"Merk."

William jumped, turning to face Nathan, who had snuck up behind him.

"Oh, hey, Nathan," William said. "Um. How're you?"

The other senior was clearly nervous by Nathan's presence, and his silent approach only increased that feeling. Ever since he arrived, William had noticed Nathan throwing glances at Samantha, the second-best student at the dojo.

He poked around and heard the rumors regarding Nathan. Of course, most of them came from the fact that no one really knew much about him, that he didn't have friends and often blended in, unnoticed.

William was pretty sure Nathan couldn't crack a head open just by performing a chop to the top of it.

Well, not before the game started, at any rate. Nathan displayed a surprising aptitude for fighting once the game began, and while no one knew his actual Level, the amount of monsters he fought and his 15 Bonus Levels meant he was likely at least Level 50 already.

So it was only reasonable for William to be a little bit nervous. He didn't know how strong Nathan actually was, nor why he seemed to be annoyed. They couldn't hurt each other, but that didn't matter, as there were other ways to fuck with each other. Such as with training and sparring. William knew Nathan was holding back when they sparred – but then again, so was he.

It was only through his martial and swords skill that William felt he had an edge over the other fighter.

"What are you doing?" Nathan asked, and William forced down his nervousness.

"Watching Samantha," he admitted. "She's been cooking for awhile, and it smells pretty good."

"It's also not for you," Nathan stated. "If you want to make yourself useful for once, make sure no one interrupts our date."

William's eyes widened a little as his mouth opened in shock, but he quickly recovered.

"I'll do that if you duel me tomorrow. Friendly sparring match. First to ten strikes on the other wins."

"No."

"Why not?" William folded his arms. He was standing in front of the door to the culinary class, meaning Nathan couldn't get in unless he moved. "I've been working my way up to getting a date with her for months. And you somehow get her onto you the day we're stuck here."

"I've known her since we were little," Nathan stated. "And she asked me for the date."

"You two haven't been talking," William stated. "What makes you think you're even worth her love?"

"What makes you think you're worth her love?" Nathan asked.

"Duel. Tomorrow."

"We duel," Nathan narrowed his gaze at William. "And I might not hold back."

"I won't be holding back, either."

"No," Nathan growled. "You're the one who's been bruising her up in training. The System will register my strikes against you as intentionally harming someone, rather than as sparring."

Sparring injuries were allowed, as long as they were just sparring injuries, and had no 'true' intent of harm behind them. Nathan knew that if he didn't hold back, he'd have a little bit of selfish protectiveness for Samantha stopping him.

William opened his mouth to speak, stopping when a window filled his vision. Nathan read off the one that entered his at the same time.

Duel Nathan Hunter vs. William Merk Duel William Merk in the Dome at 8:00 AM tomorrow (14h3m16s) Victory Circumstance: Deplete opponents Health before yours is depleted. Victory Reward: Steal 5 Stat Points from opponent from any Stat or Stats (total of 5). Participation Failure Reward: -5 Levels, -5 to all Stats

Silence filled the air for several moments, up until Nathan broke it with a single, seemingly-random word.

"Magic."

"What?" William asked.

"Victory reward," Nathan said. "Magic."

"What do you mean?" William asked.

"Loser loses 5 Stat Points," Nathan stated. "If it forces, I will take Magic. You aren't a magician. Your Skills focus on things other than Magic, yes?"

"Yeah," William nodded, then realized what Nathan was saying. "I'll do Magic, too. It'll be useless to me, but at least it won't really hinder you to lose it. I… didn't even know this was possible."

"You'll be losing it," Nathan stated. "Not gaining it. And same, on both fronts. It won't hinder you, and we need to work together to beat this place. As for it being possible, it makes sense. The System probably has parameters required in order to trigger something like this."

"Right," William nodded. "Otherwise, Keith and Madeline would've gone after each other already."

Nathan frowned. He doubted it. In fact, it was very likely the only reason the two of them hadn't triggered a duel, with how much animosity was between them, was for the simple reason that Keith avoided Madeline whenever he could.

It was also possible that the System wouldn't trigger a duel if one or both of the members would attempt to truly kill the other. William wanted to prove he was better than Nathan, and Nathan simply wanted to prove to William that he was stronger and more worthy of Samantha.

"Maybe," Nathan said, then stuck his hand out. "Eight o'clock."

"Eight o'clock," William took his hand, and shook it.

At that moment, Samantha opened the culinary room door and frowned at the two of them.

"What's going on?" She asked. "Why are you two shaking hands, and why are you saying eight? What's at eight?"

