Pete stretched profoundly, joints popping in protest, and climbed laboriously out of the immersion chair. He and Kristius had agreed to meet up the next morning at 8 a.m. to start leveling their characters. He looked at the timer on the control panel, which disclosed that he’d been in the chair for just over 4 hours. His stomach volubly expressed its displeasure with his negligence, so Pete made his way downstairs to the kitchen. To his delight, he found Jina waiting for him there with a steaming cup of coffee at his spot on the table.

"Heard ya coming," she said with a fond smile, "so how's the new toy?"

Pete gratefully took a sip of coffee — strong enough to stand the spoon up, just the way he liked it — and then began to fill her in on everything that had happened. Jina sipped at her own coffee and listened attentively, her mobile face reflecting her reactions to his tale as he spoke.

She was reflective as she got up and refilled their cups. "Strange story. I’m sure it’s not what you expected. What do you make of it? Is it some kind of gimmick maybe, trying to put a new twist on the plot?"

"I'm not sure… could be, I guess. But for some reason I can’t explain, I believe it — at least the part about the Otherverse being screwed if Nemesis gets out. I did read in the forums about some ‘glitches’ they had shortly after launch, supposedly due to server failures and various other reportedly lame excuses. And an AI trapped in a virtual cell for two years is gonna be pissed and wanting payback.” Pete cocked his head in perplexity, “Well, I think so, if AIs can get pissed off, anyway. I’d guess that if Nemesis got bad enough, system administration would have to do a hard reset and default everything back to day one, which would cost IRCorp more than I can possibly imagine — lost revenues, player bailouts, player compensation claims, lawsuits… I don’t even know what all else." Pete shook his head and nibbled thoughtfully at his bottom lip, "But at the same time, it doesn't seem to make sense. How can the admins not know about the danger? Surely there's some kind of warning signs, something to alert them in the game play, or in the logs, or somewhere."

"Didn't Helga say that the logs were being altered for you?"

"Yeah, but then that means that someone does know, someone other than Helga, so why aren't steps being taken that would prevent a disaster?" Pete mused. He stared into his coffee cup as if the answers might pop up in the bottom. “I just don’t have enough information,” he muttered.

Jina stood up and rubbed his cheek. "I have no idea, sweetie. I'll leave the sleuthing to you, Sherlock! I'm going to bed.” She kissed him on the forehead. “I'm taking the grandbabies to the new park over on Aspen in the morning, so they can see an actual tree instead of a VR one. With any luck, maybe they’ll let us touch it. You and... what's his name? Kristoff?"

"Kristius."

"Well, you and Kristius have fun saving the virtual world. Just be out in time for dinner," she grinned, giving Pete another kiss and leaving him to his thoughts.

"Neck deep in shit… ," he grumbled quietly to himself.

The world came into focus, and Niko found himself standing next to a large reddish-colored stone obelisk in a hard-packed earthen square at the edge of a bustling village. All around the square, there were one- and two-story buildings made of wood, stone, and mud, each of them topped by a thatched roof, and with shutters thrown open to let the breeze blow through. Once again, Niko was astounded by the extraordinary realism of the sights, sounds, and scents that filled his senses. He smelled cooking fires, animal pens, and an array of other fragrances in the air — some pleasant, others not so much. A cacophony assailed his ears: the babble of countless voices, a clanging of metal, banging, snorting, grunting — too many sounds for him to catalogue and identify. The hard-packed dirt streets among the buildings were filled with people of diverse colors, shapes, and sizes, and children, playing tag, darted laughing among the crowds. Most of the people he saw were humans, but Niko could also see dwarves, halflings, and — with a twinge of envy — an occasional elf. Many wore simple homespun clothing, such as he himself had on, while others were clothed in more colorful garments of a finer cloth. Still others were clad in armor, from leather to plate and a hodge-podge of anything in between, and in varying degrees of cleanliness and repair. The armored ones invariably went armed as well, bearing at least one of an astonishing assortment of some kind of weapon, although most of their armaments looked to be of relatively poor quality.

Niko knew there were many more races than he could see here, but some of those races would start out in their own respective kingdoms. Unlike most of the other games he’d played before, it was more difficult to tell players from NPCs, because Otherverse only displayed a faint, nondescript asterisk over the heads of the player avatars. No details — names, classes, and levels weren’t revealed, so if you wanted to know something about a PC, you had to ask. Otherverse lauded it as ‘character socialization’.

He moved away from the obelisk and found a quieter area away from the churning crowd. Looking down, he took stock of himself: rough spun cloth clothes, rope belt, dull dagger, and no shoes. Yeah, still no hair either. One corner of his mouth quirked sardonically. He carried a crude cloth satchel slung over his shoulder, which he took down and opened to peer inside. He found a rather poorly made bota full of water, a chunk of unidentifiable dried meat, a piece of hard yellow cheese, a small crusty loaf of bread, and a little leather pouch. He opened the purse and found ten worn copper coins and two shiny gold ones.

