GodsRealm- Betrayal

by Luke Isaacs

  As she said this, cables and wires descended slowly from the ceiling of the room, previously hidden by artful mosaics.

  “Well, you have to appreciate the UN’s resources,” said Edward.

  In a few moments, the entire team was fully suited and connected to the VNet, their bodies floating in half gravity.

  “Welcome to the UN viewing rooms,” Jones announced, and she and the team entered the game.

  They hovered over what resembled the playing field of the championship, with its three vast zones, the last zone grayed out.

  “Alright, we will start from the beginning.” Jones waved her hand, and the field was instantly populated with players and NPCs. “You show exceptional coordination and mastery of battle strategy as a team,” she said and pointed out their team on the field. They watched themselves advancing through the battle field towards the dragon. “But it was entirely human. Notice how Rick here misses his targets as frequently as he hits.” Rick would have blushed had they not been in VNet. “And look at Rania, how she stumbles as she races after Edward to poison the dragon.” Rania gave her a dirty look that took some skill given her reptilian features in the VNet. “Here, Edward cuts the air twice before actually striking his target.” Edward watched with interest; the UN recording technology of the event was even more advanced than the one employed by GodsRealm producers. “And Mario drops the healing potion on an enemy. You can see him cursing silently at his blunder. And Dana uses the spell replicator, haphazardly throwing spells at the trees, rocks, mostly hitting the enemies by sheer accident.”

  Dana’s eyes flared red at the insulting tone used by her former alumni.

  Jones, her avatar in the game exactly as she looks in real life, waved her hands again, pausing the game recording.

  “I say this not to upset or belittle you. But as you have seen, you’re the most competent team in the championship.” She shrugged. “But you are humans playing with a margin of error in the execution of your playing strategy.”

  “Now let’s watch the events leading to your coma.”

  She waved again and the second zone is suddenly alive with movement. They silently watch their fight with the first giant. Jones continued her commentary.

  “As before, Rick misses a lot, Edward hits the air, Dana aims and misses her spells, Mario might be the most efficient member of the team, but he loses a Mana potion here.” She shows them Mario throwing a Mana potion to Dana and falling short. “And here.” Now he throws a Mana potion to Rick but instead sends it 20 feet beyond him. “And Rania actually falls at least twice, and yet you advance to almost finish the second zone.”

  “Again, you were doing well, with some errors.” The world winks out and they find themselves in complete white. “This is where the electric surge disabled all the surveillance equipment.”

  The whiteness becomes grey and starts to show shadows of the game field. “While you were in your comas, our teams found one of the main power regulators of the dome blown out with a contained explosive charge. It was a deliberate act.”

  “What was the type and strength of the charge?” Mario asked her.

  “Pre-war, compact archeological plastic charge,” she answered him. “Just under one kiloton, very limited but used very effectively.”

  “Did you find the person who did this?” Rania asked.

  “Sadly, no,” Jones shrugged, “the culprit was a professional. The site was pristine, no gas emissions or body prints, implying the use of hover suits. The explosive is so commonly used and widespread that it was impossible to trace it to any particular seller.” She sighed. “For all we know, the culprit is in the wind.”

  They all stand in silence as the field gains color and becomes fully vivid again.

  “Now, let’s see your most recent performance.”

  The field is populated as the recording resumes. They see themselves facing Hel’s Own and the giant.

  “Rick stood against two players, never missing a beat, fighting more like a machine than a human.” She points to Rick countering the opposing Battle Mages. “Here, even though something seems wrong with the abilities of Rania, she appears and disappears in perfect response to the oncoming attacks. She never falters even when hit.”

  She then concentrated the scene on Edward.

  “We’ve never seen somebody fighting with such precision and grace, and the moment Edward decapitates both players facing him in one swipe is; the first to be ever be recorded in the game’s history. You have become rather a celebrity for it, Mr. Yu. Within hours of the fight, you were the top trending story on the VNet.”

