Chapter 06: The Ally System

I arrived at the fresh produce stall that sold everything… well, fresh; vegetables, various kind of milks, meats and such. And I was here for the rainbow carrots. I took my pouch and dangled it around openly when I was looking at the items, trying to lure whoever that might be following me. But I could sense that the eyes were a little hesitant. Well, time to push this game a little further. I placed the money pouch on the wooden crate and I walked a couple of steps away to look at a bunch of fresh tomatoes and made myself busy with the merchant.

“Popo asked for 5 sticks of rainbow carrots. Do you have them?”

“Popo? What that Bunnian asking a human to do his work for him?” The merchant stared blankly at me. My mind though was somewhere else as I kept all my senses sharp.

“No idea. I just do whatever I’m told. Besides, I get to have a little respite by walking around town…” The corner of my eyes peered towards the money pouch that I purposely left on that wooden crate. And true enough, I saw a hand placed itself on it; a thin and frail arm that protruded from the moving crowd. Heh. Caught you red-handed, little thief.

Once the thief grabbed my pouch and slipped it inside that ragged robe of his, I had confirmed my suspicions. Before that happened, I was doubtful of the intention. That fellow might give the excuse that he just returned me the money pouch found lying around. Well, pocketing that money pouch inside his clothes just made him a little thieving brat. I excused myself from the shopkeeper and followed the thief from behind.

He did not go far. Normally, a thief would run away and hide amongst the crowd after stealing something. But not this particular thief. Must be a new thief stealing from a new player. And when I was within an arm’s reach, I immediately grabbed the thief and pulled him close. I covered the mouth with one hand while the other grabbed the waist, making sure that he did not try to escape. I then gave him an arm twist making a sort of lock from behind.

However, I was quite surprised by this thief’s build. Something was odd and I was about to find out. I took an exit towards the back alley with him. The crowd did not pay much attention to me as there were too many people who were busy doing their own things. And I did it stealthily too that did not arouse suspicions from others.

As soon as we were safe from peering eyes, I pinned the thief to the wall. He was wearing a ragged robe and it smelled terribly bad. Looked like this brat had poor hygiene too. But nonetheless, a thief was still a thief. Time for me to end this little game, already. Though he tried his best to wiggle free from me, I knew better to keep an enemy in its place.

“Squirm all you like, but you are not going away from me.” The thief shrieked a little and tried harder to escape.

“Move more if you dare but don’t blame me if I snapped your neck. No one escapes from my Eagle hold technique.”

A technique I perfected to pin the enemy down while I was on duty in the war. Never thought I could do it flawlessly in here too. The thief, finally understanding his predicament, relented. His limb felled lifelessly. Now that I had his cooperation, might as well know who was this idiot in the first place.

“So, you are the one that had been following around since the beginning.”

One of my hand pulled the hood of the robe to exposed the thief. However, I was surprised. I expected a little boy thief, but instead a long flowing lock of blonde hair fell out of the hood. The thief turned away as his identity was finally exposed.

*****

“So, a female thief. A good looking one at that too.” I grabbed hold of her face and examined it closely. She did not try to escape from me. It was futile since I had pinned her like this and exposed her identity. However, the findings did make me a little speechless. She did not look like a typical thief at all. Flawless with smooth and luscious skin, soft hair and full lips that knew not what poverty and malnourished meant.

I searched her whole body under the hood. Her eyes widened in surprise as she squirmed yet again thinking that I was molesting her. “Ahh… here it is, my money pouch. You kept it well, between your breast too, huh?”

She looked away in disgust. Being caught with the stolen item and now molested by the victim. What else could be worse than this?

And then she cried; her tears streaming down her cheeks as she still had her back against the wall. But I did not care. Served her right for being a thief and stealing my quest money. Anyhow, I was done here. I let her go and she just fell to the ground weakly. I could hand her to a guard on duty and had her arrested but that would be more trouble for me. I had a quest to complete in a rush too by the way.

She then covered her face with her hand. Her quiet sob in this back alley did make for a pitiful scene to anyone else except for me. I had done and seen worse during my youth. Better this than giving her over to the guards and let her rot in jail.

“You can go now. I got my items back.” I turned around and walked away. However, before I could take even a step, she grabbed me by the end of my pants.

“P-Pl…please help me. I... I’m hungry.”

A hungry thief. Well, it sucked to be you but I got no money. I was a poor sod who just started recently. Besides, I spent too much of my time training and not earning anything.

