*>Allux: I'll be taking command.*

The vice-commander was the first to regain composure, but it wasn't so simple for the rest of the group.

*>Molotova: How...*

*>Adverse: What happened? Were we not careful enough?*

Bren had simply died way too fast! In disbelief, they continued to stare at the gray indicator next to "BrenT" in their party window. However, in the next second, it turned green.

He was now rushing back from Uval as quickly as possible. It was devastating; he'd been sent back to level 0, so he would die to one hit from almost any nearby mob. He'd lost all of the XP they'd grinded as well as all of his items and cash. But it wasn't the end of the world. As long as they killed Fae Sol and reclaimed some of it, it would still be fine.

*>BrenT: On my way. Obviously, since I'm not there, Allux is in command.*

*>Allux: "Obviously"? I've already said this. Why are you repeating me?*

*>BrenT: ...*

*>BrenT: Anyway, each of her hits did 5 damage. I'm not sure how, but enabling vitals was a mistake.*

*>Adverse: Sorry.*

*>Allux: Ugh, what's done is done. Just find her. Since she went on the offensive, she shouldn't be trying to escape. Search the nearby area. Break formation and search in pairs! Don't get caught out alone.*

Just as they were about to move forward with this plan, Adverse spoke up.

*>Adverse: I have visual. ... She's too fast.*

*>Allux: ...*

Fae Sol escaped from one stone forest and slipped into another. This was a disaster; the tombstones were too tall, so seeing past them was extremely difficult. Considering how she'd ambushed their captain by abusing this fact, it might be impossible to find her again.

*>Kenshi: What a cowardly playstyle.*

*>BrenT: It works for her, though. Looks like she really knows this map, somehow...*

This was news to the rest of the Coalition, and it was problematic. If they continued with their "search party" plan, Fae Sol might just lead them around by the nose while they fumbled around unknown terrain. Something had to change.

*>Allux: ... We're going to use Adverse's cheese tactic.*

*>Molotova: ...*

*>Kenshi: That's...*

*>Liuzhi: Of course we are.*

*>Adverse: The question is, why didn't we use it earlier? I didn't create these settings to not be abused.*

*>Rizako: ...*

*>Allux: So, who's it gonna be?*

*>Molotova: Me, please. I've had enough of this nonsense.*

*>Allux: Sorry, Tova. You're staying in.*

*>Molotova: ...*

*>Allux: How about this? Rizako and I will give ourselves up, and Kenshi will finish the job. Sound good?*

Rizako nodded.

*>Kenshi: Wha- Me?*

*>Allux: Of course. For some reason, I feel like you caused this whole mess, so you should be the one to clean it up, right?*

*>Kenshi: What??*

*>System message: Allux has left the party.*

*>System message: Rizako has left the party.*

Kenshi stared at the unhinged Allux and meditative Rizako.

"Tch. Fine."

He raised his weapon... and began to swing!

*-1*

*-1*

*-2*

...

As he was being hit, Allux's eyes never left Kenshi's face.

"... Every one of us is a weirdo, huh."

Unsurprisingly, he died in under 10 seconds.

Rizako remained zen-like with her eyes closed. Kenshi felt a twinge of discomfort as he did the same to her.

*-1*

*-1*

*-1*

...

In the end, she met the same fate as Allux.

Kenshi walked forwards and collected the XP they'd dropped, and when he did, a messaged popped up on his HUD. 

 

*>System message: Level up!*

*>Name: Kenshi*

*>Class: Melee*

*Level: 0 -> 1 (+1)* 

*>HP: x -> 100*

*>Atk: x -> 10*

*>Def: 0* 

 

He'd leveled up! And when he did, the Coalition witnessed a warm pillar of white light extend into the sky.

But little did they know, there was one more player on the battlefield that bore witness to this sight.

 

---

 

*Yup. There it is...*

Jisha observed one of her foes level up, but this was to be expected. If anyone challenged you to a Fixed Field match at level 0, this cheese tactic was always one that you needed to watch out for. 

