Midsummer Feast

“Isn’t it too realistic when killers are roaming in the middle of the cities, just as there are in the real world?” “Do you think the killers in the real world are killing players in the game?”

Merie didn’t like where the conversations were going. But they’d a point, in the simple matter that there could be one or two real killers along the PKs. Still, Merie got a feeling they were judging all the PKs because there might be one rotten egg.

“Listen, Guys. Whatever we do, so shouldn’t we meet anyone from the game in the real world. As long as you don’t know who the FUCK you’re dealing with.” Opiom clarified the rumours soaring the internet, there could be a killer targeting gamers in the real world. “It sounds as if we might need to be more careful from now on. Both in the real world and in the game.” Marcus was, for once, right. They needed to be as careful as they could.

Merie closed the party chat and headed toward the centre of the city, ready to sell the loot she’d got while she’d been gathering material during the last couple of days. Which had been less time compared with before.

The killer the other players had been talking about was a real threat. At first so had it just been seen as nothing special, until it had circulated a rumour that the victims all had been players in Rocking World. And as soon the media picked that up, so did all hell broke loose. They were blaming games for the killer’s action.

To be honest, so didn’t Merie know what she would say about the whole situation. She couldn’t say there wasn’t any risk of some psychos evolving because of a game, but she thought those were a minority. A horrible small minority. Otherwise so would either she or Anlie have been fucked for a long time ago.

It didn’t take Merie long before she noticed that every player seemed to be on edge, keeping more than one close eye on everyone else. Creating an uncomfortable air in the game, which honestly should be the only truly safe space for them as they couldn’t get physically injured there. Merie let out a sigh, trying to not get affected by the others behaviour.

“As a creator of this game, Rocking World, so would we like to make clear that our game isn’t creating killers. And neither so is there any of that sort in the game. We’ve created the game to give everyone the chance to create a new story of their own, which sometime will lead to murderous acts between players. But this behaviour is ONLY in the game and will not spill out in the real world. And if someone, against all chances, would feel they’re on the edge of crossing that line. So do we recommend you contact either the hospital or any of our staff. So will we do whatever it takes to solve the problem.”

The message was the same as the creators once had stated when the media had tried to lynch them, blaming them for all between petty crimes and murder. And even though most of it was good, so did the statement still have one huge problem, the indication there might be those balancing on the line between normal and fucked up.

Merie couldn’t help but to block out most of the interactions while selling her loot, as the player hadn’t been able to shut up about the killer-problem. And she didn’t need any more of that now.

Two days had passed since the last killing, but the panic was still felt in Rocking World. And it wasn’t made any better as the developers had given in to the pressure of the “civilised world” and forced everyone committing PK to leave out personal information to them. And those who didn’t would find themselves temporarily banned from the game till they sent in the information.  Even though they might have good intentions with it, so couldn’t Merie say that she did anything else to hate it.

Which wasn’t only because she had to share her information with them, but also because they hadn’t said what they did with the data. Were they sharing it with the police? Was every staff member able to see it? Were there others who were able to see it? And was there someone keeping an eye on them after they committed their “crimes”?

Merie hated it, yet so wasn’t she hesitating to, soon, attack other players as she felt she really had to let out some steam. And she couldn’t consider a better way than through the game.

Carefully placed her feet in the forest, once again dressed in her usual PK-equipment and searching for targets. She knew she was on thin ice since most players had got more careful, but she couldn’t help herself. First after a while so did she hear voices talking loudly, sounding as if there only were about three of them. And maybe her targets, as long they didn’t seem too strong for her to handle.

Getting closer to them and seeing them, dressed in simple clothes. Probably armour for newbies. And Merie wouldn’t fall for it. She’d read enough on the forum, where she talked with other PKs, to suspect it to be a trick. As lately so had high levelled players been dressing up and trying to look as weak as possible, to pull PKs in. Killing and exposing them. A dirty trick, which sadly worked quite well for them.

She rapidly left without being seen and continued her hunt, hoping she would find players with decent armour, who didn’t seem to try tricking her. Not that she could be sure she still wouldn’t get fooled, but she hoped the risks decreased.

Thinking of it. The mind games between PKs and the rest didn’t differ much from the law and criminals as both parties tried to get the upper hand.

