by Dante Doom
“Well, what’s in it for me if I help you guys?” Sang asked. Even as she spoke, she wasn’t sure why she was delaying right now. Whatever this creature was, it probably wasn’t in Trefor’s apartment, so stalling didn’t do any good.
“We shall allow you to serve as Trefor does. A high-ranking member, there will be money for you, as well, as much as you desire. When the New World comes, you will be like a god among men.”
“Sounds amazing,” Sang said. “Sign me up.”
“There is deception in your words,” the being said. Sang frowned, realizing that since it was communicating with her telepathically, it was probably also reading her mind. “You must realize that you have only two choices. Serve us or become nothing more than an empty vessel.”
“But if you can read my mind, then you know that there’s no way I’d ever serve you guys!” Sang said. “So why give me the choice?”
“Humans are curious,” Yvgo said as he turned to face the stars. “You seem to be so convinced in your own minds that you are resolute. That nothing can change your minds... but we see a great many people change their opinions on a near daily basis. The reason why you refuse us isn’t because you are so noble, heroic, or good, Sang. The reason you refuse us is because you do not have what you want from us yet.
“There was a man who was in seminary, preparing to become a pastor. He was drawn into this game and we liked his ability to lead. So, we offered him a job with us; we told him the truth. He was indignant—he screamed, shouted, and threatened. Said he would never join us. And do you know what happened?”
“You killed him?” Sang asked.
“No. He joined us. He joined us because we learned a long time ago that we don’t have to force humans to do anything. We just have to offer them the right things. His family and children’s safety secured, he was happy to join us. And, to this day, he serves us very well.”
“That sounds like blackmail to me,” Sang said. “It sounds like you’re threatening some poor guy’s family and making him go against everything he believes.”
“That’s the curious part about humans,” Yvgo said. “It starts that way, but after a while, they really start to believe in what they’re selling. You might think you would never do what we are going to ask of you, that you will never believe like us, but I promise that if you join us, you will change. And it will be glorious.”
“I’m never going to join you! Never!” Sang said, gritting her teeth. She knew she was going to have to fight her way out, but really, she had no idea what she was up against here.
“So many say that. Yet, what they mean is that they will never join us without first knowing what’s in it for them. Money doesn’t move you... So, tell us, what do you desire? Anything that you wish, we can offer you.”
“Anything?” Sang asked.
“Anything,” Yvgo repeated.
Sang sighed heavily, pausing for drama. “What I’ve always wanted, more than anything, is to go home. So, if you let me go home, I’ll join you.”
This elicited a narrow-eyed response from Yvgo. It shook its long head back and forth. “You play with us. You have been afforded such luxury, such freedom of choice, and yet you choose to mock? Draco is not one to toy with.”
“Well, neither is the CIA!” Sang shouted as she leapt forward and punched the creature right in the throat. It fell down to its knees, making a horrible flute-like sound as it wheezed.
“Ha!” Sang cheered herself as she ran to the door and pulled it open with her bare hands. She was strong enough to pry it open, and she ran out into the main room. She could see the floating desks and dozens of people working on them. No one seemed to pay any attention to her. She tried to move forward then, but felt a strange pressure stop her immediately.
“Nice try,” Yvgo said. “But you must realize that this world you are in does not belong to you. It belongs to Draco. You have chosen to become nothing more than an empty vessel.”
“Come on, I was just kidding!” Sang said, trying to break free of whatever strange grasp held onto her. It was as if Yvgo had some kind of telekinetic grip on her.
“You will not laugh during the collection process,” Yvgo said. “You will weep.”
“Great,” Sang said through gritted teeth. “Just great.”
Van sighed as he glanced at the busy market. Verrata was full of two different types of vendors—there were player-run stores that were bought by players who wanted to turn a profit in selling all of the items they didn’t want, and there were stores run by NPCs. The NPC shops tended to have crappy gear and they were always on a fixed price system.
