Zach nodded along disinterestedly as five flashlight-carrying NPCs followed behind him through a very dark series of corridors that made up the labyrinthine-like maintenance floor on the lowest level of Greater Heilor Station. Their lights shone the way ahead, but Zach already knew where he was going, and so, bored, he let his mind wander as he barely paid their words any attention. After all, it wasn't like he hadn't heard them before.
"This traitor in our midst—you are sure she is this way, adventurer?"
"Yep," Zach said with a monotone voice. "Just like she was the last 4 tis."
Zach knew exactly where he was going, exactly what would happen when he got there, and exactly how many Survival dallions he would get after the drawn-out, twenty-minute, and overly dramatic "confrontation" played out. He wouldn't get anything until it was finished, either. He would just have to sit around and wait for it to be done.
Yawning, Zach led the five NPCs to the end of a hallway, then made a series of turns in the following order: right, right, left. Then he opened the fourth door on the right, stepped aside, and waved the five NPCs onward.
"Oh, Folendria," Zach mocked.
One second later, a flashlight-bearing NPC wearing a vest and a hard hat cried out, "Oh, Folendria!"
"Husband!" the human woman shouted back. She was in a small electrical room, and she was also wearing a hard hat and a vest. At the mont, she was holding a pair of wire cutters, and electrical sparks were shooting out of an open circuit breaker. "Why are you here? Did…?" She gasped, dropped the wire cutters, and snarled at Zach, who waved at her. "Did Zachys Calador, the human adventurer, betray ?"
"Sure did," Zach said as he picked a comfortable spot on the floor to sit and then opened up his map and inventory just to play around with the screens to pass the ti. He decided to take out his artifact-rarity spear and just kind of "look at it" because it was so cool. As he did, he tuned out the shouting voices that spoke of love, betrayal, cheating, and "station sabotage."
The first ti that Zach had done this quest, he'd sided with the wife. But that gave him 5 fewer Survival dallions than siding with the husband, so each day, he now chose the husband's side.
It was nothing personal. Just business.
Zach continued to admire his spear while his mind turned to thoughts about what he wanted to eat for lunch. Definitely not pasta again. Pan pizza, maybe? Hmm…or maybe he should have that for dinner.
No! he shouted at his own self. I'm leaving after lunch. I promised myself last night!
It had now been five days since Zach had co here to Greater Heilor Station. And honestly? He probably could have gotten out in three or maybe even two if he'd really gone full steam ahead. But there were reasons he'd stayed, not the least of which being that he needed a little break from the unbearable, torturous desert. But also because a ticket for a train, which went 400 miles east, cost 2k Survival dallions, and while saving up for them, he still had other things he needed to spend on: things like eating, drinking, sleeping, showering, etc.
And he'd done all that and more.
Although not overly impressive, this station had everything required for easy survival. It had a food court with six different NPC food stalls that served six different types of food, such as a pizza place, a sandwich place, a pasta place, etc. It was an appreciable amount of variety for what was, in essence, an underground station accessible only by surviving a terrifying encounter—which itself could only be accessed by just-so-happening to stumble upon a question mark that required digging over 20 feet down, finding, and then pressing a hidden button.
All that considered, it was impressive.
And the food was decent, too. Not bad, not great, but decent. And filling! They also had soda, but the Galterran kind. Unfortunately, the Earth soda might have ruined Galterran soda for him forever. But still—compared to dehydrating to the point he had to use a Gods-be-damned rejuvenation stone? It was certainly an improvent.
In fact, everything about life in this station, while overwhelmingly average, was like a 5-star resort compared to walking through the desert. The room he rented, for example, contained a small cot just big enough for his body and a single thin blanket. But go ahead and compare that to the glacial, negative-70-degree nights out in the desert.
Yeah, exactly.
All of a sudden, an accommodation that would be considered substandard even in the worst parts of Whispery Woods started to seem like sothing more akin to a stay in a royal palace.
