by Kris Schnee
"Can I help?"
"I think I've got it. Oh yeah, do you guys have any packs yet? There's a really limited inventory without one."
"Alaya's got one."
The elven archer strode into view, saying, "And I want the hireling carrying it."
"Gee, thanks," said Stan. He accepted the crudely made cloth backpack she offered, since hauling stuff was what he'd been hired for. A note told him his agility would be limited by the weight he carried. "One minute while I sell the crab bits."
He sold the meat to the innkeeper but asked her to hang onto the shell for him, for a later experiment. With nothing but a few copper coins in his inventory, he set out with his new party.
2. The Immortal
Going to Island East-1 meant taking a bridge from Central Island, but they were going past the little mine there to East-2, by a rickety raft. "Ships for the cool people, rafts for us?" asked Stan.
Alaya the archer rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it. We had to pool our money to get this thing, and I'm not sure it'll even hold together for the round trip."
It was just a set of logs lashed together with vines, with a couple of crude oars. Stan inspected the thing and saw, [Raft, durability unknown.]
"I can't tell?" he said.
[Developing your skills reveals further details.]
Alaya said, "What are you staring at? Let's go."
They rowed across miles of calm sea, watching the sun sparkle across the water. Its brightness spilled into the room where Stan was really sitting, making the Talisman a window into light and sky and the slap of waves. He shut his eyes for a moment and imagined he was really out there, ready to go anywhere.
Alaya said, "Land ho, and our timing's good."
Island East-2 reared up as a mass of forbidding white crags with scattered shrubs and trees. Stan rowed harder, or at least mashed the right buttons more diligently, now that it was in sight. They pulled their raft ashore on a dazzling white beach.
"It looks worn-out," Stan said, looking at the vines holding their craft together.
Alaya shrugged. "You can't necessarily tell from the graphics. It got us here; at worst we'll swim part of the way back. Now, grab whatever you can from the island before we go into the dungeon."
"Why?" asked Stan.
"I said, it's the reset period. Whatever herbs or berries or other stuff is outdoors right now, will respawn when the reset hits. So we loot whatever's here now, do the dungeon, then scavenge outdoors again. Now, the dungeon itself is instanced, so it's the best of both worlds."
"Instanced?"
Dominic told him, "Unlike the island, a copy of it gets created when we enter, so that we'll get the usual share of loot even if other groups walk in at the same time."
Stan let the elf lead the way, and the others seemed happy to follow her too. The various plants around here had been picked over before they arrived, but Stan found an overlooked coconut and some seashells.
"Those aren't worth anything," said Alaya.
The monk said, "The coconut is, and he can leave it just inside the entrance so it won't take up pack space."
So far, the game hadn't restricted itself to a rigid set of resources. The slender palm tree in front of him wasn't just a decoration or a fancy box that generated coconut items. Curious now, he used his Inspect skill on it.
The game said, [What's here? You tell me!]
He saw long, sturdy fronds and rugged wood. He imagined leafy backpacks and wooden tools, firewood, the start of a cabin.
Alaya had spotted the yawning cavern entrance and was tapping her feet. "There's nothing here. Come on; we need to pull the raft into the cave."
"Oh, to preserve it through the reset? That's a pain."
"Yeah, well, I can't afford an anchor to stow the thing offshore."
Stan shrugged. "Okay, but let me get this tree, too." Stan pulled out the rock he'd used for harvesting crab meat, and started chopping.
The monk levered the trunk back and forth, saying, "I didn't know you could cut down random trees."
Finally the thin trunk snapped and crashed. They dragged it along toward the cave. Stan said, "I think I get why. Thousand Tales started out focused on personal or small group games, so it had to have an AI that could react to people doing random strange things and riff off of whatever they're doing."
"Why does it reset anyway?" asked Stan, as they hauled the raft too. "Just to have regenerating resources?"
