Rowan leaned against the wall of the hallway. She stared as the lady approached. There was no point in hiding, she could tell. The lady was good, inhumanly good. Her movement, her awareness, her soundlessness…

Hiding would almost be a joke. If the lady had desired her dead, she would have killed her before she had even noticed the invader’s presence. The lady had wanted to be seen, to display the gap between mortals and perfection. Flaunting herself to the common thieves prowling around on the dirty floors.

So Rowan leaned back and stared, taking in every detail, every graceful step and every lovely curve. Something burned inside her, something she had not felt in a long time. Was it lust, awe… jealousy?

It had been so long since her insides had stirred like this, so she found it hard to tell. Maybe it was a bit of all of them... or a lot of all of them. Gracefully the lady stepped past, giving the goat just the slightest flash of her perfect eyes. Rowan felt a final shiver run through her body as her black hair disappeared out of sight.

“Marvellous…”

Rowan strolled into the office, observing the corpse.

“Look at that, it is one of the ogre’s friends. This is becoming quite a tangle of crazy coincidences.”

A soft tapping sound came from beside her as Icid climbed back down. She let her eyes wander over the spider. Icid carried a euphoric smile and her eyes rang with the dissonance of a thousand un-tuned bells. Her mandibles let out an occasional soft click while she muttered.

“Do you need a little more time, Icid? I don’t hear any more movement so we can probably afford to wait a while.”

The spider's head tilted.

“No, I am good. Things need doing, so we better spent our time working. Before long we will have at least three parties coming for throat, we should loot everything we can. The money might come in handy, especially when the authorities get involved. We will catch the blame for this either way, score or no score.”

Glee dripped from the voice, a childish joyful glee. As if nothing could please her more than the idea that she would soon be hunted. Rowan mentally moved Icid from the harmless to the potentially dangerous category. Taking note to no longer fully drop her guard if she was around. Something stirred in those eyes that was not there before, something that might be able to kill if pushed too far.

She had expected to find the spider dead or traumatised, but even her mental breakdowns were apparently absurd.

But this was good, it wasn’t any fun if toys broke too early.

If she even retains part of this mania once she has slept away the night, she might even stand a chance of becoming quite interesting.

Such a fascinating place this simulation was turning out to be.

“Excellent, you are spot on. We have much work to do. But first I must know what happened here.”

A small amount of morning light filtered past the thick curtains of the two-person bedroom. Everything inside was about two thirds the regular size, from the doors to the windows to the furniture. But this fitted the spider and goat just fine, or one might even say it fitted them perfectly. The rest of the inn was similarly well maintained, while managing to refrain from looking gaudy. It was a good place, old-fashioned labour and care.

“Are you sure you are going out again?”

“Yes, I am quite used to pulling all-nighters. This stuff needs to be out of our hands before the authorities get notified of the robbery. But you should sleep. I can tell that your awareness is starting to suffer severely.”

“I am fi-”

“You are not. There will be no discussion. You will clear your mind and sleep, you are a danger like this.”

Icid scuttled side to side in frustration, her eyes were calmer than an hour ago, but far from stable. Rowan watched as the awkwardly stretched herself over the bed, her legs bending out over both sides.

After strolling over she gave a soft jab with her knuckles at a bulge at her lower back.

“Kyaaa!”

“Let me guess, you have terrible pain in your back when you get up in the morning?”

Icid eyed her with a bit of apprehensive annoyance, guessing from the tone that she was going to be lectured to.

“Your body is not fit to sleep like this. Normally your spine makes a ninety-degree curve at your cephalothorax. The spine itself is very flexible, more so than a human’s. It is a surprise it even bends to allow your rump to be angled horizontal. But it is not good to have it bend this far the entire night. Your back should be supported in its natural position while you rest.”

“What would you have me do then? It is not like this inn contains beds especially for spiders. I am sure the lovely owner would have told us is she had some.”

“There are three options I can think of. Sleep on a chair, hugging the back while clamping your legs around the seat. Far from optimal, but it likely gets close to a natural position. The second is to suspend yourself in a web you have built. This should be the most comfortable, but it is a bit too late for that now as you have never spun web before. The last is to go hang on the roof, your body attaches itself passively so you can likely sleep upside down without falling. Probably, no guarantees till you try though.”

To Rowan’s surprise, she chooses to climb up the wall instead of talking back.

“Coming around to the ways of the spider, Icid?”

She paused, stared vaguely at her legs and then yawned.

“It felt comfortable to hang upside down…”

Her clicking was becoming soft and hazy and her thoughts seemed to have difficulty connecting.

“Good, that will make things easier later. Sleep well, Icid.”

