*Crack!* The sound of something breaking makes my heart stop beating.
We’re inside a game. It’s impossible that the explosion broke any of my bones and, as far as I know, the terrain is indestructible. There’s only one thing that could make that sound.
I ignore everything that’s going on around me, focusing only on that thought. Slowly, with clunky movements like a robot, I reach out into my pocket and take out a white orb. There it is. The previously immaculate surface now has a large and irregular line running through most of it.
“No, no, no…”
I poke it with my finger, wishing it’d somehow repair itself. That a miracle will return it to its pristine condition…
But instead, it breaks into tiny fragments resembling droplets. The droplets then melt into and slip through my fingers, disappearing as they fall.
“No way…”
I don’t want to believe it. The OP item we just obtained, after such a long struggle against Targaroth, is gone. We didn’t have time to test its effects. It was so hard to get it. We were extremely lucky to find it because it needed both our teams present at the same time. The stars aligned and we achieved the impossible!
But then… but then those fuckers showed up and ruined everything! They always do! Why can’t they ever leave me alone?
I clench the hand that was holding the broken Tears of a Fallen Kingdom. Anger surges from within. They’ve done it now... I tried to avoid confronting them head-on because it would only spell more trouble, but I can’t hold back anymore.
“YOU FUCKEEEEERS!”
My shout surpasses the loud sound of the explosions and reaches everyone. The cultists all turn to look in my direction, worried looks on their faces.
----------------------------------------
“Tsk.” I click my tongue, annoyed.
Where did all these players come from? And why do they behave like that?
I heard Andreu complaining about a group of madmen obsessed with him, but I always thought he was exaggerating. He always puts importance on insignificant details, so it was a foregone conclusion.
Who could have thought he was telling the truth? In all my time playing DMA, I haven’t found so many crazy players together, united for the same purpose.
And believe me when I say I’ve seen my rough share of crazy players…
The thing is that their teamwork isn’t that bad. Their erratic and unpredictable actions somehow interact between them in a way that makes things difficult for me. They’ve cut down my flight, their self-destructions followed by resurrections are the most ingenious and extravagant way of fighting I’ve ever seen in players, and the one they call ‘Leader’ pushes the madmen forward as if they were his limbs.
If only I could strike that ‘Leader’ down, things would be much easier. But I haven’t had a chance to get close to him.
I never expected to find a decent player mixed between them. Though he’s not as good as a pro player, he’s good enough to give me trouble when supported by the other seventeen players. He has been blocking all my tries to kill the ‘Leader’. Where did he come from? I’ve never seen him before, nor do I recognize his fighting style.
“Tsk.” I click my tongue yet again. The said player is standing before me after I killed him for the third time. “Why don’t you stay dead? Your stats are so low that you can’t keep up with me anymore.”
He glares at me but says nothing, he doesn’t want to give up on obstructing me. The man, using a human Champion, stands in my way yet another time.
“Annoying…”
I spent so much time chasing after Andreu… I even had to fight Clara in the middle! And now it’s come to this awful fight. It’s a horrible experience to have your prize stolen right in front of you.
Things would have been much easier if Andreu hadn’t reduced my stats to half. I have no idea how he did it, but I’m sure it’s his fault.
It’s him. It’s always him.
Since we were little, it’s been always him the single one who could defeat me. With his extravagant builds and impossible luck. His random plans that somehow turn into reality.
…I just want to beat him once, fair and square. That each of us uses everything in our arsenal to bring the other down. A fight without tricks or deceptions. I thought I could achieve this today, using the excuse that I’m angry to force him into a fight; but, when I finally found him, it turned into this mess.
The sound of continuous explosions keeps coming from all directions. I pay extra attention to them, to predict where the next would come from.
Chain self-destruct is a tactic that you can rarely see on monsters. Self-destruct is easy to interrupt, you just have to kill the monster before it explodes; but when in a chain, every explosion sends the nearby monsters flying, making it difficult to predict where the next explosion will occur.
You need to calculate the relative position of the monster that’s ready to explode to the exploding one, add the push radius to that, and then calculate the explosion area at the end. To this, you must add any extra movement the monster takes or any collisions in its path when it’s thrown away.
It’s the first time I’ve seen this tactic being used by players, though. I never expected anyone to be crazy enough to pull it off.
Dying once usually means it’s GG. Resurrection should only be used as a last resort of sorts when everything else has failed because it reduces your stats.
The players have been trying to strike me down with chain self-destruct to no avail. In any other situation, it shouldn’t work against me, as I can fly away. But I have my mobility reduced. My HP is pretty low and has been halved, I can’t afford to take extra damage from the poison clouds.
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I hate to admit it, but I’ve taken a few hits.
The man in front of me, though, is in a way worse position than me. Blocking my path means he has been near all the explosions targetting me. I believe he has taken more damage from them than from my attacks.
“YOU FUCKEEEEERS!”
Everyone stops moving after the shout. A few of the players who had activated self-destruct before the shout are the only ones who don’t, because they can’t. They eventually blow up, and silence follows.
“That’s…” That was Andreu’s voice, I would recognize it anywhere. What’s wrong with him?
“You… You ruined everything! It’s always you. Can’t you see I’m not enjoying any of that bullshit? Leave me alone, you freaking weirdos!”
Blinded by rage, Andreu starts casting spells at any player with a dark robe in his field of vision. They, with faces of disbelief, simply stand still, letting the attacks hit them.
In particular, the ‘Leader’, who I’ve been eyeing since the start, is the target of most of them. He accepts the spells head-on while praying and shaking his head, before dying. Andreu has just achieved what I couldn’t throughout this fight.
