Criminals Past The Safe

It was 17th day of the month of Parish in the 7th year of the game. The front-line was at the 369th stage and progress was literally blocked due to a field master blocking the entrance to the dungeon. A strategy meeting was called by Heathway to discuss how to tackle the FM. The meeting was attended by most of the front-line players.

"I do think that if we lure the FM from its nest, here to this unguarded village; then we can easily attack its weak points and defeat it." Liza suggested pointing towards the holo-map. 'Aah … Seriously' I sighed and began, "I oppose this idea. Instead of wrecking havoc in the village, I guess we should lure it here in this open area where we can surround it."

"Oh really! But up there it would not shift its attention towards us and we can get away with minimal losses." Liza taunted, so I came with a cool face, "So why don't you lure it instead from the village here, to a little further here; the nearest guarded city. You won't have to suffer any loss as the city guards will be enough to kill the FM."

The whole group breaks into laughter with the argument, when Heathway decided to call for a vote. There were a total of 50 players and the vote came out to be equal on both sides. This eventually led to a quarrel amongst the groups, though the area was under the Anti-Criminal Safe Code or simply A Safe Zone Code. This was the only thing that separated the safe zones from hunting grounds and fields. "Gentlemen, um… guys; you can't fight here. This is a War Room." Heathway tried to manage the situation but no one seemed to be interested in the man's words. "Seriously! No one? Am I the only one trying to solve the issue?"

The meeting was adjourned and all of us dispersed. Neetto came up to me saying, "Man, she's tough. Never thought that she might make it to second-in-command of a guild like The Golden Knights" "She was strong from the beginning and I knew that she would make it upto here." I managed to complete the sentence when someone popped an arm behind me. I turned around to find out it was Liza. "Well let's see if you can walk your talk. If you are so sure that you can deal with it easily, then try soloing against it." I didn't respond against the challenge and left the place with a smile.

About 3 hours later, the meeting resumed and as usual I was quite late. "It's not good for a player like you to be late in a strategic meeting." Heathway had his expressionless face like most of the time. I had stopped running a few seconds ago, so I was panting heavily, "I…got in…some trouble…with the FM." The whole meeting was looking towards me, eyes wide open. Heathway wasn't surprised, "So, what happened. You got any news?" "It's a mix of a giant horse and an eagle. Its attack patterns include stomp, beak attacks, roar and a wind storm. Roar initiates any random debuff, while wind storm has a stun effect for 30 secs to 1 min. Its HP begins increasing if attack is paused for more than 1 min."

"Why did you try to solo the FM? I hope you know that now the FM's are difficult to defeat even with a full assault team." One of the members in the meeting asked. "Well… um I was challenged by someone to try soloing against the FM. Moreover, the Intel I provided could be much valuable when you go against it. But first we must decide the strategy."

"So, in vote both ideas are equally popular and had caused a fight amongst the groups. So let us have a duel, me and Naperjet. The one to win will get the opportunity to lead." Liza spoke with a strange shine in her eyes. I was skeptical about the confidence, "That's a sudden but may I know that why do you think you can defeat me in a one-on-one duel." "You'll know during the duel." came the response from her.

The duel began right outside the War Room. We selected the 'First Critical Hit' mode. This was a timed battle that ended within three minutes of duel. Liza was an expert archer; her skills with the bow earned her the nickname 'The Allegro'. I was a typical sword and shield user, having solid defensive and offensive capabilities. My strategy was to close up the distance and then a simple strike will do enough damage to end the duel.

The countdown finished at zero and she attacked with a volley of arrows. I put up my shield overhead to block the incoming arrows and protected myself against the damage. Archers were exempted from the rule that if your attack is successfully defended or blocked, you enter a stage of momentary delay. Another series of arrows came by, this time at straight eye-level. I threw my shield towards her and initiated a low-level charging art Impaler, covering the ten meter distance in mere half second; arriving a moment before the shield and used to defend against the arrows.

Liza didn't miss the opportunity and initiated the weapon art Raining Switch, the art had a switching effect and she regained the distance while a volley of arrows hurled against me. Taking the shield overhead again, I sprinted towards her closing the distance at a very rapid pace. I pulled my sword behind me and charged at her. She raised her bow to the left assuming a slash from sword. I threw my shield and it hit her right in the bow, disarming her.

With my sword pointed at her neck, I won the duel by the disarming and surrender technique. The faction that supported me was in cheers as our strategy had prevailed. I turned to Liza, "It wasn't your skill with the weapon that made you confident of your victory. You knew that if a close-ranged combatant got too close to an archer, the duel is done. So what was the X factor that gave you immense confidence that you thought that you could take me on?"

