First thing the next morning, Colin went for a jog that woke himself up before showering and going to the store. They needed food, and McKenna coerced him into going before he got into the game for the day. Just because he was retired with a large bank account didn’t mean that Colin didn’t have to work. McKenna used her work as an excuse not to have to go to the store.

Soon enough, Colin was home and getting ready for his day of gaming. Every night, two thus far since he’d started the game, he’d researched the game and learn things that he planned to use quickly. Like how most players used the game’s options and game alerts to tell the player when their real bodies are getting hungry, thirst, or needed to use the restroom. He also learned that most players took brief stops to take care of such business. These people usually used the games’ soft logout’ function to make reintegrating into the world quick other but left a sleeping husk in the game, unlike the usual logout function, which made one disappear from it.

Usually, people needed to use their party members to watch their quiet husks to avoid looting or murder. This function was useless for Colin since he wasn’t going to join a party anytime soon, so he’d just have to tread carefully when using this function.

To make these jumps quick, he set up a container of cold pizza from a few nights previous and a covered pitcher of water near him. Nothing fancy, but they would make it easier to stay in the game longer if he didn’t feel dehydrated when leaving the game.

With his future needs prepared for, Colin put on the helmet and logged into the game.

When he reappeared, he was in the high guard barracks again, which made Colin unsure as to what happened. When he left the game, he was just outside Solis’s family bar called ‘Brew Perfection,’ and now he was back where he first appeared in the world.

Getting up from his prone position on the bed, Colin found that he was in the clothes that Solis had given him and quickly found the rest of his gear in the trunk at the foot of the bed. He guessed that this is what happens when you log out completely compared to soft logouts.

This wasn’t a problem since he had all his stuff and nothing had changed in his status since he’d last been on, all was fine.

Name: DevilWalker. Nickname; Walker. Level 4. Class:none. Subclass: none. Health:130/130 Mana: 0/80

status: Normal.

Personal attributes: Strength: 10 Dexterity:10 Speed: 10 Build: 10 Intellect: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma:10 Luck: 10 Skills: Stealth level 5, Personal Blades level 4, Acrobatics Level 3, Tumble level 1, Improvised crafting level 1, Knowledge: Spiritcraft level 1, Detect Falsehood level 1.

Sighing, Colin groaned at how he needed to get a class soon. It wouldn’t be long before he met someone who could defeat him in pure level strength alone because he hadn’t been allocating his attribute points. Luckily, he was one quest way from getting a crack at it.

A smile on his face, Colin left the barracks and walked past the practice fields where people were practicing their skills. Through the usually congested area where the townsfolk continuously seem to get in each other’s way. From here, Colin withdrew his map from his backpack and followed it to the apartment where his quest was located.

Once there, Colin swallowed as he looked up into the multistory building the map had sent him to. It was an eight-story square building that was made out of grey stone brick. There were windows every twenty feet or so and a single wooden door that blocked access to the building. There was no one in sight inside the building, but Colin knew that it could be deceptive. The people inside that building could simply have a high stealth level that he just couldn’t see them.

He circled the building twice and found nothing particularly useful to note other than the building was much taller than anything else around it. The next tallest building around it only went up to half its height, with only half again its diameter around. But this building did offer something useful that he noted on sight. The roof was perfectly level with the fourth floor of the complex and was a few feet bigger around than the rest of the building. Colin would have to go up there to determine how useful that roof would be, it could be a garden that took up the entire shelter for all he knew now, but it was an idea.

“Excuse me, young man,” a male voice said in front of Colin. He was looking up towards the building that he had been considering and hadn’t noticed that a middle-aged man had been watching him for the last several minutes.

Colin took a small backward leap away from the man with his hands going towards the Daggers at his belt. In a mild panic, Colin simply crouched to ready himself for whatever this guy would do. With narrowed eyes, he finally noticed the man’s startled expression at the sudden violence and worked to calm himself.

Putting his weapons away, Colin took a deep breath and looked at the man with hands raised in a calming manner. “I’m sorry. You started me.”

“I startled you? You startled me!” he whined. “If it were normal for people to stab people in broad daylight, I think I’d be dead right now.”

Taking slow steps towards the man, Colin did his best to make sure he wasn’t menacing but felt that the man needed a minute. So he paused just out of arm’s length to give him that minute only to have the man step towards him. He extended a hand for what Colin assumed was for a handshake, “sorry about that whole thing. My name is Yaric, what’s yours?”

