The Janitor sighed. “You’re not going anywhere yet. I have work for you.”
Zack frowned. “Work? I told you what you wanted.”
“Let’s just say, I need some convincing.” The Janitor made a flourish with his knife, then jammed it into the table beside the one already buried in it. “As I said, I take out the trash. And the Underworld is full of human garbage. Sometimes, the task of cleaning up is below me.”
His eyes bored into Zack’s. “You’re going to become my agent of vengeance. While I look into this ‘cavern of colored mushrooms’, you are going to kill those that I deem need killing.”
Zack felt his mouth fall open. “What? Murder people? Why?”
“It doesn’t pay to ask questions in this line of work.”
“You want me to become an assassin?”
“Something like that.”
Zack made a fist. “If I’m going to do your dirty work, than I want to know who I am killing.” What if the Janitor wanted him to kill people working for his mother and the resistance? The G Man had said some of them were down here.
“You will learn all you need to know of your targets when you are given the quest. The first lot of peeps you need to kill are a test. The rest, well, let’s just say you better have your game face on.”
“And Missy, Betsy and Amy?”
The Janitor glanced at the women. “You can have them back, for the next 12 hours, then they will all return to their brain-dead hibernation.”
“No…”
“If you want them back, you will kill the targets I tell you to. For every piece of trash you kill, one of the women will awaken and return to your side.”
“Wait, I have a disease. It’s called Cave Blight and I have 140 hours before it kills me.” Zack tried not to show fear. “I need to get to Witch Malghana to get the second part of the cure.”
“That’s fine, I will let you go off and get cured, for I need you alive to carry out my missions.” The Janitor shifted his feet. “But, only after you complete your first mission. Then you can deal with your disease.”
Zack’s heart sank. Thinking of his life ticking down and the control the other man had over him and his harem made him feel as powerless as he did out in the real world. “Who will guide me through the Underworld? I have no idea where anything is on this level.” Even in Lower Underworld, he would quickly become hopelessly lost without Missy.
“I will give you a map. When you wake tomorrow, you will be given a quest, and it will give you all the details you need. Your harem women will be hibernating, so I suggest you make the most of the time you have left with them.” He snickered. “Just be thankful I have a shred of decency left, for I could have just as easily killed the lot of them. I might be a Monk, but I’m not a very nice one.”
“If you killed them, you would be forced to murder me, for I wouldn’t stop trying to kill you.” Zack leaned in menacingly. “If you break your word, and don’t restore their AI once I have killed your targets, I will hunt you down and—”
“Yes, yes, kill me in some gruesome, horrible and downright gruesome way.” The Janitor yawned. “Trust me, I’ve heard it all before by people far more dangerous and well connected than you.”
A split second later, the knife was in his hand. He brought it down, pinning Zack’s arm to the desk.
-189hp
Zack screamed, trying to pull the blade free. The giant man behind him clasped his massive hand around Zack’s throat and began to squeeze. The feeling of being choked was as real as it was out in the real world, as was the excruciating pain of having the knife stuck through his arm.
“Remember, I control the Underworld. All of it,” the Janitor said coldly. “I could torture you here for days, never letting you die, but making you feel everything.”
He pulled out the knife to a spray of blood. Zack groaned, watching a red pool quickly spread over the metal surface.
It looked so real.
“Now, before I let you crawl back to Vanamoor, know this. If you try to fuck with me in any way, or if I find out you have had contact with Glimmer Man again, or that you lied to me about where he will meet you…”
The black-clad man pointed his bloody knife at Betsy. “First I will start on her, cutting her up while she screams, then her.” He pointed to Amy, then Missy. “They will be next, and all the while I will make you watch. When there is nothing left of them, I will start on you.”
The Janitor nodded, and the thug let go of Zack’s neck.
Zack gasped in air, reeling at the pain in his arm. “Go to hell.”
Laughing, the Janitor said, “That’s the spirit.” His laughter died in a hostile snarl. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
Chapter Six
Blissful Goodbyes
Missy’s music soothed the pain in Zack’s arm, slowly healing the damage and closing the wound. Amy and Missy knelt in front of him on the palace bed, while Betsy still cried into his shoulder.
All of them had been distraught at what had happened to them, and for the feelings of hatred toward Zack that the Janitor had made them feel. “I didn’t want to hurt you,” Betsy sobbed.
She had said the same thing half a dozen times already. “I know.” Zack kissed her hair. “I don’t blame you. It wasn’t your fault.”
Betsy finally looked up at him through her tears. “What if it happens again?”
A pang of fear shot through him and he turned away before she could see it. “I’m sure it won’t.” He struggled to swallow, his mouth suddenly dry. I hate lying. I have no idea what will happen to them. “Look, none of you have to worry. I won’t let him near you again.”
How could he tell them what was going to happen to them once he woke up? They claimed not to remember what the Janitor had said. All they remembered was battling the force that compelled them to hurt Zack.
Zack gritted his teeth. If he told them they were going to be entering a hibernation mode, he would be forced to tell them the truth about what they really were, what the Underworld was and that Aralia Online wasn’t real.
