Chapter 3: Died again

Ryder was frowning as he watched the players dying one after another. He didn't stop attacking the dragon, though.

Time passed slowly as they gave their all in this fight without holding anything back. 

With the help of the potions, They had managed to fight for quite a long time. The dragon was now at 15% HP. Opposite the dragon, only two players were left. 

Ryder Flynn, who was leading the mission, and Max Lee, the Vice-Captain of the team.

Both of them had 100% of their hp because they had just consumed the last vial of their potions.

"I'm out of potion," Ryder told Max with a wry smile on his face.

"Me too," Max replied with a burst of laughter.

"Let's give it our all," 

This was all Ryder thought at that time. It was the first time he was leading a mission, and he wanted to complete the quest at all costs.

They fought the dragon with all their might. They had finally managed to bring the dragon down to 1% HP after using their skills one after another. 

Ryder checked his HP on the screen that appeared in front of him. The screen showed that he had 50% HP remaining. He gazed at his side and stared at Max's HP. He only had 5% of his HP remaining.

"I will attract the dragon's attention while you attack him from the back! I still have 50% HP while you only have 5%! I will use taunt and attract its attention. I will take the brunt of its attack. Its strongest attack will only consume 48% of my HP at Max, while your attack will kill it! We can definitely complete that quest together," Ryder told Max.

"I'm sorry, Hades. If I had a potion, I would have attracted its attention instead," Max told Ryder in an apologetic tone.

"It's alright. Get ready!"

"Taunt!"

Ryder used Taunt to attract the dragon's attention and gave Max a chance to position himself for the attack. It worked quite well as the dragon attacked Ryder with his flaming breath.

"Huh?"

Ryder's expression turned weird as he found out that his HP went down to 0% as soon as the fire touched him. He couldn't understand what just happened. He shouldn't have died from the attack.

In this game, they were given a twenty-second counter before they were logged out of the game after dying. They couldn't log in for the next 24 hours after that.

The countdown of those 20 seconds began. At that time, Ryder used the help on his screen and talked to Maya about the problem with his HP.

Her reply shocked him to his core and almost made him curse out loud. 

She said that it was the system that showed him the wrong information. His real Hp was only at 2% at that time, not 50%. 

"Why?" Ryder asked, but Maya didn't reply.

He still had ten seconds remaining before his logout. He watched Max giving the finishing blow.

He got another shock of his life as he saw Max drinking a supreme potion to get his HP at the peak before he dealt the finishing blow.

"That bastard! He lied to me!" Ryder was devastated as he watched this.

Soon there was a system-wide announcement.

"Player Max has completed the Malta Valley quest! As he is the first player to complete the quest, he will be rewarded with 1000 Fame points. Royal Battle Guild will receive 1000 fame points as well."

That was the last announcement Ryder heard before everything went dark.

"Huh? Where am I? I'm not logged out?"

Ryder found himself in a dark room. Maya was standing in front of him.

"You're nowhere," She answered.

"Why wasn't I logged out?" Ryder again asked.

"You can't log out or exit the game. Your player status has been taken from you."

"What the heck? Why?"

"Your real body has died in the real world. You can't be sent back, and your consciousness is trapped in the game. You aren't considered a player anymore," Maya said in an emotionless tone.

"What the fuck? Have you gone crazy? My real body is dead, and I'm not a player? Are you joking with me? Let me leave this instant. Let me contact the developers!" Ryder let out in an angry tone as he tried contacting the devs, but no screen appeared in front of him.

"You're not a player, and you can't use the facilities provided to players. I can't let your consciousness create disturbance in the game either. Thus, You will be an NPC in the game from now on,"

"You will be bound by restrictions and won't be able to do anything but repeat the same tasks," Maya replied.

"What the hell are you talking about? How the hell is that possible? How can I die when I am in my bedroom!" Ryder said with a look of disbelief on his face. He couldn't believe that she was being serious.

The black room disappeared, and he found himself standing in the novice village. 

He stood outside a cottage and found himself unable to move.

"Ah… Sir, do you need any help?" A young boy came to him and asked. From his clothes, he looked like a novice player.

"Yes, dear. I have lost my stick in the field. Can you help me find it? I will give you three Beans as a reward," Ryder said.

He realized that he had no control over his mouth as the words just came out.

'Did I actually die, and now I'm an NPC?'

He was starting to believe the words of Maya now. He felt like crying, but no tears came out of his eyes.

'And that's how I died… Trapped in a game and killed by the system that was supposed to help me,'