It was only two days before Matt was called back to the executioner’s block. This time there was only one person. A dwarf convicted of murder. Matt waited for his compliance manager to stir up the crowd into a frenzy. The same NPCs were present, but there were far fewer players in the group from what Matt could tell, based upon the seemingly scripted movements and shouted curses.

This time, Matt had brought one of the soul siphon crystals. He wasn’t about to let another opportunity slip through his hands. In his off time, he’d spent a day outside the city hunting small and medium sized animals with Filbug’s help. He hadn’t been overly successful, but he’d learned enough about how the crystals worked to make the most of today’s beheading.

He had the crystal equipped in an auxiliary space, meaning he didn’t have to hold it or openly display it, but it remained active on his person. It was similar to the ring slots. He’d noticed there were four ring slots available to equip, but only one ring would appear on each hand even if all four slots were filled. Now he just had to hope that the crystal was big enough to take some portion of the dwarf’s soul.

The dwarf was dragged to the block, but he was kicking and elbowing the two guards the whole way, right up until the moment they had him tied to the block. At one point, the dwarf almost managed to lift the block itself, until the guards secured both legs as well.

“He’s all yours, executioner,” the compliance manager said with a sneer.

Matt strode up confidently to the block and placed the axe on the back of the dwarf’s neck to measure his swing. The beheading was quick and dirty. Blood erupted from the open neck as the thick beard guided the head into the basket below the block. Matt felt a jolt, kind of like licking a nine volt battery, rush up through his hand as a faint, blue streak flew up and into the crystal.

That hasn’t happened before. Matt bit his lip and glanced back to the compliance manager. The last thing he needed was another lightning bath for breaking more rules, but luckily the man was busy clapping and scanning the crowd. Still, just to be sure he didn’t draw any attention for the wrong reasons, Matt reached into the basket, pulled up the severed head by the beard, and flung it out into the crowd.

Spectators shrieked and darted away, opening a space as if the head had been on fire.

Matt then turned and walked toward the compliance manager.

“Nice touch,” the manager said. “A bit dramatic, but I think it adds flavor to the event.”

“Give me enough heads and I’ll make it rain,” Matt said.

The compliance manager snorted. “Well, no need to go that far, but a good spectacle is always appreciated.” The man started to turn away but then stopped and looked back at Matt. “Say, have you been to the dungeon since meeting and rescuing the queen?”

“No, I haven’t made it back there yet.” Matt frowned. He’d forgotten, but yesterday he’d also gotten a quest to go and interrogate a prisoner named Stoffel. Given the manager’s question, he had to wonder if the manager had a list of all quests he received. “I was planning on heading there right after this,” he lied, thumbing back at the headless body.

“Heading there... good one,” the manager snorted again. “Well, see that you get to it right away. In addition to executions, you’ll have regular duties in the dungeon to attend to. It builds out the world for the players, and has... other uses as well.”

“I’ll go right away,” Matt said.

The crowd dispersed as trumpets gave the signal and Matt made his way to the dungeon. He took the same path he’d used the first time he’d been there, but this time when he reached the dungeon cells, he was led to another door set in a stone wall leading even further down.

He descended the dank stairwell and emerged into an open chamber with a roof supported by several square columns placed regularly throughout. As he had expected, there were racks, an iron maiden, hanging cages, and a couple of skeletons chained to one of the columns for good measure.

A desk stood in the center of the room with a sealed parchment atop it. Some twenty yards beyond that at the opposite end of the room was a block of three cells with iron bars holding several prisoners in place. Matt moved to the desk and read the letter first, skimming over the instructions for the various torture devices and discovering there was a bag with additional tools of the trade situated below the desk.

He gained bonus objectives to interrogate the other prisoners in addition to Stoffel. Matt sighed.

“Busy day ahead of me, I suppose,” he told himself.

“You don’t have to go through with it, you know,” a raspy voice called from the cells. “We can just scream and thrash about a bit, then you can go upstairs and we’ll all report how fine a job you did.”

