At this moment, Jisha was on top of a tombstone in the Uval Cemetery, close to one of the corners of the War Zone. She was currently being chased by seven enemies, four of which were ranged and could easily hit her from this position.
Why was she in such a vulnerable position?
*Where is it...*
She was looking for something.
What was she looking for? Well...
*>System message: Quest Information.*
*>Name: Grave Robbery*
*>Description: The adopted daughter of the late Shahar has given you the key to a certain tombstone. Open it to see what's inside.*
*>Rating: F*
Of course, it was Shahar's tombstone.
*I swear it was around here somewhere.*
The quest was ranked F, but that didn't mean it could be completed in a few seconds. There was no combat difficulty, either, but that didn't imply no difficulty whatsoever. F rank quests weren't so simple in the early game.
In the early stages of Synergy, basically everything was ranked F, whether it was items or quests. An F ranked quest would still be difficult for someone of a low level, and could even be impossible for a level 0. As players leveled up, they would be able to tackle higher and higher ranked quests. Though a quest that was ranked D was currently impossible for everyone, leveling up would inherently make said quest easier. In the near future, a rank D quest would become the player base's average capability, and they would soon surpass that as well.
Anyway, Jisha was currently searching for her objective atop this vantage point, hoping to jog her memory.
*Hm... That pattern of tombstones looks familiar. I'm starting to remember the layout around here.*
Unlike normal cemeteries, which had tombstones in orderly rows, the Uval Cemetery's tombstones were arranged in a seemingly random layout. If looked at from far above, they would create something akin to pixel art of Shahar's emblem, though this wouldn't be discovered for a long time.
Finding a pattern in a patch of tombstones that she thought was familiar, she hopped off where she stood after taunting her pursuers, rolling to avoid fall damage.
*Though... "Playtime's over?" That sounds like some sort of chuuni line I would spout when I was 12 or 13.*
"...! Find her!"
A panicked voice sounded out, which Jisha recognized as Bren's.
*You thought you could lock me down in a corner of the map, huh? If it was anyone else, though, it would have worked...*
After jumping off the tombstone, she was immediately out of sight of all 7 members of the Clan. In this area of the cemetery, the tombstones were well over 2.5 metron in height, and with there only being a couple metron between each stone, visibility was extremely low.
*These guys aren't incompetent, though.*
As mentioned earlier, if she were an ordinary opponent, she would have quickly been cornered and killed. However, she was Fae Sol, the Gun Swap Goddess. Their teamwork and inter-clan communication must have been efficient, but it still took time to send, read, and process messages and instructions in a group chat. Jisha could exploit the enemy's "brain lag" to pull off a sneaky maneuver.
*It's really unlucky for these guys that I know this part of the cemetery like the back of my hand.*
After getting a quick glance of the terrain from her vantage point, she quickly remembered the optimal path she needed to take to reach Shahar's tombstone. She also recalled the general layout of the tombstones in this corner of the War Zone.
Why did she know this oddly specific information?
In Jisha's past life, this cemetery wasn't an "oddly specific" location at all. It was discovered to be the resting place of the legendary NPC Shahar, whose name was well known not only on the Cosmolai Continent, but the entirety of the infinitely procedurally generated world of Synergy. This is how influential Shahar was.
The Uval Cemetery had been charted and visited countless times. Users, guilds, and organizations had participated in battles and wars in this famous War Zone. It was even the venue of some professional PvP matches.
In a world where some users had memorized the location and layout of every single of the thousands of tombstones in the cemetery, how was it odd that Jisha was familiar with the area around the tombstone of Shahar himself?
Currently, Jisha was strolling through her own backyard, while the Clan was nervously venturing through a dense forest. In addition to this, Jisha was proficient in stealth-type missions where avoiding detection was necessary. Estimating the positions of the Clan members via the sounds of footsteps and bypassing line of sight by triangulating parallax was a relatively simple task for her, even with the senses of an ordinary person.
