War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  The mention of the so-called best sword in the game reminded Seiki that there was a whole different part of mystery involving the Kano Castle and Renshiro’s outlaws, which he believed somehow also played a part in this puzzle.

  Forcing himself to stop looking at the remaining of the valuable items, Seiki turned to the bandit. “We’re not here to admire treasures,” he said, partly to admonish himself. “What can you tell me about this guy called Hatsuo and his players?”

  “What do you know?” Gin said.

  “He’s someone you can hire to act out RP parts?”

  “Yep,” said Gin, shrugging. “That’s about it.”

  Seiki looked at him. “For a hundred gold, you’ve gotta do a bit better than that.”

  “Unfortunately, it appears that you do not have a hundred gold,” said Gin. “You came with an empty inventory.”

  Seiki did not have to check to see that his anti-Pickpocketing charms had depleted of all their last four charges and had automatically disappeared from his bags.

  In a way, though, Seiki had been waiting for this. Slowly, he retrieved a slim and intricate Carved Ivory Horse Whistle from his pocket. “Too bad you haven’t got the info,” he said. “After all the trouble I went through for this.”

  Available from Wilderness peddlers, high-quality decorative horse whistles and flint boxes were used by people to bank their loot while out in the PVP-heavy zones out the East Gate. Like their normal counterparts, these items were immune to any form of theft, and were completely invisible to Pickpocketers. For this particular Carved Ivory Horse Whistle. Pawn Shop Value: 100 gold, Seiki actually had to spend a total of 132 gold to purchase, and that was already after ten minutes of vigorous bargaining with the crafty Wilderness peddler. But in a situation like this, he guessed it was completely worth it.

  “You don’t think I would come with real gold into a thieves’ den, do you?”

  Gin blinked in surprise, before wrinkling his nose when he found out he had just wasted all his Pickpocketing attempts for nothing. “I’m starting to like this guy,” he turned to say to Chika.

  Yamura laughed in delight. “Nice one, man.”

  Seiki was not sure if he should tell his friend that his reaction had been part of why the bandits had totally bought the act.

  “Maybe they can both audition now,” Gin said aloud to his companion.

  “Fine with me,” said Chika. “Since they mentioned they would like to see this scar—”

  “Okay, about this man Hatsuo?” Seiki reminded the bandits.

  Gin sighed as he watched the ivory whistle. “All right,” he said, his tone sobering. “But you’d better really hand that thing over after you get your answers. If you die here, it’s either rez at our clan’s spirit room in the back, or at the sewage body dump near the Black Market, and trust me you don’t want to have to deal with the folks who hang out around there.”

  Again, there was no way for Seiki to tell if the threat was simply a bluff, but he had every intention to spend the gold for what he needed to know. “I’ll decide if the information’s worth it,” he said. “If not, we’ll take our chances with you and everyone else.”

  The casual smile slowly returned to Gin’s face. “Okay. Well, you already know that Hatsuo manages a bunch of hobby actors.”

  Seiki nodded. He had learned as much from Kiku, the White Crane Order obake.

  “How that works is, if you’re high-level and bored, you contact him, ask for a gig, and he asks you to level a such-and-such character to whatever level, which you can do for free on any normal paying account, and once you have the character, you go do whatever RP thing the customer needs. The pay’s totally not worth the time, so that’s why it’s for hobby actors looking for some excitement. You see, when it comes down to it, it’s mostly spy gigs. You level a character, join a clan when they recruit, then once you know how they structure their clan hall and where they put their treasures, you invite the original paying clan in. And if they catch you? Well, log out, delete the character, have a laugh. That’s why people are rather careful about clan invitations.”

  Seiki had a feeling that Gin and his bandits must have been frequent customers of Hatsuo.

  “So,” Gin went on. “At the beginning, it was like that. My friend Shigeru once did a gig for him and helped the Nobles invade this other clan that’s no longer in existence, called, uh, something-else Warriors.” He paused for a moment. “But, not surprisingly, the situation was ripe for double-crosses. If you suddenly grow attached to the new clan, you fess up and tell them the invasion plan. Then you and the clan set up a trap. When you invite the invading clan in, it’s a slaughterfest.”

