Arc One: Corpse Collector

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“Attention all players. I, the Black King, ruler of the Ebony Strykers, am allowing any and all to join my Guild. This will be the first time I have done so in the entirety of Deep Ground’s launch. Please, choose your allies wisely.”

That message had been relayed all over Deep Ground in the last day or so, and those curious enough to venture into the matter further would no doubt be replaying those exact words through their links all around the world. The world…it had changed so much….how did it become like this? When did the future become entirely reliant on some stupid video game? And yet, that was how it always was. And that was how it would always be.

Now and forever more.

These thoughts swirled and bickered in the mind of a certain individual; the one who had sent that very same message in fact. Any and all people to freely join her Guild….what was she thinking? Did countless years of tradition and experience not teach her anything? Not a single thing? Were the words of her mentor, the one granted title of the former Black King, wasted on her?

Yes…and no. Things had changed. Times had changed.

There was no doubt in her mind that the adults of their society cared little for her endeavourers; and indeed, most people past the age of 19 had deleted her calling card from their own links, grumbling about the damned game and going about their own predetermined lives. But the players…they were what really mattered to her. A game without players was no game at all.

It was a mindless sport.

Knowing she was well secured in her hidden location, she closed her eyes to concentrate. The afternoon sun had begun to wane slightly, and school had just let out the youth of tomorrow into the end of a radiant Thursday. People both online and in real life would either be gathering to formulate new plans and strategies, or test their hand against fate and play alone.

Purple Crown Academy usually had massive centers within the building for these gatherings, although she preferred to stay away from the rest. It really was better this way.

Realizing that she had stalled long enough, the girl willed herself to give into the global link that connected everyone’s brains to the World Interface. It wouldn’t be long now and….

3

2

1

She opened her eyes to see a darkened city surrounded by a low mist around her, encompassing all within her view. A place that remained enigmatic in the massive map of Faded City ever since the program’s initial launch.

A flashing screen that only she could see appeared over her head for a few brief seconds.

Welcome, Moon Rider-Black King

Black King. Yes, the full gravity of her earlier actions now weighed heavily on her. Players from far and wide would finally gain the chance to join the elusive Black King and her Ebony Stryker Guild. Having followed the rulings of the previous Ruler, she had never allowed any player to join, cutting them down if they ever dared.

But now….things were different.

Turning around, she found a lone throne that was so dark, it almost glimmered in the low light. Her District. Always cold and empty. No one dared to hunt or dual in the city with pristine black glass on the buildings, reflecting all things. Perhaps that would change?

Yes…perhaps it would.

Placing herself on her throne, she crossed her legs and rested her cheek onto her pale knuckles. Dressed in a long coat that was as black as her long hair, the girl’s tinged red eyes narrowed. A sheathed katana rested on the side of her throne, as if the weapon itself was lazy.

Now she would wait. Now she would bide her time and welcome anyone, regardless of rank or Guild, with open arms.

And then…then the Black King would begin the journey towards her ambitions

"Reaching... reaching... reaching!"

Not a single bit of luck today, stretching really wasn't the best method to height growth. And it's awful annoying when you're trying to keep yourself athletically valid to all the teams you've applied to join, but just can't seem to gain any weight, can't seem to grow any taller. It was lost cause, it really was, and if she wasn't so stubborn about the whole ordeal.. Well then, she'd have given up by now. Such is the daily routine for Claire, within her confines she'd exercise regularly, always keeping active to strive off that boredom, to keep herself interested in the world around her. But it was right after her little stretching effort that some big news came in.

“Attention all players. I, the Black King, ruler of the Ebony Strykers, am allowing any and all to join my Guild. This will be the first time I have done so in the entirety of Deep Ground’s launch. Please, choose your allies wisely.”

Words from the figure of myth, the legend, [The Black King]. And oh such big news it was, and she knew exactly who would want to hear it. More importantly, someone who wouldn't have heard already.

Before she could even muster up the thought in her head, Claire bolted out, down the hallway past a few fellow students recklessly bumping into a few of them, unfortunately she was in too much of a rush to apologize. Ignoring some less than favorable comments, she'd finally reach the stairwell, stepping quickly and uncannily downstairs and into another larger hallway that held some more focused locations. One in particular was her destination. She made a left, continuing her rush to the very end to find a room that was labeled quite decoratively [Purple Crown Library] above the double doors. Swinging them open mindlessly and more so 'noisily', Claire made her way to the tables and chairs at the furthest corner of the room where the quieter students liked to study in peace. That peace which was probably abruptly ended by her entrance.

Some recognizable students were within the area, but none were the target she had just been looking for. Stomping loudly she continued her search until the sight of her friend was finally in view, quickly, she quieted down and slid into the chair next to Haruka. Sliding her own arm in a strangely suggestive way against her friend's, Claire bowed her head down and whispered as quietly as she could.

"Attention all players. I, the Black King, ruler of the Ebony Strykers, am allowing any and all to join my Guild. This will be the first time I have done so in the entirety of Deep Ground’s launch. Please, choose your allies wisely. Not even ten minutes ago was this message sent out, and I figured you'd want to know."

Daniel was inside Deep Ground, parkouring his way across his guild's section of the city. An announcement from the Black King, reputed for not allowing anyone to join the Ebony Strykers since anyone could remember, saying that anyone was now free to enter? That kind of news was too momentous to ignore. When Daniel heard it, he couldn't stay still. He needed to move around, discharge his excess energy. Already he was making his way to the Ebony Strykers city. He may already be in another guild, but that didn't mean he could pop in for a visit... or two... or several.

---

Michelle was also in Deep Ground right now, walking around the building where she and her 3 advisors were currently discussing business. The "business" was mainly about the Black King's announcement.

"Such momentous news! The times are changing, indeed," said one advisor, a Brawler using the Tank spec.

"Perhaps we should go visit the dark city ourselves, or at the very least, send a scouting party," said another, this one a Wizard with the Sorcerer spec.

"Nonsense, it's not right! It's completely against protocol!" said the third, who was an Assassin with the Shinobi spec. "Think of the repercussions such an act would cause!"

"Shut up, all of you," Michelle said, raising her hand to interrupt. "I have listened to you all, and I feel that Force has a point." At those words, the Sorcerer named Force smiled, while the Shinobi quickly interjected. "But my lady, the violation of-" was all he got out before Michelle interjected herself.

"I am well aware of the unsaid agreement between the guilds, Enigma. However, this announcement is too large to ignore. It completely overrides that agreement. Would you not agree?" Michelle said.

The Shinobi Enigma wrinkled his nose in distaste, and said, "I can understand being curious, but my lady, the agreement was placed for a reason, surely!"

Michelle responded, "Of course it was, as it has been there for as long as the Ebony Strykers has remained member-less. And now the times are changing. Who's to say whether the agreement has any weight at all anymore?" She then pointed at Enigma and said, "Also, I keep telling you, stop calling me 'my lady'! I would prefer that you call me 'Star'."

The Tank chuckled, then said, "It seems Star has her mind set. You'd better give up hope on the so-called 'protocal', Enigma."

Enigma glared at the Tank and said, "Shut up, Brick," then turned his attention back to Michelle, sighing, and said, "Very well, then, my lady, we will do things your way."

Michelle smiled, though slightly miffed at the words "my lady", and said, "Wonderful. Now then, here is what we'll do."

Donny Lee Yang - Arms Slave

Another day, another job. Some outlaw who couldn't quit his god-complex. Donny never met the guy himself either in real life or in game, and that was good; it made it easier to do what he was about to do. His contact told him what he needed to do to make sure this outlaw learned his lesson; kill his dog and put it's head into his lunch box. Child's play. Killing the pup wasn't too difficult, he just needed to attract it to the street right when a car rolled by. Road kill. After that he did his duty as a citizen and cleaned up the mess. Of course, he also tore the dog's head off it's corpse and wrapped the collar around what remained of it's neck. How else was he suppose to get it's head?