Now that the ‘Leader’ is finally dead, I won’t allow them to bring him back to life. I swear on my name and honor.
“That’s one trouble taken care of,” I comment. “Now I can finally take out the rest of the trash.”
I send one final glance at Andreu. He has stopped casting spells randomly, surely because he ran out of MP. He falls to the ground and starts punching it with all his strength. If this weren’t a game, I’m sure he would be crying.
“Hmm…” I start thinking.
Due to those player’s interference, I’ve taken too much damage and my MP is almost empty. It seems like I’ve recovered my lost stats, which is probably related to why Andreu got so angry, but recovering them doesn’t mean I’m in a fine condition. All my stats have risen, keeping the same percentage they were at, which is low.
I’m in no condition to properly fight Andreu’s party after this… And I can’t show them how Calamities can instantly recover, because the DMA staff banned us from showing them. I’m not sure why, but they did, so I can’t recover in front of them, nor I can tell them to wait while I do.
Shit. They not only ruined Andreu’s plan but also mine.
“Tsk.” I click my tongue yet another time. I wonder how many times I’ve done it since they showed up. “He’s right. All’s gone to shit because of them.”
I alternate looking between Andreu and the black-clothed players. Something twists within me when I see my brother’s visage.
Maybe, I should…
----------------------------------------
Catharsis. When you release your pent-up emotions, achieving relief.
At least that’s what’s supposed to happen. So why do I continue to feel so bad even after spending all the MP I recovered, attacking everything in my sight? Is it because I didn’t have time to recover that much MP?
I keep punching the ground. My head is about to explode from the worst headache I’ve ever had.
“Fuck. At times like this, not being able to cry is weird…” I want to cry in rage and impotence, like a true man. “I feel like leaving the game. I don’t want to see any more of this…”
There’s no reason for me to stay, is there? Once Marta finishes the remaining cultists, she’ll come after me.
“Hey.” Someone grabs my shoulder.
I raise my head and to my surprise, find Marta looking at me with a smile on her face.
“Mar–”
She closes my mouth with her hand, stopping me before I can say her full name. “Never forget the first rule of online games, regardless of the situation.”
Oh, yeah… I almost made a huge mistake.
“Anthemia… Did you come to kill me? Do it, I have no will to resist.”
*Slap!* She slaps me, something I never expected. “Stop acting like this. It makes me sick. Stand up proud, laugh like a maniac, and do unexpected stuff. Act like you always do.”
“...huh?”
I can’t understand what she wants from me. She’s always complaining about those things, but now she wants me to act like that? Did she get infected by the ‘mad rat’ disease? I know I’ve mentioned that disease before, but it was supposed to be a joke.
Fucking cultists, they ruined my sister too…
*Slap!* She slaps a second time. “Stop with your delusions. Yeah, I know you were thinking something stupid.” She adds when I look at her with my eyes wide open.
When did she learn to read my mind?
“Sigh… Leave this place and go enjoy what remains of this Mystery Event. I’ll take care of them for you. I’ll make them regret being alive.”
A shiver runs down my spine. “Y-you’re going to help me–”
“Just shut up and go before I change my mind!” Before I can add anything, Marta quickly resumes the fight, rushing at the closest cultist.
Hmm… why does it feel like she’s running away from me…? Well, it doesn’t matter. Let’s take this chance to leave all the problems behind.
I never thought it would be Marta the one who would cheer me up in such a situation. After two of her slaps, I feel my head clear up and my feelings return to normal. I then look for the closest exit and start walking in that direction.
In the end, the two problems took care of each other. Marta will end the cultists, and I’m sure, taking into account her behavior, that she won’t chase after us.
But the cost was too high.
“Let’s go, team! We have a mystery to solve!”
Slowly, the rest of my teammates start to appear near me. It seems like they want to cheer me up, but at the same time, they don’t want to trigger me, so they maintain a certain distance.
“Hey, look at this. Look at this, Koala! The Great Fairy Explorer has found something amazing while everyone was running around!”
“Oh, shut up Balmy. I’m not in the mood for–”
She shoves something right next to my eye. “Just look at it! Doesn’t it look amazing!?”
Sigh. She can be pretty annoying…
Without any option left, I look at the thing in front of me. It’s a short, flat-chested flying humanoid, wearing an annoying grin on her face… ah, no. This isn’t what I’m supposed to look at.
The thing Balmy is holding is a black sphere. Black particles swirl around it. At first glance, it seems like the particles are going to be absorbed, but they aren’t.
“I believe I’ve seen those particles before… where was it…?” I mutter.
Thunder Thighs quickly solves the enigma. “They look like those released by the monsters when we defeat them.”
“Ah, you’re right…” I nod my head. “But where did you find it? There was nothing when we investigated.”
Balmy grins at me. “Do you want to take a guess?” She quickly resumes talking when I glare at her. “...I found it by chance. When I evaded one of the self-destruct explosions, the throne Targaroth was using broke into pieces and this popped up from the inside. So I took it! Hahaha!”
She gleefully spins around, holding the black sphere in her hands as if it were the greatest treasure.
“You did a great job, Balmy.” I never thought I’d say this. “Now, give it to me so I can keep it safe…”
“Nooooooooooo! It’s mine! You already broke one, so this one is mine!”
Here we go again.
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
This was, by far, the worst moment the Mad Rat cultists experienced in their lives; and it wasn’t because of Marta’s punishment, they didn’t care about that. Some of them even enjoyed it. What shocked them was being called a nuisance by their own ‘god’. It was the worst thing they could imagine. As such, they all agreed it was time to ‘repent’ for their transgressions…
To be continued.