[At the city.]
"Hey man. Did you heard about that new hunting spot?" – asked the male dark elf player.
"You mean the one giant slimes? Fuck me. Its annoying." – said orc player.
"Well, apparently it's not."
"?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Well, apparently those slimes are weak to magic, so if you- "
Suddenly in front of the pair of players, an elderly dark elf collapsed.
"?"
"Hey are you okay?!" – said the panicking dark elf player while getting on his knees to check on the collapsed NPC.
"?!"
"What the hell?!"
"?"
"What is it dude?" – asked the orc player while approaching his friend.
"?"
[You have been infected with plague.]
"?!"
"Wait! A plague!?"
"Hey!? What the hell?!" – shouted a player.
"H-help me!" – begged the NPC.
"?!"
The orc player looked around, as a sudden chaos and confusion erupted around him.
"W-wh-what?!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" – shouted the orc player.
In the different parts of the city, people were being found death in many different locations of the city.
The corpse were found either killed with many different methods and the people that were killed were just regular citizens.
However, upon discovering the corpse, the people around the corpse would get infected with some sort of plague and the plague would spread around the injected, creating a chain reaction in different parts of the city, making the mysterious plague spread at rapid rate.
Before long, many players and NPCs were injected.
The plague wasn't that strong, but the problem was that the people could infect each other over and over again, making the people unable to get rid of the negative status.
Before long, a special quest was created.
[Special quest was generated.]
[Quest: Spreading Plague]
[The plague has infected the city of the Mim and nobody knows where it came from or what caused it, but the people are getting injected and there were already some casualties.]
[-Help the people in need that have been afflicted with the plague or try to prevent it from spreading.]
[-Try and find out the origin of the plague.]
[Depending on your contribution, you will receive rewards.]
"!?"
"A quest suddenly popped up?" – said a random player.
"Wait, you too? Did you got a quest related to the plague?"
"Yea! Wait, is it some sort of event?!"
"…"
(Huh.)
Phantasia was hiding in some random corner, looking at the quest.
(I thought it would be possible and all, considering that the quest was generated or maybe made by that city guard capitan regarding the rats, but I really did ended up creating a quest?)
(Well, the plague was already on going on rampage for whole day, so there is no surprise really. It honestly would be more surprising if they didn't took any actions after an day had passed.)
(The NPCs I murderer and injected them with the plague did their job.)
(The city is currently in the state of panic and the plague is spreading nicely.)
(However, people are still somehow managing.)
(I guess I will need to murder few more NPCs and have their corpse spread the infection even more.)
(So, lets get to the work.)
While everybody was busy with the unknown plague spreading, I found some random NPCs while nobody was watching and murdered them before the leaving their infected corpse laying around, making it very easy to find and have it spread the plague around.
However, since the plague would take too long to kill people, I had to personally murder them, making it known for the people that it was somebody doing.
A negative effect.
Or so may seem.
If anything, it beneficial to me.
It was already a second day after the plague spread and now, its time to add something to the mix.
[At the city barracks.]
"SIR!" – shouted a soldier that entered the room.
"What is it?" – asked the orc garrison capitan.
"An adventure who said to know you says that he may know the origin of the plague."
"?!"
"An adventurer that knows me?" – asked the orc.
"Yes! He said that. He said that he will be waiting at the barracks. He is right in the lobby."
"…"
"Lead the way."
The orc fallowed the soldier through the barracks, getting to the lobby located in the barracks.
"?"
"Hey. Who the hell are you? Are you the adventurer that wanted to meet me?" – asked the orc after meeting the strange player that was wearing a mask.
"Hm? Oh. Sorry. Forgot to take it off." – said the man while taking off the mask.
"?!"
"Hey wait a second. You are that adventurer that was dealing with the sewer rats." – said the orc.
"Yeb. That's me. Sorry for wearing an mask, but I didn't wanted to get infected as well as for other reasons, but now there is need to wear it anymore."
"…"
"You said that you know something about the plague, is that truth?"
"Yea. Its bit long story though, but I have some things that you need to see."
"…"
"Fallow me." – said the orc.
Phantasia fallowed the orc through the barracks until he arrived at his private room where he and some other guards were present.
"I will just skip through everything and ask you straight." – said the orc.
"…"
"What do you know?"
"…"
Phantasia took out a plague doctor mask from his inventory and put this on the table.
"?"
"A mask?" – said the orc.
"Yea. To more precisely a plague doctor mask." – said Phantasia.
"Let me explain."
"As you know, I'm an adventurer, but I'm also an alchemist and I was even doing even potion selling business few times."
"Do you remember when I came to you to deliver you those rat tails?"
"Yea. I remember."
"Well, after I gave you those rat tails, I was wondering what to do with the stuff I got from the rats."
"Honestly, they were extremely nasty and all, so I doubted they would even sell well."
"So, I tried messing around and maybe see if I can use them for alchemy or something."
"And as it turned out, I can."
"I was able to create poisons."
"It wasn't very strong poison or anything, but the rat materials were quiet good for practicing my alchemy skills, even though the poison sucked, I was getting an interesting data and they were good for practicing alchemy."
"However unfortunately, I ran out of them recently and tried going back to the sewers."
"But then… I couldn't found a single rat near the entrance. Last time I was there, even the area near entrance wasn't safe or anything."
