"Brother, huh?"
Rafael’s voice broke the awkward silence as they sat around the table inside the house, with Tim directly across from him and to his right the women.
She looked gorgeous too, with a nearly perfect face, long golden hair cascading down her shoulders and a body that looked just as carefully customized.
"I should have told you, but I wanted to protect her," Tim said.
Rafael stared straight at Tim as the anger inside him only continued to build because, well... he could have easily died.
"So... you intentionally sent me to Fersay, knowing I would get into trouble and gather information, instead of going yourself because you needed to protect your sister?"
"Yes." A bit of shame washed over Tim’s face. "But I knew you would survive."He gave Rafael a small smile, but it just angered him even more.
"Survive...?" Rafael repeated quietly before laughing. "I almost fucking got killed twice!"
He shot up from the seat.
"I watched an elf literally behead a player right in front of me, and if that wasn’t fucking enough, another maniac came after me because I had this fucking sword!"
Rafael pulled the sword from his inventory and threw it onto the table.
"You knew all of this, and you still fucking sent me?! Now I understand why you’re hiding out here in the Great Forest of Hammon! Those fuckers in Fersay are crazy!"
For a moment Tim said anything because Rafael wasn’t exactly wrong.
"I’m sorry," Tim finally said. "You’re right. I sent you there to gather information and, more importantly, to experience how real all of this has become." He paused. "But I knew you would survive. You used an exploit, didn’t you?"
Tim knew exactly how to redirect the conversation because Rafael loved talking about his exploits.
But this time, it wasn’t working.
"I used a bugged water flask."
Rafael dropped back into his chair.
"I was saving it for a boss fight or something, but now it’s gone, because you are a traitor!" He slammed his fist against the table. "That’s all I had! Bread and the bugged water flask, and now both are fucking gone!"
Before Tim could say anything back before her sister’s voice came.
"So you’re the great exploiter?" she asked before smiling. "You’re lame. Maybe you should search for exploits and bugs instead of sitting here crying like a little bitch."
It hit a nerve in Rafael, and his eyes immediately snapped toward her... but his anger was momentarily dispelled by the huge boobs she had.
She wasn’t wearing armor or anything, just normal clothes that revealed a little too fucking much.
"I know an exploit," Rafael said as he eyed her.
"And what’s that?" she asked.
"The shut-the-fuck-up exploit." Rafael smiled and pointed at her. "You shut the fuck up."
Her face immediately started turning red, but before she could blow up, Rafael had already turned toward Tim.
"How old is she?" He looked back at her. "And what’s even your name?" "Tim never said a single fucking thing about having a little sister."
It was hard to believe and Rafal started doubting this whole thing.
Tim and this woman looked nothing alike because of character customization, but even back on Earth, Tim had never mentioned having a sister.
"My name is Leila, and I’m twenty-three—"
"She’s fifteen."
Rafael’s mouth dropped open, "Fifteen...?" He slowly looked back at her. "Hide your fucking boobs!" Rafael shouted, pointing at her breast. "You make me feel like a pedo!"
Tim said nothing. Neither did Leila.
They just stared at him.
"What?" Rafael looked at Tim.
"We got synchronized," Leila said. "I’m not fifteen anymore. This character is twenty-three years old, which means I’m twenty-three."
"Hell nah!" Rafael kept his eyes firmly on Tim, refusing to even glance at Leila. "That is just morally fucking wrong."
"It says more about you that you were staring at my boobs," Leila said. "You’re a fucking weirdo."
Rafael still refused to look at her, but she knew what to say to get his attention.
"More importantly, you’re Bloodmarked." The moment Leila said it Rafael finally looked into her eyes. "I have the Bounty Hunter trait. I can see it. You’ve killed people."
That hit Rafael differently.
For the first time since coming back, Rafael felt nervous about what his friend might think of him.
He could still hear that woman in Fersay talking about the people he had killed as if they had been real all along, as if Rafael had murdered them instead of killing pixels in a fucking game.
He hadn’t cared what she thought.
But Tim was different.
If Tim looked at him and saw an actual murderer instead of the same idiot he had always known...
"I can—"
"Don’t worry." Tim smiled. "I’m Bloodmarked too."
