Eleanor, the Enforcer
I immediately went into alert. I rounded the corner and saw three people. Two men that looked like vagrants and one woman. She held a raised shield in one hand and a hammer in the other. It was a simple looking weapon, with a thick steel head and a small handle wrapped in strips of tanned leather. Beyond the rim of the shield, I saw two furious blue eyes and black hair that fell around her face. She was wearing a thick suit of armor, shining steel with blue trim. Her shield showed the same color scheme, but her hammer did not. She held her hammer aloft, ready to strike at the two men accosting her.
"What are you doing down this alleyway all by yourself, copper?" one of the men sneered.
"Yeah, where's your partner then? Don't you coppers always travel in pairs?" The other man laughed derisively.
They were both dressed in clothes that were barely better than rags, but both radiated wild danger. The kind that you felt from a cornered wild animal, except these punks were the ones doing the cornering.
One wore a long sleeveless coat that flowed around his ankles. The bare arms on display were well-muscled. He had a thick head of hair, which fell between his shoulders into a braided tail. His right hand held a rusty knife.
The other man was bald, in a long-sleeved top. His hands were squeezing into fists, as though he was preparing for a fight. He wore brass knuckles on each hand.
"You two get away from me! I'm an Enforcer of the Eldin Judiciary and laying a hand on me is punishable by death!"
"That's only if we don't kill you first," the pony-tail man said.
"What do you reckon your chances are, sweetheart? You're fresh meat, aren't you? Newly minted copper in a tin can, thinking they can just come out here onto our streets and tell us how to live. How long have you been walking the streets of Banshee Cross?" The bald man took a step forward.
The Enforcer stood her ground.
"I reckon this is her first time," the pony-tail man said. "Don't worry love. I'll be gentle. It might hurt a little, but I reckon you'll enjoy yourself before we're through."
The Enforcer said nothing, but I couldn't stand idly by. I strode towards the men, and the Enforcer saw me coming. I saw a flash of uncertainty in her eyes, as though she thought that I was with these miscreants. I drew my longsword from its scabbard.
"It's time to walk away," I said, trying to put on my most macho manly-man voice.
I tried to sound like a B-Grade action movie tough-guy. Instead, I felt like I’d wilt like a flower when I got into a real fight. My knees were shaking, but I couldn't let either of these thugs see any weakness.
I set my face into a scowl, which I'm sure would have looked comical if I had been looking into a mirror. The scowls that darkened the faces of the two creeps didn't make me want to laugh. They made me want to turn tail and run. The man with the pony-tail had a pock-marked face and a milky-white eye. He swung the dagger in his hand right towards my guts!
I wheeled backward. The dagger swung through empty air, barely an inch from where my stomach had been. But that was okay. At least if the dagger was pointing at me, then it wouldn't be pointing at her. The man with the pockmarked face snarled ferociously as the edge of his weapon remained unbloodied.
A message appeared at the bottom of my view.
Your Dodge skill has increased!
Sweet.
But I had more pressing matters to attend to.
I slashed my sword towards the man with the pockmarked face, and it sunk into the meat of his arm that was holding the dagger. He cried out in pain, and life-like blood spurted from the wound. The dagger clattered the cobblestone ground. My eyes followed the dagger as it fell, and I couldn't help but notice how badly his trousers were tented. This sick fuck was getting ready to do something unforgivable.
"You piece of shit!" I roared.
I used the backswing of my sword to generate greater momentum on my next swing, which carved a line through the pockmarked man's clothes, opening a diagonal gash from navel to nipple. He staggered back a step and tripped over his own feet. He went down like the sack of shit that he was.
While I had been dealing with the pockmarked man, the Enforcer had managed to put some distance between herself and the bald man. She held her hammer in her right hand and her shield in her left. She kept her shield raised high in front of her as she advanced on the last attacker.