  “Fun stuff,” said Chika. “I wish people still did that.”

  “They don’t anymore?” asked Yamura.

  “Unfortunately, no,” said Gin. “Paying clans are naturally not happy about these double-crosses, so Hatsuo no longer recruits publicly. Now he only uses a handful of people: five or six people, from what I’ve seen.” He looked at Seiki. “Two of them you would have already met as Akari and Teruo, when they invaded the White Crane Hall.”

  “And who are these people?” asked Seiki.

  “No one knows. Could be you. Could be me. No one knows who their mains are, but we know they’re really good. Now was that worth a hundred gold yet?”

  “No.”

  Gin laughed. “Okay. We all have our theories about who they really are. Some say they’re Beta players, because they really know things. But then it makes you wonder why they haven’t bothered even getting to Level 30 before this Rogami guy did, since if they can level Pottery to Level 30 with a Level 13 ninja, they can probably do anything.”

  Seiki was not sure how much the bandit knew about the Fuoka Army key and the Shadow Manor’s involvement, but the man was surprisingly familiar with the finer details of the event.

  “So, who hired them?”

  “Obviously the Rogami. No?” said Yamura. That was public opinion that the Rogami’s elaborate plan to destroy the White Crane Hall had backfired on their own army.

  “Obviously,” Gin said ambiguously.

  Seiki took a deep breath. “Kano Castle,” he ventured. It was a wild guess, based on nothing but his impression of his brief encounter with them. He had no proof either, except for Fuyu’s word that Kano Castle had been buying up clay, which was flimsy anecdotal evidence at best.

  Gin’s expression remained unreadable. “Ah,” he said. “Interesting.”

  Yamura looked confused. “Isn’t that like a big clan somewhere out the East Gate?”

  “Yeah,” said Seiki. “They’re only one of the few clans capable of funding something like that.”

  “Or…” said Gin mysteriously.

  “Or?” said Yamura in slight exasperation.

  “Let me put it this way. These people have the time and resources to do silly things like have someone Level Pottery up to Level 30 and throw it away just to incite a clan war. The amount of resources they have access to is mind-boggling. I mean, some people must be really bored.”

  “Or they’re trying to take over all the territories out the East Gate,” said Seiki. “Right? That’s what Kano Castle’s after?”

  “I see you’re on a personal Know Thy Enemy quest,” Gin said.

  “Yes,” said Seiki. It was true after all. “So am I right?”

  The bandit laughed, perhaps at his sudden honesty. “Okay, imagine if there’s no clan wars, no territory invasions, and everyone decides to be nice neighbors and share resources.”

  “The whole game will be one happy Social Guild,” said Yamura.

  “Exactly,” said Gin. “The game will stagnate. So someone might decide to inject a little excitement here and there to keep things moving.”

  “Just for entertainment?” asked Seiki. That was really not the kind of answer he was hoping for.

  “There’s a lot that people would do for entertainment. Me and you righ
t here having this conversation, for example. Hours and hours spent for what, exactly? Well, maybe a little bit of amusement? Diversion from the safe comforts of modern life? A bit of escape from routine?”

  “Answers,” said Seiki, more seriously than he had intended. “All sorts of answers.” He knew subconsciously these were not the exact answers he needed and this was not the place to look for them, but they were concrete and therefore good enough for now. “I need to know exactly what’s going on and how everything works. And then I’m going to decide what to do.”

  Perhaps not expecting this kind of earnestness, Gin studied him for a moment, before making his mind. “You ever heard of the Worldbreakers from Beta?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Seiki said cautiously.

  Ippei had talked about them. From what he had heard, they were a loose group of people who did extensive experiments with the laws of the game world, and people who documented all their experiments eventually evolved into what was known as the Shinshioka Scientific Society of the present.

  “I thought they broke the world too much and all got banned,” said Yamura. “Didn’t they all just disappear one day from, like, all records?”

