Interlude:

Stine scowled as a group of men approached him and the door he was guarding. They were all wearing military style fatigues, or at least, what they seemed to think were military style clothes. He doubted that any of them had actually served.

“Another militia group,” Stine muttered in annoyance. There were five of them in this particular group, all of them showing a swagger that they hadn’t earned.

“Fucking NPCs,” Jag said from beside Stine.

Jag was a petite black woman with short black hair and glowing tribal style tattoos scattered across her body. He had no idea what any of them meant, and he was pretty sure that Jag didn’t either since they’d been there when she respawned.

“Look at them,” Jag muttered. “Thinking they’re all that when I could kick all their asses by myself.”

Stine grunted without commitment. He didn’t disagree, though he knew that Jag’s attitude was about more than the fact that this group looked a bit cocky.

Some people who respawned as players developed a bit of an attitude about it, thinking that coming back from the dead and having magic power made them special. Of course it did, but some players, like Jag, took it too far and let it go to their heads. They sometimes developed a contempt for anyone who wasn’t a player too.

“You guard the door,” Stine told Jag. “I’ll take them inside for the meeting.”

“Got it,” Jag agreed.

“You’re expected,” Stine told the men as they approached. “Right this way.”

“You think those two are players?” one of the men whispered to his friends. Stine had slotted a couple points into perception, so he had no problem hearing them.

“She’s got to be,” the other man responded in an equally quiet voice. “Did you see those glowing tattoos?”

Stine continued to listen to their speculation but didn’t actually respond. Instead, he led them inside the building and to the back room where Frank was waiting, sitting behind a desk with a patient expression.

The visitors stopped and stared at Frank, obviously confused. One of them said, “I thought we were meeting someone named Frank.”

“I’m Frank,” Frank responded, obviously amused by their reactions, especially since most people reacted the same way.

Frank was a slender woman with light brown skin and reddish brown hair that was pulled back into a professional bun. She was dressed up in a professional looking suit, though a nasty looking two-handed axe was leaning up against the wall beside her.

“I was Frank before I died,” Frank explained pleasantly, “and I saw no reason to change my name just because I came back with a new body.”

“Makes sense,” one of the men responded.

Stine stood back by the door, playing the role of bodyguard for Frank, though Frank most certainly didn’t need one. His presence was more for the benefit of those men, to make them think twice about even trying anything stupid.

One of the men stepped forward, and from the way his friends nodded and let him do so, he seemed to be their leader. He glanced at Stine, then back at Frank.

“I was told that you could turn us into players,” the apparent leader said, his tone showing a note of suspicion.

“Yes,” Frank answered with an almost predatory smile. “For a fee.”

“So, you just snap your fingers or something?” one of the other men asked. “Then BAM…we’re players?”

Stine snorted at that. Most of their customers seemed a bit better informed than these particular ones. However, he carefully schooled his expression.

Frank just continued to smile. “No, it doesn’t work like that. The fact is, almost anyone can become a player…if they have the balls to try.”

That got their attention and they all puffed up, making noises about how they all had the balls to try it. Stine had heard it all before, so he didn’t pay attention to the specifics.

“All you have to do,” Frank explained, “is go deep into the Labyrinth, fight some monsters, and earn the right to become players. The Wardens have been doing that for years.”

“That’s it?” their leader asked in surprise. “Just go into the Labyrinth?”

“Simple,” Frank agreed. “But very dangerous.”

“And that is where we come in,” Stine said, speaking up for the first time since the meeting started. “We’ll escort you in and keep you from being outright slaughtered, but there are no guarantees. The Labyrinth is dangerous, even for experienced players, and there’s a good chance you might still die. But that’s the risk you have to take if you want to become players yourselves.”

“Now then,” Frank said, leaning forward in her chair. “Let’s talk price.”

----------

Alexey Volkov perched atop the watch tower where he was stationed, shifting position as he got comfortable. Then, he reached for his rifle and began to carefully survey his assigned area through the scope. At the moment, the scope was the most important part of the weapon, but that could change in an instant.

