End Online: Volume 6 (27 page)

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Our six parties reach the
first tower after defeating nine more groups of ghouls, each of them having
between one or two hundred enemies. The tower is fifteen meters high and, once
upon a time, probably stood three times as tall. The grey stone bricks covered
in a spiderweb of cracks seem like they could collapse and turn into dust at
any moment, instilling within me the feeling that we shouldn’t enter.

Of course, this is a game
and there is no way the tower will collapse unless it is supposed to. We enter
a decrepit door at the front, one party at a time, three people taking the role
of providing light for everyone else.

Inside we find more ghouls
in addition to the second type of enemy, a kind of shadow creeper that looks
like a mangled dog and runs along the walls and ceiling as well as it could on
the floor.

Our party of six gathers
into a tight formation with me at the center in order to defend me while
fighting back at the enemies which quickly surround us. We maintain this
formation and proceed up through the tower, floor by floor.

I notice that the shadow
creepers prove to be the exact opposite of the ghouls, prioritizing speed over
strength, and having an extremely low defence while being highly resistant to
magic. The coordination of the ghouls and shadow creepers is a troublesome
combination, even creating the first player casualty on our side, but that was
because he was too careless.

At the top of the tower
(well, the final floor before the tower ended in a great big opening where the
sky is visible) we find the first raid boss. The boss is a four meter tall
ghoul with muscles that could crush a car just by flexing, and sunken eyes that
seem to be filled with despair.

The boss has a strength
that make the ordinary ghouls seem like children. Every time he smashes his
hand down, the entire tower vibrates dangerously and throws everyone off
balance. My mind is dominated by the laws of physics and constantly shouts to
me that the building is going to collapse, but of course it doesn’t happen.

We keep our distance
because the boss is rather slow, and just when we think we are safe, the
massive ghoul uses both hands to pick up a piece of rubble left from when the
tower collapsed and throws it at us like a missile.

The only player hit is
fortunately one with a lot of health and a member of my party, enjoying the
benefit of my ‘False Aura of Confidence’, so he is lucky enough to not
instantly die. However, he still lost over half of his health and is blown
across the room by the shockwave of the massive piece of stone colliding with
the ground.

With one member dead, the
remaining 35 of us fight back and forth against the boss Ghoul, whittling away
its health one percent at a time. After what seemed like an hour but was
probably only half as long, we finally manage to kill it. The giant boss
collapses on the ground and leaves behind a massive loot box of at least thirty
items.

Now knowing that these
notable locations have bosses which drop a generous amount of loot, everyone
gets excited to head to the next location. We end up spending an entire day in
game searching through different locations, defeating seven bosses and filling
our inventories with various loot. At the same time, we only lost three more
players from our group, bringing the total amount down to 32 people.

“Next is the most
important of them all,” FierceTiger says solemnly, bringing about a determined
atmosphere amongst everyone. “We still need to kill the final raid boss. It
should be in the center of the city, and will be stronger than everything else
we have fought so far. Normally, I would warn you all to be prepared for
defeat, but this time...”

FierceTiger deliberately
pauses speaking and changes his expression to a cheeky grin before continuing.

“This time, we have guild
leader Mikhail the Stalwart with us! With him here, victory is already
determined! Get pumped up everyone, we are going to take this raid boss DOWN!”

Everyone in the raid,
minus myself, cheers loudly at FierceTiger’s pep talk. Several of the ‘Elders’
get together and whisper something to each other while constantly sending me
secretive glances.

Right now, I really want one
of Henry’s cigarettes. These players are frustrating, and to make it worse,
they are too cunning for their own good. I feel like I am being treated by them
like a winning lottery ticket, and my work is forcing me to keep playing this
stupid game. If I could cry, I would.

We camp in an empty house
for the night before setting off for the center of the city first thing in the
morning. Everyone’s spirits are high, except for me, and we make fast progress
toward our destination.

It only takes us two hours
to reach the center of Valor City, where there is a massive bottomless hole in
the ground that sucks in all the surrounding light and creates a dim
atmosphere.

As we step into the area,
the ground begins to shake beneath our feet and the sound of stone grinding on
stone echoes out from the endless chasm in the center of the city. Just as we
are regaining our balance, a massive mechanical man of stone comes flying out
of the pit to land on the solid ground at the border.

The enemy is easily six
meters tall and made entirely out of stone. The sound from earlier comes from
the boss as stone gears and gizmos crunch together when it moves. It looks down
at us with its obsidian eyes, but for some reason refuses to attack and just
motionlessly stares at our raid.

