“Do you know what this means?” Grimguy said. “They have installed Death into the system! And now something has gone wrong, and Death is going about destroying the codes of perma players. The developers don’t want people to panic, and so they are just going on warning players to stay away from hooded people in the hope that players would keep themselves safe. Man, this is scary! But why did Death do nothing to you? Because you are not a perma player? What is the reason?”
Grimguy then suddenly stopped. His eyes had suddenly narrowed down on my shoulder.
“What’s that on your shoulder?”
I craned my head, and saw that there was a small beetle-like bug on my shoulder. I plucked it from my shoulder as it struggled, moving its tiny legs rapidly. The bug was actually made of metal.
“It’s some kind of a metal bug,” I said, handing it to Grimguy who examined it intently.
Just then there was a knock on the door. Grimguy opened it.
It was the perma player. The one I had killed and gone to jail for.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I said to him.
Grimguy looked at me confusedly, not having seen the perma player before.
The player took a step back, raising his hands in submission.
“Look, I am sorry for what I did to you the other day,” he said. The anger from the other day was totally gone from his eyes, replaced instead by helplessness. “I went mad at you. You did the right thing by killing me.”
“So this is the guy you killed?” Grimguy asked me.
I nodded.
“What do you want?” I said, lowering my tone. Had the man come to trick me by making me think that he was really sorry? I didn’t feel like trusting him at all, although something about him said that he was speaking the truth.
“I-I,” the man seemed to struggle for words. Then he pointed at the metal bug in Grimguy’s hand. “That bug is mine.”
“It’s one of those pets which can be used to eavesdrop on other people, right?” Grimguy said with a frown.
“Yes,” the man said, not meeting my eyes. His face had turned red with embarrassment and guilt.
“I put it on you the other day when we were in the village of the Raks… just before you paralysed me.”
I suddenly understood everything. Basically it meant that the man had heard every word I had spoken ever since I had left the Rak village. And it was probably through the bug that he had followed me to the Monster Inn, and also how he was here as of the moment.
A fit of anger seized me and I grabbed the man by his collar.
“How dare you!” I spat at his face.
“Even the game developers don’t approve of pets like these very much. You probably got some negative karma points for setting the bug on Rohan. It’s only meant to be set on NPCs and Raks,” Grimguy said to the man.
I meanwhile still had my hands on the man’s collar, giving him quite a shake.
“I am sorry,” he begged me. “I am really, really, sorry!”
And he began to sob. I let him go. He was a pathetic man.
“Keep your bug with yourself,” Grimguy said. He allowed the bug to jump to the man’s shoulder.
“Now you can get lost from here,” I told the man.
“Please,” the man said, “I just want to find my daughter!”
Grimguy and I exchanged looks.
“What do you mean?” I asked the man, more tenderly this time. “Your daughter has gone missing?”
The man nodded, his eyes on the floor.
“The hooded man has taken my daughter. She is also a perma player. Oh, god, I have no idea if she is all right!”
“Taken your daughter?” Grimguy said.
“Yes. He hit her with a bolt of lightning and she just disappeared.”
I suddenly felt pity for the man. Death had deleted his daughter altogether.
Grimguy gasped.
“I followed you here yesterday,” the man said to me, “I actually live in an inn in Drapud. Yesterday I was coming to Kapilpura. I wanted to find you so that I could take my bug back and also say sorry to you. I was too overwhelmed by my grief for my daughter because I wanted to get the Paralysis spell by killing the giant Rak priest, thinking that I can use it to paralyse the hooded figure, and then somehow get to know where my daughter is.
“But along the way I suddenly saw lightning striking the ground. The hooded figure appeared out of it and went towards the woods where there were a couple of people. I saw the hooded figure striking one of them, making the person disappear, just like he had done to my daughter. But he did nothing to the other man, and then left for the land of the Raks. I realised that the other man unharmed by the hooded figure was you and followed you to this inn. For the night I stayed outside, because I didn’t know what else to do. I decided to come and speak to you two, after hearing what you were talking through my bug.
“Is it really true that my daughter is gone? She is just thirteen! She had cancer so I decided to go perma with her in this game world. None of us were good players so we didn’t level up much. But we liked our existence here. Until the other day when we decided we could do with some travelling, and then the hooded figure came and took her away from me.”
The man began sobbing. Grimguy looked at me. He didn’t seem to know what to do. Just a few moments ago we were so angry with the man for using the bug on me. Now we felt bad that we had treated him so badly. I understood well what loss of a close one felt like.
I placed a hand on the man’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” I told him, “it’s not like we know for sure that the code of your daughter has been really deleted by Death. Maybe we will be able to find her.”
“Can we?” the man looked up, hope glistening in his eyes.
Grimguy looked at me.
“Death is just an NPC at the end of the day. I think we can use spells and weapons on him.”
“Now I don’t want to destroy him. I just want to ask him if my daughter is still alive.”
I had serious doubts about whether that was possible. We couldn’t just walk up to Death and ask, “Hey, where is this guy’s daughter?”
But I didn’t want to say that to the man, since he looked like he was just holding onto the last ray of hope.
