The Player Plague

by Lucas Flint

  I nodded. “Yeah. We spent the day level-grinding. We’re ready.”

  Despite the implication, I hadn’t actually managed to level up even once today, despite all of the criminals and thugs Cy and I spent hours defeating. This was mostly due to Kids Mode, which cut EXP gain in half. It also had the effect of censoring enemies’ swearing, something it was really creative at. For example, one of the thugs Cy and I defeated called us a couple of ‘donkey-faced spit-for-brains,’ which sounded weird coming out of the mouth of a bloodthirsty thug who had probably murdered people. Even so, we did manage to make some money and pick up a few items to sell, so it wasn’t an entire waste of time.

  As I stood there thinking about Kids Mode, I got a new notification which read:

  Uh oh! It looks like it’s past your bedtime. Staying up until midnight, especially on a school night, isn’t a smart idea. Take a break and get some rest in the real world. Capes Online will always be there tomorrow for you to save the day!

  I immediately dismissed the notification. Stupid Kids Mode. I understood that prompt was probably put in to stop kids from getting addicted and playing all night, but that didn’t make it any less embarrassing. I was just glad no one else could see it.

  “Hey, boss,” said Cy, who I had not noticed sidle up beside me, “did you see that notification telling you to go to sleep? It does have a point about staying up late and—”

  “Shut up, Cy,” I muttered in an angry voice. “Maybe if you’re so concerned about staying up late, you should go to bed first.”

  Another notification popped up when I said that:

  The Dynamic Environment System (D.E.S) senses your anger levels are off the charts. Please log off now or ask your parents for permission to continue playing.

  Okay, now the game was just mocking me. I swiped my hand angrily through the air, dismissing the prompt, when I suddenly noticed both Aimi and Riku staring at me like I had grown a second head.

  “Are you all right, Hero Winter?” asked Riku in the tone most people used when speaking to someone who wasn’t mentally well. “You seem … agitated.”

  I forced myself to smile. “It’s nothing. Just had a long day is all.”

  Riku looked deeply skeptical about that statement, but luckily he didn’t question it. I didn’t feel like explaining Kids Mode to him and Aimi. Being that they were both NPCs, I doubted either of them would understand what Kids Mode even was.

  But as frustrated as I was with Kids Mode, it did seem to slow down the rate of the Z-Virus’ Infection through my body. According to the timer in the corner, I had just under three days left until the Infection completed. As well, I was only about 5% Infected now, even though I probably should have been a lot higher than that by now. I hadn’t noticed any debuffs or changes to my body yet, aside from the fact that my skin looked slightly paler than normal. Even so, I hoped the Capes Online developers figured out that cure quickly because I really didn’t want to end up like Robert.

  Aimi nodded. “I see. Well, since you two are now here, it is time we review our plan of attack.”

  Aimi pulled a small disk out of the folds of her ninja clothing and tossed it onto the roof between us. When the disk hit the ground, a small hologram—which appeared to show the entirety of the Old Warehouse District—popped up over it before the hologram zoomed in on one warehouse in particular labeled ‘Warehouse 25.’

  “This is the warehouse we are currently standing upon,” said Aimi, gesturing at the map. “It is the primary warehouse the Stalking Shadows use and is where they keep most of their illegal goods.”

  Aimi clicked something in her hands and the holographic Warehouse 25 was suddenly surrounded on all sides by four red dots, although there was a fifth red dot set on the roof of the warehouse.

  “These red dots represent all of the ninja who are participating in this attack,” Aimi continued as the holographic map rotated silently in the air. “We are using a ninja assault strategy called the Four Corners Assault. One team will attack from each cardinal direction—North, South, West, and East—in order to draw the attention of the guards away from the building, while our team will attack from the Heavens.”

  “That is, we will break through the ceiling and destroy their supplies while the guards are distracted,” Riku explained to me and Cy.

  “Exactly,” said Aimi as she clicked the button in her hand again and the hologram vanished. “Once inside, Riku and I will place timed charges around the crates containing the supplies. The timed charges will be set to explode after five minutes, but by the time the charges are set, we should all be well away from here. All told, this entire mission should take us no longer than ten, maybe fifteen, minutes to complete, assuming nothing goes wrong.”

