The Player Plague

by Lucas Flint

  Find Faded Flag and confirm his whereabouts. The future of Adventure City may depend on it.

  ALIGNMENT: Hero

  DIFFICULTY: Intense

  RARITY: Unique

  SUCCESS: Find Faded Flag and inform the Dwellers of what happened to him

  FAILURE: Fail to find Faded Flag. Further negative consequences unknown

  REWARDS: Increased reputation with the Dwellers of the Sewers, as well as other benefits depending on how well you complete the mission

  ACCEPT? Y/N

  I probably should have seen this coming, but it surprised me anyway. This was the first time I got a mission involving another player. At least, I assumed Faded Flag was another player. I guess it was possible he was an NPC Hero, but I kind of doubted it, given how he used to own my Base. Although the mission did not seem to have a time limit or deadline associated with it, I accepted it anyway. Secret Missions were incredibly rare and almost always had amazing rewards. Increased reputation with the Dwellers did not seem very spectacular, but it sounded like there were other rewards I could potentially get if I performed it well enough. Plus, I was worried about the ominous line about the future of Adventure City depending on the success—or failure—of this mission.

  As soon as I accepted the mission, yet another mission prompt appeared in my vision:

  SECRET MISSION: Explore your Base I

  STATUS: Completed

  You have successfully explored a Secret Room in your Base! But there is still more to your Base to explore. Keep poking around in nooks and crannies until you find each and every last Secret Room in your Base to unlock a special reward!

  REWARDS: +100 Base EXP and +1 BP

  Cool! I completed a Secret Mission I didn’t even know I had. Even better, I got 1 Base Point. I didn’t want to spend it right away, but it was nice to know that I had it. Based on the information in the description, it sounded to me like there were even more Secret Rooms in here to find. I found myself wondering what kind of rewards I would get for finding more Secret Rooms. Probably more Base Points, but if that was the ONLY reward I got, that would definitely be worth it.

  That was when I got another notification:

  Congratulations! With the discovery and successful claiming of the Basement, your Base has leveled up! Your Base is now Level 2. +1 BP! You now have 2 BP. You can distribute and check out the amount of Base Points you have by looking under the ‘BASES’ tab in your character menu.

  Nice! I guess finding Secret Rooms gave experience points for Bases. That gave me even more reason to find the other Secret Rooms.

  When I dismissed that notification, no more notifications popped up in my view. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to spend too much time reading and dismissing random notifications. I had lots of stuff to do, after all, starting with seeing what kind of Equipment I might find in these boxes and crates.

  “Hey, did the Base just level up?” asked Cy. “I saw a notification that said so.”

  “Yep,” I said, glancing at the BASES tab and smiling. “Looks like the Base is now Level Two.”

  “That’s cool,” said Cy. “So what are we going to do next?”

  I gestured at the five tunnels. “First, we need to figure out how to close those tunnels. Last thing I want is for more of those Dwellers to come visiting, or even worse, wanting to get revenge on me for hurting one of their own.”

  “How are we going to do that, boss?” asked Cy, scratching the back of his head. “They don’t have any doors.”

  I stroked my chin and glanced at the crates. “Perhaps we can move some of these large crates in front of the entrances. Probably won’t hold them for long, but—”

  “We should get another Security Camera to put down here,” said Cy. “Like what we have out front. That way, we can keep an eye on the Basement and make sure those Dweller guys don’t take us by surprise.”

  I looked at Cy, again surprised by his foresight. “That’s actually a really good point I hadn’t considered. We definitely have enough credits to purchase another Camera.”

  “Of course,” said Cy, puffing out his chest. “I’m not as dumb as I look.”

  “That’s saying something,” I muttered. Then aloud I said, “Anyway, we’ll worry about blocking off the tunnels later. If Zazoom keeps up his end of the deal, then we might not have to worry about unwanted visits from his people for a while. Instead, let’s focus on finding out what is inside these boxes. Zazoom said the boxes and crates were full of items and Equipment owned by players.”

