Ch. 2 Reaper

(Thank you everyone for reviewing, as thanks, I'm giving you guys chapter 2. Keep it up Please.)

-Murloc_Rampage's Office-

Murloc_Rampage finishes typing that author note before noticing his door open. The same man from before barges into the room and places a piece of paper in front of Murloc_Rampage.

Murloc_Rampage looks at it, "What's that?"

The man puts his hands on the desk, "It's reviews from your readers, there are 9 of them."

Murloc looks at the paper, "You know, two or three of these don't really... count... right?"

The man laughs, "Don't try to back out now, you dug your own grave."

Murloc shots him a glare, "At least I get reviews, unlike you Mister RuiTheEvilVampire."

The man flinches for a moment before yelling, "I did my best!"

Murloc laughs, "You were shit. You made crappy Adventure time Fanfics, and, you took them down months later. You were ashamed of your own work."

The man flares up, "Fuck you! You needed me to exist in the first place. If it wasn't for my existence, you would never be the writer you are today."

Murloc gives him a blank stare, "You're wrong. I never needed you, the only thing I needed was to replace you. Your stories were boring, bland, and even when you created your 'masterpiece', it was so out of touch, you couldn't even explain it. Hah, I pity you."

The man punched the desk, "You bastard, The United War story was great! You even stole Jason from it!"

Murloc raised a finger, "Wrong, I merely used his name, your Jason is nothing more than a little bitch."

The man smirked, "Then what about Cray? You blatantly stole him from my fanfic. An older brother stronger than everyone else, someone extremely overprotective. You're a thief."

Murloc laughed, "Kiss my ass retard, I only use what's available to me. Maybe I did take him from you, but you should be honored, your character actually means something now."

The man stood up straight, "I created the basis, the idea, you took it for granted, I only wanted to be great... I was young..."

Murloc smiled, "Then you gave up, and grew into me."

The man frowned, "You changed our name, making your own, took down almost everything I wrote... except Life's a Journey... Then ended up becoming successful by writing Pokemon stories..."

Murloc stared at him, "Yes. You're a nobody now. No one remembers you, no one cares about you. Now I exist, me, Murloc_Rampage. Now get out, you're fired."

{Cray's Point of View}

-1 month since the game launched-

I sat next to Rui's hospital bed. The nerve gear is still on his head, blocking vision to his face and hair. I took a day off to visit him, to my surprise, so did my parents. My mother is too busy crying into my father's shoulder over the incident. My father, on the other hand, is frowning angrily at the nerve gear.

He grunted, "I still can't believe a little toy can do this to so many people."

I hung my head, "Yeah..."

My father shook his head, "You should have known this could happen."

I looked at him, "I don't work in that part of the company. I'm only an executive, a low ranking one at that."

My dad sighed, "Can't they just... turn them off?"

I shook my head no, "If it were that easy, then we would have done it day one. If we try, the person will automatically die."

My father shook his head, "There has to be something."

I got up and rubbed the helmet, "There is a way. The players need to beat the game."

My mom stopped crying for a moment to look at me, "It's been a month, and, the news said they haven't cleared the first floor yet. 5000 people are dead Cray!"

I looked at Rui sadly, "I know that mom... who do you think is being blamed right now? I'm attacked everywhere I go... except here..."

My mother sniffled, "I'm just so scared for him. He could end up like this for years, or worse, die. He'll never marry, or have children. Cray... how will our family's bloodline continue if you're infertile?"

I frowned, sitting down, "I... I don't know."

My mother cried into her husband's shoulder, "We're both only children, no relatives except distant cousins, what do we do now?"

I held my head, "I don't know!"

My father hugged my mother, "Let's go home honey. We have work in the morning."

I heard my mother sniffle, "Okay."

They left the room, allowing me to be alone as the heartbeat monitor kept a steady pace. I sat back, sighing in sadness, and stared at the ceiling. The door to Rui's room opened as a women came in.

