Death Count & Memories of the Past

[Doyle's Pov]

Inside a gothic mega-mansion that was being rented by Nine's Own Goal, I was sitting at a conference table. I had to admit, it was a nicely decorated table, and it was long enough for all 18 members that were in the clan at the moment.

Yet, when I think back to the time I got to see the table that was present within the Tomb of Nazarick, it can't even compare, nevertheless, we used this room as a meeting room since it had the most space and was already furnished with this long table and other things when I purchased it.

That's right, I purchased it. Not with my own gold, of course, I had the clan members contribute their share along with myself, however, I was the one in charge of buying the mansion since I brought up the idea. Can you fault me? Our members were growing so much that the last mansion we were renting was much too small for all of us.

To be quite honest, I have been giving a lot of ideas to advance the Clan. Unlike the novel and anime, there was no leader of Nine's Own Goal, despite that, Touch Me, me, and Punitto Moe were basically the leaders ourselves since we made most of the plans for the clan.

At the long table in front of me, there were also two others who sat here, Ulbert Alain Odle, the demon of great disaster, and Bellriver, the Big Eater. The two had been discussing the update patch that had come out earlier.

"The update came with a few tweaks and new content. Did any of you guys see the death counter that they added to the game?" Asked the demon goat as he tapped the table with the four claws that were connected to his gloves.

Bellriver grunted. "Ah, yeah I've seen the new features that came with the update, and to be quite honest, it's useless and embarrassing".

Ulbert laughed heartily. "Haha, of course, you'd say that, you've died almost 300 times since you've been playing".

I also giggled at this, Bellriver was usually reserved and prudent, so seeing him complain was always a funny sight.

"I just don't see the reasoning in making that info public, this is a violation of privacy!" Bellriver stated as he slammed his balled fist into the table.

This caused Ulbert to laugh, even more, then he looked at me. "Oh yeah, Doyle, your the number one player I wonder how many times have you died… you don't mind if I check it out do ya?" He asked cheekily.

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly. Personally, I already knew how many deaths I had in total. How could I forget? No matter how long I had been inside of this game world, the pain I had to endure in order to earn the ghost race was deeply ingrained into me.

Ulbert pulled up a digital menu and began scrolling and tapping, moving his way to the death counter window. Bellriver also leaned over, curious to see how many deaths I had accumulated over all my gameplay time. Soon a window popped up with my info.

[————————————————————]

[ IGN: Doyle ]

[ Gender: Male ]

[ Race: Heteromorphic]

[ Level: Hidden ]

[ Death Count: 100 ]

[————————————————————]

Both Bellriver and Ulbert looked at me in silence, I couldn't see their faces, however, I could tell they were shocked. Ulbert was the first to break the silence.

"Man… you died a hundred times? Well that wasn't expected of a guy who grinds the game 24/7, not to mention you're the number one player in YGGDRASIL. Yet, I still am surprised you even died at all, I lost to you within a second. Not even Touch Me could hold a candle to you either, makes me wonder who was strong enough to beat you".

Hearing this I giggled internally, then shrugged my shoulders once again. "You'd be surprised, besides I wasn't always as strong as I am now. I had to work hard just like the rest of you".

Bellriver finally spoke up. "I'm also surprised with this number, after seeing your duels and experiencing combat against you myself I also agree that it's hard to imagine you were a level 1 player before".

After this Ulbert tried to make me give a reaction similar to Bellriver by teasing me, saying things like "Your the number one player and you still have deaths in the triple digits" or "Even Shadow doesn't have more than 8 deaths, how can you let him do better than you". However, after seeing how phlegmatic my replies were to his provocations he gave up.

"Your no fun. You gotta quit being so uptight man". Ulbert stated.

He is right in a way. After spending so many years in the game due to the time dilation I have to deal with, I can agree that a part of me is gone. My reactions are less emotional and I barely have any outrages or tantrums like a normal person. I do laugh from time to time but it's never more than a giggle and even when I do laugh loudly it's usually to fit in with the rest of the clan.

Hm… Now that I think about it even back then I wasn't normal was I? Maybe it was because of the people who raised me. Or maybe it's just the way I've always been? It's been a while since I've thought about the past like this, perhaps seeing my death count brought back memories that happened ages ago… Without warning, I heard Ulbert yell my name.

"Doyle! Dude snap out of it, are you okay?!" He blurted.

"Huh?"

"We've been calling you for the longest, but you seemed zoned out" Bellriver added.

"Oh, sorry wassup?"

"Ahh, now I forgot what I wanted to ask" Ulbert said, scratching the back of his head.

I laughed a little, however, I could see Bellriver still staring at me from the corner of my eye. Seconds later he cleared his throat, it seemed he was going to say what was on his mind.

"Hey Doyle, maybe you should take a break from the game for a bit? You've been zoned out a lot recently, you really need to worry about your health-"

"Don't worry I'm fine. Besides, we have a raid coming up for the World Item and in a couple more minutes we have another clan meeting" I said, interrupting his words.

He stared at me for a while, then nodded and started talking to Ulbert again. This wasn't out of character for him though, in contrast to Bellriver's character design preferences, he has always been perceptive and intelligent. Now that I think about it, even in the novel, Momonga stated that he was among the intellectual elite of the clan.

Snapping out of thought once again I could hear Ulbert laughing once again, it seems he was back teasing Bellriver.

"No, the only reason my death count reached this high was because of my shortsightedness, I chose to take a all-rounder build, which I didn't know was bad until it was too late. It's not my fault" Bellriver complained.

"Pfft, it's okay man, if you're bad then you're bad no need to make excuses. My death count is only 66 heh. Hmm, but now that I think about it if I had 666 as my death count I wouldn't be too embarrassed".

I sighed. Here he goes, Ulbert was a unique one, he kind of reminded me of Luci★Fer, but he had a habit of letting his Chuunibyou trait loose and embracing his evil side.

Bellriver simply sucked his teeth. "You know if you think politically about the update, I feel this was a shot at the heteromorphic race. I mean think about it, heteromorphs would definitely have higher death counts due to the racism that was happening. Could this have been a way to make us feel even more inferior".

I and Ulbert both nodded to this. He had a point there, the heteromorphs were definitely being hunted religiously so it was obvious who had the higher death counts, and now that I thought about it, there was a window on the front screen of the forum pages listing the ratios of deaths from each race. He could be on to something, or he could be digging too deeply into it.

*Tap*

*Tap*

*Tap*

Turning toward the door, I could hear the footsteps of other players coming towards the meeting room. It seems the meeting was finally going to take place.

***

Yo, Month here once again blessing you guys with another chapter. It's a little late but it's still Wednesday where I am so I technically didn't break my oath yet, so praise me at once. I'm thinking about pranking you guys saying I'm dropping this ffic before I post this chapter though. If I did prank you, you may take your anger out here on this paragraph. Heh. Anyway as always, if you are in need of some nonhuman, gory, and dark fantasy, check out my original novel, A Cold-Blooded POV, if you want. It's similar to Ghosthood in certain regards, however, I do much more worldbuilding and all that good stuff over there since it's the story I'm putting most of my effort into. Without further or do, Month out.