Chapter 93 - The Hunt Begins
'Damn it!' Rogue thought to herself. Frustrated, she closed the messaging window.
'Now she is in here too. And I bet anything she made her character to be that white hair punk girl dressed in black of her human reaper form,' she muzzled getting out of her options menu. Seeing the table she was sitting at with her beverage, she took a drink of it.
'If she just recently created her character prior to Surreality shutting down...that would me she is at the beginning...Stratnum if I remember that town correctly.'
'It will take her a while to get where I am at...even if she happens to inherit her reaper powers,' the thief thought. Putting her drink down, she crossed her arms over her chest.
'Juan and his team is trapped in Hell looking for Jin...the bad side is that Juan knows what Jin looks like as well as his friends.'
'Lamia and all the other female demons are hunting for Jin...wait,' Renee stated thinking hard about her conversation with the water serpent. 'Lamia never said his name...she just mentioned the name Breaker and friend.'
'Then she left just when Selbith logged in...did she mistake her for Jin?'
'Is it a coincidence?' she wondered feeling unsure about it. About to think further, there were silhouettes that were on the other side of the table. Blinking and looking up, she frowned. It was the two swordsmen again.
"Oh...it is you two. What do you want?"
"..." both answered with pulling a chair out and sitting themselves down. Looking at them, their injuries did not heal. They were still bandaged up with stains of red on them.
"...shouldn't you two use healing potions or a cure spell to fix that?" she asked looking a little odd at them.
"We will...we want to talk to you first," the left warrior said.
"Oh? You want to talk to me after trying to ambush and mug me? That's rich."
"Shut up," the right blade wielder remarked then cringed. The wound on the side of his torso stung greatly.
"What if I don't want to talk to either of you?"
"You know what is going on here don't you," the left swordsman stated in a calmer tone. "Being trapped here after Surreality collapsed, the message that administration sent...is it really just bugs in the programming?"
"..." Rogue answered relaxing her face; however, she kept herself ready in case they were going to attack her again.
"If you consider more than one virus in the system bugs...their statement is somewhat true."
"Are they doing this to us?" the other asked still wincing. Both saw her sigh through her nose then opened her menu. Doing quick movements, she closed out of the window. Two small vials of healing potions were placed on the table. Looking up at her, she gave them an impassive expression and held up her hand.
"Take it or leave it. I don't care," the thief stated. "To answer your question...I personally don't think they are making much of a dent in fixing the situation."
"..." the right male commented. Frowning a little, he took the vial and drank the contents. Within a couple of seconds, he glowed faintly green. When it faded, his face and body were not giving signs of being in much pain.
"What makes you say that?"
"They don't have control. So far from what it seems, they are fixing the alterations but not eradicating the viruses," she stated crossing her arms over her chest again.
"Hmm..." the swordsman on the left stated putting his forearms on the table. Putting his hands together, he had more of a curious face than one for attacking her.
"Just asking...have you seen female A.I.s walking around that not only seem alluring, but very interactive?"
"...what do you mean?" she asked giving him narrowed eyes.
"One of them came out of this pub with blue-green hair. There is a feed on the E.D.E. forum that labels her as the perky one."
"She was here, yes. I know her," Renee stated and saw both swordsmen blink in surprise. Instead of the stereotypical male response of asking about her, they looked at her with neutral faces. It was as if they were going to listen to what she was going to say regardless of what information she gave or not.
"What the heck is she?" the previously injured warrior asked. "She can't be a normal NPC or even an A.I. like the townspeople."
"Yes," the other agreed with a head nod. "We have seen her able to swoon males and females alike...but...if someone angers her, her presence becomes monstrous."
'I'm wasting time talking to these two when I should be trying to find where Jin is,' Rogue thought clenching her teeth together without changing her expression.
"Her name is Lamia. She is a water serpent demon," she began then tried to think of something to not cause both of them to panic. "...that escaped from Hell during Surreality."
"I knew it," the right swordsman stated with fists. "There is no way someone with devilish good looks would be walking around and harmlessly charming people left and right."
