Spending My Retirement In A Game

The rubble finally came to a rest. The collapsed building had crushed quite a few players underneath it, most of which had died in the process. Though, there were still some that had seemingly managed to survive and were now trying to push their way out from underneath the collapsed west wing. The players that were still left standing in front of the building just turned to stare at Eisen with a shocked expression.

"Dude, what the actual fuck are you doing? Do you know how long it took all of us to take over this town? And you're just going to come and grief us like that?" one of them yelled out, and the old man raised a brow.

"Grief? Use words that I understand."

"Urgh, you're, like, totally messing with us for no reason! This is our territory, so just leave us alone! Just because you're tight with the devs doesn't mean you can do whatever you want!"

Eisen narrowed his eyes, glaring at the people in front of him. He could try and turn things around on them and point out that they were doing the exact same thing to all the people in the town, but that wouldn't actually change anything for them. After all, it wasn't the same, neither Eisen nor these people thought so.

To Eisen, killing these players was not the same to the suffering the players put on the townfolk. The players could resurrect, not to mention that to them this was just a 'game'. The stakes weren't the same for them. But the townfolk would die when actually killed. Their real lives were made into a living hell. What Eisen was doing was annoy a few spoiled brats, while the players were practically torturing others.

On the other hand, Eisen couldn't really judge them the same way that he would with anyone else. To the players, the townfolk were just 'NPC's. They weren't real, and they wouldn't actually suffer, or at least that's what they thought. Of course there was something to be said about people that could put such realistic depictions of other people through torture in that way, but Eisen didn't want to waste his time on considerations of morality right now. All he cared about was making sure that the people of this town wouldn't suffer anymore.

"Just give up already. You know you can't beat me, so just leave. And when your other guys respawn, make sure to tell them the same thing. Or I'm going to kill you again, and again, and again, and again," Eisen said with a deep glare.

"B-But that's not fair!" the players started complaining, "We've been working on all this for so long, we're nearly done with the dragon's quest!"

The old man frowned, "Quest? What quest? I thought you all already passed the trial."

The players looked at each other nervously, and one of them slowly spoke up, "If we tell you, will you let us be?"

"... We'll see. Now speak."

Though the players still weren't sure if this was the right choice, just telling Eisen was still better than dying and losing items, levels, and a whole day's time in the game. Slowly, one of them opened their mouth, but instead of speaking, they just started to cough. It was to the point where Eisen wanted to offer them something to drink, as if they were choking on something. But that was when a maggot fell to the ground.

"Ew," Sal pulled back with a grimace, "What the hell is that?" he asked, before holding forward his finger. Thinking that it was some kind of bad attempt at an attack, he wanted to just crush the maggot from afar, but Eisen held his hand in front of him, stopping what he was trying to do.

The player continued coughing and fell onto their knees. Maggots began to burrow their way out of the player's skin, crawling out from under their clothes. In general, their body was practically decaying in front of everyone's eyes, turning on a sickly gray before darkening into a nectrotic black. The player finally collapsed, though they had been dead even before the coughing had stopped. Eisen was hesitant to investigate further, but he didn't even have to do so, as the perpetrator quickly stepped out of the remains of the building.

It was a young-looking man. Bright blue hair, a scar over the left eye, and two differently coloured eyes. He wore a mask over his face, carried a katana on his back, and a number of items on a belt slung around his torso. Even if Eisen hadn't known he was dealing with players before now, he would have realized by looking at him. The players often had rather... unique choices when it came to their appearance and the items they carried around. For most of them, it wasn't about efficiency, it was just what felt the most cool or fun. And it seemed as though the man in front of Eisen had a very particular view of 'fun'.

"Hast thou forsaken me, my brethren? How couldst thou dare disclose our secrets to such a vile foe?" the player said, and Eisen could immediately feel the stares of the kids on him.

"Eisen, why is he talking weird like that?" Caria asked, "He's an artificial, right?"

With a slight groan, the old man nodded his head, "Yeah, he's an artificial, alright. And a shockingly powerful one, at that."

Eisen glanced at the player's arm. It was completely wrapped up in thick bandages, but with his truth-seeing-eyes, he was able to see the disgusting, writhin curse underneath. He was clearly much stronger than the other players. It seemed like there was some kind of tier system; like not all players were given the same level of reward. Maybe the black dragon gave out different trials? Or somehow judged the player's performance as they beat the trial? Whichever it was, Eisen had to make sure that he got a good ability. But before then, he should take care of this guy.

"Listen, kid, I don't really care all too much about what kind of quest you're talking about. I'm going to find out sooner or later anyway, so if you don't want to tell me, I can just kill you right now and we can be done with it," Eisen rubbed the bridge of his nose. He really, really just wanted to get rid of these guys, establish something like a temporary base here to ensure that they couldn't just come back when he was gone.

"Silence! The great black dragon hast given us the chance to make a difference in this world! To rule over you simple men and become true deities walking amongst you!" the player yelled out, accompanied by a loud laugh. Judging from the other players' expressions, they found his behaviour just as embarrassing as Eisen did, "Now, reel in the knowledge that this is thine own fault!"

The player held his hand forward, throwing a wave of magic into Eisen's direction. He could feel the curse enter his body before he could even react, like a lightning bolt striking the ground. It dug its way through Eisen's body and right into his chest, solidly anchoring itself his flesh. The old man could feel something start digging through his muscles and fat. To other players, this probably just felt a little uncomfortable, but to Eisen it was truly like he could feel real maggots crawl through him. But... that didn't really matter to Esien. It was painful, but they didn't cause any actual damage. Each maggot was made up of a few points worth of HP, in the system's terms, that the curse stole from the inflicted. But... Eisen's natural recovery was faster than the damage they could do. Due to how strong his flesh was at this point, the maggots weren't spreading as fast as they did with that other player. In the end, Eisen could feel a few climb their way up his throat, but he had a very easy way to solve this entire thing.

The player started to let out a laugh that echoed out through the town, a laugh that he had clearly practiced extensively, "Dost thou realize what thou have done?! Thee have doomed this town, the feeble folk of this rotten land! Feast on my Curse of Infestation!"

A flash of light shone out as Eisen's entire body was enveloped in flames. The maggots were killed immediately, and with that, the curse seemed to be lifted. Eisen slowly turned off his demonic transformation, coughing out some bits of charcoaled maggots.

"Urgh, that's really disgusting."

"Huh?" the player let out, not sure of what they just saw.