CHAPTER 8

I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.

- Jurgen Klopp -

One of the first things that I did after the crazy Sarai shenanigans was text Oz (or Ozma, Ozamataz Buckshank as far as the full made up name is concerned) and see if he knew what was up. That's the general go-to for anyone that knows anyone who is anyone in game.

Oz is a legend, always has been and always will be. He's that guy that you might forget about because he's been around for so long, but remember that you might need him to help because he's been around for so long.

Any boss fight? He did it before it got nerfed. Any crazy raid? He was always the first on top of the totem pole for gearing and strategy. He was always a step ahead, and honestly, that was the step that I needed right now. But I had to find a way to corral him for that to actually work.

But Oz was, for all intents and purposes, AFK.

“Jesus wept”, I muttered, under my breath, waiting for a response from the legend himself, about a week ago.

A week passed, piling up the Jesus tears. “He wept, and wept”, I thought to myself nonsensically, under my breath, a few days later.

But, on occasion, ask and you shall receive, and in this case Oz finally did hit me back.

“Yo”, he messaged me out of nowhere, with levels of biblical proportion considering the current situation. “I've heard things are a little crazy out there right now”.

Oh, are they now.

“I hate you but you know it's still all love”, I replied, “What have you heard?”.

Short span of silence that made me think he'd gone rogue again but he ended up coming through loud and clear:

“This sounds crazy, and I feel crazy just for saying it, but I think Damenocles and Valanastia have found a way into real life, and have started killing us players here.”

In my head I laughed, then briefly contemplated my sanity, then I considered what he had actually said, and how that lined up with what had been happening.

Sarai pops into our world, briefly and only in strange spurts.

Damenocles and Valanastia are two bosses no one has ever found a way to get past in TantaMount.

Stronger players have seemed to have been leaving the game, supposedly for other games/challenges, and never really heard from again.

Occam's razor does always have its place, and its place at this point in time seemed to be right here, and right now.

I had guessed most of that in my head but now had to figure out the actual implications of what that meant. My conclusion sounded a bit abstract but honestly it seemed like the only thing that made sense at the time.

“We somehow have to stop the killers, now, in real life. While protecting our in game characters.”

Right then. Oz hopping into full turtle mode (full defense) meant that the rest of us needed to take it seriously, one hundred percent. Since we were already mostly on the defensive though, the real question was what that meant for us on the offensive side going forward.

No one had ever beaten them in the game in the first place – so start there, I suppose? But where to even start?

The numbers, resistances, and move lists were all of staggering implication. To even begin to come close to being able to not die within seconds of the encounter in game, Clipse and I had a long road ahead. So especially did Dono, Felix's and Renna's characters, although they were off to a rousing start, with Dono now somehow the toast of the town and soaking up all the free rounds from the locals at the tavern.

Jerk move, I admit, but I cut the night of in-game debauchery short by pulling out the power cord and bringing them back to reality.

After the messages from Oz I knew that we need a plan, and we needed one quick. Both in our reality and in TantaMount. Otherwise Game Over signs were looming on the horizon for both, with Start Over not being an option.

“Alright guys, hear me out”, I said in my best deep and gruff leader's voice, which was probably neither but worked in my head, while picturing the groans I knew would be coming in response to what I was about to say.

“We need to try to find Sarai in real life, quickly. I think she in some serious danger, of the virtual variety. And we need to get a better grip on what's actually happening here, and I think Oz can help out with that.”

What we really need was for anything, literally anything, to make any kind of sense right now. The last 72 hours have been such a blur that if it wasn't for the absurd doses of caffeine and the constant adrenaline I'd be laid out of the next stretcher next to Kool-Aid Man.

I scanned the room briefly, knowing how well this next part would be received considering the levels of insanity we'd been dealing with over the last day or so.

Groans galore, incoming.

“Also – tomorrow I think we all need to go to class and pretend everything is normal while we get this sorted”.

And so it was that we attempted a pretend return to normalcy.