Chapter 14: Cruel Virtual Reality
[You have slain kev001 and earned 2 exp.]
The moment Markus appeared; he instantly killed the fighter. Although they watched him fight the monster just a bit ago, he didn't do anything particularly special. However, sneaking up on someone and taking them out with a single strike made everyone excited. This was exactly why they had a misunderstanding of his specialization and talent. Player versus environment was one thing, but player versus player was considered the ultimate test of skill.
Just as Markus turned his blade to the Caster, the player started waving his hands in protest, "Wait, wait, wait! This was all my brother's idea don't kill me!"
"Oh okay." Markus was apathetic.
-6
[You have slain vik001 and earned 1 exp.]
After the two turned into balls of light, he moved over to the wolves' corpses that were damaged beyond recognition. He let out a low whistle at the destructive power of a caster. Although this was the start of the game, there were bound to be a few lucky people that got talents with immediate useful effects. Since the caster tried pleading for mercy, it probably had a huge cost to summon that pillar of light.
Seeing the state of their bodies, Markus made the executive decision to loot the wolves.
[Level 2 Wolf (mortal). /Loot]
[Looting…
Damaged Fur x2
Tough Meat x1
Sharp Canine x2]
[Level 1 Wolf (mortal.) /Loot] x2
[Looting…
Damaged Fur x2
Sharp Canine x1]
[Level 2 Wolf looted… 2 exp gained.]
[Level 1 Wolf looted… 1 exp gained.]
Markus raised his eyebrow when six motes of light appeared and flew to him and Lloyd. It seemed that there was some kind of re-adjudication after killing the two players. Once people discovered that they could Kill Steal at a whole new level, it would increase the popularity of stealth classes and group killing. However, this wasn't going to be an issue for him once he became number one.
"So you can get experience that way too! Interesting." Lloyd walked over. Markus didn't reply and simply opened a trade with her and sent her half the wolves' loot. She didn't say anything about it and accepted it as per their deal. After the exchange, they returned to the camp and settled down again. Baby was able to finish the butchering shortly after and return to rest.
There was a lot of excitement near the beginning of the night, but it seemed to fall off after a while. Markus took the opportunity to surf the forums and see what people were saying about the monsters at night. What he found was shocking to say the least. There was public outrage and a lawsuit threat from an influential figure.
After reading the details, Markus understood the situation. The forsaken he faced was not alone. There were many users who faced one of those terrible monsters. Similar to him, they also entered a dream-like illusion. Unfortunately, this was automatic death for the current gamers. Therefore, these monsters were already considered unbeatable and unfair to the games balance. Due to this, many players were outraged that such an impossible enemy made the game trash. However, the threads were closed after a moderator posted one line.
Mod Tomas: "Concerning the question of balance, we have confirmed that a player defeated a forsaken on his own. Please continue to improve your skills through practice!"
'Comments Disabled by Moderator'
However, this didn't stop people from opening many new posts to talk about the moderator's post. Many were skeptical, but those that weren't began to break down the possibilities. They had essentially determined that if such a person existed, they would have a talent specifically to resist the hallucination. Many also guessed that the player was at least level 3 and focused on player level rather than developing skills. Markus laughed at that and felt the online community had too little imagination.
The next thing he investigated was the public lawsuit toward the company. It turned out that a high-ranking government official decided to run an advertising campaign in the game itself. Their short explanation was to encourage young people to want to come out and vote. However, when he faced off against the forsaken, he got an illusion that contained very sensitive information to the security of the country.
RolandPPhinnegan: "I am not aware of how this company received this information, but my lawyers have already begun the process of suing you to bankruptcy, with a high chance of life in prison."
Many players were confused and excited. They loved drama especially when two major groups were at odds. However, several players were critical of those people. They argued that the game would die if such a lawsuit went through. Obviously those players didn't think that far and when they realized they began siding with the 'Small Indie Company' for being bullied by the government. However, this thread was also closed eventually with another brief moderator post.
Mod Gottfried: "Thank you for your concern for our game OLYMPUS. First, I want to thank you for playing. Next, I will clarify that our game software is not able to read your mind and record your thoughts. The function of the hallucination ability of the forsaken is to trigger memories with the latest in therapeutic sensory technology. We apologize for any inconvenience and would like to direct you to our Terms of Service for further clarification. If you still have any questions, please directly contact our support line."
Markus was impressed with the response time of the moderators. Although, since it was a private early release, it made sense that they would be hyper focused on the results. The most incredible thing was that all of this happened within the span of half an hour. Markus was able to confirm that no one else had killed one of the forsaken, at least before the post from the moderator. This was a good benchmark for his growth and position in the community.
After finishing reading, he realized that it had already been so long. He checked his game logs and saw that the rested notification did successfully appear. Since he had calmed himself down from the fighting by reading posts, Markus took a crack at making arrows. He took out his twelve golden feathers and immediately caught Baby's attention.
"You plan on making some arrows?"
"Mhm." Markus answered without looking away. He didn't really know what to do, but with his skill he didn't need to. Thoughts like doing something correctly didn't even occur to him. He would just approximate an arrow. After looking around the area for some straight sticks, he brought back ten reasonably sized ones. Then, he began to sharpen the end of one to a fine point and stuck the sharpened tips in the ash near the edge of the fire to let it get hardened by the heat.
Next, he took out a thin strip of hide and a feather, he split the feather down the middle with his blade and took a hardened shaft. He placed the two halves opposite of each other and used two thin strands of hide to tie around the shaft of the arrow. Once he was finished, a notification appeared in his game log, and he immediately threw the failed arrow into the fire.
[New skill Bows learned.]
[Bows Level 1
Rank: Mortal
Effect: Using bows is 10% more effective.
Effect: Using bows is 10% more effective.
Message: HUH!? What was that? Must have been my imagination.]
Markus became slightly embarrassed once the knowledge came flowing in. It seemed that the necessary skill to craft a weapon came from the base skill to use them. Thinking about a sword, Markus actually realized he had a decent idea of how to make one himself. However, this was only the final process of attaching the components. He was unaware of what was needed to forge a blade. But a bow was easier. The two necessary skills were leatherworking and bow. This was because some of the theories involved in making a bow could be derived from the leatherworking skill. The only thing he lacked was a solid foundation in working with wood.
Markus took one of the unused sticks and carefully began to clean the bark off of it and make the arrow into a uniform shape. Then, he cut a notch in the back of the shaft. Once he was finished with that, he took out the [Tough Meat] from his inventory and cut out a long string of sinew. He stuck it in his mouth and began chewing on it for a while. While chewing, he took a feather and started cutting it into shape. The feathers were long and had enough length to make enough fletching for two arrows. After that, he set the sinew next to the fire to let it dry. He processed a few other sticks while the sinew dried. He sharpened the cleaned sticks and set them in the embers to harden the sharped tips. Once finished, he separated out the threads into long thin strands and started tying up the fletching.
[Crude Arrow
Rank: Mortal
Effect: 1-2 damage
Message: Its better than throwing rocks.]
"Wow. I felt like I was watching one of those survival shows." Punch couldn't hold back anymore and jumped in excitement.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Pill_Guy
Pill_Guy My process may be underdeveloped but im sure the layman understands the jist of it. I only have surface knowledge so don't berrate me too bad. Any missing info or incorrect knowledge is corrected by the fact its a game, ez.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone