“Pheeew, that was brutal.” Derrick sighed as he met up with Eli in front of the school, hoards of other students slowly piling out on that monday afternoon. “How’d you do? I saw you playing all weekend so I know you didn’t study.”

“Eh, nothing unexpected.” Eli shrugged.

“Dammit you’re like a walking textbook. The world isn’t fair.” Derrick groaned. “I’ve almost got the last of the common skills for my Archer class though. I know there’s hidden ones but, man even the basic skills are rough to get. Should be back in Orm soon, hopefully. How are you doing with your class skills?”

“Uh… I’ve just got the starting ones...”

“You better step it up. Priests get some crazy support skills even before you go intermediate. What the heck have you been doing?”

“Mining. Oh and killed a boar boss with Selena.” Eli replied.

“The quiet girl you asked about?” Derrick glanced at the crowds of students around them trying to find her. “She should be here too, right? Is she any good?”

“I think so, I mean she killed a boss really fast. And I think she’s leveling faster than you.” Eli shrugged.

“That’s not fair, I gotta rent my damn Simbox. How are you doing on the money front, can you buy me one yet?”

“Just got to Iron.” Eli grinned with pride.

“Damn, nice! You found some already?” Derrick looked impressed.

“N-no. Just got the quest complete to learn to mine it, haven’t even turned it in yet. Gonna start on that as soon as I get home.”

“What about the next exam tomorrow?”

“Eh… I’ll be okay.” Eli shrugged.

“So unfair.” Derrick groaned again. “Oh, hey you don’t watch any of the streams or news networks right? You should know there’s something big happening on Lanusk island.” Derrick said as they reached the sidewalk in front of the school, both waiting at the bus stop with several other students.

“Lanusk? That’s the island my mom is playing on.” Eli's ears perked up with interest.

“Well, I hope she doesn’t own any land there. Some crazy abyssal invasion took place with these giant boss level monsters - apparently they went after the Corestones that keep the islands from falling out of the sky. There was a top guild, I can’t remember the name-” Derrick was interrupted by a random boy at the bus stop who was listening in on their conversation.

“Star Knights, 8th best ranked guild in the world. The Behemoth wiped the floor with them, saw it live. It was crazy.” He said excitedly, to which Derrick pointed and gave a nod.

“Exactly. The island is in the process of sinking, so a bunch of players are loading up stuff on airships to escape. Apparently all the players on Lanusk are being forced to new islands, losing all their land and stuff.” Derrick spoke while turning to invite the stranger into the conversation outright.

“It’s not that bad though, I heard that anything they have in storage will get moved to their new island.”

“Can you put horses in storage?” Eli asked curiously.

“N-no.” Derrick replied.

“Oh man my mom is going to be so upset.” Eli sighed, the stranger put his hand on his shoulder to show sympathy, but Eli just gave a strange stare to the overly friendly stranger.

“Sorry for your loss, my condolences.” Eli and Derrick looked at each other and Derrick just shrugged.

“At least she can come to Orm now, right?” Derrick replied.

“I heard most of the players are going to Savringard. Now that people know the Abyss can attack and sink islands, they all want to go to the Island with the number 1 player on it. Makaroth did a whole speech where he said he’d make sure he protects everyone on Savringard no matter what, it was pretty epic.” The boy replied with enthusiasm. To this, Eli lifted up his hand off his shoulder and dropped it.

“Hooray for Makaroth.” Eli cheered sarcastically while now glaring at empty air just as the bus was pulling up. The three got on the bus one by one, Derrick excitedly talking about the event with the other boy while Eli fell silent and listened in here and there.

“Ah- Hi Eli!” Selena whispered from a distance, the last second before Eli got on the bus and out of her view. She’d been idling around at a distance, hiding amongst the crowds of students while trying to build up the confidence to say something to him. By the time she had, she was too quiet and he was already on the bus, unable to hear her.

She huffed and kicked at a tiny pebble on the ground. “I’m so stupid.” She mumbled to herself.

When Eli walked through the front door he could hear muffled whimpering coming from the living room.

“Mom? Everything alright?”

“Oh Eli!” his mom wailed as she came around the corner holding a half-knitted horse made out of wool. “It’s terrible, Lanusk - my horse Speedy, he-.” She got in between her sniffles as she tucked her head onto his shoulder.

“Mom, it’s just a virtual horse. You can get a new one in Kalmoore, can’t you?”

“Heartless.” She grumbled under her breath, but her crying cleared up almost immediately - Eli had figured she wasn’t being serious.

“What is that?” He pointed to the half-knitted creature.

“I’m making a stuffed version of Speedy. To remember him by.” She replied as she made her way back to the living room while Eli took off his shoes.

“Aren’t you going to ask how my exam went?”

“Oh who cares about that, my poor Speedy is gone. I already know you aced it.” She waved at him dismissively before picking up her knitting tools - Eli chuckled.

“So you’re coming to Kalmoore now?”

“Yes, and you better have a new horse ready for me. I’ve already thought of a name. Spoody.”

“Very creative. Unfortunately I’m fresh out of horses so you’re on your own, I’ve got some crafting to do.”

“Then make me a nice bridle for Spoody.” She called up as he started ascending the stairs.

“Spoody doesn’t even exist yet.”

“Oh Spoody will exist, don’t you worry. He’s going to be twice as fast as Speedy.” His mom called back to him as he reached the Simbox. The moment he sat in it, the only thing on his mind was Iron.

When he entered the game world he found himself back in Orm once more, the chatter of the other players around him was abuzz with the Abyss Invasion and Lanusk, but Winter had Iron on his mind and went straight to the Craftsman Guildhall, into the basement to look for the Chief Miner Belthas. However when he got there, Belthas was nowhere to be found. He went back up to the front desk to Hoggan.

