《TypeOnline: Pariah》 Type Online - Pariah: Chapter 1 Type Online - Pariah Online: Chapter 1 Varnish. I only had a precious few seconds before the window to create my character was gone. I was joining a heavily populated server. That was my new name, I realized. Varnish. Great. I laughed, hearing it echo through my mind with my body completely unmoving. I tried to shift and adjust my body, but it didn''t budge. Uncomfortable, yeah, but I was determined to get used to it. The server connection bar filled to completion and accepted my choice of name. I had been trying to get onto this specific server for weeks. Lunar. It was probably the most popular of them all for Type Online. The popular types of players that made guides for content, and streamed were all on Lunar, so it made sense. The character Type choice system appeared in front of me, and I felt my mind trying to breathe a sigh of relief, but it didn''t connect with my brain.Ugh. There were always so many uncomfortable sensations associated with playing a VR headset game. There was no way to boot me out of the server once I had successfully reserved a spot with my character registration at least. Every other time I had tried to join it¡¯d shoot me off and wake up my real body. It was such a shock, I hated it. The Types and SubTypes you could switch to when you selected that Type were laid out in front of my eyes. Huge text boxes were under them that I mostly ignored, but from what I remembered, [Merchant] ¨C Alchemist (attacker), Smith (defensive), Chef (support) I read the title of the Type and Sub Types for the last class on the list first. Merchants were a pretty self-explanatory Type. They traded attack power, defensive power, and supportive power for a better capacity to make and craft items, and forage for better ingredients and materials for themselves and their fellow players. Even beginner potions and food tended to be in high enough demand to profit from it I had read. It''d be a cushy Type to play. A house in whatever city I wanted before I even hit the level cap for sure. And whatever the best armor and weapons I could ever want I could craft immediately if I had the friends to help gather materials. It''d help it make up a bit for its bad stats, and poor combat abilities. But it could never measure up stat wise to any of the other Types when it came to any sort of combat on a competitive or high-level play. It¡¯d mean spending a lot of time just sitting going through menus, though. Probably not as much exploration, which wasn¡¯t really my thing. [Light Mage] ¨C Holy Mage (attacker), Cross Mage (defensive), Healing Mage (support) The Light Magic Type, second from the top, was a hard maybe. They were highly sought after for guilds and parties, it''d be a huge plus to have so many people interested in me even as a low-level character. Levelling would be easier, but solo play would be much harder. Holy Mage, their Attacker Type, was weaker than Wielders or Death Mage but could make solo play on lower levelled content go a lot quicker. If there were ever an overabundance of healing in a group switching to that SubType could make things a lot easier for a party lacking normal destructive power. On the other hand, Cross Mage was their Defensive SubType. A mix of Shield magic, and Attack magic, it was harder to play, and only really brought out as a last ditch effort to survive. A Support Magic Type''s defensive was still laughably bad even at it''s absolute best. And [Light Mage] being all support and all healing power for other players was what it really had going for it. And that was reallyall it had going for it, you¡¯d be straight out of luck if you wanted to ever be on your own. [Wielder] ¨C Swordsman (attacker), Axeman (defensive), Reaperman (support) Right at the top is what I expected immediately. The weird name of the SubTypes aside, it was by far the most popular Type. It was fun and easy to play. You''d get up close to enemies no matter what, and even it''s Support SubType, Reaperman, was based around crowd control Tanking, pushing enemies, and being up close to the action. Its Attacker SubType Swordsman was about heavy damage, leaving itself open to all kinds of physical damage, but using the full capabilities of its high damage output. Its SubType Axeman was also probably the most useful, taking far less damage than any other Type, and having a host of Skills available to keep monsters interested in attacking them, and them alone. They weren''t in high demand, but they were absolutely an important Type within the game. Every group needed a [Wielder] talented at their Axeman and Reaperman SubTypes first and foremost. It probably wouldn''t be hard to get used to playing, either. [Death Mage] ¨C Death Wizard (attacker), Cross Wizard (defensive), Environmental Wizard (support) Second to the bottom of the list of Class Types, under [Light Mage], I finally glanced over the final Type, the least popular. I stopped as my mind held the cursor over the Death Magic Type. It was by far the hardest Type to play, but also sounded the coolest. The Death Wizard SubType had the purest destructive power in the entire game, by far. But it''s tendency to draw attention away from the higher Defensive SubTypes put a giant target on it for monsters. They tended to destroy materials and enemy drops unintentionally too. Cross Wizard, it''s Defensive SubType type had the worst Defensive Stats of any Defensive SubType in the entire game. It was more useless than Cross Mage, it''s only plus was that it could use very basic Healing Mage spells. And Environmental Wizard offered support in a strange, but incredibly helpful style. They could change the environment around the party and throw objects and obstacles from the environment into the fray, starting, stopping, and building dangerous conflict. Their role in the party changed depending on the environment around them. Switching between their three SubTypes could be the most powerful if done correctly. I was never much of a sword type fighter kind of gamer. Or Merchant. I liked the idea of having a great amount of wealth, but not being able to contribute as much to a party setting or being good at fighting bothered me too much to even consider it. So it was either the Support Magic Type, or the Death Magic Type. Death Magic Types weren''t exactly sought out. Destroying drops wasn''t really a plus in the community, even I had to admit I''d be upset if a drop I wanted was burnt to a crisp. But I could always just switch to environmental damage and use less destructive spells for something like that. I could avoid it all together by just healing, though. Diana was a healer, she''d be ecstatic if I was one too. I saw a PM through the server system in the corner. [Where you at???? You get in?????] I opened the box and started speaking. [I''m picking a class- Type, I mean.] I frowned, not sure yet if I could delete what I was saying. I hadn''t read the manual or any guides for how to log in, it seemed pretty straightforward. [I''ve almost decided, I think.] I had barely sent that message when a second one appeared. [Hurry up!! Christ!] I shuffled it off the screen somehow and selected Death Mage without a second thought. It would annoy her at least. I had school and work to do, and it was going to be finals in a few weeks, I wasn''t going to play too often or for too long. The second I did that my entire body seemed to fill with life and air and scent and sight again. It didn''t seem as off-kilter or strange, clicking things through a screen, paralyzed. I started staggering to keep upright before I could even fully register I was able to move. The momentum of being standing again and trying not to move all at once was overwhelming. I breathed heavily, my chest light and buzzing. Before I felt myself falling backwards, water under me. It was cold but pleasant, the perfect temperature enveloping my entire body for just a moment. I instinctively stopped breathing and start flailing. I had never played a VR game before. There were tons out, but I had honestly been too afraid. If I knew how to open my systems menu I would have opened it and quit myself out right then. I managed to right myself enough to stand knee deep, and inhaled, water dripping off my clothes and hair like a heavy oil with nothing remaining on my body after just a few seconds. ¡°It''s taking her forever, geez!¡± A few feet in front of me was a taller girl with elegant long black hair, and beautiful white gown, detailed with soft steams of catholic robe style tassels and strips of fabric. She had a cute hat that matched. Her face felt familiar but far too beautiful to be normal or human. I felt myself focusing on her, wanting to see what her name was. It appeared in front of me quickly and clearly, making me jump. ¡°Diana?¡± I asked. My younger sister''s character, towering over me by at least a full foot. I never in a million years would''ve thought I''d experience her towering over me. I almost stepped back, but stopped myself, knowing I''d probably topple over again. She looked at me, but without any intent or interest, ¡°Varnish...¡± she narrowed her eyes and went back to staring at what I assumed was the spawn point I was in, a big crystalline pool of blue and green with a few other lucky people who managed to get through the server spam, slowly walking up from the water before opening their eyes, ¡°Varnish.¡± she laughed, ¡°Wow. Ew.¡± Rude! ¡°You''re the one who wanted me to join the crappy server! Everything was taken, I only had like ten seconds!¡± I tried to puff myself up a little and put my hands on my hips, but I was so much smaller than her I doubted it looked intimidating. She stopped staring at the water and walked towards me. Her dress pooled against her body and out in the water so elegantly when she entered the water, ¡°Ashley?¡± She held out a well-manicured finger and poked the fat of my cheek. ¡°You look so- Gold Seller-ish.¡± Before I could ask why she grabbed me by the back of my neck and turned me back toward the crystalline pool. For a second I thought she might throw me in or try to drown me. I struggled, but she shook me until I calmed down and stared at what she was pointing me towards. My reflection was... Generic. Black short hair, brown eyes, ethereal and beautiful like Diana, but completely boring. Baby-faced, and incredibly small. ¡°Why am I like five feet tall? Wait, did I already make my character??¡± Diana pulled me up, ¡°You sure did. You didn''t adjust any height or muscle mass sliders, didn''t change your hair color. You probably just threw Varnish into the name slot and signed yourself up like this. Great job. A plus.¡± She started guiding me a little towards the road, then released me and began walking down it. ¡°Come on, we have to get you fixed up before someone kills you assuming you''re trying to peddle gold-seller-best-deal-very-cheap dot com or something.¡± The fields on the way to town were so green and lush. It looked totally untouched by people, besides dirt roads that lined the fields as far as I could see, leading off in random directions, towards forests, past the horizon. The sky was clear and blue with a few soft and perfect clouds floating through the air. The smell of fresh flowers, grass, and wet earth wafted through the air. Everything was so perfect, I could see why Diana spent so much time cooped up in her room coming outside only to eat and drink and- Well, survive. ¡°Don''t do anything weird. Better yet, don''t talk.¡± I wanted to say something along the lines of ''I didn''t even want to play this stupid game'', but Diana would have probably slapped me to death and just grabbed me from whatever re-spawn point I''d end up at. I held it in as we reached the town''s front gates and crossed the threshold. She was probably worried I''d embarrass her in front of her popular friends even here. The town itself was gigantic. It was full of little buildings made up of wood or stone, guards and people with carts drawn by big weirdly colored horses and birds. Just the first area we walked into was already bustling with children and both merchant NPCs and Merchant Type players. People of every size, beastmen, elfs, strange looking tree-ish druid people. I was pissed I hadn''t spent a few minutes checking out the rest of the options on screen. When I saw Lunar pop up as a possible server I just threw Varnish into the character name slot before spam hitting the confirm key over and over until I was sure I was in. The druid looking race with green veins elegantly peaking out from beneath their skin like roots on the surface on the ground specifically made me feel like going back and trying to delete and start over. I knew there was no chance I''d get back in, though. We passed a few vendors selling items I wanted desperately to stop, look at, and touch. They all looked so real, but they were all strange looking potions or totally fantastical other objects. A man selling apples of every color caught my eye, I stopped for a moment to examine them as Diana continued walking straight by and talking about something I wasn''t even pretending to be interested in. ¡°Hey there, cutie. You new?¡± He had opal eyes, colors twisting and twirling as he moved, white hair, and a rather snake-like appearance. His features were pleasant, though. He grabbed my hand before I could react, and turned it over to put a lovely pure white apple in my palm. ¡°Here, on the house.¡± It looked wonderful. I turned it over in my hands. I loved fruit, and it looked so real. ¡°It''s beautiful! Thank yo-¡± Diana grabbed the mans arm and clutched it, causing him to cry out in pain, and in one swift motion with her other hand took the apple out of mine and threw it back into one of his many piles, causing some of them to fall over. ¡°Huuuuge hairy dude IRL, don''t even think about it, buddy.¡± We began walking away swiftly before the man could get in a retort. ¡°What? No, I''m not! Diana!!¡± I tried to get my voice over the hustle and bustle of the crowd, but I wasn''t sure it made it to him. Either way, it didn''t matter much. Diana continued to march with a reverence, healers were supposed to be weak, but she completely overwhelmed me. ¡°He probably just wants you to join his guild or wants an e-girlfriend, ignore him.¡± Diana jerked me forward as we came to a cute little shop bursting with flowers and colorful cakes in the windows. She opened the door with the wave of her hand and pushed me through. It was getting tiring, getting dragged and pushed everywhere. In real life we were both petite, I was starting to think she was enjoying it more than she should. ¡°Krel! My adorable little sister requires your assistance!