We were holding formation well, I macro-manage the team via guild-wide voice comms, rotating them through the vast area of mobs, enough to house at least 100 players farming concurrently without bumping shoulders.
Most of the team had just hit level 5, and we were planning our first dungeon run before nightfall. The squads were moving ins and outs perfectly, timing their cooldowns, tracking aggro, following my positioning calls, the kind of coordination you only get when people trust each other and already knew what they were doing.
We were inseparatable since the PC days, only like 3 new players in the entire of 20 currently in the guild.
Then everything fell apart, all our gluttonous farming for the last 24 hours, all down the drain.
There was one team, the one with seven level 4s that went into the nearby forest to hunt for wild bears, the team that I couldn’t keep my eyes on, and I would come to regret it.
From the interface, I saw the [Guild Member Online] count on the top left dropped from 20 to 17, three gone in a blink.
Simple, I thought, someone must’ve logged off or disconnected due to bad connection, or it was time for dinner and mom called.
But I heard screaming coming from the jungle.
My instincts were to call out for them via guild comms, one that everyone could listen in to.
"Olga, what’s happening? Is something wrong over there?!"
It happened again, two more.
"Jack, she is killing us!"
"Can you guys make it out?" I snapped over voice comms.
No answer, only static, then a breath.
I heard Kino screaming.
"She’s here! She’s... SHE’S IN THE TREES!"
Guild Member Online: 15 > 13
In this game, when you die. You have to make a new character, with your loots gone, starting over at zero, no matter the amount of time you spent in the game.
"We just lost half of our guild’s accumilated level in ten seconds..." I gritted my teeth.
There are rituals and items that could at least salvage items and levels, but they were not accessible when we’re only level 5.
That’s when I saw her.
A lone figure stepping out of the woods like the final boss of a horror raid. Read full story at novel⸺fire.net
No armor, just the brown rags of a starter set and a rusty Fool’s Knife in hand.
There was no glow to her gear, no flair, no telltale particle effects of buffs or consumables.
"Everyone, group up." Sarah (DreamDream) took charge while I was still in shock.
There could be four among many reasons as to why someone would hunt new players, despite being overwhelmingly strong themself.
Three was for an ego boost
Four was to send a message
Just a normal-looking player.
And I was wrong when I thought that we can farm peacefully here, in the wilderness without dying. Just because we had the number advantage.
Then, she spoke up, directly to me, waving from a distance of at least a football field away.
"Hey hey hey! Is that you, J97?! Long time no see, dude! I need a few kills for this one quest! You’ll probably be fine right?"
"Who the hell are you?" I asked.
"...?! You’re lying!" I exclaimed at the strange, average looking woman "There’s no way you can use a female avatar! Is this a bug? I thought this game scans your government ID!"
"I’ve been telling you guys, I’m a woman!" She answered by yelling back.
I didn’t get to answer, when Reggie—one of our main melee DPS and another long-time player—yelled at her with his blades drawn.
"There’s no women online! It’s all fat middle aged balding man!" He said, equipping a piece of head armor, "Especially one with the initials CJ, and uses 69 in their username."
I kind of agreed, though, I’ve met Sarah personally, so his statement of "No women online" could be deemed as wrong.
And if that woman claimed to be CJS69, the only thing I could do is to tell everyone to turn around and run without looking back.
There were three players that always been on top of the anually voted [Best Player Leaderboard] no matter the era, update, or time.
[All-Time Best Player Leaderboard]
I would run away in fear, but only if CJS69 was actually a woman.
Do you even remember how much distasteful, lame, misogynistic, misandrist, and out-of-pocket jokes that guy made on the forum throughout the years?
Exactly, don’t know either, stopped acknowledging after the first hundred.
If someone like that was a woman, then society’s going to collapse. So I knew she was bluffing, got a lucky attack against my low-level teammates in the forest, but probably wouldn’t do so well when we’re in open fields .
Before I could react, Reggie, username Beapo, dashed towards the lone woman with his dual blades on hand.
But she flickered, no, she did not move, and she didn’t dodge. But she flickered.
One second she was in front of him, the next, gone, slipped into an unseen wormhole, disappeared. Then popping into existence behind Reggie before anyone could blink, landing a critical hit that took his full health bar in a single swing.
Guild Member Online: 13 > 12