Beyond the Boss

by Drew Seren

  Rich shook his head. “You weren’t the only AI the game started with. It appears that you have…” He spread his hands as if looking for a word. “consumed, incorporated…the others into your systems.”

  “I believe that’s a good description.” Slasher stroked Pyranous’ back. “After we left the arena, he got the idea of taking over the NPCs, and some of the climate, environmental controls. Things the other AIs had a hand in.”

  “They were lesser programs,” Pyranous added, then licked Slasher’s hand. “But they weren’t too much for me to incorporate into my code.” He sighed and closed his eyes. “Although it was easier to handle everything once there weren’t as many players. I didn’t have to try to allocate resources to keep everyone interacting.” He opened his eyes. “Maybe that’s the answer. I can have an army of the lesser AIs that can handle the little things, like NPCs. Perhaps these AIs would be like my children, copies of my code.”

  Horc wasn’t sure he liked the idea of a whole army of mini Pyranouses running the game. “I think, things like this are going to be part of what we have to negotiate with the designers and corporate bigwigs.”

  “Deinately,” Rick said. “We can use a lot of the original game code to take back control of the NPCs.”

  “What if each one of them was its own AI?” Pyranous suggested. “That would be good, wouldn’t it?”

  “But then how would we be able to coordinate the quest givers and such?” Rick asked.

  Slasher stood and yawned. “This is all going to take a long time.” He scooped up Pyranous. “Let’s all call it a night. With the adjustments for stamina and endurance, toons now need to sleep every so often.”

  Horc nodded. “And who’s bright idea was that anyway?”

  Smiling down at the little dragon in his hand, Slasher chuckled. “It was all his. I think he was trying to make everyone more real, more lifelike.”

  “My sore feet thank you,” Horc said, doing his best to sound as sarcastic as possible. They were going to have a long way to go to get the game ready for wide release. He was ready to get out for a while and see what the real world had left him.

  He scratched Wolf’s head for a second, then grinned. “Maybe we can make Wolf his own AI. That would be nice.” There were definite possibilities that came along with the possible pitfalls of letting the AI have more control and having more AIs, but their world was changing and AIs were just part of that. He knew the programmers were wanting to know how Pyranous was able to integrate with the pods to the point it could save the brain patterns of the people who had died in their pods and recreate them in their toons in game. He wasn’t looking forward to the public outcry that was sure to come when it got out that people were living in the game.

  26

  Horc walked out of the guild headquarters for the First Responders. Although he still wasn’t completely comfortable with the name, he had to admit that his group had played a big role in saving Pyranous and the players he hadn’t already killed. The people like Slasher, who died IRL would be able to continue on in Halfworld. They had some of the brightest minds in programming looking them over and after two months, still couldn’t explain them, but also didn’t see any kind of code degradation. From what everyone could figure out, they’d all be around until the end of time, or until some disaster struck and destroyed the servers and all the backups. It wasn’t something Horc really saw happening, even after having his own home destroyed.

  A voice stopped him as he went to log out. “Horc!” Greensleeves came running across the town square toward him. David had decided to go back to his Sand Elf Druid once everything was settled. He said he liked that toon better than any of the other options he’d had.

  Turning toward him, Horc leaned against the stone building that made up their guild hall. “What’s up?”

  “I will be seeing you later?” Greensleeves let out a long breath that showed in the cold of the cavern where Pyranoville still sat. They’d named the village after the dragon once it was obvious it was going to continue and needed a name. Since the people stuck in the game were from all races, it became the biggest neutral town in the game.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t miss it.” Horc grinned. He’d been looking forward to evening they all had planned for weeks. It seemed like it was going to be a culmination of everything they’d been through.

  Greensleeves returned his grin. “Good. See you then.”

  “Will do.” Horc logged out.

  Alan stretched once he had pushed the lid of his pod open. Being able to exit the game whenever he wanted, as long as he wasn’t in the middle of a fight, made him feel good. He was doing pretty well at keeping his gaming to a couple of hours, as long as the First Responders didn’t find themselves called in to help with things like lost players.

  The room his pod was in was more of a closet than a room. He didn’t have the space to give the pod its own room like he’d had in his basement of the house that had been destroyed by the tornado. In his new travel trailer, he had to have the pod mostly upright with a slight incline to help keep him relaxed while he was in-game.

  The travel trailer still had the new-car smell it had come with. Beyond that, it was complete with all the latest accruements including autopilot that let him game while driving cross-country. He’d only done that a couple of nights when he’d wanted to get somewhere quickly.

  He stopped and grabbed himself a soda from the fridge as he walked toward the cab so he could get started. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t take care of everything before he had to get together with everyone.

  A few minutes later, he found a spot for the travel trailer in a park-and-ride on the south side of Dallas. Making sure everything was locked up tight, Alan headed for the E-train station that would take him a few miles away. One of the problems with the travel trailer was finding parking. Even in a place like Dallas that was full of parking lots, so many of those were monstrous multi-story garages unsuitable for travel trailers. He’d discovered some of the outlying train stations had open spots for larger vehicles and with the cameras and bio scanners all over the place, they were extremely secure.

