Gabbie arched her brows, "which is?" She inquired
"Simple," he smiled, "Girls are weak." She flew off the handle, and all her pent-up anger spilled. "I swear to god, Derrick, I'll pull out all your hair!" She charged towards him in anger but Jason blocked her path. Her anger sprung. "What are you doing!? Let me go! I'll kill this bastard!" Derrick made faces at her while she struggled with Jason. Eiden stared at them with a wry smile, they were like siblings, always fighting and quarreling with each other. He averted his eyes to their surroundings. The land was grass-filled, the trees were scarce, and there were no houses in sight. The sun shone brightly, not harshly, and light clouds filled the sky. Wisher's Death is a multiplayer game; they were fortunate that there were no players nearby, or else they'd get killed and start all over. Eiden looked back at them, still squabbling. "You guys know we're sitting ducks right?" No weapon, no spells; they were simply prey waiting to be dissipated. He continued, "We've got no armor or shield; this is an open space; if we get caught here like this, we'll be killed and asked to start all over, and you know there's not going to be another chance." they couldn't afford one. Their squabble ceased, and Gabbie folded her arms and looked away "You guys should warn Derrick, if he calls me weak one more time I'll shave him bald" "Pfft, you couldn't even if you tried," Derrick scoffed. "We need to focus," said Eiden, "I'm not sure why we didn't appear at a town square or a habited area but we need to find one soon. Another thing is, these skills and limitations we were given". "Right" Jason cut in "I don't get it at all, I've been given lightning summon with no limitation" "Mine's mind manipulation but I can only use it five times in a day," said Gabbie "Spacetime manipulator, limitation deterioration. Oh great!" said Derrick sarcastically. "And mine, swordmaster with my blood as my weakness. These must be the abilities of our characters, in other words, us". "You've got it good, Jason," said Derrick, his voice laced with envy. "You're the only one without a limit. In fact! You've all got it good, if I use my ability, I deteriorate. Not fair at all" he complained. "Sounds pretty fair to me," said Gabbie "dumb ability for a dumb person" Derrick ignored her. He had the ability to cut through time and space; if anything, his ability should be termed the toughest. "So now what?" He asked "Isn't it obvious, we find a town or village, find props or loot, and level up" Jason replied "Right, we've already wasted enough time," Eiden added. "System close," said Gabbie, and the screen disappeared just as she predicted. They all closed their systems and looked around. They had no map and didn't know where to start the journey from. Just when they were about to conclude the path to follow, the ground below them vibrated. They threw each other perplexed looks. Again, the ground shook but this time more intensive than the last, almost like something was heading their way fast. It caused them to lose balance and they staggered a bit. They looked all around, trying to decipher where the vibration was coming from. The ground rumbled again, but this time, there was no space for them to get their balance; the ground shook continuously. At a distance, a far distance, there was what seemed like a wave of dust. It couldn't have been a sandstorm; the area wasn't barren. Eiden's heart dropped in terror. His mind raced and his eyes widened at the sight. "It's a stampede," he muttered hoarsely under his breath. Though it was far, it was coming closer fast. At this time, they all saw the stampede approaching but couldn't make any immediate response. "What are we going to do?" Gabbie asked; the rumbling under her feet incited fear in he,r, and the sight of the stampede caused her heart to beat out of rhythm. "W-we have to run" Jason stuttered. With only one solution in mind, they picked their heels. Running forward. Panting endlessly, they ran for their lives, literally; if they got trampled upon and died, they would automatically log out, and they would live with regret forever. "This is so damn exciting," said Derrick in one breath. His heart was filled with fear as well as excitement. The rest ignored his statement, they were too busy running. Why did they spend so much time earlier? They would have avoided this. They couldn't even run well because of the rumbling, and the stampede was getting close. But what was the stampede? Eiden asked himself. Still running, he glanced behind. At that moment, his heart dropped further down at the sight of what caused the stampede. Fear was an understatement for what he felt inside. By reflex, his speed increased. Behind, amidst