  Cy turned around to look at all of the boxes, his eyes wide. “Are you sure about that, boss? Look at all of this stuff. It would take us ages just to sort it all out. Maybe even years.”

  I glanced at the respawn timer and saw we had about half an hour left. “Well, we’ve got about half an hour left before we can leave my Base. We don’t need to go through all of it right away. Let’s just start with some of the smaller boxes and go from there.”

  I walked over to the box containing Faded Flag’s stuff and picked it up. Putting the box on top of a taller box, I said, “Let’s start with this one. Cy, you can look at the boxes on the other side. If you find anything interesting, rare, or valuable, then let me know right away so I can take a look at it.”

  While Cy skipped off to check out the boxes on the other side of the room, I flipped open the top flaps of Faded Flag’s box. The main reason I wanted to check this out was because I wanted to see if I would find clues to Faded Flag’s whereabouts. If this box contained a lot of his possessions, then there might be a hint or two that could point me in the right direction. Even if it didn’t, the fact was that Faded Flag’s box had the Snow Cape, an item which had already proved itself useful to me and would probably become even more useful in the coming days.

  Looking in the box, the very first thing I found was a framed picture. That was shocking. Framed pictures were extremely rare nowadays. The vast majority of people used digital screens in their homes that could display any pictures you wanted. The only time I saw framed pictures in the real world was in my grandpa’s house. Lots of younger kids had never seen one in real life at all. I was surprised to find one in Capes Online, of all places.

  The picture depicted a Hero smiling up at the screen, his arm around the shoulders of a pretty young African-American woman with a child in her arms. The Hero was tall and strapping, like most Heroes. His cape looked like the American flag, except faded considerably. His costume, meanwhile, resembled an army uniform in the colors of the American flag. He was a good deal taller than the woman, who I assumed was his wife, while his friendly smile and kind eyes told me that he was every bit as heroic as the picture made him out to be.

  Curious, I Scanned the framed picture to see what information I would get:

  Framed Picture

  Rarity: Unique

  Material: Wood and Glass

  Description: A framed photograph of a smiling family. Framed pictures are extremely rare in the digital age, meaning that this photograph may be far more important than it first appears.

  Once I dismissed that notification, another one suddenly appeared before me:

  MISSION UPDATE: You have found what appeared to be a framed photograph of Faded Flag and people who might be his family. This could be an important clue to solving the mystery of Faded Flag’s disappearance. Identify the woman and child in the photograph in order to get closer to completing this quest. You might be able to find out who they are by showing this picture to the right person.

  Now that was interesting. I tried to Scan the individual faces of the people in the photo, but unfortunately, Scan just treated the faces like another part of the photo and all I got was the same information for the item as before. But I knew this Framed Picture was extremely important to my mission without having to be told, so I put it in my item inventory for later reference. For now, I would check out the other contents of this box and worry about completing the mission later.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-S
IX

  As it turned out, however, the box didn’t have much else in it, other than an American flag-style bandanna that Scan helpfully informed me was called ‘FREEDOM BANDANNA.’ This item was part of a set and I would get special benefits if I could complete the set. The Freedom Bandanna apparently increased Charisma +5%, but when I tried to equip it, I was told I couldn’t wear a bandanna over my Costume, so I put it away for the moment. Perhaps at some point I would get another chance to wear it or I could sell it off at some point for cash.

  In any case, Cy and I spent the next half hour digging through the boxes. We found a variety of interesting things, from small handguns that could be equipped by any Class to specialized equipment like the Beast Whistle, an item that could only be used by Beastmasters that allowed players of that Class to summon their beasts no matter how far away they were. Thinking of Funky, my friend and one of my Teammates, I made sure to stash away that particular item to give to him later.

