Awaken Online: Catharsis

by Travis Bagwell

  “What is that thing?” Claire asked, while others in the group murmured in confusion at the screen.

  The camera panned back to the marketplace, and the staff grew silent as they saw a similar horde streaming down each of the four streets leading into the marketplace. The waves smashed into the player-made bulwarks. The wood creaked and groaned in protest, and many NPCs and players lost their footing. The unfortunate tumbled over the wall into the horde.

  The player's arms appeared in the camera’s view. They moved as he murmured arcane words. Dark energy pooled rapidly between his hands and then darted forward. The tendrils of darkness struck at random points among the crashing waves of zombies. Suddenly, explosions tore at the makeshift walls, and the wood splintered and cracked.

  “Okay, what's going on? Is he controlling those things? Did he cause the explosions?” a tech shouted at the screen.

  Robert just stared at the scene that played in the air above the room with his mouth open. His hand was frozen mid-way between the bag of popcorn and his mouth.

  The bulwarks crumbled and then one after another they fell. The zombies were in the courtyard. The players and NPCs didn't stand a chance in the face of the onrushing tides of undead. Many broke in the face of the oncoming avalanche, turning to flee. Yet there was nowhere to run. They were surrounded.

  Digital bodies were crushed and ripped apart, and a bloody mist was thrown into the air. Screams of fear and horror filled the night. The cobblestones were soon dyed red with blood.

  Several of the staff members left the room mumbling apologies and excuses. They just couldn't handle the images that were flashing across the screen.

  The camera view was steady. They could hear the user’s breathing. It was unnaturally calm considering the events playing out in the market.

  Robert was enthralled by this player. He had been interested to see what a so-called ‘evil’ player looked like within the game. This was it and it was... something else. Despite the appalling nature of the massacre, he was in in awe of what this player had accomplished.

  As the last of the players were slaughtered, the video suddenly went black.

  “Why did we lose the feed?” Robert cried out.

  “I-I don't know,” replied one of the techs in confusion. “We are running a few minutes behind the game world, but that doesn’t explain the interruption. I think Alfred overrode it.”

  A moment later, the screen flickered back to life. The roof of the building the player had been standing in had been disintegrated, and he now stood on an impromptu platform overlooking the marketplace.

  The player's hands began moving as he murmured a new spell. Whatever he was casting this time was different from the other spells they had seen cast in-game. Dark energy poured from the player in waves. The intensity of his mana was far stronger than anything Robert had ever seen.

  The staff could see the dark clouds begin to spiral in the sky in response to the spell. Bolts of lightning rained down, striking buildings and cobblestones in a thunderous display of power.

  “A player shouldn't be able to do this,” Robert murmured. “Even the participants in the trials never reached this level of power...”

  Not a sound was heard in the room as the group watched the buildings around Jason grow and twist. The zombies and structures seemed to writhe in agony, as flesh, stone, and wood turned black. The whole city was being warped and changed by the dark energy that cascaded over the buildings.

  As the changes slowed, a horde of undead stood in the marketplace. Robert noted that some were no longer zombies, but something else entirely. Hundreds of heads turned milky orbs and soulless eyes to stare directly at the player.

  Then they bowed in deference.

  As the horde stood, they turned their heads to the sky and released a roar filled with almost unbearable passion. The sound sent shivers down the backs of many of the staff members and they stood in stunned amazement staring at the screen.

  “Who is this player?” Robert whispered.

  Then the screen went dark.

  * * *

  Jason woke slowly. He felt confused, and his head was pounding.

  The world around him was completely black. He felt around himself slowly, and his hands gripped rough woolen fibers. Grasping at his head, he felt something heavy and plastic covering his face.

  Slowly his mind began to piece together where he was. He must be at his aunt's house. He was wearing his VR helmet. Slowly removing the helmet, he sat up. His head spun for a moment. His body ached, and his limbs felt dead and lifeless. Jason held his head in his hands and then glanced around the room.

  Sunlight trickled through the window next to his bed.

  What time is it? He thought groggily.

  He thumbed his Core and discovered that it was almost noon. Hadn't it just been nighttime? Wasn’t it supposed to be raining? Wait...

  I was in the game...

  Suddenly, the memories came flooding back, and he remembered what had happened. He had killed off all of the nobles, guards, NPCs, and players in Lux in a single night. He had destroyed the city and created something both malignant and magnificent from the ashes.

  “The Twilight Throne,” he murmured.

  Jason stood and stretched his aching body. He rubbed at his temples in an attempt to ease his headache as he made his way to the bathroom.

  Why do I feel so awful? Was I in the game for too long? Did the time freeze thing that the old man caused somehow multiply the time compression? Or was it the process of channeling that vortex of dark energy?

  He hesitated.

  Or was it some combination of all of the above?

  He didn't have an answer, so he decided to begin his morning routine. Once he was out of the bathroom, he made his way to the kitchen. His head had already begun to feel better. Jason didn’t see his aunt anywhere and was grateful for that.