¡± she called into the cute shop. She ran towards the back as I looked around. It was so pink. The waiting room to the side was covered in pink cushions and a couch shaped like a heart. I wasn''t expecting there to be that many in-game items so cartoonishly girly after seeing the fantasy setting style outside. Stepping in a little more I noticed a few chairs in front of some mirrors, and little cakes sitting plainly in front of them. It sort of reminded me of a salon if it had been drenched in... Valentine''s Day. I sat down to examine myself clearly for the first time in one of the mirrors. I had a young face. I didn''t adjust the age slider to any older then the default, which was set to as young as humanly possible it looked like. I was maybe fourteen, but based on how perfect and angelic everyone looked you could have told me my character was thirty and I would have believed you just as easily. Slight and small, I hadn''t adjusted the height or body slider above the minimum either. Black hair about down to my ears, black eyes only a little brown in the light, pale white skin but not ghostly or unearthly. It was probably the only part I liked, the porcelain look of my skin. Though it didn''t match with my starting gear. I looked like a sickly generic peasant in a brown potato sack textured robe. My staff looked more like a stick with a ping pong ball glued onto it. I looked new for sure. And Diana was right, even without playing I could tell I looked unimpressive and quickly slapped together. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. A few seconds later a tired looking human woman wearing a puffy dark pink dress trotted out from the back. She looked a little like a fancy cupcake. Her blond hair was pulled back into two relaxed ponytails. She was around my character''s height, maybe an inch or two taller, which I appreciated. She had a matching puffy pink bag that was overflowing and stuffed with- A lot. I could see some potions peaking out, herbs, and cute carefully decorated cupcakes that seemed magically unable to smear over each other or her other items as they mashed together while she walked. Diana came out from the back a few seconds later with a large trunk. She put it down gently in front of me. ¡°The sister we''ve all heard so so much about.¡± Her voice was dry and strangely scratchy. It sounded uninterested and sarcastic. She set down her bag and motioned towards the little cake in front of me. ¡°Just eat that and we''ll get started. Diana sent me a DM about your situation.¡± I picked up a little fork sitting next to the cake and brought it to my mouth. It had actual taste, which surprised me. Moreover, it was fantastic! ¡°You can taste food in this game? No wonder you never eat anything I make, Diana.¡± as the words left my mouth I saw the mirror in front of me change. My features became ghostly and smokey, the mirror became some sort of screen, all kinds of hairstyles and colors in little icons on every side, ¡°Whoa!¡± ¡°You look even worse next to styles that aren''t horrible, geez,¡± Diana started clicking them frantically each time my hair would change drastically to a new cut, and swoosh down beautifully, or swish quietly with some sort of fake wind. A few looked nice, but there weren''t as many long ones as I would have liked. I would have wanted to match my hair in real life, but the longest one didn''t really look close to mine, or very good, the bangs were blunted across and too high on the forehead. Diana started to slow, and eventually stopped, ¡°You don''t have any of the female styles...¡± She sighed and clutched her temples, ¡°You idiot.¡± ¡°What?¡± I reached out and clicked one of the icons cautiously and examined myself. I kind of liked it, it was short but styled in layers and tomboyish. I clicked a darker brown coloring and started trying to highlight it with a lighter coppery brown color, then moved onto my eyes. ¡°Can you do anything about this? Or does she need to remake her character?¡± Diana and Krel spoke behind me, but I didn''t turn around. I selected a dark purple eye color, and examined myself. It looked good enough. The hair would be similar to my own if I got a cute cut. ¡°Is this okay? I''m gonna pick this I think.¡± I hovered my finger over the accept button at the bottom of the mirror where a little confirm option sat. ¡°She won''t be able to get back in, the servers are getting even more crowded. She was lucky she even got on when she did. Maintenance won¡¯t be for another, what, two weeks?¡± ¡°Ugh, whatever.¡± I clicked the button quietly and watched my old features fade out into the new ones. ¡°Well, get used to being a tiny gross little man,Varnish.¡± ¡°What?¡± I asked, turning around to see Krel going through a few menus, Diana looking over her shoulder and ignoring me almost entirely. ¡°It''s got rare, expensive ingredients. Look at this, Mega Slime Tea, for one. Yuck, those high-level slime caves are gross. You might be able to get that with a raid group. Wouldn''t be hard for you to gather some chumps up that''ll just let you have the drop, but there''s no way I can afford it right now.¡± ¡°Well, not much we can do this second. At least you look girly.¡± Diana opened the trunk she had brought in and started sifting through it, throwing out a few shirts and pants, then a slightly less generic looking staff. It had a small ruby atop a twisted strange knot in the shape of a heart. She picked that up and an elegant black robe and walked towards me. It looked like starter gear, but it looked about as expensive as it could get. I smiled a little, Diana cared in her own weird way. ¡°I''m a guy? Does that change anything really?¡± I took the robe and staff out of her arms and they disappeared in a sparkle of smoke. I looked around and tried to open my menu before Diana reached out and held my head still and started pointing at a corner in my field of vision. After staring at it for a few seconds it stretched into a big menu in front of me, and an inventory of my items. I selected the two she had just given me and they replaced my own clothes and weapon before I could even register it. ¡°Not as much as you being a Death Magic Type. Knights Guild won''t accept him.¡± Krel shrugged and collected the trunk to take it to the back room. ¡°Her!¡± Diana yelled after her. She deflated and hunched over, ¡°She''s right though. You aren''t going to be able to joinmy guild. We can''t change your class either, the potion cost for that is like- just, beyond us. And it''ll reset your progress.¡± she paused, staring me down, ¡°Provided you can find anyone to actually help you level.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± That seemed like kind of an extreme. Some people had to play the class, it was in the game after all. Even if it could hurt drop rates. It just seemed too mean-spirited to completely exclude them, ¡°Is there anywhere specific I should look for one? A guild, I mean.¡± ¡°I have no idea, I didn''t socially outcast myself from the get go. I told you to pick literally anything else.¡± Krel walked back in with a little bag, filled with far less than her own she had before. It had a cupcake patch stitched on, and was bright pink with sprinkle-ish looking red beads scattered on it. She held it out to me. ¡°Oh! Thank you. I appreciate the help starting out at least, really.¡± I took it and slung it around my neck. It looked kind of funny with all the grimdarknss of my robe and staff, but I didn''t say anything. ¡°Yeah, but now we can hardly play together now, you idiot. What was even the point?¡± Diana opened her menu as she talked and started typing things out at a pace I couldn''t even comprehend. After her menu dissipated into thin air, and a note appeared in front of her. She took it and handed it to me. ¡°Here, if you do these quests you''ll make it to level ten. Don''t talk to anyone weird, just do these quests, it should only take a few hours. After that, we can take you to the first dungeon and start getting you buyable skills.¡± The moment it connected with my fingers it disappeared into my menu. What was the point, she couldn''t have PM''d me? I felt like deleting it in front of her and going off to explore, but I rolled my eyes instead. I could at least pretend I was going to off and grind some boring NPC quests. ¡°Thanks. I¡¯ll be off then.¡± I waved goodbye to Krel and Diana, both already back off in their own world talking about stuff far beyond me like potion costs and dungeon mechanics. The sun outside had gone down a bit, casting everything into a beautiful looking twilight. Though it was still just as populated, people running around and cutting through each other by pushing one another aside. Wow, no one clips into each other? I thought. I took a look at the sign outside of Krel''s shop as I wandered off, ¡°Hair, Eyes & Glamours Galore¡± Of course. Diana seemed like the type to spend all her money on superficial stuff like that before she got into the game all she did was buy clothes and makeup. Now she could entirely change every part of her face and hair with a cupcake apparently. I wasn''t planning to play the game for very long. A few hours sounded like a little much, I still had to do laundry and start dinner for when mom got home. I also wanted to take Kitty, our rather misleadingly named dog, for a walk and get a start on picking out an outfit for school the next day. I walked towards the town square yawning, but it didn''t really make any connection of relief or tiredness to my brain. It felt kind of awkward, and I looked around hoping no one had noticed. A couple of other players suddenly ran past me, one Wielder Type knocking into my arm and actually slammed a bit of my HP bar off and threw me over. It was a pretty harsh push from such a bulky forceful figure, but it didn''t hurt much, it felt odd to have something knock into you so fast but feel practically nothing. I straightened myself up and tried to see where he was going. There was a crowd gathering around a fountain I had passed earlier with Diana as we headed deeper into a city. I ran up and tried to get closer to the centre, which wasn''t too hard with my being around the size of a short and slight teenage girl. Two men were already in conversation at the centre, the crowd giving a wide birth around them of free space. One''s features were dark and brooding. His jet black hair fell down to his ears, but a series of bandages continued down and wafted through the wind. His face was otherwise covered up by his impressive wizard hat, and some more bandages. It looked like he could only see out of one eye with how they were wrapped. His robes were more form-fitting and way better than mine, though still mostly blank and purple. It looked high level. The other was a giant woman, fitted with armor so bright the setting sun glared off of it like diamonds. It was hard to tell her gender from armor, it didn''t look any different than a man''s, but her voice was strong and obviously female whenever she spoke. I looked around and saw the Wielder that had run into me talking to another, excited. The bigger one that hit me had leather armor on, and a masculine hard face, and seemed to be in the Swordsman SubType. His friend was a little smaller, and in the Reaperman Subtype, his curved weapon resting strapped to his back and covered in some sort of cloth. His hair was green and spiked, and his eyes red. It sort of reminded me of Christmas, but I decided not to open with that. ¡°Hey, you knocked me over back there!¡± I said, poking the bigger man in the sternum. He didn''t notice at first, but his friend turned to look at me first, then hit him hard in the stomach a little lower from where I had just poked. I saw his HP drop to a quarter and stepped back instinctively. ¡°Roni, the hell?!¡± the bigger man choked out, barely. I stared, trying to figure out how to switch SubTypes. As I thought about it my UI appeared in front of me. I focused in on an icon on the cover of my vision when I left it there for long enough and it showed three new icons. One of which was greyed out, a picture of a skull with fire behind it. I selected the one next to it, a skull with a little plus sign inside, my whole body tingled for a second. I didn''t know how to do what I do but I tried- ¡°Heal!¡± the man''s HP filled up a tiny bit, and I smiled. The charge of energy leaving my body felt fantastic. ¡°Heal, heal!¡± It filled up to full and the man stood up again, looking from me to the other man, back to me. ¡°You can''t go around hitting cute little girls, you ain''t got a bit of sense in your head.¡± Roni, I thought. He bent down very slightly to shake my hand. ¡°Sorry, kid. Some people, am I right? Forgive him, though.¡± ¡°I''m right here, Roni. That''s a dude, and I didn''t mean to either way,¡± I examined his character''s name quickly, he was sending me a kind of intense glare. WolfChaos. Kind of strange, but I wasn''t about to say that with a name like Varnish. ¡°Nah, cute girls always make cute looking little guy characters like this. Look at that bag.¡± Even I looked down, and did my best to turn it around so it''d be less visible after realizing, ¡°We''ll help you out after this to make up for it.¡± ¡°Yeah, well- I guess, but it isn''t like that. I-¡± The other guy started, before being cut off by someone yelling. ¡°Fine, if you won''t listen to reason than I, Alixandrea of The Knights Guild, challenge you, Apostate, Death Magic Type, to a duel in place of this young woman! She lost treasure rightfully hers because of your unkind and foul practices and magic, and if I rein victorious you shall pay her what you rightfully owe!¡± She pointed her sword from a young and cute looking female avatar with flowing brown hair and big brown eyes back to the man she had just named. Why was she speaking like some melodramatic RPG character? ¡°This is all because he''s a Death Magic Type?¡± ¡°Yeah, it tends to happen. Especially to this guy.¡± The man hadn''t even replied when the woman moved. She swung her impressive sword toward him and he narrowly avoided it. Her weapon shifted after that to a large Scythe, and she swung again, this time hitting him, though not seeming to do any sort of impressive harm. He stepped back again, spinning, and pulling out his stave. It looked beautiful, like a little planet surrounded by spinning stars and twirls of black holes. Even from here I could see how awesome it looked. It had to be endgame equipment. He jumped back again, furthering the distance between the them, then seem to concentrate deeply. The air around them seemed explosive now, something in the very feeling of the world around them shifted. The woman stopped in her tracks as she came towards him, but after a few seconds he switched, and she took that moment to charge forward. The ground below her exploded, and she stopped just in time to avoid falling directly into the brunt of it. Half of her HP had been shaved off almost immediately, while he seemed to be missing only a tenth or so. She jumped back, throwing her weapon slightly into the air. It glowed white and her scythe turned into a large and beautiful axe. She held it in front of her, and as the explosions below her feet erupted again she wasn''t even moved. It only took her down to around forty percent. Roni laughed. ¡°That was a dumb move for Ms Knights Captain.