The Player Plague

by Lucas Flint

  I stroked my chin. “That’s when we saw you, correct?”

  “Yes,” said Kathy. “And, of course, you two know what happened after that.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Tell me, Kathy, do you know the name or identity of the man who sold these drugs to Robert?”

  Kathy thought about it for a moment. “I didn’t recognize him. He was pretty short and wore a dark hood and cloak that covered most of his features. He looked kind of like an Assassin.”

  Uh oh. I was starting to put two and two together now and I didn’t like the outcome. “Did he give you a name before he left?”

  “Yes,” said Kathy. “He said his name was Miles.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Miles … I knew that name, but wish I didn’t. Although I didn’t know for sure, all of the details—mysteriously disappearing without a trace, looking like an Assassin, and even being named Miles—pointed to one possible identity for the drug dealer: Giggles the Assassin, or, as I knew him better, Atmosfear’s Sidekick.

  I had first met Miles on my first day in-game when he tried to assassinate me in broad daylight. He had failed, of course, but that meant nothing. He still hated me just as much as his boss and, although he might have been weaker than Atmosfear due to being a Sidekick, that didn’t make him any less dangerous than Atmosfear. If anything, his apparently weak appearance gave him an edge over enemies who didn’t know how dangerous he could really be.

  “Did Miles mention working for anyone?” I said. “Did he have a boss or an employer? Someone he answered to?”

  “I don’t think so,” said Kathy slowly, “but honestly, we didn’t talk very much before we purchased the drugs. He didn’t strike me as a very talkative type. Just like an Assassin. He did, however, giggle a lot, even when we didn’t make any jokes or say anything funny. It was weird.”

  I grimaced. That sounded exactly like Giggles. And if Giggles was selling these dangerous Infected drugs to people, he was undoubtedly doing it on Atmosfear’s direct orders. That, however, just opened a hundred more questions which I lacked the answer to. “I see. Do you remember anything else?”

  “No,” said Kathy. “I don’t.”

  Then Kathy reached out and took my hand. She looked me straight in the eyes, her tear-filled eyes pleading with me even before she spoke.

  “Please, Hero Winter, I need your help,” said Kathy. “I know it’s too late to save Robert, but maybe you can save other people. I don’t want anyone else to lose their loved ones like I did. If there’s anything—anything at all—that you can do to stop the drug dealer who did this, I will be forever in your debt.”

  A new prompt appeared before me without warning:

  MISSION: Stop the drug dealer I

  After losing her boyfriend to dangerous drugs falsely advertised as being able to awaken Powers within Civilians, Civilian Kathy has decided to do something about it. However, due to her lack of Powers and combat skills, she has asked you to find and arrest the drug dealer who sold those drugs to her boyfriend in the first place.

  Find the drug dealer and haul him off to jail, but there may be more to this mission than meets the eye and you already have a possible suspect based upon the clues Kathy gave you.

  ALIGNMENT: Hero

  DIFFICULTY: Hard

  RARITY: Rare

  SUCCESS: Find the drug dealer and stop him from selling drugs

  FAILURE: Fail to capture the drug dealer

  REWARDS: Increased reputation with Kathy and +2 Stat Points and +1 Power Point and +1 Trust

  ACCEPT? Y/N

  Odd. I had never seen a mission with the Roman numeral for ‘1’ attached to the end. Did that mean this was the first part of a bigger mission chain? If so, I wondered if the difficulty and rewards would increase as I unlocked the other parts of the mission. The rewards right now were pretty small, but given how I was already interested in stopping Atmosfear, I accepted the mission without hesitation.

  “Thank you,” said Kathy, who apparently saw the same notification I did when I accepted the mission. “If there’s anything—anything at all—I can do to help you find that monster, just call me at this number.”

  Suddenly, I heard a ping in my inbox. Opening my inbox, I saw a message from Kathy labeled ‘RE: My phone number,’ with her phone number written in the body of the message. As soon as I saw the phone number, another notification popped up:

  Reputation with Kathy +100! Your relationship status with Kathy has increased from ‘Neutral’ to ‘Friendly.’

