Alex was completely befuddled. Finally he said “What kind of drugs are you taking. Scratch that, what kind of drugs do you think I’m taking?”
The man sighed. “Listen, I know this is tough, but you’ve got to believe me. For some reason, they changed the story around so you think they’re goo-”
“Excuse my skepticism, but while they’ve been nice to me and even offered to show me around, all you’ve done is attack us! I think you can see why I find your story hard to accept.”
“Oh, they’re nice enough if you’re in their group, but anyone else is dead meat. Obviously, they see you as a potential recruit.”
“Okay then, if they’re so bad, what did they do to get you hunting down them and anyone associated with them? Have they spammed the chat too much?”
The man gave a sarcastic laugh. “Oh, that's just perfect. Twenty million people with active accounts, and I get trapped by the one with the virus in his system, and not a single clue in his head. Didn’t you do any research on the game? Or your two new friends?”
“Some said they were hackers, but that happens to anyone once they become good at a game.”
“And it wasn’t odd to you that they were part of a guild where everyone had that about them, even the lowest ranked players?”
“I didn’t check the others. I just wanted to know about them.”
The man sighed. “Alright, it’s apparent you need a reeducation.”
“I know that you are making no sense whatsoever, and that I’m tempted to stick you until you get banned. That’s about as much as I need to know.”
“For the last time kid, you don’t have that power! Nor do the people who gave it to you! They never have, and as long as my guys are around, they never will!”
“Then what power did they give me!?” Alex asked angrily
“THEY GAVE YOU THE POWER TO HURT PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE!!” He roared.
That shut Alex up.
The man sat down. “Look, I’m not a programmer, so I don’t know how it’s done. But this is the basic rundown. That ‘power up’ you got? When it hits, it creates a high pitched noise that hurts like hell. It causes nausea, headaches, and occasional nose bleeds. Get hit for too long, and you pass out from pain. You can’t even take your headset off when it happens ‘cause it screws with your body.”
“How were you able to list all that at once? Read it off Wikipedia?”
He frowned. “I know the first three because I’m experiencing all of them right now! As for the unconsciousness, I passed out for 5 full minutes when Bearzerker bit me. I woke up and had just enough time to log back on to see you log of and those two run off.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “I also had a friend who was put in a coma for almost a month because of that ‘power’. So don’t act like I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“And you expect me to believe that no one has taken notice of this?” Alex scoffed. “That no one has thought to investigate why you’re having these ‘symptoms?”
“Whenever someone complains, they’re brushed off as someone who played for too long. It doesn’t matter who we talk to, or who complains. It’s always the same.”
“And I’m expected to believe that?”
“I hope so.”
Alex looked at him. “Alright listen; right now, I don’t know what to believe.”
“That’s understandable.”
“I’ve got two guys telling me one thing, and you telling me the opposite.”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“So I’m going to do the only thing that seems right to me.”
“Alright then.”
“I’m IM-ing Master Saru and Bearzerker to get them to come and ban your ass.”
“Fuck you.”
@0@0@
Alex took a screenshot of the situation and sent it to both of them. 20 seconds later, he got a reply.
Bearzerker: Holy shit!
Master_Saru: Is that who I think it is?
Ginganinja: Yep.
Bearzerker: How the hell did you get him?
Ginganinja: A combination of luck, skills, and lack of attention. Guess who had which.
Master_Saru: Where are you?
Ginganinja: Same place I logged out.
Bearzerker: What was he doing there?
Ginganinja: Waiting for two days straight for me to arrive.
Master_Saru: That doesn’t seem possible.
Ginganinja: That’s what I said.
You want to see it for yourself? He hasn’t moved anything besides the middle finger he’s giving me.
Master_Saru: I’ll be there in 5. I gotta see this to believe it.
Bearzerker: same. GN, if this is for real, the forums shall sing of your praises for days to come.
Alex closed the system and turned back to the man. “Did you really think that I’d believe that? You may be bad at the game, but you’re horrible at lying.”
Miles shot him a look. “I’ll have you know that in the Runeament last year, I was first place in the swordsman division.”
“The more you say it, the less believable it is.”
“Seriously!”
“Lalalalalalalalalalalalala!!!!”
“How about you let me out of here so I can show you what I can do?”