Anyways, Donny was now washing his arms. They were a bloody mess, but luckily he pulled off the job easy enough. The outlaw was some sort of athlete so he left most of his stuff in the lockers. Donny went in, found his lock, placed the dog's head, and left without anyone none the wiser. Still it didn't really satisfy him. "Just what he is suppose to think once he see's it? Someone killed his dog? Well... I guess there's always that. But now he's just going to be pissed all day." Sometimes Donny wondered why he does what he did. Mostly because he felt it was all pointless and petty. If someone really wanted to teach this guy a lesson, they should have tried to hit him with a car instead of his dog. But whatever. Someone get's their vengeance and Donny get's paid. But he'll have to log into Deep Ground to do that.

Donny headed over to one of Purple's Academy many game centers. A place were all the students could get together and play Deep Ground. Donny himself had spent quite a bit of money to get himself a reserved room. He disliked how exposed he was playing Deep Ground in public, and he should know of it's dangers, as he's preformed jobs on many players who were logged into Deep Ground but neglected to protect their physical bodies. Once he entered his private room, securing it shut, he took a seat and allowed himself to enter the game. "Showtime!"

Welcome, Arms Slave.

“Attention all players. I, the Black King, ruler of the Ebony Strykers, am allowing any and all to join my Guild. This will be the first time I have done so in the entirety of Deep Ground’s launch. Please, choose your allies wisely.”

That was one Arms Slave mind as he drove through the Faded City. There were plenty of rumors and conspiracies about who the Black King was or what the Ebon Strykers even did. Everything from posers claiming to be the Black King in disguise or part of his guild, but the only thing that could be taken for fact was that the Black King was currently Moon Rider. That was it; only a certain few knew anything else and they weren't saying anything. No one even knew what class Moon Rider was, though many would guess Assassin due to how variable it was and how appropriate it would be as a Black King. Even so, no one has ever actually fought against Moon Rider or met him or her in battle. It did bring to question just how Moon Rider got to level 9 since no one seems to ever had fought him or her. But these things didn't really matter to Arms Slave. Only two things mattered: Killing as many people as he can before his next birthday in ten months, and if the Black King can bring him the battles. Arms Slave didn't care for rankings or goals. Just to make the Faded City echo with the wails of the dying.

Restu Goroshi - Dark Wraith

Dark Wraith entered the halls of the Black King. There she sat on her throne, waiting for anyone to approach her. Dark Wraith should consider herself fortunate that she might have been the first to meet her, but she showed no joy. Dark Wraith was merely here to see the Black King herself, as well as to obtain the true identity of the Black King. Dark Wraith, or in this instance Restu, recorded the information she saw and stepped towards the Black King and into the light. Or at least a higher illumination than what was given in these dreary halls.

"Greetings... Moon Rider."

Out of respect, Dark Wraith did not use the Black King's real name, not like how she would with others. Better to not anger the strongest of the Ebon Strykers so early. Dark Wraith wanted to rise up in the ranks of the guild, for the authority and power it held. She didn't have plans to usurp the thrown and given how elusive the Black Guild operates she doubt that she would even be eligible if she chose to duel Moon Rider for the title. Than again, the Black Guild was so reclusive and secretive, no one knows what they've been doing. They were an enigma; such a powerful force within the game, yet there was no proof or evidence of their actions. They merely exist. And Dark Wraith aimed to change this. The Black Guild had too much potential to try to play the exclusive but functionally useless club. Now that the Black King herself finally opened up public applications, perhaps now they can actually do something in the Faded City.

"I am Dark Wraith, and I would like the join the Ebon Strykers. I'd imagine that is a lot of work to be done now that you've declare war against the guilds."

Haruka Fujiyama, at the moment, was sleeping with her eyes open, a skill that she had mastered many years ago. The past few days have been busy days indeed, a combination of hardcore win-farming, territory-conquering, and unit exams. While it WAS true that the White King would be able to get a proper amount of sleep if she hadn’t been studying three hours a day, it was also true that the Japanese girl was one of the few students in Purple Crown Academy that actually cared about academics. Yes, she was still planning to secure an immensely influential future by gathering thousands of victories in the Deep Ground, but that didn’t give her an excuse to not build a strong academic foundation. It was the same with her physical body and her cultured mind.

A good future didn’t mean a good person, after all, and Haruka strove to be a good person first.

Even though that ‘goodness’ of hers was more often than not cast aside in favor of ‘effectiveness’. One couldn’t get a record-breaking number of wins without farming their Guild members on a weekly basis, after all.

Her nap, however, was interrupted by some of the greatest news she had heard all year. Blue eyes snapping open the moment Claire had repeated that message, Haruka smiled and remarked, “My my, that recluse finally wants to have a social life?”

Standing up and brushing the fringe of her black hair out of her eyes, the White King suppressed a yawn, before walking out of the library, trusting Claire to follow. “Guess we’ll have to pay her a friendly visit then, shouldn't we? Courtesy and all?”

The moment the Japanese girl left the “no World Interface signal” area of the Purple Crown Library, she connected her mind to the Deep Ground, selecting a 50/50 interface that allowed her to set her Avatar to auto-run as she strode confidently to the lecture room reserved for those of the Ivory Masks afterschool.

It took five minutes to reach the Real World headquarters of the Ivory Masks, and, swinging the doors open, she was quick to take her seat in the very center of the lecture hall. There were a few other members of the Ivory Masks physically present, but online, she could see hundreds of avatars on the lower floors of the Guild Hall. It was then, that she switched to a 100% Virtual Interface, the entirety of the lecture hall fading away.

The Guild Hall of the Ivory Masks was, in a single word, impeccable. Though it wasn’t filled with quite as many decorative treasures as Haruka would have preferred, it looked miraculously, sparkling clean. Composed of veined marble that alternated from white to blue to red to orange, the Hall could be considered to be more of a ‘tower’, stretching all the way up to fifteen floors. Lift systems allowed for easy access to different floors, but the majority of Ivory Masks liked to scale the smooth pillars of the Hall, ascending and descending using their own strength.

It was on the very highest floor that White Terror arrived, attired in her casual wear. Playing with her light brown hair for a moment, the lightning-eyed King promptly brought out a megaphone and called out cheerily, “Hello everybody!”

“So sorry to interrupt your discussions, but I’d just like everyone to note that there’s no need to send spies or whatever to check out what the Black King is doing with that super outrageous announcement! I’ll just be checking it out myself.”

“Claire and Meilin will be coming along with me as well, so if anyone knows where Meilin is, tell her to get over to the Black King’s place when she can, yeah? Other than that, happy hunting, fellows! Heard from a birdie that the northern districts have a Dissolution problem today!”

And with that, she donned her mask, switched her Avatar’s clothes into the long-coat and pants combination that felt so cool and comfortable moving in, and rolled out.

"No no no, it has to be Magic Blast. Why would I need a sword when I can still shoot you with a magic blast? Just because they're close to me doesn't mean I can't fight back." In the library a group of kids were sitting at a table making up plans with each other. Everything from battle strategies, character builds, future plans, and even what they wanted to do after they turned 19. Hibiki was among them, these children who she would call her friends and strangers. They knew her and she knew them, but aside from their little meetings, they never really knew each other. It seemed that they'd rather be friends in real life than in Deep Ground. Hibiki was a bit jealous; unlike her, they had allies in the game. Hibiki herself just started a few days after, right after her birthday. Her parents threw her a great party with all sorts of entertainment, but she never talked about how she didn't see any of her friends. She didn't have any, so her parents had to invite the children of their friends to attend. Hibiki was able to detect how shallow the friendship she formed with those children was, but she tried not to let it bother her. At least her parents took the time to make Hibiki happy, and why shouldn't she? It's not like they're neglecting her or even smothering her. They want Hibiki to make friends and they're giving her the opportunity to do so. She just needed to take what she's been given and using it. And so she took part of this meeting with friends and strangers.

One of the children asked Hibiki if she was going to join the Ebon Strykers. Just about everyone at the table was already part of a guild and didn't really have much positive things to say about the Ebon Strykers. That it was too reclusive, that they never do anything, not even expand their territories. They said that the Black Guild was so inactive that they're wondering why the other guilds haven't already taken over all the Black Guild's territory, since they don't exactly have an army to defend it. Hibiki certainly wasn't going to help after she told them what she was going to do. "I'm going to go to the Black King and try to defeat him!"

