We spent the night in the cottage. There were three bedrooms upstairs. Hei, Saber, and I each took one. I walked into mine and closed the door behind me. Dim twilight seeped through the window, giving shape to the dark contours of the small room and the single bed in its corner. I climbed under the blanket and curled up, trembling and cold. The pounding inside my head soon brought me to sleep.

When morning came, I woke to a loud crash and rustling outside. I looked out through the windows and found a large, fallen pine tree, cleaved through near the root. Countless gashes and holes scarred its trunk. Hei stood over it, thrusting his spear down vehemently, over and over into the wood. As though the tree had been responsible for all our miseries. I imagined that he was simply practicing with his spear, and hadn't just completely snapped. I really hoped so.

Despite my efforts to blink myself awake, a dreamlike numbness clouded my mind, making everything feel distant, surreal. I looked around the house for the others. Saber sat on the bed in her room. But I couldn't find Mr. Atlas, neither upstairs nor when I went downstairs.

I saw the empty bed in the corner of the living room. That was where…she…she had…her name was…

A pain built up inside my chest. I chose not to remember.

I sliced pine-melons and cheese for breakfast for Saber and myself. We still had rations, but it wouldn't last us past today. Hei soon came back, panting and disheveled. He carried two handfuls of pine-melons, presumably from the tree he took down. He asked me to join him to forage for more in the afternoon, if we still hadn't been transported home by then. I nodded gently.

"Saber?" I asked. "Do you want to come along?"

She sat at the table, gazing blankly out the windows at the fields outside. "I'll watch over the house. In case Mr. Atlas comes back."

"What's your HP?" I asked them. We had all recovered fully, even Saber. She had 850 max HP now, after her level-up. And I now had 680 HP.

The morning's sunlight filtered through our windows, illuminating specks of dust in the air. And it lit our furniture – rustic tables and chairs and shelves of unpainted wood. As I looked around, for any signs of Atlas, I noticed something I hadn't seen yesterday. On the indoor-side of the front door, a small line of text had been painted in golden ink. The writing rested vertically along the hinge-edge of the door, so it’d have been easy to miss. I tilted my head to read.

Congratulations on finishing first. You deserve this.

…What?

The second half made some sense; I could assume "this" referred to the house. But, finishing first? What did that mean?

The others had no real idea either.

We passed the rest of the morning quietly. After breakfast, I retreated to my room and crawled back into bed.

How in the world did we end up here? Why us? Why her, that poor little girl? What happened to Atlas? And what next? More battles?

My chest felt heavy like lead. Fatigued from a lack of answers, I sank back into sleep.

After what felt like hours, I woke up to light knocks on my door. Hei had come to wake me up for lunch. He had cleaned himself up, and looked somewhat tidy and composed again.

"Thanks," I said. After my nap, the world had regained a bit of clarity, but that only served to intensify my worries and anxiousness. "Is Atlas back?" I asked.

Hei shook his head. "Still no trace of him. It's just the three of us. Or two. Depends on if you trust that woman." He glanced out our door, presumably indicating Saber.

"I think I do." At this point, I almost had to trust her. After everything that happened, I couldn't bear to dwell upon the possibility of betrayal. Saber turning against us scared me almost as much as outright dying.

"Same," Hei replied. Good to know, I supposed.

A suspicion crossed my mind. "What if this is it?" I asked. "What if this is where we're meant to live, from now on? And this is our new life?"

It wasn't impossible. We had everything we needed to survive here. Food, water, shelter. We didn't have proper medicine, but all of us passively regenerated HP. The monsters in the jungle wouldn't bother us, as long as we stayed away, it seemed.

"We'll find a way back," Hei said.

Hei had been standing this whole time. My room had my bed, a nightstand, and a shelf. Even a carpet. But no chairs. I scooted inward and patted the edge of my bed.

"Here," I offered. He sat himself down by my legs. His proximity brought me comfort, in an aching, almost overwhelming wave. I needed him here.

"I'll do everything to get us home," he said.

But what if there was no way back? I was about to ask him, but he continued to speak before I had the chance.

"I'm sure we'll survive," he said. "But if I don't return, let my parents know I'm thankful. Find my brother. Tell him to get his act together. He might not listen, but let him know anyway."

Hei was the younger of two siblings. Hei's elder brother, Bryant, was the first in his family to attend college and graduate with a degree. But soon after graduation, while away from home and alone, something had gone horribly wrong between Bryant and his then-girlfriend. So wrong, that he cut contact with nearly everyone. Hei had previously mentioned that he had noticed the red flags; he'd mumble under his breath that he "should've seen it coming." Bryant now lived alone somewhere unknown, and he drowned his days with alcohol. Hei was one of the few people he still talked to, and even then it was only on rare occasions.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Hei was about to head off to college to double-major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He never occurred to me as the engineering type while we were together in middle school, where he'd complain about math and science classes. Even now, between the two of us, my computer skills were probably the better. Maybe he just wanted the high engineering salary. Maybe this was some strange way for him to atone on behalf of his brother. I couldn't tell.

