4 The massacre of Bloemfarm
(A village decimated by a player?!)
The title of the thread was rather dramatic, but it stirred his curiosity, so he clicked through to see the full post.
Under the bloody image of the village, there was a short paragraph that explained the situation.
(InsertWellThought-OutUsername: As I began the game in a grassy plain of the Republic of Savoy, I headed towards the village of Bloemfarm, since gains from monsters were limited, and I wanted to see with my own eyes if the NPCs of the game were truly as intelligent as I thought.
Instead of quest-giving NPCs going about their place, I find nothing short of a massacre in the small village of Bloemfarm. I am a hard-steeled, 26-year old man from Muscov, yet this scene triggered me to turn off explicit violence from the game entirely.)
Cyrus' imagination began to spin with images from his own childhood as he read through the messages, hence he looked at the replies to divert his attention.
(ImIntoFeet: What a sissy...)
(StasiaLovesVR: ^ What's your problem? And what's with that username?)
(VladTheImpaler: OP, how do you know it was a player and not a monster who caused the massacre?)
Under that question, the owner of the thread actually replied.
(InsertWellThought-OutUsername: This is actually anecdotal, as a player who allegedly witnessed the scene informed me of this. What is so strange about this situation is that the village didn't have any treasures or experience to get gained, thus this was simply a show of gratuitous violence.)
(Well....: For a game called Paragon Online, the players sure aren't paragons themselves!)
(E.E.Fbestkuntry: I heard the criminal who caused this was an Almanian???? This is why I didn't agree with their decision to allow those barbarians to play the game!)
(AlmaniaBestKuntry: No, he was very well from the Eastern Europa Federation!)
(CommonSenseExpert: Who said it was a 'he'?)
Cyrus closed off the thread, as the rest were just insults hurled at the enemy nations.
Though, deep inside, he wanted to believe it was an Almanian that committed this genocide in order to justify his biases and hatred towards that nation.
'This happened in the Republic of Savoy...'
Cyrus didn't understand why someone would do that, but there was no use in analyzing such atrocities and their belligerents either way.
Therefore, he focused back on the game and traversed the rolling hills and plain in search of 'monsters' to end.
(You have killed Slime - Level 3, Acquiring 72 EXP.)
(You have killed Hostile Rabit - Level 2, Acquiring 41 EXP)
There weren't any threatening monsters around this part, and he simply defeated them all like a breeze.
These pop-ups kept on emerging until the long-awaited dingle sounded again in his ears.
(LEVEL UP!)
This time, he put 2 Points into Vitality, 2 Points into Agility, and 1 Point into Attack.
The effects were incremental, and he finally noticed a difference in his movement speed and strength.
On top of that, he gained an additional 20 Health Points.
Then, he looked around him.
Unconsciously, he had crossed from a wild plain into plots of farmland.
'There aren't any farmers aroun- Ah!' He perceived a person a distance away from his current position.
'Perhaps it's an NPC or Player..'
Cyrus ran through the field, but the more he approached, the slower he ran, eventually halting his steps completely.
A black cloak covered the person's head and body, and besides them, a bloody shovel dug into the ground.
"May you rest in peace...." From the voice, it seemed like it was a woman.
The woman noticed him and turned around.
At that moment, a part of the sleeves of her cloak retreated, and a terrifying sight appeared.
Cyrus stepped back.
Instead of a healthy arm, hers had rotting flesh and was so skinny it seemed like the skin sat directly on top of the bone.
The woman noticed where his vision went and swiftly pulled back her sleeve.
"You're a Player?" The woman stood up and asked him.
From this angle, he could see her face.
She had an average appearance, albeit a rather skinny one.
Her most distinguishing features were her monolid eyes and face shape, which reflected her origin.
"You're Qinoese?" Cyrus impulsively asked her.
The woman said, "Me? I'm from Sevastopol."
In this day and age, cities often had the populations of the countries of the past, so there wasn't much danger to exposing one's city.
Cyrus felt relief that she was also from the Eastern Europa Federation.
In truth, the woman wasn't from Sevastopol, one of the wealthiest cities in the EEF, but a place on the extreme opposite end.
Kowloon, The World's Slum.
As a person from the largest slums and the trashbin of the planet, she knew very well how important it was to ascend the social ladder, after all, she was born on the extreme bottom of it.
Appearances were a big part of perceived value, and if she revealed her true origins, he would pity her, and pity did not take one very far.
"I see....what were you doing, may I ask?" Cyrus could sympathize much more with a fellow countrywoman than a foreign person due to his past.
"Burying the victims of the massacre, otherwise I'd feel like a hypocrite."
"What massacr-...The Bloemfarm massacre?!"
"You've seen the forum thread then, I guess we're unlucky to have spawned near this place."
Cyrus breathed heavily and inquired, "Just...what happened?"
"Come with me," The woman's right hand was normal-looking.
They walked through the farmland, and over a sloping hill, an ordinary-looking village appeared.
However, this was the same village from the picture attached to the thread.
"If you can't handle gore, turn it off right now," She advised him and sighed.
Cyrus kept the settings interface in front of him, but he didn't change anything for now.
She shook her head in response and took a lead.
As soon as they entered the village, Cyrus listened to her and turned it off, also closing his eyes.
When he opened them back up, blobs of uniform, low-textured squares replaced the bloody and realistic scenes.
"These NPCs, from the weakest to the strongest, each had their ambitions, their affiliations, their hobbies, their families, their friends, their unique appearances, unique quests to give, but he just came...and didn't give any value to those."
"So it was really a player?"
"Yes, I think that if he could kill an NPC like that, he could very well kill a real person if the law did not come into play."
'Cold....' Cyrus felt goosebumps rise on his skin.
"You buried the villagers of your own volition..?"
The woman looked at him and then placed her skeletal arm on a corpse.
Miraculously, the corpse reanimated and a zombie-like creature looked at her, awaiting her command.
'Necromancer?'
"I used the corpses of their brethren to protect the village, but...he was too strong, and I only ended up defiling the corpses of the dead and not giving them the peace they deserve."
Then, with a swish of her fingers, the zombie fell back to the ground.
She took the corpse and placed it on her back, and then slowly walked towards the farmland where she was earlier.
'She's going to bury him?' Cyrus somewhat admired her respect.
When she turned the man into a zombie, a pained expression appeared on her face, and she didn't even look willing to do that.
'How does she even have powers like that? Is she an expert?' By then, only a week passed since the game's launch, so that was unlikely.
Cyrus observed her fading steps, and just as he was about to leave, he heard her say something.
"You're a newbie too, right? How about we form a party? There are no more people running the transport networks between the village and Cape Immergroen, so you'll have to go through the monsters on your own."
"In short, we should stick together."
At the edge of his vision, a text panel popped up.
(Chu Wang sends you a party request? Y/N)
(Chu Wang sends you a friend request? Y/N)
Eventually, he accepted both requests, and a new health bar appeared under his own.
The Necromancer and the Unclassed, a strange combination formed as a result of coincidences.