“Walker,” Colin told him as he accepted the man and gave it a single shake before releasing it.

“So, where have you been looking? Just admiring the architecture?” he asked with a mischievous smile.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Son, I’ve been watching you for at least the last few minutes. You have been looking back and forth between that building-” he pointed at the apartment where Harvey was. “And that building.” he pointed at the one I had been considering.

Colin swallowed at the realization. He had been treating this as a game where everyone else would barely react unless he did something violent. This was hardly just a game, and he knew it too. He’d seen so many examples only with Solis the day before that proved that fact. Shit, he needed to treat this like it was real life, or else most of his training from his life would be useless.

At least Yaric proved his reflexes were still good.

“So you noticed that?” he queried.

“Yeah, I did. Relax though. Ever since that building was taken over by thugs, most people avoid looking at or near it. It’s been a while with no incidents that I’ve heard of, so I doubt the interlopers are watching the outside as they should be.” Yaric mused. “So, what is your interest in the building?”

Shrugging, Colin said, “I have no interest whatsoever.”

Yaric’s gaze went right up to the building, and he smiled thinly, “indeed.”

“So can you tell me why this building was taken over by thugs? it seems a little conspicuous.” Colin queried, trying to get as much information as possible before going in. Unless a better way appeared soon, he was going to attempt the quest today.

Yaric looked back at Colin and sighed. “Convenience. I am fairly certain most of them are former tenants of that building.”

Nodding, Colin thought better of continuing to talk to the man who was poking too far into Colin’s business to be sure he wasn’t involved somehow. It was unlikely that Yaric was one of Harvey’s cronies, but with Eldrin’s quest and Clyde’s quest tacked on, he doubted he could succeed at both. Let alone a third.

But Before Colin could politely disengage with the man, Yaric started again, “Young man, I hate beating around the bush. Would you come with me for a moment? Away from here,” he said, the last part coming out with a hiss as he pointed at the apartment building.

Letting out a sigh, Colin followed the man into an alley that put them just out of sight of the offending building. Immediately upon finding that they were alone, Yaric started. “Look, seriously now. Are you a foe to that building’s current residents?”

Groaning internally, he wished he’d been a bit more careful when observing the building. He should have known better, and now he was paying the price. He wasn’t sure what this man was going to ask of him, but Colin just knew that it would make his day much more complicated.

Answering finally, Colin shook his head, “I am no friend of anyone in that building.”

“Good. Were you planning on going in there to do, uhm something? Anything really?” he continued.

Colin nodded, and Yaric smiled widely, “that’s great. I was hoping to find someone eventually who’d be bold enough to go in there. I need something done, and I was hoping you’d be the man to do it. Will you hear me out?”

“Yeah, sure,” Colin said, defeated. If the game was going to force him to at least listen to quest offers, then he would just have to do so. Even if it was making his life much harder.

“Excellent,” he said, happy enough to ignore Colin’s tone. “Harvey Regic, the head honcho in there, has a small inner circle. One of them is a mage of some kind. I need you to kill that mage for me. I don’t know his name, but he’s tall, gangly, and covered in worn leathers. Think you can help me out? I can’t afford to pay you, but I can give you an enchanted item that I’ve held onto to.”

Quest: Kill; Unknown mage. Objective: while inside Harvey Regic’s base, kill a mage that is tall, thin, and wearing worn leather clothes. Reward: Unspecified Enchanted items

Oh goody, another ambiguous quest reward. Colin knew this was a staple in some games, the mysterious reward and all that, but had hoped to avoid it here. Unless…

“What kind of Enchanted item?” Colin questioned.

“It’s a jacket my son owned. Not exactly sure what it does, but you can have it if you kill the mage.”

Nodding at the new info, Colin told him, “I can’t guarantee anything, but if I get the chance, I will do it.”

“Oh, thank you,” he said with relief, washing through his voice. “I will be at Grena’s Bar all day if you finish it. You know the place, right?”

Colin shook his head, and Yaric told him that it was only a block and a half east of there with a sign that said its name above the door. It was simple enough, and Yaric assured him that he could ask anyone, and they’d be able to give him directions there. Apparently, it was a popular establishment in this part of the city.