¡± he pointed at a building behind her she had moved closer to, I didn''t understand, ¡°But then again, hard to notice if that weirdo''s staring you down like that.¡± As the woman got up to charge him again she seemed to be jerked back into place. She looked down, startled, and enraged. Around her were tough and gritty looking vines, wrapping around her armor and holding her stock still in place. By the time she noticed it had already begun taking her arms. The crowd was now shouting, telling her to cut the vines. As they overtook her completely it didn''t look possible. Apostate raised his stave, and as he did so she too moved up towards the sky with the vines holding her in place. She was at least one, two, three stories up. I looked around, trying to gauge the reaction of the crowd. A few seemed upset, but most were excited. When I turned back to the fight Apostate had closed his eye, and the knight woman- The knight woman had just begun falling. She let out a scream, but she hit the ground too quickly to vocalize much. Her body was motionless after hitting the ground as some of the crowd cheered, but more screamed boos and obscenities. ¡°Good job, Apostate! You did it, man!¡± Roni screamed out, clapping and cheering enthusiastically. Maybe in a sarcastic tone, he seemed weird. He looked over at us as he yelled. Apostate''s one eye was such a bright green it almost looked inhuman, he seemed so contained and unaffected by just killing someone. Even if it was fake my heart was racing, eyes wide. I clutched my stave and gulped, hoping he wouldn''t come after Roni next. But after a second he put his staff away behind his back, turned to look off in another direction, and then seemed to vanish into smoke. ¡°Alix!¡± The brown haired girl screamed, practically at the top of her lungs, as she tried to right the fallen knight. She switched in that weird glimmer I was still getting used to, and then seemed to be in deep concentration. The knight slowly got up in agony. I swear I could hear bones being snapped back into place. The game seemed to still have some level of pain present, but getting pushed over must have been must different than being blown up and dropped until you were literally a lifeless corpse. ¡°For a video game that was... Intense.¡± I said out loud. I heard Roni begin to laugh again, WolfChaos shrugged. ¡°It''s all good. Let''s get you outside the walls. If you thought that was bad you''re in for a treat the first time you get chewed out by a boar or mushroom or something. Hurts pretty bad no matter how you go." Type Online - Pariah: Chapter 2 Type Online - Pariah Online: Chapter 2 Outside the city was still as beautiful at night as it was in the day. The light of the moon cast down on what must have been a million hidden flowers, coming out only now to soak up its light. Little puffs of seed were rising into the air and spreading, and the quietness of the environment felt almost good against the skin. I felt like laying down in the lush and dewy grass and taking a nap even knowing I was already unconscious in real life. WolfChaos had objected, immediately, to me calling him that, preferring the more dignified and common, Wolf. Somehow neither of them had noticed my name was Varnish, and if they had they decided rather nicely not to rub it in my face. As I thought that I realized again I was being rather rude to Wolf, he didn''t deserve any judgment from me. I didn¡¯t have any right to talk. They took me to a clearing and Roni sat down, as Wolf took a more heroic stance, almost in unison. Roni actually laid down much like I had been thinking earlier, and yawned heartily. Okay, good, people still did that. I let out a sigh of relief, which also didn''t really have any of the physicality or relief and felt a little more self-conscious again. ¡°Okay. So you have two big things you have to focus on as a Magic User Type.¡± Wolf began as Roni rolled off a little down the plains for no foreseeable reason and yelled in glee. It made me feel anxious, being around such weird people I didn''t know, ¡°First is giving yourself time to cast. If you can''t get a cast off you''re absolutely useless.¡± He stepped in front of where I was watching Roni, and completely blocked him from view. I looked up at him and gulped. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, a second later his sword was coated in fire by his side. It illuminated the patches of grass around us. As he took it out of its sheath it became even brighter. I could see little holes in the ground when I squinted. ¡°Secondly, you''re going to need to know how to dodge. Me and Roni, we can take a lot of abuse, but you? You''re gonna go down in just a couple of hits, even if you switch to your Defensive Sub.¡± He continued, stomping the ground a bit with his boot. I stepped back and gave him a little room, ¡°You have some agility and shielding skills. I suggest you use them if you''re ever in any sort of conflict outside of your level. Hell, even this. Unless you''re over levelled for the content you''re gonna need it when you''re not with a group, trust me.¡± Roni returned from his roll around with a few snarling, eyeless and skinless looking tiny monsters behind him. I actually screamed, stepping back and falling over on my butt. I struggled to right myself and continue getting away, whimpering. Wolf whipped his head around at top speed and put his body in front of me to shield me. After seeing them he relaxed but didn''t change his stance. ¡°Oh good, you found some. Alright, switch to Holy Mage.¡± I got up and tried to run but tripped. Looking back I could see from one of the holes I had seen earlier another had emerged snarling, just as disgusting looking, ¡°Jesus Roni I knew we shouldn''t have taken her out here at night. These things even scare me.¡± ¡°Naw. We¡¯d of had to wait an hour, it''s barely cycled over. I''m sure this kid''s got places to go, people to see.¡± I grasped my bag and started hitting the little demon creature. It nipped into the skin of my leg and my HP went down by a quarter, it hurt but somehow felt dulled, like I was dreaming. I screamed none the less. Roni jogged over with his little hoard nipping at his ankles and kicked it very gingerly. It screeched and fell over, exploding into pixely sparkles of light. ¡°Oh, didn''t mean to steal the little guy away from you. Sorry.¡± Wolf picked me up by my underarms, stood me up, and took my stave off my back. He put it in my shaky hands and forced me to grip it tightly in both from behind me, ¡°None of this stuff is real, just remember that.¡± After a moment, apparently satisfied, he let me go and took a few steps to the side of me. I nodded at him, faintly whispering heal, and feeling and seeing my HP shoot back up to full. My body felt warm and fuzzy as I did. I took a step forward towards Roni and the gang of horrifying little creatures he amassed. ¡°Switching, Attacker Type!¡± I yelled, and the glittering surrounded me again. I smiled, it worked just like the menus. I wasn¡¯t sure I got the wording one hundred percent right, but approximating what you wanted to switch to seemed to work if it was in the general ballpark, ¡°Okay. What can I do...¡± I opened my menu and looked through my skills. Only two so far, but they both seemed to have decent attack power, ¡°Fire Ball!¡± I shouted, sending a quick and powerful shot of energy out in front of me. The creatures in front of me all exploded into glimmering dust, and Roni himself was lightly singed from the calves down. I could see from the light of Wolf''s glowing blade that his eyebrows shot up. ¡°Cute kid like you a Death Magic Type? Huh. Never would''ve thought.¡± Roni equipped a different pair of shoes and dusted himself off. I heard a beep from somewhere- almost inside my head, but far away like an echo. I looked to the side where my icons seemed to open up from and saw a new one. Something flashing and glowing. ¡°Geez, you sure know how to pick ''em.¡± I heard an exasperated sigh. So people did that too, thank goodness. I focused in on the new icon and it brought up a screen I hadn''t seen before. Skill distribution points. And my stats. ¡°Oh!! What should I level up? What should I pick?¡± My mind moused over all the different selections. There were seven I could pick from, and that was ignoring my stats entirely. I had three points I could use. ¡°Don''t use one on your defensive SubType, that''s not worth it at all...¡± Wolf looked a little annoyed. He was messaging the back of his neck and had opened his menus to scroll through them. I could level up Fireball to Greater Fire Ball, and have that maxed out. It seemed like a good choice, my attacker stance was probably going to be my best bet as I levelled up, and joined exp parties. An image of Apostate flashed into my mind, seeing the knight woman''s sword pointed towards him in rage. I scrolled past it, to the defensive SubType skill menu. Healing, level 2. It''d be worse than a healer''s magic, but not unusable. I didn''t want to ruin my character''s build, though. Other skills included Minor Shield and Better Dodge. Both were pretty useless. Apostate might have used one. Apostate... I wondered what his build was... ¡°You can reset these any time for a half Gold.¡± Roni appeared to be on the final parts of dusting the ash off his shoes, ¡°It goes up if you use it more than twice a month, but not by too much. You don''t need to worry about it till you''re in your thirties, I think. And even that''s a little early. Some people only mess with it once they''re doing harder content in their fifties.¡± ¡°Right...¡± I said, scrolling down more to Environmental Wizard. Just one skill to upgrade, and it went up to ten points. I clicked it, watching it fill up the first point. As I did it opened up another big branch of skills. Nature, Stone, Storm, Shadow, Light. I hovered over them, before settling on Nature, and trying to select Shadow next. It was blacked out, saying I needed to be at least level 5. ¡°These are confusing, which are the best ones for Death Magic Types?¡± I clicked back to Defensive and selected Healing anyway. I could always reset it, apparently. ¡°Your Attack SubType is gonna be the cream of the crop for damage. But, well, you know how that goes by now probably. You''re gonna blow half of what a party wants sky high by the time any fight''s through.¡± He walked over to lean over my shoulder and see my options behind me. ¡°Probably Greater Fire Ball. And Thorns, which I think is Nature. If anything comes near you it gets hurt pretty bad and paralyzes it. Right now it''d only really work on these little mole dudes, but if you keep upgrading stuff in your Environment thing tree it''ll get better overall, and it''ll even work on end game guys.¡± he tapped on it on my screen, and I selected it. After my last encounter, I liked that idea a lot. ¡°They''re not moles, Roni. Moles have little whiskers. And skin.¡± Wolf sheathed his sword, and the glow of his buff stopped illuminating him. The field darkened significantly. I looked around. Twilight was starting to come finally, though a complete red instead of the warm orange and dusky colors I remembered from the sun setting. Wolf turned to look at the rising sun, and I followed his gaze. ¡°Huh?¡± He opened his menu again and started clicking through it. ¡°Is this Notorious Mob weather or something? Sun shouldn''t be coming up for a while.¡± ¡°Nah, they don''t have ''em in the starting areas.¡± Roni looked up too, resting on Wolf''s shoulder like an armrest to stare into his menus like he had done with mine. ¡°New content, maybe? I don''t know what it could be, though. There was that big patch without patch notes before we logged in.¡± I turned my head back away from the glowing red orb coming over the countryside field and went back to staring at my new icons. I still had Nature selected and confirmed it. My arms shot out to the side involuntarily, glowing, and the ¡°Nature¡± around us flashed for a second. And seemed to bubble under our feet, like quicksand. I fell back again, thrown off by the ground''s new texture, despite it returning to normal. Wolf caught me by the arm and righted me before I hit the ground. ¡°Well, my teleport options are gone. I guess it is an event.¡± We watched a couple of other players run straight towards the newly rising sun, one group looked maxed out, and covered head to toe in beautiful armor and robes. ¡°Let''s get him back to the city and check it out. It might be something decent-¡± Wolf was cut off as the ground started to shake, ¡°Knock it off with that!¡± ¡°I didn''t use it this time, you''re still holding my arm.¡± Wolf released me, and one of the trees beside us started to shriek and twist. Its roots emerged from the ground, and it started to contort itself and begin to try to pry itself up and out. ¡°Is that a Notorious Mob?¡± I asked, bracing myself and positioning myself to attack. Notorious Mob were rare and could drop all kinds of great items. I knew from what Diana had told me over one of our many strained dinner conversations. I selected Fireball and hurled it towards the thing. It took off maybe 1 HP. If I was being generous. Not a second later a beautiful giant ball of light erupted off the side of the tree, causing it to burst mostly into flames. I turned around. A Support Type had run up behind us and had dished out a Holy attack the second he laid eyes on the monster. It turned around slowly, painstakingly, to face our group and the man that attacked it. ¡°What the hell, man, we were here first!¡± Roni spat at the other man. He twirled his Sythe off his back and flipped it around again, and it was a beautiful glowing katana. The man geared up for a second attack as Roni ran forward to try to slash the tree first. ¡°You should have been quick-¡± the tree shot out a few of its roots and Roni sidestepped out of the way narrowly having it miss him. Another shot straight into the Support Type, the delicate cloth of his chest not protecting him in the slightest. His HP slammed to zero. It didn''t look like it even drained down like it had for me with the moles, or when Wolf ran into me. It was just gone it went so quick. The root shot back towards the tree, un-impaling the man, whose limp body slumped over. Roni jumped back, grabbing me by the scruff of my robes, and Wolf by the collar of his armor, he pulled his further back and turned to glance down at the corpse of the Support Type. ¡°This punk''s not getting the option to Return or Revive.¡± One of the roots violently slashed towards us, but Roni had gotten us back just enough. I saw it cut the front of Roni''s nose and a drop of blood trickle off. His HP dropped by a tenth. He stepped back half a step and watched it repeat it''s slashing a few more times, before seeking out the corpse of the Support Type. I stepped forward instinctively, but Wolf pushed me back ¡°Shouldn''t we help him?