“That’s strange,” one of
the ‘Elders’, PeekingGhost, mentions with a frown. “I just looked at the boss’
stats. It is called Terminus(Ruin Sentinel), but there is something about being
Emperor Class. It also only has twenty thousand health. Why does a boss have so
little health; does anyone know anything about this Emperor Class?”

The other raid members
glance at one another and shake their heads in confusion, but I subconsciously
blurt out, “Emperor Class!?”

Every single head swivels
to look at me as if seeking answers. There’s a lot of information I am privy to
that I can’t talk to ordinary people about, and even more I am unaware of, but
I have to tell them something so we can get out of here.

“We have to run!” I call
out while thinking impromptu. “I know someone who works for Idea Imagine, and
apparently there are a handful of Emperor Class enemies, and a few dozen King
Class that were created to be players’ bane. They can’t be killed by ordinary
means and the only outcome is defeat.”

“What the heck,” FierceTiger
scowls at me in disbelief, “As if a game company would create such a thing.
This boss is a little weird, yes, but not undefeatable.”

“No! We have to run NOW!!”
I grab the nearest two players and try to drag them away, but my pitiful
strength leaves me to create a pitiful display of not being able to budge them
an inch.

Fortunately for us,
Terminus, the Ruin Sentinel, appears to lack any interest in squashing us like
bugs. He turns around and jumps back into the chasm, rending all the players
ready to attack speechless.

“#%&$! Did the boss
just run!?” FierceTiger shouts and curses at the hole in the ground where the
boss left.

Everyone in the raid group
is shocked and disappointed, but I am so relieved I could laugh. Nobody knows
what these AIs are capable of more than me. I can’t believe we came across one,
an Emperor Class at that, here in this raid. At least I can pass this
information onto my boss and redeem myself somewhat.

After waiting around for a
full day and even exploring the area surrounding the chasm, the raid group
dejectedly decides to give up and return. Thankfully, the boss didn’t reappear
and continued to hide in that endless pit.

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Outside the city, we meet
up with the four players who died during the raid and recount our experience.
They were also surprised how the final boss ran away after only showing itself
for a few moments.

While we are still
socializing, I walk up to FierceTiger and the other ‘Elders’ of ‘Hero’s
Vanguard’ and ask, “I have helped with the raid, now tell me what you know
about that party.”

“Oh, of course. Lost, Fen,
Verde and Sir Laurence were seen not too long ago in the beast realm. They were
locked up for a while, suspected of being due to attacking another player in
the city. There was a fifth person with them, a four-eared black wolf, but we
don’t know who that is.”

“And the others?”

“Mason and Matrix are in
Iceridge, recruiting for Lost’s new guild ‘The Wanderers’. It is a very small
guild, not even worth noting if it wasn’t for the people founding it. As for
CaptainGordon... His location is currently unknown.”

“And that’s all?”

“That’s it,” FierceTiger
says while giving me a grin that causes a cold shiver to shoot up my spine.

“I need to go after them, especially
that girl Fen.”

“One problem at a time
guild leader. Maybe after the next...”

Before FierceTiger
finishes speaking, his voice drifts off and he absentmindedly gazes at the sky
slack-jawed.

I also turn to see what
has enthralled his attention so much that he can’t even finish a sentence. Even
I stare speechless when I see an enormous black dragon flying toward us.

The dragon doesn’t even
pay us any attention as it flies directly into the area of the raid. The dragon
flies a few laps around the area before roaring in rage and spitting out a
breath of fire.

The fire the dragon spits
out is a deep crimson, and it quickly dyes half of the raid zone the colour of
blood as it burns everything. After it finishes breathing fire, it circles the
area a few more times before flying off in the direction it came from.

‘Could it be? Another
Emperor Class AI? That strength is just too ridiculous,’

I gaze at the raid zone,
which is still being burnt by the flames that don’t show any signs of
extinguishing, despite everything in the area being made of stone.

“FierceTiger, this is the
strength of an Emperor Class,” I worriedly express my thoughts to the ‘Elder’
who is in equal shock. “Let’s go back.”

“...Yeah,” FierceTiger
reluctantly says before giving the signal for us all to retreat to the shore of
the island.

Today, I witnessed the
true strength of what the AIs can do in the game, and I will never forget it.
Whilst also being aware of what they can do outside of the game, I have decided
to treat them as disasters waiting to happen. A solution to contain these
things must be presented as soon as possible.