Luden entered the secure room under the auction house to receive his items - or rather, singular item - that he'd won in the auction. Despite undoubtedly having enough capital to win every bid, they'd ended up losing...?

It was a shame, but the only thing he could do was keep his mouth shut and try again. Perhaps he could resell the item for a higher price later. For better or worse, it was the only thing leaving his sanity intact.

He opened the door and entered the room alone. Not only were his subordinates not allowed to enter, but Luden himself was paranoid that his lackeys would screw something up. The auctioneer and one of those aggravating Sentinels waited inside.

The auctioneer began speaking, but Luden tuned it out. It wasn't anything important, anyway, just some twaddle regarding his winnings. Why wasn't there an option to skip dialogue? He needed to get a move on ASAP! He knew better than anyone else that time was money!

"Finally..."

The auctioneer deposited the item into Luden's open palms.

But what was this item?

"Are you kidding me?"

*>Name: Magic Milk Bottle (Spoiled)*

*>...*

This singular item he'd strained himself to get... was defective!

*CRUNCH*

In a fit of rage, the fragile glass bottle shattered in Luden's grasp.

Why? What went wrong?

He'd happened to purchase a bottle of spoiled milk. Big deal, right? To an ordinary person, they would lament for a few minutes and move on with their lives.

But to Luden, this wasn't merely an expired potion. It seemed dramatic, but this auction and this entire sequence of events was challenging everything he knew about the world. His sixth sense was supposed to lead him to victory. He was supposed to be a bloodhound that could sniff out gold, yet this pyrite had played him for a fool!

There was clearly one person at fault for this.

"..."

A snide player he'd passed in the crowd.

*She* was the one who'd driven him into the ground.

Luden wasn't overly familiar with the nature of games, but he wasn't completely incompetent. When they'd passed each other, he'd attempted to glance at her info and stats... to no avail. After asking his subordinates, he learned that a stealth item of that caliber was an unusual possession for a player this early in the game.

An unusual possession... A rare item... Money!

But how could she be *richer* than him?

"How much does she know? Do the heavens favor her over me?"

Once this thought entered his head, it would not leave.

For Goddess' sake... even the first syllable of his name, "lu", referred to heavenly power in ancient Northeastern languages. For him to not be the chosen one was...

"Blasphemy!"

He darted outside, and, using party chat, quickly ordered every single one of his lackeys to track this player down. It couldn't be that hard, right?

How wrong he was.

At first, tracking her had been easy. She'd left the Village with two other players in tow, and it was much easier to track a group of three players than a singular one.

They would set up an encirclement and surround them. But just as the plan was about to be set in motion...

*>Luden: How could you idiots lose them???*

*>Axis Jack: We... suddenly lost visual. One moment they were well within our sights, and the next...*

*>Luden: I don't want excuses. I want results!*

He clutched his head in his hands. Why was everyone around him so *useless*? He was probably better off doing this himself!

He grabbed his two most skilled subordinates and took off into the forest. No matter how useless they were, three sets of eyes would cover more ground than one. Plus, they could serve as meat shields in emergencies.

Was this cruel? Absolutely not! They were getting paid IRL. What was there to complain about?

*>+5 Copper*

*>+6 Copper*

*>+4 Copper*

...

Luden continued his mad dash through the forest while, unbeknownst to him, his lackeys exasperatedly DM'ed each other. They wanted to voice their complaint out loud, but doing so would put them at risk of not getting paid at all. So, they kept quiet.

Luden was confident in his abilities not only because his intelligence was absolute, but also because he'd experienced the beta. He knew the lay of this land. As a Northeasterner, all of this terrain had been foreign to him, but now, he was confident in his ability to navigate.

"Come on... where did she go?"

He continued sprinting with his head on a swivel. If he were astute enough to notice his subordinates' expressions, he would have noticed their exasperation. They knew there was only a matter of time before something went wrong.

But Luden was non the wiser. All he wanted to do was keep running. After all, the faster he ran, the faster he'd find his target.

This led to his first careless mistake.

Luden had indeed gotten a feel for this terrain in the beta. But, the beta only lasted several weeks - a drop in the bucket compared to his 30+ years as a Northeasterner on Etmos. At the end of the day, he was still foreign to the endless greenery of Synergy's starter area.

"Shi-"

He narrowly avoided a thick tree trunk while running at full sprint.

His focus wasn't on the road ahead of him, but rather anywhere a wild player could appear. This was bad - when in unfamiliar terrain, not looking where you were stepping was akin to suicide.

He'd nearly stumbled and fallen over - a most embarrassing happenstance if it were to happen in front of the very people he was labeling as incompetent in his mind. Little did he know that public opinion of him was already in the gutter...

Regardless, he wouldn't make the same mistake.

However, that thought slipped his mind as abruptly as it had arrived, and before long, his manic obsession of finding *that player* seized his thoughts.

"!!!"

This time, the identical gaffe wasn't as forgiving.

He'd almost run headfirst into the tree but dodged it just in time. However, he didn't make a clean getaway - a piece of his clothing snagged itself on a piece of tough bark.

