by Kit Falbo
“Being a caster, you’ll want to go to the scarecrows to start orientation. There. If you hurry, you might make the next group.”
I walk quickly, with Jasper following at my side, a bored look on his face. Maybe I should have sent him off again. The clothes are just listed as poorly crafted poor-quality leather clothes. I know the swords are similar. The bag I reach into is an empty eight slot bag, making me glad I got the one from Byron. I tie it to the other side of my waist and see I have no problem equipping multiple bags. The small coin purse has one gold coin, five silver coins, and eight copper ones. Whatever funds the Kingdom is using to supply the Touched, most of what they get has to be cash. Makes sense. All the players will want to specialize their gear to their classes. Easier to let them buy what they need on their own.
A large group of about fifty players is ambling about near the scarecrows, some still in their white robes. Others had changed into the clothing. I can see some stripping naked; their private parts blurred while equipping the clothes. The player’s companions wait off to the side in their own group.
Just as I join them, there are three loud thunderous booms, and we’re surrounded by a translucent blue wall, I guess to keep any late comers out. Gandolf, or rather a guy who could be Gandolf’s twin but wearing a blue robe and holding a staff, floats over to us. “Welcome Touched, to the training grounds. I am Arnus and will help ease your transition to Lusania and start you on your first steps to your mighty quest.” His voice projects loud and evenly to everyone without the man making an effort.
He might have our attention, but one of the players near me chuckles, “Anus.” That sends a little bit of laughter tittering among the players. Before the laughter subsides, a bolt of lightning shoots down from the sky, causing me and many others to jump. It crashes into the player who I hope is the one who made the comment, leaving a blackened corpse.
“You’re immortal. He’ll be back,” Arnus says in an offhand way before adding. “Hopefully with more manners.”
Now Arnus really has our attention. He is right, but death is still a motivator. No one wants to wait for respawn and have to trek back down the hill to wait for the next orientation.
“The royal mage summoned you here at the great cost of his life. The council has decided to use you to help decide our next king. Because of your immortality, you will deal with the neighboring menace of the Man of Masks and his bestiary. You, among the Touched, are all users of magic, so I have been given the chore of orienting you.” His tone makes us all sure that for him this is a chore and a waste of his time. The recent display of power shows his opinion is fully warranted.
“A blue star should be in the corner of your vision. Concentrate on it and think of the skills you’ve been given.”
I open my skill display, just like I had before.
“Now think on the spells and magic, take your time if you need. Don’t focus on using them, just get oriented on what they can do.”
I already have mine accessible, but other players obviously need to figure it out. Someone shoots a glowing white ball out. It meanders before hitting another player who yelps. Suddenly the player who cast the spell flies into the sky, propelled by a pillar of earth that then retracts, leaving him to crash back down.
“I did not say to use them yet.”
The player-turned-projectile moans and moves a little on the ground.
“If anyone is finding it difficult to figure this out, raise your hand and I will come see you.” No one raises their hands. Everyone is suitably cowed. He waits a few more moments before talking again. “The other group has moved on to their next task. I want each of you to find a scarecrow and shoot it ten times with an offensive ability. I’ve arranged for everyone in the area to be refreshed faster, so you don’t have to worry about being drained after hitting it a few times.”
A quest box pops up.
Training. Rewards: 50xp. Failure: None.
I accept it. Pointless but I can use the xp. I only have one offensive spell, so I face my scarecrow and shoot off a Sorcerous Bolt at it, wait three seconds and do it again and again until the Quest Complete box pops up. Most of the other players are trying out multiple spells, tangling the scarecrows in vines or shooting beams of ice at them.
Arnus is standing off to the side looking a little bored. In the back, more players are starting to trickle into a loose group just outside the shielded area for their turn to be oriented. I find myself agreeing with Arnus’s attitude on the banality of this training. I remember other new players already working the southern smiths, and Jasper isn’t doing any good just lounging about instead of working. I jog over to Arnus. What’s the worst that can happen? hesitating briefly, I remember what happened to those who had annoyed him. If he turns me into a crisp, I get a free trip closer to the city. “Honored teacher,” I say to him respectfully.
Arnus gives me a disdainful look as he pulls out a pipe and starts smoking it. “Once everyone is finished we can move on to the next training.”
I give him a smile. I don’t know if it has any effect. Probably not. Arnus is clearly a high-level NPC. “I was just wondering if this is what all the training is like?”
He blows a ring of smoke. “Pretty much. You’ll hack some dummies, shoot some targets, use your companion, and then we’ll send you out to kill a bunch of moles and rats that have been infesting the south. They’re what we make those leathers out of.” He says, indicating one of the gray outfits the other students are wearing.
“If I left, would I miss out on collecting any items or special things with my companion or anything?”
“Just the valuable experience of training,” he says in a tone leaving me thinking he considers it anything but.
I nod. “Then do you mind if I just leave with my companion and skip all this?”
He gives me a hard look and takes a few more puffs of his pipe. “Fine, but I don’t want to see you back here again. Got that?”
This gives me a quest.
