Lost in the Game

Clearing the Trash

Lucas smiled as he slipped into the hallway, hiding in the shadows as he secured the guild from the top down. The Assassins guild was a terrible place to actually disappear, because there were very few places that actually had shadows. He however took his time and dramatically improved his pick pocket skills, and got good gear before he would assassinate most of his targets with strikes that got dramatic boosts when used behind an unsuspecting target. Most died when he slid his daggers into the base of thier skulls, only a few of the Red targets other players that he assumed were on missions for the Thief Guild. He hoped it ended in thier failure and set them back a bit, as he only cared about his own progress in this game. He wanted to become one of the best, and knew if he could kill PC Thiefs, he was doing really well.

One benefit of this quest chain was that it was giving him plenty of practice in his Assassin skills, as he found multiple chests that needed the locks picked, many thieves that carried gold and items. His assassinations were even earning him a greater rank as he slipped into the rafters of the first floor where the Thief Master was directing the full on attack from. Lucas watched as they ran into the depths of the Guild, and he eliminated them one by one before returning to his position here as he waited for another chance at the Thief Master.

He knew it was going to take as much skill as he had to complete this, as it was a true test of skill. He took the time to prepare his throwing stars with different poisons, all of the fast acting or near instant effect. His daggers were coated in a different poison as well, as he intended to make it a duel of toxins for the game to decide how he would meet his end.

What he hadn't expected was for the Assassin Master to be d**g into the chamber, restrained from behind. He however realized it was a scene in the quest line, as his death was a failure of the mission chain, which meant he would have to start over with what he was doing.

"Robin, your goons are getting easier and easier to detect. Perhaps you should actually teach those who follow you some stealth techniques first." Gorman taunted as he was forced to his knees in the center of the room as the thief Master gloated his victory.

"Please Gorman, you try and hurl insults, yet you are the one kneeling before me in your own hall. Let us not forget that you have never even found my Hall to lay siege to it." Robin said.

"Raiding the tree house of a common crook in the middle of no where is no true test if the skills I wish my students to learn. There is no challenge in stealing an object just to prove they can, and if you think anything you might accomplish here today will be detrimental to the Assassins Guild, you are as always, highly mistaken. Once again you lead children into the den of snakes, and expect them to escape unbitten." he said as another of them screamed from somewhere in the compound before the body was tossed into the center of the room through one of the many windows.

"Even now you have failed to realize the gravity of your situation, as I kneel before you in my own hall." Gorman said as he stood up and quickly killed the NPC guarding him.

"What would that be?" Robin laughed as he drew a short sword in each hand.

"That I am not the opponent you need to be worried about. As I said, dealing with you is a matter below my level to dirty my hands with. Another has been given the task of dealing with your antics, and I would expect him to be acting any time now." Gorman said as Lucas used the opening to drop down on the Thief Masters back and plunge both knifes into the back of his neck for a massive attack boost as the image shimmered and disappeared while he threw several of his stars and his throwing knife to incapacitate the guards around the room.

It took the system several minutes to recognize it before it gave him the completion sequence, and determined his success had been critical. It unlocked the second reward, so he no longer had to select one over the other.

"It seems you have learned well what it truly means to be a Rogue. That our skills can build one upon another, and that most things can be used to our advantage when we set our minds to something. We are the most versatile class, able to learn, utilize and combine in new ways things that other classes take for granted." Gorman said to him as he realized it was a programmed response as it allowed him to select the one he wanted to give in return.

"Thank you master, but I still have much to learn." Lucas said as he smiled as the NPC nodded.

"Yes you do, and one day in the future I will once again call upon your skills to deal with the Thief nuisance. Now however we must ensure no other attacks on our bases are planned, and that we are safe to continue our operations. The Masters who remain will be able to easily teach you what you must need to know, and I trust you will use your own judgement when you decide what you need to Master. Remember, you are only limited by your imagination as to what is possible, and Rogues use any advantage we can get." Gorman said before disappearing and giving him the rewards that he immediately equipped while the building reset itself.

He was surprised the other PCs were interacting with the NPCs like they had never moved, when he realized it must have taken him to a separate instance of this part of the game.

"No way, all of the others I talked to said that mission was impossible to complete." another Rogue said looking at his gear.

"What mission?" Lucas asked as he looked around.

"You just completed the Thiefs Attack quest, didn't you." he whispered as Lucas laughed.

"Why are you whisperin" he asked.

"You don't know yet, do you?" the thief asked him openly. "Some quests cannot be completed by everyone, as certain triggers have to be met before hand. That cloak is rumored to be one if the possible rewards for completing the quest, and those who know if it are already leaving reviews it is next to impossible. Some are even 10 levels above the monster level and unable to complete it."

Lucas shrugged as he looked around as alarm bells suddenly started ringing and all of the players were teleported to a location he had never even dreamed about yet.

"Warning, system error detected. Safeguards initiated. System Error detected, safeguards initiated." A voice said loud enough it didn't matter which part of the Capitol you were in, you heard it.

"What is this?" the thief he had been talking to asked as they both saw the looks on everyone's faces. This was definitely not a an ed event if the looks were anything to judge by, as the form of a man appeared above the structures.

"Attention all players of Chaos Reigns, a system error has been detected that we are trying to resolve as we speak. We ask you not-" the voice said before it was scrambled, and the destroyed character sequence initiated as it dissolved into thousands of little pieces.

A new one took its place, its hiid and cloak working well to conceal who was wearing it. "What the foolish people who run this game have failed to realize yet, is this is no game. It is a simulation that there is no escape from. The 10 million online users, are in for a wild ride.

"For those who have not noticed yet, you will not find a logout button in your system menu, as it is very much not possible to do so. There will only be a few ways that you can disconnect, and only one of them leads to anyone survivng the process. Each character received a random roll when they logged in, that had to be verified in order to proceed. Whatever that number happened to be, is the number of times that your data will reset if you should by chance perish while in this game. If you die more times than you have for lack of a better term, lives. You perish. Not just here where your character will be deleted, but in the real world where your body willnsimy stop functioning because your mind has been deleted of all knowledge.

"Until someone has won the game, none of you will be able to safely log out. These characters are now your life, and any return to the real world is currently far beyond your reach. Inside you will find 200 levels, each with an entire system that will need to be determined and defeated before you can move on. Some bosses only one person will be able to kill a single time, others each person must kill in order to advance past that stage of the game.

"Everything you need to live the way you wish has been provided for, and there are only the rules that the system ultimately provides. It will be up to you in the game alone to survive until the end, if it ever ends. It will be up to those in this environment to determine if and how that is accomplished. Good Luck." the figure said as multiple people used thier menu to try and logout, only to find that the function had indeed been removed from all of them.

"Won't we starve to death?" one of the others asked.

"No, the units provide the ability to provide base nutrients from what we eat here." Lucas said as he had been studying the designs as well in his free time. If they truly could not log out of the game until someone defeated the final boss, he knew it was going to be a madhouse. Especially where most of them would have no idea how many deaths they still had to give for the cause. As soon as the screen flashed, some of the players dropped dead as they had already exceeded the number of times they could be killed, and the system was removing them. Lucas saw his verification number flash again, and was glad he had a higher number, as it would allow him to make a few mistakes. This new information however had provided a wealth of knowledge, and he now knew he was going to do whatever it took to thrive in this world, while he learned to fight his way out of it.