Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Storm That is Approaching

"UGH!" I shouted. "NO!"

The rest of my team didn't look happy either. We checked; we had all received identical announcements about the upcoming challenge. I heard profanity and shouts from downstairs, and even from outside the house. Guess the same thing happened with them.

We've barely just made it out alive against the stone giant, and now there was something else lined up? I had hoped we'd just be able to focus on building a settlement inside this arena, live in peace, and be left alone for now. Though to be fair, I knew the chances of that weren't exactly high.

Hei scribbled something down in his notebook. I checked mine, and indeed pencil-strokes began to magically appear. It was a doodle of a turtle saying "Testing."

"Did it work?" he asked. We affirmed with a round of nods.

"Let's look for a fifth teammate tomorrow," Saber said. Now we needed a teammate for our challenge team, then five more people for a town-hall group.

We slept lightly throughout the night, and I'd often hear footsteps and talking from downstairs and from the other bedrooms. Once in a while I could discern Atlas's voice as he patrolled around the house.

The next morning, I woke up with a deep gasp, in hot sweat. My chest ached with a strange, inexplicable sorrow. Then I remembered. I had dreamed of her, still alive, and she had smiled and comforted me. You did well; it's alright, she had said. And then she floated weightlessly into the sky, rising farther and farther away as I tried to grab her.

Becky, I mouthed without making a sound. That was her name.

Everyone else had already left the room besides Hei, who looked at me in concern.

"Nightmare?" he asked me as he came over. I shook my head. As I sat up in bed, he let me hold onto his hand for solace.

"What's the time?" I asked, a little hesitant to check my phone and use up precious battery.

"We don't know. Everyone's watches and phones are in different time zones."

In the next few hours after I woke up, we managed to find a group of 10 for the town-hall. Us four, Reens's team of three, Jack, and the two lone survivors who had first teamed up yesterday after they were healed.

"Everyone got the announcement, yeah?" Jack asked. "I'm thinking I'll go with Saber's team. Then you two and you three," he pointed at the others, "you can be a second team."

I still didn't know how to feel about Jack. But at this point, rejecting him risked ruining our goodwill. I'd rather not do that so soon. We went along with his proposal.

By lunchtime, everyone inside the arena had recovered to full health. For the time-being, our cottage was relatively empty, with the only people inside being our newly-formed group of 10 (now nicknamed "the clinic landlords" by the others, if the conversations I've overheard were any indication). We closed the house down for maintenance. We wiped strangers' blood off the floor and walls, and scrubbed down the two little washrooms we had. I spent most of my time spamming purification magic on the two buckets of water we reused over and over. The bedsheets, however, had been bloodstained beyond restoration.

"I hope we find some dude with bleaching magic," I said. The town hall would happen at 8PM Pacific Standard Time tonight. The players had agreed on Pacific Time, since it matched the day-night cycle here well. As for our town hall representative, no one volunteered except Mr. Atlas, so it ended up being him.

Night soon fell, and some of the other players lit up a campfire in the clearing outside our house. A crowd gathered around it, with the groups' representatives standing at the center, in a ring around the fire. I counted nine of them. Mr. Atlas and the tiger-clad druid I recognized in the light of the flickering flames; the rest I didn't. Our town-hall group, Mr. Atlas's nine representees, gathered behind him, and it seemed like many of the other groups had done the same. Hei stood beside me, and he seemed to notice the druid as well.

"When the druid is sus," I whispered to him.

"He's got the drip though," Hei said.

I huddled closer to Hei. "He really do."

One of the representatives I couldn't recognize opened up the issue of the upcoming challenge. She asked if anyone knew what it could be, before sharing that one of her representees suspected another battle-oriented event. A few representatives around the circles agreed, but I felt like they weren't able to conclude, well, conclusively. Mr. Atlas then brought up the problem of shelter. Thankfully, they identified several individuals with abilities that'd be useful for construction projects. Like enhanced strength, for example.

They also discussed plans to start farms. They resolved to find edible plant species besides the melons. Good; at this point I wouldn't be able to stomach fish and melons much longer. They had been my entire diet for days by now. Someone suggested domesticating the local rabbits for meat and milk.

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"Meat yes, milk no," the druid overruled. Well, the two of us could agree on at least one thing.

Peacekeeping came up as the last topic. Unfortunately, despite nearly an hour of discussion, the representatives couldn't agree on how peacekeeping and rules would be enforced around here, and who would be in charge. With that, the town-hall fizzled out to an end, and we went our separate ways. Or semi-separate ways, rather, since a whole bunch of random people flooded back into our house for the night. Technically everyone had full HP, so we could just keep them all out on the basis of not needing to sleep indoors. But that seemed like bad PR, and I honestly didn't have the heart to turn them all down either.

"Oh wow, they actually cleaned the place," I overheard a girl's voice as she walked inside. Yes. Yes we did. You are welcomed.

Once elbow room grew scarce inside the cottage, I'd notice individuals outside looking in through the door, then walking away. No one fought over occupancy of the house, thankfully. The weather outdoors felt comfortable, almost inviting. For now at least.

Over the next few days, our little colony progressed steadily. The hundred or so players began staking out areas of land and developing them; builders laid down the foundations for houses. In the meantime, we also saw the quick rise of easy shacks and barns, some appearing as early as three days after the town hall. By that time, our own cottage grew exceedingly less visited, and we essentially had it back for ourselves after another round of intensive cleaning and scrubbing. As the players began seeking each other out for services and goods, we established an unofficial trade economy. A few random players approached Mr. Atlas asking about having a currency system.

"We'll look into that after the challenge," Mr. Atlas replied. A coarse weariness weighed down his voice nowadays. And I'd often find him alone, staring straight ahead across the settlement.

"Mr. Atlas," I ventured, approaching him as the other players left. "Hey there. How have you been?"

He glanced over at me. "Still breathing, as you can see." He then left, apparently to check on a construction project.

On the fourth day after the town-hall, which was three days before the supposed start of the next challenge, Saber rallied our team of five into the deep seclusion of the forest. We found a clearing of flattened grasses and trees chopped down to the root, probably by builders over the past days.

"We have friendly-fire immunity so let's leverage that," she explained. "We can go all out in spars. Sophia, wanna be my first partner?"

I hesitantly agreed. For now, the others opted to watch. Saber, meanwhile, paced back in a forest clearing, until she stood about 30 meters from me.

"Try hitting me with a Frost Missile," she said.

I launched a casual one at her. She ducked to the right. But the Missile moved too fast, and it hit her before she managed to get out of its way. The Missile bounced off her with a burst of powdered ice.

"Waahhh," Saber cried.

"Oh shoot," I gasped. "Saber! You alright?"

"No, it's just cold."

"Then don't scare me like that!" I shouted. "Sheesh!"

"OK, OK. Now, try again."

This time, Saber began weaving about, dashing in tight turns left and right, and forward and backward. I tried aiming a Missile at her, then fired. It missed her by a body-width.

"Long-range attacks in MOBA games are usually dodgeable," Saber said. "Even if you can't react quick enough, you can still mess up the opponent's aim by moving around. Make your turns lack rhythm, to be as unpredictable as possible. Human reaction speed is about 200 milliseconds, I think."

"Let me try again," I requested. I had a plan in mind. A strategy.

One that I alone could leverage.

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