The beam of light shone down directly upon one of the nearby houses. When Tanin's silhouette touched the roof of the house, it sank inexplicably through. As though, for a moment, the roof had turned immaterial.

With that, Tanin disappeared into the house, and the beam of light faded. The curtains were drawn, and I couldn't see inside.

"That your teammate?" Sylvia asked. Her metal armor clanked as she caught up to my side.

"Just an acquaintance," I told her. "I'm not sure where the rest of my team is."

I ventured to knock on the door of Tanin's house a few times. It was a small, two-story house, painted a nondescript gray. It had few windows, all heavily curtained, and no yard. There was no doorbell either.

"He might be unconscious," Saber said as she approached. "From his injuries."

The three strangers observed from a distance.

"Should we wait for Tanin to come?" I asked Saber. Though maybe he couldn't make it down the stairs, I thought.

Saber pursed her lips. "It might be a while."

I supposed she was right. In the meantime, I snuck a look back at the three strangers. I hadn't locked the door of my house. Thankfully, they hadn't gone inside to steal or pillage anything.

I suddenly remembered something.

"Saber," I said, "Wait. You still have your team notebook, right?"

"Hm? Yeah. If you're wondering, no one's said anything new there. I wrote a message but no one replied."

I took out my own notebook. And she was right; nothing new was to be found there. There were some writings from back in Silver. I saw Saber's report that the situation in Silvercreek had largely been diffused. That was back from when I had left to raid Fink's dungeon, and Saber stayed back in town to deal with the guards.

I saw Hei's old message – "Sophia is deep inside the cave with Fink. Send help. - Hei"

I shuddered. That was the only thing I had left of him. The only proof that he once existed. But like all writings in the notebook, it would fade away after three days.

"Maybe everyone's team membership has been reset," Saber said. "Maybe that's why we can't see their messages. Sophia, will you be my teammate once more?"

She offered her hand to me. I blinked at her, and noticed that her HP bar was orange. A sign that we were no longer teammates.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Y-yeah," I said. I held on to her hand, and after a brief moment, her HP bar became green once more.

We were a team of two, at least for now.

When the next challenge happened, we'd hopefully have found a third teammate, to fight in a 3v3 match, or three more teammates, to fight 5v5. There was also the option of Saber and I fighting alone in separate 1v1s, though I wasn't sure that was what I'd want. We could try recruiting Tanin as our third teammate. But could he even fight? One of his legs was gone.

Maimings were rare in Silvercreek. Most injuries would be healed completely over time, thanks to passive HP regeneration. But I knew for a fact, some people really did lose body parts for real, and they never got them back. Usually it was something minor like an ear, finger, or eye. I couldn't recall seeing anyone with an entire leg missing.

Perhaps once someone lost their leg, they simply couldn't survive past the next Challenge.

Of course, there was also the option to try a pacifist match with the three strangers. I did not like their idea. Even if they were completely trustworthy, would I truly be willing to live out the rest of my life with them, inside a death game arena? I'd never see my family or friends again, except for Saber. And our teammates would be on their own, without me, and more importantly without Saber and her expertise.

And the moment someone wanted to escape from that caged existence inside a pacifist PvP arena, the only way out was to kill their opponents.

I wondered if it was even possible for Saber and I, as a team of two, to enter a 3v2 pacifist match with them. Actually…

"If you were in a team of two," I asked Saber, "Can people still challenge you to PvP? Since the only formats are 1v1, 3v3, and 5v5s."

"We could ask them," Saber said, tilting her head at the three strangers.

"I'm not sure I want to ask them," I said.

"You still don't trust them?"

"Not completely."

But there were questions I did trust them with answering. Such as questions about the surrounding neighborhood, and what to expect from the nearby houses. They could still lie to us, but they'd have less reason to, compared to lying to us about PvP mechanics.

I heard a thud.

It came from inside Tanin's house. From up on the second floor.

Then came a grunt of pain. It was Tanin's voice, all right.

Saber shot me a worried look. In concern, I ran to Tanin's front door.

"Tanin?!" I shouted. No answer came. I gave the doorknob a forceful twist. Surprisingly, it wasn't locked.

I knew it was not good to enter other people's houses without permission. But who knew what could be happening to Tanin right now. Was he dying? I had no way of knowing.

Inside, the house was minimally furnished. Nondescript gray carpet covered most of the floor, and in the living room there was only a couch and dining table. I raced upstairs, and Saber hurried after me.

The sound of Tanin's hoarse breathing came from behind a closed door. I cracked it open.

It was a bedroom with a single bed. Blood streaked across the bedsheet. And upon the floor, right down from the edge of the bed, was Tanin, collapsed into a heap. Crude strips of cloth were wrapped around what remained of his leg, which was a stump half the length of his thigh. It still bled, soaking through the cloth, pooling into the carpeted ground.

I tried to say something. But my tongue was frozen in shock, and I grew sick in my stomach.

Tanin looked up at me with bloodshot eyes. A deep, guttural sound came out of him, as though he had been choked.

"Sophia," he heaved. "You really had to ruin everything, didn't you?"