CHAPTER SIX: PAYON AWAITS TO CHANGE THEIR FATES…

As our three heroes walked cautiously through the gates of Payon, Catoken took notice of the guards checking tourists and adventurers for any signs of hackers or vagrants. However, they were doing a poor job at it, so the three made it past security without a hitch. Catoken and Kaos still had some money left over from Juniors' bounty, so while they went shopping, Catoken had left Gemini to her business…whatever it may be. She had walked deep into the forest in the archer village, and had stopped at a tree with hundreds of little cuts engraved in the bark, obviously made with an inhumanly sharp dagger. A rustling in the bushes adjacent to the tree caught Gemini's attention, and out of the foliage came an abrupt sight: a stocky little man in a tuxedo wearing a bongun hat and wielding a cane of thrifty proportions, a rather uncommon thing to see in this region.

"I trust that you have succeeded in locating the 'problem', Gemini?" The short stump of a man voiced in an utterly disgusting tone that enforced the listener to turn and scream at the sight of the ungodly bones in his mouth, his prune-esque tongue drooling corrosive acidic bile with every foul calamity that managed to survive and escape his malevolent maw, and his blood-seeped eyes, with the lids slowly drooping over one eye and the other pulling back so far that it threatened to shoot the eye out at her. Although this dreadful sight would make any mortal's head implode from the sheer volatile-inducing, bowel-scrapping, soul-rending, appendix-terrorizing visage, his tuxedo was prim and clean, plucked free of all lint and leaves from him hiding in the bushes, and any twigs near his feet were instantly set on fire and burned to ashes the moment he stepped out. This man truly was the worst kind of monster in existence…a corporate one.

"Yes…I have found the 'issue.' What are my orders now?"

"Go…continue to journey with them. Use the experience and skills that you will learn to wipe out all opponents. When you change into the next class, and are more powerful, come to my base…your final mission will be told to you then. Then, and only then, will your debt be paid…and our client will get his wish."

"Yes…boss."

"Oh…one more thing…" The little man waddled over to Gemini and whispered something in her ear, then walked away as though nothing had been said, disappearing into the thick undergrowth. His words, however, had left Gemini throttled to the ground, sobbing and weeping. This caught the attention of a nearby spy behind her, who had followed her from the entrance, and had caught every word, with the exception of what had just been whispered.

"Something's not right here…I've seen that man before…" Catoken told himself from behind the underbrush. He had left Kaos in the marketplace in order to find out what kind of "business" Gemini was up to, and just as he hadn't hoped, it was shady. He quickly tried to move so Gemini wouldn't hear him, but he tripped over a root and was quickly grounded when a flustered Gemini rose and slowly walked over to him. She squatted in front of him with an inquisitive look in her pupils.

"So…I guess a little explaining is in order," she said.

"That would be nice."

"Well…"

"'EY! GET BACK HERE WITH MEH SCHTUFF!!!" A cry went out in the streets of Payon as Kaos dashed away from the merchant cart that once held a rare Midnight Ragamuffin Manteau, a one of a kind Loki Bracer, and over 500,000 zeny. He might as well have taken the whole cart, but the merchant deserved it for what he was charging for arrows. He hid behind a tree on the path to the Archer Village, and as soon as his pursuers had left, he noticed Catoken and Gemini walking towards him.

"Hey you two, what's up?" Kaos wholeheartedly asked. Apparently, his recent escapade was making him feel giddy and naturally, he grinned ecstatically when Catoken noticed his plunder.

"I should be asking you that, you little scoundrel...anyway, while you were off gallivanting, I thought that we should take a gander inside of Payon Cave. I hear that some people have reported something killing off players whenever they get inside of the cave, and that can only mean two things: PKers, or an anomaly. Hopefully for us, it might be the latter. Anyway…" Catoken motioned for Kaos and Gemini to follow him. They were on the way to the village when Gemini stopped and stared at the grove of trees leading to the forest, catching Kaos' attention.

"What's the matter, Gemini?" Gemini just depressingly glanced into Kaos' eyes, and kept walking towards the village. "Was it something…I said?"

Shortly after, they arrived in the village just in time to see a young acolyte knocked headfirst into the dirt…after being shot out of the cave. The acolyte pushed himself out from under the dirt, screaming, "IT'S THEM!!! THE PKERS ARE IN THERE!!!"

