[IC] Deep Ground Online

[Psyker Landshark]

Sam Jensen - Gleeful Jackal, Blue King

As the sun began to set, Sam sighed in boredom as he sat back on the bed in his dorm. With Deep Ground Online down, there was really nothing else worth doing at the moment besides browse the public forums on the World and occasionally shitpost. Currently, most threads were abuzz with speculation about the Corpse Collector person that the Black King and her Ebon Strikers were hunting down. Yawning, Sam refreshed the page again to see a new thread at the top.

Calling All Kings

In light of the Black King coming out, DGP crashing, and a big announcement calling out one player specifically, we obviously have things to discuss. By that, I mean everybody who wasn't an enigma before today. With the exclusion of the Black King, I'm hereby calling a meeting for the six of us; as I said, we've obviously got things to discuss in light of these new circumstances. Show up at the library during lunch tomorrow. Kings only.

I'll be waiting.

"...Welp." He muttered to himself out loud. "Looks like Red's running scared. What the hell, sounds fun. If nothing else, at least I might get to see her flustered."

Leaning back on his pillow, Sam decided that he might as well try to get onto Deep Ground, even if the servers were down for the moment. If he was lucky, he might be one of the first to log back in. And considering that he'd been logged out while in the Ebon Strikers' guild headquarters, he'd definitely need to get out as soon as possible, especially if the Black King had a change of heart once she logged back on. Closing his eyes, he willed himself to log into the Deep Ground Program...

Welcome, Gleeful Jackal, Blue King.

...And found himself pleasantly surprised when he opened his eyes, seeing the Black King's guild hall around him. It seemed that he was one of the first people to log back in, considering how the hall was devoid of all of the avatars that had occupied it before the servers had gone down. Without a second thought, the Blue King dashed for cover, placing himself behind a pillar. Unlike a good portion of Assassins, Gleeful Jackal possessed no invisibility skills. No, his stealth was all natural. He abused line of sight and cover to sneak around, not trusting in the crutch of invisibility, especially given that certain people (read: the White King) loved to spam True Sight. Still, now he was hidden. And the Black King had to log back in eventually. If he recalled correctly, the place where she had been standing was just in range of his Grim Reaper skill. If he could gank a second King, the results would be hilarious. Hell, he could even record it like he did with the previous White King. What would people say when they saw the legendary Black King falling for a sneak attack in her own territory?

"CORPSE COLLECTOR I'M CALLING YOU OUT! Ebon Skryters has a bounty on your head and I aim to collect! You found me before but I bet you can't catch me this time! I'm going to get you, and when I do, your ass is mines!" A voice rang through the area. Startled, Gleeful Jackal looked towards the entrance of the guild hall to see a massive horde of Dissolutions, as well as a player with a shotgun evading them.

Huh. So other people had gotten in before him. And...wait. That player with the shotgun had been in the guild hall beforehand, looking to join the Ebon Strikers. And the person that had been shouting said he was from the Ebon Strikers as well. Damn. So the Black King had probably logged back on before he did, and now she was out in her territory, hunting down that Corpse Collector person. Any chance he had of assassinating her for shits and giggles was out for the moment. Shaking his head, the Blue King drew his grappling hooks and ran out of the guild hall, rocketing past the swarm of Dissolutions as he pulled himself up to a rooftop. Crouching down on the edge, Gleeful Jackal surveyed the area around him until he noticed an explosion in the streets below.

"My, my." He whistled in appreciation. "Whoever did that, I like their sense of style." Grinning, the Blue King contented himself to simply watch the battle below, not willing to interfere for the moment.

[TheWendil]

Corpse Collector
“H-H-Hey, watch it!”

The massive moving piece of steel, bolts, and whatever else fancied a mechanic’s greatest dreams came flying towards the Corpse Collector at rapid speeds. Thinking at the last moment, she leaped to the side to the dirt, only letting the explosion that result from the point of contact to give her minor chip damage. It was becoming quite obvious that this girl didn’t seem to know how to play fair at all, only relying on her access to the program’s main interface to manipulate her actions.

Sighing in annoyance, the blonde Avatar got up to dust off her white coat, a scowl dropping onto her face. She crossed her arms and huffed.

“You idiots,” she said, glaring both at Arms Slave and Hungry Jaws. “I could have been killed! Then I’d be mad! Man you two piss me of-hey, it’s you from before!”

Recognizing Arms Slave, the Corpse Collector summoned out a rather large revolvers, the barrel as big as her palm.

“Yeah, it’s you alright! How’s it going? Can you please die for me? Hmm? I’m sure Death Penalty here can finish the job really quick….”

Without hesitation, the rouge player giggled as she began to fire off randomly, not caring where and or even if she hit the two opponents in front of her. Evidently, one almost hit the now airborne Smitten Kitten.

As the bullet whizzed past, it imploded within itself and rained forward a barrage of Dissolutions that spawned into the sky. The physics of gravity still applying to the virtual world, the newly summoned hail of Dissolutions had no other direction to travel but down, descending right upon Smitten Kitten’s friendly NPC.

Not too far away, a certain Dissolution breed was on the verge of bloodlust. A rare creature, this thing was much different than the average enemies based off of animals or other feral creatures. Covered in an inky blackness much like its cousins, this Dissolution had the shining skull of a wolf crowned upon its head but walked with the body of a man and a bear. A mighty axe dragged across the ground and small tremors welled up wherever it walked.

Its intended target for the hung: Free Runner.

"My, my. Whoever did that, I like their sense of style."

“Someone seems to be enjoying themselves.”

A low voice cut through the air and silenced all immediate distractions. It came from directly behind Gleeful Jackal, and it was one of a taunting nature, though calm in its deliverance.

