He remembered accepting to partic.i.p.ate in the experiment.

When Nick was in the cemetery, among the living dead, in a computer game, he wasn"t confused. Next to him, someone was shouting loudly and calling for help.

Nick was a policeman. To serve and protect, that was the most important thing in his life. And it doesn"t matter that you have to protect someone from a living skeleton.

So Nick met John.

When Nick met Alexander, he knew this man right away.

It was a dirty business. It was a military case. Officer. Found out about the cheating wife and shot the wife and her lover. The officer resisted arrest, opened fire, wounded some good guys. Virtual life sentence.

The meeting with Dan put everything in place. Nick had a good memory of Dan"s case. It was a big case. A young drunk driver hit Dan"s wife with a car. She died. The attorney acquitted the young driver. Dan kept quiet, then bought a gun and killed the young man. But he accidentally killed a guy"s girlfriend. An innocent girl died. Dan made it to the attorney"s house and opened fire. No one was hurt. Dan didn"t resist arrest. He killed two young men. The punishment was justified. Virtual life sentence.

Nick was no longer in doubt. Two people were no longer an accident. Three out of ten people are a regularity.

All of his new friends are criminals. There are no innocents among them. There"s no forgiveness and no way to get back to normal.

Nick"s been thinking for hours. He was looking for his place in this world, in this group.

Nick didn"t want power, but he wasn"t happy with Michael"s leadership.

Michael wasn"t following discipline, he talked a lot about "common work and common welfare".

Alexander, as a leader, wasn"t happy with anyone. To live in strict conditions of the military organization? And for who? Why should they die in a new war?

Dan could have been a great partner. The guy was interesting. Nick had a clear sympathy for him. The guy was just born to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was shattered by the routines of everyday life.

With Dan, they got cla.s.ses, and it was worth a lot. They got a safe shelter. They got a reason to kill those monsters.

Nick immediately took the opportunity to push the leader away. Trade is a great post. The scout didn"t choose this cla.s.s for nothing. John chose a cla.s.s of more extreme existence. Nick knew there were big cities nearby. Big people live in them. They"re doing big politics and the rest of their big stuff. And these things can"t always be done with clean hands. The day will surely come when the players will be addressed with a proposal to eliminate the local aristocrat. Nick was hoping that John would be able to kill locals without a penalty from the system.

Nick remembered that not knowing responsibility doesn"t exempt from responsibility. The killing of players and locals in this game was monitored by the system. She was an incorruptible judge and a quick executioner.

Once their group found two new players, they could only bring one to the village and the locals would not let him in.

And the group guessed why the player called himself John and had a red name status on the group menu. Because of this, Michael didn"t invite him straight to the castle, suspecting something wrong. When it got to the village, the system finally illuminated this John. He turned out to be the Player Killer.

The system issued a warning to the group if they took the Killer in, the group would be permanently punished for characteristics and experience, and the reputation with the locals would fall.

Michael recalled a temporary invitation to the group and explained the situation to John.

He started to freak out and shout that it was an accident, he was badly injured, and the player he killed had a regeneration potion. The greedy player refused to help him. n.o.body listened to him. The group went to the castle, and John stayed at the village gate. He shouted, threatened and asked the locals to let him in. Why he could not get attached to the point of rebirth in the Preceptorium is unknown.

Two days later, John was killed by Dan! And Nick knew that the killer could develop to level 12!

This Dan was a lucky man, and he was paying the full bills for his luck.

Dan arranged it as a partner. An anti-monster specialist who can"t do business with locals is a find.

John immediately recognized Nick"s leadership, agreed to choose the path of the game with the development of Dexterity. They were comfortable in each other"s company.

For 3 days in this world, they got up in the morning and went to kill skeletons. They just walked into the donjon, killed six skeletons and died. And then Michael said that they had to be careful. That you can"t let the local monsters grow at a level... Nick nodded and ran off to the cemetery with John. There were hundreds of level 1 skeleton!

That"s when there was an important conversation between friends:

"John, do you know how to play computer games?"

"No. I was playing, but it"s not serious."

"It"s the same thing. There are general principles. Look, we have skill points, but they"re locked.

This means that the system will give us a quest for character cla.s.ses. There are three main ways to develop. The strength is melee fighters. Wisdom is magic, its distant attacks. Dexterity is the three main branches, and they all prefer distant attacks and all sorts of tricky traps.

