Chapter 35 – Trade Secret

Oh, this is bad. This is so very bad.

I stand in front of a small player-run restaurant near the docks, trying to weigh my options. If I had half a brain, I would just delete Anna from my friends list and get the hell away from here. Why the hell should I risk my identity for absolutely no gain? What the hell is wrong with you, Ryan?

Turns out, there’s a lot wrong with me. More things than I could possibly list. There is absolutely no reason for me to walk in there, but I’m still going to. Why? Because I’m a sentimental moron, that’s why.

I sigh.

Anna seemed really upset earlier, and she said she needed someone to talk to. I don’t know why she wrote to me who hardly knows her, but some people are weird that way. It’s really none of my business, but I’d feel pretty rotten if I just turned her away. At least after everything she has done for me, unwittingly or not. I owe her, and I don’t think I could live with my conscience if I refused to repay a favor. There’s a difference between being an asshole in the game and outside of it. It’s an invisible line I’m not comfortable crossing. I just hope it’s nothing serious… Or something I did. Oh god. What if it was something I did?

Breathe, Ryan. Breathe. It’s probably got nothing to do with me. I don’t think I’ve done anything to her at all, you know, apart from the obvious. But how would she manage to figure out who I am when we’ve had so little interaction? Impossible. I’m certain she can’t know. Even if she miraculously figured out I’m a Thief Lord, it’s better that I see the dagger coming towards my back now rather than in a week’s time when I’ve lost even more precious gametime. At least now I had the chance to stash my valuables in a container for me to pick back up if I have to reroll my character. No, I’m pretty sure I didn’t do anything at all, really. Although, that is sometimes exactly what I did wrong in the first place…

Argh! I’m way out of my comfort zone here.

I’m not that good with other people’s emotions. They are volatile and random, not following any logical train of thought. Apparently, there is a pattern and a social system to interpret these situations, but someone forgot to give me a manual. I’ve ruined relationships in the past because of my ineptitude to interpret emotions, and I don’t think I will do any better for a complete stranger. Hopefully, just sitting quietly and listen is enough.

I start pacing around. I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up over this. I don’t know her. I could just run away if it gets too bad. She’ll get over it. She probably just had a fight with Brian or something and needs to blow off some steam. And since they are both in the same party, she might not have anyone else to confide in than a stranger. I don’t know how many friends she has, but being a full-time player who is among the high rankers, I doubt she has time to meet too many people.

That’s probably it. I should just head in there, sit in a quiet corner and listen for half an hour before I hurry out of there. Preferably before someone sees something they shouldn’t. Who bothers to inspect someone trying to eat dinner after all? That would be rude. This will be fine…

It better be fine.

With a final, heartfelt sigh, I step out of the alleyway I’m hiding in and towards the restaurant. It’s a pretty ordinary-looking building near a populated street in the Harbour District. The place is run by a couple of players, so I can imagine they didn’t want to spend too much real-life money on starting a restaurant they weren’t sure would work out. Starting a new business is a scary aspect for any person, especially if they aren’t that rich to begin with.

I step through the wooden door and soon find myself in a large open room, similar to most taverns. There are a couple of booths lining the walls, and there are several wooden tables covered by red and white checkered cloths and candles spread out around the floor. There isn’t a bar counter within sight, and I can spot a waitress enter and leave through a door at the back.

The tables themselves aren’t overly impressive, but the atmosphere is surprisingly cozy considering the few decorations they have. The place feels like an Italian restaurant, perfect for young couples going on their first date. I can see why people like coming here.

…

This isn’t a date, is it?

“Ryan, over here!” A voice breaks me out of my thoughts. Turning towards the direction of the sound, I spot Anna sitting in a booth at the far back corner of the restaurant, facing me. She waves me over.

Waving back, I head over towards her while thanking whatever god is watching that she chose to sit in such a secluded spot.

Arriving at the booth, I slide into a seat, making sure to use the walls of the booth to block my sight towards the majority of the restaurant. Well, perhaps it would be more apt to say I’m blocking people’s line of sight of me, as I don’t really care who is in here as long as they don’t have a high Perception score and a curious personality.

