January 31st, 2029

Michiko sat on the edge of a fountain in a small town. It was in the main courtyard, and players were passing all around her. Night had fallen, and she wasted her day away by wandering around the area, looking up at the sky, and looking down in the dirt.

As time went on, the town emptied out. Most players were sleeping. Michiko got up, and headed to the town's edge, looking out at the distance. Then, she saw something. Out there, along the road, riders wearing black clothes were riding up on the town.

She turned and ran back, entering the inn and shouting, waking everyone up. "A group's coming!" she shouted. "It's not safe! Get up!" She ran through the halls, screaming, and players were slowly wandering outside to look. Soon, it became clear that they were under attack.

Within seconds, the Laughing Coffin raiders were storming the town, going into buildings and killing everyone they found. Michiko hid in a room, but her cover was soon lost as one of the enemy barged in, and saw her. She screamed, and jumped out of the window, landing on the ground and taking some damage.

It was a mistake. More people were fighting and dying outside. She stayed low, and tried to move back into some cover. She hid at a tree, and a pair of combatants had fought their way over to her. The Laughing Coffin assailant knocked the town's defender's weapon away, and it landed near Michiko.

Then, that man was killed by his attacker. While the player who killed him loomed over his corpse, Michiko grabbed the sword, and stabbed the Laughing Coffin in the back. She struck again and again. Blood splattered, and she didn't stop until her target's health bar was down at zero percent.

Covered in blood, she dropped to her knees, and cried. The green cursor floating above her had been dyed red.

March 1st, 2030

In some distant zone, Michiko held up her weapon to stop an incoming attack. The beast she was fighting was like a giant lizard-like creature. It had six arms, and was humanoid. Each of its arms held a weapon, and it attacked her furiously.

It was not just any creature. This monster had a name: Rai'zha, the lizard demon. It was a boss, and she fought it alone. It moved quickly, and got around her and struck many times, but her defensive stance was far superior.

Her health was at seventy-two percent, and the creature's at eighty-one. And now, she had memorized its attack pattern. When it struck again, she parried the attack, and then another, and then lunged forward, bashing it with the front of her weapon.

It was knocked away at first, but lurched right back into an attack. That was her chance. It swung with its weapon, and she spun, turning outside of its next attack after that. She face its backside, and made three, four, and then five direct blows against her target. It stood, its health still draining, and then dropped when it hit zero.

She smiled, and looked at her rewards. Then, she frowned, and shook her head. With a scream, she left the dungeon, and right away went on to fight more wild creatures.

For weeks, she did this. She killed them, over and over. When she finished everything she could in one zone, she moved onto the next. And finally, one day, she just stopped.

She dropped to her knees at a lake, and looked down into the water. Her weapon fell to the ground, and she stayed there, without moving a muscle for a whole day, and a whole night.

The next morning though, a stranger approached her. It was another player, and he held a fishing rod. He looked at her funny, and tapped her shoulder. She didn't move. "Mokatso," he said. "That's your name, isn't it?" She turned, and looked up at him, but didn't say a word.

He took a moment to read her stats. Her endurance was drained, and she had buffs labeled tired and hungry. He did the most logical thing he could think of, and dropped his lunch at her feet. "Take it," he said. "You need to eat." To him, her level was hidden. Monsters and players alike had their levels hidden when they were so far above your own. To the man though, many players were like this. He was a lower level.

"Leave me alone." Her voice was muffled, and quiet. All around them there wasn't much of a sound except for the insects in the forest, or, at the very least, the sound files that mimicked what insects were supposed to sound like.

The man sat down next to her, and cast out his line. "I can't do that," he said. "You're the only one I've had to talk to in weeks. It's lonely out here." She didn't want to respond.

And so, the day went on like that. The whole time he fished, casting his line out and drawing it back again, occasionally catching something to eat, she didn't touch the food he had given her. Once night began to fall again, he got up, and started to leave. "I'm going back to my cabin," he said. "I would hate it if you stayed out here alone… you don't plan on dying, do you?"

She stayed put, not wanting to move and wanting to do just as he said. After fighting so long trying to escape herself, and never knowing what for, she had begun to lose the will to live, and just couldn't go on any longer. She was quiet, even when she talked… very quiet. After some time of no response, he sighed, and started walking away. "I'll come check on you before I sleep tonight…" he said.

