"... we did it?"
"Yup, we did it."
"... All right!!"
It wasn't a large victory by any means. After all, the Clan was way more likely to win with 7 players ambushing 3. If they somehow lost, they would be better off quitting VR games forever.
However, the victory was a significant one. It was their first win in a new world.
Yes. In that moment, what was supposed to be a game truly felt like another world. Of course, because it was ultimately a game, the Clan didn't feel any remorse about taking a life; it was simply a player that would eventually respawn and go about their day. But their immersion in the world was deep. Synergy was almost blurring the lines between fact and fiction - this is what the Clan felt.
*These feelings, this battle, this victory, and this world... They might as well be real. We've opened a new door for ourselves.*
To Bren, this situation was very real and had real consequences in his life. Virtual reality was his second reality.
However, they didn't have much time to celebrate. Bren quickly noticed an anomaly.
*The experience bar has filled up way slower than I thought it would.*
Bren thought they would only need to kill a couple of players to level up to 1, but it seemed like the experience gained from killing players in a War Zone had been reduced significantly.
*I think we can still do it.*
Bren made a quick calculation and determined that it would still be worth it to continue fighting players.
*It'll still be significantly faster than any other method.*
In fact, Bren didn't know of any other methods to level up from 0 to 1 quickly, so this was indeed better than the default route of simply waiting for the experience bar to fill up.
*Since there's nothing we can do about it, we just have to be happy with what we've got.*
"Alright, clan. Pick up all of their weapons. For ranged units, the extra pellets will be handy. As for melees-"
"Hey, Bren. Check this out."
"Oh? Is there something else within the loot?"
"Yea... It looks like the guy running away was carrying a ton of food. Actually, it looks like it could even be 30 coppers' worth..."
When you died in a War Zone, you would lose every item in your inventory as well as all of the money you had. Since the 3 players hadn't dropped any money, it was fair to assume they spent it all.
The clan was collectively dumbfounded and grateful. Who would spend their entire bank account on food?
"Those guys were really dumb, huh..."
"I mean... Yeah. Did you see how easily we beat them up?"
"True... Does the food have any special effects or status bonuses? Or are they just trash items? For 30 coppers' worth, they better do something."
"Yup, they indeed do something. Actually, they're all the same item, and there's 6 of them. Looks like each of them was meant to take two. Here, Bren. Take a look."
Bren received the 6 food items from his clanmate and looked at the stats.
*>Name: Cinnamon Bun*
*>Type: Foodstuff (Edible, Consumable)*
*>Description: A surfeit of sweet! Eloquently punctuates any meal.*
*>Rating: F*
*>Abilities: +1 HP/s for 10 seconds upon consumption.*
"Yea, these will be really useful. This is a great find."
The Cinnamon Bun granted the consumer 10 hit points of regeneration over a 10 second period. Bren didn't know how fast the natural regeneration was, but at level 0, it was way, WAY slower than 1 per second.
*These seem incredibly worth it for 5 copper a piece at level 0. Looks like they weren't as dumb as we might have assumed.*
Bren almost immediately decided on how to distribute the Cinnamon Buns.
"Alright, I'll be giving one to everyone except Allux. I hope you understand."
"No problem."
Bren decided on this distribution because melees were more likely to take damage, so he gave all of them one, including himself. In fact, they had taken a small bit of damage already. And for the ranged players, it was safe to call Allux the most skilled and therefore least likely to take damage. So, Bren decided to give one to everyone else.
"Alright. This method seems to work pretty well, so we'll hide behind the tombstones again."
"Uh, Bren. About that, I don't think it'll work this time."
"Oh? ... I see."
As Bren decided to follow his philosophy of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it", Adverse pointed out a fatal flaw.
A large group of players had gathered outside the War Zone and were looking in, and they seemed rather displeased.
---
"So... Jackalope. Do you have any business with us?"
The leader of this group, called Jackalope, entered the War Zone alone. Of course, the Clan didn't mean to harm him; agitating the group wasn't necessary. Bren hoped to adopt a non-inflammatory dialogue, but...
"Business with you? Why would you assume that we would NOT have business with you?"
"Because... we haven't done anything to you guys. We're just trying to-"
"NONSENSE!"
Bren's explanation was cut short by Jackalope's maniacal shout.
"YOU!... have teamed up on the weak! You are despicable! Do you know what we are called?"
"Uh... no."
"We are the Justice Warroirs!"
Jackalope proudly held up a sign that said "Warroirs" in a flashy cyan.
"We fight who they are unjust! And YOU! Have teamed up on the weak! So WE! Will have to destroy you!"
The Clan was speechless and immediately began sending private messages to each other.
