“So, which way should we go?” Lillian asked the group, as they stood outside the gates of the Starting Village.

There were three paths in front of them. To the right, a sign read “Spirit Lake”. To the left, it read “Windy Plains”. The path in the middle led directly to the “Forest of Dreams”.

“I think we should go toward the lake. It seems that most teams are heading to the other two locations, so there might be too much competition over there. If this is a mission that is achievable, then it is likely that all three locations have the requirements.” Serenia suggested, as Lillian nodded in agreement.

“Well, any objections?” Lillian prompted, waiting for a few moments before continuing, “Then, let’s go!”

The team began to jog along the narrow, sandy path. Soon, the path widened into a large clearing, with trees surrounding a crystal clear lake.

“Shh…there are a bunch of wolves over there in the corner.” Lillian observed, signaling silently for the group to crouch down in the bushes beside her.

On the opposite end of the lake, quite a bit of distance away from them, there was a pack of wolves resting on the grassy areas.

“One, two, three…” Lillian began to count the number of wolves, her voice trailing off, “…nineteen, twenty. There are 20 wolves in total.”

“With a minimum of 10 pelts per person, we need 40 pelts in total. Do the wolves drop more than one each…or do we have to find more?” Galyn whispered, her voice doubtful.

“We will find out eventually, won’t we?” Tyrant said quietly, for the first time since hours ago.

“And if this world is similar to a game, then the monsters might respawn. So, we may just have to kill one and see how long that takes. If it drops more than one pelt too, we may be able to just target a few of them at a time and wait for them to re-appear.” Serenia added, keeping her voice down as to not alarm the wolves.

“We will do that then. First, we will lure a lone wolf toward our end. Then, we will surround it from all sides. Lastly, we will attack it with our weapons. As for that last part of the plan, I am not sure how it will go, but it is worth a try. What do you guys say?” Lillian said, tightening her grip on her staff.

Her team nodded. Running away meant “termination”. Failing the mission also meant “termination”. Whatever “termination” was truly, they did not know, but did not want to find out first-hand either. So the only option left was to fight, or at least die trying.

“So…who wants to be the bait?” Lillian said, with a hint of humor in her voice. The tension in the group lessened slightly.

“Erm…I can…” Galyn volunteered, “I am useless anyway, so it is the least I can do.”

“Aww, don’t say that! No worries, I actually already have a candidate in mind. To a wolf, you would look the most delicious, won’t you, Tyrant?”

“Huh.” Tyrant said, not believing his ears, “Me?”

“Yep, Sir Meatshield in Shining Armor. You wouldn’t possibly allow us poor, fragile ladies be the bait right?”

“…”

“Come on, big guy. Go get them. We are counting on you.”

At Lillian’s persistent requests, Tyrant gave up and began moving from bush to bush. Slowly, he advanced around the clearing, until he reached the other end. The group watched as he picked up a stone, throwing it at the lone wolf closest to him. Angered, the wolf howled, diving into the bushes after him.

“He’s coming, get ready.”

At Lillian’s words, the group tensed up, each drawing their weapons as they waited for Tyrant to rejoin. He stopped a short distance in front of them, raising his sword to block the wolf as it leaped toward him.

A name bar appeared above its head. Level 1 Wild Wolf.

“Hurry, assist him!” Lillian said, as the group surrounded the wolf from all sides. She smacked the creature with her staff. Almost immediately, a small portion of the red Health Points bar below the name turned gray.

“Really…a mage with no spells is completely useless. I do think I made a mistake in choosing my class. Also, be careful. We still don’t know how to access our Health Points bar yet, so try not to get bitten just in case.” she commented between strikes, while Tyrant lured the wolf away from her whenever it switched its target.

After repeated blows from all party members, the wolf’s Health Points dropped to 0. As it crumpled to the ground and faded away, a clear voice announced the victory to the team.

System Prompt: Players [Lillian], [Tyrant], [Serene] and [Lynn] have defeated [Level 1 Wild Wolf]. Each player has received 1 [Wild Wolf Pelt], 100 Eden Seeds and 100 experience.

As the system finished its announcement, a warm light surrounded each member of the group.

Player [Lillian] has leveled up to level 2.

Player [Tyrant] has leveled up to level 2.

Player [Serene] has leveled up to level 2.

Player [Lynn] has leveled up to level 2.

Default skill for mage, [Fire Dance 1], has been unlocked. Default skill for warrior, [Glorious Roar 1], has been unlocked. Default skill for rogue, [Blood Crescent 1], has been unlocked.

“So, one pelt, 100 seeds and 100 experience per wolf.” Lillian paused, as she looked up at the clock in the sky, “It took us 10 minutes to get here. Another five to kill the wolf. Considering that we have to account for the time it takes us to get back, it will leave us with 35 minutes to kill the remaining 9 wolves. And just to be safe, let’s assume we have only 30 minutes. At the rate of only one wolf every five minutes, we could only kill 6 more, giving us only 7 in total. That is without taking into account the respawn time.”