Suddenly, Rafael could see it. A red mark appeared above Tim’s head.
"Not just me. Leila too."
Rafael looked at her.
"It’s strange, isn’t it?" Leila asked. "We’re murderers, but it doesn’t really feel that way. It still feels like we killed people in a game."
Rafael remained silent.
Most of the people he had killed hadn’t died because he wanted them dead. But he knew Tim and Leila were different.
They had killed people directly, with their own hands.
"We were in Fersay, making trips back and forth to see how people were dealing with everything," Tim said. "But I completely forgot I still had my title from the Great War."
Rafael looked at him.
"What title?"
"Executioner of All Living," Tim shook his head. "I was walking around the city with that floating above my head. Eventually, the righteous players found me. Or whatever the fuck they call themselves"
"They’re insane," Rafael said. "They’re hunting people because of a fucking server event."
"But that’s the problem," Leila said. "Remember how the Great War started? Players started using the power they got from the boss, different factions began forming, and eventually the South was created."
Leila paused.
"But we entered Eldoria after the Great War had already happened."
Rafael frowned.
"So?"
"The world didn’t reset," Tim said. "Everything that happened during the war remained. The South existed. Which means the game history kept going."
"But now all the bosses got reset, even the event ones." Tim said, finally at peace.
It took Rafael only a second to understand what Tim meant.
"The boss that started the whole fucking thing..."
"Is alive again," Leila finished.
Silence fell over the table.
"So that’s why they’re hunting former South players," Rafael said as it all clicked together.
Tim nodded. "They’re afraid of a second Great War."
"But it’s only been a week," Rafael said. "Even if Great War players start finding each other again, forming guilds, alliances, maybe even an army, that shit will take time." He leaned back. "We have more basic problems."
"Like what?" Leila asked.
Rafael once again refused to look at her.
"Quests. NPCs used to give them to us, but NPCs are actual people now. Do they still offer quests? Do quests just appear? And there’s something else I really fucking hope doesn’t still work."
Tim and Leila looked at him.
"Those fuck-ass events that teleport you away and force you to participate."
It was something they didn’t even think about.
"The chances of getting selected are tiny," Tim said. "We don’t even know how many people are trapped here."
"Tiny isn’t zero," Rafael said. "And some of those events are PvP."
"But wouldn’t that be contradictory?" Leila asked. "This is reality now, but those events were coded game mechanics. If they can still select us, wouldn’t that mean this is still a game to some extent?"
Silence followed.
"There are too many fucking unknowns," Rafael said as he stood back up. "Let’s start simple. We need to find my hidden stash and see how many bugged and duplicated items remain. From there, we can get more information."
He looked at both of them.
"But first, let’s take an oath."
"An oath?" Leila asked.
Rafael still refused to look at her.
"An oath?" Tim repeated.
"Yes. An oath that the three of us stick together, no matter what happens. We’re one, forever."
Tim didn’t need to hear it twice as he reached his hand out. "We are."
"We are," Rafael continued, placing his hand on top of Tim’s.
"This is cringe as fuck," Leila said as she stood up too and placed her hand on top of Rafael’s. "We are."
The three looked at each other.
"We are one, fore—
[WORLD EVENT]
[You have been selected as a Participant.]
[Teleporting in: 5]
[4]
[3]
Rafael’s eyes widened as he saw the notification in front of him, but he knew he was in deeper shit than ever and immediately acted.
"Give me weapons, Tim! Now!"
"Wha—"
"NOW!"
Tim had no idea what was happening, but the look in Rafael’s eyes told him not to ask questions.
He started dumping weapons and everything else from his inventory onto the table, but before Rafael could even grab anything... he disappeared.
A second later, he was standing in a forest. He didn’t even have time to look around properly to see if it was a normal forest or a magical one before the notifications appeared.
[World Event: Slaughter the Orc Horde]
[Participants: 10/10]
[Minimum Contribution: 20 Orcs Slain.]
[Event Duration: 02:00:00]
[Failure to meet the Minimum Contribution before the Event concludes will result in Death.]
Rafael stared at the last line.
Then another notification appeared.
[Special Event Rule]
[Eliminating another Participant will immediately complete the Event and teleport you back.]
[Let the Hunt Begin.]