¡± I tried to get past him, but he grabbed me and picked me up in a swift motion. As I struggled and punched his armor, and his arm he seemed to be completely unaffected. His HP didn''t even seem to tick down, ¡°Hey!¡± ¡°This is- Well. Weird. I''ve never seen a monster act like this before. And in a beginner''s area? It doesn''t make any sense.¡± Wolf completely ignored me. The tree seemed to be dragging the lifeless man under itself. I could almost hear the bones snap as it drug him into the dirt. I felt Wolf flinch as he held me, ¡°... He''ll respawn once the event is over.¡± ¡°Let''s head back to Jeon. Bet the gates are closed, but it''s worth a mosey.¡± Roni motioned us back towards the path leading to town. The tree started to thrash about and dig itself out from the earth as we started walking away. Wolf put me down after we were a safe distance away from the tree. In the distance, we could hear a rough battle going on, probably with the maxed out levelled players that had run by us earlier. Explosions, healing chimes, attacks being called out. I kind of wanted to go run back and watch. The gates were still open, though the giant oak doors that seemed like it''d usually be in place if the city was under attack had been practically blown off. Splinters of wood and iron that made them up when we had walked by earlier were now scattered across the ground. ¡°Is this normal?¡± I asked, kicking some of it aside as we walked into the city. Roni and Wolf didn''t answer, but they stopped a few feet ahead of me. ¡°We should probably just head back to the starting field...¡± Wolf said so quietly I almost couldn''t hear him. I moved out from behind his bulky armor and froze too. Everything was on fire, people left and right running around yelling and screaming. Even if it was fake it looked terrifying. ¡°Is this some Viral Marketing ARG bullshit?¡± ¡°Death Mage max level big party time lol¡± ¡°Is my shop staying like this after???? Half my inventory''s totally melted and they killed my sales NPC, wtf!¡± ¡°This event is cash as fuck cry more jew lord Merchant scum Type, welcome your new Wielder Type overlords!¡± ¡°What the fuck did I log into?¡± ¡°Some of or all of the other cities are shitted up by this stupid event too, just got PM''d my wife in Crescent about it.¡± The guy that had just shouted the weird merchant thing was practically doubled over laughing, and it looked like he was feeling real enjoyment from it. Behind him, the figure of a scarily skinny, dark, tall man appeared. It was completely devoid of light and had no features. It moved in such a human way for a total void. ¡°Yo, antisemitic dude, watch out behind you!¡± Roni called out. Wolf was already pulling out his sword and charging forward, but it only took a second for the monster to strike. Before the guy could even turn around fully he was already being cleaved from behind, from his crotch up to his shoulder. The shadow''s lower arm had transformed from something hand like to a sharp spike, Wolf stopped a couple feet from them as he watched the guy''s HP crash to zero in less than a second, his body falling to the ground from both sides with a gross squishy sound. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°W-whoa!¡± Wolf backed up but didn''t lose his stance. Roni ran up in front of him and took out his scythe in a twirl. It folded out to be even bigger than it had seemed from his back, coming out to click into place and looked gorgeous and ornate. As soon it was finished it clicked again into a giant shining axe. ¡°Kid- Varn, stay back but don''t go too far away.¡± Well, that was nice at least, he hadn''t brought up the name thing. I didn''t have time to really reflect on the gesture, though. The shadow slashed forward at Wolf, and Roni dove in front of him at the last possible second with his axe. It still bit into his skin and blood started to pour from his shoulder. Instead of being cut in half his HP dropped about a quarter, Wolf darted under the shadows spiked out limb still in Roni and slammed his massive sword into the other side of it with what looked like the full weight of his body. It cut through it like butter, dropping what looked like a gooey black arm to the ground, but absolutely nothing happened to it''s HP. The thing pulled it¡¯s appendage back like liquid pouring back up into it, and brought it and it''s other arm up over it''s head and over Wolf, still in front of it, getting ready to slam them down on top of him. Roni hoisted his axe into his arms at a weird angle and threw it in front of the thing right as it was about to hit Wolf, and the limbs both sloshed off onto the ground with a disgusting sound. Wolf was already up and getting away from it as it staggered from the force, and the axe returned back into Roni''s waiting hands with a white puff of pixelated dust where it landed and disintegrated. It didn''t even seem like a fair fight, it was already regenerating, and it''s HP was down maybe one percent. I grabbed my staff attached to my back and pulled it forward into my hands, ¡°Greater Fireball!!¡± Roni and Wolf weren''t in front of my field of view, they had both fanned out to the other side of the creature. It hit it in the head directly, and it reeled back and smoking. It''s HP ticked down, maybe another percent more of its health. Its black body had given way to a scratchy white mesh of innards, though. Wolf took the opportunity to rush up to its side. ¡°Blood for blood!¡± He yelled, hitting it in the back, and this time cleaving it in half completely. It seemed to half evaporate into smoke, half liquefy and drop to the ground and begin to sizzle white and into nothingness. Wolf''s HP dropped all the way from full down to one. He fell down and started coughing up blood. I rushed over and switched to Cross Wizard. The red ruby heart on top of my staff glowed and settled into a white opal color when I did I realized, ¡°Heal! Heal!¡± his HP went up a quarter more than it did with each cast than before I had upgraded it, but not by much. ¡°Good work team!¡± Roni grabbed Wolf and half dragged him up as I continued chanting heal. It eventually stopped even as I continued saying it, and I looked over at my menus just to realize I had run out of MP. We looked down at where the sizzling bubbling goo was now starting to evaporate. It had left behind three little neat and tidy packages, ¡°Nice!! One for each of us, let''s all just grab a random one and find more of a safe space, we can look through them and trade later if we wanna.¡± He picked them all off the ground and handed me one, and Wolf one. It felt weighty but fit in the palm of my hand. A little box wrapped up in parchment and tied up with twine. I twisted my bag around and dropped it into one of the glittery cupcake side pouches. ¡°That was really lucky, I''m not sure we''ll get a second one down, Roni...¡± Wolf had stopped coughing up blood, but he looked miserable, anxious. Roni nodded and started to say something, but he was cut off. ¡°You waste of space! What the hell did you do to Krel, get back here!!¡± It was far away, but loud. I looked past Wolf and Roni deeper into the city and saw Diana running by, following a shadow significantly smaller than the one we had just fought. It had the same dark void of light no features look and was fizzling from it''s back. It was for sure the same mob type. I don''t know what Diana would''ve done to inspire it to run, but it didn''t surprise me. ¡°Diana!¡± I yelled after her, but she didn''t hear me. She disappeared behind a building. ¡°I should go after her. She''s my sister. In real life, I mean.¡± Wolf nodded. ¡°We''ll come with you, we might survive if we find more people that can help,¡± Wolf started jogging after her, and I followed. Roni did too but dropped behind us both a little. When I glanced behind to watch him, I realized he was scanning around and probably keeping watch to make sure nothing could sneak up on the two of us and pick us off like with that one antisemitic guy. The road was littered with dead bodies once we got further into it. A few high-level players had made groups and were fighting the bigger shadowy guys, but even with them, you''d see a few people get knocked out or killed as their Holy Mage frantically tried to switch into Healing Mage. It was true what those people had yelled earlier, too. A lot of the shops had been totally burnt down, NPC bodies and inventory was littered on the sides of the road and sometimes melted or melting. I was at least glad I didn''t stick around to do all those quests Diana had told me were so important... We rounded a corner and saw Diana and that knight captain from earlier with the little shadow monster. A crowd of people had gathered just like before to watch her. The shadow itself was cornered, with it''s back almost to a tall brick wall behind it. But it had in its weird shadowy arms that girl the captain had been trying to fight that Death Wizard guy earlier for. They were all still, Diana practically grumbling as she stood there with her staff in hand. It looked like an elegant assortment of plants frozen and tied together at the top like a bouquet, but the roots were growing down to make a grip. Her knuckles were white holding it. ¡°Are you controlled by a game master? Release her this instant!¡± Still dramatic, I thought. She unsheathed her sword and pointed it at the creature but didn''t move. It only seemed to back up more. I ducked in front of Wolf and walked slowly over to Diana. ¡°What''s going on?¡± I asked. I hadn''t put my staff away from earlier and held it in front of me ready to strike. Admittedly less imposingly than Diana. I could assume I looked like a child with a stick next to her. ¡°Where the hell were you? Whatever, it doesn''t matter. That thing completely destroyed Krel''s shop, killed her, then ran over here and grabbed the Knight Captain''s sister.¡± She exhaled sharply, ¡°Once it drops her I''m gonna tear into it, watch.¡± ¡°I meant more- What''s going on in general? Why is everything on fire?¡± ¡°How would I know?!¡± Diana snapped back at me. As she did, the shadowy dark creature moved back, releasing the girl, and the Knight Captain ran up to grab her. As she did, six of the far bigger ones stepped right through the brick wall as the little one backed into it and through it. Even Diana turned around to dart away at just the sight of them, only to see that behind us, Wolf and Roni included, even more, were rising up from the ground to block us all in. Wolf ran towards me, and Roni turned to face the mobs behind us. The Knight Captain switched to Axeman, her sister was already behind her. Diana stepped back, and looked angrier, ¡°Okay, you and the armor dude should run. I think the Knight Captain, me, and that Christmas looking guy you brought, have a better chance at beating them if we aren''t having to keep an eye on useless cannon fodder. I''m putting a shield on you two, so just run back out to the gates, okay?¡± ¡°What?! I can stay and help! It''s just a game, why does it matter?¡± I said, feeling a little ridiculous for getting so into it. The atmosphere was really intense, but it was still completely fake. Diana sighed. Okay, in all the chaos sighing in game was just an acceptable thing to do at least. ¡°Yeah, I guess that''s true. You''ll just have to wait a few hours to log back in it looks like. It says Krel''s off the server you''ll just go off too probably. Maybe you can make dinner or something.¡± Her weapon changed to her support one, a ton of glowing dandelion seed puffs, drifting slowly into the sky replaced her frozen flowers and herbs. ¡°Holy Shield.¡± She said, almost sarcastically. I felt warm and was suddenly surrounded by a beautiful glowing purple sphere. It shaped to my body after a second. She glanced over at Wolf briefly, ¡°Holy Shield. Fine, have fun.¡± Her staff shifted back into the first form, ¡°I''m bored! Let''s get this started! Holy Ultima!¡± Diana''s staff suddenly shown with a beautiful golden light before rocketing off on the wall behind the shadowy monsters, it''s blast crumbling it over onto them, three falling apart under the rubble, and two being slung aside by the force of the blast. The bricks themselves were melting onto the mobs, their HP melting off until they were all destroyed. ¡°You two go off and kill that little guy! Avenge Krel and all her expensive glittery bullshit!¡± Wolf and I darted off, my legs weren''t tall enough to leap over the bricks like Wolf, and I almost fell trying to cross over them. Some more of the little packages laid on top of them from the shadows Diana had just decimated. I grabbed a couple more and stuck them into my cupcake pack. It never seemed to get any fuller or dirtied by anything. I was starting to wonder how Krel even made it. It would''ve been fun to be a merchant, but on the other hand, I guess it was the type of game where you could also have all your stuff melted by shadow demons. ¡°I think it went this way, Varn.¡± Wolf called over to me from a little further ahead. I turned around to watch Roni flipping his scythe out and whipping it around, hitting more target than one at a time, slowly chipping off their HP and stunning them briefly as he moved back. The knight captain was throwing cover over her little sister and heaving her sword through some if they walked close enough. It was taking off their health in droves, instead of like when Wolf and I tried attacking them. Roni using the axe and scythe was probably a pointed choice to try to protect the group from them advancing, as it didn¡¯t seem to be doing much damage, but most of the attention was focused on him. They seemed more than capable of taking care of themselves. I jogged ahead to see what Wolf was looking at. It seemed like it had gone into some sort of little shop, based on a trail of... Glitter. That made sense. I laughed, it felt a little more connected than sighing. Maybe I was getting used to it. We went in past a broken door. Nothing was melted, but everything was knocked over. It looked like a room full of charms and lockets, it must''ve been an accessory shop. I picked up a little necklace of a cute little slime and held it up by the chain in my fist. It had heart eyes, and wings. It said it was ten silver, on the little-broken sign beside it. I reached into my cupcake pouch and pulled out a little pouch of money. Diana said she''d give me a ton of money to start with before I even logged in, it was one of our prerequisites to me even playing. I picked up a gold coin and wondered how I could get some silver out of it. As I thought that it split into at least 100 silver coins and scattered all over the ground loudly. Wolf swirled around, terrified, ¡°What the fuck are you doing?!¡± ¡°Uh,¡± I felt embarrassed, ¡°I just wanted this, I was trying to pay for it.