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I stepped through the transition from trenches of grass and dirt to surfaces paved with cobble and stone, feeling its hard surface pressed against the skin of my boots. I breathe deep, welcoming the pervading fragrance of furnace fire from a blacksmith forge, the stenches of odorful livestock mooing and neighing in a nearby farmyard.
A few seconds of idling, as my eyes scoured the detail I noticed most.
"It's empty," said Tayuma, inching beside me.
Empty wasn't exactly the right word for it but not entirely inaccurate. You got people, sure. If you count NPCs in market stalls and the occasional sparse ones at aimless wander as "people". Other than that, there was not a single legit soul in sight apart from us two.
"It's perfect," I replied, walking deeper into town to a nearby meat vendor.
The fewer people, the better.
"Uhh, you saw those numbers up there dwindling like there's no tomorrow, right?" Tayuma asked.
"Maybe I did. I don't know, man. I mean, It's kinda hard to keep track of things that happened barely twenty minutes ago."
"And… The town's deserted as a desert."
"No way, Loliman," I feigned exclamation, my palms at the side of my face, "Are you actually putting two and two together? Are you actually using your brain? Aww, proud of you, my buddy."
"This is serious," Tayuma replied seriously, with a very serious expression alongside sincere seriousness. "We need as many people as we have to beat the game, we can't do that with everybody dead."
I pointed at the sky. "Does that look like everyone's dead? We're above the forty-five thousand mark. We're fine."
"Still…" Tayuma remained unassured, displaying a faceful of doubt and unease.
"Besides," I continued, "There's more than one hub area on a floor. Just cause this one's empty doesn't mean the rest aren't. You can rest easy, Mr.Knight-in-shining-armour."
An indecipherable noise exerted from his pursed lips, but he stopped talking so I guess he must have accepted the excuse. I took advantage of the silence to concentrate on selling our drops.
I got to the vendor and got a pretty good sell thanks to a passive barter skill. Seeing that number go up on the amount of gold coins I have in my inventory had me flooding with endorphins.
"You gonna sell yours?" I asked Tayuma, the ever-gazing specter hovering above my shoulder.
"I lost four swords. Hundred and eight gold. I killed six pigs. Forty gold. I'm not selling at a profit here. I'll just hold on to it for now."
"Doesn't make sense but suit yourself." I said, walking deeper into town, "Let's go find us a place to sleep now, shall we?"
It didn't take long to find us an inn, the ever occasional glance at the bottom right corner of my HUD did all the work locating it. Only the sounds of commonplace ambiance accompanied the stomps of our feet as we made our way over there, clothes gusting in the chilly breeze that affirmed the isolation that infested this silent hub area.
Once there, it really wasn't much to write home about. An exterior of wood and brick, with double doors that swung with a creak. Inside too, was a mundane imitation of a medieval innkeep. The glass panels of the windows lit the dim interior, a fireplace warmed the place for the non-existent patrons that seated on the many vacant tables. Again, a moment of silence, as I assess the detail most prominent among others.
"It's empty," I said, stepping deeper in.
Tayuma, obviously unconcerned, plopped himself to a chair closest to him. "Isn't that perfect?"
I strolled to the front counter and looked around. "Yeah, it would be if the owner wasn't missing as well. What gives?"
No sooner had the words left my mouth, did a woman emerge from a doorway behind the counter, in her hands, a thick book, her eyes pouring at its contents.
Oh, there's the NPC, I thought. But no.
The initials that arose, words that took form, hovering atop her head that streamed fiery red locks of hair down her slim, pale face told only the contrary. Lifelike precision of motion in the stead of the usual mechanical imitation of an NPC's movement also spoke otherwise.
A player in the role of an innkeeper? Who knew such a thing existed?
"Hallo. Uh… excuse me, Ms..." I took a furtive glance upwards, "Arishia. You got customers here."
The thundering slap of a clasped book untethered her gaze to finally meet my own. In her clothes and her pupils too, I noticed, was a wildfire of stark crimson. Guess she's got a favorite color.
"I noticed," she spoke in a low voice, a monotonous edge to it, "I wouldn't be here otherwise if I hadn't."
