by Lucas Flint
It looked like Christmas had come early to this office in particular. Books and desks were covered in piles of snow. The whole floor was almost lost underneath the thick amount of snow we had summoned. Some of the snow had even flown outside the office. The temperature had noticeably dropped. While my Ice Man Costume kept me from getting too cold, Cy wasn’t so lucky. He had wrapped his arms around his body, his teeth chattering and the exposed parts of his skin looking blue, although he looked infinitely warmer than Master Haru, Atmosfear, and Giggles.
Master Haru was literally frozen to his office chair. His facial expression was frozen in the same look of surprise that he had been wearing before the blizzard struck. Snow stood on his frozen shoulders, while his eyes stared blankly into nothingness.
Atmosfear and Giggles weren’t much better. Like Master Haru, they had been flash frozen into their current positions. Atmosfear’s face was twisted into an expression of hatred and hostility, while Giggles face was distorted by the fear that had obviously overtaken him right before he was frozen. And unlike last time, this time I knew neither of them was going to escape anytime soon.
A new notification appeared before me after that thought crossed my mind:
[Stalking Shadow Master Haru], [Villain Atmosfear], and [Sidekick Giggles] are Frozen! Movement reduced by 100%. Duration: 5 minutes.
Field Effect added: Fallen Snow. Movement reduced for all non-Ice players and NPCs by 10%. This does not affect players and NPCs wearing proper Ice Equipment such as Snowshoes.
I cracked a grin while Cy whooped and did a fist pump. “We did it, boss! I can’t believe how easy that was.”
I shook my head. “Don’t get too cocky now, Cy. They may be frozen, but that doesn’t mean they’re dead. Let’s smash up Master Haru, but spare Atmosfear and Giggles.”
Cy looked at me questioningly. “Why should we spare those two? Don’t we need to kill them as well? They’re pretty nasty, after all.”
“I want to hand them over to the proper authorities,” I said, thinking about Chuck and the Department of VR in general. “Killing them and letting them respawn in their Hideout would just allow them to resume their criminal activities. They need to face justice.”
“I see,” said Cy. He nodded. “Okay, makes sense.”
“But first …” I opened my Team chat and sent this message to everyone:
Me: Guys! Cy and I just defeated Master Haru, Atmosfear, and Giggles. Took all three of ‘em by surprise :)
Recover: Wow! That was fast. But I’m not complaining.
FunkyFresh94: Good job. We’re still dealing with the Stalking Shadow remnants, but their numbers are dwindling rapidly, thanks in no small part to the efforts by the Ninja Guild and the Task Force.
Dillo: Good. I fricking hate ninjas like you wouldn’t believe. The fewer ninjas we have to fight, the better.
Me: Don’t worry, guys. I’m sure we’ll get some pretty sweet rewards once all is said and done. Everyone needs to get over here. And try to avoid picking fights with any Ninja Guild or Task Force members. Once I show them what I did, I’m sure the Task Force won’t try to stop us.
With that out of the way, I walked around the frozen Atmosfear and Giggles, though not before using Freezing Touch to make their Frozen status last for about ten more minutes. Then I walked up to the frozen Master Haru and stood next to him, looking down at the frozen ninja master with my arms folded in front of my chest.
I had to admit, I was a little underwhelmed by Master Haru. I had expected him to be a bigger threat than this. Of course, I had taken him by surprise, but that was another weird thing when you thought about it. Ninja weren’t supposed to be taken by surprise. They were the masters of surprise themselves, after all. I guess there was a reason he called himself Master Haru and not Grandmaster Haru. In any case, I would take pleasure in smashing his icy form to pieces. He was indirectly responsible for my own Infection, after all. I would make sure to pay him back in kind.
Raising my fist, I smashed it directly on top of Master Haru’s head as hard as I possibly could. Thick cracks appeared in Master Haru’s frozen form before his entire body collapsed into a pile of frozen flesh.