To survive in this world, we must become special, become unique! Michael and everyone else boosts the strength, they do it right. But you and I will follow the path of Dexterity.

And we"re not losing anything anymore. The system gave us the pa.s.sive "Shoulder-to-shoulder" skill. It"s a 5% bonus in group strength from the total strength of partners. As long as we"re together, we have more strength and more damage."

"Okay, brother, I like the path of dexterity. Bows and crossbows and traps and tricks are funny. Nick, I"m sorry, you"re a cop. I want to be a killer. There"s got to be invisibility. It"s magic. I will be a good killer, I will only kill our enemies."

"Well done, John. I"ll take the Forest Scout cla.s.s. It"ll have its own unique abilities. We"ll be able to support each other. Shoulder to shoulder?"

"Shoulder to shoulder, brother!"

And they began to develop their characteristics in the cemetery. They kept a close eye on the sides and didn"t mess with high-level enemies. They were selling trophies in the village. They kept the best trophies and soon they could count on a good supply of money.

But they did not boast of their successes before others. Every morning they ran to the cemetery and killed level 1 skeletons there.

The rest of them sat in the castle. And they waited for them to return to the normal world. Everyone was convinced it was some kind of mistake and an unfortunate coincidence. Everybody was afraid to experience more pain from their wounds and a terrible feeling when they were reborn.

The group was involved in one business. They were able to activate the point of rebirth. And the experience of this battle was long enough for everyone.

There were already six people in the group and they met Tom and Ron.

By this time, the team had been able to explore the area around the village. After all, the message of the rebirth point activation quest was hanging on everyone"s radar.

They found a Preceptorium, but the problem was that a lot of skeletons roamed around the fortress. They counted more than forty levels 1 skeletons.

In the quest for the point, there was a condition: to activate the point, you must get into the inner yard of the castle. The skeletons themselves were rather slow insight, but when they noticed the player, the skeletons speeded up. And if they managed to hit, then at a time they shot about 200 hp. Every dead body had 1,200 lives.

It seems to be no problem, but as soon as one of the players came ten yards closer to the skeleton, the rest of the field began to pull down.

Michael bought a roll of rope from the village for 30 rials and made the village smith forge hooks. They tied the hooks to the rope and could now pull out the skeletons one at a time.

The group split up into two parts. One had the players with the highest dexterity, John and Nick pulling the skeletons" attention while running away from them. The other part had Michael, brothers and Alexander. They chose the time when the castle wall had an empty s.p.a.ce with no skeletons. That"s when they started to act. As Michael threw hooks up the wall and climbed the wall, his group insured him.

Michael climbed the wall and saw 20 more skeletons in the castle courtyard. He fixed the rope and ordered the players to return to the village. Then he went down to the yard, where a couple of minutes later he died buried under a group of undead.

He made binding on the rebirth point!

It seemed that he had to run to the well. The group got the good news, didn"t feel any comfort. Now it was necessary to go to rescue Michael, but n.o.body wanted to die. The chance to resurrect is good, but in this world there was pain, and therefore death will be very hard.

But they didn"t have a choice.

The painful clearing of the area around the castle had begun.

On that day, for the first time, everyone died. Someone was lucky, and they died quickly, but someone wasn"t lucky. The skeletons seemed to enjoy the moment and tried to do less damage to the dying players. They managed to kill 14 skeletons, 300 experiences for each.

The experience was divided into groups. The one who did more damage and got the most. Distributed by achievement.

And so the whole group was on the third floor of the corner round north tower.

It was a large round hall with twelve stone pedestals decorated with beautiful bas-reliefs on an otherworldly theme. The walls of the hall were beautifully engraved with battle scenes showing majestic knights fighting against hordes of various monsters.

The entrance to the hall was also closed with a ma.s.sive door decorated with bas-reliefs.

A tall window glazed with colored gla.s.s made it possible to view part of the courtyard, the wall and the s.p.a.ce behind it.

A sadly smiling Michael sat on one of the pedestals.

The group came to their senses for quite some time.

Two hundred experiences fell to each member of the group for their death.

Michael told them that the exit from the hall leads to the central building, a square hall with a throne and statues of knights made of stone, and there is much undead.

Ordinary skeletons of the 1st level, three skeletons of the warrior of the 10th level with partially survived equipment and weapons and a level 16 ghoul.

