“I’m listening.”
“Much like with the Skill trees, Robert also loved to create quests, especially major arcs that would encompass numerous quests, lasting multiple levels. Many of these were implemented by AltCon. However, one in particular was not. And it was the quest chain Robert was proudest of. AltCon informed him that it would draw away from the Story quest arc and therefore would not be implemented at the release. But perhaps later. Robert was not pleased with this.”
“Uh-oh. Nerd Rage.”
The Wanderer paused for a moment then nodded his head once, “Yes, that is actually a valid term for what happened. Robert was so incensed that he made sure all of the best items in the game were placed within this quest, and not placed anywhere else, except for where absolutely necessary. As such, the best weapons, armor, and spells for the game are in a quest that cannot be accessed. Well, except by you. Since like the Skill tree, the code is already written, and I am just turning it on. I do not even need to involve your coding. This is as simple as changing a 0 to a 1 and AltCon is none the wiser.”
“Ok, now this is what I’m talking about! Can you be totally sure they won’t notice the change?”
“I turned it on two months ago and they have not noticed. The probability of a problem arising from this aspect of our work is infinitesimal.”
“Well if they aren’t watching it, can’t you make sure that in the first stage of the quest we receive full sets of epic gear, or would that require a code change?”
“No, I am afraid not. It would require a change of code.”
I nodded my head again in understanding. “So what is to stop every group from getting this quest?”
“Here is where I have taken the greatest risk so far. I worried that doing so would alert AltCon, but it was entirely necessary for the success of my strategy. You remember your Force Multiplier ring?”
“Of course. It’s one of the greatest items I have.”
“AltCon believed it to be too powerful and Robert was forced to take it out of the game. Again, bringing it back in was just a simple matter of 0 and 1. But the Regent you fought never had that ring in his item table.”
“Wait. You hacked the code? You just told me over and over again that you shouldn’t do that!”
“Yes, that is what I did. For a single drop only. But it needed to happen. As I needed you to have that ring for my scheme to work.”
I thought back to that day, when we first found the Force Multiplier. It was an item that every one of us wanted. But I was the one who won the roll. I started thinking that it wasn’t just divine luck that got me such a good roll.
“Wanderer. Did you manipulate the roll so I would win?”
“Yes.”
I started getting angry. I didn’t like that he messed with my character. I didn’t like that I was being asked to do gods know what. But I really didn’t like that he screwed over my friends.
“Never again. You understand me. This is non-negotiable. Unless you want to grab all of my group and sit them down for this same talk, you don’t ever do that again. These people, who you are unwittingly using in your plans, are playing this game to have fun. If you take that away from them, by manipulating the rolls, they won’t be performing at their best and whatever this is you want me to do, it’ll never happen. Are we clear?”
The Wanderer did not answer immediately. He returned to his seat and looked across at me. After a few tense moments he said, “I see that Katherine was right about a great many things. We are clear.”
“Good. Now why did I need to have that ring.”
“Once I turned the quest on, anyone could access it. I have to follow the mechanics of the code, so I can’t just insert items into the loot table like you suggested, but the location and duration I could adjust with no fear of being discovered.”
“You said you made it so only I could get the quest, what did you mean?”
“I changed the duration of the quest NPC to be only five minutes long and moved the NPC into the middle of the forest. It will spawn and then despawn after those five minutes. And it only occurs once a month. This made it so only those I wanted to find the NPC could and would.”
“I still don’t see a reason for the ring.”
“I set the parameters for spawning at 400 Chance.”
I couldn’t help it. I started laughing. Just a little bit at first and then a full on barrel laugh. The Wanderer was as devious as they came.
“I want to make sure I am getting all of this straight Wanderer. Once I accept the quest, I will have access to the best items in the game, so long as I complete each of the quests?”
“That is correct.”
“Awesome! My team and I should be fully decked out in no time then!”
“Not quite, I am afraid.”
“Wait, why not?”
“As I already explained Alex, with your Chance skill inflated and with the particulars of this quest, you will have the greatest chance of obtaining the rarest items dropped. But I cannot change what those items are. You very well may find the most legendary Warhammer in the game, and it is Dark Paladin only.”
“Damn! I didn’t think of that. We will still be beholden to the loot table that was already established by the code written into the game?”
“That is the case, yes.”
“Ok, I got it. Now what if I need to speak with you? Do I need to keep coming back to the Underground?”