  By the time we were done, Cy and I hadn’t dug through even a quarter of the boxes, not even counting the crates, which probably had even more stuff. We had found about ten Health Drinks, six Energy Drinks, and even a few Antidotes, all of which went into my bag for future use. I was a little disappointed by the Antidotes because they couldn’t heal me of my Z-Virus Infection, but just because they couldn’t cure me of the Z-Virus didn’t mean they were useless. They could still heal other status ailments, after all.

  We could have spent hours, even days, digging through the accumulated ‘treasure’ of the Dwellers, but once our one hour respawn limit was up, I decided it was time to head out. We needed to back to the Ninja HQ and speak to Yamamoto. I hadn’t heard from the Ninja Guild since my death, so I had no idea what was going on in the outside world since we destroyed the Stalking Shadows’ supply of Z-Virus. Although I was reminded of the sole bottle of Z-Virus I had in my bag, which I still tried to pretend didn’t exist. Kind of like my Infection, which was now at 8% according to the little countdown timer in the corner of my HUD.

  After closing the Basement up and making sure it was well-hidden, Cy and I left Warehouse 13 and made our way north to the Ninja Guild HQ. Luckily, we didn’t run into any danger or trouble on our way up there, aside from getting accosted by random hobos looking for money or drugs.

  In fact, nothing of note really happened until we reached Ninja Guild HQ, where we found Riku standing at the front entrance. As soon as we saw him, Riku rushed over to us and said, “There you are! Where have you two been? Grandmaster Yama-sama has been extremely worried about you since the destruction of the Stalking Shadow’s warehouse!”

  I held up my hands to calm down Riku. “It’s okay, dude. We just respawned in my Base and had to stay there for about an hour. Couldn’t leave my Base until the timer was up.”

  I almost thought about telling Riku about the Dwellers but decided against it. For now, I wanted to keep knowledge of the Dwellers with me and Cy. Riku didn’t need to worry about a possible invasion of the surface from the Dwellers on top of his troubles with the Stalking Shadows. Besides, it wasn’t like there was anything he or his fellow ninja could do about the Dwellers right now anyway.

  “I see,” said Riku, nodding, although he still looked troubled. “Even so, you must come up to Yama-sama’s office. Some of our spies within the Stalking Shadows have reported some unusual happenings in the organization. Yama-sama hasn’t said what they are, but based on his expression and demeanor, I can only assume it is nothing good.”

  “Does it relate to Atmosfear in any way?” I asked.

  “You mean the Villain who killed you?” asked Riku. He shrugged. “I don’t know. The only way to find out is to up there and ask.”

  I bit my lower lip but nodded. “Then lead the way and we shall follow.”

  -

  Minutes later, Cy and I stood in front of Grandmaster Yamamoto again. He was still seated on his throne like he was the last time we saw him, but he seemed far more agitated now. He kept pulling at his long mustache, muttering to himself under his breath in Japanese. Aimi and Riku stood on either side of his throne, as usual. Riku looked almost as agitated as Yamamoto, while Aimi gave off the aura of total calmness and control, although I could sense even she was somewhat worried about recent events.

  “Hello, Yama-sama,” I said as Cy and I bowed before the Grandmaster. “Apologies for being late. We were held up by the respawn time limit in my Base and—”

  “Oh, it’s not a problem,” said Yamamoto, waving off my apology before I could finish. “I am well aware of the … strange nature of you Heroes and Villains. I honestly did not expect you to get here so quickly, however. I assumed you would want to take time off to recover.”

  “Recover from what?” I said.

  “The trauma of dying, naturally,” said Yamamoto. “I have been told that it can be quite … traumatic for Heroes like yourself.”

  I frowned but understood what Yamamoto meant. Due to the intense realism of Capes Online, players could very easily suffer trauma induced by death. It depended mostly on the Pain Level one set for oneself before playing. My Pain Level, of course, was set at Real, even with Kids Mode enabled, but so far death hadn’t negatively affected me that much. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because I was tougher than most players or maybe being in Project Second Life meant I could handle the trauma of death a lot better than most players. It was something to think about, anyway.