Michael managed to die twice more while examining the castle.

The mood in the group became very bad.

Michael was able to detect the tricky lock on the window and open it. The group at first began to think, how now to return a rope from a wall of the castle.

Nick smiled and took out from inventory such a useful device for hunting on skeletons.

"Simple and intelligent solutions to many problems. I made myself a copy, too. With a kind word and a strong rope, you can do more than one kind word," he said.

The whole group laughed. There were weak skeletons in the yard. A battle with a relatively weak opponent is much better than a battle with creatures that will kill you without much trouble. Since then, the rope has been hanging constantly from the window of the rebirth hall.

They cleaned the castle courtyard for the rest of the day. During the cleaning, the skeletons severely damaged Tom. The guy was suffering, the little pieces of life were leaking pretty slowly. Michael killed him with a knife. Tom then said thank you so much, Michael put him out of his misery for a few minutes. Ron first attacked the leader with his fists. Then he saw a warning system and began to swear and scream all kinds of nasty things. Then he asked Michael to apologize.

The big plus was that the resurrection did not hang any penalties, a couple of minutes of fatigue and the player felt normal.

But the state of mind after the experience did not become easier.

Players spent the night in the building called the "chapel", food was prudently purchased in the village.

No one wanted to contact the dead.

Michael and Alexander were careful to look around the castle. Idiots!

Nick and John stuck their curious noses in the woods and managed to escape! No, they don"t need that kind of adventure, they"ll kill skeletons in peace.

The story with the pets, Nick, was excited. He saw that John wouldn"t just give up his wolf. Nick listened to Dan"s words and thought this guy was needed on their team!

And if everyone"s against it, he and John will leave the castle. Ha! They"ll have a great life in the cemetery, too! There"s a rebirth point there. The village"s nearby, they have the money. He"s got connections to the locals.

Then the question of the pets was resolved peacefully.

Nick got an offer to become a clan merchant.

He gladly agreed. It"s important. Money is very important. Connections are very important.

It"s also important to improve Camouflage skills as quickly as possible!

Nick realized that the players should be watched discreetly. Especially the important three players.

*

Nick canceled the "Camouflage" skill and walked into the hall.

The new information needs to be thought over. This Dan again on the straight and narrow fell into a hole full of s.h.i.t. A vampire sword that can come to life and take a player"s soul! It was already beyond normal play. Nick looked at people. They don"t deserve a normal game. Ordinary killers. Criminals who pay their bills.

All the people gathered in the dining room. There were chairs instead of benches, and it was even a little tight now. People were making a lot of noise and talking. The table was really breaking down from the food. The smell coming from the food caused rivers of saliva in the mouth.

The sides were busy, and Michael took his place at the head of the table.

Nick noted that the leader did not want to stand out. But it didn"t mean anything. A leader is a leader, and it doesn"t matter how he treats power. What is important is how his leadership affects the development of his subordinates.

Nick sat down at the table and carefully examined the others.

The fighters dressed up in light, shiny iron armor. Gandalf and Ron dressed in their new robes, Jim and Dan dressed casually and humbly.

Nick understood, Oh, yes, now there"s a lady with us!

He looked gently, but carefully at a stranger.

Now there was enough light to have a good look at Valerie.

Nick looked at her and remembered some of the girls he knew from his past life. They had served with him.

Very short hair, like a boy"s, didn"t hide small, neat ears. Brown eyes look serious. The girl is strong. A fitness coach? She knows how to command. She must have had some special b.i.t.c.hes among her clients. Valerie knows how to command.

And she made her choice. It"s a weird choice. She got in touch with a local. Everybody needs Stefan. Let"s see what happens.

Nick realized he couldn"t hurry with this young woman.

John was on top of it! The s.h.a.ggy funny guy and the joker were making fun of the clan fighters.

Turin, Velida and three newcomers were sitting next to one side of the big table.

There was a celebratory atmosphere in the hall. The cups were filled up once again.

Michael nodded at Nick and came up from his seat, the conversation was quiet.

"Friends, we came into this world quite some time ago.

But we already have our own home, and today we are celebrating two great events.

We have won the first victory in this world. We defeated an enemy who seemed stronger than us.

And today we will be joined by five new clan members."

Nick was surprised, "Five?"

