บท 40: 039 Putting Two and Two Together
Cain was laying in the game capsule about to log back into the game when realization hit him! He has recognized Blaise from somewhere before! His mind was flying a thousand miles an hour when he was trying to recall where!
* Thunk! *
He quickly sat up in his capsule, which was closed, and hit head!
"Damn it!" He had hit his head quite hard. He was worried about Blaise's true identity.
He opened his capsule and ran back to the laboratory. He was looking for something very specific. He couldn't believe he missed it before! He also couldn't believe that it was possible.
He arrived at the location he was heading towards. It was the capsule that James was in. He looked at James and he was floating in the healing gel. Their face structure is exactly like the game, the nose, the eyes, the mouth everything was the same… How was it possible? The game automatically adjusts your appearance so that you don't look like your real identity!
When he first saw him in game he thought it was someone whose looks were adjusted to look similar to James's. It didn't dawn on him that something strange would happen regarding the player's appearance system. If James really was Blaise he would be in trouble. Sarah would kill him.
He was afraid of what that woman would do to him. He also knew if she found out that he kept this from her that the punishment would be far worse than telling her now. He looked around and sighed. He went to the nearest lab tech and asked where Sebastian and Sarah were. He was pointed to their private room.
Cain took a deep breath and rushed over to the door and knocked loudly.
* Knock, Knock, Knock *
"Who the f*** is it? This better be good!" Sarah sounded really annoyed and mad.
Cain was sweating hard now.
The door swung open and Sarah, who was only covered with a bed sheet, appeared before him. He knew better than to look at her when she was in this state so he looked back towards James.
"Sorry, it appears that I interrupted something. I'll come back later." He wanted to crawl in a hole and die.
She reached out and grabbed him by the back of his collar as he tried to escape. "You already interrupted, what makes you think you can leave just like that? Sebastian, make sure he doesn't leave. I'm going to get dressed."
Sebastian, who just finished getting dressed himself, waved Cain into the living room of their private lodging. Sarah went to their bathroom to freshen up. If you listened closely you would hear her cursing Cain under her breath.
Cain looked at Sebastian, who had an apologetic look on his face, and apologized for interrupting their fun.
"It's no problem, you must have something important to say if you ignored the do not disturb sign on the door." Sebastian wondered what was important.
Cain started to stutter, "D… D… Do not disturb? sign?"
"Yeah, you know a sign stating to leave people alone? Forget it, is there a fire or another emergency that would make you basically barge in on us?" Sarah didn't hide her annoyance.
Cain has been through battle where blood flowed like rivers, was physically and mentally tortured, dealt with bombs and other explosives, and much more. He had no clue why this woman scared him so much.
He wanted to escape as fast as possible so he got right to the point. "I know James's character name!"
Sarah and Sebastian, who were sitting down, stood up from their seats and rushed over to Cain. "I thought you didn't have any information on James!" Sarah yelled.
"I just put two and two together. It didn't cross my mind until now. Please let's sit down and talk." Cain wanted to get some of the pressure he was feeling off of him so he suggested making physical space between the two of them and himself.
Both Sarah and Sebastian sat back down and waited for Cain to start talking.
Cain wanted to clear the air about the battle he just had with James, "First and foremost, I will have to apologize. Please listen to me start to finish then you can deal with me in any way you want. Is that okay with you?"
They both agreed to hold their tongue until Cain was finished. Seeing they both agreed he felt a little relieved for what was about to come. "I was hired for a hit on a player called Totem; long story short the player Totem was under contract with one of the top guilds and went back on the contract due to a better one being offered. My team and myself were wiped out since the target was with a very strong team. James was one of the people present during the fight."
Sarah almost stood up to berate Cain but Sebastian stopped her and asked her to wait. Cain continued, "At first I didn't believe that the person involved was truly James. By default the game changes everyone's appearance by 20%; thus James should have looked completely different from his real self."