“Do you intend to just stand there Blue King?”

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny Yang - Arms Slave

Arms Slave wasn't sure if he should be surprised or not that Corpse Collector was able to survive the crash. What did make him more suspicious was how little damage she took despite being close to the truck's explosion. He was certain that she must be some sort of high-level character with massive defense buffs, because the idea that he was fighting a hacker never occurred to him. At least not until she started shooting at him. He guessed that she was an assassin of some sort, perhaps a hitman given that she could use a gun, but he's never heard of a weapon that could shoot Dissolutions. He didn't have much time to think about what was going on. He only knew that these Dissolutions were a threat, and he needed to kill Corpse Collector fast.

Covering his body with the Tower Shields, Arms Slave's first action was to get out of the way of the gunshots. Though his shields did well to protect him, the force which they hit his shields told him that her "Death Penalty" was a high-powered weapon, apparently with a lot of neat tricks. Better not to be on the wrong end of that. He used his Chain Catch to maneuver him to a less populated position but he wouldn't stay there for long. Once he wasn't immediately threaten by the Dissolutions, Arms Slave launched his Chain Catch to Corpse Collector to pull her into him. Once the chains catch her, if they do, he was going to pull her towards him and impale her on his shield spikes. And in case she chose to start shooting at him on the way towards him, he already had his Tower Shields ready to intercept her shots.

Retsu Goroshi - Dark Wraith

Dark Wraith could see that Corpse Collector wasn't even bothering to be subtle with her hacks. She obviously had her defensive stats maxed out since she hardly took more than scratch damage against the explosion, and she had altered the effects of her bullets to create Dissolutions after a certain distance. Dark Wraith did her best to counter some of Corpse Collector's actions, just to give her fighters a fair chance, or at least to live long enough for Retsu to be finished with what she's doing. However Dark Wraith also began to detect the presence of more players in the area and cursed herself. It would only be a matter of time before the rest of the player base began to swarm Deep Ground, and subsequently to the Black City. This would not only endanger them to Corpse Collector' shenanigans, but also might make her leave before Retsu could make a concrete solution agianst her. "I just need a few more minutes...."

[Ryonara]

Smitten Kitten continued to circle above the fight with Corpse Collector just to see what was going to happen. She didn't notice the bullets whizzing past her however, and she certainly didn't notice the Dissolutions that fell above her. Smitten Kitten was at least able to switch gears and go on the defensive, making her flying ally dodge and weave past the falling monsters. Smitten Kitten had no idea what was going on now, but she also felt that she was in too deep just to leave now. But she was also rather confused on what she should do; initially she was going to help out Corpse Collector because she thought she would be a good way to defeat the Black King. But something about Corpse Collector struck Smitten Kitten as very wrong. She couldn't place her finger on it, but it made her hesitant to offer her help to either Corpse Collector of the other fighters. Smitten Kitten would need to watch for a little bit longer before she decided who's side she would fight for.

[Psyker Landshark]

Sam Jensen - Gleeful Jackal, Blue King

As the Blue King looked down on the rabble fighting in the streets below him, he chuckled in amusement as Corpse Collector somehow managed to spawn Dissolutions by the truckload against the Ebon Striker members she was facing.

"So she's a hacker, huh?" He muttered under his breath as he watched. "No wonder the Black King wants her gone so badly. God knows I'd get the guys to zerg rush her if I'd found out sooner." And he really would have. Despite his laissez-faire policy towards most of Deep Ground's features, the one thing that Gleeful Jackal didn't tolerate in his guild was hacking. It was the sole unfair advantage in the game. For anything else, such as ganking or camping, those could be avoided by simply getting good, not being a scrub, and traveling in a group. But there was no way to counter a decent hacker effectively, save for running to the admins crying for bans.

“Someone seems to be enjoying themselves.” A voice cut into the Blue King's musings, causing him to whirl around in surprise. How the hell had he gotten snuck up on? He hadn't heard anything step behind him, and he was fairly certain no one had been following him. Damn, he must have fucked up badly this time. Hopefully, no one else would ever find out about this embarassing incident, as long as he killed whoever this interloper was.

“Do you intend to just stand there Blue King?” The figure that snuck up on him asked, and Gleeful Jackal's only response was to slide a pair of daggers into his hands, grinning.

"I don't know how you snuck up on me, but good job. Not many Assassins that are good enough to get the drop on me. Any particular reason you did that? I'm curious."

[TheWendil]

Corpse Collector
“Hey get back here! Ehehe!”

The Corpse Collector’s childish giggling was soon drowned out by the shots of her Death Penalty as she fired randomly at Arms Slave with no rhyme or reason to her methods. In fact, it almost seemed like she had no particular strategy or even a fighting style to base things off of.

“Eh?”

Arm’s Slave Chain Catch latched onto her right ankle and dragged her forward, forcing her on her back and staring at the world above. She did not appeared phased in the slightest, only grinning when she saw another player hovering right above the battlefield.

“Ohh goody! Another bitch to play with and soon maybe I can even have a harem!”

Sticking her tongue out in mockery, Corpse Collector switched the functions of her Death Penalty and soon began firing mercilessly at Smitten Kitten above her, not caring if some of the bullets hit her own spawned Dissolutions. When she realized that she was getting dangerously close to Arms Slave’s clutches, she twisted around and hacked the damage output of her gun.

With a twisted smirk, she broke off the chain with a single bullet, skidding on the ground before eventually picking herself up.

“Nice one Mr. Slave! Really cool what you did there! Mind if I fill you full of holes now?”

