Astoria awoke when the wagon hit a large bump in the rough dirt road, and she tumbled sideways into the bars of the cage. A groan escaped her gagged mouth, and it took her a moment to remember where she was. Panic once again rose within her, and she struggled with everything she had to break free of her bonds, but it was still a futile attempt and once more she had worked her wrists raw. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the stinging pain. 

Her mind drifted toward thoughts of her family. At least in the real world she had people who cared about her, and nothing like this would have happened to her. Her thoughts turned to her sister, Sarah, who had left for college a couple years ago. When they were young, they had been especially close and Sarah was the one who introduced her to most of her hobbies. They both used to spend countless hours watching anime and playing various video games together. As they grew older, Sarah lost interest in their shared hobbies and focused on other things, like boys. They drifted apart little by little, but she could always count on her big sister whenever things got tough. That was the reason she felt so hurt when she found out that Sarah was going to school so far away from home. Now she knew that she would never see her again, and that wound of losing her opened anew. Tears leaked out of her tightly closed eyes, and she pulled herself back to the present. Her story couldn't end like this. She had to find some way to escape.

Astoria did the best she could to pull herself together a little, and after a short while, she opened her eyes and took the time to examine her surroundings. The cage was customized to fit underneath the canvas of the wagon. It had curved steel bars at the top that ran from back to nearly the front of the vehicle like ribs in a monstrous beast that had swallowed her. A large image of a red lotus flower was set into the inside of the canvas. Scooting herself around quietly, she was able to see that both of her captors sat at the front of the wagon and that there were three other girls tied and gagged as she was. 

At first she wondered if they had all been taken from the same village, but judging from the look of them, they had probably been here longer. Two of them were awake but neither of them struggled against their bonds as she had. One of the two appeared to be about the same size and age as her and had long brown hair that fell in ringlets around her. The girl had a glazed look in her eyes as though she was dead to the world. Astoria visibly shuddered thinking of what might have been done to her in order to put that blank look into her eyes. Astoria looked over at the other girl who was awake and saw that pointy ears poked out of her straight blonde hair. Astoria was surprised to see her first elf since coming into this world.

Elves were typically beings who lived long lives, sometimes stretching millennia depending on the lore of a given game or book. She realized that this woman could be anywhere from her age to thousands of years old. There was a fire behind the elf's green eyes that must have mirrored her own. Neither of them would give up fighting until their last breath. The emptiness and self-pity Astoria had been feeling since she was captured the night before slowly bled away and was replaced by a strong feeling that burned deep within. It grew like a wildfire bursting to life and only got stronger. This feeling was rage. She hated that these people captured those weaker than themselves. She felt deep hatred for the woman who had sold her out. Finally, she also found that she had feelings of hatred toward the developers of the game. 

What kind of sick monsters would let stuff like this happen? It was a whole other level of depravity than to allow for her and millions of others to be trapped inside a game world. It was one thing to face the very real possibility of being killed by monsters or the like, and a completely different thing for the game to allow for people to be stolen away in the night and sold like cattle. Considering that all the captives were female, she thought that there was a good chance they were going to be sold into some sort of underground sex trade. She would die before giving up. They wouldn't get away with this so long as there was a single breath left in her body. 

There had to be some way she could escape and bring justice to the scumbags that held them all captive. Astoria's vengeance would be swift and brutal against the two men holding her, and then she would make her way back to the old innkeeper, bringing justice in her wake. Astoria wouldn't stop there, however. She promised herself that she would work her way through the organization like the black plague had once ravaged Europe. A notification window popped up.

She accepted the quest with rage building within her heart. Apparently, the universe wanted to reward her on her quest for vengeance, and she would happily take it. Astoria felt foolish for forgetting, but she still had stat points to allocate from her last level. She hadn't even checked how much experience she gained when she slit the throat of one of her captors. Hoping against hope that increasing her stats might somehow help her escape this situation, she opened up her notifications.

Not enough experience to level again. She poured all 6 of her remaining stat points from the previous level into strength, bringing it up to a total of 16. Her muscles immediately got a little bigger and more well-defined. She felt her newfound strength blossom inside her, but would it be enough? Once more she strained against her bonds and they gave ever so slightly. It wouldn't be enough. She still wasn't strong enough to break free. She let out a frustrated groan through the gag, and even though she was surely heard by the drivers, they just ignored her and kept talking to each other quietly up front.

