Chapter 10: Bad News

“I didn’t do it.”

“Don’t deny it, Bro. You are caught red-handed! You’re holding Papa’s dead body. The blood is still fresh in your hands!” Mario yelled.

“No. You’re wrong.”

Shortly after, Marco and the Military Group finally arrived at the scene. Orixa also came.

“Marco! Orixa!”

“What happened here? Tom - Tom is just lying on the floor and……” Orixa saw Papa’s body, “Oh my gosh!”

“Did Nikko do it?” Marco asked.

“We still don’t know. He’s the only conscious person we saw when we arrived here,” Arii answered.

“Nikku… is that true?”

“Yes. But…”

Mario butted, “That would mean that he’s the primary suspect in this crime. We should contain him!”

Everyone agreed. They drew their weapons and encircled Nikko.

“I’m telling the truth,” Nikko insisted.

“Nikko, we don’t want this to escalate. We don’t want to hurt you as well. Please don’t resist,” Marco negotiated.

Nikko was becoming angry; he also drew his sword. The others were alerted.

“Morlock, quick! Use your Spell!” Mario commanded one of the Military Players.

Morlock followed the order. He cast the Binding Chains Spell at Nikko.

Binding Chains summons magical chains from the ground that wraps around its target. The target will be both immobilized and silenced at the same time. The Spell worked on Nikko.

“I got him!” Morlock signaled.

After that, the players moved closer to Nikko and surrounded him.

“We’ll have to take you back to the camp. We’ll keep you confined while we investigate this situation. I’m sorry, but please cooperate with us, Nikko” Marco said.

Nikko was deeply disappointed. But with his situation, he couldn’t do anything but surrender.

“Mario. Please take him back to the camp. Take him inside one of the free Rooms,” Marco ordered.

“Okay,” Mario answered. “Let’s go!” Together with the Military Players, they escorted Nikko back to the camp.

Marco, Orixa, and Arii were left at the crime scene.

“I can’t believe Nikku killed Papa,” Orixa sadly muttered.

“It’s still early to arrive at conclusions. We should investigate this properly,” Marco replied.

A short mournful silence filled the air.

“We should head back to the camp. We need to talk with the others about this,” Marco stated.

The two ladies agreed.

“Orixa, please help me carry Papa’s body.”

“Ok.”

“I’ll take Tommy. We’ll just ride Mr. Paputiki back to the camp,” Arii volunteered.

They agreed. Shortly after, they head back to the camp.

…

…

…

Moments later, in the Assembly Area of the Treetop Settlement,

Raft, Marco, Mario, Orixa, and Arii were having an unplanned discussion. The mood inside the area is expectedly somber.

“So… how’s Papa?” Raft asked.

“Auntie Cecilia said that they couldn’t do anything to save him. Papa already lost a lot of blood,” Orixa answered.

Everyone let out a depressing sigh.

“How about Tommy?”

“He’s still asleep inside my room. I didn’t see any serious injuries on his body. I think he will be fine,” Arii replied.

“Fine - physically. But we don't know if he will be fine if he learns that Papa was killed,” Orixa added.

Raft lets out a deep breath while placing his palm on his forehead. “Are you sure Nikko did all of these?”

Mario and Arii looked at each other - as if they were waiting for one of them to answer the question.

Mario took the initiative, “We don’t… really know. But when we got to the scene, we saw Nikko holding Papa’s bloodied body. The blood and wounds were still fresh when we saw them. And that’s why we suspected that Nikko had something to do with it.”

“Ok…”

“But if it was Nikku. Why did he do it?” Orixa wondered. “Do you know any beef between them? I mean… He must’ve had a motive to kill Papa.”

“I don’t know. Maybe the Gauntlet is starting to corrupt him now?” Mario replied.

“But why only now? Nikko has been wearing that Gauntlet for weeks. I didn’t notice anything unusual from him. He has been his normal ‘strange’ self,” Arii said.

“I want to clarify that Nikko is just a suspect here. We shouldn’t persecute him until we know the whole truth,” Marco stated.

Raft suddenly voiced out, “I’ve noticed something…”

“What?”

“Hm?”

“What is it, Rafty?

