The moment Dharr and Brookie set foot on the dying grass...

"Ugh..."

"Oh my god..."

An overwhelming sense of nausea assaulted them. It wasn't anything like dizziness - though they could still see straight, their heads were swimming in a sea of discomfort.

"No, screw this. I'm not going any further."

Dharr immediately succumbed to the nausea and stumbled back onto living grass.

"Oh my god. I can't believe I took living normally for granted..."

Dharr relievedly sucked in a breath of fresh air as he lay on his back. He turned to look at his friend... who was still attempting to press forward.

"... Just come back. You're not gonna last long in there."

"Urgh... Nah. I'm gonna continue forward. Just leave me alone," Brookie adamantly said.

"... I'll wait here until you give up."

Brookie was able to slowly struggle for a couple more steps before speaking up again.

"Agh, what..."

"What is it?" Dharr asked.

"I just took damage..."

"From what?"

Both Brookie and Dharr were confused for a moment before realizing the cause.

"... Brooks. Come back."

"No, Dharr, I can keep going. It was only 1 HP of damage after all."

Though Brookie remained adamant, Dharr knew he would cave eventually. Though Brookie's willpower wasn't lacking, there were some obstacles willpower couldn't force you through.

Dharr watched as Brookie continued struggling forward.

Even after several minutes, Brookie still hadn't left line of sight... which was how Dharr saw him collapse.

"You alright??" Dharr shouted.

"Urgh..."

Brookie didn't give a proper response.

"This guy..."

If Brookie was only able to make it that far in several minutes, there was no way Dharr was going to endure the mental strain just to try and save him. In the worst case scenario, Brookie would just respawn at the Covan Hamlet, only losing a couple of items and half of the coins in his pouch.

Just as Dharr was about to leave, he received a direct message via the system.

*>Brookie: Yeah, I'm gonna try to make my way back. The mental strain is only getting worse as I go farther. The HP decay is really slow, though. I've only lost 3 HP. I'm not in danger of dying, so don't worry too much.*

*>Dharr: I'm not particularly worried. Hurry up, will ya?*

They both knew it was a lie, but Brookie ignored it as he crawled his way back.

Then Dharr saw something that made him doubt his eyesight.

From deep in the forest, where the world had turned purple, a figure was running straight towards them.

*>Dharr: Brooks, hurry up. Something's coming.*

Not knowing whether it was hostile, Dharr warned his comrade.

Seeing this message, Brooks turned his head back.

Indeed, there was a cloaked figure running straight at them. And it was fast. Seeing this, Brooks momentarily tensed up.

*>Dharr: Are you serious? Didn't you say the unknown was exciting? Why are you giving up now?*

*>Brookie: I... When I said that, I didn't think we'd be in danger so quickly... Haha...*

*>Dharr: Well that's what *I* clearly had in mind. Hurry your ass over here. Now!*

Not wanting to deal with the cloaked figure, Brookie crawled towards safety as quickly as possible, but Dharr knew it wasn't fast enough.

*>Dharr: I'm sorry.*

*>Brookie: Haha, this is quite terrifying... But it's just a game, right? Should it even be allowed for me to feel this scared?*

The logical side of Brookie knew it was a game and that death wasn't the end, but the instinctual side sent his body into fight or flight mode.

*>Brookie: Dharr, this game is really something else. Because I've dealt with the front lines, this isn't that bad, but... How can ordinary people handle this?*

Dharr had already fled at this point. Brookie was mentally cursing him, but at the end of the day, he would have done the same thing if their positions were swapped.

It was a game; death wasn't the end. But if this situation were to occur in reality, something told Brookie that the decisions they made wouldn't have been any different.

The cloaked figure was gaining rapidly, and Brookie was out of steam.

*Dammit...*

He struggled his hardest, but he couldn't move any further. A shadow loomed over him, and he shut his eyes and waited for the Reaper's scythe to end him.

He waited... but nothing happened.

When he slowly opened his eyes, he heard an annoyed girl's voice.

"What the hell are you doing?"

---

As Jisha continued running west, she encountered the part of the Corrupted Land that was still clearing out. The circle of green was still expanding outwards from the center, but it was quite slow. Jisha easily outran it. She braced herself and stepped onto the purple grass.

-1

*Great, here we go again.*

Though Jisha wasn't severely affected by the Corrupted Land's properties, she still found them unpleasant. She ran and ran until she saw something in the distance.

*Wait, are those players?*

One was pathetically crawling towards the green grass, and the other was standing just outside the Corrupted Land.

*Huh... What are these idiots doing?*

Curiosity piqued, Jisha ran towards them.