“And have you lop my head off? I think I’ll wait until Bearzerker and Master Saru arrive.”
The man threw up his arms in exasperation. “Look, if you’re going to turn me over to the hackers, at least don’t give me to those two.”
This caught Alex’s attention. “What’s the difference? One way or another, you’re getting banned.”
“I told you, it’s not a banning power, it hurts people! Most hackers use it a bit, and then leave. Those two ‘play’ with their captives. They’ll use stamina and mana potions to keep going for as long as possible.”
“Okay, I’ll file that information in my crappy conspiracy folder, right next to ‘Area 51 is an alien landing site’. It’s also going under my ‘suggestive quotes folder’”
“Okay. Say I’m wrong and you’re right. Say you do have the power to ban me. I’ve been hit by you already, and have been standing in your cage for 10 minutes now. Those two you called have taken me down even more times. So why I am not banned?”
“Duh, you hid your hacks from the program. It can’t find it.”
“You really don’t know anything, do you?” He asked. “The program we use that your ‘friends’ are talking about constantly searches for irregularities in anything it’s in contact or in close proximity of at the time. I’ve been in here for several minutes; the program would’ve found something by now. Got a witty comeback or a lame excuse for that?”
“I-I” Alex stuttered.
“Hey! Look what’s going on!”
Both turned to see Master Saru and Bearzerker ambling up the hill.
“Had I not seen it with my own eyes, no amount of talk would have convinced me it wasn’t photoshopped.” Master Saru said in wonder.
“I can’t believe it.” Bearzerker said. “A noob like you took down a seasoned pro! No offense GN.”
“None taken.” Alex said. “Hey, there was something I wanted to-”
“Dude, can it wait one sec? I’m coming up with some witty remarks about our friend Miles here.”
“So that’s his name?” Alex asked.
“Wow, you really are a noob! You don’t know how to check the name of a non- incognito player?” Miles yelled
“Shut up fur face,” Bearzerker retorted.
“Grow a pair Winnie.”
Bearzerker growled menacingly. Master Saru and Alex were laughing too hard to help.”
“Dude, he just burned you so bad.” Alex managed to choke out.
“That he did, that he did.” Saru chuckled.
“And as for you, Saru; you’re such a sick pedo, you made Curious George into George the mentally scarred monkey.”
“Hey! Don’t you bring Curious George in to this! Leave him out of it!”
“Forget it Brian. We’ve got work to do.” Bearzerker said in a low voice, advancing on Miles.
“Agreed.” Master Saru said, pulling his staff into the ready stance, already covered in the red aura. “Hey GN, you got any stamina potions.”
“umm, no? I used them up after the fight.” Alex said. A cold guilty feeling started to settle into his chest.
“Meh, too bad.” He said. He spun the staff around and jammed it into Miles ribcage.
Miles let out a piercing scream and fell to his knees. In the background, Alex could hear the faint high pitched whine, almost like a mosquito.
But this was no minuscule mosquito. This was a pain inducing wail that was being put to use.
“You just had to keep coming, didn’t you.” Bearzerker said savagely, sticking his paw in to slowly scrape down Miles back. He arched agony.
“You could’ve focused on someone else.” Master Saru said. “But no, you chose us. We talk to the others about you, you know. They say they see you occasionally but always whenever we’re around. No one else does that.”
“Actually there was that other guy, remember?” Bearzerker said. “He did the same thing.”
“Oh right! Doctor whatshisface! He was fun to fight. Always ready to take the two of us on. Too bad he got annoying after the first ten times. Why’d he keep attacking us anyways?”
“Something about how we had ‘insulted his abilities and he had to prove them by taking us down.”
“Oh that’s right. So what’s your story?” Master Saru asked, removing the staff so he could talk. “Secretly need to compensate for your manhood?”
Miles was wheezing in pain. He coughed, and something could be heard splattering on something.
“I, fight you, because of Professor BA. You, motherfuckers, put him in a coma for a goddam month! He told me not to- to run if I ever saw you two. But I couldn’t,” He said as he somehow managed to stand up. “I couldn’t just let go. You fucked with my friend. You, do not fuck with my friends.”
