The morning sun wriggled its way through the near-impenetrable clouds above, Zack was sneaking his way through the city towards an exit.

He moved in a snake-like manner, namely, he walked on all fours under the cover of a crate, slowly inching his way across the city until the finally reached the docks.

“I’ll need to sneak onto one of the boats… I bet Jasper wouldn’t risk stranding us somewhere in the middle of the sea by killing the crew!” Zack thought, peering out from under the box only to see the harbour was empty.

Every boat was either gone or far on the horizon.

A group of players carried large sacks of goods from Ajuan and Kearudown towards the large shopping district.

“I can’t believe they actually closed the city off…” complained the skeletal ogre carrying two massive crates of weaponry.

“Yeah, apparently it could last up to a week…” the bald human with a majestic goatee remarked.

Zack listened to the conversation, realizing his preferred escape plan was a no-go.

“Shit…”

“Does that include carts?” he wondered, struggling to imagine how long the city would survive without food.

“What should I…-” his attention was caught by the quiet buzzing of a bee.

Zack peered out from under the crate seeing a small, yellow bee sitting on the cobblestone before him.

“...”

With its clumsy little legs, the bee turned to the right, Zack followed its gaze and noticed a sewer grate.

“A sewer…?”

“A SEWER!”

Zack hurried over to the metal cover and lifted it, slipping inside of the cold, dark tunnel through which ran a stream of putrid water.

Zack placed his hands over his eyes and cast “Night Vision” - a part of his enchanter class, although he could only cast it on himself reliably.

The whole tunnel became illuminated, it was as if the concept of a shadow was no more, this made the whole world look really fake and flat.

Zack walked through the maze of tunnels, occasionally guided by a distant buzzing.

That’s when he saw it, a brightness within brightness, an exit.

It was the point where the water from the sewers poured off into the swamp, a fair distance from the city.

What Zack didn’t know was that the sewer also served as the entrance to a dungeon.

“Hey~”

Zachary felt the cold, leathery grip of the same glove from last night, but tighter.

“How are you doing?” the voice asked.

Zack spun around, seeing the face not of an L.F.T.O member, but of a dapper-looking fishman.

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He wore a black coat over a white blouse with a grey neck-tie, upon his head was a top hat with several cartoony skulls attached.

With his enchanting skill, Zack caused RuRet’s speed to decrease as he made a burst for the distant swamp-forest.

Something grabbed him.

A hand.

From the mud surrounding the two appeared arms, rotting, pale arms, some bearing the familiar smiley-face of Jasper’s victims.

RuRet laughed.

“Come now, no need for all this running! I’m on your side!” he explained.

Finally, all twelve bodies emerged fully.

Seeing and smelling them, Zack covered his mouth.

“Who the hell are you?!” he demanded, still trying to free his legs from the zombie.

“My name is RuRet, just a humble necromancer!”

“A necromancer?” Zack questioned.

“Yep, combine the dark-magic class and healing class, or the dark-magic and summoning class.” he shrugged.

Zack looked to the bodies around him, even if RuRet was on his side and the bodies did hold the memories of the killer, Jasper was always masked.

Zack breathed a sigh.

“If you’re really an ally, then get your zombies off me…” Zack demanded.

RuRet nodded, with a wave of his hand, the dozen undead simply walked away from Zack, now standing in a circle which stopped him from running away like before.

“Tch…” Zack understood he didn’t have any other choice but to hear RuRet out.

The fishman grinned from ear to ear as he snapped his fingers, causing a skeleton shaped like a chair to appear from within the mud, one also appeared for Zack, he chose not to avail of RuRet’s “kindness”.

“What do you want from me?” he asked.

RuRet shrugged, his smile becoming less toothy and more relaxed.

“I don’t really want anything from you per se,” he explained.

RuRet folded his arms.

“Did you know, back in the game, a necromancer was able to see the messages sent by dead players?” he asked.

Zack shook his head.

“No…?” he replied uncertainly.

RuRet nodded.

“It wasn’t a particularly useful feature, until the isekai that is,” he explained.

“As it turns out, you can learn a lot from perma-killed players and NPCs,” he remarked.

Zack listened to the questionable character.

RuRet leaned back in his skele-chair, it morphed for comfort.

