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Players, one by one, logged out of my world. A bit presumptuous, perhaps, but it is what it is.

Gradually the number of those online decreased, even if they want to play for twenty-four hours in a row, to play in the game to end all games, they could not. Connecting to the game by the capsule might have guaranteed the absence of issues that would make such long time gaming impossible, like having to go to the toilet, eat or drink water.

But it was only to an extent.

The capsule cannot become a life support, not indefinitely at least. So, after about eighteen hours since the game had started, the last Player, having looked around and admired the hut he had created out of planks, left the game, leaving me alone again.

After making sure that the number of Players online was finally down to zero, I sighed in joy. But today would probably the last day where the Players would go offline at the same general time.

Gradually, more and more players will connect to the game from different time zones, countries, and schedules, which will begin to interfere with my plans. In a couple of days, I will probably stop being completely alone in this world even for a few minutes a day, and the situation will change more and more until I find myself buried with Players constantly.

By that time, I really hope that the AI would be taught enough, or I’ve created enough time blocking activities that I could have free time for myself.

Sighing once more, with a slight movement of my foot, I lifted myself off the ground, flying like an invisible star into the air to a height inaccessible to the players before looking down.

Dozens, hundreds of islands hung in the air, some still covered in rippling portals and spawners, but worriedly enough, most were already cleared of mobs, some were even connected by suspension bridges. All this in only one day.

At the torn bridges I had to pretend that it wasn't actually completely broken and personally had to repair, I mean, ‘allow’ the players to repair, a blimp with a black bone flag was flying. A blimp whose NPCs were now struggling to pretend to be asleep, obeying the algorithm embedded in them.

And somewhere in the distance hovered huge new islands, altered by my influence, covered in frozen dust and stone crumbs, unknown to players yet but already prepared for newcomers to appear.

"It's not so bad," I grinned. I've never been a programmer or a designer, the hastily created plug of many blots, floating in the sky, outlined by thin lines of bridges, that seemed so tiny this far, was a botched wreck. But, it caused in me a strange sense of pride.

And what can I say? Perception change or not, I did create it. I did, well okay, not completely on my own, having to rely on a lot of AI work, but I did it!

And the players even seemed to be happy with it. I'm sure there will be plenty who will be dissatisfied simply because, in the large pool of players, there will always be someone who doesn't like it. But if you think about it, I did really well on my first day on this stressful job.

After a moment, I felt a slight tingling sensation in my fingers, and then a moment of concentration on the feeling allowed me to hear a familiar voice.

"Congratulations!"

The voice of my friend, though it came to me with all clarity, was a little changed, in the sense that it seemed to me as if he was enunciating his words a little more, on purpose.

"Thank you," I replied before sighing. Huh, it's funny if I text him something like ‘and then I sighed…’ It's like I'm describing a play-by-play.

"Judging by the fact that I'm still conscious of myself, did I make it?"

"Right on the money! The bosses are ecstatic, from what I hear, two members of the Board of Directors were even talked out of committing suicide… For now."

"Yeah," I sighed before sniffling, play-acting a little smug, "You could say I'm playing the role of savior here, heh… I never thought I'd save a life, especially in such a strange way."

"Well, the bosses are certainly pleased, I can guarantee you that." My friend smiled faintly, ah, here comes the bad news.

"But, you know…"

"Yeah, yeah, it's only going to get worse," I sighed, missing being actually able to do it with my own body. It's been one day already, how much longer could it take to create a body for me?

That's assuming, of course, that Theomachy would actually create a body for me, but I don’t really want to think about the other probabilities… I doubt I’ll be able to continue working if I did.

"By the way," I turned my avatar to my friend, "In my perception, your voice has changed… Not your voice, but rather your tone, as if you were stretching out the letters. Do you have any idea why?"

"Well, they took some of the restraints off of you when they realized that you were slowly adapting to your new form, you know, to speed up the way your mind works… Most of them are still there, but they seem to have removed enough restraints for you to notice a change."

"I see," As I expected, it was not that he was speaking slower, I was just thinking too fast. So I nodded, and then, after thinking for a second, I asked a question that interested me,

"Speaking of which, I realize that it's useless for me to ask about food or the toilet, but what about sleep? Doesn't my brain need to rest, you know, so that it doesn't overheat, or worse suffer any permanent damage?"

"Wait a sec," My friend nodded, and then looked away and seemed to be talking for a second, though no sound came out of his mouth, apparently going to ask other people for advice.

