The True Endgame

"Nothing else was going to get under that p.r.i.c.k"s skin than killing his crybaby streamer of a girlfriend. I still get people trying to dox me from that," Fenrir replies.

"I still laugh whenever I remember him making that huge blog post begging for her to come back!"

Serra can only listen in and jump every single time an arrow is shot their way. She has no idea what they"re talking about, but it does sound like her crush has a side to him that she knows nothing about. Something about that is… exciting. Him caring for her and helping her out right after meeting her is what originally drew her interest, but with what little pieces of information she"s gathering now, it"s beginning to sound more like he"s got some dark and mysterious past to him!

Really, he"s just spent too much time playing video games.

"What"s the plan? Battle Master?" Fenrir asks, looking over to Oleander.

"I don"t think we can beat them all, but they don"t know our strength, so let"s try to trick them so we can escape. You better hope they"re gullible!" Oleander explains.

Fenrir looks back. Just as he figured, the group of players chasing after them is catching up with ease. The only reason they"re not here yet is because of the head start the party got. Then he notices something. Bonekraka is ahead of him despite running at the same time and starting from the same spot. Did carrying Oleander increase his speed and endurance? "Bone, you"ll be able to outrun those guys as long as me and Olly buy you some time. Take Serra and go hide! We"ll catch up later," Fenrir orders.

Serra looks surprised and makes some confused hand signs when she sees the giant orc approach her all of a sudden, but he picks her up regardless and tosses her over his shoulder. "Thanks, Bone, good luck!" Fenrir says. Bonekraka nods, gains some distance, and then splits off from Fenrir and Oleander.

"I don"t know how I feel about a giant orc being faster than a deer and wolf," Oleander says.

"Yeah, we"re going to need to do something about that. Alright, you ready?"

Rather than give a spoken response, Oleander stops in his tracks when he sees a flower sticking up from the ground. He places his hands on it while keeping his eyes on the approaching enemies. From a single flower sprouts nearly a dozen viny tendrils that lash out towards the enemies! "It worked! They"re really weak, but let"s hope they don"t reali—"

A burst of flame engulfs all of the tendrils at once.

"I, uhh, Fenny? They can use magic too."

"Yeah, I figured it was going to end like this the moment I punched that kid. This is when being an OP main character of some anime would come in handy. What do you think?" Fenrir asks.

"Are we still doing that thing where we never let anybody get the satisfaction of killing us?"

Fenrir looks back and sees Bonekraka disappearing into the darkness of night with Serra. Good, they should be safe. "You know it. You first since you have the spear."

"Alright! See you on the other side!" Oleander says with a smile much too large for what he"s about to do. Fenrir notices hesitation in his movements, but it doesn"t stop Oleander. Aiming the spear toward his heart, he pulls it forward with as much strength as he can muster to tear right through his chest.

He falls to the ground.

An arrow flies by Fenrir"s head. "Alright, gotta be quick. I"ll be back for you, Rock." With that, Fenrir takes the spear out from Oleander"s chest, aims it against his own heart, and... hesitates. Killing himself in games was never a problem before, so why now? He feels like if he kills himself then he"s going to actually die.

No, this is just a game. He repeats that several times in his head right up until he impales himself.

The last things he sees and hears before his vision goes to black are the angered shouts of his pursuers catching up just seconds too late.

Fenrir jumps and hits the table when he realizes that he"s sitting in the café from his childhood once more. Saya is sitting across from him with a mocking expression and a half-eaten sundae. "Such a cowardly way to go out, Onii-chan," she teases.

He looks around. No more field, no more angry pursuers, and no spear in his chest. His hands are shaking from leftover adrenaline. "You say cowardly, I say stubbornly! I mean, come on. We killed three of their friends, stole two of their swords, they didn"t get to kill us, and it"s not like there"s any good loot to get from our bodies. We also just started playing, so it"s not like we"re going to lose much progress either. Me and Olly went out in proper Divine Brigade style," Fenrir explains, a smug look of satisfaction on his own face now that he"s relaxing.

Saya raises her hands and shrugs. "It does seem to work pretty well based off of your memories."

"Oh, I have a question."

"Of course you do, Onii-chan. I"m a.s.suming it is the question that 92.74% of players ask after their first death."

"How does death and resp.a.w.ning work?"

"Knew it!"