"Everyone knows how Turin and Velida helped us. The rest of them we"re going to meet now. Please introduce yourself, names and levels will be enough."

Michael sat down.

Nick doesn"t understand this moment, Michael"s going to be accepted into the Clan of Non-playing Characters? Is this possible?

Nick thought Michael was making the right decisions. These decisions are good for everyone and everyone likes them. But he makes the decisions alone. He"s not looking for popularity or recognition, he"s probably developing his Diplomacy skills. Well done, he"s got a right. But Nick doesn"t always like what he does.

A tall guy is rising up in lightweight leather armor with a solid body.

"Alan, level 4."

Next up came up a pretty young woman with short blond hair and a pretty face.

"Valerie, level 4."

"Stefan, warrior, level 25. Coach of the Battle Wing of the Clan."

A bearded man with grey hair came up and introduced himself. He looked like he was in his 40s. His eyes looked at everyone with a strange expression of forgiveness and caring kindness. He looked at the players like they were children. Now his hands rested on the edge of the table, helping him to keep his balance.

Nick thought that the clan had "Battle Wing".

Michael smiled and continued in a ceremonial tone:

"Thank you, sit down. I will now introduce myself and introduce others. My name is Michael, I am the head and leader of the Phoenix Clan. The cla.s.s of soldier. Level 19.

Alexander. Head of the clan"s battle wing. Cla.s.s warrior. Level 18.

Leo. A fighter. Cla.s.s Knight. Level 17.

Tom. Fighter. Cla.s.s warrior. Level 17.

Ron. Head of Support for the Clan Battle Wing. Spiritualist cla.s.s. Level 17.

Gandalf. Support. Cla.s.s Mage. Level 15.

Jim. Craftsmanship wing of the clan. Cla.s.s blacksmith. Level 14.

"Have you got any trophies? We"re waiting for you. The firm of Turin and Sons will leave you without pants, but with a clean conscience, not burdened with money," said John quietly.

The dwarf covered his mouth with his palm and barely contained himself so he wouldn"t laugh.

Most people at the table were laughing and snorting.

"Nick. The clan"s scouting wing. Cla.s.s Scout. Head of the clan trade office. Level 17.

John. Clan Scout. a.s.sa.s.sin cla.s.s. Level 18.

"A bald clown who disguises his baldness as high hair," added Jim. "Nick"s partner. Baloney and circus show at any time of day or night. Due to their characteristics, they appear suddenly and disappear without a trace."

Dan. The Research Department. Cla.s.s Inquisitor. Level 17.

"Wise, but desperate type. Rumor has it he loves fires and carries around a lot of burning material. Was spotted at one of these events, starring," said Nick.

Michael, smiling, saluted the cup to the newcomers:

"Welcome to our friendly and slightly crazy clan."

The system"s message was shaken and the clan grew by five.

A roar of approval swooped down the hall, and the cups were caught.

"Oh, yes, in the afternoon, everyone but the craftsmen, gather in the council room. Dan has some interesting information," said Michael went up again.

At the table began a conversation about Dor. Stefan talked about this small town of five thousand people. A caravan came from this town. They sat there for about an hour. Then they thanked Velida and started to split up. Valerie and Gandalf stayed to help clean up. Jim and Turin went back to the blacksmith shop.

Everyone else went up to the council room. When everyone settled down, Dan pulled out his sword. The Inquisitor spoke softly, but his words made everyone listen carefully. At the end of the story, there was silence in the room. People were thinking about what they heard.

"How will the subordination process take place, is it not in the description?" asked Alexander.

"No, but I have an "Influence" in my sword characteristics while there"s a "0"," replied Dan.

"Well, that"s good, at least we"ll know when. Is that it?"

"Yeah, that"s all I found out, I told you."

"Okay, then we are separating, it"s a rest day, but if anyone has a desire to exercise, I"m waiting for you at the new sports ground," Alexander got up.

"Sorry, I was late," said Valerie entered the hall.

"It"s all right, have a seat," replied Michael politely. "Everyone but the newcomers can be free. Scout, hold on a few minutes."

"I knew it," mourned John the grief grimace.

Dan gave Alan and Valerie two thin notebooks:

"These are the initial guides to this world for you. Study them in detail and give them back to me."

"Bestiary, Hyde? Is there no reference here?" asked Valerie wonderfully.