Matt laughed. It wasn’t a bad idea, but he doubted the game would be fooled and count that for his quest. Moreover, getting zapped by lightning for failing to complete a quest was nowhere near the top of his to do list.

As Matt read through the list of charges against the first prisoner, the door behind him opened again and in came a town guard. The guard moved to the table, holding a set of keys in his hand.

“Which one should I get first?” the guard asked.

Matt shrugged. He wasn’t really sure how this was supposed to make the game any more realistic. From what he could tell, there were no players in the dungeon. Just him and a few NPCs. Was he just supposed to go through the motions in case someone snuck into the dungeon? Or was it possible a player could be sent down here for torture? Oof. That was not a fun thought. Could the players feel the pain like he did when the compliance manager electrocuted him? Who would sign up for that kind of crap?

Matt stopped dead in his tracks and sighed. He’d sign up for it, apparently.

“Sir?” the guard prompted, jolting Matt from his thoughts.

“Go and get that one,” he said, pointing to a scruffy looking human with shaggy, silver hair and a four-day old beard.

“No, please! Don’t take me. I’ll tell you anything you want, just leave me alone!” The guard opened the cell door as the prisoner crawled to the back wall. In the guard went, landing a kick to jolt the prisoner and then a quick punch to the stomach to make him more compliant. The guard flung the prisoner over his shoulder, then brought him out and unceremoniously flopped him onto the rack and went to work securing each limb.

“So,” Matt started as he stepped toward the whimpering old man. “How does this work, exactly?” Matt turned the wheel a bit and saw the machine stretch apart and pull the man taught. “Do I just ask you a certain number of questions, or do I have to cause pain?”

“Sir?” the guard asked.

The prisoner just sobbed and looked away.

Matt brought up his interface and read through the quest instructions. The main quest was interrogating Stoffel, and he had a list of questions to be asked. The bonus interrogations just said to inflict pain and get information. Matt felt his stomach lurch a bit into his throat.

It’s one thing to kill a murderer... but this is not something I am up for. He turned to the guard. “We’ll let this one think on whether he wants to cooperate or not. Go and fetch Stoffel.”

The guard’s eyes widened and he glanced back over his shoulder toward the cells. His hand trembled as he fumbled through the keys on the ring and finally gave a nod.

“Yes sir,” he said dutifully before walking to the cell.

Matt frowned. He wasn’t sure why any of the prisoners would scare him. All of them looked about as frail as the first wretch lying upon the rack.

The guard went and opened the third cell door. The prisoner inside scrambled to the far wall, but the guard didn’t go for him. Instead he moved toward the other far corner, which was covered in shadow. A small blast of fire illuminated the area for a brief moment and the guard recoiled before drawing his sword.

“Do that again, and I’ll cut your wings off!” the guard shouted.

“Wings?” Matt whispered to himself. Genuinely curious now, he leaned over the desk for a better view. There was a metallic click, followed by clanking chains, and then something heavy struck the ground.

“Hey, watch it, bub!” a raspy voice snarled.

Matt frowned, squinting his eyes and trying to see through the shadows.

When the guard emerged, he was holding what appeared to be a fortified bird cage at arm’s length. Wide iron bands ran the length of the bars, and not one but two heavy padlocks sealed the hatch closed. It was hard to get a look at the thing inside, so Matt tried to concentrate on the voice.

“Put me down you ugly oaf, or I’ll eat your mother!” The raspy creature began to laugh. The guard rushed the last few steps to the desk and dropped the cage down.

“If that will be all sir,” the guard said.

Matt shrugged. He highly doubted the game would force him into a situation he couldn’t handle so early on in his tenure. Plus, he knew that even if he did die, he’d just respawn back at his house, so he didn’t share the guard’s terror.

The guard dropped the keys onto the desk and hurried out of the room, shutting the door behind him and murmuring curses.

