Red Name

Bjorn slowed his run down to a job as he headed over to the final player's loot drop, but when he got there, his expression turned ugly. Thanks to the other two players passing their inventories to the hunter, they avoided dropping items.

At the same time, the hunter would only drop one thing, and that thing happened to be a copper coin.

'Hmph, how annoying. I need to remember to kill everyone thoroughly next time.'

After picking up the single coin, Bjorn stood up and checked the time. He'd already been playing for four hours.

'Level five is probably insanely good to hit this quick. I know I heard about people hitting level 15 within the first week of the game coming out, so it should still be a little while before then.'

On the matter of leveling up, killing players didn't give any XP.

'I'll need to go KS some more mobs from people if I want to get stronger. That sounds fun enough, so why not do that instead of hunting on my own? I'll take a quick break to eat first, though.''

Bjorn turned and started walking toward the town, looking through his status pages as he walked. His INT was up to 16 now that he'd put a handful of free stats into it, and the effects had clearly been seen by the massive damage of the fireballs.

'Hmm… but what is this Karma? Is it a good thing? I didn't notice before, but it seems like it went up before, too.'

Right at the top of the character page, there was a gauge for it.

-

Current Karma: -11 (Hostile)

-

He also noticed that his name looked a bit more red than usual, though he had no idea what sort of effect it had.

'A red name… and the number is the same as the number of players I've killed!'

Bjorn nodded his head, figuring that he'd solved the mystery.

Clearly, the karma count was the number of players he'd killed, and making it drop further would cause his name to turn a deeper shade of red.

'Awesome! My username is Eric the Red, and now I can even make my tag match! Heh, I wonder if I kill 100 players, will it be a cool crimson color? Maybe it'll take 1,000…'

Bjorn had a bright smile as he approached the city gates, and the same guard from before was still standing there.

"Hey, buddy! Check out my name! Isn't it cool?"

The guard spun around, shocked to see Bjorn still alive. The NPCs in Grandiunon were touted as being as intelligent as any real person, and they had never let down this sentiment.

"How did you live?! That group was definitely out to kill you."

Bjorn scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, it happened a few hours ago with a different group, too. I'm really lucky that I know how to defend myself."

The guard was able to see the redness and karma value Bjorn carried, and he looked slightly suspicious. For one's name to start turning reddish in color, one needed to participate in at least ten kills.

After thinking for a moment, the guard remembered that the group with Bjorn had definitely been planning to kill him. Whatever happened out there was likely justifiable self-defense.

"Alright, but please be careful in the future. You can never know what kind of motivations someone has."

The guard stepped aside allowing Bjorn to enter the safe zone that was the city. He hadn't managed to acquire any sellable items and was planning to head back out into the wilderness immediately after a small break to eat some food, so he just found a decent spot to rest.

A few moments later, his body disappeared in a cloud of light motes.

-

Bjorn let out a satisfied sigh as he climbed out of the capsule. He could hear the TV faintly playing a few rooms over, the faint drone of some news channel.

It was just after 16:00, and his father was already asleep on the recliner, his hand resting on the remote as he slept.

His mother wasn't around the house, instead out spending time with friends as she usually did.

'She should be getting home pretty soon… and she'll get mad at Dad for not cooking anything. It's so strange… I still remember this like it was yesterday, even after ten years…'

Bjorn opted against waking his father so that he could cook something, and instead headed over to the kitchen. After graduating college and joining a professional team, he'd had a bit of time to learn the basics of cooking.

He couldn't call himself an expert, but the cook their team had hired was both great at cooking and teaching, and he'd learned a lot.

When he opened up the fridge, he saw some chicken that'd already been thawed out.

'Awesome, I'll make something taste quickly before I head back into the game. Heh, Mom and Dad will never expect it.'

Pulling out some bread crumbs, eggs, and a few seasonings, Bjorn got to work. After preparing the chicken, he dropped it into the frying pan, nervously looking up at the time.

He initially only planned to leave the game for a few minutes only, but cooking would waste a bit more time.

'I need my parent's support if I want to focus all of my time on the game right now. I'd barely be able to afford to rent a place if they threw me out, so I might need to dedicate some time around the house to tidy up some stuff and cook.'

Besides doing it so that they'd let him continue living under their roof, he just wanted to help them out.

After living ten years apart and only finally reconnecting with them just before his regression, he carried quite a few regrets about their deteriorated relationship.

'I'll do it differently this time. I'll stay close with them, make friends and form a team, make a living from the game, and defeat every team that challenges us.'

Bjorn munched on the first batch of chicken as he cooked the rest, and almost at the same time he finished cooking, he heard a noise at the front door.

"Gudrun! I'm back!"

Bjorn's mother called out for his father as soon as she entered, and a frown started to form on her face as she saw him startled awake in front of the TV.

"Cough, Ingrid! You're back!"

Bjorn's mother looked like she was about to stomp in to ask why her husband was asleep on the couch, but the delectable scent of fresh chicken wafted into her nose, causing her to pause.

"Gudrun. Please tell me you didn't leave food on the stove and fall asleep."

Bjorn poked his head in from the kitchen.

"Nope, I'm making some food! It just finished up, come try a bite."

-

-

It was almost another hour before Bjorn returned to the game, but he had a smile on his face.

Even if some might see it as a waste of time, he wouldn't give it up this time.

'I'll make the two of you proud, in my own way. World Finals, I'm coming for you!'