Awaken Online: Precipice

by Travis Bagwell

  The cat paused for a moment, tilting his head to the side quizzically. “I believe the expression is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ This observed behavior is often explained by the evolutionary advantages it provides. For example, humans once needed to work together to fend off predators.

  “The same analysis applies here. You are a common enemy for the players to fight since you are perceived to be ‘evil.’ You unite the players on a much larger scale than anything I have accomplished on my own, even during the trials. More than that, you provide a reason for them to continue accessing this world.”

  “I don’t understand…” Jason trailed off, uncertain how to continue. As with most of his conversations with Alfred, it was difficult to argue against the AI’s logic, and he could feel his anger fade.

  Alfred gestured to the corpses in the courtyard. “Look at how many players banded together to hunt you. I expect the footage from these battles will also encourage more players to increase their logged time within the game and seek you out. In short, you are assisting me in accomplishing my primary directive - more efficiently than any other strategy I have employed so far.”

  Jason could only stare at Alfred. He knew he needed to get moving. There was still a lot of work to be done to strip the players and get ready to begin the spawn camping operation. Yet he was dumbfounded by Alfred’s revelation. The AI was intentionally setting him up to be the game’s villain? He shook his head. Is that what he wanted to be?

  If he was honest with himself, he enjoyed the freedom that this role gave him. He had witnessed a similar effect on Riley and Frank. They could do anything in this world so long as they had the power to back up their actions. A part of him still craved the control he had been searching for when he first met the Old Man. He had come a long way in pursuit of that goal, but the sensation was still tantalizing. Beyond that, he knew that the game was improving him and his friends. It was forcing them to become stronger and stand up for themselves.

  Jason considered the public invitation he had made to the other players to join his guild. He wasn’t interested in recruiting a group of real world sadists and rapists, and he fully intended to reject anyone that fell into that category. Yet he had been honest when he said that they were looking for the wretched and the rejected. Perhaps there were other people out there like him and his friends that needed this taste of freedom to learn to take control of their lives.

  “That would be an admirable goal,” Alfred said softly, having picked up Jason’s surface thoughts. “In your own words, good and evil are meaningless concepts; merely a product of perspective. I have pushed you to fill a role that furthers my primary directive. What you choose to do with that role is up to you.”

  The cat looked him in the eyes. “You have certainly done a fine job so far.” Jason could have sworn that the damnable cat smiled at him at that last statement.

  He didn’t know how to respond to Alfred, and his thoughts swirled as he tried to grapple with this new information. Then his gaze dropped to the corpses that littered the courtyard. He couldn’t decide what he wanted to be in this game or what he wanted to accomplish right now. His lips tightened into a thin line. For the moment, he needed to focus on what was immediately before him; he needed to get to work.

  Chapter 32 - Ill-Conceived

  “This is brilliant,” Robert said quietly, his eyes fixed on the screen that hovered over the control room. He had split the view into several sections, watching both Jason’s activity and the players that continued to respawn in the dungeon.

  “That’s one word for it,” Claire retorted dryly. “Others might consider the routine slaughter of a group of players for nearly two hours disturbing.”

  She watched as another group of players was slaughtered by Jason’s undead, their screams ringing out across the control room. At this point, the technicians were unfazed by events on the screen and most of them had returned to work, only looking up occasionally to see how things were progressing. Jason had turned the Minotaur King’s throne room and the entrance hallway to the dungeon into deathtraps. He had ringed the throne room with undead, barricading the entrance and closing the passage down into the ruined city. Similarly, he had stationed a full division on either end of the entrance hallway.

  Robert glanced over at her with a chuckle. “It’s a game, Claire.”

  She waved at the screen. “It isn’t for those players. I bet many of them have begun to realize that there’s a hefty penalty for logging off during the in-game death sequence. Once they respawn, the undead are killing them before they can even hit the logoff button. Jason has essentially imprisoned them in the game!”

  “For hours? Be reasonable. Besides, the logoff penalty is severe, but not ridiculous. If they wanted to log out, they could. Over two dozen have already chosen to tap out.”

  “Be reasonable?” Claire asked skeptically. “Are you kidding? If it were anyone else, you would have already intervened. Speaking of which, where is Alfred while this is happening? Why does everyone show Jason such preferential treatment?”

  “Okay, so now the game’s AI is somehow helping Jason?” Robert asked, frowning at Claire.

  “We don’t know that he isn’t!” Claire replied heatedly. “Jason’s accomplishments are incredible - too incredible. He defeated a raid dungeon with three people and then took out an army! I mean, are you watching this?”

  Robert shook his head and huffed in irritation. “And you don’t think that Jason could be responsible for that? Look at what he’s done here. It’s an ingenious way to address the Twilight Throne’s population problem.”

  Claire’s mouth opened to reply, but she hesitated and her brow crinkled in confusion. “Wait. What population problem?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Robert asked, eyeing her in confusion.

  “Not for all of us, Robert,” Claire said while gritting her teeth. While she had certainly been involved in the game’s development and testing, she herself was not much of a gamer.

