I logged out of the game, feeling my eyes grow heavy with fatigue. The room was dark, lit only by the soft glow of the monitor. The VR headset slowly faded away, leaving behind a reflection of her pale face and trembling fingers.
I hadn't expected Valentin, the guildmaster of the Coyotes, to actually fall for Zikei's crazy plan.
It all seemed like a suicide mission, to challenge one of the most dangerous guilds on the server, and tie it all into a "Unique Offer".
Now we had three weeks. To prepare for something that could cost us everything.
After completing the first floor of the Ant Hill in Mount Adalaza, my level rose to 20, which seemed like a good result.
However, I felt like it was still not enough. It was too little compared to what lay ahead. Memories struck me, and flashbacks overwhelmed me.
I found myself sitting at a virtual round table, surrounded by the avatars of my group. In front of me stood Zikei, wearing his black mask and with his green eyes glowing like neon underwater.
He spoke without a shadow of doubt, looking straight into each of our eyes:
—Your levels don't matter. Even if you're level 100, it won't help you.
The voice was even, but there was something almost irritated in it, as if he was repeating an obvious truth.
—All that matters is movement. How you move, how you feel the fight, how you wield your weapon. You have to savor the moment, catch the intuition. Understand the monster, as if you were a part of it.
He paused, then slammed his fist on the table, the sound echoing through the yuan.
—Do you know why the elite guilds have not been able to defeat the unique monsters yet?
He leaned forward, and a bitter smile flashed through the mask.
—Because they suck at playing!
Aka-32 only chuckled nervously, Elk shook his head, and I felt the excitement inside me awaken again.
The real power is in the hands that don't tremble when the monster roars. In the determination that doesn't crumble when something flies at you that can wipe you off the map with a single blow.
The flashback slowly faded away, leaving behind a strange feeling of warmth and unease.
My body, sitting in the real world, seemed to still feel the vibration from Zikei's words.
—He really did calculate everything...
I said quietly to myself, looking into the darkness of the room.
Swamp Boar Nemorino, Zikei discovered it quite by accident. It happened shortly after he had a falling out with Valentin and left the Coyotes.
Then he was full of anger and despair, burned from the inside by the betrayal of a friend with whom he shared everything: victories, raids, nights in the chat, when the two of them dreamed of making the guild the greatest on the server.
He was wandering around the mountain of Adalaza, a place that players rarely visited due to constant glitches, a poisonous environment, and strange whispers as if the very earth was calling out his name. And that's where he saw him.
Zikei immediately realized that he couldn't defeat him alone. He didn't even approach him. As soon as he took a step, Nemorrino roared, and the game froze, sending him back to the main menu.
He didn't tell anyone about it. Neither to Valentin, nor to his former guild comrades. He simply shut his mouth and memorized every detail.
Only his katana and his memory knew the truth.
Later, a short post was published on the official developer's public account:
"There are Unique Monsters in the world whose names you don't know yet, but we will give you the first name, "Nemorino's Swamp Boar." But who will be the first to find it?"
The forums were filled with theories, and fans argued, wrote coordinates, and made hypotheses.
Some claimed that it only appeared during a specific phase of the moon in real time. Others said that it could be summoned by sacrificing a rare item from the swamp ruins.
But all of this was just speculation. Only one person, Zikei, knew the true location.
As always, he was taciturn. A true samurai, used to keeping his secrets deep within, not trusting even himself.
He hid his knowledge like a blade in a scabbard, and remained silent until he met someone who reminded him of himself.
Yes, in a way, I enjoyed keeping secrets like Zikei. Not out of malice or greed, but simply because secrets gave meaning.
Especially important information, especially information that could change everything. I wasn't the kind of hero who puts everything on the table; I had something of a thief's nature, an observer from the shadows.
And after all, this wasn't my real life.
A virtual MMORPG where people try on the masks they lack in reality. Here, you can be anyone. Here, you can hide a part of yourself and no one will judge.
A phrase Zikei's had said earlier came to mind:
"We'll give the Coyote Guild members the opportunity to fight the Unique Monster. But whether or not they encounter it is up to Valentine."
These words stuck in my memory like a crack in the screen. They sounded simple, but there was a hidden depth to them.
It was all planned, not just a battle, but a test. If Valentin and his men really wanted glory, they would get a chance. But a chance doesn't equal victory.
Zikay was playing a much more complex game than it seemed. He wasn't just looking for victory; he was testing them all. And perhaps even himself, to see if he could cheat.
She chuckled softly, staring at her character's reflection.
"So it won't just be a battle..."It would be a test... he didn't tell everything."
It was in every movement, in the way he paused, the way he spoke deliberately calm. He was hiding something.
And perhaps that "something" is much more dangerous than Nemorino himself.
But the worst part was that that thin, almost imperceptible grin didn't go away. It was as if it was saying, "I know more than I should."
And yet, Zikei decided to tell the truth to our group. It was as if his words were not directed at the players, but at the observers themselves, playing the game.
— Do you think that the "Unique Offer" is just an in-game event? You're wrong.
He stood up, slowly walked around the table, and I felt the air in the bar become thicker.
—It's all related to the Apostil system.
This word made many people tense.
— Yes, it's not just a coincidence that the developer's forum and the game's older patches feature this style of numbering. "Apostil" is not a section, a joke, or a decorative rank system. It represents the levels of access to the main story.
He paused, looked at everyone, and added in a slightly quieter voice:
— In the world of Log Apofis, there are currently three officially confirmed unique bosses discovered by players. However, none of them have been defeated yet. Not once.
— And if you've ever seen the numbers "Apostil [Name] -9", "Apostil [ Name] -4", and "Apostil [ Name] -2" on the forum, they're not just designations. These are voice access codes that grant access to encrypted pages with the actual characteristics of creatures during combat.
You might have guessed that "The Fourth Apostil, the Swamp Boar Nemorino" is more than just a forum post or a developer's joke.
It was a hint, a subtle, almost deliberately inconspicuous clue from the game itself:
"Here, look. These monsters aren't just farming targets. They're keys, and they're important. They're part of something bigger."
An inner voice had been whispering to me for a long time. Ever since I first saw the strange numbering structure on the forum.
And after hearing confirmation from Zikey himself, I realized that I'd been right all along.
The word "Apostil" sounded strange in the context of the game. It didn't belong to a genre, didn't sound like the name of a monarch, and didn't represent the internal logic of the Apofis magazine.
Rather, it sounded like a term from the human world, something documentary, something real. It was as if someone from the edge of the game's reality was signing off on the events themselves, recording them, giving them legal standing.
I stared thoughtfully at the table of symbols on the developers' homepage. In the bottom line, beneath the gray code, there was indeed a phrase
[APO-4-Nemorino, a fragment of the main narrative.]
The Fourth Apostil is not just an enemy. It's a puzzle that holds a piece of truth that the developers may never have intended to reveal.
And if Nemorino is indeed a fragment of the main story... What will happen when that fragment is destroyed?
Will something in the world break? Or will something awaken?
I didn't know the answer. But now, instead of fear, my eyes were filled with curiosity, and the game had once again become a mystery.
And riddles, as I knew, are the most dangerous fuel for those who can't stop.