BladeDust Online: A LitRPG Adventure (Book 1)

by Corey Thompson

  “What did you whisper? How could you keep secrets from me with this stranger?”

  Stevie didn't answer. The truth was, I didn't know how I was going to escape and if I could even take Stevie with me. It was going to be hard enough trying to figure out how to take Johnson with me. “I will try to make everyone happy here,” I replied. “But first, I must come up with a plan.”

  Everyone got quiet as I tried to think of something clever. Something that would confuse the giant. I looked over at the giant and saw that he was still sleeping. His drunken ways had sent him into a dark world. I was happy about that. What was I going to do though? I didn't know, but I knew I was going to escape. I was willing to risk everything to escape. There was no other option. Then, I suddenly had an idea. “Have you faked your death?” I asked with a low voice.

  “I've never tried that,” Stevie replied with raised eyebrows.

  “It makes sense doesn't it?”

  “It could work,” he replied.

  I nodded my head. It was official, I was going to fake my death. I didn't know how it was all going to play out, but it was the only plan I could come up with.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  I walked back and forth as a fire burned inside of my mind. I had an idea, but how was it all going to play out? I realized Stevie was wondering the same thing as well. “How are you going to fake your death? And how would we both escape?” Stevie asked.

  I liked Stevie, but I had only known him for a very short amount of time. I wanted to help him, but it wasn't as important as helping myself. Still, I would try and help him escape too if it was possible. “You could take advantage of the situation. When the giant is distracted with my death, maybe you could make a run for it?”

  “That's not good enough,” Stevie replied.

  “Not good enough? But what other options do you have?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “You might wanna come up with something better. That's all I'm saying.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don't know. But I can't just sit here and watch you escape without me.”

  “Why not? What does my escape have to do with you?”

  Stevie looked into my eyes. “You are my ticket out. Do you understand that? I would be a fool to let you escape without me.”

  I could tell that Stevie was a depressed little man. I could see it in his eyes. Still, there was nothing I could do for him. He had to make the best out of my escape attempt. “You better figure something out because that's my plan. There's no other plan. So, I advise that you come up with your own plan that is based off my plan.”

  “I won't allow you to escape without me. I'll tell the Giant you are faking your death. Just wait and see.”

  Damn. Was I going to have to kill Stevie? For a split second, I thought it might be required. But, I couldn't kill someone so desperate. It was hard to believe that he would resort to such selfish measures though. I knew he was depressed, but he was now interfering with my plan. “Come on dude. Why are you trying to screw up my escape plan? I wouldn't do that to you.”

  Johnson ran closer to us. “Why don't you both just stay?” he asked with wide eyes. “It's not that bad here. With time, you will learn to love entertaining my master. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with pleasing him. It can be a very rewarding lifestyle.”

  “It sounds like a very crappy life,” I replied.

  “It's soul crushing,” Stevie replied. “That's why I'm not allowing you to leave without me. Sorry, it's just the way it is. I gotta get out of here, and I won't allow you to leave without me. Please, can't we come up with a plan that helps both of us?”

  I didn't really blame Stevie. If I was in his shoes, I would probably do the same thing. I suppose it was selfish to come up with a plan that only helped me. “Fine, Do you have any other ideas?”

  “We get into a fight. A vicious fight and we both die.”

  “How can we both die though? Two people don't just die at the same exact time. Usually someone survives.”

  “You're right. Maybe I will just pretend to be critically injured and barely alive. Then I can crawl on top of your body.”

  “Crawl on top of my body? But why would you need to do that?”

  “It's simple,” Stevie replied. “The giant will reach in and grab your dead body. I want him to take me too.”

  “But what if he just flicks you off?” I asked.

  “I don't think he will. I'll cling to you.”

  I rolled my eyes. This plan seemed a little too complicated. There were so many things that could go wrong. In theory, it could work. But it all seemed so risky. Then, Johnson expressed his concerns. “This wasn't part of our deal. Stevie cannot leave me. I told you that he couldn't.”

  “What the hell is your problem?” Stevie asked. “What is this weird obsession you have with me? I can leave, and I will. Understand?”

  A surprised look came to Johnson's face. “Why are you acting this way? I have never seen this side of you. How could you let one person influence you so much? Are you really that easily influenced?”

  Stevie became upset. “You worry about you, and I will worry about me. Does that sound good?”

  This whole situation sucked. Johnson didn't know it, but he was leaving with us. The whole “Stevie stays with me” thing didn't even matter. Yet, I had to pretend it mattered just in case Johnson got any bright ideas. “Don't worry Johnson. I will make sure I hold up my end of the deal.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Stevie asked with irritation.

  I yanked Stevie closer to me and pulled him to the furthest corner away from Johnson. Then, I whispered at an extremely soft level. “Do you have any rope or chains?”