Before Colin could turn to leave, Yaric stopped him with a helpful bit of advice. “I might suggest checking into the sewers before entering that building. Its city code for tenant buildings larger than three stories to have an accessible way to the sewers in their basement.”

Looking at the middle-aged man with more curiosity than before, the man smiled ruefully but appeared no different than he had before.

Leaving Yaric in the Alley, Colin looked around the street and found what he was looking for in ten minutes of searching. The sewer hole looked much like it did on the roads in real life, but these seemed so much more sturdy somehow, and runes laid etched into the metal.

“I guess rumors of crocodiles in the sewers could be real here,” Colin mused as he pried the lid loose. This action elicited the attention of everyone who walked by him, and Colin did his best to ignore them, but it still felt like he was doing something incredibly naughty. Criminals were the main sorts of people to crawl inside stinky sewers to do things unnoticed.

After several minutes of trying, Colin had the cover pulled up and was crawling into the thin ladderway that led into the sewers. Before dropping the manhole cover over his entrance, Colin checked the location of the building and memorized the direction that he needed to go. It wouldn’t help to get lost before getting inside the apartments.

Climbing down the ladder and finding that the sewers included small walkways along each side of the river of excrement was welcome. The stench wasn’t something Colin was unfamiliar with, but it was very unpleasant nonetheless. Yet again, he wished he had more levels and skills to give him more options than the sewers.

Worse yet, it was dark and the only light around was the light bit of light that trickled in from the few storm grates that appeared every once in a while. This lack of light would make moving stealthily significantly more difficult since Colin couldn’t tell if he was going to step on a rat, or a bone, or even a piece of feces.

But move he did and every step in this well of human waste made Colin more and more anxious to get to the sewer entrance Yaric told him would be there.

Keeping his bearings was easy enough since there were no odd turns or weird intersections along his part. Just straight passages and a few rats scampering around his feet to keep him company, he thought as he slid his feet more than lifted them to move. A screaming rat could bring trouble.

Several minutes later and Colin found a ladder embedded in the wall. If his judgment of distance and direction was accurate as it was in real-life, then this would lead up into the entrance he needed. Climbing up quietly, Colin placed an ear up against the metal manhole cover and listened. He stayed put for two minutes and just waited for something to happen only to let out a sigh. There was no sound coming from above him, and he was relieved that at least his entrance to the lair could be uneventful.

Pushing up on to the manhole cover, Colin was pleasantly surprised to find that it was on a hinge to make opening easier. The little piece of convenience squealed a little as he lifted, and Colin paused to make sure no one heard him. No one came, so he finished opening his way into the building.

His first impression was that the basement was made into a junk pile of a storage place by the owner or maybe even Harvey. Everything here was jumbled together in stacks that resembled something like a chaotic Tetris game. The only empty areas in the room were the pathway between the sewer entrance and the door across from him leading out. He briefly considered searching the thirty-ish square foot room for anything of value but thought better of it. If he did this right, there was a good chance he could explore the place at his leisure later.

It was at that moment that a door across from him opened.

Colin quickly moved to the side and ducked behind a pile of what looked like old toiletries and tried to remain hidden.

“I’m telling you, man. I heard something,” a man’s panicky voice said quietly. Colin saw two men standing at the door, looking inside and discussing amongst themselves. The man in front was a large man of both arms and belly. With a shaved head and black leathers, Colin could see that the man looked something like a biker from Earth. The second man was a perfect contrast to the first, thin, short, and sporting clothes built for comfort more than appearance or safety.

“And I am telling you, Rodney.” the large man said. “How could someone get in here? They’d have to get past us first, and that’s impossible.”

“I dunno,” the shorter man called Rodney said. “Maybe there’s a secret passage down here or somethin’, Terr. I just know I heard something like a loud screech. Oooh, like a rusty door!” He proclaimed excitedly, glad to find something with a similar sound.

“You know what I think? It’s probably just a rat. We’ve seen a lot of them in here,” Terr pointed out.

As the two conversed, Terr started to walk into the room cautiously. His right hand sat waiting on the thick wooden club on his hip while his eyes surveyed the room. It appeared that no matter his opinion on how someone could have gotten in here, Terr still aired on the side of caution.

Colin’s hands drew a throwing knife each as he watched and waited for either one of them to notice him or for a chance to get by them. If he could get away without killing everyone here, then he would instead do that — no need to cause any ruckus until he secured Harvey at least.