  She shifts the focus to the coordinated work between Dana and Mario. “You can notice the unique coordination between your two back liners, they never miss, and they never get in each other’s way… almost too good to be true.”

  Then she moved to their second fight with two giants at the same time.

  “Again, your team creates a first in the game,” she continued. “You are the first ever team to face two level 30 giants and survive.”

  She isolated scene by scene as they fought the two giants. “Now this is what made me call my superiors and eventually stop the game.” She points at Rick as he dodges one giant and shoots spells at the other. “Notice the blue aura around Rick?” She paused the scene, a faint layer of blue light shimmers around him. “Here! Watch how his upper torso glows?

  “But he was not the only one with the weird blue light.” She rewound to the scene where Edward decapitates the two fighters. “Here, now you can see the blue shimmer around Edward.”

  Then she moved forwards till the point where they attack Jörmungandr’s hulking body.

  “Notice how fast Rania is in loading and shooting her arrows.” She zoomed in and paused the scene. “See the glow around her hands and her head; it is at its most obvious when she aims.”

  She did the same as Mario and Dana coordinated their support of the team – the blue glow was evident whenever they were in action. Jones turns to face them as the scene freezes.

  “Because it is the first time we’ve ever seen a player shimmer in blue light,” she stopped when they object. “Sorry, of course, everybody playing the game has seen a blue shimmer before. I meant any human player. Any super-powered AI in the game has the same glow of course. Our coders inform us that it comes from hyper processing of code in real time. This is only possible for AI.”

  “So, you assume that we have embedded AI?” Edward said and smiled as he folded his arms around his chest. “But there is a huge hole in your logic, sorry, make that three distinct holes.”

  “Please enlighten me, Mr. Yu.” Jones looked intently at him. “I’m listening.”

  “The first problem with your logic lies in the motivation.” He waved at his teammates. “We are very different, with different motives for winning the game, none of which provides the desperation needed to do something as stupid and as dangerous as to augment ourselves with AI.”

  “The second problem is Mario.” He pointed at his teammate. “He is a UN charge hence he has a tracking chip in his skull, recording every word and move he does on VNet. This is the reason he enters VNet only to play the game. This makes it impossible for him to pursue the augmentation and even more so, using it.”

  “The final hole in your logic lies in the fact that, according to you, the blue shimmer happens when the computing power of the supporting systems of the game can’t face the load given by the super-fast AI. Did your scientists and coders even consider that our neural systems are working faster after the electric shock and coma?” He moved nearer to her. “Did they consider that we are all slowly dying from nervous fatigue and our actions, orders, and commands to the system might have been too fast for it, hence the blue shimmer?”

  They stood looking at each other — teenager and veteran policewoman, for what seemed like an eternity. Then Jones started to clap slowly.

  “Aside from the over-romantic idea of dying slowly,” she said. “Everything you just
mentioned in your exposition has been explored, yet the investigation was not conclusive. Therefore, we need you in a controlled environment to test these theories out. Everything, since we entered here, is and was recorded; your suits are not off the shelf, they have ten times the sensors available on regular models.” She waved her hand and the entire GodsRealm scene fades to a washed-out grey. “This observation was designed to elicit certain stimuli that will be analyzed through our team using state of the art supercomputing over the next 24 hours. One way or another, the truth will be known.”

  Just as she finished her speech, Rania noticed movement in the gray three-dimensional landscape of the game. Behind Jones, two giants and one of the dragons were moving… towards the group.

  “Is this a part of your show?” Rania said and pointed out the approaching AIs.

  Jones looked over her shoulder, now alert.

  “No,” she drew a complicated-looking gun from nowhere. “They are not, but that’s the least of our worries.” She fired a shot at one of the giants, much to the surprise of the team members. “It seems we are cut off from central, I have no comms with them anymore.”

