Micro-cheating

Lorn sat idly before the fire, frying the thighs of the emu he just hunted. The trees above blocked the sun's rays, making him feel terribly cozy.

The others were nearby, practicing some sort of formation under Adrian. Lorn didn't need to participate, as he was adeptly familiar with military strategies, not to mention five-man squad formations and tactics.

He needed to learn how to add skills and superhuman capabilities to the equation, but a few chats with Adrian solved that problem. Lorn realized he didn't need to worry about all the different skills and powers every single Hunter in the world had. He just needed to become deeply familiar with his teammates first.

Usually, cooking would be relayed to either Clay or Arty, the other soulless that accompanied them, but their cooking was incredibly bland. Lorn took up the position of chef soon after.

And being the chef, he got to spend a lot of time doing nothing, so naturally, that time was dedicated to training.

And while he was practicing his Visions and Whispers, he noticed something odd. Danton's heart was still pink, pulsing with green, but the lines that covered it were now a mix of red and gray. His head had also turned gray.

Sybil's colors also changed. Her base was still gray, but the orange and yellow lines had disappeared. In their stead, a blaring red line went diagonally through her face. It was the brightest of all the colors. The pink and the blue looked almost invisible next to it.

Something definitely happened between the two of them. Even without his skill, Lorn could notice the atmosphere between them.

He wasn't exactly sure what happened, but it definitely wasn't something pleasant. Maybe he could speak to Sybil about it later on, but considering her disposition, he worried about asking outright.

On a different note, Yara and his were still the same.

He also checked Adrian. The Vanguard's head was blue, with vertical stripes of white on it. His heart though, was a sickly yellow. A closer look revealed that it was red and green mashed together.

Lorn had many thoughts on these visions, but he needed some more clarification to make a cohesive conclusion. If what he was thinking was correct, he would also have a much more powerful use as well.

Earlier in the day, he tried it on some Possessed foxes they stumbled upon, and he soon realized that timing was key to making the best use of his Mental Manipulation skills.

Even his Mental Inducement skill, which never worked on any one of his team members, had some nasty effects on the foxes he fought earlier.

Every time they had to dodge or choose between two choices, Lorn could Induce 'Doubt' upon them to almost briefly stun them. They would struggle to make a decision, allowing Lorn to easily hit them with his other abilities.

But he couldn't just use them randomly. If he Induced Doubt on foxes that were just staring at them from a distance, the skill wouldn't have any effects. They're not in a desperate, life-or-death situation for the new state to make them panic.

Lorn also felt that against unsuspecting people as well, if he could subtly use Inducements on their subconsciousness, he would successfully put them in mental states favorable to him.

But as great as that skill was, Motor-skill Manipulation was definitely his most deadly skill. Sure, Spirit Burst and Gravitational Pull were the ones doing the big damages, but Motor-skill Manipulation was the main reason allowing Lorn to accurately hit his other attacks.

From PVP matches in Falling Earth, Lorn learned that the higher rank you become, the fewer mistakes opponents make. In lower ranks, the players made countless mistakes when they fought a duel. Their opponents, too, never bothered to punish these mistakes, either because they're not confident enough to make a play, or because they don't even realize they're mistakes.

But in the big leagues, make one wrong move and you'll find yourself dead with no way to save yourself. Naturally, the existence of mistakes starts to fade out at that level. And because of that, builds or classes that could force the other player to make mistakes becomes the meta.

Lorn did not expect to be able to hit a Spirit Burst on Sybil. Even if he fired a hundred shots at her, she would be able to dodge them all. But with Motor-skill Manipulation, he would have one moment where he knew exactly where Sybil would be.

'I'm kinda excited to play PVP matches in the One World…'

The poultry finished cooking, and Lorn started serving the food. He picked out some for the two soulless to eat, before bringing a full plate of poultry to Adrian and the rest.

"Eat up, and you can continue afterwards."

Oddly, he felt like a mom, saying stuff like this, but he quickly shook the idea out of his head.

The group ate mostly in silence. Like Yara, Lorn ignored the awkward atmosphere between Sybil and Danton, pretending it didn't exist. Adrian was having trouble with it though, clearly seeing that something was wrong, but unsure of what exactly happened.

Yara slid over to Lorn with a plate full of food and spoke.

"Come over."

"What?"

"I wanna talk."

"About what?"

"Private stuff. Come on."

Lorn followed the girl some distance away from the group and they sat down.

"I did it," Yara said proudly.

"Did what?"

"That thing between Sy and Dan."

"Oh." Lorn paused. "Okay."

"Aren't you happy?" Yara hummed.

"Why would I be happy?"

"I don't know. Now that Sy's aware that love exists, maybe she'll see you in that light?"

Lorn thought many times about that possibility. But he didn't want to embroil himself with extra drama.

"I have a girlfriend back on Earth, so having a relationship here feels weird."

"It's just a game. If your girlfriend gets jealous over relationships in games, then you should probably dump her anyway."

"Fuck you for talking shit about Ray," Lorn said. "And do you seriously think this world can be considered a game?"

"No…" Yara sighed. "But I thought you might be convinced by the argument."

Perhaps there were people who thought this world was a game. Lorn wasn't about to make the same mistake. The One World was definitely a second chance at life, but not one without consequences. Lorn didn't even want to call it less important than reality. For Lorn, especially, the last statement was extra true.

"But Ray… sounds like some stripper's nickname," Yara mused.

"It is," Lorn replied. "Her real name's Irene."

"Does she still work as a stripper?"

"Yes. Actually, she's a prostitute."

Yara frowned.

"That's some serious simping, my dude."

"I know," Lorn smiled.

"Don't you feel angry or weird? Imagining your Ray getting railed from behind by some fat, abusive fuck?"

"I'm Level 5 enlightened, little girl," Lorn said. "And besides, it's just sex."

He did think about it. At least he started to. He told himself to not mind it at first, but lately, he was becoming more and more possessive. The joy he felt when Irene said that she was getting fewer and fewer customers was much more prevalent than he expected.

Yara looked at him with dubiousness for a bit. She then started smelling him.

"I smell bullshit."

Something about her saying it in a heavy Russian accent was terribly funny.

"Fine, fi- ghk!"

Lorn fell to the side, something lodged into his neck. He saw Yara's eyes turning wide before an arrow stuck itself into her shoulder. She looked sideways and dodged another coming towards her head.

"We're under attack!" she shouted to the rest.