Otherlife Dreams: The Selfless Hero Trilogy (21 page)

“He wa-”

“Was waiting for me. I’m not really that fucking surprised but I was hoping they wouldn’t be here. I’m sorry, I should have said something. Stupid bastard was in plain sight wasn’t he? Problem is there’s always a second asshole just in case. Chances are he bolted when you took after this one.”

Hannah’s explanation made a lot of sense and yet none at all. She knew. She knew and wasn’t surprised. Runner was now keenly interested in why she had been alone, starving, and far away from a major city as possible when he first encountered her.

“Right. We’ll talk later. Lady Death, Kitten, Nadine, you’re all going to group up, and get out of town. Camp a mile or so outside the eastern gates. Make it a place you can’t be easily seen. Preferably a spot where you can see others coming if you’ve been followed though. Do it, no arguments, go now. If what Hanners said is accurate, she and I were spotted and are now associated, none of you are.”

“But wha-” began Nadine.

“No, go, now. Not another word. I’ll find you all with the party window as soon as Hanners and I escape the town.”

Moving backward even as he finished talking he motioned to Hannah to fall in with him. Runner turned and walked down the alley. Pausing next to Katarina he addressed her directly.

“I leave them in your hands Kitten, get them out of town safely.”

Katarina dipped her head in understanding as Runner took off in a light jog. Hannah was behind him and to the left by the sound of it.

“When we get a chance, you’re explaining this. For now, you’re telling me where we need to be to avoid whatever it is that’s going to happen, and how we get out.”

Avoiding trash, animal refuse, and foul standing water, they arrived at a main boulevard. Turning onto the boulevard Runner slipped into the back of a larger group of NPCs. Guessing from their dress, and what they were carrying, Runner figured them for sellers bound for a market. They’d serve for a useful disguise and cover for a short time. Hopefully long enough to get an information dump from Hannah.

“Quickly, no time,” Runner whispered urgently at Hannah.

“I gave frickin’ information to guard captain of Faren. It got a bunch of people arrested. Once they had what they wanted, the shit head captain let slip who ratted them out. They broke their deal with me. I fled instead of waiting for a two bit thug to collect the guild bounty on me.”

“Got it. That leaves us with very little working room but it’s doable, I guess. Has to be. We stay off side streets, stay with groups, if we even think there’s the possibility of something being wrong. We use Stealth and hit the roofs by any means possible. Take the next left up ahead and let’s see if we can blend into a group.”

Parts of plans, thoughts, and actions flitted in and out of his mind as he walked. There was only a few options open to them and the easiest one was to stay in plain sight of guards. Hopefully they were on a different faction than the ones in Faren.

Of everything he heard, that was the worst news unfortunately. Faren was their goal for him to train at. And now there might be an inevitable confrontation with the local crime element. Which apparently Hannah had been a part of.

Turning left at the indicated street crossing, Runner sped up with a little hop to slide in behind a group of day laborers. Eyes taking methodical passes of each intersection, window, and doorway ahead of them Runner didn’t see anything out of place. The feeling of safety blew apart a second later when Runner remembered they’d simply be cloaked. Waiting. Watching. Invisible.

Cursing under his breath he squinted into the distance trying to locate a suitable place to break a tail and change their heading.

There was a group of trees grew near a low walled building that provided an obvious avenue to the roofs. Nearby a church sat empty with it’s grounds untended and quiet. Finally a small rough hewn footbridge sat crouched off to the side of the canal up ahead, leading into another back street.

“I see three routes. Trees, church, footbridge. I like the trees but it would alert them early to the fact we plan on going upwards. Church feels like a dead end, ha. Footbridge is rather dark and would be where I was if I were looking for us. Thoughts?” Runner inquired, finding no other routes.

“Agreed on all points. Shit. I guess it comes down to if you’re feeling religious or lucky then.”