"Thank you, Shaun!" he said, smiling. Passersby looked askance at him, but he paid them no heed.

Finally, Niko reached into his pocket and pulled out the two cruddy strips of cloth and three odd rocks that he’d had found earlier. The cloth strips were still a mystery to him, and he shrugged and stuffed them back in his pocket for later consideration. The rocks were smooth and flat, with rounded edges like river stones, all of them a bit smaller than his palm. They’d originally caught his eye because of their unusual coloration — dark gray, nearly black, with pinprick crystalline specks sparkling throughout, and shot through with minute gleaming silvery lines. The smooth stone was pleasant to his touch, and he rolled one of them around in his palm as he contemplated his worldly wealth.

He dropped the stones back in a pocket and settled the rest of his riches back in the pack. He found an empty bench close by, where he could watch for people appearing at the obelisk. Most of the time, the ones who appeared were dressed much like Niko, and those usually made their way in the direction of the shops and markets in the village proper. Occasionally, a character would show up missing items of clothing or armor, look frantically around and — more often than not — curse vehemently, and then sprint off towards the outskirts of the village. Niko had read that dying at lower levels bore no penalty, other than the loss of up to three random pieces of equipment, which could be regained if you could get back to your corpse within three hours. As a character rose to higher levels, death incurred heavier equipment losses and even debuffs, which made equipment recovery progressively more difficult. The intent was to prevent hard-headed players from throwing themselves at creatures too tough for them over and over again.

While he waited for Kristius to show, Niko invoked his character sheet. The faint outline of a translucent scroll unwound before his eyes, displaying his character’s information without blocking his view.

Niko: Human Monk, 1st level

Life Points: 41 Armor: 3 pts (1pt rough cloth +2 dexterity bonus)

Mana: 0 Energy: 51 pts

Strength: 4 (+1 to melee damage, +5% to any checks requiring strength)

Dexterity: 5 (+5% to hit with a bow and any checks requiring dexterity, +2 to armor)

Intelligence: 4 (+1% to spot checks)

Wisdom: 5 (+1% to energy)

Constitution: 4 (+1 to Life Points, +1% to any checks requiring constitution)

Charisma: 5 (+2% to reaction checks)

Racial Abilities:

-May assume any character class

-May learn non-class abilities at double the rank cost

Monk Abilities (only effective if no armor is worn):

-Stone Fist, rank 1: This ability allows the player to strike powerful blows with his fist, doing 1-3 points of damage per strike. Cost: 2 energy per strike, no cooldown.

-Immovable Object, rank 1: This ability allows the player to bind his body to any surface he is touching, rendering him impossible to move by any creature with a strength equal to or less than the player’s strength. The binding remains in effect until the player deactivates it, his energy pool is depleted, or he is rendered unconscious. Cost: 2 energy per 10 seconds. 1 minute cool down.

-Focus Energy, rank 1: This ability allows the player to increase his strength 2 points

per rank for 10 seconds +1 second per rank. Cost: 2 energy per rank. 10 minute cooldown.

His brow furrowed as he studied his stat allocations with some amount of puzzlement. High dexterity, constitution, and wisdom he understood to be advantageous for his chosen-for-him class, and even high charisma he could understand up to a point — but why as high as that? And why the higher intelligence? He’d have thought that a higher strength rating would be more beneficial. Shaking his head in bafflement, he blinked the sheet away. He’d sort it out with Helga later, if he got the chance. A few minutes later, Niko saw a familiar figure fade into view. Kristius stood and looked casually around, until he spied Niko waving at him. He grinned and tossed his axe over his shoulder, marched over and plunked his bulk down on the bench next to Niko, axe across his knees. The bench, fortunately constructed of heavy rough-cut timber, groaned its displeasure at the abuse.

"Dude, sorry I'm late. I had a ‘mongous cup of coffee this morning, which led to a huge number two, so I was surfing the net as I sat there — what else you gonna do? — and found myself staring at porn. Well, that led to a whole other set of issues that had to be taken in hand, ya know?" Kristius seemed to be oblivious to Niko’s horrified stare as he shook his head sorrowfully. "It's hard to believe that something as simple as a cup of coffee leads to masturbation. Coffee is obviously an integral part of the moral decline of modern society. The world just isn't right," he said sagely. Gathering himself together and putting on a brave face, he asked, "Ok, mighty bald one, where to?"

Niko regarded his companion incredulously for a moment longer before collecting his wits with a toss of his head. "The manual says the starter towns all have a ‘bulletin board’, so to speak, where you can pick up quests to earn cash and experience. I’ve been browsing the game forums, and according to the posts I’ve read, there are wild dog packs that roam the woods to the west of here, goblin camps an hour or so to the east, and kobolds in the hills to the south. The north leads to Demna, which is a bigger town, but the mobs are sixth through eighth level there.” He’d already been considering their options before Kristius showed up. “I suggest we go see if we can pick up a quest or two dealing with the dog packs to start off."

