The gates of the castle opened and travelers entered the castle courtyard.

They immediately noticed the figure of Dan, who met them at the entrance to the castle. His cat was sitting at his feet. She was sitting at his feet. But her head was at the level of her master"s shoulder.

The hunters and the warrior stopped. Dan laughed:

"Why did you stop? Are you scared of my p.u.s.s.y?"

"How she grew up! What level? Won"t she bite? h.e.l.lo, brother!"

John came up to the Inquisitor and gave him a big arm.

Then Nick and Alexander came up, but they limited themselves to a firm handshake.

"Let"s go to the castle. We"ve been waiting for you. Tell us about what happened in your town. Why did the castle change owners? We don"t know what to do here, what to be afraid of. We thought you"d been captured by other bad players and taken away from your castle."

"n.o.body took anyone prisoner, but I really wanted to punch Michael in the face. Come on, I"ll tell you all about it over dinner," agreed Nick.

In the dining room, they were met by Turin and Velida. And a humble party dinner on the table. The guys didn"t care about the ceremonies, so Nick spoke during the dinner.

He talked about the change in clan leadership and invited Dan, Turin and Velida to join the new clan. The dwarf shook his head and the fun of these adult children and agreed with his wife. Dan, too, did not care about his fellow members and left "the Phoenix" clan and joined the clan "Shoulder to Shoulder".

Then the fun began! Nick told us that Michael was a very strange leader. All of these games in different departments and activities of the clan is not a game. You can actually use different ways of leadership in the clan. Michael appointed players to leadership positions, but he didn"t give them the power! And all the players except him were in the castle as guests.

Nick ended it with a simple sentence:

"I cannot be an individual leader. I"m offering general leadership in clan affairs. Each of you is already in fact the leader of a particular area. Alexander, you are a warrior, a fighting part of the clan. All newcomers will go under your responsibility. John, you"re in charge of internal security. Killing our enemies, keeping secrets and all the other spy work. Dan, you"re the head of the research department. Turin, you"re in charge of the craft. Velida, you are invited to be in charge of the castle and clan"s household. We"ll deal with all the issues together. There are not many of us to hide our secrets from each other."

"Sir Nick, my wife and I are refusing to partic.i.p.ate in clan leadership. We wish to make new contracts with your clan and continue to work with the new Hunter clan," the dwarf replied.

"But why, Turin? Your advice and help are very important to us," said Nick.

"Sir Nick, gentlemen," the dwarf bowed his head a little in reverence. "Do not be upset. But for us gnomes, your playing at the government looks a little strange. You must understand the main thing. I am a dwarf. And I have a responsibility to my race. In fact, you might even consider me a spy from the gnome race in your castle."

Everyone"s quiet. Turin knew how to surprise when he wanted to. The dwarf laughed:

"It"s enough for my wife and me to feel like your guests and work together. You"re doing an important and strange thing. I"m not hiding my interest in my profit, my income and the security the castle provides in these troubled places."

"All right, Turin. All right, Velida. I see what you mean. Are you guys willing to take your mind off killing monsters and do "nasty bureaucracy"? Alexander, I can"t do this alone," said Nick.

"I"ll do it. It"s important that I trust you, not suspect you of a new conspiracy and look at your sly faces," agreed Alexander.

"I agree to do security, too," said John. "You have to be careful with these vampires. The ugly creatures are as invisible as I am!"

"Have you met with vampires before? I agree, filthy creatures," Dan smiled sadly. "I agree to do my job. I understand the importance of my job."

"There"s an undead man on every corner of town! You weren"t there. Dan, but it"s full of bulls.h.i.t and betrayal! They"ve gone mad," said John dramatically.

"Vampires in town?"

"Dan, vampires are the best killers in the killer guild! The filthy creatures were trying to find out my secrets. But I didn"t tell them anything about the Order and the clan. They didn"t take me as a student," smiled John.

"It"s not easy in town. Michael didn"t understand. No one understood what kind of a.s.s the clan was getting up to. Let them stay there. We can do everything without them," said Alexander sharply.

"That"s Michael"s biggest problem as a leader," said Nick. "Michael is a good businessman. He"s a good leader. But he got into the medieval world. You can"t do business as in a past life."

"I have a little idea of what the medieval world device is," Dan said. "I got to be honest, there are a lot of things about medieval management I don"t like."

"I have a little understanding of the device of the medieval world," said Dan. "I"ll be honest, there"s a lot I don"t like about medieval systems."

"We got into this world. We"re going to live in it. Dan. What do you say to a Global Notice from the Unknown Company?"

Dan shrugged his shoulders. He saw that the guys were interested in his opinion and explained:

"I don"t care about that. I don"t remember who I was. I never lied to myself and I don"t believe that we could go back to our world. Had we could go back to our world. I now live in a world called "Anyhorr", I like my life. Thank you for the points of characteristics, but I"d prefer the points of Glory."