“How about we lure a few more? We might be able to target two or three at a time.” Serenia suggested, panicking slightly.

“No can do. It took us so long to kill just one that two or three at a time may be too much. And, it is not safe to do so without knowing how much Health Points we each have left. We could potentially jeopardize the lives of the whole team by luring too much at once.”

“What about taking advantage of the respawning time and luring another one while the first one is down? And there is always the possibility that the wolf will respawn in another location.” Galyn said.

“We will have to wait and see first. It is dangerous to lure another one here only to have the first one re-appear right after. And, the second part of what you said is always a possibility, we will just have to take this risk and see.”

Just as Lillian finished her sentence, the defeated wolf re-appeared in front of them, in the same location.

System Prompt: Level 1 Wild Wolf has respawned.

She turned to look at the sky once again before joining her team in the attack.

“Well, that answered both questions. It takes one minute for the wolf to respawn at the same location. This means that our possible kills have decreased by one or two wolves. We could only receive around 5 pelts each. This situation may be worse than I thought.”

As the wolf’s Health Points bar decreased to 0 once again, Lillian turned to face the group while the system announced their victory.

“I will figure something out. Focus on the next wolf. I am not sure if this will work but, there is something I must try. I will be back very soon.”

She walked away from her teammates, disappearing behind a set of trees.

The others watched her vanish from their sight, giving each other confused looks before the reappearance of the wolf captured their attention. They took turns attacking once again. The third wolf fell, and after a while, so did the fourth. Just as they finished, Lillian emerged, with a big smile on her face.

“As I thought…that method works too.” she muttered to herself, and then said out loud to the rest of the group, “I found a faster way to obtain the requirements. In fact, I have already gathered 7 pelts in total.”

“What…how did you…” Tyrant began to say, but was stopped by a wave of Lillian’s hand.

“Patience, patience. Remember what the Sage said before we departed? ‘Acquire by any means necessary’?”

The group nodded, not sure where she was going with that. There was something off about her, an eerie atmosphere around her that warned of danger.

“Well, it seems that if a player dies through means other than a monster-kill, they drop all the items they have acquired, before vanishing.”

Cold silence followed. Serenia was fearful of what she was going to say next.

“So, what I am suggesting is that we wait for others to hunt down the wolves and attack them when they are preoccupied. This way, we could obtain both the pelts they have already gotten and the pelt from the wolf they are defeating. A few hits will suffice for players that are heavily injured; it will be an easy task. I just found out that those players whose Health Points are nearly depleted have a red orb on top of their heads. It should be easy to identify those people.”

“You are saying that we should kill someone else in order to finish in time.” Tyrant concluded, in an icy voice.

“Oh no no, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that we should take advantage of this unique situation. With no proper method to heal your health points, it would be a waste to see all your hard work go to nothing when you die. Wouldn’t you want to see your items help out others instead? If you were going to die either way, it doesn’t really matter, right?”

“No, what you are suggesting is plain murder. There is nothing honorable about that.”

“Hahaha…murder, huh? How would you know that if you die here, you would really die for real? After all, this is exactly like a game. The Navigator and Sage may be just exaggerating to increase the excitement level, who knows? I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy from earlier reappeared in the village tomorrow. You see, no matter how realistic this is. No matter how much those NPCs all insist this is true…it’s just a game in the end. And in a game, there are the winner and losers. I will always belong to the first group. It is as simple as that.”

“…If there is no point in talking some sense into you, then fine. Do as you wish, I’m not stopping you. But, you are going without me.”

“Hmm…sure, but before you do that,” Lillian paused, saying something that the team could not hear, “I will take care of your goodies for you.”

In a flash, multiple streaks of flames erupted from the tips of her staff, zooming after Tyrant before surrounding him like a cage. He screamed, as the flames scorched his body one by one. A shining red orb appeared, and Serenia watched in horror as it shattered into red dust soon after. Tyrant fell to the ground, unmoving. Just like what happened to the man in the plaza earlier, feathers quickly encircled his body, taking it away as they disappeared into the air.

“Ah, I forgot to mention. I finally figured out how to use the class skills. Quite useful, huh?” Lillian commented calmly.

System Prompt: Player [Lillian] has defeated player [Tyrant]. Player [Lillian] has received four [Wild Wolf Pelts], 1000 experience and 400 gold. Player [Lillian] has leveled up to level 5. Player [Tyrant] has been terminated.

Remaining time: 00: 13

Terminations: 4,128 [+ 1]

Remaining players: 1,018

“Now then, what about you two? Are you two going to join me, and live, or join him, and get terminated?”

Serenia moved in front of Galyn, using her body to shield the younger girl.