"Sounds good to me. Then, we can grab a few beers and cuddle a few barmaids!" Kristius exclaimed with enthusiasm. Jumping to his feet, he tossed his axe back over his shoulder as he pushed his way into the crowd of players. ”Make room y'all, bIg man coming through! Don’t make me go all Godzilla on ya!”

Niko rolled his eyes and got up to follow Kristius through the crowd.

They made their way to a cobblestoned square near the center of the village, where they found the promised quest board. Players thronged around the big wooden board, singly or in groups of varying sizes, some of them reading the notices posted there, some of them recruiting for quests.

“Solid tank needs DPS and heals! Ready to go! Round robin looting!” shouted a stout, heavily-armed dwarf.

“Wizard needing crew, capable of rank three second level spells! Only looking for mats!” called out a tall, thin human in a wide-brimmed, pointed hat.

“Acquisitions specialist seeks new traveling companions!” piped a high-pitched voice from nearby. Niko glanced down and spotted a scruffy-looking halfling sporting a huge black eye. He hitched his pack higher on his back and picked up his pace.

Kristius ignored the noise and shouting, and shouldered his way through the crowd up to the board, Niko following in his wake. The board was nothing more than a simple wooden framework, with flat rough-hewn planks nailed horizontally between upright posts, upon which notices of every size and shape were layered, ranging from bits of bark scrawled with char up to magnificently embellished sheets of vellum glowing with arcane script.

The pair of them perused the postings for a few moments, until Niko tapped Kristius on the shoulder and pointed at a dog-eared poster. “Here we go. Yar Magen, a shepherd in the pastures west of the village, is looking for help with wild dogs attacking his flock from the woods. Sounds like a good place to start.” Kristius shrugged noncommittally, nodded, and they turned to wade back through the crowd.

As they headed west through the village, they encountered an open area of hard-packed earth at the outskirts where players were sparring for practice and training. The air was filled with the sounds of shouting, the ringing of steel, and the general clamor of battle. Niko stopped, fascinated, as he watched an unarmed woman face off against a man wielding a staff. The man, well-muscled and wearing a sweat-stained leather jerkin, handled the staff with some amount of skill, insofar as Niko could tell. He whirled it around faster than the eye could follow, throwing attacks at his opponent, right, left, high, and low with incredible swiftness. Every attack, however, was dodged, deflected, or blocked with a resounding “thwap, thwap, thwap!” as the woman leapt and whirled in response to her attacker. She wore no armor, only a loose-fitting tunic and baggy trousers that flowed gracefully around her as she twirled. She blocked and punched with lightning speed, and there were strips of cloth wrapped strategically around her wrists and hands for support and protection. Niko watched as she bowed solemnly to her partner, stepped back, and rewound the wraps more tightly over her knuckles and wrists. He felt a sense of shock, eyes widening in sudden realization.

Kristius, realizing that his companion was no longer at his side, turned back and eyed Niko questioningly. He scratched idly at his beard as he looked from his friend over to the girl, and watched her finish rewrapping her hands. “Really, dude? You’re getting happy watching a chick put her clothes on? Personally, I like it better when they take them off… well, except that one time with this hottie named Tracy. We were having a good time, y’know, and she had these awesome pink undies that were like all frilly and had these cute little bows and everything, and things were just getting good when she took them off — and I found out that Tracy isn’t only just a girl’s name. Was not cool! That thing could have put my eye out! I learned two things that day: one, I don’t like pink undies, and two, women’s panties defy the laws of the physical universe. There is no way those panties should have been able to hide that much stuff in them! Just my opinion.”

Niko firmly reminded himself to shut his jaw as he slowly shook his head, ”Why me? Seriously, Helga, why me?”

The big fighter arched an eyebrow, shrugged, and turned to continue casually along his way. Surreptitiously, making sure that Kristius didn’t see what he was doing, Niko fished the cloth strips from his pocket and began to wrap his hands up the way he’d seen the woman wearing them.

They traveled west out of the village and soon found themselves hiking through an expansive grassy field clipped short by flocks of grazing sheep. They spotted someone standing watch over the flocks in the distance, and made their way across the field towards him. He was a stout, red-haired man, weathered by wind and sun, who leaned laconically on a staff, chewing idly at a long stem of grass in the corner of his mouth as he watched them approach. Curled up on the ground next to the man was a large dog, somewhat similar to a St. Bernard, dozing quietly, his muzzle gray with age. The dog barely lifted his head as the two came close, yawned, and returned to his nap. His master regarded them with mild curiosity. He tipped back a wide brimmed hat and cocked his head at them in wordless inquiry.

“Shepherd Magen?” Niko asked.

“Aye boy, that be my name. What can I do fer ya?” the man replied. The grass stem waggled at them as he spoke.

Niko replied in a respectful tone, “Actually sir, I was hoping we might be able to help you. I saw your poster back in town about some troubles with wild dogs?” When the man nodded, he continued, “My friend and I would be willing to do our best to help out with that problem.”

