Gaming the System

by P A Wikoff

The ganker suddenly seemed to be aware of his predicament and came at me harder and faster, which I hadn’t thought possible.

  I somehow managed to block every single attack. Now, I wasn’t exactly winning this fight, but any time I could avoid feeling pain was a huge win in my book.

  The barrage of attacks was relentless. One after another, after another. He must have activated some ability that let him berserk like that. I was losing stamina from blocking faster than he was losing his from attacking.

  It was inevitable. My shield crumbled into a pile of wooden scraps.

  “Moogi. (Durability lost. Do something.)

  The ganker pounded on me hard two more times before he had to rest to regain some stamina in order to finish me off.

  Blocking all those hits had also left me depleted.

  We both panted and looked each other intensely as we recovered.

  He was ready before I was, and after changing stances, he came at me with the full length of his chain weapon.

  I didn’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I wasn’t thinking. Out of reaction, I threw the dagger at him. It twirled, end over end, and lodged directly into his face. Blood poured everywhere, like a horror show. The ganker suddenly didn’t look as good as he had a second ago, now covered in crimson blood.

  Why didn’t he move? He should have moved…or something.

  Seeing the mess brought about a pang of regret. It was too real. Attacking a monster was one thing, but another player was completely different. I mean, I never wanted to nor ever thought about stabbing someone in real life. Even though this was just a game, I knew this ganker felt real pain as a result. That concept made me sick to my stomach in a really disturbing way.

  The ganker slowly reached for his forehead and flinched upon feeling the object lodged in there.

  How was he still standing?

  “Moogi! (Critical hit. Sixteen damage!)

  “Oh, daaamn,” I said, detaching myself from reality and getting back into the gaming aspect of the fight. That was massive damage for such a small dagger. Then I remembered the only other critical hit I had made was while using the Pincher Short Axe. This critical was even higher than that one.

  I knew that where you targeted your attacks mattered, as far as damage, but it might have been possible that Luck combined with placement had a hand in scoring a critical. It would make sense as to why I hadn’t seen many of them before while using my previous Luck-reducing weapon.

  Feeling great about scoring that hit, I completely forgot about the remorse I had felt for seriously messing up his face.

  Finally, the ganker pulled the dagger out of himself, accompanied by a gush of liquid.

  I cringed at the sight, whereas Moogi’s eyes grew much wider.

  Something unexpected happened next. The ganker looked at the dagger, turned, and started to run away with it.

  “Wait…what?” I thought for some reason the projectile would have magically appeared back in my inventory or something. That was what happened when Bagmy used it. Come to think of it, he was using it in conjunction with some class skill or ability—turning it into three and all that jazz.

  Still in shock, I checked my inventory just to make certain I wasn’t going crazy. Sure enough, it was gone—along with my shield, which got pulverized. For some reason, I had also thought I could have just repaired my shield. This was all so disappointing.

  The truth hurt worse than a dagger to the face. Had I really just given away my prized weapon in a single hit? But what a hit it was.

  Snapping out of it, I yelled, “Come back here!”

  The dagger must have been what he was after all along, and by me throwing it at him, it was like he pre-looted my corpse.

  “Of course! The dagger was limited two. That must mean it is rare. One of two in existence, I am guessing.”

  Rolling its eyes, Moogi gave me a reassuring nod.

  “Damn it.” I had to get that blade back. It was worth two levels of upgrades.

  I tried to chase him, but I had already used what little stamina I had recovered to make that impressive throw.

  I pushed forward, letting my stamina go into the negative, but all that happened was I ended up collapsing on the ground. There was no way I was going to catch him at this rate.

  He just kept getting smaller and smaller in my view. The last image I saw of him, he was clicking his heels together. That was the nail in my failure coffin. I buried my head in my hands, defeated.

  “Why can’t anything just go right for a change? I was never good at these types of games. That’s why I never wanted to play them in the first place.” I looked up at Moogi for answers.

