Читать книгу Quest for Justice - Sean Wolfe Fay - Страница 13

Stan woke up the next morning to a hissing sound.

“Very funny, guys,” he mumbled. “That actually sounds a lot like a real Creep—aaauuuggghhh!”

This time, it was no prank. An actual Creeper was standing right next to Stan, and he was staring right into its horrible, empty face. The monster was beginning to swell, and in the split second before the inevitable explosion, Stan flew at the monster and punched it in the face.

To Stan’s amazement, instead of exploding, the Creeper flew backwards. As it walked back towards him, it suddenly keeled over sideways, an arrow protruding from the side of its head. Everyone woke up to the sound of Stan’s yell, and Rex started barking. Archie still stood with his bow in hand, aiming exactly where the monster’s head had been. The body disappeared, leaving a small mess of grey powder beneath it.

“What’s going on?” yelled Kat, holding her sword up.

“Yeah, what’s with all the noise?” whined G. “I’m trying to sleep here!”

“A Creeper got in,” said Stan.

“What?” said Sally, looking dishevelled, not at all like her usual self. “How did a Creeper get in … hang on. Why is it so dark in here? Where are the torches?”

She was right. The windows around the edges of the building provided the only source of light. Besides that it was dark.

“Yeah, where are the torches?” asked Jayden, who was still breathing heavily. “Did someone steal them?”

“I guess so,” said Charlie, looking around. “But why? Why would somebody break in here just to steal the torches? And the door?” he added, for he had just noticed that the door, too, was missing.

“It was probably just some random Griefer. You know, a player that likes giving other players crap for no reason,” said Archie, putting his bow back into his inventory. “Felt like having a laugh by making it so that monsters could just come in here in the night.”

“Yeah,” said Stan as he remembered how Mr A had attacked them for no apparent reason. “Yeah, a Griefer would do something like that.”

“Well, it’s good that thing woke us up, actually. I was about to oversleep,” said Jayden. “It’s my turn to make breakfast, so I’ll go get some stuff for that. Sally, you go down to the storehouse and craft us a new door and some torches.” Sally nodded and ran out of the hole where the door used to be, followed closely by Jayden.

Sally came back shortly, and she put new torches on the walls and fixed the new door in the frame. Jayden arrived not long after, holding some wheat and a brown powder. He put it on the crafting table, and before long he had created a batch of cookies. Everyone had some – they were chocolate chip, and they tasted delicious.

“OK,” said Jayden after they had all finished and Kat had calmed the still-barking Rex by feeding him some rotten flesh. “Come with me, you three. We have axe training and farming today.”

Kat and Charlie filed out of the room with Stan in the rear, feeling sure that he would not be very good at axe fighting. Frankly, he had always been slightly awkward, and he did not imagine that swinging a long stick with a hunk of metal on the end would be his forte. As he realized this, Stan felt suddenly sullen. Charlie had proven to be exceptional with a pickaxe, and the same with Kat and her sword. If he couldn’t master axe fighting, what would he have to fight with? But as Stan left the room, he could have sworn he heard Sally whisper, “Good luck, noob,” in his ear and instantly, he felt more confident.

They followed Jayden down the road and were surprised when they entered Crazy Steve’s farm.

“What are we doing here?” asked Stan.

“Well, what better place to learn about axe use than at a farm?” asked Jayden. “As part of the programme, you’ll be doing some volunteer work here, helping my brother with the farming.”

This made sense, and the four players walked into an empty yard enclosed by fences. In the adjacent pumpkin field, Crazy Steve was tilling some new land with his hoe. Stan was relieved to see, judging by Steve’s calm and methodic demeanor, that he was not QPOed.

“Hey, bro,” the farmer said, and he tipped his straw hat as the teacher and three students entered through the gate. “Ya three gonna help an old farmer with his work today? Dose Mooshrooms are giving me quite a hard time, and I could use da extra hands.”

“You’ll get your help, Steve,” replied Jayden. “We have axe fighting to do first.”

Stan’s stomach did another flip as he thought of the pressure surrounding his mastery of the axe, which Jayden pulled out of a chest in the enclosure.

“The key,” said Jayden, holding up the axe and demonstrating proper form, “is to let the axe guide you. It knows what to do. You are not the master of the axe. You are simply its modest guide.”

“Oh, brother,” grumbled Kat under her breath. Jayden proceeded to explain the basic mechanics of axe fighting, which Stan understood surprisingly well.

“To help you appreciate the art, each of you must pass a challenge.” He called out, “Yo, Steve! Toss me four pumpkins, stat!”