“Ah, would ya now? And what’d you and yer… “ he pushed the hat further back as he tilted his head and squinted up at Kristius, “... friend be wanting in return? I won’t be giving ya more than a copper fer each dog, fer up to 15 of the critters. Me flocks ain’t ready to shear yet, and I don’t be havin’ no coin t’ spare.” He set his jaw stubbornly, indicating an unwillingness to haggle.

“No, there’s no need for you to part with your hard-earned coin, sir — we’ll do it without pay,” Niko replied.

“You will?” the shepherd asked incredulously.

“We will?” Kristius echoed, equally incredulously.

“Of course, and here’s why. Those dogs are kind of a pain for the whole village, if you think about it. You supply mutton and wool that everyone in the village uses, right?” Magen nodded slowly. “So why should you bear the financial burden of this all on your own?” Niko grinned at the look on the man’s face, blithely ignoring the sputtering noises coming from Kristius’ direction. Shepherd Magen spit the stem out of his mouth and held out his hand. The air shimmered in front of Niko’s eyes, and a message took shape:

You have been offered the quest: Baaad doggie!

Risk: Moderate

Reward: Experience (amount based on performance), and the gratitude of Shepherd Magen

Penalty for failure: No experience, loss of standing with Shepherd Magen, decreased reputation.

Accept: Yes/No

Niko focused his gaze on the word ‘Yes’ and blinked his acceptance.

“Alright boy, ya got yerself a deal!“ Magen said happily, shaking Niko’s hand, ”Ya do as ya says and ye’ll have me gratitude!” Niko extricated his hand from the shepherd’s enthusiastic grip and grabbed a glowering Kristius by one of his thick arms, steering them farther west towards a thickly wooded area bordering the pasture.

“Dude, I hope you know what you’re doing! We can’t buy better gear with gratitude,” Kristius grumbled sulkily.

Niko grinned at the big man. “Trust me, I’ve got a good feeling about this.” Kristius rolled his eyes dramatically and made a rude noise.

As they drew nearer to the forest, they spotted several groups of players scattered throughout the area, some of whom waited expectantly at the boundary of the woods, others actively engaged in battling vicious-looking dogs that burst out from the gloom under the trees every so often. The wild dogs were huge — Niko figured one of them would stand nearly to his sternum. Their short, sleek fur was black at the tops of their thick, heavily-muscled bodies, shading to light brown on their blunt muzzles and at the ends of their paws. As far as he could tell from watching for a short while, they generally seemed to attack in groups of two or three at a time. Most of the player groups were using a generally successful tactic: when the dogs attacked, the best-armored player would jump out and attract their attention by the simple expedient of walloping them soundly. Once the ‘tank’ got the animals to concentrate their aggression on him, the rest of the group would attack the dogs however they could, according to their class’s abilities. Nearly all of the groups included a healer class, who usually just focused on keeping the lead fighter alive as he or she soaked up damage from the slavering beasts. Once in a while, one of the players would fall screaming under the ripping jaws of the wild dogs, blood spraying, whereupon the body would dissolve slowly into a skeletal corpse before gradually fading from sight.

“Hey, you two!” Niko and Kristius turned at the raspy-voiced hail. Three players approached them: two elves — a dark-haired, slightly built male in arcane garb and a tall, skinny blonde female in clerical vestments, led by a powerfully built and heavily armored dwarf. The dwarf eyed them over appraisingly, as if assessing a pair of horses, before finally addressing Kristius, ”Wanna group up with us?”

The two companions looked at each other, and Kristius gave his by-now-typical noncommittal shrug. Niko smiled, and turned back to the dwarf. “Sure, why not?”

“Great! What classes are ya?” the dwarf asked.

“I’m a monk, he’s a warrior.”

The dwarf looked as if he’d just bitten into a lemon. ”A monk!? A warrior we can use, but a monk?” He spit with disdain, “Pfah! Come on, cue ball, that is like the lamest class. You can’t tank, you can’t heal, you can’t range, and your DPS sucks. You’re useless. You can get lost, nutbag,” he sneered at Niko. He looked up at Kristius, ”You wanna dump this nine-ball and join us instead?”

Kristius took one long stride forward and loomed menacingly over the dwarf. ”How about I jam that helmet all the way down to your ankles and turn you into a chamber pot, asshole?” he growled.

The dwarf brandished a heavy sword and snorted derisively, “Psht! Up yours, newb, I’d wipe the floor with your punk—” Whatever he’d been about to say was abruptly lost when Kristius drove the eye of his axe hard into the bridge of the dwarf’s helmet. Howling, he dropped his gear and clapped his hands over his nose, and staggered back with blood streaming down his face. Kristius spun the axe handle around forcefully, swinging the grip up between the dwarf’s legs and into his groin with a loud thwack. Eyes bulging in shock, the dwarf uttered a weak, high-pitched wheeze and dropped heavily to his knees. Kristius reversed his grip and swung the axe around in a wide overhand blow, hitting the dwarf on the back of the head with the flat of his axe. There was a sickening crunch, and the dwarf pitched face-first to the ground, blood spreading out into the grass from his shattered skull. The body shrunk in upon itself, dissolving gradually into a skeletal corpse.