  “No, sir, I don’t need time off to recover,” I said politely. “I can bounce back from trauma pretty well. I’m tougher than I look.”

  “Apparently,” said Yamamoto. He shook his head. “Never mind, then. We must get on to the main point.”

  “The aftermath of the attack,” I said. “What happened after Cy and I died? I know you guys managed to destroy the warehouse, but—”

  “After your death, the charges exploded,” Aimi explained, speaking softly but clearly. “Riku and I just barely managed to escape in time. Had it not been for your deaths, the Villain Atmosfear and his Sidekick likely would have killed us as well.”

  “Did Atmosfear and his Sidekick die in the explosion, too?” I asked.

  “We are not sure,” Riku admitted. “They were still inside the warehouse when the charges went off and neither of us saw them escape. Of course, we were in the process of running away at the time, so we didn’t look too closely, but—”

  “There is no way anyone could have survived such an explosion,” said Aimi flatly. “One charge alone can level a small house. The dozen or so charges we laid out would be enough to completely vaporize anyone unlucky enough to be caught within the general vicinity of the blast. Especially at such a close range.”

  Aimi sounded confident about that, but I knew from experience that Atmosfear was one slippery criminal. If he could survive, he probably did. And even if he didn’t, all it would do was cause him and his Sidekick to respawn in his Hideout, wherever that was. Given how the explosion had happened only minutes after Cy and I got killed, I could only assume that Atmosfear and Giggles were back on the streets again. Even so, I took some comfort in the knowledge that their death had probably been fiery and extremely painful and Atmosfear lost all his experience and half his money. He was probably taking his frustration out on Giggles right now.

  “All right,” I said reluctantly. “What about the illegal goods?”

  “All of it was vaporized by the blast,” said Riku. “There isn’t even one drop of that poison that Master Haru and his dealers could sell to anyone. It is gone.”

  Not entirely, I almost said aloud. I was thinking of the bottle of Z-Virus in my bag. I thought about mentioning it to the ninja but decided against it. Right now, the bottle was safe where it was. I had no intentions of using it. I didn’t even plan to sell it. At some point, I would probably destroy it to avoid the risk of it falling into the wrong hands. Meaning I’d probably have to blow it up into pieces. Perhaps I could ask the Ninja Guild if I could borrow a charge or two to use for this purpose
.

  “That is good news,” said Yamamoto. His eyes fell to the floor. “But it is still concerning to know that the Z-Virus is still out there. I remember the terror it caused far too well back in those days. It killed over half of the Ninja Guild during the height of the first outbreak, making it the deadliest enemy that the Ninja Guild has ever faced bar none.”

  My eyes widened. I knew the Z-Virus had been an incredibly deadly virus, but hearing that it killed over half the Ninja Guild in its heyday was surprising nonetheless. “And now the Stalking Shadows are deliberately Infecting themselves with it in order to become immortal.”

  “Fools,” said Yamamoto, shaking his head. “Damn fools, each and every one of them. I knew Haru was a two-faced liar, but to hear that he has somehow brainwashed his own men into Infecting themselves with the most dangerous virus ever created is a new low. I feel as though he has truly crossed the moral horizon. There is no coming back from such evil. No forgiveness, not even from me.”

  Yamamoto spoke so sadly that I wondered if there was more to his and Master Haru’s relationship than I was first aware of. If so, I wondered if now was a good time to ask him about it. Nah. No point in opening up old wounds, not when we had more pressing matters to discuss.

  “I know,” I said. I hesitated. “And I should let you all know that I am also infected with the Z-Virus.”

  The effect was immediate. Yamamoto looked at me as if I had just said I was the Devil himself, while both Aimi and Riku drew throwing stars from their pouches and aimed them at me, but I quickly held up my hands and said, “Hold on. Although I have the Z-Virus, I am not actually contagious.”