Hours passed, and when he returned, she had taken off her armor, and stored all of her gear in her inventory. The food he had brought was eaten, and she laid on her side, looking miserably out onto the lake.

"Michiko," he said. "No one else ever comes to this zone… I guess you're Mokatso without the armor."

She still did not say anything, but thought about what he said. To her, there was something rather deep about that thought. Michiko was Mokatso without the armor… the idea that her life here had turned her into someone else was strange. And it was true.

When she wore the armor, her name, her voice, and her whole identity changed. She was more familiar with the name Mokatso than her own name after a while, and she had almost forgotten who she really was.

He sat down next to her. "It's late out… this is a safe zone with no monsters, and even fewer players. It's a tiny little spot between here and there. No monsters or players are going to come to kill you here. You'll have to starve, I'm afraid."

After giving her a few more moments to answer, he sighed and kept talking. "My name is Shao," he said. "I've been out here ever since I found this place. It's isolated and so far away from any players. I can be alone here… and I don't ever fear any danger. It's even safer than many places you can go to in the real world."

She blinked, but that was it. He couldn't even see it.

"I guess my point is that… this is a place for rest, and peace. You have time to think and be on your own here. If you could try to do that before you give up, maybe you will change your mind." He got up again, and looked down at her. "Well, I can't make you do anything, or at least I won't. But my cabin doors are always open."

He started to leave, and as he did, she got up. He smiled at her. She didn't look at him, but nodded, and followed him to his home.

Once she got inside, she took a seat at his table, and he fed her freshly cooked fish without asking. "It's good," he said. "I've spent my time here maxing out my hospitality related skills. I can fish. I can cook… I can make things for you."

She still did not speak. This continued on for a whole week. Every day, he would talk to her, and she would do nothing but eat, listen, and sleep. On the eight day of her visit, he said to her, "You're alone. And at such a high level, with pretty dangerous areas all around you. I've been thinking about your situation, trying to figure out why you're depressed. What makes the most sense to me is that you had friends out here with you, but something happened to them. Something bad."

He waited a few moments again. He always left breaks for her to speak if she ever felt so inclined. "When I was a young boy, we had a family pet. A dog. I loved that animal. I went off to university when the time came, and I grew apart from it. I saw her get old. It was sad. She lost her sight, and her hearing. Finally, one day, my parents decided to have her put down. It was the right thing to do… if we didn't, she might have died some horrible way, and we couldn't have been with her. I was with her when it happened. I was sad. The night before, I drank… I drank a whole lot. I choked up and cried until the early morning hours. But after it happened, I felt better."

She looked at him, but only for a moment.

"I know my dog probably isn't the best comparison for your loss, whatever it is… but I moved on. I was able to cry, and I fell down for a while. I let my emotions pour out, and it helped me get past it. I am told by people who have had a loss, that the longer they hold onto something, the more painful it becomes. It gets blocked up inside of you, until it warps your entire life out of shape. It destroys you… But no matter how long they held on, it was always worth letting go, and moving on."

She looked down again, at her food.

He was about to get up to go to bed, but was stopped. He heard her as she began to cry, and moved closer to her. "It's alright," he said. "You can cry… it's safe."

For the next week, she improved, little by little. She still never spoke, but was able to be happy at times. She went with him when he fished, and fished with him. On the fourteenth day of her stay, she took a deep breath, and looked up at him from her spot at the table.

"I have to go," she said.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't know…"

"Where were you going before?"

"I'll find out when I get there," she said. "I may never make it."

"It's usually best to know where you're going before you leave some place."

"I don't think I ever really knew where I was to begin with," she explained. "I've been going somewhere for a long time, and haven't ever really been able to figure out what it is I'm trying to find. I thought I found it finally, but it turned out that that wasn't it at all."

"Being lost is usually quite a journey. Some might say it's the hardest, but it is also the most fulfilling. What was it that you thought you had found?"

"A long time ago, someone took something from me… something they could never give back and that I could never take back from them. When I finally found that person, I tried to take it anyways. When I did, I realized that instead I had just been slowly losing more and more the longer I searched for it. When I finally thought I found it, I had lost more than ever."