"..." the thief responded with a frown seeing the other male nod his head a couple of times. Deciding she needed to get going, she stood up.
"Anyways. Just be wary around her or any other "devilish" looking women you see. Most likely they are a devil in disguise," she stated and started to head toward the entrance. Both men stood up with the nearest one holding out his hand.
"Hold on..." he began.
In a blink, Rogue vanished. Hearing a door open at the exit, they turned around and saw her step outside. Grabbing hold of their swords, they rushed out. Once in the town courtyard, they saw the female teen heading toward the second island with the lake. Jogging to catch up, both slowed down to be a few feet behind her.
"Where are you going?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Given the terms and conditions that all players are in, we should form a team again. If we stick together and share information, we'll have a higher rate of survival," one of the warriors stated.
"HA!" Renee stated out loud and continued forward. "If I remember correctly when we were a team...my teammates kicked me out for no reason. Go find someone else."
"Hey! You were giving our group a bad reputation with your character being a thief. And you were weak during battles," the previously injured sword welder countered.
"Thanks for the clarification jerk-wad," she commented with a frown. "Stop following me."
"Listen bimbo. With us forming a team, you'll be-!?" he started to say then stopped abruptly. In a flash, a long knife's tip was touching his throat with the female teen glaring at him.
"I...said...go...find...someone...else," Rogue stated evenly.
Seeing the man raise his hands, he swallowed nervously. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he was pulled back gently. Looking at who was doing that, it was the other swordsman. When they were a couple of feet away, they stopped. The knife bearer stayed in the same position and only watched them with her eyes.
"Sorry...we are a bit desperate given the situation of not being able to log out and the realism enhancement playing E.D.E." the calmer one stated.
"..." Renee reacted with getting out of her offense stance. Bringing the blade back to her side, she held onto it.
"Can you at least tell us why you came here knowing that you'd be trapped?"
"...I'm looking for someone..." she stated then holstered her blade.
"You mean Dark Knight?" the sword bearer that had the knife at his throat asked.
"DK is trapped in Hell with his team...I am looking for a friend of mine."
"If you'd like, we'll help you out," the other stated firmly.
"..." Rogue reacted unconvinced. "...no thank you..."
"Oh come on!? Do you even know-"
"It's fine man. Let's go find a quest to do," he stated doing a mild punch to his partner's arm.
Looking back at the thief, he just gave a nod then turned around. Walking away, the other warrior rustled his hair in frustration and let out an annoyed sigh. Not even looking at her, he followed his teammate back to the town. Once they were a good distance away from her, she felt able to relax a little. Agitated from how they behaved and treated her, she continued toward the lake of the second island.
"...geez..." the monitor tech muttered to himself. Tracking down the female gunslinger character was proving to be challenging. With the quick vanishing movements, the character covered the ground from Stratnum to the first stage door in several seconds. Instead of waiting for the door to open, black flames engulfed her. When they dissipated, he veered back in surprise.
"...this has to be the same gamer..." he stated seeing the Grim Reaper hover and pass through the metal doors.
Bookmarking the footage time frame, he saw the avatar morph back to a human. Watching the gunslinger go through the first stage, it was effortless and quick. Reaching the boss stage and using the same transforming technique, something happened when the gunner was in the boss stage. From not opening the door, the program did not load the boss. Instead, a part of the half spherical room wall was missing.
"Rodger, you need to see this," the tech stated out loud while bookmarking the event. Hearing quick feet, the lead programmer was standing next to him.
"Using the Grim Reaper transformation and going through the boss level doors without opening them, it caused a glitch to occur. The boss isn't loading and part of the interior structure failed to load."
"Grim Reaper transformation?" Rodger repeated in surprise. "There is a skill available for players to do that?"
"Apparently."
"..." he commented and saw that the gunslinger stopped in the center of the room.
Turning toward the portion of the wall that was missing, the person stared at it. After a waiting several seconds, Selbith was consumed by dark fire. It caught the lead programmer by surprise when the blaze went away and a Grim Reaper was floating in the avatar's place. Both men watched it hover toward the missing space with anticipation. Expecting nothing to happen, the reaper went through it then disappeared.