"Masters, my wife and I will leave you. You have something to talk about, it"s none of our business," Turin stood up.

"Thank you for a lovely dinner, Velida. I think we"ve finished eating and can go up to the fireplace room. There we"ll talk about our secrets," stood up from the table, Nick.

Players went up to the room with the big fireplace.

Dan sat in the rocking chair and had an important conversation:

"Let me tell you the unpleasant news of my adventure. Until it"s not too late."

"You"re already on level 20! What"s so unpleasant about that? Tell me, brother," rubbed hands with restless John.

Nick smiled. In fact, John"s going to be a great head of security. The a.s.sa.s.sin was a very serious man, but he already accepted the rules of the game and wore his mask. It was a mask of a cheerful and simple cute player. But John was serious enough and not simple enough in reality. For Nick, John was the main mystery in their company.

Dan laughed and told them about his adventures.

He started sweeping the location. "Cursed mine". He went through the location. The game invited him to enter a new dungeon. He went into a new dungeon and got into an unpleasant situation. The game deprived him of the opportunity to leave the dungeon. Until he kills all the monsters and the dungeon boss. Dan was able to get through the first room. He succeeded in killing a skeleton. In the second room, more sensible monsters were waiting for him. Vampires and liches saw him right away, and he couldn"t control them. His armor was already broken. The monsters that killed the player grew in level and grew stronger.

"Autodafe" skill did not help. The undead stood at the entrance to the safe zone and immediately attacked the man, once he took one step towards the enemies.

And then the cursed sword offered his help. He had lived many centuries, he knew many different skills. The sword demanded one, the sword wanted to increase its influence on the player.

Tarrok offered the Inquisitor a strange skill. For a while, Dan could turn into a dead man. The cursed sword spent several centuries in company with Draugr, he perfectly studied this particular kind of undead.

If Dan accepted the sword"s offer. He could kill the undead at ease. Enemies will not pay attention to him!

Dan has refused. He didn"t want to let a dangerous artifact affect his mind anymore.

Dan started dying. He recalled p.u.s.s.y and he was dying. He lost count of deaths and didn"t know how many times he died. He was reborn, took the sword and went to the vampires. They killed him. He"d get up from the point of rebirth and go to die again.

At some moment, Tarrok agreed to Dan"s condition. The sword was afraid it would spend eternity with a crazy player. Tarrok confessed. That there was still a way to go! He"s ready to wait. With an idiot like Dan, he"ll soon get another chance to help him out of a new trap.

Dan didn"t trust the tricky and clever sword, but he saw no other way. He agreed to give Tarrok the usual 10% influence on his game process in trade for the skill of turning into Draugr.

Dan honestly admitted that he needed to test the new skill. He doesn"t believe in Tarrok. The Inquisitor needs proof.

He"s got his proof! With the new skill, he has become the most dangerous monster! Draugr was a very strong enemy. Dan quietly walked into the corner of the hall, picked up one vampire and quietly killed him. No one paid any attention to Dan. The Inquisitor collected the trophies and returned to the point of rebirth.

Dan called p.u.s.s.y. He ordered her to sit at the entrance to the safe zone and not to interfere with the fight. The cat reacted in no way to the fact that her master had now become a terrible dead warrior.

Dan started destroying monsters. He just walked up to the vampire, the spider, the lich and struck three or four blows. Then he would collect the trophies and take them to the safe zone. He didn"t know how long it took to mock the game.

The payback followed when Dan took level 20!

He correctly a.s.sumed that on level 20, the game would offer him a transformation of the Inquisitor cla.s.s.

But Dan took level 20 when he was in the body of a dead man! He had a race symbol in his status: Undead, the form of Draugr.

The game went crazy! The system messages first showed a continuous stream of "Game Process Error!"

And then Dan lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he found out that the game had punished him for interfering with the game process.

He had lost his Inquisitor cla.s.s. He got a cla.s.s of "Sinner". The cursed sword was also punished, and now the sword was only conscious and had an influence on Dan"s play process of only 20% of the day! The game has long shown that it has its own, rather horrible sense of humor.

Now the tricky Tarrok slept for 15 hours and turned into an ordinary unique sword.

While the sword was sleeping, the Player lost the ability to use the "Memory of the Sword" skill! Now Dan was turning from an elite swordsman into an ordinary fighter.

But that wasn"t the scariest thing for a player! The system punished him for interfering in the game process. Dan got the skill of "Live to Death". Turns the body into the form of a dead man. Duration of minutes: Spirit* skill level. Dan did a pretty simple thing. At the time, he lacked a sense of time. Dan added 4 points to the spirit and got a 13-hour action time of the skill. He decided he could use at least some kind of replacement watch. Now he was paying for what he had done.