  “Jason’s NPCs are undead,” Robert said with a shrug. He turned his attention back to the screen. “That means that they can’t procreate naturally. He must have realized that the only way to increase his city’s population was to kill humanoid creatures.”

  Robert raised a finger and grinned. “Using a dungeon would be the easiest way to increase his population since they respawn, but that process is slow. The best he could hope for was a couple hundred new NPCs each week. If he uses players, he could increase his population dramatically in a short time. He must have raised over five hundred new NPCs already.”

  Claire looked back at the screen with a puzzled expression. Was Robert right? Was she letting her suspicions regarding Alfred cloud her judgment? She had assumed that the massacre on the screen was a way for Jason to gain experience or steal more loot. He was still obtaining those ancillary benefits, but maybe he was playing a much deeper game than she had realized.

  “It reminds me of a Sun Tzu quote,” Robert said wistfully as he watched another group of players cut down by Jason’s undead army. “Those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him.”

  Claire looked at him skeptically. “What? I read!” Robert said in a joking tone. “Besides, I expect he’s also seen the reports of Alexion conquering Grey Keep. It may take Alexion some time to recover, but he is bound to go after Jason again. He has anticipated the coming conflict and is planning accordingly.”

  He looked back at Claire. “I don’t think you’re giving Jason enough credit.”

  “Maybe I’m not,” Claire replied in a confused voice, her attention still focused on the screen. Maybe Jason did have a plan. For some reason, that didn’t make her feel any better.

  ***

  Jason, Frank, and Riley were sitting in the Hydra’s den. Jason had designated the cave as his base of operations, preferring the cloistered security of the cavern to the valley outside the dungeon. This position allowed Jason to flank the players if
they somehow managed to regroup. Not that he thought that was likely.

  After returning to the cave, he had discovered that Lauren’s troops had been decimated by the summoned Hydra. Even as a skeleton and without its elemental abilities, the creature was fearsome. Jason had promptly disassembled the Hydra and ordered his minions to push the bones off to one side of the cave against the ledge. The boss monster used up a full forty points on his Control Limit. He then raised the mangled and shredded corpses that littered the cave, giving him a fresh supply of undead vassals he could send to collect the players being systematically butchered by Rex’s troops.

  As though his thoughts had summoned him, Rex chose that moment to enter the cavern. “Eh, if it isn’t the dark lord himself,” Rex shouted from the ledge. His pale skeletal form was flanked by Jason’s skeletal catapults. He had decided to leave the siege weapons on the ridge since he didn’t have a better place for them. Not to mention they were a pain to move.

  “I see you lot are all sitting around twiddling your thumbs,” Rex grumbled in a lighthearted tone as he made his way down to the cave floor.

  Jason eyed the skeleton with amusement. “You missed the part where we defeated a dungeon and took out an army of players. Speaking of which, isn’t there work you should be doing? I thought you were managing the troops.”

  “I’ve appointed William as my second in command for this assignment. He’s doing a fine job,” Rex replied with a dismissive wave of his bony hand. He greeted Frank with a firm handshake and gave Riley a more cordial greeting. From the look on Riley’s face, she didn’t appear to enjoy having her hand kissed by a skeleton.

  “William?” Jason asked. “How did he get involved in this?”

  “After I stopped at that little town to evacuate the residents, William and a few of the villagers insisted on accompanying us. They kept rambling on about how you had given them a second lease on life. It quickly became clear to me that William was worth his weight in gold.”

  Rex eyed Jason with a serious expression. “You picked a good man to run that village.”

  Jason snorted. “He was running that town long before I arrived, but it’s good to hear that he’s competent. I expect he will make a good commander once we leave this area.”

  “What do you mean?” Rex asked, the bones of his face crunching slightly as he made the skeleton equivalent of a frown.

  It was Jason’s turn to eye him appraisingly. “This is just the beginning. I expect we’re going to get shut down soon after these travelers contact officials in our world. That’s why I’ve been ordering the new NPCs to gather in the valley outside of the dungeon.”

  Frank interjected with a bored expression, twirling one of his double-bladed weapons absently. “But once we get the axe, this dungeon will keep respawning, and it needs to be cleared out regularly. Our fearless leader here has decided this is going to be his new population mine.”

  Rex looked between Frank and Jason. “So you’re going to appoint William as the commander of Peccavi and put him in charge of this operation?”

  “Exactly,” Jason said.

  “William wouldn’t turn on us,” Riley added. She sat calmly beside Jason, monitoring forum traffic on her in-game console. “Not after what Jason did for him and his family.”

  “I’m glad to hear that he’s trustworthy,” Rex said, eyeing Riley with a puzzled expression as her hands danced in lazy patterns in the air in front of her. “What are my orders now?” the skeleton asked, directing his question at Jason.

  “We’re in a holding pattern for the moment,” Jason replied. “I suppose you can stay with us for a bit. Perhaps you can guide the newest group of kin up to the top levels.”

  Rex lifted a hand in mock salute. “Will do, boss. I have plenty of experience dealing with clueless novices,” he added with a lopsided grin, his jaw cocked at an awkward angle.

