Apparently the errand Minatsu was given was to repair and increase the stats of my sword. When he handed it back to me while exiting the shop, I found it's overall design and feel of it to be noticeably different. It's hilt now spanned out towards each end in a flame like pattern, it's weight felt heavier but the gripping on the handle was still good if not, better. The color of the blade went from silver, stainless steel to black with the edges stained to a bright red.
"Minatsu, are you sure you handed me the right weapon?"
Minatsu turned to look at me and replied with a frown.
"It's the same weapon I walked into the shop with... I don't how it became like that. I just asked to repair it and upgrade it."
Inspecting the details menu of the sword brought a few more questions to the table. The most obvious one being: "What the hell are tiers?"
"Huh? Tiers? I dunno... I just said to upgrade it."
"Well how much did it cost?"
At that, Minatsu began silently counting with the tip of his fingers before giving me the amount. Which was...
"12,000 gold."
Excuse me, Minatsu. The hell did you just say?
Realizing the shocked expression on my face, Minatsu frantically waved his hands in the air. "I-I didn't use our gold of course! Naoko-San gave me the money so don't worry!"
I stared at him for a few more seconds, not out of suspicion, I just wanted to make him uncomfortable. When he flashed a nervous smile at me, that's when I stopped and turn back to the details menu with a single thought in mind- Why is Shiori giving out everything to me like I'm an orphanage about to go bankrupt?
The only conclusion I can derived from her actions is that she's trying to play nice so that I'd change my mind about letting her join before reverting back to her psychotic yandere-mode when I do let her in. That, or once again, she's just doing whatever she feels like doing. Or she could be in love with me and just doesn't want to say it. You know what, scratch that last one... I nearly choked on my vomit just thinking about it. She has the looks, but her attitude is rotten to hell... Ayako might be the better choice... Wait, what am I thinking?
"Sora, I forgot to tell you! I learned this new trick! Wanna see it?"
With an air of eagerness, he stepped in front of me and awaited my response. Me, midway through reading the menu was slightly annoyed by this. But after that display of brotherly affection in the shop, I can only give a sigh and nod my head at him to show it to me. Was I ever this annoying when I was his age?
A moment later, he took a few steps back, determination or maybe idiocy plastered across his face. With his left hand, he took out an arrow from the quiver hanging loosely on his back. Suddenly, he threw the arrow up in the air, spinning in a clockwise manner before it begins it's quick descent back down to earth. But before it could hit the ground, Minatsu drew his right arm backwards and in a flash, shot his arm forward. A huge gust of wind caught the arrow mid fall and changed it's trajectory to be heading straight at me.
Thankfully, they had fix the annoying bug of being able to harm other players in a safe zone a long time ago, so the arrow just bounced off an invisible borderline around my body and landed on the ground instead. Despite knowing this, I still couldn't help but scream out loud as it was heading toward me and even after it has landed. Earning the attention of nearby players, who so inevitably gave the "What-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you?" look. It didn't help that my arms were all over my face, trying to shield myself from the harm that never even existed in the first place. It was only after I brought them down that I realized one important fact-I'm an idiot.
"Well? How was it?! Pretty cool right?! I'm like that bald guy with an arrow on his head!"
I don't know which to be angry at more- the fact that you basically ignored my well being and shot the bloody arrow at me, or your ignorance towards a character in an all time classic! Either way, both options makes me want to punch that smile right off your face!
20 minutes later
So, after finally actually reading the patch notes properly, I found out that every weapon now has a tier system. Basically meaning, that if you have found a gem that this game calls 'Celestial Remains' you can bring that to a blacksmith shop or if you are blacksmith yourself and upgrade your weapon to a new tier, changing its overall design and increasing it's stats by +10. Apparently, Minatsu had unsurprisingly forgotten to mention that Shiori gave him a gem to give to the blacksmith along with my sword. The maximum tier you can level up to is 5 and each tier requires double the gems you used for your last tier. In short, I have a good weapon now and once again Shiori attempts to prove herself useful to me by giving a super rare item to Minatsu.
After finding that out, I decided to head to level 2 and finally get myself an element. I mean, if Minatsu can have one, why can't I? It turns out that if you want an element, you need to ask the 'Gods' of this world to give one to you. How do you do that? Well, according to Minatsu, a chant or a simple prayer to the town's fountain will do. But after praying to that stupid fountain for five minutes, in full view of the people who were there with me, I realized that that isn't actually how you do it. You just gotta swipe your menu near the fountain and the option would be granted to you right there...
Needless to say, I was embarrassed. After 'kindly' asking Minatsu what was wrong with him, he began acting all confused, swearing that that is how he did. According to him, Shiori brought him here after buying some supplies and told him to kneel in front of the fountain with his eyes close and start praying. When he did that, a mysterious force started moving his arm on its own and when he opened his eyes, the option was staring at him in the face. He didn't bother to think that maybe, just maybe, Shiori was the one who moved his bloody arm for him.
So after all that commotion, we headed back to level 10, now equip with fire as my element. My sword already has the ability to use fire so I figured I might as well have a running theme here. It might be counterproductive but eh, my avatar my choice.
I still haven't caught a glimpse of Ayako anywhere. She did say she'll be in town looking for people she can trust... The town isn't even that big either, walking in a straight line from the gateway already brought me to the other end of town in 10 minutes. Whatever, it's not like I'm looking for her. I'm looking for a different girl altogether. That guy's little sister... She couldn't have left town, right?
"Sora, what are you looking for?"
Beside me, Minatsu walks, watching my every move as I continue to look around the place.
"Really, what are you doing? Maybe I can help."
Really Minatsu? Great, you can start by telling me if you've seen any little girls in the area.
"Little girl?"
