Link Start: Danger In Virtual Worlds

Chapter 11: The Seal Of Orichalcos

Date: Days 311-326

Let me get what I can out of the way first before I get into what Laughing Coffin further did and how we handled them. I will only talk about the final 3 scenarios for RCT3. Interestingly, they appeared across the 28th, 29th, and 30th floors respectively. One per floor instead of all of them ending up on the same exact floor. Tiger Forest, Raiders of the Lost Coaster, and Saxon Farm. Tiger Forest is a failed golf course with a lot of grass and some nice scenery that's to become a nice theme park. The golf course is the only thing that's built. Crazy Golf 1. The debt is brutal. To beat the park, I had to repay the loan/debt, get the total monthly ride income up to 1,000, profit up to 1,000 from selling pandas, and having 2 coasters of a minimum excitement of 6 and one of 5. I was meant to build at least 3 roller coasters obviously. It was pretty challenging to work through but I did beat it in the end. Raiders of the Lost Coaster is an ancient and once lost structure constructed by a civilization of expert coaster creators known as the Wardleys. That explains the John Wardley cheat. It was discovered by Mayor Smythe as well who appeared at each level of the objectives. That structure was actually a solid set of wooden coasters in a grassy and somewhat wooded area with a ravine or something. Rickety Racers Blue and Red are the names given to the 2 coasters. Mayor Smythe wanted to visit 2-4 coasters with an excitement of at least 5. With the 2 coasters present, that would make that easy but I was determined to not take advantage of them. I built 4 coasters from scratch. Minimum park value also had to be raised and 18 panthers had to be released into the wild. Finally, Saxon Farm is a really nice and open charming farm that's been sold to the player by its former owners who have chosen to move.

It starts you out with a couple of stalls but that's it. Again, minimum park value was an objective on each tier. But the others were a little more difficult. They eventually led to me needing total monthly incomes of 2,800 col from viewing galleries and 2,200 col from rides. More on Saxon Farm later. Back to what was going on in the ToB. "Damn it, you're right, Kirito! Laughing Coffin is here. They must be taking advantage of the festival by creating so much mayhem and terror that players are forced to leave the safe zone that the ToB is in, leading them to being killed by other Laughing Coffin members out in the open!" But I was wrong. They didn't need to get players out of the safe zone to kill. Because the safe zone suddenly disappeared. We could feel it vanish. That's also when we heard the first person scream in pain. I run towards them and confront the Laughing Coffin member who was just about to murder them: "You stay away from this low level player. They did nothing to you." The LC member laughs: "But where's the fun in listening to you?! If you don't get out of my way, I'll just kill you first! Actually, on second thought. Swiftdrawer! I challenge you to a sword duel! If I win, your soul is forfeit and I kill the other player! If you win, my soul is forfeit and you can kill my body if you wish to!" "What the hell is going on?!" "Our leader has obtained a new power and shared it with all of us. With it in our possession, the Assault Team will soon fall! We didn't just come here to kill useless and weak players like the shrimp you're protecting. We came here to get all of you as well! Once the Assault Team is gone, there will be no escape for any players left unless they join us! After a few floors of boss fights, we'll kill all remaining players who have chosen to not join us or refuse to kill other players despite joining us!"

"I accept your challenge. Damn it. I don't know what this new power you speak of is other than it takes souls. Wait.. It can't be.. Has he gotten his hands on the Seal Of Orichalcos?" My opponent doesn't answer me. Instead, the duel starts only for the Seal Of Orichalcos to appear in the sky before coming down until it seals us in with its ancient magic. "Hahahaha! Swiftdrawer! Prepare to become an empty shell who can be used to do our bidding! Your soul will soon belong to POH! If he doesn't want it, he'll let Subtilizer enjoy it until he can get his hands on Alice's soul!" "I refuse to lost to you! And I won't let myself be consumed by my own darkness either! While inside the Seal, any negative emotions we feel are amplified and drawn it by the magic within the Seal. I will stay focused on my goal which is to win and put an end to you so that you cannot harm another player ever again." "How valiant of you! I expected nothing less from a naive knight like yourself!" "You think I'm naive? I've seen, done, and experienced a lot of things. The scar that's split in two by my right eye should tell you some of what I've been through. If you think your words insult me, you're mistaken. I've dealt with far worse trash talk and mockery than this." We then come at each other with our best skills. If my STR matched my full strength in my undead body, I would have one shot my opponent in the blink of an eye. Instead of that, it took some time to beat the enemy because it turns out they're a pretty decent swordsman at least in this game. Their hp goes to 0, I win the fight, and their soul is taken by the Orichalcos. I sigh: "It's too bad that this had to happen. *turns to the player I saved* Hey, are you okay?" They shakily nod: "I am but I'm so scared.. What if more of them come to kill me?!" "Relax. Take a deep breath. Go hide in Tolbana. It should still be safe there as the festival isn't happening there too. Use the teleport gate to get to it. Run as fast as you can to the teleport gate, it's probably surrounded on all sides by intense fights."