"Are you kidding me-"

In hilarious fashion, Luden tumbled to the ground.

He quickly got up and dusted himself off, but not before giving his party a stern glance.

"You," he said as he pointed to one of them. "Was that funny to you?"

"Uh... No sir..."

"Good."

Since he'd embarrassed himself, the only logical thing that others would do was laugh at him. He needed to make sure he kept his subordinates in line, but he could only do so if he kept a good example himself.

It didn't matter, though. His subordinate wasn't even lying. It wasn't the least bit funny at all. They were already so tired of his antics that they'd already marked him as a fool long ago - a far worse outcome than Luden could comprehend.

The three continued forth.

He'd spotted nothing so far. It was odd - normally, there'd be at least one or two common monsters in the area. However, there were none. Obviously, they were intimidated in Luden's presence... but he didn't realize his skilled subordinates picking off the dumb mobs from a distance.

The search continued for several more minutes with no luck.

Luden's subordinates nervously glanced at each other. If all of Shock Collar together couldn't locate their quarry, how could their boss hope to accomplish the same by himself? Should they tell him?

Neither one of them wanted to be the bearer of bad news - their boss was exactly the type of person who'd shoot the messenger.

So, they could only carry on in silence and do what they were paid to.

*-3*

*-5*

*-2*

...

They were only security guards at the most rudimentary level, not even encouraged to speak.

Time continued to tick on, and Luden only grew more and more frustrated.

"Where? Where could she have gone??"

Once again, tunnel-visioned on his singular task, he once again forgot what his body was doing.

"Guh-"

A tripwire-like root caught Luden's foot mid-sprint.

In an even more devastating fashion, he tumbled to the ground once more.

His subordinates grimaced and facepalmed respectively. They stared at each other with only one thought in their heads.

"At least we're getting paid!"

Luden clumsily rose to his feet... only to step on a pile of loose sediment to fall down again.

"What-!"

Before he could regain his bearings, his arm was getting sucked into the ground.

Deeper, deeper, deeper...

The further down it dug, the less autonomy he retained over his own appendage. What was he supposed to do?

Suddenly, an icky crawling sensation danced at the end of his fingertips.

Chills ran up his arm; this disgusting feeling forced adrenaline through his body, and he successfully tore his arm out of the ground.

As much as he didn't want to see what had attached itself to the end of his arm, aversion to the sight was impossible.

*>Name: Small Carnivorous Groundworm*

*>Level: 5*

"What the- How is this thing *small*?"

It was almost 2 metron long!

It looked like an ordinary worm for the most part, but a gaping opening revealed razor-sharp canines that coated the insides.

Coming face-to-face with a fantastical, menacing creature's maw was beyond jarring. "Creepy-crawlies", as Luden liked to refer to them as, didn't really exist in the Northeast, and for that, he was thankful.

"Curse this damn game!"

The starting area of Synergy was designed to be easy to traverse for everyone, but ironically, as a resident of the most remote continent of the planet, it was a nightmare!

He couldn't help but think that this game world had baited him into playing it like a moth to a flame.

"Shit, shit, shit!"

*-2*

*-7*

*-8*

...

Luden swiped frantically at the worm with his dagger.

*>+10 Copper*

It didn't take too long, but the memory of a gaping crevasse lined with carnivorous teeth would haunt his thoughts for days to come.

Just as he thought he was out of the woods, something else forcefully tugged his leg in another direction!

*>Name: Hostile Twine*

*>Level: 6*

He looked down to find some green growth twirled around his calves.

Fortunately, despite the higher level number, it was far less intimidating-looking that the worm. Plus, it was another enemy his dagger would work wonders on.

...

*>+12 Copper*

He whipped around and glared at his subordinates.

"You guys... Why aren't you on the lookout for monsters?"

The two resisted the urge to roll their eyes. What had they been doing the whole time? Sadly, it didn't matter how hard they worked if none of it was recognized by authority.

"Whatever," Luden growled when they remained silent. "Just know I'm not paying you for nothing."

Luden took a moment to regain his composure.

Where was he, again?

"Oh?"

As if the world wanted to remind him of his mission, he heard some unusual rustling and squelching in the distance.

"You two, we're going to investigate over there," he said as he looked back at them.

"Finally," the two wanted to say. A change of pace!

The three players crept closer to the strange sounds.

They took their utmost care to not make any unnecessary noise.

Luden had learned his lesson from earlier - now, he was going to carefully look where he was going!

They closer the approached, the more distinct the rustling noises became. Eventually, they were identifiable as player footsteps - and there were three sets.

Conveniently, the group of players they were after also had three players. Could it be?

The followers wanted to cry. How was it possible for this idiot Luden to locate their target so quickly? His luck was off the charts!

Luden, meanwhile, refrained from charging in alone. He knew his limits. Now was the time to call in backup.

*>Luden: Everyone, meet me at this location ...*

With some help, Luden articulated his position to the rest of his clan members.

Eventually, all 10 were in position. It was time for revenge!