VRMMORPG: The Other World Online

"Yaksha," the man in the mask said. "You might have heard of it?"

Cheng Xiu frowned. "It sounds familiar but…"

"So what is your name?" he asked her.

"Selafia," Cheng Xiu said with a shrug.

Yaksha froze. His eyes were trained on the girl in front of him. "What did you say your name was?"

"Selafia," Cheng Xiu said, a hesitant look in her eyes. "Why?"

The man stared at her for a long time and then shook his head. "Nothing…just curious. It is an interesting name."

"Thank you?" Cheng Xiu said.

"So what did you want to buy?" the man asked.

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Something that can heal me and get my powers back up."

He tilted his head to the side and took out a talisman from his storage ring.

He extended it towards her.

Cheng Xiu frowned and looked up at him. "This is…"

"It is a Reversing Talisman," the man said in a dull tone, "allows your body to be reversed to its previous state of being. But it can only be used once on a person. I had three…"

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Why are you giving this to me?"

"The things in the Nest are very dangerous to buy. You seem to be someone below Level 10, so it is better to not buy things from here."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "I haven't heard of such a thing before."

Yaksha looked at her for a moment. "Well…just take it."

Cheng Xiu shook her head. "I…don't know you…so…"

"Think of it as a Player's Bet then," the man said to her.

Cheng Xiu frowned. Something at the back of her mind was agitated at his words. Her hand grabbed the wrist of her other hand subcousiously.

Cheng Xiu blinked when she felt a cold touch on her wrist.

She pushed the sleeve up, revealing a thin hand with long boney fingers, and small wrist.

She was surprised to find a jade bracelet on it.

Yaksha froze. That…isn't that…

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

She frowned and looked up at him. Her gaze was unsure. "That…I think…someone gave it to me as a means to repay their Players Debt."

Yaksha considered her words.

"Yes," he said with a nod, "that seems to be the case."

"You believe me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

Cheng Xiu shrugged. She was not sure herself but this man, surprisingly, believed her.

She looked at the bracelet and then at the man before her. Did he give this to her?

Her instincts told her that this was the bracelet that she got from a Player Debt…so she and this man had a player Debt?

Yaksha could see the confusion in Cheng Xiu's eyes but he did not give her any explanation. "Please take it."

Cheng Xiu took it but did not use it.

He looked at her in confusion.

"I will keep this for when I feel like there is no other way but for now I would like to depend on just myself."

"You don't trust me?"

"I don't have a memory of you."

Yaksha gave it some thought and nodded. That did make sense. They were strangers who felt like the other is familiar. She was right to be cautious of the things he gave her. "So what are you doing in this dungeon?"

Cheng Xiu cocked her head to the side. "Wouldn't you know that too?"

The man shook his head. "I seemed to have forgotten what I was in this dungeon for or which dungeon this is."

Cheng Xiu thought about the details of the Quest. She could still remember it. So whatever it was that took her memories away did not take away her memories of the Quest. She wondered why it would only take away the memories of her meeting with the man then.

"Rat Dungeon of the Clock Tower," she said to him, "We have to kill two more Rat Counsellors and the two Rat Queens to be able to get out of the dungeon safely."

The man fell into deep thought. "Anything else?"

She blinked. "We are in Veritas?"

The man looked at her in surprise. "Veritas? What am I doing here?"

Cheng Xiu shrugged. How would she know such things?

The man frowned. "Isn't Veritas in the Vixia Dynasty? Aren't they at war with the Azure States?"

"Yes."

"What is the Quest rank?"

"S."

The man nodded. "That makes sense. And I can finally guess what I was going to buy in the Nest."

Cheng Xiu tilted her eyes in curiosity.

The man turned to the counter again and pressed the calling bell placed on one corner of it.

The frail looking woman ran out of the back room. "Yes?"

"I want a Suppressing Talisman, Rank S, with a range of 1 to 10."

The woman stared at him for a moment and then scowled. "Oh…are you sure you are not interested in any of these?"

The man just blinked at her.

"I will get it back to you," the woman grumbled. "It did not work. The queen said it would, but it did not work."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "That woman-"

"Is very kind and generous," Yaksha said to her.

Cheng Xiu looked at him in suspicion.

He pointed to the door of the Back room that was not fully closed.

Cheng Xiu's eyes widened. She realised that the NPC was listening in on their conversation.

"Do you think there is more than the two of us?" Yaksha asked her.

She was taken aback by the sudden questioning before shaking her head. "I don't know…I haven't had companions in a game for a long time, but if you are here…then chances are, there is at least one more."

The man nodded. Just as he had thought. "So we need to find our companion."

Cheng Xiu's eyes went to the barrels of wine in front of her, her thoughts agitated. "How? There is no one here except us."

"There was no one here except me before you can in out of no where," Yaksha said to her, his eyes trained on her masked features.

Cheng Xiu gave his words some thought. She understood his implication. The third member of their team might also be in a Quest area.

"Or they left," Cheng Xiu said, her thoughts taking a darker turn as she remembered the times when she was ambushed by her own teammates for Items and Equipment. "They might have been the person to do this thing to us."

Yaksha looked at her carefully. Her words just now was filled with a grievence that she was did not have before. What happened in all these years to turn her into this sort of a person who would not give a missing companion the benefit of the doubt?

"Are you sure?" he asked her. "What if that person is just waiting for us to rescue them instead?"

Cheng Xiu frowned. "There are too many What ifs."

"True," he said. "So I think we should at least try to locate the other. If that person is really the one who betrayed us, I can take care of it."

Cheng Xiu frowned. "But this on the hypothesis that we do have another person with us."

"Better safe than sorry."

"You are very kind," she said at last. Her thoughts had been selfish, wanting to just finish the quest and leave this game but Yaksha actually thought about a non-existent person and wanted to try to save them.

Yaksha gave her words some thought. "I don't think I am…but I do have a code. Those who are under my protection must be kept safe. And that unknown companion of ours falls into that category."

Cheng Xiu thought about it for a moment. If thought in that way…then that companion could be a friend that she had made online, regardless of how unlikely that seemed.

She ducked her head in guilt and shame. She was being really selfish for just wanting to not look of the person. It was the least that she could do for that person.

She smiled up at Yaksha, though he could not see it behind her white mask. "You are right. Lets see if we can find them. Do you have any clue?"

The man frowned. "If the person was someone who came with us, we should have traces of that person's Qi around us still. I will check it out."

Saying so, Yaksha closed his eyes.

The space under his long curled lashes started to glow with a eerie silver light.

The man frowned and blinked his eyes open.

Cheng Xiu looked at him in anticipation.

"Well?" she asked him.

The man nodded. "I can feel a third Qi among the two of us and the presence is close."

"How close?"

The man's eyes went to a blank wall on one corner.

"There…that was the last place that I could find that person's Qi could be found."

Cheng Xiu looked over in surprise. She thought of something as she saw the blank wall. "He must be fighting a Rat Counsellor."

Yaksha considered her words and nodded. "That is very likely."

"Here," a harsh voice said.

The Frail NPC woman had returned while they were distracted. She seemed upset as she handed the talisman over.

"Thank you," he said and tossed a small money pouch at her.

The woman's eyes widened and then she gave him a grin. "Thank you, Young Master. Do come often."

The man looked at the woman's greedy eyes and stepped away. "Perhaps."

The woman shivered and then turned to Cheng Xiu.

Realising what the woman wanted, Cheng Xiu stepped forwards and gave her a list of things that she wanted.

Two talismans and a 100 gold coins minus later, Cheng Xiu had recovered about 90% of her original strength.

The two walked to the blank wall among the wine barrels after that.