The moment the notification indicating the start of the Quest popped up, all five Players suddenly felt their presence and forms begin to glow and fade.
During this time, a few other notifications popped up.
[There is no time limit for this Quest. At the same time, it shall not exceed one hour.]
"Huh?" Sami arched a brow at the contradictory statements.
[The game will come to an end if the players hunt down five White Tigers for food or a beast hunts down four players.]
"...?"
Sami’s brows furrowed, before a knowing smile crept onto his lips.
[The Player shall be transported outside their District.]
’Outside our District?’
At that moment, Sami’s form fully disappeared. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the world was green.
Or rather, it appeared to be so.
There was a light green fog everywhere, which gave the environment this gloomy, greenish tint. Despite the fact that it was morning, the light of the sun found it hard to fully penetrate the clouds, causing the world to be in a state of twilight.
Sami blinked as he tried to regain his bearings. Upon looking around, he saw that he was in a small town where the houses were nothing like he had seen before. They were not modern per se, but what really drew his attention was the fact that the town felt desolate.
’This is strange. My city had become District 7. Shouldn’t ’outside my district’ be one of the Districts before or after mine? Why do I suddenly look like I’ve been thrust into a different world entirely?’
It really did feel like he was no longer in the world he knew.
After giving the place a quick scan, he began to cautiously move around, while subconsciously keeping in mind that he needed to find his teammates.
As he walked towards the town square, he decided to use this time to quickly understand everything he could about his Card.
[Skill: Hunter’s Perception]
[Description: The Hunter can spread their keen senses of sight and hearing several meters from themselves.]
[Skill: Hunter’s Mark]
[Description: As long as the Hunter comes close to any living creature in or below their tier over the past hour, they can mark that creature with the hunter’s mark, which allows them to track down its location.]
’Heh. This skill right here really makes one have the feeling of the Hunter,’ Sami thought, genuinely impressed.
[Skill: Dash]
[Description: The Hunter can boost their speed for a dash that leaves afterimages, allowing them to either close the distance to a target or escape an attack from one.]
’Nice....’ Sami nodded, already activating both the first and second skill. Shortly after, his ears twitched and he snapped his head to the right as he could hear footsteps coming from somewhere down an alley two houses in that direction.
Despite the distance, it turned out that his perception was even better than he thought.
And due to the hunter’s mark, after a few more seconds, he could even smell exactly who that was.
With his loaded crossbow now in hand, he cautiously began to make his way towards the noise, and before long, he turned into the alleyway, bumping into Michael with his crossbow aiming at the man’s face.
Michael flinched like a scared puppy, before exhaling and rubbing his chest.
"Heh. You almost gave me a heart attack, dude." He chuckled awkwardly as he lowered his sword.
Sami too lowered his crossbow with a smile. ’A bulky Berserker and teammate like you jumping at little things isn’t doing much to boost my confidence.’
"Thank goodness..." Michael exhaled exasperatedly. "I was beginning to lose it after not finding anyone even after so much time had passed."
Hearing that, Sami frowned.
Wait... something’s not right.
"How long have you been here?" He asked.
Michael arched a brow. "Uh... I’m not sure. Twenty minutes? Thirty?"
’Huh?! We were dropped in different points in time?’ Sami lowered his head a bit in thought and rubbed his chin with a deeply confused expression.
It wasn’t even up to five minutes since he got here. So, what was this that Michael was saying?
Michael seemed to have caught his change in demeanor and a frown crossed his face too as he asked, "Something wrong?"
Rather than reply to that, Sami asked, "What about the White Tigers?"
Michael’s expression suddenly faltered, as if he was just remembering that part of the Quest. He turned to the edge of the street and pointed vaguely with his weapon. "Actually, while looking for you and the others, I came across the path leading out of this town into the forest. I’m guessing that the White Tigers would probably be there."
He turned back to Sami and leaned forward slightly as if trying to convince him. "But don’t you think it would be better if we find the others first before venturing out of the town?"
’Hm... if I was alone, I’d probably be scared to venture into the forest by myself too.’ Sami nodded as he could understand the man’s plight.
He smiled slightly. "Then let’s find the others. They shouldn’t be too far off."