Although the other kids decried the Black King and his guild, even they thought Hibiki was being stupid. They told her that the Black King was a level 9, and even if Hibiki was a level 9 she couldn't defeat him in one-on-one combat. They weren't even sure if they could defeat the Black King if they took their entire guild together to fight him. "What? But you guys said how bad the Black Guild was and what sort of a person the Black King is. Why are you all so scared of fighting him now?" The kids made their excuses and eventually the conversation changed into a debate about Brawlers and how useless they would be at higher levels. Hibiki listened for a while before packing up her things and leaving the table. "They can talk all they want. I'm going to do something."

With no other classes Hibiki went home. She called her family's chauffeur who arrived minutes later. It was a long ride to her family's home. One of them anyways: this was actually one of their offices, which was the size of a village. And for all intents and purposes, it was all hers. Each building she was allowed to enter and live in, any facility was free for her to use, and everyone there had to listen to what she told them. Even Hibiki, who grew up with this sort of lifestyle, knew how strange it was compared to others. So strange that she's hesitant to reveal it, and almost thought to ask her parents to get her a "normal" home. But again, despite (Or because) the excess decadence, Hibiki kept herself quiet. What would have been more embarrassing, to call an entire village your home, or having your family make you an entirely new one just for you? Questions she didn't ask nor looked to answer.

Hibiki dropped off her belongings to her caretaker who would take it to her room. The little girl helped herself to a meal which she made herself: Boiled hotdogs with rice. Simple but filling. After finishing her meals and cleaning her dishes Hibiki went to the game room. Although she did well in school this was where the real work happened. She could graduate with all the top honors and the best at everything, but if she couldn't score well in Deep Ground, it would make the fall all the more painful. Determined to do something with her life and to be able to change the world for the better Hibiki put on her gaming equipment and sat down. She closed her eyes and cleared her thoughts, allowing herself to enter the game.

Welcome, Smitten Kitten.

Smitten Kitten started off with a bang. Almost literally; a bullet whizzed past her head. "Nya!" She ran towards the closest cover, a toppled over truck. She could hear gun fire and shouting all around her. If this was real Hibiki would be curled into a ball wishing for it all to stop. But this was Deep Ground, and she was the Smitten Kitten. Instead of cowering her hands began to glow red as she set her sights on her first target. There was a big Gunner class fighter who looked like a small mech; despite not taking any cover, it didn't look like anyone was doing damage against him. Smitten Kitten knew that she likely wasn't going to be doing much damage either, but she attacked him anyways; she created an Explosive Rune on his chest which exploded, blocking his vision. This gave Smitten Kitten the cover she needed to run to a better position.

Now hiding safely out of sight, it looked like there was a skirmish between a group of players. There didn't seem to be any formal teams created and it was every player for themselves. A good time for Smitten Kitten to try to steal some kills. She saw a Commando getting killed by a big brawler, but was trying to escape the target of a Wizard. Smitten Kitten used her Sticky Rune to trap the brawler to the spot where he got frozen solid, only for a stray rocket to blow him up and shatter him into pieces, killing him. Smitten Kitten didn't get the points for defeating the Brawler, but at least she knew were another gunner was. It seemed like he was camping in a ruined building and trying to use the splash damage from his rocket launcher to kill steals. "I can't let that happen!" Smitten Kitten put on a devilish smirk and ran from her hiding spot.

Without any stealth abilities Smitten Kitten needed to rely on her small size and the chaos around her to ensure no one targeted her. Easy enough to do with a bit of planning. Whenever she noticed that someone was chasing her or trying to shoot her, she'd create a Explosion Rune and made it go off just as she touched it. She was unaffected by her own attacks so she could use the explosion to cover her tracks, while blocking the shot or harming anyone trying to chase her. As she was trying to head towards the rocket launcher camper, she ran into a Warlock's demons. He looked like of runty and not all that scary, however he could do some serious damage to Smitten Kitten. She tried to blow it up with a Explosive Rune but the demon moved out of the way, causing her to place the rune on a rock behind the demon. He lunged at her, but she managed to duck and make the demon fly over her. She than used a Sticky Rune to make the demon stay on the spot. It failed it's resistance check and made it unable to move, allowing Smitten Kitten to bombard the demon with Explosive Runes. However she didn't kill it. Instead as the demon's health got lower and lower, she used her Befriend skill on it. Because of how much damage it was suffering, it couldn't fight back against Smitten Kitten's skill. Soon the demon was fully healed and became Smitten Kitten's ally.

Now with a demon to help protect her, Smitten Kitten felt confident that she could reach the rocket launcher camper. She put explosive runes on her demon ally, who would jump into melee fights for her and cause explosions that harmed her enemies but not the demon itself; because it was her ally it was immune to friendly fire. The demon fought as hard as it could as Smitten Kitten continued to run towards the camper's location. Eventually she found him, who didn't notice her. He was too busy reloading his weapon to watch his back. From all his guns Smitten Kitten could tell he was a Armsman, which meant that he didn't have any traps. "Nya ha ha ha...." Smitten Kitten laughed quietly as she had her demon attack the camper. She created a Sticky Rune to prevent the camper from running away as her ally attacked him. Even though the demon was eventually killed, the camper couldn't move, allowing Smitten Kitten to place a bunch of explosive runes around him. When they went off, not only did they do massive damage due to how many were near, but it also caused the sticky rune to explode, adding another massive explosion to an already sizable blast. If that attack didn't kill him, the resulting burning should finish the job. Smitten Kitten was no where to be found as the player died. She had her fun, and now it was time to go fight the Black King.

The responses were quick and rhetorical, nothing unusual for the White King. Claire took her time standing to shadow her leader, she was all business, as most ambitious people were. Nothing like herself, entertainment was what pressed her on to do well in everything she did, no other motives other than that. Nonetheless, a good couple feet away from Haruka was Claire, twiddling her hair and observing her surrounding in constant distracted thought. She wouldn't be too great of a bodyguard. As she was lead into the Ivory Mask lecture room, Claire snapped back into focus-mode and took a seat herself. As the interface began to emerge before her, the persona that was Amnesty began to take hold as her former self drifted away from the virtual reality that she felt at home.

Seeing the vague silhouette of White Terror as she scanned the area around her, the platinum hair girls leaped a few hefty times and caught up with her king, keeping behind the girl until they finally made it to their Guild Hall. Vaulting past her leader she'd search for a certain somebody, shading her eyes as she took a good look at all the present members.

"So many.. You know it's getting hard to find people, going to need to start handing out name tags. And it's Amnesty here in Deep Ground." She said quietly to her leader, in a playful matter-of-fact tone.

She continued beaming a smile to herself, the thought of what outcome visiting the mysterious Black King could have, too many fun outcomes to pick one. One if there was a massive crowd of people lined of to join the Ebony Strykers? Maybe they'd turn on us and we'd have to call for our own to defend us, it'd be an all out brawl, that'd be fun. But waiting was pretty dull, so Amnesty popped a squat on the floor and rested her chin in the palm of her hand for now.

"I'm going to flirt with someone, come find me when Meilin shows up. Shouldn't be too hard to find me, your highness." Amnesty winked to White before darting off into a rambunctious area of the crowd. As she entered the center of this crowd a few voices screamed "Aimee!" excited by her appearance.

"How's the scores going? Hope none of you are going to end up homeless." She said in a monotonous way, sitting in a small chair against one of the 'climbing pillars'.

"Above average, nothing special though." Said a shorter male brawler with black and grey hair.

"No comment." Said a female who seemed to be a healer with straight blonde hair.

"That's better than bad I guess." Amnesty gave a soft smile to the two, whom seemed to be acquainted with her.

