𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐒 || ready player one [DISCONTINUED]

0004 - 'The Captain's Aloft'

It takes less than a day for the news to spread. Though the gunter feeds are still clogged with the news of Parzival and now the famous Art3mis having found the Copper Key and clearing the Copper Gate, even the people who hadn't been around when I was at my peak are commenting on my return.

'The Captain's Aloft!' is the headline of one particular article and the following extract reads;

'When a black hovercraft plummeted from the roof of a parking lot on Neonior, all four doors open and the message 'Long Live The Queen!' scratched in the paintwork on the hood, the people who witnessed the fall didn't seem to give it a second thought. But after a very public execution on a very small and seemingly insignificant pirate-themed planet in Sector Twelve just a couple of hours ago, everything became clear.

The two avatars, Kit200 and LJSylver, were confronted on the docks of a town on the west side of Tortuga. None of those who have confessed to witnessing the event have been able to give any details of the verbal exchange, only that it didn't last very long before Captain Ak3l4 drew her weapon and fired.

Naturally, the question on everyone's minds is, if the long-awaited location of the Copper Key was what brought her out of hiding, will the infamous Pirate Queen be going after Halliday's egg?'

The post then goes on to analyse several pieces of video footage and a few of my blog posts that could hint at me being a gunter. Of course, I was a gunter, but only my crew members knew that.

☠

Something happens the next day, a stroke of luck that I did not expect. A rumour reaches my ears that Parzival and Aech are actually students on the planet Ludas. It never even occurred to me to look for the Tomb there.

I purchase and download a map of the planet and, sure enough, in one of the planet's many woodland areas is a mound with its features arranged to look like a skull. It'll be far too conspicuous to just land my ship in a field and walk across to the Tomb where anyone of the students could look out of the window and see me, so I keep both of my newly acquired ships miniaturized after landing on a nearby planet and find a transportation point to Ludas.

The terrain on Ludas is so open and flat, with very few places to hide. I can only hope that all of the students are paying attention in class. It takes me half an hour of running flat out before I reach the right patch of woodland, and even then I have to clamber through the trunks of the trees as there is no path.

However, when I reach the edge of a clearing, which on the opposite side is the entrance of the Tomb, there are already two avatars standing in the glade, blocking my path. They don't seem to have heard me approaching, so I slip behind a tree and draw two blasters. The two of them are talking between themselves, one dressed in full samurai gear, and the other in a ninja outfit, but their conversation is in Japanese so I don't understand a word of it. It doesn't matter though.

"Stop right there," I command, stepping out behind them and aiming a gun at each of their heads.

They turn quickly and the samurai reaches for his sword. I shake my head slowly and he stops.

"This is a non-PvP zone," says the ninja.

I laugh shorty. "This isn't a duel. This is an assassination. Unless you step aside now and let me pass."

"You killed your crew. How do we know that you won't try to kill us after we let you go?" says the samurai.

"Okay, first of all, they killed me first. And secondly, don't flatter yourselves; you don't have anything that I want."