  You received a Civilian’s phone number to call her in case of emergency! [Civilian Kathy]’s phone number has now been added to your Contacts!

  Congratulations! Your Heroic actions have caused at least one Civilian to trust you enough to give you her direct contact information! This is a great privilege and honor, one you would do well not to abuse. It is another sign you are becoming closer to being the true Hero you strive to be.

  Huh. I had no idea that I could get contact information from Civilians or that it was such a big deal. But it made sense. By increasing my Trust among Civilians, I was increasing my chances of being called by said Civilians whenever they were in trouble or needed help. Kind of like whenever Commissioner Gordan used the Bat Signal to summon Batman whenever he needed his help, although I kind of doubted I was going to get the Winter Signal anytime soon.

  “Thank you for giving me your phone number, miss,” I said. “I will do my best to keep it private and only contact you when absolutely necessary.”

  “Thanks,” said Kathy. “I wouldn’t have given you my number if I didn’t think you could do it. I mean, you defeated Dark Kosmos, after all. You can do anything.”

  I was taken aback by her statement. Defeating Dark Kosmos was, I suppose, an accomplishment, but frankly I didn’t feel nearly as confident in myself as she apparently did. Not that I hated myself or anything. I guess I still thought of myself as an obscure small-town cop from Texas. The idea that I was now a famous superhero that lots of people looked up and trusted was still hard for me to adjust, even harder than adjusting to the fact that I was going to spend the rest of my life in this game.

  “No problem, miss,” I said. “Now, let’s get you back home. It isn’t safe for Civilians like you to be out in the streets like this.”

  -

  Cy and I called the police, who came and picked her up. Although I considered sending Kathy home in a taxi, I thought she would be safer with the police than in a taxi. As well, I wanted her to tell the police what happened to Robert and make sure they were aware of Miles and the drugs he was selling. The in-game police were NPCs like everyone else, but they could still be useful, as I had come to learn over the last couple of weeks whenever I needed help subduing or capturing a criminal.

  As the police cruiser sped off, its hover engines allowing it to move smoothly up the street without making much noise, I looked at Cy and said, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Cy?”

  “Yeah, boss,” said Cy, nodding.

  “You are?” I said in surprise.

  Cy nodded again. “Sure, but I don’t know where we’re going to find a lawn flamingo at this time of night.”

  I slapped my forehead. “No, Cy. I was talking about the mission I just accepted.”

  “Oh, that one?” said Cy. “What about it?”

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “I think I know who the drug dealer is. It’s Giggles, Atmosfear’s Sidekick.”

  “Atmosfear?” asked Cy. He looked around quickly, his eyes wide with fear. “But I don’t see him anywhere.”

  “I didn’t say he was here,” I said. “I said I think Giggles was close by and sold Robert those drugs. It’s why my Hero Sense went off because it sensed the presence of Giggles, who is a Villain.”

  “You’re probably right,” said Cy, “but if Giggles is selling those drugs, then where did he get them from? Did Atmosfear give him the drugs?”

  “Possibly,” I said. “But we won’t know for sure until we find Giggle
s and stop—”

  A sharp pain raced up my neck and I grunted, grabbing the spot on my neck where I had been bitten by Robert. At the same time, a new notification appeared in my view:

  You are 1% Infected. Infection rate: 72hrs/59m/59s.

  Now what did that mean? I’d never seen a notification like this before and the lack of explanation just made everything that much scarier.

  “Boss?” said Cy, tilting his head to the side. “You okay?”

  I realized Cy couldn’t see the notification telling me about the rate of my Infection. I decided not to tell him about it just yet. I wanted to find out more about it myself before I said anything. “It’s nothing, Cy. Think I got a mosquito bite or something.”

  “Ugh, I hate mosquitoes,” said Cy with a shudder. “Creepy, ugly little things. I once had a nightmare where a giant mosquito stuck its stinger right up my—”

  “Thanks for the information, Cy,” I said as I lowered my hand from my neck. “But I think we need to go. Remember, we’re supposed to be at the Ninja Guild to help them deal with Master Haru.”

