HC:Pacifist | Ch. 64 - Search (Patreon)

"Try to stay calm, Mrs. Bessie."

"Don't tell me to stay calm! It's not your son that is being held captive!" Even though Drake had dealt with some of the worst characters the city had seen, he still couldn't remain unaffected by this woman's rage. Roth hadn't exaggerated when he had described his mother to him. At least she wasn't screaming outright for the whole street to hear. Discretion was currently their best weapon.

Roth's brothers seemed miniature versions of him, even though they were visibly older. Thomas was the proper older brother. He was holding his mother's hand and trying to comfort her. Danny had some of Roth's impulsiveness and restlessness. He hadn't stopped moving since he had arrived. They all had the same brown eyes, and he could tell that Roth was the one who took the most after his mother.

"Mr. Drake..."

"Please, just Drake."

"Drake, are you telling us that Mr. Loki has trapped our brother inside an AVR capsule?"

"According to Brian, yes."

Hearing the name of Brian being mentioned. Sparks and thunder seemed to erupt from Mrs. Bessie's eyes.

"That ungrateful brat!" She hissed as if an angry snake. "I babysat him when he was a toddler! He came to my house every other day to play with Roth! And he dares do this to my son and still come live with me?" Mrs. Bessie was incensed. The letter Brian had hidden from her was now in her hand and full of wrinkles and creases.

Drake gently reached out to her and pulled the letter off her hand before she destroyed it. This letter was necessary for the next part of his plan. Telling the boy to stay in the basement was the right move. Even though Roth's brothers were quiet, he could see the same sparks in their eyes.

"Although Roth's situation is difficult right now, it isn't hopeless," gently reassured Drake.

"How so?" asked Thomas.

"Roth has provoked some influential people. For him to be left unharmed, even after going to prison, says that they wanted him to get out so they could get back at him too. This shows extraordinary patience and malice. It also shows recklessness. Mr. Loki seems to lose his excellent judgment where Roth is concerned. This is good news for us."

"What about Brian? Did you..."

"Don't worry about him. He's not going anywhere. We will keep the witness alive and well. Having a witness is good news for us too. The last good news is that Brian told me where Roth is being held."

Mrs. Bessie and the boys looked at each other happily.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's call the police and get him out."

"Not yet."

"Why?

"You have to understand that the only reason you're alive and unharmed is because Loki is saving you for dessert. Also, although he can't possibly own the whole force, he must certainly have some people in the police on his payroll."

"Are you saying that...?"

"If we bust Roth out, and Loki gets wind of it, he'll probably come for his family and you use it as bait or a weapon against him."

Mrs. Bessie was pale, looking at her other two sons. Drake interpreted that as concern for not wanting to lose them.

"What are we going to do?" asked Danny.

"We know that even though they got him into the game, they somehow lost track of him. That's where we have our window of opportunity.

Waving the letter, Drake continued, "The first thing we will do is contact this Seargant. He knows how to find Roth inside the AVR system."

"And then what?"

"As long as we play by Loki's rules, we are disadvantaged. We have to create our own game. For now, what I want you to do is the following..."

*

Now that Roth was outside the peace corps headquarters, he could see he wasn't far from the auction house. Should he risk going? He had 94 gold in his inventory. There was so much he wanted to do with the money! He forced himself to go the other way. If it were him hunting for a player, the auction house would be one of the places he would keep under surveillance. It was better to wait until he had entered the witness protection program.

He had been in the street too long; it was time to return to the sewers. Just the thought of returning made him sick, but that's where he felt safest for now. If it were unpleasant for him, it would also be unpleasant for any pursuers, especially Shirley. She hated everything that smelled.

Roth couldn't keep relying on the [Miniaturize] skill for entering the sewers. He had to find out the entrance. He went to the forums and looked for any posts about how he could go in. Although the free posts had no relevant information, the Gazette did. As he suspected. he had to go to the slums. That's where the entrance to the sewers was. From what Scratchy had said, this would also be where the sewers stank the most. It was also the place where he would learn more about the crime family terrorizing Soros. As much as he hated the idea, he braced himself and ran toward the slums.