  “Moogi, (Ixnay on the amegay,)” Moogi said, using Pig Latin, as it continued to scope the area.

  “I would rather have been sentenced to an old-fashioned prison cell. I could deal with never showering again and possibly getting shivved in the chow line. Anything would be better than this.”

  Moogi mocked patting me on the head. Even though it couldn’t touch me, I felt the sentiment just the same. This would have been a perfect time to gloat and kick me while I was down, but it didn’t. It chose to support me instead.

  “I’m sorry that I’m not a better player for you.”

  Moogi tipped its head and gave me a half-smile as if to say, “It’s okay.”

  “I’m sorry if I say things sometimes that I don’t mean. You’re really the only one that has stuck by my side without an ulterior motive, and I know it’s not entirely because you’re bound to my proximity, either.”

  A thought bubble appeared over Moogi with an image showing that Krimson had been added to my enemies list.

  Studying the information in the screen shot, I realized that Krimson wasn’t even a member of GDF.

  How did he know what I had? That was way too fast and well organized for him to be a random attacker.

  “Moogi. (You really made Krimson…crimson.)”

  “Don’t make me laugh,” I said, gripping my aching chest where I had been hit.

  “You know what? I am done playing by their rules. I would much rather explore and take a passive role than fight and compete over some stupid quest reward or item drop. It’s like all humanity has traded in its decency and pride just to win at something that isn’t even real. From this point forward, I’m going to become a crafter of earwig apparel and earwig accessories. That’s going to be my life now, exterminator and repurposer of bug gore. My parents would be so proud.”

  Moogi’s expression got large and bright as a full-toothed grin nearly encompassed its whole face.

  “Oh, you like that idea?” Man, it has a lot of them in there.

  Looking again at its gleeful expression and glassy eyes, I don’t even think it was even listening to me ramble. Something was either terribly wrong or incredibly right. I couldn’t quite tell.

  “What is it?” I finally asked.

  Moogi was so energetic that it could hardly contain itself as it frantically waved its arms, encouraging me to stand.

  “Is there another ganker?” I asked, turning back towards the temple.

  Shaking its head, Moogi finally calmed itself down enough to speak, with a couple deep breaths, “Moogi! Moogi! (The bleed effect from your attack caused one damage! Krimson has dropped to the ground bleeding!)”

  “Really? Wait, what?” The dagger is still doing my work for me?

  “Moogi. (He isn’t dead yet. We have to hurry.)

  Now with a full bar of stamina, I took off after my prize. On the way, Moogi kept alerting me with damage reports from the dagger.

  We were both literally jumping for joy over the news.

  Combined with the normal hit point loss that occurred when you were on the negative side of the health bar, it didn’t take too long until I heard it…

  “Moogi! (You have killed the player Krimson. You have been rewarded 184 experience points and five copper pieces. Please loot the corpse to collect your reward from the kill!)

  “Than
k you, Balrok!” I looked to the sky with a pointed finger. Hey, he was the only god I knew in this world, and I figured I had some amends to account for, what with me stealing his candlelight and all.

  I was overjoyed with the possibility of getting the dagger back. All I had to do now was find his body, which sounded easier than it was. I kept to the path, knowing that he must have done the same—being injured and all—but he was nowhere to be found.

  “Do you see him?”

  Sadly, Moogi looked the way I felt—worried.

  He must have gone off the path. We combed the whole surrounding area to no avail. Where could he have gone to? Not that much time had passed. The longer it took, the more worried I got. I didn’t know if these things timed out or not. I needed a sign, anything.

  “Ahhh, damn it. Where are you,” I yelled out my frustration.

  Then I saw a thin trail of smoke from beyond a small hill.

  Moogi and I looked at each other and ran up the thing like we were athletic or something. On the way up, Moogi spotted a couple drips of blood that gave us renewed hope.

