It was a typical Friday night. I had gotten a C- on yet another paper, my mom wasn’t answering my calls and in general, I was just having a bad day. I logged onto DSO, equipped my gear and set out for the northern border. The border sat around the perimeter of a large invisible square. Everyone was relatively safe in the border.

Outside the border? Anyone can kill anyone. A lot of people hunt other players in the obvious way. They chase after them, stab them, shoot them, throw giant fireballs at them and that’s cool. It’s only when players lure others into traps or scam them that I had an issue.

I activated Invisibility on my Specter Cape and poof, no one could see me. I sat around for awhile until I read a conversation between two players that caught my interest.

The_G0liath: Yeah, it really shouldn’t be that bad. Almost no one goes over there, so we can just cut through past the old redwood and then the cave will be right there. Since both of us are high level and have good gear, we’ll be completely fine.

Deltrax33: Yeah. Sounds good. Thanks! It’s way better than going alone.

I never understood how people still fell for that kind of bull crap. The two crossed the border and made their way to the destination they had agreed on. I went up ahead of them and waited by the tree and what I saw there didn’t surprise me at all.

One player named Shogunxx had a blow dart gun and another named Spicearito17 had an ice staff. I looked closely and identified the weapons as Junglewood Blowgun of the Gumblegum Forest and the staff was a Sturdy Ice Dragon Staff. They were going to slow and poison the poor guy while his “friend” slashed him to pieces and then stole all his gear. It was pathetic.

I waited unseen for the two to get closer to us. Though the attackers were all close to my level, there was a big difference. My set of Skycane’s Plate armor and Gilded Dragon Slayer #6 greatsword were the best in the game. Knowing I could kill them all in a matter of seconds gave me great satisfaction, but not as much as what I was about to do.

I stepped forward so I was in between the two attackers and the approaching two players. The lurer, as they were called, said that it looked safe and that they should be fine. The other player agreed and stepped ahead of the guy that was about to kill him. It was then that I lifted my invisibility, allowing the four of them to see me.

The chat log lit up.

Shogunxx:Oh shit is that him?

Spicearito7:Yeah, that’s that guy from last week.

Freaking out at my form and the chat of the two players behind me, the victim took off in the direction he came from. The Goliath sprinted away in the same direction as the victim. Sorry, not gonna happen today punk, I thought.

I ran straight up to the lurer, put away my sword, grabbed him by the shoulder with my left hand, and punched him in the face. His health dropped forty percent. He started to run, but it was too late. I pulled out a rope and lassoed him. I then reeled in the rope slowly. The other two players took off after the victim, hoping I wouldn’t be able to handle all of them. They were wrong.

I channeled the dragon energy of frost from my blade, activating Freezing Touch, and threw it so it landed in the middle of the two attackers. The ground froze, instantly encapsulating the bastards. They wouldn’t be able to move while I still had mana and my sword was in the ground. I admit it, that sword was just a little OP.

Either way, they were screwed. They were frozen because of my sword and they couldn’t even log out because they were beyond the border. Even if they shut off their computers, they would still be logged on they would just not be able to control their characters. .

I finally dragged the lurer all the way to me until we collided. The Protection Charms on my armor activated, ripping him into shreds, instantly killing him. Blood, guts, and bones flew in various directions. God, did I like getting angry sometimes. It was the only time I could stand turning off the gore filter.

I reached down into the pile of what was once The_G0liath and pulled out what looked like a full set of Enchanted Fire Dragon Plate Armor, but then it all faded away. The bloody jerk was using illusion magic. Figures. No wonder I hurt him so badly with a single punch. I made a note to find him again if he wasn’t a hardcore player. Then again, if he was I could still find him and to be honest, it would probably be more fun that way.

I looked and saw that the victim was still fleeing. I don’t think so, I thought. I turned my cloak back on, quickened my pace, activated my sword’s ability Weightless Steps, and cut in front of the victim named “Deltrax33.” I picked him up and put him down in front of his would-be attackers.