  “Or…” said Gin, once again with a mysterious smile.

  “Or?” said Yamura impatiently.

  “Or they just broke enough of the world to become… invisible.”

  “What?” cried Yamura. He thought for a moment, before turning to Seiki. “Now I’m sure this guy is just making all this up.”

  Gin shrugged. “We all have our theories.”

  Seiki drew a long silent breath as his mind raced to grasp at the implications. He also suspected the bandit knew more than he let on. “What can you tell me about a houshi ability called Mirror Ward? Or an old telepathy ability called Whisper?”

  Yamura frowned. “What are you even talking about?”

  “Ah,” said Gin, his eyes sparkling. “Good questions. So you’ve seen… interesting stuff.”

  “Yeah. What do you know about those abilities?”

  “They’re just rumors,” Gin said.

  “What interesting stuff?” demanded Yamura. “What abilities?’

  “I’ll explain later,” said Seiki to his friend.

  The bandit offered no more information, so Seiki tried a different route. “Is it true that with enough Favors, you can ask the Bureau to delete your records? Like combat logs? That’s why there’s no proof?”

  “With Favors, you can do anything,” said Gin, and Seiki decided to take it as confirmation.

  Seiki was aware that both Gin and Chika were waiting to find out what he knew, and technically there would be a smarter way to play this, but beyond the bluff with the ivory whistle, he was still pretty much a novice at this kind of dance.

  It took Seiki a bit of time to put the pieces together. “There are these people. Old players, maybe. They’re not exactly invisible,” he finally said to Yamura. “But they know exactly what can be exploited. But the strange thing is they don’t own a public territory, and they haven’t reached Level 30, unless they have a way to delete that information too so it doesn’t trigger the festival event. But why? And why Hatsuo?” Seiki shook his head. “It makes no sense.”

  “Very good questions,” said Gin, but it did not seem like he was anywhere near willing to answer them. “So was that hint worth a hundred gold yet?” The bandit smiled and held out his hand.

  Seiki thought for a moment. Somehow, hearing someone else theorize had helped him connect more dots, and this was a welcome change, especially since Ippei had no interest in pursuing the subject.

  Initiating a trade, Seiki handed Gin the ivory whistle. “Another hundred gold for the rest of what you know,” he offered.

  “And you just give it to him like that?” muttered Yamura.

  Gin appeared to be of the same mind, as he looked slightly surprised. “Why don’t you ask Hatsuo himself?” said the bandit, casually, as he pocketed his payment. “Nice guy, really.”

  Seiki narrowed his eyes.

  “As you can see, I have very little need for a hundred gold.” Gin nodded toward his ridiculous display of treasures. “But you come to Gin, you’ll always get a deal, so let’s do a win-win contract on this one. Help me out on something and I promise I’ll get Hatsuo himself to come talk to you.”

  “That’s bullshit,” said Yamura, before adding quickly, “We’re not auditioning to join your clan.”

  “Oh no.” Gin nodded toward the end of the hall. “It’s something else that needs a fresh pair of eyes, I think, which is actually why I invited you down here in the first place. Help me solve my problem, and I’ll solve yours.”

  “We’re not killing people. We’re not robbing anybody,” said Yamura. “And, uh, we don’t engage in prostitution.”

  Seiki looked at his friend in disbelief. “Really, Yamura?”

  The ryoushi shrugged. “You never know what people have in mind.”

  Gin had a mischievous spark in his eyes as he tried to hold back laughter. “I swear this will be something right up your alley,” he said, with emphasis.

  Walking behind Chika, who had burst out laughing and could not seem to stop, Seiki and a very disgruntled Yamura followed the bandit leader further into the Red Dragon Cave. Behind a large painted panel at the end of the reception was a hidden doorway that led deeper into the territory. They passed through two more decently-decorated tatami rooms, the latter of which exited directly into a shallow rock cave.

  “This part we haven’t got the money to do up yet. Underground interior design is not cheap, I can tell you,” said Gin, pointing to a crude rock chamber cut into one side of the wall. Inside, set next to a moldy bamboo mattress, was a single candle and incense pot on a low table. “That’s our spirit room. Not very nice yet. The roof leaks a bit.”

