Not At All Solved (2)

"Here we go again," Moon muttered, only to be knocked back down before he could even stand.

"Zombie!" Vari yelled, his frame colliding with Moon, causing him to drop with a loud thud. Moon groaned; the voices were familiar.

As he crawled toward the party, Moon couldn't help but notice the differences in their scents since the last time he saw them. There were two new people with them. He frowned, holding back his displeasure—new faces rarely sat well with him. Only God knew why he had tolerated Adam at the start.

Kaiser was rummaging through the pockets of nearly fully corroded corpses and the scraps of clothing scattered around the tents. His movements paused as he noticed the Legislator, high above in the sky, staring back at him with fierce eyes barely visible from the distance.

"Stand down, Chief," Moon commanded. The Legislator's voice echoed in Moon's mind. [I only attack if they are hostile.] Then, in a spark of green pixels, the Legislator vanished.

Moon raised his head, his blood-crusted, dark eyes meeting Adam's. Adam bore similar scars and burns from acid rain. He'd clearly been through his own hell. Beside Adam stood a girl whose scent was a peculiar mix of rotting blood orange and rose. She seemed well cared for before joining this journey. Another girl, younger, clung to Kaiser's leg. She smelled nearly identical, but with hints of black paint, as though submerged in it at some point. Moon hated the scents. They churned his stomach, so he slammed his face into the mud and inhaled deeply.

"Now there's mud in my nose. Who are the new guys?" Moon asked, rising weakly with Vari's help.

Adam noticed how frail Moon looked—more so than usual. Whatever had happened these past two weeks must have been hell.

"The white-haired chick with the gold bangles is Valery. The little black-haired kid with the scars is Five," Adam introduced.

Valery's face lit up. "Never thought I'd EVER get to meet you! You look so much more rancid in person," she squealed. On the hike to find Moon, she had confessed her fascination with him, despite never meeting him, and that her uncle wanted to kill him. She had even scavenged the gold bangles off a corpse, hoping to impress him.

Five remained silent, burying her face against Kaiser's leg as though afraid of the walking corpse that was Moon.

"Gold bangles? Classy," Moon said, wheezing before coughing violently.

Adam's hand moved instinctively to Resheph's arm, ready to swing it. Vari intervened quickly. "Calm down. He's not turning."

"I'd never turn," Moon rasped. "I don't think I can turn, not like those." He gestured weakly toward the Plague disciples wandering outside the safe zone.

"Kaiser, please tell me you have medicine. Or food. Or water," Moon pleaded.

Kaiser's grin widened as he swung a shoulder bag off his back and opened it to reveal fruits, herbs, roots, and bandages. Moon nearly leapt for joy, though his knees were too weak to move.

"Val, can you help him?" Kaiser asked. In an instant, Valery was at Moon's side, rummaging through the bag. Moon quivered, shaking his head weakly in protest.

Hours later, Kaiser and the others sat under a makeshift tent, gorging on berries and pears. Vari leaned back, wiping juice from his face.

"So, did he just wait for us?" Adam asked, watching Five flinch as Kaiser tossed small berries her way.

"He's here, isn't he? I like to think he did," Kaiser replied. Adam frowned, still unconvinced.

"If he went out for food, he'd wander off and survive on his own. We'd never find him," Vari explained, biting into a pear. "This happened before. Staying back? That's a choice. He wanted us to find him."

Adam tilted his head. "He could've just stayed and gotten food and water here, though, right?"

Vari shook his head. "The instincts of a veteran player don't work that way. Everything in our bodies screams at us to leave these places and survive. Staying put goes against that. Moon fought against it to wait for us."

Adam pondered this as the camp fell quiet. Suddenly, he heard a sniffling sound and turned to see Moon standing behind him, bandaged but upright.

"You smell like blood, wild berries, steel, and bile. Lots of bile," Moon murmured.

Adam jumped. "What the fuck are you sniffing me for, you weirdo?! Bile?! What does that even mean?"

"Wait. You leveled up. A lot. Level 16, maybe?" Moon asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Sixteen? No way." Adam opened his system panel, scrolling to his stats.

「Name: Adam Miller

Level: 2 (+14)」

"What the actual—he's right," Adam muttered in disbelief.

"You didn't fight much. Must've been that arm," Vari noted bitterly. He was only three levels above 14 himself.

"I'm level 16, same as you. Had to kill a lot to get here; surely you did the same," Moon said, sitting cross-legged with a bundle of grapes.

"I'm level 4!" Five chirped. "Killed all those darn rats at the church!" Kaiser patted her head proudly.

"I'm level 9. Mostly from traveling," Valery added, glancing at Moon, who managed a faint smile.

Kaiser grinned. "Level 32."

"WOAH WHAT?!" Valery screamed, leaping to her feet.

"Superhuman," Five whispered in awe, inflating Kaiser's ego further.

It's from smacking all those plague disciples outside the church. Filthy level farming beast." Vari mumbled under this breath.

Adam already knew all this, of course; he could still see the system panels showing the status of people over their heads; he's gotten so used to that that he can tune them out now.

What he was surprised about was that the way his levels were displayed seemed like he was getting additionals from a different source.

The second that thought formed a glimpse of Abel and Seth merged at the torso flashed in his mind, and the pain from dying that he suppressed in that adrenaline-filled moment flooded back in as he wailed out loudly before smacking his head into the hard stone floor like a madman.

"NOO, THAT WASNT REAL!!" Adam wailed

"He does that sometimes." Kaiser whispered to Moon, and he responded, "I know. Broke out on me once. This Jesters a mad man."

Vari walked up and, with Kaiser's lance, smacked him squarely on the head and knocked Adam out cold.

"Not dealing with that again." Vari exhaled before dragging Adam into the makeshift sleeping bag he made from left-over fabric.

"So, checked the news recently?" Moon asked, pulling out the scroll from Resheph.

"We know about that. We're headed to Area D or E—should be nuked already," Kaiser said. Despite his high level, he deferred to Moon, which perplexed Five.

"Smart. We leave tonight," Moon announced. No one protested—they either knew him too well or didn't care.

"Noted," Kaiser replied.