  “Yes. I have some rope,” Stevie whispered back.

  “Great. We might need it for Johnson.”

  “What are you two talking about over there?” Johnson asked with a long neck.

  “Nothing,” I replied. “Just some small talk type stuff. A wide range of stuff really.”

  Johnson came closer to us. “What are you really talking about? There's something sneaky going on here. I can just feel it.”

  “There's nothing sneaky going on,” Stevie replied. “We were just having a conversation.”

  Johnson was getting really annoying. But, I had to act like everything was going as planned. “Don't worry. Stevie isn't leaving. We have a big plan. Keep quiet, and I promise Stevie will stay with you. Not only that, I will bring new players here too.”

  “Good,” Johnson replied. “If you do as you say, I will not alert my master.”

  “Don't worry, everything is going as planned. But, it's a complicated plan. We just need a few moments alone to figure everything out. Do you understand?”

  Johnson looked like he didn't believe me at first. But that look quickly faded as his head bounced up and down. “That makes sense. But don't you think three brains would be better than two?”

  “Of course. But, this is only stage one of the planning. Stage two will involve all three of our brains. Make sense?”

  Johnson looked confused. “I think so,” he replied.

  “Just give us a few more moments. Then, we will bring you in for the final decision. We need someone to tell us if the plan makes sense or not. That's when you come in.”

  Johnson raised one finger into the air. “Oh I see. So I would kinda be like the final decision maker?”

  “Yes. That's exactly right,” I replied.

  Johnson smiled and walked away from us. Yes, the little idiot actually believed me. I turned back to Stevie and began to go over the plan. “So we fight until our fake deaths, and then what? How do we tie up you know who?”

  “Why do you wanna tie Johnson up?” Stevie asked.

  “Don't say his name. I got to tie him up. I didn't come here for nothing. I gotta bring him back to his brother.”

  “So we are going to split the reward?”

  “Are you serious right now?” I asked. “Why would we spl
it the reward?”

  “Because I am helping you.”

  “You aren't helping me. You have already taken the quest and have obviously failed. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even be escaping. You do realize that don't you?”

  Stevie let out a sigh. “Fine. I will just take twenty five percent.”

  “Dude. You aren't taking shit. I will stay here and dance with you two before I give you twenty five percent. You said it yourself, I am your ticket out.”

  “Fine,” Stevie replied. “You can have it all. Let's just get the hell out of here.”

  I smiled. “Glad you came to your senses. So, I'm not leaving without him. And if I don't leave, you don't leave. So how do we tie him up and bring him with us?”

  “We just have to tie him up before the fight.”

  “But he's gonna alert the giant.”

  “No. You will hold his mouth while I tie him up. Then, I will stick a rag into his mouth to keep him quiet.”

  “Yea but won't the giant hear his muffled screams?” I asked.

  “I hope so. Then the giant can see what's going on. He can see the whole fight unfold. Eventually, he will check to see if we are still alive. It's just natural curiosity.”

  I felt kinda dumb. The whole plan just seemed so risky. There was so much that could go wrong. Yes, the giant might check to see if we were alive. But how could we know? What if he just slammed the door and didn't even care to check? Or what if he untied Johnson and he told him everything? Or even worse, what if he tried to eat us? Crap. That was something I had not considered. “What if the giant tries to eat us? Then what would we do?”

  “In order to eat us, he must put us in his mouth. Right?”

  “Of course,” I replied.

  “It won't happen. I'll pull out my sword and jam it into his head.”

  Stevie seemed way too confident for a man who dressed up as a rat every day. “How do we even know that will hurt him? What if it just pisses him off and he kills us?”

  “How do we know anything? How do we know our hearts will continue beating? We don't. It's just something you gotta believe.”

  Stevie's logic only made a little bit of sense. I didn't want to argue, because there was nothing I could say that would solve the problem. This was just a fucked up situation and I had to hope for the best. The truth was, it was dangerous. I guess the NPC quest giver wasn't kidding when he said that. I shook my head. “Guess this is the plan we are going with?”

  “Might as well be,” Stevie replied.

  I ran my hands through my hair. “Might as well not waste any time right? You got the rope ready?”

  “Now? You want to do it now?”

  “Why not? I don't see why there would be a need to wait any longer. Do you?”

  Stevie began to look a little worried. Nervous energy was building inside of him. “I mean, we could wait a little longer,” he said with a stutter.

  “For what? Do you want to get out of here or continue living your life as a part time rat? What's it gonna be? I want to go ahead and get this done. Get your rope ready. Okay?”

  Stevie pulled out some rope. “Are you sure?” he asked with hesitation.

