The End (part 1)

ＧＴＡＩＶｉｓｂｅｓｔ §f§r §l §0§lＴｈｅ ｅｎｄ §r §n ᴀ ＮＡＰＦ ʙᴏᴏᴋ §r§o ᴘʀɪɴᴛᴇᴅ ʙʏ §f§r KYFG Publishing

§lI. §rThe still, dusty air of the appartment was ruptured by the sound of a logging player. A nameplate appeared behind the wooden wall and stayed still for a moment. The familiar sound of creaking wood was heard as

the man penetrated the living room of the appartment. The wooden floors beneath him complained slightly as he made his way to the kitchen to peer out of the window overlooking the street. Some children playing in the craters of the road. A few stragglers.

After a few seconds of this, seemingly convinced, he backed off, walked to the food chest, popped the lid, and found what he was looking for. Munching on a piece of bread, he left the kitchen. As he made his way back to his bedroom, he flicked the radio

on as he rummaged through chests, picking out pieces of dented iron and diamond armour. The voice on the other side of the radio was heated, angry. "§oWe must protect our people, our state, our bretheren! The injustices comitted...§r" The man was slipping

into the worn-out armour. He then pulled out a shiny, glinting sword, and holstered it onto his back. Standing up, he shut the radio off and walked to the opposite side of the room. The door opened, creaked, was shut, and stillness overwhelmed once more.

As he stepped outside a ray of piercing sunlight from behind the clouds caught him in the face, and he squinted. Answering the calls of "Hey, Nzucco", he started making his way down the roads towards downtown, carefully avoiding the griefed-out craters in

the street. Turning the corner and passing a couple of shuttered, broken buisnesses, he saw the still-majestic skyline of Mount Augusta ahead. He entered downtown and passed the Gay Bar, which he noted was still closed. "Never have I seen that place

open since it was firebombed during the revolution..." he his attention back to the road. A crowd of poorly dressed peasants and merchants were standing on Washington street. There was a commotion of sorts. Nzucco approached quietly from behind to

peer to the street, where a procession of diamond clad soldiers in Prot with glinting diamond swords were marching past the dusty marketplace. "§oVictory is upon us§r", they were chanting. "§oRkWildCard is free, Myra will burn§r". The procession made it's

Way towards the portal as the voices grew more distant. "Damn vault breakers", muttered a merchant next to him, dressed in a leather tunic. "Just the HCF in disguise". Farthur up the street, the chanting grew louder and yells could be heard. He hastened

his pace and walked on, pushing past hawkers and vendors selling their wares on the road. "§oBottle your XP here!§r"... "§oSelling birtch wood! Imported directly from the Northern continent...§r". Nzucco pushed deeper into the crowd into the Grand Bazaar.

§lII. §rThe Augustan Grand Bazaar was busy, crowded and dusty, usual for a Saturday evening. All around Nzucco, people were jostling each other, checking shop chests, and bargaining on prices with the

shopkeepers. One could find almost everything in such a place, everything from building materials to XP, to the more shady potion buisness which involved discreet deals in alleyways and large amounts of diamonds changing hands. Most of the shop chests had

their prices in iron. Mt Augusta wasn't a very rich city, after all. Even though the Bazaar was crowded, it was not as bustling as it might have been a month prior. Most Augustans knew better than to get together in large groups, or to attract too much

attention. Terrorist attacks still happened almost daily "death circle", the area directly around Mt. Augusta's nether portal. Nzucco's memory was still fresh from time when, three days ago, an small HCF squad surrounded the Augustan Ministry of Commerce

and lit the building on fire, trapping dozens of office workers inside, slaying them if they attempted to escape. Nzucco knew it was better not to think of such things. He also tried to convince himself that he would never go out without a fight, although

in reality he knew he would probably come face to face with the red screen and the letters "§oYou Died§r" before he would know what was going on. Finally he arrived in wool section and made his way towards the shop he recognized. As he got close, the

shopkeeper lifted his head and beamed at him. "Eh! Oh! Nzucco! How's it going man?", he greeted. They slapped their fists together like old friends. "Good to see you again, ThierryTremblay. Can I come in?". The shopkeeper assented, and they both entered

into the building. Inside, it was dark. Thierry hit the lightswitch but nothing hapenned, and he swore under his breath. "Merde! Someone's probably messed with the redstone wiring again... Oh, it doesn't matter. Here NZ, take a chair". They both sat down.

"Here, I made some this morning", said Thierry as he took a bottle out from a nearby chest and gave it to Nzucco. He identified the clearish opaque liquid as a speed potion. "One of my paintings broke", grimaced Nzucco after downing the bottle. "I was

hoping you'd have more white wool". Thierry nodded, but seemed preoccupied by something else. "Say, you've heard the latest developments on the bannings? It's some pretty heavy shit, man". Nzucco looked up, perplexed. "I heard on the mumble that fucking

RKWildCard himself is banned. Matticus suspects foul play". "No!" "I swear to ttk2, I heard it just an hour ago. The talk stations are alight with it". Nzucco looked down. "That makes a whole lot of angry people, I suppose". Thierry pulled out a clock

and glanced at the time. "Oula! It's already late afternoon, and I need to meet with my supplier to get the new arrivals of stock. How about we meet up later? ...What was it you wanted again? Ah yes..." his voice faded away as he entered another room, and

the sound of a chest opening could be heard as he fetched wool. He came back with a smile on his face. "Here, this one's on the house, 'cause you're such a bro". He tossed the wool. "Thanks Theirry, I'll get back to you soon... I gotta go too". Nzucco

left the small supply hut and re-emerged into the outside world. Taking a right, he left the busy market and started to head home, wool in hand. As he walked home, he saw some graffiti on the side of a building. It read "§oThe map reset is near-repent§r".