"Oh boy…" Catoken shivered at the thought. PKers were the most annoying things to find in a usually safe haven, mainly because "disturbing the peace" wasn't an offense to the GM's, but it was to the people. Furthermore, PKers often abused little leveling areas like the first floor of Payon cave because of the large population of people that tried to have peace. For those below level 40, it was quite easy to level there, because you couldn't be PKed, but for those above level 40…well, it was quite easy to die. Formerly, the GM's created PvP arenas for the sole purpose of fighting one another, but the people demanded a full-scale PvP server, and so, Chaos became just that.

Some of the people became mercenaries because of the new system and were able to earn cash from people for killing other people. Sure, the best PKers were in fact the nicest people on the server and only killed if it was the only choice, but as for mercenaries…there was a three-man team that was the most infamous. Two of them hailed from the Chaos server, but the third came from Sakray, the test server. Big Pimo, the crusader, was the self-proclaimed leader and was also the lowest level. The only reason the other two didn't overthrow him was that he had connections (legal or otherwise) to the GM's. The second, Raeoki, was from Sakray, and was a knight who was easily quick to anger, even clouding his sense of honor. The third, and most powerful, was a wizard named Skye, and even though he never fully intended to become a mercenary, he needed the money for a project of his. Skye was also level 97, compared to Raeoki's level 75 and Big Pimo's level 59, meaning if he could, he would be able to eliminate both in an instant, and made this fact quite clear whenever Pimo got on his nerves, which is a bad thing to do to any wizard of any sort.

These three took on the mercenary world by storm with their powers and balance of speed, power, and intellect (Pimo being the power), and they eventually made a name for themselves rather quickly. They had recently gotten involved with the "Blacklist", or the "secret" bounty list that was somewhere in the game, and acquired limitless wealth to enhance their already powerful weapons. This back-story led many to believe they were hackers or cheaters of the game. The three made a public announcement to the Midgard Times saying, "we're just too damn good." This went strictly against Catoken's policy of "humble is best," so he naturally hated them.

"PKers? I…never had to fight someone so experienced…" sighed Kaos when Catoken was finished explaining the back-story.

"Well…if all three of us can get past them, then I guess it'll be alright. However…all of us are above level 40. We have to be extra careful. We don't know if our bounty has been canceled by God-Poing yet." Gemini took out her bow.

"Well, let's get to hunting. If there is an anomaly in there…we need to kill it, before anyone else gets hurt; PKer or otherwise." The three walked into Payon Cave, at the bewilderment of the usual crowd of people that huddled outside of the cave to commune with one another. While Kaos, Catoken, and Gemini strolled through the cave at a snails pace, Gemini slowly dragged Kaos away far enough so that she could talk to him in a sense of privacy.

"What is it, Gemini?"

"You need to hear about me. About my past."

"…Go on."

"Well…when I was born, my parents were killed. I wandered the streets for a long time, and eventually became a pickpocket. My 'talents' were noticed when I tried to rob a guy in a fancy suit. His name was Sinezter M. Gambalot, an infamous mafia head who was known for his brutality towards players who hated vagrants, as well as his gambling problem. He trained me in the ancient arts of thievery, arts that were long ago banned by the GM's. Soon after, I became…a spy in his name. With my natural abilities combined with the ninja arts he taught me, I was able to easily infiltrate the most protected of fortresses, and steal the most precious of gems, all the while increasing his power and throwing myself away. This was all I saw in life…until that day."

Kaos looked puzzled for a moment, as if all of this wasn't enough for his mind to bear. "What day was that…?"

"…That day at South Prontera. The day I met you. Heh…as if this isn't enough for your mind to bear already, but…Poing-Jr. was meant to be a trap for you."

Kaos jumped back a couple of feet. Trap? Hell no.

"Yes, a trap. Boss Gambalot has been…iffy lately, to say the least. The clients he's working with are powerful and evil. I've never met them, as Gambalot says it's for the best. My only wish now…is to earn my freedom back by going on this quest with you guys. At first, it was just a job, but…"

"But what?"

"Nothing…it's nothing. We better keep moving." For the rest of the walk, Kaos felt an unease rising in the pit of his stomach. What was going on with Gemini? Why was Catoken so distressed? And what was that voice going on and on in the back of his mind, telling him to prepare himself for the inevitable? All of this was shut up the moment that the three walked right into a battlefield. Thousands of players, dead on the floor, and the causes were obvious. The three mercenaries, Big Pimo, Raeoki, and Skye were standing over a player they just killed. Catoken and Gemini were almost about to turn around and make a break for it when Big Pimo turned around.

"Well…what have we here?"