Merie rapidly pushed away the thought, even if PKing wasn’t accepted by the majority of players, so was it nothing close to being a criminal. Telling herself that she had to stop thinking about things like that. Not only was it a dumb and idiotic way of thinking, but it was also a waste of the attention she needed as she hunted. She could easily miss a target, get caught or something less desirable.

During the time she spent hunting so had she heard quite some noises, and of those, she’d decided to check out so had there only been a few which hadn’t been from monsters. And those players she’d found had honestly been a disappointment to fight. But at the very least so had they been truly weak players, so there had been no need for her to escape. And even though it’d been disappointing to fight them, so was it enough to, somewhat, satisfy her. Resulting in that she now only was out for a stroll.

She was once again starting to think about the personal information she’d been forced to share. Considering if it’d been the right decision from the developers to collect it, and again what they were thinking about doing with it. If they shared it with the police, so could it mean that Merie had to be more careful than usual. Not that she did anything criminal, so she should honestly not have anything to fear. As long it didn’t turn out to be illegal to play bloody and extremely violent indie games. And if they shared the information with the police, so could she only hope that they wouldn’t pick her up for questioning. Which would send a horrible wrong signal to her parents, who didn’t know that she was PKing in the game.

Merie opened the menu and party chat, asking the rest of the group if anyone else had shared their information. Just so she knew what to expect, or to share the pain of being forced to expose herself.

“Why can’t you hold back when the situation is strained, Merie!?” Cleara was the first one to answer, once again being an asshole. “Done! Only hours after they put it into action, and I don’t regret a thing.~” It was no surprise Opiom had gone through it too, and it was comforting to hear she didn’t regret it as it indicated nothing had happened to her. Marcus soon followed up Cleara’s complaint and wrote a long preaching about how stupid Merie and Opiom were. “So… When shall we go out for our next hunt?” Which Opiom ignored, not that Merie cared about the preaching either. “I think we at least might need to wait for a while longer, so the other players can start to relax slightly.” Merie was sure it was for the best, as there were groups roaming every area and just waiting for PKs to show their faces.

“It was just announced there would be an update in a couple of weeks, so we should wait till a little while after that and try to get the most out of it before we go out.” Anlie had apparently logged in while Merie only paid attention to the chat, but her idea sounded fair enough. “Have they announced anything interesting we can have use of, Anlie?” Merie should check it up after she was done playing, but she was curious about it now. “There was something about it getting easier to spot PKs, but I don’t think they’ll make it impossible for us to have fun. So it’s maybe just a mark that will appear on our faces when we use our fake names.” If Anlie was telling the truth, so did Merie also hoped it was something like that. Otherwise so would it ruin the game for them and many others.

Anlie also spoke something about new skills being added and that they would try to set up a system to make it easier for them to create special events. “It sounds as if they’re thinking about trying to make the game more enjoyable, which they should’ve done since the beginning.” Opiom had a point, they should’ve set up something like that from the very start. Rocking World was still fighting with other large MMORPGs, and all the other games did have planned events. “Maybe we might need to consider creating a guild later on, as it might be necessary to participate in every event.” Marcus might be partly right, but she was hesitant if she wanted to join a guild created by him. He hadn’t shown his good side this far, and she was sure he only would be worse if he created a guild to rule over. “Rock Anarchy? How does that sound for a guild of free-spirited players, who tries to terrify even the most hardcore gamers?” Opiom seemed to be thinking through some ideas already, and if Merie would need to choose between her or Marcus’s guild, so would she without hesitation choose Opiom’s guild.

“There will be many ugly fishes to choose between if it comes to that. So there’s no need to think about it before we’re in need of thinking of it.” Anlie was right, and thinking about it, so might it be a grand chance Merie would join the same guild as Anlie if came to it. “Just hearing Opiom’s idea makes me want to puke. A guild isn’t about Anarchy. It should be more like a private army, where everyone listens to the leader’s orders. So I’m hesitant anyone of you ever will be able to join another guild than the one I’ll create.” Marcus could shut it up. He maybe could’ve a point in that it could be the norm, but it shouldn’t be the kind of guild Merie ever would consider joining. There were no chances in hell Merie would listen blindly to someone’s orders.

The conversation didn’t lead anywhere before Merie’s timer was set off and she had to leave. Looking forward to reading the information about the update and reading on the forum to get a better view of the new information. Maybe even be lucky to see if the developers wanted to clarify something