"..Okay! Thank you.. You're a hero!" They leave and I say: "A hero, huh? I'm not exactly looking to be a hero. I just want to do what I think is right and help put an end to misery, bigotry, and oppression wherever I go. I guess that really does make me a hero. I've long begrudgingly accepted that. It's been so long since I have at this point. I never expected to play hero like this when I was a kid. I thought I would become Gofast, a hero of red whose outfit would be similar to Seto Kaiba's. A hero with superpowers, an ender sword, and more. Turns out that I ended up meeting a version of Gofast who was a monster posing as a hero after I found myself becoming a knight of the people, sworn to protect the innocent and the multiverse. Weird how that works out. Anyway. I should get moving before anyone else gets hurt due to my not getting to them in time." I run around town, looking for anyone in grave danger because of the Laughing Coffin members. But all of our foes are currently engaged in duels with souls on the line already with some of my fellow clearers. Instead of engaging one of them, I spot a band of various individuals who range from friendly to downright chaotic evil or menacing. Inspector Haga is amongst them with his yellow bug glasses, teal hair, blue eyes, light skin, short stature, green jacket, red bow tie, and white shirt thing. "Hehehehe! Looks like someone found us out already!" Death Gun speaks: "Swiftdrawer, we meet again. But today is going to be our last meeting because I'm going to kill you myself. There is nothing you can do now. Even if you teleport away, we will find you without any effort." All of them have the Seal on their foreheads. Dinosaur Ryuzaki is Haga's partner in crime. He has a green jacket, yellow shirt, light skin, a red beanie, tan pants, blue-violet eyes, and long spiky brown hair with dyed purple strands above his forehead. Ryuzaki snaps: "Can it, Death Gun! Haga has a much older grunge against that knight than you do!"

Haga nods: "That's right! I was defeated by this loser 5 years ago in a duel! But nevermind Swiftdrawer, where's Yugi and the Pharaoh?! Once I find them, I'm going to make them pay for everything! Oh and that third rate Jounochi too! I'll get them yet but killing you first will be a nice hard and chewy appetizer for my bugs, Swiftdrawer! Hahahahahahahaha!" Raphael speaks: "I wouldn't let these fools get their hands on Swiftdrawer. They were barely useful to Dartsu so what makes this time any different?" He has a black sleeveless shirt underneath a large full body coat with padded shoulders and belt sleeves with fingerless gloves, tan skin, large muscles, raised blonde hair that points upwards with a couple of bangs in front of his ears. Valon has typical biker clothing with goggles, gloves, and shoulder pads, brown hair that sticks out with pointy ends in all directions, large muscles, tan skin, and light blue eyes. He adds: "Yeah, you can't trust them to get anything done. They have never once successfully taken a soul. Our old master only took them in to use them as pawns. It's funny, we're now traitors to the BRAINS Collective. Now, we're with you guys. Amelda speaks: "Swiftdrawer, if you tell us where Kirito, Yugi, the Pharaoh, Sinon, Jounochi, Seto Kaiba, and anyone closest to them are, we'll happily spare your soul for now." He has shoulder pads, an open full body coat, a crop top, fingerless gloves with studded knuckles, gray eyes, light skin, and pretty long red hair. I reply: "Even if I knew where any of them were at the moment, there is no way I'd tell you." Death Gun speaks: "Then we have ourselves a little problem. If you do not tell us, I won't hesitate to kill you by shooting you in the head right now." Kirito comes charging in from elsewhere: "Leave Swiftdrawer alone! Your fight is with me, Death Gun!" "Kirito. You're here. Very well. I will kill you first and then, Sinon will be next." "Like hell that will ever happen!"

As Kirito leads Death Gun away, I stare at the others: mostly the 3 who aren't complete fools. "Why? Why did you betray BRAINS by siding with them? And did you have to expose the secret that BRAINS is to them?" Raphael replies: "The Orichalcos is too powerful to pass up using again. You and I have fought together a few times. But now, we are on opposing sides and I wouldn't hesitate to kill you. But because time is short, our new master is impatient, and I seek the Pharaoh's soul, Haga and Ryuzaki should be enough to handle you for now. I'll begin looking for the Pharaoh now. I have an idea of where he is right now. And because of that, I see no reason to kill you yet." Amelda speaks: "Are we just going to leave those two to deal with Swiftdrawer?!" "I see no reason to be worried. We have a certain benefactor who has boosted their skills in dueling." Ryuzaki and Haga activate their Chaos Duel Disks: "Swiftdrawer, duel us and prepare to lose your soul!" Valon says: "Amelda, Raphael, let's get out of here and leave them to it." "*unison* Right." The 3 leap away. "I'll go after those 3 later. For now, I get to deal with you two. I accept your challenge." "*unison* Let's duel!" "Since you challenged me, I'll go first. It's a good thing I chose to create new cards for myself before getting trapped in this damn death game. Let me show you what they do. I set the Pendulum scale with scale 1 Abstract Artist Zebova and scale 12 Horror Artist Smiling Knife. With them in play, I can now Pendulum scale these 3 monsters! Come forth, Horror Artist Dream Eater, Ice Carving Artist Icebane, and Comedy Artist Stitches The Hilarious Prankster! But they won't be around for long. For you see, I need to use them to create something very artistic."

I pause before continuing: "I will now activate Zebova's Pendulum effect. By sending them to my graveyard, I can add one level 10 or higher Artist monster from my deck to my hand with at least 2500 attack points. I choose one very specific. And now, I send all 3 of my monster comrades to the graveyard to special summon! There is no need for the powers of darkness, nightmares, chaos, comedy, or abstract when this artist steps into battle. Witness the emergence of an artist who represents my very soul. Just this individual could be enough to bring those who oppose me in this game to the ground in defeat. Allow me to introduce this masterpiece! Raise your sword and paintbrush into battle: Stoic Knight Of Infinite Imagination(ATK: 4000, DEF: 0)! With this knight in play, you won't be able to easily defeat me! This knight doesn't just protect the innocent, they also defend the very concept of artistry! With that, I end my turn." "No fair! You're using something I've never heard of before! My turn! Ryuzaki, you better not mess up on your turn! I draw! I summon Pinch Hopper!" The duel continues on with both of my foes using their usual moves. However, Ryuzaki ends up Xyz summoning Numbers 19: Freezadon and 61: Volcasarus. Haga summons Number 4: Infection Buzz King. I was forced to summon Regnes and ended up narrowly defeating the two. They were cocky despite being much tougher to beat than ever before. So they didn't even activate the Seal or cheat to gain an advantage. Thus, they were merely humiliated and crying on the ground after I won. "Swiftdrawer! This isn't over! We'll get you next time! Just you wait! We will! We will!" They run off only to bump right into POH who feels different somehow but I can't put my finger on why. POH speaks: "You two have failed. Your souls should have been forfeit for failing. Looks like I'll have to do things myself."

