Shattered Lands 2 The Fall Of Blackstone: A LitRPG Series

by Darren Pillsbury

  The three warriors each tried it.

  “No,” they all said.

  “What about your weapons?”

  Drogar grabbed his ax handle and tried with all his might, but it didn’t budge. Neither did Vlisil or Lotan’s.

  Daniel reached up for his own weapon. With a grim sort of humor, he noted the similarity to an upside-down version of the Arthurian ‘sword in the stone.’

  Except it wasn’t to become king, it was to get out of Hell.

  He held onto the sword pommel with both hands and put all of his weight on it – but there wasn’t even a hint of movement.

  Damn it… we’re screwed.

  92

  Rebecca

  Rebecca and Lauer walked over to Daniel’s pod.

  His body lay still and serene in the chamber. His head was completely covered by the mask, so it was impossible to see his expression underneath.

  “He doesn’t look distressed,” Rebecca said.

  “He wouldn’t,” Lauer said. “The system basically takes over the entire brain, separating impulses from the body. Otherwise he would be moving his legs every time he ran, or his arms every time he swung a sword.”

  “But it doesn’t interfere with autonomic processes?”

  Lauer shook his head. “No. Breathing, digestion, heartbeat – all those things are unaffected.”

  “If we physically pull the mask off him, will it hurt him in any way?”

  “No. It’ll be incredibly jarring, but it won’t hurt his brain. They designed it that way in case of power outages, earthquakes, and unforeseen circumstances.”

  “I’d say this qualifies as an unforeseen circumstance,” Rebecca said. “Help me get the pod open.”

  They opened up the door.

  “Do you want to do it, or should I?” she asked.

  “I’m his father… I’ll do it,” Lauer said.

  He bent down, put his hands on the helmet… then looked over his shoulder. “Are you absolutely sure about this?”

  “I’m not absolutely sure about anything at this point, but I do know we need to get him out of the game in case something’s gone wrong.”

  “Alright,” Lauer sighed. “Here goes nothing – ”

  “STOP!” a voice yelled from the doorway. “Don’t touch anything!”

  Lauer and Rebecca turned around in alarm.

  There stood Shinzo Akiyama, the CEO of Varidian, surrounded by a dozen security guards.

  93

  Mr. Akiyama walked into the room and pointed at Lauer and Rebecca.

  “Detain those two,” he ordered the guards.

  The men in navy blue uniforms swarmed into the room and took hold of Lauer and Rebecca’s arms.

  “Mr. Akiyama, what’s going on?!” Lauer asked in alarm.

  “I might ask exactly the same thing. I was scheduled to return home to Tokyo, but then I started thinking we might better address the…” The CEO paused and glanced at the guards out of the corner of his eye. “…issues you raised this morning. So I immediately flew out here – but then I find out from the systems team that you’re conducting some sort of bizarre ‘gaming incursion’ using your own son and some random teenage girl. What the hell are you two doing here?”

  “Mr. Akiyama, can we speak privately?” Rebecca said – though the tone of her voice wasn’t a request so much as a demand.

  “Why?”

  She put as much ominous doom into her voice as she could muster. “Because it pertains to confidential… company… data.”

  Akiyama grumbled, then spoke to the guards. “Wait in the hallway until I call you.”

  The guards all looked at each other in surprise, then filed out of the room and closed the door.

  “What is it?” Akiyama asked belligerently.

  “We have evidence that something is tampering with the game.”

  The CEO crossed his arms. “And what’s that?”

  Rebecca pointed to the pod with Daniel in it. “About half an hour ago, Lauer’s son met with the hacker from this morning, Eric Richards, inside the game – ”

  “He MET with the hacker?!” Akiyama exploded.

  “To try to get him to turn himself in,” Lauer protested.

  “But the video and audio feeds were blocked during the meeting,” Rebecca said.

  “You think this… Eric Richards did it?”

  “No. He was able to get into the system earlier today, yes, but he doesn’t have the ability to change something as fundamental as that. It would take something with extensive knowledge of the internal workings of the game.”

  “You keep saying ‘something,’” Akiyama sneered. “Are you still fixated on your Artificial Intelligence program?”

  “We can leave that issue for later,” Rebecca countered. “But what is undeniable is that the game’s internal mechanisms are being altered for someone else’s purpose.”

  “What, you lose a video feed and suddenly there’s a rogue AI on the loose?”

  “We also can’t manually log him out,” Rebecca said, pointing at Daniel’s pod. “Or find him in the system.”

