Yeoman waved at Cody and Ella when they stepped into the warehouse. There were only a few more minutes before the start of the second stage. Fourteen days had passed; in that time, Yeoman had spent the majority of it drilling his katas, doing the movements over and over until they were engrained in his memory. He had also practiced striking a target that Takeo had brought in. He was told to remember the feeling of each hit and imagine them while performing his katas. During the past two weeks, Yeoman nearly used up all his paid vacation days, but he didn’t mind. Karate was worth studying since it could potentially save his life. He hadn’t studied this hard since his college days when he would procrastinate and cram everything in the last two weeks before the midterm. Luckily, he had Takeo by his side, a genuine master of the martial art. When Yeoman recorded himself and compared his movements to Takeo’s, he found that there was something missing, but he couldn’t figure out what. Even though their movements were identical, Takeo’s felt more alive. When Yeoman asked about it, Takeo said it was breath control and actual combat experience. Yeoman was performing the movements of the kata without having experienced their actual applications; it was obvious something would be lacking. However, that couldn’t be fixed in such a short time.

Cody and Ella went up to Yeoman, inspecting him. “It doesn’t look like you’ve changed at all,” Cody said and raised an eyebrow. “You sure you trained properly?”

Yeoman scratched his head. “I think so.” He glanced at the entrance to the warehouse, but no one else was entering. “You didn’t bring your families with you?”

Cody snorted. “I don’t get along with them.”

Yeoman turned towards Ella. The old lady smiled at him. “In the last mission, only one person could kill the smart infected. If I bring my whole family, isn’t that limiting our potential? All of us spread out as much as we could to prevent kill stealing and bad blood.”

Yeoman nodded. As expected, everyone in Ella’s family thought uniquely. Or maybe they just listened to the words of the crazy old lady. Of course, Yeoman would never call Ella crazy to her face. It wouldn’t be respectful, and she had carried him to the top spot in the last stage. Yeoman gestured at Takeo. “This is Takeo. He’s my teacher.”

“Why, hello there, handsome,” Ella said, raising her eyebrows twice.

Cody sighed. “I must have an affinity for old people or something,” he muttered. “Main characters are supposed to have cute girls by their side. Where are mine?”

Yeoman rolled his eyes at Cody’s grumbling. Ella chuckled before patting Yeoman’s arm. “And your family? Where are they?”

“My mom has her own group of friends she’s going with.” Yeoman didn’t mind. His mom was her own person; he couldn’t make decisions for her. Yeoman glanced at his fleshwatch. There were only a few more seconds to go. “Are you guys ready?”

“I can’t wait,” Cody said and crossed his arms. “The top spot is going to be mine this time.”

“We’ll see,” Ella said.

Yeoman didn’t bother replying. He was watching the numbers tick down.

[00:00:02]

[00:00:01]

[Main Mission: Survive for 14 days. 0/14]

[Reward: 4,000 Points]

[Bonus Mission: Kill a scavenger crow. 0/1]

[Reward: 500 Points]

[Bonus Mission: Kill a moonlight wolf. 0/1]

[Reward: 500 Points]

[Bonus Mission: Kill a shadow panther. 0/1]

[Reward: 1,000 Points]

[Bonus Mission: Kill a death vulture. 0/1]

[Reward: 1,000 Points]

[Bonus Mission: Kill a thick-skinned crocodile. 0/1]

[Reward: 2,000 Points]

[Bonus Mission: Kill a fat bear. 0/1]

[Reward: 2,000 Points]

Yeoman frowned and raised his head. He had once again been transported to a forest. However, not everyone who was in the warehouse had been brought with him. In fact, a majority of the people were missing. Cody, Ella, Takeo, Sylvia, John, Gordan, and the seven other people who had killed ten infected were present, but the rest of the people had unknown faces. If Yeoman had to take a guess, then only people who accumulated at least a thousand points in the last stage would be brought here. What did that mean for those who didn’t? He wasn’t sure, and there was no reason to consider it. First, he had to take in his surroundings.

Judging by the missions, it seemed like the aliens had abducted them and placed them in the southern pass, a dangerous forest from Virlyce’s super-duper-popular story The Godking’s Legacy. In the original plot, the main character, Lucia, unlocked her Unrelenting Path of Slaughter in the forest, killing everything she saw for a while. Yeoman swallowed. If they were unlucky, they’d run into her while she was an uncontrollable, bloodthirsty maniac. Yeoman didn’t think the aliens were nice enough to place them in this forest without giving them the chance to encounter her; after all, surviving for fourteen days was a lot harder than achieving any of the other missions judging by the point rewards.

There was another problem, a very serious one. Yeoman tapped Takeo on the shoulder. “Which kata has techniques to fight a bear?”

Takeo stared at Yeoman. “Bears aren’t native to Okinawa. Why would a karateka ever include techniques to fight one?” Takeo stepped away from Yeoman. “Also, you stink.”

