The voice Matt heard behind him made his heart sink. Everything he had done to avoid meeting the other player ended up landing him in the same situation again.

Matt glanced behind him and saw what he was dealing with. The guy was around his height, but he had messy red hair and dangerous eyes. He was holding some sort of sword and looked very confident in himself. The man spoke as Matt was evaluating him.

“You know, you’re a slippery rat. It took me a lot longer to find you than the last guy.”

Lots of different things were running through Matt’s head and most of them were focused on how to survive this encounter. But there was also a question on his mind that could determine if he lived or died.

‘How does he know I’m a player?’

Matt decided maybe he should play it cool and if all else fails, run like there’s no tomorrow. So Matt responded to him in a calculated way.

“Um, hello? Have we met?”

Matt realized that it would be unrealistic for him if he was a random civilian, to not be concerned in this event, since a random guy ran up to him shouting insults. So he let some of his unease seep through into his speech.

“Don’t play stupid, there’s no way I’m wrong here! It literally can’t be anyone else!”

“I’m sorry but I don’t know what you mean.”

Matt was talking like he was an automated answering machine, giving the most annoyingly normal responses. He noticed the psychotic man was getting agitated.

The man was about to speak up again but then paused and started moving his hands in the air like scrolling through a menu.

‘He’s checking his system. How is he using his system to tell if I’m a player? Or maybe he’s just guessing?’

Matt also realized something as the man was checking his system.

‘He’s not very bright is he?’

He had not intentionally tried to distract the other player since he didn’t think it would work, but now he was messing with his system menu with a frustrated look on his face.

‘He doesn’t want to kill a civilian? Maybe he isn’t trying to kill me?’

Matt wasn’t sure what the deal was but it was better to be safe than sorry, so he turned on his heel in a split second and bolted out of the alleyway. He decided to use his dash here to get as drastic of a head start as possible. The moment he ran for it he knew that the other player would have their confirmation that Matt was a beta tester.

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Not just because of the suspicious nature of running like that, but also because the sheer speed at which he was moving was a dead giveaway.

The moment he sped away, the man looked up from his system and shouted.

“What the f- Hey!”

His face contorted into one of intense anger and frustration and he leaped after Matt with a shockingly similar speed. Matt was disturbed by how easily the other player could keep up with him.

‘He must be higher level. I guess he spent some points in agility too. But I might have something he doesn’t.’

Speeding through the city, Matt started to employ the parkour and running skills he had learned. He grabbed onto street poles and angled off of them to get more momentum, he leaped over fences and managed to get significantly better footing than the person chasing him.

In only a few seconds, Matt was gaining distance and at this rate, he would lose him. But there was another factor he didn’t consider. As he was feeling proud of himself, a sword flew past his head, cutting the side of his cheek slightly, and drawing blood. If he hadn’t moved at the last second, it could’ve been a nasty injury.

[-1 HP]

‘Shit! I forgot he had the sword. But is he dumb? He threw his only weapon away.’

To his surprise, he saw the sword start to hover and fly back in the opposite direction. It shot like lightning back toward the player and landed cooly in his hand.

‘It’s like a boomerang?! Is that the sword doing that or a skill?’

Matt realized he was in a tough spot. He didn’t dare see how much HP that sword would take from him on a direct hit. Running couldn’t be the only thing he did.

Using his parkour skill he started to scale a building. It was only 3 stories tall, but it was still something a normal person couldn’t do quickly. The other player seemed to pause.

But just when Matt thought he was in the clear, he heard the sound of the air being sliced behind him, with the sword heading straight for his head. He quickly rolled onto a balcony on the side of the building to avoid the strike.

‘This guy just doesn’t give up! Him and his dumb sword!’

Matt looked down and saw the other beta tester slowly climbing the building as well. He wasn’t nearly as fast, but with system stats, it wasn’t that hard in the first place for them. It seems like he had given up on throwing the sword temporarily.

‘I have to think of something.’

Matt’s adrenalin was running high. He couldn’t use his mind palace anymore which he had grown accustomed to in tense situations. He had grown lazy and now that he had an actual fight on his hands, he was out of ideas.

The sword dude was almost at the top of the building now. He could hear him struggling to climb. Matt noticed how he seemed to be very simple-minded.

‘This isn’t my only fight. This is life from now on. I need to grow or I’ll die.’

He racked his brain for every possible idea he could think of. All he needed to do was get far enough away that the other player would lose track of him. From how he was acting earlier, he didn’t actually know Matt was a player. So if he can get some distance and never open his map, he should be fine.

The only problem was escaping from this sword lunatic. But as he was struggling with his own thoughts, an idea hit him like a bolt of lightning.

‘That’s it!’

At the same time, a sword also hit him like a bolt of lightning.

[-12 HP]