The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 4: Forced expenditure. (Part 1)

Chapter 4: Forced expenditure.

4 months after the Fall:

I kept still, bleeding from the side. It was just meant to be a short mission out of the dungeon. A simple grab and go for the freshly trained. So why did the Rift Walkers have to be out now? I felt like vomiting. Right in front of me, I had seen another recruit crushed. Despite training, when it came to Rift Walkers higher than rank 5, I couldn't do anything. I could only run.

"Shit," Vanter breathed out beside me as we hid in an alley, beside the broken walls of a building. "Well, that went badly."

"You don't say," I grit my reply. "Didn't they say things had calmed down?

"Looks like they were wrong."

"And they had to be wrong on our day out," I sighed. "You, okay?"

"Better than you," he smirked. "So, you have a plan?"

"Wait for backup," I replied bluntly. "The captain should be around."

"I'm good for that," Vanter leaned his back into the building just as a familiar dread crossed our spines. He immediately straightened. "Never mind."

"Let's run." We both shot out of the alley, just in time to avoid the Rift Walker which fell through the walls.

**

When my eyes opened again I was stuck in the games forced initial death screen. The light representing Haize, the great spirit of the Crysis Empire, circled around me.

"Traveller, your death isn't the end. So long as you are here, so long as my light shines, you will continue to awake. Be reborn and try again. Explore the world."

Its light again burned brighter till finally I was back where it began, the centre of Teremire's plaza. I couldn't help but laugh at my lack of awareness. A permanent tick upped my death count. It wasn't like I was planning to not die in the game, but seeing the 1 death on my character so soon felt stupid. I was reminded that this was a game. My fight with the ogre had been far too intense and I slipped into a mood of the past. In reality, an Ogre should never have been able to survive that assault, but in the end, Areithia Online, especially in its current state, was a game. A game that ran on numbers. Simply put with my meagre stats, my assault could not reduce the ogre's health to zero and for that, the surprising club crushed me. Many of my attacks would be critical hits due to the system's calculation but 2 times 1 was still only 2.

The death penalty timer appeared on my visuals. Half stats for half an hour and decreased experience gain from hunting. I sighed. It wouldn't be a complete waste of time however as there were things in the city I could do.

"Holy shit Friend!" the voice came out beside me.

To my surprise it came from Finnias, the player who I had passed by. Beside him was his partner Finnia.

"That was amazing!" he continued. "I didn't even know the game let you fight like that. Are you actually a pro?"

"N-no," his excitement took me by surprise. "You could say I'm just used to it."

"In the real world? That's crazy!"

"Finn," Finnia poked him. "His items."

"Oh right, sorry." He pulled out a stack of objects from his inventory. "We used a return crystal hoping we'd catch you here. These are yours. The ogre died from bleed damage just after it crushed you."