¡± I held it up to him, and he sighed. He held out his hand, and the silver launched itself into his hand and reformed into a gold piece. He put his hand into a little sack on his own armor''s belt and pulled out ten silver coins, handing me back the gold. ¡°Just try to be careful, okay? Here, you can get me back some other time.¡± I stuffed the gold back into the pouch, and then back into the cupcake. I set the silver next to the cash register and selected the necklace out of my inventory to equip it. ¡°Thanks, it''s really cute! I couldn''t leave without it.¡± Wolf was already ascending the stairs in the corner, I followed after him, getting my staff back out. ¡°Sure. Let''s be careful, though, I don''t wanna get locked out of this event.¡± At the top of the stairs, one of the steps was missing. Wolf hopped over it easily, then offered me a hand. He ended up pretty much just hoisting me over the gap. I never thought about how inconvenient being short would be in a life or death disaster situation. The worst I had gone through in real life was having to ask someone to grab something for me from a tall shelf at a supermarket. It was so dark we could barely see, but the purple shields Diana had put on us actually illuminated some of the walls and steps. There was something coming from the attic. It sounded like someone was talking in a low dark voice. Wolf pulled his weapon out and switched it from a sword to an axe, his defender and tanking SubType. I wanted to tell him I was fine with dying and he could just go on without defending me if need be, but that seemed so ungrateful. I stood behind him as we started heading up from the second floor to the third floor, slowly, and trying to make as little noise as possible. The voice was so low I almost couldn''t make it out, ¡°two... years... two... ¡­. years....¡± it said in a whisper. It was standing over the corpse of another person, maybe the person who owned the store. I felt scared. It was so silly, but I actually felt scared. I opened my menu and looked through it quickly. My stats said I''d be protected by the shield for up to 2000 damage. We''d probably be okay fighting for a while. Wolf had been looking over his shoulder at me, I realized. His weapon clicked back into a sword, but the sound made the figure in front of us go stock still. It had heard us. Wolf charged forward past me, throwing the blade into the shadowy creature. It started to dissipate into goo and mist like the first one we killed, but then started to shake, ¡°Y E A R S¡± I felt myself slam back into the wall and barely saw Wolf go into another. As I started to try to right myself, an unbelievable pain shot through my chest, making me scream. I looked down to see a spike of wood from the wall itself impaling me to the rest of it, and looked up to see Wolf- Well, what was left of his armor and body dripping from the wall. ¡°Wolf...¡± I knew it was fake, but I felt my eyes tearing up. His body was complete mush. I couldn¡¯t process it. It looked so real. My voice was so low. As I started to choke out a sob I noticed my shield had dimmed, and my health was now dipping down. My body was actually getting cold. It was so terrifying. I couldn''t even yell for help or scream for help. I opened my menu to send a pm to Diana, but my voice had stopped working. I closed my eyes to just think, but my thoughts themselves became sluggish and eventually stopped. Type Online - Pariah: Chapter 3 Type Online - Pariah Online: Chapter 3 I felt cold. Like the warmth I had in my body had left all at once from where I was stabbed, and only now could I feel it pushing back in, little by little, making every part of it feel like it was freezing. The black I was seeing started to fade, and I could almost make out what was in front of me. It was still dark, but I could see stone and concrete. I managed to push my body up and steady myself on my forearms after more effort than I thought it would need. A stone floor, I realized. More ice cold to the touch with every second as my body started to warm up again. I tried to wobble to my feet, just to fall over. After crawling to a wall and trying again, I righted myself, and breathed in deep, trying to keep from getting light headed. Breathing seemed to actually fill my lungs. It felt so abrupt, I must not have noticed before. I could hear rain hitting a window I had woken up next to. Periodically, lightning would make everything in the room completely visible for a split second, followed by thunder cracking so close the noise shook my entire body. So I had gotten taken out by the spooky shadow dudes... had anyone else? Had Diana? Or Roni? Wolf definitely had. I looked down at the front of my clothes to see where the monster had impaled me, but nothing was there. Even my robes were fine, nothing looked out of place. My bag was still there, glittering in the tiny bit of light in the room that came from further off lightning. My staff was still on my back. I looked around. It kind of looked like a generic castle room where they kept prisoners. The door was open and I could just walk out if I wanted, but all of the other spooky dungeon trappings were there. Broken stones in the corner, an uncomfortable looking cot that was only half propped up any more, missing a leg. It even had a mound of hay to sleep on to replace the messed up cot in another corner. Someone was on it, I realized, as another bolt of lightning lit up the room. A dirty white cape poncho draped over them at odd angles. It made me jump when they slowly began moving. They groaned miserably. ¡°Hey, are you okay?¡± He went still after he heard me, but slowly turned over to look over in my direction. He started trying to get up right after but had about as much success as I did when I first tried. ¡°Let me help you,¡± I said, walking towards him and trying to grab him to hoise him up. He swatted my hand away as it met his shoulder, and glared. He seemed to notice the pancho he had been wearing on the field had been ripped up and dirtied, and he ripped the rest off and threw it to the ground. Underneath they wore a beautifully embroidered white shirt and pants. Despite their short hair, slight frame, and somewhat boyish face there was no mistaking they were a young woman. They had pointed elf ears and an androgynous face. ¡°You''re that little guy those two were power levelling in the starting field, right?¡± She practically spat. I stepped back from helping her up. ¡°Well, I was there with them and...¡± I remembered a cleric getting mashed under a tree as we walked by. I stopped meeting her eyes as I realized she wasn''t going to stop glaring at me, ¡°Yeah, I remember you.¡± She didn''t reply, instead testing her legs and popping her menus open and going through them at a speed I could barely comprehend. I stood there awkwardly as my eyes fully adjusted to the dark just in time for the overpowering lightning light to surge back into the room and blind me again. She ignored me, and once she could stand well enough, headed towards the door and out in the hallway. It was already crappy to be so ignored and rejected in a normal MMO, it felt so personal and real in VR. Like I was the woman that wouldn''t take her coupon at a crappy retail job at the mall or something. I could almost make out faint voices and laughter from the direction she went when I peaked my head out from behind the door after her. Being alone in the cold dark with the rain outside hitting the windows and intense thunder made me swallow hard and speed up to walk behind her. After a few minutes of walking through more dark hallways plastered in knight fantasy decor things finally began lighting up. There were rooms similar to the ones we had woken up in, but as we continued on they lessened and were eventually completely replaced by stone wall. Little candles were held up on the wall by metal cantle trees, each couple of steps seemed to increase how common they were getting as we progressed. It felt like it was going on forever, but they illuminated things bit by bit as we continued on. Curiosity got the better of me, and I jogged ahead of the Elf girl, hearing a huff of what I imagine was resentment, as I passed her. I passed a big suit of armor as I came to a bigger door just a few hundred feet ahead, and I found myself in a room with tons of other players, all sitting around an incredibly long table with benches on both sides to sit down, and a gigantic feast piled high in the middle. My mouth almost dropped. There had to be at least two hundred people there, and more beyond the point I could even see. The decor was still knight armour, candles, and not much else, but the players themselves didn''t seem upset it was repetitive or generic. They were popping bits of food into their mouths and talking excitedly, laughing and stowing some of the items on the table into their bags or clicking through their menus as random junk on the table evaporated, probably doing the same thing. I saw a little space of about the size of three empty seats not too far in and wandered over to them. I sat in the middle so I wouldn''t have to be next to anyone specifically, still feeling kind of self-conscious and confused. I opened my menu and started sifting through my PM screen, hoping I could let Diana know where I was and if she could get me back to a town so I could log out for the rest bonus. It was grayed out and made an odd sound when I selected it. Disabled. It must have been related to the event. The Light Mage came and sat beside me, popping a grape in her mouth. She glanced at me, expression somewhat less pissy, before looking over the other loud players. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Where are we...¡± I said under my breath, staring at the food in front of me. A giant silver plate was situated in front of me too, and I wondered if I should reach out and start piling some food up to dig in like the rest of them. A lot of the other players were loading theirs up, some were putting the plates straight into their inventory, then pulling stuff from the feast pile and eating it off the table like kids. I picked mine up and looked at myself in the reflection. It was still dark staring at myself like it was a few minutes back before we made it to the hall. The lighting must''ve not been rendering properly for me, still registering that environmental light. ¡°I have no idea.¡± Said the Light Mage. I was surprised she even heard me. Or that she¡¯d bother to reply. Her tone was low and tired. She started clicking through his menus, sighing heavily, ¡°We''re in an instanced event, we can''t even log out from here. Fun.¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I said, not really sure what else to say. I was glad she was giving me the time of day now, and not just freezing me out at least. I felt the seat next to me shift, and I turned around to see who had taken up space there. My body seized up, and I jerked away. They were covered in bandages and fabric, only one green eye visible. That death magic user from before, the one that beat that knight lady''s face in. He didn''t move once he was fully seated, just crossed his arms and stared directly in front of him.So he¡¯s a super role play type too. I thought. It was hard not to stare. It was hard not to say anything, either. I wished I could start up a conversation, maybe ask him for some tips, but instead, I awkwardly smiled at him for a moment. He stared down at me, face still covered, but probably not smiling back. I got a hold of myself and looked back down at the feast in front of me and spotted a little pastry that kind of looked like a danish with a dollop of jam in the center. I picked it up and moved it towards my mouth. ¡°Don''t,¡± he growled so low I almost didn''t hear him. I stopped and put it down on the dark plate in front of me. ¡°Huh?¡± I asked. The Elf was staring at me now too, wondering why I had stopped. She looked down at the food on my plate and squinted, I did too. It wasn''t reflected back well, but the shape and texture were totally different. It was blurry. And seemed to somehow almost move. A noise from the front of the room grabbed our attention. It sounded like an electronic scratch, way louder than the thunder outside. There was enough force in the sound to quiet the room substantially. ¡°Thank you for patronage of Type Online. As many of you know, today marks our second anniversary.¡± a distinctively female voice began talking. It sounded soothing, gentle, ¡°We wanted to award players for their patronage. We love that you''re here today to be a part of that today.¡± A few people clapped before letting the almost applause die out awkwardly. She continued, ¡°We invite you to take place in a game within this game. By being here you''ve already accepted the challenge. By being culled from the normal population of your respective servers, you''ve made your way here.¡± a few people muttered quietly. The Light Mage Type said something under her breath like ¡°We''re herebecausewe got picked off in the event?¡± She continued, ¡°From this moment on we''d like to present you with new trials and interesting experiences. In order to compete in this game, we''d like to test your ability with pre-planned objectives we''ve set up around our new world. You can choose not to take part and simply mull about for the remainder of the game, which we hope to see come to a conclusion within the next year. Though if many of you choose to do this, there''s no guaranteeing you''ll be able to fulfill the requirements needed to continue participating as a whole. The winners who contribute will receive valuable and extravagant prizes to be announced at one of the upcoming event instances, though some may be rewarded before we fully explain these items or prizes. The first of which we''ve assigned the name of ''escape the tower,''. This specific quest won''t have any prizes awarded. This is also, for your convince, the only one you''ll be mandated to compete in, and it will commence immediately.¡± I heard my plate clatter and looked down. The pastry I had set down was now wriggling, and gray, with bloodied teeth mashing against each other as it scurried sluggishly beneath me. My breath hitched, I was going to scream. I started to jump up from my seat, but felt the Death Magic Type man on my right had forcefully grabbed my back and held me down while covering my mouth with his other hand. He was sitting completely still and breathing quickly as he watched what was now a writhing mass of bloodied and disgusting monsters where the feast had been. A girl sitting next to Apostate on his opposite side jumped up, yelling, and some of the creatures immediately launched themselves after her as she did. Behind me, I heard the clang of what sounded like those giant empty suits of armour now moving from their metal stands. The Light Mage Type next to me was gagging, and coughing, little bits of blood dripping down her white shirt and pants. ¡°It hurts...