"Why cant we just stay here. Moon has control over the legislator here, we are safe, we have tents and materials to keep repairing them in case more Acid rain comes-" Adam tried to say to Kaizer but was interrupeted by Vari.
"Shut the fuck up kid." Vari lashed out as he flipped over the makeshift table that they made of a slab and small stones.
All five of the Players were around this makeshift table, in a tent they had expanded. It was nighttime and they were still in the Territory on Area G- The Land of Fog.
Prior to this meeting Vari had filled Moon in with everything that happened to them in the two weeks between him separating with them and him coming back to them and similarly moon had shared his own information.
Adam got shaken up by Vari's gravelly voice randomly shouting and he quieted down immediately.
Adam felt the little girl who wouldn't leave him alone dig her fingers further into his skin as she held onto his arm even tighter.
Adam looked at her, all he could see was her afro like mass of hair covered in bits of md and with little sticks and pebbles in them. He knew she was hiding her face because she was ashamed of being scared.
But he stared down and looked at her for too long. The weird ability he had activated.
『Sinner- Amelia Lv 7 』
A green glitch buzzed out of thin air and this panel formed from it showing basic information.
'Amelia' Adam thought as he kept his head down, the other three continued their conversation without refrencing what had just happened. They were discussing what they'd do given the fact that they are running out of sustenance and they can only move in the night because of the literal scorching sun during the day and the fact that more Plague Disciples are active at night. They needed a plan.
Adam on the other hand, even though he went through hell at Valerians 'Haven' still hadn't gotten over his fear. If anything it rather strengthened it.
At this point Adam was trying to convince himself that he was looking down because he wanted to look at Amelia when in reality it was because he was petrified of the three people he was in the presence of.
The ability he had to be able to see names and levels had evolved to being able to see not only that but hypothetical threat levels that they would pose to him if dangerous and when the ability popped their panels up for Adam he was dumbfounded.
But that wasn't the problem in the slightest. A few hours ago, Moons panel popped up for him and he finally understood why Valerian wanted him gone.
The image was still etched in his mind, so much so that it started appearing over Amelia's panel, blurring hers out.
『Sinner- Moon
Lv 28
Threat Level: 'STAY AWAY FROM HIM'』
[A/N: No, Leveling up in this game is not as easy as Moon makes it. I promise. He really went from 8-28 in two weeks.]
This is the first time the panel had given him a commanding sentence instead of an evaluation. He didn't even get these from the literal demons running around outside.
Adam was always one to spiral into endless thoughts so he kept overthinking this as he started to shiver.
Amelia felt him shaking and looked up at him staring into empty space. Turns out Adam was wrong, she was just staring at the dog image that Moon had etched into the ground with his dagger.
She looked at Adams petrified face and tugged on his shirt to try snap him out of it.
Adam got pulled back into reality and smiled at Amelia before turning to look back up and was met face to face with Moon.
They were so close together that they brushed their dusty noses.
"Oh hello there. Didn't you hear me call you?" Moon said, staring straight into Adam's eyes with his hazel-brown ones.
Adam was beyond petrified. He felt like he was going to piss himself.
"No." Adam replied sternly trying to mask his fear but he was subtly shaking.
"Is he cold?" Moon asked Amelia with an innocent look on his face as he pointed at Adam.
"No, He says he's scared of you." Amelia replied honestly.
"Shhhhhhhhh, shhhhh, shushhhhhh." Adam scrambled to voice before he grabbed and covered up Amelia's mouth.
"She's crazy." Adam replied succinctly.
Moon blurted out a chuckle and returned to his sitting position while laughing hard.
Amelia looked at Moon with gleaming eyes, almost admiring him. Moon was right about making sure she found out he was fun. He was generally a good person.
But Adam could see things she couldn't.
"He is isn't he?" Moon replied Amelia as he wiped the tears formed from laughing.