Liza grew red with anger, "Well, a few days ago; I bought your level details from The Cat and she told me that you were at equal level with me. So…" I sighed out, "The Cat sells any info she has. Anyways, let me tell you that I am currently at level 385." Her jaw dropped in shock, "That's five levels higher than me." 'Bingo' I didn't materialize the thought. Everyone congratulated me, when Heathway approached me, "Sorry Naperjet, I got to change my side towards Liza." Now I was left in shock, "Actually after you soloed against the FM and failed, it became clear that your strategy might call upon us some major casualties." I didn't stay there for much longer and didn't participate in the raid and didn't bother to attend the next few meetings.

I was resting in a clearing inside a forest in the front-line stage. A figure with golden shoes and clothes came up over me asking, "When all of the clearers are busy in the dungeons, doing their best to clear this game; where do I find you? Here sleeping under this tree, why don't you go inside the dungeon and lend a hand." I closed my eyes and replied, "Have you ever tried relaxing under this fine weather?"

The voice became strict, "The weather hardly changes round the year." "Today's the weather is the most balanced amongst the last few months. You'll know if you lay down here and rest." Saying this I dozed off, without bothering about the voice. I woke up about half an hour later and saw her sleeping soundly beside me. "Never thought, she would take me at the face value." I sighed.

'Is there even a limit upto which someone can exceed others expectations' I thought. 'What could it be, a bold move, a fit of rage or may be…a lack of sleep perhaps?' There was really nothing I could do about that. Shaking my head left and right with an expression of helplessness, I stared at the beautifully dignified and soundly sleeping face of the bow master Liza 'The Allegro' —— the sub-leader of the guild The Golden Knights.

Originally, as the day's weather was so good that I couldn't get in the mood to go to the dungeons, I planned to spend the whole day at a small opening in the forest near the main dungeon counting butterflies. Actually, the weather truly was really nice.

Whether the virtual floating realm Arcadian's four seasons is synchronized with reality or not is unknown, but the degree of accuracy in reproducing the weather is really overly rigorous, whether it's a dry winter or a humid summer. In addition to the temperature outside, the system also considered rain and wind, moisture, and even insects gathering as parameters. Usually if one of the parameters was good, you can expect another to be horrible.

But that day was not the same, not only was the temperature perfect, warm rays of sunlight permeated through the air, the gentle breeze was neither too humid nor dry and to top it all off, no insects appeared. Even if it was spring, this calm and soothing weather would occur no more than a few times a year.

The sub-leader of The Golden Knights, Liza, was a conquest monster that could make crying kids quiet down, and has a turbo engine that continues to push down the frontlines. And as for this solo player Naperjet, a group of people often thought that I was always together with a bunch of frivolous guys, being stupid and someone who's always playing games, and a super delinquent amongst the clearing group.

With two such drastically different people sleeping together, even I, one of the people involved, felt like laughing. Even though I say that, she would get angry if I was to wake her up, and I would end up being the one suffering. Thus, it was of utmost priority for me to leave her there.

But I could not do so because if 'The Allegro' had continued to sleep like this, she may be targeted by all sorts of harassment…and worst of all, she may be PK'ed. Moreover, the place was near the main dungeon; i.e. it was not protected by The Safe Zone Code. However if anyone tried to PK, the system would immediately recognize him as a hostile element; no different from monsters in the dungeons.

But there were some loopholes about this rule. One of them was in the time when the player's sleeping. During the long moments of battle, players wastes a lot of energy, causing them to be basically unconscious once they start sleeping, and unable to wake up even with some slight stimulations. Once someone used this opportunity to raise a request to duel in 'Complete Decisive Mode' and raised the sleeping opponent's finger to press on the OK button, they could easily take down the other person's head.

Another method, that's even more daring, was to use a chasing monster and lure it towards the sleeping player. These methods were very commonly used by PKers or H-players that nobody dared to sleep in an exhausted forest or ground as well. However, at that moment, 'The Allegro' was sleeping soundly beside me. She probably wouldn't wake up even if I took out a make-up item to draw graffiti on that face of hers. I really didn't know whether she's really daring or stubborn or "Maybe…she's really tired?" I muttered.

In BWS, even though there's some relation to the build, solo play will be the most effective for those who are aiming to level up. However, this girl was not only spending time watching the leveling progress of the other members in her guild, but also leveling up at almost the same rate as me. I guessed she must have sacrificed lots of sleep to train on mobs until late at night.

Actually, I once tried to do such a hard thing before too, 4 - 5 years ago, to gain my experience level, and I would sleep for 4, 5 hours, during which I felt like I was dead. I swallowed my sigh back, took out a drink and a sandwich from my storage to get ready for a long battle, and sat down on the grass again.

I was the one who told her to lie down and sleep. In that case, I had an obligation to stay here until she woke up. As the sky grew darker towards the night, Liza 'The Allegro' finally woke up. I switched off my stopwatch and noted that she had slept for around 12 hours. I wondered about the reaction this strict and cold sub-leader would give once she fully came back to her senses.