"Duel," Nathan stated.

"What?" She asked. "You can't duel, the System would probably-"

"Approve of it," William interrupted. "Nathan and I were, ah, having a discussion about who was better, and the System decided to give us a duel."

"Over you," Nathan added.

William blushed as Samantha raised an eyebrow at them.

"He thinks he's better than me for you," Nathan stated. "The System decided we needed to duel. Dinner smells delicious. William's making sure no one's interrupting us."

Nathan stepped forward, and the other boy moved aside to let him past. Samantha followed Nathan inside, and William pulled the door shut.

"Did the System really-"

"Yes," Nathan stated. "It'll probably ignore any attempts to force it into creating the duels."

Nathan looked at the table in one of the culinary room's five 'kitchens', spaces with a small table surrounded by counters, a sink, and a stove and oven, with cabinets fixed to the wall or walls bordering them and under the cabinets. She had taken Kitchen 5, the kitchen by the teacher's desk, and the only one with a convection oven.

Resting on the table were two plates of chicken and rice, two bowls of salad, condiment bowls with dressing, and a pair of glasses of juice with a pitcher sitting to the side. The pair sat down at the table, and Nathan looked at the chicken. It looked a little bit spicy, with an orange tinge to it and a healthy amount of sauce drizzled over it.

Samantha watched in silence as Nathan picked up his knife and fork and slowly cut into the chicken, taking a small piece of it and cautiously biting into it. He chewed for several seconds, then swallowed.

"Two-point-five stars."

She let a small smile show, pleased she'd gotten higher than the one-point-five star rating that was his normal for food. If they were lucky. From what she remembered, Nathan was heavily picky about his food, and she didn't believe it had changed, even if he ate the school meals without issue or complaint.

In middle school, he'd rated their school's lunches at a point-five.

The pair ate in silence for a little while, but only until Nathan had finished his chicken and most of his rice.

"Why did you learn to cook?" Nathan asked. "You always said you weren't going to be a woman who worked in the kitchen."

"I'm still not," she laughed. "That doesn't mean I can't at least know my way around one. I'll need to feed myself at times, after all."

Nathan raised an eyebrow.

"Okay," she admitted. "After you stopped talking with me and hanging out at the dojo, I wanted to prove I was better than you. It was pretty stupid, but I learned how to cook because of it. You really think it's a two-point-five?"

"Barely."

Samantha snorted, and they continued eating in silence, until after the last traces of food had left their plates.

"What do you make of this?" Samantha asked.

"Point-five stars."

"No," she refrained from laughing, knowing he was referring to the salad. "I meant the game. The deal we're in. Who do you think is controlling it, and why?"

"No one, and entertainment."

Samantha stared at him, unsure of what he meant.

"No one's controlling this?"

"Someone started it," Nathan stated. "But it's automated. It's following a set of rules and conditions for everything. If a, then n, if b, then o, if c, then p, and so on. Everything follows a rule. Everything follows a pattern."

"Not the Female Challenge," she said. "It was only for females."

"Maybe," Nathan said. "But it may be that we males do it later."

"Why would they be separate?"

"Reduce numbers."

"Wouldn't they just do a regular Challenge for that?"

"Not if they wanted to reduce it by a small amount," he stated. "Main Challenges are harder, and the Challenge version of your token-finding could be deadlier for us guys. Killing One-Pointers and Two-Pointers? Only the ridiculously weak for how far we've come would fail at that, especially if people worked together. You had no Three-Pointers. You only lost a few, most due to slowness and not obtaining all fifteen. It was to reduce our numbers, but by a smaller amount."

"Then why the females?"

"Nearly twice as many males as females," he stated. "The System registered that the culling needed a smaller amount than what would likely happen with the males, and so used the females. Odds are, however, that to keep it 'balanced', we males will be forced to. Otherwise, the game wouldn't be fair. The game is fair."

"How is this fair?" She asked.

"Depends on how you look at it," Nathan stated. "It isn't fair, from our perspective. However, it would be unfair to the males to not do the tokens. The females killed more than two hundred monsters that the males didn't, giving you all that extra Experience and Points. We're behind. The game will give us the Challenge, but after this one ends. Expect it within three days of this one's completion, for the balance."

Nathan had a good point, Samantha knew. But there were still some inconsistencies with that.

"Why didn't the males do it before this last Challenge, then?" She asked. "If it gave such an advantage to us females?"

"It was for this Challenge the numbers needed reducing," he stated. "Otherwise, we likely would've simply gone straight to it, rather than having the Female Challenge occur."

