The player who called herself Fae Sol walked towards Covan, and Brookie exhaled as if he'd been holding his breath for a long time. If he were in the real world, Brookie was sure he'd be sweating bullets by now. He'd only felt that level of pressure from another human once before...

*And he was a monster.*

Brookie wanted to process everything that had just happened, but before that, he wanted to confirm something else.

"Dharr, are you still there?"

Fae had said she wanted him and his friend to show him the way, which implied that she knew Dharr was still around. Brookie thought he'd fled, but...

"Yeah. I'm here."

Dharr stepped out from behind a thick tree; he'd been observing the whole time.

*How did she know? Even I thought he'd left...*

"... Hey, you gonna show me the way or not?"

The annoyed girl's voice echoed back to them through the sparse forest.

"... Let's go."

Brookie and Dharr began walking in the direction they came from.

"Why do we have to help her?" Dharr asked.

"Well, we don't *have* to, but it sounds like she has a good head on her shoulders. She could probably help us snag a couple of items at the auction," Brookie responded.

Fae Sol was waiting for the two to take the lead. As they walked by, Dharr noticed she was in an unusually good mood, which seemed to make her beautiful avatar even more noticeable.

"Brooks..." Dharr said in a hushed voice. "Did you fall for a VR avatar?"

When he heard this, Brookie almost laughed out loud. "Of course not. I just think helping her will be beneficial for us, that's all."

Brookie and Dharr took the lead as Fae Sol followed behind.

They walked for a couple of minutes in silence when Dharr suddenly spoke up.

"Wait, didn't Stein send us all message about a suspicious female avatar? Isn't that her? Brookie, what are you planning?"

Brookie suppressed his urge to chastise Dharr when he heard this. They were very clearly still within earshot, and Fae Sol could hear everything they were saying. Brookie stopped and turned to face Fae.

"Do you mind if I talk to him about something privately real quick?"

Hearing this, Fae Sol became slightly annoyed.

"... I can follow behind a bit further back or you two can use DMs. I don't want to waste more time. Honestly, I was going to ask you guys to pick up the pace. If you don't want to help me at least this much, I can find Covan myself."

"... Alright, please follow behind a bit more. Sorry about this."

Once they were out of earshot, Brookie let out his frustrations.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. "She's an asset we don't want to lose right now."

"Really? An asset? Then why has Stein put up a kill order on her?"

"Well, that's simple. It's because she's strong."

"What do you mean? How can you even tell by just looking at her?"

"If you knew what I did, you'd know."

"... Brooks. Are you really going to leave Asunder?"

"Hah... You heard that, too, huh... It's possible. I can't help but follow someone strong, after all. She knows Stein is after her, so it's natural they'll meet at some point. Though I feel like she won't lose, I want to see their fight myself. I'll judge what I want to do then."

"I think you're crazy. What if I report this to Stein?"

"I don't care."

"Why? You really think she's strong enough to warrant leaving Asunder?"

"I do."

"..."

There was a moment of silence between the two. Brookie looked over at Dharr's unfocused eyes as they continued walking forward. He was clearly writing up a detailed report of what just happened. Brookie sighed and mulled over his encounter with Fae Sol.

*How many people would be able to function normally in that environment?*

The mental fatigue Brookie experienced while in the Corrupted Land was no laughing matter. He wasn't sure how many people he knew would be able to endure that pressure. This fact alone was enough to make him respect her, yet that wasn't all she showed she was capable of.

Those eyes... were of someone who had seen death. Though the facial expressions of VR avatars weren't 100% realistic, it was enough for Brookie to tell that Fae Sol had experienced death in some way. Whether it was through witnessing an unrelated death, losing a loved one, killing someone in combat, or something else entirely, he didn't know. But the aura she radiated was not one of ordinary civilians. Of course, Brookie was able to tell because he was a veteran of war.

But that still wasn't all.

*She had no openings in her stance.*

The way she moved and stood, even casually, suggested that she was ready to receive an attack at any time. It was similar to what he had seen from someone long ago, and not many could replicate that presence. Even though Brookie was highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, he was sure he'd lose to her.

He wanted to explain all of this to Dharr, but it was unlikely he'd understand. After all, Dharr was an ordinary civilian who'd built his body with ordinary strength training. He'd never experienced real combat nor had he experienced death of any kind. It would be like trying to describe a color that didn't exist.

Brookie stared at Dharr, who was probably still writing a report, and sighed.

"Alright, I just reported to Stein, but I left out some parts," Dharr said as he turned to focus on Brookie. "That player is an enemy of Asunder, and it was important that I reported her position. As for what you told me about wanting to leave... That's the part I left out. I know you have your reasons, so I won't rat you out like that."

Though Dharr was loyal to Asunder, the two were still close friends. Dharr's loyalty didn't override the friendship.

"Thanks," Brookie said. "You want to know why I want to follow her? It's because that player is an angel... An angel of death. When she approached me, it felt like my life was in her hands."

Dharr was nonplussed.

"You call her an angel, but how do you know that player is female in the real world? And for some reason, you say she's strong. If that's the case, there's no way, right? It has to be a male player pretending to be a girl for fun," Dharr said.