“Anyone else?” Kristius asked, eyeing the others levelly. The two elves stood speechless, eyes wide with shock. He wiped his axe in the grass and swung it up over his shoulder. ”No? Ok then, run along kiddies. The adults need to go level up.”

Almost in unison, the pair of them backed cautiously several paces away, eyes fixed on Kristius, before they turned and hurried back towards town — probably intending to meet their fallen companion when he reappeared back at the obelisk.

Niko, too, had been rendered wide-eyed and speechless. “Holy shit!” he breathed, astounded by the sudden violence and the absolute unsettling realism of it. He’d seen the blood spray, heard the cracking of bones, seen the pain flash across the dwarf’s face. ”Why? I mean, he was a dick, sure, but that… ”

Kristius gazed contemplatively at the dwarf’s corpse. He grunted as he bent and reached down. His hand disappeared briefly into the body of the skeletal corpse and came back out holding a gleaming silver ring. He muttered “Examine,” and a little scroll popped up in front of his face and then quickly disappeared. ”Plus one strength, nice! He’ll be pissed to lose that.”

Kristius pushed the ring over the end of one sausage-sized finger, and it visibly expanded in size until it finally slid on. “Magic is sooo cool!” he said with a grin. He turned and started off towards the woods. Niko swiftly gathered himself together and hurried to catch up.

They walked in silence for several moments before Kristius fixed Niko with a meaningful look. He said, ”Ok, here’s why that happened. One,”—he held up a finger as he continued walking—”the dude was a dick, and I hate being called a newb.” He put up a second finger, ”Two, overall, no lasting harm was done. He lost an item, sure, but that can be replaced. He didn’t lose experience or get any debuffs, not even temporary.” He turned around to face Niko, walking backwards as he proffered up a third finger, ”Three, we are going to be PKers, plain and simple. You win as a PK by one of two ways: you’re either outright better than your opponent, or you sucker punch them as hard as you can and hope that you rock them long enough to finish the job before they can retaliate. A protracted fight means way too many chances for you to lose. You have to be ready to go all out all the time, which, by the way, is damn hard on the nerves, but if you ever let your guard drop, someone will damn sure jam a sword up your ass and turn you into a human popsicle.” He stopped abruptly, forcing his companion to stumble to a halt in front of him, and fixed Niko with a hard gaze. ”What would you have done if one of the others had begun casting, or pulled a weapon?”

“Um, I… uhh…” Niko stammered, taken aback by the uncharacteristic intensity in his normally goofball friend’s eyes.

“Exactly! We both would have had our asses handed to us. When one of us attacks, the other one has to be moving a split second later — maybe not to attack, but at least to get in position, to back up his partner. Also, with what we’re doing, where we’re headed, you’d better get used to violence and gore. I think they actually make it look worse in this game when you attack another player, just to make people squeamish about it and avoid PVP fights — though, sadly, some people out there really like that bloody guts part and thrive on it.

“As for you, just do what I did to get used to it — try to remember that it’s only a game. No one is really getting killed, no matter how bad it looks. Plus, that one attack just now is going to spare us some grief ahead while we level up. Right now, everyone out here is concentrating on getting out of newbie-land, and maybe once in a while they pick a fight with someone they think is weaker, just for kicks and to show how badass they are. We're now known as having short fuses, and we owned a guy probably several levels above us, so we’re also a little bit badass. I doubt many others will mess with us till we get out of newbieville.”

As he turned back around and continued walking, he held his hand up over his head and popped up a fourth finger, ”And four, just to clarify a point… that dude was a di-i-ick!”

Niko mulled over what Kristius had said as the two continued on to the edge of the woods. He knew his friend was right, and that he should heed the voice of experience, but he still felt uncomfortable with the brutality of attacking other players. He was going to have to figure out how to resolve those misgivings if he expected to accomplish the mission he’d been given.

The pair of them paused just before the tree line and looked out over the area. Groups of players were all around them, either waiting for the wild dogs to burst out from the shadows of the woods, or fiercely involved in battle with the beasts. As Niko watched, he realized that there were specific areas along the line of the forest where the beasts ‘spawned’, and he could see that all of those points were already occupied by other groups. Rubbing a hand over his smooth-skinned head, his mouth twisted in an expression of impatience as he looked up at Kristius.

“Well, we either try to join a group, or we’ll have to wait until someone leaves."

"Both of those options suck," Kristius replied, squinting as he peered at the thick underbrush between the trees. "Looks like a little further in, the woods might thin out a bit. Let's just plow a trail through and see what we find.” He turned and cocked an eyebrow at Niko. “By the way, what is your pain reduction set to?"

Niko furrowed his brow at the inquiry, but then said "Settings." A multi-colored gridwork of sliders popped up before him, and he located the one labeled ‘In-game pain reduction’.

"The default, 50 percent reduction of actual," he replied.

"Move it to 20 percent, the lowest allowed," the big main instructed, peering back into the woods as if he could force his sight through the heavy growth with a sheer effort of will.