He coldly kills the both of them before turning to me: "You'll live for now, Swiftdrawer. I don't have any interest in killing you right now. I'm more interested in watching as all of you clearers suffer as you all die one by one to my pawns. If Death Gun fails to kill Kirito, I will kill him myself when the time comes. But remember. This is just the beginning. Your previous enemies are weaklings compared to my pawns and I. Any Laughing Coffin member who has already perished was worthless to me." He teleports away just like that. I sigh: "Damn it. I better go help out the others." But when I look for my comrades, I don't see any fighting as if it's all just stopped out of nowhere. Kirito and the others catch up to me. We exchange stories of fighting Laughing Coffin and POH's new pawns who previously were Doma members years ago. Heathcliff calls for a meeting of the Assault Team to happen that night after the festival is cleaned up, fixed, and resumed. It was hard to transition back to a festive spirit after everything that just happened. But that's what Pinkie Pie's play was for. It was performed in the Central Plaza: in between the entrance to the Origin Plains and the ToB Teleport Gate more specifically. Twilight presented the play: "Welcome to the first Aincrad Hearth's Warming Play. Today, we will tell the story of how Equestria was founded on friendship, trust, respect, and love for all pony kind." What got her and the others in the play in the mood to perform again after all that stuff was Pinkie Pie and her antics playing Equestrian festive tunes on a device made of many instruments. Yes, Pinkie is maxed out in the music skill and thus sometimes mentors Yuna who wants to become a better musician. And so, the play is performed. By the end of it, so many players are in high spirits again, temporarily forgetting about the new threat we face from familiar enemies and former comrades alike. We do all sorts of things afterwards like decorate cookies. I don't decorate cookies all pretty and stuff. It's more chaotic when I do it.

So when we decorated cookies, I made them as chaotic as possible. I have a reputation to uphold after all. But as the sun begins to sell the festival ends with a huge feast featuring foods from various worlds. Quirky Miitopian foods, playful Equestrian sweets, classic Christmas dishes and treats, Minecraftian cakes, pumpkin pies, and cookies, RCT3 international foods, and more. Once it was over, Heathcliff called the Assault Team meeting which was held in Tolbana to order. We went over what happened today and what to do now. We decided that it would be best to unlock the 28th Floor's teleport gate tomorrow. We needed to rest after all. That and we all began training harder in what we could do to fight our foes new and old. With that settled, it was clear that it wouldn't be long before they would strike again. The next day, we went up to the 28th Floor as planned. Every so often, someone would be attacked by the enemy and one or more of us would intervene and end up getting into an intense fight. But even so, we lost 50 players through such attacks and it stung quite a bit. With the ToB's safe zone down, it was no longer safe for low level players to stay there so they were all moved across the lower floors of Aincrad to safe areas that still had their safe zones intact including Twisted Land where some additional hidden bases had been constructed before we got trapped in this death game. There's so much space under the surface of it that I will never use for anything after all so it was no biggie. The 28th Floor Boss battle of course happened in Tiger Forest. The 29th in Raiders Of The Lost Coaster and the 30th in Saxon Farm. Most of the really major stuff happened after I beat Saxon Farm so now, I'm going to focus on that. "Hmm, so this is the last scenario I need to complete. As long as the party I'm in has at least one member help clear each thing required to beat this death game, nothing will need to be done again. We're doing so far so good on that front. Anyway. I really need to figure out what to do. I should begin by making an enclosure and all that. I only have 10,000 col to start with so investing in a large built from scratch coaster isn't a good idea yet."

And so, I decide to build an enclosure with lions in it. I place 8 of them in and follow up by building the correct animal habitat and working to make sure the environment of the enclosure was perfect for them. Once I was satisfied, I left the zookeeper to handle things for me. I spent a lot of money already on that so I next chose to build some more stalls as well as install some flat rides and build some viewing galleries to allow the peeps to see the lions. I set the initial price for admission into the gallery to 3 per guest. That should work as a good starting point. With the flat rides installed, I did what I always do with flat rides. I up the admission price to the max that I can based on their individual excitement ratings. "I will check on you rides to see if you are too expensive for the peeps later." And then, I hit play on the game and watched as a lot of peeps walked in and got to exploring the beginnings of my park. With the loan interest so high, I knew I had to be very patient when it came to making enough profit to add more. I hired a janitor and mechanic before fully training them as well as the zookeeper. With that done, I figured out it would only take just over 3 in game years for me to pay the full value of my loan in interest without actually paying it back. That wasn't good and pressured me to work hard to better the park. I made the right call in the decisions I had made thus far though. My hope was that I would still get a pretty high monthly income even with the loan interest. It's clear that I was determined to make this work even with everything standing in my way. I placed down more viewing galleries on the other sides of the lion enclosure in an attempt to make more money. I charged 3 per admission for viewing the lions through them too. But then, I remembered a very profitable attraction: the Giant Slide. Thus, I checked the ride menu to see if I could build it. To my disappointment, it was not available. And with 200 a month going to research more stuff, that made things a little harder.

