Quest for Justice (8 page)

Stan woke up to the feel of Rex licking his face. Judging by the fact that it was early morning and the sky was no longer gray, they had been out cold for a while. Stan sat up and woke Kat.

“It's funny,” she said with a grimace. “Each day I think this game couldn't get any more dangerous.”

Stan nodded. He understood what she meant. “Well, let's hurry. We have to get Charlie some help as soon as possible, and I have a hunch that we'll find that in Element City.” Kat nodded and stood up. Looking at himself, he saw that he was covered in dust and debris from the explosion. “We'd both better jump in the water when we get a chance, too,” said Stan. “We're a mess!”

Kat didn't say anything, but got up and walked slowly and painfully over to Charlie. Stan followed right behind her. Together, with extreme difficulty, they slung the unconscious Charlie onto their shoulders, and started limping down the path once again.

It was agony. The Creeper's explosion had damaged something within Stan, and every breath he took felt detached, like it was hurting rather than helping him. Kat, on the other hand, had a huge slash on her back from battling the Pig-Zombie, and she might have also suffered more injuries from being thrown into the crater. Charlie wasn't capable of doing anything to help. The wounds to his head and leg were severe, and the thought of these wounds not healing was the only thing pushing Kat and Stan to continue down the path.

After what seemed like an entire day (though, in reality, the sun was high in the sky, and it was only about noon), a wall came into view. It was a huge wall, and the only things that Stan could see over the wall were the tall towers of what looked like a castle. Stan was just noticing the guards pacing back and forth on top of the wall, armed with bows, when something inside him gave an awful lurch. He found himself falling, blacking out before he had even hit the ground.

W
hen Stan woke up, he found himself lying on the ground. There were dirt and weeds beneath him, and brick walls rose on both sides of him. He had just noticed this when he saw Kat squatting down next to him, stuffing a golden apple into the unconscious Charlie's mouth. Stan noticed that the cut on her back had vanished. She must have eaten a golden apple as well.

“Oh, Kat . . . what happened?” Stan asked, his hand to his head, as Charlie began to stir, his cuts already completely vanished.

“You passed out,” Kat said. “Right outside the gate. You and Charlie were both down, and I knew that I needed golden apples. None of the guards would even talk to me, and I had to look through about three shops before I found one that was willing to trade for three golden apples. I gave him the crafting table, the furnace and coal, the bow, the eleven arrows, the iron and golden swords, and most of the watermelon, and he still seemed to think that I was almost stealing by taking the apples from him.”

“Wait,” said Stan, trying to process what she had said. “Questions. What do you mean,
shops
?”

“Oh, well, we made it to Element City. Apparently, that's what that wall was.” Stan noticed a row of buildings
with players swarming in the streets. “And right at the entrance is the merchant's area. They barter from inside their shops.”

“Okay,” Stan said. “Where are we now?”

“Oh, I just dragged you two into the nearest convenient alleyway and then got the golden apples.”

“Okay so . . . wait a minute . . . crafting table . . . furnace, coal . . . bow, arrows . . . two swords . . . watermel—You gave him all our stuff!?” Charlie said, for he'd recovered and was listening now, too.

“And he still thought I was ripping him off, even though I was still bleeding really bad myself,” said Kat, shaking her head. “I tell you, the people here are total jerks compared to the Adorian Village.”

Stan remembered how Adoria had hesitated before telling them that going to Element City was a good idea.
This must be what she meant
, he thought.

“I'll say, though,” said Kat. “The guy seemed really surprised when I said that the wounds were from a Zombie Pigman. Apparently they—”

“Wait, what's a Zombie Pigman?” asked Charlie.

The other two stared at him for a minute. Then Kat said, “Charlie, are you dense?”

Charlie looked confused.

“Dude, what did we just fight? What gave you cuts on the head and leg?”

Charlie concentrated for a second, and then his face lit up. “Oh, I get it! 'Cause it's a Zombie but it looks like a pig and has the body shape of a man!”

Kat and Stan glanced at each other.

“Let's hope that's just a side effect of the apple,” said Kat dismissively. “Anyway, we're here now, and Goldman told me that the thing that you want to do once you get here is get a job. They offer you lodging and food, and you work for them. Sometimes they'll offer you a more tedious task, and they'll pay you in materials. Those materials can be traded for other things that you need, and eventually you'll be able to open your own house that you buy on the real estate market and open your own business beneath it.”

