Rick opened PHUK as he got ready for bed. It was Friday night and the servers had just come back online today after being shut down for a week. He smiled as he put on the TIS anticipation running through him. He had downloaded the patch earlier and had changed his main toon's job to the new "enforcer." They were high level players and were the ones that had pledged to play for a hundred hours or more a month. That would be easy for Rick since he regularly played over two hundred hours a month. He had learned a little secret about the TIS which not many knew or even considered. The whole suit was designed to put the person into a deep sleep and connect the brain directly to the game. This creates the very realistic game world from the toon's perspective. Most gamers never considered this as they tended to choose characters that were fairly close to human and the same sex as they were. Rick's main toon was a female Changeling which was neither the same sex nor human-like in it's natural form of a blob that looked like liquid gold or silver depending on the sex, gold for the females and silver for the males. They start off with being able to assume the form of an imp and they learn to assume more forms as they level. He was glad that he hadn't lost Listeta when the hack had occurred and that no one had played as her. Rick laid down in his bed to begin the night's adventure.
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Listeta was seated in the tavern waiting for Charles2012 to join her. Charles had chosen to be human and male of course. When the kingdom had come under attack he had decided to be some sort of law enforcement and had a high enough level to become an enforcer which he eagerly applied for and got. Currently Listeta was in her human form which was that of an 18 year old girl.
A female elf stumbled into the tavern and said, "Don't go outside of town. There's a high level player-killer out there targeting low level players and he takes the bodies of those he kills."
Listeta grew angry at this. While it wasn't against the rules for a high level player to kill a low level player it was in poor sport. Those players usually couldn't kill someone close to their own level and wanted to feel big so they killed the low level players who usually didn't have a chance. Before she could say anything though an orc came in and said, "The player-killer just took a little girl who had wandered out of town. He said he was going to have a little fun with her."
"Did the little girl have a child tag?" Listeta asked her voice carrying the anger she felt.
"She did," the orc said. "The player-killer also had the same tag as you do."
"HE WHAT!?!" Listeta bellowed rising from her seat. "Have you already filed an abuse report?"
"Of course," the orc said. "I included all I could."
"Take me to the spot where he took the girl from," Listeta said moving toward the door. Looking over her shoulder she told the rest of the tavern, "If you see Charles2012 tell him that Listeta is going after an apparent rogue enforcer and that she's pissed."
"He took her from here," the orc said after a few minutes of hard running. "I heard that enforcers were supposed to be the top law enforcement for PHUK."
"We are supposed to be which is why I'm really pissed," Listeta said with a scowl. "That guy better hope that his account gets frozen before I get to him or he's going to be in a world of hurt." She said a couple of mystic words and a bright light surrounded her. When it went out a hell hound had replaced the human girl she had been.
"I think I'll go back into the village now," the orc said going pale. He then took off running as fast as he could stumbling as he went.
Listeta couldn't blame him for being scared since hell hounds were powerful monsters that were as big as orcs. Most players wouldn't dream of taking on a hell hound by themselves and it was usually a party of high level players. Changlings though needed to defeat an opponent of the species they wanted to be able to change into and were often encouraged to take on those several levels above their own. She had gotten lucky in defeating a hell hound though it nearly killed her. Shaking her head she turned back to the task at hand. She sniffed the ground and picked up the fresh scent of the girl and her abductor. Now that she knew what their scent was like she could track it and catch up to them hopefully before that ass did anything to the girl. She took off running as hard as she could taking full advantage of the hell hound's speed and stamina.
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Charles2012 walked into the tavern Listeta had just left a few minutes before. He looked around but didn't see her here like she was supposed to be. Shrugging he figured she had gone to a store to sell a couple of things. "Has anyone seen someone named Listeta?" he asked addressing the tavern at large.
"She was here," a female elf answered looking a bit shaken. "Are you Charles2012 by any chance?"
"I am," Charles said nodding. "Did she say where she was going?"
"She said she was going after an apparent rogue enforcer and that she's pissed," the elf said.
"No no no no," Charles said shaking his head. "Please tell me you didn't just say a rogue enforcer."
"She said an apparent rogue enforcer," the elf said.
Charles sat down at a table and put his head in his hands. If there was a rogue enforcer it would just add fuel to the fire and PHUK might not survive. He looked up at a magic window showing Doubt. It was closer than it was a week ago and would be getting a lot closer with news of a rogue enforcer. After a few minutes an orc came in looking shook up and went up to the bar saying, "Give me the strongest stuff you have. That lady scared me shitless."
"A human scaring an orc," the elf said laughing. "Now I've seen everything."
"She wasn't human," the orc said shaking. "She turned into a hell hound right in front of me."
Everyone just froze with fear on their faces. It looked like everyone had either seen a hell hound in action or had heard stories about them. Finally the elf said, "I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard. I haven't heard of a human becoming a hell hound though."
"Listeta isn't human," Charles said chuckling. "She's a changeling and she defeated a hell hound on her own to gain that form."
"Impossible," the elf said her jaw hanging down. "It takes a party of high level players to defeat a hell hound and even then it's not a sure thing."
"Well that's the only way for a changeling to acquire a new form," Charles said. "I watched her defeat the hell hound though I thought I was going to have to take her dead body to a shrine to resurrect her. As it was she just barely survived."
"Well I hope that she gets to that enforcer before he can play with that little girl," the orc said shuddering. "Mind you I don't want to think what she'll do to him when she catches him."
"Did the little girl have a child tag?" Charles asked.
"She did," the orc confirmed.
"Oh great," Charles said dropping his head into his arms on the table. An enforcer that's a child molester would almost be sure to doom PHUK.