Chapter 8

Anna woke up groggily, the effect of last night’s slosh fest still weighing heavily on her. Her unwillingness to get up from the couch was only aided by the fact that her head was throbbing, almost as if all the fluid in her brain was dying to burst out.

Anna tried to gather her bearings as best as she could, wondering how she would go through the rest of her day. The rest of her life even. Any purpose she had in life seemed to have been lost. She got up from the couch, stumbling over the furniture in an attempt to get to the kitchen.

That attempt proved futile, however, when her sight came across the picture on the mantle. That was all the impetus she needed to break down in sobs. Soon, her heart-wrenching sobs were accompanied by screaming, which was filled by curses and tirades.

“Fuck this world. Fuck this system. I want to go back to my life. My real life. Not this warped existence ... where I am so powerless, so weak, so utterly incapable of exacting revenge on people who have wronged me, people who killed...” That was all she could get out before her sobbing intensified at the thought of what she had lost.

Time stopped for no one though. Nor did hunger let go of anybody. And it was hunger which finally forced Anna to finally get up and fetch some food for herself. And it was while she was at the medieval restaurant, eating food that her stomach was ill-equipped to handle when she heard something strange.

“Can you believe this idiot?”, a man was saying to his companions who were sitting with him in their booth. Despite herself, she found herself listening to their conversation, just because he was too loud to ignore, really.

One of his companions replied, his tone equally boisterous, “Yeah. Right? The Bounty Hunter? I bet you this new system has addled with at least some people’s brains. There’s no other explanation for most of the bizarre things happening around here.”

The only lady sitting with them spoke up at this point. “You have to agree on one thing though. The ad is catchy. It draws attention. And that’s remarkable, especially on the dark, underground part of the web, where people literally beg for attention.”

The one who had started this whole conversation replied, “I guess. I mean it does have a certain horrific charm to it. ‘Want to rid this world of annoying pests that exist only to hinder your plans and ruin your life? Look no further. Contact the Bounty Hunter and he will get rid of anyone for you. For the right price, of course.’ Nice, concise and clean. To the point, really. I wonder...”

That was all Anna heard as she got up to exit the restaurant. That sounded like another fool with delusions of grandeur. Bounty hunter? Just another selfish, entitled human being who wanted to step up in this world after walking over others’ corpses. Just like ... them.

Anna went home, the desolate dump that it was, looking to get some sleep which would hopefully cure this headache that had afflicted her. She fell on the same couch she had vacated just an hour ago, looking to sleep and escape this world once more. Maybe, in her dreams, she would finally see him again.

Her brains, though, had other plans. Sleep evaded her. Her mind kept replaying the scene of that day. To take her mind off the matter, she found herself on the forums, looking for something to distract her.

That was when the conversation from the restaurant came back to her. In spite of herself, she found herself curious regarding the mentioned advertisement.

Getting to the dark side of the forums was no small feat though, especially for a person like her, who hadn’t yet had any cause to trudge through that section of the forum before. It was after a good half an hour that she finally found herself able to access the underground section of the forums. It was yet another fifteen minutes after which she found the advertisement posted by this rumoured ‘Bounty Hunter’. It seemed like others too had dismissed his ad as just another player blowing his trumpet and offering services way above his pay grade.

She had to admit that the advertisement did have the desired ring to it. Just reading the advertisement brought her mind back to the dreaded events her mind kept going back to. Against all odds, she found herself curious. And dare she say it, a tad hopeful.

Could this be the thing she was looking for? Could this ... Bounty Hunter ... actually accomplish what he claimed? Could this be her opportunity for vengeance? For closure? A way for her to move on in life?

Rebelling against all the voices in her mind that were saying that this was stupid, she found herself clicking on the link provided by this self-proclaimed Bounty Hunter and sent him a message.

“Interesting!”

That was the reaction I had when I read the request that I had received in my inbox. Only my third employer ever. Potentially. The request was particularly specific and also wanted me to violate one of my personal commandments regarding my ... business.

The case sounded interesting though. And work was slow since my business was fairly new. So I was willing to hear this potential employer out.

Looking through the message once more, I tried to decide how to proceed with it.

“I don’t know if I should be doing this or if your advertisement even holds any merit to it. But you might be literally my last hope. So, I have a request to make of you. I want you to destroy a guild. A fledgling guild, still in its infancy. It has only three members at the current moment. I would like you to do this as quickly as possible as they are actively recruiting new members. I don’t want any innocent party to come to harm because of my personal vendetta, just because they were recruited by this guild.

P.S.: In case it isn’t clear, when I say destroy the guild, I mean I want you to kill all of its current members. And I know this goes against one of your rules but I would like to take back one of my possessions from their watches.

Contact me if you can accomplish this. Else, delete this message and forget this ever happened.”

Those last few sentences of the message had me in splits. Although the message said it was a request, it had made more demands than actual requests. If nothing else, I had to respect the gall of this person. In my mind, I had no choice but to reply.

“I am interested. Let’s talk.”

The reply was almost instantaneous, almost as if the person had been waiting for my reply with bated breath.

“Do you agree with my stipulation?”

I replied, “That depends. On what you want from the watches.”

This time, I had to wait for a few minutes for a reply. It seems like the person was undecided about whether to divulge the information to me.

“It’s not equipment or a weapon. What I want is a plain platinum ring. Nothing more. If you can’t agree to this condition, I can’t employ you.”

Hmm, interesting. A personal artifact, holding emotional value perhaps. I could live with that. I replied quickly, giving my consent to the stipulation.

I wrote, “Now that we are agreed on the condition, why don’t you tell me your name? It would be nice to know the name of my employer, after all.”

Again, the person took some time to reply. And it was a short one.

“You can call me Anna.”

That had my eyebrows raised. That almost sounded like a real name.

“My, my. Am I needlessly excited or di you just give me your real name? Are you that naïve, Anna? You do know what happens should anyone you don’t trust know your real name, right?”

She replied much quicker this time. “You are right. That’s my real name. And I don’t care. In fact, I am hoping you can make use of my real name and finish me off too, once you have completed my task.”

That dampened my excitement somewhat. A suicidal employer. And here I was hoping for some fun. I just sighed to myself before replying, “So, the name of the guild?”

“Ark raiders.”

What a completely unimaginative name. even my victims were losing their appeal now that I was gaining more information.

“It will be done, Anna.”

Before I could switch off my watch though, I received another message.