With that same airy giggle, Corpse Collector charged forward in a bloodlust, firing off her gun in a deranged fury. Now it became increasingly clear. Corpse Collector did have a fighting style, though it was one no player had ever implemented before. They way she moved and attacked…she was fighting just like one of the Dissolution NPCs.

She was acting on pure instinct alone.

"I don't know how you snuck up on me, but good job. Not many Assassins that are good enough to get the drop on me. Any particular reason you did that? I'm curious."

“Oh? An Assasin?”

Near the raging battle ground, the Blue King would witness a strange even occurring right before his eyes. The air itself seemed to twist and distort as a humanoid figure seemed to casually stepped out of what appeared to be a silver void of nothingness.

The figure wore a mask concealing his face while white hair messily cropped out from his head. A long, dark cloak clung onto his body and golden orbs were seen as slits from beneath the eye holes of his mask.

“Is that what you called me, Gleeful Jackal? An Assasin? What do you take me for…a player?

The status above the mystery man’s head read one thing clear for the Blue King to see: Enemy NPC.

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny Yang - Arms Slave

Arms Slave readied himself as he pulled Corpse Collector closer to him. Only a few more yards and she'd be close enough to bash. She started shooting in the air, which Arms Slave initially thought was just because she was stupid, but did notice something going on above. He first noticed it was raining Dissolutions, so he had a pretty good incentive to finish this fight before he would end up having to fight off hordes of monsters. But he also vaguely saw what might have been a player. He couldn't get a clear look before his chain went back to his hand, but Corpse Collector was notably not attached. She had managed to snap the chain, which he wasn't too surprised with since it Corpse Collector was likely a high level assassin, and likely had abilities to do precise shots or something. Either way when she started shooting at him he simply turtled behind his shields. It worked... Until a bullet sunder his tower shield with a glancing blow.

"Shit!" Arms Slave quickly realized that something was really amiss. Dissolutions with each shot, the sudden and insane increase to damage output, how quickly she was able to react and escape his Chain Catch. More importantly, the girl wasn't even trying to fight smart. She was fighting more like... Like the Dissolutions. While dismissed for their lack of tactics, a Dissolution was random. Even simple plans, like baiting, can go wrong simply because a Dissolution choose not to attack you for whatever reason. That's why Arms Slave often just hits hard and hits fast at first, and leaves tactic against an opponent who bothers to think. Dissolutions just acted. And Corpse Collector was like that, which made him wonder; why was she so cocky?

Arms Slave had to keep moving. If one of her bullets could sunder his shield, taking a direct hit would kill him, even if he used his Surviving Suffering skill, he might be able to take on one shot. And it doesn't look like Corpse Collector was running out of bullets any time soon, but at least she was shooting at him. He knew that Hungry Jaws should be around, and who ever was above him would have some incentive to start fighting back. As Arms Slave did his best to not be in the general direction of where Corpse Collector was shooting at, he drew a rapier from his back. He was going to try to use some hit-and-run tactics and hope that he could slowly whittle down Corpse Collector in between her reloads. "If she reloads..." For now Arms Slave just kept moving, waiting for the right chance to chain in and strike.

[Scarifar]

Daniel - Free Runner

Daniel was more concerned about the Dissolutions themselves rather than Corpse Collector. There were way too many and getting way out of hand. One of the Dissolutions that was falling from the sky landed right next to him, taking massive fall damage as it did so. It reached out to Daniel with a clawed hand, but a single shot from Daniel's pistol put it out of its misery. After Daniel collected the exp from it, he looked around to see if anything interesting was around. There was the Blue King on another rooftop, which was interesting, but nothing he hadn't seen before. He briefly wondered if he should help him, but decided that he'd only be more of a liability than anything else. After all, he was a King, he could take care of himself.... probably.

Corpse Collector was getting more aggressive, destroying defenses like they were nothing and forcing her opponent to keep moving. Daniel was not about to go down in that. It was probably best for him to leave and move on. Let someone else take those threats, and he could farm some Dissolutions. He parkoured his way onto other rooftops, then decided he was far away enough. He looked down from his rooftop to see a horde of Dissolutions, which was nothing special there. What was special was the fact that one of them seemed to be much larger than the others, and... was it carrying an axe? Daniel debated on the ups and downs of trying to take it on, then pulled out his shotgun and jumped straight down, ready to take it on.

[Psyker Landshark]

Sam Jensen - Gleeful Jackal, Blue King

“Oh? An Assassin?” The figure replied before a masked boy emerged in front of the Blue King. “Is that what you called me, Gleeful Jackal? An Assassin? What do you take me for…a player? And then the boy's tag finally popped up only to read Enemy NPC.

"...What." Gleeful Jackal said flatly, raising his daggers into a combat stance. This guy was an NPC? No NPC he'd encountered in Deep Ground before had been intelligent enough to respond to a conversation like this. Either this was some new thing programmed into the game, or more likely, this person was another hacker, one that had given themselves an NPC tag to screw with people's heads.

Well, whichever it was, he was still at a disadvantage at the moment. Right now, the Blue King was a Shinobi caught out on an enclosed rooftop with no traps set up to fall back on. Still, one didn't get to be as high a level as he was without being able to deal with a losing hand.

"So...what do you want?" The Blue King grinned as he cluched his daggers, eyes flickering across the area around him, searching for ambush points, escape routes, and cover. "There a point to you announcing yourself? Because if you wanted to kill me, you're doing a really bad job right now. And 'Enemy NPC'? Really? Come on, pal. No one with half a brain's going to buy that. Fucking edgelord."