“Hey, Ryan. I’m glad you could make it.” She smiles weakly at me, before muttering. “I knew she was wrong…”

“Hello, Anna. I’m sorry I took so long. I am still not used to navigating this city. May I ask who was wrong?”

She blushes. “Oh, nevermind that. It’s no one. Just my stupid sister. We sort of… Well, we had an argument. Nothing big, really.”

Oh, thank god. It has nothing to do with me. I lower my shoulders. “I’m sorry to hear that. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah… No… I don’t know.” She mutters, slumping back in her seat. She sighs. “I may have gotten a little madder than I should have. She is just so… stuck up. In her eyes, everything and everyone is a threat and can not be trusted. She is just so fucking stubborn. It’s just too much sometimes. You know?”

I shift uncomfortably in my seat. Crap. I really hoped I didn’t need to do any of the talking. I try to think about something to say, but I just end up nodding solemnly.

Waiting for an answer that never comes, Anna shakes her head. “I suppose we don’t know each other well enough to talk like this, do we?” She says, her eyes dropping.

Oh. Wrong answer. My face slackens as I try to come up with something better to say. What would be fitting here? Empathy? Understanding? Shit. I don’t know. I know from experience that I should never give advice under these circumstances. I wonder… What would my father say in this situation? What did he tell me when my sister and I fought? Taking a deep breath, I look Anna in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Anna. I may not know much about you or your relationship with your sister, but I know this. Siblings argue. That doesn’t mean they don’t love each other.”

Anna looks sad but smiles weakly. “I suppose you are right about that. We rarely argue, but it’s not the first time. Perhaps I overreacted?”

I shrug in response.

She snorts. “Maybe I did. It’s not that I don’t understand why she is the way she is though. I know she means well, but sometimes she forgets to take other people’s feelings into consideration. She tries to be so incredibly tough, you know? Like she has built this impenetrable shield all around her. But really, she is actually quite the softie on the inside.” She says, shaking her head.

“That’s siblings for you.” I shrug, a smile crossing my lips.

She chuckles. “Hah. Look at me getting all emotional and stuff.” She chuckles as she wipes a tear. “I’m really killing the mood here, aren’t I? Shit. Let’s talk about something else.” She perks up. “Let me go grab a few beers. My treat!” She smiles while slipping out of her seat.

I release a deep breath. That went well. Surprisingly so. Perhaps I’ll get out of here without a problem after all. I shouldn’t keep doing this though. I feel awful just leading her on like this. Some things are just too shitty to do, even if we are in a roleplaying game. The anonymity of the net doesn’t justify being an asshole. I should just figure out a way to break off contact with Anna. It’s the right thing to do.

She quickly returns with a couple of mugs of ale, her customary easygoing smile back on her lips. “So tell me, Ryan, what have you been up to these last few days? Made any progress on that trap you owe me?” She grins.

I smile. “Not yet, I’m afraid. It takes some time leveling up these skills, and it’s very time consuming to talk a trainer into helping me improve my designs. I’m making some progress though, so it’s not all that bad. I’m trying to up my Dexterity score mostly.”

“Haha, I hear you. I was wondering why you arrived with a lute strapped to your back. What is its stats like?”

“Just plus two to Dexterity. The Charisma is also pretty good to have when interacting with merchants. I picked up a pretty good trading skill.”

“Oh? It sounds like you aren’t the fresh noob I met only a few days ago… My little Trap Maker is growing up!” She wipes a fake tear. “He has already reached level-” She frowns. “How did you manage to reach level seven!?”

I freeze. Oh fuck. I completely forgot about that. It’s very uncommon for a new solo player to reach this high in just a matter of days. Especially if they are only night-players. At best, I should only be level three by now. Maybe four if I were stretching it. But, level seven? Shit. I’m glad I headed directly here instead of leveling up again. Now, what do I tell her? Certainly not the truth.

...

“It’s a trade secret.” I say, trying my very best to make my smile look as cheeky as possible.

“Oh, bullshit!” She says loudly, giving me an unamused smile. “I let you get away with that line of crap when you told me you killed off Pug back in the noob district. You aren’t getting away from this one as easily. Spill it!”

