Red glared at me from across the room, her dangerously thin body hid from view behind a wavering cape. Her green eyes flickered dangerously as messy lengths of red hair wrapped around her shoulders. She reminded me of a lioness I had once seen at a zoo, beautiful, but deadly enough that I was thankful we were separated by a three meter solid steel fence. The only difference between Red and the lioness was that I was currently inside the cage with her.

The rest of the room had been silenced in awe from my victory, but after I had called out a greeting to Red a rumble of murmuring began to pick up. I could see players pointing at me, their faces lighting up in recognition. Although it was too difficult to comprehend what exactly was being said, particular words such as posters, criminal, murderer, and serious could be heard repeated. It seemed that over the past two weeks I had truly become quite the infamous player.

Red was not distracted by the murmurs that surrounded us, and was instead focusing her utmost attention on me. In a different situation I may have found that situation somewhat pleasing, she was definitely a stunning woman, but at this point I was far too worried about my personal safety to be interested in anything else.

"You have some explaining to do," Red's clear voice rang out, silencing the surrounding players as they eagerly leaned forwards, not wanting to miss anything that was being said. Ricochet picked himself up off the ground, dusted computer programmed dirt off of his chainmail armour and confronted me as well.

"Yes, you do have some explaining to do, don't you Sirius."

"Alright then, ask away. I wasn't planning on going anywhere," I turned to glare at Red. "In fact, after two weeks of being treated like a criminal, some human company sounds delightful." Red scowled in annoyance, unhappy that I was blaming her on my criminal position.

Ricochet on the other hand was grinning. "So that potion worked perfectly, did it?"

I growled under my breath as I remembered his earlier manipulation. "Actually, let's go back a bit," I said. "I think you have some explaining to do Ricochet."

His grin widened before he responded. "Oh please, do tell me what the matter is."

"You know damn well what it is. You told me that if I drank the potion I'd wake up the next morning without the orange player marker."

The grin never left his face, but his eyes sparkled with cunning as he scrutinized me. "And just what is the problem? From what I can see, you managed to remove your orange mark."

"The problem," I growled, "Is that the potion didn't do a damn thing. "The first time a criminal player mark is received it disappears after two weeks."

Ricochet clapped his hands mockingly. "Very good. It's true, it's all true." He frowned, the grin finally leaving his face, but his eyes proclaimed that he wasn't finished. "However, I don't recall telling you that the potion would cure your player status."

I stopped myself from spluttering. How he could so blatantly lie was beyond me. "You specifically told me to drink the potion and that in the morning my green player marker would be gone."

The grin was back on his face. "Yes, but I never said the two were related now, did I?"

I couldn't believe he was pulling threads out of my argument. "You told me every beta player knew about this."

"Ah, by this, I'm guessing you mean the potion. You are correct again, incredible. Are you always on top of things?" When I didn't respond he continued talking. "Every Beta player knew about the potion. It's composed of particular substances and is more commonly known as 'lemonade'. Perhaps you recognized its peculiar taste when you drank it so eagerly."

By this point I realized that arguing any further would not only be useless, but detrimental to my own self-esteem. The players surrounding us were watching with much amusement. It apparently amused them that the player who had single-handedly defeated the first floor boss could be riddled with torment so easily.

Red had been following the exchange quietly, confusion on her face as she began to piece together the context behind the conversation. Her face flared up in anger and it appeared that the woman who had been making my life hell had just discovered another reason to be mad at me.

"You let him go last night," She all but shrieked at Ricochet. "I thought you said he subdued you on the rooftop!"

I laughed at this, amused at the thought that I would have any chance at defeating Ricochet in a fight. After last night I had no doubts about who was the stronger player. Red glared at me laughing, and I decided to answer the question that was being left unasked.

"You honestly thought it was possible for me to defeat Ricochet. Here I thought you had a good thinker between your ears, if nothing else."

She looked furious at my response, but appeared to understand what I said. I noted that she was indeed getting better at thinking rationally when she was angry. Not much better, but any improvement was better than no improvement.

"So if you're so humble and weak, how on earth did you defeat Illfang on your own?" She asked, and I saw several players nod their head in agreement at her question. Even Ricochet seemed curious.

In fact, I had been wondering the same thing. Ricochet should have been able to do what I did, but the injured players he was trying to rescue had handicapped him. Even then though, I had displayed complete dominance against Illfang during our fight, something Ricochet had obviously not been able to accomplish.

"I think," I said unsurely, "It's because of my sword." To consolidate my statement I lifted my legion blade off the ground and swung it around my head once before sheathing it on my back. Players looked at it curiously. There was nothing about the sword that made it stand out greatly in awesomeness, but no one said anything, so I continued my theory.

