As angry as I was, it was pretty pointless for me to throw a tantrum without a body to thrash around in. I floated near my body exuding impotent rage at the injustice of the situation. Why the fuck were they still there?! I was in that spawn chamber for hours! Don’t they have better shit to do?! The guy with the shield and mace was standing there celebrating his “victory”. Damn cheap shotting bastard! “HA! I told you my plan would work! 10 minutes isn’t that bad of a respawn time.”

I finally notice the second guy standing off to the side a couple meters away from me as he steps closer. “Yea, you’re right. Waiting here for 10 minutes for each kill is definitely easier than traipsing around the jungle for hours at a time looking for damn cat pelts.” Wait… respawn time? As in… the amount of time a mob… takes… to respawn? I can’t help but feel a sinking sensation in my stomach. Why am I spawning like some common mob? A sense of horror fills me as realisation dawns on me. First was those notifications about losing my title as an apex predator, that isn’t something players would usually see… than there was the weird way that I have spent hours in a room only to find a few minutes have passed real time. Now players are killing me, and looting my corpse to complete quests... I'm... not a player anymore... am I?...

Even now as I connect these now obvious facts I am distracted by the two players continuing their conversation, oblivious to my presence. “Ha now we just need to kill this thing 3 more times and we can turn in the quest.” The mace guy stands up as the mage steps up to loot my body. “Yea but let me have the next shot. It’s not fair you keep hogging all the experience for yourself.” “Yea yea yea, this thing is to easy anyways just don’t let it get away”

Once again, everything fades away when they finish looting me and I am back in the grey void of the Spawn chamber. “Well, now that I have a body again, I think there is something I desperately need to do.” after a moment of silence, I throw my body to the ground and start thrashing around in the biggest tantrum I can make in this new body. Honestly it’s not as impressive as it sounds. If someone were to see me, all they would see was a giant black cat writhing on its back and flailing it’s paws in the air while making the giant cat equivalent of screaming bloody murder for all it’s might. Nevertheless I did calm down enough to stop making a fool of myself, but I was still plenty pissed. So I do the next best thing. Scream impotently at nothing. “God damnit!!! Give me something I can rip to shreds! I can’t take this empty room anymore!” surprisingly enough, there is a flash of light and in front of me is a large tubular sac that makes me think of a sand bag, except it isn’t being held by anything. For a moment I stand there gaping at it before deciding to not look a gift horse in the mouth and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. I immediately pounce at it and rip and tear with all my might. Shredding with claws gouging with teeth and just turning a once pristine toy into a scattered wad of leather and stuffing.

After the amazing stress relief I lay on my back rolling around in the middle of all that fluff. Without realizing it, I started to purring. I pause at the realization then just shrug my shoulders and enjoy the moment despite the oddities of the situation and before I realize it, I fell asleep.

Sometime later I wake up feeling well rested and ready to take on the world. I roll back to my feet and grimace at the mess I made. “Man I really went wild. Meh, not like anyone else is gonna see it anyways.” I walk towards the respawn window and am about to hit respawn when a thought occurs to me. “Shit, wait! Those assholes are still out there. I almost forgot because of this weird time dilation thing in this room, but it’s likely that I’m gonna get bitch slapped by that mace guy again if I just walk out there unprepared.” I scrunch my face in thought. “I guess I can jump backwards the second I’m able to. The dumbass keeps smacking my head anyways so maybe I can catch him off guard when he misses.” I nod to myself as if it’s the most obviously best made plan ever, hit the respawn button, and get ready to kick ass.

I feel the grass beneath my feet as the blinding flash of respawn fades away. “NOW!” I hear mace guy but he doesn’t sound close to me like before. Ha! Stupid melee man! You can’t hit me from there! As my vision clears I realize the stupidity of my thoughts when I notice the bright orange, raging inferno of a fireball zooming straight for, wait for it… my face. Needless to say, it hurt. Like a bitch. Feeling your skin bake and crisp from a magical conflagration would make any man cry. Thankfully I’m made from tougher stuff. I only screamed in agony. That was until the mage decided to add more fuel to the fire. Literally. The asshole threw a vial of what was likely oil at me and made the fire spread to the rest of my poor flammable body. Needless to say, I don’t think I did too well in that fight.

A few seconds later I was once again floating above my crisped corpse and also once again, exuding the familiar impotent rage as these two chumps gloated over their cheaply made victory. “Ha dude did you hear the noise that stupid cat made? It was crying like a baby!” said mace face. Yea, mace face. That’s what I am gonna call him now. The mage responds to that remark completely ignoring me. Oh wait, of course they ignore me, I’m not really there. “Well If I get set on fire, I would probably be screaming to.” Mace face lets out a snort of derision. “Pfff as if! These things are just lines of code! They don’t feel shit!”

At those words my cauldron of burning rage boiled over and all I could do was think nasty thoughts. FUCK YOU! YOU DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT! I WISH YOU COULD FEEL HALF THE PAIN I HAVE GONE THROUGH IN JUST THE LAST FEW HOURS! At those thoughts, I felt something strange. Like a bit of my energy left me and I felt a little drained. Just as the mage was about to reach for my corpse to grab my fuzzy goodness, mace face shouts in surprise. “Holy shit! What the fuck is this shit?” Mage turns away and looks at mace face in confusion. “What? Did you get a rare drop or something?” mace face is gaping at the empty air, obviously staring at something only he could see. “No way! I just got a notification saying I have a new nemesis!” “Really? Who is it? What does the notification say?”

Mace face hesitates before making a hand gesture to make his window visible and turns it to face the mage, which also happens to be in my direction. I couldn’t help by smile as I read the message for myself

Notice: You have been marked as a Nemesis!

Due to your brutal and callous behavior towards another creature, it has developed an intense enough hatred towards you to desire vengeance.

Effect: +10% pain sensation when hit with attacks from your Nemesis. Current pain setting is at 0%

Effect: Always aware of your Nemesis’s location as he is aware of yours.

Duration: Until either you or your Nemesis dies or your Nemesis no longer seeks justice.

After a moment of silence the mage speaks up again. “Damn that’s… interesting? Wait that says you can always sense where your nemesis is. Can you tell?” After a moment of thought mace face closes his eyes and does a slow circle right there in the clearing until he is facing directly towards me then he lifts and points. Directly at me. I can’t help but smile to myself. “He is over there. Wait, feels like he is… really close.” The mage looks in my direction for a moment, well more past me really, until he looks down at his feet at my, still dead, corpse and then his eyes widen in surprise at the realization. “Holy shit! Dude! You pissed off the panther! THAT’S who your nemesis is!” mace face is also stunned then he grins maliciously. “Ha! That piece of shit? Dude let me handle the next spawn! I’ll just crush his skull the second he shows his ugly mug.” The mage frowns at those words. “Are you sure? The fact that he is a nemesis might change things.” “Dude! Just stay out of it! I can take care of this sac of shit myself. I’ve been one shotting him since the beginning, remember?” “alright, suit yourself. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” The mage turned around and finished looting me. As the forest faded from view and I reappeared in my now familiar grey void, I couldn’t help but giggle like a little kid who just got away with stealing fresh cookies just before dinner time. Before I knew it, the giggle turned into a full blown laugh and it legitimately sounded like a classic super villain laugh. If I had the proper anatomy I would totally be doing the whole super villain pose to go with it. The one where you lean back slightly with your arms half raised to either side with your palms facing towards the heavens. Instead I settled for imagining ominous lightning strikes in the background and made plans for an evil monologue when I had the time. First I need to make some super evil plans. You can’t conquer the world without super evil plans, that just doesn’t make sense.