"...!?" the two stated blinking a couple of times.
"...what just happened?" the monitor tech stated. At the same time, he began to zoom out to find the signature tracker placed on the avatar.
"Bookmark the time frame and send it over to John," the lead programmer stated then walked a few desks over. The coder was already bringing up a manuscript program to see what coding process took place.
"John. Bill will send you a time frame, gamer signatures, and location of the event that occurred. I want to know what exactly happened."
"Sure. What visually happened?" he asked adjusting his glasses.
"A gamer's avatar created a glitch in a boss level that caused a piece of the wall to be missing. It then transformed into a Grim Reaper and went through the space that was missing...and vanished."
"...uh...did the gamer log out per chance?" John asked looking at him. He saw the lead programmer shake his head.
"Got it...this sounds like it will be one hell of a mess...okay, I have received the email. I'll let you know what I find."
"Thanks," Rodger stated with a nod. Going back to the monitor tech, the amount of zoom he did increased to see almost all the stages and towns. From Stratnum to the Cross-Roads, there was no beacon.
'One hell of a mess is right...seems to be getting worse as time goes on,' he pondered in his mind.
"Hey Rodger, the hacker character is gone," another monitor tech stated a couple of spaces over. Sighing out loud, he walked over.
"Explain."
"Well, the tracker and profile that we kept to monitor are not available anymore. I tried typing in the character profile and the system gives me an error stating that no character of this caliber has been made or created.
"..." the lead programmer stated with pinching the bridge of his nose. "Bookmark the time and when the disappearance occurred. Send it over to Bill for him to see what happened. Continue monitoring your region as well as Bill's region."
"Copy."
Travelling through the psychedelic rift tunnel faster than if he just walked in, it seemed that he was going somewhere further away from where he was. Trying to recover from being nearly crushed, the pain was too much. Grinding his teeth to fight back groaning, he squinted his eyes forward. Seeing a faint blinding light, in a couple of seconds he smashed through it.
Feeling the environment changed, he hit the ground hard. Tumbling over and over for some yards, he skidded to a stop on what felt like cold damp dirt. Banged up, bruised, and bleeding, the sophomore just focused on breathing. Coughing and wincing, even taking in air hurt. Feeling warm liquid in his mouth, he turned his head to the left a little and spit.
Seeing blood shoot out, it made him feel not relieved. Blinking and lethargically looking around with his eyes, the atmosphere felt familiar. Seeing a gray mist in his peripheral vision, he struggled to look to his right. Reaching a point where his neck didn't protest, there were black dead trees everywhere. Resetting his head to look at the gloomy overcast sky, he had a fair idea where he was sent to.
'...I wonder if anything is broken...' Jin thought to himself.
Moving all his limbs a little, one of his legs did not respond. Lifting his head up and closing his eyes, he grunted loudly in pain. Coughing hard, blood sprayed out of his mouth. Clenching his teeth and continuing, he was able to move his arms to be prompt up from his elbows. Breathing fast and short quick breathes, the level of suffering increased. Forcing one of his eyes to open, he looked down at his legs.
At first, his left leg seemed to be intact despite being bruised and roughed up. Looking up to where his hip was, there seemed to be a budge at where his hip was. Spitting to the side another morsel of crimson, he was able to calm down his breathing pace a little. Looking for something to lean his back against, there was a dead tree some feet to his right. About to begin crawling, a thought crossed his mind.
'...I highly doubt I have any...' Jin thought opening up his menu screen.
Ignoring his profile that now had numbers when they had question marks before, he accessed his item inventory. Finding a strange amount of odds and ends, there was an outfit/armor that he never seen before. Shaking his head internally, there was one small healing potion. Selecting it, the menu screens closed. Having it in his hands, he uncorked it and drank it.
Finishing it and waiting a few seconds after the green glow, he felt a little better. Still in a good amount of agony, he felt he had some strength. Putting the vial away, he looked back at the tree. Giving a determined face, he started to crawl without moving his hips much. Each small motion of getting closer made him wince and cringe from the pins and needles stabbing him in various places.