“If it was to a neutral god, or any of the pantheon that walked the line between, maybe. I’m guessing here, and tell me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s a church dedicated to one of the gods our dear friend Mr. Personality serves. Rather not risk that. Stealth just before we break from this group and hit the footbridge. Assume watchers are there, use Distract on the open area behind the entryways. Take the left wall, I’ll take the right. If you see a silhouette, stab it.”

Hannah said nothing but closed in tighter to his side. Runner’s heart was racing with each step closer to the point they’d need to stealth and flee. Holding his breath he tapped Hannah on the arm and stealthed, moving swiftly for the footbridge.

Reaching the wooden ramp Runner was faced with a ghostly image standing before him. This had been outside of his original plan but it wasn’t outside of the possibilities he had thought of.

Utilizing Distract on the opposite side of the footbridge the ghostly image turned away from him. Not activating any stealth breaking abilities he closed on the man. He hoped physical contact wouldn’t count as stealth breaking.

Throwing his shoulder down he whipped it back up after he made contact, checking the man over the hand rail and sent him flailing into the water below.

Hannah took point when Runner came to a near halt in dealing with his road block. Throwing her left hand out she executed her Distract perfectly. One silhouette appeared on the left side wall. Hannah closed on him and plunged her weapons deep into the man’s back.

Moving beyond the entry point and coming along side Hannah Runner turned into the enemy. Casting Fireblast at point blank into the man’s abdomen limited the light of the flames to the outside. Hannah worked to quickly strike at the man again.

Unable to call out, or even act, the sentry collapsed and died right there. His health bar depleted in only the time it took to draw a single breath. There had been no chance for him to do anything.

Confirming the name as “Guild Thief” he performed a quick loot command. Immediately stealthing he angled himself for a jump at a low hanging wooden awning. Catching the lip of it he hauled himself up to the second floor. Leaping upwards one more time he caught the edge of the roof and dragged himself over it onto a flat open space. Rolling out of the way for Hannah Runner then gave the area a rapid survey. Nothing except bird droppings and garbage.

Keeping himself flat on his back Runner finally stared into the wide open blue sky above. Sunlight warmed him from his boots to his hair, bathing him, cleaning him of the chill he’d felt in the streets below.

Like a cloud through the sky an errant thought passed through his mind. He hadn’t confirmed if the man he tossed into the canal below was even an enemy. He’d just reacted and threw the man without a second thought. Admittedly the second man had been positively identified upon death, which would provide substance to the argument that the first had to be a hostile. It still didn’t dismiss his action as anything less than mildly chaotic. Covering his eyes with his hand Runner could only lament again at the man he was becoming.

Hannah flopped down next to him, appearing on the roof in the exact same spot he had.

“I had no fucking idea you could even get up here. I didn’t even consider the thought. Now that I’m up here it seems like commonsense, but while we down there, it-it just didn’t even register. Shit.”

Chuckling quietly Runner shook his head back and forth.

“I’m not too terribly surprised. In hindsight I think the top of buildings is an out of bounds area. Not sure of it since we’re up here. If I had to imagine why it would be off limits, it’d player versus player. Guards don’t patrol up here, so it would just become a nesting ground for orange or red players. Err, people who have either attacked other players or killed them.”

“Suppose it’s in our benefit then. Lady luck may be a bitch but she found you today.”

“Remind me to buy her a dozen roses,” Runner said. Pinching his eyes shut he massaged the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “Here’s what I propose. Make our way to the eastern gatehouse. Not close enough to be seen from the walls if they’re manned but close enough we can get out if we see an opportunity. If we don’t see one, we wait it out until tomorrow night.”

Hannah had crawled to the edge of the low wall surrounding the roof they were on and was peering at the area below. Assuming she was following the conversation Runner continued.

“I would imagine that if they haven’t seen hide nor hair of us by then, they might assume we’ve already made our escape and act from that train of thought. Or so my hope goes. I figure we Stealth, leap from a rooftop nearby and do our best to get out without a fuss. Rather not have a group chasing us all the way to the starting town.”