After hours and hours of riding down the bumpy road, the wagon came to a stop and both men jumped down and came around back. One of the two sneered at her with derision as he opened the gate and then reached in, grabbing her by her bound ankles. Astoria wiggled and kicked with both feet and caught the man in the stomach, but he was like a rock and didn't even budge. He just laughed and yanked her out of the wagon roughly. She saw stars again as her head smacked against the ground.

"Hey! Be careful with the merchandise! We won't get nearly as good a price for her if she's broken, you know." The other man, who apparently was in charge, angrily shoved him out of the way and picked her up like she was a sack of potatoes, casually throwing her over his shoulder and walking over toward the nearby stream. "Grab the others and be quick about it. Remember, we don't want to have to answer to the boss if we damage precious merchandise without a good reason."

Despite being in a bit of a daze from hitting her head, she knew she had one other ace up her sleeve that could maybe help her. Astoria activated her Kleptomancy ability on the man carrying her. The sound of a notification played and the familiar blinking icon appeared in her peripheral vision. Success! She had stolen another skill.

Fishing?! she screamed in her head and began kicking and squirming anew in a fit of futile rage as she was carried effortlessly over to the riverbank and dropped to the ground. What the hell is up with this ability? Is the game just messing with me or what? Now I can’t even use the ability again for two whole days! Who knows where I might be by then and if I’ll even get anything any more useful than this when I do use it. Ugh! Astoria glared up at the man with pure hatred in her eyes. He smirked and winked at her again before moving off to gather firewood from a nearby downed tree whose broken stump jutted up from the water. 

Meanwhile, the second man had dropped two of the three other girls off by her and was on his way back to get the last. She visibly shuddered in rage and hopelessness as she wondered what they were going to do to them. 

"Bren, go grab the bucket. These ones are starting to smell ripe," the man in charge hollered, turning his nose up at them and chuckling, as he dropped off a few pieces of firewood and began to make a fire. 

"Yeah, yeah," Bren grumbled as he went about his tasks. He came back with the last girl tossed over his shoulder and a small wooden bucket in his other hand. After depositing his cargo onto the ground, he proceeded to strip them down to their small clothes and then ran their clothes under the water of the stream before hanging them to dry. She had been momentarily released from her bonds while she was being stripped down, but Bren had been careful to restrain her again right after, and so she hadn't been able to even think of escaping. Afterward, he filled the bucket and emptied the frigid water over each of them in succession. It was the most humiliating thing she had ever experienced. The four of them were positioned so that they could sit on the ground, mostly naked and shivering, as they drip dried. Luckily, the fire was not far away, so it was a little less freezing after a few minutes.

The leader went to the wagon and brought back a large sack. He pulled out some bread, cheese, and dried salted meat. After taking a big bite out of the meat, he turned toward the four of them. "If you can be good, then I'll remove your gags and let you eat. If you're naughty..." he glanced directly at Astoria, "well... then you'll just have to go hungry. Understand?" He waited for responses. Astoria wanted to spit and tell him to go to hell, but she knew that if she was to have any hope of escaping, she would need to not be starving, and so she nodded her assent.

"See, Bren, I told you that even the strongest willed ones could be reasoned with." Bending down, he undid each of their gags. The fourth girl, who had been asleep most of the journey, began begging immediately. 

"Please! Please let me go! Just please let me go... I promise I won't tell anyone about you... I just wanna go home!" She let out a sob. 

The leader shook his head in disappointment almost like a parent who was disappointed in the actions of their child. He casually slapped the girl so hard that she fell to her side again, her cheek flaring red and blood dripping from the side of her lip. "See what you made me do?" he shook his head, "Do not speak unless I tell you to speak and everything will be just fine."

Astoria struggled to contain herself and was visibly shaking. The man took note of her and misunderstood her anger for fear. "Don't be scared, darlin'. You're too valuable as merchandise for us to do any permanent damage to you. So long as you're quiet and do as you're told, you'll get to keep breathing." He chuckled again to himself. "Who knows, maybe you'll get bought by a nice noble who might just take pity on you and treat you well." 

He proceeded to feed each of them a chunk of bread, a few bites of cheese and a small piece of dried meat. The man grabbed her face before shoving food at her. Astoria felt bile rise up from her stomach when he touched her, but she forced it back down and ate the food. None of it tasted good. It was all stale, and even the salted dried meat had little flavor and was as tough as a piece of leather. But food is food. 