"He can see things. He probably sees my evil aura or some stupid shit like that." Moon says with a carefree look on his face as he raises his hands into the sky to try look scary to the child and make her laugh as he made fun of the idea of him being scared of something as stupid as a "Spiritual aura".
"How'd you know?" Adam said as his eyes narrowed at Moon. Trying his best to mask his growing fear.
He knew he tried his best to not give off the vibe that he could see things like that, he learnt to ignore the panel if it came up immediately upon observing something and that led to the panel not popping up as immediately as normal. He also learnt to be able to read it without diverting his gaze away from the person he was directly looking at so as to not be weird to the people he's talking to so he was sure he didn't give Moon any hints.
"Hm? Know what?" Moon asked with a curious look on his face as Kaizer and Vari stood up and left the tent.
"Oh. Nothing." Adam said as he tried to stand up too as they left the room.
"Know about your neat little skill?" Moon said with his hands in the air still as Adam froze and then returned to the floor, staring into Moons eyes.
"How did you know?" Adam asked a gain, this time with a quiver in his voice.
"Youre always staring off into space above my head when I speak to you, Jester." Moon said.
Adam looked at Moon for long enough and the Panel glitched in right above Adams head again.
『Sinner- Moon
Lv 28
Threat Level: 'STAY AWAY FROM HIM'』
"Right here." Moon said as he raised his figer and pointed directly at the newly appeared panel. Dead-on.
Adam stared at his finger pointing directly at the panel and he felt a weird slimy feeling flush into his system as he slowly collapsed into a sitting position.
"How do you know-" Adam tried to say.
"I wonder what it says. 'PROBLEM CHILD' 'MIRACLE CHILD' 'HACKER' 'BUG' 'STAY AWAY FROM HIM'" Moon said in a robotic voice before blurting out another chuckle and continuing to laugh.
"How do you-" Adam says, as his voice slowly died.
Moon stuck his tongue out and shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't know how. I just know." Moon said before itching his head.
"Why are you acting like it's a big deal. Aaaah, he knows I have an Observation skill, it's the end of the world.." Moon mocked as the tension in thr tent dies down.
"Youre so good at being scary, Moonie." Amelia says as she lets go of Adam and waddles to Moon and falls into his arms.
"Valeria said-" Adam tried to reply as he slowly got eased but he was interrupted again.
"Shut the fuck up. Valeria lies bitch. He aint ever saying the truth ever. Shit he lies more than Baal, and Baal's a Demon." Moon says with a chuckle as though he knew exactly what Adam was about to say.
"Augghh, Valeria said Moon is dangerous and if he knows all the tricks up your sleeve its over, so always have an ace against that Problem child, blah bleh, blah blah blehh." Moon mocked the geezer with a stupid sounding vouce to exhibit how he felt about the situation.
"He lies bro. And I admit that I don't know exactly how your Observation skill works but it commonly is affected by personal and instinctual feelings towards an individual. What it tells you is rooted in what you feel most of the time. It just makes vague feelings clear. Check your little glicth up there again." Moon sid pointing at the thing.
Right in front of Adams eyes the Threat Level warning changed
『Sinner- Moon
Lv 28
Threat Level: Neutral (Ally)』
"Did it change yet, Jester?"
Adam stared at Moon with amazement in his eyes as he ruffled Amelias hair while staring at him at the same time.
"How are you like this?" Adam asked in shock.
"I don't know bro, sometimes its hard for me to understand myself. All I know is that I got the second best looking hair in this game right now. And the best hair in this game right now has to be AMY!!!" Moon said as he ruffled Amelia's hair and made her laugh.
"Just needs some care. I could craft a comb if we get out of here, but the best thing to do would be to wash it. There isn't much water around here so just…" Moon said to Amelia as he forced his fingers through her tightly coiled hair to try expel the rocks and chips of wood and then he took a thread out of the clothes he was wearing and used it to tie Amelias hair back.
"There. Perfect." Moon said.
