Joan settled herself down in a Mortal Strike module, taking pleasure in the familiar way the plush module squeezed around her muscles.
She entered the lobby and sent invites to the Grimm Bros and Navier.
After a week of recovery and pitiful glances, the swelling around her eyes and face disappeared. But her pride plummeted as well.
She stayed away from the senior classrooms where Mad Dog, Black Dog, and Jackal studied at all costs. Just a glimpse of their face would remind her of the humiliating defeat she suffered.
Never before had she failed a mission. Never before had she expected she'd fail a mission because of a bunch of incompetent high school boys.
Perhaps her skills were deteriorating after not training for a few months. Joan vowed to begin practicing alongside Navier in the mornings.
"Ready?" Joan asked.
"Ready!" Navier's voice chimed in her ears. As usual, he was bright and full-of-energy. Joan didn't know where he got his unending reserve of energy. He had plenty of liveliness in him for such a scrawny kid.
Over the weeks of early morning training, Navier's body and demeanor had changed significantly. For the first time in his life, muscle clung to his body, rippling at his every move.
Joan started a game. The world around her shifted, and she found herself on a plane. The whir of the engine roared in her ears as she stared at the map, looking for a good place to land.
"Let's go to Mead," she instructed.
"Nah, let's go to Hollow Harrowgate. There's more loot there," Viktor challenged. In every game, he seemed to challenge Rem's authoritative decisions. Having someone order him around didn't do much to stroke his ego.
Hence, whenever Joan said A, he said B. And whenever she changed her mind to B, he changed his mind to A. The back and forth resulted in daily spats about why Viktor couldn't be obedient like Turner.
Joan internally rolled her eyes. "Fine."
"Never mind, yeah, I think Mead is good."
Joan gritted her teeth, opting to say silent instead of making a comment.
Mead consisted of multiplied farms, each spaced out from one another. And although each farmhouse was rather far from the next, the items in Mead tended to be the best.
At least one automatic military AR was guaranteed to be here. And Joan was determined to find the gun before anyone else did.
However, the good loot tended to attract multiple players, making Mead a bloodbath in the first few minutes of the game.
Joan jumped off the plane as they neared Mead, and as she expected, her team wasn't the only one headed to that destination.
When Joan's feet hit the ground, she set off running toward the nearest farmhouse, trying to beat an enemy team there. Navier and the Grimm brothers followed closely behind her, attempting to match her speed. But her character kept on retreating into the distance at an ever-increasing speed.
"She's fast!" Turner said in astonishment. He was moving his legs as fast as he could, but he wasn't even sure if he was running half as fast as her.
Mortal Strike was designed so that a player's real physical capabilities bled over into the game. Players had full control over how fast they ran and how much force they put into action.
Joan trampled through the tall grass and ran at full speed. She jumped up the stairs on the front porch and slammed the door to the farmhouse open.
She'd reached the house first. If the enemy team was smart, they'd find another house. But just in case, Joan picked up the closest gun, a 22-inch shotgun, that laid beside the front door and aimed it at the back door where she expected the enemies to come in.
The back door slammed open with a bang, and Joan immediately fired off round after round.
'Headshot!'
She hit one, but the rest seemed to have run away as soon as the gun fired. Satisfied, Joan turned and looked through the open front door.
Navier and the Grimm Bros were still a few steps away from the door. Joan ushered them to hasten.
If it weren't for her, their team would have already lost the house.
When they finally made it through the door, Joan slammed the door shut behind them. If anyone opened the door, the sound would travel through the house and alert them.
"Split up," Joan ordered as she sprinted up the staircase and to the second floor. The wooden stairs creaked under her feet, and Joan was almost worried that they'd collapse beneath her weight.
The upstairs of the farmhouse consisted of 3 bedrooms and an open shared space where all the bedroom doors led.
Joan barged into the first bedroom. Pink lace lined the walls, and plush stuffed animals found their home on the soft, white bed.
Beside the bed was a chest. Joan hooked her fingers under the lock and threw it open.
Much to her disappointment, there was no military grade AR, but a civilian AR would be better than nothing.
The team searched through every corner of the house, but a military-grade AR was yet to be found.
"Let's get moving," Joan suggested.
And before Viktor could have the chance to disagree, she ran out the front door and down the stairs of the porch.
She ducked into the tall blade of grass, ensuring that no one would see her.
But as they moved to the next house and the next house, Joan never found the automatic military AR she so desired.
"Rem, let's go before the inhabitable zone closes in. Everyone's inventory is filled anyway," Navier said nervously. The inhabitable zone was rapidly shrinking, and he was scared they were going to get caught up in it.
As much as Joan hated being ordered around by anyone but the Superhuman Division, she had to admit that he was right.
Joan begrudgingly let out a "Fine," and stopped her search for the gun.
As the inhabitable zone shrank, Joan, Turner, Viktor, Pablo, and Navier made their way to the center of the habitable zone, Hollow Harrowgate.
Hollow Harrowgate was a clustered ghost town. The narrow alleys limited movements, but the single water tower in the town was fantastic for snipers.
Before another team could reach the tower, Joan and her team claimed the area. Turner and Navier, who were decent at sniping, climbed the tower first while Viktor, Joan, and Pablo stayed on the ground.
"Full five-man team coming in from twelve o'clock. Two hundred yards," Navier announced.
"Can you get a headshot?" Joan asked.
"I can try," Navier nervously replied.
"Turner, you, too."
"Roger that, Master." Turner playfully grinned.
Navier laid flat on his stomach, looking through his scope as he stared down at the enemy team. He robotically executed the techniques Rem taught him.
He plucked out one of the enemy team members and aimed two inches above his head.
Bang!
Navier gritted his teeth. He missed. At the very last moment, his trembling hands had shifted the gun to the right by a few centimeters. Just a few centimeters was the difference between a hit and a miss.
A bang sounded from Turner's gun next to Navier.
'Mumu has critically wounded Juniper.'
Frustrated, Navier looked through his scope again, attempting to land a hit. But with the enemy team now alert people were shooting at them, it became harder to land a hit.
He shot. Again. And again, refusing to pause until he landed a shot. But with each shot, his form became worse as well as his aim.
"Navier, what are you doing?" Joan growled. He was wasting bullets while relying on luck to hit his opponents. "You're not going to land a lucky shot. Just stop."
Defeated, Navier hung his head, his finger hanging loosely over the trigger.
Suddenly, Navier shrieked in horror.
'Headshot!'
'One Shot One Kill has slain Navier_S08.'
Joan stared in horror at the notification. Had Isaac pulled off that shot? Even while Navier was lying flat?
It was the exact same shot Joan used to kill Isaac in their 1v1. Joan gritted her teeth, tightening her grip on her shotgun. It seemed like Isaac had been practicing lately.
"Turner, get away from the edge. We need to take cover," Joan ordered.
"That was just a lucky shot. Turner, stay there. Nothing will happen," Viktor said.
"That was not a lucky shot. Turner, move away."
Turner, torn between the two sets of instructions, froze cluelessly. Should he move back? Or should he stay?
Bang!
'Headshot!'
'One Shot One Kill has slain Mumu.'
Joan groaned and cursed in frustration. "Shit!"