When Roth reached the city's eastern part, he felt a putrid stench engulfing the air. If this was what it smelled like up here, what would it be like in the sewers? From one street to the other, the beautiful, clean facades transformed into dilapidated buildings and crumbling walls. Whereas the rest of the city had wide, open streets that made the city seem spacious and expansive, narrow and winding alleyways weaved through the area, casting shadows in every corner.

Everything that Roth knew about the slums was what he had read about in the Gazette. Although Roth didn't plan on taking any of the game's mainstream classes, he had studied the quests to unlock each of the four main ones, hoping it would give him clues to find his one day. After all, he was already level 11 and still had no idea what class to choose.

According to the forums, the quest to become a rogue was done here in the slums. Every mid-grade city in the game had such a district, and there was an NPC in each city handing out a similar quest. It usually involved a variation of hide-and-seek where players' ingenuity and agility were put to the test. Like the warrior quest, one had to compete with other candidates. Victorious rogues got in on the first try; others weren't as lucky.

Although slum districts were very similar across the world of AstroTerra, they had slightly different configurations. Had Roth not read the Gazette, he wouldn't have known that there were streets that shouldn't be entered if one didn't have the relevant alignment or reputation. There was a delicate ecosystem of factions that could react violently if disrespected. The guide outlined a safe path for newcomers, saving them the trouble of being robbed or killed by NPC bandits that preyed on visitors.

Although Roth didn't know much about law enforcement, his four years in prison had taught him much about the world of crime. He had met with racketeers, forgers, thieves, extortionists, and mobsters. For instance, his sponsor in the Rageaholics was a mob captain who worked for Santorini, the most feared loan shark in the city. He hadn't enjoyed talking about his experience in the world of crime, but he had shared with Roth how the family had been brought down, resulting in his arrest.

If Roth could retrace the steps the authorities took in the real world to bring down organized crime networks, perhaps he could do the same with the Gazpachos. The principles had to be similar.

The first thing Roth needed was to set shop somewhere, preferably a place that protected him from his pursuers while allowing him to keep an eye on the activities of his target.

Then, he needed to run surveillance and, if possible, find an informant inside the family. It was essential to understand the scope of their criminal activities, who their rivals were, and, more importantly, who was on their payroll. That was the key to completing this quest. He could find the official protecting the Gazpachos if he followed the money trail.

As much as Roth hated it, the sewers were the safest place to be right now. Not only was it a place that few players came to, but it was also one that could potentially afford him with many spy holes if he miniaturized. Besides that, that's where his closest allies in town were: the ratans.

Even though he had only found one entrance to the sewers in the guides, he was sure there were many more. He would try to get the ratans to show him where they were. That way, he could travel unimpeded around the city without risking being found out.

He was happy to find that the entrance to the sewers could be reached by traveling the safe path he was using. The inconspicuous entrance, hidden behind a pile of discarded crates and debris, was an opening in one dilapidated wall. There was no way Roth would have found it were it not for the guide. At least there was an advantage in starting the game late; he didn't have to brave new terrain.

As he went through the entrance, the air grew increasingly damp, heavy with the stench of decay and filth. Echoes of dripping and running water ahead reminded Roth of the murky smelly world he was about to revisit.

The atmosphere changed drastically once he'd finished climbing down the weathered stone steps. The narrow passage widened into a network of tunnels, their walls slick with moisture. Light beams filtered through the occasional grate above, revealing glimpses of the sewage flowing sluggishly along the canals.

The stench was so much worse here than beneath the commercial district. It was so much that Roth felt he deserved a bonus of +20 resilience! He had to hurry. He had to enter the witness protection program, help Soros, save himself, and escape this horrible smell.