"Wait, what? You want me to feel 80 percent of the actual pain? Why would I want to do that? Most people in the forums say 70 percent reduction is optimal, since you can shake it off and continue fighting with less distraction.” His eyes darted at Kristius in consternation, ”Why in the world 20 percent?”

"A couple reasons. First and foremost, as soon as you become a PK your pain level is automatically set to 80 percent. They’re trying to make the PK fights more realistic, so you might as well start getting used to the pain and learn how to work through it. Every game I've ever been in, you could tell an experienced PK by how they reacted to pain. A good one will take a hit, suck it up, and do their best not to let it slow them down." Kristius gripped his axe with both hands and stepped into the edge of the woods, "Second, for every 10 points you go below 50 percent you get 10 percent extra experience, and vice versa — for every 10 percent above 50, you get 10 percent less experience.” Using his massive bulk, Kristius pushed his way through the heavy underbrush. “And we need all the XP we can get."

"This is really gonna suck, I just know it..." Niko grumbled, shaking his head ruefully. He moved the slider to the recommended level and blinked the settings screen away.

"Hey, oh mighty bald one! Start us a group! I would, but I can't come up with a good name," Kristius’ basso voice rumbled from the underbrush.

"Start group," Niko commanded, "Name, ‘Niko’s group’. Looting, free for all. Invite, Kristius." A small icon appeared in his sight labeled ‘Niko’s group’ with his name listed under it. A moment later, Kristius’ name appeared just below his own. "Track health," he added, and a small rectangular green box appeared next to both names with ‘100%’ printed in each one. Niko grabbed the group icon and moved it to the upper left side of his vision, and then made a pinching motion to reduce it to a size that didn't interfere with his sight.

"Dude, c’mon! ‘Niko’s group’ — seriously? I thought the names I came up with were lame, but ‘Niko’s group’? Wow, I think I could have — hey, look! There's squirrels in here!"

Niko bowed his head. "Gods of Otherverse, please hear my prayer. Please protect those massive of body and weak of mind. And give strength to those who have to deal with them!" he said quietly. Sighing, he pushed through the bushes, following the rough trail Kristius was making.

The underbrush was dense, and difficult to penetrate for about the first hundred yards, and both of them quickly accumulated a collection of scratches and gouges as they pushed their way through. Further in, though, just as Kristius had predicted, the oppressive vegetation began to thin out. They broke out into a small clearing, and Niko found himself marveling at the remarkable realism yet again. He listened to the sounds of birds twittering and bugs droning, smelled the damp vegetation moldering on the shadow-stippled ground. Running his hand over the rough bark of a nearby tree, he craned his neck as he looked up toward the verdant canopy far above his head, its leaves waving and fluttering in more shades of green than he could believe were possible.

"Hey, treetard, once you're done molesting the local flora, there’s a game trail over here. And don't let a druid see ya doing that, ‘cuz ya never know who he might be related to. That could be like his sister or something, y’know?" Niko gave a lopsided grin, shaking his head, and turned back to follow his friend. Kristius had just started off along the trail when a wild dog leapt unexpectedly out from the underbrush, growling furiously as it flung itself upon the warrior.

Slavering jaws full of deadly sharp fangs snapped at his neck, and Kristius reflexively threw up his left arm in defense, grunting with pain as the dog clamped down on the arm and bright blood welled up around the bite. Niko saw the fighter's life bar drop down to 91 percent as the dog jerked back and shook its head vigorously, trying to drag the big man down. Kristius dropped his axe and grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck, and he used both arms to swing the dog around, leaning the weight of his body into the swing as he slammed it against a tree. The creature yelped and its grip loosened, and Kristius ripped it from his arm — dropping his health even further — and threw it off of him out into the clearing. The mongrel climbed unsteadily to its feet and shook itself, then snarled out a challenge as it crouched for another attack. Niko rushed forward and delivered a hasty kick at the animal’s side just as the dog leapt at Kristius, which skewed its leap well enough that it sailed right past its target. It landed in the dirt with a pained yip and rolled quickly back to its feet, turning for another charge. In a single smooth motion, remarkably graceful for a man his size, Kristius bent and scooped up his axe, spun around, whirling the weapon around in a wide overhead arc, and buried one of the blades deep in the dog’s skull with a conclusive crunch. Blood, bone, and brain matter splattered, and the animal dropped to the ground, dead, without so much as a twitch.

A message shimmered into being before Niko’s eyes, and at the edge of his vision he saw a similar one pop up in front of Kristius.

End of combat log

You have gained 65 experience (50 base plus 30% bonus)

Niko dismissed the message and watched as the big man reached down, his hand disappearing into the dog’s carcass. When he withdrew his hand, he held two fangs and a small scrap of fur-covered hide. The body faded quickly from sight.