I grinned in triumph and waited for the notification that would inform me that I had killed Master Haru and would be rewarded a ton of experience for doing so. I also anticipated a cascade of other notifications informing me that I had completed all of my missions and would be given all sorts of cool rewards for my tireless efforts. It wouldn’t be the same as getting cured of my Infection, but it would do for now.
That was why my grin disappeared in an instant when I got this notification:
You killed [Stalking Shadow Master Haru]! No EXP gain from destroying a Decoy.
“What the—?” I said. “ A Decoy? What the heck was that?”
My question was answered almost immediately by the notification that popped up immediately afterward:
You destroyed a [Stalking Shadow Master Haru] Decoy! You probably feel pretty foolish right about now for thinking it would be that easy to kill Master Haru.
My jaw dropped. This had to be wrong. I was sure I had killed the actual Master Haru, not a ‘Decoy’ as these prompts said. I looked at the frozen chunks of flesh that had formally been Master Haru a second before, but then noticed they looked … different now. I picked up the closest frozen chunk and, looking at it closely, realized I was looking at a chunk of frozen wood painted the same colors as Master Haru. In fact, all of the frozen chunks were just hunks of wood, like I had destroyed a wooden statue rather than the real Master Haru.
Alarmed, I looked over at Cy and shouted, “Cy! Master Haru isn’t dead yet. This was his Decoy sitting here all along. He’s still here.”
“A Decoy?” Cy repeated. “No way. He can’t be a—”
Cy abruptly stopped speaking. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed onto the snow-covered floor with a soft thud. A prompt appeared before me that said:
[Sidekick Cyclone] has been knocked unconscious! Duration: 30 minutes.
My eyes widened when I read that notification, but then a dark blur jumped between the frozen Atmosfear and Giggles and rushed at me. The blur kicked me solidly in the chest, sending me staggering back into the wall. A dagger came flying at my face, but I managed to activate Flight in time to soar straight up into the air and perform a somewhat awkward landing on the other side of the desk.
Rising to my feet again, I looked up and saw Master Haru standing behind his desk, his dagger embedded in the wall that I had been standing in front of mere seconds ago. Wrenching his dagger out of the wall, Master Haru whirled around and raised his knife before him, but oddly enough, he didn’t try to attack me again.
I took advantage of this moment to Scan Master Haru, just to make sure he was actually Master Haru and not another lifelike Decoy:
Stalking Shadows Master Haru
LEVEL: 50
ALIGNMENT: Villain
CLASS: Master Ninja
WEAK POINT: Eyes
WEAKNESS: Fire
The Master of the Stalking Shadow ninja clan himself, Master Haru was once a faithful student to Grandmaster Yamamoto until the two had a tragic falling out recently, causing Haru to strike out on his own and found his own ninja clan. Although relatively young for a Master Ninja, Master Haru is also quite ambitious and appears to have his eyes set on more than just making the Stalking Shadows the only ninja guild of Adventure City.
“So, you are the Hero Winter I’ve heard so much about,” said Master Haru, flipping his dagger in his hands. “The Hero who defeated Dark Kosmos and saved the whole world from the Blackout.”
“And you’re Master Haru, the dangerous ninja assassin I’ve been warned about,” I said. “Honestly, I expected you to be a lot taller.”
Master Haru grunted. “And I expected the Hero who defeated Dark Kosmos to be far more perceptive, but it looks like we both had incorrect assumptions about each other.”
I nodded. “Then w
hy don’t you allow me to correct your assumptions about my intelligence? That Decoy trick of yours was pretty neat, but it only helped you survive for a little while. Your men are being slaughtered by my Teammates, the Ninja Guild, and the Task Force even as we speak. You should have run as soon as you cast that Decoy spell. Then you might have been able to rebuild your clan from the ground up later on.”
Master Haru chuckled. “Only a fool declares victory before the last soldier has been killed. Observe.”
Master Haru raised his other hand in which he held a small remote control with a single blue button on it. Without hesitation, Master Haru pressed the button.
As soon as he did, a metal slab fell from the ceiling and covered the open doorway. Then I heard several locks click into place, which was when I realized that Master Haru had locked us both into his office.
