We burst out of The Liar’s Comet like a triplets of soaked lunatics. I couldn’t see more than a few dozen feet in front of me as the rain worsen. Droplets had turned into sheets, hammering down hard enough that the cobblestones looked like boiling water. I could barely see the guy’s silhouette ahead, just the flicker of his cloak between flashes of lightning as he bolted out of town and toward the front gates of the town where Hailie danced. "STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!" I yelled, because apparently my brain thought he’d politely listen, yet he didn’t even look back, I sounded like a dumbass right now... But people does it all the time, so it’s fine, maybe. "Fuck... Urg..." I groaned as I continued the pursuit, That was when I heard noises, footsteps from someone trying to catch up while panting her lungs out; Hailie came running from right behind me, her boots slapping and squeaking on the muddy road. I didn’t dare look back, because if I slowed down even a second, he’d vanish completely. We chased him through the town, down an alley, past the outer gates of Toreno, and into the wide, drenched field beyond. Then the trees swallowed him. I kept sprinting, lungs burning, the scythe on my back bouncing with every step, this motherfucker is sure fast, ain’t he supposed to be a sorcerer or something? The forest loomed ahead, it was dense, tangled, and endless, I could not imagine myself going forward anymore with all these farming gears I had on. Every branch and trunk looked the same under the stormlight. I hit a clearing, before starting to look around. It was... All empty, silent filled the void, leaving room for the usual rain and thunder. I stopped there, panting, gripping my knees and cursing under my breath. The air smelled of wet moss and frustration, and the bastard was gone... I could not believe I would let one of those filthy NPC-pretenders gone like that. I looked around the clearing, seeing only mud, leaves, and puddles all around me as I water began to soak inside my armor and I could feel my tits against my, not even a single bootprint was left behind, this guy knew how to hid his track, I see. My jaw clenched, hands on my hips as I walked over to cover myself with the shade of a tree. "Coryyy!! W-wait for meeeee!" I turned around just in time to see Hailie stumble out of the treeline, her long white hair plastered to her face, cloak heavy with water, her eyes squinted so hard she was practically sprinting in blindness. Just as she was about three arm-lengthy away from me, sweet little Hailie tripped over a root and belly-flopped right into the mud beside me, splattering dirt all over my legs. I stared at her while she buried her face down in the dirt like a sandworm, and I just chuckled. "...You good?~" I asked? "Bleh." She spat out a bit of pebbles. "I think I got a bruise... Ouchie..." "Right, want me to blow on it?" I asked "Do you mind?" She said innocently, which surprised me, I was just making a joke, woman! I helped her up, and wiped some mud off my cheek, before holding her arm up and start blowing air onto it. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅•𝖿𝗂𝗋𝖾•𝗇𝖾𝗍 "Phew... phew... phew... Pain, go away." "Hee~ Thank you Cory!" That was dumb of me, but that was cute of her, I’ll entertain that silly goober for now. We stood under a shade, and the forest around us was too quiet for comfort, with the rain masking every sound that could’ve told me where the guy went, or any track for that matter. The thunderstrike often startled Hailie as she visibly tightened her muscles. "Sorry..." She muttered. "You... Lost him, because of me." Well, it’s not entire true... I didn’t stop to wait for her, I was too slow, myself, but I didn’t think about trying to correct her when she was down-talking herself, so I just shrugged and continued. "Which direction do you think he ran?" I asked. "Oh... Um..." Hailie looked around helplessly. "I can’t even see where we came from... That’s the clearing so... The opposite, which is that way?" "Mhm..." I nodded, "If he went deeper, he’s heading toward the Lora Rainforest... That’s not ideal." "An entire biome of pain," I said. "Biggest rainforest on the western continent. You get lost there, you don’t come out unless someone’s tracking your corpse or you walk straight long enough to reach the Cross." Hailie tilted her head while looking at me. "The Cross is the river that shaped like an [X] that seperated the four continents... Just zoom out on the map." "Ah." She nodded, shivering just a little under her drenched cloak. "But... oh... Couldn’t he just, maybe, um... log out in the middle of the woods?" "Possible... Yeah," I rubbed my temple. "But if he did that, that’s fine... We’ve got a rough location of his base of operation now, and he couldn’t go any further without crossing the Cross, as per mentioned... So we just need to lock down Toreno Town and its outskirts. Easy enough to post bounties, send patrols, and spread word... Once we know his face, it’s just a matter of waiting, he’ll slip up eventually." "I see! That’s really smart of you!" She blinked excitedly. "So he is really a player?" "Mhm... Last time he showed up was in the dungeon that was quite close to the New Destiny hideout," I said with my tone low and thoughtful. "We did the same thing to every nearby town and got nothing, no one knows who he is... Which means he traveled far just to appear there, to possibly kill or frame Olga... Now he’s done it again, I can be certain that NPCs don’t do that, it’s in the game-making moral guidebook for NPCs not to target specific groups of players." The rain hissed through the leaves as I leaned my back against the tree, calm as ever. "Olga said he tried to attack them first. That’s why she... did what she did and decapitated him. And the nhe ran the second he saw your face..." "Oh my..." Hailie gasped as I glanced toward her, she was wringing her cloak, looking guilty and pale. "Olga was right... But, that would mean the seven other lied?" I thought about Ann Murphray, and I am quite certain... She knew everything, she probably knew the guy’s social security number, too, but she just laid out hints for me to find myself. We stood there a while, just the storm and us and the sound of my contemplation growing louder in my own head. "Um... But, Cory..." Hailie said with eagerness and worry, "should we, uh... keep going? Maybe go back or try and search for him?" "Sure," I smirking, saying sarcastically. "You lead, naybe your night vision will magically improve in the rain, and we’ll find him hiding behind a fern~" "Hey!" Hailie pouted. "So... we’re going home, then?" "No... I need him to make more distance, for ease of triangulation." Hailie visibly frown as she looked at me, blinking rapidly. Instead of giving an answer, I patted the little princess on her hair, before turning around to face her. Her height was superior to mine by merely a few inches, but that didn’t mean I was any less intimidating or powerful compared to Hailie Sonder. I spread my arms wide like a mad antagonist, a grin flashed my teeth under the darkness, before... Thunder striked right when my arms reached the peak of its arch, the flash lit up the clearing like daylight. Rim lighting up my shadow which stretched long and thin across the wet grass. From Hailie’s perspective, I must’ve looked like a silhouette, with only the outlines of my body being bright white mixed with skin and armor color, with the only light emitting from my body being my dark eyes. For a moment, I looked like the villainess. The thrill of striking a cool pose when the environment supported you... Oh god the aura I gained doing that made me wet. Hailie just blinked at me like I’d lost it. "Hailie, my dear." I smirked, raising an eyebrow. "You know a bit about video game design, do you not?" "Oh...? Um- Ah... Not much," she said, still blinking rain out of her lashes. "But I think I can understand a little with context." "Good." I leaned forward, the rain dripping off my hair as I lowered my voice to a deep, sexy whisper. "Then tell me dear..." "If you were the one coding Darkmoon Adventure VR, where would you create thunderstrikes to optimize the game? As in, what algorithm should be considered?" I saw she recoiled just the slightest bit, her eyes wider than ever before as she looked at me in my prime. Because I got just a way to find out where a man is anywhere during a thunderstorm... Exploiting easily recognizable pattern-influenced pseudo-random algorithm-based generated thunderstrikes.