Unlike some of his peers, Jun had the privilege? of not living within the Academy dormitories. It offered freedom that couldn’t be found on school grounds, but came with the sad reality that was the trek to and from. Normally he wouldn’t have been in a particular rush to return home. Reading a book while walking wasn’t hard after all, and the occasional bumps into other pedestrians when he first tried to had all but disappeared. What made today different? The message that had been broadcasted all through Deep Grounds Online, by every means possible to reach every individual. If someone hadn’t logged onto DGO the past day, well then they certainly would have heard it from someone else then by word of mouth. Really… he hadn’t managed to go more than a few minutes before someone brought up the same topic as everybody else.

The streets grew emptier the further he got from school, and by the time he reached the street his house was on, he was the only individual there. Unperturbed by the usual sight, Jun tapped the passcode onto the house’s keylock. A hiss indicated it was unlocked and with a gentle tap, the entrance slid open. “Greetings, Jun.” Entry into the building had caused him to automatically link with the network within it, revealing the house’s VI to him. It took the appearance of a floating orb that followed him around. “Dinner shall be ready at 18:00. Default settings are running without issue. Is anything required?”
“Yes actually. Keep the dinner warm, I’m not too sure when I’ll be eating.”
“Understood, Jun. Would you like reminders just in case?”
“No it’s fine.” Given the dismissal, the VI’s avatar vanished in a stream of 0s and 1s, leaving Jun with only his thoughts. Which admittedly weren’t very well organized at the moment thanks to his curiosity about the whole situation in DGO right now. He usually avoided logging on right after school due to the influx of students getting out of class and diving right in, but it seemed inevitable if he wanted to see what was happening. Setting his bag down on the chair, Jun collapsed onto his bed before muttering, “Link in,” and let himself sink into the virtual reality that was Deep Grounds.

His robotic avatar materialized itself in a ruinous landscape, some obscure location nestled deep away from the majority of other players. While the area was peaceful, save for the constant gust that blew up dust constantly, it was but an illusion. More often than not, a Dissolution would be wandering the ruins of buildings and looking for prey. Generally, Jun turned it on the hostile NPCs head. Still, even if there had been one wandering aimlessly, he would have ignored it for the moment. There was quite some distance to cover between this isolated field and the Black Domain. He would also have to be fairly careful he didn’t run into any hostile players along the way. The best case would be that he didn’t run into any at all, but given the amount of activity that was likely to be happening, he might as well have been hoping for a miracle.

"Calm down, Ariel!"

"How the hell can I stay calm at a time like this!?" Needless to say, the Red King - much to the dismay of the altogether forgettable student and guildmate standing near her outside the school building - was far from calm. She was furious. She'd already knocked out three other Harleys who tried to calm her down, and the pudgy blonde guy behind her could have easily been next. "The Black King picked now of all times to come back," Ariel ranted on, bordering on screaming. At least she had no problems going unnoticed. "Why!? We were this close, THIS CLOSE to launching our plans, and now we have a whole new obstacle to take into account!"

"Ariel, please take your medicine. We wouldn't want you--"

"YOU AREN'T MY DOCTOR! I plan better when I'm riled up, so shut up and stand...aside..." For all of five seconds or so, the Red King finally stopped screaming at her subordinate. In all fairness, she should have taken her medicine; it was to keep her level-headed and stop her other personalities from taking the reins. Without it, she was a highly volatile bomb with a very short fuse, and after she finally explodes, it takes some time to put the pieces back together. Or, without using stupid metaphors, when Ariel gets riled up, her other personalities tag in. Her expression was blank to nonexistent, and during the brief switching-out process it almost looked as though she'd died or something. But sure enough, afterwards, her head perked back up, very much alive again.

"Who are you?"

"Alex, of course. What's new around campus?"

---

“Attention all players. I, the Black King, ruler of the Ebony Strykers, am allowing any and all to join my Guild. This will be the first time I have done so in the entirety of Deep Ground’s launch. Please, choose your allies wisely.”

"Any and all, huh?" Just as well. Fiona O'Connor had yet to find a guild that suited her tastes. Joining one seemed to have its perks anyway, so may as well be one of the first members of the Ebon Strykers. Maybe that would be the guild for her. The Blue King's guild seemed to enjoy killing a little too much for Fiona's taste, she didn't feel like donating skills and weapons just to serve under the White King, and she certainly wasn't going to help the Red King out. That bitch was crazy. The others just didn't stand out to her, at least not to an extent where she'd want to serve their guild.

And so, Fiona let her mind go through the steps to hook back up to the World Interface, loading up Deep Ground once again.

LOADING...50%
80%
100%

Welcome back, War Dog

Stretching her left arm - having it back online was one of Fiona's favorite things about this game - Fiona turned her attention in the direction of the Black King's part of town. No doubt that was where Fiona War Dog would have to go. Doing a mental checklist of her weapons, she went in that direction. Any guild was better than no guild.

Moon Rider-Black King
“War?”

A tiny smile formed on the Black King’s otherwise stoic face, proving that, despite the mythical rumors of her famed cold nature, she was indeed still human.

“Yes….I suppose you can call it that.”

Could her actions really be considered as something so simple as that? It certainly seemed that way; declaring that your elusive Guild that seemed to interact as little as possible within Faded City was finally receiving willing participants could be pretty much chalked up to starting a war. Moon Rider knew that certain individuals would not take kindly to her proclamation; some would even go out of their way to spite her outright. Assumptions of a certain Red and Orange King brought her hand to tighten the grip of her weapon, and she mentally dismissed the notion for more positive thoughts.

And then there was White King…..no doubt she had heard the message as well. But Moon Rider was ready, all too ready, to confront the one called White Terror once more. She was entirely convinced that the other player would become the most hostile towards not only her, but her Guild as well. The very thought of the Ivory Masks, their leader and their method of gaming, made her temporarily forget the new face before her.

Blinking to regain her composure, she smiled once more at Dark Wraith’s pledge to fight.

“So you are the first to swear allegiance to me? Then you are correct in assuming that there is much work to be done. You may perhaps be wondering why, of the many years I’ve waited, that now I choose to open the gates of my District.”

The black-clad girl leaned forward in her throne, the red of her eyes almost glowing in the low-light.

“Would you like to know my reasoning? To be the first to hear the words of which will be spread for others to come? It’s simple really.”

Moon Rider lifted her sheathed sword and swept it to show the misty city around them. She had always been so dramatic…but fortunately she had the power to back up all the pep-talk, and so it wouldn’t be acceptable to chuckle in the presence of the King’s court.

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait just a while longer Dark Wrath; at least until the others have joined us. And I assure you, there will be others. But before we begin any plans of direct conflict with the other Kingdoms, there are some…alternative matters the Ebony Strykers must settle. Our first mission is to hunt down a specific player of Deep Ground. Hunt them down and make sure they are never able to log into the Deep Ground Program again.”

All of sudden, her words carried weight. Moon Rider smirked as she crossed her legs, the situation and plan she was proposing suddenly becoming all too real.

“Tell me Dark Wraith. Have you ever heard of a player with the name Corpse Collector?”

---

Corpse Collector
Unbeknownst to either of the two, a strange phenomenon had begun to occur. Dark portals were being summoned at seemingly random points of the Deep Ground map, springing up almost everywhere in Faded City. There were really nothing but small pockets of closed-space. Any player should have known what the tell-tale signs meant, and so it was really no surprise to see a wandering enemy NPC crawling out.

A Dissolution.

Horrible things that resembled no known animal of the real world, and so could only manifest as figments of a twisted imagination and the unlimited potential of the gaming world. A normal migration of the NPCs was to be expected, as much as their horrid external appearances. Black tar pooled at the creature’s lack of a real torso, and its body resembled that of an erect pile of sludge. A mask with three holes concealed its face to the world, and bone-like appendages sprouted out from its make-shift back.

Alone, the things were fairly easy to deal with if one were Level 3 or above. In large numbers, and most players would quickly find themselves being quickly overrun by the mindless shells if their guard was done for any given moment.

Three such portals had materialized on the game map; two of which in locations that had never once been intruded before. In fact, the sheer sight of it repulsed and defied all that was possible to the mind. And yet there they were.

Five Dissolutions in the Yellow King’s court. Five Dissolutions in the White King’s court.