Rowan exited the inn and stepped into the warm morning light. The air was still frigid, but the sun already burned with unbridled fury. Goats, sheep, dogs and horses walked upright in their morning commutes, filling the air with the scent of an animal barn. The more traditional orc or goblin passed by as well, moving along hastily over the rickety walking bridges.

Now that the dust ‘rain’ had stopped, countless gnarly birds, thorny monkeys and scaly insects had appeared in the ever-present trees. They filled the air with the overwhelming sounds of life. The cacophony of animal noises flooded over the frothing rivers with a loudness one would scarily hear outside of the deep tropics.

Rowan turned and faced the spring at the centre of a giant market square. A cooling mist drifted by, which mixed with the cold air and burning sun to create a heavy pressing feeling. Large blasts of water spat forth from the ground and pushed back the flowing dust in a large circle. Then after a couple of meters, the water seemed to disappear back under the brown froth, as if being pulled underground.

An endless stream of people crowded together and swarmed like bees in order to get their supply of water. Oiled buckets, leather flasks, heavy jars and ornate pots where dragged up and down at a staggering rate. Families bathed in shallow platforms at the edge where the water meets the dust. Mothers washed their children, fathers rinsed themselves after a day hard labour, young ladies frolicked and young boys ogled. Then they climbed out stark naked onto the raised walk bridges and got dressed between the bustling market stalls.

Rowan hoisted her heavy bags of loot further over her shoulder and set off at a fast trot.

“What is up with this simulation? I had expected some elves, dwarves and wizards but this is a bit excessive.”

She gritted her teeth, her severe lack of knowledge was starting to become evident. Just how many things had slipped her by because did not know to look for them?

For instance, what happened to people if they died in this world? She could not imagine the AFTERLIFE would just delete them.

Were they placed back with some kind of penalty?

Could the place of respawn be controlled?

If so, how was criminal law enforced in this world?

And what kind of organisation controlled it, an AI-driven one or a player driven one?

If you could change your character or skip the outer gate by paying, what other things can be gotten using real-world money?

So many questions, she had been far too hasty to act so soon. They needed someone with knowledge if they were going to get through this, preferably someone trustworthy…

Rowan twisted and turned through the streets. Always moving toward the grime and decay, ever deeper into the dingy alleyways. Craftsman’s stores gave way to shady brothels, market stands sold goods unmarked and more and more people walked with their hoods down. The wooden walkways went rotten and countless gangly roots spilled onto the path. As she turned into a street completely devoid of any decent looking citizens she finally came to a halt.

“This should be deep enough.”

She slowed her tread, giving her eyes the time to observe all the details of the streets as she passed them. For a good half an hour she wandered through the gloom before coming to an abrupt halt. Her attention was piqued by a ramshackle store without any signs or nameplates. Judging from the display it sold nothing but a handful of dusty buckets and old brooms.

Under the window, the faintest mark caught her eye, a dot, a slightly angled line and a triangle. A haphazard collection of common vandalism to most, but Rowan knew better. The eye, half closed and out of sight, one who trades in things not to be seen by the common gaze. Luck was with her today, this was going to make things proceed much faster.

A muscular bulldog sat in the front smoking a rustic pipe while an old grey hyena milled around behind a filthy counter.

“I have a handful of names and I am looking to buy their whereabouts.”

The hyena turned and eyed Rowan suspiciously.

“Interesting, we don’t often get Capra here. What might the names be, little one?”

“Niff Bullwalk, Scrounger Jack, Old Yu, and Finch Junior”

The bulldog cracked his knuckles while the hyena leaned over the counter.

“And who is asking?”

“Rowan ‘Oil’ Walker.”

The hyena licked his lips as he took out a thick notebook.

“Oh that is quite interesting, dead for about a day or two, I see… Now, the collective ‘we’ had not quite expected you to join our little world.”

He took out his quill and scribbled a tiny note on the register. Then he turned to face Rowan again.

“Out of pure curiosity, what brings you to this wretched hellhole of a simulation, Mister Walker? From your record, you don't strike me as the type of person who cares for video games.”

“I have come to strangle Olivier Oldward the Third.”

There was a small moment of silence before both the bulldog and the hyena exploded with laughter.

“Haha haha ha, now that is the best thing I have heard all week!”

“Hehe he, all week? What are you talking about, that level of stupidity rarely pops up once a month!”

Rowan waited patiently as the two took a significant amount of time to get over their laughing fits.

“Well, it’s good to have big dreams, little goat. But maybe you should aim for something more your… size. I won’t stop you if you plan to go kick the shins of the king of greed. But don’t expect any help once he drags you down to his private dungeon. There is a lot of new ways to have fun with people if they can’t die, if you get what I mean.”

“I am not in a hurry, but he will get what he deserves.”

“Sure, sure, shall we move on to the names then?