  Right as we rounded over the peak, I saw Krimson’s lifeless body in a small pool of his own blood. He must have been on a shortcut leading to the mansion, or “Vale Manor” as the signpost directed.

  He had gotten much farther than I thought. There was only one snafu, Kaah and Bagmy were already hovering over his corpse, guarding it.

  Creeping in a little closer, I sporadically moved from one tree to the next. I didn’t have a stealth skill to rely on, or if I did, I didn’t know how to use it. Instead, I had to watch Kaah and Bagmy’s body language and dart between trees while they were distracted with their conversation. It was a dangerous game of cat and mouse, where I was the one acting like a pussy, and those two mice had all the cheese.

  “Am I close enough?” I whispered to Moogi. It gave me a “shucks” type of no, shaking its head while silently snapping its fingers. This was the closest tree and the end of the line for my little game.

  Even though I wasn’t in range to loot, I was able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

  “So, what’s the haps now?” Kaah asked.

  “We wait, and when he respawns, I get my baby back, baby back, baby back,” Bagmy broke into song.

  I looked over at Moogi, wondering what the hell Bagmy was doing.

  Moogi seemed just as confused as I was with the whole reference.

  “I mean after that?” Kaah asked, snapping some fallen branches and putting them into a pile.

  “Well, we still have the raid on Ambrose. But depending on how this goes, it might be delayed until tomorrow.”

  “What if this boner doesn’t want to give it up? He might get all greedy on you like that Ason scrub.”

  “Then we will have to just recreate him,” Bagmy said.

  “Recreate?” I whispered to Moogi.

  Moogi stuck out its tongue and swiped a finger across its neck.

  “Dying?” I mouthed.

  Moogi shook its head and tried again, folding both arms over its chest and rolling back its eyes inside its head, letting only the whites remain.

  “It still looks like dying to me,” I whispered.

  Moogi started to do a third mime, and I waved my hand to interrupt him.

  “Never mind,” I said, going back to eavesdropping on their conversation.

  “Yeah, but we can’t delay the raid again. That loot is our ticket out of this zone,” Kaah said.

  “Maybe so, but we need my dagger to beat him. So, no dagger, no dice.”

  “You spend way too much time with that weapon. I bet I know something else you can’t beat without it,” Kaah said loudly.

  “Moogi? (There is an incoming telepathic link from someone on your friends list: Havok. Accept request?)

  This is something new. I gave an accepting shrug. I mean, what else did I have going on?

  I covered my ears to try and block out Bagmy and Kaah’s useless conversation.

  *Hey, buddy. What are you doing right now?* I heard Havok’s voice directly inside my head.

  I didn’t know how to answer in this new way, but I just decided to think the words and see what happened. *I am a little busy right now. What’s going on?*

  *Nothing much. I just saw the bounty quest that Bagmy posted on you and I was a little concerned.*

  Oh, wow. He actually thought about me and thought to check in. He really is a friend and not just a superficial person on my list.

  *Uh, the thought transfer link is still open. I heard all that, by the way,* Havok said inside my head.

  *Oh, sorry.*

  *No biggie…friend.* He chuckled at my mistake. *Well, just thought I’d check in. If you need any help, don’t hesitate to link me back, okay?*

  *Wait…I could actually use your help right now.*

  *Oh, really? What’s up?*

  I peeked out from behind the cover of my tree. *Bagmy and Kaah are literally camping my corpse right now.* I watched Kaah rubbing his hands together above the campfire he had constructed.

  *You’re a corpse? Like you’re bleeding out or something? Because I don’t think I can get to you in time.*

  *Not my corpse, but one I wish to loot.*

  *They’re kill-stealing?*

  *No. It’s a little complicated. What I need is someone to create a diversion for me. Think you’re up to the task?*

  *Geez, I knew you were going to get me killed. Remember when I said that before?*

  *Sorry. Never mind. I’ll think of something else.*

  *You know what? I think I can. Wait. Yes, I have something perfect. You said a campfire, right?*

  “More like a bonfire now, but yeah.*

  *Okay. Just ping me your location along with a screen shot of your gear.*

  I didn’t know what he wanted that for, but I didn’t ask or think to question it. Instead, I posed while Moogi mocked taking my picture with an invisible camera.