“Tell us, Raft.”

“The weapon,” Raft pointed out. “When you brought him back to the camp… I saw that the Scythe was not with him now.”

“Oooh… You’re right, Bro. I almost forgot about his Scythe.”

“It was already missing when we arrived at the scene. We only saw Papa’s severed arm,” Arii narrated.

“Are you suggesting that someone killed Papa to steal his weapon?” Orixa asked Raft.

“Yes.”

“That’s a good perspective, Rafty,” Orixa praised.

“But who could it be? Or maybe it’s a ‘they’? I don’t know,” Arii wondered.

Orixa gasped slightly. “Could it be the Gang again?” she whispered.

“Maybe,” Arii responded.

“Worse - there’s a secret agent amongst the new settlers,” Raft accused. “Tsk! I knew it; these people couldn’t be trusted.”

“No, no, no! We shouldn’t assume that! Almost all of the former fighters in the Gang are now in my Military Group. I’m very sure that there’s no traitor among my men because I organize them well!” Mario argued.

“Tch! As if you have really known them all to assume that they are all good guys,” Raft blabbered.

“Come on, Bro! What’s with those accusations!? Besides! Isn’t it weird that Nikko still got his Gauntlet? If there’s really a thief, why would he steal Papa’s weapon and leave Nikko’s Gauntlet? Those two gears are in the same Equipment Set. It would be dumb to leave one behind,” Mario stated.

“Okay, enough,” Marco uttered in a serious tone. “These speculations are not helping at all. Let’s set aside all of these assumptions until we’re done with our investigation. We still have lots of occurring problems in our camp, most specifically the increasing cases of sick players.”

Raft murmured, “Yeah - right, so many problems since those players arrived here.”

Orixa and Arii realized that Marco was right.

“Marco is right. We should do this in a civilized manner. Maybe we should start the investigation by interrogating Nikku properly,” Orixa said.

“As if - he will say the truth,” Mario’s side comments.

“Still… It’s a good way to gather information. Better than nothing at all,” Marco said.

“Or… We could wait for Tommy to wake up. Maybe he could tell us what really happened,” Arii suggested.

Everyone looked at Arii.

“Well… That could be a better option…”

Suddenly, their wristbands started to glow. It was the Notifier for the upcoming Special Event.

“It’s… It’s a Yellow,” Arii’s reaction.

“Tch! This timing,” Raft murmured.

Orixa checked the Event Description, “What’s with this timer!? It’s too long!?”

Everybody also checked.

“You’re right,” Mario mumbled.

“Raft. Do Mika and Lumine already know about the incident?” Marco asked.

“No. I tried to contact them a while ago, but they were not responding.”

“Maybe they’re still busy.”

“Yes. I’ll try again after this.”

“Ok.”

“Okay, everyone! This discussion is already done. For now, let’s do anything we can do,” Raft announced. “Mario, make sure to tighten the security for Nikko… and also the whole camp.”

“Got it!”

“And be extra vigilant of the new settlers!” Raft added.

Marco sighed, “We already talked about it, Raft.”

“Oh - yeah, right, right! Sorry…” Raft’s response to Marco. “By the way, I entrust you with the functionalities of the camp. Make sure that everything and everyone is still doing their roles.”

“Ok, understood.”

“Please assist Marco with his job,” Raft said to the two ladies. “And everyone! Let’s all work to decipher this upcoming Event. Let’s just meet again later to share what we come up with.”

Everyone agreed. After that, the five players left to work on their tasks and roles.

…

…

…

An hour later,

Raft tried to contact his two friends again using the transponder. He waited a while while the buzzing sounds kept ringing in the caller. Later on,

“Hello? ~”

“Finally!” Raft sighed as he finally heard the voice of Lumine in the device. “Hello,” he answered.

“Raft?... I’m sorry if I missed your call a while ago.”

“It’s okay. So… How are you? What’s your status?”

“We’re good. We just arrived at the village - maybe an hour ago?” Lumine replied.

“Oh, really? So, what can you say?”

“Actually, there’s a lot to take in! We just arrived here, but lots of crazy things are already happening.”

“Crazy things? I assume that the Special Event is one of them.”

