With no more gold to spend, their shopping escapades were finished, and they decided to make their way to find the zombie that could speak English. Their first priority would be to find a city guard who knew where it was.

Shadows danced as sunlight filtered through the layers of bridges and walkways above. Water-wheels creaked as they turn, powering the city's ancient lifting mechanisms. A group of guards passed by, their armor clanking in sync with their steps.

"Excuse me, guard," she said. "There is a rumor that the guard captain has captured a zombie that can speak English."

"The rumor is true, but I'm afraid I cannot reveal any more information," he replied.

Retro stepped in and asked the same question as she did, and this time the guard answered differently.

"The rumor is no rumor," the guard said. "The zombie is you seek is on the middle tier at the Citadel."

Retro: We need to get used to me interfacing with the NPCs with my higher charisma.

On their way to the stairs, Mindt saw a large group of Nousheads at a savepoint down a long alleyway. Dozens of them, maybe a hundred. The diversity of the Nousheads struck her — A female dwarf with an enormous axe bigger than her attached to her back, an fish-type race with razor sharp teeth, a red-skinned horned female with a bow. She examined her.

Wiki: LimeTreeBower (Inactive). Level 6. Balbazrim. Big Game Assassin.

The savepoint looked different than the others they'd encountered thus far. It was a glowing crystal floating in the air with a transparent barrier shimmering around it, creating a peaceful bubble in the urban chaos.

Virtually all of the Nousheads had already entered the savepoint, text showing the same "Inactive" as LimeTreeBower, but a couple Nousheads were just re-entering the VR.

"Hey," she said to the two as she approached.

"You alright?" one of them asked. He stood at least a meter taller than her, and the corners of his mouth bubbled with foam as he spoke. He had mottled gray-green skin and tusks jutting out of his mouth. After examining him on the wiki, she found his race to be Half-Troll. His name was Vivashek77.

His teammate was a guy with a lizard head.

Wiki: Vivashek77. Level 6. Half-Troll. Vengeance Warrior.

Wiki: Rammmmy. Level 6. Lizardman. Vengeance Warrior.

Wow, she thought, 4 m's seemed unnecessary considering Nous usernames didn't have to be unique. It also felt a little risky for both party members to choose the same class.

"Fine," she said. "Just wanted to know of any news from the real world. We aren't going in the savepoint just yet."

"Not much to tell, really," he said. He gestured to his lizard companion. "We were at Islington at a pub when the whole thing went down, and every time we go into a savepoint, it seems no one there is actually playing the VR at all. They're just drinking like its the end of the world."

"Tempting," she said.

"Sure is," he said, "but we sobered up and decided to try to live out this mess. We moved our bodies to the pub's back room. Trying to get a little separation from the sloshed cunts who already gave up on life. Seems a whole load of people are just hanging out at the city savepoint and trying to live whatever life they have left. We just go back when we have to."

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"City savepoint? Is this one special?"

"Yeah, seems at least one savepoint is always generated within Equinox itself. If you're keen on being in the real world, just check your minimap and there will always be a savepoint nearby while you're in the city."

"Good to know."

Vivashek nodded over at Retro, who was still eating dates and peering up in fascination at the upper tier.

"Who's that, your dad?"

Mindt chuckled. "No, nothing like that. We were at the airport when it happened. Just a random passenger on my flight in."

A darker tone seemed to come over the trollman's face. "You mind if I ask where you two work?"

"Where we work?"

His lizard headed companion slowly circled behind her, and suddenly she felt like she was in danger. These two were both level 6. Was there a rule against Nousheads killing each other? Aida read her thoughts.

Aida: There is no rule against it.

The troll had a hand on the hilt of his mace which hung at his belt. He stared at her intently.

"I'm a meme creator," she said truthfully.

Vivashek's eyes darted towards Retro. "And him?"

What were these two looking for? Who were they trying to kill? It couldn't have been everyone, or else she'd already be dead. In the alleyway, no city guards stood to keep the peace.

Then, she realized what they wanted. They wanted vengeance.

"He's on UBR," she said.

The tension dissolved all at once, and a hideous smile came to the trollman's face. "Good then. Good."

His lizard friend rounded her and stood next to him once more.

"You both are pretty low level," Vivashek said. "If you want to tag along, we're going with a group of Nousheads over to the spider caves just northwest of Equinox in about an hour. We want to hit level 9 before we try to kill the password NPC at the Citadel. About 20 Nousheads in total."

"Password NPC?"

"Yeah, you can't get to the English speaking zombie unless you guess this guy's password. But the problem is you only have once chance to guess the password. Needless to say we cocked that right up, so we have no choice but to kill him."

"Hmm," she said. "We need to do some shopping for gear first, and then we'll come back here."

"There's a sundries shop two streets down. Good for a sorceress," he said to her. "We leave in one hour."

"Thanks for the tip," she said. "See you in a bit."

Mindt: We're leaving, right now. Walk normal.

Retro: Are we in danger?

Mindt: Yes, the troll and the lizard guy are hunting people who work at Synapto. I lied and told them you were on UBR, but I made a mistake and said we met on a flight.

Retro: Mother's child. No one on UBR can afford a flight. They're not even allowed on flights.

Mindt: Exactly. They haven't figured it out yet, but I'm sure they will. We leave.

They exited the alleyway with calm expressions, but on the inside, Mindt felt her heart thump in her chest. They had to keep a distance from these two hunters, these vengeance seekers.

They took the longer path towards the stairs to the middle tier, and she tried to keep an eye on the teal dot that represented Vivashek, but after 10 minutes, she realized it was impossible. There were too many dots on her minimap and she had lost track. They concluded the best course of action was to stick next to the city guards for now, and what better place than the guard Citadel, which was where they were heading anyway.

On the way, they passed by hundreds more Nousheads, the standard humans and elves, huge rock-like ones, a scary looking one with black and purple armor that shimmered with energy, ones that floated a few centimeters off the ground, even one with no eyes, but instead she had a dozen or so snakes where her hair should be and on the end of those snakes were her eyes. Mindt wished could somehow create a shared pool of information. They were all in this together.

The Citadel was a sturdy stone building with defensive towers at each corner, located in the second tier of Equinox. Its entrance flanked by marble statues of past Guard-Generals, and brass plaques listed the names of guards who died in service, a disturbingly many brass plaques.

Inside, organized chaos reigned as messengers darted between offices, patrol schedules cover entire walls, and the constant scratching of quills filled the air as guards filed reports. Retro asked a passing messenger where the zombie was being held.

"Captain's Interrogation Room. See Magister Palora for details on how to attain entry," the messenger pointed down a hallway.

Just then, a Noushead came stomping from the very same hallway, shouting, "Goddamnit! We're all fucked!"