Liza muttered something strange like a baby, blinked a few times, and then looked up at me. Her perfectly shaped eyebrows frowned. She used her right hand to shake herself off the grass and got up, and then shook that brown hair of hers before looking right, left and right again.

Liza finally saw me sitting beside her with my legs folded. Her transparent-like snowy-white skin immediately flushed red (most likely, out of embarrassment), and then turned blue (most likely, she's thinking hard), and finally, red out (most likely, out of extreme rage).

I gave my biggest smile to say to 'The Allegro' who was again muttering to herself. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Her hand, covered by the golden leather glove, trembled.

However, as expected of the sub-leader of the strongest guild, Liza seemed to have controlled her rage as she neither drew her bow nor immediately ran away. She just gritted her teeth and forced out a line, "…I owe you one meal." "Ha?" I couldn't believe it.

"A meal. I owe you one, no matter what you want to eat. We're even like that. How about it?" I don't hate this girl's straightforward personality. She, who has just woken up, immediately understood that I'd been accompanying her until she awoke to prevent PK's and allowed her to relieve the fatigues she'd built up.

I didn't think hard before answering in an okay. I got up and stretched up before leaving for the main town of the stage. "The restaurant run by an NPC in the 366th stage is very good. Let's go over there." "Fine!" she said and I led the way to the restaurant in Marian, the main city of 366th stage. Liza and I came down through the transportation gate at the 366th stage, walked side by side on that abnormally spacious main street.

Many people walking by us widened their eyes, looking somewhat interested and stunned. It's no wonder that they would have such an expression, since the one-and-only high and mighty famous flower, reputed to have a fan club already, was walking brazenly with a very suspicious looking solo player. I guess Liza really wanted to use all of her agility to rush into the shop, but unfortunately —— or fortunately, only I knew where the shop was.

I had a thought that there wouldn't be such a chance again once BWS ended as I walked for about 5 minutes. On the right side of the street, I could see a somewhat large restaurant. "Over here?" Liza looked relaxed and suspicious at the same time, and I nodded to her. "This one sells the best meat known till now."

She, however, didn't wait for my explanation and headed straight inside the restaurant towards the table furthest from the entrance. I pulled the chair and she sat down in a fluid motion. I wondered why I was getting a guard-like feeling. I sat right in front of her and ordered an appetizer, main course and beverage.

Her blue eyes relaxed letting their guard down, yet staring at me when she murmured in a barely audible tone, "Well… thanks… for today." I was taken aback in shock, and Liza stared closely to me repeating, "I want to thank you for being my guard and escort today." I was dumb-folded; I scrambled hard in my head "No… um… you don't need to mind."

Normally, in our clearing group meetings, I would often debate with her intensely over the weaknesses of the boss and the positioning of the forwards and the rearguards, and after hearing such an unexpected gratitude, I was really stunned. Liza then chuckled and leaned her body on the chair. She then looked out of the window with a gentle expression and whispered, "It felt like…this is the first time…I slept so soundly since I came here…"

"Is…Isn't that a hyperbole? I mean…" I staggered to find out more words out of my vocabulary. However, she caught the meaning and replied, "Not at all. It's true. Normally, I'll just sleep for 3 hours before waking up."

I wet my mouth with the sour-sweet fluid in the cup and asked, "You didn't wake up because of an alarm clock or something?" She thrust her arms forward waiving like a NO. "Yeah, it's not so serious like insomnia…but I often end up waking up due to nightmares."

"I see…" My heart suddenly felt a sharp pain. Someone had once said the same thing to me before, and that person's face appeared on my mind. I then noticed the ever-ordinary fact that 'The Allegro' was a living player too, and pondered on how to answer.

"Yeah…well…how to put it? If you still want to sleep outside, just tell me." I joked miserably. Anyhow, there was no ability that could raise your humor stat; even if there was any. However, she chuckled on my statement "Yeah! You could tell me another day when it would be a good day." Seeing her beautiful smile, I noticed that she had something in her personality that made her a true beauty and was at a loss of words immediately.

The NPC shopkeeper brought us all our meal and helped to remove the awkward environment. We had a hearty meal when I asked, "The meal is good, but maybe they should change the seasonings." Liza looked towards me awkwardly and then smiled, "I think so. They should add Ajinomotto…" "…Pepper…" "…Chili and…" "…OREGANO!" both of us shouted at the same time and began laughing.

The next moment, a horrifying scream was heard in the distance. I held my breath as I raised my right hand for the sword on my back. Liza also withdrew her bow from her back and we shouted, "Outside, in the square." And we rushed outside; bills were cut automatically after we ordered. As we arrived in the square, we began looking around for the source of scream and pin-pointed the source in a nearby alley.

