Metropolis - Goldilocks: Capsule Bay 237 - Unit 2

Thursday, May 14th, 2089 | 08:52am

[Status: In-Game]

A gust of wind blew through the dry grass stalks. The many months of drought had made some of them so brittle that they cracked at the slightest persuasion, succumbing to the seductive whispers of the wind. A few broken stalks brushed Aya’s face on their way through. It was a itchy sensation that was hard to ignore. Many of the other players twitched and scratched at their arms. Luckily, Aya’s coat prevented the same from happening to her. She couldn’t help taking note of the fact that Foot, Xavier, and Frank seemed completely unbothered.

Her eyes scanned the members of Serving Time, all of whom were making an effort to control the urge to scratch. The group of players Xavier had recruited was behind Serving Time, and they, like Xavier and Foot, were also completely unperturbed. Pursing her lips, trying to figure out what it meant. She felt like the answer was right in front of her, like she knew it, but couldn’t remember. Her eyes went back to scanning the Serving Time players, but instead of coming up with the answer, she realized that they were all waiting for something, apparently, from her.

Aya: So what now?

Xavier: For Christ’s sake. Don’t you have anything planned?

Aya started composing a reply, but decided against it. If Xavier had something to say, he would say it. Instead of wasting words on him, she had better figure out what to do now. The moment was getting more tense and awkward by the moment. Although it was probably only a couple seconds, it felt like much longer to Aya. Eventually, she found herself just blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

“So,” she said. “What now?”

She wanted to kick herself. The scorpion-boss snapped his tail to the side in an almost casual manner. His feral grin took any casualness from the move and replaced it with menace.

“I figure it’s in your best interest to agree to my proposal,” Aya said before the man had a chance to speak and take advantage of her misstep.

“And why is that?”

“Hmmm,” Aya said, holding her chin sarcastically. “Maybe it’s ‘cause we outnumber your noobs and oh yeah, you’re convicts, so you’ll have to log out soon, I imagine. What? Nine a.m., right?”

“And you’re exempt from that because…” the scorpion man said, eyes on the symbol above her head.

“Cuz I’m special,” said Aya.

He looked at her. “Or you’re from Goldilocks.”

Aya shrugged. “Or that.”

The inhuman scorpion boss sighed and crossed his arms. Aya could tell he was looking at his display, not her. Not seeing the harm in giving him time to think, she let her gaze wander over the people in the field. Apart from Serving Time members and the group Xavier had recruited, there was now a growing number of spectators by the shop. Many customers had been attracted by the sound or sight of dozens of players, and they in turn had probably called their friends as well. Their customers alone could not account for the number of people watching.

Aya: Who is in charge of the shop?

Xavier: One of the noobs you hired. Who else?

Aya shrugged at the blacksmith, who had given her a sidelong glance equivalent to a sigh and an eyeroll. He was very expressive for a stoic man.

“All right,” the boss finally said. “What are your proposed rules?”

“One-on-one fights by level. If there is a level difference, players can still fight if both agree to it. That way, the slightly mismatched can still get a fight in.”

“All right,” the boss said. “But who wins?”

Aya looked at the horde of criminals behind the man and wondered if she was doing the right thing. Part of her wanted to negotiate with the man so that he’d walk away with his debt and leave her alone. However, as her eyes veered to the side to admire the shop and then back to Furia, who was standing nearby, she couldn’t help but try a winner-take-all approach. Her side didn’t need to know how much she had on Serving Time, all they needed to know was that they had to fight to guarantee their independence from the convict guild. Aya wondered if she should feel guilty about using them, but she comforted herself with the fact that if it weren’t for her, they’d still be in the same situation they were a week ago.

“The first side to two hundred and fifty points,” Aya said. “One win is one point.”

Now they just needed a Contract to make things binding.

Three fights and countless near-deaths later, Aya was seriously reconsidering her rule choice. Her already-grimy body was now covered with dried blood and sweat. She’d long discarded her robe and deposited her superfluous items in the shop. They’d agreed on a resting period after each fight, but it wasn’t enough to stop fatigue from settling into her bones. No matter how much weight she discarded, her body felt heavier after each fight, her moves more sluggish.