  Good. I can avoid an awkward conversation. I think I would be even more tongued-tied in my current condition.

  He began rummaging through the pantry in search of something to eat. The only thing his aunt seemed to have was peanut butter, stale crackers, an overly ripened black banana, and ramen. Apparently she enjoyed grocery shopping about as much as he did.

  Oh well. I guess ramen isn't so bad.

  Jason set some water to boil on the stove and sat down at the kitchen counter. His gaze drifted across the rundown bungalow that his aunt lived in. In the light of day, the place still looked like a dilapidated mess. Yet, for whatever reason, Jason’s perspective seemed to have shifted.

  The peeling walls and third-hand furniture drove home the point that Angie didn’t have much. In spite of that, she had still agreed to take him in. Now that his mind was not in turmoil over the fight with his parents, he also suspected she had cut him a deal on the rent. The depth of her compassion struck a chord within him. It stood out in stark contrast to how he had behaved yesterday.

  He had wallowed in his own self-pity and anger, taking his emotions out on the game world. He had continuously channeled his dark mana to drive away the pain and then gone on to destroy a city. Even as he ground the NPCs and players under his digital foot, he had been weak. Jason had lashed out at the game world instead of dealing with his own issues. He was overcome with a heavy sense of shame that nearly took his breath away.

  Then an image of the old man flashed in his mind. After destroying Lux, he had given Jason the opportunity to build something from the ashes. He had offered him a chance to salvage something from the ruin.

  What had he said again? Creation is part of true power?

  The memory of the formation of the Twilight Throne flitted through his mind's eye. Its spiraling, obsidian towers and imposing keep. A legion of undead roaring into the night in an ecstatic affirmation of life. He had created something spectacular even after he had torn down the game world around him.

  “I need to get my shit together,” Jason chastised himself.

  As far as epiphanies went, it wasn
't revolutionary. However, the moment he said it, Jason could feel his anger and resentment begin to fade. They weren't gone, but the feelings were blunted and manageable. He felt stronger, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

  He had acted to defend himself at Richmond and with his parents. He had started a new life here with Angie. He would make the same decision if he had it to do over again.

  To hell with it. He needed to get over himself and start moving forward. Gone were the days of simpering self-loathing and anger. He was going to create something awe-inspiring with his life.

  “I'm going to show them how badly they've underestimated me,” he declared to the empty kitchen.

  Resolved, he finished cooking the noodles and then thumbed his Core. The internet in this region of the city had much lower bandwidth than he was accustomed to, but free internet was available everywhere.

  The U.S. Legislature had passed a bill several years ago that had declared that internet access was a basic human right. As a result, local municipalities were required to offer wireless internet access for free. This was a great idea in theory, but, in practice, it just meant everyone had access to an almost unusable internet connection. This was most apparent in the poorer areas, like his aunt’s home.

  Jason's subscription to AO included a premium internet package, so his gameplay experience wasn't affected by the poor public internet. As soon as he connected with his VR unit, additional bandwidth would be appropriately allocated. Unfortunately, this didn't apply to handheld devices.

  He pulled up some websites for online public schools and drifted through the list of choices, looking for something that offered good math and science courses. He wasn't exactly certain what he wanted to do in college or career-wise, but he had always been drawn to the logical nature of the sciences.

  Maybe I could be a software engineer. I wonder if you can get class credit for playing AO, he thought with a chuckle.

  He glanced around the apartment, expecting a judgmental look from Onyx for sitting at the counter and laughing at his own jokes. Yet the cat wasn't there. Jason shook his head to clear it.

  Of course he isn't here. I'm not in AO. Maybe I have been playing too much!

  After about thirty minutes of searching, he finally found a school that seemed like a decent fit. Online public schools had detailed rankings for different types of classes and course loads. The schools were state funded, but they received allocations of funds based on student admissions. Since students could attend an online school from basically anywhere, they had their choice of schools. The competition among the various educational establishments was fierce. It was a student market nowadays.

  The school he was looking at was called the “Calvary School.” It had good rankings in math and science and a phenomenal computer science department. It seemed like a pretty good fit, and Jason's test scores were high enough to get him admitted. He started filling out the registration forms and then hit submit.

  As he finished, he noticed he was starting to reek. He decided a shower was in order and then maybe he could straighten up the house for Angie. He owed her that at least for taking him in.

  Two hours later, Jason was sitting at the kitchen counter once more. He had cleaned himself up, and the small house was now immaculate. For some reason, cleansing both himself and the house had a cathartic effect on him. It was like he was doing some spring cleaning of his emotional baggage at the same time.

  Caught up on real world chores, he decided he should place his items on the market. He needed to make certain he had money to pay his rent. He pulled up the Rogue-Net website and clicked on the market tab. He hadn't sold any items in AO yet, so he needed to read up on the process.

  He soon realized it was rather complex. Obviously, items were posted on the real money auction house and players bid. However, before Rogue-Net would authorize a post, the items had to be placed in escrow with the in-game market vendor.