Zach had also used a bunch of his Survival dallions in the apparel store to buy five new pairs of underwear, five shirts, five pairs of shorts, two pairs of thick sweatpants, and a heavy-duty jacket for the coldest of nights. And the best part of all was that, despite essentially being just ordinary clothing, all the stuff for sale here, clothing-wise, had the distinction of being level-1 with absolutely no stats whatsoever.
In other words, they were technically adventuring items, which ant they could go in his inventory: box 1 in their case. Had they been purchased from a store in, like, Varda's Lair or whatever, that would simply be impossible. Even the water here was adventuring water, though it was priced higher than everything, including the clothing and food, and they only ca in these tiny 8-oz plastic bottles, which were half the size of what water usually ca in.
But yeah, anyways, for the past 5 days, Zach had been doing the sa 8 quests, which reset every single day at 6 AM. And thanks to these quests, he had slowly begun to resupply himself while simultaneously building up the 2k Survival dallions he needed to hop on a train out of here; this, as he also treated himself to 3 als a day, a place to sleep, a place to shower, and once, he'd also spent 50 Survival dallions to have his mage armor and plate armor "instantly" cleaned and refreshed.
At the mont, he was sitting with his back against a wall wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and his knee-high adventuring boots, as the shops here overcharged for sneakers. He also wasn't worried about being left defenseless in a pinch thanks to the QI. This, in particular, was important to him, as he would never forget the day that the Guild of Gentlen had attacked him and massacred scores of innocent level-1 people at the loot celebration in Shadowfall Coast. Thanks to the new inventory system, he'd never have to worry about being "ungeared" again. Using just his mind, he could near-instantly swap everything back on.
But so far, however, he hadn't needed to do any kind of "fast swapping," as there didn't appear to be any combat-related quests or red-nad mobs anywhere. This place was as peaceful as it got.
And this made Zach wonder: what, fundantally, then, was the difference between this area and a green area aside from the lack of green-nad, sentient NPCs? He was sure there was more to it than that, but at the mont, he just didn't know, and his glossary really didn't provide all that much more insight than the friendly villagers had.
He had initially co away with the impression that the color indicated the degree of hostility, with green being safe and friendly, and grey being "neutral." And everything he had encountered up until this station had confird that. So he must have been very, very close to being correct, but quite clearly, there was more to it than just that.
The last grey area he had been to—that tiny outpost called "Marching Respite"—had contained a few friendly, white-nad NPCs along with 3 scorpion mobs just sort of roaming around. Therefore, Zach had assud that would be representative of all the grey areas he'd co across. But nope, that obviously wasn't the case, as the only way to find an enemy here seed to be via pushing a well-dressed woman down a flight of stairs.
I'll probably figure it all out eventually, he thought. And if not, I'll make Jimmy tell when I find him.
Right! He wasn't here on vacation. He was here to find his friends, and he was sure they were still alive. No more lazing around this station. After this quest was over, he was getting up and leaving!
As things stood, he was currently 3,491.4 miles away from the city, which ant he'd be around 3,100 wherever it was that he disembarked. And while, yes, that was a hell of a lot better than the nearly 5k miles away he'd been eight days ago when he'd landed on this planet, that was still such a vast distance.
It's okay. I'll be there soon, he told himself, becoming determined. I'm going to find them! But first…lunch. Zach put his spear away and looked into the small room, where the five male NPCs were surrounding the female NPC. Oh, nice! They're finally up to the beheading part. Thank the Gods! I can finally get out of here!
"…we forgive you, eternal wife of my best friend!" a man wearing a dark blue uniform said. "But you have betrayed Greater Heilor Station. You have betrayed your people. As a loyal follower of the path of engineering, may the Gods help , but I must do this!"
As the wife's head beca detached from her body, Zach stood up, stretched, and nodded at all the "blah blah blah" that it took for the NPCs to thank him, and then he accepted his 250 Survival dallions and began marching his way through the dark corridors towards the elevator. The NPCs did not accompany him. The husband rely wept, and as far as Zach could tell, they'd stay in this room right here until tomorrow morning, when everything was undone and the whole "storyline" began all over again.