But I at least adjusted the research priorities to not focus on scenery, other rides and attractions, paths, or transport rides at all. That helped a lot. And so, the grueling task of beating the scenario was now in full swing. I hoped that I would eventually get the Giant Slide. I never did so I was forced to focus on hoping for other things instead such as the Reverse Freefall Coaster being unlocked as I have a saved design that has extremely high excitement as well as intensity and about a 6 on the rating that can make peeps puke. It's a cheaper way to get a highly exciting coaster in at a price tag of around 3,000 col but it only has one car that can hold 4 riders at most. The short duration of the coaster helps a lot with wait times. The hours passed as I worked tirelessly to complete the scenario. But then, I finally beat it. When I did, I got the usual: "Congratulations! You are a true tycoon! A new coaster design is available." menu. At the same time, so many balloons the peeps are holding get released into the air as they briefly cheer and a little bit of music plays. But then, something else happened. It's like RCT3 itself wanted to say kind things to me. A surge of visitors suddenly flooded my park, increasing attendance to several thousand. I was forced to quickly expand the pathways just in time for the 30th Floor Boss to spawn in the middle of them. I contacted whoever I could the fastest and they themselves spread word. However, the boss suddenly stopped attacking the peeps when the rest of the Assault Team managed to come over to the park. Kirito yells: "Why isn't it moving?! Lisbeth replies: "I don't have a good feeling about this at all." I nod: "This isn't normal. Not even PAMA, Romeo, or Heathcliff have frozen a floor boss in its tracks." That's when a familiar laugh is heard. Bowling appears as a projected image in the sky: "Hello, Assault Team! I see you're all together now! Perfect! This is just perfect! Allow me to introduce myself. I want immortality and the destruction of all mudfleshes as well as anyone still alive who was responsible for my death several years ago at the Lost Academia. I'm Bowling and now that POH is my puppet, your little group is done for!"

Gelina demands: "What have you done, Bowling?!" "Ah! It's you, Gelina! I remember you well! I took POH's soul and turned him into my puppet. Through him, I control the entirety of Laughing Coffin without having to put in much effort. You are just in time to meet my latest minion." The 30th Floor Boss begins to move again but it now has the Orichalcos symbol on its forehead as well as a couple new weapons. "Hahaha! The Floor Boss is now mine! PAMA, you aren't the only one in possession of a Floor Boss now! But that's not all! Those of you who opposed me several years ago may notice something a little different about the Orichalcos. It's not green now. It's purple! And now that it is, the true power of it can now be unleashed in this world someday. But not today, I'm going to save it when I really need it to kill someone who is truly in the way of my plans! Oh and one more thing before I go. Make that two things! I'm going through a different personality than I started out with for reasons even I don't know. The other is that if this boss can't kill you, my pawns will do it for me instead! Good luck because I highly doubt any of you will be able to make it out of this alive!" And just like that, the ex-Doma members as well as Laughing Coffin members jump in and ambush us before we even knew what was really going on around us. I shout: "Damn it! They have us completely outplayed. Clever bastards." And so, one hell of a bloodbath begins. There's so many Laughing Coffin members. But how? I then see a member I knew I killed in the past. "Are most of these people zombies brought back to life through necromancy? If so, this is worse than we thought.." I try to kill that member I saw to no avail. They laugh at me: "What's wrong?! Can't kill me?! Aww, how sad! The pathetic knight can't kill me." "No need to rub it in. I know that you're a zombie now. Quit messing around. I know how scary zombies are supposed to be but I'm not that scared at the moment. I'm choosing to work towards keeping myself calm in this situation." "Damn it! I thought I could mess with your head!"

"*thrust* You thought wrong. You may be undead and thus, hard to destroy but that doesn't mean I will give up." We continue to fight each other. Sparks fly as our weapons clash over and over again. It took me summoning an object with a Sacred Art to make an opening for myself to attack. This causes a critical hit, knocking my foe to the ground in the process. "I'm not done! You're a zombie just like I am in my physical body. Therefore, I must reduce you to chunks of stuff on the ground in order to move onto a friend of yours who is even more dangerous than you are now that you're a zombie. Haaaaaaa!" I keep attacking until they finally become nothing more than meat that cannot move on its own even while undead. One foe silenced. Many more to go. As the boss began to cause problems as well, we were all trapped between a rock and a hard place. After all, if you weren't fighting the boss, you were now most likely fighting a different enemy, defending someone else, dying, healing, aiming, or being healed. Yugi yells: "Everyone! We can't give up no matter what happens!" He's dressed in armor similar to Silent Swordsman's. And so, things just kept getting worse despite our best efforts. It's like all of our foes got a lot stronger thanks to the influence of the Orichalcos. "Damn it! Damn it! I keep bringing down foe after foe but that's not doing much of anything! What the hell are we supposed to do in a situation like this? It's like all of the Laughing Coffin members who have previously been killed have been revived as zombies with their memories and everything intact.." I swing, thrust, and slash with all my might. The bodies pile up as I keep on slicing and dicing fallen enemies to make sure they stay dead.

We are being worn down as more and more of us get hurt by mostly the 30th Floor Boss. PAMA states: "That's it. I won't hold back anymore. I was hoping to save this as a surprise for our enemies later but it looks like I don't have a choice. We are on Day 325 of this game and that's 325 more reasons I need to do this." Its worth mentioning that many strategies to speed up the clearing of floors began to come into play as time as passed. Some of those are even being used to reduce the damage our comrades are taking. PAMA begins taking on the 30th Floor Boss head on with the help of Romeo, Heathcliff, and others. Seeing this, I resolve to fight even harder. Kizmel shouts: "Elves! Don't hold back anymore! Our friends need our help!" The GGO tutorial character shouts: "It's about time I show these enemy dune beetles just what I can really do!" Arrows, gunfire, and more become louder. POH is floating above the battle while watching emotionlessly. He was practically probably saying something about how he wasn't expecting us to fight back so hard. Once I finally begin to have to stop due to the depletion of my sp in place of my muscles, I state: "If I can't fight with my sword anymore, there's only one or two options that don't require muscle pain." I pull out a gun that focuses on control shots rather than precise shots. The difference is that a control shot focuses on efficient firing with a quick aim while the precise shot is basically just what the bullet of a sniper does when fired. It's another gun I created in case I couldn't use sword skills or anything like that anymore. With its help, I start delivering intense head shots to zombie after zombie. This only knocks them down unless I unload bullet after bullet on one after another until they are turned to paste before shattering like any other creature who dies in the death game. "How do you like this?! Bowling, you underestimated us because you spent too long planning instead of observing!"