"I'm pretty sure this sword is equivalent to weapons we can find on higher levels. I've poured most of my stat points into strength, and even then I can only just wield it."

"How come I've never seen that sword before?" asked Red.

"I only received it last night." I made a point of glaring at Red. "Very late last night." She had been the one who organized the raid on the cabin last night, and I was not in the mood to forgive her for that anytime soon. I noticed that she at least she had the decency to ashamed. Even she knew that she had gone too far last night.

"That doesn't explain how you got the sword," said Red, continuing her investigation. "And how come none of the beta players know about this supreme weapon?"

"That's because grandpa gave it to him, and he wouldn't give it to just any player out there." Lily had walked into the room, classifying it to be safe enough for her to enter without breaking her earlier promise to me. Everyone turned to look at the new arrival and was shocked to see that the voice had come from a nine year old girl. They were even more surprised when they realized that it was an NPC that was defending me.

"What the hell have you done now?" shouted Red, once again jumping to conclusions and ultimately becoming furious at me. I could here Martin's colourful laughter in the crowd as he recognized that young girl from his visits to the cabin on the hills. At least I had one ally here.

"What do you mean what the hell have I done? I've done absolutely nothing thank you very much," I shouted back. By now Lily had crossed the distance towards me and was hugging me in relief. Although I found the gesture incredibly sweet, I realized that the other players were liable to take that action out of context. If I heard one word from any of them I was going to be hard pressed to refrain from depleting their health bars. The boss room wasn't a safety zone either.

"You've… You've," Red spluttered, trying to get her words out. "You've seduced a little girl."

I was about to groan from this potentially humorous yet embarrassing situation when Lily cut in.

"At least he didn't kill my grandpa," Lily shouted before burying her head against my hip. I wrapped an arm around her reassuringly while glaring at Red who looked like she had been slapped after hearing Lily's proclamation. A mental slap, at least. It wasn't just Red who was shocked, everyone in the room was. They couldn't understand why an NPC would possibly release such a dramatic display of emotion. 'Perhaps it's quest involved?' I heard some of them mutter.

"Yes, at least I didn't kill an innocent person, did I Red?" I said gravely.

"What the hell are you talking about, it was an NPC, not a real person. He never existed in the first place. Have you gone crazy from living in this world."

"Better crazy than a murderer like you,"

"You're insane! None of them are real. The grandpa was not even useful for anything but an already completed quest, and that little girl beside you is worth absolutely nothing."

"Take that back," I whispered venomously, and Red paled, realizing she may have gone too far. Especially when she already considered me mentally unstable, she was probably worrying about her own safety now. "You know nothing, and at this rate, you never will," I said, acid dripping from my voice.

"I'm sorry-"

"No, you're not sorry," I said, interrupting her. "For the past three weeks you've been making my life hell. Every time you see me you jump to conclusions. You don't even try to think about what you're doing, 'try' being the keyword there."

She opened her mouth to speak but I cut her off again. "Why are you so interested in me anyway? There are thousands of other players out there and you chose to target me! Why? I cannot and will not ever understand your blind obsession with me."

"I don't have a choice! I'm trying to stop you from going around killing people." She shouted out in her defence.

"Then why don't you do your research? You saw the Memorial Stone, why didn't you check the date of when Daniel died. Maybe then you would've noticed that he died before the GM gave his speech. We had no idea what would happen. We didn't know the consequences." my voice had died down by now, "We didn't know."

"He's telling the truth," said a familiar voice that I could recognize anywhere. Rhythm stepped forwards out of the mesh of players, his black cloak billowing around him, his two handed sword still in his hands. "I was with him on the first day, him and Daniel fought each other in a duel not understanding the death penalties."

"You're the one who helped him escape two weeks ago. You're the guy who was at the memorial stone with that shorter girl," said Red accusingly, although her voice contained none of the harsh anger it did when she would accuse me.

"Very good. It's true, it's all true," said Rhythm mockingly, repeating what Ricochet had said to me earlier. "You two are just so good at this being on top of everything skill." Red clearly did not like to be compared with me, and she became rather flustered. I personally found the whole situation quite amusing.

Red heard my half-contained laughter however, and rounded on me again. "That might explain your first murder, but you clearly have no excuse for your second. You received an orange player marker. That's proof enough that you're a murderer."

"I didn't have a choice! It was either him or Chris. You know, that young kid who'd been hanging around me that day." Red didn't look convinced. "He'd already killed a player in front of my eyes. He was the cold-blooded murderer not me."

"But they're all dead now, aren't they? No one left to deny your story. Very convenient." Red was grasping at straws now, and it was becoming incredibly irritating. Why was she so stubborn in trying to criminalize me?

