26: Questions

Questions

{Charlotte}

As much as she tried, Charlotte couldn't find anyone else who knew Neve before the Unity Trials began.

To a certain extent, it was to be expected. As that one girl from earlier had described, Neve was a shy, seemingly misanthropic individual. Everything Charlotte heard about Neve from people who met her after the Unity Trials began reinforced that fact. A few players gave interesting statements, telling her about how she'd walk in with them, stoically go about her business, and then leave without saying a single word.

And yet, none of them had anything bad to say about her in terms of her performance as a player. Her track record was truly spotless. Although she'd maintained a low profile so far, it really did seem like she was one of those fateful individuals who were all but made for these kinds of situations.

The praises Charlotte heard made the lack of personal information on her all the more frustrating.

[Ugh!] She thought as she moved around her apartment. [I guess I'll hold off on my research for a little bit. I need to focus. Big stuff's happening today.]

The constant vibrating of her phone in her pockets reminded her of the day's event. A meeting that she, as a journalist, would be attending.

Squeezed between notifications surrounding that topic, however, were text messages.

Messages from Charlotte's ex who, apparently, had something to say.

Scrolling through them quickly, Charlotte rolled her eyes before dialing his number.

It took just about five seconds before her ex picked up.

"Charlotte?"

"What do you want, Danny?"

"Good morning to you too," he replied bitterly. "Look, I just wanted to say that I fucked up. I mean, I was drunk, I-I don't even like that girl, it was just-"

Charlotte hung up.

With a sigh, she threw her phone onto the couch.

[It's incredible that I'm still having to deal with this kind of shit even after the fucking world ended.]

A quick glance up at the clock told her that the meeting would be starting soon.

[Whatever. Let's just move on.]

---

Over twenty different reporters stood in front of a stage, holding their phones, microphones, and cameras up at the people ahead of them. The leaders of each of the private guilds, the Golden Dragons, Church's Guild, Valkyries, Steel Hearts, and Bloodletters, all stood in front of the crowd, taking questions surrounding a couple of things:

One, the Final Challenge.

And, two, the recent spike in outbreaks. 

The coordinator of the event pointed at one of the reporters, allowing her to ask a question.

"This question is for Mr. Marai," the reporter stated, referring to Omar Marai, head of the Golden Dragons guild.

He was, at this current point, the highest-level player in the world. As a level 70 Swordsman who used only what he killed monsters to obtain, he embodied the ever-self-improving ideals of the Golden Dragons.

"Mr. Marai, what kind of plans did the Golden Dragons have in place to allow communications with the players inside the Final Challenge?"

"Unfortunately, our lack of knowledge of what is in the dungeon makes it difficult to prepare. So, all we could do was give our players cameras to set up inside the dungeon along with some devices to try streaming from," he answered. "In addition, we made sure that our players who went in had enough WS Tokens to purchase internet service. That means that either, internet service is not purchasable in the Final Challenge or its price is different. Either way, predictably, it seems they were unable to reach us. We still do not know what it is that is preventing them from doing so. However, should they survive, we hope to learn more and adapt over the course of the next 10 years."

[Everyone's still talking like the players are doing well, huh?] Charlotte asked herself. [I guess it's understandable. A lot of very important people went into the Final Challenge this time around. I can imagine that none of the guildmasters want to entertain the idea that they're all doomed.]

The coordinator pointed at another reporter.

"This question is for all of the guildmasters," the reporter stated. "Do you feel responsible at all for any lives that are lost on this mission? Or, the other 900 lives that have been lost so far?"

[... Well, damn.]

Arch-Priest Kalen, leader of the Church's Guild and a level 51 mage, was the only one who answered.

"It is important to recall that only volunteers have undertaken the Final Challenge. No one has been, or will ever be, forced to go on this mission. Everyone who did knew quite well what they were walking into and chose to attempt the dungeon anyway. Our hearts go out to those who don't make it, and I hope God blesses their souls, but to place the responsibility of their fates on anyone else's shoulders but their own is unfair, in my opinion."

Charlotte jotted down the response in her notebook as the coordinator signaled for the next reporter to speak.

"This question is for Ms. Vellum," the reporter stated, referring to the leader of the Bloodletters. The level 49 assassin, Yari Vellum, had her feet kicked up on the table, holding her microphone lazily. "What do you think about the rumors that this expedition and the previous ones may have been derailed by assassin-type players?"

"They're bullshit," Yari replied with a shrug. Charlotte smirked. Several people in the room giggled quietly. "I understand that the idea of people sneaking around behind you can be scary, but I think players need to differentiate between combat mechanics and actual personalities outside of dungeons. Just because someone chooses to be stealthy in fights doesn't mean they're a bad person, just means they're smart," she said with a cheeky grin.

