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Chapter Zero
Once again, a fortunate and lightning-quick attack had given Highwayman a temporary reprieve.
In the hours following his fateful encounter with Saro, the rival assassin who had very nearly thwarted his efforts to reach Safekeep, the situation at the Haunt had grown dire and was rapidly getting worse.
The third virtual dead body in as many minutes only confirmed his worst fears.
Highwayman existed inside a massively multiplayer game called Kings and Conquests. He had managed to reach level nine, a feat which only a scarce handful of people had accomplished in the few months since the game had been released to a frenzied public. Most of his advancement had come as a result of some fortunate choices during the character’s creation process, and most of the rest had been rewarded in the cave where he was currently residing.
He was now the proud owner of sixty platinum ingots. Each weighed two in-game pounds. Each also represented one percent ownership of Fairly Unusual Games, the developer of Kings and Conquests. Each ingot was redeemable for roughly 176,667 shares of Fairly Unusual voting stock, provided Highwayman could return them to the city of Rook and redeem them according to the rules of the in-game quest and the out-of-game contest.
The main problem was Scythe Ridge was far to the north of the Hesan Kingdom. So far, in fact, it was in a different province than the city of Rook. Jordan Hall had known full well the risks of guiding his Highwayman character so far into high-level territory, and now those risks were standing between him and a prize beyond all imagining.
After a contentious launch, Kings and Conquests had become far and away the hit of the year. Subscriber rates were nearing four million players. The most recent projections had Fairly Unusual stock hitting $80 a share by the end of the current fiscal quarter.
Which meant Highwayman was now guarding an estimated $848 million in real-world equity. He was also guarding a majority of the voting shares, which meant once he was able to take possession, he would be in control of one of the most valuable video game companies on Earth.
There was also the small problem of Rook itself. As a result of the actions of an obscure level two player without much ambition to do anything productive with his character, the city was a smoking wreck. A level 40 world boss by the name of Kukalesh the Foul had been enticed into attacking Rook’s gates only hours before Highwayman found Safekeep. The resulting battle had raged through the shining capital’s streets like an out-of-control forest fire. Only the vermin remained. It wasn’t even clear the NPC programmed to accept the quest turn-in was alive.
And now, dead at Highwayman’s feet lay another Cacai warrior. This one was level 12, and had only succumbed because Jordan’s character had obtained nearly complete surprise. Fortunately, out of the three that had attacked so far, two had been defeated in combat and the third had slipped while fleeing and fallen off the ridge into the rock-strewn river at the base of The Haunt.
After some hasty research, more than a few narrow escapes and a lot of shouting and pointing at pages in the Conquests of the King book Jordan had been sent by Fairly Unusual Games after he discovered his Founder’s Account, it had become clear the Haunt wasn’t just a spooky name. The zone was rumored to be populated by ghosts and claimed by at least two barbarian warlords, one of which ruled over the Cacai.
“Six silver.” Jordan said sleepily. He and the No-Name-Games crew had been playing Kings and Conquests for what seemed like days, even though the current session had really only lasted about 11 hours. “No weapon drops.”
“Shit!” Robb Doncem spat from his at-the-ready station next to Jordan’s PC.
“The Cacai are some broke monsters,” Marc Darnell said.
Robb was impatient. He was dressed in his gamer gear complete with optionally under-control hair. “You need higher level weapons. That Cloak quest line really strands you in a tough spot between questing in the bunny forest and getting to a level where you can actually defend yourself.”
“Someone needs to get up there,” Dave Houser stated. He looked grim with his arms folded standing behind the group. “Your character’s exhaustion level is about to break 40. If it reaches 100 before you get some way to extend it artificially or get someplace where you can rest, you’re going to pass out and that’s all she wrote. Someone needs to help you guard that sarcophagus.”
“We shouldn’t have sent him alone,” Amy Davies added. She had her feet propped on the desk and also had her arms folded. It was as if she were literally trying to keep herself together. The gigantic cartoon design covering her sweatshirt made her look unreasonably cheery. “Someone should have gone up there with you. At least they could have stood watch so Highwayman could get some rest.”
“Shoulda woulda,” Marc said.
“I think the real-world Highwayman needs some rest,” Alyssa Heatherly said, hovering over Jordan like a concerned mother. The other No-Name-Gamers couldn’t get over how deliriously pretty she was and how out of place she looked among the band of vagabonds that had allowed her to tag along to the Southern California resort where they had holed up to complete the Safekeep quest. “It’s almost two in the morning. We have to check out of here tomorrow.”
“He can’t log out,” Robb said. “It would leave that treasure vulnerable in a hostile area designed for level 20 characters. If someone wanders into that cavern while he is logged off, that would be worse than the exhaustion problem. At least if he’s in the game he can defend the loot.”
“Why would a game make it so dangerous to stop playing?” Alyssa asked sincerely. “Isn’t this supposed to be just a fun thing to do?”