Crazy Steve may have been old, but he was strong. He picked up four pumpkins growing in the field and tossed them all to Jayden in two throws. Jayden put three of the pumpkins in the chest and then pulled out something Stan had never seen before. It appeared to be a large block made out of snow. Jayden took out another. He put one snow block down towards the back of the empty lot, and put the other on top of it. He turned to Stan, Charlie and Kat.

“Your goal in this exercise is to get across this red line.” He gestured to line of red dust behind the pile of snow that Stan hadn’t noticed before. “You also must kill the enemy that I am about to create.”

The three new players all started talking at once.

“What do you mean, create?”

“Why isn’t the snow melting?”

“Are you going to make a Creeper or something?”

“How does that work?”

“Why isn’t the snow melting?”

“How are we supposed to survive without armour?”

“This honestly can’t be safe!”

“Why isn’t the snow melting?!”

Jayden waited for the questions to die down before he continued. “I’ll demonstrate, and all your questions will be answered. Charlie, could you come here, please?”

Looking scared stiff, and with good reason, Charlie walked over to the tall pile of snow. Jayden tossed him a pumpkin and said, “Now, Charlie, when I say go, put that pumpkin on top of the snow pile. Got it?” Charlie nodded, looking confused. Stan shared his puzzlement. He had no idea what Jayden was about to do.

Jayden stood at the opposite end of the enclosure from the red line and pile of snow and pulled an iron axe out of the trunk. He stood with the axe at his side, got in a fighting stance, and said, “Ready, Charlie? And … GO!”

Charlie placed the pumpkin on the snow pile, and immediately fell backwards screaming, a look of horror and amazement on his face. The pile of snow with the pumpkin had turned into some type of animated snowman. Sticks had sprouted out of its sides, and it was hurling snowballs that it seemed to procure from nowhere rapid-fire at Jayden, who was running towards the snowman. Jayden was agile – not one of the snowballs hit him as he charged the snowy beast.

Then, as Jayden reached the snowman, he jumped in the air and did a sort of midair twirl, just dodging one of the snowballs, and his axe sliced through the bottom chunk of the snowman. Another twirl saw the middle section cleaved in two, and with another jumping spin the axe sliced clear through the pumpkin head. The snowman was seriously damaged, not throwing snowballs any more, and seemed to be struggling just to stay upright. Jayden was ruthless, though, and with one last jump into the air he delivered an almighty blow with the axe straight down on the snowman’s head. The entire pile of pumpkin and snow fell to two sides, snowballs rained onto the ground, and the pumpkin burst apart and split into nothing but seeds and a few pieces of orange flesh.

Completely ignoring the gaping mouths of his three students, Jayden wiped the snow and pumpkin guts off his axe and calmly walked across the red line.

Stan, Charlie, and Kat exploded into cheers. None of them was entirely sure what they had just seen, but it was certainly spectacular. “That was amazing!” Stan yelled.

“Yeah, it was! And what exactly was that thing you just killed?” asked Kat.

“Oh, that was just a Snow Golem,” explained Jayden. “They use snowballs to keep away monsters and unwanted guests. So, which of you wants to try first?”

The smile fell from Stan’s face. He had forgotten that he would have to do what Jayden had just done. Jayden made it look so easy! What if I just end up looking like an idiot? Stan thought.

“I’ll take the bullet,” Charlie said meekly, stepping forwards. The others looked surprised, even Jayden, though he still tossed Charlie the axe. Charlie never volunteered to go first.

“Well, snowballs don’t hurt, do they?” said Charlie, taking his stance as Jayden readied the Golem. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

Famous last words, thought Stan.

And he turned out to be right, as Charlie’s trial was a bona fide disaster. The second Jayden yelled go, Charlie dashed forwards, but he instantly fell back on his butt, still grabbing the handle of the axe – he had clearly underestimated its weight. With Charlie on the ground, the Snow Golem had a clear shot at Charlie with the snowballs. Each snowball knocked Charlie into the air a little, but he was so bad at dodging them that he was actually blasted into the air by the rapid-fire stream of snow. It was only a hoe thrown spear-style by Crazy Steve, which impaled itself in the Golem’s face, that stopped Charlie from being lifted to a fatal height. Still, Charlie was pretty badly hurt when he fell back down, and a disgruntled Jayden had to pull out another golden apple to fix Charlie’s leg.