As she finished her monologue, Stan and Charlie looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“When did you spend so much time talking to G?”

“And why did you call him ‘Goldman'?”

Kat rolled her eyes. “I talked to him at night after training. It's nice to talk to someone who knows what he's talking about. And for the record, he prefers to be called Goldman, but he lets people call him G because Goldman is kind of a mouthful. I don't mind, though,” she added, as Charlie and Stan snickered. “Let's go find jobs.”

And with that, the trio stood up, ate the last three watermelon slices, and, with nothing left to their names,
walked out of the alley and into the street.

The city was breathtaking. The cobblestone streets were overflowing with people walking down the blocks. Above their heads, a monorail-like system of railroad tracks ran above the houses. And the houses were everywhere. The ground floors of the houses were various stores and shops, with the living quarters situated above.

Overlooking this metropolis were skyscrapers. The area they were in was clearly the merchants' district, but there were other zones of the city as well, and one of them was filled with skyscrapers. The tallest buildings were three towers, connected by bridges at various points. The middle was crowned by a slender spire. However, the main building of this city was clearly the castle.

Raised up significantly higher than the skyscrapers, this building stretched into the clouds at its peak. The tallest towers of the castle, the ones that could be seen from outside the city over the high wall, must have literally been able to touch the clouds. And the castle was wide, too—it stretched halfway across the city. Even from this distance, they could clearly make out the flag flying from the castle's bridge. It was emblazoned with a design of three beings: a Creeper, a cow, and a player with pale skin, blond hair, and a gold crown, who Stan guessed must be the King.

Kat let the boys marvel at the city for a few minutes, but
then she forced them to start walking around and asking for work. They went door to door, asking if there were three jobs available. Stan noticed a pattern throughout the process. Whenever they asked for jobs, the first question that was asked was what level they were. Every time they said that Kat was level eight, Stan was level six, and Charlie was level five, they were turned down without further questioning.

After their twelfth rejection, Kat was looking exasperated and Charlie was looking downright irritated. Stan was about to say that they call it quits and tough it out in the alley for the night when he heard a noise behind him.

“Psst!”

His immediate thought was,
Creeper!
Being the target of three Creeper attacks will do that to a player. He whipped around and made to draw his axe (which he had forgotten he no longer had), but he realized that it was not a Creeper. A player gestured to them from a store across the street. This player had on the most bizarre getup they had ever seen. He appeared to be dressed as a black crow, complete with a yellow beak on his face.

“Psst! Come here, you three!” he whispered, which Stan didn't get, seeing as all the other stores were closing for the night. And besides, why would he want to keep their visit secret from the neighbors? It all seemed a little sketchy to Stan.

The lights turned on as Stan followed the player across the
street and into a store. He saw shelves and shelves stocked with rotten flesh, bones, string, Spider eyes, and other things that were taken from the monsters of Minecraft. He also noticed the weapons. Swords of various materials were laid out on tables. Axes hung from hooks on the ceiling. An entire wall was completely covered with hanging bows. There were also mannequins dressed in full sets of leather, iron, and diamond armor. Stan was impressed. He had a feeling that if this player wanted to hire them, he would like the job quite a lot.

They climbed up a ladder in the back of the shop and into the player's house. It was very simple. The only items inside were torches on the walls, a bed, two chairs, a sapling tree on a block of dirt, some chests, a crafting table, a furnace, and a counter with a machine with a button on it.

“Sit,” the player said. While Charlie and Kat sat on the chairs and Stan on the floor, they saw the player walk over to the machine and press the button four times. Four loaves of bread popped out of a hole in the front of the machine. He handed three of these to his guests and kept the fourth for himself. He sat down on the bed.

“Am I correct in thinking that you three are looking for jobs?” the player asked.

“Yes,” Kat said. “We're new here—”

“Sh, sh, shhh!” said the player, looking nervous. For
whatever reason, he clearly didn't wish to be heard. “Not so loud! My name is Blackraven100, and I'm looking for some helping hands in my hunting business.”

“What do you mean, hunting business? Hunting what?” asked Charlie.

“Oh, right, I keep forgetting that you three are . . .
lower-level players
,” he whispered, as if it were an awful word. “You see, some rich players like to go hunting for Zombies and other mobs for sport. It's great fun if you're well prepared, and you can get some pretty valuable loot. I used to be one of those hunters, but ever since I passed level fifty, I don't find it as fun as I used to. Now, I sell all the loot that I collected over the years, and I plan to buy an unsettled plot of land that I can build on.