“Well then, what have we here?” Matt asked.

“Open the door and you’ll see,” the raspy creature said. “But I warn you, if you open it, I’ll burn your face off!”

Matt smirked. Maybe he could bring himself to torture this particular prisoner. He glanced around and then remembered the bag of tools mentioned in the parchment. He reached below the desk and brought up something that reminded him of the kinds of leather bags physicians in the old west might have used. Upon opening it he found several sharp and gnarly instruments of pain, along with pliers and tongs of various sizes and even a branding iron. He paid those little mind when he saw the wide-mouthed jar. Presently it was occupied by several large, toothy leaches. The opening was large enough to cover the entire hatch on the cage, and the glass was thick enough to hold a flame at bay at least for a second or two so he could get a good look at his prisoner.

He pulled the jar out and dumped the leaches onto the desk, allowing the water to spill out. Then he carefully unfastened the two locks and prepared his hands for a quick move to block the flame or whatever else the prisoner might try and attack with.

“I’m warning you! Fireball straight to the face if you open this cage!”

Matt opened the hatch and slipped the jar over the opening.

Whooosh!

A stream of fire filled the jar for a brief moment, and then stopped.

“Pft,” the creature muttered. “Seems you at least have two more brain cells to use than the last guy they had try to interrogate me.”

Matt chuckled and reached for a pair of tongs to keep the jar in place in case the thing tried to heat up the glass with another bout of fire. Then he peered through the glass and got a good look. He’d guessed maybe a gnome had shape shifted into a small dragon, or perhaps there was some sort of fairy with fire magic inside, but the thing he saw was nothing like any of those at all.

Leathery wings were bound tightly against the back of the creature’s muscular torso. He had large, pointed ears like a bat’s, piercing eyes with vertical pupils like a snake’s, and a swishing tail with a singular barb on the end. The fingers ended with gruesome claws that, though small, appeared sharp enough to give trouble if the fire ever failed to hit the mark. The toes were similarly armed and ready for a fight.

“I’m an imp,” the creature said after letting Matt examine for a moment in silence. “A sort of lesser devil with all sorts of magic and fiendish ploys.”

Matt cocked his head to the side. It wasn’t just the type of creature that was shocking. This was a player, not an NPC. “How long have you been in here?” Matt asked.

The imp snarled. “That’s your first question?” It backed against the bars and slid downward until it was in a sort of sitting position. “I’m tied up, ready for all manner of torture, and all you want to ask is how long I’ve been in here?”

Matt nodded. “I mean, I have a list of questions I have to ask you, of course, but I didn’t realize I’d be interrogating...” Matt glanced over his shoulder, checking to see if perhaps the door had opened again or if the compliance manager had somehow snuck inside.

“You didn’t realize I wasn’t an NPC?” the imp asked.

Matt smiled and shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”

The imp snarled again. “The others are, of course, but I am special. I don’t get beheaded and sent home like other players, oh no. I’m here, locked away until management decides I’ve learned my lesson.”

Matt stiffened. “Are you an employee?”

The imp scoffed. “Heck no, I wouldn’t work for this company no matter how much they offered to pay me. My job is much better. Listen, I can see you’re a bit new at this, but you aren’t going to learn anything from me. I’ve been down here for over three weeks, and they haven’t cracked me yet. So just get on with whatever punishment you’re itching to try out, and let’s be done with it.”

“Three weeks?” Matt blinked and let the jar go a little slack. “Three weeks straight? Like, as in three real weeks?”

The imp tried to shrug through its restraints. “Hard to tell how much real time has passed, but three weeks down here for sure.”

“I had no idea that players could be... trapped for so long.”

“Oh, it’s all in the fine print. Of course, you have to do some serious stuff to get into this kind of trouble, but once you’re here, they want to make sure they teach you a lesson or two.”

