Bloody Sky

CITY OF STOMRUS—CAPITAL OF THE NATION OF THIJYA

Ignatius spawned onto a highway leading up to the mighty walled City of Stomrus. Swirling desert sands surrounded the highway, along with swaying trees that had long, yellow-orange needles instead of leaves.

NPC travelers walked all around Ignatius on the enchanted bricks of the highway which magically kept away monsters, making travel a fairly safe endeavor for most common people. All the NPCs were heading for the city gates.

A hot sun beat down on them overhead, but it had a reddish color to it. The city's walls were formed of enormous sandstone bricks which had been laid by giants in ancient times, and the crimson sun lit these bricks up with a bloody red glow.

"Oh, I really don't like all this strange weather!" an NPC complained at Ignatius's side.

The man was a fat merchant leading an overloaded donkey. He was, of course, programmed to speak to Ignatius as soon as the story mission began.

"They say something very evil happened in the mountains," the NPC continued. "Hey, you're one of the members of the Mirror Cage Monastery, aren't you? Do you have any news, friend?"

Though Ignatius hadn't completed the Monk tutorial in this life, he knew how it ended. After killing the undead who rose in the monastery graveyard, he was supposed to run out of the monastery while it finished collapsing behind him.

Brightlord Temporix, the skeletal crystal dragon, was supposed to then roar triumphantly as he flew off into the night sky, turning the stars red above him, while the shining lights of the City of Stomrus were visible in the distance.

This first story mission, which was slightly different for Monks compared to other classes, was supposed to take place after Ignatius made the journey from the mountains to the city, bringing news of the attack to Stomrus's Grand Master.

Before he could do that, Ignatius had to talk with this merchant. Otherwise, the man would swiftly follow Ignatius wherever he went, trying to offer helpful advice until the player acknowledged him.

So Ignatius turned to the merchant. "Hi. Brightlord Temporix attacked the monastery. I'm bringing news. Please leave me alone."

The man seemed deeply sad. It was a funny bit of programming. "All right," he sighed. "I guess nobody really wants to talk to me. Though… I'm running a little low on wares. If you find anything you feel like selling, stop by again and I'll see if I can offer you a few Essence for it. Now, come along, my sweet girl."

The "sweet girl" was his donkey, who let out a horrific screech in response to these words. It followed the merchant NPC off the side of the road.

The two of them would remain there, locked in an animation that appeared as though the man was looking for something in his backpack, in case Ignatius wanted to talk with them again.

And Ignatius 'would' return later, since the man was the only merchant available in the mission.

All the merchants in the city itself would be closed up to attend the city's emergency meeting, and Ignatius would need to take advantage of all the Essence he could get in this mission.

'But before I worry about that,' Ignatius thought, 'I should probably make sure I'll actually survive long enough that "have" loot to sell later.'

Though he'd planned on a completely different course of action before he was sent back into the past, the fact that Ignatius had won those 1,000 Crystal Coins from Daemon gave him the opportunity for a more interesting plan.

The first step was opening up the game's premium shop, where all manner of goods could be obtained in exchange for Crystal Coins.

A prompt immediately popped up.

GAME: Special launch offer! 5500 Crystal Coins for 50 euros! (5000 + 500 free) Limited time only.

Ignatius didn't give it a single thought, dismissing it at once. His bank account at this time in his life was very low, he remembered. In fact, it was likely that he'd been completely broke when he died.

Not that it mattered now.

Like most people in his part of the world, Alexei's banking information was attached to a microchip embedded into his body. Upon his death, the microchip had reported this event to his bank, which had transferred any money he had left into the bank's automated inheritance system.

So that his monstrous father wouldn't get his money once he died, Alexei had designated a certain charity as his inheritor, one which fed the poor. It was, in fact, a charity which had helped Alexei more than once in his miserable life.

Even if he'd had a few pennies in his account upon his body's death, they'd now be completely out of his control as Ignatius, the ghost-who-shouldn't-exist.

Basically, it was now impossible for Ignatius to either buy Crystal Coins or to make any real-world money from Path of the Immortal, because his body's bank account had been shut down.

And since each Crystal Coin had an ID number protected by a strong encryption algorithm—just like all other items in the game—it was impossible to simply cheat more Crystal Coins into existence through the chat console bug which Ignatius had used to kill his body and force the emergency transfer of his mind into the game's code.

Thinking about all this, and about how he'd been penniless when his body died, oddly made Ignatius smile and feel nostalgic.

Because in his first life, he hadn't remained penniless. He remembered selling rare items for real-world euros through Path of the Immortal's auction house. The realization that playing this game really could allow him to pay rent and buy food had filled him with more relief and hope than he had ever felt before… or since.

He'd wept with sheer relief, he remembered, when he received his first real-world payout from his gaming addiction. It had made him believe things would be alright from then on.

What a naive hope that had been.