I looked at her, "Gaia... what are you doing here?"

Gaia is my boss, a 23 year old, Asian woman with long black hair and brown eyes. She's very physically fit, being a black belt in karate, but there was always something off with her. She has A cup breasts but wide, firm hips with slightly tanned skin. She wore a blue tuxedo/skirt with black high heels. Her footsteps rang throughout the room.

She smiled, wearing ruby colored lipstick, "I heard the conversation between you and your parents."

I looked at her, "Yeah, so what?"

She looked at me, smirking a bit, "Well... I know someone who would be happy to marry your cute little brother."

I glared at her, "Is this about us breaking up?"

Gaia snickered, "No. Why would it be?"

I took a deep breathe to calm down, "Gaia, this isn't funny."

Gaia laughed, "I'm not joking."

I watched her rub a hand along Rui's arm before leaning down, "I bet he was really cute. I looked at his school grades, straight A's. He must have been something."

I got up angrily, "Get out!"

Gaia stood up, "Fine, I'll leave."

I watched her walk away before saying, "Never come back in this room."

Gaia shrugged, "Sorry Cray, I'm might end up talking to your parents. I'm sure they'll be happy such a respectable, independent woman would kindly marry their soon to be deceased son."

I clenched my hands into fists, "You better not!"

Gaia laughed, "Or what!? It's their decision, not yours. We'll see what happens in the coming months."

When the door closed shut, I kicked my chair in anger before punching a wall. I already felt guilty about getting my younger brother stuck inside a death game. Now I have to deal with this? God... what next!?

{Rui's Point of View}

-April 17th, 2041-

[Status of the game so far]

Top Player of the Chapter: TheImmortalEevee

Gender: Male

Age: 15 years old

Level: 26

Class: Pokemon Spiritualist

Spirit Pokemon: Eeveelutions

Weapon: N/A

Skills: 5

Guild: The Almighty Eevees

Guild Leader: TheImmortalEevee

Quests Completed: 132

Players Left in the game: 2.57 million

Players that have died: 5,896

Floor Bosses defeated: 0

I woke up in my new room, staring at the ceiling groggily. My hud finally came up, revealing my health/exp bars, name, and level. I'm level 18 now, and it's been a month since the game started. Carly helped me get invited into a large amount of quests. My leveling surprised her, she's only level 14, despite being on all these quests with me. Since I was often the strongest now, I always took point and did everything I could to protect my teammates.

I swung my legs to help sit up along the edge of my bed, "Yaaaawn! Ugh... let's see how the knuckleheads are doing..."

I pulled up my menu, riffling through it to access my friends list. I saw Carly first, she was fine, sleeping since it says inaccessible. I saw that Jay is level 10 now, with Anthony level 9 and Derek level 12. It surprised me a bit to see Derek at that level but I felt relieved. They're progressing nicely, while I'm doing everything I can.

Carly's status changed to active with a message from her popping up, "Yaawn, morning."

I smiled a bit, "It's funny that you always message me in the morning."

Carly yawned again, "Huh? Yeah... so what? It's not like I like you or anything."

I chuckled a bit, "Of course not. You just like having me as a bodyguard."

Carly's voice suddenly changed to excited, "Oh! That reminds me. We have a convoy mission today!"

I was confused, "Convoy?"

From her voice, I could tell she was grinning, "The top players need a large amount of supplies. Two players have agreed to bring them the stuff but need guards. I have Klink and Gary willing to join too."

I was a little surprised, "What's the payout?"

Carly sounded too excited, "5000 gold each!"

I crossed my arms, frowning, "No exp?"

Carly sounded like she was pouting, "Hey, gold is good too. You should know that, considering I bought you a new sword to replace the broken one."

I snickered a bit, "You mean that piece of junk that I threw away once I got a better one."

She gasped, "You threw away my gift!"

I stopped snickering and smiled, "Of course not. I still have it in my inventory, besides, I'd never toss a gift from one of my friends."

