Chapter 44: Good talk

BloodSpot went silent for more than a minute. Safo didn’t show any signs but he wanted a mentorship from the spider very much. A billion zees could work too, though.

“What is your name?” BloodSpot finally said something igniting a spark of hope in Safo’s heart.

"WorldDestroyer." Safo Nur blushed when he said that out loud. He created that name for the sake of a joke, he never thought that he would have to introduce himself to others. When he first read that name on his status window he fully felt how lame it was. That was the first reason why he wanted to create a new character.

‘Oh, shi* does that mean that I cannot delete this character now?! Noooo…’ Safo cried inwardly. He had to play as living broccoli after receiving an important artifact and a quest.

“It won’t work, what I know came from years of practice and hard work, it is not an in-game skill that you can just learn for a second. So name an adequate amount of money, I’ll pay and we separate our paths.” All of a sudden BloodSpot became calmer and … wiser.

“I do not need anything else right now. I need to get stronger.” Somehow it felt right to confess to an unknown person. Safo went to the end of his cell and sat on the wooden bed. It was his reality, he was too weak in every given department, in a new world that he was involved in.

His resource was locked giving him a portion of his powers, his physical condition didn’t allow him to get what he wanted, he had no political power to make his way home, even in the game he felt that he wouldn't be among the best players. Ever since he found himself in a cage with hundred other people, everything kept reminding him how weak he was. It put a lot of pressure on him and depressed him deeply, he felt himself being on the bottom of the food chain.

Air in the basement felt heavy, mutual silence as a sign of understanding dominated the hall.

“I know!” Safo snapped out of his depressive thoughts with an idea. “I have a better offer for you. Hold yourself…" Safo paused to create a dramatic moment. BloodSpot rolled his eyes, he wasn't buying it.

"What if I will help you find each of them? Every single hidden item. I have a Secret Quest with instructions and hints on how to find the rest of the items. I just started this game so I will go further into the next Cubes anyway. You should come along with me and teach me in the process. You can take this item from me and other items too, just help me to get something good too. I do not care much about secret items, my priority is to practice martial arts more often. So in the end, you will be the Lord of the game and I will be as good as I can be in combat. Sounds delicious, right, right?” Safo hid the fact that he had no access to all the hints, it solely enquired to ascend to Cube 2. And he made sure not to open all of his cards. He had a quest item “Circle of Time”, he wasn't yet certain what it does, but that was something to ponder in the future.

He acknowledged that there was a chance that every adventurer in the game received the quest with instructions and the item too. Safo was about to check BloodSpot's reaction to gauge his speculations.

He planned to use the quest item, given that only he had it, as a trump card if things went dire. Even though he usually chose to speak openly and honestly, he couldn’t afford to be too honest. There was a thin line between honesty and stupidity.

BloodSpot was silent once again.

Safo Nur felt nervous, he wasn't confident in his offer. If the Secret Quest had been given to everybody and each player had clues to find the hidden item, then Safo had nothing to offer. And then it could mean that the spider could really announce a hunt on him.

"Are you seriously going?" An unknown voice came loud from the middle cage.

"Aaa... What the hell?! You scared me. Who the hell are you now? Were you there the whole time?" Voice came from two cells after Safo's so he still couldn't see the speaker.

"BlackSly, you old thief, even I didn't see you there. Are you slacking from work again, you will get yourself into trouble, again." BloodSpot spoke calmly and warm a bit.

"Do you know each other?" Safo continued his futile attempts to catch the glimpse of the mysterious man.

BloodSpot and BlackSly were acquaintances from their multiple travels to the jail. While BloodSpot usually was for a day or two, sometimes even for a week, BlackSly stole small things, getting himself into short-term imprisonments.

BlackSly received a life sentence and currently was in prison in real life. The authorities forced them to play, to gather information and resources in the game for subsequent sale. All prisoners played the game day and night with short breaks for food, and not for other needs. Most of them had muscle atrophy due to their inactive lifestyle, prisoners that couldn’t even walk couldn’t break free or create conflicts, after all.

