“You’re very perceptive.” A voice comes out to my left hand side, “For future reference, how could you tell?” Slowly a male player in his mid twenties with short black hair and a sinister grin on his face comes out from the bushes.

"Well," I pause and shift my eyes to the location of one of his companions, "When was the last time you had a shower?”

Gem softly giggles, while the corner of the man's eye twitches. Using appraisal on the player, I can tell he is level 19. Similar to Gem; however, he is still far away from me. Level twenty, like level ten, gives 50 free status points. I am level 22, and adding my iron gear on top of that, I don't understand why they would target us. Isn't that like kicking a metal board with your bare feet?

"It was this morning actually." The man calms himself enough to give a reply, but that doesn't stop him from moving closer to us. I'm surprised he actually answered.

"So, why have you be stalking us?" I'm curious to hear what kind of excuse he has. This player has a red symbol above his head, indicating he has killed players recently, so I don't let down my guard.

"Have you ever gone hunting?" He asks in a nonchalant tone. "And I mean real hunting. Where it is just you and the endless wilderness."

"I cannot say I have." My fingers shift slightly in anticipation on the sword's hilt.

"Then you would never understand the thrill of watching the prey struggle under your gaze." As he says this, an overt rustling comes from behind us. I quickly glance and see two more players come out and close off our escape. Their effort was in waste, because I never had the notion of fleeing. Those players are a level 17 archer and a level 18 barbarian. The archer has a yellowed symbol, while the barbarian is the same as the first man with a red symbol.

"So, what is your aim?" As I am speaking, I try to make out how many there are. Obviously, they have more than three members. At least one more is ahead and to the right, while I have noticed some movement to either side. So, perhaps there are at least six of them.

"Oh?" The player widens his eyes slightly and his arrogant grin grows larger, "We're here to hunt!"

"This doesn't look like your first time doing this." I continue, "How many were there before us?" The longer I can stall them, the better I can grasp the situation. It wouldn't be nice to immediately start fighting and get stabbed in the back by a hidden knife. These people must be used to preying on the weak. If they were at all proficient, we would not be having this conversation.

“That’s irrelevant, but if you must know,” A smug smile comes to his face, “There have been 11 others.”

He seems very proud of himself. In the real world, a person only needs to kill two to three people in separate events to be labelled a serial killer, yet all he is given here is a red name. I don’t know the particulars about the red name, but it would at least last a while.

“Aren’t you worried about being found out once this is all over?” I inquire. This guy doesn’t even bother obscuring his face. He seems to be on the sadistic and narcissistic side of the spectrum.

“Being found out?” He sneers, “There would have to be witnesses for that now wouldn’t there.”

At this moment, the archer behind us speaks: “There is no proof that dying in game results in a death in real life. Are you just going to take the word of an obviously insane man?”

“Yea!” The barbarian chips in, “Even the disposable phone only allowed a one-way conversation; therefore, there is no proof!”

“That is quite some sound logic you have!” I scoff at them, “You don’t know whether the cat is dead or alive until you open the box.” I continue, “Don’t you think that if there were no detriment to releasing us from this game that the authorities wouldn’t have already tried? What about the fact that nobody that has died in game has respawned?”

“Pfft!” They both eagerly dismiss my comments. They seem to be trapped in their own self denial, because if they truly thought that, then they would have killed themselves long ago. “If that’s the case, then you’ll just have to find out for us won’t you?”

“Yea! Be sure to send your regards to the rest of those who have escaped!”

“Enough!” The man abruptly raises his voice, which causes Gem and I to flinch in reflex. “I thank you for this enlightening conversation; however, it is time to get down to business.”

“I agree.” I look towards Gem and point my eyes to behind her, indicating the presence of another player. She responds with a small nod and places her hand on the bowstring. I have complete confidence in her, so I Immediately activate my cloaking along with the sneak skill and disappear from the surroundings. My target is the archer. I would rather not let this character fire arrows at us from a distance. Besides, he has worse armour than the other two visible members, so he is the logical target.

“Find him!” Panic sets in amongst them, since it is near impossible to tell exactly where I am under this combination of skills. Unfortunately, Gem is left vulnerable in this circumstance, so I need to finish off the archer quickly. This time, there will be no mercy.

The archer is only 10 feet away from me now, and I quickly close the gap. Usually an archer would place themselves from further away, so I don’t know what was going through this guy’s head. Perhaps he thought the barbarian at his side was enough to protect him. The look on his face is of apprehension as his eyes dart from side to side. The barbarian right next to him is the same.