Bren and the other man, whose name turned out to be Lyon, talked freely while the four girls sat bound nearby, and Astoria was able to glean that the journey to Geddon would take another week. From there they would be transferred into the custody of a higher-up in their organization and readied for sale at some sort of underground auction.

It was unbelievable that something like this was happening to her, but she would not give in to despair. She would have more opportunities to steal skills and maybe she'd gain a useful skill that would help her escape. She didn't allow herself to hope for much in that regard considering that her recent acquisition of the Fishing skill was soul-crushingly disappointing. But she was sure there would be other opportunities to escape. She just had to be careful and bide her time. 

Her hands and feet were tied with a thick, rough piece of rope. She felt around with her fingers as inconspicuously as possible while Lyon and Bren were distracted in conversation. It took a bit of work but she found what she had been hoping for: a small rock with a sharp edge. She was so excited by this that she had to struggle to avoid smiling wickedly, thinking of the sweet revenge she would have against these two if she got the opportunity. Carefully, she slid the rock down into her underwear. Although it was a bit uncomfortable, the rock was successfully concealed. With time and care, she might be able to cut the ropes.

She didn't go completely unnoticed, however. The elf woman had seen what she was doing and gave the slightest of nods to her, seemingly to acknowledge that when the time comes, she wouldn't be alone in an escape attempt. Astoria was pretty sure the other two girls would be no help, though. The one who had been slapped around earlier was a complete mess and continued softly whimpering on the ground. The other one just sat in place with the same dead look in her eyes, not moving. Something bad had definitely happened to that one.

As the evening dragged on, Astoria became increasingly lost in her thoughts. She felt bad for her family who would find her lifeless body in her room, hooked up to the VR helmet. She still didn't understand how she hadn't run into a single other player yet. It was true that she had no idea how vast this world was, but with 24 million players, it stood to reason that there should have been at least a few others who spawned near her. She supposed that even if they had, maybe they had died before they even knew what was going on. Another possibility was that she had run into other players without knowing it. Maybe even one of these girls was a player like herself. 

Astoria imagined the outrage and outcry over all the dead players that had to be happening right now. Surely the game's creators would be brought to justice. It was during this line of thought that it hit her: there was no way that the people who made this world would not have entered it themselves. They must have known what would happen when it was discovered that they had been responsible for the deaths of millions of people. That meant that they were here somewhere.

It was more than likely that they had even set themselves up in places of power. After all, why would they want to have any chance of starting out in danger as she had? She had a feeling that if she sought out the most powerful people in the game world, the game's creators would be among them. Hurting them or bringing them to some sort of justice was so far beyond her current reach that it was laughable, however, and it just made her more irritated. There was nothing to be done about that for now and she had to focus on what she could do. That meant biding her time and watching for escape opportunities. Lyon had said they wouldn't kill her or permanently damage her, but how far would that take her? Could she get away with killing Bren without bringing about her own death? She had killed their other companion without reprimand, but something told her that Lyon would not be so merciful if it happened again. 

"Bren, go get their new clothes. It's time to put them back in for the night." Lyon turned to look over at them. "Since most of you were good, you three get to keep your gags off for the night. See? Am I a nice guy, or what?"

Bren went to the wagon and came back with four plain-looking dresses. One by one, they were put into their new clothes and then re-bound and casually tossed back into the cage. "Take the first shift," Lyon said to his companion as they climbed up onto the front seat of the wagon. He then leaned back, grabbed a hat from the seat beside him, put it over his face and went to sleep. 

The wagon pulled away and crossed a bridge before continuing to follow the road downstream. Astoria decided this was her chance. She slid her dress up until it was high enough that she could wiggle her fingers into the back of her underwear. She felt the smooth edge of the small rock and pulled it out quietly, all the while keeping a careful eye on the objects of her hatred up front. Scooting herself over behind the elf for cover, she turned and the two exchanged meaningful looks before Astoria began the task of sawing the sharp edge of the rock against the rope binding her hands. 

It was long and arduous work and she had no idea if she was making progress at all. She couldn't risk asking her ally about her progress. She had dropped the rock several times, but after a few hours, the rope snapped free and her hands were loose. Rather than trying to free her feet right away, she decided to help her ally. After making sure that she was blocked from view, she quietly worked to free the elf's hands. Once both of their hands were free, they worked on getting their feet unbound. It felt so good to have the coarse ropes off her wrists and ankles. There was only a bit of moonlight that shone through now and again from the front, but she cringed when she saw how raw her wrists and ankles were from being bound so long.

