"You should've just listened to me," Joan hissed under her breath.
Viktor struggled to mumble his apologies, even though he knew he was in the wrong.
Instead, he sheepishly closed his mouth and waited for Rem's next command.
"Take cover in a building," Joan sternly said. Right now, she was unsure where Isaac's shots were coming from, unlike their duel, where she knew he was at the water tower.
However, in Hollow Harrogate, only one blue water tower stood above the rest. There was no building that even neared the height at which the water tower stood, which meant that Isaac sniped from below.
But from which building? From which angle? Joan had no idea.
She ushered Pablo and Viktor up the rickety stairs of a building and slipped inside.
Red booths hugged the walls, and a checkered bar sat in the center of the room. The restaurant, like all the other buildings in the ghost town, was breaking down.
Bar stools were splayed across the marbled floors and yellow diner tickets laid on the floor. The occasional article of clothing laid splayed across the floor or booth. It was as if the restaurant had been abandoned during its busiest hour.
In her head, Joan could almost imagine the bustling waitresses spinning and twirling across the room in an elaborate dance, the gentle aroma of fried chicken, and the warmth emanating from the other humans in the room.
But it was just a game. No bustling waitresses were dancing on the floor, no aroma of fried chicken, and no warmth.
Joan trampled across the random objects scattered across the room to duck behind the bar where spoiled liquor sat in their yellowing bottles. She traced her thumb across the bottles, wiping away a thick layer of dust to reveal the brand name of a vintage bottle of wine.
And although the game didn't provide Joan the feeling of the fuzzy dust on her thumb, she became lost in just how realistic the game was.
She opened her map. Her eyes flickered over the colorful squares and circles as she tried to pinpoint just where Isaac could be sniping them from.
Was there another point of high ground, or was he just that good at sniping? No, he couldn't be. Even with decades of experience and training, sniping from below the water tower was a challenge for Joan.
The particular angle made it difficult to see where someone at the top of the tower would be. And even if you could see them, the hitbox of someone lying flat at the top was incredibly small.
If you could land such a shot, you were either terribly lucky or extremely skilled.
"Master—" Pablo whispered as he ducked with Joan behind the bar.
"Not now," she snapped. "Trying to focus."
"But—"
"Just how did he land that?" Joan interrupted him before he could finish. She'd much rather listen to her rambling than Pablo's.
Isaac's shots weren't lucky. There was no way he could have gotten two lucky shots and sniped off both Turner and Navier.
"Good luck, guys!" Navier offered weakly. Although he died, the game still allowed him to spectate.
By now, only four teams were left, so there were no more than 18 players left in the game since Navier and Turner had just died.
Unfortunately, Mortal Strike didn't display the number of players left—only the number of teams. The only time the number of players was displayed was when you queued into a solo game.
Joan continued to scan the map, but she couldn't seem to find any plausible location in the habitable zone where Isaac could have sniped from.
"Master," Pablo tried again.
"What is it?" Joan asked in annoyance.
"Could he be in the inhabitable zone?"
Joan and Viktor both frowned.
"What? It's not called the inhabitable zone for no reason," Viktor said.
"Yeah, you're right. Never mind." Pablo abashedly shook his head to himself.
But something in his words caught Joan's attention. And as she looked at the map once more, she said, "No, continue what you were saying."
Pablo seemed shocked by her interest. "Oh well, i-it's noth—"
"Get to the point," Joan said.
"Well… Misty Mountain is close, right? And it's not too far outside of the inhabitable zone. Could he have been up there? It's at a higher elevation than the Harrowgate tower. Sniping from there would be easy."
Navier frowned, not able to understand Pablo's train of thought. "Wouldn't he die in the inhabitable zone."
"No, not right away, at least," Pablo said. "If he were at full health, he'd have around a minute before he died."
Joan nodded. "Let's say he shot Navier and Turner during that minute. How would he get down? It takes over a minute to get down from the peak of Misty Mountain."
Navier's face lit up as he came to a realization. "Not if he has a parachute!"
Joan cocked her head to the side. "You can only use it once at the start, though."
"On occasion, people will find another parachute in the game. It's rare but possible. If he had a parachute, he could've jumped off of Misty Mountain and survived the fall damage. And it's likely his team escaped the inhabitable zone before he did. He probably caught up to them with the parachute."
With her finger, Joan traced the most plausible path from Misty Mountain to Hollow Harrogate, where the habitable zone was shrunken.
"That means… his team is already here," Joan muttered.
It seemed that she had underestimated Pablo. His combat skills were a nightmare, so Joan had assumed there was no part of the game he was good at.
However, without him, Joan would have never imagined that Isaac would be at Misty Mountain. With the newfound information, they'd be able to tell which direction he was coming from and where they'd probably go.
"He's going to be at the water tower. He kicked us off, so he could take it," Joan said, and Pablo confirmed her words.
Now that they knew where he was, everything would be easier. A window from the restaurant provided a clear view of the water tower, which meant that there was a chance Joan could snipe Isaac from the ground.
She peeked over the bar counter and shuffled to a booth in the far left corner. A paneless window hung above the booth's table.
"What do you think you're doing? Isaac could snipe you!" Viktor whisper-yelled.
"Stop nagging," Joan hissed as she propped her sniper rifle on the table. She climbed onto the table and laid flat as she looked through the scope.
Peeking through the scope, she could see a small, black dot sitting on the water tower. However, she couldn't quite tell if the dot was a person or part of the water tower from the distance and angle. Well, she wouldn't be able to find out if she didn't shoot it.
To calm her nerves and prevent her arms from quivering, she let out a calming breath. The breath escaped her lungs, and with it, she exhaled all her self-doubt.
She placed her scope's aim slightly above the black dot.
Bang!
'Headshot!'
'Joan has slain One Shot One Kill!'
Navier's jaw dropped. "Rem, h-how did you do that?" As he stared in wonder, an awed grin slowly spread across his face. "Teach me how to do that!"
***
Navier's jaw wasn't the only one that dropped. Isaac's jaw dropped as well. When he saw 'Joan has slain One Shot One Kill,' his blood boiled.
Her again?! Why was she wherever he went?
"I'm telling you! She's using aimbot[1]!" he growled.
His viewers seemed to find his enragement entertaining, and slowly but surely, more traffic came to watch his Blast stream.
Enraged, Isaac disconnected himself from the Mortal Strike module. Strings of curses left his mouth as he regained control over his body.
After this, he wasn't sure his day could get any worse.
***
[1] - Aimbot is a cheating software that aims for you to improve your accuracy.