Carly stopped talking but I heard a knock on my door. I raised a brow before closing the menu to go open the door. When I did, Carly tackled me to the ground like she normally does nowadays.

"Oopaaaahhhh!" She yelled, giggling like an idiot.

I started the annoying process of pushing her off, "Carly, get off of me!"

Carly grinned, "You say that every day Rui!"

I frowned angrily, "That's because you always tackle me! If the city wasn't a safe zone, that'd hurt like hell!"

Carly pouted, "It's not my fault, my class gives me a lot of strength."

I rolled my eyes, "I'm kind of hungry, let's grab some breakfast before the quest starts."

Carly jumped off me, running around in a circle happily, "Oooppppaaaahhhh! Breakfast! Zoooooommmmm!"

She ran out of my room, pretending to be an airplane as my eye twitch, "...Is she like... 5 or what?" I asked aloud.

The Opah is her way of yelling her excitement, it's pretty cute at times. One of her favorite town dresses, involves her dressing as a Neko. I... I really don't know why but she just does. With a happy chuckle, I got up and left the room to catch up with her.

-Later That Day-

Breakfast went well... considering the countless guys hitting on Carly for dressing as a blue furred Neko. I didn't care what the guys did, Carly was strong enough to toss them 30 meters with one arm. Trust me, no one is going to strong arm this chick. While she fought off her fans, I checked my style skills and saw my one handed sword style reached rank 1 with a couple hours on the bar. I now can block and attack a bit faster with a regeneration of 40 hp/s. With my leveling skill tree, I'm able to regenerate 80 hp/s for my 2570 hp. I wonder if that's enough for the front lines yet...

Carly interrupted my thoughts, "Rui, you ready to go?"

I looked up to see Carly happily twisting the arm of a man behind his back, "Uh, sure, but let your prey go. Don't be a bad kitty." I teased.

She allowed the guy to run off before changing into her combat gear, "I'm never bad, I merely teach these guys to back off."

I laughed, "Yeah, you sure do."

She smiled at me, "Like my new armor?"

I looked to see it was a black leather covering her chest with metal clads to cover her stomach, back and shoulders. A leather strap wrapped at an angle around her waist with a schoolgirl skirt.

"It's cute." I admitted.

Carly grinned happily before jumping, "Opah!"

I smiled at her, "Why do you always yell that when you're happy?"

Carly leaned over, grinning at me, "It's a habit of mine."

I looked at the buildings, "Does it mean anything?"

Carly brought a finger to her lips, before snapping, "Nope!" she giggled.

I rolled my eyes, "You're a screwball."

Carly pouted, "I am not!"

I shook my head, looking up, "Let's just focus on the quest."

Carly quickly agreed, running ahead to make me keep up with her. The meeting point is outside the northern entrance to the city. Gary and Klink weren't very happy but it wasn't because of us. Like many of the other players, they're tired of the game. The food is terrible and money is hard to come by without quests. Right now, no one's cooking level is higher than 3. Not only that, but the best food up for purchase, is of the lowest grade. My cooking level is 0 so... I'd set my room on fire.

Gary looked at me, "Murloc... you're that high already? Why haven't you left to join the top players?"

I looked at Carly as she ran over to Klink in order to greet him, "Well... I have friends that need me around."

Gary snickered, "Carly would be fine without you."

I shook my head, "It's not Carly that I'm worried about. I have three real life friends stuck in the game as well."

Gary crossed his arms, "You're not training with them?"

I looked up at the higher floors, "I don't want them to rely on me to succeed. If they develop on their own, they benefit on a much greater scale."

Gary thought to himself for a moment before nodding, "You're doing what you think is best for them. Then let me ask this, what if you die? How would they feel never knowing how?"

I looked down frowning, "In all honesty... I think it'd motivate them more."

Gary raised a brow, "What do you mean? They wouldn't be your friends if they don't care about you."