Van glanced at his shopping list and took a deep breath. The challenge he faced was far too dangerous for him to act without being clever. In his times of being a player in Dragon Kings of the New World, he’d learned a great deal about exploitable resources, weapons that only ‘kind of’ broke the rules, and bugs that had existed since the beginning of the game. A lot of these exploitable items were banned from the game and weren’t in production anymore, but a few players had still figured out a way to hide them in the shops. Using these exploit items was essentially cheating, so if a player were to use them in the game, they could expect a ban to be coming their way. Van wasn’t particularly worried about getting kicked out of the game at this point, so he set about moving from player run shop to player run shop, looking for the old, exploitable items that were for sale.
Trefor was a very powerful man, and there wasn’t much that Van could do in terms of fighting against the guy. His Health would be far too high, and his armor was insanely kitted out. The only chance Van had was in the items game. In a way, if used properly, items could be the great equalizer... as long as Van had the advantage of acting first.
Van approached the first vendor and took a look at the list of supplies that he had drafted up. He had the coinage to purchase just about everything on the list—everything other than the stone of teleportation, anyway. That was going to be a tricky item to find, but if he could find it, he could snag it without a problem. Somewhere in this market, in this massive sea of players and NPCs, there was the stone that he needed. There just had to be.
The small supplies were easy enough to buy, as Van had expected; he managed to grab all of the items from the first two stores he visited. These would be helpful in the fight, but the clock was ticking. Sang was going to die soon unless he was able to pull her out of whatever was going on up in that observation station.
He rushed from shop to shop after that, pulling up each interface but finding nothing. There were no search functions in the marketplace, of course. The game was designed around the concept of creating interesting scenarios and interactions. No one could just find what they needed instantly, and this was especially the case for high-value items—instead, players had to be crafty about it. Van glanced around, searching for the next best thing to a market search function—a merchant player.
A merchant player was a rare breed. They were the kind who weren’t super-interested in fighting in big exciting battles or winning wars, but rather they liked to play the role of the humble tradesman. Most of the game was controlled by several different merchants’ guilds, all of them run by players. These merchants’ guilds controlled a great deal of the shipping and exports. A player who was connected to the marketplace in Verrata would no doubt be the kind of person Van could use.
As Van scanned the marketplace, he noticed a man wearing bright golden and silver clothes, pacing about. He jingled as he walked, the coins and jewelry that he was wearing rattling with each step. His name read Venerable Pete (Society of Coins); this meant that he was part of a trading guild. Van rushed up to him.
“Get your items here! Consumables, potions, wands, scrolls! You name it, I got it!” Pete shouted to the crowd.
“Sir!” Van said as he pushed past a throng of people standing the way. Pete had been busy trying to catch the attention of many a passerby, looking for customers, and so he looked down at Van with a grin.
“Hello there, bard! Are you looking for a magical item of sorts? Perhaps a charm or a trinket?”
“Yes, I am!” Van said. “I’m looking for a teleportation stone.”
Pete frowned. “I fear that I haven’t got any of those! They are rare, indeed!”
“Right, right, but I need to find one. How much would it cost for you to find one for me?” Van asked.
“Ah, I see. You are but a noble lad, searching far and wide for an item?” the man asked. Van gritted his teeth. Normally he liked role playing with other characters, as it made the game feel more realistic, but this fellow’s manner of speech was far too long-winded for his taste. For all he knew, Sang would be dead by the end of their conversation.
“Yes, yes, but I’m in a hurry. I’ve got gold, so can you find it or not?” Van asked.
Venerable Pete stroked his beard and chuckled. “Give me but a moment!” He raised his hands high to his ears and posed as if he were listening to something.
“Of course, young bard, for the mere coinage of 300 gold pieces, I shall tell you of the location of a stone of teleportation.”
Van looked at the GP in his inventory... he only had 200 gold. That sucked hard. He had to negotiate with this merchant now, so he paused to consider what his actions should entail. The man was clearly into playing a character, so perhaps if Van appealed to that side of him, he would be able to strike a better deal.