I just shook my head at her and tried to kick her away. “Sorry girl. Don’t think bad of me, but I don’t have any money.” Suddenly, I heard a grumbling voice. It was loud enough that I was even surprised by it. I could not get hungry while I was still in my first 2 months, so this sound must be from the girl instead.

And I was right. She was holding her tummy and as our eyes met, she covered herself immediately. Her sense of modesty had finally prevailed. And this time I gave in. I did feel pity for a hungry fellow like this, NPC or not. For me, there was camaraderie to be found between starving people. I knelt in front of her and asked, “Are you hungry?”

She did not respond, only to look away from me.

“Well, if you are not going to cooperate with me, might as well you stay hungry like that. I’m going!” As I tried to stand up, she suddenly grabbed my hand. And I looked down sternly. She gave a weak nod then looked away yet again. Must be a shy thief too. A modest and now a shy thief. It was somehow funny though I never seen one before.

“I don’t know what can I do for you since it’s not my money and I have a quest to complete. But you can either follow me around for a while and see for yourself or you can leave me. Either way, I don’t care.”

“I-I’ll follow you.” She pleaded to me with teary eyes. Perhaps she saw better reasons to follow me rather than wallowed herself in a dark alley. Who knew what might come here later.

“Good. And don’t think about stealing anything. If you do, I’ll hand you over the guards immediately.”

“P-please. Not that. I beg you… please.” She shrieked a little at the mentioning of the guards and her face went pale. Did she have some phobia with the guards here? Perhaps she would do anything not to be arrested.

“Alright. If you say so. Now, I have a quest to complete. Tag along if you want.” And she did tag along with me. As soon as I bought all the items, the pop-up message appeared and instructed me to return to Popo with all the ingredients.

*****

“So, your name is Elly?” The girl nodded as she followed me at the side. “I’m Ghost. And as you know, I’m a level 1 newbie here.”

She was shocked to hear that. “B-But… you don’t act and move like one.”

“Really? Hahaha. Then how do I look or move like then?” I playfully asked her. Our interaction was less tense now. It might be odd but I think there was more to her than just a thieving brat.

“I don’t know. But your eyes are scarily sharp and your movements are fast. No one has ever caught me before.” She explained. I chuckled a little hearing that.

“Like a ghost, right? That’s what my name says, after all.”

Grumbling sound of hunger could be heard from Elly again. This girl was quite pitiful. Perhaps she was not used to being hungry like this. If one was used to starvation, the stomach could actually accustom itself to the situation. And judging by the realism of this game, I was sure that it would be the case too.

“Po, we have a guest?” I returned to the Practice Hall with Elly. As I handed the ingredients to Popo, he was delighted at the speed of my completion. He took the items away and inspected it one by one.

“Everything’s here? You surely are a fast worker, po.” Popo’s whiskers moved a little and his ruby eyes looked at me doubtfully.

“Trust me a little, will you?” I was annoyed that he had to check the whole bags of ingredients. But he just laughed it out and waved me away. “But it’s just a simple quest for a man like you, right po?” And then, the customary quest completion message popped up. Since I had done it in a jiffy, the quest should give me a good reward.

Congratulations! You had completed the Quest: Get me my stuff, po!(1)

Rewards:

2 silver coins.

What the fuck with this reward? No Experience Points or EXPs gain? No items and equips? Just a pitiful 2 silver? Fuck me sideways. And I completed it in a hurry too, you know. I left out a deep sigh. Popo looked at me bemusedly at my reaction.

“Po… who’s our new guest?” Ohh… Popo had been asking about her since the beginning. Trying to divert the disappointment from my pitiful rewards, I looked at Elly. “Well, an extra from the quest. She’s the thief that I caught trying to steal your items.”

“Po?!” Popo looked angrily at Elly but I reassured him that what happened was because she was hungry. And I did catch her and returned with everything he needed. Took a little convincing but finally, Popo calmed down a little. “Hungry doesn’t mean you must be a thief, po!”

“And he’s right. You could go out and gather foodstuff by yourself.” I chipped in.

Elly just hung her head low. Must be feeling bad being reprimanded by 2 strangers with a hungry stomach.

“Well, perhaps we could feed her for now, Popo.” And that was my intention. I felt pity for her and the reason why I brought her back here was twofold. One was for Popo to feed her.

“Feed a thief? No way, po!” the Bunnian protested immediately.

I then whispered to Popo about my reasoning. As soon as he heard it, he smirked. It was sure easy to convince him this time seeing that he could use Elly here in Practice Hall. She looked at us with suspicion but she held her tongue quite comfortable not to say anything that might turn Popo away.

