"Laughing Coffin... the murder guild." Chuck groans.
"Alright... What game should we play with these 3?" The hooded person in the middle says holding out a large cleaver.
"Oh, I know, I know!" the one on the right says loudly. "Lets play the one where they have to kill each other! Last one standing wins!"
"I know it's your favorite, but last time you killed the winner anyway." The center one says.
"Oh, come on! You spoiled it for them!" The one on the right complains. The one on the left just chuckles coldly.
"Alright... Let's get this show on the road." The center man says, stepping to Chuck as he looks up helplessly from the ground. The hooded man raises his cleaver high into the air and starts to swing it down. But horse hooves stop him mid swing.
Everyone looks over, as a black horse with a golden feint glow charges at them. The 3 hooded men step back and prepare to fight. The horse arrives and rears onto its hind legs, and a loud thud crashes to the ground behind the horse.
"Dam!" I say slowly getting off the ground. "Looks like I made it just in time." I say and slap the horses butt, so it runs off. "So.... What are you gonna do know? I have 30 players from the Assault Team coming, you guys wanna stay here and fight them?" I draw my sword. "Or you can just try your luck fighting me."
The 3 hooded men stare me down, and I return it.
"I'll get him!" the one on the right yells and charges at me with a sword.
I easily slip his attack and slash him once across the chest. Instantly he explodes into a billion colorful pixels.
"Yo... you instant killed him..." Chuck says, still paralyzed on the ground.
The man in the center snaps his fingers, "Come on, lets go." They slowly walk past me and disappear into the mist. I sheath my sword and turn to Bianca and Will.
"Nice to see you alive again." I say.
"You won't believe me but when this was over, I was going to tell you the truth." Bianca says. "I am sorry we had to trick you."
"Percy... thank you for saving me. But how did you figure it out?" Chuck says as he slowly raises from the ground, and onto his knees.
"I didn't figure anything out." I say. "Just acted on a hunch. Hey Bianca, Will, you guys got Grimlock to make the sword and dagger for you, right?"
They look at each other and nod. "We did, but he was against our plan from the beginning. All he wanted was to let Meg rest in peace." Bianca says.
"He did forge the weapons for us, but only after we begged him on our knees." Will says.
"Sorry, but he had a different reason for not liking your plan." I say. "Meg had nothing to do with it. He was worried faking Pk's in a safe zone was going to draw a ton of attention. He didn't want to take the risk of someone snooping around for answers. Annabeth and I figured the whole thing out about half an hour ago.
Annabeth and I are back at the restaurant, sitting across from each other at the same table we ate from when we first came her.
"We ended up playing right into Bianca's hands, didn't we?" I said. "I don't really mind."
"Yeah me too." Annabeth agreed. "Hey... if your were in their guild, and a super rare item like that dropped... what would you do?"
"I don't know. I play solo, part of why I do is to avoid situations like that." I said crossing my arms and leaning back in my chair.
"In mine, the one who got the kill gets it." Annabeth said. "Those are the rules we go by. You know how in SAO, if a player gets a drop no one knows about it unless the player says something. Our way, no one can horde stuff cause we worked out who gets what beforehand." Her face drops. "Also... the rules my guild play by, give the concept of marriage in this world real meaning. Think about it if you marry you have to share your items storage. If your single you can hide whatever you want, but you know when your married you cant hide it anymore." She says with a soft smile. "I think sharing storage with the person your married to is wonderfully pragmatic. At the same time, I think it's also very romantic."
The waiter walks up and takes our finished plates.
"Hey?" I ask Annabeth.
"Yeah, what?" she says.
"So, uh... how many times have you been married anyway?" I ask. She moves fast and grabs a fork and holds it right to my face. "Wait I didn't mean it!" I put my hands up. "It didn't come out right! You were talking about how its romantic and plastic and-
"I did not say that you ass!" she kicks my shin hard under the table. "What I said, was that its romantic and pragmatic!" she slams the fork on the table. "You your information Seaweed brain, the word pragmatic means practical!" she crosses her arms and turns away.
"You think marriage in SAO is practical?" I ask.
"Of course, if your married everything is out in the open. You know, cause of common storage." She says meanly. "What?" she says coldly.
"That's it... common storage. Say your spouse dies, what happens to the items?" I ask.
"If you're talking about Meg and Grimlock, hmm. If one of them died." Annabeth says.
"Everything would go to the surviving spouse, right?" I ask and her face lights up.
"And if everything goes to the spouse, then the ring from Megs storage goes to Grimlock's" She says.
"Grimlock was the one who killed Meg." I look at her, her eyes wide with shock.