“Should’ve listened to him.” Bearzerker said, stabbing his claws into Miles’ kidney. His health dropped rapidly. Right before it ran out though, he pulled them out. He fished around in his vest pockets, before coming out with a healing potion. He poked his arm through the cage and drizzled it over Miles’ head Miles’ health flashed back up to maximum.
“Can’t have your character dying on us just yet.” He said. “We wouldn’t break our record. You say we go the last guy in a coma for a month? I think we can do better than tha-”
Bearzerker froze in midsentence. He looked down to find a short gray saber sticking out of his stomach. He turned around to find it belonged to a very pissed off looking Ginganinja. He was holding an empty stamina/mana regenerating potion bottle
“I lied about being out of potions.” He said and activated the powerup.
Bearzerker roared in pain as the aura raced up the blade and into the wound. Alex pulled the sword out and he slumped forward, and died.
Master Saru spun around. “GN, what the hell are you doing.”
“The right thing.” Alex said. He swung at Saru who dogged easily.
“Stop it kid! Believe me; you don’t want to mess with this monkey.”
“According to Miles, you’re a pedophile. I don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t want to find out. I just got one pedo out of my life this week. I didn’t do that just to have another slither in”
Saru spun his staff, but Alex blocked it. He got around his defenses and scored a hit on his arm.
Saru yelled and accidentally dropped his staff. Alex kicked it away.
“You think I need that staff to take you down? I’m just as good with my hands.” Saru growled.
He launched into a blurry of attacks, scoring hit after hit on Alex.
Alex winced in pain. The hits were quick and precise so the noise didn’t last long. Nonetheless, it still hurt.
A warning red crept into the edges of his view- warning him that he was low on heath. Alex retreated and tried to use a healing potion, but Saru knocked it out of his hand. Alex lunged after it, but missed as it shattered against a tree.
Master Saru grinned. “Nice try kid. You’re pretty good at the game. Better than most who’ve been playing for a bit. Give it a few months and a bit of grinding, and you might’ve beaten me. But you haven’t yet. You’re just a noob who’s still wet behind the ears. You’ve played maybe an hour on this game. Bearzerker and I have accumulated thousands of hours between the two of us. What chance do you have against us?”
“Well, considering you forgot about the guy who has nine thousand, five hundred and thirty hours, and twenty eight minutes behind him, I’d say a pretty good chance.”
Saru spun around to come face to face with Miles. He grinned lopsidedly and simply said, “The cage wore off” before punching Saru in the face. The monkey sailed up into the air.
“Care for some target practice?” He asked Alex.
In response, Alex summoned a fireball and got another red sphere. “Gladly,” he said with a smile. He let it grow for a few seconds, then tossed it at the rapidly receding monkey. It hit Saru dead in the chest, and he vanished in a wave on energy.
Miles gave a wet snort and turned to Alex. “Dude, I don’t know what to think about you. You called me a liar, called those two worthless pieces of shit to come use me as a punching bag, and then you saved me from being tortured. I don’t know whether to hit you, or thank you.”
“I’ll take the thank you, if I have an option.” Alex said.
Miles gave a weak grin and stuck out a hand. “The full name is Milesoftheblades, but everyone calls me Miles.”
Alex took the hand and shook it. “It’s Ginganinja, but I think everyone’s going to end up calling me GN.”
Miles let go and looked around. “We’d better get going. I know for a fact that both of them have scrolls of Icarian flight. They’ll be here as soon as they respawn.”
“I’d better get going then.” Alex said. He moved to run, but Miles stopped him.
“Dude, do you really think I’m going to let someone who saved my bacon get hunted down like this? Do you even know where you’re going?”
“No.”
Miles shook his head. “You’d better come with me then. I know a few places we can hide.”
@0@0@
The forest was quiet, save for the occasional twittering of a bird, or the rustling of leaves. It had no major quests that required you to travel through it, and the most dangerous thing it had was the occasional bandit or oversized rat. It therefor enjoyed lengthy periods of peace and quiet.
All of this was about to be shattered.
Had someone been meandering through the woods at the time, they first would’ve noticed a sudden disturbance, a far off sound of someone or something crashing through the undergrowth.
Had they stopped to listen, they would’ve realized that it was growing closer, and was in fact two someones crashing through the undergrowth.