“You tell me,” Dave replied. “That gold coffin is worth thousands of monarchs at least, not to mention its commemorative value as the most unique treasure in the entire game. We haven’t had even a few moments to study it. For all we know it has some kind of powers too.”
Jordan hovered over the treasures with his mouse pointer. Dave was right about one thing. The gold coffin and all the ingots were what Kings and Conquests called “universe unique,” which meant there was only one of each lootable across all servers. Once someone took possession, their character had an absolutely unique item no other player could ever get. Unless its owner died, of course, then it would be lootable just like anything else. That was the chief danger for Highwayman. There were numerous other players looking for him, and some had the skills and the levels to decisively win any dispute over the treasure. Leading that list was the level sixteen assassin Highwayman killed with another assassin’s pistol.
“Not to mention the nearly billion dollars worth of stock in it,” Robb added. “He’s stuck up there in that cavern, and if he tries to leave, he’ll get eaten by something before he makes it a hundred yards towards the nearest village.”
“Okay, let’s stop stating and re-stating the problem and start talking about solutions,” Amy snapped. “If we’re going to win this, we need to start acting like we know what we’re doing.”
“What are we doing?” Dave asked.
“Okay, let’s say for the sake of argument we can’t go up there to rescue him. What can Highwayman do on his own?” Robb offered.
Jordan yawned and ran his fingers through his hair. “We haven’t even looked at the crafting interface. I haven’t tried to level those skills at all. Then there’s my founder’s screen. I could claim land somewhere nearby, I guess, for all the good it will do.”
“Land,” Robb muttered. “Wouldn’t setting up a camp to build your keep provide you with a travel node?”
> Dave snapped his fingers. “That’s it! That’s how you get Alyssa up there. Once you set up a camp you’ll attract henchmen and you can build a travel node. Then she can use her flight paths to reach you.”
“As much as I hate to say it,” Amy continued. “You and her being married gives us some pretty powerful options. Any keep you build is automatically her home base too. Once she arrives, she can establish a court and establish diplomatic contact with the Kingdom of Dae.”
“I never thought any of those silly titles would matter,” Alyssa said.
“Make a list, because we’ll be using them all,” Marc replied.
“We could request assistance from the Lishian Elite Guard,” Jordan concluded. “That just might do it. We still have to figure out how to get the treasure to the camp, but that’s a much more solvable problem than just sitting here and waiting for the clock to run out.”
“In the meantime,” Robb said, “Nash, 4884, Arianne and Thiridion need to travel to the fair capital city of Rook and see if we can find our quest NPC or this whole thing will be a complete waste of time.”
“Soon as I get established, I’m going to start looking in to some crafting, because I think I might have some rudimentary ability to heal some of this damage if I can learn the basics,” Jordan said.
“Good thing you picked Cloak,” Robb said. “Otherwise you’d have aggro at a hundred yards up there.”
“Let’s take a look at that map and get moving.” Jordan said.
Chapter One
“What exactly is ‘plan B?'"
Len V. Griffin’s Chief Information Officer had found himself in several more than unsettling situations since his boss had become interested in the idea of obtaining a controlling share of Fairly Unusual Games. Martin LeBlanc was no slouch when it came to understanding the vagaries and basic value proposition of modern technology. He and Griffin had built N-Gate into one of the industry’s most formidable marketing machines, complete with a portfolio of more than 2000 semiconductor-related patents.
One thing LeBlanc had to admit, however, was that microelectronics were a lot easier to understand than gaming culture, and it seemed his company’s most recent big project was far more dependent on bros and message boards than it was on leading the way in chip design.
Len V. Griffin II, CEO of N-Gate Five leaned back in his rather expensive chair and stared at nothing in particular. He had made a habit of calling impromptu meetings with senior executives of late, and while many of his biggest accomplishments had taken place in similar conferences, the most recent brand of meeting had been more like a wide-ranging discussion of abstract ideas than business plans.
“Jay had to start his character over. He chose most of the same options and he’s back to level two, but at this point he’s probably hopelessly behind the rest of the player base. Lori is still level 14 and Mike just made it to level 15, but everything they’ve done so far has been in a bubble of our making. They don’t have enough open-game experience to accomplish much yet. Fortunately, my little team of toadies isn’t the only pot I have simmering.”
“I didn’t expect it would be,” LeBlanc sighed. “Is all this work really worth it?”
“Martin, if we win this video game, we own a controlling share of a company projecting 11-figures next year. I’d say that’s worth the minimal amounts I’m spending to get there.”
“That would be great, if we had some idea how to win. This thing seems like it’s all over the place. Players are cheating, stuff is being sold in the game and out, and the media is treating it all like it’s some kind of worldwide music festival.”
“It is. These things are home to millions of people. It’s where they socialize, and based on what we’ve seen, a lot of them are more than happy to just sit in town and make leather bags, horse saddles and magic potions all day. Only four percent of the player base has exceeded level six, and that’s why my back-up plan is so important.”
