Mignon slowly walked into the tent, where she saw Miguel sitting legs crossed in the middle of the tent, his spear so tightly held in his hands that his knuckles were turning white. His hands were visibly shaking, but he still stared adamantly at Mignon.

  "So? You're just going to sit there?" Questioned Mignon.

  "How did you find us?" Miguel asked.

  "Don't tell me you actually expect us to tell you our secrets... Whatever, considering that you're going to die anyways. Remember the two dummies you ran into? We were plotting a hit against another team at first. They were so bad though they couldn't even kill the two idiots we sent after them, so we couldn't get a sense of where their base were." Mignon said while she played with her dagger with her left hand. "But then you guys-" She pointed it right at Miguel's nose, and smirked a bit when Miguel didn't even flinch. She withdrew her dagger. "You guys came along. Good courage, or maybe you're scared solid? "

  "The lancer and the brawler we fought?"

  "Those two idiots, yep. We then camped about around where they died until around night, when your campfire smoke conveniently marked your exact location."

  "There's nothing we could've done to prevent this then."

  "Unless you want to freeze to death, no."

  With a heavy sigh, Miguel stabbed his spear into the ground and stood up. "I'm also guessing that this fight's inevitable, then." He grunted. "Neither is your death." Said Mignon. "We'll see about that." Miguel tried to send his spearhead right at Mignon, which she easily avoided and followed up with a slash to Miguel's abdomen.

  Miguel barely smacked Mignon's arm away with the tail end of his spear, but the collision was enough to break the bones in her forearm. "Tsk, I told Crecket not to use such a glass cannon build." She muttered under her breath as she lept back from Miguel's spear.

  "That was surprisingly easy." Miguel thought, surprised at the damage Mignon suffered from his haphazard block. "That definitely took less force to break than the lancer earlier."

  Mignon took out a Noxiblock from her inventory and quickly injected it in her other arm, the pain gone the instant the last drop was pumped into her veins. It didn't fix the fact that her arm was still broken, though.

  The Noxiblock syringe vanished into thin air. Mignon begrudgingly switched the dagger over to her right hand, she's much weaker with her right, she just hoped that it's still enough to defeat Miguel.

  Suddenly, a spearhead swung below her arm from the left. She used her already broken arm to block it, before sidestepping further away from Miguel to get away from his spear. This isn't good. She panicked. Miguel now held absolute range superiority - She had no hope of reaching him with her dagger, yet he could cover the range easily with his spear.

  Miguel lunged forward and tried to stab her again with his spear, which Mignon evaded again by leaping over to the left. Now's my chance, she thought to herself, before rushing in right at Miguel. Miguel nearly lost balance because of the lunge, an opening which Mignon used to her full advantage.

  To Miguel's surprise, Mignon had already closed the distance within the seconds he was trying to balance himself, and stabbed him in his sides. Blood quickly stained his t-shirt, but Miguel had no time to stagger in pain, Mignon was already behind him, about to stab him cleanly in the back. He was able to narrowly parry the attempt, before swinging the spear at her again, causing her to topple and fall onto the ground.

  As a last resort, Mignon tried to thrust her dagger at Miguel, who was now towering over her. He once again stopped her dagger with his spear held sideways. "And you said my death was inevitable?" Miguel said.

  "I underestimated you... You were surprisingly skilled."

  "I got lucky."

  "You have the instincts of a warrior. What did you do before you came here?"

  "A janitor."

  "Really? You didn't have a side career as some Shaolin monk?"

  "No."

  "So it really was luck... Oh well, consider me damned. I will get your throat next we meet though."

  "We'll see about that."

  Just then, footsteps came from outside the tent. "Another one of yours?" Miguel asked Mignon. "Probably? Maybe Dieu's finished off another one of yours and is coming to save me- ah."

  It was Sung who had barged into the tent. "I take it Dieu died then." Mignon said, disappointed. "Pitifully." Sung replied. "Go see if there's more out there Navis, I got her pinned." Miguel said. "You sure? You don't look very good yourself." Sung replied. "I'm fine, go." Miguel reassured him, yet his wound betrayed him, as it sputtered more blood onto the ground.

  Sung walked in and, as he did with Dieu, stomped Mignon's chest in, instantly killing her. "I was about to kill her." Said Miguel, angrily. "Yeah, yeah. Take this syringe and lets get going, there's one more of them."

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Miguel reluctantly accepted the syringe of gray goo from Sung, which turned out to have a body-repairing ability (It was called the Nanorep). It felt weird, with his wounds mostly fixed, yet pain still lingering from where Mignon slashed him.

  "Her body was exceptionally brittle." Miguel told Sung. "Same with the one I fought against, they had implants in them." Sung replied. He had to then explain it from top to bottom to Miguel while they strode over to Rin's tent.

  By the time they got to Rin's tent, Crecket was already pinned down to the ground by him. "Blud couldn't even kill a sleeping dude." Rin sniggered. Miguel and Sung looked down to see Rin's left hand pressing over his abdomen, presumably where Crecket stabbed him while he was asleep.

  "Do you need...?" Sung pointed at Rin's wound. "Later, kill him first." Rin replied. "You sure? You look like you're nearly bleeding out. He ain't goin' nowhere anyways." Miguel insisted. "I'm fine~" A dizzy spell hit Rin. "Alright maybe not." "Thought so." Miguel walked over and injected two syringes of Nanorep into Rin.

  Crecket watched as the three of them bickered for a while, they seemed to care for each other. He wouldn't see this type of interaction with his own teammates, not while they're in this top-down sort of structure with Crecket somehow at the top, and the rest acting more like rivals than allies.

