98: Blood in the Water, Part Thirteen

Blood in the Water, Part Thirteen

[In conclusion, the damage on this thing is pretty good but I'm nowhere near skilled enough to use it.] Neve walked through another section of the top floor, with Erin by her side.

They didn't find any other enemies for a while, but that was fine. All Neve wanted was to see if she'd missed anything before they went down the stairs to the next section of the map. 

[Or, to be more specific, I'm not skilled enough to win any fights with this thing. I can, however, use this thing against mindless opponents. Monsters who aren't going to parry or block my strikes. Yeah, my Blade skill shouldn't really matter against those sorts of enemies.] 

"Hm... Doesn't seem like there's much else to fight." 

"Ah, so you have sated your thirst for swordsmanship, then? Shall we head back and continue training?" 

"Yeah, I guess we could. We should-" 

At that moment, a sudden flurry of messages popped up in front of her. 

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 8 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 5 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 12 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 12 WS Token}

{Donation Received!}

{Charlotte <3: 15 WS Token}

{Daily Token Transfer Cap: 52/2500}

WST: 81157

"Seriously, who is this!?" 

"... Neve, I understand that you can see things I cannot but you do still look quite insane when you behave like this. It is concerning behavior, my dearest summoner." 

"What? No, it's just..." Neve sighed. "H-Hold on a moment." 

[Okay, for real now. Before I do anything else, can I figure this out? Come on, think Neve. Have you ever met a Charlotte before?] 

She put her mind to the task for a short amount of time but no faces popped up that she could attach to that name. 

[... So, this probably isn't someone I've met before,] she understood. [Why are they sending me these donations, then?] 

Staring at these messages for a bit, Neve saw each amount that was sent and then decided to go through her donation history. This person had sent the same amount as last time. 

[They sent 1 WST first... Was that them trying to see if they could send me a donation?] 

At that realization, Neve's eyes widened. 

[Maybe they were wondering if they could send a donation to someone in the Final Challenge at all... But, why me, though? Wouldn't they be sending this to their boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever?] 

Although she could not figure out the reasoning behind why she, specifically, had been sent these donations, she could understand that, clearly, this "Charlotte" person had been wondering if they could send a donation to her, and then, upon confirming that they could, were now sending these strings of payments. 

But, why?

[... The numbers themselves,] she thought. [There's a message here. I can't tell just from looking at these numbers, but there's clearly something being said with them.] 

An idea came to her mind, then.

[Could I maybe...?] 

She went into the donation menu and looked for this Charlotte individual. 

Scrolling through quite literally the names of every single individual named "Charlotte" in the entire world, she eventually found:

{Charlotte <3} 

{Player Bio: Just your friendly neighborhood ~journalist~ trying to give YOU the spiciest, most intriguing stories happening in our new world. Come join me! ^.^}

Neve blinked twice as she looked at that description. 

[... I don't know who you are but just reading that made me tired.] 

Moment of truth. She clicked on the name and then pressed the "Donate WST" button. 

And, to her surprise...

[Wait, what?] She thought. [I can do this? Am... Am I supposed to be able to?] 

With a couple of clumsy clicks, Neve sent the woman exactly 1 World Shop Token. 

[Uh... Cool. Well...]

"Neve?" Erin asked, taking Neve's eyes away from the menu. "Is your conversation with these voices going to be a long one this time around?"

Hearing that, Neve paused.

[... Not much else I can do, without knowing what these numbers mean. They're definitely a code for something, but nothing's coming to my mind right now. Maybe I'm just too focused on training, right now. Yeah, maybe. Once I'm done with it, I'll sit down later and look at the numbers themselves more closely. Maybe I'll understand their meaning then? Honestly, though, the fact that I can even send donations to people outside of here myself is pretty surprising. I'm shocked.] 

"Okay, done. For now, anyway. I'll look at that again later," Neve muttered to herself. "Let's head back to the safe zone." 

"Oh, joy! I get to show off- I mean, teach you a little more. How nice." 

---

{Charlotte}

It happened as she was in the middle of a dungeon. 

Trailing behind two other players, a swordsman, and a mace-wielding tank, Charlotte had been about to let an arrow fly through the air at their target in the back. 

A giant, light blue spider. 

They were currently inside a castle-type dungeon that saw them having to make their way up from a tucked-away storage room through cobweb-filled old cells. 

Naturally, Charlotte's body camera was on and recording the proceedings, just in case anything happened.

Additionally, she was streaming this dungeon clear. 

"Hm? Check some of the cells behind you for loot? We already did that. Did you go to the bathroom or something? Pay attention if you want to backseat me, dude," Charlotte whispered in response to a chatter as her arrow pierced the enemy's carapace. 

The level 8 tank was doing a decent enough job of keeping the opponent distracted while Charlotte and the level 6 swordsman whittled it down. 