And had they lingered too much longer, they would’ve run the risk of being run over by a large lumberjack, as he flew over the road, and back into the brush.
A second later, a ginger in dark clothing followed him, flailing as he sailed through the air. He would land in a heap, and the lumberjack would yell for him to hurry. The ginger would scramble to his feet, and they would crash on.
“What queer people.” They might’ve said, before continuing on.
What queer people indeed.
@0@0@
“We don’t have much time.” Miles panted as they raced through the undergrowth. “I gauge them respawning 10 to 30 seconds after you killed them. Bearzerker probably respawned shortly before Saru died, and will probably wait for him. Since they're used to dealing the pain and not receiving it, they'll probably go and get some painkillers, before beginning the hunt.”
“Why does that matter?” Alex asked.
“Because unless they went and got some reinforcements, they’re probably already on our trail. They're animal hybrids which means they have a tracking ability. It allows them to follow the footsteps of anyone withing the last 15 minutes along with some sort of weird infrared vision.”
“How did you figure this out?”
“I’ve been doing this for over a year. You tend to pick up on certain things after a while; what from wikis and failed ambushes.”
“Yeah well, you’re not exactly the stealthy type if you know what I mean.” Alex said.
“You’re one to talk. Your hair stands out like a bonfire. I could get sunburn if I’m not too careful”
Alex was about to reply, when a loud roar rolled down the hill. Alex turned to see Bearzerker bounding down the trail after them.
“Dude, they’ve found us.”
“I blame your hair. Seriously man, you had over 200 hair colors to choose from. And yet, you somehow decide on fiery red hair. Doesn’t matter though, we’re here.”
Here turned out to be a blank rock face. No signifying features, no mysterious cracks. Just a blank wall.
“It’s a wall.” Alex stated, both unamused and slightly worried.
“Thank you, captain obvious.” Miles replied. “I would never have noticed that fact had you not mentioned it.”
“Up yours dude. The way I see it, we’re stuck between a rock and two people with very painful instruments.”
Miles rolled his eyes. “Like many places in Rune, this wall serves dual purposes. If you’d played more than an hour’s worth, you might now that.”
“Oh I get it! When you say it serves dual purposes, you mean it has the ability to both block our way, and assure our demise!” Alex replied sarcastically.
“There they are!”
Alex turned to see Master Saru emerge a hundred yards behind Bearzerker. He was followed by several others.
“They appear to have brought friend. Friends with even more painful instruments.”
“Calm down kid, I've got this.”
“What do you mean, calm down? What are youuuuuuu!!!”
The last part was due to Miles grabbing Alex and swinging him over his shoulder. Before he could protest, Miles ran straight towards the wall,
And through it into a dark cavern. Miles checked that they weren’t followed before placing Alex back down.
“As the guy who just saved you from a lot of pain, I thank you for screaming in my ear.” Miles said sarcastically.”
“Sorry, but I was surprised. Where are we anyways? Can't they get through the same way that we did?”
“We are someplace safe, and no they can’t get through. I’ll explain once I get back.” Miles said. The sound of a chair scooting back could be heard as his character's head drooped- a sign that he was AFK.
“Wait, where are you going?” Alex asked. “You aren’t leaving me here, are you?”
“I’m going to get some supplies.” he said in a faraway voice. “Someone caused me to get a massive headache, and get blood all over my gear.”
“Oh.”
@0@0@
While Miles went AFK, Alex tried to get a better look of his surroundings. He conjured a fireball, but once again got the ball of red tendrils. They cast light, but it was low and almost impossible to see with. Annoyed, he canceled the spell and it dissipated.
He looked back at Miles. The sounds of wiping could be heard as he tried to clean up the mess.
“Hey, quick question.” Alex said. “You got anything to lighten up the place?”
Miles didn’t reply, but the wiping sounds stopped. He pounded on the keyboard and clicked a few times, and his character tossed down a small pile of torches, and a pair of flint and steel. Alex thanked him and set to work. Within seconds, he had several torches blazing brightly.
“Okay, I’m back.” Miles said. His character blinked a few times, and began moving again.
“How are you feeling?” Alex asked.
“The ibuprofen will take a bit to start working, but the bleeding’s stopped. Thanks for asking.”
