“Job is done.”  she said as she walked back into the base, it was a particularly large black fortress that everyone had just taken to calling the citadel.  The onyx walls of the fortress stood out against the desert backdrop that surrounded. Three people looked up as she entered, two of them had eyes that hovered a little too long at her body for comfort.

But then again that was the entire purpose of this armor, it was designed to distract anyone who saw it.  It consisted of a grey suit of armor that completely protected her upper torso, and a dress that split on both sides, revealing both of her bare thighs from the upper area down to the knee.  And it would seem that from the look of the two people that were guests here it did its purpose quite well, seeing as there eyes gravitated right to the jade of her fleshy thighs.

“Good,”  her guild leader said, with a nod, he had  the utmost confidence in her, he spoke like that was the only actual realistic outcome.

“I see however that you did not decide to kill him until after the caravan was raided.”  one man said, he had pulled back black hair and blue eyes, what was his name again? Simon Tralo? Something like that.

“I agreed to kill him, I did not sign on to protect your caravan, in fact I have to thank you, I was able to gleam a lot of information from how the two of them acted.”

“Oh? Like what?”  Simon asked, he was clothed in some mid tier metal armor, it looked like he had polished the plate to make it look more presentable, or rather that he most likely had someone else polish it, she doubted he would do that himself, he had an air about him that bespoke of a politician.

“I normally charge for tactical information,” she said, her head shifting to the side, her curly blond hair falling across her face as she smiled, her purple eyes shining with a mischievous look in them. “But this once I will play nice.”  she said, and after Mr.Tralo gestured for her to continue she started talking. “They are both new players, you can tell by the fact that they loot anything and everything, most raiders just leave a lot of the stuff they grab, so I doubt they have been playing long.” All three of the people in the room started thinking hard about what she had said. “That being said, the two of them are an unstoppable force, that much is for sure, it's almost like the two of them are in each other’s heads or something, coordination like that only can come from working for years together, a whole and complete understanding of the other.”

“Unstoppable huh?”  Simon Tralo’s partner said, rubbing his chin as he did so, he had long blonde hair and a lip peircing, there was also this unhealthy look to his skin, like he never saw any actual sunlight.

“What’s up Trevor?” Simon asked, looking over at the man that had accompanied him.

“Nothing, it was just an interesting choice of words.”  he looked up at her, his eyes burning into her own, and she held his gaze, this little shit, if this was the worse he could do than she could stand it, she got worse looks on an average day, she worked in a bar after all.  He dropped his gaze after a long pause, with a small chuckle as he let her have the victory, but he did so in a way that felt like he still won.

Damn weasel.

“Continue Risa.”  her company captain said, gesturing with a gloved and armored grey hand. With a sigh she placed her twisted mask on the table, it was part of the shadowguard’s look, of her guild’s look, and run her hand through her golden curls, causing the shoulder length locks to bounce.

“Accuracy is near 100%”  she said, keeping it to the details. “For both of them, they have excellent aim and skill, and they think and react well under pressure, not only did they take down your caravan with ruthless efficiency, they were also able to utilize some of the gear in that to quickly set a trap for an armored company that was shadowing your caravan, killed 12 people, and took down an armored vehicle, no injuries, and it was a Lionguard patrol, so you know they were armed pretty damn well.” she smiled and looked at her boss, “I like ‘em, they are shadowguard material,”

“Do you think they would take a proposal?”  he asked.

“No,”  she shook her head, her waves of golden curls bouncing to emphasize her point. “Not at all, that man, when he was raiding he had this look, the eyes of a hunter that enjoyed every moment, every shot, every kill.”  she smiled to herself as she turned her attention inwards as she rewatched the face of the man as he raided. “That man was born a raider, a warrior, and society has forced him to be civilized, here however,”  she spread her arms wide, “He can be as savage as he wants, the joy he feels, it is infectious, rapturious even.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Her boss nodded, Simon and Trevor thought about what she had just said, and stood up. Simon shook the hand of both Risa and her boss. “Well I thank you for the job well done, I trust he will be continued to be harassed?”

“You only paid me once.”  she said, and Simon raised an eyebrow, his left eye twitching in annoyance. “If you want continued harassment you will need to pay me a continuous paycheck.” she said, looking the man in the eyes.

“How much are we talking?”  he finally sighed.

“Since it will be a steady job, I will give you a discount.”  she said, running the numbers in her head, “So, how about 1,500 creds every week.” she said, and laughed on the inside as the man winced, she could almost see the gears turning in his head.

“Fine, you have a deal.”  he said, extending a hand, which she gripped tightly. “Do I make the check out to you or?”  he asked, and Risa let her boss answer that one.