*>Liuzhi: This guy's lost it. Where did he even get that sign?*
*>Allux: Of course he has. They've even misspelled their own name.*
*>Kenshi: Let's just kill him?*
*>Adverse: I'm not against that suggestion, but there are 17 people behind him.*
*>Molotov: You counted them?*
After processing the events that took place, Bren cleared his throat and spoke again.
"... Are you serious?"
"Of course! You do not understand the Warroir creed. We have witnessed unjustness, so we will take you down!"
"Is there really no way around this?"
"Of course not! Hmph! When I was a very young boy-"
*>Brent: Melees, charge. Ranged units, fire.*
-1
-3
-1
...
The second Bren sent the command, Jackalope was pelted almost 10 times by sticks and pellets. Before he could properly react, his HP bar rapidly dropped to zero and his corpse fell onto the ground, dissipating into white light and mist.
Bren wasted no time - he immediately issued a declaration of war.
"I don't want to hear your backstory. If you've already decided to attack us, bring it on."
With the leader of the Warroirs immediately taken down, the rest of the group seemed deterred for a few moments.
"What? Did you guys see that? He was taken out instantly!"
"These guys think they're pretty good, huh?"
"But there's still a ton of us left. We severely outnumber them... I think. Are they dumb?"
"What are we waiting for, then? Charge!"
However, a few moments was all it lasted. The Warroirs were convinced that they could overwhelm the Clan with their superior numbers. After all, it was a good assumption from their point of view. There were 17 of them and only 7 in the Clan, outnumbering them over 2 to 1. In any normal situation, the Warroirs would have overrun the less populous group.
But this wasn't a normal situation.
*>Brent: Basic formation!*
After Jackalope died, Bren immediately recognized something about their group.
*They don't have a chain of command after their leader.*
Even in the small group of 7 in the Brent Clan there were secondary, tertiary and even quaternary leaders. If Bren were to die, Allux would immediately assume leadership, resulting in a minimal loss of direction in a high pressure situation. However, the Warroirs had no secondary leader. When Jackalope died, nobody had stepped up to take the lead, meaning they were now a group of headless chickens.
*Perfect.*
*>Brent: They have no commander! Maintain formation!*
What could a mindless mob accomplish against a tactical troop? If the mob was large enough, the group would be overrun. However...
*>Brent: They have minimal fighting experience. Show them what we're made of!*
Bren was experienced enough in combat to immediately recognize that the horde of oncoming players had little to no VR combat experience. The Clan was different - they were skilled Virtual Martial Arts players.
*>Brent: Remember that the combat mechanics of this game are similar to VMA! Those who have recovery items, use them now!*
*>Allux: Roger that!*
So, what was the result when 17 newbies faced off against 7 skilled players?
*>Brent: Melees take 3, ranged take 2. Keep targeting them as long as they live!*
It wasn't even a contest.
"You guys don't even have a commander. Why are you still fighting?"
Bren took on three players with ease.
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*
"Learn how to move properly before challenging us. You guys suck!"
Kenshi furiously swatted at the players as if they were flies.
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*
"..."
Ryozaki silently struck down the enemy.
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*
"Do you really think you'll catch up to me if you run like that?"
Allux was baffled by the adversary's lack of talent.
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*
"Wow, guys. Maybe if you try REALLY hard, you'll be able to run faster! Just kidding! You're slow as fuck!"
Molotov cooked up a storm of pellets, landing each one with pinpoint precision.
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*
"What are you guys doing? At least TRY to dodge."
Adverse calmly tossed projectiles at his foes as if he were throwing paper into a wastebasket.
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*
"You tripped over your own teammate. Good luck getting back up."
*THWACK!* *THWACK!* *THWACK!*
Liuzhi skillfully bobbed and weaved through the onslaught of pellets.
The battle was one-sided.
As each of the Warroirs perished, they spouted useless lines, like "You'll never get away with this!" and "If you keep bullying the weak, God will bestow divine punishment upon you..." but the Clan scoffed at their nonsense.
"You want to protect the weak, but you should probably start by being able to protect yourselves..."
The action was over. 17 corpses were remaining in the aftermath. Those 17 corpses eventually dissipated into white light and mist, which was distributed unevenly among the Clan.
"It's over... ha!"
Though none of them were moving their physical bodies, they were aware of their raised heart rates following the adrenaline rush of mental strain.
Though it was a one-sided battle, the Clan didn't come out unscathed.
As the commander, Bren was able to view the experience and health bars of his clanmates.
Though none of them were particularly close to death, he determined that the damage they took wouldn't allow them to fight again. After all, they had no more recovery items.
*>Brent: It looks like the experience earned was divided according to damage dealt. It doesn't look like any of us actually hit level 1, but we should in roughly 3 minutes. Good job, team!*
"Woooooo!"
"Yea!"
"Let's gooooooooo team!"
A triumphant cacophony emanated from a graveyard. If this scene were to happen in reality, the authorities may have been notified. However, this was a game, so no one minded the strange nature of this event. Rather...
