Chương 2: Strange Toy

I grabbed Hanz's hand and pulled him towards me. He stumbled forward.

"Wha-What are you doing?" I turned around, exchanging our locations, then let go of his hand. He stumbled to the other end of the room.

"I just saw your hand and felt like pulling it."

"Huh? How about you take my hand on your face." Arrgh, so cringe. The cringe volt travelled through my spine as I criss-crossed my legs to narrowly dodge his fist. I traced his arm with my fingers, and my other hand went to his waist on its own.

"Umm…sorry, I don't swing that way."

"I don't either." I squeezed his sides hard enough to feel those tight muscles. I was not strong enough to get through his skin using my fingers, but the force was enough to make him scream and squeal. That's when I smashed my knee into his belly, which made him spit out bile and drop on the floor, clenching it.

"You…You will pay for th-this," He said.

"You can pay me back when you get out of here."

"Huh? What do you mean? Hey, hey, don't lock me here." I closed the iron door and locked it from the outside. It could only be locked from outside, as intended to keep the kids in; right now, it would keep Hanz in.

"Hey, Clark, come on, open up, I was just joking with you. We are friends, you wouldn't leave me here to die, will you?" No, we weren't friends, and no, he won't die either. RRW-Guild always moved in parties of fours to gang up on solos. They must have separated to find their next target. When Hanz won't come back, they will come looking for him. Will they come for me later? Absolutely, but who cares, not like they were not targeting me already.

"If you are afraid of the dark, there's a flashlight on the bed you can use. No need for thanks, because that's what friends do."

"Fuck you Clark. Once I get out of here, I will come find you. You'd better dig a hole and hide in it."

"Yeah, yeah, I will be waiting for you." I waved my hand while leaving, not that he could see it. I did hear him spewing some curses at me. I summoned my Lindy Hop card. Was it because of this that I grabbed Hanz's hand, pulled it, crossed my legs to dodge and went to grab his waist? Interesting, then I used MMA to kick him. The MMA card came on my other hand. I wonder what would happen if I were to merge these two. Before curiosity could get the best of me, I desummoned both cards.

Losing my strongest combat ability was not a good idea. I needed to experiment more with Skillmerge before using valuable cards, and for experimenting, I needed more cards. Three ways to get more cards. First, I steal it from other riftwalkers like Hanz was trying to. That, of course, goes against my ethics. Second, I can try buying them from the market, and for that, I need money. Which I don't. I survive by eating cup noodles, I don't have the money to buy any skillcards.

Third is exploring more of the rifts, and that's exactly what I intended to do. New area unlocked Playground To stay healthy, kids need to go out and play, but the kids here can't leave this facility due to their circumstances. This playground was made to mimic the feeling of playing outside. Recorded in the Akashic system in the year 13525. The chamber was wide and open. The walls had been painted in blue and white to give the illusion of an open sky. Fake grass was laid upon the floor.

Slides, swings, see-saws, sand pool, merry-go-round, there was everything a kid desired to play with when they went to an actual playground. But the most important thing was missing; there were no kids. No one swung on the swings, and slid down the slides, no one sat on the see-saw or merry-go-round. No kids made a castle in the sand pit. It was empty.

"Haha, hehe, HAHA, hehehe" The sound of kids' laughter echoed all around me. It became particularly loud on my left. I turned but found no one. Suddenly it felt like someone was laughing near my right ear. I jumped away. I could see no one. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. At last the sound came from above me. I looked up. A strange creature was there. It had four spider-like legs, using which it hung upside down.

It had three clay doll heads, each with a different type of crack. Its body of a horse, a wooden horse to be exact. It had no arm, no tail. It looked dirty and scary, something a kid would run away from. Yet it was a kid's favourite toy. Strange Toy All of Lania's toys were broken by the other kids. When the adults refused to give her more, and the other kids kept breaking any she got, she decided to take the broken toys and make one herself. Something so terrifying that other kids wouldn't even dare to touch it.

It worked; other kids stopped picking on her and destroying her toys, but as a result, the only friend she had started thinking of her as a stranger and stopped talking to her. But Lania did not care because she had her strange toy, and she was happy with it. Recorded in the Akashic system on year 13532. Strange Toy unclutched its legs, spun while falling and landed on the floor as if it were a routine. I unsheathed my sword and took a stance.

It wasn't like guns didn't work inside rifts, or they were useless against the creatures of the rifts. It was simply because guilds hoarded the guns for their low rankers, leaving nothing for solos like me. Then they dared to charge an abysmal fee for it or tricked you into signing a slave contract for them. Using a sword was much cheaper, versatile and cooler. I could feel like a high ranker, because they alone did more damage than a thousand armed men could.