Matt frowned and then opened his interface once more to review the questions. He’d only glanced at them before, but now he was reading each and every word. “The questions seem pretty basic,” he said once he finished. “What faction are you working for? What’s your target? How much is the enemy paying you? Are you working with anyone else?” Matt shrugged. “Seem like pretty generic questions to me.

“That’s because you’re just the fresh meat sent down here to hassle me. You aren’t the big wig. The real questions come later.”

Matt tilted his head and removed the jar slowly. “Don’t blast me, okay? I don’t want to torture anyone, especially not a real person.”

The imp nodded.

“I have to ask one question, and this one isn’t on the list, so please help if you can.”

The imp sighed. “Well, I ain’t going anywhere so...”

“Are you a hacker?”

The imp raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, can you create or exploit glitches? See...” Matt leaned in close and lowered his voice to a whisper. “I’m kind of stuck in here too. They tricked me with their employment terms. Apparently they want me to continually play this game for ten years. Can you imagine that?”

The imp’s eyes widened. “Ten years?”

Matt nodded. “Ten years. That’s just my first shift too. So, if you are a hacker, or if you know of a way out of here, then maybe we can help each other.”

“How’s that?” the imp asked.

“I promise to get you out of here, and you lead me to an exit so we can both get out of this game for good. No more imprisonment for either of us.”

The imp sucked his teeth for a moment and then nodded. “Well, I don’t know if it will work for you, but I do have a backdoor, you know, in case of emergencies.”

Matt smiled wide and clapped his hands together. “Fantastic! How do we get there?”

“Simple, you smuggle me out of here, then I’ll take you to it. I put it onto an island to the south so no one could find it. I just need my hands free so I can make the proper connection and presto, we’ll Houdini ourselves right on out of here.” The imp stopped and then narrowed his eyes on Matt. “But I ain’t telling you where it is. You have to get me out of here first.”

“Agreed,” Matt said.

“And one more thing. It might not work for you, understand?”

Matt nodded. “Listen, I’ll take my chances. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll improvise.”

“Yeah, tell them we struck a bargain and then you got double crossed. Make them think you thought you were getting all the information from me and being led back to my faction and whatnot.”

Matt nodded and reached in to scoop up the creature. “Give me a moment to undo these chains.” He quickly went to work unbinding the imp and then he set him on the desk. A moment later he was dumping out the bag of torture tools and then he motioned for the imp to get in.

“The name is Stoffel,” the imp said.

“I guess I knew that,” Matt replied. “It was on the papers... I just didn’t think about it much.”

“Well, if you’re going to make a deal with a devil, you should at least know its name,” Stoffel said with a wink.

Matt laughed and held open the bag.

Hot, jagged knives tore through his neck before he could blink. Had the compliance manager overheard him? Had the town guard returned and deemed him a traitor?

Stoffel laughed in his raspy voice as he flew in front of Matt’s face and raked out Matt’s left eye. “You didn’t really think I was going to fall for that old routine did you?!”

Matt dropped the bag and staggered backward. “No, Stoffel, wait! I wasn’t playing a routine!”

“Oh sure!” Stoffel hissed. “You come in here, pretend to be a prisoner of the game just like me. You are NOTHING like me! And you expect me to believe that you honestly don’t know the game has me trapped in this room? I can’t leave. I can’t be rescued. Do you take me for a fool?!”

A blast of fire hit Matt in the face, but this time it was augmented by some sort of spell that Stoffel weaved in the air with his fingers. Matt flew backward and slammed into the wall. His HP slowly drained to zero as the burning pain dulled and darkness overtook him.

“You can’t outsmart me, you nincompoop!” Stoffel shouted. The imp laughed hysterically then and turned to the prisoner lying on the rack. For no reason at all, or perhaps just to vent more of his frustration, Stoffel went to work clawing at the prisoner until he died as well, then he flew toward the cells and unleashed more of his flames.

Matt sighed as his avatar gasped its final breath. The next time we meet, I’ll pay you back with interest, you little imp. We’ll see who gets the last laugh.