"Yeah, Min-joon, Skyblue's guild leader, is already ready for us at the meeting spot. Do we keep waiting for the guy?" Exodus asked.
"Tell them something came up, and I'll be there in 5 minutes," Mideous or Min-joon sighed.
He had texted Julian three times in the last 10 minutes, yet he had received no response.
At this point, he was wondering whether it was the right thing to cancel the meeting.
A sudden tap on the shoulder, however, melted his relief away.
Mideous looked up at the man who was a full head taller than him, wearing a mix of hard leather and iron armor.
Being six feet himself, it felt a bit embarrassing that he still had to tilt his head.
"You ready, boss? They're near our stall to talk business," Mideous said.
"Yeah," Julian sighed.
"You don't need to be too strict with me, by the way," Julian nudged.
"Gotcha," Mideous replied.
It was an awkward interaction, but Julian hoped that, given time, the two of them would slowly become friends.
For now, though, they were still just co-workers at best, something both of them found comfort in.
Near the village center was a group of players huddled near the Golden Light Emporium's stand.
The Skyblue guild was a medium-sized guild that worked under the company of the same name.
Predominantly an electronic hardware company, they had set up an esports organization after the exponential rise of the full-dive VR game genre 30 years ago.
Before the release of Alpha, the first full-dive VR game, Altera was released by the Extra company.
As an innovative product, it added trillions of dollars to the VR game market.
With a record of 5 billion active daily users in the game, it reached an unprecedented level of success.
It also caused multiple companies to build esports organizations. With the sheer amount of viewership per event, it was well worth the investment.
Due to the sudden rush of new organizations, each one was labeled, ranging from indie to world-class, depending on their backing and strength.
When Altera's servers shut down five years ago, it was thought that the full-dive VR market bubble was soon to crash.
Thankfully, given the 25 years of development from other companies, new VR games began to flood the market.
This kept the market afloat before the Extra company decided to tease Alpha and its new time dilation technology.
The BlueSky guild was just a medium-sized guild, but as the Golden Light's first guild contract, it was important to make a good impression.
At the front of the pack was a player by the name of "Explosive Dog," the guild leader/manager.
The two parties, now having reached the meeting location, began to discuss the matters of their exchange.
While Mideous was the main one talking, Julian stood by his side to see firsthand the business capabilities of the man.
They went back and forth discussing the costs of commission and penalties in case the other backed out of their promise.
Julian watched and admired as Mideous skillfully wove his way through the conversation and negotiated a 10% commission.
Compared to the three or so players belonging to the Golden Light guild, the Bluesky guild had brought 20 players for this one meeting alone.
Julian thought it was a bit suspicious but didn't look too deeply into the matter.
The conversation between Mideous and Explosive Dog seemed to be coming to an end as the two began their final review of the contract.
Julian took a second to look at his status when he saw the slight blur of something metallic rushing toward Mideous's head.
Despite perceiving it, he felt his current agility was insufficient to save his business partner.
-250 Crit!
Unlike NPCs or monsters, players disintegrated into particles of light when killed.
In NPC settlements such as towns or cities, a player had an incredibly rare chance of dropping items from their inventory.
However, if the player was killed by a high karma player, there stood an increased chance of items being dropped from the player's death.
It served as a path for players who wished to take on a more villainous path.
At the same time, with increased chances of rewards, there were always risks that came with it.
The increased chances only held true in settlements where guards would haul off anyone into prison for the crime of manslaughter.
Since the Golden Light Emporium was only an indie guild, it seemed that someone with high karma wanted to steal their precious card.
While Julian focused on the location of where the dagger had been thrown, he nearly missed the Bluesky guild leader rushing toward Mideous's loot.
Everything seemed to line up now: bringing more members than needed, the large commission fee; it was all just a ploy.
They had already figured out the karma system of the game and wanted to exploit their indie guild for its treasure.
Due to Mideous's close proximity to Explosive Dog, he was the first to arrive and grab the contents of his fallen loot.
Julian and Mideous's right-hand man, Exodus, drew their weapons to retaliate, but with a group of ten players blocking the way for their boss's escape, it seemed they had to accept the loss.
Julian himself was angry that he had allowed himself to be taken advantage of so easily.
With 30 unassigned stat points from being level 6, he immediately allocated 15 into agility before sprinting toward the thief.
He managed to weave past the blockade of players, but a well-timed dagger managed to stop him in his tracks.
Had he taken a step further, his heart would've been pierced by the steel dagger.
Without giving him time to think, the masked assailant rushed toward him with a dagger in hand.
Julian attempted to use the extra reach of the spear to attack, but the assailant weaved under the assault, getting much closer.
For the first time in his life, he felt the fear of death encroach on his mind. There was no painless attack for Julian; he would feel each one as if it were real.
He knew it was inevitable that he'd die in the game, but he never expected it to be this soon.
He wanted to slowly build up to it, not this sudden, painful one.
-199
Julian let out a gut-wrenching scream as he felt the dagger pierce through his armor, puncturing his lungs.
He heard the sound of his flesh give way to the deadly blade. His breath dissipated as the air in his body began to escape through the hole in his lung.
With 1 HP left, death would have been a more merciful fate for him.
He sat there in shock, wondering what caused his killer to end up missing the last point of damage when he saw a figure fighting the dagger user.
Julian sat there, clutching his wound, as Oblivion fought off against the assailant.
It was a sudden shout from Oblivion that finally caused Julian to snap out of his shocked state.
"Use a health potion, dumbass," Oblivion shouted.
Julian then fought through the pain as he grabbed two health potions from his inventory to heal the wound.
Back to 101/200 health, the pain began to subside a little as the warm sensation of the health potion circulated through his body.
By the time Julian's head cleared, the dagger-wielding assailant had escaped, and Mideous had arrived, rushing back from the local respawn point.
From Mideous's death, they had lost approximately 100 gold coins, some equipment, and a few other petty items.
The village guards had arrived as well but were too late to capture any of the assailants.
For the Golden Light Emporium and Julian, it was a heavy loss. Julian had a short chat with Mideous about their future plans before turning back to Oblivion.
It was a surprise that he had been the one to protect Julian, but he thanked him nonetheless.
Though Oblivion wanted a longer chat, Julian promised him another day.
He logged off Alpha and exited back to the real world.
His glass of wine was still where he had left it; the entire apartment was as empty as it had been for the past three months.
Julian slumped on his living room couch and touched the exact spot on his chest where the dagger had struck.
The pain and feeling were so vivid that his brain could recreate the sensation exactly.
He had to remind himself that it had all been in the game to stop himself from spiraling.
Julian clutched his forehead as he noticed his body temperature beginning to rise and sweat forming around him.
He thought back to that moment when he had only one HP left.
Death would have been a more merciful fate.
[3/3 Conditions met for the Silent Shepherd (Rare) advancement!]
[Please log back into the game to advance your class.]
Julian felt his vision begin to blur before he fainted onto the couch.
His mind and body were exhausted as he began to heat up with what seemed to be a fever.
For a moment, Julian thought he saw the game's interface in the real world.
He chuckled slightly before his mind shut off.
Unknown to him and everyone else on Earth, the first player on the planet was awakening his abilities a whole eight years early.