I smiled, feeling a breeze wash over me, "No, it's because they care that they'll become better. They'll want to survive in order to remember my sacrifice."

Gary was about to continue but Klink got our attention, "We're leaving now you two. Come on, if you don't want to be left behind."

Gary and I shrugged, quickly following the convoy. The two players carrying the load are both female, level 5, merchant class players. The two of them both have long black hair with one having extremely dark skin, and the other is clearly Asian. The dark skinned girl is about 5 feet tall, about 16 years of age, B cup breasts, wore a brown tunic, heels, and had a bow with arrows on her back. The Asian girl stood at 4 foot 7, about 14 years of age, A cup breasts, and wore a white button up shirt, skirt, black leggings, sandals, and had a dagger on her left hip.

I walked closer to them, "I didn't know this game had a merchant class."

The dark skinned one smiled at me, "It's a special class only available to players with a high bargaining skill. It allows us to gain exp from trades, selling items, and paying other players for their services."

The Asian one smiled at me, "It makes us vulnerable to battle though, that's why we need you four."

I was intrigued, "So you two decided it was best to be merchants to help players instead of fighting."

The dark skinned one nodded, "I was a terrible archer, so I was happy to learn about the merchant class change."

I tilted my head, "How'd you learn to change classes?"

She looked around at the grassy field we were walking through, "I talked to a merchant NPC and he said he could make me a merchant. I needed a Bargaining skill of 25 to allow it, however, you can only change classes once."

The Asian one chimed in, "There are also sub classes!"

I flinched, "Subclasses?"

The Asian nodded, the smile never leaving her lips, "Yep, every class has a few to choose from and all of them can be unlocked. The only problem, no one knows how yet."

I thought to myself, 'Subclasses... I'll need to keep my ears open for more information on that.'

The dark skinned one asked, "What's your name?"

I pointed at my health bar, "Murloc_Rampage." I answered.

She shook her head, "I meant your real name."

I rolled my eyes, smiling, "Of course you did. Just call me Rui."

The dark skinned one said, "My name's Destiny."

The Asian one chimed, "I'm Lei."

I nodded, "Destiny, Lei. I'll be sure to remember your names."

I sent them both friend requests, quickly gaining a response. With them both on my list, I smiled, thinking about how opportunistic I'm being. Merchant friends could prove to be useful in the future. A high bargaining skill allows them to purchase items at a discount. If I'm kind, maybe they'll purchase items for me, saving me a bit of gold.

Carly walked over to me, elbowing my side, "Well, aren't you a player. You're collecting girlfriends like pokemon."

I blushed hard, "We're only friends!"

Carly busted out laughing, "Hahahaha! I was only teasing you!"

Suddenly the convoy stopped as Gary and Klink glared ahead. I looked past them to see one player standing in our way. He stood at 5 foot 9, wearing a black cloak, covering his entire body. His left hand is revealed, holding a black and red scythe, the bottom of its handle stood on the ground with the blade pointing towards the player. A black mask covered his face, shielding it from the light. His name and level are ? with a filled green health bar.

Gary called out to him, "Who are you and what do you want!?"

He tilted his head slightly, walking towards us while twirling the scythe around one finger. He didn't answer Gary's question as he approved us with open hostility.

Carly and I got in front of Gary, "I'll take him on first, we need to see what he's capable of."

The man stopped as the black mask began to crack, forming a strange mouth, "Crescent Moon Strike."

Suddenly the entire world became dark with a large Crescent Moon about us. In a blink, the man swiped his Scythe, cutting Gary's head off first. I felt everything begin to slow down as I realized Gary is about to die. I've never seen a player die and it was so easy for this player.

"Gary!" I yelled.

Before it could hit the ground, the man caught his head by the hair.

"XYZ conversion." The man muttered, invading Gary's head and body with a black aura.