[Ryonara]

Smitten Kitten was just trying her best not to get hit by stray bullets, but soon it looked like Corpse Collector found her, and was now trying to actively kill her. Smitten Kitten tried to use some evasive maneuvers, but the skies were so chaotic that her creature took on solid hit and was killed, sending her on a free fall. Trying to regain control over herself Smitten Kitten latched onto another flying Dissolution which luckily didn't notice her. From there Smitten Kitten carefully jumped from Dissolution to Dissolution, until she was about thirty or so feet above Corpse Collector. By this time she knew that Corpse Collector had no interest in allying with her, but she was a threat. But also, possibly a prize. Smitten Kitten might not be able to convince Corpse Collector to help her, but Smitten Kitten was sure that if she could defeat Corpse Collector, she could use it as leverage to get close to the Black King. That way Smitten Kitten would be in a better position to defeat him. Such underhanded tactics wasn't really how she operated, but she would work out the details later.

Once Corpse Collector was within range Smitten Kitten put a large sticky rune under Corpse Collector to keep her rooted in place. Unfortunately it also kept all the Dissolutions in place, and it would also affect everyone else who gets near Corpse Collector. Smitten Kitten couldn't really attack either since her only offensive move was the Explosion Runes, which would cancel her Sticky Rune and possibly harm everyone within the blast radius. Once Smitten Kitten used her ability she landed on the roof top but his behind cover.

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny Yang - Arms Slave

Arms Slave kept Corpse Collector's attention, but for how long he can do that, he wasn't sure. She didn't seem to need to reload and she's already shoot holes into two of his remaining shields, forcing him down to one tower shield and a few weapons. He still had two open hands but he was saving them for his Chain Catches. He needed something, anything, to create an opening for him so he could go for a crippling shot on Corpse Collector. After that he'd just need to keep up the pressure on her until she's killed, but seeing that she has infinite ammo and could possibly teleport, there wasn't a lot of options left for Arms Slave. The way he saw it right now, the only thing left to do was die, which would suck.

It was than that he saw something fall from the skies, Smitten Kitten. He remembered her from before, but wondered what she was doing here of all places. "Is she trying to join the Black King too?" He didn't have much time to ask questions when he noticed that she cast some sort of spell at Corpse Collector. He didn't know what she did, but for just a moment, Corpse Collector wasn't shooting at him. This would have to be his opening. He shot his chains at Corpse Collector and noted that she couldn't move. Fine with him; if she wasn't going to him, he'd come to her. He pulled on the chains and they began to retract, pulling his body towards Corpse Collector. He had his Rapier and another sword out, both poised to impale her through the chest. Even if she was a 9th level assassin, he was coming at her with such force to such a weak part of her body he was sure this was a certain kill.

Retsu Goroshi - Dark Wraith

"You're finished." With a final input, Retsu severed Corpse Collector's connection to the Deep Ground database. It would appear to have done nothing, but now Corpse Collector can't alter her character information any more than a normal player could. Additional, Retsu also rendered Corpse Collector's stats to a much weaker level, weaker than what she would be even at her normal level. But that wasn't the last nail into her coffin. She ran a new program Retsu had installed into the Deep Ground mainframe that would surely confuse Corpse Collector, more so since she was the only one who could see it. Retsu dubbed the problem "Happy Birthday".

Soon Corpse Collector's vision would be blocked by various pop-up messages congratulating her on all the years spent playing Deep Ground, the contributions she made and memories shared. The messages spoke how sad it would be to see her go, but hoped that she had fun and will find a place for herself in the future. It also tallied up her score from Deep Ground, which Retsu had altered to show that she scored zeros across the board. Despite what would have been considered and utter failure, the messages continued to pop up to give her faux compliments for her actions and words of support. But in all the mess, there was one thing that Corpse Collector should really worry about.

"You're free to play for as long as you'd like, but unfortunately once you log out you character will be retired and you will no longer be able to continue to play as Corpse Collector. But her memory will live on just as you will! Happy 19th Birthday!"

Dark Wraith moved in now that Corpse Collector would no longer be able to cheat her way to a victory. However from the looks of things, Arms Slave was about to land the definitive death blow on Corpse Collector. In the event that he doesn't however, Dark Wraith had two of her undead Thralls move into position to intercept her and smack her down with their strongest moves, while Dark Wraith stayed out of sight to ensure that this plan works out as well as she'd hope.

[TheWendil]

Corpse Collector
“Whoah, whoah, whoah, what the hell!”

Corpse Collector’s fun was promptly halted by a series of rapid explosions detonating in her face at point blank. Frowning, she attempted to simply glitch her way out of the blast radius but didn’t anticipate Arm’s Slave firing off his chains as well.

“No…shit!”

Panic filled her Avatar’s voice as she the sudden forward motion caught her off guard, and she felt her body being dragged towards an extended Rapier.

“Fu-”

The deafening sounds of rapid explosions blotted out her words, filling the area with a brilliant flash of light. When the dust eventually cleared, Corpse Collector was evidently not skewered onto Arm’s Slave’s blade. Rather, she was standing a good distance away from the other player, a twisted grin knurled onto her face.

Having been unable to avoid the sticky runes, Corpse Collector’s health was not in the brimming red, and this was apparent by her Avatar’s damaged appearance. Still, her health bar began to slowly but surely regenerate and she summoned forth a second Death Penalty, aiming both at Arm’s Slave and the newly landed Smitten Kitten.

“Thought you could beat me like this…before I fuck up the Black King? Heh, well fuck you! Fuck you all! Didn’t think I shoot off my own torso, huh? Did you?”

A large, gaping hole smoked out of Corpse Collector’s abdomen, visually explaining what she had done to free herself from the chains. With a mad glint in her eye, she pulled the trigger of her twin Death Penalties and giggled mercilessly, firing without reason or care.