The remaining attacker was bigger than the one I had just grievously wounded. There was an animalistic sneer on his face as his eyes darted from the Enforcer with the hammer to me and back. He grunted in frustration, obviously judging his chances at facing both of us at once, then turned on his heels and ran.
"No, you don't! You don't get to do that and just run away!" the Enforcer yelled after him. "We're not finished yet!"
She hurled the hammer at him, which slammed into the middle of his back. I wasn't sure whether it was the thunderclap-like impact that made a noise, or whether it was the sound of the attacker's spine snapping. Normally when you throw a hammer you wouldn't expect it to come back, but this one did. As far as I knew, hammers shouldn't act like boomerangs. Instead of tumbling to the ground the hammer returned to her waiting hand like she had called it back to her.
The attacker fell to the cobblestones and struggled to get back to his feet. The hammer-wielding Enforcer surged forwards and brought the hammer down on the back of his head with a sickening crunch. Blood and smashed brain matter splattered out onto the street below.
The hammer-wielding Enforcer kicked a boot into the dead man's ribs.
"Fuck you, you piece of shit!"
I flicked the pockmarked man's blood from my sword before I sheathed it. I approached the woman from behind, but given what she had just gone through, I held my hands up in front of me as I announced myself.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked. I knew the answer. It was a dumb question to ask, but I couldn't help myself. It was reflex.
She wheeled on me, hammer in hand and shield held in front of her. Tears were streaming down her face. The armor she wore looked functional. It wasn't some impractical armor designed to look sexy, unlike the armor that appeared for women in other games. She looked like a bad-ass warrior who could handle herself.
No, she was a bad-ass warrior who could handle herself.
"I am not fucking okay. This is bullshit!" She raised her face to the skies above and roared at the heavens. "I want out! Let me log out, you stupid fucking game! This isn't what I signed up for!"
"Whoa, wait a second, are you a player?"
Her eyes softened a little, then hardened again, narrowing suspiciously. "Are you?"
"Yeah, I am. My name's Lucas. I started playing when the servers went live this morning. Did you log in right away too? You're playing as an Enforcer, right?"
She ignored my question and asked one of her own.
"Have you been able to log out yet?"
"I haven't tried. I've been really enjoying the-"
She cut me off.
"I have been trying to log out for an hour now, and this stupid game won't let me! That's why I came down this alleyway. I thought that maybe I needed to be in a place away from people to log out. That's when those two creeps showed up. I can't even find the option in my menus. Can you try? Please?"
"Sure," I said.
I opened my menus and looked through all the options and settings that I could. I couldn't find anything that even resembled a log out button. I started to panic myself when I realized exactly what this might mean.
"Well? Find anything?" she asked.
"Nothing." My heart sank, and panic started to set in.
There had to be a way to log out of Crematoria Online. They couldn't just take our minds out of our bodies and trap us here in a game.
Could they?
"I knew it. This isn't a game. It's a god-damned trap!" The Enforcer threw her hammer at the side of the alleyway. The hammer bounced off and returned to her hand, leaving a crater in the wall.
"Whoa,
hang on, there has to be a way to log out," I said. "Maybe it's like other games where you have to be in a sanctuary or non-combat zone to log out properly. Maybe we're in a combat zone. Have you tried finding an inn to see if the option to log out appears there?"
"I made a mistake," she said, ignoring me. "I shouldn't have logged in, but I wanted to be one of the first to play, you know?"
"Me too," I admitted.
"I've heard rumors that if you die, you don't respawn. You don't come back."
"No way! There's no way that's true! It can't be."
"It's just what I've heard."
"From who?"
"Other players. I've met a couple, and one of them said that one of their friends died, and they didn't come back. No respawn."
"Well that could mean anything, right? Some games have spawn timers, so you get a penalty for dying. Other ones respawn you halfway across the continent. Others make you re-roll new characters completely, but I didn't see anything about this game having hardcore mode."