Eventually, they won this little skirmish and Charlotte gained a little bit of EXP, along with some tokens for her trouble. 

EXP Gained: 15

EXP: 45/80

WST Gained: 30

WST: 875

"Woo, good job!" The sword-wielder said, slapping the tank's back. 

By now, Charlotte could well and truly say she'd gotten used to dungeon clearing, in her efforts to make enough money to spam Neve with donations. 

She'd always been the adaptable type, though. It was a quality that had gotten her through the early stages of the Unity Trials and, with any luck, it would be what got her to see its end. 

If such a thing would ever happen, anyway. 

Ignoring the foul smell from her surroundings, Charlotte kept a safe distance from the other players and waited for them to continue moving forward. 

As she did so, she saw it. 

A message so simple she nearly ignored it, but, a second glance at it made its implications fully sink in. 

{Donation Received!} 

{Neve Stephens: 1 WS Token} 

WST: 876

She stared at it for a while. 

[What?] 

Charlotte pushed her pink hair away from her eyes and rubbed them, trying to make sure that she was, in fact, seeing this. 

It was no illusion. 

This message was truly right in front of her. 

[But... WHAT!?] 

bunnyluv: did the spider drop something cool????

Charles890: uh... I think our strimmer's lost it

A few of the spectators commented as Charlotte yelled out: "YES!"

She threw her hands in the air, victoriously. That one message had just confirmed it. 

Sure, it was possible to send donations to a dead person, and it was possible to store money in a dead person's inventory and then retrieve it. 

However, as far as Charlotte knew, it was not possible to send donations through a dead player's Unity Trials account. 

Which meant that... here it was. 

Undeniable proof. 

Neve Stephens, at the very least, was alive, and Charlotte had 1 World Shop Token to back that fact up. 

[I need to let everyone know!] 

Naturally, she went to spread this information as quickly as possible. 

Charlotte took the body camera off her person and aimed it at her own face, grinning down at it. 

"Guys, guys, guys! You're not gonna believe this, but... Huh?" 

At that moment, as she looked at the chat, she noticed something. 

bunnyluv: is something wrong?

Charles890: LAG

bunnyluv: your lagging

That was not supposed to happen. 

The internet service that the Unity Trials offered was different from the internet humanity had known before the trials kicked off in that it was, well, magical. Reality-bending. 

The internet only varied in terms of its speed. Higher-priced internet was, of course, faster. However, no matter what internet package one purchased, it was all the same when it came to one thing. 

Lag wasn't really possible. Normally, anyway. 

The only way lag could happen was...

"What? But..." 

Charlotte's eyes dragged up. 

Both her allies were staring back at her. 

The tank, specifically, was holding a spherical object, trying to make it unnoticeable by covering it with his palm. Charlotte, however, saw it and immediately understood what it was, and what was going on. 

[That's a signal distorter. It's a tool player killers use to keep cameras from recording their crimes. So...] 

Her breath caught in her throat. 

Charlotte nocked an arrow as quickly as she could and let it fly at the swordsman, using a skill she'd recently gained called {Volley}. 

That one arrow became four, and all of them landed on the side of the player's head. 

This man was, probably, someone who wanted to skip all the grinding and get straight to a higher level by way of some casual murder. At this moment, however, he had still been just level 6, and so, the arrows killed him instantly. 

"NO!" The tank yelled, raising his mace and running at Charlotte. 

He threw the signal distorter aside. 

Charlotte dropped her bow. 

She wasn't about to try to fight this guy. In this narrow, cramped space, the matchup was just not in her favor. 

So, she turned and sprinted away. 

Naturally, she was substantially faster than the tank.

"GET BACK HERE!" He pleaded. 

As rude as it was of her to ignore the would-be murderer, Charlotte did not listen.

Running all the way back to the start of the dungeon, Charlotte ran out of the portal, ending up back at the theatre where she'd found the other players before this.0

This was, of course, one of the reasons people took these sorts of beginner-friendly dungeons. Because you could just walk right out of them. 

An EXP message hovered over her head as she took deep breaths, placing her hands on her knees as a few others who'd been standing by outside walked up to her. 

"Hey, what happened!?" 

"Player killers," Charlotte stated quickly and simply. "I was streaming it. They used a signal distorter. You can check the vod." 

"..." The two individuals before her looked at each other.

Charlotte noticed their concerned faces. 

"What?" 

Reluctantly, one of them asked:

"Um... Why are you smiling, though?" 

[Hm?]

Reaching up, Charlotte realized she was actually smiling. Maybe even grinning, actually. 

Indeed, that was odd. Even though it was in self-defense, Charlotte had just killed someone. One could see her reaction to all of this as being strange, but all she said was:

"Huh? Oh," Charlotte giggled. "Never mind me. I just heard some good news about my cute idol is all." 

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