“300 gold pieces?” Van announced, dramatically flaring his hands upwards. “What a foolish notion, that I, a man on the hunt for an item most powerful, should be at the mercy of the merchant who dares to hoard knowledge! But alas, have I no choice? Pray tell, I do! I can choose another merchant, perhaps from a finer guild! The Guild of Financing, perhaps?”
“Foul fiend!” Pete replied. “There is no such valor and nobility attached to them! They are but a guild of ruffians and fools. Drunkards and swine!”
“Alas, but you are a noble man?” Van asked, kind of enjoying the old style of speech. “Then perhaps you will be willing to part with knowledge for a sum that is fair?”
“And what do thy pray to tell me is fair?”
“Two hundred gold pieces for the knowledge, lest I find myself in the company of drunkards and swine!” Van replied.
The merchant nodded. “Very well, in exchange for your coin, I shall tell you the truth.” He paused from his speech as he took the money bag from Van. “It’s over there,” he said, pointing to a booth on the opposite side of Van.
“Are you serious?” Van asked.
“Yeah, don’t try to scam a scammer,” Pete said as he turned back to the crowd, hawking his wares.
Van quickly ran over to the item shack. It was player-run, but the player who owned it had elected to use a basic NPC to sell the items.
“Buy items?” the Dwarf NPC asked as Van brought up the items menu. It looked like your basic adventurer’s shop, something loaded to the brim with useless crap that no one really needed, plus a few pricy items that no one could afford. In addition to the stone of teleportation, Van noticed that there were a few of the exploit items that he needed to use against his enemies. Fortunately, since the items were banned from the game, the pricing was just an error message. Most of the time a player would set up his shop but never log back in, so the items would just sit in the inventory.
Item: Sword of Rending, 300 gp
Item: Shield of Defense: 1,500 gp
Potion of Flight: 5,000 GP
Spool of Yarn: 1 GP
Item: Stone of Teleportation, 4,000 gp.
Item: Horse Canoe: 300 GP
Flash Stick: ERROR_UNKNOWN
Potion of Elemental Immunity: ERROR_UNKNOWN
He clicked on the exploit items and purchased them. Sure enough, they popped into his inventory. He could see the warnings on them, stating that they needed to be deleted from his inventory in exchange for a financial reward, but he ignored it. A flash stick would come in really handy. With these two items secured, he turned his attention to getting his hands on the teleportation stone.
Van glanced around quickly. There were no guards watching. Van brought up the Sticky Fingers skill. The words 95% Success Rate appeared before him. He grinned as he quickly clicked the button, immediately putting the Teleportation Stone into his inventory. Another word popped up in front of him, however: SPOTTED! Van gasped, realizing that his mini-map had already gone red as he heard the NPC yell, “Stop, Thief! Stop, Thief!”
He glanced around to see that there were dozens of guards in the area, and they were all beginning to turn red. He made a mad dash for a side street, narrowly avoiding an axe that the shopkeeper NPC had thrown.
Van continued running down the street. He’d had no idea that the Sticky Fingers skill had had a real chance of failure—five percent had seemed negligible! And now, large horde of guards was chasing after him, and he was going to be forced to activate the Teleportation Stone before they all beat him to death with clubs and knives.
“Come on, come on,” Van said as he glanced down to the stone. He read the item entry.
Stone of Teleportation
Uses: 1
Description: Activate the stone by rubbing it counter-clockwise and pinpoint the location on your map or within your line of sight.
He didn’t have the exact location of where he was going to teleport to, but at this point, he had to do something before all of those guards just started wailing on him.
“He’s over here!” a guard shouted, pointing to Van, who’d been trying to lay low behind some trash cans. “After him!”