"Ahh," he said. "Revenge… they say you should dig two graves. You almost did, didn't you?"

She nodded, and got up from the table. "But that wasn't what I was looking for, so I have to keep looking."

"Do you have any idea what you're looking for now?" he asked.

She thought about it, and shook her head. "But I think this time I know where to look…"

"That's certainly a start…"

She put on her gear, and started to go towards the door.

"Why do you wear the mask?" he asked.

"What mask?"

"It hides your name, your face, your voice… is it so that no one can see the real you?"

She didn't have an answer.

"Maybe," he said. "What you're looking for… is yourself."

"What's your name?" she asked.

"You already know."

"No… your real name…"

"I'm not sure I want to say," he said. "I am Shao now."

"I don't know why I wear a mask… why do you?"

He smiled and had a short laugh. "When I find out, I'll be sure to tell you."

After that, she left the cabin in the safe woods between two high level zones. She went back to fighting… to searching. She fought through more high level monsters, and headed southeast. She ran through mountains, and then desert, and finally she found herself running into an oasis that turned into a jungle. On the other side of that, was a clearing… a flatlands with a single mountain at its center.

"There," she thought. "I can feel it…"

When she reached high level monsters, she slaughtered them. And when she reached the mountain itself, she found a pathway that led up. She started to climb.

Along the way, she saw across the zone. At its far southwestern end, it stopped, giving way to the Dune Sea below. She remembered it. Out there, far in the distance at the edge of her vision, she could see a tiny oasis, and farther south, once she got even higher, she saw where it led into a pine forest.

After stumbling and nearly falling a dozen times, she found herself on a flat surface. Before her stood a giant pseudo-elemental that wielded a club. She looked at its level, and smiled. "Nothing…" she said.

She charged at it, and engaged. She blocked its swing with her weapon, and then deflected the attack behind her. As she did, she slid on her knees under its legs. She jumped onto the cliff side, and off of it, landing on the creature's back. Once there, she slashed away, until she brought the giant down.

Then, she headed into the cave. Monsters attacked her. There were more pseudo-elementals or rock and flame, and all manner of beasts. They were mopped up quickly, and she spent no more than a few seconds fighting each group.

In a huge room, she stopped. On the other side was a door, but it was shut. "Boss," she muttered to herself.

The room had in it pools of lava on the ground. From one emerged a large, worm like creature not unlike the Sand Worm Kirito and his team faced many months ago. It opened up with a fireball, shooting it at her. She dodged it, and used rocks to gain a height advantage, and slashed at the creature's head.

The process was repeated, and with her skill, she dodged its attacks. It sank below the surface of the lava, and she went into a defensive position. It rose again, and lava spilled out at her feet from a nearby pool. She jumped back from it, and hurled her weapon at the enemy. It hit it, and bounced off, landing right back near her.

While the monster attacked, she picked it up, and repeated the process of jumping into an attack. After a few minutes of this, the beast was done for, and the door opened.

She followed a series of more tunnels, fighting more mobs. Soon, she started treading on a spider's web. A huge spider attacked her, and it appeared of bright, glowing orange, as if it were freshly smelted steel.

With eight legs, it made several attacks on her for each one she made. She was hit more than once by its strikes, but the worst hit came from a fiery webbing it launched at her. She was stuck, and taking damage. It charged her, but in a moment of good fortune, she cut herself free, and ducked. As the beast was above her, she struck upwards, hitting weak points.

She didn't stop. She slashed and slashed until it was dead. When the boss was finished, she kept running, drinking health potions on the go until she was back to full health.

The next boss stood in a seemingly empty chamber. It was an elemental of stone and fire. This fight was tough. She attacked, and did minimal damage. When she finally brought it down, it all reformed once more.

It threw rocks, and spewed fire, and her gear was now at low durability. In one final attack, she lunged forward, jumping through a blast of flames. Her helmet was destroyed, but she felled the elemental in that blow.

She landed on its remains, her long hair covering her face. "Is that it?" she asked herself. She looked at the corpse of the beast, its level still visible. "Hah… too weak." She looked through all of her rewards thus far. The gear some of these monsters dropped, she used. It had fireproofing which she thought for sure she would need. Her own gear was also hopelessly outdated.