¡± she choked out, barely able to get the words out as she grasped at her neck. The men in front of us that had been gorging themselves were now openly vomiting red and black onto the table, and the creatures themselves lunching forward at their faces as they too tried to get away. ¡°The entry fee you''ll be putting down in order to partake in this contest is your human life. Thank you for your time in listening to this mandated first message. And good luck.¡± Type Online - Pariah: Chapter 4 Type Online - Pariah Online: Chapter 4 The death wizard slowly got up from the table and started to make his way towards one of the knights advancing towards the table. The Light Mage Type girl was still coughing and spurting, but not gasping for air and crying and openly vomiting like almost everyone else at the table. I could see another knight advancing from the other direction coming towards our part of the table, and started pulling her up by the arm. She was light enough for me to support, but I probably couldn''t have tried to pick up one of the wielder types in their heavy armour if I had to. ¡°This doesn''t make any sense, it really hurts. It actually hurts-hurts.¡± she rested her arm on my character''s small frame. She wasn''t too much bigger, she must not have turned the slider up much higher than the default. I still struggled to support her, ¡°Something''s really wrong, we have to get out of here.¡± I heard a loud crash and terrible sloshing wet thunk from behind us. One of the knights nearby had started attacking people, hitting them with his huge sword and cleaving them right in half like a knife through butter. Another delicate looking Mage Type just a few seats down was strewn about, now resting on the writhing mass of monsters on the table, the biggest of which were starting to chew and eat his body. The man that was next to the woman I was carrying had been sitting next to was now drenched in blood, trying hard to stop from being sick and get away from a little creature chewing on his shoulder. An explosion from where the Death Mage Type had gone drew my attention back in that direction. The armoured player had started hitting people already over there, but now he was falling back, a huge chunk of his armour and head now missing. I ran towards him as quickly as I could with the Mage Type still keeping her balance on me. Apostate was lowering his staff. He glanced towards me, seeming to stop, moving back towards me, and then looked at the Light Mage I was carrying. He didn''t say anything before turning back around, stepping over the knight and continuing onward. From what I could see other people were fighting back as best they could, most were making a run for it with blood and guts still dribbling down their chins. I tried to stop looking, stop thinking about it and stepped over the giant hunk of metal too. My frame was too short, and I was too clumsy in my VR body. I felt my arm slit open on a piece of its decimated shoulder armour sticking out into the air. One of the little globs of teeth and blood from the table launched itself towards me, drawn by the blood. It dug itself deep into my arm and began chewing furiously, I could almost feel the sensation reach to my bones and teeth grinding against them. The pain was so intense I dropped the Mage Type and started screaming. I grasped at the monster, ripped at it with my good hand, but it wasn''t letting go, just digging deeper into my flesh. I could see my hp drop to half in just a few seconds, my head felt light, and I started to slump forward. As my good arm hit the ground to hold me up, my vision swam and started to become dark. It was cold, and the feeling of being eaten was becoming numb. After a few seconds though, as I felt on the brink of- something. I suddenly felt incredible. I looked up to see the Mage with her stave out using some sort of heal spell, while simultaneously trying to remove the thing from my arm with some sort of chant. It fell off lamely, jerking and shrieking, then scurried under the table. The Mage Type was leaning on the wall, but unslumped to collect me and drag me back to my feet, ¡°I can walk, I think, these are just a debuff.¡± she cast the same spell on herself and looked sick. The little specks of blood stopped as she threw up a grape sized mite looking creature, covered in little spikes and teeth. She crushed it beneath her white boot, then went onto click something on her menu. After a few seconds of hitting little different options, she then cast the same spell into the air, while spreading both her arms, it looked bigger. It became some sort of vaporous cloud and settled down onto the people still at the tables fighting with the monsters or vomiting. One by one the creatures were purged out of their systems or released the limbs or heads they had been attacking. Most of the men and women weren''t oriented and looked ready to pass out after purging so much HP and blood, but some started hitting the creatures back, splattering them in almost an instant. A few of the other healers at the table seemed to catch on after theirs had been purged, and were now casting the same spell over the rest of the group, all the way down to the end of the table, going off one by one. Some began trying to heal the incapacitated players. The corpses weren''t moving or stitching back up into one piece after being ¡°revived¡±, though. We kept moving forward, following the bloodshed and crushed metal hunks. We came to a door at the end of the hall, already left open. There was a twisting staircase leading down and up. We could hear screams from both directions. ¡°Which way did he go?¡± I said, scanning around. I saw that some of the other players from the feast were now following after us, bloodied and battered, but alive. There was a window, already open. I ran over and inspected it. It was wet and slippery from the storm as I tried to heave myself up. My character was too short to get a good look outside of it, and before I could even ask for a boost, the Holy Mage was clicking through menus, and shouted ¡°Levitation!¡± I almost fell backwards as my feet lifted up the air, but righted myself, using the wall to balance. I could see a giant field perfectly through the window, as well as dawn rising on the horizon. We were so high up, and it was still raining and clouded, lightning striking near us. Some people were gathered on the ground that was far enough away to look like ants. How many people are even in this tower? I thought to myself. As I moved to put my hands on the windowsill I noticed something. Vines. Just like from before. They were laced over the stones all the way down to the bottom, they looked sturdy and climbable. I hoisted myself up, and over, gripping onto the plant''s flesh as tight as I could. ¡°We can get out this way!¡± I had said that, but it was so high up my stomach churned the moment I was out. I gingerly tried to feel out the strongest vine but was afraid it''d snap under my weight once I let go of the stone of the windowsill. The rain was making the surface around the vines slick, and it was still hammering down onto me, making it hard to see. ¡°Get out of the way, hurry up!¡± The Mage girl was behind me already, swinging herself over the window and wrapping up her arms in the vines, but other people were trying to squeeze through too. Some were starting to get stuck, others were almost forcing their way past us. By the time we got to the first window below us someone else had noticed the window and vines and was starting to crawl through, followed by others, but they were still vomiting. They almost looked like zombies, missing flesh and mindlessly trying to get out as quick as they could. The little monsters from the feast were jumping out with them to meet us. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°I can''t move down more, there are more people here!¡± The woman trying to get out of the window below us grabbed onto my leg and started pulling. She jerked me down and almost off completely, and above us, the mage type I had carried started trying to push and pry me off. ¡°We''re both gonna die up here unless you let go!¡± She said, almost in a sneer. My brain was still telling me to hold on tight, but I could see the little mobs trying to get up to us now instead of just following the players down. What had that computer meant about putting our human lives at stake? If I jumped... I could still see the people on the ground. I could see all the little dots moving around, and some near the base stationary and unmoving. Would that be me if I let go? I could hear the jeers of the crowd on every side, see the tower go up for almost at least ten or twenty more floors. We were so high up! Why couldn''t we have been near the bottom like the people already on the ground?! ¡°I can''t, I''ll die!¡± I cried. I held tighter to the vines, even while feeling one of the same little mite creatures the man above me had thrown up a few minutes ago now crawling over the waist of my robes. I felt the woman above me slide down beside me, and take my waist with one arm. The mite dug into her hand and started barely nibbling off her HP. ¡°Close your eyes, lean back, and let go. I won''t let go of you.¡± She said, almost quietly. My chest felt completely seized up with fear. I couldn''t even breathe... Which I didn''t remember having to do before. I nodded to her, and closed my eyes. I couldn''t see the vines, or the ground, or the people, even if I could still hear the screaming. A man above us was already trying to force us down more, instead of going around, and the window below us had become completely stopped up with people yelling for help. I leaned back, it took all of my concentration to reassure myself that I had to. It was almost painful to get further away from the wall, my arms felt like jelly. ¡°Good, alright!¡± She said, I hadn''t let go yet, but she did. I couldn''t hold up both of our weights combine without readying myself, and a small part of the vine patch I had been holding onto tore away from the wall with us. I couldn''t breathe and grabbed onto the caster with all of my might. My hair whipped around my face, and I barely heard the screams of the other players as I felt my quick death rising up to meet me. I couldn''t tell if I was crying or screaming, my only thought was I never ever should have played this stupid vr game. Diana how could you do this to me??? Kitty... Diana... Mom... ¡°Maximum Levitation!!!¡± I heard suddenly, and wind rushing towards us slowed. It began to feel almost gentle, the harsh cold wasn''t crashing into me anymore. When I finally mustered the courage to look, I opened my eyes to see we were maybe thirty feet from the ground. The rain seemed to stop in some sort of stasis around us as we fell, I hadn''t even noticed. The mage practically had to pry me off of her, but once she did she took a firm hold of my upper arm. We were floating peacefully, gently, down towards the ground. ¡°My name is Lingo by the way,¡± When we were about five feet off the ground she rather unceremoniously dropped me. ¡°Varnish.¡± she sneered. My HP didn''t drop, but it still startled me, I ended up on my butt. She fell to the ground too, slower and with a more elegant flourish, and immediately began casting that spell that had taken the mite off of her before. She kicked it this time, and it''s HP bar splatted out immediately. I looked around. There were little groups of people talking amongst each other, some covering themselves from the rain with their jackets, or items. All rushing around, some dragging people away from the base of the tower where a lot of corpses lay. I still felt antsy, like my body was up in the air and I could fall at any second. Like I was still up in the tower being eaten, and also somehow like it had never happened. I stumbled getting up off the wet grass and tried to get an idea of my surroundings. There was a thick forest in front of the tower with a path leading towards it, maybe a few hundred feet from the base of the tower. Behind the tower, itself and the bodies of players and monsters from the feast was a cliff side, and ocean behind it as far as I could see. Neither seemed at all familiar to the one starting area I had seen. ¡°Your bag''s making noise, check it and make sure more didn''t follow you.¡± I heard Lingo from a few feet away, halfway between me, and the base of the tower. She stood a few feet away from one of the groups but didn''t introduce herself or speak to them. Even as some of the monsters fell onto people from atop she didn''t move in to help the higher level players at the bottom with defeating them. She seemed to be listening to one of the conversations in front of her. I dug through my bag, carefully putting my hands through and shifting things aside, hopefully without disrupting them much. I''d really have to look through it all later. But I could hear it now too, a soft buzzing. At the very bottom was a tiny pearl, it pulsed a soft green glow, and vibrated. I picked it up between my fingers and turned it over in my hands. ¡°A communication-jewel! What are people saying, we can''t send messages anymore!¡± A large druid woman from behind me yelled from over my shoulder. Lingo spun back around and practically dislocated my shoulder grabbing hold of me as she ran back up. ¡°Where did you get this? That¡¯s an incredibly rare drop, it''s at least worth 500k gold! It lets you communicate with anyone else that has one! Didn''t you just start?¡± I jerked my arm back. ¡°My sister gave it to me-¡± I stated, unconsciously squeezing the jewel into my palm and out of sight. In front of me Diana''s face popped up, making me stumble back. ¡°Why did it take you so long to pick up? It''s been four hours, no one could get a hold of you!¡± She looked angry, which wasn''t new. Four hours, though? Maybe I had been asleep in-game somehow? ¡°You know Diana?¡± Lingo asked, nervously stepping back out of frame of what was probably being projected to her. ¡°Sorry- I didn''t notice how much time had passed. Did you take Kitty out yet?¡± She got really antsy without her standard three walks a day. ¡°What- No!! You''ve been gone for four hours!! Forget about our stupid dog!!¡± ¡°How could you say that?! She''s not stupid!! Have you even fed her yet?!¡± ¡°Yes! Oh my god would you shut up about her for one second!¡± Diana and the communication-jewel were starting to draw a little crowd behind me. Lingo seemed to try to push people back and away from us, mouthing off at them. ¡°You''ve been gone for four hours! No one can wake you up, it said you were offline- it still does! We can''t detach your helmet without getting warnings that you''ll die if we do!¡± Type Online - Pariah: Chapter 5 Type Online - Pariah Online: Chapter 5 ¡°Huh...¡± Maybe she was trying to mess with me, ¡°Did you...¡± She had to be messing with me. My brain was blank. ¡°But you started dinner, right?¡± Someone behind me shoved me down, and the Com-Jewel projection fizzled out. Another person grabbed my free arm and started pulling me back up practically the moment I hit the ground. I saw a sword headed straight for my neck and heard Lingo shouting, ¡°Reflect!