“Come on, just die! Die, die, die, die, die!”

"You're free to play for as long as you'd like, but unfortunately once you log out you character will be retired and you will no longer be able to continue to play as Corpse Collector. But her memory will live on just as you will! Happy 19th Birthday!"

“W-….What…What the fuck is this shi-”

Corpse Collector never did finish that last vulgarity, as two undead Thralls promptly lashed out and dealt the finishing blow, plunging their attacks into her Avatar’s body. The same look of shock was present on her face, even as her Avatar dissolved into nothingness.

Back in the real world, the Black King smirked knowingly.

However, the dilemmas now surrounding the world of Deep Ground Online were far from over. As Free Runner leapt down to face the massive Dissolution, the Enemy NPC turned its armored head towards him and snarled. With glinted eyes, it raised its axe above its heavy form and struck in a downward arc.

Further away, the Blue King faced his own problems.

[i] "So...what do you want? There a point to you announcing yourself? Because if you wanted to kill me, you're doing a really bad job right now. And 'Enemy NPC'? Really? Come on, pal. No one with half a brain's going to buy that. Fucking edgelord."

The masked man chuckled, his golden eyes glinting slightly.

“I see. Yes, it makes sense for someone like you to doubt such a thing I suppose. You humans always do tend to find reason in illogical circumstances. How about this?

And just like that, the status icon above the boy’s Avatar switched from Enemy NPC into Player Character.

“Will that suffice for now? Or would you prefer something a little more challenging Blue King?

This time, the status morphed into something new. Something that was considered a rarity throughout all of Deep Ground; in hindsight, the sight before Gleeful Jackal wasn’t even supposed to make sense, seeing as Deep Ground was strictly a PvP Fighting game. And there it was regardless.

Enemy Boss.

[Psyker Landshark]

Sam Jensen - Gleeful Jackal, Blue King

The Blue King narrowed his eyes as the boy before him just continued to laugh and spout out more incredibly edgy lines. Sighing, he nonetheless let the mysterious figure go on as he changed his status icon to Player Character.

"That's bett-" Gleeful Jackal began, before the fucking idiot kept on going. And then the boy's tag became Enemy Boss. "Never mind. I take everything back. You really like your power trip, don't you?" The blue-clad youth mocked, twirling his daggers around in his hands.

"Seriously, I get it, you're a hacker with nothing better to do than cheat a perfectly fun game. Considering you haven't been caught yet, it's either your first time or you're really, really good at it. And going by your edgy little fedora-tipping speech, you're not doing much to convince me that this isn't your first time. Hell, you probably have invincibilty or regeneration hacks on or something. So...yeah. Doesn't really seem worth it to fight you. Bye."

And with that, the Blue King threw down the smoke bomb and flashbang he had hidden up his sleeves, letting loose a torrent of dense smoke while simultaneously giving off a blinding flash. Not wasting the opportunity, he put his daggers away and drew his grappling hooks, leaping off the side of the building to escape, rapidly swinging between skyscrapers.

"Oh? You are a very amusing specimen...

A hand lashed out of the air, gripping onto the Blue King's shoulder. It was not enough to deter the King from his leap across the wide expanse of the city below, but it most certainly would have given the veteran player quite the shock. Especially considering the amount of time it would have taken this masked man to accomplish such a task.
The hand, as if phasing in from nothingness, belonged to the masked man.

This being...could it really have been a player? He certainly didn't speak in the regular manner of some online prankster, nor did it seem like he was genuinely new to the Deep Ground System. A troll? Although rare given the program was designed to determine one's ultimate fate, Deep Ground was still prone to those who got their kicks from
other's suffering.

However, that still didn't answer the question of what he was doing here when the servers had all been shut offline. Supposedly.

"I suggest we speak on solid ground Blue King. That is, if you don't mind me tagging along through the air like this.

Sam Jensen - Gleeful Jackal, Blue King

Gleeful Jackal's head whipped back in midair, surprised at the hand that was still clutching onto him.

"...Oh what the fuck." He muttered under his breath, more than a little disturbed at this point. Great. So he'd miscalculated. If the masked idiot could touch him, he could damage him. And he'd still manage to reach him even after the smoke and flashbang combination. So clearly screwing with his sight didn't work.

"Fine," He sighed, making a show of being bored. "You're no fun." The Blue King reached out with his grappling hook, zipping towards the next rooftop in sight. With a leap, he flipped up and landed in the middle, folding his arms behind his back in a show of confidence as he waited for the masked man to catch up.

As the Gleeful Jackal made haste to land on the nearest rooftop, the sounds of battle down below seemed to have quieted, at least for the time being. Had Corpse Collector been brought down by the Black Guild after all? Unfortunately, the Blue King would not have time to ponder these quesitons, as his awaiting audience soon materialized in front of him.

It was as if the entity wasn't even trying, simply morphing and changing shape however he pleased. It took naught but mere moments for his body to flicker out of sight in midair only to appear on the rooftop.

"Tell me, Gleeful Jackal. Why exactly did you log into Deep Ground tonight?"

The masked man tilted his head slightly to the left, his golden eye glinting slightly. Whether it be by malice or some other intent had yet to be seen.

"From my understanding, Deep Ground was apparently going under maintence. Am I correct in assuming that you chose to refuse that statement and forge your own reality?"

"...Sure, call it that, whatever. I was bored and thought there might be an off chance the game was back up. I got lucky, so sue me." The Blue King replied, raising an eyebrow. "We going to play twenty questions all night or something?"

The masked man's eyes narrowed slightly.

