KIERAN
The screaming got louder.
I spun around trying to locate the source but it echoed off the volcanic rocks and seemed to come from everywhere at once. Other players materialized around me as the game finished spawning everyone into their starting zones. Most of them looked confused, staring at the red error messages still flashing across our vision.
A voice boomed across the entire world. It was deep and masculine.
"Attention all beta testers. We are experiencing technical difficulties with the neural link system. The logout function has been temporarily disabled. Please remain calm while our team resolves the issue. The estimated time to resolution is unknown."
"Unknown?" A girl next to me grabbed my arm. She was an elf, tall with silver hair and a bow strapped to her back. "What does unknown mean?"
I shook my head. Around us players were panicking, shouting, trying to open menus that would not respond. Someone was crying. The error messages kept flashing.
"PAIN RECEPTORS ACTIVE."
That line kept repeating. Pain receptors. I thought about the Hellspawn bite on my arm, how real it had felt. My stomach twisted.
Then a player fell.
He had been standing too close to the cliff edge and stumbled backward in his panic. Just tripped over his own feet. It should have been nothing. A minor mistake. Respawn at the checkpoint and laugh it off.
He fell screaming and hit the lava below.
The sound he made was not a game sound. It was the sound of someone actually burning alive. High pitched and horrible and it went on for way too long before cutting off abruptly.
What the hell…
No respawn notification. No "You Died" screen. Just silence.
The elf girl started hyperventilating. "Oh god. Oh god that was real. Did you see that? That was real pain."
"Everyone needs to calm down." A warrior type stepped forward, trying to take charge. "It's a glitch. They will fix it. Just stay away from hazards until the devs patch whatever went wrong."
I wanted to believe him. I wanted to think this was a technical problem that would get solved in the next ten minutes. But I kept thinking about that email, the smell of burning flesh and the screams.
This was not an accident.
Movement caught my eye. Figures approaching from the north. I squinted through the heat shimmer and my blood went cold.
NPC guards. Six of them in formation wearing polished armor and carrying spears. They marched with purpose toward our group.
The warrior who had been trying to calm everyone down stepped forward. "Hey! NPCs! We need help. There's a system error and we can't log out. Can you direct us to a safe zone or a GM?"
The lead guard did not slow down. He pointed his spear directly at me.
"Demon filth! You are outlawed in Elarion!"
Every guard drew weapons. They were not looking at the warrior. They were looking at me.
The elf girl stumbled backward. "What? Why are they attacking him?"
I raised my hands. "Wait. I'm a player. This is a character class. I'm not actually a demon."
"KILL THE DEMON!"
They charged.
I dove to the side as a spear stabbed where I had been standing. The other players scattered, screaming. One guard grabbed a demon player I had not noticed before, a guy who looked barely eighteen, and ran him through with a sword.
The kid looked down at the blade sticking out of his chest. "No. No this can't be real. I can't die. I can't actually die. WHY AM I FEELING THIS?!"
His body pixelated and dissolved. Where he had been standing a message appeared in red letters floating in the air.
[PLAYER DELETED]
Not "killed." Not "defeated." Deleted.
"RUN!" Someone shouted.
I ran.
The guards chased me and two other demon players into the wastes. Behind us I heard more screaming as NPCs attacked anyone with demon class markers. The world had gone insane. This was supposed to be a game. A beta test. You did not actually die in games.
I sprinted between obsidian pillars and jumped over streams of lava, my new body responding faster than my real one ever could. Behind me the guards were shouting in a language I somehow understood.
"The demon must not escape! The Enforcer demands their eradication!"
One of the other demon players fell behind. He was older, maybe forty, and kept gasping. "I can't. I can't breathe. My heart."
The guards caught him. I did not look back but I heard the sound of steel on flesh and his scream cutting short.
[PLAYER DELETED]
Just me and one other demon now. A girl with dark skin and white hair who ran like an athlete. We ducked into a narrow canyon and pressed against the rocks, trying to catch our breath.
"What the hell is happening?" She whispered. "Why are they killing us?"
"Demon class. It said we would be hunted. I thought it meant game mechanics. Not actual murder."
"This is insane. We need to find other players. There's safety in numbers."
She peeked around the corner and went pale. "Oh no."
I looked.
The sky had darkened even more and something was descending from the crimson clouds. A figure in black armor that seemed to absorb light. It had massive wings that spread from his back, not feathered but made of something that looked like solidified shadow. He landed in the center of a group of demon players who had clustered together for safety.
A nameplate appeared above his head.
The Enforcer. Level 50.
He drew a sword that burned with white fire.
"Demons corrupt this world."
His voice was not loud but it carried across the entire zone. Every player froze and looked toward him.
"Your existence is a blight. You will be purged."