“You’re welcome.” Alex replied. “So, what is this place?”
“It’s an unused dungeon.” Miles replied. “For whatever reason, the Dev’s decided not to add it in at the last minute. Rather than completely erase it, they just covered it up. When they did, however, they neglected to make the entrance solid.”
“So why can’t Bearzerker, Saru, and their group get in?”
Miles grinned. “The thing is, they did.”
Alex nearly had a heart attack.
Miles gave a harsh laugh. You look like someone just bitch slapped your Mom”
“Screw you.” Alex said, a little testy about the mom comment. “You’re still mad at me for turning you over to those two, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but beating up Bearzerker and Saru was a step in the right direction. Keep it up, and you just might make up for it someday.” Miles said with a chuckle
“Really?”
“Maybe in about 5 years.”
“You’re a dick.”
“Anyways,” Miles said, getting back on track. “The reason we don’t see them is that when we went in, we were classified as a party. The hackers went in and were classified as a different party. Two different parties can’t be in the same dungeon at the same time. The game gets around this by creating two different instances with the exact same layout and the exact same code. The only difference between them is, we’re in one and they’re in the other.”
“So we’re safe.”
“That’s what I just said.”
Alex sighed. “Look, I’m sorry for throwing you to the hounds there. I screwed up. There’s no way around it. And because of it, it’s pretty obvious that you’re pissed at me. But can we at least act civilized?”
Miles thought for a moment. “I, suppose that I can at stop treating you like complete shit. You did at least try to make up for your mistake. I still don’t know whether to punch you, or thank you.”
“Yeah” Alex said. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “I can’t believe I trusted those guys. I thought they were my friends.”
“And I still can’t believe my nose is still bleeding, and these stupid painkillers haven’t taken effect.” Miles said with a snort.
Alex looked at him. “You know that those take about thirty minutes to start working, right?”
“Shut up. I’m taking my anger out on the medicine.”
An awkward silence ensued while the two waited for the other to say something. Finally, Alex broke it.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Why?”
Miles frowned. “Why what?”
“Why do you do this? Is there anything in this game really worth you fighting and getting injured over? I mean, look at you! You went toe to toe with two guys and came out with a nose bleed and a headache! What’s the freaking point?”
Miles sighed and looked at the ground. “There is one thing that those two and I agree on. Just one single thing. It is that this game is great. It’s pure escapism. I mean, you go through life dealing with all the bull that comes your way. Bad economy, crappy coworkers, student loans, corrupt politicians, it’s a rough world out there. And then there’s Rune. Sure it isn’t real life and it’s kind of in the middle of a civil war, but deep down, its pure fun.”
Miles looked up. “I and the others fight because we remember the time when we didn’t have to watch our backs for hackers; when a feud between rival clans didn’t end in a bloody noses and headaches; and the worst that could happen to you as you forgot to bind your rare dwarven axe to your character, and loose it to a level 1 noob who happened to get in a lucky shot. That’s what we’re fighting for- we’re fighting to bring that age back to Rune.”
“Wow.” Alex said. “That was some pretty deep stuff.”
Miles nodded and looked around. “Anyways, here’s how I see we stand. I plan on taking off in a few minutes to head back to a safe house or even main base. What you do is up to you. If you want, I could give you a ride to a town on the way.”
“I don’t want a ride to a town.” Alex said.
“Well, it’s your call.” Miles said. “I advise logging out and laying low for a few days. They're not as likely to camp at a location for days on end as I am.
“That's not what I mean.” Alex said. “I don’t want a ride to any old town, and I don’t want to lay low for a few days.”
Miles stood up, frowning. “Then what do you want to do? The dungeon doesn’t have any loot in it- there was none programed in.”
“As I said, I screwed up,” Alex said. “My Dad, in all his crappyness, taught me one major thing- it's okay to screw up. You’d just damn well be willing to finding a way to fix it, or make up for it. I saved you, but that doesn’t even come close to making up for trusting those two in the first place; and it sure as hell doesn’t make up for turning you in.”
“Okay, so you want to make things up. I can respect that,” Miles said. “But how do you plan on doing it?”
Alex looked right at him. “I’m going to find those guys’ base. I’m going to tear it down- alone if I have to.”933Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CMB48Zkzz