Lillian sighed. “Well, I guess you have made your choice. That’s too bad.”

She raised her staff, opening her mouth to chant.

No, I can’t let her finish. Serenia thought, as she raced toward Lillian, her daggers positioned to strike. I must stop her with everything I can do.

Serenia swung one after the other at the mage, both blocked off by the staff.

“Fierce young lady, aren’t you? Well, not like you will do any damage to me with that skill level.”

As she finished speaking, streaks of flames fired from her staff, barely missing Serenia. The nearby trees caught on fire. Grabbing Galyn by the arm, Serenia dashed off with her, away from the crazed Lillian.

“Oh my, now we are playing hide-and-seek? Naughty children must be punished.”

Galyn whimpered, tears of fear streaming down her cheeks. She tripped. Stopping, Serenia turned back, reaching toward her sister. Then, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. In front of her eyes, Galyn was swallowed by flames, her hand just inches away from Serenia’s.

Serenia remembered screaming her sister’s name. She remembered the satisfied smile on Lillian’s face. And, she remembered the words that her sister whispered, before the feathers carried her away with the wind. Live. Then, she remembered the rage. The hatred that eliminated all presence of fear in her mind. In that hollowness, something spoke.

I will teach you what to do. Just free me from this lonely cage and let me become a part of you.

Serenia altered the grip on her daggers.

Let not the fear of death overcome you. Let not the enemy faze you. ‘Tis nothing but a mere game. The system, is at your command, not the other way around.

An image of the computer lab at her university appeared. System. Command. Slowly, the concepts began to merge together. The answer was right there all along.

“System,” Serenia shouted, “access Default Skill, [Blood Crescent 1].”

System Prompt: Access granted. Please choose your target.

“Target, lock-on [Lillian].”

Serenia leaped into the air, transitioning automatically into the skill moves. Her daggers curved at the mage in two crescent-shaped arcs, knocking the surprised Lillian backward.

“Hey hey…not so sudden!” Lillian complained, as she raised her staff in defense, “No sneak-attacks!”

“Shut up.” Serenia said coldly, her hair covering her eyes partially. She swung her daggers toward Lillian again, but was suddenly pulled back to the ground by many unusually large roots.

“And there I was thinking I should go easy on you. I changed my mind.” the mage said nonchalantly, “Just for you, I will show you the power of higher levels.”

She raised her staff for the final time.

System Prompt: [Night Hunting] will end in 9 minutes. Players are advised to return to the Starting Village as soon as possible.

“Ah, I must get back quickly. Lucky you, your life have been spared by system. For now, at least. It looks like the wolves are very angry of our intrusion.”

Serenia looked around her. It was true, they were surrounded by wolves.

“Well then, no more chit-chats. Please excuse me while I make my leave, and enjoy your time with the big dogs.”

With a few blasts from her staff, she force her way out of the wolf pack, disappearing into the distance. The remaining wolves closed in on Serenia, who was still chained to the ground by Lillian’s magic.

So, what will you do? Are you going sit there and get killed by the wolves? Killed just like your sister? That voice. It was back.

Shut up. Serenia shot back, shutting her eyes and covering her ears.

Running away from reality? How typical of you.

Shut up, shut up. A root snapped.

Or, do you simply not want to meet her again? Too afraid to go up in flames like the others? You just want to forget all of this, don’t you? Compensate for your sister’s death, by dying yourself?

Shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP. With a wild cry, Serenia ripped the roots trapping her.

But, you actually want to live on right? Live on to see the expression on that mage’s face, as she dies by your hands. Surprise. Anger. And finally, fear. You…enjoy those expressions, don’t you.

Something in Serenia snapped. She got up, approached the nearest wolf, and sliced its head off with a smooth curve of her daggers.

If you want to survive, fight on.

A wolf howled, leaping toward her. She slashed at it, and it fell to the ground, dead.

Trust no one. Be no man’s friend.

Another wolf fell.

Become strong, stronger than all. Let no one know what you are thinking. Always, always…

The fourth, fifth, sixth…

Smile.

With an elegant slice, the last wolf dropped to the ground.

“I must get back. It’s already so late.”

She walked away from the pile of corpses. Moments later, they burst into thousands of tiny, sparkling white crystals, as if announcing her departure. In the distance, the birds were singing a song. The same delicate melody that she heard when she first arrived in this world. Serenia hummed along. She knew this tune.

I will teach you what to do. Just free me from this lonely cage and let me become a part of you…because you are me and I am you. I will never betray you, nor abandon you. I will fight with you, take on the world with you. To those that stand in your way, I will eliminate. Even if…

“…it is God himself.”

She finished the last sentence of the song…and smiled.

Remaining time: 00:04

Terminations: 5, 012

Remaining players: 135

Advance to Update 5: In the Escorting business…the Client is a level 10 noob >