More Than a Game

by Andrey Vasilyev

  Epic—the strongest enemies the game had to offer. Clans sent raids after them, and figuring out who exactly killed who was always tricky. Nobody had been able to kill the Kraken yet. On the plus side, the reward you got for killing them was substantial, on par with the difficulty.

  Well, the most dangerous enemy in Fayroll, just like in real life, was Man. Don’t forget about PKers. They were hard to kill, and the reward varied…

  The cow ran past me mooing, and a message popped up:

  You finished a quest: Find the Cow.

  To get your reward, tell the shepherd where the cow is.

  How simple. Yeah, I can just turn around and march straight over there.

  Burrig saw me, hissed, and waved its spiked tail around menacingly.

  “Man, I should have been an archer,” I hissed back as I circled to my left around Burrig. It bulged out its eyes and circled with me, amiably clacking its pincers all the while.

  We had almost done a complete circle around each other when Burrig was the first to crack. It lunged. I instinctively ducked, and its pincers clacked shut above my head. In front of me, I saw my opponent’s right chitin side was open. Covering the left part of my torso with my shield, I swung upward to land my first blow, after which I jumped to my right and smacked it again near its tail.

  I was lucky again, as one of the two hits was critical. Burrig’s health meter went from green to yellow, meaning that I’d taken out 30-40 percent of its health.

  Burrig roared, turned toward me, and tried to sting me with its tail. Either I was just faster, or I’d damaged something. One way or another, the strike missed its target. Its tail buried itself in the ground, and Burrig was left posed awkwardly. I took the chance to jump in and slam my mace against its head. Green slime flew, and a nasty sound told me I’d taken out its eye.

  I should have jumped back, but for some reason, I hesitated. Burrig shook its head, spraying slime from its eye everywhere, and clamped its left mandible down on my arm.

  You were poisoned!

  The poison will sap 0.7 health per second for five minutes!

  Oh, come on! I had to hurry—I had a lot of health, I wasn’t that weak, to begin with, and I’d spent a lot of points on stamina, but poison wasn’t something to be taken lightly.

  I moved to Burrig’s left. Its eye was gone, so I was in its blind spot, and it was weakening; its health was already in the red section.

  “Let’s do this!” I jumped forward and landed what I thought was a heavy blow to its back leg. It gave way, and Burrig crumpled onto its left side. I landed another strike to its head. The monster’s legs flailed upward, and it died.

  You unlocked Bestiary, Level 1.

  To get it, destroy ten more named monsters.

  Reward:

  Fearless, a passive attribute, Level 1: +1% resistance to mental effects

  +1 to stamina

  +1 to agility

  To see similar messages, go to the Action section of the attribute window.

  You unlocked Level 21!

  Points ready to be distributed: 5

  Oh, nice. I leveled-up too!

  You completed a quest: Kill the Swamp Beast.

  To get your reward, go show Burrig’s head to the old man.

  Oh, right, I needed the head. I leaned over my fallen foe and found that not much was left of it, just the head and a pincer—the left one, for some reason.

  Burrig’s pincer. Can be used by a craftsman to create an item or in other ways.

  That’s it. And here I thought I’d get something rare—nope, just the pincer. Oh, but wait! It had a lair.

  I hurried to the edge of the swamp. It was visible through the birches, especially where there were gaps made first by the cow and then by the monster. On the way, I had an apple—the poison was still active, and it was still damaging me, if slowly. And who knew? Maybe the beast could respawn.

  The lair was easy to see. It really was on the very edge of the swamp, and it looked like a deep, although narrow, hole in the earth. I quickly jumped in and found myself in a small cave littered with rotten leaves. I poked around in the leaves with my mace and found something that first caught on my weapon and then glistened in the semi-darkness.

  You unlocked Sharp Eye, Level 1.

  To get it, find 49 more tombs, treasure troves, hiding places, and stashes around Fayroll.