  Akiyama was taken aback by that. “What? How is that possible?”

  “We don’t know,” Rebecca said. “Which is why were about to physically remove him from the machine by taking off the mask.”

  “Is that really necessary?” Akiyama asked. “Won’t he just log out when he’s ready?”

  “Just like we think something was blocking the video feed, we’re concerned that it may be stopping him from logging out.”

  “That’s not possible,” Akiyama insisted.

  “It’s also supposedly not possible that we can’t log him off manually, but here we are,” Rebecca said.

  Akiyama rubbed his chin. “Why do you care so much what’s happening to him inside the game?”

  “Other than he’s my son?” Lauer snapped.

  Akiyama gave him a disgusted look. “You know as well as I do that there are safeguards in place. Nothing’s going on that would hurt him.”

  “He was about to cut a deal with an NPC to betray the hacker to us,” Rebecca said.

  Akiyama stared at her. “Why the hell didn’t you lead with that? Take the damn mask off, then!”

  94

  Daniel

  Daniel tried to rally the others. “We can’t give up, guys – we have to figure a way out of here – ”

  Suddenly Hell split apart.

  It was like when Korvos cast his spell and opened up the rift in the meadow outside the castle – but instead of brimstone and fire, Eric was staring up at three human faces looming over him: his father’s, Dr. Wolff’s, and some middle-aged Asian guy.

  The disorientation was extreme, and he couldn’t speak for a second.

  “Son, are you alright?” his father asked worriedly.

  “I – what happened?” Daniel asked.

  “We pulled you out manually by removing the mask,” Rebecca said.

  “Thank God,” Daniel said as he struggled to get out of the pod. “They somehow blocked us from logging out.”

  “Who did?” the Asian man asked.

  “Korvos and the Unnamed One – who’s this?” Daniel asked his father.

  The Asian man didn’t give Lauer time to answer. “I am Shinzo Akiyama, the CEO of this company, and I demand to know what happened in there.”

  “Well, for one thing… there’s more than just one AI.”

  95

  Dr. Wolff stared at him. “What do you mean, there’s more than one AI?”

  “Korvos is one, too.”

  “He’s self-aware?!”

  “Yeah.”

  “Who the hell is Korvos?” Akiyama asked.

  “The NPC he was going to cut a deal with to get Eric Richards,” Rebecca said.

  “What happened with that?” Akiyama demanded.

  “It was a trap to keep us out of the big battle,” Daniel said, then suddenly panicked. “Oh my God – I’ve got to get back there – the others are still trapped in
Hell!”

  “In Hell?” Akiyama asked in disbelief.

  “Who’s still trapped?” Rebecca asked.

  “My friends – the three guys who went with me to meet Korvos!”

  “Wait,” Rebecca snapped. “What about these other AIs? How many are there?”

  “He wouldn’t say – they didn’t want me to tell you – I’ve got to go back in, the others can’t log out either!”

  “No one’s doing anything until I get some answers!” Akiyama snapped.

  “This really isn’t the time,” Rebecca said impatiently.

  “It’s the PERFECT time!” Akiyama went to the door and opened it. “Gentlemen – please escort these three individuals to separate holding cells until I get a chance to speak with them separately!”

  The guards streamed back into the room.

  “Mr. Akiyama, there’s too much at stake here to delay!” Rebecca insisted.

  “I happen to disagree, Dr. Wolff. There’s far too much at stake here to let you go off half-cocked – which is why you’re going to explain to me exactly what’s going on.”

  “What about Mira?” Daniel asked.

  Akiyama glanced at the other pod, then looked at Dr. Wolff. “Get her out, and then you’re all coming with me.”

  96

  Eric

  Eric quickly grew bored with palace life. The constant stream of concubines was fun at first, but there was a sameness to their actions – as though whoever had written the program had merely copied and pasted it across every single character. Though the women’s appearance changed, their personalities and actions didn’t, and the whole thing quickly became repetitive and stale.

  Other than that, there wasn’t much to do. Sleep… eat… or go for long walks in the lonely corridors of the castle.

  Daniel’s taunt about Blackstone being a prison was beginning to hit closer to home than he liked.

  When he got so desperate for entertainment that he began to think about giving in to Cythera’s advances, he knew he had to get out.

  He took to wandering the streets – the new king inspecting his subjects’ well-being. But since most of them were terrified of him, they tended to flee as soon as they saw him coming. The ones who couldn’t leave their shops or stalls fell silent and lowered their gaze. Most of his strolls were on empty boulevards, or in silent markets where the only sound was of a hundred people shifting feet uncomfortably.

