In the deathly quiet residence of Blood Brothers, a sullen dandy sat behind a desk, making faces and grinding his teeth.

Hivemind, the renown coalition of viciously competitive small guilds and adventuring teams Blood Brothers were a part of, had just notified him they didn't approve of his feud with Lionheart over something as trivial as words. That man was too menacing to make an irreconcilable enemy of with no financial benefits stemming from of it.

They even dared to call his behavior childish!

They, this bunch of PKers, extortionists and thieves cut from exactly the same cloth!

The gall they had!

But it was worse than that …

Binary Habits, the publicly traded behavioral software developer that financed the guild after Blood Oath and his inner circle sold 51% of the shares to them several years back, warned him for conducting a bad business practice …

Was he slowly losing it?

Was he getting too old for games?

Was he burnt out?

Nonsense!

All these duplicitous scumbags cared only for their own interests!

He had been through countless turmoils in his career, and he always came out on top.

This time would be no different!

…

“B-Brother Bulwark … can I ask you a question?”

“Sure thing, Miss Mercy. What's on your mind?”

Rushing to the portal with full backpacks through an abandoned forest, the girl finally overcame herself and touched upon the subject that weighed heavily on her.

“Do you reckon … we could sell party slots like Brother Carl?”

“Haha, aren't you resourceful!” The axeman laughed cordially. “Unfortunately, we can't. For one, the Scrolls of Danger have become scarce, and we don't have an expert tracker anyway. Two, we don't yet know what new quest and dungeon we unlocked – if it's no place for gatherers, then it's no use. And three – this is a bad timing. Brother Lionheart has just found a big investment opportunity, so we have to tighten our belts until a payout arrives. No more lavishing mana potions, I'm sorry.”

“Oh … okay …” Merciful Breeze sighed dejectedly.

“Don't worry, Cuz, we will make our own bank in the stone crab habitat!” Lissome Shot comforted cheerfully.

“You really think so? Without mana potions?”

“Whoa, whoa. I said no more lavishing, not that we're cutting you off,” Radiant Bulwark redressed. “Naturally, you still need to master Confuse, so we will lend you our stockpile. But it would be nice if you could break even on your hunts. Do you think that's possible?”

“Ha! Watch us clear the dungeon in an hour!” the elven ranger boasted in her usual, self-assured manner. “How much money is that, Cuz?”

“Grandpa said about 50 gold, and if it's an hour … the NPCs should cash in some 80% of the value, 40 gold, that leaves … maybe 35 gold for mana potions! We should break even! Yay!” Merciful Breeze jumped for joy.

“There you go,” the other girl acknowledged merrily. “And we will make massive profit once you improve your proficiency!”

“What in the world are you talking about? An hour to clear?! What NPCs? And you want to burn 35 gold worth of mana potions per dungeon?!” Reckless Javelin questioned with perplexity.

“Yep, a quarter thousand crabs, that's 15 seconds per kill on average.” Lissome Shot estimated. “Easy-peasy!”

“Mhm, and the NPCs Brother Carl is lending us will be doing the looting with 100% efficiency,” Merciful Breeze clarified. “Sadly, the mana potions are a must if we want to be this quick, but with this we'll gain proficiency in no time,” she added happily.

The two men look at each other with bewilderment bordering on dread. Were they this far past their prime as gamers?

“Oh!” Lissome Shot remembered. “Grandpa and Oak won't have anything to do. Could you take them on your runs with Azure and Silky? They're both on full realism already, so they'll train skinning and picking super fast. Thanks!”

No. That was too much for the hardy veterans.

…

While his fame spread like wildfire, Grim Reaper incarnate rampaged through the black wolves' den. Carl was so juiced-up, he wanted to tear the lupines apart with his bare hands – mild drawback of the potent boosters he was on. The real deal, however, was yet to come. At first, they would ramp up his metabolism and positively influence his psyche, but not for long, ultimately leading to hangover, disorientation, cramps and exhaustion – both physical and mental.

Luckily, that's what Beatific Restoration was for … provided he made it back in one piece. This inconspicuous overzealousness turned out to be even more unhealthy than all the other side effects, leading him to a slip-up that almost ended badly and landed him on an early break.

But hey – at least it was a fun change of pace!

Saved by Last Hurrah and Arrest Bleeding, Carl learned a valuable lesson and fixed the flaw he discovered in his attitude. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Meanwhile, everything progressed smoothly.

He received his Bounty Hunter badge and pocket locator, which understandably gave off no signals, as it had a short range. If he wanted to see whether there were any soul markers in the province, he would have to check in with the bureau.

Merciful Breeze, Lissome Shot and Ingolf were doing a fantastic job in the rank 5 stone crab habitat, promising complete self-sufficiency.

Fleeting Time and Looming Oak elected to stay behind, determined to raise their willpower and take full advantage of Mana Conduit.

Radiant Bulwark investigated the new dungeon, which was a perilous place dedicated to hunters, with treacherous, dense thickets randomly spawning common horrid boars, whose pelts and tusks paid handsomely to those capable of tackling them without losses – something right up his and Reckless Javelin's alley. Although the two were eager to switch to full realism themselves, Carl wisely advised them not to, once more recommending to turn it off altogether and focus on bolstering their resolve in the arena, prioritizing honors above all.

On another note, Amaranthine Bushido was approached by an anonymous informer, initiating contact with Jade Lotus, who … came clean and apologized! They even praised Carl, declaring their admiration towards peerless experts with such backbone, and proposed a generous compensation for the trouble they caused him, shifting all the blame on Xielong and wishing to be friends. Obviously, Carl saw through them, so he declined politely, replying truthfully that he was aware of Xielong's scheme to masquerade as his savior – which shocked the representative, who was hearing it for the first time.