The game changed Dan"s race in player status by 13 hours. Now he was turning into a living dead man by 13 hours for all the people in the world! It didn"t matter that he looked like a human being and could behave like an ordinary person. Vampires also look like humans, very beautiful and cute people. But the locals have enough artifacts and specialists to identify a stranger accurately.

Dan finished his story and smiled sadly:

"It"s a late evening. I"m a normal person and you can see it in my status. But it"s midnight soon. We"re going to do an experiment. We"ll see how you react to me alive dead."

Players were listening to his story with interest. Now they"re sitting there trying to figure out what kind of person they met in this life?

Nick laughed:

"You"re just some kind of unic.u.m! How do you find this kind of adventure on your head? I don"t understand. We already have enough magic and wonders, all sorts of monsters around, our extraordinary cla.s.ses, Immortality! But it"s not enough for you. Don"t worry, Dan. There are many artifacts to identify you, but there are more to hide your temporal race."

"Be sure to describe the exact and detailed characteristics of your new cla.s.s. And the characteristics of your combat transformation," said Alexander. "We must know exactly what our strengths and weaknesses are. We have many battles ahead of us with dangerous adversaries."

"Guys, I"m ready to work and help you get to 20 levels. Find me a location with the dead and you can stand aside. We"ll be in the group, the experience will be shared with everyone," said Dan.

"We"ll be sure to get back to that. That"s a good suggestion. But I"d like to share some secret information, too," said Nick.

He looked at John and added:

"It"s about you in the first place. John. Because you"re a real secret to me. I don"t know anything about you."

The scout looked at Alexander and Dan.

"Sometimes we all have unpleasant dreams. Don"t deny it. We"re all the same. I recognized you both right away. And it helped me remember who I am. I used to work as a cop. I remembered you. We"re all dangerous criminals in this room. We"ve been sentenced to life in prison. You understand what I"m saying right now about our past lives. John, I don"t know what your fault is. I just want to tell you. I don"t care. I"m willing to work with you. I"m no better or worse than you."

"What"s your proof? What do you know about me? Tell me," smiled Alexander.

"Are you sure? This is your own personal matter. And I don"t remember all the details. That"s where your justice department used to work. You were in the Army," said Nick.

"Don"t! I believe that we all volunteered for this project of our own accord. Don"t give me the details. We started a new life, even if that life is a punishment for our crimes, let"s not share the burden of our sins," said Dan.

Alexander laughed:

"You"re wrong. Dan. I personally remember agreeing to partic.i.p.ate in some kind of scientific experiment. I used to sign papers. But I don"t remember the details of the contract. Well, anyway. Believe me, you put yourself in this world."

"I signed a contract, too. I don"t remember the details either. As far as I understand scientific terms, scientists work with our brains and all kinds of Cyber technology," said Nick.

"There are no such technologies on Earth," said Dan loudly.

"This is cla.s.sified information. Outsiders are not allowed to know," said the warrior.

"This is crazy! And these wimps in town are moaning about coming home! Nick, do you think there are a lot of people like you? People who know that we"re all criminals" asked John.

"It doesn"t matter. What matters is this. We"re alive. We"re free to do what we do. Of course we"re limited to this game process, but these are questions of philosophy. I said the main thing. I trust you. I don"t think of you like monsters," says Nick.

"We don"t know anything about me yet," laughed Dan. "We"ll see at midnight."

Nick took a close look at the former Inquisitor:

"We"ll see. But anyway, you"re not going anywhere with us. Let"s talk about what"s important. I learned some interesting information in town. Dan, what do you know about the runes?"

"These are ancient symbols. They"re a.s.sociated with sorcery and magic. Runes are the language of magic."

"That"s right! You"re practicing ancient languages. The game is bound to offer you to start working with the runes. Don"t say no and take a specialty. This skill will boost your spirit. There"s not a single master of runes in town.

It is a very rare and honorable specialty in this world."

"Now I"m afraid to develop my spirit. I did not distribute 50 points of my characteristics. You see, I"m 13 hours into an unknown race. If I gain 144 spirits, I"ll be a living dead man forever. I"m afraid to think about what happens if I gain 150 spirits. The game with s.h.i.t will eat me up."

"You"re full of mysteries, brother," told John. "But I"m not giving up on your help. We need to get 20 levels fast. Transformation is awesome!"

"Scouts, don"t you have a comfortable target to attack? Combine pleasant with useful. We have a quest to make. Our lands are full of disgusting things," said Alexander. "And we shouldn"t count on Dan for everything. I have to get my own practice."

"There are a few places where our group can work. We need to think about our income. Now we can"t count on others to help us. There are some ruins. There are the ruins of an ancient city. I wouldn"t go into that location, it"s got level 20 dead men. But with Dan"s help, we can pick up levels quickly and pick up lots of trophies. The ancient city is an ancient hiding place and treasure chest," said Nick.