Cain took a second then continued, "It is not uncommon for look-a-likes to appear thanks to the 20% appearance altering. All it would take is for someone to roughly look like someone else and get lucky enough that the 20% change would make them look nearly identical."
Cain frowned, "While passing the lab to go back to my capsule I took a quick peak at James. Right before I logged back into the game I made a connection. The player in question looked exactly like James, not even the slightest bit different. If someone else was a look-a-like they features would never be an exact match."
He thought for a moment, "Something might have happened shortly after he started moving in the game. We have no doubt that the person who was frozen in the town square was James. His charts you were monitoring matched the results in the game. That is conclusive evidence that those two people are one of the same."
Both Sarah and Sebastian nodded in agreement. "I suspect that the reason we could not find James after that is because somehow his appearance was changed after he escaped the square. He was granted a mask that hide his name so it would not be far fetched that the mask would allow an appearance change as well. The developers wanted to ensure the safety of all players after all."
Sebastian was the first to break the agreement, "So you were looking for the wrong person the whole time?"
Cain was not against the interruption, "Yes, we were looking for someone that looked like the player who was frozen. Since James's appearance was altered again we didn't think twice about it."
Sarah wanted to know about the hit, "Sebastian gave you a job to look out for James, not fight him…"
Cain saw that she was getting mad again, "The hit resulted in a failure, not a single person from James's group was killed. In fact all 10 of my comrades, even myself, were killed. I also will not be pursuing the hit any more. If I knew it was James I would not have agreed in the first place. I will be paying a 'visit' to the person who placed the hit in the first place."
Sarah lightened up, "Well… I guess you wouldn't have known. You have always been loyal to the family after all. Since you didn't harm him I will let you go this time."
"Could you talk about the battle? How has James been doing in the game? Is he able to move around well? What is his character's name? Do you know anything else about what he has been up to?" Sebastian bombarded Cain with questions.
Cain was expecting most of the questions he received and started to answer them. "His character name is Blaise and he's quite famous. I will get into that a little later since you probably want to hear more about his ability to move and fight in the game."
The couple had an intrigued look on their faces but waited for Cain to continue, "If you didn't know about his past you would never be able to guess that he is a cripple in real life."
Sarah started to tear up, "That is great." Sebastian held his wife in an embrace. "We are so happy to hear that, thank you for reporting the good news."
Cain felt his cold heart warm seeing the happy couple. "He is quite impressive actually."
Sarah and Sebastian gave Cain their full attention. "He appears to be the leader of a very powerful force. As far as I can tell, they are all rogue players. Meaning that his whole team is not affiliated with any guild or group. He may be building his own force. Have you two heard of a player called Reaper?"
Sarah and Sebastian previously were not familiar with the gaming scene but after they started on the project with James's father they looked into the large gaming community, circles, and guilds.
"Reaper? The young lady who loves to fight over players." Sebastian asked.
Sarah was not a fan of the person called Reaper, "She loves to kill people so much that she had many names. Reaper, Queen of Death, Queen of PvP, and more. As far as I see it, she is a twisted little girl who didn't have proper parental guidance when growing up. She may even have some mental problems… "
Cain was speechless, could he really say that James had been playing the game with the women she dislikes?
He awkwardly coughed, "She is a part of James's group; he and her work quite well together. The two of them killed the first ever BOSS with just the two of them."
The couple was speechless. Sarah was the first to regain the ability to talk. "That is unacceptable. How can we let James be around such a violent person? Cain, you have to do something about it!"
Sebastian saw the awkward and worried look on Cain's face, "Judging by the look you are giving, I'm guessing that you won't be able to separate the two?"
"Well, the two have many things going for their partnership. I think it would be unwise to force them to stop playing together…"
Sarah was livid! "There is no way that she will be a positive influence on James! What if he turns violent or has other bad behaviors because of her!"
