The Bathrobe Knight (31 page)

“But, someone has to rule them,” he started to argue back, but there wasn’t much voice behind his words. Her opinions on the matter had already started to worm their way into his thoughts. “If not, then the good honest and innocent people will die for the greed of those pigs.”

“That’s true. Someone does have to rule, but should it really be you? Wouldn’t you much rather be out in the world, risking your life, adventuring through dungeons and caves as you bounce from one fight to another? I quite imagine that this little thing . . .” she took the Crown off of her head and placed it on his, “feels much more like a shackle than an honor.”

Qasin adjusted the Crown, thinking back on the hundreds of people he had murdered over the last few days in his gambit for power.
It feels good to kill,
he thought at the same time she mouthed the words at him.
It feels so good.
He sighed, knowing she wasn’t wrong about the Crown or his need to find someone else to wear it.

Darwin
:

Darwin wasn’t able to get half way back home before Alex came barreling out of the woods in front of him at full speed.

“Captain!” Alex almost shouted as he closed in on Darwin. “Captain, I’m glad I could find you in time.”

“In time? In time for what?” Darwin asked, confused.

“To kill them. To kill those scum,” Alex said, pointing randomly at a direction in the forest.

“Kill who?” Darwin asked, “What scum are you talking about?”

“The bastards who murdered my family,” Alex said, gritting his teeth as his face grew redder by the minute.

“Wait, scum that killed your family?”

“Captain, during the attack that earned you your title and destroyed our village, many people died defending the town. They fought bravely against the intruders, but some didn’t; some people took advantage of the chaos that ensued during the struggle and murdered and pillaged good people’s homes. A lot of people died that didn’t have to, people that weren’t part of the struggle. These people, I know for a fact, were part of that group of traitors who murdered the townspeople during the mayhem,” Alex said in a way that made it difficult to tell if he was angry at the people or at Darwin wasting precious seconds that could be spent avenging.

“Say no more,” Darwin said, not wanting to upset Alex with more waiting. “Lead the way.”

As the two of them tore through the woods with Darwin’s entourage, Fuzzy Wuzzy and the four Turtle-Wolves, Alex did his best to update Darwin on the situation. “There are twelve of them. They aren’t nearly as skilled in combat as you, but they are better than the average soldier.”

Better than the average soldier? So they’re at least above level 20. If they aren’t nearly ‘as skilled as me’ then that means they are probably all between level 25 and 30, probably not over 30.
Darwin began putting the numbers together in his head. It was going to be a mathematical slaughter.
I have five troops with me, all of which are originally only Level 41, but each of them gaining the Captain’s Emblem’s +5 levels and +5% all stats, I don’t think I even have to take part in this fight.

“But, Captain, there is one thing we may need to be concerned about,” Alex continued, breaking Darwin from his happy thoughts about being overpowered against the noobs. “One of them kept talking about all powerful entities--he called them Aliens. ”

Darwin’s face fell flat. “You’re worried about . . . Aliens?”

“Yeah, this Henry character in the group kept talking about them and how they made us all. How they could easily come down and destroy us at a moment’s notice. I normally wouldn’t believe intel like this, but he was casually telling his allies without any knowledge that we were eavesdropping. It makes it a lot more credible.”

Darwin momentarily found himself at a loss for words. “Actually, you don’t have to worry about Aliens. They aren’t real.”

“Then why would he talk about them as if they were?”

“Do, do your people have a God?”

“Oh, no, not really. We haven’t for centuries. Our people abandoned the gods long before the great king Qasin united the people, but some of the White-Horns worship the Mountain and the God of the Plains.”

“Oh, well, Aliens are basically just another God for people who don’t have one back where I came from.” Darwin cursed instantly when he realized he had referred to ‘where he came from.’
Would it be a rule violation to mention the real world to NPCs?

“So in your village they worship Aliens, and the Aliens live in the heavens above?”

“Yeah, something like that. I’ve even heard stories that the only way to reach out to them is to wear shiny metal reflective hats.”

“That’s . . . that’s an interesting religion. You, uhh . . . don’t follow it do you?”

“Oh, God, no. To me, this whole world was designed with a purpose, and you could say that purpose was to have fun. No need to think about it further,” Darwin said, laughing at his own fourth wall joke.
Yep, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was definitely programmed, I mean designed, with the intent for the player to have fun.

“Ok, good. Because the whole concept sounds ridiculous. Who wants to pretend another random Race is your God? I might as well claim to be the God of cows at that point.”

“That is an udderly amazing insight Alex, but try not to milk it for too much,” Darwin punned. “It’s one most of us have already thought.”

“I’m trusting you on this one then, Captain,” he said, still nervous.

Do gods have more of a part to play in this game universe than they do in reality? Is that why he is still worried even after hearing it is only a religion?

“It seems like everyone is trusting me these days,” Darwin thought aloud, unconsciously reaching out for the Creation Stone in his inventory.

When they finally reached at the group of players, Darwin began to feel a little bad for them. He had started noticing it when they were following their trail earlier, but now it was certain. They were headed for the silver ore mine, and stopped a little distance off from the two Ogres that were guarding the entrance, clearly making plans and deciding how they were going to tackle the problem.