"Yeah, you're right. That's highly likely, but there's no way to know, is there? This virtual world isn't the real one, and if someone wants to pretend to be something they're not, that's totally fine. We should just treat people as they want to be treated here, without any stigmas from the real world. Wouldn't you feel strange if you were to walk up to her and treat her like a man, especially when she looks like that?"

"Hmmm... I guess so."

Fae Sol's avatar was indeed beautiful, more than most of the other ones they'd seen. Most people's avatars were only a product of the various sliders provided during character creation, but hers seemed to be custom-made.

"Besides," Brookie continued, "she saved me. I think that fact alone deserves a little respect."

"Alright, I get it. You got a map, too, right? Let me take a look at it."

"Sure," Brookie said as he handed the map over to Dharr.

As Dharr was inspecting the map, his brows furrowed.

"Brooks, you don't know how these maps work, right? Take a look at this."

"Is there something wrong?" Brookie was surprised. Was it a fake?

"Hm... Is this right?" Dharr trailed off.

"Spit it out already."

"You see this path?" Dharr asked as he traced his finger across the thick line on the map. "This is a record of where this map's been. The terrain colored in is basically what the land looks like as the map physically travels over that location. You can see that a lot of this is purple, right?"

"Yeah... so does that mean...?"

"That player traveled straight through this Corrupted Land in order to reach us," Dharr skeptically said.

"Right. So doesn't that prove strength?"

"What do you mean? It could be a fake, or she got lucky and found an item that helps her or something."

"... We literally saw her run *from* the purple grass."

Brookie couldn't believe the amount of denial Dharr was in. He turned back to look at Fae Sol who was nonchalantly nibbling on a Cinnamon Bun. Needless to say... It didn't help his case. But he saw something else that confused him.

"Wait, look back there..." Brookie said in a mystified tone.

Dharr hesitantly looked towards the same direction Brookie was, and when he did, he couldn't help becoming confused.

The dark grass in the distance was coming back to life. Where everything was previously purple, the forest was a lush green. It was as if the "corruption" from earlier was simply a bad joke.

"Well, that's a coincidence," Dharr said.

"You really think so?" Brookie responded, shocked at Dharr's conspiracy-level denial. "Don't you think Fae Sol was responsible for clearing it?"

Dharr shook his head.

"It's pretty unlikely. Let me tell you something, Brooks. The alpha and beta stages of the game were released for less than a month each. Even in that amount of time, the only thing we learned about this game was that the number of questions we had were higher than the number of answers. I don't think any alpha or beta player has seen that biome before, much less known how to 'clear' it, if that's even possible. The point is, there's so many things in this game that the only advantage beta players have is knowing how to start playing."

Brookie *really* wasn't convinced.

"So that biome just magically disappeared, then?"

"I'm saying it's highly coincidental. You're not a beta player, so you won't understand how vast this world is yet. I'm saying it's more likely for it to have cleared out by coincidence than a player understanding how to clear it themselves."

"Hmm... Sure," Brookie defeatedly relented. Trying to convince Dharr any further was a fruitless endeavor.

The two friends walked the rest of the way in silence.

---

*Well... Looks like he didn't lie to me.*

In her opinion, even if Brookie had lied and led her straight into a trap, it wouldn't have mattered. She was already twice-evolved and was in possession of Shahar's Nightwalker. She could easily have killed everyone or simply escaped.

The three players arrived at the Covan Hamlet, and Jisha was looking around. Covan was aesthetically very similar to Uval. However, it had a higher player population density, and the atmosphere seemed more tense.

*Wow, so it looks like there's more than just Shock Collar and Asunder here, huh? Looks like the auction's really brought a lot of people here.*

Starter hamlets with incentives for beginners... They were quite popular since beta testers had revealed some information about them at an earlier time. Auction houses and War Zones were both quite popular in all stages of the game.

*Actually, now that I think of it, it's strange that Uval was so peaceful...*

In her past life, War Zones were hotly-contested patches of land. Not only were they small, but they were rare, too. They were aptly named, since you could kill anyone you wanted with no repercussions. They were PvP hotspots for all walks of life.

*Maybe I'm just lucky?*

Jisha shook her head. There was no point thinking about it.

*Whatever. Let's get rid of this inventory clutter.*

The slimeballs and insect wings were of no use to her at the moment, so she decided she was going to sell them at a nearby materials shop. After all, her inventory was full and she could exchange the trash items for a couple of Copper.

*Who knows... There could be something good in there. Now that I have a little money, I could possibly fetch something nice.*

"Alright, boys, I've got a couple of things to do. You can follow me or leave or whatever," she dismissively said.

"...? You sure you don't need our help? You haven't even been here before."

It was a reasonable question, but to Jisha, who had seen almost every type of hamlet imaginable, it seemed quite silly.

"Don't worry about me," she said as she walked in front of the two players.

*Well, let's see what's in this materials shop.*

If you were a front runner and encountered a random hamlet, it would be stupid to not check the material shop and auction house. Though unlikely, it was possible for a rare item to show up once in a while. In her past life, there were many stories of players randomly encountering cheap, high-level Epic items in a remote hamlet in the middle of nowhere.

Jisha quickly found the materials shop. The universal mats shop symbol was a pyramid stack of six bouillons, so it was recognizable no matter where you were in Synergy.

Unsurprisingly, it was blocked by players, presumably from another group.

*Hmm... Let's ask these nice gentlemen why they're blocking my way, shall we?*