I, being left to my own devices, took a closer look at my friend’s appearance for a few seconds, more because I had lacked anything to do than any special reason. He looked just as I remembered him looking, if with an extra dark circle of fatigue on his face.

Then, after realizing that, with the difference of our time experience, I would probably be waiting for a long time if his conversation dragged on. And so, thinking that he wouldn’t be offended by me taking my attention back to the game system. It is my job after all, one that was entrusted by him of all people, so the chance of him being offended was very low.

Going back to what I was doing before being called, that is, working out the system of the air pirates and writing their lore so that Players could have something to learn about them. Other than the rather unimpressive placeholder that they are ‘air pirates from distant lands’ that is.

My friend returned after some time, judging by my inner clock, okay I asked the system, about five minutes have passed, but well, he was clearly in no hurry.

When he looked at me, and sensing an incoming conversation, I closed my draft, he began to speak.

"Well, they assure me that you will be all right, your brain that is. You are connected to the most powerful supercomputers of the Theomachy, a system that are also constantly cleared of unnecessary information. There’s no need to fear memory overflow and fatigue. As far as I understand, you don't need sleep, since the system refreshing functioned like that for you… But as for wanting to? You can try to mimic sleep, as to how to do that? I have no idea, maybe just try thinking that you want to sleep really hard? Anyway, even if you did manage to ‘fall asleep’ somehow, it won't be very restful, in the sense that you won't be able to sleep for more than a couple of seconds if you want to…"

"I see…" I stretched my head out, looking over my friend's shoulder, to see if he was actually serious or not. They are.

It's a bit of a shame, I've enjoyed sleeping so much in the past, probably too much, and now I can't… On the other hand, my work performance will be off the charts, heh. Constant almost 24 hour overtime should boost my savings by a lot!

Too bad there’s really nothing to spend it on, so me being able to not sleep and constantly work, doesn’t really compensate me financially.

"Okay, I get it," I sighed, "So… How’s the Player reaction? Seeing as I’m still aware, it should be good, right?"

"Yeah, you're doing great so far, only one or two angry posts on the forum, and those are more complaining about 'hardcore' nature of the game and the lack of a tutorial, so they were quickly crushed by fans collectively believing in 'the need to figure out the story themselves.'. My favorite being insults on how they should play PotatoHard games if they want their hands held so badly." My friend smirked a little slyly, probably meaning that some of the posts are probably astroturfed.

"Speaking of which, any plans for the overall meta story? It’s probably going to be important to have those this early in the game cycle before you go too far."

"A couple of sketches and ideas," I waved my hand in the air without saying anything specific. "I'll probably take the story in a fantasy post-punk direction, You know, 'Ragnarök' combined with OOParts science and magic or something like that."

"Well, good luck with that," My friend smiled, "But know this the forum is ecstatic, in no small part because the Players felt that they were given a chance personally to run on flying islands and to kill demons. The Forum about theory and lore crafting has been blowing up as the Players create conjectures and theories about the game’s lore and possible secrets."

"They're quick," I chuckled, "Speaking of which… I'd like access to those forums, you know, to keep track of the pulse of the community and their ideas. Maybe even steal a few and congratulate the Players for ‘figuring out’ a secret or two. That should keep the hype up."

My friend thought for a moment, and began looking to the side and talking to somebody silently. But, this time, before I could even get back to finishing the lore about the pirates, he returned.

"Yup, feel free, but, you know…"

"Yeah, I got it, I'll have to figure it out myself," I smiled, "And that's… Thanks, I guess. I seem to be alive now only because of you."

"You're welcome," My friend smiled back, "That's what friends are for, isn't it?"

***

While the AIs were going about their business, distributing the spawning locations for new Players and spreading them out over a large map. By the way, note to self, I should remember to create a full map myself if just to get a handle on the system myself, and learn its limits, rather than always relying on the AI. But that day is not today, the crunch is too much to risk missing a deadline for me to indulge in something like that.

Seeing the work being done, I allowed myself to take my mind off the project for a moment, after finishing the pirate faction lore at a basic level of course, and opened the forums window in front of me.

Perhaps because I was beginning to slowly come to terms with my current abilities, or maybe because I had encountered forums before, the window that opened before me resembled just like a computer screen. The familiarity allowing me to take a quiet look at the popular and active topics.

And noticed something peculiar.

The first hundred thousand players had already joined the game, but by all accounts, the number of forum members was much higher. The occasional threads here and there like ‘Is it as good as described?’ and ‘Before I join, I have questions’ only confirmed this fact.

