23 February 2024
Katalysis, 43rd Floor
I could more or less see the change in atmosphere in the streets. It was so blindingly obvious.
The good news was that I had instantly learned to identify Council members by myself. It wasn't gonna be at a 100% success rate, but it was better than no success rate at all.
A big factor that had hindered my ability to do that were the crowds covering the streets. The more players that are in the vicinity, the harder it is to look out for patrolling behaviour from Council members.
That was why the sudden decrease of players on the streets proved to be helpful. Indeed, it was strange, but I never forgo a good opportunity when I see one.
After wandering around the southern area of the city with Rakuno, we came to a conclusion of a few pointers about the Council members:
- They work in pairs
- They only patrol the main streets
- They're from the orange guild Laughing Coffin, as seen from their guild icons
That last point definitely screams some shocking revelations about Katalysis. Being in a city run by the most dangerous orange guild was concerning, but it did make sense. If KoB was the most powerful guild in clearing the Floors, LC would be the most powerful guild in terrorizing players. They're counterparts of each other, I guess.
There was another thing that I intended to investigate along the way, but currently had no leads on. The smithies and merchant shops that we went to weren't even the least helpful, so I was hoping that the bars later on at night would give me even just a single clue about it.
Rakuno was itching to check on Meghan and Alexis, and their progress in getting along with the player they called the Reaper. I guess, if I had known that my investigations would turn out to be that futile, I would've checked on them first.
Following Rakuno, who had Alexis already in her friend list, we travelled to the only entrance of Katalysis, and simply waited there.
"She seems to be returning to the city," Rakuno swiped her friend list off as I watched the entrance from a spot near a building.
The ability to track down the location of a player in your friend list was priceless. If it weren't for that, we would've tried to find them all day and probably wouldn't even meet them by chance.
However, in Krieg's case, his tracker disappeared a few hours after he got caught. He was still considered alive by the system, but it simply just wasn't anywhere on the map.
To which the only intelligent guess that can satisfy this mystery for now was that he could be underground. For some reason, players can't be tracked in underground locations, whether it would be a field dungeon or not.
Naturally, instances, where campaign quests are normally held, also never disclose players' locations while they are inside.
The Reaper's party entered through the entrance. Rakuno waved at Meghan and Alexis with a bit too much enthusiasm as I stared on without a word. It didn't take long for them to notice us, even from such a considerable distance.
I couldn't help but direct my stare at the player who interested me the most. The only guy walking in with a scythe on his back didn't react much as he heard whatever Alexis told him before they jogged over to us.
Other than a brief stare back at me, the Reaper continued into the city area with his party members with almost full ignorance.
I nodded to Alexis, who nodded back, as Meghan fist bumped with Rakuno. She gave a little sigh as she approached me.
"Shi's decided to stop today's expedition way earlier than usual.....Oh, 'Shi' is the Reaper, in case you didn't know. I'll fill you up on the details later."
"Oh, I see," I turned back into the city area without much thought. "Let's just get back to the inn first."
Even as we were back at our inn rooms, Tekion was still working away on his mini anvil. I briefly checked on him, while Rakuno opened the door of the room where the 3 girls had slept in for a good few days.
Alexis started out on filling up the details, as I closed the door and reached for a chair.
The Reaper's party was apparently working on expeditions around city the Katalysis, in the canyon labyrinth, and was always looking for manpower who could help with the cause and, occasionally, threaten off green cursor players from the labyrinth at the same time.
This cause in question was the objective of investigating the rumours and claims of shooting stars or meteors which, from how witnesses would describe it, struck the canyon from an unknown origin. The Reaper, on behalf of the Council, was tasked to lead the search for these rocks, which they believed landed somewhere in the canyon.
The problem with the search was, that the canyon was a labyrinth that was never mapped by the system. The areas in which the rocks land at were random, so there's no telling exactly where they could be found, especially when the canyon walls were so damn high.
"Have you found any of those rocks yet?" Rakuno asked as she sat on her bed.
"Only one," Meghan replied. "But that was by such a miracle."
"She found it by chance, only a few walls away from Katalysis, and only because that rock landed closet to the city," Alexis explained. "The others were unreachable, since we haven't mapped the canyon fully yet."