“One-on-one?” I said to Master Haru. I gestured at the snow all around us. “With this snow? Come on, now. This is a very small office. And with the Fallen Snow effect in play, you’re not as fast as you think you are.”
“Again, you speak presumptively,” said Master Haru. “Look out the window and tell me what you see.”
I didn’t want to turn my back to Master Haru, but I had to admit that my curiosity got the best of me and I looked over my shoulder out the office window. As soon as I did, I wish I hadn’t.
Thick green gas was pouring out of the vats in the factory’s ceiling. Gallons and gallons of sickly green gas poured out everywhere, forming a thick green mist in the air that was impenetrable to the naked eye. In seconds, the entire factory was obscured by the thick green gas, making it impossible to see anything directly outside of the office in which we stood.
I looked at Master Haru again. “What is that? What did you do? Did you unleash poison on everyone in the factory? Are you trying to kill everyone?”
“I have killed no one, Hero Winter,” said Master Haru. His words became as soft as the snow under our feet but far more dangerous. “Instead, I have granted everyone within this building eternal life and true immortality.”
The implications of Master Haru’s statement hit me like a freight train, only to be confirmed seconds later by the following notification:
Your Team has been Infected with the Z-Virus! Teammates can no longer use or respond to Team chat. All EXP gain still divided normally.
Field Effect activated: Friendly fire. Your attacks can now harm your Teammates and vice versa. Killing Teammates will give you the same amount of EXP as killing an enemy character.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
“No …” I whispered under my breath. “No, this can’t be true …”
I pulled up my Team Winter membership list and saw an [INFECTED] status next to the names of each member of the Team. Even Funky was Infected with the Z-Virus now. Even worse, the tiny bars underneath the [INFECTED] label—which seemed to display the progress of the infection—were rapidly filling up, going from 0% to 50% in less than five seconds.
“What did you do?” I shouted at Master Haru. “What did you do to my Teammates?”
Master Haru bowed. “I gave them eternal life. Why would you ever find that horrifying?”
Anger shot up in me like lava spewing out of a volcano. I tried to fire two Ice Beams at Master Haru, only to discover that my Energy still hadn’t recovered from using Blizzard, meaning I was all out of Energy and couldn’t use any of my Energy-based Powers. It didn’t help that I wouldn’t be able to use Blizzard again for about twenty-five minutes, but I had a feeling I would be lucky if I lasted even half that long against Master Haru.
“Your impotency is noted,” said Master Haru. “Your Combo Power earlier must have used up all your Energy, didn’t it?”
I stared at Master Haru in shock. “How did you know that? I didn’t tell you that.”
“Atmosfear told me about your Powers,” said Master Haru, glancing at the frozen Atmosfear. “He told me you could summon a Blizzard, which I understood to be one of you and your Sidekick’s Combination Powers. Your attack nearly took me by surprise, but luckily I summoned a Decoy at the last possible second, which took the brunt of the attack for me.”
My hands twitched. I really should have seen that coming, but instead I let my own arrogance get the best of me and assume I had won before I could verify that. I really needed to stop being so hasty. “What about my Teammates? You Infected them all with the Z-Virus. How?”
“It is a new gaseous form of the Z-Virus,” said Master Haru. He gestured at Atmosfear. “Developed by my dear friend and ally Atmosfear. His Powers lean toward creating gases and voids, so he was able to take the Z-Virus sample I gave him and develop it into a gas I could spray on other people. As you can tell, it was more than successful.”
“Did you plan to do this the entire time?” I said. “Did you plan to use your Z-Virus gas to brainwash my Teammates and turn the Ninja Guild and Task Force members into your minions?”
“Of course,” said Master Haru. “Admittedly, I didn’t expect such a … vicious attack. But no matter. In the end, I managed to turn the tables on you, just as a true Stalking Shadow would.”
I looked at the status bars on my Team’s page again and was shocked to see that they were already 100%. “How did they get Infected so quickly? I thought it took three days for the Z-Virus to full Infect a target.”