“Didn’t you tell the admins about what happened?” Grimguy said. Grimguy was right, I thought. Telling the admins was the best way to go about it, instead of trying to find on our own what happened to the players whose birthstones were destroyed by Death.
The man let out a sad laugh.
“There was no response. They just completely ignored me.”
The next moment was one of silence. None of us knew what to do.
“Would you help me find my daughter?” the man finally said. “I-I can give you my pet bug. Just don’t use it on other players like I did. Boman, you now belong to Rohan,” he said to the bug, “Follow whatever he tells you to do.”
The bug immediately jumped from the man to me, and rested on my shoulder.
“Please help me,” the man begged.
“Thanks for the bug but you can keep it,” I said as I took the bug from my shoulder and placed it back on the man’s.
“So you won’t help me?” the man said with a crestfallen look.
“I did not say that,” I said. I exhaled, “I will help you find your daughter.”
“Are you sure?” Grimguy said to me in a somewhat disapproving note.
“Tomorrow Death comes after you and destroys your birthstone. What would happen then?” I asked Grimguy. I wanted him to realise that the problem was not only of the man’s, but of the entire game world in general, mostly affecting the perma players. Grimguy was the one who ought to be more concerned about the matter than me.
Grimguy nodded.
“Yeah,” he said, “I don’t want to be deleted, or face whatever fate awaits those whose birthstones are destroyed.”
The man sent both of us friend requests that we accepted. His name was
Daddy1. And he was at level 5 and was a Multi-tasker like me.
“So how do we go about it?” Daddy1 asked us expectantly.
Grimguy pursed his lips in thought, his puzzle on the floor completely forgotten and abandoned.
“From what it seems, Death doesn’t want to be noticed by the masses. So he attacks players mostly when they are in a remote place. I think to have any chance of finding Death, or your daughter through him, we should go to the place where Rohan met him.”
I pondered over this. Many times in real life I would meet a person at a particular place one day, and again meet the same person at the same spot by fluke of chance another day. This had happened with me so often that there was an actual possibility that we might meet Death if we went to the place where I met him yesterday.
“It’s going to be risky though,” I warned both Daddy1 and Grimguy. “Particularly for you two.”
“I keep my birthstone in a secret place near this inn,” Grimguy said, “would that offer any kind of protection? Death attacks the birthstone, doesn’t he?”
I shook my head.
“He attacks the player. Your birthstone will be destroyed once he attacks you even if you are hundreds of miles from your birthstone.”
“Usually I keep my birthstone in my inn at Drapud,” Daddy1 said, “but today I have brought it along.”
“Say we go to the place where I met Death yesterday,” I said, “what next? I don’t think it will be possible to just ask him what happens to the players he attacks.”
“I was hoping it would be possible to use the paralysis spell on him,” Daddy1 said.
“But still,” I said, “we can’t talk to him if he is paralysed, can we?”
“Maybe we can check him?” Daddy1 said. “Perhaps he has some magical artefact in which his victims are trapped?”
It was a possibility, but a very farfetched one.
“Wait a minute,” Grimguy said. He seemed to be thinking a different line of thought. “Is Death a He or a She? I mean we have been referring to Death as “He” the entire while.”
I grimaced at Grimguy. It was a fascinating question, but at the time was unnecessary at best.
“Men refer to Death as He and ladies refer to Death as She,” I said and settled the question once and for all.
“Fine, fine,” Grimguy said. “So what do we do now? Should we leave immediately?”
I nodded.
“The faster the better.”
So it happened that Grimguy hurriedly put his puzzle away. He seemed really sad doing so, especially because he had lost some of the pieces of the puzzle. While he could retrieve a few pieces from under the bed, some had disappeared.
I had left my mare at the stable last night. And now we once again left for Govind’s place to get horses for the three of us. Without further ado, we began our journey. Unlike yesterday, we went faster. We made the horses gallop along the road at the fastest speeds possible. Of course occasionally we came across hindrances, such as people blocking our way. But in a relatively short while, we were out of the town of Kapilpura.
I felt strange even as I thought what we were doing: We were going to meet Death.
Chapter 11
It was nearing dusk when the stone paved road turned into a mere path through the woods. In an hour the sun would disappear, and then we would have to meet Death in the dark. Occasionally we would sight animals in the woods, mostly deer, hare and the occasional monkey. But once Grimguy said of sighting a black panther as well.
And then, with only the last rays of the sun left for us, we reached the point along the road not far from which I had come face to face with death yesterday. I recognised the place because of the presence of a somewhat twisted tree on the roadside. We dismounted our horses. I drew out my sword, while Daddy1 also drew out his.
“You should get an upgrade, you know,” I said to Daddy1, looking at his 50 gold sword. “The other day were you really thinking that you could kill the giant with that?”
Daddy1 shifted uncomfortably, looking at his sword as though he had realised suddenly that he was holding a twig instead of a weapon of murder and defence.
“I am not good at levelling,” he said.
“It’s wise to get the better equipment,” I said.
“Will do,” he said, “once I find my daughter.”