I read through some of the most extensive threads with interest, and the Players have an overwhelmingly positive view on the game. And mostly, not because of my doing, most of the praise going to the game engine itself.

Giving the Players the opportunity to run and jump around in the virtual world. Though there are Players, mostly ones that were present during the Angel event I noticed, were also praising the lore of the game that I had created.

In fact, another of the big and active topics that gathered a lot of interactions, were about the air pirates. Some of the players were interested in their spawning location and wanted to join their faction, while others, on the contrary, and as expected, wanted to try and take them down, maybe even steal the ship for themselves.

Huh, one of the players noticed that the captain was an elf, when did one get close enough to the ship, and not get shot down, for that happen?

No, more precisely, she was not an elf. As in I had no time to create her race in the first place, only had time to create the NPC. Technically speaking, she was just an ordinary human NPC with a special appearance. Her unique look was mostly the result of messing with the NPC creator AI.

It was just to check how the layout of appearance will look like and at the same time to show the players that other races in this world were, even, playable.

When I finish making and implementing them, of course.

There was criticism on the forum too, albeit a little, mostly Player complaints about the two-hour rebirth time, loss of items, the lack of a tutorial or even hints. Oh, and perhaps more importantly to me, the unclear plot.

Note to self, get on top of that before the story goes in wildly diverging ways.

On the other hand, these same topics quickly enough sunk into the mockery of other players, urging the casuals, not to whine for at least five minutes. Quickly enough, such topics were locked by the Moderator when the flame wars turned almost literal.

In any case, my attention was taken by a fascinating and large topic. That is, ‘On the Matter of Leveling up and Stat Distribution’. So far, with most details still left to be uncovered, that is, created by me, the current consensus of the Player base was that on level ups, you should put in at least one point in Dexterity and Intelligence. The base stats needed before you could create equipment from improvised means. And lastly, and perhaps more importantly in...

What? Is that for real?

I even rubbed my eyes, even if it would do nothing since there’s no eye-fatigue and no irritating dust where I am, not believing what I’m seeing right away, putting a point in Charm.

Somehow, the players thought that the single most useless stat, one that I haven’t even coded their function, was an important stat.

No, actually, after the introduction of the NPCs, this stat is no longer a hundred percent useless, but seriously? Charm?

The players also asked each other about active abilities and how to get them… Ah, that's right, another note to self. Create active skill, there should be some bog-standard skill that are easy to implement and balance, right?

Glancing at one of the messages, I felt my hands grow cold. A certain Jim, the same one I most likely already knew from the game, was telling how to create Potions and the recipe he had obtained… As in the filth potion.

What a… You're scum, Jim.

Okay, well, let's add to the task list: new enemies, NPCs, finishing pirates, activatable abilities, recipes for Alchemy…

Thanks for that, Jim, you helped me decide on the most urgent tasks! When I get to creating curses, you’re getting a special one!

Thank goodness that after Jim's statement, the discussion on the thread turned to theorizing about what other recipes could be used for Alchemy. I even wrote down some recipes they had thought of for the future, and I haven't had time to add other systems to the game yet to worry about them now. So busying myself by stealing, I mean, thinking of new potion recipes, was a good use of time.

The last and most interesting topic I found turned out to be the master thread for all the game lore theories, something which I quickly find myself immersed in.

Mostly all the theories revolved around my original idea of a fantasy post-apocalypse, something around the concept of a curse I had previously invented, spread around, causing the appearance of demonic armies in the area.

But one of the questions posed in the forum made me frown. One that I just realized could be very important, it was a very basic, but fundamental question after all.

Where did the Players come from in the first place?

I mean, in all games there is, however conventional, a reason for the Players to appear in the world. Ranging from, ‘you're just a regular inhabitant of this world and gain control of your character when you came to age’, mostly to bypass the censors. To ‘God created you to fulfill a mission, oh, and ding! You have a major quest to do!’, something like that is a basic building block of any game.

What do I have in this case?

‘You are a normal person of this world’ is a hard pass. The players had just appeared out of thin air on some soaring islands, choke full of monsters. There was also a lack of a Divine Message telling them to slay the Demon King or something like that, and so Divine intervention is also put on the chopping block.

Hmm… So what else could it be?

I thought for a second, then two, then nodded sagely to myself, coming to a great decision.

I'll figure it out later!

***

While the Players slept, I continued to toil in sweat… Virtual sweat that is, I lack a face, or even an Endocrine system to actually sweat. I could maybe try and make my Avatar sweat, though! If it wasn’t such a massive waste of time.