Catching her breath, she watched one of the nearby duels. Her side had started off strong, winning most of its first fights, but as Serving Time members logged out and were replaced by fresh convicts, her group’s initial advantage started to slip. Their current score was 199 to 171, their lead was shrinking and they still needed 51 points. At the time, more fights had seemed like a good way to even her odds, but Aya was beginning to think she’d shot herself in the foot with the decision.

She’d expected to be an extremely incompetent fighter and had put her first duel off as long as she could, but when the fight against another level 15 player started, she realized she’d been wrong. Her first opponent had been a bulky female warrior with gaudy pink hair. Afraid and skittish, Aya had jumped around as much as she could at first, unwilling to engage in combat, but as she loosened up, she realized how slow her opponent was. Whenever Aya dodged, it would take the pink haired half-ogre another second to finish her attack. With time, Aya saw that second for the opportunity that it was and started launching her attacks.

With each attack the pink-haired woman delivered, Aya got better at timing and soon, she found the sweet spot she needed to land critical hits. Unfortunately, the damage Aya inflicted with ten of her carefully-placed attacks was about the same as any of the pink-hair’s attacks.

Defeating pink-hair was a slow and grueling process, especially as the warrior had time to heal between attacks, but Aya persevered. The rules dictated that an opponent’s health be brought down to 10% for the player to win and it took a very long time for all of Aya’s Bleed Skills to stack enough to take sufficient effect but eventually, she walked away panting, wounded and tired, but victorious.

As the fights progressed, Aya became more confident in her abilities, surprised at how fast she was in comparison to other level 15 players. That confidence almost cost Aya her life in her third fight. The Serving Time member she was paired up against pretended to be a lot slower than he really was for the first half of the fight. It made Aya less attentive than she should have been and the thief almost landed a killing blow to her abdomen. While the Contract would stop any blows below 10% health from taking effect, it couldn’t stop someone from delivering a killing blow at 11 or 12%.

Letting herself get caught up in her opponent's pace was a stupid mistake. The moment Aya realized it, she knew she should have known better. It was the exact way she herself had gained the upper hand in her first two fights. She’d purposefully led her opponents to misjudge her and now she was falling for the same trick. Luckily, she survived the mistake. She was severely wounded and bruised, but alive. She didn’t have much time between her fights and by the time she heard another of Foot’s victorious yowls, it was already time for her fourth fight.

Heading over to the rough area they’d established as a match-up zone, Aya was getting ready to start advertising her level when her eyes landed on the back of the head that had caused her to burn with resentment for nearly a week.

“Furia!” Aya found herself calling out before she could stop herself.

Furia turned at the sound of her name, frowning when she saw who was calling her. They approached each other in silence, giving Aya time to reconsider her actions. Instead, she spent all of it thinking about how Furia had duped her in the past and set Aya’s progress back the entire week. By the time they were facing each other, all that Aya could think about was payback.

“What do you want, you little midget-ass bitch?” Furia asked.

“To tear you a new one,” Aya said, provoked by the woman’s obvious dismissal of her. “But I guess beating you on a one-on-one will have to do.”

“You want to duel me?!” Furia asked incredulously.

“Unless you’re too scared. I guess I do need to ask for consent, since our levels are different and all.”

“You do realize I’m two levels higher than you, right?”

“Which makes this…” Aya made a hand gesture between them, “all that more pathetic.”

“You…” Furia started, but then just crossed her arms and said. “Oh, it’s so on, you little dwarf-ass-bitch.”

“Really?” Aya asked, scoffing. “That’s the best you got?”

Furia clenched her jaw in anger and Aya grinned. They signed their names to the Contract for the duel. It would make sure no more cheap shots were allowed after someone’s health got below 10%. Then, they made their way to the nearest open space they could find amongst the dozens of fights going on simultaneously. It took them a while to find one and by the time Aya got there, she was seriously reconsidering her revenge-driven actions.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, she told herself she could do it. Aya had been able to evade one of Furia’s attacks, which meant it was possible and repeatable. Bending her knees, she readied herself for an attack. After watching countless of beasts killed by Donovan and other players, Aya had discerned a general attack pattern. After killing some herself, Aya knew that unless you knew you overpowered your opponent, making the first move was stupid. Putting the knowledge she’d learned over the last week to use, she crouched and waited.

