of telling him to calm down or helping him, the friend told him of an organization based out of Nubosibirsk named the "Archivists of Aidanov" - a continuation of the Children of the Burning Star cult that had become infamous in the 1990s.

The Archivists were dedicated to the belief that Aidanov hadn't returned because he saw Nussia as too unpure and filled with non-believers, and as such, they must be cleansed, murdered, killed, with no mercy.

James got an idea.

He continued the conversation, interested, and eventually reached an intermediary with a contact from the Archivists named Nikolai Zhurovik, who specialized in dealing arms and administering training to recruits. Eventually, they agreed to meet. James called in sick to work for the week as he drove to Nubosibirsk and entered the Archivists' hideout.

Inside, he saw walls plastered with propaganda, old books, pieces of paper, almost incomprehensible phrases, and weapons - lots of weapons, illegal or not, and ammunition sprawled from left to right.

He signed up almost immediately.

From the mid-point of 2012 to early 2013, James took breaks from work to attend training sessions with the Archivists. He learned how to fire rifles, control recoil, and even began exercising again. He wore their uniforms, took pictures with them, and helped out around the hideout. Many considered him a quick learner and a good enforcer.

His favorite weapon became the GAISA-545, originally a civilian sporting rifle based on the ANK-74M. The rifle had been illegally modified by the cult to accept high-capacity magazines and be fully automatic, with crude conversions allowing for around 550 rounds per minute.

Using money he saved up from work, he got a cult member to forge a hunting license for him, using which he travelled to a nearby gun store and purchased a spas-12 combat shotgun, then considered legal. He also purchased more military gear, including a small tactical vest, a boonie hat, some sunglasses, and magazine pouches for a 5.45x39 ANK magazines.

He became an instrumental member of the Archivists' cell, helping out with administration using his experience from managing the store.

As the summer holidays approached, James learned through NewDunk's official website that a meeting for the higher-ups of each company would be taking place on the first floor on May 26th, 2013.

Seeing an opportunity to finally "take care" of his parents, James convinced the cult to let him carry out a one-man attack on the office on the day of the meeting, claiming to "take revenge on the elite of the Nussian population".

The cult, ever oblivious to his true intentions, agreed.

By May 1st, James had already resigned from his position as manager at the store. He completely understood what was going to happen next.

On May 24th, he returned home to Obsk one final time. He grabbed all the belongings that he held a sentimental value towards, and then used a marker to write several messages for the investigators after his planned attack.

Afterwards, he left the apartment and locked it from the outside with a deadbolt.

On May 25th, he drove to Nubosibirsk, with two bags full of the equipment he'd end up using during the attack. Everyone was anticipating James' "union with Aidanov" and his "martyrdom", so prayer services were hosted 24/7. When no one was looking, James used a rock to scratch the words "NO POINT IN RETURNING" and "NO REGRETS" on his rifle.

Finally, the day came.

On the morning of May 26th, James and Nikolai Zhurovik exited the hideout, James dressed in a controversially unique outfit - all black, no cult markings, no armbands.

As James and Nikolai entered the truck and drove to the office, an argument broke out between the two over the writing on James' rifle, and his overall presentation. Previously, they had agreed on making the attack a "show of force" for the Archivists, but James clearly wasn't having that.

When they arrived at the street next to the building, they still had an hour to wait before the meeting officially began.

James took the time to psych himself up for the attack. He flashed back to all the trauma he had faced.

The police officers at his door.

Kai's life fading from her eyes in front of him.

It was all their fault.

All his parents' fault.

All society's fault.

Nikolai tried to get him to snap out, but James once again wasn't having it.

He grabbed the spas from a duffel bag and shot Nikolai in the head, his brain matter splattering on the front window.

Shortly afterwards, he unpacked the GAISA rifle and slung it over his back. He packed magazines into slots on his vest, and stuffed shells into a backpack he slung over his waist. Lastly, he grabbed a JS-22 revolver Nikolai had brung just in case. There was one full chamber of bullets, and that's all he needed.

He then marched into the office, blowing the glass door off it's hinges with the shotgun and opening accurate fire on the first few workers.