"Are you kidding me? That smaller group of guys took out that huge group of players?"
A small crowd had formed at the edge of the graveyard. Those who had witnessed the whole series of events originally thought the Warroirs would emerge victorious. However, they couldn't have been more wrong.
"Who are they? Are they martial arts masters or something?"
"Maybe. I think one of the melee players was using the Arsen sword technique? If my eyes aren't deceiving me, he should be pretty good with a sword in real life..."
"Really? Are real-life martial arts techniques viable in this game?"
"I'm not completely sure, but the outcome of that battle looks clear to me."
A realization was made by the public that day - martial arts techniques from reality were applicable in the world of Synergy. This was huge news! It meant that stats and game knowledge would not be the only determining factors of a battle. This would open the door to a potentially high skill cap within the game, something that would be extremely important for a game's competitive scene. If a game was likely to have a competitive scene, there would be money involved. Money moved the world - if you could earn money from a game like Synergy, wouldn't your life be set?
This was something that Bren already predicted from his experience in the alpha servers, which was why he did not want to waste a single moment alive. And if battles would be worth money...
*So will items!*
*>Brent: Gather their loot. Scour the ground!*
At Bren's command, the Clan got on their hands and knees and picked up everything they could find.
*>Adverse: Why are we picking these things up? Aren't they just trash starter items?*
*>Brent: Nope, they're upgradeable at level 1. The pellets are consumable items, so it's great to have a surplus. As for the sticks... You don't get another one when you respawn. Don't ask how I know.*
*>Liuzhi: I see. We can also prevent them from getting ahead.*
*>Brent: Yup. Even though they were unskilled and uncoordinated, they were a large and very charismatic group. That's all you need to take down a few people at level 0 - it'll be great if they no longer have weapons. It was unfortunate that they ran into us.*
*>Ryozaki: ...*
Bren didn't need to explain why he was doing anything. The Clan didn't really need to know, either. They trusted him, and he trusted them. Even without the explanation, the Clan would do his bidding.
But Bren felt more comfortable explaining why he was doing something. It wasn't his style to leave his friends in the dark. Hence, his explanation was more than sufficient to keep the group searching the ground for a few minutes.
"... Hey. Won't the club president be thrilled when he sees what we've collected?"
Kenshi broke the mundane silence with an intriguing question. This was definitely an interesting topic for conversation, since all of the Brent Clan was looking to join the Academy's team next year.
"Why would he? They're just starter items," Adverse refuted.
"But it proves we're not trash at PvP, doesn't it?" Kenshi retorted.
"I guess that's true. After all, Starter Sticks and Starter Pellets are proof of kills," Adverse acquiesced.
"How many have we collected so far?" Liuzhi asked.
*>Brent: Everyone, send a snapshot of your inventory.*
As Bren received the proof of their work, he quickly tallied up the number of items claimed.
"Uh... In total, we've got 11 sticks and 413 pellets..."
*Holy crap, that's a lot.*
"Bren, we can't find anything else. I think we've picked everything up," Allux chimed.
"Alright. If that's all, let's redistribute the loot accordingly to our classes. Give all the items to me for a sec. There's an easy way to do this," said Bren.
Distributing over 400 items would be a chore if you had to give them out one by one. During his alpha testing phase, Bren had discovered that you could share items instantly with consenting friends as long as they were within 1.5 metron of you and both players had sufficient inventory space.
After relaying this information to his friends, items flooded into his inventory. This sight was truly one to behold.
*Yup, I'm saving a snap of this.*
With proof of his accomplishments saved to his system, he redistributed the loot accordingly. Allux received 105 pellets, Adverse, Molotov, and Liuzhi received 104. Kenshi and Ryozaki received 4 sticks as well, leaving Bren with the remaining 3.
*>Brent: That's enough for now. We're out of combat now, and there's no one else in the War Zone. We'll be able to teleport back to the center of the hamlet without worry.*
In order to teleport back to base, one needed to be within a certain range of a Safe Zone and be out of combat. Once these conditions were fulfilled, all you needed to do was willfully execute the command with your mind. Of course, there was an option in the visual interface as well, but Bren was fluent with a couple of commands due to his alpha experience.
*Returning to base...!*
*>System Alert: Unable to return to safety - there are enemies nearby!*
*>Brent: Huh?*
*>Allux: Uh... Bren on Etmos? Are you there?*
*>Ryozaki: ...*
The return command failed. Bren knew they were still in range of the Safe Zone, so the other option was that the system deemed that they were still in combat. Bren immediately pinpointed the issue - the fact that a non-ally existed in the same War Zone counted as being in combat.
*>Brent: Fuck, we can't return just yet. It looks like someone else wants to fight us...*
"... wait wait wait!!!"