After a few seconds, Rowan rolled his eyes. Alright, cool guy, I need more than that. He jogged up beside Kaidu and stretched out his legs, mimicking Kaidu’s long gait. The few inches Kaidu had on him made it harder than he expected, but there wasn’t enough of a difference for the white-coated man to leave him behind.

“The most dangerous part?” he cued.

Ikara caught up and struggled alongside them to listen in. Every few steps, she dropped into a quick jog, then went back to a power walk, on infinite loop, shorter legs and arms pumping at full speed.

Kaidu glanced at both of them and slowed his pace an almost unnoticeable amount, just enough that Ikara could power walk to keep up. “Safe Haven is called at the end of the day. When Safe Haven is called, all teams have an hour to find and enter a Safe Haven, or else face elimination. The end of the day is when points are tabulated, and party members with none are eliminated. It is also when players will carry all the points they gained through the day on them. I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”

“So basically, laying in ambush outside a Safe Haven—whatever that is—is a great way to pick up points and eliminate other players at the same time. Kind of like inverse spawn-camping. Goal-camping?” Rowan tipped his head, thoughtful.

Kaidu nodded. “This early, only teams like us, with a knowledgeable backer, will act accordingly, but the danger remains. It won’t take long for the other teams to clue in on the strategy. Thus, we have two goals: find a Safe Haven out of the way, so that other teams can’t ambush us, and second, find a Safe Haven to ambush. For tonight, we should focus on ambushing, while we have the jump on other teams who won’t yet suspect the strategy.”

“What about inside the Safe Haven?” Ikara asked.

“Inside, all skills are disabled, and food and lodging are provided. However, points can still be earned and traded. For players like us, who benefit from a leveled, skill-less playing field…” Kaidu’s lips tipped upward into an unpleasant smirk.

“You benefit from a skill-less playing field, anyways. I’m more of a soccer guy than a sword nut,” Rowan pointed out. Sure, I’m not exactly a fantastic combatant with my skills, but it’s not as if I’m a black belt in kendo or whatever. Does kendo even have black belts? Hell, is Kaidu using kendo? Damned if I could tell. Which just comes to my point: I’m not a fighter. I was planning on using skills like everyone else if I got chosen as a combat class. No point wasting all my time to learn technique with a weapon my class might not even support, when combat classes can launch a forty-foot wave of flame with a swing of their sword… or so I thought.

“Can I take things in, if I made them with skills?” Ikara asked, concerned.

“Yes. Which is to say, our new clothes won’t fall apart inside. Likewise, any combat class with the prescience to materialize their weapon before entering will still be armed, just without the skills to use their weapons properly.”

“In that case, aren’t Mages boned?” Rowan asked.

“Some Mages. Others can enchant, or manifest magical items. I wouldn’t dismiss them outright, but if you knew of a group of Mages, then now is the time to speak up.”

“Oh, right. Everyone, how’d the scouting go today? See anything useful?” Rowan asked.

Ikara nodded. “Ran into a couple of groups today. Um, a pair of twins that called each other Green and Yellow?”

“I ran into them, too. I call them the Color Crew. Nasty bunch, especially Red. Blue’s alright, but…” Rowan shrugged.

Clearing her throat, Ikara continued. “Saw a guy in black level an entire street’s worth of clones in one go. I think we want to stay away from him. Then there was a group of girls sticking together, no idea what class they were, and a guy with like, fifty weapons getting whined at by his daughter. Didn’t see the other two members of that party. Suspect they split off.”

Rowan nodded. After a few seconds of silence, he jumped in with his report. “I ran into the Color Crew, uh… Oh! Katy’s here.”

“I don’t wanna hurt Katy,” Ikara said.

“Me either, if I can help it. Let’s see, who else.” He opened his mouth, then paused. Lou… she isn’t on the player list, and there’s that weird thing with the doors… I don’t know what’s up with her. She doesn’t seem to want to hurt us. Helped me out in that place behind the door, and said she doesn’t care about points… Aside from taking my jerky, she hasn’t done anything malicious. I’ll leave her out of it for now. Hell, I’m not even a hundred percent sure she isn’t some kind of fever dream. The tuxedo, for example. The domino mask. I don’t understand anything about her.

Rowan hummed to himself to fill the silence. Licking his lips, he started speaking again. “Oh right, Terry—er, the Hero’s party, Arthur and Lancelot and all that, ran into them. Jude’s on their team now.”

Kaidu twisted his lips. “And you want revenge?”

Shrugging, Rowan shook his head. “I want to stay the hell out of his way, mostly. Revenge if I can get it, sure, but I don’t think that dish is cold yet. And—oh right, Ikara, I ran into some people from the GSEZ, same as you. Was wondering if you knew them.”

“It’s a big area,” Ikara said.

“Fair. I didn’t catch the leader’s name, but he’s a Trapper. There’s a Mage of some sort named Amy, a bulky, strong guy, Tank or Brawler or something, called Jacob, and an Assassin or Thief, Marlene.”

Ikara paled. “Marlene? The Assassin Marlene?”

“Yeah. Is she famous in the GSEZ or something?”

“The man, was he skinny? Dark hair? Torn-up clothes? Baseball cap? And a Trapper, you’re sure?” Ikara asked, speaking so quickly her words tripped over each other.

“Yeah, why? What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “Bad news, they’re bad news. That’s Jeff, leader of the Lucky Star Mercs. He leads a squad of mercenaries back home, the nasty sort, and Marlene’s his deputy. They wander the GSEZ hunting big game… er, monsters. Bigguns. Barge into town, take what they want, kill what they don’t, and charge you for ‘protection’ afterwards. They’d be dead, but no one can kill them, and they take care of the big game well enough that it’s impossible to build up a coalition against them. Not even my village and our Boss Tammy stands a chance, not without more loss of life than Tammy’s willing to wager. They’re killing machines to the last man, and good at what they do.”

“I take it I don’t want to know his level?” Rowan asked, already flinching.

Ikara shook her head again. “We need to avoid them. At all costs.”

“Damn. If they’re so powerful, why didn’t they climb the Tower already?”

“Too busy fucking around in the GSEZ. Who needs the Tower when there’s big game on the loose?” Ikara shrugged. “From what I’ve heard of him, Jeff doesn’t want to become Hero-King. According to him, he’s King of the GSEZ, and no one’s willing to contradict it to his face, so he gets away with acting like he owns the place. He’s got enough rep back home that climbing the Tower won’t do much for him, even if he gets to the higher floors. I have no idea what he’s doing here.”

“More than one team can pass the second floor. If we’re careful, we need not confront them here,” Kaidu replied.

“Let’s not. Seriously, let’s not,” Ikara said.