He hears me and replies: "Why you! How could I have known you and the others had gotten this good at fighting?! You have far exceeded my expectations! That just means I have to take further control over this battle myself. 30th Floor Boss, hear my call and allow me to enter your mind in order to direct your every movement!" And now, Bowling has directly taken control of the Floor Boss. The combination of terrifying stats and hp with Bowling's intellect is fatal. Several players are killed instantly. Those who were already fighting the boss head on are stunned only to regain their composure to try harder to fight. But I couldn't focus on what they were doing for long because I had some stubborn Laughing Coffin zombies to put down for a second time. I run out of bullets after a couple more minutes. "Crap. I have to change things up again. I can't use another gun in this situation. But.." I then decide to fly into the air as we are still inside of the RCT3 park. Now that I'm in the air, I begin placing down death coaster after death coaster from a distance. "You bastards! I'm going to send you flying with these coasters now that I have enough money to afford to put them in this park!" I watch from above after I put the coasters in test mode as the trains all launched right for the zombie LC members. Many of them were sent flying, some were even torn apart by the force of the explosions. But then, I realized that this was too dangerous of a thing to keep doing with all the fellow clearers out there fighting nearby. That's when I came up with a lot more "Wild" idea. I "closed" off an area in the park not with enclosure fencing but with scenery fencing. And in that area, I spawned in a whole bunch of lions. Immediately after I did that, I could hear the distinct sound of a helicopter. Using RCT3's notifications bar, I get into the CoasterCam of that helicopter. Now, I could shoot tranquilizer darts. But this wasn't the first time I used them to help fight enemies in this death game so I knew that I wouldn't miss a shot even if someone tried to interrupt me.

Thus, with the helicopter circling above one of the lions, I began to aim with the scope and prepare the fire. The lions weren't my targets. Nor were the peeps who make for great target practice because the darts do nothing to them. Instead, I aimed at the zombie LC members. They may be undead but they still have human brains. RCT3's darts can put a lion to sleep in just one hit as well as not talk about distracting things for some reason but still put the sleeping animals in crates instantly for some reason anyway. So with that in mind, the zombie LC members did not stand a chance against the power of the darts no matter how loud and annoying some of us clearers were around them. Yes, I am venting a little bit about hearing dialogue that's distracting me a little from writing this through this clever means. Moving on, they dropped asleep like flies. They simply could not resist the power of the tranquilizer darts. This allowed the others to put them back in their graves by destroying their bodies until they shattered. I stay up high in the air and managed to knock out POH in the same exact way too despite the fact he's still in the air for some reason. I watched him fall to the ground after he fell asleep. And then, I set my sights on the damn boss being controlled by Bowling. "Now for you. Time for you to fall asleep for good." But before I begin firing darts at it, I get another idea: "Hold on. Let me try this first. Would the game count a Floor Boss as a scenery item or whatever if I were to do into RCT3's delete mode?" So that's exactly what I do. I hop off the helicopter and begin trying it out from the far distance I am from the boss itself. It doesn't exactly work as I wanted it to. But it still did something. I deleted all of the boss's limbs and got a lot of col.

"Now this is what I'm talking about." But, it easily regenerates the limbs and gets back up so I begin firing dart after dart at the boss after returning to the helicopter that is currently accompanied by a small fleet of identical looking ones. "Let's see how long you can hold out against this!" I literally skydive from the helicopter while still firing with the weapon. When I hit the ground, I only have 1 hp left and I'm a bloody mess but I didn't care. "Now I can really get in on the action and be able to fire more accurately!" Bowling's voice is heard: "You! You are such a large part of why my Life Stealers and I were destroyed! I will get my revenge on you first now! This floor boss will crush you and anyone who tries to defend you!" Someone throws some regeneration potions on me to restore my health to full: "Whoever did that, thank you so much for your help. With that done, I will now show everyone what a tranquilizer gun from RCT3 can really do." I join in on the coordinated attacks on the boss. Bowling exclaims as I begin firing the darts again after recovering from the fall with some help: "What are you doing?! A tranquilizer gun won't be able to defeat this boss or do anything to it for that matter! Stop trying to use it against it! Even I can't stand seeing you try that even though I want to watch you die at my hands!" "I'm just taking advantage of RCT3's mechanics. That's all. Gotta use all the tools you can when the stakes and danger get this incredibly high." At first, the darts don't seem to be doing anything. My comrades and I keep having to defend or evade all kinds of cleverly executed attacks by the Bowling controlled 30th Floor Boss. And how did I defend? With the gun of course. Since it's from RCT3, it has no durability and is basically an immortal object.

