Fawn looked at the book in his hands with particular trepidation. The printed edition of the first volume of the web novel "The Amulet of the Traitor", which is accompanied by a subscription code for the second part.

"I gave my life to release the continuation of this story ..."

Of course, Fawn was cunning when he mentally made pathos and made himself a "sacrifice of art" because he knew that a light romance was not at all the cause of his death. Nevertheless, he liked to make himself a martyr. Foun himself thought about the reasons for this inclination, but, being a smart and honest man, he saw the reason in the invisibly small number of good deeds that he had committed before rebirth.

"Even the most inveterate villain wants to be loved and respected," he told himself, and after adding a grin, he added. "Yeah ... in this world, good deeds are punishable."

Fawn grew up in the Ralgo clan. They did not speak openly about this, but he nevertheless became aware of the sad truth - their family branch was expelled from the beautiful, saturated with subtle energy regions of space in another galaxy after which there was an internal quarrel. Mortals of the zero world are envious of the clans, but Fawn knew the flip side of the saying "what is permitted to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull." The clans have great opportunities, compared with mortals, they thrive in these barren lands, but few of the lower layers of the buffer guess - the descendants of the gods wanted to spit on the luxury of penthouses and villas, the high cost of outfits and the rarity of delicacies when it came to their fame and ability to rise. get out of this barren planet.

To get into the world of reflection to representatives of clans is no easier than to mortals. With such huge resources, one has to dream of something completely unrealistic. Refuse memory and raise a child separately from the family? The results of such experiments were sad. Many attempts to find a method of guaranteed sending a person to the buffer were unsuccessful. Fawn is one of them.

They achieved goals from him. They asked what he dreams about - from childhood. He was put in obstacles, forced to fight for what he wanted. One by one. At some point, he just burned out. All his desires disappeared. Little Foun Ralgo was afraid that his dream would be stolen and destroyed again and ... he just stopped dreaming. He trained, was educated as a clan warrior, but was eventually written off as a "mistake." Broken things are thrown into a landfill. For Fawn, a city far from the clan and a desire to do anything with his life turned out to be such a dump.

He was not provided with any means to earn money, and there was no desire to look for difficult ways. Foun began to work as a municipal guard. He went out in the evenings to parks, squares, dark alleys and other places where he likes to hang around hooligans. Quickly enough, it became clear to all the "criminal elements" that the territory of a feeble guy is not a place where they can conduct dirty business. Foun was proud of himself, but the townspeople did not particularly appreciate his work.

One evening, he met an employee of the mayor's office and he announced that they did not have any position called "municipal guard" and did not intend to provide any money for the protection of the streets. Foun was a young man, but experienced, and knew the main principle of diplomacy - the fastest way to get what you want from an interlocutor is to put pressure on a sensitive place. City Hall employee paid for the services of a voluntary law enforcement officer very quickly.

Alas, representatives of the administration did not meet as often as Foun would have liked. This, however, did not upset him too much. The municipal guard must receive payment from the budget. The treasury of the city is the money of the townspeople. Accordingly, why wait for a chance meeting with managers, if you can simply cross out an extra element and take a fee from clients directly. It was fair that Foun considered that it was the inhabitants of protected areas that it was fair to pay - they did use his help, not the poor fellow, into whose habitats the entire "criminal element" flowed.

Of course, Foun understood that his activities could not be called completely noble and legal, but he justified himself by refusing to harm his "employers." The knowledge of the Ralgo clan warrior was more than enough for passersby to even be ready to give their cars in gratitude for the protection of their areas and (this is generally an insignificant trifle) in order to stop pressure on the pain points. Foun refused cars - not from pride, no! - just knew about the ingratitude of people and suspected that the next day they would come to arrest him for the theft of personal property.

Life seemed to the descendant of the Ralgo clan boring and monotonous. Only web novels describing worlds painfully similar to his family's legends about abandoned lands under completely different stars became a certain outlet. "The Amulet of the Traitor" is a landmark story. A hit that the virtual world has not seen for a very long time. The teenager after the accident lost his memory about everything except one thing - his family was killed by one of the vassals. He did not remember exactly who was the traitor, but the amulet with the emblem of the enemy remained in the boy's hands. For the sake of the rest of the spirits of ancestors in the other world, the hero of the story begins the search for evidence to determine the identity of the enemy. The boy takes an oath to slaughter the entire family of the traitor and keeps the amulet with him as a reminder of the goal.

In the process, he goes to prison, where he kills the son of one of the leaders of a large gang. They try to take revenge on him, but there is a man ready to help. A casual acquaintance becomes a friend, and then a named brother. The comrade's sister falls in love with the hero and they have an affair. At some point, the grown hero himself becomes the leader of the gang. Unable to live by the law because of people's prejudice, he begins to make his way into the shadows, not forgetting for a moment the purpose of his whole life - revenge on the traitor.