Actually, when you think about it, can you even call what I’m doing ‘working’?. I mean, I was definitely working, and I expected to be rewarded for it. The Players, who had been slowly coming up just hours after the last one had left my world, were creating a lot of stress for me, as well as a reminder of what would happen if I screwed up. But I… I liked it, actually.

Having almost infinite powers in this world, with the ability to literally rewrite any laws of reality, I could create with a wave of my hand and a thought. It was almost addicting.

I could also have fun with the players… Okay, I'm thinking about it now!

Shaking my head, I returned to the task at hand: one of new MOBs, pirates, systems, and plot to create.

We can only dream of having free time!

***

The player nicknamed Sturm Stross could barely concentrate on his normal life. Almost constantly, his mind kept going back to his discovery yesterday. Now, it was not only a neuro-game from Theomachy it might even be called something productive!

He kept thinking, time after time, about what questions he should ask Signia next, the pirate captain, when he would return to the game. It didn't help matters either that the students in his class were pestering him more than usual today, begging him to share information about the game, tips, or even just his experience playing it.

Even one of the professors called him aside after the lecture, asking the same questions! And he thought it would be something serious, something about his job!

Well, as slowly as it had seemed to him, finally, the day was over, and Sturm was finally able to log in into the game again. After waiting a few seconds for loading and the not very pleasant sensation of connecting to the game servers, it was a combination of vertigo and some out-of-body experience.

Well, after a few uncomfortable moments, he opened his eyes and found himself standing in the same spot where he had logged off yesterday – on the bridge of the pirate airship.

Though, when he logged off yesterday, the airship was flying next to one of the hovering islands, just below the lip of the island, while now, Sturm found the ship slowly drifting over, above one of the islands.

Judging by the view and the glimpses of people here and there beneath it, he was over one of the game zones. The airship must be quite the sight for the Players below.

A moment later, Sturm saw a whole pile of system messages for him, about receiving several achievements and about the faction system that had opened for him.

To be precise, he had the ‘Pirates of the Endless Sea’ faction tab open, indicating the fact that he now knew only one captain and one of the smaller sub-factions, Insignia.

Nodding to himself, Sturm closed his status page after looking around, before hearing an already familiar voice.

"Hey, rookie, are you slacking off!?"

He was a Rookie, the lowest position in the Pirate of the Infinite Sea faction. So, Sturm answered when he heard the familiar voice, adding a bit of a playful tone to his voice,

"Negative, Captain, ready to work!"

Sturm turned to the speaker after a moment – Signia, whether she was an elf or something else he did not recognize, with a voluminous mane of black, unkempt hair that still looked stylized somehow and eyes of piercing blue, dressed in a red camisole, which anyone could imagine simply by hearing the word ‘pirate’, she cut an imposing figure. Though, this time she was not wearing her red tricorn hat, while smiling at him with bared teeth.

"That’s good, because I have more work for you to do…"

Sturm of course simply nodded his assent, before Signia continued.

"You did well yesterday," Signia nodded approvingly, causing Sturm to nod involuntarily in response. Whether it was the wonders of neural net or the genius of the developers, the game's NPCs seemed surprisingly alive to him.

The only question was what kind of wonderful AI was currently playing the part of the Pirate Captain. "Yesterday was a test, while the real work begins today… And we seem to have a lot of work to do,"

Signia exhaled a little irritably, considerably diminishing the brightness of her smile. "I told you yesterday that we were lost in the Endless Sea, didn't I?"

Sturm nodded, hearing the rather important bit of lore that he had gotten from Signia.

The Endless Sea is a fitting name for a celestial pirate to use, Sturm, however, only nodded, allowing Signia to continue. "Well, we weren't the only ones so unlucky as to wander into the Celestial Gardens by accident…"

At this point, Sturm picked himself up, yesterday Signia had refused to answer his questions about the lore of the world, of course couched in questions that are important for a newbie pirate to know. Role-playing is important, after all.

On the matter of her reluctance to give information, however, it was quite understandable, considering that yesterday he wasn't even ‘new’ to their pirate crew.

So, with him being a ‘proper’ part of the crew now, this would be the first important information about his surroundings that he could get. "This morning I received information that at least four other ships were approaching the hovering island, and there’s a chance that it could actually be far more than that. And, as you can understand, the Pirates of the Endless Sea rarely treat each other well, we are competitors, and we are well-armed, and dead people couldn’t talk. So… Well, you understand, right?"