The Russian soldier took a sweeping look at the overall area, clear and natural steppes almost as far as his eyes could see. However, the area was not entirely unspoiled, which was one of the main reasons he had been assigned to that location.

After Alexey quickly scanned the area, his attention went to the flags, to the markings that indicated where the edges of the Labyrinth zone ended. On the other side of those flags, the laws of the Labyrinth held sway and monsters ruled the land. He shuddered at the thought of what was on the other side of that marker.

When the Labyrinth entrance had first appeared in the middle of nowhere, that had seemed quite the good fortune. It was so isolated that it and the monsters it spawned were too far away to quickly threaten any human population. However, it soon became apparent that this isolation was also a great problem.

Monsters emerged from the Labyrinth, but that didn’t mean that they were satisfied to remain in the Labyrinth zone. As the number of monsters grew, so too did the threat they presented, and since this entrance was so far away from anything else, no players were interested in traveling there just to cull the monster population.

The Labyrinth zone was now completely infested with monsters, and there was no way that normal humans could possibly clear them out, not when modern weaponry simply didn’t work in that area. But fortunately, weaponry could still work right outside the Labyrinth zone. That was why the entire area had been quarantined, surrounded by landmines and watch towers, all meant to contain the monsters where they were.

Alexey carefully looked over the border, checking the mine field and then the area outside of it. There had been no recent explosions nor any indications that another monster had escaped. Once he was satisfied with that, he shifted his attention to the other side of the boundary, to the area inside the Labyrinth zone.

He couldn’t see the Labyrinth entrance from where he was, but that wasn’t what he was looking for. Instead, Alexey quickly spotted a monster, one that vaguely resembled a deer or gazelle, but with glossy purple hide and razor sharp spines all down its back. This was the type of monster that the Labyrinth had been releasing there for the last few months, so Alexey was quite familiar with it.

The soldier took aim and fired, then immediately followed up with several more rounds. The monster staggered and then dropped to the ground.

“It is too bad that normal people can’t get superpowers from killing monsters the way players can,” Alexey mused to himself. “That is quite unfair, but such is life.”

Alexy let out a sigh, then turned his attention to the next monster he found. No, the next three monsters. They were traveling a group and heading straight for the boundary. For a moment, Alexey was tempted to simply let them cross, just so he could watch them enter the mine field. That would be entertaining, though letting them get that far could be considered a failure on his part. He sighed again, then took aim for the next round of shots.

Once Alexey was finished, he set his rifle aside and pulled a small flask out of his pocket. All he needed was a sip, at least for the moment, enough to help keep him warm. Of course, vodka would have been nice, but he actually preferred American bourbon. Not that he would ever admit such a thing to any of his friends, of course.

Just then, Alexey noticed something strange. The boundary to the Labyrinth zone… It was shimmering. He’d caught glimpses of that shimmer before, a visual indication of where Earth physics ended and the Labyrinth’s rules began, but not like this. It was much brighter and more visible than he’d ever seen it before.

Alexey grabbed his radio but hesitated to call this in. If this was real, then every other tower should be able to see it as well. However, if he was the only one seeing this, then it might raise some questions about what he’d been drinking…and how well he could hold it.

The shimmering along the border only grew brighter, with swirls of various colors appearing. It suddenly reminded Alexy of the aurora borealis, as if it had come down from the heavens and had then been spread out before him like a curtain. Seconds later, it all abruptly vanished.

Alexey blinked, then looked at the scene in front of him. His eyes went wide in stunned disbelief at what he saw. He quickly grabbed his rifle and used the scope to get a better look, but that only confirmed what he’d already seen with his naked eye.

“Pizdets,” Alexey swore.

The Labyrinth zone was…gone. The monsters. The ground. EVERYTHING. The only thing that remained there was a massive and very deep crater, which had to be kilometers across.