Astoria now had to quietly make her way to the others and untie them without being seen. She thought they likely wouldn't help in her escape attempt, but she couldn’t just leave them like this and escape without them. She undid the ropes of the girl who had been begging for freedom earlier, and hoped that the girl could be quiet, as their chance at freedom hung by a tenuous thread. The girl remained quiet, thankfully. If they were discovered now, none of this effort would matter and she would probably never get the same opportunity to grab anything like a sharp rock again. She unbound the dead-eyed girl last and vowed to herself that she would see justice done for this poor soul.

After that it was a waiting game. They stuck the rope over their ankles and held their hands behind their backs against the bars of their cage. Hours went by and morning light peaked through at them through the canvas, offering some light. It was still a long while, around mid-morning, before the wagon came to a stop. The two men hopped down from their seats and Astoria signaled to her allies and got ready. Bren had a short sword on his belt as well as a dagger in his boot. If they could get weapons, then they could fight. It was their only chance. They would have the element of surprise on their side, but would it be enough?

Lyon told Bren to take them out of the wagon so that they could relieve themselves while he prepares a fire for breakfast. The large man climbed into the back of the wagon and took out a rusty looking key. The cage door creaked loudly as he opened it and stepped inside. The four of them had moved as far to the back of the cage as possible so that he'd have to come all the way in to get them. He sneered at them thinking they had merely been cowering in fear. "Now, now, lassies, I won't bite... too hard." A wicked grin came across his face as he strode over toward the girl who had been slapped the night before.

Everything happened in an instant. Astoria's heart pounded with fear and anticipation, and adrenaline filled her veins. The elf dove right for the man's feet, wrapping her arms around him and causing him to fall sideways. The bars let out a clanging noise as his head smashed into the side of the cage. Astoria was on her feet and could really feel the difference in her body with her upgraded agility. She could now move much more nimbly than before, and she used this to her advantage, closing the distance instantly and yanking the dagger from Bren's boot. It took all of half a second for her to bring the dagger down into the man's chest. He had tried to yell but never really got it all the way out. Blood came freely from the wound and out of his mouth as he choked and coughed his dying breaths.

The elf had also managed to take Bren's short sword. The three girls leapt out of the back of the wagon, while the dead-eyed girl continued to just sit in place. I'm free! Astoria thought happily as her bare feet hit the ground. Lyon had a shocked look on his face and an armload of firewood. This look was quickly replaced with rage, and he dropped the wood to the ground and unsheathed his long sword. Steel rang in the air as it cleared its scabbard. Astoria gulped. She remembered that the one she had killed in the inn had been level 8, and so logic dictated that Lyon's level would be about the same or higher, and she was merely level 5. Luckily, she was not alone. 

"Looks like you girls have been very naughty..." Lyon grimaced, rage showing clearly on his face. "You have two options in front of you now. You can drop those weapons and get back inside the easy way, or I can slice and dice you until you drop them and I'll throw you back inside myself."

They stood motionless for a moment. Surely this guy couldn't overwhelm all of them if they worked together. They had to defeat him to get their freedom. She wouldn’t be deterred from the task at hand.

Just as Astoria was going to answer, the elf spoke. "Never again will I be put into a cage. And you shall never again put another in one. Today is the day you die." The elf turned herself sideways with her sword held out in some sort of sword stance and prepared to fight.

Lyon just sighed to himself. "The hard way it is then." She had thought it would be a two versus one fight since the third girl had no weapon, but was surprised when she saw that didn't stop the girl from trying to help. The girl grabbed hand sized rocks off the ground and began throwing them at Lyon as he advanced carefully toward them. They did literally no damage since he was wearing armor.

Astoria and the elf circled to either side of him. Knowing she didn't have any reach with just a dagger, she needed to be careful. Lyon didn't really seem to see her as a threat and focused most of his attention on the elf. He lunged toward the elf swinging, but she managed to parry the blade with her own and jump back to avoid his fist as he had tried to punch her with his free hand. As she jumped back he quickly changed directions and ran at the girl who had been throwing rocks. She let out a yelp and tried to turn and run, but he was too fast. Lyon yanked her back by her hair and smashed the pommel of his long sword into the side of her head. She fell to the ground and the fight was down to just the three of them. Astoria wasn't confident in their chances at victory. The elf seemed to at least know what she was doing with her weapon, whereas she had no formal training in any kind of fighting. 