  Cy put his hands on his cheeks in shock. “Oh my god! I totally forgot about that. But weren’t we also looking for my friend’s store?”

  “Yeah, but we can find that later,” I said. I pulled up my map and turned in the direction we needed to walk. “Perhaps we can stop by on the way back to Base. Right now, we need to reach the Ninja Guild’s headquarters.”

  With that, I began walking north, carefully following the path laid out by my map. At the same time, however, I was keenly aware of the three-day count down timer in the corner of my vision, along with the empty bar that seemed to indicate how far along my Infection was.

  I didn’t know what being Infected meant or what the final result would be once the Infection reached 100%, but if Robert was any indication of what would happen … then perhaps I was already dead and I didn’t even know it yet.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “Is this the place?” asked Cy about an hour later as we stood in front of the Ninja Guild headquarters. “It’s bigger than I expected.”

  I could not disagree. The Ninja Guild headquarters looked like a weird combination of traditional Japanese architecture—with rice paper walls, slanted roofs, and even a small koi pond out front—and modern day skyscrapers. It was tall enough to spot even six blocks away, to the point where I was able to put away the map and find our way to the front door just by keeping an eye on the top of the building.

  The main entrance to the headquarters was a simple sliding door, but before the door were traditional Japanese arches, six in all. A few players and NPCs walked along the streets nearby, but no one seemed to be going in or out of the building just yet. Maybe today was a slow day for the Guild. Most likely, most of the Ninja players were still offline due to the Blackout, although that didn’t explain the lack of NPCs.

  “So …” Cy looked around, a frown on his face. “Do we ring a doorbell or—?”

  “I think we can just walk in through the front door,” I said, pointing at the modern-looking sliding doors. “They don’t appear to be locked.”

  Cy gulped. “I dunno, man. I’m just a little hesitant about entering the HQ of the Ninja Guild. I’ve never been here before, of course, but I have heard tons of rumors about how their HQ is full of all kinds of traps for the unwary. It’s one of the few buildings in all of Adventure City that no one has ever managed to break into.”

  “Really?” I said, looking at the HQ with more respect. “Makes sense. Why wouldn’t the ninja, who know all about breaking into places, also know the best ways to keep other people from breaking into theirs?”

  “That’s probably why we should approach with caution,” said Cy. “Don’t want to walk into a trap, after all.”

  I looked at Cy in amazement. “Hold on. Are you suggesting we approach with caution? Since when did you start to care about caution?”

  Cy held up his hands defensively. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m just saying that we shouldn’t rush into things unnecessarily. I don’t really like ninja all that much.”

  I still shook my head. Cy was usually the first to rush into dangerous situations. Even when he didn’t, he still had a tendency to shoot his mouth off and say whatever was on his mind even if it got him into trouble. To hear him now advise caution was probably the funniest joke Capes Online had played on me since I started playing.

  Even so, I actually agreed with Cy. I knew from experience just how tricky the members of the Ninja Guild could be. Even though we were invited here by the daughter of Grandmaster Yamamoto himself, that didn’t mean we were necessarily going to receive a cordial welcome. Best to keep up our guard and keep our eyes out for any potential traps.

  Readying my Energy Cannon, I walked through the traditional Japanese arches to the front door, with Cy following closely behind. I had the strongest feeling that we were being watched, but my Perception didn’t pick up anything. Not that I expected it to. The Ninja Guild’s members likely all had very high Stealth. If your Stealth was higher than a person’s Perception, then that person was unlikely to sense you following him. I could only hope that Aimi had informed her fellow ninja about our arrival, because if not, then Cy and I were going to have to fight.

  Luckily, we made it to the front doors without any trouble. The doors slid open in front of us like the doors of a grocery store and we entered, but slowly and hesitantly. When we passed through the doorway, the doors closed silently behind us. Although I did not hear the tell-tale click of the doors locking, something told me that we weren’t going to be allowed to leave just yet.