  Apparently, players could give items to the vendor and designate that they were being placed in escrow, pending a decision by a third party. The item wouldn’t be released by the vendor until a minimum payment was made by the third party and a recipient for the item was selected. Clearly, Cerillion Entertainment had gone out of its way to accommodate real money markets for in-game goods. It was probably because they took 10% of the money paid in the transaction.

  Damn. And I thought I was a thief.

  In Jason's case, he would have to put the items in escrow in favor of Rogue-Net and set a minimum payment. An admin at Rogue-Net would then verify the item and authorize Jason's posts on the website. When a winning bid was placed, the item could be withdrawn by the corresponding buyer's character. The system was actually pretty sophisticated and safe.

  Jason created the postings for the sword and a couple of the other decent items he had found. The posts were listed under a pseudonym. He decided the “Dark Knight” sounded sufficiently ominous. He also chuckled at the batman reference, even though he was basically the opposite of the caped crusader. He had always been a fan of comic books and movies though.

  He decided to put a starting bid on the sword of $2,000. He was hoping it would go much higher. The other items he listed for a couple hundred dollars each. He would have to place all of the items in escrow once he made it back in-game.

  Once he was done, Jason breathed a sigh of relief. He felt much better. It was like he had turned a corner in his mind.

  As my reward for taking care of all these real world chores, I get to read about AO!

  He pulled up an old-school news feed for AO. He was going to have to sort through forum posts using the miniature screen hovering above his device. Video was simply more than his current internet connection could handle, and he didn’t have a pedestal.

  What he discovered was unsurprising.

  The gaming news networks were inundated with stories regarding Lux. It was honestly the only story that seemed to be getting much traction. Videos had been posted by many of the players that had been standing in the marketplace during the last fight, but Jason couldn't get them to run on his device.

  Stupid shitty bandwidth.

  He decided right then and there that the first thing he was going to buy when he finally had some money was a better internet connection. He could live without furniture and on a ramen-only diet, but he needed more bandwidth. Jason switched over to Rogue-Net and checked the forum. The top post had nearly two million hits and was titled “What the Hell Happened in Lux?”

  Jason chuckled and read through some of the posts:

  Kelpless: Did you see the videos that people are posting about the invasion in Lux? That was probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen. There were a million zombies.

  Accident: I know right! I can't stop watching the videos. This Jason guy sounds like a badass. I just wish someone had caught some footage of him.

  FrozenFrame: I admit it was cool, but could one player have really done all that? I bet it was just some guy that stumbled into an event quest. No one even saw him. For all we know, he could have just triggered the quest and logged off.

  Aerist: Jason isn't listed on the rankings for Rogue-Net. He also isn't listed as one of the known beta players. How could a first time player have conquered a city? I call bullshit.

  LegoLass: Whatever. I was there. He conquered a damned city! I ended up respawning half a continent away, but I can still respect the guy for doing something incredible.

  Whynotcats: Lol. Did you see Alexion's video response to the creation of the Twilight Throne? He says he's going to wipe that place off the map. I'd like to see what Jason does when a level 130 shows up on his doorstep.

  Holyterror: I saw that video. The guy was ranting about the light vanquishing the darkness or something. I wish there was a separate role-playing server. This is a game!

  Gyromax: Ten bucks says the city is destroyed in a week!

  Wymise: A week? Hell, it would take Alexion at least that long in-game to get to the city. It
isn't a short walk from Grey Keep to Lux.

  Handcake: It's just a matter of time. Alexion has a ton of players and NPCs behind him. I heard he also recruited some of the other beta players. Jason doesn't stand a chance.

  Kelpless: Honestly, I don't care. I just can't wait to see the battle. It doesn’t even matter to me who wins.

  The general consensus among the players and news networks was that Jason was some unknown player that had stumbled into an event quest. Most didn't seem to think he could have pulled off the zombie invasion on his own. Even other dark mages had weighed in explaining it was impossible to control that many zombies.

  Well, technically it is impossible, Jason thought with a grin.

  He didn't blame them for being skeptical. He had gone out of his way to avoid being seen so there really wasn't any proof. Honestly, he was surprised he had managed to sack the city. He liked to think there had been some decent planning involved, but it also felt like the old man might have been not so subtly guiding his hand.

  The news that he was going to get attacked by an army was a little worrisome. He did a little more searching and confirmed that Alexion had gone public with his intent to attack the Twilight Throne. He’d made the declaration not too long after the system message had gone out. Some people were upset about how Jason had allegedly lured high level creatures into a beginning city. They thought Jason was complicit in slaughtering a ton of low level players.

  He sighed.

  I bet most of the hate is from the players I killed in Lux.

  He thought back to the battle - no, the massacre - that had occurred in the marketplace and a part of him could see their point. If they hadn't disabled gore in the game or dulled their pain sensor, that fight would have been traumatic.