We rushed inside the alley, "What happened?" I asked. All the people there were looking towards the darkest corner there, "A tank was standing here, and then a hostile cursor appeared over a cape and vanished. And the tank too…" One of the men standing there informed. I went towards the corner, there was nothing? No cape, no armor and even no proof that someone was standing right there. "He must have transported using a transport crystal." I remarked only to get a jab in my ribs by Liza "That's not the issue, you dumb. The hostile cursor, how could it appear all of a sudden inside a safe zone?"

That was a worrisome idea. If any hostile element, no matter monsters or players could enter the safe zone; then safety of other players especially the lower level ones would be a great issue. I couldn't even imagine the situation that is likely to arise. Anyways we started to investigate the strange occurrence and questioned all the players present there. We got the same statement as before.

Liza and I went into a local inn and retired in the common meeting room, where she asked me to put up the facts chronologically. I sighed, "We were inside the restaurant… we heard the scream… rushing towards the alley in the square… we heard this story backed by almost all of them…" Liza asked, "So according to the clues, a hostile element in a cape; most probably a player has crept inside the safe zone?" I linked all the clues so far, "If we go by the size of the alley and the count of heads there, I can estimate that the cursor must be there for at least 10 seconds. But according to the info I have, NPC guards detect hostile elements within 2 seconds if they try to enter the safe zone by using transport crystals or the gate. It would give them at least 8 seconds to react but we didn't see anything like that."

"What about the one who screamed?" Liza asked curiously, "It's a girl named Sally; she saw the cloak first and screamed when the hostile cursor appeared suddenly over it." I replied, "Meaning that the cloak was already there in the scene, while the cursor appeared later on. That's curious." Liza interrupted, "Do you think we should interrogate that girl?" I nodded and opened up my chat menu, putting it into visible mode.

I had saved all the witness as temporary contacts and easily found the girl and asked her that we would like to ask her some questions. I had expected her to reject the request, but she agreed and sent the location of her residence in the 301st Stage. We arrived at her home and she welcomed us, "We apologize for bothering you after such an incident." I carried on, but she stopped me and said in a shaking tone, "There was something that I could not tell you back there. I should have told you but I didn't have the courage to tell you there."

Liza stepped forward and calmly put her hand on the girl's shoulder and sympathized, "You can tell us now, we are from the clearers; so don't worry and tell us." "I…I…I'm a friend of the person who disappeared. We agreed to come there to have a meal today, but we got lost there…and…and then…"

It seemed that she couldn't continue on as she could only use her hand to cover her mouth. Liza gently patted her slightly trembling shoulders and had her sit on a chair while she sat on another one. As for me, I kept standing a bit further and waited for her to calm down.

Liza gently stroked Sally's back for a while, and Sally finally stopped crying before apologizing in a faint whispering tone. "It's alright. We can wait. Can you talk to us once you've calmed down?" We tried to be as soft as possible. "Yes…I-I'm a lot better now." Unexpectedly, Sally was rather strong as she straightened her back while Liza patted it, and nodded.

"That guy is…called Megan. We used to be in the same guild…and would now occasionally team up together or have meals together…and today, we originally came there to eat…" She forcefully closed her eyes, and then continued on in a trembling voice. "…But there were too many people here, so we got lost at the square…as I was looking around, I found him waiting in the alley when the H-cursor appeared on the cloak and he disappeared."

It was now clear that it was the work of H-players, or criminally hostile players. I clenched my fists unconsciously, how would I now know about the missing player. "We should check his name in the available player log in the Volintron Castle." Liza nodded and we went right to the City of Starting.

It was night and the first hundred stages were considered to be under direct administrative control of 'The Union'. The Police used to patrol the roads at nights; however they were all quite low-level players and were easily dispatched by the sight of our high-level equipments. We entered a giant hallway, it had black notice board like structures on both sides along the length. The boards were called the Available Player Log and had the names and levels of all existing players.

Since it once had 5 million names, going through all of them was really a pain but still we had to do so. So we went through all the names and found out the name Megan. He was a level 202 player, a mid-level tank. "He's alive for now." Liza sighed. An idea clicked my mind and I asked Liza to follow me to Sally's home.

As we reached there, Liza frustrated by my silence on her repeated questions finally vented out, "You better tell me what's up in your mind?" I ignored the question and turned to Sally, "Was he on your friend-list?" Sally nodded in affirmative. "Good share his map location with me." Sally turned up her menu and a trade option appeared before me. I hit Accept and the map data came in my map.

"Um… what's wrong with this thing?" I wondered looking at the map data, which showed two isolated dots; one me and other the missing guy but rest of the area was grayed out. Suddenly a stomp came on my foot, "Aah what's wrong with you." I shouted at Liza who pointed on a cool-down timer right above the map showing '3:58:50' "You forgot the rules of trade. The map data of a player who is not in your friend-list cannot be seen immediately unless the player approves it or the cool-down of 4 hours expires."