¡± seconds before it made contact. A man in armour behind me, twice as big as Lingo or I were, lowered the sword as a slash of red ripped across his body. His HP bar dropped to a quarter, and he stumbled back, yelling. His face was covered in scars, and his sword was as big as I was. He had black eyes and looked like he could easily pick me up and rip me apart with his bare hands. ¡°Hand it over, if what she said was true I''ve gotta get a hold of my guild.¡± He growled at me. I trembled, staring back down at my hand, then up at him. As I started to reach out to give it to him Lingo grabbed my other arm and pulled me back away from him, and stepped in between us at a safe distance. ¡°Don''t be so pathetic.¡± She snapped at me, before taking my hand containing the Com-Jewel and prying it open. Once it was back out again she dropped it back into my bag, released my arm and turned around. She addressed the man and the little mob of people that had gathered around us. ¡°That goes for all of you. If you PK someone you''ll still, for all we know, be two strikes off from becoming a Reviled.¡± The man scoffed, and kicked up dirt at me onto my shoes, ¡°Doesn''t matter. You heard what that NPC said, right? What Diana said?¡± He looked down at me, still shaking, I looked into his eyes as he stared at me with a seemingly intentional coldness, ¡°Things are too dangerous to spend all your energy protecting the weak.¡± He turned around without another word and marched back towards the tower. The people left over from watching my conversation with Diana dissipated soon after. I looked down, feeling breathe enter and exit my lungs. I hated this stupid game. ¡°I''m sorry,¡± I said, quietly. ¡°Don''t be. He was annoying. You''re a new player, but you helped me to the best of your ability.¡± Lingo started pushing buttons on her menu, sighing as she got to the map, rubbing the back of her neck. She looked bright red still from yelling at the guy, ¡°I haven''t been to this area, but it looks like there''s a town nearby. Come on, before you get attacked again for that.¡± I followed Lingo, watching the tower, still filled with people and monsters, behind us. Krel and Wolf might still be in there... My thoughts wandered to seeing their corpses in the piles on the tables, or at the base of the tower. I knew I was too cowardly to go look, and too weak to do anything if I somehow got back inside. Diana can''t wake me up... I tried to stop myself from thinking about it, at least until I could call her back. But my mind kept going back to what she said, over and over. What did she mean I''d die if she took my VR helmet off? All she had to do was press the release at the back. At least Diana''s alright. It was small solace but still made me feel a little better. With how much she played the game and talked about it I''d have been more surprised if anything could take her down, though. I turned my focus back to the path ahead of me, Lingo already far ahead. And Kitty. My tired mind quickly added to reassure itself further. Things looked more sinister than the starting area and town near it. The other had been a big beautiful lush city surrounded by green fields and little troves of trees, one big tall forest surrounding it. This was almost the opposite. A withered looking field, darker as we walked away from where they had woken up, into a bleak forest with dense leaves and little sunlight to speak of, rain still pouring down on us. The path ahead seemed to stretch on for miles through nothing but dark. There were a couple people ahead of us, and occasionally a person or two would jog by. Lingo went at a steady but quick pace, though, once muttering to me, ¡°They''re idiots. If you run you''ll deplete your stamina. There''s no telling when we could get attacked.¡± It didn''t take extremely long for us to get to the tiny town she''d seen on the map. It was quiet, with a few NPCs and a few people milling about and looking around. Some people were trying to ask them what was going on, only to get confused responses. Lingo paused to listen in on it all in before entering, staying clear of the other players. ¡°It looks so old...¡± I whispered. Everything was cracked, and it looked like ash was falling from the sky. As the rain started to dissipate a little, the sun was a deep crimson, poking through the trees at the edge of the clearing of the village as it started to go over the horizon. I yawned, unconsciously, and it felt uncomfortably real, ¡°Whoa!!¡± ¡°Quiet.¡± Lingo said, calmly, but glared quickly in my direction. I followed after her. ¡°We should get something to eat. I actually feel hungry, and for now, I''m not going to question that. How much money do you have? Any?¡± I fumbled with my bag and fished out the coin purse. Lingo practically barked at me in a whisper, ¡°Don''t take it all out! Just check your menu!¡± ¡°Oh,¡± I said, dumbly. That made more sense. I opened my menu back up, not entirely sure how. The first thing that popped up was my level up screen. I looked past it in the corner, at the level screen, ¡°Level thirty-nine?!¡± ¡°Would you stop shouting?!¡± Lingo yelled back at me. A few people turned to look at us, one began snickering. Her face was red, and she looked like she was about to drop to the ground in embarrassment. She covered her face with the palm of her hand, ¡°This is the worst, I''ve never been able to feel like this in game before...¡± before she could crumple she righted herself and marched past me like I was no longer there. ¡°Are you alright? I''m really sorry, this is just all kind of new for me...¡± her face was still bright red, so I stopped pressing the issue. Apparently, we had walked into an inn, she continued straightforward and talked to the man at the counter, quickly. ¡°Menu. Room, two beds.¡± She said quickly, stern. But in practically a whisper. Was she trying to not let people overhear her after before? The NPC rubbed the back of his head, he didn''t seem to grasp it entirely. ¡°Could we get a room with two beds, and your menu please?¡± he looked over at me and nodded, taking out two large brown cards depicting different foods, and directing us upstairs. ¡°You can pay in the morning, just tell the mote what you want when you''re ready.¡± I looked over at Lingo to see she was refusing to make eye contact and stared off directly at the wall. ¡°Uh- Thank you.¡± I took the cards he was offering, and started walking up the stairs. A few other players were milling about in the tavern area with the innkeeper. It looked pretty nice, a warm fire was going. Some woman trying to strum a lute next to a bored looking bard NPC that was trying to redirect her to the right chords. Our room was nice, small but it had two soft looking beds, and a little bubble of magic hanging near the window giving off a warm glow of heat. I jumped towards the bed closest to it and started warming my hands. ¡°Nice! That fire downstairs looked great, this is perfect.¡± I heard a thump from the other side of the room and saw Lingo laying face down on her bed, still dressed and fully equipped. ¡°What''s wrong? Is it like a status effect or some...¡± she rolled so her back was to me I started to speak, ¡°Oh... Okay.¡± Everything being so new and unknown must have been stressing her out. I took off my bag and dumped it out onto my bed, and threw one of the menu cards over to her as she started to burrow under her blankets. It landed on top of her with a soft thump, and it was hard to tell if she had ever heard or felt it. I looked over the one I still held. It was sparse. I noted what I wanted. I didn''t eat meat in the real world, and while it seemed silly, I wasn''t sure I was ready to try it in game yet. I generally didn''t really like the taste. I got a lot of acne and gained weight when I ate things like milk, butter or eggs and hadn''t had those in years, but nothing was stopping me now. ¡°I think I''m gonna get the vegetable stew, some potato bread, and some honey butter. And some water or something. What do you want?¡± Lingo poked her head out as the little fire thing shot past me, and passed through the door. I barely stopped myself from yelling again. She didn''t say anything but grabbed the card off the bed, and tentatively sat up. I sat down and started examining the stuff in my cupcake bag. My Com-Jewel wasn''t buzzing anymore at all, but I picked it up and squeezed it. The window opened, but no one was there. It was just a black screen. I put it aside and reached for something else. My hand felt one of the little packages the black blobs had dropped while Diana, Roni, and the huge knight lady were fighting them. I untied the little string, and let them hemp around it fall into a little square, tilting the box top off. Inside was what looked like a little opal or some other gem with shapes scratched into the inside. I held it up and tried to inspect it closer. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Who gave you all of that, anyway?¡± Lingo asked, quietly. I looked over at her. She peeked out of her blankets like some kind of scared animal coming out after something loud happened. Wide-eyed and not completely trusting there wouldn¡¯t be another jarring noise. ¡°My sister and her friend gave me most of it. But these fell off black things attacking the city. You didn''t see them but there were these big shadow things freaking out everywhere once we got inside.¡± I handed it over to her, and she delicately took it out of my hand. She turned it over and over, studying it. ¡°Do you know what it is?¡± I asked, unwrapping another and finding a green gem inside. I heard her getting up, and looked back over. She picked up her staff from where it was on the ground and stood up. ¡°It''s a Catalyst. It lets you cast a strong spell, or use a strong skill. Just once for some classes, per Catalyst. Certain ones work for certain Types and SubTypes. You just hold it in your hand,¡± she pointed at me, ¡°target the person, and say-¡± she stopped herself, tossing it back onto my bed, and striking a casting pose, ¡°Benedictus!¡± she sat back down and dropped her staff, ¡°It heals everyone on your side for full health in the general target area and buffs them. You can target yourself too, of course, your healing gets super-powered after that. You have to decide which is the best for the type of battle you''re engaged in. They''re really hard to find, though, and worth a lot. I don''t play with others much so never even seen one used, I''ve just heard stories.¡± I picked it up and turned it over in my hand before holding it out for her again. ¡°You should have it. I can''t use it anyway.¡± Lingo began to reach out to take it and paused. She slowly picked it back up but keeping it held out to me. ¡°You don''t know how rare it is.¡± her eyes shifted away from me. ¡°It won''t do me any good, I''m not a healer.¡± I closed her hand around it. ¡°You aren¡¯t?¡± she narrowed her eyes, but quickly shook her head, ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Thank you.¡± She stared at her in her hands for a second, then pulled out a little pouch from her bag, and started attaching something to it. ¡°What''s your name, anyway? I don''t think I ever asked.¡± ¡°Oh- Uh,¡± I didn''t know how to respond to either of what she said. I coughed, ¡°I''m Varn. But in real life-¡± the little mote slammed opened the door of the room carrying a tray of food, and threw it in front of me, almost spilling the cup of water that I made a mad grab for and succeeded in steadying, ¡°Thanks.¡± I said as it floated back over to the windowsill. ¡°I don''t mean to be so quick with you earlier, Varn.¡± she studied the menu again and motioned the mote over. It glided quickly and steadily towards her, ¡°Honestly, I thought you''d get tired of me and wander off by now. Garlic bread, cheese, bacon, ale.¡± she furrowed her eyebrows at the card as the mote faded through the solid door again. ¡°There''s not a lot of fruit here. And most vegetables they have are root ones. I''ve never been here before but it seems pretty barren in comparison to most places. I wonder what the nearest city is like.¡± ¡°Won''t you feel sick after eating that?¡± I asked, trying not to be rude. She attached another wire to the little stone I had given her, and shrugged. ¡°It never has before. I eat all kinds of junk food in game usually.¡± She paused as she finished her project clutching it lightly, and tilting her head, ¡°You might be right, though. Things seem different now...¡± she carefully laid the stone down and pulled out a cord, tying it to the top of the wired holding frame. There was a pause like maybe we both wanted to talk about what could be happening. But we both let the heaviness sit in the air and ignored it. She picked up her work and tied it around her neck. It shined beautifully, ¡°This might be good for an emergency. I''ll make one for you later too if you¡¯d like.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I said, picking up all the stuff I had dumped out of my bag, and shoving it back in. I put it on the side of the bed where she had laid her staff and took my shorter lower levelled one off my back to lay it next to it. I opened my menu and picked up a knife with my honey butter and bread. I spread it over the dense bread evenly and took a bite as I finally examined my level up menus. It tasted okay. I guess I didn''t really miss the taste after all. ¡°Yeah, your full poison resistance one is cute but I don''t think it''ll really help...¡± I looked down and noticed my slime necklace again. I didn''t really wanna take it off, even if I could wear one with world-shattering power. ¡°You should stop levelling healing too and shields if you are, it''s not going to help much. Max your fire, level up whatever else looks good. But not healing, it''ll be useless.¡± I hit the level up area of the fireball until it was full, then hit Nature, Stone, Storm, Shadow, Light in environmental. Next up was ice, and despite what Lingo had said, I put another point into healing. Just in case. ¡°I don''t know what''s wrong with me...¡± Lingo whispered. The door slammed open again, the mote carrying her food, but she didn''t even react, ¡°I get really¡­ How do I put it. Flustered in real life. Nervous. But never here. Here I never feel that way.¡± she cast her eyes down towards the floor, ¡°Never felt, I suppose.¡± As the quiet between us returned. I tried to figure out the right thing to say, but nothing came to me. I felt my skin crawl the longer it continued, edging me towards saying something that''d probably be stupid and unhelpful. Thankfully, something loud from outside caused us both to jump. A woman screaming. ¡°Just let me in, it''s almost dark!