Life Reset
Page 17
“What do you mean?”
He looked at me strangely. “Have you stopped to consider how it’s possible for a player to defeat any monsters at if they are that much faster in time? Even a rabbit who’s 12 times faster than normal would be a handful for most players.”
“Well, now that you mention it…”
“It’s simple.” He explained, “A player’s character is the center of a bubble of normal time. When a monster enters the player’s ‘bubble’, the monster’s temporal speed is reduced as the monster gets closer to the character until it matches the character’s time rate. The radius of the area of effect varies by location and circumstance.”
“Hmm... that’s interesting.” An alarming thought came to me. It was interesting, but he was revealing internal, confidential information.
“Tal, wait. You shouldn't be telling me these things, you’ll get into more trouble. Remember your NDA? I’ve gotten you in enough hot water as it is.”
He snorted. “Don’t worry about it. Taking your special circumstances into consideration and the fact that you signed a confidentiality agreement, the company gave me permission to disclose anything to you.”
Bringing my condition back to the fore of the conversation soured the atmosphere. Tal’s face clouded.
“For the past hour, I moved heaven and earth trying to get you some help.” He sighed dispiritedly.
“I went straight to my manager, who took us directly to the branch manager. I made him promise your physical body would be taken care of, and that I would be authorized to discuss confidential information with you. But that’s all the concessions I could to get from him. Then he was on the phone, talking to that attorney.” He grimaced, “I’m sorry you had to deal with that snake, it couldn’t have been pleasant. He’s a real shark, they call on him when serious shit hits the company.”
He looked at me, just a shadow of a smile on his face “Congratulations, you have just been rebranded as serious shit.”
I shook my head, not giving in to his attempted humor.
“Tal, listen…”
I wasn’t sure how to continue. He did everything he could to sway me from this course of action, and I ignored him, causing him a heap of problems. I was a crappy friend.
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to your advice.” I said in a subdued voice. “You were right, this was a mistake. And I dragged you down with me.”
He stared at me in surprise.
“What are you talking about man? I’m fine. It’s you who’s in trouble. Can’t log out, remember?”
“Mr. Emery said you'd be fired and prosecuted for violating your NDA agreement.” I clarified.
“Oh, that” he waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I talked with my aunt, who’s an attorney. She said I couldn’t be prosecuted for breaking the NDA, since my motives for violating it were to spare someone from harm. Apparently, that’s a prime clause for all corporate NDAs. At most they might try to cut down the yearly bonus at my next employee evaluation.” He smiled. “So don’t you worry about me, bro.”
I felt a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. “What’s wrong?” He looked worriedly at me.
“I agreed to sign a contract, releasing the company from the responsibility of getting me out of the game”
“What?!?” he exclaimed. “Why the hell would you sign something like that?”
I sighed in resignation.
“A few reasons, one was he threatened to sue you for violating your confidentiality agreement. He was manipulating me with half-truths. He could sue you, though now I realize it wouldn’t stick. Damn.”
“That bastard!” he slammed his fist on the table. “He spoke to me before coming here to talk to you, drilled me for ten minutes on all the details. He’s a hard bastard, it felt like I’ve been questioned by a Nazi interrogator. He positively glowed when he got me to admit that I had foreknowledge about your situation, and that I tried to warn you. At first, I thought he was looking for a scapegoat, but now I realize he was just looking for ammunition to use to manipulate you.”
He drummed his fingers on the desk.
“I’m so sorry Oren. You were ‘managed’ by the best litigator on the company's payroll. They use him for the most sensitive cases. He gets the job done at all costs.”
“It’s not all bad. He did offer me a quarter of a million dollars to agree to his terms.”
Tal face paled. “Oh man, please tell me you didn’t take the money.”
I looked at him with confusion.
“Of course I did, at least I’m getting something out of this shit deal.
He closed his eyes for a long moment. Then he moved to sit in the opposite chair. His voice sounded forcibly calm.
“Oren, the company had an imperative moral and legal obligation to do everything possible to get you out. Even if you agreed to waive that obligation, it wouldn’t hold up in court. It was their product that got you in this shit, and it's on their heads to get you out. But agreeing to those terms and accepting their money, sealed the deal. Simply put, they bought the right to wash their hands of you .”
He visibly clenched his jaw then relaxed.
“It’s not a hundred percent legally binding. You didn’t have legal representation when you agreed to it all, and you are a victim, but by taking the money, you proclaimed you’re okay with the deal. Fighting it in court now would be difficult. The company lawyers could drag the case out for years.”
He sighed ruefully.
“How the hell do you know so much about the law anyway?” I asked.
He shrugged, “I watch a lot of legal TV shows.”
I stared at him.
He rubbed his chin. “When you do get out, you could at least try to get compensation for getting into this situation in the first place. Maybe the threat of going public with this will be enough to get you a nice settlement.”
I felt my heart sinking further.
“I can’t do that either.”
