Fancy Seeing You Here

The sun rose, and the birds bickered. Mist of the dusk fled speedily as Rin observed from a branch of a tree.

He logged out after his meeting with the blue-skinned Shivarian, had his lunch, and came back to play yet again in the night. The game was getting addicting before he knew it.

The Ring of Healing healed all the injuries he got from that knock-off avatar with horns. He was in the trees since then, observing everything, and enjoying the breathtaking moments of life.

The sun had barely risen as the night yet again passed when he was logged out. The time allocation in this game seemed to be a bit wobbly. Rin wasn't sure if they had perfected time dilation or not, but it did feel like he was spending more time on the game than in the real world.

Stretching his hands and legs, Rin climbed down from the tree, the sword tied up to his hips. He was bare-chested. His shirt was torn to the point of being unwearable by the zombie wolves.

It was the start of another day, it was the start of another hunt. But first, Rin would need clothes. He can't go on without proper clothing and food. He barely had a few berries after he lost the roasted rabbit.

Rin touched the circular mark on his chest and turned on the Mana cloak. A transparent cloak enveloped him, leaving him free to do any kind of movement he wanted. He moved on from there.

. . .

The sun glared over their heads as Luke followed behind Elise. Well, it was not that he was letting her lead, but this girl was headstrong in proving she was alright. It seemed the worse her condition was, the more she wanted to prove she could carry on.

Luke told her to rest for half an hour or so, however, she started running around after only five minutes of resting. Well, her wounds closed up in two minutes with her mysterious healing ability. That reminded him Luke didn't know anything about her. Well, the opposite was true too.

"Elise," he called hesitantly, joining by her side.

"Yes." the thin teenage girl turned towards him. "Let's finish today's task quickly, before going to our hideout."

"Sure." Luke paused for a moment. "Have you thought of playing professionally?"

Elise gave him a puzzling look. "I don't think I have it in me to play professionally. Not to mention, at world-level competitions, I wouldn't even make it in some small city-level competitions."

"That's not necessarily true," Luke replied hesitantly. "As you have already discovered, this game is different, and you already got a head start over most people. Perhaps you can make it. Well, even if you don't want to work up to be a professional, you can achieve success through other means."

The girl was particularly pretty with striking ginger hair. She could easily earn a big standing and deals through streaming. Well, Avalon made it harder to stream freely, but the option was still open.

Elise nodded, considering what to answer. "I get what you're saying," she said. "I'm not too unfamiliar with anything and simply wanted to experience the game first, even though it's awful most of the time. Hmm, does that make me a psycho?"

"I reassure you, you're not a psycho," Luke said, narrowing his eyes at her. "I have seen people with worse impulses than you, and they function mostly well among people."

They covered the thick trees to delve into the rockier region. There were not many trees remain on there, nor the canopy was there to shade from the glaring sun. The temperature was well over 45 degree Celsius as far as Luke was concerned. Unconsciously he found himself drawing for the water flask, only to recall. Elise wasted everything to clean herself.

He grunted and shook his head. It would only be a couple more hours and he would log out. He could endure that much. Then he looked at Elise. She looked thirsty as hell; her face, fair white skin, paled astronomically. Luke found her gritting her teeth in frustration every now and then.

"So, what did you do before here?" Luke asked in an attempt to redirect his attention.

"Me?" Elise paused. "Nothing much, I'm a university student. I didn't like it all that much. I chose to play the game only for some solitude, though it turned out something different completely."

"I would like some solitude too," Luke said. "There are just too many things I need to figure out."

Other than worrying about himself, like how he would make it big in this game, he was worried about his family. He hadn't had a real talk with his sister for weeks. As for his parents, they were completely another story.

"Oh god," Elise said abruptly, withdrawing towards him.

"What was it?" just as Luke asked, a dozen or so screeches assaulted his ears at once. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

A pack of deadmen screeched out from a cavern, finding them. There were more than a dozen of them. Luke pulled his bow and arrow immediately, though his legs started creeping away.

"There are too many," Elise said, biting her lips.

"Run," Luke said, shooting a couple of arrows at the deadmen, who didn't waste a moment chasing after them.

. . .

The rabbit meat was fine, but it's of fine quality, just roasted poorly without any spices or anything. And worst of all, it made Rin thirsty as hell. Sadly, he didn't have anything to collect water from the stream.

Sweat beads dripped down from his face and his bare chest, as Rin moved back to the stream. He reckoned he had interpreted the way in and out pretty clearly, yet something he managed to get lost in it. Rin wasn't that incompetent enough to lose his general sense of direction.

That could only mean one thing: this game didn't necessarily work the same as reality. Or maybe, he was simply on top of an ever-changing, moving island. Even better, the island was on the back of a turtle.

Also, why were there no people around? As if something deliberately working against him. Rin only met that group of youths, Rollan the Contractor, and that sassy shivarian, but after that, nothing.

More people means more efficient work. There were some things that were better done solo, however, not anything along the line of searching. Maybe his decision to go solo was a poor choice. Then again, he wouldn't be able to endure bickering with some unfamiliar folks when he was thirsty as hell.

Rin covered the thick trees. The canopy over his head vanished as the scorching sun finally got to him, and with him being bare-chested, it made it even worse. However, he continued, wiping off his sweat.

Abruptly, he heard those all too familiar screeches. Rin turned instantly and looked in that direction. Since he couldn't get water soon, he would relieve himself by exhausting himself again. Well, exhausting himself would only make it harder for him. Thankfully, he had all the gems with him to relive him of the pain.

Rin didn't even need to cover a hundred metres when he found two injured folks running in his direction. One with a bow, and the other with a machete, though they didn't seem to have any intention of fighting the packs of deadmen anymore.

Rin tilted his head, looking at the pack of zombies and then towards the two. A grin appeared on his lips and he halted in his run.

"Yo, boss," he called, "fancy finding you here."

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