§lIII. §rNzucco awoke with a start. Suddenly awake, he layed still in his bed, listening. After a few seconds, he closed his eyes again but heard a distant yell from somewhere outside the appartment. Another yell

answered it, farther. Then, a few seconds later, a distant explosion. Nzucco shut his eyes tight and swore. "Not another fucking nightime raid". He sat up in his bed and looked around his darkened room. Silence for a while, then another yell, closer.

Getting up, slightly groggy, he went to the switch and flipped it. Nothing hapenned. Swearing again, he pushed open the door and walked towards his kitchen. The main room was bathed in dim moonlight from outside, so he could barely make out the shapes of

his furnature. Penetrating the kitchen, he tried the lightswitch there too which failed. Frustrated, he made his way to the window, and almost immediately jumped back when he saw what was hapenning outside of it. "Holy shit!". Smoke was pouring out of the

shop accross the street and flames were licking at the building. He stumbled back into the obscurity, stubbing his toe, just as another explosion, this one closer, rattled the building. Quickly, Nzucco went to the radio in the living room, fumbling with

knobs. The sound of static filled the room, and after trying a few different channels, without success, he shut the radio off. Edging his way back to his darkened room, he dressed up hastily in his armour and grabbed his sword; and then shifted the large

chest out of the way a bit to reveal a small, hidden, hollowed panel. Opening it, he carefully retrieved a few potions and an ender pearl from the cache and stuffed them in his pockets. He hurried out, left his appartment, and made his way to the empty

lobby. He tried the lobby lights with no success before making his way to the door and tentatively stepping outside. The first thing that hit him was the acrid smell of burning wood. He was suddenly aware of people on the street, running in and out

of the shadows, yells coming from here and there. The streetlights were out too. Citywide outage, he thought. This is serious. Trying to stay hidden, he made his way towards the neighboring appartment block. From his vantage point, he could see a crowd of

people surrounding the burning shop down the road. They seemed to be looting it. "Jesus Christ", Nzucco muttered before slipping into the lobby. He made out a small source of light, a torch fastened on the reception desk. Right as he took a step forward,

he felt a hand reach out and grab his face. Panicking, he reached for his sword and tried to scream, before turning around and coming face to face with his assailant. The grip on his face relaxed, and his hand went away from his sword. "Christ, Siriann",

Nzucco gasped, recognizing his neighbor. "What the hell is going on?" Siriann was visibly shaken. "The... it's the god-damned hackers, they've covered 0,0 in diamond blocks, I... there's rioting everywhere, people are saying it's the end." Nzucco

swallowed forcefully. "What? The end of what? Of the map?" "Maybe... I don't know, I just logged on and people were burning shit left and right- We have to get out of here". Siriann ran back to the lobby counter and grabbed a small box. "Do you have

potions?" Nzucco felt through his pockets. "Yeah, I got a few.. not a lot, and my armour's shit." Siriann grabbed his arm and pushed him towards the door. "We'll have to stay hidden then. Come on. We have to get out of the city at all costs". They exited

the lobby through a small side door, silently, swords drawn. As they stepped out into the crisp acrid night air, they saw the skyline of Mt. Augusta burning vividly in the night sky, the light of lava-covered skyscrapers radiating into the black night all

around. Fires were burning from all the neighborhoods, the smoke mingling and drifting in the night sky as an explosion obliterated the last three floors of the Trading Company building. Nzucco gasped. "Holy fucking shit". "I need to get my stuff-".

Siriann cut him off. "Don't. They'll torch these blocks next. Don't even bother with the money, I don't think it means shit now..." The sound of glass breaking nearby made him suddenly freeze. "We need to get to a safe place at all costs.. I know a place.

It's in North Side". Siriann moved away, and called after his friend. "C'mon NZ, let's go!". Nzucco shook his head and ran after Siriann as they jumped a fence and cut through some gardens. After a while, they arrived at a larger road, where there was

still some streetlights that were working. From their hidden vantage point, they could see a group of people gathered at a nearby intersection. They were surrounding someone who was tied up on the road, screaming and begging. "Quick", said Siriann, "Cross

on my mark". They both quickly sprinted accross the street undedected, as the begging scream became a scream of death and pain. Nzucco grimaced and ran faster. At last, they jumped another fence and arrived into a small, deserted courtyard. Dawn was just

beginning to rise. "Hold up, let me check my map", said Siriann as he pulled a small paper from his pocket. He went to sit down at a bench while Nzucco looked off into the alleyway leading to a street, listening to the faraway yells and shouts. Suddenly,

he saw a diamond-clad figure run in front of the alleyway. Then another. Running backwards he grabbed Siriann. "Quick! Get inside... it's HCF!". They scrambled towards a store and tried the door, locked. Siriann grabbed a rock and smashed the window.

They jumped inside and hit the ground just as the diamond-clad posse entered the courtyard, shouting. This time, there was no unified chant. "§oGet the fucking shops! We'll burn everything!§r". Laughter followed. Then the sound of glass shattering, a

torch being thrown. Siriann peeked out from their cover. "Wait a second.. I recognise some of them. They aren't HCF... holy shit, those guys are WP!" Nzucco sunk farther behind the shelves of canned goods and shut his eyes tight. "§oIt's the end."§r