"Bleh," Zach said distastefully. "I really don't like that quest."
Ever since he'd beco an adventurer, Zach had gone so far out of his way to ignore all the little storylines and bullshit that doing so had almost beco like a religious practice to him. He religiously ignored the storylines. Even now, he couldn't recall why in the na of the Gods he and Kalana had ever had to rescue a "slug king" despite Rian and Trelvor having exhaustively explained the lore to him.
For this reason, he was actually embarrassed over the fact that he let this one bother him. Yet, each day, on his way out of here, he felt just a little bit disturbed by this quest. And no, it wasn't even because the guy's wife got beheaded, but it was more so because that very sa guy just sort of stood there and let one of his buddies do the deed.
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No way would that ever be , Zach thought. It was one of the few things he knew with absolute certainty in this world.
Zach didn't care what Kal did or didn't do. If he ever saw anyone trying to cut her head off, he would destroy them down to the last molecule. That blue-suited engineer wouldn't even just be in pieces: he'd be in crumbs. Gods, what kind of man would stand by and allow that to happen to his wife?
Sheesh, why am I getting so upset over so stupid quest? he wondered, rolling his eyes.
Zach hurried his way to the elevator and back up to the top floor, which, in the case of Greater Heilor Station, was still soplace miles beneath the planet's surface. Having beco quite hungry, he hurried his way to the pizza place and got in line. But unfortunately, soone was ahead of him. And not just anyone, but that Gods damn woman again.
Ah, no, he thought. Not Sinchara again. I'm hungry!
Zach hated this NPC so much, and for good reason, too. It was a reason he was instantly reminded of as she began to speak.
"Umm…gee, I dunno what I want," the elegantly dressed old lady said. "I an…I know it's a pizza place, but there are still so many options. Let's start by considering the extra cheese personal pie. I have a lot to say about this one, actually. That one, I really like, but my grandson once told —"
Zach took exactly two steps back and used the secret technique he had discovered a few days ago to deal with this problem. It was a technique that had saved him so much ti and aggravation since coming here.
Squatting all the way down, he grabbed the rug she was standing on, and then he ripped it up with all his might, which launched her like a catapult all the way across the food court and through a wall at the other end. And there was no punishnt for doing that, because for so reason, it didn't register to the NPCs that it was him who had attacked her. They just didn't even know, and not only that, but none of them reacted to it whatsoever, either. They showed no awareness or care about the screaming woman who went "ahhhhhhhhh!" as she flew through the air until at last she collided with a wall.
The sound of a loud crash followed by the smash of a broken table filled the food court as Zach said, "Oh, look at that, is it my turn already?"
He opened the shop window, bought himself a pizza and a cola, and then walked to an empty table in the middle as the NPC, with her face bloodied and pieces of debris all over her hair, casually and calmly walked back to the line and started her whole pizza speech over again from the top. "Umm…gee, I dunno what I want," she said.
Zach marveled at the fact that he'd gotten away with that. He bet even Jimmy hadn't discovered such an amazing trick. Zach tried not to push his luck and use it too much just in case, you know, it backfired, but sotis, he had no choice. Like, yesterday, for example, when all the tables had been taken. Zach didn't feel like waiting, so he had just picked the whole thing up and had shaken a few NPCs "off" the table, sending a couple flying in the process. One of them had even landed on a grill and almost died from DoT burning damage, as it had trouble getting back up.
Who in the hell would wait around for an NPC to finish eating?
Taking a bite out of his pizza, Zach then swallowed, took a deep breath, and prepared himself for the harsh desert, which he just knew he wouldn't be fortunate enough to avoid. There was a part of him that really hoped he'd just be able to move from question-mark to question-mark while minimally exposing himself to that mob-infested, ultra-hot hell. But quite obviously, that was a wish that wasn't going to co true.
Finishing lunch, Zach got up and then went to the bathroom, where a Dwarf turned his way before pulling up his pants. Zach imdiately shielded his eyes. Gods, why did they give these NPCs genitals? The Dwarf was only like four feet tall, but sohow his, you know…it was obscenely huge. Zach got out of his way as the Dwarf left. Then he wrinkled his nose. It stank in here.
