Ioki watching the lifeless body of the 3 Players that just assaulted him, still with a lifeless expression.
Winds blowing spread the iron smell on the air; the once brown ground of the road is colored red due to Ioki's carnage.
He slowly walked toward the Potions and purse on the ground and put it in his inventory while leaving a Stamina Potion in his hand.
He emptied the vial and threw it to the corpse nearby.
The sound of glass shattering as it hit the body.
Ioki then walked to the other two and saw a few of the consumables and equipment they had just dropped; he also put them in his inventory.
He sighed as he took a deep breath, "I never imagined the sensation of killing a human is not that much different than killing a mob."
He sat on the ground with his hands covering his face, "What have I done? Ughhh... God, what should I do?"
Slowly, he lay his back against the ground and stared at the blue sky, "I never imagined the first time I took someone's life would be inside a game..."
As he stared at the sky, he opened the menu, and slowly, his finger hovered over the LIVE menu.
He opened it and saw tons of other LIVErs doing their usual stuff; he scrolled mindlessly without any sign of stopping sooner.
Expression of sadness slowly envelops Ioki's face; his eyes shake as the sky he saw above turns blurry. He tried to cover it with by pulling the cowl over his face.
"Fuck... Why does it have to be now... Why can't I..." The leather mask slowly turns wet while some of it seeps through, making a line of the river down his cheek.
He tried to hold his emotions in, but no matter how hard he tried... He could only feel pain in his throat if he held it back; his lower jaw shook wildly as a soft voice slowly leaked out.
Lying on the road is a boy crying for help, lost with his emotions. He never had anyone to share it with, nor someone to teach him how to deal with it...
Raised in an environment where perfection is demanded, Ioki learned harshly such things were useless... Those things will not help him reach his goal, no... His parent's goals.
The soft voice of the once cheerful boy reached Heaven as the wind carried his sorrowful scream. The cowl blown by the wind reveals the leather mask has turned wet.
"I---they could help me, r---right?" Ioki tried to speak as words messily ran out of his mouth.
His hand slowly reached the LIVE button, guided by his blurry vision.
He pressed on the LIVE button. The sphere appeared above Ioki's head as it stared at Ioki.
Ioki pulled his cowl again and covered his face.
A few seconds passed before, and the chat window was filled with notifications.
"Mr. Turtle has joined the LIVE.
Nagao has joined the LIVE.
DarkFlame has joined the LIVE.
KumaKuma has joined the LIVE.
Ioki No.1 Fan! has joined the LIVE.
Ms. Maria has joined the LIVE.
..."
"Why are you on the ground, brother?" Mr. Turtle typed.
"Ah, is this one of those sleeping streams?" Marching Mars typed.
"So the rumors are true, you indeed have defeated The Warden!" KumaKuma typed.
As the chats slowly piled up on one another, Ioki opened his mouth and softly said, "Help me, please..."
The chat went silent for a minute upon hearing Ioki's trembling voice.
"What happened?" Ms. Maria typed.
"I don't know what to do; it happened in a flash... I killed people and let my emotions get the better of me," Ioki explained as he slowly removed the cowl.
After removing his cowl, he finally put his hand under the mask and opened it.
A mess of what used to be a bright face that cheered and stirred people's emotions upon seeing it.
"WHY ARE YOU CRYING, MY DEAREST IOKI?" Ioki No.1 Fan typed.
"Did you just PKed other Players?" Nagao typed.
"I killed them... I tortured them..." Ioki replied while he stared at the sphere blankly.
"PK should be normal, but the sensation of killing people in this game feels surreal. I threw up the first time when I severed someone's head," Ms. Maria typed.
"You don't know, the expression and their voice as they begged while I tortured them is still vivid in my mind. I can't even control myself back then, as if I was auto-piloting and seeing myself from behind the wheel as I crushed that man's arm and twisted it around," Ioki described as he stared at the sphere, slowly reaching it with his hand.