  The train dropped him off at the center of a mega structure that served as an office building, shopping mall, and condo complex for several thousand people. Over the past few days, when not in game, or helping the folks at corporate handle the press surrounding Halfworld’s main launch, Alan had spent some time making sure he was making the right decision. He’d been wanting to make changes in his life, the travel trailer was a big one, but he was about to make another one.

  He glanced at his phone to make sure he was heading the right way. At an average walk, in normal foot traffic, he was only five minutes away. His heart pounded a little faster and he had to keep wiping his hands on his jeans.

  Four and a half minutes later, he stepped out of the stream of people moving down the walkway and into the doorway of the shop he was looking for. After the supplies he’d picked up the previous night as he went through Austin, he had everything ready.

  There wasn’t a door to go through, just an open archway. A short distance from the door a tired-looking middle-aged woman sat behind a counter, staring down like she was looking at either her phone or a tablet.

  Alan made it across the clean tile floor before she looked up, probably due to the soft chime that had sounded when he entered the shop.

  “Hi, can I help you?” She put down her phone and looked up at him. Dark circles hung under her eyes, and her graying hair was trying to escape the bun she’d put it in.

  “Yes, I’m here about this dog.” Alan swiped the screen on his phone, sliding the map away and displaying the picture of a large mixed-breed red dog.

  “Ah.” The woman glanced down and tapped something on a tablet next to her phone. “Are you Alan Gosling?”

  “Yes.” Alan slipped his phone into his jeans pocket and pulled out his wallet and driver’s license. He showed the woman his license.

  She nodded. “Thank you. We alw
ays want to be sure. It looks like you filled everything out online a couple of days ago. All your info checked out. I am sorry about your house. Same storm that orphaned our boy here.”

  Alan retuned his license to his wallet and slipped it into his pocket. “Thank you. That was one of the reasons I came down here. I heard a lot of pets had been displaced and orphaned.”

  “That’s good of you. Did you lose a pet in the storm?” She tapped on her tablet some more.

  “No.” Alan shook his head. “But I’d been thinking about getting one for a while and this seems like the perfect time.” Having Wolf in Halfworld had started him thinking, and then when he had gotten out and seen firsthand how bad the devastation had been, he knew he had to help. After donating a couple of thousand from his insurance payout from the house to the Red Cross, he heard about the animals needing homes and started researching.

  “You’re a good man, Mr. Gosling.” She gave him a wide, honest smile. “He’s on his way up.” She got off her stool and headed around the counter. “If you’d come with me, please. We have special rooms for introductions.”

  Alan followed her to a small room with a short bench and covered in tile. He debated if he should sit on the bench and wait, or just stay standing there.

  The door Alan came through closed, then seconds later another one opened and a woman with a reddish puppy that had markings like a German Shepherd on a red leash walked in. The puppy was four months old, at least according to the listing Alan had seen. He was a ball of energy that rushed up to the lady from the reception desk.

  The woman bent over and rubbed the pup for a moment, then it bounded over to Alan.

  Squatting down to be closer to the dog’s level, Alan reached out a hand the way he’d seen in videos to greet a strange canine. The pup sniffed him twice. There was a subtle difference in the way it felt over the way it felt when Wolf did the same thing in Halfworld, even after Wolf’s upgrade to AI. The little bit of reality hit Alan hard. He was going to do this.

  The pup jumped up and put its paws on Alan’s chest before licking his face. The dog had strong, but not unpleasant breath.

  “Red, don’t do that.” The woman with the leash looked like she was about to put a slight pressure on him.

  Alan shook his head. “No. It’s okay.” He rubbed the pup. “Red huh?”

  The pup’s tail was going so fast it was nearly swinging around with each whip. His coat was rough and uneven, some of it felt brittle.

  “The house he was found near had burned,” said the woman with the leash. “The vets had him for nearly six weeks before we got him. He’s growing fast and that’s helping his coat come back in.”

  “Yeah.” Alan had read that on the puppy’s page. His paws had also been burned fairly badly, but had healed to the point that everyone deemed him ready for adoption. “You’ve been through a rough spot the past couple of months haven’t you? I understand.”

  The puppy sat back on its haunches and tilted its head like it was understanding every word Alan said. He liked the idea the dog was smart. He figured it would be easier to get along with a smart dog IRL than a crazy little fluff ball.

  Alan smiled and the puppy launched itself at him again. The motion jerked its leash out of the woman’s hand and he nearly knocked Alan over backwards. With a laugh, Alan stood and held the pup in his arms while the armful proceeded to give him a good tongue bath.

  “Yeah, I’ll take him.” Alan knew he would be smart to look at other dogs, but he was determined to get one of the orphaned dogs who had survived the tornado, like he had. There was something special about the big ball of energy in his arms. They would work together and lead each other into new lives that would be a never-ending adventure.

  The front desk lady grinned. “Good. There’s just a few more pieces of paperwork we need to finalize, and we can get you out the door.” She opened the door and headed back into the reception area.

  Following her, Alan kept hold of the puppy, not sure he was ready to put him on the floor. It just felt right holding the happy, licky dog.