I sighed, "Guess we need to start from tomorrow morning? Let's meet at the scene tomorrow at 10 in the morning." "Okay. But reach there in time and don't you dare oversleep." On hearing Liza's elder sisterly tone, I could do nothing but smile and nod. "I got it. You should be the one sleeping properly. If you're worried, I can be on standby beside…"

"NO NEED!" After leaving these words behind, the sub-leader of the 'The Golden Knights' quickly turned around and leapt into the transfer gate, leaving a golden and silver afterimage behind. I left for my home in the 65th stage setting up an alarm for 9:55 in the morning.

The next day, we met at the inn where we had discussions last evenings. This time the room was empty and the cool-down had expired, I brought out a holo-map projector and opened it. "It says that Megan is now in the 365th stage about half a kilometer away." "Let's go" Liza said and rushed out. Setting my menu map in visible mode, I led her the way, until we reached the main square of the city. "Now where?" I took a closer look in my map and replied to Liza, "It says that Megan is right where we are or may be…"

We looked up and saw a man fall down head first right above us. We escaped in the nick of time and the man crashed in the ground right at the place where we were standing. I sprang up my feet and just as I was about to say something, the guy disintegrated into little fragments. I gulped and muttered, "He died…" and all the players who were around screamed and a stampede ensued.

It took some time for us to control the situation. I had a look at the projector and shut it off, dematerializing it. "What happened, why did you turn the projector off?" I sighed, "The guy who was falling right above us and died was Megan." "What!!!" "Right after the disintegration, the point on the map disappeared and didn't appear in the whole discovered Arcadian." I conversed with Liza not knowing how I would tell that to Sally.

He was killed inside the safe zone. First the appearance of H-cursor inside and now this; was BWS trying to live up to the name of 'Game of Death' and targeting the players or was this a new kind of loophole. "We need a system expert for this." Liza sighed and I immediately flicked a finger "We know someone who is an encyclopedia of all this knowledge. Let's call him." "Who?" I answered her question and her eyes widened.

I wasn't sure that the silly clause of 'I'll make the lunch' would be enough to get the guy attracted for the luncheon meeting, but I was literally stunned when the guy replied in affirmative within 30 minutes after Liza messaged him.

On seeing that muscular body come out silently from the central transfer gate of Algid the main city of 65th Stage, many pedestrians moving around the city square raised a commotion. This guy had a golden-silver robe and silver hair that's tied up, and he did not have any weapons on his waist and back, making him look like the non-existent mage class players. The leader of The Golden Knights guild, the owner of the first GM skill available to the players 'Strong-Arms' and the strongest swordsman, Heathway, saw us, and immediately raised his eyebrows before moving over like he's gliding.

Liza immediately bowed agilely and quickly explained, "Commander, sorry for calling you out here out of a sudden! This idiot didn't listen to me and insisted on you coming over no matter what…!" "It's alright. I just wanted to have lunch too anyway. Besides, it's rare to have The Rogue Swordsman Naperjet, to get a chance to treat me anyway. I have to attend a meeting with the members of the equipment group in the evening, so I can meet up with you now." Heathway said with a smooth tenor voice that had an iron will in it, and I looked up at him and shrugged, saying, "You managed to block that monster in the boss battle on this Stage for ten minutes, so I can thank you by treating you. I can also tell you some of the more interesting latest news."

I brought the leaders of the strongest guild The Golden Knights, and lead them to my little home in Algid. They had a seat in the dining table while I began making preparations for a humble lunch in accordance to my proficiency in Cooking ability.

"Why is it…like we're doing a cross-examination…?" Liza asked and I shrugged off her concern, "You're thinking too much. Then, let's get straight to the point to avoid delaying the busy leader." I looked up and saw Heathway being all casual as I said that. Liza first explained what happened last night and today morning clearly. While listening to her, the guy's expression didn't seem to change at all and only twitched his eyebrows on hearing Megan's death.

"…That's how it is. It's somewhat troublesome, but I hope you can give us some suggestions, leader…" Liza concluded. Heathway drank another gulp of water, and then answers, "Then, let me hear your hypothesis, Naperjet. What's your view about the abduction method?" I came out with all the lunch; it was called 'Noodle-Sandwich' and served out 3 bowls of them.

On hearing the topic being directed at me, I put down the hand supporting my face and immediately raised three fingers. "Um… I guess there are about 3 possible methods. First, using a targeted transport crystal with the marker inside the cloak. Second, combining a known method with a system loophole, and third…an unknown skill or equipment that can cause the Safe Zone Code to lose its effect."

