Chapter 36

  Present Time…

  Ben’s left hand trembled as he bore witness to the familiar brand burned into the skin of every slave in front of him. He leaned his halberd against himself to free his right hand, then used it to grab his trembling left. Ben gritted his teeth and did his best to hold back tears.

  ”Not this time. Lord willing, not this time.”

  “Ben?”

  A gentle voice snapped him out of his dark thoughts. There it was again. The second time she had spoken.

  Ben looked down at Eve’s worried gaze. His expression softened.

  There was something about hearing her voice that was so soothing. His hand even stopped shaking.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  Ben returned his attention to the poor captured souls.

  “I will free you. You have my word,” Ben said.

  The NPC woman who had thrown mud at him earlier bowed her head and crept away.

  “Impossible,” she said.

  The rest of the people bowed their heads and did not move, even though the cage doors were open. Ben saw a quest notification flicker in his system window. He took a moment to read it.

  “Let’s go,” he said.

  Ben turned away and led Eve out of the cage. Eve looked confused and glanced back.

  “We’re leaving?”

  Ben nodded.

  “We have to. Even if we free them now, it would be useless while they still carry the Master’s Mark.”

  Eve frowned in confusion.

  “The Master’s Mark?”

  Ben nodded.

  “You should be able to see it if you focus on their brands with your Eyes of Truth. In order to free them, we have to find and claim the artifacts that anchor their Master’s power over them. Once we find those artifacts, we can return and remove the mark. If we do not remove the mark before defeating the boss, then all those with the mark will die,” Ben said.

  Eve went wide-eyed at the realization. She looked back at the slave camp. All the orcs were dead. Ben’s cherubs had killed them all and opened every cage, but none of the slaves tried to escape.

  “That’s horrible,” she texted.

  Ben gave a grim nod.

  “Maybe that’s the point.”

  Eve looked back at Ben and frowned.

  “What do you mean?”

  Ben hesitated. His train of thought would not make sense to Eve, because his thoughts were within the context of his experience as a regressor. He stopped and turned to face her. Eve was taken aback by his serious expression.

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  “Eve, let me ask you something.”

  Eve looked at Ben warily.

  “What is it?” she typed.

  Ben glanced back toward the slave camp.

  “Did they seem like just NPCs to you?”

  Eve looked back at the camp in thought.

  “I… don’t know.”

  Ben nodded.

  “When I saw them, I did not just see lines of code. I saw people. Real people. I could feel their helplessness, their hopelessness. Maybe other gamers will not see it that way, but to me, they are more than just computer programs.”

  Eve returned her gaze to Ben, staring at him curiously. Ben dismissed the quest he had just received.

  “The quest we just received is a side quest within the raid. Raid side quests are typically very difficult and, more importantly, very long. If we wanted to, we could enter the boss spire right now. We could scale it, defeat all the enemies, and kill the boss inside. We would probably be done with this raid in an hour.”

  Eve fidgeted.

  “But the NPCs would all die,” she texted.

  “Exactly. However, this side quest is a lot. I have seen it before in a beta player’s stream. It is well known because every raid has a side quest. We have to go to the four corners of this orc camp and defeat four separate bosses. The four orc generals. Getting there will be a slog. We have to fight our way through their camps. We can do it, but it will take a long time. Probably at least half the day, not including the fight with the spire’s final boss.”

  Eve's eyes widened. Ben continued.

  “There is another element. Once we defeat the four generals, the final boss becomes much stronger. The fight becomes significantly harder, which means it will take much longer. We could easily spend our entire day here. The rewards we would potentially gain by doing the side quests now would not outweigh the lost time.”

  Eve considered his words carefully. The gravity of the decision was not lost on her. Ben’s goal was to be number one. That meant leveling faster than everyone else in the world. Completing an optional side quest was slow. Very slow.

  Ben continued.

  “Most successful raid groups pass on side quests because the risk is too great, especially at lower levels. The optimal strategy is to clear the raid, take the boss loot, then move on to other dungeons to level efficiently. Later, when you are stronger, you come back and complete the side quest for the achievement. The quest is too dangerous for level 10 raid groups. The best strategy is to return at level 12 to 15.”

  He looked back at the camp.

  “Most people never come back. Only completionists. Which means the NPCs die over and over again as raid parties choose to ignore the quest. If we free them now, the quest will change for everyone in our zone. They will not suffer anymore,” Ben said.

  Eve finally understood.

  “Then what are we waiting for?” she texted.

  Ben smiled at her.

  “Of course she will support me,”

  He realized he had been trying to convince himself more than Eve. His goal was speed, but Eve’s goal was simply to support him. He had never expected resistance from her. The doubts had always been his own.

  “All right. Let’s get started. Can you see the location of the closest general?”

  Eve nodded and marked the location on her map. Ben narrowed his eyes and turned in that direction.

  “Let’s go.”

  Eve followed along obediently. Ben’s angels sailed forward to clear the way. Ben was a moment from joining them but he caught Eve’s distracted glance.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Eve’s eyes wandered.

  “I was just thinking. You know I’ll follow you no matter what, but…” she began.

  Ben raised an eyebrow.

  “But what?”

  Eve glanced back to the distant slave camp.

  “...I don’t think I can afford to think about them in the same way that you do.”

  Ben frowned.

  “Because they are just NPCs?”

  Ben tried not to sound too disappointed or judgemental. Eve fidgeted.

  “It would just be too sad. Think about it. Even if we complete this quest and free these NPCs from slavery, that is just in one single zone. There are 25 zones in America, and hundreds of zones all around the world. Each one has the same quests, the same storyline, the same NPCs. If we consider the NPCs real people, that means that this game is engineering unimaginable suffering and cruelty just for our entertainment.”

  Eve’s fingers trembled as she typed. Ben gave a grim nod. As a regressor, he had a different context.

  The quest, the NPCs, the world of Eternity, it was so similar to the apocalypse. Even the Master’s mark was something from after reality merged with the game. The slaves, the horror, it all mirrored what the apocalypse would bring. Even if the NPCs weren’t real, the suffering that they represented would be.

  “Is the system trying to prepare us?” Ben thought.

  Eve looked back on the slave camp once more. It was slowly fading into the distance.

  “Eve.”

  Eve turned to give Ben her full attention.

  “You’re right. It is difficult to think about. This is just one zone of many, but that shouldn’t change what we do. We do what we can, the rest we leave in God’s hands,” Ben said.

  Eve nodded in understanding. Her gaze was still contemplative but she focused on her true purpose. Ben could see Eve’s renewed resolve.

  He brandished his halberd and took out a stamina potion. Eve knew what that meant. She readied a stamina potion of her own and moved forward with Ben.