Chill Death

Alright, lore break done. Back to playing Magys Regal.

Spend some hours playing, finishing up the main story of expansion numero dos. Or number two for those who can't understand Spanish. Nothing much happens.

By the way, when you beat an old expansion, there's a vendor that has the second best gear from the end of the expansion. At the time, they're only obtained through the optional raids, but once it's obsolete due to better gear being released in the new expansion, it's easily obtained.

Makes it easier for me, so I won't complain. Just gotta talk to the vendor.

It's while I'm doing this that I glance over at the in-game chat. I usually look over at it every so often just because it gives me something to watch.

In field areas, it's usually either trains of people searching for world bosses and rare enemies or someone else doing the story for the first time.

Dungeons are just a "hello" at the start, a "gg" at the end, and maybe some banter inbetween.

And towns are just chaotic. Bots advertising real money trading sites, at least one or two people offering to draw art of your character for money, and a bunch of people advertising player-made nightclubs and roleplay venues. You might even see people asking for someone to do hard content if you're lucky!

Anyway, I got my gear, very expensive since I use one of everything as an Amalgam. One of the venue advertisers mentions an interesting contest reward.

"Max gear for any class for the winner of Death's Design's deathroll tournament! One million shards to enter!"

A deathroll is a special way of gambling in these games. There's a command in the game's chat that "rolls a dice" and gives a random number between one and one thousand. One player does that, then their opponent does the same command but puts the number the other player rolled after it. That makes the max number the one they put in. This then continues as the number goes lower and lower until a player rolls a one and they lose.

Also, shards are the regular currency in the game. A million is either a lot or not much depending on how hard you grind certain content, but I've made a million by playing the quests at least.

… You know, my luck is usually bad with these kinds of stuff. Contests, I mean. So many people enter that the chance of me actually winning anything never happens. I basically just assume I'll lose so I don't be disappointed.

HOWEVER! If I win this, that will cut out a large amount of grinding content. The venue's event starts in a few minutes and the tournament an hour after that, so why shouldn't I go? I've gone to these kinds of things before, so I can at least enjoy myself a little.

I copy the housing neighborhood number and building location, and go there. It's party time!

And as expected, the event is… certainly happening. They have a DJ live streaming music on another website, a bunch of players messing around by emoting or moving funnily, some just sitting around and staring off, and like a few people playing in-game music of their own design.

I never said they were the most interesting things in the world. I usually only go for the potential rewards, anyway. Sometimes I roleplay, but that's if I'm in a certain mood.

There's also the player in charge of the venue and the head of their Clan, which is something players can form like a guild to do stuff together. Their character is Oreecahl and they're mostly just posting reminders of stuff going to happen later.

"The deathroll tournament begins in fifty minutes, please send me a whisper and trade the one million shards to enter! And don't forget about the fashion contest afterwards, where first place can win a Dracothian Wings mount worth thirty million shards!"

I haven't interacted with the fashion stuff at all in Magys Regal, so I definitely won't win that. But I will go to them and send them a whisper, which is a message only you and them can see, to enter the deathroll tourney.

"Greetings, may I join the deathrolls?"

Wait a few seconds for a response…

"Sure! Though I see you're not max level, so you wouldn't be able to equip the gear. Any reason you want it?"

Eh, it's just some rando. It won't matter what I say, might as well tell them the same thing I told the siblings.

"Going through content fast, want to join the race to world first to win a bet."

It takes a bit longer for them to reply, but when they do…

"oh you're TNG aren't you?"

A mutter of "what the fuck…?" from me prompts Kandance, who was ignoring everything due to disinterest, to finally look over.

"TNG… The New God? How do they-"

"It's Deutralohs. This must be HIS character. Which also means this is his Clan, in-game house, AND event!"

I honestly should have expected to run into him at some point, but I expected it to be when I was already max level and doing the hard stuff to get the gear. But here he is, hosting a player venue.

"It's me. Want to be called DoD?"

"sure why not? gimme one moment"

Oreecahl, aka Deutralohs, sends out another announcement.

"I will be temporarily unavailable, so if you wish to still enter the deathroll tournament, send a whisper and the shards to my vice leader Platty. Thank you and please continue to enjoy our event! Death's Design hosts these every week!"

Fucking… Death's Design. Of course his Clan is named that. That makes it super clear that it's him!

"come with me"

Deutralohs leads me into his personal space inside the Clan's shared house. It's an instanced area, so it's just the two of us here and we don't have to constantly whisper to each other.

"did you know it was me hosting?"

"Nah. Just came here for fun and to win the deathroll tourney."

I never would have taken the Deity of Death for both a world first racer and a venue party host, but here we are.

"good to know TNG has a sense of taste"

Kandance, though, is still a bit put off.

"I leave him to his own devices, and he does THIS?"

"The underworld is mostly automated, isn't it? Makes sense he'd do stuff to fill his free time."

"Whatever. Just be careful, you and him are currently on opposing sides. Who knows, he might try to sabotage you…"

I don't think Kandance knows this, but that's not really a thing you can do in this game? Like, outside of super niche stuff like loot rules, you can't really screw with another player's experience.

"so hows progress?"

"Just finished the second expansion. All that's left is the patch content, third expansion, and the few patch content it has."

"youre no lifing this game more than actual undead"

Hardy har har. Very funny.

"wanna just hang until the deathroll tourney?"

Well, you know what they say: know thy enemy. Might as well see what Deutralohs is like casually.

"Sure."

So the two of us just chill in his character's room. I better think of stuff to say…