 

*>Status Window*

*>Name: Fae Sol*

*>Class: Ranged*

*Level: 0*

*>HP: 10*

*>Atk: 1*

*>Def: 0* 

 

Only after looking closely at the stats would most people realize the true difference between level 0 and level 1. The system discouraged fighting at level 0. It basically forced you to do body-acclimating quests before anything else, and the first level was extremely simple to gain. Even if you did nothing, you would still hit level 1 after an hour.

This "automatic level-up" even persisted in a Closed Field, and even these settings had been manipulated. A little over 5 minutes had passed since the battle began, and everyone's XP bar had automatically filled to 1/3. By killing two of their own party members, one of them maxed their XP bar.

Jisha stared at her XP bar that was over 2/3 full and was rapidly climbing higher. If nothing special had happened, she would have hit level 1 before her foes.

*A huge mistake on their end... I guess they *really* didn't expect me to get a kill.*

She wasn't sure if they considered this, but without executing that strategy, they had a 0% chance of winning.

When people realized level 1s one-shot level 0s with no effort, this "level 1" tactic ran rampant throughout the Fixed Fields of Synergy. But there were some obvious flaws, which is why it was relegated to a mere "cheese" strat. Firstly, to complete the first class evolution quest, one had to remain still for 5 seconds. This was was quite easy to disrupt; if you damaged them, it would cancel the class evolution process. Secondly, you had to kill your own party members, so the punishment for failure was a guaranteed loss.

But all of this was of secondary importance. She had a more important matter to attend to.

*Holy... Where is it?* 

 

*>Quest Info*

*>Name: Grave Robbery*

*>Description: The adopted daughter of the late Shahar has given you the key to a certain tombstone. Open it to see what's inside.*

*>Rating: F* 

 

This quest, despite being ranked F, didn't mean it was simple. Sometimes, a low-ranked quest would run you no risk of dying but was extremely tedious to complete. This quest turned out to be one of them!

The problem was that Shahar's tombstone would teleport around randomly, so Jisha's knowledge from her previous life wasn't helpful. She'd been running around for over 10 minutes with no luck.

But suddenly, she found it.

*Shahar... Screw you.*

You know the feeling when you're frantically looking for something, but it was in your hand the entire time?

*In my defense, it looks almost identical to every other dumb rock here.*

It was the tallest tombstone in the cemetery, but other than that, it was indistinguishable from the others. Jisha shamefully sighed as she relaxed against the wall.

*Ugh, give me a break...*

 

---

 

*>BrenT: Alright!*

Bren, despite not being physically present on the battlefield, was staring at his party screen as if he were a helicopter parent. He couldn't help but exclaim with joy once he saw a player hit level 1. Now, they were guaranteed to win. With 100 HP, there was no way Fae Sol even had enough ammo to deal with Kenshi alone.

The "-5" was still fresh in his mind, but this x5 critical strike was almost never seen in the beta. It was undoubtedly a fluke and there was no way for her to execute it consistently.

A player leveling up to 1 also gave them another advantage.

*>Allux: Kenshi, swing away.*

*CRACK, CRUMBLE*

The level 0 Fae Sol wouldn't be able to hide for much longer. Only at level 0 would his hide-and-seek game greatly benefit the hider; now, Kenshi had sufficient strength to one-shot the tombstones in their way. Naturally, this greatly aided their visibility.

Every second, he swung his Melee+ Stick at a tombstone. And every second, a tombstone was pulverized, clearing some line of sight.

*>Liuzhi: Even though your attack speed hasn't changed, this really is a huge difference.*

*>Adverse: Of course. Kenshi, how are you feeling?*

*>Kenshi: ... Shut up.*

Kenshi continued to vent his frustrations on the unsuspecting tombstones. Despite moving to the patch that Fae Sol had supposedly gone into, their search failed to yield results.

The clock was ticking. If they spent too long, their enemy would level up to 1 as well. Adverse cursed under his breath as he realized their group had stumbled into not one but two double-edged swords...

Once again, their strategy had to change.

*>Liuzhi: Can you observe from up high?*

*>Allux: It's not "can" he. There's no other choice.*

*>Kenshi: Yeah, I "can".*

When the Coalition observed Fae Sol cleanly executing parkour moves, they learned that any move not defined as "skill" by the system could be executed whenever. As black belts in VMA, all of these players had exceptional physical control. She wasn't the only one who knew parkour!