BlackSly, however, often stole small things in front of guards just to end up in jail for a couple more hours of sleep and quiet. Alas, more often than not he got himself exposed by prison overseers and received days without food. He was never interested in the game and had never gone beyond Cube 1.

“Don’t worry, everyone is busy these days with preparations for an upcoming war. They are not watching us as they used to.” BlackSly’s voice was hoarse, barely audible. It was strange how VD could project the voice referencing it from one's memory.

“What war?” BloodSpot’s interest rocketed.

“I heard that the Youngest Son is going to attack AXIS. It sounded like a big deal. Anyway, I thought you said you planned to terrorize Cube1?! Are you giving up on your dream, son?" BlackSly stood up from the shadows and came close to the bars to show himself and take a better look at his neighbors. "Or it wasn’t you who said that he wanted to become the most dangerous assassin in the world?"

Safo Nur immediately felt unease. His, not so much clever lie apparently grew into something bigger. And the whole planet was preparing for the war with the imaginary enemy.

"What a load of crap!" Safo Nur chipped in, keeping secret his worries about AXIS.

"What did you say? You want to die in real life?" BloodSpot spat out, hitting the bars like a madman. Safo’s words touched his soft spot.

"I just think that it is bullshit, what you said to him. How do you want to be the most horrendous assassin while going around and killing newbies like me? You are a mere bully. If you want to be the greatest then go and kill the top players, then and only then you will be someone cool. Now you are just a freak with issues.” That topic came in handy for Safo Nur, if he could play out it right, he would most certainly obtain a teacher for the long term.

“Do not think that I’m not seeing through your words, you cannot outsmart me. I know your nickname, I will text you on VDtalk. Old man, go higher, I will take care of you.” With that said, BloodSpot logged out.

“Damn, he is gone. I should’ve asked him not to use his embarrassing nickname. I do not want to learn fighting from nasty bedsheets.” Half joked Safo.

“He thinks too small of me, this kid. I can cut and steal his penis, and he won’t even notice it.” BlackSly mumbled to himself. “Boy! Good talking there, I can’t believe you persuaded him to leave Cube 1. Nice job."

Safo Nur and BlackSly chatted for some time after. Before an alarm made him log out.

“How are you, Luna? Are you enjoying the game?” Safo checked with his roommate, that he shared his soul room with.

{“I am! I almost got the weapon. Tomorrow I think if I can guess. How about you?”} Luna as always sounded soft, energetic, and more alive than most of the people.

“Not so much.” Safo giggled. “I’m in jail for a day.”

Kutch heard the news and jumped into the conversation with questions. He was excited to share his own stories. Kutch and millions of other players finally reached Cube 8. A new world, new discoveries, new adventures awaited them.

As a ritual, the team, minus O'rmon, sat on their seats at breakfast and shared their daily stories. Kutch was unstoppable, he talked and talked. The Cube 8 was a lot more than they anticipated. Charts of top ten players and top ten guilds had drastically changed in one night.

Safo knew that only one thing was able to stop Kutch’s talk, and he shamelessly used it.

“It was me, who opened the Cube 8 and started the Secret Quest. I have the first hidden item and potentially hint to the second one.”

…

“WHAAAT?” Kutch exploded.

The next hour Kutch interrogated Safo for more details. He almost decided to delete his strong character just to ascend to Cube 2 with Safo. But very soon he dropped that idea. Kutch promised to use his influence in the game to aid Safo in his search for hidden items.

Safo even had to swear on everything that he loved in life that he would join Kutch's guild.

-----

Dark corridors were lit with rare crystals flickering barely alive. A short dark figure ran through the corridor, a visible steam came out of his mouth due to the cold temperature. He stopped before a giant metal door. Gears clanked opening the heavy door. A boy entered the room.

“I heard that the Youngest Son is going to attack AXIS, is that true?”

“Not confirmed, yet you are going to move to a different location from here.”

"How about prisoners on negative Stage 40?"

"What about them? Don't mind trash, go prepare yourself."

"Yes, ma'am."