*I kind of feel bad for them.*
Though she had this thought, the reality was that no matter how skilled she was compared to new players, it didn't change the fact that Bren would soon level up to 1. Once he did, it would be literally impossible for her to win. There were a few reasons for this, but the main one was that a classless level 1 player would have 100 HP. In comparison, a level 0 player had 10. This, along with the upgraded Atk and Def a player received, would make it legitimately impossible for a level 0 player to take down a level 1 player in a straight fight. This was why Jisha had to kill someone soon, taking their experience and leveling up to 1 herself. This was the only way to win. She didn't know how long she had, so she had to assume that she had less than a minute to carry out the first part of her mission.
*Say goodbye to your life, Bren.*
Bren had to be her first target, and the reason was simple. He was the commander.
This was the most basic tactic when facing a group of enemies. If you can take out the commander, you can sweep up the rest of the group with more ease. However, *because* it was such a basic tactic, it was normally guarded against in a various number of ways. In this case, though, it was impossible for the Clan to have any sort of protection from the aid of the game's system, since level 0 players had access to no special skills.
*The only current possible countermeasure for the death of the commander is to have a backup commander.*
Since Jisha had already appraised her foe as somewhat experienced in teamwork, they would naturally have a backup plan for a dead commander. However, it didn't matter. A backup commander would generally be less experienced than the main commander, so it was still advantageous to take out the main commander.
Jisha began her hunt, carefully avoiding line of sight of all seven members.
She hid behind a tombstone, waiting for an opportunity to dash to the next one and remain hidden.
From his initial shout, Jisha had estimated the location of Bren's footsteps. She remembered which set of footsteps were his. By listening closely, she was able to track them with a mental map of the area.
She knew exactly what path he was taking through the small openings in the mazelike cemetery. Using this information, she predicted his next moves and was slowly able to circle around to his backside.
*Being level 0 is truly restricting, though...*
If it was her prime form, Jisha would have easily been able to have a clear picture of all seven targets and predict their movements while staying out of vision. However, with the senses of an ordinary person, she was having some difficulty listening and tracking one.
Though it was difficult, it wasn't an undoable task by any stretch. Jisha was no stranger to difficult situations, whether they were in Synergy or in real life.
Little by little, she made her way towards the set of footsteps that belonged to Bren.
---
*>Bren: Keep sweeping the area and closing the radius of our encirclement. She has no choice but to retreat.*
Bren was relatively confident that he would be able to encircle Fae Sol. Regardless of the strange premonition he had, she was only one player. Even though the forest of stone was dense, they should easily be able to find one player as long as their formation was structured properly.
Currently, this was how their formation looked:
Allux was closest to the wall of the cemetery. Bren was next to him, and the rest of the Clan were forming a line almost perpendicular to the left wall. Since Fae was close to the left wall, it would be impossible for her to go all the way around seven people in order to escape.
The Clan had no way to locate each other if they got lost in the maze, so it was determined that each clan member should maintain line of sight with the member to their left. In this fashion, it would be a simple task to pinpoint everyone's locations easily while maintaining a large radius of encirclement.
*I don't know if it's a perfect strategy, but I don't have anything better.*
If everyone maintained line of sight, it should be impossible for them to lose each other. It would also be impossible for Fae to sneak by unnoticed. But...
*Where did she go?*
Bren didn't see any messages in the group chat, indicating that their quarry hadn't been captured as of yet. They could only continue with their original plan.
*>Bren: Press forward, keep closing the encirclement. Make sure she doesn't sneak past us!*
Bren still harbored doubts, but he also had faith in his plan. They were a compactor, and Fae was the trash that would get crushed against the wall, unable to break free.
He was maintaining line of sight with Allux and steadily moving forward. All was going according to plan... until he was dealt a blow to his right temple.
*>Bren: What...*
This was the last message the group chat received before Bren was struck once again on his left temple one second later.
The body of Brent fell to the ground, dissipating into white light and mist like so many of the enemies they'd defeated thus far.
The essence was absorbed by a character who quietly whispered, "It wasn't enough..."
Brent was defeated in two strikes. The Clan, who took a couple of seconds to process what happened, was dumbstruck!