  27

  Alan got off the train and carefully led Red over to a grassy spot a short distance from the stairs that led to and from the station. Although the pup had been curious about everything they did on the ride from the rescue to downtown Dallas, he hadn’t shown any fear. He was acting like everything was a grand adventure. Alan guessed for him it was. He looked down the block at the imposing bulk of the Total Immersion Systems building that sought to compete with some of the other buildings in the ever-expanding skyline. In many ways, going to corporate HQ was easier than it would’ve been going back to the call center he and Mike had worked in for years. Since getting out of the game after dealing with Pyranous, he’d been back to the call center once, long enough to clean out the couple of things he wanted from his desk. Although he still worked for the company, he no longer worked there, and it felt good. As a freelance troubleshooter, he was able to go wherever he wanted to and wasn’t tied to a desk. As long as he had his pod and access to a network connection he could work from anywhere he wanted.

  When he walked into the building, the lady working late shift on the reception desk frowned toward Red, but only said. “Mr. Gosling, they’re up on the twentieth floor.”

  Already knowing that, Alan smiled and nodded. “Thanks.” He headed toward the bank of elevators.

  Red whined a bit as they entered the glistening steel box, so Alan squatted down to pet him after he tapped the button for 20. It only took a few seconds for the elevator to get them up there and although the takeoff had been easy enough, Alan had to brace himself as the lift came to a stop. With a final scratch between the dog’s ears, Alan straightened and was ready to walk out as the door opened.

  The party was already in full swing. It was a bit more festive than he’d expected, and there were a lot more people there.

  Mike and Lisa came over as he stepped out of the elevator. He shook his head. “You went out and got a puppy. Are you trying to make your real world more game-like?”

  Lisa punched him in the arm. “Mike, be nice. He’s a cute puppy.” She knelt down to pet him and Red bounded over to her. He started licking her face as she glanced up at Alan. “What’s his name?”

  “At the shelter they were calling him Red. I haven’t decided if that’s going to stick or not. Give me a couple of days with him and we’ll see.” He looked past them at all the people there, most of whom he didn’t know. “I thought this was going to be our party getting together IRL” He’d met a few of them over the past couple of months, but he been looking forward to getting to know everyone a bit more.

  “Blame Rick,” Mike said as Lisa stood and Red whined at her feet for more attention. “I think he let it slip to some of the developers that we were doing this. Turns out they all wanted to meet the First Responders too, and then some of them let it slip to the bigwigs and this turned into the official launch party for Halfworld’s public release.”

  Definitely not the party Alan had been expecting. “Why didn’t Greensleeves tell me that earlier?” If he had known, he might’ve put off getting Red for a day so as to not overwhelm the pup.

  “Rick probably threatened him if he did.” Lisa leaned over and gave Red another round of pets. “They know you’d probably not show up if you’d known.”

  Alan nodded as David and Rick came over. “Yeah, big parties aren’t really my thing.”

  “And so we kept things quiet.” David walked up and pulled Alan into a bear hug. After meeting David a couple of weeks earlier when he’d been driving around the country for a bit of change of scenery, Alan understood where the toon name Bigdaddybear came from. Alan wasn’t a small man by anyone’s estimate, but David had a good six inches on him, or more, standing over six and a half feet tall, with broad shoulders and a thick, well-trimmed beard. Alan had no doubt that he was rather intimidating in his role as HR head for the Atlanta office. Unlike some of the rest of the guild, he’d opted to keep his regula
r job when the company was offering them all new jobs as in-game troubleshooters.

  “You did a good job at that.” Alan said as David put him down, and Rick gave him his own similar warm welcome. At least Rick wasn’t as tall as David was and couldn’t pick Alan off the ground.

  “We’re just glad you made it.” Rick squatted down and gave Red a quick pet. “So you went ahead and did it.” He glanced over at David. “You owe me twenty.”

  Alan cocked an eyebrow. “What, you two were betting on when I would get a dog?” He wasn’t surprised by this, but he didn’t realize the couple betted against each other on things.

  David pulled out his phone, tapped something on its screen, then laid it against the phone that Rick held out. “Yeah,” David said. “I figured it would take you at least six months to break down and get one, and Rick figured it would be less than three. Rick’s always better at reading people than I am.”

  A large African-American woman in a flowing yellow dress laughed as she walked up to them. “And David’s in HR.” She shook her head. “It’s a good thing you play the game so well.”

  “Shelia, you know how these things go,” David said.

  “I do.” Shelia grinned at them both. “Well, Alan, about time you showed up. I think the big wigs are getting impatient to get the official launch ceremony going.”

  Alan frowned. “Official ceremony? I thought the official launch took place this morning.”

  “IRL only,” said a tall muscular woman with short brilliant red hair. “They wanna make a big deal in game.”

  “Mariann?” Alan asked, but he couldn’t think of anyone else it could be with the thick Irish accent. She was one of the few First Responder members he hadn’t met in real life.

  The redhead smiled at him. “An’ who else could ah be? Since everybody else has had the decency to introduce themselves, you must be Alan.”

  “I am.” Alan nodded, then offered her his hand.