  Reward:

  Riches, a passive attribute, Level 1: +3% to the coins you get from beaten enemies

  +1 to stamina

  +1 to agility

  To see similar messages, go to the Action section of the attribute window.

  Well, this has been a productive five minutes. But what was hiding from me?

  You found Burrig’s lair and discovered:

  67 gold

  Rough Work Shoulder Guard

  Talisman

  Okay, so the gold is good, but what’s that about a shoulder guard?

  Rough Work Shoulder Guard

  Protection: 60

  +3 to strength

  +7% to protection from cold

  Durability: 110/120

  Minimum level to use: 20

  “I’ll sell that,” I decided. “Mine is much better. But what about the talisman?”

  That’s when it hit me that I was doing all that in a small lair belonging to what was a pretty tough beast that could respawn at any moment. With that in mind, I quickly crawled out and put half a kilometer between it and me. I looked around and, just to make sure, called out, “Food here, good food!” There was no reaction, so I pulled out the talisman. It was round, with a hole in the center. In the middle of the hole, was something that looked like a tear.

  Tearful Goddess Knight Talisman

  This talisman belonged to Olaf von Dal, a Knight of the Tearful Goddess Order. Produce it in any of the order’s missions (found in all Fayroll cities) and confirm that he was killed to get a reward.

  You have a new quest offer: Remembering the Fallen.

  Task: Let the brothers in the knight’s order know that he is dead.

  Reward:

  100 gold

  500 experience

  +5 friendship with the Tearful Goddess Order

  Accept?

  Well, that works. Easy money, easy experience. Especially since I was planning to head to Fladridge after the village anyway, and the order has missions in every city. Lucky. But I wondered—who was the Tearful Goddess? I thought things were much simpler with the pantheon of gods in Fayroll—there wasn’t one. I’d have to check that out on the forums.

  Oh, and I needed to distribute my attribute points after leveling-up twice. After adding everything to strength and stamina (in for a penny, in for a pound), with the exception of one point each for agility and intellect, I looked to see what I had.

  Basic attributes:

  Strength: 91 (60+31)

  Intellect: 4

  Agility: 17 (10+7)

  Stamina: 75 (45+30)

  Wisdom: 3

  After all that, I took stock of the situation: the cow was found, the monster was dead. All I had left to do was find the boar legs, though I also wanted to stop by the graveyard. I opened my map and saw that the graveyard was nearby, while the boars looked to be about three kilometers away.

  “I’ll go check out the graves,” I decided. “And there was a grove of trees, too. On the way back, I’ll take care of the boars.

  The graveyard was exactly what you might expect. There wasn’t anything pulled from a Romero film—a haze over the graves, crows landing on the gravestones, arms reaching out of piles of earth. Everything was serene and noble; birds were singing, ivy spread between the graves, and gravestones sank into the ground. The whole thing was fairly small, and behind it, through a hole in the wall, the picturesque ruins of the castle could be seen.

  Before I walked out into the graveyard, I made sure my health was at the maximum level, and the poison had worn off. I then pulled out my mace and stealthily crept around. Nothing happened.
No skeletons came crawling out of the ground, no thunder rolled through the sky, and no demonic laughter rang out. The sun kept shining, the birds kept singing. I spent half an hour exploring, only to find, to my disappointment, that I had wasted my time.

  Well, maybe there’s something over in the ruins? I thought, climbing through the hole in the wall and wandering between the enormous boulders embedded in the long grass. Before the explosion, the area must have been the castle wall.

  I cursed the old man after yet another half hour. “Unclean places, undead…miracles, the devil walking around. Nothing but some stones and grass!”

  With that, I left the ruins through what looked to be the old entrance to the castle’s inner courtyard. Beyond them stretched a plain, and on the horizon was a small wood—probably the one the old man mentioned.

  “It’s weird that they built castles here. And where’s the moat? Where’s the drawbridge?” I noted with surprise. “No wonder the siege was so short.”

