by Domino Finn
Well, 2 seconds wasn't a whole lot of time to make an informed decision.
With a single keystroke, I zeroed out the beta flags. All of them. For everybody. Whatever the temporary variables did, whatever hacks the developers had stuffed into the memory that governed the tweaked beta conditions—I wiped them all out. Beta flags equal zero.
Saint Peter whirled to me, having managed to thus far hold Orik off.
"What have you done?" he cried.
Global Haven Alert:
The reboot sequence is primed.
Have a nice day, and see you on the other side.
REBOOTING...
My eyes locked with Saint Peter's.
Then the whole world fizzled out.
0460 Wipeout
After a drawn-out, peaceful moment, I opened my eyes. The soft blue light of my bedroom greeted me. I twisted my face into the comfort of a fluffy pillow. After this was over, I promised myself to sleep two days straight.
With a sigh, I sat up. Everything was pristine. No personal effects or scattered items. Not that I had a whole lot. Haven had reset.
I jerked out of bed and opened my character screen. My sudden tension eased. It had actually happened.
"Woo-hoo!" screamed Kyle.
He was probably in his personal room but I could hear him. We both hurried into the common area to see each other.
"I can't believe it!" he said boisterously. "This is totally awesome!"
A new party chat message came in.
Izzy: Okay, Talon... What the hell did you just do?
I smiled. I had done it. All player conditions—levels, items, skills—had been retained. I was a level 5 scout. Kyle was still the brewmaster. Even our party was still together.
My roommate followed me outside. From the high vantage of Hillside, I gazed upon the large city. It was mostly empty. There were NPCs, sure. A shopkeeper. The city watch scattered across patrols and posts.
All the players would be restarting in their homes. Slowly realizing their world wasn't a game anymore. It was permanent. I took a slow, deliberate breath. Whatever beta flags had prevented player data from being stored in the permanent profiles had been blown away. We were here for good now. All of us.
Residents stepped out of their houses, faces colored with curiosity, pleasantly surprised by the strange development. I wandered ahead, taking it all in. Some players cheered me as I passed. Somehow, they knew I'd been part of it.
A large shockwave rumbled Stronghold's walls. Everyone hugged the ground out of instinct, even though Hillside itself didn't shake. I scanned the battlements. Saw the scurry of troops on top. Spun around and saw all the combat-ready NPCs scrambling into action. City watchmen abandoned their posts. Centurions marched units to the west gate. Legionnaires lined up to die. Even Trafford the welcome shop keeper hurried by, brandishing a pitchfork.
I broke into a sprint down the hill. I headed west, straight toward the river walling off Oldtown. Kyle followed at a less frantic pace. As we neared, a rock launched from a catapult smashed into the abandoned ruins, just as it had before.
The pagans were still storming the city.
My mind raced. I knew zeroing out the beta flags could have unforeseen consequences, but I didn't see how this was possible. I'd stopped the wipe, but the reboot had still gone through.
Players were permanent now. It was the personnel records I'd messed with. We should've been the only ones affected. But maybe...
My gaze climbed the tower of Dragonperch with trepidation. Stone by stone, I reached the top and saw the statue of Magnus, toppled in half, his glimmering white spear propped against crumbling bleached stone.
Talon: Izzy, get to Oldtown. Something went wrong.
Kyle caught up to me, questions on his lips. I spotted movement in the ruins. A deer with stripes galloped into view. She froze and perked her head sideways when she saw me.
I went from zero to sixty in an instant. She was on the other side of the river, but that didn't slow my stride. At the cordoned brick edge, I planted my spear and vaulted, clearing the whole body of water and continuing in a run on the other side. When I reached Bandit I clapped my arms around her broad neck and held her tight.
"You're alive!"
She gave me a loving snort and danced with glee. After a minute, I pulled away, admiring her chestnut coat.
"I don't know if you realize how dead you were," I said.
Her dark eyes within her white mask stared at me deeply.
I couldn't be sure what had happened. A simple respawn? But she came back within Oldtown, along our original path.
I worked through the possibilities as Kyle forded the river. Listened as the army on the other side of the wall screamed, cursed, and pounded. I watched the townsfolk spill into the streets, abuzz with chatter, surprised they could still pull out their weapons before slowly realizing Stronghold was still besieged. The anticipation of what came next was palpable.
It didn't take long for Izzy to find us.
"What the crap is going on?" she asked sharply. Kyle waited expectantly. They both thought I had all the answers.
"I'm not sure. I couldn't stop the reboot so I cleared out the beta flags. Took everyone out of a temporary state. We can't be wiped anymore." I frowned. "I don't understand it. Maybe the devs hacked some extra junk into the beta flags."
"Developer hacks?" asked Kyle, puzzled.
"It's more common than you think. Laziness, deadlines, logistics. The point is, whatever I did affected the world state as well."
Izzy twisted her lips into a smirk. "So the world is permanent too."
I shrugged. "Maybe the game state takes regular snapshots, backups in case of server crashes. Maybe the reboot sequence halts those backups, so we restored to a previous position, when it began."