Tal covered his face with his hand.
“Tell me.”
“It was the first thing he made me sign, a contract releasing the company from responsibility for putting me in this situation, in exchange for a prototype long immersion module and a monthly stipend. I also signed an NDA agreeing not to discuss the incident with anyone.”
Tal slammed the table again, leaving a visible dent on the polished surface.
“God-fucking-damn-it!” He gritted his teeth.
“It's ok.” I said in resignation.
“I am gonna fucking kill that guy.” He fumed.
“I said it’s ok.” I repeated more firmly. “You did everything you could reasonably do to prevent this situation from happening. That Emery guy was not entirely wrong. I brought this on myself. Me. Not you. So don’t do anything stupid, I got you in enough trouble already.”
Tal seemed crestfallen “I understand man, but...”
“No buts.” I cut him off, “You did more for me than I could expect, I don’t want you getting into anymore mess over me.”
I grinned at him crookedly.
“It will be easier for me if I don’t have to worry about you getting your sorry ass in trouble.”
Frustration in his eyes, he nodded.
“Your body will receive the best treatment possible. I’ll make sure of that.” He sat up a bit straighter. “The adapter frame you had installed will make it easy to install the prolonged immersion module, I checked. At least you got that out of them. It costs more than what you earned in a year.”
“That’s good,” I said in relief. “For a while there, I was worried my body was going to wither and die while I’m stuck here.”
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore. I’ll drop by your house later, and make sure they’re treating you right.”
What could I say to that unwavering show of friendship?
“I really appreciate it, Tal.”
He seemed to be considering something then his face fell.
“What’s wrong?”
“I was thinking I’d head over to the Deadlands and help you in-game.”
I almost leaped for joy. But his next words dropped me back down to ‘reality.’
“Then I realized I shouldn’t because my character would negate your time compression. You’ll be able to level up and secure your release faster without me. It takes an average player about a year to reach level 100, it might take even longer to reach boss tier 4. If I’m not around you, then years in the game will translate into only a few month IRL.”
My heart sank at his words. Though I hadn't considered the possibility of getting his help inside the game, now, hearing it definitely won’t happen, made me feel very isolated. I was on my own.
“All right then,” I tried to look confident. “Let's make the best of this opportunity. You said you can answer my questions now, it will really help me figure out what to do next.”
He nodded. ”Of course, ask me anything you want.” He raised a finger. “But you better make good use of the time we have. I don’t know when we’ll have another opportunity like this. I’ll try to reach you like this again, only it might take weeks, from your perspective.”
“I understand.”
“So, shoot, what would you like to know?”
“How do I reach Boss tier 4?”
He laughed. “Start with the small questions first, eh? Why not ask me for the meaning of life?”
“That complicated?”
“Well… no, not really, it’s just… involved. There’s no, one, sure way to do it. The mechanism derives from the in-game evolution system, taking into account geographical parameters, cultural, civilizational...”
He trailed off.
“Is that even a word, civilizational’?”
“Yep.”
“Oh good,” he gave a faint grin. “My mom would be proud.”
“So how does any monster become a boss? Mostly, the game creates them on-demand, but sometimes an individual mob gets lucky, and unexpectedly influences their surroundings. If it happens at the right time and the right place, it might draw Guy’s notice, and he might decide to promote that mob to Boss.”
I frowned. “Can you give me an example of something that will cause a mob to become a boss?”
“Sure, it could be something common like a mob surviving several battles against players, maybe also killing a few of them, so the mob rises in levels and skills. Or, a more exotic example, a mob falls into a pool of raw energy and absorbs its power. Or a standard mob kills his own boss, though that doesn't happen much. Guy usually rewards those mobs by evolving them to Bosses and giving them a clan to lead. If they do well enough, survive and enlarge their power base, clan or whatever, they might be rewarded with a higher boss tier.”
“I think I get it.”
“Maybe one in 100,000 mobs triggers a boss promotion, which means it happens several dozen times a day in NEO. That’s how the system was designed to operate. Guy has full jurisdiction over tier 1-3 bosses and monitors them himself, since there’s too many of them for direct admin oversight. It’s also the reason why we can’t help you now. Guy runs most Boss-mobs on his internal memory. It’s contained in a cyclic compression matrix that is completely indecipherable to humans. The data never gets dumped to any persistent layer, so we literally have no influence over it, not unless a major patch is implemented. We can view the logs, but that’s about it.”
“So…” I slowly mouthed, trying to clarify. “In order to increase my Boss level I have to establish a strong clan?”
“Well, sort of, it depends on the monster type. For example, you rarely encounter dragons who are also mayors of large metropolises.” He chortled. “But since you’re a goblin, then that’s probably the way to go for you”.
“Well, good thing building large, powerful, trustworthy guilds is my specialty.” I joked back.