"You know what I"m going to ask before I even ask it in the first place, so that"s not really fair."

Saya does an innocent little whistle while looking to the side. "Anyways, you"re not able to play the game for twenty-four hours after dying, and you will either resp.a.w.n where you first sp.a.w.ned after making your character, or where you last slept."

Not being able to play for an entire day hurts. Bonekraka is definitely going to be upset with him, and what about Serra?

"That sounds like it could be taken advantage of pretty badly. What if a guild sets a bunch of quick houses and beds up outside of an enemy"s city?"

"Do you think that any city is going to let a force suspiciously set up a bunch of resp.a.w.n points without doing anything about it, Onii-chan?"

He can"t argue with that. Such a tactic works in other games where buildings can be constructed instantly and when resp.a.w.n timers don"t take twenty-four hours. That"s equal to two in-game days.

"What happens if you pay for permission to sleep in a tavern for the night, but don"t pay to sleep there any nights after without setting a new sp.a.w.n point?"

"That"s up to us! It"s the virtual a.s.sistants" job to ensure that players are not trying to abuse the game"s mechanics. It wouldn"t make much sense for you to resp.a.w.n in a place that isn"t owned by you, that you only paid for a single night, and that somebody else might be at already."

"That sounds like the AIs make it so scamming players isn"t possible."

Saya shakes her head. "Nuh-uh, Onii-chan. We only step in when it comes to certain mechanics like that. Like, you can"t set a resp.a.w.n point inside of a dungeon, you can"t sneak into an enemy"s castle and sleep in the leader"s bed to set your sp.a.w.n point there, you can"t resp.a.w.n in a rented room if you"re not paying for it anymore, and so on! But if you like, sign a contract with somebody that says you"ll do X in exchange for Y, then there"s nothing we can do to enforce that. You can even paint your favorite rock gold to try and sell it to people as a golden nugget!"

"Alright, alright. I think I understand. So basically, when it comes to resp.a.w.ning at places we"ve slept, it only counts if the virtual a.s.sistants decide it"s an appropriate spot to resp.a.w.n?"

"Right, Onii-chan! I"ll let you know if you try setting your resp.a.w.n point somewhere where it won"t be allowed, and you can ask me where you"re currently set to resp.a.w.n whenever you want in-game."

"That"s good to know, thanks. What all do you lose when you die?"

"That depends on your rebirth counters! As long as you have at least one rebirth counter, which all players start with, you will only lose the last 10% of progress you have made as far as stats and skills are concerned, but everything on you will be left behind for others to loot. You"ll resp.a.w.n in your birthday suit!"

"And what about if you have no rebirth counters?"

"Then you lose everything! You"ll be forced to resp.a.w.n at a random place in the world, and you"ll lose all stats and skills and anything else you might have!"

Fenrir nods, taking in all of this information. It"s good information to know. Going from what she said, he figures out that he just used up his only rebirth counter. The next death is going to severely screw him over if he can"t get another rebirth counter. "How do you get more rebirth counters?" he asks.

Saya blushes.

Why does he have a feeling that this answer is going to be bad?

"We-well, you know how babies are made, right, Onii-chan?"

"Please don"t tell me that"s the only way."

"Instead of getting a girl pre-pre— pregnant, you"d both get rebirth counters."

"Wait, doesn"t that discriminate against gay players?"

Saya drops her embarra.s.sed act. "You"re no fun, Onii-chan! Having s.e.x has a chance at gaining all involved parties a rebirth counter depending on stat compatibility. A player with high strength will have a higher chance of getting a counter with another player who has high strength, and a lower chance with somebody who has low strength."
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"Alright, what other ways are there to get rebirth counters?"

Saya pouts. "You"re not even considering the option I just told you about!"

"I know."

"Fiiiinnee. Defeating elite NPCs like dungeon bosses, killing players that are a lot stronger than you, and using rare items can all give you rebirth counters."

Fenrir breathes a sigh of relief. "Good. Why do you sound disappointed that I"m not some crazed s.e.x fiend?"

"W-well, all of my experiences are tied to your own, so if you"re a virgin then it basically means I"m a virgin. The only way I"d ever get to experience what that"s like is if you do."

"So, in other words, you"re a perverted voyeur?"

The remainder of Saya"s sundae splatters against Fenrir"s face.