I checked the game clock. It was past one, so the time didn't reset. It probably couldn't, being synced with the real world. Everyone had just lost a chunk of time.
Kyle caught on. "Or maybe it just makes a backup every hour."
"Could be."
We thought silently for a minute before Izzy asked, "Is that good?"
I cocked my head. "It could be. But it means we're about half an hour away from Orik destroying the Pantheon. If he does that, the pagans will control Haven. We still need to fight them off."
The sounds of battle grew more hectic. The legionnaires had organized quickly and were doing serious damage with ranged weapons.
Izzy hiked a shoulder. "Hey, sounds easy, right?"
Kyle nodded. "I'm with you, bro. Whatever happens."
It was what I needed to hear. Together I felt like we could accomplish anything.
Global Haven Alert:
The player Talon has broken the terms of service and negatively impacted the play experience for all residents. His contract is terminated effective immediately. The angel Decimus has been dispatched to carry out the judgment.
Correction: I felt like I could accomplish anything but that.
I reread the message several times. Each time, disbelief was my only reaction. I had gone against the saints. With everything else going on, I couldn't deny that. It was what I should've expected. I just couldn't believe it.
Izzy's face softened. "Talon..."
I smiled at her. She didn't relax her stoic mask often, but she did now. I didn't get the carefree smile I'd hoped for. Instead her mood was closer to pity.
"Don't worry about it," I said, straightening. My statement oozed overconfidence but it was the best I could do. "We need to protect the gates."
"You're thinking about Haven now?" she asked.
"If we defeat Orik," I said adamantly, "maybe the angels give me a pass. Do you guys still have the new supplies you bought?"
"Yup," said Kyle. "Still preserved. We lost time but retained progression, thanks to your change. I need to catch up on glasswork though."
I nodded. "Get to the gates. Convince the watch that we'll help them. Trust me. They don't want the pagan
s in this city. They'll welcome anybody with skill. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."
Izzy pressed her lips together. Kyle asked, "What are you gonna do?"
"Same as you guys. Prepare for a fight. Get moving."
It took some urging but they broke away and followed the wall toward the west gate. They'd have ample time to prepare. Orik wouldn't reach Stronghold for a while.
For my part, I wasn't like the rest of the party. Frost mages and brewmasters needed to prep components and supplies. Most of my usefulness in a fight came down to quick thinking and quicker feet. But the dried-out spear in my hand wasn't gonna cut it. I needed something better. Something game changing. I looked up to the top of Dragonperch.
I needed a god killer.
The doors to the tower were warded tight. I wondered why the west gate didn't have similar protections, but figured it had to do with hastily written game lore. Ancient powers, prophetic seals—that kind of thing. Hey, you can't analyze fantasy too hard.
I opened my character screen. I still had a level 5 skill point. If I was gonna die, I was gonna do it with a full loadout. I could go for more power or a new attack, but nothing that would take on a titan. Besides, I already had a weapon of choice in mind.
I'd been eyeing a traversal skill ever since the tutorial. I'd heavily considered it when first climbing Dead Man's Peak. Now that I was sure it would come in handy, I didn't feel bad spending a skill point on it.
Scale
Climb and hang on sheer surfaces.
Attributes: Strength, Agility
SpS: 0.5
Hey, it's not a rock star skill, but it's something.
Climbing was more passive than other skills. It didn't have a set spirit cost or a cooldown, but the act did cost spirit over time. The method of traversal also seemed to require a good deal of strength instead of just agility, which made sense but made me nervous. Normally I'd top off my agility, but I didn't want to fall to my death. I put my level 5 attribute point into strength and swiped my menu closed.
I circled Dragonperch until I found it. Uneven stonework that provided easy hand and foot holds. "Here goes nothing," I said, and began my ascent.
Just a few feet up, I began to see how difficult this task was. Without the scaling skill, it would've been an absolute no-go. As my passive climbing skill took over, I noted my spirit bar flash and start to drain. It was slow and I had plenty to go around. I set my jaw and continued upward. Despite the apparent real-world difficulty involved, I scaled higher and higher using precarious seams in the stonework.
I was twice the height of the great main door when it happened. A shimmering ceiling, like oil on water, or haze along the desert horizon. I banged into it just as if it had been brick, but the magical flash reminded me more of Orik's gemstone shield. The damn tower walls were warded as well. Try as I might, I couldn't get higher.
"Shit!" I screamed.
I forcefully shoved myself into the barrier and received a friendly jolt in return. I lost my grip and bounced hard to the ground. The damage was minor but the pain was real. I cursed Lucifer and wondered if he'd blessed himself with the same gift of pain.
I rolled to my back and gazed up helplessly. I had just wasted my last skill point on an impossible task. Magnus' weapon wouldn't be so easily recovered. Almost a year of alpha and beta testing and no players had ever snagged it, much less breached the tower. I was naive to think I could do it on my first day with a noob traversal skill.
I hissed at the night sky and listened to the sounds of battle. For the moment, the well-mobilized legionnaires and massive walls of Stronghold seemed to outmatch any conceivable enemy. In answer to my thought, the pagan cyclops bellowed in the distance. He was nearing the city.