Using a potion of fire-resistance, she doused her weapon, and enchanted it with the potion's effects. "Where to… where to?" She looked around. Then, she heard it. A scream. A cry for help.

"This," she said as she ran toward the call. "This is who I am!" She cut down monsters along the way, and soon she reached what appeared to be an opening in the cave. Light shone from the tunnel's apparent entrance. "I save people! I fight evil wherever I find it!" As she leapt out from the opening and into a battle unknown, she cried out. "I am the Black Warden!"

She fell directly on top of a large, burning serpent boss, cutting it and dealing lots of damage. On top of her high level, her new gear, her enchanted weapon… her spirit and her will were reading three hundred percent. The head of the beast slammed hard into the floor.

It was by no means a killing blow, but the serpent shifted its position once more. It left Asuna and Kirito safe on the side. Michiko, after making her attack, sprung upwards and let out a battle cry. A fireball was coming down on her, and she smashed it with her weapon. The resulting explosion knocked her down, and there, she faced Pyyraus.

Kirito and Asuna were so stunned by the heroism that they didn't even move at first. "Kirito!" Eulsam shouted. "Health!"

The two of them downed health potions. Healers were focusing on the party now. Michiko was alone before Pyyraus.

"Kirito," Asuna said. "That weapon… there's only one person it could be."

Kirito nodded, and opened his player menu. "Player command! Invite player 'Michiko." A moment later, Michiko appeared in their party. The list of party members was organized by level. At the top were Kirito and Eulsam. Now, Michiko went right up to the top of the list, at level seventy-eight.

Pyyraus had begun casting more fireballs. Michiko charged her. The fireballs were stopped in midair by arrows, and Michiko brought the sorceress's shield down quickly.

This was by no means the end of the fight, however. The snake shifted again, this time cornering Michiko on her own. Pyyraus was in a separate zone, and Eulsam, Kirito and Asuna had gotten together in time to meet her.

They attacked all with great fury. The Serpent's lighting quick attacks struck at Michiko. She was hit, and singed. Her health was dropping bit by bit, but she endured. She did not only block and dodge attacks, but parried one or two, and countered with her weapon.

Pyyraus suddenly cried out, and was defeated, dropping to the ground at the hands of her three attackers. The serpent shifted its attack pattern.

With Pyyraus defeated, the fiery basilisk encircled all players, the whole ring, and began to constrict itself slowly. The players had to step inwards, with less and less space as they continued to dodge and attack.

"Michiko," Kirito said. "You're alive."

She smiled. "You idiots!" she then shouted. "The only way to kill a snake proper…" She leapt up right after the head struck at Lisbeth. "Is to cut off its head!" She slammed down, the front of her weapon with its fire resistance, acted as a barrier to flames, and therefore was able to drive the head down.

"Sampson!" Kirito shouted.

Sampson leapt into action. When he came down, his axe struck hard at the snake, right behind its head and cut it off with a final, critical blow. The boss writhed and squirmed around, its body slowly smoldering out and turning to ash.

In the area above the players, a pop up appeared. "Congratulations! Temple of Fire: Cleared!" and then another, "First! Epic Dungeon Clear!"

The group all cheered and congratulated each other after healing up. Xaela ran up afterwards, and hugged Michiko tight. "You're safe…" she said.

Michiko nodded, and hugged her back.

In the real world, the relief and excitement of Vearth fans was in the air. The families of those who survived embraced one another. In the IVRTF Observation Base, there was a little celebration of their own.

For those who had lost someone though, there was pain. To date, not a single resurrection item had been found. They would keep their loved ones on life support however, hoping that somehow, that would change. It would not be so.

"So, Michiko," Kirito said. After the battle, they returned to Duneclimb, where players hailed them as conquerors and heroes. "You're a higher level than any of us now. What's your secret?"

She shrugged. "With such an emphasis placed on PVP play, I didn't think I'd even keep up, to be honest. I suppose solo'ing dungeons gave me a bit of a boost."

"Yeah," Eulsam said. "You fought multiple bosses on the way. Your experience and rewards must have been ridiculous."

"Where did you go, anyways?" Asuna asked.

