"Can you track them?"

"Yeah, I think so, just give me a moment."

The men who are hunting Mikey have stopped. One of them has a tracking ability. In It's the guy with the ranking 2321. The other two are looking at their surroundings.

"We really are in the Nether huh." One of them says.

"Yeah, I really hate how hot it is here, gotta drink some water." The other one answers, before he can pull out a bottle of water, the man with the tracking ability interrupts him.

"Don't!" He shouts at him.

"Why?" The man asks.

"Water vaporizes the moment it is exposed to air here, it will also raise the humidity around us for a moment. Not only you can't drink it, if you attempt to, you'll just put yourself in danger." The guy answers.

Their leader, the one with the highest ranking (811) says: "In that case, we have to create some kind of a climatized area somehow, right?"

"Yes, but to be honest, I don't really know how." The Tracker responds. "Oh, I got their positions." He says and looks to his right.

"Let's go."

(Meanwhile)

"Where are we going?" Mikey asks.

"You are probably aware, but we can't drink or pour water in Nether." The woman says.

"Yeah, I do. I presume that you have more obsidian, for another portal right? Because if you don't, well, we are as good as dead." Mikey asks.

The woman looks at him with a worried expression. Mikey doesn't need an answer, her expression was enough for him. She does not have enough obsidian.

"So, what do we do?" Mikey asks.

"There is a biome in Nether, which isn't as hot as the others, not at all actually. I say, we create a small base there and explore the area around it. We are bound to find some ruined portals." She answers.

"Well, I guess we will have to go with that, do you know where this biome is?" Mikey asks.

"Yeah, follow me." She says and leads the way.

(Some time later)

"When will we get there?" Asks exhausted Mikey, sweat is running down his face.

"Just a few minutes, stay alive until then." She answers.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"By the way, I never asked you, what's your name?" Mikey asks.

"Takatsuki Miyu, what about you?"

"Mikey Hunt, is it okay if I call you by your given name? You're from Japan right? In England it is common to refer to someone with their first name instead of their family's name." Mikey asks curiously.

"Yeah, no problem, I don't really care how you call me." Miyu answers.

"GRRRRRRRR!" Another eyeless dog can be heard in a close distance. This one is much bigger than that previous one. Mikey and Miyu both crouch down, while not saying a word. Miyu only whispers one thing to Mikey: "Follow me, this guy is an adult eyeless dog, he is no joke."

In order to reach the biome, which they can already see, they will have to go around the dog. They could attempt to kill it, but one wrong move and they are gone. They are also exhausted, so killing it really is out of the question.

A few minutes of sneaking pass and they reach the biome, once they enter it, they can feel the temperature dropping a lot, while the humidity rises a little bit.

Mikey and Miyu start drinking water right away.

"Is there anything I should know about this biome?" Mikey asks.

"Not in particular, well, if we get lucky we might find a lake, and I mean an actual lake, not a lava lake." Miyu responds.

"How come you know so much about nether? We have only been in this world for a few weeks now." Mikey asks.

"Well... about that..." Miyu sits down on the ground and so does Mikey.

"The thing is, I spawned in the Nether." Miyu lefts Mikey in a shock.

"You spawned in the Nether?!" Mikey asks confused. "How is that possible?"

"It was supposedly some kind of an error. After the first three days passed, the game master, you know, the guy who keeps sending us these messages, told me, that if my new rank after the duels took place would be number one, he would give me enough obsidian to build a Nether portal." Miyu says, Mikey knows exactly where this is going.

"But I received the number one rank, and you had to stay in the Nether." He responds.

"Exactly, which was also why, I decided to hunt you down after I came to the Overworld." Miyu replies.

"Out of spite and hate right?" Mikey asks.

"Yeah, and I still want to, because the suffering I had to go through here was insane, but right now the situation changed. The only way for both of us to survive, is if we stick together." Miyu remarks.

"Yeah, I agree, once all of this is over, we can have a rematch." Mikey and Miyu stand up and shake hands as a sign of a pact. A pact that makes them allies until they find their way out of this pickle.

"Alright, first of all, I think we need to find a hideout and set up a ton of traps, I am now certain that one of those men has a tracking ability." Miyu confidently states.

"How do you know?" Mikey inquires.

"They have been following us, slowly, but that still counts. I am able to tell because of one of my attributes is telling me that." Miyu responds.

"Hmm, let us get straight to it then." Mikey says.

(Half an hour later)

Miyu had a ton of TnT's on her, she had supposedly crafted and gathered them throughout her entire journey up until now. She planned to use them on Mikey, but didn't really get the chance to do so.

"You ready?" She asks Mikey.

"Yeah!" Mikey answers back.

They came up with an interesting idea.While they were building their hideout, a lot of zombie pigmen started spawning in the oaza biome. (that's how they decided to call the biome with lower temperatures)

Zombie pigmen are neutral monsters, they will never attack you as long as you don't attack them. About their appearance, just as their name suggests, they are zombified humanoid pigs. They always carry golden swords, and spawn in hordes. They will walk around a human or anyone else, minding their own business, but if you hit them, every single pigman in the area, including the one that you hit, will start chasing you until you either lose them, or they kill you/you kill them.

Mikey and Miyu decided to use the zombie pigmen to their advantage. Not just that, they also created a large minefield of TnT's, and of course, their hideout, which is located a little bit further from their current location.

They have to resort to such strategies, because they don't have much power left.

The three players show up and see Mikey standing in the oaza biome, mocking the three hunters. The eyeless dog that was there when Mikey and Miyu showed up is nowhere to be seen. Miyu, is also nowhere to be seen.

They start approaching Mikey. The second strongest in their group pulls out a grenade and throws it at Mikey, which is exactly when he sidesteps, and reveals the zombie pigman who is standing behind him.

The three men freeze in fear, as they see all of the other zombie pigmen around them. Mikey gets out of the way and the grenade explodes, killing the zombie pigman behind him, and triggering all of the other zombie pigmen, who start charging at the hunters, in particular, at the hunter with the ranking 1009.

Throughout this entire process, Miyu was nowhere to be seen...