"HAHAHAHA, let's play. Let's play," The abysmal doll snickered, all its heads making a different sound. I was not afraid of it. Riftpedia had classified it as a copper rank creature, though it was still not recommended for a copper rank like me to fight it solo, but I had read all the articles related to it. Saw all the tutorial videos there were. While I wouldn't get out unscathed, I was fairly confident in beating it. All for the 10% chance it carried of dropping a copper skillcard, and 0. 2% for a silver card.

It had only dropped that once, and I was super lucky today after finding a diamond skillcard where I shouldn't have. So, maybe that luck will persevere, and I will gain my first silver skillcard too. The doll moved towards me, but it was slow; that was its weakness, but that wasn't what made it a copper rank creature. I circled it and stopped right behind.

"Are we playing Hide-and-seek? Hahaha, I love that." Its biggest weakness was that even after possessing three heads, it had a 10-degree wide gap behind it. If you went there, it started the hide-and-seek sequence.

"Okay, you hide first, and I will count till thirty. One, two" That's what made it the first and the easiest monster in this rift, and with its 10% copper card drop rate, it was the most hunted monster in the early days, though rarely anyone came here nowadays. They can buy better skillcards, which saves them time and effort. But this was perfect for people like me who were tight on budget. I climbed on top of it, moved through its wooden back to reach its head.

"Sixteen, seventeen." The damn doll was cheating; it never closed its eyes and was constantly looking around the playground.

"Eighteen, nineteen." I stabbed my sword into its neck. The doll let out a gasp as my sword came out the other side of its neck. I moved my sword, severing half of its neck. The other half couldn't carry the weight of its three heads. Cracks formed on its surface, and it fell. The three heads fell on the floor, cracking down even more. I jumped down and moved away before its massive body could fall on me, burying me beneath.

I looked at the three doll faces; all three had the same face, carrying different expressions. Grief, rage, and longing. The whole body glowed blue and started evaporating. Ten seconds later, there was nothing left. Nothing.

"Noo, where is my card?" I cry out. Even with 10% drop rate, I was unlucky enough to not get the card.

"Even the scraps were not dropped. Now, I will need to wait ten minutes before it respawns." I sighed and left the area for the respawn timer to start. Looks like I used up all my luck when I got the diamond skillcard. It took me seventeen tries. Out of which, ten times I wasn't fast enough to get behind it, and it locked onto me, and I had to take some injuries. About six hours just to get this one skillcard. And the worst thing, another party came, hunted the doll for two hours, and got two skillcards.

I hunted for four hours and got one card. ONE. At least the card was a decent one. Snicker Goblins were vile creatures; with their undeveloped vocal cords, they could not talk, only grunt. They started using their vile sound as weapons. They laughed at their enemies' faces, which made their ears bleed. Recorded in the Akashic system on year 9543. Snicker lets the wielder laugh annoyingly. Umm, at least the story is good. Let me try it once.

I took a long and deep breath, "HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE" I snickered like a hyena, the sound was so annoying that anyone listening would lunge at me to shut me up. I read about this card on Riftpedia. It works the same for allies and enemies, hence useless in a party, and the enemy is already locked onto you if you are solo. So, practically useless in combat. I reached for my fanny pack and took out my watch. It was scratched and bent in so many places from all the jumping and rolling I did.

The lid snapped open with a movement of my finger, and I looked at what numbers the hands rested. 18: 27 It's already been more than ten hours since I entered this rift. I could hunt more.

"Ahh," I looked at my leg. I had a cut on my thigh, cutting through my jeans. I got it when the doll got me once.

"Looks like the painkiller has worn off." I pulled an aluminum can from my fanny pack; it smelled of sweets, but it was really just painkillers. I slid one on my palm and gulped it. The medicine kicked in a couple of seconds later, and the pain subsided.

"I should go back," I turned around to trace my steps back to the exit, but something I didn't want to encounter right now stood there.

"Were you the one snickering like that, Clark?" Hanz asked. He stood blocking the exit, arms crossed. Three more stood beside him whose names I did not know.

"I thought you would have left already, you know, I was still there, locked just two hours ago."

"Did you sleep well?"

"That I did," He unsheathed his bastard sword. The one on his left had a mace, one strike from it and my bones will become dust. The other two got their spears aimed at me.

"Now I will make you sleep permanently."

"Nope," I turned around super fast, it must have been one of the moves from Lindy Hop. I ran as fast as I could towards the other side of the playground. Deeper into the dungeon.