“When somebody in the isekai perma-dies, they usually just get their memories wiped and get popped into a boar, slime, raid-boss or whatever needs a soul!” he explained.

“Even new players!”

RuRet clasped his hands.

“But, sometimes, much like a scar on your character, a soul’s so-called character, is permanent,”

“Well, semi-permanent!”

“You still didn’t answer my question…” Zack reminded the fishman.

RuRet nodded.

“Ah, right, sorry!”

He cleared his throat.

“I offer contracts!” he explained.

“Contracts to the dead!”

Anxiously, Zack looked down at the zombies which surrounded him.

“Wait… but don’t they think I’m the killer?!” a bead of sweat rolled down his worried face.

RuRet couldn’t help but laugh.

“Don’t mind those! They’re just mindless zombies! They have already re-spawned!” he assured Zack.

Zack’s face lit up.

“Do you know who they re-spawned as?!” he asked.

The sudden shift from fear to such vigour knocked RuRet off his track.

“Uhm… Yeah…” he replied.

He smiled.

“But it’s something of a personal policy not to tell people about their friends and loved ones, sorry,” he replied, sounding somewhat genuine.

Zack breathed a sigh.

“It was worth a try…”

Zack didn’t have the balls to try and force RuRet to cooperate.

The fishman snapped his fingers as from the nearby swamp merged the body of Zack, wearing the mask and the muddy cloak Jasper tossed over him.

“I found this earlier and decided to take it out of the public’s eyes, I hope that doesn’t bother you,” he said sarcastically.

Zack shook his head, relieved that nobody saw his body with the mask on.

RuRet folded his arms.

“Anyway, yesterday, I came across a soul in Glummington.” he continued.

“It was a blond man, from the looks of it, he was walking around, eating some dough-balls off a skewer.”

Immediately, Zack’s mind jumped to Alex.

“His name was Felix, and he had a keen interest in helping you out,” he explained with a shrug.

Zack recalled the name but didn’t know much about this so-called Felix.

“For whatever reason, his soul wasn’t stuck… it was just… popped out of his body…”

“From the looks of it, the body is still alive somewhere.”

Zack cocked his head.

“Why would he help me?” he asked, finally daring to sit down on the surprisingly comfy skele-chair.

“I don’t know, I didn’t ask.” the fishman explained.

Zack breathed a sigh.

“What are you telling me all this?” he asked, assuming RuRet had a reason to stop him from running away this long.

RuRet snapped his fingers again as from his sleeve bolted out a black crow.

“Like I said, I don’t really want anything from you, but my client has a request from you,” he explained.

The crow began to convulse as it eventually regurgitated a letter.

“Felix wanted you to deliver this message to somebody.”

Grossed out, Zack picked the letter up with his thumb and index finger.

The letter was placed in a small envelope.

“Apparently one of his acquaintances is out of town, and he wanted to settle something with them, for whatever reason he’s attached to Glummington.”

Zack looked down at the letter.

“It’s dangerous… Jas-… I mean, the killer will follow me…”

RuRet shrugged.

“No need to worry, I’m coming with you guys,” he remarked.

“...”

“THEN WHY CAN’T YOU BE THE ONE TO DELIVER THE LETTER?!” Zack demanded.

RuRet scratched his head.

“Felix said it’s important that you go.” he clarified.

Seeing that he couldn’t win the argument, Zack breathed a sigh.

“Fine… Let’s hope Jasper won’t follow us this time…” he muttered.

RuRet laughed, earning a strange look from Zack.

“Oh no, he’s also coming with us!” RuRet explained.

The necromancer looked behind Jasper where the undead now lunged forward at what looked like an invisible human.

Seconds later, the horrified expression of Jasper faded into view, restrained by the undead.

“WHAT THE HELL!?” he demanded, shaking them undead off only for them to sink their teeth into him.

His healing stamps activated automatically, Jasper tried to use the green boot stamps only to feel his legs almost tear off from the force of his upper and lower body pulling apart.

Another healing stamp fizzled away.

Zack jumped off the chair, falling into the mud and shambling away from Jasper who stared hatefully at the smiling necromancer.

“You were also on Felix’s travel-list,” he explained smugly.