"Explain what you mean by good things with their partnership? Could you explain more?" Sebastian was also worried about James's future. He wants to be James's new father figure. To be a good father figure he believed it was important to take a look at the big picture and the future not just the here and now. It might not be a bad thing depending on what Cain reports.
"Well. First, they both have hidden classes. The fact that they are working together makes them a very powerful worth to be reckoned with. James would be safer playing with someone with considerable strength."
Sebastian nodded his head in agreement.
Cain felt proud of James, "I don't believe that he will be affected by Reaper too much. During the fight between our groups James was in full control. He was not going along with what Reaper wanted. In fact, she was following his commands. At the very least, she sees him as equals and not as someone she can just bully around. If I were to guess it was James that led his group to my assassin's downfall. At first the fight between us appeared to be a 3 v 11 fight. He was able to control the battle at his own pace, so much so he managed to kill my second in command within 2 minutes of our engagement. It turned out it was a 4 v 11 fight; he had one of his assassins hide in the shadows so they could strike at a critical moment. Later on two more of his team showed up and my group were played with and controlled as if we were puppets. He controlled the fight until we were unknowingly trapped."
The couple wanted to be surprised but they felt it was natural for James to be a natural leader, his father had this charm and charisma that made you want to follow him no matter what. Father like son they guessed.
"Your team was wiped out right? Were you the last one to go down?" Sebastian wanted to gauge Jame's strength to Cain's.
Sebastian saw some pain in Cain's eyes. "That is a sore subject, James was the one to finish the job. He killed the remaining 6 of my team all at once with his trap. His fire magic is very powerful and he found a way to set up explosive traps."
Sebastian studied Cain for a few minutes, "You don't want to fight Reaper do you?"
Cain kept his cursing internal, "That is only part of the reason that I don't wish to break up his team. She would be a tough opponent even if we were to get a surprise attack in; James would almost certainly back her up. I'd like to avoid conflict with James from here on out."
Sarah thought it sensible, "Good, you are not allowed to butt-heads with James any longer."
Success! Cain finally got the couple off of the subject of splitting James and Reaper's partnership up.
"What about his other team members?" Sarah wanted to know about the other people James became friends with.
"Hmm. First off, both James and Reaper are on the level leaderboards. Reaper is in first place and James is in second place, not too far behind Reaper. One of their team members is another person on the leaderboards, his name is Talon. He is a strong archer that typically plays solo; seeing that James got him on his team is another sign that he shares his father's ability to bring people together. Then there is a man called Totem; he used to be a hired mercenary. It appears he is out of the business since he took down his advertisements for contracts with him. Either he is in a permanent contract with James or is a full fledged member of his team. Then there is a set of twins. They work well together and even better with James's help." explained Cain.
Sarah was worried that Totem would betray James, "A permanent contract? Wouldn't that be expensive? What if James stops paying him? Wouldn't he betray James?"
Cain shook his head in disagreement. "James is probably the richest player in the game." He then started to explain all the global announcements and feats that James accomplished.
"On top of all the gold he got from the achievements, he has most likely sold the rewards from all the high tier monsters he has defeated, and he is that Rune Master that has been selling Runes that we talked about before. I know for a fact that he has made at least 20 gold from runes alone. If I were to guess, Totem sees James as a long term investment. I don't see him betraying James." Cain gave his honest opinion.
Sebastian and Sarah talked it over for a while. Sebastian gave Cain his new task. "For now don't worry about James and his group. It appears that he will be fine on his own. What are you going to do to the people who hired you to kill Totem and his team? You said someone used James as a bonus."
Cain gave a dark smile, "Just like the rest of the Rhodes family's enemies… Death."
He then left the couple alone and returned to the game. He needed to plan some revenge.
When he logged in a notice was sent to his party chat.
** Harbingers of Death Chat **
- Void has logged in -
[- Void: I hope everyone finished their tasks, return to the office. We have some revenge to plan. -]
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