"I'll let them know," I said. "And do the same for me. Let my parents know I love them, I mean. I guess you can have my stuff. I don't know. Maybe we should draft our wills, just in case."

"That sounds discouraging."

"Then let's invite Saber too and have ourselves a will-writing party. Make it fun." I allowed myself a smile. Hei patted me on the head, tousling my hair.

We went downstairs and ate together. Saber had already finished and was washing her tableware by the sink. After the meal, I emptied my backpack's contents onto my bed, to make room for the pine-melons we'd pick. And I put on my hat for shade. Then Hei and I headed out to the edge of the jungle, where we found the pine-melon trees. Perhaps we could save the seeds and plant them in a farm, near our house.

We foraged along the outskirts of the middle-lane. There were no longer any golems marching down the lane with their shields and crossbows. Nor were there any signs of Mr. Atlas.

"Did you level up?" I asked Hei as I foraged.

"Yeah. My new skill is a short-ranged teleport."

"Space-time powers? Lucky. I just got a water shield, or something. I'll need to test it out once we get back home. I mean, back to the house."

That reminded me. I still hadn't checked the details on my new ability yet.

"Vortex Shield," I whispered.

VORTEX SHIELD COST: 70 Mana COOLDOWN: 20 seconds You conjure a shield of swirling water to protect yourself. The shield lasts 3 seconds and absorbs up to 50 (+70% Arcana Point) damage before breaking. While the shield is intact, you can launch it up to 100 meters, dealing 50 (+70% Arcana Point) magic damage to all enemies in its path.

Interesting. Block no damage, and the shield would go to waste. Block too much damage, and the shield would break, and I'd lose the chance to launch it. I wondered what'd be the optimal way to use it.

We managed to fill my backpack two-thirds full before a bright glow caught our attention. Not far away, by the riverside, a column of white light shone down from the clouds above. It almost looked like a solid, opaque, glowing pillar, except that it faded into nothingness a few seconds later.

Please, don’t let this be our next battle…

I hurried over to check with Hei. When we arrived at where the light beam fell, we saw someone laying on the ground. He wore a hooded gray cloak, with matching gray clothes underneath. Sheets of leather armor, splattered in blood, wrapped most of his body.

"I surrender!" he panted before we had a chance to say or do anything.

…OK. I hated the sound of that. Surrendering is for enemies. I drew my magic crossbow, which I had hung at my waist, then fell back a few steps behind Hei. Now, if things went south – say, he only feinted a surrender to lower our guards before a surprise attack – I could open up with Frost Missile. Then if he targeted me, I'd counter with Vortex Shield.

We could just finish him off right now, two-on-one, before he could pull any tricks on us. But that felt wrong, especially if he was being sincere.

"Can she hit you once, to check if we have friendly-fire immunity?" Hei asked, sternly but almost politely.

The stranger leaned his head up to look at us. "We don't."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Are you two together?" the stranger asked. "Not talking about your personal relationships," he added, almost flippantly. "Are you two on the same team?"

I shrugged. I wasn't gonna offer him intel for free.

"Blink twice, then look at him," the stranger said.

I tried. After the two blinks, a faint green bar appeared above Hei's head, hovering. It had text written on it in white.

[HP: 750 / 750]

Oh wow. As I let out a surprised gasp, the bar began fading away, then it disappeared. I saw Hei blinking at me. His eyes darted above my head for a second.

"Now try it with me," the stranger told me. I did, but this time an orange bar appeared.

[HP: 240 / 720]

"You saw mine in orange, right?" he asked. "Green is for teammates. And orange is for everyone else."

"...Thanks," I finally said. "That's actually pretty useful. Oh, and you seem hurt."

"Just finished a boss fight. Blew up some towers, went into a castle, then got ass-kicked by a stone elemental."

"Us too," I said, perhaps divulging too much to a potential enemy.

The stranger chuckled. "So you two are a team." He sat himself up, and we got a more proper look at his face. He had a stubble beard, thin-lined lips, and a sharp nose. The shadow of his cloak hid his eyes. He looked the age of a college student.

"Is the rest of your team coming?" I asked.

He pointed at himself. "You're looking at all that's left."

I tightened my jaws. The stone giant had been brutal enough for us. But this – just a single survivor, and one already on death's door?

...Though to be fair, we would have fared much worse than we did, had it not been for Saber's help.

The stranger rose to his feet. He walked toward us a few steps, hands above his head in surrender. I backed away without realizing.

"Just don't kill me," he said. "If you're worried, tie me up if you want to. Not too tight, please. My joints are killing me right now."

I shrugged at Hei with a chuckle. "Got rope?"

"We can make some from vines," he said.

A new pillar of light shone down from the sky. The white, dazzling shaft hit the ground not far away, right on the opposite shore of the river. I squinted toward the top of the beam and caught sight of a descending silhouette that looked roughly humanoid. The other two turned to look as well.

Then, yet another beam shone down, near the gate we entered this arena through. Then a dozen more, and yet another dozen. Soon, innumerable light columns illuminated the entire arena, shining down everywhere within the inescapable walls.

We better prepare for company.