I slept until ten at night and, as dusk began to darken the Zone, I gathered my gear and headed towards the station. I could have just made my way back to Skadovsk and sleep until night, but I got the information that I wanted, concerning the size of the building and the guard patrol routes, and, since these wouldn't change, I just loaded the game, I saved before leaving the Stalker base and spared me the time it would have taken to walk back. Now, that would come to pass as soon as the sun went down. After all, I only went there to investigate, not to start my little war just yet. My assumption was spot on, and, as soon as I came in the visual range of the mercenaries, they began to shout at me to back off, which I immediately did.

Since there are no actual hostile factions in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, I figured that, whatever happened, they'd first warn me off, and not just shoot on sight.

I approached the Waste Station in broad daylight, simply to investigate the area. Bottom line is, I went in prepared for a fight and ignored his promises of a 'smooth run.' The easier the mission sounded, the more Stalkers would accept it, and the chances that he'd get his commodity would increase. While it was in his best interest to give me as much help as possible and increase my chances of completing the mission, since he was the one that would collect the fruits of my labor, it was also in his best interest to 'sell' me the mission so that I would accept it. On the upside, as an information broker, Owl did let me in on a little tip, suggesting that there were a few ways into the plant that could allow me to carry out my mission and remain entirely undetected. Catch? The entire place was guarded by a mercenary group, and Owl doubted that they'd just let me walk in and take the intel. The job was pretty simple: go to the Waste Processing Station and retrieve a laptop.

But the cunning merchant managed to distract me with his silver tongue and convinced me to accept a mission. So, first, I headed over to Cardan to fix the weapons, and then I popped in just around the corner at Owl to sell them. On yesterday's scavenger run, aside from all the ammo and food to supply an army I collected from the sawmill and its zombies, I also found one or two almost intact weapons, and I figured that they'd bring a welcomed boost to my retirement fund.

Stalker call of pripyat owl