The Player's System

Dead or alive

Princess Mala was sitting in her chamber. Knowing that the enemies fell in the pool of dead brought some satisfaction on her contorted face. The city was given name after her birth.

Princess Mala hated to be imperfect. She took responsibility that she would take care the first three lairs of the security however the first lair collapsed.

Princess Mala was worried because it would spoil her reputation and also king would get angry too. Tonight was important. The guest king was reaching. Because of curse he could only travel in the night that's why he took one month in reaching the Mala City.

She would be busy in receiving the guests. "Make sure third team does not leave pool of dead. Apart from the restrictions use all methods to stop them. I will be away for the next day." Princess Mala ordered.

She was wearing her usual princess gown with the half armor. Her right arm could use spell and it did not need armor while the left hand was normal and it could get damaged during spell use so she wear half armor.

Her face matched with the mediaeval ladies with the modern make over. She rarely blinked her eyes and it made the servants and the subordinates thought whether she was human or not.

She left her chamber after giving orders. Itaten Farm should open for the carriage of the king and the princess Mala could only open it. She was the key of the gates of the second lair and the third lair.

Ahram fell in front of the wall he was glad that his body did not scatter in to pieces. He was alive and seeing the human standing against the wall. Junan and Jake followed right after him.

Their expressions were same as him. They were mentally prepared to fell in the water pool with the dead bodies floating on the surface yet their back met the hard ground.

Ahram sighed. He was looking at the human. Its pupils were not moving at all and looking straight. They were not in the line or designed with perfect structure. These were random. Ahram extended his hand to check whether the human was alive or not.

Junan hurried and held his hand. "We are in the game portal. It could bring trouble. Use your weapon instead." Junan was also feeling the odd surrounding.

It would take them some time to digest the settings of the second task. Jake reached them. He was curious. The new task was in no way challenging.

Everything was silent with the rotten smell of the flesh. The humans were standing against the walls. They walked around only to meet the same. "I got it. This pool of dead is going to remain the same however we are nowhere to leave it. But how we are going to leave it?" Ahram was speechless.

He stood in front of the human. "Tell us who made you this way? Why you are standing lifeless?" he asked out of frustration however the human answered, "Feast of Kings." Ahram stepped back.

The bones moving voice and the words came from the motionless body.

He was shocked to see that the motionless human suddenly answered. "They could speak?" Ahram pointed. "I don't think so. They might not answer all of your questions. The first trouble is that these motionless humans are here on purpose. We need to know what purpose. Will they become ogres to stop us and bring out hidden weapons?" Junan commented.

"It is hard to tell where could be the escape path or how we should crawl out of the pool of dead which actually resembles with ground of dead." Ahram spoke.

Jake was waiting that perhaps the system could provide him some clue no notification appeared. "We can take this path and walk along the wall. It might take us somewhere out or the other team members." Junan pointed one of the walls.

The wall was splitting in two from the left side and then proceeded further. As they moved forward it suddenly ended and another wall took place of it.

The randomly appearing walls and suddenly ending twisted the path. "I think we walked this path earlier." Jake pointed the row of the motionless humans.

Almost all of them looked same with resembling clothing. It not only confused them but their path too. Junan stopped and took a look. He could not answer instead believed it to be true.

Though they walked in the middle of the walls still they were never ending. "We can set some symbol to check it." Junan suggested and marked on the ground with his sword.

Soon they confirmed. They were moving at the same place. They did not attack on the motionless humans because they might gang up against them.

They were large in numbers. Teasing them would not sit well instead their escape path might shrink down. "Without searching team members and proper path let these motionless humans stay silent." Junan commented.

Ahram was getting impatient. "Only if Orin could read the book of detection and see the clue. It would have saved us." Ahram added. Junan was also thinking the same.

Jake was waiting for the notification, be it clue or task. Both would work for him in this situation. The screen appeared with the notification. [Task: Steal the body of the Kina. His appearance is similar just like other mockers however he is the only dead that could move his eyes. His eyes follow behind you.]

[Instructions: Kina is the mocker of all dead's. Stealing his body could show the path toward the other side of the pool of dead. This task would let you help practice your stealing skills. You can take his body anywhere in the pool of dead wherever your path is restricted.]

[Warning: Stealing Kina might bring alive mockers. They might make the task difficult.]

[Punishment: (In case the player could not meet task) Normal punishment; you will remain stuck in the pool of dead. Hard punishment; you will become one of the dead's]

The long notification explained most of the things. Jake read through and gulped dry breath. The worst punishment that he would become one of dead's made him shiver with the fear.

Jake was thinking whether to explain it to others or what. He was not feasible for picking the body and run. Ahram could do it.

By telling directly he might not be able to excuse everything. He was looking for perfect reasoning in order to make them believe him.

Jake decided to first search the dead human Kina then think about the excuse. They again got busy in searching the path. This time Jake was keeping glances at the eyes of the dead.

He walked one step ahead then two steps back. The eyes of the dead changed its position if following their footsteps. This confirmed the clue. Jake felt chills after noting it down.

He broke silence after walking many steps away. "Team head I noticed something. One of the dead is spying us. None other moved their eyes while one of them did. I confirmed it first." Jake whispered as if the dead could hear him.

Junan stopped. He was shocked. They did not notice it. "It was such unnoticeable that they only looked their resemblance and not critically kept eyes. Ahram was speechless. "Are they alive?" he asked.

"It is no more question. They are perhaps confined or something similar. If one of them is spy then he must be familiar with the paths too. We need to find out more. All of your questions could meet the answers if we steal this dead." Jake sounded logical.

He was sure that Kina was only spy. He could not harm them. The mockers might create trouble. For this he could use bullets. "Steal?" Ahram asked.

Junan was trying to assess the logic. Jake made it simple for him to understand. Junan thought to try this out. "If it tried to attack I will provide cover. We should check why the dead is spying?" Junan commented.

"Do you want me to steal?" Ahram asked Jake. "Indeed you can throw the dead on your shoulder and run. We are unable to meet other team members because the path is restricted. This would be experiment for us to see whether the same symbol or the dead's reaction. In both cases we will battle." Jake found it difficult to interpret in a way that could work however team head and Ahram already believed him.

Just the revelation about the dead spying them was enough. The confirmed and believed every word of the young player. Now they were ready to steal Kina and see the reaction among the pool of dead.

Mockers got alert. They saw that the three of team members stood in front of the spy. It means they found out the first secret of the pool of dead.. Five team members of the second team were currently figuring out the first truth too.