“Ah, crap, alright, here I go!” Van said to himself, rubbing the stone counter-clockwise and looking up at the hidden area in the sky where he knew that Sang was being held prisoner. The stone began to glow brightly and he felt a surge of blue energy wrapping around him. The word TELEPORTING appeared over his head, and delayed for only a few moments before the bar filled up and he vanished.
The next thing Van knew, he was falling down, and falling down fast. “Ahhhhh!” he cried as he hit the steel platform of the floating observation tower, hard.
“Ooof,” he moaned as he slowly stood up. He hadn’t been very far up from the platform, but had he made a mistake, he could have fallen a lot farther than he would have wanted to. He glanced at the massive building and saw that there was no one else on the platform. Perfect! He would be able to go right in and sneak around, hopefully undetected.
As he grabbed his Potion of Invisibility out of his bag, though, the doors to the building slid open and Trefor walked out.
“Really? Van, are you seriously back here?” Trefor asked.
“Ah crap. How did you know I was here?” Van asked.
“You think we don’t monitor our own observation station?” Trefor asked, incredulity dripping from his words. “You can’t be that dense.”
“I’m not dense... just hopeful,” Van said, pulling his darts out.
“What are you going to even hope to do with those? Kill me? Van, I’m so much higher-level than you, you don’t have a chance.”
“That’s the thing about gaming,” Van said as he readied his darts. “No matter what level you play, no matter who your character is, there are certain things that always work. Things that are super-cheap and lame to use in a regular scenario. Like dizzy darts!”
With that, Van threw the darts straight at Trefor, who didn’t even bother to dodge them, and the darts struck him hard-on in the chest. The word STUNNED! appeared over Trefor’s head.
“Arggh, you idiot!” Trefor shouted as Van rushed past him and into the building, chuckling as he moved. Those darts were considered to be the lamest thing in the game because they automatically stunned anyone, regardless of their level. They were fairly common, but were usually seen as exploitable and broken items, so players who used them tended to get a bad reputation. Of course, the stun effect would wear off in a few seconds, but that was enough time to seriously frustrate just about anyone.
Van sl
id into the main hallway and downed his Invisibility Potion, turning translucent. That would help avoid Trefor’s rage for a few minutes while he poked around looking for Sang. She had to be here somewhere, right? As he scanned around, he heard a loud shout.
“You idiot, I can see you! Why would you think I wouldn’t have a Ring of True Vision?”
Van didn’t move, in case it was some kind of a trick. But Trefor walked right up to Van and grabbed him by the shoulder.
“Look, I tried to be nice. I tried to be patient with you and I tried to be kind, but I’m at my breaking point. I don’t understand why you’re so idiotic, but I’m done helping you out. Consider whatever friendship we had repaid by the fact that I allowed you to log out, but now? Now there’s nothing keeping me from killing you.”
“Wait!” Van protested. “Listen, I’ve got something to tell you!”
“What is it?” Trefor asked, growling deeply. It was becoming increasingly clear that Van was starting to get on his nerves.
“I cast the spell of Greasy Armor on my clothes earlier!” Van said as he effortlessly slid out from Trefor’s grip and began to run as fast as he could in the opposite direction of him.
“Are you kidding me?” Trefor shouted as he gave chase. Fortunately, Van’s armor type was light, whereas Trefor was wearing plate mail, meaning that Van would forever move faster than him.
“Get back here!” Trefor shouted as Van easily outmaneuvered him and kept on running deeper into the building. He had no idea where Sang would be. And glancing around, he saw dozens of doors. There was only one way to find her, he knew. He leapt out of the way of Trefor and grabbed his bagpipes…
24
“It will be a great pleasure to see you a lifeless husk,” Yvgo said as Sang felt the powerful kinetic force around her legs forcing her to walk forward. He was controlling her limbs against her will, and it was a struggle to resist, more and more so with each step.
“Yeah, well, maybe you’re not gonna be so lucky!” Sang muttered as she broke into a sweat. Trying to resist the energy moving through her was difficult, but she was starting to get the hang of it somehow.