Second World

Actually, Jack had already been aware that they were being followed. A single blue dot had been following them since they left the City Hall building. But since that blue dot didn't do anything, he just ignored it. However, he knew that it was only a matter of time before the other party took action. And now it seemed the time had arrived. Another ten blue dots appeared and joined the lone blue dot. Then they moved together, beginning their hunt.

Jack increased the pace of their current monster fight, immediately using his Power Strike to kill the last remaining monster. Once it died, he promptly ordered his friends to move quickly, "this way!"

Bowler moved, but he was confused, why the sudden haste? Fierce Flame didn't think about it too much, she obediently followed.

Jack ran while observing his radar. There was a group of red dots moving east from his position. The gang pursuing Jack's team were coming from the North.

Jack thought that, if he could time it right, this group of monsters would run into the gang. He led Bowler and Flame in a zig-zag route through the alleys between buildings to adjust the timing. This confused both his teammates and the pursuers. Several times, he was worried that their pursuers might lose them, but they managed to stay on the trail suspiciously easily.

'Could someone have found tracking equipment during this Tutorial Period?' Jack directed his thought-question towards Peniel.

'It is unlikely, but not impossible. They could probably get their hands on some rare tracking consumables. If they did, one of them might have applied it to you or your friends this morning. These things have a time limit, so it would expire after a while."

'How long does it usually take before these things expire?'

'How should I know which one of the tracking consumables they got their hands on?' Peniel replied helplessly, 'if I have to guess, then let's assume it's the one with the highest possibility of dropping in this period.  That one is also the one that lasts the shortest period, which is around five hours.'

Jack thought back, there was one time when the blue dot had gotten near to them. At that time, he thought the guy was about to ambush them, but the dot soon put some distance between them again. That must have been when the tracking device was applied. He thought back and estimated it to be roughly two hours earlier when it happened. So that meant the device would last for at least another three hours.

He asked Peniel another question, 'The device only tracks the target, right? It won't be able to detect monsters in the surroundings?'

'Of course. That's why it's called tracking, not scanning,' Peniel replied in a ridiculing tone.

'Could they get scanning equipment at this stage?'

'I would say that's impossible, but after seeing your monocle, I'm not so sure anymore.'

Jack thought all this through while they continued moving, 'As long as they cannot detect the monsters, then this plan should still work. We might as well try it.'

He kept going with his original plan and brought his team to an intersection. Based on the speeds that his radar showed the monsters and their pursuers moving at, Jack calculated that they should cross this intersection at roughly the same time. He led Bowler and Flame across the intersection and further down the street. He was looking for a more deserted place without any nearby monsters to set another ambush.  He found what he was looking for at a deserted shopping mall.  It had an open terrace on its second floor that faced the main street. Jack pointed to the second-floor terrace and told Bowler, "go up to that terrace."

"What for?" Bowler had been puzzled all this time with their nonsensical traveling patterns.

"We have company coming," Jack finally explained. "Probably the same company as yesterday."

"What?" Bowler was dazed. "Shouldn't we be running away then?"

"Don't worry, there are only eleven of them and they're about to have some company of their own. Now, get to that high ground. When they show up, use your long-range skill to attack them from there. If someone goes into the mall and reaches your position, you jump down and run away to save yourself. If that happens, remember to use the map so we can regroup again."

'Only eleven people, he says!' Bowler grumbled to himself. 'But then again, with Storm's prowess, he might really be able to take them on as long as I don't get in the way.'

So he followed the instructions and went into the mall to look for the stairs up to the second floor.

Just then, Jack saw the blue dots and red dots on his radar meet with each other.  They quickly intermingled. Jack smiled. He loved it when a plan came together.

Their pursuers seemed to have gotten quite a surprise when they turned the corner at that intersection. They didn't appear to have been in fighting formation when the monsters crashed into them, which Jack considered a good thing. It would buy him more time to make preparations.

"Flame, you hide in the corner there," he pointed out a shadowed recess to Fierce Flame. "You ambush them when you see a chance. I will be the one to take the brunt of the assault. You prioritize your own survival. Use your speed to confuse them and only sneak in an attack if you are absolutely sure you can get away. If you still have any remaining free Attribute points, add them to your Dexterity."

"All right," Flame nodded. "By the way, how do you know there are people pursuing us and that there are exactly eleven of them?"

"Er…" Jack realized that he might have blurted out too much information without thinking. "I saw some of them when we were moving just now. For the number, it's just a guess."

Flame's expression said that she didn't buy the explanation, but she didn't pursue it further either. She turned around and went to hide in the corner.

"I will go meet with them first," Jack told his two comrades. "I'll lead them here. You guys just stay in position and be ready."

He then ran off in the direction that the blue and red dots were still mingling. The original five red dots had been reduced by two. Jack expected the gang to beat the monsters since they outnumbered them by more than two to one, but he could see two more groups of monsters were heading towards the intersection.

'They must be fighting Goblins.' Jack surmised. 'This is getting better and better.  With the additional arrivals, I should be able to make it there before all the monsters are defeated.

During his advance, he opened his attributes window interface. His Dexterity was now 51, with an additional 2 from his Storm Breaker, which put him at 53. He still had 7 free attribute points. He decided to spend them all on Dexterity, which immediately skyrocketed to 60. He felt even lighter now and could move more freely.

When he arrived back at the intersection, there were only three monsters left. It was sad but impressive that the group had managed to fend off three packs of Goblins without losing any members. He hid behind a fence and used his God-eye monocle to scan the gang as they fought.

The Goblins would be finished soon. The people fighting them were not without damage either. Out of the eleven people, only four were still in full health, three were slightly wounded, another three had only half their health remaining, and one was in critical condition. The critical one stood at the back, away from the fight, to stay alive.

Among the ones who were still in full health were Scarface and Bigarm. Jack was surprised to see that the woman called Fox was also there among them. He looked at the others. Boulder was not there. As for the other eight, he seemed to recall them to have been among the Death Associates yesterday.

Jack took some time to come to terms with what he was about to do. In past VR games, he didn't have any moral conflict from killing people. But in this world, although it felt like a game, killing people might actually be really killing them, causing them to disappear forever. He closed his eyes. That's not necessarily true, he thought. For all he knew, the people who died here might be returning to the real world, so killing them could end up doing them a favor. But he couldn't be sure.

Nevertheless, he knew that hesitating in this fight would be identical to putting his and his team's lives in danger. When he attacked, he needed to approach the fight with the intention to kill. Attacking half-heartedly when facing an enemy that gravely outnumbered him would be fatal.

Jack made his resolution and began to sneak up on the guy with the lowest health.. As his first objective, he needed to reduce their considerable advantage in numbers.