'Hmm, factional quests?' Sturm smiled slightly, but said otherwise. "I understand, are we preparing for battle?"

"I doubt it, by the looks of them, they should be greatly exhausted after the long crossing and probably just as lost as we are," Signia shook her head slightly. "They don't teach ordinary pirates to navigate in the Celestial Gardens… Besides, we have no information about where they will end up. But I wouldn't mind relieving them of their loot. We weren't particularly lucky this time, but…"

This time, Sginia’s smile was all teeth.

"Since you're so eager to work…" Signia grinned slightly, "Here's a job for you. Find out where they are now and come back with this information, and then we can decide on what we would do next."

"Aye aye, Captain," Sturm smirked, completely unaware that the one smirking the most was the almighty god of this world that is currently watching him now.

***

So, Sturm, you want unique quests? Here's one for you; embark on a quest to find other pirates! Who have their own ships, that can travel wherever they want, in a very large world, oh and since they can move in three dimensions, don’t forget to check under the island as well!

No, I didn't give him a completely impossible quest, I did send four pirate ships to this world, and only four, all still under Roger's command and control. I scattered them, with three on other sides of the world and the fourth in the very center, docking them at the soaring islands, some of which still had no working bridges between them!

The quest could easily take a whole week to complete, and even in the worst-case scenario, for me that is, at least a couple of days.

In the meantime, the pirate ships that have landed will also be recruiting newcomers and sending them out to gather information about each other too!

A bunch of players running around the game world will attract the attention of other players, and they will join in on the fund. In the end, the most probable thing to happen would be a little civil war of players against each other!

Why come up with quests and figure out what to occupy players with when you could pit them against each other!?

Another quick teleport to a marked player allowed me to determine that Jim was also busy with his own thing. I had created slash dropped off about a dozen simple recipes for Alchemy, and now he, with a few followers around him, was trying to find them.

They are eager to find the formula by doing whatever they can, using the most strange of ingredients, before testing the resulting liquid on the other Players around them. Their kill count is quickly rising.

Well, all the luck to them. A couple of the recipes there are pretty simple, but for the rest, you'll have to think outside the box. Literally. An internal logic for the recipe, was not on my to-do list!

Though with the almost mad scientist level of demented that the Players could think of, that might not be too much of a challenge, actually. Oh, come on, one of the Player cooked an imp in curse, and he'll probably get at something by that random method, too.

What's Jabberwocky up to now, I wonder? Fortunately, it didn't take long to find him, considering my condition and the fact that I only had three players on my list of marked players, and I had the ability to teleport.

In a moment, I was right next to him and found that Jabberwocky was on one of the islands. Not even the one where he first summoned an angel, but on another, valiantly completing the quests to close the portals…

Which was rather odd? It was a strange feeling, I was pleased that someone had just gone to do the quests I'd prepared, not trying to find another ‘hidden’ mechanic of the game… But it was Jabberwocky!

The same asshole who'd thought of the crazy plan to summon an angel! A quick glance at his logs only increased my confusion. This creep had already completed a dozen of these quests, quickly making it to the top of the leaderboard of the highest levelled Player. He almost hit the tenth, while the second placed Player, Sturm, had only got to the sixth…

A sense of danger crept up my non-existent spine at the mystery. It was something strange! And strange things are not good for me!

I stared at his logs, then blinked. This… cunning man managed to create a guild without a guild! And had exploited it mercilessly!

Originally, the quest to purify the underground source of filth gave a lot of experience points when completed, and it wasn't a quest exclusive to a Player. Anyone could do the quest if they did the right thing. And it was very simple, one just needed to pour holy water into the spring, and lo and behold, the way is open.

You are now free to run to the next island and help the other players to perform the same quest!

Thus, it was possible to distract players with pointless grinding, giving nothing to the islands, while kind of giving them a sense of progress through the opening of new islands. At the same time, I could partially solve the problem with Players who could not complete the quest by themselves, somehow.

If you can't, just wait, help is on the way! Well, it was an excuse to give large amounts of experience to the Players, ample enough to distract them from the actual emptiness of the world. After all, everyone likes to see the numbers growing in their characteristics, even if they do not really understand what these characteristics are for.

But then the cunning Jabberwocky realized that if anyone could fulfill this quest, he could gather a gang of Players that were present yesterday at the summoning of the angel and began to engage in banal racketeering. The first time, he got a few players in his gang, with high Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina, whom he sent to hammer imps mercilessly, and at the Players who began to resent their monopoly.

