*Good, I've lost them.*

Jisha glanced at her HP.

...

*>HP: 2/10*

...

*Tch... They're beyond shameless. But as much as it pains me to admit... their teamwork isn't that bad.*

There were multiple reasons she tanked 8 hits.

Firstly, though she could have dodged everything, excessive dodging would have left her trapped in the "horseshoe" formation.

Secondly, and by far more importantly, she had to preserve ammo.

*>Inventory*

*>Ranged Starter Pellet: 40*

She could have neutralized most of the hostile pellets, but each neutralization cost one pellet.

This was the reason her opinion of the group descended from "shameless" to "beyond shameless."

In total, the seven of them had 70 HP. Each pellet's standard attack value was merely 1. Jisha had 50 pellets. With ordinary attacks, it didn't matter how skilled she was; she didn't even have enough ammo to finish them off...

However, there was a simple way for her to restock: kill one of their ranged units! "No Mercy" settings forced players to drop ALL items upon death. This included their player inventory AND Closed Field inventory, so she could theoretically gain +50 ammo with a kill.

"Sweep the field!"

Bren's echo-y voice suddenly reverberated into Jisha's ears. Perhaps it was by mistake, but he gave this command using his voice rather than in party chat. But even if she didn't hear this, "sweeping the field" was the likely play she guessed they'd make. They'd lost visual of her, so they needed to run through the area with a fine-toothed comb.

The main problem with this strategy was that a coordinated search party of seven would almost always move slower than their singular target. While they were busy searching one section of the cemetery, she could have easily run off the other side.

*The only thing is... I'm not sure how far ahead they've planned.*

Did they have a secret strategy or had they just blundered?

*I guess it doesn't really matter.*

None of them knew where she was, and their search party would move slowly.

Not only that, but Jisha was incredibly familiar with the layout of the cemetery's tombstones. As a relatively popular Fixed Field even ten years into the future, the Uval Cemetery, later dubbed "Shahar's Cemetery", would be used as a fair battle ground for countless fights. On top of this, Shahar was one of only two legendary NPCs on the continent. It would actually be shameful if a high-level PvP addict didn't know this map.

The tombstones weren't randomly placed, either. This wouldn't be discovered for a while, but their formation created something akin to pixel art of Shahar's emblem when observed from above.

Jisha was strolling through her own backyard while Bren's group was nervously traversing through a dense forest. Now, she was free to go almost wherever she pleased. So what was the game plan?

*Say goodbye to your life, Bren.*

Her first target: the commander!

This was the simplest way to throw a large group of fighters into disarray. With a broken chain of command, it was even possible for a group to work against themselves. However, because this was common sense, it was normally guarded against in multiple ways.

In this case, though, Bren and co.'s offensive and defensive capabilities had likely diminished since they'd been reduced to a search party. A search party was most efficient when they were spread out. And since they were spread out, it was possible that the commander was easy to pick off!

*Right now, the only possible countermeasure for the death of the commander is having a backup commander.*

Since Jisha had regretfully appraised her foe's teamwork as decent, they would naturally have a backup plan for a dead commander. However, it didn't matter. A backup commander would generally be less experienced than the main commander anyway.

Now, the hunter became the hunted.

She listened to everyone's footsteps closely. Since she could estimate Bren's location from his earlier shout, she would eventually find the set of steps that belonged to him. Rustling reached her ears loud and clear; they outnumbered her seven to one, so why would they need to hide their footsteps?

Jisha was thankful they were stepping on so many dead leaves and vines. Her mental clarity was severely debilitated after reincarnating into a weaker body, but her opponents broadcasted their intentions loud and clear. They were incredibly easy to track. There weren't even that many dead leaves around. All you had to do to not make noise was pay attention, and this was as simple as breathing for someone who excelled at stealth-type missions.

She hid behind a tombstone, closed her eyes and aurally observed.

*One step, two steps, three... One behind me to the right, two behind me to the left...*

Her mission was to draw a path that lead to her target while remaining out of seven players' lines of sight.

For what seemed like forever, no good opportunities arose.

*Ugh, parallax is such a pain.*

But finally, one did arrive.

*Now!*

She stealthily took cover behind another tombstone.

*Alright, one step closer.*

All she had to do was repeat this process until she closed in.

*Damn, level 0 is truly restricting.*

If she were in her prime, Jisha could have subconsciously conjured a clear picture of all seven targets' movements through the maze-like cemetery. However, she had to make do with the status quo. Though they were open about their positions, there were still... six or seven of them. It was a little difficult, but it wasn't even close to impossible. She'd faced far more difficult trials, whether they were in Synergy or the real world.

Little by little, she inched closer and closer to Bren's footsteps.

 

---

 

*>BrenT: Adverse, how's it looking out there?*

*>Adverse: No joy.*

Currently, only six players were inside the stone forest. This particular section of gray obelisks wasn't very large, so Bren had tasked Adverse to keep a lookout from the outside. If Fae Sol somehow managed to escape back into a clearing, Adverse would immediately notify the party.

Adverse hadn't said anything yet which meant their target was still inside. But Bren was getting impatient, so he explicitly asked for confirmation.

*What the hell, where is she?*

He was certain their search formation was very good if not optimal, and they must have swept the entire section by now. This was how the formation was supposed to work:

Allux was closest to the wall of the cemetery. Bren was next to him, and the rest of the Coalition formed a line almost perpendicular to the left wall. They had no way to locate each other if they got lost, so it was determined that each of them should maintain line of sight with the member on their left. In this fashion, it would be a simple task to pinpoint everyone's locations easily while maintaining high efficiency while searching.

Placing Adverse outside reduce their group size by one, so this was also a small bonus to their overall movement speed. Yet their target still eluded them. Was their fine-toothed comb not fine enough?

*>BrenT: Anyone else?*

*>Allux: No.*

The more impatient he grew, the further the "very good" search party formation fell apart. Now, the six of them were almost like headless chickens running around aimlessly.

If everyone maintained line of sight, it should be impossible for them to lose each other. It would also be impossible for Fae to sneak by unnoticed. But...

*Everyone's still maintaining line of sight. It's not possible for us to lose each other. We should have a good overall field of view of this section. It should be impossible for a target to escape. What's going on? Where did she go? Where where where where...*

The longer this hide-and-seek game continued, the more uselessly agitated Bren's mind became. Random thoughts bouncing around made it impossible for him to focus.

*We have to commit to the plan... the plan...*

"The plan": something Bren would swear by. His meticulously-crafted plans often accounted for failures, so when something unexpected happened, his entire train of thought derailed.

He nervously glanced towards Allux who was still within line of sight.

*Ugh, at least they still trust me...?*

*-5*

Bren jolted back to reality when an unpleasant sensation crashed into the side of his head.

*WHAT? Half of my health?*

This jolt was so powerful that his brain short-circuited.

He whirled around to find a wild Fae Sol WAY closer to him than a ranged character should have been.

"Hello there~" she whispered.

"Ah!"

Bren swung his weapon in a panic, but this overreaction was incredibly easy to dodge.

He missed.

Now, his basic attack was on cooldown for one second. This was more than enough time for Fae Sol to fire another of her "ranged" basic attacks.

*-5*

*What the hell? Starter weapons were only supposed to do 1 damage each... Oh...*

*>BrenT: We messed up...*

He understood how it happened, and he realized this mistake far too late. This pathetic message was the last the group chat received before Bren's field of view turned grayscale.

He fell to the ground and dissipated into white mist like so many players they'd killed thus far.

When their party leader died, the Coalition were momentarily confused, but they quickly comprehended the gravity of the situation. Bren was defeated in two strikes. They were dumbstruck!