A Hunter and its Prey

The deep woods was always Soze's favorite place to relax. Even now while out on a hunt, he was able to take the time to climb a tree, lay back, and take in the sounds of the woods. Birds chirping to each other, insects clicking amidst the grass, leaves rustling in the cool wind; no matter the danger Soze felt more at ease than he had in months. He was almost glad to have been trapped in New Eden Online.

'No,' he thought with a sudden scowl, 'I can't be thinking like that. Otherwise, they'll- we'll never get back. I need to stay focused; we have to do something.'

Even though Soze understood that there was nothing the players could realistically do to free themselves, that didn't mean he would stop searching for a way out. If nothing else, the fact that they could theoretically locate and confront Dr. Zheng was a constant presence in his mind. Unfortunately, no amount of effort would change the fact that he had nothing to work with.

The village only has about one hundred and fifty people out of one billion, the odds of Dr. Zheng being among them was less than .00001%, and it wasn't as if anyone in the village was acting suspiciously.

Although, there was no telling what would even qualify as 'suspicious.' As it stands, no one had even the slightest idea what reason or plan Dr. Zheng had for trapping them, and no one knows how he behaves normally. According to Loran, Dr. Zheng never participated in public events, rarely accepted interviews, and what interviews he allowed were only released as articles. If there weren't plenty of people who could attest to having met him in the past, it would almost seem like the old man didn't exist.

'Regardless, there's no point in thinking about that right now,' Soze thought with a sigh. 'Until we have a way to communicate with the rest of the player base, finding that guy is a pipedream.'

He decided that it was time to get back to work. After activating [SNEAK], Soze rolled off of the tree branch that he was lying on, falling almost twenty feet and landing with barely a sound. Through [DANGER SENSE] he could see a rather large Green Rabbit that had wandered too close to his tree without realizing it.

Soze stood up and began walking calmly towards the rabbit. The small animal twitches its ears, always listening for predators but blissfully unaware of the hunter approaching it.

Although the [SNEAK] Skill normally isn't this powerful, the massive difference in levels and stats between the rabbit and Soze made him almost completely undetectable as long as he avoided its direct line of sight.

Standing directly behind the Green Rabbit, Soze quickly reached down and grabbed it by the neck, snapping the animal's weak vertebrae before it even had time to register his touch.

"That's three," he said, deactivating [SNEAK].

This method of hunting was significantly slower than simply using his bow, especially since he would need to wait for his SP to regenerate, but Soze had taken a liking to it all the same. Getting this close to a target was something he couldn't do in reality or in other games with hunting, and being able to score kills without drawing blood helped to avoid drawing attention from any nearby predators.

Unfortunately, helping to avoid predators didn't mean that it was guaranteed. Soze's head twitched as he heard a sound in the distance, the sound of claws digging up dirt.

Moving on reflex, he jumped back to his tree, kicking off the trunk to return to his previous resting place. Setting down his kill with the others, Soze closed his eyes and listened.

'Moss Wolves. Sounds like… two? No, three.'

Soze waited as the sounds grew louder. Less than a minute later, three Moss Wolves appeared, running through the grass at a brisk but unhurried pace. The wolves had blood around their mouths and one of them was carrying a bone that still had a few strips of flesh remaining.

'A Spined Deer leg,' Soze recognized. 'They must have just finished a hunt.'

As the wolves passed by they began to slow down, coming to a stop about ten feet away from his tree. Even without [SNEAK] active Soze went utterly unnoticed, after all, there were no predators in these woods that climbed trees, giving no reason for any animal to look up before deciding if a location was safe. One tried to bite at the bone the other was holding, while the last lowered itself into the grass to rest.

Soze remained motionless as he considered the situation. With how close the wolves were, sneaking away would be difficult but not impossible. He could just kill them, but since this was the west side of the river he wanted to avoid killing too many large animals.

As he thought, the two Moss Wolves stopped fighting, and the owner of the bone quickly focused all of its attention on its prize. The instigator walked away, snapping up a strip of meat that it managed to pull off the bone before sitting attentively.

'...I guess it was too much to hope they would all be distracted,' Soze thought, slightly disappointed. 'I won't be able to get away with that one on watch. I guess I'll have to go for the kill' Feeling safe to move now, he placed the dead rabbit he was still holding in the fork of some branches, next to the others he hunted. Looking at the rabbits, Soze opened his menu to check his SP.

{SP}: 175/200

'About thirty-five seconds of [SNEAK] remaining. Let's make this a challenge.'

Pulling out some rope, Soze tied the rabbits to his back before pulling out his knife. Looking down, he noted the positions of the wolves. The attentive one was closest to the tree facing away, close enough for the tree to act as cover but far enough to not be a large blind spot. The other two were within ten feet of the rest, from a distance, their bodies pressing down the grass would seem like normal flower patches.

Activating [SNEAK] as he dropped out of the tree, falling almost directly onto the attentive Moss Wolf. Before his feet touched the ground Soze grabbed the wolf by the snout, muzzling it. As his feet touched the ground less than a second later he buried his knife in the wolf's throat, further reducing its ability to alert the others. The beast struggled for a few seconds as it died, but without being able to bark the sounds of its scratching were drowned out by the growling and gnawing of the wolf with the bone.

'Thirty seconds,' he counted.

With the other wolves none the wiser, Soze began backing up to the tree while lifting the Moss Wolf's body. Once he reached it, he moved to put the tree between him and the resting wolf, trusting that the one with the bone would be too distracted to notice him.

Soze walked away, slowly waddling through the grass at first, then walking upright, and beginning to run once he had ten seconds of [SNEAK] remaining.

By the time his SP was empty Soze had managed to put almost one hundred feet between him and the wolves, probably still unaware that their friend was even missing.

Soze shifted the wolf's body to a more comfortable position before walking in the direction of the village.

'And people still doubt the [SNEAK] Skill,' he thought with a chuckle.

As he walked Soze once again began to lose himself in the sounds and smells of the woods(barring the scent of wolf blood on his shoulders). Soon, his thoughts returned to the creator of this beautiful prison, and how to track him down.

'The lack of information is one thing, but really the biggest problem is the lack of communication with the other players,' he decided. 'Even if we managed to figure out who or where he is, without the ability to let others know about it he could easily run, hide, and resurface with another group.'

New Eden Online was an MMORPG that was severely lacking in terms of general game mechanics. No inventory, no chat function, and a piss-poor crafting system that required real skill. If it weren't for leveling up and the Pioneer System, NEO could easily be confused for a survival crafting simulator.

At times it seemed like Dr. Zheng had spared no expense in creating New Eden Online, while at others it's like his reason for imprisoning them was because he knew it was going to be a flop and just decided to make things worse.

No one knows why he trapped them here.

No one knows where he is.

No one knows when they'll be able to leave.

And yet….

Soze continued to march through the woods, pushing the thoughts of Dr. Zheng out of his head. Maybe it was from carrying a wolf corpse over his shoulders, but he wasn't enjoying being in the woods right now. His eyes narrowed on some unknowable point in the distance.