Kat’s trial was almost as bad. She decided to throw the axe with all her considerable strength towards the Golem’s head. It would have worked had her aim been better. The flying axe ended up hitting and killing a cow in the adjacent field. From there, it was all Kat could do to keep from being lifted into the air as Charlie had. She was better at dodging than him, but she had no weapons, and she only dodged about half the rapid-fire snowballs. Jayden had to pull out a bow and arrows from the chest and fire three shots into the Snow Golem’s pumpkin head to put an end to it.

Finally, Stan took the axe. He dropped into a fighting stance with a nervous pit in his stomach. He hoped he wouldn’t just drop the axe like Charlie, or do something else to make himself look stupid. Jayden put the pumpkin head in place, the Snow Golem became animated, and Stan took off.

The first thing he noticed was that the axe wasn’t as heavy as he had thought. It felt rather light in his hand as he ran with it trailing behind him. The second thing he noticed was how easy it was to dodge the snowballs – he simply knew when to duck and weave around them, and in no time, Stan had reached the Snow Golem. What happened next was so incredible that even Jayden didn’t believe his eyes.

As he neared the Snow Golem, Stan had a brilliant idea. Instead of trying to copy what Jayden had done and doing a triple spin, Stan launched himself forwards into the air and spun with all his might, axe stretched in front of him. He slammed into the Snow Golem with such speed and such incredible revolution that the Golem was cut into dust as if it was in a blender set to liquefy.

Stan landed with one hand and two feet on the ground, well past the red line, breathing hard, his axe held in the remaining hand, and there was no evidence that there had ever been an enemy there. Nobody could even see any pieces of the pumpkin. The only evidence of the snow was the light dust hanging in the air, creating a rainbow in the light from the square sun.

There was an absolute explosion of cheers from Charlie, and Kat and Jayden just looked amazed. Stan’s smile filled his face. The move had seemed so natural, so easy! Then he noticed Crazy Steve’s face, and his smile faltered.

The look was shrewd and calculating. It was as if the old-timer was seeing Stan for the first time and was now trying to figure something out about him, as if there were something hidden in Stan’s pixilated body that he was trying to decipher. But his friends came over, and Stan soon forgot about the old farmer.

“That was amazing!” cried Kat.

“Wow! Awesome, man!” exclaimed Charlie.

“How did you do that!?” asked Jayden, eyes wide.

Stan shrugged, unable to stop grinning. “I don’t know. It just kind of happened.”

“Well, it was amazing!” Kat said again, and Charlie nodded enthusiastically in agreement.

“I think we may have just found your talent!” said a smiling Jayden. Stan’s heart leaped. And as the training continued, it seemed that Stan had indeed discovered something that he could do without trying. Like Charlie with the pickaxe and Kat with the sword, Stan blew away all the others in the sparring ring. He even managed to just beat out Jayden. Now Jayden was even more impressed, not to mention slightly jealous.

After a farming lesson that was no problem at all (though none of them particularly liked farming, they were all capable of doing it with ease, and Steve really appreciated the help convincing the stubborn Mooshrooms to breed), they put away their axes and hoes and headed out. Jayden was just about to exit under the hedge when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

“Yo, Jay!” Stan turned around and saw Crazy Steve speaking to Jayden. Jay turned. “Could I talk to Stan here for a few minutes?” Jay nodded and walked off, the others following behind him.

“Come on, noob,” said Steve as he walked back into the farm. Stan was apprehensive. He had had misgivings about Crazy Steve since the episode with the QPO and was not keen on talking with him one-on-one. When they got to the cow fence, Crazy Steve sat down on a stretch of fence and looked Stan straight in the eye.

“Look, kid,” said Crazy Steve, “I realize dat ya may not think much’a me since dat whole QPO thing, but I’ve been on this server a real long time. I’m level fifty-four, da highest in da village. I’ve got a whole lotta knowledge worked up about da server, who runs it, and how it works. Do me a favour and remember dat as I talk to ya, OK?” Stan nodded, unsure of where this was going.

“Like I said, I’ve been here a real long time, and frankly, da server’s never been in worse shape than it is right now. Don’t interrupt,” he added as Stan opened his mouth to ask what Crazy Steve was talking about. “Dem in Element City, dat run da government, dey don’t like people like ya. Freshies. Beginners. Noobs. Ya get it, don’cha?”

Stan nodded, his gut knotting at this revelation, and asked, “But why? Why do they not like us? And what does this have to do with me?”

Crazy Steve’s reply was cut off when an arrow sunk into his temple.