The third portal yielded only one specimen, the NPC slithering out of darkness like a demented serpent. Searching around for fresh prey, it gave off a low keening sound that chilled the blood of new players. Its gaze became flushed with red, and it immediately pounced towards the closest victim of its choice.

The Avatar named Smitten Kitten.

---

Elsewhere, a certain individual watched a fast-moving and mobile player zoom and zip across the map at rapid speeds. Giggling to herself lightly, she skipped a few steps before activating one of her many passive skills.

It was only a quick little teleportation, but it covered enough distance to get the job done. Soon enough, the girl’s Avatar landed directly on the roof of Arms Slave’s vehicle. Smiling, she tapped the metal top with the tip of her boot.

“Excuse me Mr. Arms Slave, but can you stop your car for just one moment? I’m in dire trouble, you see…maybe we can help each other out?”

Had Arms Slave chosen to glance at the interface of his new arrival, he would have seen surprised to see nothing. Nothing at all. No Level indicator, no Class identifier…nothing. The girl was a blank slate. Well, that wasn’t entirely true to say. The only thing that did show up to the eyes of every other player was the name of the girl’s Avatar.

It read Corpse Collector.

Donny Lee Yang - Arms Slave

Arms Slave wished he had some allies to man the gun ports. While his truck lacked weapons, it had ports around the back for gunners to stick their gun barrels through. And to ensure that he was as heavily protected as he could muster, the Truck didn't even have windows. To see in around him he relied on hidden cameras that were on the outside hull of the truck. This protected him and his allies for being targeted while riding the truck, but also meant that anything that could knock out his cameras would leave him driving blind. Another advantage the cameras had also was allowing him to see in various angles on his Truck, including the sudden and mysterious guest.

Arms Slave herd the thud first. He was going at least 90 mph, slowing down only to drift. How this player was staying on he didn't know, and he didn't exactly trust her. He had sort of expected some resistance and wondered if this player was planning on trying to kill him to appease the Black King. A challenge that he would certainly oblige, but this player, Corpse Collector, asked for his help. His honor demanded that he assisted, though his sense told him that someone called "Corpse Collector" likely wasn't good news. "Ah... What the hell. Yolo." Arms Slave didn't exactly stop, just slowed down to 30 mph. He didn't get out of his vehicle so he spoke through the truck's speaker system.

"What do you need, Corpse Collector? I'm in a bit of a rush to meet the Black King, so I can't exactly stop. If you want to hitch a ride or something, I think I can open a port for you to get in. Better hurry up though, I logged in as soon as I can cause I'd imagine that soon a bunch of outlaws are going to start camping around the Black Capital to prevent newbies from getting through and generally being a pain in the ass." The sound of combat in the distance only validated Arms Slave belief that it was going to be utter pandemonium once everyone logged into Deep Ground, just to reach the Black Capital. Though his avatar's face was covered in his helmet, Arms Slave had an excited smirk.

Restu Goroshi - Dark Wraith

"Corpse Collector... In passing." Dark Wraith admitted hearing of the player in passing, but not that her sources came from complaints from other operatives of the Sweeper like her. There wasn't much information about Corpse Collector that Dark Wraith needed to know to justify sending a hit on her, though she has heard talk about how she hides her player information. Of course if someone like Dark Wraith or operatives of the Sweepers ever met her, they could figure out her true identity easy enough. But this Corpse Collector either hasn't caused much trouble to catch the Sweeper's attention, or she is very good at ensuring no one catches her. Likely the latter.

But to Dark Wraith, she didn't care about this Corpse Collector. Just another name and player to deal with. What concerned Dark Wraith more was that Moon Rider asked her to, specifically, "make sure they are never able to log into the Deep Ground Program again." Perhaps it was just a coincidental choice of words, but Dark Wraith knew that someone like the Black King didn't reach her standing by just being a good player in Deep Ground. Dark Wraith wondered if Moon Rider knew her affiliations with the Sweepers. If this was a test of loyalty and character. Sure, anyone could hunt down Corpse Collector and defeat her in combat. But to "make sure they are never able to log into the Deep Ground Program again", they would need the unique abilities of the Sweepers. And Dark Wraith's specifically. And surely this was foul play; while grudges and fights happened often enough in real life due to actions in Deep Ground, to actively sabotage and harm someone to impede their ability to play Deep Ground was a felony offense. At least Dark Wraith thought so, and she had no interest in finding out. "So what does the Black King hope to gain from removing Corpse Collector from the game?" Dark Wraith thought to herself.

"Defeating Corpse Collector would be a simple matter. Is there.... Anything specific you want to happen to this player?" Dark Wraith spoke with innuendo. The Black King may have ruled the Ebon Strykers with absolute power, but even hackers and cheaters were an enemy of all. And given that Dark Wraith was both, she couldn't afford to expose herself. She didn't care for why Moon Rider wanted Corpse Collector dead or how they should go about doing it. Dark Wraith wanted to know if the Black King was asking her to put a hit out on the player of Corpse Collector, and if so, could Moon Rider could be trusted enough for Dark Wraith to offer her nefarious service to the reclusive monarch.

Smitten Kitten was running as fast as she could through the Ebon Stryker territory. It was oddly empty for now and because of it Smitten Kitten had her guard down. She was thinking of ways she could fight the Black King and maybe what guild she could join. If she did defeat the Black King, or at least managed to survive a battle against him, surely the other guilds would want her. And than the Dissolution attacked. "Kia!"

Smitten Kitten's only warning was some sort of growling. She looked around fast enough to see some sort of monster lunge at her. It knocked her back and took a large chunk of her health. While still over half, she doubt she could survive two more hits. It looked like some sort of slime monster. It was fast and she knew that she couldn't target it with an Explosion Rune, so she tried to trap it with a Sticky Rune and make a run for it. She's never fought a Dissolution before and she certainly didn't want to fight it alone. She didn't even have a monster to befriend and she wasn't sure if the Dissolution was her level or not.

Smitten Kitten ran into the road and saw something zooming towards her. At first she thought it was another Dissolution as it grew nearer she saw that it was a truck. It looked like there was something standing on top of it but Smitten Kitten didn't get a good look as she was still running away from the Dissolution, placing Explosion Runes behind her to slow the monster down.

Sam Jensen - The Blue King, Gleeful Jackal

The instant class was let out, Sam was found at his usual spot in the massive lounge that served as the Cobalt Bruisers' real-life headquarters. As his fellow guild members walked in, whispering excitedly to each other about the Black King's recent declaration and looking expectantly at him for a statement, he simply smiled at seeing so many people excited over the game. Really, he'd have to thank the Black King for reinvigorating the players of Deep Ground Online. It was always nice to see people enjoying the game for what it was: a place for people to have fun and let loose.

When enough people had flooded into the lounge, Sam closed his eyes, linking into Deep Ground.

Welcome, Gleeful Jackal: Blue King.

A small boy materialized on in the Guild Hall of the Cobalt Bruisers, lounging back on his throne with a grin as he surveyed the assorted players milling about the building.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, sit down and shut up!" He bellowed, catching the attention of his guild, who turned to him excitedly. "Now I know you've all heard the Black King's announcement, and you're probably wondering what my policy's going to be. Well," He smiled, drawing a knife and twirling it about in his hand. "I'm going to head over to her domain and see what exactly is going on. Seeing as most of you aren't Assassins and those that are Assassins are mostly Hitmen, I'm pretty much the only one that can sneak around. In the meantime, do what you feel like. Take some quests, hunt some Dissolutions, kill anyone in our district that's trying to reach the Black King's domain, for all I care. And remember, don't do anything to start a war. With how the Black King's acting, we're probably going to get one sooner or later anyway." The Blue King rose from his throne, sheathing his knife as he did so.

"Anyways, I'm off to go stalk the Black King. Enjoy your day, guys!" Gleeful Jackal gave a final wave to his guildies and dashed to the side, leaping out a window with a whoop.

___

Meilin Shen - Distant Sage

Unbeknownst to Haruka and Claire, Meilin actually was in the lecture hall that served as the Ivory Masks' real-life gathering spot. The problem was that she wasn't actually logged in. Instead, she was busy reading another one of her books. It took a nudge to her shoulder for her to look up, raising an eyebrow at the boy that was poking his guild's spymaster.