"I though at first that somebody maybe finally took that rat quest or something…. But then, when I finally encounter the rats, I was injected with the plague."
"?"
"You found the plague in the sewers?" – asked the orc.
"Yea. The rats were carrying them."
"Not only that, when I tried going back, I was attacked by some sort of giant sewer rat."
"I have its tail as evidence, can I?"
"…Yea."
Phantasia took out the giant sewer rat tail an put it on the table.
"!"
"…"
"Yea. This is definitely not a tail of your average sewer rat." – said the orc after inspecting the tail.
"Yea… I almost got killed."
"Honestly, I think the only reason why I survived was thanks to my necromancy as well as the fact that I had natural defense against poison, since I'm undead."
"But still, that thing was a beast."
"Its acid was able to melt a freaking stone walls."
"Not only that, it was also spreading that plague around."
"… Are you saying that those rats are the source of the plague?" – asked the orc.
"Yes. But they were not the original like that."
"After I killed that giant rat, I found out some weird group of people, wearing those plague doctors' masks."
"No questions or anything, they just… Exploded?"
"They saw me and they just exploded, spreading that weird liquid around…. That was quiet confusing"
"However, then the rats came out of all directions."
"Honestly speaking, I couldn't win against them and was forced to hide."
"I kind of ended up being stuck in those sewers for entire day while trying to survive those plague bearing rats as well as some of these bigger rats that were after me, but when I finally did came out, I found out about that plague taking place in the city."
"I don't know who these people are or anything, but it seems that they are using these rats to make sure that the plague is keep being spread through the city."
"…"
"Is everything you said is true?" – asked the orc with serious voice.
"Well, by the look of things, yes."
"Honestly, I didn't even knew that this plague was rampaging in the city until I finally managed to escape."
"I was last time in the sewers, but there was nothing like that."
"I heard that the corpse were found around the city and that how people first encountered the plague."
"But I believe that it was a distraction."
"A distraction?" – asked the orc.
"Yes."
"I think they wanted people to believe that the plague is spreading from the corpse, while in reality it was doing of those weird people who infected the rats and the sewers."
"The plague is maybe spreading from the corpse, but they probably. No."
"They intentionally maybe let you discover these corpse, so you wouldn't think about the real source of the plagues."
"They are using the city sewers and the sewer rats to spread the plague."
"If that wasn't the case, then why would they spread the plague in the sewers, before the plague outbreak happened on the surface?"
"…"
"So… You are saying that the only way to truly stop the plague, is to kill every single rat in the sewers?" – asked the orc.
"Its possible solution, but then there is also the question of these people." – said Phantasia while lifting the plague doctor mask.
"Who were they?"
"I took this mask from one of the corpse. The other mask that those weird people wore were completely melted by that weird fluid that they spread from their body when they blew up."
"Honestly, this was the only thing that I managed to recover from their remains."
"There maybe bit more in the sewers, but those rats were too much for me and I had to run away as I explained before."
"But these people were definitely the culprit behind the plague."
"However, they decided to take their own lifes, just because I saw them?"
"The giant rat. The plague that wasn't originally first found on the surface but instead sewers and those weird people. Honestly I was even wearing that mask when I got here to hid my identity since I didn't knew if they saw me or something, so I kind of did that mostly not to protect myself from the plagued but you know, defend myself from those weird people if they recognized me or something."
"…"
"That is all I know."
"…"
"Thank you." – said orc.
"Thanks to you, we at least now know the origin of the plague."
"There is still a lot to investigate, but if the sewer rats were really made the plague carrier like you said, then we cannot stand idly."
"Thank you. The Mim city shall now forget your deed."
"We shall also reward you for this very important information as well as the evidence you provided."
"No problem. If anything, I really want to end this plague, since it's bad for business."
The two men shaked their hands.
However, one of them was trying to hide a malicious smile behind their fake expression.
(NICE!)
(YOU FALLEN FOR IT!)
[You have fully deceived an NPC and made him convince 100% of your lie.]
[You have obtained title: Deceiver – Tier 1]
[Deceiver – Tier 1]
[Title Rank: E (Grow)]
[+ 5 stat points]
[You have managed to scam somebody with your lies and obtain valuable "Things" (Rewards/Items).]
[You have obtained title: Scammer – Tier 1]
[Scammer – Tier 1]
[Title Rank: E (Grow)]
[+ 5 stat points]
[You have spread a plague around the city.]
[You have obtained title: Plague Speeder – Tier 1]
[Plague Speeder – Tier 1]
[Title Rank: D (Grow)]
[+ 20 stat points]
[You have killed multiple opponents without being spotted or discovered.]
[You have obtained title: Assassin – Tier 1]
[Title Rank: E (Grow)]
[+ 5 stat points]
[You have started a plague in the settlement and made it spread enough to be called "Danger".]
[You have obtained title: Plague Starter]
[Title Rank: D]
[+ 30 stat points]
[You have started a chaos inside the settlement that ended up affecting it.]
[You have obtained title: Chaos Maker – Tier 1]
[Chaos Maker – Tier 1]
[Title Rank: E (Grow)]
[+ 2 class points]
[You are in possession of 5 [EVIL] type titles.]
[You have obtained title: Evil – Tier 1]
[Title Rank: E (Grow)]
[+ 2 class points]
(NOW THEN!)
(I THINK ITS TIME TO START THE CHAOS FOR REAL!)