I withdrew my sword from the ground and released the scoundrels from their icy prison. They immediately began running again because I had dealt with them the week prior. I put my blade away and chased after them. I reactivated my defensive charms and dove towards them headfirst, tackling them to the ground.

Kaboom. They both immediately died, dropping the weapons they planned to attack with. The blowgun was trash but the ice staff would pay a good amount. I gathered up the items and handed them to the victim. He had been typing in the chat, but I didn’t care. I activated my cloak and took off to find more prey.

***

I looked down at the clock and it was four am; I had spent most of the night hunting down punks like the three I took care of when I first logged on. For the last hour, I had been sitting by my pond catching some fish. I had exchanged my shiny golden armor and Gilded Dragon Slayer #6 for a pair of overalls, a straw hat, and a fishing pole. After a while, I got up and started working on something to add to my house. I eventually finished up and turned to logout. I really do love this game… I thought.

***

I opened my eyes and it was already ten o’clock. I hadn’t gone to bed until around maybe six am. I got out of bed, pounded down an energy drink, and hopped onto DSO. There was a quest I had started two days before that was time sensitive. If I didn’t finish it by the end of the day, I was going to fail it. That’s not going to happen.

Considering that Princess Alana from Landalof Castle was a longterm helpful NPC and strikingly beautiful, I knew that I’d be foolish to fail her. I gathered the materials I needed and set out for the cave behind the redwood. Though it was known as a popular spot to lure gullible players, it did have something more important to offer if the right player knew where to look.

I made my way through the cave invisibly, protected from the eyes of seemingly weak ghouls, demons, and other vile creatures. The entire cavern was mostly one long corridor. Every little bit or so there would be a small to medium-sized room on the left or the right filled with various beings.

Despite that the walls were made of bones and the floors were covered in blood, the place was unremarkable when it came to creatures. They were gruesome enough and all but the highest one was maybe level twenty. Most people liked luring people to the caves because they are ominous and add to the scare factor without knowing the true potential of the cave.

I walked to the very end until I was in a large circular room with various creatures running about. A large flow of white, milky-looking water poured out of the back wall, flooding most of the room. There is something they didn’t know for sure, I thought as I withdrew a vial from my inventory, uncapped it and poured its golden contents into the water.

It was then that the handle of my dorm room’s door turned and someone tried to open it. “Kyle, it’s me. Come on, Time to go.” My mother was a very busy woman who didn’t like to be kept waiting. I pulled off my headset and checked my phone. Nope, she hadn’t called or texted once.

I grabbed some clothes, threw them in a bag, and made my way to the car with my laptop in hand. My mom walked briskly in front of me. I wasn’t going to let a car ride ruin such an important quest. I hopped in the passenger’s side. I then turned my phone into a hotspot and reconnected to the game. Unsurprisingly, my mom didn’t say more than an obligatory greeting and proceeded to talk to someone from work on her Bluetooth headset.

I threw my headset on and focused my attention back on the quest at hand. Though there were “standard” quests in DSO, some time before they had implemented dynamic “unrepeatable” quests that were actually quite genius. I walked behind a stalagmite and made sure it was safe. It was a quest that was going to help the princess, while also allowing me to deal with a group of lurers and scammers in the future.

I stayed invisible and waited for the second part of my quest. A few people stepped in the came and I got worried. I looked up and noticed that we had turned onto the highway. I almost immediately recognized The_G0liath. Good, this should be perfect. They even came to me this time.

A few more people arrived. Once it seemed nobody else was going to arrive, I took a few steps closer to the group and then turned off my invisibility. It wasn’t my main directive, but killing them seemed like a fun time killer. I was ready to just use my sword that time around instead of resorting to more “fun” tactics.

It was then that a cherry red truck crossed over the double yellow lines and hit our comparably small silver sedan, throwing my body through the air like a magic bullet. The thought of how I should have had a seatbelt on presented itself as a piece of bittersweet hindsight. If only I hadn’t waited so long to do the quest…