“What plan?”
“I hired a second team of gamers with my own money. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want the first team to think they had the option to slack off. I still don’t want them to know. My star player on ‘Team B’ is level 19 and is about to unlock a whole new set of abilities.”
“How much is this going to cost us?”
“I set aside five million dollars, but until it pays off, it won’t have any effect on N-Gate’s business. I only want reimbursement if we manage to get hold of those shares.”
“What makes you think this guy can succeed where Jay didn’t? What’s your plan for dealing with Wyland and his super-assassin avatar?”
Griffin stood and walked to his in-office wet bar to pour a drink. “Fairly Unusual built three foundational technologies to release with Kings and Conquests. The first is the game engine itself, which they developed in almost total secrecy without alerting anyone to their budget, features or anything else. Totally blindsided the entire industry.”
“An awfully big risk,” LeBlanc replied.
“It was a stroke of utter genius. By the time anyone found reasons to complain, Wyland and his company had four weeks of positive press and enough income to survive the launch. This guy is going down in history as the only bastard crazy enough to use a bankruptcy filing as a PR stunt. That’s just fucked up in so many ways, but Wyland pulled it off like an 80s magician.”
“What about the other two technologies?”
“They’ve got an augmented reality mobile app that allows players with registered accounts to not only pursue game objectives, quests, crafting and other kinds of entertainment in the real world, it also allows players to identify each other if they choose, meaning Fairly Unusual has taken their own social gaming network out into the real world. That alone is enough to make the company worth buying, but then they went and did something I don’t think even I can wrap my head around.”
“The 3D printers.”
“Exactly. Somewhere along the way, Wyland got it in his head he could turn his own players into a manufacturing division. So he designated certain treasures as ‘real-world-lootable’ and had them designed not only as three-dimensional graphics, but also as three-dimensional objects complete with ornaments, polished textures and patented materials science.”
Griffin set the drink on his desk, opened a drawer and produced a gleaming translucent crystal sphere set in an upturned bronzed dragon’s claw that formed its base. The dragon scales were made of delicately polished semi-circular layered ebony and the pointed nails were made of solid, flawless poured bronze. The entire affair was set on a circular base of Italian black marble and lettered with sterling silver inlay. He set it on the desk and sipped his drink while LeBlanc stared.
“This is the Omniscient Dragon’s Eye,” Griffin announced. “It’s a level 14 treasure for any class that advances far enough in the scrying skill tree. Most end up as warlocks. See the way it’s made?” The N-Gate CEO turned the object over and showed LeBlanc the three dimensional reinforced micro-honeycomb lattice used to construct the materials themselves. “This process is only possible with Fairly Unusual’s 3D printers. It’s patented. Further, if you look at this material under a powerful enough microscope, you’ll find the honeycombs themselves are all inscribed with tiny logos and patent numbers. These things can’t even be knocked off!”
“Where did you get this thing?”
“It came out of that printer,” Griffin replied, nodding at the Kings and Conquests “treasure station” sitting along the opposite wall near the bookcase. “Took an hour. Do you know what this is worth? I posted a picture of it on Blibber a couple hours after Mike looted it.”
“Is this the only one?”
“Far as we know. Someone offered me $40,000 for this. We could probably make a living just sweeping the game world for these ‘real-world-lootable’ treasures and selling them. Hell, we could open up a museum for these things and charge admission!”
“This thing really has you wound up, doesn’t it?”
“Why?”
“Pound for pound, the honeycomb is one of the strongest structures in nature. When constructed to the tolerances that machine over there is capable of, these objects become incredibly resilient. The lattice inside here is 300 micrometers from center to center. This thing could probably stop a bullet.”
“So it has military applications as well.”
“Right now one of the most powerful micro-industrial technologies known to man is being used to make cartoon action figures. I want this. I want to own it all. Our research and development guys could take one of those machines and build the future with it. I’m going to make sure N-Gate is leading the way.”
Chapter Two
“There’s a plot of claimable land at water’s edge right here.”
Highwayman was standing on top of an enormous flying-saucer shaped sandy-colored rock overlooking the western shores of a region known as the Shon Cloud. Below his vantage point, large rocks covered the grade down to the damp shoreline. A natural jetty was visible not far up the beach. The water was cold and surprisingly clear. The foamy spray swirled in the ocean air. Seagulls and other beach creatures were in abundance. Not far from the waters edge a giant crab was moving very slowly down the water line. Jordan knew better than to get near it, as it was likely high enough level to eat him whole.
“How much?” Robb asked. He was busy flipping through the Conquests of the King sourcebook for the Kings and Conquests game world. Over recent days, the No-Name-Games team had concluded just about everything of note had at least one page to itself in the gigantic leather-bound book. He couldn’t find Shon Cloud, however, and that was making him impatient.
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