Ignoring Astoria, Lyon continued his fight with the elf. They moved so quickly it was almost like watching a dance. The metal clanged loudly every time the weapons met. Astoria was finding herself frozen in fear. This guy knew how to use that thing, and she was just a sixteen year old girl from Earth. What chance did she have? 

The elf managed to score a hit, stabbing her weapon into his shoulder. It bit deeply but she didn't get a free hit as he kicked her in the middle with his boots. The elf was pushed backward and held a hand on her middle while squaring up again. 

"You've fought well, but I can see you're getting tired. You won't be able to beat me. And that little one over there," he pointed his sword toward Astoria, "is even more useless than the one on the ground. Give it up and I'll make sure you're on the good list for being sold to nobles and not the one for whore houses."

Astoria needed to move and help but she was afraid of this man. Move! she shouted in her head. The elf needed her help. He was right; she looked to be getting exhausted. Lyon didn't seem at all worried about his wound, and a moment later she realized why. He casually pulled a potion out from his belt pouch and downed it in one swig. Whatever that thing was, it was a much better potion than the ones she had taken from the goblins, as after just a brief moment he rotated his arm around in a circle testing the shoulder as though he hadn’t just been stabbed there. He raised his sword and looked to be ready to resume the fight. 

Lyon advanced again and the dance continued. The elf fought to kill with everything she had, while Lyon fought only to injure his 'merchandise' so that he could recover them. The elf had been making more and more desperate moves, trying to finish the fight. Astoria finally shook off her fear and made herself join the fight.Without both of them they had little chance of victory. 

Waiting until he was particularly focused, Astoria continued watching for the tiny window she needed to turn the tide of the fight. Now! She took off running as fast as she could toward Lyon while he was defending from an onslaught of blows from the elf. She ducked down low as she approached and slammed her dagger deep into his lower back as hard as she could. The dagger slid deep into his back, through his leather armor and between two of his lower vertebrae for a critical blow. Lyon screamed in pain as his legs stopped working and he fell over. He flailed, swinging his sword as he went down, and the elf moved in to finish the kidnapper once and for all. 

Astoria yelled, "Wait! He has information that I need!" It was enough to stop the elf from delivering the final blow, and instead she reached down and disarmed Lyon, taking care to also remove the pouch that had contained a healing potion earlier. 

"You think I'm going to tell you anything useful, little girl?" Lyon laughed in derision and spat blood to the side. "Don't think you've won. Even if I die, you were all given the mark of the red lotus. When we don't show up in a few days, the hunt will begin. You'll be hunted everywhere you go; we have agents everywhere." Then he started laughing like an insane person.

"Other than the old woman at the inn, no one even knows what I look like." Astoria wanted to believe that this monster of a human being was lying.

"It doesn't matter. The Mark of the Lotus magically identifies you to our members, and you can never be rid of it." He coughed up some blood. She must've done even more damage than she had thought. "Any time one of us is within a hundred feet of you, he will know that you belong to us. You'll never be able to stop running. Sooner or later we will have you again."

"I've had enough." The elf couldn't hold herself back anymore and casually stabbed the end of her blade into his eye socket, ending his story forever. Astoria breathed a sigh of relief and put away her weapon. The elf did the same. Astoria couldn't blame her for ending the man’s life; who knows how long she had been captive. 

The elf said to her, "My name is Ladriel, what's yours?"

"I'm Astoria," she replied and couldn't help but stare at the corpse. They had done it. They were free from the clutches of these monsters. But they weren't truly free, as the Red Lotus would continue to hunt her wherever she went. She decided to use this knowledge to her advantage and intended to turn the tables and become the hunter herself.

She knew she would need help, and since Ladriel and the others were in the same boat as she was, she hoped that they would join in her crusade. "I'm going to make sure that monsters like these will no longer plague this world. We're going to be hunted by them, but if we can work together, then maybe we can put a stop to them and make this world a better place. Will you help me?"

Ladriel looked to be contemplating things for a few moments, but then nodded. "I could probably evade them and get to my home in the Whispering Woods, far to the west of here... but it doesn't feel right to let this continue. Not when we can do something about it. I'm not a great warrior or anything, but I will stand with you." She reached out her hand and Astoria did the same. Then the two new companions clasped wrists. A prompt appeared.

Astoria smiled to herself. She wasn't alone anymore and had a feeling she could really rely on Ladriel. The two companions left Lyon's lifeless corpse lying where it was and went to check on the other captives.