Rimelion: The Exploiter

6. What's in that crate?

I had stretched my stamina thin, just enough to keep luring such dangerous monsters. Combined with their one-hit-kill punches, this situation had "disaster" written all over it. As I caught my breath, Lucas crept closer to the edge of the hole, cautiously poking the trapped Goolems with his staff.

It was strangely adorable, and I couldn't help but grin. Wait, what am I thinking? My smile must have caught his attention, because he sat beside me, looking at me with a mix of curiosity and nervousness, like he wanted to ask something.

"Charlie, I was wondering... how do we kill them?" he said, glancing back at the hole with a furrowed brow. I knew it! I still know him well after all these years. "Should I use spark? It'd take forever, and honestly, I'm not sure I can cast it that many times." He frowned, casting a wary look at the Goolems. "It's good they're stuck, but why won't they climb out? Is their AI broken?"

Before I could stop myself, I burst into laughter. "No, nothing like that." I stood up, dusting off my pathetic potato-sack dress as I tried to calm down. "They... haha... they... they..." I couldn't hold it in as memories of one of my earliest exploits flooded back. Lucas looked at me, puzzled and uncomfortable, while I clamped a hand over my mouth. What's gotten into me? Stop, John, it's not even that funny! Stupid hormones.

After settling down, I explained, "They disabled climbing after the Goolems ambushed the poor test guys a few too many times. The Goolems used to swarm up cliffs and drop on players en masse." I peeked into the hole, listening to the Goolems grumbling and scraping as they made futile attempts to climb. "The devs got lazy and just disabled climbing altogether—I kept my mouth shut and cashed in on the bug-finding bonus." Uh, that hadn't happened yet. I nervously added, "I mean, planned to cash in. Now it's our turn to exploit their oversight."

"Wait," Lucas scrambled towards me, and whispered into my ear, his breath sending a strange tingle down my spine, "I thought the AI developed the game? They're marketing it as the first fully AI-designed game."

Lucas, it's still me. I may be in a dress, but I'm still John. Slightly unsettled, I nudged him back gently. "First, the Goolems can't climb, so we're safe for now. And second, no, not initially—the AI will continue developing the game. And don't think we're the only ones taking advantage of loopholes. I'd bet thousands of players are out there exploiting as we speak."

"The Goolem hole exploit?"

"No, silly Lucas. These guys are level 9; who'd guess level-ones like us could handle it?" I rolled my eyes with a smirk. "The world's massive—much larger than Earth. With millions of monsters, mostly AI generated, there are bound to be millions of exploits waiting to be discovered."

[Attention! The group of user Lisa has slain the world Boss Frexie for the first time. Praise their name!]

She was fast. Whatever. I clenched my almost-broken staff, venting my frustration by whacking a Goolem squarely on the head. "Took them longer than I expected, that silly team," I muttered, not hiding my jealousy as I smashed the Goolem again.

[Critical hit! Target lost 1HP.]

Lucas closed his eyes, sighing. "That could have been us. Just imagine: 'Praise the group of Lucas!'"

While he grinned, I shot back, "For your info, it would say Princess's group."

"Maybe we should've asked to join them," he mused. "I mean, you're a Priest—everyone needs one."

"Not happening. She was with her guild; they don't just let randoms tag along. Get that idea out of your head! Now let's get back to grinding. Only a couple hundred hits to go!" He nodded, joining in the Goolem-smashing with his own stick.