the wave of dust were large beasts with black coarse skin and an ugly structure, almost nine feet tall. He could've been mistaken but he saw that they all had six legs with heavily clawed feet and possessed the body and head of a Mammoth with gnarled horns sticking out their heads. The beasts were larger and faster but the four were determined to live. Unlike the guys, Gabbie was oddly running behind them. Eiden reduced his pace to match hers, he felt like they were leaving her behind. It started to feel like it's been hours, the beasts were closing in on them. Fatigue washed all over them but they couldn't bring themselves to stop running. Though they were already close to death, Eiden had an uneasy feeling. At that moment, still running, he looked up. A good amount of small diamond-shaped crystals started falling from the sky. Eiden didn't have enough breath to speak for long, so he just shouted, "Look up!". They did and instantly knew they were supposed to dodge the crystals all while running from the beast stampede that was already fast approaching. They also had to dribble around the crystals that had already reached the ground, it slowed their speed. It was almost impossible to maintain speed while jumping across crystals and dodging the ones that fell. No matter how she tried, Gabbie could only focus on the ones on the ground. Eiden saw the crystal, he tried to warn her but, alas! She looked up and lifted her hand in a protective form over her head by reflex. The very instant the crystal touched her hand, a blue hue hovered around her; she warped and instantly disappeared without a trace. "GABBIE!" Jason screamed at the top of his lungs.Jason kept looking back as he ran, he couldn't grasp the fact that Gabbie was gone. Tears whelmed up his eyes, blurring his vision. He wiped his eyes constantly, he still couldn't afford to be trampled.It was no longer as exciting, was she really gone? Derrick thought. Too bad, she'll just have to wait for them to finish playing the game. But it won't be as fun though, since they all planned on playing it together.The stampede was getting closer and closer, and they could not keep up, they were losing speed gradually. If only they could just stop the stampede.Derrick's system suddenly appeared before him, "the hell!? Why now!?"He didn't use the keyword, why did it appear all of a sudden?A daily quest popped up[Use player skill_2coins]Seeing this, Eiden shouted, "Don't!" and Derrick ignored him. They couldn't guarantee what and how powerful his ability was. Spacetime manipulation was a rare skill, if misused, things might end in
The man folded his arms, "the rummaging beasts that chased you and your friends" he responded before mumbling "I don't expect commoners to be fond of the name"Hexamyths….Eiden repeated the word inwardly, the game didn't indicate such a creature. People in their school who could afford the game spoke endlessly of it, but never did they mention the presence of a 'Hexamyth'; it was mainly trolls, dragons, humanoid beasts, and other common creatures, but a Hexamyth? Never.."Speaking of, what were you all doing there? The laws given to us are for our protection, they are not to be toyed with. Youths of now are very daring; if you feel the need to gamble with your life, you're free to visit again," he warned.Something was wrong somewhere and it bothered Eiden. What laws did he speak of?"And the beasts? "The man's attention was drawn from Eiden to the hotheaded boy, he seemed calm now.Jason continued, "Those crystals of yours fell
The traders sure were optimistic, calling on passers-by to check on their goods. "Woah!" Derrick exclaimed. His stomach grumbled to a fault, indicating he needed something to eat and fast. The place was filled with different varieties, jewels, food, veggies, name it, but all except actual game stuff.Eiden stopped in his tracks upon seeing a poster with a familiar face. It was painted and attached to a wooden platform. The man on it resembled the one who had saved them earlier.Although there were slight changes. In the painting, he had shiny armor and wielded a sword and shield. It was very well-detailed, almost like it was taken as a picture and not a painting.Eiden sighed out, pondering. He thought of retracing his steps from the very beginning.First, right when he was about to enter the game, the status screen changed its color, and he went through a painful teleportation into the game, something no one who had played the game ever spoke of.Next were the sudden changes in thei
