They ran down the empty street of the City Zone, looking for the first door that wasn’t worn and peeling paint. Alex and his team assumed that the sturdy wooden door was most likely where the team had headed.

Alex didn’t know if the doors were locked when other people were in them or not and they didn’t even know when exactly the building would respawn more monsters or if the doors ever changed. He ground his teeth at the simple questions he had yet to bother asking before. It was too easy to get wrapped up in what was happening to remember that this wasn’t some game like he played back on Earth.

Four blocks down and they found what they were looking for. A sturdy wooden door, absent the black metal bands. If Toby and the others had gone searching for this type of door in particular, then this should have been the first one they had come across.

The door was unlocked and the team went in quietly, listening for any sounds of their missing friends. They found themselves in an old abandoned warehouse with dusty shelves and out of commissioned fork lifts. There was a layer of dust covering the abandoned equipment, the shelves and most importantly the floor.

The dust had clearly been disturbed as a trail of several different boot prints could be seen. In fact, it was far too many prints for a team of three to make alone and Alex wondered if they were at the wrong building.

Pressing on in case his suspicions were wrong, the team weaved through the shelves, searching for any signs of life. It took a few minutes until they noticed that not one monster had come out to attack them. That gave the team a small glimmer of hope to latch onto as they kept up their search.

The warehouse was big but they were making their way as quickly and quietly as they could. They stopped when they finally heard someone speaking up ahead. As they stalked closer, Alex made out the familiar accent of the Somali he had met outside of the training rooms.

“How many times do I have to tell you, German? Just accept the contract and this can all stop. We might even be able to save your little Indian friend.”

“Go…fuck…yourselves.” Toby said weakly.

“We should just kill them!” Another voice shouted. “The bitch is all used up, anyways.”

“I will kill…you all.” Toby slurred.

Alex peaked into what must have been the manager’s office. Five people stood around a tied up and beaten Toby. Rishi was lying against the far wall, covered in blood and deathly still. Alex could only hope that since Rishi’s body was still there and not an orb floating in the air, he was still alive. He didn’t see Silvia but there was another door leading from the room. Alex felt his blood start to boil. Why would they need privacy with Silvia, unless…?

He turned to see Ty and Danny in a state of silent rage, their jaws clenched tight and their eyes wide with anger. Apparently, they understood the situation just as well as he did, the unwanted thoughts running through their minds.

Alex put his finger to his lips and then pulled it across his throat. Neither flinched as they gave a single determined nod of agreement. Alex didn’t have the wherewithal to be surprised by his own thoughts or the simple acceptance of his teammates agreeing to murdering these men. All Alex knew at that moment was that these motherfuckers needed to go down.

Alex crept in the room as quietly as he could, with Ty and Danny setting up at the rooms entrance. The Somali and his men surrounded the bloody and beaten Toby, yelling at him to accept the contract and covering any noise that would have given Alex away. Before the group realized that they weren’t alone, Alex pulled out both of his guns. The metal of the grips was cool to the touch and his hands didn’t tremble once as he fired point blank at the backs of two men’s heads.

“Buzz.” Alex said, his words drowned out by the roar of his guns.

Just in case his first shots didn’t kill them, he hoped that his new Modifier would stun them long enough to take out their friends. On Earth, a shot to the back of the head was an instant kill, but here, the System worked differently. The damage might be significant and if the person had low enough Vitality and lacked any armor, it might be enough to take someone down permanently, but Alex wasn’t going to bank on that.

That’s when he noticed that the Onomatopoeia Modifier took 200 Soul Points to use! Alex had used 406 Soul Points for only two rounds. He found that he didn’t necessarily care at the moment.

Ty let loose two arrows in quick succession, both striking the back of a man only a few feet away from Alex. Danny chanted her root spell at the furthest two players, a man who Alex didn’t recognize and the Somali. The green glow of her magic was soon followed by the thorn tipped vines bursting through the concrete floor and tangling themselves around the two men’s legs.

Alex’s first shots had caused the Somali’s men to hesitate, allowing Alex enough time to fire both of his guns at the man with two black arrows sticking out between his shoulder blades. Amazingly, he was still standing, until the twin glowing bullets slammed into the man’s head.

“Sizzle.” Alex said and he watched as the man’s head lit on fire. The human match dropped to the floor and started screaming anew as he hit his own head with his hands, trying to put out the fire.

The Somali looked at his downed teammates and then to Alex. His deep voice roared out in anger as he pointed the largest machete Alex had ever seen in his direction. The thing was horror movie bloody and Alex could almost smell the gore that covered steel. The Somali started hacking away at the vines tangling his feet and Alex realized he wouldn’t stay rooted for long.