As Gary's body exploded from his heakth hitting zero, a ball of light appeared and began circling the man. The merchant girls looked terrified, but I found myself able to move again. Without hesitation, I ran in and started clashing with his Scythe. I tried hitting him into a combo but missed the jump slash as he jumped around me. I watched his movements, watching as he caught me with the blade of his Scythe. I was helpless as he began to twist his body, picking me up, then slamming me onto the ground with a quick spin. My health dropped to 7% from just that attack. Even though it was fake, I felt my heart stop. As I looked up at him, a pure red crystal appeared over his head with a kill count of 1000 players.

My eyes widened, "You're a murderer!"

He knelt down, "No. I'm a Grim Reaper. I am merely freeing you tormented souls from suffering in this game."

I glared at him, "You're insane."

He started laughing, "Think what you will."

Carly yelled, "Get away from him!"

The man looked at her, "Oh? A girl standing up for a boy, how cute."

Carly flinched, readily holding up her weapon for defense. While Reaper was distracted, I opened my menu to grab a health potion. Reaper looked Carly over, analyzing her.

Reaper sighed, "Looks like you're both clean. You have nothing to worry about. I don't feel like killing good players today."

Carly flinched, "What do you mean?"

Reaper looked at Klink, "I am only interested in Players who have been involved with player killings, both directly and indirectly."

Carly looked confused, "How do you know who's been involved?"

Reaper glanced at her, "I'm a Fear Reaper. My murder detection ability can detect a player who's either tricked a player towards death, or harmed one. Even if a player hides until their orange crystal is gone, I can still see their kill count."

Klink yelled, "Even so, how do you know if it is in self defense or not!?"

Reaper laughed, "It's quite simple. In this game, players who were attacked first have the right to protect themselves without turning orange, even if the enemy dies."

Carly looked at our merchants before looking back at him, "What about the merchants?"

Reaper looked at them, "They're safe. I just need to kill that guy."

I got up, pointing my sword at him, "Please don't."

Reaper looked at me, "You've got some balls to point that sword at me."

I frowned, "Everyone makes mistakes, it's up to us to make amends. I'm sure Klink will never do it again. He's a good person."

Reaper snickered, "You bore me."

With a swing of his Scythe, I was knocked unconscious.

-1 Hour later-

When I woke up, I found myself at 15% health. My head was pounding as I slowly got up and looked around. Everyone was gone... except Carly. I quickly stumbled over to her and found Carly laying on the ground. She stared up at the sky, looking lost and... her legs were gone. Her health bar dropped by 10 every second with it at 3% now.

She looked at me blankly, "Rui..?"

I pulled out a health potion and tried to give it to her but it didn't work. Severed limbs nullify all health potions. The only way to save her, is to get her back to town. I don't have a teleport crystal to do that!

Carly opened up her menu and gave me a trade request, "T... take my teleport crystal."

My eyes widened, "No! You need to get back and heal! I'll be fine! You know that!"

Carly shook her head, "No... it's better this way. I failed them... Klink and the merchants. He killed them because of me. He left me here to die as punishment but spared you. I'm... grateful for that. You know... you were my best friend... right?"

I forced the crystal into her hand, crying, "Carly, for God's sake, just use the damn teleportation crystal."

Carly looked at me, "I have a question, don't worry, it won't hurt but... when I watch you train, I noticed you do it effortlessly. It's as if you do it out of habit. So cold and calculating, you never enjoyed it. So why did you do it?"

I made her grip the crystal, crying into her stomach, "I do it for my friends, to keep you all safe.. Carly, if you die then it'll be for nothing! Please... just use the crystal."

Carly rubbed my head, "You were always my best friend Rui."

I saw her life gauge get closer to 0 and started squeezing her hand, begging her to save herself. She... she didn't. She let herself die and I felt her hand disappear along with her body. All that was left of her, was her loot. I picked it up, staring at the loot in shock before screaming my erratic sobs into the sky. How could she just die?

(Thank you so much guys for the support. I just had to give you guys another chapter as a reward. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as well. Please review, favorite and follow to help support the story.)