"The canyon's being mapped?" I turned to her in interest.
She pulled out a certain hologram tablet from her inventory.
"On this."
The drawing on this 'Paper' says it all. On the center of it was a small circle representing Katalysis, surrounded by curved lines wrapped around each other, which were obviously the canyon walls.
Judging by the this drawing, the canyon was indeed a maze seen from the top down. It wasn't complete yet, since the lines stopped abruptly before the much larger blank space of the tablet that wasn't used.
"Whoa, who did this?" Rakuno leaned over to inspect it.
"This is Grace's work," Alexis handed the tablet to her.
My eyebrows lit up. "So you found her?"
"Sure did," Meghan flashed a smile. "We found her during one of our expeditions and introduced her to Shi. She's currently working with him on mapping the canyon. That one's simply an unfinished copy."
"But mapping the canyon isn't enough," Alexis remarked. "We need to find out the location of the rocks as well. Shi's said that he's already gotten that problem solved. I wanted to ask him about it, but all I got were just shrug-offs."
It seems that the Council weren't willing to leak the secret of the Roofposts to non-members. Well, since I knew that the Roofposts exist, I would assume that they were the secret.
After all, there was no other place to spot a falling rock from above than from a Roofpost as high as the canyon walls themselves.
"At least you guys are doing something to get into the Reaper's good books," I sighed as I tapped my finger on my chair. "Our investigation's not really going well, but we do know more stuff about the Council."
I proceeded to tell Meghan and Alexis about the points that I took note from the Council patrols earlier.
"LC pulling the strings from the shadows, huh? Can't say I'm surprised." Meghan nodded in agreement with my claim. "That just gives me more reason to crush the Council."
"But we've got to be careful," Alexis added, looking at Meghan with slight skepticism. "The Council's still a mystery to us."
Meghan stood from her bed where she had sat and reached for the door knob. If she had wanted to leave the inn herself, I might have stopped her right there and then.
"Going out for some fresh air. Care for a walk with me, Raku?"
Well, I guess that would be fine.
"Sure!" Rakuno stood up as well and followed her out the door. Deep silence fell in the room once the door swung shut.
"You're still worried that Meghan's still a greenie?"
Alexis' question might have come from the concern painted on my face as I watched those two leave the room.
"I'll admit that I still think that it's a risk for her to stay that way." I turned back to her.
"Understandable," Alexis gave a little sigh and a nod. "We've convinced Shi about using the green bait strategy in his party, but not to worry, I'll make sure to keep Meghan in check to buy us enough time until the KoB invasion."
"I see," I stood up from my chair, and dragged it back to its original position. "And about Shi.....the Reaper. Anything you got about him so far?"
Alexis stood up from her bed, and gave me a stare.
"I wouldn't call him the Reaper."
"Oh?"
"I've never seen him kill anyone....."
"Really?"
"Because they all fled before he could do that."
".....Oh."
"It's true. He's the Reaper in name only. He's so into searching those rocks, you wouldn't really think that he'd kill anyone he meets."
"That would have been a big problem."
"It would be. I am glad that the Reaper isn't who I thought to be."
Being a member from SoH, Alexis wouldn't have tolerated even a single count of PK from anyone. If PKs did happen, she'd most likely have interfered and exposed herself as a greenie. That would translate into a serious problem for me in many, many ways.
"I see," I reached for the door knob. "Just keep me posted on anything else worth knowing."
Shutting the door behind me, I leaned onto it and turned to the stairs leading below. The door in front of me was the one that me and Tekion were staying in, in which the latter was still working diligently on his weapon crafting.
I thought it best to not distract him with even the sound of me swinging the door open for now.
I accessed the friends list in my system menu and activated the tracking feature beside Rakuno's name. My vision turned a little greenish, and the ground displayed a trail of footprints leading to the stairs.
As I arrived at the lobby, I took another look at the innkeeper standing at the counter. Even now, whenever I pass by this guy, the vibe I got from him definitely wasn't reassuring.
I wonder what had gotten a player like him to start an inn keeping business. In my eyes, being an innkeeper in this world would always be an NPC's job.
Trying not to look back at him as I pushed open the front door of the inn, I simply followed the footprints on the ground, in which only I could see, to wherever Rakuno went.
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