I nodded.
“So where is he?” Grimguy asked, looking at the silent woods. Even insects or birds were not making any noise, although in the distance I could spot some crows flying.
“It’s not like he is sure to come,” I said.
“Why not make a little fire?” Daddy1 said. “If he comes I just might get my daughter back. If he doesn’t, well, at least we won’t catch a chill with the fire around.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. So we sat down on stones not far from the road, and assembled some branches, dry leaves and twigs together.
“Start the fire,” I told Grimguy. He frowned at me.
“I don’t know how to start a fire,” Grimguy said.
“Use your spell, come on,” I said to him. “You were able to set fire on the Rak the other day.”
“The Raks were characters,” Grimguy said. “These leaves and twigs aren’t. They are non-playing… things. Not non-playing characters.”
Daddy1 picked up a couple of stones.
“I guess we will have to do it the old way.”
The old way took about an hour to start the fire. By that time the darkness had really set. The forest felt so ominous at night. Once the fire was up the flickering flames casted dancing shadows, which felt eerie.
“I wish I had eaten something,” Grimguy said, massaging his stomach. He stood up and stretched himself. Just then he seemed to have a start. “Wait a minute!” he said, looking at me. My heart suddenly leapt, already fearful as I was due to the night.
“What?” I asked him, wishing he didn’t keep giving such sudden frights.
“You said you accepted Death’s friend request,” Grimguy said, and I almost sensed his next words before they came, “why don’t you just message him?”
“Yes!” Daddy1 said, “Please do that.”
No, it was not something I would do even if someone gave me a million Gibs.
I shook my head.
“I am not messaging Death,” I said and shook my head again, the very thought making my stomach queasy. “Never.”
“You know, it can save us some time,” Grimguy said.
I kept shaking my head.
“Please,” Daddy1 begged, his wide eye seeking help. I didn’t like the look he gave me. His desperation was the only thing that could have made me do the thing. I gritted my teeth.
“Fine,” I said. “But what would I message him?”
“Just tell him to come here,” Grimguy said. I sighed, preparing myself for the task mentally.
“Hey, can I meet you?” I messaged Death.
“frgdm dsf; 934 qwv,”came the reply a few moments later.
I scratched my head. But then, what else could I expect from a rogue NPC?
I told the other two about the message.
Grimguy grimaced.
“You asked him like you were asking a girl out for a date,” he said, “just order him to come here as quickly as possible.”
Grimguy hadn’t seen Death. Perhaps it was why he was acting like it was actually possible to ‘order’ Death to do something.
“Please try to come to the spot where I met you yesterday as fast as possible,” I messaged Death again.
“osfe09,” came the reply.
I guess it was some form of an “okay”?
Suddenly a quest message popped up in my vision.
New Quest available!
Stop the Rak horde from invading human lands!
Reward: 15000 gold
This was swiftly followed by another red message.
Alert!
You have been sighted by the Rak horde!
A sharp pain in my next followed and
the next moment my world turned upside down. I felt my face against the cold grass on the ground, the fire we had made just a metre away from my face. In the next few moments, with my consciousness slowly fading, I saw Grimguy and Daddy1 slump to the ground as well. Objects that looked like darts stuck to their necks.
And then everything turned to black.
When I came to my senses, I could feel myself being subjected to a light swinging motion. There were Raks moving in front of me, and I saw everything through bars. It took me a moment to realise that I was in a cage. Grimguy and Daddy1 were in cages too and were also being carried by the Raks. They were also stirring and slowing coming back to their senses.
The Raks were taking us to a fire near the river bank. There were at least fifty Raks in the bank. Some giant ones were present as well. All of them were of the warrior class from what it seemed. The Raks were roasting what looked like a monkey over the fire.
Was it a monkey in real?
I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know. It was either a very large monkey or…
The Raks had taken away my bag. So now I had no access to my sword, or my health potions or anything that could possibly help me get out of the situation. The only thing that was reassuring was that I had taken out my birthstone and kept it in my room before coming.
Wait a minute?
Had I? My memory was hazy. Perhaps it was the effect of the poison with which the Raks had coated the tips of their darts.
I couldn’t recall clearly. A chill caught me.
“Hey,” I messaged Grimguy and Daddy1 after quickly making a group with them.
“How are we going to get out of this?”Grimguy said.
“I am worried about whether I brought my birthstone with me,” I said.
“I brought mine along,” Daddy1 said.
“I am not sure, Rohan,” Grimguy said, “I saw you taking out the birthstone from your bag before we came, but you might have put it back inside.”
“If they find our birthstones, we are doomed.”
“Not me at least,” Grimguy said. “My birthstone is in Kapilpura and is quite safe.”
“They will kill us and then will we respawn immediately, or will the Raks be able to eat us before we respawn?” I asked.
“I had heard the Raks have some kind of a special powder with which they can delay respawning, so yes, that is possible,” Daddy1 said. “They will kill us and eat us, and when we respawn they will kill and eat us again. And thus the cycle will continue.”
Perma-Death Online: A LitRPG adventure: Book 1 Page 12