"Yes?" She asked, tearing herself away from the works of Locke.

"Err, the King was asking for you. Said something about you going with her to visit the Black King."

"Fine," Meilin sighed, reluctantly marking her page and setting her book down before she closed her eyes, logging into Deep Ground.

Welcome, Distant Sage.

The black-armored woman materialized conveniently in front of her King, giving White Terror a deferential bow.

"You rang?"

And then she noticed the Dissolutions in the Guild Hall. Jumping back up, she gathered hellfire in one hand while summoning her demonic knight with the other.

Ah, Haruka really did enjoy the atmosphere that Ivory Masks had. Far from the militaristic style of the Scarlet Harleys or the free-for-all attitudes of the Cobalt Bruisers, there was simply a distinct feeling of a ‘masquerade’ that wrapped up the tower-like Hall. Perhaps it was because she had intentionally made it easier to mingle by minimizing horizontal space in favor of vertical space, or perhaps she went out of her way to set an example in how everyone should help out the newer members, but it was nice to see how easily her guild members chilled with strangers.

Of course, with all that, it also stood that most everyone leveled up at an astounding rate, allowing the Legacy System access to even more useful skills. So really, everyone won in the end.

Sitting on the edge of the balcony as she cycled through which mounts had been taken out of the collective Guild Bank, the White Terror smiled under her mask. Those five super cool mecha-rainbow horses that Frost Witch had gotten from that Raid Event was, for once, not borrowed out by another. Selecting three of those and marking them as ‘reserved’, she happily hopped off the railing, waving cheerily as Meilin zapped into existence, dressed in all black and already wearing her funny full-head mask.

“Yup,” White Terror spoke, “Were you reading about Renaissance philosophers or something? Heard from Claire that the Black King is finally breaking years of tradition and such by opening her Guild to others, so hey, I was like ‘Might as well say ‘hi’ and give her some advice!’ Thought you’d be interested to see who else comes.”

The Avatar didn’t even react to the sudden spawning of five Dissolutions, because, really, most of her Guild was there. Instead, rather off-handedly, she said, “By the way, whatcha think about the sudden spawning thing? Think there’s a bug with the monster spawning program?”

“And Claire, we’re heading out with your favorite mecha horsies now,” she called over the megaphone, before letting the masses of Ivory Masks present to deal with the pest outbreak. Lackadaisically jumping down from the fifteenth floor and using Icarus Attack to land safely on the first floor, the White King smiled and waved at a few of the newbies that she had personally recruited, told them to take a good look at how the higher-tiers fought, and headed the massive doors of the Ivory Tower.

Soon after, she had mounted on one of the mecha rainbow horses, the steed ejecting exhaust in an annoyed manner as it waited for the riders of its fellow brothers to get over there and get moving.

Michelle - Shooting Star-Yellow King

The five Dissolutions appeared behind Michelle and lunged for her. Michelle barely saw the Prediction lines her skill created and turned around to see them. Brick the Tank, however, managed to get between Michelle and the Dissolutions, shield in hand, and blocked the attacks. "Quick, get back!" he yelled as his hp bar went down dramatically for a Tank.

Enigma, the Shinobi, was wide-eyed with surprise, pulling his knife out from somewhere in his clothing. "Dissolutions? HERE?!?!?" he exclaimed.

Force, the Sorcerer, acted quickly and casted a lightning spell, striking the Dissolution in front of the others, taking a chunk out of its hp bar, but not really doing any significant damage. "Hold them off! Protect the-" he said before noticing Michelle missing. "Where's-" he asked in surprised as he looked around, quickly spotting Michelle behind all the Dissolutions.

Michelle began her Piercing Barrage, striking a Dissolution and dropping its hp bar dramatically, reducing it to 1%. It turned around in an attempt to strike back, but the Barrage's bleed effect killed it, and it dissolved into a black puddle. Two Dissolutions were still striking Brick's shield, but the other two were turning around in response to their comrade's death. Michelle then performed the Gyro Strike, striking them both and dealing quite a bit of damage, bit not nearly as much as her Piercing Barrage. The Dissolutions lunged and struck Michelle, but all they did was strike an afterimage, which disappeared soon after being struck. Michelle then reappeared behind them using her Shukuchi skill and performed her Cross Slash, slicing downward in an "X" movement, then slicing upward in the same "X" movement, which killed the two Dissolutions, who died in a similar fashion to the first one.

The Wizard Force had managed to kill the Dissolution he stuck earlier with an ice spell, leaving only one left. This Dissolution, however, leaped above Brick and went straight for Force, who immediately tried to run backward, but tripped and fell. The Dissolution quickly closed in, but then there was a *ding* sound, and a mine shot upward, exploding right in the Dissolution's face, knocking the Dissolution back. Michelle leaped toward it and sliced it with her two blades, effectively killing it and splattering Brick with black goo. Brick eyed the goo covering him with distaste and said, "Ugh, thanks."

Michelle turned around to look, and covered her mouth to hold back her laughter, but failed and bursted out in laughter. "I'm sorry," was all she could say between laughs.

Meanwhile, Enigma the Shinobi was helping the wizard Force to his feet, saying, "Now aren't you glad my trap was there, fumblefoot?"

"Oh, screw you," Force replied as he got back up and brushed off his robe for nonexistent dust and dirt.

Michelle sighed, then sheathed her swords. "Now then, before I was so rudely interrupted," Michelle said. "I will be heading into the dark city myself."

All three advisors looked at Michelle in shock, not believed the words coming out of her mouth. "WOAH WOAH WOAH!" Enigma yelled. "Going there is one thing, but going there ALONE???"

"I actually agree with him for once," Force said. "Doing such a thing is foolhardy."

"Yeah, what they said," Brick continued. "At least take someone with you."

"Sorry, gentlemen, but my decision is final," Michelle said, nodding. "Clean up the mess while I'm away, please." With those final words, Michelle zoomed away, out the doors and toward the Ebony Stryker city.

---

Daniel - Free Runner

"Ahhh, the sounds of silence," Daniel said after he landed on a rooftop in the dark city. "It's so BORING!" he yelled out suddenly, jumping off the rooftop and double jumping onto another rooftop to avoid fall damage. Then he sprinted and jumped, and sprinted and jumped, repeating this process as he made his way across the city. As he traveled, though, he noticed something on the ground, far below the buildings. It looked like an.... armored truck. Must be another person trying to reach the Black King, Daniel thought. He was about to continue on when he saw that there was a person on the truck, and one running up to it. Daniel raised an eyebrow, curious to see what was happening, and noticed the Dissolution. Not believing his luck, Daniel jumped off the rooftop, free falling toward the Dissolution, and double jumped right before he hit the ground. His shotgun was in his hands, and he fired directly at the Dissolution's face, discharging both the shells within his gun. The Dissolution, weakened by some of the Explosion Runes Smitten Kitten had placed, died from the massive amount of damage due to his gun and his Air Strike skill.

Daniel then landed on his feet and smoothly placed his shotgun back into the pouch on his back that was meant to hold it. He turned toward the people at the truck, waved, then ran off, leaping from wall to wall to get back up on his territory, the rooftops.

"M-mecha horsies... Battalion Stallion, Night-mare, Sparkle Pony..."

Amnesty crunched the chair from beneath her as she quickly pulled herself to a stand, waving platinum strands from her face and readjusting the white and black polka dot bandanna from her neck. Looking behind her to see the crowd she was socializing with leaping into action against the amalgams called Dissolutions, it looked like it would be exciting to join them for some good ol' bloodlust. But you know, she had other things to do, like riding mechanical horses and meeting exciting people from other guilds.

"Mei~ we've got important stuff to do, let the swarms of our people eat the random ass mobs."