While I am going for the archer, Gem has fired an arrow into the bushes towards the movement. She immediately goes in the bush after the unknown assailant, while drawing an iron short sword. Her dexterity is on a much high level than mine, so she doesn’t have trouble moving into the bushes. Our unspoken plan is to target the weakest links and take them out in a blitz. Splitting up may not be the best course of action in this situation, but the arrow has already left the bow.

Soon, I make it around the archer and ready my blade for the back of his neck. My cloaking only has a second left, so I need to make the most of it. I swing down with all my strength. This man is not a human. He is not a person. He is only a virtual body. If he doesn’t die, it would be Gem and I. As my blade sinks into his flesh, I am trying to convince myself.

My cloaking runs out halfway through the strike, but it is already to late for this archer. Backstab activates and a critical hit has been achieved. The attack is not enough to finish him off in a single hit, but his health plummets into the yellow. The barbarian is quick to react as he swings his battle-axe so close to my head I can feel the air being disturbed.

“Bastard!”

I avoid his attack, but from the left comes an arrow. My body is right in its trajectory, so in desperation I twist my body and just barely avoid it. The arrow scraps across my chest plate leaving a scratch in its wake. The arrow must have been made from bronze, because if it were iron, I would have been left with more than a simple scratch.

I tumble to the ground in a roll, while reaching for the throwing knives on my thigh. I grasp one in my right hand, which previously was holding an iron sword. The sword is now stuck in the ground, allowing me to select the knife. With a quick flip of my wrist, the knife gets send flying at the first archer.

*Arrgggghhhh*

The archer was too distracted by my previous strike that he was bent over in pain; therefore, the knife sinks into its mark. The blade causes him to wallow in pain, while the hidden archer looses another arrow aimed at my location.

*Thud*

The arrow lands in the dirt. For someone shooting in the dark, he has really good aim; however, it’s not good enough. In the bushes on the opposite side, I can hear the clashing of blades. Gem seems to be having some difficulties with her target, but that just proves that I need to finish off this archer fast.

“Be a man and stop dancing around!” The barbarian yells as he charges at me with an overhead swing of his axe. I deftly dodge beneath it and charge at that poor archer. The level 19 warrior who spoke earlier has not yet made a move, but I can see him watching with a smirk on his face out of the corner of my eye. Obviously, he doesn’t seem to be concerned that one of his comrades has been injured.

I take advantage of this and launch a quick set of attacks at that archer. Within seconds his health falls to the bottom of the red zone. His body falls limp to the ground and a notification pops up on my screen.

Notification

You have just killed a ‘yellow’ player.

For this offence, your status will turn red.

Because of the nature of this offence, this status will remain for 24 hours.

Red status:

You cannot enter large towns for 24 hours following your most recent kill.

If you enter large towns during this period you will be attacked on sight.

Players will not earn an offence from attacking you.

You will drop all your items upon death.

For every 5 kills you will recieve a permanent 2% increase damage bonus.

If you reach 100 kills, a Black status will be awarded.

Kill Count: 1

“I’m going to kill you!”

At this moment, a large explosion occurs from where Gem is. My heart is instantly sent into a panic. I want to go into the bushes to go after her, but the barbarian stands between me and the bushes. The warrior no longer sits on the sidelines and rushes to join the barbarian.

Currently, I have the two of them in my sights, but the hidden archer continues to fire arrows at me. Let me analyze the best course of action here. I can still hear the clashing of swords in the bushes, so Gem is still alive, but the opponents must have a mage. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to cause all of these small explosions.

The hidden archer is definitely the biggest pain. I should use this opportunity to locate him, because he is too much of a threat to be left alive. All the arrows are coming from approximately the same location, so he is either not smart enough to move around, or has confidence in his allies. Either way, this will help me locate him.

“I thought you were going to keep watching from safety.” I sneer at the warrior.

The barbarian and warrior both charge at me. “You obviously have some skill; therefore, I cannot just sit and watch.” The warrior is armed with full bronze plate mail armour with a short sword and small shield.

For the general populace, he could be considered well off, but compared to me, he is too far. In terms of stats, he probably has a higher defence than I do, but my strength should surpass his greatly. At level 19 his base defence would be 110, not counting any armour or level up bonus points.

The barbarian comes at my right while the warrior comes from the left. Their timing cannot be said to be flawless, but it is evident they have done this many times before. I once more duck under the barbarian’s axe, but this time I leave a gash across his leg. The warrior comes in to counter my dodge, and he gets off a lucky hit against my iron armguard. The hit takes off a sliver of health, which makes me glad I chose to get 100 defence.

An arrow lands at the spot I was just at, but due to the warrior’s hit, I was able to just barely dodge getting hit. In this situation, I put away one of my short swords and ready a throwing knife. I only have a limited amount of these knives, so I have to make this count. In the real world I would have very little chance of hitting my target, but with the assistance of the system it is possible.

