“Execute,” I growled as I activated the skill, bringing my sword down in a vertical slice to deliver the killing blow. The Horngrin Bloodletter screeched as my blade connected with his chest, stripping him of his remaining health. He collapsed to the ground and disappeared in a burst of smoke and flame.

“You didn’t have to do that,” D scolded me as he put away his daggers and used a Health Kit to restore his health, which was precariously low.

“That thing was going to kill you,” I told him, knowing it would piss him off. D was closing in on level 12, while I was almost 21. For the first time in our gaming history together, I was the “more powerful” one.

We’d hit the Stoneburg Bindstone running and gotten out of town as fast as we could. I was a wanted man, and with The Ripper turning the entire server population Red, every person you ran into had gone from a potential ally, to a potential threat.

There were two outcomes in a fight between players, and neither of them was good. The first outcome, was we lose, and we die—and that would be bad. But the second outcome was, we win, and we kill someone—we actually kill someone, and neither of us wanted that on our conscience.

So, we’d decided to head out on our own and level. Of course, I was already level 20, thanks to The Ripper, so none of the low-level monsters D was fighting gave me any significant experience. In the 12 levels D has risen grinding Horngrin, I hadn’t gained one, and we’d been at it for two weeks.

I’d gone out one night on my own to find some monsters more my level. Despite being level 20, I was still wearing starter gear, and that wouldn’t do. I’d managed to take down some Horngrin Guardians, which were level 17, and put together a decent set of plate mail. One of them had dropped a Polished Bone Sword. Its base damage was 54, which was pretty decent, although it lacked any special bonuses or enchantments.

I was doing my best to stay focused, but one question had been plaguing me day after day: What did The Ripper want from me?

He’d singled me out from the entire server population for a reason. He even knew my name. But why? What was so special about me? I was a nobody. D was always the one making a stir, discovering bugs, starting drama with other players, being involved in the personal lives of the developers. I was just one person out of millions.

And now those people are all after me…

A wanted man. That’s what I was. It sounded romantic, and if the consequences weren’t so severe, it would have been pretty cool. But now with the ever looming threat of real life death hanging over my head, all I wanted to do was fade away into the masses, be another one of the countless other anonymous faces.

But instead, I was a server legend now.

A small group had passed by a few days ago; the only people we’d seen in days. We’d taken cover in a small group of trees and listened as they went by.

“What we need to do is find that guy Jack and take him out!” one of them suggested. By the way he was speaking, he sounded young.

“How do you plan on doing that, dummy? He’s level 20. You’re level 5.” The voice of wisdom.

“The three of us could take him!”

“You wish,” the other laughed.

“Besides, we can’t just kill the guy,” one of them had said.

“We can’t?” the first one replied.

“He’s a person just like you and me. You wanna be a murderer?”

“It’s not really murder,” the young one whined. “It’s just… a game.”

“It’s not,” the other scolded. “It’s murder. Don’t try and twist it.”

Their voices faded off as they went over the crest of the hill. Only then did D and I emerge from our hiding spot.

“You’re a celebrity,” he said. I couldn’t tell if he was angry or envious, but there was something negative in his voice. D wasn’t used to playing the background in our relationship, and even though my fame had put my actual life in danger, I could sense some jealousy there.

“Yeah, well if it came with millions of dollars instead of a death sentence that would be nice,” I replied.

“Let’s go see Alfrin,” D muttered, heading off in the direction of the Bandit Tower, a spot he’d found during Beta that was remote but great for leveling. “I’m running low on arrows.”

Alfrin was an NPC merchant who would buy most of the junk loot we got from the Horngrins, and sold arrows, basic food, some low-level garbage gear, as well as Moderate Health Kits and Moderate Health Potions. He was the main reason we’d chosen to hunt here. It meant we could sell and restock without having to go back to any of the towns. The great thing about Alfrin was he was reliable, always right where we left him.

Despite the fact that we were hiding out, Carrethen really was a beautiful world. Our hunting grounds were sort of nestled in between a group of hills, with Horngrin camps on the slopes all around us. They were far enough away from each other that it wasn’t really possible to pull two camps at the same time and get overrun, but by the time we completed a circle and wiped them all out, the first camp would be respawning again, and we could start all over.

It was strange to think about the fact that my body was somewhere else, lying in my bed, or maybe somewhere else? Maybe I’d been taken to the hospital. It seemed impossible that so many players could be taken care of in the real world. Many of us must have died already, those of us that lived alone without friends or family.

D lived somewhere in the Midwest, with his parents as far as I could remember, and would probably be fine and taken care of. I wasn’t sure, but from the things he’d told me, it sounded like they had at least a decent amount of money. I, on the other hand, wasn’t as lucky.

I lived in the North Coast Sprawl that stretched from Portland, Maine to New York City. My module was in what had once been downtown Boston. Once low cost 3D home printing had exploded, along with the population, the real growth had started. Entire neighborhoods were printed almost overnight, affordable housing for the poorest of Americans. That’s where my mom and I had ended up.

She was the sole remaining human employee at a diner on our neighborhood, taking over when the automated service systems failed, cleaning tables and stocking food into the machines. We weren’t exactly living in the lap of luxury. Health insurance was a total joke, and I couldn’t stop worrying about what would happen to my body if Mom couldn’t get me into a hospital.

My body… I shuddered and pushed the thought from my mind as we reached the Bandit Tower. Immediately, I knew something was wrong.

“Shit,” I said, drawing my sword. I heard D nock an arrow beside me as we crept slowly towards the tower. Alfrin’s body lay motionless just outside the door.