  “I see,” I said, stroking my chin. “Do we know exactly what the Stalking Shadows are storing here? Like, what kind of illegal goods they’re selling?”

  “We actually don’t know,” said Riku with a shrug. “Our spies within the Stalking Shadows have done their best to find out, but the exact nature of their product is a secret known only to the higher levels of the organization. It might be some kind of drug, but we are not sure.”

  “Nor does it matter,” said Aimi in a matter of fact voice. “Truthfully, we don’t care if the Stalking Shadows are selling drugs, weapons, or even candy. What matters is destroying their main warehouse and everything within it to cripple their organization financially.”

  “Did you say they’re selling candy?” asked Cy excitedly. “What kind of candy? Better not be licorice, because that stuff sucks.”

  “They’re not selling candy, Cy,” I said. “They’re selling drugs.”

  “Oh,” said Cy. He paused for a moment and then said, “What if they have drugs inside the candy?”

  Now Aimi and Riku were looking at Cy like he had lost his mind. That was a rather silly way to look at him, though, because the evidence suggested that Cy had always been crazy.

  “Look, it doesn’t matter,” I said, waving my hand. “What role do Cy and I play in this mission? Are we going to help set the charges?”

  “No,” said Aimi, tearing her eyes away from Cy in order to focus on me. “Riku and I will set them. There is a very specific pattern the charges need to be set in order to make sure they explode correctly and we have no time to teach you that pattern. Instead, you and your Sidekick here will protect us from guards and other threats to our well-being.”

  I folded my arms in front of my chest. “But I thought the other guys were supposed to draw the guards away from the building and make it safe for us to blow it up.”

  “That is true, but plans don’t always work out the way we want them,” said Aimi. “Therefore, you are our backup.”

  I shrugged. “Sounds good to me. I prefer fighting to sneaking around placing bombs anyway.”

  “Good,” said Aimi. “In a few minutes, we should get a message from the others informing us that the first assaults have—”

  Aimi was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream piercing the night, quickly followed by the disgusting sound of metal slicing into flesh.

  The sound made Cy and I jump, but Aimi just nodded and said, “That’s the signal. The assault has begun. Let us hurry because it won’t be long before the Stalking Shadows realize our game and call in reinforcements.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Aimi and Riku cut open a hole in the glass ceiling of the warehouse and let down a rope—which Scan revealed to me was an item called a Ninja Rope—into the dark warehouse itself. The two ninja went down first, easily sliding down the rope like they did this sort of thing all the time, and then Cy and I followed, but we had to go slightly more slowly in order to avoid dropping to our deaths.

  The rope, however, only went about halfway down, so once I reached the bottom of the rope, I let go and landed on my feet with a slight thud. Stepping aside to make sure Cy didn’t fall on me, I looked around at the interior of the warehouse.

  It was very different from Warehous
e 13, where Cy and I made my Base. For one, the ceiling was higher and had far more catwalks crisscrossing above us. For another, the lights looked more modern and new, while boxes and crates full of all kinds of stuff were scattered everywhere. It smelled like dust and concrete, but there was also another faint smell in the air, something like rotting flesh or blood, but I wasn’t sure where that stink was coming from. Maybe a rat had died in here and the Stalking Shadows had simply failed to clean it up?

  But my eyes were drawn to the huge crates in the middle of the warehouse floor. They were about a head taller than me and covered with all kinds of warning labels, mostly in English, but a fair few of them were in Japanese of all languages. I Scanned one of the boxes and got this information:

  Storage Crate

  RARITY: Common

  A simple wooden crate designed by Synth Group. Due to the cheapness and versatility of this item, it is used all over the world by hundreds of different companies to hold a wide variety of different products. Even Heroes and Villains have been known to use them to store certain items they cannot hold in their inventory, although they are typically a Civilian item.