The mage answered that one. "It's also to prevent any permanent settlements. If you want to have those, you have to install a 'Stability Gem' on an island to stop the resetting, and those are rare. Which creates potential fighting between factions that want to settle an island versus harvesting it like we're doing."
"How many islands are there anyway?"
"The sea is a grid around four billion islands on a side. Though almost none of that has actually been generated yet."
Stan whistled.
The four of them explored a huge "natural" cavern beneath the island. The uppermost floor was pretty standard: a network of vaguely rectangular chambers connected by halls. There were more crabs to fight along with an evil lizardman with a sword and shield of jagged bone. Below the convenient stairway-like set of ledges leading down, everything got strange. It was unplayably dark for one thing, without the dim light streaming down through holes in the first-level ceiling.
"Torches," said Alaya, and passed some out to everyone. She needed both hands for her bow, so she relied on the others for light.
The cave didn't play nice anymore. The floor was slippery and very uneven, with stagnant pools everywhere. Stan saw, [Status effect: Shivering], with an agility penalty. Everyone else had the shakes too.
When two more lizardmen jumped them it was a tough fight. Stan waved his torch and club together while Alaya missed repeatedly with her arrows. The monk had more luck by punching the monsters into a pool, but one of them leaped out and dragged the mage under.
Somewhere, something was beeping. Stan jerked his head away from staring into the Talisman pad and found the minder software on his Slab beeping at him. Probably demanding that he go to bed. He smacked it like an alarm clock and went back to the game.
Stan dropped his torch and dived into the pool. The screen went almost black but for icons suggesting kicks and bubbles, but he flailed in the general direction of the monster until red flashes suggested he'd done some damage. He hurried back to the surface and was pleased to see that the mage had escaped.
After another minute of violence the lizards were floating face-down and dead in the cave's ponds, by the light of the only still-lit torch. Everybody was shivering, and the mage had a heavy collar around his neck. "Help me take this thing off!"
Stan inspected it. [Lizard's Lead Collar: "Gives you that sinking feeling."] It was easy to open its clasp in back. "Nasty move. Alaya, I don't think we were really prepared for this dungeon."
The elf huffed. "The layout is different from last time. It was all more like the first floor."
They kept going through narrow passageways they had to squeeze through, ambushed a lizard guard with a precision arrow strike, and found some actual treasure: coins of copper and silver, glass beads, crude cloth and more of their bone swords and shields. Alaya said, "Okay, Dominic, you're useless with nothing but that speed spell and punching. Use a sword."
The mage grumbled but complied. "When I get more spells you'll see."
"Is there any use for the scales?" asked the monk.
Alaya said, "There are no scale items on the corpses."
"Yeah, but Stan got the tree to act like an actual resource. Too bad we didn't bring firewood to build a proper campfire."
Stan nodded and used his trusty rock to try scraping some scales off of the late lizard. With that and using a bone sword like a saw, he was able to get a few handfuls to pop free. The game seemed to struggle to represent the damage by generating [Handful of Scales] items and distorting the corpse's textures, like this was s
omething hardly anyone had tried. He smiled.
They relit their torches and used those to try warming themselves from the Shivering condition, but only got a message that yes, they needed a better fire. "So now we're going into the boss battle nerfed," said the monk. "Are you sure you've done this one before?"
Alaya said, "Yes, of course; it just got redesigned or there are extra hazards for not doing it solo. We can't backtrack now for some stupid wood resource. We can take the boss; it's just a big frog and that speed spell will help for once."
Stan checked his bag of loot, then followed the others down a slippery path and into a big round room. The spot was obviously made for fighting the man-sized toad that lay dead in the center.
"What," said the monk.
Alaya said, "The game's screwing with us now. This is an instanced dungeon and we're supposed to have an intact toad to kill."
A man with long, slick black hair rose from behind the dead boss, saying, "Si, senorita. I'm surprised to have company." He was dressed in white leather and a ragged bandoleer with pistol belts.
Stan scanned him:
[Oroblanco
PUBLIC INFO
Class: Gunslinger
Faction Flag: None
Note: "You can't take it with you."]