A couple of seconds later, the player that was standing outside of the Corrupted Land turned and fled.

*Oh, I guess he's scared of me. I guess I would be, too, if I were in their position. Your friend is on the ground and there's a mysterious cloaked figure running at him at full speed... Hehe. I'm a spooky ghost! Be afraid!*

Jisha chuckled as she approached the player on the ground.

*The spooky ghost has arrived. What will you do now?*

She waited for a few seconds, but the player on the ground didn't move. Annoyed, Jisha pulled down her hood and spoke up.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The player opened his eyes.

"Wow... What a beautiful character model. Did I just go to Synergy heaven? Not that I'd mind seeing you in real heaven..."

"No, you idiot. You're still alive. Get up."

Jisha kicked the player, presumably a man, in the stomach.

"Oof!"

-7

The man clutched his stomach but didn't make any other moves.

"Okay..."

Jisha furrowed her brows.

With an annoyed expression, she dragged the man over to the green grass and tossed him on the ground. Though the man's character model was slightly larger, it didn't matter. Fae Sol was level 7. She could easily pick up and throw other players short distances.

"Ugh..."

After emitting another unsightly noise, the man slowly struggled to his feet while inspecting his body. After he confirmed he wasn't injured, he sighed in relief and looked at Jisha.

"Thanks for saving me. I'm Brookie."

"I know," Jisha said as she looked at Brookie's nametag above his head. "Also, you don't have to do a battle damage check like that. Injuries aren't realistic in this game yet."

"Ah, right. I forgot that you can see others' names... But what do you mean by 'yet'...?"

*Crap.*

"Um... As VR technology advances, won't things like injuries get more accurate to reality? It's a natural consequence of innovation."

"Right, of course. Wait, what's your name?"

Brookie was surprised by the fact that he couldn't see Jisha's name. Shahar's Nightwalker hid it, after all. She wondered whether she should answer this question.

"Uhh... This is unlikely, but you're not related to Asunder, are you?"

"Ha... I actually am a member of Asunder. Why do you ask?"

*What a coincidence.*

Jisha grabbed the collar of the man and pulled him close. He didn't resist.

"Well... It seems like your organization leader is after me. You won't report me to him, right?" Jisha whispered in his ear.

Brookie gulped in nervousness.

"No... I won't."

"Good."

Jisha smiled as she let him go.

"I'm Fae Sol. Good to meet you," she said as she stuck out her hand.

"Haha... Good to meet you," Brookie said as he stuck out his hand in response.

As he was about to shake her hand, Jisha materialized a Cinnamon Bun in her outstretched hand. Brookie grabbed it, surprised by the unexpected texture of what should have been a handshake.

"Agh, what..."

Brookie inadvertently grabbed the Cinnamon Bun.

"Take it. You've lost some HP, after all."

"Huh... Thanks," Brookie said as he inspected the item.

After confirming its effects, he hesitantly put it in his mouth. But after the first bite...

"Wow, this is delicious!"

He ate the whole thing in a matter of seconds.

After fattening him up, Jisha was confident that she could get information from him. So, she cut straight to the point.

"What's the name of your leader?"

"Oh... it's Stein," Brookie unhesitatingly answered.

"Do you know Yaele, Ivonna, Muyonnu and XiNalaSlave?"

"We're not close, but I know them. Did you meet them?"

"I did. How do they rank within Asunder?"

"They're pretty new to the group. They were accepted as a part of Stein wanting to expand the org for Synergy exploration."

"What's your position?"

"I'm pretty high up, actually. The highest ranking would obviously be Stein, the leader. Right below him, there's his party he always plays with. All of them are pretty strong. And right below that, in an officer position, is me and a couple of others."

"Hmm... Aren't you giving away this information a little too easily to someone who claims to be an enemy?"

"I guess so."

It was odd... If it were someone who was low on the totem pole, it would make more sense that they would divulge so much. But it didn't make sense for an officer to be this disloyal. In fact, even the four that Brookie had described as "new to Asunder" were far more loyal than what she had just witnessed.

*What's his motive?*

"Why? Are you planning to betray Asunder soon?"

"Hmm... I wasn't planning on it, but I might."

Jisha's eye twitched at this overly vague response.

"What does that even mean?"

"Haha... I'm not sure."

Jisha materialized her slingshot in her right hand so Brookie could clearly see it.

"Really?"

"Wha- Okay, okay! I'll tell you, so put that away."

"Hmmm..."

Jisha, not convinced, placed a pellet on the launch pad and stretched the slingshot to its maximum.