“So have you been feeding those prisoners like you were told?” Terr asked Rodney as he continued to look around the cluttered room. Rodney froze for a moment as he stared at a spot near Colin’s hiding location. Seconds passed before the man looked away, shaking his head and continuing.

“No, why would I?” Rodney answered, frankly.

“So they don’t die on us before we get the chance to scram,” Terr told Rodney. “The boss told you to feed them. I’ve asked you three times already, so why haven’t you?”

“We have a couple pretty young things in there,” Rodney said, leadingly.

“Soooo,” he said, drawing out the word.

“So. When people are hungry for long enough, they’ll do almost anything, right?” Rodney timidly told Terr.

Terr groaned at Rodney, “please do not tell me that you are not feeding seven people to make them desperate enough to-”

“Do anything I tell them to,” Rodney said with a cheerful tone that belied the subject matter.

“Dear gods, Harvey will kill you if even one of them dies from neglect.” Terr sighed as he stepped closer and closer to Colin’s position.

“Relax,” Rodney chided him. “I’ve been giving them some water. Just no food. Humans can survive for a while without food.”

“Fine,” Terr grumbled, giving in to Rodney’s stupidity. “As long as you let me have that fairy chick in there. I hear that even half-fairy have genitals that-”

Colin decided that he’d heard enough. Only a minute before, he was adamant at attempting to not kill everyone in here that crossed his path. They might not deserve death, maiming, or abuse in the least, and they’d get the chance to change once their boss was gone. Out of everyone in the building, he only knew of three individuals, and two were targets.

Now though. Now he heard there were prisoners AND that they were being abused. These scum were even casually talking about forcing the women here into having sex with them for food no less.

It was with that thought that Colin rose from his hiding spot and threw both of his knives at Rodney. He had tried to aim the blades at the man’s neck and or head, something to kill and silence him quickly. He was feeling very vindictive but did not feel like acting stupid.

If this were Earth, at least one of those blades would have hit their mark, and Rodney there would have been grabbing at a knife three inches in his windpipe. Since this wasn’t Earth, one of the flying blades missed entirely, and the other flew down and into Rodney’s right pectoral, cutting him off mid-abhorrent-sentence.

“Son-of-a-bitch!” Rodney cried out, hands shaking as he tried to force himself to grab at the blade in his chest.

“What-?” Terr cried, pulling the club on his waist free from the band that held it. He looked at Colin as his face twisted with anger and a growl forming in his throat.

“Raaah!” he yelled as he ran at Colin, the club raised.

Stepping past the first downward swing, Colin tried to step deep into the man’s reach only to step back to avoid the man’s knee.

Terr yelled again and swung the club wildly from left to right, back and forth, angrily trying to hit Colin.

Electing to draw both of his daggers, Colin immediately tossed one up in the air, spinning end over end, and watched Terr. His gaze followed the movement, and Colin leaped onto the man’s torso, one hand on the man’s shoulder and both knees at his chest. Without hesitation, Colin drove the dagger into the man’s left clavicle. The man fell back, and Colin rode him to the ground. He looked up in time to see the dagger that he tossed falling towards him.

Just like old times, Colin thought as he reached out to grab the spinning dagger. He tried to adjust his hand to properly catch the weapon, only to fumble the catch in his hand and feel it etch a red line in his palm.

You fumbled when catching your dagger and have taken 6 points of damage. You have 124 out of 130 health remaining.

Biting his tongue to avoid screaming, Colin used both hands to withdraw the small blade from the man’s shoulder. Then he sharply drew the knife across the Terr’s neck and climbed off the man before the gore got all over him. In reality, this kind of would mean certain death, and here the only difference was that magic or a potion might be able to save him.

Unlikely, so Colin turned his attention to the other worm in the room, and Luckily, Rodney was still there. The moron was just standing near the door where he’d been hit. Only now getting the nerve to put a firm hand on the blade in his chest in spite o the pain.

With a pitiful mewling moan, he pulled the throwing knife out of his chest and held it out in front of him. The wound was weeping, and the man didn’t seem to know what he was doing with the weapon. He held it in both hands in front of him like a crucifix that was holding off a demon.

“Why?” Rodney stammered, taking a step away from Colin.

Eyes narrowed, and his upper nip quivering, Colin told him. “You’re scum. Scum who prey on defenseless people for your… pleasure.” Colin ground out through gritted teeth.