Stan’s shock vanished immediately when he heard the twang of another arrow being fired. He rolled off the fence and grabbed the iron hoe that Crazy Steve had dropped. He threw it in the direction of the arrow. The hoe connected, and Stan saw a player with a black ski mask, bare muscular chest, and black trousers and shoes stumble backwards, holding his face.

Stan used the time it took his attacker to recover to look at the player beside him. Crazy Steve had fallen to the ground and now lay unmoving, bleeding from the arrow in his head. All of the items that he carried were strewn on the ground about him. There was no doubt about it – he was dead.

Stan’s brain did not have time to process this horrific turn of events. He grabbed Crazy Steve’s iron axe and looked at the murderer just in time to see him send another arrow flying towards Stan’s head. He deflected it with the axe and then charged his assailant.

The murderer was now on the run. He had pulled out a piece of flint and an iron ring, and he was striking them together to create showers of sparks, setting fire to anything in his reach. The melons, the fence around the pigpen and the logs of cocoa beans were instantly set ablaze, and the fire was spreading fast, quickly blocking off Stan’s pursuit of the murderer.

Stan’s brain went into emergency mode. Without hesitating, he shoved all of Crazy Steve’s items into his own inventory, grabbed the old farmer’s body, and bolted towards the exit, yelling for Jayden. Stan burst through the hedge archway, which was already burning, and saw Jayden running back, a look of horror on his face, closely tailed by Kat and Charlie.

The second Jayden saw the burning farm his eyes widened in shock, but it was the sight of his dead brother that made him go completely berserk. He grabbed Stan by the shoulders and shook him back and forth, yelling, “What happened?”

“A player with a ski mask killed Steve, tried to kill me and then set the farm on fire!” choked out Stan. He found it hard to breathe due to the smoke and his horror at Crazy Steve’s untimely demise.

A flash of recognition showed momentarily in Jayden’s eyes, and Stan could tell that this … this … Griefer, with the ski mask, had struck before. Jayden yelled at the top of his lungs at the sky, cursing the Griefer, his eyes and veins bulging. Stan, Kat and Charlie stood beside him, looking terrified.

Stan stood there numb for the longest time. He was vaguely aware of Jayden breaking down sobbing next to him, of Adoria’s voice yelling, of people running past him with water buckets. He realized that the inferno was gradually dying down. Before long, there was no more fire to brighten the dark night that had fallen in the midst of the firefight.

Stan snapped out of his trance when he heard Sally’s voice next to him. “You all right, noob?” she asked gently.

Stan looked at her. He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t all right, and that Crazy Steve could never return to the server due to his banishment, and that he couldn’t understand why someone would kill another player if they knew that eternal banishment was the consequence … but instead he looked her in the eye and said, “I’ll be all right.” Her eyes were full of tears, and he didn’t want to seem weak to her, not after she had believed in him.

“Sally, we have a big problem!” Adoria exclaimed as she rushed over to them, panic in her voice. “I think that there’s a possibility that this attack may not be isolated. We need to get all the lower-levels into the mine, but there won’t be room for all of them down there. The mine wasn’t meant to hold the number of people we have now. Any more than two-thirds of the current population would make it too susceptible to accidents. I’m out of ideas, Jayden’s still distraught, and Archie and G are still busy preparing to evacuate the lower-levels. What do you think we should do?”

The panic in her voice led Stan to speak. “We’ll leave,” he said. Sally and Adoria both stared at him. “We’ll leave, Charlie, Kat and I. If there’s any chance at all that there are more Griefers coming, we’d stand the best chance of survival. We’ve finished the programme. Send us out, ask for other volunteers to leave, and you can stay and defend everyone left in the village.”

Adoria opened her mouth to protest, but Sally cut her off. “That’s actually not bad thinking. Those who’ve completed the programme will have the best shot at surviving, and we upper-levels will have to stay here and defend the village. We can send volunteers who have completed the programme into the forest, towards the city.”

Adoria protested, “But what if they run into Griefers along the way?”

“They won’t,” Sally responded. “The Griefers avoid the main road in case they come across well-armed travellers. They’re cowards, all of them. And besides,” she added, smiling at Stan, “that Griefer didn’t run away for no reason. Am I right in thinking that you fought him off?” Stan nodded.

“OK,” Adoria said, and she ran off towards the mine, skirt billowing in the wind, to make the announcement.

Stan looked at Sally and said, “Sally, I—” but he was cut off by Sally kissing him on the cheek.

“Come back and visit someday,” she said, and she ran off to join Adoria. “Oh, and take some weapons and food from the storehouse!”