  “When we torture someone to death, we don’t want them to wake up in a nice place,” Chika piped up.

  Gin chuckled. “Good one. Let’s keep that one for our standard tour script.”

  The ninja girl pointed further to the next shoji panel slightly further down the cave. Installed right into the subterranean environment, the door was a little crooked and out of place. In fact, it seemed as if it was just propped up over the mouth of a small chamber to hide the entrance. “And that is our famous torture room,” said Chika gleefully, sounding a little carried away. “Built at the back so the guests in the reception hall won’t even hear the screams.”

  Seiki was sure she was just making it all up. But as if to prove him wrong, a man labeled Daisuke [Level 15] crashed through the door into the cave, his gray yukata drenched in blood. He glanced up at Gin. “Doesn’t work,” he gasped. “The thing’s impossible.”

  Then he cursed and collapsed.

  Daisuke [Level 15]. HP 0/1394. Lootable.

  CHAPTER 13

  “The hell is this!” Yamura instinctively grabbed his bow.

  The thin door, made of light wood and paper, had been thoroughly destroyed by the dead man, allowing Seiki to see right into the mysterious back room. Despite its appearance of a crude rock cave, the chamber—approximately twenty feet across and twice as long—had been carefully furnished with tatami mats. Shoji wall panels were propped up in a perfect rectangle all around to mark the boundaries, giving the illusion of a real room.

  Despite not believing one bit what Chika had said about the purpose of the place, Seiki gave a start as he discovered that the floor was splattered with fresh blood. Next to the door within the room was the mangled body of Makino [Level 14]. HP 0/1102. Lootable.

  As Gin shook his head in annoyance and bent down to disperse Daisuke’s corpse in front of them, Seiki looked up from the floor toward the cause of those deaths.

  In the middle of the otherwise bare room, floating an inch above the floor over a pool of dark blood was a faceless apparition in full black samurai armor. The entity had no distinctive features, except for black mist that served as its face
and neck and everywhere else not hidden under its protective gear. In its hands was a long curved nodachi sword, at least five feet in length, which was still dripping blood from its recent kills. Someone had tied a yellow and black piece of cloth around its neck, like a scarf, covering much of the upper part of its body.

  Yureimusha [East City Bandits – Level 23]. HP 6606/6606.

  Gin walked in toward the second body in the room and dispersed that one, too, into a puff of smoke. The samurai spirit turned to look at him as he approached, hovering silently above the floor.

  “Sorry about this mess,” said Gin, grimacing at the blood, which was slowly starting to fade off the tatami floor now that combat was over. “Meet our new… uh, butler.”

  The butler in question did a quick down-swipe with his sword to cast off the residue blood on the blade.

  “Who were those guys?” asked Yamura warily. He had not drawn his bow, but his hand was now clutching an arrow.

  “Our clan members,” said Chika.

  “They didn’t have your clan tag,” said Yamura.

  Chika rolled her eyes. “If they did, how would we get the ghost samurai to attack them? Duh! They volunteered to unswear the clan oath to test this thing out.”

  Seiki glanced back at the samurai spirit. It had turned its attention back to the people at the door. But without eyes, the effect was rather eerie.

  “So this… butler,” said Yamura uneasily. “Is it like a territory guard?”

  “Yeah,” said Gin.

  Seiki had only heard of those territory NPCs who would automatically attack intruders, but he had never imagined he would meet one so formidable-looking and deadly.

  “So this is what they look like?” Yamura drew an anxious breath. “My clan’s trying to get one. They’re talking about what’s that again, uh, some rare scroll they’re looking for.”

  “Yeah, you need a Scroll of Spirit-Binding, which is a very rare reward from a very rare territory quest, plus a ton of those Essence orbs.” Gin shrugged. “But it’s not that hard when you know your way around the Black Market and you have people owing you favors. The hard part was getting the exact recipe for this ghost samurai.”