Unfortunately, Kenshi wasn't able to move *as* freely. The best he could do was chain wall jumps and reach the top of the nearby peak. These tombstones were at least 10 metron high, so scaling one was quite a feat in and of itself.

Though the fog still hindered visibility, searching would become far easier with the high ground. But as he looked around, this high ground wasn't "ground" at all... From below, it looked like jumping from the top of one stone to another would be a simple game of "the floor is lava". However, though the floor wasn't lava, it was a 10 metron drop. The space below became a chasm that spelled doom. He almost attempted to jump, but the abyss threatened to swallow him whole.

*>Kenshi: ... Wait, what?*

He was about to figure out how to get down, but at the edge of the purple haze... was the source of all of their problems. She was sitting atop the tallest tombstone in the area with her legs dangling off the side.

*>Molotova: Report properly, dumbass.*

*>Kenshi: Bogey dope vector 090! You happy, bitch?*

*>Allux: Kenshi, don't act alone.*

Before Kenshi hopped back to the ground, he took one last look at their target.

Fae Sol placed a hand on her chin, smiled and waved.

"..."

As if that wasn't enough, she closed her eyes and stuck out her tongue-

"You're dead."

*>Molotova: Hehe... He's gone.*

*>Allux: ...*

Without hesitation, Kenshi leapt forwards, breaking away from the group. His agitation from the previous events reached its boiling point. His fear of the abyss evaporated as he raced from block to block.

 

---

 

*Wow, that was easy.*

Regardless of what happened next, Jisha's position atop Shahar's tombstone was part of her plan. Fortunately for her, a lone Kenshi popped up on top. So naturally, she taunted him.

This was a low risk high reward play, so she gave it a shot. Since the time they'd initially met, she observed the mannerisms of all seven players. When she'd shot the slingshot pellet at the ground in front of Kenshi, a look of unbridled rage flitted across his face for a brief moment. Was he quick to anger?

Apparently, the answer was yes.

 

---

 

"..."

"..."

There was now a 4 metron gap between them. As a level 1 player with expert bodily control, Kenshi had the ability to reach her. However, perhaps because his anger faded, he hesitated to make the last jump.

Fae Sol didn't even bother getting up. Her smiling eyes continued to observe Kenshi's movements.

"Aren't you going to do anything? What was the point of coming all this way by yourself?" she said, continuing to taunt him.

*"It proved effective so far, so why stop." Is that what you're thinking?*

This time Kenshi refused to budge.

"There's only 4 metron between us, and you're level 1. Just hit me!"

"... What are you planning?"

Kenshi had a short temper, but he wasn't dumb. If he completely succumbed to rage every time he was provoked, he wouldn't be a black belt in VMA. Though his recent decision was fueled by rage, he could not think of a way for him to lose. Fae Sol had 2 HP, and he had 100. So something was clearly wrong here. She probably had something up her sleeve, but he just didn't know *what*.

"Nothing in particular. Just waiting to see how you'll attack. I'll easily dodge your basic attack. Ah, did you know you can even throw your weapon? Though that would obviously make you lose it..."

She smiled again.

Kenshi wasn't the sharpest bulb on the tree, but he was still decently capable at problem solving. She likely had countermeasures for the options she stated. But...

"Heh. Did you think that's all I can do?"

He suddenly jumped forwards and wound up an attack...!

"...?"

A look of surprise flashed on Fae Sol's face.

*Ha! Got her.*

She must have assumed Kenshi wouldn't go for her directly. She was likely surprised that he'd "fallen" for her taunts again.

But it was a feint!

According to Bren, a beta player, all of the tombstones were easily destructible. He was going to release all of his anger one final time! After her footing was destroyed, Fae Sol would naturally fall to the ground where he could easily finish her off.

As Kenshi's attack approached the tombstone, he expected to hear another satisfying crack. It was almost like popping bubble wrap - he just couldn't get enough!

However, his attack never landed.

His vision went black.