You aren't supposed to be able to take it out of the helicopter but thanks to the death game, that became possible. I also provided support by playing decoy and all that kind of stuff. Bowling was not pleased by this and tried to get the boss to attack harder just to get me and the others responsible for his downfall so long ago. Pito laughs: "Swiftdrawer! You're nuts!" "Does it matter? My abstract thinking is doing something. Hey, Kirito! Behind you! Don't worry, I'll block the damage from you!" I block the damage just as I said I would. Yusei shouts: "Hold the line! Don't give up! We can do this! We can win even if our enemy is controlling this monster!" Romin adds: "Yeah and I'm making my curry after this! Wait.. Why don't I just use my leftovers for some fun?!" She uses her curry to create explosions that deal some damage to the boss we're fighting. Every single clearer is now focused on the boss. Everyone is performing their roles as planned except for me and a few other wild cards. Heathcliff shouts: "Keep your positions! Don't let Bowling get the boss to move an inch!" Minecraft villagers and others start digging a trench around the boss after I give everyone full permissions to modify the park as they see fit. I had never done so before so I knew it was going to change things. All kinds of wild things soon ended up happening. A swimming pool was built right underneath the boss who couldn't swim at all. As a result, the boss was now trapped in a RCT3 swimming pool. Bowling huffs: "That's it! I'm giving up on controlling the boss! I'll just let you waste your time on that boss and kill all of you when it's over! Why would I tell you all of this? Because you can't stop me!" His physical body vanishes from view, clearly having no plans to bother us again until the boss dies. Is he really that incompetent? You don't say what you're going to do after you retreat for now. I didn't buy what he was putting down for a second.

Thus, I said: "Bowling must be planning to kill all of us with a huge spell or something. There's no way he'd just pull what he just pulled without having some kind of sinister stunt planned. I know him." Gelina nods: "You're right. He never did anything like this back when he was trying to become immortal back in Minecraftia." Bowling reappears and claps: "Very good. You figured me out. In fact.. *vaporizes swimming pool* I was just bluffing to buy some time to cast a spell that would free the boss. And now, I'm going to control it and kill all of you with it! Not only that but I will even put some of my very power into it in case it's not strong enough with its current stats." His physical body moves far away as he begins to intensify the boss battle to new heights. But still, I chose to persist with the tranquilizer gun in my hands. With it, I just started firing dart after dart with an easy rapid fire trigger. The number of darts is infinite so I had no need to worry about the darts themselves. As a result, it didn't take long for me to really light up the boss with darts. In a few minutes, almost every square inch of it was covered in them but it still stood standing. Bercouli sighs: "Damn this boss is stubborn. But what if Bowling is the reason why it hasn't even shut its eyes even once yet? Now that would be something." Llenn exclaims: "Then we just have to hunt down his body and kill him!" Bowling laughs: "You won't find my body. You don't even know where to start looking." But then, the boss begins to look tired from physical exhaustion as well as the effects of the practically over 1000 darts that I had shot into its body. Bowling screams: "What is this?! The boss is falling asleep! No! And I was this close to not just getting my revenge.. I was also this close to silencing some fools who dare to defile the good name of JK Rowling!"

Argo raises an eyebrow: "Her? According to information I obtained from reliable sources, she is not a good person. No, she makes info brokers like me seem trustworthy enough to share your entire life story and all of your secrets with. She has been obsessed with transgender individuals in a hateful manner and supports the far right's attempts to get rid of them. How do I know this? The reliable sources come from other timelines where she not only exists but she actively says and does things that hurt trans people. That is unacceptable. She's not much better than the members of Laughing Coffin." Bowling growls: "You dare insult her! She is where I got my name from! I changed the R to a B in order to make my name synonymous with a popular sport and pastime! My real name has been long forgotten by me!" I reply: "Wait, what? You never sounded this ridiculous back then. You must have had a serious personality change or something go on." "Comment all you like but by the time this day is over, all of you will be dead. I will kill each and every one of you clearers until there are none of you left to lead the other players into possibly escaping from this game." Pito coos: "Aww! You really think you'll be able to pull that off?! It's too bad we won't let it happen! Swiftdrawer, put that damn boss to sleep already!" "I was working on that. But it's time to put my full effort into doing this at last." With that stated, I start firing several times faster and try increasing the speed of my shots until my fingers start to hurt a little bit which almost never happens anymore due to my STR in game and superhuman strength in my undead body. It doesn't take long for the boss to fall asleep. Bowling's magic was not strong enough to keep it awake forever. Now that the boss was sleeping, I stated: "Everyone, stack up the dps. Meanwhile, I will keep firing these darts to make sure it stays asleep until it is defeated and this floor is cleared as a result." It only took another 20 minutes to kill the boss as I kept it pinned in sleep state the entire time.

It shatters, a victory message is displayed, and the rewards drop. Bowling appears in his physical body again. He glares: "All of you are effectively useless mudfleshes. I will exterminate all of you and ensure the rest of your filthy kind never live to see the day when I alone escape this place and go on to rule over everything after obtaining immortality. And this one spell will be enough to do the job. Say your prayers or whatever it is you freaks do with your unimportant and pathetic lives." He begins to recite the spell under his breath. However, he should have seen us all coming. Pito laughs: "Are you that bad at realizing your situation?! Let me make it clear to you! You're surrounded by thousands of players who could collectively obliterate you in under a second! Hahahaha! I love these odds!" Eva nods: "What she said. You really don't know what you're doing, pal. So why don't we just show you what we mean." Someone yells: "We're Aincrad!" That catches on: "WE'RE AINCRAD!" All of us are now chanting it. Bowling smirks: "You fell for it again. You don't need to worry about activating the teleport gate that can take you to the 31st Floor. I already activated it because I have a surprise for you on the other side!" But again, he lies as he finishes casting the spell before anyone could hit him. None of us die. Instead, we're all teleported to an underground and dim location. Kirito startles: "Is Bowling some kind of master of trickery?! No way, this is the underground labyrinth underneath the Town of Beginnings! Why didn't he kill us instead?!" Mr. Heartland appears: "Hi there, clearers. It's been a long time since we've seen each other. Now let me fill you in on a little reward for clearing the 30th Floor. Bowling was kind enough to save the trouble by just teleporting all of you here! If you don't handle the surprise within a 30 minute time limit, something will happen to all of you that you won't like!"