Sprawling up the nearby pillar in a few moments like a spider monkey, Claire jumped from the structure landing into a roll and stopping just a few inches from a 15th floor window. Sliding to sit along the window and dangle her legs outside, she offered the combat-bound guildmates a halfhearted salute before jumping through to the outside world. Falling down rather quickly she landed on the back of the center-most horse, the same one the White King was sitting on. The landing was hard, so rather than make a witty remark, she was too busy realizing that the falling damage was a bit rougher than expected. Thus Claire teared up and slid off the horse awkwardly.

"My butt, my beautiful butt.."

Stepping over to the left-most horse holding her backside, she climbed onto the metallic saddle.

"Today's been a rough day.."

Moon Rider-Black King
Moon Rider’s expression never faltered at the questioning given before her. The two were alone, the halls of the Black Capital empty and desolate. Therefore, there was neither need nor shame in speaking freely in her presence.

“Did I stutter with my phrasing Dark Wraith?”

Her voice was light, and it was difficult to say if the Black King was either being sarcastic or making a genuine jest at humor. With her enigmatic status, who really knew? Leaning back, the girl began to adjust her weight fully onto the sheathed sword and sat with back straight up.

“Like I said, I want you to ensure Corpse Collector never enters Deep Ground again.”

Upon hearing the other player’s boast of an easy win, Moon Rider raised a single eyebrow in amusement.

“Oh? You think so? Corpse Collector is a special case I’m afraid. She…reminds me of yourself Dark Wraith.”

That one line alone was enough to confirm Dark Wraith’s suspicions. The Black King had known of her apparent affiliation with the Sweepers…and yet she was still willing to overlook what most Guilds would have disgusted over. If what Moon Rider was implying to be trusted, this Corpse Collector was not only a hacker much like the Sweepers, but also powerful enough to elude their detection for who knew how long.

“The reason I want her gone is because she’s starting to become an irritation to me, and soon, a threat to our plans.”

Our plans?

“In order to make sure the Ebony Strykers have a grounded stand-point among the other Guilds of Faded City, we shall hunt down the Corpse Collector and show Deep Ground our desire to return!”

Now it all made sense. What better way to make your presence known then with a blaze of glory? A fitting arrival for the Black King, and one that would flaunt her dominance to possibly freeze the other Guilds into hesitance; just enough for her to build her own numbering strength as they became distracted.

“Of course, as the first mission of our new and completed Guild, we will hunt down Corpse Collector without failure. And….”

The Black King smirked.

“I shall lead the mission myself. Once we have accomplished that goal, then I will reveal my intentions to Deep Ground. All of them.”

---

Corpse Collector
Nearby, the discussed subject herself began to wobble slightly on the still moving vehicle. While driving at a considerably slower pace than before, it was still enough for her to firmly plant her booted feet on the metal harder for fear of being blown away.

“Hmm? Oh, I just needed some help leveling up, that’s all~ I hear you’re a part of…”

She lowered her voice significantly, a bare whisper that only Arm’s Slave’s speaker system would be able to register and pick up.

“You know, the Sweepers? I hear you protect low-level players like little old me. Is that true Mr. Arms Slave?”

The rumble of explosions interrupted her words, and she crossed her arms to pout. Who the hell decided to have a fireworks party? The same person still being chased by the Dissolution, that’s who. The blobbed thing, having been of a higher Level than usual, shrugged off the initial explosion and continued to give chase to Smitten Kitten like a hungry predator.

Corpse Collector was about to comment on the scene to the far left before another player promptly ended the chase. With a few shots to its body, the new player, who appeared to be of the Gunner Class, effortlessly defeated the NPC. Hissing in pain, the black blob dissolved until nothing remained but a few light blue crystals that remained afloat in the air.

EXP. As the numerous other Dissolutions began to be wiped out one by one, first in the Yellow Capital and next in the White Capital, numerous pools of EXP remained where the blobbed corpses once lain. It was only about 250 EXP, but still easy to collect.

Sighing to herself, Corpse Collector turned back to her indirect driver.

“Mr. Arms Slave….heh, can you tell me where you’re going? You’re not going to meet that Black King are you? I heard she’s super cold and that she never let anyone into her Guild until today. Heheh, don’t tell me you actually trust her, right?”

Allen Docson | Curved Solitaire

“Attention all players. I, the Black King, ruler of the Ebony Strykers, am allowing any and all to join my Guild. This will be the first time I have done so in the entirety of Deep Ground’s launch. Please, choose your allies wisely.”

It had been a beacon.

Allen had been studying when the message popped up, spooking him right in the middle of his work. While the nonsense of the message was quite confusing for the young man at first, he came upon the realization as if a freight train had hit him it blared its horn and flashed its lights to let him know it was coming. The lone recluse, the Black King, was opening her kingdom to those low-borne without a single chance to enter. It was... an almost euphoric sensation.

The entire day, he had been daydreaming, wondering what kind of person this King was like... and maybe, just maybe, if he should join. His curious wonder had even led to the snapping of his pencil a few times as he doodled without purpose; a first, for the diligent student. It was no wonder that he retreated to his room as the last bell rang at a pace he didn't even realize he was capable of.

Allen locked the door to his room, and his eyes gradually lidded over. It was an experience he had yet to get used to for the entire year he had been doing it.

Welcome, Curved Solitaire!

It was the Green King's territory, a relative haven compared to the rest of the zones for those unaligned with any of the guilds. It wouldn't take him long to reach the Black King's throne if he cut a few corners.

The sensations of the Black Kingdom had left Solitaire in awe. The cutting bite of the cold, black glass. The stagnant air that left him feeling at home, alone. The echo of his own footsteps reverberated through the air as he paced his way through the long, empty corridors; perhaps he felt too alone as every action he made felt alarmingly watched. Then, he came to what was the entrance- way to the throne room, or what he could only guess to be the throne room as it was the only place that held voices, and people, for that matter.

He pushed weakly on the door, seeing that the King was already in audience. He felt honestly... a bit late, despite only being the second person to seemingly meet with Moon Rider.

“Tell me Dark Wraith. Have you ever heard of a player with the name Corpse Collector?”

Dark Wraith? Corpse Collector? It seemed he was dealing with some very... unique people here. But, pushing past this thought, he spoke up, interrupting before their conversation could continue further. "E-Excuse me, my King..." he bowed, unsure, and embarrassed by his use of "my", in how to proceed. "I, uh, I'm here about your... well, your invitation. I'm Curved Solitaire, at your disposal however you see fit."

---

Garth Wright | Bowed Woods - Orange King

"Hm," Woods was audibly pondering within his throne room of the Orange District. The message his "friend" the Black King had left for every denizen of the Faded City had left a remarkable shiver on his guild, and he had already chosen as to how they should react; the question was: how does he get around his own policies? A visit to another one of his "friends", the Terror, was seemingly in order, yet outside the context of battle, there was not a way around this.

It had meant him missing class for the entire day to sit lazily in, what amounted to a simple glass box cascaded in the light of a forever setting sun, but he did have one plan. He used his 'Dog Whistle', calling for the help of one assassin he knew to still be in class. Bellowed Mist, an apprentice within his own system, yet a girl with an ability that would be useful. "My lord," she answered as she appeared within his throne room almost immediately after his summons. He was still rather satisfied with the way his guild-mates now addressed him.

"April," the Orange King said, "I have a special assignment for us to go on... No one outside this room," he gestured to the wizard, Zealous Calm, sitting quietly in the corner as his King deliberated. "Understood?" She nodded at his words with a slight gulp. He laced his fingers, "Good, now let me start."

...

Woods had waited until he knew Haruka would be in her White Terror masque before he began his small operation. The assassin he had called had only one notable ability, 'NE* Bubble'. It would certainly be enough to get to the Ivory Tower without aggression on either end. The problem being that it was a tad cramped for three people. "Come on, keep moving," it was the hushed tone of Bowed Woods.
"Someone just walked through us, how are you staying so calm?" Zealous responded in equally hushed, if slightly aggressive, tone." No response. "Right, just ignore me."

At the doors of the Ivory Tower, Garth could only see one thing: The ridiculous sight of three girls on mechanical horses, to which he could only sigh in exasperation. "Always the show off, huh White?" he called out to her, the bubble dropping its effect. "Don't worry though, I'm here likely for the same reason you're on your gallant steed. The same reason everyone is talking..."