Then, with enough players to in his group, he went in and poured the holy water found on this island, receiving experience.

The new players, the first, or second level, people who were just beginning to play, could not oppose anything to the already more or less well-coordinated team of fourth or fifth level Players with good improvised equipment.

And, most importantly, even in case that PK could somehow give negative effects on himself, though I have not yet made a system for PK, Jabberwocky made sure that he, technically, does not touch the other players!

He was just hanging around with those who had actually killed those players! True, the players didn't give any experience when killed, not for any special humanitarian reason, but just because I hadn't created such a thing out in the game yet. Apparently, the Players had already decided that it was part of the game design to discourage players from doing PKs…

Okay, we'll figure something out… But you, Jabberwocky, really disappointed me! I'll have to figure out how to slip you some crap like the one you slipped me… Oh, wait, I think I know what to do!

***

As the Player nicknamed Double Down, just Double to his friend, killed yet another Player, he had to wonder how he had arrived to this point, and if there’s something like a Karma system, he was definitely screwed. It was not that he liked killing other players, he was not a psychopath after all, especially considering that killing them nets him no experience at all. Furthermore, with just how realistic the game looked?

The game might just be a game, but when your cudgel ripped into the skull of a screaming guy, crushing his head and making blood and brains spray to the sides… You could only hope that you wouldn't have nightmares at night.

What made the situation all the more ironic, in Double's opinion, was that he was killing innocent, and weak Players, literal first level players, in order to make the job easier for the future paladin. A paladin who had been personally commissioned by an angel. There must have been some subtle social commentary lurking here, but Double brushed it off, after which he ripped the cudgel from the dead player's head.

The corpses of imps de-spawned quickly enough, turning to ashes in a few minutes before being scattered by a gust of wind. But the corpses of Players, either in order to give the killer a chance to loot them, and for the killed Player to retrieve whatever is left on their corpses, it lasted for twenty-four hours.

In other words, Double literally left a trail of corpses behind him wherever he went, as did Jabberwocky, generally speaking, since it was on his orders that Double killed the other players…

After searching the pockets of the hapless Player, probably some pocket lint since he doubts that literal newbies have anything good to loot, all the while trying not to look at the very realistic image of a crushed skull, Double was about to turn away from the corpse, when… A strange feeling ran down the back of his neck, down his spine, before a quiet voice, like the gnashing of metal, made him shudder sharply, turning to the source of the voice.

"How… Pathetic…"

Abruptly, Double turned around, striking hard with his weapon, but the source of the voice simply chuckled at his action as he struck nothing, their tone as dry as bones rubbing against sand.

"Well, you shouldn't react like that, otherwise someone might think you weren't one of the good preacher's noble guards. But then again, are you?"

Glancing around once more, Double said quietly, "Who are you!? Where are you!?"

"Who am I? How could you not know?" The voice seemed a little surprised, before it started laughing. "I am the one you worship with your murder. I am the one you present your blood sacrifices to. I am the one to whom you send a prayer with every blow…"

"A Demon, then," Double answered quietly.

"Yes, no, who cares? It's not who I am that matters, it's who you can be."

"And who might that be?" Double, remembering the summoning of the angel by Jabberwocky and the fact that role-playing seemed to be quite rewarding in this game, gave up the urge to say something like 'skip the lore, let's do the quest.'

"Why, I'm curious myself," The voice seemed distracted by his own thoughts, letting the ending of his words flutter in the wind, "I'm just giving the opportunity for you to learn it yourself…"

"The only question is," Double felt as if something were resting on his shoulders, pressing him in place. "Will you agree to it?"

"I don't force or even insist," The demon grinned as if he could. "A noble paladin has no shortage of… followers to choose from."

Double thought about for a moment, glanced at Jabberwocky, who was further ahead, surveying the path beneath his feet. Unguarded.

Before he nodded, and the Demon, and it could only be a demon, laughed.

***

There you go, Jabberwocky! Now you're dealing with an assassin who has unique abilities, a bunch of achievements, and the ability to gain experience from player kills. And the funny thing is, the higher-leveled the player he kills, the more experience he gets, and guess who's the highest ranked?

Yes, we'll have to remember to define what kind of Demon this assassin was serving is. We should also start detailing the abilities he could use.

I'm going to work on fleshing out those abilities right now, and in just the nick of time! In a couple of hours, we're going to have another batch of players joining the game, and I've prepared some new enemies besides imps to keep things interesting for them!