This is sothing I just don't understand, he thought to himself. Like, I get the point of realism, but why do NPCs need balls and the ability to take a shit? Gods, it stinks today!
Zach did his business, washed his hands, and got out of there in a hurry. Then he looked around for a mont, confused, like he was forgetting sothing. Sothing just felt "off," and it took him a second to realize that it was the feeling he should be "packing up." But there was nothing to pack up. Everything was either in his QI or box 1. Really, there was nothing left for him to do but head out. He had everything he needed in his inventory, including twelve small bottles of water that were stacked so they took up just one "spot."
Hopefully, they would at least help a little bit.
Exiting through the food court, he journeyed down through the rest area, side-stepping and moving around NPCs so that he could walk a little bit faster. Eventually, he got to the large, two-sided stairs with the railing in the middle that led to the 8 train platforms, and once there, he hurried over to a human NPC with a bushy grey mustache wearing a red hat. The man was seated inside a box-shaped stall and surrounded by plexiglass.
"Buy your train ticket here," the NPC said. "All east-bound trains go 400 miles in the direction of the city. Go ahead and get your tickets here, adventurers!"
Zach opened the shop window.
Item
Quantity (Per Custor)
Price
Ticket to the Gentle Sands of Molo'naraca
N/A
2,000 Survival dallions
Ticket to the Moderate Dunes of Ilandris
N/A
2,000 Survival dallions
Ticket to Soft Sandy Hills
N/A
2,000 Survival dallions
Ticket to the Hell-Sands
N/A
2,000 Survival dallions
Zach, without even thinking about it, raised his finger and sent it straight towards the option that had "gentle" in the na. But then, a mont before pressing, he stopped, yanked his arm back, and began to laugh a bit uneasily. "Oh, no, no, you're not fooling , Great Ones," he said aloud. "If I pick the option that says 'Gentle Sands,' I'll end up in a place even worse than hell." He laughed again. "Nice try."
He lowered his hand to the bottom of the list and bought a ticket to Hell-Sands. The mont he made his selection, 2,000 boringly earned Survival dallions were spent, and the ticket appeared on the counter. He grabbed it. As he made to turn away, however, the NPC rchant spoke to him.
"Wow, adventurer. I'm not sure why you'd want to go there of all places. Are you heading to the city? You should've taken the Gentle Sands of Molo'naraca. That's a much easier path if you're heading to the city. I can't believe soone's crazy enough to go to the Hell-Sands. Well, it's your funeral."
Zach guffawed, though he did so in agony, not humor. "Fuck! Oh, Gods, what have I done? I really did just buy a ticket to hell, didn't I?" He banged on the side of the plexiglass. "Hey, I want a refund! I got tricked! Hey!"
Even as he yelled at the NPC, he could see in the corner of his eye that the next train bound for the Hell-Sands was about to arrive, and there wouldn't be another one for an hour after that. And so, swearing out the worst words he knew, he turned around, walked down a few more steps, and headed to the left where the platforms began to split apart. His ticket said to go to platform 8, which he did. He couldn't believe he'd just made a mistake like that.
Oh well. Everywhere in this desert sucked.
The train arrived, pulled in, and ca to a stop with a loud screech. Unlike the single subway car that he'd boarded to get here, this train consisted of 11 such cars, and Zach chose to walk through the double doors near the middle-most car, which slid open and allowed him to step inside. The mont he did so, they then shut with far more force than they'd opened with.
"Whatever," he grumbled as he picked a nice seat in what was a completely empty train. But he quickly had to get up as a voice ca over the speaker system and said sothing that made no sense, but he nevertheless didn't feel like contemplating or thinking about it.
"The train cannot depart until all passengers are in the last car."
"Just when I get comfortable," he muttered. He got up, turned around, and made his way from one car to the next. At the end of each, there was a door that could be manually opened, which led outside and onto a small little connecting walkway that had chains around it as though for safety—to prevent soone from falling off while the train was in motion.
