When I inquired the owner of the mare, Govind, which way I had to take for Drapud, he told me to just keep going north along the main road. “You will reach there in a few hours,” he said.
And so my journey began. I didn’t make my mare go very fast, instead maintaining a relaxed speed. I was astounded at my own ability to control the mare. Or perhaps it was just that the mare was designed such that it could be controlled easily by any player.
In about an hour, I left Kapilpura behind. The cool breeze coming from the Blood River kissed my face and I really began to enjoy the ride. After some time a slight ache came over my back because of sitting for a long time. I got down from the mare and stretched myself, enjoying being away from the business of Kapilpura, before continuing on the journey.
After about half an hour the sun set. I still had a considerable distance to go that would perhaps require two hours at least. The road here was no longer stone paved, merely a clearing through the woods. A fear for the unknown came over me. The journey was slowly losing its appeal. I wondered if I had made a good decision in bringing the birthstone along with me. I kicked my mare and rode faster. The woods felt ominous. I had to remind myself that I was in a game world and it was lame to worry.
The breeze from the Blood River now gave me a chill. The river was flowing about a kilometre to my right and I couldn’t see it anymore because of the woods, although I could still hear its rustle.
“Are you there yet?” I received a message from Grimguy.
“Nope,” I said.
“I forgot to tell you that sometimes Raks cross the river and stay in the woods and attack unsuspecting travellers.”
“Thanks,” I replied sarcastically. At the same time I was happy that Grimguy had messaged me. A sense of loneliness had come over me otherwise.
“Sorry. I was too absorbed in the puzzle when you were asking me about the journey to Drapud.”
“It’s okay. Is the puzzle complete?”
“Nah. Just a tiny portion done. It’ll take me a while.”
Despite the company that Grimguy provided, messaging was making me lose focus on the horse and the road ahead, because of which I was slowing down. I told this to Grimguy, who promptly said he would leave me alone for now. He told me to message him when I reached Drapud.
Night was falling fast. My heart started to gallop faster than the horse. If Raks came along I would fight them. I still had my sword and I also had the new spell. My health and mana levels were at optimum. But in the instance that they caught me and killed me, I would respawn exactly where they kill me. And then they would keep killing me multiple times. Logging out would be an impossibility since I was yet to be in the sixth day. It was a frightening thought.
I just hoped that even if I did meet the Raks, there would only be a few of them so I could tackle them easily.
The moon floated high in the clouds above. I was happy that the developers of Prithvi had decided to include only one moon in the game world, one which was very much like the earth’s moon, albeit a bit smaller. In too many fantasy novels and games there were always two or more moons. It felt too clichéd.
And then, I was suddenly broken out of my thoughts by a sound.
A mad shriek.
Like the last shriek of someone being brutally killed. My hair stood on their end. I slowed down my mare, and looked around. Had the sound been made by Raks? Or had I just imagined it? The second option was what seemed likely. My nervous brain was just making things up.
I kicked the mare, and began to gallop faster. The sound came again. The shriek was of a man in great distress. I came to a halt, as the shrieks kept coming. The way they were coming were noteworthy. First there would be a great cry of pain, followed by abrupt silence, which was then followed by muffled noises that could only be the laughter of one or more people. Next there would be silence, and then there would be another great cry, and thus the cycle continued. I thought somebody was being abused.
I wondered if I should investigate. A part of me told not to, and that if I did so I might be throwing myself into unknown dangers. A chill over came me as the conflict took place in my mind over what I should do. Then I finally decided that I would be brave. This was a game world and in the worst case scenario of someone abusing my birthstone, I would just log out when the sixth day came, and then I would quit playing Prithvi Online altogether. I could always go back to my job at the hotel. But I would not be a coward.
I pulled out my great sword and dismounted my mare, since it was almost impossible to go into the thick woods with the mare. I would be hit by the branches of the trees, and I would then be the one requiring help instead of the one providing help. I strode into the darkness. I still had a good number of health vials. If I was attacked, I would just drink the health vial, run to the mare and then escape. If the foe was someone that I could handle, well, then it would be the end of them.
My heart was at my throat as I approached the sounds. Ahead I could see the blurred silhouettes of three men, and there was a log of wood at their feet. Except it was not a log of wood, and it was moving. It was a man. A man who was begging the other three to let him go.
I concentrated on the first three figures. Arnap, Abhigyan and Gokul. They were NPC cuthroats without a doubt, each of them carrying a sword. They had full health of 500/500 each. Grimguy had never warned me about cutthroats, only about the Raks. Perhaps he had just forgotten. Grimguy was certainly a great encyclopaedia that I had just skimmed through without taking the time to read even a single page carefully. If only I had.
I next focussed at the man on the ground. No details came up. A perma player? It seemed like the three cutthroats were killing the man, and every time he respawned they would kill him again and take great joy in seeing him whimper and beg for mercy. I felt bad for the perma player. He had escaped to Prithvi probably because of illness or similar problems, only to face a treatment of this kind in the game world.
