“Yeah, I was just about to log off for the night. Do you want to meet back here tomorrow? I think I need to hold a meeting of the Shadow Council.”
Riley raised an eyebrow. “That’s an ominous sounding name. Will there be plans of murder and intrigue?”
Jason chuckled. “Maybe! But probably not. I want to go over some city administration stuff. Frank will probably be here by then, so he can attend the meeting too.”
“Now that sounds more like you.” Riley paused. Teasingly she continued, “I expected the Regent of a dark city to be more… I don’t know… murdery? You sure spend a lot of your time standing around doing busywork.”
Jason shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a modern day evil overlord. We’re all about the paperwork.”
Laughing, Riley replied, “Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” She turned to the imp before logging out. “Bye Pint!”
Pint looked up in excitement. “Bye, pretty lady. Come back soon!”
Riley promptly logged off, her character disappearing in a multi-colored flash of light.
Jason glanced at his zombies, who crowded the small room. When he logged back in, he knew his next step would be to meet with the Shadow Council. He might as well have the meeting here at the keep. After doing some quick math to deal with the game’s time dilation, he ordered several of his zombies to go find Rex, Morgan, and Jerry and bring them to the castle in two in-game days. If Frank was with them, then he could sit in on the meeting.
Jason then pulled up the system menu and pressed the logout button.
Chapter 6 - Revised
“This is such a dumb project,” Robert muttered as he stared at the screen floating over the control room.
“It’s necessary,” Claire replied in a firm tone as she frowned at Robert. “You know that the board has a point. AO needs someone to police it - especially with Alfred having gone rogue. The game masters will make certain that no one is raped or tortured. Isn’t that an admirable goal?”
The pair were sitting on the raised dais in the control room at Cerillion Entertainment. Claire was typing rapidly at a computer terminal while Robert spun slowly in his chair. He glanced morosely at the screen that hovered over the lab. The agents from the CPSC were test driving the new game master avatars, slaying wave after wave of monsters in a trial stadium that he had developed. Flashy spells cascaded across the open expanse of the stadium, causing the screen to flash continuously.
Robert had quickly realized that they couldn’t create immortal avatars for the CPSC staff members to use. Alfred had locked out changes to basic gameplay mechanics, and almost everything in the game world was mortal. Robert was only able to create a few incredibly high-level players with advanced skills. Claire had been upset over this, but she had eventually accepted it. Although, Robert might have omitted a few details when he explained the features of the new game master avatars to the CPSC.
“It’s a good goal perhaps, but I don’t trust the group we’re hiring as the cops,” Robert said quietly, turning his gaze back to Claire. “Have you heard of the Stanford prison experiment? It must have been conducted nearly a hundred years ago.”
Claire looked over at him in confusion. “No, I’ve never heard of it.”
Robert frowned. He stopped spinning his chair and turned to face Claire. “In a nutshell, a group of psychologists were trying to determine whether the rise in prison abuse at the time could be explained by the fact that some people are just innately cruel. Using a random test group, they assigned some people to be guards and some to be prisoners. These were average, everyday people, mind you.
“They set up a realistic prison in the basement of the University and enlisted local police to arrest the prisoners at their homes. Within three days, the ‘guards’ had assaulted the prisoners, used psychological manipulation to subdue them, and actively harassed and demeaned them,” Robert explained with a sort of clinical detachment.
Claire looked at him in shock. “Are you kidding? How could they let that kind of experiment continue?”
Robert shrugged. “They didn’t. The study was disbanded within six days. It’s interesting, though. It says volumes about the effects of authority and control on a person’s psyche.” He gazed steadily at the screen above the lab as he watched a game master singlehandedly fight off hordes of high-level creatures. A vicious grin was painted on the game masters’ face as waves of magic rocked the stadium.
Claire looked concerned. “Well, those people sound like they were just ill. They were likely unbalanced to begin with.”
“Perhaps,” Robert replied. “Or maybe they just adapted to fill the role they were given - which was easy to justify if they thought the prisoners were ‘bad’ people. What is the saying? Absolute power corrupts absolutely? Some of those truisms are grounded in truth, aren’t they?”
Claire didn’t respond. Her eyes weren’t on the screen above the lab. Instead, she was staring at the large window in the side of the lab that looked upon rows of black obelisks. Her earlier confidence had faded, and a faint hint of worry now flickered across her face.
***
Jason woke in his room in the real world. His body ached, and his room was dark, a faint light filtering in from the hallway. He pushed himself to a sitting position with a faint groan. He marveled at the new helmet. It was nice not to wake up to complete darkness. The old equipment often made Jason feel a bit claustrophobic. He fingered the plastic material appreciatively as he removed it.
“Robert is going to make a killing on these,” he declared to the empty room.
A thought was nagging at him. He was curious about the patch. As far as he knew, this was the first game update that had been released to AO since its launch a couple weeks ago. Jason had assumed that the game didn’t need frequent patching with Alfred actively making changes to the game system. However, since Alfred had left so abruptly, Jason didn’t have a chance to ask him any questions about the patch.