The rest of the world didn't stand still, either.

The push for Camp Redmont and Ghost Buster titles continued, with every large guild and player association making headway. But they only comprised a tiny fraction of the general population. The vast majority were individual players, with their own struggles and escapades, and then there were myriad small guilds and adventuring teams, whose meager coffers didn't allow for such daring experiments.

Immortal Frontier, however, was rife with fortuitous encounters. There was enough riches for everyone, and they all played in their own leagues to the best of their ability.

…

Highlanders guild provisional headquarters, Geneva Colosseum.

Having less than 10 thousand average-quality members, only half of them in the city, several hundred Gold Crowns was all the liquid assets at this fellowship's disposal. Unsurprisingly, lending it at 10% daily was a windfall for them. The risk of black market gold value dropping faster than that was practically nonexistent, with a steady flow of new corporate and private investors all but guaranteed due to the game's absurd popularity. It was already bouncing back past 105$, tracing a typical fluctuating pattern of stocks, where people cyclically oversell in slumps and overbuy in booms.

Naturally, Highlanders didn't sit idly by, twiddling their thumbs and watching a dragon rising in their backyard. To them, this was a huge opening, so they observed the powerhouse keenly, trying to glean whatever they could from his methods.

At some point, Fearless Chamois, a peppy swashbuckler with a light one-handed axe and a round shield sparring with his comrades, received a message from a scout.

“Guild Leader! This is big!”

“Squirrel? What was your duty again?”

“I was tailing the healer girl, Merciful Breeze. You won't believe this, Guild Leader – an hour ago she went into stone crab habitat with the ranger girl, the dwarf, and three of Lionheart's NPCs. Now they're back, and they left the NPCs behind!”

“Are you alright in the head, Squirrel? So what if they did? The NPCs are hauling what's left of the loot, duh!”

“No-no, listen to that, Guild Leader – those NPCs did normal runs before, but now they're returning within a few minutes, carrying four of the biggest backpacks. They can't even move!”

“What the … ! They cleared the dungeon in an hour?! With three people?! How?!”

“The NPCs were resupplying them constantly with bags from Bulwark's men, surely with arrows and mana potions, plus–”

“That doesn't explain anything!”

“Wait up, Guild Leader. Here's the good part – some time after Lionheart dealt with Blood Brothers, he sent her to the temple to pick up a spell. She was there for 70 minutes, then went into a red crab habitat, rejoining her friends, but she never reappeared, and neither did they, just the NPC that was with them. I only learned of her whereabouts a couple hours later, when she and the ranger girl went to the black boars' nest with Bulwark's party, preparing to conquer it for Lionheart on his break at 9, and they were both wearing completely different gear. Then it hit me – they must have reset their accounts!”

“What?! After spending this much money?!”

“Guild Leader, don't you think … ?”

“Huh? You mean … Lionheart told them to switch to full realism?! Although … if it's crabs, and they're never supposed to get hit … what spell was it?! Tell me, now!”

“This … err … I … haven't noticed …”

“Are you kidding me?! The single most important detail, and you're missing it?!”

“Please, calm down, Guild Leader. There isn't many options, is there?”

“Aaargh! Ehh, let's see … they say Blind is useless at low level, there's also Spasm … I doubt it's Scare …”

“What about Confuse?”

“Nah, the rumor is it takes at least 200 minutes. Is it Spasm … ?”

“It has to be something that warrants an account reset, right?”

“Hmm … is the rumor about Confuse false to discourage others from trying? A whole stone crab habitat in an hour … It has to be! You keep watching them, I'll contact Snowbell and tell her to go for it. We need to free up some funds … gah! Why did I agree to this loan? If this works, 10% daily is nothing! Ugh, whatever. Not a word of it to anyone, you hear me, Squirrel?”

“Guild Leader, there's … some bad news …”

“What is it?”

“Zodiac was watching her, too.”

“Those blasted meddlers!”

…

Zodiac guild provisional headquarters, Geneva Colosseum.

Partitioned throughout the region, this company of nearly 30 thousand gamers was evenly split between hunters, gatherers and crafters, many of them having proclivity for the occult, and thus drawn towards pagan rituals and invoking spirits. While their mages enjoyed the haunted dungeons, their gatherers mostly stayed cooped up in the city, focused on slow, but safe and steady income from crustaceans, so they knew crab habitats inside out.

“Confuse? Are you sure?” Gemini Luna, the guild leader of Zodiac, a position she shared with her twin sibling, disputed her scout's report with skepticism.

“I … think so? I couldn't approach too close … I'm sorry.”

“You must be mistaken. I gave it a shot, but had to give up.” Gemini Sol shook his head. “There's no way she did it in a little over an hour.”

“I don't know, Brother, it would add up. A cursemancer to disable them, a strong dwarf to pick them up, and an archer to swiftly execute them. Maybe she's on full realism? And maybe Lionheart is investing into her because she's talented?”

“Are you saying I'm dull, Sis?”

“Oh, come on, Bro. The average is supposed to be three and a half hours, and only experts attempt it. You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Then how could she exceed all those experts? Isn't she and her party non-entities that stumbled into Lionheart by chance?”

“I couldn't tell … but I'll try divining it. However, the question remains – how much are they spending on potions? They could very well be in the red if the girl is authorized to master the spell as fast as possible.”

“Couldn't you divine it, too?”

“Hmm … either way, this has to be kept strictly secret, understood?” Gemini Luna demanded of the scout.

“Err …”

“What?”

“The Highlanders were tailing her …”

“Gah! Those scrap pickers again?!”