He points to a suddenly appearing portal that displays a miserable world. "If you can't get it done within the time limit, all of you will be banished to that place to live long and constantly difficult and painful lives for the rest of your lives! If you look closely, you may be able to spot a few familiar faces there right now!" I look closely and grit my teeth: "Bray, Agil, Klein, everyone.. They're alive? But how?" Mr. Heartland clears his throat: "I should also mention that you will respawn as many times as needed as long as the timer is on. But if you die even just once, you will be sent there even if you manage to take good care of the surprise and beat the challenge as a result of doing so. Happy gaming, everyone! If you don't play smart here, you're all doomed to lives of torture, hard labor, pain, and misery! Have fun and don't die!" And just like that, he vanishes into thin air. Sinon speaks: "I do not like the sound of that 'surprise' Heartland was talking about." Dr. Faker nods: "That's a perfectly reasonable statement to make. Whenever he said something like that, it always meant trouble whether he said it while under my employment or during his original time with Don Thousand before he was defeated in a duel." We hear the roar of a large monster. Yui exclaims: "I recognize that sound.. It's the labyrinth boss! Mommy and daddy risked their lives to fight it as well as save me from being deleted by the Cardinal System!" The 30 minute timer begins when the boss gets in view: The Fatal Scythe. Kirito shouts: "Damn it! I just remembered! This boss must be as powerful as the 90th Floor Boss.. That's what I determined last time.." I gulp: "I forgot I watched you deduce that through the anime depicting your journey to my universe. This is bad. Really bad. How in the hell are we supposed to win in 30 minutes? I don't think the tranquilizer gun will be able to make this boss fall asleep for a while.."

It doesn't take long for it to start attacking us from the shadows of the labyrinth. There's no safe zone down here even though there used to be one in SAO. It's gone now. This is an emergency. Bowling appears as a magical hologram: "I give you this boss! Now, you will be killed by it! That's not the same as me exterminating you myself but it's close enough for all purposes." I soon figured out trying to shoot it with the gun I was holding was pointless. So I dropped my gun and drew my sword in order to receive it at any moment and attack. My sp is back to 100%. It's true I can still fight with it at 0% but the muscle fatigue is worse than outside of the game. A lot worse in fact at this point. "Haaaaaa! We need to focus on our defenses and only strike when it strikes. That's the only way we'll have any chance." This is bad. So many clearers were severely injured or killed in the last fight. That means, we have a lot of hurt and/or dying players who are unable to fight much if at all. Yuna starts singing, granting us all a buff as long as she keeps singing. This buff increased our STR and AGI stats temporarily. It's just like in Ordinal Scale. We all feel quite a bit better due to this. Sinon yells: "Some people have to protect Yuna! We can't afford to lose her!" The GGO tutorial character nods: "Listen here, worms. I'm going to help defend her against that giant dune beetle that's always attacking out of nowhere. I need some of you to help me pull that off." M and Liten end up joining her in protecting Yuna. But that wasn't the only twist. The PI speaks: "Now that all of the parks have been cleared, I can now do something I have been preparing to do for some time." I reply as we keep on dodging and retaliating against all of the hard hits being unleashed by The Fatal Scythe: "What is it? What do you have in mind?" "It won't take much longer. Just a few more minutes." "Alright, I will watch your back. But hurry as fast as you can. We need whatever you have planned to come into fruition sooner rather than later."

A painful several minutes passes by. That's when the PI brings in a huge number of RCT3 peeps. Each of them is unfazed as their right eye balls explode due to a violation of Code 871. They march forward and join the battle. They aren't very smart when it comes to fighting. However, they are treating the boss as a ride. "I want to go on The Fatal Scythe!" "I can't wait for The Fatal Scythe!" "The Fatal Scythe looks too intense for me." "The Fatal Scythe is really good value." "I want to ride something more exciting than The Fatal Scythe." I stare at the PI: "What did you do?" "The Cardinal System itself was a huge help as was Cardinal herself." Cardinal gives a small smile: "Changing small things in the system is what I do best." Now, The Fatal Scythe is occupied with the peeps trying to ride it to no avail. But then think the rejection is also part of the ride so they keep on trying to get on. This makes the boss angrier and angrier as it can no longer use the shadows to attack any of us much less attack at all. Thanks to all of them, we are able to start bringing down the boss's hp steadily. That was until the peeps were knocked back extremely far. The Fatal Scythe was now furious and went on a rampage to try to kill all of us as soon as possible. I sigh: "Damn it, we should have known that that wouldn't work forever. Oh well. We must do what must be done." I equip my shield into my left hand while keeping my sword in my right. I join in on the frontal assaults made every single time the boss attacks someone. When someone gets hurt, they are dragged away before they could die. But everything was for naught as the 30 minute timer went out before we could even really start defeating our foe. Heartland appears: "Oh no! Looks like all of you lost the game! Better luck never! Enjoy your new home in that other dimension!" PAMA replies: "I will not allow that to happen."