"There"s nothing here. Read and remember, for these pages, each of us have admired the Hall of Rebirth more than once," answered Michael.

"How beautifully painted."

"You can go and study books. Soon we"ll help you safely reach level 10. You can choose your basic cla.s.s," said the leader.

When they left the hall, his gaze turned to the scouts.

"Tomorrow you go to the village and for a week you go to the local hunters."

"We already wanted to go there today," said John.

"Well done, you go today. Give the local hunters a good shake for werewolf information. He"s our next target. Nick, try not to have any extra business with the village head. We don"t need any extra quests yet."

"We"ll be quiet and invisible," hummed Nick.

"Also explore at least a couple of locations on a darkened map near the village.

The monsters shouldn"t be too high level there. We need to quickly develop the level of beginners to cla.s.s."

"Not too high? In the woods? Before we kill werewolves? Do you believe that?" Nick hummed.

"I really hope so. It"s desirable to find a location with normal skeletons."

"Let"s try to find some not very strong monsters," Nick said and turned to the Inquisitor. "Dan, now you, give me your wishes. I can see that you want to put more weight on the scout"s delicate shoulders."

"First this," the Inquisitor gave the scout a piece of paper.

"Circle dotted lines, and this is like a village. What"s that?"

"These are the movements of a werewolf and another monster"s quest mark. They were waiting for the caravan. Look at the map, there must be a lair of creatures in the center of the circle, it"s highly desirable to find it."

"Wait, Dan! You think there"ll be two creatures waiting for us?"

"I"m sure of it. What the elite are capable of, you know. That"s why I"m asking you to explore the area. If you can find one of the creatures in the lair, it"s just a gift from fate."

"A heavy wooden shield covers the entrance and inside the lair we throw fire," smiled Nick. "Dan, you"re getting a bad tendency."

"Do you prefer to fight the creatures in the woods?"

"No, of course not. It"s just, you know, it"s the wolf we took from the hole. What makes you think werewolves have the same habits?"

"No reason, Nick. I just hope so."

"What"s the second lap with the markings?"

"Do you remember the player who became a werewolf? By all accounts, he found an object similar to my sword. We didn"t find a cursed object on the body. So it"s in the lair of the creature. Do a good search of the place where you found the remains of Turin"s daughter. Perhaps he had a lair nearby."

"And what do you suggest we do when we find him? I"m telling you, I"m not going anywhere near artifacts like this," said Nick and shook his head.

"In the village, buy a small equipment chest for a limited amount of weight. It weighs little itself and is free to go into inventory. Michael was checking it out. There are a lot of parts in the game that has not been worked out and as long as you can, you should use it. Buy a pair of pincers in the village from the smith. If you find the cursed thing without touching it with your hands, put it in the chest. Then deliver the chest to the castle, and we"ll hide the cursed artifact in a stash."

"I don"t want to criticize you, Dan. But what you"re proposing hasn"t been tested. I don"t want to become a monster and be the target of your future hunting," roared John a frown.

"Just give it a try! If you can"t, block the entrance more securely. You understand, John, while this nasty thing"s laying around the village, there"s a chance it"ll be stumbled upon by some hunters! Then we"ll have a new werewolf. When you met that player, he was on a small level. It"s been literally two days and he"s scored over 10. Do you have any idea what happens if you let that thing walk for a couple weeks? At least just find a lair and let me know, I"ll do it myself."

"Stop! Dan, this is the right thing to do," said Nick calmly. "No disrespect, Dan, but you judge as an expert. You"ve got the Spirit around 100 already. The Spirit increases the rate of regeneration of life and mana. A high level of spirit allows you to confront high-level enemies. John and I have no great Spirit. You can work with cursed artifacts. For the rest of us, they are at high risk. We won"t take any chances in this case. We"re going to look for a lair. And we will call you to do your job."

"I understand everything and I"m not offended. Perhaps my theory is wrong. And there"s another way to turn a monster. Then all I said about the effect of the cursed artifact was nonsense. But for our peace of mind, just look for the lair and if you do, lead me to it."

"As long as you weren"t wrong," noticed Nick.

"That"s the only way it looks," laughed Dan.

"All right, inquisitor, Leader, we"ll be very careful and watchful," said Nick and nodded to a friend on the way out.

They had a lot of new business and a couple of questions they had to discuss in private.