"HE IS A PSYCHO! MY FRIENDS GOT PKED BY HIM; USUALLY, PEOPLE WOULD JUST KILL THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PARTY. BUT MY FRIENDS WERE TORTURED BY HIM!" Preying_Mantix42 typed.
Seeing the particular chat bubble appear, Ioki dragged his chat window and scrolled up to search it again.
"Are you their friend?" Ioki asked while his expression turned bitter again.
"YES YOU PSYCHO! THEY DESCRIBED TO ME HOW THEY DIED EXACTLY! THE TWO MEN YOU TORTURED HAD THEIR MENTAL SCARRED BECAUSE OF YOU!" Preying_Mantix42 typed.
"Aren't you one of the Reapers Guild members? You assholes ambushed my party last time when we were at the Poisonous Marsh!" DogChaser typed.
"I see the problem now... Although their infamy has reached my ears, I never bothered to do anything about it because they never touched us. Rest easy, little brother; when Rikishi and my girlfriend respawned, we will gather people to raze the Reapers Guild to the ground," Nagao typed.
"Are you saying this brat of mine got ambushed by the Reapers Guild?" Ms. Maria typed.
"Let's group up near the Catacomb of Tiria, where their Guild is located. A friend of mine also got PKed last week because of them!" Amogusu76 typed.
The chat window slowly filled with other Players' complaints that they were killed and got their hunt stolen by the Reapers Guild.
This would be the catalyst of a great demise for the Reaper Guild in the future, one which they could never recover from...
"You should take a rest, brother! Don't push yourself, or you will hate the game before long," Mr. Turtle typed.
Ioki stared at the chat window for a while before releasing his shaky voice again, "How can I rest in here, Mr. Turtle?"
"Stop bitching, where are you right now?" DarkFlame typed.
Having no energy to banter back at DarkFlame, Ioki scoffed, "I'm on my way to the Kobold's Cave."
"PERFECT! Get your ass up and walk there! You will enjoy every single second there," DarkFlame typed.
Slowly, emotion could be seen returned to the boy's lifeless face as he sat and asked, "Why would I enjoy it? What makes you think that way?"
"Because you are one of a battle junkie! How you fought with that Goblin Chieftain from before and how you laughed at the face of death itself is something else! Imagine now you will be fighting against a bunch of battle junkies in that cave as well," DarkFlame typed.
I did not want to admit it, but the comments from DarkFlame himself were the ones that made him feel better. If Ioki ever wants to have someone by his side, it would be someone like DarkFlame as they explore Ashen Fantasy.
The banters back and forth between them made Ioki feel special in a way because he never had anyone he could do it with in real life...
"Ah, I see what you are getting at! Brother, you should try going to the Kobold's Cave right away! The Elite Mobs and the Boss there fight the way Monk does. That's why that cave itself is a Monk's benchmark of his skills and control! Players named the dungeon as Monk's rite of passage!" Mr. Turtle typed.
"What does that have to do with me? I'm not even a Monk..." Ioki replied with a confused expression.
Slowly, seeing the expression on his face changed, although Ioki couldn't see it his, viewers finally got a sense of peace as his lifeless expression was nowhere to be found anymore.
"Putting aside the fact that I want to scream at you and ask, why the fuck haven't you picked any Job yet? The way you fight and your control over your body at least shows you are an experienced fighter. You must be an athlete in real life, huh, Ioki?" KumaKuma typed.
Ignoring the first part of KumaKuma's comment, Ioki slowly smiled as he finished reading his comment.
"Well, used to be... Not currently," Ioki smirked.
"I want to see your sorry ass and the party you form with got beaten to the ground by the Pack Leader," DarkFlame typed.
"What is a Pack Leader?" Ioki asked.
"JUST GO THERE AND STOP WASTING TIME!" DarkFlame typed.
Ioki slowly stood up and stretched; he equipped his mask again and walked toward the Kobold's Cave.
A smug appeared on his face while he looked at the sphere, "Big brothers and sisters, let's make a bet!"