  “Yes. I am as sure as I will ever be,” I replied. “We are just going to charge him and tie him up. I will hold his mouth, and you tie. I am going to turn around, and start running. Understand?”

  Stevie held the rope beside him. I turned around and looked at Johnson. He waved at me. Damn, I almost felt bad for what I was about to do. But that feeling quickly left me as I realized he belonged with his brother. With sudden speed, I ran full force towards Johnson. A nervous look came to his face. He darted from side to side like a squirrel that couldn't make up his mind in the middle of the road. I lunged forward and knocked him to the ground. His mouth opened, but I covered it.

  With remarkable speed, Stevie wrapped the rope around Johnson's bony little body and began to tie him up. Johnson struggled, but he couldn't escape. It didn't take long before he was fully tied up. It was official, we had tied up a man wearing a hamster suit. His muffled screams could barely be heard as my hands became tighter over his mouth. “Put the rag in his mouth,” I said.

  Stevie pulled out a rag and stuffed it into Johnson's mouth. “Now what?” he asked with nervous eyes.

  “It's time for me to kick your ass,” I replied with a chuckle.

  Stevie looked confused with my reply. Suddenly, I jumped towards Stevie. “This isn't a real fight is it?” he asked.

  “Of course not. But we gotta make it look real. Plus, we might as well have a little fun.”

  I pushed Stevie to the ground and got on top of him. “Die,” I screamed over and over while lightly punching his shoulder.

  The struggle continued for many moments as we tried to make it look real. Then, Stevie screamed something. “Help me. He's gonna kill me!”

  Stevie grabbed my shoulders and then slammed his palm into my chin. Shit, it kinda hurt actually. After that, he slapped me across the face. It wasn't a gentle slap though. It was a hard one. Why was he being so rough? I wiped my nose and noticed a little blood on my finger. He made me bleed? He was gonna pay for that. I slammed my elbow into his face. “What the hell?” he asked with surprise.

  “What? You can hit me as hard as you want and I can't do the same to you?”

  “That was just a little slap,” he replied. “Not a full blown elbow.”

  “Oh come on,” I replied. “You hit me as hard as you could. Just admit it.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and began to choke him. But then, my grip loosened. I looked over to see if the giant was awake yet. But, he wasn't. “He's still sleeping,” I said.

  “Scream something. Wake his ass up,” Stevie replied.

  I didn't know what to scream, so I just roared as loud as I could. The roar continued until I heard the giant toss to his side. What the fuck? When was he going to wake up? We both began to yell as loud as we could. Within moments, the giant was awake. “What's happening here?” he asked with a boom.

  Oh damn. The giant was watching us. Just for some extra realism, I delivered a really hard blow to Stevie's face. “Die,” I yelled. “The whole world wants you dead.”

  Stevie didn't respond. His eyes weren't even open. Shit. Did I hit him too hard? I began to gently shake him. “Wake up dude,” I mumbled.

  The giant climbed to his feet as I pulled Stevie's body to the far corner of the cage. With no other choice, I slapped Stevie across the face. “I said wake up.”

  Suddenly, Stevie coughed. Then, he came back to his senses. “Dude, I think you almost killed me. What the hell?”

  “It was an accident,” I replied. “I just wanted some realism.”

  The giant's head went against the metal bars. “Stop this,” he commanded. “You will both dance for me. I want this now.”

  Dance for him? This giant wanted us to dance during the middle of a fight? Did he really think we would just stop beating each other and suddenly start dancing? His passion for watching us dance was high. But, it wasn't going to happen. Instead, I slapped Stevie across the face. “You'll pay for ever being born,” I screamed.

  Suddenly, the giant growled. “What's wrong with my hamster?” he asked with furious eyes.

  We didn't answer. Stevie wrapped his hands around my neck and flipped me to my back. He jumped on top of me. “Shouldn't we die now?” he asked with a whisper.

  Stevie was right. It was time to put our plan into action. The moment of death had arrived. “Yes. Just act like your biting me or something. But, don't actually bite me.”

  Stevie leaned closer to me and pretended to bite into my face. I kicked my arms and legs into the air. “Why are you biting me? Please, please don't bite me you little bastard,” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

  Then, I stopped moving. Stevie did the same. We just laid there. All we could hear was the giant breathing. “Stop this at once,” he said.

  We didn't answer. The giant didn't speak for many
minutes. Stevie was still on top of me. How did I get myself into this situation? How could I have ended up on my back with a guy in a rat costume on top of me? It was something I could have never predicted. But, it was happening. Time crawled by as I wondered what the giant was doing. Then, I heard him sticking the key into the keyhole. Oh crap, this was it. This was when the plan was either going to fail or work. The moment of truth had arrived.

  Chapter Twenty Eight