"An interesting response...no. I simply found your presence here curious, given the events that have unfolded outside of the game. Tell me Gleeful Jackal, how does it feel to be one of the only three kings still walking among the living?

Gleeful Jackal blinked.

"What." He blinked again. "What, did Ariel finally lose her shit and go on a killing spree?"

"Ariel? Ah, her struggles were the most entertaining to view. A fighter until the very end of existence...I almost envy her. But no, I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. As of now, all of the Kings are dead. There's just you...and Moon Rider...maybe the Yellow King....it's really hard to say. I assure you, this is no jest."
The enigmatic player-if he could even be called that at this point-swept his arms to the sky as if preaching some mass prayer to a church ensemble.

"If you were to log out now and continue on with your regular life...then I assure you, the reality of your fellow Kings having been killed will not falter at all. Do you doubt me?

There was no sense of taunting or even joy in the voice; simpley a question that needed answering.

The Blue King narrowed his eyes, wondering just what the hell was going on now. All he wanted was to play a damn video game, and then this happened. If what this idiot was saying was true, then why the hell was he still alive? He was fucking logged into Deep Ground; his real life body should've been easy prey. Oh wait. He was logged into Deep Ground. Given that the Ebon Strikers were logged in as well, the Black King should've been logged in too. And maybe the Yellow King.

"So what you're telling me is that you killed the Kings that weren't logged into the game?" He asked disbelievingly. "And if I were to log out, they'd stay dead? This is the lowest quality bait I've heard. Your story'd make a lot more sense if the ones that were logged in were dead, you know."

The masked man's only answer was a low chuckle.

"Now why would I give away these answers so freely? Isn't that your role to verify the validity of my claims? If you don't believe me, why not log out and investigate? It's certainly easier than speaking with a masked mad man..."

A sudden rumbling shook the area around them, shaking the very foundation of their building. The masked man stood erect and without falter. Turning his gaze downwards, he blinked once before turning back to the Blue King.

"So this is the work of the Sweepers? Interesting.

The familiar haze of codes and numbers began to circle the wide expanse around them, signifying another forced shut-down. If the masked man's utterance were to be taken as truth, then this was indeed the work of the Sweepers. If they really did stop Corpse Collector, then it would only make sense for the culprits to clean up their mess.

"Time is growing short...

In one fluid motion, the masked man reached out to grab ahold of Gleeful Jackal's head. His gloved fingers curled around the back of the neck, at the base of the skull; the area where all people in the world contained the chip to enter Deep Ground Online.

"I leave you with these parting words Blue King. I suggest, no, I insist that you locate Moon Rider within the real world. Why? It makes things more...interesting for me. Know this; I am no one. I am everyone. Nowhere and everywhere are my domain...I suppose in your termanology, you can label me as God. Now go forward, away from my Kingdom. Go now....Sam Jensen."

In one short burst that seemed faster than the human eye to process, the masked being was gone. As he left all traces of his presence, the reality of Deep Ground crumbled all around Gleeful Jackal.

Soon, the light of the real world began to bleed through....

[demonspade64]

Mukuro Matsumoto-The Undertaker

After logging back on the he game and rushing to is favorite hunting grounds in the park;The Undertaker had hid himself in the shadows between the billboards to rest and take everything in. As he rest his back against the back of the billboard, he sighed in disappointment before adding ShootingStar to his almost empty friend list in his in-game communication menu, after that he decide to send her a private in-game message.

Dear Shooting Star

Once again, Thank you for letting me in your guild. But I need your expertise on something. If your free can you please come to the closest park est of your territory. I need you to confirm something.

After that he then send her the PM before adjusting his sitting position a little bit to make himself more comfortable.

If shooting Star were to come with the first five minutes after receiving the message she would see two other player running from the park, One would have his health below thirdly percent while the other would be completely unharmed after baiting on the fight. "I complete believe we escape man, the Taken had a good change of killing me but I guess he must of slip." One of the player said to the other as the two tried to escape the area.

[Lucius Cypher]

The Erasers

With a snap of her fingers, the Dissolutions began to vanish. The glitch brought about by Corpse Collector, now that her connection to the sever was effectively severed, was much easier to remove now, and the resulting enemies began to vanish en masses. Dark Wraith's own minions also vanished, but at this point she wasn't worried about having to defend herself. She was about to log out when she had to dodge a flying chain. "You bitch! That was suppose to be my kill!"

Arms Slave raised his many arms at Dark Wraith. Though his helmet covered his face, you could tell he was angry. "Who the hell are you, coming here to steal my kill? Wait a fec... You're that skeletal chick who was with the black king! Oh, working with him now, huh? Don't think this makes us allies! You've made an enemy from me for taking what was rightful-" Before Arms Slave could continue his rant Dark Wrath flicked an Experience Gem at his head.

"Look, if you're going to complain about me taking your kills, at least collect some rewards for your trouble. The sever is going to restart in a few minutes, and if you don't want this battle to be a complete waste, you can at least take some loot. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other later, Arms Slave. Stay out of trouble until than, won't you?" Dark Wraith's avatar than vanished from Deep Ground. Arms Slave grumbled under his breath and collected some experience shards and what was left from Corpse Collector; her weapon, Death Penalty. He'd have no use for it since his class doesn't use guns, but it was a level 10 weapon so surely it'll be valuable loot. There wasn't much left to be done, so Arms Slave also logged out for the night.

After a while, Retsu and some of the DG programmers did a full reboot of the DG sever. Corpse Collector's data wiped from the system and ensured that she can't ever come back. However, Retsu could not find the means which Corpse Collector used to alter Deep Ground's systems to thoroughly. Retsu began to suspect that there was more to this than just a hacker with a power trip. She'd... Investigate the matter later. Right now however, it was time to rest.