Better things. High wizard Arnus has asked you to leave and not come back to the training grounds. Success: unknown. Failure: death and loss of status with Arnus. Do you accept?
“I got it.” The box closes, accepted.
“Now go!”
I jog over and grab Jasper, “Aside from getting the money, this is a total waste of time. Let’s head back. “
“Couldn’t have happened sooner.” He turns to the other companions and waves at them, “Bye suckers.”
It’s a march back up the hill. “Jasper, I want you to be an eccentric again. Same setup. But, you should probably avoid the south section of town. I think all the new Touched will have most of those jobs covered. Before you get started, can you direct me to the gaming house? I want to check something out.”
“Sure. A big one set up shop near the south gate. With the money being handed out to the Touched, they figured they could separate a lot of fools and their newly gained monies. Just promise me you won’t be one of those fools. I would hate to be the only one making money.”
Once into the gate, he gives me directions and leaves to find his own odd jobs. The gaming house is large. Seeing it, it isn’t something I could have missed. The entire front is painted with giant dice and playing cards. Players are both stumbling in and out of it. The ones coming out mostly have sour looks on their faces. Maybe one in ten is smiling.
It’s Vegas come to Lusania. There are dice games, card games, and games I’ve never seen before. The programs running the place are probably better than real places at finding weighted dice or marked cards, considering everything is part of the game. There are many NPC walking around with free drinks and helpful, but slightly predatory smiles on their faces.
One approaches me, a well-dressed elf with his dark hair slicked back and classic pointed ears. “Ah, Touched. What can I help you find? We have any game you can think of and some you can’t.”
“Do you have any skill-based games?”
“They are all skill-b
ased games Sir, even if some luck might be involved.”
“Do you have chess?” I ask with a smile.
He gives me an even larger grin, “We have masters of Go, Shogi, and many other skill games that you can test your metal against, including chess. For a price of course.”
“I would love to meet your chess master.”
“Right this way Sir.” I follow him to a room in the back. I see two players playing Go and one playing Shogi against the house masters. The players are playing against NPC, so their opponents are actually computers. I idly wonder how they chose the difficulty levels.
I am used to playing against computers. I hope they don’t have them set to be impossible to beat. Most of the places me and Grandpa have lived didn’t have internet access, and when they did, Grandpa refused my pleas to pay for the service. He said it was one way he can be traced. He let me have handheld and console-based chess games, but nothing that required internet access. It was an approved way to kill my boredom and as Old Pa liked to say, keep my skills fresh.
The NPC pulls out a seat and a chess board and goes to fetch the house master. An elderly man in a velvet robe comes to the table. He has a curling gray mustache and a slight smile on his lips. His eyes are gray and cool, but inviting at the same time. He sits down and presents his hand. “I’m Gioachino.”
I clasp his hand firmly. It’s warm and has a good grip. “I’m called Chess.”
Gioachino lets out a small chuckle, ”That’s a bit presumptuous, isn’t it?”
“It’s the name I was given here.” Thinking of the historical chess player, I couldn’t help but add, “And your name isn’t presumptuous?”
“My mother gave me my name!”
I give him a smile, “Sorry. Let’s just accept that our names are our names.” The programmer obviously has a sense of chess history but had neglected to program it into the NPC. “How is this supposed to work, wager-wise here?”
Gioachino shifts in his seat a little. “You bet against the house. I’ll start out easy on you. If you win, you have an opportunity to leave or continue, double or nothing, and I’ll take the game more seriously after that.”
“How many times can I double it against you, assuming I win?”
“Ten times, then you will have truly beaten me. If I tried to keep playing after that, the owners would have my head. Though I must tell you, that has never happened.” I have to wonder if the game makers would really go deep blue on me. Would they really do a challenge like this and make it impossible? Though with ten difficulty settings it probably will be close to impossible anyway.
“What are the min and max bets?”
“Ten coppers is the minimum bet. If you go all the way, you can win a little more than five thousand copper, essentially two whole golds. Max bet is twenty-five silver. You can earn 512 gold. Like I said if I tried again after that I wouldn’t be welcome here anymore.”
I run the math in my head. 50 copper equals one silver. 50 silver one gold. So, that small starting bag represents a good bit of wealth. Too many players will be throwing it away here, but this is my game, and I’m not going to let some fancy chess program beat me. That is unless it really is rigged.
I pull the gold coin out of my bag and put it on the table. “Well, I’m named Chess for a reason.” He slides me back my change, and we set up the board.
The first game is easy, a throwaway. I doubt the game will let me quit now and come back and get first game odds multiple times to farm that way. I’m sure some player will try that, then get banned from gaming houses. One of the issues professional chess players have playing some computers is that the program can take the games you’ve played and use them against you, so it is not just that the program is designed to be good at chess, but that it improves to beat that one player.
I have no idea if Gioachino is designed that way, can it learn from me and improve its chance of beating me? I doubt ten games will be enough. Still, it won’t hurt to do some different strategies and playstyles the first few games.
Six wins in, more than 30 gold lays on the table between us. We begin to draw a small audience. In the seventh game, I try to get fancy with an uncommon opening strategy while playing black. I almost lose.
