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Benny’s execution attempt at the start of New Vegas could not have been planned worse.

So he shoots you in the head with his gun, Maria. Realistically, sure, you’d be dead, but in this game’s world, you walking away is perfectly logical.

It is literally impossible for Maria to kill the player in one shot when you calculate its damage using the game’s engine. Even at level 1, Endurance 1, no armour, and assuming Benny has 100 points in the Guns skill (which he doesn’t), it still doesn’t do enough damage to kill, even with the critical and headshot bonuses. Maria is simply too weak.

All it would have taken is for him to put a couple extra shots in. I mean, he still tried to bury you alive, but come on, Benny. A couple of strangers go to the graveyard in the middle of the night and you think nobody from Goodsprings will investigate?

Not to mention the route that the courier was going would have killed him. They would have had to get through bandits, deathclaws and radscorpions to get to the destination. Not only did Benny fail to kill the courier with bad planning but he also inadvertently saved his life.