Gabbie let her anger dissipate and averted her eyes to Jason "Don't apologize In his stead, to me he's still the one at fault" she pouted and mumbled under her breath "douche bag" Eiden recollected Jason's words, 'People might still be after us'. Eiden had thought of a way to prove that they were still in the game but he couldn't bring himself to decide. Whenever a person, be it a player or an NPC, dies in a game, their bodies disappear, leaving behind colored fragments. If he were to stab a person to death now, will they disappear as such or will they bleed to death? He wanted to share his thoughts with the others but wasn't it too ridiculous? "Eiden!" Gabbie called for the fourth time. His mind snapped back to reality, he looked at them, their faces filled with worry. "What's the matter?" Jason asked "Yeah, you've been seeming lost lately," Derrick added; the same thing happened minutes ago at the market. Running his hand through his hair, Eiden sighed. "It's just...I don't…
"I don't know how I did it; I only thought of my system, and it just appeared. Maybe we're able to summon it voluntarily through our will instead of speaking". What he said made quite the sense. "Let me try," said Derrick. They watched him. He closed his eyes and centered his mind on calling forth his system. Afterward, he opened his eyes to peek, "Did it work?" He asked and opened his eyes fully. To his satisfaction, it did. Which meant Jason was right. "Wait, Derrick, you have a quest," said Gabbie, her eyes searching all over the status screen. "Oh, this?" He let out a dry chuckle. "It popped up as soon as that Crystal thingy took you," he explained, though it sounded shabby. Her brows creased. "Why didn't you perform the quest?" She asked "My limitation, remember?" Derrick recalled, She sighed and leaned back on the wall. She was still quite lost, and the fact that they escaped the stampede didn't make much sense, but she trusted them. Back to Jason, "Is there a logout i
They spread out to different parts of the broken temple and minutes later, met back at the front yard."Couldn't find anything" Gabbie reported"Me neither," said Eiden, and the same with Jason and Derrick. The place was a total mess, debris here and there, almost like a nuclear energy was released there."What's going on here?" Someone spoke.The gang turned to face the voice, and a hint of familiarity and annoyance flashed in Derrick's eyes. "You guys again?" He sneered.The ones who bumped into him and blamed him. There were four then but now they're missing a member."You must have not learned your lesson before; this place belongs to us; it's our territory, and I'll forgive you if you apologize and leave," said the guy who stood at the front."That's a whole load of crap—" Derrick moved forward but Eiden blocked his path. Derrick must have forgotten, these weren't NPCs but actual people. People who threatened to have them hanged."We're not here to cause trouble, we'll leave calm
What are you planning to do?" Jason asked with furrowed brows.Gabbie gave him a sideways glance, her eyes gleaming with a hint of mischief. "You know exactly what I'm planning to do," she said, a sly smile spreading across her face.Jason's eyes widened as realization dawned on him. "You can't be serious! You're going to use your special skill, aren't you?"She smirked. Her system wanted her to bruise three people….almost like it knew their current situation. She just happened to have a skill, one where she could take control of people's minds and turn them into her puppets…how convenient."You know it. I'm going to teach these knuckleheads some lessons."Eiden's eyes narrowed. "Gabbie, that's not a good idea. You haven't even mastered it yet, how are you sure it'll work?."Gabbie was undeterred. She had a score to settle with these guys for embarrassing Eiden, and she was going to enjoy every moment of it."You can't!" Jason objected, "w..what about your limitation?"Gabbie's eyes t
With one thought, her system disappeared. She faced the three and pouted, "Alright, alright, I'll let them off this time easily."She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and exhaled slowly. A fist hung right above Zhiheng's face, they stopped fighting and the glow in their eyes vanished. Disoriented and in excruciating pain, they tried to recollect themselves. They couldn't remember anything right after Gabbie took a position in front.She couldn't have done this, they reassured themselves; she was just a woman, after all. Women had no right to stand before men, more or less beat up three.They stared at her with fright. The mischievous look that lingered in her eyes spoke of her evil nature and cruelty. They were fine minutes ago, how did they end up in bruises?Without being told, they ran away frightened.Gabbie waved them off while grinning, "Bye-bye, little piggies." She had fun, yes but she never forgot her skill limit."This might not end well" Eiden sighed."Derrick", Gabbie