"Those fuckers certainly wanted hardcore mode," she said and spat at the dead men.
"Hey, what's your name?" I asked.
She sighed, exasperated. "Eleanor. Ellie, to my friends. Thank you, by the way. I don't know what would have happened if you didn't come along when you did."
"You would have found a way to kick their asses."
She was quiet, and her eyes seemed to unfocus.
"No," she said finally. "I don't think I would have been able to. Not against both of them. They were only wearing rags, but they were a couple of levels higher than me."
"Are you okay? Sorry, stupid question. Shouldn't have asked. Do you have anywhere you need to be right now? Do you want to go somewhere and just sit for a bit? I can't even imagine how you're feeling."
It was true. I was a guy in the real world, so I had never felt unsafe walking the streets alone at night. It was a privilege I had been blessed with.
"I can't. I have to get out of this game. I... I have something in the real world that I need to attend to. I need to find a way to log out."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I think it would be best if we went our separate ways. Thank you for helping me out, but I need to do this on my own. Maybe if I finish this quest, then the game will let me log out."
"What's the quest? Is it anything I can help with?"
"No, it's a solo quest. There was a murder in Banshee Cross, and the only lead I have is to find out what some weird injury pattern means."
"You're an Enforcer, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's right, working for the Eldin Judiciary. Luckily for me, I am judge, jury, and executioner when I need to be. Those idiots shouldn't have attacked me."
"Enforcer or not, they shouldn't be attacking anyone. They picked the wrong person to start a fight with. I'm guessing that armor would give you some hefty defense bonuses, right? I'm playing an Investigator, and I'm squishy, apparently. I also don't have the weapon proficiency to wield a hammer and shield like that."
Ellie smiled a little. "It is pretty sweet. The hammer is unique. It comes right back to my hand after throwing it. I have a feeling that is going to come in very handy."
"What symbol are you chasing? What does it look like?"
"It looks like a snowflake or something. The wound on the side of the victim's neck made the pattern. It's all I have to go on, so I'm trying to find some information that might help, but I need to do it alone."
"Why do you need to do it alone?" I asked.
Ellie sighed. "I just do. I can't be around anyone else right now."
"No offense, but that is the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time. We need to stick together."
"Don't push it," Ellie said. "I need to do this by myself."
"Why?"
"You're pushing it." Ellie huffed a frustrated breath out of her nose.
"Fine. Will I see you again?"
"I hope not. When I find a way to log out, I'm never playing this fucking game again. I'm going to sue these fucks. Allowing non-player characters to attempt to sexually assault player characters is evil. It's pure fucking evil."
"Do you... do you think they actually would have?"
Ellie stormed over to the pockmarked man and pulled down his trousers, revealing a flaccid cock. "I don't know, but they could have. Have you looked inside your own drawers yet?"
"My what? Oh, my pants! No, why?"
"Check yourself out, buddy. You ain't no Ken doll."
I felt my cheeks flush. I lowered a hand to my crotch, over the pants, and gasped. I certainly wasn't a Ken doll.
"Yeah, that's right," she said. "If you've got one of those, then I've certainly got all the bits that go along with being a woman. That means that in this game, men can do what men have done since the dawn of time to women."
"Why would they do this? This is meant to be a video game, isn't it? It isn't meant to be a sex simulator."
Ellie shook her head. "I don't know what this game is meant to be anymore. It was meant to be fun, but now I want to burn the entire fucking place to the ground."
"I don't blame you."
"I should have been a Hellkin. No-one would mess with a Hellkin."
"You're the first player I've met," I said. "Do you want to keep in contact? In my travels as an Investigator, I might find something that might help you with your case. I can keep an eye out for that symbol for you. If I see it, or find out anything about it, I can let you know."
Ellie's face screwed up in what looked like disgust. "I usually play these kinds of games solo, but I want out of here as soon as possible. Sure. Where can I find you if I need you?"