As I was pondering this, another player stepped out of the midst. "I can't deny anything, bus I can certainly vouch for the truth of my amigo's story." Martin stood proudly as he faced Red and defended me. He winked at me from behind his curly black locks. Friends like these were truly worth dying for.

Red was now looking more and more unsure with the current proceedings. "I've never seen you before in my life, what do you mean you can vouch for him."

"The reason you've never seen me is that my good amigo over here let Chris and me use his only teleportation crystals so we could escape Dark Blade. Just for your information, this was after Dark Blade had already murdered Jarvis and his attempted assault on Chris."

Red looked utterly defeated. "You were innocent this whole time," she said softly. I nodded morosely. "Why didn't you just say something?"

I blinked, unsure if she was joking or not. When it became clear that she was not, and was in fact utterly serious I lost control of my highly strung emotions.

"Because you wouldn't fucking listen! I tried once and all I got was a dagger to my throat."

She was rendered speechless and I was left with a guilty feeling of satisfaction. It was not very respectable to lose of your anger like that, but after everything I had been forced to go through because of this meddling girl I could not help but feel slightly satisfied at her defeat.

She muttered quietly something I couldn't hear. "Pardon? I missed that," I said.

"I said I'm sorry! OK!" she cried out, before she broke into tears and sprinted out of the room. Everyone left in the boss arena was deathly silent.

"Well," said Ricochet breaking the uncomfortable silence, "You handled that brilliantly."

"Just shut up," I responded bitterly. Even if it was Red, I felt terrible that I had reduced a girl to tears. Any man in the world should feel ashamed if he's been the cause of a girl's tears, no matter the circumstances. It was just one of those primal instincts that were hard to ignore.

Deciding that I wanted nothing more than to leave this battlefield I turned away from the watching players and walked towards the staircase at the end of the room. Lily gripped my wrist as she followed along with me and I felt myself relaxing in her presence. Hopefully I would be able to find somewhere on the second floor where we would be able to live. Perhaps there'd be a nice city somewhere.

I stopped when I realized a serious problem had been left unresolved. "The wanted posters," I said to the watching players, "everyone knows exactly what I look like, even without the orange player marker, don't they?"

I heard a few murmured agreements in the crowd and sighed when I realized that there was no easy way around this. I was probably the first criminalized player to have a wanted poster. My avatar name "Sirius" had become slang for criminal players. No one was about to forget me anytime soon.

Even when I looked at the crowd of forty players, 27 of which directly owed me for saving their lives, I realized there was little they could do. The posters had already been released and a few dozen players proclaiming I was innocent was hardly going to do much to change public opinion.

I sighed, finally reaching a conclusion. "I don't expect you to go out and preach that I'm innocent. I'm smart enough to know that won't solve anything." There were a few more murmured agreements. I turned around to stare directly at the crowd of players that Ricochet had rounded up for the fight today, his 'Builders' as he called them. "However, I hope that none of you dare start any more slanderous gossip about me. I think you owe me that much."

I began walking up the stairs oblivious to the silence and wide eyes that remained behind me. I had only taken several steps when I heard a voice shout out of the crowd.

"What the hell is this? After all the hard work we went through to beat the boss, we're just going to let him go? You all saw him get the last hit reward. He doesn't deserve it at all!"

I didn't even bother responding. I was sick and tired of people vilifying me behind my back. I just wanted to leave and be away from everyone and everything. I was pleasantly surprised however when Ricochet defended me.

"Let it be Villias."

Villias rounded on Ricochet. "Why are you, of all people, sticking up for him? He's not a Builder, he's just a low life Serious player. He wasn't even part of our team."

Ricochets voice hardened like steel. "He was always part of our team Villias. Why else do you think my party only had five players in it, one less then the maximum?" He paused, and then raised his voice so I could clearly hear his next statement. "I never doubted for an instant that Sirius, the most serious of players, would fail to come to our aid."

I left the room with a smile on my face. Ricochet might not have been the most direct person to deal with, and his intentions may often be hidden from view, and he may be a manipulative little bitch sometimes, but he knew how to lead an army. An army was built on trust, not on strength, and Ricochet had just proved that he trusted his subordinates.

I supposed that Ricochet was incredibly fortunate I had run into Lily, else I never would have found the motivation to help prove his faith.

And hey hey, 20 chapters and we've cleared the first floor. Hope it was a good experience for you readers. The rest of the story should transpire a bit faster, but don't expect any crazy rushes.

Also, thanks to "Blinded in a Bolthole" for his continuous support. It's incredible how much having someone to bounce your opinions on chapters off of helps. There's more than one though, so thankyou to all my other reviewers so far. Every word means a fortune to me.

Happy New Years Eve everyone, I hope the next year will be as good as this year was for you! Also, try and go crazy tonight

Cheers

-Council