Donny left the private booth late that night. He was still angry that Dark Wraith had stolen his kill, but as he was walking home he simply settled for a job well done. Corpse Collector was dead, he was there for it, and surely the Black King will see and respect that. After all, he was the only one who really "Fought" Corpse Collector. Hungry Jaws ended up killed during the truck crash and he had no idea what happened to that Smitten Kitten character. All in all, Donny felt that while he finished a job, he didn't really get the fight he wanted out of it. Now he was tired and wanted to go to bed. And that's what he did.

Later that night, Deep Ground was back online. The Black City was cleared of all dissolution, however there was some startling news. The very sudden and unexplained openings of the various King positions. Soon, anarchy will take over Deep Ground as various forces attempt to seize power. There would be few sanctuaries in the battles to come. Not even the Sweepers, the self proclaimed warriors of justice, could handle the chaos that would occur. A new day began. A start of destruction.

[Scarifar]

Daniel - Free Runner

FIGHT!!!

As the giant Dissolution swung its axe at him, Free Runner merely double jumped to prevent his path from intercepting with the axe's. The axe smashed into the ground, taking out a few of the smaller dissolutions around it, and Daniel let gravity take him to his intended location, then fired both shells straight into the face of the giant Dissolution, taking off a rather large fraction of its health. The Dissolution roared and swung its fist at Free Runner, but a fancy mid-air maneuver allowed him to dodge the blow before it could do any serious damage to him. Daniel landed on a smaller dissolution's head and leaped onto the Axe-Beast's arm (he decided to call the giant Dissolution that now). As Free Runner jumped off its arm, reloading at the same time, the Axe-Beast swung its arm at him, but he merely double jumped out of the way and fired again, lowering the Axe-Beast's health even more. Now it was at 3/4 health, and Daniel was enjoying himself immensely. At this rate, he would be able to level up and get himself a sweet new ability.

The Axe-Beast was currently at a disadvantage due to its large size, and Free Runner was able to deal large amounts of damage while being incredibly nimble and agile. However, in his eagerness, he forgot to take into account the other dissolutions around the Axe-Beast. One of them launched itself toward him, and Free Runner didn't notice until it was nearly upon him. By instinct, Free Runner tried to push it back with the butt of his gun, but only partially succeeded and took a serious hit from it for his troubles. Free Runner landed roughly onto the ground, and he checked his hp bar. 1/3 of his hp was taken away, and Free Runner now realized that he had to be more careful. Other dissolutions started to converge, and the Axe-Beast, sensing an opportunity, swung its axe in a downward strike. Daniel tried to roll out of the way, but was blocked slightly by a dissolution, and then Free Runner felt the resulting shockwave from the axe, which had landed right next to him, knocking him and some of the nearby dissolutions back.

Disoriented, Free Runner got back up to his feet and checked his hp bar again. Not much left, but that would soon be ok. It would fuel an important skill of his. The other dissolutions started to converge again, but Free Runner leaped out of the horde, much higher than he was able to before thanks to his Desperation skill, and landed in front of the Axe-Beast, reloading as he did so. The Axe-beast roared and swung its axe again, but Free Runner jumped out of the way, then double jumped toward it and fired both shells into its face again, taking off even more of its hp. As Free Runner landed back onto the ground, reloading once more, the Axe-Beast tried to strike him. However, the other dissolutions were now disappearing for seemingly no reason, and the Axe-Beast disappeared last, leaving behind only experience gems. Free Runner was surprised by this sudden development, but he wasn't about to turn down free exp. After collecting the gems, and even leveling up, he was about to check his new skill, but then he received a message in his field of view, "Restarting server, forcing log-out." Then he awoke to where he was when he logged in. He pouted, sad that he had just leveled up and didn't even get to see what he got, but then felt the urge to yawn. He then realized how tired he felt and decided to go sleep it off.

---

Michelle - Shooting Star-Yellow King

Talk

Michelle just couldn't really come up with a guild name that she liked. She checked her thread again and found that all three of her advisers had posted and were waiting for her reply. As they had their meeting online, which was mainly to discuss her irresponsibility and the topic of the name change. Being so absorbed in her various tasks, she forgot about the meeting during lunch. She also did not realize that DGP was accessible, so she didn't bother logging back in and consequently did not realize that she had received a message from the Undertaker.

[TheWendil]

One Month Later
One month.

One month had passed since that ever fateful night. Was it really a whole month? To most, it was probably little more than a short fixture of passing time, eventually receding back into the flow of their average little lives. But not for the residents of Deep Ground, the youth who awoke to the horror of what was to come next.

The following day, Deep Ground Online was officially declared back online for the mass servers, followed by a rally of much rejoicing. The player known only in-game as Corpse Collector was subsequently arrested for abusing the system’s programming, her fate having been determined for her not by the game, but by the World Interface itself. To this day, researchers are still wondering how exactly a girl such as herself was able to tamper with the very fundamentals of the programming their ancestors encoded.

Her identity was not revealed to the massed public, and little knew of her existence to begin with. She has since been placed in a mental institution.

It was supposed to be a time of rejoice and triumph. And it was. For a while.

Dead. All of them. Well, not all of them. But a good majority of them.

Players who held the position and ranking of King within Deep Ground were suddenly found dead the very next night. There were no signs of immediate struggle; they all perished in their sleep without so much as a whimper.

Orange King, Green King, Red King, and…White King. Each found dead. Each having their bodies carted off and carried away from the world. Since then, Deep Ground has come under intense investigation by the global leaders of the World Interface. In the span of one short month, heated political debates have spread like wildfire across the world.