“The payment can be made to the shadowguard guild, we will make sure she gets her 80%.”

“Good, can I trust that you will kill him before he hits our caravans?” Simon Tralo asked looking her in the eyes.

“No promises I know I won't keep.” she smiled, and with a grunt of displeasure he and his cohort left.

“Pretty steep,”  her boss commented.

“You saw them, they want him ground to a pulp.”

“Big company, they probably want to make an example of him, it might be expensive now but if they can make the message brutal enough it will dissuade others from trying, even in other games.” he looked up at her. “How long do you think you can milk this?”

“Indefinitely.”  she said with a laugh.

“Indefinitely?”  he asked looking at her.

“You don’t understand Mike, you and I both know this guy plays at 100% damage threshold, right?”

“Right,”  he nodded.

“I shot him in the chest, tore him up real good, you know what he did?”  she asked, and watched as Mike shook his head. “He laughed, he just fucking laughed and called out to me as he lay there.”

“What did he say?”

“He said Touche.”  she smiled, oh yes, she doubted very much that killing him over and over would drive him away, not a man like this, it would likely cause him to come and play more, that was just how he was, she could see it.

She would probably have to work for that 1,500.

It was nice to find someone who shared her mindset, she smiled, this, this was going to be fun...

***

Matt opened his eyes, the light bit into his pupils after the short but profound darkness that had taken him.  It hurt, he could still feel the dull ache of where the entire side of his chest had disappeared, but that was slowly fading, it would seem as though after death the game applied some sort of soothing touch to the wounded area, quickly causing the pain to dissipate.  Likely it an often overlooked feature, seeing as many people would not think about it much seeing as not many of them set their pain threshold over 20%.

But to Matt, it was heaven.

Sitting up he quickly found that he was completely nude.  

Completely .

It would seem as though this game was, shall we say more on the realistic side.  Then again the game was rated AO, a rating that went past even mature, and one that it was exceptionally rare to see in a MMO, seeing as they normally went for the most players so they often shot for everyone or teen ratings.

With a shrug he stood up, and walked over to the closes stash of gear, it only took a minute or two to re equip, this time instead of a standard brown leather duster he had a tan one made of denim,it was the exact same color as his pants he dawned and the rusty iron plated armor went nicely with it, with a nodd he grabbed a nine millimeter pistol and went to go get Willow, and with any luck his stuff.

It wasn't to hard to find his way back, they had after all painted the sky with a giant black beacon when he had set that building on fire. When he got there he found a red eyed Willow pacing back and forth by his corpse like a woman possessed.  There Was blood on her face, and judging by how the blood on his corpse's face was smeared it seemed like she had placed her face up against his own.

What had she tried to do? Kiss him? Give him mouth to mouth?  He looked at the hole in his chest, and doubted very much that mouth to mouth could have helped anyone in that situation at all.  It was odd to see oneself, lying there dead.

“Willow,”  he called out, Willow’s head snapped up and looked at him, the red of her eyes vanishing in a second. And before he could react she rushed him, tackling him and pushing him to the ground, resting on top of his chest.  She looked down at him, and her face started to pucker up, and much to his surprise she started to cry.  Her features twisted as she started to cry heavier.  She laid her head against his chest and wept openly, not knowing what to do he shushed her and ran a hand through her hair.  She quickly calmed down and he was able to talk to her. “Its fine, its only a game, you know this.”

“Its not that, you idiot.”  she said softly with a moan.

“Then what is it?” he asked.

“One day you will die, for real, and you will not be able to respawn, you won't come back you will be gone forever,”  she started to sniff again, like she was about to cry. “And I don't want you to go-”

Looking up at the sky he rested his head on the warm concrete of the road. “That is just the way of the world.”  he sighed, “You never know when it is your time, so you need to simply live life to the fullest with every moment.”  he looked at her as she cried on his chest and thought about Taylor, at the time of her death he would have given his life for hers in a split second, but now, in retrospect, after feeling the pain of her absence for so long he realised that of the two of them she had gotten the better end of the deal.  She feld nothing now, no pain, no hurt.

And he never wanted to put her through that, never.

When he looked back up Willow had stopped crying, her eyes however still had a trace of tears in them.  Slowly she leaned forward, her lips pressing against his own.  He felt the smooth sensation of her lips and he pulled his head back, breaking away from her.

It was difficult. Very very difficult.

“You need to stop that.”  he said to her.

“I don't want to.” she whispered back and once again leaned into his lips, her tongue reaching out to coax his own out of his mouth,  and against his better judgment he didn't resist this time...