"I wonder how much damage this does to a player? Do you want to find out?"

"Okay, I get the point, I'll tell you, so please put that away!"

"Hmph."

Pouting, Jisha put the slingshot back in her inventory.

She wanted to test it out, but if she were to accidentally one-shot the player in front of her, she wouldn't be able to hear what else he had to say.

After taking a deep breath, Brookie began speaking.

"I... am loyal to strength."

*Oh?*

Jisha tilted her head to the side in a cute way, trying to appear as harmless as possible. Seeing this, Brookie shook his head.

"Yes, your avatar is beautiful. When you make that pose, most people would be captivated, underestimating your strength. But after what you've already shown me, it's obvious you're not ordinary."

Jisha wasn't convinced.

"Okay... You say I'm 'not ordinary', but Stein, someone you follow, shouldn't be ordinary, either. Yet you're willing to immediately betray him when you see me?"

"Haha, it's true that Stein's not ordinary. But something about you is different."

When she heard this response, a light flickered in her eyes.

*He's not bad.*

"You... Do you have extensive combat experience?"

"It looks like you can tell," Brookie said with a resigned sigh. "I've served on the front lines for the Alacai Covenant for about 15 years and recently got discharged. I've wanted to explore the world normally, but due to personal circumstances, that hasn't been possible. When I was forced to play Synergy, I thought it was just another trash VR product, but seeing what I did today... It changed my mind, to say the least."

"Okay... So do you want to fight?"

"... Definitely not."

"Hm... So what are you doing out here? Exploring with your friend?" she asked.

"Well... that wasn't the plan originally. You see..."

Brookie then explained the Covan Hamlet situation to Jisha.

"I see... So you don't have a compass, much less a map, right?"

"I suppose not."

Jisha shook her head once she heard that.

"You have to have a compass at the very least when you venture into the wild. The only valid recovery spots for you right now are starter hamlets, and once you've left, there's no way to get back if you've ventured too far. You'll just end up dying to something eventually."

"We didn't have a choice."

"You did, though. It's much more reliable to wait in your starter hamlet until Shock Collar gets bored of guarding the important places. It sucks to wait it out, but it's better than leaving altogether. After all, if those players are stuck guarding the shops, their leveling progress is delayed significantly, and that's not good for any org. It doesn't sound like they're very smart.

"It's also likely that they're using more than two people to guard these places, so it's still a net loss for them overall. If it were up to me, I'd let you buy things normally, then pretend like we're leaving. Once you think you're safe, it's easy to just ambush and kill you with the numbers advantage. That way, we'd be able to plunder your money and items, also making you lose XP."

Jisha finished her explanation to find Brookie staring at her incredulously.

"What? Have any better ideas?"

"Ah... No. I was thinking it sucks we'll have to miss out on Covan's auction, but maybe you could help us out?"

"Oh, an auction? Sounds interesting, but what makes you think I can help you out?"

"I dunno, maybe you have a couple tricks up your sleeve? Regardless, if you come along, we could both snag a couple of nice items."

Jisha looked at the Silverium she had just earned from clearing the boss and smirked.

"Well... I've definitely got some money I can spend. Where's the hamlet you came from?"

"Ah, well... It's that way. It's not far; we should be able to reach it after about 10 minutes of walking."

Brookie pointed west, deeper into the forest.

*Looks like it's kind of en route to Inkling Village, so that's perfect.*

"Oh, cool. I was headed that way anyway. By the way, take a look at this," Jisha said as she pulled the map from her inventory.

"What is this?"

"It's a map. Something you should have bought before leaving. See this?"

Jisha pointed at a green spot on the map.

"We're here. And you see this?"

She pointed at the cluster of buildings in the center of the map.

"That's where I started. If I wanted to go back, it'd be easy for me to retrace my steps."

"This... I can't repay you for this."

"You don't have to. I'm in a pretty good mood right now, so don't spoil it. By the way, you know you can just teleport back if you're still a certain distance from your spawn location?"

"... Really?"

"Yeah. But you and your friend might as well show me the way to this auction while we're at it. I guess you can think of it as paying me back for the map."

"..."

Jisha turned and headed in the direction Brookie pointed, which was hopefully where the Covan Hamlet was located.

*I doubt he'd lie to me, but there's always a chance.*

Brookie's mannerisms had seemed sincere, so she wasn't worried. Even if the information was wrong, Jisha still knew the way back to Uval.

She turned around to make sure Brookie and his friend would tag along.

*An auction, huh? Let's hope there's some good stuff there.*

With a sparkle in her eyes, Jisha skipped towards Covan.