Since this entrance was common knowledge, it wasn't long before Roth could hear players exploring the sewers. What surprised Roth was that someone would come down here willingly! Most of them were rogues, and there were also a few warriors. The drops here must be very enticing, thought Roth. Or had they come here to unlock resilience too?

Roth walked around the sewers exploring the area nearest to the entrance he had just used. He heard a scraping sound and a mechanical clunk. He got ready to run, but the sound only grew more distant. Roth sighed in relief. The gatorbot patrolling the slums had gone the other way. It was starting to get annoying to run away form the drones.

Soon, Roth found another reason for finding more players in this part of the sewers. He heard a commotion ahead. There was a battle going on. As Roth peeked around the corner to look at the chamber where the noise was coming from, he saw three warriors surrounding a biped 4-meter tall alligator.

Its scales gave it a rough look. Its mighty tail whipped violently, targeting its attackers, trying to break free from the encirclement. Roth would have thought it was a dinosaur if he hadn't read about this boss before and read that it was an alligator. That was how tall and scary it looked.

As it kept enduring hits from the hunting party, the alligator let out a mighty roar that shook the tunnels. The roar was half digital as if it screamed on a microphone. The players didn't relent and kept attacking it.

As Roth had read in the forums, the alligator wild boss was a cyborg. Its arm was prosthetic, made of silvery metal. Instead of a hand or a paw, it ended in a mechanical maw, similar to the one on the alligator's snout. He tried to bite and trap the players with either maw. As the maw closed, the resulting shockwave caused the players to be slightly pushed back and caused little waves and ripples on the water's surface.

One of the alligator's eyes was mechanical, and it kept zooming in and out like a camera trying to get a better picture. As the fight progressed, it shone with the red right, and he jumped backward, breaking free from the encirclement. It started to tap on his bionic arm as if programming a console.

"Careful! It's about to enter phase three! Get the scramblers ready!"

The crew of players seemed to know what they were doing. When the warrior taking the lead gave the order, one of the rogues took a cube-shaped device from his inventory and held it up, patiently waiting for the right moment.

As the cyborg finished inserting commands into the console in his arm, two gatorbots slowly emerged from the water. As soon as they broke the water's surface, the rogue pushed a button in the cube and threw it. It landed precisely in the middle of the triangle between the gatorbots and their summoner, releasing a purple gas explosion that encapsulated all three.

Sparks flashed in the gatorbots and in the mechanical arm of the alligator, rendering them useless. With his arm immobilized, the alligator was left stunned and vulnerable.

"Quick! Finish it!" Roth thought about whether he should intervene in the fight. He surprised himself with how collected he was when seeing an animal attacked like this. Maybe, it was because of everything he had been through in the game already. Maybe, it was because of the unbearable stench of the sewers that didn't even let Roth think straight. Or perhaps it was because the alligator was half-machine, somehow robbing it of some of Roth's sympathy.

While Roth tried to figure out his feelings about the fight, the alligator boss collapsed, defeated. The Gatorbots' lights turned red and submerged back into the water. The players rejoiced at their successful hunt and harvested the loot.

As they left the chamber, they saw Roth. One of them happily mocked him.

"Bad luck, greenie. Now you have to wait for six hours before it respawns." The others happily laughed, more out of the residual joy of a successful hunt than out of mockery.

"Not interested in hunting this boss. Out of curiosity. Is this where it always respawns."

"Not always. It can respawn in different chambers similar to this. They're several dead-ends in this part of the sewers similar to this."

"Let's go, guys! I want to turn in the quest and get my rewards."

Roth followed them with his eyes but lingered. Now that the alligator boss had been defeated, Roth leisurely walked into the chamber. It had a ceiling high enough to accommodate the tall alligator

Looking around, Roth felt similar to when he'd visited the palatial clearing in the Green Woods. The Gatorbots had come out from underwater. And after the alligator was killed, they sank back down. Where had they gone? It was time to try his skill.

Search!

Ch. 63 - Peacekeeper Josh

INDEX

Ch. 65 - Mario