Cutting to Life: an NPC LitRPG (Battle Royale)

[When you entered, there were about 300,000 of you. Now, after a day of brutality and bloodshed, there are a mere 224,888 of you. We mourn for the fallen, but celebrate for their families, who have been given a generous sum of Credits. We hope that each of you know that you are making a difference here like you never have before.

Now, with that ugly business out of the way, we wish to present you with a new feature: claiming land.
We know that many of you will have been wondering where to settle down and live. If you look at your map in your menu, you will see that it is now divided into sections. Each one of these sections is claimable by players like you!

Many of these sections are simply stretches of bare land. Once you've claimed said land, you may build on it. There are limited buildings you may erect, but we think you'll be pleased with the options.

There are also larger previously populated sections, such as cities. To seize control of any section, players must find the current owner of the land and kill them. Once a city is seized, the player who landed the killing blow upon the previous owner will become the new owner and will be in control of the city's citizens, finances and army, should the city already have such things.

A player in control of an entire city and its army would be a powerful foe indeed, so secure yours swiftly and decisively.

We hope you will enjoy this feature, and we will leave you to enjoy your morning now.]

Each one of them had their Red Box up, the crimson light illuminating them from both the screen and the slowly rising sun outside, which was just showing its face over the horizon line.

"That's kind of a neat feature," Violet said pleasantly. "We could find somewhere quiet and out of the way to settle. Maybe we could even live out our last few days in peace."

Ven made a snorting noise at the very suggestion. "No."

"Ven wishes to travel to Flapnap to put an end to the Violet Queen."

"I need to seek vengeance against the one who wronged me," the red-haired mage confirmed forcefully.

Luke shrugged with a forcibly placid expression on his face. "I'm not even surprised anymore. So what's the game plan?" He rummaged through his bag and pulled out some jerky, handing a neatly packaged stick off to each of them.

Nikola accepted the dried meat rectangle and began to chow down on it, using her teeth to tear chunks away. She appreciated that he had handed out a food that was already prepared, as Ven didn't seem to be in the mood to sit through another meal.

"First, we will defeat enough slimes to get me to Level 5. Then, once I have learned each of my spells, we will begin traveling to the Violet Queen's lair and tear her from the throne she sits on." The Mage tore into the dried flesh in her hand then.

"So we level you up to Level 5, travel to Flapnap and lay waste upon the hand of one of the three Ancient Gods and Pillars of the World - as a Level 5 Mage, Level 7 Warrior, Level 4 Archer and Level 7 Rogue. Cool."

Luke had adopted a new 'come what may' sort of philosophy. So what if the newly awakened vengeful jail girl wanted to go commit suicide via deicide? That was her prerogative. He knew that the in-game quest to defeat the Violet Queen was the final Flapnap Quest for elves who started in Flapnap, and it was in fact a raid battle wherein a fully leveled party was needed to challenge her. And in the end, at least in that plotline, she still didn't actually die. But them? They could totally stick it to the man. Or woman, in this case.

Nikola pressed her back into the headboard. This was so not how this was done, and so not how she usually did things. She used to carefully stalk her prey, learning their schedule and attacking only when she knew nobody would be around. Some would call her overly cautious, too calculated, besides the dreadful night with the Blacksmith. But Ven wanted them to burst into a very public, very hostile city and kill one of the most powerful women in the world. "You will kill yourself enacting that plan, Ven. We must be higher level than simply Level 5 to confront her, but I will bring you to the slimes outside of town so we may end them. I suggest an amendment to your plan: once you are Level 5 and have learned each of your spells, we will begin our trek toward Flapnap. But we will enter any Dungeons or Challenge Rooms that descend from the sky, and get our next levels there. This will mean we are killing people to satisfy both Luke's goals and your thirst for EXP, and we will level faster that way."

She hadn't forgotten Luke's mother's illness. In a way, it made her feel almost noble for killing people, which was much better than the crushing guilt her nightmare was making her feel.

"Your amendment is acceptable," Ven muttered, but Nikola could tell she was grumpy about it.

"Let's suit up. Get pretty and we'll head out in 10," Luke said.

Violet visibly paled at the mention of entering a Challenge Room or Dungeon. She had stayed back last time, but she wasn't going to be able to hide in her room from the danger forever. And that scared her, in a childish sort of way. She didn't want to leave the safety of her blanket fort and go out into the cold, harsh world - but she had a party who was counting on her now. She had to.

"H-hey, maybe if we do somehow end up beating the Violet Queen, we could take over Flapnap. The message did say we would gain control of the city's citizens and army, so if we managed that-- we would be in a very safe, powerful position." The Archer realized it would be no simple feat, but all she could think of was that they were leaving the inn and would have no space to call home. She had lived the nomadic life before, but oh boy did she and her unending anxiety ever not like it.

"We could free the prisoners there," Ven suggested as she stood up slowly, creakily, from her seated position. Her limbs were still unused to movement, or maybe her mind was just telling her they were.

As Nikola quick equipped her full set of armour from her menu, she realized that Ven and Violet were donning what she now knew to be their starter outfit, which was purely visual and came with no stats at all. They looked very stabbable to her eyes; they were clear targets to anybody looking for an easy fight. "Before we leave, I request that we go to the shopping district. I wish to make sure we are fully equipped before we leave the city."

She still had what she had earned from the Dungeon kicking around in her inventory, too. Her Silverbark Wolf Tooth marked itself as a material for crafting, and she was curious to see what it made.

"I second that," Luke agreed.

Armed with a plan, the four of them gathered their things and made sure they were as ready and fully equipped as they could be, given what they had - and, of course, they also made sure they were looking pretty, as per Luke's request.