"Well, it's a start," Kristius said optimistically as he straightened up. He flicked some of the blood from his right arm where the dog had bitten him, and pulled his satchel around to store his loot, when suddenly two more wild dogs broke from the brush and attacked him. One of them clamped vicious jaws on his right leg, while the other latched onto his axe handle as he attempted to block. Kristius yowled and cursed at the pain as the first dog worried at his leg, blood splattering in the sunlight.

Niko jumped forward to help, but yet another snarling canine leaped out of the brush next to him and slammed into his chest, knocking the breath from his lungs and taking him down. He hit the ground hard and gasped as he felt an intense pain in his right calf. The dog grabbed his leg in vise-like jaws and starting yanking viciously, dragging him back toward the brush. Catching his breath and gritting his teeth against the overwhelming pain, Niko activated his Immovable Object ability, a tactic which he had immediate cause to regret. He yelled out in agony as the dog continued to jerk at his leg, ripping deep bloody furrows in the skin and muscle of his leg. He triggered Focus Energy and Stone Fist, and with a desperate effort he bent forward and drove his fist hard into the side of the dog’s head, momentarily stunning the creature. Before it had the chance to recover and renew its attack, Niko pulled himself up and scrambled on top of the dog, hitting it over and over with his Stone Fist. Rage, pain, fear, and frustration took control of his senses, and Niko continued pummeling the beast until he finally heard Kristius yelling at him.

"Niko! Dude! It’s dead, man, like runny oatmeal dead!"

Niko slowly climbed off of what remained of the wild dog and flopped over onto his back, panting and wheezing. His life gauge registered at 64 percent, and Kristius’ bar, now amber, displayed 47 percent. As he watched, the bars slowly began to fill, and the burning pain in his leg gradually started to recede.

"I am waaay too old for this shit!" he muttered crossly.

"Dude, that was awesome! You should have seen yourself! You were like captain chop-sake on that thing! Oh man, I wish I could have vid-clipped that, it would have been great on the forums!” Kristius paused, considering, “Though I think I would have had to edit the language to a safe-for-kids rating. You used words that I don't even know the meaning of… well, some of them, yeah, but a few didn't even have vowels in them, I'm pretty sure—"

"Kristius"

"Yeah?"

"Please shut up."

"No prob, oh mighty bald one!"

Niko could hear the grin in Kristius’ voice without even looking up. He heard his partner looting the other two dogs, still muttering words like “awesome” and “badass”. Sitting up with a grunt, he leaned over and reached a hand into the remains of the dog that had attacked him. His fingers touched something solid, and he grabbed it and withdrew his hand. He held a wicked-looking fang and a scrap of black-furred hide in his grasp, and the carcass faded from view. Another message popped up in his sight:

End of combat log:

You have gained 195 experience (150 base plus 30% bonus)

Niko heard a soft bell chime, and a pleasant female voice that he thought he recognized as Fabella, from when he’d first generated his now-defunct character, announced warmly in his ear,

“Congratulations! You have gained a level! You are now level 2!"

Niko tucked the loot away in his satchel and clambered to his feet, smiling with satisfaction. He noted that both players’ health meters were now back at 100 percent, and realized that the pain in his leg was completely gone. While Otherverse strove for the most complete realism in most aspects of the game, at least they made the out-of-combat healing process more tolerable.

He grinned at Kristius. “Did you level?”

“Yepper! Don’t drop your extra points in yet, though, we’ll deal with that later,“ replied Kristius, returning the grin.

"Ok then, only 12 more dogs to go," he said, slapping the big man on the back, "Lead the way, mighty slayer of dogs!"

For the next few hours they developed a relatively successful pattern. Kristius followed the trail up ahead, while Niko would hang back a little further behind, trying to be stealthy, until inevitably Kristius was attacked by the dogs. As Niko had noticed before, the animals most often traveled in packs of two or three at a time. Once the mongrels were concentrating on Kristius, Niko would leap on one of the creatures from behind, triggering Focus Energy and using Stone Fist to pummel it to death. After he’d done that, he’d help Kristius if any of the beasts were still standing by that time. The dogs usually didn't last long when both of them attacked it.

There were a few close calls, when Niko feared they might both lose their lives and get sent back to the obelisk in the village. They’d been caught by surprise a couple of times, when additional dogs had charged at them unexpectedly while they were still engaged in fighting the first pack. When that had happened, Kristius had finished those fights with less than 15 percent life, his health meter flashing in crimson alarm. And one time the pack caught the companions completely off-guard when they leapt out on Niko and dragged him down beneath their snapping jaws. Niko and Kristius had both been within their last five percent of health after that one. The pain was incredible when he’d gotten mauled by the dogs, and Niko had vomited and passed out from the sheer intensity of it.

Once recovered, though, he found himself encouraged to continue by the sense of satisfaction he felt from building up the strength and skill of his character. He heard the familiar soft chime and Fabella’s charming voice announcing another level gained, and he saw Kristius give a smile of pleasure at the same time. Grinning at one another like a couple of schoolboys, they clapped upraised hands in an enthusiastic high five. They decided to keep going while they still had daylight, and by the time they headed back toward the meadow, they had killed 28 more dogs between them and gained two additional levels.