I honestly think about quitting with sixty-four gold on the table. (It only takes two hundred gold to buy another month of the game, so it isn’t that much.) Then Gioachino smiles at me. It isn’t a true smile. It is more of a smirk. He knew he almost had me. Worse, this isn’t a he; it is an it.
An it. If this game is fair, I’m not going to let myself lose to an it.
The next three games are not easy. Harder than Peacoat Man. Harder than anyone I’ve played in the park (not that I haven’t gotten sloppy once or twice and lost a game while playing in the park.) Harder than any computer I’ve played against and still managed to win. The clock in the corner is eight minutes in the red, past when I should have logged out for lunch. I know I will really need to pee. But still I press on, I win.
It’s satisfying sliding the pile of gold coins into my small pink bag. “So, do we start over?” I ask Gioachino, lifting up a coin.
He shakes his head, “After ten wins, the house won’t let you play me again. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t let you in here for a good long while unless you wanted to stick to roulette.”
In front of me, a notification pops up.
Achievement. Chess Master. You have proven yourself to be one of the best. +5 Intelligence +500xp.
This seems too good to be true. A stat boost this early may be as close to as over powered as it gets. I don’t know enough about stats in this game. With all the other achievements and professions providing different boosts, it probably isn’t as broken as it seems and won’t matter in the long run.
I step out of the gaming house and log out. The need to pee that I’ve been trying to ignore hits me like a brick now that I’m out, and I almost don’t make it to the bathroom in time. Once back, my lunch is cold now-soggy tacos. I eat them happily, sure I can’t repeat that achievement, but at the very least I’ve achieved a couple of months in the game free.
“Log in.” There is a notification flashing that I had missed in my rush. Winning caused me to level up. I have two free attributes to distribute. I add one to charisma, and one to wisdom bring me to nineteen and thirteen.
I head to Byron’s smithy with my newly boosted mana pool. Now I can stack even more enchantments on a blade, though now I must also do three plain blades before my mana recharges to full, even with the small wisdom increase.
I do three more enchanted swords, even stronger than the last, and six plain ones before I finish for the day. I take the twenty-four copper the smith gives me for the plain blades, even if it feels like it doesn’t matter. After all, I’m already five hundred gold richer. I log out and head home.
Chapter Four – Casey Ellis
Sixty-hour work weeks, so tired. At least I get my name on the glass door, even if it looks backwards from my perspective. sillE yesaC, well Casey Ellis. They added it yesterday. I got the promotion and the office with the door on the day of the game’s release. I’m just glad I don’t have kids; wife is mad enough at the hours as it is. The promotion and small raise did calm her down for now, after I added the promise it wouldn’t be as bad in the future. Fair Quest is my baby, our baby, the baby of everyone at Immersion Arts. And right now, it’s getting slammed with more players than we expected in our wildest dreams so that just means more hours making sure everything runs smoothly.
Almost time to call it a night. Through the glass door, I see Frank Lutz heading my way. I groan. Frank is the extremely competent architect of the AI systems that manage many parts of the game, which is good for him because that is the only reason he still has a job. Frank has a serious character flaw: he’s an asshole. A giant, unrepentant, in your face asshole. The nasty office joke is that the reason he’s so good is that he had to build his own friends. A joke I, of course, try to squash whenever I he
ar it. And he is walking my way. Is it too much to ask that he goes somewhere else instead of to my door? He’s staring at me and what’s worse, with an unpleasant smile on his face.
Because of that smile, I am in no way shocked by his words as he opens the door, “You are in so much shit Casey.” He extends the E sound in my name a bit too long. He knows it annoys me. “You’re just lucky the boss has gone home already.”
“Why is that Frank?”
“One of your game programs bugged, Gioachino gave some kid ten wins, a major achievement with a stat boost and a pile of gold. It’s only the second day! You’re sure to have hundreds of players doing it now, messing up the balance, using that gold to jump ahead of the competition or cut off the money we get from subscriptions. You better hope this doesn’t get out of hand, or you’ll be out of your pretty new office.” Frank storms out of the room now that he has made his point.
I pick up my phone to call Stella, to tell her that I’ll be late, which will mean another cold dinner and shoulder, then I put it back down without making the call. You know what, fuck Frank. I’ll deal with this tomorrow. I’m going to go home and have a nice dinner with my wife.
At home dinner is wonderful. I cuddle with my wife as she picks a show. I can’t help but feel that it’s only 90% as wonderful as it could be, because of that asshole and his comments nagging in the back of my head. At least I am able to keep most of the negativity out of my head, at least until I’m trying to sleep.
When I wake up, I have a text from my boss, Sun Aya the development lead for Fair Quest. Meeting 9:30. Well if I was really in as much shit as Frank implied, it would say meeting 8:00, giving me only twenty minutes to get to the office. Now I have time to get in and check to see what’s been going on while I was asleep.
The meeting is Sun, Frank, Sally who handles AI/Player interactions and of course me. I’d spent the morning catching up on the situation. Frank would call it an escalating situation, but I know I will be going into the meeting with him playing the bad cop. Sun shoots me the opening question, “What do you think of the Gioachino situation?”