Thomas: It all comes down to the girl, I guess. There’s no telling if he’s lying, feeling guilty or if we’re misinterpreting them. If we ask her, even if we cannot understand her, it should clear things up.

Ben: But how? We can’t get her to come out, right?

Thomas: We haven’t even tried. No telling if we cannot get her to come out.

Darryl: b

Darryl got up and walked to the rooms. Opening the door, he was once again met with a wave of air that was just too… neutral. It hadn’t been too noticeable in the other Safe Room, but the transition from the dusty tavern atmosphere made it more clear that the air in this place was nothing but air itself. Almost as if the air had been created along with the structure, which might actually be the case. It felt unnatural like drinking distilled water, instinctively tasting wrong by having absolutely no taste at all.

He ignored it, instead glancing at the door in front of him. The hallway was narrow, barely wider than the door he came through, with eight doors on both sides and one on the far end. Fifteen bedrooms, a toilet and a shower room. Each door had a plaque with the name of the one occupying it, and when people left the Safe Zone their room was vacated. As Darryl hadn’t taken a room for himself yet, it meant that only two doors were marked.

Darryl ignored Jean’s door and walked to the one that read Elise Berghen. He knocked.

No response.

He knocked again.

Nothing.

“Hello? I’m not with those other people. I’m just trying to help.” Darryl said.

Only silence answered him.

Darryl knew it was pointless, but he tried the door handle. It wouldn’t budge. Couldn’t even rattle it.

“You don’t have to be afraid. I know what happened, well, kinda. But…” Darryl tried. “Who am I kidding. You probably don’t even understand me, and I’m just frightening you right now. I’m sorry.”

Darryl turned away from the door and trudged to the far end of the hall to go take a piss.

The next moment he felt a burst of pain on his forehead and grunted just a pitch too high to be manly as he fell on his bottom with his head already clenched.

“Argh, that hurt! That freaking h-” Darryl said, stammering when he opened his eyes again to see the culprit.

Which turned out to be a door opening right in his face. The shower room door to be precise. That wasn’t too remarkable however. The sight of the girl that opened it though…

She was dressed decent. As much should be stated when one left the shower room headed back to her room not three steps away. She did have a moist towel wrapped around her auburn hair, but wore a white shirt that read “Aggretsuko” with a few blood splatters messing up a print of some kind of Heavy Metal Hello Kitty knock-off, and brown pants of the kind that went up to your belly button.

Her eyes were dilated from surprise. Not one of fear, but the “Oh shit I feel resistance opening the door so I probably just hit someone.” variety. Her eyes were the only part of her pale face that could express that surprise before she froze, the rest still stuck in a carefree yawn with a blush from the shower’s warmth colouring her cheeks. The word Naughty hovered above her head, along with a timer currently displaying 59min.

Which was rather troublesome. Volos told them of the Safe Zone’s penalties. First you’d be frozen for a minute, then an hour, and then the AI stripped you of all your gear and teleported you into a nest of mobs. Nigh assured death.

She already attacked Jean before to fend him off, followed by her accidentally attacking him just now. He’d actually been struck by the door as she let go of the handle, meaning it retained its momentum rather than being frozen with her. It shouldn’t work like that, and didn’t with weapons. The door being an indestructible and unlootable item probably caused some bugs.

The instant death that would occur next time she made a mistake like this could be an issue to consider later. Right now the whole hour she wouldn’t be able to anything was a bigger one, though. It meant she couldn’t answer any of their questions for an hour, and more damning it would be real tight if he’d have to wait a whole hour in this Safe Zone. Forget the French, the Woolf would be very close by then.

Darryl got back up and studied the girl. She wasn’t skin over bones, but she definitely wasn’t heavy-set either. He couldn’t carry her away, though. Her hand was somewhat around the door handle, loosely but with immovable fingers bent just in a way that she couldn’t be freed. Not with the door having an unfortunate bend back to it at the end. Seems she was stuck here.

Unless…

Darryl lifted her up a bit. Her skin was unnaturally hard and cold, not giving way in the slightest or giving off any warmth or moisture, and she was extremely light. How heavy she really was Darryl couldn’t tell, she felt like a child to him due to his enhanced strength and deadlift skill. It was still difficult to lift her, considering he had to awkwardly grab her waist with his left arm and hoist her up while keeping his bound right arm from being in the way.

Then she disappeared, and he quickly checked his inventory. She was there, and her absolute frozen state made her not lose any hp.

Ben checked on the new mechanics of that exploit while helping Gunther level; putting rats in your inventory no longer killed them but did cause them to slowly suffocate and lose health. Take them out before that and they only lost a bit of their health, take out the dead rat and they exploded into a red slurry in your face granting negative experience points. It seemed like there was no easy fix for the storage exploit, so they just added penalties to dissuade the behaviour.

But for Darryl it meant he could now take her along with him. He wasn’t sure whether it was the greatest of ideas, but it was an easy means of getting her out unseen and unfrozen the technique wouldn't work without traumatising her. The living rats Ben took out of his inventory apparently came out catatonic, and Darryl was pretty sure those things weren’t even real rats with a soul.

Darryl walked over to Elise’s door and took her out of his inventory. He awkwardly angled her hand to make it press down the handle and surprisingly it worked. Quickly checking her room he found a jacket, a handbag and her shoes. He quickly put all of them in his inventory, did a second check of the room to be sure, and then put Elise back in as well.

