Chapter 65 - The Unsettling

18 February 2024

Katalysis, 43rd Floor

By the time we stepped out of the stadium, Puma was--as I had assumed--out of sight and deep into the maze of buildings.

It was hard getting Rakuno out of her trance, even after she had stood up and followed me out. A simple hand wave in front of her eyes didn't work, either.

I guess, for a player who had never seen a PK before, they would be in some degree of shock, having looked at the victims and heard their frantic cries as they tried to fight off their unfortunately powerful killer. That image of bodies disintegrating into pixels already felt depressing enough for anyone who's probably never had an orange cursor before.

When Rakuno had finally looked around to find me beside her, she took a stare at me, probably wondering how I myself wasn't really affected with the Gladiorium.

".....Have you seen a PK before?" She asked softly. The tone in her voice didn't have the cheerful tinge that she usually spoke with before.

"Technically," I replied. "I have. But watching a player doing a PK is a first."

I turned to her, and stopped her by touching her left shoulder lightly. "I assume you're not fine about watching PKs happen in front of you."

There wasn't an immediate reply from under the pointed hat, though I waited with patience for a little while before she came up with one.

"It's my first time, you know."

She swirled her body, leaving my hand hanging, as she stopped to face me. When she looked up at me, her face was plastered with a simple smile.

"But I'm fine now. So, are we gonna track down the Council?"

At least she caught onto my next course of action quick. It was a priority that was right on my mind throughout the duration of the Gladiorium. To get close to those players would definitely mean getting questions answered.

"We better check on the others," I brought down my system menu. Touching the message icon, the window which showed my message history appeared before me. I was hoping for a message from Krieg about his infiltration into Katalysis, but there wasn't any.

Even if he had sent me a message, I wouldn't have known right away. By default, the message function notifies the player immediately of a message sent to them by a player in their friend list by displaying the message icon right in front of them. However, since that would grab unnecessary attention from players passing by, I had set it to silent mode, where it simply wouldn't do that.

The message window did display a new message from Tekion, which basically told me to meet him at the inn. Well, I didn't think he would have gone outside anyway, considering my orders of not going around the city alone and his lack of boldness to even take the risk.

"I got a message from Meghan," Rakuno was also having her message window out. "She and Alexis are at the city entrance."

"What for?" I closed my system menu.

"They've found something interesting," Rakuno stared at her message window. "She says we should come and see for ourselves. Hmm, I'd say we have the time, since we still have the whole afternoon to get lost in this city, haha....."

"Sure, let's just get lost in there again," I gave a sigh, as we headed for the maze of buildings. Though I thought that finding the entrance was hard, it didn't turn out as bad, as we realized that by just by following the main alleyways, we could get a sight of the entrance. If not for the crowd that we had to swerve and dodge through, I reckoned that we could have gotten there a few minutes earlier.

Meghan waved at us, as she stood with Alexis, who was facing the entrance. The tall doors were half open, as players flowed between them in both ways.

"You got something?" I asked the moment I stopped in front of them.

"Something worth--and necessary---to take note about," Meghan crossed her arms, turning to the doors. "And by the way, we met the scythe user."

"What?!" Rakuno exclaimed.

"He was here a few minutes ago," Alexis turned to face us. "It seems that they call him the Reaper. How surprising."

"Hmm, well," I said, unamused. "How else would they choose to call him?"

"Heh, maybe 'Thanatos' rolls off the tougue better," Meghan pitched in."In any case, he didn't turn out to be.....that.....bad....."

Her voice trailed off, as if she didn't expect herself to say those words.

Clearly, her attitude towards orange players was improving, even if it was only a little.

"He approached us because of Meghan's green cursor," Alexis explained. "Asked us if we're still using the green bait method to, you know, do that."

"He's still buying that bluff?" Rakuno asked.

"It's a fairly common tactic among orange players under level 50," Meghan added. "Or so he told us."

That scythe user, whose name was Shi, if I wasn't mistaken. A one-of-a-kind player with the rare ability to wield a scythe as a weapon. I saw him in action during the Gladiorium, but it was only for a few seconds.

If he turned out to be an enemy that I had to fight against in any circumstance, I probably wouldn't be a match for him. His attack swings cover a much larger area than an axe user's, and that alone can already kill middle level players in just one hit.

Yet, even though he slaughtered mercilessly without a care in the world in the Gladiorium, he sounded friendly outside of the stadium.

Friendly enough to get along with a green player, though who knows what he would do if he knew the truth about Meghan's green cursor.

"Anyway, he was leading a bunch of players about 2 parties (14 players) out the entrance," Alexis crossed her arms. "He even invited us to tag along, but we declined."

"Was it hard to decline him?" I asked. "Won't you become more suspicious?"

"It's voluntary," Meghan replied. "And it's not just him. There's many other parties out there for the same reasons. It just feels like....."

".....Being in a teleport area of a safe zone, full of players looking for others to party up with," Rakuno looked around. "Katalysis's got that same vibe."

But, instead of going out as a party to fight monsters or bosses, the players around us were walking out of the entrance to---I dare assume---find vulnerable green players to target their attacks on.

"We believe that this is a cause of the PK surge," Meghan turned to me with a serious face. "We're not saying that it's the main one, but it's a contributing factor, for sure."

"Mmm, a good point there," I held my arms in a thinking stance. "Is the SoH planning to stop this?"

"On the behalf of SoH, we should, and we will," Meghan's proud tone made its point clearly, as she made a fist with her hand.

"If you would leave us to take care of this issue, we would be most grateful." Alexis added.

I stood thinking for a while, before giving my smooth reply.

"Sounds like a plan: I'll leave SoH to settle this issue that you guys found. Raku and I will settle an issue that we've just found in the morning regarding the Council, the players who run this city."

It was a plan that was, although simple, efficient enough. After all, splitting the work up did seem like an idea that I thought about as the leader of this party. Letting the SoH members do their thing wasn't a problem in my book, as long as they didn't get into any trouble.

"Splendid!" Meghan nodded at me, before turning around and walking off at once. "Where shall we start?"

Alexis gave me a nod as well, before going after her fellow guildmate, towards the entrance.

"Should we have told them about the Gladiorium?"

Rakuno asked, watching them disappear behind the giant doors, before turning to me.

"They'll find out soon enough," I turned back to the buildings. "But I have a feeling that now's not the time to tell them that."

"Because of the PKs?"

"You can imagine what Meghan would do if she knew."

"That might be true, but....."

I stopped short, turning at Rakuno as she stared at me with uncertainty. It was as if she really wanted to call Meghan and Alexis back just to tell them about the Gladiorium. They weren't far, but chasing after them would seem as conspicuous as Meghan's green cursor.

"Raku, let's put it this way: " I turned back, my hood facing her. "The SoH shouldn't be dealing with every PK they see and hear. Much like they don't have to confront the Council for the shit that it has done."

"Cos I'm pissed off enough to be able to confront the Council myself."

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