Ty kept firing at the men on the ground, each of them screaming or moaning with pain as Danny cast Nature’s Boon on herself, sending out regenerating pulses of green light in every direction. Oddly enough, the enemy players weren’t affected by her spell. It was as if the System knew that these men were their enemy.

As Alex turned his guns towards the Somali, the man immediately stopped his hacking at the vines and jumped forward, ripping the last tangles of vines from the ground. Alex wasn’t expecting that level of speed from the large man.

The Somali crashed into him like a train, his six-foot, muscle bound frame launching Alex through the thin wall of the manager’s office and back into the warehouse. His back of his head hit the ground hard and it took him a moment to regain his bearings. When he could finally see straight, he looked up to see the Somali standing above him, his machete held high in the air.

“Doqon! You and your friends will die for this!”

His arm flashed downward; the machete aimed to cut Alex’s head in half. Alex barely got his arm up in time to block the machete with his vambrace. Thankfully, the thick leather held back the machete’s sharp edge from slicing his arm off, but a loud snap let Alex know a moment before the pain could register, that his arm was broken. Waves of pain were soon running up his right arm but he had the presence of mind to fire his second handgun.

Alex didn’t need to aim. The Somali was only a few feet away. The blue lights of the Soul bullets flashed, each round hitting the man’s armored chest.

“Buzz! Sizzle! Pop! Boom!”

As ridiculous as it was to shout those words while fighting for his life, they were effective. Each bullet that hit had a different effect. Buzz electrocuted, Sizzle burned, Pop seemed to create a pressure wave and Boom exploded. The large Somali was pushed back with each hit and the explosion of the last bullet had him flying back into the manager’s office.

Unfortunately, Alex did not escape the effects of the last two rounds. The Pop had slammed his head back into the concrete floor and the Boom sent shards of what he could only guess were pieces of the Somali’s bones into his legs.

Alex had several cuts that were bleeding freely and he most likely had a concussion as well. He swallowed a Minor Healing Pill and immediately felt his head start to clear and his broken arm snapped into place. That had been painful but when he looked down to see that there were still several open wounds, mostly on his unarmored legs, he realized he was far from healed.

Even though he was mostly healed, he still couldn’t stand. Pulling out another Minor Healing Pill, he swallowed it, hoping that taking only two back-to-back wouldn’t hurt him too badly. Given the warning on their description, it was possible that taking too many at one time would have terrible consequences. He breathed in relief as the pain receded and the wounds on his legs started to close.

Standing up shakily, he moved towards the hole he had so cleverly created with his own body. The Somali was still laying on the floor of the manager’s office, bleeding out of the stumps of where his arm and leg used to be.

“I will kill you!” The Somali shouted, a look of rage and pain plastered on the man’s face. Blood and spittle flew from his mouth, adding to the horror of the moment. “I will kill you all!”

Alex looked up from the gruesome visage to see Danny walking out of the room where Silvia most likely was being kept. Her face was bereft of emotion as she approached the Somali. She lifted up her staff and slammed it into the Somali’s face, again and again, taking out the last few HP he had left. The body disappeared and a red orb floated in the air between them.

“Why?” Alex asked, looking at the open door. He was afraid he already knew the answer, but he needed to hear it. He needed to know that these men were the monsters they had assumed they were when they saw the beaten bodies of their friends.

Danny’s unreadable mask suddenly broke as she fell into his arms, clinging to him desperately as she let out the pain that she had kept within her.

“They…they…!” Danny tried to say through choking sobs. “They raped her! They all raped her!”

Alex’s stomach clinched up as his fears were confirmed. He looked to the three men who still laid on the ground, barely still alive. He felt himself go numb to the world as he stepped away from Danny and past the red orb floating next to them.

They world took on a muted appearance as he stepped towards the men still lying on the floor. He didn’t hear their moans of pain or the cries of mercy, only his boots as they struck the concrete and seemed to echo off the thin metal walls of the room. He felt the unnaturally slow beat of his heart, pounding throughout his entire body.

These men, no, these monsters, were the only thing that Alex’s eyes could seem to focus on. The world around him had blurred out, but these pathetic excuses of life were crystal clear to him. Without warning, without thought, he pulled out is gun and executed the first of them, not even stopping as he walked past to the next pile of filth that needed to be cleansed from this world.

Rishi stepped out of the back room, still looking worse for wear, but far better than Alex. The man stood silently by, waiting until Alex finally felt the world come back into focus. Holstering his gun, he didn’t find the strength to look up into the man’s eyes.

“Is she okay?” Alex asked, almost whispering.

“She is alive.” Rishi said quietly. “But I don’t know if she will ever be okay.”