“Why were they so weak? He went down like a little bitch. I didn’t know him personally but still, shouldn’t have instantly died.”

“Mm? It’s because you’ve been leveling up. There are three types of characters in this world right now. Well, four, but three for this discussion. One, players. Two, non-player characters. Three, non-player characters like yourself. Altered. Awakened.”

“Altered? Awakened? What the hell does that mean. Why are you always so god damned vague?”

“I’m not trying to be, alright? For fucks sake Hanners. Do you think it’s normal that you level up? Do you think it’s normal for you to know about your world as a whole? That you should be able to see your fucking abilities in such a way that you do now? To use them as you do? I’ve irrevocably changed you Hanners. I’ve changed all of you. Wish I could explain it better than that but I truly don’t understand most of it myself.”

Runner closed his eyes and exhaled violently. Pressing his palms to his eyes Runner struggled with the enormity of the problem. Suddenly a very real problem of the game becoming so unbalanced that it simply shut down loomed over him.
How many rules have I broken? How many can I break more? Why am I actually able to break the rules? What happens when the code is suddenly so kinked that it no longer functions as intended? No game is meant to run in perpetuity. They all come down for regular maintenance and updates. And now this,
he thought angrily to himself.

Hannah, for one reason or another, made an enemy of a crime lord local to the area. Now Runner had to deal with it.
But do I? I could leave her and be done with it. She was fine on her own before, wasn’t she?

Trailing that thought was the image of Hannah in the woods when he had met her. Dirty, starving to death, horribly lost, and helpless.

Ok, ok, one problem at a time. Get out of town.

“We need to move. I’d like to circle the rooftops along the edge of town and see where our best exit point is. A plan rarely survives contact with the enemy and all that, but I’d still rather not plan to fail because I failed to plan,” stated Runner. Leveraging himself to a standing position he brushed the ever non-existent dirt from his armor and clothes. Activating his Stealth he turned and headed east across the roofs.

Below them a plaza buzzed with players and non-players alike. Haggling, buying, selling, purchasing services, or selling them, it was a den of commerce. Originally Runner had thought it might be good to hide there, in that teeming mass of greed. It’d also be a hard place to spot a tail or waiting dagger. A crowd like that wouldn’t hide just you.

Hannah had echoed his own thoughts, though with far more profanity, and so now they sat on a rooftop watching the market. Drumming his fingers across his boot heel Runner people watched while lost in his own thoughts.

“Do you think they’re like me? Any of them? I have alot of fuzzy spots. Also memories of before though. They’re almost too clear. Unreal even due to the amount of detail. Is that my back story? All that garbage written by some fat sweaty pencil pushing bastard at a desk?” Hannah asked bitterly. She sat with her back to an adjoining building’s wall, her fingers idly flicking playing cards into a pot. Hannah had purchased it while on the ship to give to Nadine since the little merchant had begun taking over cooking duties almost completely, but had little equipment.

Sneaking a glance from the corner of his eye Runner contemplated her question. Letting his sight settle back to the marketplace he watched a player sell countless animal bits and loose pieces of equipment. Runner finally decided on how to answer her even if it wasn’t something she actually wanted to hear.

“Yep. That’s the gist of it. Written up, entered into a database, and the AI selected it for you. It’s no different than those who were written as dead, or soon to be. There are those who are nothing more than an exclamation point to a sentence. A rousing, or hell, a lackluster, battle at the end of a quest that serves no purpose other than to collect a book for a quest giver. Doomed to die at the hands of a player for no other reason than bad writing.”

“Seriously? What kind of sick fucks…that’s horrible.”

“It’s not as if stupider things have happened in history, or more inglorious ways to die have occurred. You can hate me for saying it, but be thankful for your blessings. As to your original question, no. They’re not like you at all. They will act according to their original AI.”