I dance around the warriors blade and prepare for the next arrow's fire. I position myself so that the bushes hiding the archer are in my vision and wait for the next shot. The barbarian comes in with a horizontal swing while the warrior waits behind him ready to pounce. A coarse scream comes from behind me and the explosions stop. The mage must have been incapacitated, and I cannot help but feel a bit of pride in Gem at this point.

When the barbarians axe is about to hit me, I deflect it away slightly using my sword. Despite that, I could still feel the power behind the stroke. The barbarian, like the assassin, gets a +10 strength bonus per level up; however, I could tell this player had put more bonus points into strength than I had.

As this is occurring, an arrow comes out of the bushes aimed at my chest. I cannot avoid it, but now I know where the bastard is hiding. The arrow slams into my chest and takes out a small chunk of my health, but I bear through the pain and send the knife flying into the bushes. I can't tell what level the archer is, but based on the damage, he cannot be much higher than the archer I've already killed.

"You think you're so good, because you can dance around our attacks?" The barbarian sneers, "Seems your not in invincible after all!"

"How does the arrow taste?" The warrior adds.

"A bit too bland."

"Hmph"

The warrior comes at me now with an overhead strike, hoping to catch me off guard, but unfortunately for him I am ready for his strike. I quickly take out my other sword and deflect the attack to my side. With my free hand, I slash at his outstretched wrist just below his gloves. The sword sinks into his flesh and red oxygen rich arterial blood spurts out of his radial artery.

"Aaarrrgghhh!!" He screams in pain, "you bastard!"

"How does that taste?" I sneer back at him, "I bet you'll want some more!"

Using the momentum I knee him in the abdomen and move out of the barbarians range of attack. As I knock the warrior away, an arrow comes out of the bushes on the opposite side from where the enemy archer is. But, there is a major difference between the two. This arrow is not aimed at me. The arrow sinks into the right chest of the barbarian as he raised his weapon to attack.

"Arrrggghhh!" He screams in pain. With Gem covering my back, my confidence increases exponentially.

The enemy archer has cause me to fight very conservatively, so other than the shot I took to the chest, I have danced around all his arrows. The trade off was knowing where he was hiding, so it was worth it.

Now that the playing field is even, it's time to turn the tables on them. Taking advantage of the barbarian's lapse in concentration, I lunge forward with my sword straight at his chest. The sword sinks in halfway to the hilt, gliding through his ribcage. A large chuck of his health gets taken out, so I kick the player away from me while pulling my sword out in the process. The blade is now a shade of deep crimson and blood continues to spurt out of his chest. He gives a couple gurgling coughs and blood starts to drain from the corner of his lips.

Of course, I cannot forget about the warrior. Two arrows come from the opposite sides of the path. Both the warrior and I get hit, but the difference in our armours clearly shows. The arrow aimed at me scrapes against my iron armour and continues until it hits a tree on the opposite side. On the other hand, the arrow aimed at the warrior sinks deeper in his bronze armour and gets lodged in his flesh. Currently, the barbarian is at around 30% health, the warrior is at 50%, while I am sitting at a comfortable 75%.

The barbarian is growing pale, but I'm not going to let him rest. If he gets a chance to down a health potion I would be at a disadvantage. Fortunately, health potions cannot be used while in immediate combat, so as long as I keep him busy I should be good. While the warrior is occupied, the barbarian and I exchange blows. Since my strength is slightly less than his, I need to use more skill and dexterity to overcome him. My stamina bar is at around half full from all this fighting, but it should last with Gem supporting me.

On the barbarian's next attack, I activate my cloaking, dodge to the side, and maneuver around behind him. It's hard to use the skill in the midst of combat, but fortunately my timing was near flawless, so I pulled it off. He is obviously weary of my movement, but it is too late. My sword slashes across his neck just has he is turning his head. Thanks to that movement, my sword hits his carotid artery, thus dealing a critical hit. This sends him into the red with his healthy swiftly declining.

Dodging out of the way of another arrow, I aim for a final blow against the barbarian. I'm not going to risk leaving him to slowly die. Even though a swift death is more than he deserves, it is the only thing I can offer him right now. "Nooo!!" He screams in anguish as my sword once more sinks into his flesh. Soon, his health plummets to zero and the life forever fades from him. He probably never expected this result when he killed and extorted those other players. Now that there are two of them left, this fight got a whole lot easier.

Kill Count: 2

The warrior is incapable of withstanding one on one combat with me while we are both hounded by arrows. Since I have been fighting under even worse conditions from the beginning, I am better off. Very quickly, both of us are riddled with scratches both from each other and the arrows. My gear is clearly displaying it's superiority in this battle. Being a squishy assassin means I need the best defensive gear I can find without hindering my mobility. On the other hand, the warrior is doing worse for wear.