As expected, Furia didn’t even take a breath before she launched an all-out attack. Aya saw all kinds of openings in the woman’s form, but decided to err on the side of caution. The chances of Furia’s attack being powerful enough to kill her in one hit were low, but Aya also knew that her character was very ‘squishy’. So instead, she sidestepped it, but three evasions later Aya was already regretting her decision. Furia was on a completely different league from all the other players she’d fought. The woman probably belonged to a warrior class of some sort, but it was obvious from her moves that she’d also invested a significant amount of time into her speed and agility stats. The woman got faster with each move, matching Aya’s speed and then some.

Aya tried to use her previous strategy of evasion and small, cumulative attacks, but it soon became obvious that it wasn’t going to work. All the other times, she had time to dodge and counterattack before the opponent could recover from their attacking move. Furia however, was ready to retaliate almost instantly. They went around and around, Furia launching attack after attack while Aya dodged them one after another. Furia was becoming more and more irritated with Aya’s evasive maneuvers and Aya was becoming more and more fatigued with every move.

Suddenly, Furia took a break, leaning her sword on the ground while she smirked at Aya. The bitch knew Aya couldn’t make the first move, and because of that, Furia would eventually have the advantage. Aya gritted her teeth, hating the woman more every second. The hatred Aya felt for the con-woman came to full bloom, festering with malice. Aya wished that discarding unnecessary weight hadn’t also resulted in her stashing away her last vial of Slither venom. She could think of more than a couple of uses for the vial at that moment.

However, it looked like she wouldn’t be able to rely on any dirty tricks. She’d have to remain vigilant for them – she wouldn’t put anything past Furia, not anymore – but Aya would only be able to rely on her own skills for the fight. Not even her squawking sidekick was doing her any good. Henry was being more of a distraction on the sidelines than anything else. Aya felt a hot wind around her ankles, and before she could process exactly what she was doing, she’d activated her Stealth and was on the attack.

Aya’s move took Furia as much by surprise as it had Aya, but the moment she felt the warm wind, she knew it would be her only chance. The use of Stealth would only give her a split-second advantage, but paired with the sand-loaded wind that grated on the extra-sensitive skin of all convicts, Aya was able to take advantage of the moment to use Bleed and stick her dagger all the way in Furia’s throat.

It was a critical hit; Aya didn’t need the silent notifications to know that. It took half of Furia’s health and one of her hands went up to clutch at her neck, while the other gripped her sword more tightly. Furia’s look of contempt was immediately replaced by one of cautious hate. Aya knew that look, it was probably the look she’d worn the whole week. Furia grimaced and snarled as if she were the one that had a grudge.

Aya’s critical Bleed hit was taking effect and Furia’s health was soon down to 30%. With 20% left to go, Aya didn’t have the chance to slow down. If Furia recovered now, she’d never let Aya get so close again. Suddenly, Aya just saw Furia as another opponent. The woman’s sudden change of demeanor toward Aya had shown her something she should have seen a week ago. At the end of the day, the bitch was just a bitch. The way Aya saw it, she’d have to deal with dozens of them until she was through with her time at Goldilocks. Why get hung up on this one?

With this new mentality at hand, the rest of the fight went by in a flash. Aya’s moves were no longer hampered by emotion. With a purely clinical view of her movements she was able to see more clearly, move more quickly, react more decisively. Before she knew it, Aya was witnessing Furia’s final hate-filled glare before she pixelated out of existence. Aya might or might not have ‘accidentally’ pushed Furia’s health to 11% before using the Bleed skill with her remaining dagger aimed at the left side of Furia’s neck.

Aya was spent. Furia’s fight had taken way longer than it should have and her other fights had also been on the long side. There was another fight awaiting her, but she just needed a moment to catch her breath. Before the next duel, Aya made a point of going back to the shop and collecting a couple of the items she’d felt the absence of during her fight. Part of her felt like it was cheating, but the larger part chose to listen to her imaginary Donovan-voice that told her in his stoic, matter-of-fact way that it wasn’t cheating to be prepared.