Romeo nods: "I'm going to create a game of my own that will counter what you're trying to do to us. It will far outclass it even so I suggest you give it up and leave us alone." Heartland pretends to look offended: "You think that your words will be enough to save you from your fate? Don't be foolish. That's not how it's going to work. In 20 seconds, you will all be teleported to that dreadful place and never ever return from there." Randomly, the version of Marley from Kings Island's What The Dickens appears: "Did someone say dreadful place? Don't you mean Six Flags?" Sinon shakes her head: "This is serious. Why does there have to be so many humorous things being said today?" Marley literally sees himself out right as someone yells: "Let's prevent the system from sending us away from Aincrad." Due to a whole bunch of reckless actions, we all somehow manage to make the game lag so bad with help from a flood of additional RCT3 peeps that the teleportation of all of us completely fails, leading to the plot that had it success as it's end point ending up being a failure. Now that is some serious disappointment. Heartland doesn't look sad. Instead, he just grins: "So that didn't work. But that means you all still have to deal with The Fatal Scythe!" Eva says: "Maybe we could have it deal with you first." "Excuse me?! What did you just say?!" "You heard me. Throw him at that boss, ladies." The other SHINC members do just that. They restrain the villain with ease and throw him at The Fatal Scythe. As he dies and his body dissipates, he says: "This isn't the end of me! I will return someday and when I do, all of you will regret ever crossing me!" His death distracted the boss long enough for some of us to be able to heal or deal critical hits. It took a couple of hours and all remaining recovery items but we managed to overcome The Fatal Scythe. Bowling laughs: "I'm so impressed you managed to lose no one against that boss! But know this! If we ever meet again, not a single one of you will last long!"

A few minutes later, we all suddenly get teleported. I yawn: "I feel so tired. I need sleep. It's the early morning of Day 326 now. We have no recovery items, a lot of tired and/or hurt players, and some bodies that need to be buried." But as I look at our surroundings, my exhaustion gets overpowered for now by alarm. That's when I hear some intense boss music and the sounds of a scythe cutting through the air. I see a house and a store as well. I yell: "Everyone! Start moving and don't let the red things touch you! If they touch you, you will die instantly!" The music changes to hyper disaster music. Eva asks as we start dodging: "Where exactly are we?" "Im trying to stay calm right now so give me a moment. ..This must be the 31st floor. The scenery sure looks like something from Aincrad. But this isn't the 31st Floor as it was in New Aincrad or SAO. We are in a map for a Roblox game. ..Welcome to the Robloxian floors. The game we are in is called Survive The Disasters 2. If we aren't careful, a lot of us will die very quickly. *the scythe sound gets faster as well as some magic attacks* We are in grave danger. I hope everyone is getting the information I'm sharing. We are dealing with a hyper disaster: the Hyper Grim Reaper boss. Everyone, aim for its head! If we do enough dps, we can kill it before the disaster time ends before an intermission followed by another disaster." We managed to kill the Reaper extremely quickly. However, as soon as the boss died, another hyper boss appeared. The Hyper Black Mage. "Damn it! Watch out for fireballs, regeneration ability, and poisonous gas!" The Hyper Black Mage didn't come alone. Yulier, one of Thinker's friends shouts: "Wait, is that the 31st Floor Boss too?!" Kirito looks worried: "No.. We haven't even really explored this floor yet!" Bowling appears and laughs: "Behold. My revenge! Enjoy losing everyone who is still alive in this game! Hahahahaha!"

And with that, he vanishes. It's a good thing we're all still wearing those facial masks to protect against poisonous gas. Otherwise, we'd be in even more trouble than we actually are. This is partially because of the impact of that illness stuff that ended up happening. I yell: "Aim for the Hyper Black Mage's head too! The sooner that boss is defeated, the better!" We end splitting into 2 groups. One handles the 31st Floor Boss while the other handles the Hyper Black Mage. Because I have experience fighting bosses in Survive The Disasters 2, I ended up going with the 2nd group and proceeded to shoot the mage's head over and over again. The boss soon dissipated but not without dealing a lot of damage. I was down to half my health despite my armor. We managed to avoid any fatalities but things were not looking good for us. It was obvious that something needed to change and quickly. However, another hyper disaster followed the damn mage. I heard them and yell as loud as I could: "Everyone! Get in the center of this area! Spike walls are closing on all sides really quickly! If you touch any part of the walls, even the non spiky parts, you'll die instantly!" This causes a mad rush to the center but with one unintended complication. The 31st Floor Boss chased after those who were fighting it to the center. And the spike walls had no effect on the Floor Boss. But something tragic happened. Heathcliff was unable to get to the center in time and touched the spike wall. I was convinced that the instant kill effect still applied to immortal objects.

However, he survived but with only one hp left. Kirito shouts: "Heathcliff!" "It seems we underestimated this game within a game. I am fine, Kirito. All that matters is that I'm still alive." I sigh: "That was too close but damn it. Now we have to fight the boss together and face whatever disaster is next." We don't even get a countdown or a showing of what's next. All we see is the spike walls vanish and something else appear below us. Ai exclaims: "Using the Cyberse, I have been looking up this game! Oh glitch! This is Don't Press The Button! Please don't press it!" I add: "This disaster is deadly. If someone triggers the button, most of the map will be enveloped in a red laser thing that will instantly kill anyone and anything it touches except for immortal objects apparently." I myself personally make sure no one triggers it as the 31st Floor Boss continues to try to kill us all. We were so not ready for boss after boss after boss after boss. And how could we have been? The next disaster was Slenderman which was made obvious by the sounds as well as the dark fog.. I yell: "Crap! Look down! Slenderman is around! Stare at him and you will die instantly! This game is hell even paired with a death game!" It was very difficult to handle a floor boss and Slenderman at the same time. We managed it but it wasn't easy. In fact, I should have died to an attack sent my way by the floor boss. My hp meter started dropping to 0. But I didn't want to die. "Damn it. I won't let this be the end of me. Screw this game, I want to keep living in this chaotic virtual world!" Suddenly, a window for a unique skill appeared in my vision. It's called Knight's Endurance. I pressed the check mark when asked to activate it. When I did, my hp suddenly went up to 100% and I felt stronger and faster than ever before in this game. "I'm not done yet. Witness my unwillingness to die again! My unique skill saved me. Now it's time to get serious!"

To be continued..