Blank (2)

[Blank]

He'd get Royal a nice little gift and apologize. That was the best Blank could come up with. He just had to hope Royal would forgive him and they could start over. This time he was determined to know more about Royal. Sure he had come to the conclusion he didn't currently know Royal at all. But he would remedy that immediately.

Blank hummed to himself as he tried to figure out the perfect gift. Something useful, some type of gear? But how to make it personal? Maybe an accessory of some type? Did Royal like bracelets? He had seen him wearing a watch before. Or maybe a necklace? Was it too soon for something like that? Hmm necklace it is.

Now what kind of necklace. A recent 'glitch' had been found within the game. Although many people were debating if it was intentional. If you did a side challenge and cleared it and got an item you liked but then failed the challenge by leaving one tiny monster alive, that item would transfer to the real world. Granted so would the monster.

Of course side challenges came with all sorts of rules and the government policy was to never enter them. But since when did anyone listen to the rules when the world was falling apart?

Blank found the side challenge he wanted. Number 57, the crystal palace. It had stayed the same since the world launch and had a certain prize he wanted to modify.

In fact the item he was hoping to make didn't exist in any game guides because he and Chase had stumbled on this feature by accident. He should probably share it eventually but it was a one time use. NewLegacy had several hidden one time things. The Orb from earlier with the wings fit under that. The AI nutcase seemed to be fond of them as well for whatever reason.

Blank massacred the crystal warriors of the crystal palace. He had already picked the monster to leave alive as well. The princess of the castle had a small dog pet beast with 1hp. It was a joke really. Throwing a toothpick could kill it.

Finally after slicing a sword across the kings neck and freeing the civilians from his harsh rule blah blah blah, Blank wasn't huge on reading storylines. A small necklace fell into his palm.

[Necklace of Mirages: Can reflect any attack back on the attacker just once.]

Blank firmly threw it at the wall as hard as he could. The crystal cracked and then shattered to pieces.

[Necklace of Nothing: How could you be so stupid?]

Blank cracked a grin. He wasn't so stupid. Nope, Chase had been trying to get a gift for his want to be girlfriend. The girl had laughed at him tossed it at a well breaking it. Then she had left the challenge. Blank had stayed behind trying to comfort his stupid and very much single friend.

At the time he had an opal ring on called ring of healing which could restore 100 HP for each hit taken.

Blank looked over at the little puppy with one HP running around. If it didn't try to 'bite' him every other second he might have tried keeping it as a pet. But each bite did 1 damage and didn't really hurt but was annoying.

I mean the notifications alone could kill a person's soul.

[You've been bitten by the furious puppy! 1 damage!]

[Ring of Healing activates +100 HP you are at full health]

[You've been bitten by the furious puppy! 1 damage!]

[Ring of Healing activates +100 HP you are at full health]

[You've been bitten by the furious puppy! 1 damage!]

[Ring of Healing activates +100 HP you are at full health]

[You've been bitten by the furious puppy! 1 damage!]

[Ring of Healing activates +100 HP you are at full health]

Needless to say never keep the furious puppy.

Blank picked up the now useless necklace and held out the opal ring to it. The two shot together in a burst of light. Blank sighed in relief as an item formed. It still existed.

[Necklace of Rebirth: Can heal any injury as long as used within 10 seconds of receiving. Breaks upon use.]

The necklace now had a tiny opal in the middle. A stone of healing, it was fitting since their best memory together was the opal caves. Or at least it was one of Blank's favorites. But honestly he could watch Royal eat French fries and call it his favorite memory.

He was totally in love, and hopefully his love wouldn't try to throw his gift at the wall. Blank smiled placing the necklace in his pocket. Now to go find Royal.

Blank killed the challenge through a log out point and it read FAILURE in large letters. Then next to him spawned the furious puppy.

[You've been bitten by the furious puppy! 1 damage!]

[Bracelet of Revitalization activates +250 HP you are at full health]

"You are sooooo annoying!" Blank muttered as he stomped on the furious puppy.

The puppy had a look of betrayal as it crumbled into dust.

{Congratulations you have killed the furious puppy! But honestly it was so cute, how could you!]

[Congratulations failure status now changed to complete.] Two days ago game notifications had started appearing in reality as well. Blank tried not to think of all the things that could mean.

Blank checked his pocket to find a real version of the necklace and smiled again. A perfect present both useful and fancy. And if Royal used it and it disappeared Blank would have an excuse to buy him a new present!

Blank felt like the world was on his side until he arrived back at his guild. The place was a mess.

"What happened?" Blank immediately asked finding Deck staring at his phone. "Hey Deck?" he tried again because he wasn't responding.

"Blank your back."

Blank looked over to see Winter Sly's twin. He gave him a curious look.

"You're not going to like it." Winter muttered.

"What happened?" Blank said firmly.

Winter handed him a phone with a recorded video. "It's about RoyalBlue."

Frowning Blank pressed play and froze. In it Royal sliced open another player and watched them die. Then he scooped up the leftover loot before leaving the scene. Blank felt his hand trembled. He wanted to deny it say someone had framed Royal or maybe the player was a bad guy or the video was edited. But the video stamp was a direct link to the game's record mode, and the player killed.... Was from the SnowLeopards.

"Winter" Blank whispered, "Tell me this is a joke. LittleGingerRy...…" his voice carried off.

He knew the player well. He was newer to the game. Blank had taken him out to eat when he first joined. He was awkward and sweet and like the whole guild's little brother. Royal couldn't of, it just couldn't be... it. Blank felt like his heart was tearing in two.

"We already checked it over, the video feed shows no signs of tampering." Winter whispered.

Blank stared at the phone's screen wanting it to change, to show some misunderstanding. Had Royal really taken his revenge out on their weakest member? Surely he didn't but the video.

Chase's statement from earlier came back to him. "How much do you really know about Royal?"

Apparently not enough. Blank's face darkened. He didn't know Royal at all. He had thought he did, but this, this was the work of a monster.

"Have it double checked again." Blank growled letting the rage build inside of him. "Once we it had been checked again fetch your gear, we can't let him run around targeting us regardless of what happened."

"What happened?" Winter questioned.

But Blank didn't respond and he finally scurried off.

Blank looked out the window. He couldn't believe Royal would go so far as to hunt an innocent player over what happened between them. He would have been fine if Royal wanted him dead, but LittleGingy was gone. This was unacceptable. His hands curled into fists.

"Deck" he said.

"I know" Deck replied. "But I can't I'm sorry. I won't leave my room though, I know what has to be done. I just can't believe it."

Deck looked up at Blank and Blank saw his face was stained with tears.

"I just can't believe that Royal would.... He knows dying in the game is permanent, how could he it's just gotta be some accident." Deck was full on crying now.

"Don't worry" Blank said quietly "I won't make you hunt down your friend."

Blank felt his gut clench. No hunting down and killing Royal would be his job. He was the one fooled by him and he was the one Royal wanted to punish. He couldn't let him kill anyone else.

He felt a dark smile cross his face. They'd die together. Blank deserved death too after what he had done to cause Royal to go to such extremes.