Fuck, how long until those Angels dive down on them?! There are hundreds emitting light, and even causing the system to lag. This makes my situation even worse, the character is rubberbanding. It never happened before, and it does at the worst possible time.
Does it affect the attackers too? If I could slip through them...
There is a sharp pain in my nape, then it's all gone.
I'm still on the main square but at a different spot, and a few other people are here with me wearing their basic gear. It's like an out-of-body experience, watching the events unfold from a new angle. It takes a few moments to realize, it's the opposite.
The body is right here, and it belongs to my avatar. And the reason we are all here is about to be completely obliterated. An army of Angels dives onto the square, ravaging the small group of robbers at the other end. It looks brutal, but considering they tried to kill me, it's glorious.
What the fuck took them so long? And where did my gear go? Don't panic, there was no notification, though there wasn't at the first time either. No, that can't be. Calm down, the log should be easy to open.
[01:19:06. A Heavy Stab with Longsword on Noob. It's a Critical Hit! +24 Damage. It decapitated you. Noob died, respawning at your designated area.]
No. No, wait. You must be joking.
[The D-rank quest "Rat Ravaged Home" is no longer valid.]
[Government Issued Quest: Reach Level 10 within 3 days. Importance: Utmost. Difficulty: Average. Progress: 1/10, Exp to next level: 0/100. (10/72 hours left).]
NO! Fuck, this can't be happening. I want to scream but considering the crowd around me, it's lucky that no voice comes out of my throat. The inventory is gone, the missions, the levels, everything reset.
Everything other than the timer... Ten hours left?!
The looters won't even bother with us, or the battle. What battle, it was a massacre, the red-named are gone, like everyone else. Some players around me seem upset, others hit the logout button as if nothing happened.
Useless junk litters the village center, and the looters continue toward the Marketplace. They can't even bother to check the area where the gankers got decimated. They couldn't get much out of my character, he died for no reason.
Yes, they killed me, this close to the finish line, I still can't believe it. How? Why? Weren't these robbers supposed to attack the fancy rich players only? It's not true, for fucks sake. Give my Exp and levels back. Without realizing it, the avatar's legs run to the scene.
Some swords lay around, and twenty rat tails are the only sign that my previous avatar got murdered here. It's all that's left, the shield, the rusty sword, gone. The green cloak, I forgot to swap it out with the black one for the night. The potions, all disappeared.
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Four bandages and the tails, that's it. What else was on me at the last moments? It doesn't matter, you can't loot or recover the experience points. Fuck. God damn it. The gankers didn't have anything but their weapons.
A long blade and a spiked war hammer are all the weapons the twenty robbers left behind. The padded vest is gone too, well it didn't do shit against that critical hit that beheaded me. And the other one is still stuck at the Textile Works. I don't even have the money to get it back.
No, no, the stash, most of the stuff is still there, I even unloaded all the cash. Who cares, fucking game let me get killed for nothing, right before the quest was complete. Taking the garbage that even the looters deemed useless, at least I have a weapon.
It's not even bad, the sword is the same as my rusty one that disappeared, without the debuffs. The war hammer has interesting stats, it works depending on how you swing it. It can deal piercing or bludgeoning damage, has a high Res, and lowers the Res of the enemy's armor.
These fuckers were well prepared to kill any opponent. I recall seeing some spears and axes too, the only thing missing were bows. God damn it, I still can't believe it. What the fuck am I supposed to do now? Ten hours left, it's over.
No, come on. If Baldie could do it in six hours with premium, ten should be plenty. Don't be a fucking quitter, Arnim, that was never your Jazz. Even if the quests became invalid, Selena is beyond those stairs and can give you a new one.
Take another, if you're lucky you get a C-rank job with the Death Rats. Six of those, and you're golden. Not like I stood a chance against those fuckers the last time, but it no longer matters. Standing at zero, there is nothing to lose now.
Oh, shit, she can't give me C-rank contracts, D is the highest. Plague Rats, how much would they give? Eighteen hundred per clearing the house and five hundred for ending the job. Fifty thousand to the tenth level, no, fifty-one. That means, twenty-two of those errands.
If she could give me three that have already escalated, it's still possible to grind out the Exp in the last ten hours. If there is any less than that... No, if you escalate one in six hours and then take the C-rank, then... Fuck, my head wants to explode.
Okay, it is not the time to run theoretical mathematics, fucking move, Arnim. Talk to Selena, if there's only one person who can, she might turn this around. Time is of the essence, grab those stupid grinding tasks, and get going.
"Ah, welcome back, Noob. I thought you went on a holiday, haha." She seems oblivious to what is happening outside. The halls are empty, this is also a first. "Someone else finished your last contracts before you, and we are finally done with the rat menace."
"What? No, I came for more of those." As the voice pitches up, she raises an eyebrow. My heart, head, and heart all want to explode, and the vision gets blurry. "Please tell me you have some D-rank missions for me."
I sound weird, and her eyes widen too.
"What happened, dear? Are you crying?" Only after her question do I realize that this is what's happening. Wow, not that manlike, am I? And there is nothing to do about it. "Hey, it's all right, I'm sure we'll have something by the morning."
"T-that's too late. I need to find something right now." You sound pathetic, Arnim. A crybaby, in front of a woman, no less. Fuck. This is exactly what worried me, they'd run out of quests. It's all because of that dumb shit event with the bandits, why did I have to kick that off?!
"Oh, well, let me take a look." She's trying her best, rummaging through her parchments, but it's the thinnest stack I have seen. She shakes her head, even those must be the crafting jobs that are Premium only. "I can offer you a few G-class errands, but..."
It's over. I'm done, and the character collapses in front of her desk.