Reaching the trunk, he slowly turned over. Without control of his left leg, it felt like heavy dead weight as he moved. Leaning his back on the tree and on his right side on the ground, he looked at his left hip. Seeing the budge, the male teen placed a hand on it and pushed down a little. Cringing from the inflammation that developed, he felt nauesous. All the demonic blood on him and his internal blood coming out made him want to puke.
"...how...do you...fix...a dislocation...again?" he muttered to himself breathing swallowly.
About to try and recall where he read about it, he heard movement. Voiding the train of thought, he scanned with his eyes. The sound of something liquid was moving and slithering nearby. Thinking about what this realm had, wildlife should be scarce to only a few kind of predators and prey. Hearing it move quickly, it seemed to be coming ahead to his left.
"..." Jin spoke trying to slow down his breathing and take deeper breaths.
Feeling a poke internally, he cover mouth and suppressed coughing. Removing his hand and feeling blood come up from his throat, it explained what else was damaged. Putting his hand back on the ground, he trained his sight on where the sounds was coming from. At the same time, he used both of them to pat the ground. Finding a thick tree branch with his right hand, it felt to have a rough pointed end. Keeping his sight forward to his left, he position himself to be ready to attack.
'...what the...' the male teen thought hearing nothing but silence. '...where...did...it go?'
The slithering stopped making him feel apprehensive of what was coming. Seeing something floating and hovering toward him, he felt his senses sharpen to get ready. After a couple of moments, the sophomore blinked in surprise. It was the silver orb. Nonchalantly, it hovered over to be in front of him.
'...it...followed me?' he wondered feeling nervous about it. '...it's Satan's creation...I think...he possibly sent it to keep track of me.'
"..." Jin reacted seeing the spherical being float down to his left hip. Landing on it, he blinked at it and tried to figure out what it was doing.
"...h-hey...uh...what are you-GGGGAAAAARRRRRR!?" he began than felt it push down on his hip hard. A loud cartilage and bone pops emitted from it that made him groaned loudly in pain. Breathing fast and shallow, he tried to get back. Stopping, he saw that his left leg was responding though tender. Moving it a little, it was working again.
"...y-you...you fixed...my leg?" the male teen asked in surprise.
Feeling one source of pain subsiding, the nervousness was still there. Watching the morphing weapon hover and move toward his chest, it stopped and remained completely still. About to say something, six thin tentacles shot out of it. Piercing through his mid torso, they were cold and grabbed something internal. Yelling in intense pain, he could feel the tentacles pulling on his lower rips.
Feeling something being released, his lungs suddenly were not able to contain air. Hyperventilating, his vision and mind started to blur. Feeling freezing liquid enter his lungs from the bottom of them, it woke him up only for a couple of moments. Unable to keep himself prompt up, he slid down the tree trunk. Laying down on the ground and staring at the sky, his vision had stopped from going any further than seeing tunnel vision.
"Hey! I heard some screaming over there! Come on!" someone shouted in the distance.
"..." Jin responded with just breathing swallow and slowly. Feeling the tentacles pull out of his body, he couldn't take the pain anymore. The last sight he saw before his eyes closed was the silver orb landing on his chest. Before drifting off to unconsciousness, he felt the icy sensation of it spreading all over his body before entering inside of him.
'...?' Selbith reacted after going through the void in the wall. Looking around herself, the dome shaped room was gone.
'...what...is this place?'
Still hovering in her GR form, there was darkness all around. Looking around for something, she saw a floating light not too far from her location. Hover toward it, an odd sensation continuously passed through her. It felt as if she were in a thick mist though there was no moisture. Seeing that bar meter for her GR form go down, she tried to go faster.
Reaching halfway, she did not have much time left. Feeling changing back to a mortal would be fatal in her current space, she tried to use "Fast Reactions" skill. Disappearing and re-appearing in front of the light, a black blaze started to surround her. Seeing that she went through the light before becoming engulfed, the atmosphere suddenly felt different. Realizing she was free falling, it ended abruptly. Not being able to see, her feet slipped and landed hard on what felt like gravel.