"Everywhere," she said. She sighed, and looked down. They didn't even know why she left. "You see… that Laughing Coffin I hunted down was no ordinary PK'er to me, or maybe he was. I thought he wasn't though. I thought he was the one who killed my sister. I realized it wasn't him, and… I just couldn't handle it. I'm so sorry." She started crying a little. "I wish I'd never left. I shouldn't have."

Lisbeth patted her back as she sat down next to her. "It's alright," she said. "You're here now, and obviously, you're feeling better."

Michiko wiped the tears from her eyes, and nodded. "I do… it took a long time, but I got past it. I promise though… I'm never leaving the company of my friends again."

"A wise choice," Sampson said. "Heroic in fact. No hero fights alone… or else he has not a thing to fight for."

Those words even caught Kirito's attention. He only gave it a few seconds of thought before nodding and moving on. "Now that we've cleared the hardest, biggest dungeon to date, where will we go next?"

Eulsam had stopped paying attention to the conversation to read a message he got from a guild member. "Commander General," it read. "We have discovered a Laughing Coffin base to the west of Newberg. Shall we wait for you before launching an attack?"

He thought about it, and looked at the group. They were having fun. It had been so long since hunting PK'ers that their cursors were even green again. It was his duty… their duty. Wasn't it? He closed it without responding, and rejoined the conversation.

"We should go back to Duneclimb!" Asuna said. "We barely got a chance to enjoy the city, and it's the second biggest city in the game behind Newberg."

"I heard of a new zone that opened up to the southeast of here," Eulsam said. "Brand new, high level… bound to be a lot of valuable loot, and tough challenges."

"Adventure sounds like our thing," Klein said. "We were the first to clear an epic dungeon. Being ahead of the curve is a nice feeling. I think we should keep it that way."

"That sounds fun and all," Kirito said. "But I'm voting Duneclimb first. It's the foremost player hub for adventurers, so if we ask around, we might find out about even better places to go, even better treasures to look for."

"I need to visit Duneclimb," Michiko said. "If there's adventurers there, then I might be able to meet up with my guild again. As you know, we can only add people to our friends list when we're close to them… so if I'm getting back into the guild, I'll need to meet up with one of them first."

"Sounds like we're going to Duneclimb," Agil said.

"Yep," Eulsam said. "I should probably try and meet the leadership of the city anyways. I've been trying to make a deal with the city for a while…"

"Then it's decided," Kirito said. "We'll head to Duneclimb and stay there for a few days. When we're finished there, we'll head out to the newest zone we can find…"

It had been another month. The IVRTF top level agents met again for their monthly debriefing. "So let me get this straight," Director of Operations, Kojji Makatawa said. "We have hours of footage of these guys, and yet not a single clue who they are in the real world, or even the slightest idea of what it is exactly that they're after."

"That is correct sir," an agent said. "We have absolutely nothing."

"They're careful, and secretive. As we know there are nearly five thousand players who requested their footage be permanently discontinued. All of them are likely those players, and we don't have the authority to resume recordings until we have direct evidence of their crimes in the game." Seijiro looked down and shook his head. "And there's a plethora of in-game mechanics to mask one's identity, so even when the ones we are watching run into them, we can't tell who they really are."

"One thing is certain," Zimmar said. "This Death Oath has the potential to be more harmful than Laughing Coffin. If this game ends, and they get out into the real world… we could be looking at a cult… at a new terror organization. These guys are seriously fucked in the head."

"We want to send warnings and information to our VIPs," Seijiro said. "But doing so risks Laughing Coffin finding out… and we already know their threat."

"Speaking of which, are we any closer to logging the players out of the game?" the director asked.

"Negative…" another agent said. "We're looking at… another year or two of trying to break their coding. They've got some real gurus on their side. A private Chinese intelligence agency made an attempt to hack just one of the LC servers. Within twenty-four hours, the entire agency's data banks were wiped clean, and their dirty laundry was aired on the six o clock news."

"And how are we on physical intelligence. Do we have any idea where their servers are, or where they might have a base of operations?"

"These guys are ghosts," another agent said. "Nothing has turned up anywhere. We'll find the illuminati before we root these bastards out."

The director shook his head, and looked across the room. On the screen behind him were dozens of freeze frames of an unknown player or perhaps multiple players, all wearing identical plague masks and dark cloaks. One of them showed him wielding a white staff.