  His teammates weren't dependable, far from it. Anyone could easily tell that they were only listening to Crecket's orders because Crecket was, so far, able to lead them to kills and victories.It's been immense pressure every time they enrol in these experiments, Crecket's never been confident he can guarantee victory. They really only got lucky, that and the stealth implants perhaps gave them too much confidence this time.

  He couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of terrible things they'll say to him when he inevitably respawn back in the compound. They already weren't especially easy to lead, it's going to be even harder from now on.

  If, by whatever miracle, he can delay the time until he face the music and his teammates, he'd take it.

  His future depended entirely on the three people in front of him. If he wanted to survive, he's got to negotiate with them.

  "Uh... Hey..." Crecket tried to get their attention.

  "Oh, right, we were supposed to kill you. I forgot, lol." Rin said.

  "Yeah about that..." Crecket steeled his resolve, no matter how stupid he's going to sound next, there's no going back now. "I was wondering if you could... spare me, perhaps?"

  Rin had never heard of such bullshit in his life. "You must be joking. Spare you? What, can you resurrect Yoko and Jones back to life?"

  "Yoko's dead?" Miguel asked, surprised.

  "Yeah... Her scream woke me up. She was dead by the time I could go check up on her, her tent's entirely empty. I ran into this idiot when I went back to my tent." Rin pointed at Crecket angrily.

  "I didn't kill anyone in your team, let me be clear." Crecket hastily added. "One of the tents was empty."

  "Must've been Jones' tent you went into then..." Sung said. "No matter, you've yet to tell us why we should be sparing you."

  "Well... This is your first time, is it not?" Crecket asked, Sung nodded. "Then you need someone who's played these games before. I can help you guys set up shop here, I've never lost in an experiment."

  "And you think your perfect K/D's going to atone for our dead members? I really, really want whatever you're on." Rin snapped.

  "They're going to respawn back at the complex anyway, it's not like they're dead forever."

  "You--- You know what, I'm actually going to kill you, right now." Rin furiously reached for his dagger.

  "Wait, Rin. Don't kill him, despite what he's done, none of us can really deny that we need his knowledge." Miguel stepped in.

  "He's. Killed. My. Sister. I ain't just gonna let that slide." Rin growled.

  "I understand your pain, but still, don't just focus on what's happened right now." Miguel tried to reason with Rin. "Think about it, we're going to run into countless other teams, they're going to be massive work to defeat, especially when we have two dead already-"

  "What do you understand? Jones' not your son or brother, what do you know?" Rin yelled. "Whatever happens afterwards, I'm not relying on this piece of shit!" Rin raised his dagger above Crecket's forehead.

  "Rin, you kill him now, and I will run my spear through you. You are not killing him, this is an order!" Miguel finally raised his voice, his spear pointed directly at Rin. Reluctantly, Rin put his dagger back into his inventory and lowered his arms.

  "Well then... I guess we'll have to welcome Mr- uhm..." "Crecket. Crecket Siu." Crecket replied to Sung. "Mr Siu, then." Sung finished his sentence. The surname's quite familiar to Sung, quite an infuriating surname, really, but he'll have to wait until they're alone before he can ask Crecket anything. "Please, call me Crecket. If it's possible for your leader to set up the alliance between our teams..."

  "That'll be me. Name's Miguel, Miguel Smith" Miguel stepped forward. "So you just send me an invite?" He asked. "Yeah, one moment... There."

  With the alliance formalized, and the attack thwarted, Sung and Miguel could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Rin was still not convinced that they should've kept Crecket alive, but Miguel seemed to be very certain, he didn't have a choice but to try and trust his decision.

  While Miguel went back to his tent to sleep, Sung beckoned Crecket to follow him into his tent. With the door flaps zippered shut, both of them sat down in the middle. Sung tried not to get his hopes up, but Crecket's surname, Siu, is an important piece in his puzzle of revenge.

  "Crecket Siu... Was it? You have a sister?" Sung couldn't be bothered to beat around the bush.

  "Navis Wan, was it? How'd you know? I have an older sister, her name's Navis Siu. Hey, you two share the same name!"

  Sung had hit the jackpot. "Navis Wan is a made-up name. Real name's Edwin Sung. I suppose you've heard of me from Navis before."

  "You're her research partner!" Crecket exclaimed. "Was. She had the audacity to steal our research." Sung said with gritted teeth.

  "No way, my sister's not that sort of person." Crecket denied. Then again, she'd left him to wander on the streets for 5 years, can he really trust his sister anymore?

  "I sure hope she isn't. That's what I'm here for, to try and track her down and get an explanation from her." Sung said. "What're you here for? If I remember, her brother - you - should be quite young."

  "I wanted to find her too. I came after a hobo near the dumpsters disappeared with flyers for this place strewn all over his spot." Crecket recounted.

  "Wait, Whitty Street?"

  "Yeah. That hobo, is that you?"

  "Yeah... the world can be small sometimes. You said you came after I did? How come you've got battle experience then?"

  "I don't know, when I came to, the date on my holographic projector read April 24th. You?"

  Sung took a look at the date today. December 28th. Assuming what Crecket said was true, then Sung had somehow skipped at least an entire year. Did they put him in suspended animation for a year? Why would they be doing such a thing?

  "I probably came to at around Christmas." Sung replied. This place, he thought, what is its purpose? All these strange weapons, the experiments, suspending me for an entire year before reanimating me, they wouldn't be doing this if they needed as many people to experiment on as possible... Unless...

  He couldn't think of a plausible answer. Frustrated, he told Crecket to pick whichever vacant tent to sleep in, before he turned in for the night himself.