At some point, the hero finds clues and stacks them one after another. The assistant brings him the missing pieces of information about the enemy. He takes them and goes to his beloved to inform him of the need to leave to solve bloody affairs. She tries to extract the whole story from him and, having reached her, she grabs a stack of papers to open it and see the name and photo of her father there. At that moment, the hero sees the name in the document and realizes the horror of what is happening. Tormented by torment, he still decides to take revenge. The bloody drama ends with the killing of everyone in the house. The beloved on the verge of death says that she was pregnant, and the friend returned and found out the reason voluntarily bowed his head. He is ready to pay for the sin of his father, a traitor, and prays only for the preservation of the life of his little son.

The hero kills a friend and falls into despair. "The Amulet of the Traitor" tells not only about revenge, but also how the hero himself ultimately betrayed friendship and love. Was it worth it? The author of the novel leaves this question to the reader, concluding the climax with the return of all the memories to the hero. He sees vague images of parents and a winged tiger with a tail-snake. Tormented by the intolerable wound of the loss of his friend and beloved, unable to forgive himself, the hero begins to take care of the child "brother". The death of all, he told the child, is the fault of the traitor. By heating the amulet, the hero leaves a mark in the form of the coat of arms of his greatest enemy and his best friend, his beloved. The hero who returned the memory finds a way to teleport with the baby to another world, hoping to kill the real culprit of the disaster of his family and after that to reveal to the baby the stigma on his body, as a sign of the identity of the killer of his parents and aunt.

Typically, Foun is faced with all sorts of obstacles to getting new web novels. Sometimes it's store shields and the closure of part of the content, sometimes a subscription to the author's account to open access to downloads. In the first case, he visits the free reading zone without financial boundaries, the address of a pirate web resource of the Ralgo warrior can dial even with his eyes closed. In the second case, he was struck by the naivety of the defense, since the subscribe-download-unsubscribe scheme had never failed him. See you with this book ...

Foun was particularly pleased to read the bonus extra chapter at the end of the first volume, telling about the life of the author in his attempts to timely issue a continuation of the story. About his experiences because of the small number of book-raising notes and unsubscribing immediately after downloading a volume of readers, about coffee spilled on a laptop keyboard and uncomfortable work on a rickety stool instead of an ergonomic chair, oh ... yes, a lot of things. All this ended with feelings about the absenteeism of the second volume of history, the need to create paid access to it, the purchase of new equipment after seven long years of use, and more.

All this was presented so amusingly that Foun imagined a kind of chibi author dangling about various little things.

"Lovely ...," the Ralgo clan warrior thought, chuckling, until he understood a simple truth. - With this whole bonus story, he simply extorts money from me! No, not only me ... Yes, it's ... "

From awareness of what was happening, Foun simply stopped breathing for a while - he was so outraged. Then humility came, because the author of the book was doing the same thing that he himself did on dark evenings. The last thought developed into a real admiration. The warrior of the Ralgo clan considered it rather amazing that the creator of the story did not use his fists for his purpose, but art. The official extorts money with the help of the hammer of the law, the warrior - his knowledge and fighting skills, and the writer ... pen! It was such a fresh sensation that Foune was even drawn to philosophy and - a very rare occurrence - he returned and signed up for the author's account, scribbled in the comments "Thank you. It hasn't been so long since I got it from this story "and tried to send a small reward to the author.

Imagine his surprise when Fawn did not find any way to do this. Gritting his teeth, he wrote a personal message to the author and received not a normal card, but an electronic wallet of some ancient payment system. At that moment he already wanted to spit on everything. Does he need to get into the store and stand in line to the terminal? Remembering the unfinished story and sorting out the desire to find out what will happen next at some moment, Fawn grimaced, as it became completely clear - "necessary."

There was no queue at the terminal, but there were two of his "voluntary employers" who paid for the protection of the district no more than a week ago. Fawn did not expect one of them to have a gun. Own death was even more unexpected, and the embodiment in the world of reflection simply exceeded his ability to be surprised.

As it turned out, for a person who did not want anything and didn't want anything for most of his life, the desire to do everything possible to continue the release of the web novel turned out to be bright and strong enough to pass the dream with a stretch. Fulfillment of it provided him even if not eternal, then very long life in the buffer, but Foun preferred to think that he "gave his life for the continuation of history", because to say - even mentally - "here I am a burdock, since two drunken weaklings killed me when they tried to make a warning shot in the air "was humiliating.

The amusement of observing the spirit of reflection in the form of a young-shy-busty-cute-strict-librarian, surrounded by many volumes with a list of abilities (and price tags in points of influence on them) was diluted with the understanding that, having chosen to sacrifice his personality, Foun essentially lost nothing but psychological injuries. He did not even feel any special changes in himself, except for relief from an invisible load. The Ralgo clan warrior tried to pin a pretty girl in the buffer, but she clung to the offspring of the Letu clan . In addition, some descendant of a higher power has also cluttered.

Fortunately, then everything went well enough. Founder, on the pretext of getting used to a new life, knocked out a dust-free job in one of the spots of the buffer in the vastness of the zero world. He was offered a choice between the arena and the trading floors, and he chose the latter. Before his eyes lay the result of this decision - "The Amulet of the Traitor" on paper. For more than a month he had been waiting for the moment when the second volume of the story would be added and now with great pleasure he paid for access to the parts of the web-novel that were still closed. Fawn presented one of the other fans of the story with the free code that came with the printed book. The warrior of the Ralgo clan was on horseback and he liked to do good deeds, since this required amounts that were ridiculous by the standards of the descendants of the gods.