"Don"t worry about our clan"s start-up capital," laughed Dan. "I d.a.m.ned everything! I"ve been running back and forth out of my last powers. When I cleaned out that d.a.m.n vampire location, I had to carry the trophies! I took everything I could. The most valuable artifacts. There are several unique daggers! John, you"ll be pleased. There are some great unique swords for you, Alexander. No bows, sorry, Nick. Gandalf would be happy, there are great magic staffs."

They looked up to him with respect. Amazing man, because he"s a complete idiot who"s willing to stick his curious nose in the first mousetrap he gets. But he can get out of trouble and even profit for himself.

Nick didn"t even know what to say to that. But Dan wouldn"t give him a chance. He slapped himself on the forehead and surprised the guys again.

"Guys, we"re rich! I"m about to tell you such news that you"re going to be even more excited! Here"s the deal. That now the Cursed Mine has become a normal mine. It"s a place to mine ore. I found an unknown breed in it. I showed a piece of it to our dwarf and Turin almost ate his beard in delight. We have Adran in our mine. It"s a very rare and valuable breed. It produces a special metal, also called Adran. It enhances the durability of armor and weapons. It"s more expensive than gold! We don"t have to worry about trophies at all now."

At first everybody was happy, but then Nick put his share of cold-blooded calm into an atmosphere of joy and complacency.

"It"s a dangerous question. It promises a lot of money. It"s a serious and dangerous business. I learned an important thing in town. No local government has any influence on us. Moreover, our lands are on the border of the civilized world and n.o.body is interested. Even if we discover a mine with gold, we will be allowed to develop it and make a profit. But you all understand that now we don"t need any extra attention to ourselves. We"re still too weak!"

"I agree! And on this subject, I want to warn you. We must think seriously about defending the castle. About a hundred immortal hunter masters were living here. We are immortal, but we are weak newbies. We could be attacked! There are player killers in the game. The local authorities may not know our weaknesses and have some respect for us in honor of the Order"s former merits. For the other players, we are just the lucky ones to have access to excellent game cla.s.ses. There are only four of us. One sudden attack by a big group and we"re done."

"We"re immortal, we"ll be reborn and we can kick it in the ears," smiled John.

Alexander looked at him and shook his head:

"If there were a few of my guys with me, we could plan a competent operation. First, there"s the recon, then there"s the strike. Then you could be locked in a rebirth room, and you"d die of hunger and be reborn in it. And then you"ll die again. And the new owners have had enough of a temporary rebirth point. In a few months, you"ll go crazy. And you can be transferred to the bas.e.m.e.nt. There are cells in there. I made one for Dan. No offense, but your sword scares me terribly."

"Look at me at midnight. Is there a grid in there? Is there a reliable grid in this cell? We"ll definitely go down to the bas.e.m.e.nt," said Dan.

He wasn"t offended, he was very worried.

"Let"s see how long we"ve got until we meet Dan Horrible and Dangerous," said Nick calmly and took the watch out of his jacket pocket.

Dan saw the watch and froze. He could only whisper a few words quietly:

"What about me?"

John giggled, and there was a watch in his hand. It wasn"t very big, the size of a man"s fist. The shape of the case was as simple as a small box. John opened the box lid and specified the time. Then he got up and went to Dan. He gave him a gift and said:

"Here you go. This is for you. Don"t look at the fact that they"re so big. They"re pretty accurate on time and they don"t stop at the inventory at all."

Dan took the watch. Thanked John for the gift and started looking at the artful design. He had a smile on his face.

Then they decided that the mine question could only be resolved with the partic.i.p.ation of Turin. If it is possible to arrange everything quietly and neatly, then mine can start developing.

Nick decided this morning to evaluate the trophies Dan brought. And John and Alexander will go on an additional exploration of the ruins of the ancient city.

They sat and got new status opportunities. Everyone was given additional opportunities to operate the castle. Everyone agreed that the castle needed more defenses. Nick sighed and admitted that he didn"t want to run into town at all. There was a Builders Guild in town, and there were great masters who even used magic in their work.

Suddenly, Dan froze. He took out his watch and looked at the time. Then he started arguing:

"The c.r.a.p of your watch! It doesn"t show the right time. It"s midnight! I"ve turned!"

Players looked at him and saw no change. An ordinary man, in whose status the race has changed its t.i.tle. He didn"t evoke any negative emotions from them. No quest to kill him was offered by the game to anyone. A normal player, with his own problems in his head.

Dan couldn"t be called a normal player. He took off his mask. Grey, with scars on his face, almost white eyes. Dan had a very unusual and unpleasant appearance. But everyone else was addicted to it.

Alexander even got excited:

"You"re an indispensable person, Dan!"We"ll know the exact time from you and check our watches!"