"You do it too." Amelia said and Moon chuckled before pulling one thread out and tying back his long curly hair. His sharp young looking face and feminine features made him look like he had not been starved for fourteen days.
"Kaizer told me about your multiple run-ins with Valery." Moon said to Adam.
[A/N: When Moon doesn't call Valerian a geezer he calls him Valery.]
"I hope your hate for him made sure you took his life." Moon said.
"I can't kill people." Adam replied.
"Well, you better learn how to, because we are going to be doing a bunch of killings." Moon said.
Vari came back into the tent and tugged moons hair to get his attention.
"Bitch, the wind blows east. I'd say our best bet was to hike West and maybe we'll escape this barren land. Area G was always the area with the least amount of survivors and the geezers 'Haven' was just a hoax so I'm sure there is no surviving this shithole." Vari said.
Adam looked at him and scanned his features from head to toe. He seemed to be geared up. A battle axe on his back and a sack around his shoulder filled up with valuables.
"Yeah yeah." Moon said, turning back to look at Adam who was still seated on the floor.
"Jester. We cannot stay here. Resheph is probably here to cut down the number of players left alive before the first Act. I reckon there are Lesser Kings ravaging all sixteen Areas but Resheph in the Land of Fog and mud has to be the most lethal combination. We must leave."
--
[Oh my. Those guys are really barbarians.] The tall skinny beast that was Resheph walked up to the ruins of what seemed to have once been a Territory.
There were multiple huge tents all in ashes and a huge tent frame in the middle that seemed to have been completely burnt to bits.
There were bodies everywhere and a lot of Plague Rodens that were the sizes of wild boars had broken in and were gnawing on the corpses.
[I guess I'll have to thank them for doing my job. That was the quickest growing community ive seen in this game. These pests really know how to come together.] Resheph said as the chains holding his skinny hands down clanged on rocks as he walked through the rubble.
He heared the shallow breaths of someone who seemed to still be alive and he crept towards the breathing.
Without a word he extended his arm over a corpse pile and swept the dead people away and then grabbed the living person by the head with his claws and lifted him closer to his face.
The green flames in his eyes were flickering softly, he was acting pretty docile.
[What happened here, pest?] Resheph asked, making his voice as calm as possible.
The person he grabbed had his legs completely burnt off and he could barely breathe but after the Plague king grabbed him he was shockingly flooded with life. But this was all just the effects of starting a transformation into a Plague disciple. He was touched by the accursed hand of the Plague king.
Without fear the Player responded eagerly.
"Valerian used his skill, he scorched this place to the ground trying to eliminate these two strange men. He lost, and they used the chaos caused by his outburst to burn the rest of the community and kill everyone. They were merciless, they stole everything and destroyed everything. Devils." The Player responded before his mouth and nose began to violently gush with green mucus and his skin lost all color and he started groaning.
[Devils. How interesting. This game would prove to be very very fun.]
Resheph dropped the newly formed zombie to the floor as he too ran to go feast on his former comrades.
Resheph sighed subtly and the green flames in his eyes grew exponentially as his accursed mouth opened wider and wider and then his diseased tongue began to wriggle around as he spoke.
[I curse the mud itself with my Demonic Plague.] He commanded before thrusting his one hand into the mud and a mad whirlwind travelled from him all over the whole Area.
[From the Hive mind that is Sickness and Disease, I Call Upon Every Plague Disciple to search for any form of life and Ensure it is Eradicated.] He screams out into the sky and all the huge Rodents and the few humanoid Plague Disciples left the Corpses and ran off in different directions obeying the Lesser Kings demands.
They would go far and wide and do everything and anything to ensure they destroy everything that breathes.
[I want utter Carnage my Disciples.] Resheph whispered as his jaws went back to normal as his mouth closed
[I need to go find my arm too.] Resheph sighed as he turned around and walked away, his long straight black hair slithering on the floor behind him.
[A/N: Might be getting back on track.]