"You can forget about the third possibility." Heathway immediately concluded, and these words caused me to stare at his face. Liza was like me, blinking a few times before asking, "…Leader, how can you be so certain?" "Think about it. If you're the developer of this game, would you design such a skill or weapon?" "Um…probably not." I answered.

"Why is that?" I looked back at the blue-sapphire eyes that had a magnetic effect, and continued, "That's because…it's too imbalanced. I really don't want to admit it, but the rules of BWS are rather fair. Of course, your GM Skill can't be considered as such." I curled my lips up as I added that last sentence, and Heathway silently smiled back at me in the same manner.

Deep inside, I was shocked, but my expression didn't change at all. Even if he's the leader of The Golden Knights guild, he couldn't possibly know what I had in my skill window. Liza looked back and forth at Heathway and me while we exchanged weird smiles with each other, sighed and shook her head before interrupting, "Either way, discussing this third possibility is a waste of time because we can't confirm it. Then…let's examine the first assumption, the possibility of a targeted transport crystal."

I poured some water in the cups we had there. Heathway remarked, "You seem to put great effort in your cooking. What's your proficiency?" "Last when I saw, it was at 10%" I was scrolling through my equipped ability slots and my jaw dropped, "It's at 40%, but how?" Liza interrupted, "What about the H-player who entered the safe-zone."

"I never thought it that way, but exactly what happens when an H-player tries to enter the safe zone." Liza asked. I thought hard, "Well if any H or C-player tries to enter the city, the system identifies him and then NPC guards who guard the main city entrance will attack him; forcing to either flee or get arrested." "And what if someone uses a transportation crystal to come up?" Liza added.

I didn't know that but usually assumed that the logic is same. "The logic remains same." Heathway replied without changing expression. "So what's about the second one? A system loophole." "There is something wrong with this fact." I murmured. "What's it?" "It's really strange but I feel that it is not correct the way it appeared. Within seconds, the tank disappeared in front of the crowd; and the people didn't even try to catch the H-player."

"How do you know that it was an H-player, Naperjet?" I was taken aback, "It was a hostile cursor and…" "You didn't see it." Heathway casually got up from his chair, "I don't think that there is any clarity regarding the abduction. So let's jump to today's incident." I explained all the occurrences of today in detail and he mentioned, "In terms of possibility, I would say that it could be a trick like… someone killed him outside and then used a transportation crystal to send him back here in the city but the height and duration…"

"A glitch or a lag" Liza asked, "No, all this time here we had almost no lag except that one…" I replied wondering about the day long shutdown period we had about a week after the game started. "It may be a bug, most probably cleared up by now." Heathway began moving towards the door while I and Liza were watching helplessly. "I can say this; listen up…in this case; the only clues you can consider 'absolutely reliable' are what you saw or heard first-hand."

We stared blankly towards the system encyclopedia, who continued "It means…what you see and hear in Arcadian are all digital databases that can be converted in processes. There are no such things as illusions or hallucinations here. On the other hand, all sort of information that isn't data will have some possibility of illusion or lies. If you want to track this H-player as you say, you can only trust in your own eyes and ears. In other words, your brains have to collect the data directly. Anyways, thanks for the lunch. If you weren't one of the main clearers, I would have appointed you the main chef of our guild."

"What did he just said?" I asked Liza who was enjoying her lunch, "I know what I need to do." I blinked a few times "I will make all those necessary seasonings required." Liza cheered in triumph. I sighed, "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEAN." "Did you say anything, Naperjet?" She asked innocently and I couldn't help but smile. "What do those enlightening words of your leader Heathway mean?" She looked away and replied, "That's why I wasn't in favor of calling him here. It would take a full assault team of vocabulary specialists to decode his quotes."

"Anyways, let's go and tell Sally about this." I agreed with Liza and went to her residence in the 301st floor. She greeted us with a smile, "I hope you have some good news regarding him." We went inside and seated on a sofa, I hung my head and began, "I am sorry, Sally. I do have news on Megan but…" Sally bent forward and looked towards me; Liza continued "Today morning, we began our search as soon as the map cool-down expired and we found him at the square. He dropped in front of us from a height and disintegrated into fragments." Sally covered her mouth with her hands, "He died."

Liza patted her back and consoled her. She spurted out, "I don't…blame you. You tried your best. Can you please leave, I do need some isolation." We understood her problem; the shock of losing her friend was a lot taxing. So we complied with her request and left her house.

Right in front of the house was a large garden, so we camped for a moment there. "Would she be okay?" Liza wondered. "I know what she felt. It might take some time, but she would get over it. I believe…" Hardly had I begun the second statement when we again heard her scream, this time from the house. I rushed towards the house, Liza screaming behind me, "You can't enter anyone's residence without the owner's consent." I hurriedly opened up the door and rushed inside. Without stopping, I answered Liza "Not all houses where players live are owned by them."