"You must be feeling it by now." I snort at him.

"Feeling what?" He replies with ragged breathing.

Our swords clash resulting in a large bang. The vibrations travel up my forearm, but the blade stays true.

"The weight of those souls you robbed of life." I spit, "Just like how I'm going to take yours!" A month ago I would have never imagined myself saying those words, but now I have already killed two players.

"Hmph!" He harrumphs.

The warrior tries to chain an attack to my flank; however, using my offhand sword, I counter his attack. The benefit of having dual blades is clear at this point, but the trick with them is using them together rather than individually. Even over a month into the game, I haven't gotten it down pat, so there is still something missing in my swordsmanship. In line with that principle, I use my main sword to slash across his abdomen.

He is not ready for my attack, and it scraps against his bronze armour, leaving a large gash in the metal. An arrow hits my left shoulder in the process, but I send strike after strike against the warrior. Slowly his health gets whittled away until it drops into the red. His health is at a staggering 10%, while mine is sitting comfortably around 40%.

At this point, the warrior has completely lost his arrogance. "P-please..." He gasps, "S-stop... I beg of you!" His face is now tear stricken, and his eyes have turned red. "I don't want to d-die..." He stutters.

"What about all your victims? Do you think they wanted to die?" I continue to attack him, "Want happened to the thrill of the hunt? Hmm?" Gem at this point has located the enemy archer and has begun to fire shots towards him. There is no need for her to help me finish off the warrior. I want him to suffer a bit more, so I aim at disabling rather than outright killing. My next strike cuts right through the wrist of his main sword hand. "Aaarrrggh!!!" He screams in agony.

In EndGame Online, this kind of wound can be healed, so it's not like a person would be disabled for the rest of the game; however, it lasts 24 hours in that state before being automatically restored. One could also have a priest treat the wound with the level three spell "Restore Appendage" to have it healed immediately. If only such things would work in the real world, but that is just wishful thinking.

The warrior grasps his stump with his left hand and kneels to the ground. His sword is lying on the ground a few feet away with the hand still attached. Surprisingly it hasn't despawned, but perhaps it is like a body, only disappearing after one minute. The enemy archer has stopped firing arrows into the centre and seems to be seeking Gem's location; however, there was a notable lull in his firing rate. Perhaps he judged the situation unsalvageable and would want to escape, but then again, maybe he's loyal.

Very soon there are no more arrows coming from the enemy archer, so it appears he values his own life over loyalty. Gem, noticing this, comes out from her side of the path. Her hair is in a bit of a mess, scratches cover her body and a red symbol hangs above her head. "What should we do with him?" She points to the distraught warrior.

"What do you think?" I look at him, and he looks very pathetic at this moment. Far from his previous arrogant disposition. "Quick and painless, or slow and drawn out?"

"Let's just end this." She says with annoyance, while gazing upon the man with an extreme loathing. I have never seen her like this before, and I am glad I am not on the receiving end of that glare.

"As you wish," I turn to the warrior, who at this point is in tears, "You heard her. But, hey! Look at it this way. If players don't actually die in real life, you'll be just fine." With that, I behead the player. His drops fall to the ground and I pick them up without paying attention to them along with the drops of the other two I killed.

Kill Count: 3

He was not a person.

They were not human.

There were just players.

I look up and see Gem standing only a feet feet away staring into my eyes. Gone is expression of loathing, and in its place is that of worry mixed with relief. Without warning, she drops her weapons, runs towards me, and leaps into my embrace. Her arms wrap around my back while she buries her head into my chest. “It’s alright,” I hold her tightly and stroke her back, “It’s over now.”

“Please don’t put yourself at risk like that again.” Her speech becomes slightly shaky, “I-i don’t want to lose you.” With that, I squeeze her tightly. She is visibly shivering, which is a sharp contrast to how she was during the fight. The adrenaline rush is over, and the realities are setting in. Even I am shaken by this result. Yes, this world is crueler than our previous one, but that shouldn’t mean we have to turn to manslaughter. Even though it was in self defence, killing a person is still killing a person. No. They were not people. They were just virtual avatars. I need to keep reminding myself of that.

“I don’t want to lose you either.” I softly whisper into her ear, letting my affection for her known. She looks up into my eyes, and there is just enough ambient light in the darkness that I can see them sparkling with tears. I bring up one of my hands and gently wipe away a strand of hair that had fallen down her cheek, all the while she is staring at me. Tilting her chin up with my free hand, I move in close to her. The heat of her breath reaches my skin with a steady rhythm, warming up my soul. Slowly, we move close enough that our noses are touching...