A Cat Called Trap

Chapter 8

Forbidden Dreams was not a standard RPG. It focused not on the acquirement of levels but on the journey one undertakes in order to acquire the skills needed to survive. While levels still exist, they are more or less easily obtained depending on your play style. A person who travels the continent risking his or her lives, would level considerably fast, while someone who never left the sanctuary would almost never level.

Piper wanted to level quickly. Although the more she walked through the forest the more she forgot her goal. It was not because she was scared. It was because she did not know where she was going, and that excited her beyond any normal degree.

Hiking through the woods is normally tough. People are forced to follow dear trails and can’t stray too much from the predefined path without getting trapped by cliffs or bushes. Piper was more skilled than the average person, but even she had a hard time wading through countless plants barring her way.

She turned to face the area she had come from. Sooner or later players would catch up to her, and depending how the initial skirmish ended she could not be sure they would not attack her. If it ended with the murderers being apprehended by the more sane players than all was well. Nevertheless, if all the individuals that had tried to stop the killers had died, then the unrest may lead to further violent actions. Then again, what did she know she was just a high school student.

She opened her system menu scanning her friends list.

〔Epoch is offline〕

The fact that the villain of this whole game had the right to log out was not in any way unexpected but it still irked her. Although it did provide her with a chance to catch up to his level, assuming he had not cheated and obtained insurmountable power in game.

 She doubted he would have cheated though, if he truly felt that way he would not have set it to accept damage from players that attacked him.

Piper’s legs had started to hurt from walking for the last few hours. Ironically, if this had been real life she would have been able to go farther. However, her noobish stats limited her physical abilities drastically. Normally this would have been the other way around.

Piper leaned her back against one of the countless trees around her. Keeping an ear out for any noises that might alert her to danger. This was an RPG after all, monsters such as goblins usually hid in the forest to attack unsuspecting players.

〔You are hungry〕

〔-20% to evasiveness.〕

She clicked her tongue, eating had never even crossed her mind. This was supposed to be a VR game, so she had expected to be able to log out to eat. As the game had trapped without warning, she completely forgot that she needed to eat anything.

Her stomach gurgled, and she found herself thinking about food. She could almost smell chicken being roasted over a grill, the aroma battering against her like a ram. The scent spread out, drawing her towards the cooking food. It took her a second to realize it was real.

It might be a player cooking food. If so, it might be dangerous but-

Her stomach rattled harder than before.

Time to go off and ask for some of the food.

Piper was nearly fearless when it came to her inner desires. Food was definitely one of them. Ever since Piper had forced Kit and Cederic to hunt food with her, they had unreasonably kept a surplice of snacks on them. Why would they bother if it was easier to hunt it yourself?

She used her nose to guide herself to the smell. Taking each step slowly, making sure not to make too much sound as she walked. With the monsters spawned already, she could not be too careful. Most players would not attack another so easily if they retained a moderate amount of their moral values. So although she would worry about her safety, her stomach took a higher priority.