Alex nodded, still staring at the floor. Ty had also become silent, standing at the other doorway, watching for any other would-be enemies that might approach. Danny headed back into the room where Silvia was and Toby came out a moment later.

“I can’t thank you enough for coming for us.” Toby said. “They trapped us here last night after we cleared the building. Then they…they…” Toby shook with rage. “Thank you for killing them.”

Alex wanted to be happy that his friends were still alive, but he couldn’t bring himself to be.

“I’m sorry we didn’t come last night.” Alex said, still looking down. “I should have listened to Ty. He wanted to search for you guys right away. I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to him.”

Toby looked over to Ty, seeing the usually energetic red panda standing guard, his eyes looking hard as he scanned the warehouse over and over again. Toby walked over to him and wrapped him into a hug, to which broke Ty’s façade as the man started crying quietly.

When Toby turned around, he looked to Alex. Alex was waiting for him to start yelling at him for not coming after them right away. He was waiting for Toby to pull out his sword and attack, but he didn’t. Instead, the German stepped forward and wrapped Alex into a hug as well.

“There’s no way you could have known.” Toby said, through strangled breaths. “The point is, you came.”

Alex felt some hope that he wasn’t to blame. Then Silvia stepped out of the room, being supported by Danny as she struggled to walk. She looked up to see Alex and Ty who both looked down again. To their surprise, she rushed forward as fast as she could and pulled both of them into a tight embrace.

“Danny said you would blame yourselves!” She told them in half sobs. “You idiots! It’s not your fault! Don’t let me ever hear you trying to take the blame for those raping pieces of shit!”

Alex felt his chest constrict. He shook his head, trying to blink away the tears in his eyes when he noticed the floating red orbs. Still unsure if he could look at Silvia without breaking down, he tried to change the subject.

“Do we loot?” Alex asked, his voice cracking as he tried to hold back the tumult of emotions he felt.

“Yes.” Silvia said, staring at the orbs with full contempt and barely constrained rage. “We will use their lives to grow stronger and make sure this never happens to anyone again.”

The group followed Silvia’s lead, looting the five red orbs.

Experience: 5,000 (3,000xp per Player x5(/3))

Souls: 2,500 (1,500 Souls per Player x5(/3))

Loot: Due to the minimum advancement of the deceased players and the size of your group, you will only receive one boon. Upgrade Weapon!

Upgrade Weapon: Your handguns have now advanced to Tier 1!

Congratulations! You have saved someone in need x3! For this Deed, you have received Heroes Calling! Way to go, Hero!

Heroes Calling (Legendary): This necklace will save you or someone else moments after death! Upon use, the necklace will be destroyed!

Congratulations! You have killed a fellow Human x5! You will have -5 to each attribute for the next 24 hours! No good deed goes unpunished!

They all left the building without their usual banter. Danny stayed close to Silvia’s side while the others surrounded them both. It was a quiet walk to the Bellevue but it gave Alex time to accept that he wasn’t to blame. Yes, they could have gone sooner but they couldn’t have known what was happening. Alex still vowed to himself that he wouldn’t hesitate again.

Once they were in the lobby, Danny took Silvia up to her room and Alex and the others went into the Dining Room. Several players noticed Toby and Rishi immediately, some of them excitedly waving while others were asking where Silvia was.

Toby addressed them all.

“You all might notice that there is another group not with us right now. They will not be joining us ever again.” That caused a stir as people looked around and noticed the Somali’s group was not there. “Last night, my team had finished clearing a building. The Somali and his group had followed us inside and attacked us.” There were several gasps from the crowd.

“The Somali’s Class was Slaver and he was trying to force me and my friends to sign a contract that would bind us in servitude. He and his friends beat Rishi and I, nearly to death, and they…abused Silvia as well.” Shouts of outrage were heard as several members of the crowd starting cursing. Toby raised his hand, gaining the crows attention again.

“Thanks to Alex, Danny and Ty, those men are now dead. They came looking for us and when they realized what had happened, they did not hesitate to save us. That is why it is so important for all of us to help each other.

“There will always be monsters among us and we must make sure those monsters die before they can prey on the rest of us. All of us know how evil we Humans can be but we also have proof, here and now, that there will always be good men and women to face those evils.

“That is why we need to grow stronger. Use your xp to upgrade your armor and weapons. Search the System Shop for Modifiers that will help you…and others. Don’t rush off to level ten until at least the next hundred players arrive. They will need our help! They will need our guidance! We have enough to worry about with the System trying to kill us every day. We cannot turn our backs on our own. And like Alex, Danny and Ty, I will kill anyone who tries to impede us of saving our friends and family back home.”

