Takeko -> Mari. Forgot to change a placeholder name, my bad.
Dear President.
While I appreciate your concern, I am disappointed that you would so quickly turn to distrust. I assure you that we have taken every safety precaution necessary to ensure the temporary secrecy of Pandemonium.
I recently discovered one of our new hires was an old member of your branch. In accordance with our agreements on espionage this woman has been removed from her position.
I hope you realise this is an interactive world we are developing, not one of your military toys. You are investors, nothing more, and you will be informed of everything that concerns you.
I hope this clears up any misunderstandings when it comes to our cooperative relationship.
Sincerely, the director of Pandemonium.
Floor 1: Starting Town. Day 1
Solace stood in a daze in the middle of the street. There were people all around him, hundreds of them. There were sounds, many sounds, but they felt far away, as if he was standing behind glass. Sounds of shouting, mostly. Surprisingly few were crying yet, they seemed angry instead. Many were quiet. More were arguing with each other, but about what he couldn’t hear or guess. Hundreds of voices trying to bring order to it all, but only feeding the chaos. No one seemed to mind Solace, he surprised himself by observing them curiously.
He saw a small group exchanging terse words before they all walked away, almost in a formation. Where they were going Solace had no idea. A young boy walked into Solace by accident, their eyes met but neither didn’t say a thing. The boy couldn’t have been older than 13, but his strength was equal to everyone else. Solace did not stop to consider the tragedy. He turned and saw a girl sitting on a porch with her head in her hands, pink hair falling in her eyes and-
It felt like a bubble burst, all of a sudden Solace was pulled back into reality. Mari. Any thoughts he might have had for himself or his surroundings he immediately lost as brotherly instincts kicked in. Pushing other players away without thought he made his way up to her. She didn’t seem to notice, or care.
“Hey, it’s-” he said, but broke off. She hardly knew him. He hesitated. “Do you need any help?” he asked instead.
She looked up at him teary eyed. They weren’t at all alike, thought Solace. It seemed like she was calculating the risk of a stranger helping her. Maybe Solace should have been thinking that, first.
“Just if you want it, though,” he added quickly.
They sat there for a moment, and Solace was about to give up before Mari raised her head and whispered, “Thank you.”
Mari wanted a place to stay, away from anyone else, but that quickly proved a difficult task. Most suitable houses were already occupied, and they wouldn’t let them in. Some did, but were only owned by male players. That wasn’t going to happen. Most were just confused when they asked to borrow a room, but finally Solace saw it. Two female players were standing outside a large, inn-like building. They did not seem at all affected by the situation. One pointed at a small group arguing, and they both laughed.
Solace thought the attitude fit. He walked up to them and asked, “Is this building yours?”
They shared a look, and one was about to answer before the other interrupted.
“Yes! Ours, through and through!” she said, patting the doorframe like a horse for effect.
“Can she borrow a room?” asked Solace, motioning to Mari behind him. He realised how weird it sounded.
“What? Like, are we landlords now?” asked the second of the two women. She glanced at the other before they whispered intently. “Yes, she can! We’re landlords now,” she amended.
“What are you paying?” asked the first, crossing her arms with added confidence.
“Paying? There’s no gold in this game,” said Solace.
“Yeah, there is. Check your quest log. They just added it.”
Solace quickly opened it. There were two, in fact.
Monster Slayer I
Kill 0/10 monsters.
Reward: 10 gold
Tragedy of the Commons
Hidden.
“But I still don’t have any gold right now,” said Solace.
The first woman shrugged and said, “You can owe us.”
“I’ll pay,” interrupted Mari. She held her bow out. “It’s one of a kind,” she explained.
“We’ll take it!” said the first woman. She led Mari in with formality. “Welcome to our humble hotel. Breakfast is at 10 if we can find something that looks like food in time.”
“What about you?” asked the second when they had closed the door. “You’re gonna need someplace to stay, eventually.
“I guess I’ll have to find some gold before night,” replied Solace and left.
It looked like others had come to the same conclusion as Solace. He reached the bridge that led to the Wilderness, and it was almost packed with other players leaving. He opened the menu and found the map to lay a plan. The map appeared as a colourful, three-dimensional hologram, maybe two meters each side, displaying everything on the first floor. The main town was visible only as a small speck of land in the river, it was crowded with thousands of golden pins marking players. Out one end came a stream of these pins, spreading out like ink in water. Some had already reached a quarter of the way to the edge, but these were frightfully isolated. More worrying were those that caught the corner of Solace’s eyes, but when he looked they had disappeared.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
There seemed to be no logic to the geography. Mountains formed right angles to encapsulate the borders. To the north were plains with small dotted forests, while southwards there were large paddy fields. East of town were mostly hills or barrows. They were populated by the golden pins, because the bridge also pointed to the east. A river ran in the middle from north to south, thin at first but widening to almost a lake at the village before it dispersed.
The map didn’t say anything about where the best loot was, or where the worst enemies were. Without much else to work with, Solace decided to travel westwards, as there were fewer players there. He followed a road upriver to find one of the few crossings marked on the map. Other groups of players walked alongside him, he took them as security until he could find a safe place to farm. However he soon realised there weren’t many monsters left to threaten him. They were systematically killed as soon as they approached the road.
The nearest river crossing turned out to be little more than a ford. With some hesitation Solace pulled up his trousers and waded through, but found that it wasn’t necessary. His feet weren’t at all wet, and in fact it felt like the water wasn’t there. Splashing some water in his face just to be sure, he could not feel anything. Solace grinned and ran the rest of the way across.
Fewer players had made their way across the river, which on the one hand meant there would be more monsters, but on the other… Well, there would be more monsters. The party of five, whom Solace had quietly dubbed his escort, took another turn a while ago, which left him all on his own. Luckily this side was mostly open plains, which gave him a solid early warning, at least before night fell. For now the sun was still high in the sky, which gave Solace ample time. He climbed up a nearby hill to get a better lay of the land.