Yeoman looked down. The moment he did, a pungent smell assailed his nostrils. He was dressed in the outfit he was wearing at the end of the last stage. His Dread Callers were tied to his belt by a cloth, but he didn’t know where the HZF Gene went. It had sunk into his palm; presumably, he could find it by fiddling with the fleshwatch. As for the smell, there was nothing he could do about it unless he found a river. At least he wasn’t the only one that stunk. There were quite a few other people decorated in infected blood.

“Let’s move,” Cody said. He glanced at Gordan. “Are you following us?”

“Of course,” Gordan said. “That was the deal.” He inspected everyone else’s gear and sighed. He was one of the only ones still wearing a brown t-shirt and brown shorts. He didn’t even have a weapon. He could only blame his bad luck of having Cody run a train of zombies on his camp, but at least he had made it to the second stage.

Yeoman swept his gaze over the rest of the people, the unfamiliar ones. They were segregated into groups as well. It seemed like multiple people had the idea of grouping up, but no one expected there was a requirement to move on. Yeoman shook his head. “Which way do we go?” he asked Ella.

Ella pointed, and everyone followed her finger. There was a plume of smoke in the sky, way off in the distance. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s Wilderness Town. I spent the majority of my week reading Virlyce’s stories. We won’t be able to enter Wilderness Town without money, and to get money, we have to kill beasts. Since that’s the case, we’ll go the opposite direction of the smoke. There won’t be many beasts this close to the town.”

“Makes sense,” Cody said. “What can you tell us about the things we have to kill?”

“Unfortunately, Virlyce is terrible with descriptions,” Ella said and shook her head. “There wasn’t much information about them other than the vultures are ugly and the bears are fat. There was only one useful description, and that was the shadow panther is as large as a bear.”

Cody nodded and marched forward. Yeoman frowned and followed after him, gesturing for the rest to come too. He didn’t really like the odds. The shadow panther was as large as a bear, but in the original plot, it was one of the first things Lucia had encountered when coming to the southern pass. A bear-sized cat was an entry-level beast. What did that say about the fat bears? They wouldn’t be able to kill one as they were now.

“If I recall correctly,” Gordan said and brushed away a tree leaf, “the Wilderness Town sells magical tools. If we can buy them, it’ll make our mission infinitely easier. There should be someone selling an interspacial ring in there too. Imagine having one of those; you won’t have to worry about food or water if you’re thrown into a foreign environment.”

An interspacial ring would be really nice. It’d be even better if the items from the alien’s dimension could be brought back to reality. Yeoman sighed. Magical tools were still so far away though. First, they had to find a source of water. “Once we find water, finding beasts shouldn’t be hard.”

“There’s water this way,” a voice called out from the group’s right.

Cody furrowed his brow. “Are they idiots? Why would they tell us where the water source is? This is a competition.”

“It could be a scavenger crow,” Ella said. “They trick wanderers like us into going places. Either way, we should head over. If it really is another group, then we’ll have found water. If it’s a crow, then one of us will get an easy five hundred points.”

Yeoman turned towards Takeo. “Are there any katas for killing birds?”

Takeo stared back at Yeoman. “Are you ever attacked by birds? Karate is an art of self-defense. Why would we prepare for something that doesn’t happen? If you see a bird fly near you, punch it.”

It seemed like karate was not very useful. However, Yeoman didn’t think learning boxing or judo would’ve helped him kill birds, bears, and panthers either. In the first place, fighting against wild animals barehanded was pretty dumb. That’s why humans created tools.

“Stop! What are you doing!?”

Shouts came from deep within the forest, and Cody increased his pace. The rest of the group followed, clutching their weapons. A few of the people in Gordan’s group didn’t have anything to fight with, so Yeoman passed them two of his hatchets. Ella sighed before handing them some as well. Only Cody didn’t volunteer to give them anything, but he was taking the lead, so no one blamed him.

“Help, help!”

“Damn!” Cody dove backwards without warning. A black blur flew over his head, just barely missing him. The blur was massive, and once it landed to the side of the group, Yeoman got a clear view of it. It was a shadow panther. Yeoman sucked in a deep breath, the hairs on the back of his head standing on end. He might not have the balls to approach the panther, but there was a negative status effect he could give it despite being at range. He lifted his metal rods and clashed them together.

Clang, clang!

The shadow panther’s ears flattened towards the back of its head, and it arched its back before letting out a roar. Before anyone could respond, it whirled around and dashed away, disappearing amongst the darkness between the trees. A few seconds passed before someone let out a breath. “Shit! How are we supposed to kill something like that!?”

“I thought I was going to die,” Cody said and gasped. “Did you see that thing?”

Yeoman swallowed. His mouth was dry, but his back was slick with sweat. It felt gross since it made his clothes extra slimy. Thinking about the infected guts on his back made him realize something. The panther had likely avoided them because they smelled like death, or it could’ve been intimidated by the number of people they had. “Well, it looks like the one that was shouting was a scavenger crow. They really do sound like people.”

Cody sighed and straightened his back before turning around to face the group of people. “If no one has any ideas on how to kill one of those things, I’ll propose a plan.”