"..." she groaned from her backside getting the brunt of the fall. Feeling the flames go away, she slowly stood up. Rubbing her rear a little, she looked around to see a few people standing nearby. All of them were looking at her with bewilderment.
"Hmm..." an older gentleman commented. He was staring at her curiously while being near a panel with levers and buttons.
"Does this mean that the thing works now old man?" someone else asked.
"Don't know...I didn't know the gate was opened," the man stated looking at the controls for a second. He then turned to the person that spoke.
"Hell, we haven't sent anybody without knowing if this thing truly works or not."
"A gate?" the gunslinger repeated then turned around.
Examining the large ring structure, it had a combination of both metal, stone, gears, magic, gems, and pipes. Seeing Hell amulets, Ami recognized what this was. Turning around, she initially wanted to know how they got this. At the same time, she had no idea where she was other than being in a smaller sized town. However, there was something odd about the place. It seemed to be caught between two dark auras that was south and north of it.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"This is Darcol," the younger man stated and adjusted his hat. "A small trading post town...as you can probably guess, our location is not exactly ideal for much trading. Who might you be?"
"...I am Selbith...a gun wielder," the female teen answered. Hearing footsteps to her right, another older man approached. Wearing robes and carrying an old wood staff, Ami recognized the individual as a magic user. Tensing up, the wizard stopped and leaned the staff toward her direction.
"What brings you here...stranger?"
"...I am looking for someone...a friend..."
"Who is also a gunslinger as yourself...yes?"
"...yes..." she replied and turned toward him. "Do you happen to know where he is or where he might be?"
"The last time he came was...some time ago," he stated. Pulling the staff back, it was position back to being parallel with him.
"You mean the one that gave us all the rare items we needed to complete the build for our warp gate?" the younger man asked and saw the wizard nod.
"...I see...so he only passed through here?"
"Yes tainted gun-wielder," the older man stated with a neutral expression. Leaning the staff back toward Selbith, he glowed a rich blue.
"If finding your friend is all of your business here, then I will ask you to leave."
"Mage...what are you doing?" the other old man stated in surprise.
"You possess black magic...and your soul is tainted...I will ask you to leave again."
"...I have not done anything to you or this town...mortal..." she replied back narrowing her crimson iris eyes. "I can lay this establishment to waste if you truly wish to test me."
"She's a demon!?" one person commented and starting backing up. The only two people that did not move from their positions was the gunslinger and the wizard.
"Has the Underworld started creating hybrids by force breeding humans with Grim Reapers?" he asked.
"...maybe...there is no limit on what new creations can be made."
"That is true...there is no limit to what atrocities occur in Hell."
"Heed me mortal...I will not destroy you or this town...unless you help me activate this Charon's Portal."
"So it was a gateway to Hell."
"Fool...this came from the Underworld," Selbith corrected with a stern expression. "There are many placed throughout the realm and domains."
"You saying this was solely for travel?"
"Yes. The Underworld is not a world you can reach everywhere too...similar to this realm."
"..." the mage responded keeping the same glow and stance. "How does the gate work?"
"You set coordinates then feed it to charge."
"...show me demon..."he began to say when the gate turned lighted up.
Nothing moved and a red membrane filled the inner gap of the ring. The wizard was about to accuse Selbith when he saw the gunner leap forward. Stopping and turning around, she whipped out her firearm in one motion. Training the muzzle at the membrane, she suddenly started to glow green. The magic user hovered and quickly zipped to her side.
"What's coming tainted?" he spoke. Facing the same direction and concentrating on his magic casting, the membrane started to ripple from the middle outward.
"You think I know imbecile," she replied. Seeing the green glow converse to the end of the muzzle, a notification occurred stating that the charged shot was ready. Both felt something of immense demonic presence was coming from the Charon's Gate. Recognizing a fiery sense to the aura, Selbith gritted her teeth and glared at it.