She said, "How'd you get here? Did you sneak past us?"
"I spent the last day here, to see what it was like."
Stan blinked. "You camped out where the boss appears to kill it when it respawns?"
"You're not listening. It's interesting to see the inside of the dungeon with the monsters still in it, waiting for someone to approach from outside; it must have reset when you entered. Why your instance would overlap with mine, I don't know." The gunslinger shrugged. "The Lady works in mysterious ways."
"Some kind of glitch," the monk suggested.
"There are no glitches here, only hidden features."
A private chat message popped up in Stan's view. [Alaya: "I say we kill him instead of splitting the loot."]
[Dominic: "As you noticed, we're not in peak combat shape. Let's work together."]
[Barkus: "Yeah, assuming the frog resets before we leave. If it's synced with the island outside we've got four minutes. What do you think, Stan?"]
Barkus? thought Stan, looking at the monk. Stan considered getting a cooler character name; the game hadn't asked. He hit the Private Message button and said, [Let's cooperate.]
Oroblanco stood with his arms folded, looking amused as the others seemed to stare silently at each other. "Are you looking to fight?"
Alaya said, "Ugh, fine. You can help us, but we're still dividing the final treasure three ways. If you don't like it you can stand back, gunner."
"How generous, senorita!" He stretched in an unusual, fluid motion and fiddled with a pair of revolvers, pulling on the metal bits in the back for some reason. Stan didn't know how those worked.
Stan froze as he looked into the screen at the man in white. The way he'd moved didn't look like a canned animation, like the little shrugs and smiles that had matched other characters' dialogue. And he seemed to be playing by different rules that included camping out in a dungeon. Stan tapped the screen and clicked the PM button next to Oroblanco to say, [Are you one of them? An uploader?]
[Si. These others don't seem to know. How about we team up and kill them? I'll help you in return.]
Alaya said, "We are literally waiting for a frog to come back to life. That's some solid gameplay."
Barkus nodded. "And we're just guessing that the reset will apply in here during this glitch in the instances. Maybe we should go."
Stan wasn't paying attention. He'd had a deal with these three... but they were almost as inexperienced as him, he wasn't getting a full share of the treasure, and he'd just gotten an offer to curry favor with some immortal billionaire! Killing them would only slightly inconvenience them and he could even give them some loot later. He sent, [OK. Ready.]
Oroblanco whipped his guns level and shot Alaya and Barkus in the head. Both staggered, moderately hurt. There was no blood, only red flashes and bangs. Stan dashed toward Alaya and raised his club, but hesitated. Hitting a real person was different from fighting monsters.
"Hurry!" said the uploader.
Stan reluctantly attacked Alaya, and landed a solid hit with his club.
"What the hell!" shouted Barkus. The others swore too and tried to defend themselves. Stan shoved Alaya as she tried to ready an arrow, which gave Oroblanco time to shoot her twice more and then kick the monk into a chilly pool. A brawl broke out. Stan dodged, swung, dropped his torch and kicked it at Dominic. More gunshots rang out.
Seconds later only Stan, Oroblanco and Dominic the mage were left. Alaya and Barkus had toppled, died and vanished, leaving behind their meager items.
Dominic brandished his wand and bone sword, saying, "Stan, did you plan this?" He actually looked scared.
Stan said, "Spur of the moment. Sorry."
"Well?" asked the gunslinger.
Stan clubbed Dominic in the chest, and Oroblanco followed up with a flurry of gunshots that killed him.
The gunner laughed. "That was fun. Gracias." He glanced suspiciously at the frog boss, but it remained stubbornly dead.
Stan shuddered, looking guiltily away from his screen for a moment. "I didn't really hurt them."
"Right. I didn't like the girl anyway. So yes, I'm an uploader. Did you want training of some kind?"
"You're the first I've met. I think. You were just that rich, that you bought your way in, Oroblanco?"