  Dang. I thought Scan would show me more than just the item’s flavor text. But I knew that those crates had to hold the drugs we were looking for. I mean, what else could they be?

  Suddenly, Cy landed on the floor next to me with a thud, making me start and look down at him.

  “Cy, are you okay?” I asked, looking at Cy with worry.

  Shaking his head, Cy looked up at me with dazed eyes and gave me the thumbs up. “Perfectly fine, boss, but why is your hair pink?”

  I blinked. “My hair is hidden under my Costume and it isn’t pink.”

  “It isn’t?” said Cy. “Well, I think pink looks good on you. Might want to consider changing it.”

  I sighed, but before I could say anything, I noticed Aimi and Riku examining the Storage Crates and said to them, “Are those the crates we’re looking for?”

  “Yes,” said Aimi without looking at me. She then looked over at me and Cy. “Remember the plan. You two should walk around the warehouse in search of guards or other threats. If you run into any guards who were not drawn out by the Four Corners Teams, then you need to defeat them. Do not let any guards get us. Understood?”

  I nodded. “No problem. We’ve got this. Right, Cy?”

  Cy, who was standing upright now and rubbing the back of his head, looked over at Aimi with a frown on his face. “Since when did she get an afro? I mean, it looks good on her, but I don’t see how she could have possibly gotten it since we last saw her three days ago.”

  “We saw her earlier today,” I told him.

  Cy looked at me with his mouth hanging open. “We did? Geez, my memory must be shot to heck.”

  Curious, I looked up Cy’s character screen under the ‘SIDEKICKS’ tab in my menu and saw this debuff afflicting him:

  Concussion. -10% in Intelligence. Duration: 5 minutes.

  That explained it. When Cy fell down from the ceiling and landed on his head, it must have given him a Concussion. How he got a Concussion just from falling from a rope, of all things, I had no idea. I just hoped it would go away after a while because the last thing I needed was for Cy to be even spacier than he normally was.

  “Right,” I said. I looked Aimi. “Cy and I will keep you guys safe. You two just focus on setting all the charges. We’ll handle the rest.”

  Aimi nodded swiftly to show that she understood. Then she and Riku began pulling out explosive charges from their bags and setting them along the floor around the crates. They worked quickly, but it was obvious to me that it would be a while before they were finished, so I told Cy to go left while I would cover the right side of the warehouse. We’d make a full circle around the perimeter of the warehouse, which should allow us to find any hidden ninja. I did, however, have to explain which way was left and which way was right to Cy, who, due to this Concussion, had apparently mixed the two up.

  After that, I went right, going down an aisle created by stacks of crates and boxes on either side of me. Through the open windows of the warehouse, I could hear the clanging of steel against steel and the occasional scream of agony or pain coming from the battle between the Ninja Guild and the Stalking Shadows. It was hard to tell from here who was winning and who was losing, but I suppose it didn’t matter. Even if all of the Ninja Guild members got killed, it wouldn’t be a victory for the Stalking Shadows as long as Aimi and Riku successfully managed to set all the charges. As long as the Ninja Guild kept the Stalking Shadows busy, that was all we needed.

  I kept my eyes and ears open for guards and other potential threats to the plan, but I didn’t see or hear anything aside from the sounds of battle outside. It sure sounded to me like all of the Stalking Shadows who had been guarding this place had been drawn outside. That meant that Cy and I probably wouldn’t have to do anything, which was slightly annoying, because I’d been looking forward to bashing some ninja skulls. Although my earlier level-grinding had failed to level me up, I was only a couple hundred EXP from reaching Level 26. I just needed to defeat one more bad guy and—

  My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a boot scraping against wood. I stopped and looked around, using Perception to enhance my senses, but I didn’t see anything at first until I noticed one of the crates at the end of the aisle was opened slightly. It looked like someone had failed to close the crate properly because its lid was cracked open and that same stench of blood and rotting human flesh I noticed before was coming from it.