And he wasn’t ready for that yet.
Because, I’m a coward. Zack ground his teeth, raging at himself and the situation he’d been put in by the Janitor. He let none of it show. The women were upset enough already without having to worry about him being upset.
Right now, he needed to enjoy the time he had left with them. He would carry out whatever stupid mission the Janitor gave him, just so he could get Missy, Amy and Betsy returned to normal. I’d do anything for my harem.
Turning back to the three women, his heart ached. Even if it means killing the in-game avatar of a resistance member, I’ll do it. It wasn’t like he was killing them in real life, as far as he knew. Surely, a resistance member, or anyone working with his mother, wouldn’t be in the Underworld if their real lives were at stake. They had to know the Oligarchy had agents watching for them.
He recalled what the Janitor had said. “I control the Underworld.”
Did he really? He had powers over Zack, over the three women, and over the two NPC brutes. What other powers did he have? If he really did control the Underworld, then why couldn’t he find Glimmer Man himself?
Why doesn’t he log me out of the game and hand me over to the Oligarchy?
The G Man claimed no one controlled the Underworld and that the developers kept it going so the oligarchy could study its potential. That scenario sounded more plausible than the idea that some psychopathic, black-clad asshole controlled the whole thing.
All Zack could do now was spend the time he had left with his harem, and when he woke, see if the Janitor really could turn the AI off on the women and make them as brain dead as those two brutes had been.
Amy plopped her head into his lap, looking up at him with a huge grin. “Don’t be sad.”
He smiled, and stroked her face. “I have a lot on my mind.”
“I know what we can do to cheer you up.” She inclined her head toward the bathroom. “Wha
t do you say? You, me, and the hot tub?”
Missy strummed her guitar, playing a sensual tune. “We can all do with some soft, relaxing music, then some loving beats and—”
“In other words, she’s up for some action too.” Amy sat up and brushed back Betsy’s hair, revealing her red-rimmed eyes. “You want a piece of Zack too, don’t you?”
Betsy wiped her eyes and nodded.
Zack entered the bathroom and found the three women waiting for him. They sat beside one another in the steaming water, their glistening bodies submerged neck deep. They smiled at his approach, calling for him to hurry and join them.
Part of Zack wanted to turn and head back into Missy’s bedroom, for fear they would sense something was wrong and demand he tell them the truth. What would they do if they knew they were under the control of the Janitor? That they would sleep, maybe for days, or even weeks until Zack had killed a bunch of other people in game?
He returned his thoughts to the women as Amy stood, her gorgeous naked body dripping with soapy water. “Come here and I’ll wipe that gloomy look off your face.”
Forcing a laugh, he climbed into the hot water and went right up to her. She took him in her arms and shoved her tongue into his mouth, digging her long nails into his back and pushing her breasts against his chest. Missy circled around them and pressed her body up against Zack from behind, reaching around and stroking his length. She gently nibbled at his neck, humming under her breath.
Zack slowly lowered himself into the water, Amy’s mouth never moving from his, Missy’s teeth never leaving his neck. Only when he reached up to stroke Amy’s face did she pull away. Smiling at her, he forced his dark thoughts from his mind. He moved to sit on the underwater step and let Amy climb into his lap, as Missy sat beside him, kissing his cheek.
Betsy moved to his other side, lips pursed, ready for her kiss. Zack obliged her, letting her explore his mouth with her tongue. Now he was hard, his flesh ready to give to his hungry harem, to make love to them, to hear their moans of pleasure.
This might be the last time they were altogether, at least for a while.
He slid deep into Amy, feeling her sweetness close around his shaft, feeling it twitch and then tighten around him. “Oh, yeah,” she moaned. “Just having you in me, was enough to make me explode.” She rocked back and forth, holding his shoulders and leaning back so she could get more leverage to thrust against him harder.
Zack ripped his lips from Betsy then held her close, as he watched Amy’s face in the dim torchlight. She stared down at him as she made love to him, the goth girl of his dreams. “I love you,” she moaned, her eyes rolling back in her head as she orgasmed again.
Her whole body shook, then she fell forward onto him. “That was the biggest yet. But, boy do I feel weak now.”
He laughed. “Don’t worry, when I’m done with the three of you, I will be too weak to walk!”
She slid off him and Missy quickly took her place. As he moved his hand down between Betsy’s legs to pleasure her while she waited for her turn, Missy leaned in and kissed him, humming deep in her throat. He sank into her soft, warm, love tunnel, turning her hum into a cry of ecstasy. He grabbed her butt cheeks, as she rode him. She leaned back and he buried his face between her large, soapy breasts. God, I could drown in these things and die a happy man.
Then he felt himself struggle to hold back. He moved his face away, Missy thrusting against him harder. “Oh, yes, my sweet song, my loving sonnet, my heart dreams of forever beating next to yours. Unleash your masculine bliss inside me, let it echo off my pink walls as it fills me with your love.”