"My first quest is to introduce myself to a place called Langdon Specialist Investigations, down further in Banshee Cross. I'm guessing that's where my very first quest chain is going to start. You're probably going to be able to find me there. What about you?"
"I'm working for the Eldin Judiciary, but as an on-duty Enforcer. I'm out in the field. If I need you, I'll come to you. Don't come looking for me."
"What's the Eldin Judiciary?" I asked.
"I get the impression that they see themselves as some kind of independent peacekeeping force," Ellie said. "They're not beholden to any of the sovereign powers across Crematoria. The Chief Justicar is in charge of the whole thing, and their will is enacted through the Justicars, Arbiters, and Enforcers. They also talked about an order of elite executioners that enacted the will of the Chief Justicar called the Carnifexes. There was one of them by the Chief Justicar's side as he delivered his welcome address. He didn't wear the normal blue on steel of the rest of the Judiciary. The Carnifex's armor was black on steel, with a helm that covered the face completely." Ellie shuddered.
"Where do you fit into the grand scheme of things? You said you're one of the Enforcers?" I asked.
"Yep, just the lowest rung in a ladder I'm not sure I want to climb. It seems like I can mostly keep to myself and level up until we unlock the ability to log out of the game. It's only a matter of time. It has to be. I just need to know what the trigger is to unlock it."
"Yeah, of course," I said, but I didn't believe it. We'd all wandered into a spider's web. We weren't getting let out. I needed to stop thinking about that before I sent myself crazy. "So, what is it exactly that the Enforcers do?"
"We enforce the Judiciary's law. That's it. We're kind of like judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one."
"How do you know the laws? Did you get a crash course or something?"
"It's actually pretty simple. The Judiciary follows what it calls the law, but it's actually a system of ethics that boil down to some simple concepts. Protect those that cannot protect themselves. Act with honor and integrity. Choose good over evil. Whenever I'm presented with a situation that I'm not sure about, I feel a tug towards choosing what is right. I think it's an innate part of my class."
"You're saying you've got an internal moral compass that points you where you need to
go?"
"Something like that, yeah."
"I'm so sorry that this happened to you," I said. "If you ever need help with anything, anything at all, let me know."
"Thanks for helping me out back there," she said. "Hey, you can call me Ellie if we ever bump into each other. I'm not good at this whole friends thing, but what the hell. I might never see you again."
Ellie gave me a weak smile before turning around and walking away down the alley.
I left in the opposite direction, back onto Constance Avenue, my head full of more questions than answers.
What would happen if I couldn't log out?
Was I really stuck here?
There had to be a way out. Sometimes movement is a decent substitute for progress, so I headed in the only direction I could.
Towards Langdon Specialist Investigations.
Chapter Ten
Edwin E. Langdon
The Corrupted Ancient was more terrible and magnificent than I could have imagined. As I craned my neck up to take in its full height, I wondered why they didn't call it the Colossal Ancient. It sat in the center of a clearing that was almost a block wide. Its bark skin looked as though it was as thick and strong as sheets of metal, even though it was scorched of life in a pose of pure agony.
It was humanoid, with two arms and two legs. The ends of its feet were not toes, but tendrils of roots that snaked around the bottom of sturdy legs. The fingers on the ends of its hands were jagged splinters made for stabbing and killing. Its face showed the agony and fury that it had felt in its last moments of life, which had been cut so dreadfully short. Branches devoid of leaf or blossom rose from its shoulders, giving it the look of a tree shed of its leaves in Winter's inevitable coming.
My destination was only a block away. All I had to do was walk around the Corrupted Ancient and find my way to Langdon Specialist Investigations, but I found myself standing there, transfixed. The Corrupted Ancient towered above almost all the buildings down here. The tiered terrace houses that followed the slope of the valley up to the rest of Eldin only appeared taller because they had been built on higher ground.
Rise of the Crimson Order: A Crematoria Online LitRPG Novel Page 7