  But what about the woods? I couldn’t decide if I wanted to go check them out or not…

  I was leaning toward giving up on the whole thing, seeing as how I didn’t have a quest in the woods and no longer believed anything the old man said. Not only were there no skeletons, but there weren’t even any bones. Although maybe the skeletons came out at night? Maybe that was when they caught passers-by and tore them to pieces. Whatever.

  I had almost made up my mind. “Yea-a-ah, screw it. I’ll go get the boars, finish my quests, and head for Fladridge.”

  But just then, something glinting in the left-hand side of the arc caught my eye. I brushed aside the grass with my foot and bent over.

  You found a hiding place and discovered:

  144 gold

  Lucky Earring

  Deadly Archer Bracelet

  Well, hello there! The day is saved! The items turned out to be pretty good, and both violet. I didn’t need the archer bracelet in the least, though I was very excited about the earring:

  Lucky Earring

  +6 to stamina

  +5 to intellect

  +5% to critical strike chance

  +7% to your chances of getting items from dead enemies

  +5% gold looted from dead enemies

  Durability: 160/160

  Minimum level for use: 25

  I didn’t even care that I couldn’t wear it yet—I was a patient person, and I could wait. However, I really needed to get to the city. If I died, there was no way I would find another earring like that one. It was time to follow Willie’s advice and rent a room since I hadn’t had time to do so earlier. First, I was rolled up in the carpet, then I was fighting skeletons, then something else… And there wasn’t a hotel in the village.

  I was about to head back into the forest when a small little something sitting inside me—something we all have—started needling away, “Maybe it’s worth checking it out? There were some great items here, so maybe you’ll find even better ones there? Or something else valuable?”

  I responded to my inner voice reasonably, “But why? There used to be a castle here, but what was ever there? People lived here and would have needed to hide things, but who lived there?”

  “You’ll regret it if you don’t go. It’s right there… You’ll be back before nightfall!”

  “Right, and then I’ll have to hunt boar in the dark!”

  “Oh, come on. What do you have to lose?”

  I realized that arguing with myself was pointless and started toward the wood.

  Chapter Nine

  Good Intentions

  The plain wasn’t exactly lifeless. As I went, I occasionally did my part to check any potential overpopulation in the local fauna, bashing gophers and snakes over the head with my mace. I even finished off an emaciated goblin who had somehow found his way there. That proved a handy distraction, as the distance between the castle and the woods turned out to be much farther than I thought at first. It actually took me about two hours to cover it. A bit of an optical illusion there.

  The sun had already crested its peak, and on I walked. Though, to be honest, I was enjoying myself and looking forward to dipping my feet in the cool stream that I was sure would be there. A digital pleasure, of course, but one that certainly seemed real enough.

  I entered the wood and strained my ears to listen for the sound of running water. However, instead, I heard a woman’s cry coming from the bushes a couple meters away from me, “Hey, stop it! Please, don’t!”

  I pulled out my mace and ran toward the sound. While I may not be the most virtuous guy out there, and I don’t recommend trying to play on any kind of civil responsibility I might feel, I can’t stand it when people insult or hit women or children. And it sounded like that was exactly what was happening.

  Two leaps later, I was into the bushes and saw a rather unpleasant picture lay out before me—a Level 23 player named Gvegory was using his curved saber to chop up some kind of ghastly creature, obviously female. It scrunched up its monkey-like face, burst into tears, and screamed, “Please don’t! I’m begging you!”

  Gvegory was unmoved and in the process of raising his saber, obviously intending to chop off the poor creature’s arm.

  “Hey, what are you, some kind of monster?” I asked him.

  He wheeled his whole body around wolfishly and brandished his saber. “Who are you? What do you care?” he yelled.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I answered. “Why are you bothering her? She isn’t aggressive, she didn’t attack you. You’ll cut off her arm, and she still won’t do anything to you. Look at her; she didn’t exactly win the lottery as it is. Look at the poor thing cowering there, and you’re going all maniac on her.”

