He stopped arguing and got up, putting his backpack back on. He wrapped the rifle strap around his arm and went forward, and in a few minutes, he was at the oasis and looking into the frightened brown eyes of the girl, he had rescured. She had snow-white hair and a thin waist and chest, shining through the transparent fabric of the T-shirt.

"Thank you! Thank you!" She kept repeating herself over and over.

"To avoid a penalty for murder," he began, "players hang others. Nevertheless, such circumvention of the rules turns into torture for those who are caught. Especially if you've got your strength stat pumped up. One guy wrote a post about how he hung for five hours before he died. His skin turned out to be too thick, so the veins and arteries were not squeezed. A fracture of the cervical vertebrae killed him at the end. And of course, his real body also experienced all that pain."

"An interesting story," she replied, still recovering from the shock of her near death. "I see you understand the issue."

"I read the forum when I'm bored."

"Thank you. My name is Nika."

Ronnie made a couple of nods and answered with a gloomy face, looking straight into her eyes:

"I see the pseudonym."

Nika snarled maliciously but did not say anything.

"What did you forget in this place?" he asked.

"What do you think? Monsters in this game, for some reason unknown to me, don't respawn. Therefore, beginners have nowhere to level up. You have to walk around the unexplored locations and kill all sorts of bugs and birds, and then scan their bodies."

"Dungeons? Monsters are respawn there and you can get more experience from their death. There is also the Elgoreombdon forest. There are many unexplored places."

"No, thanks. I'm for safe leveling up."

Ronnie shrugged and looked away from her and examined the oasis, took a glass from his backpack and poured water into it and poured it into a flask through a special filter, drank it, and did the same thing again. The girl packed her things in a backpack and went behind a tree to change clothes, cursing and indignant at the same time.

"Can you imagine? The system didn't let me quit the game! How can you not think through the fact that people are fucked up?"

Ronnie didn't answer, he noticed something on the other side of the lake and was studying the object. Then he turned to the mortally wounded player, his body did not shatter into dust, which means only one thing. The sniper went up to him and said:

"You're alive, open your eyes. I'll take a screenshot of your face and send it to the forum."

The young man with the nickname Onstof did just that, he tried with the last of his strength not to disconnect from the game, his hands and head were shaking, his lips were moving soundlessly, and then he mumbled:

"Don't…"

Nika screamed even harder behind the tree.

"It's strange that they didn't have enough brains to fuck me!"

Onstof continued:

"This... bitch... is fooling you…"

"Are you trying to fuck with me?"

"Heea... me..." he tried to answer, the veins on his forehead were swollen, blood was coming from his nose and mouth.

"The system has already decided that you will die, there is no way to save you."

Ronnie hit him in a friendly way on the cheek a couple of times, and the system turned off Onstof due to a fatal chest wound. The body burned and shattered into dust, leaving his personal belongings and weapons on the sand.

"Bastard!" she screamed. "He was still alive, wasn't he? What did he say?"

"Nothing."

Ronnie walked back to the lake and continued to look at the other shore and the clear water and ripples. Strange sandy-blue algae grew on the bottom, and small bizarre tadpoles swam around them.

"This game is just a storehouse for maniacs, murderers, rapists, and other fucked-up people. Straight out of nightmares! And who is being attacked? Women. Have you seen it written on the forum that some guy was raped or tortured?"

"Huh, you're full of stories. Only the AI instantly blocks the rapists and perverts. With «hangers» it's more complicated. They have only recently appeared. In addition, if you get stuck or can't get out of somewhere, then you have a forced death button in your HUD. It's called «self-destruction»."

"With all the resulting fines, right?"

"Yes."

"God... I'm not going to play this game anymore…"

"Hand me some scanners and radars then, if you have any."

She opened the interface and looked at the information about Ronnie. Sixth place in the military rating. The kid was not blunder.

"Come on! Don't you understand sarcasm? Damn, Ronnie, other players would have urged me to stay here and offer me protection."

"I won't. Honestly, I don't care."

"Then why did you save me?"

"No one likes "hangers", and admins don't want to do anything about them."

"Will you take me back to the border?"

Ronnie did not answer.

"Hey! Hey! Where are you all looking?"

He turned and pointed to the other bank.

"And what's there? A goldfish?"

He walked around the lake, blew off some sand, and took the item.

"A book?" she asked, running up as fast as she could.

Inside the ancient manuscript with a blue cover, everything was written in the same font as Ronnie's amulet. On some pages, there were pictures with incomprehensible events.

"It looks like some kind of mythology."

"AI."

"At your service."

"Can you translate the manuscript? Is there any special scanner or translator?"

"You can use the radar for the terrain by setting it up…"

"Hey! Hey! Why are you silent? Can you answer me? Let me see it."

"No. Don't bother."

Ronnie took out the last radar and found that it was broken. He looked at her.

"Can I borrow yours?"

"Then I want half of the money."

"What kind of money?"

"For the item."

He closed the book, lowered his backpack to the ground, and put it next to the remains of the destroyed Barrett.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll take the radar from my warehouse. See ya."

Nika showed a smirk on her face, crossed her arms over her chest, bent her right leg, and stretched her left leg to the side, and slightly drew her toe in a curve.

"AI."

"At your service."

"Where is the nearest ground transport hub?"

"You are forbidden from using it."

Ronnie suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

"Have you finally realized that you can't get into a city, a fortress, or a checkpoint? I’ll not even start on trains and planes."

"That's how you treat the person who saved you from torment."

"Nah. I'm kidding."

She handed him the radar, Ronnie set it up through the HUD, pulled out a book, put it in the very center.

"I think it'll take some time."