“Well…” I mutter. “It just sort of happened by accident.”

“Accident? How do you gain four levels just by an ‘accident’?”

My mind is racing, trying to come up with a solution. I can’t tell her the truth though. I don’t think me suddenly revealing I’m a Thief Lord is going to make my situation any better. I certainly can’t tell her that I gained two whole levels just by killing a level twenty guard by pushing him out a window. That would probably just raise more questions than it answers…

Wait a moment. Why couldn’t that work? Maybe if I modify the story just a tiny bit.

“You might not believe me… But I killed two level twenty monsters by just sheer luck.” I say, shrugging.

“Two level twenty… How the hell did you do that? You were like, what, level two a few days ago!?” She gapes, looking at me as if I’m crazy. I’m slightly impressed that she seems to take me seriously though.

“Yeah, I was exploring down in the sewers below the Market District. Have you been there?” I ask, gauging her reaction. When she just stares at me sceptically, I continue. “Well, there is this large and deep cistern down there, and a bunch of level twenty ratmen. I didn’t see them at first, and when I went to take a better look at the large cistern, I noticed two of them charging at me.

Needless to say, but I panicked pretty heavily. Since I carry trap-making items in my inventory at all times, I reached into my bag and threw a vial of some acid I bought from an alchemist at them. Turns out, I didn’t reach for the vial of acid, but a vial of highly flammable oil. And since I’m not adept with throwing objects at all, the vial flew short and shattered on the stone directly in front of the two ratmen.”

“No fucking way…” Anna mutters, staring at me.

“Yeah, way.” I nod my head sagely, pausing for dramatic effect. Her jaw is still hanging open. I take a moment to clear my throat.

“Don’t tell me that the oil-” She starts, but I cut her off.

“Yup. Believe it or not, but that’s really what happened. It may sound unbelievable, but it happened. The oil is very slippery, and it caused the lead ratman to lose his balance. As the other ratman crashed into him, the two of them slipped and fell into the cistern below. Since the oil was thrown by me, then it seems like I got the credit for the kills, as well as the huge experience gain that came with it.” I shrug helplessly.

Anna’s jaw drops to the floor. “How is that possible… Holy shit! That’s amazing! You need to show me how you did that! That could be huge for my own grinding.” She nearly shouts.

I shake my head.

“Sorry, but I don’t think I can. I tried to reproduce the scenario a few times afterwards, but it turns out I just got really lucky somehow.”

She visibly deflates. “Really? That sucks… It sounds like you found an exploitable glitch and the game’s internal artificial intelligence patched it on the spot… It sounds amazing though.” She sighs while resting her head on the table. “Aww man, I wish I could have found a glitch like that…” She mutters.

“Yes, I was pretty fortunate.”

Anna raises her head, grabbing her mug tightly. She is about to take a swig when her eyes drift to the side. Her easygoing smile immediately drops, and she frowns at whatever it is she sees. I lean around the corner, trying to figure out what drew her attention.

A couple of players just entered the restaurant. I recognize Brian, the tall human templar. I don’t know the woman he is with though. A level fifteen Arcanist of all things. She’s a petite woman wearing a tight-fitting dark blue dress that enhances her beauty, but it’s tailored with practicality in mind rather than procrastination. It looks like something a noblewoman or a female politician would wear in this world. I’m momentarily mesmerized by her long blonde hair that is draped along her back, giving her an aura of beauty that can only be rivaled by Anna.

Come to think of it, her character looks an awful lot like Anna…

The pair takes a look around the room, and their gazes soon fall upon Anna and me. I hear Anna groaning by my side. I turn around, looking at Anna questioningly. Before I can ask her who that is, the two people have already reached our table.

“Hello, Anna. I thought I’d take you up on your offer earlier.” The well-dressed beauty says.

Anna’s frown intensifies. She stares at the beautiful woman in front of her, and they lock eyes for a moment. The tension is unnaturally high, and I try to get eye contact with Brian to find out what’s going on, but the templar has taken a careful step backwards, directing his gaze away from mine.

Eventually, the awkward stalemate is broken when Anna decides to speak.

“Sister.”

…

Oh, boy.