I sprung to my feet. Giants and angels and magical weapons be damned, I was gonna go out fighting.
I whistled sharply. Bandit was immediately at my side. "Looks like your resurrection will be short-lived," I told her, and hopped onto her back. Her hooves beat against the dirt as we hurried to the wall.
0470 City of Heroes
The west gate was a beehive. Players and NPCs scrambled to defend the walls. Readying weapons, handing out armor. It was impressive unity but too many of them failed to contribute meaningfully to the immediate problem.
Before the reboot, the titan had broken down the gate. That was the inciting event that had endangered the Pantheon and allowed the pagans to stream in like a rushing river. It was bound to happen again, eventually. We needed to be ready for the contingency, but sitting back and waiting for it was conceding the battle.
We couldn't let the pagans in that easily. Not while their force outnumbered ours five to one. If they broke in so soon, Stronghold was done for. The real battle was up on the walls.
Despite the bustle of people, the crowd parted before Bandit's stout form. I was the only one in town with a mount. That, combined with my growing notoriety, brought more than a few stares my way.
Unfortunately, it also brought the wrong kind of attention.
"Halt right there!" screamed a centurion.
It was Gladius, the head of the city watch and the same centurion I'd previously attacked. He jumped in Bandit's path with his golden sword drawn behind his rectangular body shield. The blade burned with a hot fire. Several other centurions moved in, as well as a troop of legionnaires. I scanned the wall but didn't see Kyle or Izzy.
"Talon, you are an illegal resident of Stronghold. You will surrender your weapons and turn yourself in at once."
I flipped my spear in my hand. "Don't get in my way, Gladius. We're all on the same side here."
He scowled and called the centurions into formation. Two on either side backed him up, forming their shields with his into a tight wall. They advanced a step.
I growled. On Bandit's back, with a spear, I could beat their reach easy. But their tactics were designed against first strikes. They'd bat my spear aside, maybe trap it against the ground, and then they'd move in and stab me like Julius Caesar. Fitting, maybe.
"He'll be deleted!" yelled a random voice in the crowd.
"He let us keep our stats," added another.
The centurions didn't falter. They stepped ahead in unison. I considered dismounting and telling Bandit to run. She didn't need those blades to find her.
An arrow whizzed out of nowhere and clanged against the top of Gladius' helmet. The gold armor rang painfully against his temple. The centurions raised their shields. Another arrow struck right where his head was, now buried behind the makeshift wall. It wasn't made of glass and didn't pop with corrosive liquid. It wasn't a crossbow bolt.
I spun around and saw Dune brandishing a longbow from behind the city watch's line. Stigg the berserker and Caduceus the physicker fanned out behind him.
"He's one of us," announced the ranger.
Stigg laughed heartily. "You mess with him, you mess with all of us."
The legionnaires warily turned their heads as the crowd grew more vociferous. The cries of support turned to threats. A few waving fists turned to shoves.
Gladius peeked over his shield and snarled. "All residents will stand down or face harsh penalties!"
A stalactite of ice formed in the air between me and the centurion grouping. I finally spotted my friends on the wall. Kyle held his crossbow to his shoulder and took careful aim. Izzy nodded at me.
The mob was getting unruly, but the shields of the centurions and the organized city watch were intimidating. They cowed any who came close.
Gladius hissed. "Town combat is active, but friendly fire is blocked. Attempting to damage Stronghold defenders will only result in failure."
And there it was. The men and women backing me up had weapons in their hands, but Lucifer hadn't hacked their characters as he had mine. Friendly fire wasn't a simple beta flag. It was part of the normal game, meant to be toggled under certain conditions after full release. The players demanding my freedom held paper weapons.
"No!" I cried, kicking Band
it forward. She spun away from the centurions and galloped around the loose circle formed by the wall of guards. "We are not enemies."
I swiped my spear at the line, keeping the legionnaires from charging me. They'd seen my display in town earlier. They knew that I, at least, could hurt them. As I lapped in circles around the centurion grouping, they scrambled to readjust and stay in formation. It was all they could do to keep their shields together and face me. They ceased their advance, giving me the time I needed.
"Stronghold is under attack!" I screamed, wishing I'd invested in blue face paint. "A wild army beats on our walls. Knocks on our doors. A titan has awoken."
Bandit continued galloping and every eye in the crowd followed me.
"If the pagans succeed, our homes will be destroyed. Our safety will be obliterated. Our supplies, our pleasures, our day-to-day lives will be forever changed."
I slowed Bandit to a trot but kept my voice loud, shouting for every person at the wall to hear. I pointed my spear at Dune. "This is your home," I announced. He nodded. I circled to a random person in the crowd. "This is your home." My spear rose to Izzy on the wall and I watched her for a wistful second, voice slightly softening. "This is your home."
Finally, I whirled Bandit toward the centurions who had somewhat relaxed their fighting stances. I nodded to Gladius. "This is your home."
He worked his jaw uncertainly. His eyes flicked to a nearby building. I followed his gaze and saw Saint Peter on a balcony overlooking the thoroughfare. The saints were always watching, always above the thrum.