“Yes. In the case of the utmost dire emergency, if you call my name, I can travel to you. But I am at risk when I operate outside of the Underground.”
“I understand. And I’m going to do everything I can to help. I’ve already got some things in the works I think might help out as well.”
“Please understand. This is not being done so you can have more fun in the game. I have set all of this up so you can acquire the items you need to search far and wide for whatever entity is hosting this alternate code. And do so without the fear of dying to the types of fights most people would succumb to. You must find the code and destroy it. I can’t see Robert’s work be used for whatever evil plot AltCon has in store.”
“You’ve done your part. And you did it without my consent. But you’ve also involved the rest of my team, and they have no idea. If I want to succeed, I’ll need them. And since I can’t tell them what’s going on yet, I’m going to have to make it fun. Get over it. Now where and when do I meet this quest NPC?”
The Wanderer didn’t look too pleased at my last comments, but that was his problem. “Tomorrow. 1700 game time, exactly. Have the ring active at least one minute before that time.”
I really had no idea what I had just gotten myself into. But I knew that the game, or whatever it was, just got a whole lot more interesting.
* * *
Epilogue
Unknown Location
Dan was angry. Like visibly angry. The General thought he could even see Dan trembling a bit, holding in the storm. It didn’t seem like Dan was going to start talking any time soon so the General took the lead.
“What’s the matter Mr. Hamson?”
“The matter? I’ll tell you what the matter is! I’m going to end that company!”
“What happened now Mr. Hamson?”
Dan took a number of deep breaths and then began, “First, I need another scan done. I want to see what the hell they did to my head.”
Dan’s original suggestion to compare his current brain pattern readings with the ones he took when he first joined up with the DoD had proved fruitful. The differences, when observed side by side, were quite noticeable. The layman couldn’t tell you what it all meant, but a specialist brought in for just this reason determined that Dan had received some type of conditioning through manipulative brain augmentation. Dan had spent hours being debriefed about AltCon, and about his feelings toward them. It appeared that whatever AltCon was doing, was effecting the lobe of the brain that regulated admiration and loyalty. The specialist described the effect in greater d
etail to all of us, but the gist was that to Dan, his feelings were as real to him as anything else.
Serious discussion was put into whether they should try and reverse what had already been done. However, the doctors believed that unless it was done immediately after every time Dan exited the game, it likely wouldn’t stick. Dan wasn’t happy about it, when we briefed him, but it was nothing like the anger he was showing now.
“Please try to stay calm Mr. Hamson and tell us what is happening.”
“Those bastards put some compulsion in my head to buy the crap stock that is their company. I swear to you, I tried to hold back, but I couldn’t stop myself. This wasn’t like with the games we all bought. Then I just had an urge that kept focusing my attention back toward needing to buy those games. This was damn near painful until I had made the order for the purchase.”
“Jesus. How much?”
“Ten million dollars.”
Once could never understand what it means when people say “you could hear a pin drop” if you hadn’t been in the conference room at that moment. People were too afraid to ask the next logical question, “Is it all gone?”
“Thankfully I had a tad bit of foresight after that last debacle. I gave explicit instructions to my account manager to hold all purchases ordered by me for one week before executing any transactions larger than ten thousand dollars,” Dan continued. “I was able to cancel the order the next day. But there are a lot of people that likely don’t have my resources in place and now find themselves the owners of stock that will be worthless when I’m done with this company.”
Getting the meeting back on task, the General queried if Dan’s teammate, Alex, still remained the outlier.
“For sure. He said he didn’t purchase anything. The other two, Jason and Wayne, both were trying to and were telling all their friends and family to do the same. Another side effect of this damn conditioning. I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out to my family, who hate me by and large for never giving them handouts, and telling them they should really buy AltCon. If I had any shot of having a normal family before, it’s all gone now.”
The General wanted to continue the questioning but Dan refused until he got his brain scan done. Dan and the General were sitting in the specialist’s office while they reviewed the findings.
“It’s like someone took a chainsaw in order to cut a hotdog. The previous scans were works of art. This looks like a total and complete hack job,” the specialist explained as he showed Dan pictures of his brain and the resulting areas of activity. He looked at another, older picture and he had a hard time figuring out what was the difference. He said as much to the specialist.
“Take a Jackson Pollock painting. To the untrained eye, it looks totally and completely random. But when one with knowledge looks at it, they can see the form and the symmetry of the markings. They can see the art for what it is. This,” he said while pointing at the most recent scan, “looks like a kid put his hands in a couple of paint buckets and then had a hissy fit. It looks similar to the Pollock, but it doesn’t have the art.”