“Why do you care? You’re human like me. I wasn’t going to touch any of the humans up there,” Rodney said quickly. His eyes had shifted up to the ceiling long enough to indicate what he was talking about. “Just the sub-humans-”

Colin had heard enough from the talking skidmark. Reaching to the throwing knives at the small of his back, he drew one of the blades and threw both the dagger and the throwing knife.

This time, the dagger flew true and, with a sound like splitting melons, broke into the man’s skull. The throwing knife went into his right forearm and stuck there between the bones.

Congratulations! You have killed the enemies; Harvey’s Grunts, Terras and Rodney! You have gained 187 experience points You have gained 187 EXP and have 592/ 1200 experience towards level 5.

Huffing and puffing, Colin bent over and leaned on his knees. These two weren’t too bad to take care of, but they were still dangerous. If he hadn’t caught them off guard and they had proper weapons… No, it’s better to be grateful that they weren’t ready for him and move on.

After collecting his thrown weapons, Colin went around and checked both dead men’s pockets and was a little disappointed.

You have looted ‘one unknown vial,’ One bag of Karsha powder, and two stylized silver rings from Rodney’s Corpse. You have looted one flask of moonshine and three pieces of unknown jerky from Terras’s corpse.

Nothing either of them carried seemed immediately useful, but eventually, who knows. With that done, all Colin cared about right now was the amount of noise they’d made during their fight. If someone came down here and he wasn’t either gone or completely ready to go, he was probably going to die.

That thought reminded him of Morenstad, the man who’d killed him the first time. He was a vile and cruel man who cared not for how helpless Colin was at the time. The only thing he cared about was that Colin was his to end and end him he did. He felt weak, overwhelmed, and stupid most of all for allowing himself to work with such obviously mean people. Especially since he had several opportunities to leave them after seeing the way they’d treated the NPCs.

No, he was not going to die here. He refused to die in this place of such evil people. In his head, he knew that he couldn’t necessarily control when he died here. But his heart told him that if there was a will to survive and win, then there was a way. If there was a way for a perfect victory, then he would find it.

First, Colin opened his menus and checked his real-bodies status. Yup, he was thirsty and needed to use the bathroom.

So he tucked himself into a corner of the room and hid among the junk. Making sure he was safe for a few minutes, Colin looked among the menus and found the soft logout option and selected it.

Quickly, Colin drank from the glass next to his spot on the couch and rose towards the toilet. He only had fifteen minutes before the penalty for a soft logout would kill him and force him to respawn. So he did his business and got back into the game without delay.

When he regained himself in-game, Colin found himself looking at a single man in a weathered black trench coat with a hood up around his blank white mask. Whoever he was, he was kneeling and looking at the corpses and rifling around through their pockets.

“Where are they?” the person said in a very nasally voice. “He should still have those valuables on him. Where are they?” he whined. Colin could be reasonably assured it was a he given that men were most commonly this kind of whiny. “Dammit!” he cried out in annoyance. “maybe he hid them in his room? Of course, you died before I got them. The bastard,” he hissed, turning towards the door in a huff.

This situation almost felt like the game was trying to make this easy for him. Colin jumped out of his hiding spot the second the man turned away from his hidey-hole, debris clattered around him as charged at the masked man with both daggers drawn.

Of course, the man turned and caught both daggers by their blades, one in each of his gloved hands. A laugh escaped from behind the mask as he gripped the edges tighter in each of his hands and violently twisted.

Colin held his grip too long and the force of the movement wrenched his wrists into agony. He stiffled the cry that left him as the man damaged both of his wrists with the sudden force.

Both of your wrists have been sprained, and you have taken 40 points of damage. You have 90/130 health remaining. Wrist sprain is a debuff that lasts for three minutes or until a Mend spell has been cast onto you. While this Debuff is applied, you cannot use your hands, and you suffer a fifty percent penalty to all strength and dexterity checks. Constitution checks can negate the negative effects of this buff per use.

Groaning as he saw a short three minute time start in the top right of his vision, Colin scrambled away from the man who was holding his daggers by the blades. Somehow, Colin got the impression that this mystery man was smiling under his mask. “You should know. This situation is entirely your fault.” He said, tossing the daggers to either side of him casually and slowly approaching Colin's prone body.