"You think so?" Michael stepped forward to catch up with Sami who had begun walking.
Sami nodded imperceptibly. "I’m a hunter, remember?"
"Hunters can track people?" Michael asked, feeling slightly better about their current situation.
’Although it’s not too strong, I can perceive the others.’ Sami began to cautiously lead Michael down the main road.
He noticed that if he really focused on his Mark, he could smell the faint trail of the rest of his teammates.
’There’s so many strange things about this fog. Who knows? It might even be the reason Michael was not able to find the others. Does it have effects that confuse the senses?’
For some reason, the fog gave Sami chills and he ended up making paranoid suspicions about the green haze.
Fortunately, it didn’t take them long to stumble into Mia. Just like before, she had both hands in her pockets and had just been walking as if this place was a normal alley on a famous commercial street back home.
"You guys finally decided to show yourselves," she said with a small smirk. "Where have you guys been hiding?"
"What do you mean, ’where have we been hiding?’ We’ve been looking for the rest of the team all this while!" Michael shot back, seeming annoyed by Mia’s laid-back attitude.
"Which means you haven’t found the other two then." Mia looked away from the annoyed Michael and exhaled with a small frown. After a brief second, she turned to Sami who was just standing there looking all innocent and asked with a brow raised, "You are a Hunter. I heard you guys have some tracking skill that lets you find all sorts of things. Shouldn’t it be easy for you to find Kevin and Akari?"
’Oh? She’s well informed already?’ Sami smiled and began walking forward, then pointed straight ahead. "Oh... there you are, Kevin."
Everyone turned in surprise to see Kevin walk out from behind a corner. When he saw them, he smiled and let out a huge sigh. "There you are! Finally! I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys."
Mia arched a brow as she turned to Sami, who just shrugged.
She then grunted softly. "That leaves us with one more person."
Sami smiled and alternated gazes with everyone. "Come on then, let’s go look for her."
He then turned and began walking, leading the group to find their last teammate.
"Something about this entire situation is strange. This doesn’t look like any place I’ve seen before." Kevin tapped Michael and began to make small talk. "Did we suddenly get transported to some place in ancient Europe?"
"How do I know?" Michael shrugged carelessly. "And doesn’t that sound ridiculous to you?"
Kevin’s face twitched slightly, before he turned to Mia and pointed to the unlit cigarette in her mouth. "By the way, is that like a fashion statement, or an addiction thing?"
Without looking at him, she scoffed, "Don’t talk to me, your breath stinks."
Kevin paused.
Both Sami and Michael turned to see him blowing air into his hand to confirm with a saddened expression. While Michael smiled and shook his head, Sami shot the guy a look of pity.
"Hey, my breath is totally fine!" Kevin protested.
He then clicked his tongue and a water bottle magically appeared in his hand, which he began to open.
"Woah... how did you do that?" Michael gasped.
Kevin looked at him with a confused expression before arching a brow. "Inventory?"
"What’s that?" Michael asked.
"Huh? Don’t you know what it is?" Kevin blinked in disbelief.
But Michael shook his head honestly.
"Oh..." Kevin bobbed his head back, before catching up with a smile. "See, all of us players have what’s called an inventory. I figured it out yesterday. Apparently, each person’s inventory is just as large as about, uh..."
He began to cup his hands as if holding a box, expanding them outwards. "About the size of a small room."
’Really?’ Even Sami did not know that. ’Is this one of those situations where we have to figure out everything by ourselves as we go?’
He mentally tried to check his inventory, then felt baffled when he realized it really was there. All he needed to do was summon it.
Just then, Kevin opened his water and began to gulp it down, before exhaling and wiping his mouth.
Michael licked his lips and asked, "You got another one there for a friend?"
"Huh?" Kevin arched a brow before it hit him. "Oh yes, yes."
He put his bottle of water beneath his armpit, then pulled out three more bottles of water.
Despite their world having gone to shit, with all the food becoming inedible, water was still fine.
Kevin handed one to Michael, then extended his hand to Mia, but she just shook her head. Quickly ignoring her with a small scowl, he extended the water to Sami. "Want one?"
However, to everyone’s surprise, Sami raised his crossbow right to Kevin’s face, then pulled the trigger without warning.
Bang!