Half an hour after the scouting team entered, Mercyaa, along with Rdrag and Hebanyac, approached the entrance to the cave. The deputy sat down on a small staircase at the entrance. The other two jumped onto boulders and settled on them.
“This is your plan to capture the Hashashins?”
Mercyaa nodded.
“Why follow and look for evidence? They’ll either come here and try to enter over our dead bodies, or they will not come at all, and then we’ll have no reason to suspect Top Secret of having links with the alleged assassins.”
Hebanyac sat down next to him and said:
“This sucks! I thought this was it. Something to look forward to, something interesting in this endless political struggle.”
“We’ll replace each other every three hours.”
Hebanyac propped his face on his palm.
“Are we just going to sit here one by one for three hours? It’s boring! Maybe I’ll order a grill, and we’ll barbecue some Qualinorbs meat? I caught a couple the other day.”
“We won’t do anything. Somehow you got yourself a commanding officer position, and now you’re not happy,” said Rdrag. “I don’t get it. Why did Yleen appoint you at all?”
“Probably to prove that every family has a black sheep,” Mercyaa supported the healer with envy and malice.
“Oh, my God. You’re a humorist. Can’t you entertain us with a standup?”
“I’m afraid a man with an IQ under fifty wouldn’t understand my jokes.”
“You’re thirty, but all I hear is elderly man’s farts.”
“Look...”
“Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp,” Hebanyac kept repeating.
“Enough...”
“Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp, Thrrrrp...”
“I’m gonna blow your head off!”
The military commander laughed evilly and continued his attack:
“There are rumors you wanted to take my place?”
Rdrag looked at Mercyaa in surprise.
“Yes, I fucking wanted. Yleen, apparently, is trying to win the schoolchildren’s respect by appointing one of them.”
“Oi-oi. I’m afraid to disappoint you,” Hebanyac replied in a squeaky rasp. “I’m seventy–three, you know.”
“Take off your mask and prove it to us,” Rdrag said.
“Only after you give me... mmm... what can you give me? Oh, as a matter of fact, nothing!” Hebanyac giggled with a sound similar to that of a fork scratching over a plate.
“Okay, this conversation has exhausted me out,” Rdrag said. “Mercyaa, if they see that someone is on duty alone, won’t they try to kill him and pass?”
“That’s a possibility,” he answered. “But it’ll immediately prove their connection with the guild. The Hashashins, if they really are who we think they are, will not perform tasks that require fine work in a way as if a herd of elephants had swept by. Especially on this assignment. The slightest slip will cost them everything. Yleen will give everyone the ‘Enemy of the Race’ debuff. Top Secret will come under attack because of their gaffe. In addition, as soon as they are inside the dungeon, a three-thousand army of players will follow them inside, those players who voted for Yleen and his guild. They will be killed and the game will end for them."
“You are so clever and shrewd!” clapped Hebanyac.
“By the way, why is this clown with us?” Rdrag jabbed his finger at the military commander.
“Are you talking about me?”
“About the Eiffel Tower.”
“The what?”
“At the last moment, Yleen ordered me to take him.” Mercyaa said with resentment.
“Yeah, yeah...”
“Maybe he’s not as smart a leader as I thought.”
“We both are smarter than you,” Hebanyac said and shook his head.
“Sure? Can you take off your cheat armor and solve everything in a one-on-one tournament?”
“I’m all for it.”
“Great. Finally, everyone will see your five-year-old face.”
“Ooh-ooh-ooh, you scared me there! You try to win first.”
“That’s enough!” the deputy looked at everyone with an angry look. “I’m fucking tired. Honestly. I’m fucking sick of getting involved in this conversation.”
“Damn, I don’t understand why his voice works as an irritation trigger. That’s it, calm down Rdrag.” He said to himself, waving his hands as if ordering someone to stop. “What happens if Top Secret wins,” he changed the subject a few seconds later, “and finds themselves on the other side of the mountains?”