“This new strand of the Z-Virus is weaker than the original, but works much faster,” said Master Haru. “You saw that when you got bit by that Civilian, did you not? When injected into a person’s veins or sprayed onto them, the Z-Virus acts immediately. It only takes three days if you are bitten or Infected in some other indirect way.”
I gulped. I had been wondering why poor Robert had gotten Infected so quickly after he injected himself with the Z-Virus, while mine would have taken three days at most if Kids Mode hadn’t been enabled. It was all starting to make sense now. “Meaning that each and every one of my Teammates is now a mindless zombie.”
“As are all of the Ninja Guild and Task Force members,” said Master Haru, “but I would not call them ‘mindless’ zombies. They are now my eternal soldiers. Their bodies may rot, but they will never die, never feel pain, and never know the fear of dying. From my perspective, I would say I have improved their lives, rather than worsened them.”
I was about to say that he was both wrong and delusional, but then I noticed cracks starting to appear along Atmosfear and Giggles’ frozen forms. With a start, I realized that the five-minute timer for the Frozen effect was up and I still lacked enough Energy to reinforce it.
In the next second, the ice around Atmosfear and Giggles shattered. Giggles immediately fell to his hands and knees, breathing hard and fast, while Atmosfear merely put a hand on his head like he was suffering a really bad headache.
“Holy heck, I forgot how much that hurts,” Atmosfear grunted. “Hurts worse than a rattlesnake biting your butt while you’re taking a dump, let me tell you.”
Then Atmosfear looked out the window and grinned. “Well, well, well. When I got Frozen, I had been worried for a second there that our little plan might have fallen apart. But it looks like I had nothing to worry about.”
“You should have known that I would not flee so easily,” said Master Haru, drawing Atmosfear’s attention to him. “Not after all of the hard work and sacrifice we put into making my dream a reality.”
“You’re right,” said Atmosfear, putting a hand on his head. “I’ll never doubt you again, Haru, you tricky ninja you.”
Then Atmosfear looked over at me. A wicked grin crossed his face and he waved at me. “Hiya there, Nyle! Long time, no see. You got a cape now. Looks pretty stupid if you ask me, but then again, you donuts aren’t exactly known for your fashion sense, now are ya?”
“Big words coming from a guy with an even gaudier cape than me,” I said.
Atmosfear dusted icicles off his cape. “Hey, this cape is actually cool, unlike yours, which is as lame as they come. Plus, my cape has all so
rts of special bonuses and effects that give me an edge in combat.”
I scowled but knew better than to respond to Atmosfear’s taunts. I looked at Master Haru and said, “Where did you even get this Z-Virus strain from? I was told that the Z-Virus was eliminated five years ago when the Capes Online servers were rebooted.”
Atmosfear cracked a grin. “Is that really what they told you? Man, I knew you were stupid, but I didn’t know you were gullible as well.”
“Gullible?” I repeated. “What do you mean by that?”
“The Z-Virus wasn’t totally eradicated five years ago, as the official story claims,” said Atmosfear. He leaned toward me, his grin becoming more and more wicked by the second. “I mean, sure, SI Games attempted to destroy it that way, but they didn’t get all of it. They missed the original Z-Virus carrier—the dog owned by the Mad Scientist who created the Z-Virus—without even realizing it.”
“Impossible,” I said. “I was told that that dog was destroyed along with all of the other Z-Virus carriers.”
“Like I said, SI Games did try to destroy it,” said Atmosfear. “But they never realized that they weren’t the only people keeping an eye on how the Z-Virus was developing in-game. There were other people who were just as … intrigued, you might say, by the sheer destructive potential of the Z-Virus. So they managed to sneak the dog away when no one was looking. SI Games never actually bothered to verify that the mangy mutt was dead. They just assumed it got wiped out in the server reset, especially considering how it was never supposed to last long outside the original event anyway.”
“Who were these people who sneaked the dog out of there?” I said. “And where is the dog now?”
Atmosfear’s grin grew so wide now that it practically covered his face. “Why, our old pals at the Department of VR, of course.”
“What?” I said in shock. “You mean the Department of VR knowingly rescued the original Z-Virus carrier? For what purpose?”