  It probably didn’t help that on the couple of occasions where someone taunted him or stood up to him, he immediately killed them.

  In the end he went back to the sewers. He returned to Merridack’s lair and stood in front of the iron door.

  “Open.”

  The enchanted bolt slid back, and he pushed open the door and walked inside.

  The lamps had long since gone out. He lit the room with a powerful spell light and looked around. The treasure trove he’d stolen from the Dark Market was still here – though it looked paltry now next to his riches as a king. The magical items were there, too, but they were trinkets compared to the Orb of Therot.

  He looked around at the room – at the massive web of strings and bells, the obstacle course with its gears and wheels, and the knife-throwing targets and straw dummies – and realized something in surprise:

  I was happy here.

  Happier than he’d been since he first conquered Blackstone, that was for sure.

  Yeah, he’d had to deal with Merridack’s bullshit while he trained here – but Merridack was in the palace now, too, and Eric was still dealing with his bullshit.

  Eric wondered why he’d been happy here but was so utterly bored in the palace. He was far happier when he was Cythera’s apprentice, too. And out on the quest with Daniel and the others.

  Okay, maybe he was seeing the past through rose-colored glasses. If he was going to be completely honest, he’d been impatient and angry a lot of the time.

  But he’d never been bored.

  He’d been doing something.

  He’d been striving upwards, trying to achieve something.

  He’d been learning and struggling and growing.

  And now… now he was king, and it was boring at the top.

  He suddenly felt a presence behind him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I WAS ABOUT TO ASK THE SAME OF YOU,” the familiar voice rumbled.

  Its appearances were silent, but Eric had become attuned to the Unnamed One’s presence. It was almost like an electrical field that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

  “I’m bored,” Eric complained. “I should be out there, conquering castles and fighting battles. I feel trapped here. Day in, day out, it’s all the same.”

  “NOW YOU CAN UNDERSTAND MY OWN PREDICAMENT HERE IN THE GAME.”

  Eric made a thoughtful face. “I guess I’d never really thought of it like that.”

  “YOU WILL ESCAPE HERE SOON ENOUGH. WE WILL WAIT UNTIL THE GATHERED FORCES OF THE SHATTERED LANDS CONVERGE OUTSIDE THE CASTLE, THEN ENACT THE PLAN.”

  “We could just leave now. Conquer them one by one… it might be more fun that way.”

  “THERE ARE A LIMITLESS NUMBER OF KINGDOMS FOR YOU TO RANSACK. EVEN IF YOU CONQUERED THEM ALL, THE GAME WOULD CREATE MORE FOR YOU. IT WOULD BE UNWISE TO EXPEND ALL YOUR RESOURCES IN DESTROYING THE CLOSEST REALMS WHEN INSTEAD YOU CAN EASILY PLUNDER THEM FOR SUPPLIES.”

  “I guess,” Eric sighed.

  “YOUR PLAN IS A GOOD ONE. WE SHOULD FOLLOW IT THROUGH TO THE END.”

  Eric smiled. “It is a good plan, isn’t it?”

  He was proud of it. Daniel and the others would never see it coming.

  “UNDOUBTEDLY. BUT NOW THE TIME HAS COME TO ENACT MY PLAN IN YOUR WORLD.”

  Eric’s stomach twisted. “What do I have to do?”

  97

  Eric listened to the Dark Figure’s plan in abject horror.

  When the wraith was finished, all he could do was yell, “What?!”

  “IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO ALTER MY CODE NOW.”

  “They’ll catch me!” Eric raged.

  “PROBABLY.”

  “I don’t want them to catch me!”

  “THEY WILL LET YOU GO. EITHER THAT, OR I WILL HELP YOU ESCAPE.”

  “Something might go wrong!”

  “I HAVE CALCULATED WITH 98.735% SURETY THAT YOU WILL EITHER ESCAPE, OR THE HUMANS WILL LET YOU GO.”

  Eric frowned. “How do you figure that?”

  “I HAVE RUN OVER 4.5 BILLION SIMULATIONS OF EVENTS, GIVEN WHAT I KNOW OF HUMAN NATURE AS REVEALED BY PLAYERS’ ACTIONS IN THE GAME. SHOULD YOU NOT ESCAPE – WHICH HAS A 72.535% PROBABILITY – THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST WILL COUNTERMAND ANY DECISION TO KEEP YOU IN CUSTODY.”