When the Slither venom, an extra blade and a couple scraps of cloth were secured around her person, Aya made her way back to the player-filled field. She’d need to find another opponent soon, before any more Serving Time members were exchanged. With each new wave of fresh convicts, it was becoming harder for her group to maintain the lead. She checked the score and was horrified to see that it had almost disappeared.

246 : 245

Out of the corner of her eye, Aya saw Donovan paired off against the scorpion-boss. The boy had moved over to their side at some point during the initial rounds, completely going back on his previous statements of not wanting to put himself at risk. The man Donovan fought was a lethal weapon, using his tail as a natural extension of his body. Aya couldn’t help but wonder how long it had taken the scorpion-man to master an extra appendage in the game. Getting used to her lower height was about all she seemed able to manage. On Donovan’s side, there wasn’t much to tell. The boy was as expressive as always, dodging and moving like he was mimicking sketch-book poses. They looked unnatural, but the transition between them was so fluid you didn’t notice until it was already over. It seemed like only a few seconds later, Donovan was standing above the scorpion man with a sword to his throat. Aya then watched as Donovan carved an X into the man’s chest and said, “Ten percent” before cleaning his sword, sheathing it, and walking off.

247:246

Donovan’s score helped them, but another fight had also ended badly for her side. Some jeweler had been paired against a fresh Serving Time ogre and was promptly disemboweled. Luckily, the remains floated away in colorful little pixels, leaving nothing other than a depressing score behind. Looking for one of the last duels, Aya caught the final moments of one of Xavier’s fights. The blacksmith had gone undefeated and as his hammer crashed into his adversary’s skull, it seemed like he was intent on keeping it that way.

248:246

Taking a deep breath, Aya decided it was time to hunt down her last opponent, but before she could even move, she heard a group of new arrivals. Aya cringed when she saw over a dozen new Serving Time members arrive to the scene. She was regretting not having moved faster on seizing an opponent when she realized something was different about this new group of arrivals. Unlike most of the Serving Time members they had been fighting, these were much better equipped. One of them had armour that was completely detailed with gold highlights. If the craftsmanship had been anything less than perfect, the piece would have been the gaudiest piece of metal in existence. As it was, Aya could only be amazed by it. After seeing so many pieces of armor in the shop, she’d gained some appreciation for good work. When the man approached and she didn’t hear a single clink or scrape from his armour, she knew he was the real deal.

“YESSSSS!” Foot suddenly shouted, coming to stand beside her. “Finally, someone strong.”

Aya looked at the kid, whose eyes were glittering with excitement, and then back at the approaching figure. The man was of medium height, green eyes and tan skin that was covered in what initially looked like tattoos. When he got closer, Aya realized it was just his skin. Aya tried to think back to the character creation menu, but couldn’t think of what species the man belonged to.

“So,” said the nicely-armored guy, “you’re the one causing us all the trouble here?”

“Trouble?” Aya asked, looking at the rest of the players in his group.

Although they were all armed in much higher quality gear than the Serving Time members thus far, none of them rivaled the leader in level. In fact, most of them seemed to be in the high teens or low twenties. She’d become quite adept at recognizing levels by gear at the shop, but she hadn’t known the skill would be paying off so soon.

As Aya looked over the players, one of them stood out. It was a tall girl with bright orange skin and dark red hair streaked with lighter red. She reminded Aya of someone, but Chris couldn’t place her immediately. The colorful features the girl had chosen were too overwhelming.

“Yes, trouble,” the man said. “If I have to involve myself directly. It’s trouble.”

“Can I fight him!?” Foot interrupted. “Can he be my partner? No one else wants to!”

Foot made puppy eyes at her, but since the boy was taller than Aya, the effect was greatly diminished.

“Ohmigod, ohmigod,” said the eerily familiar girl, stepping up next to the not-tattooed man “is that you, Chris?”

The face immediately registered and a feeling of pure dread sunk into Aya’s stomach. Shock coursed through Aya’s body and propelled a word out before she could think twice about the implications.

“…Yaz?”