He stood and moved to his desk, switching on the room’s light in the process. He had deposited the pedestal that Robert had given him on the wooden tabletop. Jason pressed a button on the side of the pedestal, and it began its boot up sequence. Once it was on, Jason linked the device on his wrist. A translucent keyboard soon appeared in the air in front of him.
He figured that the best place to find details regarding the new patch would be Rogue-Net. Jason pulled up the forums and quickly found a thread regarding the latest system notice. After reading through a few posts, he had a general idea of the changes that were being made.
“Wow,” he murmured as he stared at the screen. He was surprised by the magnitude of the modifications being made to the game world.
Apparently, Cerillion Entertainment was making two significant updates to AO with the latest patch. The first change was to the in-game dungeons. The dungeons were set up on a two-week respawn timer, with the time measured based on the passage of in-game days. This was a concession on the part of the company. The fact that dungeons respawned automatically wasn’t realistic, but if they didn’t, many of the players wouldn’t get a chance to explore them.
As it turned out, most players weren’t getting to experience the dungeon content in any event. Players had been complaining that the areas weren’t instanced, which was problematic with such a large player population. It meant that hordes of players were wiping many of the lower level dungeons clean every time they respawned.
Jason hadn’t realized how big of an issue this had become since he had been so focused on the Twilight Throne. Some players and newly-formed guilds had already banded together to effectively monopolize the most popular leveling and loot grinding spots. With the long respawn time, most players didn’t have a chance to run the dungeon content.
On the other end of the spectrum, the current player respawn timer made it hard for a group to realistically complete a new dungeon. If one member died, the group was forced to wait three hours real-world time for the player to respawn. Obviously, this f
orced groups to be extremely cautious when tackling new dungeons. This also discouraged most people from trying the harder dungeons. Who wanted to die in the first battle and then get locked out of AO for three hours?
The patch changed the dungeon mechanics significantly. Players now had the option to either create a private instance of the dungeon that was unique to their group or use a public instance. The private instance had its own respawn timer. Also, anyone that died inside the dungeon would resurrect at the entrance within fifteen minutes real-world time. This created a deterrent to dying but still allowed a group to keep progressing through the dungeon content without having to wait hours every time someone made a mistake.
It sounds like Frank will be happy. This should make dungeon crawling a bit easier.
Jason turned his attention back to the forums. The second big change was that the company decided to add game masters to AO. There would be a total of six, operated by a new department at the CPSC. The sound bite that the company was giving to the public was that the game needed a police force to prevent abuse among the players. Jason didn’t understand why they couldn’t just use Alfred, but he supposed it was a PR move.
How is this going to work? How would they even know if someone was “abusing” another player? He kept reading the forums. The conversation among the other players was enlightening.
Watcher: Why the hell do we need nannies? Some people need to suck it up. This is a game. If you don’t like it, stop playing!
Squishei: I expect it has something to do with the Twilight Throne. Jason’s attack on the city and the guerilla tactics he used on Alexion’s army upset a bunch of people. AO is a little too realistic sometimes.
Kennyloggins: I read a post from one of the game developers. He was saying that the new game masters will be able to respond to reports submitted by players and the admin team has hardware that can spot players that are extremely anxious or afraid. Apparently, if you’re being harassed, the game masters can just teleport to you or something.
Pumps: Great. Every asshole I meet is going to be filling out a report…
Tanned: @Kennyloggins. I read the same post. They were also saying that the game masters are each maxed out in a particular affinity. Someone on the development team leaked that they are around level 500. I just hope they don’t go power mad. Could you imagine what most people would do with that kind of character?
ShadowKilla: Whatever. I could kick a game master’s ass. Come at me, bro!
Hmm. It looks like I might be partially responsible for this. Maybe I went a little overboard. Now I’m going to need to be careful in the future, or I might end up having to deal with one of these game masters myself.
Despite the new threat presented by the game masters, Jason couldn’t help but grin at his growing reputation. Maybe I should be thinking seriously about adopting one of Jerry’s titles. I apparently have a reputation to uphold now. I need to start my branding early.
Chuckling, Jason closed out of the forums and checked his email. He had received one message from Claire enclosing the streaming contract. Reviewing the terms again, he quickly realized the contract had a termination provision if his views fell below a certain limit. Claire and Robert had neatly omitted that detail. He needed to come up with something interesting to give them every couple days or he wouldn’t get paid. As he stared at the contract, Jason began to realize that it was going to be a lot of work to edit and send the videos and ensure that he kept the viewers coming back.
Jason rubbed at his eyes tiredly. Then he signed the contract and closed out of his email. He didn’t have much choice in the matter. He needed the money. He would just have to figure out a way to meet their deadlines and come up with some good content.
At least each real-world day is approximately three in-game, he thought grimly. That will give me roughly a week to produce each video. Maybe I should just give up on sleeping…
Then his gaze swept across the open books on his desk. That reminded him of yet another obligation. With a sigh, he opened the website for the Calvary School. He might as well check on his schoolwork to see how that was going to interfere with his new day job. As he reviewed his assignments, he realized he was still roughly a week ahead in completing his homework. At least he wouldn’t be behind in his classes. With the time dilation provided by the game, he could probably finish the semester in a couple weeks if he wasn’t juggling the streaming contract.