“Unfortunately, my supply has begun to dwindle, and now I need some help with my hunting while I tend the shop. I need players to go into the woods, kill all the monsters that they can find, and bring the loot back to me. The pay will be high. So, what do you say? Obviously I would be happy to lodge and feed you.”

He looked at them expectantly. Stan, Kat, and Charlie looked at each other. Stan was nodding, and Charlie was shrugging with a smile, so Kat said, “That sounds good. Thank you for hiring us. Nobody else would. By the way, why
wouldn't
any of the others hire us? We're very grateful that
you hired us,” she quickly added, at which Stan and Charlie nodded. “But I'd still like to know.”

Blackraven closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again. “Oh, some of the higher-level players here have a prejudice against anyone under, say, level fourteen or fifteen. It's stupid, really. They say the upper-levels have been on the server longer and have had to fight their way to the top, and the lower-levels today don't have to work as hard because they are building off what the upper-levels have done.”

Kat's and Stan's mouths dropped open, and Charlie actually said loudly, “That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Do you know what we've been through since—”

“Ssssshhhhhhhh!” said Blackraven, cutting Charlie off. “The people around here aren't fond of upper-level players who treat lower-levels kindly. Personally, I think that the whole thing is nonsense, but I can't afford to voice the opinion when so many around me think that it isn't.

“Now, let's go to bed,” he said. He walked to the chest and pulled out some wool and wood. He walked over to the crafting table, and within minutes there were four beds lined up around the room, each occupied by a player.

As he lay in bed, Stan wondered if this unjust prejudice against lower-level players had been the motive of the Griefer that killed Crazy Steve, or even . . . the motive that drove Mr. A, the Griefer that had tried to kill them so many days
ago. Perhaps a lower-level player had once robbed him of his items, and he was struggling to get back what he had once had.
Yes, that would make perfect sense
, thought Stan, as he drifted into sleep.

The next day, Stan, Kat, and Charlie set out, laden with gear, to go hunting on their first day under the employ of Blackraven100. Each player was wearing an iron chestplate and helmet. Kat walked in front, holding an iron sword at her side, a bow and quiver of arrows slung across her back. Rex walked behind her, followed by Stan. Stan was holding an iron axe that glinted in the sunlight, and he was also carrying six loaves of bread. Charlie walked next to Stan, holding a pickaxe and their two most important items: a compass and a clock. The compass would help them if they got lost, and the clock told them the time of day in the dark forest.

“Be sure you get back by noon,” Blackraven had said, “so you don't miss the King's proclamation. You can go back out after that.”

“Proclamation? What's that?” asked Stan.

“Oh, every now and then the King of Element City makes an announcement that there will be a major law change or something of that sort. You're citizens of the city now, so you should be there.”

With this in mind, the three players, along with the dog,
went out of the big city gates and into the forest to start to hunt.

It was odd. They had run into so many monsters in that dark forest before, but now they ran into virtually none at all. The only monsters that they were able to find and kill were a Zombie (killed by a pickaxe to the head from Charlie), two Skeletons (shot from afar by Kat), and a Creeper (felled by Stan's axe). The Creeper was actually pretty impressive, as it was the first Creeper that any of them had personally killed. Still, they were upset by the fact that, when the clock showed that it was nearing midday, they walked back into the city almost empty handed, holding only a piece of rotten flesh, three bones, two arrows, and a handful of gunpowder from the Creeper.

The moment they stepped through the gates Stan could tell that something was wrong. The people on the streets were unusually quiet, and Stan occasionally caught whispers, such as “Did you hear about that merchant whose store was vandalized?” and “Yes, I heard that he was offering jobs to noobs. The thought!” This particular comment heightened Stan's panic, and he actually started to hyperventilate when he saw the smoke rising from the area of Blackraven's store and heard the angry shouts from that direction.

The trio turned the corner and their eyes bulged in horror. Even the dog whimpered at the awful scene before them.

Blackraven's store had been set on fire. Flames blazed out of his upstairs bedroom, and the downstairs was gleaming with the rising blues, yellows, reds, and blacks of burning charcoal. There was a mob outside, and they were yelling in fury, but not at the scene of destruction. Stan heard yells of “How do you like being forced out of house and home?” and “That's what you get for sheltering noobs!” Stan watched in terror as the people threw bricks, shattering the upstairs windows. Stan was petrified. The three of them had brought this on! What if Blackraven was still in there?