“Were you the one that came up with the plan that let Yeoman kill the smart infected?” John asked. As someone who had killed ten infected, his equipment wasn’t too shabby, and they didn’t have a stench on them either.

“I did come up with one,” Cody said, “but we ended up using Ella’s instead.”

“I want to hear her plan,” John said, gesturing towards Ella with his chin.

Ella sighed. “When my granddaughter graduates from college, I’ll retire and go back to my home country. I’ll purchase a small house with some land out front I can grow some vegetables and raise some chickens on. Other than that, I don’t have other plans.”

Cody cleared his throat. “As you can see,” he said, “we’ll be sticking with mine. I have here”—he lifted his flasks—“a ton of nightshade berries. These things are poisonous, and we can coat our weapons with their juices. It won’t be enough to kill things outright, but it should slow their movements down.”

“I don’t think there’s enough berries for all of us to get a kill,” Gordan said, his forehead furrowing.

“You’re right,” Cody said and grinned. “Which is why we won’t be using these to kill beasts. We’ll be hunting mercenaries. In the original plot, there were plenty of people hunting beasts. They should have weapons, armors. All we need to do is get Yeoman a proper set of armor, and he can tank the beasts for us.”

What. Yeoman resisted the urge to pick his ears. Cody wanted him to do what? Yeoman knew what tanking meant as it was a gaming term. It meant he’d distract the monster, take most of its attacks, and give everyone else a chance to kill it. However, in most games, there was a healer supporting the tank, but no one here had the ability to save a goldfish much less a human. “Isn’t that dangerous? Why me?”

“What kind of question is that?” Cody asked. “Of course, it’s dangerous. It’s you because you’re the strongest one here. If a shadow panther hits any of us, we’ll die—no contest. However, you’re strong. You should be able to compete with it in strength for at least three to four hits.”

“Wait, wait,” Yeoman said. “Your plan is to kill mercenaries, but they’re superhuman. They’re hunting these things that we have no chance of fighting. What if they kill us before we can even apply the poison to them?”

“Well, I do have another plan,” Cody said and lifted another flask. “This flask has a bunch of infected blood inside of it. I’ll dip my arrow in it, shoot one of the mercenaries, and we can check on them in a few days. Once they’re zombies, it’ll be much easier to kill them and take their stuff.”

“We don’t have a few days,” Gordan said and shook his head. “It’s better to coat our weapons in that berry juice.”

“What if we have them drink the juice?” Sylvia asked, taking a step forward. “One of us stumbles into their camp, pretend to have been robbed by bandits—trick them into becoming friends and poison them.”

Cody sighed. “Look, my plan is perfect, okay? There’s just a few snags here and there, but it’s the best plan for the situation we’re in. If one of us goes in, how long will it take to get them to lower their guard? When they realize something’s wrong, that person is dead. There’s no way all of us can get close enough to a mercenary group without them noticing. Besides, if someone can gain their trust, it’s better for that person to go off with them. Why would anyone group up with scrubs like us when there’s a better option? I’m not giving anyone the chance to betray us.”

Sylvia’s eyes narrowed. “Is he the leader? He hasn’t shown his face before, yet he wants to take charge. I do not respect him. Why should I follow him?”

“Which group killed the smart infected?” Cody asked, raising an eyebrow. “Yours? His? How about his? No? Thought so. If you don’t like it, we can split up right here. Yeoman only agreed to accompany Gordan because he felt bad Gordan’s team got wiped.”

“Just let them lead,” Gordan said, placing a hand on Sylvia’s shoulder. “I’m the one who asked for their help.”

“You asked for our help too,” Sylvia said, shaking off Gordan’s hand and gesturing towards John and Takeo. “Shouldn’t we get a say in the decision-making process?”

“If she gets to decide anything, I’m leaving,” Cody said, waving his flasks around. “And I’ll take these with me too. Good luck getting anything done without the help of poison. I don’t think any of you can hunt birds either.”

Gordan sighed and rubbed his temples before looking at Yeoman. “I think everyone here can agree that Yeoman is the strongest person. Do any of you object to making him the leader?”

Takeo shook his head. “I don’t mind.”

“No objections,” John said.

Sylvia grunted before turning her head away.

“Then it’s settled,” Gordan said. “We’ll listen to whatever you say, Yeoman.”

Cody made a face, but Gordan ignored him. Yeoman, however, didn’t. “We’ll go with Cody’s plan,” Yeoman said without shame. “In fact, you can think of him and Ella as the leader. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I’m only this strong because of these two. They’re the ones you should be listening to.”

“Thank you,” Cody said, nodding at Yeoman before giving Sylvia a smug smirk. “Without further ado, let’s find some mercenaries. We’ll head in a straight line to the north, towards the outskirts of the forest where everything is weaker.”

“How do you know the outskirts are located to the north?” Sylvia asked. “What if that leads us deeper into the forest?”

“I know because I read the damn story,” Cody said. “God, you’re annoying.”

Yeoman sighed. He still thought Cody made a terrible main character. He seemed more like the antagonist instead. Yeoman gave Sylvia a helpless shrug before taking a step after the group.