  Upon entering the building, my nose was filled with the smells of tatami mats, sushi, and cherry blossoms. It was a surprisingly nice scent, a stark contrast to the stale stink that hung in the air in most of Adventure City.

  The floor was also covered in tatami mats, while the ceiling had bright fluorescent lights that allowed us to see our surroundings surprisingly well. The lobby of the Ninja Guild HQ, like the outside, was a smooth mixture of traditional and modern. An unoccupied front desk stood in the center of the room, while behind it were doorways that appeared to lead deeper into the building. There was even an elevator bamboo door off to the side.

  To the left was a tiny waterfall overflowing into a koi pond that wound underneath the floor, visible beneath clear glass that followed the path of the stream to the outside. To the right were a small waiting area, a sofa and several chairs arrayed around a TV that was currently on Capes Online News, the official news channel of Capes Online run by SI Games. Capes Online News—which, amusingly enough, abbreviated to CON—was one of the main ways SI Games announced new DLC, upgrades, and general announcements to players. I rarely watched it myself due to my lack of interest in TV, although Cy was a big fan thanks to its ‘informative news updates,’ which I took to mean ‘hot female news anchors.’

  Regardless of what was on TV, I found it weird just how empty the Ninja Guild was. I wasn’t sure how busy the place was, but I would think there would have been at least a few more people. As it was, Cy and I were the only two people I could see here.

  “Where is everyone?” Cy asked, looking around in confusion. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

  I looked at my map and saw that the dots representing Cy and me were directly on top of the dot labeled ‘NINJA GUILD HQ’. “Yeah, I am. The map says so, and as we know, the map is never wrong.”

  “But it’s so empty,” said Cy as he put his hands on his hips. “It feels weird.”

  “I bet a lot of Ninja players are currently offline,” I said. “Remember, the Blackout scared a lot of people and made them stop playing Capes Online. It’s going to be a while before people start coming online regularly again.”

  “I guess so,” said Cy with a sigh. “But it’s still creepy.”

  I nodded and was about to take a step forward before Cy grabbed my arm and said, “Wait a minute, boss. Do not take another step forward.”
/>
  Taken aback by the sudden seriousness in Cy’s voice, I looked at him and said, “What is it, Cy? Did you see something?”

  “Yeah,” said Cy with an uncharacteristically serious expression. “The floor. Look at it. Specifically, the tile in front of you.”

  Frowning, I looked down at the tile and saw that it was glowing a bright red. That was my Perception at work. Although my Perception was very low-leveled at the moment, it was still sufficient to warn me of potential hidden traps. Potential hidden traps always glowed bright red, which was all the warning I needed to make sure I could avoid them.

  “That’s a trap tile,” said Cy, again serious. “I don’t know what would have happened if you walked into it, but I doubt it would have been anything good.”

  “Thanks for the save, man,” I said. “Knowing the Ninja Guild, I bet it’s probably extremely dangerous.”

  “Yeah, but it’s also kind of lame if you think about it,” said Cy as he let go of my arm. “I would expect them to do a better job of hiding their traps than doing something as simple as that. What a disappointment. And it’s so easy to avoid. Look, I can just walk around it and—”

  Cy took one step on the tile next to the glowing one, but as soon as he did, the tile he stepped on depressed into the floor.

  A huge bamboo cage suddenly fell from the ceiling and landed on Cy. Cy looked around in shock and fear as the bamboo cage cut off every possible avenue of escape.

  “Cy!” I said in alarm, taking a step back. “Are you okay?”

  “Don’t worry, boss,” said Cy, who I noted was unable to hide the fear in his voice. “Just a simple bamboo cage, nothing to get too scared about. Look, the top of the cage is even wide-open. An obvious escape route.”

  Cy was correct that the top of the cage was open, but as it turned out, that wasn’t so he could have an easy escape route. Instead, a hole open in the ceiling and several large fish—with teeth as sharp as knives—fell from the ceiling and landed on the floor around Cy. Most of the fish missed him, flopping on the floor uselessly, but many of them nonetheless fell on top of him and began biting at various parts of his body, making Cy scream and dance with pain as he desperately tried to throw the fish off.