Zack might have laughed at her words had they not been filled with such lust that they made him want to burst in a thermalnuclear explosion of ecstasy. Betsy pressed herself against him. “You can let yourself go.” She kissed his cheek. “There will be plenty left for me.”
She was right, there would be. He would make sure there was enough seed inside him for all three of them.
So he unleashed himself into Missy, his field of view flashing hot pink, his vision filled with Missy’s face as she moved in and kissed him, holding herself against him as he filled her up.
Then it became too much for her and she lifted herself off him, overflowing with his seed. Zack chuckled to himself as pleasure continued to flood him. Lucky for them, this was a gameworld, otherwise there would be a disgusting mess in the water!
When the intense, awesome sensations had ceased and the afterglow had set in, he hauled himself out of the bath, almost dragging Betsy with him. It was her turn now.
She lowered herself to the ground and spread herself to him. “Make love to me like it is our first time. Tell me you love me.”
Gladly. He crawled up to her, running his tongue up her leg, then over her pink sweetness, filling his mouth with her lovely taste. Then he was at her breasts, sucking each of them, listening to her moan as he took her hard nipples in his mouth and suckled.
Then he was at her face. “I love you with all my heart.”
He slid into her, thrusting gently, watching her eyes close, listening to her pant softly as he made love to her. Long minutes passed and she squirted again and again, as the other two women watched, their hands between their legs as they pleasured themselves.
Zack kissed Betsy’s forehead. “I’m ready.”
“Do it,” she whispered back, wrapping her legs around him and pulling him closer.
With a great orgasmic shudder, he let his seed explode into Betsy. She held him as his body shook, his orgasm larger than any he had ever had before in the game.
At the end, he collapsed onto Betsy, both of them out of breath. The part of his mind not clouded by pleasure wondered what the guards or technicians who had control of his body out in the real world were thinking right now. Was his body in the throes of ecstasy, thrusting its pelvis inside the stasis-game-pod?
“My turn again,” Amy said, her hand still buried between her legs, her fingers moving over her pleasure bits.
Zack pulled out of Betsy and rolled away from the pool of his seed that had spread around her. “Then climb on and let’s do this!”
So she did, and after several intense minutes, they came together, expending the last of Zack’s energy.
The three women had to carry him to bed and tuck him in.
“I love you all.” Was his lasts words before he fell into an exhausted sleep.
Chapter Seven
The Day After
QUEST
Objective 1: You will need help for this mission and a companion has presented themselves. Use your map and go to Hyvernal Farmstead. There you will find a woman who can help you carry out my missions.
Be warned: she is being held prisoner, so you will need to kill her captives and rescue her. Do not for a moment think of her as a damsel in distress, for if you do… let’s just say, things will not end well.
Objective 2: Once you have freed this woman, you both must head to Pond Scum Sump and confront three men and kill them all in the bloodiest way possible. Make it slow and painful.
Rewards
You can plunder the dead men’s corpses for any and all loot.
+6000xp
I will restore a member of your harem.
Janitor’s Note
This quest is merely a test to see if we are on the same page. I will share with you who these men are as a warning on what will happen if you try to fuck with the Oligarchies’ games. These men, these basement dwelling trolls, had the audacity to troll the official forums. The Druid among them even left a scathing 1 star review of the game in the Aralia Feedback Forum.
No one, and I mean no one, has ever dared leave the game a 1 star review before. Aralia Online is a work of art, a timeless classic worthy to be entered into the all time Hall of Fame! To believe otherwise, is to mark you for death. And as to the other two, the vile forum trolls who chased away three of our hardworking mods… Death can be their only reward.
Don’t worry,
these players won’t die in real life. They live in the center of the City, so don’t suffer the same consequences as you lesser peons. They will, however, lose their characters and have to start over at level 1.
Perma-death mechanics, I could kiss you all night long!
Ahem.
Go dispose of the trash.
Map of Middle Underworld added to Inventory
Use this panel in your HUD (heads up display) to navigate Middle Underworld
Portal Stone added to Inventory
Use this item to teleport back to the Drunken Fop Tavern or to Vanamoor. 6 hour cool down. 4x uses remaining.
Zack came awake at the quest notification shoved in his face. He read over it once and groaned. Then he remembered the women.
He untangled himself from Betsy and Amy’s arms and sat up. They were still asleep, their chests rising and falling. Same with Missy. He reached out tentatively to stroke Betsy’s face, trying to wake her gently.
She didn’t respond to his touch.
His heart hammered in his chest as he shook her. “Wake up, please wake up.” No, don’t do this to me. I will kill whoever you want me to, just don’t take the women away! I love them. I can’t do this without them.
Betsy wouldn’t wake, so he tried Amy and Missy. All of them continued to sleep.
He rocked back and forth on his knees, staring at their beautiful, peaceful faces. You have to get a grip, man. The only way to get them back is to kill whoever the Janitor tells me to. It’s not like anyone is really dying…
What if the Janitor was lying about that? I could be murdering someone out there in the real world just so I can get my harem back.
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