  “What do you care? I’ll cut what I want to cut.”

  “It doesn’t matter to me, it’s just crazy…”

  “It’s crazy? She’s just code! Only code!” Gvegory was nearly howling.

  “So, she’s just code,” I answered as evenly as I could. “She still cries. She’s hurting. You aren’t some kind of wild animal, so just let her go.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “Come on, we’re talking like a couple fifth-graders. Let’s just go. You can head over to that forest, and you’ll find everything you need there. Boars, goblins, even some kind of monster with its own name. And then at night, the skeletons come out! You can grind them into little pieces all you want.”

  “Listen, you and your human rights,” snarled Gvegory. “I’ll decide who I kill when. You don’t stick your nose in how I play the game. And if you do, I’ll report you to the admin.”

  “Help me! I don’t want to die again,” the creature whispered to me, seeing Gvegory’s narrowed eyes and raised saber.

  I really didn’t want to be a PKer, since that came with penalties, besides, well… But I also didn’t want to leave even that miserable little piece of code with that psychopath. It was time for some mind games…

  “Did you cut her, too?” I asked in a lofty voice.

  “Cut who?” Gvegory more choked out the words than said them.

  “The one who wouldn’t put out. I guess you were the only one she turned down, right?”

  “Shut up, you bitch!” He turned, his eyes rolled back, and a string of drool leaked from his mouth.

  Oh, wow, he’s really crazy. This guy needs some big medics to take him to a hospital in a straightjacket. Straight to Dr. Kaschenko. Well, I was right.

  “I’ll cut all of you!!” screamed Gvegory. “All of you! You, and this piece of trash, and that piece of trash!”

  And with that, he thrust his saber at me. We were still standing pretty far apart, so he missed by a wide margin, but the game counted his attempt as a player-on-player attack. I could kill him with a clear conscience.

  Gvegory squealed, closed the distance, and tried to land a downward blow. But I was no helpless creature, so I dodged and buried my mace in his right side. His next cut was blocked by my shield and swiped away the arm holding the saber to open h
is chest—an opportunity I took full advantage of by smashing it with all my strength. The power of the strike sent him tumbling backward, and I quickly jumped in and landed another blow, this time to the head. That was enough to finish him off.

  You unlocked Killer Punisher, Level 1.

  To get it, punish 29 more players who have killed other players.

  Reward:

  +1 to strength

  +0.1% damage done by all weapon types

  To see similar messages, go to the Action section of the attribute window.

  Gvegory turned into a shadow that then completely disappeared. That was the first time I saw what happened to players when they died.

  “Wow, seriously a psychopath,” I muttered. “He’s a danger to society, and now he’s going to go slit someone’s throat in the real world.”

  I was stunned. I’d been told that many people who weren’t right in the head played video games to act out their desires rather than inflict them on the actual public. But to meet someone like that myself…

  I found the “Contact Administrator” button in the panel, copied the conversation I had with the mutant to the message, added some comments of my own, as well as a request to pass it and Gvegory’s personal information on to law enforcement, and clicked “Send.” Obviously, I didn’t expect them to do anything—they had a hands-off policy, and they were big into protecting personal information… Still, if he’d been able to, he would have killed me, and he wouldn’t have cared if it were the real world or the virtual one.

  I didn’t help things by provoking him. If he decided to log out of the game then, he’d go pick up an axe and head for the street, or, God forbid, some kind of firearm. I was getting frantic.

  Thank you for your message. Your information was reviewed under article 14.6 of the Agreement Between the Player and the Company and sent to law enforcement officials along with the place of residence listed by the player at registration.

  Well, now I just had to hope that the psychopath had listed his actual city. But good job by Radeon. It was smart of them to put a clause like that in the agreement. I wondered what else was in it, seeing as how I didn’t read it before agreeing to the whole thing—like 99.9 percent of the other players in the game. I would have to go back and read it.