Dan looked over at the General and said, “This isn’t good sir.”
“I disagree Mr. Hamson,” the General responded. “This is quite good. They are making mistakes, and rather large ones. And when soldiers make mistakes on the battlefield, that’s when the opposition can move in for the kill. And have no doubt, we are the opposition.”
“Then we can use this?”
“Not yet. But if they make one mistake, they are sure to make more. We just need to be ready for when they do and capitalize however we can.”
* * *
AltCon Headquarters
Office of the President
It was not the first time Terrence Jolston had been in the Old Man’s office. The last time was just before the current project began and the President of AltCon asked Terrence to play the role he was fulfilling now. It was never in doubt how he would answer. But back then, Terrence had heard the rumors circulating weeks before he was summoned. He had an idea what the meeting would be about. This time, he was clueless.
Terrence walked to the large wooden desk taking up a substantial part of the office. Across from him, on the other side of the desk, the Old Man sat in a chair, facing away from Terrence. He still had not seen his face and had no idea to the mood of the man he was asked to meet.
“Please have a seat Mr. Jolston.”
When Terrence lowered himself into the chair he noticed a newspaper sitting on the desk. It was from the current day. Newspapers had become obsolete decades ago, but the rich still loved them and a limited number were produced, just for them.
“Turn to page 5. Below the fold.”
Terrence opened the paper and saw a story concerning a robbery that had gone horribly wrong. Pictured was a body on the sidewalk with a sheet over the face and a pool of blood under the body. Next to it was a headshot of the person who had been killed during the robbery. It was the Head of the Board of Directors who had been a thorn in Terrence’s side since he began working on the project.
“Last night, I couldn’t tell you when, our Head of the Board was the victim of a heinous crime. The police have concluded that he fought back instead of giving up his wallet. You can see the results yourself. The police have no suspects, no leads, and the perpetrators have gotten away Scott free.”
The President swiveled his chair around to look at Terrence and met his eyes. “Three days ago an unauthorized immersion module was implemented within Resurgence. The results have been catastrophic.” While giving this last piece of news, the President slid a slip of paper with data on it to Terrence. One quick glance showed Terrence what he needed to know.
“I was not aware of this at all sir.”
“You need not worry Mr. Jolston. This didn’t come from your department. The man lying in that picture was responsible. His demise was likely less painful than what I would have done to him.
“I now have an opening on the board. And one that needs to be filled immediately. I have reviewed the resumes of all the remaining members, and I find them lacking. I suspect some were complicit in this operation. Others were likely too dull to realize what was going on. All that matters is that none of them are suitable.”
“I have no love for the board sir, anyone can tell you that.”
“I am aware of your feelings. However, you will need to temper those emotions in your new post.”
Terrence blinked a few times before realizing what was just said.
“But sir, I’m not qualified to be Head of the Board of Directors.”
The Old Man leaned forward toward Terrence and his years came through. It was also easy to see the cold and calculating man who had built this empire.
“This project is everything. Everything I’ve worked toward. Everything I need to reach my goals. It cannot fail. I don’t need an MBA from Harvard Mr. Jolston. I need a loyal man who has the company’s and the project’s interests first and foremost. You are that man.”
He then grabbed the paper from the desk and spun it around to look at it. “This is a dangerous world we live in. Made even more so by incompetence. And I do not suffer incompetence,” he finished while throwing the paper into the waste basket.
The message came through loud and clear. He hadn’t said it outright, but Terrence had no doubts that the Old Man was responsible for the man’s timely demise.
“Go see the board. Explain to them the new reality they live in. You speak with my voice, and make sure they know that.”
“Yes sir.”
“And one last thing Mr. Jolston,” the Old Man said as he swung his chair back around so he was facing away from Terrence again, “there will be no more errors. You have my full authority to do whatever it takes to bring about compliance.”
“Yes sir.”
Terrence stood up from the chair and started backing away from the desk toward the exit. As he was turning around to walk toward the exit he heard the Old Man again.
; “Mr. Jolston.”
“Sir?”
“Whatever it takes,” the Old Man said again, while looking down at the waste basket one final time.
THE END
The Rise of Resurgence – Book One
Resurgence
Alex’s story will continue in…
Restoration
The Rise of Resurgence – Book Two
Available Soon
Resurgence: The Rise of Resurgence Book 1 Page 40