Let’s see, Niff Bullwalk, prison 254-year sentence. Charges include explosions, murder, theft, more explosions and also some non-explosion related property destruction. Unless you want to add ‘breaking into Aard's best-guarded prison’ to your list of ridiculous goals, I would put that one out of your head.

Old Yu has been elusive as of late, to everyone’s utter surprise, so I have nothing on her currently.

Finch Junior is in hiding somewhere in the third ring, as he pissed off some of the greed kings goons. Nothing you can do to get him out of there, I am afraid. Unlike you, he got some survival instinct so he won’t budge.

I can hand you Scrounger Jack though, that one is a piece of cake. Same rate as in the real world.”

Rowan tossed two of the bags of coins Icid had found on the desk.

“That should more than cover the cost. I also have a couple of tidbits that need answering.”

The hyena weight the bags of coin with his hands and after a while smiled with a satisfied expression.

“Ask away.”

“No, yes, and another yes. No, I cannot get someone to transfer money from an offshore account to your universal id account. And indeed, only currency from your universal account can be used here. We do run a business network through the world of the living, but it is not that simple. A dead man’s money does not let itself be moved easily at the best of times.

If the money in question is dirty, that becomes nigh on impossible. Especially if it needs to go to into the universal credit system. You know how difficult it is to move tainted cash onto there. That is the reason no one in our business tends to bother with the account anyway. But no doubt you knew that already.

Moving on to the first yes. Yes, I can get you citizen passes and as you have guessed. Doing that through my channels is going to be cheaper, faster and less of a pain. I can only get you the passes though. Clearance to the higher levels requires quite some work on your part and I can be only of limited help there.

Then the second yes. If your stuff needs to be flogged right now, I am willing to buy. But at a reduced rate, of course. Was that everything?”

Rowan flung the bag onto the counter, creating a loud metallic cacophony.

“Mostly, there is one last thing I want to know out of curiosity.”

Out of her pocket she fished the golden dragon ring. The eyes of the hyena went cold and the bulldog stated growling softly.

“I guess this is a no go on the ring then?”

He leaned in slightly closer and glared deep into Rowan's eyes.

“I don’t care if you go into a dance of death with the king of greed. The collective ‘we’s’ relationship with him is tenuous, but at least he knows his boundaries. Your lunacy is unlikely to cause us any trouble. But if you want to do business with this establishment, you better go toss that ring into the first river you come across. Disaster is the only outcome possible if that cult of lunatics gets involved.”

Rowan stared back into the hyena’s large grey eyes. There was fear, some anger as well and a slight hint of something else, but what she could not quite pin down. She shoved the ring back in her pocket.

“I will make sure it disappears then. When do you think the passes are ready?”

The tension dissipated and to mood returned to normal.

“Ah, if you come back in a day or two I should have them done. Although if you plan to go after Scrounger Jack, it might be better to have it all arranged at a branch closer to your target. He lives at the 97th point clockwise from the central gate, first circle, otherwise known as the bloody heights. Will take you at least 15 days on foot, three to four if you pay for transport on a dustbuck drawn carriage.

A large assortment of guilds has their offices there. The city block tends to turn into a battlefield over some dispute every couple of months. That’s the reason for the ‘bloody’ part of the name. I would try looking for Jack the bars at the adventure’s guilds. If you looking to swindle people, that is the place to be. Also pay a visit to Gwul’s Inks, I will let them know how much your stuff was worth, so you can settle the payment with them.”

“Three to four days crammed in a cart with the spider. That is going to be… special. Ah well, I will figure something out, thanks for the service. May the business be good.”

“May it indeed. And don’t forget to dump that ring.”

Rowan stepped out of the door while making a noncommittal hand gesture and walked into the burning hot day.

Personal Quest Complete: Planning Ahead

You have discovered the frog-humper now goes under the title of The King of Greed and is widely seen as a bad person to cross. You have also found the location of Scrounger Jack, who already sounds like the most reliable guy around based on his nickname alone. Lastly, you have found a good location to rob. But you had already raided the place before you found the other bits of info, making this bit of quest dialogue seem quite out of place. Also, you seem to have taken in the disgusting spider as your pseudo-apprentice, you weirdo.

As reward for your efforts you are promoted from the Novice rank to the Lesser rank, making you Lesser Criminal Scum. As you did not once test out the awesome power I gave you last time, I considered not giving you another one as punishment. But you are screwed enough as it is so I will overlook your impudence. You have gained the skill [Hidden Blade], one small dagger is always hidden on your person.

Party Quest Added: Better Get Jack

Members: Rowan ‘Apparently something with Oil’ Walker, Icidae Salt

You expect at least three parties: Ogre and friends, Ring Collectors and the National Guard will be out for your blood before long. You better convince someone who actually somewhat understands what is going on in this world to join your walk to the gallows.