“We’ll lose our seats in the government, and they’ll get power, new lands to explore, perhaps new resources, monsters, the lot. If this happens, we won’t stop them. Even the ‘enemy of the race’ won’t help here."
“It’s a tricky situation, indeed!” Hebanyac squeaked, and the others cringed at his voice and asked him to speak a little lower. “I’m confused. So...” he broke off and gathered his thoughts and continued, “Top Secret want to go through the dungeon and get new lands and get rid of our rulers at the end. Yleen and Illyseh want to finish the scouting mission and expose Top Secret and the assassins, collusion and lies and. And Ronnie…”
“Alleged murderers and alleged collusion,” Mercyaa interrupted.
“I don’t work as a part-time investigator. I say what I think. Let’s continue. Ronnie wants to complete the contract and continue playing solo. The Hashashins want to avoid being seen by anyone and preserve their reputation, as well as complete a ‘Diplomatic mission’…"
“Alleged,” Mercyaa emphasized this word and continued, slightly lowering the tone of his voice, “diplomatic mission.”
“I see. You’ve got a lot on your mind. You got me thinking. So... where was I? Аh! Yes. And we want to keep everyone out of the dungeon until Yleen and Illyseh return unharmed.”
“Okay. Enough talk. Who’s first on watch?”
“Let’s decide on sous-fé.”
“What?”
“Rock-paper-scissors.”
All three of them thought about it and decided that they could not find a more honest option, anyway. Rdrag won first. He would be the last on watch. Mercyaa won second.
“Oh, shit!” Hebanyac shouted.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
“What if I get attacked?”
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“Well, run or fight like a hero and die. I don’t really give a fuck. The main thing is not to forget the evidence. Screenshots and videos. We keep recording during the entire shift.”
“You’re not shy about expressions, are you?”
“Yes.”
Mercyaa and Rdrag pitched tents right in front of the entrance and went offline, and Hebanyac sat on the steps in front of the entrance and froze, muttering that he always won at this game when he was a kid.
***
Nika stood two miles from the dungeon, together with her team of six people, watched the entrance through binoculars. All Hashashins were dressed in their standard uniforms: black robes, carnival masks on their faces, leather armor with many belts, hidden throwing knives, and short swords with a semicircular blade.
“These assholes didn’t come up with anything better than to sit there? One at a time?”
“Finding the simplest but most effective way is talent,” replied the one with a smiling mask on his face with yellow highlighting of lips and eyelids.
“Who’s sitting there?”
“Military commander Hebanyac.”
“Does anyone know anything about him?”
“I’ve heard that he never takes his helmet off. Apparently, his face is disgusting. And he’s also terribly stupid, and no one likes him except Yleen.”
“Do you think the Lord will appoint an idiot to the military commander's position?”
“Maybe he wants to get the favor of schoolchildren.”
“Let’s try to fool him. The other two, the smarter ones, are offline.”
Nika put the binoculars in her bag and said:
“We won’t lose anything. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll do as Latludious said. Keep track of how long each of them is on duty. We’ll act on Hebanyac’s second duty.”
***
Rdrag returned to the game and did not find Hebanyac at the post. The military commander was online.
Where are you?—wrote the healer in the group chat.
The commander came out of the cave’s darkness and, tilting his head to the side, stared at him and said:
“Hello. Three hours flew by.”
“What have you been doing?”
“Me?”
“No me.”
“I do not know what you’ve been doing.”
“Don’t fool me. What were you doing there?”
“I asked myself a question, how do I make sure I don’t get killed? The answer: hide in the shadows. If the Hashashins don’t know that we are guarding the entrance, they’ll definitely appear, then I would take a picture of them and follow them in.”
Rdrag pointedly glanced at the two tents in front of the entrance. Hebanyac screamed something like the sound of “Oh!” and said:
“You can hide them inside. Pretend that we went after them.”
