18 MMO Mathematics

Shesmu walked slowly towards the dead goblin and pulled out his sword. The way the goblins ran, the crawled, everything was so realistic.

Although his heart was still heavy, Shesmu kept his head high. From the corner of his eyes, he glanced at Leo.

The man was fighting with all of his might, he kept blocking with his shield most of the goblins' hits and whenever he saw an opportunity, he hit them with his sword.

However, even though he was putting a good fight, his HP was always on the decline due to the goblin from above throwing sharpened rocks at him. Shesmu was thinking about the goblins on top of the trees when he remembered the task given to Ryan. He turned to look at the target that Ryan assigned to himself, only to see that it's still merrily throwing rocks at Leo. However, from beneath the branches of the tree, Shesmu could see a shadowy figure.

Shesmu smiled while looking as the shadow slowly crept towards the goblin who was still unaware. The cold glint of the sword flashed for a second and Ryan pounced on his target. Before it could even scream, he muffled its mouth and slashed its throat. He plunged his dagger deep in the goblin's heart before activating his skill. Dark aura came out of the vile's body and with it blood and gore.

By this point, Shesmu's suspicions already piled up to the roof. First, the insane mechanics and reaction time. Add to that the impeccable game knowledge and flexibility in his skills. There are no two ways about it, this guy is almost certainly from the future.

Shesmu kept looking at Ryan, not knowing how to approach him. In the end, he just sighed and thought, I'll talk to him later about this. For now, helping Leo takes the utmost priority.

Shesmu looked at Leo once again. Using inspect, he found that he only had 40 Hp left. However, before Shesmu could even Dash in to help him, Leo used Empowering Slash and took down one of the goblins. Surprised by this turn of events, Shesmu stopped for a second before thinking, Well, he is Leo after all.

"Leo, I'll leave the ones in the ground to you. I'll take care with Ryan of the ones in top, just don't die," barked Shesmu. He then immediately ran towards one the surviving goblins on top of the tree before jumping. The branch on which the goblin stood was four meters above ground. No matter how one thought about it, they could never see a way where Shesmu could jump that distance. However, the moment Shesmu jumped was the moment he vanished. He appeared like a ghost in front of the poor goblin. Shesmu slashed at the chest of the goblin while his sword shone with a green aura.

Shesmu then took hold of the branch with one hand and watched as the goblin fell down. He clicked his tongue and said, "Damnit, missed lethal!"

The goblin, blood gushing out of his chest, pushed with both hands to stand up. However, before he could lift himself back up. Shesmu jumped from the tree branched and crashed into it, his knee turning the inside of the vile into mush.

Shesmu turned to look for his next target only to see the last two goblins running away. He couldn't use Dash for another 8 seconds, and by that time they would have already ran away due to their superior agility. Tch, guess I can't do anything about that.

Now that his primary targets were gone, Shesmu decided to help out Leo with the goblin he was fighting against. However, before he could even stand up, Ryan appeared behind the goblin.

Plunging his sword deep into the goblin's heart, Ryan one-shotted the creature. Blood gushed out from the goblin's wound painting Ryan's face red, before it fell down.

"Huff, thanks dude. You're a lifesaver," Leo was not in his best shape. He had to tank both the attacks of the goblins he was fighting against and the rocks that were thrown at him. At this point, he barely had 15 HP left.

"Don't sweat it," Ryan said while smiling. He then asked, "Ehh, can you tell me how much exp you got? Like, we know that exp gets shared, but how much is actually spread?"

Shesmu jumped off the branch he was holding on and walked towards the duo. "Yeah, that's actually interesting," Shesmu said. "Help us better strategize."

Leo checked his exp bar before replying, "I got 140 exp overall. Leveled up and almost halfway through level 2."

"Oh, interesting. I got 190 exp. I'm guessing you got half of the exp from the kills. Interesting, so that means you got 30 exp from the kill I took. I see."

Ryan scratched his chin while thinking. His head trying to find any way to abuse this system.

"Wait, does the percentage change if the number of people in the party changes?"

Ryan's question made Shesmu chuckle. "Dude, this game is made by mega AI singularity gods, you think they would leave such an obvious exploit?"

Ryan scratched his head in embarrassment before his expression lightened up—an idea struck his mind.

"Oh, it's fine if the percentages do change. It's still much better to be in a party than to be alone. Power leveling should be duper easy in this game."

"Yeah, you're right! We don't really need to worry about who gets the last hit." Leo exclaimed. The passion of Ryan rubbed onto him and he became excited too.

However, Shesmu decided to calm the duo down a little bit.

"That's cool and all, but first we need to rest a little bit so that Leo recovers his HP. The effect of bread."

Leo was confused by Shesmu's response, "The effect of bread? What's that?"

To his question, Shesmu quickly responded, "Bread regenerates your HP, but it takes a bit of time."

"Oh, okay," Ryan responded. He then continued, "Well, we can't do anything about then. Let's just hide behind the trees and rest for now."

Both Shesmu and Leo agreed with him, and thus the trio chose a tree to lean on. All of them took out a portion of their ration and started eating; Leo, because of his low Hp, and the other two because they were hungry.

They kept on munching on their bread for a while before Shesmu finished and said, "Hey, Ryan, wanna check out the surroundings? We will just look for another group of goblins, so that once Leo is ready, we have a clear direction."

"Sure, I have no problem. But what about you Leo, are you fine staying here alone for a bit?" Ryan asked, concerned for his friend.

To this question, Leo just laughed, "Haha, what do you think I am? A baby who still needs his mom, just go, shoo, shoo."

To this answer, Ryan just smiled in resignation.

"Well, you heard the man. Let's head out."

Shesmu just nodded his head and stood up. The duo just moved out in an arbitrary direction while Shesmu was thinking, If there is anything that will blow his cover, it will be Armageddon, right? It's the biggest event after all.

Confirming his decision in his mind, Shesmu waited until Leo could no longer see them before he asked.

"Hey Ryan," Shesmu then turned to face him before continuing, "Do you know about Armageddon?"

Shesmu was expecting many faces. He expected him to laugh, or be confused, or keep a poker face. But the face Ryan made was one that he didn't predict.

Ryan looked a little bit confused first at Shesmu's question before it turned into one of understanding.

"Ah, Armageddon, you're talking about the battle of good and evil before the day of judgment, right? Of course, I do. I have read the bible after all."

Shesmu looked at Ryan for a second before his mind just went off, Huh?