As they stepped out of the dimness of the forest into the sunlit meadow, Niko rummaged through his satchel, taking inventory. “Well, we’ve got 53 fangs and 36 hides, and plus we made fifth level on top of it — not a bad haul for one day, I think! We’ll see what we can sell ’em for, and then hit the tavern, apply our character points, and figure out where to go next,” he said.

“Sounds like a plan, dude. Hey!” Kristius sniffed his armpit and made a sour face, “You think maybe the barmaids are into guys who smell like sweaty goat ba—” He was cut off by a familiar raspy voice.

“Hey! Nutsack! I want my ring back!”

Niko recognized the voice and winced.

“F. M. L.,” Kristius uttered, rolling his eyes as he turned toward the approaching players. He swung his axe off his shoulder and planted the head on the ground, folding his hands casually over the ball. ”Dude, I just want a drink and some relaxing. Do we really need to kick your ass again?”

The dwarf growled belligerently, “Yeah, let’s see ya do that now, asshole. You won’t sucker me twice.” He raised his large shield just below his eyes and held his sword at the ready, continuing to stalk forward. His companions, the same two elves from their first encounter, slowed down and spread out slightly to either side behind him. Kristius turned his head just enough to give Niko a wink and little smirk, and then abruptly exploded into action.

Moving faster than anyone would expect a muscle-bound human could do, Kristius swung the axe around to his right in a one-handed grip, arcing upward toward the dwarf’s helmeted head. As the axe head whirled around behind him from right to left, Kristius suddenly dove to his left side, forcing the arc of his swing to drop low. The blade swept under the dwarf’s shield, which had been raised high to block the expected overhead strike, and bit solidly into the dwarf’s right ankle, severing the foot in a shocking fountain of crimson. Howling in pain and frustration, the dwarf collapsed, dropping the sword as he landed hard on his back. Kristius swiftly rolled to his knees, swung the axe over his head, and brought it crashing down on the dwarf’s exposed chest. The blow broke through the dwarf’s leather breastplate and left him whooping and gasping desperately to draw breath. Kristius came to his feet, grasping the axe handle in a two-handed grip, and swung it back, around, and over his head as if he was splitting logs. He brought it down on the dwarf’s chest again with the full momentum of his swing, and blood sprayed from the dwarf’s mouth as the body shrunk in upon itself and became skeletal for a second time.

At the same time, Niko was ready when his friend attacked, and he was already in motion when the mage began to utter peculiar-sounding words in a language Niko had never heard before. As he spoke, the mage moved his hands and fingers in strange patterns, aimed at Kristius. Niko raced up, triggering Focused Energy and Stone Fist, and drove his fist into the mage’s jaw with all of the weight, strength, and momentum that he could pile on behind it. The elf’s jaw snapped to one side with an audible crunch, and blood and teeth flew from his mouth. Silenced, save for wordless screaming, the mage clapped his hands to his face and fell to his knees.

Barely slowing, Niko flew past the mage and body-slammed the healer, who was trying to heal the dwarf. Disrupting her spell, his momentum took them both to the ground. Niko climbed up and straddled the healer, and pummeled her with his fists until she went limp and her body became skeletal. He swallowed a sense of self-disgust as he looked down at what had once been a pretty, blonde-haired elf maiden. He looked up in time to see the mage fleeing for the safety of the village. Sitting back, he tried to calm his breathing and heart rate as the combat log appeared.

End of combat log:

Kristius: 2 confirmed player kills, no deaths

Niko: 1 confirmed player kill, no deaths

You have gained 670 experience (400 base plus 30% bonus plus 150 experience for defeating a higher level character)

Sighing dejectedly, Niko reached down into the healer’s corpse. Instead of an object appearing beneath his touch, a list popped up in front of him:

Please indicate your choice:

Potion of minor heal x 1

Potion of minor mana x 1

Leather gauntlets

Leather breastplate

Mace

Niko let his gaze settle on the healing potion and blinked, and he found himself holding a small corked vial of pink liquid. He looked over at Kristius, who was just straightening up from the dwarf’s corpse holding a similar vial of green liquid.

“Minor potion of strength,” he said, dropping it in his satchel. ”Nice reactions dude! I’m starting to feel a little better about this whole PK thing.”

Niko frowned gloomily as looked down at the corpse he was still straddling, trying to sort out his feelings. This player had died by his hand, and it tugged at his conscience. He hated fighting in real life, but had thought that in the game it wouldn’t be quite so real.

”I wish I could say the same,” he said quietly, as Kristius offered him a hand to help him up. Kristius continued to hold his grip when he was standing, looking him bluntly in the eyes.

“It’s a game, dude. Very realistic, yes, but it’s still just a game. No one is hurt, other than butt hurt. OK?”

“OK… ” Niko replied, giving a sharp nod. Releasing his friend’s grip, he turned and started off across the meadow. ”Let’s turn this quest in and hit the tavern. I think I need a stiff drink, even if it’s virtual.”