“Do you think this was their plan out here from the beginning?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I followed them for an hour, and they didn’t seem to have any clear plan in mind. It could be a coincidence?”

“It might be, but this makes the situation go from bad to worse if we don’t kill them. If they attack those Guards then there is still a chance they’ll overpower them, get through the door and find a village loaded with loot from spawn camping just waiting for them. They might not be able to take the village on their own, but you can guarantee they’ll find backup if word get out of a big enough reward.”

“Even though it would be killing innocent people? Are there really so many readily willing to slaughter innocents for material possessions?”

This Guard, he doesn’t know that there would be hundreds of players that would appear in a heartbeat to kill an NPC for gear,
he thought, remembering the times that even he had killed an NPC he didn’t want to in other games just because the reward for being evil was way preferable to the reward for being good, regardless of how much it hurt him inside to betray his character.
Some of them would do it just for the EXP. His faith in humanity is too strong.

“Yeah, Alex, they will. We can’t let them get through that door, but the question is, do you want to kill them, or do you want the ZombOgres to kill them?” Darwin asked.

“I want to,” he said resolutely, stamping one of the Spears he had taken from a Turtle-Wolf into the ground.

“Then let’s do it before they get up the courage to attack.”

“Yes, Captain,” Alex said, falling into a line directly behind Darwin.

As they crept closer to the enemies, Darwin noticed Justin and Blake, two of the other Guards, who saw them from the cave and began sneaking into their formation. As even the Turtle-Wolves and Fuzzy Wuzzy started to move with creepy stealth, he began to feel like a commando on a night raid. Sure it was broad daylight, and they were just getting ready to kill a bunch of lowbies who were talking amongst themselves, but that didn’t take away from the feeling.

Once they were almost directly on top of the enemies, Darwin raised his hands and gestured the Guards to sweep left, and the Turtle-Wolves to sweep right and create a circle around the enemies.

“Ummm, Captain, what are you doing?” Alex whispered.

“I’m trying to signal you all to go that way and make a circle around the enemy,” Darwin whispered back, as if anyone should have known.

“Then, why didn’t you just say so? It kind of looked like you were having hand seizures.”

Darwin frowned.
Hand seizures?
he thought, upset that his commando act had gone from emboldened to embarrassing so quickly. “Just do it, okay? We don’t want them to be able to escape once we start the killing. We don’t know if they will go for the fight or the flight option once the battle begins.”

“Got it. Justin, Blake, with me,” Alex said, disappearing in the brush to Darwin’s left.

“Now, you guys as well, go and stay hidden until I make the first move.”

Fuzzy Wuzzy and the Turtle-Wolves nodded and then disappeared into the woods to his right.

Now it was just Darwin, the leader, and the moment of truth that they had all been waiting for. Even though he knew this would be a slaughter, especially with two more of the Guards having joined the group, he was still nervous. He had gotten used to killing monsters and program-generated enemies, but they were predictable. With players there was no telling what would happen. One might suicide with a good spell and take Darwin with him.

You can do this, Darwin. No time to get nervous now
, he thought, grabbing his two blades and taking one last deep breath.
Let’s go!

He ran at them and then lunged as soon as he got close, killing two players before his party could react to the signal and join the fight. There were only twelve of them, but his blade moved like a tornado. He parried, dodged, and danced between Arrows, Axes and blades as if the battlefield was not just his home, but the place he had been born and his reason for living. Alex, Justin and Fuzzy Wuzzy were the only ones who made it in time to even get in on the action and take a life for themselves. By the time Blake and the four Turtle-Wolves had arrived, the fight was over.

“Wow! Captain, that was incredible. The way you spun a full 360 when that Arrow was inches away from you, dodging it completely and landing your blade in the archer’s gut? That’s crazy!” Blake said. Never having actually seen Darwin fight before, he was clearly impressed.

He doesn’t know I’m just a higher level than them,
Darwin thought.

“Yeah, well, they’re dead and we have work to do. Strip them of any gear that doesn’t disappear with the bodies and let’s regroup in the town.”

“Yes, Captain,” Alex said with a broad smile.

“And Alex, one more thing.”

“Captain?”

“Bring everyone to the kitchen chamber,” he said, thinking to make sure he wasn’t forgetting something. “Clear it out of all the tables. There is a big decision awaiting us that will decide the fate of the town.”

“Thanks again for coming to kill them, sir,” Alex said, doing a mock salute and disappearing. The way he faded in and out of stealth was downright baffling to Darwin.

Is there a stealth function I don’t know about? I wonder what all the classes are in the game. Too bad there isn’t a way to ask Kass about that without just saying outright, “Hey, I’m not a regular player. I was magically warped here after dealing with a break-in homicide in the real world.” I don’t know why I’m here, and oh yeah! This isn’t an in-game Race. It’s something I have mysteriously been since birth, and I still haven’t figured that one out yet.

Darwin sighed and headed into the chamber. The decision was already made. The people just didn’t have the luxury of knowing that.