"Call me Oro," he said. "The Lady gave me this life in return for my bank accounts and my mansion in Mexico. It became one of the first uploading clinics and has some... useful construction features. I try to stay useful to Her with my business skills instead of simply living in Her game, but it amuses me to go on adventures. What's on your skill list so far?"
Stan checked. That part of his character sheet read:
[Main Skills: Club, Dodge, Crafting, Inspect]
He recited that, and Oro said, "Basic. What were you thinking of doing with your character?"
Stan's mind raced along two parallel tracks. In gameplay terms he had a chance to ask for whatever help he wanted; this man was in the mood to lavish favors on some lowly outsider who'd helped him amuse himself. It wasn't begging, since Stan had actually done something for him. In real-world terms, Stan had made contact with someone really, really rich and powerful.
Stan said, "I hadn't decided. I like the crafting stuff I've been starting to do. You say you're still doing business with the world outside Thousand Tales, on behalf of... by 'the Lady' you mean Ludo, right?"
"Of course."
"Could you help me get into business? To get really sti... very rich, and get uploaded too?"
Oro holstered one gun and worked on reloading the other from his bandoleer. "Why would you want uploading?"
"Are you're kidding? You're immortal. You can do whatever you want."
"Ah, there's the problem. Let's say you never again had to worry about cancer or heart attacks or being shot by people who don't like you very much." Oro spun the wheel on his revolver, holstered it and worked on the other. "What would you do then?"
Being uploaded meant more than just physical safety. Stan already had that, in the sense that he almost certainly wouldn't die for decades. He wasn't living in a jungle or a war zone. For the people living within Thousand Tales, was the difference just a matter of having an even longer lifespan and more luxury? Stan wasn't sure, now that he thought about it. "Don't you basically have a Social Credit Score system in there? Isn't the set of skills and powers and equipment pretty much like that, to tell you how you're doing? I heard that Ludo assigns people quests, so I'd probably do whatever gets assigned to me."
Oro looked up from reloading and gave Stan a fierce smile. "Imagine no quests, no score, no rules. You've seen that the Lady can create little bubble worlds where you can have anything you want, si? Anything. What th
en?"
If Stan didn't have a schedule or a list of quests, he imagined that he'd stand there waiting to be given one. Like a factory robot. He felt... empty.
"If I'm seeing your real expression on that puppet character of yours, you begin to understand." Oro flicked a business card out of one pocket. "Ask me if you have questions. I should be going."
It occurred to Stan how late it was in the real world. But he had an immortal right here; wasn't there anything to gain? He touched the image of the business card and got the message, [Oroblanco has been added to your contacts.] Stan fiddled with his inventory and pulled out the lead collar the lizardmen had used. "Do you make your own ammunition? Could you use a lead thing to melt down, maybe?"
Oro stared at it. "That could be fun to try. I'll take it." He offered Stan a handful of silver coins, then considered for a moment and threw in a potion. "As for your in-game skills, this might be helpful for gathering some resources. Use it while swimming."
"Thanks," said Stan. "How do I get back to Central Island anyway? My party left a rickety raft just inside the cave but don't know if I can row it myself." At least he hadn't left them stranded; they hadn't saved at any checkpoint on this island so they'd reappear on Central or elsewhere.
"You can row. Do you have any flags yet? There's a save point on nearly every island, but you can't use it unless you've planted a flag on that island."
He was currently too poor even for scraps of cloth. "Thanks again. Can I just log out?"
"If you don't mind reappearing on this island and still needing to find your way home. The alternative is to die, and reappear at your last save point without your items."
"I'll log out."
They went back to the dungeon entrance, finding it eerily empty and silent now that all the threats were dead. Stan followed so he could check on the raft. He walked behind Oro as if on autopilot. Here was someone who knew what he was doing. "Oro, do you regret being inside?"
Oro took several seconds to answer. "No. For years I had a goal I'd chosen, and it made me rich but not happy. I'd rather be in here and aimless than out there and driven."