I threw my spell of Paralysis on one of the cutthroats. Next, I summoned Danav and Danavma.
“Get those two,” I said, pointing at the other two cutthroats, who had suddenly become alert and were turning this way and that. Finally, they turned towards me, and perhaps saw my silhouette.
“Who’s there?” one of them shouted, his voice so much like the clichéd brazen voice of a cutthroat. By that time Danav and Danavma reached them, me following suite. Danav and Danavma engaged in fight with the two cutthroats while I hit the paralysed one several times, until he died.
He dropped just 100 gold. Danav and Danavma were busy beating up the other two when lighting crackled in the sky. Perhaps it was going to rain. I helped the victim get up.
“Take the gold,” I told him.
“I am so thankful to you, sir,” the man said. “I was on my way to Kapilpura when I happened upon these bastards who caught me and began harassing me. Too bad I was carrying my birthstone with me.”
By then Danav and Danavma were done with the other two cutthroats, who dropped swords and gold. I let the perma player pick up everything, since he had obviously fallen to level one after dying so many times. I thanked Danav and Danavma.
“Thank you for your help,” I told them, “It would have been much more difficult to kill the bastards without you.”
Danav shrunk back to his original size. The mother and child pair then bowed, and disappeared. I turned to the victim.
“Will you be able to go to Kapilpura on your own—?”
Lightning crackled again. Not in the sky however, but down near the ground.
Just over the road.
The perma player pointed towards it, his bulging eyes bearing great terror and his finger quivering.
A dark figure had appeared in the middle of the road. He seemed to have been placed there by the very lightning itself. He wore a hood and carried a scythe. He was far away, so I couldn’t see his face.
He began to approach us fast.
Congratulations!
You have been a
warded 500 karma.
You saved a player much in need of help!
The message disappeared and by that time, the hooded figure was just a few metres from us. I could very well hear the shivering breath of the perma player. Even my heart was racing. There was a sense of immense fear that the hooded figure brought with himself. A fear of the unknown. I peered hard to see his face but, perhaps due to the darkness, I couldn’t make out his face.
As he came closer I realised that he didn’t have a face. Just red eyes hovering in smoky blackness.
The perma player was holding his birthstone in his hand. He was shivering so hard that he dropped the birthstone, which fell to the ground. The hooded figure raised a hand.
A burst of lightning hit the perma player even as I watched in utter horror. The lightning was so bright that it seemed to light up the woods. In moments the perma player was gone.
Gone with barely a trace of his existence left behind. His birthstone on the ground had shattered to dust as well.
The hooded figure now moved towards me, such that my heart stopped. Had the fear not clouded my brain, I could have used my paralysing spell on him or at the very least my sword, which was still in my hands. But I just remained standing, too afraid to move.
The hooded figure raised his hand. I accepted the worst. Like the perma player, my birthstone would shatter too. And I didn’t know what it meant. Perhaps I would cease to exist altogether.
Instead of the lightning, a strange light of a greenish hue came from the man’s palm. When it touched me, my karma dropped fast and soon it had become zero.
I gulped.
The hooded man lowered his arm.
A pop-up appeared.
You have received a friend request from Death13
Would you like to accept?
Yes/No?
Chapter 10
When a person so frightening sends you a friend request, you accept it.
That was what I did.
Death13 turned and moved away. He probably moved fast, but for me it seemed like an eternity. Having him in my eyesight chilled me to the bones. Finally he disappeared into the woods on the other side of the road. I waited for some more minutes before I even allowed myself the luxury to breathe normally. Then I fell on my knees and touched the tiny fragments of the birthstone of the perma player.
What did a destroyed birthstone mean? I couldn’t get my head around it. The perma player had given up his body in the real world. And now he couldn’t respawn in the game world either. Was this death?
The frightening face of Death still in front of my mind’s eye, I found my legs taking me towards my mare, which was still standing where I had left her, grazing on the grass, not bothered with all that had commenced in the past few minutes.
I jumped onto her back. I didn’t go to Drapud. I turned my mare around and headed back towards Kapilpura, my head in a daze.
I didn’t know what length of time it took me to get back to the Ravana’s inn. But the door was closed when I reached the inn and I reckoned it was probably nearing midnight. I kept knocking on the door, until a very irritated Nanda came and opened it. His eyebrows shot up his forehead when he saw me.
“What happened to you?” he said. “You look like you have seen a ghost!”
I had seen worse than a ghost.
“It’s nothing,” I replied.
“Grimguy said you went to Drapud.”
“Yes, I decided to return. Can I get some food? I am hungry.”
Nanda looked at me quizzically for a moment. He finally said,
“Come on in, I’ll serve you something.”
Nanda served me some hot stew. Once I was done with the meal, I thanked him, wished him a good night and then went to my room. I went to my bed and closed my eyes. No sleep came to me. All I could see were the eyes of the frightened perma player just before the lightning from Death’s hand had hit him.
