Mentally reminding himself that they weren’t living enemies, Liam ran at it. It was at that moment. Every single fog monster on the battlefield turned towards him. Like a wave, they crawled over themselves to attack him. Ignoring the attacks from the other hunters, they simply charged at him as if they were hoping to overwhelm him with sheer numbers. Liam frowned. The… “things” could coordinate an attack against the most dangerous enemy? Liam withstood their blows by coating himself in Aura as he swung his spear in a wide arc. A hiss reached his ears just in time for him to duck. Above him, the snake’s tail cut through the air, hitting several hunters.

‘Now.’

Identifying its location from the angle of attack, Liam jumped in its direction. The serpent opened its mouth and bit at Liam, who couldn’t dodge due to being in the air. The next second, its head disappeared.

PANG

The snake vanished into the fog once more, while the smaller fog monsters charged at Liam, not caring about the defeat of their strongest. Now free from the snake, the other hunters managed to coordinate an attack. Swiftly, the monsters were eliminated. A huffing Cassandra approached Liam.

“I’m really glad to see you.”

“Yeah, me too.”

The two shared a quick fist bump before Cassandra yelled out orders to the hunters. Relaying her orders among themselves, they set out to the farther reaches of the camp’s territory, but close enough to the middle that they could escape inwards in case things went south. Due to a stroke of luck, the camp’s core area didn’t have any of the mysterious cracks, which meant the fog monsters would have to invade from the outside. This led Liam to another conclusion.

“Armaan’s ability can’t keep the fog creatures out?”

Cassandra shook her head. The day the man had feared the most had finally arrived.

“He almost had a nervous breakdown when he saw the monsters.”

Liam and Cassandra entered the camp’s main hut. It was a place where they could talk in private. As they entered, Cassandra was the first to speak.

“We should relocate to Wang Lei’s fort. They’re better prepared to deal with attacks, plus they have a better structure.”

Liam pensively contemplated her statement, then raising the most obvious problem with it.

“There’s no space.”

“Then we’ll have to make space.”

“While fighting off the hordes of fog monsters?”

Cassandra sighed, an irritated tone taking hold of her voice.

“We can’t stay here! We’ve never had to deal with monster attacks, we don’t have strong enough walls or defenses!”

After the outburst, she then sighed once more.

“I’m sorry. There’s just a lot on my mind right now. What do you think we should do?”

Liam didn’t pay any mind to her explosion. He knew that being a leader took its toll on her and the newfound threat in the shape of the fog monsters only intensified that burden.

“First, we should contact the others. Wang Lei should be the one most aware of his fort’s situation. Trying to move our hunters over to there would be useless if there’s a crack right in the middle of their territory.”

Cassandra blinked, almost unconsciously nodding. It was true. They needed more information about Wang Lei’s and Andrew’s situation before making a decision.

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‘Yichen.’

For the first time, there was no response. Liam furrowed his brow.

“What? What happened?”

“Yichen isn’t responding.”

Cassandra stared into the air before frowning as well. It seemed like she had also tried to contact the man, to no avail.

“Should we try going there?”

“It’s not too far away, but we can’t leave our hunters alone. A strong monster might come.”

Cassandra bit her nails. For a few long seconds, the two of them stood in silence. That was when a voice appeared in Liam’s mind.

Yichen’s voice sounded distorted as if he were talking through a bad microphone. Was it because he had no time to focus? Liam told Cassandra what he’d heard, making a small sigh of relief escape her mouth. Her expression hadn’t changed, however. The situation was still far from solved.

“We should protect our camp and wait for everything to calm down, then.”

Liam nodded, his eyes unfocused as he stared downwards. Noticing it, Cassandra waved her hand in front of his face.

“What’s up with you? What are you thinking about?”

Liam hesitated before deciding to be honest with her.

“Now that the Tutorial Zones have merged, pretty much everyone who’s still alive is in the same general area. At the very least, we can go to the other Zones and look for people. And I… There are people I care about. I want to find them.”

Cassandra muttered an “Oh” of understanding before staring at Liam. He stared back. The two looked at each other for a few moments before she opened her mouth.

“I want to find my family too, but… Do you even know where to begin?”

It seemed like Cassandra had also been grappling with the idea of going off to find loved ones. However, she had prioritized her responsibility as the camp leader instead of searching for people who might be dead. Liam could understand how hard the choice had been, and the kind of pain she might have felt when deciding.

“No, not family. But loved ones all the same. And no, I don’t.”

“…How about putting off that idea, then?”

He now fully understood where she was coming from. Where to even begin? To this day, he had no idea how big the rainforest was and how many people were in it, not to mention the other Tutorial Zones. How many of them were there? Did they all have the same amount of people? If so, how was it decided which Zone each person went to? The questions were endless while the answers were nil.

The two of them stood in silence. Worry dominated his mind as he thought of Arthur and Albert. He didn’t know much about the old man but thought that maybe he would also be a “survivor”, given what he had learned during their conversations. Arthur was also one, by definition. If so, were the two of them in the forest?

Liam clenched his fists.

…

Arthur sunk his sword into the neck of the last fog beast, then looking around him. The endless white expanse, now marred by cracks, stretched all the way into the horizon, but he could still see a very vague shadow of what lay beyond. The snowstorm assaulted him from all sides, but his body only barely shook every once in a while. He had grown used to it.

‘I need to find him.’

For a while now, his mind had been completely occupied by a single thought. Now that the Zones had merged, he felt like there was finally a point to going around looking for Liam. During his time in the Tutorial Zone, he hadn’t seen a single person. He preferred it that way, but it also made him worried about his loved ones’ fate. After all, he’d had a lot of time for himself and his thoughts.

‘I’m sure he’s alive.’

He did not doubt for a second that Liam had managed to survive. Just like he had, he was sure Liam would have found a way, especially given his physical prowess. However, he was afraid. Afraid that Liam had lost himself in the process, just like Arthur was slowly but surely returning to his old ways. He could still remember the way Liam had been when they first met outside of the orphanage, years after the incident. He did not wish for his friend to return to that state. He could only hope that Liam had found allies he could trust and put his faith in.

Arthur sighed, taking a moment to breathe and rest. Sheathing his sword once more, he started to walk towards the shadow on the horizon. The first step was getting out of the snow-covered Tutorial Zone, where people were few and far between. Only then could he look for Liam and his parents. Thinking of them, worry filled his heart once more. While Liam was sure to have survived, the same couldn’t be said about his parents. He did not know whether they were alive or dead and to a certain extent, their situation worried him even more than Liam did.

Arthur took another deep breath. His parents had been the ones to embrace him when he had no one, back when he did not trust anyone. He felt immensely grateful for their unrelenting attempts of connecting with him on an emotional level, even though he pushed them away for so long. If they were alive, he would surely find them. It was a promise to himself.

Arthur’s eyes carried within them his steeled determination. The young man firmly put one foot in front of the other, his legs sinking deep into the snow and then rising again, unceasing.