*Non-Euclidean - The bubble appears empty, and there isn't even a trace of there being one. When you enter from the outside, you are simply warped to the other side. An ability that can only be used outside of combat.

Donny Lee Yang - Arms Slave

"Sweepers!?" Arms Slave nearly stepped on the brakes. Sweepers were a fairly secrete, or rather, unknown organization. No one really talks about them because there isn't an organization, and being a Sweeper is just sort of something that people claim to be, like being part of the Ebon Strykers. Sweepers don't have the same fame as the guilds and for good reason; they represented an ideology. A sense of justice that in a way, counteracts Deep Ground's natural inclination to war with one another. To protect each other instead of just being a horde of players looking for a fight. Of course, dig in deeper and you'd find that the Sweepers aren't as heroic as it's unspoken propaganda claims. Sweepers were either idealistic players being manipulated to harass certain players, or wetworkers who were willing to threaten physical harm in the real world. Arms Slave used to be the former, before eventually evolving to the latter. He wondered where Corpse Collector fell in those two categories; a naive player thinking she found her order of knights, or just another madwoman looking to justify her treachery?

Arms Slave didn't say anything about the Sweepers aside from his initial exclamation. Better for him to keep his affiliations as secretive as he can, even if Corpse Collector knew the truth. So he changed to a different topic when she asked him if he was really going to go see the Black King. "Yeah, I mean, I'm going to try to join the Ebon Stykers! I don't trust the Black King any more than I can throw her, which in this once instance might not be the best example, but either way I don't really plan to swear my loyalty or anything. I just figured that since the Ebon Stykers are finally gearing up, there'd be more fighting here in Deep Ground! I tell ya, the biggest fight I ever got into? Twenty players, everyman for himself. Wasn't even a guild fight! There are at least two thousand or so players active at any given time, and that's not even scratching the amount of players registered in the world! In all my years playing Deep Ground, I thought I get to be part of something big, you know, like a full out war. But these guilds sit on their asses and have some skirmishes or competitions, hell Ivory Masks seems more interested getting their own players killed!"

Soon the Arms Slave could see the obsidian tower that housed the Black King. It wasn't long until they'd reach it now. "Nah... I want a war. I want to see people left and right of me dying every second, for hours on end. I thought maybe, one day, a guild might try to flex their muscles and wage that war, but they're all too pansy. But when the Black King called out to everyone, I just knew that this was what I was looking for. Someone who's willing to disturb the water, break the balance, and tear down these stupid limits we've put on ourselves. I don't trust the Black King, but I definitely know that she's about to get herself into a big fight, and I want to be there to kill every mother fuc-"

Arms Slave was cut short when he saw a Desolation chase after some small player. She seemed to be trying to run away, and Arms Slave was about to drive in and save her when some random player just swooped in and killed it. "Ah, hold up. Looks like that kid there could use some help." Arms Slave drove up next towards the player, Smitten Kitten. "Hey kid! Need a ride?"

---

Restu Goroshi - Dark Wraith

"I see."

So this Corpse Collector was a hacker. That would explain why Dark Wraith as never heard of her. She likely has been eluding the Sweepers all this time, no doubt aware of their existence. If Dark Wraith was right, Corpse Collector likely had her own code that obscured not just her character information, but her entire player information. Dark Wraith would need to update her own code to work around Corpse Collector's if Moon Rider really wanted Dark Wraith to eliminate the player. And now that she understood where their standing was, Dark Wraith felt the tension ease, just a little. She didn't need to dance around the issue with Moon Rider, though the necromancer still didn't trust her fully. All this meant was that Dark Wraith didn't have to pretend that Moon Rider didn't know what she was talking about when she asked Dark Wraith to eliminate Corpse Collector. This was business now, not just a game.

Dark Wraith still wasn't sure how the elimination of a single player would cement the Ebon Styker's hold into Deep Ground, but that wasn't what Dark Wraith was asked to look into. She had been tasked to take out Corpse Collector, and by extension, the player who controlled her. What Moon Rider did with the results ultimately wasn't Dark Wraith's concerned now that she had an idea of what the job is. After Moon Rider spoke, another entity arrived. Curved Solitaire, also known as Allen Docson. Healer Class Level 2, an excellent student despite his mother being an average player without a father to support them. So far has yet to join any guild or known organizations, but seems to have participated in many group instances. "He would be useful." Dark Wratih thought to herself. Curved Solitaire spoke up towards Moon Rider nervously, making his uncertainty apparently obvious. Dark Wraith made a note to make sure Curved Solitaire had some extra training; his abilities were quite interesting and a healer would always be needed for groups.

As Curved Solitaire spoke to the Black King Dark Wraith used the private message system to message her various associates in a string of code.



This code was overly complicated both to ensure that no one would be able to intercept her messages, which she knows if fully possible, and also because only those who truly had any intention of being long-term associates with her would bother to learn how to break the code. It'll take some time for anyone to respond, but anyone who does would have something for Dark Wraith to use.

Meilin - Distant Sage

"Well," The black-suited woman began as she let her fire dissipate and unsummoned her demon, trusting in the rest of the guild to handle the situation. "Locke isn't exactly Renaissance." She said, following after White Terror. "And yes, I'd heard as well. Considering the grudge that she seems to hold against you and Orange, she's most likely targeting you two. As for the Dissolutions, well, it's probably a server issue. That, or some hacker is getting their jollies." Distant Sage finished as Amnesty joined back up with them. "Good to see you too, Claire." She greeted, mounting her own mecha-horse as they prepared to move out.

Or they would have, if the Orange King hadn't suddenly appeared with two of his own guild members in tow. Meilin sighed, wondering what Garth wanted. Had he come to the same conclusion that she had, and came to propose an alliance against the Black King? Both guilds united would stand a far better chance against the machinations of the Black King, but an alliance could also alarm the other guilds, perhaps enough for a few to create an alliance of their own. As it stood, the Ivory Masks had no real allies they could call on, and two of the other guilds banding together, along with the Black King attacking them, would be catastrophic. The closest thing they had to an ally at the moment were the Cobalt Bruisers, and that was just a non-aggression pact. If the Ivory Masks were attacked, more than likely, no aid would be forthcoming from the Bruisers. Then again, the Blue King was notoriously erratic, and by that, she meant that Sam was a trolling asshole of a wild card. He was equally as likely to join their side or turn on them. Still, that was enough idle conjecture for the moment.

Regardless, Bowed Woods needed to hurry up and get to the point. With a sigh, Distant Sage moved her horse forward, her voice emanating from behind her mask.

"Get to the point, Garth. Some of us have things to do today besides be dramatic."

___

Sam - Blue King: Gleeful Jackal

A blue shadow zipped across the rooftops of Faded City's Blue District, swinging from the sides of buildings with his grappling hooks. By now, this kind of parkour had become routine for Sam to the point where he didn't need to pay much attention to what he was doing, letting instinct and reflex take over. In fact, he often did his best thinking while dashing across rooftops and swinging from building to building.

With the Black King mobilizing a guild, surely her rivals, the Orange and White Kings, would be alarmed. Then again, this was Garth and Haruka he was talking about. Those two were practically unflappable. But they'd surely be planning something in response. And honestly, the Black King could wait for the moment. Players would be flocking towards her domain throughout the afternoon, and the Ivory Masks' territory wasn't that far of a detour. Plus, he wouldn't be harmed in White's territory. Not with that non-aggression pact they'd made. He couldn't say the same of Orange's domain, given his isolationist policy, so White would probably be easier to spy on. With his course determined, the Blue King whirled around, dashing across the side of a building as he changed course, making for the Ivory Masks' territory.

_

A short time later, Gleeful Jackal found himself hiding in stealth, crouched behind the relief atop the roof of a building overlooking the entrance to the Ivory Masks' Guild Hall. To his surprise, the Orange King was conversing with the White King in front of the Guild Hall, each accompanied by two of their guild members.

"Well, well. Isn't this interesting~" He muttered to himself as he started to listen in on their conversation, concealed by line of sight.