“No, no, no, what the hell!”
Colt scrambled back until his back hit the bark of the large tree behind him. He eyed his left, where he saw a small path running towards a larger clearing. But then his eyes focused back on the creature front of him.
It definitely wasn’t a creature, but someone dressed as such. It had the head of a wolf, with a mouth of sharp teeth. Its body was covered in a fluffy costume filled with claws and scratches, and his hands held a knife that dripped blood. Colt knew it was blood because the victim of the attack lay right in front of him - a bald headed man who was stabbed at least thrice in the nape.
Blood…
It felt so strange. He was in a virtual reality game, how could there be blood? Where was the exit button? Where were his teleportation skills?
“Who the hell are you?” he tried to feed some confidence to his voice, but the killer in front of him just cocked his head, and then lunged.
Colt hadn’t practiced combat ever since he leveled up in summoner magic. He usually let the summons deal with the damage, but now that he had gone back to level 1, he had lost even the basic defense he had.
And god bless his legs he somehow managed to lunge to the left, landing face first on the start of the small gravel path. He looked back to see the knife stuck at the bark of the tree, and the killer pulled it off swiftly.
Colt didn’t wait to admire the view, he fed everything he had to his legs and started running like a maniac. He nearly jumped over the shrubs and bushes, and slid over slops that pushed him downwards. He didn’t look back. He couldn’t look back. There were trees and branches to and fro - one misstep could send him tumbling down to the ground. He dodged over a set of intertwined branches before reaching a clearing.
There was a long slope downwards that ended in a stream of water below. And beyond that stream…the town.
Colt no longer had access to the map but if he remembered it right it was Hoddle, a town that was popular for churches and trade. It was moderately sized - with the most notable structure being the Hella Tower.
Strangely the gates were wide open, and there were no guards this time.
Colt turned, he saw something move in the shadows. Dry leaves rustled from the sound. The killer was close.
Bless all the gods…
He jumped.
As soon as his feet touched the slipper gravel he started sliding down. He tried to balance himself but then he fell on all fours. He clawed the ground like a child, but he went on sliding down and down. His elbows scraped the rocks, and the pain brought tears. It had been so long since he felt pain. He couldn’t feel pain. That was the entire point of virtual reality games.
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And where is my goddamn health bar dammit?
He ended up tumbling to the stream of water. He coughed and spluttered before looking up. The killer in the wolf’s mask was looking from top, red eyes boring onto him.
Colt breathed hard, then he turned to the gates and started running again.
This time, he never looked back.
*
The town was deserted. If he hadn’t seen enough strange things by now Colt would have admitted it was very strange. Normally the city would be bustling with NPCs, there would be guards at every corner, merchants at the stores, bandits at the alley you could hit for a quick level up, and even those pretty girls at the bar who served all the leveling up items at double price because they were so pretty.
But now all Colt saw was deserted streets, locked buildings, half open windows that creaked in the dying wind, and empty alleyways and guard posts that held no traces of human life.
Colt staggered towards the well at the center of the townsquare. If he remembered correctly a jump would lead to a secret dungeon. But he didn’t give a damn about any dungeons at that point. His legs hurt. He had never run so hard in his life. He was a IronCore ranker - the one who sits in his high chair and orders his clan around. But now after months of inactivity and finally logging back in he was back to where he started years ago.
He opened his hand, trying to see the blue boxes appear back again. He didn’t care about his stats anymore, he cared about the ‘Log Out’ button at the very end. But no matter how he tried the menu never appeared.
And that creature would appear anytime soon.
He needed to get somewhere high where he can monitor everything. And if he sees the killer coming he would jump down the tower and have a peaceful death. Hopefully he’ll be logged out then….
Or would he?
He shivered as he walked to the bar, the only place where he could find something to regenerate his health. Now that he never saw his health, he thought he would be resistant to anything, but his stomach had started to growl like a wolf a long time ago.
He stepped towards the door when he heard sounds.
“Really? Calm down? In this situation?” It was a girl’s voice.
“Screaming would bring us nothing idiot!” a boy’s voice. “Scream louder so he can come kill us again!”
“I would prefer if both of you calmed down,” a more soothing voice. “Chaos never does good among chaos.”
Colt opened the door.
Four faces turned towards him. One was a blond haired girl with a scar on her face, another was a ruffled hair boy at least a few years older than Colt. He didn’t look like he wanted to be in the room for long. Between the girl and the boy was a middle aged asian man with two muscular hands on both their shoulders. At the corner was another girl with cropped black hair. She gave him a numb look then went back to hiding her face.
“Is that him?” the boy screamed, grabbing a knife from the counter.
The grown man grabbed his arm. “If he was then he wouldn’t be dumb enough to enter through the front door.”
His eyes bored into Colt, and then his eyes moved to his wounds.
“Did you see him too?” he asked.
Colt swallowed nervously. “The killer with the wolf mask?”
The man gave a short nod. “It seems we are in the same crew then.”
The blond girl heaved a sigh of relief, and grabbed a glass of wine on the counter before draining it.
“Do you know what is going on?” Colt asked.
The man stepped forwards, grimacing all the way. “I am Akira, and just like you I am trapped. All of us are trapped,” he widened his hands. “We can no longer escape this game. It has turned into a death game, and it will not stop until every one of us are dead.”