Once the payment was successful, someone laid a hand on Fawn's shoulder.

- What?! The warrior growled, turning his head.

"This thing," a stranger with long yellow hair in a luxurious gold robe pointed a finger, with a golden false nail (Foun thought it was that way) on the tablet, "do these things work in the buffer?"

- Firstly, this is a buffer spot, docked with the zero world. They ran cables here and connected Internet access points. There are no problems, just do not go to another part of the buffer, you need to look for a transition point in another part of the zero world. And secondly ... - Foun sharply jerked his shoulder, dropping the stranger's hand and then drove him into the nose with his fist - do not dare to touch me without permission, you bastard!

About the bad character of the Ralgo clan warrior, all the dealers of this spot managed to find out for a long time, only some newcomers came under a hot hand. A stranger sitting on the floor looked at Fawn with wide eyes. Usually, such a blow was enough to significantly flatten the organ of smell, but this blond looked more likely surprised by the attack itself. It was not noticeable that he experienced any discomfort, unlike the warrior of the Ralgo clan. After rebirth, the body was created from phantom energy, but for some reason the pain was quite noticeable.

Fawn looked at his fist in surprise and was amazed - it was as if he had hit an iron statue, not a cute guy. When the blond's pupils stretched out into vertical gaps, and the skin began to become covered with golden scales, it became clear that from now on everything would be very unpleasant for one representative of the Ralgo clan. A little less than a minute passed, and a furious golden dragon loomed over Fawn. When the beast roared, giving vent to its anger, everyone around understood that this was not one of the members of the small circle of buffer clans. This transformation is not of the spirit, but of a real divine beast.

A clawed paw shattered Fawn's body in one sweep. Obeying the will of the dragon, the Ralgo clan warrior swam in a clump of fog to a higher being and twisted into a small pearl.

"You will help me find someone," the dragon spoke quietly, but his voice resonated all over the "spot" of the buffer because of the frightened silence that enveloped everything around him. "He was sent here by a couple of gods." Their crippled offspring is somewhere on this barren planet. For every day of delays in the search, I will pass my strength through you and torment!

"I don't even know who you are talking about! - Foun wanted to pray, but he was hindered by the lack of a mouth. The dragon pulled out a book with a gold cover from the air, opened it on a blank page and made the twisted foggy body of the Ralgo warrior soak into it. The received image of a feeble man could move and even display horror on his face. Nekstati recalled that the second volume of "The Amulet of the Traitor" remained unread. "Wait ... one time I already died in this story, and now it happened as soon as I paid for access to the second!" It turns out ... good deeds are punishable? "

For a moment, a ray of hope flickered in Fouin's mind, because the turn in the course of life that followed the author's help turned out to be very profitable for him, and the gain far exceeded the losses. Maybe this case will end in the end with something good and pleasant? No wonder they say "hit" good luck? A look from the plane of the page of the grimoire onto the evil face of the dragon and the sheets falling from above drove away joyful thoughts in an instant. Fawn understood that the book was closed, and now he has to spend an unknown amount of time in the dark. Remembering the words of the dragon, he began to tremble, because soon he would probably be very happy about the darkness and the respite between the tortures of the embittered higher being.

"This story ... I don't even know the author's name - just a pseudonym," Fawn thought desperately. In desperation, he blamed the unknown for all his troubles and screamed into the darkness. "Whoever you are, I will find you and ask you a couple of questions, you bastard!"

***

De Montier sat in his residence in the vastness of Spain. He liked the province of Gudar so much that at some point he renamed his fraction in the buffer. However, he was no longer the first to change his names and the names of his strength.

There was a familiar knock of knuckles on ash wood. De Montier waved a finger. The door neatly opened, obeying his will. The strongest buffer man trained his servants well, so the subordinate began to act without unnecessary ceremonies - he silently walked over and conveyed the message written on papyrus (a small tribute to nostalgia about the mortal centuries that passed since being).

"The beast-god descended into the zero world ..." de Montier read the first words of the report. His eyes quickly covered the entire contents of the message. It took a little more than a second to make a decision. - Send a team to the small world of the Golden Dragon clan. Now that a real mythical monster has come to them, they will want to return their property. The pickers must take out everything they can from there. Yes ... let this sharmis beginner too. Either he will receive the blood samples that he so requests, or he will become an "apology" to the higher being. Don't bother me.

The servant silently bowed and quietly went to convey the will of the head of the Castle of Gudar to his subordinates. De Montier himself went to a small adjoining room with good soundproofing. He sat on an old rocking stool behind a laptop with a keyboard covered with traces of dried drops of coffee. Writing a fictional story was for him an outlet from the intrigues of the clans and a way to sow dreams in brothers from the zero world. This is the least he could help them with.

"... a couple of questions, you bastard!" - Suddenly an echo of a scream burst into his ears.

"No," De Montier resolutely lowered the lid of the laptop, writing off what he heard on hallucinations. - Today, perhaps, I'll just rest...