Two sides now stand: those who question the moral action of enforcing the Deep Ground program and its fatalistic nature, and those still stuck in their traditions of keeping the game alive. The latter seems to be the majority in this wasted world.

And so Deep Ground Online stands today.

---

School President Yoshino Tsugumi
School President Yoshino Tsugumi really, really, really didn’t want to be here today. Her position within Royal Crown Academy was not something that accounted for her health, let alone her sanity. Still, the deed had to be done.

How she dreaded it all.

Some claimed that she wasn’t the same ever since that cold morning in which she found the White King dead within her very living quarters. Since then, she had only spoken when needed to, a blank look remaining dormant on her face at all times.

And the Black King?

Moon Rider had gone on the offensive, declaring all out war over the other Kingdoms. Those that stood with her grew in rank and number with each day. Those that did not soon found themselves regretting their hasty decision.

Reports of a masked man had recently influxed throughout the school, his identity and strange powers now becoming the current gossip regarding Deep Ground. But for that, Moon Rider cared naught.

No, all she wanted to do now was to get through this day. After all, no one wants to stand in front of their entire student body and give what was supposed to be an inspiring speech of the valor in the death’s of their peers.

Tsugumi swallowed.

No deaths. Only murders.

Adjusting her glasses slightly, she stood behind the auditorium curtains and waited for the last of the student body to arrive.

[Scarifar]

Michelle - Shooting Star-Yellow King

Time Flies

The past month had been turmoil for her. She got the message from Undertaker, who had asked to meet, but by then it was too late to do so. The guild name change from the Tinged Berserkers to the Golden Wolves had gone smoothly, and she had hoped that it would have led to new members. Unfortunately, there was the news of 4 Kings who had died. Red, Green, Orange, and even White. Only Black, Blue, and herself had survived. She never liked White, but Red was a good friend, if a tad odd in the head.

Michelle's mom had called her in a state of panic, and it took some time before Michelle was able to calm her down. Her three advisers had warned her to extremely cautious, especially with all the drama going on. Michelle had been plagued with questions about why she survived while the ones that died did not. How was she supposed to know? She tried to get in touch with Blue, one of the other surviving Kings, but it proved fruitless. As for Black, well... the Black King had declared war, and that was not going well. Her guild was holding the territory, but mostly by close calls.

Now she was waiting patiently at the auditorium for the speech to begin. She didn't want to hear it, probably not many did, but it was respect for the dead, and she couldn't say no to that. Besides, it was the President giving out the speech. She sighed, both at the dreary atmosphere and the topic of the Kings.

---

Daniel - Free Runner

Running out of titles

Daniel had been enjoying his new Half-Grav skill since leveling up. The news about Corpse Collector being captured and the 4 Kings dying was shocking, though, and he had wondered how that would affect the gameplay for DGO.

Turns out, quite a bit. Blackie declared war, and Daniel then decided that it was a good idea to defect from the Scarlet Harleys and join the Ebony Strykers. No need to be on the losing side, after all, or so he believed. There was also some talk going on about some masked man with weird powers, but that wasn't of too much importance to him. Now he was taking his sweet time heading over to the auditorium for some boring speech about the dead Kings. He finally arrived and took some empty seat, sitting in a casual manner.

[Arrayah]

A girl sat in the stands, seemingly alone, not even bothering to hide her tears for her dead King. It was probably strange that she should be so sad given that the position was hers, but even so, Lucy was mourning. However, it was not only his death that was causing her this pain. Since the Green King's death, the Fanged Rangers had been forced to fight because of the Black King's declaration. Lucy was a caring leader, but she knew nothing of war. Her healing protected her guild members, but she was so new to leadership that she was not sure how to keep the Ebony Strykers away from their territory.

And then there was her fear for her own life. No one really knew what had happened to the dead Kings, why or how they were killed, just that they were no longer living. What if that happened to her because of her new position? Lucy had been careful, but still she was frightened. Unlike previous Kings, she had not revealed her real life identity to any who did not already know it. All Fanged Rangers meetings took place in DGO or in the forums, never in person. She wasn't even wearing green to classes anymore. Lucy trusted her guild members, but the more people who knew her real identity, the more likely it was to leak out to other guilds.

Lucy wiped the tears from her eyes and just stared at the stage. What would Michael have done if he were still around? Would he have built up an army, just as the Black King had, to fight against the Ebony Strykers? Or would he just have given up? She did not believe he would have chosen the latter option, but Lucy couldn't be sure what was best for her guild. The Fanged Rangers were few in numbers and thought of each other as a family. If she fought back with what little she had, it could cost her guild members their future, something she would never want.

As if on cue, one such member sat next to her, though she suspected it wouldn't be for long. A hand was placed on her shoulder, a reassuring voice in her ear. "There's nothing you could have done Lucy, and he would be proud of the way you're leading us now. Despite what the Black King has forced of us, you are still trying your best to keep us a peaceful. I imagine it must be hard to do."

Lucy shook her head, showing her disagreement and responded, "But maybe I'm wrong to continue our neutral position? Look where it has gotten us. We have no enemies, that's true, but we also have no allies. Perhaps if we took the war path... made some allies, fought back... It is not something I wish to do, but maybe it would be better for all of you." She sighed, keeping the rest of her doubts to herself. For years Lucy had been working to gain this position, but now that she was a King she realized she hadn't been prepared. Not one bit.

The boy next to her smile and spoke again. "We believe in you Lucy. That's why we're still here and why we won't leave. You'll make the right decision." And then he was gone, just as quickly as he'd come leaving Lucy to wonder if he was wrong.