"What do you have with you right now?" Luke pulled his pack from his back as they breached the inn's front door, unzipping it to reveal its contents.

"My cleaver," Nikola replied simply.

"Is that it? No potions, no food, nothing?"

"I do not have potions or food, no. I had assumed we were preparing for battle, and I had no access to purchasing potions previously." She could have taken her poultice, she supposed, but it tended to help slowly and incrementally over a long period of time.

"Damn. Well, you can take some of my things. Fuck, I wish we'd had more time to prepare. You're going to want at least two Lesser Health Potions tied to a gesture you won't be doing naturally. A lot of people snap their fingers, but with a different one each time: ring, index, whatever." Luke rounded a corner and saw a stream of Adventurers like himself headed in the very same direction, pockets of them all clustered together.

He counted the heads; some of them were in groups of five already, which didn't bode well for their measly pair.

He fished out two bottles of watery ruby liquid and held them out for Nikola. "Take these and draw the Inventory gesture over them. It looks like this." He drew a vertical rectangle with a 'v' through it, and ended it off with a dot. It was supposed to resemble a backpack and the system picked it up; the [Lesser Health Potion] disappeared inside his Inventory.

He pulled up his menu and called the item back to his hand, and then offered it back to his sole party member... who wasn't actually his party member yet; yet another piece of the puzzle he would have to put into place before their less than fifteen minutes of prep time were over.

These were probably the most important fifteen minutes of his entire life so far. How to spend them? What to focus on? They could both use some more equipment, preferably armour. Nikola was effectively naked, as far as the mechanics of the game were concerned.

Nikola took the two potions and drew the backpack-like shape over both of them. Right before her eyes, the symbol showed up with a warm glow and then disappeared, along with the two potions. Clumsily, she clicked over to her [Inventory] section and found them there, marked as [Lesser Health Potions].

Lesser Health Potion:

Heals 20 HP total, and then disappears forever.

May be shared.

"You can assign them to a gesture by long pressing on them and then performing the gesture."

She followed the instructions given, hovering her finger over their tiny digital representation and then snapping her ring finger when it seemed to be awaiting her input.

Gesture for [Lesser Health Potion] set.

"It has been done."

Nikola looked away from her screen to see Luke tugging his shirt off, revealing a flat, lightly defined stomach and the plate of metal that was protecting his chest.

He removed it then, unfastening the flimsy belts that held it there, and held it out to her. "We're going to have to share one set of armour. This is a light metal set; it's cheap and you get more benefits from wearing the whole set at once, but we're going to have to split it up since we don't have the time or money to go buy another."

Nikola shook her head. "If I am understanding this correctly, I am Level 0 as a 'Rogue', but as a Butcher I am much more proficient. I require no babying; the armour will be more useful on you." She remembered how easily she and her boning knife had taken down his four scrambling friends, and now she had her trusty Cleaver. She allowed her finger to trail up its tang, an array of goosebumps spreading up her arm.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"I will be fine like this."

She looked like she was about to start drooling all over, so Luke just nodded along like was best with a crazy person and didn't argue the point. He redid the loops of the belts and hid the armour back underneath his tank top, with its obnoxious turtleneck-like stiff collar.

He looked to the clock sitting at the bottom right of his interface, which was still floating there obediently.

11 minutes.

"We should keep moving, if we are to make it on time," Nikola insisted. The two of them had slowed considerably to strip and exchange items.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Luke agreed.

The two of them accelerated into a jog, and then a full run.

They were moving at a breakneck pace, but the walkways were getting more congested as they went along and they had to weave around others headed in the same direction.

People with golden swords and boots rushed along within eyeshot; armour from the early mid-game, and much further than Luke and his crew had gotten popping slimes.

His memories had been stripped away, but he damned his avoidance and cowardice for his lack of progress nonetheless. He wondered if this was why so few of his friends had stayed; did they resent him for being the reason they were so low level?

He certainly resented himself.

9 minutes.

They reached the East town gates and found the reason for the buildup of people. Beyond this being the most direct route to the Dungeon, a shoddy barricade of scrap wood had been hastily erected and was blocking the exit.

In front of it, there was already a pile of rapidly pixelating bodies.

A man with long, dark hair that fell beyond his shoulders and a set of armour that was far shinier than anything anyone else was donning yanked a sword out of one of the fallen bodies. A generous spray of blood and pixels burst from the fatal wound.

"Hahahah~ anybody-haa else want to try? I told you, I'm pretty keen on being the only one around here with an Ultra Rare set of armour." He hyena screamed the words out into the crowd, errant chitters of cruel laughter dispersed throughout.

Others joined in on his giggles, signifying their allegiance.

The group of Adventurers in golden armour arrived first. One of the ones with similarly golden hair and a spear yelled back. "This is an awful thing to do. We're already in a killing game - why make things worse?"

"Because we're in a killing game," the Hyena of a man spat, and rose his hand. A [Volley of Arrows] rose from behind the wood and began to spray down on them, initiating an immediate clash of wills.

One got caught in the shoulder. The one at the front of the line got caught in the head, which took him down instantly, the arrowhead sinking deep into his skull.

Others that hadn't even reached the way out yet were run through by the unexpected flurry of bolts, and exploded into a mist of coloured squares.

Several silvers clattered to the floor, but their equipment remained attached as they died.

"We'll be taking those," the man decided as he waded into the shocked crowd with a swagger in his step.

8 minutes.

"Fuck," Luke whispered sharply, "I should've expected this shit would happen. We need to get past them, Nikola."

"Why?"

"We lose our early game advantage the more we don't use it, and I-- there's something I haven't had the chance to tell you yet. I made a deal before I joined the Liberation Game; every time somebody in my party kills someone, my mom gets Credits wired straight to her. But we need to actually kill them."

His eyes shot to the thoroughly cowed crowd of people just as the Hyena kicked a Silver up into his hand.

"Not just force them to respawn."