112: Knives in the Dark, Part One

Knives in the Dark, Part One

Neve turned to look at the woman who'd spoken. The woman they'd saved. 

Dressed in bloodstained, black and white cloth, the lady walked forward with her hands clasped together. She had long, blonde hair, four small, thin yellow eyes with no pupils, and dark, grey lips that put on a polite smile. Were it not for her eyes and the fact that her hands only had three fingers, she would be indistinguishable from a regular human. 

[She looks kinda like a nun, actually. A hot nun.] 

Once again, as her lips parted and her slightly sultry voice flowed out, it felt like pure, raw honey being dipped into Neve's ears from a golden pitcher. 

"Thank you, traveler. That was almost the end for me." 

Calmly, she stood before Neve. She was about half a head taller than her. Her warm, yellow eyes almost beckoned Neve to take a couple of steps closer. Her presence, in general, felt absolutely enthralling. 

Pulling back instead, Neve thought: 

[So, yeah, this is probably the trigger for the Floor Quest. Come on, let's get on with it.] 

"Are you hurt at all?"

"No, thankfully," the lady replied. "Thanks to you." 

[Uh...] Neve looked down at her blood-soaked clothes. [Are you sure you're okay?] 

"I take it you're a player, are you not?" 

Hearing that, Neve's eyes snapped back up as she was pulled harshly out of her thoughts. 

"Yeah," she responded. "Uh, so... The Unity Trials..." 

"Indeed, it is as you suspect," the lady said gesturing to one of the fallen werewolves without taking her eyes off of Neve. "These creatures are not native to my world. They were brought here, just as you were." 

"Hm... I see." 

...

A couple of seconds passed and the lady did nothing but stand there, looking down at Neve with that smile stuck to her face. Eventually, Neve cleared her throat and asked:

"So... Could you tell me anything about this world? I mean, just to make things a little easier for me, you know?" 

"Certainly. Would you like to walk with me?" 

"Sure. Just give me a moment to look at something first, though." 

Neve then went and checked the two werewolves for loot. 

Wolf's Tongue

{Alchemy Ingredient} 

{Uncommon}

{Val: 50 WST}

[Hopefully

That was all she found. 

[I wonder what kind of potions these things can make. Anyway, I'm glad that this is progressing smoothly, I guess.] Her eyes ran up and down her new partner's figure. [God, she is *hot*, actually.] 

"My name is Lia, by the way."

"Oh, I'm Neve."

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Neve," Lia said. The way her name sounded rolling off Lia's tongue was almost too nice. Neve loved it. "It's been quite a long time since I was able to speak to someone." 

"How long has it been since the Unity Trials started here?" 

"Years," Lia replied. "Many lonely years." 

"So... Are you the only person left?" 

"It seems so. My people did a decent job defending themselves against the waves of monsters, don't get me wrong, but it all fell apart for them as time went on. I don't know how your planet's circumstances are, but I'm sure you understand how conflicts can occur."

"... I understand that a little too well, actually." 

"Heh. Well, try as I have, I have been unable to find anyone else. Anyone still alive. Of my people or otherwise," she said with a chuckle.  "This was once the most heavily populated part of my home, believe it or not. Come on, I'll show you some of the sights." 

Neve went along with the offer, making an effort first to check where the boss was. 

The marker was placed northeast, in the opposite direction from where they were going right now. 

[That's fine. I wanted to do some exploring anyway.] 

The red moon watched over them as they took a stroll through the blood-covered cobblestone streets. Here and there, Neve would see corpses. Burnt, broken, stabbed, and beaten. Some of them belonged to people who looked like Lia, others were monstrous or animalistic in nature. 

"For a time, this has been my home," Lia stated, gesturing at the space around them with open arms. "It was the only place I could find where the monsters did not roam too frequently, though it is by no means safe. Here, I would look for others of my kind or players like yourself who came in from other worlds." 

[I wonder if Thomas's group ran into her.] 

"Did you meet any?" 

"A few. They were charming, though not quite as much as you are." 

Neve blinked. 

[What?] 

Crouching in front of the body of what looked like a human mage, Lia rested her head on the palm of her hand as she gazed down at it. Neve stood beside her as she did. 

"Curt, warm, cold, friendly, misanthropic. I welcomed as many as I could into my world only to watch them all leave the same way. Until there were no more of them left to speak to. No one to alleviate this painful loneliness of mine." 

As she said that last part, she stood back up and turned toward Neve. The lady's warm smile and kind eyes were once again aimed at her and Neve turned away to avoid their weight. 

There was one part of her statement that made Neve wonder something, though. 

[... If this world is so dangerous, how have you managed to stay alive?] Upon considering the thought for a while, though, she thought that maybe the Forces That Be didn't bother thinking of an explanation for that when they made this potential replica. [To be fair, the couple on the previous floor, how the hell did they stay alive too? I guess I'm meant to assume she's really good at hiding or something.] 

"Throughout my exploration of this changed world of mine, I did come across a few interesting things." 

"Like what?" 

"An item," she said, spinning from up ahead to face Neve. The woman stopped, with her hands held behind her back. "Something one of the previous players who came here left behind. I've not got a clue of what it does, but I suppose it could be of some use to you." 

[Oh?] Neve considered it. [Maybe this is how the Floor Quest starts. Alexander gave me an item too back on the Second Floor, the rocket launcher.] 

"Can you take me to it?" 

Happily, she replied: 

"Of course."

---0

{Charlotte} 

Naturally, as soon as Charlotte got back home, she began to dive deeply into this matter concerning the Hidden Blade Guild. 

The connections she'd made over the years as a reporter came in handy, here.

The black market was still well and truly alive, even under the Unity Trials. Charlotte happened to know some people who liked to partake in shady activities and reached out to them to see what they could tell her about this gang. 

The information she received was not plentiful by any means. 

[No names, no faces,] Charlotte thought as she sat in front of her computer, scrolling past one thread after another that she'd been pointed to. [But... It does seem like this guild is more than just a rumor, though.] 

Player killings had risen by 44% in just the last week. Among the bodies of those murdered, one could often find peculiar items placed over their bodies. 

Jewelry, wallets, IDs, etc. Pretty much anything of value that the players were carrying on them, placed over their torsos. 

[Is this symbolic in some way? Maybe the killers' way of saying "we're not doing this for money"? If so, then what is their purpose? Just EXP? I guess that would be it, but is that reason enough to establish a whole "guild" built around murder?] 

She leaned back in her chair, putting her hands behind her head as she stared at some of the images. 

[... Besides, the higher the level of the person you kill, the more EXP you get from it. If such a guild was established, I feel like they would inevitably become each other's targets, as regular people would stop yielding as much EXP. Even with the player-kill bonus.] 

It was difficult to put the pieces together in her head when they belonged to a puzzle she fundamentally disagreed with. 

[I guess this is why I'm a journalist and not a detective.] 

She received a notification then, on her phone, letting her know that yet another player had been found dead just outside an unmarked dungeon. 

Unmarked dungeons were simply ones where no security was established, usually due to the place they spawned in being considered too dangerous to access. This unmarked dungeon was at a train station, one that was host to frequent monster outbreaks. 

Charlotte stared at the notification. 

She considered it for just two seconds, and then made up her mind quickly, as she usually did. 

"Fuck it. I'm going there. Maybe the Hidden Blade Guild left some other clue for people to find." 

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