What made the perfect farming location? Common video game knowledge dictated that night would be more dangerous, which meant it had to be close to town for safety. At the same time, there had to be few other players there. Open plains wouldn’t do, because other players could spot him and steal his farm. But an enclosed forest let monsters sneak up on him constantly.
Eventually a small forest only a kilometer away from the town caught his eye. It was out of the way from any other interesting things. More importantly, he could barely spot what looked like a small pond, disconnected from the main river, in the middle of the forest. Secluded and open at the same time. Jackpot. Solace scanned the area, and found no other players nearby. That wouldn’t last. Hoping to keep the spot secret for as long as possible he ran the distance there.
Another advantage of the spot became clear when Solace reached the forest edge. It was almost dead silent, which made a low rustling of leaves an obvious sign of monsters. Sneaking closer he could barely spot one of the small, hairy creatures climbing out of the pond, which looked to fill the majority of the forest’s center. Crouching to avoid detection, Solace positioned behind a large tree and equipped his sword. When the monster came within reach he lunged out, stabbing through its neck. It died immediately, leaving a piece of leather behind. Solace pocketed the first loot from what he hoped to be many kills.
A thick branch from the largest tree in the forest looked like a good place to rest between kills. Solace lifted himself up, and was glad that the game didn’t use real-life strength. Climbing a tree was suddenly easy. He found a spot in the wood that curved slightly downwards and reclined into a comfortable position.
Monsters spawned approximately every 30 minutes, Solace didn’t know if that was good or not. Spawns were obviously audible, either they splashed in the water or cracked a branch. Only two types of monsters seemed to spawn here. First were the small hairy creatures that Viole and he had discovered. They usually crawled out of the pond, though where they were supposed to come from Solace didn’t know. Killing them was easy, he could just drop down and stab them. Those that spawned on the other side were trickier, he had to sneak a while to get them. Some he had to fight, but they proved easy to kill, and he only took damage from them once. Their drops were simple: Fish bones, pieces of leather, and rotten teeth. Probably cheap, but they were easy to get at least. Item descriptions called these monsters hyōsube, which sounded Japanese, but gave no other context.
The second monster was scarier, but rarer: Fiery red roosters that appeared from thin air. As opposed to the hyōsube, they seemed to be aware of Solace from the beginning. The first time he saw one it kept its distance, but always kept an eye on the tree. Intent on not taking a fair fight, Solace tried sitting as still as possible until it forgot he was there, for the stealth bonus. After a while the rooster started screaming, which made him shoot up. The last thing he could afford was anyone else finding this spot. Solace jumped out of the tree and ran recklessly at the rooster, almost forgetting to equip his sword. It spit a burning hot liquid at him, which took more than 20% of his HP. But when he swung his sword at the creature it had no defenses. Two more strikes and it was dead. A red feather dropped, which described the monster simply as ‘Fire Rooster’. Hopefully the loot was better than its name. He stretched his muscles, although them being digital he didn’t think it would help much, and climbed back up in his tree.
Thus he spent the rest of the first day farming slowly but steadily. The ingame time was 20:00 when the sun hovered barely above the horizon and Solace decided to return to town. A few more roosters chipped away at his health, but the slow passive healing that everyone had left him at more than 50%, meaning he could have spent the entire night farming, too. But in a matter of life or death it was better to stay on the safe side.
Solace peered out of the forest canopy and scanned the plains around him. Only when he had opened the map to double check that there were, in fact, no other players in the area did he feel safe to enter open sight. Considering the goblins spawned from water, he had probably stumbled upon one of the most powerful farming spots on the map. Now to make sure no-one else knew about it. For that matter, he would need to find a way to mask his presence on the map. There wasn’t anything in the settings about it.
At first he ran from tree to tree, double checking the map each time to stay hidden. But apparently few had yet decided to return to town. Most players were still far, far away. Eventually Solace relaxed his attempts at staying hidden. And by the time he reached the river he was walking casually in the open. He reached the starting town in good time before sunset.
“8 gold! Are you fucking insane?” shouted Solace. Finding a place to sleep turned harder than he’d expected.
“We both know you’ve got enough,” shrugged the man standing in front of him. He was tall with broad shoulders, but Solace knew they were both equally strong at level 1.
“Enough for today, barely.” Monster Slayer I had been easy to finish with his farming technique. Another quest had showed up immediately.
Monster Slayer II
Kill 7/50 monsters
Reward: 50 gold
“Worry about that tomorrow,” suggested the man. “You should get in quickly before others arrive. I might suddenly decide to charge 15.”
“How do you know they’ll arrive? They’ll just sleep outside.”
“Apparently someone in the game knew one of the devs. Rumors have it that level 5 monsters start spawning at night. I have a feeling our friends out there will soon confirm that.”
Solace could feel his pulse rising. “Why didn’t anyone tell them? They might die…”
“You seriously believe that? It’s a fucking video game, dude. At worst they’re kicked from the server.”
“Then why aren’t you out there?”
“Because I don’t want to get kicked, obviously. Not before I’m rich as fuck. Hence the 8 gold.”
Solace sighed. “4 gold, max.”
“I don’t do bartering.”
“5 gold, and we both know that’s overselling it.”
The man hesitated.
“I’m not going any higher.”
“You’re lucky I’m nice,” he said, and they shook hands. The man stepped to the side to let Solace into a small, one-room house. There were no beds or even mats to sleep on, but then again there wasn’t really a real body to lay down.
Solace chose to ignore the other players that were even now out there threatened for their lives. It was scarily easy. Not knowing what else to do he leant against the wall and quickly fell asleep.