There were basically two types of players in UA, RPers
and PKs. RPers, or Role Players, where the ones who really got into the
fantasy experience of living in a Medieval world. They were the type
people who created the Society for Creative Anachronism and games like
Dungeons & Dragons back in the 20th Century.
PKs, on the other hand, were Player Killers... the mortal enemy of
RPers. Their sole purpose for playing was to kill everything in sight
(especially RPers, all of whom they referred to as "Newbie") and amass as
much treasure and equipment as they could. The average PK was between 12
and 17 years old, and favored old-school hacker lingo because they thought
it made them "Hard".
Everybody in UA had an aura which showed up in battle. The color of the
aura would tell you certain things about them. You could also look at
their name, which would be the same color as their aura.
Blue meant that had not done anything wrong recently. It didn't mean
they were nice, but they hadn't hurt anyone as of yet. Grey meant
criminal... either they had recently stolen something from someone, or had
attacked someone. Red meant bloody murder... that person had not only
attacked another player, they had killed them.
As Bridget and Jerry entered the dungeon of Desperation, they saw
the names "iRoXu" and "IrUlz" appear in red at the other end of the passage.
Sure enough, two glowing red people came charging down the passage at them
shouting, "We ownz you, Newbies".
Bridget and Jerry
eyed each other, he nodded that she could go ahead and deal with it. She
smiled and drew her kris swords, launching into double siniwali as she ran
to meet them.
Jerry later reflected that is was like
watching the rotors of a helicopter tear into a pair of humans. She was
faster than them, faster than normal and much faster than anyone in the
game should have been. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for
bringing her along on this deal.
The ghosts of the two PKs appeared in the passage and started "ooOOOooOOing" at Bridget
while shaking their fists.
"Sorry," she said, "I
can't spirit speak, have fun getting ressed and
enjoy your stat loss".