“Yep. I don’t know why I’m worried. I’m probably going to wake up tomorrow morning and find your ugly mug standing outside my door, grinning. Mind you, I’ll be expecting a bottle of expensive whiskey as a thank you present.” He chuckled.
“You got it bro.”
I raised my hand, and we fist bumped. Must have looked hilarious from the outside; a 120 kg, muscular barbarian, fist bumping a 20 kg, ugly green goblin. I chuckled at the image.
“Let me finish telling you how the boss system works.” he carried on. “Boss tiers 1-3 are classified as Mini-Bosses. Tough, sure, but as you know a group of players around the same level can take one down. Boss levels 4-6 are fully fledged ‘Boss' monsters; kings, or archmages, very tough, but an experienced group of players can usually take them out. Since they are rarer, and have significant potential to influence the game’s evolution, we implemented a system to keep track of them. So when you get to boss tier 4, you’ll be registered in that system automatically, and that is when we can find you and log you out.”
He drifted off in thoughts for a moment and then shook himself back.
“Anyway, just to be clear, boss tiers 7-8 are very rare. They’re usually encountered as part of large game events. A full raid party is needed to bring down one of those. A tier 9 Boss is something else entirely. They are unique, and almost as powerful as gods. That Behemoth-Dragon your guild took out was one.”
He paused when he saw my face darken. The cursed scroll they used on me was looted from that monster.
I motioned for him to continue.
“It’s highly unlikely, but do not ever become a tier 9 boss. Although they are extremely strong, when they die it’s permanent. They don’t respawn. Ever. You don’t want that to happen, no idea it would do to your mind. You might find yourself floating like a ghost, unable to interact with anything physical in the game.”
Tal frowned “You ok buddy?”
I nodded.
“The time acceleration thing gives you a huge advantage. You can accomplish in weeks what would take other players years.” He chortled. “You might get out of this mess with a higher level than you were before.”
That is true. With the time acceleration working in my favor I can train myself and my troops much faster than other players….
Suddenly, it hit me like a brick wall.
“Shit! How long have I been in this bubble?”
Tal looked startled. “About 15 minutes. Maybe 20.”
“Shit, that’s like four hours in-game, I gotta get back, Now!”
He seemed worried “You sure man? It might take us weeks or months to set up another meeting.”
“Yes! Quickly, or I could lose my spawn point!”
His face clouded. “I understand. I’ll get you out, but first…”
He looked around as if someone might be watching, then shrugged. “Screw it, what are they gonna do to me?”
He took a wand out of his inventory. It was covered with purple neon lights and had a spinning something on it. It was clearly an admin tool.
“What are you doing Tal?”
“I’m just giving you a little advantage, something to help you get a head start. No time to explain, you’ll see.”
He waved the wand at me, a shaft of bright golden-green light descended from the bubble ceiling and engulfed me. It felt ticklish. A system message appeared.
Divine intervention granted
That should be interesting. I’ll have to figure out what it meant, but I trusted Tal, it was sure to come in handy.
We shook hands quickly, both aware it might be for the last time.
“Now go go go,” he urged, pointing toward a doorway that appeared in the black round wall.
I nodded.
“See you soon man, and thanks.”
I ran out.
And found myself standing in the center of carnage and destruction.
9 - New New Beginning
I appeared back in the goblin cavern, standing at the same spo
t I was when the bubble whisked me away. But the sight that greeted me now was very different from twenty minutes ago. Instead of a clan bustling with goblins cooking, working, and brawling, now the cave was quiet. Signs of destruction were everywhere and the ground was littered with the bodies of dead goblins.
I wandered around. Everywhere I went I saw butchered goblins and occasionally, a dead hobgoblin in the mix. I was too late. The raid party has arrived and killed everyone while I was away.
Oh no. Realizing what my first priority should have been, I ran toward the cemetery. As I crossed the tunnel leading to it and stood at the entrance, I could already tell I was too late. There was fire everywhere, bright red flames mingled with black, both consuming the hallowed ancestral bones. The walls were scorched and blackened with soot. There was a distinct feeling of uneasiness, pressing down on me.
The cemetery had been desecrated, I could no longer respawn here. Now I understood why the hobgoblin lieutenant had carried an Unholy Grenade. It was to destroy and desanctify the cemetery.
I had failed to protect the clan.
The game seemed to agree.
Quest Failed: Defeat the Hobgoblin Raid
You stopped one of the groups that threatened your cave, but were too late to stop the other one. As a result, the Drippers clan has been decimated and is no more.
Penalty: Lost all reputation gained with Drippers clan. You are no longer the Dripper clan’s Totem.
“Shut up Vic” I was in no mood for his antics at the moment.
Given my situation, losing my only known respawn location was bad, there was no telling where I would end up respawning if I died now. It could be inside a den full of hostile monsters that would kill me on sight. That was a worst-case scenario, trapped in a cycle of death and respawn. I did not like the thought of that at all. I needed to find a safe respawn point as soon as possible.