"So we need a room," I said, my finger pointing to indicate the two of us, "Twin beds if at all possible."
"Yes, I could have guessed as much. Why else would you be here?"
"Okay… guess hospitality isn't really your strong point, huh?"
Her eyes wandered briefly to the top of our heads, and an undecipherable expression had begun to display.
"King underscore Sora and Loliman Twenty-One."
There was a flash of repulsion. I sense a degradation coming up soon.
"Yes that's our names," I sighed, wishing internally for a change in alias, "Try not to wear it out. The amusement factor only gets lower each time."
"A king and a lolicon walked into an inn," she paused, her eyes deep in thought. "There's a punchline there somewhere."
Amusing? No, it wasn't.
Getting along well with each other? Take a guess.
Unimpressed? Yes, I was. "You got a room or not?"
Outstretched to present me was an open palm. "Seventy gold then."
"Seventy? Sure you aren't trying to sell us a suite room or something?"
"Do you want me to?" She replied, a painful dullness in the blink of her eyes, "Seventy gold. Take it or leave it."
I could only blink back in response. "That's a joke, right? You gotta be joking."
"I'd be smiling if that's the case." She said, her hand in a gesture of insistence, "See a smile anywhere?"
A voice chimed up from behind me, one relenting to acceptance. "Forget it, Sora. We'll find somewhere else tomorrow. One more day under a tree won't kill you right?"
A hand on my shoulder attempted to pry me away from the establishment, but I stood rooted to the spot. Sorry Tayuma, I ain't letting this one slide.
Okay… let me impart you guys with some knowledge, alright? I stayed at this same inn once back on the second day. Had no complaints. Good stay. Why? Cause it was only twenty for a night.
Now you're telling me this unprofessional, boorish excuse of an employee will get in the way of that? I think not.
With a heavy breath that filtered all enmity, I donned the smile reserved only for the unreasonable. A polite, natural expression.
"I'd like to speak to your manager."
She leaned against the counter, her arm pillaring her chin in support and looked at me, her blood-red pupils shimmering a silent judgment. I knew that look. I give that look all the time. That's a look you give to an idiot.
"You really think this game would go so far as to have a manager for an inn, in an isolated town, in the middle of nowhere, on floor one? Details like that are an idiotic waste of time."
"Well, it's already idiotic enough, isn't it?" I asked, my hands gesturing towards all of her, "It has you, doesn't it?"
The grip on my shoulder tightened, and the effort to haul me away had doubled. "Okay, Sora… seriously, I think we better just go."
"Go?" said she, her eyebrow raised, "You just got here."
Tayuma spoke before I could, responding in haste, "Yeah, but we think we should be taking our business elsewhere. We don't really want to indulge more in your err - hospitality. Especially since we won't be getting services from you thanks to his big mouth."
Yet in an unprecedented act of complete and total subversion, a playful giggle slipped past her sealed lips, her head resting against her closed fist. "Course you won't be getting any services from me. I mean, I don't even work here."
Words meant to elicit a response, and a response she was given. Tayuma and I both, an incredulity shared between us, but that's where the similarities end. Whereas he had chosen a bemused silence, I, on the other hand, preferred a more vocal approach.
"Meaning what, exactly?"
"Aw come on, don't think it could get any more clearer than that," she said, her dreary demeanor dissipating in an instant. "Hell, I don't even know the rates here for a night."
An enthusiasm seemed to stir within her, an unsettling seamlessness from her cold solemnity before.
Suddenly, like some kind of jack-in-the-box, she sprang to life and vaulted herself past the wooden hurdle, landing briskly without even a stumble.
"Carried it for as long as could," she said, crossing her arms together, "Customer service isn't really my thing though, so it got tiring real quick."
Directly across from us now was practically an entirely different person, her presence and mannerisms now clashing heavily with first impressions.
"You're telling me you were just pulling our legs just now?" I asked.
The smirk that formed on her face, unabashed and coy, expressed all there was to comprehend, her response afterward, only aimed to affirm this, oozing with arrogance, "See a smile anywhere?"
She's gonna be a right pain in the ass.