There were shouts and applause as he finished his speech. Several women were openly crying at the prospects that it could have been them being raped and enslaved. Several men had turned angry and started heading into the city to destroy something evil as well. Toby didn’t bother saying anything else as he and Rishi walked from the dining room, back to their own rooms. Alex and Ty followed, not wanting to be congratulated for what they had seen or what they had done.

“Are you okay, Ty?” Alex asked as they walked up the carpeted steps.

“No, man. I’m not.” Ty said. “Heard a lot about that kinda stuff happening on the news and stuff, but it was never so real.”

“Yeah, me neither.” Alex said. “All we can do is try and stop it before it happens again. Humans can be the scariest monsters we ever face here.”

Rishi and Alex lived on the same floor and as they walked down the empty hallway, Rishi turned to Alex.

“I have never been so scared in my life and yet, when I heard them in the other room with Silvia, I could do nothing.

“I don’t know when Silvia or Toby will be ready to go back out, but we will get stronger. We will do any and everything to win this game.”

Alex nodded. “And we will be there with you all. You can always call on us for help.”

Rishi smiled. “And you can count on us to back you up as well. Thank you, for coming for us.”

They said their goodbyes and Alex took a long shower, trying to scrub away the filth of those rapists from his skin. He had never killed anyone before and he felt oddly okay with taking the lives of those pathetic excuses of human beings. He knew he would do it again in a heartbeat if he needed to. That was the thought worried him though. It felt a little psycho to think that way, but then again, there were no police or government or army to stop those types of people here, and someone needed to.

After his shower, Alex looked over his upgraded guns. They felt lighter and the triggers were easier to pull back. As he became familiar with the upgraded weapons, he wondered if he would ever have to kill someone again. He hoped not, but he wasn’t going to bet on it.

Not sure of what to do next, he looked over the System Shop. The tab for his Soul Survivors Class had a few things he could afford but he needed to level so he could grab the next weapon and armor upgrade along with Soul Adept.

Soul Adept

9,000xp

Upgrade Armor (Tier 2)

10,000xp

Upgrade Weapon (Tier 2)

10,000xp

Since Soul Disciple wasn’t an Evolution based Modifier, he wanted to see if his friends would be willing to get it as well. It might be able to enhance their damage output, but it would also slow their progression down. That should be fine. They needed as many tricks up their sleeves as they could get. This wasn’t a sprint; it was a marathon and slow and steady wins the race.

The next morning, he was surprised as he watched Toby, Silvia and Rishi come down and join them for breakfast.

“How are you feeling?” Danny asked as Silvia sat beside her.

“I’m actually feeling a lot better than before.” She spoke. “We all received a specialized loot item called Magical Prozac Pill from an Accomplishment about surviving a traumatic experience. The description was bullshit but it did help.”

Danny smiled. “Alex actually received that when we cleared the Event. He mentioned that it helped him with his past trauma as well.

“Event? What Event?” Rishi asked, the Indian man sitting forward in his seat.

Ty jumped in and regaled them about the gated park with snakes that could turn them into stone, as well as the semi-nude mermaid. The group was soon laughing as he explained that they had literally walked into the most obvious trap ever made.

“Hey,” Alex started. “I know everyone here has an idea of what their builds are going to be, but I wanted to see if you guys wouldn’t mind taking up the Soul Disciple Modifier. It would take some time and grinding but I think the benefits are too good to turn away from.

“I have actually been considering it and I have enough xp to get it now.” Danny said. “Though I think you receive more Souls than we do because of your Soul Survivor Class.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked. “Haven’t you all been receiving Souls?”

“Some.” Toby said. “As of now, I only have about two thousand.”

Alex winced; he had gotten several times more than that already.

“I’m still up for it.” Danny said. “It will take us longer to upgrade but I still think it’s worth it.”

“Well, just in case, make sure you get your weapons and armor to Tier one.” Alex said. “We know those are a benefit to you all and if the Soul Disciple automatically uses your Soul Points with every attack, it might be best if you don’t get it.”

“Were you planning to go out today?” Toby asked.

Alex shook his head. “We will have a debuff on us for most of the day. We could use the training rooms or attempt to raise another attribute. See how long it actually takes to raise it a third time through training.”

“Might as well.” Rishi said. “Give those who follow us more information to work with.”

They all agreed and trained for the rest of the day. As Alex had expected, it took nine hours to raise his next Strength stat to nine. Not wanting to spend nine hours on another stat, they all used the training rooms for the rest of the day, working on polishing up their skills.

Name: Alex Donner

Age: 24

Race: Human

Level: 7

EXP: 5,300/6,000

Class: Soul Survivor

Soul Tier 1: 5,300

HP: 205

MP: 110

Vitality: 16

Strength: 9

Agility: 20(30)

Dexterity: 20(30)

Wisdom: 8

Intelligence: 7