As time passed on, they encountered fewer enemies. Many of the unluckier ones had died, while some of the victors went into camping to wait for the zone. The zone started shrinking, limiting the map to an area southeast of Ethan’s position. Ethan checked the map while Chione looked out the window. They had taken position inside a small cottage, waiting for enemies that may pass.

“Something’s coming.”

Ethan warned, his senses telling him of something approaching.

“Where?”

“Left.”

Chione slid her sniper to her left, her barrel pointing out of the window, her body squatting behind it. She made sure that her body was too low to be seen from outside. Ethan sat beside her, watching Chione’s blind spots. The enemy Ethan mentioned came into view.

Two players ran on the hill behind them, their sound was very, very faint. Ethan’s trained senses allowed him to hear and see what most couldn’t. His style as a close-range combatant required him to always be aware of his surroundings.

That skill of his became handy, as the window they hid behind only allowed them to shoot within a specific frame. By having Chione’s muzzle already pointed in the general direction, she didn’t need to do much adjustment. With her eyes on her target, she pulled the trigger. Her bullet flew and hit the one running in front, straight in his head, but it didn’t kill him. It knocked him down, however. Chione cocked her sniper and readjusted her aim. She fired, her sniper spitting a second bullet, directed at him. His friend, however, came into view. Using an energy dagger, she managed to stop her bullet. She pulled him up and the two ran for a hill, hiding behind it.

Chione kept her sights on her target, waiting for her enemy to peak, but they never reappeared.

“We should move.”

Ethan said as he got back onto his feet. Chione glanced at her virtual map and nodded. She swapped the sniper rifle for her handgun, which allowed her to move quicker. They jumped out from the small cottage they camped in and ran toward the hill, following the steps of their enemies that ran before them. Ethan gripped his high-level energy sword, a different variant to the one he owned, and prepared for an encounter the second he passed the hill.

As he crossed, he found a large rock placed in between trees and headed there, taking cover behind it. Chione followed shortly behind, her eyes scanning the area behind them. Before them was a large village with the ocean behind it.

“That’s the end zone?”

“Most likely not.”

Ethan checked his map and noticed that the next circle would be covering the village before them, along with a small island that sat right behind it.

That meant they could be forced to swim. There was no way of predicting where the zone would end, but it would only mean trouble if it ended on that island.

The dark red circle that chased behind them stopped. Ethan checked his map again, finding a brand new circle formed. Unfortunately, his predictions were correct. The next circle’s center was on that island.

“We better find a boat.”

A player couldn’t shoot while they swim. It wasn’t an in-game limitation, but rather something that the player needed to be able to do in real life. Ethan wasn’t a good swimmer in the first place, and he needed the game’s swimming assistant to even think about floating, so keeping himself out of the water was preferable.

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Ethan looked around the coastline. Some boats sat on a dock right behind the village, but this village most likely had already been filled by players, evident by the scream of guns in the distance. Ethan looked through his inventory, hoping to find an item that could help him spot the distance.

As he searched, he noticed something moving in the corner of his eye.

“Chione.”

“On it.”

Chione swapped her handgun for a sniper rifle. She lay on the ground, careful to not let her barrel visible from behind the rock. Ethan turned around and watched their back, wary of strikers from behind.

“A boat, moving on what seemed to be a river, two fifteen.”

Ethan looked south, through the dense forest that covered the area. From behind the foliage he could see something moving fast, but he couldn’t tell what. Chione used her sniper’s scope to continue observing their enemy.

“Mason and Calista.”

“They got a vehicle? Lucky them.”

“Yeah, nothing else. Let’s approach that village, we should have a better chance there compared to here.”

“Roger.”

Chione swapped into her assault rifle and led their way, heading for the village that occupied the shoreline. The village was filled with small buildings out of bricks and stone painted in varying colors like snow, granite, gray, and cinnamon, all aligned neatly near the waterfront. A short stone wall acted as a barrier between the road and the water.

Chione noticed something and kneeled down, taking cover behind a tree. Ethan saw her stop and find cover behind some bushes. From the gaps between the buildings they could see Mason’s boat firing at the shorelines. Some players returned firing from inside the buildings. Bullets drilled into their exteriors, lighting the insides in flames.

It then turned toward them, Calista on the front machine gun. Her target wasn’t Ethan nor Chione, but an unfortunate player that happened to be running in her sights, in the process of trying to escape. She opened fire, taking out the player instantly. Some of the bullets passed through the buildings, breaking through its glasses and flying at Ethan. It was lucky none hit him.

Ethan motioned Chione to move forward. They made their way to an untouched house. Ethan took a quick check into its insides and pulled himself through the window. Chione walked around the building and entered through the door, her eyes scanning for any immediate threat. Mason’s boat cruises on the coastline, Calista in the front looking for her next victim.

“Empty.”

Ethan said after doing a look around the house.

“Should we move forward?”

Ethan checked through a window. Mason had moved away from them, heading eastward. After determining that the coast was clear, they made their way to a different house, this one right behind the beach. Peeking through the windows, Ethan could see Mason making a turn.

He watched as Calista looked for her next target. He considered the time. The zone would soon continue to move, so it was natural that Mason and Calista would hang around a bit longer. They were still outside the zone, however, so they would soon need to move. The boat didn’t have a rear machine gun, so if Calista wanted to shoot backward, she would need to go back and shoot with her own weapons. It gave them better odds compared to trying to fight her now.

Ethan checked his inventory, looking at his healing items. Using them when they were inside the waters would be tough, and there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t fail. Unlike shooting, the system had assistance to help healing in water, but players still needed to move their bodies by themselves. A mistake in movement may send the medicine sinking down to the sea floor.

After examining his inventory, he noticed that Calista was heading toward him. Ethan ducked down, waiting for them to pass. The engine noise got louder before abruptly dying down.

The next thing they knew, their house was filled with bullet holes.

“You are so lucky.”

Calista said teasingly after the match ended. Ethan and Chione died only a few seconds after another team got eliminated, placing them in third place. Had they died just a few seconds earlier, they would surely be out, their points not enough to get them through to the finals.

Mason and Calista, meanwhile, received first place after defeating another unlucky team that had been forced to swim.

“That’s just the qualifiers, the true match comes next.”

“Well, we’ll see you, then.”

The girls stared at each other with a challenging smile on their faces. Eventually, Chione turned around and waved.

“We’re getting some training down, see you.”

Chione reached out for Ethan’s hand and dragged him away.