Darryl: Thomas, can you trade me your bike real quick?

Thomas R. Haanen wants to make a trade! Accept? Y/N

Darryl accepted the trade as he walked through the dilapidated tavern, glancing at Jean. It seemed like he had regained his composure again, but didn’t seem too inclined to follow when Darryl headed out. Darryl didn’t take any risks though, taking out his bike the moment he closed the door.

Volos told them that there were stealth skills that could make one not appear on the map, and there were means of moving faster than running. Darryl doubted that someone could get something that allowed for both this early, though. Jean either couldn’t follow him, or he’d notice the chase.

In the end, Jean didn’t follow him far. Darryl saw his blue dot leave the Safe Zone soon after him, but it only checked which direction he went before heading back in.

___

Ring ring!

Darryl braked with a loud screech. They never fixed the brake that snapped after his tense chase, and the other one wasn’t doing too hot either.

“So, why did you decide to join us all of a sudden? You were rather vague over the chat.” Thomas said, accepting the bike back from Darryl and returning it to his inventory.

“Yeah, what about the girl?” Ben said. “You kinda just left her there all alone, without even Gunther here to watch out for her.”

Gunther seemed uncomfortable to hear his name and be gestured at without knowing what was being said about him, but Ben ignored him.

“Well, not really. I suggest we find ourselves a different Safe Zone first. Let’s just say it becomes a bit more awkward if we don’t find one in 42 minutes.”

“We could make it to the Tutorial Guild that quickly, if we don’t take the huge detour around the Big Bad that I’d like to maintain.” Thomas said. “Though I’m not sure where the arbitrary deadline comes from.”

Elise popped back into being, still frozen.

“Well, I tried to go talk to her after what we said in the chat, but things happened.” Darryl said. “Apparently it counts as pvp to accidently slam a door in someone’s face, so now she’s like this for a while.”

“Aw sweet, she’s hot!” Ben said.

“Ben.” Darryl chided him in a warning tone.

“She is! I don't mean anything bad by it.” Ben sulked.

Darryl stared him down, but Ben huffed and looked away.

“Well, whatever. So now we can take her elsewhere and she’ll be safe, a place those bastards don’t know yet.” Ben said. “Wait, yeah! The Guild is totally the best place, if they open that door they’ll go elsewhere!”

“That too, I guess. Right now I’m just focussed on getting her to a safe place, considering she’s still level 1 and unarmed.” Darryl said.

Darryl placed Elise back in his inventory and they followed Thomas as he took point. With his high intelligence Thomas had already noticed a noticeable change in his calculus and memory, including his ability to remember the seven or so corners they had to take to get to the Tutorial Guide and converting the short distances on the map into comprehending how far they really had to go. It wasn’t wayfaring, not exactly, but it made him a better guide than Darryl and Ben.

It also allowed him to somewhat accurately gauge the distance that the Woolf would travel in a given period of time. Though it took him a minute, he was able to estimate the Woolf’s arrival time at the Safe Zone give and take five minutes granted its pace remained constant. And now, he could do the same to cross-reference where the Woolf would be in relation to them instead of having to alter course to avoid it later.

Or, more simply put, when Thomas took point the other two followed. Better than having to use the map themselves, it was rather bare-bones and looked a lot smaller than it really was after all.

Darryl: You noticed?

Thomas: Of course I noticed.

Ben: what?

Darryl: Gunther paled.

Thomas: Gunther’s reaction wasn’t exactly one you’d expect from a worrying father.

Thomas: What Darryl said.

Ben: Wait, so…

Thomas: Don’t tip him off, act natural.

Ben: but he’s not the father! that means?

Thomas: I noticed that Elise B. didn’t actually have his last name. Bergher, not Bauermann.

Darryl: Thought?

Thomas: Gunther was rather detailed when he wrote things down, in hindsight it was quite odd how many details he gave. What kind of details. As if he was trying to lead us to a certain conclusion and action. He never explicitly claimed to be her father, but he might as well have.

Thomas: He doesn’t seem hostile or afraid, though. Just wary.

As they kept walking, Thomas led them in a wide arc around the Woolf while they kept discussing things silently. They also ran into a few packs of rats which they allowed Gunther to kill, keeping up pretences of trust and training, but otherwise they walked in silence.

It turned out the Woolf wasn’t homing in on them but rather following a trail, fortunately. As they passed it by, the hunter kept walking towards the Safe Zone.

The detour had taken a bit of time, though, as did the rats. Gunther wasn’t the fastest or bravest fighter. So with ten minutes left, Darryl took the bike and raced ahead.

“She’s still level one and no telling how capable she is in mentally handling encounters and being attacked. I best have her unfreeze right next to a safe room, not amongst us.”

Darryl: Also away from Gunther.

Thomas: Indeed. I wonder what he’ll do now, given the new situation.

“You make sure she’s inside the Guild in time!” Ben said.

“Well, almost inside. She already has two strikes, if she were to attack me or someone else while inside a Safe Zone a third time she’s dead. Best not risk her slapping or scratching me when she suddenly finds herself teleported elsewhere.” Darryl said.

“Ah, yeah you should do that.” Ben said. “Success!”

Darryl waved as he rode away, and behind him he heard Gunther stammer something incomprehensible to the others. Good, he sounded nervous, hopefully he’d reveal what was going on soon enough.