¡± I got up and stepped over my gear to walk over to the window. Outside there was a druid woman with dark black veiny leafs darting across her body. A man with a pitchfork rushed up to her and swung, and she unsheathed her sword and struck him clear in half at the waist. I winced. He slumped over, but four more people ran over. Lingo had walked over to stand beside me. ¡°If you kill three player characters NPCs stop letting you into towns. There are a few exceptions, though. This is the smallest town on the map... She must have come here hoping she could sneak in or something.¡± the druid woman retreated into the forest, heaving a rock back into the little mob of people. Three of the NPCs went back towards the little town, but one stayed and watched the edge. She held a cooking knife and stayed stock still staring past the trees, ¡°The druid''s probably afraid of the nighttime spawns being more dangerous and killing her. Serves her right.¡± Lingo retreated from the windowsill, and I heard her flop back down on her bed. The NPC woman didn''t move for a long while, and I stood there as well, curious. She didn''t move. She didn''t even blink. I eventually moved away from the window and stopped watching. I moved back to sit down and started eating my soup. It was okay. Mostly undercooked cabbage and carrots. I dipped the bread in and ate that instead. It was passable. Picking up the glowing card I had set aside before, I turned it over a few times, realizing it was a closed envelope. It didn''t look like the rest of the potions and weird junk Diana and Krel had gifted me, ¡°Did you get one of these?¡± Lingo was chewing on a piece of bacon, but stopped to dig through her bag. She pulled one out too, ¡°Apparently.¡± I opened mine and flipped it upright, [Congratulations on clearing the first trial. Number of Participants of THE TOWER: 965, 958 Number of Victors of THE TOWER: 729, 487 Next Trial The Fortress of the Kingdom of Ash Players must find access to the Kingdom of Ash and their lands. If the gate remains closed beyond the time limit number of participants will be largely be decreased until conditions are met. Time remaining 2 hrs 14 min Good luck, Varnish] ¡°That''s so many people... God, they must have pulled us from servers all over the world.¡± Lingo inhaled sharply near the end of her sentence. Her face was pale. I felt a drop in my stomach as I looked a the two gigantic numbers on my card. It didn''t seem possible. People outside the game must have been absolutely losing their minds. The fourteen minutes on the card ticked down to thirteen, making me jump before I realized it wasn''t a physical card, just an in-game item. Lingo stood up again and set her card on the table beside her. ¡°Let''s not think about it. Or anything if we can manage. We should sleep while we can.¡± ¡°Oh. Alright, sure. Good idea.¡± Lingo opened her menu while looking at the fireball, and it dimmed to practically nothing. I returned to my bed and laid down, shoving all my items back into my pack. It was weird, feeling tired in a video game. I couldn''t really place the feeling. I did my best not to think about everything, like Lingo suggested. The counter, Diana, Kitty, our parents. Wolf, Krel, all those people in the tower, and how they could be one of the many people already gone. Apostate even. He had really done me a real solid. I just hoped they were all okay. Type Online - Pariah: Chapter 6 That scream sounded human, but it wasn''t. So I don''t have to go help, I can still sleep... I thought, in a haze, still half-asleep. Once I figured out what that meant I bolted upright. ¡°Lingo... Did you hear that?¡± another inhuman scream ripped through the air. Whatever it was didn''t sound like it was in pain, just closer. Lingo groaned. ¡°What...? Where am I?!¡± she jumped back and towards the wall and headboard of her bed, smacking into it. I shushed her. She looked around rubbing the back of her head and groaning, seeming to understand as she realized her surroundings and quieted. I looked at the mote and opened my menu, seeing the options for it I selected the [Turn Off Light] option and it cast us into darkness. The only light came from the moon outside. ¡°Why did you do that?¡± Lingo snapped at me in a whisper. I put my finger over my mouth, trying to settle her down. Another scream, this time followed by two others, closer and just as strange. As I woke up more and more my blood seemed to get colder and colder. ¡°Something''s really, really not right here...¡± I picked up my staff and bag. I hoped I had selected the right skills and stats. When I thought of casting fireball my staff''s tiny heart-shaped jewel switched from a white heart to red. Lingo did the same. Her staff looked more like a metal pole with some small metal blades attached at the end. It shifted to a heavier looking metal mace as she muttered Barrier at the door. It had purple glowing chains wrap in front of it. It was hard, but I forced my legs up and towards the windowsill. Outside were either players or villagers bodies strewn about, and beside one stood a deathly pale white figure. While it looked humanoid it didn''t have any hair, eyes, or genitals. It was naked, lanky, and about the size of a big man. Looking at it, everything felt slower. Dread rose up and filled every part of my body so quickly it was almost painful. I didn''t scramble away once I saw it, like every brain cell I had was telling me to. I was pretty sure I couldn''t if I tried. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± Lingo asked from across the room. I felt for my staff, and aimed it, slowly. It couldn''t see I was pretty sure. No eyes. It stood over the corpse in quiet reflection. ¡°Fire-¡± I started, only to stop as I saw a large Swordsman run towards it. He swung his blade forward yelling something I couldn''t hear. It''s HP ticked down a quarter, but it flicked one of it''s arms back and hit him, hard. His body snapped straight in half, and it wandered over to look at his corpse next. My blood was ice cold. I hate this game. ¡°What''s going on?!¡± Lingo jumped up beside me, ending up stuck in the same fear like trance that I did. My heart was racing I realized but now I could finally move more freely. It might have even been a status effect. I wanted to run away now, maybe into the forest, but that didn''t make a lot of sense. What if that''s where they were coming from? It was likely. I could feel sweat dripping down my face as I pulled Lingo''s arm gently back towards the guarded door, and away from the window. ¡°We have to get out of here. Is there anywhere we can go?¡± I picked up my card and read it again. [Number of Participants: 727, 312 Next Trial The Fortress of the Kingdom of Ash Players must find and gain access to the Kingdom of Ash and their lands. The gate is currently closed and Players being largely be decreased until conditions are met. The longer the gate remains closed the more Participants will be decreased. Time remaining -1 hrs 2 min Good luck, Varnish] Is this less than before? It looked the same to me. I couldn''t remember how many participants it said last time. I opened my menu and made a note of the number this time. I also looked through my inventory instead of going through my bag. There were some high-level health potions, but I probably didn''t need those with Lingo there. I searched for anything usable, clicking open the packages, ¡°Can we use one of these Catalysts?¡± I whispered. Lingo didn''t answer, she was still completely stuck still, ¡°Lingo!¡± I shook her, but she just crumpled to the ground. ¡°I... I wanna go home.¡± she started to sob, quietly. I froze up and stepped back. I wanted to join her. I heard a slight creak in the hallway and leaned down to put my hand over her mouth. She slapped my hand away but sobbed much softer after doing so. There was a softer, but still inhuman sound coming from the hallway. Was anyone else still in the inn? It was a moan that sounded like it was almost choking, but I could hear laboured breaths as it stumbled down the hallway. Maybe it was already injured. ¡°What are the skill names for the Catalysts I can use? Can I use this one?¡± I put my stuff back on my back, and clicked an inventory button and saw a purple gem with a shape in the middle I still couldn''t understand appear in my hand. She shook her head, ¡°Lingo, please, we have to think of something.¡± ¡°I don''t know the Death Magic Type attack names! Hardly anyone plays that stupid type!¡± she pushed me off her and pushed herself into the corner between the bed and the wall. I felt like someone had kicked the air out of me, ¡°We''re gonna die... We''re gonna die!¡± ¡°Sorry...¡± I barely mustered. My heart was beating out of my chest, but I somehow still felt the sting of what she meant. If I had picked something else we''d be okay maybe. I''d never see Diana or Kitty, or mom or dad again. All over some dumb spite pick. I''d never go home. Who am I kidding, I¡¯m going to die here. What else could be happening? I wasn''t strong enough to fight anyone, let alone crazy things that obliterated people that played the game longer than a few hours. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I heard a giant pound at the door, and Lingo whimpered. I hugged her instinctively, and gently rubbed her back. She didn¡¯t push me away. It looked like the barrier was the only thing that held whatever was outside back, and even then, it was now cracking and fizzling, it''s purple light dim. The door itself even looked cracked. Think. Just think. Just think! I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn¡¯t know how to play this stupid game. There was no way the two of us could beat it with how we were acting. I couldn¡¯t think like Varnish the crappy level thirty-nine Death Mage. I had to think like¡­ Me. I inhaled sharply and stood up. Lingo grasped for me before retreating in on herself and hugging her own shoulders. I felt a pang of guilt, but hiding wasn¡¯t going to help either of us. I walked towards the mote again and opened the menu for it. The thing outside had wandered a little further towards the forest to stare at another corpse, probably people trying to flee the town. We could worry about that one later, hopefully. I picked a baked potato and watched it flame back to life and rocket off towards the door and phase through it. Outside I heard a scream so close it almost stopped me in my tracks again. My vision swirled. It felt like the tissue of my body was separating, white the room spun around me. But I stood up straight and prayed. A second later there were screeches and gross sloppy shuffling sounds headed back downstairs. I exhaled, feeling tears roll down my cheeks. I grabbed Lingo''s arm again, and ran towards the door, throwing my weight into it. Lingo was trying to rip the grip of my hand off her arm, and hissing under breath to let go of her, but I held tight. ¡°We''ll die if we stay in here. Just trust me.¡± I whispered. She stared up at me, then down, like she couldn¡¯t comprehend what I was saying. I knocked lightly on the door to the right of us, ¡°If you''re in there we''re human! The fleshy thing is distracted, we have to group up.¡± ¡°I''m not going out there!!¡± a male voice yelled back so loud I was afraid that the monster had heard him and would start rushing back up the stairs. I didn''t take time to think about it, I moved onto the door across from it on my left. ¡°We have to group up, the one coming this way is distracted but it''ll probably come back!¡± No response, but I could hear someone walk towards the door, then away. I moved to the one next to it and started to hit the door only to have it move to open mid-strike. I ended up hitting the chest of a man much taller than me, who stared down at me with one intense green eye. Apostate. I froze and stepped back. ¡°We-¡± He nodded at me before I could start, and stared down the hallway for a moment before he took out his staff. Some sort of rune I didn''t understand appeared on the ground, and I went to the next door. ¡°We have more people now, you''re going to die in there, come out and try to help us fight them!¡± The door swung open and a tall Elven woman with red hair stepped out. She carried a Scythe and muttered a terrified, ¡°O-ok...¡± as she went to stand with Apostate. She was shaking so visibly I could almost hear her teeth chattering. Lingo finally got out of my grasp and ran down the hall. I jumped and ran after her, but instead of headed down the stairs or hitting the rune Apostate had laid down, I saw her slam her fist into the door. ¡°Get out here or we''re gonna die! Come on!¡± she screamed, voice trembling, but at least no longer crying. Two men came out, one a slim healer with glasses, and the other an older guy with a beard and scars running down his face. He held an axe in front of him and stepped past her to join the others. I stopped at the last door in the hallway. I couldn''t hear any movement behind it, and the door was slightly ajar. I felt all the adrenaline in my body slow and dull as it opened by itself, a light breeze from the window next to it moving it forward. There was a body laying a couple inches in front of my feet, the inn owner, and behind him maybe his wife. Time seemed incredibly slow as I looked up. And I could see one. Really see one, for the first time close up. I was wrong. It did have eyes. One was lodged in a slit in it''s neck, unblinking. It''s skin wasn''t misfitting, it was heavily moving down it''s body, too heavy for it''s thin, thin frame. It didn''t have hands, it had claws, the end of it''s almost fingers as thin as needles. Help. I thought I said. But nothing came out of my mouth. One of my legs moved backwards, slowly, and the monster stopped looking over the corpse of the inn owner and his wife. It turned to look at me. I took out my staff. ¡°Barrier!!¡± Shouted Lingo from down the hall. It was so quick I barely saw it, but the monster threw itself at me, using all of it''s weight to slam one of it''s razor thing hands at me. My HP dropped to 12 out of over 4000 and my vision swam. I dropped to the ground and heard something tink against the ground. I hadn¡¯t put it back in my bag or even taken it out of my fist. ¡°What''s the Purple Catalyst skill called?!¡± I grabbed my staff with my other hand and backed up against the wall as the monster steadied itself and readied to attack again. ¡°Mortis!¡± Apostate yelled, before then yelling ¡°Manawall!¡± ¡°Full Heal!¡± Either glasses or Lingo yelled. I aimed my staff at it and felt it tear into my frame again, it couldn''t have been more than three seconds before I was hit last. ¡°Mortis!¡± My HP had dropped to a few hundred this time as the claw was less than an inch from my face. The monster in front of me turned an ashen grey before falling onto me, decaying into dust and mush all over me, it''s hand slapping through my body and painting the wall next to me grey in streaks as it''s hands disintegrated. I was hyperventilating, trying to get air into my lungs without choking on the mess, kicking it off me, sending more of the disgusting gunk into the air. In hindsight, it was embarrassing. But I felt it was warranted. I started crying.