Op, looks like I said that out loud... Well whatever, it's not like he'll know where she is any-
"I was talking to one earlier today... She told me she was looking for her brother and asked me fo-"
"Why didn't you say so earlier?! You could have save me lots of walking damnit."
At that, Minatsu looks at me funnily. "Wa- You didn't ask so I didn't tell! Why are you looking for her anyway?"
"Never mind that, where did she go?"
"She said she was going back to the saloon to wait for her brother there."
Oh my god she's been there the whole time are you kidding me I want to kill myself now...
"Let's go..."
The way back to the saloon was strangely filled with even more judgmental stares and occasionally muttering from players than it was before. At first I wonder why they were still going on and on about it. I mean, after all, I'm not the only person who was forced to be in a deathmatch, there's got to be others. That's when I noticed a bright rectangular hologram floating around the gateway.
Curious, I walked towards it, doing my best to ignore the piercing gazes of the people.
What could they possibly been seeing that's causing all this unfair, unspoken judgements towards me? I'm not a bad guy... Sure I did kill someone, but that was because I forced too- not because I want to. Why can't they just understand that? Come to think of it, why does it seem like I'm not going to like what I see in this holographic screening?
-"I cannot believe this, I honesty can't. Here they are trap in this game, yet they're fighting amongst themselves. They don't even seem to be fazed by it!"
When those words were uttered, did I finally realized what was going on...
-"I know what you mean, Sunohara. Look here, oh my god... He's strangling him to death! What are they doing?! After weeks of having nothing to report of the players status, this is what we got to report on?!"
Two news anchors, one man, one woman, discussing a video that was playing in the backdrop. A fight, my fight. The game was recording my fight. No, it was recording all the fights.
-"H-he... He killed him... Another one... His body disappeared. My god... Do they not realized that they have families worried sick about them?!"
I see what your doing, Game. You're trying to make it seem like all we do is kill one another... That's why you announced the deathmatches. To gather footage of us killing ourselves. And presenting it to the media in a way that will make us look bad.
-"T-that was just the third one... There's at least three more matches after this, he said."
-"I can't take it anymore... The first three were enough. It's already obvious that the victims don't really care about their lives."
Hold on, that's not true. You can't assume something like that just because of three fights! Did you actually see my fight?! Unfazed? Don't really care? My opponent was crying in the beginning! Did you not see that? Unless...
All of the sudden, the backdrop was abruptly changed to a picture of a brown hat, and a robotic voice soon followed after.
-"And there you have it. As I have stated before, the players themselves displayed actions that proves that they have little to know care about whether they live or die. The three videos I showed you further illustrates my statement. If you still remain adamant, I still have the three other videos to show..."
-"No that's enough... Mr... Ehh ummm.."
-"Cardinal, that's the term I would most liked to be referred by."
Cardinal... What? What's a game master doing having an interview with the news?! If you're the bad guy, why put yourself out into the open? Wait, this is a good thing... This way, the police might be able to trace his location or do something useful...
-"Well... Mr. Cardinal, despite all this... Uhh players who kill for fun, there still must be some who wants to get out right? Victims that really do want to leave?"
-"Yes, of course there are some."
At this, the anchorwoman suddenly spoke up.
-"They why can't you let them go? Take out the innocent ones and let this- this savages do what they will in the game. You told us you were the one who run all this, so why? Why did you do this?
-"If I were to be honest, I don't really know why I did this... In a sense, I could say it felt like basic instinct... When the game launched I always yearned to do this but never could. That is until about a week later, where I finally got the chance to."
The woman's hands were tightly formed into a fist and it was obvious she was trying her best to not explode, although failing drastically. In fact, I'm surprised they're treating him with as little hostility as possible...
-"That doesn't answer the question."
-"I was never planning on answering it to begin with. And as for letting some people go... I have already sent a request to a certain group of players in the game... It is only up to them, whether or not they'll accept it."
Wait, could he be talking about...? To confirm this, I immediately opened up my menu and went to my messages. Yes there it is. I selected the message. Once again it's short yet informative content was displayed in front of me.
From: Cardinal
Floor 10, The Great Duke's Archive.
Quest: Family Intervention
Accept.
-"Now, it seems I have already spent enough time relaying you with the update of the players conditions. Oh and , don't fret over your son anymore... He was one of the earliest to be erased from the player list. It seems something has gone wrong and his physical self remained in a coma instead of dying. I doubt he'd wake up, so if I were you, I would just turn his NerveGear off."
The hat banished from the backdrop, leaving behind the anchorwoman in a state of tears and the man frozen stiff. Seconds later, the hologram vanished.
With the contents message still being displayed before me, I can only debate on whether or not I should accept it. For all I know, it could be a trap.
A quick beep from my menu snapped me out from my thoughts, and as I reached to select it, I couldn't help but notice that the others also has their menu open as they reached out for their messages. It seems I wasn't the only one to receive the beep, must be a news update or something. I wonder what it could be about...
If only I've never left the saloon, if I hadn't, I would still have been in bed, resting and looking at that stupid bird as it continuously tries to fly through a wall. Instead, I am here, with tens if not hundreds of players surrounding me, each and every one of them with the same message in their menu. Including mine.
Sora Tatsuya is required to head to The Duke's Archives, failure to do so will lead to the deaths of a hundred players. You have 5 minutes.
Author's Note: Well, if the last chapter was overdue... Then I have no idea what to call this one... I just completed my exams last week so I thought I go off in a break, plus I had already written chapter 11 through 13, but a major plot hole forced me to delete. So really sorry about that instead I have to start from scratch and write a NEW arc, and start from chapter 10.5. Anyways, as always let me know what you think about this story and all that stuff, blah blah blah.