We searched all over the place but found no clue about Sally. "Over Here!!!" Liza pointed outside a window. Above the series of roofs a tall, shady and cloaked figure appeared, I tried to focus hard but couldn't bring out the player cursor. "Here, find her fast" I materialized the holo map projector and handed it over to Liza before going off the window. "It's fixed on Sally's location."

I leapt over the roofs, chasing the cloaked guy. 'He must be the H-player. But why the guards are not activating.' I wondered when I saw the guy taking out a crystal out of his pouch. "You are not going out." I shouted while reaching out to the shield on my back. I threw it towards the guy but he engulfed himself in a bright white light, and the shield went right past it. "Damn it" I muttered, regaining my shield.

I waited for Liza in the now abandoned house, and she appeared after several minutes. "I lost the guy. What about you? Got any success." I noticed Liza's face, there were tears. "Yes, I found her the same way we found Megan." My eyes widened as she materialized a small item from her inventory, "She was most probably stabbed by this dagger." I looked at the dagger; it was about 10 inches in length and was elegantly designed.

"That seems like a dead-end. I don't know what to do?" I resigned and sank on the chair. "Don't you dare give up. Understood." I jumped up on her command, "Yes Ma'am." She sighed, "We have evidence at last, so first we must inspect it. I'll tell someone to publish it in the newspaper." "Okay, do you know anyone with high level Assessment ability?" I asked her and she replied, "Yes, I have a friend of mine with mastery in Assessment ability but at this time she would be most probably hunting for materials. So we have to wait till evening to meet her."

It was true that most of the players would be hunting at this time of day in some dungeon or hunting ground. "In that case, I'll ask one of my friends who runs a pawn shop. The guy's got a mediocre proficiency in the skill." She thought for a while and flicked her finger, "That guy called Asrivast. I have met him quite a while in the clearer's meeting. His level makes him some of the most powerful players here, yet he is a part-timer."

I informed Asri through chat that we need his help in this investigation thingy. We reached his shop in the main city of 230th Stage. His shop was near the main square of the city so it hardly took us 5 mins to reach there. The shop had a closed board on its door and we opened it to enter the shop. "You better be serious about this, or I am going to extract all my losses from you." Asri, the store manager muttered it as soon as I entered the shop. However, on seeing Liza entering behind me; he softened the tension on his cheeks.

As soon as we settled on the first floor of his shop, which he used as his residence; "Listen Naperjet, I believe you know that in business your trust index must remain very high. So better you wouldn't stand up saying that you were joking." "Does she seem like the joking kind?" I snorted at the shopkeeper; Liza began "I know that we are taking up your valuable time, but this is important…" and told him the entire story beginning up from Megan to Sally.

"You are so lucky that you got a meal with…" Asri stopped after being attacked by Liza's stare and then coughed, "Anyways, can I take a look at the dagger." I materialized the dagger and gave it to Asri who tapped on it and used his Assessment ability. He set the property window to visible mode and flipped it around,

Category: Dagger/One-Handed Name: Bane Arm

DMG: 140-200 Range: 8"-12"

Type: Stab Durability: 610

Weight: 50 STR Rating: 10-60

Special: Armor Pierce 13% Strain 10%

Crafter: Mayank Class: C

The stats are poor, probably a low class weapon. "Who would use such a low-grade weapon here?" Liza snorted and then Asri pointed towards the special column. "It is no doubt a low power weapon, but it is the special abilities that are valuable even in the frontline stages." Asri explained. I had a closer look towards the columns and gasped out, "10% strain and 13% armor pierce. This little thing is a true beast." Liza looked towards me with a skeptical look and I began explaining, "If someone is hit by this weapon, there is a 10% chance that his weapon will break while a 13% chance of breaking armor at the hit spot. The best swords we have in the front-lines have about 5% of these stats."

Asri corrected me, "Daggers are low-power weapons but they tend to have greater strain or armor-pierce values, but I have rarely seen the values in double-digits. However, the creator Mayank; seems to be not of much high level, I never heard of him from my customers." I gave him a strange look, thinking about what kind of customers this suspicious looking would shop would get. "Thanks Mr. Asrivast…" Asri put up a finger against Liza's honored mention, "Call me Asri, my friends call me that. You are a friend of Naperjet, so you can call me that."

"By the way Asri, how do you manage to keep up your level despite being a part-timer?" Liza asked a totally unarmed Asri, who had no option other than to answer "I gain EXP every time I sell some goods, I go on hunting to find rare goods and Naperjet usually asks me to join on some unusual quests which give a lot of EXP." Liza gave a very skeptical look murmuring, "You never take me to these quests."

I just smiled and asked, "How are we going to find this Mayank guy." "We should be able to find that person. If he managed to upgrade his proficiency to such an extent to create this weapon, he can't possibly be a solo player all the time. If you go and listen to gossip in the middle Stages, you'll definitely find someone who teamed up with Mayank before." Liza rubbed me aside.

