Game 2: Terror at Innsbruck

Takeshi and Rita were now well out of the forest and heading for the nearest village.

“You mean you can't forfeit?” Takeshi asked.

“No,” Rita answered. “The only way out is to play. Win or lose, you have to play The Game. And that's why I'm taking you into town.”

“What's in town?”

“The shops, dummy. If The Game worked for you the way it worked for me when I got here, then any money you came here with automatically got converted into The Game's money.”

“My mother always told me to make sure I kept at least ten thousand yen in my wallet,” Takeshi answered.

“Huh,” Rita thought. “Dunno how yen translates into the in-game money, but that must be at least fifty libras.”

“Fifty libras?”

“Fifty libras, or one thousand sol, or twelve thousand denier,” Rita added. “That's how the money around here works.”

“Wow, that sounds like a lot of money,” Takeshi wondered.

“Ehh, kinda,” Rita answered. “Dunno how long I've been here, but a libra just doesn't go as far as it used to. Should still be enough to get you going, though.”

Takeshi couldn't get the image of seeing Ragnar the Wretched dissolve into nothing out of his mind.

“So is that guy, like, dead?” Takeshi asked. “Did he get killed for real?”

“Nobody really knows for sure,” Rita answered. “The Game tells you that if you lose, you go back to your previous life, but many of us have been here for so long that… what even is our previous life at that point, you know?”

“What do you think?”

“I don't know… I guess believe what you want to believe.”

•

After a while, the two players made it to the nearest village, a tiny place called Innsbruck. Tiny towns such as this one primarily relied on farming and trade to get by.

“You're lucky this is my favorite town in the whole map,” Rita told Takeshi. “I get special discounts on all the wares around here.”

“What did you do to get discounts like that?”

“I may have saved this town from the occasional man-eating spider. Oh, we're here!”

They arrived at a place called “Mac's Market”, a little shop that sold a little bit of everything. Mac himself, a kindly older man with a flowing gray beard, had just opened up for the day.

“This is my favorite shop in the whole town!” Rita explained with excitement in her voice. “Hey, Mac! What's the latest shipment?”

“Ah, Rita,” Mac answered with a quiet, reserved voice. “Not much has been available lately. All my wares, all of everyone's wares, in fact, keep getting stolen by some giant rapscallion!”

“Can you describe this thief to us?” Takeshi asked him.

“Who's the new guy?” Mac asked Rita, not sure how to feel about this stranger taking charge of the situation.

“That's Takeshi,” Rita responded. “New player. I was bringing him here because I knew you could hook him up with the coolest items.”

“I wish I could, Rita,” Mac continued, “but he could be here any minute now. He comes around twice a day, sometimes thrice a day, completely at random, and demands we give him all our items."

“What does he look like?” Rita asked.

“He's all big and muscular and scary,” Mac began to describe the villain.

“Mac, that really narrows it down,” Rita told him with a hint of sass in her voice. “Does he have anything that sets him apart from all the other big, muscular, and scary boys in The Game?”

“Well, he's got these, like, weird looking saw blades that he wears on his arms."

“That sounds like that Slicer guy we saw earlier,” Takeshi realized.

“That's him, the Slicer,” Mac answered. “He's the number one player in the game now that Ragnar the Wretched has been defeated. And he's a big bully. But don't tell him that I said that!”

“This sucks,” Takeshi said. “How on Earth are we supposed to deal with someone like that?!”

“I don't know,” Rita answered, “but we need to figure something out because these innocent people aren't going to have anything left if we don't.”

“What are you two figuring out?” a deep dark voice called out from behind them. Unbeknownst to either Takeshi or Rita, the Slicer had entered town and heard them talking. In no time, he had lifted Rita by the collar of her jacket and completely off the ground. Standing at a whopping 2.25 meters (7 feet 4.6 inches) tall, he easily towered over both Rita and Takeshi.

“I swear, Mr. Slicer, we weren't talking about you!” Rita protested.

“I may be big and muscular, but I'm not dumb,” Slicer told her. “You two think you can defeat The Slicer?! You'd have a better chance at defeating some mice!”

“Let her go, Slicer!” Takeshi called out.

Still carrying Rita in hand, the Slicer turned to face Takeshi. Takeshi found a shovel nearby and held it like a sword.

“What did you say, punk?”

“We don't want any trouble, Slicer. Just let her go, and we'll be on our way. We were just passing through anyway.”

“Says the guy pointing a shovel at me,” Slicer answered, before turning back to Rita. He tapped the screen on her Life Counter, giving a reading of 5. “So that's how many punches it'll take to knock you out.” He then pointed one of his arm blades at her face. “Or maybe I just need to slice and dice enough times.”

“I said let her go!” Takeshi shouted before swinging the shovel right at Slicer's head. The shovel landed right on target, causing him to recoil in pain and let go of his grip on Rita.

And, rather surprisingly, Slicer's Life Counter went from 4 to 3.

“I… I can't believe this!” Slicer shouted in a mix of confusion, horror, and embarrassment. “Nobody's ever been able to deal damage to me before!”

Takeshi, by this time, had gone to check on Rita. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah…”

But Slicer wasn't done yet. “You! Me! Fight! Tomorrow! Understood?” Completely ashamed, Slicer then ran off to recover from that embarrassing display.

“Did you know that would happen?” Rita asked him.

“Not at all,” Takeshi responded. “I was kinda half expecting to be knocked out of The Game by now.”

“Well, now you're on the number one player in The Game's bad side,” Rita scolded him, “and he's expecting you to fight him tomorrow. Way to go, genius.”

“Hey,” a voice called out to the duo. The townsfolk began to gather around them. “We just wanted to give you our thanks for sticking up for this town.”

“That bully Slicer has been terrorizing this village for many weeks now,” Mac added. “It's about time someone decided to fight back.” He then gave Takeshi a very old sword. “I know it's not much, but I hope this will help.”

One by one, the others also gave Takeshi an item they were keeping back in case of an emergency. Pieces of armor, random lucky trinkets, new shoes to replace the ones Takeshi had lost somehow (although they were mismatched), and even Rita's bow and arrows.

“You're going to need to fight from distance if you wanna beat Slicer,” Rita told him. “Just say the kind of arrow you want to use, and it'll appear.”

“Thanks, everyone,” Takeshi told the group. “This might just be enough stuff to defeat Slicer.”