[I agree... but with so many player killers who have turned out to be Rogue-style players, it'll take some time before that prejudice is alleviated.]

Finally, the coordinator let Charlotte know it was her turn to speak.

"This question is for all guildmasters," she said. "Have the guilds found any way to tell who is and is not alive within the Final Challenge? Are any methods being worked on?"

That question had a few of the reporters raising their brows. Charlotte knew the answer to the first question already, as everyone else did. The second question was what truly interested her.

The leader of the Steel Hearts, Thompson Winters, a level 57 tank, answered.

"Unfortunately, no. Unity Trial communications, made via the HUD chatrooms, don't work. At this point, we assume this separation might be intentional on behalf of the Forces That Be. Probably because they don't want us to know about what's in the Final Challenge."

That was all obvious, hence why so many were confused as to why Charlotte would ask such a thing. What she gleaned from that, however, was that they weren't even trying.

[Really? No effort is being made to find a way to keep track of who lives and dies? You all gave up that quickly?]

---

As Charlotte was heading home, she thought back to the answer she'd received. It was frustrating because, in her opinion, knowing this information could provide them with some insight as to what exactly was happening there.

Specifically, what order were people dying in? If they checked and saw that all of the low-level players had perished, that could say something about how dangerous the monsters were... Or, it could imply something about what the players who were still alive may have done to remain that way.

[There has to be something that can be done to determine that.] 

Later that night, Charlotte was laying on her bed, watching a dungeon-clearing live stream. The camera was mounted onto a mage, standing behind four other players as they made their way through a cave of some sort.

"Jessica, thank you for the donation," the mage said quietly. "Huh? Behind me? Chat, stop saying shit like that, it's- AGH!?"

A fight broke out as Charlotte watched on, bored.

Something came to her mind, though.

[... Wait.]

Sitting up on her bed, Charlotte checked her status.

Level 5

MP: 10/10

EXP: 24/50

Activity Points: 0

WS Tokens: 950

---1

Attributes:

Endurance: 1

Speed: 9

Precision: 5

Strength: 4

Arcane: 1

[What was Neve's ID again?]

She could have tested this sudden thought with any player, but the healer was the one that came to her mind first.

She opened her menu and went to the World Shop where she then clicked on Transfers.

Here, Charlotte donated 1 singular World Shop Token to the healer.

WS Tokens Transferred: 1

WS Transfer Cap (Neve Stephens): 1/2500

Charlotte stared at that number for a while.

Of course, the fact that she could donate tokens to the healer meant nothing on its own. It was, in fact, possible to donate to dead people, after all. Doing so was a common money laundering strategy for a while, as players would donate to other dead players and then recover their tokens from their corpses whenever they needed them.

2500 WS Tokens was the daily limit for donations for a player. A player could not receive any more than that, but most players never even thought about it because, well, WS Tokens were valuable. Most players would never even reach this cap because there was no reason to be donated that many tokens in one day.

However, some people reached this amount regularly.

Merchants.

Quickly, Charlotte dialed Jack's number. Her friend answered soon.

"Charlotte?"

"Yeah, Jack, hi! Can-"

"Oh, no. You sound excited. Fuck."

"Huh? What's wrong with being excited?"

"The last time you sounded like this we ended up spending a night in jail."

"I was drunk. Anyway, look, I need to ask you something."

"Um, okay, shoot."

"What do you do when you reach the daily WS Token transfer limit?"

Businessmen didn't just close their doors the moment they hit the cap. So, she figured there was something they did to remedy this.

"... You're not selling drugs or anything, are you?"

"No! Just answer!"

"Fine, fine. We transfer all our tokens to the banks."

Charlotte grinned.

"Why?"

"Because if your WS Token total reaches 0 after reaching the cap, your daily transfer total is reset. I'm guessing it's the System's way of accounting for people like me, businessmen who rely on 'donations' to get by. So, yeah, if we do that, we can keep getting paid." 

"Jack."

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to kiss you tomorrow."

"Gross."

Charlotte hung up, giggling. 

[Well, that's good to know,] she thought. [So, theoretically... Ah, but, it doesn't really matter. Even if we can tell who's alive, it's meaningless to gift them with equipment and items that may not be suited for the trials they're undertaking. It is cool that it's possible, though.] 

She went back to scrolling through her phone, then. An article from a reporter she was friends with caught her attention. 

[Top 10 Biggest Disasters Since the Unity Trials Began] 

Charlotte clicked on it, but her mind went back to one of the topics that had been discussed at the meeting. 

The outbreaks. 

[The spike in monster activity is pretty sudden,] she thought. [Did something happen to cause it? Or, are the Forces That Be in a bad mood? Oh well,] she shrugged. [There are just too many unanswered questions right now. It's annoying.] 

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