"That's true. There can't possibly be many people like this idiot." Asri nodded, and together with Liza, looked at this stupid solo player. "What…What? I-I'll occasionally group with other players too." "Only during SM battles and tough quests." After being told off coldly like this, I could only remain silent since I couldn't argue back.

"It's quite difficult to determine that if that Mayank guy is the one who killed her. No blacksmith would be so dumb to kill anyone with his own crafted weapon." Liza hurled out. Yeah, it would be just like writing your name on the murder weapon used to commit a murder. "A strain bonus is useful in monster battles, especially the ones carrying weapons; but armor pierce bonus is no good there as monsters do not wear that much armor and even if they did…" Asri continued my statement "They won't care if it broke."

This weapon was crafted somehow keeping in mind the circumstances of PvP combat. Its name Bane Arm; meaning cursed weapon, is a quite cruel name given to the weapon by the system itself. Did it know what it would be used for?

We left Asri's shop after he declined our offer of joining the investigation. It wasn't his stated reason of business but he was afraid that meeting the guy would cause him to lose his temper and he might PK him. I called up The Cat and asked her to meet us in the guild castle of The Golden Knights.

Chi came about two hours after the message and we took her to an empty room. "We need some information." I began and she answered with her usual one-liner, "Any information can be sold, if you can afford the cost." "We want the whole past of two dead players, Megan and Sally; especially about the common guild they shared. And anything you can get your hands on a blacksmith named Mayank."

The Cat replied with an 'Okay' and left the castle. After about a week, I got a reply from her that all information has been compiled and we can meet her in the City of Starting. I and Liza went up there to meet her in the main square of the city. She greeted us with her signature smile –

"The two were in a mid-level guild called The Apple Kings. This guild was a weak guild that had only 8 players, and their aim wasn't to clear, but to hunt safely to earn money for lodging and food. But, about a year ago…autumn last year.

They entered an ordinary dungeon in the middle stages, suddenly met a monster they had never seen before. It was a completely black grasshopper, fast and hard to identify…a rare monster. Everyone excitedly chased after it…and someone threw out a knife. Coincidentally, it hit that monster by luck and defeated it.

The drop was a ring that looked normal, but after inspection, everyone was shocked. It could increase 25 points of agility. I think this is a magic item that's not even dropped on the front lines.

What happened next…I guess you should be able to guess what happened. They split up into two groups, one where the guild members would use it, and one where we would sell it for money. After a very rough argument where they nearly started fighting, they voted. In the end, the vote count was 5 to 3 in favor of selling it. The middle stage merchants couldn't handle such a rare item, so the guild leader took the ring to the bustling city on the frontlines to sell it at the auction ring.

They had to spend quite some time investigating the market price and a reliable merchant to auction it, so the leader intended to stay a night on the frontlines. Everyone was excitedly waiting for the leader to bring the money back once the auction is over. Even if they had to divide it into eight, the sum would be pretty large, so everyone began looking out for good weapons and armors that would give them a considerable EXP boost. But an incident shook the guild from the roots…

…The leader didn't come back. It had been past an hour since the following night when they promised to meet up, and the leader didn't bring any news. There wasn't any response even after they tracked where she was, and the leader never responded to the messages sent over.

It was impossible for the leader to take the treasure and run away, so they had a bad feeling about it. Some people went to the Available Player Log in Volintron Palace to check on the situation.

And in the end… Her name in the log was missing."

We bit our lips and Liza enquired, "If we assume she was killed in the frontlines and then she must have gone outside the city; which is highly unlikely. She wouldn't go out in the frontlines even if she had such an incredible item." "May be she was PK'ed. Anyways, you should continue Chi."

"The guild therefore had only 7 members left and it was probably because of one of them who knew about the ring. This led to suspicion and the conflicts which finally led to the collapse of the guild."

"Hmm… Any strange occurrences after the collapse." I asked Chi and both the ladies began staring me, I raised my hands in surrender "I mean like if any member of the guild got suddenly rich or leveled-up very fast." Chi was about to put her cheerful face again, but switched it for a serious one "Yes, one of the member named Smith leveled up very fast and eventually got inside the Black Dragon Alliance." "Anything about the Mayank guy." "Sorry, Naperjet but I didn't find anything reliable on him or other members of the guild. Only Smith's information was verified through my sources." Chi sighed.

We opened our trading windows and asked Chi about her costs "Well, I am ready to give it for free, if Naperjet gives me info about 'You know what' otherwise it would be 100k Dor." "What's the meaning of that?" Liza growled towards me and sighed "You are the most secretive person I have seen here so far." I couldn't help but laugh the issue off. Both of us entered 50k in the trade column and hit OK.