Then a thought occurred to him. Maybe he should focus on supplementing his real-world classes. If he was living off his income from playing AO, he should start treating the game more seriously. His success so far had been a mixture of luck and quick thinking. However, he didn’t know anything about ruling a city or formal military strategy. Those were both things he was going to need to become better at if was going to succeed long-term.
With this goal in mind, he started creating a booklist for himself that he could tackle in his free time in-game. He added many books on military history and strategy, including The Art of War and The Prince. Some of the books he chose sounded dry, but he figured he could learn a thing or two in the process. The game seemed to improve his comprehension and learning speed anyway.
With his planning accomplished, Jason tapped the Core on his wrist. It was late in the real world, and it had been a long day. He might as well get some sleep and log back in tomorrow. With a tired groan, he lay down on his bed.
“So much to do…” he said softly as he stared at the ceiling. His eyes tiredly traced a crack in the drywall.
He was thinking about tomorrow and the day after that. If he were going to team up with Riley and Frank, then they probably wouldn’t be available until the afternoon. High school seniors usually had numerous off-periods, and, if he remembered correctly, Frank and Riley had chosen to take their afternoons off.
That meant he could do real world chores in the mornings and then log into AO and take care of his homework. He could probably knock out a decent amount of studying each day using the time dilation and enhanced learning speed the game offered before Frank and Riley even managed to log in.
“That might work,” he said aloud as he stared at the ceiling.
His mind still swirled as he considered the events of the day. He was juggling a lot: he had to come up with interesting streaming content to keep his paychecks coming, he needed to keep doing his homework, his city was slowly dying off, he was trying to reconcile with Riley, he was sure that Frank would push him into running a dungeon, and the game’s AI was now following him around in the hope of learning how the players ticked. Yet he couldn’t deal with any those problems right now.
“I guess that’s what they make tomorrows for,” he said softly. Then he tried to quiet his exhausted mind and drift off to sleep.
Chapter 7 - Gathered
After healing the crippled man in the street, Alex had been asked by dozens of NPCs to cure their ailments, which ranged from colds to broken limbs. A line had quickly formed in the street, drawing attention from the NPCs and players. It only took a few minutes before Alex couldn’t maintain the act any longer.
Once he had escaped the growing crowd of NPCs, he disappeared into a nearby alley. As soon as he was no longer surrounded by watching eyes, his mask dropped. He leaned against the wall of a nearby building, the memory of his mother cascading through his mind. It was like a video playing on an endless loop.
As he replayed the memory again, a stabbing pain bloomed in his torso, and his heart raced. His chest heaved as he took fast, gasping breaths. His mind was in chaos, uncertain what was happening to him. He looked down at his hands and saw that they were shaking. Several long minutes passed as he tried to regain control of himself.
As Alex’s heartbeat finally began to slow, a snide voice sounded from behind him, “You seem a bit put out, sir knight. Is something the matter?”
He turned to look at the woman that had appeared in the alley. His mind was in turmoil. The hollowness was still there, but it writhed and twis
ted like a living thing in the back of his mind, just out of reach. He felt confused.
The woman’s eyebrow raised. “Not talkative, hmm? I can say you positively reek of uncertainty right now. What happened to the strength I witnessed before?”
“What did you do to me?” Alex finally spat. He stood and approached the woman threateningly.
She placed a hand on her chest, eyeing him derisively. “Me? I did nothing. You put on a superb performance in the market. I do so enjoy hearing the masses call my name.”
“No! You did something! I remembered… her.” He reached out to grab the woman. “What was that? Tell me now!”
A loud smack rang through the alley. Alex looked at the woman in shock, holding his stinging cheek with one hand. He hadn’t even seen her move.
The Lady sneered at him, disgust in her eyes. “Pull yourself together. I do not tolerate such weakness in my servants. I had nothing to do with whatever event you recalled in the market.”
Alex closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Of course, the Lady had nothing to do with the memory. How could the game have affected him that way? Perhaps it had just been the situation that triggered the memory. The haunting image still flashed through his mind’s eye, but he struggled to think of something else. The hollowness beckoned to him, promising numb certainty. He fled to it willingly.
After a moment, his mind settled into a semblance of its usual placid calm. He eyed the woman that stood before him. His mission came back to him. He was trying to claim Grey Keep as his own. He wanted to exact revenge on Jason. To accomplish those goals, he needed her and contrition was necessary.
“I apologize,” he said, his voice steady. “I lost myself for a moment.”
The woman observed him haughtily, adjusting her toga as she spoke, “That much is obvious. However, I know that you do not truly regret your actions. Let me make myself abundantly clear. If you dare to speak to me in that manner again,” she warned, “or try to touch me again, I will make the mental trauma you experienced a moment ago seem like a gentle, comforting breeze.” Suddenly, the Lady’s eyes flared with golden light, feathered wings sprouting from her back. A blinding crown made of light appeared above her head, rotating slowly in the air.
Awaken Online: Precipice Page 10