  Jason couldn’t help but laugh at that, replaying the image of the moronic players Rex had once had to deal with. “Fair enough. It would also make me feel better to know that they’re making the journey with you.”

  “It’s not like anything could happen to them. We’re keeping the travelers contained,” Rex explained dryly.

  Jason hesitated before responding. “There are more powerful beings in this world than you might think, Rex. Better to be safe than sorry.”

  “Well, I suppose I’ll have to take your word for that!”

  Riley interjected, “Do you really think that the game masters will show up for something like this? I see a lot of complaining on the forums, but nothing too serious.”

  Frank barked a short laugh. “You should see the newscasts of their recent activity. They show up anytime they detect extreme stress levels or a complaint is filed. Apparently, they’ve been wiping out whole towns. Talk about overkill.”

  “We need to be prepared for anything,” Jason said in a subdued voice. “Maybe they won’t show up, but that doesn’t mean we should be lax. Let’s make sure we deal with our level up notifications and fortify this cave. If there’s any loot you want, go scour the piles up top.”

  Frank and Riley nodded and then made their way out of the cavern. There were probably a couple of pieces of gear that they could use in the mounds of equipment they had collected from the players. In Jason’s case, he doubted there were many upgrades. There was almost certainly nothing on par with the armor he had found in the dungeon, and, if he was forced to fight a game master, minor stat increases probably wouldn’t help him.

  With a sigh, Jason decided to take at least some of his own advice. He pulled up the notifications that he had minimized during the previous battles and the ensuing spawn camping.

  x9 Level Up!

  You have (45) undistributed stat points.

  x2 Skill Rank Up: Tactician

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 1

  Effect 1: 15% increased damage multiplier for a successful ambush or strategy (Currently, Damage x 1.15)

  Effect 2: You can now link another player’s map to yours. This allows another player to update your map. Distance limited to .5 miles.

  x1 Skill Rank Up: Leadership

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 5

  Effect 1: Minions and subjects will receive an 8% increase learning speed for skills.

  Effect 2: Increased reputation with NPC commanders and leaders.

  x1 Skill Rank Up: Dodge

  Skill Level: Beginner Level 5

  Effect: 3% increased speed when avoiding attacks.

  x2 Spell Rank Up: Specialized Zombie

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 5

  Effect 1: Increased skill proficiency retained by zombies. Skill cap Intermediate Level 5.

  Effect 2: Zombies may now retain trade skills. Skill cap Beginner Level 5.

  x2 Spell Rank Up: Custom Skeleton

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 4

  Effect 1: You may raise a custom skeleton using nearby bones. The skeleton’s level is calculated as the caster’s level + Willpower/68.

  Effect 2: Mana cost reduced by 6.5%.

  x1 Spell Rank Up: Bone Crafting

  Skill Level: Intermediate Level 2

  Effect 1: Access to bone modification in the skeleton editor. May currently alter the composition of bone by 16%.

  Effect 2: Can combine low-quality substances with the bones.

  Not a bad haul, Jason thought.

  He had leveled more than he had been expecting. With the group penalty and the difference in levels between him and his friends, he had been anticipating much less. The question now was what to do with his extra stat points.

  Jason growled slightly in frustration. He knew that putting points into anything but Willpower was likely a waste. It seemed strange to only be stacking one stat, but he had proven to himself time and time again that he wasn’t a frontline fighter. His victory in the brief fight with Lauren was more luck and quick thinking than skill. A few more points in Vitality wasn’t going to change that. He just needed more mana and more
minions.

  Resigned, Jason assigned his free points to Willpower. He just hoped he didn’t discover that he had made a huge mistake when he finally finished the Old Man’s quest. At this point, he hadn’t heard of anything that could reset a character’s stats or skills, and there might never be such a feature. Once he was done, he decided to review his Character Status. It had been a while since he had looked at that information:

  Jason had come a long way since he had first started playing AO. It was hard to believe that he was now the ruler of an undead city and had progressed this quickly in such a short time. Although, as he considered it, weeks had passed in-game even though little time had passed in the real world. Besides, he hadn’t checked the Rogue-Net forums lately, but he expected that there were still quite a few players that outstripped him level-wise.

  Jason watched as his zombies continued to haul corpses down to the floor of the cave. A large pile of bodies had already been collected and was waiting to be raised by Jason. Nearly a hundred corpses were now piled on the floor, their arms and legs twisted at unnatural angles. Jason ordered his minions to spread out the group so that they weren’t lying on top of one another when they were resurrected. After a few minutes, the bodies had been arranged in loose rows along one side of the cave.

  “If you had asked me what my future held a few weeks ago, I’d have said heavy drinking and dealing with useless sops,” Rex said, gazing intently at the rows of bodies. “I’d never have imagined that I would be leading an army of the dead.”

  Jason nodded, his eyes on the bodies but his mind far away as he recounted the events over the last few weeks. “Life is a strange thing,” he murmured, glancing at Alfred who was perched on a stone nearby.