Rdrag looked at him and turned his back and looked at the distant Elgoreombdon forest. On its green stripes from Dormel oaks and on the black ones from Hessataule trees. A gray veil covered the celestial expanses of the planet Thalack. And there on the horizon, at the junction of two worlds, where the gray-blue clouds had not yet reached, sunlight was breaking through rivers of liquid gold.
“Did you fall asleep?” Hebanyac’s vile and nauseating squeak brought woke Rdrag.
“Go offline already. Let me enjoy the view.”
The military commander saluted at attention and went inside the black tunnel and pitched a tent there and set up a protective field.
When Mercyaa came to the post, Rdrag suggested he set up camp next to Hebanyac.
“It’s a pity we didn’t do that from the very beginning.”
Yleen wrote to Mercyaa his thoughts and events while he was online. Yes, Top Secret players are suspicious, but this, alas, is not proof. The deputy opened a notebook and compiled a small tree of events, into which he inscribed all the information. In addition, he was updating the map and noticed how the dungeon’s passages were opening. After a while, he read about the battle with the shadow monster, then Hebanyac came back and asked him if everything was okay?
“Yes,” he replied in a tired voice. “I’m going to sleep.”
“It’s only day now.”
“It’s day in your city. It’s already a deep night in mine.”
Hebanyac sat down in the tunnel and watched the light at the exit, gray and dim, in a supine position. From the dungeon, a draft blew into his back, spewing a terrible smell from its gut, as if decomposing corpses plastered the walls. The military commander connected a portable gas mask (an additional function of the commander’s helmet) and inhaled clean air from a cylinder the size of his index finger, which hung on his waist bag. One capsule was enough for just three hours. He placed the FN Scar-L next to him on the ground, keeping the safety on.
After forty minutes, it became completely boring. Hebanyac opened the HUD, found a card mini-game based on Guns and Magic, and thus killed time. Of course, this did not give practical benefits, but in the second hour, he saw how the strip of his level rose by 0.3%
“Oh-la-la!” he exclaimed. “Somebody’s going to abuse a bug!”
Hebanyac closed his eyes and dozed off to increase his magic parameter and did not notice when a second-level girl appeared at the entrance with a flower of the Elg’cahl variety in her hand. Nickname: Bebetsy, one of the thousands of employees of the famous courier guild, FartsTravel. She placed the gift at the entrance and sat down next to the snoring military commander and touched his shoulder. He woke up and jumped up and screamed:
“Killing! Help!”
The girl jumped back with a dumbfounded look and fell.
“Ah,” said Hebanyac, looking at the guest, “I thought somebody was here to kill me.”
“No, sir,” she replied in a sweet, contrasting voice. “I’m a courier of delivery guild. An anonymous package from your admirer.”
“An admirer? Do I have fans? Wow! Where is the package?”
Bebetsy got up and ran to the exit and held her breath and came back with a flower.
“This is for you.”
She held out the Elg’cahl. Hebanyac saw the gift. A flower with five blue leaves, in the center of which a white color burned.
“Interesting...” he mused.
Bebetsy nodded and took her leave and ran to the exit, feeling that the air in her lungs was running out. The military commander was mortified and thought, I wish they had left a note or at least sent a message in PM. I would have gladly answered for such a cause. So, what if it’s a flower? A gift is a gift, it’s still nice. He put Elg’cahl on the ground, sat down himself, put his arms around his legs and admired what was going on, and smacked his lips in pleasure.
Rdrag came out of the tent and saw this picture.
“Um...” he began. “I got back here early… Where did you find this flower?”
“The courier brought it. Said from an admirer. Look how beautiful it is!”
Rdrag picked up the flower and sniffed it, and immediately fell unconscious. Hebanyac looked at him.
“Oops!”
He took out a lighter and burned the gift with a spell.
“Yeah. Seems like I’ll have to watch for an extra three hours.”