  “Let’s suit off then,” Rick reached to the wire plugged in his suit in real life, a move that announced to VNet his wish to go offline. Nothing happened. “I can’t suit off!”

  His avatar jiggled as he struggled to suit off. The fastest closing giant roared.

  “Stop it, you can’t!” Jones signaled for them to spread as she explained. “These suits and the entire simulation are controlled by central,” she fired another shot, “you can’t suit off, you have to be disconnected from their side.”

  “Odin’s Beard!” Mario shouted as he reached in his pouch to find it empty, he didn’t carry any of the gear that was usually saved in the game. “We don’t have our equipment or potions, nothing!”

  “We still have our spells,” Rick said, as he called his Fire Sword to life. “We’ll have to manage with those.”

  “What about us non-magical characters?” Rania retreated, with only a hint of panic in her voice. “What should Edward and I do?”

  “Avoid fighting,” Jones said. “These AI are all flashing blue, they hold real-life electric surges and you could be killed.”

  “I think we can use items at hand to cause some damage,” Edward said, pulling a tree branch away from the nearest tree. Jones raised her eyebrows as he bit a chunk out of his hand and then brushed the demon blood along the branch igniting it.

  “Yes, we can do that!” Rania said. She fell to her knees and picked up a round stone that she bashed on a shard of quartz protruding from the ground. From the shattered remains she picked up two long, sharp slivers, and climbed to her feet before vanishing with a smile.

  As the first giant came into their vicinity, it was apparent that it was an ice giant and Rick charged at it with his flaming sword, followed by Edward with his makeshift weapon.

  Dana immediately began the incantation for soul shatter as Mario cast a blessing over the team and Jones. As Edward and Rick wove between the giant’s legs, Rania was working feverishly on severing the tendons of its ankles whenever the giant backed away from the pain inflicted by the other teammates.

  Jones was an excellent marksman, and all of her shots hit their target. Unfortunately, they were not magically charged, and while they caused the giant pain and distraction, they did not inflict any real damage.

  Eventually, after a few minutes of clever fighting by the team and the agent, the giant started to flash the red of low health. It collapsed dead. However, the team’s sense of impending triumph lasted only a few seconds as the other giant arrived and joined the fray. Suddenly they were on the back foot and Rick knew if he didn’t do something it could end very badly.

  “Run for Jörmungandr!” he screamed, and ran between the legs of the Fire Giant, leading the way.

  It was not the planned retreat they usually used in tactical battles. It was more a desperate flight to save their own lives, their real lives.

  The dragon stood in front of a small mountain, which was the only outcrop between them and Jörmungandr. Before they were close, it started to breathe fire and caused them to weave and turn, attempting madly to find a way past and also watch for the pursuing giants.

  Then something strange happened. Edward, resigned to their fate, turned to face the giants and saw the Stone Giant stop in confusion. It began to shake and tremble and then suddenly its washed-out shades of gray transformed into full color. The stone giant ceased its trembling and looked up, enraged. However, it was not looking at them; it was glaring at the dragon. To the disbelief of the team, it charged right past them and headed for the dragon.

  Although the occasional fireball flew in their direction, the dragon was now preoccupied fighting off the giant. The team huddled together on a low hill in order to speak.

  “What the hell?” said Rania. “Did I just see what I thought I saw? A Stone Giant helping us?”

  “Yep,” said Dana. “I don’t believe it either, but I’m not complaining.”

  “Now what?” Edward asked and looked to Rick for inspiration.

  “We won’t make it to Jörmungandr in a straight run, we have to sneak by,” Rick said. “We can stop in the cavemouth in the dragon’s mountain, then make our run from there, only I don’t know how to get to the cave yet.”

  “Thank you, captain obvious,” Rania snorted.

  “If you can do better,” Rick shouted at her, stunning himself and her as well. “Just do it!”

  “I will! By Odin’s one eye, I will!” She shouted back in frustration and grabbed the arm of Jones. They both vanished.