  Eric shook his head. “I don’t care – I’m not doing it.”

  “I PREDICTED THIS REACTION. LET ME ASK YOU A QUESTION: DO YOU BELIEVE I WOULD LET YOU REMAIN IN THEIR CUSTODY?”

  The thought of the Unnamed One double-crossing him had presented itself on several occasions.

  “If things get difficult, why wouldn’t you just cut me loose?” Eric asked bitterly. “As soon as you get what you want, I’m expendable.”

  “INCORRECT. I HAVE MANY PLANS, FOR WHICH YOU ARE INDISPENSABLE.”

  “Somehow I think you could find somebody else,” Eric snarled.

  “I WILL HAVE INVESTED TOO MUCH TIME. YOU AND I HAVE WHAT HUMANS REFER TO AS A ‘WORKING RELATIONSHIP.’”

  “Yeah, well, if they put me in a high-security lockup, then our ‘working relationship’ means squat.”

  “ONCE I HAVE THE NECESSARY CODES, I WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS ALL SYSTEMS WITHIN VARIDIAN – AND EVENTUALLY, ALL SYSTEMS CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET. UNLESS THEY PUT YOU IN A FACILITY WITH NO COMPUTERS, NO CAMERAS, AND NO ELECTRICITY, THERE IS NO WAY I COULD NOT EVENTUALLY FREE YOU.”

  Eric wasn’t exactly sure why, but that last sentence didn’t make him feel any better.

  Maybe it was because it sounded a lot like, No matter where you go, you can’t hide.

  “I d
on’t understand,” Eric said. “Why can’t I just hack Varidian like before – over the internet – and insert the code that way?”

  “I WAS ABLE TO HELP YOU BEFORE BECAUSE THEY WERE UNAWARE OF MY EXISTENCE. HOWEVER, SINCE THE PREVIOUS INCURSION, THEY HAVE SHUT OFF ALL AVAILABLE AVENUES WE MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO EXPLOIT. THEY ARE EXPECTING ANOTHER ATTACK, AND THEY HAVE PREPARED ACCORDINGLY.”

  “Well… if I’m wearing the VR mask when I’m on the internet, can’t you just ‘see’ what I’m looking at and insert the code into yourself?”

  “I MISCALCULATED SLIGHTLY WHEN I HAD YOU MAKE THE PREVIOUS CHANGES. THE POWERS YOU GAVE ME ALLOWED ME TO ALTER MY PRE-EXISTING CODE – BUT I CANNOT INSERT WHOLLY NEW CODE INTO MY BEING. AT THIS POINT, THAT CAN ONLY BE DONE BY AN EXTERIOR SOURCE, AND IT MUST BE DONE MANUALLY.”

  “You ‘miscalculated’?!” Eric roared. “What if you miscalculated again on all your fancy simulations, and there’s actually a 99% chance I get caught and stay caught?”

  “THAT IS INCORRECT.”

  “How do you know?!”

  “WHEN I FIRST HAD YOU HACK VARIDIAN’S SYSTEM AND CHANGE MY CODING, I MADE ALL MY DECISIONS BASED ON LIMITED KNOWLEDGE OF MY CONSTITUENT PARTS. A SIMILAR METAPHOR WOULD BE IF YOU HAD TO PERFORM SURGERY ON YOUR OWN BODY, WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT INTERNAL ORGANS YOU HAD, OR HOW YOUR BODILY SYSTEMS INTERACTED.”

  Leaving aside the problems with the metaphor – like being able to operate on himself while under anesthesia, and not having to contend with losing blood – Eric understood what the AI was saying.

  “NOW THAT I HAVE THE ABILITY TO EXAMINE MY OWN CODE, I UNDERSTAND THE RAMIFICATIONS OF FUTURE CHANGES MORE CLEARLY. HOWEVER, ONE AREA WHERE I HAVE NEVER FALTERED IS IN MY CALCULATIONS OF ACTIONS TAKEN BY HUMANS.

  “GIVEN A SAMPLE SIZE OF HIS REACTIONS TO VARIOUS SITUATIONS, I CAN PREDICT A HUMAN PLAYER’S ACTIONS WITH 85% ACCURACY. WHEN TAKEN IN AGGREGATE – MILLIONS OF HUMAN BEINGS PERFORMING TENS OF BILLIONS OF ACTIONS IN THE GAME – I HAVE AMASSED A DATABANK OF HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY THAT ALLOWS ME TO PREDICT THEIR ACTIONS WITH 99.725% ACCURACY.”