“Oohh… You already noticed…” Lumine murmured through the transponder.

“How can’t we? The countdown timer for this Event is very unusual!”

“Uh-huh.”

“I know this is still too early, but do you have any leads about this Special Event? Maybe your investigation there can also help in the preparation for the Event.”

“Hmm… Let me see…” Lumine mumbled as she thought deeply.

“We tried to decipher the cryptic information in the Event Description. Although we haven’t yet fully decoded the exact details of the Event, the limited information we gathered from some villagers leads to one thing - the Special Event has something to do with ‘Rath’s Return’!”

“Woah! That’s a great exposition!” Raft’s reaction.

“But-But… we still need to investigate the exact hows and whys. We’re doubling our efforts. As I said, we’re kinda bamboozled by our discoveries here.”

“Ok. I get it.”

The slight pause in their conversation made Raft remember the main reason he contacted Lumine.

“By the way, Lumine…”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know how to say this but… something happened here in camp. Just a few hours ago.”

“Judging your tone, I can sense that this is no good news. What is it?”

“It’s about Papa.”

“Oh? Did he snap off again? Darn it! I knew I should’ve upgraded his stabilizer before we left! This is on me - I apologize. But how is he? Did he hurt somebody? Was Tommy with him when that happened?”

“No, Lumine. It’s not what you think…”

“Huh?”

“Papa is gone. He was murdered by someone.”

With the short silence after the conversation, it was obvious that Lumine was having a hard time processing what she heard.

“Murdered? How? By whom?” Lumine asked with a soft, shaky voice.

“We’re still investigating the case. I believe it’s better to talk about this if you’re already done with your day - when you’re undisturbed. Maybe I’ll call again later at night. I just told you this so that you know.”

“Ok, Ok. I understand. But don’t worry, we will be back in the Plains before the sun sets,” Lumine said.

“Already? Why so sudden?”

“I don’t know. It was Aize who decided that. He just told us that he needs to discuss the Event with his constituents and it’s urgent. I guess he still cares for his people, after all.”

“Doubt! That man’s heart has already rotten up!”

“Welp. That’s just my guess.”

“Tch!... Anyways. How about your investigation? Will you still continue it?”

“Don’t worry! We already mapped the Village’s location. Leo told me that it is still within Coco’s reach. She can transport us back and forth anytime.”

“Uh-huh. In your estimation, when will you be back here in the camp?”

“Maybe late at night? I’m not sure. But I think Coco will also help us get there from the Plain Settlements.”

“Ok.”

“I guess this will be a long night. We have lots to talk about - both from your side, and ours,” Lumine stated.

“I guess so.”

“Well then… I’ll make sure to tell Mika about this. I don’t know how she will react to this.”

“Please do so.”

“Sure.”

“I guess I’ll see you later. Take care out there.”

“Yep-Yep.”

Their conversation ended.

They went on to continue their separate investigations.

…

…

…

Later at sunset,

“What is taking her so long!?”

“Calm down, Boss! I’m still trying to reach Coco,” Keeta said to the irritated Aize.

Later on, Coco finally answered Keeta through the transponder.

“Coco? Can you get us back to the Plains now?” Keeta asked.

“Hai. But I can only transport you to the Outskirts,” Coco answered with a faint voice.

“Huh!? Why can’t you just transport us directly to the Base?”

Suddenly, a loud cheering was heard in the background from Coco’s side of the transponder.

“You’ll know soon,” Coco answered.

Aize heard everything; he sensed something was wrong. He abruptly grabbed the transponder,

“Hey, Coco! What’s happening there!?” he shouted.

“You’ll be transported in 3… 2… 1…”

“WAIT!”

CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!

Unready, they were teleported back to the outskirts of the Plains.

“Damn that Coco!” Keeta uttered.

“Hey, Coco! Answer me!” Aize’s continuous shouting to the transponder. However, Coco had already hung up. “Damn it!”

Suddenly,

“Uhm…. Bo-Boss?”

“What now, Leo?”

Leo pointed his finger at something. Aize followed his gaze in that direction. Everyone also turned their heads.

“WHY IS THERE A FUCKING CASTLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RUBBLES!?” Aize uttered.