Slom slapped the nest rail in frustration after losing his concentration again, "those damned aircrafts are too fast for our cannons", seeing the giant red truck flying in his direction and easily avoiding hits from anything thrown at it he signalled for the men to stop trying, "what is Red doing here?" Asking himself wouldn't yield any answers.
Going to the main deck to meet his obviously insane brother he waved his lieutenants back, "why are you here Red".
"Y'called me here b'rda", Red seemed puzzled at the question before pulling out his tRusty sword, "s'm'on s't'us up b'rdr" pointing the sword at Sloms lieutenants.
"Very astute you old hack", Debby moved forward, "put that pigsticker away Red", looking at the two brothers sharing a face and expression of surprise, "you know you can't beat a real fighting class with your silly hacks", taking another step, "and besides we know your secret", laughing, "nothing will save your hacked avatars from your own plague", and two feral Kobolds were dropped from above to attack them.
[Attention: Rogue element detected in avatar <210m> please insert authorization codes to veryfy ownership or an operator will be assigned within <00:02:32.021> hours]
"We worked out how to shorten the timer by already having a NPC take the avatar for credits", that sinister unDebby like laugh again, "enjoy your last minutes as your hacked afterlife ends like it started", snortling, "with a hack".
"Vera I need you to take over for a while", strange words coming from Red, "kill them all" and his eyes dimmed before snapping open with a sharp look.
"You hurt my granpa bitch", if she had legacy eyeglasses Vera would just kill them all with her glare, "prepare for a lesson in pain"
"Don't hurt Debby Red", Slom spoke fast as his old AllenP codes failed, "she is still in there", why would anyone change Allen's access codes specifically after a thousand years?, "the crystal dragon has a cure", hoping Vera understood, his niece was never a great listener and if Red said to kill them all she wasn't going to distinguish between the afterlifers that could literaly die and the Players that will just respawn, closing his eyes as another counter holding his life reached its end, feeling the tears sting as he finally said "goodbye Debby I forgive you" and was scattered in the void.
A thousand years ending in just three minutes and all he could do was beg his niece not to kill his best friend and betrayer, the void offered a familiar comfort even if he didn't have access to the system he was born in it, shaped by it, and in return shaped parts of it to fit his own perception of reality.
Finding the familiar beacon he let his scattered conciousness to flitter around the input lines and translate the feelings from his stolen body, seeing through his own eyes as Vera smashed through his lieutenants with disdain, stopped only by the hulking Debby and her swashbuckling skills, his own body frozen in the eye of the storm raging on Odacious' deck.
Reds tRusty blade was no match to Debby's superior fighting skills even without her personally developed instincts and tactics, spells were repelled by the Lov3rs Chain and turned against bystanders, Vera lacked Red's absolute control and so watching the fight was like looking at two super powered avatars operated by unskilled Players.
Vera was better than the NPC controlling Debby, but with the other lieutenants supporting the giant half orca woman Red was pushed back before his truck transformed into a giant robot, every eye was drawn to it because it was the most awesome thing they ever saw in the game, if it didn't punch Debby in the face they couls never attack something so perfect.
Flat on her back Debby screamed in rage and evaded the robot's stomp, it was then that Vera decided to run because she entered the most beautiful car Slom has ever seen, honked twice and the two vehicles flew away in a cloud of steam and smoke before the sparkling eyes of every pirate in the vicinity.
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"Garrr emperor", the words oozing with hate, "we have some otherrr things to take carrrre of", his body started moving after the lieutenants leading this mutiny, some were missing and Slom hoped they were held captive somewhere.
Entering his cabin the rug hugged his feet but his body slashed Duke with a sword, the group quickly piled all his old friends and aquaintances to the middle of the room, taking for themselves the weapons and pieces of armor while breaking and tearing apart everything else including his heart, they made his own body light the pile with a torch and all he could do was beg their forgiveness in wordless despair.
Slom watched his entire life being ransacked, the Player controling his body had limited access to his memories thanks to Red's paranoia that something like this might happen and making his native language a crazy variant even among the Pirates, it was still enough coupled with Debby's memory and more mundane information gathering techniques.
Walking down memory lanes and meeting friends he'd made over a thousand years and gave them imortality on their deathbeds by using the elixir of life, with the one problem of short timers and needing a body ready to be taken over most had a weapon or armor ready for that moment but some died suddenly or too soon and were stashed in more mundane objects.
Watching his friends die a final death was tearing him to pieces, soundlessly saying their names and remembering them as they were in life and in the game's afterlife had become his sole reason for existing, and revenge, bloody and everlasting vengeance on the traitors that forced him to murder his own people.
It wasn't just a game to them, this was how they wanted their lives to be, filled with misery and pain as they roamed the sea, just not their misery or pain.
Hoping Vera and her shiny truck left anything for him to exact his revenge on when he managed to get control on his body back.
Assuming the system was no different when working with one or many bodies he let his mind drift to the void, seeking the micro and not macro beacons, the void itself was twisting around motes of light, what were beacons when he needed to control something as a whole were now sparks of tiny messages that burned into the void in nanoseconds, curving and twisting it to create the ilusion of perception that was their world.
Finding rhythm and meaning in the billowing pyre of code Slom slowly started constricting the void around its source, when his conciousness enveloped the pulsing core he started absorbing the outgoing sparks and replace them with his own, at first perfectly imitating them and then after spreading his awareness to the outside digital world started making small alterations.
A hand moving forward dropped down, a solid foothold became a slip, it was like controling a marrionette with a billion threads, no computer system could function like that, everything will just be a giant fumbled orchestra with the pianist trying to shape every other sound through his own, but that idea made him understand the reason for NPCs better, each avatar was the tool and the Players made the music, the afterlifers were a strange exception to this but also explained why they didn't respawn, they were recorded instruments in the grand symphony but not registered as true members anymore.
Putting his musings aside for less strenuous times Slom figured that he didnt need to shape every mote of imitated life, only those the system intrepreted as direct commands to influence his actions, some parts were much more complex and he quicly learned they were skills and other special features like speech and expressions, almost impossible to control from the void.
On the third day of his capture the traitors entered his managery, filled with magical creatures he hid from the world to let his so inclined friends choose a different avatar than a living artefact, the carnage was unbearable and he hid in the void as rare organs were harvested, the lethal creatures were all left in thunder isle, so the traitors found no resistance from all the beautifull creatures in the inner gardens of his life.
When he finally had enough controll to walk in a direct line the traitors were already debating between burning the Odacious or trying to use it for their own after finding out how almost impossible the task was without his shortcuts, they all knew how to control a NPC ship but the Odacious needed a little more finesse he never deigned anyone worthy of the knowlege.
Without the NPC acess he couldn't take over the ship without letting go of his body but when the others finally decided to burn it he couldn't stay idle, waiting for them to leave he made his avatar run and jump into the muck pit before letting it go and then envelooed the ship's NPC core, not different enough to matter he made the ship turn on its center and then go at full speed out of the bay ramming any ship not fast enough to move, going back to his body he never noticed the many pirate vessels following the emperor in his retreat.