I opened my eyes. It was early morning. I hadn’t realised when I had fallen asleep. In my dream I had kept running from a mysterious hooded person. I tried to think about all that had happened yesterday. Had that all been true?
I saw that I was still wearing boots , not having taken them off before sleeping, being too stunned. Yes, the events of yesterday had been true.
I decided to go to Grimguy’s room. The latter was still sitting on the floor, trying to solve his puzzle. I had to call him twice to get his attention. He looked at me with a confused expression.
“I thought you went to Drapud,” he said, “I messaged you yesterday night but you didn’t reply.” Now that I checked my messages, I found that he had in fact messaged me asking if I had reached Drapud safely and if I had found an inn to stay for the night.
“I returned back,” I replied. Grimguy had completed a small portion of the puzzle. Below the boat, there seemed to be a large fish, and he had also joined together a sun towards the top of the puzzle.
“Why?” Grimguy asked confusedly, like I had done something that was unacceptable. “You said you wanted to go there, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” I said, ruffling my hair, “Halfway along I felt like I should turn back. I haven’t even explored Kapilpura properly. I guess I would go to Drapud some other day.” I managed a meek smile. Grimguy turned back to his puzzle.
“Well, do what seems best to you,” he said.
He began working on the puzzle again. I sat on his bed and watched him. But my mind was still stuck in yesterday’s night. Grimguy and his room seemed to fade and I was once again transported to the woods, the hooded figure in front of me. Those red eyes, the face which didn’t exist...
The name Death13 was present in my friend list and it absolutely terrified me. I thought of removing Death from my friend list, but I was frightened what if doing so angered him? He would do to me what he had done to the perma player.
After sometime I received a message from Rajahard, asking me if I wanted to go on a hunt. I declined, saying I was going to rest for today. Lovebird was also offline. It wouldn’t have been a bad time to chat with her. But she hadn’t logged in since the last time.
I realised suddenly that Grimguy was staring at me.
“Something is wrong with you, right?” he said.
I didn’t say anything, my mind in a conflict whether to say about Death to anyone.
“Did you come across Raks yesterday night? I had also forgotten to tell you that you might come face to face with other dangers such as cutthroats and wild beasts. They are not that common, but they are known to attack travellers on occasions. They are supposed to make the journey ‘interesting’. It’s a game after all.”
I looked at him for a moment.
“What would happen if your birthstone was destroyed?” I asked abruptly.
Grimguy looked like he had been suddenly hit on the face with a frying pan.
“Birthstones cannot be destroyed,” he said. “They have never been known to be destroyed. The game developers will never allow such a thing to happen.”
“But what if someone took your birthstone and hit it with a hammer and it shattered to pieces?”
“You are asking weird questions, man,” Grimguy said. “You look really grim.”
I sighed.
“Did your birthstone shatter or anything?” he asked me with a raised eyebrow.
I shook my head.
“You are a perma player,” I said, “what if someone destroyed your birthstone?”
He looked at me like he didn’t understand why I was going on repeating the question.
“I guess I would cease to exist,” he said. “I mean, I am just a digit code now, unlike you. You can just return to the real world.”
That was what I had thought. So the perma player had ceased existing.
“Something happened yesterday night, right?” Grimguy asked me. He suddenly froze. He peered hard at me, like he was checking my details. “I remember you received some karma points. They are gone now!” he said. His mouth fell wide open. “Now do
n’t tell me you met the hooded figure!”
“Hooded figure?” I said.
“It’s all over the newspaper! There is a hooded figure that is going around sucking karma points of people. The game developers have said that the hooded figure is an NPC who was created by a glitch in the system.”
I quickly checked the Prithvi Daily issue of the day. I hadn’t checked it until then. Grimguy was saying the truth. I had a feeling that the game developers were really trying to cover up something. The hooded figure sucked Karma points, yes. But the matter was far worse than that. The hooded player was deleting perma players, and the game developers either didn’t know this, or they didn’t want people to know about it. The first case was unlikely since the game developers probably had some kind of database of the perma players and they would know if players were being deleted. I realised suddenly that many perma players might have been deleted so far. The first time I had received the notification to stay away from hooded people had been days ago.
“So did you meet the hooded figure?” Grimguy asked, his thirsty eyes fixed on me.
I nodded. I just couldn’t lie at this point.
Grimguy leaned back.
“So that’s why your karma is zero?”
I nodded again.
Grimguy let out a gasp.
“What exactly happened? Tell me everything,” Grimguy said.
I recounted everything that had occurred to me the past night. I relived everything once again, the fear penetrating my skin deep.
“Wait, the hooded figure killed the perma player, but he didn’t do anything to you?”
I shook my head. What I was going to say next would blow Grimguy’s mind.
“The name of the hooded figure is Death13. After sucking my karma, he sent me a friend request.”
Grimguy let out a shriek. He jumped to his feet and began pacing the room rapidly, his hands on his head. He trampled some of the puzzle pieces under his feet, while some others were unintentionally pushed to the bottom of the bed by Grimguy.
Rohan's Calling Online Page 11