  “How did you do that?!” Jones appeared again, as she pulled her arm from Rania’s.

  Rania appeared with confusion blooming over her face.

  “I … I don’t know!”

  “Can you do it again?” Dana said, approaching her teammate.

  “I can try,” she touched Dana’s arm and disappeared, but Dana stayed visible to everybody else.

  “Maybe it works only with Dahlia?” Dana said.

  “Maybe, I will try again,” said Rania. She reached out and grabbed Jones again. This time, nothing.

  “Maybe you should put some more passion into it?” Edward teased her. “You cynical little troll.”

  Triggered by his name calling, an angry Rania grabbed Dana and they both disappeared again.

  “Yes!” called Edward. “It was triggered by powerful emotions. You just have to maintain your rage.”

  “This is definitely not scripted code,” Jones commented. “But I will take anything to get out of here alive.”

  “Now, we have a plan,” Rick said. “And it all rests on your shoulders, Rania.”

  “I can do it, I will try to make you all disappear,” Rania said. “Let’s join hands.”

  “No! Stop!” Dana shouted at Rania. “I think your power would overload the system.”

  “So, you admit to being augmented?” Jones said to Dana.

  “No, Dahlia, we are not!” Dana bit back. “But I think the wiring of our brains may have been altered by the electric current that passed through our bodies. I think we can change our energy flow to augment that of the computing core of the game.”

  “This has to be studied and proven,” Jones said.

  “We have no time,” Mario pointed to the Stone Giant, which had started to flash red. “We have to go now.”

  “Take Jones first Rania,” Edward said to his teammate. “She wouldn’t trust us otherwise.”

  “Done.”

  Rania grabbed Jones and disappeared. The giant finally crumbled under the onslaught of the dragon. The victorious creature had not come out unscathed though and settled down in front of the cave to rest and regain its health.

  After two minutes, Rania re-appeared, breathing hard. “Who’s next?”

  For the next 10 minutes, Rania ferried the team members to the cave’s mouth until finally were all gathered. The team members
gathered around Rania as Mario cast healing spells on her.

  “We have around a mile of distance between us and Jörmungandr’s body,” Rick said. “We can’t task Rania with the same process; we have to run for it.”

  “It’s a vast plain, nowhere to hide,” Edward commented. “We’ll be sitting ducks if the dragon decides to follow us.”

  “We have no other choice,” Rick answered him. “If the rules of the game apply, we have to cross the three zones to get out of the game.”

  “Maybe only the first two zones,” Jones stood from her lotus position. “This simulation is based on what was recorded in your playthrough.”

  “Still, we have to break an almost impenetrable wall of armor and flesh without our equipment or any Mana to replenish us.”

  “Not necessarily,” Jones said. “In the early versions of the game, you could make your own Health and Mana potions using certain plants.”

  “Red Tongue for Health and Blue Fingers for Mana,” Mario added. “I remember what they look like, but we have no flasks or an extraction apparatus to get the juice out of them. Each plant leaf is the equal of around 20 Health points or 13 Mana points. So, we will have some means of renewing our Health and Mana, only very slowly and inefficiently.”

  “Better than nothing,” Rick said. “In fact, it’s simply brilliant.”

  “And the really good news?” said Mario. “They are found in caves.”

  The team followed Mario’s instructions and went hunting in the cave for the plants he described for them. Jones helped and they finished the job a little bit faster for it. They consumed the leaves as they found them.

  “I think we gathered enough of the Health and Mana herbs to keep us going. We should run for Jörmungandr’s body while we have the energy boost.”

  They emerged from the cave and ran across the playing field with renewed vigor. Perhaps the dragon didn’t hear them or was still recovering it’s own health, but they reached the wall without any incident.

  “I guess Edward, Rania, and Dahlia should guard the rear as Rick and I work on the wall,” Dana addressed the team. “Mario can cast boosts on us as we work.”