One car after the next, Zach made his way to the eleventh, and once there, he took a seat and got comfortable on what seed to be a completely empty train.
Or rather…an almost completely empty train.
The doors separating his car and the one in front opened, and a strange-looking Dwarf nad "Vengalaurn Raider A" with eerily blue skin and long blonde hair ca strolling over to him. The Dwarf both looked and slled strange. Not entirely unpleasant, just…strange. Like insect repellent. It also didn't look much like a Dwarf. With no beard and blond-colored hair, it looked more like a blue-skinned creature trying to disguise itself as a Dwarf and doing a very poor job at it.
"So, ya got tricked into picking the Hell-Sands, huh?" he asked. He waited for Zach to respond, but Zach said nothing. He was too busy eying the Dwarf distrustfully.
"Yeah, that happens to adventurers all the ti out here," the NPC said as it ca closer. The train at last departed, and it picked up speed as it left the station; now, all Zach could see outside of the windows was pure black as it traveled through the tunnel on its 400-mile journey to the Gods-be-damned "Hell-Sands." And yet, all the while, the NPC continued to walk ever closer to Zach, its arms spread wide and its hands on top of each cushion it passed on its way to him.
Why's it walking so slow?
Sothing was off about this one. It just looked so threatening. But at the sa ti, it had a white na. Even still, Zach decided to swap out his shorts and t-shirt for his plate armor. He also equipped his Primordial Void Blade and his helm.
"Yep, they say fresh-faced adventurers always co on out to the Hell-Sands. Thinkin' it'll be a bit easier for 'em, you know? Like the na's so kinda trick or whatnot."
The NPC, now only about three seats ahead of Zach, ca to a pause. Its body language was malicious. That much was obvious. Almost too obvious. As though it wanted Zach to know what it intended.
"Most of 'em never make it there, though," he said. He began to reach for sothing behind his back. "Know why?"
Zach grinned. "Why?"
"It's 'cause we kill 'em before they ever arrive!"
"Not this one, you don't."
The NPC drew a large, two-handed axe, jumped forward, and slamd it down on top of Zach, who had already drawn his blade and had locked weapons with it. Then he gave a forceful shove followed by a spinning back-kick that dealt 4,221 damage, which sent the Dwarf stumbling several feet in the opposite direction. But it was already rushing him once more.
At the sa ti, sothing popped up to his right.
Quest
The Eviler of Four Evils
Given By
User Selection
Recomnded Level
70-85
Recomnded Party Size
N/A
Description
Lulled into a sense of distrust, you intentionally selected the most unsettling-sounding option, believing it to be a red herring. But little did you know, you have just boarded a one-way trip to the Hell-Sands.
But worry not! For your real problem, adventurer, is not the na of your chosen stretch of desert. Oh, no-no-no! For you see, adventurer, unbeknownst to you, you have just boarded a train secretly run by the South-East Vengalaurn Pirate Coalition. And at such a bad ti, too! For they are intent on looting the train and derailing it, which will kill everyone else on board.
Stop them before they succeed! Get to the front car and slay Ironaxe Jarjin!
20:00 Remaining
(0/1 Ironaxe Jarjin slain)
(Statistics: 100% of users so far have also chosen this path)
Reward
500x Survival dallions, 1x Resurrection Totem (only for users who currently have 0. Users with 1 or more shall receive an additional 2,500x Survival dallions instead.)
Quest Expires In
20:00
Well.
At least everyone else seed to have made the sa choice that he did. And he knew they'd co through this way. Thus, it stood to reason that, if Zach was stupid, then they were all stupid, too, which was less bad. Also, he was actually really a genius if you thought about it, because now, he might just be about to finally get himself another Resurrection Totem. Gods, he needed one so bad.
And so, with limited mobility, in these tight confines of a train car, Zach ran at the charging, Dwarvish impersonator, and the two locked blades once more.
Nothing ever ca easy here, did it?
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