Hebanyac lay down on the ground and changed the air capsule and turned on the card mini-game again, and fell asleep behind it. Half an hour later, a man dressed in a black hoodie and a carnival mask of a sad tragedian appeared at the entrance. The first thing he checked was Rdrag’s body. Asleep. The second, too, from the snoring, he could tell. A third-level player with the pseudonym Nevernah took out a grain from a bag and placed it under the ground and poured water on it. His hands were shaking. There was perspiration on his forehead. He wiped his forehead and went to the exit, looking at his watch, when he suddenly felt the touch of someone’s hand on his shoulder. Before Nevernah could turn around, he heard the crunch of his limbs breaking. He fell, veins burst in his eyes. A terrible pain ran through the whole body with a sharp impulse. An in-game HUD had opened with red warning signs: Your legs are broken. Critical damage. The arms are broken. An open wound. Critical damage. Disconnecting from the game in five minutes. In front of him, in the darkness, Nevernah saw the commander, who, with a slight movement of his hand, pressed the button and removed the helmet. The half-dead guy, even for a second, but saw what others could not: the beard and hair on Hebanyac’s face were whiter than white. Frightening bright red eyes. Cancerous tumors affected the wrinkled white skin. There was a strange device in his mouth. In front of him was an elderly albino in the flesh.
“It’s time to plunge into the world of illusions,” Hebanyac said in a rough and unnatural voice.
Nevernah lost consciousness for a moment, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw his leg tied to a stretched tree branch in the same tunnel, only much wider and higher than before. He squirmed, tried to free himself. It was of no use. His eyes widened, the lips trembled. Hebanyac was standing in front of him. The helmet hid his face, but Nevernah felt that he was smiling.
“Where are we? What happened?” he asked.
There was no response.
“I don’t want to die,” he stammered. “You know, I can’t die. I was wrong, I understand, but you’re a military commander. You must be fair, noble, give a second chance and all that…”
Hebanyac sat down next to him and said:
“Now you’re going to see hell in the game of Guns and Magic.”
Nevernah turned on the short moments recording function in the HUD. A timer counting down ten seconds appeared in the lower right corner.
“I don’t advise you to kill me. I’ll post everything on the forum. You’ll get banned.”
Hebanyac exhaled and whistled the motives of some positive song. Nevernah opened the saved videos tab to make sure everything was working. There was nothing on the record but darkness. Turned it on again. The result was the same. Screenshot. Nothing. His mouth opened slightly, he mumbled:
“D... do... don’t,” he said. “I’m not even in their guild.”
Hebanyac continued to whistle a song.
“I’ll tell you everything. Let me go!”
Nevernah saw a long Katana materialize out of nowhere near the tree’s trunk. The military commander, relaxed and calm, walked towards it, pulled the blade out of its sheath, and checked the sharpness of the blade with his thumb.
“For God’s sake, stop it! Why are you doing this?”
Hebanyac stopped and two dots shone bright red through his visor in place of his eyes, and he answered:
“Fallen pneuma won’t understand.”
“You’re just a fucking nutcase! You can’t get away with this!”
Hebanyac approached his victim and slashed at the throat with the katana. Nevernah choked on blood. He was not dead yet. The head was not completely cut off. The pain was indescribable. His mind could not stand the strain. Everything blurred in his eyes. He wanted to say something, but a couple of wheezes sounded instead. The last thing he saw was a military commander cutting the rope of a stretched tree branch and a warning in the HUD on a black screen: “Death for unknown reasons.”
The branch acted like a sling. The neck muscles tore, and the head tore away from the body and flew out of the tunnel in an arc, as if a trebuchet had launched it, with a bloody trail in the air. In a few seconds, it covered a distance of two miles and landed near the cobblestones, among which Nika and her group were hiding. The mercenaries turned around and saw how the upper part of Nevernah’s body rolled past and turned into ashes.
“Jesus Christ,” One of them shouted, covering his mouth with his palm.
“Maybe we underestimated Hebanyac,” said another.
“Not maybe. We sure did,” Nika replied.
She opened the map. There was not a single player with a PK penalty nearby. She bared her teeth and asked:
“What the hell is going on?”