And Popo was laughing hysterically at the end of it. I was sure he had imagined something silly and perverted; dressing Elly in a bunny-girl suit and let her become this place eye-candy. And that was my second reason. Two sweating men weren’t going to work. A scantily dressed blonde girl in a bunny suit would surely be some eye-popping candy. It would surely attract new and old players, alike. Of course, she did not have to know about it or like it either.

“Alright! I’ll feed you, po. But you must follow my every command, understand po?” Elly nodded enthusiastically amidst Popo’s excited order, not knowing what both of us had in mind for her. For once, she now could smile a little.

That looked like it was over. Time for me to resume my training. However, before I could do anything, a message popped up on my screen.

Train Elly (1)

Elly, the thief girl, is weak and defenceless. You are required to train her before she could do the job in Practice Hall.

Quest Rank: F

Completion Requirements:

Train Elly until Popo is satisfied with her progress.

Quest Reward:

None

This quest cannot be rejected or cancelled.

Another quest? And it could not be rejected nor cancelled. Aww, man. As I was cursing my luck, suddenly, another message popped-up again.

Elly, the Thief

Congratulations!

Elly now has become your ally.

You can now proceed to check her status on the ally’s status screen. Remember, that your ally grows with you. Take care of all your allies well and you will succeed where everyone else will fail.

Good luck!

The Ally System.

One of the main attraction of NPO. An ‘Ally’ was one of a kind NPC that served the players in many ways. Once the ally had been assigned to a player, the said ally would cease to be available to others. So, ally was a unique NPC, bound to only one character in the whole NPO. An ally was indeed precious, worth more than the rarest of the rare items. However, there was a catch. Not only we have to train the ally from the beginning since every one of them started at Level 1, but any dead ally would severely deduct our Charisma, Command points and Fame. No one would be willing to serve under a selfish arsehole who think about himself and jeopardize others, right?

Furthermore, during my initial research before playing the game, I had been made known that were 2 ways how an NPCs could get killed and 3 ways for an ally.

First was by special events; especially a war or a town siege. NPCs immortality had been lifted off and we could freely kill any NPCs, whether in fields or towns. Bear in mind that killing innocent NPCs especially women and children would severely deduct fame points. The second was through the quest storyline where certain NPCs needed to be killed. Once killed, the quest would have ceased to exist. An NPC killing quest was unique and one of a kind. For example, killing the NPC King during a war.

And third which was special only to the player-ally relationship. As a player, we could kill our own ally once we disabled the friendly-fire; a system that protects us from mistakenly killing our allies. However, there were extreme penalties given to such act. Even with the friendly-fire system on, we could still hurt our ally during normal combats and fights and he or she would be definitely pissed off thus lowering their affinities to us.

Well, I was lucky to gain Elly as my ally. What made it good for me was that she was at Level 1, like me. So training her was easy. I opened up Elly’s status screen.

STATUS PAGE

Character Name

Elly?

Alignment

Unknown

Level

1

Fame (Recognition Points)

0

Class

Thief?

Affinity

11/100 (Distrust)

STATUS INFORMATION SCREEN

HP

100

STR

5

MP

150

DEX

11

ATTACK POWER

30

INT

10

MAGIC POWER

20

CHA

10

DEFENCE RATING

15

WIS

11

STAMINA

90

LUCK

12

COMMAND POINTS

0

AGI

11

MAGIC AND ELEMENTAL RATINGS (%)

FIRE

WATER

WIND

EARTH

HOLY

DARK

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

BIODATA:

Elly, the thief was caught by you. Nothing much is known about her, only that you pitied her and gave her food.

It was the same screen as my character’s but what with the question mark at Elly’s name? It bothered me for a while, though it must be about those affinities thingy. It meant that the closer we get, the more she would open up about herself. The only difference was I could not allocate the stat points myself when she levelled up. What I knew from the help menu was, she would ask me from time to time about her growth and according to my answer, she would allocate the points. It was random, so I had no idea how though. The rest was unexplained. Looked like I had to find it out by myself further.

And the Affinity was at the lowest. There were 10 levels of Affinity for an ally, with Hatred being the lowest, followed by Distrust, Acquaintance, Neutral, Friend, Best Friend and with Revered being the highest that one can achieve normally.

The other four? Well, each ally would have different affinity once it passed the Revered Affinity. I don’t know what would Elly be like, but well, let’s see how she would grow first.