  “Moogi. (File sent.)”

  *Okay, be there in a jiff.*

  “Moogi. (Telepathic link closed.)”

  Looking over at Bagmy and Kaah, I thought about what Havok said about the bounty quest. I couldn’t believe the level to which these guys would go to cause me harm. And didn’t they have something better to do than just hang around? I guessed not. What a bunch of losers. But then again, here I was, weaponless and cold, watching them from the safety of my hiding place. I was starting to wonder who the bigger loser was.

  Then a thought crossed my mind, one that I felt bad thinking. Even still, I couldn’t discount the possibility. What if Havok is planning to collect on the bounty quest? Could I have just given away my position and taken a profile picture to update my wanted poster?

  I didn’t want to dwell on the negative, not when he was the only person willing to be on my friends list. Yet, did he really know me, or was he just accepting every random player? I mean, it made perfect sense. Of all the times to randomly link me, why now? It was way too suspicious to ignore the possibility.

  “Moogi, do you trust Havok?”

  Moogi shook out a slow “no,” as if it were shaking long locks on a shampoo commercial.

  “To be fair, do you trust anyone?”

  I got the very same response.

  This was not at all helpful but a little amusing to watch.

  No matter Havok’s reasons, it was far too late to change my mind, and I was too close to sneak away without getting spotted. No, a plan was in motion and I had to stick to it, through thick and thin.

  I had no weapon, barely any armor, I was possibly waiting around for someone to kill me, and that campfire smell was making me hungry. I was definitely the bigger loser.

  After what felt like an hour, both GDF members abruptly stood up at attention.

  Was it my diversion? Or my betrayal?

  I looked out and saw it was actually something else. It was Krimson approaching from off in the distance. It appeared that he had all his equipment, including the Blood Dagger in han
d.

  Moogi looked at me with concern.

  “I know,” I mouthed.

  “Moogi. (If he reaches his corpse, you won’t be able to loot it anymore.)”

  “I know!” I mouthed again.

  “Hey, idiot, it took you long enough. Where did you spawn Caustic Cove?” Bagmy shouted out a condescending greeting.

  I had to try and loot the corpse before Krimson reached it. They didn’t have Tag with them. Maybe I could make it there and over to the mansion in time. I had nothing really to lose.

  Exposing my position, I jumped out only to find another version of myself a couple of yards away. It was like looking in a mirror, only the other me was holding a large machete. I glanced at my hand to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. I wasn’t. It was empty.

  Moogi and I shared an in-unison shrug.

  Just then, the other me ran right through the campfire, igniting himself, or myself, or whatever, in massive flames.

  This caught everyone’s attention.

  “You want s’more?” the other me yelled as he ran past Kaah and Bagmy, and on towards Krimson, who prepared to attack with the Blood Dagger.

  “Get him!” Bagmy cried.

  And just like that, Krimson, Bagmy, and Kaah all tried to corner my flaming doppelganger.

  This was our chance. I nearly tripped over myself as I rushed over to the corpse and touched it with one hand. It was a little creepy, but necessary.

  A list of gear appeared in Moogi’s thought bubble, but I only had eyes for one item—the Blood Dagger.

  Pointing at the dagger, it was back in my hand again, and out of Krimson’s, causing him to miss his attack on the flaming me.

  Without looking back, I took off running towards the mansion. I didn’t know how he did it, but Havok had come through…creating havoc. This was simply perfect—exactly what I needed and in the nick of time, no less. What a friend.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Maniac Mansion

  H uffing and puffing, I managed to make it to the base of the long steps leading up to the looming mansion ahead. It was strange setting eyes upon the place where I had first come to this world but seeing it from an entirely different angle and perspective.