"Right," she muttered, realizing his point. "Wait – but if it's trying to balance everything, then why isn't it separating us by our type of fighter or by who's stronger? Giving the stronger people stronger monsters, or something?"

"Balance."

"I don't understand."

"You and William were in the same instance?" He asked, and she nodded. "Keith, Michael, and I were in the same one. It put three of the twelve strongest into each of the four instances."

"Yeah," she said. "But why-wait. Three of the twelve strongest? Is that confirmed?"

"Theory."

"We did have the twelfth-highest from the leaderboards," she muttered, then her eyes widened as she realized what he was saying. "So that they would handle the stronger monsters while others farmed their Points from the weaker ones."

"Correct," he stated. "In my instance, Keith sought out the Five-Pointers and let whoever was fighting them take the kill while he pinned them down unless he encountered it directly, in which case, he fought it. That was how it was the first three days, I don't know how it will be today, but it's unlikely he'd change. In addition, Michael and I both encountered Five-Pointers quickly."

"William and I encountered them quickly, too," she said. "We and a couple of others worked together, and I ended up hitting my fifty taking out a G-3. You mean that they're spawning near us intentionally?"

"More than likely," he nodded. "It allows the weaker people to have the protection of the stronger people while still giving a challenge and letting those of higher Levels gain a bit more Experience. It's possible there's a diminishing gain the further above a monster you are in ability."

"So an H-1 or a G-3 would be useful to the top twelve, far more so than ten or twelve H-3's," she said. "The System really is following a set of rules and trying to keep things balanced for the game. What do you think the next Challenge will be? After yours, assuming it's correct."

"Survival," he stated.

"Why do you think that?"

"Either that, or another 'kill amount'," he said. "Those and 'obtain points' look to be the primary type. However, there's a possibility for a student-student fight Challenge next. Small chance – likely to happen later."

"There is that," she nodded. "The handbook and notices made it sound as if there are Challenges where we'll be specified as allowed to fight each other. Why do you think it'd be later?"

"To keep our numbers higher," he stated. "The early Challenges specified survival amounts, with steep losses. Then it stopped, and our losses became higher. They wouldn't want to pit us against each other in violence unless only a few of us died. They wanted to weed out the weak, the slow, the stupid, and the unlucky at the start."

"But keep the strong or those able or willing to adapt to the situation for the Challenges," she continued. "How many people here do you think have figured it out?"

"Keith and Madeline no doubt know," he stated. "You and I know. William knows if he heard us. He may have figured it out on his own. Not sure who else would have figured it out."

Nathan stood done with talking for the evening, and stepped over to Samantha, grabbing her hands and pulling her to her feet, then he pushed her against the cabinets, pressing himself against her, his lips to hers.

Samantha, in response, pushed her tongue into his mouth, and they began to wrestle their tongues as she slid her arms around him. Nathan used one hand to untuck her shirt, then slid his hand up her back, feeling her soft, smooth skin. His other hand worked its way between them and unbuttoned her top.

Then, he unstrapped her bra and slipped his hand underneath it, eliciting a moan as he rubbed her nipple, massing her as he pushed his tongue past hers and into her mouth. Samantha worked her hands between them and unbuttoned his shirt, running her hands around his firm, smooth skin and his tight abs, before sliding them to his back and moaning into his mouth as he expertly massaged her breast and nipple.

After several minutes, Nathan pulled away from her, ending their kiss and contact.

"What's wrong?" Samantha asked.

"Nothing," he smiled. "Dinner was delicious, I got to kiss you, and I even got to play with a hot girl's boobs. And tonight, she's sleeping in her underwear."

"Only if he is," she smiles at him. "Though I'm surprised it's just underwear."

"Maybe some other time," he said. "I want to wait a bit, before going further."

"Alright," she smiled. "But don't wait too long, Nathan – you never know when we won't be around anymore, with this game."

He knew that she was inviting him for more, but he had reasons for not wanting to. Not at the time. There was something he felt she had to know before they did it, and he wasn't ready to tell her about it.

It was the first time he had ever found himself hesitant or embarrassed about telling someone something for emotional reasons.

"I plan on being around a very long time," he stepped back up to her. "And I'm planning on keeping you around a very long time, too. The monsters will have to get through me if they want at you."

"What if we're in a different instance?"

"They'll leave you alone out of fear of me," he said, pulling her back against him and giving her another kiss. "I'm heading to the restroom, then to bed. Meet me in there, don't bother cleaning up. I have a duel over you tomorrow morning, and I want to be as rested as possible."