  Pinching my nose closed with my hand, I walked over to the crate, which was a fair bit shorter than the other crates, short enough that I could peer inside it. It also seemed to have the same drugs as the big crates in the middle, based on the similar warning labels it was covered with. That meant I could actually see what the Stalking Shadows were selling. Despite Aimi’s clear disinterest in the nature of the Stalking Shadows’ drugs, my curiosity got the best of me and I lifted up the lid just enough to look inside.

  Unfortunately, the crate’s interior was too dark for me to see what was in there. Taking my hand off my nose, I pulled out a flashlight from my inventory and clicked it on. Pointing the light inside the crate, I peered inside in order to see exactly what the Stalking Shadows were selling.

  Row upon row of glass bottles was packaged tightly together in the crate. At first, I thought I was looking at bottles of wine or alcohol based on the stoppers they used, but the stench of death and decay didn’t smell like any alcohol I had ever smelled. The contents of the bottles were some type of black liquid that reminded me of wine, but something told me that I wasn’t looking at just wine.

  My instincts were telling me to run away from this crap, but my curiosity got the best of me and I pulled out one of the bottles. Taking a step away from the crate, I Scanned the bottle and got this information:

  Z-Virus Extract

  RARITY: Unique

  Extract of the deadly Z-Virus that ravaged the whole world five years ago. Although this extract appears to be a weaker strain of the original Z-Virus, it is nonetheless recommended that players handle any Z-Virus-infected item with extreme caution.

  My eyes widened in shock. I looked back into the crate and Scanned each individual bottle, which gave me the same information.

  “Holy crap,” I said under my breath. “The Stalking Shadows are distributing the Z-Virus. But why?”

  “For money, Hero,” said a voice in my ear. “What else?”

  Something sharp plunged into my back and I cried out in pain as I got a new notification that read:

  Debuff added: Stab wound. -1 HP/5 seconds. Duration: Until Healed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Although shocked by getting stabbed, I nonetheless managed to lash out behind me. I didn’t hit whoever had stabbed me, but I did feel the knife slide out from my back. That made the pain go down a little bit, but I was still losing Health, so I ripped out a Health Drink and downed it in o
ne gulp as I whirled around to see who had attacked me.

  Standing about twelve feet away from me was a ninja, but he didn’t look anything like the Ninja Guild members. He wore a completely black bodysuit that covered his body from head to toe. Silver trim lined his Costume, while he held twin butcher knives in either hand, the right one dripping my blood. He was fairly bulky and slightly taller than me. His nametag read [STALKING SHADOW KUWABARA], but I Scanned him to get more information:

  Stalking Shadow Kuwabara

  LEVEL: 30

  ALIGNMENT: Villain

  CLASS: Assassin

  WEAK POINT: Eyes

  WEAKNESS: Fire

  Although the Stalking Shadows are a relatively young ninja guild, they have nonetheless seen rapid growth in a very short period of time. Whereas members of the Ninja Guild are taught how to use their skills for both good and evil, the Stalking Shadows’ ethos is all about gaining power, especially power over others.

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. This guy was Level 30? Was he a miniboss or an elite mook or something? Or was he actually just an ordinary Stalking Shadow? If this was the base level for Stalking Shadow mooks, then I didn’t even want to think about how high the levels of their leaders were.

  “Nice try,” I said as I tossed away my Health Drink, feeling the stab wound in my back heal up. “You almost got me there, but I’m tougher than I look.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think my knife would be enough to kill the famous Hero Winter, slayer of Dark Kosmos and savior of Adventure City,” said Kuwabara. His voice was deep and rumbling, like a volcano about to explode. “I was simply trying to stop you from destroying our drugs. Master Haru would be very displeased if that happened.”

  “These aren’t just drugs,” I said. I held up the Z-Virus bottle I had taken out of the crate. “These are Z-Virus extract. You know, that virus that nearly destroyed the world five years ago?”

  Kuwabara chuckled. “I am well aware of what those drugs are, Hero Winter. And I don’t care.”

  “Don’t care?” I repeated incredulously. “The Z-Virus has no cure. You guys are distributing an incurable virus among Heroes, Villains, and Civilians alike. Don’t you see how this could possibly go wrong?”