“Eh, y’alright there Winter? What can I do for yeh?” He asked as he looked up from some parchment on his desk.

“Looking for Belthas, finished the task he gave me.” Winter replied quickly.

“Ah, ol’ Belthas, he’s fallen ill just like half the village. Yeh ought to find him at the church with the others, healer’s tryin’ to fix him up. I’d only go if it’s urgent.” Hoggan replied.

“Okay, thanks.” Winter replied with a confused expression, he wasn’t expecting something like sickness to affect NPCs, but shrugged it off and headed towards the church of Eirene with the large white star sitting atop the belltower.

When he walked inside, the interior had changed. The pews had been pushed against the far wall and many beds lined the walls on either side instead. Along with Priestess Clara, several other priests of Eirene and players were walking around carrying potion bottles or trays of herbs to various patients resting in the beds.

The patients themselves looked sickly pale, sweating profusely and coughing heavily - the ones who were awake had bloodshot eyes. After a few steps inside he got the attention of Priestess Clara who rushed over to intercept him.

“Good, you’ve finally returned. Have you found the source of the sickness?” She asked with desperation.

“N-no… what about those flowers you had me gather?” Eli asked, confused.

“Yes, they slow it down, but this sickness seems to be created from a creature's blood. If I don’t know what creature it is, I can’t cure it properly… I’m not good enough with alchemy. These other priests are trying…” She motioned to the other players pacing around, all of them looking extremely stressed, his eyes drawn towards a little girl wearing ragged clothing crying over a bedside with a middle-aged woman sleeping in it.

“Momma, please wake up, momma!” The girl shook the lady's arm. It was surreal, it took a moment for Winter to accept the situation, these NPCs, these people, were deathly ill and showed symptoms he’d studied about - symptoms of some form of poisoning.

“I thought it was just a quest…” Winter mumbled back at Clara.

“Do you think I give out quests and tasks for fun?” Clara glared at him before storming away, tending to the patients once more. He walked slowly through the church looking at the many filled beds of sick people, it was of all ages - and races. The youngest being a boy not more than 5 years old being watched over by his parents.

Eventually Winter arrived at the bed of Belthas. He was laying conscious, staring up at the ceiling of the church.

“Hey, Belthas, you alright?” Winter asked him.

“Hugh.” He coughed as he tried to sit up. “Aye, ain't no sickness gonna bring me down. Yeh managed to get the copper, eh?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Good on yeh, knew you’d have the knack.” He coughed profusely. “Soon as I’m up ‘n better, I’ll show yeh what yer wantin’ to know. Just gotta rest a bit here.”

“A-alright.” Winter replied nervously. He looked over the hall anxiously, feeling guilt about what he was seeing. Was this caused by him not doing his quest? He wondered. He watched as Priestess Clara walked over to a young man laying on one of the beds and checked his pulse. She then knelt over him and said a prayer and motioned another priest over. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it didn’t take a genius to figure it out. The man was dead.

Winter frantically opened up his messaging system to see Silentwire and Davoth online.

“Yo Davoth, what happens when an NPC dies in the game, do they respawn?” Winter asked him.

“Huh? No, they stay dead. They all run off of Averon’s AI to simulate real people with real lives.” Davoth replied.

“Shit.” Winter mumbled to himself as he looked over the room once more, seeing the girl crying over her mother, the little boy, and Belthas, among many others sick. In that instant he was struggling to seperate what he was seeing from reality.

“Clara, I’m going, I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Winter shouted to her as he rushed out of the building.

“Please hurry.” She pleaded. The moment Winter stepped out of the church he was met by Herilon heading towards him.

“Yo, Winter. We didn’t formally introduce ourselves before, right? Apologies for being rude.” He spoke imposingly, blocking Winter’s path.

“Y-yeah, nice to meet you.” Winter replied, the two shaking hands briefly.

“You’re a priest, aren’t you? Got any quests related to what's going on here in Orm? A lot of the people are getting sick, looks like it’s getting worse. Productivity here is way down.” Herilon asked, sucking his teeth. “It’s a pain in the ass.” he mumbled under his breath. Winter decided not to answering, he figured this guy would get even more annoyed with him if he found out that it was a result of Winter not doing his quest. Based on how he was speaking, Winter could surmise that Herilon knew who he was now.

“I think they’re being poisoned somehow. That’s what Priestess Clara just said.”

“Alright, thanks. I’ll call one of our high level Clerics here to hopefully sort it out.”

“How long will that take?” Winter asked.

“A week or so in-game I think. They’re pretty deep into the Kordas Crypts with the rest of the guild.” Herilon shrugged. Not soon enough, Winter thought.

“Okay, well, see you around.” Winter replied, showing him a nod of respect as he moved on back towards the center of Orm. He surprised himself, he thought he would be mainly worried about Belthas dying, but the first image that popped into his head was the little girl and boy, one with a sick mother and the other sick himself.

Who would poison the villagers of Orm? His mind began to wander as he paced up and down the busy village streets. It began before he arrived in Orm, so it was unlikely related to his appearance or another player. It must be another NPC with some malicious intentions. The targets seem random, indiscriminate of race, gender, or age. That means that the poisoner isn’t choosing targets specifically, but rather poisoning through something that they’d all come in contact with.

With a goal of poisoning random targets indiscriminately, it made him think of terrorist motivations, someone who disliked Orm in general and not a particular person. But he didn’t know enough about the village to use that to narrow it down to anyone. Rather than focus on the person behind it, he ought to focus on the source of the poison.

“The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Easiest way to spread poison indiscriminately is…” He thought aloud, then opened up his messaging system to find Ruffily online.